Good morning, everyone. And let
me repeat Winston's welcome to our visitors in particular, as
you heard in the 10 o'clock hour, some of you that we have a few
folks who are traveling today, and we want to keep them in our
prayers. And in particular, a few folks up at the 13th Street conference
at Ashland, Kentucky, who will be traveling back today, we want
to be in prayer for that conference as well. Today I'm going to begin
a series of messages dealing with what it means to be blessed
in Christ. And this entire series will be
an exposition of just one sentence, one long and I'll say loaded
sentence. It's loaded with the glorious
eternal blessings of grace for the objects of God's mercy and
grace in Christ Jesus. And I'm speaking of that sentence
found in Ephesians chapter 1 verses 3 through 14. Today we'll just
be looking at the first section of that sentence, but the translators,
you'll see, they did insert some periods in these verses, but
in reading it, you'll see they certainly read as one continuing
sentence. And in this one sentence, Paul
sets forth the multifaceted blessings of salvation by God's sovereign
grace, salvation fully accomplished by the God-man, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And as we progress through this
series now, we'll see that it's the one triune God, Jehovah God,
in three co-eternal, co-equal persons, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, all acting in perfect unity in accordance with their
undivided essence of deity to achieve the one God's design
and purpose in the salvation of His people. Now, as I say
this morning, we're going to be looking at the first part
of this sentence in verses 3 through 6 in a message I've titled, Eternally
Blessed in Christ. Now, we'll begin a consideration
here of the wonderful mercy and grace then that rested upon a
people chosen in Christ long before they even existed, even
before, as we'll see, the very foundation of the world. In other
words, from eternity past. And I'll tell you, this has been
a meaningful study to me, and I pray that you'll be able to
enter into a worshipful spirit and rejoice as I have in studying
these verses as we marvel at what true believers, all who
will believe in time, were given in Christ from all eternity. And they shall possess it forevermore. In other words, it's something
they've always had and always will have. Now it's a blessing
to discover that you're eternally blessed in Christ. Well, as you
can see, our text begins in verse 3, but we're going to begin our
reading back in verse 1 by way of introduction. There we see
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.
Many think that this letter which was penned by Paul while he was
imprisoned in Rome was actually a circular letter so it was written
to multiple churches and was not or never was intended to
be limited to just the church at Ephesus. So it's assumed then,
as Paul says, that he's writing first to the saints which are
at Ephesus that if this was a circular letter, as most believe, that
they, other churches, would have received the exact same letter,
perhaps the location of their church substituted in the place
of Ephesus. We know that God has providentially
extended this letter to the church of our day through the canon
of scripture, through the Bible. My point in all this is that
the letter is written to the saints, I believe, everywhere
and to every age. This Bible is certainly relevant
to us today. Now the saints, that word just
simply means the sanctified ones, that is those set apart by God
the Father and as we're going to see in our text today, made
holy before Him in Christ. Now notice Paul, he makes it
clear too that this is not written just to the saints at Ephesus
when he says, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. I think, you
know, Paul often opened his epistles, his letters, in very similar
fashions, you know, and I think that phrase can be likened to
the opening in his first letter to the church at Corinth. There
in 1 Corinthians 1 we read, Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus
Christ through the will of God and sussed the knees of our brother
unto the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are
sanctified in Christ Jesus. called to be saints, the sanctified
ones. And look at this phrase, with
all that in every place, call upon the name of Jesus Christ
our Lord, both theirs and ours. It'd be interesting if I had
included there verse 3, the following verse. You'd see it reads exactly
the same as our text in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 2. So there we
see Paul was, remember now, he's writing to essentially to the
saints everywhere. And he says, grace be to you
and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
So he opens here the subject of the grace and listen, the
resulting peace that belongs to those, to all of those to
whom he writes. And if it's of grace, that means
the unmerited favor of God in the recipient of that favor,
then it is from God. He says here, from God the Father
and the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. But we know, and we'll see even
as we progress through this sentence later on, that it is from the
Holy Spirit as well, for He's the one who makes these blessings
known to the saints in time, that they might enter into the
enjoyment of them. Before we get into the sentence,
which begins in verse 3, I want to issue somewhat of a challenge
to us all. And that is, the scripture says
we're to make our calling and our election sure. We're to examine ourselves, whether
we be in the faith. And we're about now to look into
the wonderful blessings that belong exclusively to the saints,
to these to whom Paul writes. So my point and the usefulness
to us is this. if the blessings he describes
concerning all those he saves, if they're your blessings, if
they're my blessings. In other words, if they speak
of that which is where your hope lies for eternal life, if they
are, as the Bible says, the saver of life unto life to you, then
rejoice with me today because we're going to be considering
what a great and a certain salvation we have in Christ. On the other
hand, if you're among those, and listen, whether religious
or not, whether indifferent or zealous, but if you're among
those to whom God's gospel, God's gospel, His way of salvation,
the way that was foreign to all of us at one time, you see, if
it is described in this passage if it doesn't fit your fancy,
so to speak, if you'd just rather not go there. In other words,
if it stands in opposition to your own religious doctrine,
then my prayer for you is that God will bless you today, His
Spirit revealing to you the tragic folly of standing in opposition
to the Word of God, because you see, we'll see later on, that's
exactly what God's Spirit does and did for each of you who can
rejoice in these eternal blessings in Christ Jesus. You see, these
verses Paul's about to describe herein, the spiritual blessings
that, again, I want to say, belong exclusively to those he saves. So, regardless of whether you
currently consider yourselves among the saved or not, know
this. If these descriptions don't suit
you, then I pray that the irrationality of presuming that this letter
is written to you will be made known to you. See, because that's
akin to basically reading someone else's mail and then foolishly
interpreting that as if the blessings you choose belong to you, in
particular, eternal salvation. This letter is written to the
saints. who are blessed as described in the verses we're going to
look at. So let's all examine whether we're among the saints
so blessed in Christ. Later on, as we move through
this sentence and we get down to verse 9, you'll see that all
those who are so blessed, they have this gospel made known unto
them. Call there in verse 9, the mystery
of his will. And it will be made known unto
each and every one of them in each successive generation. So
let's begin now in verse 3. There we read, 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 into the adoption of children by Christ to himself. according
to the good pleasure of His will, to the promise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved."
First there, notice that Paul immediately directs their attention
toward praising God the Father. who has blessed his people, he
said, with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. That word
places there can be translated things as you may see in your
Bible notes as well. But he's blessed them. I think
the point there is he's distinguishing these spiritual blessings in
heavenly places from the temporal blessings that much of humanity
enjoys from time to time. As the scripture said, God causes
it to rain on the just and the unjust. But here he's speaking
of those eternal blessings in Christ, eternal salvation itself. And all who are eternally blessed
are blessed in Christ. To be in Christ by having been
made graciously one with Christ by God the Father That's to have
all spiritual blessings. And these blessings now are in
accordance with the manifestations of grace and love that Paul begins
to describe beginning in verse 4. And in these next three verses
now, verses 4 through 6, Paul ascribes to God the Father three
manifestations of His grace and love toward these saints that
I want us to focus on. They're toward them in His having
chosen them in Christ, we see that in verse 4, having predestinated
them to the adoption of children by Christ, verse 5, and accepted
them in Christ to the praise of the glory of His grace, verse
6. Now, all three of these are glorious
blessings of God the Father. In my study, I was impressed
by Robert Hawker's commentary on this. He pointed out how all
three of these blessings mentioned here are declared to be, and
I tend to agree with his assessment here, they are all the result
of his good pleasure and will, as it's put in verse 5. His own
good pleasure and will. And these are declared to be
so blessed before the foundation of the world. These are eternally
blessed in Christ, as we see in verse 4. So, let's briefly
just consider each of these three blessings of God's grace in Christ.
First, chosen in Christ, as verse 4 puts it. According, again remember
he said, how we're blessed in heavenly places, spiritually
blessed in heavenly places, and I'll get it right here, spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. according, verse 4,
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him. So I'll repeat
again, as with the other two blessings, God's choosing or
election of a people, as is true of all that God does, is according
to His own good pleasure and will. Not only that, It was from
all eternity. You see, the God we worship is
immutable. He never changes. So that means
this. That means God did not look down
through time and in foreseeing who would react, who would believe,
then react to the creature. No, the Creator doesn't do that.
He did not do that and then choose them on that basis. That would
be according to their free will, as so many like to call it. It says here it's according to
His will that He chose them from before He had even formed the
world, before He created man. Now, this choosing, this doctrine
of election, it doesn't stand in isolation. It's not just that
God chose. No, He chose a people, first
of all, unto something. with an objective in mind. And
secondly, He chose them in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice
so that God, it says God chose a people, and what He chose them
to is eternal salvation in Christ, and the words are that we should
be holy and without blame before Him. Think on that. God always viewed the elect,
those He chose in Christ to salvation, as holy and without blame in
Christ. That's kind of mind-boggling.
When you think about the all-knowing God, He knew, He didn't just
know, He ordered, He ordained, He determined that these saints
chosen from before the foundation of the world, they would fall
along with the rest of humanity in Adam as their federal head
and representative. And thereby the scripture teaches
a sin entered. So they were made sinners. That's
not holy, not without blame if judged in their federal head
Adam. Or if in their respective lifetimes judged based on their
own personal character and conduct, the scriptures clear, all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Yet here we see God's always
viewed them in Christ as perfectly flawless. having the merits of
the obedience unto death that Christ most certainly would accomplish
in time accounted unto them. Some will argue, well this can't
be. None could be accounted holy
and without blame before Christ had come in time. And there's
no argument about this. I mean the timeline of events
proves that before the world ever existed, Christ had not
come into the world to die on the cross of Calvary. to establish
the very perfect righteousness by which these saints are accounted
holy. But I want you to consider this.
Was there ever any remote possibility whatsoever that Almighty God's
purpose from eternity could be hindered in any way? Was there
any possibility that God the Son would not come in time? would
not become incarnate, that is, walk on this earth, having taken
into union with his deity, a sinless humanity, so as to finish the
transgression, to make an end of sin, to bring in an everlasting
righteousness as God foretold he would through the prophet
Daniel? No, there's no possibility that it wouldn't take place.
We're talking about Almighty God. We're talking about the
God who spoke through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 46, 9, saying,
remember the former things of old, for I'm God. There's none
else. He says, I'm God and there's
none like me. And look at this distinction.
Declaring the end from the beginning. And from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying, my counsel, now his counsel is
his purpose, accompanied by his infinite wisdom. He says, my
counsel shall stand. and I will do all my pleasure."
Now, the suggestion that this God, the God of the Bible, the
one who declared the end from the beginning, could be bound
then by some man-imposed limitation that would restrict or hamper
His own determination regarding the objects of His everlasting
love, it just does not compute. That will not add up. You see,
this concocted notion that God is incapable of imputing, that
is, charging the merit or the demerit of a work until after
that work has been accomplished, is easily refuted even by some
who would hold that view their own doctrine, who believe that
sins of all the saints were imputed to Christ long before they had
ever been accomplished or committed. You see, Christ died to pay the
penalty for all of the imputed sins of all His elect. And that includes those born
from every generation. Certainly those before the cross,
but it includes those born after the cross. The demerit of my
sins, see, even those I've yet to commit, they were imputed
or charged to Christ that He might pay the penalty due unto
them long before I was even born, before I personally committed
any sin. You see, 2,000 years ago when
Christ died, the only sin I had committed was in my representative
Adam as my federal head, as he is the head of all humanity.
But Christ, he put away all the sins of his leg from every generation. I hope you can see that God's
view of his people in Christ from all eternity does not make
the cross unnecessary or inconsequential in any way, nor does it diminish
the preeminence of Christ's finished work there. No, it makes it a
certainty. Christ, by his death on the cross
some 2,000 years ago, he truly put away the sins paid the debt
due unto them before God's justice, the Father's justice, and who
were they? All that the Father had chosen
in Him. So God's choosing of them in
Christ before time, you see, made it absolutely necessary.
It guaranteed that He would come and redeem them, His people,
in time. God the Father viewed His chosen
ones as holy and without blame from before the foundation of
the world on the sole basis of having imputed, reckoned to their
account the merits of Christ's perfect satisfaction to God's
justice, His very obedience unto death, His righteousness, a righteousness
He inevitably had to and did establish in time on the cross
of Calvary. So holy and without blame before
Him, is both the first and the never-ending view that God has
of His church, the saints in Christ. In fact, I guess it'd
be better to say it's the view He always has and always will
have. We have such a hard time talking
in terms of eternity being creatures of time. So that means no sin
in Adam could destroy their being in Christ. being put in Him,
Him agreeing to be assured from before the world. It couldn't
destroy His holiness nor prevent His accomplished work of righteousness
in time at the cross. God chose His people to be holy
in Christ. And Scripture tells us that by
one offering of Himself, once offered, that He hath redeemed
His church from all iniquity and perfected forever them that
are sanctified, the saints, Hebrews 10.14. So the church, when Christ
comes again, when the church is finally brought home by Christ,
they're going to still be found in Christ, holy and without blame
before God, sinners saved by grace. And Jesus, Hebrews, excuse
me, Ephesians 5.27 tells us, will present it to himself a
glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Can you believe that? But that
it should be holy and without blemish. Wow. Well, God not only
chose a people, but we see in verse 5 of Ephesians 1, a second
manifestation of God the Father's grace and love. When he continues
there saying, and I like to read this beginning with the end of
verse 4. I think that's how it should be understood. having
predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself
according to the good pleasure of His will." Now, as before,
as with His choosing, this manifestation of God's grace, this predestinating
grace, is likewise, as this very verse says, of His own good pleasure
and will, and I believe also is declared from the foundation
of the world, as verse 4 put it, So again we're speaking of an
eternal blessing in Christ. We can distinguish between the
predestination of verse 5 and God's election in verse 4 in
this sense. He chose a people in Christ with
this objective that they should be holy and without blame before
Him. So essentially His choosing determined
who they were. But His act of predestination
is the appointment of the means to the end and Specifically,
here the end mention is the determination of them as children. It's an
appointment to sonship in Christ. And look, as such, that makes
the achievement of the objective for which they were chosen certain,
sure, and everlasting. To be a child of the King, my,
my, a prince, blessed in Christ with all of spiritual Israel,
that is, those chosen until eternal salvation is typified by the
nation Israel who were chosen under the terms of the Old Covenant
to bring in the Messiah. You may recall God changed Jacob's
name, a name that means cheater, supplanter, in other words, a
sinner. He changed it to Israel, a name that means prince. You
know, that's in keeping, I think, with God's reference to His children.
Spiritual Israel as sons of Jacob, sinners. Sinners saved by grace,
who are blessed as we read in Malachi 3.6, God saying, for
I am the Lord, I change not, because I change not, therefore
ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. You sinners are saved. Paul wrote in Romans 8, beginning
in verse 14, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they
are the sons of God. For ye have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit
of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself
beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God,
and look at this, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and
joint heirs with Christ. Now think about that. Before
the world even existed, believers were put in Christ, predestinated
to His earned inheritance. And that's an everlasting one,
you see, because it was all based on an everlasting righteousness
that He would and did establish for the saints at the cross. I think that's in keeping with
the rejoicing of 1 John 3, verse 1, where it reads, Behold what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. that we should
be called the sons of God. I want you to notice there in
verse 5 also that this predestination to the adoption of children by
Jesus Christ is said to be to Himself. I believe the to Himself
there is with respect to the one undivided God as He subsists
in His threefold character, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And that
makes sense in consideration of passages like 2 Corinthians
5, 19 where we read, God was in Christ and he says, reconciling
the world unto himself. But I want you to think about
this, this to himself for just a few moments with me. He predestinated
the people to be his children. Not just to bless them, though
he most certainly does. But it says here it was to or
for himself. Consider these verses in keeping
with that. Isaiah 43, 21, God says, This
people have I formed for myself. They shall show forth my praise. And then in Psalm 135, 4, the
psalmist writes, For the Lord hath chosen Jacob, the sinner,
unto himself, and Israel, the prince. for he is peculiar treasure. And then in Romans 11, 36, we
read for of him and through him and to him are all things to
whom be glory forever. See, God won't share his glory.
Well, not only did God choose a people in Christ, not only
has he predestinated them to glory as sons in Christ, But
as we see now in verse 6 of Ephesians 1, we have a third manifestation
of God the Father's grace and love. As He continues saying,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved. Now this accepted in the Beloved
is referring to the saints being eternally united to Christ their
Savior and accepted in Him. And again, as with His election
and as with predestination. This act of God's grace is in
accepting His chosen children in Christ as of His own good
pleasure and will and from the foundation of the world from
everlasting and so an eternal blessing in Christ. You recall
now when we began back in verse 3, Paul was talking about how
the saints are the believers have been blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ." And then he continues
from there and all the way through our text for today, through verse
6, he's really not brought up any actual external operations
of God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit. Now,
don't worry. This is a long and loaded sentence,
as I say. In fact, if you just peek ahead
at the next verse, you'll see he's going to talk about those
certain blessings that would, in fact, take place in time,
beginning with the redemption of these chosen, predestinated,
accepted saints, redeemed through the shed blood of Christ. But
today, in this first part of the sentence, we focus primarily
on God's view of His children in Christ. You see, that can't
be separated. And it's a view from all eternity
to all eternity. And so now, as in verses 4 and
5, verse 6 sets forth the blessing of being accepted in the Beloved,
in Christ. And notice it's spoken of in
the past tense. So all that is said of His choosing,
His predestinating, and accepting is said to be before the foundation
of the world." Think on that now. That's before sin had entered
by the fall of Adam. So even before the events that
would make the work of Christ, redemption, needful, had taken
place. And that boggles my mind, but
it's a glorious truth. We as creatures of time and with
the recorded history of the Bible, we know that we were made sinners
in Adam and We should know that if we suffer the consequences
of his fall, including our own physical death. Death passed
upon all men. And it proves to us our representation
in Adam as the federal head of all humanity. And so we should
know, we have every reason to know, though we might not know
so by nature. We definitely don't know so by
nature. We need a Savior. We need a Redeemer. And we need one, you see, who
could satisfy God's justice for this blessed group of otherwise
ungodly sinners. God justifies the ungodly. We need one who can present us
before Him holy and without blame. And from eternity past, God had
already accepted them in the beloved Savior, that one who
had covenanted with God the Father to be my surety, to pay the debt
I could not pay due unto my sins, you see, and to be my substitute.
Why? Because I was chosen, predestinated,
and accepted in Him who alone could and did save me by His
doing and dying on the cross. You see, the whole issue of salvation
that marks those who believe in some system of works, whether
cleverly disguised and called grace or not, and the true religion
of grace, has to do with the view, with our thinking. Is it man up toward God or is
it God down? The world has it that the whole
issue is, what are you going to do with Jesus? Will you accept
Him as your Savior? That's not the issue. The issue
is, how can a holy God accept me, a sinner? You see, He can't,
unless they're chosen and accepted in Christ from all eternity to
ensure that He did for them what they needed. And all that He
did, that's who He did it for. For these His sheep, these chosen,
predestinated, accepted saints. And apart from having His righteousness,
the merits of His redemptive work made mine by God's gracious
imputation or reckoning or accounting of it to me. You see, my sins
would bar me from His presence. God cannot commune with sin.
He's a holy God. He chose me and He predestinated
me, a sinner. to be holy and without blame. How can that be? By accepting
me in His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. The one who
in the fullness of time, the scripture says, was sent forth
by the Father made of a woman, made under the law, put under
the same jurisdiction we were under, to obey God's revealed
will, to redeem them that were under the law. In other words,
to do for these objects of His mercy and grace what they could
not do for themselves, they were helpless to do for themselves,
by His perfect obedience unto death as their surety, the one
who said, I'll pay that price, and whose infinite blood alone
was valuable enough to truly pay the debt owed before a holy
God. He redeemed them. Well, you know,
some by our nature would reasonably ask this. They'd say, what makes
you or others think you're so special that God would choose
you and not choose someone else? And there's really only one answer
to that. God does. You see, and let me clarify that.
These verses make this clear. That the original and eternal
choice of each and every person that God will save in Christ
is solely from Himself. And it's according to the good
pleasure of His will. It's not based, then, on any
good or distinguishing thing that He foresaw in them. For
the Scripture is clear. There's none righteous, no, not
one by nature, you see. Their distinction is solely owing
to God's mercy and grace. God having put them in Christ,
that they should be holy and without blame, being accepted
on the basis of His finished work, His perfect righteousness. Now, I'll tell you what that
does to a sinner. When God applies this to your
mind, it turns you into a mercy beggar. Until then, you don't
really need mercy. You may say, oh, you may thank
God for being a merciful God, but if in fact all you have to
do is cut your end of the bargain when you're ready, You receive
Christ, walk an aisle, pray a prayer just in the quietness of your
heart, whatever. Whatever a particular denomination
may prescribe that you need to do. You don't need mercy. All
you got to do is just cut the deal and you get ready. That's
not God's way of grace and mercy, you see. When he brings one to
this, here's the good news. We read earlier how His Spirit
beareth witness with our spirit that we're the children of God.
If He brings you to point that that's what you must have, nothing
else will do for you. You see, God's got to be just
when He justifies the ungodly, and nothing else will count for
you. Guess what? That's the work of God, the Spirit, in revealing
the mystery of the Gospels to them. And that's cause for rejoicing,
for there's no salvation in any other. Salvation is of the Lord,
as Jonah said. Well, secondly, these verses
also make it clear that all that God had determined from eternity
that would take place, including the fall of His elect in Adam,
it could not counteract these eternal, everlasting blessings
in Christ. And lastly, these verses make
it clear that the full acceptation of these saints in Christ is
to the praise of the glory of His grace. All of these glorious
gifts of our great God, you see, are the result of His own free
and sovereign grace. Why? That He might receive all
glory and praise. Well, does this describe the
origins of your salvation? Well, it does for these saints
to whom Paul writes in Ephesians 1. What a blessing to be eternally
blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ. If you men would come
forward, as you can see, we're going to observe the Lord's table
today. And we invite all who find their hope in the gospel
of God's graces we've set forth today to partake of this and
join us as we do this in remembrance of our Lord and Savior.