We're going to remain there in
Ephesians chapter 1. I've preached from the book of
Ephesians, and especially this first chapter, several times
in all the years that I've been preaching. It's been a while
that I've preached from it. Whenever I go back to it, it's
always a fascinating passage of Scripture. It's always something
that just impresses upon me. in the preaching of the gospel.
It's one of those passages that you want to camp in. And as I
was preparing for this message, I decided that what I was going
to do here, and this is so important, you know, what I want to do is
I'm going to give you an overview of the passage that Brother Robert
read, and then I'm going to come back in other messages the Lord
willing. and go into some of the really
good details that we can glean from this as believers in the
Lord Jesus Christ because it really strengthens our faith,
it strengthens, it's a motivating passage. You want to be motivated
to love and obedience and good works, this is one to go to. And the rest of Ephesians will
do that too as we go through it. But the theme, well let me
say this, As you read these passages from verse three here, all the
way to verse 14 in the original is one long sentence. Now, Brother
Randy gets on to me all the time when I do some writing, either
a bulletin or a book. He says, that sentence is too
long, you need to break it up. Well, this is one long sentence
here, but this was written by inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
so that's a little different than me, isn't it Randy? But
it's so full, and you have to divide it up, really, to get
the real impact of it. But the theme of this long sentence
is really the theme of the Bible. And what it's speaking of, and
I've entitled the message, this is the first message on this,
blessed union with Christ. Union with Christ. Because that's
our hope, to be united to Him. That's why I read those opening
verses, Colossians 2, in Him, in Christ dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead. And we're going to talk about
the Godhead a little bit. We're going to talk about the Trinity.
And in Christ, as God-man, dwelleth all the fullness, fullness of
the Father, fullness of the Son, the fullness of the Spirit, in
Him bodily, as God-man, is what that means. Because He is God,
but He's God manifest in the flesh. And you are complete in
Him. That's our union with Christ.
And that union we're going to see, there's an eternal union
with Christ. Think about that. If you're a
believer, that means your name was written in the Lamb's Book
of Life before the foundation of the world. Now the Bible teaches
that. That's not just some concoction
of Calvinism, as they say. That's what the Bible says. That
means God predestinated you to be conformed to the image of
his son. Most people who call themselves Christian today, they
don't like that word predestination, do they? I had a fella call me
up one time. He heard me mention it on my
TV program. He said, I don't believe in that
predestination. I said, oh, you don't believe
the Bible. He said, I believe every word of it. I said, well,
you don't believe that word, and it's in there. Don't know
what it means, don't know what it's talking about, but it's
there. And it's talking about God who is sovereign, who knows
all things and has determined all things beforehand. So we're
gonna talk about these things. But let me just go through, and
like I said, I wanna give you an overview of this passage to
see how it comes about. Paul, the apostle Paul, was the
human instrument used of God to write this letter to a group
of believers in a town called Ephesus. He's an apostle, there
were 12 apostles, a messenger of God who got their revelation
directly from the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul on the road to Damascus,
as you know, and then as he sent him to Ananias. So the apostle
of Jesus Christ, he's a messenger of Christ, and it's by the will
of God. Paul did not, he did not put
himself in this office or in this ministry, but God put him
there. To the saints, which are in Ephesus,
a saint is a sanctified sinner. And what does that mean? That
means one who has been set apart by God for salvation. That's
what a saint is. It's not a super-Christian or
some Christian who is above others, who's being canonized by some
Pope somewhere. No. Every true believer is a
saint set apart by God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. And
these are at Ephesus. We're in Albany. They were in
Ephesus. And he says, and to the faithful
in Christ Jesus. Now, the saints and the faithful
are one and the same. He's not writing this to saints
who are unfaithful and saints who are faithful. They're all
faithful. Because faith is the gift of God given to all of his
people as they are set apart by God, the Holy Spirit, in the
new birth and given the gift of faith. And that's faith in
Christ. In verse 2, it's all of grace.
We talk about grace, amazing grace. A lot of people claim
to believe grace, but they don't really believe grace. It's a
cleverly disguised system of works. You know what grace is
to a lot of people? It's God giving them an opportunity. Or God giving them a jump start. And then they finish it with
their will or their choice or their works, whatever. That's
not grace. We're gonna learn the definition of grace in this
long sentence here. And it speaks of the work of
the Father, the work of the Son, the work of the Holy Spirit,
which all comes together in revelation through the person and work of
the Son to us, and it's all conditioned on Christ. And He met those conditions. And we who are saved receive
the benefit of it, receive the blessings of it, because of what
He did. Somebody says, well, where does
our faith come in? God gives us faith to hold on to Him, to
latch on to Him. to believe in Him, to rest in
Him, to walk in Him. That's the gift of God. That's
the fruit of Christ's work on the cross. It's the fruit of
His blood and righteousness. It's not the cause. So it's all
of grace, verse 2. Grace be to you and peace. Peace with God. Reconciliation
to God. How is God, the righteous judge,
reconciled to sinners? Through the blood of Christ.
That's what, you've heard the term propitiation. Well, that's
what that's all about. A sin-bearing sacrifice that
brings satisfaction to the justice of God. That's Christ. That's
what he did at the cross. You know, people talk about at
the cross. Well, at the cross. In time, that's what Christ did.
He redeemed us from our sins. And how are sinners reconciled
to God? on the same ground, the righteousness
of Christ, which is his righteousness imputed, which means accounted,
charged, to our persons. And we receive that by God-given
faith in the preaching of the gospel. And so he says, grace
be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ. That peace with God the Father
is conditioned on the Lord Jesus Christ, and he fulfilled it.
Now he begins this sentence. And he gives us, we have to talk
about the Trinity, because what this sentence shows is the work
of the Trinity to save God's people from their sins. The work
of the Father, the work of the Son, and the work of the Holy
Spirit. Now, understand at the outset,
we cannot theologically or doctrinally explain the Trinity. And if you
ever read somebody who's tackling that subject, when they try to
give you an illustration of it, scratch it out. There are no
human illustrations that will define the Trinity. But God exists
in the Trinity of his persons. Now, the Muslims say that, well,
you all believe in three gods. You're polytheistic. No. There's one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And God is one
God. And he reveals himself in the
trinity of his persons. So it's one God in three persons.
So it's not polytheism. It's one God. And he reveals
himself. Somebody says, well, how does
the Bible explain the trinity? Well, right here in Ephesians
chapter one is how it explains it. The only explanation we have
of it, and it's by revelation that we know that salvation is
of the Lord in the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. And so as you look at this, look
at verse three. Now verse three is an all-encompassing verse
in the Bible. In other words, this is a verse
that kind of says it all. And here's what it says. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now to bless
God means to praise God. When God blesses us, that means
He gives us something freely out of His grace. We gain. But
when we bless God, we're simply worshiping Him. Praising God. Praise God. God gets all the
glory. And He says, blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now right away you see
the Father and the Son. who have blessed us with all
spiritual blessings. Now the spiritual blessings are
applied by the Spirit. And it says, in heavenly places,
and you're gonna see this phrase in this form and other forms
all throughout this sentence, the phrase, in Christ. It's all in Christ. This sentence
is gonna show us some things that are eternal. eternally fixed in the reality
of the mind of God. And it never changes. Can't change. Because God is immutable. God is not up there watching
what will happen down here. He's not a cosmic chess player. You make your move and then he
makes his counter move. That's the way a lot of people
think about God. And I know there's language in the scripture that
seems to indicate something of that sort, but people don't understand
it. You see, the problem is, we don't
have the mind or the language to speak properly of eternity. Everything we know is time-oriented. Everything. And we speak in that
way. But God is not subject to time.
God controls time. Somebody said he created time,
well that's okay. Time moves on. But just like
the psalmist said, my times are in God's hands. And he's in control. He didn't set a clock and just
wind it up and then walk away. So he's not up there learning,
he's omniscient, that means he knows all. He's not up there
subject to you, he's all powerful. And he's immutable, and that's
a mind-boggling concept. Can you sit around and think
about that sometime? Give yourself a headache. God
is a being that never changes. I can't imagine what that's like.
I mean, I'm changing every daggone day, and not for the better. We all are as we grow older. All around us change, all right?
So what this shows us, this all-encompassing sentence, this glorious, all-comprehensive
statement is the beginning of this long sentence of which the
subject is the believer's blessed and glorious union with Christ
Jesus. And it's all about Christ. Everything
in eternity and time. is founded upon and grounded
upon and revolves around the glorious person and the finished
work of Christ. And you know what? That question, what think ye of Christ? Remember
Christ asked that in Matthew 22. That ought to be the main
subject of your seeking, your search, your self-examination. Examine yourselves, whether you
be in the faith. Well, here's how you do it. What
do you think of Christ? And here's the point. Are my
thoughts of Christ consistent with what God says in his word? That's what you ought to be concerned
with. And I would say that about God the Father. When we think
about God, what are your thoughts of God? Because They must be
consistent with what the Bible says, not what your denomination
says. That may be wrong. Just like
I told you, these people who believe you can be saved and
then lost, their thoughts are all wrong about God, about Christ,
about themselves. So think about that. Don't just
slough that off. We're facing eternity. What think
ye of Christ? Whose son is he? God manifest
in the flesh. What did he do? What did he accomplish
on that cross? Did he die just to make you savable? If you do certain things? If
he did, we're all gone. No, that's not what he did. He died to save his people from
their sins, and he's capable of doing it. He's God manifest
in the flesh. This is the believer's glorious
union with Christ. This union is an eternal union.
If you're a believer now, you've always been in Christ eternally.
God chose you from the beginning. It's a legal and redemptive union. There is the justice of God. In order for God to save sinners
like us, his justice must be satisfied. You say, well, wait
a minute, what about his love? Well, His love for His people
sent Christ to accomplish what His justice demanded. That's what the Gospel deals
with. How God can be a just God and a Savior, a righteous judge
and a loving Father. God is a loving God. He's a merciful
God. He's a gracious God. But He never
shows love, mercy or grace to any sinner apart from justice
being satisfied. That's the God of this book.
And how can his justice be satisfied? Well, in this sentence, we find
that it's by Christ. It's a spiritual union in the
new birth where before we're born, we're born dead in trespasses
and sin. We're born enemies of God. It's
what the Bible says. And without a desire to receive
him or believe him or follow him, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. And up until the time
that God brings us under the gospel and in the power of the
Spirit gives us new birth, we're enemies of God. But he brings
us to that spiritual union, that living union with Christ. And
all of that is the fruit and the result of what Christ did
on the cross. He said that in John 12 and in
John 16. He said, if I be lifted up, I'll draw all unto me, all
of his sheep. Not all without exception. You
say, well, why do you say that, preacher? Because the majority
live and die in unbelief and perish. And it's sad. Somebody said, well, I don't
believe in election. Well, I do. I'll tell you why. God said it. That's it. Say, well, I don't
understand that. Well, that's not your business. God said it.
The key phrase, as I said, is in Christ. All salvation conditioned
on, fulfilled by, secured in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the foundation, who is the heart, and who is the channel of every
blessing that salvation brings. So here we have it. The trinity
of God's persons. Another thing we need to be very
clear on here, and I love talking about this, I spoke on it in
the 10 o'clock hour, the revelation or the prophecy of Jeremiah.
God reveals the trinity or the triunity of his persons through
the everlasting covenant of grace made before time and worked out
in time. This is covenant language. And
it's a covenant of grace. As I told the folks in the Sunday
school, it's a unilateral covenant towards us because it's not conditioned
on us. It's between the Father, the
Son, and the Spirit, all conditioned on Christ. It's through the everlasting
covenant of grace made before time and worked out in time. It involves eternity and time. Listen to this. This is Psalm
105 verse 8. He says, God hath remembered
his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand
generations. Isaiah spoke of the sure mercies
of David, which are everlasting. This eternal everlasting covenant
made between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And
here's what you need to understand. The gospel message is the preaching
of the terms of that everlasting covenant of grace. It's the preaching
of the terms of the new covenant, which is the everlasting covenant
of grace established in time. So it's all terms that lead to
Christ. Well, let's just read through
this. I'll make a few comments on this sentence. The first thing
we see in verses 3 through 6 is the work of God the Father in
salvation. And what it teaches us is this,
God the Father is the only source and originator of our salvation. Salvation doesn't originate with
us, it originated with God. Salvation is of the Lord. And
listen what it says. Let's read verse 3 again with
it. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with, now look at this, all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places, or in the heavenlies in Christ. Now how many blessings of salvation
are we blessed with in Christ? Not just some, all. Everything it takes to glorify
God in the salvation of sinners, blessings, benefits, eternally
and in time are in Christ. God is the source of it. The
Bible says, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It is God that justifies, who can condemn us? It's Christ that
died. Now look at verse four. According
as he hath chosen us in Christ, there's that in Christ again,
but he chose us, that's election. Remember Paul in 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2, he said, we're bound to give thanks all the way to
God, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath chosen
you from the beginning through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. And when did he choose us? In
Christ, before the foundation of the world, before the world
began, before the world was ever created. See, this is an eternal
covenant. And he chose us not just arbitrarily,
He chose us in Christ. Because everything that God does
in eternity and time must be based upon a just ground. Everything
He does in covenant love, He says He loved us with an everlasting
love. Nothing shall separate us from
His love in Christ. Everything that God does in eternity,
in eternal love, mercy, grace, Electing is in Christ before
the foundation of the world, and here's the goal of it, that
we should be holy. That means separated. That's what holy means. Usually when we think of holiness,
we think of some kind of a moral goodness or moral perfection.
But the term holiness is the same as the term sanctified.
It means set apart. God set his people apart. in Christ, and so that we should
be holy and without blame. That's justified. No charge. Now we are, somebody said, but
aren't we blameable? Well, we are sinners. And if God were to charge us
with our sins, we'd be doomed forever. Lord, if thou, Lord,
shouldest mark iniquities, who would stand? Psalm 130 verse
three, but there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be
glorified. But in Christ, we are without
blame. We're not chargeable. Again, who shall anything to
the charge of God's elect? And it's before God. Look here,
before him, not before men and women. When you look at me, you're
not gonna see an unblameable person. And if I did nothing,
if I didn't speak another word, but just sat alone in a chair,
you'd still see it because I'd keep growing old. And you do
know that's the consequence of sin, don't you? Adam, in the
day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. Now he didn't
die physically, but boy, that process began. He died spiritually. He lost all capacity to have
fellowship with God. That's why the Holy Spirit has
to come and we'd be born again. give us that capacity to be in
fellowship with God. Behold Him without blame before
Him, before God in God's sight in love, that love which brings
salvation, that love which is based upon justice satisfied,
propitiation, that love which guarantees the eternal glory
and good of all of its objects in Christ. And so in verse 5
it says, having predestinated us, that means preordained us
unto the adoption of children. Now this is before the foundation
of the world. This is the work of the Father.
This is His purpose, His sovereign will. He adopted us into His
family. Now you know in an adoption, you find a child that you want,
and you start the process, and the first thing has to be settled,
can you legally adopt this child? All legal obstacles have to be
removed. So God adopted us before the
foundation of the world, and then he removed all legal obstacles
later on in time when Christ died on the cross. The legal
obstacle was the law that had a bind upon us. because we're sinners and we
deserve nothing but condemnation and death. But God took care
of that matter in Christ. So he says, having predestinated
us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, all
toward God, according to the, listen to this, according to
the good pleasure of whose will? His will. Not your will. This free willism that has run
rampant in churches today is a false gospel. When man fell,
we fell all the way. Man's totally depraved. That's
what that means. It doesn't mean that we're all
raving lunatics out here trying to break the law of man. It means we will not have Christ,
this Christ, to rule over us. Again, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. If you want to tell if
a person is lost and to pray, preach the gospel to them. How
do they respond? If they ignore it, if they deny
it, if they leave it, there's no life there. The gospel is
the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. And
so he says, according to the good pleasure of his will, the
sovereign, unchangeable, immutable, all-powerful will of God. It will be done. And then verse
six, this is all to the praise of the glory of his grace. Don't
you love that? This gives God all the glory.
We don't have any. We glory in Christ and he says,
And he says, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved. In God's sight, we're accepted,
received, blessed in the Beloved, in Christ. You see that? And I believe that's the way
it's always been. I don't believe God changed His mind in that
effort. Even when we were enemies, Romans
5 says. Christ died for the ungodly.
He didn't die for people that would do what he wants them to
do. He died for people who were enemies in their own minds because
we didn't know God, we didn't want God, and wouldn't receive
him until the Spirit gave us life within. So that's the work
of the Father. Now, verses Verses 7-12 is the work of the
Son. Paul wrote this in Galatians
6-14. He said, God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, this
verses 7-12 essentially talks about that. Look at verse 7.
This is the work of the Son. And God the Son, now God the
Father is the only source and originator of salvation. God
the Son is the only foundation, the only ground, the only channel
of salvation. All the church, all the glory
of God is built upon the glorious person and finished work of Christ.
And all blessings of salvation, all benefits of salvation are
built upon that same ground and flow to his people through Christ. And he says, in whom we have
redemption through his blood. Everything is based upon the
redeeming work of Christ. It's the blood. There is a fountain
filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners
plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stain. What
can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood. There's
people today who talk about being justified at the cross. Well,
I can go along with that in this sense only. It was at the cross
that the ground of our justification was accomplished and finished.
Everything in eternity that God had purposed and planned looked
toward that exact time. In the fullness of the time,
God sent forth his son made of a woman, made under the law to
redeem them that were under the law. in whom we have redemption. The price paid. The price is
paid. We're owned by election, by redemption. And it says, the forgiveness
of sins. The forgiveness of sins comes by the blood of His cross.
What is it to be justified before God? It's to have all our sins
forgiven on a just ground. Well, here it is. The forgiveness
of sins by His blood. It's to be declared righteous
in God's sight. on a just ground. Well, here
it is. And it's according to the riches of his grace. The
law came by Moses, but grace and truth comes by Jesus Christ. As sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. And look at, he says in verse
eight, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.
All wisdom. All logical thinking comes through
this, comes through Christ. Verse 9, you want to know God,
look to Christ. Having made known unto us the
mystery of His will. What is God's will? It's to save
His people from their sins. According to the good pleasure
which He hath purposed in Himself. This is how God Set this up. His purpose, what is his purpose?
Is to glorify himself in the salvation of his people. That
in the dispensation of the fullness of time. Now, eternal justification
doesn't negate time, doesn't deny or ignore time. In the dispensation,
the various segments of time, God might gather together in
one all things in Christ. That's all his people, Old Testament,
New Testament, past, present, future, both which are in heaven
and which are on the earth, even in him. The saints that have
died and gone on, the saints that are living. Verse 11, in
whom also we have obtained an inheritance. Don't you love that?
It's an inheritance. You didn't work for it. Somebody
else worked for it, died and gives it to you. Being predestined,
oh, there's that word again. predestinated, foreordained,
according to the purpose of Him, and listen to this, who worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will. God's working
all things after the counsel of His own will. And verse 12
says that we should be to the praise of His glory who first
trusted in Christ. That's the first ones in the
New Testament that Paul's talking about there. They were the first
ones to be brought to faith in Christ in the New Covenant. And
then, In verses 13 and 14, we have the work of God the Holy
Spirit. As the Father is the source and originator of salvation,
as the Son is the foundation, the ground, the channel, the
Holy Spirit is the only applier of salvation. It is the Holy
Spirit's office to apply that salvation to each one whom God
chose before the foundation of the world, whom he adopted, whom
he justified, and whom Christ redeemed. You must be born again. And that's what he's talking
about. Look at verse 13. In whom you also trusted, after that
you heard the word of truth. This new birth comes under the
preaching of the truth, the gospel. It doesn't come under the preaching
of a lie. And he says the gospel of your
salvation wherein the righteousness of God is written, in whom also
after you believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
How were you sealed? The Holy Spirit gives us life
from the dead, a new heart, a new mind. He gives us faith to believe,
repentance. Those are all gifts from God.
And it seals us in the fact that if the Holy Spirit has convicted
us, convinced us of it, we cannot deny it, we cannot ignore it,
we cannot leave it. And he says in verse 14, which
is the earnest, the down payment of our inheritance, the inheritance
that is to come in full until the redemption of the purchased
possession, that's our final glory, unto the praise of His
glory. Holy Spirit's gonna bring us
into a spiritual union with Christ. Christ interceding for us, the
Spirit will keep us and we'll be brought to glory in Christ. I hope that's helpful to your
understanding of the Word of God.