The REAL Reason Why Jesus Died for You – Ephesians 1

Another part of that ongoing, outworking plan is, of course, to glorify His Son. But also, a part of the glorifying of His Son is to… What do you think? Do you think God the Father asked the Son what he’d like to have for an inheritance? Or do you think he just told Him? You think he just did it? Do you think he just knew? I know I’m being too human here, but on a human basis, which would you expect of your understanding of God? I would ask. I think He would ask. Certainly, whatever it was, it was very satisfying to the son.

If the Father asked the Son, then the Son said, “This is what I want my inheritance to be.” And the Father said, “Wonderful, this will be a glory to my praise, and this will be a praise to my glory, and this will be a glory to my grace, and this will be a praise to the glory of my grace.” Oh, Paul, God love you, I would have really liked to send you to a writing school. Yet, it’s there to be dug out if the Lord has mercy and shows us with his Holy Spirit.

Now, there is one other thing about this marvelous plan and the working out of the administration of the dispensing of this plan; oh, there are a lot of things, but I said I can’t keep all these balls in the air, and that is the absolute necessity of works. Now, I’m going to shock all of you in just a moment by telling you that grace is not enough. Now I know that all the preachers have been telling that there are no works, and salvation is by grace, and I am telling you tonight, I am disappointing you greatly, but I am telling you tonight, there are works in getting you saved. And I don’t mean just kind of little works. I mean, really big, sweat of the brow, heavy-duty works. There are. There is a great deal of works involved. A great deal of works involved, and if those works are not worked, you’re going to go to hell…or wherever it is, to the pit. Hell, I’m not sure of the many, many names that are used for hell. Perhaps you’ve heard a study of this, Gehenna, and all of this: the ancient meaning of the word hell was not what we consider hell and all of that, but the pit. I can understand. You’re going to get thrown in the pit if there are not some works that accomplish your salvation. What do you think about that? See, and you thought you had slid home free, didn’t you?

Alright now, then, let’s go back again to that moment just before He did anything; those things He did. I gave you a rather odd illustration last night, when He began to do what He was doing, when He began to work out His plan. What was it that caused Him to get up and do this? Thank you, thank you, brother. Absolutely, He had counsel with His will, and His will said, This is what I want, and God said, You know, I agree with my opinion. I agree with my desire. I agree with my will. Now I think that’s beautiful. He worked these things out according to the counsel of his own will. I guess Paul was trying to tell us he didn’t get any advice from anybody. From the counsel of his own will alone. And again, this is one of those many, many balls we keep in the air, and this is the will of God — one of those words that keep recurring.

Now, just before he does this, I described to you how rich he was, and I want to go over some of those verses again if I can find the right pair of glasses. Alright, and this first time, it’s in chapter one that we get an idea of what He was like. We see “to the praise of the glory of His grace.” So, there’s a great deal of glory to His grace. Now this is sitting in verse 6, right in the middle of what we are told that God did way back before creation. That’s one of them. Now I want you to also notice in the next verse “His kind intent.” Whatever He decided to do out of that, this is verse 5, out of that great glory of His grace. Can you see His grace just spewing glory? There was also, in the counsel of His own will, kind intention toward you. Now this is before He marks you off, before He predestines you, alright?

Now look at verse 7. We got that word “according”, alright? I’m going to skip the word “according” here, although this word “according,” I guess I’m not, is also saying this is part of the working out of this great eternal plan that He got the idea from the counsel of His own advice. This was one of the things He decided; He decided about His riches. I’m in verse 7. …according to the riches of His grace. So, we see grace that’s full of glory. We see kind intention, and we also see riches; not just the glory of His grace, but how rich His grace is. This is what He is before He does anything, before He goes to work.

Now then, verse 12. We just passed a whole lot of things here, but in verse 12, you find again “to the praise of His glory.” We’re not praising His grace here; we’re just praising the glory of His grace. The grace is so glorious, and so we see again the incredible amount, oh, I don’t know what to even say. There was glory in Jesus Christ and the Father.

Alright, I want you to come down to verse 17. Saints, forgive me for being personal here. If you see me struggling with words, it’s because I can’t see much out of my right eye, and my left eye leaves out letters, and when I drive down the street, it leaves out cars. It really does. There’ll be five cars turning like this, and I’ll see four of them. I really have to be careful. I don’t drive except in broad daylight; right about high noon is the only time I get out to drive. My wife does the driving. Okay, so that’s one of the reasons I’m not a total idiot — partially, but not totally.

In verse 17, the Father of glory. Now, if you could think of glory as a person, then you would know that glory had a Father, and He has fathered glory. Now, glory is locked up in God, when God is the All, but as He begins to work out this great counsel He got from Himself and all of these things that we have said, toward an administration of working out this great purpose, He is the Father of glory. Glory comes only from God the Father. Add to that the fact that Paul is absolutely stunned by what he’s writing about. Over and over again, he breaks into anthems of praise concerning the riches of God, the glory of God, the glory of the grace of God, and the grace of God. He does it again and again. And then he adds to that that we are a praise. We not only praise Him, but we’re part of the praise. I think only the Holy Spirit can explain to you what that means, that we are part of the praise. Obviously, Paul of Tarsus believed we ought to praise God for what He had done and what He was before He did it.

Alright, I want to go ahead and capture a few more of these along the way. Now he begins to use the word “rich” instead of “praise”. The riches of the glory of His inheritance. Okay, that doesn’t fit, though. That’s something. That’s no subject. It’s not, but it is. Okay, now come on down to chapter 2, and we see verse 4. But God, being rich in mercy… So, we’ve got not only the greatness of His glory, the greater greatness of His grace, but we also find, in this God who has not yet begun to work, riches in His mercy. We find mercy, and then we find them so very, very rich. Now then, that’s not the only thing about God that is rich. He is rich in this very passage in two things. He is rich in mercy, and He is rich in love.

Now, we come on down just a little bit further than that, and in verse 7, we find His kindness again. Whatever He’s doing…we have grace, and we have kindness married together. Now, in verse 4, there were riches of love and riches of mercy, but here, in this God before His act, there are riches of His grace. Not that He is rich in grace, but there are so many riches in His grace. As you watch this eternal purpose being worked out, and Paul’s many, many things he’s keeping up in the air, there are so many things that He is doing in working out His purpose, and each one of them is one of His riches. Every one of them is something rich, and in that verse, He includes His kind intention.

I need to stop here, and you need to stop here, and the brothers from Constance need to stop and remember, as I said to you last night, there are going to be a lot of rough waters. That doesn’t mean He’s not rich in mercy, rich in grace, rich in glory, rich in His riches, and that He has many, many riches. And included in that, I think, mentioned now three times, He’s kind. His intent is kind. Sometimes His ways don’t seem to be kind, but His intent is kind. There’s kindness in your God, and there’s the intention toward kindness. Now, I know that doesn’t mean a whole lot to you now, and that’s why when I leave here, I want you brothers and sisters to swim in this, because you need to, one day, as one person, as one body, as one person in Constance, to remind one another.