Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2006 : July 30, 2006

Theme: God Has a Plan for You -- God Chose You from Eternity

Church year occasion: Pentecost 8

I want you to know that when Paul wrote today's text, it was one sentence. The subject matter that he was speaking of was so profound and utterly amazing that once Paul started writing, he couldn't stop talking about all the amazing things God had done and continued to do for Christians. It was like a freight train flying at full speed down the track -- Paul just had to let the words come gushing out of him, as the Holy Spirit guided him. [Please click the link above and read it before going on.]

You can almost taste Paul's excitement in that text, can't you? In talking about God's abundant blessings to you, he speaks of the work of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and what our Triune God has done for you, is doing for you, and will yet do for you. He leaves almost nothing out. It shows that God has a plan for you. That's exciting! Over the next five weeks as we look at the letter to the Ephesians, we will discover God's plan for you, and hopefully Paul's excitement about God's plan will get you excited about it as well. Today, we focus especially on when God started thinking of you -- it was before time or this world even existed. In other words, God has always been thinking of you. And the amazing thing is that from eternity, God chose you to be his own and to go to heaven. As we delve into the mystery of God's actions for us from eternity, we'll be just as excited as Paul is about God's plan for us.

Speaking of plans, how many of you plan to have a garage sale yet this summer or fall or already had one this year? I don't know what it is about garage sales, but it makes some people go crazy trying to get good deals. For instance, I've known a certain woman for 12 years or so, and she's a pretty even-keeled person, very pleasant and very fun to be around. But when someone mentions that there's a garage sale in the area, her eyes start to get wild, and you can tell that she won't sleep until she has found every last bargain at that garage sale. Where else can you buy a beat up, old, discarded dresser and turn it into something beautiful? Sure it might take you hours in stripping off the peeling paint and wiping off the cobwebs and filling in the cracks, but what a sense of accomplishment when you can look back and see what you started with and now what you have made of it -- a treasure!

God's grace is like that. God in his infinite wisdom, way back before he even created the world, choose you to go to heaven. That's called predestination or election. That's where Paul starts with God's plan for you. He says,

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.

Before time began, before one molecule of matter was formed by our loving God, God chose you to be his own child and an heir of heaven, even though he also knew full well how sinful you would be. Just like going to a rummage sale and buying a beat-up, old, junky dresser with broken drawers and chipped paint, God saw you and loved you, even though there was nothing lovely about you. He knew how much work and pain it would take for him to get you to heaven, but God wanted you to be with him forever, so he made it happen.

But remember -- this is heaven we're talking about. And in heaven, no sin and no sinners are allowed. And that means we can't get in because we are sinners through and through by nature. We see it in our lives. Can we say we always put our God above everything else in this life? Or are there times when we love ourselves or our money or our possessions more? If we have brothers or sisters, do we always treat them with love and consideration? If we are married, do we always treat our spouses as they should be treated, like the most important being in your life next to God, or are they treated more like last week's casserole sitting in the back of the fridge -- an afterthought, and sometimes even a burden? Do we thank our God for all his blessings he pours out on us so generously, or is he just an afterthought, and sometimes when it comes to worshiping him, does it become a burden? Just one of these sins disqualifies us for the mansions of heaven. Just one! And we've committed many -- too many -- more than we want to admit, even every day. It's unfortunately so true when Paul describes us in Ephesians 2 as object of God's wrath.

Now can you see why God choosing us for heaven from eternity is so important and so amazing? We were that beat up old dresser. But God loved us anyway. When I was in high school, I remember going past an AMC Gremlin one day. It wasn't pretty to begin with, but some vandals had busted out the windows, caved in the top, torn off the doors and popped the tires. It was a total heap. I walked past it day after day. No one wanted to claim it -- not even the owner. He didn't even want to haul it away. But imagine a mechanic buying that car off the owner. He remakes and replaces everything. He fixes it all, carefully makes it all new again, like it was just coming off the assembly line. That's a good picture for what Paul talks about here. He says, "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight." That was the only way we could get into heaven -- if we were holy and blameless -- without sin. If left to ourselves, we'd still be like that beat up old dresser or vandalized Gremlin -- no redeeming quality in us at all.

So here's the big question -- why would God do it? Why would he choose to save us? Why would he choose to give his life for ours? Why would he go through all the trouble he did in suffering and dying for our sins to bring us to God and give us heaven? Was it because we were good? No -- like the dresser and car, Paul says that "there is nothing good that lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature." Did God choose us because we had more potential than anyone else? No -- we were no different than any other sinner; we had no potential -- by nature enemies of God, dead in sin, objects of his holy wrath. Did God choose us because he could see that we would be more prone to hearing the message? No -- our natural man wants nothing to do with the message of Jesus. All we can do is reject it. Jesus said, "No one comes to me unless the Father draws him." Did he love others less and not give them opportunity to know the true God? Again, no -- God loved the world and gave his life for the sins of the world.

Then why are we the elect? Why not the native in the Amazon or the refugees in Lebanon or Sudan or our next door neighbor who is so nice but lets us know he wants nothing to do with God. No, any attempt to try to reason out God's purpose in electing us will fail. This is where human reason must take a back seat to God's grace and will. Paul simply says,

In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure.

Why would God choose us? Very simply, he wanted to. He loves us. So he chose us for heaven. Why didn't he choose others? We can't answer that. Just be amazed that he chose you to be blameless in Christ.

Did you notice how often it was mentioned that Jesus did everything? Everything God did for us is in Christ or through Christ. Then "he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ." In other words, he told us the future -- he showed us that we will one day be in heaven, once everything is fulfilled and every one of the elect has been brought to faith. Then the end will come.

Nice plan, wouldn't you say? I don't think we'd argue too much with that plan. But Paul says not only won't we argue about being blameless in God's eyes through Christ, but God chose you from eternity to live that blameless and holy life so that you praise him now and forever for his great love to you.

Paul said that God chose you "to the praise of his glorious grace." God's grace, his abundant grace, his undeserved love for undeserving sinners, was showered on you so that he would be glorified for his greatness and grace. Paul said that same thing two more times later in our text. Think about it -- if you restored an old, beat-up dresser or completely restored an old Gremlin, wouldn't you use it? You wouldn't want it just sitting around. No you'd use the dresser; you'd use the car. God's plan is that now you praise, here on earth and forever in heaven. If we have any problem with that part of God's plan, listen to how Paul concludes: "And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation." How do we know that? Paul says, "Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance." Basically Paul is drawing our attention to 3 stages of our redemption:

The first, that he chose us as his own before the world began -- he predestined us for heaven.
Secondly, in time, God's Son rescued us from our sins when he paid for them on the cross and rose from the grave in victory. The second part of stage 2 is when the Holy Spirit brought us to faith so that heaven could be ours. Paul calls it a deposit, a down payment. Since we have the Holy Spirit, we are assured that eternal life is already ours in the present during our lives on earth. Paul said, "In him we have redemption through Christ's blood, the forgiveness of sins." Heaven is already ours!
The third and final stage is the one that is still to come because that is when our full redemption in heaven will be ours when the Lord takes us to himself forever, which is where he always wanted us to be and took every step along the way to make sure we will be there.

God did it all! What a plan -- and we're part of God's plan. He chose you from eternity to be blameless in his sight through faith in Christ to praise him now and forever. Show him in the coming week and throughout your lives what it means to you that you are part of God's plan. Amen.