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107 lines
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<title>Blue Letter Bible - Chuck Smith Sermon Notes</title>
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Passage = 'Ephesians 1:3a';
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<div class="SSN_rnum">I. BLESSED BE THE GOD AND FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">A. One thing that Jesus constantly declared was that God was His Father.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. This was also asserted in the prophesies of the Messiah.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">a. For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">b. <a onClick="return mV('Psa',2,7);">Ps. 2:7</a> I will declare the decree, the Lord hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">c. God promised David,</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('2Sa',7,12);">2SA 7:12</a> And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('2Sa',7,13);">2SA 7:13</a> He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('2Sa',7,14);">2SA 7:14</a> I will be his father, and he shall be my son.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. Jesus said, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish. And again, "For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world."</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">3. The gospel of John is full of these assertions.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">B. As we shared last week, it is too bad that there are not punctuation marks so that it would read The God and Father of our Lord, Jesus the Messiah.</div>
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<div class="SSN_rnum">II. "WHO HAS BLESSED US WITH ALL SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS IN HEAVENLY PLACES."</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">A. Note that he is not saying physical blessings.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. There has been an evil heresy that has been popularized by many of the T.V. evangelists that as Christians we should all be rich and driving expensive cars and living in luxury.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">a. This doctrine was not known by the disciples who were challenged to leave all to follow Jesus.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">b. In <a onClick="return mV('Luk',6,1);">Luke 6</a> in speaking to His disciples Jesus said, "Blessed be ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven." In that same chapter He said, "Woe unto you who are rich, for you have received your consolation."</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">c. Paul said,</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('Phl',4,11);">PHI 4:11</a> Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, [therewith] to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">d. Solomon observed,</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('Ecc',5,12);">ECC 5:12</a> The sleep of a labouring man [is] sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">e. Paul told Timothy</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('1Ti',6,9);">1TI 6:9</a> But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and [into] many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('1Ti',6,17);">1TI 6:17</a> Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. If a person is more interested in the material blessings than the spiritual blessings, he is carnally minded which is to be at enmity with God.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">B. The blessings of the child of God are in the heavenly places.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. Here in chapter one Paul speaks of the greatness of His power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. In 2:6 as he speaks of the grace of God by which we are saved, he speaks how that he has raised us up together, and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.</div>
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<div class="SSN_rnum">III. THESE BLESSINGS COME TO US IN CHRIST.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">A. As we were teaching in verse one this phrase in Christ is one of the dominate themes in the epistle.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. All the blessings that God has for us, are given in, by, and through Jesus Christ.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. Jesus said to His disciples, "Apart from Me, you can do nothing." It is also true that apart from Him we have nothing.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">3. Every blessing that God bestows upon you comes to you through Jesus.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">a. And this is the record, God has given unto us eternal life, and this life is in the Son. He that hath the Son hath life.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level5">1. You say, I need more love. You need more of Jesus.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level5">2. You say, I need peace. You need Jesus.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level5">3. You say, I need more patience. You need more of Jesus.</div>
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<div class="SSN_rnum">IV. IN VERSE 4 PAUL BEGINS TO LIST THE SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">A. If you were to list your blessings in order of appreciation, what would you put at the top of your list?</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. What would you consider to be the greatest blessing that God has bestowed upon you?</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. When you think of God's blessings, what do you think of first?</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">B. It is interesting to me what Paul put at the top of his list. According as He has chosen us in Him.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. Note that you were chosen in Him.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. Choice is a wonderful gift of God for which we give thanks.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">C. This is a part of being created in the image of God. God is a self determinate being, so he gave you the power of choice so that you also may be self determinate.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. By self determinate we mean that you have the capacity to choose your own destiny.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. You can choose your own master.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">a. The people in Joshua's day were challenged to choose whom they would serve.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">b. Elijah also challenged the people to choose, he said, "If Jehovah is God then follow Him, and if Baal be god then follow him."</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">D. For choice to be valid there must be something to choose.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. Hence the necessity for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. If there is nothing to choose, then the power of choice is invalidated.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">E. For choice to be meaningful, the alternative must be attractive.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. Hence the tree in the garden was very desirable. It was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and desired to make one wise.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. The world is very attractive to the flesh, and offers great pleasures for a time.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">F. For choice to be valid, there must be an honoring of the choice.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. If every time you choose something your choice was overridden, then you really do not have a choice.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. God will not override your choice. He will seek to influence your choice, but He will not override it.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">G. We appreciate and are thankful for this capacity of choice.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. I do not believe that I would care to live in a society where marriage was by arrangement.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. I am thankful that I had a choice in the matter.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">F. Some however resent that God also has the capacity of choice.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. When they read that we were chosen in Him they get upset, and accuse God of not being fair in choosing.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. If you want to choose who you are going to spend the rest of your life with, don't you think that God ought to have some choice of who He is going to spend eternity with?</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">3. The interesting thing to me is when God made His choice. "Before the foundation of the world."</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">a. In Revelation we read of those whose names were not written in the Lamb's book of life from the foundation of the world.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">G. How can God be fair if He chooses us before the foundation of the world?</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. Here is one of those absurdities where we find men challenging the fairness of the eternal God.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. God is God, and as God is omniscient, by which we mean that he knows everything.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">a. If God knows everything, it means that He cannot learn anything.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">b. If He could learn something, it means then that He did not know everything.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">c. If God is to ever know who is to be saved, then He has always known who was going to be saved.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">d. It is on the basis of this foreknowledge that His choices were made.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">e. He knew that we were going to respond to His loving overtures to us.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">3. How do I respond to the fact that I was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world? With praise and rejoicing.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">a. Does this then mean that I don't really have to choose to follow Jesus. Not at all.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">b. God's choice was made on the foreknowledge of my choice of loving Him.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">c. Does this mean that if I wasn't chosen, then I can't come to Jesus Christ? No, the door is open for all to come. The promise is that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Because God knows everything, He has always known who were going to call upon Him.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">d. You say, "But I don't understand it." Join the crowd of mortal man. None of us understand it.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">e. Though I do not understand it, I accept it and rejoice in the knowledge that I was chosen in Him.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">f. You ask, "How can I know if God chose me or not?" By accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the moment you do, you will discover that you were chosen by Him. As with the disciples you will hear His words, "You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained that you should be My disciples, and that you should bring forth fruit." </div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">g. You say, but I am not interested in surrendering my life to Jesus Christ, I wish to do my own thing. Then perhaps you were not chosen by Him. You then object again saying, "But that isn't fair." Of course it is fair, it is one of the fairest things I have ever observed or known.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">h. God has allowed you to choose your own destiny. How fair can He be?</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">i. He has given you the capacity of choice, He has provided something to choose, and He will respect the choice you make, even if it is the wrong choice. Nothing could be more fair than that.</div>
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