Let's hear God's word then, Ephesians chapter one beginning with verse three. Blessed 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 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 accepted 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 in 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. In him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory. Amen. We'll end our reading there in verse 14 of Ephesians chapter one. Let's once again ask for God's help in prayer. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, we look to you now to be with us in this time of considering your word. We ask that you would take away every distraction, every disruption, everything that would keep us from hearing with understanding and with faith. Father, we ask that this word would not rest on the surface of our hearts and then be withered up by the trials, tribulations of life. We ask that the birds would not come and snatch it away, that it would not be choked out by weeds, by the cares of this world. but that in our hearts it would find good soil where it can germinate, where it can spread its roots downwards, where it can grow up and result in a harvest of spiritual fruit to our God. Lord, help us to receive this word as we should. Help us to respond in a way that is to the praise of your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. The last time we were in Ephesians chapter one, we considered that God the Father blesses us and that he blesses us in choosing or in electing us, in predestining us, and in making us accepted in the beloved. Now as we talked about God's big plan there, one of the things that should have jumped out at us, one of the things that maybe we need to make sure to emphasize, is that God uses means. God already knows what the outcome is. God already knows what the plan is. He's chosen us so that we should be holy and without blame. He's predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself. But in carrying out that purpose, in bringing us to be holy and without blame in his presence, in bringing us to the point where the reality of our adoption is manifested, is exhibited to the whole universe, as Paul talks about, Romans chapter 8, God uses means to the accomplishing of his purposes. And so it's always a mistake for us to pit God's plan against the idea of using means. God's plan gets us to the goal through the use of of means. And so the fact that God has chosen and predestined in no way minimizes the importance or even the indispensability of the means that God has chosen. And you can see that operating on a variety of levels in the verses we studied the time before as well as in the verses that are before us today. God's purpose is to bring us to be holy and without blame before him, but that's not where we start out, is it? So something needs to happen. Something needs to initiate that transformation. Means need to be brought to bear. Well, of course, in one way you could say that the great agent of the accomplishment of God's purpose is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's continually emphasized in these verses, the connection between God and Christ, how God works by Christ and how all of these blessings that we have, we have in Christ. And in verse seven, having just mentioned the beloved, that is Christ, God's beloved son in whom he's well pleased, Having just mentioned Christ, it then says, in Him, in union to Christ, we have redemption. And if there was any question as to who is in view here, who is being called Him, well, you know it's Jesus when you read through His blood, because who died on the cross? Whose blood was shed? Well, it was the blood of God the Son. It was the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ then, we have redemption. Now that's not a word that we use all the time in our daily life, but we should be very familiar with the concept if we're at all familiar with the Bible. Redemption operates on a couple of different levels. In the book of Exodus, you have the standard Old Testament example of redemption. And what happened there? Well, God's people were in bondage. They were enslaved in Egypt and God brought them out. They were redeemed when they were set free. You can also have people who sold themselves, who became indentured servants, basically, and somebody could be redeemed. There was a right of redemption with regard to property. You had so much time during which you could buy the property back if you came into the money to be able to do that. And redemption happens in a couple of different ways. There's redemption by price, where somebody is purchased out of a penal condition, where they're being punished for something, or where they're purchased out of a condition of slavery, whether the slavery was a punishment or not. There's also redemption by power, where you've been captured, you've been kidnapped and enslaved, and the way to rescue you is not necessarily to pay a ransom to the kidnapper, but just to come in with overwhelming force and defeat the kidnapper and get you out of that. Well, the people of God are redeemed in both ways. We are redeemed from the devil's bondage, from being enslaved to sin and the devil, not by a payment made to the devil, He's just overthrown. He's defeated. He does not get a payment for your rescue. He doesn't deserve a payment for your rescue. But there is a price paid for your rescue because you're a guilty person, because you are exposed to the wrath of God. And that's particularly the aspect of redemption that Paul has in mind here this morning because he says, in him we have redemption through his blood. Why did the Lord Jesus pour out his blood It was to deliver us from the curse, from the penalty of the law. The law of God had a legitimate claim against us. The law of God cried out for our blood, cried out for our death. How are we going to be delivered from that? There is no more overwhelming power than that of God to come in and rescue us from that particular peril. So God intervenes in the person of his son. Christ becomes a human being. He lives in our place, and then he dies in our place. And so with that, with the satisfaction of justice made by Christ in our name to the law, now we have redemption. We are no longer in danger. We are no longer considered guilty. We are no longer exposed to the wrath and curse of God. What does that redemption look like on our side? The forgiveness of sins. In other words, your sins are not held against you. Your behavior is not the basis of how God treats you. That's really the bottom line on forgiveness. When you forgive somebody else for what they did, what are you saying? What are you doing? You're saying, well, this specific instance or this whole pattern, whatever it may be, of bad behavior I no longer treat you in keeping with that. I treat you as though you hadn't behaved badly, even though you have. Now, forgiveness always presupposes that somebody has done something wrong. If nobody has offended me, I can't forgive them. And that's okay. I don't need to have good reasons to forgive people. I don't need to have causes or occasions to do that. But forgiveness always presupposes, always takes for granted that there is a genuine offense. There is something that has been done that is very deeply wrong. Well, that is certainly true of us. Our sins are not some minor matter. They are not something we don't need to care too much about. They were something that required redemption. They were something that put us in danger of everlasting wrath. They were not trivial. They were not insignificant. But in Christ, God forgives those sins. He doesn't hold them against us. He redeems us, though we didn't deserve it. Why? Well, Paul tells you that according to the riches of his grace. What is the reason for God to forgive you? Can you go to God and can you give him a good argument for why he should forgive you? Well, in the nature of the case, you can't because the fact that you need forgiveness shows that you don't deserve it. But if there were anything you could say to God about why you would like to be forgiven, why you think it would be good for him to forgive you, you don't really understand grace. unless you know that all the reasons are internal to God. There's nothing outside here that can be a good motivator to God to forgive me. I can't tell God how special I am as a reason for him to forgive me. But that's not where it starts, and that's not what matters. What matters is the riches of God's grace. Paul uses that expression so that we won't think of grace as a thin little paltry thing that it's easy to use up and burn through. He says the riches of God's grace so that our mind will be filled with an image of fantastic abundance. So that we won't be thinking, well, there was a little bit of grace left over for me. and I need to be very careful or I'll wind up using that all up. The riches of grace are inexhaustible. God's grace is more than enough. We see the abundance of our sin, we see how deep, we see how many, we see how varied they are, and we think, well, can God forgive that? where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. How does God treat with us in Christ? Not according to what we deserve, not according to our past behavior, not according to how good we are today, according to the riches of his grace. Grace which is God's favor towards the undeserving. Grace which is also defined as God giving you what you don't deserve. But then Paul adds, you notice he's already said the riches of his grace, and then he says, which he made to abound toward us. So here's God's abundant riches of grace, and he's directing them in our direction, or here's the riches of God's grace and he's abounding in that in our direction. How? What is Paul talking about with that? Well, first of all, just stop and appreciate for a moment, God is selecting the objects of his grace. And God isn't being miserly with that grace. Not only is it rich in himself, in his own heart, but he abounds in it toward us. He's not giving you a little tiny drip of grace. You're not on some kind of starvation rations when it comes to grace. He's abounding towards you in grace. There's plenty. There's more than enough. And the specific thing that Paul has in mind is he abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. Now, on the one hand, you might think that this is talking about God, and there's certainly a sense in which that's true. The whole plan of redemption definitely shows the wisdom, the unsearchable wisdom of God. But because it uses the word prudence, which the Bible doesn't really apply to God, And because of what follows in verse 9, I think the emphasis here is that one of the ways that God has abounded toward us in the riches of his grace is by giving us wisdom and prudence. Notice what it says at the beginning of verse 9, having made known to us the mystery of His will. In other words, what is our wisdom? What is our prudence? It is the knowledge of God's will. No other kind of information, no other degree of knowledge compares to this. If you don't know who God is, if you don't know how God redeems His people, if you don't know how to draw near to God, of what value is the whole rest of your wisdom. We spent 24 sermons going through the book of Ecclesiastes, basically thumping that point over and over and over. Any wisdom that doesn't lead you to God is, in the ultimate analysis, worthless, pointless. So it shows how God is abounding towards us in grace when he gives to us the knowledge of his will. It's called a mystery because unless God shared it, unless God revealed it, we would never figure it out. Now, what's the pattern? What's the principle of God's will? Well, Paul tells us when he says, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself. And you might think, wait, God's will and God's good pleasure, what's the difference between those two? Well, ultimately, there really isn't one. Because, as we've seen before, there's no cause behind God's will. God wills freely to do what he does, and his will is its own reason. In other words, if we're looking for, well, what does God get out of it? Well, what incentive does God have? You're asking questions that are fundamentally meaningless. What is the pattern or principle of God's will? It is his good pleasure. You cannot get behind that. There is nothing behind that. That is the ultimate reality. That is God willing. Now, God has a plan and he's executing that plan in time, but that plan is based entirely on God's good pleasure. And Paul has used that expression a couple of times here, according to the good pleasure of his will in verse five, and here he says it again, according to his good pleasure. We're repeating ourselves because Paul repeated himself because it's in the text more than once. And we need to know this because our response to God, our worship of God, should not be based on thinking of God as somehow bound or restricted obligated to do this. This is the glory of God, that he doesn't have to show grace. There is no power that could compel him to do that. There is nothing in us that would constrain him to do that. God shows grace because he is gracious. If you try to add in anything else, you either undermine the character of grace or you make God out to be less rich and abundant in grace than He actually is. That's why redemption, that's why this whole plan is to the praise of the glory of God's grace. So God is abundantly gracious to us in making us know the plan of salvation and giving us the wisdom to believe and to receive that. And then Paul defines the content of that mystery a little bit more in these words, which are a little bit strange. Verse 10, 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. One way to describe God's purpose is that he's planning to gather together in one everything in Christ. Now, When we read those words, we probably understand a little bit better why Paul said, There's a certain amount of mystery as to what this means. Paul uses a similar expression. to the fullness of times in Galatians 4 when he talks about how in the fullness of time God sent forth his son made of a woman, made under the law. So it's certainly possible that the dispensation of the fullness of the times is talking about when Christ came and everything that follows. Paul uses the word for gather together in one One other place in his writings, he uses it in Romans 13 when he says that the summary of the law is love your neighbor. So this word can be used with reference to mathematical operations. When you add everything up, the outcome, the result that you get would be this word that Paul is using here. Bringing together under one head seems to be the idea. Okay, what do we do with that? Well, first of all, let's understand then that God's purpose centers in Christ. God's purpose is to save us, but God's purpose is also to make Christ absolutely pivotal, absolutely central to everything. Christ has been named the head of all principality and power in every name that is named. Christ is the head of the original creation. Christ is the head of the new creation. God's purpose is to save us, yes, but God's purpose is to save us by the exaltation of Christ to a unique position. And that is an exaltation of Christ that is relevant also to his human In his human name, Jesus, he has been exalted to be the head of all principality and power, as well as head over all things to his body, which is the church. Is that a little bit mysterious? Yes, it is. There are multiple interpretations of what is in view with things which are in heaven and things which are on earth. You can read more about that if you'd like. There will be people who say, well, this includes the angels. Christ is not a mediator of reconciliation for them, but he's a mediator of union for them, and that makes some sense to me. There are people who will apply this to the fact that creation is going to be restored. That also makes some sense to me. There will be a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells, and Christ will visibly be the head of all of that. There are people, of course, who try to abuse it, who try to push this too far, who try to say that ultimately the devil and Judas Iscariot will walk hand in hand down the streets of the heavenly city. I don't think that's what Paul has in mind here. But why does Paul choose to use this language? Why is it important for the Ephesians to know these things? Well, I think Paul is basically trying to set their hearts on Christ. to help them to realize that when they treasure and value Christ above all things, they are in agreement with God. I think Paul is trying to help them set the reality of their salvation, of their redemption, in an even bigger context where God is restoring everything that has been marred by sin. And so I would understand this concept of gathering together in one all things under Christ as head to basically be something along these lines, that God is putting everyone, everything in its proper place with reference to Christ. So Christ is the great dividing line. Are you in Christ? Well, then your proper place is in God's house as one of his beloved adopted children. Are you not in Christ? Well, then, your proper place is outside of the restored creation. You can read more about that in the book of Revelation. Are you a loyal servant of Christ as an angelic messenger? Well, then, your place is exalting Christ in company with the church triumphant. Are you a spiritual enemy of Christ, turned against him because you followed Satan instead? Well then, your proper place is without again in the lake of fire. But God will determine the proper place of everything and everyone with reference to Christ. Now, if Christ is central in this way, in God's purpose, in God's plan, what should Christ be in our hearts, in our lives? Are we Christians merely because we know we ought to have some kind of religion, and this seems like the least weird and objectionable one? Is our Christianity something for Sundays, you know, some days we work, some days we play, some days we go to church? and it's one ingredient among many others. Well, if that's true, if that's how we approach our faith, we are not on the same page with God about that, at any rate. All our lives, work as much as religion, home life, play life, as much as church life, is to be centered on Christ. anything short of that, and we're not really on board with God's plan to make Christ central, critical, the determining point for everything else. Are you in agreement with God this morning that Christ brings in the fullness of the times, that there is no getting beyond Christ, that there is nothing better Then, Christ, are you in agreement with God that Christ is central, that you figure out where everything goes, where it belongs, whether it has a place in your life or whether it ought to be cast out into outer darkness? You figure all of that out with reference to Christ. What is not in keeping with the Spirit of Christ, what is not honoring to Christ, what is not glorifying to Him, Go ahead and get rid of it. What serves Him and honours Him, well, go ahead and double down on that one. Abound in it just as God has abounded to you in grace. People have a lot of different things to say about this passage of Scripture and ones that are like it. Maybe there's some details where you have a different perspective or where you think we could go a little bit deeper. I would not be surprised. I'm sure we could with enough time and energy and attention. But if we miss the centrality of Christ in God's purposes, I really do think we've missed the point of the passage. Where does God abound toward us in wisdom and prudence? Where does God abound toward us in grace? Where is everything gathered together? Where do we have redemption? Where do we have the forgiveness of sins? The answer to all of those questions is the same answer. Those things all come to us in Christ. He's the key. He is the critical point. Amen.