Bible Reading: Ephesians 1:1-14 (Part 1) — Murray McCandless

Reading Ephesians 1:1–14

Where the reading this morning is in Ephesians chapter 1. I'll ask you to turn to that Ephesians chapter 1 brother Cory is already in his opening welcome and his remarks reminded us the need of keeping up our voices and that would include myself because I have a habit of dropping it and people don't hear frustrated in the Bible reading them when people can't hear now we fail to do that.

If you somehow would just raise your hand that means you're not maybe asking a question of you can ask a question that's fine but if you're not hearing please somehow let us know you're not hearing for the sake of repeating it for whatever it might be.

And the brethren to my immediate left and right I am going to ask them to even though they may think they are shouting at my ear to keep the voices up. That's quite often what happens nervousness here we'll be all right that and our brother Cory mentioned in his opening remarks about the many levels of this building and I'm going to remind you of many levels of this Bible reading and we're going to keep everybody at one level.

So if you get a little too deep I'm gonna bring you up you up there too. I'm gonna bring you down. We're gonna be maybe on different streets at times but we're gonna be in the same community. Okay. And I'm gonna also ask these brethren to not be too hard on me this morning for the simple reason that I really didn't ask for this job.

I was good at it. I didn't fish for it. I didn't write and say where's your Bible and who's taking it? I was asked to take the reading and I was invited to the conference and I appreciate they've invited me before the purpose of being here and brother Scott McLeod and I certainly appreciate the opportunity to be with you for your conference a real privilege.

And by that I don't mean that I'm not thankful to the brethren for considering me when it comes to the opening of it but just so you understand. And with that mind we'll start. I'm going to read Ephesians chapter 1 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 grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ according as he had 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 the children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace where he hath made us accepted in the beloved and 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 had purposed in himself that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are on earth even in him in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation whom ye also in whom also after that you believed you were sealed with that holy spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchase possession under the praise of his glory.

Paul’s Prayer for Spiritual Understanding

That doxology really ends there. And then verse 15 says wherefore. And I will just read the remaining verses though they are not really before they make it into them some which is leave that verse 15 says wherefore.

In other words in view of that I also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all saints cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and sent him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power might dominion every name that his name not only in this world and have put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church which is the body the fullness of him that filleth all in all.

Now just I will try to keep the opening as brief as I can because I have to admit I'm a little severe sometimes on long openings. You know you give almost another thing in the reading. You know it's not a sermon.

I'm asking. Well I'm catching my breath better to fill in. It's a Bible reading. I really have written ten rules for good readings. I've never had the courage to send them Scott a copy maybe. But that was it.

But there are there are rules for good readings so we're going to try and abide by that this morning which is where they do. Of course in other readings along with the Colossians Philippians and Philemon Ephesians is one of the so-called prison epistles.

Ephesus and the Setting of the Epistle

I think that's likely known to all which imprisonment maybe has been questioned but I think likely it was the first given to us written about AD 60. You know Ephesus was not founded really till after the Glacian Church and the European churches built by Thessalonians Thessalonica and of course Corinth.

Now the people were there. Many of them were slaves some of them were traitors their business people. Some of them were doctors some of them were very learned. So there was quite a multiplicity of levels of which the people are really being addressed.

We sometimes might not think that when we think of the the language of the structure of the epistle itself but they wear that these are truths that they were expected of course to enjoy as they would read this now I have not passed out or pre printed a outline of the reading as such.

Likely for one of two reasons. One is that after verse number three it is a doxology that takes us where the brethren wants to go. As far in this reading is verse 14. So I think it was most profitable.

Just profitable just go verse by verse by verse. And secondly I think I often say outlines are wonderful things. But as soon as I sit down that's usually the first thing to get the permanent wave is the outline.

It's gone. We all just carry on. There's nothing wrong with that. Yet printed outlines sometimes are helpful for people just to know where we're going. However I think most understand a very simply it's been pointed out that the Ephesian epistle is in two divisions chapters 1 to chapter 3.

Of course it is doctrinal in chapter 4 to chapter 6 it is practical. Chapter 1 to chapter 3 it's the believers wealth. And indeed it is that when we come to chapter 4 to chapter 6 it is the believers walk.

It's interesting but the key to both of these sections are the first verses that you read right here in chapter 1 and again the first verses that you will read in chapter 4. If I was to give a very simple simple my own little division of the chapter I would see with the salutation what you've got here is really the presentation of persons.

And we'll notice that we'll notice how he addresses these Ephesian believers in the language that he uses verses 4 to 14 we have praise for possessions what we've come into the good of inheritance. The things that we enjoy they are things that we enjoy relative to our state and our standing in Christ.

Of course as you know from verses 15 to 23 it is a prayer for perception. It is likely the longest outflowing of praise in form of a doxology that you have of the Apostles writings anywhere are in these verses that we will consider this morning.

You know he looks at it as a body as a building as a bride. He looks first at a body that cannot be dismembered. Okay he looks at it in its entirety. He's considering what we look at as the church in its wide aspect.

I know some don't like the term universal doesn't really bother me. But the church in its widest aspect. Now there's times of course when he's keeping in mind who he's writing to he's writing to Ephesian believers and has in mind likely that local company.

But in the broad aspect of the widest aspect of the epistle he is thinking of course of the church which is his body. He considers it not only as a body that cannot be dismembered but a building he says that cannot be destroyed.

He says this building cannot be destroyed just as the body is something that is living. This building is something that's lasting. And then of course he considers and if we were to go to chapter 5 he's thinking of a bride that cannot be divorced.

And that is something that is loving the Ephesian epistle answers really to to Joshua our blessings and our battles are in the heavenlies in a sense. And it is the thought of entering into the good of the possession of the land that that God had given to his people will notice in this chapter verses 5 9 and 11.

In verse 5 the pleasure of his will. Verse 9 the mystery of his will. In verse 11 the counsel of his will. And when we get to those verses we'll maybe consider just what he has in mind when he prefaces them by those different expressions.

You know there's so much more I guess I really could give you in the way of opening but I think that that's the place I think we need to keep going here because it will take our time. I spoke to the brethren and I think it is a good idea likely at about 15 minutes past the hour 1115 I will give a short hymn and we'll stand just to keep everybody's circulation going good and rest us.

And if you fall asleep we will wake you up and tell you that we're speaking a hymn. That will likely be somewhere around 1115. So with those few remarks and like I say there's much else we could go into but I don't want to make the opening long.

We'll commence and like I say we appreciate and would encourage the participation of brethren here this morning that would be glad to ask in the form of a question or contribute to the reading. I didn't go by a Cabello store this morning.

If I had I likely would have picked me up a canoe with some paddles that if this thing got me I could have it over my head. I could make my way to shore where it is much safer much drier. But we're not really too concerned about that.

The Church as God’s Building in Ephesus

But we will start then in verse number one. Now if somebody has something they would like to say as to the overall of the epistle that's fine. That's interesting enough brother a relationship between Romans and this epistle isn't there both of them emphasizing God's work on behalf of man and what is for God's glory.

I would think that in Romans that the emphasis is the grace of God and the gospel reaching man in his guilt and justifying him delivering him complacently before God in acceptability here in this epistle God's in his great God and his grace and purpose reaching man in his deadness his inability and bringing him into the place of acceptability in Christ and giving him life.

And of course both are unfolding to us the purposes of God being worked out by the power of God and ultimately for the pleasure of God so that it's centered on his purpose of what is for his pleasure into which we've been brought into by means of blessing.

That's very helpful brother Joel. And I'm glad you mentioned that ultimately with all the blessings that we have and that we can enjoy it is first to his pleasure and when it is to his pleasure his delight then our enjoyment soon follows from that.

Just uh just an introductory comment. I think it's interesting as you you said brother the book of Ephesians is taken up with God the body of Christ worldwide every believer from Pentecost up until rapture.

And of course as you go through the epistle of the Hebrew Ephesians you're going to find that it's the building the habitation of God. So you think of what was in the city of Ephesus the temple to Diana.

It was over 200 years in building. You think of the architecture and all that sort of stuff. And it was one of the seven wonders of the world. Lift your voice up lift it one of the seven wonders of the world.

Dramatic. Yeah. And and people came from all over to see this temple. Now you think of people that were saved out of that system. What do they have. Well he starts to lay out God's building. Forget about the architecture and the design of this earthly temple.

It will never last. You get occupied with this God's building going to be eternal. So I think the contrast is very interesting.

Very good thanks. Okay to add to that too Scott. Back in Acts 19 when there was the uproar in Ephesus the town clerk reminded them that they had the goddess Diana and the image had fallen from Jupiter so they had some consciousness of things beyond them.

But this epistle what we're going to be looking at is that every Christian is blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenless in the heavenly places. So what the believers in Ephesus were being immediately reminded of is they had something far exceeding anything that that city had been absorbed with.

Before in relation to the significance of the church being looked upon in the big aspect the universal aspect that is something really that only God can see isn't it. I mean it has never yet been together in one place.

At one time it is a it is a concept that set out in the word of God and the first time that we will all be together is at the moment of the rapture. So this is God's view of it that we're looking at in Ephesians.

Very good. Just on a very practical note. And I appreciate that brother William. Yet the whole church being together at one time you know you think of it unless it is maybe a smaller assembly with six or eight believers.

And of course our thinking is well that has to count. So everybody has to be there. But how how few times. And I only speak from home. And it is no fault of necessarily the believers. Um but how few times does that local church come together as was expected for first Corinthians with all I speak in the local sense all the churches gathered together.

Okay. I mean nothing. I'm thinking of Miriam. Uh I'm thinking of uh Michigan different places here. The whole church isn't lovely. I think very few times but I've watched this particularly when the whole church had come together everybody was there.

Nobody's working nobody's sick. They were there. Now we have people in their homes that can't make it same as back home. But it's something nice about that. I appreciate that brother Slaybaugh. Did you have something at this point I was noticing that we have the role of the father the role of the son.

Right. And the role of the spirit here chosen by the father redeemed by the son and sealed by the spirit. Very good. This I was gonna just mention something about the will of God Paul being an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.

And I'm sure you had something of that relative to the fact that it wasn't his own choosing. That's right. Marvelous grace of God to this man and bringing him where he was to what he is going to do. Right.

So what brother Al is telling us is that the will of God Paul mentions he could now see that in his own experience. Now here's something future in their experience that will be attributed not to their will but the will of God.

Appreciate that Paul was a an apostle. What is an apostle. That's what we got you here. You can get them on a simple definition of an apostle. I understand it to be a sent one Paul a sent one of Jesus Christ through the will of God.

And Acts chapter 9 Ananias was told that he is a chosen vessel unto me. So God had earmarked Paul if you will for the work that he had appointed for him to do the apostle to the Gentiles to take the gospel to the Gentile nations.

Does he not choose all believers and have purpose for each of us to I recognize that Paul was a specially chosen uh to be used of God in a remarkable way. But are we not all chosen. Yes. Yes I can accept that.

And he goes on to speak of the saints which are Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus to the saints now that is not always necessarily a term that is in keeping with our conduct. It is more maybe with our state our standing.

He addresses the Corinthian church the same way and we know the behavior there was different but becoming saints but he still addresses them here as as saints. And then he speaks of the faithful and I don't think it's the thought of trust what was trustworthy.

But he's really speaking of their conversion or what you and I have been brought to by God's grace by God's purposes we have. We have to speak up a little. Let's project our voices this way. Okay. Thanks in this section.

Of course as you've seen as we've been noticing that it emphasizes God's work towards us. It would only be in keeping that he's emphasizing Paul is of course that he is a apostle by the will of God and also that the saints are that because of God's calling and they're marked by being full of faith.

That is not that they're faithful in a sense of a personal they should be of course faithful. We should be trustworthy. We should be true to the calling. But it's the thought that they are linked with salvation and as a result they are full of faith.

They have put their confidence in Christ and they're brought into that blessing as a result. Very good. What's emphasizing primarily that positional aspect. I believe as you've been saying so he's not addressing two different.

Categories of believers at Ephesus. This is the character of every believer they are a saint in position and characterized thus by faithful living. So just highlight that one point saints.

The world the religious world around us will try to tell us that once you're you die then there's a number of years in the process and then you're you're sink you become a saint but the minute you're born again say you are a saint so don't let anyone ever take that from you.

Clearly what the word of God teaches. He's writing to living people here not dead people. Very good. We'll move to verse two. Verse number two grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace, Peace, and the Believer’s Spiritual Blessings

Now it is interesting that when he begins the epistle he speaks of grace and then peace. Grace of course must first be manifest in the life as a result of conversion of a result of repentance and faith in Christ.

Following that comes a piece that we can enjoy. But it is interested when he comes to the end of the epistle chapter six likely the second last verse he now reverses that order. He says peace and he speaks about grace.

So we're on verse number two and appreciate your help. Grace is used is a word that is used by the way 13 times in this epistle alone 13 times is the word grace. I think that likely I didn't really look up.

I think that likely exceeds any other epistle or book in our bible. Grace would be linked with the gentile believers. I know it's linked with all believers but in particular with the gentiles. And peace would be a jewish connection jewish greece shalom and so on.

So right here in the salutation jew and gentile are addressed grace be to you. You know very briefly when I think of an old testament picture just to allow if you allow this I think of Mephibosheth of whom it is said concerning David that he wanted to show the kindness unto him.

But but he goes beyond that he speaks of the kindness of God and the word that is used there is the similar word to the word grace that is used in our new testament. Now David was a kind man but that man Mephibosheth needed a kindness that exceeded that of a David.

So he speaks of the kindness of God the reason God could come out in kindness through David to Mephibosheth it involved the death of a loved son Jonathan had died and as a result of that David says he wants to show kindness under the house of Saul.

And that resulted in a message being sent to a man that that was an enemy that had no claim upon David's place or David's table or anything. Him receiving that message obeying it makes his way or is taken to David's house and again falls on his face acknowledging that he was not worthy not worthy to even be there such a dead dog as I am and so on.

But my point is this before this took place before Mephibosheth knew anything about it. There was conversation that took place where the king was and there were plans that were made there and the result of those plans were realized Mephibosheth knowing nothing about it.

But it's interesting David could bring him to that table and remember they talk about serving. You make him a servant but you never make him a son. And so we'll see how that the grace of God has exceeded that in our own experience as we move through the epistle now I know that you're going to come up and it's going to come a little later about the truth of election whether it was that which is corporate or that which is individual and so on.

But we'll we'll deal with that we have to do it. But we are in verse number two and appreciate any more that I'd like to suggest brother that grace of course is being expressed in what God is unfolding to us the result of his eternal purpose as you mentioned in relation to and also as we acknowledge in each one of our lives we don't deserve even the least of what God has begun to bestow upon us.

But the word peace here is a word that is the idea of spiritual prosperity and that would link with what he is telling us has been given to us the spiritual blessings every spiritual blessing not just some but every possible spiritual blessing that has brought us the eternal and present spiritual prosperity that we have in our relationship with the Lord Jesus.

The Trinity and the Doxology of Ephesians 1

The deity of the Lord Jesus is emphasized in in verse two or at least it's found there because this comes from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. The very structure of the sentence is indicating the equivalence in terms of authority of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ they are equal.

Right. So that leads him to this verse number three where he starts out now with this doxolian blessing be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

And you'll notice that the places is the supplied word is in the italics like in most bibles. So it is in the in the heavenly and really places as I understand is maybe not in the original. So he ascribes all praise to God and identifies God as even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So clearly two distinct persons. That's right. There is even in this state a resurgence in some places of the idea of a Unitarian God just one person manifested in three different ways. But the Bible clearly teaches three persons in the Godhead.

That's right. Very good. So so the word God would emphasize his manhood and the Father would emphasize his sonship. Would you agree with that point. The the word God would emphasize the the manhood of the Lord Jesus and then Father would emphasize his deity his sonship.

So you got both aspects are brought in even if you were to look at the way he uses the terms in verse one Jesus Christ. And now in verse uh two the end of verse two he moves to Lord Jesus Christ. Well you got a resurrected savior now.

And that's where the grace and the peace is coming from. The book of Hebrews says that the less is blessed of the greater. So how come in verse three Paul is saying blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In what sense I had taken it brother William that he is going back to the um God as the originator if I could use that word as the one who first brought this about. Okay. And then we know him first as God then as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who had blessed us.

No I'm not taking from it the the triune God here as we appreciated the absolute deity of the persons mentioned but I just uh appreciate it that way. What did you. It's it's the word eulogy isn't it. And we're familiar with that to speak well of.

And it is it is it is Paul here by the spirit of God speaking well of God the Father praising him. So it's not inappropriate to say in prayer we bless God. Right. No. Very good. You can bless God. It's interesting that in one verse in verse three we have the word blessed in three different forms.

The first one is an adjective God is most blessed. He is the possessor of every blessing. He is worthy of all blessing. Then he has blessed us. That's the verb and that is the result of his outpouring of grace and kindness toward us we have been blessed.

And then the last one he's given us every spiritual blessing. That's the noun so that every facet of blessing is pertaining to him and his expression of what he has done for us. And so he's brought us into that sphere to enjoy the blessings that come from himself.

Who is the blesser worthy of all blessing. You mentioned in your uh mechanics mentioned in his opening comments that the book of Joshua answers or the book of Ephesians answers to Joshua their blessings was all materialistic.

They were physical uh our blessings. And and in a sense if this if Hebrew if Ephesians chapter one doesn't make me worship I don't know what will. That's right. Very good. I appreciate that brother Al.

And that is true with the nation with Israel their blessings were earthly they were tangible. Now that does not mean they did not have as well spiritual blessings that they were in to enjoy as a result of that but primarily that's how they come to appreciate them.

However when we come to our day this day of his grace the blessings which we have been blessed are in heaven because they are spiritual blessings. And enjoying those spiritual blessings works almost in the reverse of Israel.

It helps us to enjoy the temporal things because we realize that all these blessings flow from God the father God who is the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So in verse number three why does he use spiritual and heavenly.

Are they different. What's what is he trying to bring out there. Well I think with just what has been discussed that the spiritual is is the thought that uh first of all there had to be this link with God and with the father Lord Jesus.

Uh there had to be salvation there had to be the new birth to enjoy these things in the heavenly. That is the spiritual enjoyment of what we've been brought into by his grace. Okay. Well I was just thinking the spiritual is in contrast to the physical.

An awful lot of people get saved and they don't have a very good physical existence but they are fully blessed spiritually. And that's going to be unfolded as he goes through this chapter and then when he comes to the heavenly the heavenly and as you rightly said places is not in the original but it's contrasting what is of the earth and what is of the heavens.

So temporary permanent coming from a risen head in the heavens spiritual in we all have the moment of conversion yet we haven't come to the end of the verse.

Is how in what manner can God bless us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. It's in Christ and there's the emphasis and I think we have most of us will appreciate the the terms in Christ as a positional uh truth that's where a believer is by the moment.

At the moment of taking Christ as Savior he's in Christ and by virtue of that God if I can just say it lightly keeps everything else on. So in Christ is acceptability position. When you read in the Lord in the New Testament it's the idea not so much of acceptability but responsibility.

And the practical aspect of your life so so in the heavenlies it's a plural word in the heavenlies is where the Lord Jesus Christ is right now. And we have been raised up together and made to sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

So by virtue of the fact that he is there we are in him and therefore in the heavenlies in God's sight where our spiritual blessings.

Election, Security, and the Believer’s Position in Christ

Are in Christ. Very good but not just that. Then William the emphasis comes that we are secure. That's right. The only way sad though many would promote it the only way a Christian could ever have his salvation affected is to protect Christ and that's beyond even consideration.

You know going back to the Old Testament again Joab and Abner it's interesting. Abner never comes into the city but Joab knew enough of this. He knew that as long as David was in the city regardless of Abner's past he was safe.

All he had to do was declare his case before the elders throw himself on the mercy of David or whatever David did would be right. But David could make him safe even though the law could David could. So that what we enjoy today is because of where he is.

He's in the heavenly place. He's there. And because he's there I'm there with him and I can enjoy the safety and the security and all these blessings that we are now going to consider in verse number four as a result of where he is.

So I enjoy those blessings in real time right now as a believer in Christ. Yes I've been blessed with every blessing. Yes and and kind of distinction to that we live in a modern evangelical world that speaks about you come to know Christ and whatever terms they use in these.

And then suddenly you know you don't have a visa that comes due anymore. You don't have house payments. It's all wealth. And it's all this and that brethren it is so consistent with what this bible teaches.

And some of us have seen people that have succumbed to that and they never really were saved and their expectations were never ever realized as a result. So the first of these blessings now that we've been thinking about is the one that is mentioned in verse four divine choice of the believer.

Divine Choice and Holiness

Right. And I appreciate that brother John we have been brought now to verse number four according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.

So that one of these blessings is the fact that there has been a choice that has been made now. Unfortunately the first choice that man made was a wrong choice. And the last choice that man will make in revelation chapter 20 is a wrong choice.

It is a choice to to to disobey God and to to really rebel against God. That really is what happens at the beginning of our bible. So man when it comes to a choice doesn't have a good track record. But God is perfect.

God has made no mistakes. Remember the Lord Jesus when he had to remind his disciples have not I chosen you. Now if we were not then the disciples we likely would have uh picked out different ones that thought what are you picking for now.

I know you're leaving Judas aside for a minute. I'm not really going to set the subject of the of the uh of the reading. But you know even as believers sometimes you know we have to keep that in mind that God has made choice of us.

And uh it helps us not only to appreciate what God has done but causes worship from our hearts to realize. Well well my why me. It's like it before we were saved. You know sometimes people will say to us as gospel preachers when people get concerned they say well why won't God save me.

Well why would he. Why would he. God owes salvation to nobody. And we're going to touch a little on that. And God has never ever put under obligation. Okay. And you cannot. Nobody's going to convince me that because a person claims he's the left that he can do as he like and God's under some obligation to save him.

That's not what this book teaches. It's not there so. But he does say according as he had chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. So brother murray you mentioned that man's first choice was wrong.

And at the end of the bible the choice is wrong. Who is just as well every choice in between. That's right. Man left to himself will always choose against God always. There is none that doeth good. There is none that seeketh after God.

Man left to himself is a wreck. A ruined wreck can never reach the shore. And just i appreciate that. But there is one choice that we can make between those two as the choice for christ. That's what moses believes with the people.

Is it. Uh it's got to be in deuteronomy 33 there about choose life that both thou and i see may live make a right choice. He knew those people would make a wrong choice. They did. They made a wrong choice.

But there was caleb and there was the joshua. Of course that right choice. We're looking at people today. And the choice did not save us. Thank god for his grace that somewhere along the line we made a right choice.