Grace Earned - Ephesians Part 2 - Bill Shiley

God is waiting for us to do this, and He's like, "Yes, now I have to give you this because I promised you this, this, this gift, and you, you want it." It's not that we've earned it and somehow God owes it to us from scratch, but because of who God is, um, His grace is something that we do earn, we do qualify ourselves for.

Well, good morning, welcome here. Thank you for praying for my message, but it's my, uh, and I'm not here to split words, uh, but that, that makes me panic a little bit because this is so much God's message, and that's in the book of Ephesians. Paul is saying he, he's, he's praying, just bringing his hands. If he could do it, he'd do it for him, but somehow that their eyes could be opened, they could understand what God wants to do through them. So last time we had an introduction to the book, talked a little bit about the background and, uh, what, what the purpose of the book is.

The people that Paul was writing to, this letter, uh, it seems like actually was a letter intended for the churches of the whole valley, um, but kind of got tagged on to Ephesus as a representation of those churches.

Uh, looked a little bit about what they were living and what their experience with their culture was like and how different things that Paul talks about directly attacks or, or, um, diminishes the things from their society that are being imposed upon them, the power and the, the way to life and glory and all those things, and raises up God's way, uh, made possible through Jesus.

So this morning we want to look at chapter one. Um, not going to do the whole chapter, partly because I think the last part needs to go with chapter two. And dear brother Paul, um, has some, some well-crafted but very long and interconnected thoughts. Um, so it's going to be good to, uh, keep some of them to go with the next part.

So just a little bit of review. Paul's purpose for writing, he says in, uh, in chapter three, verses three through seven, that, um, highlighted there in the middle, the purpose was that when they read, they would have an understanding of his knowledge in the mystery of Christ, this concept of the apocalypse or an eye-opener, an unveiling, um, uh, eureka moment, however you want to say that, of the plan or the purpose of God.

Um, and that purpose is, um, to make all men see the, or Paul's saying his preaching was to make all men see the mystery. Um, and that mystery or that, that hidden, crafted, designed, um, project and execution of it was that now to all the beings out there might be made known by the church, by the people who surrender and follow King Jesus, they would display to everybody and everything out there how good God's wisdom is and how good it is when you follow him.

Um, another kind of a fleshing out of that, um, is in Ephesians 1:9, we'll look at this one this morning. Um, Paul says that God has made known unto us the mystery of his will, and that is that he might gather together in one all things in Christ. So the unifying of everything through Jesus.

Um, so again, the purpose of Paul's writing, um, is that they would have an apocalypse or this eye-opener to understand God's secret purpose, and that secret purpose is to create a group of people who would demonstrate the wisdom of God to all beings and to bring, to do that by bringing everything back together into unity and oneness in Jesus.

And then the purpose then is out of that comprehension that they would respond to the comprehension of God's purpose with loving obedience and participating and being part of this purpose. So the book, we looked at this, I didn't have the diagram there, but we looked at this concept. The book is kind of written in two parts. The first part there, uh, chapters one through three, three, is Paul is trying to get them to comprehend, to understand what God wants to do with them, understanding the calling. And then in the middle of the beginning of chapter four, we have Paul says, "I therefore," and those kind of words are always in, um, extremely important because they're links.

You can't understand this part unless you go back and you get the first part. Um, and so he says, "Therefore, because of all this stuff that God wants to do and the riches of his, his gifting that he's poured out, I beg you to walk worthy, consistent with, and taking advantage of that calling."

And so chapters four through six is very practical stuff about walking out the calling, living and participating in God's secret purpose, his secret plan that he has been crafting since before the world began.

So zooming back into, to, um, to part one, as often is with scripture, uh, we get this idea sometimes that because the apostles were unlearned and ignorant men, that they were just like clueless, bumbling rednecks or something. Um, and, uh, there were some of the, the men who wrote, who, who participated in the writing of scripture that were less educated. I think what the term there is, he was not, they were not educated in their schools of thought, but most of them either dictated them or wrote themselves or had a writer that actually they laid things out very purposefully and very thoroughly to communicate some incredibly deep things.

Um, and that's the mystery of the gospel, um, is that it's, it is very simple but very deep. So you don't have to be an intellect to get it and to start out, but as we learn more and we grow more, more in participation, we, we find out deeper and deeper and more things that continue to motivate us. So this is kind of laid out in a kind of start out, go into it, hit, or kind of you could say go into it, hit the high point, and then come back down and close. So in chapters one through fourteen, there's the introduction and a song of praise and victory to the Father, Son, and Spirit.

Starts out there with, "Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." And then at the close of the chapter, Paul prays and says, "Therefore I also, since I heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and you loved all the saints, don't stop to give, to give thanks that, um, making mention of you and your, my prayers that God would give them this eye-opener."

And then chapter two begins with, "And you has he quickened or made alive, um, who are dead and trespasses and sins." And he talks about how we were rescued from death and from alienation from God and each other. And then closes chapter two with this high point, this pinnacle that we are made, instead of being dead and alienated, we are made the dwelling place of God and the, the monument of his goodness. And then Paul goes in and talks about his personal testimony of being redeemed from darkness and the personal, um, compulsion that he has because of this eye-opener he had to respond and to be a laborer in, in creating God's, uh, drawing people into God's family to following Christ.

Um, and then at the end of that is, is a prayer, um, that he would grant us according to, to be strengthened with might by his power in the inner man, that we would comprehend the length, the breadth, width, and the breadth and the heights and the depths. I got that all mixed up there, but, um, of, of Christ and, um, and then closes again with, with a, a praise, um, to the Father and the Son.

So we're going to look at those first two parts, uh, there this morning, one through fourteen, the song of praise and victory, and then the, uh, the prayer at the end for an eye-opener, a comprehension and understanding.

So one thing that gets with verses, it breaks it up and, and they're, they're very important and convenient to, to studying. So you can kind of tag, you know, where you're at in this whole thing, but some of these sentences are really long. And so the verses get distracting because it makes you think there's a break in the thought when there's not.

And a sentence is a complete thought. It's, um, some a person, place, thing, or idea doing or being something. That's every sentence that's properly crafted is that. Sometimes there's two people, places, and things, or ideas doing or being two or three different things and because of things and in certain ways and, and all that kind of stuff. But there's a core ideas there that the whole thing is built around. And so that's important if we're trying to figure out a passage is to look at the thought groups. And so as I did that and started just splitting it up into sections, I noticed at the beginning of those middle ones, there's a theme that gets hammered out.

And notice it's three times in there at the beginning of the sentences, which weren't in Greek, but as they translate it, they agree that this is where the thought begins. Um, in him, in him, in him. So we're obviously getting a theme here about the, that there's a person that this is all about. Without further ado, uh, we're going to read through chapter one, um, here and then try to go through and connect, connect some dots here, um, through Paul's, uh, deep conversation.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and 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, 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 times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth.

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 own 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.

Therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.

And he put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

So as you read through there, you keep getting and it's like, oh, and this, and that, by which, and therefore, and after which, and upon which, and, uh, and after a while it's like, okay, he has lots of good stuff, right? Okay. But it actually is saying, not just throwing lots of cool ideas out there, but it actually is, is making some points and it, it takes a little bit of work to connect it.

One way of doing that is this. How many of you like diagramming in school?

Okay, good.

I can't blame you if it didn't. Partly, I think diagramming, if it, if it's not taught right, it doesn't make sense. It's just confusing. And that's sad. Um, there are other ways, I think, to communicate this. We're not going to diagram, uh, go over the diagram this morning, but I am going to draw some arrows and highlight some things and try to help make some connections about what's going on.

My hat's off to whatever did this. I couldn't do this from scratch. Um, I haven't taught language arts for what, two years now and I'm getting rusty. Um, so one thing I think is important is how we think about things and how we express our feelings. So when we talk about things like this, instead of saying it's complicated, let's instead think it's complex. I may be splitting hairs here, but there's a different connotation. There's a different feeling. When I say something is complicated, the idea is it lacks appropriate order and purpose. It's prone to fatigue you and mislead you rather than to inform and inspire you, and it discourages interest and invests like, that's complicated, leave it alone.

Um, and so I think I taught my students this. We just tend to do that as humans. If it's something that we can't get a hold of, oh, it's complicated, you know, and then we drive cars that are built on that, that kind of understanding and, and, and science and wisdom. So we, we need to humble ourselves. And I'd like to, as we think about this today, um, let's not think it's complicated, but it's complex. And that has a whole different picture. There's many diverse parts that are functioning together to create an unusually higher functioning whole than normal simple things. Um, it inspires intrigue and admiration. It's something to look up to even if we don't comprehend it.

And it invites us to explore and, and at least stand in awe of it. So hopefully we can have that perspective this morning. I still don't have this whole thing all figured out, but I, I hope that this morning, uh, my goal as a teacher, whenever I'm teaching, is to stand between what is high and lofty and those who are lowly and, and without pulling this one down, be a channel that kind of like a reverse kaleidoscope, you know, the kaleidoscope, it has these things and then it mirrors them and makes all kinds of them to kind of take the myriad and, and simplify it to where you can get a hold of it.

Um, you may this morning want to keep your Bibles open if you, uh, and, and the way you can look back there. That way when I have it split up into phrases and there's an arrow pointing here and there, you can look back to the original one and, and help you put the whole thing back together.

So the introduction, Paul introduces himself. We talked a little bit about that last time, him being an apostle and the audience he's writing to. Um, he wishes them grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And the whole rest of the thing is both telling him why grace and peace is possible and how to go about attaining grace and peace.

So then he goes into the praise song there at the beginning. 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. So the actor here is God the Father, and the who there is referring back to God the Father, and he has blessed us with spiritual blessings, and the blessing is in the heavenly places in Christ. And then the last part there, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, he chose us in heavenly places in Christ.

Um, another thing that's interesting to notice here is the question comes up sometimes is where does the Bible teach the Trinity? And people, we can turn to, uh, John chapter one, where it says in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was with God, or was God, and, and, and all that. Um, go back to Genesis one, the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Um, first John, where it says there's three that bear witness in heaven. Anyways, but it's something also that's just woven through scripture. And here we see it. You have the God and Father and his partner, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the, um, this part right here, some translations translate this every blessing in the spirit.

And later on, it's not that explicit here, but later on, the spirit is a big part of this whole thing as well. So we have in this, in this chapter and in the book as a whole, the three, the Father is planning and engineering the thing, and the Son is, is executing it, the, the transition. Uh, he sets us free and he demonstrates the way for us to live. And then the spirit comes and dwells in and secures that and, and, and, um, prepares it for its completion.

So God has blessed us. He's blessed us with blessings in the spirit realm through the spirit. Those are heavenly places in Christ, and he chose us to be in those that blessed place of being in heavenly places in Christ. So right off the bat, there's some of these terms. I'm going to try not to get bogged down in theology here, and, and, and because like predestination, some of that whole message could easily be preached on that, but just enough to help orient us in how we're thinking about this. This idea of in Christ was, you'll hear me talk about these different times. It was like a box or some blob. It was a good thing, but I didn't have an idea of how it really related to me or so how do you be in Christ?

Like, um, and some people would teach that this concept of being in Christ means that we, you know, we, you know, now I'm in Christ. We, we say a prayer or do certain motions, and now we're, there's an abstract, you know, Christ, Christ sacrifice covers our sins, so God the Father doesn't see them anymore, and we're righteous now because we're in Christ. You know, we subscribe to his, we subscribe to his insurance plan or whatever. Um, and that's just not the picture that scripture gives. There's two things, um, that I think of when I think about being in Christ or Jesus being the way, the method of being human. He is, he's the, he's the way we get out of our sin problem.

He's redeemed us. He's bought us back from the bondage and the destruction that we have sold ourselves into with sin. And then he demonstrates to us the way to become purified and become a people who are not just of people of good works, but people who are zealous and exciting, enthusiastic and pursuing his good way of living. So, but as I think about in Christ, there's that whole thing about it's because of him coming and living and living a righteous life and dying and, and, and ransoming us, offering himself as a sacrifice and rising from the dead and conquering the, the powers, um, and his life of example that we follow. It's all that stuff.

When we, when we get a picture of that and then begin to live according to his way, then we begin to live in Christ rather than living in Adam. Adam, that's one place we could go with this is, uh, Romans chapter five. It says, in Adam, all die. In Christ, all shall be made alive. And I think that's very simple. Adam chose his own way. And Christ always kept the Lord before his face. That's Acts chapter two. Peter says, that's why he rose from the dead. And so death had no dominion over him. And so we follow that way of living rather than Adam's way that brought death. So, and then we are living in Christ.

And it's because of his sacrifice and his death and what all it fixed, the mystery evidently y'all were talking about in Sunday school when I was downstairs about that mystery. We don't understand it all, but we do know certain things about it that call us to a life. So in Christ, and this is going to be over and over in him, in him, in him, in whom.

He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us. He chose us in the heavenly places, and he chose us by living in Christ because of the access he has given us and following his way.

Um, he chose us before the foundation of the world to walk that way, and that gets us into the heavenly places, the blessed state. And he chose us two things there so that we will be holy and without blame before him. And he chose us in love, having planned ahead of time, predestined us to adoption. So he's chosen us to be holy and without blame and to become adopted as sons, um, through Jesus.

So the next thing I want to talk about is for this idea of being predestined. And this is a term that has been hijacked. Uh, I'm not going to spend a lot of time debunking common theories about it this morning because I don't think that a simple, straightforward reading of scripture is going to get you there.

What happened is theologians, particularly Augustine, um, sat down and in reaction to many other things, worked out these concepts of total depravity and, um, unconditional election and, and irresistible grace and all that. And then shoehorned all these passages, gave us glasses then to make all these passages fit into that.

Um, so these terms predestined or predestination, chosen, election, it's all kind of the same idea of picking and planning where it's going to end up.

Um, so what the early, the, the pre-Nicean church believed and many Christians since, and what I believe and we believe is that God picked, I'm sorry, I'm backing up. This is what most people think about, is that God picked ahead of time arbitrarily, which means he just, there was no, no logic to it necessarily. Um, it was just a random at choice and by whim just picked certain people, not because, definitely not because of their character or the choices they would make. He just randomly picked people to either be damned forever or to inherit his everlasting kingdom.

That's what most people believe. And foundational to that is that there's no, we have no choice. We can't really do anything about it. It doesn't really matter what we do. Um, and there are variations on that. That concept right there was, I was actually in Bible study one night we were talking about this and one of the, um, one of the girls, and she's not here, so you don't have to look around, but asked, um, so, so really the problem with common Augustinian and Calvinist predestination is that it believes that we don't have any choice. And I was like, yeah, that's, that's exactly right. And I kind of fused something together there.

The whole climate of scripture presumes freedom to choose good and evil. I don't know where to start. This is from the beginning, from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God's conversation with Cain, like Cain, watch out, you know, sends this Doberman at the door, pawn, salivating, growling to devour you, and you're going to have to figure out what to do about it. And, and if you know, do well, you know, you'll be accepted. And, and, and then the next conversation is like, Cain, what did you do? It makes no sense if God decided before you yet create Adam and Eve. Oh, Cain, he's going, you know, he's going to go out from my presence and live in the land of Nod and beget a bunch of evil people.

You know, it makes the whole of scripture makes no sense. Scripture is full of information about what is good, imperatives or commands, and pleadings to abandon and abhor the evil and to love and live the way that's good.

God's foreknowledge does not mean that we do not have a choice. Rather, it's based on God's knowledge of the choices we'll make. And then he interacts with us because he knows. So for example, um, Philip, the spirit caught him, dropped him in the middle of the way, or I'm sorry, I'm backwards. The spirit tells him, go down towards Gaza or Gaza, however you want to say it, they call it Gaza. And then when he got down there, he sees this eunuch there, and the spirit says to him, go join yourself to the chariot. So God knew, God is obviously interacting with Philip there. He's not just letting Philip just wander into this, but God knew that Philip was the kind of guy who would listen.

And evidently, Philip had been for a long time listening to God's spirit and obeying so that God's spirit had control and voice in his life and got to this point. And so God interacts with him supernaturally to lead him and guide him to another man who was choosing and who was, was seeking God. And so God interacts with us according to our choices to give us what we really want. Those who really want what's right, who seek for, for, uh, glory and honor and immortality, Romans 2 says, um, he gives them eternal life and leads them in that direction. To those who don't, he lets them, and actually sometimes I think facilitates them going on their way.

And we read about, uh, like Pharaoh, who God hardened his heart because that was what he wanted. And so God interacts with our choices to give us what we really want. This, um, concept of predestination, there's a couple pictures that I think illustrates this. One is, is this one. I'm going to date myself because do you get these in the mail anymore? You've just won a free five-day cruise on the Caribbean. And I don't know anybody personally that actually won. Usually there's red tape, but if that was true and you actually won a cruise, you're going to get a packet and it's going to have all of your stuff is paid for, your motel, you're going to have directions how to get there, all your motels are going to be booked, the place on the ship is going to be booked, your room's booked, there's a schedule of activities planned for you to go and have this amazing time getting drunk and carousing and, and, and all that kind of stuff, um, on the Caribbean.

But everybody talks about cruise like it's the, the thing, right? Now, does that mean that you have to do that? Does it mean that if you go, you will have a great time? No. You still have to follow the directions and drive to the place and, and book the room and get on the ship and go to the events and eat at the dining, in the dining room. And, and, and you can't just do anything. You can't, if you start a campfire in your room, they're going to kick off the boat, right? So you're predestined. The destiny is planned for you, but you have to cooperate with it.

Another one is for me, as having been a teacher, is a school or a, a college course syllabus. This was my syllabus for Bible memory, which was probably the best one I ever did. Many other classes was difficult to plan out that well.

This was important to me. So at the beginning of the year, I gave him this plan and it's all listed out. There's the text we're going to be memorizing, which was in this case was Ephesians 1 through 5, chapter 6 was optional because it was a little, little heavy to do the whole thing.

Um, I told him what the purpose, why I'm doing this, why this is important, and the rationale they're explaining why this is important and how it's going to help them later in life and what their part is to do about it. I told him I upfront, they knew exactly what it was going to take to pass the course. There's bonuses to go with it. So if they do the whole chapter, if they get at least a 90 through the year and can say the whole book at the end with a 98%, then we're going to throw a party. And I took them out for pizza and mini golf. And so they knew this all ahead of time.

I gave them instructions how to do it. I gave them methods. I gave them a list of tips here, simple small things to do that would make them able to achieve this. And I gave them the schedule so they knew right from the beginning how the whole thing would go. And many of them followed this, and many of them received the reward of being better memorizers and of having a whole book of scripture stowed in their memory for the spirit to bring back to their remembrance and also enjoy the party, the celebration party.

Not all of them did. Um, and I hold, hold grudges against them. It's all, it's part of learning in life and realizing that choices have consequences. But I never had a student, actually some of my students that struggled the most in school were excellent memorizers.

And the reason that they didn't pass was always because they didn't follow my tips for memorizing. And I even gave them every week a three by five card with the verse printed on it. So they had it, they could stick it in their pocket and when they're feeding the cows or washing the dishes, it's right there, um, something they can easily review.

Anyways, for me, that's a good picture of predestination. I did everything. I bent over backwards. I forked out money. Uh, and in order, it took me, it probably took me about six hours to split the schedule up on there. So I put a lot into this to make it so it was as easy as possible for them to be able to achieve this goal.

I think it's the same way with God that God has done all this stuff except this doesn't even show up on the radar of what God has put into our salvation. And he has predestined us to be adopted as sons, um, to be to the praise of his glory, to be holy and without blame. But that doesn't mean that we don't have any part to play about it.

Um, another one is the picture of a wealthy benefactor. So some person who has exercised diligence in life and built an estate is a person of honor and repute, and they have nobody to give that to when they die. And so they look and they try to find somebody who they think has the potential to take care of that responsibly and, and, and grow it. And so they'll find a young man or a young woman, however that is. And then they'll put them through tests. They'll send them to school and different things. And that person has to, they're predestined to be the heir and to be the next sir or lord if you're over in England.

Um, but they have to follow through and prove their character worthy. So those are all pictures of predestination that I think are biblical and historic of this concept that God has chosen us, which he's chosen all people, but not all people respond to it, um, in trust and faith and obedience. And, but it's still dependent on our choice whether we're going to experience and inherit this.

So again, God's foreknowledge does not mean we do not have a choice. Rather, it's based on God's knowledge of the choices we will make. And he then interacts with us as we make choices to give us, um, what we really desire in life.

So he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. He chose us that we should be holy and blameless before him. He chose us to be adopted as sons. And, um, notice it's in love having predestined, not in random stoic calculation or whatever, but it's in love. He's, he's, he has picked people because he, uh, he, he desires children. He wants people to share his life in goodness. He wants people to train to become like him.

Um, so he has predestined us. This gives us a picture of it according to the good pleasure of his will. So this is something God is excited and, and, and, uh, deeply invested in and to glorify himself. So when people think about God, they think, yeah, if you, this person follows God and he's living the way humans ought to live. He's not drugged down by things. He's not tangled up in things. He's blessing. He's fruitful in his life. So if I follow God, he's the one. If I want to choose a way to life, God's the one, right? We, we, we are chosen to lift him up and to show people how good it is when we follow him to the praise of the glory of his grace.

So to, to glorify, to magnify, to put sparkles around it and, and arrows pointing to it and, um, flashing lights around it, right? How good God is. And then we get this idea of grace. So grace is not mercy. They are different. Um, mercy is the disposition or the inclination or the action of withholding a negative consequence.

So I had a student that was going through some really difficult family things while we're doing the Bible memory thing. Well, the standard is they had to have to have at least a 90% through the year. So I was merciful and I said, all right, the first quarter, some things were rough. I'm going to, we're going to chop that off and let's just go with the rest of it from here. And from here out, you know, I was being merciful. I was not, not, um, giving what should have been the rightful consequence, uh, the rightful reward, um, due to the choices.

But grace is not, not giving you something that you deserve that's negative, but it's favor. Um, it's a gift of help, of privilege, of relationship. And, and we could talk a whole message about that, but I don't want to. Here's just a few verses that talk about this idea, even though it doesn't say it. If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? And in another place it says, specifies giving the Holy Spirit as that good thing. So God is a God who wants to give good things. He's, his grace is, is unbounded.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights in whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of his own will, he begot us. So of his own planning, nobody twisted his arm into this. He was like, yeah, I want to do this.

Um, of his own will, he brought us forth, begot us, um, birthed us by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Grace is not something that is just free and we don't do anything about it. The Bible talks about grace in different ways. So God sends his rain on the just and on the unjust. Um, he chose us all to be holy and without blame, but we don't all answer the call. And so therefore none of us, not all of us are the chosen. Not all humans are the chosen.

Um, um, and it's God's grace is not something that we just sit there and, and we just sit there and we, you know, we change all sudden it's like, oh wow, this is different, that's different. And now I'm a, a perfect saint, you know. It's not that kind of way. It's something we participate in then, um, as well. And this is just an iconic passage of that, that brings that out for Titus 2:11 through 14. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. And it teaches us the logical implication or urges us the next step then is that we should do something, that we should deny ungodliness and worldly lusts.

And instead we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking forward to his completion. Um, and he gave himself for us so that he would purify us unto us, a, um, peculiar people, zealous of good works, the King James says, his own special people.

Just to point on that, I ran across this when I was researching the passage in, uh, Matthew 11:20, I think it is, where Jesus says, up until now, up since the days of John the Baptist, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and the violent take it by force. And I always had my idea of what that meant and I went and looked it up and different translations actually, you know, made it mean different things. So I looked up, uh, checked to see with the first church, the Anthonising Fathers, what, what did they understand? What was handed from the apostles as a perspective on that? And Clement of Alexandria says this, this is in his discourse on how can a rich man be saved.

But the Lord replies to the apostles there when they said, you know, if the camel can't get through the eye of a needle or if the rich man getting, entering the kingdom of heaven is equal to the odds of a camel going through the eye of a needle, who then can be saved? But the Lord replies, because what is impossible with men is possible with God. This again is full of great wisdom. For a man by himself working and toiling at freedom from passion achieves nothing. So we can't do it just on our own, but this is how we get God's grace. But if he plainly shows himself very desirous and earnest about this, he attains it by the addition of the power of God.

For God conspires or works together with willing souls. But if they abandon their eagerness, the spirit which is bestowed by God is also restrained. God holds back his spirit, uh, and, and that power in our lives to make a change if we aren't showing earnestness and that we're doing what we can to, to be obedient.

For to save the unwilling is the part of one exercising compulsion, someone who's forcing people into something. But to save the willing is the part of one who is showing grace, giving a gift. Nor does the kingdom of heaven belong to sleepers and sluggards. But, and he's quoting there from Matthew, I believe it's 11:20, um, the violent take it by force. For this alone is commendable violence to force God and take life from God by force. Now that sounds a little bit like, nah, not you're getting off your rocker there. But listen to what he means.

And he knowingly, knowing those who persevere firmly or rather violently yields and grants, for God delights in being vanquished in such things. It's maybe a bit stretching vocabulary, but God's saying, yeah, go ahead. I want to give you this, so obligate me. And we do this with children, like we play in a game and dad, like junior really hits the ball good and dad could catch it, but instead he dives after him. He's like, wow, you won, good job. You know, maybe that's a poor example, but God is waiting for us to do this. And he's like, yes, now I have to give you this because I promised you this, this, this gift and you, you want it.

It's not that we've earned it and somehow God owes it to us from scratch, but because of who God is, um, his grace is something that we do earn. We do qualify ourselves for. Uh, maybe there's a better term for that. Um, anyways, so grace is not mercy. Um, grace is favor, a gift of help, privilege, relationship. Um, grace to salvation requires our response.

So we've been predestined according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glory of his grace. And that grace has made us to be accepted in the beloved and beloved's capitalized there. So which is again this in Christ concept, the beloved being Jesus, uh, our king and Messiah.

In Jesus, again, another sentence, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. So this concept of being bought back, purchased and redeemed as a hostage or a kidnapped person is from their, their situation of bondage by someone else offering themselves as a replacement. Um, and that forgiveness of sins is according to the riches of his grace, his giving, um, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence. So his grace, he has made it in his good, his wisdom, his understanding of how things work and his good common sense, his prudence. He has made his grace just, he cuts it wide open if we will, if we will but reach out for it, if we will but do our part.

Even the initial salvation part that's not of our works. So God forgiving us of our sins, and we'll talk about that in chapter two, is still by our repentance, right? Because Hitler isn't forgiven of his sins. He didn't repent that we know of, um, to use an extreme example. So it's still something that we have to participate in. But God does shower it abundantly. There's no stopping to it. When we repent, God doesn't hold any of our transgressions against us. Um, so again, the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us, and he made them to abound toward us, having, he's let us in. We're not just like saying one step and then, but God has told us, this is what I want to do with you.

And so I'm going to let my grace pour out to you.

In an unbounded way, he's made known the mystery of his will, his plan, and, um, according to his good pleasure. So there's lots of it. God is really excited about this. God is like, yeah, let's do this. You know, um, he's been, been itching to carry this out. There's a, I think it's Isaiah 9, it says, um, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. And I like that. Like God is just chomping at the bit. He's just waiting to accomplish this redemption. This idea of the purposes of God, I like this, what it says about, um, Abraham. He staggered not at the promise of God that they would have a son, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God and being fully persuaded that what he had promised, what God had promised, he was able to perform.

I like the idea of a purpose. It's different than plans. Like plans is like, yeah, I got some stuff going on. I think it's going to be good. But a purpose is like a laser clear focus. I know where I'm going right there, and I've got everything all set up. And when I pull the trigger, it's all going to fall in place and it's going to happen.

And God turning us into people who are holy and without blame before him in love, adopted as sons who are becoming like our heavenly Father. That's something that God has purposed and he has, he has got everything set up to make it happen. And it's something he's going to do if we cooperate.

And so then, according to the good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, and that good pleasure is that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, in the end of everything, he is going to gather together in one, everything in Christ. Again, everything that through his, through everything he has done and through the way that he has shown us, um, those who follow him will be, everything will be brought together. And this includes, it seems, the creation because the creation is groaning and travailing because the, uh, the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but because the owners of planet earth, the stewards of planet earth, um, sold it. So he's going to bring, it seems like everything is going to be restored.