Hope in Christ, Eph, 1:11-12

Now, as we go into this passage, Ephesians 1, 11 and 12, Paul is continuing on with his long sentence. So we have to keep that in mind. We're breaking into this long sentence. And as a matter of fact, one of the things we'll see is the translators have a tough time bringing this all out. How do you take a sentence that starts in verse 3 and doesn't finish until verse 14 and translate that into English so that it makes smooth sense in the English. And then again, how do we sit there and study that one sentence over a period of weeks? So it's a challenge, but we're taking it one bite at a time. It's an elephant. So we're doing the one bite at a time meal on this elephant here.

The first thing to bring out, and that is that we've added here out of the new American Standard the in whom because it's in the Greek text. The King James actually does a better job by adding it and keeping it there. It's again a place where the translators struggle because they already had in him at the end of the prior verse, right? So this is something to make note.

The other thing that we'll explain in greater detail is we have been made an inheritance and we'll look at why I make that little notation. The other thing to keep in our perspective is, as you've been going through Ephesians 1, 3-14, that there are three themes that keep being carried out.

The first one is we have the blessings and the choosing and the predestining of God the Father. We have the impact of the sacrifice of God the Son in 7-12 that we'll be completing here this morning. and then we'll see next week as we get into the work of the Holy Spirit, seeing the Holy Spirit's work.

So what we're finding is in this long sentence, one of the reasons Paul uses this long sentence is he's saying, how do I incorporate what the entire Godhead has been involved in in blessing us? Do you see what a challenge Paul has to put that into one thought, How do I incorporate the involvement of the entire Godhead, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in blessing each and every believer here this morning? That's what Paul is dealing with. And we're looking at the very end of the second part of that then, the impact of the sacrifice of the Son in blessing the believer.

Okay, this is to summarize those blessings. And we're going to, of course, continue this into this next week. But just so that we kind of have the main points in mind, he has chosen us, predestined us. As a matter of fact, as we'll see here this morning, has twice mentioned in this passage. Been adopted as sons. We explained that previously. He's drawing upon a very clear picture of what adoption meant. And it doesn't mean what it does in our culture. What adoption meant in the New Testament era.

It's a very special and wonderful thing. The riches of His grace, marvelous riches, overflowing riches. Paul continues to spell out the depth and magnitude of the riches of His grace, that we've been redeemed. And he uses a word there, as you recall, that is buying back someone as if paying a ransom, to bring them back from the brink of death. I have forgiven of sins, okay? being forgiven of all sins, and the import of that, as we pointed out before, was as if those sins had never been committed. Had we committed sins? Yes.

What happens here is our history is changed. Can you imagine that? Our history is changed. If you're a believer here this morning, you do not have the same history as a result of the blessings that are spelled out here. That's a really wonderful thing. Finally, revealed knowledge. We saw last week these mysteries are things that in the past were not revealed, but now have been revealed. We are able to understand and to see things and to have things explained to us by revelation of God in the Scripture that prior generations before the cross did not have. Sealed by the Spirit. We'll look in great detail next week what that means. And we'll see maiden inheritance as it's spelled out through this passage, and it shows up more than once. We'll see the beginning of that here this morning. Maiden inheritance.

And the key thing to point out, starting off in verse 3, all the blessings, every single one of those blessings, are in the heavenlies, untouchable, irreversible, in the heavenlies, and they're all in Christ. And that's the phrase that we keep seeing again and again, either in Christ, in Him, in whom, and in the Beloved, all throughout this passage. He takes every opportunity to underscore that all of our blessings are in Christ. It is in Christ that we have every one of those.

And here he adds in this really, really big little word, also, okay? He is stacking on these blessings, one and then the next. in whom also, in addition to the blessings he's already spelled out in this passage, in whom also, and he's spelling out this next blessing here, we have been made an inheritance. And so we want to take a look at that. We've been made an inheritance.

Believe it or not, that's one word. Okay? One word in the Greek. The Greek is structured so it is able to pack lots of meaning. into one word. In this case, the verbs are particularly full of meaning. In this particular verb here, klero'o, this verb only occurs here in the New Testament, but the noun form is going to show up a couple more times in chapter 1, and then he's going to draw on it again in chapter 5.

It's an arispassive indicative. We've been made by God to be an inheritance. One of the things that is real clear is that everything that is done here in chapter one is God's doing. And this is no exception. He uses the passive voice. Yes, we've been made an inheritance. It's God's doing. We didn't do it. It's not the active voice, okay? It's not us doing it. It's God's doing. It's also consistent, by the way, with what was told repeatedly to the nation of Israel, that they are an inheritance. The people that the Lord has chosen are Lord's inheritance. And this is true of the Jews as a separate group.

Now, one of the things to bring out, this is a cultural insight, is the Roman laws of inheritance. There was a great deal of complexity in the Roman law and sometimes failing to do exactly the right thing within that Roman law meant that there was the outcome in the inheritance that wasn't what you had in mind at all.

So people had it planned very diligently and carefully. They worked very hard to see that that particular inheritance outcome took place. And that's, I think, the key point I want to look at here. Any planning for an inheritance has to be done very deliberately and planned out in advance.

That, the people as they saw this, would understand very well. They said, ah, if we're involved in an inheritance, and God is the one here that's making it happen, then he has to plan very carefully and diligently in advance. And so that's what Paul is telling them here in this passage. Just like they would understand in their culture. And so this word had depth of meaning to them in terms of God's working diligently and God's doing things in advance to see to it that this inheritance was carried out exactly as was intended.

The other thing that we're going to see is his introduction in this verse to this inheritance theme that's going to keep showing up in the book of Ephesians all the way to the fifth chapter. And then when we get into Colossians, guess what? We're going to see it some more.

It is not a minor aspect of things. Instead, it is a major aspect of things. Remember previously, we talked about the adoption of sons and the importance that that had. That's why in Romans chapter 8, Paul had mentioned adoption of sons twice, because it was a very special thing, and also again in Galatians. And now we see it here in Ephesians. He didn't wait very many verses before he brought it right out in front of them. He's going to bring it up here in Ephesians and Colossians as we go through both of those books. Now is just the first of those times. Here's the focal point.

He says, We have been made in inheritance, having been predestined, according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will. Do you see the intent in there? Do you see the planning? Do you see when they saw that word inheritance, all the words that followed would make perfect sense to them? They said, oh yeah, we know what inheritance involves, you've got to do everything just right so that it comes out exactly as you intend. And that's precisely what he does here. He draws upon that word inheritance and then immediately thereafter follows it with words that show God's intent. God's diligence. God's carrying it out so it happens exactly as God had in mind.

Now, I need to justify this having been made, because frankly our English translations don't bring out this idea very well. Some of the more recent ones do, but a lot of them don't. But have been made in inheritance? Let's take a look at that. Here's this verb. We point out that it's in the passive voice, it means that we are the receivers of the action. We have been made an inheritance. Think about that for a minute. Wait a minute.

I'm an inheritance? Whoa! I'm an inheritance? Yes. We have been made an inheritance. Now, you think about it. Why am I an inheritance? Why am I an inheritance? I'm not valuable, am I? Why would I be of value as an inheritance? You know why you're valuable?

You're in Christ. In Christ. The inheritance is of immense value. How about that? That's why it keeps underscoring you're in Christ. There is where the value is. That is why God would say, I want to make sure this inheritance goes exactly as planned. I see immense value in these people who are believers because they are in Christ. In Christ, the value is immeasurable. This is a marvelous inheritance because these people are in Christ. Do you see that?

The meaning is not, we have obtained an inheritance in the sense of our being active, but we have been made an inheritance. It's God who is doing the action. We see that pattern throughout the entire first chapter, most certainly in these verses 3 through 14. Also, throughout Ephesians 1, it's God who is taking the action. We are the recipients, throughout these verses, of God's gracious action. And notice that Paul continues to qualify, as he writes, with God's love and kind intent. We've been made in inheritance. God does so with love and kind intent, as we saw earlier in this chapter.

The other thing, as we get to verse 18, we're going to see this. so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. How about that? The riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.

Why? Because we are in Him. He keeps underscoring that. We are in Christ. Okay, now we're going to look at some detail that he puts into... Remember, again, the Roman mindset is if you're going to do this inheritance thing, you've got to be real careful about how it happens. So what does he do? He starts off having been predestined.

He begins this as the way of describing God's planning in advance for us to be made this inheritance. This word predestined, prorizo, we've also seen it in verse 5. It means to before declare. And a real key point we made before, and I'll make it again here, this is an eris passive participle, so it's a done deal. And the focus is on God's action.

Predestination is not some ominous idea, like God just predestines everything and your next breath is only there because God predestined it. Predestination, as you'll see it in Scripture regarding the believer, every single time it shows up, This is how he blesses the believer. It's not the universe is a machine that he wound up at the beginning and just set in motion, and you have no choice, and you have no options or alternatives. All the focus of Scripture's teaching on predestination is how the believers are blessed.

So God isn't saying, I'm going to make the entire universe wound like a clock and just running itself out like the machine. Instead, he says, the universe will do what it does, but the outcome will be this. That is what he's saying. The outcome is, the universe will go through whatever rules and laws and that sort of thing that it has, people will make their choices, but the outcome will be, I will predestine that every believer will be blessed in this way.

That's what predestination means. It's not cold and ominous and the machine ticking itself out. It is instead God saying, I will most certainly, through the course of human history and beyond, bless every believer. That's what predestination is about. So don't worry about it. Okay? Alright? Okay. Just want to make sure of that.

One of the other things to note here, he's used some words and phrases here that he also tells the church in Rome. And as he writes in Romans 8.28 and 29, look at the similarity of phrases.

He says in Ephesians 1.11-12, who works all things, and he told the folks in Rome there, in 8.28, causes all things to work together. Notice also he says he predestined.

What did he say in Romans 8.29? He predestined. And then again, according to his purpose.

And again in Romans 8.28, according to his purpose.

The verses are certainly not identical, but there's a common theme here. A common theme. And so he's not teaching the people at Ephesus something entirely different. There is a consistency to what he is teaching, even though there is a difference also in the teaching here. But we'll take a look at that consistency a little bit more here. And that's what this phrase, Remember, we brought up before, because we've seen this phrase before, and we will see it again.

According to has the idea of consistent with. If you want to replace in your mind consistent with, that's fine. That's what we need to remember. It is consistent with. So he predestined consistent with his purpose. So here's his purpose. I'll take a look at that one. It's not his porpoise. There's nothing to do with that. It's His purpose. Alright, now, so this purpose, protisomai, is before place. To place before. To place before. And this has the idea of laying down. Laying down before.

We saw this word also before in verse 9. And it shows and reinforces, again, what's the understanding in the Roman Empire about inheritance. You do things with intent. This word shows that God is very deliberate. He placed it down before. He didn't just suddenly come along and say, oh my heavens, I've got these believers at Holly Hills, I better do something. Instead, He looks at it and He says, no, we had this taken care of long ago. Long ago. The Lord laid this out. He before placed. He set these things down. These were deliberate. They were specific. And it also shows one other thing. God is able to establish things in the future with certainty. And that's an important thing to remember. God makes things come to pass with absolute certainty. I want to bring up a point that is sometimes overlooked. I want to bring it up because this is something that is sweeping at least portions of the church.

The term open theism. How many of you have heard that term, open theism? Okay. It's important. I bring it up because it's it's a Teaching that has come up particularly in the last decade it to be very prominent There was just a little over two years ago a meeting of the evangelical theological society down in Colorado Springs and at that meeting they had a kind of a survey taken and and very close to 30% of the people who were at the Evangelical Theological Society, and these are people who again are calling themselves Evangelical, they either believed in or had some sympathies towards this teaching of open theism. That's why I used the phrase there, they greeted open theism with open arms.

And the idea is open theism teaches that God's knowledge and control of things in the universe are limited. How about that? So this means that close to one-third of those there thought that God's knowledge and control of the universe was limited. That's what they were preparing to teach. These are people who also claim to believe the Bible is God's Word. Some even teach that God likes surprises. I don't know how you get that. I haven't found that anywhere in the Bible, but that's what they teach.

Why is it important that we understand about this? First of all, you see that a significant portion of the church has embraced this, or is at least sympathetic to it. It's growing, which means it's something you're going to bump into more than likely if you haven't already. You're likely to run into people who are embracing this. And here's the reason why I see it as insidious.

It is an awful thing to teach. The very thing that Paul was teaching to the believers throughout the Roman Empire was contrary, and frankly the verses we're looking at here talk about God's sovereignty. This teaching is contrary to that because what it does is it moves the teaching about God in the direction of making God more like the gods of the Roman and Greek pantheons. Instead of the God of Scripture, you end up with a God who is a lesser God. A God who doesn't know what's happening next. A God who doesn't really have control of things. A God that can say, oops.

And that is not what we're seeing in these verses, is it? Our position in Christ becomes suddenly vulnerable if this teaching is true. What we see in these verses stands against this teaching here. So I want to bring it up, not because I want to put anybody down, but because you need to recognize that that's out there and understand what is true and what is biblical and what is not. We don't want to have you sliding towards this thing unknowing, realizing that the Scriptures are teaching what they teach here, like we see in this very passage.

God is very deliberately doing things If open theism is true, God has made promises He cannot keep. If open theism is true, then you don't have a sure position in Christ, all we can say is it's God's best guess. He can't say that you will be conformed to the image of the Son, because He's not sure. He can neither know nor control it. So, we're not going there.

But I want you to be aware of it, just because there are people who are within the umbrella of Christendom that are sliding in this direction. Okay, the second thing, and of course this doesn't fit with open theism either, is He works all things. Okay? Works all things. And let's look at this word, works, in the King James, worketh, okay? Energeo. And this word is where we get our English word, energy.

But there are some things about this word that would be good for us to investigate. Do you like the idea of investigating? Finishing up seminary, I was a part of the Investigative Engineers Association. I like to investigate things, and so we want to do some investigation. Ready? Here we go.

All right, this word, Energeo, one of the places it shows up, there was a medical doctor from Pergamum, and you might recognize that name as one of the seven cities. Let's get seven up here. One of the seven cities that are addressed in the first few chapters of Revelation. This city of Pergamum was the home of Galen, who was a medical doctor, and he used the word Energeo to describe medicines that were beginning to take effect.

They were effective, they were working into action. So that was one use of the word. In other documents, this word and related words were used to describe land that was productive. It was used several times, we have from ancient literature, to describe effective armies, armies that were strong and capable. But not just capable in a theoretical sense or a potential sense, but they were actively effective. And then finally, officials on active duty were described using this word or the family of words. Active duty. For example, one document has a magistrate described as being energeo. He was on active duty. He was working. He was in place doing his job. One of the things to look at is Energeo conveys activity, not non-activity, and it conveys energy in motion, not just potential energy.

So when it says that God works, that's not just meaning God could work if He wanted to. And that's real valuable for us to know. God isn't working from time to time as He's able and thinks about it for this to come about. The use of this word is intentional. Paul picks a word that means definitely active and most certainly not inactive. It means effective and not ineffective.

That's the way God's working. He uses a word that's intentionally talking about the way God is working to carry this out. God is active. God is effective in what He is doing. He is most certainly working these things out for each and every believer here this morning. No question about it. He wants to benefit the believer, not just potentially, not just hypothetically, not from time to time.

This is being most certainly worked out and effective in reality, in space and time, in your life, and in mine. Okay, let's look. This according to, we brought it up before, it says he is purpose who works all things after, and that's actually the same word. If we could replace it with the idea of consistent with, having been predestined consistent with his purpose, who works all things consistent with the counsel of his will. There is a consistency that he is communicating here.

This word kata, small word but big significance. We've already seen this word show up three times in the passages we've studied before in Ephesians 1, 3-14. We see it twice, as we see here in verse 11, and we're going to see it show up again and again and again in the book of Ephesians. And one of the things we're going to find, except for Ephesians 2, where it's used twice there, in that case it's a kata that is consistent with, that is actually on the side of the world, the flesh, and the devil, the rest of it all has to do with the consistency of God and His working and the consistency of His work in the church.

That's why he keeps using this word. Consistency, consistency, consistency. What does that tell you? God is consistent. His work in the church is consistent. And the world, the flesh, and the devil are consistent too. We're also going to see it in the book of Colossians. Again, the first chapter has it several times. Interestingly, three times in one verse we're going to see it used in a negative sense.

And again, the world, the flesh, and the devil in Colossians 2.8, and then he's going to finish off with this idea of consistency, which is the consistency of the Lord and his work in the church in Colossians chapter 3.

Okay, then finally I have this word come across after the counsel of his will. The English word is counsel, but the Greek word there is boule. It is a decision that is rooted in reflection and careful consideration. That's why the word counsel is used. In other words, there's the idea of bringing together Careful thought and weighing and consideration.

God does not make decisions just based on a whim. God does not act in our lives on a whim or based on a fleeting emotion. This is something that God has carefully considered. And notice that it's tied to the predestined. So God has carefully considered. It is tied to the way God is working throughout human history and beyond.

It is not a fleeting emotion, it has to do with this word consistency, kata, this idea of consistency that's being spelled out. The other thing that shows here is God doesn't act towards us in a way that has to do with some sort of incomplete perspective.

Have you ever had the thought, boy, I sure wish I'd have known that? God doesn't do that. Isn't that a good thing? Aren't you glad to hear that God doesn't say, boy, I sure wish I'd have known that? That's the God of open theism, by the way. We're not going to go there, because that's not the perspective here.

God does not have that problem. God has the counsel of His will, and He doesn't say, oh, heavens, what am I going to do now? God decides and moves and acts based on careful consideration, without the risk of error that we have, because God has a complete perspective, everything from beginning to end. from eternity past to eternity future, he has the full perspective of all eternity to look at. And he's never surprised, and he's never going, oops.

That's a key point here. A little word, very potent. Alright, now, the counsel of his will. We've seen this phrase, his will, show up several times here in this passage. And we brought up the point last week that there are three aspects of God's will.

God's sovereign will, which is basically fixed. It's not going to slip back or reverse itself. It includes your position in Him. That is part of God's sovereign will. God's not going to say, boy, I sure wish I hadn't have done that with our position. It also includes God's moral will, which is revealed in Scripture, and finally our individual will. This is talking about God's sovereign will. That's what's referred to in this first chapter of Ephesians.

So finally, this word here is thelema. It's the aspect of God's will that is inclined towards action. It's based on boule, that decision that is rooted in careful consideration and reflection. This word boule, okay? God has his will based on his counsel, careful consideration, with all knowledge of all eternity past and future, and knowing all the consequences inside and out. That's the counsel of his will. He takes action based on that, and that is his will carried out, his will tended towards action. Thelema.

And then finally we have Energeo, which is, that's God's working. God has a counsel, God carries that out in his Thelema, in his inclination towards action, a way of being active and effective. God is active and effective in taking that to being worked out in our very lives. That's the Energeo word that you see there.

He hasn't presented the words in this order, but that's the logical sequence that comes out of it. So this is how predestination according to His purpose takes place. God sees the whole picture and He has this end result in mind, looking at eternity past or eternity future. And these words that Paul has used here, bole, meaning the counsel aspect of his will, the careful consideration, and the philema, the inclination to action, and finally the energeo, the working, the effective activity of God, all that is in the direction of the end result that God had in mind and that he has predestined.

Again, it's not the cold, hard machine It's not just God set this watch in place and set the time and started winding it up and let it run. He is not passive like that. He is continuing to work. He is continuing to carry out and execute His will so that the end result is, contrary to the open theist, is absolutely going to take place because He does not want to leave your position subject to, I hope so, So Paul keeps making reference to this word kata, consistent with, and it's because God is essentially and eternally consistent.

And this is a good thing to know, isn't it? It's one of the reasons why what Paul was telling the people in the church at Ephesus, and as we'll see later, the church at Colossae, it was shocking what they heard. What? A God who is consistent? A God who isn't surprised? God who says something and does it God is able to make promises and he is consistent all throughout and able into eternity future to affect that promise what he has done his blessings he is able to carry out that's the God that Paul presented to these people who are a pagan background and as a God unlike any God they'd ever ever seen here is a God who as Malachi 3 6 says in the Old Testament who is Unchanging. I, the Lord, do not change, he says there.

We see the revelation in Hebrews 13.8 for Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. That's that consistency and why he keeps drawing upon that little word katah, consistent with. Finally, we see he brings up again this idea in Christ. He keeps underscoring that And he wants the believers there to recognize and realize they are always and ever in Christ.

In Christ. That's where your blessings are. It's not because I deserve it. It's not because, boy, am I doing good stuff down here on planet Earth. My blessings are entirely in Christ. We showed before that this in Christ phrase has each believer entirely within Christ, and even inside of that, in the heavenlies, where the blessings are. One of the things that we pointed out before, too, I cannot find any place where it says anybody slipped out of Christ. Positionally, doesn't happen. He keeps underscoring in Christ. He never says, whoop, somebody slipped, fell out. Whoop, lost another one. Doesn't do that, okay? Doesn't do that.

One of the things that you'll notice we don't hear here at Holly Hills is we don't teach that people get re-re-re-rededicated. is because we are in Christ. Our position there is fixed and untouchable in the heavens. We don't need to come up front here or anywhere else and get re-re-rededicated. It doesn't work. No need for it. We are in Christ.

Then he brings up something here that I'll actually explain a little bit more next week here. But to the end, that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. The first to hope. The King James has it first entrusted. Pro alpizzo is a compound word. It means to before hope, to hope in advance, to hope before or hope early. There are earlier ones who came to believe in the place of their salvation in Christ, and Paul includes himself. He uses the pronoun we.

Certainly by making the distinction we and you as we'll see the you next week as we get to it He is not intending in that to place believers in a different spiritual position He's not saying that hey this believer gets one position that one gets another and this one gets another One of the appeals that Peter makes first Peter 3 7 he tells the husbands. They live considerably with your wives Give them honors as fellow heirs. They have the grace position that we have in Christ God has made a lot of differences from one individual to the next in all those differences the position that we have is the same and he's not intending to make a difference of position there but finally here's this to the end that we who were the first to open Christ would be the praise of his glory God is looking at the direction and the end of where things go one of the things that happened with the Greek and Roman gods that were among the people that Paul ministered to and he was trying to tell them the gospel, the good news.

Those people would appeal to the gods kind of on, give me this little favor if I'll do that one for you. They would do some little sacrifice at the altar hoping to get a little favor from God, but there was no sense of any of those gods having long-term perspective for all these people who were appealing to them. There was no sense of, how can I bless all these people for eternity? The Greek and Roman gods had none of that. So what Paul was bringing to them here was absolutely phenomenal teaching. To the end, that is something that the Greek and Roman gods didn't even have in their perspective.

So what he was telling them here was an absolutely phenomenal thing. As the people were reading these words, it's almost like every verse they got to say, wait, wait, wait, let me soak that up a minute. Most certainly you wouldn't want to be drinking or eating something while you're listening to somebody read this. This stuff was startling stuff. As they're reading it, this is the character of a god of which they had never heard in their pagan culture. Nothing like it.

We were the first to hope. The first to place our hope. Oh, one important point on that hope. That hope is not an I-hope-so hope. It's a certain hope. a certain hope. One of the things that we see in verse 11, God predestined. He worked effectively and actively according to the carefully considered counsel of His will which He put into action. Those are the kinds of meanings coming out of verse 11. So there was an end to those things. There was an end result that God had in mind.

And the hope that the people had in that was not a, boy, I sure hope that happens. He's not saying that kind of a hope. This is instead a certain hope, which is, frankly, it's a way of using the word hope that in our culture we frequently don't use. He's using it here in a way of a certain hope. And that's the perspective that he wants us to have.

God has done all these things. He's diligent. He has moved and is active and is constantly working and effective moment by moment. to the end that there is no uncertainty at all to the hope that we have. No uncertainty at all. And that's why we look at this predestining, the end result of all the things that have been spelled out in this passage, is that the Lord will bless us. These blessings that He has in place, God from time past, way in the past, already set in place, carefully thinking them out, knowing the end from the beginning. He is actively working now, even as we're sitting here, or in my case, standing here, even as we're here this morning, He is right now working these things out. As you walk out of here and get in the cars and go different places, God's still working. Still active and effectively working to make this end result come to pass. It will most certainly come to pass. As we look at this, what is really beautiful is to recognize all the things that go on.

Have you ever gotten a phone call and it's bad news? Nancy and I got one just right after church. Our grandson got bit in the face by a dog and the dog just unfortunately ripped up portions of his face pretty badly. First get it, certainly you don't say, oh boy, I got a phone call that gave me this piece of bad news. On the other hand, is that inconsistent with God's working? No. He will work all things, all things, to the end result. Full knowledge, full power, fully able to carry things out.

God's end result will not be thwarted by any phone call you get. God's end result will not be thwarted by any surprise that happens to you today, this week, this month. That is comforting to know. It's a certain hope, not an I-hope-so hope, and it depends upon the unchangeable character of God. Our blessing, the position that we have, comes from a God who is consistent in character and always works effectively and actively. to these end results.

Isn't that a wonderful thing? That's beautiful. Let's thank Him for it. Lord, we thank You for who You are. We thank You for what You have done long, long, long before we even thought of, gee, it would sure be nice if God did this. Lord, You are going to carry things out in such a way that is so wonderful that it will take eternity for us to recognize the depths and the glories and the riches of how you've blessed us. What a marvelous thing, Lord. We thank you for who you are this morning and what you're doing and what you will do into eternity. In Jesus' name, Amen.