Go now to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians 1. We just read my
favorite psalm, and now we're going to look at my favorite
epistle. All of them are my favorites.
But you know what I mean. Paul, like David, in verse 3,
blessed be the God, and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
has blessed us. That sounds like Psalm 103. Blessed
be God. What a blessed God we have. What a blessed book this is.
Don't you love this book? Blessed Promises. Blessed us,
verse 3, with all spiritual blessings. In heavenly places or things
in Christ. Spiritual blessings. We'll talk
about that more in a moment. But all blessings. Paul said
this in Romans 8. He said, He that spared not his
own son, but delivered him up for us all. God's people. All
His people. How shall he not with him also
freely give us all things, all spiritual blessing? And he begins
verse 4 by saying, this is the greatest blessing of all, to
be chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Accordingly
he saith, chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the
world. David said this, blessed is the man whom thou choosest. Let me quote all of it. I usually
don't quote it all. You don't either. Listen, David talked about this
a great deal. He said, blessed is the man whom
thou choosest and causes to approach unto them. Have you come this
morning to worship God? Have you come to hear from the
Lord? Have you come? Have you? You're blessed. The greatest blessing on earth.
That he may dwell in thy courts. Courts of the Lord. You'll be
satisfied. He said he'll be satisfied with
the goodness of thy house. Blessed be God who has chosen
the people and with all spiritual blessing made us sit together
in heavenly places. This is a heavenly place. It's
a foretaste of glory and power. Verse 4, according as He has
chosen us that we should be, before the world began, that
we should be holy and without blame. That's what we talked
about. Do you want to be holy? Is there anything in your past or
present That you feel such awful guilt about and shame and anything. Can you imagine being without
blame? Nothing on your record. That's the way it is with God's
people. Chosen us to be without blame
before Him in love. He did this in love. Why would
He do this? Why would He love me? That's
what Ruth said, didn't she? Why have I found grace in His
hand? He did it in love and He did it so that you would be in
love with Him. It's both. Having predestinated us. I love
the sound of that word. I do. I'm so glad that there's
nothing outside of God's absolute control, aren't you? Predestinate
us to adoption of children. Adoption. I had a good family,
a natural father and mother, just wonderful. No one could
have better parents than I did, and a family of brothers and
sisters. But there's a man sitting in
here on the back row who was adopted, Edwin Berry. Are you thankful for adoption,
Brother Edwin? If somebody hadn't chosen him, and given him a good home, and
given him a name, and wrote and signed their name to do everything
for you, give you their name, and provide for you, and love
you. Free love, wasn't it? Elective
love, wasn't it, Brother Edwin? Right there's a man who loves
adoption. David Edmondson was adopted. Oh, he loves his subject. God's
adopted some people. By Jesus Christ. To Himself. He did it all by Christ. Why
did He do it? Verse 5. The good pleasure of
His will. Because He did. Why did Mr. Barry choose you, Ed? Because
he did. You didn't choose him, did you? He'll be forever grateful to
God for making that man choose him and to that man for choosing
him. So are we predestined to the
adoption of children because it pleased him. It pleased the
Lord to make you His people. Why did God make you His people?
Because it just pleased Him. One of my favorite verses in
all of the Bible, Luke 12, 32, I remember as a young believer,
just in the warfare, just in the battle, I never had a battle
before, but God sent the Word, sent the Gospel, and then the
battle began, within, without. I remember walking along on the
railroad about two o'clock in the morning, walking the train.
I had to walk these trains and check all the brakes and catch
a caboose going by. And I remember struggling, doubts,
fears. Am I a child of God? Why do I
have these temptations? Why do I think these thoughts?
I can't be a child of God. And this verse of Scripture,
Well, what it was, I had a little Bible in my back pocket, and
I got my Brakeman's Ladder out, and I just opened it up, drew
a bow at a venture, and it fell open to Luke 12, 32, which says,
Fear not, little flock, it's your father's good pleasure to
give you the kingdom. That's what I needed. gives him
great pleasure. Great pleasure. You ever see
these animals? Some of you may be rescued a
stray animal and sick or weak and without nourishment and about
to die. You've seen these pictures, videos.
Does it make your heart, does it touch your heart a little
bit? You ever done that? Wouldn't it give you great pleasure
to nurse that poor, starving animal to death. If that animal
cried unto you, wouldn't it give you great pleasure to do good
unto that animal? You don't need that animal. He
needs you. Wouldn't it give you great pleasure?
Well, that's what gives God great pleasure. Help. Help. Bless them all. It seems like
that's about all I can cry these days. Help. It gives him great
pleasure. It's according to the good pleasure
of his will. You see, everything's by his will. According to his
will. It's not of him that willeth
or him that runneth. It's of God that shows mercy. And it's
verse 6, to the praise of the glory of His grace. It's all
about the glory of God's grace. The glory. There's a proverb
that says this. It's the glory of a man to pass
by a transgression. Listen. It's the glory of a man
to pass by a transgression, to forgive it, to not punish it,
to forget it, to cover it over. That's glory, isn't it? Sin,
transgression, iniquity deserves punishment. But God is rich in
mercy. great glory of His grace, verse
6 says, wherein He made us accepted in the Beloved, accepted in Christ. Do you know that every single
human being that calls on God in the name of Jesus Christ,
God will accept them? Isn't that something? No matter
what they've done, where they're from, what they've done, it doesn't
matter who they are, if they call and the greatest Proof of
that is when our Lord is hanging on the cross and there's a thief
who spent his whole life and worthless, you would want that
man dead. And he just said, Lord, help
me, please remember me, have mercy on me. And all those good Pharisees
out there, all those God-believing, God-fearing, Bible-believing,
Sunday-go-to-meeting Pharisees out there. I said to this man,
today, you're going to be with me in paradise. One crying, begging,
pleading sinner, help me, forgive me, I'm sorry. One of the old writers said,
as soon as sin is admitted, it's remitted. Just as soon as it's
admitted, I'm guilty. No, you're not justified. I'm
sorry. Forgive me. Help is on its way. Accept it. Accept it. All who call, all who come by
Jesus Christ are accepted in the beloved. His beloved Son,
in whom, verse 7, we have redemption. Redemption. We read there in
Psalm 103, He redeemeth thy life from destruction. My, my. As a young man, I was
bound and determined to destroy myself. I tried everything I
could to destroy myself. I don't mean literally. I don't
mean, you know, I loved this world and the things in it. What
it was was I was just so rip-roaring after this world, and after it,
and dead in sin, that I could have very easily at any time
destroyed myself with all the things that people are destroyed
by today. I was right in the middle of
that. But, God, redeemed my life from
destruction. God said, go get that one. I paid for him. I bought that
one with my own precious blood. Don't let him be destroyed. Stop him. Stop his wild career. Hitherto shall he come and no
further. Now bring him to me. redeemed how I love to proclaim
it. Redeemed how? Not by your own works and gold or silver
or conversation about tradition and so forth. Not by anything
but by the precious blood of the Lamb. He had to lay down
His life. My Lord had to take all my sins
in His body on the tree. Our Lord had to become me because
the justice, the wrath of God had to come down. God can't be just and just forgive
sin. He's got to punish it. That's
a good thing. And so Christ said, take me. Let him go. Redeemed. Forgiveness of sin. Forgiveness.
If you've ever hurt somebody, if you've ever done something
wrong, if you've ever felt great guilt and you couldn't undo it,
and you went to them and you just, please forgive me. The
sweetest words you'll ever hear are, I forgive you. I forgive
you. I forgive you. And forgiving
means forget. It means it's over. You don't
have to bring it up again. When I got older, old enough
to think back and realize what I did to my parents, I began
to ask them for their forgiveness for what I did as a young man. I began to ask them for forgiveness. And it wasn't enough. I'd have to keep asking them
every day for the rest of my life what I did or didn't do. But you know what their reaction
was? I remember, what are you talking about? Don't you remember
when I, don't recall. But I did, I had no recollection. It's like I've never done anything. John, that's exactly the way
God perceives His people. Their sins are gone. Forgotten. He says the iniquity of Israel
shall be sought, but won't be found. In Psalm 103, He said,
I've removed their transgressions as far from them as the east
is from the west. How did He do that? A fit man.
A scapegoat. That the sins of God's people
laid on our scapegoat. Who's that? Christ. Why was Christ made a scapegoat? Huh? Why not a sheep? Because
God can't forsake a sheep. But He put all our sins on the
scapegoat. and led him out by a fit man
as far as that man could walk. How far did he walk? Well, you
can't walk that far. And deposited that goat and came
back. And that's our sins. From the
east, from the west, gone by Christ. Old brother Jack Shane,
he said, I remember him preaching on that scapegoat, Leviticus
16. He's an old Texas man, big, tall,
Texan, slow-talking. They're all slow-talking. Jack
looked just like LBJ. Remember Lyndon Johnson? Looked
just like him. And he said, and God ain't going
gold-hunting neither. That's too good to be true. No,
it's the only thing that's not too good to be true. Everything
in this world is too good, and it's not true. This is the truth. Oh, He said, in whom we have
redemption, forgiveness of sin, and it's all according to the
riches of His grace. That's the title. That's the
subject. That's what this is all about. The riches of His
grace. The riches of His grace. In chapter
2, look at verse 7. Chapter 2, verse 7 says, In the
ages to come, He's going to show the exceeding riches of His grace
in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. He's going to show
every one of God's people. Look what I did. Look, look at this. You were
murmuring and complaining right there. If I hadn't done that,
you'd have died. You'd have destroyed yourself.
Look, look, look what I did. Look how I manipulated you. Look
how I did it. Look what I did for you. It's all grace, wasn't it? It's
all good, wasn't it? Yes, I told you. All things work
together for good. Oh, this is bad. Look, look,
look what I had to do here. The riches of His grace. It's
all my grace. It's all a gift. It's all His
work. It's not up to us. Brothers and
sisters, listen to this. It's the best thing you have
heard. Your salvation is not up to you. You can't destroy yourself if
you belong to Christ. You can't be lost if you belong
to Christ. You can't damn yourself if you belong to Christ. You
can't. It's up to Him. Don't you want your salvation
in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ? Kept by His grace. Oh, it's all
the riches of His grace. I thought of this, riches, riches,
what the world calls riches. He said, spiritual blessing.
Riches means this. Riches means having abundance
of something, having a lot of something. Riches means a great
treasure, a storehouse of whatever. Now this is what the world calls
riches. And I want you to examine this
in your own heart. And don't tell me, but for you
and the Lord, I want you to determine right now which one of these
you'd rather have. Okay? The world thinks having
great many houses, the American dream is not to have a house
now, it's to have two. And some of us do. Now, I had
a big old camper that's just another big old house, a mobile
home. It was nicer than that mobile home I lived in back then.
The American dream, have two houses. A house is a place where
you rest. A house is a place where you
repose. A house is a place of safety and security. A house
is a place you enjoy going to. Now tell me, what house is it
that you would want to dwell in the rest of your life? A big,
rich palace is this place right here. David said, I want to dwell in
God's house all my life and behold the beauty of the Lord in acquiring
His temple. David lived in the palace in
the kingdom. He said, there's one house that I love going to
more than going home. It's God's house. How about you? How about it? What the world
calls riches are clothing, beautiful clothing, adornment. Clothing is for adornment, you
know. We need, us ugly sinners need
to cover this flesh. We have the world, beautiful
clothing, adornment, it's for warmth also. Let me ask you,
would you rather have the finest clothing that money can buy,
or would you rather be clothed in the righteousness of Jesus
Christ? Would you rather have the wedding
garment on? We went to a wedding yesterday
where the Johnny Parker's daughter got married. And I was so glad that they weren't
wearing tuxes. I hate those things. Tux is a
little bow tie. Don't we look good? No, you look
stupid. Anyway. Hey, silly. Anyway, so they weren't wearing
his tux. And John Chapman, you know, I
was glad and thankful for his sake. He had to wear a bow tie
and a cumberbund. Cumberbund. That's a good name,
isn't it? Cumbersome. But anyway, which
would you rather wear? The finest clothes that money
can buy, and have people look at you and say, boy, don't you
look good. By the way, they're going to
put us in our Sunday finest in a box someday, and everybody's
going to come by. Doesn't he look good? Brother Cody Groover, when he
died. Now down there in Mexico, it's 110 and a shade. And they don't wear suits and
ties and all that because it's just so hot. It's hot. They don't
have air conditioning in their building. The windows are open.
They've got mosquitos and flies, and they've got a dress. Wear
white cotton shirts, you know. They all wear the same thing.
White cotton shirts. The women wear white cotton gowns,
robe. Okay? They all look nice. They're
all respectable. Well, when they buried Cody,
they put him in the box before the church there, and they put
a coat and tie on him, suit and tie. And they'd never seen him
like that. And the man that preached his
funeral said, Old Brother Cody looked in Spanish. He said, he
looks good there. He said, you ought to see him
up there. You ought to see him now what he's dressed in, in
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Oh, every one of God's people
are robed in white. wrought gold, king's clothing,
wedding garment. Which would you rather have?
Food. The world calls good food rich. I enjoy good food as much
as any other. And, you know, food is a very
satisfying thing. It satisfies your mouth. It tastes
good, doesn't it? It's enjoyable. It's very enjoyable
when you're sitting around the table with those you love, with
your friends. It's much more enjoyable to sit
around with others and enjoy good food. And which would you
rather eat? The finest food served by the
Waldorf Astoria, is there still a place? The Hotel Romanoff. Or sit right here and hear this
gospel. Which tastes better to you? The
blood of the lamb, bread of life, the water of life, the wine of
his word, the meat that is his body, the drink that is his blood? Does that taste good to you?
Would you rather have that or the best thing? That's what the world calls rich
food, pools. You know, a rich person has swimming
pool. Don't they? I have to admit, if I was a real
rich man, I'd have a swimming pool. I would. Wouldn't you? John said, no. Well, you're just
too old to enjoy a swimming pool. I would. Wouldn't you? I'd have
one. Big old pool. I've had it every morning, I
think. There's a pool in scripture called
the Pool of Bethesda. where all the impotent folk,
the lame, the haught, the withered, the blind, were waiting on the
moving of the waters. And one day this one fellow,
Christ, came by and he said, I need to get in that pool. Nobody.
Christ said, I am the pool. Plunge in today and be made complete. The fountain, there is a fountain
filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel's vein, and sinners
plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. Rise
up and walk. Which pool would you rather have?
Family. The world calls family riches. And I, brothers and sisters,
again, I'm so thankful for my family. I was put in a loving
family. I am the richest man on earth.
I am. I'm the most blessed man to ever
walk this planet. Nobody has received more grace
than this man. Nobody has received more mercy
than him. Right now, in the past, present, and I expect in the
future. I'm a rich man. I've got all this and Christ
too. Amazing. But family, I love my
family. You love your family. Family
is a place where there's love, there's laughter, you get together,
you remember memories, reminisce, family reunions, although I've
never been to one of mine, but you know, I suppose it's a good
thing. I might go to one if I ever had
one. Which one, what family do you really value and want to
be a part of more than any other? God's family or yours? We have a family reunion every
Sunday and every Wednesday. God's family. They meet together
to reminisce, to talk about the riches of His grace, to remember
our Lord and what He's done for us. It's a family reunion where
we sit around the table and eat His body and drink His blood,
where we fellowship together. It's full of love, isn't it?
Everybody in my physical family doesn't love Jesus Christ. I don't have the relationship
with my earthly brother like I have with you. I wish I did.
Danny, if you listen to this, I don't. Boy, that man right
there, he's dear to me. That's my brother. We've walked
many miles together, haven't we, y'all? Steven, you were here
before I got here. We've been together all these
years. That's my brother right there. I'm not ashamed to call
him my brother. This is my family. Is it yours? Which would you rather have?
I'm rich. I've got a lot of brothers. The world thinks that riches
are security, you know. They have lots of riches. Gold
and silver. Brothers and sisters, it doesn't
matter what form money is in. If one day, if the Lord so sees
fit to make this whole thing collapse, it doesn't matter.
If you own Fort Knox, it'll mean nothing. All the money, the paper
money you have, it'll be good for toilet paper. People will
be using it for toilet paper. That's right. Worthless. Worthless. But let me tell you about the
unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ. They'll never fade away. I'm talking about peace. I'm
talking about hope. I'm talking about love. Colossians
talks about this, the riches of the full assurance of understanding. The Lord has given his people
understanding. The world is foolish. The world
does foolish things. The world thinks that there is
no God. The fool has said there's no
God. But, Brother Mike, the Lord came
through the preaching of the gospel and has given us an understanding. We understand. We understand
why the world does what it does. We understand why the world is
doing what it's doing. And we understand the end. We
understand He's given us... So we're not full of... Doubts
and fears and worries and fretfulness and anxiousness. Are you with
me? He's given us knowledge of God,
of His purpose. This is what verse 9 says, He's
abounded toward us in wisdom and prudent, made known unto
us the mystery of His will. These things are hidden from
the wise and the prudent, hidden from professors, hidden from
the educated people of this world, hidden. Man actually thinks it's
up to man. It's all up to man. How foolish
can you be? Your destiny is in your hands.
You've got to make the most of it. He's given us an understanding,
knowledge and wisdom. Verse 8 says He's abounded toward
us in wisdom. Oh my, what is wisdom? Brother John, the wisdom of this
world is foolishness in it. It's foolishness. Whatever they
come up with, it ends up being foolishness. And it changes,
doesn't it, with the generation. What is the wisdom of God? It's
Christ. Christ is the wisdom of God.
You see that everything's in Christ. Everything's because
of Christ. Everything is in His hand. Everything's up to Christ.
It's Christ's wisdom. wisdom and righteousness, sanctification,
redemption, peace, hope, love, pardon, peace that passeth understanding,
peace that... He said this. He said, My peace
I give unto you. My peace I leave with you. My
peace I give unto you. Not what the world gives. Do
you hear me? He said that. Peace I leave with
you. Peace with God. God is angry
with this world. That's why all the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven all the time. That's why all this stuff
is going on. God is angry. No, it's not the love of God.
It's anger. The wrath of God. We have that understanding. We
clearly see this as the wrath of God. And he said, Peace I leave with
you. Didn't he, John? This peace, he said, John, I
leave with you. I made peace for you, this rebel
against God, this former enemy of mine, of God. I made peace
by the blood of my cross. And now God's not angry with
you anymore. God's not going to pour out His
wrath on you. He's not going to do that. Why?
He poured it out on Christ. Peace I leave with you. Peace
with God. And that will give you peace
within. My peace. My peace knowing that God did
that. My peace. The peace Christ had
when He endured the cross for the joy set before Him. Knowing
the end. Expected end. My peace I give
unto you. Not as the world giveth. They
cry peace, peace. We're living in a time of peace,
aren't we? Aren't we? Hadn't been a shot fired since
9-11. Oh, how people forget that so fast. Hadn't there been a
shot fired? Hadn't there been a bomb thrown
by a terrorist? Boy, that can change. It can
sure change, can't it? Ask people right before World
War II. Ask them. It's false sense of security.
Not what the world gives. They cry, peace, peace. And he
said, when they start crying that, then sudden destruction.
But not God's people. If this building fell in right
now because of a bomb dropped on it, you know where God's people would
go. You know what would happen to God's people? It would be
the best possible thing that could happen in our lives. No
more problems. No more trouble. Peace forever. Let the bomb fall. No. We've got some in here that don't
have that peace. And so I'm preaching this gospel
of peace and hoping the Lord will impress upon their minds
and their hearts to call upon Him. And I close with this. Look at verse 10. In the dispensation of the fullness
of time, when God dispenses with time, that's what that means.
It's all over. He's going to gather together
in one all things in Christ. Scripture says He's going to
gather together the world. He's going to fold it up like
a vesture. You ever pack your clothes, you know, that you're
going to wear or take off and put them to the side? You ever
do that? God's going to do this whole
world just like it. Fold it up like a vesture. Done with this.
Done with it. In the fullness of time, He'll
gather together in one. He's going to gather all His
people in one in Christ. All in Christ. In heaven and
earth. In heaven, those who are on earth,
even in Him. And we're going to get our inheritance. I told you about that wedding
I just attended. And I told Mindy on the way,
I said, I don't like weddings. I don't like weddings. Well,
it depends on who's getting married. Kara, just hold on. Let me finish
this illustration again. It depends on who's getting married. If it's two unbelievers, there's
just doubt that they just don't know. There's no promise it's
going to last. Probably won't. If one's an unbeliever
and the other one's a believer, still, no problem. But if there's
two people who know God, who know Christ, who love the Lord
and are going to be worshipping the Lord together and seeking
the Lord and pulling together, yoked together, pulling in one
direction, looking to Christ, serving one
another, serving His cause, worshipping, supporting the Gospel, that's
going to last. And it's a wonderful thing. It's
a wonderful thing. I took it back, didn't I? I took
it back, man, when we were there at that wedding and Johnny was
dancing with his daughter. I'm sorry, I just had big old
tears running down my face. But you know what I was thinking
of? There's a marriage coming up. It's the marriage of the Lamb.
And I want to be in that. I want to be a part of that.
I want to be married to Jesus Christ. I want to be in that. And you know who's going to be
in that. You can tell who's going to be in that married supper
of the Lamb. You know who is? It's those who attend the rehearsal. Everybody couldn't go to that
wedding. We got there by personal bid invitation, personal. You know who's going to be in
God's son's wedding? Those he bids, those he calls
by this gospel. Every one of them are going to
be there. Everyone dressed in the robe of lamb. I can't wait. I can't believe it. That wedding
was, oh, it was, they were eating food and they brought all this
food to me. I didn't pay for any of it. I didn't dine. Pork
and chicken and beans and taters and rolls and cupcakes and all
the drinks. You just bring, what do you want?
Drink it up. Eat it. They just served me.
I didn't have to get up. I was sitting there serving me.
I'll take some more of that. Look at there, they're just laughing.
Look at there, the bridegroom. I knew him. I like him. I love
him. The bride. I love the bride.
That's who was there. And that's who's going to be
there. We're going to gather together,
in one, all those who love God's son and love his people and love
this on earth, this rehearsal supper. Will you be there? I hope. I hope. Okay. Let's close by singing number
236.