He will open your Bibles again
tonight to the first chapter of Ephesians I want to pick up
right where I left off last night Ephesians chapter 1 The title
of my message tonight is blessing for blessing Ephesians chapter
1 and verse 3 Blessed be the God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. We worship and serve
the triune God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Ghost. The scriptures tell us plainly
there are three that bear record in heaven. The Father, the Word,
and the Spirit. And these three are one. All
three persons in the Holy Trinity are involved from everlasting
in the saving of our souls. All three persons in the Holy
Trinity are constantly engaged in the work of bringing God's
elect into everlasting glory. And Paul shows us this distinctly
in these first opening verses of the book of Ephesians, chapter
1, verses 1 through 14. He tells us in verses three through
six that God the Father is the fountain of all grace. Now when
we say that, this is what I mean. It was God the Father who in
the covenant of grace proposed redemption, devised the plan,
and chose the people he would save by his almighty grace. It was God the Father who found
a way whereby He could bring His banished ones into union
with Himself. And then, in the fullness of
time, He sent forth His Son, made of a woman made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law. God the Son, our
blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the channel, the medium,
the mediator through whom all grace comes. And that's what
Paul tells us in verses 7 through 12. All grace comes to sinners
by a mediator. All grace comes to sinners through
Jesus Christ, our Savior, our mediator. He stood forth from
everlasting as the covenant surety of his people. assuming all responsibility
for the salvation of his people. And the Father trusted him, our
surety, with our souls and his glory, with the everlasting salvation
of all his own, for the praise of the glory of his grace, and
all that we receive from God. All that men receive from God,
we receive through the mediation, through the person and work of
Jesus Christ, the God-Man, our Savior. He who is our Savior
came here in our flesh to assume all things for us and perform
all things on our behalf. so that his obedience to God
while he walked on this earth was not obedience that he owed
to God for himself. He is the holy man, the God man. It is the obedience of one who
is a representative man, our mediator, so that he obeyed the
Father's will in all things, even under the sacrifice of himself,
For the saving of his people. He said lo I come to do thy will
Oh my god by the which will he taketh away the first He took
away the ordinances of the law that he may establish the second
Show the fulfillment of all things typified in the law by the which
will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of jesus
christ once for all Everything comes to centers through the
mediation of Jesus Christ the Lord. What does that mean? If
I'm chosen of God, I was chosen in Christ. If I'm blessed of
God, I'm blessed in Christ. If I am predestined to be an
heir of God, I was predestined to be like Christ. If I am adopted
as God's son, I'm adopted in Christ. If God accepts me, God
accepts me in Christ. If I speak to God, if I come
to God, if I'm accepted of God, I speak to God, I come to God,
I'm accepted of God only in Christ. I hope you understand what I'm
saying. All grace comes to sinners freely through Jesus Christ. Grace comes to sinners freely
by the righteousness of God in the person of His Son. God deals
with sinners only in Christ. We don't practice the trickery
of religious fools and religious hucksters. In this place, you
won't have somebody trying to twist your arm and get you to
make a profession of faith. You won't have somebody trying
to con you into making a profession of faith. We simply proclaim
what God does for sinners in Christ and wait for God to do
his work by the power of God the Holy Ghost. God the Father is the fountain
of all grace. God the Son is the medium, the
mediator, the channel of all grace, through whom all grace
comes to sinners. And God the Holy Spirit, according
to verses 13 and 14, is the administrator of grace. That is to say, He
is the one who brings God's elect to the Savior. He is the one
who brings God's grace to the elect. He is the one by whom
the good shepherd seeks out, finds his sheep, lays them on
his shoulders, and carries them home. He is the one by whom the
good Samaritan comes and pours in the oil and wine of his grace. God the Holy Spirit is the one
who performs grace in us. Works grace in us applies grace
to us applies to every chosen sinner every redeemed sinner
all the benefits and blessings of God's salvation in Jesus Christ
the Lord the Holy Spirit comes Revealing Christ and when he
reveals Christ in you you believe him You believe? And you won't need me to tell
you that. If you need a preacher to tell you you believe on Christ,
you don't believe on him. If you need a preacher to tell
you you've been born again, you've not been born again. If you need
somebody else to tell you God's working in you, God's not working
in you. When God works in you, he causes you to know and see
and believe his son. This is the work of the Holy
Spirit, by whom you are sealed. having believed the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, sealed under the day of redemption. There's no other ways for grace
to come to sinners, but through Christ, by the power of God,
the Holy Spirit. I love what John Bunyan wrote.
It's a little bit lengthy. Let me read it to you, because
I just can't say it as well as Bunyan said it. He contemplated
these things and spoke these rapturous words that he wrote
down. O thou son of the blessed. Grace stripped thee of thy glory. Grace brought thee down from
heaven. Grace made thee bear such burdens
of sin, such burdens of curse as are unspeakable. Grace was
in thy heart. Grace came bubbling up from thy
bleeding side. Grace was in thy tears. Grace
was in thy prayers. Grace streamed from thy thorn-crowned
brow. Grace came forth with the nails
that pierced thee, with the thorns that pricked thee. here are unsearchable
riches of grace. Grace to make sinners happy.
Grace to make angels wonder. Grace to make devils astonished. Coming to sinners by the power
of God the Spirit in the new birth. God the Holy Spirit regenerates
the dead. He quickens the dead. God the
Holy Spirit calls the redeemed with irresistible power, graciously
forcing sinners into the marriage feast gladly. Graciously forcing sinners into
the marriage feast gladly. Graciously forcing sinners into
the Savior's arms with delight. He gives us faith by almighty
power and seals us in grace. Without the gracious operations
of the Holy Spirit, no sinner would ever become the beneficiary
of grace. Now understand this, understand
this. Nobody is saved except by God's
eternal predestination. But predestination alone never
saved anybody. Got that? You gotta be redeemed. You gotta have perfect righteousness
and you gotta have your sin forgiven by a just sacrifice accepted
by God himself. You must be redeemed with the
precious blood of Jesus Christ. That's why Christ died. If grace
could come some other way, then Christ died in vain. The only
way God can be just and justify a sinner, the only way God can
both punish sin and forgive sin, is through the sacrifice of his
darling son, the Lord Jesus. Now listen to me. Every sinner
chosen and predestinated of God shall be saved. Every sinner
for whom Christ lived and died shall be with Christ in glory
But you got to have something more than Christ atonement If
you would be saved, you must have something more than what
God has done for you. You must have the work of God
in you. You must be born again. You must
be born again. Except a man be born again, he
cannot see. Except a man be born again, he
cannot perceive. Except a man be born again, he
cannot understand anything about the kingdom of God. Except the
men be born again. He cannot enter into the kingdom
of God You must be born again. Now. This is what I'm telling
you you who are here without Christ Understand this hear this
if God leaves you alone If God leaves you to yourself
you're going to hell That's just that. It's my prayer
that God won't leave you alone. Oh, how I thank God. He stopped me,
and my man rushed to hell. He said, Hitherto shalt thou
go, and no farther, and turned me by his grace. Turn me, O God,
and I shall be turned. Salvation is the work of the
triune God. God the Holy Spirit conquers
the stoutest heart, cleanses the foulest leper, He opens the
sin-blind eye, unstops the sin-closed ear, and the Holy Spirit reveals
the grace of the Father and applies to our hearts with effectual,
irresistible power, the grace and the blood of God the Son.
Therefore we sing praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise him all creatures here below praise him above ye heavenly
host praise father son and Holy Ghost And then in verses 1 &
2 as we saw last night the Apostle identifies himself as the servant
of Jesus Christ and and he expresses his desire, the desire of every faithful
preacher's heart, the desire that those trusted to his care
may have from God grace and peace from God the Father and from
our Lord Jesus Christ but when you read these salutations and
benedictions understand that the Apostle is writing by divine
inspiration and as he says in verse two grace be to you and
peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ understand
This is God's desire for his people. This is God's desire for his
people. But I'm gonna tell you something
most people will never understand and never hear. Come close, let
me tell you. It's a secret, don't let it get
out. God's desire is God's determination. If God desires it, God's determined
it, and it shall be. It shall come to pass. So the apostle is writing by
inspiration, and it says to you who are the faithful in Christ
Jesus, you who are saints born of God, God promises grace and
peace from God, your Father, and from Jesus Christ, our Savior. And therefore, he says to his
servants, Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him. Say ye to the righteous, go tell
my people, wherever you find them, whatever their circumstances,
whatever their trial, whatever their heartache, whatever their
joy, say ye to the righteous, it shall be well with him. Now, let's look at our text.
Let me show you three things. Three things here in verse three. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Paul took up his pen
to write to this Ephesian church, and he no quicker began the epistle,
and he calls these folks saints. Oh, what a wonder. God takes
sinners and makes them saints. He takes the horrible and makes
them holy. Saints, faithful. God takes unfaithful
wretches and saves us from the vanity of our meaningless way
of life, our vain conversations, and gives us faith and faithfulness
in Christ Jesus. God, promises to these who are
sinners made saints and made faithful in Christ Jesus grace
and peace and when he got there, he just seems to burst with praise. He seems to just Burst with praise
to God. He couldn't contain himself It
was like it like you when he'd been listening to Job's three
friends and Job arguing back and forth He said behold my belly
is as wine which hath no vent it is ready to burst like new
bottles What reproach this is to me? Amy can tell you, I don't often
preach, I don't quote Ephesians 1, 3. It's kind of like 2 Corinthians
5, 21, and it's not by accident, I do it on purpose. But oh, what
coldness I am. Oh, Spirit of God, take away
this heart of stone. and give me a heart of flesh,
a living, feeling, sensible, loving heart for God my Savior. Paul was just bursting to speak
forth God's praise. And here are the three things
we see. Number one, this statement in verse three sets before us
the deity, the eternal Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ, our
Savior. Paul is here celebrating the
praise of the three persons of the undivided Trinity, Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost. And as he does, the Holy Ghost
here declares again that Jesus the man is God our Savior. I don't think I'll ever forget
the first time I heard him say this. I was speaking to your
pastor before services tonight about a friend of mine who's
now with the Lord. He was a preacher who was probably, oh, I guess
Brother Watson Dufault was at least 40 years my senior. He
and I were good friends when I was 21 years old and started
pastoring in Lookout, West Virginia. He was preaching for me at the
church at Lookout from the Philippians chapter 3 one time. And he said,
Jesus is God. Isn't that precious? Jesus is God! Not equal with
God, though that's true. Not one with God, though that's
true. Not all the attributes of God
belong to Him, though that's true. Jesus the man is God our
Savior. He's God. That means whatever
he does shall prosper. That means whatever he puts his
hand to, he shall accomplish. That means whatever he wills,
he performs. That means whatever he desires,
he does. That means whatever he has and
whatever he wants, he has. He's God. He's God. One of the most precious things
revealed in Holy Scripture, known to the hearts of men, born of
God, known to the hearts of sinners, called by grace, is this fact. He who is our Savior is Himself
God Almighty. His name is Jehovah Jesus. God the Lord, our Savior, our
Deliverer. Were He not God, He could not
be our Savior. Were He not God, He could not
bring in for us everlasting righteousness. Were He not God, He could not
satisfy divine justice. Were He not God, He could not
be accepted of God. Were He not God, He could not
accomplish salvation by Himself, altogether by Himself. But He
is God. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Because he's God in human flesh,
this man who obeys God and lives a perfect life of righteousness. I can't even imagine that, can
you? I can't even imagine that. Brother Bobby never had a cold,
hard thought, a malicious intent, a vile imagination. He lived
in perfect righteousness, in perfect righteousness, in perfect,
complete submission to his father's will, in perfect obedience. But more than that, that man
did this who is God. That makes his righteousness
of infinite worth. What does God require of you?
You know what it says? To you, sons of Abraham, walk
before me and be perfect. Know what it says? He said, walk
before me and be ye holy, for I am holy. You can't do that. You can't do that. Oh, but I
did. Oh, but I did in a representative
man who is God, and his righteousness is of such infinite merit that
God must accept it, and he does. And when he died, God said the
soul that sinneth it shall die. It shall die. You must suffer
for your sins. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. And when Christ the God-man died,
His death is of such infinite merit and worth that His death
is full satisfaction to God for all the host of God's elect.
That is to say, for every sinner who believes Him. for every sinner
who believe on the Son of God, and you carry to God. You've
been trying to carry your works, and God keeps slapping you down.
You've been trying to carry your repentance, and God keeps knocking
you down. You've been trying to carry your
reformed life, and God keeps knocking you down. You've been
trying to carry your resolutions, and God says, no! And your conscience
still torments you. Come to God with nothing but
Christ. And you come to God with that
which God has accepted, must accept, and will accept. This
man who is our Savior is God. God. God loved man. God lived for man. God assumed
my nature, became one with me, and I one with Him. And God died
in my stead. Preacher, how can God die? I
don't know, but He did. He purchased the church with
his own blood. Read Acts 20, 28. It's what it says. It's what
it says. God became a man. God lived. God died. God arose. God took
his seat, yonder in glory, in our body, in our nature, in our
flesh, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. And all who believe
him took their seat in glory with him. All right, second.
The apostle calls for us here to bless God. Blessed be the
God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now the word that's translated
blessed or blessed. I guess if you're from California,
it's blessed. If you're from North Carolina or Kentucky, it's
blessed. But the word that's translated blessed, usually the
word that's translated blessed in our King James translation
comes from a Greek word that means happy. That's usually the
case. But here the apostle uses a different
word altogether. If you were to write it out in
English, if you just transliterate it, for example, our English
word baptism is just a transliteration of the Greek word baptism. It's
just you take the Greek letters and write them out in English.
If you were to write the Greek letters out in English, the word
here would be eulogized. eulogize you know what you do
when you are what you expected to do when you go preach a funeral
for somebody and he maybe died in a drunken stupor maybe died
on death row and the preacher's called the preacher's funeral
so you eulogize him say something good about him and preachers
do they get up and lie all the time but uh... you uh... speak well of somebody that you
admire Somebody's worthy of the eulogy. That's another story.
That's another story. Here the Apostle Paul says, you
who are the recipients of God's grace and peace through Jesus
Christ the Lord, speak highly of God. highly esteem him, speak
to him and of him with high reverence and high esteem. That's the word. He says, let us eulogize God,
speak well of God. The psalmist cried, bless the
Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Whenever
you think of God, whenever you speak of God, think highly of
God and speak highly of God. Shelby and I were watching the
news this morning or last night sometime. One of the most common sayings
of people, one of the most common bywords of people these days
is, oh my gosh, oh my God, oh Lord, Lordy, gosh, gee, golly, What blasphemy! What blasphemy! What blasphemy! Oh no! Thank highly of God! and speak
highly of God. When you think of Him, think
of all His goodness and think of all His greatness. And when
you speak of Him, think of all His goodness and all His greatness
and see that you think and speak of Him in accordance with your
esteem of Him in His great goodness and in His great being. O my
soul, bless the Lord, and all that in me is, be stirred up
his holy name to magnify and bless. But how can we bless God? How can we bless God? God doesn't
need us. We can't add anything to his
happiness. We can't add anything to his
glory. We can't add anything to his infinite being. How then
do we bless God, highly esteem and highly praise God? How do
sinners like you and I do that? We just sang these hymns. In
all of your hymns, I commend you, you pick out hymns that
speak of God's praise, God's glory, God's greatness. That's
what hymns are supposed to do. To lead us to worship God at
His throne. But how can we really bless Him? God, all sufficient within Himself,
who depends on nothing, depends on no one, and depends on nothing. The infinitely blessed Jehovah. How are we to bless Him? the
Psalmist David said, my goodness extendeth not to thee. That is my goodness, Lord, doesn't
reach you. Oh no, my goodness reaches my
fellow man, but it can't reach you. I can't attain to you. Turn back to Psalm 34. We bless
God by heartfelt gratitude to Him and by expressions of that
gratitude to Him. No language can ever express
the gratitude saved sinners have for God our Savior. I often say to my wife, Words
can't express my love for you and my gratitude to God for you
and my thanks for you. And that's true. But that's nothing. Words can't express my gratitude
for God, my Savior. and for his great grace given
me. And yet, we endeavor to speak
praise to him, ascribing praise to him, calling on others to
join us, singing hallelujah, praise Jehovah. Look here in
Psalm 34. I will bless the Lord at all
times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof
and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord, and he heard
me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him
and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed. This
poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out
of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. Oh, taste
and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. Oh, fear the Lord, ye his saints,
for there is no want, no lack to them that fear him. How do
we bless the Lord? By a heartfelt ascent to everything
revealed by God about himself. You know what I like about God?
Everything I know about him. You know what I'd like God to
be? Just exactly what he is. We want
God just exactly as He is, sovereign and good, gracious and omnipotent,
overall blessed forever, always doing His will in the armies
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, knowing that none
can stay His hand. are saying to him, what doest
thou? Knowing that he has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and
whom he will he hardens. We want God to be exactly what
God reveals himself to be. Holy, righteous, just, true,
gracious, merciful, and forgiving. And we want God to do exactly
what he does. Exactly what he does. I'm trying to learn this. I hope
you'll try to. Praying is not trying to twist God's
arm, get him in a hammerlock, and force God to do what you
want him to do. That's not prayer. That's not
prayer. That's called you ask and have
not because you ask that you may consume it upon your own
lust. That's not prayer. Prayer is
asking God to show you his will and give you grace to bow to
his will in all things. Prayer is that by which God the
Holy Spirit forms in us assent to God's will day by day. Day by day. We bless God by assent
to Him. Thy will be done. God, it doesn't
matter what comes out of my lips. My father, it doesn't matter
what words I speak. It doesn't matter what expressions
I utter from my vile heart. Lord God, do what you will. Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. That's it. How do we bless God? Spread his praise turn back to
that passage. You pastor read earlier in isaiah
42 isaiah 42 Verse 10 sing unto the lord a
new song and his praise from the end of the earth ye that
go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the isles, and the
inhabitants thereof, let the wilderness and the cities thereof
lift up their voice. The villages that Keter doth
inhabit, let the inhabitants of the rock, that you and I who
dwell in Christ our God, who is our rock like no other rock,
Let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give
glory unto the Lord and declare his praise in the islands. The Lord shall go forth as a
mighty man. He shall stir up jealousy like
a man of war. He shall cry, yea, roar. He shall
prevail against his enemies. We bless God by proclaiming his
gospel. Let me tell you what our responsibility
is. Mine as a preacher, your pastors
as a preacher, yours as a congregation, yours as individual believers. Our reason for existence on this
earth is the spread of the gospel. God's given us this treasure
the treasure of his grace in these earthly vessels, to carry
the treasure into the four corners of the earth, that the excellency
of the glory may be of God and not of us. Oh, what a privilege. What a privilege. God's given
me the privilege of traveling the globe to proclaim the gospel. And it is our responsibility
to seize every means at our disposal, expend every ounce of energy
we have, all the days of our lives, for the furtherance of
the gospel. And thus, bless God. Speak well
of God in the days God's given you. Speak well of God in this
generation. If you would bless God, I'll
tell you something else you can do. serve his children. If you want to honor a man, I
mean you really want to honor him, you want that man to know
you honor him. Honor his children. Ask any father. And especially his grandchildren. Yes, man, one of y'all said something
about all the grace today. Oh, I love to hear you say it.
That's my granddaughter. Would you like to hear more?
Honor the children and you honor the father. Honor God's children
and you honor God. Serve them and you serve God. When they're sick, visit them.
When they're downcast, comfort them. When they're in need, help
them. When they're opposed, stand at
their side. When they're spoken against, speak for them. When
someone exposes something shameful about them, you extol something
great about them. You can't bless the feet without
blessing the head. And if the feet are refreshed,
the head is refreshed. Our Savior said, inasmuch as
you've done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren,
you've done it unto me. If you offer a cup of cold water
in the name of the disciple, I'll reward you. Is that what he said? Is that
what he said? You give something to drink to
one of my brothers, you gave it to me? This glass of water
you put up here? This is for the master. Now watch
him drink it. You understand that? You can't
serve his people without serving him. You can't honor his people
without honoring him. And there's much that could and
should be said about this. But I'm gonna pause a little
bit, stick my nose into the business of everybody who hears this.
We live in this technological generation. This message is being
sent out right now as I'm preaching it. Where everybody wants to
listen to it, anywhere in the world, they can download it and
listen to it. Listen to it as I'm preaching it. We post everything
I preach at home. Every sermon I preach, since
the days it was allowed to be done or enabled to be done, we
found out about it. Everything I write, everything
I preach, everything, everything posted on the internet. Folks
can download all my books, everything free of charge, charge nothing
for it. But there are lots and lots and
lots and lots of religious welfare bums who need to be rebuked. Some of you listening to me right
now on the internet, I know it. And I hope this stings good.
I mean for it to sting. If you want to worship God, you're
not gonna do it sitting at home, twiddling your thumbs, saying,
well, I'll watch Brother Fortner tonight, and next Sunday I'll watch Brother
Eric, and next Sunday I'll watch Brother Todd, next Sunday I'll
watch Brother Mahan. You're not worshiping God, you're not listening
to God, you're not following God. That's just a pretense to
soothe your conscience and make you feel good. If you don't have
a place to worship, these things are provided for you. But if
you use this as an excuse not to worship with God's people,
these things are accursed to you. Understand what I'm saying? You who benefit from the ministry
of this congregation, I don't care whether you live in San
Diego or Los Angeles or in Puerto Rico, you who benefit from the
ministry of this congregation ought to understand that there
are people who make sacrifices to make it possible for you to
hear the gospel and you ought to do the same. Make your commitment
to a local church, to a single pastor, and support that ministry
wherever it is around the world. So I'm not going to do that.
Well, go to hell then, because you're not worshiping God. Ooh,
that's tough. Yes, that's tough. That's the
way it is. You can't serve God and not serve
his people. can't be done. You can't honor
God and not honor His people. You can't serve the cause of
Christ and not serve the cause of Christ with His people. You
can't be God's and not be a part of His church. God's people. When they're naked, you clothe
them. When they're sick, you visit them. When they're hungry,
you feed them. And you bless and honor God their
Father, God their Savior, and God their Comforter in doing
so. Turn to Psalm 16. Let me show you that passage
I quoted just a little bit ago. Psalm 16. Listen to what David
said. Thou art the Lord. Look at this
Psalm 16 verse 2. Oh My soul thou has said unto
the Lord thou art my Lord My goodness extendeth not to thee
and watch verse 3 But to the Saints that are in the earth But I There's not any way on
this earth I can go to the well and get you a pure, fresh, cold
glass of water in a nice, clean glass with not a spot on it.
But I'll tell you what I can do. I'll give it to yourself. My goodness extendeth not to
thee, but to your saints upon the earth. That's how you serve
God. I can't add anything to the happiness
and blessedness of God, but I can add to your happiness. I can add to your blessedness.
Oh, Spirit of God, make me a blessing to your people. Make me a blessing to those I
touch, to those I influence. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God calls for us
to stretch the puny limits of our capacity, endeavoring to
extol, honor, and magnify God. Now, here's the third thing. We who are gods are blessed of
God. blessed of God with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ at one time in eternity
and forever. All that God can give to sinners. He has given to all His elect
in Christ from everlasting. All that God can do for sinners,
He has done for us in Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. All that God can receive from
sinners, He has received from Jesus Christ, our substitute
from everlasting as the Lamb of God, our Savior. And now He's
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in union with His Son. Do you remember how our Savior
prayed in John 17? He said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Thy
Son that Thy Son also may glorify Thee. Restore to me, give me
the glory that I had with Thee before the world was. strange
language isn't it? And then the Lord Jesus after
his death was exalted and ascended on high and took his seat on
the throne of glory. The angels of God ascended with
him and men saw angels receiving him up into heaven so that in
answer to his prayer the triune Jehovah publicly gave Christ
what he gave Christ before the world was as our surety when
he says the works were finished from the foundation of the world
all of it because Christ fully deserved it And these blessings,
with which we are blessed of God, election, redemption, and
justification, and forgiveness, and righteousness, and acceptance,
these blessings make us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. The blessings of grace, heaped
upon sinners in Christ Jesus. In Psalm 1, David describes the
blessed man. And that man is Jesus Christ,
the Lord. He's the only one of whom the
first Psalm can possibly speak. Actually, the words in Psalm
1 are hard to translate. Our translators have done a great
job, but they're hard to translate. So it's next to impossible to
fully translate anything from one language to another without
losing something. The Psalmist said, oh, the blessedness of
the man. But the word blessed or blessedness
is in the plural in the original text. All the blessednesses of
the man. All the blessednesses of the
man. So that David in Psalm 1 is saying
the very same thing that the Apostle Paul is saying here by
the same spirit of inspiration. All the blessings of God are
in Christ but more. Christ is all the blessing of
God. Christ is all the blessing of
God. He's the blessing you must have,
the blessing you need, the blessing without which we cannot live.
I love to tell a story. I think it's a true story, but
I don't know, but it illustrates what I want to say. a man and
his son in Chicago, a very wealthy fella. Back in the 60s, his widow
had raised his son by himself, but he was a very wealthy man,
and they had a huge art collection, and they were well-known, well-known
in that part of society, that upper-cluster society. When the
Vietnam War broke out, the man's son chose to go to war in defense
of his nation. And shortly after he landed in
Vietnam, he was killed in battle, rescuing another soldier. Of
course, the man was devastated. He was just devastated, as any
father would be. And after several months, one day, there was a
ring at the doorbell, and this man went to the door, and it
was a fairly young man, about the age of his son there, with
a large package under his arm. And he introduced himself and
he said, you don't know me. I told him his name. He said,
your son and I served in Vietnam together. In fact, your son was
killed saving my life. And he often spoke to me about
your love of art and what great, great delight you folks, you
and he had with your art collection. He said, I'm not an artist, but
your son was a dear friend. And he started to open up the
package and he said, this is a painting best I could do of
your son. And the man just began to well
up with tears. He thought that friend had just
captured his son just perfectly. And he took the painting and
took down whatever fancy thing he had hanging over his fireplace
and hung it right over the fireplace. So everybody who came in, first
thing they saw was that picture of his son. In time, the old
man died. And he left it at will that all
of his art be auctioned off, all of his estate be auctioned
off at public auction. And the funds given wherever
he ordained. And so the time came and they
had folks gathered from everywhere. Man, people wanted to buy those
fine, rich pieces of art, get a good buy on them. And the auctioneer
stuck his gavel and he took the veil off of that one painting
sitting on the platform first. And he said, we're going to start
the auction with this painting of the sun. And folks screamed and murmured
and yapped. He said, no, the stipulations
of the will, we have to sell this first. And so finally, somebody
in the back bid $10 and bought the thing. The man who bought
it had been the gardener and servant in the house of that
man and his son about all of his adult life. He's the only
one who wanted it. He took the picture for $10. Auctioneer struck the gavel again.
He said, the auction's closed. And folks were really upset.
Oh, they were upset. We've come here to buy the art.
He said, there's one stipulation to the will that I couldn't read
until now. The will reads, whoever gets
my son gets all. Would you have all the blessings
of God in heavenly places? Believe on the Son of God and
go home an heir of God and joint heir with Jesus Christ. Amen.