in Christ. And God has purposed, decreed, and given every spiritual blessing which heaven can bestow, because these spiritual blessings we saw last week come from the heavenly realms, from the throne of God in Christ. Every spiritual blessing which heaven can bestow, which heaven can require for us to go there, and which is needed for saved sinners to enjoy and enter heaven's realm and be with Christ forever.

God the Father has provided the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who saved us from our sins. And praise God for all that I am in Christ. Praise God for everything I have. Praise God For where we shall ever be, which is in heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ, with our blessed Savior and our blessed Redeemer. See, heaven wouldn't be heaven without Christ, would it?

Every believer knows that. We get to go home and see our Savior when we die. And praise be to God, it is through God's gift, the Lord Jesus Christ. that we have all spiritual blessings from the heavenlies, from the heavenly realm, from God's throne, from God himself, through our head and our representative, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's read Ephesians chapter three, verse seven, to see the context of our verse today, which is verse three.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us, already done, with all spiritual blessings in heaven and places in Christ, according, this is when he bestowed these heavenly blessings upon us, according as he had chosen us in Christ, in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of whose will?

His will. Amen, brother. His will. To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. That's accepted in Christ. He's the beloved. In whom, this is in Christ, we have redemption. Look at that, brother. It's past tense, isn't it? Or it's present, we have it right now. Paul's writing to saints who are alive at Ephesus. He says, we got this right now, we have this. In whom we have redemption. It's nothing we earn, right? It's nothing we deserve.

It all comes from the free grace of God. How do we know that? Because it's through his blood, through the blood of Christ. And what's the result of that? The forgiveness of sins. All our sins, according to the riches of what? God's grace. See, where sin abounded in our lives, right? Grace did much more abound. Isn't that wonderful? Though we're sinners from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet, here we are forgiven sinners because where sin abounded, grace does much more abound through Christ, through his blood. We've received the forgiveness of sin by the redemption of Christ Jesus. He purchased our soul. That means he purchased us. How? With his blood. It's wonderful. Now, we've looked at the blessed foundational truth that all spiritual blessings are found exclusively in Christ, right? Outside of Christ, there's no spiritual blessings, is there, Brother Brian?

None. But in Christ, we have them all. Anything we need, everything we need is in Christ. So the difference between someone in Christ and someone outside of Christ is only the grace of God. It's nothing we do. It's nothing, we're saved by grace through faith. It doesn't say we're saved by grace plus works, no. As a matter of fact, the scripture says if you add works to grace, it's no longer grace.

It's a pure mercy of God shown to we sinners. And these two words are wonderful to us, in Christ. In Christ. Isn't that wonderful? We're in Christ. How long have we been in Christ for? Before the foundation of the world. Amen, brother. It's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. Now, we need the righteousness of Christ, don't we? You know, I was listening to Tom Harden this morning preaching on, about how the modern preaching is actually so against God. People are seeking their own righteousness, seeking to do works to gain favor with God.

We don't have to do that, do we, beloved? Now, do we desire to serve Christ? Absolutely, with all our heart. Right? We do. But our salvation is not based on what we do. It's based on what Christ did. And from a grateful heart, we gladly serve him, don't we? And isn't it amazing?

I was thinking about this the other day. You know those TV shows, Jeopardy and all that, and they have the Bible questions. You ever notice something when the Bible questions come up? None of those contestants know the answers. If I'm watching those, I usually get them all right.

And I'm like, wow. But you know what? I was thinking about this this morning. I was just like those folks before the Lord saved me. I wouldn't know nothing. I'm sitting out there folding the bowls since this morning, and I'm thinking, the only reason I know what I know is by the grace of God. The Holy Spirit taught me that. But I saw the contrast.

The world, the world doesn't, they know all these things about trivia and all this stuff, but they don't know the Bible. To them, it's just a book. To us, oh, my. It tells us about our King. It tells us about Christ. It tells us about how we're in Christ. Oh, my. Tells us about the gospel, which the gospel's a person, isn't it, as we learned, right, Brother Chris? The gospel's all about Christ. You take Christ out of the gospel, you've got no good news. My. So here's Paul writing to these former idol worshipers. They were bound down to wood and stone. And now they're praising God, Brother Travis. Now they're praising God. And Paul's telling them, you're now in Christ. You're now in Christ.

And they're finding out. that God the Father had chosen before the foundation of the world. Do you know how it blows our mind away when we hear that? It blew their mind away too, I guarantee you. Oh my. And Paul is penning these words according to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, beloved. He's just a pen man. So the Holy Spirit's telling us this, that we have all spiritual blessings in the heavenly realms in Christ, and it's God the Father that gave them to us. My, and the Holy Spirit, he applies these things to us, doesn't he?

Oh yeah. Now the entire Bible points to Christ's life, death, and resurrection. It's a hymn book, H-I-M. Right? It's all about Christ. And one of the blessings, spiritual blessings, that are found exclusively in Christ is how we need, again, the righteousness of Christ and the union that we have with Christ. And Christ is the fulfillment of scriptures from Genesis to Revelation. It's all about him. The entire Bible, again, points to Christ's life, death, resurrection, and atoning sacrifice as the only means of reconciliation with a holy God.

A holy and righteous God, who cannot be in the presence of sin, therefore, we must be made righteous. The unrighteous are made righteous, where? In Christ. It's wonderful. Oh, and all our sins are forgiven. We have complete justification. We have complete redemption. We have complete sanctification, because now we're being conformed to the image of the Son, but we're sanctified in Christ. Right? Oh, my. We have a perfect atonement. All our sins are paid for. We're walking around this earth now fully pardoned sinners. You know why? Because we're in Christ. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my.

Now those without Christ, crucified, and all their religious knowledge and rituals are empty. They don't mean anything to God. They actually lead to their eternal condemnation, those who are outside of Christ. All their religious doings, all their works, is just heaping condemnation upon themselves. But for those in Christ who are born again, blood-washed believers, we have peace, mercy, forgiveness, and access to God because we're in Christ. Isn't that glorious?

And the only difference between us and the lost sinner, see, religion says, well, it's what you did. You've got to make a decision. It's all this based upon what you've done. No, no, that's not what it is. You can search this Bible through. Brother Tom Hardin said this today.

You can search this Bible through and you'll never see the words, just accept Jesus into your heart. You will not find those words in the scripture. You will find, flee to Christ, or come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. You'll find all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and he that cometh to me I'll in no wise cast out. You find those words. You find the Lord saying, you've not chosen me, but I've chosen you.

Oh my! Oh my! It's wonderful. And where were we chosen? By the Father, in Christ, for the foundation of the world. And the only difference between us and the lost sinner is one is in Christ and the other is outside of Christ. Now, here's a warning rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. It results in divine wrath falling upon you in eternal hell. That's a reality. But for those who have been given faith to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, we have everlasting life. We have freedom from sin's penalty, because it's already been paid for by Christ. This is why we preachers constantly tell People, the fleet of Christ, constantly preach Christ alone. Because he alone is where salvation from our sins is found. It's not found anywhere else. People say, well, I don't even believe in God. Well, you're gonna meet him. But I pray God will give you faith before you do. Pray you'll be born again by the Holy Spirit before you do. Because we're going to either meet him as our judge or as our savior, aren't we? For those in Christ, you know what? We're going to meet him as our savior, aren't we? Because he already is our savior.

Isn't that wonderful? And we didn't do anything to make that happen. My, it's absolutely amazing. He alone is the essence of the gospel. The gospel is about a person. The gospel is about, like Chris, we talked about that. It's about a person. You can sum it up. The gospel is Christ. Without Christ, the gospel's good news, isn't it, Brother Brian? It ain't good news if there's no Christ, is there? No. There's no hope for sinners then.

But what a hope we have in Christ. Oh, what a hope we have! My... And that's why we hold Christ out. We don't know who God's people are, so we hold out Christ. Come to Christ. Flee to Christ. And if you do, I know He made you willing, but I'm still going to tell you to come. Come to Christ. Cast all your religious works aside. Oh, my. Listen to Psalm 32, 1 to 2. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven.

How? By the blood of Christ, whose sin is covered. How? By the blood of Christ. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, in whose spirit there is no guile. Brother Travis, our sin was imputed to Christ, and his perfect righteousness was imputed to us, and the sinless lamb of God died in our room and place. Isn't that wonderful? And we're in Christ. And we were in Christ when he was hanging on that cross, weren't we? We were in Christ before the foundation of the world. We were in Christ when he's a lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. It's absolutely amazing. So the good news, the gospel is about a person. The Lord Jesus Christ. Well, who is he? He's God in the flesh.

We started our study in John, and I was telling Vicki, not long now, because we're in 27 of Acts, but when we start that study in John, I said, we're probably gonna be sitting on verses one to three for a little while. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.

Woo, my. And in 14, the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. Glory is over the only begotten Son, oh my, who's full of grace and truth. Woo! My, that's our Savior. My. My, oh my. And that verse in verse 32 is speaking of those in Christ So let us marvel at the fact recorded in the gospel that the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, has power on earth to forgive sins. He alone can say, be of good comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace. That's what he tells us, isn't it? Fear not. Don't be afraid. You've been spared from the wrath to come because you're in Christ. That's humbling, isn't it? Especially since we know that we had nothing to do with it.

God's people are regenerated, quickened, and brought to newness in life, which is in Christ. They're adopted in the divine family, in the beloved, in Christ. My. They're justified, forgiven, acquitted. Acquitted. Vindicated. and then sent forth without a stand or blemish on their reputation. That's truth though, isn't it brother? Yeah, that's wonderful truth. And that's for those who are in Christ. You see these blessings? These spiritual blessings are just amazing. And now we're sanctified in Christ We'd be given a new family, a new relationship with God.

We'd be made heirs, because at one point we were enemies with God. Now we are accepted in the beloved, accepted in Christ. We were enemies in our mind. We were always his people, but we were born dead in trespasses and sins. Now, though, we love our king. And we're made heir of an inheritance promised and sworn By God's oath. And then we're sanctified in Christ. And now we're being conformed to the image of Christ. We don't see it. But we are. We are. You know why we see more of our sin as we get older? Because we're being conformed to the image of Christ. Think of before that we were saved.

I didn't think I sinned. Unless I did something really bad. But it'd be awful, you know, I was a good person. But my words were contrary to God's word, because it says there's none good, no, not one. There's none righteous. Well, I sure thought I was good. Oh my, the foolishness of natural man. And we were there, we were there. And I still don't know much, but the little bit I know, I'm going to tell about Christ. My, oh my.

Those who are in Christ are full and freely forgiven. I mean, there's not anything against us. That's good news, isn't it, Brother Chris? That's good news. And they were chosen from before the foundation of the world as objects of God's mercy. Objects of God's mercy. And they've been redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. For those who are in Christ, he stood as our surety, beloved, our guarantor of our salvation, the guarantor that we're forgiven from all our sins.

See, Adam fell, right? And we were in him and we fell with him, didn't we? And all who are in Christ are in the second Adam, which is Christ. It's amazing. And he stood for maternity as our surety and substitute, beloved. It just came to pass in time and space.

At the bar of God's justice, when he was crucified in our room and place at Calvary, and the wrath of God do us fell upon him fully, and he extinguished it. There's nothing against us now. The law can't condemn us because it's been satisfied. The justice of God has no claim because it's been satisfied. The wrath of God is extinguished against us. Did we do anything? Nope. He did it all. And then he regenerates us and gives us faith to believe and makes us willing in a day of his power. It's absolutely amazing. Willing to come to Him.

Turn after you with the Romans chapter 5. We'll see this put out very, very clearly in Romans chapter 5. We'll read about our spiritual death in Adam and then about life born again, life for the born-again blood-washed believer in Christ, in Him alone. Yeah, that's Romans chapter 5. This is a real good place to go to. verses 12 to 19.

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. Okay, so Adam fell, and death entered into the world. And so death passed upon all men for that all sin. We were in Adam. Okay, so when Adam fell, we fell with him. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not impeded where there's no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, the soul that sinneth, it must die, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. So we're all sinners by our own doing, by our own doing.

But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For through the offense of one, many be dead. Even more the grace of God in the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. Not all, but many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. For if by one man's offense death reigns, so when Adam fell, death reigns now, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Look at that. In Christ. In Christ. Yeah.

Therefore, as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men, to condemnation, so it tells us there, when Adam fell, the whole world was plunged into condemnation, born dead in trespasses and sins. Even so, by the righteousness of one, look at that, the righteousness of one. You know the missing note in today's preaching? They don't preach on the righteousness of Christ. I asked a couple of religious guys, you know what the righteousness of Christ was? Here it is. Nope. I explained it to them. They went, oh yeah, that makes sense. I said, you ever heard a sermon on that? Nope.

My, this is one of the bedrocks of what we believe, isn't it? Oh my, it's Christ's righteousness that allows us to be in heaven. It's Christ's righteousness. His blood and righteousness are the reason we're accepted by God the Father in Him. But people, you know why you don't hear a lot about preaching on the righteousness of Christ? The Bible tells us. People are going about establishing their own righteousness.

And they may say, oh no, I believe in the grace of God totally. And then they say, well, I got to do this. I gotta do this or the Lord's gonna whip me. Oh my. I thank God I don't serve a God like that. I serve the true and living God who chastens his people. Yes, he does. But he sure doesn't whip us like some people say. You know, I remember Norm saying this. God's anger against us has been appeased in Christ. He's no longer angry. He's a loving father to us.

Now, if there's a loving father every once in a while, say, okay, you're getting out of line here. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, yeah. Right, brother? Yeah. Wouldn't be a loving dad if we didn't do that. Right? But we do it in grace. Like we talked about grace. We do it with grace and mercy, just like the father's done for us. You know, he, he drew us to Christ. We had our feet dug in and then he made us willing to run Because you know why he showed us his mercy He showed us a great his grace all in Christ.

He showed us what Christ done for us It's beautiful My therefore as by offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation verse 18 and Even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. Look at that. Justification of life. There's justification, too. Another thing you don't hear much about. For, as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one, shall... Look at that. Shall...

There's no doubt. Many be made righteous. Oh my! Brother Brian, we're righteous right now, aren't we? In Christ, we're clothed in His perfect, spotless righteousness. Whoo! My! And we're just as secure as the saints in heaven, aren't we? In Christ. In Christ. My beloved of God.

We're born again by the Holy Spirit of God. We become new creatures in Christ. We've been raised up and made to sit in heavenly places. Scripture says we're already seated in heavenly places where the sons of God, my child of the king, child of the king, the king of kings and the lords of lords, my and will reign with Christ forever.

My, oh my. And Jesus Christ is a foundation stone in the decree of election, right? He's the first and we're chosen in Him. God says, behold, my elect. That's Christ. And we're chosen in Him. My, it's wonderful. It's wonderful. God has chosen us in Christ, pardoned us in Christ, sealed us by the Holy Spirit in Christ. We have a mark of ownership. We are God's. He says, thou art mine. And we say, praise God. Praise God, I'm yours, God.

Oh my. According to His good, according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Oh my, oh my, we're sealed and set apart by the Holy Spirit of God, because we're in Christ and we're complete in Him. My, and all those acts of grace are said to be in Christ. in whom God has blessed us, Ephesians 1.3, and chosen us in him, Ephesians 1.4, pardoned us in him, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, Ephesians 1.7, in whom we also, after that you believed you were sealed, Ephesians 1.13, marked God's purchase. Right? We're bought with a price, aren't we? We're not our own. And in Christ we are rooted and built up in Him, Colossians 2, 7, and in this, praise God, and we are complete in Christ, in Him, Colossians 2,

10. In Christ. In Christ. In Christ. My What a Savior was provided for us. What a Savior was provided for us by God himself. He's God's lamb. He's God himself. Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together, Genesis 22,

8. God will provide himself. The word of God became a man. God provided a lamb, didn't he? Himself. Oh, it's glorious. The Word of God became flesh, the second person in the Trinity. Came to save us from our sins by the shedding of his precious blood. Oh, my. Marvel at the tenderness of our wonderful merciful Savior the Lord Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd he proclaims this John 10 11 I am the Good Shepherd the Good Shepherd given his life for the sheep Gave his life for us the sinless one given his life for sinners Wonder of wonders God himself the sinless one dies for his sheep we are we who are sinners and all that we Say, think, and do.

My, he laid down his life 2,000 years ago. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore, in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Hebrews chapter two, verses 16 and 17.

The sinless one makes reconciliation for the sins of his people. My, what a savior, what a God. And those who are in Christ find out that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who is sufficient to supply all our needs, spiritual, material, all according to his riches and glory.

It says this in Philippians 4.19, but my God shall supply all your need. That's spiritual needs, beloved. People take that and they say, oh, look, look, you give a tithe and you're going to get more. Those false preachers on TV, they take that verse and they just twist it.

This tells us that all we need spiritually is in Christ. Oh my, for my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus, by the mercy of God in Christ, to those who are in Christ. Those who are in Christ are complete. All that a sinner needs is found in him.

He's our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption. And he's provided by God himself. He's provided by God himself. And he offered himself up for the sins of all his people. He made perfect atonement for us. and saved us from all our sins through his blood and righteousness. So marvel, beloved of God, how gracious the Lord is to impute his righteousness freely to us, freely to us. He sets guilty poor lost sinners free by his almighty power and his sovereign grace, all according to his will and purpose.

Oh my, and also marvel that we who are in Christ have only been made to differ from those around us who are lost by God himself. And we say, what do we say? Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a Savior is Jesus, my King. Amen and amen. My, oh, my. Brother Chris, you want to close us in prayer?