God's Great Blessings - The Father's Choice Ephesians 1:1-6.

Sometimes you get bogged down with the minutia of life. The Christmas bills that come in February, the car breaking down, the work deadline that looms ever closer all appear more important than they really are. One great antidote is to get out and climb a high hill and looking down from the heights on familiar sights that now seem so small in the bigger picture you gain a right perspective. We are going to explore one of the mountain peaks of the Bible and from it we are gong to see things again as God sees them. The great Dr Martin Lloyd Jones wrote of it, ''if the epistle to the Romans is the purest expression of the gospel, the epistle to the Ephesians is the sublimes and most majestic expression of it.'' We are going to see that Paul its author was profoundly affected by the truths he was conveying to the Ephesians and there are times in the letter where he is carried beyond himself and is lost in great outbursts of worship and praise and thanksgiving.

Now it is precisely because the letter to the Ephesians challenges us in regard to the way we see things that it is a letter of huge importance to all whether or not you are a Christian and already possess the benefits that are spoken of here. Because the letter makes us look at everything from a different angle. Most of us are naturally wretchedly subjective people who are always looking at things from our own point of view. We tend to be preoccupied with our felt needs, our me centred agenda. And in fact we are bombarded by messages that it is all about me. But after a time when we've bought or done the things that were meant to make us happy we are still left feeling that the whole business is terribly tired and superficial. And that is where the letter to the Ephesians and its symphonic theology speaks to where we are at because it tells us- it's not about me at all. It's all about God. It's all about his glory. Throughout this most lyrical of epistles Paul is emphasising that God saves people, not just for their personal benefit but first and foremost to bring praise and glory to God. Paul is seeking to expand the horizons of all of us who read this letter, he want to make us understand better what God's ultimate purposes for his universe including us are and to leave us in an attitude of praise.

This introductory section is a flowing account of the blessings that God gives pointing out as it goes along the wisdom and forethought and purpose of God in them all. In actual fact Paul gets so excited about what he has to say that he scarcely stops for breath. Verses 3 to 14 are actually all one single sentence in the Greek. Try reading it without stopping to get an idea of what is involved. The whole section recites what God has done and is a doxology of praise to him. And because it is so rich we are going to split it into three. Verses 3 to 6 we look at this morning deal with the work of the Father in choosing and adopting, verses 7 to 10 focus on the redeeming work of the Son and verses 11 to 14 on the hope that the Spirit brings.

The Greeting

Paul is writing to a church that was situated in one of the five major cities of the empire. Ephesus was a place where he had remained for a considerable time ?about 3 years and as Acts 20's description of his tearful farewell to the Ephesians elders Paul loved the people in the Ephesians church dearly. Nevertheless when he addresses them as the saints in Ephesus he is not indicating that they were a special breed of Christian. We sometimes use the word saint in that sense- you know he is a real saint. But saint simply means a believer a set apart one. One who is consecrated to God. In that sense every believer in Staffin and Kilmuir is a saint. We have been separated from our old way of life and been committed by God to a new Master and a new way of life. Faithful can mean the people who have faith and also the people who are proving themselves to be reliable. Here it probably includes both ideas. They are believers and their calling is to faithfulness. Paul designates himself as an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. Straightaway one of the key themes of the epistle is sounded. The sovereignty of God. Paul did not choose to become an apostle. He is an apostle by the will of God. That makes him a man under authority ? the authority of God and that in turn lends authority to what Paul writes. Toe these folk in Ephesus Paul wishes grace and peace. It was a conventional greeting in Greek that was now infused with new meaning by Christians as they greeted one another. Instead of shouting hi they had come to wish each other the blessings of Christ- grace and peace. May you fully know the free undeserved favour of God in your life and may you know His deep peace with God, peace in your heart peace with one another. What a lovely greeting!

Blessed in Christ

Paul now moves straightaway into top gear as he bursts out into praise to God the Father. God the Father is our Father but in a unique very different sense He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are not co-equals with God. The Son however is the Father's equal- same in substance equal in glory. This Father has been pleased to bless us in Christ in the heavenly realms with every kind of spiritual blessing. That phrase in the heavenly realms occurs five times in Ephesians. It is a reminder that as Paul says elsewhere our citizenship is in heaven. Christ is now seated by the Father's right hand and from there he is praying for us. This unseen realm is in many ways more real, more ultimate than the realm we see. Here there is an unseen spiritual warfare being waged over the lives of men and women. (See chapter 6) While not turning our backs on this world our identity as Christians is shaped by what we have received from heaven. And in the midst of the ups and downs of our lives on earth we need to be reminded of that. The late Ray Stedman tells the story of a Navajo Indian who had become rich because oil had been found on his property. He took all the money and put it in a bank. His banker became familiar with the habits of this old gentleman. Every once in a while the Indian would show up at the bank and say to the banker, "Grass all gone, sheep all sick, water holes dry." The banker wouldn't say a word -- he knew what needed to be done. He'd bring the old man inside and seat him in the vault. Then he'd bring out several bags of silver dollars and say, "These are yours." The old man would spend about an hour in there looking at his money, stacking up the dollars and counting them. Then he'd come out and say "Grass all green, sheep all well, water holes all full." He was simply reviewing his resources, that's all. That is where encouragement is found -- when you look at the resources which are yours, the riches, the facts which under gird your faith

1. Election

The first of these heavenly blessings is election. There was a plan made out in heaven whereby the Father chose us to be for his very own. '' For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us.'' This is where the doctrine of election belongs. Not in some dry intellectual debate but in a hymn of praise to God.

I'm not particularly concerned whether you understand it or not. I'm not even concerned whether right now you like it all that much. I am concerned that you believe it because it is a revealed truth. It is a divine truth- not something made up by man. And if you will give yourself space to believe and appreciate this truth then you will find as many have found before you that it is one of the most soul feeding, spirit liberating mind-expanding God glorifying truths that you will find in the Bible. God who is always in control of events and is never at the mercy of circumstances. Whose wisdom is so much higher than ours and is able to work out everything to the greatest praise of His name had a plan. Before he set the planets in motion. Before the earth came into being. God chose a people to be for himself. He planned to reach out and bestow mercy on a great company of people and he did so long ago. This plan was not an emergency measure that God made because something had come up. Our salvation is not an afterthought. It is part and parcel of God's ultimate purpose for the universe that he made and sustains.

Now because this is so it is quite clear that there is nothing that I have done to make God choose me. Some people try to make the teaching more understandable by saying that God's choice is based on his knowledge of the future. God sees the response that people are going to make to the gospel and on the basis of his knowledge of their choices he elects them to salvation. But that is not what the Bible teaches and it will not do. God must choose in advance to save and to send his Holy Spirit to give faith and repentance. You see left to our own devices there is noone who would ever choose Christ. Without God's Spirit to make us alive to the things of God we are dead in our sins and are never going to respond to the invitation to come to Christ.

Election brings security

Isn't it a relief to know that our salvation does not rely on anything that we have done. Look back on your life before you trusted Christ. There was nothing in it was there to make you a likely candidate for salvation. But more than that. I think of the struggles I have now. I think of the way that I make the same mistakes and disappoint myself never mind God and I am so glad that there is an eternal purpose working in my life. There is a hand of love on me. God's choice is made up and he moves heaven and earth to bring it to pass. His grace has triumphed over all the opposition of our sin and rebellion and over all the accusations of the evil one. God is for me and always has been. No matter how we may fail him, no matter how Satan may accuse or others criticise us God is for us. He has chosen us for His own- praise his name!

Election brings praise

Sometimes people caricature God's choice as being arbitrary ?a kind of salvation roulette. Robert Burns did that in one of his poems when he portrayed the God of election as a capricious God randomly assigning people to heaven or hell. But Paul tells us here that although the reason for God's choice is not within those he chooses, there is a reason. His choice gives him pleasure- it is according to his pleasure and will. An arbitrary capricious will is not a good and pleasing will. But God's choice has its own reasons. It works out in such a way that his glorious grace will be praised. You see the one thing that election will not allow us to do is to take any credit for our salvation. Even our response to the gospel is made possible by grace. Salvation is a gift from God and as an understanding of that dawns ever more fully on our souls so we are released as never before to worship to adore and to praise God.

Election brings holiness

Again some people who don't like the idea of not being allowed to contribute to their salvation complain that election is bound to make people indifferent to the way they live. Tell people that their salvation owes itself entirely to God, they say, and you will encourage moral laxity. People will say'' What does it matter? I'll be saved in the end anyway'' But our election in Christ is with a view to our being holy. The goal is that we might be holy and blameless in his sight.'' Those whom God elects he makes alive to Himself through His Holy Spirit. We are enabled by grace to hunger and thirst for a new holy way of life and by God's power we are more and more made able to please him. And so this great blessing of election results in our security praise and a renewed lifestyle. It is a huge blessing that every Christian has.

2. Adoption

Speaking of the blessing of being chosen by God leads Paul to go on almost automatically to speak another blessing, which is ours the blessing of adoption. By its very nature adoption begins when the adoptive parent choses that a particular child will be brought into the warmth of their family. There is an election a choice here in the sense that there is not with a natural birth. By adoption God makes us his children. He assures us that we are members of the family that he is indeed our Father and that Jesus his son is our elder brother. He gives us all of the privileges that come from adoption. Now in the times in which Paul lived a rich man who had no family might take someone on to carry on the family name and to receive his inheritance. There would be a day when in a special civil ceremony the person's legal connections with one set of parents would be broken and he would legally enter the family of his new father entitled to all the benefits of being his son. The adoptive parent would be careful in his screening process because he would want only the best pedigree to be incorporated into the family. He would want someone who had shown himself to be honest and hardworking respectful and talented. But God adopts people who have no credentials to commend themselves to him. So there is a great contrast between God's adoption and human adoption in Paul's day. But there are many similarities. Just as adoptive parents look forward to the coming of a child into the home so too God has anticipated with love our coming into his family. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons.

What a blessing it is to come into the atmosphere of God's love. When a person becomes a Christian he enters into the family. God does not keep us waiting in the hallway- he brings us right into the family sitting room and draws us to the fireside. We know a nearness through belong to Christ that is quite remarkable considering our past lives and our present failings. You see God has placed us in Christ. This grace of adoption Paul tells us is ''freely given us in the One he loves. '' To be united to Jesus by faith is to share the Father's affection for His Son. You are bound up with the One he loves. And so now God is your Father his dealings with you are never judgments but are chastisements designed to draw you nearer to him. Now that God is your Father you have a new boldness to approach him the Holy Spirit enabling you to address Him as Abba Father. Now God is your Father you have an inheritance to look forward to in glory.

There are blessings now but they are only a foretaste. That incidentally is why the term sons is used. In Roman times it was only the son who had a share in the inheritance and Paul is making the point that we all male and female have an inheritance. And as children of the living God we are called to life together. Adoption teaches us to see our fellow Christians as our brothers and sisters in the family of God an amazing family drawn from all nations and generations.

These then are the first of the amazing blessings that God has granted every Christian. Are you living in the light of them? Yes they are unseen but they are so much more real than the things that bother you right now which are tangible and visible. Let me invite you this morning to go like that Indian chief into the treasury of God's riches and remind yourself of how good things are. These are the things which are truly substantial which really count, which endure forever. Praise be to God!