We Are Blessed in God - 1A

Jack Hibbs: I'm blessed that God goes where there's sin. Aren't you? Aren't you glad where He goes? Where sinners are at? In Romans chapter 5, verse 20, the Bible says where sin abounds, grace does much more abound.
David J: This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David J. Thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's word, the Bible.
Jack Hibbs: Hey, my friends, come with me on our Bold Faith Hawaii cruise, June 12th to the 19th, 2027. Listen, we're going to set sail for seven unforgettable days with myself, Dr. Frank Turek, and special worship with Gia Lucit. It's going to be a breathtaking trip. This is more than a vacation. It's a time of rest, renewal, fellowship, and spiritual strength in the word of God, all centered around the Bible. You can reserve your spot by going to jackhibbs.com.
David J: On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack begins a new series called the Book of Ephesians and a message titled "We Are Blessed in God," part one. Ephesians is a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote from prison to the church in Ephesus, showing every believer who they really are in Christ. And right from the start, Paul reminds us that we are a blessed people. You see, God has already given us riches in Christ that no one can ever take away. Ephesus may have been known for their achievements and wealth, but they were a pagan city filled with violence and immorality, and a place where everything you have can be gone in an instant. So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that if you're a believer, the very life that you're living comes from the will and blessing of God. Even in the hard seasons, He's doing something so deep, it can have a great impact on eternity for us and for those around us. Before we get into the message, I had a chance to sit down with Pastor Jack and talk about it with him. So let's get into that. Pastor Jack, what made you decide, okay, let's get into the book of Ephesians? We're going to do this one verse at a time. God's already given us everything we need in Christ, right?
Jack Hibbs: From the book of Ephesians, exactly. When you look at the New Testament, there's some special treaties that God put on the heart of the Apostle Paul. Probably the most famous is the book of Romans. I happen to believe for certain reasons why I think God gave Paul the book of Hebrews, although it doesn't mention his name. Those are two of the high watermarks of Christian theology. And Ephesians is right there. Ephesians is a message to the church at Ephesus, Turkey today, Asia Minor. Biblical times, today it's Turkey. Ephesus is still there today. We've been there several times. Those people, when they heard the gospel, they believed. And so Paul writes to them on their salvation, their security that's in Christ, the deity of Christ, how they can conduct themselves as believers. Key doctrines of eternal security granted by the spirit of God in our lives, but also how to be a husband and a wife, how to be a family. And then, of course, the remarkable, maybe it's the most famous theme in Ephesians chapter six, and that is the Christian in complete armor, the armament of the believer. It's a compact book, but it is filled with deep theological realities that frankly, only Paul the Apostle can deliver the way that he does. And we want to listen to what he's saying to the church at Ephesus. Because at that time of his writing, the church was on fire and amazing. Fast forward several decades down the road, and we weep over the church at Ephesus because there's one more letter that's going to be written to it. And that is Jesus's letter in the book of Revelation to the church at Ephesus. And He says they're fantastic. They've got a big ministry. They've got all this stuff going on. You guys look spectacular, but there's a real big problem that only I can see. And that is you've left your first love. And so you've been a stellar church, but you've been doing all of these things based upon effort without me. And you need to get back to your first love. We need to pay close attention to that. And we will bring that up out of the book of Revelation of how the church at Ephesus is a message to us today. We need to get our hearts back to our first love.
David J: I'd forgotten that Revelation was written to the folks in Ephesus. Then let's jump into it, a new series in Ephesians, "Blessed of God," part one.
Jack Hibbs: The city of Ephesus in Asia Minor, it is today modern-day Turkey. It is a thriving area over 300,000 people in population, just the epicenter of education and of so many things. But unfortunately, Ephesus was a city that was probably just as corrupt or maybe close to being as corrupt as the city of Corinth. And if you're taking notes, I encourage you to do so regarding this entire study as we go through this book. Ephesus was a place of incredible achievements. They boasted a library that was greater than the libraries of Rome. And it was the city where Diana was worshipped, the chief goddess of the ancient world. And her temple that was built there, we hit that in Acts chapter 18 and 19. The Temple of Diana was one of the seven wonders of the world. The theater that was dedicated to her sat 25,000 people. You can visit that area today. And they tell us that the acoustics of that place, you could speak and you can still very easily be heard. It's so well engineered and so well designed there at the Temple of Diana and that area. The worship of Diana in the city of Ephesus was grotesque worship. It was sexual worship. She had temple prostitutes in her worship. She was a statue that was a very bizarre and sensual type of statue. And people who were converted to her type of worship would literally at times perform their worshipful acts at the feet of the statue of Diana. And I don't need to elaborate any longer. Your imagination, if let loose, would fulfill the debauchery and the evil that took place at Ephesus. Unbelievable place and just filled with such terrible things, filled with violence. It was one of the most violent cities in all of the known world at that time. It was also one of the wealthiest. They were engaged in not only extramarital heterosexual acts but homosexual acts, bestiality acts were practiced there. And it was a very terrible place. And then Ephesus itself was a type of a city that God seemed to designate for us to receive this epistle about because it is an epistle that is written in what they call a cyclical form, or it would make its cycles. This letter made its circuit through all of the churches in the area of Asia Minor. And instead of God sending Paul or having Paul write to some other city, it's this book where these truths that we're going to get into in this incredible book will be brought out. And wouldn't you know it, it's a city of absolute incredible evil. And as I looked at this, I began to be comforted in thinking, hey man, we live in a place a lot like the city of Ephesus. So Paul the Apostle, writing to this incredible city. And I'm glad because that's where Christianity goes. If you notice the ministry technique of Paul the Apostle, he'll go to cities that are the metropolises. He'll go to the most populated areas and give the gospel there. Once the gospel is given, a church or two or three is established, then Paul would move on to another metropolis. And what would happen is those people would get converted, more people in the city converted, until the churches began to expand outside to the limits of the city and then in the outlying regions. And you see this over and over again in the book of Acts. And it's a pattern that God has established. And I'm blessed that God goes where there's sin. Aren't you? Aren't you glad where He goes? Where sinners are at? In Romans chapter 5, verse 20, the Bible says where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. And we're going to be talking about that tonight in our study. A little bit of background concerning Paul the Apostle before we dive into this. Paul now is writing this letter about 10 years after he visited the area. He's, as I said, in prison. This is his first imprisonment. And right now he is located at the area of the Praetorium guardhouse, a place that would be in that day and age like the Waldorf Astoria for prisons. It's a pretty nice place. But he will write while in prison this book of Ephesians. He will write the book of Galatians, Philippians, and Colossians, the prison epistles. And this interesting side note, Jesus Himself wrote a letter to this church, to the church at Ephesus in the book of Revelation. And that's in Revelation chapter two, and it's recorded there. And this other side note: do you remember when Jesus was just about ready to be crucified, or actually was on His way and going to the cross? And on the cross, Jesus looks at John. Remember John the Apostle? The Apostle John. And John says, or Jesus says to John, "Behold your mother." And He was speaking about Mary, actually Jesus's earthly mother. He was telling John, "Hey John, take care of my mother." And there was that just momentary exchange that a lot of people overlook. Well, what's interesting, John was an elder there in the church at Ephesus. And you can go today to Ephesus and see the burial site of John and Mary, the mother of Jesus in Ephesus, fulfilling the words that Jesus had said, "John, take care of my mom." Well, He sure must have done that because they're both buried in the same city. And I think that's rather comforting. And also it's rather exciting on the scientific grounds to see the accuracy of the scripture in the way archaeology shows the Bible's accuracy. But I want to give you a warning right now. And I give that to you with tongue in cheek because it's not a warning at all, just really something to be excited about concerning this book. It's not so much a question as to what we'll do with this book as we go through this study. How are we going to handle these six chapters? I've been kind of going through it and kind of breaking the outlines out. And we'll probably be in this book for about 30 weeks, the way I figure it, plus or minus 30 weeks. Probably plus. But it's not so much what we're going to do with it, but what this book's going to do with you. This book is going to change us. In chapters one through three, it's going to show us the wealth of the believer. How rich are you? And you might say tonight, "Well, not too rich, man. I need some money." Well, listen, what God has provided in the book of Ephesians and what is recorded in chapters one through three is far greater than anything this world can offer. And we just need to be reminded to set our eyes on what's coming. They may be able to take our house and our car and our clothes away, but nothing will be able to take away our riches that are in Christ. And in chapters four through five, we'll see that there's the walk of the believer. We're going to know how to walk. We're going to know how to love. We're going to know how to be children of God. We're going to know how to be husbands and wives of God as godly people. And He's going to show us how to live as believers. And then in chapter six, we're going to see that there's a warfare that's dedicated to the believer. You will not go through this Christian life without experiencing warfare. That the Bible promises us. But the great news is we're victorious. And an interesting thing I mentioned it earlier, this book of Ephesians is intended for all of us to be reading it today, even to this age. So why don't we look right now at chapter one beginning at verse one. And we'll go down to verse six, but we'll only really cover verses one through three tonight. The scripture says here: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved." That is Jesus Christ. First thing we'll notice tonight is our first point. This is in verse one: we are a blessed people. We are blessed of God. Jot it down. We are blessed of God. How so? We first of all see right here in verse one that the sender is mentioned: Paul. The letter is written by Paul the Apostle, a man who's tried and true as a believer. But not only that, he is a man under the possession and influence of the Holy Spirit. When he says Paul an apostle, it's not only that Paul is just writing another note, another letter to a church. He is Paul, the one who used to be called Saul. Remember before his conversion? Named after that great king, King Saul of Israel. Saul was so tall and handsome. Remember the Bible says he was head and shoulders? Doesn't mean he had dandruff. It meant that he was head and shoulders above everybody else in Israel. He was a really great-looking guy. And so Paul from the tribe of Benjamin, so was Saul. Paul, before he was a Christian, was named after Saul. And so he was Saul of Tarsus. But when he got converted, Jesus changed his name to Paul. "You're not so tall now, Saul. You're going to now be called Paul," which means small, little one. You think you're some highfalutin Pharisee who knows everything. Well, listen, after meeting Jesus, you find out just how much you know. You don't know nothing. And you've got to spend the rest of your life learning about Him. And so many of us have to unlearn what we've learned until we come to Christ. But Paul's the sender, and we're blessed by that.
David J: You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. And now let's get back to today's message. Once again, here's Pastor Jack.
Jack Hibbs: It says here that he's an apostle. The word in the Greek is apostolos. It means a delegate, an ambassador, someone who's been commissioned by Jesus Himself. The word also means one who's been sent. He's been sent out by God. He says, "I'm Paul the Apostle, the one who's been changed and I have a message and he's been sent out by Jesus Christ Himself." It says, "of Jesus Christ by the will of God." This word "by the will" is an interesting word. It's the word thelēma, and it means a determination or a choice made or a decree. And this is great for us. Paul is an apostle by the will of God. But in whatever condition you are in today, if you are a believer, I don't care how good it's going with you, I don't care how bad it's going with you. That doesn't matter. You are called to be involved in the life that you have by the will of God. "Well, Jack, it's not pleasant. It's not fun." God is doing something with where you're at. "Well, why doesn't God do something?" I had somebody ask me this week, "My mother suffered great, great pain and great things and had a very rough life. And you're telling me that God cares. Why didn't God do something?" And it was wonderful to talk to that person in time and be able to tell them, "How do you know that in a moment's time that mother of yours would have turned her heart towards Christ and called out?" And that person said, "Well, yes, she was a believer." And I said, "You know, this Bible tells us that our lives on this earth is but a vapor, it's just but a moment and it's passing." And we have a tendency, people, and we're all guilty of this, that we check the weather report, we check the financial report, we look to see what's coming up next week. And the fact of the matter is, yes, God is concerned about what we're going through now, but the fact is God is doing something that is so deep and so beyond that it is going to really affect eternity. He's working in you right now something that is going to last forever. And if for right now we go through a hardship, God is seeing something through. And if we lose sight of that, we'll lose hope. And we need to remember that, that the will of God is upon your life if you're a believer tonight. We are blessed of God. In John's Gospel chapter 15, you might want to turn there real quick. John chapter 15. Great chapter of fellowship. Starting at verse one. Want to know how blessed we are in God? Jesus says here at verse one, John chapter 15: "I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me," you could circle that if you want, "in me, that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit He prunes it." You can say that is a trial. "Oh man, I'm doing so good. Things are going great and I'm just having a blessed time growing in the Lord." And then chomp, off goes a hand, so to speak, spiritually. A trial comes into your life. Man, what's going on? He's just pruning you so you produce more fruit, that it may bear more fruit. Verse three: "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me," you ought to circle that, "and I in you." "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine and you are the branches, and he who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. And without me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered and is gathered, and they throw them into the fire and they are burned." "Verse seven: If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you may ask what you desire and it shall be done for you." And then jump over to verse 16. Look at this: "He says you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed or ordained or called you that you should go and bear forth fruit, that your fruit should remain, and that whatever you ask the Father in my name He may give it to you." Listen, that's God's will. And if you're a believer tonight believing in Jesus Christ, you're born again by the Spirit of God, you are now in Christ. And by being in the Bible, you are experiencing a relationship with Him that will cause in your life fruit to come out. In the snow and cold, I was surprised when I was invited to Alinkas's house. You would remember her. She was here not too long ago. She stayed with us and we were there. And I mean, it's freezing cold. And we sit down at the table and there's lemons and limes and oranges. And I don't usually dive into fruit. It's just not my thing. But it was just cold and it seemed so out of place in all of that gray and white and darkness. My goodness, you get up, it doesn't matter if you get up at six o'clock or about nine o'clock. It's still black outside. Dark. Winters so long. And yet this orange, man, and I'm eating this thing and I'm putting it in my tea and I'm putting it in my coffee. It smelled so good and it was so fresh. And I don't know where it came from, possibly Israel at that time of the year. I don't know. But it was such a blessing in the dead of winter to see just the color and the taste of the fruit. And to think that that tree somewhere in some tropical environment was just cranking out fruit. And when things were hard, cold, and rough, people would be enjoying the beautiful work of that tree. And as that tree somewhere in the Middle East perhaps was growing and blossoming and putting out that fruit effortlessly and productively, its only responsibility was to have its roots dug into the soil. And that came naturally. Why? Because it's an orange tree. It wasn't a forklift, it wasn't a vending machine. It was a tree in the earth producing fruit. And a believer in the Bible, in God, will produce fruit. It's just going to happen. It's going to be.
David J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio and his message called "We Are Blessed in God," part one. Thanks for joining us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called the Book of Ephesians. It's a series through Paul's letter to the Ephesians, discovering the riches, the walk, and the warfare of every believer. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Hey, everybody, we want you to be aware of a great book, and please listen up. Our friend Charlie Kirk, right before he was assassinated, Charlie Kirk had finished up a book titled *Stop In The Name Of God*. And I got to tell you, friends, you're going to want to get a copy. It teaches you how to rest in our Lord Jesus Christ. *Stop In The Name Of God* by Charlie Kirk. Get a copy for yourself. It's the featured item for this September. That's *Stop In The Name Of God* by Charlie Kirk. Get your copy at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. Hey, thank you again so much for listening. And if you'd like to hear or see more of what we do here, you can always go to jackhibbs.com for all the latest on what's going on with this ministry. And please, if you're ever in the Southern California area, come see us at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. We'd love to see you there in person. It has been so good to be with you today, and I pray you find yourself in the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. See you on the next episode. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.