Okay brethren, let's turn to
Ephesians chapter 1 and I want to open this morning with the
first six verses. Ephesians chapter 1. So, in this
letter what we'll see is that here Paul is going to open with
his usual salutation and greetings, but What he does after that is
he immediately presses his foot down on the pedal and just takes
us into the glorious revelation of God concerning the salvation
of his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, your head just
goes back with the thrust and the power in which he launches
us right into this glorious doctrine of God's choosing us and predestinating
us and accepting us in Christ. He gets right to it as if it
was just bursting in him when he sat down to write this letter. He couldn't wait to just get
to the meat of the glory of God in what is our great joy and
rejoicing, our salvation, our eternal life by the Lord Jesus
Christ. So what we'll do is we'll just,
I'll make a few remarks on this salutation. And then what we'll
look at today, because these first 14 verses, they speak of
the Father's part in our salvation up through verse six. And then
we see what Christ has done for his people. And then we see the
Holy Spirit's part in our salvation up through verse 14 there. Let's
look at the part of our Father concerning our salvation. So Paul, he opens this epistle
and he affirms to us that he has authority to address us in
the name of God. He has the authority to speak
of these things and to teach us who are the people of God.
He says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. And so we know that concerning
apostles, our Lord was the one who who went to them and called them,
who drew them to himself and purposely sent them to the work
as an apostle endowed with special gifts and power from on high
to establish the church in the gospel of Christ. This appointing
by Christ is according to the will and purpose of God, both
for Paul, right, to be called in Christ, and for the benefit
of the church, even to this day. And then we see to whom he's
written this letter. He says it's to the saints which
are at Ephesus. But it's not only to them, but
to the faithful in Christ Jesus. So that what the churches would
do when they received a letter, they didn't hoard it or keep
it to themselves, but they began to make copies and share that
with the other churches, which is why we have the letters that
we have today, because it was shared and maintained over the
years so that we also benefit. So it's not just concerning differences
in geographical location, but it even transcends time. It was
for the saints then, and it's just as relevant and necessary
and as much a blessing for us today as it was to them who first
received it and heard the word that God gave to Paul. All right,
and so then he says there in verse two, to these brethren
and to us here today, he says, grace be to you and peace from
God our father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you'll notice
here in these salutations and throughout the scriptures, Paul,
he uses words such as peace. And anytime we're talking about this relationship that we now
have with the Father, that we have peace with God, that God
is merciful to us, that he's forgiven us of our sins, that
Our God loves us and that he's called us and done all these
things for us. You'll notice that the foundation
of that. where these gifts of peace and
reconciliation, they're all born out of God's grace toward us,
right? Without grace, he's not going
to establish peace in our hearts. He's not going to remove the
enmity that was in us by nature. He doesn't, he's not gonna, gonna,
gonna show himself to be loving and kind and gracious to us in
a way that we would understand it and receive it in the spirit.
because there would be no fellowship there. We wouldn't know and understand
the things of God. And so born out of his grace,
he's saved his people and been merciful to us. And so this free
grace, unearned grace, which is unnecessary to say, but it's
helpful for us to, to remember and recognize this grace is free. Everything that God does for
us is freely given to us in grace because of what Christ has come
and done for the people of God. So having given now his salutations
there in Ephesians 1, Paul then takes off. He brings us right
into the glorious gospel, the glorious salvation kept hidden
in a mystery of the mind of God and his will and purpose toward
you, brethren, from the foundation of the earth, he gets right into
it. He says in verse three, blessed,
rejoice, be happy. And God, your Father, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And so he's showing us here how
that God the Father is our rejoicing. We rejoice in his mercy and grace
toward us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see here his acts, what
he has done to work salvation for you, his people, whom he
foreknew. whom He loves, whom He chose
for a people for His Son to be His bride, that we might know
Him and have fellowship with the Father. And so, as His people,
He showers us with blessings, right? For your children, for
your grandchildren, for those whom you love, you shower them,
right, with blessings. And you show yourself to be kind
and do things for those that you love. And that's what the
Father is doing here. He loves you, his people, and
he showers you with blessings in heavenly places, which is
in heavenly things, spiritual things in Jesus Christ. That's what the Father does for
you. So these are no ordinary blessings,
we may not be blessed with great riches, we may not be blessed
with many friends in the flesh, or we may know struggles and
have difficulties and hardships, but we have the spiritual blessings
of God that those who are rich in the things of this world and
have no fellowship with God know nothing of. So he blesses you,
his people, with spiritual blessings, and they're all derived from
the covenant of grace. The covenant of grace, not a
covenant of works. It's not dependent on you working
for it, and you maintaining good graces with God. It's all founded
in his covenant of grace toward you, which he has performed solely
for your benefit. We are the happy recipients of
His blessings being showered upon us, which He freely gives
graciously in Christ our Savior. All right? And so what that means
is that He's determined the good that we shall know and experience
and learn of Him. He's determined all these things.
And so He's provided everything necessary for our peace, for
our justification, for your sanctification, your redemption, your fellowship
with Him, He's determined what these things shall be and what
shall be given to you that you might know Him and experience
the love and forgiveness and fellowship with God in Christ.
All these are of His hands, of His blessing. With these spiritual blessings
being freely given to us in Christ, what we see is that God has purposed
this to be so. He's decreed it to be so and
prepared everything. Everything that we come into,
that we experience, that we might know Him, it's all of His hand. He's the one in control of these
things. And what we're told here in verses four, five, and six,
that the way it's explained to us here is that God has chosen
us in Christ. He's predestinated us, right? So his choosing or election is
concerning a people, who those people are. They are the elect
of God. And he's predestinated us meaning he's determined what
things shall be done that bring us to a knowledge of our election
by God, and we find that he accepts us freely in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're accepted of God. Sinner,
you that believe on Christ, you are accepted of God. He's received you. He's called
you to himself. And he's letting you know in
Christ that you are his child, and he's taking care of you the
way a parent cares for their child, whom they love. All right? And so he's doing
that for you in Christ. All right? So first, let's look
at our choosing by the Father. Verse 4. It's according, these
blessings being showered upon us are according as He hath chosen
us in Him. in Jesus Christ, before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love." Alright, so again, our being chosen is entirely
of God's grace. It's entirely of the grace of
God. The choice, we're told, was made
before the foundation of the world. And that means God knew
what we would become in Adam. That when Adam sinned against
God, when he rebelled against him, we sinned and rebelled against
God. When Adam sinned, he became corrupted,
defiled, spiritually dead. The fellowship was severed between
the father and we were all in Adam's loins. And so that corruption
pervaded his whole body, including the seed in him. And so we too
were corrupted and defiled and died spiritually in Adam. That was all lost in Adam, but
God knew that. And yet he still chose a people
for his son to be his son's bride, to be the children of God, to
know him and to have fellowship with him. And what the Lord is
showing, well, he says there that this choice was not because
we were holy and without blame, but that we should be holy and
without blame. See, it's not God doesn't choose
his people because they do something to make themselves holy or to
do something to make themselves blameless before God. That's
all God's work. the free gift of God in his son
Jesus Christ. Christ makes his people holy.
Christ makes his people blameless before the Father. It's all his
work that he accomplished there on the cross. And so all these
blessings and the knowledge of these blessings are given to
you freely by the grace of God. And so the Lord does this and
he makes this known to us because he's not going to give any place
to the flesh to boast before God. We're not going to be able
to stand before the Father, before our Savior, our Lord, and speak
of what we've done to earn his favor. to earn these blessings. There's going to be no place
for that. God will show us and teach us as we walk with Him.
He's going to, by Him leading us, He's going to reveal to us
what He's done for us in grace, in heavenly things, in Christ
Jesus our Lord. All right, just as He says in
Titus 3.5, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to His mercy, He saved us. In spite of the fact that I am
a vile dog sinner, God has mercy on me freely in Christ. And that's the same for every
one of you that believe and have no confidence in the flesh and
trust hanging on to the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting that He's
the one hanging on to you and keeping your heart stayed upon
Him. And when your heart drifts and
goes astray, he's the one who in mercy and grace leads you,
draws you back to himself and reveals his tender mercies toward
you. And so we find also that his
love is the motivation for his choosing us. We're told by the
Apostle John that God is love. God is love. God's not out to
get you. you that are His people, He's
shown Himself, His grace and mercy toward you because He loves
you. He's shown you your sin and your
need of Him because He loves you. He chose you because He
loves you. Herein is love, not that we loved
God. but that he loved us and sent
his son to be the propitiation, the means of forgiveness for
our sins. All right, and so this sending
of Christ, it was begun when God chose whom he would send
his son to save. All right, so you see that there?
God chose us. This choosing of a people, that's
great, God chose us, but also in the mind and purpose of God,
He predestinated us to come to a knowledge of these things,
that we should experience His grace and mercy. He's predestinated
us unto this salvation, unto the adoption of children, to
know what He's done for us. Ephesians 1.5. says, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. So what the Lord's telling us
is everything necessary, everything pertaining to our salvation is
ordained by God the Father. He's ordained it to be so and
it cannot fail. God shall not fail in his purpose
toward you. And he's started, he's begun
a good work in you. He's given you, he's shown you
your sin. He's shown you that you cannot save yourselves. He's
shown you the salvation of his people, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and given you a desire, a look to look unto him, faith in him,
belief in him that he'll have mercy. And I know that we still
see the weakness of our flesh but he that hath begun a good
work in you shall perform it until the day of Christ Jesus
when he returns. He's the one that started it,
he's the one that shall keep you to the end. Believe him,
trust him, rest in him to do that work for you because what
other hope do we have but his mercy and grace in this regard,
all right? And so we shall be saved. We that have been chosen of God
and predestinated to this, we shall be saved. God's will isn't
going to be frustrated. We know what it is to have a
frustrated will. We know what it is to not be
able to do the things that we would do. And that's because
we're but men. We're feeble men. unable to do
what we would do. But God is not a man that he
should be frustrated the way we are frustrated. And so it's
not going to come down to our works or our will that determines
whether or not God can have mercy on us. God can have mercy on
us because he's willed it to be so. He's determined it to
be so and it shall come to pass. God is merciful to you, his people,
in Christ. And so our works, that's not
going to derail the purpose of God for us. Our fickle will,
that's not going to determine whether or not God saves us.
That's the foolishness of man speaking there. That's the deadness
of religion that speaks of their free will and trying to motivate
people to earn a favor with God. Listen to this in John 6.39 Our
Lord said, This is the Father's will which hath sent me, that
of all that he hath given me I should lose nothing. But I'm going to raise it up
at the last day. Our Savior cannot fail. He shall
not fail. You that are His, He has accomplished
your salvation and He shall complete that salvation to the end when
He comes again and raises you from the dead to be forever with
your Lord. He's done that. That's His promise
to you. This here is the will of God
our Father being laid bare before us, being shown to us freely,
just openly declared, right? So that there's not any further
mystery whether God shall accomplish his purpose in us who he has
worked this faith in, looking to Christ alone for salvation. It shall be brought to pass in
the time and the appointment of God our Father. It's his good
pleasure, he tells us. It's his good pleasure to do
this. All right, so it's not coming
down to our works. We're not going to get ourselves
out of salvation by something we've done or some foolish thought
that we've had. Your God is greater than you
and I, and he shall have his way with us, which is purposed
to be good and gracious and to reveal his love to you in the
Son, Jesus Christ, in whom you now hope. So all men are sinners. There's not a one of us that
can stand here and glory in how good we are, or boast ourselves
over one another. We're all sinners, and there's
not a one of us that can save ourselves. And what it all comes
down to is that our eternal soul is in the very hand of God, your
creator, your maker. the one who forms you for himself,
the one who has purpose to reveal himself to you and make you his
child that's according to his grace in Christ. In Romans 9,
I'm going to read verses 11 through 13, Romans 9, and it's speaking there of the
children born to Rebekah and Isaac. And we're told there about
Jacob and Esau, and he says that the children being not yet born,
they were twins in the womb of Rebekah, the children being not
yet born, neither having done any good or evil, didn't come
down to the works of these children, but that the purpose of God according
to election might stand, not of works, but of him, of God
that calleth. If he has called you, he shall
have you. You shall be saved. You shall
know the riches of God, the shower of his blessings in Christ. The purpose of God according
to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.
It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. So if
God did this with carnal things, how much more with spiritual
things? As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I
hated. And Esau had no taste, no desire
for God. He didn't taste that God is gracious. He didn't enjoy the sweetness
of the knowledge of God. He had no fear of God. He had no desire for the Lord's
provision for him, but you do. You that fear and are afraid,
what if I'm an Esau? Then I cannot be saved. But then
why did God give you the desire? Why did he show you your sin?
Why did he show you your need of him? Why did he show you the
preciousness and the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ? He
does that for his people. And the blessings that he showers
upon them for Christ's sake, because he loves you and chose
you and predestinated you to this glorious salvation in his
son. All right? And then we're told
that in Romans 8, 29, he says it this way, for whom he did
foreknow. All right? And that knowledge
of you is expressing to you God's love for you, his people, whom
he chose. That's the foreknowledge of God.
It's an intimate knowledge. It's a loving desire that he
has for his people to know him and to enjoy him as their god,
their creator, their savior, their husband, their friend,
their all, right? He does that for them. For whom
he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among
many of Brethren, right? Brethren who shall not fall short
of the purpose of God for them in Christ. They're not gonna
fall short. Christ has provided everything.
He is your sufficiency, brethren, to stand before God, unblameable,
wholly accepted of Him. So your salvation is perfectly
secure in Christ. Look to Christ. Keep looking
to Christ because He is our grace, He's our pardon, He's our fellowship
with the Father. It's through Him. This is because
Christ willingly laid down his life for you, his people. He
laid down his life on the cross, making himself an offering to
the Father, bearing their sin before the Father to put it away,
to suffer the punishment that we deserve, that we should go
free and have eternal life in fellowship with our God. He did that. He's the sacrifice
that God sent to reconcile us to God. And then we're told in
verse 6 that it's to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein
He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. So that our very standing
before God, our being received by Him, it's all through the
blood of Christ. And that's why we rejoice in
Him. That's why we speak of Christ.
That's why we stand and march under the banner of Christ, because
He is our salvation. He's our hope. He's our joy and
rejoicing. He is the one who has reconciled
us to the Father. So we rejoice in Him. You that
don't believe on Christ, you that are content in yourselves
and have confidence in your works or your will to save you, understand
that nothing is going to stop the purpose and the will of God.
And one of the other purposes of God which he's made known
to us is that he shall punish the inhabitants of this earth
who will not hear God, who do not bow before the sun, who do
not look to the salvation that God has provided. He's going
to punish the inhabitants of the earth. This earth shall be
destroyed and we shall come into judgment. and those without the
blood of Christ, who stand before him in their own works and their
own will, shall have a terrible and fearful day in that day of
judgment. Our Lord says in Isaiah 26, in
verse 20, he says, come my people, enter thou into thy chambers. What are thy chambers? Well,
the chambers are found in Christ. And here in this passage, in
Ephesians 1, we're told that it's the provision of Christ
in our choosing by God, in God's predestination for us. The chambers consist of our acceptance
by God in Christ. And he says, shut thy doors about
thee. What does that mean? Well, once
you've found that Christ is sufficient for all your salvation, shut
the door. There's no further place to look.
You've found your satisfaction. You've found your hope. The salvation
has been provided in Christ. God has everything he needs for
you for your salvation in Christ. You shut the door. There's no
further place to look. There's no further work you need
to add to it further ensure your salvation and good standing before
God, it's done, it's complete. Christ is all, right? So shut
the door, he says, and hide thyself as it were for a little moment
until the indignation which is coming, that judgment coming
upon the inhabitants of the earth, until that indignation be overpassed. You hide yourself in Christ.
You tuck yourself down there under his arms. and trust in
Him, stay upon Him, look to Him, because He is the salvation the
Father has provided for you in grace. All right, and this judgment
we're told is set, it is coming. Verse 21 there says, for behold,
the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of
the earth for their iniquity. All right, their iniquity in
Adam, their iniquity in what they themselves have done and
committed and thought. They have no covering. They have
no blood covering, making an atonement for their sin. They
have no peace with God. They are enmity against God.
And that's why he's going to punish them for their iniquity. We're told the earth shall disclose
her blood and shall no more cover her slain. Right? And that's
what we do. when things die. We throw dirt
over it, we cover it over, lest it rot and stink before our eyes. But the earth's going to expose
hell. It's all going to come out, and it's going to be a stench
in God's nostrils, and he shall destroy it. So, brethren, Rejoice
in the provision of salvation. He's provided in Christ freely
and it shall be wrought in your hearts. You that hope in him,
he's not going to let you go and you're not going to take
yourselves out of his hand. You are safe and secure in Christ.
You keep looking to him. So this is just a brief look
at what the Father has done for us in terms of our salvation
and the joy he's given to us. So look to the Savior. and you
shall live forever. And we're told in Acts 13, 48,
that when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified
the word of the Lord and as many as were ordained to eternal life
believed. And so I pray the Lord bless
that word to your hearts and just rejoice you in Christ your
salvation. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your grace in your Son, Jesus
Christ, that you chose us and predestinated us and that you've
accepted us entirely upon your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you,
Lord. Pray that you would indeed bless
us with these refreshing thoughts of what you've already accomplished,
Lord, raise us up in joy, in hope, and in gladness, and bless
our tongues and lips to speak of these things, to praise your
name, and bless you for your grace and mercy provided freely
and abundantly in your son, Jesus Christ. Lord, bless your people
this day. Lord, set our hearts upon you
to hear your word. Help me to proclaim it freely,
and plainly and simply to the people, to your people, that
they should hear your word and be delivered from darkness and
fear and pain and suffering and to rejoice in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks. Amen.