Once again, for your mercy and
your grace. Every day your mercies are new every morning. And we
are just so thankful for your goodness to us, especially your
goodness to us and your mercy to us in Christ. We're undeserving
sinners, but yet we who believe, you've had mercy upon us. And
it's overwhelming. It really is. It's overwhelming.
So we just give you all the glory and honor and praise and we pray
that we lift up these brethren and people on the list too that
don't know you, that, oh, if it's your will, that you would
draw those who don't know you to you. and that they would see,
maybe see your hand in their healing or if they're going through
any sicknesses or maybe that you would reveal yourself to
them through your word and through one talking to them about you
and about your marvelous grace. We love you. We give you all
the praise. We put all these people into
your hands and pray that thy will will be done. In Jesus'
name, Amen. Ephesians chapter 1. Like I say,
we're doing an overview today. Ephesians is such a rich book.
We have to remember too that these people, you know, I think
sometimes, oftentimes we forget the circumstances that these
people were in from a biblical time and perspective. They were
in a city where idol worship was everywhere. And all kinds
of things were going on. Not much different than today,
really. It's just different things, different
tapers. But they actually had temples
to Diana and temples to all these different gods. And there was
all kinds of different worship. They had gods for every single
little thing. And so let's remember that perspective,
that the Ephesian saints were saved out of that, as well as
the Colossians, too. You know, when we go through Colossus,
remember that, too, as we're going through that book on Wednesday
nights. These folks were saved out of an adulterous situation. They were Gentiles. The Jews
called them dogs. They didn't want to have anything
at all to do with the Gentiles. And the last thing they were
thinking was that the Gentiles would be involved in the plan
of salvation, but God had a plan and a purpose, and he has a people
out of every tribe and every tongue and kindred and nation,
and it's amazing. And we see that our ways are
not God's ways. His ways are so much far above
us. So much far above us. Let's turn to Ephesians 1 here. And we'll just do an overview.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. So there
again, we see the same phrase as what's in Colossians. It's
by the will of God. Paul is an apostle by the will
of God. He has his authority to preach
the Gospel from God. He's being called by God. He's
born again by the Holy Spirit of God. He's a new creature in
Christ. And Paul's focus, his main thing,
is to preach Christ and Him crucified. And we know that from Corinthians.
That is his main objective, is to preach Christ and Him alone.
So he's an apostle by the will of God. And he's writing to the
saints which are at Ephesus. So this book is written to God's
people. It's written to the local ekklesia,
which is a called out assembly in the Greek. That's what we
are. The church is not the building, the church is the people. We're
an ekklesia. We're called out people. We're
called out from amongst the people in the world. And that's what
believers in Christ are. They're an ekklesia. But saint
there is holy one. Holy one. So we don't always
feel holy, do we? But God says that we are. which
are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus." So this book
is written to the saints, to the faithful in Christ Jesus,
and every saint is faithful in Christ. Because it's based upon
what He's done, not based upon what we do. So we walk and we rest and we
trust every day, in Christ and Him alone. Your circumstances
might not be my circumstances, but we still rest in the same
Savior, don't we? The same God. The same King.
The same Gospel. It's Christ and Him alone. But
through every circumstance that we go through, He is with us.
He is with us. Now look at this. Paul always
does this. And notice here, notice the order. Grace always precedes peace. If you don't have grace, you
won't have peace. And the way that we have peace
is through the grace of God in Christ. You see, we have peace
with God now. We were enemies with God, now
we have peace with Him. But notice the order, and this
is something that Paul does all the time. Grace be to you and
peace. And where is it from? From God
our Father. From God our Father. And from
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's from God through Christ. And then look at verse 3. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who have blessed
us. Now, who's he speaking to there?
The Ephesian saints, right? God's people. The faithful in
Christ Jesus. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who have blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now, you get people,
they're always trying to chase things. Every blessing we have
is in Christ. It's in Him. That's our rest. He's our rest. The object of
our faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Him are all the blessings
of God. They're all in Him. That's why
we always say as grace preachers, look to Christ. Look away from
your circumstances and look to Christ. And I do it too. I have
to do it myself as well. I'm just like anyone else. We're
just saved sinners, all of us, right? And we get anxious, we
get worked up about a circumstance or something comes up. Oh Lord,
I need to look to you. In looking, we need to remember
that all the blessings of God are in Christ. They're nowhere
else. That's why we constantly point
people to Christ and say, you must believe on Him and Him alone.
Because it's not in your works. It's not in anything. But Christ. All spiritual blessings are wrapped
up in Him. In Him. Turn, if you would, to 2 Corinthians.
And think of this, too. when we're going through a trial
or a situation. Look at 2 Corinthians 1, verse
3. And this will bring us great
comfort. And this ties in with all spiritual blessings in Christ.
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. God is the God
of all comfort, beloved. All the blessings are in Christ.
All our comfort is in Him. It's in Him alone. It's nowhere
else. Trust me, I know, when we look
to our circumstances or we look to people, we're all over the
board, aren't we? But when we look to Christ, we
have such peace and such hope. He's our rock. He's our anchor.
He's the foundation of what we believe. Look at verse 4. according
as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." Now,
this is a verse that oftentimes folks stumble upon. But the verse
is very plain in what it says, isn't it? God chose a people
in Christ before the foundation of the world. Now, someone might
pipe up and they might say, well, that's not fair. You're telling
me that God chose people? He chose to save people, yeah.
Think of the alternative. If God hadn't chose to save,
no one would be saved. No one. And this is one of God's,
this is God's doing. We don't know who God's people
are. We don't know who he's chosen.
Therefore, what do we do? We preach the gospel to all,
don't we? And God does the saving. So, someone say, well, you know,
I'm not one of the elect. Flee to Christ. If you flee to
Christ, you're one of God's people. What's made you and I who believe
to differ? between our family members, between
other people. What's only God, right? God is
the only reason that I'm a preacher, that I'm saved, is God. My brothers
are still doing the same things that I would have done. But it's
God who's made me to differ. And he chose me in eternity.
I can't, there's nothing in me that would make him choose me.
Is there anything in you that would make him choose you? No
way. It's by his pure, free, sovereign grace in Christ. because
it pleased him. And this is what the scripture
says. According as he has chosen us in him. When was that done?
Before the foundation of the world. Now think of this. I was
looking at A.W. Pink's book, Gleanings in the
Godhead, this week. And he was talking about God
in eternity. And we don't really think that,
you know, the more, this is about the sixth or seventh time I've
read the chapter. I think I'm just starting to
grasp what he's trying to say. But he was talking about how
God in eternity, was by himself. And he was absolutely, perfectly
content to be by himself. He was content. And he created the world, and
all the heavens that we see, and everything. And Vicki and
I were talking about this yesterday. And she brought up, why did he do
this? To manifest his glory. To manifest his glory. And what
is our chief end? Why are we here? To glorify God. To glorify Him. To praise Him
for the marvelous things that He has done for us. It's amazing. We get to enjoy this world that
He created to manifest His glory. The birds sing different when
you look at it that way. Everything's different. Because
it is all to manifest this. Why are there certain things,
and we're just discovering this, why are there certain things
in the deep depths of the ocean that no eye will ever see, but
when they put the cameras on it and stuff, have you ever seen
any of those things? They're amazing. Why? Why is that there where no one...
To manifest His glory. To manifest. Why is a flower
in the forest where no man will ever see, no man will ever step,
no man will ever, but it's there and it's beautiful. To manifest
His glory, beloved. He does all things for His glory.
Why did He choose a people in eternity? To manifest His glory. Oh, it's wonderful. And we say,
in awe, He chose me. According He has chosen us in
Him. And notice that, in Christ. It's not according to anything
we do. It's not God looked down through time. I'm reading Calvin's
Calvinism now, and he's talking about the same error that we
face today. In the 1700s, he's saying, this
preacher over here, or so-called preacher he calls him, is saying
God looked down through time. He goes, that's not even scriptural.
See, we battle the same things. Tim and Bonnie and I were talking
about that yesterday. Nothing is new. It's just recycled. All the errors that we see are
just recycled errors that Paul dealt with, that the Scripture
prophets dealt with. They're all the same things.
They're just recycled. But according to what He has
chosen, He chose us in Christ. When? Before the foundation of
the world. That we should be holy? Sinners made holy? Yes. It's marvelous. And without blame. Without blame. There's that perfect
robe of righteousness that we're clothed in, isn't there? There's
that perfect robe of righteousness. The righteousness of Christ.
Oh, it's beautiful. Without blame, before Him, in
love. He loved His people, having predestinated us, verse 5, unto
the adoption of children. We're adopted unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. Look at the latter part
of verse 5. Why does He do this? according
to the good pleasure of His will, because it pleased Him. Why does
God save sinners? Because it pleases Him to do
that. Oh, it's amazing. It's amazing. People get twisted about predestination,
too. I've often asked people, I said,
well, do you know predestination means to be conformed to the
image of Christ? What believer doesn't want to
be conformed to the image of Christ? We don't want to sin,
do we? We hate it, right? We hate it. We hate it in ourselves more
than anyone else. When we were in religion, we hated it in other
people. But now in grace, we hate it
more in ourselves than we do in anyone else because we see
ourselves as the chief of sinners. But it's marvelous. He has made
us righteous. And it's all in Christ and what
He's done. And it's all according to the
good pleasure of His will. If you're here and you're saved,
rejoice, because you're saved because of the good pleasure
of His will. It's marvelous. It's wonderful. And look at verse 6. To the praise
of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
beloved. For by grace are you saved through faith, right? And
that not of yourselves? It's a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. So we can trace the fountain
of our salvation to the grace of God in Christ. To the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us. And notice that. We don't
make ourselves accepted, We don't make ourselves accepted. He has
made us accepted. And where are we accepted? Only
in Christ. There goes works. Right? Go on. Out the window they go.
Out the window they go. Oh. And look at verse 7. Here we
go. In whom we have redemption. There's the purchase price. So
those who are given to Christ by the Father, they must be purchased. They must be purchased. They
must be ransomed. We're sinners. We must be made
righteous. In whom we have redemption? Oh,
we have redemption. How? Through His blood. through
the shedding of His precious blood. And look at this, the
forgiveness of sins. How many sins? Oh, don't we love
this? All our trespasses and sins.
All of them. That's why we can be blameless
before God. Isn't it marvelous? It's a wonderful
salvation. Wonderful. It's like Paul just likes to
rejoice in the grace of God, right? Because this is now the
third time that he's mentioned something according to the riches
of his grace. He's showing the Ephesians how
rich they are in Christ. They're rich in Christ. They
may not have a lot of things materialistically, but they're
rich in Christ. And this is the same for every
believer. We're rich in Christ according to the riches of His
grace. Does He not give us comfort in
times of trial? Peace that passes all understanding? Oh, and how do we get that? We
keep our hearts and our minds on Christ and on Him alone. Wherein
He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. Oh,
does not the grace of God super abound towards us? It super abounds
in our lives. And it's abounded towards us.
And always remember who this is written to. It's written to
believers, isn't it? It's written to believers. It's
written to the faithful in Christ Jesus. And look at this in verse 9. Now, we come into this world,
right? We know from Ephesians 2, we've
looked at that many times. We come into this world dead
in trespasses and sins. We don't know God. We don't know
who He is. We don't know. And we don't desire
Him. Unless He makes us will. And
then we run to Christ. We run to Him. Look at this.
Heaven made known unto us the mystery of His will. Folks are
always trying to figure out God's will. God's will is in Christ. He's revealed it to us in Scripture.
Heaven made known unto us the mystery of His will according
to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself. See,
God needs no counselors. Presidents, they have counselors.
They have people they go to, advisors. God has no advisors. And He doesn't need any. He does
all things according to the counsel of His own will. Whatever pleases
Him, He does it. And for us, that's a rock for
us because God has said that He will save His people from
their sins, right? And that one day, we who believe
will be with Him. God doesn't lie. We will be. Oh, what comfort for us as we
go through this world. What comfort for us. So he's revealed himself to us.
Do you remember Joseph and his brethren? Do you remember how
his brethren came up to them, to Joseph? They didn't know who
he was, did they? Until he revealed himself. And
it's the same with Christ. We don't know who he is until
he reveals himself. And then when he reveals himself,
thy people shall be made well. We run up with tears. We run to our King. We run to
Him. And we rest and trust in Him. Verse 10, 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. Although we're different personalities
and different people, different nations, different tongues, we're
one in Christ. We're one. And that's amazing. And one day, the whole body will
be with the head. We'll be in heaven one day for
eternity, glorifying our great King. We'll be there. We have loved ones and friends
who are already there and brothers who are already there, right?
We'll be there one day. We who trust Christ. Oh, I know
my Redeemer liveth. And it's not based upon anything
we're doing, is it? It's all based upon what Christ
has done. And He's revealed it to us. Do
you see how marvelous the grace of God in Christ is? Do you see
how superabounding As the Greek says, the grace of God is, we
who were enemies with God, shaken our fists by our own nature,
and he brings us to Christ. And think of this, some folks
might say, well, I still don't think that's fair. But I'll tell
you, we don't want fair. Because fair would be everyone
goes to hell. That would be fair. But oh, the
grace of God in Christ. Oh, the grace that He has mercy
upon sinners. And we say, come, flee to Him. He is the only hope. Are you
having trouble in life and down? Well, we still have trouble in
life and we still get down. But we have a hope. Oh, we have
a hope, we who believe. That cannot be shaken, because
it's based upon Him and Him alone. It's centered in Christ. It's
centered in what He's done. He has redeemed us. We have redemption
through His precious blood. God became a man and redeemed
His people from their sins. It's marvelous. It's not any
plan that men would ever think. What's the first thing we think
of when our enemies, or if someone hurts us, or we have an enemy?
What's the first thing? Honestly, what's the first thing?
We don't even want to say it, do we? God has mercy. He's rich in mercy. Oh, He's
rich. He saves sinners. He saves sinners. Look at verse 11. And have you
noticed the focus is all God and all Christ through what we've
read? We are receivers of this mercy. Receivers of this grace. In whom
also we have obtained an inheritance. How did we obtain an inheritance?
Only through Christ Jesus and Him alone. It's all in Him. being predestinated according
to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel
of His own will." Have you noticed again how Paul just keeps hammering
about the will of God? That it's all His purpose? That
it's all His will? God's will will be accomplished.
And no man will ever thwart it. See, men shake their fists and
say, I'll never do it. Christianity, that's for weak
people. Well, I'm weak. Yeah, I admit that. I am. I am. I have a mighty Savior, and I'm
saved according to His plan and purpose. Because if it was according
to me, I would never have come to Him. Oh, the mercy of God in Christ.
He draws sinners to Himself. In whom also we have obtained,
and let that rest be balm to our hearts this week, beloved."
Obtained. We've obtained an inheritance.
But it's in Christ. It's not our doing. It's what
He's done. But we who believe have obtained it. Paul's writing
to the Ephesian believers. And this is written to us who
believe too. In whom also we have obtained
an inheritance. It's not a maybe. according to
the purpose of Him, look at this, who worketh all things after
the counsel of His will, that we should be to the praise of
His glory who first trusted in Christ. Remember earlier, we
talked about the flower or the creature in the ocean that no
one sees. Why is it that? To manifest His
glory. Just to manifest His glory. God
has mercy on sinners to manifest His glory. What a wonderful God. We're sinners
to the core, but yet He has mercy upon we who believe. And it's
all after the counsel of His own will. Look at verse 13. You must believe in whom ye also
trusted, after that ye heard the word and the truth. The gospel
was preached and proclaimed, and we heard and we believed. The gospel, look at this. Notice
how he personalizes it, too. The gospel of your salvation.
For every believer, the gospel is the gospel of your salvation.
Remember, my gospel? Not meaning that it's any of
our doing, but it's personal. My gospel. Your salvation. Oh,
it's marvelous. Because God saves individual
sheep, eh? The gospel of your salvation.
"...in whom also after that ye believed..." There it is. We
must believe. A person who says, well, I'm
going to heaven, but they don't believe in Christ, well, that's
contrary to Scripture. You must believe. And we know
that. We who have believed know that
because there was a time when we didn't believe. And now we
trust in Christ. He's our rock. And what is this belief? Trusting
that Christ died for my sins? That he purchased me on Calvary's
cross? That he really did redeem me
from all my sins? And how do we know this? Because
we're born again. Again, what comes first? Faith
or regeneration? Regeneration. You must be born
again. And then you believe. Because
it's all a work of God. It's all His work. And it's marvelous. It's wondrous. And look at this. After that
you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
Okay, so in verse 4 we see the Father. Now remember how I'm
always hitting on this, and I hit on it because I just marvel at
it, to be honest with you. The whole Trinity is in action
in the salvation of the sinner. And it's just, I don't think
we can say it enough, because it's amazing. Look at verse 4.
Or verse 3, right? The Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and He's the one who chose us. Verse 7, who redeems
us? The Son. And then who are we
sealed by? The Holy Spirit of promise. The
whole Trinity, brethren, who was involved in your salvation.
It's marvelous. It's wonderful. And this is why
we give Him all the praise and the glory. This is why we just
want to give it all to Him. We're closed with verse 14, which
is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession unto the praise of His glory. The earnest of our
inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.
And we're closed with this. Unto the praise of His glory. We'll give Him all the glory,
won't we? We'll give it all to Him.