“Big Words – Sanctification” – Rom. 6:15-23

I once read the true story of a duke named Raynald III, who lived during the fourteenth century.
Raynald III had lived a life of indulgence and was extremely overweight. In fact, he was commonly called by his Latin nickname, Crassus, which means "fat."

After a violent quarrel, Raynald's younger brother, Edward, led a successful revolt against him. Edward captured Raynald but did not kill him. Instead he built a room around him in the Nieuwkerk Castle and promised him he could regain his freedom as soon as he was able to leave the room.

This wouldn't have been difficult for most people since the room had several windows and a door of near-normal size, and none was locked or barred. The problem was Raynald's size. To regain his freedom, he needed to lose weight. But Edward knew his older brother, and each day he sent him a variety of delicious foods. Instead of dieting his way to freedom, Raynald grew fatter. He stayed in the room for ten years, till his brother died in battle. But by then his health was so ruined that he died within a year -- a prisoner of his own appetite.

Sometimes I feel like I can relate to Raynald when I eat at Dos Chiles.  You know what I mean?  I’m glad they have double doors when I’m ready to be rolled out of there!  But maybe I’m not the only one that can relate to Raynald in another way.  Sometimes I have felt like I am a prisoner to my “pet sin” when I just keep doing what I don’t want to do or I don’t do what I know I should.

I know the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”  But sometimes I feel like I just can’t fit through that way out; that door of escape.  I know I’m not the only one to ever feel that way and if you ever feel that way it may help to know that even the Apostle Paul – who wrote those words in 1 Corinthians - also wrote, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”  Romans 7:15

So, how in the world do we ever escape that prison of sin?  How do we get away from doing what we don’t want to do and start doing what God does want us to do?  We know that there are blessings of obedience and consequences of disobedience but sometimes – let’s be honest – it’s not enough.  It’s obviously not enough because we all still sin, right?

We want to do what is right but we fail and it’s not God’s fault for not making the benefits of obedience great enough.  It is our own fault and will continue to be until this process of sanctification is complete.  “Sanctification” is the big word of the day and is the last big word we will look at, at least in this series of sermons through the book of Romans.  We have defined, more or less, some other big words like justification, predestination, redemption and propitiation and it has been wonderful to see in defining these words what God has done for us through His Son Jesus.

It has been great to see what the Gospel, the Good News, means to us in that we see that because Jesus was the propitiation, the correct sacrifice for our sins, we are redeemed and justified.  We are no longer guilty.  We no longer owe a debt to God because He sees no debt if we are the elected believers in Jesus Christ.  We don’t have to understand it.  All we have to do is believe and that really is good news!

But now what?  What do we do now?  Wouldn’t it be great if when we trusted Jesus to be our Lord and Savior that we would just be raptured up to Heaven to be with Him right then?  But that was not God’s plan.  His perfect plan included leaving us in this far-from-perfect world surrounded by mean and nasty people including the one looking back at us in the mirror every day.

So, the answer to the question, “What now” and to the question of how to escape the prison of sin is found in our big word of the day and Paul answers those questions in Romans 6:15-23.  In another verse, 1 Thessalonians 4:3 we find that sanctification is God’s will for us so we better find out what it means, huh?  The word sanctification is related to the word saint; both words have to do with holiness. To “sanctify” something is to set it apart for special use; to “sanctify” a person is to make him holy.

But what does it really mean?  What does it look like and how do we become and stay holy or sanctified?  What convent do I have to join or what cave do I have to crawl into to remain sanctified?  I have to admit it doesn’t sound like very much fun.  It doesn’t sound like a situation that I’m going to post as my Facebook status very often.  “LOL!  Being sanctified here in Lake Bridgeport!  Whoop Whoop!  Smiley face!”

Well, maybe it won’t be so bad.  Let’s look at what Paul says about sanctification or holiness in Romans 6:15-23.  “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. ¹⁸ You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.  ¹⁹ I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. ²⁰ When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. ²¹ What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Now, I know how some of you probably feel when reading a long, wordy passage like that from Paul.  The first few times I read that I would get about 2 verses in and it would start going right over my head.  Sometimes I wish Paul could have written Romans and then written Romans Light.  You know, less filling but still tastes great.  But he didn’t so I had to really concentrate but in doing so I uncovered the answer to the question “What now?”

In fact, he even starts out asking, “What then?”  Remember last week when we talked about justification and how it means that we are declared not guilty and that by God’s grace He sees us just like He sees Jesus?  Does that make grace so cheap that we can just sin all we want?  Of course not.  That’s what Paul is continuing with here.

Then Paul starts comparing us to prisoners.  This is just a comparison sort of like my comparison to Raynald III who was a slave to his own desire to eat.  Paul is saying that no matter what we are going to be a slave to something.  It’s like when Jesus said that no man can serve two masters. (Matt. 6:24)  You can’t serve two but you will serve one so let’s make sure we serve the right one.  But how do you know which one is right?  Paul tells us then in verse 19.  One leads to ever-increasing wickedness and one leads to holiness or sanctification.

Now, since today is the last day of the sermon series I am running a special on big words.  We had some left over in the inventory and for today only I am going to throw in two extra big words for the price of one.  That’s right.  But wait there’s more!  I’m going to tell you about two other big words that will help us to know what next and to know how to be sanctified and to know how to break free from the prison of our own sin. 

Are you tired of doing the same wrong thing over and over again?  Do you want to be set apart and different but it just seems so hard here in this life we have to live?  Yea, me too.  So, to help explain sanctification I want to also talk about mortification and vivification.  I told you they were big words.  You are getting a bargain today folks.  We’re stacking ‘em deep and selling ‘em cheap here at Honest Todd’s.  That’s right!

Living a life of sanctification starts with mortification.  Mortification simply means to put to death.  A mortician deals with dead bodies.  Mortification in this sense means that we die to sin.  My Bible dictionary says it is putting to death the deeds of the body.  It is the breaking of cooperation with sin; a hostility toward it; a strong resistance to the evil desires which work in the body and is accomplished in the power of the Holy Spirit. (Wycliffe, p. 1152)  Repeat.

Did you catch that?  I love that part that says it is a hostility toward sin.  Too often we have what I call our “pet sins” and we don’t want to do them.  We feel bad when we do but we also leave room for them.  We know we are going to do them again so we kind of expect it and we know it’s not right but we also know we can ask for forgiveness.  But what does Paul say about that?  “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!

Paul says by no means are we to make room or expect it or provide for it because we have a hostility towards those sins.  Those sins are what held our Lord Jesus on the cross and I will get hostile if those sins come up again.  I am dead to those sins.  I will not do that again.  My Jesus was mortified on the cross FOR those sins and so I, too, will be mortified TO those sins. 

When Jesus rose from the grave He left His grave clothes laying in the tomb.  He made no provision for death to ever be part of Him again and for us to be holy we need to make no provision for sin to be a part of our lives again because of our mortification; our death to sin.  If your pet sin is getting drunk then make no provision for alcohol whatsoever in your life.  Refuse to be around it.  Find another way home if you have to go past the liquor store.  Seeing a liquor store ought to make you mad now because you are mortified to sin as a sanctified believer.

If gossip is your thing then make no provision for the opportunity to gossip.  That very well may mean you don’t hang around certain people anymore because they either give you the gossip or they receive it too easily.  If the computer is your problem, get rid of it.  Jesus said in Matthew 18:9, “And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.”  He is speaking figuratively to make the point that it is better to be dead to sin than dead because of sin.

So, throw that computer in the trash; that bottle in the trash; that trashy mouth in the trash because you can’t be holy and be trashy at the same time.  “But Todd, everybody has a computer and looks at inappropriate websites every now and then.  And everybody has a few drinks or gossips or lies or robs banks or whatever.  Everybody else does it.”

Well, even if that were true, God is telling you, dear one, to be holy.  Be sanctified.  Be different and set apart.  You are mortified; dead as a doornail to sin.  Rigor mortis has set in and the thought of going back to that old way of life now makes you hostile.  Mortification – dying to sin – is the first part of sanctification.  Vivification is the second half.  Vivification means to be alive in Christ.

Now, when I looked up the word “vivification” it said, “One of the changes of assimilation, in which proteid matter which has been transformed, and made a part of the tissue or tissue cells, is endowed with life…”(Wordnik) and I thought “Uh oh, I’ve made a mistake.”  I don’t know what proteid matter is or if I even want it endowed with life but then it went on to say that it also means “the quality of being active or spirited or alive and vigorous”.  That’s what I’m talking about!

I want to be alive and vigorous in Christ.  Jesus said in John 10:10 that He came to give us life and to have a full life.  A life that is full and alive and vigorous is not always an easy life.  Don’t mistake vivification with untroublesome or uncomplicated.  It may not be easy but it is the only way to be holy.  Being in Christ dynamically is the only way you can break free from the burdensome shackle of guilt and shame that comes from being a slave to sin as Paul would say.

In verse 18 Paul says you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.  We are right with God – righteous – when we are vigorously alive in His Son Jesus Christ and mortified to the sin that once enslaved us.  Have you ever been really hungry?  I don’t mean hungry like it’s 12:30 and you usually eat at 12.  I mean have you ever been faint and weak and to the point that all you can think about is food?  You would do anything for some morsel of food.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”  To be alive and vigorous in Christ you have to hunger and thirst for righteousness.  You have to spend time every day in the Word and in prayer.  I tell people all the time that church attendance will not save you but you will never grow as a Christian without it.  You just won’t.  I see it all the time.

People come to me and tearfully ask me to pray for them and help them because they keep sinning.  They keep doing the same thing over and over again and they don’t want to but they feel like they just can’t help it.  They just can’t break free from the slavery to that sin but when it comes down to it, they don’t do the basics of Bible study, prayer and church attendance.  I wish I could tell you of another way.

I wish there was something else we could do to be strong witnesses for God that didn’t include the basic three elements of Bible study, prayer and church but there is not.  So, how hungry are you for righteousness?  How bad do you want to stop struggling with that same old pet sin that brings so much guilt and shame and the consequences?

God doesn’t say that we should be dead to sin.  He says we are dead to sin.  Now we just have to act like it and we can through the power of the Holy Spirit that lives inside each of us if we are true believers.  We have the same power that raised Jesus from the grave to help us avoid sin but we have to do our part.  If we are going to be sanctified or holy, we have to be mortified or dead to sin and we have to be vivified or vigorously alive to Christ.

Does that describe you?  If it does then the temptation to sin should make you hostile and you should run away from it and run to the Word of God.  If that doesn’t describe you then ask Jesus into your life today.  Ask for forgiveness.  Repent of your sins and live free as a slave to God by grace through His Son Jesus. 

“Big Words – Justification” – Romans 4:25-5:2

*Call on somebody to stand before the pulpit*

I have here a record of every sin you have ever committed in your whole life.  It starts with disobeying your parents, lying, stealing, cussing, gossip, slander, lust, idolatry, gluttony and even murder.  Unfortunately, that’s just page one.  It goes on to include every kind of sin imaginable and some I’ve never even heard of but I’ll get to the point.  Today is judgment day and this court needs to know how you plead on these charges.  These are serious charges and the punishment for these crimes is eternal death.  How do you plead?  Guilty or not guilty?

“I’m guilty as charged, sir.”

Then by the power vested in me in this court today I pronounce you…

*Another shouts out*

“Wait!”

Approach the bench.

Approaches and whispers unintelligibly.

I have no choice then but to pronounce you not guilty.  Your sentence has been paid for and the penalty has been paid in full and your record is clear.  You have been justified!  You are free to go.

Can you imagine being in that situation?  Can you imagine being guilty of a crime; caught red-handed and deserving of punishment because of your own bad choices but then at the last second declared not only not guilty but to be declared righteous and free?

On February 11, 2013 Randolph Arledge walked out of a Navarro County, Texas courtroom a free man after having spent 30 years in prison for a murder he did not commit and was only exonerated by DNA evidence that proved another man had committed the crime.  That would be an incredible feeling but some day Arledge is going to have to stand before another Judge for the sins he has committed and the only way he will avoid eternal death is by the saving blood of Jesus Christ.

Romans 3:23 says we are all sinners.  Romans 6:23 says that what we deserve for that sin is eternal death and separation from God and I have told you before that is bad news!  But I don’t want to dwell on the bad news today.  I want to talk about the Good News.  In fact, I want to tell you that there is even more good news in the Good News and that good news is that when we accept Jesus Christ to be our Lord and Savior and give Him all our sin – everything from disobeying our parents to murder, rape, incest, every horrible thing we have ever done – and we exchange that sin for forgiveness, we not only just get forgiveness, we get justification!  That’s really good news.

We continue our look at some big words that the Bible uses mainly in the book of Romans.  So far we have talked about election and predestination – I’m glad we all know exactly how that works now after last week.  We talked about propitiation and how Jesus paid the debt we could not pay and now there is no more debt between us as believers and Holy God.  We talked about redemption and how we have been converted into something of value to God when we accept Jesus to be our substitute.  Today’s big word is justification and it is a big, wonderful and glorious word that simply means to be declared not guilty.  I don’t know about you but being declared not guilty is very good news to me because unlike that Mr. Arledge I deserve to be declared guilty and I deserve eternal death and separation from God in Hell.

Let’s look at short passage of scripture in Romans 4 that will make you smile if you read it and really understand what it means because it is the Gospel, the Good News, but there is good news on top of Good News here,  Let’s read Romans 4:25-5:2.  It’s only 3 verses but it is packed full of good stuff.

Romans 4:25-5:2 says, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.  5 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.”

The word “justified” often has negative connotations today.  Or maybe it’s just me because I heard my mama tell me more times than I care to admit, “Todd Blair (you know you’re in trouble when she uses both names, right?) you can try to justify anything.”  In other words, she saw right through my argument that whatever I did was ok because of such and such circumstances.  But just because I tried to justify something that was wrong didn’t make it right.

The good news on top of the Good News here is that God really can justify anything or more specifically anybody.  Verse 25 says He was delivered over to death.  He was first delivered by the Father to earth and then from one man to another; from Judas to the chief priests then to Pilate and then to the Roman soldiers but none of that happened against His own will.  He ultimately delivered Himself over to death because He was doing the will of the Father.  His life was not taken from Him.  He willingly gave it up.

John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.”  Jesus didn’t die just to be a martyr or a good example or even just for the good of the world.  He died in our place.  All through the Bible the cost of any sin is death.  In the Old Testament they were able to sacrifice animals to cover over the sin by God’s grace but Jesus died to be the sacrifice to take away our sins and that’s the Good News or the Gospel.

But here’s the good news on top of the Good News.  Because Jesus died in our place and there is no longer any debt to be repaid, God the Father sees us just like He sees His Son; blameless, righteous and justified – just as if we had never sinned.  This is not just a pardon for sin.  A pardon would mean that we just didn’t have to pay for our crimes and that would be good news in itself.  But Jesus took the debt away and we, as believers in Him, are declared not guilty because there is nothing to be guilty of.  Boom!  There goes my head blowing up again from trying to take all that in.

While I don’t understand how deep God’s love for us must be that he would do that, I read verse 25 and I believe it.  He was raised to life for our justification.  That tells us what happened.  He (Jesus) was put on the cross to pay for our sins.  He died as the propitiation for our sins as the right and correct sacrifice and He was resurrected so that we (believers) could be declared not guilty of those sins.  Understand it or not; believe it or not; that is what happened.

Now, let’s see how it happened.  Let’s see how this justification takes place.  Let’s look at the verse that has the long list of all the things we have to do and all the things we have to be and all the magazines we have to sell and how much money we have to donate and how many good deeds we have to do to earn this justification.  Do you see it there?  See that verse?  No, you don’t because it’s not there.  Chapter 5 verse 1 simply says that it happens through faith.

Justification – the act of being declared not guilty – happens through faith.  All we have to do is believe.  It goes on to say that we can have peace with God through faith and that is a problem for lots of people.  That’s a problem because for some people that is just too easy.  They can’t believe that we can have peace with God without earning it.  There’s no free lunch.  You have to work for everything you get in this life, right?  Honestly, I think this is not as big of a problem for our generation as it has been for some before us.  Too many people think that society or government is obligated to pick up the slack every time they need something but that’s a sermon for another day.

Still for lots of people they can’t believe that all the joys of Heaven plus joy and peace in this life can be had without doing something to earn it.  So that’s a problem for them and Satan is thrilled with their problem.  It is also a problem for some other people on the other end of the spectrum who think that since now all is cool with God and they can’t earn it they won’t worry about doing anything good in return.  In fact, if you carry that thought out a little further then sin is not that big of a deal either.

If I can’t earn it and all my sin is forgiven and forgotten then this grace is pretty cheap stuff.  Well, Satan is thrilled with that problem as well.  Satan wants you to feel real comfortable with that.  I’ve told you lots of funny stories about my Uncle Bill and what a character he is and always has been.  He is a wonderful, godly man; an evangelist for longer than I have been alive but he hasn’t always been a Christian or even a good person.

In my mom’s vocabulary, he used to be a rounder.  If you don’t know what a rounder is, it’s not a good thing.  But it does make for some good sermon illustrations.  Sometime before Uncle Bill came to know the Lord he was out drinking and partying one night and on the way home he saw a man standing on the street corner so my uncle pulled over, got out and for no good reason except that he was drunk and mean, he punched the guy in the jaw and knocked him down.

He said he hit him hard and he knows he did some damage but he didn’t stick around.  He just drove off.  A year or two later Uncle Bill was working on an oil rig and somehow slipped and fell and broke his ankle.  They took him to the emergency room and when the doctor came in who do you think it was?  The doctor was the man he sucker-punched that night.  My uncle said they both recognized each other immediately too.  You could tell by the look on his face.  Neither said a word.

But that doctor went to work and patched Uncle Bill up and even went above and beyond to make sure the bone was set properly and that he would not be in any more pain than he had to.  It seems like he even gave Uncle Bill a brace or some pain pills or something for free.  He was very professional and never once brought up that horrible night when he had been assaulted.  He was a good doctor and showed great grace and mercy where it was not deserved.

Now, how do you think my uncle felt about that doctor?  Do you think he would see him on the side of the road and punch him again?  Do you think he would ever do or say anything to hurt that man ever again?  Or do you think he would tell all his friends about that great doctor down there at that hospital?  He would never bring up to most people the mean thing he did but he would still sing that man’s praises from now on.  He would forever feel like he was indebted to that man.

When I hear somebody try to make the argument that justification may lead to the cheapening of grace or that they think somebody might take advantage of the situation and say that because they are justified they can do whatever they want – I know that a person like that had never really met Jesus.  A person who would choose to sin and have no remorse is somebody that may believe that Jesus was a good person and maybe even died on the cross but that person doesn’t have a relationship with Him because a relationship with Jesus changes everything!

That’s not me trying to judge someone’s salvation.  That’s just saying that when you really know Who Jesus is and you understand what He did for you on the cross then sin is just as offensive to you as it is to Jesus and when you sin it pains you because you know it pains Him.  I don’t have to tell everybody all the mean and nasty things I have done in my past but I want everybody to know what a great and generous and merciful God we have and it’s not about trying to repay the debt because I know there is no debt.  I just want to make His name famous because I love Him and He loves me.

That brings me right to verse 2, the last verse we are going to look at today because I can’t take any more of this grace.  It’s just too much.  Look at it.  Verse 2 is talking about how we have a relationship with God through His Son Jesus and look what it says, “through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.”

I read that and I say, “No, no, no!”  That’s too much!  I came asking for the doctor to set my broken ankle.  That’s all.  I don’t deserve for him to adopt me and build me a house and make me an heir to His kingdom.  I’ve done too many bad things.  I don’t deserve it.  But this Doctor takes me in and He sees me just like His own son and because of that grace I can boast in the hope of the glory of God!

Psalm 84:11 says, “For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”  We have seen what justification is and how it happened and now we see the result of it.  I can boast in the hope of the glory of God.  I cannot boast in anything I did to earn it because I did nothing but I can boast in what God has done in the past, what He is doing now and what He will do in the future.

I can boast in the hope of the glory of God when good times come and I feel His grace and mercy because they are so obvious but I can also boast about my hope of glory when I can’t feel it because I know it is there because of the faith I have in God through His son Jesus.  If God took His hand of protection and provision off of me today I will still say He is the Great Physician, the Great and Mighty One; to Him be praise and glory forever and I can say that because of what He has done for me tomorrow.

It seems that there was a man in England who put his Rolls-Royce on a boat and went across to Europe to go on a holiday. While he was driving around Europe, something happened to the motor of his car. He cabled the Rolls-Royce people back in England and asked, "I'm having trouble with my car; what do you suggest I do?" Well, the Rolls-Royce people flew a mechanic over! The mechanic repaired the car and flew back to England and left the man to continue his holiday. As you can imagine, the fellow was wondering, "How much is this going to cost me?" So when he got back to England, he wrote the people a letter and asked how much he owed them. He received a letter from the office that read: "Dear Sir: There is no record anywhere in our files that anything ever went wrong with a Rolls-Royce." That is justification.

You may have Edsel faith but we have Rolls-Royce justification and all we have to do is believe.  Have you done that?  Have you accepted Jesus to be your Lord and your Savior and your Great Physician?  Ask Him into your life today and to forgive you of all those mean and nasty sins you have ever committed and then repent or turn away from those sins and when you do the Bible says He is faithful and just to forgive you of all unrighteousness.  Then to top it off He gives you justification.  He declares you not guilty and makes you free.  Do that right now.

“Big Words – Election” – Ephesians 1:1-14

The following series of advertisements reportedly appeared in a daily newspaper:

Monday: "The Rev. A.J. Jones has one color TV set for sale. Telephone 626-1313 after 7 p.m. and ask for Mrs. Donnelley who lives with him, cheap."

Tuesday: "We regret any embarrassment caused to Rev. Jones by a typographical error in yesterday's paper. The ad should have read: 'The Rev. A.J. Jones has one color TV set for sale, cheap...Telephone 626-1313 and ask for Mrs. Donnelley, who lives with him after 7 p.m.'"

Wednesday: "The Rev. A.J. Jones informs us that he has received several annoying telephone calls because of an incorrect ad in yesterday's paper. It should have read: 'The Rev. A.J. Jones has one color TV set for sale, cheap. Telephone 626-1313 after 7 p.m. and ask for Mrs. Donnelley who loves with him.'"

Thursday: "Please take notice that I, the Rev. A.J. Jones, have no color TV set for sale; I have smashed it. Don't call 626-1313 anymore. I have not been carrying on with Mrs. Donnelley. She was, until yesterday, my housekeeper.'"

Friday: "Wanted: a Love in housekeeper. Usual housekeeping duties. Good pay. Rev. A.J. Jones. Telephone 626- 1313.'"

Sometimes no matter what you say or how you say it, you are going to be misunderstood.  Somebody is going to take you out of context or not hear everything you say and they are going to take what they hear and twist it or maybe they just focus on the wrong thing.  Maybe what they focus on is truth but shouldn’t be the point they focus on?  Even now, some of you have no idea what I’m trying to say which is a perfect example of what I’m trying to say.

The Apostle Paul had this problem.  Poor guy is sitting in a Roman jail writing the book of Ephesians to some good friends who are doing good things and he writes them just to encourage them and he has good news.  I think Paul is writing this in a good mood, unlike how he probably wrote to the Corinthians who were really messing up. 

No, Paul starts out this book with good news about how we are blessed as believers in Jesus with all the riches Heaven could offer and we get these things through God’s amazing grace!  What could possibly go wrong with that message, right?  Well, let me illustrate from a time years ago when a young family asked me to join them for lunch at their house after church.  They were thinking about joining the church and wanted to get to know me and the church better so what better way than over some homemade fried chicken and mashed potatoes with all the trimmings?

They had a big family and so when I got there after church the house was just buzzing with activity getting everything ready for lunch.  We finally sat down and asked the blessing and the food was being passed and out of the blue the dad asked me, “So, Todd, where do you stand on election and predestination?”  I thought that was a strange topic of conversation so early in the meal but I answered something along the lines of that I know we have free will and yet I know God chose us because He knew before the earth was created if we would choose Him or not.  Pass the potatoes please.

Well, evidently that was the wrong answer because the whole family just stared at their plates in uncomfortable silence for the longest time.  Conversation was strained the rest of the meal and as soon as it was over they thanked me for coming and I left and I never saw them again. Which is a shame because she was a really good cook.

When I read the first chapter of Ephesians I get happy.  It gives me joy and peace and I just like to read it over and over and just roll around in it and get it all over me and eat it all up!  Taste and see that the Lord is good! (Psalm 34:8)  That’s what I say when I read Ephesians 1.  Do you know what I don’t say?  I don’t say, “Thank the Lord for John Calvin” nor do I say, “God bless Jacobus Arminius.”  But evidently some people do because this great passage and others like it have been mistakenly dividing people into the two camps of Calvinism and Arminianism for way too long.

Calvinism simply says that God chose who will be saved and who goes to Heaven because He is sovereign.  Arminianism simply says that man can choose to be saved or choose to go to Hell.  That is way too simplistic for a discussion that Plato and Aristotle couldn’t figure out nor has the most educated theological scholar of our day.  So sit back and relax and enjoy Paul’s beautiful greeting and encouragement to his friends in Ephesus as we read Ephesians chapter 1, verses 1-14.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: ² Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.³ 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. ⁴ For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. ⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace ⁸ that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, ⁹ he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, ¹⁰ to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. 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, ¹² in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. ¹³ And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

Some of you may have gotten distracted by the fact that the bulletin says we are going to have Romans 9 as our text.  I hope that’s not a problem for anybody.  I am passionate about finding truth in the Bible.  I want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and when I was studying the passage in Romans that talks about election, I came to the conclusion that it was truth but it was speaking specifically about Israel and so I went to Ephesians that is addressed to all of us as “the faithful in Christ Jesus” as Paul starts off.

We are continuing our sermon series entitled, “Big Words” by looking at the word “election” and while that word may not look very big and is commonly used by people today, as we see Paul using it the word is huge.  Election and predestination go hand in hand but are slightly different.  Look at verse 4.  For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  Election simply means here that God has chosen us as His followers to be holy and blameless.  In verse 5 He says we have been predestined or predetermined to be adopted children of the King of Kings.  Does that mean we don’t have free will?  Obviously not.  We are all still held accountable for our choice to either accept or reject Him as our Savior.  Romans 14:12 says that each of us will give an account of ourselves before God.

Spurgeon one time said, “They are two lines, the sovereignty of God and the free moral agency of man,” and he added, “I cannot make them meet, but you cannot make them cross.”  In other words, he couldn’t understand it but that didn’t mean it wasn’t true.

Let me ask you a question.  What color is this paper?  It’s not a trick question.  (Paper is pink on one side and white on the other.)  What color is it?  Pink?  No way!  From my point of view it is obviously white so I’m right and you’re wrong.  That’s a ridiculous thing to say, right?  Now, that’s not a perfect illustration of God’s sovereignty and our free will but it is just as ridiculous to say that since I don’t understand how God can be sovereign and we still have free will then it must not be true.

I told you I want the truth in this life and when I look out the door I see green grass and blue sky but if the Bible says the grass is pink and the sky is white I’m gonna say “Lord, I believe!  Help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24) because I know that God is truth and that I may not understand until I get to Heaven but someday I will understand and that’s just fine with me!

In Genesis 15, God told Abraham he would have a son.  The years dragged on until Abe was 100 years old and his wife was 90 but God’s will was done in the life of Abraham in spite of the laws of nature and age.  In Exodus chapter 3 God spoke to Moses from a burning bush and told him to go get the people of Israel and bring them back.  When Moses protested, God said, “Tell them that the I AM has sent you.”  He didn’t say Mother Nature or the fates have sent him.  God says to do it and He can make the Red Sea part a mile wide to make it happen.  God could have made the Red Sea stand up and bark like a dog if He wanted to because He created the laws of nature so is anything too hard for God?  (Genesis 18:14)

I get great joy and great peace from Isaiah 55:8 that says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.  Oh, thank you, Lord, because I’m not sure I can explain how the paper can be pink and white at the same time much less how you can be sovereign and still give me free will!  Thank you Lord that I don’t have to understand predestination to be predestined.  Thank you Lord that I don’t have to understand how God can be 3-in-1 or how Jesus came back to life after being dead.  All I have to do is believe!

I believe because everything He said in the Old Testament has come true and everything said in the New Testament has been confirmed and everything He has promised in my life has been fulfilled so far so why would I not believe that God is sovereign and yet I still have free will?  Then do you know what happens when we believe?  Oh, go back to Ephesians chapter 1 and now we can finally get to all the good stuff Paul wanted us to know.  The sermon is nearly over.  I better get to it!

What happens when we just believe?  Look again at verse 4.  We are chosen – elected – to be holy and blameless.  Does that describe you?  Well, then you better get to it!  Holy means to be set apart or different and to be used in God’s service.  When we believe, we will not look like everybody else.  We will be different and set apart.  People will be able to see that we are elected.

When we elect a President of the United States, does he continue living in Nebraska or Texas or California where he always has?  No.  He moves into a big, white house in Washington D.C.  He is set apart.  He is different and he always will be for the rest of his life.  He is set apart for the service of the country.  We chose him; we elected him to do that.

What else happens when we believe in Jesus as Lord?  Look at verse 5.  We are predestined to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ.  Then it flows into verses 7-8 where it says that we have the riches of God’s grace lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.  Have you ever been lavished with anything?  “Lavish” means to bestow something in generous or extravagant quantities upon. 

God’s grace is bestowed on us in generous and extravagant quantities!  That’s what happens when we believe.  Jesus is God’s Son but we are adopted to be co-heirs with Jesus to all that God has.  Romans 8:17 says, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” 

Ok, well, now my head is gonna blow up.  It’s gonna explode because I can’t take all that in.  I can’t fathom that because I know who I am and I see Who God is here and it doesn’t make any more sense than predestination and free will!  But I believe!  I believe and God help my unbelief.  God forgive my unbelief.  God forgive me when I forget that I am called to be holy.  Forgive me when I am “holier-than-thou” instead of holy.  Forgive me when I forget that Jesus died for me so the Father could lavish me with all the riches of His grace.

All we have to do is believe. 

Have you done that?  Have you publicly accepted Jesus to be the Lord of your life and asked Him to forgive you of all your sins?  Romans 10:9 says, “If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”  You don’t have to understand everything.  Aren’t you glad of that?  All you have to do is believe.