Well, good morning to everyone.

Thank you, Mark, for leading us again.

This morning, we're going to begin a study of a new book, the book of Ephesians.

Kind of goes hand in hand with Colossians.

We just finished our study of the book of Colossians.

And really, what a rich study this has been, for me, at least, hopefully for you.

In Colossians, the focus was on Jesus, who Jesus is, what he's accomplished, his death, burial, and resurrection.

That epistle majored on the head of the church.

Jesus is the head of the body, the church.

And in our study in Ephesians, we will see that this epistle majors on the body, the church itself.

Who the church is, what we have in Christ, and God's eternal plan in Christ for the body of believers in this new covenant time.

Well, when we study the Bible, really any text, any letter or book, it's important that we observe the internal evidence of that text, starting with the words.

When we start with the words, we begin to set them in their context.

And our goal or our desire is to understand what God is saying, to rightly interpret his words, and then to make application of those words where appropriate in our lives.

So our desire is not to support any idea or system that we have, but rather to form our system of thinking based on what God says in his word, and then to hold loosely to that structure of understanding as we continue to study his word and put all the pieces together.

So the words in their context is a vital place to start in our studies.

And along with this, it's important to understand the audience to whom the author writes and why he is writing, what his intent is.

Now, there are a couple of things that become apparent as we just observe as we read through this letter to the Ephesians.

One is that it is about the body, the church, one new man, Jew and Gentile, united in the body of Christ.

The other clear message we see in Paul's words is that he wants us to understand this body, each member as being in Christ.

And this is the main truth in the mind of Paul as we see these words, this concept taught again and again throughout this letter.

In fact, he uses this phrase in Christ, or in him, 10 times in the first 14 verses, setting the tone and message for this epistle.

And Paul's intent, which becomes evident in this first chapter, particularly in the first 14 verses, is to encourage the believer, to give assurance to the one who believes Jesus as being part of his body, his church.

And he wants us to know all that we are and have in Christ.

And it's important to keep this intent in mind and the fact that Paul is writing to believers to encourage them and give them assurance, to have each one of us come to more fully understand and apprehend for ourselves what it means that we are in Christ and therefore live in light of these truths.

One of the key points that Paul develops in his intent for the believer to understand what it means to be in Christ, part of the body, the church, is that God is doing something entirely new in this time in the church.

There's been a major change, a new development in the unfolding of the salvation plan of God and his eternal purpose to bring all things to consummation in Christ.

And this is a result of the institution of the new covenant in Christ's blood, what he accomplished at the cross, the bringing in of the new covenant promises now effective in the church.

We read of these things in prophecies of the Old Testament, such as Ezekiel 36, Jeremiah 31, and promises given to Israel, a covenant made with Israel.

But we see in the New Testament that the church has become partaker of these new covenant blessings and a sort of pre-fillment of these promises.

Hebrews 8 makes this clear, as does Romans 11 in Paul's illustration of the grafting in of the Gentiles.

He says it is the root that supports us, the new covenant promises made to the fathers.

And we now experience these things, the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit, regeneration, the new birth, a new heart, a new spirit, those things spoken of concerning the new covenant time.

But here's what I want you to see and what Paul spends so much time on in the letter we're about to study for the express purpose of our assurance and understanding of what it means to be in Christ.

Even within the new covenant framework, which Jesus brought into effect at the cross in his blood, even within that framework of the new covenant umbrella, the church is something unique, something entirely new, never before revealed or understood.

And this body has a specific purpose and place in God's salvation plan as the body and bride of Christ.

He is our head, and we are his body.

And this body idea is unique in salvation past and future.

Paul wants us to understand that God is doing something new here in this time, and he wants us to know and believe what God is telling us about what it means to be in Christ, what it means to be placed into the body, the church, and what God has done in us in regeneration and how that he intends that we live this new life out.

All of this is new.

Have you ever thought about this, the idea, the whole concept, and all the truths that surround it?

I was thinking about this as we were singing hymns this morning with all of these great truths.

But all these truths, everything that surrounds a being in Christ is something that never before existed.

Those who believed in the Old Testament were not in Christ.

The people of God in the Old Covenant, as we will see in chapter 2, were related to God through the law, and one was either outside of the law covenant or part of it.

They were Jew or they were Gentile.

And to be a Jew under the law covenant did not mean that you were saved, didn't mean you were justified.

Most of the people of Israel did not believe, were not saved.

The way that Israel related to God was all external in the law covenant.

God's dwelling place was in the tabernacle.

And there were washings and cleansings and ceremonies without end and sacrifices and religious rites and rituals, all these things so that sinful men could even approach a holy God.

And these were pictures.

They were foreshadowings of what was to come in Christ.

But this reality of being in Christ did not exist.

I want you to see this contrast, because contrast is the key, as opposed to continuity.

The new covenant is a contrast with the old.

Something major happened at the cross.

It is a dividing line.

Hebrews 8 and 2 Corinthians 3 and so many passages tell us that the law covenant was done away in the coming of Christ, in the institution of the new.

The book of Hebrews is written to explain this very truth.

Jesus is mediator of a better covenant built on better promises, a different covenant.

So there's a line of distinction, a major development in God's salvation plan that is the body, the church, those who are in Christ, and all that this means.

This is really the heart of this book.

Chapters 2 and 3 are all about this.

He wants us to know and understand these things so that we might more fully grasp what it means to be in Christ.

In the first three chapters, we're going to see all that it means to be in Christ, the great truths of our salvation.

And then in the last three chapters, Paul exhorts us to live in light of these truths, to live out who we are, to walk in equal weight outwardly with who we are inwardly, that is to live a life worthy of our calling.

This is the structure of the book, and God's way is not law.

God's way is not rite or ritual ceremony or any other external thing.

God's way is based in the internal change, the recreation, regeneration, and the supply of His power in and through us as the Spirit imparts strength to our inner man, as Jesus settles down and is at home, is fully functional out through us, and God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think.

And why?

For His glory, where?

In the church.

Something new, something profound, something major has happened in the coming of the new covenant in the establishment of this body, Jew and Gentile one in the church, through spirit baptism into this body and the very power and life and nature of God in us.

Something new has happened in the church, and Paul wants you to know and understand what it means to be in Christ.

Let's look at our text, Ephesians 1.1.

Just to read for purposes of introduction, I pray to you, Paul and Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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, 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." Tremendous words of confidence for the one who believes Jesus.

So we have four points on our outline this morning.

First, every spiritual blessing.

Second, Jew and Gentile, one in Christ.

Third, the church, the body.

And fourth, new men, new life.

So we're just gonna kind of overview the book as we begin.

First in our text we see every spiritual blessing.

And if you look at verse one, we see a very important detail.

It says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus.

He's talking about the same people here.

The saints are the faithful ones.

Paul's writing to the believers, the faithful in Christ Jesus.

And what he's going to say, this is important, what he's going to say is for believers.

This is not concerning justification or how a man is saved.

That's not the intent of Paul here.

He's writing to those who have been saved to encourage them with the truths of this salvation that they already possess in Christ.

And he's writing to them about grace.

He's writing about peace and every spiritual blessing that is ours in the heavenly places in Christ.

He says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul is blessing God.

The word here is eulogizing.

Like someone dies, you go and say nice things about them, right?

Well, here Paul is speaking well of God.

He's blessing God.

Why?

Because of what God has done, what he has accomplished in Christ, in us, and what God has given to us in every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

And Paul's going to expound those blessings in the following verses.

He begins to exalt God, to speak well of him, to praise him in verse three.

And it's interesting that he doesn't stop until verse 14.

It's all one sentence, 202 words in the Greek that Paul just rolls out in speaking well of praising God.

Listen to Weiss' comments here.

He says, when we bless God, we praise him and speak well of him.

When he blesses us, it is not that he speaks us good, but he does us good.

Our blessing is in word, his is in deed.

He confers benefits upon us.

Expositor says, in word and thought, we bless God because in deed and positive effect, he blesses us.

To us refers to Paul and the Ephesian saints and extends to all the saints down through the ages.

The term spiritual blessing refers to the Holy Spirit as the source.

We might generally think of that as spiritual versus the body or earthly.

But what it's talking about is that the Holy Spirit is the source of the blessing.

Vincent says another leading word, spirit and spiritual, occurs 13 times.

And Paul emphasizes in this epistle the work of the divine spirit upon the human spirit, not spiritual as distinguished from bodily, but proceeding from the Holy Spirit.

So spiritual blessings are blessings from the Holy Spirit, and it says they are in the heavens.

This is interesting because it appears that Paul speaks of heaven as a location of these blessings.

Expositor says it's not merely that the blessings with which God blessed us are blessings having their origin in heaven.

But that they are blessings which have their seat where God himself is and where Christ reigns.

It is that we saints while still in the body on the earth are enjoying some of the blessings which we will enjoy in heaven.

So we kind of see this pattern throughout the New Testament that we're seated in the heavenlies with Christ, that our citizenship is in heaven.

Our blessings here, he says, are in heaven.

The point here is that we have all spiritual blessings in Christ from God by his grace for his purpose according to his plan and order by his spirit in heaven.

And in the rest of chapter one, we'll see Paul expound these blessings that are ours in Christ.

Well, as we introduce this book this morning and look ahead to what we're going to see, I want you to look next at Jew and Gentile in one body, chapter two at verse 11.

Ephesians 2.11, he says, "...therefore remember that you once Gentiles in the flesh, who were called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands," he's talking about Jews and Gentiles here, "...that at that time before you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation.

Having abolished in his flesh the enmity that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in himself one new man from the two, thus making peace.

And that he might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.

And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near.

For through him we both have access by one spirit to the Father.

Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

In the old covenant time, Jew and Gentile were separated by the law covenant.

Only those who were under the law covenant had any relationship to Jehovah.

Those outside of the law were strangers, foreigners, without God, having no hope.

The covenant was entered through circumcision, Jews were Jews by birth and circumcised the eighth day.

If a Gentile wanted to enter the covenant with God, what did he have to do?

He had to convert to Judaism, he had to be circumcised, he had to come under the law.

So we see in Paul's words in Ephesians 2 that before, Gentiles were outside of all these blessings, had no relationship to God, were without hope in the world, and it was the law that separated Jew from Gentile.

And Jesus is going to remove that separation, that impediment to unity at the cross.

Now remember, being under the law covenant did not mean you were saved.

Personal salvation justification has always been by grace through faith in the revelation of God.

Most of Israel was not personally justified, but they were all under the law covenant.

So we see that in the old covenant time, God's dwelling place was external to the people in the tabernacle.

But now, he says, but now in Christ Jesus, in the new covenant, there's no longer Jew or Gentile, but there's one new man in Christ.

So now man is either in Adam, as he is born naturally, all of us born in Adam, or he's born again spiritually by grace through faith in Jesus alone and he's placed into Christ.

And everyone who's part of this new covenant blessing who's in Christ, who's part of the body of Christ, is by definition a believer and saved.

And we see in chapter 2 that God is building the church.

He's building the church through each individual believer, regenerated on the inside, recreated it as a corporate body, the body of Christ.

The church is the dwelling place of God.

God indwells each believer.

The Holy Spirit has come and indwells us permanently, and Christ now lives in us.

So the fact that the church is something entirely new, where the work of God is internal in the new birth, and the old man in Adam is crucified, he dies and is buried, and he's raised a new man to new life with Christ, given a new heart and a new spirit, dead to sin, dead to law, released from the fear of death, the truth that God is doing something entirely new here demands, pay attention now, demands that there's a new way of living for the one in Christ.

The fact that he's doing something entirely new demands that there's a new way of life or living.

Under the old covenant, the faithful were to participate in a myriad of outward ceremonies, sacrifices, feast days, lived under endless laws and restrictions.

But under the new covenant, God has made a new and better way for us to live, under grace, with his life and power working in and through us to produce holiness.

And that's what Paul will get to in Ephesians 3, how it is that God intends we should now live in a way that manifests his transforming work in us through Christ and outwardly brings glory to God.

In chapter 3, Paul expands on this church as the body of Christ.

Look at chapter 3, verse 4.

He says, "...by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of his power.

To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord." So here again, we see a mystery.

That is not something that is mysterious, but something that has been hidden and is now being revealed.

Look at verse 9 again, "...to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church." The Greek word translated manifold means many-sided, multi-collared, intricate, diverse.

This manifold wisdom speaks of the wisdom of God in his eternal and unfolding salvation plan culminating in the consummation of all things in Christ.

The church is the manifestation of this wisdom in the world and to the spiritual realm, this salvation which Peter says even the angels desire to look into.

They don't understand salvation, they're seeing it played out in men, on earth, in the church, and they have a desire to look intently, to try to understand it, to try to figure it out.

So it is now, as verse 10 says, now in the church age as set in contrast with before in the old covenant when these truths were not yet revealed.

And that especially is one of a new man in Christ and all that goes with being in Christ, Jew and Gentile in one body, the church.

This was never before made known by God but now in the church is made manifest.

This is a major point of this epistle as well.

So we're going to see in our study over the next several months every spiritual blessing, we're going to look at Jew and Gentile in one body, we're going to look at the church, the body of Christ, and finally we're going to see new men with new lives as we get to the application.

God has in the church age brought to pass His eternal plan in Christ as Jesus has accomplished this full salvation at the cross and His death, burial, and resurrection.

This salvation has been accomplished.

Those who believe Jesus are born again, they're regenerated, given new hearts and a new spirit, and God has come to make His dwelling place in us.

This new creation is manifest to the whole of creation now through the church and we know that these great truths will be fully made known at His coming in the glorious revealing of the sons of God.

The question before us now in this day, in time where we live, is why can I live a new life and how is it that God intends that I live this new life?

We've said there's a new thing being done here and this new thing demands a new way of living.

If we understand that God has done something entirely new in the church and that now we live under a new covenant economy, which is set in contrast to the old having replaced the law of covenant, then it is logical for us to understand that God has also brought to us a new and better way of life, of living that accomplishes His will and purpose and brings Him glory.

And the New Testament is centered on this very truth, particularly in the writings of Paul.

Let's look at Galatians 2 with me, Galatians 2 19.

Let's look at a few scriptures here that make this clear.

Galatians 2 19, Paul says, for I through the law died to the law in order that I might live to God.

I have been crucified with Christ, and it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.

Look at verse 1 of chapter 3, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth?

For whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified, this only I want to learn from you.

Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?

Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

Paul is teaching us that going back to a law way of living is spiritual insanity when we have so much more in Christ.

No longer do we live according to the external laws, standards, and ceremonies, but now we live by grace through faith alone in Jesus alone who lives in and through us, producing His life out through the members of our body to display His power and wisdom.

Romans 7, 5, for when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions were aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.

That was our condition.

But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve, now live in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

Pretty clear words.

Romans 8, 2 says, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

For what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh, God did.

By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin, He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law, love, might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Paul gives us abundantly clear teaching on this in 2 Corinthians 3, if you want to look at 2 Corinthians 3 verse 4, it's important the words that he uses here to think on this a little bit.

He says, we have such trust through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.

If you were in a religious system where you were going to partake in earning your righteousness to some degree, hand in hand with Jesus or however you want to frame that, then your sufficiency would have to be from your accomplishment of keeping that law.

Paul says there's none of that, there's none of that in this Christian life.

There's no ceremony, there's no sacrament, there's no law being kept, there's no earning, there's no suffering towards my salvation, there's none of that.

Our sufficiency is entirely from God by His grace.

Nothing is from ourselves.

And in verse 6 he says, you also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the law, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

In the new covenant we are not sufficient of ourselves to think of anything being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.

We live not by the law, not by the letter any longer, but we walk in the Spirit as we live by faith and trust in God.

This is the application section of the book of Ephesians.

After laying down all the indicatives, the truths of who we are, what we have in Christ, Paul moves in chapters 4 to 6 to exhorting us to live out who we are in God's new way, by the Spirit, by the life of Christ in us.

We are not to live as we used to live, he says, as the rest of the Gentiles, but we have put off that old man, we have put on that new man, and we are being renewed in the Spirit of our minds continually by the truth.

We will see that this new life, this new creation, the life of Christ in us is manifest in our relationships.

Everything is new in Him.

And finally, we will see that the new way and the new covenant as the new man is to put on Christ, the full armor of God.

When you look at that list, when you look at that passage, that is characterizations of our salvation, right, the helmet of salvation, the belt of truth, these are putting on Christ, these are being strong in the Lord, he says, in the power of His might so that we might stand.

We are to believe the truth, the truth of our salvation, that we might not be moved by lies, by errors, by false teaching. by doubts and fears and emotions and feelings that assail us.

We are to renew our minds to the truth, and we are to trust and believe Jesus and stand in the salvation that we have, living according to who we are.

Look with me at that passage in Ephesians 6 at verse 10.

Just think about these words in this way.

Ephesians 6 10, he says, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints." That's all Christ, that's all the salvation we have in Him, that's all faith, that's all reckoning, the truths that He's told us.

Nowhere in there is law or ceremony or suffering or asceticism or mysticism or any of that.

These are solid truths of our salvation, what is true of us in Christ and who He is, and it's His strength and power that accomplishes this new life.

So this is the new life as the new man, this is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

And Paul summarizes that, I just close with that verse again in Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ.

It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Know the truth, believe the truth, God will take care of the details.

Let's close in prayer.

Father, we're so thankful that You keep telling us the truth, that You keep showing us Jesus, that You tell us about our salvation in Him, and we just pray that You would help us to to know these things, to understand them, and to believe You, to trust You, depend on You, and know that our sufficiency is from You.

Thank You that You're our Father, that we are secure, that we have encouragement and assurance each day of life and for eternity in Christ.

It's in His name we pray.