I'm so glad I got to hear that
message, aren't you? I believe Paul squeezed every
drop of the gospel out of that verse. And I was certainly encouraged
by it. So glad I heard. All the messages
have been outstanding. Teresa and I are glad to be here,
and we ditto all the things that Paul
said. No need to say them again. I'd like for you to turn with
me to the book of Psalm chapter 72, if you would. Psalm chapter
72. We live in such a religious world, and it's obsessed with being
blessed. Have you noticed that? When you sneeze, people say,
God bless you. You can't go anywhere anymore
where someone doesn't say, have a blessed day. Have a blessed
day. I saw a t-shirt in a store that
I frequent, writing big letters on the front. It said, blessed. I suppose the person that wore
it was blessed. Sadly, most people don't have
a true understanding at all of that word blessed as the scripture
defines it. People today just flippantly
use the word blessed and really have no idea what it means. They
say I'm blessed, you're blessed, we're blessed, everybody's blessed.
But are they? Are they? The world's definition of blessed
means many things. You could ask 10 different people
what blessed is and probably get 10 different answers. To
some, being blessed is good fortune, money, wealth, possessions, land,
material things. To some, being blessed means
things are going well. Oh, he sure is blessed. Someone
wins the lottery and folks call him blessed. A person receives
a big inheritance, and they say, oh, he's blessed. He is blessed. Someone who's happy the biggest
part of the time, people say, well, you know, he is blessed. But can you be blessed if you're
lost and without Christ? Can you be blessed? I want to ask you that. Can someone without God, without
Christ, without hope in this world be blessed? Does being blessed mean to have
good fortune, wealth, success, notoriety, fame, popularity,
prestige, power? Is that what it is to be blessed?
Oftentimes those things prove to be a curse instead of a blessing. Let me read you a verse out of
Malachi chapter 2. I won't turn you there. Verse
2, listen to these words. If ye will not hear, and if ye
will not lay it to heart to give glory unto my name, saith the
Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will
curse your blessings. Yeah, I have cursed them already
because you do not lay it to heart. God is going to curse
what a lot of folks think to be a blessing, blessings. Now what is it to be blessed?
That's what I want us to consider just for a few minutes this morning.
Let me say this so you don't misunderstand me. I know that
everything that we have and everything that we are, apart from being
wretched sinners who deserve eternal wrath, judgment, and
condemnation, is in one sense a blessing. I know that. I'm
not trying to make light of that. Anything and everything apart
from eternal judgment and condemnation in hell is mercy, grace, and
a blessing from God. But I'm convinced that this world
religious or not, has no true understanding of what being blessed
really is. Now here in Psalm chapter 72,
in verse 17, the Holy Spirit, through the words of the psalmist,
tells us exactly what it is to be blessed. Speaking of Christ,
we read, his name shall endure forever. His name shall be continued
as long as the sun," now look at these words, "...and men shall
be blessed in Him." If you and I are blessed, it's
going to be in Him. Blessed in Him, because of Him. Did you know that the word blessed
in the original Hebrew language comes from a word that means
to be made straight? It means to be made right or
to be made righteous. It means an act of being made
holy. Men shall be blessed. Men and
women shall be holy, shall be straight, shall be right or righteous,
where? In Him, in Christ. The word blessed also means an
act of adoration. You look up the word blessed
in the English dictionary, it'll tell you basically the same thing.
It means to be endowed with divine favor and protection. But I'm
pretty sure that when the nice lady at the restaurant or at
Walmart takes your money and says, thank you, have a blessed
day, that that's not what they mean. She doesn't mean for you to be
made holy, and she doesn't mean for you to be made righteous.
She doesn't mean for you to be adored of God. She means that
she hopes everything goes well for you, and she's wishing you
good health and prosperity. So, again, our subject, just
six words found here in verse 17. Men shall be blessed in him. Has God blessed you? Has God
blessed you? We know that being blessed is
an act of God toward us. If any man, woman, any sinner's
gonna be blessed, there's only one way. Only one way they can
be. Men shall be blessed in Him.
And it's only in Christ that sinners are blessed. are blessed,
made holy and righteous by God. The elect of God are going to
be adorned in Christ, to be biblically blessed. I like that word adorned,
don't you? Oh, that's a good word. It means
to be made beautiful, to be made attractive. That'll mean something
to you if you see that you're ugly, and if you see that you're
undesirable in the sight of God. I like it when somebody tells
me I look good. They may be lying, but I like
it. But for God to say that, to be
beautiful in His sight, to be adorned, for a sinner to be adorned
means to be made holy and without blame before Him, before God
in love. It means to be made unblameable
and unreprovable in His sight. One day the church of God will
stand as the bride of Christ, adorned, made beautiful, attractive,
holy, righteous, and without blame before their heavenly husband. This divine act of being made
perfect, adorable, and acceptable, holy, without blame, is what
it means to be blessed, and you can only be blessed in Him. Isn't that what it says? Men shall be blessed in Him.
God's sovereign act of blessing, conforming a sinner to Christ,
making that sinner acceptable in the beloved, is the very glory
of God. Isn't that what the Lord told
Moses? Moses wanted to see the glory of God. Turn back to Exodus
chapter 33 with me, if you would. Look at verse 18. I know you
know this story well, but let's look at it in light of what we're
talking about this morning. Exodus chapter 33, verse 18,
and he, Moses, said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And
he, God said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee.
And I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee and will
be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy
on whom I will show mercy. How is God going to show a sinner
his glory? Same way he showed Moses. First
God says I'll make all my goodness pass before thee. Jesus Christ
is the goodness of God. Secondly, God said, I'll proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee. How does God save sinners? By
declaring the name of Christ. It pleased the Lord by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. What do we preach? We preach the gospel. What's
the gospel? Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
God doing for me what I cannot do for myself. God providing
for me the perfect righteousness that I cannot attain on my own. Thirdly, God says I'll be gracious
to whom I'll be gracious. I'll show mercy on whom I'll
show mercy. Well, salvation takes a great
grace, doesn't it? But it's the grace of God in
Christ. Redemption takes marvelous mercy,
that being the mercy that God shows on His elect in Christ,
in Him, in Him. In verse 20, God says, Moses,
you cannot see my face, for no man shall see my face and live.
But God can show you this. He can show you this, verse 21,
behold, there is a place by me. Christ is that place, is He not? He's the one mediator between
God and man. He's a place by him. And then
he says, and thou shalt stand upon a rock. That rock is Christ. And it shall come to pass while
my glory passeth by that I'll put thee in a cliff of the rock.
Christ is the rock of ages in whom we hide. And he said, I'll
cover thee with my hand while I pass by. Jesus Christ is our
perfect covering and righteousness. Men shall be blessed in him. Salvation's of the Lord. Do you
know what follows that in the scripture? A period. Salvation
is of the Lord, period. If you work for something, you
earn it. If you purchase something, you buy it. If you marry something,
you deserve it. But salvation is of the Lord,
period. You can't earn it, you can't
purchase it, you certainly don't deserve it. He does not bless
us because we bless him. That's what people think, isn't
it? He don't do that any more than, he loves us because we
love him. He loves, We love Him because
He first loved us. Men shall be blessed in Him.
Are all men blessed? Hmm? Are all men blessed? The sinner who does not know
Christ? Certainly not blessed. Not as
the Word of God describes being blessed, they're not. Apart from
Christ, men and women are not blessed. They're cursed. For as many as are of the works
of the law are under the curse, for it is written, cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. Cursed. Good news, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law. How? Being made a curse for us,
for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.
The first thing that God shows a sinner after he gives them
life is this, for men shall be blessed in him. Spiritual life,
eternal life, is totally dependent on the hymn of whom this verse
speaks. And this hymn is Christ. He's
a hymn book, isn't he? This book is a hymn book. It's
all about hymn. We're sinners blessed in hymn. Folks say, have a blessed day.
God doesn't bless days. Did you know that? He blesses
chosen sinners and he blesses them in Christ. May the Lord
bless you. Well, maybe he will and maybe
he won't. But if God blesses you, it's
gonna be in Christ and in Christ alone. I sure am blessed. Well, if you are, it's only because
God chose you, and God called you, and God saved you, and God
is conforming you to the image of Christ. The blessed sinner
has Christ, and having Christ, they have all they need. Everything
that God requires is found in Him and in Him alone. Men shall
be blessed where? In Him. Turn with me to Ephesians 1.
Ephesians chapter 1. Verse 1, we read, 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. That's who this letter is written
to. Now let me pause there just for a moment. If you're faithful
to God, if you have faith in God, you must understand that
faith is God's gift to you. Saving faith is given only to
those who are found in Christ Jesus. men shall be blessed in
him." Now, look at this in verse 3. The word blessed is used twice. The first time to describe God
and the second time to describe what he does for his people.
It says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And here in Ephesians 1, the Greek word for blessed means
the same thing as it did in the Old Testament there in Psalms
that we just read. It means holy, it means adorable,
blessed. Holy and adorable be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us. The
second use here in verse three is just a small variation of
the same word. It means to invoke or it means
to appeal for or to call or to cause a blessing. God caused
us to be blessed. caused us to be holy, caused
us to be righteous and adorable. In the courtroom of God's justice,
Christ makes appeal for us. And the justice of God declares
us to be guilty. But Christ makes a divine appeal
for his elect. What is his appeal? He says,
I died for that sinner. Let that sinner go free. And
this shows us how we're blessed. This shows us what Christ did
for us as our perfect substitute. His sacrifice for sin was accepted. Why? Because it was perfect. His righteousness was perfect.
He worked out a perfect righteousness for us. As our sacrifice for
sin, our debt of sin was paid in full. As our advocate, it
is finished, is His appeal, and is addressed to the justice of
God. And because Christ was perfect
and knew no sin, His sacrifice is accepted. And now being in Him, all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places are given to the blessed believer. How? In Christ. In Him, men shall
be blessed. In Him, made adorable to God
in Christ. That's the message of the gospel.
Blessed, adorable, worthy of worship is the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has made us holy and adorable
by blessing us with all spiritual blessings, in heavenly places,
but we're only blessed in Christ. You know, there's no love of
God outside of Christ. There's no forgiveness of sin
outside of the Lord Jesus. There's no reconciliation outside
of Christ. That's why it's so foolish and
ignorant to endeavor to appeal to God any other way. In Romans
chapter 10, speaking of his Jewish brethren, Paul writes, Now when
it comes to God's perfect righteousness, I too was once ignorant and I'm not at all offended by
that word ignorant because it simply means a lack of knowledge
and understanding. That's not offensive to me. I'm
ignorant about a lot of things. I'm ignorant of how airplanes
fly. I know they do. I like the knowledge and awareness
of how a big piece of metal can get off the ground and fly high
in the sky, and I'm not offended by my lack of knowledge over
that. I'm unaware of how it's accomplished. I'm ignorant of
how a ship, a big cruise ship or a Navy ship that weighs 220,000
gross tons can float on water. How does that work? Well, I'm
ignorant of that. But I know they do, because I
see them float. There are many who are ignorant
of the righteousness of God and how it's obtained and accomplished. Paul tells us it's not accomplished
by going about to establish your own. Perfect righteousness cannot
be obtained that way. And Paul tells us how the righteousness
of God is accomplished in 2 Corinthians 5 21. For he, God, hath made
him Christ to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we may be made
the righteousness of God in him. That's how we're made righteous.
Blessed with the perfect righteousness of God. Where? In him. men shall be blessed in him.
Verse four, Ephesians one, according as he had chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world. Where has he chosen us? In him. Where? In him. When? Before the foundation of
the world. Why are sinners chosen in him? That they should be holy and
without blame before him in love. How are sinners chosen? Look
at verse five. Having predestinated, predetermined,
determined beforehand, us into the adoption of children.
How? By Jesus Christ. To himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. I love the election of God, don't
you? It removes all doubt about who does the saving. before you've
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand. Oh my. In early August of 1945,
a young Japanese girl in Nagasaki, Japan got up to go to school
as she normally did. But this particular morning,
and I use that word particular on purpose, This particular morning
she wasn't feeling well and her grandmother sent her to the doctor
instead of to school. And that morning was the day
that the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. And every
single one of that young woman's fellow students were killed.
Every single one of them. But she wasn't because that morning
she woke up with a stomach ache or something and she went to
the doctor instead of to school. God spared her. God spared her. Now, and it's
so hard not to get emotional about this. I'll try not to,
but now many years later, I know at least one reason as to why. That young girl would later give
birth to six children. And one of those six proved to
be one of God's elect. And I speak of my wife, Teresa,
who's here this morning. Before the foundation of the
world, God chose a people. And he purposed to save them.
And that's exactly what He's gonna do. But He's gonna save
them in Him. In Christ. Men shall be blessed,
where? In Him. Verse 6, to the praise
of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted, where?
In the Beloved. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's God's Beloved. If you're blessed, if I'm blessed,
if we're blessed, it's only in the Lord Jesus Christ. To the
praise and the glory of His grace, it says. Who has made sinners
accepted? Jesus Christ made us accepted. Where are we accepted? In the
beloved, that is Jesus Christ. Look at verse seven, in whom?
In whom we have redemption? Redemption's in Christ. How do
we have redemption? It's through Christ's blood.
It was Christ's blood that was shed to provide a perfect righteous
covering for God's elect. Redemption is the forgiveness
and the putting away of sin. If you're blessed with redemption,
then you're forgiven of your sins and you're blessed in Him. Why are your sins forgiven? Why
are you blessed according to the riches of His grace? Not
by your works, not by your will, but according to the riches of
God's grace in Christ. You know, I get tickled sometimes.
I know people mean well when they ask, what are you gonna
preach on this Sunday? Well, I preach on every Sunday.
Men are blessed in Him. I mean to be redundant. Verse 8, 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 where? In himself. The mystery of God's
been made known to us. The mystery of redemption is
revealed to us. What is a mystery? are blessed
only in Christ. Not everybody sees that. Why
is that mystery made known to us? According to his good pleasure.
How did our redemption come about? He purposed our salvation to
be found in himself. Look at verse 13, in whom you
also trusted. In whom? Salvation's in a person. You've
heard that several times by these men already this weekend. What a blessing to be enabled
to trust in Christ alone. We don't know what a blessing
that is. Not everybody is. In whom you also trusted after
you heard the word of truth. This is the truth I'm telling
you. Men are blessed in Him. after you heard the preaching
of the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ, the gospel of your
salvation. What is the gospel? No, the real
question is, who is the gospel? Jesus Christ is the gospel of
your salvation and whom also after that you believe. Salvation
is in Christ. Being blessed has to do with
believing in the Lord Jesus Christ because that's where men are
blessed in him. Paul goes on to say, you were
sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, verse 18, which is
the earnest of our inheritance unto the redemption of the purchased
possession unto the praise of His glory. Our redemption was
free to us, but boy, it wasn't free to God. And it certainly
wasn't free to Christ. It was purchased by Him. Purchased
by Him. He paid for our redemption with
His own blood. He paid for our redemption, purchased
possession, not purchased by us, purchased by God for us unto
the praise of His glory. He gets all the glory in this.
Look at verse 17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and
revelation and the knowledge of Him. Isn't this all about
Him? It's all about Him. Salvation
is by divine revelation. You'll never believe in Christ. You'll never trust in Christ.
You'll never depend upon Christ for the putting away of your
sin until and unless God reveals Christ to you. Verse 18, the
eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know
what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory
of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to usward who believe according to the working of his
mighty power, which he wrought, where? What's it say? In Christ. when he raised him
from the dead, and set him in his own right hand in heavenly
places far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion,
and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also
in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his
feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all and in
all. Now what am I endeavoring to
say? Just this. Chosen sinners are
blessed in Him. All the blessings, the promises
of God in Him. Remember what it says? In Him are yea and in Him amen. Unto the glory of God by us. So let me ask you one more time.
Are you blessed? Are you worldly blessed? Or are
you biblically blessed, spiritually blessed? Are you blessed by fame,
fortune, prestige, comfort, or are you made holy, adored, adorned,
and made righteous in Him? For men shall be blessed in Him.
I know that. And you know what? I was just
sitting here thinking, I'm so blessed. I am so blessed. God has so richly
blessed me. And I know many of you can say
the same thing. I'm blessed. Not as the world
defines it, but as God defines it. Blessed. But if you're lost and without
Christ, let me ask you, are you really blessed? And if you're not, let me say
this to you. May God bless you. May God bless you. May God make
you holy. righteous without blame before
Him in love. And if you're in Christ, then
you're truly blessed. And I see some of you smiling
right now because you're blessed. And you're blessed in Him. May
God enable you to see and to know that every man, woman, and
sinner shall be blessed in Him. May God enable you to trust in
Him. And if He does, you're truly
blessed. Thank you, Clay.