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I did our father.
We are thankful for the work that the Lord Jesus has accomplished. We thank you that redemption is complete.
And that he is risen. We pray that as we're about to open your word, that you would lead us. We would wait on you.
And that.
We each might.
Understand more what He has done for us.
And how we stand in him.
But also we pray that we would be in the present good of it, enjoying.
Himself.
And what he has accomplished on our behalf. We ask this now, Father, in the name of your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus, Amen.
We've had quite a bit about our standing brethren, and I wonder if maybe we could take up Ephesians 1.
Unless there's something else that.
Is on somebody's heart. Did you have something, Brother Bill? No. That sounds very good, brother Bob.
There's always plenty in Ephesians 1.
Ephesians, chapter one.
All an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God to the Saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.
Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings.
In heavenly places, in Christ, according as He hath chosen us, in Him before the foundation of the world.
That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.
Wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He hath purposed in Himself. That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him.
Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory, Who first trusted in Christ?
In whom ye also trusted. After that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
Which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of His glory. Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the Saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling.
And what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints? And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us Word, who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when He raised him from the dead?
And set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that dwelleth All in all.
Perhaps no other scripture is so full of our spiritual.
Heritage Brethren, as it says in verse 3, here He's blessed us.
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With all spiritual blessing, every spiritual blessing.
Is ours right now, whether you understand it, whether you enjoy it is another matter. But brethren, it's ours because it's in Christ. And that's the expression we find again and again in the book of Ephesians. You are a believer in the Lord Jesus. You are in Christ.
And therefore this is all yours.
Children of Israel went into the land of Canaan to possess him. They had to put their feet on it to possess it. And that's the challenge, brethren. We can talk about these things, but let's let it sink down into our hearts and enjoyment. These things are ours that we talk about every spiritual blessing. We are living in a materialistic.
Culture.
And so everything is measured pretty much about how you prosper materially. And it's a distraction, I must say. I have been challenged by my brethren in Latin America, some of whom are poor, materially speaking, I'll never forget.
In the home of a very poor brother.
Sitting down at the table because there is no other place to sit in the house.
And the brother didn't have any nice house to show us around in, didn't have any nice vehicle out front to show us that. He picked up his Bible and he opened it and I thought he was starting to read. Afterwards I understood he didn't know how to read.
Sometimes he had his Bible upside down, but he said that I'll never forget. Brethren, the.
Joy that radiated from that black face, the Dominican Republic had happened.
And that was a challenge to me. Rather in material, things get way too much in the way.
Of our spiritual heritage and God wants to bring us into the enjoyment of it.
So may the Lord help us in this chapter. It's like you say, brother who prayed at the first make you say it's we have to we have to really chew on it and there's so much here to enjoy.
Sometimes I get questions about, well, what are these spiritual blessings that are ours? Then what does it mean? The Darby translation says in the heavenlies.
What does that mean? And what are those spiritual blessings? Sometimes when I was young, they seemed kind of, I say it with all reverence, but they seemed kind of nebulous to me as to what they were and where they were. And how would you explain that, Brother Bob? You suggested the chapter. And what are those spiritual blessings? And.
And.
You said that Israel entered into the land of Canaan.
And we know that entering into the land was, in that sense a type of our entering into the enjoyment of our spiritual blessings. But.
That was something concrete. It was land, and they had to put their feet on it. It was all theirs, but they had to enter, possess and dwell in it. But what are those spiritual blessings? Or at least what? How could we explain that? And.
And.
Where do we get them? Not that not where do we get them, but how do we get them?
In the enjoyment of them, that is. Well, we have a list of them here in this chapter, don't we? And just to mention one of them.
Yeah, verse seven, we have redemption. We have it through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Brother Bill, do you have the forgiveness of sins? Yes, I do.
Please show me some document or something please that I can see it materially.
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The only document we have is right here.
Yeah, it's possessed by faith, isn't it? It is an amazing thing, brethren. And I find so many believers in their simplicity. And I don't want to be critical, but in different parts of the Christian profession, you hear them pray. Oh Lord, forgive us our sins and.
We have it. We don't have to ask for it. We have it. And so it's it's a wonderful thing to let it sink down in your soul. We don't have to ask for the forgiveness of our sins.
We have it and there are other scriptures that can be given to. Sometimes people say, well, what do you do if your sin is a believer?
By first John chapter one is pretty clear. You confess, but confess is not asking for forgiveness.
Confession is a different matter and that's what's necessary in the life of a believer. If he lets, he gives in to sin. But we have the forgiveness of sins. And so there are many others here too that we can mention. Just like to mention in the first verse there it says by the will of God, and I think it's four times that you have the will of God.
Mentioned in this chapter.
It's God's purpose, Brendan.
It's the purpose that he had before the foundation of the world, and it's wonderful to let that sink into our souls. It's not a matter of who I am, it's a matter of who He is. What kind of a God do we have? He's a God of love. He's a God of light, and He's revealed himself for that purpose. And he has a will. He has a purpose.
In our lives just to show the other places in the end of verse 5.
Says Having predestinated us unto the adoption of the of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according.
To the good pleasure of His will. And then, verse 9. Having made known unto us the mystery of His will.
Verse 11. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the council of his own will. Let that sink in, brother. And in the first chapter we don't have the will of man at all.
We have the will of God. What is that will? It's like a vast stream of blessing that comes.
In from what we call the past eternity and flows through the course of time.
And into that future day of glory, oh brethren, what a tremendous thing.
To know our God and His purpose is a blessing for us. You don't get the will of man until the next chapter. The first verses speaks about the.
The children of disobedience and the We all had our conversation in times past, and the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. So you don't have the will of man until you get to the second chapter. Let's keep this in mind as we.
Talk about these wonderful places, brethren. It's so rich.
They enjoyment of those spiritual blessings. May the Lord grant that we might let it sink down into our hearts.
I think it might be good to.
In verse four, it says according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. And you know, when we think about that, if you if you go to Matthew 25, there are those that were chosen out from the foundation of the world. But here it's before the foundation of the world. And this should exercise our hearts because in eternity before there ever was anything.
Before there was an earth, before we were here. God has chosen those inside this room.
Do you have an eternal blessing to have these blessings that were being talked about here?
And it should awaken the responsibility to occupy ourselves and to really think about.
That we were chosen out. We're the most blessed people on the planet. There's nobody like us.
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Nobody but the church has this.
I'm not saying that there's not others that will be found to be in heaven or to be with Christ, but us as a unique people.
God has chosen us out in him before the foundation of the world, and that should exercise us. It should give us to realize just how special these things are. They've been given to us.
And some brother mentioned about walking in them. It's it's an important thing to take possession in in Deuteronomy 26.
There's a verse that says that.
Umm.
It says in verse one. And it shall be when thou art come into the land.
Which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
That you need to take possession of it and then it says and to dwell there.
So this is this is true of us. We have an inheritance.
But do we embrace it? Do we take possession of it and do we meditate about it? Is it really ours? And as we we take this up, we have the privilege to do that. We have the privilege of of being glorifying God for what he has done to bless us. So.
Verse three says Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It begins here because at first, and properly so, we get occupied with our blessing and what we have. And this morning we're going to enjoy some of our blessings and what has been given to us. But as we grow, we will learn that what's more pleasure to our hearts than the blessing?
Is to know the blesser, and that goes beyond the blessing.
Paul said that I might know him and the power of his resurrection.
As Paul grew in his Christian life, he became more and more occupied with knowing the Lord Jesus than anything else and to know the power of his resurrection, which is the foundation of Christianity. But having said that, Paul here says.
As He had in verse 4, chosen us, and the first blessings that are given are in the fourth verse. What's that blessing chosen us? That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. That's a foundation spiritual blessing to be able to be before God.
And be seen in his eyes as holy.
And if we are, then we can enjoy His love.
As long as there's any doubt in our souls as to where we stand with God.
We don't enter into our spiritual blessings very much, but when we recognize that God has done a work for us and in us through the Lord Jesus Christ that now presents us as holy before his eye, the one holy eye, if you will of all, then we street it as a tremendous blessing. And it's a foundation. It's the 1St.
And so it says if I'm holy, then I'm without blame before him.
That is, He looks upon me, and I recognize He looks upon me, not looking for sin that's been dealt with before His holy eye, that's been taken care of. And so if I'm without blame, then I can enjoy the blessing of His love, and I can say I'm without blame before Him in love and enjoy.
What's in his heart again? The blessing is more important than the blesser.
And we want to get to know the supreme joy of our hearts.
Is to know the joy of the Father's heart and the joy of his Son, and when we have the same joys that the Father and the Son have, will be blessed in our souls when we enjoy it beyond anything else that we can have. And so having said that, then the next one in verse 5 is.
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Predestined, that is, chosen us ahead of time.
For what?
The adoption of children.
Can you think of any better family to be in than God has chosen to make you one of His children?
And that you now call him your father and you know that relationship with him.
That's a blessing that is a spiritual blessing that is yours and mine to this morning address God as Father and to know I I didn't choose the family I'm part of.
My parents didn't even choose me in a personal way. They got what came, but it's not true with God.
God knowing you before he founded the world and knowing how you'd be and what you'd act like in your sins as a child of Adam, God put his love upon you and said, I'm going to make you my child.
And I'm going to bring you into a relationship with myself that you can enjoy love with me.
Without the question of sin at all, but to enjoy it in perfect holiness.
And yes, there are things that hinder the fullness of it yet, and I'll make one more comment and stop. And that is because there was nothing at work in the Ephesian assembly that was a hindrance to it. It gave God the liberty to present to the Saints in Ephesus.
The highest truth that is found in the Word of God.
But if there is something in our lives that is, and there can easily be something that hinders.
Then God has to work on us first before He can bring us into the enjoyment of the spiritual blessings. So if you're not enjoying Him this morning, it may be that there is something in you that God in love is going to work on you to remove it. But until it's removed, it's a hindrance to you from truly entering into what God's desires in His.
Individual fellowship with you and with you as part of the body of Christ.
Before I get too far along, I'd like to mention in verse one brethren, it says to the Saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Sometimes people think that there are two groups that are mentioned here really is the same.
Those that are Saints set apart, ones are the faithful. That's in when we're born into God's family. That's the characteristic.
Of a believer in the Lord Jesus. He acts in faith and so it's really.
Every true believer has faith. What measure? Well, the Lord can show you.
And sometimes he has to say to us, oh, you have little faith, but.
The point is, we still have some faith, and that's what's characteristic of every true believer. They're the they are Saints and they are the faithful in Christ Jesus.
And going to verse three, brethren, I want to say a little bit more about this.
All spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
And that is kind of like he's mentioned brother Bill, a challenge to take in because we are.
Are taught from right the youngest on to value.
Material things, and there is some value in material things. I don't say there's not.
But our blessings, brethren, are not material.
They are spiritual and so we have material things, but I like to put them under the category of mercies.
That God loans to us and sometimes He takes away from us as well.
And so you may have a good amount of material things.
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Their mercies God has loaned to you to use for Him. But our blessings are all spiritual. Just go back into Deuteronomy again and verse and chapter 28 to see the contrast. And I think this is important to see the contrast between Israel and the church. Israel was blessed with material things. Notice it.
Chapter 28 and verse one.
Shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God.
And to observe, to do all his commandments, which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all the nations of the earth.
And all these blessings, notice the blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee. And if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, bless it. Shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shall thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, in other words, children, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, and the increase of thy kind, and the flocks of thy sheep, Blessed shalt thou be, shall be thy basket in thy store blessed.
When thou comest stand, and would bless it shalt thou be when thou goest out so that.
Their blessings are all material things and they're very real. But brethren, this is the this is the challenge for us today that many people think, oh, the Lord has really blessed me. Look at all I have.
Brethren, you can lose it all too, but these blessings that we're talking about in chapter one of Ephesians, you, if you are a real believer, can never lose. You might lose the enjoyment of it, but you cannot lose the blessing.
Because it's in Christ and that's so important to see. So he's blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. No, brethren, the Lord help us to grasp it, to let these things sink down into our souls. Brother Don has been talking about verses four and five being chosen in him being predestinated to a position to.
And these are wonderful things to realize and let that form your life. So many people think they're I'm here in this world to earn a bunch of money and to use it. Well, OK, there's nothing wrong with that. But it's not Our Calling. Lord help us, brother, and to let these things really sink in.
And our lives are made-up of relationships.
Husbands and wives, children and grandchildren, and it's, it's a joy. We enjoy those relationships and they're meaningful to us. And God has purposed an eternity to have those with himself that he can enjoy.
And we can enjoy him so.
When it says that we would be holy and without blame before Him in love, it's because He loves us.
And we love him And so these, these things have an intimate meaning to us. It's not a one sided thing. God just one day said, you know, I'm going to bless the people.
But no, He wanted to bless the people for his joy as well. And that's the beauty of this because our lives are made-up of relationships and relationships are important to us. And so it is here when we see this, we want to see too that God has done something for himself. He's done something for his pleasure, but it's also for ours. It's reciprocal, it's two sided.
And we can, we can be thankful and rejoice in that.
How did God know in that past eternity that there will be an edge stags around?
There's a word that scripture uses. I find it helpful to understand. Let me.
Give you the verse in Romans chapter 8.
And verse.
Verse 29.
For whom he did for no.
Foreknowledge and is spoken of in other parts of the scripture as well.
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So that God.
Never, Brethren, has learned anything. He knows everything.
Absolutely everything.
And so in a wonderful to know a God.
And now he's our father that knows everything. And so he knew before the world was that we would exist. And in that war knowledge, he not only chose this, but he predestinated us. And so is beautiful to think about it in verse 4, the choosing.
And in verse 5, the predestination.
And I find it helpful, brethren, that choosing is He chose our persons.
Predestination is to a place that He had in mind that we would occupy, and that place is to be a sun. Sonship is really the thought here to the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ to Himself.
But going back to that verse four, to talk about being holy and without blame before him in love, that is so tremendously beautiful.
Brethren.
I sometimes give the illustration to our Latin brethren.
Suppose you know a young lady is about to be married and she puts on this beautiful white dress.
And there she has to go outside and and be taken to the place where she's going to be married. And as she walks around along the street, there's some dirty cars and dirty stuff. Do you think she's going to be careful how she walks?
She sure is. Why is she so careful? Because she's got such a beautiful white dress on.
Not to condemn it. And brethren, that's the power of Christianity. We don't.
Strive to attain holiness. He has put us in that position and to enjoy that.
Is going to make us careful in our walk down here. How important that is.
You know, sometimes you see a truck and it says, I don't know, Jacobson and Sons.
Now, you never see a truck that says Jacobson and children, you just don't.
Because it's talking about somebody who's come of age.
It's talking about somebody. He's my son and he's intimately involved.
In understanding something something about the business. And so when it brings in sonship, it speaks about God revealing to us the the things of Scripture. Why do we know about Ephesians or what do we know about Psalms or what do we know about how the Lord is going to come in and reign in the Millennium or that there's going to be an eternal state? It's because we're shunned.
Is because he's brought us into his confidence and so not only do we have the intimacy of that nearness.
But we have the intelligence that God has given us to be able to look into his thoughts and mind of things because we're sons. And that's that's one of the many blessings that are ours is is that we have an in with God as to what he's going to do and glorifying his son and to bringing us into deeper relationship with him in the coming day.
Sometimes you hear a story told.
That there were two children in the family and they got to squabbling.
And one was an adopted child and one was born into the family.
And and so the one that was born into the family says, you know, you're less than me because I was born into the family. And the other one, following up on what Don said a while ago, he says, yeah, well, they had to take you and me. They chose. And it's it's a kind of a warm and fuzzy story.
But it doesn't help the illustration of what sonship is because.
Really on both the natural born and in that story of the adopted 1 They're brought into the same place. But sonship as we have it in this chapter and we have it in other places in the New Testament is an elevation from the place of children. There are children of God in back in for for thousands of years now.
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They weren't known as such. There wasn't a community of them together.
They didn't recognize one another in any special way, and if you ask them if they were such, they wouldn't have necessarily been able to tell you though that they were. But now, since the great work of Christ on Calvary Cross, His ascension, the sending of the Holy Spirit, the place of Yes, we are children of God, like Old Testament Saints were, but unlike them, we have now been elevated to the place of Suns, and perhaps it is our highest individual.
Dignity. But one of the hymn writers put it, we stand accepted in the place.
That none but Christ could claim it is a dizzying.
Position or standing as you put it, Bob, that we have a place of sons.
There is nothing that could be higher than that and the gospel of the grace of God's purpose.
It's not only to provide for you and me the forgiveness of sins, but step by step our blessings are unfolded as they are in this chapter that we might share in the glories of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's your destiny.
Almost every Christian blessing we have, these spiritual blessings are present. We have them now.
Except one. We're not glorified yet, but he's going to glorify us.
And we're going to be there with and like Christ. He won that place totally through grace.
And according to the marvelous counsels of God, that we are assigned a place.
Next to him also his sons to be able to call the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, our God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We now pray ABBA father, this is this is the the peak.
When the prodigal son came home from the far country, he had made-up the prayer that he wanted to say, Make me as one of Thy hired servants.
God doesn't need any more hired servants. What he wants is sons.
And so he didn't even let the prodigal son get to that part. Bring forth the best robe and put it on him, put shoes on his feet and a ring on his hand and and kill the fatted calf. He wanted sons to sit down at his table to enjoy fellowship with himself. Brethren, this is where we've been brought.
Are we living in the enjoyment of it, President? I just think this is the tremendous challenge.
To our souls now.
Would it be right to say comments on the expression that's already been made about relationship and its connection with spiritual blessings and what we have in this chapter?
When in the very beginning of God's book he creates man, and in the very beginning he says about it, it is not good.
That man should dwell alone.
God has so created us that we are not fulfilled without relationships.
A man that is, or woman or child that is totally alone.
Is not is going to still have something in them that's unsatisfied and unsatisfiable. You can have the best house in Walla Walla. You can have the fanciest car in Walla Walla.
And it's not to have it mean that it's sin, but it will not of itself bring lasting satisfaction to the soul. There's no relationship in it that we use spiritual blessings. The word spiritual connects itself with the word Spirit, and it's the spirit in us that brings us into relationship with God.
If we had only a soul and only a body, we'd never know God.
Our way of knowing God is by the Spirit.
And so those things that bring us in relationship to God are spiritual in their character.
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And so it is that in the supreme sense of it, it is not good that man shall dwell alone. When God's beloved Son became a man, he became a man to remain so.
A holy, perfect man, one that honored and glorified and did the work of God on earth.
And returned to his father's house.
But it is not good that man shall live alone.
And so God provided from a past eternity that his own beloved Son is a man, would be able to share and have a relationship with men.
And so he forms the church, his body, and it's the closest possible relationship that two can have, and God has brought us into it. God wants himself to have creatures to share with even he Himself in his being, if you will, doesn't want to be alone. And he never has been, because he has always had the Son.
And so, in deity, the Father and the Son have always had perfect sharing.
But now that he's created us, he says, I want you to be my family. I want you and I to share.
And one could go on all morning on it, but one further thought connected with it and that is.
You have to have common interests and common capacity.
To share.
There are things that you in this room, if you have a child, you can't share it with your child yet.
It doesn't have the capacity, it hasn't learned yet to share with you what you wanted to know and enjoy and it to enjoy you.
God in bringing us into his family in order that we might share together all that is in his heart toward us, he said. I'm going to give you the life of my son.
I'm going to give you that life of my son, which is in we sang the first song we sang 216 or whatever is eternal life. It was called resurrection life in the hymn because.
If the life of Christ can only be had and given by God in resurrection, and it is a resurrection life beyond death.
And that makes it eternal. And God says, now you and I can enjoy together because you have the same nature as my son.
A divine nature. You have the same life as my son and as a such.
Your heart's desires and mine are the same. Never been with somebody and they wanted to do one thing and you wanted to do another.
Well, not so in what God brings us into exactly what gives pleasure to God will eternally be pleasure to us. Nothing that God doesn't want will we ever want in resurrection life. And so our sharing and these are these things are part of our what's called here spiritual blessings.
But you say, Don, I'd like to go back again to verse three to mention something that has not been brought out. Blessed be the God.
And Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice in verse.
17 When he's praying towards the end of the chapter, it's to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Chapter 3 and verse 14 He is praying again and it is to the Father.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's beautiful to think what you're bringing out, Don, that the Lord Jesus as God.
Became man to have our company for all eternity. Wonderful, incredible, wonderful things to think about.
But I often think of what it says in Psalm 22.
00:45:06
Where the Lord Jesus says, Thou art my God.
From my mother's belly as soon as he became Incarnate.
In the womb of the Virgin Mary he could say my God. Before that he was God.
And in that sense he couldn't say my God, but as soon as he became Incarnate.
As a man in the womb of the Virgin Mary, he said, My God, thou art my God for my mother's belly.
But he doesn't use that in his lifetime.
Except at the end of those three hours of darkness on the cross, when he cries out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Wasn't he his Father? Yes, he was. But at that moment it was God in the holiness of his character that was dealing with the question of sin in his own beloved Son.
And he says, my God, my God, the only time.
I think he says that, but it's beautiful. Then when he in resurrection, he says to Mary.
I ascend into my God and your God, my Father and your Father. So we're introduced into that eternal relationship that there was between the Father and the Son. We know God, that God that is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know him as our Father. It's incredibly wonderful.
When the expression my God is used, it's.
Usually either nature or power, isn't it? And sometimes both.
When it brings in Father, it's relationship. And we do have both in this chapter, God and Father, don't we?
So just to go back to the practical side of it for a moment in a broad picture.
All of those heavenly blessings which are mentioned here in verse 3.
All of those spiritual blessings in heavenly places I would suggest.
Just so we get it clear, they are brought before us in chapters one and two of Ephesians.
If you wanted to categorize it a little bit more, you could say chapter one is more individual blessing, Chapter 2 branches out into more collective blessing, and then as you mentioned, Brother Bob.
Now it's our privilege and our exercise to enter into them. And Paul takes a whole chapter, Chapter 3, to talk about that, doesn't he takes a whole chapter. He starts out the same as he would.
Same as he does in the 4th chapter, but then he takes a digression.
And has to talk about how we are going to enter into those.
Those blessings. And so once again, and this is going beyond what we have in this chapter.
The prayer in chapter one is addressed to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And this has already been mentioned. The prayer in chapter 3 is addressed to the Father.
That is getting close in the relationship and in the enjoyment of what we have. But in the first two chapters, it's God who as God.
Purposed all this for us before the foundation of the world, and now he says here are all those blessings.
As a brother under whose ministry I sat long ago when I was growing up used to say every Christian blessing is a mountain peak beyond which even God could not go, Maybe some remember the source of that quotation. Every Christian blessing is a mountain peak beyond which even God himself.
Could not go. Very true, isn't it?
When it comes to the passage in verse.
Of four.
He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. It is important to understand that this is part of the individual blessings that we each enjoy. It is not a collective election.
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Israel as a nation had, as Paul writes in Romans 9, to whom pertaineth the adoption?
The national adoption of Israel as sons going way back to what the Lord said to Moses that he was to say to Pharaoh, Israel is my son, even my first born, and he was to tell Pharaoh, let my son let my people go. That was a national election, not individual, but election for the Christian is individual. He chose you.
It does not say.
In verse four, according as He hath chosen it, referring to the corporate entity that we are part of as the bride of Christ or as the body of Christ, He chose us. Us is plural, a series of individuals. It's pointing out an individual blessing He has for you. He knew you before the worlds were made.
However many billions of years you want to plug in there.
He knew you then, and in the fullness of time He called you one by one, and he brought us in. And we're told that the gate is straight. It's narrow. I picture it as the kind of a gate that you can only go through one at a time. And that's the way we're saved if any man hear my voice.
And so one by one we come in. But it is a blessed thing, and it establishes our souls as worshippers.
To be able to look back and say why me?
I don't know.
What the answer is to that, I'm not sure we ever will, except that He loved us. But it's individual, and I think it's important to see that He's chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
Fellowship.
His goal was fellowship.
And this is what he had in his heart, and it helps me at least to say that God could have done anything that he wanted.
And all eternity.
And this is what he did, this is what he wanted to do because he wanted fellowship.
And then to review.
What did he have to do to bring me into fellowship with himself without a shadow in first John Three we have We are born in.
His genetics.
Gone one.
We are born.
Not a blood, not of the will of the flesh.
We are given, as you were saying, Bruce earlier, the very life of Christ.
He was the one that stood in our place, the last Adam.
Suffering for us. Glorifying God on our behalf, Going to the cross.
Dying, bearing our sins, resurrected, and sending the Spirit of God down to dwell in us. These are spiritual blessings.
That we may.
Be sitting here listening and feeling that it's not doing me much good.
If I'm not right, I'm not walking in the Spirit. I cannot understand my spiritual blessings. I cannot enjoy them because they are based on fellowship and God has given me every everything and it's waiting for me to take advantage of anytime I want.
But it really is only by and through the power and the ministry of the Spirit of God within that can bring me.
Into true fellowship with my father and with his son.
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And with the glories that I have as we have in verse 3.
In Christ, what do I have? Whatever Christ has.
I have wherever he is, I am. This is. This is the fullness of spiritual blessing.
Another thing that brother you mentioned, Bill said that about Ephesians, was that you will not be blessed more in heaven than you are right now.
I must say I enjoyed that a lot. You will not be blessed more in heaven than you are right now.
The question is the enjoyment of it and the expression that we have here in these verses, brethren in Christ so often in Him, in the beloved, in whom? It's all in Him. But I want to add one more here that I enjoy.
In love at the end of verse 4.
Young people, do you know you're in love?
That's our place. Isn't that amazing? God looks at us with unmeasured love. You may not enjoy it, but that's your place. And we need to have our thoughts, brethren, formed by the Word of God.
I remember when I was young I didn't get married till I was 30 and I looked around and saw so many of my good buddies getting married earlier.
And I wondered what happened to me, maybe there's something wrong with me or something. But.
To realize, brethren, you're in love. You're in a love. They cannot know any nation. Oh, how wonderful.
It's important to notice, isn't it? I know this is not particularly only, or shall I say it, it's not only in Ephesians, it's throughout Paul's writings, but it was a special revelation, one of the revelations that God gave to Paul from a risen Christ in glory, that the believer.
Positionally is in Christ. No one preached that before Paul did.
Well, what a precious expression that is, and how wonderful to realize that every true believer is in Christ.
Very practical. Perhaps I can take a moment and tell a story that I've told before, but it took place about the time of the Reformation, where a Saint of God who had come into the good of the Gospel was dying. And of course, in those days most of Europe was steeped in the doctrines of Roman Catholicism, which.
Said that you couldn't really know for sure what was going to happen and there was a purgatory awaiting you and one thing and another and.
People tended to fear death, even those who had come to know the Lord.
But this old man was very, very peaceful on his deathbed and his family and his children around him couldn't understand it and.
One of them.
Said Father. What are you resting on? You're very quiet. You're very comfortable. You're very relaxed.
Oh, he said. I'm resting on the finished work of Christ.
Well, that didn't somehow cut it with them, as we say. And another one spoke up and said, well, father.
What are you going to do?
They spoke in terms of the only language they could understand.
What are you going to do if you get to the gate of heaven and the Lord won't let you in?
Oh, the old man said, if God won't let me into heaven.
He'll have to put his own beloved son outside first.
And they were shocked at what seemed to them to be absolute blasphemy.
Was the old man right? Yes, he was. Because if you and I are not fit for heaven.
According to Paul's ministry, then, Christ is not either, because we are in Christ.
And the old man had gotten hold of that truth, and he was dying.
In the good of it and throughout Paul's epistles, you'll find that expression.
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In Christ over and over and over again. And I venture to say that while it's not peculiar to Ephesians, it's one of those blessings that you and I have. Don't we?
But I add to that that it says that Christ is in God.
Well, that's true too, yes.
Well, I'm just saying that because it's it if, if we're in Christ and Christ is in God, you can't get any nearer to God.
It's impossible to get near to God than being in Christ with Christ as in God. That's the only reason I mentioned that.
Asians it's in Christ and Colossians it's Christ in US. Beautiful to see.
Could you sing #200 and 14214?
Sailor with surpassing.
Our sins.
To die.
In 1000.
Rupees are gone and.
Is the sovereign and great.
S of dying.
Man.
And blessed us with God blessings in his Son.
Who is priceless life?
Maybe read a verse before we pray in Romans 8.
Romans 8 and verse 14.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are.
The sons of God, for you have not received the spirit of ******* again to fear.
But ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA Father.
The Spirit itself, bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God or the sons of God.
And if children and heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be, that we suffer with him, that we also may be glorified together, Our God and our Father, we thank Thee for bringing us to this portion for the time to be in Thy word.
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Lord, in another place you say you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And a brother asked in this meeting, How are we?
Practically work this out. We see what thou has done, Lord Jesus, what thou hast done, our God and our Father in sending him that we are sons. And Lord, we pray for thy, the power of Thy Spirit to nurture us and groom us and shape us and form us.
That we might be growing up in Him, We pray for blessing on the rest of this time in Jesus mighty name, Amen.