Ephesians chapter 1. I had a
dilemma this morning. I was not knowing which message
to preach first. So I'm going to preach both of
them, but I didn't know which one to go with first. So I'm
going to go with this one. The title of the message is Blessing
the Lord. Blessing the Lord. Paul says
here, 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 unto 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. Now, as we read the book of Ephesians,
as it was written by the Apostle Paul, a man called by the will
of God to preach the gospel, to be an apostle, We cannot help
but notice his great desire and affection toward these saints. Now you can see this if you were
to go back to Acts chapter 20. You can see the affection that
Paul had for these saints. The last time they were to meet
together, Paul said, I know this, that I'm going to be delivered
unto afflictions and trials. I don't know what waits for me
there. And when they heard it was their last time, he said,
this is the last time you'll see my face. And I'll tell you,
they wept. They wept because they loved
him and he loved them. And so Paul, writing this letter
from prison, remembers their affection. He is their faithful
pastor, remembers their love and affection toward him. And
he, in love for them, writes this letter even from prison. He was falsely accused and awaited
execution, yet his heart and mine was not on his trouble,
but on them. It was not on his trouble, it
was on them. He didn't write them about his complaining, did
he? Now we would have wrote a letter
and it would have sounded much like this, woe is me. Look at
my prison cell, I've got this little room and let me tell you
about all my troubles. No, he didn't do that. That's
not what he did. He didn't have his murmuring
or complaining No, he wrote them because he desired them to know
of the grace of God. In fact, when he last spoke to
them, he said this, he said, I count not my own life dear
unto me, so that I might finish my course
with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord,
listen, to testify of the gospel. This was Paul's purpose for living. His whole purpose for living
was to testify of the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. That was his whole reason for
being here. Now, every believer in Christ
should have this same mind, shouldn't we? Is this mind, should this
not mind be in us, the same mind that was in the Lord Jesus Christ,
who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, but made of himself, no reputation, took on him the
form of a servant. Isn't that to be our mind? Our
mind is to be a servant in ourselves, To do this in ourselves,
we understand this. I have no power. I have no power
to do that. I have no strength in myself.
We are weak and we are feeble, and I don't care how much we
determine to do that. We have no strength except it
be given us by our God. We cannot finish the course that
is set before us and testify of the gospel of God's grace
except by the power of God. Take heart, you feeble saints,
for Paul himself did not have such contentment by his own power. but by the power of Jesus Christ. Now, when he wrote this letter
in prison, he didn't pour out all of his complainings and murmurings. He desired to preach the gospel
to them. And know this, this was something
that God did in him. And if we are to do that, it's
something God must do in us, for us. You remember when the
Lord Jesus Christ spoke to the Apostle Paul when he was having
trouble in the flesh. God sent a messenger of Satan
to buffet him, to beat him. We don't know what that is, but
it suffered greatly. He suffered greatly. And what
was his answer? What was Christ's answer to his
suffering? My grace is sufficient for thee. My grace is sufficient for thee.
For my strength is made perfect in weakness. You see, Paul learned
that these thorns in the flesh were not meant for our destruction,
but rather to humble us. To humble us. Paul was no different
than any other believer. He still possessed the old nature,
which he testified, said, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Therefore, God sent this messenger
of Satan to beat him. for this purpose, that the weed
of pride would not grow in his heart. Now listen, you and I
have this same weed in ourselves. We have this same weed of pride,
and how then does God stunt the growth of that weed? Through
trouble. Trouble. Trial. Tribulation. Even so it is with us our God
uses, sets trials and afflictions so as that we should loathe our
own selves. Now is that not contrary to popular
religion? Isn't that just contrary? Everybody
wants to lift you up. God says, no, I'm going to abase
you. And you'll come to the point
of loathing yourselves. Go over to Ezekiel. Look what
God says that He will do. Ezekiel chapter 20. And look at verse 43. And there shall you remember
your ways and all your doings wherein you have been defiled. And listen, and you shall loathe
yourselves in your own sight. for all your evils that you have
committed and you shall know that I am the Lord when I have
wrought with you for my namesake, not according to your wicked
ways nor according to your corrupt doings, O you house of Israel,
saith the Lord. God doesn't save men so that
he might exalt them. God saves men and he abases them
so that they might exalt him. He said, I'll make you loathe
your sins and your doings. When I saved you, isn't that
what He did when He saved you? He caused us to loathe ourselves. And we knew that He was God,
that He saved us and not we ourselves. We didn't save us. And so, therefore,
all the glory goes to Him. So, Paul, in this weakened condition,
in this humiliated condition, it is a benefit. It wasn't a
hindrance. And so, therefore, he, knowing
this, writes to these men, writes to these people at the church
of Ephesus in humiliation. Believer, know that your troubles
and your trials worketh godly sorrow. Doesn't it? It brings
us to our knees. That's what trouble does. Trouble's
not meant to crush you. Are you in trouble? It's not
meant to destroy you. It's meant to humble you. It's
meant to bring you to your God. It causes godly sorrow. and a
persistent appealing to the grace of God to deliver us. Jesus' answer to all our troubles
is the same one that he gave Paul, my grace is sufficient. My grace is sufficient. My grace
is sufficient to deliver you from all your sins. My grace
is sufficient to bring you through every trouble, every circumstance. Therefore, see that our thorns
in the flesh are intended to expose our weakness and to reveal
His strength. To reveal His strength. to keep
us, sustain us, and deliver us from all the corruptions of the
flesh and sin. And he does this by the grace
of God. So Paul, in prison, writing to
these believers, does not murmur of his situation, but rather
desires to exalt the grace of God to these. He desires to exalt
the grace of God. And see how God made the apostles
so tender, so compassionate in his trouble, and by keeping the
all-sufficient grace of God in view, he in love to these saints
encourages them to grow, to learn. Look at his prayer. Read this
in verse 15. He says, Wherefore I also, after
I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and love to
all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention
of you in my prayers. This was his prayer. 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 you may know what is the hope of His
calling, and what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance
in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power."
What did He want them to know? He wanted them to know the grace
and power of God. He wanted them to have assurance,
to have confidence, Not in themselves, but in God who has saved them,
who has called them from death to life. That's what this letter
is about. It is about Him desiring them
to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay,
so who knows it all? Who's finished learning? I mean,
if you finish learning, you have no need of a preacher or a church. And this is, I imagine why people
don't, some people don't want to come. They know it all. They
got it all down. If any man thinketh he knoweth
anything, he knoweth nothing, as he ought to know. You know,
I confess that I'm only beginning to scratch the surface of this.
I've not been able to delve down into the depths of God's goodness
and grace, and I've not plummeted the fathoms of my own depravity,
nor of God's glory and mercy and love. I've not yet seen the
face of my Lord Jesus Christ, but I will. I will. This is my hope. This is my confidence. My confidence, see, is in the
grace of God, not in myself. And therefore, Paul, in this
letter, he writes to them, grace, isn't this the first thing he
writes? Grace and peace be unto you. Grace and peace. I'm often convicted
by our customs of greeting one another. How you doing? You say that that's what I say
all the time instead of just hello. I say hey, how you doing?
Now what I'm really not asking is how you're doing. I'm just
saying hello. Isn't that what we're doing?
I mean, you don't want somebody to come back and say how you
doing? Well, let me tell you about my back. It just my back
is really bothered me and I'll tell you I've had a lot you okay,
okay, and you start moving away. You're not really asking Now
we should. I'm just showing you a little
of my own self. But we should be caring about
another person as to care what they're doing. But Paul, this
salutation, he mentions it in most every letter. Don't pass
by it because he's not meaning it like we mean that. He is truly
meaning grace. and peace be unto you. This is the desire of every preacher
of the gospel that the grace of God would descend and peace
would come into your heart. That the blood of Christ would
be sprinkled on your soul and that God in you would truly be
at peace. That's my desire. That's what
I want for everyone. Everyone that hears the gospel,
I want his grace. I want you to know it. I want you to know it. I don't
just want you to know it in your head. I want you to experience
it. I want him to show it to you. I can give you all the definitions
and all the words and I can make you understand these things,
but I can't put it in your heart. That's something God can do.
That's why I said grace and peace. Grace unto you and peace. Where
does it come from? From God the Father. I can't give it to you. There's no more a person in this
building I love than my children. I can't give it to them. It has
to come from God to them. And this peace that passes understanding
is only by the blood of Jesus Christ. If you are today estranged from
God, it is my duty and privilege to beg you. I beseech you therefore, I beg
you, be ye reconciled to God. You know who needs to be reconciled?
Those who are far off. Isn't that right? Only those
who are estranged from one another need to be reconciled. Be ye
reconciled, listen, for God hath made Christ to be sin for us. Who knew no sin that we should
be made the righteousness of God in Him? I beseech you, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and grace and peace is yours. It's
yours. And now I pray that God would
even be gracious to the lost to quicken them. But as for us
who truly believe, I also desire for you who do believe, that
grace and peace be given to you. Don't you need more of that?
I need more grace today than I did yesterday. I need more
of his peace. I need to know more of him. I long
to feel the power and assurance of my salvation, don't you? Believer, we know it was by the
grace of God that we are saved, and it is by the grace and peace
of God that we are kept. You see, I've not kept myself.
I've been saved for many years, but I've not kept myself. And today, even today, as I believe
on Christ, I recognize that it is God who keeps me in the faith. And if I believe tomorrow, it
is because of the grace of God that keeps me in the faith. Why is it that you've not gone
away? Have you not seen many leave? I've seen many go. I've seen many who started well
and seem to be greater than most, and yet they burn out and fade
away, and I don't see them anymore. Why is it that I've been kept?
I'm not the strongest, I'm the weakest, and yet I've been kept. How is that? By the grace of
God. That's how. By the grace and
power of God. We are continually kept. And we are in continual need. of being reminded of this, don't
we? Anybody not need to be reminded
of these things? I've not said anything to you
this morning that you who have not been under the sound of the
gospel haven't heard before. I've said these things and you've
heard them said. But I need to be reminded. I
need to be reminded. Paul said that you should put
off the old man and listen, be renewed in the spirit of your
mind. Who doesn't need to be renewed? We need to be renewed in our
minds and hearts concerning the grace of God. Paul said, these
things that I mentioned, he said, I've mentioned them before. He
said, I'm glad to do it because for you it's safe. You need to be reminded, and
so do I, of the grace and peace of God. And may God even now
cause our hearts to rejoice in Him. And notice what Paul does
next. Look at verse 3. He couldn't
wait. Grace and peace be on you from
our God and Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. And as though
as if Paul could not contain himself anymore. He said, okay,
I'm done with the pleasantries. Now I'm getting to the meat of
the subject. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He just couldn't contain the
blessing anymore. He couldn't hold it in. Paul, in love for these saints,
gives praise to God because God alone is the one that saved them.
God alone is the one that saved them. If you're a believer in
Jesus Christ, to whom belongs all the glory? Who does the glory
belong to? You see, we don't brag on ourselves. There's nothing to brag about.
There's nothing to brag about. You're just as vile as the person
sitting next to you. There's nothing to boast about. We don't deserve any glory. God
forbid that we should glory in ourselves. God forbid we should
glory save in the cross of Jesus Christ, for it is written, he
that gloryeth. He that glorieth, he that boasted,
he that braggeth, let him brag on God. Let him boast, let him
glory, and let him honor God. This is the meaning of Paul's
writing, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, I'm gonna ask you a
question. How do you bless God? How is it that you can bless
God? What comes to mind when I say
bless the Lord? What does that mean? Well, the
first thing that comes to our carnal sense is how we bless
one another. If I'm hungry, if I'm starving,
and you bring me some food, I can definitely say you blessed me.
Can I? You blessed me. You added to
me. You helped me. And therefore,
I can say that was a blessing to me. You blessed me with that
food. And we do bless one another because
we can add to each other. But when we bless God, does blessing
add anything to God? Is God more happy when you bless
Him or less happy when you don't? Does your blessing have any influence
on God whatsoever? Is He more blessed because you
bless or less blessed because you don't bless? God forbid we
should think anything of the such, for God is solitary. In other words, God in Himself
is perfectly content and happy. Nothing, there is nothing the
creature can give to God that would bless him or add to him. Nothing we can give. Yet this
principle is throughout all of Holy Scripture. The psalmist
said in Psalm 31, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise
shall be continually in my mouth. Psalm 103, verse 1, Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy
name. You see, to bless God is to invoke,
is not to invoke a blessing, which is impossible. But to bless
the Lord is to proclaim or boast of His blessedness. It is to
give thanks for all his mercies, both temporal and spiritual. So when Paul says, blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, what he is doing
is offering praise, thanksgiving to God. Now, this word in the Hebrew
language, when the psalmist said, Bless the Lord, O my soul, I
love this word because it has for its root the idea of kneeling. Kneeling before God. To kneel. And we who bless the
Lord gladly kneel before God. We kneel before God, not as a
tyrant, but as a Father. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. We bow to Him in reverence as
one who is not worthy of such graces to be called a son. We
kneel as one in love to our Father, who daily gives us all the benefits
of His mercy. Solomon concluded in Ecclesiastes,
he said, what is the whole purpose of man? Fear God, fear God, and
keep his commandments. And truly, as we bless God this
morning, his commandments are not grievous as the commandments
of Moses. That's grievous, isn't it? The
law of Moses is grievous. Why? I can't do it. Can't do
it. But His commandments, the commandments
He gives to those who believe, are not grievous. What are these
commandments? Faith and love. Faith in Jesus
Christ. Love toward God and toward His
people. These are not grievous. And we
bless the Lord, we fear the Lord, we reverence the Lord, and obey
His law of faith. Paul said, where then is boasting?
By what law? Works? No. But by the law of
faith. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Blessed
be the Lord my God. While others murmur, let us ascribe
blessing to God. honor, glory, power, and dominion
to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has justified
us without the deeds of the law, in that through faith Christ
has established and honored the law. Even so, as Paul, with his heart,
encourages the saints to bless God. Listen, I encourage you
to bless God. You should bless God. You should
praise Him. Is He not worthy of your praise?
Bless the Lord. And here's why you should bless
the Lord. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. You should bless the Lord because
of your relationship to God through Christ. That's why you should
bless the Lord. Now listen, everybody should
praise God. God commands every one of his
creatures to praise him. I don't care who you are. God
made you and God is worthy of your praise. That's just so. And God commands everyone to
bless Him, to praise Him, to give thanks. And I'll tell you,
some give thanks only when it's convenient. Isn't that right? By nature, this is what man does.
He gives thanks when it's convenient, when everything's going well,
but sure lets some trouble come along and he won't bless God. Some put their coin in the plate,
pay their respects every once in a while, and they spend their
days seeking blessings from God, physical blessings, yet they
desire the praise of man. But they in their hearts are
cold and indifferent to the gospel of Jesus Christ. God says of
these people, this people honoreth me with their lips. but their
hearts are far from me. And I know this, believers, you
and I can be cold and indifferent at times. Because we still have
this old nature, we too can be cold and indifferent to the things
of God. But listen, our Father won't
allow us to stay there. I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful
for His chastening hand upon us, that He chastens His own,
and He brings us back to Himself. He always does. He convicts us
with godly sorrow to do what? To come back and praise Him,
to bless Him. Now, what's the difference between
you and those who only faintly praise Him? What's the difference
between you and the rest of the world? It is this. Jesus Christ is our Lord. That's the difference. Jesus
Christ is our Lord. The difference does not rest
in our power, in our will, or in our works, but it rests solely
in the grace of God who put you in Jesus Christ. Isn't that something? You're in Christ because God
put you there. Isn't that what it says in 1
Corinthians 1 and verse 30? It says, But of God are you in
Christ, who God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. The difference is the grace of
God. We know Jesus Christ is Lord over all flesh, but not
all men will praise Him. In fact, go over to Jude. Go
over to Jude. I want you to see this. Jude
verse 4. Jude says this. He says, there
are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained
to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our
God into wantonness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord,
Jesus Christ. I told you the difference is
that Jesus Christ is our Lord. Now, if you'll notice there are
two Two words here translated in our language the same, Lord.
These wicked men deny the only Lord God. That word means sovereign
despot. That's what it means. Absolute
ruler over all things. They deny the absolute supreme
God. And Our Lord. Now this word is a word of endearment,
not a word of supremacy, but one likened to a husband. They
deny the sovereign God who is our husband. That's our husband. Our Lord is our husband. They deny Him. But we don't. He is our Lord. There are two
different words here. And this word that He uses the
second time in Jude is the same word that is used in Ephesians
chapter 1. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord. Our Husband. Do you not see that
you are able to bless the God of heaven even because of your
relationship with the Son? with Jesus Christ, because Jesus
Christ is our Lord. We are able to bless God. We're able to bless God. Behold,
our blessed Lord Jesus, as He had given His own life to atone
for our sins, to redeem us, and He testifies before His ascension. He says, I return unto my Father and your Father, unto my God and your God. The glory of this, that a son
of Adam might be made by Jesus Christ a son of God. That's the only way we could
ever bless the Lord and our blessing be received, our praise be received. Now, bless the Lord, and I want
to give you a couple things in closing as to why we bless God. Paul mentions first our election,
according as He had 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.
Praise God, if you are in trouble, you should think on these things.
Bless God because he chose you. Had he not done that, there would
have been no hope for you. Had there been no election, there
would have been no salvation. But praise God, the election
of grace is unto salvation. And he hath chosen us, we who hated him, He loved us
even before the world. Bless the Lord for He has given
us to Christ and Christ has redeemed us. Verse 7, in whom we have
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Praise God and bless His name
for Jesus has accomplished our salvation. Finished. Done. Isn't that the gospel? It is
finished. The work is done. Does that not
move us to bless God because salvation's done? There's nothing
more to do but bless God. What are the sacrifices of the
believer? Praise and thanksgiving. These are the sacrifices. The
sacrifice of love and mercy. These things that God has given
us, we give Him glory for it. And praise God that He revealed
it to us. Having made known, verse 9, unto
us the mystery of His will. You'd have never known this mystery
had He not made it known to you. You never would have figured
it out. You never could have learned it. No school could have
taught it. Only by the grace of God was
this mystery revealed. Consider the grace of God that
called you from darkness to light, from death to life. And bless the Lord, because He
will keep you unto the end. Look in verse 13. It says that
we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted
in Christ, in whom you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, after you believed,
you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. which is the
earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased
possession, listen, unto the praise of His glory. Do you realize
how infinitely tied your salvation is to the glory of God? That all the glory of God rests
in this, that He gathers His people, He saves His people.
If one of his elect, one for whom Christ died, were to be
lost, the glory of God would be forever stained. Doesn't that
give you assurance? That gives me great assurance
because God's glory will never be stained. He will never leave
me nor forsake me. He has chosen me. He has redeemed
me, and He has called me. Will He not keep me? If there's any fear in the believer's
heart, that's the greatest, isn't it? That's the greatest. But your God says, fear not.
I have sealed you. He's put the stamp of his ring
on your soul, who then could remove you from
his grace? Who can remove you from his salvation?
That person, whoever it is, would have to undo all that Christ
did. And he said, no man will be able
to pluck you out of my Father's hand. My Father which gave them
me is greater than all. May this move our hearts by the
spirit that calls us to sing, tis not that I did choose thee,
for Lord that could not be. This heart would still refuse
thee, hast thou not chosen me? Thou from the sin that stained
me hast cleansed and set me free. Of old thou hast ordained me
that I should live with thee. My heart owns none before thee. For thy rich grace I thirst. This knowing, if I love thee,
thou must have loved me first. Does that not move us to bless
God? It should. And no matter our
trouble, we should bless God. May God even reveal this to us. I pray God blesses.