So I want to bring a message
to you tonight from Ephesians chapter 1. It's a very familiar
part of Scripture, and I take great comfort in knowing how
God is not like us. God is not like us at all. Now, man, sinful man, will defend and grasp their right
to love anybody who they want to. And their love, they say, they claim, people claim to have
love for all. They flaunt their love, and it
is not, but God's love is pure. God's love is holy. Mankind makes
an idol out of a God who loves everybody. And they show their sinfulness
by sitting in judgment of God when they hear that God does
not love everybody. And this chapter of the Bible
stops the mouth of all such people. Let's read. Starting in verse
one, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the Saints,
which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace
be to you and peace from God, our father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and 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, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. This is perfect love. Now, sinful man, Loves from evil
motives. Sin is mixed with everything
that we do. Our motive in love, partially,
is to fulfill some personal need. And we choose who we love because
of something in them. There's something about them
that began our love for them. But God says, I will betroth
thee unto me in righteousness. There is no sin mixed with God's
love. And God does not love us for
anything in us. He loves us in Christ. Let's look in verse four. According
as he hath chosen us in him. In Christ, God does not love
us for something in us, but for his son's sake. We are blind,
wandering, and hating God. There would be nothing in us
that God can look to to begin his love. He looked down from
heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that
understood, and they were all gone out of the way. If God had
to see something in us to start loving us, we are doomed. Man picks his friends and loves
sinfully to fulfill his vain desires, but God already owns
everything. He doesn't have any need. And man chooses their friends and
loves whom he will because of qualities in them, but God loves
because of his Son, chose us in Christ. So, verse one. Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints which are
at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. By the will
of God, Paul said in Galatians chapter one, that he was taught,
and he was made an apostle, not by man, neither by man or of
man, but by Jesus Christ and of God the Father who raised
him from the dead. Jesus Christ is the teacher and
the message, so he can use whoever he wants to write the scriptures
and preach, but he chose Paul by the will of God. And to the
saints, which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ
Jesus. You know, all scripture really
is written only to the saints. We preach it to everybody, but
that's who it's for. Paul also said that he endures
all things for the elect's sake, that they might obtain salvation
with eternal glory. And to the faithful in Christ
Jesus, that's who he wrote to. And if we believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ, then God has given us that faith and he will never
repent of his blessings. Peter wrote that we have an inheritance
reserved for us who are kept. It's reserved for us and we're
reserved for it. And what is it to be faithful?
It's simple, it's just to have faith, to trust the Son of God. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. Verse 2. Grace be to you and
peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is a very common intro for Paul. He can say grace to you with
confidence because he knows that God's grace doesn't change, and
it didn't start because of something that God sees in us. It's grace from God who formed
the scheme of salvation before the foundation of the world,
and it's peace brought in by the blood of Jesus Christ. Notice
in verse two, he says, God, our Father, Now, verse 3, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's also
the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is a family
thing. We're heirs and joint heirs with
Christ. His Father is our Father. Now,
men might show love to somebody because of who that person's
brother is, but It is mixed with sin, as I said,
and they probably wouldn't love that person if they were born
hating them, if that person was born hating you. And God says it's scarcely for a
righteous man will one die, but God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Notice God has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings. Our love and blessing of others,
it goes up and down. It can change depending on their
behavior toward us. And sinners' love for one another
is in that person. It's because of something they
see in them. These blessings are in heavenly
places, blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ. They're stored up away from us,
not in us, but away from us. We can't ruin it. We can't ruin
salvation. Is that a wonderful thought? Lift up your eyes to the heavens
and look upon the earth beneath, for the heavens shall wax old
And for the heavens shall vanish like smoke, and the earth wax
old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die
in like manner. But God says, but my salvation
is forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Now, this grace of God is experienced
by us in time. but it has always been in Christ. Before we were alive, before
the world was formed, God had grace to us and love for us. Verse four says, 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. We can stand before a holy God
who can only love righteously and can only hate sin. And we
can stand before that one and know that we are loved and not
for anything in us. And these spiritual blessings
that God hath blessed us in Christ with these blessings were according
as he hath chosen us in Christ. See, being in Christ, we have
never not been blessed. We have always been where the
blessings are. If I told you that there is no
money anywhere except inside this bank vault, there never
has been and there never will be, and then you look down and,
well, If you have a $20 bill in your pocket, where must we
be? We would have to be inside the
vault. Money is only in there. So when
somebody comes to faith in Jesus Christ, where were they before
that? They were in Christ, because
faith is a spiritual blessing. God does not give faith to put
us in Christ. He gives us faith because we
have been in Christ. In 2 Timothy, Paul said, who
hath blessed us, who hath called us and saved us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the foundation
of the world. This is who God loves. God loves
sinners in his son. They're holy and without blame
before Him, the only one, the only one whose thoughts matter
truly. That one says that we are loved,
we're holy, and that we are without blame. Because God stores up every blessing
He has to give, not in us, but in Christ. who redeemed us with
his precious blood as of a lamb without blemish, without spot,
who rose again because of our justification and sat down at
God's right hand with every spiritual blessing to give. Men love for
traits that they see in another, but God loves because of his
son. Verse five says, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will. What manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of
God. As many as received him, to them
God gave the power, the authority to become the sons of God. Now,
people pay money to adopt a child, often, that they believe is worth
very much. But God adopted us by paying
with his own blood. And we aren't worth anything
to a holy God. And in and of ourselves, what
could we bring to him? Now, this adoption is by Jesus
Christ, and it's to himself. So turn, if you will, please,
to Galatians chapter four. Galatians chapter four. Shall the Lord decree a thing,
and it not come to pass? We are predestinated to this,
to being conformed to Jesus Christ. Galatians chapter four. There
is one mediator between God and man, and that is the man, Christ
Jesus. A mediator settles disputes between
two people. This is how this adoption by
Jesus Christ works. In verse four, but when the fullness
of the time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman,
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law,
that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons,
God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father. In verse four, God sent forth
his son. God so loved the world that he
gave. Verse five, he gave to redeem,
to pay the wages that were due for our sins, to take away everything
that would turn his face away from us. And it's that, he did
this, that we might receive what we were predestined to by Jesus
Christ, because his father is our father. And what does the
spirit of his son do? It makes us cry, Abba, Father. Adoption is by Jesus Christ to
himself. Back to Ephesians one, please. than death. This is a love that's
completely different than the sinful motives of the love of
man. You remember Peter cursed and
swore that he didn't know the Lord Jesus Christ. But later
in that same chapter, the Lord Jesus says, go tell my disciples
and Peter He knew that Peter needed encouragement. He knew
that Peter needed to be told that he's one of the Lord's children.
This is the kind of love that God has to us that won't let
us fall away. Now, when we hurt ones that we
love, they often hurt back. That's part of being sinful man,
but God has nothing but fresh love for his children, nothing
but encouragement And it's because it was his good pleasure to love.
And his love is in his son. When we believe not, yet he remains
faithful. He cannot deny himself. Verse six says, to the praise
of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the
beloved. praise of the glory of His grace. Let's go to Zephaniah, please,
Zephaniah chapter three. Start reading at verse 14. Sing,
O daughter of Zion. Shout, O Israel. Be glad and
rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. Why? Because the
Lord hath taken away thy judgments. He hath cast out thine enemy.
He's blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against
us. The King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of
thee. Thou shalt not see evil anymore. In that day, it shall
be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not, and to Zion let not thine
hands be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty. He will save, he will rejoice
over thee with joy. He will rest in his love, he
will joy over thee with singing. This passage reminds me that
I often have such a cheap view of grace and what that word means. I find myself using it as just
another word to use in conversation. But grace isn't cheap, and it
doesn't seem cheap the more you think about how it is that God
could have grace and how terrible sin is. We, Our sinners were ruined. We need
more than correction. We need a new heart. We need
to have our sins put away. The Lord said of Judas, he said
it would have been better for that man if he had never been
born. And he will say to many, depart
from me. And he will say to his church,
enter into the joy prepared for you. Grace is the only difference
between hearing those things. It's the only reason why we're
going to hear, enter into the joy of thy Lord. Out of the heart
proceed evil thoughts, murderers, adulteries, fornication, theft,
false witness, blasphemy, and God is angry with the wicked
every day. How could we be loved by God? I don't have a cheap view of
grace, though, when I think of how this grace is had. The Lord
said, the flowers plowed upon my back. They made long their
furrows. What he did in suffering and
agony on the cross is the only reason we would be in heaven.
It's the only reason God could love a sinful person. Who Jesus Christ is and what
he did what he endured for us, that is the only way to be blessed
by God, to be loved by God. And we will say unto him who
hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. The sins are ours. The washing
is his. God loves us in Christ. He loves
perfectly. He loves righteously. And man
will make an idol out of him by saying that he loves everybody. And that cannot be. That only
serves to take away the children's bread and bring in heresy, damning
heresy. They will often say, because
of John 3, 16, that God loves the world. And that means all people without
exception. But that is not true. You cannot
get to John chapter 3 without reading John chapter 1. And in
John chapter 1, John writes, he was in the world. He writes
this about the Lord Jesus. He was in the world. He was in
Israel. He wasn't everywhere. And the
world knew him not. and the world was made by him. There the word world means the
entire universe, the planet. And the world knew him not. But not everybody didn't know
him. Many people did. So we see three
different uses of the same word in one verse. So we already know
that the word world does not always mean every person. But to know the love of God in
Jesus Christ, to know that he chose us, and to know that his
love is perfect, it's righteous and holy. God is just to love
sinners because his son put their sin away. To know that his love
comes from nothing in me, but only because we're in his son. That is peace. That is joy. Amen. Lord God, our father, please
bless this message to our hearts, Lord. Please give us that peace
that comes from knowing that your son is our hope and our
salvation. Forgive us our sins, Lord, and
turn our hearts to you once more. Amen.