Go to Ephesians 1 now. The last
message on Ruth, we'll save it for Wednesday night, it'll be,
Lord willing, be Wednesday night. I told you years ago, and I still
believe this, that the church should be always reading and
preaching from the epistles. The epistles are letters to the
churches, to God's people. And I'm convinced that we need
to always be in them and studying them. And we're just about finished
with Ruth, and I was thinking of what book to go through. And
I was surprised that it's been years since we looked at Ephesians. ten or more years. I mean, we've
preached many messages throughout the book, but not one verse by
verse. So that, Lord willing, that's
what we're going to start looking at, Ephesians. That ought to
make you pretty happy. Most people who first hear the
truth, who God is, what man is, what salvation is, who Christ
is, how we're saved, heard it for the first time through a
message in Ephesians 1 or 2 or maybe Romans 9 or somewhere like
that. Ephesians 1 is the sum and substance
of the gospel, isn't it? It's the truth. Salvation, election
by the Father, redemption by the Son, regeneration by the
Holy Spirit. Salvation in a word, one word,
is grace. By grace, you're saved. No, it's not words. It's His
Word. It's not your word. It doesn't
have anything to do with us. It's everything He did. Salvation
is by grace. By grace, you're saved. Now,
grace, according to religion, is an offer. That Christ, that
God offers salvation, that God offers life, and Christ made
this offer of His, saying you're supposed to accept it. That's
not the Gospel. Salvation is not an offer of
God, it's an act of God. It's not something God offers,
it's something God does for us, Christ does for us, something
God does to us. in us. And he does it by the
gospel. Grace is not an offer. Now, when
we say grace, the word grace means gift. Gift. A gift bestowed, not offered.
A gift bestowed. And we're going to look this
morning at electing grace, predestinating grace, accepting grace, redeeming
grace, forgiving grace, abounding grace, revealing grace, gathering
grace, inheriting grace, healing grace, believing grace, sealing
grace. Grace. He goes on several times
to talk about His grace. See, it's His to give. It's His
grace. Let me just go ahead and use
an illustration. If I have some money and I'm going to give it
to Mike, okay? I'm going to give it to Mike. It's my will, isn't it? It's
my choice. It's my decision, isn't it? If I'm going to give it, it's
not up to him. It's completely up to me, okay?
And I'd say, I was going, who am I going to give this to? Well,
I'm going to give it to Mike. Okay? And I give it to Mike. And so Mike is completely beholden
to me. He didn't do anything for that.
He didn't earn it. He didn't even ask for it. And
I freely, frankly, personally gave it to him. It's mine to
give. And I gave it to him. See? That's
grace. That's salvation. My grace. His
grace. All right, look at it. Verse
1, Paul. I've had people ask me before,
what should I call you? Well, Paul is what my parents
called me. So go ahead and call me that.
Not reverend. Not doctor. That's a rather word
they used to say. I'm not even a practical nurse.
No, no, no, no. That name, Reverend, belongs
to one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 119. Holy and Reverend
is His name. Anybody that takes that title
in front of their name is false. They wouldn't dare take it if
they feared the Lord. Paul. An apostle of Jesus Christ. That
means a messenger. Christ is the one that chose
Him to be His messenger and Christ was His message. That's how you
know. By the will of God. He keeps
talking about the will of God in this chapter. Verse 5. He says, predestinated
us according to His will. Doesn't it? According to the
good pleasure of His will. Verse 9. He made known unto us
the mystery of His will. It's a mystery to most. Verse 11. It says it's all after
the counsel of His own will. Salvation is His grace and everything
is according to His will. Man does not have a free will. Anyone who says so is false. They don't know the God of the
Bible. What they're saying is what Satan said, I will. Satan said, I will. God says,
no, you will not. So what happened to him? Adam
and Eve said, we will be as gods. No, you won't. You just became
a devil. Now, if you're saved, it's going
to be his will. That's what it's going to take.
Because our will is bound. Our will is even. His will. I'm so glad everything's
according to His will, aren't you? Now, the will of God to
the saints. You're not made a saint by anybody
in Rome. One year, many years ago, the
so-called Pope or Papa or Father, Holy Father Antichrist in Rome,
canonized Martin Luther. Means made him a saint. Martin
Luther! who fought them all. They all
tried to kill him. Some good pope said, well, we'll
just make him a saint. Well, Luther wouldn't have accepted
it. But they didn't make him a saint. Who makes saints? God
makes saints. The sanctified in Christ Jesus. Sanctified by His Spirit. Someone
much higher than Rome sanctified His people. The Lord in heaven. He said, I sanctify them. Christ, saints. You're a saint. If you're in Christ, you believe
Christ, you're a saint. St. Sarah, St. Doris, St. Vicki,
St. Irene, St. Ron. There's no St. Ron about. Yes, there is. Saints and faithful, which are
at Ephesus or Rocky Mount or whatever church that's in Christ,
to the faithful in Christ, those who truly believe in Jesus Christ. Now, how many times does it say
in Christ? In Ephesians 1. What does that mean? Keep saying
that. Look at verse 3, the last line,
in heavenly places in Christ. Verse 6, in the beloved. Verse 7, in whom
we have redemption. And on and on it goes. What's
that mean? Well, Paul said, I want to win
Christ and be found in him. It's not that he worked for Christ,
but he went. Here's the prize that God gives
to the Son, Christ. You've been found in him. It means to be in him like Noah
and his family are in the ark. Those animals were in the ark.
How'd they get in the ark? How'd the animals get in the ark? Huh?
How'd they get in the ark? Did Noah go out and say, anybody
wants to come in the ark, come in the ark. All you lions out
there, you want to come in the ark? No, they're wild beasts. Noah had to go out there and
choose them, two men, and bring them into the ark. He said to
Noah, bring them in. All that the Father gives Christ,
He'll bring them, morning, bring them in, by His power, in Christ,
in Him, in the below, grace to you. That's who this is to. It's
not to the world. He's not writing to the world.
He's not writing to every single human being. Grace. God offers
you grace. No, this is to the church. It's
those in Christ. Grace to you. What grace? All
grace. God of all grace. You need grace? Everything's a gift. Every good
and perfect gift comes down from the Father of life with whom
there's no bearableness or shadow of return. Everything we are
and have is by grace. Especially salvation. Do you
need any grace? Your next meal is by grace. All the grace of
faith and repentance and belief and trust. It's going to take
grace for you to hear this message. It all comes from above. And
He freely gives it. Do you need grace? I'm like my
granddaughter one day. My mother or somebody kept telling
me, that's too much. You've got too much. And she
said, well, I want too much. I need too much. I need it all. I need everything. Well, he says,
ask and I'll give it to you. He's a God. It's His grace to
give. God of all grace. Grace to you.
All grace. And peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Where does peace with God come
from? It comes from God. It comes from Christ. You hear
false preachers all the time, Robert. They say when a man is
on his deathbed and they jerk a profession out of him, he made
his peace with God. Every time. He makes a little decision, that
slow winter, goes like a wolf and preying on the sick and the
weak and the hospital and jerks a profession out of him so he
can tell his family that he saved them. He made his peace with
God. There's never been a mother's
son that didn't go to hell. They all go to hell. Now, I ask every saint in this
room, how did you get peace with God? Did you make it? What's
the scripture say, John? Who made peace with God? Christ. How? One word. Blood. I tell you, it's blasphemous
to say that we make our peace with God. That's bypassing Jesus
Christ. That's anti-Christ doctrine. Peace with God. God's not angry
with you. God is not angry. In fact, if
you're in Christ, He loves you so much that you just don't realize. Because of Jesus Christ, He's
out to do you good, as Brother David would say. Peace. There is no peace for the wicked.
But you tell the righteous, it shall be well with them. Why?
Because of Jesus Christ. May peace from God our Father. He's not just our God. He's our
Father. He's our Father. And from the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's not just Jesus. He's the
Lord. He's the Lord, Jesus Christ. Now, verse 3. He says, Bless
me, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, bless
the Lord, O my soul. Can you say that? Bless His holy
name. All that is within me. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all blessing." What kind of blessing? Well, you know,
the things of this world, He satisfies thy mouth with good
things and gives us all things richly to enjoy, doesn't He?
And I can say, you know, that woman there is a blessing to
me. My daughter and granddaughter, they're a blessing to me. You're
a blessing to me. Good health is a blessing. Sickness is a
blessing. That's right. Everything's a
blessing. I mean, to God's people. But this is not what he's...
It can be... These things can be a curse.
Too much of these things can be a curse. But the blessings
he's speaking of are spiritual blessings. Where are they? And
heavenly things are in Christ. Heavenly places in Christ. What
does that mean? It means what you're doing right
now is the greatest blessing on planet Earth. Do you hear
me? And you're not here by accident.
You are predestined to be here, to hear this wonderful news.
Oh, I hope we hear it. We don't deserve to hear it.
We didn't do anything to merit His favor for us to come here
and hear it. We didn't of our own free will get here. He brought
us here to hear of our inheritance. How in the world could we go
after and do anything else? Me? This is what we're going
to see. Like Ruth. Who am I that I found
such grace? Why would I land in his field?
According to the good pleasure of his man. This is the greatest
blessing known to man. It's to sit and hear the gospel. Spiritual blessings in heavenly
places. Part of the field where Boaz
is. The church of our blessed Redeemer where Christ the Lord,
the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached. Come to know the Redeemer and
be found in Him. When it's all over, you're going
to thank God to high heaven that He put you in a place where you
heard the gospel. And you're found in Christ. I
remind you how few people were in that ark. I remind you now.
And don't you know for a year Noah and his family are thanking
God that they were in that ark. Can all those people be wrong?
Yes, they are. Always. Always. The majority
is always wrong. There is a way that seems right
to man, it ends one way. Destruction. Straight is the
gate, narrow is the way, and few there be that find it. Why do they find it? Because
God found them and put them in. That's grace. I'm going to give
this morning, by God's grace, God, I'm going to give God all
the glory. I'm going to lay us all in the
dust, and God on the throne, and watch as God lifts us out
of the dust, out of the miry clay, and sets us among praises
in heavenly places. All right? The world hates us. All right, here's the first blessing
that he mentions, verse 4. Oh, blessed be God who blessed
us with these spiritual blessings. Verse 1, according as He has
chosen us in Christ, in Him, before the foundation of the
world. What's that? What is that? Election. Chosen. Chosen. All right? Let me make
this very clear. An old preacher years ago said,
it's not that people don't understand election, it's that they don't
like it. What's hard to understand about this? I'm going to choose
somebody right now. Right now. It ain't up to you. It ain't up to anybody in here,
and nobody in here knows who I'm going to call. Do you? Joseph Parks. That's who I've
got my eye on. Joseph, you're my friend. I love
you. You're my buddy. You're my brother.
I'd do anything for you. What about me? What about you? He's mine. It's not up to you. Is it? It's up to me. Who's salvation
up to? God. Him that chose us. And God's elect know that. Was
Joseph calling on me? Was Joseph asking it? No. I called
on him today. What could be plainer? I'm the
prodigal son. I wasn't calling on him. Saul
of Tarsus asked him, who wrote this letter, Saul, were you calling
on God? I hated this guy. I hated this
way. I hated the Lord Jesus Christ.
I believed there was a Jesus, but I didn't want to put him
out of business. Oh, was Paul ever grateful that
God chose him? He said, I'm less than the least.
I'm not fit to be called a disciple. I'm the chief of setter. Well,
why are you a saint now? God chose me. He left me to myself. I said, God, you know who believes
election? You know who loves election?
You know who marvels at election? You know who thanks God for election?
The elect do. Without exception. I don't like
that. Then you're not elect. Or at
least don't know it yet. But when you find out that you're
worthless, no good, don't deserve anything. What could be plainer? See, here's
the whole false premise. Men believe there's something
good in everybody, and preachers tell them how much God loves
them, and they just, you know, they just lost their way, and
they just blame it on their environment and their circumstances, blame
it on their mother or whatever. And they just need a chance,
and if you give them a chance, they'll take it and, you know,
give them a choice, and they'll make it. No, they won't. They're
dead. The next chapter says dead. Dead,
dead, dead. That was me. Was that you? I sat and sat and heard and heard
and heard and I didn't hear a thing. What you're hearing right now,
I sat and sat and sat and I did not hear a thing. I was dead. Yes. But God. He said, I came by. You were
lying in your pollution. And I said, I said, live. It's his choice. I praise him
to high heaven. Oh, he had chosen. Who chose
him? Verse four, ask somebody these
questions. Do you believe in the salvation
of God? And they might say yes and say,
do you choose God or did he choose you? According to the scripture. Here it says He chose us, His
people. When did He do it? When did He
choose? When did He make His choice?
After you believe? That's God taking credit for
something He didn't do. They believed. They made the
choice. So He made them His? No, He don't
need His choice. They already made the choice.
They let Him be Lord. No, no, no. He did this before
the foundation of the world, before you and I were ever around.
Somebody, you know, they all say this. Here's an election.
God votes for you, the devil votes against you, you cast the
deciding vote. That's what all of religion says
across the board. God votes for you as if there's
some kind of election took place. God votes for you, the devil
votes against you. You cast the deciding vote. You have the power. It's up to you. That's what they
all say. My dad used to say a big problem with that. Okay, big
problem. All right? Satan doesn't have
voting rights. He's in prison. What prisoner
do you know that votes in the election? None. And he said that
you weren't around when this election was to take place. There
was one, God. And God said, this is who I'm
choosing. Now, we would choose the pretty, the smart, the good,
those who could do us favors, those who could help us out some
way, wouldn't we? I cleared my property a few times. I went around marking trees. And the ones I wanted to save,
Rightfully so, I put a scarlet ribbon around it, a red ribbon
around it. Those get saved. Did the trees
choose me? I chose a tree. The rest of them
I cut down. Which ones did I choose? Big
oak, big walnut, big beech. But every now and then, my conscience
would smite me. And I'd look at some little scrawny,
worthless, In the way, barren fig tree, or whatever, little
sapling. And that tie there, red, red,
red. Do you see you're calling me?
Not many wise men at the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble,
but God hath chosen the weak. This is who God chooses, who
He chose. The weak things and nothings
and nobodies from nowhere, from kerners, of all places, of all
people, yes. Ask Mary Magdalene what she thinks
about sovereign election. Ask Rahab the heart of what she
thinks about sovereign election. Ask the thief on the cross, there
were two of them, ask him what he thinks about sovereign election.
You know what he'll say? Bless God in heaven. That we should be holy. without sin, without blame, before
God someday, in love, because He loved us. And one day they're
all going to be holy, spotless, unblameable, unreprovable in
God's sight, while the rest of the world says, God says, cast
those wicked people out of my sight. When you did the same
things that they did. Do you understand now that salvation
is of the Lord? I mean from start to finish. And you didn't have anything
to do with it at all. You know why? Because Christ
is all. He did it all. Who gets all the praise? Who
gets all the glory? If I had a title it would be
to the praise of the glory of His grace. Look at this, verse 5, predestinated
us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, His beloved
Son, to Himself, the Father. He did it according to the good
pleasure of His will. He predestinated us. What do you think about predestination? A man on the railroad one time
told me, he said, I'd believe anything but that predestination.
Anything. He hated that so bad. He always
had a smile on his face. He's one of these false preachers.
And he got along with everybody but me. And we were always getting
into it. I was too young to know better.
But he had a smile on his face all the time. You've seen these
phonies, he's always smiling. Everywhere a dog gets always
smiling. He'll bite you. He, we were talking, and he,
boy, his face, his whole countenance changed, said, I'll believe anything
but that predestination. And he did. He did. He believed anything. And four times it's spoken of
in the Scripture, right? The exact word. Ephesians 1,
Romans 8. There was a woman, a false preacher
on the radio at one time brought it up. She said, predestination
doesn't have anything to do with people. It's all about Israel
and all that. Four times and every time it's
talking about people. Every time. That predestinated
us under the adoption of children. people He chose and predestined,
their destiny has been predetermined by God to be found in Christ
one day, to be just like Jesus Christ, to be with Christ. God
did that. And every one of them are going
to be with Him, like Him, in Him, found Him, saved, praised
Him. God did it. And everything that
happens to them throughout all their life, God determined it. You like that? Good, bad, evil,
people, enemies, There's nothing that happens, nowhere they go,
nothing anybody does anytime in their life. All things work
together for good according to His sovereign, predestinating
power. Anybody like that? Anybody? I
tell you, I said it wasn't going to get worked
up. How can you not get worked up when God is so great, God
is so good, God is so marvelous? Predestination thrills me. I don't want there to be one
thing outside of God's control. One thing left a chance. Predestined. I want everything in my life
ordered by God. Good, bad. It is. It is. Predestinated on the adoption
of children. Adoption happens to orphans. How does one become an orphan?
They lose their parents. It's awful, isn't it? I feel
so sorry for orphans, don't you? Wouldn't it be sad? Huh? Somebody loses, especially their
mother. Children lose their mother, their
caretaker. That's sad, isn't it? Okay? Death has to happen for
a child to be adopted. Right? It's a terrible thing.
As terrible as that is, for somebody to come along. And there's many
orphans. And for somebody to come along.
Now whose choice is it? Whose choice is it? Somebody
come. Years ago it used to be this
way. You'd go to an adoption agency. And it'd be all these
children, and the person, a young couple, would decide who they
were going to adopt. Right. What mercy. What grace. For someone to come
and take somebody else's child, as their own, and say, that's
my child. I want that one. I'm going to
take that one home. I'm going to give him my name,
her my name. I'm going to feed them. I'm going to care for them.
I'm going to love them. I'm going to keep them from harm.
I'm going to provide for them. I'm going to, till the day I
die, they're mine. Somebody else's child. Isn't
that something? That's what adoption is. Ask
David Edmondson what he thinks about adoption. Oh, my. Get that message that
he preached on adoption. Right here. He preached it right
here. He did this by Jesus Christ to
himself according to the good pleasure of his will, you see?
Verse 6. You know, we don't have a motto,
but we put a scripture on our sign up front. If we did have a motto, it would
be this, Christ is all. Salvation's of the Lord. Okay? That's the seventh substance
of the whole Bible. Salvation's of the Lord. Christ
is our Lord. But what it's all about, and the reason we put
this on the sign was so that people would know what this church
is about, what we do here. It's all verse 6, to the praise
of the glory of His grace. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. His electing grace is glorious,
that he would choose anybody, let alone me. God speak to me?
Who me? Predestinating grace, adopting
grace. What glory. He gets all the glory,
he said. Verse 6. He's made us accepted
in the blood. It's all to the praise of the
glory of his creation. He's made us accepted. We're
accepted. There's nothing acceptable about
us. There's nothing redeemable about us, verse 7, in whom we
have redemption. Psalm 103 says He's redeemed
us from destruction, our life. He made us accepted in the beloved,
accepting grace. I've told this story so many
times, and it's still a good one. And you've read it. But
David had an enemy. David the king had an enemy named
Saul. And God killed him. And later
God killed seven of Saul's sons who would have risen up against
David. Because they all wanted to be
king. They didn't want David to have his will. They didn't
want him to reign on the throne. So God killed Saul and killed
all seven of his sons, all but one. And his name was Mephibosheth. Now Mephibosheth is one of Saul's
sons, the natural-born enemy of the king, David. But he's lame. He's in a house
of no bread. And David is such a merciful
and gracious and kind man on the throne, David decides this. He didn't send and ask Mephibosheth. He decided this of his own free
will, David said, I'm going to show kindness through the house
of Saul by an interment. He said, now, is there any left? They said, there's one, he's
lame, he can't come, he won't come. David said to his two strong
men, mercy and truth, righteousness and peace, go get him. But what if he won't come? Fetch
him. Go down there, lay hold of him,
pick him up, bring him to me. Why? I'm going to show kindness. And they brought over Mephibosheth
and brought him in and sat him down on the floor. He's lame.
And he doesn't know if he's going to live or die. And he's trembling. He's a natural-born enemy. And
David, in sweetness and kindness and mercy and love and grace,
his voice, he said, Mephibosheth, I'm going to show you kindness,
mercy. Three reasons for three words. For Jonathan's sake. Because of someone else. I'm
going to show you kindness and mercy. I'm going to spare you.
I'm not going to kill you. I'm going to take you into my
home. I'm going to sit you at my table. I'm going to adopt
you, my dear bishop. It's all for Jonathan's sake. Accepted in. It's for Christ's sake. Christ
is all. It's all the reason God did all
this. Is that okay with you? If David would have asked him
in a fiddle shep, is that okay with you, that Jonathan gets
all the glory? Oh yeah. I don't deserve to be here. And don't you know he's thanking
God for all his days that he was found in Jonathan. Born in Jonathan. Okay, great. Come, John. Please send another
hand.