Please enjoy our Guest Speaker, Dr. Hal Walters

Ephesians 1:1-4

We are truly loved by God who loves us and that’s going to, I think, come out in this Bible passage that we’re going to be studying together. So, my text for today is Ephesians chapter 1, 1 through 4. And if you would, just keep your Bibles open to that place in your Bible and all the other Bible references will be projected up on the screen so you don’t have to go back and forth in your Bible. But what God’s word says is that Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.

Grace to you. Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless in him.

So, just a few introductory remarks about Ephesians. This was written, this letter was written by Paul the apostle around 60 A.D. from prison in Rome. And Ephesians is six chapters and it can roughly be divided into two parts.

1. in Ephesians the first three chapters focus on what Christians should believe and the core message is sinners are saved by grace through faith.

The first half, the first three chapters generally talk about what we as Christians should believe about salvation. And the core message of those first three chapters is this, that spiritually dead sinners are made alive and gain eternal salvation by grace through faith. That’s the main message that Paul is putting forward in the first three chapters.

2. in Ephesians the last three chapters focus on how believers should live in response to the gift of salvation.

Spiritually dead sinners are made alive and gain eternal salvation by grace through faith. And the last three chapters generally talk about what we as believers, how we should live in light of the fact that we’ve been blessed so much by God for all these spiritual blessings. Now, as we go through this passage, I’d like for you all just to look for one thing to sort of pull it all together and that is God’s sovereignty.

God’s sovereignty in everything in our lives from salvation, we’ll see that in the conversion of Paul, we’ll see that in our own conversion stories. As he calls saints to worship him and to be his children, as he calls apostles, look for his sovereignty as he encourages believers through this passage. Look for his sovereignty as before the foundation of the world he decided to sacrifice his only son on a cross for our sins and look for his sovereignty as he bestows on us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

So, let’s just start with the first word in this passage. It is Paul and to understand Paul the apostle who was commissioned by Christ to do amazing things in the New Testament church, but to understand him fully, we need to understand his dark side. We need to understand Saul of Tarsus.

3. Saul of Tarsus, a religious zealot who brutally persecuted Christians, was confronted by Jesus Christ who appeared as a bright light on the road to Damascus.

Saul of Tarsus was born in Cilicia, that is a place in southeastern present-day Turkey and he was born a Pharisee and he was born a Jew and not only that, he was a Roman citizen. He had remarkable religious zeal and there’s nothing wrong with having zeal for one’s religion, but this morphed over time into religious extremism and add to that brutal violence, absolutely brutal violence. He soon became a religious terrorist, no different than someone like Osama bin Laden.

Saul was a true religious terrorist and to make things even worse, he thought he was doing the will of God in what he was doing. In Acts chapter 8, it says, but Saul was ravaging the church, entering house after house. He dragged off men and women, committed them to prison.

He participated in the murder of Christ’s followers. He participated in the murder, for example, of the martyr Stephen and held the garments of those who cast stones at him. And as part of his crusade against followers of Christ, he took a journey of 135 miles from Jerusalem to Damascus and before he went, excuse me, before he went, he asked that the high priest of the temple in Jerusalem would send him with letters.

It said, Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest in Jerusalem and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And on his way, he was confronted with a light and it wasn’t just a light that shined on him. If you read in Acts, it was a light that was all around him.

It enveloped him and out of that light came a voice Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And as I was reading that story, I was reminded of the fourth and fifth verses in John chapter one, the gospel of John, where it says in him, meaning in the word or in Jesus was life and the life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. So, Saul was knocked off his feet. He was blinded by this light.

He was completely overcome. He knew that he was facing something that was far more powerful than himself. And he responds to this voice that comes out of the light.

Who are you, Lord? And the word for Lord in Greek is Kurios. And in this case, it probably does mean Lord and doesn’t refer in this particular context to Yahweh or Jehovah. But it reminded me of when Jesus, during his earthly ministry, would confront demons and the demons knew that they were confronting someone who was far more powerful than they were spiritually.

And Saul knew this, that he was he was confronted by someone over whom he did not have control. And this voice responded to him. I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

And Saul epitomizes the darkness of sin. And this darkness again was completely overcome by the light of Jesus Christ. And God came to a Christian named Ananias in Damascus and says to Ananias, Ananias, go for Saul is a chosen instrument of mine.

Remember that word chosen, because we’re going to see words just like that as we go through this passage. For he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and the kings and children of Israel. And so, he put his hands on Saul.

He regained his sight. The Holy Spirit came upon him very much like the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus at his baptism. And it in effect, it in effect sort of commissioned him for his ministry to the Gentiles.

And Saul went immediately was baptized and then started to preach Jesus Christ as the Son of God in the synagogues. So, what can we learn from this passage? Well, first of all, the negative side of things. Saul was definitely, as you can see in this passage from Ephesians, he was definitely following the course of this world.

Saul was following the prince of the power of the air. He was a son of disobedience. He was living in the passion of his flesh.

He was under spiritual condemnation. Unless we think, though, that that we’re any different. Before we were saved, we too were blinded by sin, just as Saul was.

We too, our desires were controlled by our sinful nature, because as you can see in Ephesians, it says that we were once dead in our trespasses and sins in which we once walked. And that is a phase of complete spiritual inability. And we’re in need of a and Saul was in need of a spiritual rebirth.

But fortunately, there is a but to this. Because as we read on in this passage in Ephesians, it says, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

And now this is sort of the focal point of the first half of this letter to the Ephesians, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not of your own doing. It’s the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one can boast.

So, what can we learn from this radical transformation of Saul of Tarsus to the Apostle Paul, someone who was actively persecuting Christians, and then later became one of the most influential leaders in the New Testament church? The lesson we can learn is this, God can transform even the hardest of hearts. So, if there is a mother or father, brother or sister, son or daughter who is not following Christ, take heart. God can transform even the hardest of hearts.

Saul, as he was going from Jerusalem to Damascus, he wasn’t pining over his sin. He wasn’t looking for a Messiah. God entered into his life.

God initiated this and overcame his sinfulness and gave him, I like this analogy, a spiritual heart transplant. He gave him a new birth. So, let’s go on in this passage.

4. the conversion of Paul the apostle is a dramatic illustration of God’s sovereignty in salvation.

It says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus to the saints who are in Ephesus. So, the question is, what is a saint? In the Greek, the word is hagios, and it means someone who’s holy, someone who is set apart. So, a saint is someone who’s put their trust in Jesus and him alone for their salvation.

And because of that, they are set apart for God’s purposes. And the word saint in the New Testament is usually used in the plural form. So, we can also think of it as the company of all faithful believers, not only now, but throughout all of history.

And in 1 Corinthians, the first chapter, it says, to the church of God that’s in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. There’s that word again. Well, there’s that word call.

So, we have chosen, we have called. Take note of these words because they’re going to be familiar themes as we go through and study the ramifications of this passage. So, we learned that saints are from this passage, that saints are sanctified in Christ Jesus.

We learned that God calls us to be his saints. And we also learned that saints do calling on their own. We worship, we pray, we walk with God.

So, saints are holy. They are called and they call themselves. And this is to be differentiated from the Catholic view of saints, who are typically individuals who have done some, reportedly, some miracle or led such wonderful lives that after their death, they are beatified or canonized by a pope or a bishop.

That is not particularly scriptural. All of the Catholic saints are dead. The scriptural view of saints, they can be alive or dead.

And saints are not worshiped and revered. We saints do the worshiping and the revering of our Lord God, who has called us. So that’s what a saint is.

5. all apostles are disciples but not all disciples are apostles.

And as we go on, it says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. Well, what is an apostle? Well, the word disciple and apostle are often used interchangeably, but that’s probably not a good idea. Because indeed, all apostles were disciples of Jesus Christ and they were saints, but the reverse is not true.

Saints and disciples of Jesus Christ are not all apostles. And if I was going to tell you one word to think of when you think of apostle, think of an ambassador. An ambassador for a country, someone who carries the political intent, the policies of one country to another country and speaks with the authority of the president or the prime minister of the country he or she represents.

6. criteria for apostleship include being a disciple of Jesus Christ, being appointed or called by Jesus Christ and being a witness of the resurrected Jesus Christ.

And that’s exactly what an apostle of Jesus Christ is. It is an ambassador for Jesus Christ. Now, there are several sort of what I’ll call classical criteria for an apostle.

One is the apostles were disciples of Jesus Christ during his earthly ministry. Two, apostles were witnesses of the resurrected Jesus Christ during his ministry. And number three, apostles were called by Jesus Christ to establish churches, to preach, to teach, and in some cases, they were empowered to perform miracles.

So those are the classical qualifications for an apostle. But we went through Paul’s conversion story and probably some of you are thinking about that and saying, well, then why do we think, why is Paul calling himself an apostle? Because indeed, there has been a debate over his apostleship. There are some who take issue with the fact that he was not a disciple of Jesus during his earthly ministry and wasn’t a witness of the resurrected Jesus during his earthly ministry.

But as we saw from the Bible passages that we read concerning his conversion, Paul was called directly by Jesus Christ to become an ambassador to Gentiles primarily and also to Jews and kings, as we saw from that Bible passage. Paul’s apostleship was also confirmed in scripture by the other apostles. And finally, he was also authenticated by the miracles that he performed during his ministry.

So how did Paul’s apostleship differ from the other apostles? Well, he was specifically called to be an apostle to Gentiles. He had a very unique encounter with Jesus Christ, and he was different from the other apostles because he was better educated, he was from a higher social class, and he was a Roman citizen. And this Roman citizenship became an important thing in his ministry because he was a Roman citizen.

He was very well suited culturally to interact with Gentiles. And this Roman citizenship also saved his life in certain circumstances during his ministry. So, the important things to remember about his apostleship is that apostles are in some way, shape, or form witnesses of the resurrected Jesus Christ.

They are called to their position and they’re ambassadors for Christ. And that’s a very serious thing to be an ambassador for Christ because at that time, they didn’t have the full canon of scripture. And if someone rejected what the apostles said, in effect, they were rejecting Jesus Christ.

Just as if we reject Jesus Christ, we’re rejecting God the Father because we know that Jesus is God. So that’s a very important thing. And it brings up the important question, are there any apostles today? The answer is no; there aren’t any apostles today.

So, what is our authority? Our authority is the word of God. Our authority is scripture. So, we go on to read this passage, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.

So very briefly, what do we mean by the will of God? That is God’s sovereign purpose and plan, particularly in the context of salvation, but in every aspect of believers’ life. God’s will isn’t accidental. God’s will is not random.

It is based upon his predetermined and unchanging purposes that have been determined before the foundation of the world. And what we need to remember is when we read something like by the will of God, let’s just remember that God is in charge and in control of every aspect of our lives. So, he’s writing to the saints who are at Ephesus.

Now, we don’t have a lot of time here, so I’m just going to very, very briefly say a few words about Ephesus. It was a major economic hub for the Roman Empire on the Aegean coast in western present-day Turkey, and at that time in history, Christ’s followers were actually being tossed out of Rome. There was considerable political resistance to the Christian movement, and so undoubtedly in Ephesus there was Roman political resistance, but also Ephesus was the seat of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and that was the temple of the goddess of fertility, Diana, otherwise known as Artemis.

And there was a whole financial setup surrounding the worship of the goddess Diana, and Paul’s preaching interfered with that and cut into the profits of that kind of economic activity that surrounded the worship of Diana, and so there was also financial resistance to the establishment of the church in Ephesus. Yet the church thrived, and Paul founded the church during his second missionary journey, and this is what I want you to understand. He didn’t do that alone.

There were several people who helped him that were named in Acts. One was a tent-making couple, Priscilla and Aquila. He was also helped in establishing and nurturing the church by a very talented, very talented evangelist from Alexandria, Egypt named Apollos, and Apollos didn’t have a full understanding of the gospel, but Priscilla and Aquila, very strategically and very sensitively, so as not to point out his incompleteness of his knowledge of the gospel, took him aside, took him under their wing, and mentored him until he had a more full understanding of the gospel, and he accepted that with humility.

Again, so you see how Paul, Priscilla, Aquila, Apollos, all working together in harmony and with humility, and when Paul returned on his third missionary journey to Ephesus, he stayed three years longer than he ever stayed in any church that he founded, and when he left that time, he left in charge his protege Timothy, and Timothy later left in charge of the apostle John. My point is this, a ministry requires the participation of everyone, of the saints, the deacons, and by the sovereignty of God, the church of Ephesus was founded and grew despite political and financial obstacles, and a church is a place for everyone to use his or her gifts with which they’ve been blessed by God, and I hesitate to mention all of the things that can be done, but whatever, to preach, to teach, to evangelize, to pray, to cook, to clean, to beautify, there are innumerable things for us all to do, and to work together in harmony, and to work together in humility, and as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s buried grace. Community Bible Church is not just the ministry of Pastor Ron and Diane, this is a place for everyone to play a role, everyone can do something and take upon their shoulders part of the burden.

7. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians may not have been written exclusively to the Ephesians because, in some older manuscripts, the word Ephesus is left out. This underscores the universality of Paul’s message.

So going on, let’s just talk a little bit about who this message was for, who this letter was for. This letter has a universal message, and the reason I say that is obviously our salvation and what we can learn about our salvation is something that all Christians should know, but some of the oldest manuscripts, there’s just a few of them that don’t say to the saints who are at Ephesus, there are a few of the oldest manuscripts that say to the saints who are in blank, and it’s thought by some scholars that this was meant to be a circular letter so that if this letter was sent to Corinth or Thessalonica, the person who sent it could just write in the name of the church, and this underscores the universality of this message. This is a message not only for Ephesus, not only for the New Testament churches, but we could say to the saints who are in Manchester, to the saints who are seated right here at Community Bible Church, and moving on we say, and are faithful in Christ Jesus.

8. one of the many implications of being “in Christ Jesus” is that believers share in the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ Jesus and are united to Him spiritually.

What does it mean when the Bible says that we are in Christ Jesus? Well, this isn’t just symbolic, this isn’t just metaphorical, this is telling us where we are located spiritually as Christians. Read this passage with me, we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

There is a spiritual union between believers and Jesus Christ. Believers are in Christ in so much as we have been buried with him in baptism, and we have been raised up to walk in newness of life. So, you might say, well, how do I know that I’m in Christ? Well, I just ask a few questions.

Do you trust Jesus and him alone for your salvation? Do you love God with all your heart, soul, and mind? Do you love your neighbor as yourself? Is it your heart’s desire to walk and grow in grace, to grow in your faith as you go along in your Christian life? These sound kind of simple and basic, but if the answer to these questions is yes, then the Holy Spirit has worked and is working in your life. You are no longer in bondage to sin, but you’ve been reborn to walk in newness of life. Paul goes on to say, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

That’s a common greeting. We read it and we kind of gloss over it, but you know, it’s very appropriate for someone like Paul because grace is a Greek greeting, a Gentile greeting from the Greek Charis. And peace is a Jewish greeting, shalom.

And this underscores that the gospel message is for Jews and Gentiles. It is for all of mankind. And that was, until the ministry of Jesus, a mystery. And that’s a mystery that Paul kind of unfolded in some of his writings, that the gospel message is for all mankind. And he was an ambassador, an apostle, to Greeks and Jews alike, and he uses this greeting that has both Greek, both Gentile, and Jewish components.

Now, when we think about the word grace, we think about God’s unmerited favor. That’s a wonderful definition, it really is. But another way you can think about grace, that may be even easier to remember, is this acrostic.

It’s God’s riches, eternal life, forgiveness of sins, eternal life, at Christ’s expense, Christ’s death on the cross. So, God’s riches at Christ’s expense. And this highlights salvation as a gift, and peace signifies the reconciliation that we have between God and humanity through Jesus Christ.

And notice the word order, most of the time it is grace and peace. So it is that when it is only after we experience the grace of Jesus Christ in our life that we can really live a life of peace and assurance, knowing that we are God’s children, that we are restored to a right relationship with Him. Now, before we go on to verse 3, I just want to say something about verses 3 to 14.

In the Greek, and I’m not a Greek scholar, but in the Greek, this is all one sentence. There are no periods. So, it was almost as if Paul wanted to blurt out his message.

He didn’t want to stop. He was excited about this message. And he just wanted to say it all in one breath.

9.  Christians can “bless” the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ by thanking Him for the spiritual blessings He has given to them.

And it really conveys his excitement about the whole message, and it sets the tone and the melody for the rest of the epistle. So, with that introduction, let’s just look at part of verse 3. Now, you might be saying to yourself, okay, I feel blessed by God. I know I’m blessed by God, but how do I bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? It doesn’t seem possible, but the meaning of blessed, you can think of it as this.

We’re thanking God for these spiritual blessings that He’s given us, this blessing of salvation, this blessing of eternal life with Him. And Paul is pouring out his soul for God’s goodness. And how can we do that? How can we bless God? We can bless Him in our thoughts, our meditations.

We can bless Him in our words. We can bless Him in our actions, in our worship. There are so many ways we can bless Him.

And think of an electrical circuit. You know, electricity doesn’t flow unless there’s a complete circuit. And God the Father, before the foundation of the world, ordained the plan of salvation, and Jesus Christ made it possible through His perfectly righteous life, His death on the cross, and His resurrection.

The Holy Spirit then applies that to our lives, and in turn, we turn around, and in gratitude, we give thanks back to God. We complete that circuit. And that spiritual electricity flows that way.

That’s what I think it means when it says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And why does it say, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Well, very briefly, when it says, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we ought to remember, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. We know that Jesus is God.

10. “God of our Lord Jesus Christ” emphasizes Jesus’ human nature, whereas, “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” emphasizes Jesus’ divine nature.

And when it says, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that emphasizes Jesus’s divine nature. And when it says, God of our Lord Jesus Christ, that emphasizes His human nature. In Galatians 4, it says, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so we might receive adoption as sons.

We are those who were born under the law, and we could not keep the requirements of the law perfectly. But Jesus was born of a woman. He was born fully man, and He too was born under the law.

He was under the law, just as we are under the law. And He kept the requirements of the law perfectly. Yet, as a fully human, as a full human being, Jesus said Himself, I can do nothing on my own.

As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my will, but the will of Him who sent me. So, Jesus was perfectly human. He was born under the law, and His will was subordinate to the will of God the Father.

So, when it says, God of our Lord Jesus Christ, it’s emphasizing Jesus’s human nature. When it says, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, it’s emphasizing Jesus’s divine nature. Now, Paul says that we’ve been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

So let me just ask you a rhetorical question. What kinds of things in this life give you the feeling of the most security? And when I ask that question of myself, I have to be honest. Sometimes I think, well, if my bank account is steady, and my investments are doing well, that gives me a sense of security.

But those kinds of things, as important as they are, they’re things we’ve worked for our entire life, and yes, they’re important. No, they’re not bad. We can use those things to support the ministry.

11. a spiritual blessing that has existed in the past, before the foundation of the world, is the believer’s election.

But those are things that are secondary. Augustine says that anything that can be taken away from us against our will is something that has no eternal value. And those are things that can be taken away against our will.

Those are things that have no eternal value, as important as they may be. But what this passage is saying, that God’s given us a spiritual bank account. And that spiritual bank account is full to overflowing.

And the balance on that spiritual bank account, it never goes down. It never goes down. We have no need of a spiritual financial advisor.

God keeps that bank, that spiritual bank account full at all times. Believers lack nothing in their spiritual life, and we have access to all that God intends to us through Christ. So, what’s in that account? What are these spiritual blessings? Well, if you want to think about it this way, it’s a straightforward way to kind of organize it in your mind.

a. a spiritual blessing that exists in the present is the believer’s salvation, redemption, justification, forgiveness of sins, adoption, gift of the Holy Spirit, assurance.

We can think of them in terms of past, that before the foundation of the world, God ordained that he would send his Son to die for the sins of those who put their trust in him. In the present, we have, because of that, we have forgiveness of sins. We have redemption, justification.

b. a spiritual blessing that exists in the future is the believer’s inheritance of the gift of eternal life.

We’re adopted as children into God’s family. Not only that, we have assurance of salvation. We can walk with that peace we talked about earlier because of that assurance.

12. the covenant that encompasses God’s plan of salvation and has existed before the foundation of the world is called the Covenant of grace.

And we have the gift of the Holy Spirit. And for the future, we have the hope, the sure hope of heaven, of eternal life with Christ and glorified perfect bodies. Now, I’m just going to read verse 4 and 5 together, but we’re only going to go through verse 4, but they complement each other.

In verse 4, it says, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him, in love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. So here again, we have that word chose. We’ve had as we went along the word call.

And here we add to that list of words predestined. And what we’re talking about is the doctrine of election. And that doctrine simply says that before the foundation of the world God sovereignly chose specific individuals for salvation.

So how do we respond to something like that? I mean, really, how do we respond? Well, I can tell you the way I respond. Can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior’s blood? Died he for me who caused his pain? For me who him to death pursued? God the Father is the author of this election. He takes the lead role in that.

The objects of election are all of us. In the context of this passage, it’s the saints in Ephesus. But in the context of the universality of this message, it is all of us here who have put our trust in Jesus Christ.

And this passage tells us what the result of our election is. We’re holy and we’re blameless in God’s eyes. There’s something called double imputation, and that is that on the cross our sins were imputed or put upon Jesus.

And Jesus’ righteousness was then imputed to us. So, we’re clothed with Jesus’ righteousness so that when God looks at us, he sees Jesus’ righteousness and not our filthy rags. Now there are so many passages that support this doctrine of election in Scripture.

There are too many to go through, but this is one of the most beautiful ones. And it not only talks about this doctrine, but it also sort of talks about something that has been called before the golden chain of salvation. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom he predestined, he also called. There’s that word. And those whom he called, he also justified.

And those whom he justified, he also glorified. When did this election occur? Before the foundation of the world, before any of us were born, before any of us sinned. That’s when it occurred.

And the passage goes on to say, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. In him means in Jesus. So, God is a loving God.

He’s perfectly loving. God is perfectly merciful, but he’s also perfectly just. And because of that perfect justice, our sins will be paid for.

They’ll be paid for either by us, through eternity in hell, or by Jesus Christ. And that’s what scripture means when it says we’re chosen in him. Because Christ redeemed us from something we couldn’t do.

The curse of the law is the curse that we couldn’t possibly keep the law perfectly. And he redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us and by dying on the cross. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.

He was cursed for us. God the Father turned his back upon him. And finally, not only did God choose us before the foundation of the world, but also God appointed Jesus Christ for his redemptive work before the foundation of the world.

This passage in 1 Peter says, knowing that you were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things. We weren’t ransomed with money, like gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. That reminds us of the Passover.

He, Jesus Christ, in his death on the cross, he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who throw him, our believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. So, what can we conclude from this passage that we’ve been studying this morning? Well, as a result of the sovereign mercy and grace and love of God the Father, as a result of the perfectly righteous life of Jesus Christ, along with his death on the cross to ransom us from the power of sin in our lives and as a result of his resurrection, and as a result of the Holy Spirit applying this gift of grace, this gift of salvation to us and giving us a new spiritual heart, as a result of all of that, our eyes are open to the seriousness of our sin. Our eyes are open to the holiness of God.

We’re born again. We’re restored to a state of, as this passage says, holiness and blamelessness in the eyes of God who sees only Christ’s righteousness when he looks at us. God is sovereign in all those things, just as he was sovereign in the miraculous conversion of Saul, just as he was sovereign in the conversion of each one of you.

He’s sovereign in the ministry to the Gentiles, to which he called Paul the Apostle, and in the ministry to which he calls each one of us here. We’re sovereignly called to use our talents, whatever they are, as best we can in the ministry here, just as God sovereignly established and maintained the church at Ephesus despite many obstacles through the ministry of Paul, Priscilla, Aquila, Apollos, Timothy, the Apostle John. And finally, God has chosen to bestow on us as all believers an unlimited spiritual bank account of spiritual blessings, blessings that began before the foundation of the world, blessings that we can enjoy every day of our lives right now, and blessings that we can count on for the future.