Our lesson this morning is out of Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Let's go before the Lord in prayer. Father God as we enter into this study of your word Father, we thank You that You have given us Your Word as a lamp unto our feet. Father, as we enter into this study, please open the eyes of our understanding that, Father, we might see the riches of Your love towards us, that we might understand Your grace, that, Father, we might be able by your grace and by your mercy to lay hold of the cross of Christ and to realize that it is only by your grace that we can be saved. That it is only by your grace that we can understand your word. Father, our hearts become so filled with pride and so lofty, we think so highly of ourselves. Father, help us to understand this morning that the state of blessedness in which we stand is only made available to us because you loved us first. Father, we ask these things in our Lord Jesus' precious name. Amen. Verse 3 of the epistle to the Ephesians begins with an outburst of praise. I don't know how many of you can think back on the time when you first saw the Grand Canyon, and you looked out over that vast work, that display, and just a small display, really, of God's power. And if you'll look back, you'll probably be able to remember when you first walked to the edge of the rim, all you could say is, wow. You began to look at individual features and point them out. Look at that little canyon over there. Look at the colors. Look, you can see the river down there. All the details began to come out. But at the first viewing of the canyon, you were struck with awe at what God had done. In Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3, This is basically what the Apostle Paul is saying. Wow! Look at what God has done. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Dean Martin Lloyd-Jones says that these first three verses are the overture to the epistle. He says that often times musicians or composers when they write a piece of music, they'll write the music And then they'll go through and they'll pick certain notes out of that composition and they'll build the overture. The overture sort of whets your appetite for what is to follow. And D. Martin Lloyd-Jones says that these first three verses are the overture to the beautiful song of God that we see in Ephesians. The first thing that we see in verse 3 is blessed Be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The blessedness of God is the first thing that Paul calls our attention to. He is proclaiming, blessed be God. He's proclaiming that state of blessedness which we see when we look to understand who God is and what He has done. He says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And these words are mindful of John 20, verse 17. And let me read that briefly to you. In John 20, verse 17, Jesus was speaking And if your pastor would find chapter 20 instead of chapter 17, the verses would leap right out here. In John 20, 17, it says, Jesus said to her, Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God. What was Jesus doing here when he said, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God. What he was doing, Christ Jesus, the Anointed One, God made flesh who had dwelt among us. What he was doing to us, what he's saying to us, is he is identifying with us, his creation. Have you ever seen an adult crouch down and play with a little child and reduce himself to that child's level and they play together? That's what Jesus was doing. is he's saying, I am going to my God and your God. I'm going to my Father and your Father. And yet Christ Jesus in His deity, God's Word says that He created the heavens and the earth. In John 1, we see all things were made through Jesus. There was nothing made that was not made by Him. And yet when He condescended to Mary here, and said, I'm going to my God and your God. What he was doing was he was identifying with man. He was identifying with his creation. He was, as it were, crouching down and explaining things to us. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The next word that we notice in this phrase is our Lord Jesus Christ. Folks, here's the qualifier. If Jesus Christ is not your Lord, go no further. If Jesus Christ is not your Lord, if you're saying, well, Jesus is my Savior, But I'm just not into this Lord business. Have you ever heard that before? It was real popular back in the 70s, and then I guess there's been a resurgence of it. It's what's called the Lordship controversy. It was a fairly popular understanding that you could accept Jesus as your Savior and get heaven insurance, and then someday down the road you could accept Him as your Lord. How many of you folks who are married have told your wife, I'll be your husband five days a week. Now, we'll get down to the weekends later on. Do you think that would float? No. Do you think it floats with God? When people say, I want heaven insurance, I want Jesus as my Savior, but I don't want Him as my Lord? What an insult. Folks, I have seen the results of that theology. I got to perform a funeral one time, and a lot of the young folks that were at that funeral had been a part of this, what's called the Lordship controversy. Walk the aisle, accept Jesus as your Savior, and someday down the road, accept Him as your Lord. I've known many of those young folks for 15 years. And guess what? As I looked out over the young folks at that funeral, There wasn't one of them that I could say had come to know Christ as their Lord. And you know what the awful truth is? If He isn't your Lord, then He isn't your Savior either. If He is not Lord of all, He's not Lord at all. It broke my heart to look at the product of such awful teaching. It broke my heart to look at the product of such an awful deception And I attempted, as I preached that funeral and looked out over those young folks, I attempted to draw their attention to the fact that maybe they weren't saved at all if they didn't have Jesus as their Lord. Our Lord Jesus Christ. Coming back to Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Scripturally, I cannot actually bless God in Hebrews 7 it says beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the greater in other words I can be blessed by God because he is the greater but I really can't bless him God's Word says He changes not. There's nothing that I can add to God. I realize there's several denominations in the world that say that God is basically up in heaven wringing His hands hoping that we'll praise Him. Folks, that's not the God of the Bible. I don't see Him as I read Scripture. I don't see Him in heaven wringing His hands going, Boy, if Chris would just praise me, then I could really be God. Folks, that's not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible can neither be added to nor taken away from. I cannot really bless God, but what I can do is I can proclaim His blessedness. I can recognize His blessedness. Why can I not add to God? Because God the Father is all in all. In Psalms 24 verse 1, God's word says, The earth is the Lord's and all its fullness, the world and all those who dwell in. In verse 2 it says, For He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters. God's Word is filled with examples of how He in His glory cannot be added to nor taken away from. In Nehemiah 9.5, God's Word says He is exalted above all praise and all blessing. The second thing that we see in Ephesians 1.3 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. So the first thing that we saw was the blessedness of God. The second thing that we see is the blessedness of His people. He has blessed us. In the Old Testament and in the New Testament we see several words that are used to convey this thought of blessedness. And what was interesting is there's only two Only two real meanings out of probably six words that are used to convey blessedness, when you look at the meanings of those words, there's really only two meanings. One is a state of happiness. When we say, for example, when Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit, the word used there, makarios, means to be happy. to be in a state of happiness, blessed are the poor in spirit. Then the second meaning that's used in both the Old and in the New Testament is that of being well spoken of. And I wish Dave was here to help me pronounce this, but I believe it's elogail, the word from which we get eulogy. And it means to be well spoken of. And that's where that second meaning is the one which is employed in our scripture this morning. The scripture passage we just read, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. That word, blessed, means well spoken of. You say, well Pastor, God has spoken well of us? You know, what does that mean? Well, if God can speak the heavens and earth into existence, how cool is that, that He has spoken well of us. He has blessed us. He has blessed us. It's a done deal that's in the past tense. He has blessed us. We enjoy those blessings now which God has given to us. We will enjoy those blessings as they are revealed to us. As we begin to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, we will begin to more fully comprehend the state of our blessedness. How many of you have bought a power tool or something along that line where you first began to use it and you didn't really use it to its full capabilities? And then you had somebody come along who really knew how to use that piece of equipment and it impressed you, all the capabilities that were there. Well folks, the blessings that God has given to us In this lifetime, we will never fully understand the capabilities. We'll never fully grasp everything about our state of blessedness. I, years back, bought a metal lathe. And folks would ask me, are you a machinist? And I'd say, no, I've met real machinists. They can do some things with that lathe that I can't even begin to understand. all I can do with my limited knowledge is some very basic actions and folks that's where we're at when it comes to understanding the blessedness which we have in Christ Jesus is until we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ we'll only begin to grasp the tip of the iceberg of how blessed we are. How many of you after several years of marriage or after several years of being around someone whom you loved, as time passed, began to understand more and more of how much that person loved you. I used to think when I was a little kid, yeah, my parents loved me. Then as I grew older, I realized, yeah, I guess they really do love me. When I hit my thirties, I looked back and I said, they really loved me because by all rights, they should have drowned me. But by the grace of God, I came to the understanding that there was more love there than I really grasped. Had their love changed? No. My understanding of it had changed. And folks, our understanding of our blessedness in Christ Jesus will change as we grow in grace and knowledge. He has blessed us. We enjoy those blessings now. We'll enjoy them as they are revealed to us. And folks, we'll enjoy them into eternity. I can't even begin to imagine the state of blessedness that we will be in for an eternity. The nature of these blessings is spiritual. Returning to Ephesians 1.3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. We need to take note as we read through God's Word, we'll find two different types of blessings. We'll find physical blessings and we'll find spiritual blessings. For the most part, physical blessings come under the heading of common grace. I don't know if you're aware of what I mean when I speak of common grace. In Matthew 5.45, Jesus said, the sun rises on the evil and the good. God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and he causes it to rain on the just and on the unjust alike. That's a common grace that God has given to all of us, whether we are in Christ or out of Christ. He makes the sun shine on us. He gives us rain. He gives us various blessings. What we need to understand about those physical blessings is that they are usually transient in nature. Physical blessings are usually transient in nature. I don't know how many of you can think back of when you were in high school and you remember Joe Football Pro. He was all athletic and he was all gifted in his athletic prowess. Usually you see that guy 40 years later and he's more crippled up than you are. You go, wow, what happened here? The blessings are transient in nature. You see folks that are wealthy, and you see them 5, 10, 15 years later, and you see that God has chosen to remove that blessing from them. And you say, wow, how transient that was. Those riches take wings. Physical blessings are oftentimes transient in nature, and the second thing about them is they're not guaranteed by our position in Christ. If being a believer guaranteed a six-figure income or whatever, and they guaranteed that you'd never have arthritis. We'd have to add more pews in the church. But you know what? Being a believer doesn't guarantee physical blessings. And I praise God for that. I praise God that He separates the wheat from the chaff. Those who are pursuing Christ for physical earthly blessings soon find themselves disappointed turn with me if you would to Acts chapter 9 verses 15 and 16 and in Acts chapter 9 this is pretty neat this is the announcement that God gives to Ananias regarding Saul who is about to become Paul It says in verse 15, The Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine, to bear my name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. So far it sounds like Paul's in for quite a bit of fame. In verse 16, it says, For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake. We're called to suffer with him. So, physical blessings, as I said, are usually transient in nature, and they're not guaranteed by our position in Christ. Oftentimes, believers not only suffer just like the world, but oftentimes they suffer more so, because God has chosen to glorify His name in them. In the Gospel of John, we see where a man was born blind. And Jesus' disciples said, well, you know, who sinned? Did he sin or did his parents sin? Jesus said, neither one, but that the name of God would be glorified in him. So as believers, sometimes we suffer even more than those who are in the world. They say, Pastor, so far I've come to church and I've gotten pretty discouraged. When's the good news going to come? The good news is that the nature of the blessings described in Ephesians 1-3, He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. The nature of those blessings is spiritual. They come under the heading of special grace. In the book of Jeremiah, chapter 31, verse 3, God's Word says, The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn you." God's special grace is a love that's not temporary. It's an everlasting love. It's an eternal love. I was talking with a young college student one day, and he just jokingly said that we were talking about relationships with folks of the opposite sex. This young man said he was in search of a meaningful 24-hour relationship. All too often, as far as life goes, our relationships are of short duration. But God's Word says, I have loved you with an everlasting love, an eternal love, a love that's without beginning and without end. God's love towards us is not temporary. The spiritual blessings of which Paul spoke in Ephesians, he speaks of in those blessings he's referring to our relationship with the Father. We're no longer under condemnation, but we've received that spirit of adoption. In Romans chapter 8, we see that we no longer are under this fear, but rather, we have received that spirit of adoption in 8.15, by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. We receive not only a relationship with the Father, but we receive a peace that passes all understanding. Not only do we receive a relationship with the Father and a peace that fills us, we receive a hope. Folks, those are some dismal words when folks say, He's without hope. There is no hope. God's Word tells us that in Christ We have hope. In Romans chapter 5, verses 1-5, God's Word says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. The physical blessings, as I said, All too often are transient in nature, they're not guaranteed to us as believers, but as a believer we have a guarantee of eternal blessings, those spiritual blessings. Now some folks might take issue with my references to common grace versus special grace. I have spoken with folks about God's sovereignty before, and you can see the anger begin to rise. And they say, that's not the God that I believe in. And I say, well, you need to read the Bible and see what God says about Himself, not what some television evangelist says about God or what we want to think about God. But what does God say about Himself? You ever notice that out of all the nations in the world, God chose the nation Israel? And out of all the nation of Israel, God chose the tribe of Levi. And out of all the tribe of Levi, God chose the family of Aaron. And not even all of Aaron's sons made it. We need to understand that all the earth enjoys God's sunshine and His rain and His physical blessings to a certain extent. But He has set aside the Israel of God to receive His special blessing. That same principle, if we look honestly at ourselves, that same principle applies in our own lives. If I go out into the neighborhood here and I see a guy whose car broke down, I'll get behind him and I'll help him push his car up into his driveway. Unless it's my car and he's stealing it, then I wouldn't do that. But I would help him change a flat tire or help him push his car up into his driveway. I want to show God's love towards others, but toward my own children. I provide for them shelter. I prepare for them food. I have a loving relationship with them. That's a comparison of my special grace towards my children as opposed to a common grace towards those out in the world. The next thing that we see in the book of Ephesians as we look at at Ephesians 1.3 is the position of God's people. God's people are in Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. That's the neatest phrase. If you ever want to do a cool Bible study, look up the phrase in Christ. and see the blessings that God has shown us. All you'll get is just a glimpse, just a tip of the iceberg of what we are and the blessings that we have in Christ. And in Christ, ladies and gentlemen, is where we receive the blessings. There are a lot of folks in the world that want to take and have a smorgasbord. I don't know how many of you have met these type of folks, but every once in a while I'll run into somebody who says, I take the best out of this religion and the best out of this religion. It's sort of like going down a buffet line and picking a little bit of this religion and a little of that and a little of the other. Jesus was pretty close minded. Let me say that again. Jesus was pretty close-minded. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He didn't say mark out your own map. He didn't say go over the river and through the woods. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no man comes to the Father but by me in Acts 4.12. We see there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. And not only is Christ the only way, But we cannot come to the Father or be pleasing in the Father's sight unless we abide in Him. In John chapter 15, Jesus didn't say, just check in with me. He said, abide in me. Only if we are in Christ can we expect to receive those blessings. James Durham, Puritan author said, we cannot expect to die in Christ if we have not lived in Christ. What a profound statement. We cannot expect to die in Him if we have not lived in Him. And I know a lot of folks who claim the name of Christ when they're pressed. If you really, you know, get them into a corner and say, do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? They'll say, yeah, yeah, I'm a Christian, you know, leave me alone, let me go. Jesus said, abide in me. abide in me. Not everyone who says Lord, Lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. And we need to understand also if our lives are not in Christ, then our lives are in vain. I know I've referred to the ark before, Noah's ark, but I think that's one of the most easy to understand pictures. I'm a simple person. I like simple explanations. It's a pretty simple explanation. Those who were in the ark were safe from the wrath of God. Those who were outside of the ark perished. Those who are in Christ are safe from the wrath of God. Those who are outside of Christ perish. Like I said, I'm a simple person. Even I can grasp that concept. I know some of you are probably thinking, Pastor, what about the heavenly places in Christ? Ephesians 1.3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. All I can tell you is next week we're going to spend time on the heavenly places in Christ because we cannot even begin to deal with what the heavenlies are about. So I would urge you to come back next Lord's Day. Come and worship with us. I would pray that this would whet your appetite. But I'll give you this. Our citizenship is not here. Our citizenship is in heaven. And unfortunately, many of us, even though we know we're just traveling here on earth, We're having to buy extra suitcases to take back all these souvenirs. So think on that this next week that our citizenship is in heaven. We're going to learn more about the heavenlies if God be willing and gather us together next Lord's Day.