I want you to turn for a few minutes tonight to Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter number one. Things just are high around here at Mistress for my preaching. But I love it. Anytime God works among His people, it's wonderful, isn't it? I have been in a lot of circumstances where the people had no understanding of the moving of the Spirit. And so it's a blessing to me to get around it in every situation. Of course, I was raised up like that in my home church. And how precious, how precious it is. You want to stand up and rest from your seat? I don't know if that's the right way to say it or not. I'm reading the first three verses of Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1 verses 1, 2, and 3. 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 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings, in heavenly places in Christ. I'm going to use verse number three as my key text tonight. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. You may be seated. I was not brought up in a well-to-do family, and so needless to say, there was nothing in a wheel that would attract anybody. In fact, Dad didn't even make out a wheel. And Mom went down very quickly after his death, and so we had a little problem in exchanging the land, what little land, and the old house wasn't worth anything. The only thing I ever really wanted from my dad was his old Ford truck. And he wrecked it. He wrecked it twice before his death. And so it was no longer of any interest to me. Some of you understand what it is not to receive much. by way of inheritance or something from the family. I would say this is something I think I missed out totally. I ended up with my favorite piece of furniture in dad's house, my mama's coffee table. And also my sister had brought her a little bedroom suit some years back and I got the bedroom furniture. And more than that, I got some great memories from being raised in a God-fearing home. So I'm thankful. Now, let me point out that Paul is talking about our spiritual inheritance here. He actually, beginning in verse 3 and going down through verse 12, we have one of the longest sentences in the Bible. He just keeps on going with a comma, with a semicolon, keeps on going, keeps on going until he gets down through verse number 12 and there's a period. It's just a long emphasis on our blessings in Christ. So with the Lord's help, I don't want to talk about an earthly inheritance. The children of Israel got that, you remember. But I want to talk about a Christian inheritance. And because he tells us here that God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, I want to preach for a few minutes on the God who has blessed His own. The God who has blessed His people. The God who has blessed His saints for the last little while. My heart has gleaned from thoughts about who God is and what He is like. And tonight, I'd like to major on Him being a blesser. The God who has blessed His own. Now, I want to say three things that I'm made aware of, and I trust we'll be made aware of it together. Let me give you my flight pattern. I want to say something first of all tonight about being made aware of the fatherhood of God. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we think about how God has blessed us with spiritual blessings, we become aware of the fatherhood of God. He is not some terrible abuser. But He's a Father. He's a Father. And then secondly, we're made aware not only of the fatherhood of God, but we're made aware of the favor of God. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us. He hath blessed us. That is, all these blessings are derived from God. And then thirdly, we're made aware of the fullness of God. He has blessed us with a few spiritual blessings. No. With all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And so this is the God who has blessed His home. Who has blessed His people. He's the Father. He's the one that's been gracious and favorable towards us. And He's the God that doesn't hold back anything. With Christ, He has given us all things. Now, with those road markers, let's go down the road of this verse. Really, I realize you could preach the rest of your life out of chapter 1. I didn't figure you wanted me to do that tonight. And so I'm going to try to stay in verse number three. I may allude to one or two other statements. Let's begin with this idea of the God who has blessed His own. We're confronted with the fatherhood of God. You'll notice the verse begins with the word, blessed be. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. M. R. Vincent, in his word studies, says the word blessed would indicate well spoken of, be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Since the Holy Ghost is the author of this book, we know Paul was the human penman, but the Holy Ghost inspired him to write it. The Holy Spirit said the Father is well spoken of. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Have you ever heard it said of someone? Well, he's well spoken of. That is, people have a high estimation of him. And here Paul enters into that realm who would give God the praise that he deserves. Now, first of all, to know anything about the relationship of the fatherhood of God, there must be a relationship with the Father. Now, this is all special. He's God. He's the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. But then there's a little word in there that doesn't sound right. We're talking about God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. And notice the word, our. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The truth is, there's a relationship with the Father through The Son. And Paul seems to be caught up with that truth. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we know that He is the generator in creation. And the Lord Jesus is eternal. And yet, to distinguish the Father from the Son, He's called the Father. And Jesus I never have been too crazy about the labels, the Father being called the first person of the Godhead, and Jesus being the second person of the Godhead, and the Holy Ghost being the third person of the Godhead. I reckon I played too much ball. I never did like second and third position. And I guess I've got, over the years, been involved too much with racing. I don't like that fellow coming in second place or third place. I want him across the finish line first, the one I'm pulling for. And it almost sounds like the Father has first place, the Son has second position, and the Holy Ghost has the third position. But we would not use that language to give them a priority over one another. However, we would use it to distinguish their personage. The Father. the Son and the Holy Ghost. And here we're reminded that we have a relationship with the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. Can you imagine you and me calling Jesus our Lord Jesus Christ? Our Lord. Our Jesus. Our Christ. How can we own Him? Ah, He owns us. We love Him because He first loved us, John said. And here, He's chosen to have a relationship with us. And now we have a relationship with Him through His Son, the Lord Jesus. You know, there is a difference between fellowship and relationship. Recently, I was told about this dear pastor whose wife was a real talker. And sometimes in church he couldn't get her to quit talking. Of course, she was trying to help some of the ladies, encourage them. But he came in from the car and he called her name. He said, that's one. And then he went out again, waited and waited and waited, come back in. He said, that's two. And he came back in the third time. And he said, that's three. She's still just talking. And so he put it in drive and left her at the church. Now they had a relationship, but I don't think that night they had a whole lot of fellowship. Paul is not talking about fellowship here. We certainly want to have fellowship with the Lord Jesus. However, we must first have a relationship with Him. And so he calls Him our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice not only the relationship with the Father, but the returns to the Father. He has blessed us, and so in turn, we bless Him. The idea here is that we honor Him. We recognize Him as the author of these blessings. And we give Him praise. We recognize Him as the giver of these gifts. And we bless Him. He has blessed us, and with returns we bless Him. By the way, I'm of the persuasion, if we know this has already happened, He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings. But how can someone live in the blessedness of these blessings and never bless God? And never praise God? And never honor God? I want to tell you, you can only go forward in the spiritual realm by honoring the giver and the bestower of all these blessings. Somebody that never praises God has no idea how they've been blessed. It's those who bless Him who become very aware of who He is and give Him the returns. Let Him be well spoken of in your experience. Let Him be well spoken of in my experience. And so, first of all, we're made aware of the fatherhood of God. Blessed be the God and Father. of our Lord Jesus Christ. Somehow we're brought in on that as a relationship. And then there's the returns. We praise Him and bless Him. We honor Him. I think one of the things I love about a home run is it's a big matter even though you end up right where you began. Now, you know you can go to Six Flags or some other amusement park and it just tickles me to watch the people. They pay money to get on the carousel or the merry-go-round and then they get on it and they ride, they just go round and round and wave at everybody like they know them. And then they get off, having had some what seems to be fun, looks to me like it'd make them dizzy. But they get off right where they got on and haven't been anywhere. But really, you're around the bases and come home, you've gone somewhere, brother. Look at that scoreboard. Yeah, you've gone somewhere. I say so it is. God has blessed us. And we've come round, we've come from God, through God, back to God for His glory, and we've made some progress, have we not? We've gone somewhere with Him. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm glad He claims us, but I'm thrilled in turn we can claim Him. He is our Lord Jesus Christ. Now secondly, I've been a little doctrinal, but let's jump off the diving board here. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us. Alexander McLaren says this is one divine act. Not blessing after blessing that He bestows, but it's all spiritual blessings. already bestowed upon us. Don't look at me like I'm a poor, pitiful person. I'm a spiritual millionaire, brother. I've had God's blessings bestowed upon me in Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us. He has blessed us. He has favored us. He has been very kind to us in bestowing these blessings. Now, for just a minute or two, let's concentrate on the word us, particularly, individually. He has blessed us. To me, that speaks of the wonder of divine favor. Who am I that God would think of me? That God would be interested in me. And who are you that God would stoop down to you? He hath blessed us. Oh, what a wonder that Jesus loves me. Here's my version of Romans 5.8. You remember it reads, For God, or but God, commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. To me, that verse says three things. The likes of God gave the likes of Christ for the likes of us. Now, the likes of God is beyond comprehension, and the likes of Christ is also supernal and supreme. But the object of God's love, you and me, is hard for us to fathom, is it not? Mere mortals, sinners by nature, sinners by choice, and yet God favored us with His free grains. and His true love. He has blessed us. You ever heard anybody sing one of those songs that says that I feel like I'm the most blessed in the family? I'm the most blessed child? Well, there are some children, unfortunately, who are favored. How unwise is the parent who favors one child over another child. It can cause pride on that one side. It can cause intimidation on the other side. One child being favored over another. God doesn't have any spoiled young'uns. God doesn't have anyone that's favored above any other. He hath blessed us. He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. I would underline not only the wonder of divine favor, but the width of divine favor. Keep in mind the writer is a Jew. And he's writing to a Gentile church. And he says, He hath blessed us. Boy, that takes the scope out, doesn't it? That puts it Way out there from one side to the other, it's the width of divine favor. Just among you and me, us Gentiles. It's still wide, but when you add the Jews with it, you talk about width. You talk about breadth. Look at chapter 2 of the book of Ephesians. I want to read you a few verses, beginning with verse He's talking about Gentiles and Jews. And he says, For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the little wall of petition between us. I'm not going to take time to preach that. Every time I come to that verse, I think of little Rahab down in Jericho. And when the walls fell flat, She was spared. And they went in and retrieved her and salvaged her. The Bible says she was saved alive. The words mean saved to live. By the way, that's why God saved you and me. He saved us to live. Ah, Rahab being a Gentile was saved and brought into the Jewish social order. Had, of course, She was married to a Jew and eventually we find her in the very genealogy of the Lord Jesus himself. I want to tell you, he's made both one and has broken down the middle wall of petition between us. Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of ordinances contained Now all commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself a twain of two, one new man. So make in peace, and let him reconcile, both under God in one body, by the cross, heaven's twain, the enmity thereby. And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, And to them that were nigh, for through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now you know Gentiles are looked upon in the Scripture as dogs. We are fighting dogs. Mean ravaging dogs when compared with the Jews in the Bible. And of course, all Gentile nations are referred to as heathen nations. Have you ever said about your neighbors, little old boy, if they don't do something with that boy, that little heathen's going to end up in prison. Well, what about your little heathen? All our children are little heathens. We're of a heathen nation, Gentiles, according to the flesh. We had no entrance, no access, no reception into the Jewish economy. But Jesus, in God's divine favor, has broken down the middle wall of partition. And now, instead of having a Gentile court, and a court for the women, and a court for the men, now He's made us all one in Jesus Christ. Lord, have mercy. What a truth. The width of divine favor. The gospel. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jews first, and also to the Greeks, or to the Gentiles. We've been included, brother. Strangers, dogs, heathens. We're now part of the blessings of God. He has favored us. We see the wonder of it. We see the width of it. Now, I want you to come to a third emphasis in our text. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. As we think about God's blessings upon His people, we're made aware of the fatherhood of God. Secondly, we're made aware of the favor of God who has blessed us. Now we're confronted with the fullness of God. How has He blessed us, Tom? With all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. In Christ. Now, let's talk about these blessings for a few minutes. We've already pointed out that these are past tense. When did God bless us with all these spiritual blessings? Well, in the next verse, he talks about us, verse 4, being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Can you imagine God thinking of us before the world began? Why, my family didn't even think of me before I was born. And yet, God in heaven had this on His mind. He had this in His heart. Would you notice, not only has He blessed us in Christ, it's already happened, but He's blessed us with blessings of a spiritual sort. Now, I think we ought to give God praise for all the temporal blessings of life, all the material But as one writer said, just like the gourd covered Jonah and was a blessing to Jonah, yet in it was a worm that destroyed the very blessing. And temple blessings, at their best, all have worms in them. Hadn't they rot, and they die, and you run through one gadget and you've got to have another one. And you run through one provision and you've got to have another one. What's new on the market? What's coming off the assembly line? I used to work on an assembly line. The company made glucose and they sent the glucose down the line and wanted to put it in the box. Then I had to glue the box and put the box on the crate. Here's another, I've got to constantly be working. What's coming down the line? And then I worked at Cutter Laboratories for a couple of years, maybe two and a half years, and we made wire cages for the milkmen to carry that milk in. Then we got to where we was putting plastic bottoms in them instead of using all metal. And I was up at the front of the line. They'd put that wire through the fire, through the furnace. Then when it'd come out and go through a cooling process, then they'd put it on the wire former and form a basket of sorts. And then it'd come to me and I had a welding machine. I used to spot weld where that crate would go together. And then I'd send it on down the line. Somebody'd put corners in it. And then the inspector down at the bottom would get mad because the corners were crooked and he'd go throwing them everywhere. And we'd have to redo the whole thing. I'm saying I've been on the assembly line. I've seen it come down the assembly line. By the way, I've seen it come down the assembly line religiously. One year, we've got this little toy. We're trying to get it to work for the church. And our church will grow if we can get this on down. off the assembly line. They just come out with this last year and boy this will help us. And so we'll use it for a while. Then it gets old. And then they come out with a new program. They come out with a new project. And we get it off and we try to fool with it. And then we see a crooked part and we go to throwing it here and there. And we wait for the next little thing that comes off a religious assembly line. But I want to tell you here before the foundation of the world, God did all this thing of blessing us with all spiritual blessings without an assembly line. He just did it with one divine act and said I'm going to bless all my own, all my people. The fullness of God, these blessings are not material. They're spiritual. And they're not earthly. They're heavenly. Spurgeon said these are the rarest, the richest, the most enduring of all blessings. They are priceless in value. They're of a spiritual sort. Now, we could go down through these verses. Verse 4, we've been chosen in Him as He's out to make us holy or pure. and fill us with His love. Verse 5, He's predetermined, predestinated us to the adoption of children. He's going to make adults out of us. And verse 6, He's doing it to the glory of His grace. And He's made us accept it. Verse 7, we have redemption and we have the forgiveness of sins. And right on down through here, we are the blessed beneficiaries of His good pleasure. And what do you purpose in himself, verse 9 tells us. And we've also obtained an inheritance according to the purpose of him who worketh all things unto the counsel of his own will, verse 11. And in verse 12, we're going to be to the praise of his glory. I'm talking to you about spiritual blessings, not temporal, material, earthly blessings. As was said earlier, if we're not careful. We'll look for that paycheck only. And we'll live for those extra hours. Make sure that we've got plenty here in this world. But I want to tell you, we've already got plenty. He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings. That's the kind of blessings that He's shared with us. Spiritual, heavenly, divine, pure blessings, holy blessings. and blessings of adoption, of forgiveness, of redemption, of grace and love and mercy. I'm a millionaire, brother. I preached one time in a little church in Cajun country that was a very poor body of believers. And in that church, There was evidence that there had been plenty of floods down in that little valley. When you drove up to the church, you could tell it was sitting sideways. Apparently, some floor joists had rotted out, and the church was no longer sitting up straight. Once you got up the steps and in the door, you didn't even think about it anymore. Here's what you thought about when you got in. The piano had not been tuned in 39 years. I know that because at one time I tried to tune pianos. And it was nowhere near tuned. And after I saw the woman playing it, she was a pretty good-sized gal. She'd hit that bass and then hit that treble. A wham, bam, bam, bam. She was her own drummer. She hit it so hard. And I knew why I was out of tune. And then they had a bass guitar. It didn't have four or five strings on it. It only had one string. It was a broom handle that'd been put on top of a ten-gallon drum. And then it had a cord from the top down to the drum. And if you wanted to play an F, you'd turn it a certain way. Then if you wanted to go up to C, you'd turn it, pull it another way. Or if you want to go to B flat, you turn it another way. They had that out-of-tune piano and that one-string bass. And every night, you know, you usually try to give a little varied form of singing, not the same song every service. And somebody would say every night, let's sing 178. Well, that may not have been the number, but same one every night. You're these poor people in this broken down shotgun of a building and you know what they're singing? I'm a millionaire. I'm a millionaire. My father is rich in houses and land and I'm his heir. I'm a millionaire. I'm a millionaire. I'm a happy, happy, happy millionaire. They just look like millionaires to me. But they sounded like millionaires, brother. Those Cajuns singing in the Holy Ghost. I'm talking to you. God has blessed us with blessings, all blessings, in heavenly places, in Christ. And they are blessings of a spiritual story. Not carnal. Not temporal. Spiritual blessings. I just feel like the Lord needs to bless me. He's already blessed you more than you can handle. He's blessed you with all spiritual blessings. Then would you notice not only are these blessings of a spiritual sort, but they are of a special sphere in heavenly places. That is, they're on a higher level than things of this earth. They're in another realm. than those material blessings that are out there in the world. They're on a high level, heavenlies, in the heavenlies. And notice this, in Christ. Oh brother, I love this truth of being in Christ. I've probably given this illustration here before, but I never get tired of it. Let me find one of these song books. Here's a song book. Nothing but a stone book. I shouldn't use a new one. Nothing but a stone book. And this is a handkerchief. Nothing but a handkerchief. Now, I put that handkerchief in that stone book, and it loses its identity to the stone book. You don't say, Brother Tom, would you hand me that stone book with a handkerchief in it? You don't see the handkerchief. It's hidden in the stone book. You say, Brother Tom, would you hand me that psalm book? But when I hand you the psalm book, you get the handkerchief too. Now, what happened in Adam was that when he fell, we all fell with him. Because we were in our father Adam's womb. And yet, the Bible tells us that God has chosen us in Christ. He has put us in His Son. And whatever happens to his son happens to us. That's why Paul said, I'm crucified with Christ. When Christ died, we died with him. And when Christ was buried, our old man was buried with him. And when he'd come out of the grave, hallelujah, we came out with him. And now he's seated in heavenly places. And we're seated with Him in heavenly places in Christ. Somebody said, that can't be true. I'm still here on this earth. Practically, we're here. But positionally, we're there. Huh? You remember, Beth? You remember that story about the Queen of Sheba coming to see Solomon's wealth? And she said, I can't take it in. And I've only seen the half of it. It's miraculous. Listen, now, here, practically, at our best, we can only see half of it. And we're looking for the other half, brother. We're looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. And so really, we're in Christ in heavenly places, seated in heavenly places. What a meeting it's going to be when we sit down where we're already seated. Practically, we're going to sit down where we are positionally. Sort of like the fellow, sort of a nitwit of sorts, they had to take him and put him in the local mental hospital. And so the preacher was there visiting some others, and he didn't know he was there. We'll call him Tom. And so he said, Tom, I didn't know he was here. Why are you here? And real wild-eyed he looked at the preacher and said, Preacher, we're all here because we're not all there. I don't know which one of them really need to be there. Now, I want to tell you, brother, we're all here because we're not all there. And don't anybody turn that around on me and tell me Tom's all there because he's not really here. I want to say, beloved, we're somebody headed somewhere. We're His people. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. These blessings of God's fullness are of a spiritual sort, and they're of a special sphere. They're all ours in Christ. In Christ. Now, I met an old-timer years ago in South Carolina whose wife had died. He could hardly get around, and one of the men in the church just fell in love with him and sort of took him under his wing to help him if he needed to go to the doctor. He or his wife would take him to the doctor. If he needed some grocers, they'd get him some grocers. They never dreamed something like this would happen. But when he died, they found out they were in his will. He had no children, no grandchildren, and they got it all. And now my friend, who was also in that church, he lives on a side of town they never would have lived in if this old gentleman had not left him in his will. And he lives in a house that's really not his. And he parks his car in a garage of somebody else. He lives on a large piece of land, hunts on the property. It's all been given to him by this elderly gentleman. I say, beloved, similarly, you and I have a hope that we never could have had any other way. We have an inheritance that we never could have received in any other form. We're living in a spiritual house that we never could have had on our own. And we're parking, if it were our car, in the spiritual garage that we could have never had any other way. I'm still on this earth, but I'm on my way to what's already mine in Christ. He put me in His will. When we see that He's the God who blessed His people, we're made aware of the fatherhood of God. He's the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're made aware of the favor of God. He has blessed us. Already blessed us in Christ. And we're also made aware of the fullness of God that pours out to us through Christ. I wanted to remind us tonight, thinking about the God of the Bible, who He is and what He's like. Why, He's the God who has already blessed His own. He's already blessed His people. Oh, that we might live in the Spirit and claim what's ours. Old John Trapp said, He's given us a Benjamin's portion. You know, that was a big portion. He's given us a Benjamin's portion. A goodly blessing in Christ. May our hearts rejoice May our hearts seek to enjoy what's already ours. You don't have to live your life moaning and whining. You can enter into inheritance. You can enjoy the fullness of God in Christ. He's already blessed us. Claim it. Enjoy it. Share it. Tell others about it. I'm talking to you about a God who's already blessed His people. You've been very kind. Would you stand with me? Your heads are bowed.