Our Great Salvation

It was a lady by the name of Heady Green that has often been viewed as one of the, if not the worst, miser in US history. When she died in 1916, she had a mast of fortune of over $100 million, which in that time was one of the greatest fortunes of the world. But Heady Green was the kind of woman who seemed as though she had nothing. She would, for instance, eat cold oatmeal to save money, to not heat water to pour on her oatmeal. Her son, one time, got an infection in his leg and she looked for so long to find a free clinic that would treat him that the infection got so bad they had to amputate the leg, simply because she was looking for a free clinic. I mean, Heady Green has gone down in history as one of the greatest miser who had a great fortune but did not live by it, did not tap those resources. When I read that story, I thought about how many of us live. The Bible teaches that we have infinite resources in Jesus Christ as Christians. Spiritual resources, we have the Bible says, all we need for life and godliness, we have an entire bank vault, if you will, of spiritual resources. And how many of us go through our lives without really tapping those resources and we live as myzers? Now there is a whole book of the Bible that is designed to let us know what those resources are and how we can tap into them. That book is Paul's letter to the Ephesians. And I would encourage you to find the book of Ephesians in your Bible this morning because that's where we're going to spend some time today, the first few verses of that book. Ephesians has been called the Believer's Bank. The Believer's Bank, it's been called the Treasure House of the Bible because it tells us all that we have in Christ, everything we need to live life as God wants us to live. One seminary professor who wrote a commentary on the book of Ephesians said this about the book, he said, it is pound for pound, the most influential document ever written. He said this, he said, only Psalms, John and Romans have been as instrumental in shaping the life and thought of Christians. And those books are all much longer. It is as though in the book of Ephesians is distilled in concentrated form a beautiful, glorious presentation of all of the riches that we have in Jesus Christ. All that we have available to us in him is found distilled in this little book of six chapters. For that reason Ephesians has been called the Crown and Climax of Paul's Theology, even many feel more glorious than the Book of Romans because it's concentrated in this one little book of six chapters. Now the theme of the book of Ephesians is our great salvation. That's the title of the message this morning. He's the theme of the whole book of Ephesians. You see Paul does not address any burning issue in this book. There's no heresy or false teaching to confront. There's no problems in this church that he's dealing with. The book does not take on an urgent tone or a harsh tone or a hard appeal like some of other Paul's epistles. This book is just a grand and glorious presentation of our great salvation. It describes how that salvation comes. It describes all of the blessings of that salvation. It describes how that salvation is accomplished for us through the death of Christ. It describes how that salvation relates us to God as our Father. It describes how that salvation places us in his body, the church. It describes how that great salvation changes our lives completely and we're to put off the old self and put on the new self. And it describes how that great salvation influences and affects and controls every relationship we live in. Whether it's in the family or at work or wherever it may be. This is a wonderful presentation in this book of our great salvation. And in the first three verses or in the first couple of verses, Paul's opening two verses anticipate the theme of the book. I want you to see how he does that. He actually anticipates what he's going to talk about by the way he introduces himself and his readers in the first two verses. Notice if you will, verse one, where Paul introduces himself. He says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. Now the very way that he introduces himself emphasizes the way that God saved him and the great salvation that he had experienced. He calls himself an apostle. Now an apostle was a rare breed even in New Testament times and apostle was a man that must have been directly, personally, confronted by Jesus Christ and commissioned into a ministry. And that ministry had to involve being one of the foundational leaders of the church in the very beginning of the church, establishing the early days and years of the church. So apostles all passed off the scene in the first century. We don't have any apostles today in the strict biblical sense of the term. But Paul was one of those chosen few men. But the way he was chosen, he says, I didn't become an apostle by my will. This was by the will of God. And we know that what he's referring to is his salvation experience because that's also the time where God called him to be an apostle. It was a very rare thing that God would save him and actually tell him what he was going to do at the same time. But that's the way he describes it in Acts 9. We won't turn there, but just let me refresh the story for you for a moment. In Acts 9, Paul describes that here he is before he was saved, before he knew Jesus, he's going down to the Syrian capital of Damascus to do what he does best. And what he does best at that point in his life is to persecute the church of Jesus Christ. And he's going to find as many Christians as he can, arrest him, throw them in prison, hopefully some of them will be killed. That's his goal in life. And as he's on his way to Damascus to carry out that terrible deed, the Bible says suddenly a light shone from heaven and a voice spoke from heaven. And that voice said Saul, which was Paul's name before he was saved, Saul, why do you persecute me? And he would tell us later in his testimony in Acts 22 that that voice went on to say, it's hard for you to kick against the goats, the pricks, the conviction that is in your heart. But the very next thing the book of Acts describes is God telling him, now go into the next city and there I will tell you what I want you to do. I'm going to lay out your life's work for you. I'm going to call you to be an apostle. So what he's saying is when I was going to Damascus, it wasn't like I was kind of riding along and thinking about my career and all of a sudden I thought, becoming a Christian and being an apostle would be a wise career move for me at this stage in my life. That's not the way it happened. This was not by my will. I was made an apostle by the will of God. When God saved me, he threw me into the ministry. That was the way Paul got saved. And so Paul and describing himself talks about our great salvation. But also in introducing his readers, mentions our great salvation as well. Look at who he's riding to in verse 1. To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus. Now the way he describes his readers also anticipates the theme of the book which is our great salvation. First of all he calls them saints. No word in the English language which is used in religious context has suffered more than the word saints. You open up a dictionary. Even the dictionary writers are confused about this word. If you open up a dictionary, the dictionary will tell you this. A saint is a person who is an officially recognized for holiness of life. Officially recognized for holiness of life. You know what they're talking about? They're saying that some religious body after that person of notable Christian character died, some religious body decided to go back over their life and study to make sure they were really without reproach and above everybody else. And by the way they also have to be shown to have performed at least two miracles. And then this religious body will canonize them, will declare them to be a saint. And the idea is they are above anybody else and you can even pray to them for help. There is nothing like that in the Bible. In the Bible the word saint is simply a Christian. If you know Jesus as your Savior you are a saint. Now some of you don't think your saints, a lot of you don't look like saints, but you are. If you're saved you are a saint. Now the word saint simply means one set apart and the whole idea has to do with our salvation. He's talking about the fact that when God saved us he took us out of a life of sin that was headed toward an eternal destruction and death and was living under the grasp of Satan. He took us and set us apart from all of that and placed us in his family, in his kingdom, gave us eternal life and made us his child. That means we were set apart from something to something. That's what a saint is. He's simply someone who's set apart. So let's talk about our salvation and then secondly he calls them the faithful. He says that these people and Ephesus are the faithful in Christ Jesus. Now the faithful simply means those who are living out their salvation, they're faithful to Christ. Now he doesn't describe how much they're faithful or whether or not they ever kind of hedge on that faithfulness but the idea is when you are one of the saints, when you are truly saved it'll do something to show up in your life somewhere. There will be some evidence, some degree of faithfulness to Christ, some evidence in your life that you're truly one of his. So he describes them from God's point of view as being a saint, from man's point of view as being faithful. It's description again of their salvation. And then he uses that wonderful term. They are faithful in Christ Jesus. So the third way he describes them also talks about their salvation. They're in Christ Jesus. That's a wonderful rich term in Paul's writings especially. Paul uses the term or a term some term like it 164 times in his 13 letters. In Christ, in the Lord, in Christ Jesus. Some form of that description. You know what it means? It simply means that if you know Jesus as your Savior, if you're part of the family of God, when God looks at you, He sees you as being identified so closely with Jesus' death, burial, resurrection, and new life that the only way He can describe it as you are in Christ. When He sees you, He really sees Christ and you are in Him. That's how closely God has identified you when you trusted Christ with Jesus' death. The way God looks at it, when Jesus died, you died too, to your old life, if you've trusted Jesus as your Savior. When Jesus was resurrected from the grave, you were raised with Him. That's the way God sees you. When Jesus is resurrected to a new life, you also have that same new life. The best way to describe it is you're just in Christ. That's the way God sees you. What a wonderful description of our salvation. So even as He opens this book, describing Himself, describing His readers, He's talking about our great salvation. And then in verse two, He describes the process of our great salvation, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Two great elements of our salvation, grace and peace. And Paul uses them as a greeting. But this is a distinctly Christian greeting. This is God's kindness and love, even when we didn't deserve it. That God took the first step and said, even though you don't deserve anything of heaven or any of my blessings, I will reach out to give you what you cannot earn on your own. That's God's grace. It's His love and kindness to us in Christ. And when you understand that and realize that you can only be saved, you can only be rescued from a life of sin, despair and helplessness through the cross of Christ. When you recognize that and you place your faith in Jesus to save you and get you to heaven, the Bible says you have peace. Because following grace comes peace. When you receive the grace of God in salvation, you have the peace that comes with that. It's peace with God. You're no longer His enemy. There's no longer any hostility or warfare between you. You're now in His family. There's peace with God. So Paul says, I want to greet you in salvation terms, grace and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. So the very way he opens the book talks about our great salvation. And then in verse three, even that verse anticipates the theme of the book. In verse three, he introduces the blessings of salvation and the theme of the book. The whole theme of the book and the blessings of salvation he's going to talk about in the rest of chapter one are introduced in verse three. Let's look at verse three. 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. Now with that statement, he introduces all of the spiritual blessings he's going to talk about in verses four through fourteen. And there are a bunch of them. I mean, this is just like the entrance way into the bank vault of all the riches and storehouse of all the blessings that God has for us. He's going to describe some of them in verses four through fourteen. But the way he introduces them is a wonderful introduction to the book. These blessings are described in verse three as being spiritual blessings. But God doesn't necessarily promise that you will have material prosperity or physical health. You see, a lot of people get this mixed up and they think that what God has promised us in Christ is that we'll be healthy and wealthy. God has not promised you that. Now there are some old testament promises to his covenant people, Israel, that had physical manifestations to them. God said to Israel, if you stay under my covenant and you're obedient to me, I'll give you reins when you need them, your crops will prosper, your animals will be healthy. In fact, I'll keep you from having the diseases of the nations around you. So yeah, there was wealth and health promise to Israel. And a lot of the health and wealth preachers today go back to those Old Testament promises and misapply them. They're not designed for us today in the church. Since the cross of Christ, there are no such promises like that to us. We are not Israel. We are not God's covenant people. The Bible prophets commissioner, he told us, at the end, they're fertile. They were grandma and brothers who promised a particular land and the blessings, physical blessings that go along with that land. Where his spiritual people, his body, his church, his family, and the blessings he promises to us are spiritual in nature. And we're going to see what they are as we go along. heavenly realms is going to come up several times in the book of Ephesians. It's probably good for us to do a little bit of talking about it right now before we jump any further into the book. It's a confusing term to many people. What some people think this term means is it's talking about heaven where we're going to go when we die if we know Christ. No, it's not talking about that. If it were, what Paul would be saying was all these spiritual blessings we get in the sweet by and by, you know, someday when we get to heaven. But no, he's talking about we've already been blessed with all these and we can tap into them now in this heavenly realm. So what is this heavenly realm that he's talking about? Well, you see, we have to understand that we live in a realm, a physical realm, on this world, that we can see and touch and feel and taste our senses can interact with. But if you know Jesus, you also are very much aware there is another realm that exists right alongside this physical realm. It's the spiritual realm. Paul speaks of it as the heavenly realm. It's the realm where we interact with God and with spiritual things. It's the realm in which we pray and tap into the strength and the power that God offers us. It's the realm in which we get on our knees and do spiritual warfare for our families and souls that without Christ. And we do battle with spiritual forces. Paul will talk about those spiritual forces in the heavenly realms in chapter six of this book. It has to do with heavenly things, but as they are tapped into by us in this physical world, it's the realm in which we commune with God, which we sense God prompting us by his spirit, where we interact with him, and we pray, and we worship, and we sense that God is moving. That's a spiritual realm that is every bit as real as the physical world we interact with. And you can only live in this physical realm to the fullest of your capability if you are tapping into and drawing from that heavenly realm, that spiritual realm. Because it is your position in Christ and all the blessings that he offers you in that heavenly realm that give you the authority to live as a child of God with his power and joy and peace in this physical realm. You see how it works? Let me illustrate it this way. The President of the United States is the only person in this country who is authorized to sit in the Oval Office as his office. Now guests come in and interact with him, but he is the only one that sits behind that desk. That office and that desk are a symbol of his authority as the President of the United States. And because he is seated there, because he resides in that office, then wherever he is interacting with people in this world, he carries with him the authority of that office. If he's throwing out the first pitch at a baseball game in Cincinnati, he has the authority of the President of the United States. He carries with him the authority of that office because that's where he's seated. If he's opening a children's home in Tulsa or if he's speaking at a fundraiser in Los Angeles, no matter where he is, he carries with him the office, the authority of that office. He's the only one entitled to be seated behind that desk. Now in a very real sense, God has done that for you when you get saved. Chapter two of this book will tell us that we are seated in the heavenly places. He's talking about the fact when you get saved, you are given the authority of a child of God, a son or daughter of God. You have spiritual authority to tap into the resources just like no matter where the President is. If there is a crisis, he can immediately call to his disposal all the authority of his office, which includes Air Force One, Social Security. Secret service and everything else that is offered to him. He'll get that someday too. Hopefully if it doesn't run out before we all get that old, right? Everything that he can call upon is at his disposal because of who he is. Because of who you are, a child and daughter of Christ, you have the authority to live in this earthly realm, drawing on the resources of the heavenly realm, because of who you are seated in the heavenly's in Christ. So it's a wonderful description of our salvation and of these spiritual blessings that he gives us. And then he adds that these spiritual blessings are in Christ, that term again, already appearing for the second time in this book. Everything we have is because of Jesus and because we are in Him. We are placed in Him. What a wonderful introduction to this book. Now we're ready to jump in to verses four through fourteen. We're just going to look at the first three verses today because in this passage that describes the blessings that God's given us, the rich spiritual storehouse that God has in store for us, there are blessings that cover the past, there are blessings that cover the present, there are blessings that cover the future. And the blessings that cover the past have to do with the things that the Father gives us. The blessings we experience in the present have to do with what the Son has given us. And the blessings for the future, He describes as blessings the Holy Spirit gives us. So the whole Trinity is involved. All of our past present future is involved. This is a wonderful description of the spiritual resources, the storehouse of blessings we have in Christ. This morning I'd just like to take a brief look at the first three of those blessings that come to us from the Father. The first is the blessing of election. Now there I woke you up didn't I? Election. You mean John you're going to talk about election? Yeah we are because the Bible talks about it and so we must talk about it and unashamedly declare what the Bible teaches about election. Now here's here's what the Bible says. In fact verse four says it very plainly for he chose us in him before the creation of the world. Now there's more to the verse and we'll get to that in the moment but I want to start with the fact of election. Simply the stated fact that God chose us a simple plain statement that God chose us before the foundation of the world and the surrounding context tells us for instance at the end of verse four that this was done in love and verse five it was done by his pleasure and his will and verse 11 in him we were also chosen having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will. So this election is by God's plan it's motivated by his love it's according to his will and pleasure that simply means it is it is solely of God I didn't have anything to do with it. It was not because of anything I did or anything God saw in me that he chose me he just simply chose me and he chose you too if you know Christ is your savior. Now I know that that can be a little scary and I want to say more about that in a moment but please first of all please understand this is not some cold arbitrary choice this is not God standing in heaven say okay I got everybody lined up in the human race I'll take number 242 over here I'll take number 536 over here I'll take oh boy this is get this thing done. No it's not that at all this is motivated by the heart of God to rescue us from the course on which we were headed and the destiny toward which we were headed. God in his love chose us I don't fully understand that I just believe it and this is not some isolated doctrine Paul talks about this in four separate chapters of Romans he talks about it in Colossians 1st Thessalonians 2nd Thessalonians Titus Jesus talks about it in John 6 and John 15 Peter talks about it in 1st Peter 2 I mean this is all through the New Testament the fact that God chose us before the foundation of the world before the creation of the world and that ought to that ought to cause us to rejoice and have a sense of praise and adoration for our great God who loved us that much to rescue us from the way the whole human race was headed toward destruction. Do you remember guys how it felt when you were growing up and you got chosen to be on the baseball team or the basketball team remember how that felt how good that made you feel how warmed up made you feel that's the way God's choice of us ought to make us feel. Ladies do you remember when you were growing up some of you are still that age some of you haven't gotten that old yet but that young man of your dreams chose you of all the choices that chose you to be his bride do you remember that I mean I can remember that I can remember when Jeanne chose me I'm serious this is the way it happened I went to Pete Montbredel College as I've said before I'm in Pete Montbredel College and and when I went back in 1970 they they didn't allow you to date the first six weeks I mean it wouldn't allow incoming freshman to date at all I think I don't know why I must have something to do with they want you to focus on studies or something I guess that's the reason why you're there so they wouldn't let you date I don't think they have that rule anymore but us guys were okay with that because it gave us six weeks to scout the field you know to look around and see who's available well I'll never forget the first time I saw Jeanne walk across the campus I was smitten I mean I I just knew I just knew I got to date Jeanne Kelly but you know what I had to wait in line for whole semester there was a guy that she had dated her first year in college and they had come close to getting engaged over the summer and they were still dating and I was praying so hard Lord make him make him a wretch help him to be terrible miserable so you know she'll dump him and that happened and she wouldn't like him today anyways bald no I'm sorry sorry but I I seriously had to wait in line and there were three other guys one of most my roommate they were real good friends and they would go out from time to time and finally right before the end of first semester I mustered up the courage to talk with her and ask her if I could call her over Christmas break and I did I called her she was in New York at home and I was here in Princeton and and I called her and we just talked and came back for second semester and I I asked her out on the date and you know what amazing thing yes you accepted and I'll never forget the feeling of that first date and then as we continued to date and God began to bond our hearts together and and but of all those guys the fact that she would finally say I'm gonna choose John King that was just amazing to me you know I I'll never forget how I felt that second semester it being her choice you know that's the way this ought to affect us it ought to strip of all pride and all feeling like we had something to do with our salvation he chose us before the foundation of the world before the creation of the world now I want to say just something a little little something here quickly about the the controversy of election I'm aware this is very controversial but I do not believe the Bible teaches election as a fatalism or a determinism that does away with our responsibility the Bible is very clear that we are responsible to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior we are responsible to be reconciled the God the Bible says there is a response that we are to have to the gospel so you say well wait a second John how does that work out if God chose us and then we're responsible to choose him how does that I don't know and nobody else does either only God does I'll guarantee you this because I've seen it happen over and over again you try to reconcile those two things you'll end up dumping either one or the other of those two biblical truths and you'll get off balanced this is something that even though I can't logically explain I just believe because the Bible teaches God chose me the Bible also teaches there was a point where I responded to the gospel and I believed in Jesus as my Savior I don't know how the two of those work out together but I know they in God's mind do and let's just leave the understanding of that up to him let me say this and this may be the most important thing I say about this topic today the Bible never tells anyone to try to figure out whether or not they're elect or chosen the Bible says the question you ought to be asking my friend if you're here this morning and you're not sure you're saved the question you need to be asking is have I ever trusted put my whole confidence in Jesus Christ as my Savior that's the question you need to ask if you've never done that you can do that today and you will be saved but let me quickly say something about the purpose of election the end of verse four notice what he says there he says he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight that's the purpose for which God chose us salvation is not just getting a spire escape from hell salvation radically changes our lives so that we are chosen the very purpose for which he chose us was so that we might be holy and we might be blameless now holy is the negative side of the coin blameless is the positive side of the coin let me explain it this way the word holy actually comes from the same Greek word as the word saint it means to be set apart means to be separated from to be separated from this world and it doesn't mean to isolate yourself from the world it means that as you live in this world in close contact with everybody in this world you don't buy into the system you don't buy into the system of materialism you don't buy into the system of moral compromise and immorality the world's view of human relationships that's constantly thrown at us through the media you don't buy into that it means you don't buy in to the philosophy of status and acclaim being what your ambition is in life the Bible calls those three things the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes the pride of life and John says in first John 2 that's all that's in the world now separation from the world means you don't buy into that system doesn't mean you you refrain from everything and everybody and isolate yourselves it means you don't buy into that system you don't live that way that is holiness holiness doesn't mean you have to wear your hair a certain way or whatever holiness means you don't buy into that system of materialism and a public acclaim and promoting yourself and immorality you don't buy into that system you don't live with that philosophy that's what separation is that's what holiness is blamelessness is the positive side of it blameless means it's actually a word used for sacrifices in the New Testament it means up a sacrifice that is unpoluted unblemished and is offered to God it means just a life that is pleasing to him a life that honors him that glorifies him that's blamelessness and you know that means simply that we shouldn't settle for spiritual mediocrity none of us has Christians to say well I'm only human I can't really help it you know we're all centers no the Bible says you were chosen for more than that you were saved for more than that if your life is characterized by a pattern of conscious sin you're not living up to what you were chosen to be if you're if your whole life is characterized by being a materialist and all you think about is close and cars and houses and creature comforts you're not living up to what you were chosen to be if your life is really lived out as a sensualist if your mind is a 24 hour R rated feature you're not living up to what you were created to be and chosen to be in Christ so the Bible teaches we were chosen to be holy and blameless that's the purpose of it now let me move on to adoption the blessing of election is great the blessing of adoption is wonderful look at verse five he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will the meaning of adoption is very clear in the new testament now we understand the meaning of adoption in human families in human families you're either born into a family or you're adopted into a family you can't have both obviously you're either born biologically into your family the result of the union of your union of your mother and father biological process or you are chosen adopted and brought into a family as a maybe a young child a baby or even an older child but in God's family both are true both are descriptions of how we get into God's family the Bible teaches we are born into God's family and in that new birth that spiritual birth we receive the divine nature we're partakers of the divine nature according to second Peter one four we are we actually are born into his family made one of his children but we're also adopted into the family because adoption means something totally different in the new testament adoption is more the Roman custom of the day which was if you didn't have any errors to leave your inheritance to you could adopt someone and they immediately became fully adult legal errors of yours and all your inheritance would go to them in the new testament adoption has to do with inheritance and so in God's family we are born into his family but we are also the moment we're born into his family placed into his family as fully adult legal children that are heirs to everything God has all of the spiritual resources are ours that's the meaning of adoption the motive of adoption quite clear in verse five to end of verse four actually the sentence begins in love he predestined us the end of the verse it was in accordance with his pleasure and will you know what that means because God loved you and wanted you he adopted you into his family comes out of God's love and out of his pleasure he loves you he wants you his will is to have you in his family that's how much you are wanted by the holy God of the universe if you have problems with self-esteem dwell on that verse for a while and it'll blow it away to realize that God loved you so much and wanted you so much more than your human parents could ever want you God wanted you so much his pleasure and his will were I want you in my family that he placed you as a full legal air of his and the inheritance you have is rich indeed that's the motive for adoption but the method of adoption he says is through Christ Jesus through Jesus Christ there in verse five it is only his work on the cross and our faith in him which causes us to be adopted into his family adoption is a rich truth and to illustrate it a little more fully this morning we're gonna have some of our drama team come and illustrate for you what what it really means to be adopted using a human illustration to give across a spiritual truth Allison I wanted to oh I see you packed a suitcase yeah but don't worry I'm only taking what I brought with me hmm you know if you really wanted to go you could take anything here with you it's all yours we got this just for you you let me take your stuff but why the parkers said but we're not the parkers or the Davidson's or your at-market or anyone else you've ever lived with even if I'm not coming back why wouldn't you come back Allison I know you're upset about what happened at school today but that's why I came in here to talk about it you mean you don't know well I heard something about a fight but that's just one side of the story I learned a long time ago there are two sides to every story so I want to hear your side well since I've come here I've tried to do everything fast yes I know I appreciate that I've studied hard and I've tried not to make any problems at school I know I'm proud of how well you're doing but tell me what happened as best you can well all my studying still didn't help today I felt Mr. Jared's math test and I ran it at Danny in the hall well I was talking to him about how hard math test was in this girl Andrea comes up and starts saying how easy the test was now stupid I was to fail it that I must not have any brains at all and then she said how could Danny stand to have such a stupid sister that it must be because I'm adopted so I guess I kind of lost my temper and I just hit her Danny tried to stop me but I sort of hit him too and that's the worst part and I know you can't have a daughter that does stuff like that so I I so you packed your things so I could take you back to children services do you really want to go have another foster home that's good I thought there for a minute that maybe you didn't like us anymore Allison let me try and explain something to you do you think you have to get good grades and never get into trouble to be able to stay here with us I don't know Danny gets good grades and he never gets in trouble you're not Danny and Danny's not you of course I want you to do your best and to not get into any trouble but that has nothing to do with you're being able to stay in our family remember when we came home that day from the courthouse and what we talked about yeah I guess it just all seems too good to be true I know how you feel I felt that way myself sometimes but it really is okay to believe it mom me Danny we chose you we wanted you to come here and live with us forever from the day you came home with us until the day you die you will always be my daughter nothing can ever change that nothing do you understand that but I really messed up and now everyone will think that I don't care what everyone thinks I'm proud of you Allison no matter what we are a family and you are my daughter got that how always be your daughter always thanks for illustrating on a very human level just a little bit of what it means to be adopted into the family of God even when you mess up you're still as child you are fully placed as a legal heir of Jesus Christ and you can never lose that position you have in his family you're born into the family and you're adopted into his family there's one other blessing that he tells us about in this passage however we'll just take a glimpse at it the blessing of grace look at verse six Paul says the result of all of this is verse six to the praise of his glorious grace which he has freely given us in the one he loves notice if you will the bounty of grace he calls it glorious grace glorious means it shines in all of its beauty and grandeur and greatness the beauty of grace is God's kindness and love and desire to embrace us and desire to have us in his family and save us even when we don't deserve it it's the judge of the universe asking the worst criminal to come home and eat dinner at my house and be a part of my family that's grace we didn't deserve it but God's glorious beautiful grace offered that to us I'm a kind of a fan of Dennis the Minnes I kind of like Dennis the Minnes and there's a cartoon I saw one time where Dennis and Joey his friend are walking home from the Wilson's house or remember mr. Wilson was the guy who ended up being on most of the bad pranks and things that Dennis did and just pulled his hair out at Dennis the Minnes well they're walking back Dennis and Joey are from the Wilson's house one day and their hands are full of cookies and Joey's looking up at Dennis saying what do you think we did to deserve this and the next frame has Dennis saying listen Joey don't you understand Mrs. Wilson gives us cookies not because we're nice but because she's nice there's a lot of good theology in that little cartoon you could put my name and Dennis's name you could put God's name in place of Mrs. Wilson's name we get good things from God not because we're good but because he's good that's grace the beauty of grace but notice if you will the bounty of grace it is freely given it's another word for grace it actually comes from the same Greek word for grace it literally reads he has freely given us or he has graced us with his grace the idea is the overflowing bounty of grace it will never stop if you ever think God's grace runs out and finally he says okay I have enough of you no it never runs out the bounty of grace and then the beloved of grace this grace comes in the one he loves notice one is capitalized it's talking about Jesus talking about Jesus Christ it's the same term that's used in the gospels where God the Father speaks of this is my beloved son the one on whom my special love rests it's through Jesus you see my friend that we all have the great blessings that we have in Christ to be chosen to be in his family to be adopted into his family to be the recipient of his beautiful bountiful grace all of that comes through Jesus and you and you and you all of us here this morning can be the recipients can tap into the resources of those blessings if we know Jesus as our Savior do you know him today would you bow with me in prayer father I thank you for how blessed we are by your bountiful grace and your wonderful adoption and your wise unsearchable unknowable choice thank you Father that you loved us so much that you wanted us that much to be a part of your family oh God I pray that you would help us to revel in the the riches of what you've given us in Christ and if there's anyone here this morning who's never trusted Jesus I pray that today they will become a part of your family through faith in your son we ask it in his name amen