Sermon Tone Analysis

We looked last week at the first of these spiritual blessings in heavenly places.

A blessing which we (those of us who are saints and faithful in Christ) have receieved in eternity before creation before time.

God chose us, Not at a point in time but he eternally chose us is choosing and will chose us.

He is the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and the end.

I Am that I Am.

He who is omniscient and never changing chose us.

When we consider this we realise just how deep our salvation goes.

If you were ever in the mind of God you have always been in the mind of God.

If He has ever chosen you then you chosen always.

We cannot think of God’s choice as being like when we chose something.

We chose something when it enters our mind to chose.

We must receive new information and weigh up the pros and cons.

But the everlasting and eternal God does not receive new information.

Everything that God knows He has always known and he knows everything.

For this reason God is immutable which means he never changes.

He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

So let us let that thought sink in for a moment.

God has always chosen you is you are truly His.

That also means there is nothing that you have ever done or ever will do that God doesn’t already know and yet He chose you.

You will never surprise God.

You will never shock Him.

Any sin that we’ve committed or any disappointment we have caused God has already been considered and dealt with by the blood of Christ on the cross of Calvary.

He knows you more deeply than you know yourself and yet He chose you.

Why? not because you did anything to earn it or deserve it in any way whatsoever.

Yet out of the election flows ever other blessing for the Father because it is by this choosing that we are in Christ and it is in Christ that we have all the riches of heaven.

The Father has great and wonderful plans for you.

You have been...

Chosen With Purpose

Holy What doe you think of when you think of that word?

Holy.

Some people think of perfection, goodness, godliness, some may even have negative connotations with the word like self-righteousness, holier than thou.

I think when we imagine holiness our best reference is Christ.

He is the example of holiness.

Goodness, kindness, pure of heart, without blame, sinless.

I think this is the best way for us to think of what God has purposed for us in choosing us.

He chose us to be like Christ.

Some would have argued that the teaching of God’s election causes people to live a sinful life because they don’t have the fear of losing their salvation to drive them to obedience and holiness.

But I believe that the Biblical teaching of election does just the opposite.

It gives us such a deep purpose.

A Purpose to holiness.

In fact holiness is the fruit or evidence that you have been chosen by God.

For a person to say I will continue in sin because God’s grace will abound because I’m chosen only proves by their attitude that they are not chosen or at least they are not yet converted.

So Paul tells us that first and foremost our election is to holiness and spotlessness.

He then proceeds to elaborate on this election in verse 5

expressing another wonderful purpose that God has chosen us for.

Predestined to Adoption

Predestined means pre ordained or determined beforehand.

All that we considered with God’s choosing us is true also of His predestining us.

For the all knowing eternal God to determine anything means that it must be beforehand for us because if He determined it then it was and is and always will be determined.

We should not understand this predestination or His choosing us to mean that there was a point in time even way back in the past that God determined or choose, rather this is language that Paul uses to help our finite mind to comprehend that it is before us, before creation, before time.

But for the all knowing eternal One to predetermine means that He has always determined.

He determined eternally and He chose eternally.

Because He never changes and knows everything always.

So it was God’s eternal determination that we should be adopted into His family forever.

There are two other places in the New Testament that speak of our adoption into God’s family.

Three great blessings seem to stand in in these references in relation to our adoption.

No longer under bondage

The image used is that of a slave child who grows up in the Master’s home.

The Master desires to make the child a son by adoption.

Until the adoption ceremony the child is no different than any of the other slaves, but once he is adopted he receives all the benifits of a son and he receives and inheritance as a son of the Master.

Paul likens our time before the adoption ceremony like the time before Christ came when we were still under the Law and once Christ came and conquered death and sin on the cross we were set free from the Law.

on and individual bases it could be likened the time before our conversion to Christ.

Even though God has predestined us to adoption until our conversion we are like any other slave but once we put our faith in Christ we are officially adopted into the Family of God, receiving all the spiritual blessings of a son and being set free from the bondage of sin.

Receieved the Spirit of the Son whereby we cry out Abba Father

Through the adoption we have receieved the Holy Spirit who bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

The Holy Spirit or the Spirit of the Son cries out from within us to God Father!

Abba!

Because of this adoption we enjoy all the benifits of a Father son relationship with God, just as He is the Father of Christ He is our Father who we can talk to receive guidance and help from, He is a good Father who gives good things to His children when the ask of Him.

Joint heirs of God through Christ

Through the adoption as sons we receive the inheritance of God through Christ.

Of all that is His, He will withhold nothing from us that is good.

Adoption as sons

Why doesn’t Paul say sons and daughters?

Is he a chauvinist?

I do not think so.

In fact I believe that Paul purposefully says the adoption as sons for a reason.

First our adoption is in Christ who is the Son.

Which is important because sons traditionally receive the inheritance except in the case of there not being a son.

I have no doubt that Paul has in mind here that both men and women in Christ receive sonship.

Our identity in in Christ.

Not in race

Not social status

Not in gender

we are all one in Christ

For the Praise of the Glory of His Grace

When we ask the question why?

If God choice and pre determination that I should be made holy and adopted is not based on any merit of mine then why did God chose me and not someone else.

The teaching of God’s election is such a prominent New Testament teaching.

Paul taught it in every church Christ taught it Peter taught it, It’s in all the gospels.

And yet no where is this mystery answered.

This teaching has tremendous tension and I know that God knew the difficulty that it would cause the church throughout the centuries, so why did He leave this tension?

All I know is that why God choses is only answered with “according to the good pleasure of His will.”

It seems to me the the emphasis every time the Bible teaches about election is that it has nothing to do with us, our choice, our works, nothing.

It has everything to do with God’s grace.

The purpose being that no one can boast no one can glory in themselves but all glory goes to God.

So this teaching is not for us to figure out who is chosen and how isn’t.

It should not make us lazy Christians who think that they don’t have to do anything.

And it certainly shouldn’t make anyone proud.

In fact, election destroys pride in the heart of the believer and should humble us.

It should cause us to wonder at the almighty power and wisdom of God and ultimately it should cause us to praise the glory of God’s amazing grace to undeserving sinners.