Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from the book of
Ephesians, chapter one. Ephesians, chapter one. And this
is such a glorious passage of scripture. You know, it's one
of my favorites. I say that about a lot of different
passages in the Bible. The title of the message is A
Body of Divinity. You may be familiar with what
we call in literature bodies of divinity. I know when I first
came into contact with the truth, I got a book, a two-volume book,
that was written by an old Baptist preacher named John Gill. whom
I believe was a believer, and he'd written a body of divinity,
which is a body of the doctrine of the Bible, the doctrines of
Christ, the doctrine of Christ. And it kind of delineated it. I don't hold to everything that
Brother Gill said, but a lot of it, and I learned a lot from
it. Well, here in the book of Ephesians chapter one, This portion
is sort of like a body of divinity because it tells us something
about the work of the Father, God the Father, the work of the
Son, God the Son, and the work of the Holy Spirit, God the Holy
Spirit, in the salvation of sinners. In fact, from verse 3 of Ephesians
1 down to verse 14 is just one long sentence in the original
Greek language. But that's what it does. It's
sort of like a body of divinity. Now, there's a whole lot more
that we could say about these things. But this is kind of a
summation of it all the way through. And what I'd like to do is just
go through some of these things as I read through and see how
far I can get in this message. It may take more than one message,
I don't know. We'll just see how we go through
it. I don't want to hurry through it, because I want you to enjoy
this. And I hope and pray that God,
the Holy Spirit, will reveal the truth of it. But since we're
starting Ephesians 1, Let's read the first two verses. This is
Paul's salutation. And understand now that what's
written here is the inspiration that Paul was given, the inspired
word by the Holy Spirit to write to the church at Ephesus. And
he starts off, he says, Paul, verse 1, an apostle of Jesus
Christ by the will of God, This is not what Paul chose. He didn't
say, well, when I grow up I want to be a preacher. No. This is
God putting there. This is the will of God to the
saints which are at Ephesus. And remember, a saint means one
who is sanctified, one who is holy, which means to be set apart
by God for the salvation and service of God. And every true
believer is a saint. Every true believer doesn't always
act like a saint, but every true believer, every sinner saved
by grace is a saint, sanctified, set apart by God. And he says,
to the saints which are in Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ
Jesus. Now saints and faithful here
are the one and the same, because the saint is one who is faithful.
Now again, even believers don't always act right, And so that's
not the issue. But the faithful in Jesus Christ,
he says in verse two, grace be to you and peace from God our
Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in verse three,
he begins this sentence that carries on through verse 14.
And this is that body of divinity that I wanna talk about. And
he begins by talking about the work of the Father. But let me
say this about The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, that's
the Trinity. The Bible reveals the triunity
of God. There's a lot of people who deny
this now, but they're not standing on biblical grounds here. There
is one God. Now see, the Trinity is not three
different gods. I know a lot of false religions,
they accuse true Christians who believe in the Trinity of being
polytheists or many gods or three gods. That's not true. We believe
in the Trinity, which is one God who subsists in three persons. And the persons are the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but it's one God. And so we're
not, we're, you know, we believe in one God in three persons,
and that's not many gods. The Father, the Son, and the
Spirit are one in the same in the essence and nature of their
deity. But there are three offices that
they each occupy for the salvation of His people. And I believe
this was necessary for the salvation of God's people whom He chose
before the foundation of the world. Well, let's look at it.
In verse 3, He begins with the work of the Father. It says,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places,"
or in the heavenlies, in Christ. Here's the Father blessing His
people with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ. Before the foundation of the
world, this took place in Christ, the second person of the Trinity,
whom the Father chose to be the representative, the surety, the
substitute, the redeemer, the life giver, the preserver and
glorifier of His people. God chose a people and gave them
to Christ. That's why Christ said in John
6 and verse 37, all that the Father giveth me shall come to
me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. All spiritual blessings. This
is grace. This is sovereign grace. And
it says in verse four, according as he, the father, hath chosen
us, that's election now. I know people don't like to hear
that. Somebody, a lady come in and who'd been listening to me
preach for several months and she said, somebody asked her,
well, what about this election thing? And she said, I didn't
know what to tell him. I said, well, I'll tell you exactly
what to tell him. It's in the Bible. It's God's word. according as He hath chosen us
in Him." And somebody says, well, He chose everybody. Well, the
Bible says He didn't. The Bible says that He chose
His people, His elect, and His only, and they will be known
as they are brought to faith in Christ by the power of the
Spirit under the preaching of the gospel. So look at verse
four again. According as He hath chosen us
in Him, in Christ, the Father chose us in Christ, before the
foundation of the world. When did God choose it? A lot
of people say, well, God looked down through the telescope of
time and he saw what you would do. No, that's not what the Bible
teaches. God is no crystal ball gazer.
He's no cosmic astronomer looking down through time. No, God is
the, he is the source and creator of time. And he is sovereign
in salvation. And here it says, before the
foundation, before the world was created, And he says that
we, that is those he chose in Christ, should be holy, set apart,
and without blame, not guilty, righteous in Christ, before him,
before his eyes. And it says in love. This is
God's for love. It's God's unconditional love
to his people in Christ. I mentioned this last week, 1
John 4, 10, hearing His love, not that we love God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins, so that we should be whole. God chose His people in Christ
that they should be separate, separate from the world. And
what is it that separates us from the world? It's our gospel. our faith in Christ, the true
Christ. Now there are false gospels and
there are false Christ. And that's why we have to go
to God's Word to identify what the true gospel is, which the
Bible says is the revelation of the righteousness of God.
You see, the gospel is not, now listen to me, the gospel is not
God loves you, Christ died for you, now the rest is up to you.
That is not the gospel. You won't find that in the Bible.
That's a concoction of self-righteous people who want to boast in their
free will decision. And you ask most people today,
they say, are you saved? They say, well, I made my decision
or I walked an aisle and I got baptized. My friend, that's not
salvation. That's not in the Bible. Salvation
is God bringing his people, sinners who deserve nothing but wrath
and hell, But as He chose them before the foundation of the
world in Christ, and He sends the Spirit to bring them under
the gospel truth, and He reveals Himself under them as the God
of all grace, who saves sinners based upon the blood, the righteousness
of Christ. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? He brings them before Him without
blame. Now what does that mean? Am I
a sinner? Yes. So how can I come before
God and be without blame? There's only one way. It's spoken
of in Romans chapter 8, I think it's verse 32. He says, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died, yea rather, is risen again, and is even at the right
hand of the Father ever living to make intercession for us.
How can I be without blame? Because God sent His Son and
blamed Him. How? He charged or imputed the
sins of His elect, His sheep, His church, to Christ. That sin
debt was laid upon Christ and Christ willingly agreed to take
that debt upon His account and do what was necessary to pay
the debt. That's what Isaiah meant in Isaiah
53 when it talks about He was made a substitute, a dying lamb
for us, for His people. You can read all about that.
It's by His stripes we are healed. And He died for His sheep. All
of that that's written there. And so, And that's all the product
of God's unconditional love to His people. Verse four, without
blame before Him in love. You see, all the objects of God's
love shall be saved. And Christ loved them to the
end, to the doing of the work, the finishing of the work. Now
look at verse five. Again, talking about the work
of the Father in this body of divinity. having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the pleasure of his will." Do you read that? Somebody said,
well, I don't like that predestination. Well, you better like it because
it's right here in the Bible, having predestinated us. That's
not God looking down through a telescope of time and learning,
finding out what's going to happen. That's God predetermining what's
going to happen. That's an awesome thought. It
boggles my mind, but it's so. And this is the God of the Bible.
And somebody said one time, well, God doesn't predestinate people.
He predestinates events. Read it again. Verse five, having
predestinated us, unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself according to the good pleasure of his will." It's the
will of God. Again, he said, I'll have mercy
upon whom I will, and I'll be gracious to whom I will. It's
not of him that runneth, nor of him that willeth, nor of him
that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And the adoption
of children. This is the adoption of grace.
It's not that God came into some cosmic orphanage and looked around
and found out who was worthy. Oh no. God chose His people,
His children, and adopted them into His family. Christ came
and removed all legal obstacles from God's adoption of them by
His death on the cross and the Holy Spirit brings them into
the family by the preaching of the gospel, and all of it according
to the good pleasure of God's will. It's His good pleasure. It's what God's pleased to do. And now, beginning at verse six,
we start to come into the work of the Son in salvation, the
work of the Father, representing the sovereignty of the Godhead.
chose a people before the foundation of the world to be holy and without
blame, and He gave them all spiritual blessings in Christ. Those spiritual
blessings will be applied to their persons in time, but it
was given them in Christ before the foundation of the world,
and that they should be separate and without blame before Him
in love, predestinating them unto the adoption of children
according to the good pleasure of His will. Now, in verse six,
we begin to see the work of the Son. To the praise of the glory
of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. Now, the Beloved there is talking
about the second person of the Trinity, God the Son, who became
incarnate, the Word made flesh dwelt among us, As the law came
by Moses, grace came by Jesus Christ and were accepted in Him. Our acceptance before God is
not based upon our obedience. Our obedience is not good enough.
It's not based upon our works, not even based on our decision.
It's based upon the merit, the worthiness of the glorious person
and the finished work of Christ. And it's based upon the work
that Christ did in redemption. Look at verse seven. In whom
we have redemption, through His blood, His death, the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of His grace. Grace, the Bible
says as sin, Romans 5 21, as sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness, that's what the
shedding of His blood is, it's righteousness, unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. Second Corinthians 521 says,
for God made him, the father made the son incarnate to be
sin for us. Christ who knew no sin that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. How was Christ
made sin? Only by the imputation, the accounting,
the reckoning of the debt of the sins of God's elect to his
person. And they're made the righteousness
of God by the imputation, the reckoning, the accounting of
His righteousness to them. That's the great exchange. That's
what grace is all about. And out of His righteousness
imputed to His people comes the power of life from the dead in
the new birth. The Bible says in Romans 8 and
verse 10, that the body, this physical body is dead because
of sin. And that's for all of us, believer
and unbeliever. The reason that we get sick and
that we die is because of sin. It's a consequence. But the condemnation
that sin brings, the eternal death that sin brings, is removed
from God's people because of righteousness. And where do we
find righteousness? Only in Christ. You see, what
this is teaching in this body of divinity is this. As a sinner,
in order to be saved, you need a righteousness that you can't
produce. It's a perfect righteousness
that can only be found in Christ. And so in verse eight, look at
Ephesians one in verse eight. This is the riches of his grace,
wherein he hath abounded toward us, his people, in all wisdom
and prudence, and this is the wisdom of God, the knowledge,
the truth of God. Verse nine, having made known
unto us the mystery of his will, according to the good pleasure
which he hath purposed in himself." Well, what is this will of God
that he's talking about? It is God's will to glorify Himself
in the salvation of His people through the Lord Jesus Christ.
it takes a work of the Holy Spirit to bring sinners to see that.
You must be born again. If you're not born again, you
don't have eyes to see and ears to hear. And so he says in verse
10, he says that in the and God purposed that in himself. In
other words, his purpose, his will is not based upon anything
outside of himself. So he didn't look down through
a telescope of time and react to what he found out. He purposed
it within himself, within his own sovereign, immutable, eternal
mind, Father, Son, and Spirit. And it says in verse 10, that
in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together
in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and
which are on earth, even in him. In other words, His whole being,
His whole church, all whom He chose before the foundation of
the world, they're saved by His grace, based upon the death,
the blood, the righteousness of Christ, and they will all
be gathered together in one place in Christ. Now, I mentioned this
before, John 6, 37. Christ said, all that the father
giveth me shall come to me. Him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. And he goes on to say in that
passage, John six, he says, this is the will of him that sent
me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing,
but raise it up again at the last day. In other words, all
whom the father gave him, and who will come to Him, they're
saved. They're gonna be saved. There's
not, listen, Christ didn't die for anyone who perishes in hell. He said, this is the will of
him that sent me, that of all which he had given me, I should
lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. Now he
was careful to say in John 6, 44, he said, no man can come
to me except the father which has sent me draw him, and I'll
raise him up at the last day. Man will not of his own choosing,
of his own will, come to Christ. If we're left to ourselves, We
will not choose Him because our wills, our minds, our hearts
are spiritually dead and totally depraved. I quote this verse
all the time, 1 Corinthians 2, 14. It says, the natural man,
that's the unregenerate man who's not been born again. In our natural
state, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, neither can he know them, They're spiritually discerned.
He will not believe. In Romans chapter three, where
it says, there's none righteous, no not one, in verse 10. And
it says, there's none good, no not one. There's none that seeketh
after God, none that doeth good. Left to ourselves. Some preacher
gets up and he said, it's your choice. You gotta do this. You
won't do it except under the preaching of the gospel. The
Holy Spirit gives you spiritual life, gives you a new heart,
mind, affections, gives you eyes to see and ears to hear. That's
what Christ meant in John 3, when he said, you must be born
again, or you cannot enter or see the kingdom of God. That's
what he meant. So here he says that he's going
to gather together in one. In John chapter six and verse
44, as I mentioned, he says, no man can come to me except
the father draw him. And that means draw him by the
power of the spirit under the preaching of the gospel. But
in that same passage, right after that, he says in verse 45, it
is written in the prophets, they shall be all taught of God. God's gonna teach them, how?
by the power of the Spirit through the preaching of the gospel.
And he uses men and witnesses, even women, not as preachers
and pastors, because that's not their place, but as witnesses
of the gospel, telling people of the truth. And he says, they'll
be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard. Now, what do you have to have
to hear? You gotta have ears to hear. Remember Christ told
the disciples, blessed are your eyes for they see, blessed are
your ears for they hear. They've been given spiritual
eyes. So every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father, he says they come unto
me. If God the Holy Spirit through
the preaching of the gospel teaches you the truth, you will without
fail come to Christ. you will see that you have no
choice. And that's what he's talking about. Look back at chapter
one of Ephesians, this body of divinity. He says, Verse 10,
that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, when time
is right, he might gather together in one all things in Christ,
both of which in heaven, in the heavens literally, and which
are on earth even in him. All of God's elect, those who
have gone on to be with the Lord in the heavens, those who are
still on earth when Christ comes again, they'll be gathered together. And it says in verse 11, in whom
also we have obtained an inheritance. not what we earned, but what
Christ earned and given, being predestinated, there's that word
again, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. That's God. He's working right now, working
all things after the counsel of His own will. And He determined
it. And He says in verse 12, He says
that we, that is believers, the elect, should be to the praise
of His glory who first trusted in Christ. And then the last
two verses, 13 and 14, He brings the work of the Holy Spirit in.
in whom you also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed,
you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the
earnest, the down payment, the guarantee of our inheritance
until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of
His glory." I'm going to have to stop there, but I'll pick
up with that next time. This is the body of divinity,
God's divinity, the work of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
We'll talk about that more. It's very important. The Spirit
comes and gives life to the dead through the preaching of the
gospel. and bring sinners to believe in Christ and to embrace
Him and to persevere in Him. That's important. They won't
lose it because He's convinced them. They won't ignore it. They
won't leave it. They will stay with it. And I
hope you'll join us next week for another message from God's
Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, 31707. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through
our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.