Christmas 2 – January 3, 2021 – Eph. 1:3-14
“BLESSED BE GOD”
Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text is the Epistle Lesson just read, from Ephesians 1. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ:
- What God promised to Solomon, He has delivered to us – and more! God promised Solomon “a wise and discerning mind.” What He has given to us is knowledge of “the mystery of His will,” “His plan for the fullness of time,” and “every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus.”
- Yes, Solomon was also promised “riches and honor” and “length of days” if he persisted in his faith and piety. Sadly, Solomon did not in his latter years. But what God has delivered to us by “predestining us for His adoption” and providing us with an eternal “inheritance” far exceeds all of Solomon’s substantial “riches and honor.”
- In view of this great goodness of God the Apostle exclaims: “BLESSED BE GOD.” Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He is Fount and Source of every blessing! And all blessings flow through and because of our Lord Jesus Christ!
- Hopefully, we being today another full year of exclaiming the same: “BLESSED BE GOD.” We shall surely do so if we keep in mind just how richly God has blessed us! First:
I. We Have All The Blessings Of God’s Salvation In Christ Jesus
A. We Have Been Predestined And Chosen For Redemption And Forgiveness
Text: “Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.”
Text: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.”
B. That We Should Be His Adopted Children
Text: “He predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, to the praise of His glorious grace.”
C. That We Should Obtain An Eternal Inheritance From God Himself
Text: “In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him Who works all things according to the counsel of His will.”
D. That We Should Be Incorporated Into God’s Eternal Plan To Unite All Things
Text: “The mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.”
E. All Of This He Accomplished In Us And For Us By His Word And The Holy Spirit
Text: “In Him you also, when you heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.”
Statement: How much thanks and praise is owed to God for this abundance of His goodness and blessing poured out upon us! These are also blessings, the most important blessings, poured out upon Solomon and all of God’s people of old – although with the coming of Jesus and all that He did, there is a fuller revelation of God’s eternal plan! Still, the gracious salvation of God through His Messiah, His anointed One, was clearly revealed through all of human history, especially through the prophets! Sadly, this greatest blessedness was not appreciated by Solomon all of his days – for he ultimately made provision for the practice of the idolatry of his foreign wives!
Application: And sadly, this greatest blessedness has also been rejected by many of our friends, neighbors, and even family today! So it is important to see just how incredible God’s blessings are! Only in this way are we kept in the faith so that we also give thanks and praise to God every day and pronounce our blessing upon Him! The one thing that we should all learn from Solomon is that human wisdom, knowledge, and understanding does not insulate a person from falling away from God. And the fact that we have many well-educated people in our world today who have forsaken God should lead us to sober fear and caution!
Transition: And there is even more, in terms of wisdom, knowledge, and Divine blessedness that God has provided for us, for:
II. Along With Eternal Life And Salvation God Has Also Given Us Great Wisdom And Insight And Spiritual Blessedness
A. He Has Revealed To Us And Blessed Us To Know His Eternal Plans And Purposes
Text: “In love He predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will. . . . making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him. . . . having been predestined us according to the purpose of Him Who works all things according to the counsel of His will.”
B. He Has Sealed Us For This Blessed Destiny By The Holy Spirit Of God
Text: “You . . . were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.”
C. So That We Lack No Spiritual Blessing As We Wait For The Culmination Of This Age And Our Inheritance
Text: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Who has blessed us in Jesus Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places . . . He is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.”
D. In All Of This We Have Become “To The Praise Of His Glorious Grace”
Text: “To the praise of His glorious grace . . .according to the riches of His grace . . . so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory . . . to the praise of His glory.”
Statement: These are things that surely should have dominated Solomon’s thoughts – and should have been the absolute height and epitome of his substantial wisdom. Alas, he left go of these blessings! How else could he have succumbed to the pressure to allow idolatry in his house and in his nation, the people of God?
Now, there is a bit of further wisdom here – if we are able to bear it. Solomon’s life, including his gaffs and sins are revealed to us in Holy Scripture. Thankfully, our sins and mistakes are not part of the public record of Holy Scripture. We do not know with certainty if Solomon returned to God in repentance – but we think he did based on the ending to Ecclesiastes. If so then Solomon becomes one of the great and blazing examples of “His glorious grace . . . and “the riches of His grace.”
Application: And so are we – if we continue in repentance, and continue in the awareness of the magnificent blessings of God! We do not need to drift away to Solomon’s extent; indeed, we are warned throughout Scripture not to! So let us continue in “the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation,” so that having believed in Him,” we remain “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.”
Conclusion: We do not know all of the specifics of our future, or of how the year will progress. One year ago none of us would have anticipated what we got in 2020!
However, we do know that God will continue pouring out His great spiritual blessings upon us as we continue in His Word and His Will! And we do know that if we continue to see and acknowledge His blessings to us, then we will be constantly proclaiming “BLESSED BE GOD, THE GOD AND FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHIRST, WHO HAS BLESSED US WITH EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING IN CHRIST JESUS.”
Indeed, thanks and praise be to God. Amen.
Votum: And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.