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Eph 1:9  "having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself," "having made known ....." Let's not forget that AFTER something is "made known" to the elect, BY God, it's NOT a mystery anymore. What WAS hidden is NOW revealed and NO LONGER a mystery. I spent 35 minutes or so in my introduction last week on mysticism while promoting means and exposing the fatalists' mystery-doctrine. WHY? What's the big deal? It contributes to keeping the mystery a mystery by saying God Almighty doesn't do what He actually says He has done, is doing, and will do in accomplishing GETTING the KNOWLEDGE OF who He IS and what He has done to the minds of the ones He has loved and elected. It becomes UNNECESSARY; that is their point.

Grace Lavished in All Wisdom & Understanding (v.8b) A. Wisdom and understanding; these BOTH belong together. Wisdom: A God-given, deeper (NOT merely surface-level), comprehending grasp of God's eternal plan. Understanding: A God-given insight (by God's revelation) that perceives the meaning and implications of God's will and purpose for His people. BOTH are spiritual blessings (gifts), by the abundance of grace and through God's word, operating by faith, as a means to have them. *Utility of the CONCEPTS: It is understanding that leads to right judgment for use for action in God's doctrinal and practical (practice) instruction. B. These are gifts of lavished grace. God does not leave His redeemed, regenerated people whom He gave faith to remain in darkness. Out of the same RICHES & abundance of GRACE through His blood, He forgave us. He has also given us the capacity to know His purpose (a spiritual blessing in itself).

Eph 1:8  "which He caused to abound toward us in all wisdom and understanding;"    Last week: "He caused to" "abound" (super in a more than enough way) "toward us"   8b) "....... in all wisdom and understanding."  sophia sof-ee'-ah We know the Greeks had an appeal to this word (ancient Greek philosophy. Paul combats that in His teaching with distinctions between God's wisdom and man's wisdom.

Eph 1:7  "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace,  Eph 1:8  which He caused to abound toward us in all wisdom and understanding;" "abound" = superabound (in quantity or quality), be in excess, to cause to superabound or excel: have more abundance, be more abundant, enough to spare, exceed, increase, be left, remain over and above.   "toward" is the preposition (for distinctions of words) meaning where or the direction of what he's getting ready to tell us came our way.

Eph 1:7  "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace,"

Eph 1:7  "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace,"

Eph 1:7  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace,

Eph 1:5  "having predestined us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,"  Here we see an obvious past tense description: "having" "...predestinated.." = to limit or mark out beforehand; to design definitely beforehand, ordain beforehand. Comes from 2 other words: 1) "pro" = fore, in front of, prior 2) "horizo" = mark out, bound (horizon), to appoint, decree, declare, determine, limit, ordain. Destiny pre-decided. - When we speak of destiny: to something or somewhere. - In other words, to a desired end goal according to His purpose. As we've mentioned already, there are different PARTS of Salvation that stretch a broad span through eternity and time. We sometimes speak of people's eternal destiny being - appointed ahead of time (previously: eternally), or things - and events orchestrated by God's sovereign Providence (means to an end). You would be considered an ABSOLUTE Predestinarian if you believe ALL things without exception are predetermined by God. Some might use the term Full-Determinism.

Eph 1:4  according as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,    As we've said before, the love of God comes first. - God's people are foreknown (previously loved) "IN Christ" (Rom 8:39).   That love is based on the eternal sovereignty of God, as He set His affection on them for Christ's sake, or on behalf of Christ, because of Him.   This would strictly be, as it says in v. 9 of our text: "..according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,"   That's sovereignty, not conditioned on a previous act to be holy or just (justice satisfied).   Remember the basics of John 3:16 and/or 1 John 4:10?   1Jn 4:10  "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."    Some pervert God's character, saying God MUST be "enabled" to love by already seeing them as righteous.   As we've pointed out many times before, some people mis-interpret the phrase: "according as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,..."   People do a dishonor to the doctrine of election by ignoring HOW God chose His people.   When I say HOW (the WAY), I mean: The manner in, by, through, or with WHICH He chose. - That's what the "in Him" means.   This would stress the fact that this election is NOT conditional in regard to us. - It is an UNconditional election.   A full-blown way of ensuring we understand it as unconditional is emphasizing the Supralapsarian way God has done it.   Before any were born, without any future view of any good or evil anyone would do (Rom 9:11). - God chose out of a PRE-fallen world of people.

Let's not miss something here. - Paul, under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, is laying out some foundational Salvation doctrine in clear terms. - Some of these doctrinal and theological principles were already present in Old Testament writings, but not as clear as here. - Christ and some of the other Apostles had laid some doctrine down with regard to Salvation by God's free and sovereign grace. - This is just another important layer of distribution of it by inspiration.   Do you see that Salvation ITSELF is distributed down to God's people in the form of what we saw last week was called "spiritual blessings?" BUT, let's not forget the importance of the distribution of the TEACHING of it in the form of DOCTRINE and THEOLOGY from God to us as part of the spiritual blessing to KNOW IT (HIM)!   Eph 1:8  "which He caused to abound toward us in all wisdom and understanding;  Eph 1:9  having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,"    So, you have at least 2 things going on: - 1) Salvation itself and 2) the revelation of that Salvation to our minds through the means of knowledge and understanding.   Here we see the development of DOCTRINE (teaching) and the THEOLOGY (WHO God IS doing the purposing, the work, and the saving) - That doctrine and theology are foundational to the Gospel itself.   Here is something we teach in our ministry here that is surprisingly controversial. - We teach (a biblical principle) that God not only saves according to His purpose, His effectual work of sovereign grace, without fail, and without our contributions or conditions AND WE ARE MADE TO KNOW IT!

Verse 3 starts a long continuing sentence that goes to the end of verse 14. We should take note that verses 3-14 deal with multiple parts of salvation that involve the "spiritual blessings" noted from all 3 Persons of the Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.   "... blessed us (has blessed us) .." - Past tense verb. Who is the Apostle Paul writing to? - To "the saints who are the faithful IN Christ Jesus."   We know these blessings are Trinitarian blessings that stretch from eternity past, into the present, and into eternity future (from our human, finite perspective in the way we use language.   The strength of the context here and all other places in Scripture bares the fact that these things cannot be evidenced in those who have not been given faith yet (elect) or at all, ever (non-elect).   So, since Paul is writing to believers, we can see why he can use the past tense. We can also deal with certain parts of Salvation in the "Already, not yet" aspect of Salvation. There's plenty to cover there.   Let's look at how this word "blessed" is used in other places: Gal 3:6  "Even as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.  Gal 3:7  Therefore know that those of faith, these are the sons of Abraham.  Gal 3:8  And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the nations through faith, preached the gospel before to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all nations be blessed."  Gal 3:9  So then those of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham."

Eph 1:3  "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies (heavenly realms NET, "heavenly places") in ("with" LITV) Christ;"   v-3 "Blessed" = praised as adorable, worthy of praise.   This word is only used 8 times in the Bible and refers ONLY to God in its use (never man, but mostly God the Father).   This word comes from another word that means = to speak well of, to thank or to praise (eulogize).   Note the distinct expression of the Father comparing v2 with v3:   Eph 1:2  Grace be to you, and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.  Eph 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,   So, notice the specific Person of the Godhead, "God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.."   I want to set the stage in this verse-by-verse study of Ephesians by being reminded of the doctrine of God in using some Trinitarian principles taught in His word.   The Bible speaks of God as an eternal Trinity of Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.   ONE GOD in 3 distinct Persons. (NOT 3 Gods). * Monotheism (1 God), NOT Polytheism (multiple gods -3).   The BEING of God is ONE (UNIFIED Being).

Eph 1:1  "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus.  Eph 1:2  Grace be to you, and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ."

A verse-by-verse study of the letter to the Ephesians.