+I. God chose and predestinated these Ephesian Christians before the foundation of the world.+--We must not so conceive of God's election and the influence of His grace as to set aside our free agency and final accountableness; nor must we so explain away God's sovereignty and grace as to exalt man to a state of independence. Now, so far as the grace of God in the salvation of sinners is absolute and unconditional, election or predestination is so, and no farther. If we consider election as it respects the final bestowment of salvation, it is plainly conditional. To imagine that God chooses some to eternal life without regard to their faith and holiness is to suppose that some are saved without these qualifications or saved contrary to His purpose. God hath chosen us to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. +II. Consider the spiritual qualifications to which the Ephesians were chosen.+--"To be holy and without blame before Him in love" (ver. 4). Holiness consists in the conformity of the soul to the Divine nature and will and is opposed to all moral evil. Love is a most essential part of the character of the saint. Charity out of a pure heart is the end of the commandment. Without charity all our pretensions to Gospel holiness are vain. +III. Consider the adoption to which believers are predestinated+ (ver. 5).--Our sonship is not our native right, but the effect of God's gracious adoption. 1. _It implies a state of freedom in opposition to bondage._ Believers are free as being delivered from the bondage of sin, and as having near access to God and intimate communion with Him. Children are usually admitted to that familiar intercourse which is denied to servants. 2. _Adoption brings us under the peculiar care of God's providence._ 3. _Includes a title to a glorious resurrection from the dead and to an eternal inheritance in the heavens._ If believers are the children of God, then their temper must be a childlike temper, a temper corresponding to their relation, condition, and character. +IV. That all spiritual blessings are derived to us through Christ+ (vers. 5, 6). +V. The reason of God's choosing believers in Christ and predestinating them to adoption is the good pleasure of His will+ (ver. 5).--If we admit we are sinful, fallen creatures, unworthy of God's favour and insufficient for our own redemption, then our salvation must ultimately be resolved into God's good pleasure. There is no other source from which it can be derived. If death is our desert, our deliverance must be by grace.