Thank you, Brandon. Let's go
back to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1 verses 1
and 2 give us an introduction into
this entire letter. There are some who believe this
was like a circular letter that was written by, of course, the
Apostle Paul. under the inspiration of the
Spirit of God. And by circular letter, many
believe it went to lots of other churches as well. And indeed,
I'm sure it did, but it is specifically written to a congregation in
the city of Ephesus. This is where the goddess Diana
was worshiped. And there was within that heathen
city a body of believers that God had raised up. He had instructed
them in the gospel of grace through the preaching of the apostle
Paul. And a church was established and formed for the glory of God
and for the benefit of those saints who were brought together
under the umbrella of one local assembly And that one church
was a blessing to others in the city who were also exposed to
the gospel of Christ Jesus, and by the grace of God were brought
to believe that truth. And a church was established
there, and it was established there for many years. It begins
this way. There's an introduction into
the inspired writer. His name is Paul. He's an apostle
of Jesus Christ. He didn't volunteer for full-time
Christian service. We used to, I used to work at
camp. And then after that, of course,
went to Bible college and then began to pastor. And I've seen
a lot of people, especially in those early days, that volunteered
for full-time Christian service. That's not what this man did.
He didn't volunteer. He was drafted. He was drafted
by the power of God. God taught him the gospel. Our
Lord Jesus. In fact, he says in Galatians
chapter one, he said, I certify to you, brethren, I certify this
to you, the gospel I believe. It's not a man. Man didn't teach
it to me. God taught it to me. Indeed,
he was There when Stephen preached in Acts chapter 7, he heard that
powerful message and the seed of the truth of the Lord Jesus,
that just one that the Jews crucified, that seed was sown by Stephen. And of course, this man, Saul
of Tarsus, he hated the message of grace because he was a man
who believed that salvation was by personal righteousness established
by the deeds of the law. He believed what everybody believes
by nature. The more I do for God, the more
God will do for me. That was his belief. And he said
in Philippians, he said concerning the law of God, I was blameless. That is, according to his own
understanding of the law. He didn't understand that before
his conversion that the law of God not only affects everything
physical, not only every word you speak and every deed you
You perform, but it goes to the inner man, all your motives,
the reasons why you do what you do. It examines every facet of
your life and of your heart. And the law of God finds all
of us guilty. God's law wasn't given as a means
of salvation, as a means of justification. It never was. The law of God was given to shut
our mouths, to pronounce us guilty. Guilty. This same man, he wrote in another
place. He said, the law of God was our
schoolmaster, a cruel schoolmaster, who forced us to Christ Jesus. The law of God gives you no hope. It has no leniency. It doesn't
bend for you. Here's what the law of God does. It shows you your guilt and leaves
you hopeless and helpless before God. And the Spirit of God then
shows you there's one hope. There's one way. There's one salvation. All of
grace and all in the Lord Jesus Christ. So he is introduced as
the Spirit of God led him to write this epistle. He is introduced
himself as being an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God,
not by the will of man. On one occasion, after the death
and the burial and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, on one occasion,
And after his ascension, all the other apostles got together,
the 11 of them. Judas, he was a devil. God chose
him. Christ chose him to be an apostle,
to serve his own purpose. And then Judas, having kissed
the door to heaven, he went to hell. He planted a kiss on the
cheek of the son of God, and then he perished in his sin.
You see, don't kiss the Savior on the cheek. Do like that woman
who was a sinner. Kiss His feet. Let's bow down. Let's get low before Him. Kiss His feet. You're not worthy
to stand eye to eye with the Savior. Judas, he kissed the
cheek of the Savior. You're not worthy to do that.
Kiss His feet. Bow down. Humble yourself before
the great God of glory. And this man, he is an apostle,
but men didn't choose him. Once Judas was dead and gone,
our Lord Jesus had laid down his life for his sheep and then
ascended back to heaven, took his throne at the right hand
of majesty. The other apostle said, we gotta
find somebody to take his place. And there's really in a hurry
to do that. And so they got together among themselves. They did pray. They did that. But they decided
on two men. They said, now there are two
men in our group that are worthy to be apostles. And then they said, we'll narrow
it down to one. They cast lots, and God, to serve
his own purpose, And that purpose, I'm sure one of the purposes
anyway, was to show that when you leave things to men, to their
decision, they make wrong decisions. You see, it isn't up to a man,
to a group of men, to decide who the 12th apostle will be. None of the other apostles were
chosen by men. They were chosen by Christ. And
the apostles, the 11 of them, got together and said, well,
we cast lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. They said, he's
the 12th apostle. We chose him. We picked him. We decided he is qualified. We
voted on him. He's the man. Well, I'll tell
you, that 12th apostle, he's not going to be He's not gonna
be an apostle by the will of men, but by the will of God. You see, after Acts chapter one,
Matthias, you'll never read anything more about him. You won't hear
anything about him. There's another man God's gonna
raise up. Don't get in a hurry. Don't get
in a hurry to ordain somebody to the apostleship. They did. That's because they were impatient,
and that's the way we are. We want things done right now.
We got a vacancy. We got a vacancy on the apostleship,
on the board of the apostleship. We got a vacancy, and we gotta
fill it. And they did fill it, and they
filled it with the wrong man. The man God had already ordained
was a man by the name of Saul of Tarsus. And he has made the highest office
on this earth that God ever gave to men. He's made to be the 12th
apostle. So he introduces himself. He says, Paul, an apostle of
Jesus Christ. I'm one of his apostles. And it's by the will of God. And he writes then and he says,
to the saints which are at Ephesus. This letter is written to a specific
group of people, to the saints. It's not written to the world. It's not written to unbelievers.
It's written to God's people. It's written to the saints. You
see, in the Lord Jesus, we are all saints. I know the Catholics,
they have decided that they'll grant sainthood to various individuals
based upon, it's gotta be documented miracles that have taken place
and that sort of thing, and they have to be okayed by the hierarchy,
by the Pope himself and by the bishops and so forth, the cardinals
or whatever. and they have ordained people
to be saints. But you see, those of us who
are in Christ Jesus, we are saints because we're sanctified in Him. Hold your place here and turn
back to 1 Corinthians. I often quote this, but I want
to read it, and I want you to read it to 1 Corinthians 1. Look
at 1 Corinthians 1. And I'm talking tonight about
chosen in Christ. Ultimately, that's where we're
gonna get to. And this is what Paul has been talking about at
the end of 1 Corinthians 1. He says in verse 26, for you
see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world, to confound the
wise, God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things that are mighty, and base things of the world and
things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which
are not to bring to naught things that are. Why did God arrange
things this way? That no glory, that no flesh
should glory in His presence. But of Him, of God, now watch
this, of God are you in Christ Jesus. Now if you're in Christ
Jesus, you're in Christ Jesus by God's electing grace. He puts you in Christ Jesus in
eternity past. If you're in Christ Jesus, you've
always been in Christ Jesus, and you'll always be in Christ
Jesus. Once in Christ Jesus, you're
always in Christ Jesus, and really, there was no beginning of your
union with the Son of God. That's an eternal state. He says, this is all arranged
so that no flesh should glory in His presence. You're not gonna
get any credit for anything. But of him, who's the him? Of
God. But of God are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification. There's our sainthood. Sanctification and redemption. Why has God arranged it this
way? That according as it is written,
he that gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. So the book of Ephesians
and really the book of God is written to saints. We're saints
in Christ Jesus. You see, we're not only justified,
and we are justified, and we're washed, and we're sanctified. Let me give you another reference.
Go back to 1 Corinthians. Go to 1 Corinthians 6. I was looking at this passage
this afternoon. Look at 1 Corinthians 6. And I'll begin at verse 9. 1 Corinthians 6, 9, Know ye not
that the unrighteous, they shall not inherit the kingdom of God. If you're unrighteous, you're
not going to inherit the kingdom of God. Because one who is unrighteous
cannot enter into the presence of a holy God. He that is unjust, we read in
the scriptures in the book of Revelation, he that is unjust,
let him be unjust still. He that is filthy, let him be
filthy still. He that is righteous, let him
be righteous still. Only the righteous shall inherit
the kingdom of God. If you're unrighteous, and I'm
talking to all of you and I'm talking to those who are watching.
If you're unrighteous before God, if you're not right before
God, if you have no perfection before God, if you have no righteousness
other than your own self-righteous rag, you are not going to inherit
the kingdom of God. You can't. You can't. Ask God to make you the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus. He says this, be not deceived,
keep reading here, verse nine, be not deceived, neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, that's homosexuals,
nor abusers of themselves with mankind, sodomites, nor thieves,
nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, those foul-mouthed
slanderers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of
God. Well, say, preacher, we're all
a bunch of ungodly people. You're right. And he even then
says this, verse 11, and such were some of you. Some of you
were in that same one of them categories. You're washed. And let me tell
you something, that word are, A-R-E, it's usually here. Are washed, are sanctified, are
justified. A better translation is were,
were. But ye were washed. Who washed
you? Christ in his blood. But ye were sanctified. In whom is your sanctification? In Christ Jesus. And I know people
talk about progressive sanctification. I have a real problem with that.
Because sanctification, to be a saint, is to be holy. And you're not making progress
in your holiness. Now, we want to live godly lives. There's no question about that.
But when you start talking about sainthood and being saints before
God, being sanctified by God, there are no different degrees
of sanctification. You are either sanctified or
you're unholy. That's the way it is. You were sanctified, you were
washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, made righteous
in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
Well, here's the question, when were you washed and when were
you sanctified and when were you justified? This is when those
things happened to you in Christ Jesus in old eternity. That's
why it's in the past tense. Another passage that shows things
in the past tense, look at Romans 8. What God has done for us. And it's worded here as though
we've all experienced it all together. And in Christ Jesus
we have. This is our state before God.
Look at verse Romans 8, 29. For whom he did foreknow, doesn't
say what he foreknew, or what he foreknow, it's who he did
foreknow. For whom he did foreknow, he
foreordained in love a people. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. More of whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. And whom He called, them He also
justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. Now let me ask, are you glorified? God says you're already glorified. Well, how can that be? In Christ
Jesus, your position before God is you're a glorified person.
You're a justified person. from old eternity, you were foreknown
by God in everlasting covenant, love and grace. And he called
you, he named you. He named, that's what the word
called means here. He named you. And he wrote your
name down in the Lamb's book of life. It's all in the past. See, we're just living out what
God purposed in old eternity. And someday we're gonna be glorified
and we'll realize our position in Christ Jesus fully and we
won't have any sin. We'll be glorified in the soul
and in the body. And we will realize then God's
eternal determination and his purpose. We're saints in Christ
Jesus. All right, go back over here
to our text in Ephesians chapter two. Okay, who's he writing to? To the saints. To the saints. We're sanctified in Christ Jesus. And to the faithful. To the faithful
in Christ Jesus. To those who believe him. Do
you believe him? Philip with the Ethiopian eunuch. Philip preached to him the Lord
Jesus from Isaiah chapter 53. They go riding along in the chariot
and they come upon a body of water, an oasis in the desert. The Ethiopian eunuch says, what
doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, do you believe?
Do you believe? He said, I believe that Jesus
is the Son of God. You believe that? That despised
Galilean? All the religious leaders of
Israel turned thumbs down on him. They nailed him, saw to it that
he was nailed to a cross. He was despised and rejected
of men. He was a spectacle dying naked
upon a cross. Do you believe that that man
dying on that tree is the Son of God with power? At Unixon,
I believe. Do you believe that? At Thief, believe that. Lord,
remember me when you come into your kingdom. That's what he
said. And the Savior said, today, before the sun goes down, you're
going to be in eternity with me. I was talking to Brother Russell
out there at Trinity Station Thursday morning. I was talking
about Brother James. having gone to heaven, be with
the Lord. And I don't know whether Russell,
maybe he had heard it and forgot about it, but he said, I didn't
know he had passed away. I said, yeah, he said, well,
he's in the presence of Christ. He said, that's where my dear
wife's at. He said, I'm going to be there soon. Yeah, we will
be. We will be with him. Because
we've been brought by the grace of God to believe him, that Jesus
of Nazareth is indeed the Son of God with power. And then he says this to the
people that he writes to. Grace be to you and peace. From God our Father and from
the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace, they go together. where God gives grace and he
gave us grace in Christ before the world began. Where God has
given grace, then peace with God is a guaranteed thing because
God gave us to Christ in covenant grace who came and established
peace with God for us by his substitutionary death. He is
our peace. That's what scripture says. He's
the prince of peace. He made our peace with God by
his sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. The wages of sin
is death. Christ said, I'm gonna die for
my people and pay their wages. Pay the wages of sin. He died and we have peace with
God. And you know how long we've had
peace with God? Really now. Forever. You see, God has never been angry
with his people. He's never been wrathful against
us. Because we've always been in
Christ. He's our surety from old eternity. He was the one to whom the Father
gave us. He gave us to Christ in covenant
love and mercy. He'd never been angry with us. The wrath of God wasn't fixed
on us. The wrath of God was fixed on
our substitute. God's never been mad at His people. He'd never hated His people.
Brother Shanks and I went to hear a man preach many years
ago, and a man got up and said, he said, you know, God used to
hate us. He said, I'm so thankful he loves us now. I'll tell you, that's wrong,
because that's a God who changes. See, God doesn't change. And
his attitude toward his people, it hadn't ever changed. He loved
us in Christ Jesus forever, and He'll always love us. He never
hated us. He dealt with our sin problem
in the Savior and poured out His wrath on Him, but there's
never been any wrath reserved for His people. There's no condemnation
to us. We can't be condemned since our
substitute has died. He was condemned in our stead.
Therefore, we're at peace with God. We have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. And thankfully, by the grace
of God, the Spirit of the Lord has whispered in our hearts and
we have peace within, that everything's all right. We talk about the troubles that
we have. Yeah, we do. Trials, certainly. Sickness, yes. But we have a peace within. It's
a peace that passes understanding. The world can't even understand
it. They can't know this peace. Child of God, on their deathbed,
And they're at peace. Like Russell told me the other
day, and he just turned 96 years of age, he said, I'm ready to
go home. Ready to see the Savior. At peace
about it. That's the way James was. He's at peace about it. I'm going
home. I'm going home. See, the only
thing we fear regarding going home is that very thin stream
called death that we got across. That's the part that bothers
us. But when that time comes, He'll
give grace. I was visiting with James over
at St. Mary's. He had had a bad spell
the night before. And I went over, talked to him. Joy hadn't got there, just me
and him. He said, well, he said, Brother
Jim, I thought I was leaving here last night. He said, that'd
been just fine with me. That'd been just fine. Where does a man get that kind
of peace? From the grace of God. from the
God of grace who speaks peace to the heart. And I'm telling
you, whatever you're going through, and some of God's people, they
really go through some temporal afflictions. Whatever it is, may God speak
peace to your heart. You're not alone. You're not
by yourself. Savior said, I'll never leave
you, I'll never forsake you. He's working all things out for
you good. Grace and peace, where does it
come from? God the Father, God our Father. You notice that, from God our
Father. Down in the third verse, he's
called the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's our Father. You
remember after our Lord's resurrection, Mary saw him and she's gonna
grab hold of him and hug him. And he said, don't cling to me,
Mary. I go to my father and your father. The theologians say that Christ
is the eternal son of God by eternal generation, whatever
that means. That's a bit of a word salad
in itself that we can't comprehend. But he's my father because he birthed
me into his kingdom. And I live by his incorruptible
seed, the word of God that liveth and abideth forever. This grace
and peace comes from God, our father. He's our father. I know many of the Lord's people,
and you folks, many of you, wonderful fathers. But there's no father
quite so wonderful as God our Father. He adopted us into His family. He predestinated us unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself. And He gave
us a glorious inheritance. Our Father did. And all of His
children will receive the exact same inheritance. And really,
our inheritance is all stored up in Christ Jesus. He gives
us Christ Jesus. If we have Him, we have everything.
What need I more? If I have Christ Jesus. He's
our Father. This grace that comes to us in
this peace comes from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus
Christ. Who is he? He's the Lord. Who is he? He's Jesus. Who is
he? He's the Christ. And then he
says this, look now at verse three. He said, blessed or blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be
the God. Why should we bless God? Why should we honor God? Why
should we praise God? Because He's God indeed. You look through the Old Testament
over and over again. You read of men who wrote, Blessed
be our God. Bless the name of God. The psalmist
said, I will bless the Lord at all times. He said again in Psalm
103, bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all his benefits. Bless the Lord, he says in Psalm
103, verse 20. Bless the Lord, ye his angels
that excel in strength and do his commandments, hearkening
to the voice of his Word, what is it to bless the Lord? It's
to praise the Lord. Psalm 150 verse six says, let
everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Let's praise the Lord. Not in a flippant way. Modern
religion, they're all the time saying, bless the Lord, praise
the Lord, hallelujah. That's really blasphemous. to
say it in a flippant, empty way like that. To bless the Lord, to praise
the Lord is to do so from a heart of love and a heart of thanksgiving. You know, when I was thinking
about this today, when we pray and we're asking God and we make
our requests known to the Lord. That's what we're supposed to
do. I tell you, could I suggest another request to you? Let's ask the Lord to teach us
how to bless his name. How to praise him. I'd like to learn how to do that. Why should we bless him? Because
he's God. I read this morning in Deuteronomy
chapter 32, ascribe ye greatness to our God. His grace is great
and His wrath is great. His love is great and His anger
is great. He's great in power. He's great
in holiness. He's great in knowledge. He's
great in justice. No wonder the psalmist said,
great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. And his greatness,
he said this, is, you know what the next word is? Unsearchable. Unsearchable. Oh God, teach me
how to bless you. Teach me how to truly praise
you, not to just walk around and say, well, bless the Lord,
bless the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. But in my heart,
in my own innermost being, to bow down before the Lord and
say, I bless you, oh my God. I praise you for who you are. And another reason we praise
Him, we bless Him, not only because He's God, but because He's the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I would remind you, it's
the Father who sent His Son into this world. And He didn't send His Son into
this world to die on a cross in order that God could love
us, in order that God could be merciful to us, in order that
God could be gracious to us. God has always loved us. That's
the reason Christ came into the world. He didn't come to change
God's attitude toward us by His death upon the cross of Calvary. His death upon the cross of Calvary
is all because of God's everlasting covenant love to us in Christ
from old eternity. He came to save the objects of
God's love. That's what He came to do. He
came to make things right with God. on the behalf of those who
are the objects of God's love. He came to put our sins away.
He came to satisfy God's justice for all those that God loved.
He didn't do that for anybody else, just for his people. When I was visiting with Russell,
I said, Brother Russell, I said, I want to read some scripture
to you. Like several of you, I got the Bible on my iPhone,
so I can go to any passage you know, and I pulled it out and
I said, let me read something to you. Where would you like
for me to read? He said, I want you to read to me from John chapter
three. I said, what about if I begin
at verse 14? He said, that'd be perfect. About
the serpent being lifted up. He's pretty sharp when I visited
with him. And I began to read. I read 14.
He said, read 14, 15, and 16. I said, yes, sir. I'll do that. And I read, as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have eternal life. For God sent not his son
into the world to condemn the world, but that the world, that's
the world of his people, that's the world of his elect, but that
the world through him might be saved. And I said, you know,
Russell, that 14th verse, that's the message of the gospel. Christ
was lifted up, there's the gospel. Christ lifted up to die, just
like Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, God lifted
up his son to die. In the stead of is a substitute
of his people. And then I said that 15th verse
is the result that whosoever believeth in him should not perish
but have eternal life. What is eternal life? To know
God, right? to know God, know His Son, Christ
Jesus. And I said, that 16th verse where
everybody says, that's the gospel. No, that's the reason for the
gospel. God's love. God's love. His love sent His Son. Why should
I bless God? Well, number one, because He's
God. And number two, because He's
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who sent Him into this
world. We read in Galatians, for God
sent His Son into this world, made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law. God sent forth
His Son. From glory God sent Him forth. I said this morning, the rain
comes from above. And 2,000 years ago, God poured
out rain like He never poured out before. The rain of His grace,
the rain of His mercy, His Son came into the world. And then
thirdly, why should we bless God? Because He's God? Because
He's the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who sent His Son into
this world? And thirdly, we bless Him because
He's blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ. already
done that. Did you know that we're the recipients
of every single spiritual blessing that God can give us? He gave
them to us in heavenly places. These blessings came from heaven
down to earth to us to take us up to heaven to be with the Lord.
We're the recipients of every spiritual blessing in Christ and therefore we bless him. You know, on Wednesday night
I'm preaching from Exodus, the children of Israel, you know,
when Joseph wasn't known anymore by the new pharaoh, it had been
a long time before that. And you know what the Lord said
to Moses, to the children of Israel? That land on the other
side of the Jordan River, that's your land. They never lived there. They had never entered into the
land. They had never even possessed it. But you know what God said? It's yours. That's yours. And you see, all spiritual blessings
are ours in Christ Jesus, even heavenly glory. It's ours already. even though we haven't possessed
it. And yet, in a sense, we do possess
it because Jesus, our forerunner, has entered in and taken possession
of heaven for all of his people. That's why we bless the Lord.
And we bless him for this, and I've only got a couple of minutes
left to deal with this, in verse four. We bless him not only because
he's God, We bless Him not only because He is the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ who sent His Son into this world, and we bless
Him because He's given to us every spiritual blessing, all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. It's like I
heard Brother Henry say many years ago, God's put all of His
eggs in one basket. That's Christ Jesus. If you have
Christ Jesus, you got everything that God could possibly give
a child of the Lord. That's another reason why I don't
like to hear anybody talk about earning rewards in heaven. What can God give you more than
his son? You see, this idea, if you do
more for God, he'll give you more, that's works trying to
slip in the side door. This is all of grace, brother.
And the thief on the cross, he went in by the blood of Christ
Jesus, and if you go in, that's the only way you're going in.
And you'll get all the spiritual blessings and heavenly places
in Christ. And here's another reason, and
I'll quit with this. Why should we bless God? Because
he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that
we should be holy and without blame before him. because God
chose us in Christ. Now get this, in the first chapter
of Ephesians, 14 times, 10 plus four, 14 times we read of in
Christ, in him, in whom. What can you take away from that?
Everything God's got for us is in Christ Jesus. In fact, he
chose us in him unto salvation. In Isaiah 42, God says, behold
my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, mine elect, in whom my
soul delights. People have a problem with election.
Well, do you have a problem with the Savior? He was chosen. Never heard anybody object to
Christ. God chose him and chose us in
him. And I'll tell you, and I'll get
into this more next Sunday night, but this is the foundational
blessing, election. Over in the book of, was it 1
Samuel or 2 Samuel, I forget now. But David, when they brought
the Ark of the Covenant, finally, it went to... David brought it
back to the city of David, to Jerusalem. It took, what, six
paces, and then it stopped and offered sacrifices. Takes six
more paces and stopped and offered sacrifice. The blood, the blood
continually flowed. And Michael, M-I-C-H-A-L, Saul's
daughter. She saw David. You know what
he's doing? He's dancing in front of the
ark. He's so happy. The ark's coming home. She despised him in her heart.
That's his wife. That's his wife. She despised
him in her heart. He danced, he rejoiced. And she said something like this,
you know, you look like a fool out there. Something to that
nature. That's paraphrasing liberally. You look like an idiot out there.
You know what David said? God chose me. God chose me. That's why I'm so happy. That's
why I'm rejoicing. And I'll tell you, if this doctrine
of God's electing grace ever gets a hold of you, in your heart
you'll be dancing. You'll just be praising the Lord.
Because if you're a believer, the only reason you believe this
gospel is because of this foundational grace. God chose you in Christ
unto salvation. How could anybody not believe
in divine election? I'll give you this. Here's two
more things. I'll tell you why people have
trouble with election. Two reasons. Number one, they
think too little of God. Number two, they think too much
of themselves. That's the problem. That's always
the problem. They don't know who God is and
they don't know what they are. Don't have any idea. I'll tell
you what, if God ever shows you who he is and what you are, your
estimation of the greatness of God will just surge. And your
estimation of your own depravity just, you'll, you'll begin to
commence to learning that you're just a poor old sinner. And to
the degree that you bring God down to that
exact degree, you lift yourself up. That's man's problem. So
the Bible says God's, he's the potter and we're the clay. And the arrogant man says, hey,
you're not gonna lump me with everybody else. I'm not like
everybody else. I'm somebody. That's your problem. You think you're somebody. Tell
you what, when the grace of God comes to us, here's what the
grace of God shows us. Christ is everything, and we're
nothing. We're nothing. And then he shows
us that in Christ Jesus, We have all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in him. Sure is a glorious gospel, isn't
it? Full of good news for sinners. Let's sing a closing song. Only
a sinner saved by grace, 474.