When you think about your salvation, beloved, there's only one direction you can go with your

Thanksgiving, and that's toward God. He chose us in Christ before the world was made. So it's all

of His will, it's all of His purpose, it has nothing to do with us, and it's all for his glory.

Welcome to Grace to You, featuring the Bible teaching of John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson.

You probably know about the doctrine of salvation by grace alone.

In other words, that sinners like us are saved only by God's unmerited favor and not because of anything we do. But what about when you first

believed in Christ? When you turned to him in faith, didn't that depend on you? It's an important

question, and it affects how you view the nature of your faith in Christ.

Today, John MacArthur helps you understand this foundational truth from the book of Ephesians.

And as I mentioned yesterday, today's lesson was chosen by a staff member here at Grace to You

as John MacArthur's Most Memorable Sermon. That's the title of this brand new series.

And now, with his lesson called The Sovereignty of God in Salvation, here is John

MacArthur.

Ephesians, Chapter 1, and I invite you to turn there in your Bible, if you will.

Ephesians Chapter 1, and I want to read in your hearing verses 3 through 14.

This great peon of praise from the heart of the Apostle Paul is not a cool documentation of some

theological argument. It is the passion and overflow of his own thankful heart. It appears in the

original as if there's no break at all. And while some of the translators have chosen to put

commas and periods, it doesn't seem in the original that there's any stopping point from

verse 3 through 14.

He just continues to allow his heart under the inspiration of the Spirit of God to gush out praise for the God who has saved him.

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