Redeemer Church Of Waterford

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit devised a plan to rescue us from our sin and reconcile us to God. This is God's thoughts toward us (Psalm 40:5). But God also thinks upon us (Psalm 40:17). His thinking upon us is His affection for His elect expressed in the attributes of His righteousness, His faithfulness, His salvation, His lovingkindness, and His truth.

Paul finishes chapter one focusing on the exceeding greatness of God's power which raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at God's right hand. The conjunctive phrase "And you..." which begins chapter two connects all that is true of Christ at the end of chapter one with all that is true of believers in chapter 2.

As we have considered this prayer of the Apostle Paul in these verses, we are confronted with a dominant series of threes: A Trinity of Christian Graces: Faith, Love, Hope A Trinity of Spiritual Prerequisites: wisdom, revelation, light A Trinity of Godly Insight: “that you may know” (v. 18): the Hope of His Calling (Past), the Glory of His Inheritance (Future), and the Exceeding Greatness of His Power (Present).

We are met together this evening to consider the most pivotal event in all of human history: the crucifixion of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. How do you see it? What is your interpretation of what was happening on Calvary’s hill? An injustice? A tragedy? The death of a good man? How did those who witnessed it see it?

How does God make Himself known to us? God holds the prerogative to make Himself known to whomever He wills. He exercises His prerogative through a trinity of prerequisites: the giving of the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of revelation, and the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Having begun his letter with a hymn of praise to the Trinity, Paul now turns to prayer for his readers which begins with a "trinity" of graces which should be evident in the life of every believer, but especially evident in the life of every true church.

What is the promise that has been guaranteed to us by the Holy Spirit? How can I know that I am a part of God's promise to make a people for His own possession?

If the sealing of the Holy Spirit is the assurance that we are the unique possession of God, what are the evidences that I have been sealed by the Spirit? Romans 8 gives us at least eight of these evidences.

The Holy Angels of God - they are mysterious, majestic, and mighty. They are also ministering spirits sent forth from Almighty God for this purpose: to minister for those who will inherit salvation.

We come now to the third and final stanza of Paul’s Great Hymn of Praise to the Trinity. How do we reconcile v. 4 (“chosen in Him before the foundation of the world”) with v. 13 (“you heard, you believed, you trusted”)? If our salvation is all of grace and due entirely to God’s choosing us before the foundation of the world, why is it necessary for us to believe the gospel and to trust in Jesus Christ? God does not save any man or woman against their will. God’s choosing is not God coercing. And yet it is also true that because man is “dead in trespasses and in sins” (2:1), no unbeliever would be willing to believe the gospel and trust in Jesus Christ without God first bringing that person to spiritual life. God persuades the will. He makes the gospel attractive to us. “The goodness of God leads you to repentance.” How then does God bring us to spiritual life?

Paul's three-fold use of 'to the praise of His glory" in Ephesians 1 is rooted in his Old Testament understanding of God's initiative in claiming a people for himself in texts like Deuteronomy 7:6-11. Our response to God's choosing us is lives lived for his praise.

What is God doing in history? The Apostle Paul reveals at least three things which constitute God's great purpose in Christ which he is working out in human history.

Our natural human response to wickedness is anger and wrath against those who perpetuate unrighteousness. But how should followers of Christ respond? In the 37th Psalm God gives us the steps of a godly response to rising human wickedness, leading to the confidence that the wicked shall be cut off while the righteous inherit the land.

Why does God do anything He does? Because it pleases Him. God is working out the mystery of His will in history through the administration of Jesus Christ in the open secret of the gospel. Why do some people see it and others don't?

In eternity past, God the Father chose us in Christ for holiness, adopted us for sonship, and accepted us in His Beloved Son (Ephesians 1:3-6a). In the present, God the Son has executed His Father's will by ransoming us from the tyranny of Satan, remitting our sins by removing them from us and forgetting them, and rescuing us from our fall into death, all through His precious blood (Ephesians 1:6b-7).

In this message we consider three words in Ephesians 1:7 which summarize the work of God the Son, "the Beloved," in securing the salvation of God's elect.