The Redemptive Work of the Trinity

2:04When it comes to your salvation, when it comes to your redemption in Jesus Christ, everyone in the Godhead has a job. A sweet job. An awesome job that we're going to look at right here this morning. The Apostle Paul is writing in the book of Ephesians. He's writing to a group of people that he knows really well. Unlike the book of Romans, where he's writing to a group of Christians that in all likelihood he's never met before, he's writing to a people he's well acquainted with. As a matter of fact, we don't have time to turn there, but in Acts chapter 20, if you look at Paul, when he's about to leave finally, and he's headed, he says that I don't know where I'm going, and the Holy Spirit only tells me that I have hardship and I'm going to suffer along the way. And he's meeting, he's departing from. This group of elders from Ephesus, whom he's spent all this time with, this church that he's planted, this church that he loves so much that in this departure he wept. There was an emotional departure.

3:12There's a connection that's there. Paul sent his spiritual son, his weas, Timothy, to this church to pastor. He loves these people. When he writes this letter, this book of Ephesians that we have before you, when he writes this letter, it's going to end up being very practical. I mean, you can't get to Ephesians 5 and 6 as parents or as a husband or wife or as an employer or employee and not see that there are serious action steps that Paul is going to give these people when it comes to the implications of the gospel, what it means to live out your faith in our relationships.

3:54But that's not how he starts. He doesn't start with imperatives, with commands. He begins right here in this letter, particularly in verses 3 through 14 that we're going to look at this morning. He begins by telling them who they are and what they have. He loves these people, and he wants to remind them of who they are in Christ and what they have because of the work of Jesus. Look with me here. In verse 3, he says, He says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

4:43He's trying to remind them that God is to be praised, he's to be worshipped because he's given us every spiritual blessing in Christ. Now, notice that he doesn't say, you know, if you really get a sense of that blessing, you should go ahead and praise him. No, he says, even if we don't always feel spiritually blessed, we need to understand that we are. We need to understand what we have in Christ. Paul doesn't want them to miss this.

5:17And so he's going to spell out what these blessings are here in Ephesians chapter 1. He's going to show, he's going to demonstrate what they have in Christ. He's going to demonstrate for them how God has saved us. He's going to demonstrate for them how Christ has redeemed us. And he's going to finally demonstrate how we are sealed in Christ until the day of redemption. Read with me. Let's look first at the work of the Father. Look at verse 4. We see very clear that He has chosen us. He's chosen us. Even as He chooses us, He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. That we should be holy and blameless before him. First thing that we see right off the bat, the first place that he goes, he says, God has chosen you. He's picked you for his team. If you've placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross, know that God was at work before your choice.

6:23And that's a good thing. He chose us. We think about this phrase and we think about this doctrine of election and choosing. And oftentimes, the first thing that we think about maybe is, oh, this brings such divisiveness in the church division. There are people that don't necessarily see it this way, but that's really not how the Bible places this choosing, this election. This is supposed to be something that the believers are supposed to say, man, I'm blessed. Man, I have such a blessing that God chose me. Because what I want you to see here very clearly here in verse 4 is that this choosing is not predicated upon anything that the believer has done.

7:07In other words, I'm not good enough to get chosen for his team. I didn't do anything to warrant that. I didn't keep the law well enough. I'm terrible at it, like all of us probably are in this room. There's nothing about me that's just eminently lovable. My wife might disagree, but she's a little biased. But there's nothing cosmically about me where God would choose me. He does this out of his own love, out of his own volition, not because anything that I've done.

7:46As Paul would go on to say in 2 Thessalonians 2:13, but we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. That God chose you not because of you, but because of him. He picks you for his team. That's awesome. We should celebrate that. We should rest in it. John 6:37, Jesus, in speaking about his church, about his people, he says, all that the Father gives me will come to me.

8:26And the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out. Why? Because it's God who does the work. It's God who does the electing. It's God who does the wooing, who does the drawing, who does the saving. He does it, not us. And because of that, we should rest and we should rejoice. Election has always meant to be a secure blessing for God's children. And election is not just election for the sake of election. It's supposed to lead to something. It's supposed to lead to adoption. Look at verse 5 or here. Look at the end of verse 4. It says, in love, after he's chosen us before the foundation of the world, in love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. That word predestined, it's the word prohorizo. It's where we actually get the English word horizon. The idea being that if you were a sailor out on the sea, the horizon was something that was really important. You really needed to figure out where the sky met the ocean. Imagine if you were a pilot, for example. I think it would be really important to understand the horizon, amen? To understand where the sky is and understand where the earth is. To understand where the sky is, where I'm free to fly, and where the earth is, where I will crash, right?

9:57The idea is that it's marked out. The horizon is marked out before us. And that's what God has done in predestination. He's marked you out. He said, this is my son. This is my daughter. And what has he predestined us for? What has he chosen us for? What has he marked us out beforehand for? For adoption to himself. Romans 8, 29 through 30. Paul, in this wonderful, wonderful book, the book of Romans, he sort of... Of puts predestination in its place in how God saves us because he says, For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. In those whom he predestined, he also called. In those whom he called, he also justified. In those whom he justified, he also glorified. Notice that throughout this text, throughout this text, there is a subject, there's a verb, and there's an object. The subject is always God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Always in this text. The object, the one whom the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are working upon, are working for, are giving to, is us in Christ. We're not the ones working. God is. And so, what you want to do in this text is you want to follow the verbs. Follow the verbs. Follow the actions that God does upon his children or on behalf of his children. He's chosen us. He's adopted us. And that phrase, that word, adoption, it means something even so much more rich in the first century than even in. Means now. Now, listen, adoption is an amazing thing. We have families here that have been touched by adoption. It's beautiful. It's amazing to see one who was on the outside brought into a family. Amen? This is a wonderful picture of what God has done for us. But that picture is so much more rich if you understand it in its first-century context. Because here's the deal: if you were a natural son or daughter, you could be disowned. You could get written out of the will. That could happen. You were allowed legally to treat that one who came from you naturally to treat them like an outsider. But legally, if you adopted someone as a son or a daughter, you could no longer ever legally disown them. They would always be yours. They would always be a son, always be a daughter, no matter what. And they would always enjoy the benefits of being a son or daughter. There would be nothing, nothing that could disrupt that security. That's what Paul means by adoption. Isn't that so much more rich than even our own 21st-century understanding of adoption?

13:30This is what God has done for you. You have been received. Not only have you been adopted, you've been accepted. God has accepted us through the work of Christ. Look at verse 6. To the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. He has blessed us in the beloved. All of these things have come about to the praise of his glorious grace. In other words, it wasn't merited, it wasn't earned by us. But no, he simply freely received us to himself. He accepted us, not based on anything that we've done, but based on the work of the beloved. The work of the beloved. He's accepted you, and he's accepted me. God is free to accept us, he's free to bless us, he's free to receive us because of the work of Jesus. If you remember one of the smallest books of the Bible, the book of Philemon, it's a really interesting letter. Paul is writing this letter, this short letter, one of the shortest ones that we have in Scripture, to this brother in Christ whose name is Philemon. Philemon was a slave owner. Now, I'm not going to get into the particulars of slavery. Slavery bad. Amen? We can all say that. But it was a very different thing in the First century than it is now. We'll just rest there. I don't have time to go into all the particulars. Philemon had a slave named Onesimus. Onesimus ran away from Philemon.

15:15In his running away, he meets Jesus. Not the literal Jesus in the sense, well, yes, the literal Jesus, but not the physical Jesus. Jesus has departed and risen from the dead and has gone to be in heaven to come back one day. But he becomes a Christian, this Onesimus. And he gets to know Paul. And Paul begins to disciple him and has this relationship with Onesimus. And he finds out his story. And he encourages Onesimus to go back to Philemon to make things right.

15:54In doing that, Paul writes a letter on behalf of Onesimus to his master, Philemon. And in verse 17, he says this: Receive your slave Onesimus as you would receive me. What Paul does after that is he begins to recount or to remind Philemon of the ways that Philemon has been blessed by Paul. That Paul is the one who shared Christ with him. That Paul is the one who led him to the Lord. That Philemon owes his salvation to God the Father, who used Paul to work that out. And so he tells him, Receive Onesimus as you would receive me.

16:48Though we have sinned, though we should be enemies of the Father, and though we once were before Christ, we are now received by the Father because of the work of Jesus. It's as if Jesus writes that very same letter to the Father on our behalf and says, Receive him, receive her as you would receive me. That's what it means to be accepted by the Father through the work of Christ. That's what Jesus has done for us on our behalf. Again, not because we've earned it, but church, because Christ earned that right for us at the cross. Several years ago, I was out with my father-in-law donating golf balls to Northwood Country Club in Dallas.

17:44I say that because I really do believe that's a more apt description of what I was trying to do that day. And here's the thing about Northwood Country Club: it's a really nice course, really nice course. And here's the deal: I wasn't even there as a guest of my father-in-law. Law. I was a guest to my father-in-law who was a guest to someone else who was actually a member there. I am low man on the totem pole here. I think I'm borrowing clubs at this point. I may have even borrowed some golf shoes. I did my best. I was a youth pastor at the time. I wasn't making any money. I had no business being at Northwood Country Club, a place that had hosted the U.S. Open before.

18:26But here's the deal: once they found out I was registered as a guest with a member, a real legit member, people were coming up to me. This dude who was born and raised on the Ship Channel in Houston. These people were coming up to me asking me if I wanted something to eat or drink, and I have to pay for it. They were asking me if they could do something. Can I park your car for you? Sure, you can park my Subaru that has the airbag blown out from a car accident. You absolutely can do that.

19:02They treated me like I was a member, but here's the deal: I wasn't. But I was registered under a member's name. It was as if I was a member. And this is what it means. When God receives us, he accepts us as his own, like he receives and accepts his own son, Jesus. How awesome is that, church? Can you see why Paul wanted to begin this letter? With his people whom he loved, to encourage them, to remind them of what they have in Christ. This has been the work of the Father, who's chosen us, who's marked us out, who's adopted us, who's accepted us.

19:46Now, let's look at the work of the Son, beginning in verse 7. It says, in him, we have redemption through his blood. Through Jesus, we've been redeemed. He's redeemed us. To redeem means to release. It means deliverance from a state of slavery through repayment. There were times when you could actually indenture yourself as a servant. And in that time, you could work off, you could redeem yourself by working off whatever it is that you owed. And then you could gain your freedom. Or someone could come and purchase you. They could buy you. They could redeem you. Now, if they bought you, if they just bought you, that's not the same thing as redemption. To buy you means that now you work for somebody else. Your condition probably hasn't really changed that much, right? As a servant or as a slave. But if you've been redeemed, not only have you been purchased, but you've been purchased and released. You've been purchased and you've been made free. You've been purchased and you've had rights. Given to you. You've been purchased, and you're now a citizen and not a slave. Mark 10, 45 says that, for even the Son of Man, Jesus, speaking of himself, came not to be served, but to serve. And look at the phrase that he uses. He says, and to give his life as a ransom for many. A ransom.

21:28Jesus' own life was a ransom that he laid down. We deserved hell. We deserve hell. And Jesus said, no, I want to buy. I want to purchase. I want to redeem for myself a people. And I will lay myself down. I will go to the cross and suffer the penalty for their sin. I'll take it myself. And I will ransom them. I will purchase. I will redeem them for myself. The writer of Hebrews puts it like this. Therefore he, speaking of Jesus, is the mediator of a new covenant. He's a mediator. That's actually a legal term. He's an attorney. He's working it out. He's the one who stands before our judge, God the Father, and us.

22:24He's the mediator of a new covenant so that those who are called may receive. The promised eternal inheritance. Since a death has occurred, that, look at the phrase he uses, redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant, purchases them and frees them. We transgressed under the first covenant. The first covenant, which was given to Israel and really for all people, was, obey my commandments, and it will go well with you. Guess how we did? Not well. Why? Because we couldn't obey his commandments. We've sinned. We've fallen short of the standard. We missed the mark in our sin.

23:14And because of that, we deserve punishment. We deserve hell. But Jesus Christ laid his life down and redeemed us, purchased us. He's redeemed us. Not only that, he's forgiven us. In him, we have redemption through his blood, and that redemption gives us the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. We have forgiveness. Forgiveness is the immediate result of a believer's release from sin's hold. We're no longer under the penalty, and we're no longer subject to the eternity of sin. We're released from that.

24:01And how do we get released from that? We got released from that by the blood of Christ. Again, the writer of Hebrews in chapter 9, verse 22. Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. When God called Old Testament Israel in the first covenant, he called them to make atonement, to make sacrifice for their sin. He wanted to be with his people. He desired to be present with them, but he could not be present. A holy God cannot be present amongst a sinful people. There had to be purification made. There had to be atonement made. And so God said, here's how we're going to do this. You're going to take the blood, the life of this animal as a sacrifice. It's not going to totally purify you. But if you do this out of faith, understand and know that this animal, it's sort of instead, it's the picture of what will be coming when I provide the perfect sacrifice for you through my Son Jesus.

25:20There is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. And when Jesus Christ shed his blood for us on the cross, it was that. Once and for all, sacrifice that would end all sacrifices. It was the atoning work of God that said, You no longer need to come to an altar, you no longer need to bring a sheep or a goat because I have given my perfect lamb. And his blood and his blood alone would atone for our sin forever. Question: How often do I need forgiveness? Answer, as long as I sin. As long as I sin, I am in need of forgiveness. Well, that can be a problem, right? 1 John 1:8, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But here's what's awesome: it tells us there in verse 7 at the end that we have this forgiveness according to what? According to my ability to do good things, according to my ability to even remember all of my sins? I'd be in trouble if that were the case. No.

26:42It says that we have forgiveness according to the riches of his grace. Philippians 4:19, Paul is praying for this church in Philippi that he loves dearly. He's praying for them to endure under this. Awful circumstances, the suffering that they're going to have to endure for the sake of the gospel. And he says, And my God will supply every need of yours. And look at this phrase, according to what? According to the riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

27:19He invokes the name of the Son. He invokes the name of the King of kings. Folks, the King of kings, he never runs out of riches. He never runs out of forgiveness. He never runs out of love for his people. Not only that, he's revealed God's will to us. Look at verses 8 through 10. This forgiveness that He's provided for us according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth. That's a pretty big chunk right there. So let's just kind of break that down for a second.

28:19He has lavished upon us, He says, in all wisdom and insight. Wisdom. That's the objective insight into the true nature of God's revelation. In other words, we understand the Old Testament by the New Testament. We understand what the Old Testament really means by the New Testament. We understand what those sacrifices were really all about, don't we? We understand what the seed of the woman was going to be for us from Genesis 3, that promise that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent of Satan. We understand that the seed of the woman is Jesus. We understand that the ark that Noah built to withstand the judgment of God upon mankind and their wickedness and sin, that that ark represents Jesus, that all who are in, just as all who are in the ark escape judgment, all who are in Christ escape judgment. Does that make sense? That the Old Testament is understood best by the New Testament. We realize these things now. That's real wisdom. Christ represents that real wisdom. We have insight, that apprehension, that application of wisdom. He says, making known to us the mystery of his will. A mystery is a previously hidden truth unveiled by God's revelation. So, what was it that was hidden? Well, we understand it more fully in Romans chapter 16, verses 25 and 26, when the Apostle Paul says, now to him, Who was able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of, there's that phrase again, the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations according to the command of the eternal God. There's an important phrase here to bring about the obedience of faith. What is the mystery? The mystery is this. God said, Here is my law, obey.

30:38Man could not do it. Couldn't do it. The mystery is that we are to obey God's law through faith. The mystery is that there would be the perfect law keeper, his son Jesus, who would come and keep the law perfectly on our behalf, who would live a sinless life. And that by faith, Jesus' keeping of the law, we get credit for that. So that when Jesus looks at my, or when God the Father looks at my life, he doesn't see, in a certain sense, all of my sin and the way that I've messed up the law. That doesn't get held against me. But that by faith in Jesus and what he's done for me, I get credit for Christ's perfection.

31:31When I messed up by faith in Christ, I obey by faith. When I mess up, I confess to my Lord. And God sees me and sees my sin and sees it covered by the blood of Jesus. That was the mystery. The mystery of the Old Testament was where would this lead? We can't do this. We can't ever be good enough. And yet all along through the Old Testament, God was showing them, he was demonstrating to them that the Redeemer is coming. The Messiah is coming. And he did in Jesus Christ. He revealed God's will to us. He made us an inheritance. Look at verses 11 and 12. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. We've obtained an inheritance. Now, what's interesting about these two verses is that it demonstrates for us not only that we've received an inheritance, but also that Jesus has an inheritance. In both cases, Jesus worked for it. In both cases, Jesus earned it. He earned our inheritance, but he also won for himself his own inheritance. Let's look at what that is. Well, for us, 1 Peter 1:3 through 4 tells us a little bit about what our inheritance is. Blessed be God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you. That's for you. Amen. That's for you. Jesus won that for you. He has won for you a treasure in heaven. That's eternity with God the Father. He has won that for you, and he keeps it there because it's undefiled. It'll be untarnished. It'll be untouched. It'll be like nothing that the world can offer you. That's your inheritance in Christ. But not only that, Christ has won for himself an inheritance. Acts chapter 20, verse 28. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his blood. Jesus won for himself at the cross a people. He brought to himself a people who were not a people before him. He made for Himself, a family of those who were not family before Christ. He won for himself an inheritance.

34:40Now let's look at the work of the Spirit, verse 13. In him also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. You were sealed. You were marked, literally. To mark something in this time, like a document, an official document, would be to take hot wax and to take that signet ring that represented that kingdom or represented that government, whatever it was. And you would take that signet ring and you would push it in, press it into that hot wax. And then that wax seal on that document would carry with it the authority of the government or the kingdom or whatever it was that marked it.

35:39It means that it was authentic. That means that whatever it said, it had the full force and power of that institution that was behind it. To be marked with a seal and indicates authority, authenticity, security. It's the validation of ownership. Seals or he marks his children with the Holy Spirit, indicating that we're his. We are authentic spiritual children. We're not fakes. We're not imposter. And that we're under his protection and his provision. He seals us. And finally, he marks us, or he gives us as a down payment. Look at verse 14. Who is the guarantee, speaking of the Holy Spirit, of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. The Holy Spirit has been given to us as a deposit. It's a down payment. It's the guaranteeing of our inheritance in Christ. The believer is sealed until the day of redemption, guaranteeing our final release from sin when we stand before God in heaven.

36:57This is going to be either after we die or for believers that are still alive at the time at Christ's return. But either way, this is to bring great praise to God for his grace in our lives. The Holy Spirit is our down payment. The Holy Spirit is who Jesus sent, who's the Son sent to you and to me. He was the one that was promised. Whenever the Holy Spirit was a promise, Jesus walked amongst his disciples. If Peter was in Galilee and Jesus was in Jerusalem, Peter could not claim to be in the presence of Christ because God the Son had taken on flesh. God the Son was a man walking around. But God the Son also promised his disciples that it's good for me to leave because when I do, I will send my Holy Spirit. He will be your advocate. He will be the one that lives inside you. He will be the one who guides and directs you. He will illuminate my word to you, and you will know me and commune with me. Through his Holy Spirit, we can say that we are with Christ, that we are in his presence.

38:17Romans 8:16 and 17. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our Spirit that we're children of God. And if children, then heirs. Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him. The Holy Spirit is that mark, that guarantee, that deposit. We know we are children of God. I don't follow a lot of NFL football. I save my football usually for Fridays and Saturdays. Watch a little bit. Follow the Texans every once in a while. But I just don't follow a lot of NFL football. But I'm fascinated by the Jones family. Jerry Jones, who owns the Dallas Cowboys, and his son, Stephen. He's one of his sons, is like the vice president of the Cowboys and sort of runs the day-to-day operations for the team. I was thinking about this and thinking about this text: that, you know, Stephen Jones probably has no idea how to buy a ticket from a scalper. You know what I mean? He doesn't probably have that experience. He's probably never been on StubHub looking for a ticket. No, his dad owns the team. And his dad has actually made him a part owner of the team. He doesn't have to look for a ticket. He's got a box. He's a part of the team. His father has given him that right.

40:02You have that too. Not for the Cowboys. Something much greater than that. You have the inheritance that Jesus earned, that the Father gave to Jesus as a promise. You have that in Christ. You have an eternity with the Father. You have the spiritual blessings and benefits of having. God as Father, Daddy. You have an eternity with Him. You have power over sin. You have a relationship because of what Jesus earned for you. Please don't forget that.

40:52Please don't allow the world to entice you with so many things that fall so short. of what you have in Christ. If you've placed your faith and your trust in Jesus Christ and what he has done upon the cross, you're blessed. Let me pray for us. Father, thank you for all the spiritual blessings that we have in Christ Jesus. Thank you that even though, Lord, we deserved sin and death and hell, Father, in your goodness, in your love, and in your grace, you gave us heaven and you gave us life through your son, Jesus Christ.

41:56Lord, help us as we go on. Through this week, as we go on through this new year that is approaching, not to settle for the enticements of the world, not to allow our focus to be on simply the here and now, but Lord, to remember who we are and what we have in Christ and to set our life upon those things that will not perish, that you hold undefiled, that you have earned for us through the blood of your Son Jesus.

42:38Help us to remember in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.