Blessings from God the Son
Ephesians - Live Like You Really Are
Chuck Sligh
March 25, 2012
POWERPOINT: There is a PowerPoint presentation for this sermon available by requesting it from me at chucksligh@hotmail.com.
TEXT: Ephesians 1:7-12 – “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; 8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; 9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.”
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – When I was little, I loved spending Christmas Eve at my Dad’s side of the family. On Christmas eve, we would all go to Granddaddy and Grandmama’s house where the whole clan gathered. We would arrive around noon, but the most important thing—the gift-opening time—would not take place until after supper, an endless wait for a little boy. I’d play with my cousins until mealtime, and then we’d all gather in the living room for the big event.
The best thing I remember is that I could expect a gift from every set of relatives.
• I got gifts from Grandmama and Granddaddy and I’d open all of them.
• Then I’d get a bunch from Aunt Louise.
• That was followed by more gifts from Aunt Deevey and Uncle Mack.
• And then finally, I’d unwrap all the gifts from Aunt Lee and Uncle Wayne.
The wonderful blessings we have from Godhead are like that. Ephesians 1:3 tells us that we have been “… blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” But it’s not one big package from the Godhead as a whole. Instead, there are different blessings that flow from each person of the Godhead!
For instance, last week we saw three important spiritual blessings from God the Father:
• Number one, He CHOSE us in Christ – Verse 4
• Second, He PREDESTINED us to all the rights and duties of son-ship – verses 5-6a
• Third, He ACCEPTED us in the beloved, who is the Lord Jesus– verse 6
Those are three wonderful presents we receive from God the Father. But folks, the gift giving time isn’t over yet. Paul tells us that there are more blessings that flow from the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Let’s look today at three gifts for believers from God THE SON in verses 7-12:
I. FIRST, IS THE BLESSING OF REDEMPTION – verse 7a – “In whom we have redemption through his blood…”
The word “redeem” is a theological term that the average person might not understand today, but anyone in Paul’s day would readily grasp the meaning of the word. It was a common Greek word used by the Bible to help us grasp our riches in Christ. To “redeem” means “to purchase and set free by paying a price.” It has been reliably estimated that there were at least 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire, and often they were bought and sold like property.
But a man could buy a slave and set him free, and this is what Jesus did for us! Spiritually, Jesus paid the price for our sins and bought us from the slave block of sin.
And, praise God, when Jesus buys us, he sets us free from three things:
• First, Galatians 5:1 tells us that Jesus sets us free from the LAW. I’m set free from serving God by constraint. Now I serve God WILLINGLY because of His marvelous grace and mercy.
• Second, Romans 6 teaches that we are free from SLAVERY TO SIN. Before you were saved, you were a slave to your sin and your wicked habits. But praise God, when you came to Christ, He set you free to do what is right! The Holy Spirit came into your life to give you new desires and to empower you to live for God. You have the Bible to guide you into righteousness.
• Finally, Colossians 1:13-14 tells us we are free from the POWER OF SATAN. Before salvation Satan owned you and he is a hard taskmaster. But the wonderful truth of the Bible is that when Christ saves us, He sets us free from Satan and his power. He no longer has any hold over believers unless we surrender ground to him. Why?—Because we have a new master—Jesus, and a new father—God.
When you see all that Jesus has delivered us from when He redeemed us and set us free, no wonder Jesus said in John 8:36 – “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” As slaves of the Law, sin and Satan we were poor and in bondage. But because of Jesus Christ, we are set free, made a child of the King and given great riches in Christ! MY, WE ARE BLESSED!—Blessed by God the Son first with redemption.
II. THE SECOND BLESSING THAT FLOWS FROM GOD THE SON IS FORGIVENESS – verse 7b – “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.”
What a precious truth! John tells us that “sin is the transgression of [God’s] Law” (1 John 3:4) You see, we’re sinners because we’ve broken God’s Law. God didn’t give us the “Ten Suggestions,” but the “Ten COMMANDMENTS.” A commandment is “an order given by one in authority for which there are consequences for disobedience.” God gave ten clear commandments that, if disobeyed, brings God’s judgment
• The first and second commandments say: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me and thou shalt not make unto thee any graven [carved] image.” (Exodus 20:3-5) – You don’t have to literally bow down to a physical idol to be an idolater If you’ve ever put any thing, person, desire or activity before the Lord, you have committed idolatry and have followed another god.
• God said “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain.” (Exodus 20:7) – Every time you ever blasphemed the name of God, you sinned.
• God commanded, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11) – If you ever dishonored the Lord’s Day by sleeping in instead of going to church and honoring the Lord, you violated this commandment.
• God said, “Honor thy father and thy mother.” (Exodus 20:12) – None of us have always honored our parents like we should.
• He said, “Thou shalt not kill.” (Exodus 20:13) – “Oh,” you say, “Now that’s one I’ve never done!” I wouldn’t be too sure about that. Jesus said if you hate someone, you’re guilty of murder in your heart, and God will hold you accountable for murder on Judgment Day just as if you had physically taken a knife and stabbed that person in the heart.
• God decreed, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” (Exodus 20:14) – Adultery in this verse means any sex outside marriage. But Jesus also added that if you so much as look at a person with lust, you have committed adultery in your heart.
• God commanded, “Thou shalt not steal.” (Exodus 20:15) – Not a one of us in this room has not stolen from someone sometime in our lives.
• He said, “Thou shalt not bear false witness [that is, lie]…” (Exodus 20:16) – That counts so-called “little lies” and “white lies” as well. To God there is no distinction; they’re all lies to God.
• He said, “Thou shalt not covet,” which means to desire something that does not belong to you and includes things like greed and materialism (Exodus 20:17).
• Listen, if we could calculate the number of transgressions of God’s law even the best of us does in his or her lifetime, it would be an enormous number of sins!
Illus. – Suppose, for the sake of illustration, that you only committed three sins a day over a period of 70 years, and let’s subtract the first ten years for good behavior, assuming that you were an exceptionally good child until you turned eleven. – That would equal 3 times 360 days in a year times 60 years, which equals 64,800 sins.
But that’s too generous. I read a statistic that the average man is tempted to lust once every three minutes and that the average person is tempted to lie five to ten times each day.
Do you realize that every curse word, every blasphemy, every dirty joke, every dishonest deed, every covetous thought, every lustful thought, every hateful thought, every thought or act of revenge, every word of gossip, every word spoken in anger is a transgression of God’s law in some form or another? And did you know that if you do not accept Christ’s free gift of salvation, on Judgment Day you must answer for every single transgression you ever committed?
Now if we were to be realistic, the average person’s quota of sins for a day is not three per day, but more like 50 a day. So let’s do some figuring here: If you committed 50 sins a day for 60 years, that would be 1,080,000 sins. That’s a lot of sins to answer for!
God won’t just overlook those sins and let you traipse into heaven without so much as a howdy do! What kind of judge would let a criminal off the hook who was guilty of 1 million crimes, or even 64,000 crimes, without dispensing the just penalty of the law?
We would say such a judge is unjust, and folks, let me tell you, God is not unjust. No, He’s a perfectly just and completely holy God. He’ll not let you off the hook for even ONE sin you’ve committed, even if it were the only one you ever committed in your whole life, for James tells us, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” (James 2:10)
“Well,” you say, “I’ll just let my good outweigh my bad. Surely God will take that into consideration.” Why don’t you try that on a judge in a court of law?
Illus. – Suppose you were tried and convicted of 100 verified robberies—purse snatchings, bank robberies, house break-ins, armed robbery—the whole nine yards. You were guilty, and there was incontrovertible proof of every single crime. At sentencing time, you stand before the judge and say, “Your honor, I believe you should set me free.”
Incredulous, the judge asks why you would think you should be set free after being found guilty of 100 robberies. “You see, your honor, I admit to 100 robberies. But don’t forget, during that whole time I took good care of my mother, I provided for my family, I was a good father, I donated money to charity, I attended church, I tithed, I did volunteer work and I did a lot of other good things.”
The judge would say, “Sir, you’re not being tried for the good things you’ve done, but for the laws you have broken. You are guilty before the law. There is a penalty and I would not be administering justice if I did not give you the penalty demanded by the law.” Then he would sentence you to prison, and no amount of other good things you had done will outweigh the bad things you had done.
Now that’s our situation before salvation. We stand before God, the just Judge, guilty of innumerable transgressions of God’s holy Law. The penalty is clearly stated in God’s Word:
• “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:20a)
• “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23)
And remember that death in the Bible includes not just physical death, but what the book of Revelation calls the “second death,” which is eternal death in hell!
That’s where Jesus comes into the picture. The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. When Christ died on the cross, He paid the penalty for every sin you ever committed. And it’s upon the basis of Christ’s work on the cross alone that you can be forgiven. When you believe in Jesus Christ for salvation, God credits your sin to Christ and it’s paid for by Him.
You see, it’s because of CHRIST’S work on the cross, not your own good works, that God can forgive your sin. I want to read a story that’s a little long, but I think it is insightful.
In 1967 while taking a class in photography at the University of Cincinnati, I became acquainted with a young man named Charles Murray who also was a student at the school and was training for the summer Olympics of 1968 as a high diver. Charles was very patient with me as I would speak to him for hours about Jesus Christ and how He had saved me. Charles was not raised in a home that attended any kind of church, so all that I had to tell him was a fascination to him. He even began to ask questions about forgiveness of sin.
Finally the day came that I put a question to him. I asked if he realized his own need of a redeemer and if he was ready to trust Christ as his own Savior. I saw his countenance fall and the guilt in his face, but his reply was a strong "no."
In the days that followed he was quiet and often I felt that he was avoiding me, until I got a phone call and it was Charles. He wanted to know where to look in the New Testament for some verses that I had given him about salvation. I gave him the reference to several passages and asked if I could meet with him. He declined my offer and thanked me for the scripture. I could tell that he was greatly troubled, but I did not know where he was or how to help him.
Because he was training for the Olympic games, Charles had special privileges at the university pool facilities. Late that evening he decided to go to practice a few dives. It was a clear night in October and the moon was big and bright. The university pool was housed under a ceiling of glass panes, so the moon shone bright across the top of the wall in the pool area. Charles climbed to the highest platform to take his first dive. At that moment God began to convict him of his sins.
All the scripture he had read, all the occasions of witnessing to him about Christ flooded his mind. He stood on the platform backwards to make his dive, spread his arms to gather his balance, looked up to the wall and saw his own shadow caused by the light of the moon. It was the shape of a cross. He could bear the burden of his sin no longer. His heart broke and he sat down on the platform and asked God to forgive him and save him. He trusted Jesus Christ twenty some feet in the air.
Suddenly, the lights in the pool area came on. The attendant had come in to check the pool. As Charles looked down from his platform he saw an empty pool which had been drained for repairs. He had almost plummeted to his death, but the cross had stopped him from disaster.
Dear friend, if you go into eternity without Christ, you’ll plummet to a disaster far worse than an empty swimming pool—a place called hell. Let the cross save you from disaster and give you forgiveness for all your sins! Turn from your sin; come to Christ; ask him to save you and forgive you!
Imagine what kind of God we have who would forgive us of all the sins we’ve committed!
III. THE THIRD BLESSING WE HAVE FROM GOD THE SON IS AN ETERNAL INHERITANCE – verse 11a – “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance…”
Wow!—That really does make us rich! Do you see it?—Paul said believers have an inheritance!
Illus. – You know, I’ve never inherited anything in my life. When Susan’s mom passed on, bless her heart, we OWED money! And all the relatives on my side of the family are poor as church mice, except my first cousin, Terry Fator, the famous ventriloquist, impressionist and comedian who won season 2 of America’s Got Talent. Unfortunately, I’m not in his will!
I’ve never received any kind of inheritance, and I probably never will. But wait a minute! I already HAVE an inheritance! And it’s greater than any kind of inheritance I could ever receive on earth.
What are the riches of my spiritual inheritance? Without going into too much detail and documenting it biblically, let me just summarize by saying that there are two aspects of the believer’s inheritance:
• First is our ETERNAL inheritance—all that is in store for us in heaven. The Bible isn’t real specific on all of the details that await us, but it does say that it will be beyond our expectations and imaginations. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:9, “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
• The second aspect is our spiritual inheritance here and now. – Someone expressed the riches of our inheritance now this way: We have…“a love that can never be fathomed; a justification that can never be cancelled; a righteousness that can never be tarnished; a peace that can never be fully understood; a joy that can never be taken away; a blessed hope that can never be disappointed; a glory that can never be clouded; a light that can never be darkened!”
Let me tell you something, if you’re saved, YOU ARE RICH! Bill Gates is a puny pauper compared to us who are in Christ! Praise God for the wonderful blessings that flow from God the Son.
CONCLUSION
Now all this is well and good, but what does it MEAN? What should we do about what we have learned today?
• If you’re SAVED today, YOU ARE SPIRITUALLY RICH! So you should live worthy of the inheritance you have in Christ. Are you living like a child of the king? Are you seeking to be like your co-heir, Jesus Christ? May God help you to live a life of holiness and faithfulness to please the Father. (MAKE SOME SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS TO ISSUES CURRENTLY IN THE CONGREGATION’S LIFE NOW; I.e., love and compassion for others; honesty; faithfulness to church and homegroup; modesty in clothing; what you allow in your life through TV, movies, books, etc.)
If you’re UNSAVED here today, you are a poorer than you ever thought! You can claim none of these riches of salvation:
• You have not been redeemed and set free by Jesus Christ.
• Your sins are unforgiven and you stand guilty before a righteous, just God.
• You have no inheritance to look forward to—only sin and judgment and hell.
Oh friend, would you come to Christ today! Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28)
