to Ephesians chapter 1. Our text
will be verses 5 and 6, but we're going to read beginning of verse
3. Ephesians 1 verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, according as he hath
chosen us in Christ in heavenly places, before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. Now here's our text. In love,
having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ, to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved." Now the Spirit moved Paul, the
Holy Spirit moved Paul to write these words. bearing witness
of God the Father and His love in Christ Jesus. And Paul had
experienced the love of God the Father toward him. He had experienced
that. God the Father beloved Paul. In Christ the Beloved before
the foundation of the world. And he loved Paul even as he
loved his own son. Paul had experienced that. Paul
had been shown how that God commended his love toward Paul because
while as yet Paul was a sinner, God the Father sent forth His
Son and His Son came forth and He gave His own life's blood
to pay the debt Paul owed to the law and bought him and purchased
him with his own blood and bought him to an eternal inheritance
with God. Paul beheld the Father's love
and how that God predestinated him until the adoption, until
the appointed time when the Father would make his love for Paul
known in his heart. by sending forth the spirit of
adoption into his heart and causing Paul to cry out, Father, Father. He beheld that love in his predestinating
grace. He beheld how God loved him with
an everlasting love and therefore in loving kindness he drew Paul.
Paul beheld the Father's love in that God the Father in Christ
had made Paul an heir. because he was a son of God.
Paul was a son of God. He made him an heir and a joint
heir with Christ so that Christ would complete his adoption by
bringing him into glory to himself and there he'd be with the Father
for all time. Paul beheld his love. And so
beholding his love, having experienced it in his heart, Paul did what
men do when they've experienced the love of God in their heart.
He believed on him. And he loved him, and he served
him, and he did so by declaring the truth of God's love, declaring
to others how God loves. That's what he did. He wanted
others to see the breadth, and the length, and the depth, and
the height. and to know the love of Christ
that passes knowledge, that they might be filled with the fullness
of God. Paul wanted others to know that,
and he knew the only way they're going to know that love is to
be blessed of the Spirit of truth, and that's all it's going to
be by telling them the truth. And so he told them the truth.
He spoke these words because the Spirit of Truth gave Him
the words to speak them. And He spoke them in love. This
is love, to speak and tell sinners how God loves, how He loves sinners. It would seem that one who claims
to be a child of God the Father would love whatever pleases the
Father. And everything that's written
here in this first chapter, we're told this is what pleased the
Father. And yet those who claim to be
the child of that father despise these things that the father
says please him. I realize the carnal mind's enmity
against God. I realize that. I realize that
these things are spiritually discerned and that no man can
understand them because they're spiritually discerned and he
can't know them because God has to give him an understanding.
I realize that. But I'll tell you one other problem
that sinners have, and that's with their preachers. It's with
their preachers. Because their preachers won't
stand up and declare this in truth. You know, a preacher reveals
a lot about his heart when he thinks that he's showing greater
love by not telling the people the truth. That reveals a lot
about his own heart. This is the very love of God.
This is the very love of the Father we're talking about here.
Why not declare it? Why not? This is how God, if
He blesses His people, this is how He's going to do it, through
the truth. Now, anybody can learn doctrine
in the letter, in the oldness of the letter. I'm not trying
to persuade anybody to believe in the doctrine of election.
I'm not trying to persuade anybody to believe in the doctrine of
predestination or in the doctrine of eternal adoption. I'm not
trying to persuade anybody to believe that. I want to see sinners
to know the love of God in Christ Jesus that passes knowledge.
That's when sinners will believe God. And then believe in God,
they'll delight in the doctrine. That's what the Master said.
If you do the will of Him that sent me, then you'll know my
doctrine. You'll know it's true. If you believe on His Son, you'll
know the doctrine. You'll believe it. So that's
what I want. This scripture gives all the
glory to God. Do you want God to have all the
glory? Do you want God alone to have
all the glory? I mean all the glory. Well, verse
6 tells us this is what He did, and He did it for this reason,
to the praise of the glory of His grace. That's why He did
this the way He did it. So, if you want God to receive
the glory, then let's listen to God speak. Let's listen to
what He says, how He brings all the praise to men to praise His
glory. Let's hear how He does this.
I've titled this, Predestinated Unto the Adoption. Predestinated
Unto the Adoption. And this is what I want you to
see. God the Father adopted His children before time to Himself. And He makes His child to experience
their adoption in time. And He'll bring each one to Himself,
completing our adoption in the end. Alright, there's three words
here we're going to pay attention to. They're adoption, predestination,
and grace. Those are going to be our three
divisions. We're going to start with adoption. Let's look at
verse 5. In love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to themselves. in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself."
Now normally I start, my rule is I start with, I take the words
as they come in the verse and deal with them as they come in
the verse. But in this case, the adoption of children comes
first in eternity. So we're going to look at this
first. Alright, adoption is looked at in the scriptures in three
ways. In three ways. Adoption is the eternal act of
God the Father whereby He made a multitude, His children, in
Christ before the foundation of the world. Took them to Himself
as His children. And then secondly, we experience
adoption in time when He sends forth the Spirit of His Son into
our hearts. That's how the scriptures deal
with adoption. And then thirdly, adoption is
spoken of as whenever we're delivered into the glorious liberty of
the sons of God into God's presence. And that's when the adoption
is completed. It's come to its full end. All
right? But first of all, it begins in
eternity. Let's look at this. Children
became children in eternal adoption. That's how they became children
before the world was made. Election and adoption are so
closely connected that it's hard to make a distinction between
them, but they are a distinct thing, but it's just difficult
to do. Christ said, thine they were,
speaking to the Father. He said, thine they were. They
were your children. You had adopted them and you
gave them to me. You gave them to me. Verse four
here ends with these words, in love. Love was the moving cause
in God the Father. Love. And His love is in Christ. His love's in Christ. It's nowhere
else but in Christ. In love, God the Father adopted
His children to Himself in Christ. In love, God the Father blessed
His children with all spiritual blessings in Christ. In love,
God the Father predestinated His children to
the adoption by Jesus Christ to Himself. Love, this was all
by love in Christ. The children had nothing in themselves
to commend them to God. It was nothing in them that caused
God to love them. This was by His love, His love
toward them. Verse 5 says, according to the
good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He has made us accepted in the Beloved. Now
let's look at adoption in eternity by way of illustration. This
won't be exact, but it will help some. Now you remember how Abraham
chose Rebekah to be the bride of his son Isaac. He chose Rebecca
to be the bride of his son Isaac. Well, likewise, God the Father
chose his elect to be the bride of his son Christ. All the elect
children he chose make up the church, which is his bride, the
bride of his son. Well, Abraham gave Rebekah a
dowry. He gave her many riches, adorning
her so that she would be all adorned when he presented her
to his son and gave her to his son. Well, Christ blessed his
children with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. He blessed
his children and gave his children to Christ. As I said, Christ
said, Thine they were and Thou gavest them me. And when Abraham
gave Rebekah to his son, when he gave Rebekah to Isaac, Abraham
loved Rebekah with the same fatherly love as he loved Isaac, because
she was now one with Isaac. She was one with him. Well, even
more so, when God the Father gave His children to His Son,
He loved His children as He loves His Son. By nature, Christ is
the eternal Son of God. And when God the Father chose
us in Christ, gave us to Christ, We became the eternal sons of
God. Eternally one with God in His
Son. Eternally. Eternally the sons
of God. So that God the Father loves
each of His children from before the foundation of the world.
He loves His children, each one of them, with the same love as
He loves His own Son. That's what Christ said. In John
17, 23, He said, Thou hast sent Me and hast loved them as Thou
hast loved Me. That's the first point here.
God the Father adopted His children to Himself from everlasting. He made us His everlasting sons
and daughters according as He chose us in His Son. This is a marvel. Behold what
manner of love God has bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. And He loved us with the same
love as He loves His own son. Well, there are two more aspects
to adoption that I just told you. Next is our experience of
our adoption, whereby we're made to know that God loves His children
this way. And then there's that final aspect
of it when He brings us into glory to Himself. That was the
whole purpose of adoption from eternity. That's where predestination
comes in. Now let's look at this next word,
predestination. Verse 5 says, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself. See,
there had to be these children before they could be predestinated.
We had to be His children before we could be predestinated. So
He made us His children, and having made us His children,
He predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to Himself. Predestination, what is that?
Predestination is God the Father pre-appointing the time when
by Jesus Christ each elect child shall experience our adoption
in time. and then at last be brought to
God in glory. He's predestinated this. So that
God sovereignly determined all things that come to pass in time
for the salvation of His elect, entrusting all into the hands
of His Son. Everything, you mean everything?
Everything that comes to pass. Because having made us his sons
by adoption, and having loved us as his own son before the
foundation of the world, one, he's going to glorify his son
and set him forth in his glory and give him all the preeminence.
And two, he's going to see to it that these children that he
loves as his own son are going to be brought to himself. They're
going to be brought to himself. No doubt about it. And it's because
it was the good pleasure of God the Father. This is what pleased
the Father, because it was the will of God the Father. This
is His will. We can do everything in the world
trying to please God and think we've done His will. We don't
bow to His Word here. We haven't done His will. This
is His will. This is His will. And this was
His will, to predestinate each child to an appointed time. when
Christ our Head, this One He set up from everlasting to be
the mediator and the Head and the Husband and gave all fullness,
all power to work this grace and minister this everlasting
covenant to His children. This One He set up. He predestinated
the time when He will cross each of His children's path with the
Gospel And He will send the Spirit of His Son, the Spirit of adoption
into the hearts of each one. And thus He'll bring each child
to praise God in all His glory for having done this, for having
entrusted His whole work into the hands of our Sovereign Savior. that the promise might be sure
to all the children. That's what the Scripture says.
That the promise might be sure. If he'd have left it in my hands,
or your hands, or in anybody else's hands, it wouldn't have
been sure he entrusted it all into the hands of his son. And
he's working everything, our sovereign God and Savior is working
everything together to save every one of those children that the
Father entrusted to him. Look at Romans 8. Romans 8, verse 28. Romans 8, 28. And we know that all things work
together. They all work together. They
don't just happen to work together, they work together. All things
work together for good to them that love God. even before we
love God. You know how the scripture speaks
of those that love God as already loving God when often it's talking
about before we even love Him. Yeah. It's working together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. That purpose, they were called
in that purpose before, and they don't even know they were called
in that purpose yet, but it's working together for their good
according to that eternal purpose. For, verse 29, whom He did foreknow,
He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His
Son. Do you see that? Who He foreknew,
foreordained, He predestinated them to be conformed to the image
of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
This is why He gets the glory, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Everything is for the sake of
His Son. And then, moreover, whom He did predestinate, them
He also called. And whom He called, them He also
justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. Now brethren, If you're like
me, I look around in this world right now, and most everything
I see would throw me into utter despair if it wasn't for this
certainty right here. Right here. This is certain.
This is sure, brethren. All things are worked together
for the good of His people. according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."
This was his counsel, this was his will, and he's working everything
after the counsel of his own will. Oh, believer, praise God
the Father, because he entrusted his work into the hands of his
son. Our text says, by Jesus Christ, his work's going to be
accomplished. What if tonight is the appointed
time for one of those lost children? That just amazed me. I just thought,
that's the hope that keeps me coming here. That's the hope
that keeps me preaching, period, is that he's got some lost children
and he's going to bring them to himself to see that he's loved
them from everlasting. He's going to do that. Now, we adopt not knowing. We adopt not knowing. I've got
several friends that have adopted children and we adopt When one
of us adopts a young child, we don't know how they're going
to turn out. We hope they'll turn out good. We hope they'll
be decent human beings when they grow up. But we don't have any
way of knowing how they may turn out to be criminals. We don't
know. We have no way of knowing. God knew. Look over at Ezekiel
16. God knew. God knew from the beginning. He knew exactly what we would
be. Look at Ezekiel 16, 4. And had he not predestinated
his children to be called at the appointed time that he set,
we would never know what God did from everlasting because
we were born the first time as orphans and rebels polluted in
our own blood. Look at Ezekiel 16, 4. As for
thy nativity in the day that thou was born, thy navel was
not cut, Ezekiel 16, 4. As for thy nativity in the day
thou was born, thy navel was not cut, neither was thou washed
in water to supple thee. Thou was not salted at all, nor
swallowed at all. None eye pitied thee. They didn't
love you to do any of these things unto thee, to have compassion
upon thee. But thou was cast out in the
open field to the loathing of thy person. They hated you. in the day that thou was born.
Now look at verse 8. Now when I passed by thee, and
looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love. And I spread my skirt over thee,
and covered thy neckiness, yea, I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God. And look what happened. that thou becamest mine." Well,
preacher, I thought you said we was His before the world began.
All those that He eternally loved, that He elected, that He adopted
unto Himself in eternity were His. But this is our experience
that we come to know it in that time of His love when He whispers
to us and says, you're mine. Now, let's go to Galatians 4
and let's see another illustration. Galatians 4. Willie boy, that's two pages
back from Ephesians. Galatians 4. Galatians 4, verse 1. Now, Paul
here is giving the illustration of a child who's heir to a king. You get it? Illustration of a
child who's an heir to a king. Alright, watch this. Galatians
4, verse 1. Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child,
differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all. Now,
the elect child is an heir of God. He's an heir of God our
Father. And yet, as long as he's the
child of his first father, he's dead in his sins. And He differs
nothing from every other servant of sin, though He is the Son
and Heir of God. He differs nothing. Look at verse
2. But He is under tutors and governors until the time appointed
of the Father. You see this? till the predestinated
time of love, to that time He appointed, having been predestinated
of God our Father. Look at verse 3. Even so we,
when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of
the world. Paul describes those elements
up the page there in Galatians 3. Look at Galatians 3.23. Before
faith came, You know who faith is, don't
you? It's a capital F. It's Christ. Before faith came,
we were kept under the law. Shut up until the faith which
should afterwards be revealed. till Christ was revealed. Wherefore,
the law was our schoolmaster. It was a harsh, strict tutor,
a governor, lording over us, declaring us guilty, guilty,
guilty, guilty. That's what it did. Kept us in
bondage, guilty, guilty, guilty, until, that's what the translation
should be, until Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Verse 25, but after that faith is come, after Christ is come,
we're no longer under a schoolmaster. We're no longer under the law.
Go back to Galatians 4.4 now. But when the fullness of time
was come, how are we going to be delivered out of that bondage
and brought into this adoption relationship with our Father
and know it in our experience of it? Galatians 4.4, when the
fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son made of a
woman. Now connect this with the children. For as much as
the children, those adopted of God the Father in eternity, for
as much as the children were flesh and blood, God the Son
partook of flesh and blood too, made under the law to redeem
them that were under the law. Now keep this, looking at this
in relationship to the children. If were it not for the eternal
adoption of God the Father, Christ would not have been the near
kinsman of these children. You know what the near kinsman
is, don't you? He's the one, the near of kin, who if he has
the ability and he's willing, he can redeem you from all your
debts and pay all the debt you owe. Well, we were under bondage. We sold ourselves into sin. We
were slaves under sin, captive to sin. We couldn't work off
our debt, though, because the wages of sin is death. And that
was a payment we couldn't pay and live. But Christ, by eternal
adoption, is our kinsman-redeemer. And He was willing and able to
redeem us by His blood. So He came and Christ paid the
purchase price. His own blood. And He made, by
paying His blood, He satisfied all the demands of the law. He
paid all the debt that God's children owe to the law. So that
we're righteous and completely magnified and honor the law,
past, present and future, eternally in Christ. So that we're free
from it now. It has nothing else to say to
us. That being dead wherein we were
held. It's done. We're dead to it and
it's dead to us. It's done. So Christ, He did
this now, and now we're His purchased possession. He's lawfully purchased
these children so that now they got no debts on them, they got
nothing owing to anybody, so that now they can lawfully become
God's own children. Alright, look at the first five.
That we might receive the adoption of sons. That's why He did all
this. the right and the privileges that come with being the sons
of eternal God. He did this that we might receive
power. Remember John said those that
believed Him received power. They received the right and all
the privileges that go with being God's own eternal sons. And that's
why He did this and that it might be done justly. Verse 6, and
because ye are sons from eternity. from that eternal adoption because
you are sons. God has sent forth the Spirit
of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father. You see,
we didn't become sons after we believed. We didn't become sons
after He gave us life. He gave us life because we were
sons. This is when the Spirit sheds the love of God abroad
in our hearts, brethren. It's whenever Christ enters in
through the Spirit of God. As He said in John 17, You know
what these words of eternal life are? You know what this law is?
He said, I swear unto you, He made a covenant with you. You
know what it is? He says to us in our heart, writes
this on our heart, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Because He loved us in eternity,
in everlasting, and loved us in the everlasting Son of His
love. We're loved everlasting, for
everlasting. That's what I'm talking about
when I say the eternal sons of God. He says, and I've loved
you with an everlasting love. Therefore, in loving kindness,
I've drawn you. And he says, and I'll never let
you go. He says, he shows, he writes,
it's done. My son has finished it. He's
paid the price. This is the everlasting covenant
of grace. I've given him for a covenant of the people into
your heart so that you know there's nothing else that remains to
be done. I'll never let you go, my child. That's what he says
in our hearts. I'll never, ever let you go. Nobody ever can break
the grip I have of my children. ever, He says, into our hearts. When He does that, we become
one, even as God the Father and God the Son are one, as Christ
said, I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect
in one, in our glorious Redeemer. That's the purpose He purposed
in Himself before the world began, to gather together in one all
things. And then we know that God the
Father has loved us even as He's loved Christ. And you know what
the result is? Immediately, always, we cry out,
Abba, Father, Father, Father. He's our Father. Why do we cry
it out twice? Well, one reason might be Christ
is our everlasting Father, our second Adam, and God our Father
is our eternal Father who loved us from eternity and adopted
So we cry out, Father, Father, Father, Father. And then look,
verse 7, Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son. You see, when this happens, I'll
tell you what happens. A man ceases his old dead letter
charade. That's what happens. He ceases
being the servants of corruption. And by servants of corruption,
I mean he ceases trying to serve God in the oldness of the letter
of the law. Do you understand what the law
is? Do you understand what the spirit
of the law is? You can't see the spirit of the
law in the letter. You've got to have Christ's form
in you and have the spirit of His Son in her to be able to
understand what the spirit of the law is. The spirit of the
law is what we see on Calvary's tree when we see that one there
who believed his father. so fully that He was willing
to go to that cross and He loved His Father and His brethren so
fully and He was faithful in love to His Father and faithful
in love to His brethren so fully that He was willing to be made
the utter least before all and to be rejected and left alone
before all and to suffer the fury of the wrath of God, shredding
the winepress of the fury of God's wrath alone in order that
God his father be magnified and declared just and justifier and
his brethren be saved from all their sins. That's the spirit
of the law. That's all you got to do if you
want to fulfill the 10 commandments. That's it. That's the spirit
of it. That's the spirit of it. Now we're not constrained by
the oldness of the letter, we're not constrained by those rulers
and those tutors and those strict taskmasters that yoked us and
had us in bondage when we were children of our father Adam. Now we've become the servants
of our Heavenly Father and we serve Him in faith which works
by love which is the newness of spirit. Romans 8.14 says,
for as many as are led by the Spirit of God. That's our rule. How do you know? How do you know? How do you know how to walk in
this world? The believers led by the Spirit
of God. And as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they're the sons of God. For you've not received
the Spirit of bondage again to fear. He don't bring us to Mount
Sinai and take us back to Mount Sinai. He don't bring us out
from under that bondage and put us back under it. But you've
received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
We serve God because we love Him. We serve God because we
see what He's done for us. We serve God because we're constrained
by the love of His grace. Look at verse 7. And if a son,
then an heir of God through Christ. With sonship comes the promise
of eternal inheritance. That's going to be the completion
of our adoption. Let's go back to Ephesians 1
now. Ephesians 1. Look at verse 11. In whom also
we've obtained an inheritance being predestinated. You see
that? According to the purpose of Him
who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will,
that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted
in Christ. Verse 13, In whom ye also, after
that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
It's going to be through the gospel, brethren. That pleased
God. And he has the power to do it. In whom also, after that
you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. The Holy Spirit of promise. Everything that God does in salvation
is by promise. And he says, which is the earnest,
the spirit itself is the earnest of our inheritance until the
redemption of the purchased possession and to the praise of his glory.
Oh, what assurance we have. Do you see, brethren, what assurance
we have? Do you? Do you see the love of God in
Christ Jesus? How sure it is! Christ bought
his brethren to an inheritance reserved in heaven for us and
therefore God will not stand by and watch one of his children
perish in unbelief or allow one already called to fall away.
He won't do it. Each child eternally adopted
before time shall experience the adoption in their hearts
in time and shall be given the earnest of our inheritance because
God the Father predestinated it. And because it's his good
pleasure and it's his will and God works all things after the
counsel of his own will. If I don't give you assurance,
if I don't make you just throw down all of your weapons and
quit trying to fire back and but, but, but, but, but, there
we go, nothing will. Nothing will. No one can stop
our sovereign God and our savior. This is sure, brethren. But our
text says God predestinated us unto Himself. And so there's
one more time that He predestinated us unto which will finish this
adoption. Let's go to Romans 8 now. Romans
8 again. Okay, verse 16. The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we're the children of God. And if children,
then heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ. With the sonship comes an inheritance. If so be
that we suffer with him, that's going to be the proof we're really
his sons. We can't be separated from him. That we may be also
glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not even worthy to be compared with
the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation
of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of
God." You know there's a whole host in heaven waiting to see
the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was
made, and in earth, and the creature was made subject to vanity, not
willingly, but by reason of him who had subjected the same in
hope, because the creature itself also shall be. Now here's what's
going to happen. This is at what he's predestinated
us unto. just as He predestinates to the
time when He would reveal His Son in us and show us that we've
been adopted. He says here, we shall be delivered
from the bondage of corruption, from these bodies of death, into
the glorious liberty of the children of God. Right now we've been
delivered out from under the law into the liberty of the sons
of God as His sons. We serve Him in love and faith,
working by love right now. But we're going to be delivered
from this earth and this body into the glorious liberty of
the sons of God, into heaven itself, into His glorious presence. For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only
they, but ourselves also. You ever find yourself doing
that? Groaning and travailing in pain? which have the first fruits of
this period. Even we ourselves, grown within
ourselves, waiting for the adoption. What does he mean? He means to
wit, the redemption of our body. That glorious return of our Savior,
and He'll change our vile bodies and fashion them like His glorious
body, and we'll be with Him then, God having brought us unto Himself
as His glorious children, and we'll worship Him face to face.
Isn't that amazing? It's an amazing thing to me that
the invisible God in His wisdom determined a way that He would
make a visible people who are flesh and blood and send His
Son, whose spirit, to inhabit a body that's flesh and blood
and redeem His children from breaking His law and bring His
Son back into glory in a glorified body so that there He is the
God-man and in that God-man bring all these sons into that glorious
liberty with him, so that there we will see the invisible God
face to face in the face of Christ Jesus, our God and our Savior. He's God. That's who He is. That's
who we're going to see. We're going to see Him visibly. And that's wisdom to do all that.
Ah, what a day that'll be. Can you imagine? I can't even,
I can't imagine it. We have the earnest of the Spirit
that gives us the assurance it shall come to pass because God
our Father predestinated this also. He did. Now, we've seen
that this eternal adoption was before He made the world. We've
seen that He predestinated us into the time which each child
shall experience it in our heart, Him sending forth the Spirit
of His Son into our hearts and giving us the spirit of adoption.
And we've seen that He's predestinated us into the time when He's going
to bring us to Himself in glory, perfect, without sin, without
spot, glorified into His presence. Well, there's one more thing.
There's this word grace. All of this was to show us His
love and His grace. His love and His grace. Verse
6 says, "...to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein
He has made us accepted in the Beloved." You see, everything
Paul was preaching and everything he was writing in Ephesians,
was what he said over in Ephesians 3, so that Christ might dwell
in your hearts by faith, that you being rooted and grounded
in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and the length and the depth and the height and to know the
love of Christ which passes knowledge that you might be filled with
all the fullness of God. Loved by God Almighty as he loves
his own son. That passes my knowledge. I don't
know how he loves his son. I can't imagine the heights and
depths and lengths that he loves his son. He made a world for
him to glorify him and a people and all that we see to glorify
him. That's love. and He loves us
that way, we have something, brethren, that not even the elect
of God have. They're chosen, but they're not
sons. That's why John said, Behold
what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God. And then look at 1 John
4. I'm going to close with this.
But 1 John 4. It's His perfect love for us
that casts out fear in our hearts. This is why I want you to see
this love. I hope that you're listening. I hope you'll listen
again. I hope you'll look over these
notes. I'm telling you, these things, brethren, they're amazing. They're precious. This is how
you're going to be filled with the fullness of God. I get calls,
emails, people saying, oh, I'm just torn, this problem's going
on, that problem's going on, help me do something, whatever.
And I say, go listen, go listen, go look into these notes, read
these things, hear these things. This is how you're going to be
grounded. No more tossed to and fro. This is how you're going
to be filled with the fullness of God. If you're filled with
the fullness of God, you should weigh it down with His fullness.
You can't be tossed to and fro. This is how it's going to happen
and people just don't, they won't listen. People just, I guess,
want some wise advice like some earthly psychologist would give
you. This is far exceedingly greater than anything we could
ever think or imagine, brethren, and this is what I'm saying.
Don't pass these things over. Don't just come in here and hear
these things as a tale that's told. Go home and apply your
heart to wisdom. Go home and look these things
up to see if they be so. Follow these scriptures. Look
them up and ask God to fill you with this fullness. I'm telling
you, brethren, this is what God made the world for. 1 John 4.15, it's His perfect love
for us that cast out fear in our hearts. Look at this in verse
15.4. Let me read verse 10. Herein
is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent
His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Look back at verse
13. Hereby know we that we dwell
in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
Now we saw those first two points, didn't we? He loved us from eternity,
then he gave us the spirit of adoption. Now look down here
at verse 16. And we've known and believed
the love that God hath to us. Do you see that? He's brought
us to experience it, and we believe it, and we know the love that
God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love,
or love with us made perfect, that we may have boldness in
the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. As Christ is right now, as He's
loved of the Father, that's how we're loved in this world. With
the same love as He is loved. Seated at the right hand with
Him. Adored every day by God the Father with Him. That's how
we are, brethren. That's His perfect love for us.
And look, verse 18, there's no fear in love, but perfect love
casts out fear. You don't receive the spirit
of bondage again to fear. You receive the spirit of love
that shows us we're His sons. Because fear has torment. He
that feareth is not made perfect in love. Hadn't he entered into
this love? This love hadn't entered into
him. We love him because he first loved us. You see that? This
is what I'm trying to get to you. Let me say this and I'm
done. God's love is in Christ. It's nowhere else. That's why
we don't go around saying just unreservedly to all men without
exception, God loves you. I don't know if He does. His
love's in Christ. His love is toward a particular
people in Christ Jesus. That's who His love's toward.
So seek to know more of Christ. Because this is the truth. The
more we comprehend the height and the depth of the Father's
love for His Son, the more we'll behold the height and depth of
the Father's love for us. And the more we comprehend the
height and depth of His love for us, the more we're assured
that neither height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall
be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. God's two children, that's why
we love to hear this. We love to hear the message of
God's love. We love to hear how he loved
us before the foundation of the world, how he adopted us and
sent his son and assured all these things by divine predestination.
We love it because it assures our hearts we can't ever be separated
from him. He's made us accepted in the
beloved, Christ. So cling to Christ. Learn of
Christ. Look nowhere else but to Christ.
Don't let sinners, don't let men turn you back to something
else. Look to Christ. Stay on Christ,
brethren. This is the one thing that's
gonna matter when you face your dying pillar. The one thing that's
gonna matter is what think ye of Christ? That's it. Where's your salvation? That's
it. And if you would look at me in
the face on that dying day, and you say to me, is everything
you've told me true? Is all I need Christ? I'll look
you right in your face, and I'll tell you then like I'm telling
you now, Christ is all. That's all. You won't be worried
about all this other junk man worried about then. You'll be
worried then that all you need is Christ. Christ is all. and then believe in him, serve
him, serve him. We're debtors not to the flesh.
I know we're all busy and most of the reason we're busy is because
we've mounted up a bunch of junk because of the lust of our flesh.
If we start cutting out the junk and the lust of our flesh, we
can serve him more and not all the having to serve to pay for
all these things we've accumulated. So if you love him, serve him
like you love him. We can't ever come close to comparing
to the love, his love that he's shown us. But we all try to,
try to serve him like we love him. Amen.