“In Christ We Are Extravagantly Blessed” Part 1, Ephesians 1:1-14
- Senior Pastor, Robert Dennison preached this message on January 8, 2023
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Audio Transcript
Someone said they came in expecting today that I would be in Genesis 1, going along with our Bible readings. I debated about doing that or going with the book of Ephesians. And if you were here when I first came, I actually preached on Genesis for quite some time verses, I mean, chapters one through 11. So we’re going to be spending time in Ephesians while you’re still doing your weekly Bible readings in the Old Testament. I will admit to you today that my sermon is going to be different, and we’ll tell everybody’s age here.
How many of you watched I Love Lucy? How many of you remember when she made rice?
Well, you know how rice expands, right? Well, she put in a half a cup for her and Ricky and, you know, And Ethel Co. Was coming over. She said, this is certainly not going to be enough rice for everybody because they got big appetites. So she put in, like, two cups of rice for everybody in this pot and put water. Well, you know what happened when she left the kitchen?
It just grew and grew as it expanded and it boiled out all over her kitchen. Well, my sermon, I put the rice in the pot this week, and it grew so much that I’m not going to get through it today because some of you don’t listen very fast. So we’re not going to finish all the notes, but I just want to make that admission here in the beginning. We’re in Ephesians, chapter 1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by God’s will to the faithful saints in Christ Jesus at Ephesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens. In Christ, for He chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in love before Him. He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding. He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ as a plan for the right time to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth.
In Him. In him we also have received an inheritance because we were predestined according to the plan of the One who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will, so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory in him. You also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed the Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance until the redemption of the possession. To the praise of his glory. May we pray.
Heavenly Father, as we begin our studies in the Ephesians here for several weeks, we just ask that you will let it be the blessing to us that Paul meant it to be to the Ephesians as he was writing to them, that they would understand the depth of your great love and what Christ did and how much he has provided for us, that we might have a right relationship with you. It’s in his name that we pray. Amen. Paul begins with these words. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by God’s will to the faithful saints in Christ Jesus at Ephesus.
Paul is writing from prison here because he mentions twice in the letter that he’s a prisoner and once that he is in chains also. I just want you to know that there’s a theme of love throughout the whole book, beginning in chapter one, verses four through six, all the way to chapter six, verses 23 and 24. We find that God’s reason for all that he is doing for us is his love. The word apostle here was not commonly used, but Jesus used it as a specific title for his disciples who were chosen to authoritatively deliver his message to the world. That’s the two things to remember.
They were specifically chosen to authoritatively deliver his message to the world. And Paul was called to do the same thing. So we know that his Word that he shares with us in all of his letters was given to him by the Lord. He was specifically chosen to deliver that to us. And Paul tells us that he was chosen by God’s will, meaning that God didn’t so much demanded upon him.
Paul didn’t feel like, this is something I have to do and I don’t want to do it. Instead, this word means here that Paul felt that God was pleased with him, that God was happy with him, and he was delighted that God had chosen him to be part of what’s going on. Do I need to switch to a different mic or do something different here? Bill, Go to six.
So we go on from Paul to who he’s writing to. It says he’s writing to the faithful saints. This was in a letter to the unsaved. And that’s important to remember when we read about the message here. Of course, someone who doesn’t know the Lord can learn from it, but Paul was emphasizing that.
I’m writing to those of you that are faithful saints, meaning that you’re firm in your belief, you’re faithful in your duty to the Lord. It was a letter to Christians who were living in a very unchristian city in Ephesus. It was a political center, it was a religious center for idolatry and false doctrine. It was a commercial center. Paul had spent two and a half years of his life there.
It was a very specific place that was great for the Gospel to be spread from. And so Paul’s letter going there, he knew that it was going to spread to other regions with the truth that God wanted them to know. Paul says that he’s showing them that God is giving to them grace and he’s. He’s giving them peace. When we talk about the grace here that God provides, it means to have joy, to have pleasure, gratification, favor, and most importantly, it’s acceptance from God that comes to us as believers.
And because it’s grace, it means that it’s a gift. He doesn’t expect any payment for it. He doesn’t expect us to do anything to receive the. The grace that he bestows upon us. And also Paul says that God gives us peace, and peace is the opposite of war, meaning that when we have a relationship with the Lord, things are good.
There’s tranquility in our life, there’s calmness that does not exist in the life of unbelievers. And both of these things, he tells us, come as from the God the Father and God the Son. Now, in this first chapter, as we look at it today, we’re not going to finish it all, but Paul is giving us a list of everything that Jesus Christ has done for us so that we can have salvation. What he’s wanting people to understand is, yes, you understand that you’ve received salvation, but there’s so much back work, there’s so many gifts, there’s so many things that Jesus did to provide this for you. You don’t even understand when you first come to know the Lord, you how much has been done for you and how much you’re going to receive as a blessing from Jesus Christ.
But in order to fully appreciate what Jesus Christ does for us, his role in providing salvation for us and all these things, Paul emphasizes Jesus Christ over and over throughout this chapter. Because all of these things are in Him. They’re from Him. They’re through him and they’re by Him. So what I’d like you to do with me, we’re going to participate in reading some of the verses again.
And I want you to read what is emphasized to see that Jesus Christ is the emphasis of the Scripture. So we’re going to be in verse three. Right up there. I’ll begin reading. You read the red part.
Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, for he chose us before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in love.
He predestined us to be adopted as sons for Himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious.
Next slide. You got the first two words.
We have redemption, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding. He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure.
Try that one again. He purposed in Christ good as a plan for the right time, Both things in heaven and things on earth. So my question to you is, why should we love Jesus? Because all the spiritual blessings that we have are in him and through him and by Him. Scripture uses our relationship by picturing it as a newlywed couple, and we have one here today.
All right, Jesus Christ is the groom, the church is the bride, and the bride is preparing herself. But in our case, what we don’t understand is how much Jesus Christ is doing for us and in us and through us, to present Himself to us. And when we first come to faith in Jesus Christ, we don’t even really understand these things. But as we read God’s Word, we gain more of an appreciation. But eventually, at the marriage feast of the Lamb, we’re going to fully appreciate what Christ has done for us when it comes to the completion of that.
So as we go through this chapter, we have to remember that the reason Paul is showing us the blessings. They’re important and wonderful. But more wonderful than the blessings are the relationship that we have with Jesus Christ. Now, within this chapter, Paul talks about predestination. So I wanted to take time to talk about predestination.
It’s something that people talk about. I don’t understand it completely. I am not smart enough to do that. But I will give you my understanding of it as best I can. But before we go to the Scripture, I just kind of want to give you a story that will maybe kind of help you to understand the way that I look at it.
And I want you to imagine that there is a dog that lives in a home where that dog is completely mistreated. That dog is killing, kicked. There’s a little boy in the house, and he pushes the dog down the stairs. They don’t remember to feed the dog every day. The dog has ticks, the dog has fleas.
The dog is covered in mange. Have any of y’ all seen a dog? It just looks terrible that everything is absolutely awful, Completely unhealthy. Well, imagine that that dog is. Is living in that home, but it’s the only home that he knows.
So it crosses his mind, you know, maybe I should run out that door and get away. But he says to himself, you know, things could be worse out there. Things might not be better. But one day he’s feeling so dejected. The door is left open, that dog runs out, because certainly something must be a little better or equal to what I have.
And he doesn’t get far down the street, but this truck drives up and this man steps out. And next thing you know, the dog is where the dog is locked up in the pound. Things aren’t any better for that dog. Until one day there’s this boy that shows up. And for some reason, he’s attracted to that dog.
And he keeps trying to get the dog to come over to him. And the dog is really reluctant because he remembers another little boy that pushed him down the stairs. But finally, that dog walks up to the little boy. The boy takes the dog out of the pound. They head down the road to the new home.
That dog doesn’t know whether to be excited or to be sad. He doesn’t know what’s going to be at the end of the road. He thinks thoughts like, well, what’s my new home going to be like? Is it going to be worse or is it going to be better? Are they going to treat me well?
Are they going to actually want to keep me? Because I’ve seen a lot of other dogs that look better than me, so maybe they’re just going to push me out on the street. And the whole time that he’s walking with that little boy, the thought keeps crossing his mind, maybe I should run away. Maybe I should leave this relationship. But the boy is consistently there and takes him forward to the home.
That’s how it is with our salvation. We are like that dog. We are completely awful. We’re sick. We’re under Satan’s cruel rule in our life, and it’s all we know.
And then Jesus Christ comes along and offers us an opportunity to come to his home. Now, when we talk about our home, we’re talking about our home in eternity. Where we’re headed, we don’t see that in this world. We still see problems as we are walking with the Lord, of course, with that dog. As long as he stayed close to that boy in his walk, he got to know the boy better.
But whenever he tended to wander away, he was still in the boy’s sight. But he wasn’t getting to know him. And in the same way, once we come to faith in Jesus Christ, by staying close to him, we understand more and more what he has done for us. We’re like that stray. We can’t do anything to save ourself.
God chooses us. He predestines us to salvation. But still, as we’re marching forward, we have these doubts. Most people that talk to me have some doubt in their life. Am I really a Christian?
Am I really going to heaven? And that happens from time to time. That’s the position that the people in Ephesus were. Some of them were wondering, am I really saved? There was even this rumor going around that Jesus had already returned and had taken his true believers to heaven.
But Paul is writing out to them and he’s talking about predestination. Not to scare them, not to cause divisiveness in the church and discussing it, but it was meant to be a comfort to people. He’s saying, look, all these things God chose and predestined for you, and this is supposed to give you comfort because as you, you walk down the road of life, he is going to make certain that you enter his home one day. He wants the Ephesians to be able to have the peace and the joy in their life and the grace that he promised and to rest securely that God is certainly going to carry out and complete their salvation. It’s because of what God has done in their life.
It’s not because of what they have done, why they can have this reassurance. And he also wants to open up to their eyes that you know that you’re saved. But there’s so much more in this treasure chest of riches that God has predestined for you, that he’s preparing, that none of these things can be taken away. So I want us to take some time today to think about predestination. What does it mean?
We see the statement up there. Predestination, reelection versus free will. Now, I want to say that as we compare them today, it’s probably better to say predestination election and free will, because they’re both taught in scripture and they must fit together some way. Now people will start out saying, well, it’s a contradiction. A contradiction is a statement of a position opposite to one already made.
And they say, how can God predestined us to salvation? But on the other hand, he gives us a free will to choose. Well, I want to say it’s not a contradiction here, it’s a paradox. And a paradox is a seemingly absurd or self contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained, may prove to be well founded or true. A contradiction is a statement like I am standing here.
And then I say, I am not standing here. Is that possible? It’s not because it’s a contradiction. Or it would be to say that God is good and God is bad. You can’t say that because that’s a contradiction.
But what we’re reading here are two things that even though they seem like they’re opposite, there’s a paradox here that it really does make sense. How many of you have ever been told something and you say, no, that’s absolutely impossible. Only to find out you have to say, whoops, I was wrong. Now I see it’s true. Has that ever happened to you?
You thought it was contradictory and it couldn’t be true. But then you find out that it was really a paradox. I’ll give you an example. We have friends that stayed at our house this week and they have other son who’s going up to Fond du Lac to do some work for the rest of the year. And he told me, he said, do you know that you can tell the difference between cold water and hot water when you’re pouring it into a glass?
Well, immediately I’m thinking, contradiction. There’s no way. But I’m thinking, okay, maybe there is. I’ll listen. So he had me turn my back and he ran hot water and cold water.
He said, now I want you to listen closely and see if you can tell the difference between hot water and cold water being poured into a glass. Some of you are smart, you may get this. So I have my back and I hear the pouring water. I’m like, okay, is that hot or cold? I can’t really tell.
He said, okay, now listen to the next glass. So he poured the next glass and it went plink, plink, plink, plink.
He poured ice cubes, cold water into the glass. Now what I thought was a contradiction and could not be was really a what? It was a paradox. It was true. But I just didn’t understand it.
Predestination and free will may seem to be contradictions, but they are not the predestined. I mean, the contradiction would be men are predestined and men are not predestined. Scripture doesn’t say that. Or it would be, men have a free will and men do not have a free will. That’s not what Scripture says.
Scripture says we’re predestined, but we also have a free will. To me, it’s like two sides of a coin. There’s a heads and there’s a tails. And if you pulled out a nickel or a half dollar or quarter today, how many of you can look at both sides at the same time? Is it possible?
No, you have to look at one side and then you have to turn it over and remember what you just saw over there to try to put the things together. And that’s how free will and predestination is. They’re two sides of the same coin. We know they fit together, but all we can do is look at them separately and try to understand them a little bit. I wrote this statement about my personal understanding.
My first statement is, I cannot understand this paradox. Now, if you can understand the paradox, please talk to me afterwards. But I’ve never heard anybody that thoroughly can explain it. That I’m like, yes, that’s it, 100%. The second thing is I know that God’s thoughts are higher than mine.
How many of you all agree with that? Okay, I cannot comprehend his thoughts. And the other thing I have to think of is that I live inside of time. And therefore I think in sequence, which means I think, I make a decision. I wait and see what happens, and then I make another decision.
God doesn’t live in this time sequence. He doesn’t say, well, I’m going to do this today, and if such and such turns out tomorrow, and if that turns out, I’ll do this. God knows about everything. Past, present, future, and even before time and into eternity. So whereas I live inside of time and I think in sequence, God lives outside of time and he has all of his thoughts at once.
He doesn’t make a decision or wait for the outcome and then decide what to do next. Because he sees the beginning to the end and everything before the beginning and everything after time. I like to picture it like this table down here. If there were an ant that started to crawl up that table, for that ant to explore that whole table, to find out that that bread doesn’t taste good anymore, and to find out whether there Is something or not in that jug. It’s going to take that ant a certain amount of time.
But in a little way, I can be like God that I sit up here and how much of the table do I see? I see all of it. I know that that bread’s been there for 12 months. I know whether there’s poison or not that I should avoid in that, but the ant doesn’t. So God sees all of this, what we’re going through through time.
That’s why scripture says in Revelation 13:8 that the Lamb was slaughtered before the world was made. That’s not the way we experience Jesus life on earth. People saw him born, they saw him grow up, they saw him crucified on the cross, they saw him buried, and they saw him raised from the dead. But in God’s mind, the way he sees everything, even before the world was created, he saw that Jesus Christ was slain on the cross so that we might have salvation. And if nothing else makes you realize how much God loves you, that he knew all the pain that would come to His Son before you were created and he still brought about creation.
My conclusion is I don’t have to understand how this all fits together in order to trust God’s Word. I don’t say, you know, this doesn’t make sense to me, so I’m just not going to read the rest of God’s Word. God’s Word is trustworthy. And just like the prophecies in the Old Testament, they didn’t know how they were going to come about. But in time, God gives us understanding so that all this makes sense to us.
And not only do I have to not understand it to trust God’s Word, I don’t have to have a complete understanding of it to know that I am truly saved. There’s a lot in God’s Word, Praise the Lord. He takes care of it, that I don’t have to understand it all and I don’t have to be able to explain it well to others. But what does the Bible say about predestination and free will? I just wanted to make some statements today.
The first thing is that the New Testament mentions predestination multiple times. So we can’t just write it off and say, well, I don’t like that. I don’t understand it. Therefore it doesn’t exist because God’s Word does mention it. Romans 8:29 says, for those he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
The second statement also comes from that verse there. Because the New Testament connects God’s knowledge of all things, past, present and future with predestination for those he foreknew, those he also predestined. And again, it’s the paradox. But I can’t separate anything about God’s character. We know that he’s loving, and we know that he’s just.
We know that he’s loving, but he’s also wrathful. And that he’s going to punish sin. I can’t separate those things out. And so it is that God chooses us, but he still allows us to make a decision. I like to think that in the Old Testament we have Jacob and Esau.
That maybe this is kind of a picture of it. Esau was the older. But God didn’t choose Esau when they were in the womb. He chose the younger brother. And now in their natural understanding, it should have gone all the blessings and the leadership of the family to Esau.
But God chose the younger. But God in his foreknowledge. When we get to the end of the story, we see that. That Esau married the Canaanite women. And he was not as interested in God’s word and the blessing.
So we could say that God enter his foreknowledge, knew who the best choice would be. And that he chose Jacob for that reason to receive the blessings. And that it would be through Jacob that the coming Messiah would come one day. The next statement is, and I mentioned earlier, the New Testament always presents predestination as a comfort. It’s not there to be divisive.
It’s not there to scare us. And many of us are familiar with this passage in Romans 8, 28 and 30, where it talks about how God’s predestination is a comfort. We know that all things, meaning all things, whether bad or good, that they all work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. And that those he predestined he also called. And those he called, he also justified.
And those he justified, he also glorified. The comfort and predestination. Is that what God began God is going to take to completion? I can’t even guarantee what’s going to happen to me tomorrow to try to do anything to secure my eternal salvation. That’s why it’s ridiculous to even attempt tempt by giving money or by doing good things or attending church to gain your salvation.
Because you can never do enough of that. And if your confidence is in what you’re doing and what you’re giving to get you to heaven, it’s going to have continual doubts coming up in your mind. Because the truth is you will never get there by relying on yourself. But instead, the doctrine of predestination says that God is the one who takes care of all. All of this he is capable and able to carry out to completion everything that he has began.
The next statement is predestination is not fatalistic. And what we’re saying here is that the New Testament teaches that salvation is contingent upon us receiving God’s gift of salvation. Here’s the balance. And our acceptance has to be thoughtful and voluntary. We have to understand what we’re doing.
And God explains that to us in His Word. And it’s voluntary. He doesn’t force it on us. No one is ever forced by God to accept salvation, and no one is forced by God to refuse salvation. In second Peter 3:9, we see what God’s doing desire is.
Says that the Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you. Not wanting anyone to perish, but he’s wanting all instead to come to repentance. Many of the verses that we share with people explain this over and over throughout the New Testament that God’s done all the work. It’s not like we’re gaining salvation because of our work or anything we do. But we have to look at it.
It’s just an acceptance of the gift that he’s given to us. Let’s look at John, chapter 1, verses 12 through 13 and see the responsibility that God places on individuals to come to him, but to all who did receive Him. He gave them the right to be children of God. To those who believe in his name, who were born not of natural descent or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God. God requires a response from people to be saved.
He never re forces that response. We make it with thoughtful intelligence. We make it of our own choice. John 3:16, 18. And there’s an extra one up there that doesn’t belong there, but John 3:16, 18.
You’re familiar with these verses. For God loved the world in this way. He gave his one and only Son. That everyone who believes the responsibility is on us. We have to believe in him so that we will not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned because he has not believed. In the name of the one and only Son of God. Those who believe are saved, and those who do not believe are not saved. Nowhere in scripture does God say that anybody other than the individual is responsible for whether or not they come to faith in in Jesus Christ.
Romans 10, 8, 10. On the contrary, what does it say? The message is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. This is the message of faith that we proclaim. Says if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, God doesn’t do that for you.
You are responsible to accept the gift by confessing Jesus as Lord. And you also have to do it with this understanding. And you’re willfully choosing because you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. And when these two things happen, Scripture says that you will be saved. For one believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.
The Bible teaches predestination, but it also teaches that we have a responsibility to confess this and believe, and that is not forced upon us in any way. Romans 10, 14, 17. We find here that predestination in no way should ever limit our efforts to share the gospel. Not only does it say that we are responsible to accept the gospel, but it God tells us we’re responsible to share the gospel with others. How then can they call on him they have not believed in?
And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.
But even with the good news, when it came, God said, but not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, lord, who has believed our message? So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ. If we don’t get out and share the gospel, people are not going to have the opportunity to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Those that are in the way extreme over there on predestination, they’ll say, we don’t need to share the gospel with anybody.
If we just open the doors to our church. God will predestined people to come in on Sunday morning because he’s worked it all out. That’s way extreme. That’s not what scripture teaches. Whereas on the other side, you’ve got people over here and they’re so, so strong on free will that they say, you know, someone can be saved today and someone can lose their salvation tomorrow and the next week they can get saved again because what they’re saying, it all depends upon God’s free will.
Scripture teaches both of these. There’s some place in the middle here that’s, that’s the perfect understanding of all this. And I don’t claim to know what that perfect understanding is, but I want to encourage you. All of us need to be somewhere here in the middle and teach both sides of what God is showing in His Word.
What does this mean for us today? It means that we don’t need to sit here and worry whether I’m predestined to be a believer or not. Because if you have a desire to be a Christian, to have a right relationship with God, don’t sit there and think, am I predestined or not. All you have to do, confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead. Because God tells us anyone that wants to be saved, he’s willing to accept that from them as an acceptance of his gift of what Christ has done for him on the cross.
We’re going to stop with that today. Next week we’re going to look more at all these extravagant blessings that God is predestined for certain that we’re going to have and that we can count on throughout eternity. May we have a word of prayer? Heavenly Father, we. We thank you for the comfort that we have that you’re completely working out our salvation.
You’ve, you’ve called us, you’re working in our life. We don’t have to worry day by day whether you’re going to complete what you have promised. Because all your promises are yes and amen. They’re completed in your sight. Father, help us to more grateful, greatly appreciate what you have done for us and to love your son more for all that he’s done to secure our salvation and provide us with all these wonderful gifts.
In his name we pray. Amen.