Ephesians chapter one, if you
would like to turn there. Ephesians chapter one. I said this the first hour, but
I'll repeat it. As Paul begins writing to the church at Ephesus,
he tells us who the letter's from. He tells us who he is writing
to, why he is writing, and to whom. So we're made to see it
comes from the Lord, we saw that. He gives us his pedigree, that
he's an apostle. So it's the Lord's message that
Paul's given to the Ephesians. And it's Paul that's delivering
the message, but he tells us who he's delivering it to. And
he tells us very clearly in verse one, Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ by the will of God to the saints, which are at Ephesus.
We talked about saints in the first hour, that means set apart
or holy. In this case, it means both. Then it goes on and says,
and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Well, that's us. Because
he has made us faithful. That's his elect. That's his
chosen people. They are the ones that are faithful because they're
in Christ Jesus. That's what makes them faithful.
It's his faithfulness. This is by the will of God that
it's given. And this is just a quick recap
of what we went over at first hour because we're going to go
farther down this time. But you'll notice what he says
next to them. And this is important. Grace
be to you and peace from God, our Father, and from the Lord
Jesus Christ. So the grace and the peace that's given of God,
our father, the Lord Jesus Christ is to you word, the faithful
in Christ, the saints, the one that's been made holy by the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Very important. We understand
that. He also tells us that the source of grace and peace is
the father and the Lord Jesus Christ. They're the only source
of it. They're the only ones that can give it because they're
the only ones that have it. And we find if we read those, read
on, there's a, these are the ones that were chosen in time
before the world had ever began. That's what we heard the first
hour, wasn't it? So let's read this. I want to read verse three through verse 14. So now we know
who he's talking to. And by what authority he's talking. Verses 3-14 says, Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings and 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 towards us in all wisdom and prudence. Having made known
unto us, and that's why I wanted to start the way I did, because
all those us's, we know who he's talking to. Having made known
unto us the mystery of his will according to the 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 we have an inheritance and whom 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 you also trusted after
you had heard the words of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
in whom also, after that you had believed, you were sealed
with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance
until the redemption of the purchased possession and to the praise
of His glory. He starts by saying, Blessed
be the God and Father and Lord Jesus Christ, who have blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. I've titled
this message, The Spiritual Blessings. And by studying this out, the
Lord's revealed seven spiritual blessings in the passages that
I just read to us. 11 verses or so, 12 verses. So that means I'm going to have
seven points to make, and I've not really done that that often,
so just bear with me. It won't be as brief and as simple.
I want to be as simple as I possibly can be. I don't have any interest
in complicating things and taking too long. I just want the Lord
to be seen and heard. I want him to be glorified. I want to see what are these
spiritual These spiritual blessings, men talk about the blessings
of the Lord. Well, what are they? Because
he gives us all of them, probably not all of them, but he gives
us some of them right here in this passage, seven of them.
We know the scripture says that all good gifts, all the spiritual
blessings, come down from the Father of lights, who wherein
there is no variable, and I see their shadow of turning. All
good things come down from him. So the only way that we're gonna
be able to see them, the only way we're gonna be able to believe
them, is the same way that they're bestowed and believed is by grace
alone. They're bestowed by grace and
we believe and receive by grace alone. So that's our hope this
morning. Lord would allow us to see these. The first one is
found in verse three and four and it's election. It's election. Blessed be the God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places, 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. So his election
chose us to be holy. This is what his election accomplished
by the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He chose us
before the foundation of the world, before time ever began,
before you ever did anything good, or before you ever did
anything bad. And that's the same thing with
Jacob and Esau over, if you look at Romans chapter nine, it says,
before the children even being born, having done neither evil
or good so that the purpose of election might stand, Jacob have
I loved, Esau have I hated. See, God doesn't love everybody.
He loves his people because they are in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord says in Psalm chapter five, verse five, God hates the workers
of iniquity. Somebody told me one time, well,
that hate ain't the same thing as like the opposite of his love.
Yes, it is. Yes, it is. If he hates someone individually,
it's because they're in their sin. He has to, the only thing
that he loves is his darling son. We must be found in him. He's the beloved of God. He's
the one where the Lord said, this is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. Glorious spiritual blessing is God choosing, regardless
of what we do, regardless of what we have or had not done,
choosing us, his people, unto eternal life freely by his grace. That's the first spiritual blessing. A lexanon is not based upon us
at all. Not our choice, our merits, our
works, our doing. It's entirely based upon the
love of God. Do you know the Lord loves with
an everlasting love? Never had a beginning and it
never has an end. Every attribute of God is the same in that regard
because God never had a beginning and he never has an end. Every
attribute that he has reflects that part of him. His hate is
a holy hatred. He hates sin. He hates iniquity. We must be found in Christ and
thank God for the electing grace of God given to his people before
the world ever began. What about everybody else? Did
he predestinate them to go to hell? No, he predestinated his
people to be conformed to the image of his son and he left
everyone else to themselves. The only thing God has to do
for anybody to go to hell is leave them to themselves. He
doesn't have to do anything else. See, it's grace that saves. It's grace that comes in. chose
to save, God chose to elect, that's the only thing that's
going to get it done. Nothing else can save us. Nothing
else can redeem us but the precious blood of Christ because the Lord
elected a people, the Son redeemed those people, and the Spirit
regenerates those people just as we heard in the first hour.
It's all by grace and it's all the Lord. Election is the first
spiritual blessing. The second one is found in verse
5. having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.
I love the part, you see this so often in scripture, where
it talks about according to the determinate counsel of God, according
to the good pleasure of his will, by his own will and choice, by
him, it's all him, it's all him. He's the one that chose according
to his own will, according to his own pleasure, for his own
purpose. to adopt a people unto him, to make them the righteousness
of God in him, to make them the very sons and daughters of God. John chapter three, verse one,
I quoted it's the first hour. I said, I would quote it again.
Behold, what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon, I
like that bestowed, don't you? The father hath bestowed, it's
been placed upon you. The father hath bestowed upon
us that we should be called the sons of God. Brethren, now are
we the sons of God. Isn't that glorious? So adoption,
Predestination and adoption, that's the two where the Lord, they go hand in hand. He predestinated
us unto the adoption. That's what our predestination
was done for, is for us to be the adopted children of the Most
High God. whom he did foreknow. And I was
going to have us turn back to that passage in Romans chapter
eight, because we just read it, but since we read it first hour and
some of us know it, I'm going to quote it. Whom he did foreknow, then
he also did predestinate. We talked about that foreknow
in the first hour. And it's very important that I bring that back
up again, because Whenever the scripture talks about knowing,
it's talking about spousal knowing. And Adam knew his wife Eve, and
she bore a child unto him. It's an intimate knowing. It's
a love. He's talking about love. Those
that he loved, he predestinated to be conformed to the image
of his son. That's what he's saying. Then he did foreknow. Then he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. Then
it says over in Romans chapter eight, Whom he did predestinate, then
he also called. And whom he called, he also justified.
And whom he justified, he also glorified. And I said this the
first hour too, but where's boasting then? What do we get to do in
that? This is his salvation accomplished by him alone, by his power, according
to his purpose, according to his will. We're just the benefactors
of it as his people. That's the good news about these
spiritual blessings. Something so important with this
adoption and predestination is that we must be conformed to
that which God is pleased with. There's a message in pulpits
today that's a lie that says God is pleased with you or God
is pleased with me. God is pleased with one and only
one, his beloved son. And if I am not in him, I am
not saved. If I am not in him, I have no
hope of eternal life. So this adoption that he's talking
about, this is the oneness that Christ was talking about over
in John 17, I in them and thou in me, that we all may be one
together. Now the Lord's people has been
conformed to his image on the inward man. It'll be revealed
one day. And the Lord sees us. He sees
his son. He doesn't see Caleb Hickman
anymore. I have a brand new history. If I'm his, I have a brand new
history. Understand what this adoption is all about, this predestination,
what it's all about. What the Lord accomplished changed
my history. When the Lord, on judgment day,
when the Lord asks, when he points to me, I'll have an advocate.
I will have a savior. We'll have one that when they
read the record, it'll say clean. It'll say clear. It'll say perfectly
righteous. It'll say holy. It'll say true. It'll say good. Only because
of what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross of Calvary. All
because he started, he predestinated us to be conformed to his image.
He adopted us by his grace to be his sons and his daughter. That's a spiritual blessing.
That's a spiritual blessing. That's our second one. Oh, let
me show you what the benefit of adoption is. I forgot about
that. Look at verse 11. It goes hand in hand with it. in whom
also we have obtained an inheritance. If you're adopted of him, you
have an inheritance. What's my inheritance? Some people
talk about getting rewards when they go to heaven. They think
that they're gonna get this or they're gonna get that based upon how they
live. That's silly. What is the reward that every
child of God wants? Just him. Just him, just give
me Christ alone. May I be found in him, not having
my own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness,
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ, the son of God who loved
me and gave himself for me. He is who I must have. He's the
prize. Paul said, I pushed toward the
mark of the prize, the high calling of God, that mark, that prize
is Jesus Christ alone, nothing else. This is our inheritance. Scripture says that He saved
us, He called us unto an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, that
fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for us. Oh, we inherit. And I love when the scripture
says that we're heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.
He's literally given us everything in Christ. I've got to have him.
I've got to have him or I have nothing. I have nothing. That's
the spiritual blessing of predestination and adoption. And that's the
benefit of predestination and adoption is that we have an inheritance
in Christ, eternal life in him. Now the third one, Third spiritual
blessing is he made us accepted in the beloved. And I'm gonna
be going back and forth on all these. They go together so well,
it's kind of hard not to. But I've already said accepted
in the beloved just a minute ago, but look at verse six with
me. To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath
made us accepted in the beloved. How were you made accepted in
the beloved? He just told us, to the praise and glory of his
grace, wherein. Wherein he hath made us accepted
in the blood. So it's by grace we're made accepted in the beloved.
Well, who's the beloved? Well, that's actually twofold.
The first beloved is the most important. Well, everything in
here is important, but the first one's the focal point of all
the Lord's beloved. It's the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
He is the beloved one, but those who are in Christ are also called
the beloved. So we're accepted because we're
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And because we're in the Lord
Jesus Christ, we're also accepted in the beloved as a family, as
brothers and sisters in Christ. That's a spiritual blessing.
Now, did you do that? Did I do that? He did that and
he gets all the glory for it. In order to be accepted in the
beloved, I can tell you why we didn't do that. In order to be
accepted in the beloved, we have to be perfectly holy, perfectly
holy. We have to be perfectly righteous. We have to be perfectly good,
never sinning one time. That's the only way we can be
accepted before God. but God hath made us accepted
because we're in Christ Jesus as perfectly holy, as perfectly
righteous, as never sinning one time. And I'm actually, we're
gonna go through redemption and we're gonna go forgiveness of
sin. So I'm trying not to say everything all at one time. I'm
trying to go bit by bit here, but that's what it's all about
is he, because of what he accomplished, we're sinless, never having sinned. And I'll explain that a little
bit later on. Listen what he says here. He made us accepted
in the beloved, not having sinned one time. Isaiah 43, 25 says,
I, even I am he that blotted out thy transgression for my
own sake and will not remember thy sin. You're accepted in the
beloved because he blotted out your transgression for his own
sake and will not remember your sin. Now, how can an omnipotent
Holy God, and I understand what omnipotent means. It means he
knows everything all the time. There's nothing that he don't
know, nothing that's hid from him. He knows everything all
the time. We can't fathom that, because we don't know much, especially
compared to him, we don't know anything. He's also omnipresent,
which means he's everywhere all the time. How do we know that?
Well, the scripture's very clear on it, but how do we believe
that by faith alone? We can't fathom that either. So how can
the holy God of this universe that knows everything all the
time not remember sin any longer? How can he do that? Well, did
it say he's going to forget the sin? So can God forget? That's an interesting question,
isn't it? Can God forget? They don't exist
because the Lord Jesus Christ put them away on the cross of
Calvary. They never happened because the Lord Jesus Christ
put them away. The Lord didn't just forget about them. He made
them disappear by the blood of the lamb. He made us accepted
in the blood. So being in Christ means we have a new record. We
have a new history that declares the Lord's people as perfectly
righteous. I love and this is something
that you and I can't see again every we don't understand anything
we believe we have to just believe it by faith and God has to give
us the faith to believe it. That's just the truth of it, isn't it?
But something that being the beloved of the Lord being accepted
in the beloved means that when Christ died, we died in him. So our flesh in the sight of
God is rendered dead. Do we see that? And therefore,
we're alive unto Christ. So we're dead to the law, we're
alive unto Christ. The flesh is dead because we were crucified
with him. Therefore, we're accepted in
the beloved, because we're in him, we're in him. The fourth spiritual blessing
is redemption. Redemption, verse seven, in whom
we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,
according to the riches of his grace. I love how he keeps saying
it's because of his grace, because of his purpose, because of his
will, because of his choice. Don't you? It's all about him. It's all about him. And because
it's all about him, we have redemption. What is it to be redeemed though?
What is it to be redeemed? When you go to the store, this
is a very simple analogy. When you go to the store to purchase
something, they ask you for a monetary amount. They ask for money. You hand them the money, that's
the payment for the object that you're buying. You just redeemed
that object. See, you and I costed something.
The Lord's people, the elect of God cost. something. And the Lord Jesus Christ knew
what that price was whenever he agreed in the covenant of
grace to redeem his people. It was going to cost his life.
It was going to cost his sacrifice. It was going to cost his blood.
For without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin.
This is what it costed for the Lord's people to be redeemed. And that's exactly what happened
on Calvary's cross. When he shed his blood, the father
was well-pleased and the Lord's people are now redeemed. Listen
to what he says in Isaiah 43 verse one. But now thus saith
the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy
name. Thou art mine. Thou art mine. We are the purchased possession
of God. Somebody said, well, I thought
he owned everything anyways. Yeah, but only the Lord's people
were the ones that had to be redeemed back to him unto eternal life. Everyone else he leaves to themselves.
Many run to the law brethren seeking to be redeemed. And we
just came out of Galatians, so we know a little bit about that,
don't we? Many run to the law seeking to be redeemed, but I'll
remind you in the book of Ruth, Boaz was going to try to redeem, but
he couldn't redeem her because, he couldn't redeem Ruth because
she was, she had a near kinsman. I'm trying to get my words together.
What that meant was, is the one that was allowed to redeem was
the nearest of kin. So the story had, it goes like
this. Her husband had died and she had no children. So by the
Levitical law, the nearest of kinsmen was supposed to raise
up children under the one that had died in their honor. Boaz
was not the nearest of kinsmen. The nearest of kinsmen was someone
else. So Boaz goes to the nearest kinsman
and says, hey, will you redeem this Moabitess? She's not a Jew.
And that was very important to the Jews. You had to be a Jew
and all these things, which is a picture of us. We're just mutts,
aren't we? I mean, truthfully, we are outcasts.
To the Commonwealth of Israel, we're nothing, but God don't
look at skin. He doesn't look at anything about
us. He doesn't look at our bloodline,
our heritage, our works, our life, nothing. He looks at the
Lord Jesus Christ and is pleased to pardon his people. That's
what he does. So Boaz goes to the nearest kinsman. And he tells him, will you redeem
Ruth? Will you redeem Ruth? And he
says, I can't. If I do, it will mar my inheritance.
It will mar my inheritance. Do you know why the law cannot
redeem? Because if the law could redeem, then we would still be
guilty and redeemed. because the sin has not been
put away. So the law there is saying, I can't mar my inheritance. I can't change the law of God
in order to redeem her. That's what he's saying. What
did Boaz say? I'll redeem her. I'll redeem
her. And he redeemed her for the purchase
price. Well, this is a picture of what
the Lord Jesus Christ did. He's the only one that can touch
God and not be destroyed and touch man and not be defiled.
Law can't redeem, but the Lord Jesus Christ redeemed his own. We are now the purchased possession
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I heard somebody say one time
to me, I don't like the idea of what you're preaching because
it makes us, you're saying God owns us and that we're puppets.
And I said to that, either you're owned by the blood of Christ
unto eternal life, Because you're not your own, the scripture says
you're not your own, you're bought with a price. Or, you are your
own, a slave to your nature, a slave to your flesh, you're
a possession of Satan, unto eternal death. It's that simple. And
who maketh thee to differ? God. God does, doesn't he? Thank God he did say you're your
own, you're not your own, you're bought with a price. He doesn't
leave us to ourself. God redeemed his people. Now the fifth one,
fifth spiritual blessing, is the forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins. And
I can't say I like this one more than the rest. I love all of
them. I love all of them. But oh, the thought of having
your sins forgiven, being righteous before God, being sinless before
God. The Lord looking at you and is
well pleased because you're in Christ Jesus. What a spiritual
blessing. What a spiritual blessing. Look
at verse seven and eight. In whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace, wherein he hath abounded towards us in all wisdom
and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will,
according to the good pleasure of which he hath purposed in
himself. I said this first hour, but I'll
say it again. Jeremiah 13, 23, can the leopard
change to spots, leopard change his spots or the
Ethiopian color of his skin? Can the Ethiopian change his
skin? The answer is no. It's a rhetorical question isn't
it? Job said, how can that which is born of a woman be made clean?
Well the scripture is very clear without the shedding of blood
there is no remission of sin. And that's why it tells us clearly
in whom we have redemption through his blood. Blood is the requirement
for sin to be put away. Now you and I, our blood isn't
going to do any good. Our blood's corrupt, it's Adam's
blood, it's sinful blood. But the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ is pure and holy and perfect, and the Lord is pleased with
it. That's the fountain, the fountain of living water, that's
what that is. That's where sinners can be plunged
and be made clean. This is the same picture of the
blood when the children of Israel, when death was coming that night
for their firstborn, the Lord said, take a lamb and kill it,
and put upon the doorpost and the lintel the blood. And when
I see the blood, I'll pass by you. This is how our sin, the
Lord's people's sin, was remitted by the blood of Christ. See,
he didn't sweep it underneath a rug. He didn't just cover it
up. He made it disappear. It's gone. The Lord's the only one that
can make something out of nothing, and he's the only one that can
really make something completely disappear. When you burn a log, there's
still ash at the end of it, isn't there? But the Lord, when he
put away our sin, it's gone. It's completely gone. This is
the blood that erased the charges, the handwriting of ordinances
that were written against us that were contrary to us. Can
you imagine seeing that you're guilty of doing something, but
all that you do is that something that you're guilty of? That's
exactly what God has us charged with. Somebody said, well, all
I'm doing is breathing right now, but because you're in the
flesh, You can't please God. We're just sinners, constantly
sinning, with no hope of fixing it, no hope of getting better,
no hope of doing something that would please God. As a matter
of fact, God says, if you try to fix your sin, it's iniquity.
And I hate the workers of iniquity. But thanks be to God, to the
praise of His glory and His grace, in whom, Christ Jesus, we have
redemption through his blood, through his blood. We have the
forgiveness of sin, forgiveness of sin. Imagine a big old The judge gets up and reads the
writing of ordinances that's against you, everything. Paper
will go out the door, won't it, however far? I don't know how
far it'd go. We don't even know the sins we commit, our secret
sins, our hidden sins, the things that are unintentional sins. It's just unbelievable. It would roll all the way out
the door, but then because of the blood of Christ, every bit of
it's gone, just disappeared. And then you have a completely
different history where the judge says, perfectly righteous, perfectly
righteous, perfectly righteous. Why? Forgiveness of sin, forgiveness
of sin, the remission thereof by the blood of Christ alone.
Romans 3.24, being justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth
to be the propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare
his righteousness for the remission of sin that passed through the
forbearance of God, to say, I declare at this time, his righteousness
that he might be just and the justifier of them that believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. In him, by his blood, By his
grace, we have forgiveness of sin, not just one or two or 10,
not just a thousand or a million. And yet there's a couple we got
to deal with every single spot and stain. The Lord put them
away, but the sacrifice of himself by his own blood. The sixth spiritual blessing
is making known the mystery of his will. Making known the mystery
of his will. Look at verse nine through 12.
Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according
to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself, that
in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together
in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and
which are on earth, even in him. In whom? In 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. He's made known the mystery of
his will. Here's the glorious revelation
of who God is and what we are. Who God is and what we are. It
is repentance towards God and faith towards the Lord Jesus
Christ. And what does that reveal when he gives us that? That reveals
the mystery that salvation is all of the Lord, all by his grace
alone. There is no salvation outside
of grace. And if there's any work that
is required as part of salvation, it is not salvation because it's
no longer grace. What is the mystery, brethren?
Christ only died for his elect people. And everyone that he
died for was redeemed that day. Their sin was forgiven that day.
They are now the very righteousness of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody says, you mean I can't
figure this out on my own? Not this mystery. No, he has
to reveal it. Thank God. He does this by his
power, by his purpose, by his will alone, according to his
choice, he gathers and calls. It's one of the same gathered
together. It calls us out of darkness into his light all by
his spirit. And with that same spirit brings
us to our last spiritual blessing. The last spiritual blessing is
that we're sealed by His Spirit. We're sealed by His Spirit. Verse 13 and 14, let's read that.
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
you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the
earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchase
possession into the praise of his glory. You know that word
earnest is the same. Anybody ever bought a house before?
If you had, you had to put earnest money down to tell him you were
serious about it. There's some circumstances might not be that
way. Maybe you pay cash, but normally you have to put earnest
money down. The Lord's given us his spirit as the earnest
of our inheritance. He's serious about it. He's serious
about it. Until the redemption of the purchased
possession and to the praise of his glory. We are sealed with
the Holy Spirit of promise. We've been doing some canning
lately. It's that time of year. I bet
you my wife and I, mostly my wife, I can't take credit, have
canned 100 jars, different sizes. What's my point? Well, I learned
a lot. You do it a lot. You learn a lot. You know what I mean?
You mess up on things. Some of them you get right. Some
of them you don't. What I do wrong, let's figure it out. First
thing I learned when we were canning last year, and if you've
ever canned before, you're going to laugh at me and be like, that
would have frustrated me, too. But my wife said, don't touch
it, because it's got a seal. I didn't know that. I'd never
canned much before. Guess what I did? I poked the
tab. I thought it'd be fun. Do-ka-do, just poked the tab.
Guess what? It didn't seal. She was mad.
Thankfully, I didn't do it to all of them. But I touched it. And because I touch it, it wouldn't
seal. This scripture is telling us that the Holy Spirit has already
sealed His people. We can't touch it. We can't mess
it up. We can't undo it. We can't add
to or take away from the finished work of Christ because the Spirit
has already sealed the Lord's people until the day of redemption. As far as God's concerned, we're
already there with Him. That's how He sees it. We were
brought back with Christ when he rose and went back to glory
and sat down at the right hand of the Father. We're seated,
scripture tells us we're seated with him in the heavenlies. I
don't understand it, but here's what I know. We're sealed and
I can't mess it up and you can't mess it up. Every person that
Jesus Christ died for, every person he loved, every person
that he saved is sealed into the day of redemption. We're
kept by the power of God. unto, through faith, unto salvation,
ready to be revealed at the last time. It was the Father that
did the electing, the Son that did the redeeming, the Spirit
that does the regeneration, and the Spirit is the one that keeps
the Lord's people until the day of redemption. Now, most people, they preach
that God's waiting on us to do something. You or me, we gotta
do something. That doesn't make any sense because it says right
here that we're sealed already. We're already sealed. What else
is there to do? Nothing, the work's finished.
When Christ Jesus bowed his head on Calvary's tree, he said three
words, three words, it is finished. What's finished? Every single
one of these spiritual blessings to be bestowed to his people,
it was finished. The work that the father gave
him to accomplish, the salvation of his people, his chosen people,
the atonement, the redemption, Righteousness imputed to us,
imparted to us, everything's accomplished in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are sealed to the day of redemption. In closing, I want to say that
every one of these spiritual blessings are bestowed, they
are received, the exact same way by grace alone. Nothing I can do to merit them.
Nothing I can do to earn them. Nothing I can do to add to or
take away from them. Every single one of these spiritual blessings
are freely given by the grace of God and only to his elect
people. They're in the heavenlies. They're
not upon the earth. They're in the heavenlies. That's so important.
That's where they come from. That's where they are. Our hope
is not here. This is not our home. Our hope
is there. And another spiritual blessing is knowing that the
Lord is going to come back for us. I didn't think about it, but
it's not our text, but you understand what I'm saying? He's going to come back
for his people. We're going to be sealed until he comes back
to get us, or we leave by the way of the grave. Either way,
we're sealed. We're in him. These can only be believed and
enjoyed by faith. They're found in Christ alone,
all by grace. One day, one day we'll be able to enjoy the spiritual
blessings by sight. There'll be no more faith. There'll
be no more hope. There'll be sight. Faith and
hope end in sight. When we see him face to face,
we may just like him because we'll see him as he is. These
are the spiritual blessings in Ephesians chapter one, three
through 14. Let's pray. Father, we ask that
you would take this word and bless it as you have purposed
for our understanding according to your will. In Christ's name,
amen.