Let's turn together to Ephesians
chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. When Lindsay came in tonight,
he reminded me that this is the big day. The sixth day of the
sixth month of the sixth year. Religion trying to scare the
hell out of everybody. And that's what it deserves.
A good laugh. Just mockery. So we've given
it that. Now we'll move on to something
good. Ephesians chapter 1. We worship one God in the trinity
of his sacred persons. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There are three that bear record
in heaven. The Father, the Word, and the
Holy Ghost. And these three are one. We are
saved by the work of the Triune God. We recognize and rejoice
in the fact that God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit reveal and
make themselves known in the person and work of our Lord Jesus
Christ. But the saving of our souls involves
the work of the Father from eternity. the work of the Son at Calvary,
and the work of the Holy Spirit in experience. God the Father,
before the world was, is set before us as the fountain of
all grace, and he has saved us in his everlasting purpose of
grace. Not only is it true that he secured
and purposed and planned and provided our salvation. In the
language of Holy Scripture, he hath saved us and called us with
an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world was. The Apostle Paul, writing again
in Romans chapter 8, tells us plainly that these people who
were loved of God from eternity were from eternity called and
justified and glorified in Jesus Christ. We were saved by the
purpose of God in eternity. And that's what the Apostle Paul
declares here in Ephesians 1, verses 3 through 6. But that's
not the whole story. Nobody will ever go to glory
just because of God's purpose of grace. The purpose of God
alone is not the whole of our salvation. It takes something
more. It takes something more. We are
also saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, the purchase of God's
darling Son, who died in our room instead at Calvary. In the
fullness of time God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. And
by the shedding of his blood he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified." You mean it's already done? That's
what it said. When Jesus Christ died at Calvary,
all those for whom he died, being the chosen, sanctified, preserved
people of God, were by his blood made absolutely perfect before
God. Their sin put away, righteousness
imputed to them, made holy by the blood of Jesus Christ, our
Redeemer. Well, surely that's all that's
necessary. Oh no, it's not. Oh, no it's not. Nobody, now
listen carefully to your pastor, nobody is going to heaven just
because of God's purpose or just because of Christ's death. Nobody. Something more is required. Paul tells us in Ephesians 1,
7 that this redemption is ours in Christ Jesus. But something
more is required. He tells us we've already obtained
an inheritance in Christ, but something more is required than
him having taken his seat in glory by the virtue of his effectual
redemption and by virtue of the Father's everlasting purpose
in the experience of his grace. Every chosen redeemed sinner
must be born again. by God the Holy Spirit. There
is no getting to glory without the new birth. There is no such
thing as a sinner going to glory except Christ be put in you. And that's the blessed experience
of grace described in Ephesians 1, verses 12, 13, and 14. Now tonight I want us to go back
to Ephesians 1. And I want us to see what the
scriptures teach us here concerning some of the work of God the Father
in the accomplishment of grace for us in eternity. We'll begin
in verse 1. 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. Paul identifies himself as an
apostle, as a messenger of Jesus Christ. giving validity and authority
to this letter as being indeed a letter written by him. He identifies
God's people as saints, sanctified holy people, sanctified in Jesus
Christ. And he tells us that those who
are God's saints are the faithful in Christ Jesus. They are many
women who have been made holy by the work of God, and many
women who have been made faithful and are continually maintained
as faithful many women by the work of God's grace in them.
And then in verse 2, this exemplary servant of our God expresses
his desire, his heart's desire for all God's As a faithful pastor, his heart
is incessantly anxious for the people trusted to his care. And every faithful pastor is
just that way. If I am indeed a pastor after
God's own heart given to you, this is how I look upon the work
of the ministry. And unless I am utterly deceived,
I speak the truth. God Almighty, who loved you,
and chose you, and redeemed you, and called you, has trusted the
care of his family to my care. I can't think of anything more
honoring or anything more overwhelming. And I desire incessantly and
seek incessantly your everlasting welfare. As a faithful father
seeks the good of his family, the faithful servant of God seeks
the good of God's family and devotes himself to it. Now look
at that which Paul expresses here as the desire of his heart
for God's people. These people whom he dearly loves.
And remember he is writing by the inspiration of God the Holy
Spirit. I stress that because that means he's not just expressing
his desire. He is telling us that which is
the incessant desire of God's heart for his people. and that which is the desire
of God's heart for you is God's determination for you. Grace
be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now this sentence is an inspired
pronouncement of grace and peace on every believing sinner for
time and eternity. All that we experience in time
is grace, and the result is peace. That's all God's people ever
experience in this world. Not common grace, not general
grace, that special free grace of God in Christ that results
in peace. God Almighty gives us the boundless
abundance of His grace, and the constant result of that grace
is ever-increasing peace from the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace
is the source. God's free everlasting love and
favor is the source. Experience is peace. Yes, Christ obtained peace for
us. But the only way you ever come
to know anything about that peace that is obtained by Jesus Christ
is to experience peace in your soul by the mighty working of
his grace. When God the Holy Spirit comes
and brings the grace of God to us, puts the grace of God in
us, the result is Peace in and from the Lord Jesus Christ who
is our peace. And with every fresh experience
of grace, with every fresh revelation of grace, with every fresh taste
of grace, ever increasing peace. Let me tell you what I'm talking
about. The peace of God that passeth
understanding. The peace of God that baffles
explanation. You ever try to explain to somebody
who doesn't know God why you're comfortable when they think you
ought to be pulling your hair out? You ever try to explain
to somebody who doesn't know God why you're not pacing the
floors and biting your nails when they think you ought to
be in bed with them? You can't do it. You can't possibly
explain it so that they understand it. It's peace that passes understanding. Peace of conscience. Because
the blood of Christ satisfies forever all the demands of God
for us. Peace of heart. A heart peace
that comes by a God-given, confident faith in our God. Trusting Him. Trusting Him. The just shall
live all the days of his life by faith. And as we walk before
him by faith, our hearts are at peace. And just to the degree
that we trust God our Savior, our hearts are at peace. God's
people are given peace with one another. As we increasingly realize,
as we increasingly realize that we are one with Christ, united
to Him, and soon, soon, perfect, perfect, undisturbed, undisturbable,
everlasting peace and glory. That's my heart's desire for
you. That's what I seek for you in all my labors, grace and peace
from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord
God says to me, say ye to the righteous that it shall be well
with him. The Lord is faithful who shall
establish you and keep you from evil. The Lord direct your hearts
into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Jesus
Christ, and you shall walk in peace. Now, let's look at the
message set before us in verse 3, and we'll camp here. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in Christ. Now the title of my message tonight
is Blessing for Blessing. The word blessed when it calls
for us to bless God and the word blessed or blessed when it speaks
of God having blessed us are the same word. It comes from
our word eulogy or eulogize. It means to speak well of. Let
me show you three things here. First, this statement sets before
us the deity and the eternal Godhead of our blessed Savior. We tend to pass over that fact
far too lightly. If the Son of God is to be equally
blessed with the Father, it's because He is equal with the
Father, one with Him. That's just precious. Take away
that fact, this sweet truth, and you take away the mediatorial
work of Christ. You take away hope from our souls. You take away salvation. He who
is our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is himself God. There's no sweeter portion of
divine truth, no gift so precious as the knowledge that our Redeemer
is both all God and all man. Our Mediator, Jehovah's Servant,
who said, I must work the works of Him that sent me. But why
is God the Father here called the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ? He is the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, our mediator, who was foreordained
before the foundation of the world to this work and office
of a mediator. When the Father made a covenant
of grace with Him as the surety of the covenant, the Father speaks
to Him as His Father and speaks to Him as His God. He is the
Father of Christ, both as God and as man. In His eternal deity,
our Savior is the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father,
by glorious and eternal generation, the eternally begotten Son. So, Brother Don, how can you
explain that? I can't begin to explain that. How can He be the
Son of God and be the same age as His Father? I can't begin
to explain that. He is God the eternal Son. As a man, our Savior is that
holy thing that is called the Son of God in Luke 1.32. He is the firstborn from the
dead, the firstborn Son of God in the family of God. Now, secondly,
the Apostle calls upon us to bless God. Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Speak well of praise
most highly our God." David said, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all his benefits. When Paul says, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, he is saying children
of God, Speak well of God and praise Him highly. As prayer
rises from a sense of need, let praise rise from a sense of God's
goodness, the goodness of His being and the grace He bestows. And we can only know the goodness
of His being by the grace He bestows as we experience it.
God has blessed us, He says, so let us bless Him. Let us make
it our business to bless the Lord. Sitting where you are right
now, as you hear this message, and hear the Word of God declared,
bless him. And when you leave here, bless
him. Bless him all the days of your
life. Live to bless him. There is no higher aspiration
to which you could set your heart. Live to bless him. And when you
have breathed your last breath, live on to bless him forever. Heaven's glory shall be the endless
blessing of God our Father from our hearts in the totality of
our beings. But pastor, how can we bless
God? We know that the less is blessed
of the greater. Can the greater be blessed of
the less? Yes, we are to bless God, but
in an indescribably lesser way. God blesses us with all spiritual
blessings, but we cannot increase the blessedness of the eternal
God. God doesn't need anything from
us and can't receive anything from us that will add in any
way to the blessedness of his being. If he needed anything,
he says, if I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you, for the world is mine
and the fullness thereof. The infinite, all-sufficient
God is infinitely blessed already. When he blesses us, he gives
us blessedness. Blessedness that we never had
and could never have had until he blessed us. But when we bless
him, we don't increase his blessedness at all. Listen to what David
said in Psalm 16. We'll look at this again in a
few minutes. He said, My goodness extendeth not unto thee. What I do that looks good, what
I do that might be considered good by men, the very best that
I do doesn't reach God. It extendeth not unto thee. So
how are we to bless Him? Let me give you four suggestions.
First, we bless our God with expressions of gratitude. Turn to Psalm 34. We say with
David, Bless the Lord, O my soul. We bless God by praising Him,
extolling Him, desiring that all honor be His, ascribing all
good to Him, magnifying and lauding His holy name. Let's do that. Sit still and bless Him in the
silence of your heart. No language, no language could
ever begin to express the gratitude of the saved sinner's heart for
God's boundless grace. This can't begin to express it. How often have you thought You
want to say something and you say, I just don't have the words.
I just don't have the words. How can I say that which is beyond
the expression of words? Bless God in the silent gratitude
of your soul, but then do the best you can to speak forth His
praise. in the language of praise. Hallelujah. Praised be Jehovah. Sing his praise. Oh, that all
flesh might glorify him with us. Moses said, Ascribe ye greatness
unto our God. Here in Psalm 34, David says,
I will bless the Lord at all times. What do you mean, David? His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. I will rejoice in Him. I'll have confidence in Him.
I'll boast of Him. That's how I'll bless Him. The
humble Those who have been humbled before His throne shall hear
thereof and be glad. Those who join me with gratitude
before His throne will rejoice and be glad to hear me ascribe
greatness to my God. Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt His name together. Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt His name together. Nearly 39 years ago, I said to
that lady right there, Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt
His name together. Nearly 26 years ago, I said that
to you. I say it to you again. Oh, magnify
the Lord with me. Let us exalt His name together. That'll make for a delightful
church family. That'll make for a delightful
union. Read on. 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. This is what it is to bless him.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Oh, fear the Lord, ye
his saints. For there is no want to them
that fear him. How do we bless the Lord? We
bless him with gratitude. And secondly, we bless him with
a heartfelt assent to all the blessedness that is ascribed
to him. After hearing how great he is,
how glorious he is, how happy he is, We bless Him by saying,
Amen. That's just the way it ought
to be. When we hear of His justice,
so that He will by no means clear the guilty, we say, Amen. That's the way we want Him to
be. When we hear of His mercy, He who delighteth in mercy, we
say, Amen. That's just the way we want Him
to be. When we hear of his righteous judgments in the earth, we would
not have him to change a thing. His providence is right, and
we say, Amen. That's just the way it ought
to be. If he comes in a tidal wave, or if he comes in a tornado,
or if he comes in a hurricane, or if he comes in an Arab bomb,
Amen. That's just the way he ought
to be. God does all things well. You see, our God is He who really
is God, and we would not have Him be any less than He is, and
we would not have Him do any different than He does. We will not have Him be any less
than He is. And we will not have him do any
different than he does. He is just the God who will be
worshipped, trusted, loved, and adored by all who know him. Every
attribute ascribed to him, every work he performs is a fresh proof
that he is God. So bless him in humble adoration. Not seek to pry examine, and understand, but
trust, adore, and worship. Here's the third thing. Turn
to Isaiah 42. How do we bless God? We bless
Him by spreading forth His praise in all the earth. 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 Cedar doth
inhabit, let the inhabitants of the rock sing. Well, I won't
pause to say much about that. You can get it. Let them shout
from the top of the mountain. Let them give glory unto the
Lord, and declare his praise in the islands. Now watch the
result. 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 the Lord by proclaiming
the gospel of his grace, seeking others to bless him. If there
is joy in heaven over one sinner that repents, we are in the best
and most practical way blessing our God when we labor to bring
sinners to faith in Jesus Christ our Redeemer for the praise of
His name. Let us give ourselves relentlessly
then to spreading forth the word of His praise, the gospel of
His grace. And let me tell you something
else. If you would like to honor a man, if you really want to
honor a man, honor his children. Do good to his sons and daughters.
And if we wish to bless God, if we really desire to honor
our God, there's no better way to do so than by doing good to
his children. When they're sick, visit them.
When they're downcast, comfort them. When they're in need, help
them. When they're opposed, stand by
their side. You can't bless the feet without
refreshing the head. And when you've refreshed the
feet, you have refreshed the head. Our Savior says, Inasmuch
as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,
ye have done it unto me. Turn back to Psalm 16, I told
you we'd look at it in a minute. If God's children are naked and
you clothe them, if they're sick and you visit them, if they're
hungry and you feed them, then you bless and honor God their
Father, Christ their Savior, and God the Spirit their Comforter.
Look what David says, Psalm 116, verse 2. O my soul, thou hast
said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord, and my goodness extendeth
not unto thee. But look at the next phrase.
The sentence continues in verse 3. My goodness extendeth not
to thee, but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the
excellent, in whom is all my delight. I can add nothing to God's happiness. I can add nothing to God's blessedness,
but I can add something to your happiness. And I can add something
to your blessedness. I can do nothing to benefit the
Almighty, but I can do something to benefit you. Oh, Spirit of
God, make me a blessing to your people. Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit calls for us to stretch
our punitive limits, the punitive limits of our capacity, endeavoring
to extol, honor, and magnify our God, and there is no better
way to do so than by serving and benefiting His people in
this earth. Every time you read in the Scripture,
now religion talks about good works, And the way religion talks
about good works is by not drinking coffee, and not drinking any
caffeine in it, and not using tobacco, and not drinking any
wine, and wearing your hair a certain length, and wearing clothes a
certain way, and sometimes looking kind of silly and strange. That's
how religion defines good works. This book defines good works
always in connection with serving God's people. ministering to,
caring for, and loving God's people. Now third, this verse
declares that blessedness with which the Lord our God has blessed
us. Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. Hath blessed us. We bless God
by desiring his praise, honor, and glory. But he has blessed
us, not is blessing us, though that is certainly true, but he
has blessed us by commanding blessedness upon us. He has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings. Folks ask, well what does that
include? I'll say, well what part of that one syllable word
all do you not understand? All spiritual blessings. All
spiritual blessings, not carnal blessings, not fleshly blessings,
not temporal blessings, spiritual blessings. Spiritual blessings
are all those things that God gives us from eternity in Christ
Jesus, given to us forever in Christ Jesus. They come to us
according to God's purpose of grace, and they include all the
blessings of salvation. Redemption, justification, eternal
life, adoption, sanctification, glorification, whatever is included
in that big word salvation. These are God's spiritual blessings.
They are all the blessings of providence, all the blessings
of time, and all the blessings of heavenly glory. And He's blessed
us with these in heavenly places. The word places in italics. And
our King James translators are to be commended. Whenever they
added a word to make a passage read more smoothly, they put
it in italics to let us know there is no word exactly corresponding
to this in the text. We've just added this to make
it read more smoothly. But many folks have, you know,
they talk about these heavenly places, and if you get saved
and then you get a second work of grace, or if you get saved
and then you kind of stretch your spiritual muscles by spiritual
exercise and discipline and you really get close to God and you
really, really get to be spiritual and you walk 10 or 12 feet above
everybody else and then those are the heavenly places where
you'll really be blessed. There's a big problem with that.
One, all that is talking about is works and your own inner experiences. And two, it's talking about something
that's conditioned on something in time. And these blessings
and heavenly places were already done in eternity. Heavenly places,
then, might better be translated heavenlies, or heavenly glories,
or heavenly things. However you translate it, this
is what Paul's saying. God blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heaven before the world was made. These blessings
come from God who is in heaven, through Christ the Son, our Mediator
in heaven, and they tend to bring us at last to heavenly glory. And these blessings are in Christ. In Christ. Everything, everything,
everything is in Christ. God put us in Christ from eternity. One with Him. One with Him. The love of God is in Christ. The mercy of God is in Christ. The grace of God is in Christ. And without Christ, there's nothing
but wrath. And I am in Christ. Listen to this hymn. Brother
Rupert Rathenbart and his wife Betty sing it fairly often. In
the Beloved, accepted I am, Risen, ascended, and seated on high,
Saved from all sin through His infinite grace, With the redeemed
ones accorded a place. In the Beloved, how safe my retreat,
In the Beloved, accounted complete, Who can condemn me? In Him I
am free, Savior and Keeper Forever is He. In the Beloved I went
to the tree, there in His person by faith I now see, infinite
wrath rolling over His head, infinite grace, for He died in
my stead. In the Beloved, God's marvelous
grace calls me to dwell in this wonderful place. God sees my
Savior and then He sees me. In the Beloved. accepted and
free. All blessedness is in Christ. All the blessings wherewith God
blessed us were conferred upon us in Christ. He by his merit
purchased them for us as the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. And He, as our head and advocate,
as our mediator and surety, as our representative and forerunner,
has received them in our name. And by virtue of our union with
Him, they are rightfully ours. All blessings. Now, let me show
you one more thing. I'll send you home with an assignment.
Go back and read Psalm 1 one more time. Psalm 1, how it has
been twisted and misinterpreted and misapplied by men. That blessed
man described in Psalm 1 can be no other than Jesus Christ
our Savior. No other man, no other man fits
the character of that one who's described in Psalm 1. No man
except the God-man, our mediator. When the scripture says in Psalm
1, blessed is the man, the word would be better translated, O
the blessedness of that man. And even better translated this
way, because the word blessed is in the plural. O the blessednesses
of that man. Oh, what blessings, what boundless,
infinite blessings there are in this man who walked ever in
the counsel and presence and light and perfection of God Almighty
in perfect righteousness as our representative. So these blessings,
these all spiritual blessings, that God has given us in Christ
from eternity are one blessing. Larry, He gave us His Son. He
gave us His Son. And He who spared not His own
Son, but delivered Him up for us all. Will you allow me to
give you a little paraphrase? who spared not his own son, but
gave him to us all, how shall he not with him also freely give
us all things? With regard to his people, there
is not one stingy thought in the heart of God. but only boundless,
overflowing blessedness to his own. Christ is all blessedness, and
all blessings are in him. He is not one blessing among
many, but all blessings in one. No wonder Jeremiah said, the
Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore will I hope in
Him. This is our lot and our portion
forever. Rejoice! Rejoice eternally! Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Amen. I ask Lindsay
to read us a hymn found on page 8 in your Songs of Grace book.
Maybe we can sing it a little better than we have in the past.
Blessing for blessing. Blessed is the man, O Lord, who
was chosen by your grace. Number 8 in your Songs of Grace
book.