Salvation in Galatians & Ephesians

There's no way you'll ever fall out of Christ because you are sealed in him by the Holy Spirit. It would take someone greater than God to break that seal that is 71. The doctrine of eternal security work, perseverance of the saints know is that many times met with mixed reactions. Some people say that believing in that gives Christians a license to sin. Say a prayer and rent for good today will see how this biblical truth assures us that we can never lose our salvation. If we genuinely belong to Christ theirs Dr. Steven Lawson are March through the New Testament now looking for the doctrines of grace brings us to the book of Galatians and I want you to take your Bible turn with me to Galatians chapter 1 just a few verses in the book of Galatians that will address and then will move on to the book of Ephesians. But let me just bring these few nuggets to your attention in Galatians chapter 1 and in verse three Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins.

Now our clearly refers to believers and not the whole human race, and he gives the purpose so that he might rescue who asked the purpose of his death was to bare our sins. Believers sands in order to rescue us from this present evil age, was he successful at the cross did he accomplish his mission or did he fail. Did any for whom he died. Are they perishing in hell know it was a successful atonement.

It was a victorious triumphant death. Not one drop was shed in vain.

All for whom he died. He saved in the very language I think makes it clear as well. When it says that he might rescue us from this present age is not that he might potentially rescue us from this present age but that he might actually really rescue us from this present age. According to the will of God our father to very strong statement as he begins the book of Galatians as you come down the page to verse 15 and 16. We really see something of the sovereign purposes of God in Paul's life that involves not only service but salvation in verse 15 we read, but when God, who had set me apart even from my mother's womb and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles. Here Paul is acknowledging that before he even entered into this world. While he was still in his mother's womb. Before he can do anything God had already made a choice for his life that God had already chosen to set him apart to something very special and that was number one to reveal the son of God. To him in the number two to preach the son of God to others.

But before he can preach the son of God, he must first know the son of God, and he has been set apart even for this. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ. I want you to know God set you apart from your mother's one that you might know him and that you might serve the Lord Jesus Christ in whatever capacity the Lord calls you, but the Lord is marked out your path long before your journey ever began. If you come to chapter 3 and verse 13. There's one more verse in the book of Galatians that I want you to specifically note Galatians 3 verse 13 Christ redeemed who us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written curse. It is everyone who who hangs on a tree Jesus at the cross bore the curse for our sins us as believers, upon the cross, he was not hanging upon the cross for those who would never find any benefit in his death it was perfect equity at the cross in a transaction between the father and the son that Jesus bore our sins and when he bore our sins, he suffered our curse for us want you to come to the book of Ephesians and on your way just to give you any further evidence of total depravity.

In Galatians 5 and verses 19 through 21, we see the works of the flesh. I'm not gonna spend my time reading that laundry list, but come now to Ephesians chapter 1.

Then in verse four. This text with which we are very familiar. There's two things that I want to bring to your attention before I read verse four, number one.

This is found in a doxology and this is not found in a systematic theology textbook in a footnote in the back of the book. This is found in the context of offering praise and worship to God and see the doctrines of grace are intended that we would give glory to God and that is exactly where we find it here.

The second thing I want you to note is that this is at the very beginning of the book of Ephesians. This presupposes rightly how well the Ephesians had already been taught sovereign grace.

There's no need for further explanation.

The implication is they already know all about this and so boom at the very beginning of this book is not hidden at the back of the book for only a few committed believers who continue to read and finally worked their way to the end of the book, and maybe there their knowledge of theology will be increased as they read through the book of Ephesians and by the time they get to the end of chapter 6 they might be ready now for this truth that to handle this hot potato know it's just laying right here it's really the front porch leading into the house of the book of Ephesians.

If you know how to read you want to know what this is all about his choices in verse three Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, and now in verse four he wants to delineate this, the spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ, and he begins with us. The source from which this all flows and so Paul knows he has to go all the way back to eternity past to this great and grand doctrine of sovereign election that everything is flowing out of this truth. Verse four just as he chose us.

Please note this is not say we chose him and that he chose us back know this is all by divine initiative. He chose us. He is God the father. The us referred to the elect who will all become believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. He chose us know just pause for a moment this word chose the customer Greek word that means to choose out from many choices. It doesn't mean right here are five nickels and I choose all five Nichols know.

The idea is just like when David went down to the riverbed to select five stones to put into his slingshot same were the Jews in the Septuagint out of all of the stones that were in that riverbed. David shows five that perfectly suited his purposes the fit into the slingshot to bring the giant Goliath down. I can assure you there are more than five stones in the entire riverbed. The very same word that you steer. It's also used in the Septuagint when the charge was given by Joshua, choose you this day whom you will serve as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. There were many Canaanite gods that were in the promised land. And after Joshua has led them across Jordan and there in the promised land, and they are all the various different idols.

Joshua stands before the nation and says choose you out of all of these gods, the one that you will serve, and I want you know that is for me and my house we will serve the one true living God, the very same word that you steer in the idea is is that out of the entire human race out of the many sons and daughters of Adam that God has chosen not all, but those few who will be a part of the bride of Christ and by the way, when the slave would run away in the Mosaic law. He would choose the city of refuge that he would run to a he would make a distinguishing choice. Not that city. Not that city. Not that city. But this city is where I will go. That's the word that she used here in verse four, just as he chose us neck Lego my out of all of the many possibilities he made the selection of whom he would choose so when did this happen did this happen within time is God making this up as we go from century to century. This God make this choice. At the start of each new generation know it says before the foundation of the world, then these before time began before there was even heaven or hell are angels or anything or anyone. God chose us before the foundation of the world.

Why he says that we would be holy and blameless before him. And here we see all those who are chosen will become holy and blameless before him. The distinguishing mark of the elect in this world is the transformation of their life and sanctification, and then one day, to be presented before him. Now this is so certain that he says in love he predestined us, there's that word again. I want to know the word predestination was not coined in the 16th century in Geneva. The word predestination was not invented in Wittenberg in the 16th century. It did not originate in Edinboro in the 16th century, this word is God's word. If you love God you love his word and this is one of his words predestination. It is a glorious word. It is a a wonderful word and it means that all those whom God chose. It is predestined that God's eternal plan and purpose will come to pass in their salvation. Nothing can cause it to be hindered. Nothing will prevent it from coming to pass. It is a revocable, it is in mutable, it is certain, and sure so in love he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself.

Please note if the universe five according to the kind intention of his will some people say this is such a harsh doctrine as some people see this as presenting God as a stoic sovereign who is just making choices in heaven in a cold, calculating clinical fashion. Nothing to be further from the truth. I want you to know that one of the most loving doctrines taught in the entire Bible is the doctrine of election. In fact, if it was not for this truth. You would not be in heaven if it was not for this truth. No one would ever be in heaven. It is the kind intention of the will of God that has set this all in motion and you wanted to be a revocable and in mutable and all of this in verse six for this highest aim and purpose even higher than that we would be holy and blameless before him.

There is a yet higher motive for the doctrine of election and it is to the praise of the glory of his grace. Now is salvation is a joint effort between God and man that God meets us halfway.

These done what he's done and now the rest of it is my part. I had had the good sense to believe in Jesus and it was by my own initiative that I sought after the Lord if it's this joint effort then were going to split the credit and when I get to heaven, God, you did your part.

I did my part. Let's join together in saying how great we are no that's that's not the way it works. It's all of God, the only contribution we have made is the sin that was laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's all that we have brought to the table. Even the repentance and faith with which we believe in Jesus Christ, has been given to us by God.

All we had was unbelief and sin. God supplies all the grace and the faith in the repentance, therefore, guess who gets all the glory.

God and it is this high theology that produces high doxology, the higher your theology, the higher your doxology and the lower your theology meeting a man centered theology, and by the way, that's the ultimate oxymoron is like saying jumbo shrimp to to say a man centered theology were theology means the study of God a man centered theology. What would an oxymoron.

That is what a contradiction in terms, but the lower your theology, the lower will be your capacity to worship God. This is true.

You just cannot rely on mood music at church to get your heart going because it is the theology that enables you to worship God. If you're in a Roman prison cell. If you are the whole. The Mayflower coming across the Atlantic. If you were in a catacomb in Rome about to be fed to the lions with no music going on. It is this high, lofty theology of sovereign grace that causes your heart to soar to the heights of heaven and that is exactly what we see here.

It is our high doctrine that produces high devotion in verse 11 of this very same chapter. Chapter 1 he says in him at the universe 10. Also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose who works all things after the counsel of his will for keywords there predestined purpose counsel and will and God's sovereign choice of his elect in eternity past is the result of the Council of his own will and there was no one there to counsel God. There were there was no one there to give him insight on whom he should choose whom he should pass over it was all the counsel of his will and once God made his choice.

The word purpose there means that God was resolved to carry out this purpose God would not be turned back there would be no plan B, there would be no plan C and then having resolved to carry out the counsel of his will. God then predestined that it would come to pass.

And at that point that it's predestined there is no reversing of his choices or changing of what he has purposed to do now but in chapter 1 verse 13 in him you also, after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation having also believed, you were sealed in him in Christ with the Holy Spirit of promise that there's no way you'll ever fall out of Christ because you are sealed in him by the Holy Spirit.

It would take someone greater than God to break that seal, and there is no one greater than God and so once again we see the eternal security of the believer.

And in verse 14 he asked that the spirit is given as a pledge of our inheritance. The Holy Spirit is like the down payment, guaranteeing that one day we will receive the full inheritance, and the full inheritance is simply to be in heaven with God in his presence in a glorified state now come to chapter 2 and I want you to see beginning in verse one why God must do the choosing. Why it cannot be left to you and me and the reason is very simple. When asking the question what can a dead mended and there's only one answer and that is stink dead men don't believe dead men don't repent dead men have no moral ability to seek God pursue God, or to respond to God. In chapter 2 verse one gives the state of every person in the human race being outside of Christ. This is even true of the elect before they were say and you and he refers to the believers in Ephesus, you were dead in your trespasses and sins. Please note, he does not say you were sick, meaning you have a little ability. It doesn't say we had a cold and you weren't feeling too well before you came to Christ know you are a spiritual corpse you go to a courts take a pen, stick it in the soul of the feed them, and there's no movement you go to court you can sing to the courts preach to the courts read to the courts to teach the corpse that there is no response from a corpse right and that's the way you and I were spiritually we have to understand how bad off.

We were when the Lord found us. We were dead in trespasses and sins in verse two it says you formerly walked according to the course of this world. This world was like a river flowing into hell and we were like dead fish floating downstream. We were just going with the current of the spirit of this age. And then he adds, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working the sons of disobedience that refers to Satan and goes from bad to worse in verse three is not just the world, and Satan.

Verse three says our sinful flesh. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath. That's a euphemism and idiomatic expression, a Hebrew, a is the meaning children deserving wrath children under wrath, even the elect were under wrath, even as the rest referring to the rest of the world that we we we were not in any better state than the world before we came to faith in Jesus Christ.

Even if you are a member of a church that they didn't get you anything. You are still under the wrath of God until you believed upon his son, Jesus Christ, who has the son has life. He who does not believe this not have life.

Very simple. So there. The three great enemies the world the flesh and the devil. And because we were dead in trespasses and sin, we could not see the truth. We could not hear the truth.

We could not respond to the truth. We did not want the truth. We could not believe the truth we were dead spiritually.

That is why there has to be a spiritual resurrection in order to believe in Christ in order to repent of our sins.

And that's what we will talk about next time as we will pick up at this very place, but once we see how dead we were in sin that makes a shout for joy over the doctrine of sovereign election because we could not choose Christ. Therefore, God had to choose us in order that we might choose Christ because we could not do this on our own.

We would not do this on our own such a glorious active the kind intention of God's will that he would take the initiative and do for us that which we could never do. He chose us in eternity past, so that within time we would be enabled to choose his son the Lord Jesus is and if there is nothing we could do to earn our salvation.

There's nothing we can do to lose it when a great truth that is major listening to Renewing Your Mind on the Saturday possibly web as we heard in today's lesson by Dr. Steven Lawson the doctrines of grace or just ideas to be known there truths that penetrate our hearts. The reality of God's saving grace motivates us to grateful obedience to God for his mercy.

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