Let's go to the book of Ephesians
this morning. Ephesians, and I want you to
go to the first chapter. Here's my subject. I want to
speak to you about having confidence in Christ. Having confidence
in Christ Jesus. I speak to you right now to you
who do have confidence in the blessed Redeemer. He's all of
your confidence for salvation. And let me say to everyone, He
must be your only confidence. The only way God is going to
receive any of us is to do so in the Lord Jesus Christ. God,
outside of our glorious Redeemer, He's just a, He's a consuming
fire. He won't have anything to do
with us. He can't have anything to do with us because we're all,
we're all full of sin. We're full of iniquity. The scripture
says we're laden with iniquities. Outside of Christ, God has no
love. He has no grace. He has no mercy. He has no forgiveness. He has
nothing good for anybody outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is He all of your confidence?
Is He all of your hope for heaven and for salvation? Do you have
any confidence in yourself? In the book of Philippians, the
apostle speaks of those who are the true people of God. And there
he says they worship God in spirit. And they do rejoice in Christ
Jesus. They rejoice in who he is. They rejoice in what he did. They rejoice in his bloody redemption. They rejoice in his imputed righteousness. They rejoice in the one who is
the Son of God, who is our Savior. And then he says, here's another,
another thing that's always true of those who are the people of
God. They don't have any confidence
in the flesh. They don't have any confidence
in anybody else's flesh, and they don't have any confidence
in their own. That's why the wise man said
it's better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It's better to trust in the Lord
than to put confidence even in princes, even in the great men
of this world. Understand this, there is no
one worthy of your confidence. There is no one worthy of your
faith. There is no one who's worthy
of your worship. But God, our Savior, he must
be our confidence. He must be our only hope of salvation. And to those of you who say honestly
by the witness of the Spirit, He is all of my confidence. He
is all of my hope. He is all of my righteousness. He is all of my wisdom. He is
all of my sanctification. He is all of my justification. To you I say, here in Ephesians
chapter one, The Spirit of God takes us back to the very origin
of our confidence. In other words, here's what he
tells us here, the reason we are the people of God, the reason
we are saved. And the reason we rest in the
Lord Jesus, the reason we have a confidence only in Him for
everlasting heaven and glory is because of God's work for
us, a work which He did before we ever existed, except in His
own mind. In fact, He takes us back before
the world ever had its existence. Back when there was nobody but
God himself. God the Father and God the Son
and God the Holy Spirit dwelt in perfect unity and in union. God dwelt with utmost glory in
his own self. God Himself determined that He
would have a people to honor Him and to glorify Him. Therefore,
He purposed creation. He purposed to have a race of
people. A race of people would populate
a place He would call the earth. The earth that He would call
into existence. And among those people, he would
have a remnant according to the election of grace. Here in chapter
one of Ephesians, he takes us back. And he says to those of
us who have full confidence in Christ Jesus, our savior for
everlasting life, for everlasting happiness, he says to us, here's
the reason. you have confidence in Christ. God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. He words it this way in chapter
one, verses three and four. He says, blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Ephesians 1, three, who hath
blessed us, past tense, with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. When were we blessed with all
spiritual blessings? Before God made the world. He hath from the beginning, another
scripture says. What did God do? He blessed us.
What did he bless us with? All spiritual blessings. Where
did he bless us? In heavenly places. In whom did
he bless us? In Christ Jesus. Every blessing that God could
ever give to those of us that he himself chose unto salvation,
he blessed us with those blessings in heavenly places, in Christ
Jesus, it says in the fourth verse, before the foundation
of the world. We've already been fully blessed. As we live out our lives, we're
experiencing many of the blessings that God had for us, but the
blessings are ours because we've been blessed from old eternity. It says, according as He had
chosen us in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that
we should be, we should be, we who are unholy, we're chosen
to be holy. Those of us who are absolutely
full of blame, that we would be without blame before God. Imagine this, you standing before
God with no blame, no guilt, no defilement, You
and me who are just full of iniquity. Our transgressions are too numerous
for us to even number. As the writer of scripture says,
we drink iniquity like water and yet you and me in Christ
Jesus, we stand before God in him being holy and having no
blame. This is a matter of grace. This
is where you trace your confidence in Christ back to the purpose
of God regarding you. It's God who ordained that we
would be holy and we would be without blame before Him. And
in love, He predestinated us, it says in verse 5, unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself, and this according
to the good pleasure of His will. And here's the reason for all
of it. And I know that you and I and
all of mankind, we're very, very self-centered. And we think everything's
about us. When in reality, nothing is about
us and everything is about God. And I wonder when it will really
dawn on us that everything redounds to the glory of God. It's not
about you. It's not about me. It's about
God and His glory. And this is what religion today
doesn't understand. All that men usually hear in
messages today, in churches today, are your happiness, your contentment,
your welfare, your joy, your salvation, your heaven, your
this, your that, and you get to the Word of God and it talks
about the glory of God. We've gone amiss somewhere. We've
taken the focus off God and His glory, and we put it upon men,
making the happiness of men to be the object of our preaching
and our doings. And that isn't the object. I
do want you to be happy in Christ Jesus, but our reason for doing
everything is the glory of God. It's what the scripture says.
Whatever you do in word or deed, do all to the glory of God. And
God's great salvation. And the Lord bringing us to have
a confidence in Christ. For all of our acceptance with
God. For all of our righteousness
with God. God's great design has always
been His glory. The quicker we learn that, the
better off we'll be. And we'll get our motivation
straightened out. We'll get our reason for doing
what we do straightened out. Oh yes, God blesses men. God
has saved men. God has redeemed men. We rejoice
in this, but it's all for His glory. It's all for His adoration. It's all that He might be magnified. Listen, in everlasting heaven,
when all of the saints of God have been gathered together at
last and stand washed in the blood of the Redeemer and we
stand in the royal garments of His righteousness of God's salvation,
it will be the Lord Himself who will get all of the honor and
all of the praise and all of the glory as well it should be. And you see, that's what the
first of the book of Ephesians is about. It tells those of us
who find our confidence in Christ, it tells us this is where your
salvation began. It originated with God. And then
it was brought to pass by Christ Jesus. Read here in verse seven. in whom, verse six says, to the
praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he's made us accepted
in the beloved. He's graced us in Christ Jesus. In verse seven, in whom ye have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of his grace. Here's the reason you have confidence
in Christ Jesus. He gave himself for you. He satisfied divine justice for
you. God's justice was stirred up
to anger. And it was all because of our
sinfulness. And our Lord Jesus came into
this world to settle the issue. He came to pay the indebtedness
of all of His people. He came to answer in our stead
the demands of divine justice. And justice said, the soul that
sinneth shall die. Die he must if he's going to
be our substitute. Die he must if he's going to
represent us. Die he must if he's going to
save us. Behold, the Lord from glory comes
down here to this earth. He walks among men for 33 years. The last three years of his life
spent in public ministry, in healing the sick and preaching
the gospel of the kingdom. And then men took him, arrested
him, and nailed him to a tree, all according to the eternal
purpose of God. Because in order for us to live,
he had to die. In order for us to never be forsaken
by God, he must be forsaken by God. In order for us to dwell
in the light of God's presence, he must enter into the darkness,
the darkness of God's condemnation of sin. And our Lord Jesus endured
the wrath of God in our stead when God blotted out the son,
when God forsook his son. He took care of the issue of
our sins and he put them away. It was for this reason, John
says in 1 John 3, that he was manifested to put our sin away. And he did just that by his bloody
work of redemption upon the cross of Calvary. To those of us who
have our confidence in Christ Jesus, The apostle takes us back
and he reminds us, here, this is when the issue was settled.
Here, this is how God remains just and he justifies the ungodly,
right here. This is where the account was
settled. When our Lord Jesus purchased
redemption through his blood, and there therefore flows from
his work of redemption forgiveness of sins. Oh, isn't that wonderful? Forgiveness of sin, for all sins. And all of our sins at that time
were in the future. But they're all paid for. We're redeemed by the blood of
Christ Jesus. I said sometime back, the Lord's
not redeeming anybody today. Redemption is a past work. It's
finished. The Lord Jesus, He's done that
which God demanded, that which God required. That's what the
law of God and the justice of God said had to happen. A suitable
substitute had to die in our stead as illustrated through
all of the Old Testament scriptures. And Christ died for our sins,
1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse three. He died for our sins according
to the scriptures. He was buried and he arose again
the third day according to the scriptures. He lives and we live
in him. And those of us who have confidence
in Christ Jesus, we've been brought to understand that when He lived,
we lived in Him. When He died, we died in Him. And when He arose, we arose in
Him. And when He ascended back to
heaven, we ascended back to the heavens in Him. In Him are all
blessings. In Him, there's life. In Him,
there's acceptance with God. In Him! Therefore, the question
is, are you in Him? And by God's grace, there are
many of us who can say, yes, I'm in Him. But who put you in
Him? I promise you this, you didn't
put yourself in Him. If you're in Him, God put you
in Him. And God put you in Christ Jesus
before He ever made anything. before he spake the word and
creation came into existence. You were in him. You were in
his heart. He loved you with an everlasting
love. You were in his mind. He thought
of you. And he came and visited this
world in order to redeem the objects of his everlasting love. This is the one who redeemed
us. So those of you who have confidence
in him, this is where it was, this is who handled the case,
and this is where it happened, at the cross of Calvary. And
then the writer of the epistle would have us to know that all
of this has happened according to the purpose of God. In other
words, the death of the Lord Jesus, and you believing in Him,
you having confidence in the blessed Savior, these are not
just happenstances. These are just not fortunate
events, or in the case of the death of Christ, an unfortunate
event. Oh no, all of this has been purposed
by God. And so He has this to say in
verse 11, in whom we also have obtained an inheritance. being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. He tells us here that all things
are according to the purpose of God. There's no such thing
as luck, no such thing as fate, no such thing as chance. There's
the purpose of God. And if there's any truth that
will really open up the scriptures to all of us, It would be when the spirit of
grace gives us an understanding and a belief that all things
happen according to God's eternal purpose. And we know that all
things work together for good to them who love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose. The apostle writes
in 2 Timothy 1, of God who called us according to his purpose of
grace. And this is a purpose that existed
before he ever made the world. Our God is the God of purpose.
And so Isaiah, the prophet of God says, he quotes Jehovah as
saying, I have purposed. I will also bring it to pass.
Could it be that God has purposed something and then it won't come
to pass? Only idols, only false gods purpose
things that don't come to pass. Our God has ordained all things
that ever shall be and all things shall fulfill that which he has
ordained and that which he has purposed. It's all according
to the counsel of His will, to the intentions of His will. Notice
verse 12, that we should be to the praise of His glory who first
trusted in Christ. The word trusted, well, it could
be translated who hoped in Christ or who had confidence in Christ. He's writing in this passage
of Scripture of those who have confidence in Christ Jesus. He goes on to say in verse 13,
in whom ye also trusted, and the word trusted there is entrusted
to Christ. You've entrusted your soul to
Christ Jesus. You remember what the apostle
said in 2 Timothy chapter one again? He said, he talked about
that he knows whom he has believed and he's committed unto him Let
me quote it, or let me go to it, because I don't want to misquote
it, which I'm doing. Look at 2 Timothy 1. 2 Timothy 1. Look at verse 12. He says this,
2 Timothy 1 and verse 12, for the witch calls, for the cause
of the gospel. For the cause of the message
of good news, I also suffer these things. I'm in prison, I'm persecuted. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded. You know what that means? I have
confidence. I have confidence that he is
able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that
day. We have made a full deposit of
our souls in the capable almighty hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. We've entrusted our souls to
him. See, that's what, you say, what
is believing Christ? What does it mean to have faith
in Him? Preacher, I don't understand
it. And I think there are some people who are just honest. They
say, I don't understand this matter of faith. I don't understand
about confidence in Christ Jesus, committing myself to Him. What
does it mean? It's a spiritual act. It's an
act of the soul. One which you need to know you're
not capable of doing A work you have no ability to perform apart
from the grace of the Spirit of God. But He gives you life
and then you just make a full commitment of your soul to Christ
Jesus. Lord, I have no ability to save
myself. I've tried that. I've gone down
that road. I've tried works, I've tried
baptism, I've tried keeping the law, I've tried this, I've tried
that, I know better. And now, as best I can, by your
grace, I make a full committal, I make a full deposit of my soul
with all of its interests, with all of its existence, I make
a full deposit of my soul into your capable, almighty, loving,
gracious hands. Oh God, save me. I depend only
upon you. That's got, that's something
to do with faith. Having confidence in Christ. He says here, in whom ye also
trusted, verse 13. You've made, you've entrusted
yourself to Christ. You know what it means to entrust
something to another. You go to the bank, you go to
a savings and loan, or whatever it is, and you make a, you take
your check, you take your money, you make a deposit of it, and
what you're saying is, I rely on you folks to take care of
this. I have confidence in you. That's
faith is having confidence in Christ Jesus. If it weren't for
the fact that I'd have to step out of the camera, I would sit
down on one of these chairs and just put my feet up and I'll
show you absolute confidence in a chair. You're exercising
confidence in the pew that you're sitting in. You fully rely upon
that pew to hold your weight and the weight of everybody else
on that pew. And you don't think anything
about it. You come in and you make a full commitment to that
pew. Well, listen, I make a full commitment
of my soul to Christ Jesus. And I'm not gonna help him out
by putting a foot down and put a little weight on that to try
to help him out. No, he didn't need your help,
that's for sure. The work has already been done,
the work of redemption and reconciliation. And the Spirit of God convinces
us there is no other Savior but Christ the Lord. And He brings
us to full, total confidence in Him. Sink or swim, I flee
to Him. That's what it is. I'm hungry,
He's got bread, I go to Him. I'm thirsty, He is the water
of life, I go to Him. I'm helpless, He has all strength,
He has all might, He has all ability, I run to Him. I'm empty,
I go to Him and I receive out of His fullness. That's something
of what it means to have confidence in Christ Jesus. And I say to those of you who
have confidence in Christ Jesus, He has given to us a most glorious
inheritance. He says in verse number 11, in
whom also we have obtained an inheritance. You say, well, what
do you mean obtained? I thought it's out yonder somewhere.
Oh, it's already ours. This inheritance is already ours. because God has purposed it for
us, this glorious inheritance. God has, he has already allotted
to us that which he purposed to give us from old eternity. You remember reading in Romans
that we're heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ? Would
y'all hold your place here and turn back to Lamentations with
me? Go back to Lamentations chapter
three. And the book of Lamentations
falls between Jeremiah and Ezekiel. And so if you go to those books,
find Jeremiah, go to the end and you'll find Jeremiah's Lamentations
because Jeremiah is the one who wrote the book of Lamentations.
And he says this, if you would, chapter three, verse 22. Chapter three, verse 22. It is
of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed, because his compassions fail
not. Why haven't you been consumed?
Let me tell you, it isn't because you haven't sinned. It isn't
because you haven't transgressed God's law. It isn't because you've
been thoughtless before God in and of yourself. It's because
God's merciful, and because His numerous compassions toward you
will never fail. Now look at verse 23. They are new every morning, great
is thy faithfulness. And then he has this to say in
verse 24. The Lord is my portion. You know what the word portion
is? Inheritance. The Lord is my inheritance, saith
my soul. Therefore, will I hope or have
confidence? That's what the word hope means.
The word hope means confidence. The Lord is my portion. The Lord
is my inheritance. He is my allotment. God has allotted
himself to be the inheritance of all of his people. That's
what my soul says, Jeremiah. Jeremiah repeats. Therefore,
I have confidence in him. I have hope in him. The Lord is my inheritance. Jeremiah speaking on behalf of
all the people of God makes a tremendous statement in the exercise of
faith. He has already considered the
mercies of God and the compassion of God and the faithfulness of
God. And he reaches this conclusion
that all who have confidence in him for salvation, should
have this realization, he is our inheritance. There are people who are looking,
as they look to heaven, they're thinking about, well, what is
my inheritance going to be? And I don't know what goes through
people's minds, I don't know what they imagine that the inheritance
is going to be, riches, or wealth, or what will it be? But the Lord
says to us, here's, let me tell you what your inheritance is.
The Lord himself. The Lord himself is your inheritance. He is your portion. You know,
let me give you this. You know, all of the people of
God are said to be the priesthood, correct? We're the priests of
God. You can read in 1 Peter 2, verse
five, 1 Peter 2, verse nine. One place says we're a holy priesthood. We're a numerous priesthood.
We're the priesthood of God. Let me tell you something about
the priesthood of Israel. They were the tribe of Levi,
12 tribes of Jacob. You know what's said about the
tribe of Levi? When they got to the land of
Canaan, they would not have a portion of land in the promised land.
God didn't give them a land. But you know what He did tell
them? I'll be your portion. I'm your portion. And for those of us who are the
people of God, who have a confidence in Christ Jesus, The Lord Himself
is our full portion. Now listen, you can't have a
partial portion of God. You have a full inheritance yourself. And for those people who they
foolishly imagine that by their works they're earning more of
an inheritance, they just need to be corrected from the Word
of God. Here is your inheritance, the Lord God of glory in Christ
Jesus. He is your inheritance. And He
can give you no more than Himself. You see, we've already read,
as you go back over here to Ephesians chapter one, that He's blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. He's already said we have all
things in Christ. We have the Son of God. He's
our Savior. He's our Redeemer. He's our substitute. He's our surety. He's our righteousness. He's our all in all. The Bible
says we're complete in Him. We have all things in Him. When
God gives us Christ Jesus, who is our inheritance, He has given
us all things in Him. You can't have more than Christ.
See, this is what it means when we get to heaven. Therefore,
all who have full confidence in Christ Jesus receive a full
inheritance. So I thought my standing in heaven
and the rewards that I get are based upon the things that I
do. Well, you need to be corrected. Because you see, the Lord can
give you no more of an inheritance than himself. For if you have
Christ Jesus, you have all things in him. Oh, how glorious. And the Lord himself is our allotment. He is our portion. And this is
where Jeremiah received his comfort and his confidence. Jeremiah,
if you read there in chapter three, He was a man of sorrows,
and in that he's a picture of our Savior. He'd gone through
many troubles and trials. Jeremiah was called the weeping
prophet. But here was his confidence.
Here was his joy, that the Lord was his portion. And so I say to you who have
confidence in Christ Jesus, You have the fullness of the
riches of God in your Savior, who is your portion. And you know what? The Lord says,
and you read it in that Psalm, we are his portion. We are his
inheritance. The Lord is ours, and we're the
Lord's. No wonder Paul says we're complete
in Christ. This is the inheritance of the
people of God. You see, we're a holy priesthood. When we think about heaven's
glories, we're not, you know, I hear people foolishly say,
well, I'm looking forward to clicking my heels on the streets
of gold. You know, that kind of silly
talk, I'm not sure you're going there. I promise you this, when
we get to heaven's everlasting glories, it won't be the floor
of heaven that will occupy our attention, nor the walls. It'll be the one who's seated
upon the throne of redemption, the throne of grace. The one
in whom we had confidence while on this earth, the one who is
our portion, will be fully occupied and taken up with him. That's
what it's gonna be like in heaven. If you're looking for some other
kind of inheritance, I'm afraid you're gonna miss
it. Because the only thing that matters
And let me give you this and I'll quit. The only thing that
matters to everyone, to everyone who's in heaven's glory is the
Lamb of God who's seated on the throne. He's the object of everyone's
attention. When you get to heaven, you're
not gonna be looking for mom and dad and your other relatives
that have died and gone before. No. You'll be looking into the
face of him who will be the first one to greet you when you enter
into heaven's everlasting glory. And you'll hear him say to you
some astonishing words. Well done, thou good and faithful
servant. Because all of his works, all
of his obedience, His obedience even to death, even the death
of the cross has been made to be yours. And you'll be rewarded
for his obedience. And he will say to us, I am your
inheritance. And we're gonna enjoy that inheritance
forever. The Lord Jesus himself. Well,
let's sing it. Let's sing it close.