Series: Ephesians
Title: Predestinated Unto the Adoption
Text: Ephesians 1: 5-6
Date: February 28, 2013
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Ephesians 1: 3: Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings [before the foundation of the world] in Christ: 4:
According as he hath chosen us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5: Having predestinated us
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself,
according to the good pleasure of his will, 6: To the praise of the
glory of
his grace, wherein he
hath made us accepted in the
beloved.
The Spirit of God’s Son had
filled Paul with the love which God the Father had toward him—God the Father
BEloved Paul, in Christ the BEloved, BEfore the foundation of the world—even as
he loved his own Son.
Paul beheld how God
commended his love toward Paul in that while he was yet a sinner, God sent his
Son who paid in blood to purchase Paul from sin and death to an eternal
inheritance.
Paul beheld the Father’s
love in how God predestinated him unto the adoption, appointing the time, when
he gave Paul the spirit of adoption—revealing to Paul that God loved him from
everlasting, therefore in lovingkindness drew Paul unto himself by Jesus
Christ.
Paul beheld the Father’s
love in that, God the Father had made Paul his heir, joint-heirs with
Christ—giving him the earnest of the Spirit until Christ returns to complete
his adoption, redeeming his body to be with the Lord in glory forever.
So Paul did what men do who
have experienced the love of God in their hearts. He believed Christ and served the Father in
love. He did so preaching this great truth of how God loves.
And Paul served in faith,
praying the Father to make others “comprehend with all saints what is the
breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ,
which passeth knowledge, that they might be filled with all the fulness of
God.” (Eph 3: 18-19)
It would seem that one who
claims to be a child of God would be pleased with whatever is “his good
pleasure.” But most despise this truth.
I realize the carnal mind is enmity against God. “The natural man cannot receive the things of
God; neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned.” But another great problem sinners have is
their preachers.
Preachers reveal much about
their own hearts by thinking they are exercising greater love, by not preaching
the truth. Paul had experienced the love of the Father. The effectual result
was Paul preached the truth.
Now, anyone can learn
doctrine in the oldness of the letter. I want you to know God in newness of
spirit. I am not trying to convince anyone to believe in the doctrine of
election, or predestination, or eternal adoption. My desire is for you know the love of God
which is in Christ Jesus then you will know my doctrine is of God and will
delight in it.
Do you want God to receive
all glory? Verse 6 says God did this, “To
the praise of the glory of his grace.”
If you want God to receive the glory then, together, let’s hear God
declare how he makes his children his own and draws each one to himself, so
that all praise and glory in him alone.
Title: Predestinated Unto the Adoption
Proposition: God the Father adopted his children
before time, predestinated each child to experience their adoption in time and to
bring each one to himself in the end.
I. ADOPTION—v5: [in love,] Having predestinated us unto the
ADOPTION of children by Jesus Christ to himself.
Normally, my rule is to look
at the words in the order they come in the verse. But in this case, the adoption of children
comes first, so let’s look at adoption first.
Adoption may be looked at in
three ways. 1) First, adoption is the
eternal act of God the Father whereby he made a multitude his eternal children
in Christ before the foundation of the world. 2) Secondly, when we experience
adoption in time when the Spirit of his Son enters our hearts and we are given
the spirit of adoption. 3) Thirdly, adoption is spoken of as when we are
delivered into the glorious liberty of the sons of God and then our bodies are
redeemed.
Eternal Adoption
First, God’s children became
his children in eternal adoption before the world was made. Election and
adoption are distinct but so closely connected—Christ said, “thine they were
and thou gavest them me.”
Verse 4 ends with the words
“in love.” Love was the moving cause in God the Father. His love is in Christ.
·
In love, God the Father adopted us to himself in Christ.
·
In love, God the Father blessed us with all spiritual blessings in
Christ.
·
In love, all these spiritual blessings were according as God the
Father chose us in Christ.
His love was based on
nothing in those he loved but v5:
“according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his
grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved”, Christ Jesus.
Illustration of Eternal Adoption
Let’s look at adoption in
eternity by way of illustration: this will not be exact, but it will help.
Abraham chose Rebekah to be the bride of his son, Isaac. Likewise, God the
Father chose his elect to be the bride of his Son—each elect child makes up the
church, the bride of his Son, Christ.
Abraham gave Rebekah a
dowry, great riches and ornaments to adorn her when he gave her to his son.
Likewise, God the Father adorned us blessing us with all spiritual blessings
and gave us to his Son: “thine they were, thou gavest them me.”
When Abraham gave Rebekah to
his son, Abraham loved her with the same fatherly love as he loved Isaac,
because she was now one with Isaac—It was more so when God gave his children to
his Son. By nature, Christ is the
eternal Son of the Father. So when the Father gave his children to Christ his
Son, we became the sons of God eternally one with the Father in his Son.
God
the Father loves each of his adopted children with the same love as he loves
his Son, Christ Jesus—with “an everlasting love.” (Jer 31: 13) Christ declared in John 17: 23:…thou
hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
So we see our first point:
God the Father adopted his children to himself from everlasting, making us his
everlasting sons and daughters, according as he chose us in his Son. But there
are two other phases of adoption. Next, is our experience of our adoption in
time then the final end when God brings us to himself in glory. This is where predestination comes in.
II. PREDESTINATION—v5: Having PREDESTINATED us UNTO the adoption
of children BY JESUS CHRIST to himself…
Predestination is God the
Father “pre” appointing the time when by Jesus Christ each elect child shall
experience our adoption and then at last be brought to God in glory. God
sovereignly determined all things that come to pass in time for the salvation
of his elect, entrusting all to his Son.
Predestinated
to the Appointed Time
Having made us his sons by
adoption before the foundation of the world, it was the good pleasure of God
the Father, the counsel of his own will, to predestinate each child to an
appointed time when Jesus Christ our Head shall: cross their path with this
good news, send the Spirit of his Son, the Spirit of adoption, into the hearts
of each one, thus bring each child to praise God in all his glory who loved us
and entrusted this work into the hands of our Sovereign Savior—that the promise
might be sure!
Romans
8: 28: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love
God, [even before we love God] to them who are the called according to his
purpose. [called from eternity in his purpose] 29: For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might
be the firstborn among many brethren. 30: Moreover whom he did predestinate,
them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he
justified, them he also glorified.
Application: Most of what is happening in this world
right now would throw me into utter despair but for the certainty that God
works “all things together” for the good of his people. This work is certain,
“according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of
his own will.” Oh, believer, praise God the Father in all his glory for
trusting this work into the hands of Christ Jesus! What if tonight it is the
appointed time for a lost child! This is my hope and confidence in preaching
the gospel. I know that Christ Jesus our sovereign Head shall bring to pass the
counsel of God our Father’s own will.
Illustration: We
adopt not knowing!
Our First Birth
Had God the Father not predestinated
his children to be called at the time he set, we would never know what God did
from everlasting because we were born the first time as orphans, polluted in
our own blood.
Ezekiel
16: 4: And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not
cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at
all, nor swaddled at all. 5: None eye pitied thee, [love you] to do any of
these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the
open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born….8:
Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time
of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I
sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and
thou becamest mine.
Illustration of Adopted Child in Time
We find our next
illustration in Galatians 4. Paul gives
the illustration of a child who is heir to a king.
Galatians
4: 1: Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing
from a servant, though he be lord of all; 2: But is under tutors and governors
until the time appointed of the father.
The elect child is heir of
God our Father. Yet, as long as he is the child of his first father he is dead
in sins. He differs nothing from every other servant of sin, though he be the
son and heir of God. He is under the bondage of others, till the predestinated
time of love which the Father appointed—
Galatians
4: 3: Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of
the world:
Paul describes those
elements up the page in Galatians 3: 23:…before faith came, we were kept under
the law, shut up [until] the Faith [Christ] which should afterwards be
revealed. 24: Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster [a harsh, strict
tutor—declaring us guilty, guilty, guilty—UNTIL] Christ, that we might be
justified by Faith. [by Christ] 25: But after that Faith [Christ] is come, we are no longer
under a schoolmaster.
Galatians
4: 4 But when the fulness of the time
was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5: To
redeem them that were under the law, 5: That we might receive the adoption of
sons 6: And because ye are sons, God
hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
“Forasmuch as the
children”—God’s adopted children—“were flesh and blood”, God the Son took part
of the same. Were it not for the eternal adoption of God the Father, Christ
would not have been the near Kinsmen. But by eternal adoption Christ was. And
for his love wherewith he loved us, Christ was willing and able to redeem the
children of God by his blood. So Christ
paid the purchase price—his blood—paying all the debt we owed to the law so
that we are free from the law and become Christ’s lawful possession. Now, we can receive the right and privileges
that come with being sons of God. And because his children were sons from
eternity, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into their hearts.
This is when the Spirit
sheds the love of God abroad in our hearts. Christ said, “Now they have
known…all things…For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me.”
(Jn 17: 7-8) The law written our hearts in the everlasting
covenant of grace are these words: “I have loved thee with an everlasting love
therefore in loving kindness have I drawn thee.” Then we become one, even as
God the Father and God the Son are one. Christ said, “I in them, and thou in
me, that they may be made perfect in one.”
Then we know that God the Father hast loved us, even as he hast loved
Christ. (Jn 17: 23.) We cry, Abba,
Father!
Galatians
4: 7: Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son;
We cease our old, dead
letter charade; cease being the servants of corruption; cease serving in the
oldness of the letter, and now as sons constrained by the love of Christ, we
serve our Father in faith and love---in newness of spirit. Romans 8: 14: For as
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15: For ye have
not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the
Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Galatians
4: 7:…and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. W
With sonship comes the
promise of eternal inheritance, the completion of our adoption—back to Ephesians.
Ephesians
1: 11: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will: 12 That we should be to the
praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. 13: In whom ye also
[trusted,] after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation:
in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of
promise, 14: which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of
the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory
Application: What assurance we have! Christ bought his brethren to an inheritance
“reserved in heaven” therefore, God will not stand by and watch one perish in
unbelief or allow one already called to fall away. Each child eternally adopted
before time, shall experience the adoption in their hearts in time and shall be given the earnest of our inheritance because
God the Father predestinated it, it was his good pleasure, his will, and God works
all things after the counsel of his own will. No one can stop our sovereign God
and Savior!
Completion of Adoption
Our text says God
predestinated us “Unto Himself.” So
there is one more time which we are predestinated unto which will finish our
adoption, which is our being delivered into the glorious liberty of the sons of
God and then to have our bodies redeemed as well.
Romans
8: 16: The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the
children of God: 17: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs
with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also
glorified together. 18: For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are
not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
19: For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation
of the sons of God. 20 For the creature
was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath
subjected the same in hope, 21: Because the creature itself also shall
be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the
children of God. 22: For we know that the whole creation groaneth and
travaileth in pain together until now. 23: And not only they, but
ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves
groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption
of our body.
Application: What a day that will be! Delivered from the bondage of corruption into
glory—glorious liberty! Then the
redemption of our body—fashioned like unto his glorious body. We have the earnest of the Spirit! We have the assurance that it shall come to
pass because God our Father predestinated us unto it.
So we saw we are eternally
God’s children in Christ by God the Father adopting us before the foundation of
the world. We saw God the Father
predestinated us unto the time when each child shall experience their adoption
by Jesus Christ revealing himself through the Holy Spirit in our hearts. We saw
the final completion of our adoption will be glorious liberty of the sons of
God. One last thing…
III. ALL OF THIS IS IN LOVE BY GRACE--v4: In love, v5: Having predestinated us...v6 To the PRAISE of the GLORY of
HIS GRACE, wherein HE hath made us ACCEPTED in the beloved.
The apostle Paul’s purpose
in this epistle was that we might know the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians
3: 17 That Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18: May be able to
comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth,
and height; 19: And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that
ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Believer, we have something,
not even the elect angels have. They are chosen, but they are not sons. "Behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the sons of God” (1 John 3:1.)
It is HIS perfect love for
us that cast out fear in our hearts.
1
John 4: 15: Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth
in him, and he in God. 16: And we have known and believed the love that God
hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God
in him. 17: Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the
day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world….19: We love him,
because he first loved us.
God’s love is in Christ. So
seek to know more of Christ. For the more we comprehend the height and depth of
the Father’s love for his Son, the more we behold the height and depth of the
Father’s love for us. The more we are assured
Romans
8:39: Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God’s true children love to
hear his everlasting love declared to us, for by his eternal love and
unchanging grace, he hath made us accepted in the Beloved.
Cling to Christ in faith and
look nowhere else and serve him in love.
We are debtors, not to the flesh, but to him who loved us and gave
himself for us. So if you believe him, serve him like you love him!
Amen!