God's Word from Ephesians chapter 1. The text that we're considering tonight will be verses 3 through 6, those four verses, but we will read from verse 1 through verse 14. This is the very Word of God. Give your close and reverent attention, Ephesians chapter 1, beginning at verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus 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, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence. having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, in him in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory in him you also trusted as you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise who is the guarantee of our inheritance and to the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory says the word of our God and God's people said Please be seated and let us once again come to our God in prayer. Let's pray. Lord our God, we again call upon you, recognizing our need for your spirit. We need your spirit now to assist us. We need your spirit to assist the one who exhorts, who brings your word. We need your spirit to assist those who listen. Open my mouth. Open our ears. Pray that the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts would be pleasing, would be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and redeemer. Hear us in Jesus' name. Amen. Children, I am confident, I'm certain that you all love your grandparents. I'm certain too that you love your parents, right? Right? You love your parents. You love your grandparents. They do a lot for you. They give you a lot of things. And you know that. But sometimes you have to be reminded Don't you? Sometimes you need to be reminded to say thank you. Sometimes you need to be reminded of all of the things that your parents and grandparents do for you. Now children, I want you to listen. Children, are you listening? Good. I want you to know that you're not the only ones that sometimes need to be reminded. You're not the only ones that need to be reminded of the good things that others have done for us. We all need to be reminded at times that there are certain people who we appreciate, and we know that we appreciate them, and we're pretty certain that they know that we appreciate them. But we still need to be reminded that we must show our appreciation for them. And so this is the case. In the verses that we're considering tonight in Ephesians 1, verses 3-6, Paul begins his instruction to us by reminding us that we must bless the Lord our God. But he doesn't just remind us that we must do that, he reminds us why it is. that we must bless the Lord our God. It is as though you were reminded, as though your parents said to you, remember that gift that your grandparents gave you? Remember that book that you love so much? That came from your grandmother. That came from your grandfather. Remember that. They love you very much and they show that love to you in that gift and such gifts like that. Don't forget to tell them how much you love them. Husbands, remember that. That's something as well that we often need to be reminded of. That we must continue to express, oh, we're certain our wives know that we love them. But we often need to be reminded to express to them why. Not just that, but why we appreciate them. And so Paul sets out to us spiritually a reminder to praise God and why it is that we should bless Him. I remind you that when we first looked at Ephesians, we just considered the first two verses, but in the course of looking at those first two verses, We had something of an overview of the whole book. The first three chapters, Paul sets forth what we call an indicative. The who we are. He establishes who we are. The first three chapters really don't have what we call an imperative. They don't have a command to us contained in those first three chapters. Those chapters set before us who we are. You say that you belong to the body of Christ. This then, Paul says, is who you are. And then, flowing out of the who you are, the last three chapters of Ephesians set before us what we must do. Because of who you are, this is what you must do. But now, as he embarks on the who you are, that indicative He starts with a call to us, demonstrating to us the abundant blessings that establish who we are. The abundant blessings that come from God, the abundant blessings that he sets out in verses 3 through 14, set for us the foundation of who we are. Who we are is because we've been blessed by God. And so Paul sets out, in the verses tonight, the beginning of the abundant blessing. And I want you to see tonight the abundant blessings that are yours as a believer in Christ and, consequently, I want you, having been reminded of that, to give God all praise and glory for those blessings. Tonight we're just considering the first portion of the abundant blessings that he lays out. verses three through six, and we'll consider those in three headings. First, our obligation, and then the basis of our obligation in our election and the purpose of our election. Our obligation, our election, and the purpose of our election. First, God's blessings to us obligate us. to bless God. God's blessings to us obligate us to bless God. Paul begins with this, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not a command, it's not a directive, but it has that by force. Blessed be, it is as though he is saying, I do bless, I will bless, I will thank, I will praise. But it's more than simply saying, I will do this. It contains in it the force to compel us, to remind us that we must bless God. Now, we've heard sermons on the reason to bless God, and I'll remind you of these things. What do we mean when we say bless God? Is not God so high exalted above us as to not need our blessing? Well, if we think that, we're conceiving of blessing in the wrong way. Yes, there's a sense in which we bless those underneath us. We bless our children, we pray for them, we bless them when they go to bed at night. We bless friends. These are ways that we encourage, but they're ways that we call people to do something. We're blessing them, we're placing something upon them, but that's not our relation to God. We don't have a relation of superiority by which we can apply some blessing to God. Doesn't blessing someone infer our superiority? Well, not in this case. We are called upon to bless God. The word that is used to bless God is the word from which we get eulogy. We speak good things. In other words, we are ascribing, we are saying back to God who he is, what he is, what he has done, who he is by nature, who he is by character. We are ascribing, we are saying to him, not for his benefit as much as it is for ours, who he is and what he's doing. This is how we begin our prayers, isn't it, children? We begin with an adoration. I praise you, God, for this, because you are holy, because you are just, because you are righteous. And so, here Paul calls upon us to bless, to ascribe, to say back to God all of the good things that he is and does. So we ascribe to God all of his goodness. God demands that, God insists on it, not as though we are superiors to an inferior, but as the worthy God demanding and insisting upon our worship and obedience. And so, you may know this, that worship comes from the word to give worth. to the object. So when we come to worship, we are serving God by giving to Him what He is worth. That's what our worship means. And in some sense, that's what Paul is driving at. Blessed be God. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is worthy to receive all praise and adoration And it will come to him, and it does come to him. So Paul gives it. But in this, he is also calling us to give that blessing, to bless the Lord our God. But notice who it is that we are blessing. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is interesting to us. It should be interesting to us. He says that we are blessing, that He is blessing the God and Father of Jesus Christ. Is not Jesus God? How is it then that He can say that He is blessing the God of our Lord Jesus Christ? How is it that He can say that He is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ? That is easier for us to address. Isn't there a filial relationship that exists, a paternal and filial relationship that exists between the Father and the Son? We recognize that that exists to all eternity. But in this introductory phrase, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul puts us in a relationship with Christ. Yes, Christ is divine. Yes, he has that divine relationship with the Father. as the Son. But He is also our brother. He is one of us. He took on the human form. He took on the body. He was born the Virgin Mary. You remember, children, that we confess this. He took on the bodily form. He had a body just like you. He was hungry and tired like you. And so it's right, then, for the Apostle to say that we bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We recognize, he recognizes in this phrase, both the humanity and the divinity of Christ. And in this, we are obligated to bless our God, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us. He who is high, exalted above all things, he who sits enthroned above the heavens, he who uses the earth as his footstool, blesses us. He doesn't bless us because we have first blessed him, We know those words. We love Him because He first loved us. And it's a similar relationship, then, to our blessing. We are called upon to bless God because He has blessed us. But notice how He has blessed us. He's blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. It's an abundant blessing that He's given us. He has given us abundant blessing. And these verses set out for us that abundance of blessing. Every spiritual blessing here describes the whole of our redemption. There are some who take this to be a reference to what we call the extra spiritual blessings. or the additional spiritual blessings, speaking in tongues and the like. Miraculous signs. But no. Paul goes on in verses 4 through 14 to describe every spiritual blessing. And what he sets out for us in those verses is the whole of our redemption. Every spiritual blessing that God has given to us is the entirety of our redemption. Because he has given to us everything that's necessary for our redemption. What a great blessing that is. We are in turn to give God all blessing. And so, God's blessings to us obligate us to bless our God. We won't consider all of those blessings. I've just said that every spiritual blessing embodies, describes the whole of our redemption, and that's what Paul takes up in verses 4 through 14, but we won't deal with all of them, but give you a little bit of a bookmark. Notice that there are three things that comprise this spiritual Every spiritual blessing and we're just considering the first one tonight, and that's our election Then we have that redemption that is purchased by Christ and then we have We have the securing, the guarantee of that redemption by the Spirit. In other words, every spiritual blessing to us is a Trinitarian blessing. God the Father has done this. God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in other words, our God and Father as well, gives to us these spiritual blessings, secured to us in Christ, rather worked for us in Christ and secured to us by His Spirit. Now, these three things are marked for us at the end of each one with these words, and you'll notice them in verse 6. These things were done to the praise of the glory of his grace. You'll notice that in verse 6, and then again in verse 12, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory. And then in 14, it ends with to the praise of his glory. So every spiritual blessing, the whole of our redemption, our election, our redemption purchased by Christ and securing the guaranteeing of that by His Spirit, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places is ours in Christ Jesus. Praise God. Do you praise God? Do you see how beautiful a thing it is that we have been given such spiritual blessings? Do you then bless God for it? And so we've considered just our obligation. Next thing we'll consider is our election. God first, God's blessings to us obligate us to bless him. Now we'll consider that God's blessings to us began in our election. They began before the foundation of the earth, just as he chose us in him. The just as here, points us to, this is what I'm talking about. 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. This is what I'm talking about. This is what I mean. Just as these are the spiritual blessings, these are the every spiritual blessing that I've just mentioned. He chose us. He chose us in Him. Christ is not exempted in this. God's purposes were eternal, but they were always in Christ. There is no way of salvation apart from Christ. There is no way of our election apart from Christ. But here we understand that purpose for our redemption in Christ was eternal. God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Before He created anything, there is no marker on which Paul can hang the eternality of this decree except the creation. God decreed this thing before the foundation of the world. I can't go back far enough because there's no way for us to comprehend the eternality of it. But God's purpose has eternally been in Christ to redeem a people to Himself. And those people are people that He chose. And He chose them in Christ. Abraham was chosen in Christ. Isaac was chosen in Christ. Moses and we can go on. We're all chosen in Christ. Not after the fall, but before the foundation of the world. We have this great benefit that God did not change His purposes in choosing a people. God did not change his purposes in election. The election is not something that he had to do after the fact. The election was what he did before the fact. All spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ begin with our election, begin before the foundation of the world. But I want you to notice that there is a purpose to that election. That's just a brief point. We might say that that's the conclusion of that second point, that God's blessing to us began in our election, because then we move directly into our purpose. The purpose that Paul gives us for that election. But it's connected. We have this bridge here between our election and to its purpose. God didn't have some ulterior purpose, but God elected us according to the counsel of his will before the foundation of the earth. Not because of anything in us, but in order to accomplish something in us. And so any that read this and say, he chose us in him because he knew what we would be. Paul immediately, in this verse, denies that. He chose us in Christ in order that we might be holy and blameless. He didn't choose us. He didn't elect us because we would be holy and blameless. Notice how beautiful a blessing our election is. How glorious a thing it is, brothers and sisters. Election is not something for us to get a leg up on someone else. We don't exalt ourselves in our election. We shouldn't at least. It's not something for us then to say to someone, I've been elected. God loves me more than he loves you. It might be a temptation for us to say that. Even if it's not overt, there might be something in us called human nature. called selfishness, called boasting. It might be something still in us that makes us say to others, see, God favored me over you. But notice how beautiful a blessing our election is. It's not because we were going to be good. It's not because we were going to be holy and blameless. It's not because we were going to be righteous. Paul says, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that God elected us, He chose us, in Christ before the foundations of the earth, in order that we, you who believe in Christ, you who rest in Christ, you who have proclaimed the name of Christ, in order that you who have placed all of your trust in Him, might be holy and blameless. That's the purpose of his election. That's his purpose of his election in your life. So we've seen first how God's blessing obligates us to bless him. We've seen that his blessing to us begins with our election. And we've begun to see its purpose. God's purpose to us in our blessing is ultimately for his glory. There's a blessing to us, or there's a purpose for us in that as well. God blesses us for our purpose, that we might be holy and blameless. You see that in the middle of verse four. God chose us in him before the foundation of the world in order that we would be holy and without blame before him in love. He has predestined us, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself. Again, he points us back to Christ. He has adopted us. God our Father has adopted us. But that adoption comes to us by our union with Christ. And so, as we've considered in our adult Sunday school class, the beauty of the ordo salutis, as we've called it, those things that come to us, the application of our redemption, that is worked out by Christ and applied to us by the Spirit, we have this great blessing of adoption. We are adopted as sons. We have the right to all the privileges of the sons of God. But that right is ours as we are united to Christ. Do you see how that's said? We've been predestined to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ. Again, it points us back. Paul is, as it were, circling around, coming back to make sure we don't miss the point. God's blessing to us is in Christ. His purpose in us is in Christ. He accomplishes that purpose by Christ. There is no way outside of Christ that we can be the beneficiaries of any of these blessings. The election that is ours before the foundations of the earth had to do with Christ. He didn't elect us and then Adam fall and had to say, quick, how do we get out of it? I know. Well, send the Son. He chose us in Him. He chose us in Christ before the foundations of the world. He predestined us to adoption by Christ. Our election is tied up in Christ. And so even here we see the seeds of this great Trinitarian blessing. Though the Spirit doesn't really show up overtly until verses 13 and 14, yet here we understand that the Spirit is at work, because the Spirit is applying these blessings to us. But this is all Notice, it's all according to the good pleasure of His will. You, brother, you, sisters, had no part in your election. It's not because you were good. It's not because you would believe. It's not because you were holy. It's according to the purpose of His will. So that He could make you holy and blameless. But then, here is the great purpose. to the praise, the glory of His grace. Why has He done this? Yes, it's for your good. You are the beneficiary of this. If you believe in Christ, if you trust Christ, if you lay hold of Him, if the Spirit is working in your life, if He is conforming you to the image of Christ, if He is conforming you into that holy and blameless person, Yes, that's for your good. But the great purpose is to God's praise. Your election is for the purpose that God will bring himself glory. The purpose in your election is so that God will garner to himself praise. Scripture describes our God as a jealous God. He's jealous of his praise. He doesn't like it when someone else gets what he deserves. He doesn't like it when something else gets what belongs to him. He is jealous of his praise and the purpose in your election. The purpose in God calling you and conforming you to the likeness of his son is so that he would garner to himself praise. So, though there is not an overt command here, though there is not an overt imperative for you to bless God, Paul, as he describes this, as he describes the bounty of blessings that are ours in Christ, sets it up in such a way that it gives us the force of a command. Having been presented with the beauty of the blessing of our election, of your election in Christ before the foundations of the earth, of its accomplishment in Christ. God's purpose is so that he might be praised. How can you then not praise him? How can you then not give him the glory? How can you not with Paul say, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you are the elect, if you are one of the elect, if the Spirit is working in you, you can't avoid it. If the Spirit is working in you now, stirring up in you your affections for God, for Christ, for the election that is yours, not because of what you have done or will do, but because of what God purposed before the foundations of the earth. If you are that one, If you are one of those, you cannot help but be stirred up to bless His name, to praise Him. The purpose of our election, the purpose of God's blessing, I said at the very outset, the purpose of every spiritual blessing is marked by this phrase, to the praise of His glory. It's here in verse 6, again in verse 12 and in 14. To the praise of His glory. Every spiritual blessing, beginning here with our election, is so that God might garner to Himself praise. So, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because of His election. Because of that great blessing that is ours. The purpose of God's blessing is for our good, to conform us, so that He might have all of the praise. He gains that praise as the Spirit works in you. He gains that praise as the Spirit draws you to Him, as Christ's redemption is applied to you and secured to you by His Spirit. as you understand that and return to Him praised. Is the Spirit still working in you? Has Christ purchased redemption for you? Have you laid hold of Christ? Children, I said at the very beginning that we need to be reminded to give thanks. We need to be reminded of all the good things that parents and grandparents and others have done for us. We need to be reminded, and I said that you're not the only ones, but that we as adults need to be reminded of that. The Apostle Paul reminds us of the abundant blessings that are ours in Christ, that are yours as a believer in Christ. I hope that you've been reminded of that tonight. In part, we've just considered the first blessing that is ours, that blessing of election before the foundation of the world. But I hope that in being reminded, you are stirred up as well to give God all praise and glory for it. That is what he says his purpose is, in electing you before the foundations of the earth, that he might get praise and glory. If you are elect, if you have been elected, you must give him such praise. What a glorious God. What an abundant blessing. And we've just seen the very beginning of it tonight. The election. There is more that Paul spells out for us. Every spiritual blessing is ours and it's already been purchased for us. It's already been accomplished for us. He has already given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Praise God and bless His holy name. Lord our God, we bless your name, we praise your name. You are a great and glorious God, but above that, you are our God. Not because we have chosen you, but because you have chosen us before the foundations of the earth. What a great blessing. What a great blessing it is to know that not for anything in us, but for your good pleasure. You have elected us. You have chosen us to yourself. We are your special people. This is not boasting for us. This is not something for us to boast in. We have no claim in this. So we are encouraged to give you greater praise and greater glory because you, for your purposes, to bring glory and honor to your name, to garner praise to yourself, you have done this. You have called us out of darkness and into your marvelous light. We praise your name. We do so in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.