John's passing out outlines, which hope will be of some help, as we make our way through this material. Let's pray together. Lord, thank you for our standing as a treasured possession of yours. Thank you that you delight in your people, that we are privileged to be called sons and daughters, and the blessed beneficiaries of your fatherly love and protection. Be with us as we consider today things which are beyond us, past our ability to comprehend in some respects, but which are for our good and which are designed to encourage us and strengthen our hearts. We are a God of unspeakably great grace and mercy, and I pray that that would come through as we spend this time this morning. And Father, I pray that you be with us as we make our way through this week. I pray that we would be preoccupied with the passion of our Lord, that we would think often this week about his death, and I pray that the full significance of his death would be impressed upon us by your spirit. May we see that great and final work, that finished work of his upon the cross, and then his subsequent resurrection, as a work sufficient for us in every respect, and a pledge to us of your determination to save us to the uttermost, God encourage our hearts as we think about these things. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. We are looking at the church, that's the subject of our time on these Sunday mornings. Just a reminder, there is no class next week, we have two services, nine and ten forty-five, we adjust the schedule a little bit on Easter Sunday, and it's really the only time in the year we do that, but just be aware of that, so we will not need in here, and we'll just have two services. Now, what we're doing here in these first few weeks is basically asking the question, well, throughout the whole thing, we're asking the question, what is the church? But in these first three weeks, the emphasis is upon what God has done in making his people, a people for himself, in establishing his church. That's the focus in these first few weeks. If God didn't act, there wouldn't be a church. If God didn't intervene, there wouldn't be a church, and that's really what we're going to focus on in a very specific and pointed way this morning. So what we've said so far, these are basically these things, we look at Jeremiah 29 the first week, and that is a picture of the church in the world, I've suggested that the church is like Israel in the midst of Babylon. There are some points at which there is dissimilarity, but there are many points of similarity, and we're to be instructed by that, and we're to think about ourselves. We are here because God has purposed for us to be here, just as God purposed for Israel to be in Babylon. We are away from our homeland, just as Israel was away from her homeland. We live in the midst of Babylon, committed to things which are different, very, very different from the things to which the Babylonians are committed. We're not Babylonians, we're Israelites. We're not citizens of the United States of America, our citizenship is in heaven, and we're an outpost of heaven, we're a ghetto is a bad word, but that's kind of what we are. We're a ghetto of heaven in the midst of the earth, but we're not to stay in the ghetto, just as the Israelites were to seek the peace of the city and pursue it, so we're to seek the peace of the city around us. That means that in every way, we're to carry our distinctives out into the marketplace, into every area of life, trusting that God will show him, say, self-faithful, enabling us to do that, and we then become 11 in the society. We seek the peace of the city, and in its peace, we know peace. But there is always, there's always this distinction, and I just think this is really really important for us. There's always this distinction between the church and the world, between Israel and Babylon, okay? There's always a difference between us, and I said, I think a couple of times, that the relationship between the church and the world is always and only a relationship of tension, and it's always and only more or less a chance between the world and the church, right? And we, the church cannot make alliances with the world, that's the great mistake that Israel made, making alliances with the pagan nations, with the foreign nations, it seemed like the wise and pragmatic thing to do at the moment, and it ultimately destroyed her. The church has always got to recognize herself as distinct from the world, as a colony of heaven, an expression of the kingdom of heaven in the earth. So that's a picture that we have to keep in mind, and it's one that I want to dominate our thinking. But we've talked about these other two things, that the church is a people gathered for God, but the church is a treasured possession of God. Precious in the sight of the Lord is His bride, is His people, okay? God loves His church, Jesus loves His church, okay? And perhaps, I don't know, there are lots of ways in which the scriptures describe this relationship. The shepherd and the sheep is one, the groom and the bride is one, but the dominant picture of the church in the New Testament is as the family of God, the sons and daughters of God. God is our father, and all of the affection which a father feels for his children, all of the protection that the father wants to give to his children, all of the wisdom and instruction that a father passes on to his children for their good. These are all things which God does for his people. So the church is a people gathered for God in a treasured possession, and then last week we talked about the church as a people gathered to God to display His glory and sing His praises. The glory of God, you know, every year at the missions conference, the choir sings that piece from Haydn's creation, the heavens are telling, the heavens are telling the glory of God. This is a powerful thing. So there's a sense in which the glory of God is put on display in the things that He has made. But there is a very special way in which the glory of God is put on display in the midst of His people, in the midst of His people. It's sometimes hard for us to see because we're so painfully aware of our own shortcomings, our own failings and faults, but I'll tell you something, as the Lord works in the midst of His people, as God's people grow in their understanding of who and what they are, and as God works in the midst of His people, I may recognize that history is a very imperfect thing, and that there is an ebbing in a flowing, there are ups and downs in all of this. But nevertheless, as God works in the midst of His people, His people, do display His glory. And the point where you see that, I think most markedly, honestly, is when the church does come in contact with the world, and when particular Christians come in contact with the world. Now we don't, I don't mean to suggest that we're always successful, I know I'm not, I know you're not. So I'm not pretending that there's some sort of perfection or some kind of utopia that is ever going to be expressed, and the lines of demarcation are going to be so crystal clear that you just sort of know when you pass from one realm into the other. But I'll tell you, I'm going to mention this in the sermon, there are a few of us who were together yesterday morning to pray for Patty Smith and a couple of other folks as they sought to minister to people outside an abortion clinic. And I mean, it has been a long time since the contrast between the church and the world has been as stark as it was for me there. It's like, wow, unbelievable the difference that there is in the way people view the world and in the way they give expression to their convictions. The history illustration of a far less political or inflammatory kind was a story that a couple of friends related recently, they had been with a whole bunch of non-Christians in a business environment. And they just kind of did what they did, they were who they were, there was no big agenda about it. But in the course of the time that they were with all of these non-Christian people, two or three folks in that group connected with these people. And the difference that there was between them as Christians and these other folks who were not Christians, got the attention of these folks. And by the end of the weekend, these two or three people, I mean, there were hugs, there were tears, there were things like, I've never met anybody like you before. What's the deal here? What is it that makes you tick? Can we please stay in touch? I don't want to lose touch with you. That kind of thing happens, and that is what the church is. A people gathered to God, and God puts His glory on display in the midst of His people. And God's people are to be characterized by a song. One Peter, one, two, nine passage, we're going to come to again in just a minute. Is the place where Peter reminds those Christians that they are a chosen people, a royal priest, a holy nation, called from darkness into light in order that they might sing the praises of God who has called them. The church is to be a singing church. Everything about us is to be doxological, filled with praise and gratitude to God for this incredible thing that we are, this incredible thing that we are. We get so used to being Christians using our vocabulary and our language that we lose sight sometimes of what an incredible thing it is simply to be a Christian, simply to be a Christian. There's nothing more remarkable, nothing, apart from God Himself. There is nothing more remarkable in all the world to think about than the fact that you are a Christian at all. And out of that is to come this note of praise. The churches of people gathered to God to display His glory and sing His praise. And then what we want to look at today is the fact that the church is a people gathered by God. And the important thing here is that little preposition by, and I elaborate it by saying the church is a people gathered by God by Himself, by Himself. The people of God are a people whom God has gathered and He has gathered them by Himself, by His power, by His own strong right arm. The way that you want to summarize this, I think the way you want to think about it is using the language of Jonah. And I'd like to read this passage. This is from the second chapter and you know this story. You know that this prophet preacher actually, more preacher probably than a prophet, was a commission by God to go preach the gospel to these wicked Ninevites, and because the Ninevites had been unscrupulous and mean in previous generations, he thought better of God's ID and decided not to. You know that's the background. I don't know if you've ever wondered why it was that Jonah had this hesitation about going to Ninevites to preach the gospel because the Ninevites had overrun his people in previous generations. I mean they'd trashed his land. You know? He knew the stories. He knew the history and it's not hard to imagine. Jonah sitting at home alone after he's had this word from the Lord saying, ain't no way. I'm going to Ninevites to preach the gospel to people who trashed my people and trashed my land. You know? Not going to do it. So anyway he's disobedient, you know the story, runs away, and then he is swallowed by this great fish which God has appointed. Now the connection between Jonah and the belly of the whale and the idea of redemption is of course the Lord Jesus Christ in the tomb. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale so much the Son of Man be in the grave for three days and then be raised again. So this story of Jonah has obviously it's immediate significance and application but it has a greater theological significance and that greater theological significance is in terms of Jesus who is in every way a representative of his people. Okay? Now we're going to look at this a little bit more closely when we look at Ephesians. But I just like you to think about this, realize this as you think about Jonah, keep in mind the idea of our union with Christ and the way that that union is expressed so often in the scriptures is by this little preposition in that we are in him or we are in Christ. All right? We use language, you know, we use that little preposition. We talk about Jesus living in us, you know, have you asked Christ to come into your heart? Have you asked Christ in, you know, have you opened the door and let him come in kind of thing? And that language is used some in the New Testament. But this language, the language of being in Christ, that is being identified with Christ, being united with Christ is used over 150 times in the New Testament. Okay? See, I mean there's a sense in which it isn't so important where Jesus is, what's important is where you are, you know, it's important whether or not you are in Christ, whether or not you are united with Christ. And as you work your way through the New Testament, you see this kind of language being used in connection with Jesus' death, Romans 6, having died with him or in him. So we are also raised with him or in him, you see. There is just this, this incredible connection that there is in the New Testament particularly between us and Christ. But one of the pictures, one of the prophetic pictures that there is in the Old Testament that points ahead to what Christ does as a representative of his people and for his people in every way is this picture of Jonah, who is in the belly of the whale. And the connection between Jonah and the belly in the whale, in the belly of the whale and Christ is the connection of the grave and Christ's passion and his suffering, his substitutionary atoning work and to have of his people, where he dies and he is cast into this grave and he swallowed up by death, swallowed up by it in the same way that Jonah is swallowed up by the fish. You remember, I think I have been so struck by this, I have been using this little phrase when we have communion now. Do you remember the weekend of the missions conference when Eric Alexander was preaching from Isaiah 52 and 53 and he used that phrase, Christ has exhausted the wrath, whoa, story in my life, everything is a little crooked. You remember that? God has, or Christ has exhausted the wrath of God when he was talking about God being pleased to crush him by his stripes, we are healed. The iniquity of us all was upon him, he used that phrase, Christ has exhausted the wrath of God. Now, think about that language, it is incredibly a descriptive language, here is the infinite God of heaven and earth, whose wrath upon sin is infinite, undying, never ending, but in Jesus' death, it is like the irresistible force meets the immovable object because here is one, the Lord Jesus Christ, by virtue of His divinity, here is one who in His substitutionary work in behalf of His people is able to exhaust the infinite wrath of God, is able to survive the infinite wrath of God for sinners, and what I have begun saying to people at Communion is, take this bread and eat it, remembering that Christ has died for you, having offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice for your sin, and remember that the wrath of God has been exhausted upon him and there is no more to be spent, it is gone, and in this, that kind of language, that is the kind of picture that you want to have of this fish swallowing up Jonah, death, the grave, the wrath of God, conversely, have swallowed up Jesus, it is all been expended, it is all been spent, and there is nothing more to spend, there is not another death that has to be died, there is not a nanogram of wrath that is yet to be expended towards sinners who are in Christ, okay, that is the connection, so this particular story of Jonah has to be connected to Christ as he is in the bowels of the earth having been judged, having absorbed the wrath of God, having been entombed in behalf of his people, okay, but the other side of that, then is the resurrection, now let me read Jonah chapter 2, okay, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish's belly, and he said, I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and he answered me, out of the belly of sheol I cried, and you heard my voice, for you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me, your billows and your waves passed over me, then I said, I have been cast out of your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple, the waters surround me, even to my soul, the deep closed around me, weeds were wrapped around my head, I went down to the moorings of the mountains, the earth with its bars, closed behind me forever, yet you have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God, when my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer went up to you into your holy temple, those who regard worthless idols for sake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving, I will pay when I have vowed salvation is of the Lord, okay, salvation is of the Lord. Now this is Jonah giving expression to be sure, to his own understanding of and even expectation of the Lord's deliverance, but he functions in this other capacity as a typical Christ pointing ahead to Christ who was the fulfillment, and declares that salvation is of the Lord entirely, and the picture that you see here, I mean it's a picture of entire desperation and bondage and hopelessness, this guy is in the belly of a fish being strangled by half digested seaweed, that's gross, right, I mean think about it, he talks about his soul feigning, if you all seen, you've seen Pinocchio haven't you, you remember Pinocchio, I mean what a terrifying thing it was for Pinocchio to be in the belly of that whale, and you know those waters that you know every time he'd open his mouth, you know, where waters would come in and surround him and threaten him and threaten to destroy him, and then the mouth would snap shut and the blights are gone, you know, it's a hopeless situation, and that's what Jonah is describing here, and again the connection is that there is a hopelessness which we are caught in, the hopelessness of sin, and Christ identifies entirely with that hopelessness, there is a bondage and Christ identifies
with that bondage, there is death and Christ identifies with that death, there is judgment and Christ identifies with that judgment, there is wrath and Christ absorbs that wrath, right, in every way Christ takes our place and is our representative, right, and then
justice was true with Jonah, you have brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God, so God raised up the Lord Jesus, overcame the grave, overcame the bondage, and he has raised up in Jesus, all who are united with Jesus, right, and so Jonah cries out really anticipating,
the song of the Lord Jesus, the song that we talked about last week, and you know Hebrews two, let me have you look there, just real briefly to make this connection, okay, this is he Hebrews two, verse 10, where it was fitting for him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings, for both he who sanctifies, and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason he is not ashamed to call him brethren, saying, I will declare your name to my brethren, and in the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to you. The statement of Jonah anticipates the song of Jesus as he sings in the assembly of the righteous, praise to God in their behalf, right, salvation is of the Lord, okay, and that's, you know that's the overarching thing, that's the dominant theme, and as you think about, really as you think about the whole of the Bible, the Bible is about the salvation which God has accomplished for his people, you see it in the life of Jonah, fulfilled in the life of Christ, you see it in the life of Israel, in her deliverance from Egypt through the Exodus, fulfilled in the life of Christ, okay, so the church is a people gathered by God and gathered by himself, salvation is of the Lord through Jesus Christ. Now what I want to do is talk about this salvation in terms
of the doctrine of election, now this, you know, this may be familiar ground for you, I don't know all of you all that well, but I do know that this is one of those things that causes folks sometimes, you know, to, like, problem here, to get confused and to stumble a little bit,
but it's an important doctrine and it is something that is, that is talked about in the Scriptures and because it's talked about in the Scriptures and because there is a sense in which it really focuses our attention upon this idea, that salvation is of the Lord, I want to talk about it. Peter writes to the Christians of his day in verse 9 of chapter 2 of his first letter, of his day in verse 9 of chapter 2 of his first letter, you are a chosen generation, you are an elect generation, a chosen generation. Paul talks about the same thing in writing to the saints at Ephesus in the first chapter of his letter, so let me have you look there and we'll talk about this. Ephesians 1, verse 1, Paul, in a possible of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 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, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he made us accepted in the beloved, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, in him, in him also we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of him, who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory, in him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory. Am I hearing angels or what am I hearing? Does anybody know how to turn that off? Thanks. You can't turn it off, can you? Down or something? Okay, all right. Okay, now what I'd like to do in this is, is empathize, focus upon what you could call a trinitarian understanding of salvation, focusing the doctrine of election, or understanding it in a trinitarian sort of way, and right at the heart of this thing and so very important for our understanding, rightly, the doctrine of election and God's saving his people is the historical redemptive part of this thing, what is right at the center of it. Okay, but I want to think about it first of all in terms of the decree or purpose or plan of God. All right, now I always feel like when we talk about election, you've got to say a couple of things, a couple of preliminary kinds of things. The first of them is this. The doctrine of election and the corresponding doctrine of predestination, there's a difference between the two, which we're going to talk about. The doctrine of election and predestine,
I thought you were going to blow up the speakers. It was God who works all things after the counsel of his own immutable and mysterious will as a deal with this thing. I'm sorry, gang, I'm having trouble here if you can see. It's such a funny guy. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and talk. First of them is the first of a couple or three things. This is an idea which is rooted in the scriptures. Again, it is not my idea, John Calvin's idea, Paul's idea, it's God's idea and it is an idea that is throughout the scriptures. Because it's in the Bible, we've got to deal with it, we've got to try to understand it as mysterious and confusing and perplexing as it may be. It is a biblical notion and because it is, we've got to deal with it. The second thing is this. This has to do with the character of God, the nature and character of God. If this doesn't puzzle you, sooner or later, something will. Because God is infinite. God is bigger than you are. Steve Brown has this really helpful, catchy little phrase that goes like this. There are three things you need to know in order to get along in life. God is God, you are not and sin confuses the first two. God is God, you are not and sin confuses the first two. The first two are reminders that we need all the time. God is God and I am not and the attitude of my heart always has to be an attitude of humility. I am never in a position to sit in judgment of the scriptures or of the God of the scriptures. My position is always as the creature before the creator, the citizen before the king. Good deal. Thank you.
God is God and I am not and I will never. This is one of the glories that seems to me of simply being a Christian and of the prospect of being in the presence of God forever is that I, the finite creature, have all of eternity, all of eternity to contemplate the infinity of God, not just in terms of his size but in terms of his beauty, the wonder of his being, the glory of his salvation. The finite will never circumscribe, will never comprehend the infinite. If election doesn't cause you to trip up a little bit, there will be something that will, because the infinite, when the finite, when it bumps up against the infinite, is going to be overwhelmed. You are going to be overwhelmed. There will be things that are past your capacity for understanding. I am sure that many of the things that I said and did when my children were much younger, they are still confusing to them, I am sure, but at their very early age, they couldn't understand them but they didn't know what I knew. They didn't understand. They couldn't see what I can see and it caused them frustration. You are in that same kind of relationship with God. The first thing is that this is a teaching of scripture. The second thing is that we approach these things remembering who we are, that we are finite and remembering that we are sinners as well. Even if we could see clearly, even if we could see clearly, we wouldn't be able to comprehend all of these things because we are sinners, we don't see clearly. So for two reasons, we have got to approach these things with serial humility, our finitude and our sin. Then the third thing is, I don't have a proof text for you, but I will just tell you this and tell you why I believe it. This doctrine, the idea of election, of God's having chosen a people for himself, is not intended to be controversial. It is designed to comfort God's people. If you think about this, these letters are all written to Christians living in real places at real time and many of them were in the heat of persecution and opposition. It was certainly true for Christians in Ephesus and it was certainly true for Christians in Rome. Basically, the idea is this. When this subject of election comes up, because a pastor is concerned about people who are in trouble and that pastor wants to communicate to these people that God loves them now and he's loved them before the foundation of the world and because he loved them before the foundation of the world and set his affection upon them and gave them a savior in Christ in time, they can be assured of his ongoing love until he brings them safely home. That's the deal. It's a pastoral focus. It's not intended to be controversial or contentious. It is intended to comfort God's people. Those are the preliminary things. The first thing to say by way of explanation is that this idea that God has chosen a people is grounded in his decree or his purpose in salvation before the foundation of the world. This is the creation. This is the consummation. It's the beginning and the end. Before in the beginning, God purposed to save a people. He chose a people for himself. Set them apart for himself. The obvious differences between God's choosing and our choosing are that when we make a choice, we make a choice because we find something to be desirable or something to be attractive. There's some good and sufficient reason for the choices that we make. When we elect candidates to office and that kind of thing, when we pick a car, when we buy a dress, when we do whatever it is we do. We see in those things something desirable, something advantageous, or something. As we're going to see more closely in just a minute, the purpose of God in choosing a people doesn't have anything to do with what is in us. Nothing. Not nothing with just a little bit of something off in one corner, someplace. One nanogram of righteousness that constrains God to act in our behalf. Folks, never at any point is God's choice of you. God's having set you apart, determined by anything in you. It is entirely and completely according to His own free will and His own purpose to glorify Himself in the salvation of the people. That choice is before the foundation of the world. This is where election takes place before the foundation of the world. The classic passage that deals with this is Romans 9 and the discussion of Jacob and Esau. Two people in the same belly. So you can't look at Jacob and compare him to Esau and say, well, it must be something in Jacob's lineage. It must be something in his parentage that constrains God to choose him over Jacob. That doesn't work. They have the same father and the same mother. They come out of the same belly.
You think about the two guys, Jacob and Esau. This is interesting. You look at Esau and there is a sense in which Esau looks like a pretty decent guy. He comes off being a pretty decent guy. He's the manly guy. He's the hairy guy. He's the masculine guy. He's the athletic guy. He's the guy who's out there with his bow and arrow, be an athletic and doing the robust manly thing. You know, shooting game, providing for himself and his family. You compare him to Jacob. What's the character description of Jacob? He's a lying, deceiving, conniving, come bag.
He's always behind behind his mama's skirts. I'm not going to get into that.
I'll tell you, it was interesting. There were a number of things that really struck me yesterday, being down there at that abortion clinic. I'm going to turn the tape off at this point.
One of the things that was so striking to me was it's hard for me not to get animated about this. To sound judgmental. I don't want to do that because I realize the people who are involved in this stuff are sinners and I'm a sinner and the ground is absolutely level at the foot of the cross. If it were not for the grace of God intervening in my life, there is no telling. In fact, I know what I would be and what I would do if it were not for the grace of God. I don't want this to sound unkind but it was interesting to me that these guys would bring, whomever, wives, girlfriends, daughters, whatever. They would stand up on a porch while this really brassy, arrogant, loud mouthed with a shrill, high pitched voice. This woman from the national organization of women would stand between them and us, hollering at particularly patty. I thought that is just so typical. Men are such cowards. Men hide behind the skirts of women so much and in so many different ways. Refusing to assume they are God appointed, God ordained responsibility as leaders in homes and leaders in the society. And I thought there they are. Cowards, every one of them doing the easy thing, taking the easy way out and doing exactly what Jacob did. Man, it's the kind of guy Jacob was. You look at election and you look at the classic passage in Romans 9 which is the discussion of Jacob and Esau. And you have to come to the conclusion that this election, this choice of Jacob, who is representative of each of us, who is a type, a representative, a figure, an illustration, a picture of each of us. Jacob is chosen over this manly, athletic, pretty good guy Esau. You know? And he doesn't have anything to do with you. It has everything to do. It has only to do with the mercy of God. Now I said that there's a difference between election and predestination and it's a subtle difference. By the way, there's also a difference between election and for ordination. God has ordained what so ever comes to pass. Ephesians 111 talks about that. He has for ordained all things. He has ordained what so ever comes to pass and he executes what he has ordained by his providential care over all things. Election has to do as a subset of for ordination. Election has to do with God's saving a people. Election has to do with people in angels, with men in angels, moral beings. And election is God's choosing them before the foundation of the world for his own good pleasure, not based upon anything in them. And he bestens us to what? To good works. What's Ephesians 145 say? He predestines us to be adopted as sons so that what? We might be wholly and blameless in his sight. Predestination is God's determining beforehand the outcome that there will be for those whom he has chosen. Election is God's choosing them and he predestines them to a certain end. You see, God not only picks people. God doesn't just pick people. He picks them for something to a particular end that they might be adopted and be his sons and daughters and that they might be eventually wholly, perfectly holy and blameless in his sight. In fact, what this is all about is God's restoring them to his own image.
As we think about it in historical and redemptive terms, it's completed after we die. It's completed after we die and it's completed when Christ returns. It's, you know, there is this intermediate state right now which Harold and Sharon and various other ones of us are enjoying, but the work is not done for them because they are not only and blameless yet. Their spirits are with Christ but their bodies still know corruption and their entire restoration waits upon the return of Christ when he restores body and soul and glorifies us and brings us into perfect image conformity with his image. In every respect body and soul glorified and that's the goal that God has in this. So the election is to an end and God predestines those whom he has chosen to be adopted and to be holy and blameless. Now that's the decree, that's the before the foundation of the world part of this thing. But there is an historical redemptive part of this and when we say historical redemptive, we mean that God accomplishes his purpose in election, in history and he does it by redeeming a people, okay? Now here's the significant and I try to say this to us all the time. You can't ever forget who and what you are apart from Christ, okay? The minute you forget who and what you are apart from Christ, the cross gets real, real small. But to the extent that you remember who and what you are apart from Christ, the cross gets real, real big, okay? It gets real, real big. And all of this purpose that God has in choosing a people and predestining them to be adopted and to be holy and blameless, it all goes through the cross in time. That it goes through the cross, it then go around the cross, it then go over the cross, it then go under the cross, it goes through the cross. And notice in the text that Paul says God has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, okay? Look, if we're not conceived of in the mind of God as sinners in need of a Savior, if that's not the canvas, if that's not the backdrop against which this whole thing is to be seen, then we don't need a hymn, we don't need a hymn, okay? But God has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, united us to him before the foundation of the world so that when Jesus enters into covenant agreement with the Father, he enters into covenant agreement with the Father before the foundation of the world to be the Savior of the people whom the Father has given him before the foundation of the world, okay? Election is in Christ, it's never apart from Christ and there's another thing that would be great to talk about too, it's also not conceived individually, it's conceived corporately. God has given a people to Christ, not just a bunch of individuals, but a people, see, and by virtue of our being united to Christ, we're united to one another, okay? But God has given this people to Christ, we are chowned in him before the foundation of the world so that Christ when he comes comes to save his people, he comes to save his people, all right? Now here's, you know, who's the great picture of Christ in the Old Testament? Moses, okay? Who is the people of God in the Old Testament? It is Israel, what is Israel's condition in Egypt? There are slaves, they're in bondage, see? Again, that's their historical, existential, real experience, but that has theological connotations and applications to us, we're to think of ourselves and understand ourselves as being Israelites in bondage in Egypt, okay? For whom does Moses come? He comes for his people, he comes for Israel, does he come for the Egyptians? No, he doesn't come for the Egyptians. He comes commissioned by God with a specific task and that task is to act as a deliverer, as God empowers him and displays his power through him. Moses is to come and act as the deliverer of his people and in that he prefigures Christ who comes and acts as a deliverer for his people, okay? We are chosen in Christ the for the foundation of the world and Christ in the fullness of time comes to be the deliverer of his people so that when he dies on the cross, well really when he lives his life of obedience, he is living the life that his people didn't live, okay? He is earning the favor of God, right? We speak about Christ as a substitute on the cross and in the very specific sense, he is a substitute as he dies on the cross, but he is also a substitute as he lives his life, his Paul says in Galatians, born of a woman, born under the law and faithfully executing all of the law. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, God said of Jesus. He doesn't say that about anybody else. He looks at Jesus at the beginning of his ministry and at the end of his ministry, right near the end of his ministry, it says the same thing. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Christ lives faithfully under the law loving the Lord his God with all of his heart, with all of his soul, with all of his mind, with all of his strength from the day of his birth, from the day before his birth throughout the course of his life, never one time violating the law of God, but keeping it faithfully, not only in outward expression, but in the interior of his heart. He acted as a substitute living faithfully and obeying the law of God. He did it for his people. He did for you what you didn't do and couldn't do because of your sin. And then he died on the cross as a substitute for his people and in his death upon the cross, the full measure of the wrath of God. It was poured out upon him. And so all of the violations of the law which you have committed, he died for. He suffered for. He was punished for. He acts as a substitute. He is intuned for you, buried for you. He descends to use the language of the Apostles Creed which is a kind of a summary statement that gathers up the whole of the significance of Christ's work as he dies as a substitute experiencing the wrath of God and experiencing death. He descends into hell for you. And then he is raised on the third day for you. And then he ascends into the heavenly places and goes into the holy place, into the very presence of God, the innermost part of the sanctuary. He goes in there for you. And he's enthroned amid the chair of them, for you. And promises you that the day will come when you will be seated with him in that most holy of places upon that greatest of all thrones there to reign with him forever and ever. See, and all of it is his work, his substitutionary work so that when Christ comes, when he is incarnate, he comes in fulfillment of his commitment to the Father that he would come as a deliverer and save this people whom the Father had given to him to save.
So people have always now been kind of offensive and it's not just a document of false in Christ's work. And as soon as he says it, people are offended and it's not false. Right. That's John 6. Yeah. There's another one very similar to that. Another passage like that, the end of Matthew 10, I think it is, or 11.
I thank you, Father, Lord, of heaven and earth that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight, all things have been delivered to me by my Father and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him. You're right. It's the same thing. It's on the lips of Jesus. It's interesting what comes right after that is this universal invitation.
Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him. Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. So the two things are the mystery of God's sovereignty and salvation is set right alongside this general invitation to all people. That anyone who knows that he's in desperate trouble can come. But how does anybody know that he's in desperate trouble? Only if the Son reveals it to him. But yeah, that's a good point. It's Jesus' doctrine. That Paul's doctrine. All right, so here's so election has to be understood in terms of the decree. What it is that God purposes to do and His desire that people should be adopted and made holy and blameless, but in the historical redemptive sphere, it is accomplished through the work of Christ.
It's not accomplished apart from the work of Christ. The backdrop of this thing is always the need that there is for a Savior, the need of redemption. The backdrop is the backdrop of sin and us being lawbreakers and being under the judgment of God and God doing something in Christ for us.
But then there's a third dimension to this too and the third dimension is the experiential or the existential. And this part of the thing is what Paul refers to in verses 13 and 14 where he refers to the spirit. In him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. The work of the spirit gets worked into this thing too. So here you have the God of heaven and earth determining before the foundation of the world to save a people for himself. Then in the fullness of time in the historical redemptive, Christ comes to be the deliverer of that people whom the father has given him before the foundation of the world. He comes to accomplish and does accomplish what the father had commissioned him to accomplish. But where is Christ right now? He has ascended. He is at the right hand of the father. He will return in great glory to gather those who are his people to himself. Oh my goodness, we're almost done. We're past done. I've got to go. I completely lost track of time. It's because this thing fell over. Okay? So I'll finish this up next week. Talk about this a little bit more. Two weeks. I'm sorry, two weeks. But God has chosen a people before the foundation of the world, Christ's secure salvation for that people in the course of history and it is the spirit then who brings all of the benefits of the work of Christ and seals those benefits to the lives of believers, making those benefits the possession of believers. So that's why you talk about a trinitarian construction of this thing. That the three persons of the Godhead, the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit are involved in this saving work. Okay? And so whether you can see, no matter where you can see of it, before the foundation of the world, historically your own experience of it, individually and taken together, salvation is of the Lord. Okay? And it is the spirit now who is at work applying, sealing to the lives of the elect, God's people, all of the benefits of the work of Christ. That's His ministry. His ministry is to apply the benefits of the work of Christ to us. We'll talk about that more in two weeks. Okay? I need to go. I'm sorry. Let's check that.
Father, thank you for what you've done. This extraordinary thing that you've done in saving the people by yourself, give us grace to praise and acknowledge and adore you for what it is that you have done for us. And thank you that your work isn't finished. Thank you that you'll keep working until you have brought to completion what you have started in each of our lives. Thank you that the day is coming and we will be holy and blameless and glorious in your presence. Fully human, fully restored to enjoy you forever. In Jesus' name, amen.