Ephesians Lesson 2 part 3

Ephesians 1:3
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:"
See there's not a word in here about material blessings, but we hear a lot about material blessings from the name it and claim it group and those who want to work the works of Jesus or the signs, wonders and miracle crowd. But the Apostle Paul never mentions that. Instead he directs us to contemplate or to contemplation not meditation and why is this so? Well think about it meditation is what we learn to do while in school as it has to do with our physical senses. But contemplation has to do with the spirit which moves about in what we could call the darkness of faith. Because we're admonished to walk by faith not by sight or by our five senses. Then we're told that those who please God live by faith not in their-self will or sufficiency of the flesh. Paul never tells us that if we are believers, whether we're carnal or spiritual, that we're going to be blessed with millions or some other trinket. Never! Because these are but weak and beggarly things which demean God who is Spirit. All Paul is concerned about is, "Do you realize how rich you are in Grace?" And whether we're rich or poor, that's beside the point, its mute because we're all One in Christ, and this is what people have to understand. God isn't promising us that we're going to become millionaires, or operate in the power gifts in fact far from it. Many of us are probably going to go all the way through life with just the very bare necessaries. But what have we all got? All these Spiritual blessings, the promises spoken of as being in Christ. Now verse 4.

Ephesians 1:4
"According as he (Christ Himself) hath chosen us in Him (when?) before the foundation of the world,..."
I know that's mind-boggling, and we know it throws a curve at a lot of people. We have some that take it clear off to the end of the boondocks in a false teaching that God has already determined who's going to be saved and who's going to be lost, and there's nothing that we can do about they're thinking or belief. They also say, "There's no use to evangelize because if God hasn't foreordained them then they don't stand a chance anyway." No way, that's not what this means at all. Now we know that God knew from eternity past who would become believers, but that does not excuse us from taking this Gospel to the ends of the earth, and to make everyone aware of their opportunity for salvation through redemption.

In other words, when we were back in Romans chapter 9, remember how we said it? Over here we have whosoever will may come, but over here on the other side we have this verse in Ephesians that says we were chosen before the foundation of the world. Now humanly speaking, can we understand that? We can and but for the many the don't think you can. To them it is impossible for a human being to understand that over here we have whosoever will may come or will choose to come. And over here we have chosen before the foundation of the world was formed. The two are counter to each other, but is it a problem for God? No!, and that's where we have to leave it because its all by simply trusting Him and taking Him at His word which He counts to our credit as faith.

In other words, leave it in God's hands, because the best we can do is bring the two to the middle. Just as we respond to whosoever will, and we come to that invitation, the Lord Jesus shouts throughout all of Heaven, "I chose him before the foundation of the world." And that's the best way we can explain it, but to say we understand it, we don't. We've just got to leave it in the hands of God, because this is what the Word says. Just revel in those two statements. That yes, you exercised your free will when you respond to this Gospel. But on the other hand God could honestly say, "I chose you before anything was ever created." It's a glorious thought isn't it?

Now we never claim to have all the answers but rather all we try to do is to get folks to search the Scriptures, for the Scriptures say that we will find eternal life. All we can hope to do as we teach is to whet people's appetite to begin to study and read their own Bible with the aid of the Holy Spirit, to contemplate in the silents of the spirit or what we've called the darkness of faith and enjoy it. Because when we've learned to do this we'll hear Gods voice through the ontological essence of the Spirit of Christ who dwells now in our spirit through His love and by faith's receptivity.

We're chosen in Christ, in this position we can now enjoy our placement in the heavenlies. It was not a surprise to God when we were saved, because He said, "Well I knew that from eternity past." And in the next verse or two, when we come to predestination, it isn't that we were predestined to salvation or Hell but rather to this position that we enjoy in Christ. I say this because again there are many who stumble over this term "predestination". Now look at verse 4 again.

Ephesians 1:4
"According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy..."
Now 'holy' doesn't mean that we stick our nose in the air, and that we're better than everybody else, and that we are simultaneously, physically perfect, but rather it just simply means that God has set us apart for His own purposes. The same place that He started with Israel after He called them out when He said in: Exodus 19:6 “And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.” We want to remember even back in the Temple worship, the utensils that were used like the shovels to take out the ashes, were holy. Well what did it mean? They couldn't be used for any other purpose. In other words, the priest couldn't say, "Well I'm going to take the shovel home tonight fellows, because my fireplace needs cleaning." That would never work because those utensils were holy and set apart only for God's purposes. As they all were but a shadow and type of Christ. That's exactly where we are. We, so far as God is concerned, have been set aside and we are intrinsically in His program to be used as He sees fit, because after all, we are His. This is born out in 2Corinthians 6 where Paul says to come out from among them in verse 17. And the them here is both the worlds system of religion and for the Hebrew from his Judaism because both have been judged by God as wickedness and lawlessness. Now many may ask when was this done and our answer is one the cross as it was taken outside the city and to witness to this fact He had the Romans destroy both the Temple and the city in 70 AD as prophesied in Daniel and by Jesus Himself. Verse 4 again:

Ephesians 1:4b
"...that we should be holy and without blame before him..."
Wow! Without blame? Everyone of us are sinners saved by both His Love and Grace, but we still have the old sin nature, and we all still sin. Because our flesh has not been changed or put on incorruption, though we have put on the Lord Jesus Christ in baptism. Then Paul has the audacity to say that we are "blameless."Yes. Go back to I Corinthians for a moment to chapter 1. And remember the Corinthians were carnal, they were not a spiritual mature congregation. They were still within the confines of the corral or under the tutor of the Holy Spirit into which God places us all as our first estate, just as Israel was. They were but in redemption's grasp wherein we're brought to a crisis or many crises depending on our spirit understanding and growth. They were nowhere near the understanding of the Ephesians. They just simply hadn't come that far yet. They had been saved out of abject paganism, and all of it's immorality, but to understand this position in the heavenlies? No, the Corinthians hadn't gotten that far. And sad to say most of our church people to-day are in the same boat because of the err of the church and the false doctrines of man and the blending of the Old and the New. So what can Paul write and tell them?

I Corinthians 1:6-7
"Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: (by virtue of their redemption ) So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:"
Paul was already like us today, waiting for the departure. No! he was waiting to the revelation of "Christ in you" to become received and accepted by them. Because as of yet the day star had not risen in their hearts by faith's activity of receptivity. He honestly thought it was not going to take place in his life time. He was frustrated by their lack of spiritual knowledge or understanding of the secret things he had revealed to them. Now as far as the departure he had no idea that God would wait now 2000 years all the while filling up the Body of Christ with receptive believers. He also was giving them time to come to the knowledge of God in Christ, or until Christ be formed within them as he says to the Galatians in 4:19. Now verse 8.

I Corinthians 1:8
"Who shall also confirm you unto the end, (even these carnal Christians. Remember that's not license to sin, but it just shows us how far the Grace of God will reach) that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Now there are lots of people who don't like to read this, but that's what the Word says. Many try to make it a lot harder to get to Heaven than God does. So even these Christians at Corinth who were failing miserably, if the Lord would have come they wouldn't stand at the judgment seat of Christ shaking in their boots, and shameful for all their unconfessed sins, they were already under the Blood. They were already forgiven, and that's the Grace of God. But we can't make license of that because then a person's salvation experience is doubted. Because redemption is but the beginning of the process of Salvation. We personally cannot believe that a true born-again child of God will test God's Grace. But if we do slip and fall, and if the Lord should come and we come into His presence, then we're blameless because that's what the Book says. Remember that throughout Paul's writings that we have been cleansed, and forgiven, we're justified from all things by virtue of our trusting His faith in that finished work of the Cross. So even while we're in our first estate under God listening, He's working out our salvation within us. He's infusing His nature as Father back into His likeness and image also called His character in which is all goodness. Now back to Ephesians chapter 1.