0:00 Welcome once again to Words of Life. We will turn today to Paul's letter to the Ephesians in chapter 1. One of the great expressions in 0:17 Ephesians is the phrase in Christ. That phrase in, the word in occurs 89 times in just this one book. Grace occurs 13 times. 0:46 Spiritual occurs 13 times. So, this is the theme of this book. What it means to be in Christ. And um what grace really brings into our life. And what it means to be spiritual. 1:11 Unlike a lot of other letters that Paul wrote, here Paul has nothing to correct in this church. It was a very spiritual church. Paul could write a lot of things to them 1:33 that he couldn't write to others. To some churches Paul said, um I can only give you milk because you're babes. But to the Ephesians, he can give more 1:54 than milk. Which shows that Ephesus was perhaps the most spiritual church. Of course, one reason was Paul spent more time there than anywhere else. He spent 3 years there. And he 2:19 told the elders in Ephesus in Acts 20 that after he goes, there are going to be a lot of problems in that church. The wolves will come in. And there is would draw disciples after them. But that may have happened only a little 2:40 later. When Paul writes this letter, it doesn't appear as though those things are happening. In the Ephesians is one of those letters which is very neatly divided into two 2:58 sections. There is no other um book in the New Testament like that. The first three chapters deal with 3:15 what God has done for us. And the next three chapters deal with what we have to do in return for the Lord. We cannot do anything for the Lord if you don't understand first what he's 3:35 done for us. We choose the Lord, but the Lord said he chose us first. So, we We to understand first of all, what he has done for us. And the Apostle Paul spends three 3:57 chapters here writing about what the Lord has done for us in Christ. And then in the remaining three chapters, he tells us in Christ what we should do in response. In the first three chapters, 4:19 there is no exhortation at all. There's not a single thing which Paul says you got to do. He's just telling you, just enjoy what God has done for you. Now, our human tendency is 4:40 to always think that we got to do something for God. And man is a religious creature, just like man is a sexual creature. All human beings have sexual desire, 5:00 whatever their religion. And most people abuse it and sin. In the same way, all human beings love money and material things. And they abuse that and destroy 5:22 themselves. But many don't realize in exactly the same way all human beings are also religious. Religion destroys them just as much as 5:39 sex or money. Look at all the bombings that go on in the that bombings that go on in the world. It's not in the name of sex and money, 5:57 it's in the name of religion. So, man is a religious creature. And if he doesn't have the true religion, he'll go astray just like he can go astray in the area of sex. And all religions teach that you got to 6:22 do something for God. You go to any religion and ask what God has done for you. Maybe they'll talk about the oxygen and the water and material things he gives us. Spiritually, what has your God done for 6:45 you? You ask religious people that. They won't answer except to a true Christian. Quite apart from health and material blessings God's given us, there are much more important things God has done for me. he did for us in Christ. 7:09 And no religion in the world will you hear anything like written in these first three chapters. It's on the basis of these three chapters that we can live the true Christian life. So, we can say this is like a foundation. The first three chapters are 7:24 the are the superstructure. If you rush through the first three chapters, you're like a person who just quickly wants to go through the foundation. The first three chapters are the foundation, the next three chapters are 7:38 the superstructure. If you rush through the first three chapters, you're like a person who the foundation. No, you must take time to lay a good foundation. So, let's look at this. One of the first things he says here is 7:59 that we have been blessed verse three with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Now, this is completely different from the Old Testament. You go to any prophet in the Old Testament ask him, "What did God do for 8:17 you?" He can't think of one spiritual thing. He can say, "Well, God delivered our fathers from Egypt. He did great miracles. He killed all the many of the giants and 8:35 gave us this land. He's He's given us good rain. Good fields and good He's given us healthy children. He's given us healthy children. He's given us healthy children. And that's all about a lot of material things like this. 8:54 He's not allowed us to be enslaved. And we are living happily in this country. And you ask him, "But anything spiritual?" And he says, "Spiritual? Well, let me think. I can't think of anything." 9:12 Oh, yeah, he's forgiven our sins. That's about it. But when you come to the New Testament, there's hardly any mention about God does for us materially. He hasn't promised us any land or house or children or anything in the New 9:29 Testament. But spiritually, see what this verse says? The verse says every single spiritual blessing that there is in the heavenly places is ours. Just think of that. 9:50 Every single spiritual blessing in the heavenly places is ours. in Christ not outside of Christ And is it possible that we have such a fantastic inheritance and we have take taken only very little of it and used it 10:08 for ourselves? This is something like a multi-millionaire telling some poor beggar, "Listen, I have put 10 million rupees in your bank account in your name." That is 10:35 uh so difficult for a beggar to believe. Such things don't happen. The reason is you have done nothing to earn it. Some people may have that much money who have worked and earned it. Or inherited it from somebody's father. 10:57 For some stranger to come and give you so much money, it's unbelievable. But is it possible that we are like those beggars who don't believe it and don't go to the bank and live still like beggars on the earth? Every spiritual blessing means every 11:21 single problem can be solved. So many believers have been believers for so long and they still defeated by so many sins. God wants you to have perfect security, 11:40 for example. Perfect security in God as your father. Never to have any fear or anxiety. No competition with anybody else. 12:01 No jealousy of anybody else. Wishing the best for everybody else. Because you're secure in your heavenly father. So it's very important for us to first of all begin here. God has blessed me with every spiritual 12:21 blessing in heavenly places. The second thing is He verse four He's chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world. That means long before He created the universe. Before He created the angels. 12:42 And there was only Father, Son, and Holy Spirit there. He thought of you. And me. And when it says He chose us before the foundation of the world, that means He thought of us then. Because He could look into the future and see you there in the 20th or 21st 13:01 century. He chose you. He chose me. And the purpose with which He chose us was not that we should live a long life on earth or that we should be very rich people 13:21 but that we should be holy and blameless before Him. Why has God chosen us? Not even that we might chosen us? Not even that we might go and preach in this that and the other. It says here, way back in time he chose us that we might be holy and blameless 13:40 before him. And at that time he destined, predestined it says, that we should be his sons, verse five. These are fantastic blessings. 14:02 And then it says what we have, it's the whole three chapters about what God has done for us. We were purchased by his blood, verse seven. We have forgiveness of all our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. So, 14:23 grace begins with the forgiveness of sins. According to the riches of God's grace, the first thing he gives us is forgiveness of our sins. victory over sin, power to live a joyful 14:41 life. And that is the fullness of grace. And then he goes on to say in verse nine, he has given us an understanding of his purposes. 14:57 What his plan is for the future. And he says it's going to be summed up in Christ one day. And he has kept an inheritance for us in heaven. And it says here that he is one who will do everything according to the 15:16 counsel of his will, nobody can stop him. Our determination in the day of the secret of the day The whole purpose of this is expression appears three times here. We might be to the praise of his glory. You see that in verse six. 15:39 You see that in verse 12. And again in verse 14. To Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three times it says. Our life might bring praise to his glorious name. So, he did this so that our lives may 16:00 glorify him. And it's because he did all this that one day you when you heard verse 13, the message of truth, the gospel of salvation, you believed in him. 16:17 Then he did something else for you. He sealed you with the Holy Spirit of promise. The Holy Spirit coming into our hearts is like a guarantee, verse 14, that I'll get all that God has promised in eternity. He gives me a little taste of what I'm 16:42 going to have in eternity. Peace, joy, victory, a little taste of what I'm going to experience in eternity. He gives me a taste of it. The rapture of worshipping God. A little moon receipt of what I'm going 17:04 to get. One day, I'll experience it in full. So, there he describes in those 14 verses what Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have all done. Up to verse six is what the Father has done. 17:23 Verse seven to 12 what Christ has done. All in Christ. 13 and 14 the Holy Spirit. It's a beautiful picture of the whole Trinity working for me. Don't just say for all believers. 17:46 Make it personal. As if you were the only believer in the whole world. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit working for you. See, a lot of us as believers, we don't have a understanding of 18:06 how valuable we are to God. And so, these passages of scripture are very important for us. And so, Paul says, when I 18:24 heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I really praise the Lord for you. I pray for you. But what is my prayer? My prayer is that the God of our Lord 18:43 Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. What is Paul praying for these Christians? This is one place where he prays a lot 19:02 of things down in these next few verses. And he is not praying anything material. You know, Like a lot of preachers today, all they they tell you is how God is going to bless you materially. Paul doesn't pray that even once. 19:27 He says, "I'm praying that God will give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation." The knowledge of the Lord. And he says, "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened." Now, he doesn't say that if you read what I've written 19:47 10 times, you'll understand this. You need revelation from God through the Holy Spirit. So, we see here what the great need for us is for revelation. And that the not that our understanding 20:08 is enlightened, but the eyes of our heart are enlightened, verse 18. So, that we may know three things, he says here. Now, you can listen to me mention those three things, and you understand it in your mind. But, and all if you get revelation on 20:30 them, it'll change your life. For example, the hope of his calling, our dear I hope in the meek way to know that we have been called to be the younger brothers of Jesus for all eternity. To reflect his nature. 20:52 And that will change your whole attitude towards the Christian life. And secondly, is I pray that you will know the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. In verse 11, we saw that we've got an 21:14 inheritance in Christ in heaven. But here it says God has got an inheritance in us when we got converted. Like one translation says, I want you to 21:31 know that God became rich when He got you to be His child. Now, we can't understand that. But it's true. I mean, a very poor illustration would be something like this. It's like if a 21:51 multi-millionaire businessman has got no children and he's got huge businesses. One day he gets a child. That child will be more precious to him than all those businesses. If somebody kidnaps that child, he'd be 22:10 willing to pay any amount of money to get that child back. But God, who has created the universe, says we are the ones who made Him rich. It's great to understand this. 22:29 And the third thing he says, I want you to know the great power that He has made available to us in Christ. It's the power that raised Him from the dead. The greatest manifestation of God's power in the universe was when Jesus was 22:47 raised from the dead. More than in creation. In creation, there was a manifestation of power. But in the resurrection was the greatest manifestation of power. And 23:09 here he says that I want your eyes to be open to see how this power is available for you. This power lifted Christ right up to the heavenly places. Over all verse 21 rule, authority, power, dominion over every name, he's on 23:29 top. Everything is under his feet now. That's not all. Having brought him to that place, God 23:45 says to the church, he's your head now. We, the church, are his body. So, there must be such a spirit of triumph in us because of what God has done for us in Christ. God chose us. 24:08 That's why we found him. We think we chose him, but he chose us first. He says he put us in Christ. And made us what we are. And we can live on Earth with the same authority that Jesus had. Everything is under his feet. 24:31 He's overcome over everything. Since he's my head, I can overcome everything. And he'll never be defeated in my whole life. May that be true of us. God bless you. Welcome once again to Words of Life 24:52 program. We are studying through the Bible. And we've reached Paul's letter to the Ephesians. We looked at chapter 1 in our last study. And we considered Paul's prayer here in 25:16 Ephesians 1:15 to 23. Remember what Paul said. He's not saying, "Read and meditate on this a few times and you'll understand what I'm saying." There are many who have studied and 25:38 meditated on this for years and this not change their lives. But when the Holy Spirit gives us revelation that I'm called to be a younger brother of Jesus. 25:57 I'm called to become like him. I'm so precious to God that he considers himself having become rich having got me. And when I get revelation that all the 26:18 power that God exercises in raising Christ from the dead is available for me. That can change my life. Cuz it says here in verse 19 that this power is available only for those who believe. All I got to do is believe. 26:43 This power is available for me. And the devil tries to blind us to that truth. I'm precious to God. That is the main teaching here in this section. a plan and a purpose for me. He has put me in Christ. 27:05 Christ is my head. I am his body. Everything is under his feet. And he cannot triumph over me. Then in chapter two, he describes our present position as a believer. He says once upon a time, 27:27 you were dead because of your sins. That means no contact with God. We can say we were alive to the world. But if you're not in contact with God, 27:44 the Bible says you're dead. And when we were dead, our only contact was with the world. And we walked according to the course of this world and according to 28:02 the devil and according to the lust of our flesh. There are three enemies that the believer has. The world, the devil, and the flesh. All three are mentioned here. You walked according to the course of 28:22 this world. That means your values were the values of this world. Just like everybody in the world lives for something, you also live for that. And secondly, you walked according to the directions 28:40 of the devil. The prince of the power of this air. And third, we lived according to the lust of our flesh, verse three. Indulging the desires of the flesh. 29:02 So, remember these three enemies. That is the spirit of this world. And all the values this world has. The devil who controls this world. And then the lusts in our own flesh. 29:21 All these three are on one side. I must remember that the lusts in my flesh are on the side of the devil and the world. And that's why I fear those lusts. Be careful. 29:38 That they don't get any power over me. Because of this, we were children of wrath. That means we were deserving judgment, just like But God, what did he do? He was so rich in mercy. 29:56 He didn't give us what we deserved. While we were dead, He made us alive in Christ. Being born again is described here like a resurrection from the dead. Made alive in Christ. 30:16 And he says here, this was by grace. All by grace you were saved. And not only made us alive, Listen to this. In verse six, he lifted us up with Christ and made us sit with Christ in the heavenly places. This is an amazing truth. I mean, we 30:39 can't believe it unless we uh unless it were written in scripture. Now, if it said here, "One day he will take us up to the heavenly places." That we can believe. To believe that he's already in our 30:58 spirit taken us there and put us there. This is an amazing truth. That even though my body is on earth in my spirit, I'm united to Christ in the heavenly places. Above the devil. 31:19 Above everything. It's from that position of authority and power and blessedness I'm supposed to live on this earth. If I forget that I don't understand that God has done it for me. Of course, I live this earth-bound life 31:40 where I'm discouraged and gloomy and afraid of the devil, etc. And that's how most believers live. Because they're always busy trying to do something for God. Don't stop to think what God has done 32:00 for them. That's why we need to study Ephesians chapters 1 to 3. And what is the purpose with which God did all this? So that God can demonstrate in future ages 32:19 how kind he has been towards wretched sinners like us. Yeah, because we were great sinners and he was so good to us and made us partakers of Christ's glory. So, again, he describes what exactly 32:45 happened. You have been saved through faith by grace. Grace is God's hand reaching out towards us. Faith is just taking what God gives. Faith is not just saying, "Yes, Lord, I 33:03 agree with you." Faith is an active thing. God says, "Here is my grace." You take it and say, "Thank you, Lord." And it says even that is the gift of God that you're able to do that. And here is again that repetition of 33:26 what Paul loves to emphasize. All of this has got nothing to do with your works. It's not because you did this or you did that that God's done all this for you. Otherwise, you would boast. 33:44 You know why some believers feel superior to other believers? This is because your religion is a religion of works. Therefore, you feel that you are better than that fellow. You've done more works than him. 34:04 You're more accepted by God than him. Such believers live miserable lives. But the humble person who says, "Lord, it's not on any of my works. It's all your mercy and grace." 34:24 He looks at the worst sinner in the church. Him also it is your grace. He doesn't look down on anyone. And all the person will not look on An older person will not look down on a younger person. A senior brother will not look down on a 34:43 junior brother. A husband will not look down on his wife. And even if God has brought us to a place of rest. brother is still in unrest. I would say more, but it's I'll be like 35:02 that or worse than that. I heard of a very godly man. He saw a drunkard staggering down the road once. And he said, "That's me except for the grace of God." Then he could have said, "That is the 35:22 mark of a godly man." He could despise him and say, "Look at that drunken fellow, can't even walk straight." He could have said, "That's me That's me going there. If it were not for the grace of God." So, there's no glory. 35:42 God's wonderful grace picked up the worst sinner and the least sinner and made them equal. The big problem is for those who have sinned very little. The people who have sinned a lot, they 35:59 say, "Oh, praise God. But the person who has sinned little, comparatively, they say, "Hey, how can that fellow be equal to me? He's such a terrible sinner." And those are the people who miss out on salvation. 36:19 It's difficult for people who are self-righteous to be saved. Salvation is not the result of works. Then it goes on to say we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for works which God has prepared 36:37 beforehand that we should walk in them. God has got a plan for your life. That's what he's saying here. Long before you were born, he made a plan for your life. This is what you should do. And you all you need to do is find that 36:57 plan and walk in it. He keeps on reminding him. Remember what you were in the past. Do we need to think about what we were in the past? We don't have to remember our sins with heaviness and depression and guilt 37:16 because it's cleansed in the blood of Christ. But we must never forget what we were in the past for two reasons. That is what makes us grateful to God. Lord, you've forgiven me so much. We love the Lord because of that. 37:41 And secondly, if you remember all that you were in the past, today you will not despise another believer when you see him in a wretched condition. You will say that's me but for the grace of God. You know, so many problems in the 38:02 Christian life would be solved if you just bear these things in mind. Christendom is full of people who look down on others. That is one of the biggest reasons why many people don't grow spiritually. We need to stand for the truth. 38:25 But we must not despise anybody. In our church or in any other church. Just think of yourself and how good God's been to you. And again he says Remember what you were formerly, verse 11. Formerly, formerly, that's the word in 38:46 verse two, verse three. What were you? Formerly, what were you? Formerly, what were you? Should we remember what we were formerly? We had no privileges. 39:04 We were excluded. No promise, no hope. Twelve, without God. Without hope. But now, what has happened? You who were formerly far away, again that word, formerly far away. And you come close to God. 39:26 So again and again the Holy Spirit saying, remember what you were formerly and remember what you are now. Then he says what Jesus has done. He is our peace. He has broken down all the barriers of the dividing wall between Jews and 39:45 Gentiles. Made both into one. Why does he take Jews and Gentiles? Because they are the greatest opposites in the whole world. Now we have the caste system in India. 40:08 The upper caste and the lowest caste. And they look down on this low caste. There cannot be a fellowship between In the Indian continent But you know the distance between the upper caste and the lowest caste in India. Is less than the distance between a Jew 40:29 and a Gentile. The Jews would look down on everybody in the whole world as much lower than in the caste system in India. And that's why he takes the example of 40:49 these two people who are so far apart. He broke down all the barriers between them. He abolished verse 15 all the enmity between them. What was the enmity? The law. 41:07 The Jew said, "We have the law." "You don't have it." So the law became an enmity. And he says he removed all that and made the two into one. So when he takes these two extreme examples He says, "If these two can come together 41:30 and become one why can't two of you become one?" Husband and wife can become one. God did this. He's not telling you to do it. He's not saying here, "You must be one." 41:49 He made it. God has made it. And he says, "Now don't go and destroy what God has done." See there are many things that Jesus did on the cross. He not only died for our sins. He nailed our old man to the cross. 42:09 Um defeated Satan. And he brought these two completely differing people and made them one. He destroyed all the things that separate one brother from another. And if I still separate, that means I'm 42:28 building what God has destroyed. And he came and preached peace to those who were near and those who were far. And through one Holy Spirit, we both come to the same Father. That's why we should seek to live in 42:52 oneness with all of God's people. That doesn't mean we have to work with all of them. How can we work with a hundred million believers all over the world? Impossible. 43:11 God gives us a few people to work with. Our heart must be open to all of God's people. What God has done. What we have to do. That will come in chapter four. 43:30 Just giving you a little preview of that. But right now, we're not thinking what we have to do. You have to do nothing till you're established in this truth. He united us. And 43:48 Now you're not strangers. You're part of God's family. You're part of God's building. You're being built for God to live in you. Paul I says when I heard of the stewardship of God's grace which is 44:08 given to me chapter 3 verse 2. He says again that word revelation. God made a great mystery known to me. You know there are some secrets in the 44:26 Christian life. Forgiveness of sins is not a secret. It's open and every can have it. And there are millions of people whose sins are forgiven. Can you tell me something that's a 44:44 secret in the Christian life? How two people can become one? That's really a secret because it's very rare to find two people who are one. There are millions of people whose sins are forgiven. How two people can become one? 45:06 That's the mystery here. This is in older generations verse 5 this is not told to people. Now it's been revealed to his holy apostles. What is this mystery? That those people at that extreme the 45:27 Gentiles can become part of with the Jews fellow partakers of the gospel. Two people can become one. Two people can become one. I tell you this is really a mystery because the proof of it is a mystery is that 45:45 very few people have have become one. It's almost impossible to find even a Christian husband and wife who are one. So what is that true? This this be really a secret. And he says God he says, "I am the least 46:05 of all the saints and God gave me the grace to preach this message." Why did God reveal this to Paul? Because his own opinion of himself was, "I'm a nobody." He says, "I'm the least of all the 46:25 saints." Water runs down to the lowest place first. The same way those who are humblest before God, they get the revelation first. They are the ones whom God chooses to preach the word. The least of all the saints. 46:47 To them God gives grace to preach this message. To reveal this mystery to others. Which was hidden from ages. But now made known. And this is all according to God's 47:05 eternal purpose. He says, "Therefore, don't get discouraged because of their tribulations. You hear that I'm in jail. That's okay, don't worry about that. Rejoice in what wonderful things are happening. Here in this jail I bow my knees to God. 47:29 And I bow one more prayer for you. One prayer he already prayed in chapter 1 verse 15 onward. Revelation of the Holy Spirit. Now, he prays that they'll have the power of the Holy Spirit. These are the two things we need to pray 47:49 for for ourselves. Revelation of the Holy Spirit, power of the Holy Spirit. He says, "I'm praying for you. That you will be said, "I'm praying for you." that you will be strengthened in the inner man through the power of the Holy 48:04 Spirit. Verse 17, that Christ may feel perfectly at home in your heart. that you will be rooted and grounded in love. And you'll be able to understand along with all the saints how great Christ's love is. You know, if you cut off some saint from 48:27 your fellowship, you say, "Well, I'm not going to have fellowship with him." There's something of the love of Christ you will not understand. But if you accept that brother, he may be completely different from you. But he 48:41 is not as clever as you. Then you will be able to taste the love of Christ, which you cannot understand with your head. You will be able to understand the love of Christ which you cannot understand with your head. This is the love of 48:58 Christ that goes beyond you. Christ's love goes beyond your knowledge. But we experience it in our hearts when we fellowship with other saints. We experience it in our hearts when we fellowship with other saints. And he concludes with this. 49:10 God is able to do way beyond what you even think he can do. So, that's how he ends this section. These first three chapters where he says how we God has done so much for us in 49:29 Christ. The joy of the Lord Ask God to give you more and more revelation on it. And then we can go and build this wonderful superstructure that comes in chapter 4, 5, and 6. God bless you.
