Sermon Tone Analysis

​ ESV4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love

Some of the great themes Paul is going pointing to in these verses are:

God’s sovereign election

Our position before him as holy and blameless

Our adoption as sons

So this morning we want to travel into the into the great forest of redemption and explore what it means that God chose us before the foundation of the world.

We want to discover what it means to be holy and blameless before him

And finally what it means to be adopted as sons

In the same way theologically speaking we are all the bride of Christ (both men and women)

Pray…

The beginning of verse four says

Eph 1.4

“even as he chose us in Him before the foundation of the world”

This is a great mystery of God, that he would chose some to be his people before the foundation of the world

This means that you who are here this morning who have faith in Christ, were in the mind of God before he created the world.

So this morning we are going to look at:

Election and predestination

This doctrine of election and predestination is one that gives many Christians great consternation.

Yet Paul says that God’s choosing and predestining is something that should lead us to worship.

For Paul begins this sentence with “blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”

who has done all these great things for us, he has blessed, us he has lavished his grace upon us, he has adopted us and so on.

in all of these beautiful truths we see why we should praise him, yet when it comes to his electing and predestining us we often become uncomfortable.

as if this is something we should not be thankful for.

I remember as a youth pastor in Colorado I worked for a pastor who stood strongly opposed to the idea of God’s electing grace.

And he told me that he could never worship a God who would chose some and not others for salvation.

Now, the idea of God’s sovereign will is indeed mysterious, and not easy to understand, but that does not mean we should reject the idea just because it may not make sense to us.

And here is the problem with rejecting the idea of God’s election, it is not that we are rejecting a theological construct, but we are rejecting a main theme in God’s work throughout history.

The story of the bible is largely about God choosing for himself a people.

When the people of the world were completely corrupt, where the thoughts and actions of men were continuously wicked, God chose for himself Noah and saved Noah and his family

After the flood and Babel God determined to create a new people, and he chose for himself a pagan priest named Abram.

From there we see God choosing

Isaac not Ishmael

Jacob Not Esau

He chose Israel not the Canaanites

He chose David not his seven brothers

Even the disciples, Jesus chose his twelve, they did not choose him.

Paul himself was knocked off his horse and blinded by God’s calling on his life.

So if we reject the idea of God’s electing and predestinating work, we also reject much of the bible,

for the bible is all about God chosing that which was dead and making it alive.

Death and resurrection is also one of the great themes of the bible.

And church, before God saved you, you were spiritually dead.

You were not spiritually sick, you were not in a coma, you were not just spiritually ill.

But you were spiritually dead

And dead people cannot bring themselves back to life.

Jesus himself didn’t even bring himself back to life, but rather God raised him from the dead.

And so we also, were dead in our trespasses and sins, and he (he that is God) has made us alive together with Christ.

We were dead in our trespasses and sins, and he has made us alive together with Christ.

And this powerful work of God’s grace, his choosing to save us should lead us not to refuse him, but rather should cause us to burst out in praise for if he did not choose us we would still be dead in our sins.

So coming back to our text in eph 1.4

Now, this work of God choosing us in Christ is not just some random decree that says that those whom God has chosen get go to heaven.

But rather, we are chosen in Christ for a purpose.

And the purpose is far more than just going to heaven when you die.

So in our passage this morning, what is God choosing us for?

That we should be holy and blameless before him.

Holy and Blameless

Now what does it mean to be holy?

what does it mean to be blameless?

To be holy is most often understood as being morally good, pure, upright.

We abstract this idea of holiness from the bible and view it is something is is above our beyond our human experience and to be a good Christian is to try and take hold of this thing called holiness and apply it to our lives here and now.

This idea of holiness is really not helpful.

because it becomes so subjective and airy.

To be holy is not a moral scale - but rather its a declaration

However, the bible tells us what it is to be holy over and over again.

To be holy is to be given access into the sanctuary of God.

To be given access into his presence.

To stand before God you must be holy.

over and over again.

To be holy is to be given access into the sanctuary of God.

To be given access into his presence.

To stand before God you must be holy.

And this holy status is not something we can earn, no amount of tithing, or fasting, or good works will earn you the right to stand int he presence of God - you can do nothing to earn or gain holiness.

Do you remember the vision of Joshua the High Priest in ?

The vision starts with Zechariah seeing a high priest named Joshua standing before the angel of the Lord (preincarnate Jesus) and Satan standing next to him.

Look with me at verse 1

talks about the holy anointing oil.

God tells Moses to follow a special recipe that included some myrrh, some cinnamon, some cane, some olive oil and other spices and gave him instructions on how to make this oil.

once it was made God told Moses to than anointed or drip some of this oil on all the furniture of the tabernacle, from the ark to the utensils

And when he did this everything that was anointed became holy.

They were allowed to be in the presence of God.

And he tells him to anoint Aaron and his sons so they might come in as priests and stand as holy before God.

A few months back i was wondering what the tabernacle would have smelled like, so i look on Amazon for some oil that followed the instructions of

Reviews:

smelled like heaven

And there were a few one star reviews that were warning people not to buy it because if you touch it you would be cut off from the people of God.

do not buy or you will be cursed.

And this holy status is not something we can earn, no amount of tithing, or fasting, or good works will earn you the right to stand in the presence of God - you can do nothing to earn or gain holiness.

Holiness is not a moral condition, but an anointed position before God

Do you remember the vision of Joshua the High Priest in ?

The vision starts with Zechariah seeing a high priest named Joshua standing before the angel of the Lord (preincarnate Jesus) and Satan standing next to him.

Look with me at verse 1

​ ESV1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.

Satan is looking to accuse or blame Joshua.

Yet the Lord does not remain silent but turns his focus to Satan and says,

​ ESV2 And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan!

The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you!

Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?”

In the same way that God chose us before the foundations of the world to be holy and blameless so he has chosen Jerusalem (which represents God covenant people)

He has plucked us from the fire, there is nothing about us, nor was their anything about Jerusalem that would allow us to stand in the presence of God.

There is nothing we have done nor could do that would gain us the ability to stand in the presence of God.