Chapter 1 - Introduction And Background. 3
Chapter 2 - Praise The Lord! - Part 1. 12
Chapter 3 - Praise The Lord! - Part 2. 21
Chapter 4 - Praise The Lord For Redemption. 29
Chapter 5 - The Mystery of His Will - Part 1. 38
Chapter 6 - The Mystery of His Will - Part 2. 46
Chapter 7 - Paul's Prayer List For You - Part 1. 54
Chapter 8 - Paul's Prayer List For You - Part 2. 63
Chapter 9 - From Death To Life. 72
Chapter 10 - Amazing Grace. 80
Chapter 11 - From Alienation To Reconciliation. 89
Chapter 12 - God's New Home. 98
Chapter 13 - The Revelation Of The Mystery. 107
Chapter 14 - A Prayer For The Church. 116
Chapter 15 - Our Mind-Blowing God. 125
Chapter 16 - Lessons On Walking In Church. 133
Chapter 17 - The Bounties Of Our Conquering Christ 142
Chapter 18 - Body Building. 151
Chapter 19 - Change Your Clothes! 160
Chapter 20 - The Wardrobe Of The Spirit 170
Chapter 21 - The Christian: The Divine Impersonator 178
Chapter 22 - The Children Of Light 186
Chapter 23 - The Fullness Of The Spirit 195
Chapter 24 - The Christian Wife. 204
Chapter 25 - The Christian Husband. 213
Chapter 26 - Parents And Children. 221
Chapter 27 - The Christian At Work. 230
Chapter 28 - The Christian Warrior's Brief 239
Chapter 29 - The Christian Warrior's Armour - Part 1. 249
Chapter 30 - The Christian Warrior's Armour - Part 2. 258
Chapter 31 - The Christian Warrior's Armour - Part 3. 267
Chapter 32 - Constant Prayer 277
Chapter 33 - Varied Prayer 286
Chapter 34 - Spirit-Led Supplication. 295
Chapter 35 - The Strategy For Prayer 304
Chapter 36 - The Man With The Message. 313
David Legge studied at the Irish Baptist College, Belfast,
The audio for this series is available free of charge either on our website (www.preachtheword.co.uk) or by request from info@preachtheword.co.uk
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"Introduction And Background"
Copyright 2000
by Pastor David Legge
All Rights Reserved
| Ephesians 1:1-2 |
Turn with me in your Bibles to Paul's epistle to the church at
"Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at
We're looking this evening at verses 1 and 2 of this chapter, let's read them together again: 'Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ". Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the hymnwriter, wrote these words about the book of Ephesians - he said: 'It is the divinest composition of man'. The most beautiful letter, the most beautiful words that have ever been penned by any human being - but as we sit this evening and study these magnificent words, as we read them, we say that they are not simply the divinest words of a human being, but as we read them they testify very clearly that these are the words of Almighty God. Go home this evening and read these words - for perhaps they're the profoundest that have ever been written by any man. You can see the grandeur, the majesty, the dignity, the richness and fulness, the peculiarity of these words among the whole of the New Testament and the whole of the word of God - there is power in these words! This, perhaps, is not the longest of Paul's letters - but perhaps it's one of the profoundest, the most powerful, the most significant of his works and writings, humanly speaking.
Look at the book for a moment. The book naturally splits into two parts, two sections. The first section is chapter 1 to chapter 3 - 1, 2 and 3 deal with doctrinal belief, in other words: what believer's wealth is. What we believe, our doctrines of our faith that we build our life and build the church upon - 1 to 3 is doctrinal. Then chapters 4 to 6 are practical - not simply the believer's wealth, but the believer's walk. Because of what we believe Christ is, what He has done for us, what we have as our foundation - how then should we behave as Christians: our walk in Christ. Now the two key verses in both of these sections are found at the start of each of the sections - look at chapter 1 and verse 3, this is the key verse in the first doctrinal section of the book of Ephesians: 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ'. And then the second key verse, for the second section, the practical section, is found in chapter 4 and verse 1 - the very start of the section: 'I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord', Paul says, 'beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called'. He outlines, in chapters 1 to 3, all that you are in Christ, all that we have, all the riches that we have inherited through the blood of Christ - and then in chapter 4 he says, 'Now, this is what you've been called into, now practically speaking you've got to walk worthy of your vocation of your calling'.
What is the theme of this little letter of Paul's? The theme is simply this: the mystery of the
The message of this little book is the present dynamic relationship between the Lord Jesus Christ, risen, exalted, glorified in heaven! The message is His dynamic, real, powerful relationship today with the church, His first love. It's quite similar to the book of Colossians, you see the book of Colossians speaks of the 'cosmic Christ', the Christ as He is today - not as He was, not as He was upon the cross, not even in the resurrection, but ascended, risen, exalted as He is now. But Ephesians differs in this respect: that it speaks not specifically of the 'cosmic Christ', but how the church has a 'cosmic' present role as the body of that same Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I want us to do a bit of work this evening - because we've got to think, we've got to understand the situation and the circumstances that this letter - and remember, it is a letter - that was addressed to the church at
Now, I want you to understand Paul's strategic way of his missionary journeys. He did not go 'willy-nilly' and decide, 'We'll preach here, we'll preach there, we'll go to this city, to that city', or wherever the path took him, there he preached - that wasn't the way he worked. Now remember that Ephesus was perhaps the largest city in Asia Minor, and Paul knew that if he could break the [impregnable] walls of that great city - where people travelled through, where businessmen came to, where cultural people came to in the arts, and music, and writing and so forth - that he was going to plant, as it were, a gospel 'atomic bomb' that would spread to the whole province of Asia Minor. Do you see his thinking? And therefore he comes to
What faithfulness Paul had in the Gospel. So much so that there was a riot in the city of
Sure, if you read many of the books of the Bible, some of the greatest of them were written in prison. And well might the Psalmist have said in Psalm 76 verse 10, that God makes the wrath of man to praise Him! You'll find within the New Testament, that three of the books that we have were written where Paul is at this moment - in prison, house arrest, in
'I now rejoice in heart
And hope bids me do so,
That Christ will take my part
And ease me of my woe'.
Madame Guyon, the French saint, as she lay in a cold prison cell - do you know what she could write?
'My cage confines me round,
Abroad I cannot fly,
But though my wings are closely bound,
My heart is at liberty.
My prison walls cannot control
The flight, the freedom, of my soul'.
Paul was in prison, but it didn't affect his spirit. Paul was in jail, he couldn't go out, he couldn't preach, he couldn't witness, he couldn't sing out in the open or with the children of God - yet he rejoiced in his Lord! Are you in prison this evening? What is it? Is it illness? Is it persecution? Is it your family? Is it friends? Is it your husband or your wife? People at work, your boss? And you feel that you're in prison, you feel that you're sealed in, you can't get out, you're kept! Listen: Paul, the prisoner of Christ, could rejoice - and so can you!
We read in the word of God that Paul was allowed some visitors, we read that there was a man called Epaphras - he would come in now and again and he would keep Paul posted with what was going on within the church of Jesus Christ at large. But Epaphras had come to Paul and disturbed him a little, because he had brought to him news that there were heretics in
Now look at verse 1, it says: 'Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at
Look at the author: Paul. If you were to look at letters that were written - ordinary secular letters from friends and family and relatives - in the same age and day that this letter of Paul was written, you would find that they all began the same. They started with the name of the person that was writing - the author - and then the second name or place that you would read would be the addressee - the person being written to - and then the third thing you would encounter is the greeting - the salutation of the person, the author, writing to the addressee. That follows the same pattern and the same model here as we see. He says, 'Paul' - the author sending the letter. Now I want you to notice that he doesn't say 'Father Paul', he doesn't say 'Apostle Paul', he doesn't even say 'Elder Paul' or 'Pastor Paul' - he says 'Paul'. Paul was his Roman name, and we find throughout the epistles that Paul, he was the apostle to the Gentiles and whenever he was speaking as the apostle to the Gentiles he used his Gentile name 'Paul'. Remember what he said? He was [a Jew to the] Jew, he was a Gentile to the Gentile, he was everything to any man that he might bring them to Christ. That's what we need to be, that by all means we would save some.
You know, and you heard last evening, that he was called Saul before his conversion - probably because he was from the tribe of Benjamin, and King Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin, and the mother of Saul christened her son after the great King. But when he was converted, his name was changed. He became the apostle to the Gentiles, and what a work he did, but his name was changed from Saul to Paul - do you know what Paul means? This staggers me, it means 'small', small. That lion that ravaged, that breathed out murderings and cursings and threatenings against the church of Jesus Christ, that Pharisee that was instrumental in the murder of Stephen whose face was as an angel - that lion was brought down to size, made small by the Lord Jesus Christ. And the one who arrested Christians, on the road to
Paul, just Paul, that's the author - but what is the authority of the author? Look at verse one: 'Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ' - he is an apostle, now that's not a title, it was his role. We find this word 'apostle' throughout the whole of the New Testament, what it's doing here is simply giving an official stamp to the letter that is being sent to this church and to all the churches. But here, in this verse, it's used in a restrictive sense - what do I mean by that? Well 'apostle' simply means in the Greek, literally: 'sent out one', but there are many meanings for 'apostle'. For instance, to be a missionary in the New Testament could be classified as being an apostle, sent out from the church. Indeed, we read within the word of God of one Epaphroditus, who was called 'your apostle', simply because he was chosen by the church to be their servant. But the word 'apostle' here is not used in that sense, but used in the restricted sense of one who has been chosen directly by God, for God, to be a foundation member of the church.
Turn with me for a moment to Ephesians 4, Ephesians 4 and verse 11, and we have here what God has in mind when He calls Paul an apostle: 'And [God] gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ'. Turn to chapter 2 and verse 20, the church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone. When Paul calls himself an apostle here, he's using it in the restrictive sense of the twelve disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ and Paul the apostle here. Given gifts, given powers, many of them not with us today - many now, not all - to lay a foundation for the
His authority - but what is the source of his authority? 'Paul', verse 1, 'an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God' - it's amazing to me, that Paul is banged up in prison but he accepted it as the will of God for him. I would have gone daft! Can't preach, can't read my books, can't run around, can't do what I want to - how can this be classed as serving the Lord? Many people that are laid up in a hospital bed, or locked at home, or are sick, or are ill - they think to themselves, 'How can I serve God? Lord, if you'd just make me well I'd go to the four corners of the earth for You!'. But he saw being banged up in prison as the will of God for him. All God wants us to do with His will is accept it! I wonder is there someone here this evening and you're battling, you're striving, you won't accept the will of God for you? See Paul, he accepted God's will - and I want you to see that he didn't become an apostle, he didn't bring it upon himself, he didn't choose that ministry, he had no aspiration for it, there was no usurpation of another apostle and he took his place - I want you to see this: that there was no democratic nomination of him! But there was a preparation of God, and a choosing and election of God.
This was God's doing - and let me say this, Christian: if you're to be strong, if you're to be calm when the storms of life come across your path, if you're to be an effective child of God - you must know God's will! And know that it's God's will and not yours. There are preachers in the pulpit and they cannot preach, there are missionaries on the mission field and they cannot evangelise, there are men and women as elders, deacons, ministers, members in works and it is not their gift - it is not God's will for them to be there, many a time it's their own will! Oh, make sure it's God will. You see when the storms of life come in, you need to know it's God's will. And I thank God, that when I was being called into the Lord's work, at the specific moment in time when I felt the call, someone said to me, 'Now God's speaking to you through the word of God, take a pen, take a piece of paper and write it down! Write what God is doing, for there is a day coming when you will despair at everything that is happening in your life, and you will think: 'I wonder was this God's will at all?''. Many a time I've looked back and I've opened those pages, despairing, discouraged, but I've rejoiced because it's the will of God that counts - that's all that counts!
There's the author, but then secondly there's the readers - for he says in verse 1, 'Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at
Look at chapter 2: 'You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins: wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others' - we were dead! But saints are alive, they don't perform miracles - have you ever performed a miracle? You haven't, have you? But saints have miracles performed on them - that's what a saint is! Not someone who performs miracles, but people who have experienced it - look at verse 4, chapter 2: 'But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ' - that's a miracle! Huh, my friend, a saint is simply a believer, a saint is simply - and this is what it literally means - a set-apart-one for God, one who has been taken out of the world spiritually speaking and placed, as Paul says, in Christ Jesus. As the Lord said in John chapter 17, 'You are in the world but not of the world', that is a saint. It's like the scuba diver: he exists in an alien environment because he possesses special equipment, isn't that right? And we exist here because we have the Holy Ghost!
It's the saints in
You remember that Paul faced two oppositions. You remember in Acts chapter 19 there were the seven sons of Sceva in
It's to the faithful, 'the saints', verse 1, 'at
How else could you have an ex-Roman Catholic and - I say this - an ex-pagan Protestant standing on a platform together united in Christ? You'll not get it anywhere else. You'll not get it in Stormont. You'll not get it in
I want to finish with this: 'Grace be to you, to and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ'. That's His title you know: 'the Lord Jesus Christ' - He's the Lord, He ought to be your Lord, that means master, that means you're not your own, you belong to Him - you can't do what you want, you can't say what you want, or think what you want, you've got to do what He says because you're redeemed by blood - you're not your own! He's the Lord, Jesus, He's the Saviour. He shall save His people from their sins, and if you don't know Him by faith, He can save you now! Christ, He's chosen of God. He is God's Man, God's Prophet, Priest and King - glory to His name!
She was put down in history as the greatest miser in the whole of
Our Father, we thank Thee for all the riches that we have in the Saviour - and Lord, we've inherited it all. Nothing of ourselves, but through His death it has become ours. Lord, we must claim it by faith - Lord, we're going to see many things in these weeks that lie ahead, of what we have and what can be ours. Lord, help us not to be like children that look into the toyshop window, and we despair that we can't afford what we want. Help us to realise that it's been bought and all we need to, by obedience and faithfulness and fidelity in Christ, is to claim it in His name. Lord, help us to be what You want us to be. Lord, do Thy deeper work in us, we pray, and bless us now as we part from one another, and may that grace and that peace, that is found through the Lord Jesus Christ and His Father, go with us now. Amen.
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Transcribed by Andrew Watkins, Preach The Word - October 2000
"Praise The Lord! - Part 1"
Copyright 2000
by Pastor David Legge
All Rights Reserved
| Ephesians 1:3-6 |
| 1. Praise The Lord For Blessings (verse 3) 2. Praise The Lord For Election (verse 4) 3. Praise The Lord For Predestination (verse 5) 4. Praise The Lord For Christ (verse 6) |
Now let's come to the word of God and turn with me to the book of Ephesians, we've studied two verses of this little book so far - and I'll confess to you before we begin that I intended studying verses 3 through to 14, because if you have a Bible that splits the passages up into sections with themes you will see that verses 3 to 14, is a theme, it's a section of itself. But I couldn't do that, and then I tried verses 3 to 6 and I intended up to today to doing that, but I couldn't do that either. We're only looking at verse 3 and 4 this evening, there is so much in this little book, so much in these verses, that I think it would be wrong of me to pass by the riches that we have in our Lord Jesus Christ.
So let's look at chapter 1 of the book of Ephesians and we'll take time reading the whole of this section together, beginning at verse 3: "Blessed be God the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the wellbeloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory".
Let's read those two verses again that we are going to study this evening, verses 3 and 4: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love".
We said at the first week of our study in the book of Ephesians that chapter 1 is split up into two sections, if you just look at it for a moment. You see in verses 3 to 14, the passage that we read together this evening, praise of spiritual possessions that we have in Christ. In other words Paul is writing here, and he is writing and there is an outflowing, an overflowing of praise to God for the possessions that we all possess in Christ if we're in Him by faith. And then in weeks to come we'll see, verses 15 to 23, look down at it, there's not praise for spiritual possession but there is prayer for spiritual perception - an overflowing of prayer. From Paul's spirit of an outpouring of praise, he falls on his knees before God and he asks God that in the light of all that he has in Christ that he would come into the realisation, the reality, of the riches of God's grace in Christ. Now, as in previous Pauline letters in the New Testament, we saw a few weeks ago in verses 1 and 2 that this letter starts in the same way as any letter in these days was written. It begins by the writer's name, then it says who he is writing to, then he gives a salutation in verse 2: 'Grace be to you and peace from God our Father'. And then in the line of the style of writing of those days of a letter, Paul continues and he writes, in verse 3, a blessing, a wish that he has for all the readers.
Now in those days, if it was an ordinary letter, the writer perhaps would wish for good health, for wealth, for whole well-being for the person receiving the letter. But we see in verse 3 that Paul is not writing about physical health, Paul is not writing about financial riches, but Paul is writing about the spiritual blessings that we all have in heavenly places in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Like all of Paul's letters the first section is doctrinal, and then the second section is practical and we're going to focus in this evening on the beginning of the section verse 3 to 14, where Paul is homing in on the doctrine of what Christ has done, what God has done for His world through the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 3 to 14 is a blessing. Verse 15 to 16 is a thanksgiving. Verse 17 to 20 is an intercessory prayer. But this section that we're going to look at this evening, verse 3 through to 14, it contains one of the most glorious and most symmetrical doxologies to be found in the Holy Scriptures.
If you have a Bible that breaks the passage up into paragraphs - and I would advise you to get one of those at least - you'll see that this section, verse 3 to 14, is split up into three poetical stanzas. Each concludes by a repetition of the phrase that we find in verse 6: 'To the praise of the glory of His grace'. Then look at verse 12: 'That we should be to the praise of the glory of His grace'. Verse 14: 'Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory'. And each of these sections emphasises a different reason that we, as the children of God in Christ, should praise our God. Each of these sections emphasises a different Person of the blessed holy Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In its scope it covers the entire sweep of redemption from the beginning, before time in the election of God, to the total consummation of redemption in the receiving of our inheritance, when the world is burnt up and a new world comes to pass.
Now, I want you to note that while most English translations don't show this, this section from verse 3 right through to verse 14 is an unusually long sentence. In the Greek New Testament there is no punctuation of a full stop, from verse 3 right through to 14 there is this glorious sentence full of rhythm, recurring phrases, exalted theology - making this doxology one of the greatest of Paul's writings and indeed in the word of God, totally. It is a hymn of exalted praise and majesty to God, the God of our salvation. Now I want you to notice this, that Paul's worship in verses 3 to 14 is theocentric. What does that mean? 'Theo' means God, 'centric' means central - and all of his worship, his praise and his adoration had God in focus, he was looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of his faith. He wasn't taken up with his problems, he wasn't taken up with his circumstances - and remember that, as Paul is writing here, he's in prison in
Genesis, the first book in the Bible, is a book of beginnings. Matthew is the book of the Kingdom. Galatians is the book of freedom. But Ephesians is the book of the Christian's riches in Christ Jesus. I want you to see this, that lovely figure of a man, bruised and beaten, hanging upon a Roman gibbet, expiring on the tree, in agony, in sweat and blood, the God-man dying for sins - and when He bows His head and gives up the ghost, He leaves a will for you and for me. I believe the book of Ephesians is that written will of the dying Son of God. All the riches, the blessings, the treasures that we have in Him!
Let's look at them this evening. Verse 3 is the first thing that we're going to look at. I've entitled my message, 'Praise the Lord!' - and we're going to praise the Lord for the blessings that we find in verse 3. Let's read it slowly together, and look at every word as you're reading it: 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ'. Verse 3, it's the phrase, it's the part of this passage that the rest of the chapter revolves around. Someone has said that in its structure, its poetical structure, it is a state of controlled ecstasy. Can you not see it? Can you not see Paul on his knees, with the chains around his arms and his feet, crying to God? 'Blessed be God for the blessings that He has given to me in Christ Jesus our Lord, praise Him!'
Notice it says: 'Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ'. Now this blessing, 'Blessed be God', in Old Testament days was used exclusively of God the Father. You might find it in the Old Testament, and the Jews even today use it: 'Blessed be God, blessed be God'. It's a typical introduction to a Jewish ascription of praise to God Almighty. But here look at it: 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ'. Distinctively Paul, as he gives this blessing, makes it a Christian blessing. The God who blesses the Jews in the past is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you were to look at a Hebrew version of the book of Ephesians you would find that it's written in the form of a Jewish blessing, this passage that we're looking at, a Jewish beracah. And here Paul is taking the form of a song and a prayer of praise that the Jews used to 'blessed God' and he uses it to 'blessed God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ'. And if you go into the book of Deuteronomy you will find that the beracah, the Jewish blessing, 'blessed be God', is used usually and primarily for material blessings and possessions. It was used for material blessings such as long life, abundant crops, protection from enemies. But Paul here, in his overflow and outflow of praise, exclusively praises God for all spiritual blessings in Christ - blessings that were achieved by the death and by the resurrection of our glorious Lord. Now I want you to see this: God blesses us with all spiritual blessings! And because God blessed Paul with everything that he talks about in this chapter in the book, he turns around and responds to bless God!
There is a deficiency of praise in our world today, in our church. You don't hear the 'hallelujahs' as much, you don't hear the 'praise the Lords' and the 'Amens'. But, oh, if we are receiving from God blessings from heaven itself, should we not praise Him? Should we not bless Him? 'Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ', now see the next bit, 'Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places' - He has blessed us with blessings. John Paul Geddy (sp?) is one of the richest men in the world. Do you know how much he's worth? 1.3 billion. The weekly income of some of the oil sheiks runs into the millions week after week. Yet all those are pennies compared to the riches that Paul exhorts us to praise God for that we have in Christ Jesus our Lord!
Harry Ironside was asked on one occasion, 'Have you got the second blessing?', and he answered saying this: 'My friend, I'm into the tens and the hundreds of thousands of blessings'. Because we are in Christ, and our God when He sees Christ He doesn't give us little, He doesn't give us a bit now and a little bit later, but He gives everything, because He gives us Christ. Now it's one thing to have the blessings and it's another thing, an entirely different thing, to make those blessings yours. Think of it, the robe of righteousness, that when God looks at you - and once you were full of sin, covered from head to toe with sores putrefying, oozing, before the face of a holy God because of your iniquity and your transgression - now when He looks on you in Christ, you're as pure as the driven white snow. Praise be to God for the robe of righteousness in our Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to God for our heavenly citizenship that we have. Praise be to God that we don't need to get entangled with all the nonsense in
Look at the verse again. What kind of blessings are these? 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places', or better translated, 'heavenly realms'. Do you know where your proper home is? If you're in Christ your proper home is heaven. Hard to think of it sometimes, isn't it? But you will never be at home until you are in heaven, for wherever Christ is, wherever God is, that is your home. It might seem strange because we've never seen it - but do you know what God has done? One of His greatest spiritual blessings in Christ is: He has come in, and He has implanted within the depths of our being, a new nature - a new person in Christ Jesus that can never ever be at home in this awful world. Isn't that why, when you walk along life's path, and when you look at the television, and when you read the newspaper and you see things that turn your stomach and there's like a tug at the string of your heart heavenward, because there is someone in you, a nature that you have, that can never be at home here.
If you look at the book of Ephesians, you see that this subject of the heavenly realms is intrinsic to the whole of the message, you see it in verse 3. Look at verse 20 of chapter 1, talking of the blessings and the power of His greatness towards us: 'Which he wrought', verse 20, 'in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places'. What blessings do we have in Christ in heavenly places? The blessing of a resurrected, eternal life with Christ - sure we could spend all night on that! In chapter 2 and verse 6 you see another one: 'And [he] hath raised us up together, and made us to sit together in heavenly realms in Christ Jesus' - that we have actually a citizenship and by our spirits we can rise heavenward, though we don't do it in body, we can be there in fellowship with Christ. Look at chapter 3 and verse 10: 'To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God', we have victory over the demons and the devil because we are in heavenly places with Christ. Chapter 6 and verse 12: 'For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high', or heavenly, 'places'. Our battle, our war, our struggle is in the heavenlies, but praise God we have Christ on our side!
Do you remember the Lord in the upper room? In John chapter 14, and He looked into the disciples that He loved and what did He say? 'I go to prepare a place for you'. I've heard it said: 'That place is being prepared now for us. If God took six days to create the world what's that place going to be like when He's taken 2000 years to prepare heaven for us?'. But, my friend, that's not the case, you see the Lord said to those disciples: 'I go to prepare a place for you', and that place is not being prepared, but that place today is ready - because the Lord Jesus was saying: 'I go the way of death and resurrection to prepare a place for you'. And now He has died, and now He has risen again and that place is prepared, as it ever will be, because our place is where Christ is.
Do you remember when God created the world? The Lord Jesus Christ, who was His instrument and indeed the Person who created all that we see around us, in His creation Christ fitted His creatures for the environment that they were to inhabit. He gave the birds of the air feathers and wings so that they could fly. He gave the fish of the sea scales and gills so that they could breathe. But God - Ephesians says - God is doing and has done a new thing, for He is able by His grace to take the filthy, vile sinner out of his environment and change him miraculously inside to take him to a new environment! How we are blessed. And we are called by Paul, and I call each of you - I hope by the Spirit of God - to this evening rise and every day from now on, rise by our spirits to our heavenly citizenships and draw upon the resources there for you and I to conquer day by day.
Have you ever heard it said after a great prayer meeting, maybe the man that's closing the meeting will pray and say, 'Lord, we thank You that we were in heavenly places this evening and we felt that we were there!'. That man knows little about it. You see we consider ourselves in heavenly places when we feel that we're in heavenly places. But, friends this evening, it's got nothing to do with feeling. Paul says, 'We are, God hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings'. It's not a question of feeling, it's a question of fact. You might say, 'David I don't feel like I'm in heavenly places, I feel like I'm in hell!'. It doesn't matter what you feel, what matters is this: that if God the Father has given His only begotten Son at the cross at Calvary for you to save you, how much more shall He not freely give us all things! And one of the things that He gives you is this: everything! There is not a thing that He will or He can withhold from you.
Now I want you to see that the apostles as they wrote the New Testament, they were men and they were men inspired by God. But I wonder whether Paul in this cell, was groping in his vocabulary and language for a phrase that would describe what it was to have such a rich relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We would have come up with all the theological phrases of the day, maybe we couldn't have come up with anything, maybe wrote a book on it. Look what he calls it: 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ'. Doesn't that epitomize it all? It sums it all up. That we can have nothing, nothing in this Christian life without Christ. God has blessed us by giving us and by putting us in Christ. There's no stronger identification than to say that we are in Christ. Because it means that Christ is our environment. Like Patrick of old could say, 'Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ beside me, Christ above me, Christ beneath me, Christ in me, Christ outside me'. You see it's more than the indwelling Christ. It's more than the Christ the size of an inch that fits in your heart - but it means that your whole being, your whole existence, your whole environment is Christ.
If you're sure you're in Christ this evening, can I ask you are you living as Christ is your environment? Do the things that you do fit in with Christ around you? With Christ above you? With Christ behind you and before you, seeing all that you - and bringing, as Paul says in Corinthians, Christ into what you are doing? But let us not look at that. Let us look at the security and the controlled ecstasy of knowing that because I am saved, I am anchored in Christ. Praise the Lord! Let's hear it. Praise the Lord for His blessings!
Well here's a strange one: praise the Lord for election. I don't know what all the smiling's about, but verse 4, look at it: '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'. This, believe it or not, is one of the spiritual blessings that we have in Christ. But when you read that, perhaps as a Christian, you wince at the word 'election' - because in our language, election conjures up some ideas in our mind. It suggests merit to us, it suggests value, it maybe even suggests votes - that the person that achieves more will be the person that will be elected. It suggests accomplishment. Well, in the Greek language and within the context of the Old and the New Testament, this word 'chose' in the Greek language is in the aorist tense. That means this: it means that what God is talking about here, how He hath chosen us in Christ, that it is a once for all action, never to be repealed. It has before it in the New Testament in Greek, a prefix, preposition the word 'ek' (sp?), it means 'out of'. So if you put the two together you have this sense, 'chosen once for all out of' - and it is in the middle voice in Greek, which has the sense of choosing for ones self. Put it all together and you get this: chosen out of the world, chosen once for all, chosen to be God's own as a peculiar treasure.
Now we're going to spend a little bit of time understanding this doctrine. What does it mean to be chosen? I've already said that I've tried to deal with too many verses this evening, so what I did was, I took out of the twelve or so verses - eleven - I took two verses, and we're now looking at one verse out of the passage, and that is the literal meaning, that one has been taken out of the many - chosen. Now don't think of this word negatively, because Paul in the language and in the context, literally speaking, of this verse is speaking positively, because he says: 'we are chosen in Him'. He is speaking positionally. We are rooted and grounded in Christ. He speaks chronologically of this choosing: that this choosing was before the foundation of the world. And he also speaks of the purpose of this choosing: that we that are chosen should be holy and without blame in the sight of God.
Now, I want you to praise the Lord for election. And therefore I want you to see this: that the person perhaps you are sitting beside, or the person that has gone on to glory before you, you're life's companion, that is a person that you have chosen to be with you, to go with you all the way of this life. But think of it - wonder of wonders, God has chosen us! He has chosen us to have the atmosphere of love, the atmosphere of kindness, compassion, the atmosphere of His love. And whatever you do - and you may go away this evening not agreeing with what I'm going to teach on this - but whatever you do, go away rejoicing in this fact: that somehow, no matter what way you want to put it, God has chosen you...and you are special to God. You are valued to God, you mean something to God!
But we must deal with the problems that this doctrine portrays for us. If you were to turn - and we haven't time to look at these verses - but if you were to turn to 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, you would find this: that the Bible teaches that God chooses men for salvation. That is in the word of God, 1 Thessalonians 2:13. It also teaches that we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God, 1 Peter 1 verse 2. It then goes on to teach that those who fear and believe the Gospel can know for sure that they are the elect of God in the Christ of God, 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 4 to 7. You can't refute it. You can't get around it, it is there, it may be uncomfortable for our puny minds to think about it, but it's there. But let me say this, the Bible never and nowhere teaches that God chose men to be lost. God never condemns men that deserve to be saved. Did you get that? God never condemns men who deserve to be saved, because there are none.
If I had half a dozen eggs and I got one of the brethren to go up to the choir box there, and he opened a box of eggs and I came below - now many of you might love to do this - but, I came below, and he threw all the half dozen eggs over the choir box and I caught two. What way would you describe what has happened? Would you say David Legge broke four eggs? Did he? David Legge saved two. And in the same way we can never say that God chooses to condemn men, because we are all condemned! We'll all done under sin, lost, all on our way to hell, but God saves some in His mercy.
Now we have to understand this. Let's turn to Romans chapter 9 - looks like I'm not even going to get through these two verses - Romans chapter 9 and verse 22: 'What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction' - speaking of lost Israel - 'and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory', notice the difference verse 22, verse 23. He says that the vessels prepared unto glory were prepared afore time. He doesn't say that of those fitted for destruction. He may choose those that are saved, God prepares them for glory, that is true. But if they're damned, they fitted themselves for it.
Can I say this? Do you see election as a blessing? Now be honest. Because Paul saw it as a blessing, that's why he was coming in praise within this book, he saw it so much. Someone has said that election is one of the most hated doctrines and words of the whole Bible. But the hymnwriters could praise about election, listen to some of them:-