Let me invite you this morning to turn your Bibles, please, to the book of Ephesians chapter one, Ephesians chapter one this morning. So I like to do most most falls, we take at least a few Sunday mornings to be reminded of what our purpose and mission is as a church and try to focus our attention in on that, and usually in some specific aspect of what we would consider to be central ideas to our church. We try to crystallize it in the statement that Inner City Baptist Church exists to honor God by making and maturing disciples who are becoming like Jesus Christ. That sort of condensed statement is trying to turn us in the direction of being a great commission oriented to church because Jesus told us that because he had all authority, we are to go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them and teaching them to observe all that Christ had commanded. And so because of the lordship of Christ, we seek to advance it and proclaim it beginning near and going too far. I talk about three parts of that. statement, there's a purpose part, to honor God. That is, everything about the church is God-centered, not man-centered. Contrary to much of what is taught today, the church does not exist for the world. That is, in trying to reach the world, the church doesn't exist for believers. The church exists for God. It is centered on him, that everything is from him and through him and to him be the glory forever. So what has to be at the center of any understanding of the church is what the scriptures say is the center of everything, God and his glory. It exists. to magnify Him. And so that must be our purpose. That must be the motivation for which we do things. We do it for His glory, not to make a name for ourselves, but to make a name for Christ. And it really becomes the standard by which we would evaluate it. Because it's possible for us to claim to be doing things for the glory of God, but actually be doing what we want. And so the test always has to be what the Scriptures say. Because there are some things that God has told us to do that don't, and I don't mean this irreverently, but don't make sense from a human standpoint. That's what the battle is in 1 Corinthians 1 and 2. The Corinthians thought that the way Paul went about his ministry was counterproductive because the preaching of the cross was a stumbling block and foolishness. And so they wanted to substitute that for something that would be more attractive to the audience. Let's eliminate this stumbling block, which is the cross, or this foolishness, which is the message of a Messiah crucified, and replace it. And Paul said, absolutely not, because it is in fact what God is using to redeem people. It is actually God's intention to use something which is offensive to the mind of man in order to accomplish His purposes so that it at the same time humbles man and exalts God. As if it makes sense. I mean, if the expansion of genuine Christianity makes sense like the expansion of any other sociological any other entrepreneurial endeavor, then it doesn't magnify God. It simply honors the people who are spreading it. And if it comes down to the rhetoric and polish of the preacher, if it comes down to the attractiveness of its adherence, then it's a deflection away from the glory of God. And the fact is that even those of us who accept the message of the cross really wrestle with whether we're willing to be what Paul says, fools for Christ's sake. To be considered the off-scouring of the world. Because there's something inside of us that desperately longs for acceptance. We don't want people to look at us and think we're fools. We don't want people to look at us and think that we are objectionable. And so there's always a tendency to sort of cut the corners on the offensiveness of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. To actually believe a gospel that's revealed to us from heaven through the scriptures and calls us to live a certain way. There's always that tendency to try to fit in When in fact, if we know Christ, we no longer do actually. We've been changed in a way that won't. And so we can't just pay lip service to wanting to honor God. We have to test it by our willingness to live according to the scriptures, even if that puts us directly opposed to the flow and current of this world. In fact, it might be at that point that is the greatest test of our willingness to honor God. That we will take it on the chin in terms of our own pride and our own exaltation in order to let God be magnified and God to be glorified for being who He is. So, we have to start with that purpose to honor God. Then it translates into the way in which God told us to honor Him by making and maturing disciples. I re-quoted from the Great Commission, but the point is that it's not just an abstract concept. We, like Jesus Christ in John 17.4, need to be able to say with a good conscience, Jesus said, I have glorified you on the earth, having accomplished the work which you gave me to do. So there's a direct connection between bringing glory to God and doing what God told us to do. So we have to go to the Scriptures and say, what did God tell His people to do? What did He tell the church to do in between His first and second coming? And the Great Commission is a great summary spot of that. We're to make disciples. That is, we have to call people to become followers of Jesus Christ through faith in His person and work. And if we do that, it will result in genuine conversion that is evidence to transform lives. through a difference, that they're no longer like those who are outside of Christ. And so the church must be out and about the task of announcing to everybody that there is one who is the Savior. There is no other one who is the Savior. And this one is coming again. Everybody needs to come to grips with that. And that's why they preach very clearly, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. That that message captures what a sinner must come to grips with. If Jesus Christ is who He claimed to be, and He is, And if what he said in the Word is true, and it is, that he didn't just come, he is coming again. And when he comes, he will be a rescuer of those who have faith in him. But he will be a judge of those who do not. And so we must come to grips with our sin and the only salvation that is found in Christ. And when we announce that, when we proclaim that, we call people to become a follower of Christ through faith in him and what he has accomplished. Not in any religious observance, not through adopting some system of rituals that makes them a Christian. not by moving their location on their day of worship from some other kind of setting to a Christian setting makes them a Christian, but that there is actually in the heart a recognition of their own sinfulness, the penalty of that sin, and the desire to be pardoned from it, and that Jesus in what He did and who He is as revealed to us in the Scriptures can deal with both their sin and their lack of righteousness by virtue of the fact that He has paid the penalty and has achieved the righteousness that we have to have. And we call people to that. And it can never be reduced to just some kind of a transaction. Do you want to go to hell? No. Okay, say these words. Alright, now you're on your way to heaven. It is to become a follower of Jesus Christ. That's what makes Disciples means they become learners. They become those who follow Christ. He said, using that same word family, several chapters later in Matthew, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. That is, become my follower, become my disciple. And then he tells the disciples to go do that. Go tell people to take Christ's yoke on them, to learn of Him. to become a follower of Jesus Christ. And that's the process. And if it is that, to become a follower of Christ, then that takes in what the rest of the commission says. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that Christ commanded. It is not and should never have been and cannot be reduced to just what we tend to call evangelism. And so we think the Great Commission is go win as many people of Christ as we possibly can and we reduce it to that decision when in fact Jesus wanted us to make disciples. And the real test of whether someone has put faith in Christ is do they follow Christ? And we test how they follow Christ by when we teach them what Christ says. When you find somebody who rejects the word and will of Jesus Christ, It's really ridiculous to think that that person's a follower of Christ. I mean, if I'm walking this way and someone says, hey, I'm going to follow you and then they go this way. You'd go like in what universe is that following? Following means like you follow. And when the Scriptures come and say, here's Christ and here's what He taught and here's what we're to do, and someone says, ok, I want to be a follower of Christ. How are they a follower of Christ? I mean, only in a religious world could we come up with some kind of a deception that makes it sound like that's actually real. I mean, in no other realm Would we ever think that somebody completely ignoring and defying the instruction of the one who is the Savior is okay with the Savior? And you can't find it inside the covers here. That's a modern misrepresentation of what the message of the Gospel is. The gospel produces new life, and new life shows itself by responding to the Savior. And so we have to teach and focus on the joining together of ourselves as God's people to be instructed. And it said, honor God by making mature disciples who are becoming like Jesus Christ. So there is something that we're after, and that is what I've just been starting to point in toward. That really what Jesus wants us to do is not just run a rescue mission, and I'm not trying to minimize that at all, but it's important that we understand the difference between thinking that our job is just to go snatch as many people out of hell and give them a ticket to get to heaven and then run off to a new group. What Jesus was after, what God is after, is people who are like Jesus Christ. That it is, and we're going to see in a moment, it was God's eternal plan to provide a salvation that produces people who are like Jesus Christ. That it was never about just the ultimate population of heaven and hell. It was not just about the fact that there are two destinations and we want to have more in one than the other. And that's not to minimize the reality of that at all. It is to say it is much more than that. That what God was after was the reflection of His glory in those that He had redeemed. And if we really are pursuing that, then we could take that last part of it and break it out, I think, into three little subsets. The first is that there will be new creatures by Christ. I mean, Christ will do a work of producing a new person. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. That's what God's after. And in fact, it's not just on a personal individual level, but that if people genuinely come to Christ, they've also been brought into a spiritual family. And so there's supposed to be a new community in Christ. That people relate to each other differently because they have a Savior that they share His life in themselves. They are now united to Christ and they have one Father and therefore they are a spiritual family. So it's not just that Jesus was after a redemption ministry that focused only on individuals. He also was producing a new community that would reflect His glory. And if that community obeys the command of Jesus Christ to make disciples, then it will be reproducing itself in new congregations from near to far. That there is something inherently reproducing and multiplying in the commission of Jesus Christ. If the last thing that Jesus said is teaching them to observe all that I commanded, what's the very last thing that Jesus commanded? Go and make disciples. So anyone that is really understood what's at stake and any congregation of people that understand what's at stake cannot be content to just sort of sit and soak together. That they have to have an idea about what Jesus wants to do in this world to expand the worship of the true and living God and to advance the gospel that declares that Jesus is the only true Lord and Savior. And so turn from your dead idols to serve God and to wait for a son from heaven. And that's why a church like Thessalonica, which was a model church, Paul says, I know, I know about you because you became imitators of the Lord and of us. for from you sounded out the word of the Lord unto all Macedonia and Achaia." He knew that they were the real deal because they began to tell people about this Lord and Savior. And in fact, it radiated all through that region that we call Greece today. Macedonia and Achaia. That they were not content to have found the Gospel and just sort of hang on to it. but that they echoed it out. And that's the mark of a healthy, mature, discipled church. That it reflects the character of Christ individually and congregationally, and it embraces the mission of Jesus Christ individually and congregationally. And therefore advances it. Now what I'd like to do Lord willing over at least a few weeks is look at one aspect of what I just laid out and that is the part that focuses on the new creations by Christ. That if we're really serious about this mission, and it's more than just something that we write on the bulletin or we talk about from time to time, but it's really something that has an active, functional control over the way we think about the Christian life and about the church. then we really need to understand it. We need to make certain that we're thinking the way God wants us to think about it because we ground what we think about it in the Word that He has given to us. And so, what I'd like to do is take and zero in on this concept that if we are honoring God by making and maturing disciples, it will produce people who are becoming like Jesus Christ. And what does it mean? What is one part of what it means for us to be like Jesus Christ? Because I think that's essential for us to consider. And one aspect of that, and I think we need to understand, is really what God's purpose for His people is in redeeming them. So look now if you would at Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1, and I'd like to read verses 3 and 4. 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 would be holy and blameless before Him. And I'll stop right there. This section, these two verses are part of a long sentence in Greek that goes all the way down to verse 14. Verse 3-14 is one gigantic sentence in which Paul is unpacking for us the blessings that God has given to us in Christ. And he's doing it in order to cause us to praise God. That's the whole point in verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, it's not that we give God a blessing. You know, sometimes we think of the word blessing as in, you know, you hand something some benefit, but you can also bless the name of something by proclaiming it, by praising it. And what he's saying here is, that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ should be the object of our blessing, our praising to Him. And he tells us in verse 3 why. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. So all of the spiritual blessings that we have have come to us from God the Father through Jesus Christ. And we have this unimaginable, overwhelming fountain of blessings that's come to us. So we ought to praise Him. And that's why if you look at verse 6, Sort of the chorus that is repeated through here, to the praise of the glory of His grace. Then verse 12, that to the end that we who were the first hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. Then verse 14 at the end of it, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory. So the whole section is about us praising God for the blessings that have been bestowed on us in Christ. And it covers an enormous sweep of those blessings. It most recognized, it unpacks the blessings that we would attribute to the Father in terms of His eternal plan. Then it moves to the Son in the second verse and what He did in redeeming us through His death and what will be accomplished when He's exalted. and everything is brought underneath Him. And that ends the second verse. And verse 12 says, to praise the glory. Then the third verse talks about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. That He's the down payment of this redemption. That God has, in fact, given us the Spirit so that we can be sure that God will do this. And that it's to the praise of His glory. And so, it is just an incredible unpacking of what God has done for us. What we're going to do this morning is just simply look at the first aspect of that. And that's in verse 4. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before Him. I'm driving, to be honest with you, I'm driving toward the last part of that verse that says that we would be holy and blameless before Him. Because I've already told you, I want to look at what God's purpose for His people is. Why did God redeem us? Well, it tells us that we would be holy and blameless before Him. So it shows us what the purpose is. But obviously, in order to understand how we get there, we have to understand what God did. And this verse is sometimes a source of great theological debate and argument. Let's start by reminding ourselves that it comes in the midst of a doxology. that when Paul talks about God choosing us to salvation, he talks about it in the context of us praising Him for it, not fighting about it, not having an argument about the technicalities of it. It is intended to be something that would be received by His people as an opportunity and motivation for praise. So that's where we ought to see it and look at it. But every, I mean just about every part of this is packed. And so I just want us to walk through it almost phrase, word by word, phrase by phrase in order to understand the weight of what Paul is trying to get us to see here. Let's just start with that word in verse 4, just as he chose us. So the one who did this is God the Father. The reason we know that is because verse 3 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us. So the He in verse 4 refers back to the Father. So Paul is saying one of the reasons we ought to bless the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is that He initiated by a divine plan the redemption that would take place. That it is sourced in God. It's rooted in a divine plan and purpose for us, an initiative. Look at verse 4, just as He chose us, He chose us. And here's obviously where the rub comes in because we live in a day that has elevated our sense of fairness and rightness to a position that has wrapped itself sometimes in theological clothing that has made us resistant to the concept that's just plainly stated. I mean, he chose us. I mean, if we just leave it, if we just sort of leave it generic, we don't necessarily have a problem because I hope no one in here would say, you know, God didn't choose me, but I chose him just to make sure it would work out. Most of us recognize that the consistent pattern of Scripture is that there is an aspect of our salvation which flows from God to man and it comes in the form of a choice that God chose. That He, in fact, was the one who did this. And the reason the Scriptures talk about it like this is because There really is no other way for us to conceive of it if we think of what the scriptures say. I mean, in order to understand a little bit of why Paul would say it this way, we have to understand the objects of his choice. Look at chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. Here are the people that he's talking about that he chose. 2, 1. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working, and the sons of disobedience. Among them, we too, all, formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." Go over to chapter 4. Look at beginning verse 17. So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart. And they, having become callous, have given themselves over. That's the language really of imprisonment. I mean, they've handed themselves over into bondage. to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greed. So here's Paul's point. The people who are saved, the ones that he could say about them, he chose us. What were they prior to God's work? They were two, one. dead in trespasses and sins. 2. 2. Living according to the prince of the power of the air. 2. 3. They were in fact indulged in the satisfaction of their lustful desires and were by nature, that is, this is their nature, they were the children of wrath. For seventeen, seventeen to nineteen, they were alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that was in them, the hardness of their heart. They, in fact, had handed themselves over into captivity to the pursuit of sensuality. So, which one of these dead, captive, enslaved, imprisoned people would choose God? In fact, there's none of them. because of the very nature of their love for sin. They do not love God. Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. You see, if we understand what the Bible teaches about the lost condition, we would know that there is none that seeketh after God. Because that's what the Bible says. There is none righteous. The man that is in the flesh, Romans 8 says, is hostile against God, cannot please Him. If God doesn't do something, nothing can be done to save Him. Because it will never spring up from the heart of man. And that's the point. That's the point of Paul stressing the fact that that salvation is rooted in the sovereign work of God. To gather from among those who have defied him, those whom he would redeem. that God chose, and it humbles the sinner. It forces the sinner to realize that there is nothing that we offer to God that makes us savable. There's nothing that we have that makes us worthy of His grace and redemption. That's why Romans 9, when it brings it all to bear, says, So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. And that's the point of it. It is to humble us and to absolve God. Go back to chapter 1 and verse 4. Just as He chose us And here the us is clearly and clearly intended to signify those who are redeemed. Those who, if you take it later in the passage, those who have redemption through his blood, verse 7, the forgiveness of sins, those who have, if you look at 13, those who have heard the message of truth, the gospel of salvation, have also believed. So it is not intended to teach some kind of universalism. The us isn't all people without distinction at all. It is actually those whom Paul is writing, which he describes in verse one as saints who are at Ephesus, who are faithful in Christ Jesus. So it's those who have been redeemed that are described as the chosen, that God chose them. Now, some people try to avoid the edge, if I could put it this way, of this concept of God's choosing by arguing that God doesn't choose individuals. He chooses groups. You know, there were all these nations in the world and God ignored the rest of the nations and chose Israel. And so what they would say here is that this text is saying that God chose us. It's actually he chose the church, not that he chose the individuals that are redeemed. The problem, and there's at least two problems with that, but the first is in terms of what the actual passage itself is saying, is that nobody wants to apply that kind of thinking to the rest of what the text says. OK, think about that forgiveness of sins. Do we want to say that He gave forgiveness of sins to groups, not to individuals? Do we want to say He gave redemption through blood to groups, not to individuals? Well, we actually would have to because it's the same pronouns used all the way through here, right? We have been blessed, verse 3, He blessed us, He chose us, He predestined us. It is in Him we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. So it's all talking to a group that could be used plural pronouns of. And if it only applies to the group, but not to individuals, then we've got all kinds of problems with what this text is saying about salvation. Because God forgives individual sins. His death atoned for the sins of particular people, not groups like that. So you can't do that in terms of being faithful to the text. But even just logically, for this text to be saying He did something for a group, but not the individuals that make up that group is just sort of weird, honestly. He chose the group, but he didn't choose the people that are in the group. Creates really just sort of an artificial divide to avoid the fact that of all the sinners in the world, God, for purposes of his own, chose some of them for salvation. Because that doesn't sit well with us. And you know what? It's not just us. It's always been that way because that's why Romans 9, immediately when Romans 9 teaches it, it says, who are you? Who are you to accuse God? Because Paul anticipated that somebody would argue with God if that's actually what he meant. And that's where the argument is. It's with what God's revealed. And so he says that there was some gracious work of God to redeem those who would be saved. And God initiated it. God accomplished it. And that if we're here this morning and we can praise God about our salvation, it is because God did something. He is the one who did it. Look at when he did it according to this text, verse 1-4. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. So here Paul takes, and if he's putting in a timeline of things, he's got a point where time starts. The foundation of the world. And Paul parks this choice out before that. He chose us before the foundation of the world. That before I existed, before you existed, before anything existed, God had a plan that He intended to carry out. And this pre-temporal aspect of this choice is intended to demonstrate that the choice is based on grace, not works. That's exactly what Paul says in Romans 9 when he illustrates what's going on with what God did with Jacob and Esau. And says very specifically there in chapter 9, verse 11, For though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls. So the reason it was stated to happen before they were born is the same reason it says before the foundation of the world this choice was made. Because I wasn't out here to have done anything good or bad by which God would choose me. It's not in me that the choice is founded. It's in God. God before the foundation of the world. did this. He had a plan and my redemption, the redemption of his people was involved in it. Paul uses the same language in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 9. He says, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity. And obviously, we have a hard time understanding our times, let alone, like, eternity stuff. But when the Bible says Christ is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the earth, it obviously fries our wires a little bit, because if He was the One who was slain before the foundation of the world, then that means that sin had to have been conceived of in the mind of God for which Christ would be the atonement. So obviously that had to be a part of the big unpacking of everything. And God's purpose to redeem was a part of that. That God intended to magnify His mercy by the redemption that He would display. And that mercy would be magnified because the objects of His redemption had no right to claim it. They had nothing that they could say when it's all said and done, God chose me because I... There is no because I. I am redeemed because He. That's the point of it. It is to make certain that God alone is glorified for redemption. Look at verse 4 again now. He chose us in Him. And the Him here is Jesus Christ. Because remember what verse 3 says, He's blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. So, this redemption that comes, comes in connection to Christ. He is the one through whom all of this would be realized. He's the one that will make it possible by virtue. of His obedience to the Father and laying down His life as the atonement for sin. So this choice happens in connection to Christ because it can happen no other way. That God had, by virtue of His holiness and justice, to deal with the sin of humanity, and he dealt with it in Christ, which provided a righteous basis for this decision to be made. That there is actually a foundation in righteousness. Everybody's guilty. We chose to rebel against God. And God could not ignore that rebellion. He could not ignore the sin which fell short of His glory. It has to be punished. The wages of sin is death. So God could accomplish both His righteousness and His desire to save, His gracious, merciful salvation. by sending his son to be the one who would identify with us in our humanity so that he could provide both the payment that we can't and the righteousness that we do not have. I mean, Christ steps in between the wrath of God and bears it so that those who are in Christ will never bear the wrath of God. There is now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. And in fact, He has in Himself the righteousness that we must have to have fellowship with God. That's why Paul says in 2 Corinthians, He made Him, Christ, to be sin who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So here's this incredible exchange that takes place. God takes my sin and places it on Christ. And God takes Christ's righteousness and wraps it around me. So that whereas I was once the object of God's wrath by nature, remember Ephesians 2, 3? By nature, the children of wrath. Now I've been adopted and brought into his family and God has no wrath for me. There is no wrath for me. because it was all poured out on his son. So God does this in connection with his son. Now look at verse four, because here comes the point that really I've been pushing toward, because I think if we don't understand that, we don't really have the incentive that we need to have for this last part of the verse. He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that or so that we would be holy and blameless before Him. Here's why God chose us. It is that we would be holy and blameless. And all those are words that we often associate in the Old Testament with the sacrifices and the ceremony that they would bring a holy and blameless offering to Him. It probably has some of that, but the idea, I think, really is that there is an actual holiness, there is an ethical holiness, a moral blamelessness that God is working to accomplish in His people. And that phrase, before Him, means in His presence. And we looked at a long time ago, Colossians chapter 1, when we were there, in verse 22, it says that the purpose of Christ's redemption was to present us before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach. And the whole language of that is that God's work of redemption through Christ is to take those who are believers in Christ and take them and one day present them in the presence of Christ, holy and blameless and beyond reproach. So that's what the redemption is. There's a world of sinners, lost, condemned, hostile against God, unholy, blameworthy. And here's what God has done. He's called some to Himself so that He can present them before Him, holy and blameless. But that's what God's after. In fact, that's the whole point of the pre-temporal, eternal choice of God. He chose us so that we would be this. But go over to chapter 5. Let me show you exactly how this comes in and ties into what God's doing in redemption. Look at chapter 5, beginning in verse 25. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 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 and blameless. So 1.4 says that we're lost under the judgment of God, by nature the children of wrath, but God chose us so that we would be holy and blameless before Him. Chapter 5 says Christ came and He loved the church and He gave Himself up for her for this reason, so that He might present her to Himself Holy and blameless. Okay, that's what God's after. It's not just, okay, there's a bunch of people going to hell and we want some of them to go to heaven. Because heaven's really cool and God made it. It's like Cedar Point on steroids for all of eternity. I mean, we can just have this blast in God's presence. It's great. And you certainly don't want to go to hell. So so really, it's don't go there. That's horrible. That's I'm not going to say what that's like. It's it's this great place. OK. And that's the way we tend to think of it. And here's what the scriptures keep coming along. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That we have. ever flowing out of our hearts as lost people, blasphemy against the holy name of God. We are taking what belongs to Him and giving it to idols. We are chasing after the sinful desires of our heart. It's all about us and it's all against God. And God says, you know what? From those that have defied Me, For those that have committed sins that require the death of my Son, I'm going to gather people, and one day I'm going to present them to my Son, holy and blameless. And here's how we're going to do it. The Son is going to come, and for the sake of accomplishing that, He's going to hand himself or they've handed themselves over to sin. He's going to hand himself over to death. He's going to take the eternal punishment of sinners on himself. Such a serious and intense thing that when the son is on that cross, he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Because at that moment, the son is experiencing the wrath of God against sin. He is paying the debt that I owe, that you owe. And you know why the son is doing that? Because he loves us. And he wants to take us and sanctify us. Cleanse us. and present us to himself holy and blameless." You see, the whole concept of holiness, the whole concept of having a life that reflects the glory of God and of Christ, that is separate from the sins that have contaminated this world and defied God's glory. The whole point of it is rooted in God's eternal purpose to magnify the glory of Christ by surrounding Him with a people that will be like Him. It's wrapped up in the purpose of Jesus one day gathering those people to present them to Himself like a bride, dressed in glorious array, without spot or wrinkle, holy and blameless. That's what it's about. And that ought to radically change the way we live from day to day. That ought to affect every aspect of our lives. That Christ came into this world not just to get me to heaven, but to make me holy. To make me blameless. To bring me one day into His very presence and reflect the glory and wonder of His redeeming grace. That's what Christ is after. And that's what, if we take seriously the mission of Jesus Christ, has to be the burden of our heart. The desire that drives us to the choices of life, the path that would walk toward that. It's about Christ and his glory. Let's bow together in prayer. Father, please help us this morning just to stand in awe and wonder that when we had defied You and deserved death, You sent Your Son so that we could have life. That before we knew anything, You knew us. You loved us and You worked to provide redemption. And You worked to bring us to faith in Christ. and that you're set. You have determined and set your purpose that we would be holy and blameless. And help us to think about what that means for where we are right now and how we live right now and what is controlling our lives and our hearts right now. Because you know better than any of us know, the inroads of sin and the destruction that Satan wants to reap among your people. And how often we become his willing accomplices naively and foolishly by playing with the things that he uses to destroy us and rob us of our joy in Christ. So Lord, please work, prepare and produce in us a kind of overwhelming gratitude for what you've done that compels us to live for your glory, for the honor of Christ our Savior. And Lord, we ask this morning, even as we've looked at this this text of Scripture and these truths, that it's very possible that someone's here who doesn't know Christ, who has been vainly trusting in some work of their own hands, some religious commitment of their own, and they think that someday they're going to lay that before you and you're going to look at it and say, okay, that's good. I accept you. Help them to see that they have nothing to bring, that none of us have anything to offer you to buy our salvation or trade for our salvation, achieve our salvation. It is only according to your mercy that we can be saved, that in spite of what we've done, you would save us. And bring them today humbly to the foot of the cross in repentance and faith. And help us all to be reminded that if we know you, it's because you worked. And we have no reason for boasting, absolutely no cause to look with arrogance toward those who don't know you, but to look with pity and concern that they might hear about Christ and that you might graciously save them.