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Can we see him 78 in the appendix?
7-8 in the back of the book.
I waiting for the.
More daughter.
Wonder if we could read Ephesians chapter one, Brethren, I know it's a chapter we go over quite a bit, but it seems to me that.
So much need of being reminded of our heavenly calling and the blessings that are ours unconditionally. I just suggest that, and if there's something else, you could consider that too.
Sounds very good, Bob.
Ephesians, chapter one.
Ball and 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.
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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 the 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, where any other bounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He has 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.
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, that we should be to the praise of His glory. Who first trusted in Christ, in whom ye also trusted. After that He heard the word of truth.
The gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that he believed, he 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 from the dead.
And set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.
Far above all principality, and power, and light, 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 filleth All in all.
Well, as you said, Brother Bob, it's very, very good and very important to be reminded of our heavenly calling and our heavenly blessings, isn't it? And here is an old brother used to remind us, every believer is equally blessed. God doesn't have any favorites in his family. And so it's not as if in this first verse that there are Saints in Ephesus and then there is.
A special class of those who are faithful. It's really all inclusive to the Saints and faithful ones which are at Ephesus. It could read.
It makes it clear, I think, yes. And so it's good to remember that and good to remember that, as we said a moment ago, every believer is equally blessed and we need to lay hold on that, we really do.
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Pardon this comment, but it's true. I find sometimes that there are those who feel that certain believers have been blessed more than others. Certain people have more than others. And as to gift, no question that's true.
God is sovereign and He in his sovereignty can give gifts to whomsoever he will. That's a different thing. But as to the spiritual blessings we have and the.
Capacity for the enjoyment of Christ. I don't believe there's any difference between 1 believer and another. Would you agree with that Bob?
Are the faithful ones, that really means those that have faith, doesn't it? That's what it really means. So to be a believer, you have faith and so you're one of the faithful ones. Another comment too, I think goes along with your comment, Bill, that ivory believer is equally blessed, is that you will not be more blessed in heaven than you are right here and now.
And justice to lay hold of that is what's going to give us power to walk properly as heavenly citizens through this world.
And let's remember that they are heavenly or spiritual blessings. In the Old Testament we find that a person was blessed for their faithfulness in a temporal or an earthly way. We see that with Abraham and so many other of the Old Testament Saints. But we need to be careful because there has been a great deal of teaching afoot in Christian circles to equate monetary and temporal success with spirituality.
That is not what we have in Paul's ministry, and maybe just a comment in connection with Paul's ministry, that which we refer to as Paul's ministry, in other words, that which was given to the apostle Paul to record by divine inspiration such as this epistle we have before us. It's really Paul's ministry that detaches us from this world in every way other than the fact that we are still physically here on planet earth.
But brethren, it's important to realize that in Christianity, our hopes, our goals, our blessings, Our Calling are not connected with this world in any way. We are detached from this world and connected with the Lord Jesus where He is now.
Important to understand that we are we are connected with the man in the glory.
Not the man on earth, not the way he was connected with his disciples and his own when he walked here. Not the way he will be associated with his earthly people in a coming day. But we are a heavenly people, as has been said. We often say it our our whole, Our Calling is heavenly.
And that's why it's important to read, meditate and enjoy.
What Paul was given because Paul detaches us from this world in a way that none of the other New Testament writers do.
I know the new other New Testament writers bring in Christian truth and the Lord's coming in various ways and so on, but we will never understand our true position as believers are and what our reaction and action should be in connection with the world, what we are as a heavenly people, what we have as spiritual blessings. If we don't go to Paul's ministry, never give it up. It's vital, it's important. We need the whole Word of God.
But to understand Christianity, who we are, what we are, and where we're going and what is ahead, we must take up the epistles, like the Epistle to the Ephesians.
To confirm what you said about our being united to Christ in glory right here and now, go to the end of the chapter in Paul's prayer in verse.
19 He says, What is the exceeding greatness of his power to us? Were to believe, according to the working of his mighty power, the might of his 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.
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Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but in also that which is to come. And have 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 filleth All in all.
So there is the connection in the apostle Paul learned that truth when he was still Saul of Tarsus, when he was still unconverted and on his way to persecute the believers in Damascus, and he met with Jesus and he called to him out of heaven.
Saul saw why persecutest thou me? I think it was a joke to him to realize.
Me touching somebody in heaven, what is this? And he had three days without sight to let that sink in. But it did sink in touching believers here in this world. He was touching that man who has the highest position in the universe. Brethren, that's a wonderful truth to get a hold of. We as believers in the Lord Jesus have a lot more clout.
In the political processes of a country, by getting down on our knees and praying than we do by getting involved in political causes, Lord help us that these would be realities to us.
Just another introductory comment to the book of Ephesians. In this chapter 2, we find that in the Old Testament there's a parallel to this book, and that's the book of Joshua and Canaan, which is often thought of by many as when we get to heaven. And something that comes after death, after the Jordan, is really a, a, a picture of the vast panorama of spiritual blessings that are laid out for us here.
It's that which we can have an enjoyment of now because brethren, not only are we associated now with Christ in heaven, but we can have an enjoyment of heaven before we get there. And so when the children of Israel went into possess the land, they went in under the guidance and direction of Joshua, whose name actually means Jesus, and he's a picture of the Lord Jesus. But I want to go back and read 2 verses in the book of Joshua.
In connection with a comment that was made a few moments ago, because and before I do that, let me just reiterate what I think, I think it was Bob said that every believer is blessed equally. We all have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. But the question is not of our how we've been much we've been blessed, but what is our enjoyment? What is our appreciation? What is our apprehension of those blessings.
It may vary considerably with different believers, and I want to show that how this is illustrated by reading two portions. The first one I believe is in the 11Th chapter of Joshua. Yes, Joshua Chapter 11.
And when I read this, remember what I said, Joshua is a picture of the Lord Jesus. He's the captain of our salvation, bringing many sons to glory. And in the last verse of the 11Th chapter of Joshua, it says, so Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord said unto Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel, according to their divisions by their tribes, and the land rested from war.
So Joshua secures for Israel the whole land, because it's the Lord Jesus Christ who has secured the blessing for us, the Lord Jesus, and going to Calvary, laying down his life, glorifying God as to the question of sin, shedding his blood, rising again, triumphant from the dead, and seated at God's right hand has secured the blessing for us. Brethren, it's nothing to do with us. Again in the Old Testament, if they were faithful, they were blessed in measure.
But our blessings are not dependent on our faithfulness. They are dependent on the fact that our Joshua has secured the blessing for us. But now go over to the 13th chapter.
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And verse one Now Joshua was old and stricken in years. And the Lord said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years. Now notice this. And there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed. You say, Now how does this correspond to what we just read in the 11Th chapter? I thought you said Joshua. It says Joshua took the whole land. And now it says there's very much land to be possessed. I believe what is illustrated to us here is the fact that yes.
Our Joshua, the Lord Jesus, has secured the blessing for us, and it's all ours in Him. Every one of us blessed equally at all spiritual blessings, as we've said. But what about the possession of it in our souls? What about the practical side of it? And we know what the children of Israel, they to this very day have never possessed near all what God intended for them.
Joshua took it all but how little the children of Israel went in and set their foot on it, because they were told that wherever they set their foot.
It had been given to them and in as an inheritance And brethren, in the measure in which we walk, in the enjoyment of what we have in Christ and possess it in our souls, appreciate it in our own souls, then we're going to have the enjoyment of it. But it's all there, and it's all for the enjoyment of every believer, young and old.
The first chapter of Joshua in verse 3, every place that the soul of your foot shall tread upon that have I given you, as I said unto Moses. And so the enjoyment of it is only at least as far as they walk in it. And so with the Christian today. And that's why Paul prays in the end of our chapter and verse 18.
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of your calling and so on. And so he prays for that enlightenment. There has to be that willingness to walk in it, and then that that part varies in this, doesn't it? We don't all walk in all the truth that we know in our heads sometimes.
Things too, wouldn't you say, brother Doug, that?
There are many believers who don't know these things, and that's important too. And I like that. What you mentioned in verse 18, the eyes of your understanding, being enlightened, that you may know. And He asked for three things that they would know. First of all, what is the hope of His calling? That's the spiritual blessings we get in from verse three, maybe down to verse 9. The second thing, what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Saints?
So what we have in verses 1011 and 12 and then.
What is the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe and that's what we have in verses 13 and 14, the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of God that works towards us who believe and in chapter three he prays it's in US who believe the power of God works in US, works towards us and works in US who believe wonderful things to if you don't really know these things, you can't enjoy them.
So it's important to know them, but it's more than that, like you say, Doug, it's really enjoying them to the point where you really walk in the reality of what we're talking about.
And I believe, Bob, if I read you rightly, that was one of the burdens you had in suggesting this chapter.
And it is important for all of us, isn't it?
I look around the room here and most of the people I see could probably remember at least one other time, and maybe more than one, when this chapter has been taken up at a Bible conference.
And we have been over these things many times. But I asked my own heart, how much of a present living reality is it in my soul from day-to-day?
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What are those spiritual blessings? I believe, as we've heard, that they're enumerated for us in the first chapter here, in the second chapter, some of them in the 4th chapter. They're enumerated for us in Ephesians here. And we won't have more blessings in heaven, as we've already heard. We've got them now. They're ours now. The enjoyment of them is another thing. And Satan in these last days is doing his utmost.
To prevent you and me from enjoying these heavenly blessings. He knows, and we ought to know too, that while He can't take away our salvation, I trust we're all clear on that. But He knows that if He can bring the Church down from the appreciation and enjoyment of its heavenly calling, then, humanly speaking, the Church has lost everything.
Everything. Everything.
And it goes back to what Bob said a few minutes ago, because the minute the believer comes down into the arena of this world and seeks to work with the world, then it must work on worldly principles. It must work with those who can never rise up to heavenly things. And Christianity becomes a worldly religion. And it has. We need to hang our heads because we can't point the finger. We're all, to some extent, part of it.
But Christianity is not a worldly religion. Christianity takes me right out of this world, up to heaven, and then sends me back into this world, but as a heavenly man, a heavenly woman, to bear that heavenly calling and to be a witness to this world. That's a total difference from jumping into this world and seeking to make it better. And yet it's so prevalent today, and it's grabbing hold.
Of so many people today, so many dear believers.
And the heavenly blessings as such, are they ours? Yes, they are. But they're not enjoyed. They're not appreciated.
We are ambassadors for Christ, aren't we? And an ambassador is not allowed to get into the politics of the country he is sent to. He is only there to represent the country he has been sent from. And that's our position as believers in the Lord Jesus.
I think we have to recognize and brethren, the lack of teaching has resulted what you're saying Bill and many real believers being sincerely. We have to understand that sincerely involved in the political process. But I think it's important to realize why we don't do that and this is the chapter that really gives us to understand Brother Jim was mentioning how the.
Blessings of the Old Testament believers were material things. We go back to Deuteronomy chapter 28. I'd like to give this so our young people realize this and are grounded in the scriptures. Deuteronomy chapter 28.
From verse one. And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God.
To observe and to do all his commandments, which I command thee. This day Jim was mentioning how the blessings are conditional.
That the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all the nations of the earth, and all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee. If thou shalt hearken into the voice of the Lord thy God. Bless it Shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, and increase of thy kind and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shalt thou be, shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shall be thou be when thou goest out. So it's all.
Material things, and it was God's blessing in that time. It was a proper thing.
For Israel, but it was like Jim Lynch and conditional upon their obedience.
But now look at the 1St chapter of Ephesians and verse 3.
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To see the contrast, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ? Any condition there?
It's done. It's already done.
But it's all in Christ, isn't it?
And they are not material blessings, they are spiritual blessings.
Oh brother, we could not be more blessed than we are right now sitting here in this room. Like Jim said, we don't understand that. We don't enjoy it properly and so sometimes we get down, we get discouraged.
My brethren, let's let the words of this verse sink down into our souls. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings.
Not in earthly places, in heavenly places, in Christ. And so the list of the blessing that comes, the blessings that come in the verses that follow are all spiritual. They're not something you can look at with your physical eyes.
You have to appreciate them by faith.
This is what God has said, and you lay hold of the reality of them by faith, wonderful, wonderful privilege. Another contrast to is that in the Old Testament, God called Abraham, gave him certain promises, and told him he would build from him a great nation, the children of Israel, the Jewish nation. And they were given those promises and blessed in a certain way. But in Christianity it's not to a certain nation.
And it's always been interesting to me, significant that in Pauls epistles, when he opens up, he all invariably in his greeting gives two things, grace and peace. And grace was in those days the Gentile greeted way of greeting, and peace or Shalom was the Jewish way of greeting. And it's just to me very beautiful to see how the two things are brought together. And in the second chapter of our epistle it's explained very carefully.
That the church, now, those that have been brought into this position of heavenly blessing are not from a specific nation, but they're from Jews and Gentiles who have been saved on the ground of the work of Calvary. Those who have come in repentance and faith and avail themselves of what God has provided. So in the coming day, we're going to sing out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation.
And I must say it's been a joy to my own soul for the last few years to be able to go to various parts of the world. And the gospel we preach in, in one country or on one continent is the same as on another. The the, the brethren we share fellowship with, you know that we met some brethren recently. They have nothing of this world's goods, dirt floor, few little sticks of furniture to put together, you know.
They're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, just as much as we are here enjoying the mercies of this facility.
And rather, not that we want to despise the mercies we have this weekend, but it isn't. It isn't dependent on what nation or family we're born into, and it's not dependent on what we have in a material way. Every believer, whether they're in prison for their faith today, whether they are hungry because they don't have enough to eat, or whether they're like us who have abundance, they have been blessed equally spiritually.
And they are connected with the same head as we are.
In fact, Brother Jim, I sometimes find that having more material things can be, not necessarily, but can be a hindrance in our enjoyment of these spiritual realities. I'll never forget, and I've mentioned it before, but it was so impressed on me one time with Brother Clem Buchanan in the Dominican Republic, going into the home of a brother who was extremely poor, like you say, dirt floors.
Only place we had been invited there to have the new meal and the sister wasn't ready yet, but the only place to sit was at the table. So we sat down there. And that dear brother, you didn't have anything else to talk about except get his Bible. And he sat at the head of the table with his face glowing, that dear black face just glowing. And I thought he was reading out of the Bible and found out later that he didn't know how to read.
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But the enjoyment of the reality.
The spiritual blessings, I just had to bow my head there and say, Lord, please help me that material things don't impede my appreciation of spiritual realities. May the Lord help us breath.
I'm sure you found that too in India, haven't you? Bear the bill.
Yes, I have.
And it's sometimes difficult, I freely admit, to know how to balance these things. We can only do it in the Lord's presence.
I don't know about others here, but half the time in my life I'm very thankful to the Internet, and the other half the time I wish it had never been invented. And Ditto for a few other modern technology things that we cope with. Wonderful for us. And yet I resent the fact that sometimes I spend half a day trying to get the thing to work properly for me and calling up people that know how to do it and so on, instead of spending my time on more profitable things.
And the answer is not to turn the clock back the way the Amish do or people like that and pretend that the automobile had never been invented or the phone or anything like that. The answer is to say, yes, we have these things, we're thankful for them, but how can I use them for the Lord? And yet, as the scripture says, not abusing them, or as the Darby reads.
Not disposing of them or of this world.
As our own. And that's where the problem comes in, isn't it? It's the having of these things, disposing of them as our own, and living our lives without that horizon of our heavenly calling. And the devil wants to bring that horizon down to the level of this world so that I concentrate my efforts on the things of this world. And if there's any time left over, Lord, then I'll dig into some of these heavenly blessings.
And you know, and I know that if I take that attitude, the devil will make very sure there's no time leftover. And so it's important, isn't it, to seek to make these things a priority in our lives and to enjoy them, and not simply to be going on in, shall we say, an outward way, because that is what happened to this very assembly at Ephesus.
I can still remember my late father-in-law, Albert Hale, whom a good many here will be able to remember. And I can well remember his standing up to give an address at a conference. And he said, I would like you to turn to the second Epistle to the Ephesians.
And after there had been a few blank looks and one or two people wondering if he was losing it. But then he explained what he meant and turned them to Revelation chapter 2, where there is an address to the first of those seven assemblies to Ephesians.
And we all remember what had happened. They were going on outwardly with everything. They were judging evil. They were preaching the Word. They were being faithful in an outward way. But the motive spring of it all had gone. The first love had gone, the connection to Christ himself, that one in.
Heaven, who's there for us, was not there anymore and the Lord had to warn them. This can and will result in the Candlestick being removed if you don't deal with it. It's a good point for us all to remember, isn't it?
In that connection, I just like to read a portion in First Peter because it's interesting that when Peter writes to the believers, they were believers who had been saved from Judaism. They were those who had been brought into the Church of God, but they were from a Jewish background and they were used to an earthly and a promise of an earthly inheritance. And before I read what I want to read in the first chapter, just to put it in context.
They might have They were suffering what Peter calls fiery trials, and they had been driven from their homes because of their faith in Christ and their faithfulness to Christ. They had lost everything as far as this world, so to speak, and they might have wondered what has happened. We were in the Old Testament under the Jewish order of things. We were promised that if we were faithful to the to the Lord, we'd be blessed and so on, and we'd have peace with our enemies.
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Now what's happened? And Peter, I believe, writes to them to bring out some of the things that we've been Speaking of. And I'll just read from verse three of chapter one. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Now notice this to an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you.
Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, which.
Ready to be revealed in the last time and so on. And this must have been a great comfort to these believers to realize that now they had an inheritance that would never fade away and could not be touched. And brethren, we have an inheritance. It's the unsearchable riches of Christ. It's all the things that, as Brother Bill has said, are outlined and brought before us in Ephesians and other places too, these blessings that we have.
They'll never fade away. Not only that, but you know you inherit an earthly inheritance.
No matter how careful you are with that inheritance or how well you invest it, every time you go down and draw on that inheritance, the inheritance becomes less. But we can draw on our heavenly blessings, our heavenly inheritance. We can enjoy the the what we have in Christ all our lives. Does the inheritance become less? No, and it's reserved in heaven for us. We're going to have an even greater enjoyment of it in the coming day when the.
When the hindrances and the distractions are taken away. But brethren, He wants us to have an enjoyment of it now. And I think we need to stress that, as we said earlier, we can have an enjoyment of heaven now before we get there. We are connected by the Spirit of God, which is the earnest and the unction and and so on, to give us that enjoyment now in our souls of what Canaan represents to us, that inheritance.
It's reserved for us, and we're preserved for the inheritance. You know, someone might promise to give to leave you some money, an inheritance when they die, but you might predecease the person, and when the person does die and the inheritance becomes available, it has to be passed on to someone else. You weren't reserved for the inheritance. But brethren, in either way, it's reserved for us. We're reserved for it, and we can have a present enjoyment of it now.
Just going back to our chapter before we get away from verse 4.
I think there's something again that's significant in regard to what we've been saying. Just notice verse four. According as He hath chosen us in Him. Now I want you to notice this little expression.
Before the foundation of the world. Go to Matthew 25 and again you'll get a contrast.
Matthew 25, I believe it is.
Yes, Matthew 25 and verse 34.
Then shall the shall the king say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you. And I want you to notice this in contrast, not before, but from the foundation of the world. What's the difference? Well, in Matthew he's speaking about the coming Kingdom and millennial blessing for Israel. When the Lord comes back to reign, restores Israel to the land.
And there's the shout of a king amongst them, and there's earthly millennial blessing. You know, Jerusalem is going to be the center of the world by and by. It's going to be the capital, not Washington or Ottawa or Beijing or Paris or London or any of the celebrated capitals of the world today. It's going to be Jerusalem. It's going to be the center of everything here on planet earth. There's going to be a Kingdom. But it's been prepared for God's earthly people from the foundation of the world.
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Because their blessings are earthly and they will yet be blessed in that way. But when he speaks of the Church and their heavenly blessings, it's not from the foundation of the world, it's before the foundation of the world. Again, I believe it's the Spirit of God. So very careful to guard brethren, lest we think that our blessings are aspirations are in any way connected with planet earth.
We were chosen and blessed before the foundation of the world. And so I just say that again in connection with the comments that have been made, brethren, we're not connected with this world in any way other than the fact we're here physically and still to represent Christ in heaven.
But we're only here as pilgrims and strangers, aren't we? And isn't that wonderful to realize that before there was any universe in existence, God's thoughts were about us? Another thing I think is important to mention in verse four, We have election chosen in Him. That's election.
In verse five we have predestination. Those two words are connected, but they are not exactly the same.
When it's election, it's talking about persons. When it's talking about predestination, it's talking about a position that those chosen persons were to occupy. And so it's beautiful to see that He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
Isn't that amazing to think about it, that in Christ we are holy and without blame?
Now if you ask.
Some of the people around me, they would probably mention a few things to blame me for, and they're probably right.
We are not talking here about our condition, we are talking about the position God has chosen us to fill, and it's fully and without blame and it's unconditional because it's in Him. O brethren, it's so wonderful. Holiness is not something I strive to attain.
It's something that I am put into this position and then I'm exhorted to walk in it.
And I've often given the illustration of a young lady that's going to get married and she puts on this beautiful spotless white dress.
And she goes out to the car that's taking her to the place where she's going to get married. And a lot of cars along the street are kind of dirty. Do you think she's going to be careful how she walks?
She sure will. Why is she so careful? Because of that white dress she has on. And brethren, in the measure that we enjoy, the fact that God has set us in a position of complete holiness before Him in love in Christ ought to make us so very careful how we walk in this world. It's not to attain something. It's because He has put us in that position.
Lord help us to enjoy that brother.
Could we go back just for a moment to the comments that were made about the inheritance?
Not to find fault, but just to keep our thinking straight. What was said about the inheritance is very true. I would only point out that the inheritance and our spiritual blessings are not the same thing. We need to be clear on that.
Our spiritual blessings were won for us by Christ with his work on Calvary's cross. And as our brother said, we don't work for them either. They're all ours because they're blessings that flow from a risen Christ in glory, and they're heavenly, and they're enumerated for us in.
The book of Ephesians here the inheritance is all created things and strictly speaking the inheritance is not in heaven. Our brother Lundeen used to point that out clearly to us. It doesn't say unto an inheritance undefiled and so on reserved in heaven. He said don't leave out for you.
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It's reserved in heaven for you, but it's not reserved in heaven. It is all created things. And the the sense of what we get in verse eleven of our chapter has to do with verse 10, that God has in his purposes to exalt Christ as head over all things, both which are in heaven and which are on earth. And then you and I are going to share that inheritance with them. We don't have it yet. We have a title to it.
It's absolutely sure.
But we don't have it yet. The blessing says Bob has pointed out we have now and will never have more of them than we have right now. So just when we're reading Scripture to be clear on those two things, I think is a bit helpful for us. Yeah, that's a good point, Bill. And to go to Psalm Two, I think helps to see that.
We do not impossess the inheritance every created thing, yet we have the earnest of the inheritance, which is the Spirit of God. But notice Psalm 2 and verse seven. He says to the Lord Jesus the Lord, I will declare the decree. The Lord has said unto me, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
When will that take place? Is that the end of the Tribulation, when the Lord Jesus comes back?
In power and glory, to take his inheritance and to free it from the ******* of corruption that now lies on it. That's when we too will possess the inheritance with Christ. So in that sense, the inheritance is earthly. It is really like it says in verse ten of our chapter that they're all things.
Which are in heaven and which are on earth. Every created thing is part of our inheritance with in Christ.
Good point, Bill.
Well, it's wonderful to have been chosen, isn't it?
Why did the Lord choose you and me? We don't know. And of course there has been.
I suppose more argument and more misunderstanding of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility than.
Almost every other precious truth in Scripture, but man cannot understand the ways of God.
We can only appreciate them and enjoy them in the sense that we walk with the Lord and enjoy them with Him.
But we are, as we've had pointed out to us, predestinated. That's predestinated unto something.
Unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. Nothing to do with your will, nothing to do with my will, was His will. That did it all. And I think we need to lay emphasis on the fact that it was before the foundation of the world, because that raises us right above everything to do with this world. Yes, we're bounded by a scene.
That works and lives in time, and we can't think outside if we could use the expression outside of that box at the moment, the box of time. But at the same time, in every one of us there is that which recognizes that there's more than simply what we experience in this world. Man seeks for it, man wants it, and yet doesn't turn to the very place where he could get an understanding of it. And that is in God and in His Word.
But all this has been given to us by the will of God.
To the praise of the glory of His grace, because that's all it is, is His grace, isn't it?
Feet, something that I really enjoyed, was given out at a Bible conference many, many years ago where a brother said.
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If I am born into a family by birth, I have, in one sense, the wonderful advantage of being.
What we call a blood.
Relative I have a living connection with my parents.
I am their own flesh and blood, and I am part of the family in that sense.
And many people today who grow up as an adopted person.
Find that very difficult. I remember reading just not too long ago, the story of a man who grew up in a very loving family and became a very brilliant medical doctor and had a wonderful career. And yet he knew that those parents were not his birth parents and that his mother had given him up when he was born and given him up for adoption. And it bothered him greatly as an adult that here he was part of a family.
Where he had been adopted.
Eventually he did contact his birth parents, but then suppose a child is adopted.
That child generally is chosen, isn't it? It's chosen in one sense. If you have your own child, what you get, shall we say it bluntly, is not really your choice, is it? It's the Lord's choice, and we're thankful for that. But when a child is adopted, it is chosen. And the brother pointed out that you and I in that sense, have the best of both. In our relationship with God, we are born into his family.
By new birth, but we're also adopted, and we have the enjoyment of the sense of being chosen. Now the analogy falls short because it's not as if God looked down on the very best of this world and picked us. Didn't.
Rather, according to First Corinthians, one the opposite.
He hasn't chosen the best of this world, and it's rather humbling when we think of it. He magnifies His grace through picking up those that are sometimes the worst of this world but still were chosen. Does that commend itself? John? Do you have any?
Bought on that.
There he knew. He knew what I was going to be like. He knew as David said, my down sittings and my uprisings, my failures, my weaknesses and so on. You know, 5657 years ago my parents went to the adoption agency and they chose a 2 year old boy. But they had no idea what he was going to be like. They chose him and they loved him. They loved him till the day the Lord took them home and that young boy.
As a man has been very thankful for it and brought up in a Christian home and amongst those gathered to the Lord's name and and so on. What a wonderful heritage. But they had no idea and the grief and the tears that they had when that young boy was growing up. Perhaps they often wondered had they really made the right choice? I don't know, they never said. But isn't it wonderful to think that the Lord that God chose us in Christ and knew all about us?
And yet he has, he presents us without blame, wholly and without blame before, before him in love. And as Bill said, we have the best of both because in John's ministry, where children by by birth, but in the dignity of sonship we are, we're adopted. And that's what Pauls ministry brings before us, isn't it? John's ministry, like you say, it's a new birth because we participate with a very nature.
Of God we have that very nature and that's what he deals with in his ministry. But Paul's is this of choosing and so it's a matter of adoption. It really is the thought is being brought into sonship or the full understanding of God's thoughts. I often think of the prodigal son. When he came home, he thought to say to his father, make me.
As one of thy hired servants.
But the father had no desire for more hired servants. He had enough. What he wanted was a son that could sit down at his table and enjoy his thoughts in fellowship with him. That's the thought we have here. It's being brought into that place of sonship before him. That's the place he's chosen and brought us into.
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Means at the end of verse 5, isn't it according to the good pleasure of his will? Remember asking a newly saved brother in Canada?
Why do you think the Lord shows you? He said. I have no idea. The only verse I can give you it is according to the good pleasure of his will.
And it's true. Rather, it magnifies God in His grace.
All right, personally enjoy.
This diversity predestination to adoption of children is not so much of how how we aren't like him, but how he is going to present us that way exactly like children that he wants everyone that listened to me. This is so wonderful that.
God is going to He liked the Lord Jesus so well. He wanted more children like him. And so he's going to do that with every one of us, and he's going to present us as children that adopted just like he wanted.
I particularly enjoy verse 1617 of 139th. And I should see my substance, death being unperfect. And in thy book all my members were written, which continued her fashion, when as yet there was none of them. But it's the next verse, verse 17. I really, really enjoy How precious ulcer are my thoughts unto me.
God, how great this is, Some of them. Now this.
So I think when I read that verse, that's his thoughts are were upon me before I ever was, before I was even conceived, before the foundation of the world.
He sent 214.
248.
All blessed is our portion when we love.
Lord, my brother and Lord, and our life is.
Our names are written.
For us have made us sit with him.
And.
All glory is great.