Hopefully it doesn't become too obvious that maybe I should have reversed the order of what we heard this morning versus what I'm gonna put on you this afternoon, but something to think about. You remember maybe as a child, most likely to be as a child, I suppose it could happen in your adult life, that you received something that you didn't expect or even imagine. That you were given something that, again, you just weren't expecting at all. You didn't have any expectation of it. This is not the idea of the bratty type child receiving something. the situation where you just were given a gift and that gift was completely unexpected and it was nothing that you ever imagined. I imagine you can draw a parallel where I'm going with that. Now because the fall of mankind and Adam all of Adam's race, all of us everyone with the exception of the Lord Jesus Christ, were born completely in bondage to sin, a deadly moral defect. We're all born with a nature corrupted with guilt, and that guilt that we have comes from the sin, which is an offense to God. being alienated from God, there is a resulting emptiness in the heart, in the soul. There's a moral guilt that must be forgiven. There's a distorted outlook that needs to be corrected. To complicate this even further, human beings are unable to repair their broken fellowship with God on their own, or at all. people can't help but sense that there is a serious problem any of us that have witnessed to others we know that many if not most all people will acknowledge that there is a serious problem and since that problem involves inability to understand their condition fallen humans have invented a most impossible and man-centered idea of salvation This has been termed, before I've heard it said that God created man and man creates God and man creates a God of his own making. But people can't help but sense a serious problem. this man-centered idea of salvation, they imagine that God lays out conditions which, if met, will save them. How many of you have witnessed to someone, you've preached the gospel to someone, you've done your best, you've preached the gospel the best that you can, and the person wants to tell you about their goodness, how good that they are, the good things that they do. These people imagine They picture God waiting helplessly to see what each person will do. They see heaven as some kind of a reward of those who earn it by doing right things, by doing good things. They see hell as populated by those who just fall a little short in that effort. They don't know exactly where the line is at. However, salvation, as it's presented in the Bible, is absolutely not conditional. No passage of scripture supports the idea that we contribute anything to our salvation. To justify this humanist view, it's necessary to twist the scriptures all around, to take verses out of context and use them in ways that they were never intended. What we hear today all around us is a doctrine of salvation by human efforts and good works. Now before we go on, two false ideas about salvation from our condemnation should be set aside. First, people are not judged by their good works. Many people believe that moral obedience is a condition that must be met for salvation from the consequences of our sins. They often will quote passages of scripture which seem to support that idea. Turn to Revelation 20. Revelation 20. Revelation 20 in verse 12. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works, and by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead and who were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one according to his works. Yes, indeed, all will be judged according to their works. But our works are not the cause of our salvation. Rather, our salvation is the cause of our good works. Works are the evidences of a soul made alive by Christ. Those chosen by God are credited with righteousness by the obedience of Jesus Christ and enabled by the Holy Spirit to actually do the things for the glory of God. And you may determine how a child a loved one is ill by taking their temperature. It'd be foolish, however, then to say that the temperature is what caused the illness. God likewise judges by works. There are evidences that we have been saved by, they are evidences that we have been saved by grace. The deeds and the choices we make are not the causes of salvation. The Lord reveals his eternal determinations by showing the changes produced by Christ in each person's life. Second, belief on the Lord, repentance and confession of sin are not the causes of salvation. Clearly, these are good things to do. They are works. They are works in that we do them. It is what we are to call people to do when we present the gospel. However, these are neither the conditions of salvation, nor are they its cause. God regenerating the person upon the merits of Christ alone is the cause of these acts of faith. By this instilled faith, we are prepared for that day when the Creator pronounces His judgment. Justification comes by grace through faith. Grace brings life and enables a true faith. The newly regenerated soul will believe, repent, and confess. These are the results of a changed heart. They're not the cause of the changed heart. With these issues clarified, we come to this main question. Why are some saved while others remain lost? And the Bible gives us the answer. And it is what we call, and it certainly is, good news. the creator himself God has determined has eternally determined to redeem for himself a people he has done everything that is necessary to save them in him alone they are saved and there's nothing left undone John 1 13 tells us they are born not of blood nor the will the flesh nor the will of man but of God And then Ephesians chapter one, let's turn there to Ephesians. Beginning in verse three. Ephesians one, beginning in verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing 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 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 abundant towards 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 times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, Him in him also we have obtained 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 God is declared to be blessed in verse 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The whole point of this, the main point of this whole passage is the blessedness of God amongst those who are blessed by Him. Predestination, also election, is introduced, but not as an isolated, impersonal, or harsh doctrine, but as a central reason moving us to see the wonders of God. there's a cycle, there's a structure that's like a cycle that ties these verses together. God is worthy to be blessed. He blesses us by loving and choosing some freely in Christ. And when those chosen understand the blessedness of grace, they turn back to God with praise and a blessing. This blessed God actively blesses his children. The actions of God are the basis for his blessedness. Notice the things that God does in this passage. God has blessed us, his redeemed children, with every spiritual blessing, verse three. He bestows goodness upon us. He causes us to benefit spiritually. We are not the cause of our blessing, God is. God has chosen us in Christ, verse four. The word here, it means to elect. It's the word chosen, the word chosen to elect, to select, to choose out, to bring out. God has picked us out to be in Christ. The context shows that Paul means he predestined us to salvation. He elected us. The choosing of some from among the rest of humanity is then repeated throughout the passage. Verse 4, He chose us in Christ. Verse 5, He predestined us for adoption as sons. Verse 11, having been predestined to inheritance. Now, we see in here that God blesses by His grace in the beginning. this word is sometimes translated as blessed, sometimes it could be translated, I believe, accurately as honors. It is that God graciously bestows his blessing upon those who has chosen the favor of the word is that he heaps special honors upon them. The same concept appears in verse eight when God lavishes or heaps bountifully upon his children the riches of his grace. God brought to completion his redemptive work of grace in verses six and seven. God fulfilled the promises of grace completely His blood secured our redemption, and by grace alone He forgives us for our trespasses against Him. God has made known to us the mystery of His will in verse 9. Yet, we do not yet know all the details of that mystery. Here He assures us that what happens is in accordance with what God has willed. And this passage shows that God's blessedness arises from his own intentions, verses 5, 9, 11. God always acts according to his own desires. He's not driven by external things to him, and he's not limited by the choices of his creature. A very important concept, very easily summed up. Turn to Psalm. I know you're familiar with this psalm. Turn to Psalm 115. Psalm 115, verse 3. We should memorize this. It should be one of the first things we think of when we think of God. We're trying to get our mind, our thoughts on God. But our God is in heaven. He does whatever he pleases. God does what brings the most glory to him. The choosing of Jacob over Esau is used to give us an example of how God's choice, not the acts, but the choice of humans determine blessings. In Romans 9, verse 11, turn there again, Romans 9, for the children not being born nor having done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not the works of him not of works but of him who calls Romans 9 verse 11 fallen man is not able to restore himself to God. He cannot come to Christ by faith since that is a gift of God only given to those chosen by the Father. We saw earlier in John chapter six, verse 65, no one can come to me unless it is given him by the Father or granted him by the Father. Our salvation is always credited, always credited to God's free choice 2nd Timothy chapter 1 verse 9. Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose in grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. always credited. Salvation is always accredited to God in the Scriptures. In Ephesians 2, 8, 9, For grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of your own works, but is the gift of God, not of works that no one may boast. Believing in Christ is not the cause, but the evidence of salvation. Acts 13, 48, when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing, glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as appointed to eternal life believe. We're not chosen because of anything foreseen in us, foreseen in us by God. John 15, 16, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your few should abide, so that whatever you ask in the Father's name, He may give to you. Comparing these passages is clear that our election by God was determined before we had done any good or bad. It takes a strange reasoning, a strange logic to make our yet future actions the basis of God's decision to elect us. The argument that God looked into the future to see what we do and then elected us doesn't hold any water. It doesn't stand up to the test of scripture. Again, it's clearly the meaning of foreknew. In passages like Romans 8, 29, it assures us that all those foreknown will be glorified in the end. It doesn't say because of what he foreknew, but of whom he foreknew. The word there means God knew them specially in advance. all those he foreknew, then he predestined, he called and justified, and then will glorify." Romans 8, 29, and 30. The Bible shows that no one is able or even willing to come in repentance and saving faith unless God first brings that person to life. They're born again to spiritual life. It does nothing to solve the imagined problem by saying that God based his past determinations upon a future independent of his past determinations. If it wasn't so self-contrary, the best it could do is add another loop into some kind of circular reasoning that imagined the problem to begin with. And this should bring us, again, this is great news. Our hope does not rest on what we could do, what we would do if we could. If it did, then we would be the pitiful, all of us would be the most pitiful, because all of us know how unfaithful we can be. If we could earn it, if we could grab it, we couldn't hold on to it. It has to be God. God has to release us, to remove us from our bondage and sin, and then to enable us to be able to be His bondservant. God, as we see in verses four and five here in Ephesians, God has acted in love towards us. Undeserved love was his motive. And explain election to the believers in the Old Testament. The Lord said his own purpose was love and said his own purpose and love was the cause. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 7. Deuteronomy chapter 7 and verse 7. The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples. But because the Lord loves you and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt." Our benefits flow from our restoration into fellowship with God by His grace. It again is God's blessedness that is the foundation for our blessings and the motives behind our offering up our blessings of gratitude to our Redeemer. We're just giving things back to God that we received from God. That's why we have nothing to boast on. When we are declared innocent by the sacrifice of Christ in our place, we are said to be, quote, in him, identify with him through the promise of God's covenant that he paid the debt for all who evidence regeneration. This evidence is sincere repentance in faith. Being forgiven, we are clothed in Christ's own righteousness and made ever alive by His living presence in us. Our position in Christ is referenced in this passage in Ephesians, verses 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, and 12. Because of this undeserved electing grace, which we have brought, which we have through Christ, we have every spiritual blessing. We are restored in holiness and declared blameless in verse four. We are adopted into God's spiritual family, verse five. We have redemption and forgiveness, verse seven. Spiritual wisdom and insight, verse eight. And an inheritance of glory, verse 11. Because of our undeserved blessings, we live to praise our blessed God. Verse 12 of Ephesians 1 turns back our blessings to their source. Our salvation is entirely work of our saving God, of our sovereign God, enabling and striving our otherwise dead, stirring our dead and uncaring hearts. It is his work of grace that causes every good thing that comes to us and what we do. God's grace brings his word to the sinner. God's grace gives us our spiritual understanding and conviction of sin. God's grace stirs godly fear and concern in the convicted sinner. God's grace brings us in humble repentance before our offended creator. God's grace stirs the heart to cry out for mercy. God's grace brings the flood of joy over the work of Jesus on the cross. God's grace instills an unquestioning trust that he paid it all in our place. God's grace brings relief to the soul that we are secure forever as a child of God. Do we ask, why did I respond to the message of grace while so many others did not? Setting aside all human pride and foolishness imagination, we are left with the simple and direct words of scripture in verse 4, Ephesians 1 verse 4, He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. God did not choose the best, the most worthy, because we're all completely and totally unworthy. He chose according to the good pleasure of His will alone, grace alone, not the works performed or imagined make us children of God. So what is our response then to this amazing grace? What should our response be? Do we take His blessing but neglect to give thanks? We do. We shouldn't. We often do. How often does God's grace become a common thing to us? How many of you are here and can't wait to get out of here? God's grace doesn't mean anything. It's not special to you. You don't even hear about it. It isn't even that big of a deal. You don't really care. Do we take His love for granted without any sense of gratitude? Go back to the question that I asked about you receiving something that you had no idea, you had no expectation, you didn't even imagine it. The gift that something that your parents gave you or something that someone gave you that you had no idea was coming. Imagine how you felt about that person. That's a worldly thing. That's a worldly example. It's so hard for us to keep our mind focused on the things of the Lord and for them not to become a common thing to us. Do we push aside our Savior? Put Him in some minor place to make room for something that's far more important in our daily lives? Do we compromise what we know about God's law? About God's will for us? Do we neglect our duties to our Redeemer? Do we give things to the world that belongs to God? Do we give admiration to the world? Do you give place to the world? Things that are rightfully God's? Do you take God's glory away from Him that He deserves and you give it to another, you may say, well, I don't do that. That right there alone, that might be sin. It's easy to do. We don't think about things. We don't pray. We don't pray without ceasing. We don't take what we know. We don't pray to the Lord. When we're making decisions, we don't thank the Lord when something good happens. We pray, we ask for Him to save us out of some bad situation, but then when we have a great situation, we forget about Him. We don't thank Him. We don't show gratitude. How many of you have done something for someone and they didn't show you any gratitude at all? something you made a sacrifice for and showed you no gratitude, and we're imperfect. Imagine perfect God. We ought to respond to hearing these things. We ought to respond. Our hearts should be turned back to God, back to Him in blessing and in praise. We should be able to take these things, we should acknowledge in our minds the things that have went on, confess them before God and ask Him to help us. Now, the blessed God blesses us richly and we need to respond by blessing Him. That is this cycle of sovereign grace that He brings us into, so richly brings us into, so unconditionally brings us into, There's one thing that I think that this should do for all of us, no matter what your situation is, and that is it should bring joy. Because that should provide us with joy that nothing can take away, no earthly thing can take away. So the question is, do you have joy in that thought? When you think about that, does it bring you joy? No matter what your condition is, doesn't matter where you think you're at, you're young, you're old, where you think you're at in life, eventually all these things, no matter what, all these earthly things are gonna pass away for us. Does it bring you joy knowing the blessed assurance of this election of God? If you don't have it, if you don't have that, Is God working that? Is He working to bring you to that? If you don't have it, then I guess you can glory in yourself. I don't know. It's a very hopeless and helpless situation. We need to thank God for bringing us out of it. We need to thank God for giving us the reason to preach His truth to our family, to our friends, to everybody that we can come with, anybody that we can have the opportunity, that we have the audience with. We ought to be thankful to God for that. We ought to be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within us, that being that our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, died for our sins. We need to make it clear when we're preaching the gospel that I am not better than you. I am not better than the person I'm preaching to. that we are all in the same boat and the only difference between us is God's grace. It's not my doings. It's not my good works. It's not those things that make me different. It's God. And preach that to the lost every time we get the chance. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.