Let's open our Bibles to Ephesians,
the second chapter. Ephesians, the second chapter. If I ask you, where does God
dwell? What would your answer be? Well, in Isaiah, the Lord said,
heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool. Where does God dwell? Well, he
dwells in heaven. That's where his throne is. It's
the throne of universal sovereignty, and it is the throne of grace.
It is the throne of judgment. God dwells in heaven. No surprise
there. Where does God dwell? Look here
in Ephesians chapter two and the last verse. Ephesians 2.22, in whom ye also
are builded together, that is, he's talking about the true church, for an habitation of God through
the Spirit. Where can you find God? Wherever
his people are. That's where you can find the
Lord. He is not separated. He has never
been separated from his people. We were joined to our Savior
in old eternity. That was an everlasting union. The Lord has been with his people
and he continues to be with his people. We're his church. We're his body. Of our Savior
it is written, he is the head. And we are his body. What do we know about his church,
where he dwells? And we know he dwells with us
because it says where two or three are gathered together.
The Savior said, I'm in the midst. I'm with you always, he told
his disciples, even to the end of the age. Nothing can separate us from
our Lord. Read the last few verses of Romans
chapter eight. He's with his people. He's with
his church. Well, what do we know about this
church? We know, number one, this, our
Lord's church, was elected in grace by God the Father. Look back in Ephesians 1. Ephesians
chapter 1, verse number 3. Blessed, eulogized,
honored, Be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us, and he's blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in the 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. And I believe that the Greek
scholars tell us that really there needs to be a comma behind
that word him. Without blame before him. And
then that puts the expression in love having predestinated
us. unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made
us, or graced us, accepted, or given us grace in the beloved. When did God give his people
grace? When did he bless us with all
grace? He did so before the world ever
began when he chose us unto salvation. Now this is an everlasting choice. We have always been the elect
of God. There never has been a time and
there never will be a time when we are not called the children
of God. Our Lord himself, he chose us,
not because he foresaw something we would do or something we would
contribute. He foresaw us in love. He loved us in Christ before
the world began. And this choice of a people unto
salvation was in no way based upon that which God foreknew. Many people go to Romans chapter
eight where it says, in whom he did foreknow, he also did
predestinate. And they'll say, you see there,
God chose a people. He predestinated a people unto
everlasting life because of that which he foresaw that we would
do. It doesn't say what he foresaw,
but who he foresaw or who he foreknew. He foreknew us. He loved us. He ordained us unto
eternal life before the world ever began. The Father chose
us unto salvation. This was of His own accord, Him
having first chosen eternally the Lord Jesus, the Son of God,
to be our Savior. And in Him, in Christ, we were
selected. We were elected. unto everlasting
life. Jude one, look at the book of
Jude, the first chapter. There's only one chapter. Look
at chapter one and the very first verse. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ
and brother of James to them that are sanctified by God the
Father. What does that mean? He set us
apart. This was a setting apart in eternity. God ordained eternal life for
a specific people. This election was all of grace. In this age of salvation by men's
works that's preached, In this day in which the Antichrist church,
called Babylon, when they're emphasizing works and obedience
and law-keeping, we need to make a very clear statement that salvation
is by grace only. Only. The powers of darkness
promote men's will. The powers of darkness promote
men's works. But the very God of grace emphasizes
that all of the salvation that we enjoy, salvation spiritually,
And someday the salvation of our bodies, which will go back
to the grave, go back to the dust, but our bodies will be
raised. Our salvation, both soul and
body is all of grace. It never has been a merit. It isn't that God looked down
through the halls of eternity, and He saw who would behave themselves,
and who would do good, and who would believe, and then on the
basis of that which He foresaw, He chose these people unto salvation. If that were true, there would
be no need of an election. The fact of the matter is, no
one of their own volition, of their own will, of their own
attitude, of their own selves, ever choose the Lord Jesus Christ
to be their savior. God chose us and gave us the
willingness to come to Christ when we were drawn by effectual
grace. Here in Ephesians chapter one,
The church was elected in grace by God the Father. There are
numerous verses such as this one, we're sanctified by God
the Father. What does that mean? We're set
apart. We're set apart for Him, for
His glory. for His salvation. We were set
apart to be righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. We were set
apart to be forgiven of all of our sins. We were set apart for
God. And we receive, therefore, based
upon His choice, we receive all spiritual blessings, which were
made to be ours in old eternity. Go back to 2 Thessalonians, if
you would. Back up a little bit. 2 Thessalonians,
the second chapter. I'm saying the church of our
Lord Jesus Christ, those people among whom God dwells by His
Spirit, we were elected unto salvation by God the Father. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord. Why does
he say, why does he express it this way? Well, he's just spoken
about people who refuse to believe and embrace the truth. When they
heard the gospel of free grace, when they heard the gospel of
finished salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ, when they heard
that which should have been to them the good news that through
no merits of people's own, through only the grace of God, God chose
a people unto salvation, He saved sinners by His grace, they didn't
believe it. And therefore, God damns these
people And because they wouldn't believe the truth, He sends them
a religious lie. Did you know that God not only
sends forth His truth, but He sends forth religious lies? Minds and hearts that are darkened,
that refuse to believe the gospel of God's free grace, God will
send them error and then he will cause them to grab hold of the
error. And then he'll damn them because
they wouldn't have the truth. One of the most dangerous things
in this world is to refuse to embrace and to believe the gospel
of the free and sovereign grace of God to sinners through the
doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the most
dangerous things that anybody can ever do is say, you know,
that may be true, but still we got to do our part. Let me tell you something, our
part's the sinning part. His part's the saving part, and
we have no part in that. He says here, God hath from the
beginning chosen you to salvation. I don't think words could be
any clearer than that. Well, how does that come to us?
Through sanctification of the Spirit, The Spirit of God separates
us. At some point, He separated you
from the era of false religion. So I was never in false religion. Oh yes, you were. Everybody's
wrapped up in false religion and our false religion centered
around ourselves. It's my will, it's my decision. Nobody can force anything on
me. And I'll tell you what, if God leaves you to your will and
your decision, you'll surely perish. That's the depths of
our depravity. But it's God who from the beginning
chose us unto salvation through the setting apart of the spirit I was wrapped up in false religion,
thinking I knew God, thinking that Jesus Christ was my savior,
wrapped up in my works and what I intended to do and what I intended
to accomplish for the kingdom of God in my life. And then the
spirit of God set me apart. He separated me from the bunch
of people that are going to hell and revealed the truth to me,
to me. Why was the truth of God revealed
to me? Why was the truth of God revealed
to you? I can tell you the reason because
God, before He made the world, He sent His everlasting love
on you. And He chose you to be an object
of His mercy and of His grace. And the Spirit of God led you
to belief of the truth. I tell you what, if the Spirit
of God has set aside somebody, set them apart for a revelation
of truth to the heart, they will believe. And you're not gonna
have to beg And I'm going to have to plead with people, oh,
won't you come down the aisle and make a decision for Jesus? I remember many years ago, I
was preaching and didn't give an altar call, of course. We
can blame Charles Finney for that and all of that foolishness. But I said, we're going to sing
a final hymn. We'll sing the first and the
last stanzas. And the guy who's leading the
singing for me, he started leading the first stanza and got to the
end of it, and I thought, that's all we're going to sing. I just
stopped. I said, you know, that's all we're going to sing. Give
me time to get to the doors, and then you'll be dismissed. And I started going. And a woman
stood up and said, wait. She said, I thought she was going
to sing another stanza. I said, well, I was going to.
What can I do for you? She said, I want everybody to
know that Christ has been revealed to my heart. And I know him because
he knew me first. And she said, I want everybody
to know. I didn't have to beg her to do that. In fact, I was
actually walking up the aisle, and I thought she was going to
trip me because she kind of jumped up. Nobody's gonna have to beg
you to do anything. If God gives you eyes to see
who Christ is and what he did, and he gives you a heart that
you believe him and you fall in love with the Lord Jesus Christ,
there's no power in earth or in hell that can stop you from
coming to Jesus Christ. She said, I just wanna make a
public profession if that's all right. I said, that's all right.
That's all right. And I baptized her. Chosen. Chosen unto salvation. And I know the idea of an election
of grace is contrary to the free will, spiritually dark churches
of the day. And I don't like that. But I
love the truth of God's election. Look over the book of Acts real
quick. Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter
13. Here's Paul and Barnabas and
they're preaching. And preaching to the Jews and
the Jews did much like what they had to say. And they were so upset, they
didn't want to hear anymore. And Paul said, well, I'll go
preach to somebody who wants to hear this. I'm going to go to the Gentiles. And that's what he did. And when
he said, I'm going to preach to the Gentiles, and Paul said
this, verse 47, you there? Acts 13, 47. He says to the Jews, For so hath
the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light
of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends
of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad. We're going to hear the preaching
of the gospel. We're going to hear the grace of God. And they
glorified the word of the Lord and as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. Why did they believe? Because
they were ordained to eternal life. They were ordained to believe. This is all traced back to God.
That's the reason if you flip back over to Ephesians chapter
one, when you get to verse six, Actually, the word grace is used,
if not literally, the meaning of grace is used three times. It's all to the praise of the
glory of His grace, and I'll read it as though we're reading
from the Greek New Testament, wherein He hath made us or graced
us with grace. In the beloved, really grace
is used three different times. To the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us, or literally graced us, and
he graced us with grace. Accepted is also the word grace. In the beloved. Salvation is
all of grace. There's no room for boasting.
There's no room for human merit. There's no room for works. There's
no room for I. There's no room for you doing
something in this great salvation. It's all of grace. And then let
me say this, not only was the church elected in grace by God
the Father, but the church was redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ. Look back over in the second
chapter, look at verse 13. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who
were sometimes far off are made, made nigh. By what? By the blood of Christ. Look
over in chapter 1 in verse 7. In whom in Christ we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace. The Word of God keeps pounding
this in. Oh, that He would pound it into
our hearts. This salvation, this election,
this redemption is all of God's grace. Don't try to take any
credit. The Lord won't have it. We've been purchased by the blood
of Christ, Acts chapter 20 and verse 28. Paul said to the Ephesian
elders, feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with
his own blood. He bought the church. He bought
the church. By the blood of Christ, we have
propitiation. Romans 3.25, propitiation by
his blood. What does propitiation mean?
Satisfaction of divine justice. That's what it means. What did
it take to satisfy God's justice of death for sin? It took the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5, 9 says we're justified
by His blood. What does that mean? We're declared
to be righteous. We're righteous by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here it says we have redemption
through His blood. He bought us. He is our Redeemer. And that which He has bought,
He will surely obtain. We're His. We're His property. 1 Peter 2 says, we're peculiar
people. We're a purchased people. What the world, the religious
world doesn't understand is salvation involves a legal purchase. A price has been paid. And the
Lord Jesus paid it all. All the debt we owed. We have
redemption through his blood. The charismatics, they're all
wrong about redemption. I don't know how much you know
about charismatics and their understanding of redemption.
They believe that when Adam fell, and God had given Adam dominion
over all things, when Adam fell, then the devil took over as the
owner of all of God's creation. But that God then said, I want
to save people, and of course charismatics believe in a universal
offer of salvation. So they say, God said to the
devil, I want to offer salvation to everybody. And the devil said
to God, it's going to cost you deaths. Deaths, plural. And that God said, well, I give
you my own son to die physically on the cross. And then to go
to hell and die spiritually, his soul will die. That's charismatic
doctrine. And one of their chief proponents
is a man by the name of Kenneth Copeland. And I read for myself, He said
that when Jesus died, He did not redeem anybody. That He had to pay a double price
to the devil. That Jesus had to die two deaths. He had to die a physical death
on the cross and then His soul had to go to burning hell and
suffer for the sins of his people, the sins of sinners. Let me tell
you something. That price of redemption was
not offered to the devil. He doesn't own anything. The price of redemption by the
Lord Jesus Christ was offered to the father. In fact, I'll
make good on that. Look over to Ephesians chapter
five. Don't get caught up in what these
false religionists are saying. They get all worked up, they
get all emotional, and you think, well, there's got to be something
there to that. No, there's nothing there but
error. There's nothing there but death. No price was offered by God to
the devil. And I'll even add to that, no
price was offered by God even to you. The issue isn't do you receive
the price that Jesus Christ paid for you on the cross of Calvary.
No debt is owed to you. No price is owed to any sinner. Look what Paul says in Ephesians
5. Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved
us, and hath given himself for us as our substitute, an offering
and a sacrifice. What are those next two words?
To God, not to the devil, not to you. He gave himself for us
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. That sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ was pleasing to the Father. And only the blood atonement
of Christ pleases God. And I'll tell you something else
This blood of the Lord Jesus Christ by which the church is
redeemed, it's that blood that cleanses our conscience. Hebrews
chapter nine and verse 14 says that. You see God, God gave to Adam
and the woman, Adam and Eve, a conscience which never troubled them. until sin was found within them. And then a troubled conscience,
the conscience knows something is wrong, but doesn't know what
to do about it. So they went to a fig tree and
pulled off some leaves. Because I've got to hide our
shame. You see, my conscience is troubled.
And a lot of people say, I know something's got to be done. And
I'm doing the best I can. You go ahead and pick all the
fig leaves you want. But the thing of it is, they
will wilt and fade in time. The only covering for our guilt
and the only answer to a troubled conscience is a perfect sacrifice. And if your conscience, I'm talking
to people of God, if your conscience troubles you on account of the
guilt of your sins, you have taken your eyes off the Lord
Jesus Christ. You see, I'll tell you what the
conscience will be satisfied with. You know what the conscience
will be satisfied with? Perfection. And you're not going to have
that looking within. You're not going to have that
examining your life. You only have a conscience clear
of guilt when you look at the perfect sacrifice for our sins. The Lord Jesus Christ. And then
the conscience says, I'm satisfied. I'm not gonna trouble you anymore
about it. But it will the next time you have your doubts. You see, the church of our Lord
Jesus Christ was elected in grace by the Father and the church
was redeemed by the bloody sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
don't get any higher than just being a sinner saved by grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Just stay right
there. Don't budge from there. And the moment you think you're
making some progress, well, you know, I believe I am growing
in grace. No, you ain't growing. You ain't
growing in grace. You know what growing in grace
is? And that's what Peter says in 2 Peter 3, but grow in the
grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know
what growing in grace is? It's growth in seeing how desperately
you need the grace of God. That's what growth in grace is. The more you see of your own
sinfulness and your rottenness and your unrighteousness, the
more you'll appreciate the grace of God given to you in the Lord
Jesus Christ. The church was chosen in grace,
redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus. And I'll tell you
something else, the church is effectually called of the Holy
Spirit to faith in the Savior. Look at Ephesians chapter four.
Ephesians chapter 4. Brother Terry read this just
a little bit ago. Chapter 4 verse 4, there is one
body, that's the church, and one spirit, even as you're called
in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
One God and Father of all, who is above all and through all,
and in you all. It's this one Spirit who calls
us, calls us to Christ. There is effectual drawing power
in this Gospel. Look again back over in the second
chapter, Read verse 13 again. Chapter two, verse 13. But now
in Christ Jesus, ye who were sometimes, ye who sometimes were
far off are made nigh. Made, what does that mean? Brought
close, brought close to the Lord. By what? The blood. It's the blood that draws us.
You see, that's why we just preach this gospel. And if the Spirit
of God accompanies the gospel as it goes forth, there's an
omnipotence about this gospel that just draws the elect in. And you find yourself believing. You find yourself looking to
the Lord Jesus Christ. What has happened? What has happened? That effectual call of the Spirit
through the preaching of the gospel has arrested your heart. And it brings you forcibly to the Savior. We're drawn of the Lord to Christ. Oh, what marvelous grace and
power is found in this gospel when the Holy Spirit sends it
forth. It's effectual. It will get the
job done. And if you've ever been arrested
by the Spirit of God and brought to see and understand and grab
hold of this gospel, if the gospel ever grabs hold of you, you won't
come kicking and screaming. You won't be one of those that
I've had people say, you know, I thought I'd go forward and
I'd just grip that pew so hard, I just wasn't going to go. Let
me tell you something, the Spirit of God gets a hold of your heart.
Oh, you won't come to the front. You'll come to Christ. And you'll
be mighty glad, you'll be mighty glad that the Lord calls you
to come to Him. The church is effectually called
by the Spirit. Look at Titus chapter 3. Titus
chapter 3. Paul says to Titus in verse 3,
Titus 3, 3, for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish,
that's us, disobedient, that was us, deceived, that was us,
and serving divers or many lusts and pleasures, that was us. living
in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another, but. I love it when the Lord puts
a but in here. But after that, the kindness
and love of God, our savior toward man appeared, not by works of
righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy. He saved us by the washing of
regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that being
justified, declared righteous by His grace. We should be made
heirs according to the hope of eternal life. I tell you, the
God of the Bible is the God who butts in. Look back at Ephesians
2. Let me show you. Look at Ephesians
2. In verses 1, 2, and 3, we see
the deadness of sinners, we see the disobedience of sinners,
we see the depravity of sinners, and we see the doom of sinners.
Let me read them to you. And you, Paul writes to the Ephesian
believers, and you, hath he quickened? who were dead and trespassing
sins, not passed out, not in a coma, but dead, dead. The Lord sent Ezekiel to preach
to a valley full of dead bones. Can these bones live? Lord, thou
knowest. As far as I can tell, there ain't
any life there at all. And then the Spirit of God began
to move, and a whole army stood up, but there still wasn't any
life in them. I tell you what, we can get people
all dressed up, get them in church, get them to living better, perhaps,
but they're still dead, unless the Spirit does something. you
hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein
in time past ye walked according to the course of this world,
that is, according to the energy of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, under whose power you were deceived
and deluded and lied to. The spirit that now worketh,
it's still working in the children of disobedience, among whom also
we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others, but..."
There's that but again. And I say this reverently and
respectfully, aren't you glad the Lord butted into your life?
Aren't you glad He interfered and that His will conquered your
will? But God, who is rich in mercy,
for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together, but not separate
from Christ, but he's quickened us together
with Christ. By grace you're saved. There's
no question about this salvation being all of God. And the Holy
Spirit keeps reminding us it's of grace. In book of Romans chapter
11, it's of grace, it's not of works. If it's of works, it's
not of grace. And our cry every time we preach,
every time we gather is this, salvation by grace, by grace. No works of the flesh. Let us continue to sound forth
the amazing, mighty, effectual grace of God to sinners. through
the Lord Jesus Christ. What did it take to save you?
Same as it took to save me. Almighty grace. And I'll tell
you, grace conquers. It conquers. Oh God, conquer
every heart who's listening to the sound of my voice. Conquer
us by your amazing, almighty grace. through the sacrifice
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's sing a closing song, shall
we? Number 63.