An In-Depth Look at Ephesians 1

Greetings and welcome to the dividing line. My name is James white coming to you. Once again live from the great state of Colorado great state as in one of the most beautiful states

Weird things going on politically, but I keep mentioning that just because it's a little scary. But anyways, yes, it is

July and Actually gonna be here into August a little bit but heading home early next week and back into the heat

Only for a little while because we're gonna be heading to South Africa very shortly after that and So lots and lots of stuff going on Today, I I played around with a number of different topics and I thought about doing radio free

Geneva because I have plenty of material because The program we did a little over a week ago

While still in Phoenix, I believe radio free Geneva in response to Michael Brown's brief presentation

He did a response a couple of days ago or last week maybe now I think about it was last week and Then we have

A Pastor Mike winger also did a response to some of the comments that I made on particular redemption and So there will be plenty there.

I simply haven't had the time to put it into audio notetaker and Just trying to play through it would just Be way too repetitive.

It would take too much time We really wouldn't get to the important stuff as quickly as we as we need to so I need to hold those off So I can put those together likewise,

I was expecting a little more information to Come out in regards to the founders video and a little some has but not a whole lot there have been some articles that have appeared but Not really addressing the issues that I think need to be need to be addressed

And so I'm not sure if I just need to wait on that or or just what but I will be waiting on today anyways

To to see what's could be going on with that. So where does that leave me? Well, thank you for listening to my

Monday. No That leaves me having listened to some of the comments that were made by Michael Brown and And others in regards to Calvinism Wanting to look at some passages of scripture today rather than necessarily any major Confrontational issues or anything like that going on in the world.

It's always good to spend some time looking at at the scriptures and in particular

I Did start listening to Michael's response to me and and he basically said hey

I I've put a stake down. I've I've said what I believe about this for years and years and years how could you not know that we've done debates on so forth, but There's there's

There's some there's some miscommunication taking place and it's interesting In in both of the responses that were given to me

Both of us feel like the other side isn't hearing what we're saying and And Part of that may be, you know, you do a video

I do a video you do a video I do a video And yet, you know Michael and I have obviously done more than just doing videos.

We've done a lot of things where we were live and I think

I can sort of prove that I I am hearing and I am listening and I think

I do understand where Michael's coming from but I have

I'm not hearing him interacting with historic reformed understandings of the key passages and the key questions and One of the things that came up was

Michael used the term philosophical issues And that he's more focused upon biblical issues.

Well, I understand that I Certainly would say in the same way that I think that exegesis is the the very essence and source of Christian truth and Christian theology and it's the only thing that will ever

Truly satisfy the heart and soul of a true believer. Jesus said my sheep will hear my voice

They know me. I know them and so I I get that but at the same time

My my my belief is that when Michael criticizes what we're saying and Criticizes the reformed perspective.

There are Particular presuppositions that underlie not only his criticism, but most people's criticism of reformed theology

There are certain assumptions that are being made you can call them philosophical assumptions if you want to there are a lot of people who?

adopt Philosophical presuppositions even if they don't know what the terminology might be, you know, if they haven't necessarily read extensively in Philosophical sources or early church sources rebels might be there are still assumptions that are made that then becomes central to the argument as it is being presented and there are

Such presuppositions in the things that Michael says and so when you can say there's there's there's no

Passage in Scripture that for example presents to you the distinction between The revealed will of God and the decree of God.

Well, it's very plain to us that there are It is very clear to us that that is a necessary distinction

Just simply saying God says thou shalt not kill and then he sends the Messiah to die

And makes him a sacrifice Means you have to deal with Acts chapter 4 you have to deal with the fact that God predestined the actions of Herod and Pontius Pilate and the

Jews and the Romans and and without contradicting himself And so yeah

There there are vitally important things like that that I think very often are hidden under the verbiage of our discussions with one another and It It's unfortunately a rarity when you

Get into a situation with fellow believers. It shouldn't be a rarity, but unfortunately it is

Where everyone's like well, let's examine our presuppositions. Let's um, let's look at what the foundations are

How does how does that sound and instead and I think social media is partly not completely but partly responsible for this we just we circle the wagons and line up and and start the

You know the old All the way up to through the the Civil War, you know

Just line up on both sides and shoot each other type of a thing instead of Haydn and and everything else

That's what we do and that generally does not result in an overly deep understanding of Christian theology

So what I'd like to do Here on the program today at least at the start is to Look at a very well -known passage of Scripture We haven't looked at it before but we have new listeners and new viewers all the time and to just broadly consider what is foundational to what the scripture says about our

God and about the relationship of His will to human action because this is really what the issue is all about This is it's not what you're normally challenged to think about at church and these days, you know

Where you just you want, you know, if you have a church That wants to make unbelievers feel comfortable now.

Don't get me wrong I'm not saying that an unbeliever should feel like if they walk into your church that you know

Everyone's aiming a gun at them or something like that. But at the same time the the church's purpose is

To worship God by proclaiming his truth. It is a fellowship of Saints If you have the idea that the church is the main mechanism of evangelism

Then you're missing where evangelism is supposed to be taking place I was

I was climbing a mountain yesterday morning and we we were joined by another another climber and We started talking and you know,

I was like, all right Even though we're at 13 ,000 feet above sea level. How can

I try to? Find out if this fellow is a Christian Start a conversation

Hopefully, he won't be so opposed to the gospel tries to throw me off mountain but it turned out he was a Presbyterian and we had a nice conversation and But you're that's where that stuff's supposed to be happening

You're not supposed to be starving the sheep So has to try to birth some other sheep in the process only to starve them, too

That's not how it's supposed to be happening. So anyway If you have that idea and that concept of what the church is supposed to be then you're going to be dealing with issues like this and you're going to be talking about the relationship of God's decree the nature of God man is this creature and especially how that decree

Interfaces with with man as a responsible creature. This is something that Should not be a one in ten year

Special study only on a Wednesday night for the super believers This I think is central to Christian discipleship

I would think it would be central for example if you have a hospital ministry if you if you have nursing home ministry

And this is foundational to how you deal with suffering and evil in the world

And I do not for a second apologize for saying that I think all Christians should know what theodicy is

It should know that theodicy comes from two Greek words. They asked God and dick I owe to justify its justification of God's existence in the light of the existence of evil because I mean

Isn't that one of the primary argument? That it is used against the existence of God is a good

God when evil exists, etc, etc so we should know these things they should they should be things that our people are asking about because They are actively involved in seeking to present

God's truth at all times Not just on a Sunday, but on a

Tuesday at work and the Thursday night at home So One of the passages

I think is just You know, it's one of those passages that in many churches in many churches what you're facing is the idea that these are too difficult

They're too challenging passages and I can't tell you how many people I have seen who have adopted the idea

That since Peter says there are difficult things in Paul's writings That therefore you can just simply ignore

Anything that seems challenging or difficult in the Pauline corpus and in the process

You not only mutate the faith you you Fundamentally limits it to infancy for the rest of its existence.

You you you're not gonna have a full orbed New Testament faith out

Paul's writings now people see you're just a follower of Paul and a follower of Jesus Jesus was

Paul's Lord and Jesus chose Paul to function in a particular fashion.

So as to give the entirety of Divine Revelation to his church So when you dismiss

Paul and his writings When you adopt hyper red letterism when you become a red -letter

Christian or whatever else it is. You are Fundamentally rejecting the wisdom of God in the creation of the can of the scripture

You are fundamentally rejecting jet rejecting the history of the witness of the church itself

And it is not surprising to me that red -letter Christianity or hyper red letterism always always and I mean always

Results in fundamental unorthodoxy Because you are rejecting an entire portion a major portion of what the

Spirit of God has provided to the church and So it's not surprising to me that when you see people adopting this stuff

Off they go into some strange weird theology down the road so If you want to look in the scriptures,

I'll be reading it to you. But if you want to look in the scriptures at Ephesians chapter 1 and Again, we like to provide lots of information.

You need to understand that one of the reasons so you and I sit here and we open our

Bibles or we put the text on the screen and We approach these words as the authoritative

Revelation of God that needs to be kept in balanced Harmony with the rest of Scripture we read this in light of the prophetic witness of the

Old Testament what the prophets taught Certainly, I see a tremendous amount of connection to Isaiah chapters 40 through 48

This is certainly behind much of what the Apostle says here, for example But you then if that's what you're accustomed to in Christianity you then become confused

When you see people in quote -unquote mainline denominations Not giving any meaningful weight to these words at all or interpreting them in the strangest most

Self -contradictory fashion you wonder why is this? What is that all about? and you must understand that many of those men the majority of men and women

Being trained in theological seminaries and Bible colleges in the Western world today are going to be taught

That Paul did not write The words we're going to be looking they are taught a

What would be styled a minimal Pauline Canon maybe seven books?

Ephesians and Colossians would be rejected and the pastoral pistols

Would be rejected for second Timothy Titus Sometimes I'll accept finally in then but anyway

Depends on the guy you're reading in the or the gal you're reading for these days. So a large portion of You know, you may grab hold of this and you may read

Ephesians 1 and go wow, it's incredible And then you just want to go out and talk to other people about it and you sit down with somebody and you're wondering why?

You know, they say they're following Jesus and they say they love the Bible's like that But you're not connecting and part of the reason is maybe in the background

Maybe they don't know this but their preacher has has communicated through the sermons

Oh, yeah That's that's that Ephesians and that was gonna pry someone who knew Paul or in the

Pauline circle but no matter what you do, it ends up creating a a deuterocanonical concept

It's a secondary canon it's not quite as authoritative as maybe

Romans even though anyone can see the the deep connection between the two and By the way, just in passing most of the argumentation of this is based upon Presuppositions and those presuppositions are that the church?

everywhere Had a particular Form to it

That would preclude Ephesians or Colossians from representing that early church period during the life of the

Apostle Paul and So the presupposition is all this evolutionary that is that the the early church had to evolve

Not under Divine Revelation not under authoritative

Apostles But it had to evolve pretty much through natural human processes

Conflicts things like that And so it started in this form and it ended in this form and you know, it's the it's the

Bauer hypothesis there was all this diversity and finally one Orthodox group out and You know, it's it's the same thing back in the 1870s when

German scholarship was saying that the Gospel of John could not have been Written any earlier than 175 why because it has such an advanced

Christology. It has such a high view of who Jesus is and So it had to be that late because it had to have time to develop

So there there are all these presuppositions and once you really dig through the presuppositions you discover that there is an simple unbelief at the foundation of it and so Wow, it's really shocking to discover that once you start foundationally with unbelief you don't you end up in Union Theological Seminary, which if you don't know is sort of the these days the watchword of apostate seminaries just completely have abandoned any semblance of of Orthodoxy or belief and you know

They're the ones put out the thing after after we put out the Statement of Social Justice started out saying we confess the errancy of Scripture So like well, you end up going to other sources then shocking

But yeah, that's what ends up ends up taking place. So I just mentioned that Because what happens is, you know, we'll dive into a text like this and we're having a great old time but I also realized that sometimes new

Christians Will go hey, let's go get a commentary. Let's I go to my local

Christian bookstore. Oh boy Or I'm gonna go on Amazon. That's about the only bookstore left Barnes and Noble's out there, too

And I'm gonna I'm gonna pick up a commentary Ephesians and I'm just you know, they end up buying the one that has the nicest cover or something and end up with a pottage porridge of poison

And they're wondering where it came from and they're wondering why? What they got excited about when we walked through Ephesians 1 they start reading whoever it is

They picked up and they're nowhere near that They're coming to completely different religions and that can lead people to think that well the text just not must not be very clear

It's not about the text. It's about the presuppositions you bring to the text It's about the methods of hermeneutics of interpretation that she hears

So that little side part there is just sort of background stuff that hopefully

Will be useful to to a number of people anyway, so looking at Ephesians chapter 1 and again

Just background is always so important. I Really do think

I can't, you know, absolutely prove To a thousand percent. I can't prove this theory, but I I think it has really good sound evidence behind it but I think

Ephesians is The book that is referred to over in Colossians 416 as I recall

Tom ahead Where Paul instructs the Church of Colossae To read the epistle that is coming from the

Laodiceans Now there could have been an epistle to the church

Laodicea that that was not preserved that God did not intend to have preserved But I sort of doubt that I Think Ephesians was a circular letter that was written to all the churches and Britain that were up upstream upriver literally but also as far as being founded upriver from Ephesus and Paul has spent many years in Ephesus.

He had planted a very healthy sound solid church with plurality of elders and He intended that church to function as a natural

Evangelizing hotspot for everything in its area and there are a lot of parallels between Ephesians and Colossians They're they're written at the same time there they cover me in the same topics and it seems to me that Ephesians especially because it does not mention personal names and things like that, even though Paul had spent so much time there.

That's really odd That that would be the case unless it's Fundamental intention was to be passed around amongst the churches

So I think that's what we're probably looking at here in Ephesians chapter 1 Which means Paul didn't just want the uber mature

Church of Ephesus To know this and we can tell even you look at look at the book of Revelation You can you can see the

Church of Ephesus was a very mature church. It was in danger of some pride or maybe some

Becoming puffed up because of that but it was a mature church and And Yet when he writes this epistle, he's not just writing it to them he wants all the churches to understand what is the breadth and the length and the depth and some of the most beautiful elements of Paul's prayers for the churches found in Ephesians and Colossians he wants all believers to enter into the depths of the consideration of what

God has done in Christ Jesus and When we for misguided reasons

Keep that from our people thinking that well, you know Mrs. Jones over there.

She just I can just tell she's she wants me to keep it nice and simple Well, if mrs.

Jones is a believer, she's enthralled by the Spirit of God and I think there's just a fundamental lack of trust in the

Spirit To take if you really believe there's these are the Spirit's words. Do you think the

Spirit can't Communicate to people who don't have some type of advanced theological degree.

That doesn't make any sense We need to have trust in In the

Spirit's work, so that's a lot of background Ephesians chapter 1 blessed be The God and Father of our

Lord Jesus Christ the one who blessed us With every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ now one of the issues that we deal with here this is a long convoluted sentence in the original language and Translations have guidelines as to just how long they will allow sentences to go in modern

English You generally aren't supposed to write like the Puritans. I mean the Puritans could go on for paragraphs

They loved semicolons and dashes and so on and so forth But today that's considered

Inappropriate so you're supposed to break things up. And what that does is it introduces issues of exactly where?

You are to break up the text because once again The original originals were written all capital letters.

No space between words. No punch, but basically no punctuation at all And so where you make paragraph breaks, there's a couple of places

That we're gonna see very early on where it there you have to make an editorial decision as to where you're gonna place particular phrases

You if that makes you uncomfortable Then you need to get over being uncomfortable about that because that is simply the reality of what we're dealing with but the focus is

A the only thing mankind does here and Mankind only does this as part literally of all of creation is to bless

God We has been well said the only thing we bring to our salvation is our sin and that's true

This blessing upon God is really a blessing that's pronounced by all of creation But we get to be involved in it as well but it is

God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ who is the fountainhead and the source in this

Opening section of the epistle of everything else that comes afterwards This is

Vitally important to recognize because for some reason a lot of new believers pick up the idea

That God the father is the mean wrathful Nasty guy that Jesus comes along and mollifies.

He calms him down. Oh father. Don't I'll die for these people know the the cross

Finds its origin in the father its loving accomplishment in the

Son and Its application in the spirit, it's Trinitarian, but it starts with the father and So when you see us

Who is the us now it's interesting that a lot of people will presuppose that when you read the

Bible all of humanity is represented as the audience of the Bible the reality is many many times

The audience is the covenant people of Israel The audience are is the church

Sometimes the audience is all the world Sometimes it's only the inhabitants of a particular city or or people who are alive at a particular time that we that can then look back and learn from but the reality is that that's what we're that's what we're looking at and So that needs to be that really really does need to be kept in mind

As we as we consider the question The one who blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus now in Christ, I'm sorry

Who is the us So often when dealing with Reformed theology careful attention to who the us is

For example careful attention to Who Jesus is addressing in?

Matthew chapter 24 is very important. Yes it is There are all sorts of passages where you have to allow the immediate context to determine how you're gonna make application and if you skip past that or just simply assume as many many unlearned

Believers new believers you expect this you don't get mad about it. You just offer correction will assume

That something like this that any person who picks up the Bible can read Ephesians 1 3 and say oh, that's me

You don't do it with any other book But we but we do with the Bible there are presuppositions that have to be addressed so the point is

God is the one who blesses us and He blesses us with every Spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ now, that's the first Appearance, let's just point this out first of the phrase in Christo in Christ Numerous times throughout the first 14 verses

You are going to see in Christ in Him and once it's going to be expressed in verse 6 in The Beloved One which would emphasize

I think the close personal relationship of Father and Son in the accomplishment of salvation itself, but it's if you have a spiritual blessing

You have it in Christ one of the I think one of the reasons that a lot of people don't like Ephesians chapter 1 is

That it is one of the most Exclusivistic texts that I know of and Exclusivism is bad word today.

It's bad word Everything should is supposed to be inclusivistic. You're supposed to include everyone.

Well according to Ephesians 1 all of these divine actions all

Spiritual blessings are found where only in Christ if you yourself are not in Christ Then the promises that are in him are not yours

They're not yours The the eternal life is found in him the summing up of all things is found in him grace is found

And it's all in Christ. This is about as exclusivistic as you can possibly get in this text and so the one who blesses us with every spiritual blessing, so if you

If you claim a spiritual blessing if you have discernment if you have understanding of who Jesus is if you recognize

The depth and depravity of your sin your absolute dependence upon Jesus Christ That came from the father

That's not Jesus doing those things for you and just keeping the father out of the way and being the nice guy

Well, the father's the bad guy. No, these are spiritual blessings that God intends you to have

But then it says in the heavenly realms and The amazing thing is when you get into the trap into chapter 2

We're gonna be told that we have been seated together with him in the heavenly realms. The point is that the salvation

That the Apostle announces to the church at Ephesus and all the churches

Through them to all of us The Salvation that he announces is a salvation that has

Heavenly certainty. I think most

Christians can understand that if something is real in the heavens That there is no power on earth that can alter

What is already real in the heavens? Isn't that is that one of the messages of? The book of Revelation We Have these heavenly scenes.

Is there ever an instance in those heavenly scenes where there is doubt?

That God is going to be able to accomplish What he intends to accomplish

When you read through the book of Revelation is your trust That God is going to accomplish what

God is going to accomplish increased or decreased as long as you interpret it properly and Don't turn it into the filter through which you read the

New York Times today and Recognize what it meant to the people to whom it was originally written

It is one of the most encouraging books you'll ever read. That's not how most people read it, unfortunately

But it's the case These spiritual blessings are in the heavenly places this salvation that he announces is a salvation that is as certain as God's throne is in the heavenly places so he blessed us with every spiritual blessing just as Kathos he chose us in him

Before the foundation of the world So that and there was a reason for this he has a purpose that he is fulfilling

It is never some random thing God is a God of reason.

He is accomplishing something and It does not say we chose him it

Says he chose us in him and the him would go back to Christ So the realm of the election is

Only in Christ, but Christ is not the one who is chosen

He is in other context but not in this one and you can't run off to some other one and drag it over here and try to make

Paul say Something that Paul was not saying instead

The Blessings just as God gave us spiritual blessings now

God chose us This is an action of God He chose us in him never separate from Christ never based upon anything in us, but only in Christ and This choosing is

Pra before the foundation of the world now again people have stood on their heads to try to get around this text and To try to get around what it's saying and what it's communicating

Before the foundation of the world this chose this choice was made. He chose us in Christ That elect people were united with Christ in God's eternal purpose

You have to have Not just room in your theology for this truth

This has to be the core This has to be the source

There are You know, I was listening to one fellow saying today Well, there's just so many plain scriptures that clearly refute particular redemption and I'm sitting here going well

They're actually playing scriptures that preach it and teach it and then here's one that plainly is preaching and teaching

God's absolute sovereign power to accomplish his purpose

In all the things are going to be mentioned in this text And he chose us in him before the foundation of the world

So it can't be based upon what we do. The choice is done before our Creation even takes place.

I mean you can sit there and want to go. Well, the God knows future events So he's looking at what we're gonna do You can say that if you want, but don't pretend you're deriving it from a text like this

Because that's not what this is saying that that assumption you can make that assumption But you can't assume that Paul was making that assumption

This decision is before the foundation of the world and it's for a purpose so that we

Same we that was the direct object of being chosen We might be holy and blameless before him so whatever this choice is it results in holiness and Blamelessness, which means it's dealing with the issue of sin

The purpose and intention of whatever it is. God is choosing to do here is going to result in holiness

Blamelessness, it's right there in front of us. Now. This is where we run into one of the issues Is it that we might be holy and blameless before him in love or should we have the break and Simply say that we might be holy and blameless before him in love.

He predestined us Well to be honest with you you can make arguments on both sides.

There is no way To determine the answer to that question simply by reference to grammar or syntax it is

Allowable in either direction that is certainly appropriate It might chafe some people

To render it as in love. He predestined us unto adoption through Jesus Christ to himself

Primarily because a lot of people have certain presuppositions as to that word election Let's go with that Let's go with verse 5 being in love

He predestined us unto sonship because when you think about it when you think about the depth of What that term sonship adoption?

really means it is Immersed in the concept of God's love.

How could God Actually Bring us into the kind of familial relationship them rebel sinners filthy rebel sinners in Love with our own rebellion.

He brings us into a position of adoption Where he is our father.

We say I have a father he all of his inheritance promises are ours,

I mean That's that's love That is

What what other context can you place it so in love he predestined us

Not the Sun The direct object of predestination is us but unto adoption through Jesus Christ So again, if you want to be a son of God, there is only one way

It is an absolutely exclusivistic language those users you can't you cannot avoid predestination a

Particular people the same ones who are blessed There is spiritual blessing same ones who have been chosen to be holy and blames for love same ones who are then predestined unto adoption through Jesus Christ unto

Himself because we call him Abba Father because we're joined to the

Sun and that right there that assumes Incarnation the reality of the incarnation.

I would even argue that that that assumes the reality of the dual nature of Christ one person two natures

Because we are we are united with Christ He has to truly be the God -man for us to be able to call the

Father Abba Father so predestined us unto adoption through Jesus Christ to himself on what basis and here these two verses as far as I can tell are

One of the clearest Most foundational texts upon which we can answer the big questions, maybe not in the way that mankind wants some answers, but we can understand the the question of why why and When you think about it

Demanding that God answer that is a little bit arrogant on our side on our part but at the same time

God made us to be people who want to have answers like that and So he gives us an answer see prior it's oh to predestined

Automatically raises the question on what basis Why would he choose one over another?

Why would he choose one people over and other people one person or another person one leader over another leader, whatever it might be well, and in this case since it's adoption and And We're gonna only go a matter of words before we have grace we have redemption we have the forgiveness of trespasses and so We see that we're talking gospel here.

We're talking salvation here in its fullest Why according to the kind intention

The Unicay on the good intention of his will his will standard word for a will and God has one and it's a good will

And that fits with predestining in love it is a good will according to The goodness of his will that's the basis of this election

Not mankind not fulfillment of works not fulfillment of anything it is according to the kindness of his will the good intention of his will and because it is

Solely of him you will notice so far. There is there has not been The slightest crack left open in the door

For the insertion of anything of man's worthiness or anything else

Man's works man's accomplishment. No room. There's nothing there So kind intention of his will and Because of that that is unto the praise of his glorious grace

You could say unto the praise of The the glory of his grace.

It's it's descriptive this glorious grace Which he graced us

Yeah, you can translate that as gave to us. Yes, that's standard use but when you when you have

The same root being used only with only two words separating

The writer is probably attempting to communicate something there to the praise of his glorious grace

Which he with which he graced us in The beloved one in the beloved one in Christ.

It's singular It's not in the beloved as in the congregation or something like that It's in the beloved one.

So do you want to experience the grace of God? Do you want to You know possess that as your own

There's only one place to find it. And if you're looking for it any place else The empty tomb says you missed it

The empty tomb says you missed it Whoever you're believing whether it's

Muhammad or any of the other Buddha or Krishna or anybody else

Doesn't matter The empty tomb says here is where grace will be found and nowhere else

It's specific. It's powerful and it's not based upon man's accomplishment Now before getting into any more of this

Have you seen that none of this leaves a door open For open theism.

How can an open theist understand any of this? Are you really saying that That when

God created he had no idea he was got to do all this stuff But man, he came up with a pretty good pretty good plan afterwards

Really? How does that fit with before the foundation of the world all of the prophecies of?

What the Messiah was going to accomplish we could we could start Connecting all this stuff into how

Jesus is the prince of peace how he is the mighty God How he is the father of eternity

I mean you've got this these prophecies that we know beyond a shadow without were written hundreds of years before Jesus a

God who is just juggling things real well is Insufficient grounds for even what we've seen this far

Insufficient grounds But Time is passing us by verse 7 in whom

That is again in in Christ in the Beloved One we have

Redemption through his blood the forgiveness of trespasses according to the riches of his grace and so Spiritual blessings in heavenly places.

Well, how? Well because in him that spirit member the spiritual haven't blessings in heavenly places were for those who are in Christ If you're in Christ, then you have redemption through his blood you have the cross

Not mere potentiality not mere provision Only those who are in Christ have redemption through his blood

These are not words that can be said by the unbeliever in hell

After the Day of Judgment, oh I had redemption in Jesus Christ who

No, you didn't. Oh Well, what they means is the provision of redemption and they just simply didn't choose to accept it

Well now you're changing what redemption means and you're changing when it was accomplished in whom it was

Accomplished and what it actually means until some human action

Makes it transfer from mere potentiality to reality. Just think about what that means and What has had to be done to terms like?

redemption and propitiation and others by people trying to avoid Simply trying to avoid what the

New Testament teaches about God's role in these things But we have

Redemption through his blood. There is no other way to have redemption Then in a what's called in a positive phrase that is the forgiveness of our trespasses and What is the extent of that forgiveness?

according to the riches of his grace the fullness of full riches of His grace.

That's how wide and how deep and how effective his forgiveness is

So when when when we question the reality of his forgiveness when we say there are people beyond The capacity of of his redemption then we are limiting

God's grace But that grace in this text is

In perfect harmony with the intention going all the way back to chosen in him or the foundation of the earth

It's not just some peanut butter type thing It is true powerful grace it has to be if it's going to bring about the forgiveness of sins and That the riches of that grace which he has made to he's lavished and it's made to abound

Unto us. He didn't just give us a little bit. There's there's no room for quote -unquote prevenient grace

There is no room for that kind of I've described it before as the cellophane tape of Arminianism This is powerful grace

Which he has made to he's lavished on us. He's made it to abound unto us as this grace abounded

Unto those who live their lives and rebellion against God No, it doesn't it can

God can save anybody But the point again is if you make the us a universal us it turns this grace into a futile powerless thing and he's done this in all wisdom and knowledge

God The gospel is about how God glorifies himself the redemption of a particular people in Christ Jesus And the vast majority of presentations today.

It's the gospel is about us It's about what we do with a potentiality that has been offered to us.

Those are not the same things Those are not the same things It's dangerous to allow mankind to imbalance the gospel toward man

See the wisdom and understanding is God's wisdom understanding and it's going to be developed in Ephesians and Colossians that God is

Demonstrating his great power and might and his wisdom and his understanding in how he is bringing about redemption

How he's bringing about theodicy the justification of God's existence in light of evil. It's through redemption so in all and some people would say the in all wisdom and understanding is he made known to us or It could be made that he made that grace to abound to us in all wisdom again run on sentences

Interpretive difficulties He made known to us the mystery of his will

How? Well, he's done. So through the scriptures. He's done suit done.

So through the life ministry of Jesus Christ, he's done so through the outpouring of the

Holy Spirit and He wants us to know Because he has made this as a part of revelation

He has made known to us the mystery of his will Now this next section gets rather complicated

But again you have in verse 9 a kind intention

Which he purposed in Christ To make known to us the mystery of his will he doesn't want us to be ignorant.

He didn't have to do this But it is the kind Intention of God's will to make known to us what he has done in Christ.

Jesus. It is to make us filled with thanksgiving and that is with a view to an administration of the

That it is appropriate to the fullness of the times all of Christian history looks back on the cross as the center point of time everything before looks forward to the cross in fulfillment and So Jesus Christ becomes the one who sums up all things

So God is summing up bringing into headship All things in Christ things in heaven and things upon the earth everything in him well,

I'm gonna hold off on that sermon for just a moment because we're almost out of time and in Whom also we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of who the one

Working all things according to his will That is the

God that is big enough to sum up all things in the

God man Jesus Christ You've got to have a big God To be able to do this, you've got to have a big

God to be able to accomplish this And the description of the

God who at the beginning blesses chooses predestines adopts sums up all things in Christ Can only be described as the one who works all things after the counsel of his will not at the counsel of our will not

You've got to understand that if you hold the simple foreknowledge view

You're saying God acts in accordance with the counsel of his will and every one of his creatures

Because you're turning him into a reactor one who reacts to what that takes place in time the foundational assumption that makes sense of All of what

God does in Christ Jesus is that he is the God who works actively works

This is the term an air Gaia It's an air gun toss is the term found right here the one working all things according to the purpose of his will

Not man's will all things. Do you believe it's all things because once you start going well it's some things or it's all spiritual things or The problem is everything that's come before has involved

God's actions in time and If God's actions in time are reactive rather than the basis that they're rather than providential part of his decree

You turn the entirety of this thing on its head You turn it upside down That's the problem

The God who can accomplish the summing up of all things in Christ things in heaven and on earth

What did Jesus say before his ascension all authority has been given to me where in heaven and earth he knows

He's now the king. He's the one who is actively banishing his enemies Summing up of all things in Christ.

That is our hope folks But that hope is based upon having a

God who does not surrender his sovereignty To his creatures so as to not offend anybody according to Having been predestined according to his purpose who works all things after the council as well

I think it should be absolutely natural for any believer in Jesus Christ to rejoice in Hearing That description of God That's the

God that I want to serve that's the God that is worthy of my service he truly is well

We're out of time but That was somewhat of a response without engaging in the back -and -forth

Because it's just so foundational to be able to go to the word and this it is the coherence of Christian truth that is its ultimate proof to the believer who seeks that type of a proof what foundation the foundation you'll find is the fact that the

God who works all things after the council of his will is going to be consistent and This is what he has revealed to us.

It's a beautiful gospel I hope you have enjoyed walking through just these few verses. There's so much more to be said

We're gonna try to find some way of sneaking another program in later in the week

I think we should be able to do it on Thursday. We'll see But if you're in the Colorado area

Boulder tomorrow night Two sessions, I think it's six and eight on Mormonism I'm not mentioning tonight because it's probably too late for most people at this point, but I will be at Redemption Hills Church again tonight talking about What I started talking about on Sunday and then

Friday and On Sunday, I'll be down in the springs of Jason Lyle.

We have the information on the website Got to have dinner with Jason last night. We went out did some stargazing.

He had his Telescope set up. I had mine set up. We had a wonderful time looking at God's God's creation above us

And of course any time when you're with the smartest man in the world you get a

Encyclopedia download of information you really So it was it was exciting. So thanks for joining us on the program today