Ephesians: The eulogia (1:3), part 4 – God alone is worthy of praise.

Tuesday, September 18th

 

The listeners of the mystery are given the ability to listen more and to understand it more and these alone are suited for authority in the kingdom of heaven.

 

EPH 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and who are faithful in Christ Jesus:

 

EPH 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

EPH 1:3 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,

 

EPH 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.

 

As we must take this section in chunks, I encourage you to read through vv. 3-14 every time you open to it. Paul puts one prepositional phrase on top of another in order to put together a complete and digestible picture of the blessings that God has bestowed upon us.

 

Blessings listed: election, holiness, cleanliness, predestination, adoption, in Christ, redemption, forgiveness, wisdom, insight, the mystery, a dispensation of the fullness, inheritance, the Spirit, sealing, pledge of God’s possession.

 

One should just sit and gaze at this list like he would a spectacular sunset. Some of them are done to me: holiness, cleanliness, adoption, being in Christ, wisdom, insight, sealing; some of them are done for me: election, predestination, redemption, forgiveness; and some envelope me in a divine environment: the mystery, the dispensation of fullness, inheritance, the Spirit, and the pledge.

 

I am changed. I am given to in abundance. I am enveloped all throughout this life and forever by the love, grace, and mercy of God.

 

What we are about to enter into is the most profound substance in the history of mankind.

 

“The contents of verses 3-14 make one long sentence, possibly the longest sentence of connected discourse in existence. Here we have some of the most important doctrinal words and profoundest and richest truths regarding what God has done for the saints, in all the Pauline writings.” [Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament]

 

If this section does not profoundly affect you, your life, and excite you, then you need to reevaluate your priorities and what you honor and love in your life. You can do this most effectively through prayer. You can be completely honest with God in private, and before Him you should come to terms with your desire to know what these things are and to love them. God knows our hearts. Being honest with Him is being honest with ourselves. And if you honestly desire to know these blessings then ask God the Father to show them to you. He will do it. How He does that may scare you half to death at times, but it is so worth it. Plus, it will show you how badly you actually want to know them.

 

Makarios is also translated “blessed” in the NT, notably in the Beatitudes, which means happy in the sense of being prosperous.

 

Eulogetos is used exclusively of God in the NT.

 

God alone is worthy of praise and glorification. It doesn’t matter if anyone gives it to Him. He is, was, and always will be worthy of praise. Any person who does not give it to Him freely is a fool.

 

MAR 14:60 And the high priest stood up and came forward and questioned Jesus, saying, "Do You make no answer? What is it that these men are testifying against You?"

 

MAR 14:61 But He kept silent, and made no answer. Again the high priest was questioning Him, and saying to Him, "Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?"

 

“Are You the Christ, the Son of the eulogetós?”

 

MAR 14:62 And Jesus said, "I am; and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven."

 

Man’s inability to see God as the eulogetos (the One worthy of praise) is at the heart of his misery.

 

ROM 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

 

ROM 1:19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.

 

ROM 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

 

ROM 1:21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

 

Cain knew God and so did his progeny. Lamech quotes the curse stated by God that protected the life of Cain. He knew God. Ham knew God and his progeny. While it’s true that most people don’t have conversations with God as Cain did, God reveals Himself to them as they achieve the age of reason or accountability.

 

Every man speculates upon his worldview: origin, meaning, morality, and destiny. If his worldview is not based upon God and therefore he does not honor God as the only One worthy of praise, then his foolish heart will darken.

 

ROM 1:22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,

 

ROM 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

 

ROM 1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them.

 

God did not stop the degradation that occurs when a man rejects Him.

 

ROM 1:25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed [eulogetos] forever [for the ages]. Amen.

 

Years ago, before the First World War, Professor Stroeter, a well-known prophetic teacher in Germany, used to go through the country giving lectures, and using charts to unfold the dispensations. His lectures attracted the attention of the German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm, who in spite of his many idiosyncrasies, was quite a Bible student, and used to preach in the palace chapel on many occasions. The Kaiser invited Professor Stroeter to his palace to give him an idea of what he was lecturing upon. The professor was taken into the library and spread a roll of his charts out on the table. The Kaiser followed him as he pointed out various things in the dispensations until the Second Coming of the Lord. After a lengthy conversation the Kaiser said, “Do I understand you aright? Do you mean to say that Jesus Christ is coming back literally, and that when He returns all the kingdoms of the world are going to be destroyed and He will set up His kingdom on the ruins of them all?” And Professor Stroeter said, “Exactly, your Majesty, exactly.” “Oh, no,” said the Kaiser, “I can’t have that! Why that would interfere with all my plans!”

 

The Kaiser would be forced to abdicate his throne after his recklessness pushed Germany into the First World War. His plans were definitely interfered with.

 

God alone is worthy of praise, but praise is more than words. Praise is worship, obedience, and love of God.

 

EXO 15:1 Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and said,

 

"I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted;

The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea.

 

EXO 15:2 "The Lord is my strength and song,

And He has become my salvation;

This is my God, and I will praise Him;

My father's God, and I will extol Him.

 

EXO 15:3 "The Lord is a warrior;

The Lord is His name.

 

I’m sure they all meant what they said when they said it, but soon after, when things got difficult, they were singing a different tune.

 

EXO 15:22 Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.

 

EXO 15:23 And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore it was named Marah.

 

EXO 15:24 So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?"

 

EXO 15:25 Then he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet. There He made for them a statute and regulation, and there He tested them.

 

EXO 15:26 And He said, "If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the Lord, am your healer. [YavahRoph’ekha]"

 

“If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes” … is the question of praise. Anyone can sing a song and get emotional, but are your words based upon love for the Lord and obedience to His commands?

 

To praise God is to adore Him. We must know who He is and what He has done.

 

EPH 1:3 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,

 

Worthy of praise [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

It is a miracle of grace in itself that humans can praise God the Father. He is infinite, invisible, and transcendent.

 

One cannot praise what he doesn’t know. Yet, by grace, we can know enough of God the Father to actually, properly praise Him.

 

It’s an endless pursuit to come to know God. He is infinite and transcendent. Yet, what we can know is revealed, and even that cannot be fully comprehended.

 

It would be silly to say that since God is infinite that I’m not going to bother learning anything. That’s like saying that you don’t understand how an engine works so you’re not going to bother to learn how to drive. Who of us knows how our brains or circulatory systems work? That doesn’t stop us from learning how to live.

 

We can know much about God that is revealed, and it is certainly a life long pursuit. One who is not willing to devote his life to knowing God doesn’t know one thing about Him.

 

At the start we are confronted with the greatest mystery of all revealed truth - the Trinity.

 

We know that the word Trinity is not used in the Bible, yet the Bible clearly states that there is one God and on the other hand clearly reveals that there are three to whom the attributes and qualities of Deity in the highest sense are ascribed, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.