Please turn in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians chapter 1. We're going to read verses 3 to 14 from chapter 1 this morning as we conclude our brief series on the five solas of the Reformation. Last week was the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. And it's not just the church that's celebrating it. We have several events on the campus last week to actually acknowledge. I guess celebrating is probably not the right word. Acknowledging that it happened on the campus. We had a great turnout for our Reformation night on Tuesday and had around 85 people here to celebrate in the congregation, which was really encouraging. Now, we've been talking about these five Latin phrases that have sometimes been used to summarize the main teaching of the Reformation. And so we've looked at sola scriptura, the concept of the scripture alone as our ultimate guide in terms of how we know things about God. And then sola gratia, by grace alone we're saved as a gift from God. Sola fide, by faith alone, it is our faith that saves us, not any activities we do. And then last week we looked at, what did we look at? Oh, Christ alone, of course, yeah, solus Christus, Christ alone. And so it is by Christ alone that we're saved. And now today we finish off looking at the final of the five, which is soli deo gloria, to God alone be the glory. And we'll try to explain how that came out of Reformation teaching. I could think of no better passage to illustrate this, though, than this first part of Ephesians chapter 1. So let's give attention now to God's Word. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory?" And there we'll end the reading of God's Word. May He bless His Word to us this morning. Well, as we've been studying, the Protestant Reformation restored some biblical concepts that had kind of been lost over the time of the Middle Ages. And the reason these things were called solas is because they were contrasting one thing against an option which included various things. So scripture alone is saying that the Bible alone is the final arbiter of truth with regard to God. It's not the Bible plus what the church says. It's the Bible alone. that makes the teaching unique. And similarly, saying salvation is by faith alone and by grace alone is to highlight it's not grace plus our efforts, it's not faith plus how hard we try, it's those things alone. that save us. And so it's not that these concepts have been completely lost, it's that highlighting the uniqueness of these things had been lost. And so when it became understood that the Scriptures were teaching salvation as a gift of God through faith in Christ alone, that frees people from a system in which you are running on a treadmill all your life trying to do certain things to secure your eternal redemption. And so it's tremendously liberating. But another thing that happened in the Reformation was a profound change in the way people view God and God's role in salvation. And I think if anything speaks to the challenges of our day, and I mean in the church in our day, this is the item. And this is at the heart of the Reformation, is understanding that God's plan of salvation is not fundamentally about you. or me. It's not a human-centered thing. It's about Him and His glory. And we can't understand and we can't fully appreciate what our salvation is until we realize that salvation is all of God's work. It's not God's work plus something else. It's God alone. And because it's God alone, He alone gets the glory for it. And we have to recognize there's a tremendous impulse in us to try to chisel out a little piece where we get some credit, where we have some contribution to make in our salvation. And that's an ongoing battle for us, frankly. And against that, we have this passage in Ephesians which shows us so thoroughly that your salvation is the work of the Triune God from beginning to end. And because that's the case, He gets the glory alone. And it is impendent upon us to live as those who are living for His glory alone. And that's the burden of this message. Since salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, God alone gets the glory for it. And so you and I need to live for His glory alone. Right? It's the alone part that's important. It's not His glory and my glory. It's His glory alone. And children, if you'd like to draw a picture this morning, I'd have you draw a triangle, and at the tip of each point, I'd have you write the name of one of the persons in the Trinity. And then off to the side, I want you to draw what is it that each person in the Trinity is responsible for in your salvation. And see if you can draw that without trying to draw God. We're not trying to draw God. We're trying to draw what God does and how he works. And if you'd like to follow along, there is an outline in the bulletin. There's a number of cross-references I'll be referring to that you can find there as well. The first thing I want us to see is that if you are in Christ, God has given you every spiritual blessing. So Paul here beginning his letter to the church in Ephesus. And it's really interesting because the preliminaries get dispensed with very quickly. In verse 1 he says it's Paul and that he's addressing the saints who are at Ephesus. In verse 2 he says, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in the beginning of verse 3 he just absolutely launches. He just launches, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. And he goes on here for 202 words in the original language without a pause. There's no punctuation in the original. This is one sentence that's 202 words long where he piles on adjective and phrase after adjective and phrase to describe the work of God. And recognize what he's doing here as he writes this letter to this church, is that he meditates for just a second, on how it comes to be that there even is a church in Ephesus, or any place else for that matter. How can there be such a thing as a church where people there worship God faithfully? And then it just goes like a fire hose in terms of his praise and his admiration for the God who has saved us. I suppose this would be like if you asked a child who was at Reformation Night, you know, what happened at Reformation Night? Well, first we ate, and there were all these people there, and we had a lot of food. And then Mr. Holman talked a little bit about the Reformation. And then we got to do it, we were in a skit, and we did the skit, and we acted, and I played the part of Tetzel, and this is what we did, and we said this, and we said that, and then we played these games, and we did this obstacle course, and we climbed up, and we climbed down, and then we got candy, and then we went and saw a movie, and you can just see it all flows out. And this is sort of exact and it all runs together. Right. And the and the and the organization isn't entirely clear, although we'll see there is a structure here. And that's really what Paul's doing. He just he's just letting go when he thinks about how great God is. And verse three is a good summary, because blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who's blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. So the first thing he's doing is describing who you are. If you're a Christian this morning. Who are you? You are a person who has been given blessings. Good things. And it says not just that you've been given blessings, but you've been given spiritual blessings. So these are blessings not just in this life, but in the spiritual realm. And he goes on to say that they're heavenly spiritual blessings. They're permanent. They last forever. And then, I think even more incredibly, He says, every spiritual blessing. Do you believe that? That God has given you every spiritual blessing. There's not one thing He could give you that He hasn't given you. That's what He's saying. Not one thing. And how has He given them? He's given them all in Christ. in Christ. Eleven times in this passage I read, Paul writes, in Him or in Christ. You've been given by the God of heaven blessings that can never be taken away. Everybody wants blessings for their family, for themselves. We want a good job. We want a good place to live. We want a safe environment, safe neighborhood. We want opportunities. All these things that we want. And he's saying here, above all of that, God has given you eternal blessings that you can never ever lose. And they're all given to you in Christ. In Christ. You don't have them any other way. You have them in Christ. And if you are connected to Jesus Christ by faith, all the stores of heaven are yours. They're yours. And that's what Paul's saying. You have these in Christ. So our starting point is to recognize what it means to be a Christian. It means to have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. But secondly, if you're in Christ, how is it that you're in Christ? And this is what he begins to talk about. You're in Christ because God the Father has chosen you. And he says this in verses 4 to 6. You see in verse 4, he says, just as He chose us in Him. How did you get to be in Christ? He chose you in Christ. That's how it happened. Now the word chosen there literally means to select from among a number, to choose for some purpose. And implied, clearly implied, is the ability not to choose or the ability to choose a different one. And they're saying God had a choice and he chose particular people. And Paul is celebrating this fact. And what he's saying is that the reason they are in Christ is because God has chosen them, not because they've chosen God. Jesus told the disciples, you did not choose me, I chose you. And this is true for all of us, that God is the initiator in making this choice. This is made abundantly clear in the text because the verse goes on to tell us when the choice was made, right? He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. So before anything was made, God had determined that you, if you're one of His people, would be one of His people. And when you were actually born and came into the world, it was with all that in mind, right? So God knows what family you have, what nation you live in, what time you live in, what influences are on you, and he works with that. Sometimes he works despite that. to bring you into His family. And this is why Paul says in verse 5 that those who are chosen have been predestined. He says it again in verse 11, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will. The word predestined just means to decide beforehand. But here he's applying it to being chosen, or what we might say the doctrine of election. Which is to say that God has chosen whom to save beforehand. God's chosen a lot of things beforehand, but in this case he's chosen whom he would save beforehand. And this is clearly what Paul is saying. Now, you have to understand, God is often criticized at this point. I should say Paul is criticized more. And they say, Paul, you know, that's not fair. God needs to save everyone, or at least try to save everyone. But of course the issue isn't that God doesn't save everyone. The issue is that God saves anyone. Because the scripture makes it abundantly clear that we are lost And as it says in Romans 3, I put that in your cross references there, that there is no one who understands, none who seeks after God. They've all turned aside. They've together become unprofitable. There is none who does good. No, not one. There's not one person who seeks after God on their own. We've all turned away. And yet God has still chosen to save some. And for what purpose has he chosen to save some? Well, it says there that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself. And this is so amazing that God chooses sinners and chooses that they would be adopted into His family. That they would be a part of the family of God. And that this was His eternal plan from the beginning. You're not some afterthought to God. That God, before He made anything, had you in mind to be a part of His family. And He was committed to bringing you there. Now many Christians don't like this teaching. It's interesting, right? Predestination is a Bible word. We just see it twice in this passage. So every Christian has to have some concept of what it means. And what many Christians have done, they say, well, what this really means is that God looks through time and sees who would believe in Him, and then He chooses those who He knows would choose Him, which is sort of to make the plain meaning of the words mean exactly the opposite of what they mean, isn't it? So it goes from God choosing who to save to God choosing who he saw would choose him to save. Which is not predestination, it's post-destination. I don't think that's a word. But you get the point. And I know that makes some people feel better in some way about this doctrine, which they feel is somewhat exclusive. But recognize, if God didn't choose to actively save, there would be no one saved. And what this means is if two people stand before God in eternity, and one of them's a believer and one of them's not a believer, The reason one of them is a believer is not because that person was smarter, more clever, had better parents, was a better close reader of texts or whatever. There's nothing like that. See, if there's any part in which we played prior to God's choosing us, then we have something to boast about, don't we? But the scripture is absolutely adamant that we have nothing about which to boast. because it wasn't about things we were bringing to the table. It was about God's, as it says here, purpose, and will, and desire. And what's so fascinating is this is why God gets all the glory. Right? Because we are not sharing in this work with them. Look at what he says in 1 Corinthians 1, 27-29. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. And the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, God has chosen, and the things which are not. to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. And if you think you're saved because of something you are, or did, or would have done, then you have a reason to boast. And he says, there is no human being that can boast or take glory in my presence. It's all mine. It's all mine, because salvation is all His work. And this should be a tremendously comforting doctrine to you. Because if you're here believing in Christ today, it's because from all eternity past, God had ordained that would be. He made you with this in mind and set His love on you as one of His own children. So if you are in Christ, it is because the Father has chosen you. And the third thing we see here is that if you're in Christ, it's because the Lord Jesus has redeemed you by His blood. How is it that sinners, we are sinners, right? How can we be adopted into the family of God? I put in your notes there, Isaiah 59 verse 2, your iniquities have separated you from your God and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He will not hear you. Sin separates us from God. You can't be a member of God's family and be a sinner. The only way this can happen is if the sin is removed. In the Old Testament, this happened again and again, where the worshiper would bring the animal to the tabernacle, to the temple, and put the hand on the animal's head, signifying your sins being transferred to the animal, and the animal would be slaughtered in your place, and burned in the fire. And all of that was a picture of what Jesus Christ was going to do for His people. to be that final sacrifice who took the sin upon himself, who lost his life and was slaughtered, and who went into the flames of God's wrath for his people. And this is what the text tells us in verse 7 and following in him again We have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace This is why we can be called his son and sons and daughters and why we can be accepted in the beloved as it said back in verse 6 were accepted in the Beloved. So God the Father, what we're saying here, chose some for eternal life. God the Son came and died in place of those people chosen from all times. Jesus didn't die for all people indiscriminately in the hope that someone would be safe. He didn't die to make salvation possible. He died to actually save people. This is why it says, we have redemption through His blood. His blood saves. His sacrifice saves His people. And if Christ died for you, then you will be saved. No questions asked. Again, you are not in the picture. He is the one doing it all from beginning to end. And the Scriptures abundantly testify to this. We sang earlier from Psalm 40 and Psalm 2. We read from Isaiah 53 that show the Father and Son working together, not at odds with each other, to save a people. I put in your outline John 6. Verse 37 to 39, which I think is a very helpful verse on this. All that the Father gives me will come to me. This is Jesus talking. And the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all He has given me, I should lose nothing. but should raise it up at the last day." This is what he's talking about. The Father and the Son working together. There's one plan. Here's the people God has chosen. It's the same people Jesus is coming to redeem. He's not somehow trying to redeem everybody, a bunch of people not chosen by God. He's not working on a different plan than God the Father. They're working together in harmony to save the people. And that's why the people are actually saved. because they're doing this together. And it says that by the blood of Christ you are redeemed. And there's wonderful biblical pictures of what redemption looks like. We studied one earlier this last summer when we studied the prophet Hosea. And I think it's such a powerful picture, because if you remember there, Hosea married a woman who was unfaithful to him, Gomer. And Gomer actually had children with other men in the town, and Gomer left the family. And Gomer was so disgraced and was brought so low that she was sold into slavery in the market. And you remember God tells Hosea to go down, and buy back his disgraced wife. And he goes in front of the entire community and pays money so that his wife, who's naked and enchained as a slave, can come back into his house. He takes on all the shame, all the humiliation. That's redemption. That's redemption. Buying back what was already yours. And of course this is what the Lord God does through Jesus, isn't it? He pays a much higher price than Hosea did. Because God buys back people He made. You were already His and you rebelled against Him and He buys you back at the cost of His own Son. His own Son is the price He pays to buy you back. But that's how it is, that your sins are forgiven and that you're brought into this family and adopted by God. So if you're in Christ, you've been redeemed by the Son, Jesus Christ. And fourthly, if you're in Christ, you've been sealed by the Holy Spirit. And we see this in verses 13 and 14. We said earlier that the Father and the Son are working together. Of course, the Spirit's working with them as well, all three members of the Trinity. And you see in verse 13, Paul goes on to say, "...in Him," that is, in Christ again, "...you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation." So the first thing is just to recognize, and we've seen this in other places in the Scripture, The only reason they believe, the only reason they've come to faith that they've trusted in Christ is because the Holy Spirit has worked in their lives and enabled them to believe the Gospel. He says over in chapter 2 verse 8, this faith is not of your own, it is the gift of God that no one can boast. So the Spirit gives you the faith to believe. The Spirit also gives you a heart that wants to obey God, Remember again, we read back earlier that they were brought together with Christ, that they would be holy and without blame before Him in love. So the Spirit's also enabling them to live lives pleasing to God more and more. But the passage also tells us that the Holy Spirit is the one that is given as a seal or a guarantee for the people of God. And you see this in verse 14, right? Well, actually the end of 13. Whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. This is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. You realize Jesus said that my sheep will hear my voice, right? And they will follow me. And He's saying this because He knows that the Holy Spirit will work in the hearts of His people. And those for whom Christ died will hear the voice of their shepherd. And they will respond. They will come willingly to Christ. And they will be saved. And then the Spirit is given there, it says, as a pledge of your inheritance. I didn't ask the nieces about this, but I'm assuming that when they received an offer on their house, it came with what we call earnest money. And earnest, you could also, some of the translations in the margin here of the New King James translate this seal, this guarantee, this redemption is also translated as an earnest. So if you're going to take your house off the market and if you're going to start coming to terms with people and have inspections and do all these things, there has to be some evidence that the people are serious, which is why an offer to buy comes with money. And it's usually enough money so that people just don't walk away because they change their mind or get cold feet at the last second. It's a significant amount of money. And this is what God is saying here. That if you have the Holy Spirit in your life, if you've seen the evidence of the Spirit's work, in other words, you trust in Christ, you love Christ, you've seen yourself growing. Nobody's perfect, but you're growing in your love for God. This is evidence of the Spirit's work. And that is an earnest, that is a guarantee that you will receive your full inheritance. That's what He's saying. That you will persevere and you will make it to heaven and you will be perfected and receive the fullness of the blessing God has for you in the last day. Because the Spirit is working in you now. And the implication is that the Spirit is working in you now. The Spirit will never decide to stop working in you. And my friends, this is why this view of salvation is absolutely essential to your assurance. Because if you chose to believe, then at any point you can choose to stop believing. But that's not what happened. God the Father from eternity past chose you to be his child. And to bring that about, God the Son came into the world and died for your sins. Your sins in particular. And because of that, God the Holy Spirit comes into your heart and works faith in your heart at some point in your life so that you can willingly embrace Christ as your Savior and live out of that changed heart. And because from beginning to end, this is the work of the Triune God in your life, you can't be lost. Any other view undercuts any kind of assurance that we might have that we're going to persevere in the faith. I put another verse in your outline, John 10 verse 28 and following. And there Jesus says, And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. There's one united plan of salvation. And you are eternally secure in Christ. If you're in Christ today, you can't be more secure than you are right this minute. Not because anything in you But because God has said it, the Triune God has committed Himself to saving you and to bringing you across the finish line. And praise God that that is the case. So if you are in Christ, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit. And so finally, that brings us to the fifth thing we want to see here. Since the Triune God has saved you in Christ, You are to live for His glory alone. Now understand, the text tells us why God saved people like this. And it wasn't because He was lonely. It wasn't because He thought you would be really good company in eternity and He needed you there. It wasn't because of anything lacking in God. And it's fascinating, if you look closely at the Muslim view of God, you'll see that there are elements of that in there. Because their strict monotheism presents a God who's not in relationship. Our God, from all eternity past, has been in relationship. because there are three persons there. And what is happening is a God who's fully satisfied in himself bringing others into that fellowship of love that's at the heart of our universe. It's an amazing idea. God's not coming because he needs you. He's coming because he's going to display things about himself to the world. Now what's fascinating here is the passage breaks down. I said earlier, it seems like it's sort of just a discombobulated brain dump of praise, but there is actually a structure. Because you can kind of see in verses 3 to 6 that he's speaking about the work of the Father. And then in verses 7 to 12, the work of the Son. And then in verses 13 and 14, the work of the Holy Spirit. And notice at the end of each of those little sections, what does he say? Verse 6, to the praise of the glory of His grace. In verse 12, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. And then in verse 14, to the praise of His glory. And it really helps us understand why God is doing this. He's doing this so He will be glorified in the world. and that the great heavenly host and all that is out there would see our glorious God in His full honor. It's funny, Martin Luther understood this back in the day of the Reformation. I put in your outline thesis number 62 of his 95 theses. And look at what he said. The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God. You see that understanding that the gospel is ultimately God-centered. It's about His glory. It's not about your happiness. I'm sorry to break that to you. It's not about you. It's about the glory and the majesty of a holy God. It is incumbent upon God to seek the glory of the highest thing in the universe, and the highest thing in the universe is Himself. And so as God seeks to glorify Himself, What's fascinating is He brings you into that. You actually are brought into that and you are a means by which His glory is manifested to all the universe. It's quite incredible. Now God says every person is going to glorify Him. And you may glorify Him as a vessel of judgment and wrath. Don't think for a minute that the unbeliever is not going to glorify Him. The unbeliever is going to glorify God. It's going to be unwilling. But what he's saying here is that you have the profound privilege of glorifying the God of the universe willingly, willingly and joyfully. And that once you understand that it's not about you, it's about God, it changes everything about our perspective and how we live. It sets our priorities. Our priorities are to serve God and to seek His glory, not our own. And we can do that willingly because we understand it's all Him. It's all Him. It's none of us. This is fascinating, right? Today in our world, people all over are looking for meaning. They're looking for purpose in their life. They're looking for causes that they can give themselves to. And what this passage is telling us, the greatest thing that's happening in the universe is something that you can be a part of through Christ. If you're in Christ, you're a part of this great demonstration of the glory and the power and the grace and the majesty of God. And the whole universe is watching this right now. And what that does for your life is really powerful. Because it means even the most mundane things you do, the everyday things you do, if you do them with this in mind, those have meaning. Those are all contributing to the glory of God. You stay-at-home mothers who think, you know, changing another diaper, I can't take it, I can't do one more, right? And all of us have those kinds of aspects to our lives. No, no, no, no, no. Because everything you do, even changing a dirty diaper, can be done as a means of glorifying the one being in the universe who deserves to be glorified. And so the most trivial things you do have meaning. Not because I say so, but because God, God says so. You were chosen. You were redeemed. You were regenerated by the Spirit so that you could live holy and blameless lives before Him in love. He's brought you into His family so you can live like one of His children. And He's made it possible because the Spirit's in you to work that out in your life. This is why the Reformation helps our entire lives have the right orientation. Because salvation is by grace alone, through faith in Jesus Christ alone, for the glory of God alone. You have the opportunity to live truly for the glory of the God of the universe. And praise Him that that is the case. Because if it was left up to us at any part, it never would have happened. Praise the Lord. And we can say with Paul, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we acknowledge that all too often we foul this whole thing up by putting ourselves into the picture in places we don't belong. Lord, help us to truly understand that we have contributed nothing, nothing to our salvation, but that it has been an eternal work of the members of the Trinity to make and to choose and to redeem and to regenerate particular people who would serve you throughout all eternity. Lord, when we think about how unworthy of that we are, it just blows our mind, and we have trouble taking it in. And Lord, all we can say is, blessed be your name. And we pray that you would help us to learn to live as people seeking your glory in all that we do. We thank you that you've brought us into this great work that you're doing, that we can be adopted into your family. Help us to live like your children and help us to live with joy because of what you've done for us. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. And now we will sing our praise to the Lord from Psalm 62, selection A, in which we sing about God's salvation, and we say, He is my glory. which is what all of us should be saying who have put our faith in Christ. He is my salvation, sure, and He alone is my source and my glory. Let's stand and sing our praise to our triune God who saves us.