Ephesians 1:4-5 by Wayne Barber

 

 

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Messages on this page (click below to go)
   Ephesians 1:4: Chosen in Christ
   Ephesians 1:4: Holy & Blameless

   Ephesians 1:5: The Love of God

   Ephesians 1:5: The Love of God, Pt 2
 

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Ephesians 1:4 just as He chose (5639) us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be (5750) holy &  blameless before Him. In love

 

Turn with me to the book of Ephesians chapter 1. Someone was visiting recently and said, "Did you know you’re going to absolutely wear out the book of Ephesians?" Well, I hope so because there is a lot of truth there we need to understand.  Instead of us saying, "Lord, bless me," according to verse 3 of chapter 1, we ought to be saying, "Thank you Lord for having so richly blessed me in Christ Jesus." What we need is already there in Him. Every spiritual blessing has been given to us already in Christ Jesus. Let’s go back and read verse 3:

 

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ."

 

Every spiritual benefit. Remember that word "blessing" has the idea of grace, of kindness, of advantage. Every spiritual benefit, every spiritual advantage has been given to us in Christ Jesus. It’s not something we take ourselves. It’s something He gives to us. It’s all

resident in Him. Not one has been left out. This is important.


Many of us spend our time asking God for something that we already have. We pray for love, but the spirit of Christ is already within us. Gal5:22-23 tells us He is there to produce whatever area of love we need. We pray for peace, but Jesus has already said in Jn14:27,

 

"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you"

 

We pray for joy. In John 15:11 Jesus says,

 

"These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full."

 

We pray for strength, but Php4:13 says that he is constantly infusing strength within us. " I can do all things through" Christ who consistently and constantly infuses His strength within us."

 

In fact  2Pet1:3 tells us God’s

 

"divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence."

 

Col 2:10 says,

 

"in Him you have been made complete" And our text says we have been given "every spiritual blessing...in Christ." Now what else is there? If we could just understand it.

 

Paul says, in verse 18 of Ephesians 1,

 

"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened". It has to come at a point when God just turns on the light. You can memorize the verses and still not know what He’s talking about. You can memorize all this truth, but until God gets it to where it needs to be, when it’s revealed to our spirit, only then can it take hold in our life. We receive it and obey it, and it becomes a part of our life.


Our resources in Christ are beyond what we can comprehend. Every Christian has what Paul speaks of in Ephesians 1:3. God cannot give us any more that He has already given us in Christ Jesus. Outside of Him there is nothing. I made the statement a few months ago that if you walk away from Jesus you’re walking away to nothing because there is nothing outside of Jesus. If you try to add anything to Jesus, you subtract from Him because you can’t add anything to Him. Everything is resident in Him. That’s why we preach Christ. When you come to know Christ He is your life, and in Him is resident every spiritual blessing that God could ever give you. In fact, our position and our possessions are so secure that Paul says in Eph2:6, "He has already "and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" Now as far as God’s concerned, it’s a done deal. We’re down here understanding this stuff. We’re down here trying to appropriate it in our life. But as far as God is concerned, it is already done. We’ve already been raised and seated with Christ in the heavenlies.


We’re going to look at verse 4, and I want you to see how it fits with verse 3. Verse 3 says, "He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing." Verse 4 says "He has chosen us in Christ." Blessed in Christ, chosen in Christ. Understanding this will do wonders in our Christian walk. The worse fear that any of us have is the fear of being rejected. Now you know that’s true. All of us have it. We see in a magazine that a girl has to have a certain figure or she’s not acceptable. So people end up doing all kinds of things to try and get that certain figure. That is not from the Word of God. That’s a lie out of the pit of Hell. But that’s what our society says. If you look a certain way, you can be accepted. With the guys it’s different. They have got to be macho. If they are a basketball player they have to jump four feet off the floor and do crazy things in the air or they are not macho and not accepted by others. Where is that in the Word of God? It’s not in the Word of God.


And so what happens is we live with this fear of being rejected. Paul is saying, "Listen, we have been accepted. We have been chosen before the foundation of the world in Christ Jesus." Where do you want to find your acceptance? Do you want to find it with your peers in this world? Or do you want to find it with the Lord Jesus Christ and with God, God the Father? God the Father is telling us something in here. Paul is trying to get a message across. We have been chosen. Not only blessed in Christ, but we have been chosen in Him. The greatest thing in a believer’s life is to come to understand what it means to be chosen before the foundation of the world in Christ Jesus.


Well, we’re going to look at that in verse 4. Let’s read it together. He starts off and says, "Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him." Verse 4 starts with an adverb. He has just finished verse 3. It’s all tied together. He has blessed us in Christ. Then he says, "just as He chose us in Christ". An adverb is a word that qualifies the meaning of a verb by indicating the time, the place, or the manner in which the action is accomplished. In other words, He chose us now and He blessed us. Our being chosen occurred, just the way our being blessed occurred. There’s something in common between the two. That’s what we’re going to see in a moment. But why did he choose us? Why did he bless us? It’s here, but we won’t get to it until later. There is a commonality there. He blessed us in Christ just as He chose us in Christ. Paul is saying that there is something common between the two things, and we need to understand what that is.

 

Before we even look at that let’s look at that little phrase "just as He chose us in Him". Look at the term "he chose". "He chose" is the Greek word eklego. Again it comes from two Greek words: ek – out of, and lego, which means to select or choose for oneself. It implies a relationship between the one choosing and the object chosen. Now whether you like it or not the word "chosen" means you’ve got a basketball team and there’s ten guys on the team. Only five can go on the floor. You choose this one, and you choose this one and you choose this one, but somebody is not chosen. That’s what the word by implication means. Now it doesn’t necessarily mean rejection, however, that’s the way we understand the word. It means to be chosen out from among.


It’s an aorist middle verb. Aorist tense means at a specific time. He’s going to tell you when that was. Middle voice means He chose for Himself of His own will. No one made Him do it. Remember he’s still speaking of the Father. The same Father that blessed us in Christ Jesus is now the same Father that has chosen us in Christ Jesus. Kindness in the grace of the one choosing is implied in the verb eklego. In other words, the choosing was all out of God’s kindness, all out of God’s love. So when you think of your salvation, that’s what you think of when you think of eklego. You think of being blessed in Christ, but you think of being chosen in Christ Jesus.


The scriptures have much to say about this. Look in Jn6:44.

 

No one (absolute negation) can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up  on the last day

 

Now that’s unless the Father draws him. That little Greek word helkuo means it has the idea of being irresistibly drawn. It’s used in secular Greek, I understand, of a person who has been hungry for days and days and days and is drawn to food, irresistibly drawn to food. It also carries the idea and is used of demonic forces being drawn to swine when they have no human bodies left to indwell.


I have a friend who works down in Florida. He runs a salvage yard. I call it a junk yard, he calls it a salvage business. He’s a wonderful Christian. He has a cap that says "Junk is Beautiful." They have this huge magnet on a crane, and that thing will come over, drop down, get those cars and pick those cars up as if they were nothing but paper. It will swing them over, demagnetize, drop them down in this big press and pull away. Then they take this car, and smash it down. The idea of that magnet is what I want you to see. When you pull that magnet over something everything is irresistibly pulled right up to it. That’s kind of the idea that we have here when it says that "the Father must draw him to me." God chose us, and the way we know we are chosen is by the fact that we are drawn.


One night I was preaching on this at Precept. A fellow came running down the aisle at the end with tears streaming down his face. He said, "Oh, I’ve struggled with this. I now know I’m chosen." I said, "How do you know you’re chosen?" He said, "Because I know I have been strangely drawn unto Him." How do you know you’re chosen? You’re drawn. That’s the key. Jesus said until the Father draws you nobody can come unto me.

Let’s look in John 6:37. Jesus said,

 

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out"


The idea is that there are those who are chosen and will come to Him, that are drawn to Him and He will not cast out. So we see first of all, God chose us. Now please understand something. Paul is trying to show believers the fact that they didn’t choose Him. God chose them. And that’s the wonderful thing about being accepted is to know that God chose us. We’ll see in a moment when that was. But what about the responsibility of man to choose? Does the Bible teach anything about that? Oh, does it ever.

 

Look in Jn 3:15. Will you look there with me?

 

"so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. 16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.


He says that "whoever" and that little word  "pas" that means everyone, anyone. It means whoever comes. Not the ones I’ve chosen, not the ones I’ve rejected but "whoever". Every man on this earth has been given a measure of faith, it tells us over in Romans. And that measure of faith when it is confronted with the Gospel, at the moment that man hears God’s word, he has the ability to open the door and let God in. Every man that is created has that ability. It says in verse 15 that

 

"whoever believes will in Him have eternal life."

 

And you say it with me.

 

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."

 

If you will look at the Greek it just absolutely opens it up that anybody, at any time, at any place may make the response to receive the Lord Jesus Christ.


Let’s look in 2Pet 3:9. It’s talking about judgment here, and he says in verse 9

 

"The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient (makro = long + thumos = passion or anger thus patient in bearing the offenses & injuries of others, slow to anger, avenge or punish) (5719) toward you, not wishing for any to perish (be rendered useless, ruined, loss of purpose), but for all to come to repentance."

 

Now you look at it yourself. What does your translation say? "not wishing" or desiring "for" what? "any to perish but for all to come to repentance." God has the whole world in His mind, not just certain ones. He has the whole world on His heart.


Look at 1Ti 2:3-4.
 

"This is good & acceptable in the sight of God our Savior 4 Who desires all men to be saved (rescued from danger & destruction, made well, healed, restored to "health") and to come to the knowledge (epignosis = precise & correct knowledge) of the truth."

 

It’s very clearly taught there. I don’t see how you can get around it. In Scripture is the choice of man and the ability to choose. Now watch in these verses. "This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our savior." Verse 4 speaks of God our savior. "Who desires all men," and that’s all men, anthropos. Ladies, it doesn’t just mean males. "All men," all mankind "to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth," and on and on and on.


Now you say, "Now I’m confused because I don’t understand. You just said that we have been chosen. If we have been chosen that means to be singled out and chosen out from among. That’s true. But you also said that whosoever will may come." Now this be-comes a dilemma when you try to understand it. There are some things about God and the uniqueness and mystery of salvation we’re never going to understand down here. Now the simplest way to say this is like this: God already knew who would reject Him so He went ahead and chose the ones who would accept Him. That’s been the simplest answer for many people for many years and years and years. I don’t think it’s quite that simple, but that’s ok if that helps you. But what I’m trying to say is both are taught in God’s Word: the responsibility and the ability of man to choose.


 Rev 3:20 says,

 

'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me"

 

In other words the moment you hear Him comes the ability to open the door and let Him in. You may hear Him speaking through Wayne or someone else. How can you reconcile "election" and "free will"? Somebody (Ed note: Spurgeon made this statement) said, "Do you have to reconcile two people who are friends?" As a matter of fact, Barnhouse said when we get to heaven there’s going to be a big banner, "Whosoever will may come." And all the Baptists will stand up and say, "Yea, we told you." And you’re going to walk up underneath that banner and the back of it is going to say, "Chosen before the foundations of the world," because they just go together.


In other words, sometimes when you come to verses like this you have to drop a plumb bob. Do you know what a plumb bob is? That is something that gives balance. On one side of the plumb bob put the doctrine of election. It’s taught, very clearly taught in scripture. We are irresistibly drawn. The Father draws us to Him and chooses us. Put that on one side. On the other side put the responsibility of man to choose and the ability to choose the fate that God has already given him. And don’t you dare touch it. If you move it either way you’re out of balance. You take your shoes off, you walk in on holy ground, you say, "God, you chose. I chose. Somebody chose. I’m just glad it’s all over. And I’m glad that I’ve been chosen. And I’m glad that I’ve been blessed in the Lord Jesus Christ." God has so devised salvation that once we’re in we can never pat ourselves on the back and say we chose because God chose first. It’s taught. But if we go to hell we can never say God sent us because we sent ourselves by refusing to choose that which He has given to us. It’s incredible how He has designed our salvation.


Just so you might understand, you were chosen long before the foundation of the world. Let’s go back and look at that because that is our next point. When did God make His choice? Go back to verse 4 of our text in Ephesians chapter 1. "Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world." Now notice, it’s "in Him." If Christ had not come and died there would have been no choosing. That’s part of the plan. Not only was it a part that we be chosen, but the lamb was prepared before the foundation of the world. All of that was devised by the counsel of God in heaven. The word "foundation" is the Greek word katabole. It refers to a laying down or a founding of something. The word for "world" refers to the order, the disposition, the arrangement of the world. Now I don’t know about you, but if you haven’t read ahead of me in Ephesians, this doesn’t mean anything to you. But if you’ve gone ahead and read through the book of Ephesians, it ought to get you a little bit excited. Before there was ever a world, now listen, or before there was ever a system in the world, especially an evil system that Satan himself propagated, long before there was a system, long before there was a world or an arrangement in the world, God made a choice. Long before all of that by His foreknowledge He knew what would take place, and He went ahead and provided and made a choice. And you and I were chosen in Christ way back before the foundation of this world.


As a matter of fact, some people feel like, "Well, I’ve got to do something to deserve that choice." Do you realize He chose us before we were even thought of as far as the human race is concerned? He chose us before we were ever born, before we were ever able to do something to make us worthy of Him choosing us. He made the choice way back when. I’m telling you, I wish we could take more verses at one time. But if we do I’m afraid we’re going to miss something.


He has blessed us in Christ Jesus. With how many blessings? Every spiritual blessing. But not only has He blessed us now, it goes further back than that. He chose us before the foundation of the world. You are very special to God. He chose you before the foundation of the world. When Peter uses this in his letter to the persecuted believers in Asia Minor, he says, "I write to the elect scattered throughout Asia Minor." He was saying the height of rejection is persecution, but the height of acceptance is being chosen. People, realize that you’ve been chosen. All of us know what it means to be rejected. Everyone of us has been rejected. But who have we been rejected by? Not by God, but by people who are really our peers. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that God has accepted us. And God has chosen us in Christ Jesus. I tell you that if that finally sinks in, and my prayer is that it will, it will just literally set you free in your understanding of why you need to live a life filled with praise to God the Father. The world is going to reject us. It’s already rejected us. People are going to reject us. But that’s not even the point. God has accepted us in the Beloved. He knew all the warts that we had, and He still accepted us. He still chose us before the foundation of the world.


When I was growing up I was skinny and tall. As a matter of fact, they called me all kinds of things. Wayne was one of the nicer things. I had such a self image problem. I couldn’t hit the ball when I played baseball. I couldn’t walk and chew bubble gum at the same time. And I grew up feeling an inward rejection by the people around me. I’m grateful I had a good family. My heart goes out to people who didn’t have a good family. I mean if you add that in to it, can you imagine how miserable some people are? One day I under-stood that Jesus had come to die for me, and I began to understand that God had chosen me long before I ever drew breath on the face of this earth. And then when Christ came into my life He blessed me with every spiritual blessing there is in the heavenlies. And you know, that does something for your whole understanding of who you are in Christ, your position in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why in the world would you hang your head? You’ve been blessed in Him with every blessing, and you’ve been chosen in Him. What else is necessary for you to live a victorious Christian life?


Tony Evans gave an illustration at a conference in 1992 that I want to share with you. He talked about what it means to be in Christ and what it means to be identified with Him. He is the Chaplain of the Dallas Mavericks. He gets free tickets because he’s the chaplain. He sits right there on the floor with the team. He said he has some buddies and every time his wife and family do not want to go to the game, he calls up his buddies and he says, "Come on guys. Go to the game with me tonight." He says, "Now listen, don’t worry about driving your car. You’re with me. You go with me. You don’t have to park six blocks away and walk. You get to park in the VIP section because you are with me. Don’t worry about having to stop and get supper. Don’t worry about carrying it in in a bag. You’re with me. We’re going to go into the special VIP dining room, and we’re going to have our own banquet- style dinner. Don’t worry, you are with me. Don’t worry about having to go through all those long lines at the ticket booth. You’re with me. We’ll go over to that little side door and go in. We’ll go down the elevator and be right there. Don’t worry about having to fight your way in to find your seat. You’re with me. We’re going to go out the team entrance, and we’re going to sit on the floor. Everybody is going watch us walk in and sit down. Don’t worry about it. You’re with me."


Well, I can’t tell you how that blessed me. Boy, I’ve had more fun with that illustration especially since I got into Ephesians. I’m identified with Him. It’s kind of like somebody says, "You want to fight me, buddy. He’s my buddy." I’m in Him. I’ve been chosen in Christ. I’m blessed with every spiritual blessing. What in the world am I doing living such a frustrating,

depressing and discouraging life?


Well, it’s one thing to know truth. It’s another thing to experience truth. It’s one thing to understand it. I’ve had people come to me and say, "I understand that truth, but it hasn’t helped me." You see you might understand it, but you haven’t yet learned to receive it and walk in it.


The other day I got on a plane with three other fellows. We went out to Houston, Texas to look at the Urban Alternative there in Houston. We got there and spent three and a half hours in a meeting after we had landed. Then we quickly got on a Southwest Airlines com-muter flight, and flew to Dallas. We got to Dallas, went to the hotel and went down to meet with Tony Evans. And Tony said, "Listen guys, I’ve got some tickets to the ballgame to-night, and I want you to go with me." And I started thinking, "OOOH, we’re going to be with him. We’re going to go to the ballgame with him." First of all, I figured we were going to have to drive because there were too many of us to get in his car. He said, "Don’t worry about it. I’ve got a special VIP pass for the van you’re going to be riding in. Don’t worry about where you’re going to park. You’re with me. Come on down." We rode down. We got those little, special, official passes. I have still got it. We got our tickets. We  walked up to the gate, and everybody said, "How are you doing there, Tony? How are you doing there, Tony?" I said, "How ya’ll doing? We’re with him." We walked up to the gate. We didn’t have to go through the gate. Shoot no, man! He had a pass key. We walked inside this little door, got onto the elevator, went downstairs and walked in.


I sat at the table with the General manager of the Dallas Mavericks who loves Jesus as much as anybody I’ve ever been around. He started talking about how bad his team was doing and about all the mail he was getting and how they had made conscious decisions to be in the places they’re in right now. But he said his greatest burden was not to win in Dallas. His greatest burden was to evangelize that team to the Lord Jesus Christ. Wonderful person. Sat right there next to him in the VIP dining room because I was with him.


We finished eating and had to have a meeting. Where are we going to meet? Tony said, "Don’t worry, you’re with me." We got on the elevator, went up to about the third floor and went into the Dallas Maverick’s office. We walked inside. There was a conference room. We sat down, shut both doors, and we just took it over. We had an official pass on. One guy who was sitting in there looked up, and I said, "How you doing? We’re with him."  After we finished the meeting, he said, "Ok, guys, you ready to go have some fun.


Let’s watch the ballgame." I said, "Am I ready? That’s what I thought we were going to do anyway. Not have this dumb meeting." So we got on the elevator and went down down-stairs. We didn’t go through all the lines where the people were. Oh no. We walked out the team entrance right on the floor. And when we walked out, everyone just kind of turned their head. I wanted to say, "How ya’ll doing? Good to see ya. I’m with him. Hey man! I’m special. I’m with him. I’m identified. I got the pass. See it right here." We walked over. We didn’t sit in the bleacher seats. They had chairs set up on the actual floor. I’ve seen these before but there are usually all these real dignitaries sitting down there. I sat three rows from the team. These guys are big that play pro ball. I didn’t understand how big they were from just watching them play on television. These are huge people. Sitting down there I had more fun looking around at the people in there. They were probably saying, "Who are they?" "Hey, we’re with him. We’re somebody. We’re special. We’re identified with him." Now you see, the next time I hear that illustration it’s going to be a whole lot more meaningful to me than the first time I heard it. And I know I’ll hear it again because Tony is like the rest of us preachers. He uses illustrations to death. Sometime he’ll come and speak, and he’ll use it again. Oh, the first time it excited me. And I thought, "Isn’t it wonderful to be identified with Him." Now I have been there, and I have participated in it. The difference is not just in understanding it but appropriating it in your life. You’ve been chosen. You’ve got a little pass on you. It’s a mark of the blood of Jesus and the mark of the Spirit of God in your life. If you’ll study the covenant you’ll see how this fits together. It’s like a glove and a hand fitting together. You’ve been marked wherever you go. When you go in the grocery store people say, "Oh look at that guy. He’s overweight." Or "He’s too skinny." Whatever else they say, they still look at you like, "Who is that person?" And you can say with tears flowing down your cheeks, "Listen folks, I’m saved by the grace of God. I’m special to my Father. My Father chose me before the foundation of the world." You can go out into life and wherever you go you’re marked. And you see, the difference is Tony is not recruiting other people to come to his ballgames. Any time you try to use an illustration it always fall short somewhere. There’s no illustration in human life that will ever depict a scriptural truth. It just sort of gives you an idea.
 

But you see, in the Christian life, that’s the beauty. You can find somebody who doesn’t have that mark on them and say, "Hey, would you like to have it? It is only by the grace of God that I have it. And I would love to share with you how you could be with Him and be identified in Him." I think the saddest day in a Christian’s life is when he’s embarrassed to tell others that he’s with Him. That’s what wrong with us. Because you see when you get involved with sin, immorality, those kinds of things in your life, it takes away all the joy that should have been yours. You took your pass, and you stuck it in your pocket where nobody could see it. You didn’t want anybody to know you’re identified with Him. And you start looking for things other ways, and you realize you can’t find them anywhere until you come back to the one whose identified you with Him.


I’ve been blessed. You’ve been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. If I’m not walking in obedience to Him, forget the blessings. If I’m ready to come back to Him, there they are. They haven’t gone anywhere. Forgiveness of sin, cleansing by the blood. All of them are there. But not only have we been blessed, we’ve been what? Chosen before the world ever existed. "Oh Brother Wayne, I need to do something to deserve it." Hey folks, you were chosen before you even knew you would be around. You didn’t have a chance to do anything. God went ahead and made the choice. That’s the key. So I hope this is going to mean something to you. There’s a reason He blessed us. There is a reason He chose us. It’s all in the verse. But that’ll be the next time.

 

1:4 just as He chose (5639) us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be (5750) holy &  blameless before Him. In love


We’re going to be looking at God’s eternal design for believers. Let’s read all the way down through verse 4 so we can catch the flow of what the apostle Paul is saying here. "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him." Verse 4 is obviously connected to verse 3. In verse 3 He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. In verse 4 He has chosen us in Christ.

 

What a wonderful beginning to this praise time. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ, and He has chosen us. You can’t really appreciate this until you have laid yourself before Him, surrendered your heart and your life to Him. If we have learned to worship Him, when we start reading these things, God opens the heavens to us, and the praise just flows out of our life. We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. Not only that, we have been chosen in Him. But why did God do this before the foundation of the world?

 

This book of Ephesians is a wonderful, wonderful book. There are three chapters on who we are in Christ and three chapters on whose we are in Christ, how we’re supposed to live. It’s a beautiful, beautiful book. And when you get way over to chapter 6 you find out we’re in a warfare. But he wants you to know something first. He wants you to know who you are. He wants you to know what your position is in Christ Jesus. It’s a beautiful, beautiful picture here that He’s drawing for us.

 

I want us to look at two things regarding God’s eternal design. Why was it that He blessed us and chose us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world? Well, it says it in the last part of verse 4, "...that we should be holy and blameless before Him." There are two points that are going to come out of that little phrase. Let’s just look at that one phrase now. He has chosen us in order that we should be holy and blameless before Him. First of all His eternal design for all of us that are believers is that our position in Christ will always be secure. God wants us to know what our position in Christ is and that it will always be secure.

 

Have you ever wondered about your eternal security? Are you worried about losing your salvation? Many people are, and many people have been taught that you are not eternally secure in Christ Jesus. Now what does that lead you into? It leads you into legalism because if you’re not secure you had better work for it, and if you’re going to work for it you had better do certain things. Not only that, mysticism fits immediately into that because you expect God to do something to show you that you really are in His kingdom. You’ve got to have some kind of ecstatic utterance. You’ve got to have something happen to you. So you’re always pursuing something outside of Jesus, an experience or even Asceticism. People who are uncertain of their salvation are always trying in some way to prove to themselves that they have it.

 

But what I want to show you is in the statements that we’re reading. God shows you your position in Christ is secure for all of eternity. He uses the term "that we should be" (NAS). It is the Greek word einai. It’s the present infinitive of eimi. "...that we might be holy and blameless before Him." Present tense means ongoing, never to end, not just today but tomorrow, the next day, the next day and the next week and the next week. And the infinitive there always expresses purpose. What is the purpose of God’s choosing us and blessing us? The purpose is that we always be holy and blameless before Him. Now it even gets better. Let’s look at the word "holy." We are eternally to be holy before Him. What does it mean to be holy before Him? Remember when we looked at verse 1 we went through the book of Ephesians, and I showed you that the word "holy" is the same word for the word "saints"? So when you think of a saint you have to think of the word "holy," hagios. It’s the same exact word. What does it mean? Here it means morally pure, upright, blameless in heart, right, virtuous. It describes the inward pure state of a believer in Christ. He is inwardly pure. Now we know we are not sinlessly perfect, but somehow we are told here in scripture that in Christ, because of what He’s done in our life, that we have been made inwardly pure, eternally. God sees us that way. He sees us in Christ.

 

Look in 1 Peter 1. Now this is the difference between Jesus and us. He is inherently holy. He’s always been that way. Our holiness has got to be imputed to us. It’s something that happens when Christ enters into our life. 1 Peter 1:17-19 says,

 

"If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ."

 

It speaks of Jesus as being without blemish, without spot. It speaks of Him as being inherently that way. Now we’re not inherently that way. But we have somehow been made holy. We’ve been made inwardly pure as Christ has entered our life, cleansed us of our sin, washed us in the blood. Then, because of Him and His residence in our life, we are eternally holy before God. Now I don’t know about you but that kind of excites me. God sees me in His Son and sees the work His Son has done in me, and that will never, ever, ever change.

 

Positionally, I am secure in Christ Jesus.

 

The word "blameless" has to do with being without spot or blemish. The Greek word is amomos. It means "a"–without &  momos – spot or blemish. No spot or blemish. In secular Greek it was a technical word that referred to the absence of something, or something amiss in a sacrifice which would make it unworthy to be offered. In other words, a sacrifice was rejected because of spot or blemish, something that was in any way amiss about that sacrifice. What it says here is, because of the finished work of Christ, what he did in our hearts and in our lives, we can never, ever be rejected. We’ve been cleansed of anything that can ever reject us in the sight of God because of what Christ did for us on the cross and what He did for us in our life as He entered in and became the very essence of our being.

 

God says we are holy and blameless before Him. We are to be eternally holy and blameless before Him. That was His design before the foundations of the world. God knew that His creation would reject Him, and God came up with a plan before the foundation of the world had even happened. Before any system had appeared on this earth, God made provision that you and I as believers be holy and blameless before Him. That phrase has the same impact and understanding as Ro8:1 . Romans talks about the constitution of our faith. Ro8:1  has the same understanding of us being made holy and blameless, blameless meaning nobody can accuse us and nobody can reject us because of what Christ has already done in our lives. Ro8:1  says,

 

"There therefore is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.."

 

That’s the key to Ephesians, and that’s the key to our understanding this. When you receive Him He comes into you, and the Holy Spirit of God baptizes us into the body of Christ (1Cor12:13). And when we are in Him, all of our blessings are found in Him. We are eternally secure. We see that the believer has been blessed and chosen in Christ so that he is eternally, positionally pure and cleansed of anything that would ever cause him to be condemned.

 

Now that phrase "holy & blameless" is also found in Eph 5:27. It talks about a situation with husbands and wives. There is a great understanding of this phrase in verse 27 when he compares our relationship with our wives to Christ’s relationship with the church:

 

"that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy & blameless." It is the purpose of God with His people.

 

It is used again in Col1:22, which talks about how He has reconciled us to God, and tells us why.

 

"yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy & blameless and beyond reproach."

 

So we see then that God here tells us through the apostle Paul that our position in Christ is eternally secure.

 

Look with me again in Ro 8:33-39.

 

"Who will bring a charge against God's elect ? God is the one who justified; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword ? 36 Just as it is written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED." 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved  us. 38 For I am convinced, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."


Who’s going to bring a charge against God’s elect? Because He has chosen us and blessed us in Christ in order that we are holy and blameless eternally before Him, positionally we are secure in Jesus Christ. You know I’ve always wondered about people who have a conviction, they say, that you can lose your salvation. And I have some logical questions to ask outside of scripture. If you can lose your salvation, how many sins does it take to lose it? I would love to hear somebody explain that. You would have to say one sin because you know that all sin is evil in God’s eyes. Listen, most people who believe you can lose it believe you can get it back later on. How many times can you get it back? There’s got to be a secretary in heaven somewhere with an eraser about four miles long, and wherever my name is on that roster there is a hole rubbed in it, because it has been written in and erased out, written in, erased out, written in, erased out so many times that they don’t know if I’m in or out. It doesn’t make any sense. If you did nothing to get your salvation, what can you do to lose it? If it was His work, and it was His design, and He chose us before the foundation of the world, what in the world can you do to nullify that choice?

 

I hear people say, "Oh, but Brother Wayne, when you are inside Jesus that’s one thing. He holds on to you, but you can choose to walk outside of Him." Hold it. Hold it. Whoever in the world told you that the Holy Spirit inside of you would allow you to make that choice? You know there is someone now who lives in you that didn’t live in you before.

 

And He’s in you, Philippians says, to will and to work. He even works in your desires. Many people who don’t believe in eternal security and can’t understand this truth are people who have been raised and taught that salvation is a gift. Let’s just say that you have a handful of change. I stand up in front of you and say, "I got a gift for whoever wants this gift. If you want it you run up here and get it." If you’ve got it now I can’t take it back because it’s a gift, and it’s always your gift. But if you grow up thinking salvation is nothing more that you receiving a gift from God, then no wonder you believe you can lose your salvation. That’s not what salvation is. In the words of our Lord Jesus Himself in John chapter 3, He said salvation is a birth, something takes place. You are a brand new creature. 2 Cor 5:17 says,
 

"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come"

 

The Spirit of God has entered into his spirit, and they have become mysteriously related together.

 

Take the ingredients of bread. You put in the flour, and you put in yeast. I don’t know what else you might put into it. You put it all together, stir it up and make dough out of it. You put it on the pan. You put into the stove. You cook it, and when you take it out, there’s bread. No scientist in this world has ever been able to go back into that bread and take out the ingredients. They can’t do it. They are mysteriously blended together. You can never rip them apart. How do you take God’s Spirit out of a man’s spirit? There’s no possible way. It’s an entrance of God into a person’s life, a cleansing, and that is for all of eternity.

 

God sees you in His Son. Because He is inherently pure He has come into your life to purify you and by His residence in you automatically declares to the world that no man can bring a charge against God’s elect, no man. That was designed before the foundation of the world.

 

Can you imagine Paul saying, "Praise the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has chosen you to be holy as long as..." and then puts all the conditions that go down below it? Be careful when you read translations that put that little "if" after some of those statements. Sometimes the translator makes it look like you got to measure up to conditions or you can’t have that holiness, when it should be translated "since you do," because the Holy Spirit of God now lives in your life. So the first thing He wants us to praise God for is that our position in Christ is eternally secure.

 

But the second thing I want you to see is sort of implicit. He begins to lay some groundwork here that he picks up on in chapter 4. Not only is our position in Christ secure, but so is the believer’s practice. Our practice is not perfection. Remember that. I’m not preaching sinless perfection. I’m talking about our position in Christ forever. But when you start coming back down to where we live and breathe here on planet earth, a believer’s practice before Christ, before Christ, his position in Christ, is secure. His practice before Christ is settled. There is no question about it.

 

Now I want to show you what I’m talking about here. He says,

 

"...that be should be holy and blameless before Him."

 

Now this has already dealt with our position, but I want you to see in verse 4 the implicit practice of the believer. Now listen to what I’m saying and hang with me. Even though we are holy and blameless, declared so by God himself, since we are to be holy and blameless in our daily practice, the unworthy has been declared worthy. But now the unworthy that’s been declared worthy is to walk in a manner worthy of that which God has done. Now did you catch all of that? The unworthy has been declared worthy. We didn’t do it. That’s God’s grace. Thank God for that. But those that have been declared worthy now need to walk in a manner worthy.

 

Look in chapter 4 of Ephesians. You’ll see what I’m talking about. He’s laid the groundwork. He’s not really saying this in chapter 1, but it’s implicit in the understanding. If I’ve been declared holy before God, then I automatically have no recourse but to seek to live holy among others. In chapter 4:1 it says,

 

"Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called"

 

"I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling which you have been called." There’s something implicit here. When you find a believer that doesn’t want to deal with sin and self, you’ve got a person that has a little bit of problem with his salvation. When the Spirit comes in, inherent in the believer is the desire to trust and please God and to walk and live worthy before a lost world.

 

We’re declared to be holy and blameless. We should strive to be holy and blameless. Look at Eph2:10. That which God has done inside has got to have some effect on the outside. It says in Eph2:10,

 

"For we are His workmanship (poiema ~ gives us English "poem"), created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."

 

What were we created for? So that what we are on the inside could be expressed on the outside in our life, the good works.

 

We think good works are something we come up with and ask God to approve. But what did the verse say? We are created for good works that He came up before the foundation of the world. They were predestined before the foundation of the world that they might be expressed in our life. He has declared us to be holy and blameless. But now He has challenged us to express that through our life.

 

Look at 2 Timothy, and you’ll see how these good works flow out of us. It’s nothing we do. It’s something God does. 2Ti3:16-17 says,

 

"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof , for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work"

 

The word "adequate" (Ed Note: remember all underlined Scripture links to definition) means equipped. It’s just another way of saying it. It’s the picture of a ship that has been fully loaded to carry out its course.

 

"You mean those good works are there but yet I’ve got to be equipped? I’ve got to trained? I’ve got to be taught? I’ve got to be reproved by the word of God?" Yes. And as I walk with Him that way, dealing with sin, dealing with "self" under the Word, the lordship of Christ, the Word gets into me. It changes my way of living. What comes out of me are those works that were predestined before the foundation of the world. And they are going to be on the outside if the heart has been made pure on the inside. You know we’re living in a day that wherever I go, it seems when I talk about dealing with sin and dealing with "self", people just look at me like, "Man, where have you been? That doesn’t work in the 20th century." But, folks, it does work. It hasn’t changed. God’s the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:8). We’ve got to deal with it. The person of the Holy Spirit lives in us. And He’s in us to guide us and to teach us and to lead us and to convict us and to help us understand the Word so that the good works can come out of our life. That’s what Christ does through a man. It’s not what a man does for Christ. Christ is in a man having made him pure all of eternity. Christ wants to be expressed in His works through a man as a man learns to surrender to Him.

 

Ro 8:29 says we’re predestined, foreordained, to be conformed into the image of Christ Jesus. The only problem is we don’t get to choose the tools that God decides to use to chip us off and conform us to the image of Christ Jesus, even though positionally, we’re already holy and blameless. I never worry about my position in Christ. That’s taken care of. However, practically, that is a struggle, and that’s the fight Paul says he has fought at the very end of his life (2Ti 4:7). I’ve fought the good fight. The word fight is agon. It’s the fight of the flesh and the spirit. Paul says I have defeated Paul in my life. I’ve finished the course. I’ve done what God has called me to do. I’m ready now to go and get the the crown of righteousness (2Ti 4:8) which awaits me.

 

Look at 2Co7:1. This gives us another clue of how this holiness is perfected in our life down here. It’s already been perfected for all of eternity. But in 2Co7:1 it says,

 

"Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting  holiness in the fear of God."

 

Now wait a minute. I thought we were already holy. We are. But since we are holy, we are to live holy in the fear of God. We’ve been declared holy and blameless. Our position is secure in Him.

 

But I want you to notice one more thing in Eph1:4. It says He

 

"just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.."

 

The last two little words there are very, very, very, very important. Who determines if Wayne is walking holy before God? Who determines if Joe is walking holy before God? Man does not set the standard on this. This is where legalism and those kinds of things mess up. God sets the standard. We are walking and living that way before Him. Let me just show you some verses, starting with Ro 1:9 Notice what Paul said. Everything we do is before Him. I might walk out of here, and you may say, "Brother Wayne, that was a wonderful message." I don’t determine that by what you say. I have to determine that by what He says. It’s all before Him. He’s the one who knows the motive and everything that’s there about what’s done.

 

Paul says in Ro1:9,

 

"For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you."

 

In other words, you may not believe me but I don’t have to convince you. I do it before Him. He’s the one who keeps the books. Isn’t that wonderful. Man, that makes me want to shout. A lot of men may nail you and me while we’re here on this earth by what they think and what they perceive. It’s God who keeps the books. God knows. He’s our witness.

 

Look in 2 Cor 4:1-2. That’s why we’re not to be other people’s judge. We’re to judge ourselves. Paul is talking about his apostolic ministry. He says in verse 1:

 

"Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy  we do not lose heart, 2 but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God."

 

Oh man, if we could all live this way and know that what man thinks is one thing, but what God thinks is everything. He knows. And so therefore I don’t have to please you, and you don’t have to please me. We all are seeking to please Him who has seen fit to make us holy and blameless in Christ forever. Isn’t that wonderful? We serve to please Him (2 Cor 5:9, Eph 5:10).

 

Then look at Gal 1:20. He wants them to know that he’s not lying. You know Paul has just got this real consciousness about the fact that they know that he’s telling the truth, and he says in verse 20,

 

"Now in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying."

 

In other words if you can’t trust just what I’m saying you can believe something. What I do, I do in the presence of Him. It’s before Him.

 

Turn to 1Th 3:11-13.

 

"Now may our God and Father Himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you and may the Lord cause you to increase  and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you; so that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints."

 

There’s going to come a day that He will ultimately let everybody know what He knows that man down here does not know.

 

So therefore, our position in Christ is secure but our practice in Him is settled. No preacher needs to get up and motivate people to obey Christ if they are His servants, because at some point they’re going to have to deal with the person that lives within them. And that person within them is going to bring them to conviction somehow or another. Now He uses people to do that, but they’re really not that necessary, because it’s God’s business with His people. He oversees His flock.

 

Let me ask you a question. Are you excited that your position in Christ is secure? Have you even grasped that yet? I don’t fight with somebody who still says, "I’m still not convinced." That’s alright. I can’t convince you anyway. Somehow through the Word, God is going to have to convict you. I can’t do that. But let me ask you this. If you truly say that you have Christ in your life, is it settled with you that you have no recourse but to live holy & blameless before this world because God accepts no other standard in your life? You say, "Now Brother Wayne, what does that mean?" As I have said before, if you go out to a restaurant, and you order beans, but they bring you peas, and they’re cold, as a believer, holy and blameless before God in Christ, you have no recourse but to turn to Him, ask Him to give you the grace that that which is within you may reach outside of you and touch the one who made the mistake.

 

The lifestyle of a believer who’s positionally secure in Christ is settled.

It must be expressed in his practical outworking in his life.

 

We have no recourse, folks. It’s settled. Thank God for His grace that enables us to be able to live the way He wants us to live and to conform down here to the image of Christ Jesus. One deals with or salvation which is eternal. The other deals with our sanctification which is a process. We won’t make it down here. But one day He’ll come and make it for us. But in the meantime we’re to be conformed in the image. What’s on the inside has got to be expressed on the outside. Praise the God and Father who has chosen us, blessed us, that we might be holy and blameless before Him.
 

 

5 He predestined (5660) us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,


Would you turn with me to Ephesians 1:5? I want to focus on the subject entitled "The Love of God." Obviously that’s a subject that could be preached on from now until the Lord Jesus comes back. Love is all He is. But I want us to focus this understanding of His love to the passage that we’re looking at for it tells us in another way how God has loved us. There was a song when I was growing up that I remember. We don’t sing it a lot anymore, but it still rings in my heart.

 

The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell.

It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell.

The guilty pair bogged down with care.

God sent His son to win. His erring child

He reconciled and pardoned from their sin.

 

Even from a child that song has meant so much to me. Jn3:16 has also. You know we talk about that verse sometimes like it’s an old truth. May it never grow old. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." God so loved the world.

 

If you’ll read verse 5 with me, we will find something that I think is very precious. Start with those last two words of verse 4,

 

"He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will"

 

As I was studying this verse this week the thing that overwhelmed me was that, before the foundation of the world, God loved me. Now sometimes I feel unloved, and you feel unloved. We always know we’re unworthy to be loved, especially by a Holy God. But the Scripture teaches us that God loved us before the foundation of the world, before He ever created it or anything else. In His foreknowledge He knew what would take place once He created mankind, and yet still He loved you and me. He loved us so much that He came up with a plan that would bring us into His family for all of eternity.

 

Have you noticed that, in Scripture, a man’s position by grace is sealed and taken care of, but a man’s practice does not automatically line up with that position? Abraham was counted as righteous before God, but was Abraham perfect? No. As a matter of fact, he turned right around and lied and said his wife was his sister. Job was a righteous man, it says, but we know Job had some very deep problems, especially with those three "friends" who came to give their advice. Job could not stand somebody to say he was in any way unrighteous in his character. God only freed him when he turned to pray for his three friends. And so we see all through Scripture the position that’s unchangeable. It is perfect, and it’s by grace. But we see a man’s practice seeking to line up with his position. We call that process sanctification. My position is sealed and assured and taken care of with the Lord Jesus by grace, but now I’m seeking to line my practice up with my position. Sometimes I do better than at other times, and I’ll never see it happen exactly on this earth. One day when I’m glorified, it will all be taken care of.

 

If "in love" is read in verse 4, it appears to say that’s the motive that a believer would pursue in making his practice and his position line up. I don’t have any trouble with that. We should be committed to God. We should be absolutely devoted to all that He’s done for us. And we should strive to love Him and to serve Him and to obey Him. But I want to remind you that verses 3 through 14 are not talking about man’s responsibility. Verses 3 through 14 are talking about what God has done for man. And so "in love" has to fit verse 5 as the New American Standard version has it.

 

Let me just give you a quick review of verses 3 through 14 and what we’ve already looked at. In verse 3 through 6a, God the Father looks back to the past, before the foundation of the world and speaks of our being chosen, elected. God does that, not man. Verses 6b through 11 speak of how God the Father bestowed His grace upon us in Jesus, and it looks at the present and our redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ. Then verses 12 through 14 speak of how God the Father sealed us in Christ by the Holy Spirit, and looks at our future and the inheritance that is to come. No where in there do we find man responsible for anything. But we find a gorgeous statement of our redemption, all the way back before the foundation of the world, having been predetermined, and the outworking of it, and the future and our inheritance which is to come.

 

I believe it fits verse 5 when it says "In love He predestined us to adoption as sons.…" We have been blessed in Christ. We have been chosen in Christ. And now we find that in love we have been predestined to the adoption as sons. To me, by simple implication, it brings in the blessing and the choosing because that’s the loving nature of God the Father. God loves you. Nobody in this world may love you, but God loves you, and He’s the only one that really counts. Before the foundation of the world He loved us, and He made a choice based on what He knew as God in order that we might be blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing chosen in Christ and then predestined to be sons of God Himself. Well, I want us to look at verse 5, and I’m going to go very slow. I’m going to try my best to slow down and inch by inch go through this verse. Someone once asked, "How do you eat an elephant?" And the answer is, "One bite at a time." We’re going to eat this elephant one bite at a time. I think the slower we go, the more impact it may have on our lives. We’re going to move through it phrase by phrase.

 

First of all, in verse 5, out of His love for us, He predestined us. Well, what does it mean to be predestined? Let’s make sure we understand it from God’s point of view. It comes from two Greek words. The word prohorizo. Pro means before, beforehand. So we see something happening beforehand. Then the second part of the word is horizo, from which we get the word "horizon," and it means to determine. Something was determined beforehand.

 

Well, in looking up the word and wanting to understand it, I found that the word horizo is the most important part of the word prohorizo. I discovered horizo is used about eight times in the New Testament. Luke uses it six of those eight times. We can look at horizo to get an understanding of what he’s saying. Something has happened beforehand. What was it?

 

In Luke 22:22, Jesus, speaking to His disciples just before His betrayal at the last supper said,

 

"For indeed, the Son of Man is going as it has been determined ; but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed."

 

Now you must understand that it was predetermined that Jesus would go to the cross. Jesus was not crucified by accident. It was not something that happened that God was not aware of. It was predetermined that He would come to this earth and would die upon the cross. That was something that was already sealed. It was what God had planned.

 

In Acts 2:23 Peter uses the word in his great sermon as Luke records. He says,

 

"this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death:"

 

Jesus went to the cross as a predetermined plan.

 

In Acts 10:42, again Peter is preaching and Luke records,

 

"And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead."

 

Why is He appointed by God? Because God predetermined it that way.

 

In Acts 11:29, it