Book of Ephesians - Ch. 1, Vs. 1-4 (06/17/2001)

Brother David and I decided to take the book of Ephesians. He'll teach from it next

Sunday, and I teach this Sunday. Ephesus was a great city.

It was here that they had the temple to Diana, a marvelous thing.

Some 200 columns around it. How they built it,

I don't know. But it was eventually destroyed and built back.

Then destroyed again. And some of the marble columns moved to other places.

And it lays in ruins today. We take up the reading now as Paul addresses these people.

He says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ.

He tells us his name very first thing. I like that. I wish everybody would do that.

We get letters at home from family, and I don't know who they're from unless I look at the last.

B can tell by their writing, but I can't. He is an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God.

John, what does that mean, by the will of God? It is the will of God.

All right. Each one of us do things.

You did things yesterday that prepared you for today. You'll do things today that will prepare you for tomorrow.

And it seems like we decide, and rightly so, because we have to answer for our deeds.

Here, Paul knows that he is an apostle by the will of God.

He is writing to the saints at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.

Now Clarence, that would include who, the last phrase? And to the faithful in Christ Jesus.

All right. All believers of all ages, wherever you are, this is written to you.

Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the

Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he makes a distinction between the two. God the

Father and Lord Jesus Christ. He is Lord of who? Debbie?

Of us. He's our Lord. Grace always comes first.

It's hard to have peace without grace. It's impossible to have peace without grace.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ.

I want you to notice the little word, hath. H -A -T -H. Roger, what does that word mean?

Hath. All right, it's done.

Fred? All right.

Do you see that? Have you realized that? He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings.

That means it's already done. John, you're not going to get any more blessings.

You'll learn how to use what you have, perhaps what you haven't used, but you have it.

We have all blessings and spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ.

Now, we have this, Greg, but only in Christ.

So who's he talking to? Right. He's directly talking to the

Ephesians, but it includes us. We have right now all the blessings we will ever have.

How do we know that? There's things that will happen tomorrow that I haven't experienced yet, but I have the blessing.

It's already passed. God's done it all. Everything's finished, complete.

It boggles my mind when I think of He has gone into eternity, future, and past, and has prepared everything for us.

Now, Jesus used the same term. God and Father of our

Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to John 20, 17.

And, Greg, will you read that, please? Jesus said to her, go to my brother.

All right. Why did he say, my father and your father? To my

God and your God. All right.

The God in whom we are called upon to trust and to whom we're able to look as a source of all good is not the absolute

Jehovah, nor the God who stood in a special relation to the Israelites, but the

God of redemption. The God whom the Lord Jesus revealed, whose will he came to accomplish, and who was his

Father. It is this relationship which is the ground of our confidence.

It is because Christ has sent the Lord Jesus into the world, because, did

I say Christ? I meant God. It is because God has sent the

Lord Jesus into the world, because he spared not his own son, that he is our

God and Father, or that we may have access by him to such a one.

What does the word access mean? Greg?

Well, what does the word mean? Debbie?

It means more than that. Joy? Life. All right, but it means more than that.

Diane, what does the word access mean? Do, do

I? All right. All right.

We have access, let's take an earthly term, access to the

President by someone that knows the President and knows you. We'll have access to the

Queen of England by someone that knows her and knows you. So we have access to the

God Father by Jesus Christ, because he knows you and he knows the

Father. You understand? Access. It is therefore in Christ, as united to him in the covenant of redemption, that the people of God are elected to eternal life and to all the blessings therewith connected.

All of the blessings, I like that. Election. This election is from eternity.

Now, how can it be from eternity? All right, you have been alive in him from eternity, to eternity, forever.

You can't escape it. You are in him. Now, you didn't know it for a while after you were born, but you are in him.

According, this is according now, 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.

According, according to what, Greg? All right. According to his will, he has chosen us in him.

Now, Jesse, he has chosen us.

What does the word chosen bring to mind? All right, this is a choice that was never made.

It is presented to us that way because there are other people in the world. But if you go back to eternity, well, let's come a little bit further.

Come to the Garden of Eden. There were in him, if Adam had not sinned, the only people that would have been born were

Christians, children of God. Genesis 3 .15,

Satan come with his crowd, so it has to seem as though God chose us rather than choose someone else.

But he didn't. We've always been with him. The word chosen is an earthly term that we understand.

He did not pick you out and not pick him and picked him and him and not them.

It wasn't like that. That's the way man chooses. That's the way you used to choose when you were in school.

You'd choose, choose upsides. But here, it's not told that we come from him in Genesis.

It is told that the seed of Satan started at the point in 3 .15.

So according as he has chosen us in him, Greg, we've always been in him.

He chose us in him. We're not outside of him.

We're not along with him, beside him. We're in him. Now, the

Bible tells us that you must be born again.

Jesus told Nicodemus, you must be born again. Well, Nicodemus could see only the earthly side of that because he wasn't responding to spiritual.

If he was able to be born again of a woman, he would carry the same characteristics of his parents.

So, this is not a rebirth. It's a new birth.

It carries the characteristics of God. This took place before and before me and what?

Fred? Before?

David, what does before mean? Alright, in front of, before, prior to, before and it took place before the foundations of the world.

Now, the foundation was what part of the world? Probably the smallest thing that makes up life.

Before there was ever any of that. When, when can you say the foundation of the world took place,

Charlie? I don't know if I can. I can't. You're not supposed to ask the teacher a question.

I ask lots of questions I don't know the answer to until you answer it. The foundation.

I don't know when it started. Nobody knows when it started. But it come out of God. All things come out of God.

Before the foundation of the world. I have some scripture I'd like for you to look up.

Greg, go to Luke 1, 75. Bea, go to Romans 8, 28.

Debbie, Ephesians 2, 10. John, Ephesians 5, 27.

Joy, 1 Corinthians 1, 22. Bill, 1

Thessalonians 4, 7. June, 2 Thessalonians 2, 13.

Clarence, 2 Timothy 1, 9. Diane, 2

Thessalonians 2, 12. 2, 12.

No, that's Titus 2, 12. George, James 2, 5.

Mary Ann, 1 Peter 5, 2. And Brandon, 1

Peter 2, 9. Alright, Greg.

Alright, that's where we are and who we are. Romans 8, 28.

Romans 8, 28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love

God, to them who are the cause of working together. My goodness.

Boy, that's something that's just basic. We know that. Everything's working together. He works everything together.

Now, Ephesians 2, 10. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus with work, which

God hath before ordained that we should walk in it.

He ordained our very work. Did you realize that you could have no work to do, that you would never see the benefits of work if it were not given to you?

Everything's been given to us. 2 Timothy 1, 9.

What? Yes.

Who read that?

Debbie? Debbie? I turned two pages, excuse me.

Yeah. Alright, Ephesians 5, 27.

That he might present to himself a glorious bunch of people, the church, without spot or wrinkle.

What does it take to get wrinkles out of a piece of material,

Charlie? Heat. Heat. And what else?

What else? Pressure. It's all pressure. With a hot iron. Now, yes, have any of you been under a hot iron today?

1 Corinthians 1, 22. No, 1

Corinthians 1, 22. Well, I had to get this from two places and it may be wrong.

In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight.

Unreprovable. What in the world does that mean, David? Unreprovable in his sight.

Alright. Now, 1 Thessalonians 4, 7. Well, God has not called us.

So he's called us unto holiness, not uncleanness. 2

Thessalonians 2, 13. Debbie, what did you have?

Did you read it? I not only can't hear,

I can't see. Now, 2

Timothy 1, 9, is that what you read? Yes. Yes. He has called us with what kind of calling?

A holy calling. It's got to be holy if it's from him. Not according to whose works?

Ours. Not according to what we are. He sees no man's face.

He gives nothing, no weight to what you are in the world.

But according to his own purpose. Not our purpose, his purpose.

Grace was given to us in Christ Jesus. So the grace was given to us in who?

Christ Jesus. When? Before the world began.

Can you grasp that? Titus 2, 12.

Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldliness.

I hope we do that. Oh, I hope we do. We should live soberly or righteously.

Now, James 2, 5. It's a promise made to us.

Does God make promises lightly? No. God's promises are the same as what?

Same as done. 1 Peter 2, 2. Did I get it?

Is that 2, 2? Well, I want 2, 2. No, I got another one wrong.

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Through sanctification of the

Spirit. Unto obedience and sprinkling of blood of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you and peace be multiplied.

According to the foreknowledge of God. Does God have foreknowledge? Yes. But he doesn't have foreknowledge or he'd have to have afterknowledge.

He's all knowledge. He's all knowledge. But it's foreknowledge according from our viewpoint.

Because he knew ahead of time David was going to be here. Now, one more.

See if I got this right. 1 Peter 2, 9. But you are a chosen generation.

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. The purpose of election is very comprehensive.

It is the purpose of God to bring his people to holiness. Yes. Is that what you understand the purpose of God is?

To bring his people to holiness. Sonship.

And eternal glory. He never intended to do this irrespective of Christ.

He always intended to use Christ. On the contrary, it was his purpose as revealed in scripture.

To bring his people to these exalted privileges through a redeemer.

It was in Christ as their head and representative.

They were chosen to holiness and eternal life. And therefore in virtue of what he was to do in their behalf.

Everything he has ever done has been for what purpose? His glory.

Now involved in that is us. Bringing us.

We have to be holy. We have to come. All these blessings have their source in the election of love of God.

The election. That's not a bad word. Say it. Election. Say it louder.

That's it. There seems to be two things involved.

By the reference to eternity of divine purpose. The one is to represent God as doing everything in time according to a preconceived plan.

Or as working all things after the counsel of his own will. We have scripture that will support that.

From eternity the whole scheme of redemption with all of its details. And in all of its results lay nurtured in the divine mind.

Hence everything is certain. There is no possibility either of failure or of any change in purpose.

Can you pray and change God's mind? Can you pray and get him to do something?

The eternity of God's purpose is therefore a strong ground of confidence and comfort.

A strong ground of confidence and comfort. The other is to express the sovereignty of the divine purpose.

The grace was given to us before we existed. Do you believe that?

Before the world began. Do you believe that? And of course before we had done any good or evil.

Do you believe that? Have to be, wouldn't it? Therefore, not for works of righteousness which we have done.

But according to his mercy he saved us. Not according to your works,

Verge. Whether good or bad. But he saved you according to his own purpose.

But according to his mercy he saved us. If one, if the one aspect of the truth that God chose us before the foundation of the world.

Is adapted to produce confidence. The other aspect is no less adapted to produce humility.

We should be so thankful. We must be so thankful. We ought to every one get down on their knees.

And thank God that I was included in the chosen.

I think we'll stop there. To be included in the redeemed.

Having predestinated. David, we'll start with that for you. Well, let me read it.

Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself.

According to the good pleasure of his will. It's the only reason he did it. Was according to the good pleasure of his will.

All right. Any questions?

Well, we'll stand and be dismissed. Burge, would you dismiss us please. Thank you.