Now with Ephesians chapter 1, the Gospel, also called the Word
of Truth, that is, the true Gospel, is clearly defined here in Ephesians
1. Clearly. Set 4. perhaps more clearly or as clearly
as any place in God's Word. And there's one word that defines
the gospel, one word that sticks out throughout this chapter and
others, and that word is grace. For by grace are you saved. And God does this to the praise
of the glory of His grace. You could substitute Christ for
that word grace, couldn't you? They're synonymous. Whenever
you mention grace, you're talking about Christ. He is the grace
of God. But one word sticks out, and
you'll see it if you're looking for it, throughout this chapter. Grace, and the next chapter,
and the next, and the next. Grace. We're talking about God's
sovereign electing, predestinating grace, redeeming grace, calling
grace, keeping grace, restraining grace, constraining grace, revealing
grace, eternal grace. It's all by grace. Now, most
of you in here who first heard this message, the truth, and
you came out of modern religion, you came out of false religion,
and what you first heard was, Ephesians 1, or Ephesians 2,
or Romans 9, didn't it? Most every one. And a few years
ago, we changed the name of this church. We just substituted Grace
for Baptist. Central Baptist, Central Grace
Church. And we have on our sign Ephesians
1, 6. to the praise of the glory of
His grace, which we want everyone to know in a short sentence or verse,
what this church is all about, what salvation is all about,
what we preach here. Grace. All of our sister churches
have that name in them. Grace. Sovereign grace. Look at verse 2, grace be to
you. Verse 6, to the praise of the
glory of His grace. Verse 7, the last line, according
to the riches of His grace. And he sums it up in chapter
2. Verse 8, by grace, for by grace, well verse 7, verse 7,
that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus, for
by grace are you saved through faith. That's not of yourself,
it's grace. That's a gift of God. And I prepared this message hoping
it would be heard by someone who never heard it, and hoping
it would be just clear, plain. Grace is not an offer from God. It's an act of God. Grace is
not something God offers to all people and they must accept it.
That's what false religion says. That's not true. Grace is an
operation of God in and for some people that makes them accept
it, that makes a person believe and
call and repent. All right, look at verse 1. Paul,
an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. Paul. He doesn't
say Reverend Paul, does he? He won't see any of God's true
preachers using titles like that. Reverend, he doesn't say Dr.
Paul, just Paul. An Apostle, that means messenger. And even, look at that, even
Apostle is not capitalized. One time is Apostle capitalized
in Scripture. Referring to Jesus Christ in
Hebrews. Consider The Apostle. the messenger,
Malachi, of the covenant, and high priest, capital A. Paul,
an apostle, one of many messengers, that's what that means, of Jesus
Christ. Christ is the one who chose his
apostles. And this is the theme of this
chapter. Chosen. Elect. He says, I'm an
apostle, a messenger, a chosen preacher of Jesus Christ by the
will of God. He says this in nearly every
one of his epistles. He begins nearly every one of
his epistles this way, Grace be unto you, O Paul, an apostle
by the will of God. Read it for yourself, all of
it. By the will of God. Now, Paul didn't know God at
one time. He was religious. His name was
Saul. He was a Pharisee. He knew the
Bible. He was zealous for God. But he
didn't even know God. And he hated this way. He hated it. But God. This is Saul of Tarsus, Paul's
testimony. I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ,
not a hater of Him, by the will of God. I hated him one time. He did. But by the will of God. It wasn't Paul's free will. He
hated the truth. But God. The will of God, who does all
things, look at verse 11, who worketh all things. The last
line of verse 11 says, he worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. Brothers and sisters, people,
this sums up who God is. You know that? That God only has free will. It's only one person who does
as he will, and that's God. That's the difference between
God and man. God does as he will because he
will. Who does as he will. As I said,
Saul or Paul was once religious, but God. Jesus Christ met him
one day on the road to Damascus. Paul thought he knew God, thought
he was doing what he will and was going to put this Jesus out
of business and these people. And Jesus Christ, who is God,
came to him, chose him. He said, you are a chosen vessel,
I chose you, and put him in the dirt. took him off his high horse,
put him at the dirt at Jesus Christ's feet, and now Paul is
crying out, Lord, what will you have me to do? What are you going
to do with me? That's when salvation comes. All right, verse 1, he says,
to the saint by the will of God. I'm an apostle by the will of
God, thank the Lord. To the saints with their Ephesus.
To the faithful in Christ Jesus. To the saints. Saint means one
set apart, sanctified, set apart, chosen. And the faithful in Christ
Jesus. I'm going to try to talk a little
bit about being in the Beloved. Did you hear the radio message
this morning? That was his message this morning, in the Beloved.
I chose that. I chose that message. and put it on the radio, that
at the mouth of two witnesses you will hear this. In Christ
Jesus, to the faithful. It's not talking about all people.
This is important. This is vital that we know this. This is not written to the world.
All through here he says, us, us, us, us, us. Who's he writing
to? To the saints. To the faithful. Those full of faith in Christ
Jesus. Those that are in Christ Jesus
and all that that means. I will tell you this much. When
my daughter was a young girl, about four years old, she was
hearing this, Ephesians 1 and others, in Christ. And she knows
that salvation means to be in Christ. She knows that in her
head. She understands what it means. And riding home, sitting
in the back seat, she asked her mother, she said, Mama, how does
one get in Jesus Christ? Can you answer that? Can you? There's a scripture that says
so. I've been quoting it for years. 1 Corinthians 1.30, of
God are you in Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption. And the court is as it is written,
he that glorieth, then glory in the Lord. If you are in Christ,
you have nothing to do with it. God puts you in Christ. God puts
you in Christ. Now, she still didn't understand
that, but she at least knows how of God in Christ. So he's talking to us, us, us,
saints, those that are in Christ, the faithful in Christ, in God,
in the church, in Christ, in the Lamb's Book of Life, in the
beloved All right? Verse 2, he says,
now, to grace be to you and peace from God our Father. Our Father. God is not the Father of all
mankind. That's what Romans 9 tells us.
We're going to turn there in a minute. He's not the Father
of all mankind, but He is the Father of His people, His chosen
people. from God our Father and from
the Lord Jesus Christ. This grace is to them, this gift
bestowed upon them. Grace means unmerited favor. Grace means something given to
you, bestowed upon you, done for you, done into you by God
and you had anything to do with it. You didn't merit it. You
didn't work for it. He didn't earn it. He just of
His own free will and love and mercy gave you this grace. The Immaculate Heart gave it
to you. Bestowed it upon you like salvation. You're saved. Nowhere through here does Paul
say, we're sure glad you accepted Jesus and we're sure glad you
let Him be loved. It's He hath, He hath, He hath, He hath, He
hath. Grace means unmerited favor. Even faith is a gift of God. Even repentance is a gift of
God. And this grace is His work. We're
His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good work, to the
praise of the glory of His grace. Peace, verse 2, peace to you. Peace. No one makes peace with
God. No sinner, a rebel against God,
no child of wrath makes peace with
God. It's up to the judge to make
peace. You don't accept forgiveness.
It's granted to you. You ask for it. Peace was made for God's people
by the blood of Jesus Christ cross. Period. Exclamation point. Peace was made by Jesus Christ
taking our whipping, the chastisement Necessary for our peace was laid
on Him. By His stripes we are healed. No other way. To the praise of
the glory of His grace that He would take our weapon. You see
this? I'm not splitting hairs or just
talking about doctrine here. I'm talking about God's glory.
I'm talking about what Christ had to go through to obtain peace
for His people. We're not arguing doctrine here.
We're talking about who gets the glory here. I said I wasn't going to frown
during any of this message. Verse 3, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places or things in Christ. Blessed be God. Bless the Lord.
O my soul, all that is within me, bless His holy name. This
is the blessed doctrine of God our Savior, doctrine of Christ.
This is the blessed truth of who God is and who Christ is
and who chose who. Who chose who? A man years ago
wrote a book on the hated doctrine of election. That's a terrible
title. Terrible title. And I know people
hate it, but all God's people don't. It should have been the
blessed doctrine of election. Blessed. Chosen. This is what
he's talking about. Blessed be God who chose us and
predestinated us and redeemed us and called us and put us in
Christ and all spiritual blessing, heavenly things. He doesn't mention
one single earthly thing here. Not one single material blessing.
Not health, not wealth, not food and drink, not one. Because the
blessing is this. Verse 4 says, Blessed be God
according, who blessed us with all blessings according as he
hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world,
the saints, the faithful. He's elect, chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world. This is sovereign electing
grace. I love it. Do you? Say preacher. Somebody want to hear this? Say
preacher. Do you believe that election is salvation? That's
all you talk about. Well, no, I don't. But it's unto salvation. It started
there. There is no salvation without
it. That is, if God hadn't from the
beginning, before the world began, chosen to save some, nobody would
have been saved. It's unto salvation. And you
can't preach the gospel without it. And to God's people, this
is one of the most glorious things. Well, blessed be God, according as
He hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Three things, three questions. Who chose who? According to Scripture. For it is He that chose it up.
When? When did He choose people? Before
the foundation of the world. Wrote their names in a book.
Whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life? Before the
foundation of the world. Why? Verse 5, according to the good
pleasure of His will. One of the ladies just lifted
her head to heaven and just smiled big. She must be one of the elect. Because the average person was
sitting there in a kiss. Nothing in the world... Verse
5, let's read on. Having predestinated... Verse
4, I didn't conclude it. That we should be holy and without
blame. We're not going to be otherwise. before Him in love, He did it
in love, that we might be in love with Him, with the truth,
having predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.
And there's nothing the world hates more. That religion hates
more than talk of God's sovereign election and predestinating grace. Nothing they hate more. You know
why? I'll tell you why. There are many reasons, but principally
it's because this takes man's destiny out of his hands. It completely takes a man's destiny
out of his hands. It takes everything out of his
hands and puts it in the hands of God. The world hates this
because it takes man's destiny out of his hand. God's people
love it because it takes man's destiny out of their hands. You
hear me? We love it because it does take
our destiny out of our hand and puts it in the hands of Him who
loved us and washed us from our sins. And it's all blood and
nothing, not hell or high water, is going to change. It's all
good. Predestinated. I love the sound of that, don't
you? This is who God is. This is what salvation is. This
is why. This is whose glory is, who gets
the glory. This is whose will is sovereign,
whose choice it is. This is whose decision it really
was, whose power it is. God. Now, here's the key to understanding. You can at least understand it
in your head. Look at chapter 2, verse 1. It says, And you
hath he quickened who were dead. Now, there you have it. That's why it's all up to God. You were dead. A dead man can't
do anything. Dead. Verse 5 there in chapter
2 says, Even God who is rich in mercy, verse 4, for His great
love wherewith He loved us, saints, the faithful, chosen, even when
we were dead, hath quickened us together."
Oh, it's by grace, he said. Hath quickened, raised up, gave
deaf ears here, blind eyes see, a leper cleansed, a captive set
free. It's by grace. By the will of
God. Notice, it says, he hath. Who hath? He hath. He hath. That's why I said, bless God.
Turn to Romans 9. If somebody has never seen this,
Romans 9, for those who have, turn to Romans 9. This is glorious. This is the truth. This is the
truth of salvation, of who God is and who He saves and why He
saves them. Romans 9, I said that all men
are not God's children. It says that, verse 7, neither
because they are they the seed of Abraham are they all children.
But in Isaac shall thy seed be called, not Ishmael, Isaac. That
is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the
children of God, but children of the promise, chosen, promised
to someone. They're counted for the seed.
Read on. This is the word of promise, at this time will I
come and Sarah shall have a son. That's Isaac. Not only this,
but when Rebekah had conceived by one, that's Isaac's wife,
verse 11, the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that's Jacob and Esau, twins, just alike,
that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not
of works, but of God, him that calleth It was said unto her,
Rebecca, the elder shall serve the younger, as it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." What do you say
to that? Verse 14, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Go, God forbid. For he saith to Moses in Exodus
33, I will have mercy. There's the amazing thing. Nobody
deserves mercy. Everybody deserves destruction.
But I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Sovereign
mercy. I will have compassion, where
Exodus says, be gracious, to whom I will have compassion or
be gracious. So then, it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God. that showeth mercy
of God are you in Christ Jesus, who is the mercy, who is the
elect, who is the grace of God. All the saints know this. All the saints hear this. This
is the eye-opening truth of who God is, of what we are, who Christ
is, and how God saved us. Abraham. Ask them all. Ask any
saint. Go through the Scripture and
ask and look at the story of every single one of God's elect.
Let's ask Abraham. Abraham, how did you come to
know God? How did you come to know the
truth? Were you seeking? Oh, no. I was 75 years old, steeped
in idolatry, but God. came to me one day, chose me,
quickened me, taught me, brought me, bought me. Oh, no, no. I had nothing to do with it.
Let's ask Jacob, his grandson. Jacob's running. He's a rebel.
He's a cheat. He's a thief. He's a sinner through
and through, just like Esau. But God. Let's ask him, huh,
Matt? Found him one day lying, running,
scared, and found him and grabbed hold of him, didn't he? And wrestled
him down to the ground and said, what's your name? I've chosen
you. Let's ask David. Out there watching
sheep, somebody said, the prophet's calling you. Who? Samuel. What for? You're going
to be king of Israel. What? You're kidding. Let's ask the apostles. They're
out there in the boats. They're out there fishing. Let's
ask Simon and Andrew and James and John. They're out there fishing.
That's their life. They heard this Jesus of Nazareth. They
didn't care. They're not hearing Him preach.
They're not sitting at His feet. They're sitting in a boat. And
along He comes on the shore up there. And buddy, they heard
His voice. Simon, Andrew, James, John, followed
me." And he walked off. And they dropped everything and
followed him. Who chose who? He kept reminding them of that. Did they? What was their song
throughout that? He chose us! Saul says, "'Tid not that I did
choose thee, for, Lord, that could not be. Hadst thou not
chosen me, I would never have chosen thee.'" To be holy and
unblameable, unreprovable in His sight before
Him someday, right now, in fact, in love. He did it in love, in
love to His people. and to make us fall in love with
Him and the truth and each other, who were children of wrath even
as others, who hated this truth, now we love it, who hated this
way, but God. And he said he predestinated.
That means he predetermined everything about his people. Everything. predestinated them
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, and everything
about them conformed to the image of Christ." Predestination. I
told you that there was a man on the railroad one time, a preacher,
and I so-called. And turn to Acts 15 quickly. If you don't know this verse,
Acts 15, you need to learn it so you can quote it by heart. Acts 15. But this man on the
railroad, this so-called preacher, you know, I'd talk to him the
best I could. He was a young man. I was a young man. He was
an older man. And I started talking to him
about God's sovereign electing grace and predestinating grace. You know, when he heard that
word, it was like I was shocked with a cattle prod. He said, I'll believe anything
but that predestination. That's what he said. I'll believe
anything but that. And he did. And he did. He believed anything. Well, look at Acts 15, 18. You have it? Acts 15, 18. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning of the world. God who works all things after
the counsel of His own will. We've just read that, Ephesians
1. Romans 8.28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, who are the called
according to His purpose. You like that? Do you like that? Do you love that? Our text says he predestinated
us to the adoption of children. Anybody in here like adoption?
Anybody? Raise your hand if you love adoption. Ed Berry was an adopted son. I don't think anybody else in
here physically adopted anybody. Now, he knows something about
adoption. David Edmondson, the pastor, came here and preached
on that, didn't he? He knows something about adoption.
He loves it. He loves it. You see, he didn't
have any parents. And if you're an orphan, and you're living in a home perhaps,
you can't choose someone to accept you. You can't choose your parents. You can't influence anybody to
come. You're just hoping somebody will. And lo and behold, didn't I add,
somebody came by and chose you back then You can choose whom
you will. You go into an orphanage and
say, I want that one, I want that one. That's adoption. It couldn't
be clearer. Well, this is what the Lord chose
a people unto adoption by Jesus Christ Himself, predestinated
us to be conformed to His image. That's what it says in Romans
8. But God chose a people. Barnard used to say this, that
God loved his son so much, before the world began, it was just
he and his son, the Holy Spirit together. Ever with him, daily
his delight. And God, in Barnard's words,
He said, God determined to have a whole bunch of boys just like
him. That's pretty good. He loved His Son so much, He
said, I'm going to have a kingdom full of sons just like that Son,
for His glory, for my glory, for His glory, His honor, His
praise. And He's going to be the one
to bring them in. He's going to be the one to die for them.
He's going to be the one to live for them. He's going to be the
one. He's going to be the one, one, predestinated to be like Christ. Now, who wouldn't love that?
Now, we're not talking about good little boys and girls. Choosing
good little boys and girls who were by nature children of wrath,
even as others. But God. Children of wrath. Verse 6 says, He did this to
the praise of the glory of His grace. To the praise of the glory of
His choice, His sovereign choice. Jacob and Esau. Jacob is right
now. He did then. He is right now. He will forever
throughout eternity. be thanking the Lord that He
chose to love him. That the Lord chose Jacob to
love him. That the Lord chose to love Jacob
and chose Jacob to love him. As she said, I was just like Esau.
Just like Him, if not worse. But God chose man. People hate that. People hate
that. You know who doesn't? The elect. Those that God loved. I like
that. They're all singing throughout
eternity unto Him that loved us and washed us and chose us
and adopted us and redeemed us. and bought us, and taught us,
and brought us, and revealed to us, and kept us, and restrained
us, and constrained us, and gave us repentance, and gave us faith
unto Him. Unto Him. Unto Him. Unto Him. It's all about Him. Who gets
the glory? To the praise of the glory of
His grave. I'll close with this. It says, wherein He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved. I'll just spend a few minutes
here because my pastor spent fifteen this morning. In the
Beloved, in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption. In Christ. In Christ. This is a mystery.
This is a mystery, and I gave you that little illustration,
but it doesn't suffice. It's a mystery, really. God's
people understand a little bit, but it's still a mystery what
it means to be in Christ. Now, let me give you a good illustration,
all right? The gospel used to be called
by the old preachers, the pregnant gospel. The word pregnant means
full of life. Full of life. There's life inside
of a pregnant woman. There's life in this book. Seed. Holy seed. Christ. It's life. This book is pregnant. A pregnant woman. Inside of her,
now it says we're in Christ. Inside of that pregnant woman
is a new creature. I mean, something has never been
there before. How did it get there? Did the child do something to
be formed? That's ridiculous. of God, the Father impregnates
the woman with His seed. Right? It can't happen any other
way. And that life is conceived according
to God's will. When? According to God's will. Put there by the Father His seed.
As I said, this is the Word of God. This is the incorruptible
seed. This is the seed of God, if you will. Life, full of life.
If God is pleased, if He is your Father, He will send this Word
someday in His time when He is pleased. You won't do it. Nobody can do it but God. And if he's pleased in his appointed
time, if he's predestinated, he's going to send that Word.
This is what gives me hope for everybody that I preach to. If
it's God's will, they're going to hear this. He's going to send
that Word in his good time, and life, life is concealed. And you know,
the way it is with a child, that person really doesn't even know
it for a while. But that's a new creature in
that woman, this new creation created in Christ Jesus. That
child that is put in the mother, once conceived, and I don't know
when it is, but at a certain time, it has all of its faculties. It doesn't take very long, does
it? You nurses could tell me how long it takes. Just weeks,
doesn't it? It has all of its arms and legs. I'll never forget. In other words,
that child very shortly becomes a complete human being. It will
never be more human than it is. It's complete, whole, holy. And I'll never forget looking
at the ultrasound of Isabella. They gave and had invited us
at our insistence to see that ultrasound. And they're all talking
and laughing and looking and this and that and the other.
I'm not smiling yet. I want to see arms, legs. But He showed that heartbeat.
That's when life began. It's alive. And then I wanted
to know she was complete, whole, perfect. You're complete in Him. Oh, I must say, it doth not yet
appear what we shall be. But you're complete in Him. Beloved,
now are we the sons of God. Does that make sense? Alright,
in her, alright? She, that child, feeds on the
mother. Why is the child living? The
mother. Christ said, because I live,
you live also. He said, except you eat my flesh
and drink my blood. Feeds on her. That child is protected
by that mother, right? You can't touch that baby. You can't get to her or him. Why? She's in the mother. This is the best I can do here,
you see. God says, you're dead and your
life is hid with Christ in God. Protected completely. We can't
see that. You can't see that, but it's
true. Accepted in her. Wherever the mother goes, you
cannot say to a pregnant woman, well, you can come in, but your
baby can't. She'll have to stay outside.
That's ridiculous. Whoever accepts the mother accepts
the baby. We're accepted in. You and I
are not accepted into heaven because we're good people. We're
accepted into heaven because of Jesus Christ. Whatever the mother does, whatever
she does, that baby does. Right? You say the baby didn't
have anything to do with it, but her works are imbued. This is a good illustration.
Wherever that baby goes, wherever the mother goes, wherever she
goes, the baby goes. She sits down, the baby sits
down. Are you with me, Jennifer? Are
you with me? It says we're seated with Him in the heavenlies. I
don't understand, but I'm trying to make you understand. It's
a mystery though. If you're in Christ, you're right
now in glory. It's just a matter of being thrust
out. Laying this body down into the
kingdom. I see now. Many will say, I see. It's like a child in the womb,
you know. It's not really totally perfectly until it's born out
into a new world. Now I see. I'll never forget,
you know, the fact of the matter is that everybody that loves
the mother loves the baby. Except the mother, except the
baby. Got to. Is that a good illustration?
It's a mystery though. I'll never forget. Dan Parks,
when Jackson, his first grandchild, was conceived. Dan Parks sent me the ultrasound
of Jackson. Parks. And still in the womb.
And you think Jackson looks like Dan? He looks just like him.
But when he sent me that picture, it was a full face, Jackson's
face, this big. And it was Dan Parks. It was
Dan Parks in the womb. Scary. And he was born, and he really
looked like him now, doesn't he? Acts like him. Laughs like
him. Yes, he's the cutest little kid.
But I think that's a good illustration here. Oh, I can't be a son. Well, it's a mystery. And here's
how you know. Do you love God's truth? Do you love that God chose somebody? Even if it wasn't you? Do you
love that? Do you love His glory? Do you
love His truth? Do you love His Son? Do you see
the salvations of the Lord that's all in Christ? His blood, His
righteousness, His all. Do you love His truth? Do you
love His Word? Do you love every word of even
predestination, particularly predestination? You must be born
again. You must be adopted. You must
be chosen by Him. You must be. You wouldn't love
it otherwise. Brother John, let's sing number 206.