From Eternity He Chose Us

"From Eternity He Chose Us" – Ephesians 1:4-5 “He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world”: God does not improvise; He has an eternal plan for His people. Your life is no accident, your calling is not improvised and your salvation is not fragile. Salvation is God's work, not man's: He saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to His purpose and grace, and set us apart for a purpose. The message walks through Ephesians 1:4-5, 2 Timothy 1:9 and the chain of Romans 8:29-30 — foreknew, predestinated, called, justified, glorified — to show that what God begins in eternity He finishes in glory, and that the one who lets go of His hand is man, never God. That day there was the Lord's Supper and baptisms.

I. The house of God is not a place of entertainment.

A. It is the place to see the truth, to be free and to know God.

1. Whoever comes to the feet of God goes from change to change, in love for Him.

2. One place only to look: upward, where the righteous God is.

3. The times are marked: either we are, or we are not.

II. God does not improvise: an eternal plan (Ephesians 1:4-5).

A. “From eternity He chose us” expresses a profound biblical truth.

1. Mortals improvise; God has an eternal plan for His people.

2. If it is an eternal plan, we cannot be double-minded.

3. Before the earth, before time, before Adam and everything visible, God chose us.

B. No mortal raises up the church, nor does it stand by us.

1. To be chosen, called and set in God's plans is from before eternity.

2. The question is not that there is a church, but how God is carrying it.

3. If one does not reach the end, one has not been selected for eternity.

III. Salvation is God's work, not man's.

A. The first thing a servant of God learns is silence.

1. Our nature is to talk about talking and think about thinking, in rebellion.

2. If God chose me before the world, it was to set me in His time; for that one must be meek.

B. He called us with a holy calling.

1. Whoever grasps it loves purity, holiness, the brethren, intimacy with God, the Scriptures and prayer.

2. If you do not love one or two of these, consider whether you have answered the call.

C. He not only saved us: He sets us apart for a purpose.

1. The purpose is the plan God has for you; yet we live pretending only for ourselves.

2. We matter more than this earth, for the earth will pass and the spirit will not.

3. The church is the place God chose; let us not live as children when we should already be teachers.

IV. Not according to our works, but according to His purpose and grace (2 Timothy 1:9).

A. Not merit, effort or religiosity: everything of grace is free.

1. If you pray, He hears; if you pray for a brother, He heals the sick; by grace.

2. We crawl when we should run; the crawling child eats what he should not.

B. Everything is born in God's will before the world began.

1. It was no reaction, nothing of the moment: it was the eternal plan in Christ.

2. Every prayer ends in the name of Jesus: nothing rises to heaven by our mouths.

3. Your salvation does not depend on what you did; your calling did not begin yesterday; your identity was designed before time.

C. For there to be a church, Christ had to pay for it on the cross.

1. Repentance, baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordinances: God's command, not the church's demand.

2. Not because we were good, but by His grace; a divine decision with a purpose: to be holy, to be children, to live for Him.

3. Election is always in Christ, never outside of Him.

D. Your life is no accident, your calling is not improvised, your salvation is not fragile.

1. One says yes or no: it is called free will; God never binds or forces anyone.

2. If He chose you before time, He will never let you go within time; the one who lets go is man.

3. If people prayed more, the life of the church would be far better; let go of secrets and half-measures.

V. The perfect chain of salvation (Romans 8:29-30).

A. Foreknew: an anticipated relationship, an intimate knowledge.

1. Predestinated: He set your destiny, to be like Christ, because He knew how you would respond.

2. Since He knew we would fall, He sent Christ Jesus.

B. Called: the moment He touches your life.

1. Justified: He declared you righteous, forgave and cleansed you, because you answer Him with repentance and seeking.

2. Glorified: spoken as already done, because with God it is sure; the whole process is God's doing.

3. Perfection costs nothing; what costs is sin, and one sins because one does not love.

C. It begins before time and ends in assured glory.

1. There is no human intervention as merit: salvation is through Christ.

2. What God begins in eternity, He finishes in glory.

3. Being lukewarm disqualifies: working by the soul and feelings, not by the uprightness of the Spirit.

VI. The Lord's Supper (Luke 22:7-22).

A. In memory of Him we eat the bread, for a conviction that His body was broken and His blood poured out.

1. Everything was paid; nothing is free: He went meekly to the cross so that we might be free.

2. What we take must be answered with a life that is not double.