Address—C. Little
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Return, please to Ephesians chapter one.
The first chapter of Ephesians and I want to read several verses here beginning at verse one. Paul, an apostle 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 on us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according.
Good pleasure of his will.
To the praise of the glory of His grace, where any ethics 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 the good pleasure which He had purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one.
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 work with all things after the council of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory. Who first trusted in Christ, or pre trusted in Christ, in whom He also trusted. After that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.
Unto the praise of his glory. I was thinking of these verses that their brother was speaking how that we have all things God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. And I just want to point out here in these verses that we have read as as you've read them, and I have too. I'll ask you one question.
What we've read here When did it take place? When did it take place? Before you were ever born.
Has God missed anything? Has God-given us a partial blessing?
No, Everyone of our blessings are in glory, and they're eternal.
And who gave them to us? God did. Did we deserve it? No, we didn't. But I want to point out here in these verses that we've read that we have the fullness in this way, that we have God the Father, we have the Lord Jesus Christ, and we have the Holy Spirit.
Confined in these verses God is a God who gives liberally our dear brother I quote our brother Norman here he spoke about the superlatives of Scripture how beautiful it is to see that God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness and when you. I just want to point out I want you to see here in these verses I'm sure most of us have already but just notice from.
From verse three down through verse six. Now if you read this carefully, you will see.
That it refers to God the Father.
God the Father? What about God the Father? What did he do? He sent his Son into this world.
The Lord Jesus Christ. But notice what it says. Blessed be the God and Father.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with some.
Know all spiritual blessings in.
The heavenly places in Christ, you know, your blessings and mine are up in glory, and they're reserved, Peter tells us so they're reserved in heaven for you. No one can take one of your blessings. And truly, if we were truly speaking, you haven't seen one yet. We have many mercies. We have many things that God allows us to have while we're here.
And they're the mercies of God, but you haven't seen any of your blessings yet. But how blessed it is to think that God acts in, you know, we know the word Trinity is not used in the Scripture, but how else could we explain the God, the Godhead, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And God has acted for you and for me in this lovely and beautiful and eternal way before we were ever born.
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Beautiful.
Truth. And again, as our brother has been pointing out, do we enter into this.
Am I enjoying it? In my soul I have the Spirit of God. You have the Spirit of God.
That seeks to make this good to you and enjoy it. You know, we're in a world that's opposed to God in everything.
And has been pointed out to us everything is against the truth of God, but the Spirit of God is here. I love that in John's first epistle it says greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. What is it the Spirit of God is here indwelling and John's epistle is the family of God. How beautiful to know that in that family of God. They're the they're the babes, they're the fathers, they're the young men and they're the babes and in that.
In that lovely epistle.
We find that God has made provision for us to enjoy no matter what, at what age we are.
By the Spirit of God, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the Spirit in the in the world. And so here if you notice these verses verse 3.
And verse four, according as he has chosen us, who chose us God did.
He has chosen us in Him, in Christ.
When was this?
Before the foundation of the world. Can you enter into that? I can enter into it.
But all I can enjoy it because God is my Father and he did this before I was ever born and before you ever were ever born.
And it's all yours.
He wants us to reach out and take it, doesn't He? Not just salvation, but the joy of knowing that we have before us. As our brother has already been said, instead of looking back, we're looking on to the day of glory when we're going to enter into that scene of glory with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And enjoy forever those eternal blessings.
And so here it's just in following this out a lot. I don't want to take all this time up a lot of time, but just to notice that he's he chose us. God chose us in him having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will through the praise of the glory of his grace in verse 6, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved who did this, God did it, the Father did it.
He sent the Lord Jesus and we've been he says he's to the praise of the glorious he hath made us accepted in the beloved God the Father did this and I think it's beautiful to see here in these first few verses that we've read that we see God, the work of the God the Father. And now I should just go on verse verse seven in whom now who is he speaking about? He's speaking about the person of Christ, his beloved son.
Now we see the work of the Lord Jesus or the position that we have been called in through the Lord Jesus, he says.
In whom we have redemption. All that occurred on Calvary's cross that Blessed One bore the judgment.
For your sins and mine, the Father sent him, The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. We know this is not a gospel meeting, but.
All the truth of God comes out, doesn't it? And for the enjoyment of art, not only for our conscience, but for our hearts.
And so he says here, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.
You know, we were speaking up this morning, some of us, the motel. I don't believe any of us know truly what Grace really, really is.
The grace of God.
That bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Have we received it just we don't need to understand it all but to accept it and we will never really fathom the grace of God and so just going on here wherein he has made verse 8 wherein.
Wherein, how the grace of God, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.
Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to the good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself. And we see in this the work of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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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, even in that Blessed One.
In that coming day, all things are going to be brought together. And how isn't it lovely that those of us who know the Lord Jesus now have the privilege of entering into all these things? All things are yours, your Christs, and Christ is God. Has God left anything out? Nothing. Not a thing. If there's something you're not enjoying, it's only because you have nettered into it, because you haven't accepted it.
How beautiful it is to reach out and accept not just the Lord Jesus as Savior, but as the One who has.
Delivered us from this present evil world, and his desire is that we might be found.
Walking in paths pleasing to him and in the enjoyment of that blessed One.
And so just going on here a little bit, we see here in whom it says in whom again.
Also, we have obtained an inheritance in the person of Christ.
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.
And then he goes on and it says in verse 11.
In whom he also trusted. After that he heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
In whom also after that you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. So we see the Spirit of God here. We see the work of God in sending his Son. We see the the the Lord Jesus accomplishing redemptions work for us. We see the Holy Spirit now making it good to us as he says.
Which is the verse 13? In whom also that you trusted, after that you heard the word of the gospel of your salvation? In whom also after that you believed you were sealed?
God has sealed you. He sealed me for that eternal blessing. No one can take it. It's yours. It's yours forever, for eternity. And it's a marvelous and precious truth to see that again. Going back to our brother Chuck's remark, all things he has made, He has given all things for our good and for our blessing, and all things are ours. And then just notice what he says.
Which is the earnest in verse 14?
Of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.
Unto the praise of His glory. What are we waiting for now? You know we have the salvation of our soul already.
According to these precious truths that we've reading here these verses or waiting for the redemption of these bodies of ours.
And I thought of it today as we were speaking about presenting our bodies a living sacrifice. Why God is interested in the fact of testimony for you and for me. And how do we, how do we face up to the world? People look at, look at, at us. They can't see our soul. They can't see what's in our hearts, but they can see these bodies of ours. How do we present them? Are we presenting them as a living sacrifice to God?
Is it are are we going on in that way of holiness or desire to please God? Holiness is the abhorrence of evil. Are we going on to please God?
Well, I believe it searches our hearts, doesn't it, to see all that God has brought us into and what he's already done for us. But right now, again, we go back to this thought that he's seeking to bring this our state, our our state up to our standing. You know, we we can be declined. They they all the elements of this world are downward. It it's always known. There's a gravitation that pulls us down to this world. He wants to lift us up.
And so when we read these precious verses, we how beautiful it is to see that God is interested in.
You and me, He's interested us in us, the Father's interested in us, the Lord Jesus is interested in us, and the Holy Spirit is in US and very much interested to bring us into the enjoyment of that which God has already wrought in our hearts. All. May the Lord use these few little comments just to quicken us, give us a thought of searching His Word and finding out what He has to say to us.
And the different portions of the of the word that would give us the joy of knowing these things.
God wants you to know it. As our brother has already said earlier in these meetings, the Old Testament Saints didn't know.
Why they did certain things. You and I should know Why? We should know for one reason. We should know where we are when we're gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know. We should know why we're there.
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God wants us to know that, and so I think I just enjoyed these few little thoughts in connection with this.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, that are all.
In accord and union for your blessing and for mine.