Well, good morning to everyone.
If you would open your Bibles with me to Ephesians chapter
1, continue our study of Ephesians chapter 1. I know I'm not alone when I say
how thrilled I am to have Julie back with us. It just feels more
normal. We've got a bunch of our kids
home from school and Julie's back. It's family hour. Let's bow together in prayer.
Our Father, how thankful we are for this time that you've given
us to meet together with our brothers and sisters and to worship
your matchless name. And Father, I beg of you that
you would do that, that you'd give each of us of thy spirit
and enable us to worship in spirit and in truth. We know this. You're worthy of all of our worship.
Father, I pray you'd cause us today to, from the heart, worship
you and praise you, that we might leave here believing in and trusting
in, being thrilled with Christ our Savior. While we pray for
ourselves, Father, we pray for our children's classes, and we
pray for your people everywhere they meet together this morning
to worship. Father, on this dark, dark day in which we live, cause
your gospel to shine forth in its glory, the glory of Christ
our Savior. And Father, we're thankful. We're
thankful for all the many blessings that you've given us, how you've
given us everything that's required to have perfect life, perfect
righteousness before thee. And Father, we thank you for
the physical, material blessings, how you've blessed us so abundantly. We're thankful. We're thankful
for bringing Julie back to us. Father, how often we pray for
our loved ones who are sick and hurting, and we thank you when
you answer those prayers, when you're merciful to your people.
Father, for those that are in the deep valley of trouble and
trial right now, Father, we pray that you'd heal, that you'd comfort,
that you'd deliver, and above all, you'd give a special portion
of your presence. Comfort the hearts of your people
with your presence, we pray. And all these things that we
ask in that name which is above every name, the name of Christ
our Savior, amen. I've titled the lesson this morning,
The Blessing of Knowing the Mystery. Now we've been looking here in
Ephesians one of all the spiritual blessings that God has given
his people. They're all in Christ. We've seen the blessing of God's
electing love. He chose the people, put them
in his son. We've seen the blessing of God's predestinating love,
when God predestined to make his elect people to be just like
his son. We've seen the blessing of acceptance,
where sinful men and women like you and me are accepted by a
thrice holy God in Christ, through union with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Last week we looked at the blessing of redemption, where Christ has
redeemed his people by his blood, He's fully and completely put
their sin away by His blood, paid their sin debt. Now when
you put all that together, really that's the gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace in a nutshell, isn't it? And that gospel, that
way of saving sinners, the way that God makes His people righteous
before Him, that's an absolute mystery to the natural man. How
God saves a sinner is a mystery that no human being, I don't
care how smart they are, can figure it out. It must be revealed
to us. Years ago, a lady I worked with,
she asked me one day, what is it that I believe? And I told
her. And she looked at me, she said,
that's the strangest thing I've ever heard. I'm not surprised. Are you? The
way God saves sinners, that's a mystery to the natural man.
And the only way we can know it is if God is pleased to reveal
that to our hearts by grace. Now, a mystery is a whodunit.
I've told you many times, I love to, when we go on vacation, that's
the only time of year I read for pleasure novels and different
things like that. I like mysteries. I like trying
to figure out who did the crime, who's the guilty, whodunit. Well,
if the Holy Spirit's ever pleased to reveal Christ to our hearts,
we'll know whodunit, won't we? Christ did it all, because he
is all. And if we have Christ and we
see him, by faith we believe him, we'll have the answer to
the mystery. It'll be obvious to us. God saved sinners and
his son by the doing and dying of his son. Our text begins in
verse eight, where Paul says, wherein he hath abounded toward
us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the
mystery of his will. According to his good pleasure,
which he purposed in himself. Now, the Lord makes this mystery
known to his people in God's wisdom and God's prudence. He always does it in the right
time, in the right place, doesn't he? With the right people, the
people he chose to save, the people for whom Christ died.
And the mystery that Paul's talking about, like I said before, this
is the mystery. How does God save a sinner? And
the way the Lord reveals the answer, how does God save a sinner?
It's through the preaching of Christ. See, Christ is the answer
to the mystery, isn't he? Well, somebody's got to preach
Christ the Savior so that we'll know how God saves sinners. We're
not our Savior. We don't initiate this thing
by our will and our work. Christ is the Savior. The only
way we're going to know the answer to the mystery is if somebody
preaches Christ the Savior to us. And you can flip anywhere
in this book and see the answer to this mystery. The scriptures
are full. Every passage of scripture is
written to reveal this one mystery, how God saves sinners. It's in
Christ. The Old Testament is full of
pictures of it, pictures and types. How was Noah saved from
the flood? In the ark. How's the firstborn
not die that night of the first Passover? Being under the blood.
The lamb died, the blood was supplied. How is it that the
sin of the people was was forgiven in type and picture on the day
of atonement. The death of the sacrifice, the blood sprinkled
before the Lord. The whole Testament is written
to tell us Christ is coming to do it all. And the New Testament
is full of scriptures, plainly spoken, saying Christ has come
and he's done it all. He's accomplished all the salvation
of his people. I want to just confine myself
to our text this morning and look at a brief answer. that
Paul gives us here in these verses. How is it that God saves sinners?
This is a mystery. Number one, the salvation of
God's elect is the will of God. Verse nine says that the dispensation,
the fullness of times he might gather together. I'm sorry. Verse nine, having made known
unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure,
which he purposed in himself. See the father purpose, the salvation
of his people, in himself. When did he do that? It was before
he created anything. Look back at verse four. According
as he has chosen us in him, in Christ, when? Before the foundation
of the world. The salvation of God's people
is God's eternal purpose. See, God's eternal, isn't he?
God never changes. So this was God's eternal purpose.
It all began with him. The father elected a people to
save. And he chose to make them just
like his son, even though he knew they'd be sinners, even
though he knew that they would fall in Adam, even though the
father knew all of his people, the people that he chose to save,
when they're born into this world, they're going to be born natural
enemies of God, natural born enemies. And the father chose
to save him anyway. That's God's eternal will and
purpose. You see, since this is God's eternal will and purpose,
this is a mystery to the natural man. There's never been a time
if you believe Christ, if you trust Christ, there's never been
a time that God almighty saw you outside of Christ. Even though
we're born in sin, even though we fell in Adam, there's never
been a time that the father did not see his people as righteous
in Christ because that's his eternal will. Now that's a mystery. How can that be? That's a mystery. It's a blessing, but it's a mystery.
See, everything about salvation, salvation, justification, righteousness,
forgiveness, spiritual life, they're all eternal. Because
God's eternal and it's always been in Him and His eternal purpose. Now that's a mystery to the natural
man. And at least partly I understand
why that's true. Because man, and that's all of
us, the way we're born in this world, we're born with a spiritually
dead nature. And our spiritually dead nature
is so self-absorbed that we think everything started with us. We
think everything about us concerning us started when we were born. We think then that everything
about our salvation has to be started by us. has to be started
by our works and our will, what we do, what we don't do, what
decisions that we make. We're so self-absorbed, that's
what we all think by nature. Well, thank God that's not true.
If that was true, there's not one person that would be saved.
Salvation started with God. It was purposed by God. It was
purchased by God. It was applied by God, by God
the Holy Spirit, by His will, and it's going to be perfected.
It's going to be finished by God. He's going to do all the
work. He's going to accomplish it all
without any help, without any input from any of his people.
He's going to do all of the saving, all of the keeping, all of the
glorifying for you. And if the Holy Spirit has been
pleased to reveal Christ to you, you understand this mystery and
you're blessed. You're blessed. Why do you know
the answer to this mystery? Somebody else doesn't. All of us have family. They don't
know this. Why do you know and they don't?
And bigger yet, why do you believe it and love it and somebody else
doesn't? It's because God's been pleased
to reveal it to you, that's why. That's a blessing. All right,
number two, this is the mystery. The salvation of God's elect,
it's all in Christ. It's all by the will of God.
Now, God purposed it in himself. All of the reasons for salvation
are found in God. In God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. And not one of those reasons
is found in man. Not one. I guess other than you
say this, we're sinners and need to be saved. That's our contribution
to this thing, isn't it? But as far as salvation goes,
God did it all. He accomplished it all. See,
God chose who he would save. He chose them before time began.
God chose who he would save. He chose who would save them,
how he would save them, and when he would save them. See, it's
the eternal will and purpose of God that his people all be
saved in the Lord Jesus Christ by the doing and dying of our
Lord Jesus Christ. When the father elected a people,
how'd he elect them? in Christ, in Christ. He put
them in Christ. The father trusted the salvation
of his people to his son. He trusted it all to him. The
father made salvation to be completely dependent upon the obedience
and upon the sacrifice of Christ. Made it completely dependent
on him. Christ had to come and obey the law, establish righteousness
for his people. If he doesn't do it, it won't
be done. All righteousness is dependent upon Christ. And all
the forgiveness of sin, all of it is completely dependent on
the blood of Christ's sacrifice. He must die to put away the sin
of his elect. Now again, we're so full of ourselves,
we think this has got to be in us, you know? And that's not
true. Nobody is saved because they
quit sinning. Nobody. The only way anybody
is saved is because Christ died He put their sin away by His
blood. And nobody keeps their salvation because they now sin
less than they used to before the Lord revealed Himself to
them. All we do is sin. The only way we can be saved
is Christ shed His blood to put away the sin of His people. It
all depends on Christ. All of it. It's all in Him and
His person. It's all in His doing and His
obedience and His sacrifice. It's all because of Christ. And
absolutely nothing we do ever contributes to that righteousness
or that salvation. That's the will and purpose of
God. That it all be in his son. Now that is a mystery to the
natural mind. It's just a mystery to our dead
nature. We cannot see how can it all
be in Christ and I don't have to do anything. We're so dead we think we can
do something. I mean, how dead do we have to
be to think I can do something to add to what the perfect son
of God has already done? That's dead, isn't it? Our will
is so dead and so sinful, we can't even want to do anything
good, much less actually do it. And even though scripture's plain
on this, plain on this truth, there's none that doeth good,
no, not one. Now a kindergartner can understand
what that's saying. I mean, we can't believe it, but a kindergartner
can understand what that, there's nobody doesn't, no, not one,
not even one. And I tell you why we, even though
scripture is so plain, we still think we have the ability to
do something that can impress God is because we're dead in
sin. Listen, a dead mind. A spiritually
dead mind cannot think right. A mind that's lost in sin cannot
think right. A mind that's dead in sin cannot
think living thoughts of God. It's impossible. Now, do you
know that? Do you know better than to think
your salvation is somehow dependent on what you did to kind of initiate
this thing? Do you know better than that?
Do you know you can't make yourself righteous? And you find yourself. You believe Christ. You trust
Christ. But you find yourself trying to do something good to
make God happy with you. And you have to constantly know
Christ is my righteousness. Do you know that? Do you know
that you can't make yourself even a little bit less sinful?
I hope we grow in grace. I hope we learn a little bit
of self-control to maybe not outwardly sin as much, This flesh
is just as sinful and just as rotten as it ever has been, and
I can't make it less so. Do you know that? Do you know
that the only way you can be righteous is in Christ? The only
way you can be holy is in Christ. The only way the Father can accept
you and look on you in love is in Christ. It's got to be in
Him. Do you know that? Do you know
that your sin is so heinous, it's so filthy, it's left such
a stain on your soul that the one and only way your wretched,
vile sin can be put away is by the blood of God. You can't do
it. You can't start scrubbing it.
You can't start washing it away. It requires the blood of God. Do you know that? Do you know
that the only hope you have of eternal life is the Lord Jesus
Christ? And here's the kicker, do you
love it that way? Do you love it that all of your
righteousness is in Christ? That all of your salvation is
in Christ? That all of your forgiveness
is found in Him? That the only hope you have is
clinging to Him and Him alone? Do you love it that way? Does
that give hope and rest and peace for your soul? That cling to
Christ? Then I'm telling you, if your answer to that question
is yes, you're blessed of God. You are blessed of God. The only
way you can love that is God made the mystery of his will
known to you that salvation's in Christ. And here's the third
thing. God saves sinners the way that
he does so that Christ gets all the glory. Now that's a mystery to the natural
man. Boy, we want some glory. We don't care that Christ gets
most of it, but you know, couldn't I have some of it? This is a
mystery. Christ is going to get all the
glory in this thing. Verse 10, that in the dispensation of the
fullness of times, he might gather together and want all things
in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth,
even in him. Now the father determined to
save his people the way that he does. So eternally, not just
now, but eternally Christ is going to get all the glory for
saving him. And here's a, here's a little
hint for you. That's why God does everything.
Everything God does is for one purpose to glorify his son. That's what it says in verse
six to the praise of the glory of his grace. When he has made
us accepted in the beloved, that's why God has done everything he's
done. So we praise him. We praise his grace. We praise
Christ, the fountain of grace that we praise him. And when
time is no more and the Lord gathers all of his people together
to be with him forever, everybody there in that place we call heaven
and that new creation, everybody there is going to be given all
of the praise and all of the glory to Christ who saved us.
See, heaven is not a place of eternal vacation. Heaven is not
a place where you get to rest and float around on a cloud. I like vacation. I look forward
to vacation. I normally plan it a year in
advance, you know. And it's not real hard for us
to, you know, when the kids were little, we'd try to plan vacations.
We'd take them places and show them things. Now, it's really
easy to plan our vacation. I just want to go sit on the
beach and do nothing for about five or six days. I mean, it's
not hard to plan. But you know, after about five days of that,
I'm tired of laying here. Heaven's not going to be a place
of inactivity. Heaven's going to be a place where we worship
and praise our God. It's not going to be, heaven's
not going to be a place where you just get to enjoy the things
that you do here on earth. It's not just going to be, you
know, eternal fishing and eternal hunting and, you know, the lake's
always going to be stocked, you know. Bob, you're not going to
have to hunt real hard to find an elk because they're, you know.
That's not heaven. That's not heaven. The purpose
of heaven is that everybody there will be glorifying Christ the
Savior. And the purpose of heaven, now this is a mystery to the
natural man. Remember how we want some credit for what we've
done. The purpose of heaven is not to give believers rewards
in heaven for the things that they've done on earth. Now that's
just foolish. It's the most absurd thing that
I've ever heard. That's works, not grace, isn't
it? If we're going to be rewarded for what we've done here on earth,
that's, that's works, not grace. Now listen, I never thought about
this till I was preparing my notes, but maybe this will make
this clear. Almighty God did not save his
people by his grace here on earth so that when we get to glory
into his presence face to face, we can brag about our works.
God didn't save us by His grace here on earth, so when we get
to His presence face to face, He can reward us for our works.
The reward is the reward of grace. Doesn't that just make sense?
The purpose of heaven is not to give different believers different
rewards. So this believer has more crowns
than this one, and this believer has a bigger mansion than this
one, so that we can spend eternity bragging to the fellow that has
fewer crowns than me how I got more crowns than you. And maybe
you won't even brag about it, but you just make sure, you know,
he sees these more crowns on your head, you know, or, you
know, look at my bigger mansion. I got bigger mansion. God didn't save his people on
earth and reveal to us by faith. Now we see it through a glass
dimly, but he did not reveal that to us here on earth so that
when we get to heaven, and start taking some of the credit there
that we wouldn't take here. 1 Corinthians 1.29 says this,
that God saved his people the way that he saved them, so that
no flesh should glory in his presence. That's true today,
and it'll be true throughout eternity. See, believers on earth
know this. We've got nothing to boast in.
Paul said, God forbid that I should boast. I mean, you want to boast
about what you've done for God? Can you start even scratching
the surface of what the Apostle Paul did by God's grace? Paul
said, after all that, God forbid that I should glory save in the
cross of Christ the Lord. God forbid. Now, I'm not going
to just God forbid that I brag on myself now, boast on myself
now, start boasting on myself in glory when I'm in the presence
of the Savior. No. And I tell you why that's
a mystery to the natural man. Because we're so self-centered,
we're so full of ourselves, we actually think we deserve some
credit and some recognition for the things that we've done here
on earth. This is a mystery to the natural man. Everybody knows
they're sinful things or something they ought to be ashamed of.
They're rags that are defiled with sin. This is the mystery
to the natural man. even our righteousnesses, those
things we think we've done that are so good that will commend
us to God. Those things are rags defiled
with sin. Now, do you know, do you know
this, that the only reason you'll ever awake in glory in Christ
likeness is the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you know that? And do you
love it that way? I mean, do you love it that he
deserves all the glory and all the praise? I mean, we love gathering
together in our worship service here, but sin does so easily
beset us, doesn't it? Do you look forward to the day
that sin won't interrupt that at all? Do you love it that way? Then you're blessed of God. The
answer to that question is yes, you're blessed of God. God's
made known unto you the mystery of his will and redemption, that
Christ gets all the glory. Now, let me give you two things.
about this in conclusion. First look at Mark chapter four. I think this is very important. Being given the knowledge of
this mystery, that does not make God's people proud. God deliver
us from ever acting proud that we know something somebody else
doesn't. that we know things that people
in false religion don't know. God forbid that we'd ever boast about that and think that
we're so much better than somebody else. If God gives you the knowledge
of the mystery of his will, that'll humble a person, not make us
proud. We didn't figure this thing out.
Now did you figure this thing out? Or did God reveal it to
you? If you really know it and believe
it and love it, God revealed it to you. Look here at Mark
4 verse 11. And he said, the master said
unto them, unto the 12, unto you it's given to know the mystery
of the kingdom of God. But unto them there without all
these things are done in parables. This is given to you. What do
you have that hasn't been given to you? What is it that you know
that God didn't reveal to you? Not one thing. Then having a
knowledge of this mystery, it humbles a person. It's not gonna
make us proud. I remember when I was in high
school, the student council, we went to this seminar somewhere. Student councils from all over
the state came, you know. You know, many of you know, I
went to Williamsburg, and us pirates, we kind of pride ourselves,
you know, on excellence. And they had this, I don't know,
contest or whatever it was, that everybody had to get together
and figure out the solution to this mystery. And we finished
first. We finished first. And they had
like a psychologist with each group. And then when you solve
the mystery, what they were telling you is how your group dynamics
work so you can figure out group dynamics. That was the point
of the exercise. But you know the point we got from it? When
they got done explaining to us our group dynamics and we went
out in the hall, nobody else was even finished yet. Can you think of anything more
disgusting for a child of God than pride of grace? God help
us. And here's the second thing.
If you know, this is going to thrill your heart. If you know
this mystery, if God's revealed to you the mystery of his will,
how God saves sinners, do you know what that makes you? A friend of God. Our Lord told
his disciples, the master didn't tell his servants what he was
doing, but he tells his friends. Remember when the Lord appeared
to Abraham there before he was getting ready to go to Sodom?
And the Lord said, shall I hide this thing I'm going to do from
Abraham? And he told him, you're my friend. I'm going to tell
you what I'm going to do. Abraham was called the friend
of God. These disciples were called the friend of God. If
God's revealed this mystery to you, if he's revealed Christ
to your heart so that you know him and you believe him and you
love him. You don't just love God's way
of salvation. You love the Savior. You love
the Lord. You love God. You know why? God's made you his friend. You're as much a friend of God
as the patriarch Abraham. You're as much a friend of God
as the apostle Peter The Apostle James, the Apostle John, the
beloved disciple who leaned on the Lord's breast. I mean, that
shows a pretty close relationship, doesn't it? You're as much a
friend of God as the Apostle John, the beloved apostle. He
loves you the same way he loved John. Knowing the mystery of God's
will, that's blessing, isn't it? All right, hope the Lord
bless that to you.