So, I originally was reading
out of Ephesians, which we'll get into a little
bit later. And I noticed in this Ephesians
scripture that I'm gonna get into a little bit later, how
many times the name of Christ was brought
up in this very short, succinct picture of the gospel. And it
made me think of the very, very well-known scripture that, therefore,
God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that
is above every name. And it made me think about that,
so that's why I went back to Philippians, Philippians 2, 6
through 11. The name of Christ, the name
above every name. So just on a simple level, what
does that mean? It's not just a name, it's Christ. But His name above every name
is just a simple picture of Him being exalted above absolutely
everything. It's not, and as a child I remember
hearing this and I remember picturing it, and I don't know why I did,
this is just the way my brain worked at the time, but I pictured
it like a triangle or like a pyramid, and he's on the top and everything
else kind of trickled down. And that's not even close to
correct. There's nothing in second place, third place, fourth place,
fifth place. It's Christ here and absolutely
everything else is down here on the same level. So, in him, and everything else,
it's him and everything else. Christ's name is exalted above
every name. Christ is above everything. Just
laying the groundwork. So then you go to, and I just
kind of go through the basic questions. This is how I kind
of go through scripture. So the why comes up. Why is his
name above every name? Well, earlier in this exact scripture
that I read, you can read, And being found in appearance as
a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even
death on the cross. And in the word, therefore, because
of that work, because of being humbled from where he was to
what he became, even to the death on the cross. Therefore, it says
in verse nine, God exalted him to the highest place and gave
him a name above every name. There's your why. So what does
this mean to the world? It means he has all authority
over all things. Nothing happens without Christ. Nothing can stop His will. Nothing
can alter anything that He's laid out to happen. He is exalted
above all things and has all authority over everything, heaven
and earth. So what does that mean for His
people? Well, to put simply, it means
absolutely everything. It means Whatever Christ says
or promises is. Every word he speaks, every promise
he makes is. Period. Whatever he has done
or accomplished is done and can never be changed because he has
all authority. It means all that has happened
and all that will happen is perfectly according to His will and His
power. This is the power of His name. It is not to be taken lightly.
It is above all things. It really caught my attention
in the very next, in verse 10. I have heard this scripture 150
times since I was a kid, but I never caught this. I never
thought of it this way. That at the name of Jesus, every
knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth
and every tongue confess. The name of Jesus, it says. I
mean, it doesn't say, and to Jesus, every name should bow
in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess
that he is Jesus Christ, his Lord. It says, at the name of
Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under
the earth. What's the difference? Well, there's no difference,
per se, when you say the name of Christ and Christ. There's
no difference there in who he is or the power it contains.
But in the way we look at certain scriptures and certain promises,
it can really add a whole... The name of Christ carries power. And then... When I was going
through this Ephesians scripture earlier, before I went to Philippians,
I went back to this Ephesians after kind of reading through
what the power of his name means. His name in scripture, when you're
reading a statement, when his name is put in that statement,
it becomes, it goes from just being a statement to a fact,
a truth. It's not just a sentence anymore.
When it says in Christ or through Christ, it becomes in stone. That's the power of his name.
Just like him, it cannot be changed. What he has done cannot be changed. Anything done in his name cannot
be changed, cannot be affected, will not be stopped. So now that we have a minor human
understanding, of the power of the name of Christ, I want to
look back at this well-known scripture in Ephesians. And it
struck me how many times, and I've kind of preached on this
before, but knowing the power of that name and then reading
through this scripture, the name of Christ in scripture, like
I said, is a stamp, like a stamp of truth. It's like turning a
statement immediately into an unchangeable fact. So if you
wanna turn back to Ephesians, which is actually just a few
pages from where we are. Ephesians one, verse three. And we'll read
through nine. Praise be to God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ. who has blessed us in the heavenly
realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in
him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless
in his sight. In love he protested us to be
adopted as sons through Jesus Christ. in accordance with his
pleasure and will to the praise of his glory and grace, which
he has freely given us in the one he loves. In him we have
redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of sins in accordance
with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all
wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery
of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed
in Christ. It's a wonderful scripture. Standing
alone, it is a beautiful, simple picture of the gospel, which
is perfect for me. Simple is good. This is the gospel. This is the
good news of what Christ has done for his people, Obviously. Let's walk through
this, starting in verse three. Praise be to God and the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly
realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. The sentence starts, praise be
to God, and also says, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Praise be to God stands alone perfectly fine. but he's also
the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the name above all names. As a matter of fact, none of
it can be talked about or written about without Christ. Every aspect
of the gospel, every aspect of salvation, the payment of our
sins is 100% on Christ, on his name. So it goes on to say, who has
blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing
in Christ. God has blessed his people in
the heavenly realms. He's blessed us in a way that's
outside of this world, outside of time, outside of space. The
blessings on us were here before the world began and will be here
after the world ends. What does this tell us? We are
blessed in a way that time can't affect. We are blessed with salvation. We were forgiven of our sins.
God loved and saved his people before time existed. Time cannot
wear that down. Time cannot change that. Not
only were we blessed in the heavenly realms, but it says, we were blessed in every spiritual
blessing in Christ. There is no spiritual blessing
that a believer will be missing. Of all the possible spiritual
blessings that could possibly be given by Christ, a believer will have every one. Every one of his people will
have every single blessing, every single spiritual blessing. There
are no levels of blessings. There are no tiers of believers.
You are his or you are not. Every possible spiritual blessing
for your soul is yours. Everyone, you are blessed as
anyone has ever been blessed or ever will be blessed. You
are as blessed as they are. A believer, no one will ever
be more blessed than they are. In verse four he says, for he
chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless
in his sight. I'm going through these quickly
and then I'm gonna come back. Again, in the very next line God tells
us, before the creation of the world, in the heavenly realms,
we were chosen to be holy and blameless in his sight. Set apart
and blameless. Before the world began, we were
blameless. Do you feel blameless? No. I don't feel blameless. Do you
think people around us think of us as blameless? Absolutely
not. But the next three words are
what matters. We were chosen to be holy and
blameless in His sight. You know, a really, really, really
simple way to put this is all that matters is what God thinks
of you. And that's, I mean, I'm not nearly
as eloquent maybe as some speakers are, and that's probably not
a terribly eloquent statement, but that doesn't make it less
true. All that matters is what God thinks of you. It's a pretty, profound in a
way. That's all that matters. Nothing
else in this world matters. What anyone thinks of you, your
most loved family member, doesn't matter what they think of you.
Sure, you want them to love you, and in this life it matters.
It feels good. But in the big picture, this
world is gonna end. Your life is gonna be short compared
to the big picture. All that really matters is what
God thinks of you. Do you want God to look at you
and decide how He feels? By looking at you? By looking
at your life? Your thoughts? I don't. But we don't have to worry about
that. God's people don't have to worry about that because it
says right here, before the creation of the world,
we were chosen to be holy and blameless in his sight. So if
all that matters is what God thinks of you and he looks at
you and sees, blameless. Perfect, clean, deserving of
his love. Feels weird to put the word deserving
on us, doesn't it? But we are, because Christ was
deserving of that love. So deserving that he had enough
deserving for all of us. So in his sight, holy and blameless. So let's see here, where did
I, okay. In love, he predestined us for
adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with his
pleasure and will. To the praise of his glorious
grace, which he has freely given to us in the one that he loves. He has chosen his people and
his own children, sonship. He not only chose his people
to be blameless, He chose his people to be his children. There's
a huge difference there. I mean, if I just think about
it in my simple way, like think about if you knew a child that
was just a really good kid, like kind and giving and maybe even
adult, that could be either way. Just everything they did was
loving and that person was so great and everybody thought so
highly of that person, that child, so good to others, treats others
with kindness and respect. You look at that child with admiration
and you think he's great. Then change that and make that
kid your son or daughter. What's the difference? Love. It's not just, look at how blameless
that kid is, that's great. It's, look at how blameless that
kid is and I love him. I love him so much, I would do
anything for him. I love the picture of a father
and his children so much because, I mean, as much as I can understand
it as a human father, I would do anything that I can for my
kids, but that is super limited. There is no limit to what God
can do for his children. So he looks at you and sees blameless
child of his and sees you as perfect and loving and worthy
of all of his love and blessing. It's so different than just seeing
you as blameless. He sees you as his blameless
child that he loves. So how does he make this happen?
In him we have redemption through his blood. the forgiveness of
sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he has lavished
upon us, Christ. We were chosen and loved before
creation, but because of Adam, we had sin, and we've added plenty
of our own. Sin cannot be swept under the
rug, we know this. Sin has to be punished. How can
he see us as his blameless child that he loves? He made a way. In order for God to punish our
sins and still see us as blameless, He sent Christ to creation. He entered the world. To the
eyes of the world, that's all He was, just a man, a baby. But to the eyes of believers
and to the eyes of His Father, He was a hero, a savior, the
only way to salvation, the only hope for God's people. And he
lived that life that he was sent to live perfectly, including
his perfect death on the cross. And only because of what he did
are we seen as God's blameless children. We simply cannot be thankful
enough. With all of that wisdom and understanding,
he made known to us the mystery of all his will according to
his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ. So he's made, I find this extremely
interesting that we go through basically the gospel, and then
at the end, he talks about how he lets us know about it. He's chosen us before the world
began. He has this plan in place that is perfect. He carried it
out perfectly. Christ died for the sins of his
people. All of those sins were paid for.
All of those people were saved to the utmost and given every
spiritual blessing. All of those people were now
seen as blameless children of God. And then, one by one, they're
let in on it. The work has been finished. And
then, just one at a time, open your eyes. You can know the truth
now. Nothing left to do. Work's finished.
But you may see The love that I have for you and you and you.
You may see what Christ has done for you. You may see what you
are. And your need for Christ. You
have faith. The gift of faith is given to
those people one at a time. The work completely finished. And then God's people are told. It proves that there's no such
thing as allowing this to happen. There's no such thing as letting
God into your heart. That is just wrong. It's right here. The work's done
before we even know about it. How can we have anything to do
with it? And all these wonderful promises,
and we're gonna go back through this quickly, have been stamped
with that name, above all names. These statements are given the
most powerful exclamation point that there ever has been. They've
been given the name above all names in these statements. So,
to us, to God's people, and really to the world, they just don't
know it. When you read, and I'm just gonna go through the first
part of this, praise be to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every
spiritual blessing. Could stop right there. Could stop right there where
it says, blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing.
But it does not. It says, in Christ, the name above all names, that
makes this permanent. That makes this true. He calls himself the truth. His name is not on anything that
isn't the truth and isn't permanent and unchangeable. Think about
the power in that the comfort and rest it should give us, who
are blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing
in Christ. Boom. For He chose us in Him. He didn't just choose us and
say, yep, I like those guys. He chose us and paid for our
sins with the name above every name. The power in that and the permanent
satisfaction that God got from that, that God receives from
that, is ours. In love, he predestined us for
adoption to sonship. Could stop right there. But there's
no power in that sentence until it says, through Jesus Christ. And then it has all the power
in the world. There's such a difference. The
name above all names is attached to these promises given to us.
And they make them perfect. They make them more powerful
than we can imagine. I need to remember this. Every
day. Predestined us for adoption as
sons and daughters through Jesus Christ. It can't be wrong. It can't be undone, it can't
be untrue. Not with His name. In Him we have redemption. Through His blood. None of these
things can be said without Him. None of these things are possible
without Him. And these would have absolutely no power without
Him. He is everything. And He's all we need. These wonderful
promises that we can believe are true because they are stamped
with the name above all names. The forgiveness of sins in accordance
with the riches of God's grace that he's lavished on us with
all wisdom and understanding he made known to us the mystery
of his will according to his good pleasure. The part where
he let us know which he purposed in Christ. It's not a coincidence
that every time these wonderful promises are given to His people,
it is stamped and finalized with the name of Christ. Without His
blood, it carries no weight. But with His blood, it carries
all the weight. It's all off us. These promises
have been taken care of by the The man who has all authority
by the name above all names. Without his names, these statements
mean nothing to us. But with his name, they are an
unchanging truth. Christ's name is what gives them
power. He is the way, the truth, and
the life. He is the only way. He is the
only truth, and he is the only life. His name above all else. His name is more powerful than
anything you could possibly go through in this life. If you
need that on a daily basis, you're going through some tough stuff,
we all do. This life can be hard. There's
no doubt about it. We've been promised that. His
name is above all that. He has conquered this world. Therefore, God has exalted him,
back in the Philippians. Therefore, God exalted him to
the highest place and gave him the name that is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. in heaven
and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
His name is more powerful than I can say. No matter how you're feeling,
no matter how, what your emotional state is at the moment, you can
use, this can be, truth can be true for you on a daily basis
and an eternal basis. As humans, we deal with things
on a daily basis. It's our lives while we're here. God has conquered everything
here. His name is above everything
you can possibly deal with in your life. Keep that in your heart. Pray
that he keeps that in your heart. No matter your emotional state,
the work has already been done. You have been blessed in the
heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. You have
been predestined to sonship through Christ. In him we have redemption through
Christ. Permanent. Exclamation point. Salvation in Christ is unstoppable
and unchangeable. Whatever you're feeling at the
moment, whatever you're dealing with has nothing to do with it. It cannot change it, it can't
affect it. You are saved forever. I say that with anger, but not
really. That's wonderful. Music, I listen to music a lot. And there's some lyrics I listened
to the other day that I'm gonna read again. This is different
than what I've read in the past. But it helps me on the daily
basis. The daily life that we have to
deal with in this world. remembering that his name is
above everything, that he has conquered everything you can
deal with. Yeah, we have to deal with it.
But in the end, all will be good. But that doesn't mean that sometimes
we're not gonna have difficulties. And they can be out here, they
can be in here, they can be up here. And in those times, I like to
remember these things as much as I can. It talks about, it says, you are not hidden.
And this is God speaking to his child. You are not hidden. There has never been a moment
that you were forgotten. There is no distance that cannot
be covered. You are not defenseless. I'll be your shelter and I'll
be your armor. I hear you whisper underneath
your breath. I hear you whisper that you have nothing left. I
will send out an army to find you. In the middle of the darkest
night, it's true, I will rescue you. I will never stop marching to
reach you. In the middle of the hardest fight, it's true, I will
rescue you. Obviously, the tense of this
isn't correct. And some of the specifics aren't
necessarily right. Future tense, God doesn't march.
But you get the picture. The symbolism is correct. You're
never forgotten. You're never alone. If you are
one of his people, he will never stop marching to find you. He
will rescue you. You're never out of his sight.
There will never be a moment that you are forgotten, and nothing
can stop him from saving you. Nothing has stopped him from
saving you. Nothing can change the fact that
you belong to him. And all of these promises are
stamped with a name above all names. These promises are in
Christ. They are unstoppable. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we come to you with
wonderful thanks for being our amazing Savior, for being our
ruler, for your ultimate power, for your name above all names, for being so wonderful and great
and still loving us in such a way that
you would give your own life and suffer the way you did so
that we would never have to. It is mind-boggling, but it's the truth. And we can trust in it because
we can trust in you. Remind us of this each day, Lord,
until we finally get to be with you. We pray this in your name,
your perfect name. Amen.