Good morning. I invite your attention
to Ephesians chapter 1, the epistle of Paul to the church
in Ephesus, chapter 1. Let me tell you a story. Brother Chris read this morning from the Sermon on the Mount
on not announcing that you're going
to do something good. Do not your alms before men to
be seen by them. You know, some folks blow a trumpet
every time they get ready to do something good so that you
can see them do it. But good deeds are best done
in private. Nobody knows. So a certain pastor was told
that he should go to a clothing store because a member of his
church had provided for him a new suit of clothes. A new suit and
the man who made it possible wanted to remain anonymous. Well,
that is so commendable. So the pastor goes to the clothing
store and he's suited up, brand new suit of clothes. He wears
it the next Lord's Day when he goes to preach. And he says from
the pulpit, I'm wearing a new suit. One of you, who is anonymous,
did not wish to be known, one of you provided it and I thank
you so much for it. It was very kind of you to do
it. And even though I do not know
who did it, whoever did it, I thank you for it. So after the service,
folks are coming by to shake the preacher's hand, and a man
walked up to him and said, Pastor, every time you wear that suit,
think about me. His daughter said, I'm going
to blow my trumpet now. But it is true. Our good deeds,
we do not publicize them. Let me say something else in
reference to this was made in what Brother Chris read from
the Sermon on the Mount. There are some people who say
that there is no gospel in the Sermon on the Mount. No gospel
in it. It's just teaching, good moral
teaching. I believe I heard this morning,
seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Now, what is His righteousness?
Pardon me. Whom is His righteousness? Is that not the gospel? To seek
Christ and to say my only righteousness is in Him? Yes, that sermon on the mount,
it's got the gospel very plainly and very clearly. And we should
know that because Jesus Christ was a gospel preacher and preached
the gospel every time he preached. But yes, that's the gospel. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness. Now to my text, Ephesians chapter
1. Saul, earlier known as Saul of
Tarsus, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. God made
him an apostle. To the saints or holy ones which
are at Ephesus in Asia Minor, and to the faithful in Christ
Jesus, and we meet here may conclude this is an epistle to a church,
so this is also to the saints which are at great falls and
to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace, God's unmerited favor
be to you in peace. Where grace comes, peace follows. And this grace and peace is from
God, our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. They both
together give this grace and peace. Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
the spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Consider heavenly
places. You just sang that a moment ago.
in the hymn, two hymns before I got into the pulpit. Some thank
the Lord for flowers or this or that or the other. For what
do I thank Him? He saved my soul. He saved my
soul. Some sing, count your blessings,
name them one by one. You can tell a lot about a person
by the blessings they count. What blessings do you count?
I was chosen in Him, predestined to sonship. He saved my soul. Spiritual blessings, when you
count your blessings, they're the blessings we have through
Jesus Christ from God. And we have all of them in heavenly
places in Christ. They come down from God in heaven. down to people with heavenly
citizenship here on this earth, according as He hath chosen us. We did not choose Him, He chose
us. When? Before the found days in the
world. Why? That we should be holy and
without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted, or highly favored,
the Greek word would be, in the Beloved, who is Jesus Christ.
In whom, the Beloved, we have redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, Because
God is not a pauper when it comes to grace. He's full of it. Wherein
he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having
made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his
good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation
of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things
in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth,
even in him, in whom in Christ also we have obtained an inheritance,
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should
be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ,
that would be the Jews, they were the first to trust in Him.
In whom ye also, ye Gentiles, ye also trusted like we did.
After that ye heard the word of truth, what is the word of
truth? The gospel of your salvation.
In whom, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy
Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of
his glory. My text is verse 3. Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ.
We're looking at the subject of spiritual blessings in Christ. These are spiritual blessings.
They're for spiritual people. And they come through the Holy
Spirit. Everything about our faith is
spiritual. We're not given to physical exercises,
physical this or physical that. We are not known for the way
we dress. We're not known for the way we
do this or do that. We're known for spiritual things. Our blessings are spiritual and
we offer spiritual praise in return for them. We thus far
have considered the first two blessings, election and predestination. He chose us, God the Father chose
us, who are the us, the saints and faithful in Christ Jesus
before the foundation of the world. He chose us to be holy. Without blame, he chose us to
salvation. We considered also last week
that he predestined us to be his adopted children, and he
predestined us to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. We are, as it were, like a statue,
and God is bit by bit like the master sculptor, knocking off
a chip here, knocking off a chip there, and bit by bit conforming
us unto the image of his Son, Jesus Christ. Today, We come
to the third blessing and that is redemption in Christ in verse
number 7. In Him we have redemption through
His blood. Now what is redemption? Redemption
is the release from bondage or captivity through the payment
of a ransom. There are various ways of setting
people free. Abraham Lincoln is known as the
great emancipator because he liberated the slaves in the United
States of America. He did it without a redemption. He did it with a declaration. an Emancipation Declaration. He declared them to be free.
He had the executive order to do so. But God could not make
us free by a mere Emancipation Declaration because there was
a penalty that had to be paid. We have redemption through His
blood. Redemption is, as I repeat, the
release from bondage through the payment of a ransom. There is no redemption until
the ransom is paid. To what are we in bondage? This
is our natural bondage. This is the natural bondage of
every man by nature, every son and daughter of Adam. By nature,
we all are in bondage to sin first and to Satan. We are in bondage to sin because
Jesus tells us in John 8, 34, whoever commits sin is a slave
of sin. Now he does not say whoever commits
a sin is a slave of sin. There are people here today in
this room, in this auditorium, who have committed a sin, but
they're not slaves to them. Jesus is here talking about those
whose lives habitually sin. He who habitually sins does so
because He is a slave to it. He is addicted to sin. He cannot
do otherwise. Whoever commits sin habitually,
compulsively, he's a slave to it. He's doing what his master
sin tells him to do. The second bondage is to Satan. We are by nature, by virtue of
our fall in Adam, in the snare of the devil, having been taken
captive by him to do his will. When our father, Adam, the father
of our race, partook of that forbidden fruit, he walked right
into the prison. We are captives of Satan in the
snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his
will. Jesus, therefore, tells those
who are slaves of Satan, you are of your father, the devil,
and the deeds of your father you are allowed to do. Why do people love wickedness?
They love it. Satan says, do it, and they say,
yes, sir. Sin says, do it! And they say,
yes sir. You see our bondage? We all are
in captivity by nature. We all are in bondage by nature,
both to sin and to Satan. And there's nothing we can do
to get ourselves out of the bondage. A ransom must be paid. And none of us has it. None of
us has it. No man can give a ransom for
himself. No man can give a ransom for
anyone else. We cannot purchase our freedom. In the first place, we do not
want it. We love our masters. We love
to serve our master by nature. We, in order to be saved, must
be redeemed. Someone must take us out of the
snare of the devil. Someone must remove the yoke
of bondage from our shoulder. Who's going
to do it? In Him, we have redemption through
His blood. Only in Christ do we have this
redemption. This is through His blood. his
shed blood on Calvary. In doing so, he paid the ransom. He himself declared, I did not
come to be served, I came to serve and to give my life a ransom
for many. A ransom for many. Let me Let me show you something this
morning. Here he said, Jesus said, a ransom for many. This word ransom is found one
other time in the New Testament. I want you to locate it, 1 Timothy
chapter 2. Locate it, 1 Timothy chapter
2. Now, did not Jesus say, He came
to give Himself a ransom for many. He said many, did He not? What is many? More than a few
and less than all. He came to give His life a ransom
for many. Now look in I Timothy chapter
2, verse 6. He gave Himself a ransom for
all to be testified in due time. Aha, Moose, gotcha now! He gave himself a ransom for
all, all without exception. No, all without distinction. Jew, Gentile, Occidental, Oriental,
Northerner? Southerner? No, Moose! All means
all! All with that exception? Yes! Go to verse 1. I exhort, therefore, that first
of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of
thanks be made for all men. God requires you to pray for
all men without exception. Of course not. But they who say
He came to give His life a ransom for all, all without exception,
if they're going to be consistent, they must pray for all men without
exception. And they do not even know all
men without exception. And if they pray for all men
with that exception, their prayer never ends. Read the next verse. Pray for kings and for all that
are in authority. Pray for all that are in authority. With that exception? Of course
not. Of course not. Look in verse
4. God will have all men to be saved
and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Is God endeavoring
to save all with that exception? No. No. Therefore, when we read
that He gave Himself a ransom for all, the all is the many
of whom Jesus spoke in the Gospels. This is all without distinction. It matters not whether you be
Jew or Gentile, African or European, Occidental or Oriental, Rich
or poor, uneducated or unlettered, or highly educated, it matters
not. He came to give himself a ransom
for all without distinction. Now back to our text in Ephesians
chapter 1. We therefore have redemption
because the ransom has been paid. I had never noticed it before,
but in the providence of God, we sang that song, Thank You
Lord for Saving My Soul. It goes right with the message.
We sang another one. Go to your hymnal, number 488. I had never noticed this before. The songwriter, P.P. Bliss, he understood it. He got it on this. Now watch this. I will sing of
my Redeemer and His wondrous love to me. On the cruel cross
He suffered from the curse to set me free. There is your redemption. There, liberated. How was it
done? Through the payment of a ransom.
Well, read the second verse, I will tell the wondrous story
how my lost estate to save in his boundless love and mercy
he the ransom freely gave. He got it! He got it! He paid the ransom
and when the ransom was paid redemption was wrought. It is
no wonder that We say, I will sing of my Redeemer and His wondrous
love to me and how He set me free. Jesus Christ, in dying
on Calvary, shed His blood and with His shed blood, that was
the price of the redemption. He brings it to the Father. He
presents the blood to His Father. When He does, The Father says
they are redeemed. They are redeemed. I'll bring one other point to
you in this regard. No, we're not going to finish
this message today, but as you know, my trip was canceled, so
I've got another couple of weeks. In Him, we have redemption. Is that what it says? In Him,
in Christ? We have redemption. How long have we been in Christ? Before the foundation of the
world, God chose us in Christ. Have we had redemption in Christ
from before the foundation of the world? In God's decree, yes, we have.
Ah, but preacher, Jesus did not shed his blood
until Calvary, at least 4,000 years after the creation. Well, that's true to a point You were not redeemed with corruptible
things like silver and gold, but with the precious blood of
Jesus Christ who barely was foreordained before the foundation of the
world. And what happened before the
foundation of the world? Have you read in the scriptures
that He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world?
In God's decree, before time began, there's a Lamb who slain, before
the foundation of the world, and in Him we have redemption. Through His blood, therefore,
we are no longer slaves of sin. Jesus says, Most assuredly, I
say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave to sin. Therefore,
if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed." Well,
that's what we are, are we not? Has He not made us free? Has
His blood not paid the ransom? Has the ransom being paid not
resulted in our redemption? He made us free. He made us free. When we read Jesus saying, you
shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free, He
is the truth. And when you know the truth about
Him, you know this glorious truth of His redeeming grace. We are
no longer captives of Satan. For God has delivered us from
the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear
Son. in whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of our sins. No longer slaves of sin. No longer slaves of Satan. Glorious freedom. No longer in
chains of sin, I repent. Jesus, the glorious Emancipator,
now and forever He shall be mine. He redeemed us. We're free. We are emancipated, not by a
mere declaration. We are redeemed through His blood,
and He paid the ransom for our redemption. The ransom has been
paid. The slaves have been liberated.
And therefore let the redeemed of Jehovah say so, whom he has
redeemed from the hand of the enemy. And let us join that heavenly
host in singing to him, you are worthy for you were slain and
have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and
tongue and people and nation. Can you imagine what it's going
to be like? to stand in heaven's glory and
look around at what a multitude of people there are from all
different places, all different hues of skin color. They all speak different languages
here on earth. But when they open their tongues
to sing to Jesus in heaven's glory, they're all united in
one language, whatever it is, and all their praise is to Him. You are worthy. You are worthy. No one in heaven sings of his
own worthiness. Yeah, the people here on earth
may do so. Nobody does there. You are worthy. Then, the fourth blessing. Forgiveness
of sins. Verse 7. In Him we have the forgiveness
of sins. Now watch carefully. Paul has
connected redemption through Christ's blood and the forgiveness
of our sins. They are vitally connected. They have to be. They must be. What good is it to be redeemed from your sins if the penalty for your past
sins is not paid? Yes, you're liberated from sin. You no longer have to serve it.
But somebody's got to pay for all those sins you did back yonder
in the past before you were liberated. And therefore, there is a double
blessing through this blood of Jesus Christ. He blesses us with a redemption
from bondage so that we live free in the future He blesses
us with forgiveness of sins in the past so that they never come
back to haunt us. Forgiven. Forgiven. And once forgiven, you never
need to seek forgiveness of those sins again. When God forgives your sins,
He forgets them. He casts them behind His back.
The scriptures use so many metaphors to describe it. He sews them
into a bag and shuts it up. He casts them into the bottom
part of the sea. He says, they shall be salt and
no one will find them. Not even God will find them because
he will never look for them. And he will never find that which
he never seeks. He says the search shall be made
and the sins of my people will never be found. I forgave them. I have forgotten their sins.
Which also brings us to another point. I have heard of people who could never forget some sin they
did in the past, and they lament it. And yes,
there are some lamentable things that we all wish we'd never done.
But you need never go back to God seeking forgiveness for it,
because when you do, He just might say, I don't remember that. Well, Lord, I remember it. Well,
then maybe you should stop remembering. If God forgot it, let us forget
it. All the sins of our past we are
forgiven. Okay, we come now to the fifth
blessing, knowledge of God's will. God made His grace, verse
8, He hath abounded toward us in his grace, in all wisdom and
prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according
to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself, that
in the dispensation of the fullness of the times he might gather
together all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and
which are on earth, even in him." Now consider this lesson for
a moment, the knowledge of God's will. Do you see that word mystery? Verse 9, He made known unto us
the mystery of His will. Now what is a biblical mystery? It is not an earthly mystery. It is not like a whodunit. Neither is this mystery some knowledge which is deep
and dark and therefore above our comprehension and understanding. Mystery. I have heard preachers say We
should not preach election and predestination because they are
mysterious doctrines, deep and dark. When you hear a preacher say
something like that, what he's simply saying is this, I was
never given a lot concerning those things and I do not understand
them, I can't see them. You cannot preach what you cannot
see. Why, my friends, I tell you,
I've seen even some of the babes in Christ that understood elect
and predestination. There's nothing mysterious about
it. It's as plain as it can be if you read what the Scripture
says. When the Scripture speaks of a mystery, it is not something
that is deep and dark, impossible to understand. Rather, this word
mystery means Truth, formerly concealed, but now revealed. Six words. A mystery is truth,
formerly concealed, but now revealed. Now, there are many mysteries
in the Scriptures. A mystery is something that a
man by nature cannot understand. He must be given light and revelation
concerning it. But once it is revealed to him,
he says, it makes perfect sense. It makes perfect sense. Truth, formerly concealed, now
revealed. And it is not given to everybody
to understand. In the gospel of Matthew chapter
13, we read a parable about this and about that and about the
other. Jesus calls them mysteries of
the kingdom of heaven. And he told these mysteries in
parables. A man went forth to sow and he
told that parable. And everybody says, What did
he mean? Went right over my head. And
even his disciples said, you know, Lord, what do you mean
by this? And so Jesus told them exactly
what the parable talked about. The man who went to sow, he identified
him. He identified the seed. He identified
the field. He identified the various places
where it stood. And then he says, I speak to
them in parables so that they cannot understand. They're not
supposed to understand. But I'm going to explain to you
so that you can understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.
Once these truths are explained, we look at them and we say, you
know what, it makes perfect sense. no longer mysterious to use the
worldly definition of the term, this truth, formerly concealed
but now revealed. Here we look at the mystery of
God's will, the mystery of God's will. Well, it's far beyond your comprehension. We could put all our minds together
and never understand the simplest thought in God's will. Oh, the depth of the riches both
of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
His judgments and His ways past finding out who has known the
mind of the Lord or who has been His counselor. It is impossible
for you to know God's will, impossible, unless He reveals it to you. God reveals His will according
to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself. Verse 9,
His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that is, the revelation
of God's will is of His free and sovereign grace. The revelation
of God's will is of His grace, and God gives to us wisdom and
prudence regarding His will. Notice, He made to abound to
us, verse 8, in all wisdom and prudence. God made known to us
the mystery of His will and gave to us wisdom and prudence concerning
it. What does this wisdom do? This
wisdom helps us to understand it. What does this prudence do? It helps you to act accordingly. What good is it to know what
God's will is unless you act rightly concerning it? He abounded
unto us in all wisdom and prudence concerning His will. God's will in this instance regards
what will happen in the dispensation of the fullness of the times.
That's the term that is here used. In the dispensation of
the fullness of the times, God will, at the appropriate time,
do something. And what will God do at the appropriate
time? In the fullness of the times.
What is the fullness of the times? It is the appropriate time. In
Galatians 4 we read that in the fullness of time God sent forth
his son born of a woman. What was the fullness of time?
The predestined moment. At the very moment when Jesus
was to be born. He's born. He's born. And he will come back in the
fullness of times. And at that time, something will
happen in the fullness of times. What will it be? God will gather
together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven
and which are on earth in him. Did you notice that Paul repeated
that phrase, in him, twice in one verse? as though he's wanting
to say, I don't want you to miss this folks, Paul is saying, it's
in Christ, it's in Christ. God will gather together in one
all things in Christ. What are all things in heaven?
The holy angels, the departed souls who have gone
to glory, They're in heaven. And they're separated from us
right now. They will remain separated from
us until we are gathered together into one. Who are these on earth? That's the saints here on earth.
We who are walking on this earth right now, we're separated from
them. I have a son up there, I have
a father up there, and a mother up there. And some of you have
loved ones up there. We're separated from them. He shall gather together those
in heaven and those on earth. Notice the scripture does not
say He will gather together those under the earth. I'm coming back
to that. Something else is included in
this. Nature itself. is going to be
included in this. Paul speaks in another place. He says the creation groans because
of sin. It groans with the voice that
we cannot hear but God can hear. The creation groans because of
sin. All the sin and wickedness that
is done on this earth and the earth groans because of it. But we read of nature, the inanimate
and inanimate irrational creation, that because the creation itself
also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the
glorious liberty of the children of God, Romans 8.21. There is
going to be a new heaven and a new earth because the old heaven
and the old earth have passed away and there's going to be
a union. A union here of those in heaven
and of those in earth and of nature itself. And nature will
rejoice and no longer groan. Now as I said, there is nothing
here said of those under the earth. They are not included. We here read that all things in Christ will
be gathered together except for the wicked. Satan will not be
included. His demons will not be included. And the wicked who die in unbelief
will not be included. That's why they're told at the
final day, to the place prepared for the
devil and his angels. God prepared hell for the devil
and his angels and then sends to that dreadful
place all who will follow him. But what a gathering there's
going to be at that final day Think about it, folks. He shall
gather together in one all things in Christ. Everyone who is ever
in Christ will be together. I'm going to see my son. I'm
going to see my father. I'm going to see my mother. I'm
going to see so many other loved ones and the same will be true
for so many of you. Think about it, folks. We're
going to be united together one of these days. Now, if you will,
this verse 10 appears to be the central theme of this entire
epistle to the Ephesians. The final union in Christ. Paul
has begun speaking about union in Christ and he says, I want
you to know that one of these days, and the theme of this book
is this, God will unite everything. in Christ, all his people will
be together. When we take our seats on the thrones in heaven, there
will not be a single empty seat there. Not a single empty seat. And everyone there will have
a seat, but there will be no empty ones. God is going to gather
together all things in Christ. I rejoice in that. I pray that God will give me the wisdom to understand
this mystery. And I pray that He will give
to me the prudence to act accordingly concerning it. And I pray the
same for you. I hope that in that day I'm going to look around and
see every one of you. There have been some members
of this congregation that have already gone to glory. We're going to see them. We're
going to see them. Some of you may go to glory before
I do, or I may go to glory before you do, but think about it, in
that final day, in that final day, God's going to gather together
all things in Christ. Is there a greater blessing than
that? And I pray that when it occurs, you are one of the ones gathered.
And the only way to know that you will be gathered in that
day is to believe this gospel of Jesus Christ that I preach
to you now. Oh God our Father, bless we pray this message to the glory of
your Son, to the salvation of your people, to the edification
of your Zion. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.