The message today is... 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. Accepted in Christ. Accepted in Christ. When you
look at the Bible, sometimes you look at them through the
scriptural references, the numbers, the chapters, the verses, and
also the punctuation. But you know, in the original
language of the New Testament, there were no punctuation marks.
They've always been added by the translators, and so most
of the time they did a good job. And I say all that to say this,
if you were to sit down and read the first chapter, as we say,
of the book of Ephesians, the first 14 verses really form just
about one long sentence, because the thought is the same all the
way through. I certainly am one who's glad
that the Bible was translated and brought down in this form
with chapter divisions and verse divisions because it makes it
easier to find. But sometimes we get so bogged
down in it we might lose the meaning. And here's what's happening
here in the first 14 verses in this one long sentence of the
book of Ephesians. What the Apostle Paul is doing
is he is explaining and preaching, proclaiming how all three persons
of the Godhead, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit, are vitally and powerfully involved in the salvation of
His people, the salvation of the church. God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, all three persons are involved
in that salvation. Now, let me just say this, I'm
not going to try to stop today, and give you a human explanation
of the Trinity, because I believe that's impossible. We believe
in the triunity of God, the Father, Son, and Spirit, because the
scripture reveals God as God in three persons. We really can't
explain it, but don't need to. And there's no real illustrations
in human language that would adequately serve our understanding
of the Trinity. I've heard people try, but they
really don't get it. But see, when we speak of the
Trinity, we're not speaking of three different gods. We're speaking
of one God who subsists in three distinct persons. Father, Son,
and Spirit. And that's about the best way
that we can give even a close, get close to an explanation of
it, but that's not the point. What the Apostle Paul, by the
Holy Spirit, is showing here in these first few verses of
Ephesians, is that all of salvation, which it takes a work of the
Father, a work of the Son, and the work of the Spirit, all of
salvation centers around the person and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He has the preeminence. Now that
doesn't mean that he is above the Father or above the Spirit
or he isn't such a greater God. Like I said, we don't believe
in three gods. It's one God in his very nature and essence of
being. But what that means is this. It means that the Triune
Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit has determined
and purposed that in order for the salvation of sinners to the
glory of God, that God the Son incarnate The God-man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, should have the preeminence. Why? Because in
Him, now this is spoken of in Colossians chapter 2 and verse
9, it says, in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now my friend, you realize you
could not know God as Father, and you could not know God the
Son, and you could not know God the Holy Spirit, except through
Jesus Christ. It is through the Lord Jesus
Christ and salvation in and by Him that we come to know God. This is life eternal, Christ
said in John 17, that they might know Thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. Christ is our connection
to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ is the salvation. that the triune Godhead has provided
for his people. Christ is our acceptance before
the Father. And you see, there's no acceptance
in any other. How can a sinner, one who is
born of woman, one who is unclean, one who is ungodly, one who is
depraved, how can sinners such as we are, how can we be accepted
before a holy God? There's not but one way, and
that is in the person and work of Christ. Now that's what Paul
states here in the first few verses of Ephesians chapter 1. I want you to look at verse 3.
He starts out, he says, Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. Now he begins in verse 3 by speaking
of the work of the Father, God the Father, in the salvation
of sinners. God the Father is represented
and revealed in the scripture as the only source and originator
of salvation. God the Father represents the
sovereign authority of the Godhead. Christ the Son, God the Son,
became subject to the Father. Not because He's a lesser God.
He's the same in nature and essence as the Father. But for the purpose
of redemption, He had to be made under the law. He had to come
and keep the law for His people. And the Holy Spirit is subject
to both the Father and the Son to do His work in salvation.
He too is equal in nature and essence to the Father and the
Son. but he became subject and he sent forth from the Father
and the Son to apply that salvation to each and every one of the
redeemed ones in time. Now maybe that's hard to understand,
but let me say this, look at it in the book of Ephesians and
let's read it verse by verse. He starts out, listen to what
he says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now when he says blessed be God,
How are we to understand that? He goes on to say, Who hath blessed
us? When we see ourselves as blessed,
we see that God has added something good to us. But you can't add
anything good to God, for He is all goodness. God is self-sufficient. God is within Himself. He is
the eternal I Am. You can't add anything from God,
and you can't take away anything from God. So what does He mean
when He says, Blessed be the God and Father? of our Lord Jesus
Christ. When we bless God, that is not
a statement that adds anything to His nature or essence. It's
a statement of worship. Oh, bless God. I worship God. It's like this. By the power
of the Spirit, we set God apart in our thinking and in our hearts. There's no other God like Him.
He's the one true and living God. He says, look unto me and
be ye saved for I am God and there is none else and there's
none to compare to God. That's why it is so evil and
wicked for people to make these statues and paintings and say
it's God or this is what God looks like. You see, God is spirit.
He doesn't have a body like us. He's spirit. God is omniscient
and omnipresent. He's spirit. And there's nothing
to compare to God. So that we say there's none like
God, He's so unique, He is within Himself, and there's none to
compare to God. So when we say, blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, what are we talking about?
This is the worship. and the honor that a believer,
one who has been redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ, who's
been justified in Him by the Father, this is an act of a redeemed,
justified, regenerated sinner worshiping God. We worship Him,
we serve Him, we bow to Him. He's the only true and living
God. Now, how can we do this? Well, it says here, He hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now, who has he blessed? This
is not all without exception. It says he has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings. He's not talking about earthly
blessings now. Now, earthly blessings are fine
and we all desire them. But there are examples in Scripture
where some of God's choice saints were not blessed in earthly ways,
materially. Christ tells the story of a man
named Lazarus. who was a beggar, who had to
sit outside the gate of a certain rich man and he had to lay there
begging in his rags and the dogs were licking his sores. And yet
that same Lazarus is one who's defined here and described here
as one who is blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. And that's the key. Blessed with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. May not be here on this
earth, but in heavenly places, it's true for every believing
sinner. And how is it true? In Jesus
Christ. In Christ. You see, the Bible
teaches that God spared not His own Son, but He gave Him up freely
for us all, all who are in Him. And then it goes on to say there
in Romans chapter 8, How shall He not therefore freely give
us all things? Every redeemed, justified, believing
sinner right now possesses all spiritual blessings in Christ. We may not have experienced all
of those yet. We haven't. We may not realize
them all yet, but they are there. They are a heavenly inheritance,
the scripture says. It's an incorruptible inheritance.
It means we can't lose it. If you gain an inheritance, you
didn't earn it, you didn't work for it, you may not deserve it.
This one we don't deserve. But somebody else earned it and
worked for it. Christ earned it and worked for it. And upon
his death he bequeathed it to his people. So that right now
they possess all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now another thing that that teaches
us is this notion of rewards in heaven based on works is not
of grace. It's not of the gospel. I know
preachers they'll teach that, you know, well you're saved by
grace but you've got to work hard and earn your reward. My
friend, If a sinner saved by the grace of God is blessed with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, then what does he need
to earn? First of all, we cannot earn
anything from God. The Bible teaches that sin demands
death, deserves death, for the wages of sin is death. That's what you earn. But the
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. salvation,
eternal life, and all spiritual blessings are the gift of God. You want to start earning things
from God, you're in a mess. For the wages of sin is death.
So he starts out here, he says, we're blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. What does it mean
to be in Christ? It means to be chosen in Him.
It means to be redeemed by His blood. It means to be justified,
made right before God based on His shed blood and His righteousness
imputed, legally accounted. And then it means to be in Him
by faith in the power of the Spirit in the new birth. We believe
in Him. We rest in Him. We follow Him. We look to Him. Our assurance
is in Him. We expect the hope of eternal
life in glory in Him. He says in verse 4, now this
is all according to a source. How are you going to trace all
this back? Where did it come from? Well, did God look down
through the telescope of time and foresee that I would believe?
Or did he look down through binoculars of time and see that I would
be a good person? Absolutely not. That is heresy. That is anti-scriptural and it's
anti-gospel. For example, God, first of all,
there's none good, no not one. So if God did look down through
a telescope of time, what would he see? The Bible says there's
none righteous, no not one. There's none good, no not one.
There's none that seeketh after God. The Bible teaches us that
man by nature is born in Adam, is totally sinful and depraved,
born dead in trespasses and sins. He deals with that in chapter
2 of Ephesians. So it's not that God looked down
through a telescope of time and foresaw what you would do or
not do and then made His choice and brought salvation based upon
that. Secondly, if that were true,
then you've got a God who is changeable. He's mutable. And
the Bible says that God is immutable. He cannot change. You see, if
you change, you either have to change for the better or you
change for the worse. Well, God can't get any better.
He's God. And He's certainly not going to get any worse. He's
God. The Bible says, For I am the Lord, I change not, therefore
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. The only reason that sinners
like Jacob are saved by his grace eternally is because he changes
not. And that is even applied to Jesus
Christ in his mediatorial office and person. He says, Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday, today, and forever. So how do we trace all
this to its source? Well, he says it in verse 4.
Now, I know a lot of preachers don't like this, but this is
what God says. He says, according as He, that
is God the Father, hath chosen us, chosen His people, in Him,
in Christ, when? Before the foundation of the
world, before the world was ever created. Why? unto what purpose? That we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. Now what is that teaching? It's
teaching the blessed truth that before the foundation of the
world God chose a people. A people of His love. It was
His love that sent Christ into the world to redeem them. You
see, God, Christ did not come into the world and die on the
cross in order to get God to love His people. He came into
the world and died on the cross because God loved His people. The Bible says, hearing is love
in 1 John 4, 10. Not that we love God. You see,
God loving me is not conditioned on my loving Him. If that were
true, then I'd have no love from God. But hearing His love, not
that we love God, but that He loved us and gave His Son to
be the propitiation, the sacrifice for sins who brought satisfaction
through His death, the propitiation for our sins. So God chose us. Now how did He choose us? He
chose us in Christ. You see, the blessed truth of
election is not simply that God chose a people. It means that
He chose a people in Christ. He purposed to save sinners through
Christ. In other words, it was all based
upon the blood that would be shed at Calvary on that day that
God appointed. It was based upon that righteousness
that would be established at Calvary on that day that God
had appointed. It was His own purpose and grace
in Christ. For it's in Christ that God is
glorified in the salvation of sinners. God cannot be glorified
if salvation were based on your works or your efforts or your
free will. That wouldn't glorify God, that
would glorify you. God is glorified in the salvation
of sinners through Jesus Christ. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save who? Sinners, of whom I am chief.
Not sinners who would cooperate, for by nature no sinner will
cooperate. Not only sinners who would believe,
for by nature sinners will not believe. But it is through Christ
that the blessing of faith is given to His people. Now, my
friend, you say, well, what should I do? Well, you're to seek the
Lord. The Bible commands you to seek the Lord. You're to look
to Him. You're to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Yes, the Bible says, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and you shall be saved. But my friend, once you come
to Him, you'll find out that God chose you from the foundation
of the world in Christ and sent His Son to save you from your
sins. And it says here that it's before the foundation of the
world, before the world was created. Salvation is not an afterthought
with God. Salvation is not plan B. The plan of salvation was set
up before the fall of man. And listen to me, I cannot explain
all that to you, and you cannot explain it all to me, but none
of us should deny it because it's right here in God's Word. My friend, if your faith is based
upon only those things you can explain, you're an unbeliever,
and you just don't know it. I had a woman come to me one
time, she said, well, I just can't explain that, and I told
her, I said, well, then join the club, and we'll make badges
and wear them, you know. We accept them because God, and
we bow to them, and we know them because God said it. I'll never
forget the time I was driving through a town and I saw on their
sign, on a church sign outside the church building, it says,
God said it, I believe it, that settles it. And I said, you know,
that's not scriptural. What it should say is, God said
it, that settles it. Period. Now you believe it. If
God said it, that settles it. And if He doesn't see fit to
explain it to our puny minds, that's up to Him. He's all wise.
But I know this, God has revealed His way of salvation to His glory
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you bow to Him. You submit
to Him. And if you refuse, you have yourself
to blame. That's right. Now look here,
He says, He says that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. The purpose of God saving His
people through Christ is that they should be holy. For they
cannot be holy in themselves or from themselves. Our works
cannot make us holy. Our determinations cannot make
us holy. My friend, the only one who can
make us holy is God in Christ. And our holiness is in Christ.
When He died on that cross and shed His precious blood for the
payment of the sins of His people, He washed them clean before God,
legally. And then when He gave us His
righteousness, when God the Father imputed that righteousness to
His people, He made them righteous before Him, holy, unblameable. What does that mean, unblameable,
without blame? It means this, that if Christ
died for your sins, You cannot be charged before the court of
God's law and justice for those sins ever again. Now, men will
charge you. Satan will charge you. And your
own heart may charge you, your own conscience. But in the holy
court of God's justice, you cannot be charged. I can prove that
to you in Romans chapter 8. For who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. That's
what he's talking about here. God the Father justified His
people. What does that mean? He declares
them not guilty. Why? Where did the guilt go? He can't just forget it. He can't
just deny it. He cannot plead ignorance. That
guilt was laid upon Christ, God the Son, in human flesh. It was
imputed, charged to Him, just like a debt. You see, by nature
in Adam, we owed a debt to God's law and justice we could not
pay. And the whole debt of the sins of his people, his sheep,
his church, was laid upon him. And he paid it in full by his
suffering unto death. He drank damnation dry. And he
gave us his righteousness. God the Father gave us his righteousness.
And that's what it means. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. It's
God who gave me a right standing before him in Christ. And who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died, yea rather
is risen again and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He says in verse 5, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will,
to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made
us accepted in the beloved. There's the term predestination.
That means foreordination. And it is God's predestinating,
foreordinating purpose to have his people bring them into his
family by adoption. You know how we're brought into
God's family? By election. He chose us. Just like a couple
who can't have children, they may adopt a child, they choose
the child. Well, God chose his people before the foundation
of the world. And then they may have to go
through steps, fill out forms, and pay some money. And that's
redemption. We who are in Christ are children
of God by redemption. He paid the price. He fulfilled
the conditions. He fulfilled all righteousness.
We're sons of God by adoption. And then in time, He sends His
Spirit to gather us up, bring us under the preaching of His
gospel, and He gives us life and liberty, and He lets us in
on that adopting purpose. He brings us into His bosom.
The adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. We're brought
to God through Christ. And it's all according to the
good pleasure of His will. It's not by your will or my will.
It's by God's will. And what does He do? It's to
the praise of the glory of His grace. It gives Him glory, not
us. He gets the glory, not us. Wherein He hath made us accepted,
accepted, fully accepted in the Beloved. Who is the Beloved there?
Well, He says in verse 7, in whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace. The Beloved there is Christ.
God the Father spoke at the baptism of the Lord Jesus by John the
Baptist and He said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased, hear ye Him. He spoke again at the Mount of
Transfiguration when the Lord in that vision met with Moses
and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets. And God the Father said again,
this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. God the Father
spoke again at Calvary When the Son of God incarnate said, into
thy hands I commend my spirit, He said, it's finished. It's
finished. And when He gave up the ghost,
the veil in the temple was rent in two, torn in two from top
to bottom. That was the Father speaking
that the Son had finished the work and His work was accepted.
My friend, do you want to be accepted with a holy God? Do you want to be embraced by
a God who is just as well as merciful, who is righteous as
well as loving, who is truthful as well as merciful. There's
not but one way that a sinner can be accepted with God and
that is in the Beloved, in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all based
upon His shed blood in whom we have redemption through His blood. You see, the price of redemption
was the blood of Christ. I've heard preachers say the
price of redemption or the price of forgiveness is repentance.
Oh, no. The price has already been paid
by Christ on the cross. The forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of His grace. Do you want to be accepted before
God? Do you want to be made righteous
so that you can stand before God without any fear of being
punished or damned? You must look to Christ. He is
our acceptance. Well, I hope you've enjoyed this
message. I hope it's helped you to understand the Word of God
in the Gospel. If you'd like to get a copy of
this message, listen to the announcer and he'll give you the details.
The title of this message is Accepted 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 229-833-7000.
or visit our Reign of Grace website
at www.rofgrace.com. Thank you and may the Lord be
with you.