Turn back with me, if you would,
to Ephesians chapter one. I have, I believe, a very simple
message this morning. I pray that the Spirit will make
it to be a very clear and impactful message. I do deeply and sincerely
ask, I'm asking the Lord's Spirit to really let us get a hold of
this. I pray that he will cause this to be very, very clear.
That's my main goal. Very clear and then in that,
I pray he'll cause it to be very impactful. All I want to do is give the
glory where it's deserved. That's all I want to do. That's
all we're going to do this morning. We're going to very simply ascribe
the glory to who it's owed to. And the glory includes creation
and it includes life and it includes health and it includes provisions
and all things. But specifically we're talking
about salvation this morning. Salvation. I want to spend just
a few minutes ascribing the glory to whom it's owed in the salvation
of sinners. Who the glory goes to. Who the
glory goes to in salvation. Now, I have preached from Ephesians
1 many times. I actually went on to Sermon
Audio and looked and, you know, scrolled and scrolled and scrolled
so many times. And I would venture to say if,
you know, the Lord allows me to live, I'll just keep on doing
it and keep on doing it. But I was doing some reading
on some comments that another preacher of the gospel had to
say about this chapter. And he emphasized a little two
word phrase that really got my attention. And I want to bring
it to your attention. Because these two repeated words
will confirm to us where the glory goes. This will really
confirm where the glory goes. If you were to ask the average
man or woman Do you get the glory in salvation? If you were to just walk up to
somebody on the street, I mean anybody, if you were to walk
up to anybody and ask them, do you get the glory in salvation? I am pretty positive. All of them would say, oh no,
I don't get the glory. No, I don't get, do you get the
glory in salvation? No, no, not me. I don't get the
glory and salvation. But then when they explain to
you how they were saved, they end up giving themselves a glory.
You ask people, is it by works or grace? Oh, grace. But then
when they start explaining how they were saved, it's works. You ask the average religious
person, how were you saved? Are you saved? Yes. How were
you saved? The average religious person
will say, I was saved according to my decision. I was saved according to my choice. I was saved according to my will,
according to my works, according to my deeds, my baptism, my accepting. My, my, my. That is giving all the glory
to me. That's giving all the glory to me. Every time I say
my, I, I'm giving the glory to me. Ephesians 1 is going to very
clearly tell us that's not where the glory goes. That's not where
the glory goes. It doesn't go to me. And it doesn't go to you. Look
at verse 1 right here, Ephesians 1 verse 1. It says, Paul, an
apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. Paul said, let's
start right here. The only reason I am an apostle
is because it was the will of God for me to be an apostle.
And that can be said about all of us. The only reason we are
what we are is because it was the will of God for us to be
what we are. Paul told the Corinthians, I
am what I am by the grace of God. By the grace of God, all the
way down to being a believer. All the way down to being a believer.
This chapter is going to show us that if we are believing children
of God, it's because it was the will of God for us to be believing
children of God. It's not because we grew up in
believing households. Or believing churches. And had
believing parents. There are many souls who grew
up that way who are not believing children of God. And if we are,
it's only because it was the will of God for us to be. Verse
one says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of
God, to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful
in Christ Jesus. He said, that's who I'm writing
to. I'm not writing to everybody. writing to somebody specifically,
saints. The faithful in Christ Jesus,
verse two, he said, grace be to you and peace from God our
Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. We just had a Bible study
titled Grace Be With You. I just refer you back to that
Bible study. But everything that he's about
to say in this chapter is the explanation of what grace is. Grace to a sinner. Verse 3 says,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
hath blessed us, who has given to us, who has graced us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. That is what everybody wants. That's what everybody wants.
That is everybody's end goal. Everybody wants spiritual blessings
in heavenly places. The eternal blessings of God
in heaven. Here's what that means. Everybody
wants to go to heaven. Everybody wants to go to heaven.
But here's the problem, and this is what burdens my soul, and
this is why I preach. And I don't say this arrogantly.
I don't mean to insinuate that I've got something and you don't.
Now you better catch up to me. I'm not trying to say that at
all. Here's the problem for mankind, and I'm included in mankind.
Everybody wants to go to heaven. Nobody knows how to get there. Nobody knows how to get there.
Not naturally, I mean not by the ways of man, not naturally
in the flesh, not by human nature. Man's ways are not even close
to God's ways. Man has a way that he thinks
is right. He has this way and he's like,
well, that makes sense to me. It's not God's way. Our Lord
said, your ways are not my ways. Your thoughts are not my thoughts.
Well, this is what I think. Well, that's not what God thinks
because he said, your thoughts are not my thoughts. And the sad thing is, is we,
us, all of us, mankind, men, women, boys, girls, by nature,
we don't naturally know that. We're not born into this world
knowing that. It takes the truth of God's word to, like the apostle
Paul, who at the moment was referred to as Saul of Tarsus. This word
has to knock us off of our self-righteous high horse and teach us the truth
of what God's word actually says. Turn over to Romans 10 with me. Romans 10 verse 1, Paul said,
brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
they might be saved. Now, here's what I want to point
out. He didn't say the Gentiles. He didn't say the heathens, you
know, and we're not going to take the time to go back to chapter
nine, but you know, in chapter nine, verse four, he said, he's
talking about Israel to whom pertains the adoption and the
glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service
of God and the promises. He was Israel. They were the
religious. They were the ones who had the
law and the covenants and the ordinances and they were the
doers and the ceremony keepers. All right, chapter 10, verse
1. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God is for Israel
is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. And here's the reason why. If
God's Spirit, Lord, sends your spirit, That's my prayer, Lord
send, if God's Spirit would come open this up to us. You know,
we sing that song, open my eyes that I may see, open my ears
that I may hear, open my heart. Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
if the Spirit would enter into this place and open this up to
us. salvation would come. Alright, watch this. Verse 3,
for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. That's what man
naturally knows nothing of. How do you know? Because they
are going about to establish their own righteousness. That means their own goodness,
their own worthiness that God will be happy with and accept. And it said in verse 3, they've
not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. What
is the righteousness of God? Verse 4, Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. What
that means is people desire the spiritual blessings in heaven.
They want to go to heaven. They have a zeal for heaven. But they think the way to get
there is in the law. The works of the law, the ordinances
of the law. That's what Israel thought. A righteousness that they think
They can earn by being obedient to the law. But that's not the
way. That's not the way. If that was
the way, the glory would go to them. If that was the way, the
glory would go to them, but the glory doesn't go to them because
righteousness does not come by obeying the law. What do you
mean when you say the law? I mean the Bible. Are you saying
that you don't need to obey the Bible? Oh no. People who don't
obey the Bible go to hell. David said, I love thy law. This
book is, this is the word of Christ himself. This is the character
of Christ himself. Not one word shall ever fail.
This will be in glory forever. But I'm fooling myself if I think
I can obey it. I'm fooling myself if my plea
before God and the judgment throne is that I've done enough to satisfy,
I've obeyed your law. Righteousness does not come by
obeying the law. Verse four says Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness. Righteousness is not in the law. It's in Christ. It's in Christ. Look with me at Galatians chapter
two. Galatians 2 verse 21. Galatians 2 verse 21, Paul said,
I do not frustrate the grace of God. People talk all the time,
they talk about the grace of God. They claim grace and sing
amazing grace and it's all about grace. And then they want to
throw their works in there. And Paul said, I do not frustrate
the grace of God, for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
If a man could obey this and go to heaven, or not obey this
and go to hell, what was the point in Christ coming? If that's
ultimately what it depends on, what was the point in Christ
coming? Righteousness does not come by
obeying the law, it comes by Christ obeying the law. It comes by Christ obeying the
law, all the way down to the law saying, you must die because
of your sin. That's what the law said. The law said the wages of sin,
okay, you've sinned, and you have, and I have too. All right,
here it is. The wages of sin is death. That's
the law. Christ obeyed that law for his
people all the way down to the obedience of death. The sinless Christ was made sin. That's the only way a sinner
can be made righteous. That's the only way, not by a
sinner obeying the law, but by Christ being the substitute for
him or her. Him taking his or her sin upon
himself and giving his righteousness in return. Him trading places
with them. Look right here at Galatians
3 verse 10, it says, For as many as are of the works of the law
are under the curse. What does that mean? That means
any soul who's trying to get to heaven by obeying God's law
is a cursed soul. That's what it means. Why? For, because, it is written,
cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. And that, you know, our Lord
in Matthew 5 taught us that it doesn't just mean in deed, but
it means in thought and motive of the heart. I've never murdered
anybody. Well, have you ever gotten mad
at somebody? Because the Lord said that's murder. That's murder
that started in the heart. He said, cursed is everyone that
continueth not in all things which are written in the book
of the law to do them. You break one, you've broken the whole
law. To break the law in one point is to break the whole law.
I've told you this before, this illustration before, but you
get in your car when this is over and drive down the road
and you will see a law posted on a sign, 60 miles an hour. The moment you go 61, whether
you got a little relaxed and your foot got heavy, or you went
down a hill and the car sped up, and it doesn't matter if
anybody sees it or not. God sees everything. But the
moment you go 61, You didn't just break that law
in one mile an hour. You did not break that law by
160th of the law. The moment you go 61, you broke
the whole law. You broke the whole law. And
what this is telling us is, if the judge is a just judge, well,
that was only one over. We're going to let that slide.
That's an unjust judge. And that's not God Almighty.
He said, every I is going to be dotted, every T is going to
be crossed. So what he's saying is, if you
have to go before just judge, don't go pleading, well, 60 of
them were fine. It's not going to go well. It's
not going to go well. Galatians 3 verse 10 says, For
as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse,
for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not
in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. Like just quickly glance at Galatians
4 verse 21. Galatians 4 verse 21. Tell me. You that desire to be under the
law, do you not hear the law? Do you not hear what it's saying?
Do you not hear what it's requiring of you? Back in Galatians 3 verse 11
says, But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. What does justified
mean? That means when God looks at
you, He says, no sin. The law will look at no man or
woman and say, perfect. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. For the just shall
live by faith. Not of yourself, it's the gift
of God that causes you to look to Christ and hope in Christ. Faith makes the whole object
Christ. Not me, but Christ. Not the law,
but Christ. And you can just put the word
Christ right there. The just shall live by Christ.
That's what faith is. Verse 12 says, and the law is
not faith. But the man that doeth them shall
live in them. You make that bed, you're going
to have to sleep in it. You go before God on those terms,
on those grounds, you're going to have to sleep in it. Here's
the gospel. Verse 13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us. Do you know what happened
on Calvary's tree? Hebrews 7 says the Lord Jesus
Christ became us. When Adam sinned, God said, cursed,
cursed, cursed, cursed. You're all cursed. And Christ
was made to be his people. That's what he was. In Christ,
Gabe Stoniker hung on that cross. That's the only hope I have.
I am not good enough to do this. Oh, you're a good person, Gabe.
There is none good but God. No, not one. You're a righteous man, Gabe.
There is none righteous. No, not one. I'm a sinner. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. One of the best men I can think of in the scriptures is
the Apostle Paul. He wrote two final letters to Timothy, last
two letters of everything he wrote, end of his life, just
before he died, not at the beginning, very end. He said, this is a
faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came
into this world to save sinners against this law. And I'm the
chief, I'm the biggest sinner on earth. The only hope I have is that
Jesus Christ came here and became me, was made a curse for me. Verse 13, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. The blessing, the spiritual blessing,
the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles, the heathens,
that's me and you. through Jesus Christ, that we
might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. All the spiritual blessings of
God are in Christ. They are not in the law. They
are not in baptism. They are not in us. They are
in Christ. They're in Christ. That's what
Ephesians 1 is telling us. Go back to Ephesians 1. Verse 3 says, Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who have blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. It's in Christ, in
Christ. You say, Gabe, I hear you saying
that, but I'm still not following you. What do you mean? What does
that mean? How so? How is it in Christ? What does that mean in Christ?
Okay, here's what it means. Verse four says, according as. Now let me just, let me just
tell you this. You could almost consider everything
I've said so far to be the intro. And the body of the message is
real short. I'm not gonna take that much longer. I understand
we read to verse 14. We're gonna get to verse 14.
But dial in here with me. And we'll get to the point of
this whole thing, okay? Verse four says, according as. That's our little phrase. That's
that little two-word phrase that I told you about at the beginning
of this message. Four more times, he says, according
to. Same thing. According as, according
to. A total of five times, and he
says it more, but a total of five times from verse four to
verse 11, he says, according to. Because of. Here's the reason
for it. This is what it is. Here is how
it happened. In these five according to's,
we're going to see who gets the glory. Verse 3. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. How? What does that mean? Verse four,
according as He hath chosen us in Him, that's
Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love throughout all of eternity in glory with
him. This is how sinners are saved. This is how sinners are saved.
It does not start with a sinner making a choice. It started with
God making a choice. before the foundation of the
world. In the scripture, if you just
go through the scriptures, the wording of the scripture is election. That's how the scripture words
it. God chose some sinners to be saved in Christ. And He didn't just have this
general, you know, election, this general random choosing
of sinners. It was specific, particular sinners. The Scripture says He knew them
by name. And He chose for them specifically
to be saved by Christ before the foundation of the world.
God chose who would be saved. You say, wait a minute, I mean,
you're blowing my mind. Are you serious? Did I hear you
right? You're saying that before the
foundation of the world, God chose who would be saved. I'm not telling us that God is. That blessing of being chosen
to salvation. It was not according to our choice. I'm going to tell you, the first
time the Lord opened my eyes to His Word, not to my own religion,
but to His Word, that shocked me, and that troubled me, and
that scared me. For the first time in my life,
I realized, wait a minute, it's not in my hands? I mean, it's like I don't even
have a choice in the matter? You're telling me that the choice
has already been made? It was not my choice. You're
telling me it was God's choice? Verse 3, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as... Here's how He blessed us. He
chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. Are we reading that right? Before the foundation of the
world, the father predestinated all of his people to the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself. Adoption by Jesus Christ to himself,
that means adoption by a work being finished. Oh man, one of the most glorious
Things I've ever gotten a hold of is salvation is finished. When Christ said it is finished,
he wasn't lying. He wasn't joking. He wasn't being
figurative. That's the God who cannot lie. It is finished. It's finished. It was adoption by a finished
work, a finished price paid, a full price paid adoption into
his family, the family of God, a place prepared in his house. How does this spiritual blessing
in heavenly places come to God's people? How was it secured for
them? Well, They didn't make a decision
for it. They were predestinated to it. Surely you don't believe that.
By God's grace. And as Ephesians 2.8 says, the
faith that's not of myself, the faith he's given to me. I do.
I do. All of God's people were chosen
and predestinated. You know what this makes God?
God. God. Not a president, you know,
or a, makes him God. God is God. What's our message?
God is God. How would he do that? Why would
he beforehand choose and predestinate sinners to salvation? Why wouldn't
he wait and see who would do good enough to be saved? Because
there's none good. No, not one. All have sinned. Well, don't you think everybody
ought to have a chance? Sure, let a baby be born. Give
the baby a chance. You know what the baby's going
to do? Sin. Had God not chosen, election
is not, well, you're gonna get to go to heaven and you have
to go to hell. Everybody's going to hell. Election is unto salvation. 2 Thessalonians 2.13, we're bound
to give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. You,
like everybody else, were just headed for condemnation and destruction.
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith
he loved us, he said, Nope, you're not going. You're not going. Why would God choose a people?
Why would he predestinated people? Look at the end of verse five. Talks about the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself. Look at these next two words.
According to. That's our little phrase. Okay,
this is why they were chosen. This is why they were predestinated.
It was according to the good pleasure of his will. Why did
God do it that way? It's because that's what God
wanted to do, and he's God. Who are we to reply against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why did you make me like this? God forbid. God can do whatever
God wants to do. I'm not God. You're not God. We're not going to have our way
with him. He's going to have his way with us. We're not going
to let him do anything. He's going to let us do whatever
he wants us to do. It was the good pleasure of his
will, this good God, good and kind and loving God. It was His good pleasure, the
good pleasure of His will to do it that way. God's will. Verse 6, to the praise of the
glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the
beloved. Who gets a glory for this? He does. Christ does. He is the one who
made us accepted in Himself. How did He do that? Verse seven
says, He redeemed us by forgiving our sins through His blood. In
whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins. We are accepted in His blood. We are accepted by God into heaven,
in and through His blood. Only in His blood. Not in the law. Not in us giving our life to
Him. You know, everybody's always talking about you've got to give
your life to Him. Well, look at chapter 2, verse 1. You were
dead in trespasses and sins. You didn't have a life to give
to Him. It's not in any work or deed. Go to Titus 3, verse 5. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done. We're only accepted because of
His blood. That's the only reason. Now,
what would make Him want to shed His blood for sinners like us?
If we're so wretched and miserable, what would make Him want to do
that? Look at the end of verse 7. It says, the riches of His
grace. Our redemption and forgiveness
was, look back a couple of words, according to, you see our little
phrase there? according to the riches of his
grace. That's why we were redeemed.
That's why we were forgiven, not because of any riches in
us of any kind. It was only because of the riches
of his grace. Verse eight says, wherein he
hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made
known unto us the mystery of his will, the gospel message, is just the announcement of His
will that He has made known to us. That's what it is. Why would He make His will known
to us? Why would He do that? Why would He reveal all these
things to us? Look at verse 9, it goes on to say, according
to, that's our phrase. He did all that according to
his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in
the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together
in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and
which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained
an inheritance being predestinated. He's going to gather us to an
inheritance that has already been prepared for us, predestinated
for us. Why? Is it because we've earned
it? Is it because we said we're sorry?
Now, don't you think you need to say you're sorry? Is it because we've turned over
a new leaf and we changed our sinful ways? No. That predestinated
inheritance was, verse 11 says, according to. It was according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. That's what God does. God's not
waiting on anybody's will. God is not waiting on my will
to let him have his will He does everything after the counsel
of His own will. Verse 12. It says that we should be to
the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ, the praise
of his glory. That's the father's glory. He's
the first one who trusted in Christ. And I told you I was
done. And that was like 15 minutes ago. I'm sorry, but I really
am done. I don't ever do that. But I really
am done, OK, just. The father was the first one
to trust in Christ, very first one, he said, I trust you to
take this work, to accomplish this work, to redeem our people,
to save our people. I am putting our people, the
ones I chose, the ones I've predestinated, I'm going to put them in your
hands. Father trusted Christ. Verse 13 says, in whom you also
trusted. That means we do. We trust him
too. After you heard the word of truth. The moment God's word of truth
came, it's like, wait a minute, I'm not going to trust in myself
anymore. Just trust in yourself. Everything will be fine. No,
I'm a sinner. There's only one that I trust.
Our brother prayed for us a moment ago. There's one thing needful.
Teach us there's only one thing needful. That one thing is Jesus
Christ. Salvation in Him. His blood. All my eggs are in His basket. That's it. Verse 13, in whom
you also trusted after you heard the word of truth. The gospel
of your salvation. That means it's already finished.
It's not waiting on you to finish it. Christ didn't say from the
cross, it is started. He said it is finished. After you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation in whom? In a person. Not in
a doctrine, not in a law, in a person. Also after that, you
believed. You were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of
His glory, the glory of Christ, the glory of the Father, the
glory of the Spirit, that sealing Spirit. Who gets the glory for
this? God does. Father, Son, and Spirit
in the person of Jesus Christ. God does. All right, here's the
summary of what we just said. I'll close my Bible to prove
it, okay? This is it. Here's the summary
of what we just read. According to His choice, according
to His will, according to His grace, according to His good
pleasure, According to his purpose, we are saved. What does that
leave us to do? Nothing. Rest. Rest. Rest. Have peace in your hearts. What
do I need to do to finish this? Christ has already done it. He's
already done it. It's not according to anyone
or anything else. It was all put in the hands of
Jesus Christ. It is all according to Christ. The fullness of the Godhead in
the person of Christ. He gets all the glory. Unto the
praise of his glory.