I just can't tell you how delighted
Mindy and I both are to be here, finally. I've known many of you,
several of you, for years now. I've always wanted to come out
here. It's an honor that you would
ask me. It's an honor to be asked to
preach anywhere. It's a privilege, an undeserved honor. We've come a long way at great
cost. So, and both Kevin asked me,
he could ask anybody and he asked me and I don't take that lightly.
That's quite an honor. I appreciate it so much. I'm
thankful for you. Thank God for this congregation
and the facility is so nice. I'm grateful for you. And your
pastor and his wife, Kimberly, it's true that we go way back. You're 41. Yeah, we've known
him 41 years. And now Kimberly. You know, they
came here a long way at great cost. And I hope you'll never
take that for granted. But continue to support them
with your prayers and your presence. We did the same thing, by God's
grace, we did the same thing 30 some years ago, left everything
and everyone, fell in love with the people and went there. And
we don't consider it a sacrifice, do we? And you don't, y'all don't
either. But it was. And it's often harder,
if not, it is harder on the woman than it is the man, leaving home
and family and friends and all of that. It's a great privilege, a gift,
to have the gospel, isn't it? It's not everywhere. And to have
a man, the Lord sent a man. That's what Christ, Scripture
says, when He ascended on high, He gave gifts unto men. His gift
is some prophets, some apostles, some evangelists, some pastors,
some teachers. And boy, the Lord's given you
a good pastor and he had his wife. I know you are grateful. I am. Let me just tell you a
little bit. You can turn with me to Ephesians
1. We're going to look at... Kevin will be very happy that
I'm not going to bring anything new. It's going to be exactly
what he preaches. God's Word. It's a Bible study. We'll go verse by verse. But
God's providence is just wonderful. It's just amazing how He brings
us all together and brings us to hear the gospel. Kevin, as
I said, we've known him all our lives, and we knew his father
and mother before him. And as he said, we would go to
Pikeville. I asked Kevin if he told his
story, and he said no. Well, his father's named Paul
Thacker, his mother Sue. And years and years ago, Paul
was quite a builder, and he heard the gospel from Henry Mahan.
And the Lord saved him. Oh, he fell in love with the
gospel. And he wanted that gospel in Pikeville, Kentucky, where
he lived. He wanted his family to hear that gospel. And he called
my dad one day and he said, I'm going to build a church. Didn't
he? I want a church down here for
all my family and my friends and the people in Pike County
to hear the gospel. He said, I'm going to build a
church. And he said, would you come preach to us, to my dad?
And dad said, well, yeah, I'll come preach. And when dad heard
him say he's going to build a church building, he thought, well, you
know, it'd just be a little, you know, whatever. He called him, Paul called dad
and said, it's ready, come on. And he was like Cornelius. He
had his family and neighbors and everybody there. It was the
finest church building you've ever seen in your life. Brick
building, pews, carpet, baptistry, curtains, chandeliers, parking
lot paved, finished work. He said, come on, all things
are ready. Dad went there, of course, and the rest of it's
history. The Lord raised up a preacher
there named Tom Hardy. And lots of people have been
converted under that gospel. The Lord used Paul Thacker to
do that. And Sue. Couldn't have done it
without your mother, could he? And now, his son. Amazing. It's just amazing. Thank the
Lord. Thank the Lord. Ephesians chapter
1. This is a plain, simple, I hope
clear message. Same message you hear. every
Sunday, every Wednesday. The name on your church is Grace. Because that's what we preach,
isn't it? Grace. Because that's how we're
saved. By grace are you saved. That's
the name on our church building. Verse 6, we have this verse on
the side, out front, to the praise of the glory of His grace. That's what the church is all
about, isn't it? That's how the church is formed, by God's grace. Now, grace is not an offer Grace
is an act of God. Grace means gifts. Grace is the
act of God, whereby He chooses a people, gives them to Jesus
Christ to come and save, gives them to the Holy Spirit, gives
the Spirit to them to lead them and guide them, calls them by
His gospel of grace. Grace is an act of God, not an
offer of God. It's an act of God upon people,
in people. It's an act of God the Father
who elects them. God the Son who redeemed them. God the Holy Spirit who regenerates
them. Salvation is by grace. You've
heard this beforehand. Well, if you were called by this
gospel, if you were saved by God's grace, it's the story of
your salvation. In chapter 2 verse 7 it says,
"...and in the ages to come He's going to show the exceeding riches
of His grace and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus."
So what we're going to look at Is God's electing grace? God's
predestinating grace? God's accepting grace? God's redeeming grace? God's
forgiving grace? God's abounding grace? God's
revealing grace? God's gathering grace? That's
all right here. God's inheriting grace? God's
sealing grace? Salvation is by grace. It's not of works, lest any man
should know. You know that. It begins in verse
1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, a messenger of Jesus
Christ, a preacher of the gospel. If a man's a messenger, Christ
is his message. That's what your pastor does,
and he preaches crying. That's what Peter, one time,
he said, we can't help but speak the things we've seen and heard.
What have you seen and heard, Peter? Him. Him. We've heard him. That we preach
him. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, a messenger of Christ,
by the will of God. See, everything is by the will
of God in it. Everything. Not the will of man, but of God. Look at verse 5. It says, according
to the good pleasure of His will. See that? Verse 9, He made known
unto us the mystery of this will. What is it? Have God purposed
all things that Jesus cried before the world began? It's all according
to His will. man fancies himself to have a
free will. Oh no, only God has free will.
Free will means you have free choice. Free will means you say,
I will do this, or I will do that. We cannot say that, can
we? We cannot say, I will breathe
a moment from now, can we? We have a hope to, we have a
want to, only God has a sovereign will. And all things are according
to that will. Aren't they? Salvation especially. Verse 1 says to the saints at
Ephesus or San Diego or Rocky Mountain. Saints? What's a saint?
It's a sanctified one. One who's been set apart. Go
with me to 2 Thessalonians 2. 2 Thessalonians 2. It's one who's
been set apart. We don't set ourselves apart. The church, the Pope in Rome
doesn't make the saints. God does. Called to be saints. It says that in Romans, Corinthians,
Colossians. Called to be or called saints. people that God chose before
the world began and called them saved, and He calls them in time
by His gospel. And that's what brings them out.
That's what separates them from the rest of the world. The belief
of the truth. Look at 2 Thessalonians 2 verse
13. We're bound to give thanks. 2
Thessalonians 2 verse 13. We're bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. That is for love.
of the Lord, because God hath chosen from the beginning, chosen
you to salvation." Every single saint knows that they didn't
choose him, he chose them. Look at this, chose you to salvation,
chose to save you through sanctification of the Spirit. You see that?
We set apart by the Spirit of God to believe the truth. This is what separates God's
people from the world in their birth camp. They believe the
truth. Do you believe the truth? The
whole truth? Nothing but the truth? Well,
God gave you that faith. That's what Ephesians 1.19 says. We believe according to the working
of His mighty power. Wait, stay there. Look at verse
14 in 2 Thessalonians 2. So the Spirit of God sets a people
apart to believe the truth, which is Christ. the true and living
God in Christ, whereunto he called you by our gospel." That's how
he called, to himself. That's calling grace is what
that is. So God's people are set apart to believe the truth
and they're called saints. They're called saints. In verse
2 of our text, Ephesians 1, he says grace to you. Oh, God's
been so gracious to you. If you believe Him, if you believe
His Word, if you believe His Son, if you believe the truth. Yeah, a few people believe the
truth. Men don't want the truth, do
they? God's people do. Grace to you. God's been so gracious
to you to give you this gospel, to give you a man to preach it
and to give you a love for the truth. God's people not only
receive the truth, but they love the truth. Faith is a hard work
and you love the truth. Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Peace. peace. How do we have peace with God?
Our Lord said there is no peace for the wicked. There's no rest
for the wicked. This world is in turmoil and trouble and darkness
and dimness, Isaiah 8 says, and anguish of spirit that look to
the earth and nothing but trouble all around. No peace because
God said there is no peace for the wicked. Those who reject
Him, those who reject His Son, there is no peace. They will
never have any peace in this world. But God That's Ephesians
2. Rich in mercy, for his great
love wherewith he loved some people and chose them, quickened
them who were dead in sin, by grace you said. They received
the love of the truth. They know that their peace with
God was obtained by Jesus Christ on Calvary's trail. They know
that. This is an old-fashioned message
that everybody in the world thinks is archaic, old, bloody, Jewish
religion. No, it's not. It's the truth.
That Jesus Christ obtained peace for us with God who is angry
with the wicked every day by the blood of His Son's cross.
No other way. Do you believe that? Do you know
what a minority you're in if you believe that? If you really
believe that when it's only that God sees the blood that He passes
over us, that it's the blood that makes the atonement for
the soul. Do you believe this old-fashioned, what the world
calls foolishness? Do you? Oh, grace and peace to you. Grace
and peace. I know a man who went all the
way to China to adopt a daughter. And Lord, he was one of the Lord's
saints and he went all the way to China to adopt this daughter
he named her Grayson. Grace and peace. Grace and peace
from God our Father. God's not the father of every
human being. He's the father of his children by Jesus Christ. from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ, verse 3. Now blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places or things in Christ Jesus. He's
going to tell us about the blessings of God and he doesn't mention
one single material thing. Not one, does he? Spiritual blessings. You know, the world loves, you
hear people all the time, have a blessed day. That's a popular
saying. Have a blessed day. What they
mean by that is, I hope nothing goes wrong. Hope you don't have
a flat tire. Whatever. Don't get sick. Well,
no doubt, anything, everything is a blessing. But even the trials
and afflictions and troubles that God sends in the life of
His people is a blessing. weans us from this world, causes
us to look to Him, causes us to believe Him, to trust Him. Works the opposite for the world,
yeah. But the blessings that He's going to tell us about,
and we know this, that God has blessed us with all spiritual
blessing in heavenly things. See, the things of God are foolishness
to the world. The natural man receiveth not
the things of God, their foolishness to him, neither can he know them,
they're spiritually discerned. But God's people, by the Spirit
of God, they hear the things of God, the Word of God, the
truth of God, the Christ of God, the redemption of God, the forgiveness
of sins and all that, and the world doesn't need any of that.
But God's people need all of that. These are the things, the
things that we're interested in. The things of God. spiritual
blessing. And it says in heavenly places
or in Christ. You're sitting in a heavenly
place. Yes, you are. That's just a converted storefront. No, no, this is tabernacle of
God. It's a little tabernacle in the wilderness. You know that?
Where the gospel, where the truth is. People passing by that ark
back in, when the ark was in the wilderness, you know, that
plain little brown tent, badger skin tent, the Hivite and the
Hittites and the Parasites and all those ites would pass by
and see that tent, see people congregating around it, going
inside of it. They'd say, what are they seeing that? Ain't nothing
to that. You look at all these temples
down here. That's where God is. No, it's not either. God was
in one place chosen by Him where the truth was proclaimed, where
Christ and all those things represent Christ. And if people would pass
by, there's nothing to that. Oh, but if God calls you by this
gospel and brings you in and to see the glory and wonder,
you're in a heavenly place. No place you'd rather be, is
it? Right now, there's no place better to be on earth than sitting
right where you're sitting. I'd much rather be sitting there
hearing him say this and he would be saying the exact same thing.
He does. Somebody's got to tell it. It's
my time. But this is a heavenly place, isn't it? Oh, Psalm 84
says, How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. He said, I'd
rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than all these big
temples of the wicked. God is not. We're Ichabods over
the door. Oh, the blessings of God are
upon you people because the gospel's here. Oh, my, my. Don't take that for granted.
All right, look at this. Here it is. The first thing he
mentions in verse 4 is electing grace. Sovereign electing grace.
There you go again, Preach. That's right. That's how it all
started. In the mind, the purpose, and
the will of God, He chose a people before the foundation of the
world to save them. Nobody would be saved if God
hadn't chosen them. Right? If God hadn't elected
them. According to this, He had chosen us in Christ before the
foundation of the world that we should be holy, a separated
people, a righteous people, without blame before Him, and He did
it in love to these people. chosen in him. People argue against
election. You know who believes election?
The elector. Nobody else. And they're so thankful. The Lord kept reminding His disciples,
didn't He, Mike, you didn't choose me, I chose you. And they knew
it, to a man, they knew it, didn't they? Simon Peter, the boats
were his life. Those nets were his life. He
didn't care about anybody, anything, certainly not that Jewish rabbi
named Jesus. He didn't care about him. He
wasn't listening to him. But this Lord, Jesus Christ,
They had chosen Him and came by to that harbor there. How many boats were in that harbor? How many fishermen were in that
harbor? How many? But Christ chose Simon Peter
and Andrew and James and John and nobody else in that harbor. And buddy, they knew it. When
it was all over, they knew it. We didn't know him. We weren't
looking for him. We weren't calling on him. But he knew us, and he
called on us, and he brought us, and he chose us. And they
praised him for calling him. Oh, He's chosen a people. Look
at, you know these words, brother, I hear Kevin preach. He preaches
this. In Christ. Chosen in Christ. All the way down through here.
In Christ. In Christ. In Christ. Predestinated. In
Christ. Accepted. Verse 6. In Him. Verse 7. In whom. In Christ we
have redemption. Redeemed by Him. In Him. It's
all about being in Christ. That's what Paul said. I want
to win Christ and be found in Him. What's that mean? Well, you remember when God said,
I'm going to destroy the world. And God looked upon this world
in the days of Noah. He said, the whole earth that
corrupted my way is full of violence. He said, repent of me that I've
made man. I'm going to destroy this world. And Christ said,
as is in the days of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son of
Man be. Same world, full of unbelieving
people. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Noah was a sinner like everybody
else, wasn't he? And his wife, and his sons, and
their wives, they were sinners like everybody else. But God
chose Noah, elected Noah by his grace, and revealed, says, Noah
was warned of God, of things not seen yet. It's going to rain,
Noah. It had never rained before. And
when Noah said, yes, God said, water is going to fall out of
the sky. Water fall out of the sky. The whole world, water fall
out of the sky. Come on. And God says, yes, rain,
fire is going to fall out of the sky. Come on, preacher. And God said to Noah and his
family, eight souls. Y'all think you're right and
everybody else is wrong. No, we think God is right and everybody
else is wrong, but eight souls out of how many? Millions. And
God said, come thou, Noah, into the ark. Come thou and thy family
into the ark. And he revealed to Noah the way. of mercy, of grace, how he had
found the grace in the eyes of the Lord when he was found in
that ark. And God brought him and put him
in that ark. That ark is Jesus Christ, whom
God chose a people in and brought them to Christ to save them and
in time called them by the gospel and they come to Christ and they
want to be found in Him. Don't they? They want to be covered
by Him. They want to be saved by Him.
Because the wrath of God is going to fall on everybody and everything
that's not in Him like that ark of Noah. Do you know that? In Him. In
Him. Oh, verse 5, here's predestinating
grace. Verse 5, having predestinated
us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself and
according to the good pleasure of His will. Predestination,
I worked on the railroad for 12 years and it was a so-called
preacher and you run into them too. They're everywhere. Woods
is full of these self-anointed prophets. And he, he, I was trying
to talk to him, young man in my 30s, and trying to talk to
him about the truth. And he just gets so mad. He could
get along with everybody but me. He gets so mad at me. He said, finally said, I believe
anything but that predestination. And he did. He believed anything. Predestination is not a doctrine. Predestination is a person choosing
people and predetermining their destination. It's God in mercy
and love and grace choosing a people who needed to be destroyed and
purpose to save them from that destruction. Predestined them
to be conformed to the image of Christ. Predestined their
destiny to be like Christ, to be with Christ, to save them.
Now who wouldn't love that? If you know what you are. know
what you deserve, and he predestined everything about his people.
Everything's been ordered and sure. Every single thing works
together for good to God's people who've been predestinated. Even
the hairs of their head or if you don't have any. He predestinated
that too. He pulled every one of them out.
The world thinks this is fatalism. The world thinks this is foolishness.
God's people love the fact, the blessed fact that God is working
all things, everything in this world. He's working it together
according to His purpose and for the good of His people. Don't
you love that? Predestinating grace. I can't
hear it enough, can you? Predestination. He said that
to his disciples in Luke 21. He told them everything bad that
was going to happen to them. He told them, you're going to
be hated, they're going to kill you. He said, but possess your
souls. He said, in your patience, possess
your souls. Meaning, get a hold of yourself.
Because I have a hold of you. He said, the very hairs of your
head are numbering. He said, you're going to see all this
happen that I've said. I've declared the end from the beginning. You're
going to see it all happen exactly like I predestinated it to be.
And when you see these things happen, he said, lift up your
head to your redemption, God. Predestinated, correct? Adoption. Anybody in here adopted? Anybody? We have a man that was adopted
years ago. He's 70 now. He was adopted. Oh, he loves
adoption. Do adopted children choose their
parents? Huh? Does a parent looking for children
go down there and say, well, somebody please have me? Oh,
no, no, no, no. The parent chooses the child,
don't they? Well, that's what God did. He chose whom He would
adopt into His family. And not only that, they're born
into His family. And He did it by Jesus Christ,
His only begotten, well-beloved Son. Verse 6, it's all, here
it is. This is all to the praise of
the glory of His grace. The riches of His grace. And
He's going to show us in time just what all He's done for us
in Christ. Choosing us, predestinated us. Verse 6 says we're accepted in
the blood. Accepting grace. You have that
article in your bulletin about accepting. That's what everybody
says, don't they? Accept Jesus. Accept Jesus. As
if God is asking men for their acceptance. That's the highest
blasphemy I can think of. You know that? We're the ones
that need acceptance. And we're not acceptable. We're
unacceptable in ourselves. How are we accepted? In the Beloved. in the Beloved. God is well pleased
for His righteousness. And He covers His people in this
righteousness. And they're accepted in the Beloved.
Let me give you an illustration. God has one begotten well-beloved
Son. And He sent Him to Calvary's
tree to die for His people. And every single one of those
people He died for, God accepts on behalf of His sacrifice. God
loves and the Spirit works a change in them. But anyway, God's beloved
son, my brother, the Lord took my brother in Vietnam in 1969.
And one day we were sitting at home. I'll never forget it. I
was maybe 15 or 16 years old. And a knock came on the door.
And I opened the door, and there was a ragged-looking fellow.
He looked down and out. He looked bad. Young man. He looked bad. And he said, is
Reverend Mahan home? And I said, yes, he is. I'll
go get him. And I went and got Dad. He came to the door, and
the young man said, Reverend Mahan, I'm sorry to bother you,
but I'm so down and out. And he said, I don't have anybody
or anything. I don't have any food, and I
don't have anywhere to go. And he said, do you think you
could help me? Dad said, I might be able to.
And the young man said this. He said, I knew Robbie, your
son. I was with him in Vietnam. And I saw a change come over
my dad's face. His eyes lit up. Smile come over
his face. Come on in, son. He opened that
door like my brother was there. Come in. He sat him down at the
table just like his son. Fed him food. They gave him money. They gave him clothing. They
did everything for him. Why? He knew the sign. Son of my Father, He was accepted
in the Beloved." A lot of beggars out there. Some don't even know
it. Most don't know it. This man
said, I know the Son. Do you know the Son? That's why
He accepts Him. It's in Him, verse 7, and I'm
going to close. In Him we have redemption, you
see. We don't have any redeeming qualities. We can't pay for our
past sins, can we? We can't atone for anything.
We can't cover it. We can't undo it. We can't pay
for it. Crime's too deep. Stain's too
deep. How are we going to be redeemed?
One way. Precious blood that I have. Even
the forgiveness of sins. That's forgiving, Grace. Do you
know what forgiveness means? It means just what it says, forgiven. And to be forgiven, truly forgiven,
is forgotten. If you bring something up again,
you didn't forgive them, did you? And God says concerning
the sins of his people, the iniquity of Israel will be sought and
it won't be found. Why? Because they're forgiven and
forgotten and covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. Isn't
that good news? And He's abounded toward us in all wisdom. He's
made known unto us, verse 9, the mystery of His will. He doesn't
have made known these things to the world, but He has to His
people. It's all according to the good pleasure of His will
that He purposed in Himself. He just... Did you choose God
or did He choose you? Every one of God's people. He
chose me. When? before the foundation of
the world. Spurgeon once said, I know he
chose me, I sure didn't choose him, and I know he had to do
it before I was born, because if he'd waited until afterward,
he sure wouldn't have chose me then. Why? He saw you were going to be a better
boy than the rest? Oh, no. It's just the good pleasure
of his will. Just because he did. Now, isn't
that something? And it goes on to talk about,
you know, gather all things together in Christ in heaven and earth.
Gathering. Isn't this a wonderful gathering? Don't you feel blessed
to be a part of this gathering? If you do... If you love what
you're hearing, who you're hearing, you love this place, and you
love this truth, and you love this man, you love each other,
grace unto you. Peace be unto you from God the
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He has gathered you unto Himself,
gathered you to cry. You are in Jesus Christ's ark,
and when He comes, He's going to gather you together with all
the saints at the river that flows by the throne of God. And
you're going to be singing His praise to the praise of the glory
of His grace for the rest of your days. How many is that? We're over that end. Okay. Well, thank you.