Well, a very good afternoon. I was asking your pastor on the phone, is there anyone in the congregation from Liverpool? He said he doesn't think there is. So I was saying you may need an interpreter then. So if you've got Google Translate, oh, we've got someone from Liverpool over here, haven't we? Hallelujah! You'll be able to translate for everybody else. I'll try my best with this accent of mine. I was a Liverpool taxi driver for 20 years, so I've managed to calm the accent down just a little bit. So, God willing, you should be able to understand what I say. Greetings from Stanley Park Church in Liverpool. If you don't know where that is, if you know anything about Liverpool itself, there is a massive big park in Anfield called Stanley Park. On one corner you've got Liverpool's football ground. On the other corner you've got Everton's football ground. On this corner you have Stanley Park Church and on this corner you have a cemetery. So there might be something to be said about that because I often say to people, outside our church there's a big sign, it's quite famous in Liverpool, what think ye of Christ? And I often say to people, your answer to that question will determine what will be going on when you get to the other end to that cemetery and you pass out of this life, what think ye of Christ is the most important question in the world. So let me say that Liverpool is the home of J.C. Ryle. Some of you will know who J.C. Ryle was. And it was the home of J.C. Ryle. He was the first Bishop of Liverpool. First Bishop of Liverpool. If only there was more Anglicans like J.C. Ryle in this country at the moment. So let me also apologise for the Beatles. The Beatles, of course, but in the 1960s, at the start of the sexual revolution, they called it, and the Beatles contributed a whole lot towards that. So let me just apologize for that part of the city. So, did you know... Well, obviously you do know because you're having an anniversary service that we are abundantly blessed by God. God really blesses his people. God's abundantly blessed yourselves as a church. God's abundantly blessed Stanley Park Church in Liverpool. Just before the lockdown, we had three members left in the congregation. We had an attendance of between seven and twelve people. It was the ten, but we were just down to three members. We've got a massive big church that seats a thousand people. You could be dealing with that building yourself, the way you're growing. But we were meeting downstairs in the basement, we partitioned the room, so it was just a few of us meeting. So when the lockdown came, we said, we're not locking down. So we stayed open and we grew and grew and grew. The Lord's blessed us, saved a lot of souls, we had a lot of people being baptised. We now have 24 people in membership and an attendance of about 70. We've moved back upstairs to the big auditorium that has galleries and a pipe organ and the Lord is bringing in lots and lots of new people every week. The Lord blesses is people. If we are faithful, we've stayed faithful to the King James Bible, we've been reformed and conservative, we've adopted the 1689 confession of faith, and we just stayed as a small church. Hardly anybody coming in for years and years. Well, I was the pastor for 12 years of that, and then all of a sudden We have grown, so stay faithful. Don't compromise when the world tells us that we have to change. Meddle not with those who are given to change, the Bible tells us. Don't be listening to the world and all its gimmicks and its postmodernism and that type of thing. The Lord will bless us in His time if we are faithful. Your pastor made a mistake. He didn't tell me how long I've got to preach. I noticed there's a clock over there. That is irrelevant to me. I don't even tell the time on a clock like that. I need a digital watch and I'm probably unlikely to look at it. So I presume I've got about two hours to speak. I'll make that as a presumption and I'll cut it down as much as I possibly can. So, if you are saved, if you are a Christian, if you are born again and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation and walking according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh, then we have amazing riches in Christ Jesus. We don't have to earn them, we don't have to pay for them, We don't have to go on some pilgrimage or anything like that. We don't have to do any penances to gain them. We don't have to have all sorts of different things going on in our lives religiously. They are a free gift of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to those who He loves. So we're going to look at verse 3. We're going to concentrate mainly just on verse 3. you would think to yourself, can you get much out of one verse? Well, I've only got six points to get from this one verse. I could have had a lot more, but I thought time will kill me if I pick any more out of it. So we've got six things to look at that the Apostle Paul tells us about the great blessings of being a Christian, the great blessings of God. It was Kipling who said, I have six trusty friends who taught me all I knew, what, where, why, when, how, and who. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to ask the text some questions. I'm going to ask what it's about, who's it to, and that type of thing. And we're going to just run through the text and have a little look at some of these things. And God willing, it will bless us on this, your anniversary weekend. Firstly, what is it about? What is it about in verse 3? It says, blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Even now, up until this point, in verse 3, the Apostle Paul has already mentioned Jesus Christ five times. He's already talked about Christ five times. He was absolutely obsessed by the Lord Jesus Christ, and so should you be, if you are a Christian. Why should you be obsessed with the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, because the Lord Jesus Christ left heaven's glory where the angels, the cherubim were around the throne singing and praising our triune God. Holy, holy, holy. He was singing day and night before our God. He left heaven's glory, a place of absolute perfection, a place of sinlessness where nothing that defiles can enter in. Remember that if you're a sinner and you haven't been saved, nothing that defiles can enter into heaven. Jesus left. heaven's glory he came to this earth he lived a sinless perfect life on behalf of all of those who put their faith and their trust in him he then went to the cross he he had a cruel death upon the cross not just the physical punishments but even the physical punishments they they plucked his beard from his face could you imagine what that is like to have your beard plucked from your face. He was punched, slapped, spat on. He had a crown of thorns thrust into his skull. He was stripped, naked, not like all these pictures that you see and the crucifixes that the Roman Catholics have, a man on a cross with some sort of loincloth on. No, Jesus was stripped, naked. The Bible tells us he endured the cross. but he despised the shame and he was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He didn't die because of any sin that he had committed. He died for the sins of his people. He died for the sins, all of the sins of all of the people who will ever have their faith in Jesus Christ. He came to save his people from their sins, not in their sins, but from their sins. And then he rose again for our justification as the evidence that that sacrifice was acceptable to the Father. Oh, how the Apostle Paul loved to speak about the Lord Jesus Christ. How does this start? Blessed be God, blessed be God. This is a Greek word, eulogitos, so you should be able to recognize our English word in there, eulogy. So when you do a funeral, I know your pastor will have done many funerals, and I've done a lot of funerals myself, and when you get up and you do a funeral and you speak about a person, you try to speak good of them. I've had people who, when they've talked to me, said, I don't want you to say good stuff about this relative who died. I'm like, well, I'm going to find something to say that's going to be good to them. And what we do is we say good things about the person. We eulogize the person. Blessed be God. The apostle Paul wants to speak good. of God, not because God is having a funeral, because God is life, in Him is life, in God is life. In fact, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father, but by me in Him is life. So Paul wants to speak good of God and of God's grace. If you look at verse six there, it says, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us acceptable in the beloved." He wants to praise God's amazing grace. In verse 12, it tells us this, that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ. Oh, he wants to glorify God, he wants to praise God in everything that he is, and that should be what a Christian wants. That should be the desire of our heart, that we should praise God. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. We read in the Psalms, isn't that the the desire and the passion of our heart that men and women around this area, men and women in Liverpool, men and women in your family, in the places of work, in your streets, your friends, your enemy, isn't it the desire of your heart all that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works that the children of men, they don't know that God is good. They don't know that God is keeping them alive and sustaining them and the rain and the sunshine is falling upon them because our God is good. Our God is gracious. Our God is a loving, kind, and merciful God. But our God is also a God of wrath. It tells us in Psalm 5 verse 5 that the Lord hated all workers of iniquity. It's amazing, isn't it? All you ever hear about these days is love, love, love. I can blame the Beatles for that as well. All you need is love, they said. That's all we hear in this day and age, a love gospel being preached. All of the time, people are not told about their sin. The Bible tells us that all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God. There are none that are righteous. No, not one. People are not told about that in this day and age. So everybody just goes about sinning as much as they like, professing to be Christians, but living a life like they're not a Christian, sinning against God because they're told, don't worry, God loves you. It doesn't even matter. It's easy to say, isn't it, for the Christian, that God is good in the good times. It's easy to say God is good in the good times. But God is also good in the bad times. We should still be praising God, even when times don't seem so good. Why? because it's still good. The Bible tells us that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purposes. What's it mean, all things are working together for good? Well, we have a daughter-in-law who is a pharmacist over in Northern Ireland. I was just chatting to your pastor about her. And she's a pharmacist, she works in a chemist. Sometimes she goes in the back room, she has to pick some stuff off the shelf that says poison on it. and it's got like a skull and cross, I presume it's got a skull and crossbones on it, and it says, poison, dangerous, this thing will kill you if you drink it, and she puts it into some medicine and some other poison and some other stuff, and she mixes them all together, and they all work together. For good, the person gets the medicine, they drink the medicine, they get better. So even all those bad things that would normally in themselves kill the person have still worked together for good. So if you are a Christian here today, all things are working together for good. Even those bad relationships that you might have had, even those difficult times that you've had in your life, it's all working together for good, guaranteed. Our son, younger son, Dale met an old man in a chippy. Do you have chippies here in Liverpool? Fish and chip, in this area. Do you have chippies? Yeah, right, okay, that's good. Fish and chip shops, we have lots of them in Liverpool, almost every corner in Liverpool has a chippy. And our Dale was standing in the chippy and an old man walked up to him, never introduced himself and just said, God, is good and Azrael said isn't it amazing this old man he walked in with a stick just looked up and said God is good even in his old age even in his old age he was praising God and it's our desire isn't it that in our old age we will be praising God too because all things are working together for good. Our God is a gracious and a good God. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 15 says this, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips given thanks to his name. So how about you? How about you? Do you praise God? Do you praise God when you wake up of a morning? I like to wake up of a morning and open my eyes and praise God for giving me another day. And then just dedicate that day to God and say, Lord, open doors of opportunities for me today to speak about your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that I might praise him and glorify him in my life, in everything that I do. Wake up of a morning and the first thing you should do is praise God. So we know what it's about. It is the praise of God, blessed be God, blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who's it to? Who is it to? It says, who have blessed us, who have blessed Us, who is this us? Is it the world? No, it's not the world. I mean, often Christians are too fast to give away the blessings of God to the world. Who is this us? Is it the Jews? It's not speaking to the Jews. Is it just the Gentiles? not speaking just to the Gentiles, there would have been some Jews, there would have been some non-Jews who would have been saved, who would have been converted, so it's speaking to them, but who is it speaking to specifically? Verse 1 tells us, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints, which are at Ephesus, to the faithful in Christ Jesus. So that's who it's speaking to. It is speaking to the saints. I don't know what that means to you. I don't know what background that you've come from. I don't know whether you've come from a Roman Catholic background. I don't know whether you've come from an Anglican background. So when you think of this word saint, you may be thinking of somebody who is dead. You may be thinking of someone who is beatified, rather than somebody who is born again. It doesn't mean somebody who is a pope. as beatified or as sinful man, as said, this person is now a saint. Not at all. The Bible tells us that we are to praise God in the congregation of the saints. These were people who were alive at Ephesus to the saints, which are at Ephesus. These are not dead people. These are living people. These are born again people, those who are Christians. So a Christian is called a saint. So you'll be able to go home and tell your friends and your family that you were listening to Saint Eddie preach today and you'll be able to apply that to yourself and say my name is Saint John or Paul or Jude or Stephen or Carol or whoever it is. We are the saints of God and we are those who are called to praise and bless God. It is us he hath blessed God's blessing in this face is to us, this word blessed. is a word, again, which has the root word eulogy to it. God has greatly blessed us. Do you know that God speaks good, even of us, of his people? He calls us the apple of his eye. It also tells us in the well-known verse in Jeremiah 29 and verse 11, I know the thoughts that I have towards you, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give thee an expected reward. God speaks good of his people. This word hath, he hath blessed us. This tense of the verb is always, permanently. God always blesses his people. permanently blesses his people even when the church is very very small God is still blessing his people whether the two or three together gathered together when the church is giant God is still blessing his people but in a bigger way not in more of a way he's still blessing us at all times permanently always in the good times and in the bad times. There's a verse, and it is in Zephaniah. I posted it on Facebook the other day. It blows my mind to read this verse. In chapter 3 and verse 17, it says, God has joy over us. He joys over us with singing. Can you imagine that? God sings over his people, blows my mind. We praise God, we use God, we praise him in singing, and it tells us there in Zephaniah that he has joy over thee with singing. I don't know if you can take that in, but I love to sit and meditate upon that verse. He chose us while we were yet sinners. In fact, verse 4 tells us, according as He hath chosen us in Him, which is Christ, before the foundation of The world, isn't that an amazing verse? God has chosen us, the saints, in Christ before the foundation of the world. God has chosen us and then God has blessed us. God has saved us from our sins. In the fullness of time, all of a sudden, one day, I was 27 years of age, just getting on with a life of drunkenness and crime and violence and thinking that everything was fine because I believed that there was a God, I believed the Bible was God's words, although I'd never read it, I'd never looked at it, I'd never read it, knew nothing about Jesus, knew nothing about the gospel, but I thought everything in my life was fine and getting on well. And then all of a sudden, God woke me up, He arrested me in my sin, He showed me that I was sinful in the eyes of a holy God and I was heading towards a lost eternity. God is so gracious that He convicts us and convinces us of sin. We had a young man attending our church for a young while and he was married to another man. Can you believe that? This man was married to another man. This is an abomination in the sight of God. What a lovely guy he was. He came along to the church, he was delivering some tables, got chatting with him, invited him to the Bible study. We found out he had a husband. So we didn't all jump up and kick off and shout at him. We just got to know him. We just loved the man. We witnessed to him. And one day he came to me and he said, I haven't been able to sleep for a week. I haven't been able to sleep. I've got depression. I'm feeling down. I'm having to take tablets. And I said, why is that, Pete? And he said, because of my sin. My sin, not the sin you commit and other people you commit, my sin, the sin that is personal to me that I commit. I said to him, do you know what, Pete? In some ways, I feel sorry for you because it's a horrible feeling, conviction of sin. You should have all been through it. If you're Christians, you'll have been convicted of your sin. You'll get convicted of your sin a lot once your conscience is more tender. And he was under conviction. of his sin and i said i feel sorry for you but i also feel happy for you because it is not everyone that god convinces of sin the lord jesus christ said when the holy spirit comes he will convince of sin and of righteousness, not our righteousness. Our righteousness is filthy rags before God, but the righteousness of Christ, that we need a righteousness that is not of ourselves. And that's why the Bible tells us to seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. righteousness, and then all these things will be added onto you. We need the righteousness of Christ. And that's why it says that Jesus was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He has convinced us of our sin. How good is our God? How gracious is our God? He has convicted us of our sin and saved us, and saved us by his amazing and wonderful grace, not just that he keeps us, He keeps us and persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. The Lord Jesus said that God keeps us in the palm of His hand and there is none that can pluck us out. Not even yourself, not even yourself. Jesus said all those who come to Him, He will not cast out any. There'll be none that will be cast out and of all those who come to Him, He will lose None, it doesn't say he will lose maybe one, he will lose none. He is able to keep us and present us faultless before his throne with exceeding great joy. Isn't that amazing that our sovereign God is able to convince us, convicted of sin, save us by his amazing grace, and then keep us, keep us even until the end. Our God greatly blesses us and He gives us exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or even think. So how about you? How about you? Are you blessed by God? Are you saved by His amazing grace? Only you know that. Only you know if your faith is in Jesus Christ or not. Only you know if your life is changed and you are walking according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. How much are we blessed? How much does God bless us in this verse? Verse three, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who have blessed us with all that we are. spiritual blessings, all spiritual blessings. Is this telling us that we've got some blessings, that we've got most of the blessings that we can have, the vast majority of blessings? All, all spiritual blessings, all spiritual blessings. This word, all, means totally, it means every kind, it means whole, all spiritual blessings, everything that God has to offer to us, we have according to His abundant riches in Christ Jesus. We have full access to all the riches and all the blessings of God, all that our Savior has supplied for us in Christ. Why don't you feel like you've got all the blessings of God? Well, because you have not, because you ask not. Ask and thou shalt receive. Ask and thou shalt receive. Ask for the blessings of God if you are a Christian. If you're not a Christian, Ask God to save you. Call out and say, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner, and receive these amazing blessings of God. We don't deserve them. We don't deserve the blessings of God. Pentecostals, I don't know if you come from Pentecostal or maybe charismatic background, they believe in a thing called the second blessing, the second blessing. Blessing. Now there was a famous Northern Irish preacher called Ian Paisley. He was very loud. If he was here, you'd have to put some earplugs in. Very, very loud preacher. He wouldn't need a microphone. And he said one day, I don't know about the second blessing. I find it hard enough to come to terms with the first blessing. Reminder, second blessing, if you are a Christian, Here today, you have the first blessing, the second blessing, the hundredth blessing, the thousandth blessing. In fact, you have all spiritual blessings, all spiritual blessings. We don't need a second blessing because in Christ, we already have all spiritual blessings. He was blessed with all spiritual blessings. We have pardoned for our sins. Our sins have been pardoned. Our sins have been forgiven. We are justified before God, which means just if I'd never sinned. We stand before God. justified, never sinned, pardoned by God, forgiven by God. What an amazing position to stand in before God with all spiritual blessings. We have love, we have joy, we have peace, we have the grace of God, we have the mercy of God, we have the hope of eternal life, we have Contentment, are you contented as a Christian? You should be living a contented Christian life because of all the spiritual blessings of God and more, much, much more. So how about you? How about you? Have you realized how much blessing you actually have in Christ Jesus? Do you know that you are abundantly blessed? Even when you don't feel blessed, you are abundantly blessed. So we know what it's about. It is about God. Blessed be God. We know who God blesses. He blesses us. We know how much. He blesses us with all spiritual blessings. As I say, what type? Spiritual blessings. What does that mean in this day and age? In this day and age, when you have a lot of preachers on the internet and on a God channel or whatever it is, that means you'll have a better car. It means you'll have a better job. It means you'll have a lot more money. That's what it means to them when they're talking about their health, and the wealth gospel, that you will be healthy and you will be wealthy. And it is a lack of faith to be unhealthy. Well, the trouble is they die. All these health and wealth preachers die and they all die of something. And it's not, they're not going to die of being healthy. I'll tell you that they will die of being unhealthy because they are in the flesh, and in this flesh dwells no good thing, and there's going to come a point when the flesh returns to the dust from whence it came, and the spirit returns to the Lord who gave it, as we read in Ecclesiastes. And they are all going to pass out of this world, no matter how much healing they believe in, no matter how much health that they believe in, this is all spiritual Blessings. Do you know they're on some of the channels with the televangelists on? They sell things like green handkerchiefs. You can buy a green handkerchief and you can rub it on your gout or on your arthritis. And apparently they tell us it will heal us. They now have healing sprays. You can buy a spray of them for a decent-sized donation that will heal you. That's not what spiritual blessings are. Spiritual blessings are completely different from this. It's a word, pneumoketos, and it means the holy spirits. gifts, it is the Spirit's blessings, it is not carnal, it is spiritual. So we receive the Holy Spirit at the moment that we are converted, the moment our faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have the Holy Spirit as the seal of redemption against that day of redemption. It is the seal of God upon us and he dispenses everything that we need. We are rich beyond all imagination. Let me tell you in some of these verses the riches that we have in God. Verse 2, grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 3 there tells us that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings. Verse 4, according to He has chosen us And it says that we should be holy without blame in love. God has made us blameless. Isn't that amazing? And we have the love of God upon us, having predestinated us onto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, we read in verse five. predestinated us, chosen us, predestined our path that we might be saved and adopted. We have been the adopted children of God. My brother, younger brother, is not a Christian. And he said to me, but Eddie, We are all the children of God, aren't we? I only got the shock of his life when I said, no, you're not a child of God, you are of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father you will do. In fact, you do do, because I know you and I've known you all my life. The lust of your father you do do, Dave, because he is not adopted into the family of God. If we were all the children of God by birth, why would we have to be adopted? You don't have to adopt your own children. We are the children of God by adoption, adopted children of God by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. Verse 6, He has made us accepted in "'The Beloved, you are not accepted. "'You were the enemy of God and an enmity with God, "'and now you are accepted in the Beloved,' says, "'in whom we have redemption through his blood, "'the forgiveness of sins, "'according to the riches of his grace,' they say, "'wherein he has abounded towards us "'in all wisdom and prudence, "'having made known unto us the mystery of his will.'" The Bible is a spiritually discerned book. The natural man cannot understand the things of God. It's impossible for an unconverted person to actually understand the Bible in a spiritual way. But God has abounded towards us and has made known unto us the mystery of his will. We can understand the scriptures. We know the scriptures because God has opened the scriptures up to us and made known unto us the mystery of his will. Verse 11 says, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, an inheritance. It's amazing, isn't it? Absolutely amazing that we have an inheritance with God. Flipping us after one, verse 19 tells us that we have the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ. Amazing, that's what Paul calls it. Sometimes, We want things in our Christian life that we already have. We want more love and joy and peace and longsuffering and meekness. We already have these things in Christ Jesus. Through the Spirit we have all spiritual blessings. There was a man who lived in Texas one day and he owned a big piece of land. In Texas, true story this, he sold the piece of land because there was some gold being found up in Alaska. So he went up there and he started digging and panning for gold and he managed to find enough gold to have quite a comfortable living. But the fields that he sold, they found oil in the fields and the people who bought it become billionaires. He already had what he went looking for. He was already rich. He was sitting on riches and didn't even know it because of a lack of contentment. And that's how we can sometimes be in our Christian life. We can be discontented with the things that God has given to us. But God has supplied all our spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. So how about you? Do you realize that you are spiritually blessed? Do you make the most of all your spiritual blessings in Christ? If there are some you think, well, I haven't got this blessing or that blessing, as I say, have you asked? Ask and thou shalt receive. Where are these blessings? Where are these blessings laid up for us? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in heavenly places. Why? Because we, or should I say if you are a Christian, us, it is us who are seated in heavenly places already. We are citizens of heaven. Citizens of heaven, the Bible tells us, Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 19, fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. Philippians chapter 3 and verse 20 tells us our conversation is in heaven our country is in heaven so we are blessed in heavenly places you have dual nationality i don't know where you're from originally and you may have a dual nationality and you may be iranian And English, I am Scouselish and English, so I'm from Liverpool and I'm from England. I've got a dual nationality. Some of you may be Scottish and you may be British as well at the same time. I don't know where you're all from, but some people here will have a dual nationality. We know, if we're Christians, that this world is not our home. This is not my home. I don't love this country like I love heaven. No way. My treasure is laid up in heaven it is laid up in heaven i am a pilgrim and a sojourner in this foreign land like i'm a pilgrim and a sojourner here today in colchester i am a person who is just pilgriming here and then i am going away in a few days time back to liverpool and in this country and in this world I'm a pilgrim and so are you as a Christian. Your joy, your love should be looking forward to eternal glory with an exceedingly great gladness. Our place is in heaven. We live here for our love and our longing is for heaven. The Bible tells us, if ye then Be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ saith it, on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things upon the earth, for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ. in God. That is our real home and that's why we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. How do we get these blessings? Well, we must be walking according to the Spirit and not according to The flesh, if you are walking according to the Spirit, the Bible guarantees us you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. Walk according to the Spirit and you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. This is how we are blessed in God, by walking according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. Galatians 5, 16, walk in the Spirit. Verses 22 and 23 tells us the fruit of the Spirit if we are walking in the Spirit. So how about you? How's your walk? How is your walk? How is your citizenship? Are you a citizen of heaven by faith in Christ and Christ alone? Are you in Christ Jesus seated where he's seated in heavenly places with God, how's your citizenship? Where are you a citizen of? And how is this fruit in your life, the walk, are you producing in your life the fruit of the Spirit as the evidence that you are a believer? Let me just ask sixthly, sixthly, this has flown, hasn't it? It's my sixth point. Why give them to us? Why would God give us all spiritual blessings? Why would God possibly give that to us, sinners, rebels against God, who would not have God to rule over us before we were Christians, sinful men and women like us? Because it says at the end, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, Christ in Christ. If you are not in Christ, then you are in trouble. You really are. If you are not a Christian, then why not? Why are you not a Christian? It doesn't make any sense whatsoever. You're on a broad road that leads to destruction. You're heading towards hell and an eternal punishment and an eternal torment because of your sins. Jesus said in Luke 16 that the rich man opens up his eyes in hell, being in torment, in torment. The Bible tells us in the book of Revelation that the smoke of their torment will rise up before God day and night forever. Why are you not a Christian? If you are not a Christian, why are you not in Christ? Why is your faith and your trust not in Christ Jesus? For the Christian, as I say in verse four, it tells us that we were in Christ before the foundation of the world. The Christian is united to Christ. We are united to Christ Jesus. Christ is in me. The apostle Paul said, Christ in me, my hope of glory. Christ is in me, is Christ in you. And I am in Christ. It's like a ship that sinks in the sea. It is in the water and the water is in the ship. I am in Christ and Christ is in me and in you. If you are a Christian, 1 Corinthians 6, 17 tells us that we are of one spirit together with Christ where he is we are where Christ is we are Ephesians 2 6 what he does we do 1 John chapter 2 and verse 6 what he possesses we possess tells us that in verse 11 doesn't it that we have obtained an inheritance, and Romans chapter 8 verses 16 and 17 tells us that we are joint heirs with Christ. Can you imagine that? Joint heirs with Christ, a God who sings over us, a God who blesses us with all spiritual blessing, his elect, his loved people, the apple of his eye, and joint heirs with his son, his only begotten beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are joint is with Christ. It's not earned. We can't earn it. The Bible tells us, by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, and not of works, lest any man should boast. If you could earn any of it, if you could contribute just 0.000001, bit of it, then you get a bit of the glory and God will not share his glory with another. It is not of works or we would boast and that's the problem with some ideas of theology like Arminian theology and thinking, oh they just think God needs a bunk up. I don't know if that's a saying nowadays but in Liverpool it means like if you're climbing a wall and you just can't make it, your mate will just give you the bunk up. People think God needs a bunk up that he's always done most of it, he's done almost all of it, but there's just this little tiny bit that I have to do because of my amazing sovereign free will, I am able then to do something myself. We cannot do nothing because we are dead in trespasses and sins. Ephesians 2 verse 1, and you hath he quickened who were dead in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." That was us, the children of disobedience, among whom we had our conversation in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we're by nature, by nature, the children of wrath. even as others." That was us. That was us, the children of wrath, dead in trespassing and sins. A dead body can't give anyone a bunk up. God doesn't need us. He doesn't need any help from us. God is absolutely self-sufficient. But God, because He is a gracious, loving, and merciful God, has chosen some unto salvation in Christ. Jesus, this is the only reason that we can be saved because of Christ, because of his finished work on the cross. When Jesus cried out, it is finished, then that phrase, as most of you probably know, means paid in full. The debt was paid in full, not by me, but by Christ. 2,000 years ago, when all of my sins with future sins, every one of them. So don't just think you get saved and your past sins are forgiven. All of your sins are forgiven, past, present, future, because all your sin was future sin when Christ died and he didn't need our help to pay that debt. We don't have to earn it. We don't have to work for it. It is bought for us by the Lord Jesus Christ. So how about you? How about you? Do you know the wonders of God's grace? You sang, didn't you? I know not why God's wondrous grace to me has been made known. Has this wonderful grace been made known to you? Are you able to sing of the amazing grace of our sovereign God? Let me just finish in conclusion and say this. Is this, happen to you. Does this remind you, if you are a Christian and as a church, of the amazing blessing that God has been to you and the amazing blessing that God is to you and why you should praise God at all times for the amazing blessings that God has given you. And if you're saved, then you have the Spirit of Christ. So walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh and use those blessings that you have in Christ Jesus to glorify God with all your members in all of your ways if you are unsaved then you may be materially rich. We've come down here and it seems to be a nice, affluent area. I don't know if you all live in this area, but it seems to be a nice, affluent area. The area that our church is in, the area that me and my wife live in, is not affluent. Everybody there is poor, but it doesn't matter whether you are rich. or poor, because if you are not a Christian, you are in poverty. And I pity the person who has riches on earth, but doesn't know the pearl of great price, you don't know Christ. So you may be rich, you may be poor, spiritually, materially, you are poor, you are, you may be materially rich, but spiritually poor if you are not saved, wretched, blind, lost. and dead, and unless God opens your eyes by his amazing grace, you'll continue in that condition, and you won't care, you won't be bothered. You'll be like, who do you think he is, telling me that my riches are not gonna help me? Do you know how hard I have worked for all the possessions that I have got? Don't tell me that God doesn't look after people who look after themselves. Well, let me tell you now, if you are not saved, if you are not in Christ, you are lost. And one day you will stand naked and ashamed before God. Naked and ashamed. You'll have nothing. You won't have anything that you've worked for. It'll all be gone. It'll be belonging to somebody else. Stranger will live in your house. Somebody else will own all of your possessions and you will stand naked and ashamed before God in your sins, but Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. So if you recognize your sin, if you feel weary and heavy laden in your sin, Christ says, come unto me, come unto me if you are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The Bible tells us, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And if you ask, you shall be saved. Receive, absolutely guaranteed. So if you feel the weight and the burden of your sin, call upon God. He is merciful to those who call upon Him. He is merciful. He is a God who forgives us of our sins. We know that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And He will forgive us, He will bless us, He will adopt us into His family, and He will make us rich beyond all measure. That is why the Apostle Paul said, Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ. Amen.