As most of you are aware we finished
our meditation last week in the epistle of Paul to the Galatians
and I felt perhaps the right thing to do is to carry on with
the next epistle which is the epistle of Paul to the Ephesians
and we pray that our meditation in this epistle may prove to
be a blessing. So we'll read the first chapter
tonight The epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians and
reading chapter one. 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, according as
he hath 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 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, have
he 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 he also trusted, after that he heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation. in whom also, after
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,
which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased
possession, unto the praise of his glory. Wherefore, I also,
after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto
all the saints. Cease not to give thanks for
you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the
eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye 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 us, Ward, who believe according to the working
of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when you raised
him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the
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 in all. Probably it's hard for us to
realise today that Ephesus, when the Apostle was there and when
the Apostle wrote this letter, was a thriving and very large
city. In fact, one of the largest cities
in the Middle East. And of course, they were the
worshipper of Diana to a great extent. they were idolaters but
nonetheless there was a church there and there was a healthy
church there and there was a church which had grown and so the apostle
now comes from Rome and wrote this letter to the Ephesians
and how a good letter it is and how instructive and as we go
through this epistle you might bear in mind that the The aim
really of this epistle is to establish the saints in the doctrines
of the gospel. Now that was important in those
days, and it's no less important today. The doctrines of the gospel
are very great and very glorious. And to the true believer, they
are food for the soul. So as we go through this epistle,
may we remember that this was written to the Ephesians so that
they might be established in the doctrines of the Gospel. Now this evening, I'll just speak
a few words on the first two verses in this letter, which
are really the opening verses of course, and they form a similar
pattern to that in most of his letters when he writes to the
various churches and indeed into the individuals. And so the first
two verses 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, grace be to you and peace. from God our Father
and from the Lord Jesus Christ. He writes in this way, not in
a proud or false way, but writing to these Ephesians so that they
might understand that he was an apostle whom God had chosen
and it was the will of God that he was an apostle and yet as
he was an apostle, He was called to declare the great truths of
God, not only, of course, to the Ephesians, but to the Church
of God, wherever he went. And we shall recognize the truth
of such words. Sometimes, I suppose, people
are afraid to acknowledge what God has called them to. The apostle
here, was called to preach the gospel, and it was by the will
of God. We're told Paul and the Apostle
Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are Ephesus
and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. And we should never be
ashamed of God's calling to us. We won't be in the same category
as the Apostle Paul because he was of course very privileged
and very favoured as were the other eleven apostles. But nonetheless
the Lord does call his people today by his will to serve him. All the Church of God are called
by the will of God to serve him and it's a wonderful thing when
you and I appreciate that God has work for us to do by his
will. We should never think there's
nothing for us to do. We should always search out what
the Lord will have us to do, and that it will indeed be in
accordance with his will, by the will of God. It wasn't Paul's
will that he was an apostle. Indeed, Paul's will was to serve
himself. Paul's will was to oppose Christian
religion but God's will was very different and what a blessing
that is in our lives when we find God's will for us is so
wonderful and so undeserving that all comes and takes those
as the Apostle said less than the least of all saints to do
those things which shall be God honoring and God glorifying and
so he comes and he addresses it to the saints, which are Ephesus,
and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Now we should realise
that all of God's people are referred to as saints. Again, that not because of anything
good in themselves, but it demonstrates what God has done for them in
calling them out of darkness into his marvellous light. The
Word of God is wonderfully written like that. And here, this letter
is to the saints, which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful
in Christ Jesus. Because, in reality, it is only
those whom the Lord calls who will understand, will appreciate,
and will be blessed by such truths. And so here, we're told it's
to the saints, which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ
Jesus. So all of God's people are saints,
and all of God's people are those who are called faithful in Christ
Jesus. They are called by God, they
are blessed with living faith, and they are to be faithful in
their lives, faithful to the things which they have been shown,
faithful to those things that God has declared unto them. And
they should never hide their religion, they should never think
of it. There should always be concerns
to do those things which are God-honouring and God-glorifying. And to such then he speaks like
this, and he says, Grace be to you. Now all of those that he's
referring to obviously were those who had received the grace of
God. The grace of God is, of course,
the free, unmerited favour of God. Because if they had not
received it, they would not be saints, and they would not be
faithful in Christ Jesus. So they would have received the
grace. But the whole purpose of this
surely is that they, and we, might grow in grace. a greater knowledge, a greater
understanding of the blessed and glorious God's favour toward
us and how unworthy we should be. And as we view ourselves
and as we grow in grace, we should feel ourselves to be more unworthy,
not more worthy, but more unworthy as we are blessed with the grace
of God. And so the Apostle desired this,
for the saints and the faithful in Christ Jesus. And not only
of course was this referring to the saints at Ephesus, it
refers to us in this phrase really, to the faithful in Christ Jesus,
who of course are also saints. And not only does he say this,
grace be to you, he also says, and peace. How do we receive peace? We only
receive peace as we view the Saviour. Peace by His cross as
Jesus made. And there will not be peace to
our souls unless we have that blessed faith to view the Lord
Jesus Christ as that one who wondrously has come into this
sinful world to redeem our souls. How valuable is this great truth,
peace. Now, this is the peace of God. This is not any peace which is
people strive after naturally in this world. This is the peace
which follows the grace. Grace be to you and peace. And
who is it from? God our Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ. So as God the Father reveals
to us something of his wonderful love, which we've sung about
in our opening hymn, this will bring to our hearts peace, because
we will have the evidence that the Saviour has brought peace
through his death. We who were strangers, we who
were far off, are brought nigh, near to the Saviour by his shed
blood. And so we have this really very
wonderful opening statement to the Church of God. Grace be to
you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. And I suppose if that is spoken
to us into our hearts, what a great blessing it will be and how favoured
we will be and how we shall rejoice in this great truth and desire
that we may indeed be blessed indeed. And so let us remember
that this epistle is for the establishment of the saints and
the doctrines of the gospel. And we should be looking forward
to that spiritual growth, growth in grace, and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, which will bring peace
to our hearts. Amen.