Thank you for your goodness and
your mercy and your grace to us. Thank you that you're a God
who answers prayers according to your will and according to
your purpose. And we lift up all these prayer
requests to you, all these people. We pray that you move as your
will will be done. And we pray that you would comfort
them and give them strength and grace to make it through whatever
trial or situation that they're in. And we pray for the services
today. Oh, that You'd be magnified,
Lord Jesus. That You'd be lifted up. That
sinners would look to Thee. And that You would be glorified,
honored, and praised. And we'll be quick to give You
all the glory, because You're deserving of it all. And we love
You, and we praise You. In Jesus' name, Amen. We'll be continuing our study
today in Ephesians, chapter 1. Ephesians 1. We'll be in verse 6 today. Ephesians
1, verse 6. Scripture declares, to the praise
of the glory of His grace, and that's the name of the message,
the praise of the glory of His grace. Wherein he hath made us
accepted in the Beloved, to the praise of the glory of his grace. Wherein he hath made us accepted
in the Beloved. What a wonderful scripture. To
the praise of the glory of his grace. And notice the verbiage. Wherein he hath made us accepted
in the Beloved. He has. He's done it all. So let's tie this verse in, though,
with the preceding statements. Let's tie in the statement of,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, with the preceding
verses which we've looked at. Look at verse 1. Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints which are
at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Paul was an
apostle, we know, by the will of God. It was God's will that
Paul was an apostle. And it's all to the praise of
the glory of His grace. It's all to the praise of the
glory of God's grace. The saints at Ephesus, it says,
to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ
Jesus, These people were saints to the
praise of the glory of His grace. We who are saved, we who are
sitting here saved, we who are saved, it's to the praise of
the glory of His grace. He gets it all. He gets it all.
He gets all the glory, all the honor, and all the praise. Look at the next verse. Grace
be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ. When we looked at that verse,
we saw that grace always precedes peace. If you don't have any
grace, then you have no peace with God. And it's from God our
Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, grace and peace
come from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ to
the praise of the glory of His grace. He gets all the praise. He gets it all. And it's all
because of what He's done. Look at our next verse. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Beloved, we have all spiritual
blessings in Christ to the praise of the glory of His grace. You
see, it all goes back to Him. It all goes back to Him. And
this verse ties right into all these because it's the concluding
part of this whole section here. And look at verse 4, "...according
as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. And
it's all according to the praise of the glory of His grace." He
elected the people. to the praise of the glory of His grace. He
chose a people. He chose that they would be holy
and without blame before Him in love to the praise of the
glory of His grace. It's wonderful. Look at verse
5, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. We
are predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself
to the praise of the glory of His grace. to the praise of the
glory of His grace. It's all according to His good
pleasures. Look at what it says in the latter
part of verse 5. According to the good pleasure
of His will. We looked at that last week that
there really is only one free will in the whole universe. And
that's God's. God can do whatever He pleases
to do. And no one can tell Him what to do. Our wills are governed
by our nature. He's governed by no one. He can
do whatever He pleases. And think of this, we are accepted
in Christ to the praise of the glory of His grace. We are bought
with His precious blood and justified by Christ to the praise of the
glory of His grace. So we see all these wonderful
doctrines which are brought forth before us in this first chapter,
right? And they're all to the praise and the glory of His grace.
He gets all the glory. It humbles the pride of man and
exalts the sovereignty of God. Election, predestination, adoption,
acceptance in Christ are all to the praise and the glory of
His grace. We give Him all the glory. All the honor. Because the saint has nothing
to glorify in himself. We have nothing in us with which
to glorify. Absolutely nothing. Nothing at
all. Because our trust in our rest
is in the very one who does all things to glorify himself. He's done all this. He created
the world. He's redeemed the people. to
the praise of the glory of His grace. Everything He does is
to the praise of the glory of His grace. The sun rises in the
morning and the moon shines at night to the praise of the glory
of His grace. The stars twinkle in the heavens
and are vast to the praise of the glory of His grace. He's
King. He's Supreme. And let the redeemed
of the Lord say that our salvation, right? All our salvation and
all our talents because everyone has different giftings, are to
the praise of the glory of His grace. It's all to glorify Him. It's
all to glorify Him. One commentator said this, all
blessings come down from the ocean, the divine ocean of God's
grace. I like that. The divine ocean
of God's grace and all praise should be directed back up to
God with praises to Him with thankful hearts." The ocean of
God's grace is divine grace. And the grace which now works
all good for us is the same which before all time purposed all
blessings in Christ. And it's again what our text
says here, to the praise of the glory of His grace. God was satisfied
with the sacrifice of Christ, in the room and place of His
people, so that grace may be freely bestowed upon us. Freely
bestowed upon we who believe. We who are the recipient of God's
grace oftentimes look and marvel at God's grace to us and what
He has done for us. And we should. We marvel at that. And we're quick to give God all
the glory and all the honor and all the praise. But the text
before us points to the ultimate end of God choosing the people.
Because you tie it in with all the other verses before us. The
ultimate end of God choosing the people, of God electing the
people, of God redeeming the people, of God predestinating
the people, is to the praise of the glory of His grace. That's
the ultimate end. What's the chief end of man to
glorify God and enjoy Him forever? Oh, it's all to the praise of
the glory of His grace. God choosing the people in Christ,
redeeming the people in Christ, and the Holy Spirit calling us
with an effectual calling, the whole Trinity in action to the
praise of the glory of His grace. And I ask you, beloved of God,
Is Christ not more precious to you now than when you first were
saved? Is He not more precious every
day as we walk in this world? Do we not marvel more and more
at the grace of God in Christ towards us? And the mercy of
God towards us as we go through trials and temptations and tribulations? And He's so faithful. He's so
faithful. He carries us right through everything.
Do you not marvel at that? At His grace towards sinners
like you and I? It's amazing. But yet He loves
His people with an everlasting love. Do you find yourself giving
Him all the glory? Do you find yourself not wanting
any for yourself? Give Him all the glory? Do you
find yourself wanting to give Him all the honor? Do you find
yourself wanting to praise Him all the time for what He's done?
Oh, it's marvelous. And it's all for the praise of
the glory of His grace. Everything that He's done. Oh, the blessedness of this grace
becomes more clear and fully manifested in the believer's
life as we travel through this world of woe. His grace becomes
more and more manifest towards us. Brother John and I have talked
about that. The Christian life is a battle. It's a battle. It's not easy. It's hard. It's like a war within yourself.
And it's about, but he's faithful. And it's all for the praise.
And remember this, beloved, it's all for the praise of the glory
of His grace. Sister D, when you and Jim came in, and then
everyone else came in, and I couldn't help but step back and think,
this is what it's like when we're all going to get to heaven. That
love and joy of seeing each other again and rejoicing. But we'll give Him all the glory. We'll give Him all the praise.
We'll give Him all the... Because He's... It's all to the
praise of the glory of His grace. It's all to Him. So as the believer
gets older, there's a sweetness even more to the grace of God
in Christ. There's a sweetness. And it gets
sweeter and sweeter and sweeter. And He becomes our trust and
our stay. We look away from friends and
family in the sense that we look to Him. We look to Him. He is our rock. He is our stay. He becomes the most important
person in the believer's life. Him. The Lord Jesus Christ. And it's all to the praise of
the glory of His grace. We who hated God at one time
or were enemies to Him in our minds, now we love and adore
Him. Now we love and adore Him. Oh, the grace of God in
Christ. Oh, He has mercy to sinners. So, our walk with Christ as we
get older becomes sweeter and sweeter. And the reason it does
too is because we see ourselves more and more as sinners. We
see ourselves more and more as sinners, and we see what a wonderful,
merciful Savior He is. And we are amazed at the freeness
of God's grace in Christ, too. It amazes us. The free grace
of God in Christ, that He chose a people based upon absolutely
nothing in us, but all according to the praise of the glory of
His grace. And we see the sovereignty of God at work not only in our
lives, but in the world. And we stand amazed. And we know
that all things, despite what we think sometimes, right, with
what's going on, it's all working according to His purpose. It's
amazing. It's amazing. And it's all to
the praise and the glory of His grace. Oh, we who are redeemed,
let us lift up our voices in praise and thanksgiving. Let
us lift up our voices in praise and thanksgiving. We praise the
Lord for so freely loving us before the foundation of the
world. Before the foundation of the world. We praise the Lord
for writing our names in eternity. in the Lamb's Book of Life in
eternity. There's folks out there who say,
well, the minute a sinner believes, that their name is written in
the book of life. That's not biblical at all. And that puts
salvation based upon the sinner. And so we know that that's works-based
salvation. No, no, every one of his elect
are written in the Lamb's book of life from before the foundation
of the world. And it's all to the praise of
the glory of his grace. We praise the Lord Jesus for
shedding His blood to redeem our eternal souls. And that again
ties into our text to the praise of the glory of His grace. You
see how everything centers in Him. He is the hub and the wheel. He's the center. Oh, what a great
God we have. We praise the Lord for enrobing
us in His perfect righteousness. Perfect righteousness. There's
no spot. in His perfect righteousness that He obeyed God's law in the
place of sinners, in the place of His people. And now, we who
believe stand in the presence of a holy and righteous God.
When God looks down upon us, He sees us clothed in the righteousness
of Christ. Oh, it's marvelous. And it's
all for the praise of the glory of His grace. He gets all the
glory. Now let's look at the latter
part of this verse. It says, "...wherein He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved." And may we just savor these words
here. Look at this. "...Wherein He hath made us."
If it's not enough that everything is to the praise and the glory
of His grace in salvation for us, look what Scripture declares.
"...Wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." Now where's
the sinner there? Where's God's people? Wherein
He hath made us. We're receivers of this wonderful,
marvelous grace, aren't we? It's all Him doing. Salvation,
remember we've seen in Scripture, He's the Alpha and He's the Omega
in the Greek. That's the beginning. He's the
A to the Z of our salvation. Wherein He hath made us accepted. God has made us accepted in Christ,
the Beloved. In Christ. Not accepted by our
works. Not accepted by any merit in
us. But accepted in Christ. Accepted in Christ. Do you see
how it ties in with the first part of the verse too? To the
praise of the glory of His grace. He gets it all, doesn't He? He
gets all the glory. Oh, and He's loved us. We know
this from Scripture. He's loved us with an everlasting
love. Now, we love our family members,
and we love our friends, and we love our church family, but
God has loved His people with an everlasting love. Sister Carolyn,
He loved you before the foundation of the world with an everlasting
love, not based upon anything that we do. Nothing. And He's loved us. And He will
always love His people, because He never changes. Never. And it's all to the praise of
the glory of His grace. He gets all the glory. John 15.9
says this, As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.
Continue ye in my love. What's a sign of believers? That
we love Christ. That we love the Brethren. We
continue in the love of Christ because He keeps us. He keeps
us. And look, it says, "...accepted
in the Beloved, wherein He hath made us accepted." What's the
opposite of accepted? Rejected, right? Because of our
sin and because of our nature, God would be just to send everyone
to hell. But He's chosen the people in
eternity. And He chose them in Christ.
We saw that further up in our text, right? and those whom he's
redeemed, which we'll look at next week, by his precious blood,
are accepted. Accepted by God. Accepted by
a holy and righteous God. Accepted in Christ, in the blood. John Gill says this is the free
favor of God. I like that. The free favor of
God. He can bestow it upon whomever
he pleases. And we only have this. We are
only accepted in Christ. You see how it takes the sinner
right out of the equation as far as any merit or any works
getting us to heaven. We are only accepted in Christ. Nowhere else. Nowhere else. It slays the sinner. It brings
the sinner low. and exalts our mighty God. Accepted in Christ. And we have
a union with Christ, right? We know we have a union with
Him. Turn, if you would, to Colossians.
We haven't hit this verse, but we're going to hit this verse
on Wednesday night. We're going to be in this verse.
We have a union with Christ. And remember the vine and the
branches, right? That's another picture of our union with Christ.
He's the vine, we're the branches. Look at this in Colossians 1,
verse 18. It says, and he is the head of the
body. As I said many times before, when we take pictures, We take
pictures of the head because it's preeminent, right? People
recognize us by our head. They identify us by our head.
Well, he's the head. He has the preeminence. That's
what Colossians is all about, the supremacy and the preeminence
of Christ. He has all the preeminence. He
gets all the glory. It's all to the praise of the
glory of his grace, right? All to him. So look at this.
He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead, we rose and we rise because Christ
rised. Because He was raised for our
justification. We have eternal life because
it's in Him. That in all things He might have the preeminence.
But look at this, and He is the head of the body. He is the preeminent
one. We have a union with Christ,
though, don't we? We're the body. And that's all
the believers of all the ages, a number that no man can number.
Oh, what a great Savior. He is the head, though. He's
the one who gets all the preeminence. And so God has made us accepted
in Christ because of our union with Christ. We're accepted because
of our union, because he's the head and we're the body. Oh,
what wonderful salvation this is. So what, and this point too,
again, it's outside of ourselves, isn't it? We look to Christ. I remember
Scott Richardson said we look outward and upward. Outward and
upward, that's what we do. We look away from ourselves and
we look to Christ. Oh, what a wonderful Savior.
Now, what does our acceptance include? Justification before
God. Full justification. Full justification. Full forgiveness of all our sins.
Past, present, and future. God. And we know that in our own righteousness,
right? We stand before God's justice.
In the court of God's justice and law, we stand in our own
righteousness condemned. But oh, when we stand in Christ,
we are acquitted. Justified. Justified. And it's all outside of us and
in Christ. And it's all to the praise of
the glory of His grace. He gets it all. And notice the
verbiage, too, in our text here again. I mentioned this earlier,
but look at this. To the praise of the glory of
His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. It
destroys man's works. It absolutely destroys works-based
salvation. Because we are, He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved. He has done this work. He has
done this work. Now, do we flee to Christ? Absolutely. Thy people shall be made willing.
Willing. Brother Matt, there was a time
when you weren't willing. And he praised God, he made you willing.
And what happened? You fought the Christ. And that's what he does. He makes
sinners willing. We're still sinners, but we're
saved sinners. We're redeemed sinners. We're justified sinners.
We're clothed in the righteousness of Christ. He hath made us, beloved. Let us always remember that.
He hath made us. It's His work. That's why it's
to the praise of the glory of His grace. He hath made us. And
this ties in with the verse in Colossians we studied, verse
12, which says this, giving thanks unto the Father, chapter 1, verse
12, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life. That means
He qualified us. In the Greek, meet means qualified. Turn if you would there, Colossians
1, verse 12. Giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints and light. Qualified for heaven. And this
ties right in with verse 6 in Ephesians where it says, wherein
He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, giving thanks unto the
Father, Colossians 1.12. Which hath made us meet, which
is qualified, made us qualified to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints and light. Qualified. And it's all His doing. Wherein He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved. To the praise and the glory of
His grace. And God's people, we marvel.
We marvel at this grace. We marvel that He included us.
We just marvel. We marvel because we are accepted
in the Beloved. In Christ we're made righteous.
We're made righteous. We're redeemed by Christ. We're
sanctified by Christ. As I said, God the Father looks
upon the redeemed of the Lord and is pleased because they're
clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Turn one chapter over from where
our text is in Ephesians 2. We're already seated in the heavenlies
in Christ. He knows the end from the beginning.
Remember where He dwells. There's no time. Ephesians 2,
verses 6 and 7, and we're in Christ. And hath raised us up
together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ,
that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of
His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. to the
praise of the glory of His grace. He gets all the praise, beloved.
And it's all done for His glory. If you're redeemed here, you're
here today and you're redeemed. It's all to the praise of the
glory of His grace. He gets it all. And this should
be our cry and praise, shouldn't it? When we think of this great
salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord, we want to give Him all
the glory and all the honor and all the praise because it's all
through the praise of the glory of His grace. What a great God. What a great God.