The First Thing Is Worship

Main Idea: Bless God together for the blessings of His grace.

1. Bless God the Father (1:3-6)
   
   • For the blessing of election
   • For the blessing of adoption
2. Bless God the Son (1:7-12)
   
   • For the blessing of redemption
   • For the blessing of revelation
   • For the blessing of an inheritance
3. Bless God the Spirit (1:13-14)
   
   • For the blessing of sealing
   • For the blessing of security

• Automated Transcription
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  We are starting the book of Ephesians today, and well, we started last week, but we're going to start digging into the various pieces. Stand with me for the reading of God's Word. We are, we are going to read three through 14. It'll be up on the screen. If you don't have a copy of the Bible in your hand, or you could follow along in your Bible, I'll give the overview of that this week. I'll really focus in on verse three, and then we'll shape it by the topics that are in that, and I'm going to hit a high level, and I really hope to prompt ongoing praise and prayer day by day, in the next weeks, and then Joshua come back and take four through six. Brian's got verses seven and eight. In a couple weeks, I'll come back after my vacation, and we'll do nine through 10, and so on. But we're going to take several weeks on it. So, let's read, and then pray that God would be at work through this 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 to Himself 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 are 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. This is the word of the Lord, our God and Father. We do praise you this morning as we read from that space level, from from the high level, 30,000 feet more than that of your eternal gospel plan to bless a people, make them for yourselves, gather them in the church, and finish a saving work. We praise you and thank you that you are the God who is abundant in grace, lavishing blessing on us, and we, in turn, are called to, summoned to, and eager to worship you, to bless you. You are worthy. You are worthy for the eternal gospel, and the way you have impacted our lives through it. We pray that you would be at work in us as a church, even as we hear this stir up our worship every day, whether we're together, singles as roommates, or marrieds or siblings stir us to worship together, and especially stir this gathering week in and week out, as we worship you. We do pray for churches in our area, as we have taken on a task to come alongside Grace Bible Fellowship in Republic. Pray for Craig Loftus, that you would bring healing to his body, that we could surround the church, help Josh as he's preaching there, help Joe as he's helping care for saints there. Those are our brothers who have gone up with their families today, give them real skill in shepherding and caring, and may that church be revitalized to some health in the next several months. We pray for the missionaries that we have sent. We know that the couple that we have sent has arrived and is recuperating, adjusting to new life, and I pray that you would strengthen and help them.
  
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  I do pray for the Denny's and for the Millikans in Czech Republic, and we just got word from Dan and Kelly about how those churches are flourishing, along with their son Michael's church in Grace Life London. Pray that you would continue to strengthen and encourage, bless and expand the work in the world. So that you would be glorified and honored. Now help us as we hear profound truths almost too hard for us to imagine and to comprehend, but true and helpful nonetheless. Help us in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. I think I've asked you this question before. Do you know how to put out a grease fire on the stove when your pan is erupted in flame. Somebody, first hour, was, you know, the smart aleck, throw water on it. No, you put a towel on it, a dry towel on it, because that takes the oxygen out. That's that's what happens. Don't use water for a grease fire. The the Apostle Paul uses a masterful hymn of praise that has that effect on the most common grease fires of your life. If we're going to use that picture, you know, you have fears, worries, insecurities, sometimes loneliness, and what ends up happening is a blaze is set in your relationships. Ephesians is a book about relationships, and sometimes you're mystified about how to resolve a serious conflict. Sometimes there are ethnic or racial divisions at war in a community in your life. Sometimes you're just simply overspending on video games, you're overspending on your hobbies, on your facial care, your healthy eating choices. Are you overspending on your healthy eating has binge drinking turned to daily coping. Do you feel your manhood, your womanhood deeply threatened in the culture? Is the government taking the country to hell in a hand basket? In your view, you might all have a yes, that's what I think is happening, or no. The Apostle Paul gives us a revolutionary approach in this letter of Ephesians. He begins with all the blessings believers have in Christ all too often public virtues, private victory of sin, holy living as a single conquering addiction, building strong families is seen as the promised land itself, things that are a genuine joy and delight, walking with the Lord, and seeing the fruit of that start to look like the promised land. Paul actually starts with the promised land. Paul actually starts with God himself, and if you have God through Christ, you have already all the connections to the promised land. Paul begins with our worship, and that's why it's a revolutionary approach. Paul doesn't begin with a problem to solve. Paul begins with a problem already solved, and what we do with what he has done is praise him. I'm taking the big idea from verse three, bless God for the blessings of his grace. Verse three begins, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul starts the letter telling the saints who to worship and what to worship Him for, and He models for us just what we are saved for, for worship and honor Him. We're to bless the Father, bless the Son, bless the Holy Spirit for their saving work. All three members of the Trinity are involved, and they are personally involved, lovingly involved with our lives, and we are to bless God in His work. We're to bless God for the past, for the present, for the future. We're to praise God for the glory of His grace through Jesus Christ. Whatever the grease fire is, we're going to use this picture. It is a result of inward selfishness, pride forms of idolatry, false saviors, or functional saviors, and you have to snuff that out, and Paul starts with the cure, start by exalting the God of grace in His salvation, and you'll automatically take the oxygen out of those other things as a result. If you pursue the first thing, worship together, if you do that in your family, in your agenda. Is with your neighbors in your church, your life will be dominated by peace and contentment, not by conflict and angst. What I'm going to do today is look at verse three. We're going to unpack that, give an overview of three through 14.
  
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  The outline that I have here follows the members of the Trinity that are mentioned, they could also follow a past, present, and future. We could do either one with them, and all of them are an example and a call to worship. Start with worship, and Paul will help you figure out all the other things. Leave worship alone, keep being selfish or negotiating your selfishness with the people in your life, and you'll never arrive at peace, or hope, or love, or victory. You're going to see these prompts, and I'm going to use it as a take-home for you. It's a simple practice. There's going to be seven things to bless God for. There's more than that here. I'm going to highlight seven of them as we go through Father, Son, and Spirit. You could use one of those each day, and if you did that with your roommate, your spouse, your siblings, your coworkers, if they'll do that with you, your church members, it's going to orient your worship, therefore orient your heart, and then resolve all of those things that exist in our lives that are a result of the fall. Let's start with this: number one, bless God the Father. Bless God the Father. The first thing Christians need throughout the week is praise to God for the spiritual blessings you already have. So much of the difficulty in our life is we imagine there are things we don't have that we need to get. Paul says, I want you to start with what you already have. The first thing is having God as Father. Verse three starts with this: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be they're not normal English words, they sound kind of King Jamesy, old-fashioned. Blessed is the Greek word, and you've heard a word like it, it's eulogy to us. You've heard the word eulogy. Eulogy is a good word that you say about somebody at a funeral, this is a good word, good words directed to him, but it is an important, it is an important phrase. Blessed be, because what Paul is saying is that God is praiseworthy just on his own. Blessed be, he is praiseworthy, He is worthy. Blessed be the God and Father. That's how He is. It was a common Old Testament Jewish way of praising God. New Testament Christians would say it. You might just simply say, praise God, but He is worthy of it. Blessed be is an acknowledgement that God's worthy of our worship. What's He worthy for? He's saying there's something so beautiful, so true, it makes a man's man like Paul write a hymn, and he starts with a Trinitarian blessing: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing that is blessing given to us through the Spirit of God, God the Father, God the Son, right here in this opening. Something wondrous happens at salvation when, when you see the horror of your sin, the just consequences you recognize your need for the Savior. You turn to Him for rescue, salvation, a new start. You are ushered into a relationship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You're ushered in Jesus' father becomes your father. Remember, how Jesus taught us to pray: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. I mean, think of it, the creator, judge, law giver is now our loving, compassionate Father. He is that because God, the Son, who is in verse six called the Beloved, through His work has drawn us into the relationship of the Father. Paul here tells us to start our worship with the same thought. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing. It's the same word, when we bless God, we give Him praise. When God blesses us, He gives us gifts, and here. They are spiritual and heavenly. They are in Christ Jesus, the Lord Jesus, and they're in the heavenlies. What does that mean? Eternity past, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit took counsel together to rescue a people in the world to draw them into relationship, and Jesus was sent. He came, he died, he rose, he ascended. He is at the right hand of the Father.
  
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  He is in the heavenly places, and all rule and authority and power and blessing are his, and he shares that with us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms, where Christ is seated as Lord of all things, they're going to be intimately attire tied with everything in the chapter. The promised land is Christ, and if you have trusted Christ, you already have full access to the promised land. Let me use an illustration. Imagine suddenly receiving Ilan Musk's nearly trillion dollar fortune. Marilyn, would you like that up front? The car is pulled up a Tesla truck, not the ones painted like Dimas, but a Tesla truck pulls up, the door opens, it's self-driving, and from inside the truck says Elon Musk's fortune is yours. Get in. I'm going to take you to his nearest mansion. You get in the truck, and on the seat is a debit card. Spend away. What we have in Christ is infinitely greater. We have the heavenly blessings. We are on our way to Christ. We have these spiritual realities that we immediately draw from. You have the debit card. If you have the grace and mercy of God the Father, you have a new relationship. I'm going to describe some of these in a moment. They are yours, and you need to tap into those riches of grace and mercy in Him, His gracious good gifts. Let's look at a few of the highlights. Blessing God the Father. I have two in this section, the blessing of election and the blessing of adoption. This is blessed, even as he chose us before, chose us before the foundation of the world, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Talks about this idea of God's divine choice. Eclego is the Greek word, and it means to make a selection. It, in and of itself, isn't really a big deal. You choose things all the time, you make choices all the time. He made a choice. The issue in this choice is what the choice is, and when he made it, he made a choice before the foundation of the world. It was not done after the fall, it was done before the fall. It was not done when anybody could do good or earn merit. It was not done by some coercion, some way God might owe a people. It's done solely on His own freedom, and look what he chose us to do, just as he chose us in him for the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He is going to make us holy. This is his purpose in choosing. Why does the second half of Ephesians tell us to stop sinning and act righteous, ly, because that's what we're saved to do. Verse five, in love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ. And here's that second word, it's really tied to election, election and predestination are just two different ways of looking at the same thing. Before the universe was spoken into existence, God did look to the future of all the generations of all the people that He would ever make, and you could picture it in your mind as an arena of all arenas, all lined with people, all filled. Picture any stadium that you've been in, and the various sections that are in it, and the numbers that are marked. You could kind of picture that in your head, and what all the people are doing in that arena. They are participating in secret, vile sins, mocking God loudly and publicly, choosing other gods to worship, figuring out any number of ways to run life on their own instead of worshiping and obeying the God at the center. When God looks at eternity future, he looks at eternity, future, or he looks at the future, and he sees all of this vast sea of humanity in the rebellion, and in his love, and in his mercy, he marks out section 102 seats 50 rows, 50 through 180 so to speak. He marks them out, not because they're particularly special. Actually, they're particularly vile. The choice, the love, and the glory are all his alone. They're all his alone. Jesus' purpose, John 17 unpacks this.
  
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  Jesus prays for his disciples, and he says to the Father, it's time for you to return me to my glory, I have gathered them and brought them in to share the glory that I had with you before eternity passed, or before this world was made. Jesus ushers us into a joyful, exuberant, loving relationship that He's always had with the Father, and He does it toward undeserving corrupt sinners. I mean, if I were to say, like, this is really common. I hear this very often over the years, even here. I've heard this very often. You know what? God looked forward, and he knew who would choose him, so he chose them. God looked forward, and he saw that there were some good people out there, and he chose them from eternity past, which still conditions everything on how good or how great they were, not on his grace or his favor. At best, it's like this. It's like when we chose our orange cat, Pumpkin. We're really creative people. We got a cat in September. He was orange, and so we named him Pumpkin. Brilliant. I mean, we go all out, we work really hard, you know. Why we picked him over other cats, because he was missing a paw. Oh, poor kitty, he's pathetic. He purrs, and he's pathetic also, because he only has one good front paw. Maybe he won't be a terror to our old black and white cat, which was not true. Very quickly, he turned as a kitten to dominate the older cat. I mean, he's an orange cat. If you have an orange cat, you know what I mean. I love you, I love you. That's an orange cat for you. They're great at best, he looked at you and said, "You're pathetic. Oh, that's at the best, and there's some truth to that, because God chooses in His mercy, which is His compassion and grace. You were pathetic. You were dead in your sins, and He made you alive in Christ Jesus. No, what is the real story? Is that mankind dead in their sin, every single one needed to be made alive by His Spirit. We'll get into that when we get to chapter two, but here's why it matters. One, God's election is the most secure thing for your salvation. Since it wasn't based on anything you could do in the past, it's not based on anything you can do now. It was based solely on His free grace, which He lavished. I mean, look at the language, he lavished it on us. We're going to see that in Christ, we're to be the praise of glorious grace. One, it's the best thing for our security, other, it's the most important thing for our humility. We're not elect, and then suddenly special, the Dutch Reformed, who immigrated and took over South Africa, thought that election meant a superiority over black pagan worshipers and treated them as such, and subjected them to slavery by the power of their weapons. That's not what this is about. This keeps us humble. We are not particularly worthy. We're particularly pathetic, and God has shown a particular grace and mercy to us. This is the praise of the glory of His. Grace start tomorrow, thanking God that He has drawn you to Himself through Jesus Christ. You have a good and glorious and gracious Father who loves you in Christ. You praise Him for adoption, being brought in, given a status as sons and daughters that you didn't have before, an inheritance, which goes along with it. Later, chapter, later in the chapter. So, first we bless God the Father. Second, we bless God the Son. Bless God the Son. We praise God for what we have in Christ. Jump down to verse seven. In Him, Jesus, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. I mean, in order to be adopted, Jesus had to deal with our sins and trespasses. It's an interesting word, trespasses. Picture God in the garden giving Adam and Eve free reign over the whole world. They had one boundary, one thing that was forbidden, like you can eat from all the trees. Here's all the work that you have to do. Here's how you can enjoy it, and how you can enjoy each other.
  
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  We have one thing that you can't do, you can't eat from the knowledge of the tree of good and evil. That was the boundary, that was the thing that was marked out. It's in a special category. Don't go there. What did humanity do? Well, what a chintzy God. He's withholding us from us. He's stingy with us. That's what Satan tempted. You'll be like God. And they crossed the boundary. That's what a trespass is. God's given you a free area to live, and He's made a boundary not to cross. And that's what all of us have done. It's another way of describing sin in crossing the boundary. What happens as a result of trespassing or sinning? We are coming under the judgment, promised judgment of death, eternal wrath, suffering, the hardship in this life in Christ. However, we have redemption, which is a redemption, is the idea of being freed from slavery, freed from oppression. There is a redemption price in this case through His blood. It took the bloody, gory, brutal cross of Jesus Christ to pay the price to free us from the guilt of our sin, the coming wrath of God, the bondage to sin, and the horrific side effects of a thorns and thistle life, a difficult life on earth. We have been redeemed by his blood, provided the forgiveness of our sins. The payment was made. Notice at the end of verse seven, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, these riches super abundant, never run out riches of grace. This is not a stingy God who doesn't want to give you what you really want. This is a generous God who gives you what you need most, and He gives you what you need most in abundance. Says He lavished it upon us all in wisdom and insight, he knows just what's right for us, just what's best for us, and Paul wants to amplify the greatness of the glory of God's grace, so that tomorrow morning, when you wake up, you have something to start with that towers over all the daily grind of life and Life, Paul lavishes us. My wife's version of hospitality is to lavish appetizers, food, and dessert. There should always be a lot of leftovers. She never wants anybody to think, if I just could have had one more bite. God lavishes on us. This is who we worship. This is the kindness that we have in God. He lavishes us with his grace, so we have forgiveness. We get the revelation of his will, all wisdom and insight making known to us. This is verse nine. 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. It was unknown what the end goal was going to be. Now it's known what the end goal is going to be, all things are going to be summed up or united under Christ. Then God has made it clear where life is going. You don't always know where next week is going, but you know where life is going, because God has ordained that all things come under the headship of Christ. When the time is ripe, everything will be. Under the lordship of Christ, I think of this picture for years and years, a shattered mirror that is humanity with fractured pieces all over, all sparkling in various directions, but never at the Savior. What Jesus is doing is taking that, he is melting it together, he is reforming it, and he is creating a new humanity that reflects back his glory. All the things that were shards away from him are now united together under him. If we think relationally, all of the family drama that's turned to family trauma, that's turned to separation and distance and hatred is overcome, is corrected, is joined together and brought together in unity. All political powers, all governments are ordered when Christ returns, and they all live with each other in peace. This is the great purpose of Christ, and you get to be a part of it. You praise Him in a simple way. You can trust Him for what He's doing next. All things are coming.
  
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  The curtain has been pulled back, so to speak, and now you have the sneak peek, and so something's going to erupt in the world this week, a war, financial collapse. You can be worry-free, you know where God's taking everything. It's all coming under the headship of Christ. It's all going to be summed up in Christ. Christ is going to be the point and the aim of all things, the one with the nail-pierced hands, the nail-pierced feet, the spear-pierced side is working out all his plans to redeem and restore a fallen people and to eliminate the rebellion of Satan and all his minions, for that we bless the Son. There's a third, an inheritance in Him. Verse 11, 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. This word for predestined is just a little bit different, but it's making a predetermined choice and structure. It's all according to His purpose. It's all according to His sovereignty. He has the plan. He is carrying it out. He works all things according to the counsel of His will. There's nothing that happens anywhere that it happens that is outside God's plan for his people and their future, but notice this, this idea of inheritance. In Him we have obtained an inheritance. There's debate about what this inheritance is. Psalm 16 five certainly says the Lord is my chosen portion, so the Lord is my inheritance. That could be a really good answer to that. Later on, we're going to find inheritance in the saints, which looks to be that God has made an inheritance, his people. That's the case here. In Him we have an inheritance, His people perfected for eternity, or you could take the Charles Spurgeon approach, as I'm choosing both. All three, why choose? Why choose? We'll take both. We do get brothers and sisters here and in heaven, cleansed, perfected, sinless, unable to sin forever. We're fond of this statement. It's going to be a great hang. It's going to be a great time. What a great reality that will be. I For now, you can praise God that He has drawn you into relationship through Jesus Christ to Himself. You are a son or daughter forever. You have a Christian family in the church. You have a perfect relationship to both of them waiting in heaven, that's the work of God. Now, so praise the Father, praise the Son, bless God for election, bless God for adoption, bless God for redemption, bless God for a mystery revealed, bless God for an inheritance, a family, God himself, and we bless the spirit. Verse 12 talks about what's happening and about to happen, so that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be to the praise of His glory. Here's that theme three times: the praise of His glory is repeated. It is a hymn of praise to God. Verse 13, 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. One of the common objectives to what this passage is often called the doctrines of grace, one of the common objectives to the doctrines of grace is that it removes man's free will, removes man's choice, that's not what's said here. God can be sovereign, working all things to the power of His will or to the counsel of His will, and yet leave real choices. And so, here's what happened in time: it could have been your aunt, your uncle, your grandma, or grandpa, your parents, a neighbor, a classmate brought you the good news that Jesus saves, and pretty soon you recognized you needed saving, and there was presented before you the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, the full work of Jesus, the Savior. You believed in Him. Other parts of Scripture talk about the Holy Spirit's aid in this. In the Old Testament, Ezekiel 33 and Jeremiah 31 there is talk about a heart of flesh or heart of stone being removed, and a heart of flesh being put in a person by the Holy Spirit.
  
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  In time, here's what happens: somebody speaks to you the gospel, the Spirit of God opens your heart, you see you for who you really are, you see Jesus for who He really is, you see your need and His beauty, and you trust Him. It's really your faith. You go from dead to alive, you are united to Christ. I've been trying to think of a metaphor. Bill Mullins and I were talking about the joy of union with Christ, the new birth, and how we think about sin in our life. Here's a guess at it. You can come up with a better one. We have weeks to go. You were on an oil tanker, it went down in the Alaskan Gulf, and a ship came over you, and you're covered in the oil slick, and you are dead. Somebody grabs you out of the water, puts the shock things at your chest, and you come to life. Paul says you were dead in your sins and trespasses, things which you formerly walked, and disobedience, and the hardness of your heart, walking according to the sons of disobedience, following the lies of Satan. But God made you alive, that's the Holy Spirit's work. He makes you alive. So, what happens to you? You see the gospel, you believe the gospel. The Holy Spirit has helped you see, has made you alive. The Holy Spirit is like that, the set of paddles that jolts you back to life, but it's not just jolting you back to life, it's making you a whole new person. And here you are, a whole new person plucked out of the water, set in the ship, headed to heaven, new, but you're wearing all the oil-stained clothes. Paul has a metaphor. Later, you have to take off those clothes and put on new clothes, because you're a new person in Christ, I just want to put that here, because that's all happening in time right now. That's by the power of the Holy Spirit. Here's what Paul wants to get our attention to right here. When you believed in Him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. What does that mean? One of my favorite pictures, because I'm an archeology nerd. I love archeology. They used to send letters this way. A king wanted to send a letter, and it was needed to be a private letter to a private citizen, a nobleman, a general, but nobody else could read it. They'd make a little letter, they'd stamp everything in the cuneiform or in the language, and then they would dry the letter, and then they would take clay and they'd put it on top of the letter, and they'd wrap it around it. It was a kind of envelope, and then the emperor would put his seal on it, signifying his possession. Nobody messed with it. This is mine. Upon pain of death, you'd crack that seal open. You are sealed by the Holy Spirit, marked as owned by God, the only person who has the right to open the seal. Seal is Jesus. When you arrive in His presence, you are marked by God. You are sealed. You are owned. You are cared for and protected. He adds this other picture to it, the guarantee. You're sealed by the promised Holy Spirit. That's that covenant promise that is in Ezekiel 33 or Jeremiah 31 This prominent, promised Holy Spirit, who makes a loving covenant with us forever. This Holy Spirit, verse 14, is the guarantee of our inheritance. He's the down payment. If you're buying a house, you put on earnest money. Earnest money is a message to the sender that you're really going to follow through on buying the house. This is actually more of a layaway plan. God has put His spirit in us as a guarantee that he will bring us all the way home to heaven with him again. A common rejection to this idea is that then what people think they can sin however they want, it doesn't matter. One of the, one of the common objections, this is this is where we get the doctrine of eternally secure, eternal security. When God saves you, he began with his choice in eternity past. It really wasn't up to you. In real time, you did believe he sealed you. You are the possession. Well, people will just live however they want.
  
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  No, that's not at all what happens. It says that we are saved to be holy and blameless, we aren't saved because we are holy and blameless. We're not saved because eventually we will be holy and blameless. We are saved so he could make us holy and blameless in life. What happens with a person who is guaranteed is they are also empowered and interested in walking in holiness, and they keep believing, and they keep pursuing, they keep repenting, they keep making progress, but the importance of this reality means that the ups and downs of Christian life, your failures and your successes, aren't the condition of getting to the end, the condition of getting to the end is the fact that you are sealed and the deposit of the Holy Spirit has been placed in you. You are His possession to bring you to His end. What does it look like? What does it look like? I mean, these are the unbreakable verses about why a Christian cannot lose his or her salvation doesn't start with your choice or faith, doesn't end with your choice or faith, it's simply conditioned on the promises of God. But listen to how it works out in real life. Here's an example from Luke 2231 just after Jesus walks through the Lord's Supper, and Judas turns aside, rejects Jesus, goes and betrays Jesus, and we know the Judas story. The disciples are arguing about who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom, and Jesus, like, none of you are even going to follow me. Why are you talking about this? Jesus looks to Peter, also called Simon, Simon, Simon. Behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat. I'm going to let him. I mean, there's a thought, but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers, Peter said to him. Lord, I'm ready to go with you, both to prison and to death. Peter was sincere, as sincere as he get. Do you think at the moment that he said it, that he didn't really mean it? He really meant it. I'm willing to die for you, but he promised bigger than he could deliver. I have prayed for you, Lord. I'm ready to go through both prison and to death. Jesus said, "I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny me three times that you know me, and what did Peter do? He denied the Lord. What had Jesus done? Prayed for him. His prayers were answered. The Holy Spirit seals and guarantees in such a way, John Calvin says to reduce us to voluntary submission. There's a heady thought for you that we would voluntarily return to Him, confess our sin, and believe. People make the mistake that thinking you can disobey however you want, so be a Christian, that's. That's not what he says, that's not what you're saved for, and that's not what you're empowered to do. There are certainly lots of fake believers around the world. They treat Christianity like any other religion or idolatry. Often, Christianity is picked because Christ is the way to give me the idle pleasures that I really want. Time almost always exposes all these things. No, what's happening here is God's setting your security, your progress in place, starting in eternity past. It's working out its way in Christ, and the Holy Spirit is going to guarantee all the way to the end. You need to recognize what you have in Christ. Can I give you a recipe for parenting heartbreak? I want to give you a recipe for parenting heartbreak. Would you like a recipe for parenting heartbreak? Think about this. You, you do love Jesus, and you're in the church, and you think I'm going to have my kids memorize a bunch of scripture, which you should. I'm going to make sure they're with all the right kinds of friends, no bad friends. Good luck. I am going to keep them from all the wiles of the world, they have to, they have to do a seven year courtship, that's that's going to do it.
  
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  I'm going to have them in the right places, we're going to say the right things and repeat, and they'll, they'll turn out if we do it all right, they'll turn out that's a recipe for heartbreak, because you think you can do that without the Holy Spirit, or you think that you doing all the right things is a guarantee that all the right product will happen. God has to awaken your children. Certainly, you're going to teach them, I'm going to talk about in a second. You have to entrust your children to the God of sovereign grace through tearful prayers, through earnest pleading, and the God of sovereign grace has to make them alive and seal them and guarantee it. You have to entrust it to Him. You have to recognize what you have in Christ. You need to return daily to the worship for spiritual blessings, you're going to resist sin, pursue obedience, lovingly serve, sacrifice out of abundance and purpose. If you do that, start everything with worship. Jump over to Ephesians five, because I just want to prove the point that daily, weekly gathering, family, friends, roommates, small group, the big church gathering, all has to be led and driven by worship and prayer to the God of grace. I want to give you just a couple examples. You need to overcome pornography, verse four, chapter five, verse four. Instead, there should be thanksgiving. Like, what's the.. what is the thing that's going to overcome the very powerful temptations of the flesh? Gratitude, recognition for the grace of God in Jesus Christ, his death, his resurrection, his love for you. If you are not satisfied in that, then you're going to turn to vain and helpless things, and worship is the tip of the wedge that's going to drive into a lasting change over temptation. Verse 19 tells us how to overthrow addictions in 2021 by praise and worship. Do not get drunk with wine, but rather be filled with the Spirit, singing psalms, hymns, and praising God. What, what are we to do instead of be dominated by addictive realities in our lives, life dominating sins in our lives, praise and worship together of 524 tells us how to have a joyful, happy marriage, and it begins with the husband's role of washing his wife in the water of the word. It is a commitment for the leader of the home to tell the family what he's thankful for in Christ to lead them in gratitude for Christ's grace to apply Christ's truth to all of life. I mean, doesn't it lead with. Worship six four tells us what the heart of parenting is. What are we to do? We are to train our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to bring the truth of the gospel to them. Here is worship yet again. 611 tells us how to fight Satan's temptations with this armor of God, and all of it has to do with a mindset of acknowledging the truth of the grace of the gospel in our lives and God's power to finish what He started, so we've given you seven prayer prompts that are the start of putting out those grease fires, use them, memorize them. We head into Father's Day in a couple weeks. I'm not going to be here, so I want to give my little Father's Day message, you know. Go camping, do manly things. Is you know, there's there's always a push for the latest in my day, it was Promise Keepers, and then it was Wild at Heart, and now it's like Stronger Man Nation, or whatever it is, and I want to tell you, I have a Husqvarna 575 chainsaw, and I have an Alaska chain saw mill. I mill my own logs, and I have a wood shop that turns it into furniture or musical instruments. I love cooking with fire. I love to grill meat. I like the woods. I like sports. I would love to give you an old-fashioned elbow, if you thought you could come across the key. That's not manliness, it's not manliness, it's not manliness. It's cool, enjoy it. Manliness is is leading your home in the worship of the God of sovereign grace and pursuing holiness and godliness, not your boy toys, not your hobbies. It's real manliness.
  
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  My wife said you want to tell them to be manly, like have them take their kids out to faith in five, like that's manliness, have them go door knocking or something. Thank you for the guys that do know manliness is recognizing the gifts of the God of grace, and femininity is recognizing the gifts of the God of grace, setting your heart to worship Him, and God will work in you and work out through you all the things you need to do to have those improved relationships. Follow your rules. It all starts with worship. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the great grace and mercy that you have given us in Jesus Christ. I thank you that you have shown us that we already have the promised land in Christ, and we have resources by the Holy Spirit, and what we need to do with those is give you worship and praise, and I'm as guilty as any, all kinds of other things preoccupy me or tempt me, so help me help us return and turn to the God of all grace, who is full of spiritual riches, help us press on to holiness. Help us see expansively who you are, and even now, as we are to take the Lord's Supper, and think about the one in whom there is redemption of sin. Help the gospel truth be our guide, our power, and our grateful thanks in your name. Amen.

Dan Jarms

Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.

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