That's good singing, James. James
is sitting there singing, standing on the promises. And he's going
to be standing someday with the Lord. You can count on that. Ephesians 1. Ephesians chapter 1. How we love this book, don't
we? We usually spend all of our time in the first 14 verses and
never get to the second half, don't we? Well, let's look at
it again. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, to the saints at Ephesus, Rocky Mount, the
faithful in Christ Jesus. By the will of God, you're a
saint of God, sanctified, chosen of God in Christ. Grace to you, all grace. God
of all grace, peace from God our Father through Christ, from
the Lord Jesus Christ. He made Him your Lord, your King.
Blessed, oh, blessed. Verse 3, blessed. Blessed be
the name of our God and Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ, His
firstborn, who has blessed us with all, all spiritual blessings. All blessings. Oh, we have many
material blessings, don't we? My mother and I were going to
the store yesterday and we were talking about what a blessing
to be able to go in there and just buy anything you want to
eat. We're so blessed with all material
blessings, aren't we? God's seed, God's people never
go hungry. Never. Never be without. But
now Paul is writing about spiritual blessing. Spiritual blessings. Greatest
blessings of all. And they're all in Christ. Heavenly
things. Heavenly things. Things you're
enjoying a little bit right now, although the flesh is giving
you problems right now. You can't enter in. You couldn't
sit in that seat. You couldn't sit still if you
could really enter into all of this like we ought to. You'd be jumping up here. And we see through a glass dimly,
don't we? Darkly. We used to just see a
little bit. These spiritual blessings in
heavenly things, and they're in Christ. And number one, according
as God had chosen us, in Christ, before the foundation of the
world. God's people bless God for His sovereign electing love
and mercy and grace, don't they? What the world hates, God's people
are so thankful for. We all know if He hadn't chosen
me, we wouldn't have chosen Him. And He did this that we might
be holy and without blame before Him and love us. The only way
we're going to be holy, the only way we're going to be without
blame is because He's the only one able to present us. And he did this in love to his
people. And he shed abroad the love of God in our hearts for
him and his son and his gospel. He predestinated us. I like that. Predetermined. We have a predetermined
destiny. I like that. But it doesn't depend
on me. I really don't have to worry
about messing it up. He predestinated the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ. If God could have chosen anybody,
anybody, if He chose you, you see your calling, don't you?
He did this by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good
pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace
wherein God hath made us accepted in the beloved. They're accepted
in Him. All that love His Son, all that
believe His Son, all that come to God by His Son are accepted. There's nothing acceptable about
any human being. God looked down upon the sons
of men and said, they're all together worthless, but God. That's chapter two. Rich in mercy,
for his great love, wherewith he loved us, brought us to hear
the gospel, hear Christ, and trust in his Son, and call on
God through his Son. And God said, accept it. Come
on. Come on in. Oh, it's to the praise of the
glory of His grace, isn't it? In Christ, we have redemption.
Like Ruth. He bought us. I didn't quote
that verse at the end of Ruth, so I'm going to quote it now.
When Boaz was talking about Ruth to all the elders and everybody,
he's talking like he owned her. He said, I bought Ruth. I bought
her to be my bride. Well, you didn't ask Ruth. Don't
have to. I bought her. Oh, she's going to
be glad. You see, we're not our own. We're
bought with a price. And God did this, Christ did
this, they all did this before the world began. God called your
name to Christ before the world began and wrote your name in
His palms. God said, think about this now.
Think about it. God said, his son, you go to
earth and you save Mary Parks, that girl from Tennessee. You
save her. Christ said, I will. Put your
name there. He wrote your name in his son.
He's going to save them. Like David, you're not going
to lose a woman. In whom, verse 7, we have redemption bought
with his blood, his own blood, the forgiveness of sins. God,
all matter of sin forgiven. He said to that woman who'd wasted
her whole life, thy sins be forgiven today. Every one of them. Covered. Isn't that wonderful? Past, present, and future. There's more to come. I wish
it weren't so, but I'm sure glad it's so, that Christ, we have
forgiveness through Him, according to the riches of His grace. You
say, I don't know if He'll forgive me. Hold on now, He's rich in
forgiveness. He's got a large heart. Verse 8, Wherein He hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom, and proved it, made known unto
us, we have the wisdom of God, made known unto us the mystery
of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He purposed
in Himself. before the world began, that in the dispensation
of the fullness of time he would gather together in one all things
in Christ, both in heaven, which are on the earth, even in him
gathered together a people out of every kindred, nation, tongue
under heaven. And I believe I'm one of them.
That's amazing. In Christ, to worship Him, to
exalt Him, to love Him. In whom? Christ. We have obtained
an inheritance, verse 11, being predestinated according to the
purpose of Him who worketh all things and through the counsel
of His own will, an inheritance. Nothing in this world, nothing
in this life is going to last. It's all going to perish, every
bit of it. But we have an inheritance incorruptible,
undefiled, and it waited for us to go. And we just haven't,
it hasn't entered into our eyes and our minds and our hearts
like it's going to. A little bit, but not like, when
we get there, I love to think about, I'm at a loss for words
right now, because it talks about unspeakable. There's going to
be silence for 30 minutes. When everybody's gathered together,
when the whole, everybody's there, all the saints gathered together,
and there sits our Lord on the throne. And there we are looking
at each other like we're doing now. We're all going to, you know,
I say this all the time, I can't believe it. I can't believe it. I'm here. I'm here. He did this for me. I'm one of
His people. I get to do this forever. In whom we have this inheritance.
Verse 12, that we should be to the praise of His glory, He said.
That's what we do, really. Don't we, Brother Patrick? That's
what we do. We give Him all the glory. We
really do. That's why he saved us. We first
trusted in Christ our Lord. God entrusted His Son with us.
And then we, verse 13, whom we trust also. After we heard the
word of truth. What grace, what mercy that God
sends us the truth when so many people Want and believe a lie. You know that? They turn away
their ears from the truth. Under paper. Don't tell me the
truth. But what do we say? Please tell me the truth. Even
if it hurts me. If it debases me. If it humbles
me. Good. And we're sealed. I like this. Sealed. With that
Holy Spirit of promise. Pitched. Who is it that puts
the blood of Christ on his people? The Spirit of God. See, like old Noah in that ark. Lord, shut him in. You know,
we're shut up to Christ. Shut up the faith in him. The
Spirit of God does that. And this is the earnest, the
Holy Spirit we're going to have with us all of our days. It's
proof, it's earnest of our inheritance, proof that we belong to Him.
He takes the things of Christ and the gospel of Christ, the
truth of Christ and shows them unto us and we rejoice in Him
and lay hold of Him, believe Him and look to Him, rejoice
in Him and He's our all. You know the end of this verse,
let me quickly get to the end. The very last words are all in
all. All in all. It's all about Christ,
isn't it? And us being in Christ. Because
Christ is all in all. So Paul says now, in verse 15,
this is where he starts praying. He says, Wherefore, after I heard
of your faith in the Lord Jesus, I heard of your faith and love
unto all the saints, I cease not to give thanks for you, making
mention of you in my prayers." When I heard that you believed,
Paul went to Ephesus. Remember, it was a pagan, it
was an idolatrous town. Remember, they all worshipped
Diana. In fact, people worshipped Mary. And God saved some of them
out of that idolatry, didn't He? Turned them to the living
God from their idols unto Christ. Took them out of that. Chose
them. Elected them. Chose them. And brought them
out and they heard the gospel and they believed. Faith is a
miracle. Look at verse 19. It says, You
believe according to the working of His mighty power. When you
hear that somebody has confessed Christ and believers baptism,
don't you rejoice? Huh? It's a miracle. A miracle of God's grace that
anybody would believe. What if I told you one of our
wayward children believes and confesses Christ? That's the
greatest news you've ever heard. Paul said, when I've heard of
your faith, it's a precious thing. Those
who have obtained like precious faith with us, Peter wrote, and
love See, now by the faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of
these is love. Love for who? Love for God. People
don't love God as God. They love their imagination of
God. They love a God the way they want Him to be. Now God
is how He is. He said, I am that I am. And
God's people, He puts this love for Him in them, and they love
that He's God. They love that He's God. They
love His salvation. They love that it's in His hands.
All of it. They love His glory. They love
His reign and His sovereignty. Rule over us, they said. Don't
let me or anybody else have any power or rule at all, Lord. Reign
over us. And of all the songs, they say
it over and over again. The Lord reigneth. Tell my people,
the Lord reigneth. And they all say, hallelujah.
The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. All power. Oh, man. I heard of your love
unto all the saints. Supernatural love. It's supernatural
love. It's God-given love to love God's
people over and above your family. When you leave, your father and
your mother and your husband and wife and son or daughter
for Christ and His people, like Ruth said, I'm not going back
to my mother, and I'm not going back to my gods, and I'm not
going back there. Your God is my God, and your
people are my people, and I'm going to die right there with
them. That's what he does to every
one of his people, no exceptions. And they don't think they've
made a bad bargain at all. Bless the Lord for giving them
that love, all the saints. He said, I cease not to give
thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. You see,
Paul wrote this, that I was going to have you turn to Colossians,
to Philippians, to Colossians, the first Thessalonians, the
second Thessalonians, and on and on it goes. Every single
epistle, he said, is bound to give thanks to God, brethren
of the beloved Lord, for you, false prophets, false preachers,
thank people for what they do for God. That's how you know
they're false. The true ones thank God for them
being His people. We don't beg and plead and thank
people for coming to worship God. It's a privilege. It's a high honor. It's a heavenly
calling. It's a blessed, undeserved, unworthy
privilege we get to come and hear this blessed gospel and
believe. Everybody's not given that. There was a time I didn't have
it. There was a time I didn't want this. But blessed be His
holy name. There's nothing I'd rather do
than this. What? Worship my God. Worship His Christ. Hear of His voice. Do you love
hearing this message of Jesus crying? Hellen again, preacher? Like Rahab. Sound it louder.
My redemption's drawing nigh. Oh, I give thanks to God for
you. And part of the way you really
know you love somebody is when you pray for them. And Paul said,
I pray for you. That the God, and here's what
he prayed for. Several thanks you. Verse 17. I pray that the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, You see
what respect and what reverence and what fear Paul has for God,
for Christ, the way he speaks of Him? The God of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Our brother Cody Groover, wasn't
he a lovely man? Wasn't he a faithful preacher
of the Gospel? He always said, when he mentioned
our Lord, he always used all three names, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Made it sound like one name. It is. He's not who He is without
all those three things. The Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord
Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. I love
the sound of it. That God of our Father, of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may give unto
you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge
of him. Turn quickly to 1 Corinthians
1. This is the only other scripture, maybe, I think, that I'll have
you turn to. But 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians
1. How blessed we are if we see
that the wisdom of this world is utter foolishness. You know
that? The whole world is hoping in
and trusting in mankind's wisdom to get us out of all the troubles
we're in. Vain is the help of man. David wrote, Put them in fear,
O Lord, that they may know themselves to be just men. But they that
trust in the Lord, Here's wisdom, the fear of the
Lord to begin with. And you won't fear man. And you
really won't fear what the Lord sends to you. Because that perfect love will
cast out that fear. Now here's wisdom. Look at verse 18. 1 Corinthians
1. The preaching of the cross is
to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved is
the power of God. Read on. He says, I'll destroy
the wisdom of the wise. I'll bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Bring it on. Where is the scribe, so-called
Bible scholar? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? And
in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. The
Jews require a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach
Christ crucified. The Jews a stumbling block, the
Greeks foolishness. But unto us, unto them which
are called Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and what?
The wisdom of God. Paul prays that God of glory will give unto
us a spirit of wisdom. That's the Spirit of Christ. The Holy Spirit takes the things
of Christ and shows them unto us. That Christ is our wisdom. He's made unto us wisdom. And here's a wise man in Proverbs
8. He says, They that know me, they that believe me, they that
trust me. wisdom and revelation and reveal
unto us Christ, reveal Christ in me. Paul, you know, he thought
he was somebody. He thought he could do some things,
all things. Thought he was righteous, thought
he was this, thought he was that. When Christ came to him, he realized
he was nothing. Made him show he was nothing. And here's how he put it. Would
it please God to reveal His Son in me? He said, then I didn't want to
hear anything else. I was determined not to know
anything else. I wasn't taking up with anybody
or anything else. But Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's wise. Because everything
else will come to naught. But not Him. and those in Him. The revelation and knowledge
of Him. And it is what John wrote in his epistle of the last, nearly
the last verse. He said, Oh, the Son of God has
come and given us an understanding that we might know Him that is
true and we're in Him. So Paul says, I pray that God
will give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge
of him whom to know is to have eternal life. Verse 18, that
the eyes of your understanding be enlightened. God has to open
blind eyes, doesn't he? What blinds us? The world? The
world is blinded by this world. The world is blinded, is in darkness. They're blinded by things. They're
blinded by what they see. God has given us spiritual happiness.
We see that the things that are seen are temporal. Things that
are unseen are eternal. And faith is evidence of things
not seen. I believe more fully in things
I don't see. I don't trust anything I do see
or hear. Do you? I don't trust what anybody
is saying about Him. Is that right? Is that really
the way you feel? You know how blessed you are?
You know how many people think this is a pack of nonsense? How
many think what I'm doing is utter foolishness? That's what
they all said to Noah, wasn't it? They said to his sons and
daughters-in-law, said, you're fools following your father-in-law,
your father. That's an old fool, that Noah.
Well, God's not like that. Blessed we are to be in Christ,
that we want to be found in Him. Old Shem said, yeah, I'll just
have to be a fool, because I want to be in that ark when that wrath
comes down. And so I'm going to stay as close
to that ark as I can get until that day. Japheth. Well, how blessed we
are to know that salvation's in him. Our eyes have been opened,
enlightened. What enlightens the eyes? What
is it that opens the eyes? What is it that opens blind eyes
and deaf ears? What is it? God's Word. God's
Word. Christ, which is Christ. That's
what Christ did when he was here as a man. He opened blind eyes.
He opened deaf ears. He loosened tongues. At the entrance of thy word,
David said, giveth light. When God sends a word, or rather,
when we see Christ as all in all, now we have lights. Now we understand Him. Now we
understand the reason for all things. Why? Because Christ is
all. And we're in Him. And read on. It says, Oh, that
you might know what is exceeding. Oh, wait a minute. What is the
hope of His calling? Verse 18. The hope of His calling. Look
at chapter 4, verse 4. Just one page over. There's one
body, one Holy Spirit, even as you're called in one hope of
your calling. Has He called you as the Lord
God called you by this gospel, our gospel, this gospel, not
another, this gospel? Have you been called? Do you know what hope you have
then? You have no hope in yourself. There's no hope in anything about
you, in any man, in anyone, anything. In yourself, no hope, but if
he's called you by this gospel, I'm here to tell you from his
word, you're one of his. You belong to him. And he's going to keep calling
you. And keep calling, though like your animals, with yours
excluded, Sarah. Your animals run away from you.
You love them, don't you? What are you going to do? You're
going to keep calling them. You're going to keep calling
them. You're going to keep calling them. And if they won't come,
you're going to fetch them. And you'll never cast them out.
That's the hope of His calling. He called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. All we like sheep have gone astray.
All those Psalms that David wrote, 150 Psalms. Psalm 119, 175 verses. All his hope is in God's Word. In the end, he said, I've gone
astray like a lost sheep. He says, find me. Seek me. He will. He called you in the
beginning. He'll keep calling you in the
end. Oh, the hope of his calling. and what the riches of the glory
of his inheritance in the saints." That's what he was trying to
say. I can't tell you. I can't show
you. Try it. You don't have eyes and
ears to see it. It's like old Abraham's serpent
going to get a bride for Isaac. He said he had all the riches
of his master on him, with him, in his pockets. All of them?
It wasn't even close. He had a token of each, you know.
Here's a bracelet, here's an earring, here's this, here's
that. Tell me about your master. Well, I can try, but you're going
to have to see him. The riches of the glory. Scripture talks about the unsearchable
riches of Christ. Like the Queen of Sheba, she
heard of Solomon and she finally came to see him. There's no more
spirit left. She was silent for 30 minutes.
She said, the half was never told me. I didn't believe it
until I came. Oh, the glory of His inheritance,
verse 19, and I pray that you might know what is exceeding
greatness of His power to us who believe. Brothers and sisters,
our Lord has all power, power to save, power to heal, power
to forgive, power to forget, power to cleanse, power to justify,
sanctify, redeem, power to keep you from falling. You are going
to fall. Yes, you are. We all are. We're
going to fall. Proverbs says, though a righteous
man falleth seven times, the Lord will uphold him. He will
pick him up every time because he's able to keep us from falling. He's able to say. He's able to
say to the uttermost. He's able. We are kept by the
power of God. Isn't that good news? Oh my,
He's able. The exceeding greatness. His
power exceeds any power. To us who believe according to
the work in that mighty power. We believe according to that
power. Stay with me, I'm almost finished. It says this power, verse 20,
He wrought, He worked in Christ when He raised Christ from the
dead. Our Lord died and the brethren,
the disciples saw him dead. They saw all the blood go out
of his body. And they saw a soldier, a centurion,
go up and rip his side wide open. And it just gushed blood and
water out of him. And he's dead. He's dead. And they saw them
take down his, saw Nicodemus and Joseph take down his lifeless
body. and carry that body and wrap
it up and they saw him put it in a tomb. He's dead. And they knew it. And they were sad. They sorrowed. Oh, did they sorrow just like
we do when we see the lifeless body of someone we love put in
that ground. He's dead. But As sad as they were, three days
later, he came walking into the room. And there was silence for 30
minutes. He's alive. He's alive. That's what Mary went running
back. He's alive. He said that. We didn't believe.
But he is. He's alive. Who can do that? God. He wasn't just a man. He's the Son of God, you see.
He said, no man taketh my life from me. I lay it down in myself.
I have this power. He said, I have power to take
it up again. And brothers and sister, He's
quickened us together with Christ. You're looking at a man that
was dead. Dead. My dad, my mother, everybody
tried to talk to me. I'm blind. I'm deaf. I'm dumb.
I'm dead. I'm in this world. I'm alive
to the world, but dead to the things of God. We can't do anything
with Him. God, help me. God, speak to Him. We can't do it. Exert your power.
Exert your gospel. Open His blind eyes. He did. The same power that raised Christ
from the dead raised me from the dead. And someday, you're
not going to believe this. Know why I told you. One of these
days, That body that's put in that grave, it doesn't matter
how long it's been in there, thousands of years, and it's
just dust, that body, Christ is going to call, it's going
to come out of that grave. Now that's power. He has all power. That's power. You see, and he set Christ at
his right hand, and we were seated with him. Far above all principality. Look at it. Paul just, he's beside
himself now. Oh, all principality, and power,
and might, and dominion. Every name in his name in this
world, and that which is to come. He put all things under his feet.
Gave him to be the head. He's the head. Aren't you glad? Gave him, and this is how this
reads, verse 22. Gave Him, the head overall, to
the church. You see, gave Him to the church. Gave Him to us to be our head,
to be our Lord, to be our Redeemer. What a gift. What an unspeakable
gift. Oh, how we hold up the head and
exalt the head, worship the head of our Lord, confess our sins
on His head. You see, we're His body. One. I want you to know. Paul said,
I pray for you. I want you to know this. I want
you to understand this. Get it through your head, but
more importantly, your heart. Know this, that you are His body. And not a bone of His body will
be broken, be severed from you, be cut off. You say, if I'm the
body, I'm a little toe. Okay. You're not going to lose
a little toe. See, if I'm a toenail, I'm a
hangnail. I ain't gonna cut you off. But what? I want you to realize. If you love Christ, if you love
the truth, if you look to Christ and Him only, you've been called. You've been chosen. You've been
sanctified. You're loved of God. He's given
you to cry and He cannot fail. He will bring you to Him, to
God someday and present you faultless before His presence in God. To
the praise of the glory of His grace. He's put you in Christ,
you know. He's made Christ your all. And
in all. Well, that's all I've got to
say about that. That's our prayer, isn't it?
That's our prayer. As Paul said, oh, that we might
know Him, the power of His resurrection, fellowship with the Savior, be
found in Him, found in Him. Okay. Well, John, you come, please,
closing.