Have you seen the funny cartoon of a pompous lawyer reading a client's last will and testament to a group of greedy relatives? The caption read, "I John Jones, being of sound mind and body, spent it all!"

Our loving God whose riches far exceed that of any earthly person has not spent it all! God wants each one of us to share His spiritual riches. Jesus Christ wrote His last will and testament for His family and paid the price for our salvation through His death and thereby put His will in force. He rose again to see that the terms of His will would be carried out properly The Apostle Paul goes on to tell us more about our spiritual wealth of blessings from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Sprit. He tells us of these riches: Planned by the Father, Purchased by the Son, and Presented by the Spirit. I thought that speaking on this passage concerning our spiritual wealth from each member of our triune God.

You might be interested in knowing that Paul uses an extremely long sentence just after he introduced the letter. While most of our translations break up this sentence from verses 3-14 into a few long sentences; it seems to be one exceedingly long sentence in the Greek. Dr. Stuart Briscoe believes that Paul got so thoroughly excited about our Lord, that his enthusiasm was so unbounded that the sentence went on and on like applause that would not quit. We may have some difficulty analyzing this long sentence, but it is very clear that Paul was excited about his Lord. Do we share that excitement and enthusiasm about our Lord and enthusiasm about our Lord and the wealth that we have in Christ?

In the moments I intend to talk about this passage this morning II will not cover all that we could say about it. Rather than just go from one blessing to another, to help remember them I am going to organize these by assigning them to one person of the God head. Now I want to empathically sate that our God is one God, and the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit along with the blessings from them are certainly intertwined. Francis Foukes wrote, "in the New Testament the word blessed, (eulogetos) is used only of God. He alone is worthy to be blessed. Men are blessed when they receive His blessings; God is blessed when He is praised for all that freely bestows on man and on His world." Literally, the Greek word for blessed means, "To speak well of."

Consider now our spiritual wealth that God did not spend on Himself, but gives to us. This wealth was:

I. Planned by the Father

When something is extremely important to you and me, it is likely that we make some plans. Examples could be considering our own education, training, and job opportunities: buying, building, or renting just the right home: the man or woman we marry; providing for our children's education; a special vacation, or retirement investments. The list could go on and on.

The welfare of God's children was and is extremely important to our heavenly Father, so He has planned well for us. He has planned well for us. He has planned so well that Paul tells us that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. What spiritual blessings are you lacking? None, if you are in Christ Jesus

Notice some of the blessings planned by our heavenly Father. We were chosen to be holy and blameless before Him. Have you thought about the wealth of such tremendous blessing? This is not an indication that we are without sin, but recipients of His grace and looked upon as Holy and blameless. This grace is freely given to us through the love of Christ. Being chosen for this was the Father's magnificent plan. God has accepted us, who cannot make ourselves acceptable to God.

Through Jesus Christ, the Father's plan was to adopt us as sons and daughters. We come into God's family through regeneration, spiritual birth and we are adopted as adult sons and daughters to begin to claim our inheritance and enjoy our spiritual wealth. Paul may well have had in mind the fact that a baby, though an heir to the inheritance, could not use this wealth right away. Adult sons and daughters can and should do so. We do not need to become old saints before we claim our riches in Christ.

These blessings planned by the Father were

II. Purchased by the Son

Certainly, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have and continue to work together on our behalf. While the Son and Spirit were involved in the plan with the Father, the Son, has played a special part in purchasing our spiritual blessings.

The Son has redeemed us, purchased us and set us free by paying a price. When Paul wrote this letter there were about six million slaves in the Roman Empire. These poor, disadvantaged people were bought and sold like property because that s what many people thought they were. However, a person with enough wealth could purchase a slave and set him free. My friends, this is what Jesus has done for us and the price he paid was his His own blood. We no longer need to live as slaves to the Law, slaves to the world, slaves to Satan. In Christ, we are no longer poor slaves, but rich sons and daughters of God, through the purchase price of Jesus' blood.

Along with this we are forgiven. This word literally means the loosing of a person from that which binds him or her. This helps us understand when we realize that sin involves the bondage of the mind and will. In forgiveness we find freedom. There is no longer any written accusation that stands against us, because our sins have been taken away! Sin made us spiritually poor and destitute, but God's grace makes us rich in Christ.

Another blessing we see here is the revelation of the mystery of His will. This speaks of mysteries of God's plans becoming known to God's people. Christ's purchase of our salvation is not something God wants to keep secret. Since sin first came into the world, sin has been causing havoc, separation from God, pain and suffering. Out of His great love God, through Christ has been seeking to communicate this love to restore sinners to Himself. What a wonderful mystery that has been made known. You and are to help make this mystery known to all who will listen.

Do you realize what an inheritance we have obtained in Christ? We are also part of that inheritance. We are so valuable to Jesus that He paid the price of His blood to purchase us. Christ's inheritance includes us.

Yes, these riches were planned by the Father, purchased by the Son and :

III. Presented by the Spirit.

This was not just the wonderful history of God's wealth that Paul is talking about He is also focusing on the immediate experience of Christians living in Ephesus. They certainly knew that the Holy Spirit had been at work in their lives. I hope that each person studying with me this morning also knows that the Holy Spirit has been at work in your lives too.

Notice the process of salvation, how we become saints, is spelled out in verse 13. We hear the message of the truth. We discover that this message is for us. We are part of the Father's plan. Our salvation was purchased by the son. After hearing the truth we must believe it. Then Paul wrote, "You were sealed in Him by the Holy Spirit. This is also for us. Having heard the Gospel, when we believe we are sealed with the Holy Spirit.

Being sealed speaks of a finished transaction. Often today, when important legal documents are processed they are stamped with an official seal signifying the completion of a transaction. A seal can also refer to ownership, protection and security. In addition, this seal may be a mark of authenticity. It is real, genuine, not phony. A person might be able to fool another person into thinking they are a genuine Christian when they are not, but the Holy Spirit will not be fooled. He knows whether or not you and I really belong to Christ.

Paul goes on to say that the Holy Spirit is given as a pledge or an earnest of our inheritance. Many of us have paid earnest money, a down payment, to guarantee the final purchase of a home or a car. Warren Wiersbe wrote, "The Holy spirit is God's first installment to guarantee to His children that He will finish His work and eventually bring them to glory."

Another aspect of this pledge is its reference to an engagement ring. This is of course a personal pledge that our promise will be kept. Jesus is the groom who loves His bride, the church. The Groom will come to claim His bride because He has given us His promise and His Holy Spirit as an engagement ring. What a fabulous promise.

Conclusion

These riches: Planned by the Father, Purchased by the Son, and Presented by the Holy Spirit.

As you were growing up did you ever wonder as you watched your parents write out checks why they couldn't just write out one of those pieces of paper whenever they wanted to buy something? You did not yet understand that they were supposed to have money in the bank before they did so.

How rich are you, spiritually? We don't need thousands of dollars in a bank account to have spiritual wealth. Unlike John Jones, who, being of sound mind and body, spent it all; God wrote His last will and testament making it possible for each of us to share His spiritual riches.

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