SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS

Ephesians 1:3

When I first became a Christian my aunt and uncle attended a Southern Baptist church. They had an evangelist who came to their church where they bragged to me that he spent all week on just Ephesians chapter one and the doctrine of election.

This week I heard a preacher confess that the reason he switched from a Baptist position on salvation to a Reformed Calvinistic position is because, in all of his years attending Baptist churches he had never heard anyone deal with the hard passages like Ephesians chapter one and Romans 9-11.

I want to go on record of dealing with hard passages.

We have already spent some time on verses 1-2.

Vs 3 says that God has “… blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:”

Allow me to give you just five blessings in Ephesians Chapter One:

I. THE BLESSING OF BEING BLAMELESS

Vs 4

That a man could ever be found blameless is truly a miracle of God.

A. Most people will agree that humanity is a mess

We see the war against terrorism and we know people can be horribly wicked.

We hear the news of 

• Robberies
• Drug usage
• Car theft
• Murders and
• Etc

And we will agree that mankind in general is utterly depraved.

B. Most people will even agree that they themselves are sinners

There are not more than a handful of people per capita that won’t admit they are sinners.

I speak with people all of the time about sin… 

And could count on one hand the times someone has told me they hadn’t ever sinned.

C. The Bible declares our sin

Rom 3:10-18

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:

Their feet are swift to shed blood:

Destruction and misery are in their ways:

And the way of peace have they not known:

There is no fear of God before their eyes. (KJV)

God spares no words in describing our horrible sin condition.

But then He tells us we can be cleansed!

Isaiah 1:18

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (KJV)

In terms that I think help to see how horrible our condition is but the blessing of being cleansed and made blameless God says is,

Ezekiel 16:3-12

And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.

And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.

And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.

I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare.

Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.

Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.

I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.

I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck.

And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. (KJV)

If a Christian can’t thank God for the blessing of being made blameless that Christian just hasn’t figured out the wonder of salvation!

The second spiritual blessing is

II. THE BLESSING OF HIS BLOOD

Vs 7

I heard a man on the radio one time say that the reason he had rejected the Christian faith he grew up in was because it was such a bloody religion, with a God who expected Child Sacrifice.

He cited as his example that our God encouraged child sacrifice when Abraham was to offer Isaac as a sacrifice.

I appreciated the radio host’s explanation that the point of that passage was not that God wanted Isaac to be sacrificed 

BUT THAT ABRAHAM DID NOT WANT ISAAC SACRIFICED!

The fact of the matter is there is 

• NO BLOOD SACRIFICE that is sufficient and
• NO BLOOD SACRIFICE that is necessary in the Christian faith.

But there was one in Christianity that did offer His ONLY BEGOTTEN SON as a sacrifice for you and me!

AND PRAISE GOD HE DID IT

We are redeemed, the Bible says, through His blood!

What a blessing!

Thirdly there is

III. THE BLESSING OF HIS BELONGINGS

Vs 11

Praise the Lord, we have obtained an inheritance.

Illustration:

My great grandparents on my dad’s side were pretty well off.

I am their first-born great grandchild and at one time, they say, I was in their will to inherit all they had.

When mom and dad divorced I was written out of the will and it was placed a trust 

• first to care for my grandparents and  
• then divided between my dad and my aunt

I was told that after they died, the trust would be split between my grandparents eight grandchildren.

When my grandmother was still alive I was told that our shares at the time were about $100,000 each.

But by the time my aunt and my did died, it was all gone.

There was a time in our ministry when I thought I could really have used that inheritance.

But we have a much better inheritance than that in heaven:

• It can’t be taken away
• It can’t be diminished through spending
• It can be divided hundreds of thousands of times and still be more than we can ever imagine

All that is Christ’s is ours Christian

Isn’t that an incredible blessing?

Fourth

IV. THE BLESSING OF HIS BECKONING

Vs 18

Paul says

“I want you to understand what is the hope of His calling….”

The word calling means “an invitation.”

For the Christian it means

A. We have been called out of this world

That is what the word church, “ecclesia” means – a called out assembly.

The Lord has called us out of the chaos and catastrophe that is life on this planet and made us a brand new people.

• Chosen of Him
• Blest of Him and
• Especially serving Him

B. We are called to be saints

The Catholic Church hasn’t the authority to “saint” anyone.

That is God’s right and His alone.

The wonderful thing is according to 1 Corinthians 1:2 when you got saved you were called to be a saint.

C. We receive a call into a life of ministry

Romans 1:1

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (KJV)

Paul’s calling was to be an Apostle

but every Christian is called to be something for the Lord.

D. One day He will call us all to Heaven

1Thessalonians 4:16-17

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (KJV)

Illustration:

Over the years we have had the privilege to live in some places pretty far out in the country.

• In one house, we had a five-acre field of grass, taller than I am.
• In another place the boys got to play in a forest that went on for miles
• In Oklahoma we had a five-acre piece of land that had a grove of oak and cedar trees and a pond right in the middle of it.

The only problem with living in the country and having younger boys was FINDING THEM IN THOSE FIELDS.

• For a while Anita had a small dinner bell she would ring to call the boys in.
• We also had this train whistle type thing we used to call them in.
• But my favorite is a big bell made out of a metal oxygen bottle that we still have.

You can hear that thing for miles. 

Anita would let the boys play outside – but they always had to 

• stay in sight of the house and in 
• hearing distance of the bell

We are in this world, but we are not supposed to be of this world.

God just wants us to keep 

• in sight of Him and 
• in earshot of the shout 

when He calls us to heaven.

• The blessing of being blameless
• The blessing of His blood 
• The blessing of his belongings
• The blessing of his beckoning 

Finally there is

V. THE BLESSING OF HIS ABILITY

Vs 22

If all things are under His feet and

He is the head of all things

THERE IS NOTHING FOR ME TO FEAR.

Jesus has it all under control.

I just need to trust Him.

And thank God for the blessings He poured out on me when He saved me.