Ephesians 1:3-14

Lord, we do come to you with anticipation of the true message that you're about to give us here in Ephesians. Salvation is a transition that we get because of your love. We know that we have nothing within ourselves to deserve it.

It's your love. It's your grace. It's the sacrifice of your Son on the cross. But Lord, you are a sovereign God and we will see today how the triune God is totally involved and totally responsible for calling us to that moment.

We say thank you for that in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Two days ago, I got out my drill to do some home improvement projects. The first was my cabinets for the dishes were starting to lean forward a little bit. They'd come loose. So I took out all the plates and everything and I got my drill out and I screwed everything back in real tight.

Nice and done. Fixed it. Good. And then I forgot what my other project was. I couldn't remember what I was going to do. I was simply going to take out one of those window air conditioning units, but I totally forgot.

Put the drill away. Ah, frustrating. Well, yesterday, me and Tim went and played some tennis, came back, came back in the house, went outside, throwing a football. And after about 30 minutes of throwing the football, we tried to go back in the house.

Only the door was unlocked. Yet the little handle latch was not triggering the strike. And as hard as you pushed it, nothing happened. So we were locked out of our house. The dogs barking on the other side.

Why do things like this happen? Why? So what do we do? We look for an open window. There's nothing. Until I realized my project from the day before was to remove that window air conditioning unit. Maybe that's an access to the house.

So I go to my next door neighbor and borrow a ladder. He comes over. We're hanging out. We're talking about this project. And sure enough, we set up the ladder. We go up and we're able to dislodge the window unit.

Timmy gets to be a burglar into his own house. He goes head first through the window. He's loving it. We're bonding. Comes back out, opens the door from the inside. We're good to go. That worked out great.

There seemed to be a purpose in it. I recommend you fix the door latch. Yeah, we're going to do that. We'll get around to that. Right now, I've got like cardboard into the little hole so that the strike doesn't close.

We're just using the top block only. Anyway, why would I bring this up? Just a fun story. No, just kidding. Why do these things happen? Well, I believe in a doctrine called meticulous providence. Even the fact that once I finally got through the door, as I tried to close it, I had somehow closed my finger in the door.

See how it's purple? Purple fingernail. Even that fingernail and the closing of it in the door was part of God's providential plan. I don't know why that happened. I think I know why the door happened.

A little bonding with my son. Going through the window and talking to the neighbor and all of it was just great. I think the football was better bonding. Well, the football was probably better bonding, but it was a lot of fun.

There was a man in the Bible whose name was Joseph. He had 11 brothers. He was one of 12. His youngest brother was probably most close to him and special. His name was Benjamin. The death of his mom happened as he was being born, and she tried to name him son of my sorrow.

But Benjamin interceded and named him son of my strength, Benjamin. Of these 12 brothers, this young one was not a part of the scheme of the older 10. The older 10 purposed in their heart evil plans against him because of their jealousy.

Many of them would have killed him, but for the rescuing of Reuben, who stepped in and said, Why don't we sell him and get some money out of this? He sold into slavery and sent down to Egypt. Why did this bad thing happen?

One of the reasons we know is the evil purposes of man. These brothers, although they came from Jacob, Israel, they themselves were not regenerate at that point in time. Now later, Judah will show himself a good picture of substitutionary atonement.

He would stay in the prison cell to let Benjamin go. But here it was the evil plans of man. All of these horrible things happened to Joseph. A lot worse than hit your finger in the door. I mean being in prison for years in a cold dungeon cell.

To be, to suffer the way he did at the hands of his own brother. To know that his father's heart was broken over him. All of that suffering. Rich already quoted it, but you know where I'm going with this.

In Genesis chapter 50 verse 20, we learn a very important doctrine. The brothers meant it for evil, but God meant it for good to save many people alive. Even the sinful evil decisions of man were part of God's plan.

If it weren't for those things, he would have remained in the promised land. And there would have been a famine and no recourse. But because he went to Egypt, there was food for the famine. Because remember the storehouses that Joseph was able to help build.

And for seven years they saved up food. And rescued and saved his own brothers. And his father and mother. Well his mother had gone, but his father. All of this was part of God's plan. Predestined plan.

Who was responsible for the evil? Was God responsible for the evil? Never the author of sin. The brothers are held responsible. But was their evil part of his plan? It was. It was. Yeah. Allowing it, but even the very plan.

Because listen to the language of Genesis 50 verse 20. You meant it for evil. God meant it for good. It was part of the plan. So the secondary cause, the human cause. The one who does the actual evil thing.

Is responsible for it. But God's plan includes evil. So in Acts chapter 4 verse 27 and 28. You have Pontius Pilate and Herod. And the Jews and the Gentiles. They conspire against Jesus to do the most wicked evil thing.

Ever done in the history of the world. Crucify the Lord. But verse 28 of Acts chapter 4. Says that God predestined that very thing to occur. The death of Jesus on the cross was planned. That the lamb would be slain.

It was planned before the foundation of the world. His plan included their evil. And they're responsible for it. God is innocent. But his plan includes human evil. So we have two twin truths. That don't really make that much sense to us.

The sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. And the theological word that I use for that. John you remember what I use? Compatibilism. These two things are compatible. You don't throw out either one of them.

God is sovereign over everything that happens under the sun. And man is responsible. And has a real creaturely will. We make real decisions. We're not puppets and robots. We have a real will. These two ideas are compatible.

And how do you describe that same reality? Calvarmenism. He doesn't like the established theological words. But yours is good. I like it. Because he's combining two of the proponents. Arminius of course was emphasizing so strongly.

What? The will of men. And Calvin is emphasizing so strongly. The sovereignty of God. So John just puts Calvin and Arminius together. And says you both have some good points here.

Calvarmenism. You were talking about tracts or something. Sometime last week. And I've always thought. You and someone else have the same. These are parallel lines. Parallel lines. In heaven. In heaven.

That was Spurgeon's. I can't take credit for that one. That was his analogy. But that's the point.

You ever heard of Spurgeon? Yes. Charles Hatton. Let's open to Ephesians chapter 1. Verses 3 to 14. John I have to say. You did a masterful job. Overviewing it. Those listening online. If you haven't had a chance to watch the first one.

You need that overview. Really there's two parts to the book. The first part is. The first three chapters are theological. About who we are in Christ. Our identity in Christ. The four to six are more practical.

That's our walk of faith. And practical instructions for the walk. And the latter flows out of the former. You have to know who you are in Christ. And understand the right doctrine. To then live. So orthodoxy comes before orthopraxy.

Ephesians chapter 1. Who would be my first reader. And we're going to read verses 3 to 6. Why don't we just kind of go around.

Let's start with you Rich. 3 to 6. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who has blessed us in Christ. With every spiritual blessing. In heavenly places. Even as he chose us in him. Before the foundation of the world.

That we should be holy and blameless. And avoid him in love. He predestined us for adoption to himself. As sons 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 below.

There are many people who spend their days complaining. They complain because they slam their finger in the door. Why does that happen to me? They complain because life is difficult. Bad things happen.

And it's hard. But Paul begins this sentence. There are some who say that verses 3 to 14 are one sentence. That's actually a little bit hard to establish. Because when the Greek was actually written. There are no punctuation marks.

There's just words. In fact there's not much spacing either. When you go. It's the capital Greek letters. When you read the original manuscripts. It's kind of hard to make out. You have to be more familiar with Koine Greek.

Than I am. To just make it out clearly. But what we have in our English translation. Is multiple sentences. But there are many people that see verses 3 to 14. As just one long thought. And I think the merit to that.

Is the idea that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Are each pictured in different moments of our redemption. Okay. So we're going to go through it. And see that you have the moment of redemption.

Whereby the Father predestines us. That's number one. The second moment of our redemption. Verse 7. Is when the Son purchases our redemption in His blood. That's the cross. That's the accomplishment of redemption.

The Son. Then as you progress. You have the third moment. Which is the application of redemption. Where the Holy Spirit. In time. In our lives. Brings us the gospel. And having heard. Verse 13. We believe.

And so we are saved. In that moment. And we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. Sealed for the day of redemption. The fourth moment. When the triune God glorifies us. When this redemption is consummated.

So the four moments are predestination. Accomplishment. Application. Consummation. We'll go through those. But I began here by saying. Many of us. Are prone to complain. Because. Our eyes. So easily fall upon.

Our outer circumstances. And we miss these deep. Theological truths. Many people think Ephesians 1 is so heady. And impractical. Right. I mean we're talking about predestination. What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?

It has everything to do. With our Christian lives. When you develop a God-centered worldview. This is what you do. Blessed be. See those first two words? This teaching. Is all couched. In praise. It's all doxological.

And you'll see it repeated again and again. To the praise of his glorious grace. To his praise. Verse 12. The praise of his glory. It's doxological. That's a good perspective. Yeah. He kept it from being worse.

And that helps. Yeah. But to know that God works all things together for good. There is a good purpose. Even in the bad things that happen to us. As believers.

Those who are called according to his purpose. Blessed be. Yeah. One of the things I do from time to time. Is to change. I change the pronouns. Praise be to the God and Father of my Lord Jesus Christ.

Who blessed me in the heavenly realms. With every spiritual blessing. For he chose me in him before the creation. It makes it so much more personal.

Personalizing. Yeah. Certainly. If you're amongst the called. You're amongst those who believe. Now believe in Jesus. You can do that. Amen. That is you. He's talking about us. And again, John taught this last week.

It was written to believers in general. It's not so particular to like a situation in emphasis. Right? He's not addressing an apologetic problem. He's just writing to the church. In fact, people he hadn't met yet.

He's heard of their faith. And then later he'll go. So that is right, right? Yes. He comes after. Yeah. So he's writing to believers in general. And John stressed that. It's to the faithful in Christ Jesus.

If you're a believer, he's writing to you. Okay. So we should spend our days blessing God. Filled with praise. Singing as we see the sun come up. But it's hard to have that kind of attitude. Right? The point of these 12 verses.

Is to tell you how blessed you are. That's what he says in verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who has blessed you. Bob, put your name in there. Put the personal pronoun. As you said.

We are so blessed. So much more blessed than we realize. And he begins at not only the beginning of time. He begins before time. So here's the first moment. And we're going to go through four of them.

The first moment of our redemption. Is predestination. So he's saying this is the reason we should bless God. We're so blessed because verse 4. He chose us. In him. Now look at those words very carefully.

Because John, follow the pronouns, right? Right. Who's the he? God the Father. What is chose? It's an active verb. It's an action. Or I don't know, how would you describe it Rick? Grammatically. Verb transitive.

A verb transitive.

We have an English teacher. Thank you. And we thought your theology terms were tough. Yeah.

The point is, he is the subject. The active verb chose is his action. What's the object of his choosing? Us. Now many people will attempt gymnastics around this simple statement. He didn't really choose us.

He chose the body of Christ. Which we populate by our choice. Is that what it says? No, that's the Arminian view. So trying to get around this verse. They would say, okay. There is a chosen people. But it's not specifically made up of individuals.

Because it says in him. But the grammar of the verse says he chose us. Us, a group, is made of individuals. Who are the us in view. As Bob said, you can put your name there. That's the grammar of it. The direct object is us.

Not the body of Christ. But us, the personal people who are in him. When were we chosen? For a foundation. You know that Rich. Because it says right there. Before the foundation of the world. That we should be holy and blameless before him.

Again, others might say, well we weren't chosen until salvation. Even though 2 Thessalonians 2 .13 says you are chosen to be saved. They'll say, you weren't chosen until salvation. You're only chosen to be sanctified once you're saved.

But nobody will be sanctified unless they're saved. So it says in verse 4 again. To be holy and blameless before him. That is the full salvation process. From predestination to the accomplishment of redemption.

To the application of it. All the way through to the consummation. When we will stand before him holy and blameless. He chose us for that. Salvation, the whole thing. You can't have the ending unless you get saved.

Right? So the point is, this is all God's doing. It's marvelous in our eyes. I've got a question.

Yes. Okay. The three that were on the, Christ on the cross. The other two. Yeah. At the very last moment. The one said, you are the Christ. Yes. And he was sent, he was going to go to heaven. I'm thinking of the predestination.

So here's God the Father. Yes. The creator of man. Okay. And all the predestination. How does he feel? I'm thinking. Gee. I predestined you. From the day before you were born. To the kingdom. Yeah. But you missed a whole lifespan.

Of doing my will. My work.

That I. Wanted you to do. Well, the moment of his salvation was predestined.

Was, but I'm just thinking of myself. Yeah. I had, you know, many made 30, 30 years before. Yeah. I wasted 30 years. Yeah. So if he predestined me. You know, from the beginning of creation.

Why did I waste 30 years? Well, it's saying, how do you know that you're chosen? According to 1st Thessalonians 1 6. You know, you're chosen because the gospel came to you. Not only in word. Not just the words of the gospel.

But in power by the Holy Spirit with deep conviction. In other words. God knew that moment where you would hear. And he would give you a heart of flesh. So it's not that, oh, I wasted it. You were dead.

You were dead. God chose that moment to make you alive. And that just is a work of sovereign grace. So you don't need to look back on your days of being lost and say. I wasted it. No, you were dead. And then he saved you.

Yeah. You couldn't have control.

But for 30 years. People were watching you. They saw you. They saw how you acted. And then you came to Christ. Yes. There was a purpose. There was a purpose. Even in your losses. This is a door that swings both ways.

Yes. Yep.

Yep. Just like in Genesis 50 20. That those years of darkness. Where the brothers were in sin. And Joseph was in a prison. Even that had purpose. That was part of the salvation purpose. Or Isaiah chapter 10.

We studied the book of Isaiah. The Assyrians coming. They intended to turn cities into rubble. That was their desire. Meanwhile, God had a different plan for Assyria. It was to use them to punish his own people.

Same action. The evil action of the Assyrians who were wicked.

Coming through for their own purposes. There is no white without black. Yeah.

Yep. Sometimes God allows that dark night. Wonderful. For a conscience. For my salvation. Yep. To realize. We all know. Amen. So, number one.

Real quick. I'll let you go. The reason I say that. Yep. Okay. When I came to know Christ. Now, I was like. Bubbling. Just to get right in the show. And tell all my brothers and sisters. You know. All my friends.

Yes. And they looked at me. Some of them that I went to school with. Huh. That's Stainwell. Now. We know him. Right. Now, Stain. Get out of here. Amen. That's the same thing that happened to Paul. Yep.

Paul went out. You know. When he was crucifying the Christians. Then he.

Becomes part of his testimony. Yeah. John. Quickly. I profess to be a Calvinist. Okay. That's fine. He has the word compatibilism. I do not. You cannot go there. Unless you totally. Buy into. And accept.

And believe. Without reservation. The sovereignty of God. Yeah. The fact that he. He knew that date. 30 years into your life. Or he knew that date. Of that thief. On the cross. If you put a box. Around.

God's sovereignty. Then. You're missing. You're missing the message. Of the gospel. Message. That's. That's number one. Now. This idea. Of parallel tracks. That becomes. That becomes hard. For our little minds.

To comprehend. But it's true. The reality of it. Also. We have. A family. That used to attend. Here. That. We're seeking. To adopt. A Chinese. Little girl. And. Things happened. And. And roadblocks. Got put in the way.

And then COVID. Happened. And then this. Got put in the way. And everything else. And it's like. I don't even know. If that adoption. Has happened yet. But. In our relationship. To God. He predestined us.

For adoption. To himself. As sons. Through Jesus Christ. According. To the purpose. Of his will. Verse five. There were no COVID's. That got in the way of God. Stan. Yours was when you were. 30 years old.

For me.

I was 20 years old. Whatever. If it's God's time. It's. He is God. According to his purpose. You have to buy. Into the sovereignty. Of God. Even if you buy. Into the concept. Of our obligation. To choose.

But you have to buy. Into the sovereignty. Of God. Absolutely. Amen. Jeff. Can I. Can I. Yes. I'm sorry. I built. 3D. Wooden. Hundreds. Of pieces. And. They all. Have to go. At a specific. Time. At a specific. Place.

And. And. When you're done. They're magnificent. Yeah. But. If a single piece. Is missing. In that. Eventually. It's going to. It's going to come apart. And. Things will get loose. Yeah. You have to. Facial glue.

But. The point is that. Some of them take. A week. Yeah. One that took two months. It's. It's the ultimate. I know what it's going to be. I know it's going to take time. But I know it's going to be glorious when it gets there.

And you can't rush it. That's a great analogy. It's the same as the tapestry. Like on. From the side of. Of the backside of the tapestry. You can't see the beauty of it. But when it's finished. On the other side.

You'll see. God's plan work out. Okay. So. The first reason. That we should be. Blessing God. Is because he chose us. That's right. Absolutely. And. That was the adoption. That came from him. Why did he do?

Why did he choose me? And. Instead of a neighbor. Who. Maybe is better than me. Maybe. I'm a worse sinner than him. And. No. It's. Could very well be. And yet.

I'm chosen. And. God passed over. It's. Not. Anything. In. Me. At all. Look at verse six. This is the point. It's to the praise. Of his glorious. Grace. His. Grace. Is. Unearned. Unmerited. Favor. And. It just gives him. Praise. And him. Glory.

That he freely. Sovereignly. Chose. Me. He plucked. This. Brand. Out of the fire. He. Plucked. Me. Out. Without. Me. Having any. Merit. Whatsoever. That's. The freedom of God. And. So where does the praise go?

How. What percentage of the praise. Ought. To be given. To me. And. What percentage. Ought. To be given. To him. That's the point. A hundred percent. God. Zero percent. Me. Verse six. Says. What. To the praise. Of his glorious. Grace. With. Which. He has. Blessed. Us. In. Beloved. That. I. Would. Belong. To. His. Only. Son. The. Beloved. That. I. Would. Become. A. Child. Of. God. John. Three. Sixteen. It's. Just. To. His. Grace. So. The. First. Moment. Of. Our. Redemption. Is. Predestination. Now. Look. At. Verse. Seven. And. Could. I. Call. On. Rick. To. Read. Verse. Seven. This. Is. The. First. In. Time. Scholars. Differ. Between. Thirty. A .D. Or. Thirty. Three. A .D. But. That. Moment. Is. The. Point. At. Which. Jesus. Goes. Up. That. Hill. Called. Golgotha. And. He. The. Death. We. Deserve. And. His. Blood. Shed. For. Us. In. That. Moment. Accomplishes. Our. Redemption. Once. And. For. All. So. In. Him. We. Have. Redemption. Through. Forgiveness. Trespasses. According. The. Richness. Of. His. Grace. Amen. We'll. Go. On. To. See. How. He. Modifies. That. But. The. Big. Idea. Here. Is. His. Blood. His. Blood. Paying. The. Price. Of. Our. Sin. That's. The. Second. Moment. It. Happens. In. Time. When. Jesus. Dies. There. Will. Be. No. Double. Jeopardy. If. My. Sin. Was. Atoned. On. The. Cross. Of. Calvary. I. Will. Never. Have. To. Pay. For. Never. Could. So. For. Whom. Did. Christ. Die. For. Us. For. Whom. Did. The. Good. Shepherd. Lay. Down. His. Life. For. The. Sheep. For. Whom. Did. The. Groom. Die.

Ephesians. Five. For. The. Bride. This. Is. A. Very. Difficult. Teaching. Theologians. Will. Call. It. Limited. Atonement. I. Don't. Like. That. Term. Because. It. Seems. To. Put. Some. Limit. On. The. Value. Of. God's. Purchase. The. Value. Of. The. Blood. How. For. Whom. Was. His. Blood. Intended. The. Term. I. Prefer. Theologically. Is. Particular. Redemption. Particular.

There's. A. Particular. People. That. He. Redeems. With. His. Blood. Particular. Redemption. What. Am. I. Am. Stand. Before. Him. At. The. Consummation. Of. All. Things. He. Knew. You. When. Jesus. Was. Dying. He. Was. Intending. His. Blood.

And. for you, Barth, and for me. There is no disharmony in the Trinity. The very ones that the Father predestines, the Son dies for, and we'll see the Spirit will regenerate in time. That's verse 13. And then the Triune God will glorify.

So in verse 7, I'm seeing consistency between the verses that preceded and what follows. There is no disharmony in the Trinity. It's not that Jesus is trying so hard to die for the sin of the reprobate, but the Father over here is saying, no, I didn't choose that.

No, the Father in grace chose some to save. He would have been just to pass over all of us. This is Romans 9. But in His mercy, He chose to save sinners like us that contribute nothing, and the Son pays the price for those very ones.

Difficult teaching, but this is what I'm seeing in the text. No disharmony between verses 3 to 6, and then verses 7 to 10 celebrate this. Let's unpack it a little bit. He lavished this on us. The covering of His blood, the forgiveness of our sins through His blood in all wisdom and insight.

Guess what? His wisdom and His insight is beyond our tracing out. Romans 11. We're never going to fully understand these things. It's His wisdom, His insight. He doesn't say that we'll get it, but He does make known.

Look, making known to us the mystery, something that was previously hidden, which is now being made known. A mystery is not something that's like a paradox. A mystery was something formally concealed, which He's now revealing.

That's the biblical use of mystery again and again in the New Testament. He's making His will known. What's His will? To save us. That the Father predestined us? We wouldn't have known that. That Jesus put His blood on the cross for us?

It's made known. You can know that now. And so the end result of all this is going to be just this eruption of praise, right? I mean, the Father predestined us. The Son died for us, like a groom for His bride or like a shepherd for His own sheep.

What kind of shepherd is this that lays down His life for the sheep? This is what we're to celebrate. Making known, verse 9, the mystery of His will according to His purpose. He has purpose in these things, yes, which He set forth in Christ as a plan.

You see the repetition of these words, different Greek words, all carrying the same idea of a plan, a purpose, a will. That word in Greek, will, is thelema. One day we'll do a study on the will of God.

For example, in 1st Peter, oh, there's really two aspects. There's a secret will and there's a revealed will. Two aspects of the will of God. Secret are the things that He has predestined that we don't understand or even know.

I don't know the identity of the elect. Whom has He chosen? I don't know. That's part of His secret will. We know that He has that will, but we don't know who they are. The revealed will is what He commands of us.

That's that human responsibility, the other train track. It's revealed in the Scripture, the things that He's told us. You are to repent and believe. Obey His will to repent and believe. That's the revealed will of God.

So we have more time to talk about that another day, but you see that here. Verse 9, the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.

I have ten minutes left for two more moments. The third moment of our redemption happens in our lives. When we hear the gospel and believe it, the Holy Spirit will seal us for the day of redemption. Would someone read for me 11 to 13?

I think we're back to John.

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 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 promise of the Holy Spirit. Wow, the.

Promised Holy Spirit. Okay, Paul is referring to himself and the early believers, his traveling buddies. He's saying we heard it and believed, so we were the first to hope in Christ. Now he's writing to the Ephesian believers and to us, as John taught last week, to all believers, the faithful, and he's saying you also heard the gospel.

When someone came preaching, unless someone preaches to you, you're lost. You needed someone to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ, the name, Rick, the name. And having believed in Him, the Spirit of God, here's the third member of the Trinity now, the Spirit of God will seal you for the day of redemption.

He will seal you, and what God has sealed, no man can undo. No one can break that seal. It is an eternally secure sealing. Philippians 1 6, anybody know it? He who began the good work in you will bring it to completion.

Yes, he who began the good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. Okay, so that's what we see in 13, but look at verses 11 and 12. Notice that he reviews again, from beginning to end, the sovereignty of God, and I want you to notice at the end of verse 11, what does God predestine to happen?

I'll give you a second to look at it. How many things? All things, Rick. Okay, what he's saying is your predestination unto salvation, to be adopted as a child, to be bought with the price, to be made a child of God, sealed, and then brought into heaven, that's only a subset of this doctrine of predestination.

Providence, that God has providentially brought a gospel witness to you, and you get saved, and you go to heaven, that's only a subset of this bigger doctrine, which I began with today in teaching, the meticulous providence of God.

Because look at verse 11, in him we have obtained an inheritance, that's our being saved, having been predestined, there's our word again, because that's what Paul's talking about. It's his word, okay?

For those who don't like it, it's his word. Predestined according to the purpose of him, so it's according to, it's a subset of what? Now watch this, him who works all things, everything, I almost hit you there, John, according to the counsel of his will.

So if I accidentally whack John's glasses off, that was predestined to occur. If I slam my finger in the door, yeah, that's right, he put this chair here, so I go boom. I got too demonstrative. Okay guys, listen, this is important, so this is how you'll praise God for all your days.

Because if every sparrow that falls from the sky was predestined to fall that day, that second, if every hair on your head, and they fall out every day, don't they? You see them in the shower drain. Every single one of them was numbered.

If something so meaningless as that was predestined exactly to occur that way, then nothing's out of his control. Nothing is out of his control. This is huge. There's a purpose why I slam my finger in the door.

This changes your whole perspective on life. You're not a victim. You have a good, loving Father who will bring you through hard times, and you will suffer. 1st Peter's all about this. 1st Thessalonians talks about it, 2nd Thessalonians 1 especially.

John, what's my favorite verse in trying to prove meticulous providence? Even the casting of the lot. Yes! He knows me so well. I always go here. Proverbs 16 .33. The lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord.

And the point of the verse is that even the most random thing, right? Casting a lot is definitionally random. That's why you cast a lot, right? So it will randomly come about. It's every decision is from the Lord.

So therefore, it's saying that God's providence extends to even the most minute little part of your life. And that's why you can be secure in your salvation. I know somebody who I love dearly who rails against Calvinism, and it's just sad to watch the turmoil of his soul because he has not come to rest in the providence of God.

If you believe in a God who is sovereign over all, then it is a subset of that providence that He has also chosen you. That's how you came to believe in Him. And that Jesus died for you. For you! And that the Spirit brought that gospel to you through your ears, but also changed your ears.

He made them able to hear. And He gave you eyes to see. And He even gave you a new heart to believe. It's all His work. Verse 13 says, you were sealed. That's that third moment. The moment... When does it happen?

When does the third moment happen? The third moment happens when you hear the gospel. It doesn't say when you get zapped by lightning, and God regenerates you, and now you're regenerate, and then somebody comes and preaches gospel.

No. Regeneration happens in the preaching of the gospel. That's what people don't understand about irresistible grace and that idea. It's not that God just zaps you and regenerates you, and then you have faith.

No. There's not a temporal difference there. It's a logical priority. When I go to my next-door neighbor and preach the gospel, I can't change his heart. But in the preaching of the gospel, if the Spirit awakens him and gives him a new heart and he believes, in the preaching of the gospel, that's the moment that he's sealed with the Holy Spirit.

Okay? So, but unless he regenerates him, then he's not going to believe. So, regeneration is antecedent to faith. Not in time. This doesn't happen and then, like, a month later, he hears the gospel. No.