If you would, to Ephesians chapter 1, the name of the message is in heavenly places. Ephesians chapter 1, we'll continue our study in this wonderful book written to the saints at Ephesus who were former pagan idol worshipers. They're Roman citizens. They live in, I believe it's the third largest city in the Roman Empire. It's totally given over to idolatry when Paul got there.

And the Holy Spirit of God has saved a multitude of people there. How do we know it's a multitude? Well, because when Paul calls the Ephesian elders, they're plural, elders. So a lot of commentators believe there's multiple churches in Ephesus have sprung up. But it all comes by the power of God. Paul was sent there to preach and spent I believe a year and a half with them or two years. And so he's very close with this group. Their hearts are knit together just like ours are knit together. And they're very dear to Paul.

And so he writes them, let's read verses three to six. He says 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. Now notice places there is italicized. It's not in the original Greek. So it's in heavenly in Christ.

According as he had 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 unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise and glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. And beloved there is Christ. Now these are born again, blood-washed saints that Paul's writing to. We know that because in verse one, he calls them the saints at Ephesus, which just means the holy ones in Christ.

Listen to this verse in the Greek literal Bible. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. Okay, so that tells us that these blessings come from the heavenly realms. The heavenly realms, they come from God. They come from where he abodes with the angels. Again, let's read it in the King James Version.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, so in heavenly realms in Christ. We see that we who are the born again, blood washed saints of God, Blessed by God the Father himself By God the Father himself With all spiritual blessings and They come from the spiritual realm in Christ to us They come directly from the throne of God beloved According to look at verse the last part of verse five, according to the good pleasure of his will. His will. God's will.

And we're blessed with all heavenly blessings, all spiritual blessings in Christ. And it comes from the heavenly realms. The heavenly realms, or the heavenlies, refer to the spiritual realm where God manifests his presence and glory. This is the third heaven that Paul was caught up to. In Jewish conception, beyond the atmospheric heaven where the clouds are, in the stellar heaven where the stars and planets are. according to Jewish conception, is that it's beyond all that. And that's where the saints of God dwell, with God for eternity, outside of time and space.

Can we wrap our minds around that? No, it's true though, isn't it? This verse brings that forth, doesn't it? In the heavenly realms. And we believe it. By faith, we believe it. This is the truth. And it's wondrous. If our God lives outside of all that, and He created all that, is there any problem for Him to keep us? In wonder of wonders, then, that the Word of God, who was eternally in that heavenly realm, became a man and came into time and space to save us from all our sins. And his name is the Lord Jesus Christ. Who through his blood and righteousness, we are saved from all our sins.

And we are eternally, eternally saved. Why? Well, because God dwells in eternity. And it's the eternal plan of salvation. Planned and purposed by the eternal God. executed by the Eternal Son and applied by the Eternal Holy Spirit of God. Salvations of the Lord.

Hallelujah. Isn't it wonderful? My, it is that realm beyond the stellar heavens where the stars and planets are, the third heaven, In that realm in which God, in a very special way, manifests his presence. His glory. And it's also a place where the Lord Jesus, or the Word of God, came from.

And when he was resurrected, where he is now. Remember he said, Father, give me the glory that I had with the before the world was. But he returned as the God-man, Mediator. Brother Henry said he returned as something he never was before. He left as the Word of God. He returns as the Word of God, but now he's the God-man, Mediator.

See, we have an advocate with the Father, don't we? His name is Jesus Christ, the righteous. My, and when Satan accuses us before the Father's throne, Lord Jesus Christ just goes like this. And his blood intercedes for us. And he intercedes for us, doesn't he? Isn't that wonderful? Oh, what a great God we have. This heavenly realm is where the angels are, the elect angels. This heavenly realm is where the saints of God who have left us in death now abide.

And Hebrews says, the spirits of just men made perfect. Perfect. Sinners made perfect through the Lord Jesus Christ by his blood and righteousness. Born again, blood-washed believers who've died, they are more alive now than they've ever been before.

Your brother and your mom, they're more alive than they've ever been when they were on this earth. And you've got a large family who the Lord saved. And all those people that went through Katie that you knew, you guys knew, look at that. They're more alive now than they've ever been before.

And you know, we're just as secure as they are. Well, we're on this earth. We're just as secure as they are, because we're all in Christ. That's amazing, isn't it? Oh, that'll bless your soul, won't it? You see why it blessed my soul, putting this message together? It's absolutely amazing. And that's where they currently abide. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones points this out in the phrase heavenly places, or in the heavenlies, it appears five times, five times in the book of Ephesians.

The first is here, verse three, Ephesians 1.3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

Then look at Ephesians 1.20, describing God's 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, in heavenly realms. Look at that. That's where Christ is. And where Christ is, that's where his people are, right? Isn't that beautiful? Oh my! And then turn over to Ephesians 2,

6. God hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ. Now look at that. We're already seated in the heavenlies in Christ. I can't wrap my mind around that, but that's what the scripture says, right? Because the work's done, right? Brother Brian, it's done. And we were in him when he raised from the grave. We were in him. Oh my. My.

Then we go over to Ephesians 3.10. For God's purpose is that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. Look at that. In heavenly places, heavenly realms.

And then go to Ephesians 6.12. Look at this. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Look at that. Holy realms. Heavenly realms. Which in the Greek, that high places in the Greek, in the literal translation is in heavenly realms. My, we don't battle with flesh and blood.

Look at that. Against principalities and powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly realms. My, we call upon our king, don't we, to battle against the enemy. We call upon our elder brother, don't we, Brother Brian? He's got the victory already. He crushed Satan's head.

We just need to rest in that. And that verse is not so people see demons all over the place. Hey, people talk about all these things about demons and all that. You know, I used to be into all that when I was in religion. I totally was. I was caught up in that stuff. Now I've got my eyes on Christ, the one who rules over all of them.

But I do realize that our battle is not against flesh and blood here. It's spiritual. That's why we need to go to the throne of grace to find grace to help in time of need. And where is that help and where does it come from? The Lord Jesus Christ. We focus on him, beloved. All that stuff's going around that we can't see, but we're not to focus on that, we're to focus on Christ.

Why I told my son, we were talking about how certain nations were booed, only a couple of them, were booed when the Olympic Games there. And I think it was the US and Israel. And I said, you know, he goes, oh, it's because of what happened over in Gaza there. And I said, you know what caused all that? Sin. Sin. I said, they got hit first. And they just walloped back. Right? Like any nation would do. Look at Ukraine with Russia, right? Russia comes in, they invade. Ukraine wallops them back. Now they're in a stalemate. But sin is what causes this stuff, beloved. The hatred that these people have for each other. Where does Where does racism come from? Where does anti-Semitism come from? Where does wars come from? Sin.

See, we're not citizens of this world anymore. We're citizens of a greater place, a better country. Everything we see in this world is just gonna perish. And we can see sin in ourselves and all around us, can't we? And it grieves us, and we pray for the people in the world, not knowing who God's elect are. But my battle's not against men or women in this earth. Who's our own worst enemy, Charlie?

Amen, ourselves, right? I got all I can handle with this flesh. My oh my. My oh my. So, we see here The heavenly realms. I named the message in heavenly places, because that's what it says in the King James, but it's italicized places. I could have named it in heavenly realms, actually. I may even name it that when I cut it and post it, because that's really where it is. It's absolutely incredible. Again, the phrase in heavenly places, we see the word places in italics.

It shows us that it's not in the Greek text. I spotted that right away when I went through this verse. It's supplied by the translators just to make it plain to the English reader. Now remember, we're the English reader. Right? This Bible's been translated into different languages. But for us as the English reader, they put that in so that it would flow easier and that we might understand it.

I don't understand why they didn't just put heavenly realms. I don't know. It's not for me to say. But it places this place there to make it plain to the English reader, the thought in the Greek text. Which it does help us, doesn't it? Because now that we've seen it's in the heavenly realms, it's like, oh, places. I understand now. In the Greek literal Bible, we see it's translated heavenly realms. Wist brings forth that that means in or above existing in heaven, the heavenly regions, the abode of God and angels.

And the meaning of this is that all these spiritual blessings, all these spiritual blessings are found in heaven and bought from heaven to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. Because they're all in Christ. Those outside of Christ don't have these spiritual blessings. But they're ours, Brother Charlie, because it's in Christ. And they come from the throne of God, don't they, Brother Travis? They come from the throne of God. To us. Redeemed sinners. This makes me marvel. See, there's a plan and purpose in everything that God does, isn't there? There's a plan and purpose.

And these spiritual blessings are found in heaven and bought to us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And the heavenly realms is referring to the locality that it came from. It comes to us from the throne of God through Christ Jesus, our Lord, according to the will and purpose of God. It's not merely that the blessings with which God blessed us are blessings having their origin in the heavens, but that they are blessings which have their seat where God himself is. They flow from the throne, the throne, the throne, the sovereign throne of God to us. undeserving sinners who though being saved by the grace of God through the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that wonderful? Do we deserve these? No. Do we merit them? No. But praise God, God in his grace planned and purposed it. You know, the more we dig into this, The more we dig into this, we see our sovereign God in absolute control over everything.

He rules from His throne. These blessings come from God the Father, from His throne, to us, through Christ, in Christ, right? Because all these spiritual blessings are where? In Christ. from the heavenly realms. You know why, Brother Jim? Because it pleased God to do so. Oh, we just are in awe of that. It pleased God to give me and you all spiritual blessings in Christ? Absolutely. And the decree comes from God himself, from his throne. Oh, my. I'll tell you, I'll make a Baptist shout. Oh, my. Oh, they have their origin.

From the heavenly realms, from God's throne of power. Now, we saints, while we're still in the body on earth, we're enjoying some of those heavenly blessings, aren't we? Those spiritual blessings, aren't we? We know we're saved, which is amazing, from all our sins. We've been redeemed by the blood of Christ. God, the Spirit's taught us, God, the Holy Spirit, that we're justified before God. The Lord Jesus Christ has told us, you'll not lose one of us.

There's so many blessings that we actually experience every day. We're daily loaded down with benefits, it says in the scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures. So the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the jobs we have, everything all comes from God to us.

That's mercy at work, isn't it? My! Even life itself, eh? Right? life itself his healing hand upon us we've seen that with brother steve and with kathy and uh dan sister barb you went through a lot you and brother jim and the lord's had his hand upon you guys it's wondrous so we enjoy those spiritual blessings right now don't we life itself Now, we're still in this body, but we're enjoying some of them. But the spiritual blessings which we will enjoy in heaven, as Paul has given us a twofold description of these blessings.

Now, number one, there is such character that they are only spirit produced. They're produced in us. Joy, peace, love, all those fruits of the Spirit come from God the Holy Spirit. We enjoy those now, don't we? Brother Travis and Sister Karen, we can enjoy Christ right now. We can rejoice in the salvation we have in Christ. And that's a gift from the Spirit. Remember how miserable we were before the Lord saved us? Chris, we've talked about that. How miserable we were. I thought I was happy, but I found out I was miserable. My. My oh my.

So these spiritual blessings are such a character that they're spiritually produced. Spiritual produced blessings. And they are blessings which have their natural abode and come from the heavenly realms. To little mortals like us. Spurgeon said, little pieces of animated dust. Isn't that amazing? My. And then Paul adds, That all these blessings are in Christ. And that they all, both of those points, come from the throne of God.

And we have all spiritual blessings, all that a sinner needs is found in Christ. Everything a sinner needs. Not merely through Christ, the phrase expresses the supreme idea that pervades the epistle, and here it qualifies the whole statement of the blessing in its bestowal, its nature, and its seat.

The divine blessings has its ground and reason in Christ. In Christ. So apart from him, we could have no relation, they could have no relation to us apart from Christ. Therefore, it's ours by reason of us being in Christ according to the will and purpose and mercy of God. In Christ lays the cause that God blesses us. It's all in Christ, because it pleased him to do so. There's nothing in us that move God. There's no merit in us. See, and this just destroys the pride of man, doesn't it? There's no merit in us to receive these blessings. As a matter of fact, if we got what we deserve, we'd all be in hell.

And that's what makes it so amazing that God had mercy on us, beloved. and showed us grace. That's why it's so praiseworthy. That's why Paul says, bless it be to God. Praise God for what he's done. Because he alone is worthy of it, isn't he? And when a person is truly saved, there's a profound change that occurs. You know what it is?

We're taken from the kingdom of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light. And that's God's work too, isn't it? Oh my, we were once slaves to sin and Satan, and now we've been set free in Christ. Now we still struggle with sin, oh yeah, but it doesn't have the power over one's head, does it? And now we know all our sins are forgiven. Oh my, we can walk in the liberty and freedom of being in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now the Christian wrestles with sin when we never did before.

And you know what else? We don't enjoy it anymore, do we? We load it in ourselves. Why do you think when we're praying and a thought comes into our head that we load that thought and go, Lord, oh, please forgive me. Why did that come into my head? Or be listening to a gospel message and this wicked thought comes in our heads. I've had it happen while I'm preaching. And while I'm preaching to you, I'm like, Lord, please forgive me. Oh, that was awful. It's my flesh, worn against the spirit. Does it happen to you guys? I'm not alone, am I? No. It's a civil war within us. Now, preachers in religion won't admit that, but grace preachers, we totally admit that.

And we struggle all the time. And now we live by faith, right? The born-again blood-washed believer lives by faith in Christ on the sure ground of the finished work of Christ. And now we await the return of Christ, either at our death or at his second coming. We're going to see him either way, aren't we? Oh, praise God. It'll be wonderful. And no natural man or woman can change their nature. We know that because we couldn't change our nature. You must be born again. You must be born again. I'm just going to keep trumpeting that. You must be born again. Oh my, there's nothing we can do.

It's all the work of God, and it's glorious. And then it gives us faith to believe, repentance before God, and oh my, we are never the same again, are we? Why? Because we've been translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God's dear son, all by God's almighty power. And the phrase in heavenly places is frequently used in Ephesians to refer to the spiritual realm, where God and spiritual beings exist, and the redeemed of the Lord are all there.

So let us be in awe. We have access to all these spiritual blessings in and through Christ and Him alone. That's the only reason. The blessings Christians receive are spiritual blessings from the heavenly realms, where Christ is currently seated, beloved. He's currently seated there. Spiritually, I'm already in heaven, seated in heavenly places. Let's wrap our heads around this.

At this very moment, in Christ, in one sense, as much as I shall ever be. But my body is still left on this earth. with my soul. But my soul's been redeemed. One day I'll receive a new body at the resurrection of Christ, but my soul is redeemed. You know? And it's redeemed as much as it will ever be redeemed. You ever think of that?

Augustus Toplady said this, more happy but not more secure the glorified spirits in heaven. Are the glorified spirits in heaven more happy, but not more secure? Now, they're definitely more happier, aren't they? But they're not more secure, Brother Brian. My. And the believers who died are happier, because they've been freed from earthly struggles. They get to see their Savior face to face, but they're not more secure than us. That helps us, doesn't it, sister? They're not more secure than us.

So when we get doubting and when we get worried, let us just remember that we're in Christ. We're in Christ. And we have two natures, don't forget. The earthly flesh, nature, Right? And a spiritual nature from heavenly realms. My. And there's tension between the two of them, isn't there? Oh, yeah. Christians live in two worlds, beloved.

The earthly world and the spiritual world of the heavenly places, the heavenly realms. That's why we're to set our minds upon the things of Christ, the heavenly things. Brother Steve, we've talked about that and I'll get stressed out about what's going on in this world. Keep our eyes on Christ in the heavenly realms. Christians have two perspectives, an earthly perspective and a heavenly perspective. The heavenly perspective sees the spiritual roots of all earthly problems are sin. And the earthly solution is to restrain evil through government, right? And culture.

You know, the Lord uses that to restrain men from how evil we could really be. My, the heavenly sees Christ return and the establishment of his kingdom. Therefore, we who are the redeemed of the Lord marvel in verse three of Ephesians, we being taught that the ground and cause of the salvation of sinners is all the free grace of God in Christ. I think I will do another message next week called In Christ. Because there's a lot there. There's a lot there with those two little words, in Christ. My oh my. Brother Travis, will you close us in prayer?