From the MLJ Archive

Guest (Male): We apologize for the poor quality of the following recording of a sermon by the late Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Although we have digitally restored this to improve clarity, the quality is not as good as we would like. We do apologize for this, but nevertheless hope that this sermon will be a great encouragement and a blessing to you.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The words to which I should like to call your attention this morning are to be found in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, in the first chapter and the third verse. The third verse in the first chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."

Now, that of course is one of these glorious, staggering statements which are to be found in such profusion in the writings of this great apostle. Nothing perhaps is more characteristic of his style as a writer than just that: the frequency with which he seems to state the whole gospel in a phrase or in a verse.

He never tires of doing it. He goes on doing it. He says the same thing in different ways. And this surely is one of the most glorious even of his statements, and therefore it is one of those statements that brings us face to face with the profundities of the Christian faith.

Now, it's one of those phrases which I always feel we have to be very careful with as we handle it. The danger, of course, with a statement like this is that we may be so charmed and enraptured by it, by the very sound of the words and the very arrangement of the words, that we are content with some passing general effect and never take the trouble to analyze it and thereby to discover exactly what it says.

The danger, of course, with a statement like this is just to intone it. And if you just intone it, well, you'll be content with a general effect. It almost persuades you to intone it, doesn't it? It's such a magnificent statement. It gives one great pleasure just to utter the words and to repeat them. And one may thus, I say, be content with a purely general or aesthetic effect.

And of course, if that does happen to us, we shall be missing something of this tremendous richness that is to be found in this statement. Therefore, it behooves us, especially with these resounding statements like this, to be unusually careful to examine them and to dissect them, to analyze them, to open them out, to question them, and to discover exactly what is the meaning and the content of almost every word. And we must do this very especially in the light of the whole teaching of the scripture everywhere.

Now then, what exactly is the apostle saying here? Well, the first thing we have to do, of course, is to observe its context. It's the third verse. It comes after the first and the second. Obvious, isn't it? And yet I feel sure that were we to turn this into a catechizing meeting and to ask the question of why exactly does this come in the third place rather than the first, some of us might find it rather difficult to answer the question.

Well, the connection is this, isn't it? First of all, the apostle has reminded these Ephesian Christians of who they are and what they are. He did that in the first verse. Then in the second verse, he has gone on to offer a kind of prayer for them. Having reminded them of who they are and what they are, he then reminds them of what is open to them as Christians because they are what they are.

Or, if you prefer it, he has gone on to remind them of the things that as Christians they can enjoy and should be enjoying, and should seek to enjoy: grace and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. And having done all that, he now goes on to this. He's now concerned to remind them of how they have ever become what they are, and of how it is at all possible for them to enjoy these priceless blessings of grace and of peace.

That's the connection. Again, you see, we must emphasize the fact that this preliminary salutation isn't mere formality. It's full of that logic that always characterizes this man. What a perfect example of that we had in that third chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians: the argument, the sequence, one thing following another.

The apostle can't help doing that. He always does it and he's doing it here. That's what you are: you're saints, you're faithful, you're in Christ. Because of that, you can be enjoying grace and peace from God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, but how is all this possible to you? What's made it possible? And the answer is to be found here at once in this third verse.

Now, there is a sense in which we can say, quite rightly and truthfully, that this third verse really is the great central message of the whole epistle. This is the thing that in a sense he's concerned to do, that's why he ever wrote his letter. He desires these Christian people to come to an understanding of just that.

He'll say this many times in many different ways. He's praying for them, he says, that the eyes of your understanding be enlightened. What for? That you may know what is the hope of your calling, and so on. The great theme is this understanding. He wants them to realize how they are what they are, and how they're open to these great blessings.

He says, "I want you to have an understanding of it all." In other words, the theme here is the plan of salvation, the way of salvation, this tremendous process that puts us where we are and opens us to all these things that God has for us. Now, the apostle does this, I say, because he wants these Ephesian Christians and others to arrive at that understanding.

And he wants them to arrive at that understanding that they may enter into their heritage, that they may enjoy the Christian life as they should, and that they may live lives to the praise of the glory of God. And of course, exactly the same thing applies to us. Whether we know it or not, my friends, our main trouble as Christians today is still a lack of understanding, a lack of knowledge.

No, not a lack of knowledge superficially of the scriptures, but a lack of knowledge of the doctrines of the scriptures. And it is because of our fatal lack at that point that there are so many other deficiencies in our Christian lives. The chief need, according to this epistle, is that the eyes of our understanding may be wide open.

Not simply that we may enjoy the Christian life and its experiences, but that we may understand, because the more we understand, the more we shall experience. It's a lack of knowledge that's always troubled God's people. It's the great message of the book of the prophet Hosea in the Old Testament.

He says the trouble there with the people is that "my people," says God, "are lost because of lack of understanding, lack of knowledge." It was the whole trouble with the children of Israel from beginning to end. They would not realize who they were and what they were, and why they were what they were.

It was a lack of knowledge all along. If only they'd known these things, they would never have wandered away from God. They would never have turned to idols, they would have never sought to be like the other nations. It was this fatal lack of knowledge, and the New Testament is full of the same teaching.

Very well then, we must consider this verse very carefully, because here the apostle, I say, displays before us this knowledge, this doctrine, which leads us into an understanding of what we are. Let me try to subdivide it in terms of the following principles. I take it in the order in which it's presented to us by the apostle.

The first proposition, therefore, must be this: that the realization of the truth concerning our redemption always leads to praise. You notice how it bursts forth. Think of it, if you like, in terms of an orchestra. And there stands the conductor, ready. And here's this tremendous burst, with all the power and the magnificence: "Blessed."

It was the sort of thing, of course, that Handel seems to have understood so well. It's the characteristic, is it not, of some of his greatest choruses? Think of the opening of "Worthy is the Lamb," that first note. Well, that's the kind of thing you have here: "Blessed." He starts off with this tremendous burst of praise and of acclamation.

Now, here is something I think which must cause us to pause at once. The apostle, I say, starts here with a great word of praise: "Blessed be God. Praised be God." He always starts like that. Go through all his epistles and you'll find that he does it invariably. That's his opening note, that's the first thing always: praise and thanksgiving.

The apostle praises God because he did understand the doctrine. It was as the result of his contemplation of it that he does praise, so that when he begins to write, it's in the background of all this that he's been contemplating and realizing, so he starts with his praise. And surely praise and thanksgiving are of the most striking characteristics of the Christian life.

Take, for instance, the book of the Acts of the Apostles. It has been said of that book that it's the most lyrical book in the world, and I believe that's perfectly true. In spite of all the persecution those people had to endure, and in spite of all the hardships and all the difficulties, there is a spirit there in that book that is quite irrepressible.

Those people were being thrilled with a joy and a peace and a happiness, not only that they'd never known before, but which the world had never known before and had never seen before. That's the great characteristic of the Christian: praise and thanksgiving. You can't read your New Testament epistles without finding the same thing.

This is the great appeal always, isn't it? "Rejoice in the Lord, and again I say, rejoice. Rejoice evermore." And even in a book like the Book of Revelation, which pictures the trials and the tribulations and the troubles that were coming and would come upon God's people, oh, running through it all is this note of triumph and of praise and of worship and of glorification. Take chapters four and five, and there you see it.

It is the ultimate characteristic of God's people, of Christians. And of course, that is quite inevitable in view of what we've already seen in this particular epistle. If we did realize together last Sunday morning what grace means and what peace it leads to, well, we can't help praising.

And therefore, I suggest, before we go any further, that there is no more thorough test of our Christian profession this morning than just this: how prominent is the element of praise and of thanksgiving in our life? Is it something that is to be found welling up out of our hearts and out of our experiences, as it invariably did with this great apostle?

Is it something that's constantly breaking out and bursting forth? Is it manifest in our lives? Now, let's be clear about this. I'm not speaking simply of using certain words. I know that there is a type of Christian who, having heard the kind of teaching that I'm giving now, decides from there on, every time he or she speaks, to use the phrase "Praise the Lord" in order that he or she may give the impression of being a Christian who's full of praise and of thanksgiving.

They just use phrases and use them glibly. I'm not speaking of that. Because there's nothing glib about this. There's nothing merely formal and superficial. This comes out of the depths of the man's heart, his being. It's heartfelt. His whole life is one of praise, and he doesn't know how to contain himself. That's the kind of thing to which I'm referring.

And surely we must agree, it's impossible to go through the New Testament without seeing that this is the supreme thing. It stands to reason, doesn't it? If this gospel is true, that God has sent His own Son into the world to do things for people who are called Christians, well then, you'd expect them to be entirely different.

You'd expect them to be in such a relationship with God that it would be evident to all. And surely it should lead to this above everything else, this quality of joy. Now, let me say this for the Roman Catholics, whose doctrine and teaching I so often criticize. They canonize certain people as saints, we don't agree with that, but we do agree with one of the qualifications which they put down as being absolutely essential before they will canonize a person.

And what is it? Well, it's just this thing I'm talking about. It's this quality of joy. It isn't enough, according to them, that this person should have worked miracles even, unless there is evident in that person's life this quality of joy and of praise, they won't canonize such a person.

I think at that point they're absolutely right. And that is why you have these constant exhortations to the Christians in the New Testament to praise God and to rejoice in Him and to offer up their thanksgiving. It is the thing that differentiates us from the world. The world really is very miserable and very unhappy. It's full of cursings and grumbles and complaints. Listen to people talking to one another. That's it always, isn't it?

Well, this is the thing that marks off the Christian, and of course it is true of the Christian particularly in his prayer and in his worship. You read the manuals on the devout life and on the devotional life which have been written throughout the centuries, and again irrespective of all communions, and I think you will find that they all agree that the highest point of all worship and of all prayer is adoration, praise, and thanksgiving.

True prayer doesn't consist merely of petitions and of desires expressed. The ultimate, the acme of prayer and of worship is adoration, thanksgiving, and worship. My dear friends, must we not all plead guilty at this point? Aren't we all aware of a terrible deficiency and a terrible lack as we put it like this?

When we pray in private or together in public, what part has adoration in it? Do we like just to be in the presence of God, as one of the writers of the hymns puts it, "To gaze and gaze on Thee" in worship and in adoration, sometimes silent, sometimes vocal? "Blessed be the God and Father," ascribing unto God all this praise, this blessedness, this glory.

It's the highest point. And I say the measure of our growth in grace, the measure of our ultimate true Christianity is the place that this ascription of praise unto God and of adoration has in our life. Oh, it's when you and I become lost in wonder, love, and praise that we're really functioning as God means us to function in Christ.

And so I say again that we must examine ourselves. It's a terrible thing to reflect, isn't it, and to realize that that is really the object of a public act of worship such as this. And let us who are so-called nonconformists examine ourselves at this point. Of course we're not going to be misled by windows or by types of building or by mere beautiful phrases in litanies and things like that, but let us remember this: the primary object of every service is to adore and to worship God.

And worship means real worship of the heart. It doesn't mean repeating phrases, I say again, it means that the heart goes out in this great praise unto God. We don't come to God's house simply to seek things, to seek even blessings and seek and desire various things. We don't come to listen to sermons, we shouldn't. We should come to worship and to adore God.

"Blessed be the God and Father." It's the starting point, it's the highest point. Yes, but let us notice even this: that the praise and the adoration and the worship are to be ascribed to the holy blessed Trinity. Did you notice that? "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings." I read here, it means blessings in the Holy Spirit.

So that not only must we praise and worship and adore, this worship must be offered to and the praise must be ascribed to the three blessed persons. Now the apostle Paul always does that again. He never fails to do it. And he delights in doing it. He delights in mentioning the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And once more, may we pause for a moment to ask a question? Is this true of our worship? Do we realize that this is again a test of our Christian profession? Let me put it in the form of a positive statement. The Christian position is always trinitarian, and it must be. And Christian worship must be trinitarian if it is to be true worship.

There's no question of choice about this, it is, I say, quite inevitable. If we have got the correct biblical, New Testament view of salvation, well then, the three persons of the blessed holy Trinity must always and invariably be present. Now this is a tremendous thought, it's a staggering thought, isn't it?

So often people stop at just one person. Some stop at the person of the Father only. They talk about God, and about worshipping God, and about having forgiveness from God. And in all that talk and conversation, even the Lord Jesus Christ isn't mentioned.

And then there are others who seem to stop almost only and entirely with the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're so concentrated upon Him that you hear little of the Father and little of the Holy Spirit. And there are others whose entire conversation seems to be about the work of the Holy Spirit, and they're interested in spiritual manifestations. I think you know what I mean.

There is this constant danger of forgetting that as Christians we of necessity worship the three persons in the blessed holy Trinity. Christianity is trinitarian. It starts there, it continues there, as I'm now going to try to show. But not only, I say, must we be careful always that the three persons are in our minds and in our worship.

We must be equally careful that they come in the order in which they always do in the scriptures. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. There is this kind of divine subordination. It is a subordination determined by the blessed persons themselves, but they have done so, and so we have this order.

And you and I must always preserve this order. Ultimately, we take our worship to the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit. And there is a danger, I say, on the part of evangelical Christians in particular, to offer all their prayers to the Son. There are others, I say, who forget the Son altogether. But the two wrongs don't make one right. We worship the Father, we go to Him through the Lord Jesus Christ, but our end, our goal is God Himself.

Well, very well, I say, let us notice here that at the very commencement, the apostle not only praises, but he praises the three blessed persons and ascribes unto them this thanksgiving and this glory, and in the invariable order. Well now, that's the first thing. But let me hurry on to a second thing.

And the second thing is why God is to be praised. My first principle was that a true realization of the nature of salvation leads to praise. But why should it lead to praise? Why should the blessed persons in the holy Trinity be thus praised? Well now, there are many answers, of course, to that question.

Let me concentrate on the one that the apostle emphasizes supremely in this verse. God, of course, is to be praised because He is who and what He is. He is blessed. The ultimate character of God is blessedness. It's indescribable, of course. You can't define it, you can't put it into words.

But if there is one quality, one attribute of God that makes God God—I speak with reverence and stand on holy ground—if there's one thing that makes God God more than anything else, it is blessedness. And God is to be praised, and we are to say "Blessed be God" because God is who and what He is.

God is also to be praised because He has blessed us. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." I don't even stay with that this morning. Because you notice that before we come to that, the apostle has come to something else, and this is the thing that I must emphasize today.

God is to be praised and to be blessed because of the way in which He has blessed us. He has blessed us, yes, but what the apostle emphasizes at the beginning of this verse is the way in which He's blessed us. And I've already been hinting at that in reminding you of the importance of realizing our relationship to the three persons of the blessed holy Trinity.

In other words, the great message of this verse, as I understand it, is the planning of our salvation. Not only the plan, but the way in which it's been planned. The way in which God has brought it to pass and brought it about. Oh, yes, we've been blessed. Yes, but the question is, how have we been blessed? That's the thing.

Now, here again I think we must plead guilty. Isn't this something once more that we've been tending to neglect and to ignore? How often, I wonder, have we sat down and have tried to contemplate as the result of reading the scripture the planning of salvation, the way in which God worked out His plan, planned it, and put it into operation?

It's a very good test again of our understanding. Oh, I can't say too often, I plead so guilty to it myself. The trouble with us all is our morbid preoccupation with ourselves and our states and moods and needs. All along we talk in terms of ourselves and what's happening to us. Of course, that's of vital importance.

Christianity is experimental. There is no such thing as a Christianity which is not experimental. But, my dear friends, it isn't only experimental. And indeed, as I want to try to show this morning, it is the measure to which we understand that we shall experience. But we spend all our time in feeling our spiritual pulses, taking our spiritual temperature, talking about ourselves and moods and conditions.

Our whole conversations are about that, and how little do we talk about the plan and the planning and what God has done. And yet, I say, this is the thing with which the apostle starts, and with which he always starts. The Bible itself starts with it. And I'm calling attention to it, not because I'm animated by some academic or theoretical interest.

I'm calling attention to it because, as I say, we rob ourselves of so much of the glories and the riches of grace because we won't take the trouble to understand it. We don't face the teaching of scripture. You see, we tend to take a chapter like this in one sermon or one address. We slide over these great phrases, we intone them and we pass on.

We don't stop and analyze them and break them up and realize what they are saying to us. And of course, we even try to excuse what we do by saying "But that's theology, that's doctrine." And we say we are not interested in that, we want to be practical Christians and we want to enjoy Christianity.

And so we even try to justify ourselves for our failure to understand the planning of salvation. But how terribly wrong we are at that point. Scripture gives this teaching to all of us. The apostle Paul writes this letter that these people might understand these things. Not simply experience something, but look at it from God's end, from God's eternal purpose.

These people, who were many of them slaves, hadn't had a secondary or even a primary education, they are meant to grapple with the theology of the Epistle to the Ephesians. We say we haven't got the time, we can't be bothered. Shame on us, Christian people. And if you're suffering this morning from what Charles Lamb called "the mumps and measles of the soul," believe me, it's due to the fact that you've never taken the trouble to understand Christian doctrine.

I'm so concerned about this that perhaps you'll forgive me an illustration. We spent about 26 Sunday mornings, from January to the middle of July this year—those who attend here regularly—in considering what I call "spiritual depression." The causes of our unhappiness, the causes of our failure.

And if I may so put it, I think we enjoyed ourselves. And we enjoyed ourselves partly because we liked talking about our complaints. It seemed so personal, so direct, didn't it? And we considered the causes and the treatment and the application. It was tremendously interesting. It was so personal. Yes, but you know, my friends, during all those weeks we were in a hospital.

It was just hospital treatment. We were looking at the temperature chart, at the pulse rate, the rate of breathing, and we were analyzing symptoms and giving the appropriate medication. It was very interesting, very enjoyable. Yes, but it was being in hospital. Where are we now? Well, we've come out of the hospital.

Where are we now? Well, we've gone away, we're on some great mountaintop. We are breathing pure air, our lungs are meant to expand. It's not even a convalescent home, we've got beyond that. We are breathing God's glorious air, and the oxygen is entering in. We want to be strong, we don't want to go back to hospitals again.

This is positive, that was negative. But I say all this because I'm asking this question: do you find this equally enjoyable? This demands effort, doesn't it? You're not lying in a bed, you're walking about on top of the mountain. You have to exercise your limbs, to develop your muscles, to throw back your shoulders. It's demanding. Oh, but what glorious results come from it.

Here we are, I say, on one of the mountain peaks of God. Looking up into the heavens, seeing the great mountain ranges stretching ever onwards and onwards. That's it. And God means us all to dwell in a place like that. And I say it is essential that we should do so, because if we don't, we won't be able to worship God properly.

If there's no praise in your life, it's because you're still in hospital. If you want to praise God, well, come and look at the truth and try to understand it. Open your eyes to it. Expand your soul as you come face to face with it. This is the way to praise God. If you want to say "Blessed be God" from your heart, you must know something about Him and know what He's done and how He's planned this great salvation.

Well, that brings me to it. What is this plan? Well, it's all suggested in this verse. There was, you see, a great eternal council held between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. When was it held? The next verse tells you: "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world."

You're interested in salvation, yes, but had you realized that your salvation was planned before the world was ever made and created? That's the sort of thing that makes a man stand on tiptoes and shout out "Praise God!" Planned before the foundation of the world. The three blessed persons in the Trinity were concerned about it. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

You read in the book of Genesis, God said, "Let us make man." Why the plural? Well, the council, you see. The conference: the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. "Let us make man in our own image." But thank God that council not only considered the creation of men, it went on to consider also the salvation of men.

The three persons spoke and met together in conference—I speak with reverence in terms of scripture—and they planned it. Oh, let us get rid of this notion that salvation was an afterthought. The salvation of men is not an afterthought in the mind of God. It wasn't even a thought that came to God after men had fallen and had sinned.

Before the fall, before the very foundation of the world, it was all planned out. That's what He tells us. And the work was divided up amongst the three blessed persons—I'm simply hinting at these things this morning for you to see it as a whole, we'll come to deal with it in detail later. The three persons took up their various positions and their various tasks.

That is why the old theologians used to talk about an "economic Trinity." That the three blessed persons in the Trinity had divided up the work. The economics of it, if you like. The Father planned, the Son puts it into operation, and the Holy Spirit applies it. Now, let me show you all that in this very chapter.

Go home and study it and you'll find this. In verses four to six of this first chapter of Ephesians, you are told about the Father's part. In verses seven to 12, you're told about the Son's part. In verses 13 and 14, you're told about the Holy Spirit's part. He tells you it in embryo in the third verse: Father, Son, and Spirit.

But then it's divided up. And you'll notice that in each case, the work is ended with this phrase: "to the praise of the glory of His grace." There it is in verse six. In verse 12, "that we should be to the praise of His glory," and so on. Verse 14, "unto the praise of His glory." So you see, the council considered all this before the foundation of the world, and the work was divided up and planned in that manner.

The Father thinks it out, has His purpose, the Son volunteers and says He's going to do it. He came and did it, and the Holy Spirit says "I will apply it," and He's there the whole time keeping it going and furthering its purpose. Yes, but before we leave it, I must add just this: that what really happened in that eternal council was that a great covenant, a great covenant was drawn up.

Called, if you like, the covenant of grace, or the covenant of redemption. But hear me, says someone, where is that in the third verse of the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians? Let me ask you a question by way of reply. Why does the apostle say, do you think, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ"? Why did he say that?

Is it just a phrase again? Is it just one of those resounding things that he was rather delighted in doing? Believe me, it wasn't. He says this with very great deliberation in order to introduce us to this truth. He doesn't say "Blessed be God," not even "Blessed be God the Father." "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." Why does he put it like that? Let me answer.

There are those who say the answer is that he here wants us to know the kind of Father God is. I agree with that. I remember an old preacher once saying, he said, "You know, if you go and tell some people that God is Father, they'd be terrified and alarmed." There are some people to whom the term father conjures up nothing but a beast, a drunkard who spent all the family's money and starved his wife and children and came home drunk and smashed the furniture.

That's their idea of father. It's the only father they've ever known. And said the old preacher, God in His kindness, in order that we might know the kind of Father He is, said, "I am not only Father, I am the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son is like the Father. If you know Him, you know Me." That's the sort of fatherhood.

Quite right, I'll accept it all, but you know it doesn't go far enough. There's much more than that here. This is one of the most important statements in the New Testament. It's a new description of God. Go back to your Old Testament. How do you find God described? Isn't it like this? "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob." "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob," said God when He addressed certain people. Or He speaks of Himself as the God of Israel.

But it isn't that now. It isn't the God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob. It's the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Why the change? Well, it's just to teach us this. That all the blessings that come to us, come to us in and through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and because of that covenant that was made between them before the foundation of the world.

But you say blessings came to the Old Testament saints. Of course. But the teaching of the scripture is that those blessings came to the Old Testament saints through the Lord Jesus Christ. You see what happened was this: there, before the foundation of the world, God saw what was happening, what would happen to men. He saw the fall, He saw everything.

And this question of man's sin and fall had to be dealt with, and there the plan was drawn up, and an agreement was made between the Father and the Son. And it was this: the Son volunteered to make Himself responsible for fallen men. He contracted to do certain things, and God the Father on His side contracted to do other things.

God the Father said that He would grant forgiveness and reconciliation and restoration and new life and a new nature to all who were covered by His Son, on condition that the Son should come into the world and take human nature upon Himself and take the sin of mankind upon Himself and bear its punishment, stand for them and suffer for them and represent them.

That was the covenant, that was the agreement that was made. And it was made before the foundation of the world. God was able to tell Adam about that in the Garden of Eden, you remember, when He told him that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. There it is. It had already been made and God begins to announce it.

But then, you see, there were many subsidiary arrangements made. A covenant was made with Noah, a covenant was made with Abraham, a covenant was made with Moses. They are not the ultimate covenant. This is the covenant, the covenant made with the Son. The others were temporary, they were local, they were to meet certain eventualities.

But all those subsidiary covenants point forward to this great covenant. The law of Moses is full of grace. All the types and the ceremonial of your temple, they're all pointing to Christ. That's the ultimate covenant. This is a temporary covenant until that comes. The law was our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ, as Paul to the Galatians.

And you see his great argument. He says the law given to Moses doesn't disannul the covenant made with Abraham. That's the fundamental thing, and that is simply a statement of the still more fundamental one made with the Son Himself in eternity. Now then, we begin to see why he says "the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

He's praising the God who before time and before the world saw our predicament and entered into this tremendous, unthinkable agreement with His own Son. He's made an oath, He's signed a covenant, He's pledged Himself, He's committed Himself. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything is in Christ.

He's our representative, He's our mediator, He's our guarantor, and it all comes in and through Him. Words fail us, don't they? Can you realize what all this meant to the Father? Can you realize what all this meant to the Son? Can you realize what all this meant to the Holy Spirit? But that is our gospel, my friend.

And I'm suggesting that it's only as we understand these things that we shall begin to praise God. Look at it like this. Here are you and I, miserable worms in this world. Yes, that's what we are: miserable worms. With our arrogance and our pride of men and our pride of life and our appalling ignorance. We who defy God, we've all done it. And we deserve nothing but to be blotted off the face of the earth.

But you know what happened? Before the foundation of the world, this blessed God, these three blessed persons, considered you. Considered your condition. Considered what was happened, what would happen to you, and the consequences of that. These three ineffable persons. God whom no man hath ever seen or can see, God who is light and in whom is no darkness at all, this blessed person stooped to consider you and planned all this that you and I might be forgiven and redeemed.

The Son said, "I leave this glory, I'll be born as a babe, I'll dwell in the womb of a woman. I'll become a slave, I'll suffer insult and ignominy in the world. Yes, I'll even let them nail me to a tree and spit in my face." He said he'd do all that for you. And they planned it and they worked it out and they agreed about it.

And at this very moment, this blessed second person in the Trinity is standing and seated there at the right hand of God, representing you and me. And He came down and did all that and rose again, and it was all planned there at the beginning for you, for me. Do you still say you're not interested in covenant theology?

Do you still say you haven't got the time to be interested in doctrine? My dear friend, you'll never begin to praise God or to worship Him or to adore Him until you begin to realize some of this which He's done for you. Now, that's what He's done. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are in the covenant.

And God willing next Sunday, we shall go on to try to consider what we are told of some of the consequences of that covenant in this self-same third verse of the first chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians.