in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, would be for the praise of His glory.to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ.That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.to the end that we should be unto the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ:
14 sermons cite this verse
… who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. He wants you to know today that in Christ, when you joined your life to him, you were chosen by God. Now, this is important that we understand this, this Greek word in verse four, for he chose us. The word means you're not going to believe this to choose. In other words, God picked you. God said, I want you. God said, I choose you. I want to be with you and I want you to be with me. I want you to move from the back row up here to the front row with me. I do not want you to live without me. On the contrary, I want you to live with me. I choose you. I want you. I desire you. I pick you. I'm looking at you. And when did he choose you? …
… Okay? This is saying Paul who in Ephesians 1, verses 3 through 14, it's a single run-on sentence in Greek. 12 verses are single run-on sentence in Greek. This is the sort of man Paul is. But here, fascinatingly, he confines himself to only 25 verses and less than 400 words total. But what is interesting is that these 25 verses force us to confront three excuses that I think Christians often have when it comes to remaining in unforgiveness. Three excuses that we will often use to justify why we will not forgive someone. And I want to say this too, I'm speaking primarily tonight to those who have been hurt, those who have been wronged. I'm not directing this message towards the wrongdoer. If that is you, you need to repent, you need to turn to Christ, and you need to seek forgiveness from the person you've wronged. But to be honest, I love you. God bless you. You're not really the focus of what I think we need to talk about. I'm speaking to those who have been wronged. You have been sinned against, and you are struggling to figure out how do I forgive in light of that sin. …
… 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. And all God's people said, amen.
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 the glory of his grace, which he has blessed us, with which he has blessed us in the beloved. in him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will according to his the good pleasure or the purpose with which which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him things in heaven and things on the earth in him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory in him you also when you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. …
… who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession, to the praise of his glory. This is God's word. But earlier this week, I guess a couple of you might have been there. Earlier this week, I had a chance to address a group of businessmen. And we talked a bit about the fact that modern men and women feel trapped by time. Recently, there was a survey done of what people's attitude was toward time and their schedule and time management. and when people were asked to choose among a list of nouns that describe time, a very large, significant minority chose the noun, my enemy. One woman CEO said, every book she ever read on time management, and she's read a lot of them and they all cost $19.95, said, revolutionary new approach to time. However, every single book on time management basically says this, make a list, set your priorities, do the most important things first. Some of them, however, are inventive and they say, set your priorities, make a list, do the most important things first. She says, I've only got one problem. After I do that, and I get to my must, absolutely important, urgent, must, must, must list, I only get a throw it away through it. Through the musts. Now what do I do? There's an interesting product out on the market now. It's an exercise bicycle with a desk on the handlebars and a little Sony TV there so you can write out bills and write letters …
… to the praise of his glory. Now, we've been looking at this chapter. We're looking at Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3 to 14. And we've said that it's all about, the whole chapter is the gospel of your salvation. That's a term that's found in verse 13, see? It says, when you were included in Christ, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, when you heard that and you believed it, you were marked with a seal and you, the promised Holy Spirit. So the point is, the gospel of salvation, the word gospel means good news. This chapter is a kind of inventory of all of the great things that when you become a Christian, you have. It's a little bit like buying a house and going through it to see what you bought, buying a car and driving it to see what you really have there. You bought something, what's really under the hood? and therefore we've been looking at this chapter and we saw in the first four verses, verses four to eight, the first thing God tells us that we have in Christ is adoption. We're brought into the family of God and he becomes no longer our boss or our supervisor or our task master but our father. And then secondly, we looked at verses nine to twelve and we see we not only get adoption but we get a kingdom. We get a God who's in charge of our lives and all of history. He's sovereign, and we looked at that. Now, thirdly, this is what we're looking at now …
… verse 12 down to verse 23. Listen. In order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory, you were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of his glory. For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, …
… And I'm going to read just verses 12, pardon me, verses 9 to 12 of chapter 1. Ephesians 1, verses 9 to 12. and he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head even Christ in him we were also chosen having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with his purpose the purpose of his will in order that we, who are the first to hope in Christ might be for the praise of his glory Ephesians 1, we said, is a kind of inventory of everything we have in Jesus Christ. I don't know if any of you are, most of you either too, you're not old enough to watch cartoons. and as a result, you might not know or remember much about Scrooge McDuck. …
For teaching time, we're going to look again at Ephesians chapter 1. I'd like to call your attention to the entire section that we've been looking at, Ephesians 1, verses 3 through 14. But tonight we're going to look again, in particular, at verses 9 to 12. It's all one thought, and yet there's divisions in the thought. And I'm going to read from verse 3 to 14, but tonight we're in particular going to look at verse 9 to 12. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will, to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one he loves. In him we have forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. …
at least when I was here we were, I'd like to take a look again at this huge sentence that we started looking at in the late spring and early summer. It's Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3 to 14, and I'm going to show you tonight that there is a second major division in it, and I'd like to give you an overview of it. We've been looking for weeks at the beauty of the first part of that sentence and what it means that we were chosen to be adopted as his children, to be his sons. And we spent a number of weeks on what it means to be adopted. And I want you to know that I don't know if it helped you, but I wrote most of those sermons sitting in a convent on the shores of the Hudson River back in late May, and it changed my life. Just to think about the first part of the sentence. But starting at verse 9, we have a second part, and I'd like to introduce you to that tonight. Let me read you the whole sentence again. Chapter 1, verse 3 through 14. In the Greek, it was all one sentence, even though the English translators have had to break it up just to make it comprehensible. Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ, for he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be …
… We said last week that Ephesians 1, which we're beginning to look at, is Ephesians 1, verse 3 to 14. In the Greek original was one long sentence. boy now what am I doing wrong uh it was one long sentence and uh therefore it's a it's a massive build-up it's a statement in which Paul is trying to give us the entire scheme of how God saves us and I'd like to read just verses uh three to fourteen but we're only going to look at verse three four and five here tonight for a minute Paul says praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will, to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times have reached their fulfillment to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we also were …
… as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to the good pleasure which he purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we were chosen having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will in order that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. …
… it's broken into several sentences. Ephesians 1, verse 3 to 14 is one long sentence in Greek. And I'll give you some reasons why I think that happened. It's not good grammar. It's not, even in Greek, to have a sentence that long is not good grammar. It's not good form or style. But Paul was caught up. Let's take a look at this. Ephesians 1, verses 1 to 14. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus, Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, weigh every word. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Christ Jesus in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times will have …
… That is, this is what he's predestined. that we who were the first to hope in Christ should live or be to the praise of His glory. He says that He has predestined us to live to the praise of His glory, that our life should be an expression of worship and praise and adoration of who God Almighty is. So if we're going to worship the Lord God, we must praise Him with their lips, but likewise we must serve Him with our life. And how do you serve the Lord God? by humbling ourselves and serving other people. That's the way we serve Him. So He says, true, genuine worship is going to result in the praise from my lips and likewise the service of my life. The second thing I want you to notice here in the activity is that there are two motivations involved in the body of Christ worshiping Him. What is the first motivation? Well, somebody would say, well, surely the first motivation is that you love God and that is not the first motivation. …