Were You Chosen Before the World Began? Ephesians 1

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, an Oklahoma rancher and farmer. Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for over 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say, time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, there we are. And once again, we're ready to pick up where we left off in our last program, which was in Ephesians chapter 1, and now we're still in verse 4. Again, for all of you watching on television, we'd just like to welcome you to an informal Bible study. And we don't claim to have all the answers, but all we try to get folk to do is search the Scriptures. And in them, of course, the Scripture says you'll find eternal life. And all I can hope to do as I teach is to whet people's appetite to begin to study and read their own Bible and enjoy it. And according to our mail, I guess we're succeeding to quite a greater degree than we ever, ever dreamed. In fact, I guess I should share with the television audience for someone there. We've got our books on the screen. Okay, all the past programs are available on videotapes, and then they've been transcribed into the little booklets that you see on the screen. And they're just going out so fast lately, we can't get them printed fast enough. But that's well, that's why we like it. But anyway, uh, I have to share with our television audience, especially, you know, when we first started up here at Channel 47, Iris and I, between us, had kind of determined it would last six months, and then it would die a natural death. But here we are seven years later, and it's just growing and growing and growing, sort of like the rabbit on TV, I guess. But anyway, the Lord is blessing it, and we appreciate so much your letters. Every letter I read, I think, oh, I wish I could just write an answer to it. But you see, I'd never get anything done if I'd answer them all. So, we at least try to answer your questions. But rest assured that we do love to read your letters, and of course, we appreciate your financial help, because without that, we cannot stay on the air. A lot of people think, you know, Christians don't have to pay for TV time, because we're on a Christian television station. Don't you believe it? TV time is expensive, and we need, of course, financial help to stay on the air. Okay, back to Ephesians chapter 1, verse 4, and we ended with the concept that we were chosen in Christ, in that position that we now enjoy in the heavenlies. It was not a surprise to God when we were saved. He immediately said, Oh, I knew that from eternity past. And He already, as we will see in the next verse or two, we come to predestination. It isn't that we were predestinated to salvation or hell, but rather to this position that we enjoy in Christ. All right, so let's look at verse 4 again. Ephesians 1.4 "...according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy." Now that word holy doesn't mean that we stick our nose in the air, and that we're better than everybody else, and that we are sanctimoniously pharisaical perfect. But it just simply means that God has set us apart for His own purposes. That's what the holy word holy means. You want to remember, even back in the temple worship, the utensils that were used, like the shovels to take out the ashes and stuff, they were holy. Well, what did it mean? They couldn't be used for any other purpose. In other words, the priest couldn't say, Well, I'm going to take the shovel home tonight, fellas. My fireplace needs cleaning. Oh no, that would never work, because those utensils were holy, and were set apart only for God's purposes. All right, now that's where we are. We, so far as God is concerned, have been set aside, and we are intrinsically in His program to be used as He sees fit, because after all, we are His. So that we should be holy, or set apart, and without blame before Him. Wow! Without blame, and every one of us are sinners saved by grace, but we still have the old sin nature in us, and we all still sin. And then He has the audacity to say that we are blameless? Yes. Let me take you back to I Corinthians. I Corinthians, I think it's right off the bat in chapter 1. I Corinthians chapter 1. And remember, the Corinthians were carnal. They were not a spiritual congregation. They were nowhere near understanding Ephesians. They hadn't come that far yet. They had been saved out of abject paganism, and all of its attendant immorality, but to understand this position in the heavenlies? No, the Corinthians hadn't gotten that far. Even the Apostle Paul hasn't mooted that yet. But, what can he write and tell them? I Corinthians 1, starting at verse 6, 7. I Corinthians 1, starting at verse 6, 7. "...even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, by virtue of their salvation, so that you come behind in no gift, while they were waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." See, what was Paul already waiting for? Well, the Rapture. He honestly thought it was going to take place in his lifetime. He had no idea that God would wait almost 2,000 years. So here you are, Corinthians, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, "...who shall also confirm you unto the end." Even these carnal Corinthians, now this is not licensed for sin, but it just goes to show you how far the grace of God will reach down. "...who shall confirm you to the end, that you may be..." What? "...blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." Well, now a lot of people don't like that, but that's what the Word says. Even these Christians who were failing miserably, if the Lord would have come, they wouldn't stand in His presence at the judgment seat of Christ, shaking in their boots and shameful for all their unconfessed sin. They were already under the blood. They were already forgiven, and that's the grace of God. But oh, we can't make license of that, because then I think I have every right in the world to doubt a true salvation experience, because I cannot believe a true born -again child of God will test God's grace to see how far down He can go, and the grace of God is still there. I just can't believe a believer can do that. But if we do, contrary to everything that we want, and we slip and we fall, if the Lord should come and we come into His presence, what are we? Blameless. That's what the Book says. It's not my idea, it's the way God said it. And you'll see this throughout Paul's writings, that we have been cleansed and forgiven, and we are justified from all things by virtue of our faith in that finished work of the cross. Now back to Ephesians 1. We should not only be set apart, but that we can be without blame before Him. How can that be? Because of what Christ has done on our behalf. Not because we merit it, not because we deserve it, but because of His matchless grace. Now I stopped in front of in love purposely, because I think it reads better. That we are without blame before Him. In love, what did He do? He predestinated us. See how that fits? In love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. Now if you'll remember that when we were back, I think in Romans, we had the word adoption, and in Galatians we deal with adoption. And the word adoption in the Greek did not mean to take a child from that union and then legally make him ours. The word adoption in the Greek and in the Roman society was to train that young son of the Father, probably in the attributes of his particular business, so that when he became of age, whatever the Father determined, that child was now tutored and prepared that he could come right up alongside the Father and have full responsibility. That was the right of adoption in the Greek and Roman cultures. Now you put that into our position as believers, the moment we're saved we don't have to go through a whole long period of training and preparation, but immediately where does God position us? Equal with Christ the Son, a joint heir, and that is all by virtue of the grace of God that He has predestinated us to that glorious position of being right with Christ in the body, and in Christ, and in that elevated position in the heavenlies. All right, so He has predestinated us to that position of immediately being placed as the tutored child was with His Father. All right, so we're predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. Now for the average believer this probably puts them to sleep. I got a kick out of my own pastor the other Sunday morning. He's in Romans and he was so apropos. He said, now my sermon this morning, he said, some of you it's going to put you right straight to sleep. Some of you it's going to make mad, and some of you are going to enjoy it and grow from it. Well I'm sure that's almost always the case, and the same way here. Some of these things for the average believer, and he's saved, but he doesn't have a hunger for these deeper things, and so he just nods his head and off he drops to sleep. But if you are really interested in all that God has done on your behalf when Christ died for you and rose from the dead, then these things are exciting. To think that we are positioned with Christ in the heavenlies, and that one day it's going to come to fruition. All right, now that's why I told Roy to leave my stuff on the board. Here we come now, all through this lower level of the elementary things of our sinful estate, and how the Gospel has saved and justified us, how we need that reproof, and we need the correction constantly. But now we jump up into this area where we're going to go into deeper doctrine, into deeper areas of reproof, but oh listen, what's it all coming to? When we can make this final step up, and we get into that which is the glory, and we will no longer be tied to the things of this world, but we're going to be in His presence. We're going to enjoy all the blessings of glory. How does Paul put it? Oh, turn back from me. I like to always compare Scripture with Scripture. Come back with me to Romans chapter 8. Romans 8, verses 17 and 18. It says it better than I ever could. Romans 8, verses 17 and 18. Paul writes, "...and if we're children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs." Now you all know what it means to be a joint heir. That means that what's hers is mine, and what's mine is hers. All right, we're joint heirs with Christ, see? "...if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified." Now that's still coming. That's what we're waiting for. Now look at verse 18. "...for Paul, and he was just as human as you and I, and he can write, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time," and you all know how he suffered as we taught in the Corinthian letters, how they scourged him three times. One usually killed people, but he went through three of them. "...shipwreck, dumped in the Mediterranean or the Aegean Sea, three times, and beaten unmercifully, stoned and dragged out for dead. Suffer, I reckon, and look what he says, that it was nothing to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed." To whom? The angels? No, to us. To us. Oh, we sometimes think God's forgotten about these things. No, He hasn't. It's coming. It's coming. I just told somebody before the class started, they were reminding me that in my programs on the air, I'm back in 1994, 95, and I thought the Lord was coming then. I said, well, it always reminds me of a cartoon I saw some time ago. This old fellow was sitting in front of his cave door, and across the top he had the end is near, but then he added er. In other words, the end is nearer. And so here today the end is a lot nearer than it was when I taught those lessons back in 95, 96. But whatever, don't give up. God is on the throne, it is still going to happen, and we just keep getting closer and closer with every passing day. Now then, verse 5 reading on. So we have been adopted according to the good pleasure of His will. Remember what Paul said about his apostleship? Turn back to the very first verse. How did Paul become an apostle? Not by his will, but by God's will. How did we become a child of God? Not by our will, but by God's will. Now that doesn't take away our free choice, because again we have to constantly remember. I think it's back in John's Gospel. No one cometh unto the Father except the Spirit draw him. Let me show you another one that's one of my favorites. Come back to Acts chapter 16. You've seen me use this verse over and over on the program, because it says it all. And it's still appropriate in the light of Ephesians that we have come into this glorious position in the heavenlies by His will. It wasn't my idea, but He made the first move, and I responded. Maybe not as quickly as I should have, and I think we're all in the same boat. We didn't respond when God began to woo us, but thank God at least we finally did. Now in Acts chapter 16, they're up there in Philippi, up in northern Greece. Verse 14, And a certain woman, named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, who worshipped God, but she heard us, whose heart the Lord opened. When the Lord opened her heart, what did she do? She attended to the things that were spoken by Paul. Now do you see the format? Here she is, a religious lady to be sure, but lost. And along comes the Apostle Paul and begins to explain to her the work of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. God opened her heart, but what did she do? She listened and responded. Now I think that's the perfect scriptural explanation of how salvation works. God opens the heart, but He doesn't force His way in. He opens our understanding, but He doesn't force us, and He leaves it with us. We can choose or reject. I got a kick out of a letter from somebody from television, and it was almost identical with an illustration that I've used in years gone by. I don't know if I ever have on the program, but I used to use the illustration, and this individual used almost the same thing, almost word for word. I said, do you remember when we were kids? I don't know whether they do anymore, but when I was a kid, we lived for recess, because during that 15 or 20 minutes of recess, I loved to play ball. That's all I went to school for, was to play ball. And so as soon as we get on the play yard, somebody would always have the bat and ball, and we would just literally put out a call across the room, saying, Come on, we're going to have a ball game. Well some of the kids would go to the merry-go-round, some would go to the swings, but for those that came over to the ball diamond, we would hurry up and choose up sides, and we could have a ball game for the next 15 or 20 minutes. All right, now I've made this analogy. When we went out down to the ball diamond, and we literally yelled at all the kids, Come on, we're going to have a ball game, what were we doing? We were putting out the call. But of those that came down to the ball diamond and got chosen, they were chosen. You see the difference? And this person used the same analogy. The call went out to the whole playground, but only those who responded ended up chosen to play ball. And I think it's still a good and appropriate illustration of this very concept here of Lydia. The Lord opened her heart. In other words, the Lord says, Come on, Lydia. She could have done what? She could have said, No, I'm not interested. But she attended or listened to and acted on the things that were spoken by Paul. And it hasn't changed one iota. And it's just like I said in the last program. So over here, yes, we still have that option of responding to or rejecting the offer of salvation. But over here, God knew from eternity past what we would do. And so when we responded, just like with Lydia, you know what I think? The Lord shouted across all of heaven when Lydia responded. I knew she would. I knew she would. It wasn't catching him by surprise. And so this is exactly, I think, what we have up here in Ephesians. Alright, now let's come back to Ephesians 1. And so He has placed us in this position of joint heirs with Christ according to the good pleasure of His will. And now down to verse 6. To the praise of the glory of what? His grace. See? Now I guess if I have trumpeted any one word in the years now that we've been doing this program, it's that word, grace. We deserve none of this. We deserve nothing in this world. But what we have and what we enjoy, whether it's spiritual, whether it's material, or whether it's physical, it's all by the grace of God. I don't deserve it, and I don't think you do. But oh, it's by His grace that we are accepted in the Beloved. There's that prepositional phrase again. What does it mean to be in the Beloved? In Christ. Why am I in Christ? Why are you in Christ? By His grace. See, He could have let us slip out into an eternity lost and without hope, but by His grace, He presented us with the plan of salvation, and we've responded. And here we are now then, positionally accepted in the Beloved. All right, now another verse comes to mind. Turn to the right to Colossians. We've used these verses a long, long time ago, but let's use them again for just a moment. Colossians chapter 3. Now this is another one of these prison epistles. This is still up in this second step up, where Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and of course the Colossians had problems too. They were going into Gnosticism, and they were trying to enter into the realms of angelic beings and so forth. And so Colossians had to correct them and bring them back online. But oh, look at chapter 3, starting at verse 1. Colossians 3. If you then be risen with Christ, in other words, you have experienced His death, burial, and resurrection by faith. If you have gone through that, then seek those things which are above, because they become now by far more important. Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Verse 2. Set your affection on things above, and not on things on the earth. Does that ring a bell with what Jesus said back in the Gospels? What did He say? Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven, and then all these things can be added. Now there�s nothing wrong with things, providing our priorities are right. Now if things are more important than spiritual, then it�s wrong. But if you have your spiritual priorities where they belong, and then all these things have been added, so be it. God isn�t tight, but on the other hand, we can�t demand them of Him. But if He is seen fit in grace to bless us with things, there�s nothing wrong as long as they are in the right order of priority. So Colossians chapter 2 says, Set your affection on things above, and not on things on the earth. And here�s why. Now remember who is He writing to? Believers. For you are dead. Wow! I thought I was living. Old Adam is dead, God reckons that old sin nature of you and I as believers as dead, and the life that we have is where? Hid in God and in Christ. Now there is that threefold position of the believer. We are in Christ and in God, and nothing can touch us in that glorious, safe, secure position. Now whenever I talk about something safe and secure like this, I�ve always used the analogy in past programs of the old black walnut. You knock off that outer shell, and then you crack the next shell, and then way down in the middle what do you find? That delicious meat. Alright, you can find this so often that we are positioned in that place of safety. And then what I always have to think of are two analogies in the Old Testament. When the Jews on the night of the Passover were standing at that kitchen table ready to eat the Passover lamb, what was going on around them? The death angel. And the wailing was already sounding across Egypt, but the Jews were safe and secure for one reason. The blood was on the door. Then the next one I always like to use is Noah and his family in the ark. The horrors and the ravages of the flood were just totally demolishing everything on the planet, but Noah and his family were safe and secure because that wooden ark had been lined with pitch. Remember that when we were back there? And pitch in the Hebrew meant atonement. So there they were in the midst of all the horrors of the flood, and they were safe. Israel in the midst of the horrors of the death angel were safe. You and I in the midst of all of the wickedness that's taking place on the earth tonight, we're in Christ and we're what? We're safe. We have nothing to worry about. Paul says, don't worry about he who can destroy the body when he can't destroy the soul. Okay.