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 has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places 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 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 a 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. May God bless his word. Well,
we'll continue this evening our meditation in this epistle of
Paul to the Ephesians. You may remember that last week
we took the first two verses. And this evening, God willing,
we'll speak from the verses three to six. Verses three to six,
and we'll just read them again. So chapter one, verses three
to six. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places 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. 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 thee. Beloved. These are four very wonderful
and very glorious verses. Not only to the saints which
were Ephesus in those days, but also to the faithful in Christ
Jesus, which of course was comprehensive in the day in which he lived.
And it is the same today. It's wonderfully comprehensive
to all those the faithful in Christ Jesus. And what does the
Apostle speak? He speaks glorious truths, encouraging
truths, wonderful statements. And he commences by saying, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. I suppose we tend not to very
much think on the wonder and glory of the wonderful work of
God the Father. And yet we know that, as we're
told in John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he sent
his only beloved Son into the world, that whosoever believeth
in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. and so we
should be so thankful that there is a God the Father and there
is God the Father who has loved his people and loved them so
much that he sent his Son. It may be tonight that as we
ponder such words that we are able to come and join in with
and say yes blessed be the God the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. Well, how necessary, how essential
it is that every one of us receive these spiritual blessings in
heavenly places in Christ. Those things which by the Holy
Spirit are revealed to us that it was through the wonderful
favour of God sending his only beloved Son that the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ, did come into this sinful world and he
did die in order that we, unworthy sinners, might be delivered from
the curse and might be freed from our sin and might one day
by his grace come to be with the Father and the Son and the
Holy Spirit eternally. Now as you and I travel on through
life, as we travel through this world, we should constantly realise
the great words that the Apostle spoke when he wrote to the Hebrews,
for here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. Now then we can look forward
by the grace of God to these spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. And if it hadn't been for the
life and death and ascension and intercession and resurrection
of the Saviour, there would be no spiritual blessings for us
in heavenly places. but as we may believe today the
Lord has gone to prepare a place for us to that inheritance which
is incorruptible and undefiled and what a wonderful thing then
to realize that you and I are blessed with such a prospect
blessed with such a realization that there is reserved in heaven
for those for whom the Savior died and to have the understanding
that there is a place reserved for you and me. Now, it'll only
be so if we are truly amongst those who are blessed with all
the spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus and are
able to come and say from our heart, blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well what a mercy it is then
if we desire to come and to bless our God. He is worthy of all
praise. He is worthy of our adoration.
As we look at ourselves and realize we deserve nothing but eternal
punishment. That's why the apostle goes on
to say, 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 this is of course a wonderful
truth. It is also a great mystery to
us who only have our natural minds to believe that before
the world was formed, when there was nothing, the blessed Trinity
chose a people, a people who were utterly unworthy of any
notice. None of them deserved any favour. And yet here is this grand and
glorious truth which the Apostle knew so very well from his own
experience as he'd been opposing the things of God and walking
contrary, doing all he could to cut out any Christianity. But you see, when the Lord called
him, he realised God had chosen him. And it's a very comforting
word to the Church of God to know that although we are sinful
in and of ourselves, the great wonder of it is that God has
chosen us in him, in Christ, before the foundation of the
world. Now then, it is the word that
we should be holy and without blame before him in love. The love of God is a great and
glorious truth. It is too wonderful really for
us to understand in any great depth. Because there we have
the love of God the Father, the love of God the Son, the love
of God the Holy Spirit to our soul. And when we perhaps are
able to realise how very insignificant we are, and when we think we're
just one of billions of people, and yet the great God in eternity
past loved us, loved us. What was there in me that could
merit esteem or give my Creator delight? It's all of His mercy,
it's all of His love, and it's all of His grace. And yet you
see that we are called then to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
we are called. And that means we are not to
be found pleasing ourselves Not to be found serving ourselves,
but all those who are chosen, all those who are called, are
no longer their own, because they are bought with a price,
and that price, the blood, the precious blood of the Saviour. Oh, it's invaluable, because
it saves our soul. There's no greater price that
can be paid to redeem us from all our sins than the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ." Well, it's a theme that should
rejoice our hearts. It's a theme that you and I should
never tire of hearing because it should be life to our souls. And then he goes on and he says,
having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ. Now this word predestination
means that God has really predetermined everything that occurs in our
lives. Not only have we been chosen,
but the Lord has predestined everything that comes into our
life, our daily life, and even the things that you and I think. See, God is so mighty, God is
so powerful. Indeed, the great truth is He
is almighty. He knows everything. He knows
all about us. And the Lord has determined predestinately
what you and I should walk through. He knows every trial. He knows every difficulty. He knows every perplexity. And we should recognise the truth,
that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans when he said, and
it was from personal experience, and we know that all things work
together for good to those who love God and to those who are
called according to his purpose. And so it is true. Everything
in our life, things that we may think, why has such a situation
developed in my life? Why am I caused? to walk this
path. Why are things so difficult? It is in accordance with the
purpose of God to prepare us for our eternal home and to direct
us more and more to his amazing love to such unworthy sinners. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure
of his will. Now perhaps you children and
young people may know what it is for babies sometimes to be
adopted. That means that a couple, husband
and wife, desire to adopt a child and to treat it as one of their
own children, just as though it had been born unto them. And
they watch over it And they take care of that little child as
long as they live. That is really the true spirit
of adoption, naturally. But how wonderful it is to think
that we, as unworthy sinners of the earth, are adopted to
Himself, to the Lord Jesus Christ. We all become His children, not
by physical flesh and blood. but by adoption and every one
of God's children are adopted. What a mercy today if we understand
and know the favour of that tremendous blessing. And then the Apostle
goes on with this beautiful, we might almost say, benediction
to the praise of the glory of his grace Runnieth made us accepted
in the beloved. We are not accepted in and of
ourselves, but we are accepted in Christ. We're accepted through
Christ. What a wonderful thing it is.
As we come to prayer to our God tonight, our prayers will only
be accepted as they're presented through the Lord Jesus Christ. What a mercy then we have such
a Saviour. What a mercy we have such a great
and glorious High Priest, when he hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. Now tonight is there therefore
not much reason to praise our God, to the praise of the glory
of His grace. You see, His grace is the free
unmerited favour to every one of his children. None of them
can say, I'm worthy. And he wrote to this same people,
these Ephesians further on, he says, by grace are you saved,
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God, not of works, lest any man should boast. What a wonderful
blessing for us tonight. If you and I know that grace, the free unmerited
favour of God's love toward us. Because if we do, then we can
look forward to a glorious inheritance, a glorious time in heaven. Remember we're only on this earth
for a very short time and then eternity. How important it is
that you and I have a good hope, through the grace of God, of
being loved by God the Father, and God the Son, and God the
Holy Spirit, so one day we shall be united in heaven. It's difficult to understand
and to appreciate what it would be like when we view the Saviour
face to face, that One who has given His life, who died that
sin atoning death, you and I might receive the glorious gift of
eternal life. Well, may such words as this
tonight be a blessing to us. Go home, meditate on them. There's much to think upon. There's
much blessing. There's much glory. Don't forget
them. Don't say, well, I don't know what was spoken tonight.
If you've forgotten, go home and read these verses again and
meditate upon them. May the Lord truly bless them
to all of our souls. Amen.