We'll have a word of prayer before
we begin. Our gracious Father, we thank
you for this time together. Lord, help us to understand how
truly powerful you are. Help us to see how fully Salvation
is all entirely of You. Comfort Your people, Father. We ask that You would make Your
Word clear in the hearts of those who are struggling with their
sin, are struggling with doubting
and struggling with assurance. that you'd make your people to
understand how truly Christ is reigning,
how truly He's ruling, how fully complete His people are in Him. Father, those that need to see
their sin, those that need to see They are not righteous. We pray
likewise that you would do that in their hearts as you will. And all the needs that we don't
know of, that we can't understand or have never heard spoken of,
that you would apply your gospel to each sinner as only you can
and only you know. Forgive us, Father, for our sin. We thank You for this time. We
pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Alright, brethren. Ephesians
chapter 1. My subject this morning is His
power to keep us. His power to keep us. Now, when
a woman is dating a man, it's the time when he's proving to
her what kind of man he is. And it's the time when he's proving
to her what kind of a husband he will be. And so, when he's
proven that he has no love for God, no love for his gospel,
no love for his people, he's proven he's without the power
of God abiding upon him. And so he has no anchor, he has
no godly principles by which he's guided, so that he has no
stability, no steadfastness whatsoever. He's proven he's not a man of
his word. He's proven he's changeable,
unstable, unfaithful, undependable, untrustworthy. He's proven his
love is meaningless. Now, if you marry him, then he'll
be the same way after you marry him. He will be unable to fill
all his promises, unable to provide for you, unable to provide for
your children, unable to keep you, unable to protect you. He
will be unfaithful and untrustworthy. A woman would be a fool to marry
such a man, especially knowing that she'll be making vows to
God. Well, in like manner, when we're hearing the preaching of
the gospel, and we're hearing what kind of God God is, and
we're hearing how He will be able to keep us after we've been
united to Him. That's what we're hearing when
we hear the gospel preached. Now, our text begins in Ephesians
1.19. Paul is praying that they might
know what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe. according to the working of His
mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him
from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly
places. Now the great doubt that sometimes
troubles a believer is not whether God has power to raise us up
at the last day. It is, does He have power to
keep us? This is what troubles. Martha
wasn't troubled with wondering if Christ had power to raise
up Lazarus in the last day. She said, I know He shall rise
again in the resurrection in the last day. Martha's problem
And the problem with those around her was doubting whether or not
Christ could raise Lazarus from the dead right then. That he
had the power to do that. Some of them said, could not
this man which opened the eyes of the blind have caused that
even this man should not have died? They were doubting him. And it caused Martha to doubt
so much so that when Christ said, move the stone away from a brother's
grave, Martha said, Lord, he's been in the grave four days.
By now he stinks. She said that because she didn't
believe he had power to raise him up, right then, that he could
raise him. And so, Jesus said unto her,
said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, What else? Nothing else. If thou wouldest
believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God. And that's what
Paul wants for the Ephesian believers to see more of. The glory of
Christ. He said, the power of His resurrection. That's what He wants them to
see. He says there that you might know what is the exceeding greatness
of His power to us who believe. I want for every believer here
to be assured by God in their heart of the power that He has
to keep us. I want us to be assured of that
power that He has to keep us and preserve us against that
day. The God that I'm declaring to you and the God that I set
before you every time I stand here is the God who is all-powerful. Verse 11 says, He worketh all
things after the counsel of His own will. In Ephesians 3.20 it
says he's able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we
ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. This
is who he is. Peter said for the believer. He says we're kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last
time. This is what I want you to get. I want you to understand,
believer, that the exceeding greatness of power that the true
and living God mightily worked toward us to redeem us, to regenerate
us, to convert us, is the same exceeding greatness of power
by which He is able to keep us until the day when He brings
us home to glory to be with Him forever. Not everybody who professes
to believe has cast their care into the hands of this Jesus
that I preach to you. Not everybody has. There is another
Jesus that's not another. So for every professing believer,
under the sound of my voice, I have some questions for you.
Alright, here's the first question. How powerful was your God to
work redemption for you? How powerful was your God to
work redemption for you? Did your Savior obtain eternal
redemption for you? Or did He make eternal redemption
possible for you? Did your God, the God that you
believe, did He justify you from all your sins by Himself? Or did He depend upon you to
do something to make His blood have saving efficacy? If your
God has no power to redeem you by Himself, if your God has no
power to justify you by Himself, then your God has no power to
keep you by Himself. And that's bad, that's terrible
news, because He's another Jesus. which is not another, and He's
not the Lord Jesus Christ of this Bible. Now, the power by
which God the Savior keeps His people is the same power by which
He raised Christ from the dead. Verse 19 says, "...according
to the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ
when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right
hand in the heavenly places." Now, as we've seen, that exceeding
greatness of power was not just God's omnipotent power. He raised
a bunch of people from the dead. There have been a bunch of people
raised from the dead. But none of them are used as the example
here to express the great power He works towards the believer.
Why is that? Well, as I said to you before,
this exceeding greatness of power is the power of His holy justice
working together with the power of His holy faithfulness to keep
His promise to His Son. It's His holy justice working
together with His holy faithfulness faithfulness. Now, God is holy
above everything else. Above everything else that we
know about God, God is holy. That means everything God does
is according to and consistent with holiness. It means everything
God does is righteous, it's right, and everything God does is just
because God is holy. It means there are some things
God cannot do and He will not do because it's not consistent
with His holiness. For example, God cannot lie because
that's not consistent with His holiness. Well, likewise, the
grace of God God chose to be gracious to sinners. And the
grace of God is in perfect harmony with His holy justice. And He
can't be gracious to us unless His grace is in harmony with
His holy justice. God is gracious to whomsoever
He will be gracious. That's His glory. But God's holiness
demands that for God to freely forgive sinners, each one of
those guilty sinners has got to die. They have got to die. That's what God's law demands. The wages of sin is death. And
so the justice of God demanded that in order for God to remain
holy and just, when He forgives a sinner, they've got to die.
They've got to die. Now we being from conception,
mortal beings and also sinners, we couldn't die for our sins
and put away our sins. And we couldn't die and live.
We couldn't do that. That's why God sent His own Son
into this world in the likeness of sinful flesh. Christ being
a holy man, He could bear the sins of His people. He could
bear our condemnation and lay down His life. And because He's
eternal God, He could satisfy eternal justice. He's the God-man. Romans 8 verse 3 says, What the
law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God
sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh. that the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh
but after the spirit. How much sin did he condemn?
All of it. How much sin did he put the death
to sin? He put the death to death. How
much? All of it. Every bit of it. Christ was spotless
man and therefore he was a fit substitute lamb. You remember
all through the Old Testament, you remember the lamb and everywhere
you read about them bringing a lamb, that lamb had to be without
spot, without blemish. That lamb was a foreshadowing,
it was a picture of Christ to come. Christ came into this earth,
made under the law and under that law he was tried, repeatedly. And he was proven that he was
totally, perfectly, wholly, through and through. In thought, word,
and deed. And so, he was a fit sacrifice,
a spotless sacrifice, who could take the sin of his people. He
could take the sin of his people. And so, he laid on him the iniquity
of all those that Christ came to redeem. All of them. And when
Christ was made sin, then Christ was fit for God to pour out justice
upon Him. Because He was fit. He had the
sin of His people upon Him. So by shedding His blood unto
death, Christ, who is also eternal God, obtained eternal redemption
for everyone for whom he died. He accomplished it. He didn't
make a try. He didn't make it possible. He
accomplished it. He obtained eternal redemption.
Ephesians 1 said, when he had by himself purged our sins, he
sat down. He did that. So, having finished
this work, that was the work the Father sent him to do. And
having finished that work, the same holiness demanded that Christ
be raised from the dead. Because The resurrection and
the exaltation glory was what the Father promised Christ after
He finished that work of justifying His people, of declaring God
just, and of justifying His people. This is what God promised, God
the Father promised He'd do for the Son. And so, for God to remain
holy, His justice has been satisfied, but for Him to remain holy, according
to His holy faithfulness, He's got to raise His Son from the
dead. So do you see what I say when I'm saying the power of
holy justice, satisfied, together with God's power of holy faithfulness,
is that exceeding greatness of power that raised Christ up from
the dead. And all for whom he died were
raised in Christ when he rose from the dead. Now preacher,
you've told us all of that before. You've told us every bit of that
before. Let me explain something to you. The gospel is so, every
truth of the gospel is so interwoven together that no matter what
subject we're talking about, we're going to talk about the
same truths because they all magnify and glorify each other. Every bit of them. That's how
beautiful and harmonious the gospel of God is. That's why
when a false preacher turns one aspect of salvation into the
hands of a sinner, then every other aspect of his doctrine
is tainted. Every bit of it is. Alright,
listen to this now. This is the exceeding greatness
of power by which our God preserves each of those He's called by
His grace. This same power that raised Christ,
this power of satisfied justice and power of His holiness is
the same power that keeps us and preserves us. Look at Romans
chapter 5. Romans 5. Verse 6, for when we were yet
without strength, that's us. That's all that can be said about
us. We don't have any strength. When we were yet without strength
and due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for
a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man
some will even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward
us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, much more then,
being now justified by His blood, We shall be saved from wrath
through Him. For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more
being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Do you see
this? Oh, what sweet assurance for
you, believer, because you have this assurance. God is able and
He shall keep you until that day. This is assurance we have. Alright, here's my second question
that I have for you. How powerful was your God to
bring the gospel to you, to regenerate you, and to convert you? How
powerful was your God to bring the Gospel to you, regenerate
you, and convert you? Did your God depend upon you
to make, did He depend upon you to make yourself to be born again? Did your God do all He could
do, but He had to wait for you to let Him save you? I'm talking
about now when you were sitting there listening to your preacher,
when he was telling you who God is. And was He telling you this
God, was He saying this is who God is? Did your God have to
wait on you to allow Him to give you faith and repentance? If
so then, your God will not have power to keep you, not even when
you face that chilly Jordan called death. And He won't have power
to raise you from the dead. Because a God like that depends
upon the sinner. And any God that depends upon
the sinner is not good for anything. He does not have any power to
do anything. He's not a God that's just...
The doctrine that declares Him is just a little different from
ours. He's an idol. That's all I know how to say.
He will latch on to that God and you will go to hell with
Him. Justly. I guarantee it. I guarantee it
as sure as I'm standing. I would not say it to you if
I wasn't dead certain it's true. That's how serious it is. But
that same exceeding great power of His holy, satisfied justice,
and of His holy faithfulness that demanded Christ be raised
from the dead, also demands all for whom Christ died must be
born of God, given faith to receive this gift of eternal life, and
kept by God, for that's what the Son prays the Father to give
Him. Look over John 17. John 17. While you're turning there, I'm
going to read Psalm 2. You remember in Psalm 2, Christ said, I will
declare the decree. This was after he was raised
from the dead. He said, I will declare the decree. The Lord
hath said unto me, thou art my son. This day have I begotten
thee. Ask of me and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession. Have you ever wished you could
hear what Christ asked him for? You ever wish you could hear
our advocate interceding with the Father and hear what it is
he's asking the Father for? What's he pleading the Father
for? Well, here we have it in John 17. I started out, I was
going to read one or two verses in this. I'm going to read the
whole chapter to you. I want you to see this because
I want you to see here that Christ He gives His people life. He
sends the Spirit, regenerates His people. He gives them the
gospel. And He keeps His people. And this is what He prays for.
Watch. These words spake Jesus and lifted up His eyes to heaven
and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy
Son also may glorify Thee. Now, this is the power of God's
glory. That's what we're talking about.
So Christ is saying glorify your son that your son may glorify
you. So what he did for the father depended on the father's glory
and what the father does for him depends on their glory as
well. Alright? As thou has given him
power. Power. That's what we're talking
about. You have given him power over all flesh that he should
give eternal life to all flesh. Know that He should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given Him. Who's given eternal
life? Christ is. And this is life eternal,
that they may know Thee. They may know Thee. A bunch of
doctrine? Nope. That they may know Thee.
The only true God. The only true God. And Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent. What's life eternal? What's the
gospel? Don't I have to know a whole
bunch of facts? That's what we were talking about a while ago
in the car. Don't I have to know a whole bunch? Nope. This is
what Christ said. This is life eternal, that they
may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou
hast sent. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. This is what he's pleading based
on his finished work. And now, O Father, glorify thou
me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before
the world was. Now watch this. I have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest
them me, and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that
all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. How did
they come to know that? Christ said, For I have given
unto them the words which thou gavest unto me. He don't mean
that he just preached to them. He preached to a lot of people.
He means, I gave them the words. Where? In here, in the heart. I gave them the words thou gavest
to me, and they have received them. You know why they received
them? Because he gave them to them like that. Because he gave
them to them in power. And they have known, surely,
that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou
didst send me. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world. But for them which thou hast
given me, for they are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine
are mine. And I am glorified in them. That's a very important phrase.
He's saying now, why I'm praying for them and why I'm praying
what I'm praying is because my glory is in them. I'm going to
be glorified in them. I'm going to be glorified by
what I've done for them. So now watch this. And now I'm
no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am come
to thee. He's going to the cross. He's
fixing to endure. And so He's asking the Father
while He's enduring that, that He's going to the cross to endure.
This is what He asks. Holy Father, keep. Keep. This is what He asks. Keep
through Thine own name those whom Thou has given Me. We're talking about God's ability
to keep them now. He says keep through Thine own
name That means His glory is resting on this. Keep them through
Thine own name, those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may
be one as We are. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in Thy name. Those that Thou gavest Me, I
have kept. I've kept them. Is He able to?
None of them is lost, but the son of perdition. And that was
that the scripture might be fulfilled. That was on purpose. And now,
come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they
might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. You know what Paul
is going to say later on in Ephesians? Everything he's working up to
over to about the, I think it's the fourth chapter, is he's saying,
I want the joy of God to be fulfilled in you. That's why He's telling
them these things. That's why I'm telling you these
things. That's why Christ was praying the Father to keep them. That His joy might be fulfilled
in themselves. Now watch this. I have given
them thy word. And the world hath hated them.
because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world.
That's what happens when God, when He gives you His Word. I
pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but
that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. to keep them from
the evil. They are not of the world even
as I am not of the world. Now how is He going to keep them?
How is He praying the Father to keep them? Sanctify them through
Thy truth. Thy Word is truth. You know why
you came here today? You might not have come here
knowing you came here for this reason, but you came here to
be sanctified. I thought that was already done. It is. But
we come to be cleansed from our defilement. How? By hearing His
Word, by hearing His Gospel. Because the blood of Christ cleanseth,
ongoing, continually, us from our sin, from our defilement.
Verse 18, As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have
I also sent them into the world. Now we start talking about why
he called them and gave them this word and what he's going
to do through them. And for their sakes I sanctify myself that
they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray
I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me
through their word. through their preaching of the
gospel. I pray for those that are going to believe through
their word, through their word. That includes the rest of His
elect people, that they all may be one as Thou, Father, art in
me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world
may believe that Thou hast sent me. that the world may believe
that thou hast sent me. Is he talking about all the world?
Of course not. He just said I didn't pray for
the world. He's talking about the world of those that he just
said that shall believe on me through their word. That's who
he's talking about. He's saying that they may be
one Thou in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in
us, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me. And he
says, 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, that the world
may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou
hast loved me." That tells us that the world that God so loved,
that He sent His only begotten Son, are those that the Father
gave to the Son, whom the Son gives eternal life, that we may
be one in Christ the Son, in God the Father. That's who this
world is. Now watch this. Father, I will
that they also, whom thou hast given me, be where I am. Now
if that's going to happen, you know what's going to have to
happen? You're going to have to keep them. You're going to have to
keep them. Because the Son prays, I will that they be with me where
I am. Give me the heathen. I'll give
you the heathen for your inheritance. He said, this is what I want.
I want for all mine elect, all those I laid down my life for,
to be with me where I am." Do you think God's going to give
him what he wants? Of course He is. "...that they may behold
my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before
the foundation of the world." Look back to the end of verse
23. He said there, "...and has loved them as thou hast loved
me." How's that? Since before the foundation of
the world. Now verse 25, O righteous Father, the world hath not known
thee. That's a different world he's talking about. The world
hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known
that thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto them thy name. I have declared it. I have declared
unto them thy name. Now watch this, and we'll declare
it. How else are those that he sent
forth to preach, how else is their word going to be effectual
to call out those that are going to believe? Because Christ said,
I will declare your name. Just like I declared it to these,
I'm going to declare it to those that are going to believe. How?
through these that are preaching the word. I'm going to declare
your name. He's going to speak in power through the gospel,
through the Holy Spirit. That the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them and I in them. What I'm saying
to you is each one that Christ has redeemed, they're born dead
the first time. We know that from Ephesians 2
verses 1 through 3. But just like when Christ walked
this earth and went to each one whom he called by his word. You
know why he did? The scripture says He must need
to go to this place and that place, because there was a certain
man in that place, or a certain woman in that place, an elect
child of God, and He must need to go to that place. And He went
to that place, and by His succeeding great power, He sends his gospel
to each of his lost sheep, wherever they are in this world, just
like he did that. Just like he went to that place
because he must go to that place. He sends his preachers because
they must go to that place. Because he has a child there.
Because he has power to do this. And for them also which shall
believe on me through their word. That's who he does this for.
And through their gospel, Christ declares the name of God. And
the Holy Spirit regenerates each one and gives each faith and
forms Christ in them so that the love wherewith thou hast
loved me may be in them and I in them. That's why he does this.
He forms Christ in them. That's why Paul said, when I
came to you, my speech and my preaching wasn't with enticing
words of man's wisdom. That means I didn't come to you
and mutter down what I'm saying to you and try to say it to you
without saying it to you so you wouldn't get upset that I said
it to you. He said, I just right back said it to you and told
you the truth. And he said, but it was in the
demonstration of the spirit and of power. That doesn't mean necessarily
that you're jumping up to the roof when you're preaching and
screaming to the top of your lungs. It could mean you're quiet
as a mouse, but you're telling the truth. That's what it means.
Because that's the Spirit and power is what makes a man tell
the truth to people. And he says, that your faith
should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. That's why. That's why. And our
God and Savior keeps each of us because the Son in whom He
delights The Advocate with the Father. Our Advocate with the
Father makes intercession for us. And this is what He's praying.
Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou has
given me that they may be one as we are. He says, I pray not
that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou
shouldest keep them from the evil. So believer, If your God,
if your Savior had power to bring the gospel to you, and He had
power to regenerate you, and He had power to convert you all
by Himself, guess what? He has power to keep you all
by Himself. Isn't that good news? Oh, if
we find out what we are, that's good news. I can't keep myself. It can't be done. If you're hearing this for the
first time, I want you to be sure you understand this. Believers
are regenerated and given faith to believe the cause God the
Father chose them and Christ the Son redeemed us. That's why. Regeneration and faith are the
fruit of His election and redemption, not the cause of it. Free will
religions got that backwards. They flipped that. They say faith
is the cause of election and redemption. They say the reason
their God elected sinners is because he foresaw who would
believe. Their faith is the cause of His election and the cause
of their redemption. And that's contrary to the Scriptures.
That's the exact opposite of the Gospel. Now, I want you to
think about this. If you think about it, according
to the free will worker's doctrine, according to his own doctrine,
their God is either blind or He knowingly shed His blood in
vain. One of the two. Because if their
God only elected sinners that He foresaw would believe, and
their Jesus died for all sinners without exception, then either
He foresaw that all would believe, in which case He's blind, since
all don't believe, or their Jesus knowingly shed His blood in vain
for some that He knew would not believe. You want a God like
that? Either way, that God doesn't
have any power because such a God is at the mercy of sinners to
do with Him as they will. That's why men love Him. That's
why men love Him. They can take Him and set Him
up on a shelf and polish Him up real good when they want to
or they can just throw a cloth over Him and leave Him there.
Well, that's describing an idol. That's what I'm talking about.
Even those that wouldn't dare have a statue in their house.
That God's an idol. He's man-made. He's created in
man's imagination. The truth says I was given spiritual
life by God. I was given faith to believe
because God the Father graciously chose me in Christ. God the Son
graciously redeemed me. God the Holy Spirit graciously
regenerated me. And all the glory goes to God.
All I did in the whole affair was sin. That's all I did. That's
the gospel. That's the sovereign God this
book declares. Alright, let's move on now to
this next thing. Thirdly, I have one more question. This concerns your power. This
concerns your power. You who profess to believe. Do
you have power to keep yourself... I'm not finished. Do you have
power to keep yourself from catching a common cold? Then do you have the power to
keep yourself in faith? Do you have the power to bruise
Satan under your feet? Do you have the power to subdue
powers and principalities and rulers of the darkness of this
world? Do you have power to keep yourself from spiritual wickedness
in high places? If you don't have power to keep
yourself from getting a runny nose, what are you going to do
against tribulation, and distress, and persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or peril, or sword? You may see the foolishness of
that woman who marries that man who's proven himself to be totally
untrustworthy. But do you see the foolishness
of being joined to a God who has no power to do as He will?
Do you? It's far worse. Far worse. Those of us who God saved, God
our Savior saved, He did the redeeming Himself, He did the
regenerating of Himself, He did the converting of Himself. We
keep ourselves, as John said. John said, he said, he that believes
keeps himself. How do we do that? We commit
everything to Christ. That's how we do it. Paul said,
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able
to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day. We
commit everything to Him. The moment you start trying to
keep yourself, you've taken something back and you've decided you can
keep that in safekeeping for yourself. You'll perish. You'll perish. Our God has to
keep us. We cast everything into His hand.
And He said, my grace is sufficient for you. He said, my strength
is made perfect in weakness. Well preacher, you're saying
we're totally weak. And don't you see how totally powerful
God is? I'm saying you're totally weak. I'm saying I'm totally
weak. I'm saying we were weak to bring ourselves to God. Weak
to redeem ourselves. Weak to justify ourselves. Weak
to convert ourselves. Weak to keep ourselves. But by
that we're seeing that God is powerful to do it all. That's
what he said. And Paul said, Most gladly therefore
will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. You know what we've been doing
this whole hour? We've been glorying in our infirmities. We've been
telling people about how sorry and no good and absolutely powerless
we are to do a thing. Why? Because that the power of
Christ may rest upon us. And then he said later in that
13th chapter, For though he was crucified through weakness, yet
he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him,
but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you,
or toward us. That's how we're living. Now,
here's the power of our Redeemer to keep us, right here. The power
of Christ. The power of His resurrection.
Verse 20. Ephesians 1.20. I'm almost finished. Ephesians
1.20. God set Him in the heavenly places
at His own right hand. Now this is where you're sitting,
believer. This is where you who trust this God, this is where
you are. He set Him at His right hand in heavenly places far above
all. above all principality, above
all power, above all might, above all dominion, above every name
that's named, not only in this world but also in that which
is to come. And He's put all things under His feet. Under
His feet. And He's given Him to be the
head over all things to the church. His body, the fullness of Him
that filleth all in all. You know what Paul called that?
In Philippians 3 he called it the power of His resurrection.
The power of His resurrection says to the believer that the
full penalty of offended justice is satisfied. There's therefore
no condemnation of them who are in Christ. The power of His resurrection
says He's made us the righteousness of God. That we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. That's why He died. The power
of His resurrection says we have full acceptance with God. We're accepted in the Beloved.
The power of His resurrection says death has no power over
Christ, and therefore death has no power over the believer. None. Christ said, I'm the resurrection. He said, I'm the resurrection.
He said, I'm the life. He said, therefore, he that believes
in Me, he'll never die. He'll never die. And the power
of His resurrection says, You who He's called, He shall keep. He shall keep. All things are
under His feet, and therefore all things are under our feet.
The Hebrew writer said, but it don't look like everything is
under our feet. We don't see everything put under Him. We
don't see everything put under us. It doesn't look like that,
but we see Christ. And God says, it's all under
His feet. That means it's all under His
power to dispose of it as He will. And He won't get through
disposing of it until it's all been made His footstool. That's
right. Paul called that the working
whereby he's able even to subdue all things unto himself. That
word subdue means to put under your feet. That's what it means.
So, rest assured, believer, that when God the Father raised Christ
and subdued all things under Christ's feet, doing so, He guaranteed
you who have committed all to Him. that He which hath begun
a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. That is His power to keep us. Amen.