Over here. Wonderful. Well, good morning good morning. Good morning Welcome to Coffee and devotions this where every day you and I we get together. We have a little bit of coffee we get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together and this year 2022 will make it from the book of x. That's right. And Nathan today decided i coffee wasn't good enough for him. He wasn't good enough for him. So apparently he sugar himself up I told him to go make himself some tea but he got hot chocolate. I was wondering why you're drinking itself as watered down hot chocolate. Okay. Yep. And then we noticed we were matchy matchy this morning to we came in and I turned on the camera and was like, Whoa, we're wearing the same shirts. Anyways. Well, why don't we have some coffee? We'll pray and we'll get the Lord's word. You ready? Yeah, have some tea. Or not even tea? sugar water.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. Thank you for what a blessing it is to follow after you. Thank you for your eternal nature and divine love. Thank you that you have known us and saved us in Jesus's name. Amen. All right, we are at Ephesians we start a new book today. Ephesians chapter one. And today we're going to look at the first 14 verses in Ephesians chapter one. The first 14 verses now the New King James splits us up into let's see after the introduction. They have 123 paragraphs. But you want to know something interesting Nathan. Almost all of this is one sentence in the Greek. Yeah, it's one huge long sentence. Well, there's lots of periods, but they put the periods in most of it is commas, but that's okay. So why don't we do it this way. You can read one into all read three through 12 and you can read 13 to 14. Does that sound good? Okay, go ahead.
Oh and apostle object this course by the will of God to the saints who are in casual service and faithful in Christ. Christian you impeach from our God,
from God,
the Lord Jesus Christ,
bless it be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to the adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of His will to the praise of the glory, of His grace, by which he made us acceptable in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, which he made to abound toward us and all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, in Him. In Him. Also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory.
You also trusted after you hold the you hold the word of the gospel of your of your salvation. Also having been, you will sealed with the Holy Spirit of guarantee guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the poor chased possession
for purchase possession your job up to the praise of his glory, good job to the praise of his glory. Well, we need to ask ourselves a
question about you what is best was saying what are we called to do?
That's right, what are we called to do and responses good. So first, what is this about? Well, the first part is a greeting. verses one through four, who's Paul writing to?
Out to the churches in Ephesus. Now Paul had been the pastor in Ephesus for like three years. Yeah. Yep. So well, he had he had sent the message through Galatia. He had been to those different churches, but he hadn't stayed there a long time. in Corinth. He had stayed there almost a year. And but in Ephesus, he had stayed there almost three years. Right. And so these people know him really well. And it's not just Paul actually, there's there's kind of a few people writing this. Paul, Timothy and Sylvanus, I think are the ones as they go through this. No, no, no, what am I talking about? That's not right. I'm thinking of First Thessalonians. Yeah, here's Paul. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus. So when he says to the saints do you think he's saying to the perfect people? Yeah. What? What does the word saints here mean? That whoever, whoever's in the church. So is everyone in the church then a holy one. Of God. So what it seems to me
everyone who is like, going to church and acts like, like, if you
think he's kind of make it short, to the believers, to the believers, to those who are known of God and know God, to those who have been separated by God to follow him or everyone who has the Holy Spirit is a saint. So to the saints, who are an emphasis in faithful in Christ, grace and peace, from God, our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. It's a wonderful opening. But the rest of this part is it's a pretty dense section. Right? There's lots of in him about non and all these things. But what is what do you think is the main part main point of verses three through 14?
You think verse 11 gets at the heart of it. In Him also we have obtained and inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the Council of his will. I think that's a pretty good part, right? So this is talking about us being redeemed by Christ. And this is one of the things that theologians call monotheistic salvation. You caught that right. GISTIC sadly, monotheistic salvation. That's right. So God alone, does the reborn and God alone is the one who makes us alive again, in this part, all right. It's Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So Who Who are we supposed to be looking at right now? Well, specifically God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, right. So we're going to talk about the work of God first. And so God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Where, look at first look at verse three. in the heavenly places in Christ, we must be in Christ to experience the blessings. And then in verse four, it says, just as he this is God, just as He chose us in Him who is the him there. And Jesus, just as God chose us in Jesus before the foundation of the world, that we should be what
should be hold, and
that's right. So we're holding and without blame before God the Father in love. Why because we're in Jesus. Right having predestined us to adoption as sons. How did we how are we adopted as sons? How did He predestined us to be adopted as sons?
By what are by whom? by Jesus Christ to himself, right? So God, God predestined us, and he adopted us. He brought us to himself by Christ. Why would he do that? Look at the last part of verse five
according to Psalms,
according to the Why did God save us? Pleasure. So what does that mean? Why would God adopt us as His children?
Oh so that you can have faith in him so we can.
Well, that's our blessing. But why would he do it? Because he's a bounty of mercy. Yeah, look at look at what it says, according to the good pleasure of His will. Why did he do it? Because he wanted to do it
was next to place.
That's right. So he did it because he wanted to do it because he's Grace right? We would praise him for how glorious His graces by which he made us acceptable and how did he make us acceptable? What's the very last part of verse six? Who's the beloved Jesus? Yeah, he made us accepted in Jesus. Right. We have to be in Jesus. To be His children. We have to be in Jesus to be his beloved, we have to be in Jesus to be blessed. We have to be in Christ for these things to be true. And so it continues about in Jesus here, verse seven, right in him that being Jesus for seven what is verse seven say? Giving us okay, so So in Jesus we have what?
Redemption, right? Isn't that what First Peter says? Were we redeemed with perishable things like silver and gold? No, but how were we redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, right through his blood and also in Jesus's in Jesus. We have what? Yeah, we have the forgiveness of sins. Whoa, according to what his grace, you see how all of this keeps pointing back to God, or this? Yeah, he is grace. He is grace. He is grace. So this is all docs a logical Do you know what the word doxology means? Oh, close. That's an epistle. But to sing a doxology is to sing a song of God's glory. So So docky Matsu, would be to glorify God. So a doxology is to bring God glory to sing a song of God's glory. And so all of our theology here is meant to glorify Him. So why were you saved? And for his for his glory, for His glory. Why did he save you? For his glory, because he wanted to, because we would worship His glorious grace. Sometimes we get trapped looking at ourselves, but this passage is telling us look up to heaven.
Thanks. You seen two speeches? For his voice?
Yeah. Before you were even born. Yeah, He predestined us. Way before time. Isn't that pretty amazing? And so it goes on. And it says a mercy which he made his grace This is talking about which he made to a bound toward us in wisdom and prudence, having made known to us what verse nine having made known to us he he made known to us what? What's the mystery of his will? Says he's made it known to us what is he saying? That's right. That's right. So it's going to find out later in the passage as God saving both Jews and Gentiles. Right him making the to one hand tearing down the dividing wall that kept us apart. Him saving all people, like you said in the Psalms, are we just talking about that this morning on our way to church and Psalm 72? According to his good oh, it says it again. Why did God make known the mystery to us? Why did God redeem us? Why did God forgive our sins? What is verse nine? Say the very end according to what why does Why is he doing all this? For His good pleasure, which he What was the last part of verse nine?
So, did God determine these things because he took counsel with a whole bunch of people what to say here He purposed what
So whose choice was this? His choice? That's right, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, so this is where it's defining what this mystery is, right? So when when all the time came together, when everything finally coalesced, as he had planned it, he might gather what
the middle of verse 10
one all things in heaven emotional.
So he's gathering everything together and who and who is the him here? In Christ, right in Christ? Are Jews finding salvation in Christ? are Gentiles finding salvation in Christ? Whereas redemption found in guys, where's forgiveness found in? Where's Grace found in? Where's the fullness of joy found in? That's right. It's right in him also we have obtained in verse 11. We've obtained an inheritance what does that mean?
In a while you will get something
that's right. That's right. So when mommy and daddy dies, what's going to happen? That's right. Some of the money we've saved up and the things that we own will eventually go to you all. And so you'll obtain Lord willing, I mean, maybe all die poor, I don't know. And maybe the inheritance you'll get his godliness that we've passed. Down to you, but maybe we'll get stuff too. I hope that the godliness will mean more. But we have obtained inheritance. Why have we obtained an inheritance Look at Verse 11. Again
being what? No predestined being predestined.
Yeah, so why do we get an inheritance because the counsel of his will, right, because he's predestined it. He's decided that he's determined that he's the one who wills it to happen. That's right, that we, who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory. Why are we saved? Why are we redeemed? Why are we forgiven? To pray? That's right, because of his glory because of his grace because of His Holy Will. And for His glory. What's the chief end of man? That's right, try to glorify God and enjoy him to glorify Him forever. Why were you made?
So that I can?
That's right. That's right. He saved us. He made us we get to live with him because we get to glorify Him forever. We get to sing his praises. We get to enjoy who he is. We get to know him and love him. It's pretty great. In Him, you also after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and whom also having believed you were, oh, this is great. You were sealed by the Holy Spirit. Do you remember when we made those seals? There were a lot of them when we made that for church and we gave everybody a piece of paper, and it said, I am a child of God. And each paper was folded over and had a seal on it. Right that seal is the Holy Spirit.
I remember there was
there was an S on it. That's right. That's right. And how do we know that we are sealed? How do we know that we have an inheritance? How do we know that these things are true? What is that Holy Spirit verse 14,
is guaranteed of on heritance
Yes, the holy That's right. So the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchase possession, and why would God give us the Holy Spirit? What's because of His Holy Will? True, but that's the reason why but I'm asking what's the what's the purpose of the praise of his glory? This is like over and over and over again and saying to the praise of his glory to the praise of his glory to the praise of his glory to the praise of his glory. Why were you saved Nathan? Why did he forgive you? Why did he would redeem you Why would you go to heaven?
Because then I can play something.
That's right. That's right. It's all good because we want to praise Him for His glorious grace. That's the point of all of this. People get tied up in knots over the doctrine of election and predestination. Did you know that some people don't like this doctrine? It's just right here. Right? He predestined us. He elected us He chose us as His children. And people get really tied up over this but they missed the main point. Why is all this so wonderful? Because we get to praise Him for His glorious grace for the praise of his glory. Well, what do you think you're called to do? Let's let's go ahead and just jump there. Yeah, praise him because of his glorious grace. Yeah, right. I think the What's it about is exactly what we're called to praise Him for His glorious grace. Do you praise Him for His sovereign glorious grace? Do you worship the one who has redeemed your soul? Are you in Christ? Do you find your comfort and hope and peace in him? I pray that you would love him and sing His glories all your life. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. What a blessing it is to be your people. God, we don't deserve your grace. But that's what grace is. Lord, we have not earned your favor. But it is the divine gift from you. Thank you. May we know who you are in May we truly rejoice? And what you have done in Jesus's name, Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you today. May you bring Him glory, for his glorious grace, and we'll see you next time. Bye.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai