God has blessed believers with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms through Christ, not merely daily mercies. The sermon emphasizes that many Christians fail to fully possess or enjoy these blessings, likening them to the Israelites who did not fully claim the promised land or the man who starved with a deed to oil-rich land around his neck. True spiritual-mindedness, as exemplified by Ephesians chapter one, leads to earthly good and enables one to bless others. The sermon explores three key blessings from the Father: being chosen before the foundation of the world, predestined for adoption as sons, and accepted in the Beloved, urging listeners to appreciate and live in the fullness of what God has provided.
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Turn to the book of Ephesians, the book of Ephesians, chapter one. This morning one of our brethren referred to, I believe Brother Balson, referred to our blessings in contrast to the mercies of God. Our brother, Mr. James Gunn, said he was talking to a man and said to him, How you've been getting along? And he said, Well, real well. He said, The Lord was real good to us this past winter.
And he said, How do you tell when the Lord's good to you? Well, he said, None of the children were sick, and I had steady work, and And we got along all right. Well, he said, if the children had gotten sick and you'd lost the job, would the Lord not been good to you? Well, he didn't want to say that, you know, and he's kind of confused. You wonder just how you figure this. And Mr. Gunn kindly explained to him that the Lord keeps that wicked man in the next block working and keeps his children well, too. These are the mercies that God sends on the just and on the unjust as he sends the rain.
God's always giving kindnesses. The Bible says God is good to all. Those are not blessings. Recently, in talking to a group of young people, I asked them to put down or to tell me so I could write down on the blackboard what they considered their greatest blessings. They gave me seventeen things, and one out of the seventeen was the blessing, and the others were daily mercies. They were thankful for friends, and they were thankful for home, and some boy said he was thankful for food, of course, and they got over quite a list of things like God does that much for the animals.
So I've been thinking since Brother Balson was talking about this, I'm always looking for an excuse to preach on the first chapter of Ephesians anyway. I love to turn to it, and I've been thinking about this a little bit. If God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly, the least we can do is to look over the blueprints, don't you think? So let's do that. Ephesians chapter one, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. This is not two kinds of believers. Some were saints and some were faithful, but these are statements made about all of the believers there at Ephesus.
Grace be to you in peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he goes right into a doxology. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, or perhaps a little more accurately, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessings, every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies, places as in italics. Some have called it the heavenly fear. We talk about the world of business.
And we talk about the world of music. These are certain spheres, certain realms. Some people are only interested in the world of education. Some people are only interested in Wall Street. They wouldn't see anything else as they went to New York. But the Lord wants his people to be interested in the heavenly sphere, in heavenly things. It's got to be kind of a smart remark now. I don't think it's funny at all, and I don't think it's true. But some people are so heavenly-minded, they're no earthly good. Now, that's perfectly ridiculous. You will never be too heavenly-minded.
And being heavenly-minded will not keep you from being any earthly good. That's the only way you can be any earthly good. It's only people who are heavenly-minded who are any earthly good. If you're going to be any blessing to the people about you, You've got to be living in and enjoying your spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. A rich man doesn't help anybody if he loses a combination to his faith or forgets how to sign his name to a check. A Christian isn't going to be much help to anybody if he isn't enjoying what he has himself. How are you going to pass any of these good things on to others if they aren't meaning anything to you? He has blessed us.
Notice that we're not told to ask for the blessings. I'm not going to complain any if somebody prays for the Lord to bless us. But it might be a good thing if we'd ask the Lord for grace enough to possess some of the blessings we already have. You have a great deal more than you know. You have a great deal more than you enjoy. There was an old Indian died down in Oklahoma a few years ago, starved to death. That's a sad way to die. He starved to death. And around his neck, they found a chain and on this a large locket. And in this locket, they found a letter from the Indian Commission in Washington.
And some of his friends remembered that they had heard him say that he got a letter from the Great White Father in Washington. He was very proud of that, but of course he couldn't read it. And he carried it in this locker around his neck, on the chain around his neck. And when they opened it up, it said that he was the possessor of a section of the richest oil land in Oklahoma. And he starved to death. I think this was happening to a lot of Christians. We're not enjoying what God has for us. We're not possessing our possessions. Why, you read the book of Joshua, which is the Old Testament counterpart of the book of Ephesians and the New Testament, and you'll find that although Joshua did his level best to lead the people of God into their possessions, after he'd worked so hard at this thing, there's only five of the nations, five of the tribes that had gotten into their possessions, and still seven tribes that hadn't done anything will sit around and enjoy what their friends had.
weren't even bothered about it. After they'd made that journey of forty years and gotten into the land, they didn't even bother to go over the hill and see what was over there and possess what God had for them. And he practically had to force them into it. And then after they had been put into their possessions, and someone mentioned that they had to stand upon it. They had to put the sole of their foot on it before it was theirs. After they were given those possessions, They only possess, as near as I can estimate, about ten percent of what God said ultimately should belong to them. I think that's about par for the course, don't you? Isn't that about what we're doing?
There's an eccentric old brother out in Colorado Springs, about ninety years old now, not able to get out to meetings anymore, and every time you see him, he gives you a joke. says something in a way nobody else ever says it. One day I was visiting with him and he said, Well, Brother John, you're a lot better saved than you have any idea. That's right, too, isn't it? You're a lot better saved than you have any idea. You think you've got through it. And that's peanuts compared to what God would like to have you have. They tell about a boy whose parents died in a plane accident. And he was the only child.
He was nine years of age. And he was a sole heir. But, of course, his father had provided that his attorney should be not only administrator of the estate, but also the guardian of the child until he reached twenty-one. And according to law, the little boy had to be present when they read this will. So they brought the little fellow into this somber office, and he sat on the chair and swung his feet, for he wasn't long enough to reach the floor, and he looked around this place while the lawyer went through the whereas's and wherefores of the last will and testament. When he got all through, he said, now, Sonny, you don't understand what I read, but the law said I had to read it to you.
But he said, I'll tell you what it means. It means that your daddy and mother wanted to see that you had everything that you need, and so they provided for you, and I'm supposed to look after you, and anything that you need, you just come and tell Uncle Bill, and I'll see that you have it, and when you're twenty-one years of age, then the whole thing will be yours. Now, you remember that. If you feel that you need anything, you come and see Uncle Bill. So the little boy wet his lips two or three times, like he wanted to say something, and finally the man said, well, what is it? He said, would there be enough so I could have fifty cents? Now you laugh at that, but that's just the way we act, just exactly the way we act.
Lord, forgive us our sins and save us all at last in heaven. That's why my grandmother used to pray. That's supposed to be a nice, humble way to pray. She was a lot better saved than she had any idea. But how about you? Not long ago a man said to me, well, of course I get to all the meetings. I'd be afraid if I didn't, God would do something to my family. That's terrible. Think of a man living under that bondage. He might as well have been like the Galatians trying to live under the Ten Commandments. I'd be afraid God would do something to me if I didn't go to all the meetings. That's why you're going. You might as well stay home. I can tell you that. God's not pleased with that kind of service.
You don't know what God has done for you. if you think that he's just waiting for a chance to slap you down. You don't understand God's grace if that's what you believe. God has saved you a lot better than you have any idea. Well, let's see some of these things. I like A.C. Gableine's division of this book. I'm not original. I got here too late to be original. I begged, borrowed, and stolen everything that I have. And this particular thing I borrowed or stole from A.C. Gableine and his Very fine little book on Ephesians. He divides these spiritual blessings into nine. Three from the Father, three from the Son, and three from the Holy Spirit.
We look at them that way. The first three are given in verses four, five, and six. This we have from the Father. According as he has chosen us in him... before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. He has chosen us. It took me a long time to really believe that my wife wanted to marry me. I'd about given up. I thought maybe the old saying is no shoe for every old sock might not have been true. Maybe I wasn't going to get a wife after all.
I just didn't believe that any girl was really going to say yes. Well, I hadn't asked any others, but I mean, I was afraid to ask. I was just afraid nobody would. I know better than that now. But anyway, when she chose me, and she did have other chances, whether you believe it or not, she did have other chances to get married, and she chose me, and I was so pleased, I felt complimented. that she wanted me to share her life. We shared a third of a century together, and if the Lord doesn't come, I'd be quite pleased with another third of a century. She chose me.
There was a little boy who was adopted, and he went to school, and his parents had made the mistake of not telling him that he was adopted, but the kids in school weren't long telling it. They'd heard it. And one of them said to him, Yeah, yeah, you're not even your mama's boy. You're just adopted. And he went home heartbroken. He said, Mama, am I not your little boy? Am I just adopted? And she was wise enough to straighten it out, even if she hadn't been wise enough to tell him in the first place. And she took him on her lap and she said, Now let me tell you how it was. She said, Daddy and I didn't have any little boy or girl.
And we wanted one real badly, so we went to a place where they had some extras, and we looked them over, and there were a lot of them there, and we picked you out. Now you said the other mamas, their little boys were born to them, and of course they're glad, but they didn't get to pick theirs out. And that satisfied him, pleased him, and he went back to school, and he says, I know about you. My mama picked me out, but your mama just had to take what she could get. And you know, it's wonderful that the Lord picked us out. Aren't you glad he did? Aren't you glad you were chosen in him before the foundation of the world?
Don't be afraid of election or predestination or any of the rest of these wonderful truths. There are lots of things I don't understand, but that doesn't keep me from using them. I don't even understand electricity. That doesn't mean I'm going to still read by a kerosene lamp. I don't understand how the God could choose me before I was even born, but I believe it anyway. And I'm glad. Is this a spiritual blessing? Some unspiritual person will say, well, I just don't get it. You can't put that in the cash register. That's what's the matter with most of us in America.
We're trying to put everything in the cash register. We're trying to value everything by the dollar. We know the price of everything and we know the value of nothing. That's what's the matter with us here in the United States. This is what's the matter with many Christians. Oh, it breaks your heart to hear how the Lord's people are so involved in temporal things, so under the grasp of physical, temporal things. living for nothing else, thinking that nothing else is worthwhile, only accumulate a little bit here. I was in a meeting that prided itself on being more spiritual than most of the meetings. I don't know how I got in, but I did.
Had a friend there or something. And I got into this very strict meeting. And I went home with one of the leading brethren, and some of his friends came in, and there were two or three men who were taking the leading part in that assembly. You know what, they talked about all afternoon. crops and the new cars that just come out. And I tried several times to bring the conversation around to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ, and I couldn't get a peep out of one of them. They knew all about the latest cars. They knew all about the money they were going to make, and they were enjoying it. Spiritual blessings? No. Chosen in Him.
If that doesn't make you glad, go home and get on your knees and confess it as a sin because it ought to make you glad. Chosen in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. That God would be able not only to pick me up, but to take me to Himself and make me what He wants me to be, a blameless person, happy in His love, resting in His love. In the Old Testament, the book of Hosea, in the book of Ezekiel, various other places, God tells about his love for Israel. He tells how he found them. He tells how he took them to himself. He tells how he transformed them from an unlovable, unlovely outcast to make that person one that delighted his own heart.
God could do that with Israel. Think what he's doing with the church. He shows them that we might be holy and without blame before him in love. Number two, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children. The revised version is better here. Having predestinated us unto the placing as sons. Abraham never wanted a baby. He wanted a son. Of course, in order to get a son, you've got to start with a baby. But when his baby was born, he did nothing at all. But when Isaac got weaned, he made a feast.
And God doesn't want babies. He wants sons. A normal baby is a real joy. I agree with Brother Davies fully. A normal baby is a real joy. I was telling the young people up at Camp Elam in Colorado just recently, One of the saddest sights I ever saw was here in the state of Iowa. When I was in the jewelry business, I had some occasion to visit a certain home. After I had conducted the business for which I went there, I spoke to them about the Lord, and the man said, Yes, we know the Lord. We're believers.
Well, I said, That's wonderful. Are you happy in the Lord? And they looked at each other, and she said, Well, I I suppose we're not as happy as we might be. So I didn't know what was the matter, and I was kind of fishing for facts, you know, and I asked a few more questions, and I said, do you have a family? And the man stood up, sat his face, and he said, will you come here a minute? And I followed him into the bedroom, and here was a baby bed. And lying in that baby bed was a baby, forty years of age. A head as large as a man's head, needed to shave, and the body, the size of a baby's, only not healthy looking like a baby's body, but kind of gray and wrinkled, an absolutely helpless baby, forty years of age.
Oh, I said, I'm sorry. Well, he said, the Lord has given us grace. He's helpless. If I'd seen that baby forty years before, I suppose I'd have said, well, isn't that a cute little baby? Oh, I'm so happy for you. Congratulations. But I didn't say that. You don't say that about a forty-year-old baby. You don't say that about Christians either. Mr. A.N. O'Brien, with whom I traveled for eight and a half years, told me that he led a man to the Lord When he closed the meetings, he said to him, well, brother, how is it with your soul?
And he said, oh, Mr. O'Brien, everything is wonderful. Christ died for the ungodly. Well, he said, that's wonderful. Now go on for the Lord. He never got back there for ten years. Ten years later, when he met that man the next time, he said, well, brother, how is it with your soul? Oh, he said, fine, Christ died for the ungodly. He said, that's wonderful, but you knew that much ten years ago. Didn't you learn anything the last ten years? God has chosen us for what? For the placing as sons. He wants us to have the sons placed. He wants us not only to be children in his family, he wants us to be adult sons.
In Rome and Roman colonies, the Adoptio, as it was called in the Latin language, was not an adoption, as we call it today, when a child is adopted into a family. That means that we take a child who is no relation to us, and we make that child legally our child an heir. That isn't the adopteo at all of the Roman Empire. This was what every man did for his son when he reached his majority. When he's a little child, he's treated like a little child. If it's a wealthy family and they have slaves, They appoint one of these slaves to be a pedagogue for that child, to teach that child, and to see that he's home on time, and to lead him around.
But then when that child becomes a man, the father takes him down to the city hall, and in a public ceremony, he slips over the boy's head, his minor toga, now hits him way up to the knees, and he's embarrassed, but he's hairy legs sticking out from under that. He says, Dad, I'm a man. Let's get this thing off and and get the major toga on me. And so that's just what he does. He pulls this minor toga off, and he puts the major toga on him, and puts his arm around his shoulders, and he says to the city dad, this is my son. What does he mean? He means he's a full-grown man. He's got all the rights of Roman citizenship, and he can go in business with his dad, too.
You never saw anybody put a sign out, John Smith and babies. He puts out John Smith and son, or sons, If you're going to be a partner with God, you've got to be a grown-up son. And so God says, I'm going to place you as a grown-up son. Now, whether you act like a grown-up son depends on whether you make any progress or not spiritually. But God's plan is to have you as a grown-up son in the place of a son. Now, what kind of a place is that? What kind of a place did the Lord Jesus have? If you want to know what kind of a place you have, you think about what kind of a place he has. What kind of a place does he have with his father? Why, the Father loves him. All right, he says, that's the way the Father loves you.
Read it for yourself, the fourteenth of John. God loves you exactly the way he loves the Lord Jesus. Without any beginning, without any change, without any cessation. That's the way he loved the Son. That's the way he loves me. Is that conceded? Well, of course not. That's faith. God loves me just like he loves the Lord Jesus. What kind of acceptance does the Lord Jesus have? Do you think he can ask the Father for anything and get it? Do you think the Lord Jesus can go to the Father and be sure the Father hears him?
What did he say when he prayed? I said to thee that thou hearest me, and I knew that thou hearest me always. But for the sake of them that stood by, I said it, he wanted them to know that the Father always heard him. Was he hear us that way? No, he said that he doesn't always hear. Now, wait a minute. What did he mean when he said, whatsoever ye ask the Father in my name, Does that mean that you attach on the end of your prayers in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen? Well, attach it if you want to, but that isn't the important thing at all. It doesn't make any difference. You put it on the front and on the back and along in the middle of the prayer if you want to, or whether you don't put it on at all.
The thing is, do you pray in the name of the Lord Jesus? Not what you say you do, but do you come to the Father, expecting it for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ? Now, this is real confidence in prayer. If you come to God and expect God to do for you what he would do for his own dear son, you have learned the secret of acceptance from the Lord Jesus. Of the placing as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. You didn't think of that. It was in his mind. It pleased him. It was his idea from start to finish. Actually, I don't believe I ever would have expected anything from God except maybe to get out of hell, keep out of hell, and to squeeze into heaven.
I think if I had really asked God for anything, I'd have said, Lord, will you please forgive my sins and keep me from going to hell? I think that's about all I ever would have prayed for, if I had prayed before I was saved. Is that what God had in mind? That would never satisfy him. His heart's too big for that. He'd never be satisfied just to spare your unworthy soul. He wants you. He wants your company. He wants you with himself. He wants your company, too, even now, too. But then he says, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved. Accepted.
As you know, my wife and I, founded the Christian Home for Children, nineteen thirty six. We appreciate your prayers for it too right now because we're faced with some real problems. Our brother, Mr. Ben Palmer, spoke to you this morning as a member of the Board of Directors. And we're faced with the problem of finding someone who can manage the home. The young man who has been there for the last five or six years finds himself in a situation where he feels he can no longer The lawn, we're all good friends, but I mean because of some personal reasons, his family problems and so on, he feels that he's not going to be able to do it.
It's very difficult to get anybody to manage a home. The welfare has such high standards that only those who have a certain degree of education are permitted to do it. Mrs. Walden and I could go back to it, but it isn't easy at our age. So we appreciate your prayers about this. The reason I mentioned the home was this. Acceptance, psychologists tell us, is one of the things which a child must have. A child who feels he is unwanted is a child who is deeply traumatized, badly hurt. I remember one time a police matron brought a little girl to us and She said to us privately, I want to talk to you about this little girl before you talk to her, she said, if there's any way at all that you can squeeze her into your home, be sure to do it, because this little girl was an adopted child.
Her father, her foster father, deserted, and the mother said to me right in front of the child, well, the old man has flown the coop and now I'm stuck with this kid. That's what she said. And the little girl, not wanting to be stuck, not wanting anybody to be stuck with her, she just took off to try to support herself. And for three nights before the police matron brought her to us, she had been sleeping in the restroom in the public park and scrounging food any place she could get it, begging or stealing from the grocery stores. In fact, it was because she was stealing from a grocery store that the police matron was called in the first place, and the girl was nine years old.
Well, that's kind of young to be cast out on the world. and to be rejected. There's nothing that hurts a child any worse, or an adult for that matter. I don't know anything that hurts me any worse, and find myself in a situation where I think maybe I'm unwelcome. Maybe I'm not wanted. Maybe I ought to take my hat and make myself scarce. I just feel that I'm not wanted here. Accept it. accepted. Some people are accepted for themselves. I visited a home one time with a dear man of God who had visited that home many times before.
And when I left to leave, the lady very graciously said to me, Now, Mr. Walden, we accepted you for the sake of our dear brother here. But the next time you're coming through our town, You come to our house and we'll accept you for who you are. Well, I said, wasn't that nice? And I thanked you for that. I felt welcome. I felt accepted. And I believed you. You can't always be sure what people say, but you try to anyway. In this case, I believe you. You don't have any trouble believing what God says, do you? He says you're accepted.
Are you accepted for your sake? Don't make me laugh. God wouldn't accept you for your sake, no matter if you were the best person who ever lived. But he would accept you for the sake of his son. When I got married, I married into a family. It was very proud. The first time I visited my wife's oldest sister, She sat me down and told me what a fortunate person I was because I was marrying into that family. And what a real prize I was getting. And I already knew all this and I was bored stiff of all she had to say, especially when she went back several generations and told me that she said, you know, we're descended from the Duke of Savoy.
Is that so? He's a fellow that ran my people out of Europe. That's right, a Roman Catholic hierarchy. And she said, you know, we have many counts in our family. And I said, well, don't let that body, and we've got a whole bunch of no counts in our family. And she didn't think it was funny at all. She got her feelings hurt, because I made fun of the counts in her family. Counts, your Aunt Fanny. You don't need any counts in America. We accept a man because of who he is, not because of his ancestors. Well, anyway, she told me how fortunate I was. So I listened until that was over with, and then I got my wife. She wasn't my wife yet. I got her out of there as fast as we could.
And finally the time came, and we got married, and when we got married, we had to visit the family again. And we went back there, and her brother, the parents were dead, and her brother said, now, John, I want to tell you a little something. All right. He said, you know, we were terribly disappointed when man left the Catholic Church. and turned Protestant. And then when she decided to marry a preacher, well, said we just felt terrible about it. And now he said, we find out you don't even have a salary, and we feel like our sister's going on charity. I was about ready to tell him a few things, and he said, but there's one thing I want to say.
He said, we are a close-knit family. And he said, this is our sister's choice and decision. And he said, I want you to know that from now on, you are a part of this family, and you are just as welcome as any of the rest of the family. I said, thanks, bud. Unimpressed. Didn't make a bit of difference to me if I was accepted or wasn't accepted. I didn't marry the whole Du Boge family. I just married the one girl, and I didn't expect to see them any more often than I had to. I said, thanks a lot. That's all there was to it. But listen. He meant it. And I'm ashamed now that I felt that way. After thirty-three years, that family has accepted me as completely, as fully as they have any of the rest of the family, and they have never once gone back on what he said.
Now, isn't that a wonderful thing? To accept a person in whom they were disappointed? To accept a person whom they didn't want? To accept that person for the sake of their sister? It's a lot more wonderful to be accepted in the beloved one. He didn't say accepted in Christ. He didn't say accepted in the Son. He said accepted in the beloved. God loves his Son. And the love wherewith he loved the Son, such is his love to you. Isn't that wonderful? Somebody say amen, or I'm going to say it myself. That's fine. Thank you. I just want to be sure you really enjoy these things.
It's wonderful to be blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavens and Christ. And we've only got three of them. You think you can stand anymore? Well, I don't have time for anymore. Maybe if the Lord so leads, we'll go into some more of them. But God has blessed us. He's brought us to Himself. Don't live on a low plane. Don't live in the basement when you can get up on the third floor and get a view. Don't ask Him if He thinks he could spare fifty cents. Appreciate what you have, brother and sister. Look at the blueprint. Learn what you have in Christ. Mr. W.J. McClure, man whom I highly respected and loved, was telling us one time about the first chapter of Ephesians, and he said in his heavy voice, And then his imagination led him to a man who has been given a beautiful home, fully furnished and staffed.
And the man is given this home, and he's given the key to the home, and he goes to take possession of the home, and he turns the key in the front door, and he steps inside and sits down in the hallway and never goes to see what's in all the rest of the home. Just sit there. inside the door and stars. Let's don't be that foolish.