The sermon, based on Ephesians 1:1-10, emphasizes the role of Paul as an apostle under orders to impart blessing, specifically grace and peace, to the believers in Ephesus. It explores the concept of grace as unearned favor and peace as reconciliation with God, self, and others. The transformation from idolatry to sainthood is highlighted, with the believers being set apart by God's will. The sermon stresses the continuing supply of grace and peace from God the Father and Jesus the Messiah, illustrating this through the consistency of Paul's greetings in his letters. The sacrificial death of Christ is portrayed as the tangible source through which grace and peace are delivered. The sermon encourages believers to embrace their identity in Christ and live in the freedom of God's goodwill, while inviting unbelievers to accept the gospel's offer of grace and peace.

Ephesians 1 verses 1 through 10. 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 his great to the praise of the glory of his grace by which he made us accepted in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, which he has made to abound to us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, in him." He may be seated.

The Title of the sermon this morning is Under Orders to Impart Blessing. Paul is a man under orders, And the orders are this, bless my people. The title combines verse 1 where Paul says he is an apostle, he is one sent under orders to say the words of the sender and to do the will of the sender and that he is writing to those in Ephesus who God has set apart from himself. You idolaters In Ephesus, not anymore, you're mine. I'm sending you a preacher to preach the good news and my spirit is joining the preacher there to stir up your hearts in faith, to believe that the preacher is saying words from heaven and I'm gonna set you free from the penalty of your sins.

You're saints. You're idolaters but now you're saints. You are those who are full of faith. You're faithful. That is now combined with verse 2 where Paul begins to impart what the sender sent him to impart.

He is a man under orders and now he's carrying out the orders to Declare to impart what God in heaven has has sent him to impart And what is that? Blessing Blessing so right out of the gate right at the beginning of this letter, the one scent begins to speak the words of the sender and other words of incredible blessing. Let's pray. God, I thank you for the deep rich encouragements of this letter. We need them day after day and week after week and month after month and year after year and decade after decade.

We need these deep rich encouragements. We need to know that your fundamental disposition towards us is a gracious one, is one full of peace. Praise God the war is over. Pray that you would just send us out with our hearts singing today. I pray in Jesus name.

Amen. If you're taking notes on the handout the first major heading is the two things imparted two things given grace and peace fill in the blanks The two things imparted, grace and peace. It is its grace to you, not grace in the abstract, kind of dispersed in the air. It is landing on the target, grace landing on its target. It's targeted grace meant for the Lord's people and landing.

Grace imparted, grace given to you, you saints, you ones who have been set apart to be gods set apart from your idolatry and it could have even been just self-idolatry. You don't have to worship a Buddha to be an idolater. You just have to love yourself more than God to be an idolater. But God takes you out of that if you're a believer and he sets you apart to himself and he says that his fundamental disposition towards you is a disposition of grace. What is grace?

It's unearned favor, undeserved favor. You didn't earn it, you didn't work for it, you didn't deserve it, but here it comes. It is a goodwill, that's a synonym, another word we can use, goodwill that is freely given. Without even a hint of compulsion or obligation, there's no hint that anyone made it be given to you. No compulsion or there's no hint of obligation.

God didn't owe anyone. It isn't deserved. In fact, in the instance of God's grace, the opposite is deserved. That's why grace and mercy are so often joined together in verses of Scripture. It's to remind us about the nature of this grace.

It goes way beyond just you didn't deserve it. It's a flipping on its head of what you actually did earn and did deserve, but here comes what you didn't earn and didn't deserve. Ephesians 2 starts by describing our natural condition. What were you born like? That's your natural condition.

Oh, you were born loving you. You were born with a bent, an unbreakable bent, until God broke it, an unbreakable bent to love yourself and to serve yourself, to act like there is no God so that you can be God. When we get to the beginning of Ephesians 2, it's going to be described as, by nature, children of wrath. Just because of what you're like, you deserve God's anger towards something like that and then in verse 4 we encounter these the two most beautiful words in Scripture probably but God something like that would deserve condemnation punishment but God then in verse 6 and in verse 8 by grace you have been saved. It was God's will that took something that was just by nature something that deserved God's anger and he just decided instead of being angry his disposition towards you would be one of goodwill.

Peace on earth, goodwill towards men. That's what the angels sang when Jesus came into the world. His unearned favor. But God's grace is so far from one and done. In other words, it's not just an outpouring of goodwill in salvation and then you're on your own believer.

The grace of God is a million miles away from that. Listen to Romans 8 verses 31 and 32. Romans 8 verses 31 and 32. Paul writes to the Romans, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

If God is determined to give his favor unearned, undeserved, If God is determined for his fundamental disposition towards us to be goodwill, who can reverse that? Verse 32, He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? And I might add, keep freely giving us all things. And keep freely giving us all things. And keep freely giving us all things.

The grace of God is not one and done. You're saved, good luck. The grace of God is a continuing outpouring of good will towards us and we know that because he who gave his only son how will he not also freely if he's given the greatest how will he not also Continue to give the things that we need and so many of the things that we want And so these Ephesians that Paul is writing to are already saints they've been saints that's in the past But He doesn't skip by grace because God gives fresh supplies. As John says, as John the Gospel writer says in John 1-16, and of his fullness, of Jesus' fullness, we have all received and grace for grace." Well, I ran out of today's grace. Don't worry, there's grace for tomorrow and grace for next week and grace for next month, and he's there with a fresh supply tomorrow and next week and next month.

Grace for grace of His fullness, of Jesus's fullness we have all received and grace for grace. You ran out of today's supply, don't worry. There's a never-ending supply and he's just dispensing it because it's his fundamental disposition to dispense it to you again and again and again and again. He's riding to the saved, he doesn't skip past grace, he says grace to you. So Paul has been sent to impart grace, but not grace by itself, grace and peace.

And what is peace? Well, yes, it is the absence of war. We can start there. It's actually a good place to start. The war is over.

War with who? War with God. I've already referenced the beginning of Ephesians where instead of bowing to the good God who gave us life, who has the ultimate right to govern us, we've said we will not be governed we'll serve our lusts that's the natural condition of human beings it's a really desperate pathetic state really But God who is rich in mercy, by grace you have been saved. Grace ended the war with God. Friends, we initiated the conflict.

I will not be governed by you. You will not be God. I will be God. I will serve my lust, not you. By the way, we read the beginning of Ephesians 2 and we think of all the flagrant sins that all the God haters commit.

You know, you can be in that condition and be so respectable, all your family can think so well of you, your church members can think so well of you, and you be in that condition. It can take such a respectable form, but God sees the heart and He sees that you won't be governed by Him and that you will serve your lusts even though they're not outward flagrantly, openly in rebellion to Him in your heart you can rebel so thoroughly. So thoroughly. We initiated the conflict, God initiated the peace by His grace. You wouldn't have even ever gone to Him for terms of peace.

You wanted to act like He wasn't there so you could continue chasing your lusts. God initiated. For the believer, the war with God is over. It's over. No more war.

You started it and he finished it not in the way he could have by annihilating you or sending you to hell forever but by making peace with you, making you love the terms of peace when you never even would have sought them. And war with self. Yes, war with God. You have to start with war with God. If the war with God's not over, nothing else matters.

But you weren't just at war with God, believer. You were at war with self. Listen to Romans 2.15 where Paul talks about those who didn't even have the benefit of the written law and yet they're sinning, but they're not sinning against written law because they didn't have that. And here's what Paul says in Romans 2.15, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, not off the hook because you didn't have the book it was written on your heart Their consciences also bearing witness and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them. In other words, you didn't even need the book.

You knew in your heart of hearts that the things that you were doing, the lusts that you were chasing, maybe even in a respectable way, was against God, was rebellion, and your conscience in the day of judgment if you never had a glimpse of the Bible would rise up and testify against you that you knew it you knew it You were at war with God and you knew it. And that brings a sense of inner turmoil. Listen to Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. Lloyd-Jones says this, the result of grace is not only peace with God, it gives a man peace within.

It enables a man for the first time in his life to answer an accusing conscience. You know that's wrong. You know that's wrong. It enables a man for the first time in his life to have rest in his mind and heart. For the first time a man is able truly to live with himself and to know that all is well, as the hymn writer would say, it is well with my soul.

The conflict has ended in this fundamental sense and he understands for the first time the cause of all his troubles, he sees a way of overcoming all his difficulties and glimpses the final victory that is awaiting him in Christ. Yes, the unbeliever is at war with God, but the unbeliever is at war with self, too, because God has put it on their heart and they know, they know. And finally, war with others. When I deny that God is God because I refuse to be governed by him and you deny that God is God and refuse to be governed by him. Friends, we are on a collision course because sooner or later we're gonna want the same thing And if I'll run through God to get to it, don't think I won't run through you to get to it, and vice versa.

You'll run right through me to get to the thing we both want. Again, Martin Lloyd-Jones. The person he formerly hated, and this is a person who's now at peace because the work of God changed him or her, the person he formerly hated, He now sees as a victim of sin and of Satan and begins to feel sorry for him. Knowing the grace of God and experiencing this new peace which has been given to him, his former enemy has become someone for whom he prays. He begins to carry out his Lord's injunction to love your enemies and pray for those who despitefully use you.

The enmity is abolished by the new view. He now desires to be reconciled and to be at peace. So before you would have been running chasing the same thing you'd gladly run through each other to get to it. Now you say he's a slave to sin, I pray for that man. It's a change of heart.

It ends the war between men. Because as we're gonna get to in chapter 6, you realize I'm not fighting against flesh and blood. There's just principalities and powers behind this. God helped that slave to sin and the devil. But it is more than just the absence of war, the peace of God goes so much further than that.

One last time, Martin Lloyd-Jones. Peace does not merely mean cessation of war, rest, and quiet. Certainly it means rest and quiet, but it means much more. The ever present danger with regard to peace is to think of it as merely an absence of such things as boisterousness, yelling at each other, or discord, or fighting. But peace in the Bible does not merely mean that you stop fighting.

It goes far beyond that. It is interesting to find that the actual root meaning of the Greek word that is translated peace is union. Union after separation, bringing together, a reconciliation after a contest, and a quarrel. So the piece being spoken of here isn't just a nervous peace. You have two countries, they fight each other and then they stop fighting each other sort of like North Korea and South Korea.

They're not actively fighting each other but there's still a demilitarized zone between them and there's this nervous peace that is always under threat. That's not the peace that is being spoken of here, just a ceasing of the hostilities, just sort of a ceasefire. I'll stop shooting at you if you stop shooting to me. It is the bringing together, it's the reconciliation after a contest and quarrel. It's union.

So the one who used to be your enemy is now dearest friend peace so God imparts Peace to the believer, peace with himself, peace with self, peace with others. And with peace we also need fresh supplies, just like grace. Tomorrow we need fresh supplies of peace too. I'm gonna need the assurance that God's fundamental disposition towards me isn't a war disposition, it's peace. The war is over and we're joined in Union and God wants it that way and likes it that way It should be said that this piece does not depend on Circumstances I can be in circumstances and not know whether the end point of them will be me living or dying and I can enjoy this peace.

Heaven save us from a peace that's dependent on circumstances. It's here today and gone tomorrow. That is not the peace that this text is talking about. It's a peace that survives circumstances. It's a peace that flourishes in the most difficult circumstances and which surpasses all understanding.

That's what Paul writes to the Philippians in Philippians 4.7. The peace which surpasses all understanding. Explain that peace to me. You don't even know if you're gonna live or die at the end of this thing. How can you have peace?

I don't know. It's not my job to explain it. I just experience it. I just experience it God God can give it God does give it I Have a I have a rightful claim to it because I trust in Jesus. I'm faithful, full of faith.

I believe in him so I get the peace. It's my claim, I claim it. A man, Paul, was sent under orders to impart grace and peace on behalf of the sender. Bond servant, go impart grace and peace to these ones I have called out of the world to be my own. In a sense grace is the cause and peace is the effect.

I think it's right to think of it that way. The grace of God initiates, it starts all this, and the effect in our lives is peace. We're not at war with God anymore. We're joined to Him. He's our best friend now.

On your handout the second major heading, the two who impart them. Who imparts the grace and the peace? God the Father and Jesus our Messiah. Father and Messiah fill in the blanks if you're taking notes that way. The two who impart them, God our Father and Jesus our Messiah.

I warned you I was going to be doing this. I'm going to be not saying Christ and saying Messiah. They're synonyms, they mean exactly the same thing. They mean the anointed of God. I want us to force ourselves to think of Jesus Christ as Jesus the Messiah, the one who had an anointing from God to save me.

For the believer, the saint, the faithful, where does this continuing supply of grace and peace come from? Well ultimately it's not the one under orders. Paul can't give you grace. Paul can't give you peace. Paul's grace and Paul's peace plus a dollar will buy you a soda.

He doesn't have his own grace to give you or peace to give you, not the kind that you need. In a sense, the one under orders is simply declaring what God and Jesus are supplying. He's just proclaiming it. It's not a magic incantation. He's just declaring what God and Jesus are supplying to make you mindful of it.

God was supplying grace and peace daily to the Ephesian believers the day before they got this letter, the week before they got this letter. Paul is declaring what God the Father and Jesus the Messiah have been and are supplying and will be supplying. The continuing supplies of grace and peace are from God our Father. At this point I want to say we have a loop. You have a loop.

What do I mean by that? Well, I mean that God is only my Father if He has extended His grace and peace to me. If you have not received the grace and peace of God, don't be calling God your Father. There are places in the Bible where it calls God the Father of all the living in the sense that He is the Creator, but that's not the sense that's being used here. Actually when Jesus confronts unbelieving Jews in the gospel, sometimes he calls them sons of the devil, God is not their father in that sense.

He did create them, he is not their father in the sense that the gospel is describing. If you've not trusted in Christ, if you've not received the grace and peace, you have no business to call God your Father. Listen to Romans 8, back in Romans 8 verses 14 and 15. Romans 8 verses 14 and 15. Paul writes, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

Those are the ones who have the right to call God Father. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out Abba, Father, the dear term for a father, the familiar close intimate term for father, daddy, by the spirit of adoption we've been adopted so we can call him by the intimate term daddy this grace and peace peace makes God the Father of the saints. And then he continues to provide fresh supplies as their father. Then he acts like A daddy. He adopts and then he acts like a daddy.

He is the daddy. He keeps supplying fresh supplies of grace and peace. Why? Because his children are dear to him because he loves his children and so his disposition of goodwill is always there his provision of peace is always flowing And the continuing supplies of grace and peace are from the Lord Jesus Christ Grace and peace result in life-changing things grace and peace will turn your life upside down thank God but they're not tangible things in themselves Here hold my grace for me for a minute Like oh, it's heavy No, no grip. Hold my peace for me It's not like that It's not made out of of stuff so it'll turn your life upside down or change your life but you can't see it touch it but the grace and peace come to us through something that's very tangible very concrete the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ that cross was real you could see it and touch it that man was real you could see it and touch it you could put your finger in his side you could watch him bleed and die The grace and peace which aren't tangible flow through us, flow to us through something that's so concrete, Jesus dying on the cross in time and space.

He bought that grace and peace with his blood. So Jesus is the Lord. He is co-equal with God the Father and Jesus is the Christ. He is the anointed of God to save his people. God sent him on mission to save his people.

As Peter says in Acts 4 verse 12, Peter's preaching in Acts 4 verse 12, and he says this, Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. It is Jesus's name by which you were saved or you're not saved at all there's no other name. He purchases grace and peace for you with his blood through his blood it flows through him or it doesn't come to you at all. Now here's what you need to understand. The apostle Paul wrote 13 inspired letters.

It's a good sized chunk of the New Testament. 13 he wrote. Here are the greetings of those letters. Number one, Romans, Romans 1 verse 7, To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Number two, 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 1 verse 3, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Number 3, 2 Corinthians 1 verse 2, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Number 4, Galatians 1 verse 3, grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Number 5, Ephesians, we're studying it today. Number 6, Philippians, Philippians 1 verse 2, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Number seven, Colossians.

Colossians 1 verse 2. To the saints and the faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Number 9, 2nd Thessalonians, 2nd Thessalonians 1 verse 2, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Number 10, 1st Timothy 1 verse 2, to Timothy a true son in the faith, faith, grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

So this time for the first time it's not to a church, it's to an individual and he adds mercy. Why? I don't know but I observe it. Number 11, 2nd Timothy. 2nd Timothy 1 verse 2, to Timothy a beloved son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Number 12, Titus, Titus chapter 1 verse 4, to Titus a true son in our common faith, grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. Number 13, finally Philemon. Philemon verse 3, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The exact words we're studying today in Ephesians. Thirteen letters, only thirteen letters, always begin with grace imparted, never is it absent, 13 letters, only 13 letters, always begin with peace being imparted never is it absent 13 letters only 13 letters always flowing from God the Father always flowing from Jesus Christ the Lord never absent no exceptions Either this is a formal greeting just a cut and paste, throw it away, I'm writing to them and then I'm writing to them, just carry over the greeting, cut, Paste.

Or a real view of scripture which is no word is wasted. There are no throwaway words. In which case the God who saved Paul and sent him to the world insists that we understand before anything else is said That his fundamental disposition towards believers is one of goodwill and peace He will not say anything else until he says that He builds everything else that he says on that. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He'll never skip saying that in an inspired letter.

He doesn't. 13 for 13. 100%. Cast away the thought that is just a cut-and-paste throwaway and convince yourself that the God who saved Paul and sent him into the world insists that we understand before anything else is said that he builds his doctrine that the fundamental disposition of God towards believers is one of goodwill and peace. And he refused to say anything else till he said that first.

Friends this is what the work of Jesus the Messiah does. If you have entrusted yourself to him, it is as if you lived his life. It is as if his total, complete, cheerful, thankful obedience from his first breath to last was yours. This is not the standard Greek greeting which appears actually many times in the New Testament, often in judicial proceedings where one Roman is writing to another Roman and in their letter they have the standard Greek greeting. In most Bibles it's translated greetings, but a more literal translation of that would be rejoice.

That's not Paul's greeting. It's not the traditional Greek greeting. This is not the standard Jewish greeting, shalom, peace, peace be with you. It is a fuller, deeper, richer gospel greeting. We have our own greeting.

Christians have a right to our own greeting, a fuller, richer, deeper gospel greeting. Listen to the commentator Harold Honer. I'm benefiting from but not enjoying reading his commentaries. It's not his fault. He's just an immensely gifted Greek scholar.

So the focus of his commentaries is on the original languages. So he gets into the nooks and cranny of every Greek word and it makes me dizzy to read it. Okay, so I need to read it. I'm gonna keep reading it. Scout's honor.

I'm gonna keep reading it. But I would, it's fun to read Lloyd-Jones, let's just say that. It's fun to read Lloyd-Jones and then I read Harold Hohner. But he says this, grace is no mere Grace is no mere introductory cliche. It is the gospel in one word.

Right on. That's not dry Greek analysis at all. He does sprinkle some gold in there. Grace is no mere introductory cliche. It's not a cut-and-paste throwaway.

It is the gospel in one word. Applications. Let me give you two. Number one, believers, become what you are. I'm going to be saying that every week.

Become what you are. Become what you are. You are fundamental things in Christ, joined to Christ, in union with Christ, that then you have to become. You know what I mean by that. You don't live up to what you are.

So is there a place for discipline in the life of the believer? Yes, but now is not the day to talk about that. Now is the day to talk about how Paul starts every one of his 13 letters, the fundamental disposition of God towards the believer is one of goodwill and peace. Here's what Matthew Henry says, no peace without grace, right? Matthew so far so good, Matthew Henry.

No peace without grace, no peace nor grace but from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. These peculiar blessings proceed from God not as Creator but as a father by special relation and they come from our Lord Jesus Christ who having purchased them for his people has a right to bestow them upon them. Indeed the saints and the faithful in Christ Jesus had already received grace and peace, but the increase of these is very desirable, and the best saints stand in need of fresh supplies. Amen, Matthew, Henry. I have experienced grace and peace in my life and I need it today and tomorrow until the day I draw my last breath and They're there for me and I need to become what I am.

I am a recipient of grace and peace and I need to keep on just receiving because God is sending fresh supplies. They're available to me and I need them. It changes the way you think and live when you understand that God's fundamental disposition towards you is one of grace and peace. I'm going to say that again. That's really the whole point of the first application.

It changes the way you think and live when you really believe that God's fundamental disposition towards you is one of grace and peace, not God just waiting for one more mistake. And then, no, Paul wouldn't have started 13 out of 13 letters and refused to say anything else till he said this if that's God's disposition. One more mistake, Just one more. Hovering, waiting to bring crushing discipline into your life. That is not God's disposition towards the believer.

We need to let these greetings change the way we think and live. We need to live free. Not free to sin, but free to serve Him without fear all of our days. Number two, unbelievers, we have the full and free offer of the gospel in this greeting. If you're outside the grace and peace of God, why?

God's not the problem. He receives all who come to Him through Jesus. He doesn't turn any away that come to Him through Jesus. If you're outside of His grace, Receive His grace. If you're outside of His peace, receive His peace.

He's made His terms known. Repent and believe the gospel. They're so simple. They require nothing of you but that you would humble yourself and turn and throw yourself upon the mercy that's already been bought for you. I invite you so earnestly.

I implore you, I beg you. The only thing standing between you and being saved is you and your pride and your autonomy. And your autonomy. God, thank you for a full and free offer of grace and peace to every enemy. It's been a long time but I can remember being an enemy realizing how full and free the offer was and rushing to embrace it.

God, would you give someone who is outside your grace and peace the ability to see all things for what they are so that they'll rush to embrace the grace and peace which was purchased by the blood of your son. Pray that your spirit would be present in saving power today. Thank you for the gospel. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.