Turn back to where Brad read
there in Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1. You know, I thought about it. To know what we are, to know our true condition, we must believe God. There is no other way of knowing
it, no other way of accepting it. And we are what He says we are. That's just the way it is. We
are what He says we are by nature. But just as much so, we are what
He says we are by grace. We don't feel what we know He
says we are by nature. But at the same time, we may
not feel what He says that we are by grace. And we know that He says that
we all are in ourselves sinners. And yet, That being true, at
the same time, he says that some are in a state that is described
in these verses, and particularly in one verse. And in truth, there is no better
state, there is no better place, there is no better position for
any sinner to be in than the one spoken of in verse 6. Paul says, to the praise of the
glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. accepted in the Beloved. And how contrary that is to all
the appeals of what is called Christianity in our day. They say, accept Jesus as your
personal Savior. He'll do all these things for
you if you will only, by an act of your will or by an act of
some kind of faith, accept Him. But what we find in this book
is that Jesus Christ is not up for acceptance. And He is not up for acceptance
by such sinners as we are. It is we who must be accepted
of God. Now, all you have to do, if you
would be interested in your soul enough to do so, is look in this
book, even take a concordance and look up that word accept. See if you find accepting Jesus
in there. But what you will find is that
we must be accepted of God. And it says here that there are
those who, by His grace, He has made accepted or favored. As a matter of fact, it literally
means something like this. He has graced us. And all who are accepted by God,
we know by this one verse and statement alone, they are accepted
by God because He has made them so. Isn't that the language of
this verse? To the praise of the glory of
His grace wherein He have made us accepted in the
Beloved. Everybody that is accepted of
God was made to be accepted of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. His acceptance of us is in Christ. Let me read you a verse that
Paul writes in II Timothy. He speaks of God who has saved
us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given
us in Christ Jesus. Not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose, or will, or decree, or covenant,
or whatever word you want to use, His own purpose and grace
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Everything that God has to give
in grace for sinners, he gives in Christ. And he has done it
all and done it for all his elect according to his own will and
to the praise of his own glory. That's the chief reason why He
has done all that He's done in saving a people, it is first
of all to the praise of the glory of His grace. That's where men get in trouble
preaching a lot of times. They put man's necessity before
God's glory. But it is first of all in every
point to the praise of the glory of His grace, and especially
we are to note that He's made all this acceptance to be in the Beloved. Now, who would that be? Well,
let me just remind you by turning back and reading in Matthew chapter
3, when he was being baptized, the Lord Jesus Christ standing
up in that water, it says in verse 17, And lo, a voice from
heaven sayeth, This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased." In other words, when God spoke audibly
from heaven, He spoke in the ears of men concerning that man
that had just been baptized, Jesus of Nazareth, and he said,
This is my Beloved. This is my well-beloved Son. And so all acceptance is therefore
in Christ, in the Beloved, which is not only all through this
chapter, but all through this book. If you look back in verse 1,
Paul says, 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. There's a way I guess you could
say that he's talking here about his grace being to the in-crowd. The crowd in Christ Jesus. Look down at verse 3. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ. Always in Christ. Look down in verse 4. According
as He hath chosen us in Him. Now sometimes people accuse us
of being very simplistic with the matters of salvation. But
you can't really get much more simple than this. It is in Him,
in Christ. Look down at verse 7. He says, "...in whom we have
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according
to the riches of His grace." Where are all these things? In
whom? In Him? In Christ? Look down 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. It's always in Christ. And then if you look down in
verse 11, it begins the same way. "...in whom also we have
obtained inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."
His will, his inheritance, everything is in Christ. Verse 12. that we should be to
the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ. Who first trusted in Christ? You look at that verse very carefully. Because what it says is the one
who first trusted in Christ is the one who first put all things
in Christ which is God Himself. Then verse 13, "...in whom ye
also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel
of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed ye were
sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise in Christ." is in Him. It's not in the church. It's not in morality. It's not
in some kind of a religious ritual. It's not in a preacher. It's
not in a priest. It's not anything. It's not even
in your believing. It's in Christ. Do we believe that? That's what
it says. And some can seek to lead us
away from that, but I pray that God will anchor us and ground
us right there, and we have no other hope, no other confidence,
no other ground upon which we would dare seek to stand and
be accepted by God or favored by God except in the Christ of
this book. He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. And this is the most glorious
thing that there ever could be. It is the ground of all our peace. It is the ground of all hope. It is the ground of all the salvation
for every sinner that is saved. It is in the Beloved. And this is the wonderful doctrine. Sometimes men seek to make enemies
between the person of Christ and the work of Christ when they
are inseparably joined together and one and the same. He is who
He is because of what He's done, and He does what He does because
of who He is. He's Christ crucified. And so here we have Him, and
we have what the Bible calls imputation. In other words, God
has accounted us as such and given us such things because
He has accounted us or put us or looks upon us in another,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And how could we ever want God,
as some say, God to just be fair with us, or God to just look
us over and see if there's anything He can bless us for? How could
we ever desire salvation in any other when He said it's in His
Beloved? Every bit of it is in His Beloved. And this is the truth of representation
in Scripture and the truth of what is called federal headship
in that he does all he does for his people in this one he's appointed,
his beloved son. And the reality of this is That
He has not taken something from someone and put it on me or put
it on you, but He has taken us out of someone and put us in
another. He's put us in another state,
if you will, or He's put us upon another standing or another position. And grace takes all of God's
elect out of Adam and puts them in Christ. Thus we have the parallel
and the contrast in Scripture. In Adam all die. Is that the end of it? That's
the end of it but for the grace of God. That's the end of it
and the end of every person apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. In
Adam all die, but in Christ all are made alive. And I think that is what Paul
is talking about in II Corinthians 5 when he says it just exactly
the same way. He says, therefore, if any man
be in Christ, He's a new creation. He's in
a new creation. And then he says, if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. Now, I know lots of preachers
that go to this very verse to try to make that say something
about regeneration. But the truth of the matter is,
Paul's subject there is not regeneration. It's reconciliation. It's God
dealing with us in Christ rather than in Adam. And He has brought
us from this position in Adam to this position in Christ. And
in Him, every one of those all things, they are passed away. He doesn't even look at us in
Adam. He doesn't even consider us to be under the law. He doesn't
even view us in any way other than in the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Him, all things are made
new. Everything. And this union with
Christ, this putting us in Christ, does not come by an act of man's
will. It comes through an act of God's
will. As a matter of fact, faith does
not put us in Christ, but it is the God-given means by which
we are enabled to see that God has put us in Christ. Is that
right? That's what Paul is saying. He
hath saved us and called us. He has done all this for us as
the gift of His grace He has saved us with an everlasting
salvation, and then He sends the gospel to us and gives us
faith to believe it, which is simply the good news that He
has made us accepted in the Beloved. Turn over to John chapter 17. John chapter 17. This is the most amazing word here spoken by Christ
to the Father concerning all of His people. John 17 and verse
20. He says in his prayer to the
Father, neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which
shall believe on me through their word. His intercession is not
only for those of His people at that hour, but every hour. That they all may be one, as
Thou, Father, art in me, and I in them, that they also may
be one in us, that they might be one in us,
that the world may believe that thou hast sent me, and the glory
which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one even
as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me." Where at? In Christ. In other words, the Lord's people
are in Christ, who is in the Father. the Father in all of
them, the Spirit in all of them, Christ in all of them, and them
in all the Godhead. There is no other blessing. There
is no other place of safety. There is no other refuge for
the sinner. There is no other place of inheritance
and glory except in God. And everything a sinner has in
grace, he has in Christ because God put him in Christ and views
him in Christ as one with Christ and values him as Christ. Turn over to 1 Corinthians and
the first chapter. I was going to just read this
to you, but it's so utterly amazing. If you look down in 1 Corinthians
chapter 1 and listen to what he says in this 30th verse, he
says to these believers at Corinth and to believers in every age, But of God are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." How do we get in Christ? How
did Christ become these things to us? And I do believe that
these four words in that verse literally kind of sum up the
whole of everything God gives in grace. He says it's in Christ Jesus. How did we get there? God put
us there by an act of His sovereign will. and for reasons known only
to himself, except that saving such sinners as we are will surely
be to the praise and glory of his grace for ever. But he has
put us in Christ Jesus and made us unto us Christ's wisdom and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption." Everything. So what is it? What is it to be in Christ? Is that just some kind of an
honorary position? No. If you'll look with me just
a few places, I'll say this first of all. To be in Christ Jesus
is to be without any condemnation. I mean without any condemnation. If you turn over to Romans chapter
8 and listen to what the Apostle
says in the first verse of Romans chapter 8, he says, there is
therefore now, not One day in the future. Not when we get to heaven. But
there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Is that right? Is that taking it too far as
some people charge us with taking? There is, he says, now, right
this minute, no condemnation. Now, no condemnation is about
the same thing as justification. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. You say, well, the devil condemns
me. I don't doubt it. But he don't
count. And I sometimes find myself condemning
myself, and you ought to if you're not looking to Christ. But to them that are in Christ
Jesus right now, before glorification, before we enter into heaven,
the same basis upon which we shall enter into God's presence
is the same basis upon which we now stand with no condemnation
in Christ. All right? Here's the second thing.
And that is, to be in Christ Jesus is to be perfectly righteous. Now, the more I study about righteousness
in the Bible, the more I am sure that it is not so much speaking
as of an attribute of God or of the character of a saved sinner, but it is mostly what God does. Now, I wouldn't stand up and
demand that anybody believe just like this, but I'm telling you,
this is the way it is. It seems more that wholly is what God is. He is essentially, eternally,
immutably holy. But righteousness is what He
does. It's the justness of all that
He does. He doesn't do anything that is
not just and right. If you look at 2 Corinthians
chapter 5 and verse 21, the Apostle closes out that chapter
with probably, I hate to say, one of the most important verses
in Scripture, but certainly a glorious one. He says, That is, God hath made
Him, Christ, to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. God could bless us. God could
save us, sinners as we are, and do it in a just manner, do it
in righteousness. Do it in Christ. When you hear about righteousness
in our day, for the most part, it's spoken of as some kind of
a moral thing. It's really the equivalent of
some kind of morality. That's not what the Bible is
talking about. Christ did not actually sin in
his person, and neither are we actually righteous in our persons. But we're perfectly righteous.
before God, in the sight of God, in Christ Jesus. He is the righteousness
of God. Like I said, not so much as an
attribute in Him, but how He saves us by His blood. being declared righteous or being
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. All right? Here's another thing.
To be in Christ is to be loved of God. I don't see anything lovable
about me and very little lovable about you. But to be in Christ
is to be loved of God. If you turn to that 8th chapter
of Romans and look at that 39th verse, The Apostle says that
neither height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able
to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. And we are loved of God with
that everlasting love that Jeremiah wrote about. We are loved of
God with that infinite, eternal, and holy, and immutable love
in Christ, in Him. The Father loves the
Son. That's not going to change. And
therefore, He loves all who are in His Son. All right? To be in Christ Jesus is to be
in His body. Brad just read that in that first
chapter of Ephesians. It's to be in the church. Listen
to what he says. Romans 12, verse 5. So we, being
many, are one body in Christ. There's never anybody left that
church. There's never been anybody expelled
from that church. It's His body. And they are one in that one
body, in that one true church who are in Christ. All kinds of religion, they present
their antiquity. If you're not in our church,
if you're not in this denomination, if you're not this, that, or
the other, everybody in Christ is in the church. in his body. Not only that, to be in Christ
is to be sanctified. There's no telling how much error
there's been about that, you know. Saved, sanctified, and
filled with the Holy Ghost, like a step up in a pyramid scheme
or something, you know. You go to point A, point B, point
C, and all that. That's really what all of religion's
about. But sanctified means to be set apart under God. It means to be viewed as holy
by God. It's in Christ. Paul writes to the Corinthians.
And in that first chapter, as he opens that letter in 1 Corinthians,
he says, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them
that are sanctified in Christ Jesus. They say, what do you think about
sanctification? I think it's in Christ, like
everything else. Well, what about getting progressively
holier? You can't get any holier than
you are in Christ. Growing in the grace and knowledge
of Christ? Yes. Getting holier, getting
better, getting more fit for heaven? No. All the fitness He
requires is in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is to be blessed with all
spiritual blessings. That's what we saw there in Ephesians
1, 3, "...Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ." And he names a long list of spiritual blessings
there, beginning with election itself, which is to be chosen
in Christ before the world begins. Everything is in Christ. All
blessings are in Christ, because Christ is all, and there are
no degrees, no second-class citizens, because we are saved by grace.
We are saved by one outside of ourselves, and all of us by the
same one. To be in Christ is to be seated.
and to be raised spiritually in the heavenlies. There is a
sense in which all of God's people are already in heaven. And that is because the head
is already in heaven. Christ is already in heaven. And he has raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And then I'll say this, it's
to be near to God. We sing that song, Draw Me Nearer,
nearer. Well, that's not exactly. We desire to be in close and
unbroken fellowship with God. We love to feel the nearness
of His presence. But you can't get any nearer
to God than that sinner is who is in Christ. He says, but now, in Christ Jesus,
ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ. Can't get any closer to Him.
You can't get any closer to God if you're in God. And to be in
Christ is to be in God. And not only that, but it's to
have eternal life. Eternal life. John says, "...in
Him was life, and the life was the light of men." This is the
record. that God hath given unto us eternal
life, and this life is in His Son. You can't get eternal life any
other way. You can't get eternal life in
anything that you do. It's called a gift. He's given
unto us eternal life. This is the record of God. Where
is it? It's in His Son. And all these verses and all
these places in Scripture and many, many more, they shut us
up to this one thing that we cannot ever of ourselves receive
and believe and rely on, and that is that everything is in Christ. I mean everything. pardon for sin, forgiveness,
righteousness, sanctification, redemption. The list by which
we are shown all the facets of that glorious diamond Christ
and all the blessings and all the inheritance and all the glory is in Him. In Him. And I could go on and on with
the Scripture. All the preeminence is in Him. All the fullness is in Him. All
the glory is in Him. And it's in Him in so many ways
pictured in Scripture. Where was the safety in the flood? In the ark. Where was the safety for the
manslayer? It was in the city of refuge. What was the safety of Moses? It was in the cleft of the rock.
Where is the life of the branches? It is in the vine. Turn over to Philippians chapter
3. We'll read these verses and then
I'll read you another verse. Philippians 3. Look down at verse 7. Now, Paul
has just got through stating the kind of things that most
people want to hold up to God. or make as a platform what they think is their standing
before God. He said, I was a Hebrew, I was
a keeper of the law, I was recognized, all these things. Verse 7, he said, But what things
were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but loss. For the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but done, that I may win Christ
and be found in Him. not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law." We don't want a law righteousness. We've got to have the righteousness
of God. Not that attribute, but that
work that the righteous one accomplished. But that which is through the
faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." That's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's His death, His sacrifice
that enables God to be just and at the same time count us as
righteous. And I'll give you this last one. In 1 John 5 and verse 20, Paul
says this. Is our desire the same thing
that Paul says in Philippians 3? Can we say this that John says
in 1 John 5.20? He says, And we know that the
Son of God is come. and have given us an understanding,
this is a particular understanding, it is an understanding that we
may know Him that is true. And when we know by this God-given
understanding Him that is true, He says, and we are in Him that
is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God
and eternal life. We are in Him because God put
us in Him. He put us in Him in that everlasting
covenant before the world began. And we have always been in Him
if we're His people. And when He went to that cross
and died, the reason why the Gospel is good news and the reason
why the Gospel is emphasized in the death, burial, and resurrection
of Christ is because the Apostle says that all His people, when
He went into death and died that death, they were in Him. And when he rose from the dead,
they were in him. And when death separated them
from Adam, they were raised in Christ. And when he was seated
on the right hand of the majesty on high, they are in Christ.
They are in Christ by God-given faith. They're in Christ inseparably,
in every way, for every blessing, for all time. And they're always
going to be in Christ. And what a glorious, merciful
God who has made us accepted in the
blood. That's why he tells us to come
boldly to the throne of grace for whatever we need, for mercy,
for help, because he accepts us in Christ, unchangeably. Now, are we still sinners? Yes,
we are. If we don't feel it, he says
we are. But are we accepted? In Christ
we are. He said we were. He said we were. God helped us to believe Him. To love Him. The right understanding of salvation
by free grace in Christ is the only thing. The right confidence
in it and thankfulness for it is the only thing, number one,
that will inspire us to live in obedience to his word. Threats of fear and punishment
and promises of reward won't do it. And it's the only thing that
will move us to love Him, because it says we love Him because He
first loved us. Father, this morning we thank
You. Lord, there are so many things
that are upon our hearts concerning all of these of this number especially, the
sick ones and aging ones and those going out into very real dangers. All these
things of our family and friends in the matter of their souls. Help each one, Lord, and give
us grace this day that we might believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Cast all our hope upon him. Cast off every imagined self-righteousness and to look to his shed blood. as the full payment, the full
ransom price of our sin. That which enables God to be
just and yet at the same time to save us and give us all things in the Son of His love. Take your word, Lord, and make
it a blessing to your people. Give us that true confidence
of faith that trusts in Christ alone. Watch over us as we go
out in this day and this week, and bless Brother Chris as he
comes, and give him, Lord, the messages that are needful to
us, needful to glorify you, needful to call out your sheep. Help us, we pray. And we thank
you. We thank you so much and praise you in Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen. Questioner 2