Thank you. Excellent. Excellent song. Go back to Ephesians
with me, if you would, and let me read a statement to you out
of the second chapter of Ephesians. Ephesians, the second chapter. A brief statement that I would
like to use as the basis for My remarks to you tonight, Ephesians
the second chapter, the last statement of verse five. It simply says, by grace ye are
saved. So my subject is saved by grace. We've been talking about the
subject of salvation. Oh, for a few messages, and I found myself reading again the
first couple of chapters of this great epistle. And I felt led
of God to bring you this message, saved by grace. I hope God will
enable me to bring it to you and I hope that he will enable
you to hear what I have to say. You know, the great error against
which the gospel of the Lord Jesus is ever fighting against,
the great error against which God's preachers war against,
is the natural bent or the natural resolve of our
hearts to believe salvation by works. That's what we naturally
believe, and this is what we're always warring against. That is, most people, all people
by nature really believe salvation by some some contribution that
we have to make, salvation in some way conditioned on us. Man, and that's all of us, mankind,
in our arrogance and in our pride, we believe that in order to be
saved, we've got to do something for God. And this is a monumental error. Here is the error that when we
do for God, then God will do for us. And this is the way we
naturally believe. This is the message of false
religion. It doesn't matter what What religious name or denomination
false religion has, it is always this, we do something for God
and then God does something for us. Men believe that obedience
to God results in blessings. That's why preachers, they preach
this, live for God and He'll bless you. And that naturally, that message
is naturally embraced by us. That just makes good sense. If we do for God, God will do
for us. If we obey God, then God will bless us. If I don't
do what God tells me to do, He's not going to bless me. But if
I do something for God, it will result in blessings from God. But then we get into the Scriptures. And as we look into the work
of God, we find that the blessings of God, they're not conditioned
on our obedience. In fact, they don't have anything
to do with our obedience at all. They don't arrive at our door
as a result of us doing something for God. Ephesians chapter 1
and verse 3, our brother read to us, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us. He's blessed us already. That's before He ever made the
world. That wasn't a response of God
to something we do. We didn't even exist then except
in the mind and will and purpose of God. These are blessings that God
said that He blessed us with before he ever fashioned the
universe. And these are real blessings
because they're spiritual blessings, which means they're not blessings
that are tangible, but they're very real. And most of the time when we
think of blessings and we say, Lord bless us, bless us. We may say bless us for Jesus'
sake, but when people say, Lord bless us, we generally think
of physical things. Lord bless us with a happy family. Lord bless us with obedient sons
and daughters. Lord bless us with a measure
of wealth. Lord bless us with good health. But those aren't blessings, really. Those are daily mercies. That's
what those are. You see, in order for something
to really be a blessing, it's got to last forever. That's right. It's got to last forever. It's
got to go way on beyond death. It just keeps on going. I know God is the author of blessings
and God is the giver of blessings. Only God can bless and, by the
way, only God can curse. When Balak, who was the king
of Moab, he decided he would hire him a preacher. That preacher's
name was Balaam. And old King Balak, he said to Balaam,
I want you to pronounce a curse on Israel. You curse them. He said, I can't curse the people
that God has blessed. Psalm 37.22 says, For such as
be blessed of God, they shall inherit the earth, and they that
be cursed of God shall be cut off. God blesses and God curses. He does both according to His
will. at which He is already determined
to do. And never lose sight of this,
all of these spiritual blessings are in the Lord Jesus. It says in this text, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed
with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. Whatever these blessings are, rest assured of this, we absolutely
know where they're found. They're found in Christ Jesus.
And there are no blessings, there are no blessings outside of Christ
Jesus. There are daily mercies outside
of Christ Jesus because the mercy of God is over all the world.
Isn't that right? Everybody partakes of the mercies
of God, the daily mercies of God. But everybody is not a partaker
of the grace of God. No, only God's people get His
grace. And only God's people get His
blessings. And the blessings that God's
people already enjoy, we have always been blessed with them.
And we've always been blessed with them in the Lord Jesus.
Which means they are unconditional blessings. You didn't do anything
to get them. And therefore you cannot do anything
to lose them. Ain't that wonderful? They are given to each of us
who are God's elect. in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, those who are in Christ
Jesus, that is, those who believe Him, who rest in Him, those who
embrace Him, those who love Him as He is absolutely set forth
in the Word of God, We may have this confidence. We have all blessings right now
in Christ Jesus. I'm not going to give any more
than I got right now. And I'll never have any diminishing
of the blessings. And so this idea If you are obedient,
God will bless you. If you are disobedient, God takes
away the blessing. That is absolutely wrong. You say, well, if you preach
like that, you are going to encourage people to loose living. Not God's people. Because God's people We look
at it this way. Boy, I'm an object of God's everlasting
grace. And He has saved me. He has blessed
me. And I long to honor Him. I want
to live for Him. Not so I can get more blessings. No. Because I'm not going to
get any more. Because I got all of them. You
can't get any more than all. We have all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. They're in heavenly places. That means nobody can get to
them to rob us of them. And when we realize, to some extent, just how undeserving
we are of the least of God's mercies, and then we find out
we are blessed with all spiritual blessings, that fills our hearts
with thanksgiving and praise to God. What are these blessings? Can
they be known? Can they be identified? Are they set forth in this book?
Oh, yes. In fact, they are set forth right
here in Ephesians chapter 1. And make note of this. Those things that most people
talk about as being blessings, that's not the way. They'll have
a different list than Paul's got. Before you ever heard this message,
before I ever started talking about the blessings of God, if
I'd asked you to take out your ink pen and get you a piece of
paper and write down your blessings, Sing that song. Count your many
blessings. Name them one by one. Count your
many blessings. See what God has done. You start
writing down your blessings. A good wife. A faithful husband. Darling children. Little angels. Precious grandchildren. good
job, good retirement. And you just keep going down
the line. How many do you want me to list,
preacher? Well, you haven't got to the blessings yet. I'm not saying those aren't mercies. And they come from the hand of
God, right? They do come from the hand of
God. But they're not spiritual blessings. What are the spiritual blessings?
Number one, divine election. That hits the list. I guarantee you, well, maybe
I can't give you a guarantee, but I'm almost certain if you
go out and you start asking people tomorrow about the blessings
of God that he's blessed them with, It won't be one out of
a thousand, I bet you, that would say, well, I tell you, He chose
me in grace under salvation before the world began. But that's the
first one this man mentions, and he's writing by divine inspiration. Divine election. He says, look
at verse four, according as He had chosen us in Him, in Christ,
before the foundation of the world. That we should be, be
holy and without blame before Him. This is a great blessing. Do you believe the gospel of
grace? The message of salvation by the work of the Son of God? Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? Is He your only hope of glory?
Let me tell you something. The reason you believe is because
you were an object of God's sovereign election before He ever made
the world. He elected you unto salvation. Before the world ever had a being,
In fact, before you ever had a being, except in the mind and
the will and the heart and the purpose of God, He chose you
unto salvation. He chose you to be holy and without
blame before Him. And guess what? You've always been holy and without
blame before Him. That's the only way He can embrace
you. That's the only way He can have
you, is if you're holy and without blame. And in the mind and will
and purpose of God in Christ Jesus, you are now and you have
always been holy and without blame in Christ. Now, I know that there has to
come a time in this world when this gospel is brought right
home to our hearts. And we're washed in the blood
and we're robed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. And there's
going to come a glorious day when those who are his people
are going to be glorified. And then body and soul and spirit
absolutely from the top of our heads to the bottom of our feet
will be holy and without blame before Him in reality. But we've always been that way
in the mind of God. You see these spiritual blessings
of which this one is the first set forth. These are the products
of God's everlasting counsel. Let's say that you come upon
somebody who's really needy and I know we see a lot of people
standing on the corners of the street and You know, you don't
know whether they're needy or not. But let's say you come across
somebody who is genuinely needy. They need some food. You give out of a sudden urge,
a sudden urge to help them. What God has done for us, it's
not a result of a sudden urge. He's always loved us. He's always
given to us. He's always showed us grace in
Christ Jesus. This salvation involved great
wisdom and forethought on the part of God Almighty. He blessed
us with all spiritual blessings before He ever made the world.
He chose us to be holy and without blame. And I'll tell you, Romans 9-11
says the purpose of God according to election, it is going to stand. Let people fuss about it. Let
them fight against it. That's not going to stop anything.
You might as well bow to the Word of God. Because that which God is determined
to do is as good as done. Now that's absolutely right. Nothing can defeat the purpose
of God. That's why we read, all that
the Father giveth me, it's what the Savior said, all that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me,
I'll in no wise cast out. And this is the Father's will
which it sent me, that of all which He's given me, I should
lose nothing, but raise it up at the last day. We were given
in covenant grace to Jesus Christ before God ever made the world. This is a glorious blessing.
This is like the initial blessing. This is the blessing from which
come all the other blessings. Man, I'm thankful. I rejoice
in God's electing grace to me. It's a wonderful thing. Look
at Ephesians, the second chapter. Why, I could just talk on and
on about this first blessing, this spiritual blessing. I can't
lay my hands on it. It's not tangible. It is immaterial,
but it's everlasting and it's real. It's genuine. This is a
blessing of God, divine election. Confessions of faith. Baptist confessions of faith.
Presbyterian confessions of faith. They all have this in their confessions. Most of these folks don't even...
You mean this is what our church used to believe? Yeah. I didn't
know that. Well, it's the truth whether
you know it or not. But whether it's in man's confession
of faith or not, it's in God's book! And that's all that matters. Look at 2 Thessalonians chapter
2. I tell you, there's going to be a lot of folks who are
going to perish in unrighteousness. God sent them the Gospel, 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2 verse 11, 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 11. That they all might be damned
who believe not in the truth. But they had pleasure in unrighteousness. They didn't have pleasure in
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And anything other than the righteousness
of Jesus Christ, you know what it is? Unrighteousness. Here is what they had pleasure
in, their own righteousness. But their own righteousness is
unrighteousness. But, verse 13, we are bound,
we are bound to give thanks always to God for you. Brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning, what did
He do? Chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. When did He do this? Before He made the world, from
the beginning. from the beginning. This is a great blessing. We could, I could just, I'm not
going to stop right now, but I could stop right, I could stop
and send you home with this and you got more than enough right
now to thank God all night long for. What a blessing! Lord, You have blessed me in
Christ Jesus with salvation. You set Your heart's love on
me. You've always loved me. I've
always been an object of Your grace. Lord, You've blessed me
with all spiritual blessings in Your only begotten Son. Me! Me! A sinner who drinks iniquity
like water! Me! Who's full of filth and ungodliness? Me! You mean I'm chosen unto
salvation? Oh yes! Not for anything that
you had done, will do or will ever do, but because God would
love you. Because God would have you. That's
it. It's unconditional blessing. It wasn't dependent upon your
obedience. Your obedience didn't have anything
to do with it. Now, we ought to obey the Lord. I'm not saying
disobey the Lord. We ought to obey Him. Ought to
seek to do His revealed will. I'll tell you what, God's salvation,
He purposed it. He's going to apply it to those
He appointed unto it. Well, here's another one. Divine
predestination. Verse 5, having predestinated
us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will. Ephesians 1, 5. Every once in a while, a writer
will say something that's pretty good. I was reading old Matthew
Henry this week on this passage, and he said of election and predestination,
he said, these are the secret springs from whence the others
flow. And boy, that's exactly right.
These are the secret springs, election and predestination,
and all the rest of them flow from this. Predestination. One writer said predestination
is this, that God has marked out the destiny of everything
ahead of time. Pretty simple, absolutely accurate. And I also know that predestination
especially has to do with God's people. God's people. In this particular
text, it says He's predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ Himself. God has ordained you, He has
purposed you, predestinated you to be in His family. God appointed you to be one of
His little ones. Be one of His children. Oh, what grace is this. And I,
let me just show you this. It says, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, watch it, to
Himself. to himself. Isaiah 43, 21, I jotted this
verse down. This people, God says, I have
formed for myself. For myself. You thought it was
all about you. You're wrong. It's all about
God. It's what God wanted. It's for
God's glory. It's for God's pleasure. Give
you a reference or two. Look with me in Psalm 4, verse
3. Psalm 4, verse 3. Psalm 4, verse
3. Psalm 4.3, But know, it's something
you need to know. If the Spirit of God says, but
know, then you better perk up. It's something you need to know.
But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself. For himself. Therefore the Lord
will hear when I call unto him. Give you one other reference
in Psalm. Psalm 135. Psalm 135 verse 4. Psalm 135 verse 4. For the Lord hath chosen Jacob
unto himself and Israel for his peculiar treasure. That means
for his valued property. This is for God. It says in Revelation chapter 4
that the Lord made all things for himself, for his own glory,
for his own glory. Oh, we're a bunch of wiggling
maggots down here on this great planet, which is really quite
small in comparison to everything else in God's universe. And we
think we're so big and we're so mighty and we're so important. We ain't nothing. In fact, the
Lord says in Isaiah, He said, all the nations of the earth
are like a dropping up bucket. That's all. Like a dropping up
bucket. We used to get water from a well. Prime that pump and put that
bucket under there and fill that bucket up. Go to the house and
empty it. I tell you, you didn't empty
it down to, let me get that last drop out of there. No, it didn't
even matter if you spilt a few drops. That insignificant drop,
the Lord said, that's all of you together. There's nothing
to us. This is not about us. I know God has richly blessed
us. He saves us. We're the family
of God. But everything is for God's glory. I don't know if we'll ever learn
that. I hope we will. I hope we're learning it. It's
just not about us. I've had people say, well, I
didn't get anything out of the message today. Well, was God
glorified? I didn't think the preacher had
much to say. Did he exalt the name of the
Lord Jesus? Well, yes, he did that. When
blessed is the name of God, that's what he's supposed to do. Maybe it will be a blessing to
you. Maybe you will get a little something
out of this tonight. But I'll tell you one thing,
I'm trying to brag on God. And that's the best thing we
could ever do. Isn't that right, Alan? That's
what we're supposed to be doing. God said of this predestination,
it's to the adoption of children unto Jesus Christ, to Himself. It's for God's glory, for His
family. God said, I'm going to have a
big family. Washed in the blood of my only
begotten Son. Robed in His impeccable, impeccable
righteousness. And you're not going to have
anything to do with it. It's all to God's glory. Divine predestination. We're
the sons and daughters of God. My goodness gracious. We could
go home on that one too. Now are we the sons of God. It
does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He
shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as
He is. We're the sons of God. You go
home and sleep on that. See if that don't make your pillow
a little softer tonight. See if that don't make your troublesome
trials seem trivial. I'm a child of God. I'm a child
of the King. Wait some time. That song's in
the book too. Child of the King. Well then, what about this in
verses 6? Divine acceptance. It says, "...to the praise of
the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved." That word, made, is grace. That's grace again. This
is saying, "...to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein
He hath graced us in the Beloved." He put you in Christ Jesus. You
talking about grace? Years ago, there was a big division
amongst the Baptists over some people called common grace. Some people said, well, we believe
in common grace. That is, grace to everybody.
There is nothing common about God's grace. God's grace is particular. God's grace is only for His elect. Well, when did He show us grace? He graced us in the Beloved before
the world was made and therefore we are, we have always been,
we will always be accepted in the Beloved. That's the way it
is. You're not accepted in yourself.
It's not about you accepting the Lord. It's about God accepting a people
in Christ Jesus before the world began. So don't we get any credit for
anything? Well, for the sinning part. Take the credit for that. For
the rebellion part, take the credit for that. But the saving
part, the electing part, the predestinating part, the accepting
part, you don't have anything to do with it. That's all God. And then here's divine redemption
and divine forgiveness in verse 7. In whom we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace. And I know we could talk about
redemption separately from forgiveness, but in this verse it puts them
together. Because wherever you have redemption, you've got to
have forgiveness. That is always the result of
redemption. Forgiveness is the result of
redemption. If there is no forgiveness, then
there has been no redemption. And where there is no redemption,
there will never be any forgiveness. But where there is redemption
through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, everybody He redeemed,
their sins have been remitted. Remission of sins. forgiveness
of sins. Because our Lord Jesus has redeemed
us. The justice of God had a hold
on us. And our Lord, He came and He
said, I'll pay the ransom. Justice of God said, paid in
full. Release them and let them go.
Let the captives go free. Divine redemption and divine
forgiveness. This redemption we have in Christ
Jesus results in the guilt and all the stain of sin being removed
by His blood. It's all gone. It's all gone. You know why? Because God's just
and He's righteous and He's faithful. You say, preacher, I thought
you said this morning you're such an awful sinner. I did say
that and I'll stand by that tonight. But God's forgiven me and He'll
always forgive me because of the blood of the Lord Jesus that's
already been shed. Redemption through His blood.
That's a redemption that actually redeems. Don't even talk to me
about universal redemption. That is absolute heresy. I love particular redemption,
because that's the only redemption the Bible talks about. I don't look at Facebook too much.
I get upset. I'm thinking about getting off
of it. Reading something the other day, he said, well, so-and-so,
somebody said this, that so-and-so didn't believe in universal redemption,
and another preacher didn't believe, I mean, didn't believe in particular
redemption, and another preacher didn't preach particular redemption,
as if they're the standard. Whatever some preacher may have
preached or may not be preaching, that's not what's important.
It's only what God has to say. That's the only thing that matters.
You'll say, well, he was a big-time preacher. He had a voice that
thousands of people listened to. That doesn't matter! Only
thing that matters is what this book says. And this book says
that where there's redemption, there's forgiveness of sin. That's
what I'm going to stand by right there. Now, I may not have one
friend left in this world, but I'm going to stand by what God
has to say. Isn't that right, Alan? Isn't
that what you're going to do? I'm going to stand by this. And you try
to tell me there's somebody in hell for whom Jesus died? He's
already paid their sin debt? He brought in for them everlasting
righteousness? He put all their sins away and
they're still in hell? You know what I'm going to say
about you? You don't have the foggiest idea what the gospel
is. Because the gospel is about substitution and satisfaction. The Lord Jesus took the place
of somebody. And whosever place He took, He
satisfied justice for them. And God says, I'm not going to
condemn them. And if God's not going to condemn
them, who can? And you go ahead and have your
universal redemption if you want it. I don't want a thing in the
world to do with it because it does not glorify Christ Jesus. Here's divine revelation. I'll
give you another blessing. I'm going to run out of time
before I run out of blessings. Verse number 9, here's divine
revelation. Having made known unto us the
mystery of His will. That's divine revelation. What
a blessing. God made known unto us the mystery
of His redeeming will. He took the scales off our eyes.
He took the covering off the mystery. I tell you what, the
mystery of God's will, the mystery of His redemptive will, you will
not know it unless He reveals it to you. That is just a fact. You may be the most brilliant
person in the world. You may have the highest IQ till
your IQ runs off the proverbial chart. That's got nothing to
do with this. When it comes to the things of
God, you take somebody like Edison or any of those brilliant people
who had very intelligent men. When it came to the things of
God, absolute fools. Absolute fools. You say, you
think you are smarter than they are? No, I am dumber than they
are. The fellow said, I am about as dumb as a box of rocks. And
I'll tell you what, if God makes known to you the mystery of His
will, you're not as dumb as a box of rocks anymore. You're going
to build on the rock. You'll set all your hopes on
the rock. Christ Jesus, He makes known
to us the mystery of His will. And then, in verse number 10, here's divine
union. that in the dispensation of the
fullness of time, He might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven and those on earth, even in Him."
The union of the Lord Jesus with His people. He's the head and
we converted Jews and Gentiles. We're His body. We're one with
Him. We've always been one with Him. It's like a husband and wife
are joined together and considered as one. Read Ephesians chapter
5. Paul says, I'll tell you what
I'm really talking about. I'm talking about Christ and
the church. Christ and the church. We're one. That's why we're blessed
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. There's the divine inheritance,
verse 11. Certainly heaven awaits us, our
home with the Lord. Faith is a gift. Here's another
divine gift, a divine blessing. Faith is, verse 13, in whom you
also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed,
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Faith's the
divine gift. Ephesians 2.8 and 9 tells us
that. God gave you faith to believe.
Divine sealing. That's another blessing there
in verse 13. Sealed with the Holy Spirit. He's the earnest.
He's the earnest. The part payment. A down payment to guarantee we're
going to get the rest. We're going to get glorification.
Divine enlightenment. Verse number 18. The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened. I tell you, most of you, and
would to God it's all of you, you know exactly what I'm saying
tonight and you're rejoicing what I'm saying. You know why
you do this? Because the eyes of your understanding
have been enlightened. That's why you're not in the
dark anymore. What a blessing not to be in
the dark. There are a lot of people, they hear this preaching,
it just goes and sails right over their head. There it went.
I don't know what he was saying, but I think he believed it because
he did get loud every once in a while. It seemed to mean business,
but I don't quite get it. That's because the eyes of your
understanding hadn't been opened yet. There's got to be divine enlightenment.
Look at verse 19, what is the exceeding greatness of his power
to us who do believe according to the working of his mighty
power, according to the energy of his mighty power. Energy. You believe the gospel because
divine energy is at work within you to bring you to believe. It's not about you exercising
your free will. It's not about you making your
silly little religious decision. It's about God working in you
to will and to do of His good pleasure. His pleasure. The working
of His mighty power. A whole lot more than making
a decision. were objects of his mighty power.
And then there's divine resurrection. Chapter 2, verses 1 through 4.
You, Adi Quichen, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein
time passed, you walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience. among whom also
we all had our conversation in time past in the lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, deserving of wrath
even as others. But God, not but you, but God
who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ." And I'll tell you something, I know regeneration
Regeneration is the typical teaching of this passage of scripture,
but it's much more than that. It's much more than that. Notice
again, even when we were dead in sin, He quickened us to gather
with Christ. With Christ. When was He quickened? In His
resurrection. And that's what He wrote about
at the end of chapter 1. We were raised in Him, and in
verse number 6, and hath raised us up together. He's talking
about more than regeneration, though that's a great blessing
in itself. But He's talking about the fact
of representation. and of our union with the Lord
Jesus, because when He died for us, we died in Him. When He was
buried, we were buried in Him. When He was raised again, we
were raised in Him. That's what the Apostle Paul
is talking about. And He ascended back to heaven,
and here's what Paul says, we went up there with Him. We're
already there in the Savior. That's a divine resurrection.
And you go home and mull those blessings for a while. Just think about those blessings
until you go to sleep tonight. Maybe it will help you. And you
will come away saying, boy, I have been blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.