Open your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Ephesians, chapter one. Name of the message today is Spiritual Blessings in Christ. Spiritual Blessings in Christ. We're gonna read the first four verses, but verse three, this'll be, I think, our second message on verse three, and I believe there'll be one more after this. Ephesians 1 verses 1 to 4, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. That's the key right there, right? In Christ. 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, two weeks ago, we looked at verse three. Verse three. And we looked at how this verse, and the following verses we'll look at in our future study, unveil the eternal Trinitarian plan of salvation. God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all involved in our salvation. We're gonna see when we get to verse four that it's God who chose us in Christ. And then later on, down verse 7 and 8 area, and we're going to see about how Christ purchased us with his blood. And then further down, we're going to see how we're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. We're marked as we're owned by Christ.

That's what that means. That sealing is a mark of ownership. You know, people always say, oh, the number of the beast, right? People go off over that. I'm already marked. And if you're a believer, you're marked too. We're marked with the mark of God, where He owns us. He owns us.

And we'll get into how that's a picture later on of how if, I think we went through it before, Brian, where if you had a bunch of boxes that you were shipping to Rome, and I had a bunch of boxes that we were shipping to Rome, you would have your own stamp on it. And that would show your mark of ownership. I'd have my own stamp on mine, too, probably an eagle. And I'd stamp it, right? And that would show that I own those boxes. That's how we're stamped.

We're owned by God. Isn't that wonderful? He created us. He purchased us. And then he takes us home. It's glorious, beloved. It's glorious. But it's all planned by God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We looked at how verses 3 and 4 clearly bring forth and emphasizes that salvation is entirely God's work. We're going to see that even more today. That salvation is entirely God's work. All from the beginning to the end, from the planning, planned by God the Father, executed by the Son, Right?

When he purchased us with his own blood and applied by the Holy Spirit of God. It's absolutely wonderful when we're born again. Salvations of the Lord. And how do all these spiritual blessings come to us? Through the perfect sin atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through his blood and righteousness. By absolutely nothing we do. And we don't even merit these blessings, do we? We don't even merit them. And yet He bestows them upon us, sister, because He loves us with an eternal love from eternity. We're going to see that in verse 4. Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. It's amazing. That's absolutely incredible. Sinners such as we? Yes. And don't forget, there's always hope for our loved ones. Always. Until they breathe their last breath. Always.

Oh my. It's wonderful. We just got to keep that in mind, don't we? Oh my. And what did he, what did, what did Christ save us from? Well people say, well he saved me from hell. Yeah. But that's not the main thing we need to be saved from. Hell is just a place because of our sinfulness. That's what he saved us from, our sins. That's the most important thing that God has saved us from, our sins. And people go into hell as just a result of their sinnership, isn't it? And we deserve to go there too, don't we? Oh my, but God in his mercy has saved us, washed us.

It's wonderful. Oh my, it's so exciting, I'll tell you what. Look, let's look at verse 3 again. It says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, look at this, who hath blessed us, that's past tense, beloved. Right? When did he bless us? At Calvary? Well yeah, he saved our souls, but this blessing is talking about from eternity. Because Christ is a lamb slain from the foundation of the world, isn't he, Brother Travis?

Oh my. Look at this. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who had blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. So we see here in this verse, look at this. These spiritual blessings, number one, We can see it so clearly.

Do not arise from human effort. Right? And you know, these spiritual blessings aren't like blessings that we receive of food and comfort and homes. This is spiritual blessings. Spiritual blessings, the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Justification before God. In Christ, in his righteousness. Redemption through the blood of Christ. Sanctification made holy in Christ. See, the things in this world are temporal blessings, aren't they? This verse is speaking of eternal blessings. Eternal life, brother. in and through Christ. God himself has saved us. My, this is, this is mountaintop. This first chapter we're going to see is, I like to call it mountaintop scripture. It's just amazing. Oh, it's all amazing.

And it doesn't come from any human efforts. You know where it comes from? The grace of God in Christ. The free and sovereign grace of God. so that none of us can boast. Man, we're so prideful. But this, this, this makes us be in awe of our great God. Because everything comes from Him. And this, this, you know what this also affirms? This also affirms that salvation's of the Lord. Because it all comes, salvation is a spiritual blessing too, isn't it? In Christ. Where does it come from? It doesn't come from human effort, does it, Brother Brian? It comes from the grace of God, doesn't it, Brother Chris? It comes from the grace of God.

It's glorious. Praise the name of Jesus. No wonder we give him all the glory and honor and praise. My, let's read verse three again. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us, past tense, in eternity, with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now, note, who is Paul writing to? Well, look at verse one. To the saints, the holy ones, remember? We don't feel holy, do we? but we're holy in Christ.

This letter's written to God's born-again, blood-washed people. It was written to the saints in Ephesus. Brother Charlie, it wasn't written to all the people in Ephesus, was it? No. It was written specifically for the church in Ephesus. It's written to a people who've been redeemed by the blood of Christ, who've been taken out of idolatry, pagan idolatry.

This city was steep. 33,000 different kinds of gods were worshipped in this city. And they were at one time worshipping dumb idols. And Paul comes and preaches the gospel, and by the power of God, the Holy Spirit, some are turned from idols to serve the living God.

That's what happened to us, isn't it? Isn't it glorious? Glorious, beloved. My, oh, my. So this verse is speaking, this book is speaking to the saints in Ephesus, but it's still relevant for us today, isn't it? Because it's authored by the Holy Spirit for us, for the saints of God. My.

And we see that emphasized In verse 3, when it says, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings, and we go back to verse 1, to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Remember, the faithful in Christ Jesus are just speaking of those who are in Christ. We're faithful because we're in Christ, not because anything in us. He keeps us. Oh, it's wonderful.

See the words have blessed, the tense of this word in the Greek is referring merely to the fact of an action. The fact of an action, we see then that the one who had blessed us is who? God the Father. The action is that he had blessed us in Christ with all spiritual blessings. before we ever were, before the heavens ever were. My. And the Greek word for blessed here is used, the same Greek word for blessed, the same Greek word that was used for the first one, blessed be God, but it's used in a different form. Because when we bless God, we praise him. That's the first word, blessed, in this text, right? When it says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's us blessing God, praising God, right?

For what he's done for us. We bless God, we praise him, we speak well of him. But when he blesses us, it's not that he speaks to us good, but that he does us good. It's indeed, not in word, it's indeed that he does it. My! We praise God for what he's done for us. He blesses us despite our sinfulness. Oh, my! This is our great God, beloved. It's wonderful, isn't it, Sister Barbara? It's wonderful. Oh, my! He had blessed us. Our blessing is in word to God. His is indeed in Christ. He gives us benefits through the Lord Jesus Christ, which we clearly see in this verse, who had blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Right? Expositors say this, I like this, in word and thought, we bless God because indeed, in positive effect, he blesses us, not based upon anything in us, except his free and sovereign grace.

It's incredible. And look at the word us. It refers again to Paul and the Ephesian saints, all the saints of God. It extends all the way down through the ages to us and to whoever will come after us until the Lord tarries. Isn't that wonderful? To the new believer, to the old believer, to the one who's in the middle of his walk, or he or she, and to the ones who will come after us if the Lord tarries. It's wonderful. And again, it's past tense.

He hath blessed us. It's not based on anything we do, is it, Charlie? In religion, it says, well, you do this and God's going to bless you. We went through that, didn't we? And that's just a lie. You know those TV guys who say, oh, if you do this, God will bless you. The only ones who's making money is that robber, that crook of a TV preacher. Right? And you know what those people are after? Money. Even the people that are given, they're like, well, if I do this, I'm going to get more. See, I learned a long time ago that we grace people. We don't give to get. Do we? We give because we love the Lord. That's why. Totally different, isn't it? It's a totally different thing. My, it's incredible. We have not expected anything back. It's wonderful.

And again, these blessings here that we received are, as we see in verse three, spiritual. Look at this. Let's read verse three again. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who had blessed us with what? All spiritual blessings. These are not temporal blessings. These are spiritual blessings. Things that we cannot obtain on our own. Can't save ourselves, can we? Right, sister? We can't save ourselves. God saved us in Christ. Can't regenerate ourselves, can we, sister Barb? We're born again by the power of God, the Holy Spirit.

It's absolutely amazing. I'll tell you. It's absolutely amazing. And you know what? It's all according to the will and purpose of God. If you're born again right here today, you hath all spiritual blessings in Christ. And it's all according to the will and purpose of God.

That'll make, amen, that'll make a shout, won't it brother Brian? Oh man! Do you see why I say we're above all people most blessed, and yet here we are? We feel like we're the horriblest sinners in the world, because we are, right? By nature. But yet here God's blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ. We're the richest people in the world. You know, that basil guy, he got all that money. It don't even come close to these blessings right here.

Does it? He's going to die and leave all that money behind, right? And then somebody's going to fight over it. Right? I love what Neil told me one time. He was going to buy a new chainsaw and he goes, well, why do I need to buy a new chainsaw? That one will probably last until I die. Someone else can use it, probably Brian, can use it afterwards. Why should I go out and buy a brand new one?

I'm like, man, that's great. Because it's all temporal, isn't it? Everything is temporary. Everything we see in this world. But these here, these spiritual blessings, these are eternal blessings. These are eternal blessings. And you know what else too? They can't be revoked. Because they're in Christ. Isn't that glorious?

They can't be earned. You can't earn them. Well, why can't you earn them? Well, look, because they come from God the Father. We can't earn them. We don't merit them, do we? No. We don't merit salvation in Christ. God gives it to us. And you know, they're invisible. You ever think of that? We have salvation. We have eternal life right now in Christ, but we don't have something tangible in our hands, do we?

But we know we have it, don't we, Brother Travis? Because it's in Christ. He purchased us. He purchased it for us. He obtained eternal salvation for us. We have justification with God. It's not something we can hold in our hand, but we know we got it.

Right? There's therefore now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. It's glorious, beloved. It's glorious. The blessings are spiritual and therefore eternal. They've been bestowed in a singular prior act. They've been accomplished in eternity, and they're all according to the will and purpose of God. When did we receive these spiritual blessings? When we were chosen in Christ, which is the next verse before the foundation of the world.

That's glorious, isn't it? That's glorious. I like, as Charlie says, that's peaceful. Hey brother, that's peaceful. My. And our belief, do you know our belief is, our faith is one of the blessings too. You know, I don't know if you guys remember this or those of you who came out of religion. You just got to have enough faith. You remember that Chris? You just got to have enough faith.

We gotta get a hundred people praying. We're gonna twist God's arm. Right? Surely, the more people who are praying, the more likely it'll be that he says yes. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. My. Our belief is one of those blessings, and by faith we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, whom we've never seen. Not with these physical eyes, but with the eyes of faith we have, haven't we? And could you imagine, can we even imagine what it's going to be like when we, the first second we're in heaven and we're beholding the face, we actually get to see him? It's going to be glorious, isn't it? My, Sister Julia, you imagine that?

Just looking at it. There's Christ. My! That's amazing! There he is. Because our faith becomes sight at that point. And it's absolutely glorious. My, by faith, we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And we bless him, don't we? We bless God, which means we praise God. We praise the Son and we praise the Holy Spirit for this wondrous salvation. We're born again. And we see from this verse that we can take no credit for it. Absolutely none. It's a work of God. Just like Jonah said, salvation's of the Lord. And that's from beginning to end. Paul said he's the author and the finisher. I once talked to an author one time, a friend of mine in Oregon. And I asked him, he wrote several books, and I asked him, do you plan your book out before you're going to even write it?

He goes, absolutely. Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. And then what do you do? Well, I execute it. I start putting words together. Redeemed by the blood of Christ. Right? And then when it's finished, I take it to the publisher and give it to him. Born again, taken home to glory. Author and the finisher of our faith. Isn't it wonderful? And we spend the rest of our lives going, me? Marveling that we've received this grace and mercy that we do not deserve. But God's bestowed it upon us, hasn't he? And he has forgiven us all our trespasses and sins.

My, it's glorious. So these spiritual blessings, they can't be earned. They can't be merited. They're not merited. They're spiritually bestowed upon us. They're invisible. And we only understand them, the fact of these, because we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God. My, we can't take any credit. They were sovereignly bestowed before time even was, upon God's elect, hath blessed us. Past tense. Therefore, we give all the glory to God. And this assures the believer that spiritually, you know what this assures us? We have need of nothing. All spiritual blessings.

Do you know all that a sinner needs is in Christ? All that a sinner needs to have acceptance before God is in Christ. All that a sinner needs to be saved from their sins is in Christ. All that a sinner needs to be justified before God is in Christ. All that a sinner needs to be made holy is in Christ. All that a sinner needs to be glorified is in Christ.

No wonder Paul wrote, Christ is my all in all. Isn't it wonderful? All spiritual blessings. There's nothing lacking that we need spiritually that is not found in Christ. And God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ. It's glorious, isn't it?

Did we do anything, Sister Carolyn, to earn those or to get them? Not at all. God found us in the passage that Brother Travis is going to read today. The lost sheep, that was us, wasn't it? We were wandering around and he came to us and found us. put us on his shoulders. Now, when you read that part, brother, think of this. We get to gaze in the Savior's face when we're sitting on his shoulders, don't we?

And he doesn't break the legs of that little lamb. Do you ever hear that, Chris, in Fundamentalist circles? Oh, he breaks the sheep's legs so he can't wander anymore. He's not going to maim his people, is he? No. He puts, Moose Park was the one I read that.

He puts, he puts that little lamb on his shoulders so we can just gaze in the face of the Savior. Oh my. And that's what we do the rest of our life, isn't it? As believers, we're just looking at Christ. Isn't it wonderful? It's absolutely amazing. My. We have need of nothing.

We're complete in Christ, Paul wrote in Colossians. And God is completely satisfied with the atonement of Christ. And are we not totally satisfied with these spiritual blessings that we didn't even ask for? We don't merit. They've been bestowed upon us by the grace and mercy of God, according to, again, his free and sovereign grace. God's grace is sovereign, isn't it? is sovereign, whomsoever he wills.

Some hear the gospel and are hardened. Some hear the gospel and have life. And the only one who made those two to differ is God, the Holy Spirit. Isn't that amazing? Because, because you're saints, God sends the Spirit. Because you're heirs, because you're sons, God sends the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, whereby you now cry, Abba, Father. It's glorious, I'll tell you.

It just gets better and better, doesn't it? Let's look at Ephesians 1-3 again. Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now take note that to assure our understanding, our Lord inserts a small but definite word as he declares that he has blessed us with A-L-L, all spiritual blessings.

All spiritual blessings, look at that. And that's not italicized, so that's in the original Greek. All spiritual blessings. A small but definitive word. With this little word, he declares that he has blessed us with all spiritual blessings. And where are they? In Christ. It's glorious. Do you know this word is both inclusive and exclusive? It's both inclusive and exclusive. On the inclusive side, it simply means that everything necessary for our acceptance before God is provided by God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And it guarantees the recipient's acceptance in the presence of God.

So rejoice, beloved of God. There's nothing left out. And all through the Lord Jesus Christ, the believer has and possesses all spiritual blessings. On the exclusive side, all simply means that nothing the believer is, has, has done, or has not done, what they will do or what they will not do, what they have stopped doing, or what they have started doing, in no way Can they obtain these spiritual blessings by anything we do? It's exclusive that way because it comes from God. God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings. Isn't it wonderful?

Oh, my. See, religion tells you you've got to have more joy, got to have more love to people. Well, I pray for that, I really do, but that's God the Holy Spirit rotting that in me, because I can't do it. And the fruit of the Spirit is part of these spiritual blessings. It's amazing. And they all come from the Father, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and are applied by the Holy Spirit of God. Turn if you would to 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter one.

So what it means, that any works that man does or the will of man will not cause them to be blessed. And thankfully, none of those things can keep us from being blessed. Right? Nothing that we do can keep us from being from these spiritual blessings because God's already given them to us in eternity. And you know what? The redeemed of the Lord received these blessings from eternity without our consent. Isn't that amazing? All according to the will and purpose of God. It's glorious. Here's a verse, here's some verses here that, well, we'll see this truth bought for that they were given to us before the foundation of the world in Christ, according to the mercy and grace of God. 2 Timothy chapter one, verses eight to 11.

Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God, who hath saved us, past tense, and called us, again, past tense, with an holy calling, not according to our works. That means anything you can do in your mind or anything you can do in deed.

Not according to our works. Praise God I'm not saved according to my works. I'd be in a heap of trouble. I'm saved by the work of Christ and Him alone. Look at this. But according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus, when? Tell me. Amen. Before the world began. Did we consent to that? In our natural state, we would have said, I don't want that. My, that's glorious, beloved. Look, I'm going to read that again.

Who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ. So he gave us all this in eternity, and now it's manifest with Christ coming to this world to save us from our sins. Remember, the execution of God's purpose?

Oh my. Who has abolished death and has bought life and immortality to light through the gospel, born again by the Holy Spirit of God. Where unto, look at Paul, I'm appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles. Whoo! I'm sent to preach the gospel, is what he's saying. I'm sent to preach Christ. It's glorious. Let's read that verse one more time, Ephesians 1,

3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us. with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. So we see here before us a wonderful fact. We are blessed. Despite our sinfulness, despite our failings, we are blessed. We have been blessed. Do you know we were blessed even before we knew it? We were blessed even before the universe was made.

Whoo, man! Oh, isn't that wonderful? Our God is so good to us. He's so merciful to us. This grace is wonderful. These spiritual blessings are a gift from God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And what do we say? Glory to God, don't we? Glory to God. Brother Charlie, can you close us in prayer?