TWO GUIDING QUESTIONS DURING THIS SERMON SERIES
Are you growing in the knowledge of God?
Are you growing in loving God and loving people?
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SERMON TEXT
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:3–6 ESV)
The Primary Question
What are the Sovereign Purposes of our Triune God for his Creation?
Sovereign Purpose #1: It is God's purpose to save a people from their sins.
- God, in his great love before the foundation of the world chose those whom he would save in Christ Jesus. God's election is entirely gracious and not at all conditioned upon foreseen faith, obedience, perseverance, or any merit in those whom God has chosen. His decision to set his saving love on the elect is based entirely on his sovereign will and good pleasure. (Sovereign Grace Statement of Faith)
- Resource on the Doctrine of Election for deeper understanding. Includes further biblical teaching and addresses questions/concerns.
Sovereign Purpose #2: God's purpose is to be glorified in all his works.
- From all eternity, God sovereignly, ordained, all that exists and all that occurs in his creation in order to display the fullness of his glory, …Those whom he has predestined are redeemed by Christ. …God does all of this in order to demonstrate his mercy to the praise of his glorious grace. (Sovereign Grace Churches Statement of Faith)
- Resource on God's Zeal for His Own Glory (Desiring God Ministries)
The Primary Answer
God's purpose is to be glorified in all his works by the people that he chose to save.
Three Implications for us
- Our Existence is Purposeful
- Our Existence is Hopeful
- Our Existence is Joyful
A COUPLE OF QUESTIONS
- How do the sovereign purposes of God as we considered this morning encourage you? (Consider the three implications of his Sovereign Purposes.) Take some time to write out your thoughts.
- What questions come to your mind when you think about the sovereign purposes of God as we considered this morning? Take a moment to write them out
SONGS TO ENCOURAGE AND STRENGTHEN US
My God I Did Not Choose You Lyrics (Sovereign Grace Music)
VERSE 1
My Lord, I did not choose You
For that could never be
My heart would still refuse You
Had You not chosen me
You took the sin that stained me
You cleansed me, made me new
Of old You have ordained me
That I should live in You
CHORUS
Jesus, You have saved me
And taken all my sin, all my sins away
Jesus, You have called me
Before the world began, to glorify Your name
I was without hope and dead inside
But You chose to save my life
VERSE 2
Unless Your grace had called me
And taught my darkened mind
The world would have enthralled me
To Your glories I’d be blind
My heart knows none above You
For Your rich grace I thirst
I know that if I love You
You must have loved me first
Doctrine of Election Lyrics (Shai Linn)
We need to come to understand Ephesians 1
We see in love the Father predestined
We seem to have a problem with the doctrine of election
We keep stressin’ and leave guessin’ leadin’ to depression
Because it’s God’s love we question
Well sit back and take a deep breath in
And exhale, let’s set sail, the word of God is refreshin’
Let’s be real with it, the Bible obviously talks
about predestination so we gotta deal with it
I’ll be a fake attorney by His grace and mercy
And present my case so let’s take a journey for the sake of learning
First turn to Romans 8:28-30
Zoomin’ in on verse 29, read the first line
“Those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to
the image of His Son”- Exhibit #1
People try to use an argument lacking common sense
Concerning the foreknowledge of God thinking the logic fits
Dudes are saying He looked out into the future ages
With illumination seeing all that would choose salvation
And those men were chosen by God because they chose Him
But that’s not what the passage has spoken
It says those He foreknew He predestined
If he foreknew everybody, is everybody predestined?
Is everyone His object of affection?
If so, then what’s the point of the doctrine of election?
It’s spiritual but let me make it plain so u see the miracle
And praise His Name instead of taking His grace in vain
It isn’t complicated, we all evaded the God that made us
And traded in His truth for a lie
Worshiping what God created more than God who is glorified
Corroborated our death, our lives are an abomination
But if the Father’s aim is to bestow mercy
Then it’s not to say that He was obligated but that God is gracious
As God’s enemies we deserve to be crushed
We’re dirty enough to be eternally cursed and turned into dust
And if he did it He would be perfectly just to murder me but
He decided to show mercy to us
I didn’t choose God, God chose me
Gave me a new heart and it wasn’t because I was holy
But if I chose G-O-D then God owes me, the only reason
I first walked thru them church doors is
Psalm 65 verse 4, why do I know God?
Matthew 11:27 says it best and
Those that have been predestined keep pressin’
It’s a deep message, I only see blessin’ in election
’ma see the blessin’, yo it’s not even a question
How God in His perfection wrote the doctrine of election(shai linne)God in His perfection wrote the doctrine of election
Cause He’s sovereign, there’s no question and that got some people stressin’
But no option but election can account for our protection
Godly direction or perfected bodily resurrection, yo!
Don’t let the thinking of modern men fool ya
God does what He wants- that’s what it means to be Sovereign Ruler
It’s deep but not complicated- with complete confidence I’ll state it:
Peep it- it’s how God has always operated
He’s the greatest, fam- His amazing plan made His hand
Save the man Abraham from a pagan land
Who can argue with the people that God chooses?
Israel and not Egypt, Peter and not Judas
Humanly speaking, it should have been Saul and not David
The inheritance should have been Esau’s and not Jacob’s
The truth it speaks brightly so you can see rightly
A huge, mighty God who chooses the least likely
Still some contest it as a phony doctrine
But if we’re really dead in sin, predestination is the only option
With reservations they fume inside
There’s hesitation because it’s devastating to human pride
This truth is the sober kind that you’re prone to find
In passages like Romans 9- it’s so divine it’ll blow your mind
We are the clay and we’ve been formed by the Potter
None can come to the Son unless they’re drawn by the Father
“But God draws everybody” That’s what some cats say
It can’t be that way because all who are drawn are raised on the last day
Because of original sin and all of our despicable deadness within
Election must be unconditional then
Some people say that we were drowning in the ocean
Barely floating until God threw us the rope then
Our free will helped us as we groped
Our faith is the hand that grabbed the rope and God put us back in the boat
Nope! Without apology I deny that analogy
Reality- we were dead at the bottom of the sea
I was a swollen corpse with hope no more
Until Jehovah the LORD dove from the shore to the ocean floor
Yeah, I was a corpse and I smelled like it
I’ll keep it simple, why did God choose me? Because He felt like it!
He brought me out, not an act of my volition
Breathed life into my lungs and didn’t ask for my permission
Throughout the Bible there’s major examples of this
Pages of passages like the raising of Lazarus
Rather than debating the Master’s gift
We should be happily praising His magnanimous saving of savages
It’s time we see God’s sovereignty and His primacy
His holy dynasty running things by divine decree
Why does He choose some and not others to see Jesus?
Our God is in the heavens- He does whatever He pleases!