In this weeks' podcast, Pastor Mike gives us a biblical definition of grace, highlights why we, as saints, need to have a Christ-centered perspective and he also elaborates more on the doctine of adoption.
Harvest Detroit West
Treasures in the Field - Ephesians 1:1-6a
(upbeat music) - Good afternoon and welcome to Treasures in the Field. This is our midweek podcast review here at Harvest Bible Church in Westland, Michigan. And once again, we are joined by our preaching pastor, Pastor Mike, good to have you. - Good to be here today. We're really excited that we have finally started Ephesians and looking forward to discussing this great material from this past Sunday. - Oh yeah, like I said, I am a fan of Ephesians. I got a chance to go over it with some people at the beginning of the year. And so I'm always up for an Ephesian study. So I'm excited. - Yeah, it's so rich. Really, every verse, every line, every word, just so chock full of incredible truth and application. And it was great to kick off the series this past Sunday. - Exactly, exactly. Even though you kind of cheated, you didn't do the full 14 verses of one sentence. - Oh, there's too much that we would have been there for three hours on Sunday morning, if I had. So much good stuff there. - Yeah, but a few who did, maybe you can give us a quick review of what you did go over. - Yeah, well, as you said, Ephesians starts off first 14 verses just glorifying God and specifically God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit for their work for our salvation. And so this past Sunday, we focused on the Father's role in the first five and a half verses of Ephesians one and his glorious grace, his initiating grace. To choose before even the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him, predestining us for adoption into his own family. God is the main character. God is the protagonist. God is the initiator. And that becomes very, very clear in these opening verses of Ephesians. - Yeah, it was good stuff. It was just very unifying, very peaceful, and I really love it. I loved, as you get early into the message, you spoke of God calling of Paul to be in a apostle, despite Paul's plans, and you noted that that was God's grace to him. You later also spoke of God's electing people as also an act of grace. I know sometimes we say these words and maybe you can impact for us a little bit of biblical understanding of grace. - Yeah, I'd love to. I'd love to. Grace is such a rich concept, biblically, and to simplify it a bit, the way that I see grace used in the pages of Scripture is it refers to both favor to those who deserve none and strength to those who have none. And those are related concepts, right? 'Cause in both cases, it is an unearned gift. Sometimes it's favor to those who are sinners and don't deserve it. Sometimes it refers to strength to those who are weak and need God's grace. And so Romans three would be one example of God's grace to justify those who are sinners and have no right in and of themselves to stand before God. And yet because of his grace, that undeserved gift, God gives his favor to those who have not earned it, do not deserve it. Other times the emphasis is more on those who are in their weakness are unable to do certain things. Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 15, "By the grace of God, I am what I am." And his grace toward me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than all of them, but it was not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Again, in both cases, it's a gift from God, a gift that we did not earn, did not achieve, and so he gets all the glory for it, both when he grants his favor to those who haven't earned it and when he gives his strength to those who desperately need it. And to know that God is a God of grace really separates our faith from many false religions around the world, which do emphasize earning, being good enough, at least being better than your neighbor so that in the cosmic scale of justice, you might be approved because you're better than a lot of other people. Those aren't religions of grace. Christianity, biblical Christianity is a religion of grace, which says on our own, we are completely undeserving, on our own, we are too weak to win God's favor or do anything that would be worthy of his approval. But by his grace, he forgives us. By his grace, he brings us into his family. By his grace, he empowers us to bring him glory on earth. By his grace, he's preparing an eternal home in heaven. It is all his gift, his undeserved gift. - Yeah, I think that's amazing. I think-- - Amazing grace, you might say. - Yes, someone should write a song about that. That'd be a popular one. - Really would. (laughing) I think sometimes we take it for granted on God's grace and lose the fact that it's not something I can demand or earn, it's just this great gift from God that's truly at every end undeserved. So yeah, I think it's just great that we understand what grace is, and I think that does clear up a lot of kind of confusions they can sometimes go when it comes to God's grace. - Yeah, and like I said, I think the most important thing is not so much about the intramural debates that happen among Christians on the topic of grace, but especially to understand grace as what separates true Christianity from false religions of earning God's favor. Grace is not about earning God's favor at all. It's about what he does for us, what we could not do for ourselves. And so it's an amazing concept and one that Christians should really meditate deeply on. - Yeah, yeah. Also, just really thinking about that, at one point in the message, you also warned us not to believe that we are the start of our own story can happen. Often we can come to the Bible or even some biblical doctrines and we view it from God, I would say a man-centered perspective. Maybe you can unpack why it's imperative that we view the word of God from a Christ-centered perspective. - Yeah, yeah, we have to. I think sometimes it'd be easy for anyone to think they're living in their own version of the Truman Show, right? That all the cameras are on me, all the action is oriented around me. I'm the center of it all. Because that is our perspective. I can't help but be me and see things from my perspective and experience things from my perspective. But the word of God is so helpful in saying, no, from a big picture standpoint, God is the one who is the main character. We don't live in a me-centered world. We live in a God-centered world. And I think that's important for at least a couple of reasons. We could list more than a couple of reasons. But one reason that it's important to see this world and the story of history as being God's story and God at the center of it and not us is it prevents us from evaluating what God is doing based upon our own moral judgment. And this happens frequently, doesn't it? I talk to people pretty regularly who come to the word of God and say, "Well, I don't like that. I don't think God should do that. God should have done this instead." Well, who am I? I'm not God. I don't get to decide what's right for God to do. God sets the definition of what is right. And so when I come to the Lord and His word with that humility, I can say, okay, even if right now this doesn't make sense to my moral compass, it's my moral compass that has to adjust. I'm not gonna force the word of God to adjust because I don't have it all right. And I'm not all-knowing. And I'm not inherently righteous and just in the way that God is. So understanding that God is central brings me to the word of God and the ways of God with humility, right? And I think in other way that it's important to understand that the God-centered nature, not only of our world and human history, but of our salvation, is it makes salvation more than just our personal benefit. There are benefits to us. And we're talking about that in Ephesians 1. Every spiritual blessing in Christ, that is good for us. There is great joy in knowing God and being part of His family. There is great relief for us in being forgiven of the guilt of our sin. But ultimately, that's not the ultimate end of salvation. The ultimate end of salvation is me receiving forgiveness, me being adopted into God's family, me praising God for His grace, for His glory. That is the end of salvation. All of these benefits that I experience are ultimately for His glory. It doesn't end with me. And I think that's another reason why it's important to recognize God is the main character. God is the center of the story. All of us, we are supporting characters pointing back toward the main character. And to kind of use that analogy, I used a couple of Sundays ago. When we keep Him and His glory as the sun in the middle of the solar system, we all as the orbiting planets were in a better place. Once we start trying to make ourselves the center of the solar system and pulling the sun into our orbit, it's gonna be chaos. It's best for us, for God to be at the center. That's how we experience maximum joy. - Yeah, yeah. As you were breaking it down, 'cause I was thinking similar, 'cause I was drawn in in verse four when we were talking about how God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. And towards the end, it gives us a reason for God. And it's not the reason that sometimes we think of that God chooses us. Like, He chooses me to be, you know, to be popular, or He chooses me to be rich, or He chooses me to be happy and to have this large family know. He chose that I would be holy and blameless. So God has a character that He's trying to form, not an outcome. And I think a lot of times we think it should be an outcome. God should do this for a particular outcome. And this is what it looks like if God is blessing me. And when it's God-centered, I realize whatever I'm going through. Like you said, even if I don't understand it, even if I think, oh, this is not right, that I'm being picked on, or the justice is not being served, ultimately, this is so that I would be holy and blameless before God. - That's right. And that's a great point. And that, I guess, would be another reason why it's important to see God as the center of all things is because I do believe that God works for our best and our eternal joys. That doesn't look like us pursuing in the short term what we think would make us most happy. But instead trusting the Lord that what He says is gonna make us holy and blameless is what's gonna produce the most joy in the long, or on His kind of joy, a God-centered joy, and not a human-centered hedonism. And man, I think that's very important to affirm because I've heard Christians say, well, I know what God's word says, but I think I deserve to be happy. So instead of following what God's word clearly says, I'm gonna do this other thing. And it's the most tragic thing because if you want joy for eternity, then you follow God's path of holiness and blamelessness. You don't pursue those temporary shortcuts that lead to destruction. - Yeah, yeah, that is the sad indictment. And one more good subject is probably, I'm gonna take you a quick second to go over. Not that you did, I think you did an excellent job of helping us try to get our heads wrapped around adoption. But really, I think it's something that would be beneficial if we can just go over again, 'cause I think sometimes we can gloss over the fact that we've been adopted into God's family. So maybe just tell us a little bit more how we can understand the doctrine of adoption. - Yeah, well, the first thing I'll do is just to point people toward a resource that helped my appreciation of adoption. And that is the chapter in J.I. Packer's book, Knowing God. I believe it's chapter 20 where he expounds upon the doctrine of adoption. And he says for him personally, that is the chief benefit of salvation is adoption into God's family. He says not to undermine justification, such a great reformation doctrine that had to be clarified at that time and that we all must firmly believe in the doctrine of justification by faith alone. But justification is the step that moves us into that place of being adopted into God's family, which is where the full blessing, every spiritual blessing is found by being in the family of God. And it's important for us to understand that with adoption, you're talking about someone who was not in the family being brought into the family. One of the great heresies of the theologically liberal, progressive influence of about 100, 150 years ago in Europe and America was this teaching of the universal fatherhood of God. Now God is the creator of all things, but he is not your father unless you are in Christ. If he created you and you responded with rebellion and disobedience, you are his enemy. You are someone subject to his righteous judgment. But through Christ, you are forgiven, you are reconciled and you are made from someone who was not his child in that sense. You were his creation, but you were not his child in that sense, but now you are. Now you're brought into the family. You're a son of God. You are a daughter of God. One of the really amazing pieces of language the Bible uses in Hebrews too, is that Jesus Christ, the only divine son, is our elder brother. That's incredible language. We are fully brought into the family of God, not because we've earned it, not because we deserve it, but because of his grace toward us. And I think that should have a couple of practical impacts in our lives. First of all, it should comfort us because when you're in someone's family and they are your father, if they're the right kind of father, which of course God is a perfect father, he is always gonna be working for our good. Even his discipline, Hebrews 12 says, is for our good. It's not capricious. It's not a venting of his anger. It is so that we may share his holiness. And so even those painful things the father brings us through, our for our ultimate good. He is always committed to our good. He is always committed to our benefit. Everything he does, whether we understand it or not, will be toward that end and what a comforting thing that is. But it also should be something that motivates us to say, "Hey, if I'm a son of God, "if I am a child of the king, "should I be acting like that, right?" We can be grateful for the positional truth of that. But there should be some practical outworkings of that as well, which by the way, we're gonna see in the second half of Ephesians. When Paul says, "Hey, God is light. "You are children of light." Reflect that light practically by how you live. Step away from the darkness of this world and live as children of light. If you are someone's child as you're growing and as you're maturing and if your parents are the right kind of people, you will want to follow in their steps and reflect them in some way. And how much more should we be motivated to reflect who God is, practically, in who we are as his children? - Yeah. Interestingly, I'm always listening to the podcast. Well, listen to that, I love listening to good preachers. And I was listening to a podcast and the preacher was expounding on the fact that when Jesus was calling God his father, the Jewish Pharisees that day just thought that was horrible because never in Judaism had they referred to God as father. They referred to him as the Lord of Host, the God of provisions, all these titles that they have for him, but it was not father. And then circumspectively, you see when they say, when his disciples ask them, "How should we pray?" You say, "When you pray," you say, "Our Father." So there's this intimacy there, Jesus brings it. There's this exclusiveness that even the Jews knew. It was like, this is not something you just flippantly do. And so just the fact that God moves us from just these subjects who worship him to loving children that he takes care of is, I think, sometimes we over-miss that. The kindness and the blessing that he is that not only have I been saved, but God loves me intimately, like I was one of his own children. - That's right. And that is why mere monotheism is not enough because you have other monotheistic religions who do see a God who is all powerful and who has created all things and who is sovereign, but that do not emphasize what the Christian scriptures emphasize, and that is that he is a God of love, and a God who is a father to his sons and daughters who have been redeemed by his divine son, Jesus Christ. Now, what a difference there is in that emphasis. And I believe that is what brings forth kind of the both end of scripture that I'm always talking about, that God as creator is sovereign, but God as father is personal. And so he doesn't mean to treat us as mere subjects, as you said, but means to interact with us as his children. That doesn't take away from his sovereignty, but it does inform how he wants to interact with us in real time, in real ways, and draws forth the responsibility in us as his children to reflect him well. And so knowing that he is our creator and that he is our father really leads into everything that we are to know as Christians and all the ways that we are to be as Christians. - Yeah, it does. Hopefully it warms their hearts. Everyone's heart says it does mine. - Yeah, amen. - I mean, it just awes me at times to realize how much God cares for us. And it's unfathomable. But there is just so much more we could be talking about, but I'm just excited. Maybe you can give us a preview of what we can expect coming up this Sunday. - Yeah, I'd love to. So this next Sunday, we're gonna be talking about the second person of the Trinity, God the Son, and his glorious grace in our salvation, his central role in being the one who provides redemption through his blood, his sacrifice on the cross is what accomplished the salvation that the Father planned for us. And along with that redemption, who he was and who he is as the Christ also has a revelatory impact. He makes known to us some of the things that were clouded in times past, that were mysterious. They were foretold, but it wasn't quite clear how that would work out. Well, now in Christ, all that is clear. Those mysteries are revealed through him. Everything prophesied is summed up in him. And so we're just gonna rejoice in the glorious grace of God the Son. - All right, I look forward to this Sunday. So you heard it here. You guys definitely wanna be here this Sunday. And if you have not heard the message from last Sunday, then right after this podcast is over, you have to go look it up. It was an awesome message. And then we'll see you this Sunday as we just get into the second person of the Trinity and his just unmerited grace that he bestows. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you guys for watching. If you would be so kind as to pray us out. - Yeah, I'd be happy to. Father, we thank you for being our Father. We thank you for adopting us into your family, though we were lost and undeserving. I pray that we would live this week in light of these glorious truths that we would be grateful to you always, that we would be comforted always, that you are our Father, and that we would be motivated this week to practically live in a way that looks like we are children of God. And we pray that through this, this lost and dying world will see your glory through us and be prompted to inquire of the hope that we have and the life change that you have brought. And we pray all of these things in Jesus' name, amen. - Amen. All right, thank you guys for tuning in. And you have a great rest of your day. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)