The Blessings of God Given to the Believer (Ephesians 1:3-14) Pt. 1
God's Eternal Plan for the Christian Believer • Sermon • Submitted
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· 155 viewsTo allow people to see the great spiritual blessings that God has blessed His children with.
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Introduction
Introduction
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,
Many of us when we hear the word blessing it tends to move us in the direction of things that are tangible. It makes us think about the things like land, wealth, and all the things that we have. We say, that we have been blessed with all these things. And rightly so, we have. Take a moment and think about these things. I am going to refer to them as material blessings.
These Material blessings that we have are subject to being lost or stolen. We either watch our material possessions deteriorate or else we leave our material possessions behind for someone else.
Material blessings cannot bring peace and security. Peace and security are of the spirit. Earthly nations and material things are of the earth, of a corruptible nature. Because of this nations and material things do not solve spiritual struggle that people sense within their own being. They can (nations and material things) neither erase spiritual divisions between people and between people and God.
When it comes to material things humanity has a tendency or an unregulated urge, that desires and seeks the material and hoards the corruptible to the neglect of the spiritual.
For a person to overcome this urge, something has to happen. To stop the division between one another and between us and God we have to be born again, made into a new creation, created into a new person- spiritually, permanently, perfectly, and eternally.
When we are recreated through our faith in Jesus Christ is when we can enjoy the “Blessings given to us as believers in Christ.” The blessings that I am referring to is called “spiritual blessings.”
Spiritual blessings are of the Spirit. When we think about this it should make us think about how we are able to overcome adversity. When our Spirit is strong and we are facing opposition we will have the will to overcome no matter the way we actually feel. But if our spirit is weak it will cause us to succumb to the feeling of defeat.
Spiritual blessings are the very opposite of temporal blessings. Spiritual blessings are of the inner man, the blessings of the soul (the immortal). These are the most glorious and satisfying. Spiritual blessings help erase all the hardships of life and give us purpose.
Spiritual blessings are far superior to material blessings. They are permanent and perfect and eternal, lasting forever. They are of the same nature as God. Spiritual Blessings can be experience on earth (the physical dimension of being) and in heaven (the spiritual dimension of being.)
Spiritual Blessings are only found in Jesus Christ. Christ has been raised from the dead and exalted to the right hand of God the Father. He is in heaven, surrounded by all the heavenly atmosphere and blessings. And if you know Jesus as your Lord, Savior, and Master you are in Christ. And you are able to experience all the Spiritual Blessings.
Today we are going to look at these Spiritual Blessings that as believers we are so richly Blessed with.
Holy and Blameless: God has chosen us to be Holy and Blameless (v.1:4)
just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,
This is a wonderful verse. Just imagine! God determined before the world was created that He would have a people....
who would be “in Him,” that is, in His Son, Jesus Christ.
who would be “holy and without blame.”
who would live “before Him in Love.” Forever and ever.
This means something wonderful, God wants us to be with Him.” God doesn’t want us to be separated from Him, gripped by sin and shame, sorrow and pain, death and separation from Him. God wants us to live with Him for an eternity.
NOTE: The Great Blessing of God: that we should be holy and without blame before Him.
Holy means to be set apart and consecrated. It is the same word that is used for Saint.
Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
The word blameless means to be free from sin, dirt, and filth; above reproach and without blemish; to be without fault and defilement.
that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
This great blessing of God is perfection.
Galatians–Colossians (King James Version) A. The Blessings of God Given to the Believer, 1:3–14
But note: the believer’s perfection is in Christ and in Christ alone. No man—not even a believer—can live a perfect and sinless life. No man is righteous or ever will be. Jesus Christ is the only Person who has ever lived a sinless and perfect life; therefore, He is the only Person who has the right to live with God. Our only hope of ever living with God is to believe in Jesus Christ—believe so much that God will take our faith and count it as the righteousness of Christ.
Galatians–Colossians (King James Version) A. The Blessings of God Given to the Believer, 1:3–14
This is the glorious gospel: God loves us so much that He has accepted us in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He has taken our faith in Christ and counted it as the righteousness of Christ. Therefore, we are acceptable to God because we trust in Christ and in His righteousness—accepted as being perfect in the perfection of Jesus Christ.
We Can Only Be Found Holy and Blameless in Jesus Christ.
2. Adoption- God has adopted us as His sons and daughters.
having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
It was predestinated, that is , foreordained.
It was the pleasure of God to adopt us-the good pleasure of His will. And it was His purpose to adopt us, and His purpose and His pleasure and His will were all good.
It is really amazing when we take into consideration how sinful we are and the fact that God wills and finds pleasure in adopting us and that He counts it as good is too much to believe.
The word predestined or foreordained does not mean that God chooses some persons for salvation and everyone else for eternal punishment. We know scripture teaches differently.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Predestined or foreordained does mean that nothing can stop God’s purpose for the believer.
In other words, The purpose of the believer has been marked off or set in place.
Adoption means to place as a son.
Adoption is by Jesus Christ and Him alone. God accepts us because we believe and trust His Son.
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
God the Father wants His Son Jesus Christ to have many brothers and sisters that will love Him and worship Him and serve Him both now and forever.
When someone decides that they want to live for Jesus Christ- they want to live for Him so much that they entrust all they are to Christ- God takes that person and adopts him or her and makes a brother or sister to Jesus Christ.
The Purpose of this Spiritual Blessing of adoption is that we might live forever- live to the praise of the glory of His grace.
that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
3. Redemption. God has redeemed us and forgiven our sins.
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace
Redemption gives the idea of setting a man free by paying a ransom.
For example a prisoner of war or a kidnapped person is ransomed or redeemed; or a convicted criminal is freed from the penalty of death. In every case the man is powerless to free himself. He cannot pay the penalty demanded to liberate himself from his situation or bondage.
Man has been captivated or kidnapped by several forces.
The force of sin. All men sin and cannot help but sin. Man is sold under sin. Sin has captivated him.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
The force of corruption and death. The whole creation is corrupt. Everything wastes away, it deteriorates, decays, ages, and eventually dies. Corruption and death have captivated man.
So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.
The force of Satan. All unbelievers are under the power and influence of Satan. He has blinded their minds to the gospel.
whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
He works in the children of disobedience.
in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
They are captivated by him.
We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
2. Three key ideas that are included in the concept of redemption.
Man needs to be liberated, delivered, and set free.
Man is unable to liberate himself. He has no energy, no power, no ability to free himself.
But God can and has redeemed mankind by the blood of His Son Jesus Christ.
God Himself has paid the ransom for man’s release- the ransom of a life for a life.
3. God redeems man because of the of His grace
He loves us with an unbelievable love- a love so great that it spurs Him to do whatever is necessary to save us.
4. Forgiveness-means to send off, to send away, to release, to let go. The word for sin means transgression, trespass, a falling by the way, or deviating from the way.
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace
All Men have transgressed the law of God
All Men have deviated from God
All have fallen from the way of God
That means all people stand guilty of having broken the law of God, and the penalty for breaking the law is death. But, the blood of Christ brings forgiveness to men.
Galatians–Colossians (King James Version) A. The Blessings of God Given to the Believer, 1:3–14
How? Jesus Christ died for man. He took the penalty of sins and bore the punishment Himself. He was able to do this because He was the Perfect and Ideal Man, and as the Ideal Man, He could stand for and represent all men. When He died, He died as the Ideal Man, as the Representative for all men. Any person who really believes that Jesus Christ died for him is forgiven his sins. God takes his faith and counts it as the death of Jesus Christ. God sees the man as being in Jesus Christ, as being in the death of Jesus Christ. God counts the death of Jesus Christ for the death of the man. Therefore, the guilt and penalty for breaking God’s laws are completely removed. The man’s sins and guilt are sent away or washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
Conclusion
This is only half of the Spiritual Blessings that we as believers are blessed with. Each of these Blessings are only found in Christ Jesus. Next week we will finish up with these great Spiritual Blessing that we are so richly blessed with.
As we close please know that the Altar is open.