In this episode of Expository Truths, Dr. John Kyle addresses the complexities and controversies surrounding predestination, exploring what it means to be chosen by God. By clarifying the Apostle Paul’s teachings, Dr. Kyle challenges our perceptions of fairness, free will, and divine grace, offering a biblical perspective that compels us to render praise and gratitude for His incomprehensible love. Discover the intricate tapestry of God’s sovereign plan as revealed through the epistle of Ephesians.
Welcome to Expository Truths, where we exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with Dr. John Kyle, pastor of Faith Community Church in Vacaville. As Christians, we’re called to know the truth and be able to proclaim it. We can know truth when we know the Word of God, which is precise, without error, and powerful and effective for both salvation and spiritual growth. Enjoy digging deeply with Dr. Kyle as he takes us verse by verse through the powerful book of Ephesians, giving us a marvelous summary of the good news of Christ and its implications for our daily lives.
SPEAKER 02 :
Please turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 through 6. Ephesians 1, 3 through 6. Now, as an aside, one of the doctrines we’re going to look at this morning has gotten me into a lot of trouble. People say lots of mean things about our church because we believe in this doctrine. And many people won’t set foot in our church because of this doctrine. It is what it is. The real issue isn’t do people like it or understand it. The issue is, is this doctrine biblical? And that’s what matters. Is it biblical? And my conviction is, yes, it is biblical. And his word is very clear. And we’re going to look at that. May we be thoroughly convinced of that today for the glory of God. The letter of Ephesians was written by the Apostle Paul to the faithful saints living in the city of Ephesus, which was the fourth largest city in the world at that time. Paul wrote this while he was under house arrest in Rome in about AD 62, and he wrote it to lay a proper doctrinal foundation for these believers so they could then live out these doctrines for the glory of God. See, he wants these Christians to be established and equipped more and more in their faith, thus this letter. Last week we looked at Paul’s introductory remarks, and today we begin to look at the doctrinal section of this book. It’s very interesting because verses 3 through 14 is one single sentence in the Greek, which is the original language that this was written in. Think of that. One sentence of 202 words. One sentence. Why? Why? Some say that this is actually a song of praise to God, a hymn, which very well might have been the case. But more than anything else, this is an attempt to use a bunch of words to praise God for His divine plan and actions that are almost beyond description. It’s as if Paul can’t contain the love and the praise that he has for God, and so he just rattles off 202 inspired words that are filled with incredible truths about what God has done for the believer, and it’s only at the end of verse 14 that Paul then takes a breath. See, he just can’t help himself. Why? Because God is so amazing. Let’s look at the first third of that very long sentence, verses 3 through 6. 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. Don’t you love how Paul starts off this letter? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s the key. And this verse is really setting the stage for the rest of this very long sentence. Blessed be our God. The word for blessed is a Greek word, eulogatos. Sound familiar? It’s from the word that we get eulogy from. And it was used as a form of speech or writing that highly praises someone. It means to give appreciation, honor, and praise to another. In this case, to God. See, throughout the Old Testament, God is blessed or praised for His benefits to humanity as seen in His care, His provision, His response to prayer, and His deliverance from enemy’s evil sometimes god is blessed for who he is rightly so but usually it’s tied with something that he has done for his people and both are good reasons to praise him both are good reasons to bless him No doubt Paul is specific in this blessing. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s very interesting. Why? Because the phrase blessed be God was used many times in the Old Testament. But here, Paul is very specific at who this God is. He’s the God of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one and only God. See, the God of the Bible is one God who eternally exists in three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This phrase, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, equates Jesus with God, since calling God as Father denotes the same nature and the same essence. And also, since calling Jesus Lord speaks of Christ’s sovereign rule and authority over all things as God the Son. But here… Paul is singling out the first person of the Trinity, God the Father. In verses 7 through 12, Paul will focus on God the Son. And then in verses 13 through 14, Paul will focus on God the Spirit. But the call here is to give praise and honor and blessing and proper recognition to this amazing God whom we love. Why? because he’s blessed us with every spiritual blessing, that’s all. Hey, that’s everything. Not a few spiritual blessings, not some spiritual blessings, not a lot of spiritual blessings, but every spiritual blessing. And he shows us a few of those blessings in this very long sentence. Not all of the blessings, but he shows us a few really cool blessings. Question, should we, his people, render praise, blessing, thanks to God today? Should we? Yes, we should. Spurgeon said, if you think little of what God has done for you, then you will do little for Him. But if you have a great notion of His great mercy to you, then you will be greatly grateful to your gracious God. That’s right. And the prayer is that as we look at all of this, that we will better understand how great His mercy is toward us. And therefore, we will give Him even more praise and more love and more adoration and more blessing in our lives. The summary is this. Your God has given you every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. That’s all. Again, that’s everything. That’s everything. And Paul can’t describe how amazing these blessings are. He tries, right? He tries in one long sentence, but he can’t do it justice. One likens it to Paul taking a walk through a treasure chamber like those of the pharaohs of Egypt trying to describe what he sees. He starts out with the most immediate and evident fact and tells us what that is. Then something else comes into view and he puts that in. And then glory flashes upon glory until he has this tremendously complicated sentence which includes vast and almost indescribable riches. And so Paul tries to describe every spiritual blessing that we have in the heavenly places in Christ. And guess what? He can’t do it. But at least he tries. And he does a good job. He does indeed give us many great reasons to bless and to praise and to glorify our incredible God. Notice that God has already given us these spiritual blessings. This means that we’re already blessed in many ways, and don’t we know it? And it also means that there are many blessings that are yet to come, but they are indeed guaranteed to come for us in Christ. See, it’s as good as done, and the best really is done. yet to come for us, and that’s an ironclad fact that we in Christ can bank on. Note also that while God blesses us as people in many ways, even in many physical ways, the best blessings are spiritual blessings, right? The things that concern eternity. The things that concern the soul. Things that have true and lasting value and worth, and not just fading temporary value and worth. Christ is the one who gives all this to us and it involves heavenly things. It involves eternal things. It involves spiritual things. The things that truly matter. Question. Would you say that you’re blessed today as a Christian and that you have many great reasons to bless God? You have many great reasons to praise God today. Would you? Yeah? Amen? Amen? Paul would agree. And now, he’s going to show us some of those reasons. First, He chose us in Him. Verse 4. 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. And that is the first reason that we in Christ should bless God. Isn’t that interesting? Because many people don’t like this doctrine. But Paul would vehemently disagree, and he would say that this doctrine is foundational to your faith, and look, it gives you a great reason to bless God today. And the prayer is that as we look at this, that we would change our thinking about this doctrine if it needs to be changed, and that we would love it And that it would cause us to rejoice in God for His amazing blessing to us. Look, He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. That word chose literally means to select out, to single out, and to choose for oneself out of a larger number. That’s what it means. Here in our passage, this choosing is the act of God by Himself choosing out from among mankind men and women for Himself. The tense of the word indicates a completed action by God in the past, and the phrase before the foundation of the world makes that very clear. See, God’s choosing came before human need, even before human existence, which shows us that this was all God, and it was done before we ever did anything and before we were even born. The grammar used here signifies that God chose us by himself and for himself. In other words, this was God’s totally independent choice. This may make you a bit uncomfortable, but that’s not the issue, right? The issue is, what does the Bible say? That’s the issue. No doubt Paul not only wasn’t uncomfortable with this doctrine, but Paul exalted this doctrine, and Paul praised God for this doctrine, and so should we. What does it mean? That before God created anything or anyone, He decided that He would choose or elect some humans to be His adopted children. No one deserves this honor. And God didn’t foresee any condition in them that prompted Him to choose them, which means that God chose them unconditionally, that God chose or elected them because He wanted to, or to put it another way, it was His will to elect them. Look, since His chosen people, along with the rest of humanity, would fall into sin, God planned to save His children from their sin, and He also planned or predestined all the means to bring about that salvation. As one noted, He planned that Christ would redeem His chosen ones. He planned that the Holy Spirit would enlighten and enliven His chosen ones and call them to Christ. And He planned all the providential arrangements to make sure that each of His chosen ones would hear the gospel and receive Christ as Lord. God the Father gave this group of chosen ones the elect as a gift to Christ to be His people, His sheep, His bride. All of God’s elect will be saved and they are the only humans who will be saved. And that’s what the Bible teaches. And the issue is, will you reject it as many do or will you believe it and then will you exalt the Lord because of it? Those are our options. Many try to soften what the Bible says on the issue. The first way they do this is to say that God chooses everyone. They say that Something like this. God casts one, I’ve heard this before. God casts one vote for you. Satan casts one vote against you. And you cast the deciding vote. That’s called universal election, which sounds good at first glance, even if it goes against what the Bible actually teaches. In fact, it’s the opposite of what the Bible teaches, because if God chose everyone to be saved, then election is virtually meaningless because it doesn’t accomplish anything. See, if universal election merely makes salvation possible for everyone, then it doesn’t guarantee the salvation of anyone, and we would have to admit that it’s been pretty ineffective before. And it turns choosing upside down. Nowhere does it say that God chose everyone. It says God chose some. Think of it. If God’s choosing a person indicates that He intends for that person to be saved, then either God is unable to carry out His intention, or else He isn’t very skilled at arranging circumstances. Think about it. Most humans live and die in circumstances where they have never heard the gospel at all. And then think about this. Before the gospel was sent to the Gentiles in the book of Acts, God had sovereignly chosen to reveal Himself only to one nation, the nation of Israel. And it amazes me that Christians who reject unconditional election don’t seem too bothered by the fact that God chose only Israel to be His chosen people for a very, very long time. They protest against unconditional election and they say that it’s not fair to the non-elect. But mark this, no one wants fair. No one. Look, Scripture makes it plain that God has not given all people an equal opportunity to know Him. I hope you don’t deny that. That’s pretty clear. Throughout the Bible, we read how God favored Israel. He said to Israel, the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. Deuteronomy 7, 6. Israel did nothing to deserve God’s special notice. Nothing. In the following verses, the Lord explains why He chose Israel. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you and chose you. For you are the fewest of all people, but it’s because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers. Note the reasoning in the passage. Why did the Lord choose you? Because He loved you. Why did the Lord love you? Because He loves you. There’s simply no condition in Israel that attracted God to choose them. Is that fair? No! It’s called grace. People think that fairness means equal treatment of all concern, but we need to revise our understanding of what constitutes fairness. Fairness consists in giving everyone what he deserves. And mark this, I’ll say it again, we don’t want God to treat us fairly. We don’t want to get what we all deserve. We want grace. Look, we can’t read far into the Bible before we’re confronted with the reality that God doesn’t treat all persons equally. Biblically, God isn’t obligated to show mercy to anyone. So how then is it unfair if he shows mercy only to one person or to one nation or to as many as he chooses? People who assert that God has chosen everyone to be saved are trying to protect God from accusations against being unfair. But here’s the thing. If God was fair, then no one would get saved because we all deserve wrath because of our sin. See, there’s no obligation on God’s part to choose anyone. But He freely chose some, and that is evidence of His great grace. The real problem isn’t why He had not chosen some, but why He chose any. But whatever the case, if God had chosen everyone, then election is essentially meaningless since it accomplishes nothing. And just as God chose Israel in the Old Testament, the implications of that show us that God didn’t choose everyone. The second major way that people soften this doctrine is by saying that God’s choosing is conditional. That means that God chose His elect because knowing everything, He foresaw that they would repent of sin and put their faith in Christ down the line. And so, when He saw that these people would repent and believe, That’s when he chose them. See, in order for this to be fair or unbiased in election or choosing, God waited to see what people would do before he elected and saved them. To be consistent, God couldn’t make any special arrangements that would make it more likely that anyone would repent or believe because that would be interfering with man’s free will. See, someone as intelligent and powerful as God can easily manipulate a person’s decision-making process, and that would be unfair, and God wouldn’t ever do that, they say. This view is sometimes presented as a tunnel of time theory. Maybe you believe this. Maybe you have believed this in the past. That God looked down through the tunnel of time and saw who had believed, and therefore He chose them. But as choosing them didn’t influence them to believe, no, they did that on their own. So unconditional election presents us with a God who plans, while conditional election presents us with a God who reacts. There are several issues with this unbiblical view. First, the Bible is very clear that if we are left to ourselves, no one will ever repent of sin and believe in Christ. None is righteous, no, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Romans 3, 10 through 12. In this passage, it’s almost as if God anticipates the tunnel of time theory and says, God did look down through the tunnel of time, searching for anyone who was righteous and anyone who would do good and anyone who would seek God. He double-checked the tunnel. How many did He find? not even one. A second problem with this view is an inconsistency found in those who hold it. In their minds, in order for election to be fair, then it must be because God chose to save those who, on their own, without any divine intervention, would repent and believe. But here’s the problem. Virtually no one prays in a No one prays, Father, I want my loved one to be saved, but I know that you respect everyone’s free will and you’ve already done all that you can legitimately do while still being a God of fairness. So be sure to leave my lost loved one to themselves and don’t influence their thinking about sin or about Christ. Don’t arrange providential circumstances so that you influence them to be sick of sin and to long for you. I know that you’re a gentleman, Lord, so… Hold your powers of influence in reserve and Lord, just let them decide for themselves. No! We don’t want God to leave them alone. We want God to intervene. But if God intervenes, then He’s influenced a person to repent and believe. And therefore, when He looked down through the tunnel of time and saw this person’s repentance and faith, it was a repentance and faith that came about because He influenced the person. That’s not fair! What about our free will? There were only two humans who ever had true free will. Who? Adam and Eve. They blew it. And when they sinned, every person who’s ever been born since then, except for Christ, has been born with a sinful nature. And now every human functions within that sinful nature bubble. Now there’s a whole lot of things we can do within that bubble. Live life, have children, go on vacation, all kinds of things that we see people around us doing all the time. But biblically, there’s one thing that we can’t do within that sinful nature bubble. We can’t choose God. Why? We can’t awaken ourselves from the spiritually dead. Why? Because the Bible says that as Adam’s offspring, we’re dead in sin, we’re enslaved to sin, we’re blinded by sin, and we can’t seek God in that condition. So what has to happen? God has to choose us and awaken us, and so that’s what He did. But why? Why didn’t God choose everyone? I don’t have an answer for that, but I do know that God is abundantly good and gracious, and I’m never going to stand in judgment of God. Woe to me if I stand in judgment of God. He’s God, I am not. I trust Him. Well, what about those who aren’t chosen? Don’t think like that. Trust the Lord and honor Him and pray for the lost and be a bright light in a dark world and assume that God put all these lost people in your life for a reason and shine His light to them so they can hear the gospel and be saved. Well, does this doctrine mean that we are puppets on a string? No, of course not. And biblically, we are responsible and we are accountable for our lives and for our decisions. That’s a biblical truth. Okay, but does this mean that God excludes people from going to heaven? And does God keep people out who want to get in? No! And anyone who wants to go to heaven can and will by grace through faith in Christ and God will welcome all with joy. But the point is that unless God chooses them, they don’t want Him. All who want Him come to Him because they want Him because He chose them and He changed their hearts. See? Does this mean that I don’t have to share my faith since the chosen are going to be saved anyhow? No, because God uses means to bring people to himself, and our call is to pray for the lost and to be salt and light in this dark and dying world. The Bible is very clear about how we are called to live and what God wants from us as believers. Well, if God only sets his love on some and predestined only those to salvation, then does not he love everyone in the world? Well, God has a general love for the world, yes, a common kind of grace that reveals itself in many amazing ways, for everything good in life comes from the good hand of God. However, God has a special love for His own children, a saving love, a covenant love for us as people. Well, if salvation is totally of the Lord, then is there anything an unbeliever can do to be saved? While all of salvation, including repentance and faith, to be saved is of the Lord, he commands people to repent and believe the gospel. The Bible exhorts sinners, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let them return to the Lord and he will have compassion on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. Isaiah 55, 6. There’s a mystery here in that sinners are unable and unwilling to seek God unless God is first drawing them to Christ. But at the same time, they are responsible to repent and believe in Christ. And once again, we trust God with that. But here’s the thing. They can’t blame God for not calling them. biblically God gets all the glory for the salvation of sinners and biblically man is responsible for rejecting Christ and his salvation in their lives it’s a deep doctrine that God has figured out perfectly but it’s a biblical doctrine and Paul look Paul prays God for it and so should we
SPEAKER 01 :
Thanks for joining us for today’s exposition from the book of Ephesians on expository truths with Dr. John Kyle. Continue on with us next week at this same time. And to find this sermon in its entirety as well as other sermons, visit vacavillefaith.org. Faith Community Church seeks to exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with a commitment to glorifying God through the pure, deep, and reaching message of the gospel through faithful exposition. Pastor John is the preaching pastor at Faith Community Church of Vacaville, a seminary professor, and a trainer of preaching pastors overseas. Join Faith Community Church for worship Sundays at 9 and 1045 a.m. located at 192 Bella Vista Road, Suite A in Vacaville. To learn more, visit vacavillefaith.org or call 707-451-2026. That’s vacavillefaith.org.
