 So to start, I'll reread verses three through six here. It 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. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself. As sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved. Our sermon this morning is the Father's glorious grace. And what a beautiful text this is, isn't it? What Paul has written for us here is an Old Testament Jewish style eulogy. We're not talking about a funeral message here. This is a specific type of construction that you see in the Bible. The first one we actually see way back in Genesis 14 with Melchizedek. And it has a structure of, Blessed be the God who fill in the blank. Then it speaks of God's wondrous works, his wondrous character, all that is wonderful about him and what he has done. And that's what Paul is doing right here. He gives us a long, extended Jewish style, Old Testament style eulogy. And he very carefully puts together this exaltation of Christ. This is not a spontaneous expression of praise from Paul. There's multiple themes running through it. He, from verses three all the way through 14, we see Paul praising each person of the Trinity in order. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We see the Father as the origin, the goal, the source of all of our spiritual blessings. We see that in his election and adoption, all who are saved are saved by the Father's decree. We see the Son as the mediator and the Redeemer, the one who we are in union with. We see the Spirit who applies and marks the believer through regeneration and his indwelling. It's by the Spirit that you look like your Father. It's by the Spirit that your salvation is guaranteed. The Spirit is the guarantee, the seal of the Father on his people. And in this eulogy, we see all the benefits provided via our union with the Lord Jesus Christ. You see union with Christ all throughout this text. It's a fundamental root of our salvation, union with Christ as we learned last week. It's an inseparable, intimate union that we have with Jesus Christ applied by the Spirit of God. And you specifically see it in phrases like in him, in Christ, in whom referring to Christ, in the beloved. All that the Father does for us is done for us in Christ. We being in union with Christ. This is a clear theme in all of Paul's thinking here. So Paul, he carefully constructs this beautiful eulogy. He carefully constructs it. This is not a whim. So when you see something carefully constructed, what should your next question be? Your next question should be, what is the purpose of this? Why is this given to me? He's trying to get something across to us, isn't he? He's trying to show you something. And in this eulogy, Paul is doing triple duty. He's showing us who we are in Christ. If you're a genuine Christian, you can look at this eulogy and you can see who you are in the Lord Jesus Christ. You can see exactly what it is that the Father has done for you. You can see exactly what it is that Christ has done for you. Exactly how the spirit applies that work for you. He's also inviting you to praise God with him. He's not praising God just for himself. This isn't some private praise that Paul is offering here. He's praising God, hoping that you would praise God with him. And he's also, thirdly, establishing an argument for the rest of this book. Everything in the book of Ephesians rests on this eulogy. Your faith starts here. Your faith starts with the work of the Father for you, these spiritual blessings. So I pray that you would see it. Now think about this. Paul, he constructs this in the eulogy too, not just because he wants you to see the details of your salvation. He wants you to see the beauty of your salvation. He wants you to see it in all of its splendor. It's one thing to have a diamond in your hand and to be able to cut every angle and to instruct someone to cut every angle. But it's another thing after cutting that diamond to stand back and to see it sparkle. It's one thing to prepare some food or to read a recipe, but it's another thing to taste it, to put it in your mouth and let it go down smooth. It's one thing to understand the details of the truth of your salvation. But it is a whole another thing to see the beauty and to see the splendor of it, to see all of the glory that ought to be ascribed to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for their work in your redemption. Is your mouth watering yet? Are you ready to eat? This is spiritual food, folks. In this text, we will see three things. In verse three, we'll see how we ought to praise the Father for every spiritual blessing. In verses four and five, we see how we ought to praise the Father for his election and adoption. And in verse six, we'll see how we ought to praise the Father for his glorious grace. So let's read verse three. It 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. This word blessed in the beginning, it's an adjective, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the Bible, you see the word blessed a lot, but in the Greek, there's many different words that can contribute to that word blessed, and it can mean something in every different place. In this particular place, it's the word eulogatos. It's an adjective that's only ever used in reference to God. This is not used in reference to men. A man is never described as blessed in this way using this adjective. This is different from the blessing that you see in the Beatitudes, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the merciful. That's a different word. That particular word means happy or fortunate due to your circumstances, due to something good that has happened to you. But what Paul is doing in this case is he is a blessing in God. He is saying, I ascribe praise and honor to my God. And when we see this, we should see what we ought to ascribe praise and honor to our God for. And he doesn't just use the word blessed once in this verse, does he? He uses it three times. But really, it's not the same exact word. One's an adjective, one's a noun, one's a verb. He's doing triple duty here. He's literally saying, blessed is the Lord who blessed us with his blessing. And just as you see in this text, blessed, blessed, blessing. In the Greek, someone who read Greek would see that as well. They would see the obvious play on words here. So Paul is getting our attention. He's giving us some emphasis here. He's showing us how God the Father is worthy of praise. He's also showing how we receive blessing from him, not in terms of praise or ascribing glory to us, but we receive benefits from him. And then in turn, we receive, he blesses us and he blesses us by giving us blessings. And he's going to, and then this is a header statement, this verse, and then the rest from verses four all the way through 14, he describes this beautiful blessing that all believers receive. So this is a triple blessing. This is an all-encompassing blessing. He not only says there's a blessing here, but he shows us that it's, he says, it's every spiritual blessing. This is an immeasurable gift. Speaking of the benefits of salvation, all that is available in God to give to men, believers receive in Christ. If you look with me a little further down in the chapter, starting at verse 15, you'll see a little bit of how this blessing of salvation and all that pertains to our salvation is immeasurable. He says this, for this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation of knowledge of him. Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. And look at this here. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe? According to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named. Not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church. He's given to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. This is the riches of his glorious inheritance. Immeasurable greatness of power toward those who believe. This blessing from God cannot be quantified. You cannot put a number on it. You cannot put a price tag on it. Salvation is an immeasurable gift. It's not something you can return and receive a refund on because you can't quantify it. And it is secured by Christ and praised the Lord for Jesus Christ. Gave himself up to death and raised and is seated now at the right hand of God in the heavenly places. He says, this is not just every blessing though. He says that we've received every spiritual blessing. And when we see the word spiritual in the New Testament that should peak up your ears. A lot of times when people think of spiritual, they think of in the spirit realm, not something you can see, not something that's physical, not concrete, think of something ethereal. A lot of people think too, something extra pious, something that you can attach a little mystical morality to. But when you see spiritual in the New Testament, your primary thought should be that that is pertaining to the Holy Spirit. I should remind you of First Corinthians chapter two, you know, when Paul, he contrasts the natural man and the spiritual man. He's not saying this guy particularly is bad and this guy is good. He's not saying this guy is a concrete guy, somebody you can see and this guy exists in another dimension. He's saying this guy doesn't have the spirit in dwelling him and this guy has the spirit in dwelling him. And so when we look at spiritual blessings here, we're talking about those blessings that come by nature of the spirit of God. They're pertaining to the spirit of God. They are dispensed according to the work of the Holy Spirit. They are applied to the believer by the work of the Holy Spirit. We're blessing, it is every blessing, this is every spiritual blessing. Consider also here in this one verse, the significance of Christ's sonship. Notice how Paul doesn't just refer to the Father merely by title. He doesn't say, blessed be the Father who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. 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. He refers very clearly, not just to the Father's title, but he refers to the relationship between the Father and the Son. Paul understands our dependence upon that relationship. We depend upon the relationship between the Father and the Son. There is no understanding of the Father without the Son. There is no knowledge of the Father, but through the Son. There's no blessing from the Father, but through the Son. There's no relationship with the Father. There's no love from the Father, but through the Son. No benefit. In fact, understanding the Father's relationship with the Son and thinking about what we learned last week about union with Christ. The relationship between the Father and the Son is what gives union with Christ, its teeth. Being in Christ would mean nothing if Christ were not the Son. And Paul understands that. Paul understands that. And this spiritual blessing we see here in verse three is in the heavenly places. Just as we read in verses 15 through 23, that's where Christ is. That's where Christ is, where he sits at the right hand of God. This blessing, these every spiritual blessings that we receive, they will not go away. They're secure. They're not tied to this earthly existence of ours. These blessings are for this age and the age to come. They are here and they will always be here. They will not go away. And they dwell with Christ. So Paul is setting us up here. Like I said before, this statement is a header. This is a header statement for the rest of this eulogy. And this statement alone is rich, is it not considering you are blessed by God the Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he's blessed you with every spiritual blessing, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. How beautiful is that? How beautiful? That's a rich, a rich thought. Does that excite you, my brother? Do you meditate upon things like that? How often do you meditate on the benefits that you have received from the Father? How often is it that you meditate on what you have received in Christ? Do you meditate on his love for you? Have you ever sat down and just thought about it? What a thought that the infinite, the divine Father has decided that he would love a wicked sinner like yourself if you're a genuine Christian. The Christian receiving the fullness of love from him. Have you ever meditated on that? What would that do to you if you had meditated on that often? How easily we forget such a central truth? If you don't meditate on that, what is it that you meditate on? What is it that you think about otherwise? I tell you what, I don't think Paul having written this would be as distracted as we are about current events. I think if Paul were amongst us today, I don't think he would be spending a lot of time on Facebook. I'm not saying Facebook's a sin, I didn't say that. But you know what, he wouldn't distract himself. He wouldn't distract himself with all the chaos and politics. He wouldn't distract himself with riots. He wouldn't distract himself with black lives matter. It's not that he wouldn't have an opinion. It's not that he wouldn't have something biblical to say about it, but I tell you what, if we all meditated on truths like this, it makes all of that stuff look very, very small. Does it not? Very small. Brethren, let's meditate on the goodness of God to us. Let's meditate on the works of God for us. Let's meditate on these things that he has delivered to us in his word. Considering that meditation, that was our first point. Praise the Father for every spiritual blessing. Praise his name. Now let's look. Let's look now at some of the content of these blessings. We're gonna look at the initial works of the Father. And we're going to get to our second point here where we will praise the Father for his election and his adoption. Verse four, starting at verse four, it reads, even as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. People bristle against this truth, don't they? They don't like this, God's sovereign election. The fact that the God who has created all things, the divine one, the one who is, has chosen what he desires, they don't like that. Why don't they like that? Why is that so unpopular? That's because we want control in our flesh, don't we? In our sin, we want to be God in our flesh, in our sin. But he is God, he is sovereign, he is king. When you think through it, it's not that hard to understand why it's unpopular. And I tell you what, it is a dangerous thing to deny sovereign election. It is a dangerous thing to claim, to take anything away from the Father's choosing. It is a heresy, one, but not only is this a heresy to deny that God chooses who he wills to save. Falling into the heresy of taking away his election will cause you to fall into all kinds of heresies. Think of all of the errors that arise from that. I know when I was a child, I was taught, I was taught that I can choose God, that I can make my way to him, that if I prayed a sinner's prayer, that I would be right with God, that it was up to me, it was up to me to know Christ. It was up, my salvation was up to me. Many people are still taught that. And how foolish that is. Especially considering how little power you have. And even that's not a right statement, right? Little isn't the right word. You have zero power. You have zero ability to choose God. You and your sin, as it says in Ephesians chapter two, just one chapter later from here, you're dead in sin, apart from Christ. You cannot choose him, you cannot save yourself. You cannot conjure up faith in your own heart. You cannot conjure up repentance in your own heart. You cannot choose him. God is the one who was sovereign. He is the one who chooses. And he does whatever he pleases. And people hear that, people hear that. And it sounds real bad to them. But to the Christian, what a comforting doctrine. What a comforting thing to know that you are chosen by God. It's a love that you have never seen before. What reason would God have to choose you? Tell me, zero. You know, sometimes I think, I think of all the people I grew up with. I think of all the false religion I was involved in and exposed to. I can think of many more people, more talented than me in many areas, richer, more popular, more useful. And God has chosen me. And I'm not saying that to say God has a choice between us. You know, God has chosen who he would create as well. I'm not saying, and when I say God doesn't have a choice between us, what I mean is, is that God is not given a lineup by someone else to choose from. God chooses according to his own purposes, even before the foundation of this world as we'll get into. But man, if you are a Christian, what a blessed thing to know that you are chosen by God. What love is that? A decree that cannot be broken. A choice that cannot be undone. And who did God choose you through if you're a genuine Christian? He says here, in Christ, in Christ he has chosen you. All the benefits that come to you from the Father come to you in Christ. You are incorporated in Christ, in union with Christ. And this election in him, in him, in union with Christ has benefits being in Christ, in union with him. When he chose you before the foundation of the world, you were in him. This means you were tied spiritually in his work. When Christ died, you died with him. When he raised, you were raised with him. That's why in Colossians 3, when it talks about being raised with Christ, he's able to speak of that past tense. You were raised with Christ. So when Christ was raised, you were raised. You have not realized that fully yet. But it has happened in him. It's not just a legal thing either. It's not just a declaration. Of being in him. You really were in him. It's a spiritual and mysterious and beautiful union being in Christ. So when was this choice made? It says here in this text, before the foundation of the world. God's decision was a free choice. God didn't wait for you to do something. His choice wasn't based upon something you would or could do. Something that you would or could believe. No, God's choice was without influence. God is not a God who can be compelled to do anything. And he has done this before the foundation of the world. Some people like to misuse words like for ordained, as we see in other texts. And they like to say that God looked through the corridors of time, see what you would do. See you have faith and then he chose you based upon that. That's not what Ephesians says here. He chose you in Christ before the foundation of the world. Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated. That choice was not based on anything that they did, good or bad. God does whatever he pleases. And what is the purpose? What's the purpose of this choosing here? It's that you would be holy and blameless without spot, without blemish before him. Suggest that you once, this actually suggests that you once were unholy and worthy of blame. But the Father has chosen that you would have your sin taken away in Christ. Your blame cast upon the cross. Your sin being nailed to the cross that you would bear no more. Praise the Lord. And you receive his righteousness. You receive the righteousness of Christ being in him. All starting, all starting after the decree before the foundation of the world. God has decreed it. And from that decree, all these things flow. Praise the Father. Being holy and blameless here too, it suggests a responsibility. When he says that we should be holy and blameless, this in Greek is a present tense infinitive. It indicates an ongoing work. God's people are being made holy now as we speak. And we'll realize the fullness of this holiness, the fullness of being blameless. So it's not, it's not, this takes away any claim of saying, I am chosen in Christ. I am one of his and then living an unholy life. Those who live unholy are proving by their lives that they are not his. How was your life, brother? What is the ongoing work in your life? Are you heading to destruction? Or are you being made holy? What is the fruit of your life? But there's more purpose here. It's not just that you will be holy and blameless. It gets even better. God has predestined you. He has determined beforehand that you will be adopted as a son or as a daughter of his. This isn't just love from God choosing you for salvation, choosing you to be free from your sin. He gives you the immense privilege of adoption. You're brought into his family. You get all of the rights and privileges of being a son of God, brought into a royal family, a finite person brought into a divine family. How is that? You have no right to this, no right to this sonship, but he bestows it upon you. You have no right to even conceive of this, but he bestows it upon you. If you're Christian, you are a child of God. If you are born of God, you are a child of God. All the rights and privileges of the son, complete access to the father. That's why Christ can tell his disciples to pray our father because they are his sons. So then the question arises, do we share the sonship of Christ? Are you somehow rolled in to the trinity? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. No, Christ's sonship is an eternal sonship. Christ never became the son. Christ is the son. And he always was the son. And we don't take on divine essence by this sonship that we have. It's a different relationship. In fact, Christ even speaks of our relationship differently. Like he never alludes to us sharing the same relationship exactly as he has with the father. When you think of him instructing the disciples on the Lord's prayer, he tells them, he tells them that they should pray our father. But one thing Christ never does, he never refers to other men and refers to the father as our father collectively. In fact, in John 20, when Christ speaks to Mary Magdalene, he's talking about how he's going to ascend into heaven. He says, he will ascend, he said, I will ascend to my father and your father. I will ascend to my God and your God. It's the same person of the trinity by whom we are sons too. So Christ is a son to the same person of the trinity that we are sons too. But it is not the same relationship. It is a different relationship. And that's why he can't tell Mary Magdalene, I'm going to ascend to our father. He doesn't say that. But all that said, our adoption, it depends on our union with Christ and it depends on his sonship, on his sonship to the father. And as the father loves him, he loves us. What a wonderful thought. The same infinite love that the father loves the son with, you have from the father. And even in Hebrews 10, I think this is one of the strongest statements in scripture, how Christ is not ashamed to call his brother. Praise the Lord. So thinking of election, what is the disposition of this election and adoption? He says it's the purpose of his will, or his good pleasure in some of your translations, or his kind intention. It's that there's a tenderness in this term. Paul's overlapping words to make a point here. He's not just saying that God wills our election and adoption. He's saying, he's showing that God delights in our election and adoption. God does will this. He doesn't bow to men. He doesn't ask advice. God has nothing to prove to anyone. When the wicked attempts to usurp him, he laughs. He laughs at the vain attempts to usurp him. But at the same time, he delights in electing his people. This is the good pleasure of his will. He delights in making you his sons and daughters. The good pleasure of his will. And this isn't a passion of God. This is even better. This is a settled, infinite, tender kindness from God towards you if you're a believer. He delights in you, his people. He delights in his sons and daughters. And he has delighted in his decree. He has delighted in his choice. And this delight, again, is not a passion. This is according to his character. This is according to who he is. This is an infinite delight in you, his children. So how are we to react to this? We're to react with praise. Do truths like these not warm your heart? Does it not warm your heart to know that you are a son or daughter of God, that you have been adopted, that you have been chosen by God before the foundation of the world? A choice that you couldn't on your best day and your best thought give a reason for. Instead, in the good pleasure of his will, he has chosen you. So often we act as if we've received nothing. You know, I make a joke every once in a while about being rich. You know, I'll joke with my kids and you know, if there's something that looks like it might cost a little bit, I'll tell them I'm rich. And you know, then I'll explain to them, hey, we're Americans, you know, all Americans are rich. You look at the rest of the world, you know, even the poorest American is rich, you know? I tell you what, we brethren are rich. We have received an immeasurable gift. How foolish is it for us to walk around and act as if we've received nothing? How foolish is it for the Christian to complain or to despair, knowing that the father loves you? How foolish is it not to put away your sin, knowing the father loves you? We are rich and we've been given great riches. You've been brought into a family who you deserve no part of, no part of. You don't even deserve to talk to anyone in this family that you're in. But you have been brought in and made a son or daughter. One day you will reign and sit on the same throne that Christ sits on. What a blessing. And Paul, Paul, considering his blessing in verse six, he gets to our next point where we praise the father for his glorious grace. Verse six, he says, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. All of this culminates in the praise of his glorious grace. The whole point of meditating upon and considering these things is to ascribe praise to God, your father. God is glorified in this grace. His character is revealed clearly. His grace is glorious because it manifests who he is in his person, the father. All who understand anything about this grace, they bless the Lord. They bless the Lord like Paul does. By this grace, we are blessed, but not just blessed. He says, we're blessed in the beloved. In some of your Bibles, it says blessed. In some of it, some of them, it says bestowed or made us accepted. But all in all, in the Greek, it means he literally, he graced us to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has graced us in the beloved. Again, Paul using that play on words to get our attention here. And what or who is this beloved here? You know who it is. It's Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the beloved. Again, all of this comes by our union with him. All of this blessing from the father comes in our union with Christ, intimately tied with him the whole way through, incorporated in him. All your benefits for salvation start here. The basis, even for your sanctification, it starts here, understanding this. Is God not worthy of our praise? Is his glorious grace, should we not speak of this all the time? All the time? Should we not think of this all the time? It should be, we should be aggravated. To others, not getting enough of this. Not getting enough of this truth. You see, we aren't like the angels. We aren't like the angels where they look at God's grace. They see God's grace. They see God's grace towards men. And they praise God for what they can see. But we have a double duty to praise because unlike the angels, we praise God for what we can see, but all that we see, we have received. It's not just that God is gracious. God has graced you. Praise God for his glorious grace. You have received a gift, an immeasurable gift, a gift for which you can not praise him enough. You have received an immeasurable gift. So my brothers, my brother, what should you do understanding this grace? What should you do understanding the love expressed for you, thinking of the father's election of you, thinking of his adoption that you are a son or daughter? This is a truth to die for, is it not? This is worth your life. This is a hill to die on. This is something for which there can be nothing else to come in the way. This is worth losing everything. And Christians in the past half, they lost everything over truths like this. This is the type of truth that if taken away should righteously make you angry. This is the kind of truth that if taken away will lead you to despair. This is a truth worth dying for. What would you hold on to in place of this truth or rather what are you holding on to in place of this truth? This is also a truth that will cause you to have a holy ambition. This is not a truth that you would sit back on your couch and simply meditate on for hours and just go about your day. This is a truth that upon meditating on it will cause you to get up and work for your Lord. It would cause you to think carefully and creatively of how you can evangelize for him. How you can be faithful to him. How you can serve your brother. Holy ambition, particularly those of you who were younger, those of you who are in your late teens, early 20s. How do you use your time? This is the type of truth that should make you ambitious. One day your time is going to go away. You'll get married, have children and you will wish that you use this time more faithfully. But knowing the Father's love for you, would you work for him? Knowing his love for you, would you love him? Knowing your sonship before him, knowing that you are his son or a daughter, would you live for him and have a holy ambition? Would you give of yourself for him and not waste your time in frivolous things? It's the type of truth that will cause you to not fear the faces of others. If the Father loves you, what fear would you have on what someone else thinks? You work for him. The man, I'm going to preach this gospel to ex-person. They might hate me for it. Father loves me. I'm his son. I'm his daughter. I'm going to live for him. It's the type of truth that will cause you to battle your sin and not make excuse for your sin. Can you say with good conscience that the Father loves you and that you love the Father yet you hold on to that secret sin? That secret sin maybe no one knows about. Would you get rid of that sin, knowing the love of the Father for you? Would you repent? Would you seek him in his word? Knowing the love of the Father for you, knowing that he has done it in Christ, would you not open up your Bible and say, I want to know him? I want to know more of my Lord Jesus Christ. You know what? That movie can wait. Facebook can wait. TikTok or whatever can wait. I just heard a TikTok. These things can wait. It takes the shine off of all the treasures of this world, this love of the Father. Those houses, those cars, those fancy things that you can amass for yourself, you know, all those things that will burn up one day, those things, they just pale. They become dull and dim. They become really, really small when you understand the Father's love for you in Christ. Brethren, I exhort you to live for your Lord who has loved you. Love him in return and love each other in return. Now I know too, when thinking about the love of the Father in election, there's always a group of people who struggle. And this group of people, they look at doctrines like this and they say, man, this is beautiful. But how do I know this is for me? How do I know that when he speaks of the love of the Father, that I'm the son, that I'm the daughter, that he loves me. And this isn't the time that I'm gonna tell you you're a Christian. What I'd say to you is seek the Lord in prayer. Seek him for clarity. Seek him for who he is. When you read this text, do you see an ogre in it? Do you see a God who does not care for his people? When you read through the Gospels, do you not see a tender savior offering salvation to the worst of sinners? Seek him for who he is. And don't be lazy about it. In fact, many people lack assurance because of their laziness. Because they won't seek the Lord. They won't make their calling an election sure. Instead, they sit back and worry. But they ought to seek the Lord in prayer and seek the Lord in repentance and faith. Christ said, those of you who are fathers, if your son asked you for a fish, would you give him a serpent? Would you give him, if he asked you for an egg, would you give him a scorpion? If you asked your heavenly father for the Holy Spirit, would he not give him to you? Seek him, seek him for salvation. Seek him, he is not an ogre. And may he bring clarity. Perhaps you are one of his. And may he shower that love upon you. And may you see it with your eyes. And may you live for him. Those of you who are children, teenagers, you might think this is for adults. But I see anything in this text for adults. This is for all people. God elects children. He saves children. You're not a special class of people if you're a child or a teenager. You're just a people. You're people just like everyone else. And God calls you to repentance just like he calls everyone else. He's not afraid to save a child and he's not afraid to send the child to hell. Would you turn to him? This passage applies to all. That love of the father is not for only for adults. That love of the father is for children. It's for those of you who are old. Lastly, there's those of you. You're unsaved. You know you're unsaved. You know you don't have Christ. You know it. You live according to what you know. You know you don't have him. Don't use the father's election as an excuse. Don't say, you're not gonna be able to stand before God on a day of judgment and say, I'm not yours because you didn't choose me. There may be some truth to that. He is the one who chooses. But he's never commanded you to ponder whether you're elect or not. He has given you a command to repent and believe the gospel. You're culpable for your own sin. If you go to hell, the reason you go to hell is because you're a sinner and you deserved it. I exhort you to respond in faith, respond to repentance and look at what is available to you in Christ from the father to be loved by him. The father saves even the worst of sinners. There's not a sinner in this room whose God's power is not powerful enough to save. So I beseech each of you to repent, consider your life before God, consider the love of Christ to his people, consider what is available to you in Christ and turn to him in faith. Live for him with your whole heart. It's worth it, is it not? It's worth it. Let's love him and praise him for his glorious grace. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I will praise you for your glorious grace. How good and kind and tender you are to we your people. Lord God, help us to live for you. I don't think a person in this room who is honest with themselves can say that they understand the love of God and they have lived perfectly according to what they understand. Lord, by the power of your Holy Spirit, work in us, work in us this holiness, work in us this blamelessness. For those who are not yours, Lord, grant them faith and repentance. Save them by your power. May they be yours. May they experience and know the immeasurable riches of your grace toward them in Jesus Christ. Bless your name, Lord. And may we, your people, honor you with our lives. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.