Turn with me to Ephesians 1,
Ephesians chapter 1 that Brother Gabe read. And you will think that Brother
Gabe and I collaborated on these messages. We did. We did. We have the same book,
the same text, the same teacher, the same spirit, one Lord, one
faith, one calling, don't we? And I'm not going to say anything
that you don't hear constantly, nothing new. It's the same old
story. I hope this will be plain and
simple. You have a, and I mean this by
way of great commendation, you have a plain and simple preacher.
And that's a good way to be, isn't it? It really is. This will be plain, I hope, simple,
clear message, same message you heard this morning. Salvation
of the Lord. Salvation by grace. Verse six,
if I had a text, it would be verse six. To the praise of the
glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us, God hath made us
accepted in the beloved. And that's Christ. We have that
sign, we have that verse of scripture on our sign in front of our building. To the praise of the glory of
his grace, that verse. Because that, Sums up the gospel,
doesn't it? We're saved by grace. Sums up
salvation. It sums up what the church is
all about, doesn't it? To the praise of the glory of
His grace. It sums up our preaching, doesn't
it? To God's glory. The praise of
the glory of His grace. By grace are you saved through
faith. And that's not of yourself, it's
the gift. That's the grace of God, faith,
this gift of faith. Salvation is His work from start
to finish, His work for us and in us. We're saved by God's grace. Grace is not an offer of God. It's an act of God. It's a work
of God. 100% the work of God. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. God chose us, Christ redeemed
us, the Holy Spirit calls us and regenerates us. That's the
gospel. By grace are you saved. It's
his work. There's a Psalm, Psalm 3 verse
8 says that salvation belongeth to the Lord. His blessing is
upon His people. Salvation belongeth to the Lord. That means it's His. It's His
to give. It's His Word. It's His to do. Salvation is by His grace, His
Word. Salvation is for His glory. We're going to see some verses
here that talks about His will, His grace, His power, His calling,
His blood, His Son, His body, His feet, and it's for His glory. It's all about Him. All right,
look at verse one. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God. Everything is by His will, isn't
it? He worketh all things. Look at verse five, the last
line of verse five, according to the good pleasure of His will. whatsoever God willed and purposed,
that's what He hath done. He works all things. Look at
verse 9. It says, have He made known unto
us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure? Verse 11.
in whom we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his will." It's his will, it's his purpose, everything.
All things are according to the will and purpose of God, everything. known unto God are all of His
work from the beginning of the world. And He purposed everything
according to His will and His purpose, which we know is to
bring together a people into His kingdom just like His Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's His will. Salvation especially. Now everything down to the very
hairs on your head are in God's will and purpose. Nothing's by
chance. But salvation especially is according
to the will and the purpose of God. James 1.18 says, having
begotten us, he hath begotten us of his own will, begotten
us with the word of truth. that we should be a kind of first
fruits of His creatures. It's His will. We're His people. You preached on that in Crow,
West Virginia, you remember that? Great message, James 1.18. Everything
is according to His will and for His glory. All right look
at verse 1, to the saints which are at Ephesus and the faithful
in Christ Jesus. To the saints. I'll just have
you turn to one more scripture, okay, and we'll stay in Ephesians
1. 2 Timothy, I'm sorry, 2 Thessalonians
2. 2 Thessalonians 2. This is one of those passages
you need to commit to memory. 2 Thessalonians 2. Now, you won't find a true preacher
of God thanking people for coming to worship God. for bringing us to worship Him. We thank Him for calling us,
bringing us here. It's our privilege, our honor. We're not to be commended or
thanked for coming to worship God. He is to be commended. Look at 2 Thessalonians 2, and
Paul said this often, verse 13. We are bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren. Beloved, forloved, chosen of
the Lord because God had from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. How did he do that? How did he
bring us? He called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul wrote
to the saints. I've been looking at a bunch
of saints. Every one of God's people are saints. That means
a sanctified one. That means one set apart. Some
of you may know something about cutting horses or a cowboy going
to rope a steer. Uh, that's sanctification. If
you will, it's, he has his. set on, his mind set on one of
those calves in that corral, okay? And he's cutting that calf
out of that herd. He's got his mind, his eye on
that calf, and what he's gonna do is rope it, bring it on the
ground, and put a brand on it. What does that mean? That's mine.
That was mine. To be sanctified by the Spirit
of God is to be set apart from the rest, called, how does he
do it? By the rope of the gospel, drawn
you with cords of love, the cords of a man, that's the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he set his mark on you, what's
that? Faith, faith in Christ, blood, blood, the blood of Christ. That's sanctification, go back
to our text. So this is to the saints and
the faithful in Christ Jesus, faithful. What does it mean to
be faithful? None of us feel like we're, there's
no believer feels like they're truly faithful, do you? But just
think of the word. It means full of faith. Break
it down, full of faith. If you would ask any believer,
any believer, no matter how young, no matter how old, No matter
how seemingly weak in the faith or strong in the faith, you would
ask them, what is your hope of salvation? Any believer, young
or old, they would all give you one word, Christ. Isn't that right? If I asked
you, what's your hope of eternal life? What's your hope of being
saved? What's your hope of being in
the kingdom? What's your hope of having peace with God? What's
your righteousness? What's your sanctification? What
is it? single child of God would say
Christ, right? So you're full of faith. That's
faith. Faith is not a thing, it's a
person. It's not what you do, but it's
who you look to. It's who you trust. It's who
you believe. So it's the faith. And it does
mean true, doesn't it? It means true. All of God's people
are true to His glory. We want to give him, we do give
him all the glory. We don't want, we do give him
all the glory. If someone asks you, how are
you saved? You say, well, I didn't do it. God did it. Christ did
it. God chose me. Christ died for
me. The spirit of God brought the
gospel to me. All of God's people are faithful
or true to his glory because salvation is to the praise of
his glory. That's why He saves anybody,
to the praise of the glory of His grace. Says that three times.
So God's people are faithful in Christ Jesus. can't preach
the Gospel without preaching that can you? That's what he
preached being in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus. Over and over
verse 4 it says, according as God hath chosen us in Christ
before the foundation of the world. Verse 6, to the praise
of the glory of His grace wherein God hath made us accepted in
the Beloved. Verse 7, in whom we have redemption. And on and on you go. in Him,
in Christ. Verse 10, we're gathered, look
at this, verse 10, in the fullness of times He gathered together
in one all things in Christ, both in heaven, which are on
earth, even in Him. That's what salvation means,
to be found, and He quoted it, found in Him, in Christ. Well, how do you get in Christ? How do you get, when Hannah was
just a four-year-old, five-year-old girl, when she asked her mother
that, coming home from church one day, she said, how do you
get in Christ? Well, 1 Corinthians 1.30 says,
of God are you in Christ. Who of God is made unto us, wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification. You don't put yourself in him.
God does that. Let me give you an illustration.
Pretty simple. You have a couple of ladies in
here that are expecting a child. Tracy has a child in her, doesn't
she? Lauren has a child in you. Anyone
else got an announcement? Hannah? Mindy? No? How did that child get in them? God put that child through the
Father's seed. And that's precisely how we are
in Christ. Born again, not of corruptible
seed, but incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and
abideth forever. And this is the Word which by
the Gospel is preached unto you. Mysteriously, miraculously, the
preaching, what you heard this morning, what I'm trying to do
now, the preaching of God's Word. God takes this truth and plants
it in a dead center and life comes forth. Life. You know, to be, look at verse
six, it says we are accepted in the beloved. And this is as
good an illustration as I can use, but these ladies have these
children in them. What's it mean to be in Christ?
What does it mean to be accepted in the beloved? Well, that child
is in your heart and in your mind, isn't she? She, she, he,
that child is in your heart, right? Oh my, are they? Can you love an unborn child?
Ask them. God's people were loved before
the world began, before they were ever born, in his heart,
in his mind, in his purpose, in his will, in his covenant
chosen by God, given to Christ long before he came. And in the
fullness of time, God sent forth his son to do that work for them.
And in time, we're born of a parent, two parents, and we're a human
being. And then in time, by this gospel,
we're born again, born again. Well, there's a scripture that
says, as he is, so are we now in this world. As Christ is,
so are we, God's people, now in this world. Loved of God,
is he loved of God? We're loved of God. Is he acceptable
to God? Accepted, so are we, in him. These ladies, as she is, so is
your child. Where you go, she goes, he goes. Does someone love you? Got to
love your child. There's such a union there. You
can't separate. You can't say, well, I love you,
but I don't love, I love you, but I don't love your child.
That's not possible. You're one, you're one. If you're
accepted, the child has to be accepted, right? You can't say,
well, you can come in, but your baby can't. No, they're one. Is that a good illustration?
I think it is. And this is a mystery, and I
can't explain it, but this is the best I can do. To be found
in Christ, covered, redeemed, accepted. We're accepted in the
beloved. Accepted in the beloved. Here's
another illustration, maybe bring the point across. My brother was killed in Vietnam
in 1969. The Lord did it. But 1969, and
he was my oldest brother, the first begotten of my parents.
They loved him dearly, loved him. And well, one day we were,
I was maybe 15 or 16 years old at the time. I was 14 or 15 when
he died. We were sitting in the house
and a knock came on the front door. And I went to the door
and answered it. And there was a very down and
out fella, very poor, just like someone you'd see on the street
corner, you know, homeless. And he said, is Reverend Mahan
here? I said, yes, he is. And could
I talk to him? You know, his head down, ragged
clothes. And I went and got Dad, and Dad
came to the door, and I was behind him, I listened to all that.
And the man said, I'm down and out and I need some help. And
he said, I was in Vietnam. He said, and I know your son
Robbie. My dad's whole countenance changed. Everything about him changed.
He said, come on in. Obi, he brought that man in and
him and my mother had him sit at the table and treated him
like their son. Why? The Beloved. He was accepted
in the Beloved. None of us are worthy, like he
was saying. None of us are worthy. We're
not acceptable in ourselves. We're totally unacceptable. But
if you believe God's Son, if you really do believe God's Son,
if you really do look to God's Son, do you? Or do you look to
yourself? Is there anything good about
you? No, you really believe that your goodness is Jesus Christ.
You really believe he's your righteousness, your hope, your
salvation, do you? God says, come on in. You're my son and he loves you
just like, and the only reason you believe that is because God
first loved you and gave you that faith in Christ. We're accepted
in the beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at this, look at
verses two through four, grace me to you and peace from God,
our father. And from the Lord, Jesus Christ,
grace and peace. God is our father. My dad, I heard him preach recently.
He said, do you know what it really means? He said, preachers
tell everybody everywhere. God loves you. He said, do you
know what it means for God to love you? If God loves you. Whom have I, what have I to fear?
What have I to dread? Leaning on the, if God loves
you, you'll love forever. And nobody and nothing can separate
you from that sovereign love. Whom he loves, he loves forever.
Whom he loves, he saves. Whom he loves, he gives everything. But by the spirit of adoption,
you can say, you can call, and Christ said, pray this way, our
Father, And do you know why He's your
Father? Because we're accepted in the Son. Blessed be God and
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, verse three, who has
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
That's what Brother Gay was telling us, this fellowship, the greatest
blessing, the blessing. is this fellowship. This is a
foretaste of glory divinism, just a foretaste. If you enjoy
doing this now, if you just wait, if you enjoy singing these songs
now, one of these days you're gonna sing from the top of your
lungs to the bottom of your heart and be totally, no self-consciousness
about it. You'll be in perfect pitch singing
these songs, songs of Zion. Heavenly, we're sitting in a
heavenly place now. How amiable are God's tabernacles,
heavenly places. Verse four, according as God
hath chosen us in Christ. Now here's this grace we're talking
about. Now just be a few more minutes. This is sovereign electing grace
is what this is. That God chose a people before
the foundation of the world that they should be holy and without
blame, and He did this in love to them. It's His love. For His
great love were with the elect. We love Him, yeah. And we, someday
we will be in perfect harmony and in love with one another,
won't we? Perfect. Well, why? Because God's love
is perfect. And he shall perfect that which
concerneth them. But he hath chosen a people before
the foundation of the world. This is sovereign electing love. Now who does God choose? That's
what Gabe said then, sinners. Sinners, they're his choice.
He said, do you see your calling, brethren? First Corinthians one.
Do you see your calling? Not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many nobler call. But God hath chosen the
foolish time. Is that you? The weak things,
God had chosen the base things, base, things that are not, nobodies,
nobody, that's who God chooses. This is a true story. I still
think of this a lot. When I was in grade school, we
called it grade school back then, I was about the fifth or sixth
grade. You know how you choose up sides on the playground to
play some sport or something, you know, whatever it is, softball
or whatever? Well, I was popular. I was on the basketball team. So I was chosen to be one of
the captains of the two sides. So we began to choose. Well,
you might know who I would choose to want to be on my side. If
there's a big fella like Captain, that's my first choice. I want
him on my team. or somebody fast, or somebody
really I knew to be good. That's who you choose, okay?
That's who you choose, all right? All right, we chose back and
forth until finally it came down to one girl that was left. Her name was Leanne Ratcliffe.
I remember it like it was yesterday. She's the one nobody wanted. A little bit overweight, not
popular. And I had to choose her, she
was the last one to live. And I remember saying, oh, okay.
It haunts me to this day. She died of brain cancer the
next year. I believe she's in glory. That's who God chooses. That's who God chooses. That's
who Christ came for. The nobodies, the nothing, the
unwanted. Not just the down and out, not
the poor. You know, the poor literally
do have the gospel preached unto them, though. Down in Mexico,
oh my, there are many churches full of just very literally poor
people, and God sent the greatest blessing on this planet, the
gospel, to them down. And they don't have much, but
they've got everything. They've got Christ, don't they?
That's who God chooses. That haunts me to this day. Now,
if I had to choose again, you know who I'd choose? The worst. That's who God chooses. It says,
look at verse six, he's made us accepted. That's accepting
grace. Accepting grace. Verse seven,
in whom we have redemption. Redeeming grace. We don't have
any redeeming quality. We can't redeem ourselves. We
can't pay for anything we've ever done. We'll never undo anything
we've ever done. Jesus Christ did. Undid it all. Look at this verse seven, the
forgiveness of sin, forgiving grace. But if you're guilty and
ashamed of it and want forgiveness, it's one of the sweetest things
you'll ever hear. I forgive you. And this is forgiving gray and
whom God forgives. That means he's forgotten it.
It's wiped out. It's gone. He said the sins of
iniquity of Israel will not be, not be found, not be brought
up ever again. It's wiped out. There's nothing
on your record. Forgiven and forgotten, why? Because it's blotted out, it's
paid for under the blood of Christ. Forgiving grace, forgiving grace. Verse eight and nine, he's abounded
toward us in wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the
mystery of his will according to his good pleasure. That's
revealing grace. God hath revealed Christ not
only to us but in us. You know, we use this term, and
only believers understand this term. When we talk about somebody
being saved or born again, we use this term all the time. We
say, when the Lord revealed Himself to them. Don't we? That's how
we say, when the Lord revealed. I remember we were out to dinner
with some neighbors. They kept asking us to go out
to dinner. We went out. We began to talk
about And I got up to go use the restroom, and as I was coming
back, I heard Mindy say, when the Lord revealed Himself to
Paul, and she went on, and they looked at us like, what are you
talking about? The Lord revealed Himself. Well, He does, doesn't He? He
has to, God. This is life eternal, that they
might know Him, Thee, the only true God. Very few people know
the true God, the living and true God, God who is God. And
Jesus Christ, whom He sent, God's Son. He's a living person. He's
not a concept. He's not an idea. He's not a
statement of faith. He's a person, and He reveals
Himself. How? Spirit of God, who preaches
the gospel. Now, how much do we know him?
Not very well, do we? But we do know him. Do you talk
to him? Do you commune with Him? Do you
like to read about Him? Do you like to hear about Him?
Do you like to sing His songs? You know Him. You love Him. Do you love Him? Do you love
His glory? He's revealed Himself to you. He's revealed. That's
revealing grace. And look at this, verse 10, in
the fullness of time, He's gonna gather us together in one and
all things in Christ. That's gathering grace. Brother
Gay was preaching on his fellowship. He's called us into the fellowship
of his dear son, the father and the son. And he's gathered us
together. The lot is cast in the lap, but
the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. We were supposed
to go to Georgia and pray. Not we preach, me preach. But
we were supposed to go to Georgia for me to preach. But here we
are. Who did that? God did that. He does it all. The lot is casting
up, but the whole disposing thereof. You may have decided to come
here this morning. Am I gonna go? Am I not gonna
go? Why are you here? Not because you decided. Because
God gathered you here. What a blessing. God overrules
everything, doesn't he? For our good, for his glory.
Or we wouldn't come. We wouldn't come. The flesh would
bring up something, would hinder us, like Gabe was saying. But
God gathers his people together, and they all are gathered around
this, where the carcass is, the eagles are gathered, where the
body is, where the Christ is, that's where God's people, that's
where you'll find God's people. They're not looking for excuses
not to be there, they're looking for ways to be there. And God
gathers them, why? They're in love with Christ.
And that, what a gathering, what a fellowship, what a joy to have. And it's God's doing, you see,
it's His grace. This is the greatest gift God
could give a human being, isn't it? Right here. His son, the
fellowship, this is it. Can you say this, that it doesn't
get any better than this? Can you? Can you? Sure you can. That's why you linger after it's
all over. My dad used to say, if the food's good, people will
hang around afterward. You don't wanna leave. You don't
wanna go out into the slime pits. You wanna stay right here on
this little ark. Oh my, what a blessing. Gathering
grace. And it talks about inheriting
grace and inheritance. We all got the same inheritance.
It talks about sealing grace. You're sealed, sealed, kept by
the power of God. That's just great. So, look at
chapter two and I'll quit. Chapter two, look at verse, and
it talks about God rich in mercy and His great love wherewith
He loved us even when we were dead. Verse five, in sin hath
quickened us, He did it. Together with Christ, oh, it's
by grace you're saved. He's raised us up together, made
us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Here it is.
Verse seven, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding
riches, all excelling, exceeding riches of his grace, saving grace,
in his kindness, toward us, and where is it? It was through Jesus
Christ. To the praise of the glory is
great. May God be honored and glorified. I hope this was a blessing. Okay,
amen.