Sermon Series: 

The Believer's Bank Pulling Back the Curtain on Salvation: 

The Father-Part 2 

Ephesians 1:4-6a 

PSBC 2/20/00 PM

In a nutshell: Salvation, and all it's objectives and elements, was formed as a reality before the "foundations of the world", so God and God alone could receive the glory and credit for it.

I. Introduction

A. Joke

I read this prayer this week. It was prayed by a little boy of about 8 years old... "Dear God, please take care of my daddy and my mommy and my sister and my brother and my doggy and my kitty, and me. Oh, and please take care of yourself, God. Cuz if anything happens to you, we're gonna be in a big mess."

Well, I'm glad that God does take care of Himself. The proof of that is in the activity in which He is constantly involved.. And I'm especially glad for His activity when it comes to salvation. Because as we started learning last week, God's activity in the plan of salvation provides some of the richest blessings a human being could ever experience.

Watch this... (show video clip from Wizard of OZ)

B. Re-cap last week

Well, just like Toto the dog pulled back the curtain and revealed the activity of the Professor, last week we began pulling back the curtain and revealing the activity of God the Father in the process of our salvation. Paul lists seven things that the Father is directly involved with. And in last week's study, we began by looking at the first two. Those two things are mentioned in verse 4.

1. He loved us enough to choose us

First, God's love for YOU chose you to be part of a plan that would rescue you from eternal damnation because of your sin, and give you an abundant and meaningful life on earth, ...while at the same time giving you a free and unfettered will to accept or reject that plan. That is mind boggling! It is something only God can do. And that's just the first of the things that God the Father's is doing on your behalf.

2. The object is us

Then the second thing we looked at last week was that the object of this plan is us–people with a simple faith who are made saints in God's eyes because of our simple faith in the power of God's plan to rescue us from the consequences of our sin. It's believing the simple, basic truth in...

John 3:16 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

II. 5 Additional Blessings from God the Father

Now, tonight, we are going to look at the remaining five blessings that Paul writes about concerning God the Father and His activity in the plan of salvation.

A. Time of the Plan

The next blessing has to do with the time when this plan of salvation started in God's mind. Let's re-visit verse 4...

Ephesians 1:4 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

Don't miss what that phrase "before the creation of the world", is saying. It's saying that God's love for us is so huge, so incredible, and so penetrating, that before the foundations of the world were even set in place, God knew you and loved you. Friends, that means the plan of salvation is older than dirt! God looked down into the ages of what was going to be the earth, before He even created it, and saw you, loved you, and wanted to be with you forever!

To put it another way..., you were not an afterthought in God's plan. You are not an accidental Christian. There are no second class passengers on this ship. We are all equal. We are all selected by God the Father, Himself, to be members of His family.

And that also means that we are all equally important players in God's plan to advance His Kingdom. What a privilege! And all this, not because of anything that's in us, as we'll see in a minute, but because of everything in Him.

B. The Purpose of Salvation

The next blessing has to do with salvation's purpose. It's a double-edged blessing, and it's also still in verse 4...

Ephesians 1:4 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

1. Holy

Now, I'd like to ask you a question tonight. HOW MANY OF YOU CONSIDER YOURSELVES HOLY?

You're probably thinking–NOT ME! THERE'S NO WAY THAT I'M HOLY!

But the fact is, if you have entered into God's plan of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, you are already holy. If you have trouble grasping this, it could be because of your understanding of holiness. You might be getting holiness and sanctimoniousness confused.

Illustration: I can remember when one of the dogs we had on the farm got worms. And the vet prescribed some de-worming pills that we had to give her. I don't know if you've ever been through that process with a pet, but it is not a pleasant one to look at, nor is it a pleasant one for the animal to go through. But eventually through a lot of pushing and groaning and intestinal movement, the long tapeworm came out.

Well, I think a lot of us view holiness this way–we see it as a kind of spiritual "de-worming" of all of our sins. And consequently, we don't view ourselves as being holy because none of us ever completely gets rid of all the sin from our lives.

But holiness is not a "de-worming" of sin from our lives.

Holiness literally means wholeness. And when you are whole, it means you have been restored to your originally intended function. So, spiritual holiness doesn't mean a Mother Theresa-like life.

Let me use the example of physical wholeness to give you a picture of what this spiritual wholeness is all about. Physical wholeness means that the organs, systems and functions of your body are working like they are supposed to.

Illustration: A dear friend of mine, who was a TV helicopter/traffic pilot in St. Louis, was severely injured in the crash of his experimental helicopter a couple of years ago. He hung on to life for a week, before God took him home. But when I first went to the hospital room and saw my friend, Allen, the day after the accident, he wasn't whole. All the body parts were there, but they weren't functioning properly. The pressure on his brain was 4-5 times higher than normal. He was in a coma, he wasn't moving his arms or legs. Machines were doing some of the basic body functions for him. In other words, my friend wasn't functioning as he was intended. His malfunctioning body processes needed to work properly again in order for him to be whole–but when the major function of the brain finally stopped working, all ability to become whole stopped with that. And he died.

Well, the same is true of your spiritual nature. By being created a human being, the Bible tells us that we were created in the image of God. We have that divine image in us so that we can have intimate closeness and fellowship with God.

But sin keeps us from having that relationship. However, one of the blessings we have in our spiritual bank accounts is that by entering into God's plan of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, you are given the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and that righteousness restores you to fellowship with God. You have been made WHOLE or holy.

2. Blameless

Now, let's look at the other purpose of the plan–the plan was set in motion so that we could be blameless. ANYONE HERE WHO IS BLAMELESS?

Now, if you're like most people, you don't feel blameless because you know that you have done things or made choices somewhere in your life that were "inappropriate" or "just plain wrong" or "hurtful" to someone else. In other words, somewhere in your life you purposefully did something that you should not have done–even though you knew you shouldn't have done it. Everyone of us is in that boat. So, everyone of us can feel that there are at least a few times in our lives when we should be blamed. So, few, if any of us, feel blameless.

But, understand that blameless and sinless are not the same thing. Never having done anything wrong is sinless. But you can be sinful and still be blameless. Do you know how? You become blameless by handling your sin in the right way.

Illustration: On one occasion, when I was in high school, on a summer day, I was driving a truck for my dad, taking a load of pickling onions to the processing plant in town. After I had delivered the load at the back of the plant, I pulled out of the loading dock and drove around the outside of the plant to get to the road that would take me home.

The problem was that at the front of the plant was a semi-truck from Libby foods that was getting loaded with processed pickling onions. The cab and trailer of this truck were so long that it was blocking my exit..., and I was in a hurry. So, I decided to be "smart"... and I drove my truck along the shoulder of the road to get around the parked semi-truck.

I would have made it, and been on my way home, had not the driver of the semi-truck left the passenger door to his truck cab open. In my haste of getting around him, I forgot to leave room for the opened door, and I clipped the door with the back end of my truck. And before I knew it, I had bent that door all the way around in the opposite way that it was meant to go.

Now, no one saw me do this. I could have kept going and no one would have been the wiser. But I knew I had make the situation right.

The first thing I had to do was to tell the driver of the truck what I did. So I found him in the plant, I explained what had happened. I helped him bend the door back so it would close for his trip back to Wisconsin.

The second thing I did was I gave him the name of our insurance agent and insurance company.

Third, I did the most difficult thing, I called my dad to let him know what I had done. And afterwards, I asked his help to help me drive that truck better by using my side mirrors and practicing maneuvering the truck in and out of tight places.

I had messed up, royally. But because I had handled things in the right way, and had taken responsibility for my actions and done all I could to repair the damage I had done, I was blameless before my dad and the truck driver whose truck I had damaged. They couldn't hold my mistake against me, because I had handled it in the right way. Things were going to be repaired, and I was going to become a better driver.

Now, I still suffered the consequences by having to pay the insurance deductible out of my wages, and being kidded by the workers at the plant about my driving..., but I was no longer guilty because I handled my mistake in the right way. Because I wasn't guilty, I was blameless.

Transition from illustration: Friends, the same is true with our offenses against God.

What can any of us do about our sins or the evil in our lives? We can't pretend that the sin we have done, didn't happen. That's where a blessing in our spiritual bank account comes into play. God provides a way to make us blameless...

1. We first confess our sin to God. 2. Then we accept God's forgiveness; 3. Then we put the situation into God's hands so that all things can work together for good. 4. And finally we commit to doing the things necessary that will help keep us from falling into that sin again. And once you and I do this, we're blameless before the God whom we've offended because of our sin.!

The Purpose, then of the process of salvation is to make us totally holy and blameless while we live here on earth, even though we have a sin nature, and a sinful and increasingly godless culture makes it very easy for us to sin. What an incredible blessing! But that's not all!

C. Motive of Salvation is love

The last two words of verse 4 and the beginning of verse 5 tell us the next blessing we have because of God the Father's involvement in our salvation...

Ephesians 1:4b-5a 4 In love 5 he predestined us...

This love shown to us by God, isn't an emotional kind of love. It is agape love. It is a decision of the heart and mind to seek the welfare and meet the needs of others.

Friends, this means that from before the foundation of the world, God made up His mind that you were worth it for Him to send His Son, Jesus Christ, to be crucified on a cross, in order to pay the debt of sin you owe.

If you ever start to think you aren't worth much as a human being, look at this treasure in your spiritual bank account. God tangibly, physically and intentionally showed that you were worth the greatest price that could ever be paid–God in the form of Jesus Christ, gave His life for you.

John 15:13 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. That's exactly what Jesus did for you, by the design of God the Father.

D. The Result of Salvation is Family

Look at the next part of verse 5 for the result of salvation that God made available...

Ephesians 1:5b 5 ...to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will–

Here's an explanation of how God takes imperfect human beings with all of our past failures and all of our shame, and makes us into holy and blameless people. It happens by means of a change in our family relationship. We are adopted into the family of God.

Illustration: I think all of us are familiar with the adoption process. Some of us may have even benefited from it. But in essence, adoption means leaving one family and assuming the name, the characteristics, the resources, the history, and the relationships of another family. And this is what Paul is describing as the work of the Father which benefits or blesses us.

We all initially belonged to the family of Adam. But when we become Christians, we leave the family of Adam and are adopted into a new family–the family of God. Now, that doesn't mean that we are no longer human. But it does mean that we no longer have to be controlled by fallen Adam-like characteristics. We are still exposed to temptations and the actions they can produce. But we don't have to live that way–because we've been transferred to a new family.

Jesus–God's Son–who is our brother in God's family–describes our new relationship this way...

John 6:57a 57 ...I live because of the Father...

In other words, "The Father is my resource, my wisdom, my strength, my power. The Father is the secret of how I act and what I do and where I go. The Father is living in me and working in me. And in everything I do it is not me doing it for my own selfish reasons; it is the Father who is working to accomplish His good and perfect will through me."

That's the secret of the Christian life. You and I have to live by the same method Jesus lived–we have to operate by means of a greater power than human ability–you and I have to operate by means of the power of God–a resource made available to you because you've been adopted into a new family.

That's the way to arrest the sinful tendencies and the bent we all have to act on those tendencies. We can do it because we are given a new family relationship that we entered into when we asked Jesus Christ to be the forgiver our sins. Only family members have the right to draw on the power of the Father of the family.

E. The Ultimate Goal is to bring Glory to God

Finally, the goal of this whole process is to bring Glory to God.

Eph 1:6a 6 to the praise of his glorious grace,

Dwight Moody, that great Chicago-based evangelist of the late 1800's, helped me understand why this is such a blessing. He said...

I believe the religion of Christ covers the whole man. Why shouldn't a man play baseball or lawn-tennis? ... Don't imagine that you have got to go into a cave to be consecrated, and stay there all your life. Whatever you take up, take it up with all your heart.

This entire process that Paul has just described–the work of the Father in the process of salvation–gives us incredible freedom. We can be whatever we want to be. We can do whatever vocational work or leisure pastime we fell equipped and interested in doing. Because by being a part of God's plan–as part of the "adopted family of God"–holy and blameless individuals–by our very existence, then–we will bring glory to God.

So don't feel you have to be a priest or a pastor or a nun or a missionary to please God. Those things aren't for everyone. Just be a person who is "in Christ"–sold out to a relationship with Christ–and you'll accomplish what God the Father set out to accomplish through you–and Glory will go to Him.

III. Conclusion

Here's a good synopsis of the work of God the Father in the process of the plan of salvation.

What God chooses, He cleanses. What God cleanses, He molds. What God molds, He fills. What God fills, He uses. -- J. Sidlow Baxter

Everything you need to be useful in the most significant things of life, are already yours. Start drawing on your account at the Believer's Bank this week. 

Amen.