Yes. Oh, Gene also. Yes. Gene is, just be remembered Gene. He's
got, he's going to have, you know, got some checkups and things
like that. So, I'm sorry. And Vivian Brewer. Thank you. Anybody else? I'm bad. Rochelle's got the flu
again. And Gary and Ruthie is afraid
that they've been exposed. That's why Gary and Ruthie's
not here. Okay, anybody else? I can't think of anybody, Kevin.
I'm the world's worst. All right. Let's take our Bibles
and turn with me to the book of Ephesians. We'll sing after the service tonight. Ephesians chapter 1. I'd like
to look at verses 3 and 4 tonight. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3
and 4. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love." Let's pray together. Our Father, this evening we thank
You for this precious time to be able to look into Your Word
and to behold the wonder of a mystery of your mercy and grace that
you've been pleased to bestow upon your people. We ask you
this evening, Lord, to be with those that we've mentioned. Lord,
those that are sick, problems of every nature, we know that
you're the great physician. We know that You do all things
well. We ask You this evening, Lord,
help us to worship. Forgive us where we failed You.
For Christ's sake, Amen. Tonight I'd like for us to start
into the first. And I mean start because as I
said last Wednesday night, verses 3 through verses 14. It's actually
just three sentences. And in these three sentences,
the Spirit of God has been pleased to reveal the marvel of God's
grace in election, in redemption, and in regeneration. for God's
people. In verses 3-14, the blessing
and praise for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit just
is woven into these three sentences. And I'd like for us to consider
these first two verses. This is just a partial sentence,
a part of the first sentence that we're going to look at tonight.
I want us to consider what the Apostle sets forth as being our
privilege, the blessed obligation that we have to Him who is worthy
of all of our praise and honor, worthy of all glory. The Apostle
Paul begins under the inspiration of God's Spirit and he says, praise, celebrate, adore. Mainly, give thanks. Give thanks. This is the sacrifice that all
of God's people offer unto the Lord. The sacrifice. What can
we do for the Lord? That's what David asked. What shall I render unto the
Lord? For all of His mercy, all of His blessings that He's done
for me. That's why He said, I'll offer
the sacrifice of praise. To say thank you. Blessed, praise,
honor, glory, thank you. Thank you. Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you know, it is
for me. It's so easy when we first read
this We have looked in the book of Ephesians so many times, and
it's almost, if we're not careful, we'll just read over these words.
We're so familiar with them. I'm bad about, because I've read
them so many times, quoting them. It's best to read it, look at
it, make sure you're getting the words exactly the way they're
saying it. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now you stop for just a minute. Why would the Spirit of God instruct
us to bless the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Jehovah. This is a great mystery. I'm
way over my head here. Jehovah. One God. Jehovah. Father, Son, Spirit. God. Blessed be the God. Jehovah is
the God. Blessed be the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Blessed be the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ. God, Jehovah, Father, Son, Spirit,
one God, three persons, manifested in three persons. But Jehovah
is the God of Christ. When we say Christ, when He says,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I've told you before, when we
see the title Christ, that sets forth the Messiah. God-man. You see, Christ, that's what
it says. The Mediator. He, God Himself,
the Son, who took upon Himself flesh. He took unto Himself man. Truly man. Great is the mystery
of godliness. God. was manifest in the flesh. Totally God, totally man. So when we see the Lord Jesus
Christ, we're talking about humanity, divinity, manhood, Godhood, man-God. Blessed be the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ. God, Jehovah. chose and appointed Christ, the
Lord Jesus Christ, God appointed Him to be the mediator between
man and God. Now again, we speak of these
truths as if we understand them. so easily. And the more we look
into the truth of what the Scripture sets forth, the more mysterious
it is. Father, Son, Spirit, God, and
the Son who in the everlasting covenant of grace stood as the
surety, never began to stand. He always stood. God who has
everlastingly loved His people. He never began to love them.
He's always loved them. But the Son has always, according
to the everlasting covenant of grace, in perfect agreement,
and I'm using terms that we can understand, covenanted with God Almighty,
with Himself. to become a man, God-man, Christ. God, Jehovah, is the God who
appointed, who chose, who elected Christ to be the mediator between
Himself and His people. And God the Father Lots of times you'll find in
Scriptures where it refers to the God and of the Lord Jesus
Christ. God the Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. And you're thinking there seems
to be a difference. This is a divine mystery. God Almighty, Jehovah, covenanted
with the Lord Jesus Christ. that He would redeem the sheep.
God agreed with Himself. And the fullness of the Godhead
bodily came forth, born of a woman, made under the law. Christ. And God prepared Christ. A body. A body was prepared Him. And this body was the body in
which the Son, who was made flesh, the Word, in the beginning was
the Word. And the Word was with God and
the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh. And that Word made flesh is the
Christ, is the Mediator, is the Messiah. And God Himself, in
infinite wisdom, that you and I cannot possibly enter into. We praise Him and bless Him and
thank Him for the wonder of His grace and mercy. God came into
this world, the Christ, and there was in the Christ was all the
fullness of God. An almighty God to whom the Christ
prayed, sought help. God supported him. God instructed
him. God gave him these words that
our Lord said, these words that I speak. I speak not of myself,
but as the Father has spoken, so I speak. The oneness and the unity and
the mystery. Somebody starts standing up and
says, well, I could just explain. I can explain to Godhead. Well,
I can tell you this. You just don't understand anything. But all the world keeps silence
when they're trying to explain God. Both Scott used to say,
he said, I can't explain it. I proclaim it. But I know this. God of whom the Christ is of
the very essence of God. The Scripture says here, blessed
be the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. And here's the Lord Jesus
Christ who in Himself is God Himself made flesh and God. Blessed be the God, the God who
trusted the Christ. God who said, This is my beloved
Son, whom I am well pleased. You hear Him. Was speaking of
the One who was the very essence of the One that spoke and the
One that descended as an oath. It was to His God, the One that
He submitted Himself to. This is the heart of what I'm
trying to set forth. God to the Christ is the God
that the Christ humbled Himself, made Himself answerable for all
of His sheep, To His God, He cried from the
cross, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? He's the God
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But He's the Father. And we speak in these terms,
and here again, speak of the Father being the first person
of the Godhead. I know this, God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, God, God, God, the Father, and
here is the Lord Jesus Christ who is equal with the Father.
He said, I and the Father are one. So here's God to whom the
Christ submitted Himself. and humbled himself in that eternal election and
covenant of grace. He made himself of no reputation,
walked in perfect obedience to his Father, of whom he was the
essence. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the servant of God and he's
equal with the Father. Same nature, perfection, glory,
equal. That's a great mystery. But blessed,
blessed thanks to, or to Him be the gratitude. Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed
us now. If you look at the word in verse
3, blessed, or blessed in the way you want to say it, that
word blessed, first word in verse 3, blessed, that means thanks
to. That's one word, blessed. The next word, blessed, when
it says blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
who has blessed us, different word. Different word. We thank Him. He's not thanking
us. If the words were the same, it
would have to be thanks, thanks to. He would have to say, thanks
be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has thanked
us. That's not what it means. The
word set forth, it means cause to prosper. Thanks be to the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who have caused us to
prosper. Caused who to prosper? Everybody. This letter is not written to
everybody. Who was this letter written to? It was written, verse
1, to the saints, to the sanctified, to the set-apart ones that had
absolutely nothing to do with being set apart. They didn't
set themselves apart. God set them apart. This letter
is written to the saints and to the faithful. Made so by the
grace and power of Almighty God. Thanks unto Him who has caused
us to prosper and has blessed us, made us prosper with all
spiritual blessings. Here again, as I was going over
my notes this afternoon, I got to looking at these words. And
here again, look how quickly we read over these things. I
do. Has blessed us with all. That means with the whole. W-H-O-L-E. With every. Every. Not one was excluded. Who has blessed us with all. All that Almighty God must give,
has to give. He does give all of it, all of
them. He's blessed us with all spiritual
blessings. Spiritual blessings. Here's the
definition. Fine speaking. He's blessed us with all that
Almighty God could say of blessing to us. Everything that God has
to say, the totality of all of the spiritual blessings, all
that God Almighty, everything that God Almighty would say in
blessings to His people, He said them in heavenly things in Christ. Everything that God the Father
has to say. Everything that God Almighty
has to say, He has to say in His Son. Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. I know this. I know that the
Lord bestows temporal blessings. I looked outside this morning,
I was sitting on my desk here, and I looked outside and the
sun was shining. You know, it just makes me feel
better when I see the sun shining. It just looks better. You ever
go through a tough night, you've got something on your mind, you
can't go to sleep, you know what you want? I just want the sun
to come up. If I could just see the sun start coming up, it's
just better. It's just better. Whatever the problem is, it's
always worse at night. Always. all of these temporal
blessings that the Lord has bestowed. He bestows all of these blessings.
He bestows those on the evil and on the good, on those that
He's chosen to show mercy to. They have the blessings just
like all men do. The sun shines on the wicked
just like it does on the saints. But here, the Scripture sets
forth that He's blessed us with blessings that are solid and
eternal. He blessed us with blessings
that that time when we leave this world are going to be truly
the blessings of Almighty God, the sayings that are good of
Almighty God, that which concerns our eternal soul. You know, this
world and this false religion, when it starts talking about
the blessings of God The false religion tries to usurp these
blessings, to say they'll take these Scriptures and they'll
read these Scriptures and they'll try to apply them to themselves
because we've done many mighty works in Your name. We've cast
out devils in Your name. We've preached and prophesied
in Your name. We've done all these wonderful
works in Your name and because they've done, all what in their
mind is wonderful works. They've tried to lay claim to
these. But these Scriptures are written
to God's people. This is a message from the Lord
to His people based totally upon the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ. These spiritual blessings. Blessings that are heavenly,
blessings that only come from God Himself and blessings that
are all according to God's everlasting purpose to show mercy. I will
have mercy and I'll have compassion on whomsoever I will. Justification. Justified. You know, we start
to think about justification. I had somebody ask me the other
night, he said, Do you believe in eternal justification? I said,
Absolutely. Absolutely. Justification. Let me remind you what it is.
It's the declaration that there's no charge. No charge. Almighty God, and let me just
tell you, Very quickly, how the Scripture sets forth justification.
No charge. Does God change? Does God change? No. Does Almighty
God look upon His people right now, regenerated by grace, called
out of darkness? If God calls you out of darkness,
Carl Born, And God looks upon you justified right now. Tell
me at what point He didn't. If Almighty God ever looked at
one of His own in one way, had one attitude toward them, and
then Almighty God looked at them in another way at a different
time, then God changed. He changed. He changed in His
attitude. He changed. He said, I don't
change. I don't change. So do I believe
in eternal justification? Absolutely. The Scripture says that we've
been justified freely by His grace. Before the foundation of the
world, God Almighty that everlastingly loved His people. I've loved
you with an everlasting love. So we were justified by grace. and Almighty God's will and purpose
and counsel that doesn't change. My counsel stands. I change not. Justified freely by His grace,
what God Almighty purposed, God Almighty is going to accomplish. Scripture says we're justified
by His blood. Almighty God saw this Lamb slain
from before the foundation of the world. God saw Him. God is the I Am. We deal in time. God is now. That's how easily
we get straying from... I was born back there. By the grace of God, I'll keep
going this way, but right here, I'm right now. God is the I Am. So we're justified freely by
His grace. We're justified by the blood
of Christ. That is the payment of what Almighty God everlastingly
purposed to do. So we're justified by the shedding
of His blood. He did that in time, but God
eternally saw it. God doesn't change. Scripture
says we're justified by faith. Does that mean that faith was
the merit of our justification? No. If that was the truth, then
that would be by works. Faith is the evidence of things
that are not seen. By faith, I know it. By faith, I know it. You know
it for yourself. So we're justified by faith,
not because of faith, but faith perceives it. Faith grasps hold
of it. But do you know how it's manifested?
James says we're justified by our works before men, justified
in our hearts By God's mercy and compassion, we understand
it. Faith perceives justification. God purposed it. Christ procured
it. The Spirit of God applied it. We perceive it by faith. And others understand it and
see it by works. Not that our works justifies
us. It's the evidence of. And then the Scripture says we're
justified by our words, by a man's words. He's justified and by
man's words, he's condemned. Why? Because out of the abundance
of his heart, his mouth speaks. Do I believe in eternal justification?
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I love that God doesn't
change. It's a spiritual blessing. What a blessing that God would
justify me. Who shall lay any charge to God's
elect? God justified them. Oh my, how about this one? Peace
with God. What a blessing. I felled an
Adam. I rebelled against God. I left. He didn't. And He's reconciled
me to Himself by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Pardoned. I forgive you. I forgive you.
Why? Because the debt's been paid.
Because Christ shed His own blood Christ paid the debt. Now God
Almighty is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Adopted. Adopted. Who chooses to adopt who? Who makes the choice in adoption? The child being adopted or the
parents doing the adopting? adopted, that Almighty God, according
to His good pleasure, the pleasure of His good will, would choose
to adopt me, to make me a son, to make me an heir of God and
a joint heir with Christ Sanctify me. Set me apart for
Himself. Give me eternal life. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in heavenly
things, in Christ. These spiritual blessings. Every
believer knows the answer to this. Did we earn them? Did we
merit them? Was there anything in us that
God looked down through time, saw that would be commendable? Oh, we could go back to all the
Scriptures, you know. God saw that every imagination,
heart, man was evil continually. You think of these blessings
that's been declared through the Gospel, that's been raised
up In this place, I'm talking about Katie Baptist Church now. You think about the spiritual
blessing that Almighty God has bestowed upon this little community.
That the Lord would give a pastor 60 years ago a heart to want
to preach the gospel. What a blessing. What a spiritual
blessing. I'll give you pastors after my own heart. And keep
Him. Teach Him. Blessings. Heavenly places. Blessings that
originated in heaven. Blessings that descended upon
God's people by the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven. And all these blessings in Christ,
we have been blessed. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. who hath blessed us." Eternally
or since we were converted? Yes. Always. According, verse 4, as He hath chosen us in Him. Again, I'd like to just Look
up these words again just to make sure. I know what they mean. I'm almost sure, but I just want
to make sure. According as he hath made a selection
out of is what the word chosen means. God has made a selection. God chose. God selected. God picked. Out of every nation and kindred
and tribe and tongue, God Almighty elected. Now, I know, I know,
look at Romans 9, I know that this glorious and blessed truth Of election, Romans 9,
I know this glorious truth of election is doubted and refuted
by this world's religion. Man, by nature, hates election,
hates God's right to choose. But I declare unto you this glorious
doctrine, this truth of, is what doctrine means, the truth of
election. It's scriptural. It's scriptural. Romans 9, verses 9 to 11, for
this is the word of promise. At this time will I come and
Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but when Rebecca
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand. Not of works, but of him that
calleth. Look at Romans 11, 1-7. Romans 11, 1-7. I say then, hath God cast away
his people? God forbid. For I also am an
Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. What
Paul is saying right here is God cast away all the Jews because
of their rejection. I say then, verse 1, hath God
cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an
Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God
hath not cast away his people, which he foreknew. What ye not
what the Scripture saith of Elias, how he maketh intercession to
God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets,
and dig down thine altars, and I am left alone And they seek
my life. Well, what saith the answer of
God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven
thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
Even so then at this present time, also there is a remnant
according to the election of grace. And if by grace then is
it no more of works, Otherwise, grace is no more grace, but if
it be of works, then is it no more grace? Otherwise, work is
no more work." What he's saying is, if grace means grace, then
it means no works are involved. If these words mean anything, grace means man has nothing to
do with it. Verse 7, What then? Israel hath
not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election. hath obtained
it, and the rest were blinded." Obviously, time would not permit
us to look at all the Scriptures that set forth the glorious truth
of election that God Almighty selected, chose, picked out a people Election declares that Almighty
God, back in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4, that He hath chosen
us in Him before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. And Lord willing, next time we'll
look at just verse 5 He says down at the bottom part of verse
5, and He did this according to the good pleasure of His will. There is no other answer. Why
did God choose to select one and pass by another? Because
it pleased Him to do so. There is no other answer. Had
He not chosen us, you write down this, we would have never chosen
Him. If you believe Anything concerning
man's depravity, you know that. You know that man does not have
the free will to choose God. Man does not have the ability,
the spiritual. Man is spiritually dead. If spiritually
dead, if dead in trespasses and sins from which we were quickened
means anything. That means that we did not and
do not Possessed the ability to initiate salvation. We don't
have it. Dead. The glorious truth of election. How thankful that tonight we
can be here and just setting forth in these scriptures the
wonder of electing grace. Because Paul said, Romans 9,
29, Except the Lord of Siboeth, the Lord of Hosts, had left us
a seed We've been like Sodom and Gomorrah. You let men rebel against this
glorious right that God has to choose and to show mercy. But
I'm telling you, God Almighty has set forth in His Scriptures
that He has elected a people and it stands. Let the potsherds,
the broken pieces of pottery of this world, let the potsherds
strive with the potsherds. and argue about it and fuss and
rant and rave and all this. And when it's all said and done,
God's counsel stands. He has chosen us in Him. Chosen us to what? He's chosen the Lord Jesus Christ,
a bride. God the Father chose a bride.
for the Son. And he was speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ in Genesis when he said it's not good. It's not good that the man should
be alone. So he chose an help that was
fit. Again, I'm just so lost in the
wonder of this thing. would set forth that it is not
good that the Lord Jesus Christ be alone? That, Lord, You would choose
a worm such as we? That, Lord, You would choose
vessels fallen in Adam but chosen in Christ? But before the foundations
of the world, that He would take her and make her But Almighty
God has eternally declared her to be in the Lord Jesus, holy,
without blame. Oh, the father that chose a bride
for the son who in themselves had no marriage. Almighty God chose them in Christ
that He saw as He looked Psalm 14, 2 and 3, he saw that there
was none that would seek Him, that there was none that did
good, that they would never have come
to Him had He not chosen to show mercy and call them. This choosing,
an act of God's grace before the foundation of the world.
Scripture says as those two boys were born to Rebekah before they
had done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand. This is the election from Him
that changes not. And all of those chosen in Him
before the foundation of the world was for this reason, that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. Now you listen. You listen. This was the original view that
Almighty God, God of all grace, this was the original view that
God Almighty had of the church being chosen in Christ. This
was the original This is the way He saw her. He had chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before Him in love. I know, and you
know, that the bride fell in Adam and polluted herself. But no sin in Adam. and destroy God's purpose of
election in Christ that she should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. The final state of the church
is guaranteed according to God's purpose who has entrusted the
bride to the mediator. God chose her that she should
be holy and without blame, no spot, no wrinkle or any such
thing. God chose her that she should
be holy. And Almighty God has eternally
looked upon His bride chosen and given to the Son. In Him, holy and without blame. She fell. Yes, she did. She fell and polluted herself. But in Christ, the Bride who
Almighty God the Son has washed in His own blood, in His own
righteousness, sins stain in time. Do away with the Lord God's purpose
to show mercy. No sin in Adam can destroy the
holiness in Christ. O Beloved, the very hope of salvation settled. Settled. The very hope of salvation settled. in God Almighty's purpose of
election. I'm going to have mercy on you.
I'm going to have compassion on you. Almighty God has eternally
looked upon His people. And remember this, God does not
change. God does not change. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Lord, cause these words to be
burned into our hearts. Cause us to remember. Cause us
to remember You according to Your grace and mercy for Christ's
sake. Amen.