Thank you and good morning. So this morning we're going to continue our study in Ephesians. We're going to be reading Ephesians chapter 1 verses 7 through 10. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Again, we will be continuing our study in Ephesians and we'll be reading verses 7 through 10 of chapter 1. So if you would, please turn to Ephesians 1 and actually for context we'll be reading the first 10 verses and then We'll come to the Lord in prayer one more time, that He may bless His Word. So, Ephesians chapter 1. Beginning in verse 1, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are 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 would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him, with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens, and things on the earth. In Him. Let us come to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we do thank you this morning for the blessing and privilege and honor of being here, Lord, gathered together as your people, listening, being instructed by your holy word. Lord, we pray that by your Holy Spirit, your word would benefit each one of us, that it would minister to our hearts, in the place where we are at, Lord, that you would please meet us and minister to us. Encourage, bless, and edify your people. Give us understanding, Lord, as we need of it, Lord. We do not rely on our own understanding, but on you, Lord, and on your Holy Spirit to give us that understanding of your Holy Word. Lord, we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So last Lord's Day, we looked at the first six verses. The first two were Paul's introduction to the Ephesians. And then beginning in verse three all the way to 14, we noted that Paul begins his opening prayer, his doxology of praising God. And he began by praying for the spiritual blessings, by praising for the spiritual blessings that God has given us in Christ. But then beginning in verse 4, Paul begins to explain even a greater blessing that we have in Christ, and that is the blessing of salvation, which he focused in the verses 4 through 6, we focused on the part of salvation that goes all the way back before the foundation of the world, which is election. This section focused on God the Father and His work, His role in the economy of salvation. As we remember, each member of the Trinity has a distinct role in this economy of salvation. And we noted three things. We noted that God the Father, first and foremost, is the author of our election, that He elected us individually, not simply corporately, but He elected us individually and he elected us before the foundation of the world. Secondly, we noted that the cause and the foundation of that election was God's will. Contrary to what many people believe, it's not his foreknowledge of future things. It's not the foreknowledge of who would believe, because as we noted, none of us would believe. And also, that view has a misunderstanding of the word for knowledge in verses like Romans 8.29 and 1 Peter 1.2. we noted that his foreknowledge was an outworking of his will. His knowledge of us is a relational knowledge, one born out of love as an extension and an outworking of the kind intention that he has toward us. So thus Paul says, in love he predestined us. And so it is connected with his election. And then lastly, we noted that the purpose and goal of our election was that we would be holy and blameless, that God has delivered us from sin, not to live in it, not to go back to it, but that we may pursue holiness, that we may continue in our sanctification, because the end goal is to be perfect, to be holy, and so that is what we're moving towards, that is our goal in this life, to strive after holiness. So this work, again, of election was a foundation of salvation established in eternity by God the Father. And so, in this sense, Paul then says that our election is in Christ, not with Christ as the cause and foundation, as we said it was His will, but that it was through Christ. Christ as a chosen one to obtain that salvation. Christ as a chosen one to be our mediator in that salvation. It is in that sense, through Him, that we are elected in Christ. And in this section, verses 3 to 6 of God the Father, we see that there's a lot of past tense verses, meaning that this is what God has done for us in the past, in eternity. He has done this for us. But beginning in verse 7, we're going to see that the blessings that we have presently, which is redemption in Christ. That is what we have presently because of what Christ, what God has done in and through Jesus Christ. So we're going to look at Christ's role in the plan of salvation under three points. The first point being our redemption in Christ. Second point being the mystery of Christ. And the third point is gathering together all things in Christ. So first, our redemption in Christ. We see this in verse 7, where Paul says, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. And here the word redemption means to set free, to liberate, to deliver. And often a price, a ransom price is associated with this setting free, with this deliverance. And there are several words in the New Testament that are used to translate where we get the word redemption or redeem or ransom. There's actually eight words and they all mean to set free. And for Paul's audience, the idea of redemption or the payment of a price for a ransom to secure freedom was common in the world of the Ephesians. This was due to the high percentage of slavery that existed in the Roman Empire. It is estimated that one in five residents in Rome were slaves. In fact, there was a proposal during the first century A.D. that would have required all slaves to wear a distinct dress. So in essence, there was a dress code that was proposed. But it was defeated because it was feared that the slaves would know how many slaves there were. there would possibly be an uprising and that was something the Roman Empire didn't want so so it was defeated but there were so many slaves and so this this concept of redemption of ransom was what was commonplace to the Ephesians And there were many ways in which people would end up as slaves. Some of these were, for example, being captives of war or exposure of children, meaning that there were so many babies that were unwanted back then that were just dumped out. There were places where they would dump out unwanted children. And so people would actually go to these places and pick up these unwanted children and raise them up until they reached an age where they could be incorporated into the household either as slaves or be sold as slaves. Another way was brigandage, which has to do with these people called brigands. They were basically bandits. They were like, I guess you could say like land pirates. They went around doing many, you know, illegal things, stealing and all that. But one of those things was kidnapping people. So they would kidnap them and hold them for ransom or sell them into slavery. There was piracy, and although piracy was a huge problem in the Mediterranean world by the time of Paul, that had kind of been done away with. But there was also condemnation in the law courts. If you got in trouble, you could be condemned to become a slave. And then lastly, there were house-born slaves. If your mother was a slave, you would be a slave yourself. It doesn't matter if your father was free or even if he was the master of the household, you would be a slave because of your mother. So again, this idea of redemption was commonplace. The idea of paying a ransom for freedom was commonplace in the Ephesians world. In fact, Ephesus also had a large, well-known slave market that was run by Rome. And so, yes, again, Ephesians were well acquainted with this concept. But what was Paul's concept of redemption? Paul was born in Tarsus. He was raised in that city for the first about 12 years of his life. And so, being in this environment, he would have been familiar with Hellenistic culture. He learned Greek. But he was raised, according to his own testimony, in a very strict Jewish home. Many Jews would assimilate to the Hellenistic culture, not Paul, not his family. They were very strictly Jews, so he had a very strictly strict Jewish upbringing. But on top of that, when he was about 12 or 13 years old, he moved to Jerusalem, where he began his rigorous training under one of the greatest teachers in the Jewish world, Gamaliel. And so just from that, and the exposure to that, and training under him, his concept of redemption would have been shaped by the Old Testament scriptures. He himself says that he had a great zeal for the tradition of his fathers. We see that in Philippians 3-6 and Galatians 1-4, and a tradition that was firmly grounded in the Mosaic law. So this is where his view of redemption would have come from. So what does the Old Testament teach regarding redemption? The concept involved many things. One of those things was, for example, property. If you were poor, you would sell part of your property with a chance to be able to purchase it back at some point. So there was that idea there of redeeming, of giving a price back for the things that you've sold because of your poverty. Eventually, maybe you make some money, and so you're able to purchase it back. But secondly, slavery also was another way that people, that this concept of redemption was prevalent. And just like with property, sometimes people were so poor that they would sell themselves into slavery. And so it was a way to help people from starving to death. So people would sell themselves as slaves with the opportunity of then being redeemed or purchased back even by relatives or kinsmen. But probably the The most common, the most important or significant example of redemption that we have in the Old Testament is that of God's people, the Israelites, from Egypt. And we all know the story. For hundreds of years, the people of God had been in Egypt. They had been enslaved. They had hard labor until God called Moses. He raises up Moses to deliver his people from Egypt. And he does this through various plagues, 10 plagues, one of them, the last one, killing their firstborn. And so after many times of refusal by Pharaoh to let the people go, finally after the 10th plague, he acquiesces and he lets the people go. And soon after their departure, he changes his mind and he goes after them with his mighty army. And the people of God reach a place where there's no more moving forward. They reach the Red Sea. So with the Red Sea in front of them and Pharaoh's army behind them, where do they turn? And so here we see God's great deliverance where He parts the Red Sea, He allows His people to go through, and when Pharaoh's army goes after them, the waters swallow them up and destroy Pharaoh's mighty army. And so here we see God's mighty hand, His love, His redemption, His delivery of His people from the bondage of Egypt. So this, no doubt, would have been Paul's concept of redemption. But what about the ransom price? In Isaiah 43, 3, God tells us what the ransom price was for Israel. He says there in Isaiah 43, verse 3, So these nations were destroyed, were sacrificed in the place of Israel. But one may ask, well, what kind of ransom was this, Egypt and Kush and Saba? And it's true that this is no common, this is no ordinary ransom price. But what we see here is God exacting justice on Egypt for enslaving his people. in the midst of their judgment and destruction, God was saving and delivering His people. And this is a common motif that we see throughout all of Scripture. Salvation, deliverance in the midst of judgment. And we see that especially in the cross of Christ, where there God is pouring out His judgment, His justice on the sins of His people, but at the same time, Christ is procuring salvation and deliverance for those that He is dying for. So here, important to note in this verse though, is that the word ransom does not just mean a price to be paid, but it means the price which justice requires. As one commentator notes, it is the payment of whatever divine justice sees as sufficient to cover the sinner's debt. And so it carries the idea of equivalent payment. Similarly, the word translated as in your place, kush and seba, in your place, also appropriate. It is used in 1st Kings 11 3 when it speaks of Rehoboam after Solomon dies taking the place of his father on the throne. He says his son Rehoboam reigned in his place. So there's a substitution idea and then again further this substitutionary idea we see this in Genesis 22 13 when Abraham is about to sacrifice his own son and then God provides a ram in its place. And then lastly, in Exodus 21-23, the idea of exact equivalence is seen in the penalty appointed life for life, or life in the place of life. So thus, God destroyed the Egyptians, killing their firstborn while saving Israel's, drowning Pharaoh's army in the Red Sea while saving Israel through it. Israel certainly did not deserve it, but yet because of God's great mercy, because of His love that He chose according to His own will to set upon them, He delivered them. So this is a great example and a glorious example of God's redemption in the Old Testament. And this is the picture that Paul had in mind when he speaks of redemption. But while the people of God in the Old Testament were redeemed from the bondage of Egypt, The people of God in the New Testament are redeemed from the bondage of sin. Thus Paul says, in him we have redemption, the forgiveness of our trespasses. Here the phrase forgiveness of our trespasses is further explained, or is a further explanation of redemption. So when he says we have redemption, he explains it by saying the forgiveness of sins. So the forgiveness of sins is our redemption. We are redeemed from, we are set free, delivered from our bondage to sin. In many ancient languages, when speaking of redemption, it was not enough to simply mention redemption or being set free, but one had to specify what they were being set free from. And again, thus Paul says, from the forgiveness of our sins. And we see this in Romans chapter 6. Paul there explains that we have been, that we were enslaved to sin. That in our previous life, if we are believers, in our previous life we were enslaved to sin. Sin reigned in our hearts. It was our master. It was our taskmaster. It told us what to do. And we obeyed it. We had no other choice. But he says that when Christ freed us from that, we are no longer enslaved to that sin. Now, Paul also says elsewhere that we have been redeemed from the curse of the law in Galatians 3.13. So how do we make sense of that? Is it the curse of the law or is it from the bondage of sin? Well, I think it's both, and I think that the way we can look at this is by seeing this by way of the covenants. particularly the covenant of works. So typically covenants, biblical covenants, have blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. And when we look back in the Garden of Eden in Genesis, when God establishes what we call the covenant of works with Adam, he promises Adam blessing upon his obedience. But he warns him and tells him that because disobedience he would surely die and again we know the story he failed and so he died and all this posterity died with him and that day sin entered into the world and since then all of us descendants of Adam prior to Christ are born into sin were born in bondage to that sin that entered when he failed But what's more is that we are born in that same, with Adam as our head, we are still born under that same covenant, and therefore the law of God still demands perfect righteousness from us. It tells us that we must be perfect, that we must obey perfectly, otherwise we will die. And because we are in bondage to sin, we will die. It's inevitable. And so because of that, then the curse of the law looms above us. The curse of the law is upon every single person apart from Christ because we're in bondage to sin and the law still requires that perfection. And because we failed, the curse of the law abides upon us. And so in that sense, the law has a hold on us and will not let us go because it demands justice. And this is who we all were prior to Christ. But Paul tells us that Christ our Savior rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son and therefore freeing us from this bondage of sin. And in so doing, in being freed from this bondage of sin, we are now then released as well from the curse of the law. The law has no more demand from us because Christ has satisfied all the demands of the law for us on our behalf on the cross. And so this is the redemption that we have in Christ. And for those that might be thinking, well, I'll just obey the law. I'll just try and keep the law. That way I won't have this curse upon me. There's a problem that Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that the power of sin is the law. And in Romans chapter 7, let me find my reference. In Romans chapter 7, Paul says that through the law, sin was exacerbated. It was... I'm sorry. Let me find my reference real quick. I'm sorry, here, so in Romans chapter 7, he says, taking opportunity through the commandment, the sin was aroused in him. So the law aroused, that's what I was looking for, it aroused sin in him. So the more that the law of God is impressed upon us, the more that the law of God, that we try to do the law of God, the more our sin is aroused. So our sin, because, so to speak, hates God, in a way of speaking, because the sin is contrary to the law, whenever the law tries to work in our hearts apart from Christ, it only makes things worse. Sin is aggravated, sin is aroused, and so there's no way to then be saved by the law. And that's why Paul so explicitly argues that we cannot be justified by the works of the law, because they will only make things worse. So it's not by the works of the law, it's by Christ. It's by Him dying on the cross, taking upon our sin, or taking our sin upon Himself, and having our sin punished, that we can then have His righteousness, and then have our sins forgiven. That is how we are freed from the bondage of sin. That is how we are freed and delivered from the curse of the law. Now, what about the ransom price? What was the ransom price? Again, as we've already been mentioning, Paul says, it is the blood of Christ. It is through His blood. In Scripture, the life of the creature is in its blood. It's said to be in its blood. And so to speak, the blood of Christ, to speak of the blood of Christ, is to speak of the life of Christ. He laid down His own life for sinners. He took upon Himself the sins of His people and bore their punishment that they deserved. So it was through His perfect obedience and then laying down His life, shedding His blood that cleanses us, that was the ransom price that it cost to redeem us from our sin. And all of this was according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. And this glorious salvation was not just an afterthought. Our sin did not catch God by surprise. This salvation was planned from all eternity, though now it has been revealed to us. And so this brings us to our second point, the mystery of Christ. beginning in the last part of verse eight, it says, and then into verse nine, he says, in all wisdom and insight, he made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his kind intention, which he purposed in him. So what is this mystery? The first thing to note is that the word mystery here is modifying His will. It is the mystery of His will which God the Father has made known to us. And so what is this will? What is this mystery again? Well, like the word redemption, the word mystery also had a specific use in Roman culture, specifically in Roman and pagan religions. These religions had mystery rites or mystery or ritual rites, mystery rituals that brought participants into a deep spiritual connection with their deity. And it also imparted to them this secret knowledge similar to what Gnostics taught. And obviously this is not what Paul had in mind when he thought about when he talked about mystery. The way we ought to think about mystery and the way Paul most likely thought about mystery is the way it is used in the Scriptures, specifically in Daniel chapter 2, where Nebuchadnezzar there has a dream. God has given him a vision, yet he did not know what it meant. He had no understanding of that dream until God reveals it to him through the prophet Daniel. And so there we see that this mystery was hidden in the sense that there was no understanding of it, but it was there. It had been revealed. There was just no understanding until God, in His wisdom, according to His will, then gives us that understanding and gives us that revelation, which is what Paul is saying. In all wisdom and insight, He made known His will or this mystery to His people. And so similar here, Paul says this mystery of God's redemptive plan in Christ has been now fully revealed to us. has been revealed to his people. So again, to be precise, the mystery is Jesus Christ. It is Jesus Christ and everything that he's accomplished. So it's Christ, it's his church, it's the gospel. This is the mystery that was foretold. It's in scripture. We can find references in the Old Testament that speak of this, but it was not given full understanding of it to his people until Christ came, until the Holy Spirit came and revealed these things to his people. And so this is the idea of mystery. Now, if we think about this, I mean, just thinking about Isaiah 53, for example, where it gives a beautiful description of the crucifixion. And you sometimes wonder, how could people have missed this? How could people in Jesus' time have missed this? Even the disciples, Jesus Christ often tells them that He's gonna be crucified, and He tells them plainly, and they still don't understand what He's talking about. And it's because they had no understanding yet. God had not fully revealed these things to them. But now again, he's revealed these things to his people. And one thing that we should take away from this point is that though we are thankful and grateful to have such a great knowledge of salvation and of Jesus Christ, there's also a great responsibility that comes with having this knowledge. You know, God has shown us the way to salvation. He's told us that it's not by works, that it's by faith. He's given us His word to guide us in all truths. to teach us the gospel, and in so many ways, and yet many people can read this and just pass it by, or just not give heed to these things. And so, with a great amount of knowledge that He's given us, that He's revealed to us, we have a great, great responsibility to believe, to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and what He's done on our behalf. Our last point is the gathering together of all things. So, with God having worked redemption in and through Christ and then revealing that salvation in and through Christ, similar to last week's message that was the purpose, the goal, this is very similar. What is the goal? What is the goal of all of this? Well, it's the gathering together of all things in Christ. So, in light of what Paul has said, according to what he said and with redemption with election and the purposes of all that Christ is God in Christ is gathering together all things so this this phrase can properly be translated as Gathering all things under the Lordship of Christ God has given all authority to Jesus Christ Jesus says this in Matthew 28 all authority has been given to me by All authority in heaven and on earth. So Christ has authority over all things. He is Lord of all things. He is Lord of lords and King of kings. But, right now we don't see that full consummation. We don't see His lordship being exercised. In fact, we see so many people rebelling against God. We see so many people rejecting God's word. But yet, the truth remains. He is Lord. He is King. All things are under His authority. And so in this period, in this time, God is working in us. He's working in the church, and He's working in the world to bring all things under His Lordship, to sum up all things in Jesus Christ, because all things are His. And one day He will come. He will come, and He will establish His righteous kingdom. He will defeat His enemies, and His people will rule and reign with Him forever. And that is the goal of all things in Christ Jesus. And with that, With that, I would like to say, before we close, mention a little bit about union with Christ, because we've been talking about in Christ, in Christ, or in Him, and Paul uses this phrase all through Ephesians and all through his epistles. In Christ. And that is in reference to our union with Christ. Michael Horton sums it up by saying that union with Christ is a way of speaking about the way which believers share in Christ in eternity by election, in past history by redemption, in the present by effectual calling, justification, and sanctification, and in the future by glorification. So everything that we have, all the blessings that we have, are ours because they were either given to us with Christ in view, as an election, or are given to us because Christ has accomplished them, as in the cross, He's accomplished redemption. All these blessings are given to us in and through Christ because He has obtained them for us. So He is the fountain of our salvation. And when we believe in Christ, we are mystically incorporated into Him. And I say mystically because it's like somebody has mentioned it's kind of like marriage when you know the bible says that when two when two husband and a wife become uh get married they become one so there's a sense in which my wife and i are one but yet we are still two separate persons but there is that union that we have and so when we trust in christ when we believe in him We are incorporated into His body. We are united with Him in a mystical way. We become part of Christ. And so everything that Christ has accomplished, and all the blessings, everything that God the Father gives Him, are ours because of Him. Salvation, faith, redemption, all things are ours because of Christ. And so God in him has elected us, has redeemed us, and is giving us all things in him, and he's going to sum up all things in him when he establishes his kingdom on that last day. So having this great redemption in Christ then, having been shown the great mystery of Christ and that all things in heaven and earth are being summed up or being gathered together in Christ, the question that I want to leave you guys with is what kind of people then are we to be? What should be our response? We have such a greater redemption than the people of Israel did. So what kind of people are we to be? When God sent Moses to Pharaoh to demand that his people be let free, the message was not just simply to let them go. But what was the purpose? It's to let them go so that they may worship Him, that they may celebrate a feast to Him, that they may serve Him. So that still stands for us as well. If you've been redeemed by Christ, your duty then is to serve Him, lovingly, thankfully serve your Savior, your Redeemer, serve Him with all your heart. Peter tells us in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 17 through 19, he says, if you address the father, the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourself in fear during the time of your stay on earth, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers. but you were redeemed with the precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. There was a great ransom price that was given for you, if you believe. You've been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. And if that is you, then it should move you and stir your hearts to then want to serve your God, to serve your Redeemer. But if this is not you, if you have not believed in the Lord, if you have not trusted in Him, then your sins, your trespasses have not been forgiven. You are still in your sins, and the curse of the law is still upon you. You're in bondage to your sin. So then for you, the responsibility then is to believe, trust in Him. Repent from your sins and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ because only in Him is redemption from our sins and only in Him can we have eternal life. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for such a great, great salvation that we have in Jesus Christ. Thank you that those of us here who believe have been redeemed from our futile ways, have been redeemed from every lawless deed, that all our sins have been forgiven, all our sins have been washed away by the blood of Christ, that His precious life was given for us. Lord, we thank You for that. We thank You that You've revealed this to us. Lord, that You've given us Your Holy Spirit that we may understand and have discernment. But Lord, help us, having this great knowledge and knowing how much we've been forgiven, help us to love much. Help us to serve You with all our heart. Help us to live our lives for Your glory. Lord, we pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.