Welcome to the Reign of Grace
radio broadcast. My name is Bill Parker. I'm the
pastor of the 13th Street Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky.
This program is sponsored by the members of Eager Avenue Grace
Church in Albany, Georgia, located at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany,
Georgia. I'll be bringing you a gospel
message of the sovereign grace and glory of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ from God's Holy Word. And now, the message. The title of the message is All
Things in Christ. All Things in Christ. This is
a message that is a gospel message designed to exalt the Lord Jesus
Christ in His redemptive glory, His saving glory. And I want
to just recap just for a few minutes to show you that the
whole first part of the book of Ephesians, in fact, probably
the first 14 verses of chapter 1, is really just one long sentence
showing the fullness and completeness of salvation by the free sovereign
grace of God in Christ. It speaks of the work of the
Father, God the Father, in salvation. God the Father is the only source
and originator of salvation. God elected a people, chose a
people before the foundation of the world in Christ, and conditioned
all of their salvation upon His Son, God the Son, the second
person of the Trinity, the One who was made flesh and dwelt
among us. And then it speaks of the work of God the Son in
salvation. That's what we're going to look
at today in the verses that we're going to deal with in Ephesians
chapter 1, all things in Christ. God the Son agreed voluntarily
to be the Savior of those whom the Father chose and gave Him.
This is what He said in John chapter 6 and verse 37 when He
said, All that the Father giveth Me, shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." He went on to
say, "...this is the will of him that sent me, that of all
which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up again in the last day." He's speaking of his people.
He calls them his sheep in John chapter 10. In the book of Ephesians
chapter 5 they're called his church, and in other places.
Who is the Church? Who makes up the Church? Those
whom God chose in Christ, those whom Christ redeemed, those whom
the Father justified based on the righteousness of His Son.
And the book of Ephesians also speaks of the work of the Holy
Spirit in salvation, and that's the Church too. Those whom the
Spirit gives life and calls into the Kingdom of God. That's the
Church. Now, when we left Ephesians chapter
1 the last time, it was speaking of Jesus Christ, whom God set
up for ordained to be the Savior of His people according to the
good pleasure of His will. That's in verse 5 here. In other
words, salvation is a matter of the will of God, not the will
of man. There are many people today who
preach that salvation is based upon the free will of man, or
it's a decision that man makes. Now, we certainly in salvation
do make a decision, but our decision is based upon the sovereign will
of God, not the other way around. The Bible teaches that if left
to ourselves, none of us would come to Christ. We would willingly
go our merry way to hell, ignorantly now, in our own works, in our
own unbelief, in our own wickedness. But when God's will intervenes,
that's a sovereign will. And God, He said in Romans chapter
9, that He will have mercy upon whom He will. And He will, all
of salvation that God provides is a matter of His sovereign
will. And then He says in verse 6, it's to the praise of the
glory of His grace. Now that's another thing. Salvation
is not by works, it's by grace. That means it is given freely. Grace does not consider any merit
or any worth in its object. In other words, if God saves
a sinner, it's not because of what that sinner has earned.
The Bible teaches that the wages of sin is death. That's all a
sinner can earn is death. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So salvation is not given
to a sinner based upon what he's earned, and it is not given to
a sinner based upon what he deserves. By nature and by works, by our
best deeds, we all deserve death. That's all we can ever deserve
in ourselves. Salvation is by grace. And then
it says here in verse 6, wherein he hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. Now that's the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Beloved. God testified of that at his
baptism and at the Mount of Transfiguration when he said, this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. You see, the only way a sinner
can be accepted before a holy and righteous God is in the person
and work, finished work, of the Lord Jesus Christ. When you come
before God, upon what basis do you come? When you seek the Lord,
upon what ground do you expect to be saved and to be blessed?
My friend, a sinner cannot be saved or blessed. He cannot be
accepted before God of his own or in his own works. If you come
before God pleading anything but the merits of Christ's shed
blood and His righteousness imputed, His obedience unto death, His
doing and dying, not your own. If you complete in anything but
Christ, you cannot be accepted. Now the reason is this, even
though salvation is by grace, and let me say this, God is a
gracious God. God is a loving God. God is a
merciful, compassionate God. Anytime we preach the gospel,
we sing aloud of God's love and God's grace and God's mercy.
But my friend, God cannot show mercy or grace or love apart
from His holiness. His law and justice must be satisfied. God is a holy God and He must
punish sin. He's a just God and He must do
that which is right. If God were to save me or you
or any sinner, without His law and His justice being honored
and magnified and satisfied, He would cease to be God. that
would dishonor Him, that would deny Him. God must be a just
God and a Savior. So when we speak of salvation
being to the praise of the glory of His grace, we cannot do so
without understanding that His grace is what makes us accepted
in the Beloved. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
this world and He walked this earth in perfect obedience to
the law. In that we see that God's grace
provided what His law demanded. You can't do it. I can't do it.
You see, if God says, well, I'll save you based upon your perfect
law-keeping, then we're all lost. But He sent His Son to do for
His people what they could not do for themselves. And then Christ
went to the cross of Calvary because justice has to be satisfied. Righteousness has to be established.
Had to be. And so grace sent Christ to accomplish
and meet all the conditions, all the requirements, all the
stipulations of salvation. And that's why it says that those
who are in Christ, those who are saved by grace, are accepted
in the Beloved. There's none other name. under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Jesus Christ
is the only way. Christ said it. I am the way,
I am the truth, I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. For any sinner to seek salvation
or blessing from God apart from Christ and His finished work
is to be totally unaccepted. I want to be accepted of God.
How about you? I want to know that God is for me, that God
saves me. I want to enter into God's love
and God's mercy and God's grace. How can I do that? Look to Christ
and Him alone. Look to His finished work, His
blood. It goes on to say in verse 7, in whom, the whom there is
Jesus Christ, we have redemption through His blood. Now what is
redemption? Well, by nature, we were sold
under sin, slaves to the law, under the curse, condemned in
Adam. And in order for us to be redeemed,
a price had to be paid, a price of redemption. Now, who's going
to pay the price? What is the price? Well, the
price is perfect satisfaction to God's justice. Now, what does
that demand? It demands death. And the Bible
teaches without the shedding of blood there's no forgiveness,
no remission of sins. Well, who paid the price? The
Lord Jesus Christ paid the price in full. It is through His blood.
And listen, it's in whom we have redemption through His blood,
and then it goes on to say the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of His grace. Even the forgiveness of sins
comes through the blood of Christ. Now that's important, and I want
you to see this. Upon what basis, upon what ground
will God forgive sins? I heard a preacher on television
one time make this statement. He said, the forgiveness of sins
always comes at the cost of repentance. Not so, my friend. That would
not be grace. That would not be to the praise
of the glory of His grace, and it would not be according to
the riches of His grace. If God would forgive me or you,
on the basis or ground of anything that we do, or anything that
is done through us or in us, it would not be grace. He says
that in whom we have redemption through His blood, and the forgiveness
of sins is included in that, and it's according to the riches
of His grace. In other words, the forgiveness of sin is a matter
of the riches of God's grace. So then, what is the cost of
forgiveness? The cost of forgiveness is the
blood of the Son of God incarnate. The cost of forgiveness has already
been paid in full in Calvary. Now, once the Holy Spirit brings
a sinner to see the blood of Christ having paid for all his
sins, past, present, and future, that's what the Holy Spirit uses
to draw out a sinner's repentance. Oh, how could I have ever thought
that God would save me? or that He would bless me or
forgive me based upon anything I do. When I look at the cross
of Calvary and see the Son of God hanging there on that tree,
suffering unto death in His agony, all for the payment of the sins
of His people, redeeming them by His blood, bringing about
the forgiveness of sins and salvation, how could I have ever thought
that anything that I do or anything that I would be enabled to do
could ever even compare to what Christ, the Son of God, did in
the shedding of His blood. It's all according to the riches
of His grace. You see, this is what this message
is about, all things in Christ. So he goes on in verse 8, wherein
He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. Now
wisdom, we know what wisdom is. Somebody said wisdom is knowledge,
but not just bare knowledge. There's a lot of people who have
a lot of knowledge, but they don't know how to use it. You've
heard of somebody, they say, well, he's smart, but he didn't
have enough sense to get in and out of the rain. Things like
that. Well, this wisdom is, here is the wisdom of God. So it's
not just simply God knowing things. God is omniscient. He knows all
things. But it is God working things
with that knowledge according to his wisdom. He knows how to
do it. He knows when to do it. Who is
the wisdom of God? The Scripture tells us Christ
is the wisdom and the power of God. Think about this wisdom
and this prudence, which is virtually the same thing. Wisdom and prudence
is wisdom and the knowledge and the ability to enact these things. Well, what things is He speaking
of? All things in Christ. Salvation. God knows how to save
sinners. And He knows how to save sinners
in a way that honors Him, that honors him and glorifies him
as the true and living God, and he knows how to save sinners
in a way that gets the job done. That's wisdom and prudence. Now
you may say you know how to save sinners, but you don't. And your
way would not save sinners, it would just lead to death. My
way would lead to death. But God's way is the right way.
It's the only way. I heard of a preacher one time
that said that God did not have to send his son into the world
to die. He could have just snapped his
fingers and just said, you're saved. My friend, that is foolishness. That is heresy. That is anti-gospel,
anti-grace. If God did not have to send his
son into the world to die for sins, he would not have done
it. It was not just an expression of his love. Now listen to me.
Christ being sent into the world by the Father is an expression
of His love. But it's not just an expression
of His love alone, it's also an expression of His justice,
and it's an expression of His wisdom. I'll tell you, if God
sent His Son into the world to redeem His people by His blood,
it's the only right way to do it, it's the only wise way to
do it, it's the only prudent way to do it, and it's the only
way, period, to do it. God must be just when He justifies. God, listen, God is a wise God. He's a powerful God. And He must
be both a just God and a Savior. And only the wisdom of God could
bring forth such a way of salvation as to honor Himself and to meet
the need of His people. Well, verse 9 says, having made
known unto us the mystery of His will according to His good
pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself. Now, that word mystery,
you may not understand that fully, but think about this. Now, when
we think of a mystery, you know, we think about reading a mystery
novel or something like that, and we go through and we try
to figure out clues in order to find out the answer of who
committed the crime. But that's not what a mystery
is in the Bible. A mystery is not a hidden code. It is not something where you've
just got to search through and find clues so that you can figure
it out. A mystery is simply this in the
Bible. It's something that God himself has to reveal. It's covered
up. The natural man will not see
it. The Bible teaches in 1 Corinthians 2, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them.
They're spiritually discerned. If we're going to know anything
about God's will here, he's going to have to reveal it. Now, He
has revealed it in His Word, that's what this Bible is, from
Genesis to Revelation, that's God's revealed Word. So that
this is the completed revealed will of God, the revealed Word
of God, so that we can't take away from it and we can't add
to it without endangering our souls. But you see here, the
mystery of His will here has to do with all things in Christ. And what he's saying is through
the preaching of the gospel, the good news of salvation, through
the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God
has made known unto us, now who are the us here? Believers, born-again
sinners, the saints of God, set apart by God, redeemed by the
blood of Christ, and he's made known unto us the mystery of
his will. His will to what? His will to
save his people from their sins through Jesus Christ. And he
says, it's all according to the good pleasure which he had purposed
in himself. This was a purpose that God purposed
in himself before the foundation of the world. This was no afterthought
with God. This was no contingency plan
or plan B. It wasn't that God made man,
man, Satan sneaked up on God and took him by surprise, made
man fail, and then God had to figure out another way. Oh, no.
This was something He purposed in His eternal being before the
foundation of the world. But God created time now. And
He does things in time. He works things in time. And
it says here in verse 2, or verse 10, that in the dispensation
of the fullness of time, He might gather together in one all things
in Christ, both which are in heaven, or in the heavens, and
which are on earth, even in him." In other words, now that word
dispensation is just a segment of time. You see, all the time,
God created time, and I can't explain that to you. You know,
preachers get bogged down, theologians do, trying to reconcile and explain
eternity and time. Well, that's an impossibility.
First of all, we know nothing about eternity except as we see
God. And then we can't understand
it. Such thoughts are too high for us. We only exist and act
and see things in the realm of time. But God, who is eternal,
who has no beginning and no end, who is the eternal I Am, He created
time and He works in time, in segments of time. The book of
Ecclesiastes chapter 3 says, to everything there is a purpose,
there is a season, there is a time. Now, who appointed the times?
God did. God is in control. Now, there
was a time that God appointed for His Son to come to this world.
In Galatians chapter 4 and verse 4 it says, In the fullness of
the time God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, that speaks
of His incarnation, the Word made flesh, the humanity of Christ,
the sinless humanity of Christ, and then he was made under the
law. That is, he became responsible to keep the law and to fulfill
the claims of the law for his people, and it says, to redeem
them that were under the law. There was a time appointed, and
he says, in the dispensation of the fullness of the times,
he might gather together in one all things in Christ. Now, there's
coming a time when God's going to gather all things together
in Christ. You see, this is already purposed.
This is already predetermined. Nothing's going to stop it. God's
not waiting on you or on me to do anything. He's not waiting
on them to rebuild anything in Jerusalem. God has an appointed
time, and when that time comes, that's it. We don't know that
time. Christ is going to come again.
He's right now seated at the right hand of the Father, ruling,
reigning, disposing over all things, working it all after
the counsel of his own will, he says in verse 11. He says,
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated,
that's predetermined according to God, according to the purpose
of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own
will. There's God's will again. Now
think about this. All things are going to be gathered together
in Christ. All things are going to come to their fruition in
Christ. All the people of God are going to be gathered together
in Christ. That's those who have gone on to be with Him now, the
saints who sleep, who are dead, and that's those who are found
at the time of His second coming. They're going to be gathered
together, caught up with Christ, and there'll be one body, They're
right now spiritually one body. I know there's a lot of different
denominations, but that's not scriptural. The gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ brings sinners together. And then later on in
the book of Ephesians, chapter 2, he talks about Jew and Gentile. You see, God has a people out
of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. And he's going to
send the gospel out into the world. That's why Christ said
the gospel must be preached in all the world before he comes
again. Now again, we don't know the specific time, and I know
people today in religion, TV, and literature, they're so consumed
with the end times concerning when Christ is going to come
back, what it's going to be like. But now let me tell you something.
What we as the church are to be involved in and to spend our
time doing between now and the time that our Lord comes back
again is we're to be preaching the gospel in all the world.
We're not out here trying to figure out when this is going
to happen or when that's going to happen. were to preach the
gospel. Go ye in all the world and preach the gospel. Christ has some sheep who are
of the Jewish nation, and he's going to call them. But then
he said, other sheep I have that are not of this fold, them I
must also bring. He has a people's sheep out of
the Gentile nations, and he's going to bring them, and they're
all going to be gathered in one in Christ. Now Christ is the
head, his church is the body. Christ is the bridegroom, His
church is the bride. You see that? And they're going
to be one in Him. And then when He says, "...in
whom also we have obtained an inheritance." Salvation is an
inheritance. Now let me tell you something
about an inheritance. You don't earn an inheritance. Somebody
else earns it for you, and then when that person dies, he bequeaths
it or leaves it to you. And that's the way salvation
is. My inheritance is incorruptible," Peter wrote. It's in heaven.
It's reserved for me. I can't lose it. And you know
why? Because I didn't earn it. It wasn't conditioned on me.
I was born into it by the Spirit of God. I was chosen by the Father,
redeemed by the Son, and regenerated by the Spirit. And my inheritance
is not something I earned, salvation and all of its blessings. Christ
earned it, and then when He died, he bequeathed it to his people.
And that's what grace is all about. It's an inheritance and
it was predestinated before the foundation of the world according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. Now that's security. That's assurance. You see, it has nothing to do
with anything I earn from God. And that's the way religion talks
today. Religion, even if it comes in the name of Christ, they want
people to earn favor, earn salvation, earn their perseverance, earn
their reward. No, sir. It's all according to
the predestinating purpose of God, who works all things after
the counsel of his own will. And then lastly, in verse 12,
he says that we, that is, we who are redeemed, we who were
chosen, We who were redeemed, we who are regenerated, should
be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ.
You see, a sinner saved by the grace of God is a living testimony
to the praise of His glory. Now, how did we come into that? By experience. How did we first
experience it? We trusted in Christ. We hoped
in Christ. You see, my hope is in Him, not
in myself. It's not in the church. It's
not in anything I've done. It's not in the baptismal waters.
It's not in walking an aisle. It's not in what I'm doing by
way of obedience. My hope is in Christ. And we
trust in Him. We rest in Him. And we're to
run the race of grace here on this earth, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. Why? Because all things
ultimate. will be gathered together in
one in Christ. All things in Christ. That is,
all my salvation, all my eternal blessedness, all glory shall
be gathered together in one in Christ. I hope that's been helpful
to your understanding of the Scriptures and the Gospel. If
you'd like a copy of this message, listen to the announcer and he'll
give you the details. The title of this message is
All Things in Christ. We're glad you could join us
for today's message. If you would like to receive
a copy of this message, or if you would like more information
about Eager Avenue Grace Church, remember we are located at 1102
Eager Drive in Albany, Georgia. You can call us at 229-432-6969
or visit our Reign of Grace website at www.rofgrace.com. Thank you
and may the Lord be with you.