I invite your attention to Ephesians
chapter 1, the epistle of Paul, the apostle to the church in
Ephesus, first chapter. My text will be found in verse
number 3. I will begin reading from verse
number 1. But let me tell you this story. We sang a moment ago Don Fortner's hymn for our children
we are pleading. My father was a faithful gospel
preacher and he was preparing a message
one day. He was going to preach on the
rich man and Lazarus. And as he's preparing his message,
he comes to that phrase regarding the rich man in which we read,
and in hell he lift up his eyes being in torments. And my father said that he thought
to himself, well, you got what you deserved. Then he looked across the room
and saw his children. And the thought went through
his mind that, in hell, Daniel lift up his eyes being in torments. In hell, David lift up his eyes
being in torments. In hell, Philip and Sharon and
Joy and Paula lift up their eyes being in torments, and it drove
him to prayer for his children, drove him to plead for his children.
And I can testify that the Lord was gracious and answered the
prayer, but it is a solemn thought Oh, may it not be that any of
our children lift up their eyes in that place. May it be that
none of our children suffer torment for all the rest of eternity. And it's worthy to consider for
our children we are pleading. Sandy and I pleaded for our children
for years, and it was years. And there were times when it
appeared that the pleading was in vain, but it never stopped.
And the Lord saved them in His own good time. So parents, grandparents,
plead for your children. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3
is my text and my subject is spiritual blessings in Christ. I'm going to read verses 1 through
14. 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. This is my text. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings. in heavenly places in Christ,
according as he hath chosen us in him, Christ, 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 of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in
whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known
unto us the mystery of His will, according to his good pleasure
which he hath purposed in himself, 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, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should
be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ,
in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, in whom also After that ye believed,
ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit, the promise which is
the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession unto the praise of his glory. That's a beautiful passage. So I thought early last week I'm going
to expound it. I had not gone far into preparing
the message and then realized I'm not going to do it in one,
I cannot. So, this is the first of a short
series. I'm hoping to finish it before
I go back east at month end. But we're going to consider today
the subject of spiritual blessings in Christ. Paul the Apostle addressed
these words to the saints and faithful in Christ Jesus. Saints. What are saints? Saints are holy
ones. That's what the word means. Holy
ones. And everyone in that church in
Ephesus was a saint. The same is true in this church. In this church we have Saint
Conrad and Saint Kathy, Saint Larry and Saint Sharon. Paul
is writing the holy people and every one of them is saints.
In the Lord's church you do not have to do a miracle and die
and get canonized to become a saint. All God's children are saints. Then Paul calls them faithful
in Christ Jesus. They are quite simply full of
faith. Their faith is in Jesus Christ. They are full of faith in the
sense that the Ethiopian eunuch was when he asked the preacher
What hinders me from being baptized? And the preacher said, if you
believe with all your heart, well, I'm 90% sure, not good
enough. You have to be wholehearted in
this faith. Faithful means to be full of
faith, and this faith, every bit of it, is in the Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. These saints are faithful in
Christ Jesus in the sense that Jesus Christ is the center of
their lives and all their actions are done for his glory. Their
lives are Christ-centered. They're holy in their conduct
and they're faithful in their service. Paul identifies the
blesser as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
bear in mind that the relationship of the Father and Jesus Christ
here has to do with His subordination, particularly in His humiliation
and incarnation. For by His very character and
essence, He is of the same essence with the Father. He is equal
with the Father. But in order to save and redeem
fallen sinners, Jesus Christ humbled himself and took on our
humanity. And when he did, our God became his God. Our Father became his Father. We here are considering the subject
of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because He
is God, He is able to bless. He is not some dumb, mute, helpless
idol that cannot help itself. He is God, and He does whatever
He pleases. And because He is the Father,
He is willing to bless. Bear in mind, God is able to
bless, but as the Father, He is willing to bless. The psalmist
says that as a father pities his children, so Jehovah pities
those who fear him, for he knows our frame and he remembers that
we are but dust. If you want to see what real
pity should be, it would be that of a father to his son or a mother
to her son or daughter. I recall, it's been just About
a year ago, and my son was on his deathbed, and his mother
had been with him for quite some months. His sister was there,
she lived close to him, but he asked that I would come. Well,
of course I will come. And I came, you know, told some
of you in the church, my son wants me to come see him, and
you said, go and stay as long as you need to. I so much appreciated
that. But I did. It's what a father
does. When your son says, Father, I
need you, the father goes. And there was not much I could
do except just sit there, pray with him. We sang some hymns
together. I read scripture to him, and
it got to the place where he could no longer sing. But we could sit in chairs and
he would just look at me. And I pitied that boy. That's
what fathers do. As a father pities his son, so
the Lord pities those who fear him. Our Lord is touched with the
feeling of our infirmity. He's been through it. And if
you will, Jesus Christ is our Father. He is co-equal with the Father
and one with the Father in essence. Our God knows how to pity His
people. And here is our God because He
is the Father. He's willing to bless. He loves
His children. And if there's something they
need, they're going to get it. Because He's God, He's able to
give it. Because He is their Father, He's
willing that they receive it. And the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ is in the same relationship with all these saints
and faithful. Jesus Christ spoke of God the
Father as my Father and your Father, my God and your God. So, as the Father loved Jesus
Christ, so loves he us, our God and our Father. Here Paul also
speaks of the nature of these blessings. These are spiritual
blessings. These are for spiritual people. They are in contrast to natural
blessings for natural people. Spiritual blessings. Natural
blessings come from God's benevolence to all creatures. He makes His
sun rise on the just and on the unjust. When the rain cloud comes
and brings the rain for the field, It comes across the field of
the righteous and there's the field of an ungodly man right
next to it and the cloud goes over that field as well. God
in his benevolence is the same and meets the needs of all people. The godly and the ungodly, the
righteous and the unrighteous, the holy and the unholy. But
Paul here speaks of spiritual blessings. And these come only
to spiritual people. The natural man does not want
them anyway. We hear the song, count your
blessings, name them one by one. If you would ask most people
to count your blessings, tell me what they are, I can tell
you what they would say. Well, let's see, I've got food
to eat and something to drink. Clothes to wear and a house to
live in. That's my blessings. To most men, most people, that's
what they want. They consider themselves blessed
if that's what they have. The child of God wants something
much more than that. Jesus Christ said, do not worry
about what you will eat and what you will drink. And what you
will wear, even the heathens worry about those things. But
He said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these will be added to you, and then I'll give you spiritual
blessings. And He does. They are enumerated
here in this passage. We'll be looking at them a little
bit later on. We are not concerned so much
for the physical blessings that are good for our bodies.
When we count our blessings, we want spiritual blessings that
profit our souls. Paul equates the number of these
blessings with every blessing. He calls them all blessings in
our King James Version. If you have received even one
of these spiritual blessings, you have received them all. You will be deprived of none. If the Father chose you in Christ,
He predestined you to sonship. You are accepted in Christ, highly
favored in Christ. You have redemption in Christ.
You have forgiveness of your sins. Every blessing that Paul
here enumerates, if you have one of them, you have every one
of them. We all are blessed alike in this
regard. We all receive the very same
spiritual blessings. Paul identifies the realm of
these blessings as in the heavenly places. Heavenly places can be on earth. It is not confined to heaven. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against spiritual powers in heavenly places right
here, right here. These blessings are in the heavenly
places because they originate with the Father in heaven and
they come down to people who are citizens of heaven. We are
told that our citizenship, our true citizenship is not of this
world. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are citizens of heaven We're
but strangers in pilgrims wandering through this world. Let us never
forget that fact. This world is not our home. We will be glad to say goodbye
to it. And the older you live, the more
you'll be willing to say goodbye to it. We are citizens of heaven. We are heavenly people walking
on an ungodly earth, but we have spiritual blessings in heavenly
places, right here in our heavenly hearts. These blessings are in
the heavenly places, and furthermore, they are in Christ. Now, I want
you to notice, and perhaps you did as we read the 14 verses, In 14 verses, and by the way,
it's only a couple of sentences. You must remember, Paul was a
lawyer. And he knew how to use commas
and colons and semicolons and whereas and herewith and whatever,
okay? When you read John's writings,
it's all short sentences. When you read Paul, it's a clause
here and a clause there, and here a clause and there a clause.
And he has only written a couple of sentences here, the long sentences. But notice something else. Repeatedly
he uses the term, in Christ, in Christ Jesus. In 14 verses,
Paul used that term, in Christ, or its equivalent, Ten times. Ten times! Well, since we're
not going to finish this message today, let's just look at the
ten. You have them there in the synopsis
that is before you. Verse 1, Saints are faithful
in Christ Jesus. Well, they are in Christ Jesus,
positionally, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.
They are in Christ Jesus and they're faithful toward Christ
Jesus and faithful to nothing that is contrary to Him. Paul
then furthermore says in verse 3 that the Father has blessed
us in Christ. In Christ! He does not bless
us in the world. He does not bless us in religion. He does not bless us in this
or that or the other. These blessings are found only
in Christ. Verse 4, Paul says, He chose
us in Christ. Verse 7, in Christ we have redemption. Verse 10, the Father will gather
all things in Christ in Him. And now notice, this is actually
11 times Paul uses that term in Christ. He used it twice in
one sentence, in one phrase. In Christ, in Him. In Him, he
says in verse 11, we have obtained an inheritance. Paul speaks of
Jewish believers as we who first trusted in Christ. He tells Gentile
believers in verse 13 that in Him you also trusted. He says
furthermore in verse 13, that in whom also having believed,
you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. And in verse
6, now this one is out of sequence for a reason, for a reason. Verse
6 reads, He made us accepted in the Beloved. That's the reading
in our King James Version. Now that word accepted is interesting. It appears only one other time
in the New Testament, in Luke 1.6, where the angel told Mary,
you are highly favored among women. Highly favored, that's
what the word means. It is not so much that we were
accepted in Christ, although we were, If we are in Christ,
Christ has to accept us. But this word means we are highly
favored in Christ. Favored with what? Every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Every spiritual blessing
in Christ. What kind of blessings do we
have? We have redemption from bondage. salvation from our sins and from
the wrath to come. We are blessed with justification
whereby we are declared to be righteous. We are blessed with
sanctification whereby we are made to be holy. We are blessed
with glorification so that we're going to enjoy heaven's glory
forever. We could go on and on and on.
There's no way we could enumerate all these blessings in one message. But they all are in Christ. All of them are in Christ. None
of them are found outside Christ. God gives no spiritual blessings
to those who are outside Christ. the most important place, the
most consequential place in which you will ever be, will be in
Christ. In Christ. You may be with Peter on the
day of Pentecost and see the thousands that are converted
and say, what a glorious day was this, where was Peter in
Christ? You can go to Rome, you can see
a man sitting in a prison, chained to a soldier with a quill and
parchment in his hand, writing an epistle, and it is Paul languishing
in some Roman prison He does not think of himself as being
in prison. He says, I'm in Christ. My bonds are in Christ. In Christ
is the most glorious place you will ever be. There is no place
better than being in Christ. Now, how are we in Christ? In a two-fold manner. I'm going
to give you two big words and then I'm going to explain them.
We are in Christ decoratively and experientially. Decoratively. By God's decree. That's what the word decorative
means. D-E-C-R-E-T-I-V-E. It has to do with God's decree.
God's decree has put us in Christ. We were chosen in Him by God's
decree. When did that occur? Before the
foundation of the world. All God's people have been in
Christ by God's decree from eternity. How's the other way we are in
Christ? The second, experientially. With regard to our own personal
experience, Paul the Apostle writes to those
in Rome in chapter 16 and he says, Greet some who were in
Christ Before me, he says. Before you, Paul? Paul, I thought
you said we were in Christ before the foundation of the world.
We were. But now you say some of these
were in Christ before you. They were. How can that be? By God's decree, we all are in
Christ from eternity, all at the same time. But you experientially
come into Christ when you believe. When you put your faith and hope
and trust in Christ, positionally, you are in Him. Now, everyone
who is in Christ by God's decree from eternity will be in Christ
in time, experientially. It will not fail. None of those
whom God decreed to be in Christ will fail to come into Christ
in time. Every one of them will. If you
are in Christ now by virtue of having trusted in Him, you are
in Him not only by your experience, but you can look back and say,
God chose me in Christ before the foundation of the world.
To be in Christ, It's the most important place that you can
be. So, where are you right now? Oh, I would hope that every one
of us can say, I'm in Christ. How do you know? I trust in Him. I trust in Him. My faith, my
hope, my confidence, my all in all are in Christ. Christ is
all and in all. Then furthermore, Paul has written
five phrases in this chapter that I want you to see, but I'm
going to take you to II Timothy chapter 1, verse 9. Paul there
says, God has saved us. Now listen to what he says. God
has saved us, not according to our works, but according to His
own purpose. Everything God does is on purpose. God does nothing unintentionally. God never says, whoops, didn't mean to do that, never
does He do so. God says, I did it because I
purposed it and it occurred just as I purposed it. And this purpose and grace was
given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. Now, that one phrase,
Paul expands upon it five times in these few short verses. Here's
what Paul says regarding these spiritual blessings from God
the Father to his people. How are they? In verse 5 he says,
according to the good pleasure of his will. And I want you to
see this word according. According to the good pleasure
of his will. Not according to our will. Even
Jesus prayed, not my will but thine be done. If I had my will in the way, we'd all be in a bunch of trouble.
I'm so glad that my salvation is according to God's will, not
mine. My will is in bondage to sin
and to Satan. My will is a slave to my carnal
passions. I'm so glad that my salvation
is according to the good pleasure of His will. In verse 6, Paul
says, to the praise of the glory of His grace. It is not to the
praise of our works. Not to the praise of our works. Paul says in verse 7, it is according
to the riches of His grace. And the riches of God's grace
are beyond measure. My friend Maurice Montgomery,
late pastor in Madisonville, Kentucky, would schedule preachers to come
preach to his congregation. And in the bulletin, on the occasion,
he would always read these words. Brother Moose Parks will preach
to us the unsearchable riches of Christ. Brother Kim James
will preach to us the unsearchable riches of Christ. Whoever came
to preach, they all preached the same thing. The unsearchable
riches of Christ. They all preached different messages
because Those riches are unsearchable,
unfathomable. We cannot plumb their depths.
I have come before you now for many a Lord's Day, and all I
have done, tried to do, is preach these unsearchable riches of
Christ, and we have not even skimmed at the
top yet. to the praise according to the
riches of His grace beyond measure, Paul says in verse 9, according
to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself. Because
God is not influenced by anything or person outside Himself. Nothing influences God. Everything he purposed in himself. It is not as though he says,
well, I didn't really want to do this, but I can't help it.
Circumstance required it. Never. And then verse 14, to
the praise of his glory, to the praise of his glory, None of us is going to stand
up here and talk about our own glory, are we? I'm certainly
not going to speak of mine. I'm fairly certain none of you
has more glory than I do. I think we're all spiritual paupers
here, are we not? What do we do? Brag about Him. Brag about our God. This is a a worthy subject. We sang a short time ago, earlier
this morning, sons we are through God's election who in Jesus Christ
believe by eternal destination saving grace we here receive.
Did you notice the last line? When in that blessed habitation
which my God has foreordained, when in heaven's full possession
I with saints and angels stand, free grace only, free grace only,
shall resound through heaven's land. Let's start singing that praise
right now so that we're ready to do it when we have come into
glory. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. If you are faithful in Him, these
blessings are yours. If you're holy in your conduct,
these blessings are yours. And I hope and pray that every
one of you will ascertain, if you have not already done so,
I want these blessings. I'm trusting Jesus Christ. I'll
live for Him and enjoy these blessings. And O God, our Father,
to the glory of Your Name, to the honor of Your Son, to the salvation of your people,
to the edification of your Zion. Blessed we pray these words. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.