I mentioned this morning the plan in these evening services next few weeks is to consider the subject of union with Christ Jesus. It really is a central and vital subject to understand our standing before God and our spiritual life. In fact, it's so central that a lack of understanding in this will lead to many, many other problems. We've seen certain aspects of union with Christ in more recent studies. You see it in John 15 in the picture of the vine and the branches. We saw this morning in Romans 16 with regards to the church. Also back months ago now, years ago now in Romans chapter 6 in terms of our union with Christ and his death, burial and resurrection. So it comes up regularly in terms of just regular sequential Bible teaching. But all of those passages really just deal with one aspect of union. One aspect or another. So I thought it would be useful to have some time set aside to really consider this subject more topically. Now, bear with me tonight. Tonight may feel a lot more like a Bible class, a Sunday morning Sunday school class than it may feel like a Sunday evening, but may God help us to understand this subject more fully. Let me read to you some words of A.W. Pink on the subject. He says this. The present writer has not the least doubt in his mind that the subject of spiritual union is the most important, the most profound, and yet the most blessed of any that is set forth in the sacred scriptures. And yet, sad to say, there is hardly any which is now more generally neglected. Again, every preacher has a tendency, perhaps, to make their present topic the most important. You want your hearers to be engaged and to think, well, I've got to really listen to this one. This is going to change my life. So yes, we allow perhaps Pink some degree of hyperbole in his language, but it is so central that he's a tremendously important point to make here. And he's also rightly believed to say it is more generally neglected. I mean, if you've heard subjects preached on the union with Christ, well, I suppose in this congregation you will have heard that over the years. That's not necessarily commonplace. Pink continues, the very expression spiritual union is unknown in most professing Christian circles. He's writing a long time ago. I'm not sure if that's true in this area or not, but if you take the word Christian in a very broad sense, you'll find very, very few people understanding anything of the nature of spiritual union. He continues, even when it is employed, it is given such a protracted meaning as to take in only a fragment of this precious truth. Probably, and here's a key point, probably it's very profundity is the reason why it is so largely ignored in this superficial age. Here I put my hand up and say guilty. Personally and pastorally, I probably put off doing a proper full study on the subject of union with Christ. Because you are swimming in very deep waters at times. How are we to understand? How we, flesh and blood, creatures and sinners, are brought into genuine, living, real spiritual union with the Son of God. And we struggle to even begin to understand what that might look like. Oh, and so yes, the Lord in His kindness gives us metaphors to help us understand it. The vine and the branches, the husband and the wife. And we have pictures to use to help us understand the nature of this, but it is profound and deep. And in fact, from my perspective, when I began to understand this more fully, I really struggled to grasp the fullness of it. I often saw union as a legal, federal issue. So Christ is our representative head. He dies in a room instead and so I'm united to him federally or legally. And then ignore the spiritual or the mystical aspect taught in John 15. So which is it? Is our union with Christ legal? Or is it spiritual? And of course it's both and yet more. There is so much involved in this matter of union with Christ Jesus that it is indeed, as Pink says, a subject of great profundity. He continues. Yet there are still a few left who are anxious to enter into God's best. Is that you tonight? Have you become content in your spiritual knowledge? You've kind of got the point. You understand the shorter catechism. So I probably have got enough to do me now. And you lack the burden. You had it years ago, but perhaps it's gone cold. And you lack the burden to understand new things, to go deep into the Word of God. Again, I trust that's not the case. I trust your burden is to know God's best. And he continues, So may that be our experience here. Maybe dig into the Word of God to understand what does it mean to be in Christ? Now the importance of this doctrine is highlighted by the language actually of our Shorter Catechism. I didn't mean to disparage our Catechism when I said that we've got enough if we've got that. Our Shorter Catechism is very very profound and in question 30 it says this. The answer is this. The Spirit applyeth to us the redemption purchased by Christ by working faith in us and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling. When you learn the catechism sometimes, and young people, you're doing the catechism in your Sunday school and you learn the catechism answers and the questions. Sometimes when it comes to the answers, the part that repeats the question, is the part that you're not so keen to learn. Because you hear the question, the Sunday school teacher asks you the question and you hear that question and you go, oh there's a bonus start. How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ? Just listen to the depth of that question. Christ Jesus has purchased redemption for sinners. He came into the world to do all that's required to purchase and provide redemption for those who would seek Him. And the question is, how does the Spirit do that? By working faith in us and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling. How important is this subject? Your soul depends upon the truth of the subject. If this is true, and we'll prove it is true over the coming weeks, the Catechism has got the right understanding of the word of God, that we receive Christ's redemption as we are united to Christ by faith in our calling. We understand those things, but the point is this, union with Christ is everything. If we're not in Christ, we have nothing. If we're not in Christ, we are nothing. We're either in Christ or out of Christ, but out of Christ there is no hope. So we see the importance of the subject in that regard. Again, the larger catechism, question 66, what is that union which the elect have with Christ? The union which the elect have with Christ is the work of God's grace. whereby they are spiritually and mystically, yet really and inseparably joined to Christ as their head and husband, which is done in their effectual calling. And so what is our union? It is the fact that we're joined to Christ. And I will return to those questions and answers in the coming weeks, I'm sure. And we'll come to consider the means and the method of our union with Christ and all the glorious outcomes. But tonight we have to go back a step. In union with Christ is everything. Outside of Christ, no salvation. But tonight, we're going to go back to our text here in Ephesians 1 and begin here. Verse 4, according as he hath chosen us in him. You see, our answers to the catechism have said to us, that the Spirit of God works faith in us, thereby uniting us to Christ. And so you may be forgiven for thinking that your union with Christ is something that happens in time and space as you come to know Christ. And that is true in one aspect. But the union with Christ that we come to enjoy temporally, has an origin that is eternal. You see, election and union with Christ are linked truths. Verse three says, we are blessed with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Him. Or in light of, or if you like, even because He's chosen us in Him. Those chosen by the Father in the Son are those who come to know these spiritual blessings. So John Murray puts it this way, the fountain of salvation itself is the eternal election of the Father in Christ. The fountain of salvation comes out of this eternal election of the Father in Christ Jesus. The Father elected, says Murray, elected from eternity, but he elected in Christ. We are not able to understand all that's involved, but the fact is plain enough that there was no election of the Father in eternity apart from Christ. That means that those who will be saved were not even contemplated by the Father in the ultimate counsel of his predestined love apart from union with Christ. They were chosen in Christ. As far back as we can go in tracing salvation to its fountain we find union with Christ. It is not something tacked on that is there from the outset. So I hope by now you appreciate the importance of the subject. You certainly see here that this connection with our union with Christ to election must be understood and studied. So let's begin by noting in this text the basic truths of divine election. You have these words in verse number four, Here's the very basics of divine election. Again, a subject that certainly causes confusion and no shortage of controversy, but it's very plain. It's written large here in this text. Again, to deny divine election, you've got to cut these verses out of your Bible. And what a dreadful thing that would be to do. So what are the basic principles? Well, I've got four questions. What, who, when and why. What? Chosen us in him. It is a word for choice. It's used for Christ's choice of the apostles. It's used for the choice of the seven deacons in Acts chapter 6. It is a word that speaks of selection. Indeed, in the derivation of the word in the original, it has the prefix out of, chosen out of. It is a selection, a choice. across to Mark chapter 13, and you'll see two terms used in close connection that indicates the meaning of the word to choose, or the word elect. Mark chapter 13, verse number 20. Again, forgetting the particular details of the text, I just want to show you the way the words are used. It's referring to the end of the age, except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved. But then he's going to describe what is true for the elect, but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen. It couldn't be any clearer, could it? That the elect are those who are chosen. There is a selection involved here. There's a choice involved. In fact, when it comes to Christ himself, in 1 Peter 2, verse 4, Christ is referred to as one chosen of God. And then in verse number six as elect. So any trouble you have with election, you can't get rounded by changing the meaning. It does mean choice and selection. A choice made. Well, by whom? That's the second question. What is it? It's a choice. Who made the choice? The Father. Verse number three of our text, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Him. Again, you've got your various pronouns there. According as He, again, refers to the Father. Chosen as Him refers to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father chose us in the Son. We believe the Bible teaches that God is one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You deny that, you're not a Christian. The very, very fundamental of the Christian message, one God, three persons. And so the three persons of the one Godhead, they act in union, in unison, in every action. It's a theological principle, but the Bible describes various acts being particular to the individual persons. So whilst the Father does not choose us outside his union with the Son and the Spirit, yet it's particularly for the work of the Father in this election. Blessed be the God and Father as he has chosen us in him. I don't think this is a big issue in this congregation, but it may be in some. This underscores the truth. that the Father does not come to love us because the Son loves us first. If we are loved by the Son, we are also loved by the Father. And so you see the father in election. In fact, there are those who suggest grammatically verse number four that ends in the two words in love. Those two words in love actually maybe connect to the next verse around the previous in love having predestined at us. So it's a debate there, but there's certainly love involved in our election. And it's a love of the father he has for us. I'll come back to say more of that later on this evening. And so yes, the father and the son working in unity and in unison, but yet the father being the one who is attributed as the one who does this work of election, choice and selection. So that's the what, choice, who, the father, when, before the foundation of the world, eternally, before time begins, before birth, before this world is created, I don't have time tonight to go into the details of this, but just to mention again that the Bible teaches us there is an eternal counsel of redemption between the three persons of the Godhead. Before time began, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, they counseled together to save mankind from their sin. To work in such a way, the Father sending the Son, the Son appointed to be the Savior, the Spirit then the one appointed sent forth from Father and Son to apply that redemption. You know these things in terms of the history of redemption, but those things begin before time began. Now it leads to many questions, but those questions are not solved by denying the truth of the statement. The love that the Father has for us precedes time itself. Fourthly, why? Well, the what's again, choice, the who, the Father, when, before the foundation of the world, the why, what's the purpose of it? That we should be holy and without blame before him. It is that eternal purpose of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit dwelling with the redeemed, a holy redeemed who are before him, the community of the redeemed. If you like the eternal kingdom of God, where God dwells in the midst of those who are holy, we saw this morning, the holy calling, that work in our hearts that gives a holy nature that's then perfected in our redemption. I say that because the choice that God has made of the elect includes everything that leads up to that end. And sometimes we have this idea of God making a choice, but everything else is going to depend upon men and men's actions and men's will. The Father choose to save, but we've got to exercise our free will and make sure that we agree with God and then come to the Father. Again, such thinking does not do honor to the Bible's teaching here. If the end of God's election is that we're holy and blameless, then God is gonna guarantee that everything happens to lead to that point. So there can be no lost elect souls. There can be no elect souls who don't come to faith in Christ, who aren't born again, who aren't justified by the blood of Christ. You know these things. but we're seeing them reinforced here. That's not our purpose tonight though. It's just setting the foundation of this text. The basics, the basic principles are here regarding divine election, which leads secondly to the basis of our election. Why? In this sense, what's the foundation of our election? Well, it is in those two words in verse number four, in him. That's the foundation and the ground of the election of sinners by the father. Again, when I've emphasized that election is indeed a word that denotes selection, far too often election is viewed as some sort of random selection process. Again, I remember reading some books against the doctrine of divine election that had that idea involved. They build the straw man. It's easy to build a straw man and knock him down. So they build a straw man and they say, well, you reform people. You teach that God just says, you're in, you're out, you're in, you're out. It's kind of random selection process. That paints a picture of a callous view of God. A God who's not involved, if you like, with his heart. Again, we see here in verse number nine of our text that it is according to God's good pleasure that these things come to pass. It's not a God who is heartless and disinterested. It is a God who is a God of pristine character and compassion who engages work of divine election. See, the Father chose a people to save, a people to redeem, who did not deserve that grace and that privilege. It had to be in Christ, as there could be no other reason, no other grounds, whereby they could be before Him. You see, His choice, of sinners, the choice of God in an election is a choice that occurs in His purpose to save a people. One, if you like, one single purpose of God, to redeem a people that would dwell with Him in eternity, bringing glory to His name. And so the union, the spiritual union of the elect to the Son mentioned here, chosen us in Him, that spiritual union is vital to understand the doctrine of divine election. God appoints and glorifies the Son, that the Son would be Savior. And as the Father determines to glorify the Son, so He gives the Son a people to save. And in their salvation, the son is glorified. And the father has this eternal purpose to bring glory, as verse number six says, to the praise of the glory of his grace. For God's own purpose, he chooses to glorify himself in this great act of redemption. So God chooses a savior and a people to save. Saved, sinners, having a savior, all part of the sovereign purpose of God. Again, I understand the question often comes, why would God choose to save a great multitude, but not all men? Why would he save a multitude that no man can number and yet not choose all? Well, there's certainly a mystery involved in this. Warfield, he makes the point that God acts as a judge who need not deliver any. Rather than a doctor who should heal all that he can. So we're looking at a just judge here who's seeing men in their sin who need not save any. Not as a physician in this instance who should heal all that he can. Well, that illustration again has some pros and cons, but it's certainly helpful. I personally think we just rest with the words of Christ. Back in Matthew chapter 11, Christ makes it very, very clear that where do you go when it comes to divine election? How do you answer all the questions? How do you wrestle through the difficulties? Matthew 11 and the verse number 25 and 26 gives us Christ's answer. He's referred to verse number 25, the Father has hidden these things from the wise and prudent and has revealed them to babes. Why not reveal them to the wise and the prudent as well as to babes? Why not reveal it to all mankind? Well, because verse number 26 says, even so Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. That's what it comes down to. If that does not satisfy you, then you have no heart to be satisfied by the words of Christ. These are Christ's own words. But I'm certainly arguing in Ephesians 1 that the rationale behind the choice of sinners is a choice to glorify the Son. Everything's going to come out of this, and we'll come to this later on, but His choice is seen in connection with love for His Son. according as they've chosen us in him, God's love for his son. So we're asking the question, what's the base of divine election? Well, first of all, it's God's love for his own son. God first chose his son. He is, if you like, the first elect. Now, we're talking eternity here. We're not talking first in terms of a chronological sequence. But first and priority, Christ is chosen. Again, you have that language in Isaiah 42. And the election of Christ is seen in Isaiah 42 alongside with the love the Father has for the Son. Isaiah 42 verse 1, "...behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth." Quoted in Matthew chapter 12 as being fulfilled in Christ Jesus. And so Jesus as the elect of God is the one in whom the Father's soul delights. And so the basis of our election is the Father loves the Son. And thus, election is the Father's plan and purpose to bring glory and exalt the Son. That's the first purpose of election, is to glorify the Son. And then secondarily, it is for the good of sinners. We're so twisted in our minds, we put this back to front all the time. Oh yeah, it's all for the good of the sinner, of course it is, but primarily it is for the glory of the Son. The base of our election is God's love for His Son and then secondarily God's love for the sinner. The words are remarkable. Ephesians chapter 1, Think of the love the Father has for the Son. And then contemplate the Father's willingness to bring creatures into union with the Son. Leaving aside the issue of sin here, but that the Creator would bring creatures into this intimate spiritual union is itself amazing. And then you add on sin to that, and it's beyond our comprehension. And so the basis is the Father's love for the Son, and then the Father's love for us in that we're brought into union with the Son, that love that is free and unmerited. Before the foundation of the world, we've done nothing to earn God's favor. A love that is full, the great privilege of being brought into union with the triune God through Christ Jesus. A love that is functional as he sends his Son and love into the world. The basis of divine election, it is in Christ Jesus. And that makes all the difference. The Father loves the Son and loves us in the Son. Now, there are some very important principles here of application. When the clouds roll in over your head in life, and you find yourself struggling to go forward day by day, and you wonder Does the Father love me? You need to remember this truth. The Father only loves you because you are in Christ. And because he loves you in Christ, that love doesn't change. in union with Christ in that sense. And what a wonderful privilege that is to be loved with an everlasting love. You see those here tonight perhaps who are sinners outside of Christ. Here we're seeing the truth that God before time began in the eternal wisdom of God understands that there will be never any salvation outside of Christ. The Bible is teaching us here there is no other name given among men whereby you must be saved. Salvation's only found in connection with Christ Jesus. There's no hope elsewhere. No other religion, no other faith, but only in Christ Jesus. It doesn't make me proud and arrogant. It makes me preach the Bible. There can be no other way, no other means of salvation if God says it's only in him. And so for the saints of God, If we are chosen in him, we must never ever claim to have any merit in ourselves. The minute you begin to suggest that you in some way merited God's electing favor, you're denying the merit of Christ. It had to be in Christ wholly because we had nothing to gain the merits of God. In Christ means nothing in us. It's not a syncretistic election here. Something in Christ and something in us. It's not foreseen obedience or foreseen faith. It's nothing in man. It's all, it's all in Christ Jesus. And so when you keep in mind the purpose of God, what's the basis of our election? The love of the Father for the Son, it's in Christ. Therefore, the Father's purpose is to give all the glory to the Son. We must not rob Christ of his glory in any way, claiming some merit in ourselves. Begone all that pride notions in false doctrine and sometimes in a bad spirit within our own souls. And we think we're doing God some favor. seeking to follow him in this world. It's all of God's grace, it's all for Christ's glory. The basis of divine election. We cease sternly and finally tonight, the blessings that come from divine election. Verse three, again, is proven by verse four. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he has chosen us in him. Now here, I really need you to, it's been a long day, Give yourself a bit of a shake. You need to think very, very carefully here. We need to take great care in the language we use at this point. And the various ways in the Bible in which the language of union is used. You see how verse three leads and connects to verse number four. Eternal election in Christ. The language of the believer, the sinner in union with Christ before foundation of the world does not teach eternal salvation. It doesn't teach that we're eternally called or eternally justified, eternally saved. The Bible teaches the need for the sinner to come into union with Christ in time. Raymond, the theologian says this, the scriptures will not permit us to believe That because God elected certain people in Christ from all eternity, they have therefore always enjoyed the fullness of this favor in history. And that for them, there is no transition from wrath to grace in history. and never stress the eternal election of God to such an extent that it reduces to zero significance the reality of creation, history, which God providentially orders and governs. It is only when the sinner is brought to faith in Christ by their effectual calling, that the elect actually become partakers of Christ and of the salvific blessings of his cross work. Just give your head a scratch. What's he getting at here? Well, we might look at this and say that if we are eternally elect in Christ, then nothing matters in time and space and history. But the blessings of verse number three, who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly place in Christ, according as they have chosen us in him, indicates that the practice of God in blessing us in time occurs because of the eternal purpose of God before time. I get these things are hard to understand, but they're taught in the word of God. And we must not get to the point we see election in such a way as we deny the necessity of sinners coming to faith in Christ Jesus. You may not get there, but some have. The blessings are given in Christ to those loved in Christ, but those who are elect in Christ before the foundation of the world are actually brought into union with Christ. So let's consider this carefully. Look what it says, verse number three again. Who has blessed us according as he had chosen us. Who's us here? Well, it's Paul and the Ephesians at the very least. By implication, it's all the saints, but let's just leave it with Paul and the Ephesians for now. Well, how does Paul describe them? Verse number one of chapter two. And you have the quickened who were dead in trespass and sins. They're dead in sin. Verse number three. And where by nature, the children of wrath, even as others, Verse number 12 of chapter 2, that at that time, this is key, ye were without Christ. Those words, ye were without Christ, should not be read in the way that you did not have Christ, but rather, ye were apart from Christ. You were outside of Christ. Thereby you were a stranger from the covens of promise. You were without God and without hope in the world. That's what they were. But it's all in the past. Yet they were elect in Christ. But at a point in time whilst they were chosen in him before the foundation of the world, at a point in time they were apart from Christ and they were apart from Christ for a season. But not now. So you have all the language here of Ephesians chapter 1 verse number 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood. They have salvation and redemption now in their union with Christ. But see the language of verse number 13. In whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth. Chapter two, verse 12, you're apart from Christ. Chapter one, verse 13, you trusted into Christ. There's a change involved here. Why do I mention that? Well, because you find yourself in this congregation tonight apart from Christ does not mean you're not elect. You're in this gathering, perhaps, you're watching on, listening in, and you think to yourself, I wonder if I'm elect. You think, well, I have no interest in the gospel. I have no interest in Christ Jesus. I don't get all of these things. I mustn't be elect. There was a time when there were elect sinners in Ephesus who had not even heard the word of truth, verse number 13. But they were still elect. There are elect souls, I venture to suggest, in Pennsylvania who have not yet heard the word of truth. And their present status does not indicate their eternal status in the presence of God. So you may have people in your life and you fear maybe they're not elect. Their present status does not give infallible grounds for you to determine their eternal status. Those who are elect are those who in time and space are quickened in Christ and come to faith in Christ. So this passage makes it clear that there is no salvation outside election. The only ones who come before God holy and without blame are those who are chosen in Christ Jesus. There is no salvation outside the sovereign election of God. Election is necessary. But you don't need to know your elect before coming to Christ. You just need to come to Christ. This passage shows us that every spiritual blessing is found in Christ Jesus. It's your obligation as a hearer of the Word of God is to come into union with Christ Jesus. It is to trust in Christ in the language of verse 12 and 13, who first trusted in Christ, in whom he also trusted. After that you hear the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. So we're gonna see much more about union with Christ, and we're gonna look at it much more from the temporal aspect, the aspect of time and space. How does God bring a sinner into union with his son? That's what we're gonna look at. But it doesn't begin there. It begins in the sovereign election of God the Father, choosing sinners in Christ Jesus. Not of ourselves, not of our merit, but only of God and only of grace. So we leave here tonight humbled again, I trust, thankful, that God in his kindness would set his love upon us. I just marvel, what am I doing in church tonight? I didn't deserve it, you didn't deserve it. You're here because of God's grace. So you give God all the praise, all the thanks, and all the glory. That is God's eternal purpose, that he would have all the glory, and his son having the preeminence. Let's close in order of prayer. Eternal God and Father, we do pray for your help and your grace as we try to grapple with this important subject. Father, we know there are things tonight that really are beyond our comprehension, and we pray you'd help us and enable us, O God, to go deeper in the Word of God, to understand more of these things by your will and according to your kindness. So give us the help in our studies and as we move forward in the material, we pray again for help that we would value more and more all that Christ is for us. That outside of Christ there's nothing, but in Christ there's everything. Help us therefore to delight in the Savior week by week. You give us the grace, O Lord, to value our relationship with the Son. Thank you for this time in your house today. Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to study the word, lead us and guide us into truth. As we go, may your blessing come with us. Help us to walk humbly, to give you all the praise and all of the glory in Jesus' name.