As you're doing so, please get your Bibles and let's turn tonight as a congregation to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1, our text is verses 3 through 14. And we are continuing on in the series on the glory of our triune God tonight coming to the specific subject of the Trinity and our salvation. Ephesians chapter 1 verses 3 through 14. Let's give our careful hearing again tonight to the reading of God's Holy Word. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him, in love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Him, things in heaven, and things on earth. In Him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory. Please bow with me briefly in prayer. Father, we pray as we hear Your Word now and it's before us, that You would grant us that understanding that You have lavished upon us in Christ, and that we might see something of Your glory as we gaze upon our salvation tonight. seeing how you loved us and did everything for us so that we would be reconciled to you. Father, may all praise redound to you and to the Son and to the Spirit this evening. For we pray all of this through our great mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. In the previous messages in this series, we have been considering how God reveals himself to us through the scriptures as the only true and triune God. So we've been looking at how God reveals himself as that true and triune God of the scriptures, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And therefore, and thus far in the series, we might be able to summarize our study up to this point of the glory of the Trinity in three points. And if you've got the bullets in front of you, you'll see those there. If not, I'll try to articulate clearly those three main points. Those three points, we've had three sermons so far in the series, are first off, God reveals himself, and this is the key part, progressively, through his works. God reveals himself progressively, not all at one time, but progressively through his works. And to use bad grammar, we might say that he doesn't just tell us about himself, he shows us about himself. He does things which then communicate to us something of who he is. And he primarily And those works are primarily the works of creation, the works of providence, the works of salvation. The second point, though, is that it is of all of the works of God, it is primarily through the work of salvation that God reveals himself to us as the glorious triune God that he is. of all his works, it's primarily through the work of salvation that he reveals himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And therefore, thirdly, and this is the final point here, the full revelation of God as triune had to await the full completion of salvation. And that's why the New Testament revelation of God as triune is much clearer than the Old Testament revelation of God as triune. Or, as Paul says here, notice again verses 9 and 10 for a moment, making known to us, this is from the coming of Christ, from Christ coming. As our Savior, He has made known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time. In other words, it awaited a time in which fullness of that revelation could be brought forth about who he is. And that's, again, why the New Testament revelation of God as triune is much clearer than the Old Testament revelation, because salvation wasn't complete in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, salvation has come fully and finally in Jesus Christ. And therefore, now we know God as he is in himself. As we look at the Trinity and the work of redemption, I'm wanting us to focus primarily on God revealing himself and his glory in this great work of redemption. Him saving us from our sins. In other words, there's much to say. And again, I'm wanting us to focus on him glorifying himself as the triune God in our salvation. There is a lot to say about each person's work and the benefits that we receive from each person of the Trinity. And in a moment, we're going to look at some of those benefits that we receive and just briefly look at those from each member, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But tonight, I want us to really have our thinking about this passage framed in the same way that Paul seems to frame the past. And what I mean by that is Paul seems to frame this whole passage here that we just read upon two, and this is a big word, but you'll hear in it just the word three. He frames the whole passage upon two triadic themes. Two themes that are brought up three times. The first is the glorious will of God, God's will. And the second is the praise of the glory of God. Three times Paul mentions the will of God. Three times Paul mentions the praise of God. And as we begin here, I want to make just two comments that might help us move through the passage. And the first is that Paul seems to be so immersed in the doctrine of the gospel of our triune God that he doesn't seem, Paul doesn't seem overly concerned to always make it clear when he moves from talking about God as he is one and God as he is in three persons. In other words, it's not always clear in this long sentence here who the he is that Paul is talking about. Now, I don't think it's entirely a mystery and we can't ever figure it out, but Paul doesn't seem overly concerned with always telling us, hey, the he I'm talking about now is Jesus, or the he I'm talking about now is the Holy Spirit, or the he that I'm talking about now is God as he is in his total being. And by that observation, I don't want us to conclude that Paul is somehow sloppy in his presentation of our salvation, but rather that Paul was thoroughly, so thoroughly Trinitarian that at times he just is talking about God. And it's not always entirely clear if he's thinking about God in his persons or God in his being as one. And so we're going to look at that a tiny bit. Secondly, Paul's going to speak about the will of God, like I just said, three times in this passage. And each time that Paul speaks about the will of God, it is absolutely clear that there is but one single united will of God that then issues forth in our triune salvation. When Paul speaks of the will of God, he speaks of one thing. There is one unified single will of God that then issues forth in our triune salvation. And the reason that I'm drawing attention to that fact is because there is not only a historical debate, but there's also a current debate that has to do with God and his will. And at the very base of both the ancient debate and the new one, is the matter of God having more than one will. But Paul makes it abundantly clear here, God does not have more than one will. It is a great mystery. God is a mysterious God, but he has one single unified will. And we're going to talk about this a little bit more, but I'm highlighting this because understanding of this critical matter, to having a right understanding of that critical matter affects the way you view God, it'll affect a right view of who God is, and it will affect how you view salvation. And so that's why I'm bringing it up here. So there are these two triadic themes in this section that ultimately come together here in Paul's exposition of our salvation, that glorious singular will of God and the praise God's glory and I want us to first consider the glorious one will of our triune God Paul makes it clear here in this passage that each member of the Trinity Has a major part in the work of salvation But each person's part was the outflowing of the triune God's one plan of salvation for his people Now the passage unfolds here, and I hope you'll be looking at it as I talk here, and I hope you heard it as I read through it, but the passage unfolds beautifully highlighting first the work of the Father, secondly then the work of the Son, and then finally the work of the Holy Spirit. And that can be seen by noting that the dominant person in verses three through six is the Father. Put your eyes upon the passage again, please. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He has chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love, He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the Beloved." And so you hear there, and I hope you see very clearly, that the Father chose us, that's what it says. The Father predestined us in love through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will. So the Father chose, or the Father appoints, and we'll get to that in a moment. But the dominant person then in verses 7 through 12 is the Beloved Son. Look again at the passage. In Him, in other words, in the Beloved, in Him we have redemption through His blood. The forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will. according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth in him, Christ, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. And so, as Paul says here, we have, and do you see it there, we have redemption through Christ's blood, which then brings the forgiveness of our trespasses. It's in Christ that the mystery of God's will has finally now been made known to us. And then finally, the dominant person in verses 13 and 14 is the promised Holy Spirit. Look there again. In him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. Now, again, there is so much that could be said here because there's so many. This is just a packed section of scripture. There's so many beautiful things and truths about our salvation that we could focus on and gaze at. But I want us to focus this evening and at this point on the threefold emphasis of the purpose, mystery and counsel of the singular will of God. The purpose, mystery, and counsel of the singular will of God. Paul is emphasizing here that there is one unbreakable, unalterable will within the Godhead that is seen in these three major steps of our salvation. And if you're filling in the blank, let me give you those. You might have thought you were trying to fill those in before, but let me give you the words that are at least in my mind when you get to those blanks, and they're alliterated with A's so you can remember them. The Father appoints a people to be saved. The Father appoints a people to be saved. That is, He chooses or He predestines a people for salvation. Secondly, the Son accomplishes the work of salvation for those people. That is, He sheds His own blood for them. The Son accomplishes the work of salvation for the people the Father has chosen. And finally, the Spirit applies that work of salvation to those people who the Father chose the Son died for. That is, he seals and guarantees their inheritance in the saints. Now, here's the thing. Unless we hold those three in harmony with each other, as Paul does here, what we do is we introduce disharmony into the will of God. Unless you hold the work of those three in harmony with each other, you introduce disharmony into the singular will of God. That is to say, there are some errors that have been made over the ages that this passage actually sets very straight for us. For instance, and I have these in your bulletin as well, because sometimes listening to this you can get confused in it, but I want you to be able to see it in front of you. We err, this is an error, we err when we say that the Father chose some, but the Son died for all. And then the Spirit applies the work the Son's work for all, only to some. We err because then the Son's work is out of harmony with the work of the Father and of the Spirit. We also err, and there's more to this, there's more we could go through, but let me just give two here. Another way we err is when we say that God Actually chose all and therefore the son died for all But yet there are people who go to hell And so we have to say but then the spirit has only then applied the work of the son to some That the father chose and only to some that the son died for Again, that brings disharmony into the will of God for our salvation. But that's not all that Paul is saying here. And in fact, those ways of thinking, or I should say, that's not at all what Paul is saying here. Paul is saying actually the opposite of that. Those ways of thinking about salvation actually begin to introduce error into the biblical doctrine of God. Notice again, three times here, Paul emphasizes a single, unbreakable, consistent will of God. And yes, a single will, and I want us to acknowledge this, a single will for three persons is mysterious. Uses the word he says the mystery of his will in verse 9 But we see here that as mysterious as it may be there Has only and ever been one will of the triune God with one purpose That has been worked out according to the counsel of that one living and true God Now here's where I think it becomes glorious to us individually. For those of you who are partakers of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, those of you who have come to embrace Jesus Christ as your Savior and your Lord, this intentional will of God included you personally by name. God did not think of a faceless, nameless mass that he hoped would someday make it to heaven, that he would do his part and he hoped some of the whole mass of humanity would do their part and they would actually grab onto this and come into the kingdom. No, God thought about you. You were in this mysterious plan as he counseled among himself, purposing to save you. This is why Paul in Galatians 2.20 would say, I've been crucified with Christ. It's not only I who live, or it's no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lived in me. And the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me. and gave himself for me. The Father chose you. And that's why the Son died for you. And that's why the Holy Spirit has applied the work of the Son to you. If you believe today, it's because in the counsel, in the mysterious counsel of God's will, you were included. In other words, Let me put it at one more way. There was never a time. There was never a time when the purpose and will of God hung in the balance awaiting your decision to believe or not. There was never a time like that. Rather, there was only a time when the purpose and will of God awaited the Holy Spirit's infallibly and irresistibly applying the work of salvation to you. And he did that when he regenerated you, and he granted you the gifts of faith and repentance. And when you ponder that, when you begin to think, by name I was included, in the eternal plan of God, that will inevitably lead us then to the praise of the glory of our triune God. I want you to think about this very carefully. What was God after? What was he after in your salvation? What was the ultimate outcome that God was seeking in your salvation? Well, Paul tells us throughout this passage, it was the praise of his glorious grace. That's what he was after as he saved us, was to the praise of his glorious grace. Look again, look at the very end of verse four, through verse six, in love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace. Look at verses 11 and 12. In Him, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him, who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. And finally, look at verses 13 and 14. In Him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promise Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory. I want you to see, and I hope you can see right there in front of you, that each major section here includes that phrase of praise. As Paul moves through each person's work, He notes that praise is to redound to that particular person for their part of the work of our salvation. Let me say that again. As Paul moves through each person's work, Paul is saying that praise is to redound to that specific person of the Trinity for their particular work for us in our salvation. To the praise of His glory, verse 6, that is the Father. To the praise of His glory, verse 12, that is the Son. To the praise of His glory, verse 14, that is the Holy Spirit. You realize Paul is not is not even particularly teaching here on the doctrine of God. That's not his purpose. He is talking about our salvation, which centers in Jesus Christ, but he cannot talk about our salvation without glorifying our triune God. And so we see very clearly here that our salvation and the Trinity are inseparably tied together. Now, as we close this evening, let me give you just a few words, a hint as to why it's so important to get these matters right and why the debate I mentioned is going on. And this is going to cause us to wade into a little bit deeper waters for just a moment. We have to go there just for a minute. And those deep waters start by me saying this, when we say, that God has a single will. We are not saying that each member of the Trinity has his own will. In other words, we're not saying that there are these three separate wills, but they're all in harmony with each other. That's actually not what is being said. Rather, we are saying something much more mysterious, much more comprehensive, much more profound than that. When we say that God has a single will, we are saying that each member of the Trinity wills with the one, undivided, singular will of God. That is, God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, has only one will. The late and great John Owen tried to explain this mystery by saying that if we could imagine three people, three separate persons, who all used a single eye to look through, we would be getting close to understanding the singular will of God. There is simply one will by which every person wills. Now, why am I being so redundant? Why am I being so careful here? Why is this important? And what is at stake? Well, once we introduce more than one will into the Godhead, we begin to undermine the singularity of God himself as the one living and true God. And why is that? That is because will, a will goes with nature. A will is tied to the nature a person and thus the Trinity has only one will because the Trinity has one undivided divine nature They are the same in substance equal in power and glory and While this is mind-blowing and and even now I can feel the tension as to well How is this practical? This glorious fact is one of the reasons why the sun had to take on our nature and become God and man in a single person. Two natures, two natures so he could have two wills in one person. In other words, the son could not submit to the father because submission requires the bowing of one person's will to another person's will. And so the son could not submit to the father because he didn't have a will with which to submit to the father with. They had the same will. So he had to take on another nature to then have another will so he could submit to the Father. If Christ never took on our humanity, you and I could never be saved. in more ways than one, but this is a significant way. You and I needed a second Adam. You and I needed someone unlike the first Adam who did not obey the father. We needed another who would obey the father, who would submit to the will of the father, And therefore, Christ took on our nature so he could have another will so he could be a second Adam. One who would obey, one who would submit to the father where the first Adam failed to, one who would live and die in our place, doing away with the first covenant in order to establish a second covenant. So the Son took on our nature and thereby he had a human will with which he could submit to the Father and be our second Adam. In other words, because God only has one will, and according to the mystery and counsel of that one will, Christ came into the world as a man, and therein is the wisdom and the mystery of the incarnation that was hidden for the ages. God taking on a human nature so that he could save his people from their sins. All of your salvation and therefore all of the praise goes to the glory of our triune God. This and more is implied in our passage, but I want us to close. I have this at the bottom of your outline by letting Hebrews 10, 5 through 10, speak to us about this as well. The writer there, and I want you to notice a couple of words as we're going through. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. When he said above, You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sent offerings. These are offered according to the law. Then he added, Behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Let's bow in prayer. Lord, we bow our knees before you, from whom every family on earth derives its name. You are our glorious God. You are Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Lord, we pray that you might expand and enable us to go beyond our natural capacity and ability so that we might be able to comprehend a little more the height and the depth and the breadth and the width of the love that you have for us in Christ. We thank you that you would think of us and purpose to save us and do everything for us, even to the point of your own son taking on our flesh, taking the form of a servant, becoming obedient, even to the point of death on a cross, all for us. and for our salvation. And therefore, God, we thank you that you have highly exalted him, and given your Son the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee would bow and every tongue would confess that he is Lord, to your glory. We pray that you would use these words to stir us up to love you more, to desire to know you more, and to know what you have done for us in a greater way. And so we praise you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, praying this in the name of the Son. Amen.