In verse 3 we are told that God wants to bless us. Then Paul gives us a grocery list of things in the next few verses that God has blessed us with.
Illus: One of the biggest days of the church year should be Thanksgiving Day. Why? It is obvious. Because we all have so much to be thankful for!
Illus: Rudyard Kipling was famous for his writings. However, at one time he was so popular that his writings were bringing ten shillings per word. But Kipling also had his critics. For example, some college students did not appreciate his writings. They sent him a sneering letter, enclosing ten shillings, and said, “Please, send us your best word.” In a few days they received a letter from Kipling, “Thanks.”
That should also be our favorite word because God has been so good to all of us.
As pointed out in a previous message in this series, Paul listed what we have IN CHRIST and by the time he got to verse six he had to pause to praise God for His blessings. Let us look at that verse again, “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”
Notice, he was not praising the Lord because he had just won the Reader’s Digest sweepstakes. He was PRAISING THE LORD BECAUSE GOD, “...HATH MADE US ACCEPTED IN THE BELOVED!
Paul recognized the GREATEST BLESSINGS in life ARE SPIRITUAL. Paul got excited even writing about it!
Again, the book of Ephesians is a marvelous book in that it reveals to us what we have IN CHRIST!
Illus: Reading Ephesians is like living in poverty and waking up one morning to find that you are wealthy. You had been wealthy for a long time, but you only found out.
Illus: The song writer had it right when he wrote, “Praise God, FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”
• If you have good HEALTH, you ought to praise the Lord because it came from Him.
• If you have a good SPOUSE, you ought to praise the Lord because he/she came from God.
• If you have HEALTHY CHILDREN, you ought to praise the Lord because it came from Him.
• If you have a GOOD JOB, you ought to praise the Lord because it came from Him.
• If you have GOOD FRIENDS, you ought to praise the Lord because they come from Him.
• If you have a GOOD CHURCH, you ought to praise the Lord because it came from Him.
Illus: In a little church there was a father and mother of a young military man who had been killed. One day they went to the pastor and told him they wanted to give a monetary gift in memory of their son who had been killed in battle. The pastor said, “That is a wonderful gesture on your part.” He asked them if they would mind if he told the congregation of their memorial gift and they said they did not mind. So, the next Sunday the pastor told the congregation of the gift that had been given in memory of the dead son.
On the way home from church another couple was driving down the highway when the father said to his wife, “Why don’t we give a gift because of our son?” The wife said, “But our son did not die in any conflict!” The husband replied, “That’s exactly my point! That is all the more reason why we should give.”
Everything in your life that you consider to be a blessing is a gift from God. We should never take it lightly that God would want to bless us.
Suppose God was not that kind of God! Suppose He was like evil man.
Did you know there are evil people who enjoy seeing others suffer. That is, their minds are so warped that the more they see someone suffer, the more they enjoy it. For example...
Illus: In Columbia, S. C., three men took a young woman out into the woods and literally tortured her to death. When they found her body, not only had she been raped, stabbed, and slashed with a knife; they found at least a hundred cigarette burns all over her body.
People who would do that kind of criminal act are so possessed by the devil that they literally enjoy seeing another human suffer. The more they suffer the more they enjoy it.
Do you know what is ironic? There are people in this congregation who are sinners, who know Satan causes people to do those evil acts, yet you keep serving him. SATAN LOVES TO SEE US MORTALS SUFFER.
BUT, GOD IS JUST THE OPPOSITE!
Suppose God enjoyed seeing mortals suffer. If He was that kind of God we all would be in a terrible fix. Why?
• - Because He is OMNIPRESENT, we could not flee from Him.
• - Because He is OMNISCIENT, He knows everything we think.
• - Because He is OMNIPOTENT, He is all powerful.
If He was not a loving and gracious God, we would all be in a terrible predicament.
But, we can be thankful that God is gracious and wants to bless, “...us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places IN CHRIST.” When I think of why God loves us and wants to bless us it is “mind-boggling.”
Illus: The fact God loves us and wants to bless us is as “mind-boggling” as if the most attractive girl in the world chose to marry the ugliest fellow in the world. And WHAT WOULD MAKE IT REALLY “MIND-BOGGLING,” listen to this: the reason she married him was because she LOVED HIM!
God has chosen that we should be His bride. It is “mind-boggling” that God would choose the likes of us.
What is even harder to understand, is even more “mind-boggling” is that God is madly in love with us. He loved us so much, even before we were born, that He gave His only Son to die for our sins so that He might live with us for eternity.
God loves us. He wants to shower us with His blessings.
Illus: St. Augustine said, “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest IN THEE.”
We who are IN CHRIST, let us continue to work our way through this book of Ephesians and in verses 8 through 10 see how God has blessed us. Look at...
I. OUR REVELATION.
We read, “Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 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.”
Illus: A company that makes metal buildings sent some information to prospective churches that might be wanting to build a metal building. In their information packet they stated that they PRODUCED THE BUILDINGS and the PLANS on how to build them.
That is exactly what God has done. When He created us, even from the womb, WE CAME WITH A DETAILED SET OF PLANS that TELL HOW TO PUT THIS LIFE, THAT HE HAS GIVEN US, TOGETHER. To the sinner He instructs, “Come unto me...” Once we become a child of God...
A. God reveals His will for our lives step by step. Look at Psalm 37:23. We read, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.”
In verse 9 of our text we see His will for our lives is referred to as a “mystery.”
Illus: Many people read “mystery” books. Many more watch mystery movies. The reason they find them exciting is because they do not know who committed the crime so they try to figure out who did it as they read, page after page, until finally at or near the end the “mystery” is revealed.
In a similar way, God reveals the “mystery of his will,” to us.
Illus: A young preacher boy was studying for the ministry, but he had no one in his family who had been a minister. One day he asked his pastor, “How can I ever get into full-time service for the Lord?” The pastor said, “Just keep doing what you know you should do each day and God will show you how.” He did. He kept doing the things he knew he should do for the Lord and soon he was so busy, day after day, that he had time for nothing else except to work for the Lord.
God’s will for our lives, like a mystery, becomes unraveled day by day.
Look at verse 9. “Having MADE KNOWN UNTO US the MYSTERY OF HIS WILL, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself.”
Now we know His will is that we should come to know Him and glorify Him. But, have you ever wondered why God did not reveal HIS COMPLETE WILL for our lives as soon as we were saved? Perhaps if He had revealed this, some would be scared to death.
As we seek Him, He reveals His will to us day by day. And we have to always remember, as it says in verse 9, “...according to HIS GOOD PLEASURE which he hath purposed IN HIMSELF.”
One reason it is so difficult for us mortals to do God’s will is because we would like that verse to read, “according TO OUR GOOD PLEASURE which we have purposed IN OURSELVES.”
However, that is not what the Bible says. God says, “...according to HIS GOOD PLEASURE which He hath purposed IN HIMSELF.”
B. How do we know the will of God? He gives us WISDOM and PRUDENCE.
Look at verse 8. We read, “Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all WISDOM and PRUDENCE.” Look at the word, “abounded.” That simply means God “lavishes” us with WISDOM!
It has never been the will of God for any of His children to have to walk around as spiritual morons because of not knowing what God’s plan for our lives. God wants us to KNOW WHAT HE KNOWS about the plan He has for us.
It does us no good if THE PLAN FOR OUR LIVES IS LOCKED UP IN THE MIND OF CHRIST. For example...
Illus: A man had taken a small business from his back yard and turned it into a successful business. However, when it got to a certain level and did not grow any more. Why? Because the man had run the business, from its conception, out of his head. Then the business began to grow again. He had to take on employees, but they were unable to assist him in getting the business to continue growing because he would never take the plans out of his head and put them on paper so that they would know what he needed them to do. If he would have spoken to them, or put the instructions on paper, they could have understood what they were to do and the business would have continued to prosper instead of coming to a stalemate again.
God has given all of His plan for us in the written pages of His Word. All we have to do is read it and ask Him for the wisdom to know how to carry it out.
Then why does it seem that there are so many spiritual morons?
Because God’s Word says, James 1:5, “If any of you lack wisdom, LET HIM ASK OF GOD, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”
Once we know we LACK, it is our job TO ASK! God tells us, “You have not because you ask not.” As we wake up each day and face different problems, we feel we are so smart that we do not need to ask God for direction. But, just let us get in over our head in problems then we begin to cry out, “HELP!”
Paul said that God gives us WISDOM plentifully. James says almost the same thing, that is, God gives “liberally,” to those who will ask.
Now notice that not only does the Bible tell us that He lavishes His wisdom on us, but also shows us how to use it. Look at the word “prudence,” in verse 8. So we see that God not only gives us the SOLUTION (WISDOM), He also tells us the way to use the solution, He gives us PRUDENCE.
It is important that we see that God gives BOTH. Why?
Illus: Suppose someone gave you a brand new computer, but neglected to send the operating instructions along. It would do you little good until someone helped you understand how to use it.
God GIVES US WISDOM concerning the problems we face, then He gives us UNDERSTANDING to know how to take that WISDOM and solve the problems of life that we face.
C. What are the things God reveals to us? The word “wisdom” is translated from the Greek “sophia” which means: “Seeing and knowing the truth.”
God’s wisdom is so much greater than our wisdom that we can not comprehend it. There are things that take place on earth, and in Heaven, that I can not comprehend.
Illus: I do not know about you, but when I get around people who are talking about things I can not comprehend, I do not say a thing. Why? If I do not say anything, they may wonder if I am ignorant, so why should I open my mouth and remove all doubt?
But listen, I can get around people with the highest IQ’s in this land and talk about things God has revealed to me and they will be the ones looking at each other, scratching their heads, and saying, “What is he talking about?”
Christians understand things about justification, atonement, sanctification, adoption, election, etc., that the lost world does not understand. They are “spiritual morons” because the “mystery” of these things have never been revealed to them.
Spiritual wisdom is found ONLY IN CHRIST! Romans 11:33 states clearly, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!”
This wisdom is a blessing provided to those who are IN CHRIST!
Conclusion/Summary: Do you know what is going to be interesting about heaven? God has a plan for every person. Even those who have died and gone to be with the Lord - God had a plan for them while they were on earth and God has a plan for them now, in heaven. That is why verse 10 says, “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.”
Do you know what is sad? It is sad that many Christians have never sought God for His will for their lives. The “mystery” of His will has never been revealed to them because THEY HAVE NOT ASKED! When they get to heaven and discover what God’s will was for their lives and they discover what they could have done they will know the reason God has allowed the space of half an hour of weeping.
But, the good news is that God wants you to seek Him and find His will for your life so when this dispensation of time comes you will have no regrets.
Look at verse 9. Paul made it clear that God wants us to know. He said, “HAVING MADE KNOWN UNTO US THE MYSTERY OF HIS WILL, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself.”
Listen, God not only has a will for our lives that is like a mystery, He also has a will for us for eternity that is like a mystery that will be revealed. That is, there are things in this life that will always be a mystery to me, but look at verse 10. One day, in eternity, the mysteries will be revealed. We read, “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.”
I. LOOK AT OUR REDEMPTION. (In Christ #3)
II. LOOK AT OUR REVELATION. (In Christ #4)
III. LOOK AT OUR REWARDS. (In Christ #5)
