Sunday Sermon: Predestined by God (Ephesians 1:11-14)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a New Testament book.

On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament, and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday. Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series, presently going through the book of Ephesians.

Here's Pastor Gabe.

The Inheritance and Sealing of the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 1

In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory.

In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory.

Let us come to the Lord again in prayer. Heavenly Father, as we open up this word today and we desire to have Your Spirit speak to us, I pray that Your Spirit illuminates to us this word, its implications, what it means, how it applies to us in our lives, that it enhances our praise of You, who is the God who is enthroned on high.

You created all things, even time itself, so all things are in Your hands and there is nothing that happens apart from the counsel of Your goodwill. And so I pray that we continue to be submissive to these things and that we know You, as a sovereign King, are in control.

You have never been out of control. And so what this means for us is a confidence as believers in You that You are working all things together for good for those who love God and are called according to Your purpose, Romans 8 .28.

We ask that we understand these principles in Your election even more as we study these scriptures this morning. And it's in the name of Jesus we pray and all God's people said, amen. Thank you. You may be seated.

The Moon Landing and a New Perspective on Creation

So you probably had seen it in the news yesterday. It was absolutely everywhere that I turned, but yesterday was the 50th anniversary of man walking on the moon. On the moon! More than a quarter million miles away from earth, man has been that far and has set foot on another celestial body apart from the earth.

Man has walked on the moon. What an achievement. And to this day, I have heard many technology experts say that even 50 years later, despite all of the advancements in technology that we've made, you've got a computer in your pocket now that gives you immediate access to like an encyclopedia's worth of information and more at the push of a button.

You want to call somebody on the other side of the world, you can get in touch with them just like that. And yet with all of these advancements in personal technology that we have, there is yet not been a technological achievement as great as the Saturn V rocket.

It is still to this day the most incredible piece of technology that man has ever invented that could get us out of earth's gravity enough to shoot a man all the way to the moon and be able to do it with such precision and accuracy that we wouldn't miss.

I don't know if you've ever seen the documentaries and even the films that have been made about it, you know, Apollo 13 or any of these other films, but you'll hear the math get talked about in any of these documentaries or movies.

If you're off by even a millimeter or two, it could mean the difference between an astronaut meeting his destination or floating in space for the rest of his life. So all of these things that man has accomplished are quite incredible.

And it gave us new perspective on our place in the solar system and in our universe. We were looking at things from a different vantage point during that space race over 50 years ago than we had ever been able to see prior to those accomplishments.

One of those things in particular that I think of is the first Earthrise photos. And you still see those photos to this day. They were taken on Christmas Eve of 1968 when for the very first time man orbited the moon and came around on the other side.

And as the orbiter was coming around and was cresting over the horizon of the moon, we saw for the very first time Earthrise. We'd seen the sunrise. You can see that any day that you want to as long as it's not cloudy.

But we had never seen the Earthrise before till the astronauts came around that other side of the moon and started taking pictures of the Earth coming up over the horizon of the moon. And the astronauts read as they beheld the Earthrise, Genesis 1 -1, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

A new perspective on our place in space. We had not been able to look upon our home from space like that before until the space race. When you first came to faith in Jesus Christ, you had a certain perspective of God and what he had accomplished for you through his son Jesus that by his death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, you would be forgiven your sins by faith in him and you would be given new life.

And there was some very elementary sense of that when you first heard the gospel and believed it. But the more that you've grown, the more that you've advanced in your faith and come to know new doctrines and study the scriptures and see the glory of God versus the sinfulness of man and the mercy that he has showed to us, though we did not deserve it.

You have come to a more mature understanding of God and of yourself. So now you have a different perspective of the salvation that you have that you may not have had when you first came to faith, right?

When you first came to know the gospel, you probably did not know that this had all happened because of something God decreed before the foundation of the world. You may have not have had knowledge of that.

But then when you came to study the scriptures, you came to a new perspective. You saw your place in the cosmos, in God's will, from a different vantage point than you had when you first heard the gospel.

And suddenly you came to realize, though you made a decision to follow Jesus on that day that you were told, repent and believe, you come to find according to God's word, you really didn't have any role in that at all.

It was God who willed that you would be saved to the praise of his glory. And you made that decision to repent and believe because God was merciful. God was gracious, and it was all to his praise and glory, which Paul has said over and over again.

Though you may find some punctuation in your Bible from Ephesians 1 .1 through verse 14, if you were to have read this in the original Greek, and there are even some translations where you would find semicolons and not a period until you get to the end of verse 14.

This has all been one continuous sentence as Paul proclaims the glory of God in salvation. And this was all for his praise. Over and over again that's been said. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 5, he predestined us according to the purpose of his will. Verse 6, to the praise of his glorious grace. Verse 7, in him we have redemption. Verse 8, which he has lavished upon us. Verse 9, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose.

Verse 10, as a plan for the fullness of time. Verse 11, in him we have obtained an inheritance. Verse 12, so that we were who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. Verse 13, in him you also would praise him.

Verse 14, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. Over and over all the credit of God goes to him alone. We take no credit. There is no glory for us.

But the Lord has invited us to share in that glory with him forever for those who are in Christ Jesus. And this again was all to his good plan and purpose. God is infinite. We are not. We are finite. We exist on a definite timeline.

You have a beginning and you have an end. And we talked about that last week. Even when it comes to the love that a spouse may have for their spouse, there's a beginning point and an ending point to that love.

But the love that God has for us has no beginning and has no end for those who are in Christ Jesus. And it's in him, once again, Ephesians 1, 11, that we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.

Because God is infinitely good and we are not. We are evil. We talked about that last week with Jesus himself, even saying in the Sermon on the Mount that you are evil. Because God is good and we are not, I believe that before the foundation of the world, God predetermined whom he would save from sinful man.

I believe the Bible clearly teaches it. As we find in Romans 9, verses 22 to 23, we read, What if God, desiring to show his wrath and make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?

In order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory. Every person stands before a holy God condemned for their rebellion against him. But God elected from sinful man whom he would deliver from his wrath and effected their salvation at the cross of Christ.

Those who hear the gospel and believe by faith have been called into his grace. And according to what we read here this morning in Ephesians 1, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of glory. God will lose none of those whom he has redeemed.

This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The good news that he has saved us from our sins. Now I want to say, because there's probably an elephant in the room for some of you, so I'm going to go ahead and address this word now so that you hear it, and we can have more conversations about it later should you so desire.

This view of predestination is commonly referred to as Calvinism. Both by those who hold this view and those who have objections with it. Though John Calvin taught the theology which now bears his name, he did not come up with it.

As a matter of fact, Calvinism, what we call Calvinism, was really John Calvin expounding upon a doctrine of justification by faith as Martin Luther had introduced it. And then Martin Luther, of course, is writing on stuff that Augustine had taught on.

And Augustine was writing about things the Apostle Paul had explained. In his epistles. But though there is this set of doctrines called Calvinism that bears the name of John Calvin, he did not come up with the doctrine of predestination.

He, along with many other biblical theologians before and after him, merely affirmed what was already written in the Bible. I believe and preach nothing less than the full counsel of God. The only c-word you will ever hear me call myself is a Christian.

Dr. Michael L. Brown once presented this question. Do you agree with Calvin that nothing happens but what God has knowingly and willingly decreed? And I responded to that question this way. I agree with the Bible that nothing happens but what God has knowingly willed and decreed.

Our faith is built, as the church always has been, on the Word of God. The Bible is God's Word. And what the Bible says is that God is sovereign. What does that mean, that God is sovereign? That's a difficult word for us in a constitutional republic in which we live, but a person who lives under a monarchy absolutely understands that concept of sovereignty.

And then you take the fact that we're not talking about an earthly king, we're talking about he who sits enthroned above all of creation, and you just expound an understanding of sovereignty to that dimension.

Sovereign—for God to be sovereign means that he is the supreme ruler. He has all power. He has full authority. He has what the apostle Paul described in Colossians 118 as preeminence. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that he has given up any of his sovereignty.

He's not sovereign, but no, he is absolutely sovereign. And here are seven statements according to the sovereignty of God that we come to understand from Scripture. Number one, God is sovereign. Psalm 103 19 says that the Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.

In Acts 4 24, the apostles praised God, saying, O sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, and then proceeded to praise him for what he had decreed and predestined would take place in his son Jesus.

In 1 Timothy 6 15 and 16, the apostle Paul refers to God as only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see.

To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. Regarding seven statements about God's sovereignty, here's number two. Everything that God decrees happens. In Genesis 1 3, as Becky had even shared with the kids this morning, and as we considered, was read by the astronauts when they saw the earth rise over the horizon of the moon.

Genesis 1 3, God said, let there be light, and it happened. The light did not resist. God said something and it came to be. Only he creates ex nihilo, or out of nothing, as is also said in Hebrews 11 3.

Becky put to the kids this morning, did you create all of the universe in six days this past week? No, no one has done anything to create anything out of nothing. Only God does this. Psalm 33 9 says, for he spoke and it came to be.

He commanded and it stood firm. Ecclesiastes 3 14 says, he has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so he cannot find out what God has done from beginning to end.

Isaiah 14 24 says, the Lord of hosts has sworn. As I have planned, so shall it be. And as I have purposed, so it shall stand. Later in 55 11, he says, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

In Matthew 28 18 through 20, Jesus said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Are the people of God not obeying that command in faithful submission to this very day? In John 11 43 through 44, Jesus stood at the grave of Lazarus, who had been dead for four days.

And he said, Lazarus, come out. And as he commanded, so it happened. Lazarus rose from the dead. Number three, related to God's sovereignty. Nothing happens that God has not decreed. So everything that he decrees happens and nothing happens that God has not decreed.

Lamentations 3 37 and 38. Nothing happens that the Lord has not spoken. Furthermore, in verse 38, it says, nothing good or bad happens that God has not decreed to happen. Job in his trouble in Job 2 10, he said, shall we receive good from God and shall we not receive evil?

Job 14 5, he said that man's days are determined and the number of his months is with you and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass. Proverbs 16 33 says the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord.

In Isaiah 45 7, God says, I form light and create darkness. I make well-being and create calamity. I am the Lord who does all of these things. In Amos 3 6, it says, is a trumpet blown in a city and the people are not afraid?

Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has done it? In James 4 13 through 15, we read, come now you who says today or tomorrow, we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.

I asked Brian this morning when we got done rehearsing songs and I was asking what his plans were going from here to Leavenworth and then what was he going to be doing after that? And he gave a general idea of what he would expect might happen.

Some of the things that he and Abra are talking about, their plans for the future. But with everything that he said, he was sure to qualify according to God's will. If it be God's will, here's what we're going to do.

And that should be what we should understand as Christians as well. Plan for the future, yes. As a matter of fact, Jesus said it's unwise for a man to not plan for his future. But we know that all things happen according to God's will.

God's will for us. And that we would submit to His good purpose so that when those things don't happen like we expected them to, we still give Him the praise and glory because we know that what's happening is according to His will and not ours.

God’s Decree Cannot Be Resisted

Fourth statement on God's sovereignty. No one can change what God has decreed. Job says again, if he tears down, none can rebuild. If he shuts a man in, none can open. Proverbs 21 .30 says, no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the Lord.

Ecclesiastes 7 .13 says, consider the work of God. Who can make straight what He has made crooked? Isaiah 14 .27 says, for the Lord of hosts has purposed and who will annul it? His hand has stretched out, who can turn it back?

In John 10 .28 and 29, Jesus said of His followers, I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one will snatch them out of my Father's hand.

I and the Father are one. In Romans 8, we are reminded if God is for us, who can be against us? Verse 31, and we are told that there is nothing as we considered last week that will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Verse 39. Number five, God knows and sees all. Psalm 139 gives praise to God for His omniscience and His omnipresence. Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar.

Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, oh Lord, you know it all together. Where shall I go from your spirit or where shall I flee from your presence? Proverbs 15 .3 says, the eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and on the good.

Matthew 12 .36 says, I tell you on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak. Hebrews 4 .13 says, no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him who, of whom, or to whom we must give an account.

We are told in 1 John 3 .20, God knows everything. And in Revelation 2 .23, Jesus says, I am He who searches mind and heart. I will give to each of you according to your works. Number six, God does as He pleases.

Psalm 115 .3 says plainly, our God is in the heavens. He does all that He pleases. Matthew 20 .15, Jesus said through a parable to His disciples, am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?

Or do you begrudge my generosity? Philippians 2 .13 says, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Hebrews 13 .21 says that God will equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.

Amen. Number seven, God has purposed all things for His glory. In Acts 2 .23, Peter proclaimed with the gospel, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

God intended even the death of His own Son, the greatest evil ever perpetrated by man, to bring about the salvation of His elect and to the glory of His name. In Revelation 6 .10, the martyrs for the gospel cry out to God, O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?

They know that He and He alone will bring about the completeness of His sovereign decree in the fullness of time, which we read last week. In Revelation 17 .17, God sovereignly uses even His enemies, for God has put it into their hearts to carry out His purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled.

He has ordained the ends and He has ordained the means to that end. God has purposed all things for His glory. As we read last week in Ephesians 1 .3 -6, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.

In love, He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.

And today's passage continues to flow right from that same statement. In Him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.

Now, there are many places that we could go with this, and this is a long theological discussion that could be a sermon series upon sermon series. I could base the rest of my teaching in 2019 on Ephesians 1 .11 alone, but as you have seen in your bulletin, I'm already planning on next week going on to verse 15, so I'm not planning on doing that.

We could be exploring the sovereignty of God, the calling of His elect, the purposing things for His will, how the Holy Spirit moves, how Christ has effected. We could talk about all of these things according to what the Bible says for us, and we could be doing that for the rest of our lives.

That subject alone and never come to the end of it. And yet, we would only be talking about what God has revealed to us according to His will in His Word. That's not even what God has been doing behind the scenes in His unrevealed will.

As John Piper has said, God is probably doing 10 ,000 things in your life right now, and you might be aware of only about three of them. When Moses was talking with God through the burning bush, God said to Moses, after He had told him that He was going to go to Egypt and tell, Pharaoh, let My people go, He said to Moses, you will know that I was with you because you will come back here and worship Me on this mountain.

When it came to understanding the sovereignty of God and His predestined purpose, I think that passage more than any other in the Bible helped me to understand this. God said to Moses, you will know that I was with you because you will come back here and worship Me on this mountain.

Note what He did not say to Moses. You will know that I was with you because when you go back to Egypt, we're going to do some miracles. You're going to turn the Nile into blood. There's going to be flies and locusts and frogs and all kinds of gross stuff.

If you didn't think the Nile was, the bloody Nile was gross enough, we got some other gross things we're going to do. There's going to be hail from heaven. There's going to be darkness. There's going to be the end of all of those plagues, which would be the death of the firstborn.

I'm going to give you the Passover. You're going to flee from Egypt. Pharaoh will finally deliver you according to everything exactly as I've said to you as it's going to happen. You're going to come to the Red Sea.

There's going to be no other way for you to go, but you're going to raise your staff and part the waters. And you, an entire nation of Israel, over a million people strong, will walk on dry land through those waters as walls on either side.

And you will get to the other side. And as the Egyptians try to come through to pursue you, I'm going to crash the waters down upon them and wipe out their entire army. You will praise my name. You will come here.

You will hear the voice of God rise up like a furnace from Mount Sinai. The people will be terrified. You'll come back up here on this mountain. I'll give you the Ten Commandments. You'll come down. Your face will be glowing.

God did not say any of that. He said, you'll know I was with you because when you come back here, you'll look back and you'll see, oh, now I get it. That's where he was in the midst of all of this. That's what God is doing.

He said to Habakkuk. Habakkuk even is bold enough to come before God and say, God, how long are you going to let all this violence go on before you're finally going to layeth the smacketh down, that's the King James Version, and do something about this?

And what was God's response to Habakkuk? Habakkuk, watch and see. I'm about to do something in the nations you would not have even understood if I told you what it was going to be. So God could spell the whole thing out for us.

Bit by bit and day by day. In Psalm 139, David even says, every single day for me has already been written in your book before one of those days came to be. So God could show us that book. He could lay it out there and say, here, here's what I'm going to do with you every day for the rest of your life.

And you still wouldn't get it. You still wouldn't understand it. Until you get to that day of glory with God and you're looking back and seeing his pre-purposed will accomplished in all that he has done, good or bad, and then you go, oh, it was all you.

It was all you. And praise God that he included me in it. That he called me out of sinful man. That I'm not perishing with the wicked, but I have been delivered up to sing the praises of him who sits enthroned over all.

God is sovereign. God is eternal. God is good. And we're none of those things. As much as we want to claim our own sovereignty, you don't even have enough power over your life to decide that your car is going to start after church today.

I hope I've not preoccupied anyone's mind with that now. Stay with me. We'll get to the end here in about five or 10 minutes. You don't even have that much control over your life. Yet we try to claim that we can will ourselves to do whatever it is that we want to do.

The scripture is clear. Before you come to Christ, you're a slave to sin. That's what you can do. Rebel against God. That's your nature. That's what you want to do before God changes your heart and gives you a new nature in his Holy Spirit.

And it's when we hear the gospel and we come to faith in Christ. My friends, everybody comes to faith exactly the same way. Let no one forbid it. Forbid anyone ever say something like, well, if God has predetermined everybody is going to be saved, then there's no reason for us to go and share the gospel.

No, that's an unbiblical statement. God has called you out and now made you a work in that mission to accomplish that which he had predetermined from before time began. That you would go out with the gospel so that those whom he had elected would hear it and believe and be saved.

The quote I gave you from Spurgeon last week, it would be nice if God had marked everyone who's going to be elect, then you just go lift up their shirt, find the big red E and go, okay, you're the one I'm supposed to preach the gospel to.

But we don't know that. We don't get to know that. God knows that. We don't. So we have been called to share the gospel with everyone. And there are those who the Holy Spirit works in their heart to come to believe it.

And there are those whom the Holy Spirit does not work in their heart to come to believe it. And this is all to his will and it's to his glory. And we will ask questions about it and you won't understand it.

And you know what? That's fine because you're finite. So of course, you're not going to understand it. These things are going to be mysterious. And in fact, I'm really skeptical of the person who claims that he's got this all figured out.

All of this has been to his praise. And in fact, that's why we come to understand the sovereignty of God. So it enhances our worship. Let me give you a few reasons here why it's important to know the sovereignty of God.

I'll narrow it down to five. Number one, first, so your prayers would not be hindered. Why is it important to understand that God is sovereign? Because if you have a limited understanding of who God is, your prayers will also be limited.

Somebody might say, why pray to a God who's sovereign? I say to you, why pray to a God who isn't? If he is not in control over everything, then why ask him for anything? But you understand that God is sovereign and that he is in control.

So your prayer life would be pleasing even unto God. Second reason, so that you would be relieved of your burdens. If you believe that your salvation is dependent upon a choice that you had to make, or it's dependent upon your continued choices to maintain it, then you are being weighed down by an unnecessary burden.

As I present these arguments, I hope that you'll see from the scriptures that salvation, including faith and belief and repentance itself, is not the work of man. Salvation is from beginning to end the gracious work of God.

And we'll explore these things further, especially as we get to Ephesians chapter two. Third reason that we understand God's sovereignty, so that you will be more considerate of other people, whether they are believers or unbelievers.

Sovereignty means supreme governance. Autonomy means self-governance. When you fight for your own autonomy, you oppose the sovereignty of God. This is not only a conflict with God, it also causes strife between you and other people.

Your autonomy versus their autonomy. But we have been told, Philippians 2, 1 through 11, I've summarized the passage this way, consider others' needs as Christ considered our need by being obedient to the will of his Father.

So you must also consider others' needs ahead of your own by being obedient to your Lord Christ. Who has redeemed you and bought you with a price. Fourth reason we understand the sovereignty of God, so that you would understand your sin rightly.

If we do not have a right understanding of our sin, we are prone to think more of ourselves and less of God. You cannot repent of your sin if you don't know your sin. And that affects your worship. The more we make of God, the less we make of us.

The more we see his holiness, the more we're aware of our own depravity and our need for a Savior, praising him for the goodness that he has shown to us in the beloved. As John the Baptist said, John 3, 30, he must increase, but I must decrease.

And that must be our place in our worship of God. That brings me to the fifth implication of this. Five, so that you may worship God appropriately. It is important that we worship God for who he has said he is in his word, not who we want him to be.