Faith Bible Church of Lake Charles
Our Blessings From God
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  • Our Blessing From God

    There was a comic strip from many years ago that was very funny and quite ironic.
    It showed a pompous lawyer reading a client’s last will and testament to a group of greedy relatives. The caption read: “I, John Jones, being of sound mind and body, spent it all!”
    When Jesus Christ wrote His last will and testament for His church, He made it possible for us to share His spiritual riches. Instead of spending it all, Jesus Christ paid it all. His death on the cross and His resurrection make possible our salvation.
    He wrote us into His will, then He died so the will would be in force. Then He arose again that He might become the heavenly Advocate (lawyer) to make sure the terms of the will were correctly followed!
    In our text this morning, Paul names just a few of the blessings that make up our spiritual wealth.
    Paul is continuing his discussion of believers’ spiritual blessings by showing that they are based on the work of the three Persons of the Trinity: the selection of the Father (vv. 4–6), the sacrifice of the Son (vv. 7–12), and the seal of the Spirit (vv. 13–14).
    All three members of the Godhead are involved in our salvation. Let’s read the work of the Father...
    Ephesians 1:4–6 NKJV
    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, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
    Now, before anyone gets uncomfortable, today’s message is not going to be a treatise on election vs. free will. The reality is both concepts are taught in the Bible. And anyone who claims to have a grasp on either, or both is just fooling themselves. We cannot understand or explain either sufficiently any more than we can understand or explain the Trinity, how Jesus could be fully man or fully God, or how is it that God could just have always been?
    Mind blowing… So before you set up your defenses, let me state right out of the gate, for those of you who pretend to understand religious-speak, “I am not a Calvinist. And I’m not an Armenian.”
    And for those of you who are looking at me like a calf at a new gate, good for you. These were merely two men who deigned to think they were able to fit God into their little box.
    As a matter of fact, an avowed Calvinist said, “both systems fail to adequately explain the relationship between God’s sovereignty and mankind’s free will—due to the fact that it is impossible for a finite human mind to discern a concept only God can fully understand.”
    This morning we’re going to stick to what the Bible SAYS, and not what we THINK the Bible says. Fair enough?
    Good. Alright let’s go.
    As we go deeper into what we started last week, the Apostle Paul begins to enumerate how we’ve been blessed. This morning we’ll cover our blessings we have from God the Father in verses 4-6.
    There are many in the world who feel useless and worthless. And there are many who feel that God could never love them for who they are.
    The fact is, apart from Christ, not a single one of us is worthy of God’s love, much less, salvation. But the Bible teaches us that...

    God Has Chosen us (v. 4)

    Ephesians 1:4 NKJV
    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 reality has confused some and confounded others. I’ve heard it said, ‘Try to explain election and you may lose your mind. But try to explain it away and you may lose your soul!”
    I think we can all agree that salvation begins with God, and not with man.
    “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you” (John 15:16)
    The lost sinner, left to his own ways, does not seek God (Rom. 3:10-11);
    And God in His love seeks the sinner (Luke 19:10)
    We see that God chose us even before He created the universe, so that our salvation is wholly of His grace and not on the basis of anything we ourselves have done. He chose us in Christ, not in ourselves. And He chose us for a purpose: to be holy and without blame. In the Bible, election is always unto something. It is a privilege that carries a great responsibility.
    Does the sinner respond to God’s grace against his own will? No, he responds because God’s grace makes him willing to respond. The mystery of divine sovereignty and human responsibility will never be solved in this life. Both are taught in the Bible.
    John 6:37 NKJV
    37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
    Both are true, and both are essential.
    We’ll note that all three Persons in the Godhead are involved in our salvation (see also 1 Peter 1:3).
    As far as God the Father is concerned, you were saved when He chose you in Christ in eternity past. But that alone did not save you.
    As far as God the Son is concerned, you were saved when He died for you on the cross.
    As far as God the Spirit is concerned, you were saved when you yielded to His conviction and received Christ as your Saviour. What began in eternity past was fulfilled in time present, and will continue for all eternity!
    I don’t understand it. All I know is the Bible promises “Whosoever will may come to Him”. And all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved! And that’s the only thing I believe you and I need to be concerned about.
    I don’t understand how atoms and molecules and matter, for that matter, stay together. I’m just glad they do.
    Moving on...

    God Has Adopted Us (v. 5)

    Ephesians 1:5 NKJV
    5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
    There’s one thing for sure. We have all these blessings, neither through merit, nor birth. Physical birth, that is.
    Here we meet that misunderstood word predestination.
    This word, as it is used in the Bible, refers primarily to what God does for saved people.
    Nowhere in the Bible are we taught that people are predestined to hell, because this word refers only to God’s people.
    The word simply means “to ordain beforehand, to predetermine.”
    Election seems to refer to people, while predestination refers to purposes.
    The events connected with the crucifixion of Christ were predestined (Acts 4:25–28). God has predestined our adoption (Eph 1:5), and our conformity to Christ (Rom. 8:29–30), as well as our future inheritance (Eph. 1:11).
    Let me try to explain. Let’s say you have three children of school age. And you say to all three before the school year begins, “If you make straight A’s on your report card this first semester, I’ll take you out for ice cream, and you can order whatever you want.”
    Are you forcing any one of them to do anything? Have you chosen one of them over the other? No, of course not.
    What you have done is you’ve “predestined” what will happen if they make straight A’s on their report card.
    You haven’t chosen anyone. You’ve simply decided what WILL happen to those who make the straight A’s.
    Let’s move on...
    Adoption has a dual meaning, both present and future. We do not get into God’s family by adoption. You get into His family by regeneration, the new birth (John 3:1–18; 1 Peter 1:22–25).
    Adoption is the act of God by which He gives His “born ones” an adult standing in the family.
    Why does He do this? So that we might immediately begin to claim our inheritance and enjoy our spiritual wealth!
    A baby cannot legally use this inheritance (Gal. 4:1–7), but an adult son can—and should! This means that you do not have to wait until you are an old saint before you can claim your riches in Christ.
    The future aspect of adoption is found in Romans 8:22–23, the glorified body we will have when Jesus returns. We already have our adult standing before God, but the world can’t see this. When Christ returns, this “private adoption” will be made public for everyone to see!

    God Has Accepted Us (v. 6)

    Ephesians 1:6 NKJV
    6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
    We can’t make ourselves acceptable to God; but He, by His grace, makes us accepted in Christ.
    This is our eternal position which will never change.
    Some translations read “which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (nasb).
    Or, “He has be-graced [literal translation] us in the Beloved.” The idea is the same.
    Because of God’s grace in Christ, we are accepted before Him.
    Paul wrote Philemon to encourage him to accept his runaway slave, Onesimus, using the same argument. “If he owes you anything, I will pay it. Receive him as you would receive me” (Phile. 17–19, paraphrased).
    We see the same parallel here. We owe God everything. But thankfully, Jesus paid it all. Amen? Amen.

      • Ephesians 1:4–6NKJV

      • Ephesians 1:4NKJV

      • John 6:37NKJV

      • Ephesians 1:5NKJV

      • Ephesians 1:6NKJV

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Faith Bible Church of Lake Charles
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