By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at / Published Life BPC Weekly, 2020-01-012

Text: Ephesians 1:3

In our first sermon on Ephesians last week, I had mentioned that this epistle begins with a panoramic view of the sovereignty of God, and that it is like standing on the highest peak of a lofty mountain and taking in the whole grandeur of God’s works from eternity past to eternity future. And this view is so breath-taking that it brings us down to our knees in worship and to say, “Blessed be God!” This was evidently the impact that it had on the apostle Paul.

Let us turn our Bible to Ephesians 1:3 and read it together: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ…”  There are three precious truths that we can learn from this verse. Firstly,

1. God Has Blessed Us with All Spiritual Blessings.

Paul was so amazed at the sheer magnitude of these blessings from God that he kept on writing and writing, and did not stop until he reached the end of verse 14– a total of 202 words! That makes it the longest sentence in the Bible. And if we really take time to consider what these blessings are, we will be absolutely amazed as well. They will make us realise what an immense privilege we have to be God’s people.

The spiritual blessings that Paul wrote about in these 12 verses include being chosen before the foundation of the world (v.4), predestined unto the adoption of children (v.5), accepted in the Beloved (v.6), redeemed and all our sins forgiven (v.7), initiated into the Divine Mystery (vv.8-10), obtaining an inheritance (v.11) and being sealed with the Holy Spirit (vv.13,14). As these will be unpacked for us through the sermons that follow, we will see how wonderful they are. And this list is not exhaustive.

Added to them are many other significant blessings that Paul mentioned in the rest of his epistle to the Ephesians: They are blessings of hope (1:18), power (1:19), peace (2:14), boldness of access to God (3:12), strength (3:16), spiritual gifts for service (4:7), and the whole armour of God (6:11).

All these will be studied in greater detail as we go through our series of sermons on Ephesians. And we will see how each of these spiritual blessings is tremendously great and priceless. And when we add on all those that are mentioned in the rest of the Scriptures we will find that we have received even more spiritual blessings than all these.

And here is the best part: They are all ours – every one of them! What a great treasure trove of precious spiritual blessings we have! This thought is so well-expressed in the words of a familiar hymn, “Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide; Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!”

I don’t know about you, but I would never trade these spiritual blessings for all the riches in the world, because they are absolutely priceless. To put it another way, these spiritual blessings are ‘out of this world’. That is probably the reason why Paul used the phrase ‘in heavenly places’ to describe them. The spiritual blessings that God has blessed us with are truly ‘out of this world’. They give us a wonderful foretaste of heaven, so that we will choose to set our affection on things above rather than on things on the earth (Colossians 3:2).

This is totally opposite to the Health-wealth Gospel that is being preached so widely today and makes everyone set their affection on things on the earth. This false gospel teaches that God wants all believers to be physically healthy, materially wealthy, and personally happy. It has gained a very large following by endorsing materialism and promoting greed. Prosperity Gospel Preachers encourage their followers to pray for and even demand miracles and material prosperity from God. The books they write have titles like ‘Its Your Time’, ‘This is Your Day for a Miracle’ and ‘8 Steps to Create the Life You Want’.

The truth is that the Prosperity Gospel actually short-changes people drastically. It distracts us from our true eternal riches by turning our attention instead to the transient material riches of the world. But what are all these worldly treasures? They are reduced to nothing at all when compared to the vast spiritual riches that God has bestowed on us freely. This is expressed so well in John Newton’s hymn: “Fading is the worldling’s pleasure, All his boasted pomp and show; Solid joys and lasting treasure None but Zion’s children know.”

So, what relevance does all this have to you? It will give you the right perspective you need to have as you live in this world. Whenever you feel weary or disheartened, take time to review all the spiritual blessings that God has blessed you with. Whenever you suffer any loss or feel unjustly deprived of anything, just focus your thoughts on the spiritual blessings you have from God. And then you will be able to rejoice again.

That’s what the apostle Paul did. In last week’s sermon we saw that he wrote this epistle to the Ephesians when he was imprisoned in Rome and in chains. Prior to this, he had been shipwrecked on his journey to Rome and lost everything. Now as a prisoner he also lost his freedom. And yet he was able to rejoice, because he had clearly set his sight on his spiritual blessings. He was even able to write to another church: “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4)

Just think of this: Even if you were to lose everything you have – your health, your wealth, your comfort, or even your freedom – these spiritual blessings can never be lost. They will always be yours forever, because God has lovingly bestowed them upon you.

And what God bestows on you is sufficient to meet every need. Having His blessings is so much better than having the kind of blessings people wish for during Chinese New Year (Gong Xi Fa Cai), blessings which are only good for the present time on earth. Let us take comfort that God has provided every spiritual blessing that we need to deal with our past, with our present and with our future. He has also provided every spiritual blessing that is needed for our salvation, for our sanctification and for our service, and every spiritual blessing that is needed for time and eternity! And so, no matter what difficulties and challenges this year may bring, you can rejoice as you keep reminding yourself of this wonderful truth: God has blessed you with all spiritual blessings. And as we realise that God has blessed us so richly, then…

2. We Should Praise God for All Spiritual Blessings.

This is the second precious truth that we can learn from Ephesians 1:3. In fact the verse begins with praise – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…” Several Bible scholars have noticed that what Paul writes here has some similarities with Psalm 103, and especially the climactic praise at the end of this psalm: “Bless the Lord, ye His angels, that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye His hosts; ye ministers of His, that do His pleasure. Bless the Lord, all His works in all places of His dominion: bless the Lord, O my soul.” (Psalm 103:20-22)

God truly deserves the highest praise from every creature for all His bounteous blessings to all creatures. Whenever we appreciate the splendour of nature, or whenever we are intrigued by the complexities of science, or marvel at the wonderfully precise movements of the sun and moon, our hearts should respond with praise: “O God, how great Thou art!”

Perhaps we need to be reminded not to take any of these blessings for granted. Whenever we are able to celebrate another year of peace and prosperity in Singapore while many other nations are languishing in turmoil and disaster, we should rightly give glory to God for blessing our nation. And whenever we enjoy good success in our studies, work or business we ought to acknowledge that it comes from God. In fact, God out of His goodness, frequently bestows abundant blessings on all men whether they are believers or not. As Matthew 5:45 tells us, “He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”

But all these blessings that I have mentioned are not the primary focus of the praise in Ephesians 1:3. What Paul praised God for here is much more than that. The words “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings…” is actually about the praise given by a specific people for a specific aspect of God’s work. Let us look at the ones who are praising God here: The first verse reveals that they consist of Paul himself, together with the saints which are at Ephesus, plus a broader category called ‘the faithful in Christ Jesus’.  Since Ephesians was written as a circular letter for a wider distribution, the terms ‘us’ and ‘our’ in verse 3 encompasses all believers, including you and me.

All who believe in Jesus Christ are the ones who ought to be praising God above all others. Why is this so? It is because of what God has done only for us. He has blessed us and all other believers in the world – past, present and future – with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. We have so much more reason to praise God, since we have become beneficiaries of God’s greatest blessings – innumerable spiritual blessings such as justification, adoption, acceptance, sanctification, redemption, pardon, hope, power, peace, strength, bold access to God, the Holy Spirit, the spiritual gifts, the whole armour of God and an eternal inheritance.

The point is this: If God deserves to be praised by all creatures, then how much more should He be praised by all the ones who receive such extraordinary blessings, such great mercy and grace from Him. God has blessed us not only with the common grace that all creatures receive, but also with the special grace that no other creatures ever receive – not even all the angels in heaven receive them.

The praise that Paul wrote about here anticipates the most glorious praise that will ever be sung in heaven as described in Revelation 5:9-10 – “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests…” This is the Song of the Redeemed, the song which no angel in heaven can ever sing. We who are sinners saved by grace are the only ones who will be able to sing this song in praise of our great Redeemer! And it will be the sweetest praise ever heard in the whole of heaven.

So, what does all this mean to us now? It means that we who are the redeemed should now be foremost in giving God all glory, honour and praise for His marvelous grace to us, and for all the spiritual blessings He has bestowed on us. The question we need to ask then is this: Are we giving God the praise He deserves from us? Do we take our time of worship seriously enough?

Each Sunday when the offering is collected we sing the doxology: ‘Praise God from whom all blessings flow’. In singing the doxology, we call on all creatures here below, and all the heavenly hosts above to praise God together with us. But we who are the redeemed should always be right at the forefront, taking the lead in praising God!

So how can we do that? We must resolve to come for each Lord’s Day worship with hearts that are fully prepared to praise Him, because true praise comes from the heart. I would suggest that you make it a habit to come early for worship so that you can spend some time to meditate quietly on all the spiritual blessings you have received from God. And then your worship will become a natural outpouring of sincere gratitude and praise to God from your heart.

Your response to receiving such great blessings from God should be like that of King David when God promised to establish his throne forever and to bless him with a line of descendants to reign as kings in Israel. We see this in 2 Samuel 7:11b-13 – “Also the Lord telleth thee that He will make thee an house. And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish His kingdom. He shall build an house for My name, and I will stablish the throne of His kingdom for ever.” David was so overwhelmed to receive this promise from God that he responded: “Who am I? O Lord God? and what is my house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto?” (2 Samuel 7:18)

Like David, all of us need to realise that we are nothing. Why should God be so gracious to us unworthy sinners? Who are we, that God should condescend to bless us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places? Well, actually, God has blessed us for the very same reason that God blessed King David. God promised to establish David’s throne forever only because Christ would be sitting on that throne one day! Hence, David was blessed not because he was such a great and godly king, but because of his connection to Christ, who would be born about a thousand years later as his greatest descendant.

In the same way, God has blessed us only because of our connection to Christ, just as Paul wrote in our text of scripture – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ…” This bring us now to the most precious truth that we can learn from our text…

3. All Spiritual Blessings Are Ours in Christ Alone

They are certainly not ours because of who we are. Unfortunately, many people today are too obsessed with who they are. This is an age of widespread narcissism and the ‘me first’ mentality. It is an age of taking endless ‘selfies’ and of showcasing one’s identity on social media. Just five years ago, the word ‘identity’ was voted as Dictionary.com’s ‘Word of the year.’ This was based on the huge number of identity-related words that was trending online in 2015. The current idea is that all things are meant to help us live out our identity. And society says that there is nothing more important than allowing everyone to identify themselves in whatever way they like. They say that you are the one who defines who you are.

And so, today’s trend is to be “true to who you are” and to “follow your own heart.” This, however, has led to people finding their identity in all the wrong things – in their career, race or nationality, in their appearance and accomplishments, or even in their sexuality and gender expression. And when they are not able to obtain that identity or retain that identity, then their entire world collapses and they plunge into despair. Seeing how futile it is to find our identity in these things, let us now find the right answer to the question, “Who are you?” What really makes you “you”?

For us, the answer is given in the two little words right at the end of our text: ‘in Christ’. As a Christian, your identity is found in Christ – He is your all in all. Like David, you may look humbly at yourself and say, “Who am I? I am nothing!” But when you look at Christ you realise that He is everything! Everything that you need for a lasting, fulfilling identity is found in Christ, and only in Christ. Your union with Christ defines who you are. This was the thrust of Paul’s message not only to the Ephesians but also to all the other churches he wrote to.

For instance, Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:10 – “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Listen to what Paul wrote to the Romans: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:1).

To the Corinthians, he wrote: “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” (1 Corinthians 1:30) And to the Galatians, he wrote: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) Paul loved the phrase ‘in Christ’ so much that it is found 81 times in his epistles.

Why did Paul keep writing again and again like a broken record about being in Christ? Because to him, the answer to the question, “Who are you?” had changed radically since the day he met the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. Before he was saved, Paul’s answer would be, “I was circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” (Philippians 3:5,6)

But after he was saved, Paul’s answer was, “For [Christ] I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ.” (Philippians 3:8,9)

If you are a Christian, what matters most to you now is Christ. He is your life. Before salvation, you were in Adam, but after salvation you are in Christ. When you were in Adam, you possessed a sinful nature that made you seek to do your own will. Now that you are in Christ, you possess a new nature which makes you seek to do God’s will instead of your own will. When you were in Adam, you lived only for things on earth. Now that you are in Christ, you live for things above, for things that last forever.

And this change would be reflected in your answer to the question, “Who are you?”  You may be a Singaporean or foreigner, single or married, baby boomer gen-X,Y,Z or millennial. You may be a scholar, teacher, doctor, engineer, lawyer, banker or retiree. You may even be a billionaire, CEO, president, Olympian, gold-medalist, virtuoso, or a high flyer. But all these things do not form the basis of your identity anymore, because what matters most now is that you are a Christian, a child of God. So what is the real defining basis of your identity now? Who are you? Your answer should be: “I am in Christ.”

And since you are in Christ, you have all the resources that are found in Him. Therefore, you can say like Paul, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Philippians 4:13) You can bear much fruit, as long as you keep abiding in Christ and drawing from all the resources that are found in Christ alone. God has deposited every spiritual resource in Christ. Romans 8:32 tells us that “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” So, what does all this mean? It means that Christ is all that you need.

Through this, we can now understand that salvation is not just something that we get from Christ. Salvation is Christ. Many of us have been brought up with the idea that Jesus is simply the way to salvation. But no – He is salvation. He is the way, but He is also the Life! He is not just a means to an end, but He is the end itself. And when we receive Christ, we have everything we need. Outside of Christ we are nothing and we have nothing. But in Christ we are God’s people and we have everything, including all the spiritual blessings that are in Him.

But I also need to qualify what I just said, for those who are still outside of Christ. There is a sense in which you do have something if you are not in Christ. What is it? Let us look at John 3:36 to find out – “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”  Why is this so? The answer is found in 1 John 5:10 – “He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son.”

Those who do not believe in Christ make God a liar. That’s a very serious matter. And so, instead of being blessed by God with all spiritual blessings, they now have the very opposite: the wrath of God abides on them, just like an immense dark cloud that is ready to break forth in judgment upon them for all their sins. And this awful judgement from God is eternal death which we all deserve for our sins,  “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

If anyone here is still outside Christ, let me urge you not to delay any more to believe in Christ for salvation. The way to be saved is simple. You must first accept everything that the Bible says about Christ and about yourself as true – that He is the Son of God who came down from heaven to be made a sacrifice for sin, and that you are a sinner who deserves nothing but the wrath of God. Then, you need to confess to Him personally that you are a sinner in need of His salvation. Put your trust in the completed work of Jesus Christ alone, and stop trusting in your own good works to save you. And third, to trust in Christ is also to commit your life to Him once and for all, with no thought of turning back. Let Him be your Lord and master from now on. Only then, will you no longer be outside of Christ, but in Christ. And then, you will be able to bless God with all believers for all the spiritual blessings that are yours in Christ alone.

In today’s sermon we have learned three precious truths: (1) God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings which are better than anything in this world; (2) We should therefore praise God for all the spiritual blessings He has bestowed on us, because we don’t deserve them at all; and (3) All spiritual blessings are ours in Christ alone, and therefore the most important thing in life is to be in Christ. May the Lord who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ be fully praised and continually glorified in our lives as we apply these precious truths.

• Prev
• Next