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[0:00] The Bible's opened up to the book of Ephesians. We began last Sunday, we kicked off a new Sunday school series, reading and studying through verse by verse every word of the book of Ephesians.

[0:15] Kind of last week just really got into an introduction of the book and a little bit of biblical history or account given in the book of Acts about the kind of city that it was when the Apostle Paul found it and some of the confusion there beyond just the idolatry and given over to this goddess Dianas and a great worshiper of her but also of the confusion scripturally, spiritually, of Apollos coming there and knowing only the baptism of John and teaching that, having disciples in that city.

[0:49] And so the Apostle Paul goes through there and he leaves Priscilla and Aquila there and they straighten him out and things are moving, always moving. People shifting around the area, the region constantly.

[1:02] But Paul comes back through Ephesus again and then here we have an epistle that he writes to that church. And so we got into verse 1, that's really all the further we got.

[1:13] And we got stuck and we're going to stay stuck a little bit now on that last three-word phrase, in Christ Jesus. So let's begin in verse 1. Now he's repeating the saints which are at Ephesus are the faithful in Christ Jesus.

[1:35] That's not two separate groups of people. He's just repeating himself. It's a common thing. That redundancy throughout Scripture often helps us to understand words of the Bible, helps us understand doctrines when we see that kind of redundancy.

[1:48] So anyway, the faithful in Christ Jesus. Last week we stopped there and kind of said a few things and I want to take some more time with that because this is a very key phrase in your New Testament.

[2:01] And it's one that the Apostle Paul is very fond of and it's a doctrine that he introduces to the body of Christ. That phrase itself comes from the Apostle Paul, the body of Christ. And that's a revelation that he got from Jesus Christ.

[2:14] A few things that were revealed to him, directly to him, was in Galatians 1, was the gospel of Jesus Christ. The message that he preached, he called my gospel. And it's got a lot of different terminologies of the gospel of Christ.

[2:29] My gospel, as I said. He calls it the gospel of Christ. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's not the same gospel that the disciples in Jesus Christ preached during the times of Jesus Christ's ministry when they were preaching, as we've covered in detail, the gospel of the kingdom.

[2:46] Good news about God fulfilling his word of the prophets to the Jews and offering and giving that kingdom. This is not about that at all. The Apostle Paul's teaching that the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is good news for these Gentiles that they can believe on that and exercise faith in that, what do you want to call that?

[3:08] That accomplishment, that deed done by Jesus Christ. They put their faith in that gospel message. Now, in Christ Jesus, how do you get in Christ Jesus?

[3:18] That's the most important thing you can do today and know about is being in Christ Jesus. Not being in the USA, not being in a Baptist church, but being in Christ.

[3:31] There's nothing more important than being in Christ. It's a very important phrase. Notice just to your left, to the very end of Galatians, and notice near the very end, verse 15, at the end of this epistle.

[3:45] Notice Paul says this, For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, like keeping the law. Jews, that's a token of the covenant that they enter into.

[3:57] Every male, the eighth day, circumcised in the flesh, and that they enter. It's something that, you know how they baptize babies today, and they think that that means something?

[4:08] Well, it kind of finds its roots in this ceremony. In the Old Testament, the thought that a baby's an eight-day-old baby boy, I mean, what does he know about what's happening?

[4:20] But it's done by his parents and the priest, and he enters into this covenant with God and Israel. But that doesn't avail anything in Christ Jesus, if you're a law-abiding Jew.

[4:31] And the verse ends by saying, Nor uncircumcision, which would be traditionally assumed to be the Gentiles, that don't walk after the law. None of that matters in Christ Jesus, but one thing does, verse 15 says, A new creature.

[4:45] A new creature. Now go back to your left, to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. What's this new creature?

[4:56] 2 Corinthians 5. You know the verse, don't you?

[5:07] Verse 17. Therefore, if any man be, there's our two words, in Christ, he is a new creature.

[5:18] And on the opposite of that, if any man be not in Christ, he's not a new creature. He's just the old creature, the old man. But if he's in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away.

[5:28] Behold, all things are become new. And then we can develop through this, the teaching that Paul gives to the church of the new nature and the new man. And knowing that we have two natures now, an old nature and a new nature.

[5:42] And one is Christ in us. The Spirit of God comes inside of us and the work that he does on the inside. But there's another work that he does. And let's take a look back at 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

[5:54] Just keep moving back to your left a little bit more. Not just does the Spirit of God come to indwell us, 1 Corinthians 6 and Romans 8, but he does something to us.

[6:09] Spiritually speaking, he puts us into Jesus Christ. This is a spiritual thing that takes place. You can't feel it. You can't see it. You can't perceive it in others, physically and outwardly speaking.

[6:23] But it's something that the Holy Spirit of God does, a work of the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 12, take a look at verse number 12. For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many are one body.

[6:39] He's just talking physically about your human body. You've got fingers and toes and a tongue and ears and eyeballs and a chin and skin and hair and the whole thing comes together to make one body.

[6:51] So also is Christ. What, is Christ made up of hair, follicles? Is he made up of fingernails? Is that what he's saying? No, but he says this in verse 13. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit.

[7:12] And then he carries that analogy of the physical human body through verse 14, through a good part of this chapter, to show the significance of individual members to this body and just the same to be of the body of Christ.

[7:26] How verse 27 says, Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular. So you're an individual member of the body of Christ.

[7:37] How did you get in the body of Christ? Verse 12, we read it. Or verse 13, The Spirit of God, capital S. He baptized us into the body.

[7:48] So what does that mean? Did you get baptized in your church and now you became part of the body of Christ? Does he say water baptism in the chapter? Do you see the word water anywhere in the chapter?

[8:00] You don't. This has nothing to do with water. The word baptized means to immerse. Or even as it says in this verse, it says you are baptized into. It doesn't say you're baptized into water.

[8:13] It says you're baptized into the body of Christ. Now people that don't study their Bibles closely and carefully and don't realize these words are holy and pure and think, well, if I don't understand it, it needs to be, you know, I'll go somewhere else and try to find a different way to word it so that maybe then I'll get it.

[8:30] And teachings have come about and churches believe this, that when you get dunked into water in their church, now you're joining that congregation because you're baptized into the body.

[8:41] And they're dead wrong, scripturally speaking, and now there's so much of that man-made nonsense because people don't study their Bibles well enough. This is a spiritual baptism.

[8:54] The Spirit placed you into the body, and the body is the body of Christ, according to verse 27. So how did you get placed into Christ? How is a man a new creature in Christ?

[9:05] The Spirit of God, upon salvation, He places you into a body. He puts you in Christ. Look at Galatians chapter 3. Move to your right now. Galatians 3.

[9:16] Galatians 3. Galatians 3. Galatians 3. Galatians 3. Galatians 3. Galatians 3. Galatians 3. Galatians 3. Galatians 3.

[9:27] And near the end of this chapter, verse 26, it says, For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

[9:38] You better have those five words or you're going to mess up that verse too. And now verse 27, For as many of you as have been baptized into water?

[9:49] No, into Christ. Have put on Christ. There's neither Jew nor Greek. Boy, he says that a lot, doesn't he? There's neither bond nor free. There's neither male nor female.

[10:00] For ye are all one in Christ Jesus. So a man, a woman, a Jew, a Gentile, black, white, rich, poor, doesn't matter any of that.

[10:11] Trust Jesus Christ, verse 26, by faith in Christ Jesus. Become a child of God. He baptizes you. He places you into, immerses you into, the spiritual body of Christ.

[10:25] Now there's another term for that. Come to Ephesians again, where we started. And look at verse number, chapter 1, verse 22 and 23. Here's another term for the body of Christ.

[10:38] It's called the church. The church. The church. Verse 22 says, And hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.

[10:53] And again, that term shows up a few more times in this book as we study it later in chapter 5. Toward the end of chapter 5, you can check that out or cross-reference it on your own.

[11:04] So the church, not the Holy Mother Church, some denominations have taken that title and claimed that that's us. And they even go back into Matthew as we studied in Matthew 16 and find that word there and decide, oh, that's talking about us and Peter's our Pope and on and on and on.

[11:21] We don't have time to talk about that stuff. But if you're not in Christ Jesus, I don't care what church you're in. I don't care what claim you have and what ordination papers you have on your wall. If you're not in Christ Jesus, you're on your way to hell.

[11:34] You don't have your sins forgiven. You know what you get in Christ Jesus? Look at chapter 1 and verse 7. In whom? In. In Jesus Christ. In whom we have redemption through his blood.

[11:46] The forgiveness of sins. If you don't have him, if you're not in him, you don't have redemption. You don't have his blood washing you from your sins. You need to get in Christ. How do you get in Christ?

[11:58] By faith in Christ Jesus and on to preaching the gospel and receiving Jesus Christ as your Savior. When you take Jesus Christ as your Savior, he takes, God takes you, the Spirit baptizes you into a body that's an eternal body.

[12:13] And then some things get pretty crazy. Some mysterious things that this book says are true about you and I. It's just something we have to take by faith.

[12:25] Because even in this book of Ephesians, last week I told you there's stuff in here I cannot expound upon and I don't know if I ever will. But there's some things that this book says that are true about us.

[12:35] He made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Like that's an established fact of Ephesians chapter 2. Like we're all ready. He made us to sit together.

[12:46] It doesn't feel like I'm seated with him in heavenly places right now. But that book says some stuff if I'm in Christ. Now one more point here about this. Come back to 1 Corinthians 15.

[13:00] And there's a lot of scripture we could cover to really expound this. The Bible says that ye are complete in him in Colossians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians 15.

[13:16] I want you to see verse 22. And this can even be expounded upon more but this will suffice. Verse 22 says, For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

[13:34] And so you're either in one of the two. If you're in Adam, you're going to die and you're going to die in your sins. But if you're in Christ, you can be made alive, quickened. You know what Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 says?

[13:47] And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. And so not only do you get placed in the body of Christ, you get quickened in eternal life, made alive in redemption and forgiveness and now you're complete in him.

[14:04] If you're not in him, you're not complete. You're not forgiven. No redemption. You're in your sin. You're dead. All right. So come back to Ephesians chapter 1. How important it is that you're in Jesus Christ.

[14:19] Ephesians chapter 1 verse number 2, continuing with his introduction or as my Bible says, salutation. It's a better word. Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

[14:32] That grace and peace is a signature of the Apostle Paul. Most epistles, he starts and finishes with those two words. Most of them, you'll find it within like the last four or five verses.

[14:44] For sure, grace is all over the place in Paul's writing. But grace and peace is the way he talks. And notice the last phrase there. Now he says, not just Christ Jesus.

[14:54] First in verse 1, he says an apostle of Jesus Christ. Then he says Christ Jesus. Now he says the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the full title, the full reverent title for the man Jesus, rather for God Jesus.

[15:10] He's the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, significant of his deity. And the Bible says that in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And he is the Lord Jesus Christ.

[15:22] And you see the three persons of the Trinity, really, the Lord being the deity of the Father, Jesus, the man, and Christ. The word means anointed like the spirit. And that's the same word for the Messiah of the Old Testament.

[15:36] And so that's the full title and that's a strong one. And a lot of new Bibles, you won't see that. Or they'll knock one of the words off or knock two of them off and just make it say Jesus. Or they'll even knock it all the way down and eliminate the full title and just say him.

[15:51] But use a pronoun instead and constantly demote when the word of God exalts the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, here we go. Verse three, are you ready? Let's see if we can get into something here.

[16:04] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings, not just half of them, but all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.

[16:17] And there's our two words that make everything matter in Christ. In Christ. If you're not in Christ, you don't get any of it. Now, this is some stuff here that I promise you I won't be able to do justice to as we get through three and four, or especially verse three here.

[16:35] This thing about spiritual blessings and in heavenly places, yeah, some of that's for surely, it's over my head or as they say, it's above my pay grade. I just don't know what all that entails.

[16:48] I know Abraham was promised land, dirt. God said, this land I'm going to give to you. I'm going to bless them that bless you and curse them to curse you and I'm going to give this land to you, Abraham.

[17:00] And I'm going to bless you with a seed and that seed is going to be many nations and that's physical stuff that Abraham was promised, physical blessings. It gets very clearly articulated in the book of Deuteronomy when the covenant's reiterated to the nation of Israel that's about to go into the land and God says, I'm going to bless your crops, I'm going to bless your cattle, I'm going to bless your children.

[17:25] When you go out to war, I'm going to bless you there, I'm going to fight for you. All the diseases of Egypt, they won't be known by you because you'll be healthy and you'll be wealthy and the whole world is going to look to you and see your blessings, blessings, blessings and they're going to know it came from me.

[17:40] Those are physical blessings. God didn't promise that, did he? Not to you in the church age in Ephesians chapter 1. He didn't promise health and he didn't promise wealth and he didn't promise land.

[17:54] He didn't promise children. He didn't promise any of those things to you in Christ. He promised or he gave, he blessed us with something far better.

[18:06] Something we probably don't fully, I know we don't fully realize. Not even realize, we don't even understand what he's talking about here. He blessed us with all spiritual blessings.

[18:17] When this thing wraps up, folks, when we're out of this body and we're with the Lord, we're not going to want the physical blessings anymore. We're going to thank God we got the spiritual blessings in heavenly places.

[18:28] That's where you're going to want to be reigning and knowing some things and having some things. He's blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Now, man wants cars and money and houses and he wants land.

[18:42] He wants all those things here. But the liberty that he's blessed us with and the things in Christ far exceed that, go far beyond it. And in the chapter, we could kind of pull out some things that he's said about us.

[18:59] Well, for instance, in verse 4, come to the end of verse 4, where it says that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. The very fact that we can be holy and without blame before him, it sounds to me like a spiritual blessing because I'm not holy and I'm not without blame and neither are you, but to think that Jesus Christ would wash you from your sins in his blood and that he'd grant you his righteousness and just say, here you go, you can take it, I earned it for you, that's a blessing.

[19:32] That's a spiritual blessing that'll far outlive your car. So yeah, we'll take that one. Now, I'm not sure that that's what he's talking about at all though in verse 3.

[19:44] That's why I say I'm not sure about some of this stuff because these blessings in heavenly places that he talks, spiritual blessings in heavenly places, I'm not sure he's just talking about what we could pull out of the passage like it's typically expounded like being holy and being redeemed and verse 6 being accepted in the beloved, that's Jesus Christ.

[20:04] Verse 11, it mentions an inheritance. Verse 11, in whom, in whom, of course, it's in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worked all things after the counsel of his will.

[20:18] Yeah, there's a lot of things we could tack on but I'm not entirely sure that that is what Paul's even hinting at with the spiritual blessings in heavenly places.

[20:28] That's a locality. That's not earthly places. That's somewhere else. That's above this realm. That's outside. They send that telescope thing.

[20:40] They send that thing out there and take pictures and they've got all these wonderful pictures to show you and they tell, these idiots, they say, we are seeing for the first time 12 billion years back to where it all began.

[20:55] Like, you think that picture is telling, showing you where it began? It? What is it? The universe? What they say is this expanding universe that they'll never be able to fathom and then they talk about how much they believe, they hope there's inhabitable planets and life out there.

[21:13] What do they know about heavenly places? They took a few pictures of some things and all they can do is just have their minds blown about what's out there. Anyway, we've got to get back to something real here.

[21:26] The word of God. He hath blessed us who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. So first of all, if you're not in Christ, forget about it.

[21:37] You better be in Christ. And by the way, that's where the blessings are, in Him. He is going to be given the entire thing, the entire creation. Let's look at it.

[21:48] Colossians chapter 1. And let's make the connection to the heavenly places and to the blessings that we're going to get because we're in Him and what He's going to receive from the Father.

[22:00] Colossians chapter 1. I'll start in verse 13.

[22:12] Some familiar language as we come through here. Verse 13 of Colossians 1. Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.

[22:32] For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible. Whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him.

[22:46] And He is before all things and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence for it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.

[23:00] Now, I'm not going to run the trail here, but just to suffice it to say this, it was created by Him, it was created for Him, all of it, the whole thing.

[23:11] And in 1 Corinthians 15, it gives a little breakdown of the time of this, the chronology of it, that we understand that it has fallen away, but it's going to be subdued to Jesus Christ and He's going to bring it all together in one and we get to be, sounds like we get to be part of Jesus Christ subduing the heavenlies.

[23:33] Now, that's another study and a little bit further and it's speculating on some passages, but it is, it's there. And it offers a whole lot more thought because the Jews inherit the earth and the physical land and the blessings are for them, but ours are the heavenlies.

[23:49] And so to think about what it's going to be to inhabit those lands or to subdue them to Jesus Christ, there's a whole lot going on there. So let's move on before I talk myself into a hole I can't get out of.

[24:04] All right, Ephesians chapter 1 and coming into verse number 3, we read that last phrase that they're all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now this term, heavenly places, is unique to the Apostle Paul and to the book of Ephesians.

[24:21] And so look at chapter 2, you'll see it again in chapter 2. Oh, I missed one. In chapter 1, verse 20.

[24:32] Notice that. Chapter 1, verse 20. Which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that's named.

[24:46] So there's another reference and mention of heavenly places. Chapter 2 and verse number 6. And hath raised us up together. This is him quickening us together with Christ.

[24:58] It's always connected to him. And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That at the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

[25:11] There's another reference to heavenly places. This is a locality. Look at chapter 3 one more. Chapter 3 and verse number 10. And we're just popping these verses out because we'll come through these passages later and get them in detail.

[25:33] To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places. You notice how much that principalities and power stuff shows up? And there's been a rebellion in that realm in that spiritual realm and there's called the rulers of the darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places.

[25:50] That's in chapter 6. And so there's principalities and powers and they're in heavenly places. In Colossians we read that they're visible and invisible. There's earthbound stuff and there's spiritual stuff in the heavenlies.

[26:06] And a study of Daniel will reveal some of that stuff about the prince of Grisha and the prince of Persia and Michael the great archangel he's the prince that standeth for thy people Israel. There's spiritual beings that are kind of counterparts to what's happening on the planet and it's wild, huh?

[26:26] Verse 10 it says principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. So there's the four references that pop up in Ephesians and the continual pointing to up and heavenly places by the apostle Paul in this book.

[26:47] This is a great book and it's got some depth to it. It does have some very practical information and commands to us about our walk with the Lord Jesus Christ as well as our warfare but it also has this high and lofty language that points us outside of our realm and to something that Paul got some insight to that is deep stuff and it's hard to receive.

[27:11] Now come back to Ephesians chapter 1 and we'll try to finish with something here. In verse number 3 we'll pick it up there again and carry it into verse 4.

[27:26] Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.

[27:41] And now what carries is the sentence carries all the way to the end of verse 6 but there's so much that we'll break it down. It starts by saying according as and that ties it to the previous verse and I believe it's likely tied to the verb that He's blessed us according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.

[28:01] And what follows as we read in verse 4 and on is a result of being in Christ. Now some people say you see that He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation see we didn't choose Christ He chose us.

[28:16] And then they develop a doctrine of predestination and they develop something to say that you didn't choose whether you'd be saved or not. I shouldn't even say it's a doctrine of predestination that's not entirely the right term there.

[28:31] But the verse says according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation did we miss a little key phrase in that verse? Did somebody miss a key phrase that really helps us to understand what the Apostle Paul teaches and the truth?

[28:46] According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. So did Jesus Christ choose us to get in Him?

[28:58] No. He chose those who are in Him or those who choose to get in Him He chose Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world. If you get in Christ you're in because that's who He chose.

[29:11] To give you a better example of this or just to illustrate this for you this will help you and I've scribbled some of this stuff down in my Bible so that I would remember it that we are chosen in Him.

[29:23] We are chosen because we are in Him. Here's an example of this. Let's say you go to a Dodger game and you buy the tickets and you buy tickets and you're seated in section 328 and up on the big screen halfway through the game it says every fan in section 328 gets a free hot dog.

[29:47] Yes, the glory. Now, did you you get the free hot dog because you were chosen to get the free hot dog or was it rather did you were you chosen to sit in that section is my question.

[30:02] You bought that ticket it was kind of random and not a good illustration there but nevertheless because you're in that section and that section's chosen you get it.

[30:13] How about a flight? There's a flight from Burbank this morning going no doubt to Las Vegas probably a lot of them and if you buy a plane ticket and get on that plane that plane the destination is fixed is going to Las Vegas.

[30:28] Now, did you choose if God chose before the foundation all this stuff what he chose was those that are in Christ are saved that are going to be made like unto his son Jesus Christ and all of these things that get tacked on to salvation.

[30:44] The illustration with the plane you choose to get on the plane the plane's going there. God determines where the plane's going so to speak you choose whether or not you're going to be a passenger and so when you choose to take Jesus Christ as your savior the spirit of God places you into Jesus Christ and that is what God has predetermined long before time began that this is what I'm doing with my son and if you get in his son it's your free will God is not willing that any should perish he will have all men to be saved so to teach a doctrine that God chose you but didn't choose somebody else that's just a gross it's a misinterpretation of the passage which can easily be done very easily by not knowing the passage and the words the key phrase in him and then of course you have to kind of brush under the rug other scriptures that would not agree with that position and that's a common thing.

[31:43] Now we're running out of time quickly here but let's try to finish something about this thought there in verse 4 according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love it doesn't say he's chosen us to trust him he's chosen us to get saved he's chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy if you're in Jesus Christ that's what you are without blame if you're in Jesus Christ that's what you are because of his righteousness you could stand before God without blame blameless harmless the sons of God in the verse 5 he's predestinated us there's the term that gets really abused having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ so the the Calvinist is typically the term put on them or some of the reformed theology thoughts here is that ok well he predestinated me to be saved because that's what the adoption of children is

[32:46] I've become a son of God and they kind of read into the terms and kind of stretch or bend the terms of the Bible because salvation become a child of God and we're children of God by faith in Christ Jesus so since I'm saved obviously I had to be it was predestinated that I do that and it's a misinterpretation of what it says here's something that you should write in your Bible and know that anytime you see the word predestination in your Bible it always follows salvation it follows personally speaking for you it follows salvation you're never predestinated to salvation like they teach but when you trust Jesus Christ by your own free will having heard the gospel and believed it some reject it and having heard the gospel just as clearly having received the gospel and getting baptized into Christ you got put into something you got put into something that there's a list of things associated with being in Jesus Christ you know when you're on that plane not only did you get on that plane but you also got a bag of crackers you also got a little free drink and in that plane ride you got well there's not too much good to say about a plane ride

[33:58] I probably shouldn't use Vegas either you don't go to Sin City when you get saved so let's scratch that whole thing huh anyway you get the idea in Christ there's blessings there's things that have been predetermined by God the Father one of them that is if you get in him your sins are washed away and now you're holy and without blame before him in love now we're going to have to quit here but we'll be able to pick it up next week having that groundwork laid to move into some more thought about what you're predestinated and the word shows up in verse 5 and it shows up again in verse 11 and so we're going to handle it correctly and we're going to try to also determine and show that God has a purpose and his purpose has to do with his son Jesus Christ it doesn't so much have to do with you as an individual as much as you want it to be it has to do with who he cares about more than anybody and if somebody you know everybody wants to be loved everybody wants to say God loves me so much and can't help himself but you need to understand that apart from Jesus

[35:00]  Christ you deserve damnation God hates he's angry with the wicked and he's got vengeance for you is what he has as a holy God he sees a dirt bag he doesn't just see somebody like oh I just want him to be saved I just want to have him with me because he really doesn't get much even when he saves you he doesn't get a whole lot out of you if you're honest and what he does get out of you a lot of times it's because he has to squeeze not too much free will love you Lord I'll give you everything I have who am I not too much of that so we'll pick it up next week here in Ephesians and try to get a little bit further so let's take a ten minute break here