Is that going to work right there?
Alright. Does that look alright? Alright. Well, I'm glad to be with you.
This is the sweetest congregation I've ever met. There's candy
all over the place here. I've never seen so much candy.
My, my. My wife is looking for a sack
of candy. Did you find a pew with a sack
of candy? Yeah, you must have. I see you did. Alright. I've looked forward to coming
to be with you, and I'm sorry that the last time I scheduled
to be down here I was sick. And for some reason in the providence
of God, I couldn't make it then to be down here with my good
buddy Tim James and your dear pastor and wife and all of you
folks. But, well, I'm glad to be here
now. I know you've got your Bible
with you. Turn to Ephesians 1. Look at Ephesians 1. I wouldn't exalt one Scripture
over another, and you wouldn't either. We know that all the
Scriptures are given by inspiration of God, and all are beneficial
for us. We know that all the Scriptures
set forth the Son of God. and His work of redemption. And
we know that every time we open the Bible, we know who we're
looking for. And we do look for Him. But we also know that we
don't see Him as we ought. in some Scriptures like we do
in others. That's just our own weakness. We ask that we could see Him
in every verse. I'd love to see the Savior in
every verse, wouldn't you? But I must be honest with you
and say I can't see Him in every verse. I see Him in general in
every Scripture. But it is a fact that some of
the Scriptures bless us more than others. In fact, if you
were going to go home this evening and read and meditate and think
a while and study a portion of Scripture, I doubt that you'd
go to Numbers chapter 1 and read about the genealogies of Israel. though they would be a blessing
to you as you remember how that they lead up to our dear Savior.
But I seriously doubt that any of us have committed very much
of that to memory, and that's not when we have times of trial
and trouble and we want to think on the blessed gospel of our
Savior. bring to mind Numbers chapter 1, or somewhere over
in the book of Esther chapter 8 verse 9, which is the longest
verse in the Bible, or some rather obscure scripture like that.
We tend to go to scriptures like this one, Ephesians chapter 1. It seems as though this is more
suited to memorize and to study, to think on, and we can more
easily see the grace of God and our dear Redeemer, His great
work of redemption. We see His love and His grace. If you're like me, I can't get
very deep. I just kind of skim the surface,
and that's more than I can handle. But when I get to Ephesians chapter
1, and I begin to read this, and I must be honest with you,
it's one of my favorite Scriptures. Well, I'll tell you, there are
things in this Scripture that there have been books written
volumes of books written on the different doctrines set forth
in Ephesians chapter 1. And they still haven't exhausted
the subject. In fact, some of them probably
ought not have been written anyway. And yet, at the same time, as
deep as this is, and you can go as deep as you want to go
in Ephesians 1, right? I mean, you could just, there
are doctrines in this the first chapter of Ephesians, that you
could spend the rest of your life, literally, studying day
and night, and you would never exhaust the theme. You would never exhaust the doctrine. And yet, having said that, even
a newborn babe in the Lord Jesus can read Ephesians chapter 1
and just be absolutely thrilled. Because it sets forth the grace
of our God in our blessed Savior so eloquently and yet so simply. Leave mine grasped. Even I'm
blessed by it. It's like the inspired apostle. He takes us by the hand. And
he leads us back into eternity past. And he says, view, take a look,
gaze into God's eternal purpose of grace and be amazed As you
look and see what our great God has done for sinners in the Lord
Jesus Christ, be absolutely amazed that you were included in the
number that He did it for. And so we bask in His love. We
immerse ourselves in the grace of God. And our souls are fed. And for a little while as we
look into this chapter and we look into these verses of Scripture,
The problems of the world, the cares of life, they fade away
for a while as we just focus in on our great God. And we see the Father working
for us. And we see the Son of God working
for us. And we see the Spirit of God
working for us. And then we stop and think, for whom did He do all these
things, our great God? Oh my, He did it for the undeserving. He did it for the sinful. And bless His name, He did it
for me. He did it for me. What I want to do, God the Spirit
enabling me, this evening and tomorrow evening and then the
Lord's Day morning, I want us to look at this doxology. It
begins here in chapter 1 in verse 3 and really goes to the end
of the third chapter. And if the Lord would enable
me, Tonight I want us to get an overview of chapter one. You
say, well, I've studied this a number of times before. I know you have. And it's thrilling
to study it again, isn't it? And then tomorrow night we'll
look at the second chapter. And then Sunday morning we'll
take a look at the third chapter and see if God's got something
for us here. See if God's got something for
us here. I've got to say, the theme of it's got to be grace.
It's mentioned a dozen times. The grace of God. The grace of
God the Father. The grace of God the Son. The
grace of God the Holy Spirit. And this grace is even more magnified
when you think about the ones who are the recipients of this
letter. The Ephesians. Ephesus was, and
you know, it was an ungodly city. It was covered up in dung-heeled
deities and especially Diana. And they had a glorious temple
there that they built to Diana. She was the chief goddess and
everybody worshipped her. And it was into this city that
the Apostle Paul went on his third missionary journey. And
he went there, and he first, as he usually did, and you can
read about this in Acts chapter 19, as he usually did, he went
to the synagogue. And he spent about three months
there setting forth the gospel of the Savior. And when he got
there, he found some men who believed the gospel or who had
some faint understanding of the gospel. And then he clearly enunciated
the gospel and set forth to them the Son of God and all of His
glory and what the Son of God did for undeserving sinners.
And they believed and they were baptized. And those twelve men
became the basis for a great congregation that God called
out unto Himself from the Ephesian people. God had an elect people
there in that heathen city. It's tremendous. It's amazing that God has a people
in this pagan, idolatrous city, people who were given to idols,
dunghill deities, People who devoted their lives, gave their
money, gave the love of their hearts to all of these false
gods, and yet, in that very city, God raised up a great, strong
work to the honor and the praise of the glory of His grace. He
called out a people unto Himself. Well, after three months, Paul
had been preaching in the synagogue. They said, we don't want to hear
what you've got to say anymore. And so he went over. A fellow
had started some kind of school, had a schoolhouse of some...
Tyramus was his name. And he had some kind of school
and Paul went in there and that fellow said, hey, they don't
want you in the synagogue. You preach over here. You preach
that gospel over here in my place, in my school, whatever kind of
school it was. And he did and stayed there two
years preaching the gospel. And the Scripture says, in fact,
hold your place in Ephesians 1. I will get to that. Now look
over here in Acts chapter 19. Let me just read this to you.
Look in Acts chapter 19. God had a people in that city,
just like God's got a people down here. That's what God's
doing. He's calling out His elect. God
sends forth His gospel. God sends His servant. And then
that servant proclaims the gospel of Christ, tells who the blessed
Savior is in His deity and in His humanity. That servant of
God tells why Christ came into this world. He was sent on a
mission to save His people from their sins. And God's servant
announces, he proclaims why Christ came into this world and also
how He saves His people from their sins. By His righteous
life and by His substitutionary death that satisfied God's justice. That's what you preach, isn't
it? The gospel of substitution and satisfaction. Spurgeon said,
if you want to learn the gospel, learn those two words. Substitution
and satisfaction. Christ died for somebody. And
all the somebodies He died for are reconciled. They are saved
by God's grace. Substitution and satisfaction. He satisfied God's justice. God's justice said the soul that
sinneth shall die. It says the wages of sin is death. Somebody has got to die faster.
Somebody has got to die. Christ came. Christ died. And
He answered the demands of a broken law and the holy justice of God. You see, God must be holy. God must remain righteous. And
He will not show mercy and grace at the expense of His justice.
He can't do that. He will not do that. He won't
lessen the standards. Christ came. He answered all
the demands of God's justice. He died for our sins according
to the Scriptures, what the Scriptures said. Paul said in 1 Corinthians
15, and he was raised up. He was raised up. God raised
Him. Thereby announcing He did the work that I sent Him to do.
He saved His people from their sins. He redeemed them. He bought
them. He paid their price. They reconciled. Then the Savior went back to
glory 40 days later. He's seated on the throne. This
is who Paul preached. This is who every servant of
God preaches. He preaches the enthroned Christ. The exalted Christ. Paul went
to the school of Tyrannus. This is what he preached. The
same Gospel you preach. Week in and week out. Same Gospel
I preach and Tim James and all these other pastors that you
know and many that we don't know. Preaching the same Gospel. And
there is just one gospel in it. Just one gospel for every age. This is the same gospel if Adam
and Eve were converted, and I believe that they were saved by God's
free and sovereign grace, is by this gospel. This is Abel's
gospel. This is Noah's gospel. This is
Abraham's gospel. This is Daniel's gospel. This
is Paul's gospel. This is my gospel, Paul said.
That's what I say. It's my gospel, Pastor. There's
not one gospel for one era and another gospel for another era.
There's a reference Bible. A lot of people swear by it. That teaches six or seven different
gospels in there, in the notes of it. So much so, it says that
the Lord Jesus didn't preach the same gospel that Paul preached.
Why, what heresy! Just one gospel. It's the gospel
Paul preached in Ephesus. It's the gospel you preach in
Jacksonville. It's the gospel I preach in Almonte.
One gospel. He preached this gospel. Verse
10 says, two years, two years he preached this gospel, so that
all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus,
both Jews and Greeks. He preached the same Lord Jesus
we preach. Not Jesus who wants to be your
Lord, but Jesus who is the Lord. He is the Lord Jesus, Joe, isn't
He? He is the Lord Jesus. God made Him Lord. God made Him
both Lord and Christ as a reward for His substitutionary sacrifice. Look at verse 11, "...God wrought
special miracles by the hands of Paul, so that from his body
were brought unto the under the sick handkerchiefs of aprons
and diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out
of them." And I'll just read these next verses without comment.
Then, certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them
to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord
Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.
There were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew and chief of the
priests which did so. And the evil spirit answered
and said, Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you? We don't
know you. And the man in whom the evil
spirit was leaped on them and overcame them and prevailed against
them so that they fled out of that great house naked and wounded."
Now the word I want you to notice there is prevailed. Just hang
on to that. It says that evil spirit prevailed
against them. Had the power over them. Let's
hang on to that word a minute. Verse 17. This was known to all
the Jews and Greeks also dwelling in Ephesus. And fear fell on
them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus
was magnified. That's what happens when God
gets ahold of people's hearts. The name of the Lord Jesus is
magnified. We stop magnifying the flesh. Stop bragging on men. Stop bragging on the church.
And stop bragging on the denomination. Stop bragging on the Lord Jesus.
Right? Look at verse 18. And many that
believed came and confessed and showed their deeds. Many of them
also which used curious arts brought their books together
and burned them before all men. They counted the price of them
and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the
Word of God and prevailed. prevailed. Back up here earlier
in verse 16, this man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on
these fellows and overcame them and prevailed against them. Had
power against them. Power over them. Authority over
them. Well, the Word of God went forth
mightily and prevailed. It had power over people. It says it grew, so mightily
grew or increased, literally kept on growing, kept conquering. The Word of God was conquering
as it increased, as it spread by power, divine power, omnipotence. And it prevailed. The Word of
God in the hands of the Spirit prevails. It prevails over men. Has it prevailed over you? If
you've been brought to see the sweetness of Christ, the glory
of Christ, the blessedness of Christ, brought to believe Him
and rely upon Him and rest in Him, recline upon Him and hug
up to Him, it's prevailed over you. Prevailed. I'll give you another reference.
Look over here in 2 Timothy. Just while we're on this, the
power of the Word of God in the hands of the Spirit. Look at 2 Timothy, the second
chapter. Look at verse 7. Consider what I say. The Lord
give thee understanding in all things. Remember that Jesus Christ
of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my
gospel. wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even under bonds."
They put me in bonds. They bound me. But the Word of
God is not bound. The Word of God prevails. You
can't bind it. Can I give you another reference
on that? You know this. Look at Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55. This is why when we set forth
the gospel of Christ, We don't give a high-pressure
altar call. We're not trying to get you to
come up here. We're not striking while the iron's hot, that kind
of Tommy Rot. We know that God will do His
work using His Word. Your business is not with me.
Your business is not with the pastor. Your business is not
up here in front of this communion table that's holding the flowers.
Go home and get along with God. You can do business with God
through the only Mediator by whom you can do business with
God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Isaiah chapter 55. Isaiah
55 verse 8, God says, For my thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith
Jehovah. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, So are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down,
and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth
the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give
seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, so shall my word
be that goeth forth out of my mouth." And you can take it either
way you want to, the incarnate word or the written word. Either
one. So shall my word be that goeth
forth out of my mouth, God says. It shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper. Prosper! You hear these folks
today talking about a prosperity gospel? This is the prosperity
gospel right here. This is the one who prospers.
Our Savior prospered. He prospered on the cross. He
shall see His seed. He shall prosper. It shall prosper
in the thing whereunto I sent it. any interest whatsoever in the
Gospel tonight? Oh, your desire is, O Lord, send
it to me. Send it to me. Make my heart
the target for Your Gospel of grace as the Messenger of God,
as we talked about today, sends forth the arrow of Your Gospel
as He shoots it at a venture. That's all I can do is shoot
it at a venture. Pull back the bow of grace. and
let go of the error of God's Gospel, trust in the Spirit of
God to direct it to your heart, and to your heart, and to your
heart, to the pastor's heart. Boy, I hope it hits me too. Yeah. Prosper. It prospers. It prospered in Ephesus. Paul
said there in 2 Timothy, you can bind me, But you can't bind
the gospel now. It's going to do its work. Verse
12, I've got to read the rest of this. That's what comes up naturally.
"...shall come up the fir tree, trees planted by the rivers of
water. Instead of the briar shall come
up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." That's His Word. So look back over in Ephesians
1. Paul goes to Ephesus. And he just starts preaching
faster. It's all he did was just start preaching the Gospel. And one by one, God started calling
out His elect. You see, election. Somebody said,
well, election means that you're going to be saved whether you
believe the gospel or not. That ain't what election means.
If somebody says, do you believe in election or do you believe
in predestination, you better wait before you answer. to make
sure that their definition of election or predestination is
the correct definition. Right? We don't believe that people
who are elected unto salvation are going to be saved whether
or not they believe the gospel. The fact of the matter is, the
same God who chose men and women unto salvation in Jesus Christ
before the foundation of the world also ordained the means
whereby the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified would
come to them. He ordained the hour of their
regeneration, the hour of illumination, the hour of revelation when they
would be brought to believe the blessed Savior. And these people believed one
by one. They believed the gospel. And
God gathered together a strong local assembly. And it grew. It grew mightily. And the Word
of God began to go forth from Ephesus to other places. But
then, and I don't have time to go into this, but I don't know
what happened. But the Lord Jesus saw something
in that congregation that nobody else saw. The pastor didn't see
it. And the church members didn't
see it. And the Lord had John write him a letter. In Revelation 2, the Lord said,
it's got a lot of good going on there, but I'll tell you this,
you left your first love. You left your first love. And
the Lord said, you better repent of that. I'm going to take your
candlestick away. Is that what He said? I'm going
to take your candlestick. I'll take the light away. And you know what? That local
assembly in Ephesus, it is no more. It's been gone for hundreds
and hundreds of years. It went back into darkness. What
happened? They lost their first love. Their love for Christ, the Lord
saw a declension in it. He saw it declining. Kind of
a lukewarmness set in there. The Lord said, I'm going to take
my gospel away from you. And He did. He did. Your love is not declining, is
it? You're still looking to Christ only, aren't you? We've got no
other hope but Christ. He's our message, folks. Let's
don't get weary of preaching Christ. And I know you don't,
but we need to be reminded of this. Our message is Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. Every time we come together,
we come together to magnify His name. We come together to honor
Him, to talk about who He is and what He did. Not talk about
what we did. It's not about giving reports
about what we did and what we've accomplished. We know better
than that. Some of us used to be in all
that garbage, had reports that were read and people were praised
and honored. We don't do that anymore. We
bless His name. Don't lose your first love. Has anything become more important
to you than Christ? That's losing your first love
now. You'd better watch it. Be careful now. You keep the
eyes of your soul on Jesus Christ the Lord. We began this race
by looking unto Jesus. Look and live. Look and live. The Lord said, look unto Me and
be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth. You look to me. That's how we began, brother.
And that's how we continue, looking unto Jesus, the author and the
finisher of our faith. And that's how we're going to
wind up when we see Him face to face. We look on Him. Keep looking. Don't you look
at something else now. Don't even take a glance away
from Him. That's when we get in trouble, isn't it? When we
take our eyes off the Lord Jesus Christ. We're like old Simon
Peter. The Lord said, the Lord walking
on water, and Simon Peter said, if it's you, bid me come. I didn't see him. Then he started looking around.
Then he started going under. I'll tell you something, the
surest way to begin to go under is to take your eyes off of him. Is that right, Pastor? That's
exactly right. But he writes this letter to
the Ephesian congregation. I don't know when it was they
lost their first love. They began to lose it, though.
But right now, when he writes to them, he's writing to them
from jail. It's a strong congregation. And look at verse 1. He identifies
himself. He just says, Paul. I find this
interesting. He didn't say, Reverend Paul. Some of them are called very
reverent. Or Dr. Paul. It's just Paul. Just Paul. But lest we forget, he is an
apostle of Jesus Christ. He does have some credentials
now. This gives authenticity to the
letter. He's an apostle. He's a messenger.
He's seen and he's been commissioned by the resurrected Christ, by the will of God. Who's he write to? To the saints
which are at Ephesus. Saints set apart before the world
began. declared to be righteous in Jesus
Christ, who is His righteousness. He is our righteousness. Saints have been washed in the
blood of the Lamb. We've been cleansed. He says,
I write to the saints which are in Ephesus. He's not writing
to everybody. He's not writing to everybody in Ephesus. When
he wrote this letter, pastor, from prison in Rome, He didn't
say, dear citizens of Ephesus. This is not for everybody. This
is for a particular group of people identified by this word,
they're saints. And if you're not a saint, don't
read this and claim it to be for you. You're reading somebody
else's mail. This is not addressed to you.
This is addressed to dear saints and something else. And to the
faithful in Christ Jesus. That's to all the other saints
of God. In other words, this letter is
for us tonight. Faithful. We're believers. And we're faithful to the gospel.
We're faithful to behold the Lamb of God. We're faithful to
Him. And he says, Grace be to you
and peace from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, peace is the result.
Grace is the source of it. It all starts with grace. And then, in verse 3, he begins
this doxology. And it goes right on through
to the end of chapter 3. And as we read through this,
and obviously, I don't have time to read all these verses. I'd
like to say I'm just going to hit the high spots. But what
he does in this chapter right here, and in the next chapter,
and in the following chapter, this is what we need to be doing. We're here to exalt the name
of the Lord. Look at verse 3, "...blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Isn't that
word, it's like eulogized, isn't it? It means bragged on God is
what it means. Blessed be the God and Father.
We're bragging on God. We're boasting in the Lord. That's
why we gather together. The psalmist said, my soul shall
make her boast in the Lord. In the Lord. A eulogy, you know,
a typical funeral. Somebody gets up and gives a
eulogy. I say a typical funeral, not one in which the servant
of the Lord is taking over and preaching the gospel. I'm talking
about a typical eulogy or a funeral according to the world standards.
Somebody gets up and gives a eulogy. They talk about all the great
things and wonderful things that the deceased has done. Well,
we spend our time talking about all the great things that our
God has done and is doing and shall yet do, pastor. This is how we occupy our time
when we come together. I got a letter, and I guess all
churches in our area, and I use that word loosely, churches,
all the religious enterprises in our area got letters. I didn't
even show it to Nancy, in fact, but this church is celebrating
their 150th anniversary. And they invited us. You know
we're going. They said Saturday at 8.30, the
opening ceremony starts off with the color guard, followed by
a classic car show, and a softball game, and then Irish dancing.
And then they're going to have funny face alpacas, followed
by several singing groups, and then a silent auction to pay
for the new church building, and then a potluck supper. And
on Sunday there'd be a gospel singing followed by a coffee
hour. That's pretty much religion today,
isn't it? And, you know, I read that and
there's a part of me that laughed and there's a part of me that
cried. It sure is sad. After a 150 year anniversary, and no gospel. Why do they even
exist? It's just a social club, isn't
it? That's about all most churches are anyway, isn't it? Most churches
are social clubs. I don't want to go to a social
club on the Lord's Day, do you? I want to go here God's servant. Get up and say, blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to hear Him eulogize
God. That's what we want. Go to worship. That's why we come here tonight,
isn't it? We come here to worship. I've
got news for you. You can't worship without the
Lamb of God. Even Isaac knew that. He heard his daddy say to those
servants, I and the lad go yonder to the mountain and worship."
They're walking along and, man, Isaac, he's carrying the load
of wood. He's got the fire. Dad's got the knife. Man, he says, something's wrong
here. Wait a minute, Dad. You told them servants we was
going yonder to worship. I got the wood and the fire. There is a knife. Where is the
lamb? For sacrifice. Abraham said,
my son, the Lord will provide Himself a lamb for sacrifice. Because there is no worship without
the lamb. There is no worship publicly.
And there is no worship privately either. When you go home tomorrow,
Open the Bible to read. Just remember this. God is not
going to meet with you to honor His Son. Because God is not going to speak
to nor be spoken to by any son or daughter of Adam except through
the mediator. You better start honoring Christ.
That is why we are here. To lift up His name. And the Spirit of God will bless
when Christ is exalted. But if we don't exalt the Son
of God, I guarantee you the Spirit of God is going to be nowhere
around. It will be another spirit. Another spirit. People talk about
having a Holy Ghost revival. They ain't having a Holy Ghost
revival when they're honoring the Son of God. They're having
some other kind of spiritual revival. And they wouldn't understand
if you tried to explain it to them, would they? No. Well, Paul breaks forth in this
glorious doxology. Let me give you eleven words.
What do you say? I know one of the things I learned
in Bible college was this. Don't tell how many points you're
supposed to, that you have. You ain't supposed to do that
because if you just say, well, I've got three points in my sermon,
Then they'll say, well, this won't last too long. But if you
say to them, I got 11 points for this sermon, they'll say,
man, oh, man, oh, man, we'll never get out of here. I broke all the other rules that
kicked me out from believing in grace. So I'll just go ahead
and defy our preaching instructor. I'll go ahead and tell you right
now I got 11 points. But I'm just going to touch on
them, jot them down, and study them. You see if this isn't so. I start them all with the letter
P. The letter P. Make it easy for
you to remember if you want to jot them down. The first word
that I see in all of this in Ephesians 1 is plurality. The Father, the Son, and the
Spirit. Plurality. Because if you read
down through here, You're going to find out what I said a while
ago, the work of the Father. And it's to the praise of the
glory of His grace. And then you're going to read
about the work of the Son in redemption, the Father in election
and predestination, and the Son in redemption. And then the Holy
Spirit in preservation and power. Plurality. The grace of God flows
to us through our triune God. The second word is praise. Praise. Look at verses 3 through 6. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings, not some, not most of them, but all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places. And this is probably the most
important expression. It is the most important phrase.
throughout this, in Christ. In Christ. In whom? In Christ. In Him. Over and over again. Don't miss that. According as
He hath chosen us, in Him. When? Before the foundation of
the world. Why? That we should behold that
we who drink iniquity like water, who came into the world speaking
lies, who take sin into our bosom and
caress it, that we who defied Him, who lifted up our hands
in rebellion against Him, that we, a sinner, you and me, should be holy, holy, and without blame, before Him, before God, in love and Some authorities
say, and perhaps rightly so I suppose, that after the word him should
be a comma. That in love goes with having
predestinated. Predestination is not a hard
doctrine, it's a loving doctrine. It's full of love. Before him in love having predestinated
us. unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ Himself according to the good pleasure of His will."
Here it is, "...to the praise of the glory of His grace." God's grace is glorified. God
the Father, bless His name. And then, look down here, A little
bit further, it talks about the work of the Son from verse 7
on down through verse 12. And it says in verse 12 that
we should be to the praise of His glory. Who first trusted
in Christ? Who first trusted in Christ?
God the Father first trusted in Christ. What did He trust Him with? He
trusted Him with us. We were entrusted to Him. Can
you believe it? As a treasure. We were chosen in grace and God
the Father entrusted us to Christ our surety who accepted full
responsibility for us and became before God accountable. For our eternal safety. Right
then and there. And I say right then and there.
It's an everlasting decree. As to the praise of the glory
of His grace. Praise! Praise! And then the
Spirit of God. He's earnest. Verse 14 of the
Inheritance. Under the praise of His glory. I tell you, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. But not glory in the flesh. You'll
be in trouble then, because you done got crossways with God then.
Because he said, I glory one eye, and I not give to another.
Neither my praise to graven image, because I'm the Lord. Praise,
praise. That's the second word, plurality
and praise. Third word, predestination. Predestination, verse 5, I've
already read it. Predestination is God's sovereign,
eternal, unchangeable arrangement for the nation of everything.
Everything that ever comes to pass in order to bring to pass
the salvation of His elect. You mean to tell me He ordained
everything, preacher? Everything big and small. The big events that people pay
attention to and the little minute things that nobody pays attention
to. God ordained them all in His predestination and by His
divine providence, He's bringing them all to pass. In order to
bring to pass the salvation of His people, that's what everything's
working toward. the gathering of His elect into
the fold of salvation to the praise of the glory of His grace.
And I don't know what your position is on future things, on end times
and prophecy. And frankly, I wouldn't want
to offend you, but I don't much care. In my opinion, and for
what it's worth, I believe when the last of God's elect are gathered
in to the kingdom of salvation, that's it. And the heavens are
rolled up like a scroll. our Savior coming back when we're
all safely in. Wouldn't it be something? Maybe,
maybe the last one be converted tonight. That'd be wonderful. We leave this old sinful flesh
behind. Leave my rottenness behind. I'll
be like Christ. Be like Him, to sin no more. That's what that song is. Till
all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more. To sin
no more. Predestination. All things ordained
of God. You think of the worst thing
that's ever happened in the world? Even that's ordained of God. Look at Acts chapter 4. I'll
show you the worst thing man's ever done. Let's see if God didn't
ordain this. Let's see if this isn't predestination.
Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4 verse 27. For of a truth against thy holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate
with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before,"
and that's just literally predestination because it's the same word. Before.
Determined beforehand to be done. Christ died on purpose. He died
on purpose. Predestination. Let me ask you
a question. If I asked you, define history
for me, what would you say? Well, don't raise your hand because
I'm not going to call on you. I'm going to tell you my definition,
okay? It is the unfolding of God's eternal purpose of redemption. You see, here's what history
is. It's not a random path cut through time by the uncontrolled
actions of men, not at all. It's following an appointed course
with everything marked out from creation to consummation for the glory of God and the
salvation of His people. And everything, and I don't understand
what I'm about to say, but I know it's so. Everything is either
directly or indirectly working toward the salvation of God's
elect. I tell you, God's eternal purpose
is not about the United States of America. I'm thankful to live
here. I am. I'm thankful for this nation.
I pray that God will raise up men to preach the gospel. I pray
for our leaders, that God will give them wisdom. But it's not
about our nation. It's about another nation. A
spiritual nation. That's what it's all about. And
no matter what happens to this nation, Nothing's going to happen
to that other nation. That's spiritual. That's right. Number four. Boy, I've got to
go quickly. Position. Look at verse 6. Position. Back
in Ephesians 1. Position. To the praise of the
glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. That's our position. We're accepted
in the Beloved. You know what that word accepted
means? I looked it up this afternoon,
in fact. It's the idea of that which is
charming and agreeable. That is, in the Lord Jesus, we're
charming to God and agreeable to Him. We're agreeable to God. He approves
of us in Christ. in Christ. The next word is the word, purchase. He bought us. He purchased us.
Verse 7, In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of His grace. He bought us. He didn't buy things for us.
He bought us. He bought us. And you know what
the price was? His blood. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And I tell you, any preaching
that doesn't declare redemption accomplished and obtained by
Jesus Christ is not gospel preaching. And then the sixth word is, because
where there's purchase, there's pardon. Where there's purchase,
there's got to be pardon. In whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace. The Gospel doesn't offer pardon.
It proclaims pardon. Pardon obtained. by the blessed
Savior. The next word is providence,
verses 10 through 12. Oh, all the intricate details of
God's adorable providence. Amazing. God's working out His
eternal purpose of grace. Maybe somebody here tonight,
I don't know you folks, don't know what's going on in your
lives. There may be somebody here tonight going through some
severe trials, got some things going on. Maybe nobody else in
here knows about it. Oh, divine providence. It says
in verse 11, that he worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. Don't worry, child of God. Don't
be anxious. Providence is bringing you along.
See you safely home to glory. Because the steps of a good man
are ordered of the Lord. And goodness and mercy are in
back of you. Pushing you on to glory. The eighth word is performance.
Verse 13. In whom you also trusted After
that, you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
in whom also after you believed, you were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of redemption." I tell you, grace is not a proposition,
it's a performance. It's not something God offers,
it's an operation God does. Yeah. God working in us. And then verses 13 and 14, preservation
was sealed. Verse 14 says, "...which the
earnest, the Spirit of God, the earnest of our inheritance, under
the redemption of the purchased possession, under the praise
of His glory." He preserves. I'm so glad we're kept by the
power of God. It's through faith. He'll keep
us believing so that the righteous shall hold on their way. Then
what I'm up, number 10, power. Verses 15-19 power. He says, Wherefore I also, after
I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all
the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention
of you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
The Father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom
and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of His
calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance
in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power
to us-ward who believe according to the working of His mighty
power." We believe according to the working of His mighty
power. I copied something down here. Let me see if I can find
it for you. Several years ago in an evangelistic crusade in
Indianapolis, Indiana, after Mr. Graham had given the altar
call, hundreds of people stood before him, and he addressed
the remaining audience up in the stands of that arena, and
he said this, Now, don't pray for these who
have come forward. You may have prayed for them
before, and that is good. And you can pray for them later
on, and that will be good also. But right now, prayer is useless,
for not even God Himself can help them. They must accept Christ
of their own free will all by themselves, And God has no power
over the will of man." End quote. He doesn't know anything about
the power of God, does he? God raises the dead. God quickens
whom He will. And He makes us willing in the
day of His power. So then, it is not of Him that
willeth. nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth the mercy." And he gets all the glory. Power
working in us, operating in us. Power. And the last word, preeminence. Yeah, look at verses 20-23 and
I'll quit. I didn't preach too long. Verse 20, which he wrought
in Christ, this energy, when He raised Him from the dead and
set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above
all principality and power and might and dominion and every
name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that
which is to come. And He hath put all things under
His feet and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church,
which is His body. The fullness of Him that filleth
all in all. He has all the preeminence. And
we're delighted to give Him all the preeminence, aren't we? And we glory in His name. Do
you know Him? Oh, what a blessed Savior He
is. The Lord and King in Him. We worship Him. We believe Him. We trust Him. We honor Him. We
worship Him. We bow to Him. We confess He's
the Lord to the glory of God the Father. And He's our Savior. He's our friend. He's our brother. Our brother. our grandsons, Austin and Ethan. Austin just finished up the fourth
grade and Ethan just finished up the first grade. Ethan had
a little, what do you call them things they'd blow into and sing.
They had some kind of little concert, first grade concert. We went to see him, listen to
him. After the program was over, we
went back to Ethan's room. He was in there with all of his
buddies. And then his big brother came in. Austin came in and said,
look, there's my brother! That's my big brother right there. He's so proud of him. Let me
tell you something. Yonder on his throne is my brother, who is not ashamed to call us
brethren. And He loves us. He gave Himself for us. And He's
a friend that's thicker, closer than a brother. What a sweet
Savior we have. Trust Him. Hug up to Him. Embrace Him. May God help us
to do that. Amen.