Our scripture this evening comes to us from Ephesians chapter 1, Ephesians chapter 1 verses 7 through 10, we'll begin reading at verse 3 in order for context, Ephesians chapter 1 verses 3 through 10, hear now the very word of God. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will, to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us and the one he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment, to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. Here ends the reading of God's holy and inspired word. People of God, do you feel blessed to live in America? Do you feel blessed to live in America? We can consider the various events, more recent events that have occurred throughout the world. We could think specifically of the Middle East and consider the chaos that is going on there. The uprisings and the people taken to the streets, people being killed, murdered, and it could lead us to think how blessed we are to live in a country like America. Now certainly, in today's, in our country today, we have our own share of problems. But America is a place where if your house catches on fire, you can be assured that the fire department would come out and help you put it out. This is a land where if you get sick, there are hospitals that won't reject you and you can be seen and taken care of. Certainly we are blessed to live in a country where we have various freedoms that other countries do not have. Well, however blessed we feel to live in America, we are far greater blessed to live in Christ. And that is what Paul points out in the text before us this evening. The blessing we have of living in Christ. How the Father has blessed his people in Christ. And he points out three reasons why that is the case in the text before us. The first reason is we are blessed because the Father has given us redemption in Christ. Redemption. Second, we are blessed in Christ because we have a revelation. He's given us revelation. And finally, we are blessed in Christ because we have an expectation, or you can say a consummation. Well, let's look to our first point. We are blessed to live in Christ because we have redemption. Paul points this out in verse 7 before us. He says, in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Now, Paul's idea of redemption in this text here would have been formed by verses like Exodus 21, 18 or Leviticus 25, 25 through 55, where the Bible speaks of how Israelite slaves were to be redeemed. Or it speaks of how land that belonged to a certain family was to be redeemed. And more broadly, Paul would have been thinking of the Exodus where the Israelites were redeemed from Egypt, from their slavery in Egypt. Well, Paul speaks in the text before us tonight specifically to a Christian redemption, a redemption by Christ. And what this should first bring to mind is that our redemption is from slavery to sin. From slavery to sin. Our confessional standards describes this very well. For example, the Canons of Dord in Article 3 of the Third Head says this, All men are conceived in sin and are by nature children of wrath, incapable of saving good, prone to evil, dead in sin and in bondage thereto. Paul, when he speaks of redemption here, is speaking to redemption from our bondage to slavery and sin. But this redemption is also, furthermore, it should bring to mind the idea of not only redemption from sin or from the slavery of it, but from the curse of the law. Paul says elsewhere in Galatians 3 that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. Now this curse was the result, the result of our sinful state and then the adding of the law on top of that state. And so we were left cursed. We were left unable and incapable of doing what the law commanded. One commentator puts it this way. He says, the law brings no blessing with it, but a curse. Far from justifying men and women in the sight of God, it condemns them. It tells them what to do, but imparts no power to do it. Well, it pronounces a curse on those who fail to keep it in its entirety. And so what this should remind us, this redemption should remind us of, is our state apart from Christ. where we would have been or could have been apart from Christ, enslaved to sin and under the curse of the law. But Paul here says that we have been redeemed. Redeemed from that slave and from the curse of the law. And he points out that this isn't just any redemption. This is specifically redemption by the blood of Christ. The phrase here that he uses by the blood or through the blood of Christ speaks to the instrument by which we were redeemed. Young people, if you happen to be speaking to somebody and sharing your faith with them and you're telling them how Christ redeemed His people and they may ask you, well, how did He do that? Well, our text here informs you. It was by His blood. through His blood. And so Paul is speaking of the atonement of Christ. Christ's act of taking upon Himself the penalty of sin and making satisfaction for that sin. Now this is a wonderful and encouraging doctrine to those of us who believe in Christ and look to Him for our salvation. But for many today, even within the Christian community, the doctrine of atonement. This doctrine is under attack. There are some who would say that a bloody atonement amounts to child abuse. For God to put His Son upon a cross where He must shed His blood for the sins of others. They believe that to be child abuse. Well, yet others say that this atonement was unnecessary. God is such a good and gracious God that He didn't need this atonement. He could simply forgive sin. We know better. We know better that these ideas misunderstand the nature of God and they misunderstand the nature of sin that God is a righteous and perfect God and that nothing sinful can stand before Him. And so sin must and needed to be taken care of. And so, contrary to those misconceptions, Paul points out in the text before us that it was by the blood of Christ that we were saved. You see, the law taught in Leviticus 17 that apart from the shedding of blood, there was no forgiveness of sins. The Old Testament spoke of the blood of animals being shed in order to atone for the sins of the people. But those sacrifices, those atonements, the shedding of that blood, it ultimately pointed to the shedding of Christ's blood. The perfect Lamb of God who would shed His blood for His people. And so what this points out to us, this points out to us is that our redemption is certain. Our redemption is certain because if it was by the blood of Christ, the Son of God, then there is no more shedding of blood. And this is why Paul can say things like, nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God. Because it has been entirely accomplished by Christ and His work on our behalf. And so, this evening, this evening if you find that you are struggling with your assurance, Let me remind you not to look inside yourself. Not to look to the things that you have done or the things you've left undone. Look outside yourself to Christ, our Lord. That's where our assurance lies. It lies with Him and Him alone. And so you can be certain of your assurance because it was accomplished by Christ. with this great redemption before us, we should further be reminded that there are many in the world who have yet to embrace that redemption. They don't know of the redemption in Christ. And so this evening, I call you out. If you have not placed your trust in Christ, in Christ alone, look to Him for your salvation. He is the only one who can save you. His obedience and His death is your salvation. And so, first we have seen that Paul points out that we have a redemption in Christ and how blessed we are with that. But as if that was not enough, Paul continues to go and says further that we are blessed in Christ because we have a revelation. God has not left those whom He has called without the disclosure of His will. He says in verse 9, And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ. Now today the question is often asked, it's often asked, what is God's will for my life? And what follows are questions like, should I marry that person? Or should I attend that school? Or should I move to this city? Maybe start this new job. But I think that we so often times want to look at what God's hidden will is for our life to the neglect of the fact that He has revealed His will for us. Today, people think that God is a distant and foreign God. One who is never around. He's quiet. But this is not our God. Our God's not one who is absent as if He spun up the world and just let it go and lets things amount to as they would. Our God is there. And He's communicated to us. And we can remember all the way from the beginning, God revealing Himself. Remember in the garden, the Lord revealed to Adam and Eve His will. And even when they broke it, He revealed His plan of salvation, the promise of the seed of a woman. The Lord further revealed His will to Noah that He would destroy all the earth because of man's sin, but that He would save Noah and his family. The Lord revealed His will to Abraham, promising to him a Savior through him and in whom all the nations would be blessed. The Lord further revealed Himself and His will to the Israelites. He gave them His law and He further revealed that when they would break that law, that He would provide one who would uphold it. And so we do have a God who has revealed Himself. A God who has not left us alone. In the text before us, Paul calls this revelation a mystery. And the reason he calls it a mystery when he says that is he's speaking, first of all, to former generations. The mystery of God's will in Christ was a mystery to former generations. 1 Peter 1 says this. It says, Then later, Paul himself, in this same book, in chapter 3, says, In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy prophets and apostles. What was not known to other generations has been revealed to us. We have the revelation, the full revelation of Christ. God's plan of salvation in Christ. But this mystery wasn't only a mystery to former generations. It was further, or it is further, a mystery to many today. See, as 1 Corinthians 2 says, that the teachings of God are spiritually discerned. And so, there are many today who do not know or understand what God's plan of salvation is because they have not been given the Spirit. But we have. We have that Spirit. Do you remember what Jesus says in Matthew 13 when He just finishes teaching on the parable of the sower where He describes different seed going out on the ground? And then his disciples ask him and reply to this, what seems to them a peculiar parable. He says, or they say, Lord, why do you teach in parables? And do you remember Jesus' answer? He says, though seeing, they do not see. Though hearing, they do not hear or understand. And then he says to his disciples, but blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear. That blessing is ours this evening. We've been given eyes to see and ears to hear. We understand. We've been given insight by the Spirit of God into His Word and His revelation. So now, with that understood, With understanding that we are blessed in Christ with this revelation, let's now turn to what that mystery specifically is in the text before us. And this brings us to our third and final point. That we are further blessed in Christ because we have an expectation or a consummation. The mystery to which Paul speaks of in verse 10 when he says, To be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment, to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one, even Christ. Now Paul speaks here of this expectation in two ways. He first speaks of things in heaven being brought under Christ, and then further, things on earth being brought under Christ. The reference to the things in heaven is a reference to powers and authorities in the heavenly realm. To fully grasp this, listen to what other passages in Ephesians says. Just listen for a second. He says, Paul says in chapter 1, verse 20 through 21, He, that is God, raised Him, Christ, from the dead and seated Him at the right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. Paul then later says in chapter 3, verse 10, His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. And then he finally says in chapter 6, verse 12, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm. So what Paul is getting at with this phrase, things in heaven, is that he's pointing to the supremacy of Christ and the subjecting of those things under that supremacy. Now, this would have been an enormous comfort to the church at Ephesus. You see, the church at Ephesus was reminded daily, they were reminded by things all around them of these spiritual forces. If you remember in Acts 19, Ephesus was a place that was saturated with idolatry. They had a whole economy based upon it. And so when Paul went and preached there and people began to throw out their idols and they stopped purchasing idols, it disrupted the economy and so a riot broke out. And so we can see by this that the church at Ephesus would have been greatly encouraged. That they would have known that the things all around them pointed to these spiritual forces, but that Christ was going to be made supreme over them. now us us here this evening we're moderns we're people who live in a modern age and so it's a little difficult for us to understand how this too may encourage us you see what is real to us is what you can hear what you can feel what you can taste and see But we as Christians, we as Christians know that there are spiritual forces. We can look out across the world and see that there is still continual conflict and battling for power. There are wars. The world is still held in disarray. And so as Christians, we know who is behind that. And so we too can be comforted by the fact that these things, these spiritual powers will be made subject to Christ. That Christ will reign supreme. But furthermore, we also know that God is bringing these things under Christ even now. Even now. But this not only points to an expectation, but it points to what is occurring now. All of Ephesians, the book as a whole, makes this point clear that Christ has already been seated in the heavenlies where He is ruling. And those powers have already begun to be made subject to Him. This understanding of the consummation already beginning and begun can be further understood if we look at the second way that Paul describes this expectation being carried out. When he says or speaks of the things on earth, that reference to the things on earth being brought under Christ is a reference to the church. It's a reference to the relations between Jews and Gentiles being reconciled. We can see this by looking at other passages in Ephesians like chapter 3 where Paul says, This mystery is that through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise of Christ Jesus. And then Paul also says in chapter 2, 14, This reconciling of Jews and Gentiles is what Paul is referring to when he speaks of things on earth being brought under Christ. But this doesn't simply just speak to relationships between Jews and Gentiles. it further speaks to the relationship of all peoples. This morning or this evening, we actually can experience that. We sit and are gathered in what is traditionally a Dutch Reformed church. But if you look around, not everybody is Dutch. And so we see here a taste of the Lord bringing all things on earth under Christ. He's speaking of His church bringing and calling all peoples together. The reconciliation of those ethnicities, of the different and various kinds of people. You see, as brothers in Christ, brothers and sisters in Christ, we can go anywhere in the world and we can find fellowship with others who believe and trust in Christ different from what we may not experience with those of our own people. And that's all because of the work of Christ and how the Lord has blessed us in Him with this great expectation of the consummation. And so, in the beginning of this message, I spoke of how blessed we are to live in this country. But we've seen through the text before us that it's not so much where we live, but in whom we live. Paul has pointed out to us this evening that we are blessed to have lives in Christ because we have been given redemption in Him. Redemption. We have been freed from our sin and the curse of the law. But further, we have been given revelation. The Lord has spoken. He has revealed Himself. And furthermore, He has given us His Spirit to help us understand. And finally, with a life in Christ, we have an expectation. An expectation of the Lord bringing all things under His Son. And so, this evening, people of God, remember the blessing that you have to live a life in Christ. Amen. And let us pray. Lord, we are humbled this evening by Your great plan of salvation. How You have saved a people for Yourself through the work of Your Son. That You have granted and given to them Your Spirit to continue to sanctify them. And You have spoken to them through Your Word. We pray that You would continue, continue to bless us through Your Word. Remind us not only here tonight, but throughout our week as we live. help us to live in response to Your great Gospel, to live more faithful to You. We pray this all in the name of Your Son, Christ our Lord. Amen.