Ephesians chapter one, and I've
given my thoughts this evening a title, and it's this. The gospel, a simple overview. a simple overview of the gospel. And I just want to read a few
verses from the beginning of Ephesians in chapter one, and
then we're going to just think for a little while together about
some of the things that the apostle has to say to us here. So Ephesians
chapter one, and reading from verse one. 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 to 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. 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 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 in the beloved, in
whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of his grace. 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 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, in whom ye also trusted. After that ye heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after
that ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,
which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession unto the praise of his glory. Amen. May God bless
to us this reading from his word. I wonder if you ever find yourself
reading your Bible and thinking to yourself, I don't understand
what I'm reading here. I'm not seeing what the message
is in this passage. I can't get my head around what
the purpose, what the import of these verses is. And maybe
you find it confusing. Maybe you find the scriptures
confusing. I was speaking to a young man
quite recently, and he said, oh, what are you preaching on
on Sunday? And I said, I'm going to be preaching
from Romans. Oh, he said, that's a hard book. I struggle to understand the
book of Romans. And I guess that's true for a
lot of people. This Bible of ours. It can seem intimidating. It can seem like a challenge
when we come to begin reading it. And it's not because we're
poor readers. It's not because we're poorly
educated. Sometimes it takes us to practice
in order to perfect our abilities in any subject. And surely this
book The Holy Bible, the Scriptures are worth reading and learning
about. but sometimes we find them hard
to understand. Sometimes we think to ourselves,
wouldn't it just be great if we could see the big picture?
Wouldn't it just be lovely if we could grasp the whole message,
as it were, in some sort of summarized form, in some sort of easily
understood, bite-sized portion? just to get a handle on the message,
just to get a grip on what it's all about. Well, you know, I think that
I won't be too wrong in suggesting that the Apostle Paul understood
that predicament. I think the Apostle Paul was
an extremely intelligent man. I think he was an extremely educated
man. In fact, I think, probably, he
was one of the most accomplished theologians that ever there was. He had a grasp of all the Jewish
teachings. He was of the first order of
the Pharisees of the Jews. And that people had a more complete
religion than any other nation in the world. And when the Apostle
Paul was taken by the Lord Jesus Christ and shown the true meaning
of all of that learning that he had assimilated from the Old
Testament scriptures, from Moses and from the poetic books and
from the prophets, and showed him how it all was pointing to
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul was really enthusiastic
about the message that he had to take to the nations, the message
that he had been given by the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're
told that the Apostle was instructed by the Lord to carry this message
to the nations, to the Gentile nations. And I think he knew
that when he was bringing this message of the gospel, when he
was bringing the message of the Lord Jesus Christ, his crucifixion,
his resurrection, his ascension back into heaven as the representative
of his people, I think he knew that that message was such a
powerful message, such a transforming message. that he had to get it
distributed, he had to get it conveyed, he had to communicate
it to the best of his ability. And when we read his letters,
I think there are 13 of them in the New Testament, when we
read his letters, invariably we find that that urgency is
conveyed in the very earliest verses. We have them in verses
now. They were not in verses when
the apostle wrote them. He didn't write chapter in verses.
He just started writing. But what we discover is that
when we look at his letters, his epistles as we call them,
almost immediately he gets right to the heart of the message of
the gospel with an urgency. Let me give you an example. the book of Romans that I made
mention of. In the 16th verse of the first
chapter, so it's right at the beginning of the book, he says,
the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Now that's a
statement that he makes. And in a sense, we've become
familiar with these words. We've become, in a sense, familiar
with that as a phrase. But what he's saying is that
this message, this message that he's preaching, this message
that he's going to set out in the book of Romans, that message
is the power of God unto salvation. If you want to be saved, then
the way to be saved, if you want to know God, then the way to
know God, if you want to go to heaven, if you want your sins
forgiven, if you want to have that righteousness, that holiness,
that perfection in your life, which is needful to stand before
a holy God, then the empowering message is this gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ which I'm about to give to you. And right at
the very start of Romans he says the gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. So that's what he wrote to Rome.
When he wrote to Corinth He said something very similar. Right
at the very start, he got to verse 18 this time. And in 1
Corinthians 1, verse 18, this is what he says. The preaching
of the cross is the power of God. So first of all, he tells
us in writing to the Romans that the gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. And then he tells us that the
preaching of the cross is the power of God. So the gospel is
the preaching of the cross. Now we all know what the preaching
of the cross is about. It's about the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ when he died on the cross. That's the gospel. And when I say that I'm giving
this message, the title, The Gospel, a Simple Overview, all
I need to do is take you to the cross. The preaching of the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ is the gospel which is the power of
God unto salvation. If we want to know God, if we
would have peace with God, then we find it in the preaching of
the cross. I wonder what he wrote to the churches
in Galatia. Galatia is our modern day Turkey. I noticed that Turkey is in the news again,
Turkey and Syria is in the news headlines again tonight and there's
trouble over there, there's been fighting over there for many,
many years and still it continues and it's a thorny problem. But this is Galatia, these were
the people who were receiving the message that the Apostle
Paul was writing. Galatians chapter one, verse
three, says this. Our Lord Jesus Christ gave himself
for our sins. What did he say? He said the
preaching of the cross is the gospel. The preaching of the
cross is the power of God. And here he's telling us what
happened. on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for
our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world
according to the will of God and our Father. I just love the
way the Apostle Paul went straight to the heart of the matter. He
went straight to the gospel, the power base, the place where
the message was to be found, the preaching of the cross as
the means of the forgiveness of our sins. To the Thessalonians,
he wrote in 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 4, knowing brethren beloved,
your election of God, for our gospel came not unto you in word
only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost. And I want to
pause there for a moment and just think about something with
you. Because I asked the question right at the very beginning,
do you ever feel that you read these words and they're lifeless,
or you read these words and they're confusing, or you read them and
they just don't seem to hang together, they just don't do
anything for you. Well, here the apostle is showing
us something as well. He is showing that the gospel,
as the power of God, comes not in word only, but also with the
power of the Holy Spirit. And there is the need, there
is the need for this edition of an illumination if we are
going to truly understand the scriptures. And so here's something
that I would recommend to you. If ever you do sit down and you
open your Bible, and I encourage you to do it, I encourage you
to read your Bible, but first of all, before you start reading,
just put up a prayer. Just say simply, say speedily,
Lord, send your Holy Spirit. to illuminate my understanding,
to open my eyes, to let me see the message that is contained
in here, that it might do my soul good, that it might feed
me, that it might nourish me, that it might refresh me, that
it might show me something of the Lord Jesus Christ who I need. to give me that sense of peace,
that awareness of my sins forgiven, and the good of my soul as I
stand before the holy God. Now I'm not suggesting in any
way that we are to ignore parts of the Bible and that some parts
are more important than others because the Word of God clearly
says that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and it
is all given for our admonition, for our correction, for our healing. help, for our education, for
our understanding, that we might grow in a knowledge of the truth.
And these things are granted to us, given to us, in order
that we might learn. But I do want us to realise that
especially in Paul's epistles, Paul's letters, especially in
the gospel, in the New Testament scriptures, we are taken almost
immediately to the heart of the matter, to the key questions
to the principal message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the preaching
of the cross. And the Apostle Paul realized
that. So when he's writing these letters
to the churches in these various towns and cities around the Near
East and the Middle East, as he's doing that, as he's sending
this message out, he is sending a message to bring that knowledge
to the people to whom he is writing. And there's an urgency in his
words. He wants to communicate with
his readers, to lead them, to instruct them, to direct them,
and to bless their hearts with the message that he has. I don't
for a moment imagine that the Apostle Paul knew that he was
writing scripture. Have you ever thought about that? Did the Apostle Paul know that
he was writing the Bible when he sat down to write it? I don't
think so. He was working with the 39 books
of the Old Testament. He was basing his message, his
letters, on the teaching of the Old Testament Scriptures and
what he had learned from the Lord Jesus Christ. It was men
of subsequent ages that brought these letters together and said,
no, this is the apostolic testimony. This is the message of the apostles.
We've got to value, we've got to keep these. We have got to
learn from these things. But I don't think when the apostle
Paul took out his pen or got someone to write on his behalf
that he knew he was writing scripture. This was a busy man writing to
his friends in the churches that he hoped to visit. And yet he
knew that he couldn't get there as fast as a letter could because
he had other things that he was doing. And I think that here
in the Ephesians, the letter to the Ephesians, we see this
same principle at play. Here we have the apostle giving
the basics of the gospel, the basics of the message of the
cross, the preaching of the cross, the gospel of power. And in a
few amazing sentences at the beginning of this book, the Apostle
Paul touches on all the principal parts of the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I think it is just a wonderful
summary of the grace of God of the glory that is set before
the church and the people of God, and an overview of the truth
of the gospel. It's a simple statement, it's
beautiful, it's clear, it's glorious, and it's profound. And ought
we to be surprised if coming to the profound deep, significant
message of God's purpose and plan for his church and people,
that we don't find it amazing, that we don't find it wonderful. We ought to come to the scriptures
with a sense of awe. And if we read it and don't immediately
understand it, whose fault is that? The scriptures or ours? and we need to take time and
we need to recognise that this is a true gem that we have in
our hands. This is a wonderful message and
it is good for us just to take time to think about what it says
and to examine it in the light of God's Spirit's direction. I want you to notice something
in the opening couple of verses of this passage, which I think
is interesting. Some people will tell us that
the preaching of the gospel is to be made to sinners, and that's
the statement that's made. This message is for sinners.
The gospel is for sinners. I remember years ago, standing
up and preaching, I don't know whether I preached well or I
didn't preach well or whatever, or whether I got through the
material or I didn't, whether I communicated or whether I was
too complex or whatever. But at the end of the service,
a man said to me, he said, that was a good message, he said,
but do you not think that you should have preached the gospel
at the end? And I thought, John, that was his name, that's what
I was trying to do from the beginning. You see, some people have got
this idea that preaching the gospel is making an offer to
sinners, that if they'll just believe on the cross, or believe
in Jesus, or believe that Jesus died for them, or believe in
the blood, that in some way that's the gospel. And the rest of all
this is just kind of like furniture in the room. that the gospel
really is the main ornament in the mantelpiece. But that's not
true. The whole of the message of the
scriptures is the gospel because it all builds up to this one
glorious truth of the fact that the God-man died on the cross. And that's for us all, not just
for a certain section of a particular congregation or a particular
church. Some people think that the mission
of the church is to get converts, that the purpose of the church
is to add numbers, that a church is winning, a church is succeeding,
a church is being prosperous if its numbers are constantly
going up and up and up. Paul's letter wasn't even directed
to such people. Look what he says. Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, an apostle is just a messenger, a servant of
Jesus Christ, a messenger of Jesus Christ, to carry the message
of the cross to men and women. He says, 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. The Apostle Paul wrote the gospel
to saints. And I'm not going to ask for
a show of hands, but how many people are saints here in the
room tonight? Are you a saint? We have this little saying, saints
and sinners, and the idea is that some people are good and
some people are bad, the saints and the sinners. And maybe we
think there's a little bit of a saint and a little bit of a
sinner in us all. But Paul was writing to the saints.
Now, these weren't special people. These were the people whom God
had spoken to. These aren't particularly holy
people or righteous people as far as their good works are concerned
or their deeds or their way of speaking or their way of acting.
That's not at all what this word means. This word means that they
are the people that the Holy Spirit has set aside, set apart. in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
These were believers. These were men and women of faith.
And that's what he goes on to say, who are the faithful in
Christ Jesus. And I'm sure that if you're honest,
even as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you would think
to yourself, and I wish I was more faithful. But you see, this
is the people to whom this letter was written. He was writing the
gospel to saints and faithful people. And that's something
that is worth remembering, because the gospel is for us all. The gospel is for you and me.
And even if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you
know what? You want to hear the gospel. You want to have your
soul fed with the preaching of the cross of Jesus Christ. You
want to be taken back to Calvary. Taken back to the blood. Taken back to the sacrifice of
Jesus because you know that that's where it's all begun. That's
where the important work was done. That's where your hope
lies. And that's where your confidence
is to be found. So the apostle is writing to
the saints and to the faithful in Christ Jesus, those who had
been set apart by the Holy Spirit, those who believed in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And someone might ask, well,
why are you preaching the gospel to saved people? Why would you
preach the gospel to saved people? Shouldn't you be teaching them
other things about holy living or good works or lots of different
things? Talk about prophecy with them.
Talk about the end times. Talk about how they have to live
at peace with their husbands or their wives. There's a good
thing to tell them. How to raise your children properly. Well, let me tell you, this man
here is not qualified to tell you how to raise your children
properly. Nor am I qualified to tell you
how to get on well with your husband or your wife. It's not
my job. I wouldn't want the job if you
offered it to me, because you couldn't pay me enough. My job is to preach the gospel.
And that is the message which saints and the faithful in Christ
Jesus have a passion to hear. And that's the message which
Paul preached. I always think it's interesting
when the Lord Jesus Christ had risen from the dead, he had an
interview with Peter and Peter was One of the disciples, of
course, and he was very anxious about this interview that he
was having, because this was the first time that he had spoken
to the Lord after the Lord's crucifixion. The last time he
saw the Lord, he cursed his name. He swore that he'd never met
him, that he didn't know him, that he wanted nothing to do
with him. And then the Lord was taken out and crucified. And
Peter was left with the knowledge that that was the last thing
that Jesus had heard from his disciple, was him cursing the
fact that he never knew him. Then after the resurrection of
Jesus, he met Peter. And this is what he said to Peter,
Peter, do you love me? Peter says, yes, I love you,
Lord. And the Lord said, feed my sheep. Feed my lambs. Peter, do you love me? Thou knowest
that I love you. Feed my sheep. And that was the
message that was given. In the Old Testament, we see
that same message being given to Isaiah, where Isaiah was told
by the Lord, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. And that's what the gospel does.
It feeds the sheep. Not the goats. Gospel doesn't
feed goats. The gospel doesn't feed the people
who are unfaithful. The gospel hasn't got anything
to say to the people that are not the saints. The gospel is
for the sheep. The gospel is for the lambs.
The gospel is for my people. And they are comforted. They
are fed and they are nourished when they hear the gospel preached,
when they see the Lord Jesus Christ. hanging on the cross
and the blood being shed for the remission of their sins and
for the cleansing and forgiveness of their souls. These are the
people who appreciate the gospel. Christ's redeemed people. That work of redemption is what
Christ fulfilled on the cross. It is a message, a gospel message
of hope, a gospel message of good news, a message to help
the weary. a message to encourage the downcast,
a message to the heavy-laden, that their sin, which weighs
them down and crushes them in their soul, will be lifted from
their shoulders and removed behind God's back and placed in the
sea of His forgetfulness, never to be remembered against them
anymore. That's the gospel, and that's
why the people of God love to hear the gospel, because it thrills
their hearts that Jesus Christ has accomplished everything that
is necessary for their salvation and their deliverance. Have you
ever felt weary before God? Have you ever felt brokenhearted
before God? Have you ever had a sense of
your sin before God? Do you understand what the gospel
does for such an individual as that? Let's look at a couple
of things that the Apostle Paul says here. Look at verse three. He speaks here about spiritual
blessings. He speaks here and he says, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. all spiritual blessings. See
what the Apostle is saying here? He's saying that you've got all
these spiritual blessings. If you are a saint, if you are
one of these faithful, if you are one of these who get comfort
and help from the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, that in itself
testifies to the fact that you are a possessor of all spiritual
blessings. Now, a blessing is a good thing. And we talk, don't we, about
the blessings that we might have in this world. Now, maybe money
is a blessing, maybe it's a curse. Maybe popularity is a blessing,
and maybe it's a curse. Maybe having a big house is a
blessing, until the flood comes. and the foundations shift and
the cracks appear in the wall and then it becomes a liability.
So we're not really talking about material things when we're talking
about blessings. Blessings are less tangible than
that. More to do with having friendship,
more to do with having family, more to do with having love,
more to do with having peace and joy and happiness in your
life. That's a blessing. But you see, the blessings of
this world come and go. And maybe you think it's a blessing
to be married. And then you lose your husband.
And he dies. Or maybe you think it's a blessing
to have a little child. And then that child grows up
and breaks your heart. And maybe you think it's a blessing
to have friends. And then you discover those friends
are talking behind your back and they're laughing at you.
And you're a fool in their eyes. And you see that blessings come
and blessings go. These are the blessings of the
world. But spiritual blessings are different to that. Spiritual
blessings never go away. Spiritual blessings are God's
gift to his people. Spiritual blessings are the blessings
of peace with God, of happiness in the knowledge of sins forgiven,
of the fact that God has brought in the person of Jesus Christ
every sufficiency that we could require. And we are possessors
of them all. Now, we don't see them all. We're
going to mention that at the very end here because we speak
about the Holy Spirit as being the earnest of the blessings
of God, like the first fruits or a down payment, a deposit. But here's the reality. The apostle
says, we who are the Lord's people are possessors of all. That's
comprehensive. all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places. That's our inheritance. That's
what we've got. That should make us happy. That
should give us a sense of wonder that God has got all of these
things in the bank. You know, sometimes we talk about
possessions or possessions and I don't know how much money you've
got and I don't care. I don't even know how much money
I've got. But here's the thing, right? Do you know what I've
got in my pockets? Because my money's in the bank. And I've never seen it. I've
never seen it. But I know it's there because
my bank manager's an honest man. I hope. But I've got a confidence that
it's going to be alright. Even though I've never seen it.
And it gives me a sense of comfort to know that it's safe and it's
there and it's mine if I need to draw upon it. All spiritual
blessings in heavenly places are mine. And that's from a very
dependable person. A very trustworthy person. God
himself has said that that's true. Paul goes on to explain some
of the significance of these spiritual blessings that we have.
He says in verse 4 that we have been chosen in love to be holy. This is telling us what the gospel
is about. That's what we started off by
saying, remember? This is telling us what the gospel
is about, that God has chosen certain individuals in this world.
Now, many people will say, well, we're not going down that road. We're not going along that lane.
No, we're not going to have a message which says that God has chosen
some people and doesn't choose others, that God is in some way
arbitrary. Oh no? Well, you know what? That's what the Bible says. So
pick your religion, my friend, and follow whatever it is that
you want to do. But don't misconstrue the word
of God, because that's what the Bible says. That's the revelation
that God has made. It says, according as he hath
chosen us, verse four, in him, before the foundation of the
world. Paul's writing to men and women
like you and me, and he is saying that these men and women, these
believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, the way that you know that these
people are the chosen of God, the elect of God, is that they
believe, they trust. That is the evidence of their
election. And he's saying that according, we are blessed in
heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world. And that choice of God is for
a reason, for a purpose. He's chosen us in order to be
holy. He's chosen us to make us holy. in his presence, before him,
in love. And that's the purpose of God. The word of God tells us that
God, in sovereign purpose, willed to save certain individuals in
this world. And he sends the gospel out to
where those people are, and he gathers them in by faith, as
they trust in the message of the redemption by blood of sinners
through Jesus Christ on the cross. Chosen in love because God loved
us from before the foundation of the world and he chose us
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Chosen to be holy and righteous. Look at verse 5, he goes on to
say, Now the adoption of children just means that we have been
brought into the family, legally brought into the family of God. He is our Father. Our Father
which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And we are his children,
the children of God. And that picture of adoption
speaks to us of that relationship that has been forged. The Lord
Jesus Christ could say to some people, you are of your father
the devil, and the works of your father you will do. He was a
murderer from the beginning. and you're trying to murder me.
These people evidenced by their works that they were the children
of the devil, but here are the people who are the children of
God, chosen to be so by God himself, chosen to be holy before him
in love. And that's what predestination
has accomplished, that God has said that he is bringing a people
to himself. and he is fixing all the circumstances
and the arrangements that are required to pick them from here
and there according to his sovereign choice and purpose and bring
them together in Christ. Verse six tells us that we are
accepted in Christ. You see, these people that he
chooses from all over the world, from all different nations, all
different languages, all different peoples, these people that he
chooses in his own sovereign grace and purpose, these people
are just the same as everybody else. The Bible says all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's no one
that has any right to God's favour, God's grace, God's blessings
than any other one. But in Christ, we're made acceptable. How is that? Because his blood
has cleansed us from our sin. So we're accepted in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And again, that's what Paul says
here in verse six. Speaking of that, union that
we have with him as we have been placed in Christ, as we have
been elected or predestinated, chosen in the Lord Jesus Christ,
set, apart in him. So that is the ground of our
acceptance with God. God looks upon those individuals
that he has chosen and he doesn't see them in their own strength,
he sees them in the Lord Jesus Christ, accepted in the Beloved. Look at verse seven. Again, we
see this message that the Apostle Paul goes straight to. And he
says, in whom, that is again the Lord Jesus Christ, the beloved
one. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, in whom
we have redemption through his blood. This is the cleansing
blood of Jesus Christ that we're speaking about. Once again, we
are being directed to realize that it's the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ that is the power of God unto salvation. We are
redeemed, that is bought back, bought from under the curse of
the law, bought back from the condemnation of our sin, purchased
by blood because the Lord Jesus Christ took our place, represented
us, substituted himself for us, saved our souls by taking upon
himself our sin in his own soul. We have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of our sins. God has forgiven our sins
because the Lord Jesus Christ has taken them away. We're forgiven. He took the curse according to
the riches of his grace. This was the mercy of God. in
saving certain individuals by laying their guilt upon his own
dear son, his beloved son. Look at verse nine. So verse eight says, wherein
he hath abounded toward us all in all wisdom and prudence. And the wisdom of God, the prudence
of God is revealed to us, having made known unto us the mystery
of his will. That's the gospel. That's the
fact that he has saved a people, that he has called that people,
that he has chosen that people and redeemed them by the blood
of Jesus Christ. That is the gospel according
to his good pleasure which he has purposed in himself. You
can't buy salvation from God. You can't pay him for it. You can't earn it. You can't
win it. It's not a lottery. Who is it
then that's going to be saved? Those whom it is God's good pleasure
to save. That's it. Now, if you don't
think that's fair, take it up with God. Don't take it up with
me. I'm only telling you what the
passage here says. I'm only telling you what the
apostle Paul wrote. If you don't think it's fair
that God should choose one and not another, then take it up
with him. But that's what the message says, that before we
were born, before we'd ever done anything at all, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand. He declared, Jacob
have I loved, and Esau have I hated. It wasn't anything to do with
the works of the individuals. It wasn't anything to do with
their character, their nature, what they would do, what they
would believe or anything. God chose and God's pleasure
is the ground and His will is the ground of His choice. having made known unto us the
mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he
hath purposed in himself. Verse 10. That in the dispensation
of the fullness of times, that simply means when it was appropriate,
when the time was right, he might gather together in one all things
in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth,
even in him. And this is the great plan of
God, that he is bringing together those that he has chosen from
all over the world, joining them together with the heavenly hosts
of angels and setting Christ over all in his kingdom and in
his rule. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
to be considered by us as our buddy, or as our pal, or as our
best mate. That's not how we're to think
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is God.
And the Lord Jesus Christ is king in his kingdom. and it behoves
us to recognise and realise that we will give worship to him and
we will give honour to him and God is calling us out for the
express reason and purpose to honour him. in eternal ages. That's what God's doing. He's
gathering a people that He will join together with His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, to His eternal praise and glory. And that's
what Verse 11 tells us that it is according to his own sovereign
purpose and divine will, in whom 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's not me. and that's not you. We don't
work all things to the counsel of our own will. We can't even
manage the simplest things in life without them all going wrong,
but God is accomplishing his purpose absolutely and perfectly. Verse 12, that we should be to
the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. That was the
Jews. Paul was a Jew. He was speaking
there of the Jews. And he goes on in verse 13, in
whom he also trusted. These were the Gentiles that
lived at Ephesus. And they were predominantly Gentiles. It was these Gentiles to whom
his message was going, that they would be joined together, the
Jews and the Gentiles, all joined together in the Lord Jesus Christ
to the praise of his glory. And look at how that was effected
here. because ye heard the word of truth. Now the word of truth
is the gospel, the word of truth is this mystery that has been
revealed, this purpose of God in the redemption of a people
through the blood of Jesus Christ. When ye heard that word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed,
You believed the message, you heard the message. The purpose
of God and his elective will in choosing a people for himself
was set before you. What did you do with that message?
You said, I can't believe that. Okay, fine, you didn't believe,
so you're not one of these people of whom he's speaking. But some
people do believe. Not because they're any special
kind of people beyond their nature, because by nature, they're sinners
like everyone else. What does he say? In whom also
after that ye believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise. This revelation of the true gospel
of Jesus Christ comes as a gift from God. The Bible says, by
grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God. And so that grace inspires faith
and belief and trust in the Lord. Now, I don't know whether you've
got that faith or not. I don't know whether you believe
this message or not, but this is the message that must be believed.
This is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the way
of salvation, the cross of Christ, the blood of Christ, that which
was accomplished on the cross for the salvation of that chosen
people. You were sealed with the Holy
Spirit of promise. Look at verse 14. I'm gonna wrap
this up now. We've come to the end of our
verses. Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the
redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory. That earnest means a deposit. And what we have in receiving
the Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit comes, opens our understanding,
shows us the efficacy, the effectiveness of the blood of Jesus Christ
to cleanse us from our sins and brings faith into our hearts
and our lives. And we trust in the work of Jesus
Christ to bring peace with God to our hearts and souls. We believe, we trust, and that
Holy Spirit is the first deposit of all the blessings, all these
spiritual blessings in heavenly places that we have. All that God has in store for
us, all that heaven is going to contain, all that those mansions
will be when we get there. I've said, probably said here,
The Lord took six days to create heavens and earth. I've been
seeing some beautiful countryside today. You too, I guess. And we revel at the beauty of
the Alaskan countryside. It took the Lord Jesus Christ
six days to make that and everything else. He's been away for almost
2,000 years making our mansions in heaven. What are they gonna
be like? What are they going to be like?
In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so,
I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you
and then I'm going to come back. Once they're prepared, I'm coming
back and I'll take you to myself. And this is what we have. We
have the Holy Spirit given to us as an earnest, as a down payment,
as a deposit to all of these things which we have in store
in heaven. It's a glorious inheritance. And we will spend eternity as
the chosen people of God, as the redeemed people of God, as
that people whom he is pleased to call his sons and his daughters,
his children by adoption. We will spend eternity in the
presence of our Lord and our God. Heaven is the fullness of
the presence of God. And there resides the joy of
the Lord forevermore. I just want to say one more thing.
I got a little text from a lady in our church the other day. She had been reading a book by
a man called Arthur Pink. Arthur Pink. I don't know how
many years ago, a hundred years ago or something, I don't know.
But he was a writer, he was a preacher and a writer, and she'd been
reading this book, and she'd been taken by a sentence that
she read there, and it's this sentence. A saving and spiritual
knowledge of God is the greatest need of every human being. A saving and spiritual knowledge
of God is the greatest need of every human being. I will not
get the opportunity of speaking to every human being. But I have had the opportunity
to speak to you tonight. And I just want to ask you, if
you have that saving and spiritual knowledge of God, which is your
greatest need. This is the gospel. This is the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the message of power.
This is the message of the Lord Jesus Christ. dying on the cross
to save sinners like you and me, the shedding of his blood
for the cleansing of our sins. That message is the knowledge
of God. It's a saving message. It is
a spiritual knowledge which we must possess. You can know as
much as you like about this book. This Bible is full of facts,
full of facts. Anybody know the 12 tribes of
Israel? Could you name them? Anybody
recite for me all the books of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation? Anyone tell me how many Beatitudes
there are and what they mean? Facts, facts that you can learn. You can learn them in Sunday
school. You can learn them all the days of your life and you
can know any number of facts about the Bible. but have you a saving knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you know God spiritually? That's a question that you've
got to ask yourself. And I trust that the Holy Spirit
will illuminate your mind and your heart and give you an understanding
of these things and allow you to see the Lord Jesus Christ
as your only saviour. and bring you into that experience
of salvation and the grace of God. Amen.