If you have a Bible, please open it to Ephesians 1. Let us pray that God will bless the preach word. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you once again for this time we can spend around your word. May you use me to rightfully divide your word and to give it to your people and that you give us, all of us, ears to hear what you have said unto us, O Lord, that we with hearts of faith would believe the promises of Christ, believe what we are in Christ, that you would be pleased to convert sinners this day, oh Lord. Convert those who are here today and do not know you, who gather here for whatever reason, that you would be pleased to glorify yourself in salvation this very day. Christ's holy and precious name, amen. I ask you today, have you ever received in the mail from a loved one, from someone dear to you, a gift or a check of a financial gift? Just the other day, I discovered a letter from my uncle who sent us some money for our new baby. And that gift that they give you is an expression of their love to you. Well, here we see in Ephesians, Paul is writing to the saints at Ephesus, not what God will give them, not what God has given them in this letter, but rather what God has already given them in Christ. The whole first three chapters is Paul declaring what they have in Christ, what Christ has accomplished. but the Father rather has accomplished in Christ. And as we know in verse one, our focus will be on verses three through six, but notice the introduction. It says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints, which are Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Anytime we receive a letter, anytime we read the Bible, it's important to know the author and those who receive it. And as it clearly declares in this case, it's Paul to the Ephesians. But also, as with any portion of scripture, there's a ultimate author, and there's an ultimate recipient. And we see this in this very text, it's Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ. An apostle is not just some super title, like a super pastor, as many false apostles are here today, who just claim this extra authority. Rather, The word apostle in Greek is no special word, we just transliterate it into apostle, it means envoy, it means messenger. And so when Paul says he's an apostle of Jesus Christ, he's not just saying just some super pastor, rather he's saying the message that I have for you is from Jesus Christ himself. So in this epistle, it's not simply Paul writing to the Ephesians, but it is indeed Christ writing to the Ephesians. Furthermore, When we see to the saints which are Ephesus and the faithful in Christ Jesus, there's an interesting textual variant in some of the manuscripts that the term Ephesus is not there. And so I'm not sure some of your Bibles may not even have Ephesus there. And whether that's original or not is besides the point. The point is, is that even early in the church, the saints recognize that this letter was not simply to the Ephesians. This letter was not simply to a local congregation in Ephesus, but rather it's applicable to all the faithful, all the saints in Christ Jesus. And so the recipient is greater than simply the church at Ephesus, it's to Christ's church. And so in this letter we see is indeed a letter from Christ to his people. And so we could lawfully, with care indeed, but lawfully say, Christ to the church, which is in Lawrenceville, Christ to us. It's a standard greeting in Greek, the first two verses, but Paul provides the redemptive, indeed a redemptive greeting. Grace and peace, it's not simply grace and peace as many Greek letters would entitle it, but he recognizes the origin of this grace and peace. It's grace and peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. But our focus here today will be the first, it will be verses three through six. And in many of your versions and in the Greek, it's just one long sentence. We don't write this way and it can come off very awkward English, but in the original language, it's not all that uncommon. And so Paul writes this very first sentence. to tell us what we have in Christ. That indeed is one of the themes of this simple sentence. So, verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord. The word translated here, blessing or blessed. It's not the same word we see in Romans 4, for example, when it says, blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven. Or indeed, as we sang today in Psalm 1, blessed is the man who walks not in the way of the ungodly. In that context, it means happy. It means joyous. Joyous is the man whose sins are not imputed to him. Joyous is the man who walks not in the way of the ungodly. But here, This word comes from the Greek word where we get the word eulogy, and as it comes through Latin, the word benediction. And simply put, it carries the idea of speaking in favorable terms. So when you give a eulogy, you're speaking favorably of the person in the past. When you give a benediction, you're speaking favorably towards the person you are blessing. And that's the word that's translated here as blessing. And we see throughout the Old Testament when a patriarch would give a blessing, it was not simply speaking well of them, but it was prophetically speaking well of them. Jacob and Isaac would bless their children, and they would speak good things to come to their future, good things to come to their children. And so that's the idea that we see in this, Verse three, so when Paul says, blessed be God and Father, he's not saying make God happy, he's rather saying speak well of Him. Speak well of God the Father. He's saying praise Him, glorify Him, lift up His name. And indeed, that's what the rest of this sentence declares in the first three chapters of Ephesians. It's bless Him, why? Bless him for all that we have received from God. As believers, we received in Christ. We receive it all wrapped up in the Christ. God glorifying his son, Jesus Christ, to our good, to our blessing. And that'll be the theme of this message today, is that all that we receive, all, verse three, all our spiritual blessings. Verse four, our election. And verse five, our predestination. We have all received, not for anything, but because of Christ. And we receive it in Christ. So first, we receive all our spiritual blessings in Christ. Again, the meaning of the word blessing elucidates this passage when he says, he has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. God blesses us with a blessing in Christ. In other words, God speaks good things to us, akin to Isaac and Jacob speaking to his sons. God blesses us. Note, however, that Paul modifies these blessings as spiritual and in the heavenlies. The word places is supplied. He's spiritualizing it. He would guard us from misunderstanding this. It's not simply the blessings of Moses, and indeed Calvin argues that it's in contrast to Moses. The blessings that we receive in Christ are not like the blessings that Moses and the church in the wilderness received. Their blessings are physical and temporal. They were promised prosperity in Deuteronomy 28 if they obeyed the law. We are promised, they were promised physical, offspring prosperity, they were promised of crops to prosper. They were promised their cattle to prosper. But we are rather promised to prosper in Christ. We are promised that those who are joined to Christ shall grow, those who dwell in Him. We're promised the victory of the church. They were promised to be established in the land. They were promised to have conquest over their enemies. But in Christ, we are promised to conquer our spiritual enemies. And indeed, in the age to come, Christ will conquer all. Furthermore, what does it mean that these blessings come in Christ? What does it mean that these blessings come in Christ? Well, it's understanding this Christ as a redeemer, Christ as our mediator, Christ as our savior, that in Isaiah 53, 12, what does it read? It says, therefore, I will divide my portion with the great and he will divide the spoil with the strong. Prophetically speaking of Christ and his suffering for sinners, He received rewards. He received plentiful rewards, and he has been exalted to his throne, and the Father, as it were, lavished on him his wealth as our Redeemer. And having received these blessings, he pours them out upon his people. Christ is as the bridegroom who showers his bride with his gifts and possessions. She comes to him with nothing but a debt that she cannot pay. And he comes in the infinite wealth of his regal majesty. He takes all her debt and showers on her his great wealth. And that's what we see here. The blessings that come in Christ, the spiritual blessings that come in Christ are ones that were originally his from the father. Then he pours them upon his people. When I married my wife, all of our debt became one, and all of our wealth became one. And so too, when we, as a church, wed to Christ, all of our debt becomes His debt, as He bears it upon the cross, and all of His wealth becomes our wealth, as we are glorified with Him. So how does this verse, how does this portion, what does this portion teach us? What does it tell us to do? If we receive all these blessings from Christ, keeping the analogy of the bride, she'd be a poor and vain bride who only looks at her husband when he gives her. If we only look at the blessings for the blessings, we don't recognize them in Christ. We don't recognize him as he is the fountain of these blessings. If a woman did that to her husband, she'd be a vain and worthless woman, as it were. I mean, we have a term for that, gold digger. But rather, we Should not be that way. We should not look to Christ simply for what He gives us, simply the blessings that He gives us, simply the inheritance, simply the victory. But rather we should see them as an expression of His love and increase our delight for Him, that we should delight in Christ because He pours out these things on us and He shows us His love. We have no reason to doubt it. Let us consider Christ as the great blessing. Let us consider Christ as the great delight, as the husband who pours out his gifts upon his love. In verse 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. We have received election in Christ. I use the term election here because that is the Greek word for chosen. We translate chosen, but we get the word election from chosen in Greek. And what does that mean to be elect in Christ? What does that mean that he chose us in Christ? I don't simply think it means that he chose us to be in Christ, as some interpret it. But rather, it's to so tie our election with the federal headship of Christ, that he chose us not simply to be in him, but he chose us as a bride for Christ. Christ is a federal head in an eternal covenant with the Father. We are the bride that the Father has chosen for His Son. When the Bible says, before the foundation of the world, here, it's using language, it doesn't mean simply a long, long, long, long time ago, but rather it's from eternity, it's before time. It's this eternal choosing for His Son, a bride. God did not just wake up one day and say, you know what, I'm gonna give my son a bride. No, rather He eternally had His love on His people to be a bride for His Son. We are the bride which Christ has loved from eternity. Christ has chosen us. You see, election is not just this pool that the Father just chooses people and then says, you know what, how am I gonna save them? Oh, I'm gonna sacrifice my son. No, our election is so tied up with Christ. And that's what Paul is teaching us here. We are chosen in him. We are chosen as his bride. Notice that he has chosen us for a purpose too. He did not just choose us and then say, you know, whatever. No, he chose us to be holy and without blame. Holy and without blame. I think this has two ideas. One, it has the idea that he chose us to purify us, to wash us with the blood of Christ. He clothed us, as it were, with the righteousness of Christ. But he also has chosen us, as we see later in Ephesians, 2.10, chapter 2.10, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. He chose us for a purpose. He chose us for good works. So not only does He clothe us and wash us with His blood and make us holy and blameless, but He also calls us to pursue what we are. As we have been made holy and blameless, He says, therefore be ye holy and without blame. So in this passage, calls us to remember that it is not us that loved him, and it's not us who chose him, but he chose us because he loved us. If you were in Christ, he has loved you with an eternal love, a love that has no beginning, therefore it has no end. He never started to love you, and therefore he'll never cease to love you. And so knowing this love, knowing that He has chosen us, knowing that He has purified us, has clothed us, so dressed us to be beautiful in His sight, so let us walk in it. Let us walk in it, and notice it says, before Him in love. It's all wrapped up, election and love. He's chosen us to be blameless before Him in love. Verse five, we have received adoption from Christ. Here we see another controversial word, namely predestination. We had election, and now predestination. The distinction between election and predestination is that election is what God does from eternity in choosing his people, and predestination is God's plan of working that out, what he has chose the people for. And so he chose us. according as he hath chosen us in him, I apologize, having predestined us unto the adoption of children, chose us to be adopted. He predestined us to be adopted. What does that imply? It implies that, okay, so if there's a distinction between election and predestination, so he chose us in love, he chose us because he loved us, not because anything in us, but because he abounds in love, In predestination, he prepares us or plans for us to be adopted into him. It means that by nature, none of us are the children of God. The old liberals would say that the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God, and that is contrary to the scriptures. Mormons like to say that we are all brothers and we're all children of God. That is contrary to what God has told us in His Holy Word. That if you are without Christ, you are not His child. You are an orphan. You do not have the paternal love of the Father. He has adopted us. He's chosen us for adoption. The fact, and we see that we are not his children in John 1, 12, he says, but as many as received him, he gave them the power to become the sons of God. As Christ is the eternal son of God, so when we are reckoned in him, when we are in Christ, when we are his, when he is our head, so too do we become his children by adoption. And Christ is our elder brother as the, as the book of Hebrews informs us. And the motivation of this adoption is according to the good pleasure of his will. Again, nothing in us. It's not that he pitied you, it's not that you were so beautiful, not because you cleaned yourself up so much before you believed in Christ, but because he abounds in love, because he loved you. There's nothing, you can search all you want. There's a popular, there was a song, not popular anymore, but a song that, you know, why did you choose me, Jesus? Why did you love me, Jesus? And that's asking the wrong question. He loved you and there's nothing in you. It's all in him. It is according to his will. He sees us as Ezekiel speaks of Israel. He sees us in the blood of our mother, rejected by all and says, live, and clothes us and washes us and makes us his children. Some of the implications of adoption are enumerated in our confession. It says, being adopted, we have his name. We are called Christian. We are called God's children. We are reckoned to be His. We receive the spirit of adoption, that testimony of the spirit that we are His children. Therefore, we can cry, Abba, Father. We have that fatherly cry unto Him. We have access to the Father. We have access with boldness to the Father. A CEO or the president or whoever, a higher up, a king, you'd have to make an appointment to receive access, but we as children, the child walks into the office of a CEO, he's immediately received. So too are we as God's children, we are received by the Father because we are His children in Christ. We are pitied by Him. The Puritans would say that, they don't mean a snake, is hated, and the snake is hated with the venom, but venom in a child is pitied for the affliction that it has. And so too, for the believer, our sin is not invisible to God, but it's also, we're not hated because of our sin, but rather, He pities us and loves His people. We are protected by Him. And we may not always recognize that protection, we may not always see that protection, but God's fatherly and protective hand is upon us. We are provided for, all our needs, not necessarily all at once, but our needs are provided for by God. And we don't always recognize what our needs are. We may have a higher level of what our needs are, but our Father provides for us. We are chastened by our Father. The epistle to the Hebrews, it says, if you're not chastened, you are a bastard. You are without Christ. You are an orphan. But if you are chastened, fathers and mothers, you know, you don't chasten your neighbor's child, but you chasten your son, chasten your daughter. And so too, when we receive the chastisement of our Lord, we should not think, oh, he hates me. but rather He's chastising me to conform me into the image of His Son. And we are heirs, heirs of heaven, heirs, indeed the meek shall inherit the earth. We are made heirs of the things of Christ, of God's. Romans says that we are made heirs of God, that God is indeed ours as it were. He is our God and we are His people. And that is all because we are His children. We are adopted in Him. Therefore, let us go to Him with boldness. Let us go to our elder brother, Jesus Christ, for all our needs. I know this was brief, but I'll make some final applications of this message. First, I'll say to non-believers, those of you, some of you are here are non-believers. You may think you are, you may put on a facade of it to others, but you know in your heart, or perhaps you don't know, and you just are fooling even yourself, that you're not Christ. You're not receiving any spiritual blessings. You may receive physical blessings. You're not His children. You're the child of Satan. To you, I will tell you, apart from Christ, you have nothing. You have nothing. You can't get to God apart from Christ. You can't get any blessings from God apart from Christ. You can do all you want, all the discipline you want. Without Christ, you have nothing. That's why I ought to implore you. plead with you, go to him. He is a kind savior and he will save the young and the old, the hypocrite, the moralist, the reprobate. He receives all and he gives all. That's, as Robert has said in the past, that's one of the amazing, many of the amazing things about Christianity is unlike other religions where you have to work yourself up to earn this. No, Christ gives all this to us immediately. Belief trusting in him casting off all our hopes in anything other than our hopes in Christ Hopes in a Savior who has died for our sins hopes in a Savior in whom we have rebelled against Trust in him today Plead Plead with him go be as the blind man who said have mercy upon me son of David and Come to Christ. Don't let up. To those of you who you're not certain, whether you're a believer or not, you have doubts. Again, I would urge you to go to him. And election and predestination are not discouragements. to coming to Christ, or having your assurance built up. Rather, they're great encouragements. As our confession affirms, and so does the whole of scripture, that when we have a longing, when we have faith in Christ, we can be certain of our election. We don't have to find out if we're elect. Rather, we believing in Christ is a sign of our election. It's a sign that all these things are so. in our love for Christ and our pursuing of Him, our love for His word, our love for His people. And finally to us who are His children, have received all this, received all these good things, let us with fall, say blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us praise Him with Paul. Let us glorify Him. Let us be reassured of all that we have in Him. Let us go with joy. And when we don't have physical blessings, when we don't have these things, yes, it may seem easy to say, and then when we get into the conflict of life, we become discouraged. Let us set these things in our mind that when throughout the week, that even when we are rejected by our family, we are the children of God. Even when we have nothing, we are chosen in God. And when we don't have physical blessings, we have the spiritual blessings of Christ. So I ask that you would keep these things in your heart throughout this week. Let us pray to our Father. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for all that you have given us in Christ, for the abounding mercies and blessings, for the rich salvation. Oh Lord, let us lift up our hearts to praise you, to sing of your grace, to magnify you, oh Lord, throughout this week. Lord, forgive us of our hypocrisy. Forgive us of our anxieties and our foolish thoughts. Forgive us of our forgetfulness. For we can read this passage and just be unmoved by it. But let us, by faith, take hold of these things. Lord, we praise you and we give you thanks. In Christ's holy and precious name, amen.