Ephesians 1:3-6

3 Part Series on Ephesians 1:3-14

Title: Redemptions Glory

London businessman Lindsay Clegg told the story of a warehouse property he was selling. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash all over the place. As he showed a prospective buyer the property, he took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out the garbage. The buyer said, “Forget about the repairs. When I buy this place, I’m going to build something completely different. I don’t want the building; I want the site.”

That’s God’s message to us! Compared with the renovation God has in mind, our efforts to improve our own lives are as trivial as sweeping a warehouse slated for the wrecking ball. When we become God’s the old life is over. He makes all things new. All He wants is the site and the permission to build. There are still some trying to “reform,” but God offers “redemption.” All we have to do is give Him the “property” and he will do the necessary “building.”

And this is what we are going to look at these next 3 weeks:

Redemption and our Series Title is called “Redemptions Glory.”

In these next 3 weeks leading to Christmas we will cover verses 3 through 14which is actually one Greek sentence. What Christmas is all about, Jesus becoming man, centers in that He came to die, and that was for Redemption.

Whenever we hear “redemption” our thoughts quickly turn to religion. But when the man of the 1stcentury heard it he immediately thought in non-religious terms. Men in general knew quite well what redemption meant back then.

Redemption in the NT doesn’t mean deliverance in general, but a particular kind of deliverance. Redemption is a deliverance that cost. Concerning us, it is Jesus paying our debt for our sin that we could not pay, so that we could gain life which we could never get apart from Him.

The aspect of Redemption’s Glory I would like to show today is found in our title for today’s sermon:

I. Redemption is God’s to Give (1:3-6)

(Read and Pray)

When we were young we learned about the adventures and folklore about Davie Crockett. We don’t really care to remember that he was a US Representative from Tennessee serving in Washington D.C. where he was better known as Col. David Crockett.

Not Yours To Give

One day in the House of Representatives a bill was taken up appropriating money for the benefit of a widow of a distinguished naval officer. Several beautiful speeches had been made in its support. The speaker was just about to bring the question up for a vote when Crockett arose:

"Mr. Speaker--I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the suffering of the living, if there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has not the power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member on this floor knows it.

We have the right as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money. Some eloquent appeals have been made to us upon the ground that it is a debt due the deceased. Mr. Speaker, the deceased lived long after the close of the war; he was in office to the day of his death, and I ever heard that the government was in arrears to him.

"Every man in this House knows it is not a debt. We cannot without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt. We have not the semblance of authority to appropriate it as charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much money of our own as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week's pay to the object, and if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks."

He took his seat. Nobody replied. The bill was put upon its passage, and, instead of passing unanimously, as was generally supposed, and as, no doubt, it would, but for that speech, it received but few votes, and, of course, was lost.

This was known afterwards as the speech entitled “not yours to give.”

It isn’t the government’s job to give money away at what charities seem fit for them. It’s not their money. Just like in your department at church, if you have a budget, you need to go by your budget. We need to know that the budget in church is not our money. It’s the churches, made up of individuals who believe in what is taken place in our congregation and give freely to the ministry.

But more then that it is God’s. It is used to further His ministry through West Mount Baptist Church. He is the one who should direct us on where this church should spend money.

When it is yours to give, you make all the decisions, and you determine the outcome.

Redemption is God’s to give, as salvation belongs to God, and since we can’t deliver ourselves, God must be our deliverer. He is the One that makes all the decisions and determines the outcome. It is a great thing to recognize that the Bible speaks of Redemption belonging to God.

Psalm 111:9 He has sent redemption to His people; He has commanded His covenant forever: Holy and awesome is His name.

Jonah 2:9 But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD."

Psalm 3:8 Salvation belongs to the LORD. Your blessing is upon Your people.

Psalm 68:20 Our God is the God of salvation; And to GOD the Lord belong escapes from death.

Psalm 37:39 But the salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; He is their strength in the time of trouble.

In order to show that Redemption is God’s to Give, there are at least 3 ways in our verses this morning that can prove this and the first is that:

A. God provides the blessing (3)

It is God who has blessed us. God is the source of blessing. It is the Father who continues to provide for us.

Back of the loaf is the snowy flour,

And back of the flour the mill,

And back of the mill is the wheat and the shower,

And the sun and the Father’s will.

Maltbie D. Babcock (1858–1901)

Everything that Christians have received is through God’s saving act in Christ and is comprehensively summarized in the expression every spiritual blessing.

Psalm 68:7-10;

7 O God, when You went out before Your people, When You marched through the wilderness, 8 The earth shook; The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God; Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel. 9 You, O God, sent a plentiful rain, Whereby You confirmed Your inheritance, When it was weary. 10 Your congregation dwelt in it; You, O God, provided from Your goodness for the poor.

“Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift,” James reminds us, “is from above, coming down from the Father of lights”(James 1:17)[1]

In the world in which we live we always think of the price of things.

We look at a car, and we admire its features, but the price stands in the way of having it as our own.

We look at a new home, and we would love to live in it, but again, it is beyond our reach if the price is too high. We go into a jewelry store and see the exhibited diamonds and we would like an expensive one to show our love to a special person, but again, the price stands in the way.

The amazing thing about God is that He places the greatest fulfillment of our need at no price at all. However, do we really appreciate the greatness of the gift, because it is free for us, we should remember that it cost God His Son.

A little boy about ten years old was once ordered by his father to go and do some work in the field. He went as he was told, but he put little effort in it, and made very slow progress in his task. After awhile his father called to him very kindly, and said: “Willie, can you tell me how much you have cost me since you have been born?” The father waited a while, and then said that he reckoned he had “cost him hundreds of dollars.” The boy opened his eyes and wondered at the expense he had been. He seemed to see all the money glittering before him, and in his heart determined to repay his father by doing all he could to please him. The reproof sank deeper into his heart than a hundred lashes.

“What have I cost my Savior?” We are to take heed of the words found in

1 Peter 1:18-19, “Ye are not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot”

EXEGETE: When we “bless” God we acknowledge his grace, praise his glory, and worship him. We cannot bless him in the sense that he blesses us, but we can admit that his greatness and goodness deserve all praise and glory.[2]

In Ruth 4:14 we read,

Then the women said to Naomi, "Blessed be the LORD,who has not left you this day without a close relative; and may his name be famous in Israel!

Now the names of Naomi’s sons may go on after their death. They have encountered the blessings of the kinsmen redeemer. Redemption was provided outside of her own efforts.

We receive our blessings from the One who loves us. God steps into our world that He has created to provide for us a way to eternal life.

Redemption is God’s to Give because He provides the blessing and next Redemption is God’s to Give because…

B. God makes the choice (4)

It is God who chooses us. We would never choose God for the Bible tells us that there are none who even seek God in Romans chapter 3. God chose us before we could prove ourselves worthy, for that would never happen. But in God’s plan, we became a part of His love expressed in His Son.

God is no mans debtor. If we could choose God we would have a claim on Him, but He is free from His creations control, and thus has something great to offer.

Who would ever dare to give there infant child such a serious choice as to determine their eternal destiny?

I see the foolishness at asking a 4 year old to go into a grocery store to see what they will choose for dinner.

God makes the choice.

“God hath chosen the foolish things … the weak things … the base things of the world” (1 Cor. 1:27, 28).

John Calvin said,

“When God elects us, it is not because we are handsome.”

John Calvin (1509–1564)

The fact that it is God who chooses us should give assurance and peace, for the believer it places all responsibility upon a faithful Lord. Ask the man carving the stone where it will fit in the building and how he will get it there; and he simply points you to the builder’s plan. So when wondering where and how you will fit into God’s plan just remember that is God’s responsibility. Yours is the task to submit to His carving of your life for the place He has designated for you in His Holy Temple.

Oswald Chambers said,

“I have chosen you.” Keep that note of greatness in your creed. It is not that you have got God, but that he has got you. Why is God at work in me, bending, breaking, moulding, doing just as he chooses? For one purpose only—that he may be able to say, “This is my man, my woman.”

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917)

During his days as guest lecturer at Calvin Seminary, R. B. Kuiper once used the following illustration of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility:

“I liken them to two ropes going through two holes in the ceiling and over a pulley above. If I wish to support myself by them, I must cling to them both. If I cling only to one and not the other, I go down. I read the many teachings of the Bible regarding God’s election, predestination, his chosen, and so on. I read also the many teachings regarding ‘whosoever will may come’ and urging people to exercise their responsibility as human beings. These seeming contradictions cannot be reconciled by the puny human mind. With childlike faith, I cling to both ropes, fully confidant that in eternity I will see that both strands of truth are, after all, of one piece.”

God’s ways are not our ways.

Election

It is not how could God predestine anyone to hell but how could He predestine anyone to heaven. The Bible speaks of God’s election of salvation isolated from those that are heading to hell.

Eklegō (chose) is here in the aorist tense and the middle voice, indicating God’s totally independent choice. Because the verb is reflexive it signifies that God not only chose by Himself but for Himself.[3]

Redemption is God’s to Give because He provides the blessing, because He makes the choice and last Redemption is God’s to Give because…

C. God extends His love (5-6)

IN LOVE HAVING PREDESTINED US

From the alpha of history to the omega of history

It is not about us as much as what He has called us too. That is love, Adoption.

Redemption in the now and not yet category

Now: Luke 2:38 Hebrews 9:12 Not yet: Luke 21:28

Predestination

The word “predestine” (προορίζω, proorizō) means literally “to set out boundaries in advance.”20 God staked out the boundaries for the group he would adopt. By his sovereign decree, all those “in Christ” will be in the group.[4]

Adoption

The legal process of adoption was apparently unknown in the Hebrew society,22 but common in Graeco-Roman law. “A well-to-do but childless adult who wanted an heir would adopt a male, usually at an age other than in infancy and frequently a slave, to be his son.”23 Since adoption was often combined with the making of a will which included the duty to care for the aged “parent,” adoption was practiced as a way of providing for one’s old age.24 But what is God’s reason for adopting us? The answer: he does it in love, in accordance with his pleasure and will.[5]

Accepted

Because we have received His grace. It makes us who we need to be.

Hosea

Perhaps the greatest biblical illustration of salvation is the story of Hosea. Hosea was a minor prophet—minor in regard to length, no importance—whose writing is based upon the story of his marriage. It was an unfortunate marriage from a human viewpoint, for his wife proved unfaithful to him. But it was a special marriage from God’s viewpoint. God had told Hosea that the marriage would work out in that fashion but he nevertheless told Hosea to go through with it in order to provide an illustration of God’s love. God loved the people whom he had taken to himself even when they proved unfaithful by committing spiritual adultery with the world and its values. The marriage was to be a pageant. Hosea was to play the part of God. His wife would play the part of unfaithful Israel. She would be unfaithful, but the wilder she got, the more Hosea would love her. That is the way God loves us even when we run away from him and dishonor him.

Hosea describes his commission in the first two verses of chapter 1 by saying,

“2 When the LORD began to speak by Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea:

"Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry And children of harlotry, For the land has committed great harlotry By departing from the LORD. '

3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

There are significant lessons in the early stages of this drama, but the climax comes at the point at which Gomer fell into slavery, probably because of a debt. Hosea was told to buy her back as a demonstration of the way in which the faithful God loves and saves his people. Slaves were sold naked in the ancient world, and that would have been true of Gomer as she was put up on the auction block in the capital city. She had apparently been a beautiful woman. She was still beautiful even in her fallen state. So when the bidding started the offers were high, as the men of the city bid for the body of the female slave.

“Twelve pieces of silver,” says one.

“Thirteen,” said Hosea.

“Fourteen.”

“Fifteen,” said Hosea.

The low bidders dropped out. But someone added, “Fifteen pieces of silver and a bushel of barley.”

“Fifteen pieces of silver and a bushel and a half of barley,” said Hosea.

The auctioneer must have looked around for a higher bid and seeing none said, “Sold to Hosea for fifteen pieces of silver and a bushel and a half of barley.”

Now Hosea owned his wife. He could have killed her if he wished. He could have made a public spectacle of her in any way he might have chosen. But instead, he put her clothes back on her, led her away into the mystery of the crowd, and demanded love of her while nevertheless promising the same from himself.

Here is the way he tells it in Hosea 3:1-3;

1 Then the LORD said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the LORD for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans." 2 So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley. 3 And I said to her, "You shall stay with me many days; you shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man--so, too, will I be toward you."

Hosea had a right to demand what she had formerly been unwilling to give, but as he demands it he promises love from himself. The point of the story is that God thus loves all who are his true spiritual children.

That is what redemption means: to buy out of slavery. If we understand Hosea’s story, we understand that we are the slave sold on the auction block of sin. We were created for intimate fellowship with God and for freedom, but we have disgraced ourselves by unfaithfulness. First we have flirted with and committed adultery with this sinful world and its values. The world has even bid for our soul, offering sex, money, fame, power and all the other items in which it traffics. But Jesus, our faithful bridegroom and lover, entered the market place to buy us back. He bid his own blood. There is no higher bid than that. And we became his. He reclothed us, not in the wretched rages of our old unrighteousness, but in his new robes of righteousness. He has said to us, “You must dwell as mine…; you shall not belong to another…; so will I also be to you.”

Our comfort is in knowing that redemption is God’s to give. And knowing the love He has for us should draw us to praise this fact of our Savior.

God provides the blessing.

God makes the choice.

God extends His love.

We can’t give what is not ours. Christ owns salvation and freely gives it to whosoever believes.

Only Christ can redeem us.

Is this God’s claim on your life? Christmas is meaningless without the outcome of God being born in the manger, and that is Redemption.

[1]MacArthur, J. (1996, c1986). Ephesians. Includes indexes. (7). Chicago: Moody Press. [2]Boles, K. L. (1993). Galatians & Ephesians. The College Press NIV commentary (Eph 1:3). Joplin, Mo.: College Press. [3]MacArthur, J. (1996, c1986). Ephesians. Includes indexes. (11). Chicago: Moody Press. 20 Schmidt, TDNT, V: 452. [4]Boles, K. L. (1993). Galatians & Ephesians. The College Press NIV commentary (Eph 1:5). Joplin, Mo.: College Press. 22 Bruce, p. 256. 23 Lincoln, p. 25. 24 Schweizer, TDNT, VIII: 398. [5]Boles, K. L. (1993). Galatians & Ephesians. The College Press NIV commentary (Eph 1:5). Joplin, Mo.: College Press.