Turn to Ephesians chapter 1. Who wrote the letter to the saints in Ephesus? Paul, who was the one who planted the church there. What modern day country is Ephesus in? If you went there today, what would you see? A pile of rubble. Where was Paul when he wrote this letter? Prison, yes. And they don't know what city for sure, that's kind of debated, but most people think he was in prison in what city? Rome. And the year he wrote it is around when? Let's call it 62. 62. And we didn't talk about this last week, but let's do an overview of the book. How many chapters does it have? Look and see. Six. There are six chapters. How many chapters are there, Chris? There are six. And these six chapters can be divided into two parts. How many chapters are there? How many parts? Two. Chapters one through three and four through six. So we've got six chapters, two parts. Say it with me. One through three and four through six. This is how they're different. One through three is doctrine. Four through six It's duty. 1 through 3 is what? Power. 4 through 6 is? Duty. This is belief. Over here is behavior. So, what kind of doctrine? 1 through 3 talks about our blessings in Christ. That's what it's about. Our blessings in Christ. And over here, 4 through 6 is our behavior in Christ. That's another way somebody said it. 1 through 3 is the wealth of the believer. Four through six, give me a W word for behavior. The walk of the believer. How's that? So you kind of got the big picture. Now obviously we're in chapter one, so we're going to be talking about wealth and blessings and doctrine and things like that, which is pretty doctrinal stuff. So if there's a little light on application, It's coming. You could get real uncomfortable in chapter 4, 5, and 6. He's going to put the screws to them. There's not really anything wrong in this church. A lot of his letters, there's some problem. He's just happy with these people. He does mention some stuff, but mostly this is just a good tonic for everybody. So what we talked about last week was what? After the introduction, what was that first paragraph about? Yes, and remember there was a circuit, he talks about, here's God, up here, and he gives us all these blessings to us, and Paul returns those blessings, he blesses God for the blessings, so it's a closed circuit, from God to us and back to him. So this first two paragraphs is just one long run-on idea of, oh man, blessing to God for all the blessings he's given to us, and we started taking that apart a little bit last week. And we talked a lot about the blessing of something called election, and what's the other word? Predestination. And I said that a lot of people are bewildered by those. doctrines, but if you understand it correctly, instead of something that bewilders you, it's something that will bless you and cause you to bless God for it. So if it makes you uncomfortable, it's because you hadn't quite understood it yet. It's supposed to be something that makes you really happy. So we took that apart a little bit. Now last week, we discussed this already, so this is old history, from what we talked about last week. The word election is not in your Bible, probably, but the other word is. What's the word that's in there instead of election? chose. God has chosen some people. Because an election is when you choose somebody. There was an election. You won. God voted for you. You got drafted. What's the purpose of the election? We studied it last week. Why did God elect you? I'm not asking the basis, I'm asking the purpose. What's the goal? That is right, but that's not what he said last week about this word. You're right, but he says something else last week about election. God chose you for this reason. If that's what I'm looking for, that you would be holy and blameless. During the time of the Reformation, you know, there was no separation of church and state. So if you lived in Holland, you were a church member. If you were a citizen, you were a church member. By law, you went to church. By law, you paid taxes. And by law, you didn't work on Sunday. Or they'd put you in jail. The problem with that is you've got a lot of unregenerate people in the church. And so they used to talk about the church within the church. Their church first has christened them. But the problem is you've got a bunch of ungodly people in the church, well they couldn't do church discipline on them all. There wouldn't be any citizens left in the country. So they had this tendency in the Reformation era, they all believed in election and predestination, but they downplayed the holiness part. Saved by faith. Saved by faith. And election and predestination. But they didn't push holdings too much. Why not? They couldn't. And that's a great flaw when you combine church and state together. So that was a weakness. And Ed talked this morning about eternal security. It's more than once saved, always saved. No, God messes with you. He keeps working in your life to keep you holy and steadfast and pure. That's part of it. So having said that, It's not just easy believism, it's not just Arminianism that sometimes does that. Calvinism sometimes wrongly does that. Wrong Calvinism, wrong Arminianism. And what you see, you saw it right in the Bible last week, if you're chosen, it's for the purpose of being holy and blameless. Now, what if you're not holy and blameless? What if you're not holy? What should you start wondering? Maybe you're not chosen, or God's going to be doing a lot more work in your life. This is the purpose. Now, we all have our ups and downs, and it is progressive, but that's the goal, holy and blameless. This is God's will for your life. Now, the other word was predestination, and he says the goal of predestination, the purpose of predestination. Last week, what did he say the purpose of predestination was? If you've been predestined, what's going to happen? Okay, you're going to be adopted as sons into God's family. Now, that's salvific. So, if you're chosen to be holy, you're predestined to be saved. Really, it's just a package deal. They both go together. So, yes, the Bible teaches predestination and He predestines some people to be saved. And by the way, if you're predestined to be saved, you're also chosen to be holy. And you know what a sphere is? He says we were chosen in something and we're predestined in something, two spheres. What's the sphere? You're chosen in what and you're predestined in what? What did it say last week? Okay, that's right. You're chosen in Christ and what are you predestined in? What did somebody say? In love. So again, Jesus is intimately connected with this thing and it's based on love. A lot of people who don't like these doctrines envision, if this is true, they envision God as very miserly and he's only grudgingly dispensing salvation to the fewest possible people because he really hates everybody. That's wrong. Whatever it means, it's rooted, it's grounded in Christ and in God's love for mankind. I mean, you all see that with your own eyes in the text last week, I hope. Now, based on verse 1, whose will determines who gets predestined? It says God's will. Alright, that's what it says. And based on verse six, one more time, once you have a proper understanding of predestination, what should it cause you to do, according to verse six? To praise God. Ed? Isn't it the practical part of this thing? It's not really just being practical. You don't bless God, but you're probably not a Christian. Oh, you don't understand it. This is your application. Praise God for this. Amen. Yeah. All right. Remember, this whole thing is a praise. Now, we didn't get to the second paragraph of the praise. And that's what we're going to attempt right now. You get the idea this is a done deal, predestination and election? Well, he talks about what God has done to guarantee our spiritual inheritance. And that's what we want to take apart here. So it's chapter 1, verse 11 through 14. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that you who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory in him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise who is a guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory he says in there somewhere that God did something to guarantee our spiritual inheritance what did he do according to what Leif read? Okay, he sealed us with the Holy Spirit. We'll have to figure out what he's talking about. We'll come back to that. But he sealed us so that we would have an inheritance. What's the inheritance? What inheritance is he talking about? I think salvation is a pretty good one, don't you? Now he doesn't spell it out here, does he? But evidently it's so obvious he figured We'd figure it out. Internalize about the top of the list. Yeah. Okay, so that's good. Look at verse 11 again. We're talking about predestination. One more time. According to verse 11, what was the basis of our predestination? What's it based upon? Right, the purpose of God who works all things according to God's will. See, man doesn't get a lot of air time in this predestination thing. It's God's purpose, God's will, God's desire, that's where it all comes down on. Some people want to explain it away and they hypothesize what really happened is that God looked down the tunnel of time. to see who would one day, given the opportunity, believe in Jesus. And based on what God saw you do, He then responded to your foreseen faith in electing to predestine you. And that's like that song, if you feel like giving me a lifetime of devotion, I second that emotion. God is merely seconding your foreseen emotion. Now there's a classic name for that understanding of this. What's the classic name for that understanding? I don't mean wrong. I mean, what's the theological name given to it? That's Arminianism. Before Arminius lived, the medieval Catholic Church kind of drifted into this, and it's also known as semi-plagianism. They don't deny the gospel, because you're still saved by faith, and they still believe in predestination, but really it makes it a toothless tiger. I mean, who's offended by that? Nobody could be offended by that, it seems like. God sovereignly chose to do it this way. That's what he chose to do. So he's yielded his sovereignty to man at that point. Well, I don't know. I see your point. Okay. He didn't have to look to see. He already foreknew it. But I said that for y'all's benefit. How's that? He foreknew it the second from eternity past. Which goes back to predestination. It would go back to that. And you can't escape it. It's hard to escape it. Al? I was asked several years ago by a pastor friend what I understood at that point about Arminianism versus Calvinism. And I had never been asked the question, so I stopped and thought for a moment. I came back and I said, well, I said, I think that Arminianism has a low view of God and a high view of man. and Calvinism has a high view of God and a low view of man. That was just based upon minimal understanding of the two. Well said. That's a good summary. Very good. But I want you to see that according to verse 11, going back to that, it's based on God's purpose. God's will. Both words are in the text, aren't they? I mean, I just had an observation It is a strong Trinitarian verse and I was going to bring that out. I appreciate that. No, no, you did well. Remember, God the Father chose us. We're in Jesus who carried out the plan and then the Holy Spirit applies it to our lives by sealing us and indwelling us. So it definitely is a Trinitarian thing going on here. And he guarantees the results. I don't remember the Greek word for counsel, but I do know the word for will. There's two different Greek words for will. Bule and phelo. Phelo is like a wish or desire. I wish I had a million dollars. You know, it's just something you want. Bule, though, is will too, but it's like a determined judgment. OK, this is going to happen. And so I wouldn't be surprised, certainly as in the spirit of Hadley of Blue Lake, God has this determined judgment. He doesn't just wish people are going to be saved. He has this determined judgment. Bang. Those people are going to be. And has the ability to ensure it gets carried out. And yeah, yeah. So I didn't look it up this time, but I bet you that's under there. We'll have to find out. The spirit of it's there, even if the words aren't. In this council, I know the co-feelers It did happen before time. Yeah, that's what they would call it. That's going a little too far for me about the covenant stuff. All right, now, you've already answered this question. My question was, why were we chosen? And you gave this answer. I didn't like the answer then, but I want it now. Look at verse 12. What's the ultimate purpose of predestination according to verse 12? Chosen or predestination? No, this time I want to talk about predestination because that's the answer in verse 12. the praise of God's glory. So, we're predestined in love to be adopted as sons, that's A reason, and ultimate reason, B, is to the praise of God's glory. So, as you see, this thing is not about us, it's about Him. What if somebody asked you, what's the purpose of the church? What would you say? To the praise of God's glory. Now, there's stuff we do. The other things we do is evangelism. The purpose of the church is not evangelism or to build up saints. I mean, we do those things. But what's the real purpose of the church? It's to glorify God in the world, to the praise of his glory. That's why you're here. And the only people who do that are saved people. Amen. So, again, the doctrine of election and predestination is not something to be afraid of. It is something that should cause you to praise God's glorious grace. Because it's really totaling of him, using the contrived tunnel of time theory. God didn't have to do this, because he already knows everything. But if God looked down the tunnel of time, if he had of done such a thing, to see who would one day believe in Jesus, given the opportunity, you know what he would have seen? Nobody's going to take him up on that offer. Because we are, as he says in the next chapter, dead and trespasses and sins. So despite foreseeing ill will while we were his enemies in love, a merciful God decided to override our bad choice and pick some of us to believe in Jesus and to save some of us to the praise of his glory. They don't. In fact, it says it in Ephesians. He doesn't deal with that here so much. That is very clear from Romans, what I just said. He just throws out the words, and it's God, God, God. I'm just adding that little extra in, no extra charge. Just a clarification. I think that my understanding of Arminianism is that that is the most fundamental disagreement between Arminianism and Calvinism, is that Arminianism doesn't believe that we are dead in our sins. Seriously wounded, not dead. The picture they would paint is that a man is sick. Right. Because that's more Blasianism. Because they deny original sin. Whereas I don't think Armenians deny original sin. No, they don't. Blasianism does. Well, Wesley said, God gives you enough grace to overcome your sin so that you can make the decision at the point of choice. Now, the Bible doesn't say that. He hypothesized that. Then you become the sick guy on a death bed, and you've got a terminal disease, and this miracle cure called the gospel is held up to your lips. And if you drink it, you'll be saved, but if you turn away, you'll die. The problem with that analogy is it looks like we're not sick. or dead. It's too late. Unless he resurrects a corpse, then no hope. Yeah? And even though we're sick, we're smart enough to choose God. There's something in you smart enough to cause you to do that. And that ultimately, in that view, comes back down to man. Have you ever seen the painting of Jesus standing outside the door to his house, knocking? And there ain't no doorknob on the outside. Is that an Arminian view or a Calvinist view? And it does and you do decide to do that you think but then you find out later oh There's more to it That's right. But it's a matter of emphasis. That's right. I didn't either. No. That's a problem. That's a problem. That's a problem. There's this fella, I presume he was a Calvinist, came riding alongside John Wesley and figured out who he was, as they were talking. And he said to Wesley, your God is my devil. Now see, that guy was liable for church discipline. That's what you don't do. That's what Keith's talking about. And I've had this nut try to do church discipline against me for teaching a false God. of Calvinism. Well, that guy was a nut. One of the first house churches I went to, they're going to do church discipline against me because I was in Memphis one Sunday and I went to an Armenian Baptist church, in particular the Lord's Supper, and that was fowl-shedding with a demon. Goodbye, I'll see y'all later. In fact, I didn't say that, because I never did see him again. I don't want to see him again. That's wrong. You see, what Ed said is an important point. So you see a pastor or a Bible teacher, he says, look, the Arminian intoxicants isn't a devil. That's for some person to kind of run away with. You run away from. Run away with. No, run away with. Run away from. So there are people that are terribly reformed and people that are truly reformed. Don't be terribly reformed. Okay, and by reform they mean the view of salvation that was characteristic of the Protestant Reformation. And all those guys up until Arminius believe what we're talking about here. So the Holy Spirit, let's get him back into this. He has sealed us to guarantee this inheritance. What does it mean for something to be sealed? Tim, have you ever sealed anything? Have you ever seen anything that was sealed? What's a seal? Okay, it can show it hadn't been tampered with. Now, if you've all seen a corporate seal, you squeeze a piece of paper, what purpose is that? It makes it official. It's authentic. That's correct. It also implies guarantee. Okay, yes, it implies that. It's backed up by this corporation. Good, so it's an authentication, and so if you brand an animal, that shows ownership, doesn't it? So in a sense, we're sealed by the Holy Spirit. It shows God has put a seal of approval on us. He says, yeah, I'm standing behind this one. It shows ownership, and it suggests what the word you said, completion of the deal. That's not the word you said. What did you say? A guarantee. It's a guarantee. I'm not sure exactly what it says in the verse, but we're sealed. As a guarantee. Good. Oh, how do you know? That's right, unless you're qualified to break it. They found, I forgot quite how this worked, but The way they would do it is you'd write a will or something and a judge would seal it. And then they'd write some more stuff and they'd seal that and you'd have a scroll, they found them, with a series of seals and different judges were authorized to break further and further down to see what the original, especially if it was amended and there was any dispute, you could break the seals and go deeper to see what the original said. Can't be broken. Right. And so it would take God to break it. Nobody else can do it. The devil can't do it. You can't do it. Now, what's the evidence? If you've been sealed, what's the evidence in your life? I mean, there's not any wax on you from where it was imprinted. I'm asking this, what do you think the seal looks like? What is the evidence of the seal? How about the fruit of the Spirit? That's a good one. How about the fact that you have faith in Jesus? How about the fact that you want to be holy and blameless, even if you're not always perfect at that? That, to me, is the seal. It's not necessarily some inner looking for some kind of mystical confirmation of the Spirit. In this context, it seems to be all the things that we've just talked about. So, looking at the steps of salvation from a Trinitarian perspective again, the first thing is, I'll put these two together. You're chosen and elected and predestined. That's the first step. The second step is what we see in this verse here, verse 13. He says, then you heard the gospel, which he calls the word of truth, right? And then the third step, is you believed, y'all see that in there? In verse 13. And then finally, the fourth step is you're sealed. So again, we see the Trinity, but that's the step. And Trinity passed, you're elected. At some point in time, you heard the gospel. You believed it. What was that? I have decided to... You did that, but God's working behind the scenes to make you do it. And then, once that happens, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit. So, there is a point in time when people get saved. They like to get saved at some point in time. And there's a time when you weren't saved. The Holy Spirit, who is a guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, through the praise of His glory. So, the interesting thing about that is it's like God gives you this ticket. It's not just a piece of paper. with it comes spiritual powers that are going to have an effect on you. It's kind of like you've got this orb of power and it's going to turn you into something if you hold on to it, right? Outside your control, it's God, like God raising from the dead, that's outside your control. Same thing, it's going to have an effect on you. It's going to cause you to be holy. It's going to act like an adopted son, praise, glorify God. And because you have that, all these things are going to happen to you because of the spirit. he goes, oh, you've got the spirit, I'll let you in. But if you don't have that spirit, none of those things will happen to you. And when you show up, he won't let you in. But you don't give it back. You just get more of it. Yeah. But it is a guarantee. Because if you don't have it, you're not getting in. You have to have it. But as a result of having it, all these things are going to work out in your life. He is even more than that. And that's a good analogy, Ed. Ed, what were you going to say, sir? We were going through that book, How People Change. The author's emphasize a lot about believing that God has empowered us to change. You have to believe that. It helps to believe that. So you're being tortured by temptations like that. You have to accept that and believe that God has given us the power to change and by faith accept that and when we do that we feel optimistic that we can do so because His power is working in us. Amen. The great word for guarantee is Erebon. That word today exists in modern Greek, Erebon. It refers to an engagement. How about that? So God's giving you his engagement ring. Originally it was a down payment. So if you're going to buy a house, you give them $10,000 on the front end. Guess what happens if you back out of the deal? You lose your 10,000. So God gave you the Holy Spirit. Is he going to back out of the deal? I don't think so. He's going to follow through to completion. You'll get the inheritance. Now, Ed said something important earlier. When we look at this steps of salvation, he says you heard the gospel, which he calls the word of truth, and you believe. The gospel, you know this is true, but you're not saved by the plan of salvation. You're saved by the man of salvation. Because it still all comes down to Jesus. The whole thing is you've got to think. But you do have to hear and understand the gospel. That's part of it. You can't believe something you've never heard of. So, just like God has predestined the end result, which is your salvation, He also predestined the means. And part of that involves the foolishness of preaching the gospel. So, you know, why is the church on the earth? Well, a lot of reasons. Praise God's glory. But since predestination is true, why do you need to open your mouth and witness to people? Because God said so. Well, one, God said so. Two, this is part of the plan for bringing the elect to salvation. Paul said, after one of his missionary trips, he says, I endure all those beatings and the stonings and the shipwrecks. I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they may be saved. So he knew when he went to these places, it looked hopeless. that anybody would respond that, oh, it's a good chance, God's got some elect people in this city, and it's my job just to let them know about it, so the elect will respond in God's time. That's why you need to witness at work and in your neighborhood. It's because the elect are out there. It's part of the process, eh? I remember, by the way, I worked with this church planter in Russia, Andre. Remember during the Cold War, those ubiquitous Soviet trawlers? You know, they're really covered in antennas following our Navy around. Well, he was on one of those things. Well, his brother went in the uniformed military, and he was in the un-uniformed military. They both got drafted. They actually did do some fishing, and they had agreements with Angola and places like that, and they'd go get a lot of fish and stuff, food for the Soviet Union. And so he was on one of these islands somewhere. He said he met this guy who gave him a gospel tract and talked to him about the gospel. Well, he had no interest in it, didn't care anything about it, but he read it, And one about his drunken stupor, you know, had a good party time. But years later, God did bring him to faith. Well, that was part of the process. Now, that Christian, whoever that man was, witnessing to a drunk Russian sailor giving him a track, he didn't know if he was one of the elect or not. And of course, there was no obvious response then, but that was one of the steps God used to impress him and part of moving him to faith over a course of years. And so, you just don't know. Well, you're just planting seeds. That's right. You're scattering seeds. God causes the growth, but he does want you to throw the seeds out there. Open up and talk. If you don't, it's like having indigestion inside your stomach. It never goes away. It's like when you're lost, you're by yourself. No one's there. You do something you shouldn't be doing. No cameras, no internet. And you feel guilty about what you've done. It's part of your upbringing, maybe having a guilty conscience, but also, I think it's the Holy Spirit. So that it's that internal, you don't know how to get rid of the indigestion until you actually meet Jesus. But then after you become a believer, you don't witness to somebody, you don't whatever, you start to fall asleep. You feel it. And you hold it, you hold it. And the longer you hold it in, the more people go by. I'm wondering if it's kind of attached to the reward part. Some people, maybe they should have gotten saved. They're on the road for salvation, but maybe I should have gotten saved instead of when I was 21. You know, I choked, whatever. In your mind, you're thinking you're choosing, because you are. You're either choosing to live by the Holy Spirit, or choosing to gratify the things of the flesh. Does that make sense? You can do that. You're going to suffer for it, or you can give to the Holy Spirit, and you won't suffer. And so, I'm thinking, maybe that's that part about how to decide to follow Jesus. From a Christian's perspective, a person who's already been born again, is that I'm going to decide to follow Jesus so that I can keep away, can have less suffering and more blessing. It has been said the most miserable people in the world are not lost people. They're saved people who are out of fellowship with God. And so this other preacher I knew said, the lost man leaps into sin and loves it. But the saved man lapses into sin and loathes it. Yeah, God will make you real miserable. Amen. In conclusion, well now that's one way to tell whether you're saved or not. If you're saved, you start thinking everything's illiterate. Did you know that Isaac, I think it was Isaac, who wrote all the hymns, Isaac Watts, he just thought rhyme. He just thought it, even when he was a kid. And he rhymed stuff so much it just irritated his parents to no end. And his daddy told him, said, Isaac, you rhyme one more thing and I'm going to take you behind a woodshed and wear you out. And Isaac looked at him and said, Father, Father, mercy take, no more rhymes will I make. But that's really, that's the ultimate test of whether you're saved or not right there. So what did you learn about predestination? By the way, this paragraph, the first chapter of Ephesians, it's been said it's two sentences. This first two paragraphs are one long run-on sentence. And then the second paragraph we're going to study next week is another long run-on sentence. He prays next week, and he doesn't ever draw a breath. He just prays for about half an hour. That's next week. It's a good thing for you to pray for somebody. I didn't get to it today. If you look at Greek manuscripts, they didn't have periods. They didn't even put spaces between words. It's just a block of letters. So I don't know why everybody says it's only one sentence in the Greek. I've never had to figure that out, because they didn't have sentences. But the point is, it is one long run-on thought, from chapter 1, verse 3, to chapter 1, verse 14. And next week, he's going to do the same thing again. But what did you learn, in big picture, what did you learn about election and predestination? They have a purpose. What's the purpose? Ultimately, it's all for the praise of God's glory. But if you've been elected in predestined, that means you're going to be saved and you're going to be sanctified. God's going to work with you. And this electing happened in eternity past, and whose great idea was it? God's. He doesn't ever say anything about us having any role in this passage. And it was based on his love. And we're going to see, if we ever get to chapter 2, it says that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. And it talks about what it's like to be dead. And then he says, but God had grace on us. And if it wasn't for that but God, you know where we would be? Dead in our trespasses and sins. You don't get too fatalistic. There is a process to salvation. Eternity passed. You're elected and chosen. At some point during your life you do hear the gospel, you believe what you hear, maybe not at the same time, it comes later, and then once you believe you're sealed with the Holy Spirit. And that's part of it too. Alright? So, you will praise God if you understand this and not be bewildered by it. This message was produced by the New Testament Reformation Fellowship, reforming today's church with New Testament church practice. Permission is hereby granted for you to reproduce this message. To learn more about New Testament church life, you can find us on the web at ntrf.org. God bless you as you seek to follow Him in obedience. May your faith in the Lord Jesus be strengthened and your daily walk with Him deepened. Oh.