Now in Ephesians chapter 1 verse
1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to
the saints which are ethicists, and to the faithful in Christ
Jesus. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. According to that he had chosen
us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy without blame before him in love, 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, in
whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath
a bounty toward us in all wisdom and prudence having made known
unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure
which he hath purposed in himself that in the dispensation on the
fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in
Christ both which are in heaven and in heaven and which which
are in earth even in him in whom also we have obtained an inheritance,
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his will, that we should be
to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ, in whom
ye also trusted after that he heard the word of truth the gospel
of your salvation in whom also after that ye believe ye were
sealed with a holy spirit of promise which is the earnest
of our inheritance until the redemption of the repurchase
possession to the praise of his glory may God bless the reading
of his scripture the traditional Jews in olden time when they
would read the Word of God would put a tent or a prayer covering
over their head in a sign of reverence unto God in reading
the Word of God it was so precious to them that they wanted to display
publicly and to their own hearts humility the reading of God's
Holy Word Is there more sacred words to be read in the Word
of God than these 14 verses that I've attempted to read to you
this afternoon? In these 14 verses, it's as it
has a body of divinity, of truth, of God's sovereign intention
toward a people, a people undeserving of His grace, undeserving of
His mercy. But in spite of all the frailness
of man, God has chosen within Himself and His own decree to
love a sinful people as we are. And then, in all of these verses,
I've tried to find a text. Which one would you pick? Would
you pick verse four or eight? What verse would you pick to
speak from this morning? I've chosen verse six, and I
will read it again for our hearing. To the praise of his glory, of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In the last three weeks or more,
our pastor has been laboring I thought a thought, maybe it
was just a thought that's come to my heart, my soul. And that
is the total acceptance of God. He has brought us in to the glories
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not that we deserve to be brought
in, but by his own purpose and will, we have become a part of
Christ. We have become a part of that
sacred union with God through our Lord. Jesus Christ, it's
all in Christ all through the scripture You'll find those words
in Christ in Christ in Christ all that we have all that we
shall be We owe it all to that sacred union of being brought
into the family of God into Christ all that I am all that I shall
be All that I shall enjoy in days and the future is all because
I have been in him. Not that I am deserving, not
that I've earned it, not that I have anticipated it, but because
of God's own giving, because of God's own choosing, because
of God's own willing, we are in him. And in Christ, we have
love. We have his love. We have his
protection. We have everything in him. When almighty God looks upon
us, when he thinks upon us, he thinks upon us as pure and delight
as he does his own son. He looks upon us and he sees
the righteousness of his own son. Does that bring you to tears? Does that make your heart weep
this morning knowing what God has done for you? Not that you've
done anything to contribute toward it. Oh, walking down that aisle
that surely didn't make any difference. Your belief didn't make any difference. It was God's sovereign choosing.
It was God's leaning. It's God's love that's brought
us to this place, this very hour. This word acceptance this morning,
the word that we're gonna look at for just a few minutes this
morning, accepted, accepted. The English word just doesn't
do justice to what God is speaking to us in verse six. This word
accepted means something even greater, more wondrous than the
word, the English word we'll find in our dictionary. This
word accepted is that meaning from that sermon that our preacher
preached some weeks ago when the angel of the Lord came unto
Mary and said, thou art highly favored. That's what accepted
means. It means to be highly favored
of God. What in the world did Mary do? Did Mary attend services? Did Mary, was she taught how
to pray? What did Mary ever do to deserve
such honor, such privilege to be the very mother of our Lord
Jesus Christ? angel said thou art highly favored
nothing she did nothing to deserve such an honor such a position
to carry the very Lord and Savior of ours she had nothing to do
with it she was highly favored because she had found favor in
the eyes of God Take Mary's name out and put your name in that
place. You are highly favored of God. You are acknowledged of God. You are accepted. You've been
brought into the family of God because he desired you to be.
You are praiseworthy this morning. That'll make you straighten your
tie this morning. that'll make your back straighten
up, to think I'm highly favored, I'm praiseworthy, I'm horrible
this morning. No, nothing to do with you, nothing,
you've done, you contribute nothing toward it, it's what God sees
in you that's not visible in our sight. I can look at you
a thousand years. I can never see praiseworthiness
in your face. I can never see anything being
highly favored about you. Just the opposite. Your friends,
your loved ones, your family, your wife and husband can pick
you to pieces at any moment. and tell you a hundred things
that you are lacking in. But when our Lord God looks upon
us, he doesn't pick upon us, he doesn't tear us apart, he
lifts us up in glory knowing that we are like his own son. We are likened to be that of
our Lord and the spirit of our Lord and the strength of our
Lord. This is how God looks upon us. And as he looked upon Mary, he
looked upon her with great favor. He looked upon her and saw something
that no one in the world could see but almighty God, because
God is almighty. He can do things that no one
else can do. He can see greatness within you.
Not that it's there because it's the greatness that he's going
to put within you. It is the grace, the mercy of
almighty God that's instilled to us. That great word we preach
imputed. He's imputed this righteousness,
this goodness, the strength, glory within every one of God's
people. Mary was said to be favored of
God. The angel said, thou art highly
favored. We, like Mary, are highly favored. But in Christ, in him, in the
beloved, every believer, every sinner chosen, redeemed, and
called by grace is so complete and totally accepted of God that
even in the eyes of the holy, omniscient Lord God, We are highly
favored and praiseworthy. It's in his eyes. It's in God's
decree that we are what we are. There's nothing in us. We're
just a stack of bones this morning, clothed in sinful flesh. Any more than that, that's it. That's all we are. as a minister
of the gospel of Christ. God calls men out and every minister
called of God is highly favored to carry the word of God and
to declare it and to preach it and speak of it and teach of
it. It's an honor to do so. But I remember, I remember what
the scripture says. It calls these ministers our
preachers, our brethren, vessels of clay, broken vessels of clay. But God takes these broken pieces
of clay and he binds them up and he gives them a message and
he gives them the spirit to stand and proclaim fully the grace
of almighty God to sinners just like himself. This is why. It is to be favored. For God
to use something that's not honorable and to take that dishonorable
person and shove him out there and give him a message and declare
the Word of God. What a wonderful thing. There
are three things that I want to say to you about this verse
this afternoon about being accepted God. This acceptance with God
is thorough, it's complete, it's total, and it's absolute. To be accepted in the Beloved
is to be justified from all things, free from all sin, free from
the being accountable for sin. Our imputation of Christ's righteousness
covers, masks, disguises your true identity this morning. What we are, I can see. But what we are, God cannot see
this morning because we have been covered by the blood of
our Lord Jesus Christ and now it has a reflection of our Lord
Himself. So when God looks upon us like
looking into a beautiful stream, moving stream of water, and we
look upon that water and you can see your reflection within
that water. So our God, our almighty God,
when he looks upon us, he sees a reflection of none other than
the glory and the righteousness of almighty Lord Jesus Christ. Doesn't that make you want to
straighten your tie this morning? Doesn't that make you want to
stand straight? Doesn't it humble you this morning,
knowing that all of this is true of you before God? And you know
in yourself, it ain't nothing to do with me. Ain't nothing
to do with me. It's all to do with Christ It's
all to do with what God has given us not what we have occurred
that we have learned Now we have pulled together not something
that we have been schooled in But it's a gift of Almighty God. It's the faith of the Lord Jesus
Christ And it's thorough and it's complete. It's total. It's
absolute It is perfect It's a perfect image of Almighty God that we
are seeing of Him. We use that illustration of a
coin. A coin has an image on it, and
that image tells what the value of that coin is. And in olden
times, every coin It had a die, and they would take it upon the
piece of metal, and they would take a large hammer, and they
would strike it. They would strike it. It wasn't pecked, it was struck. The image of Christ has been
struck upon our souls. It's been struck in such a way
that that image will never go away. Because it is the image
of Christ himself. It is the image that God looks
upon us and says, well done. That word justification, we had
a phrase so many years ago, we used to denote it. And it was
like this, just as though I, had never sinned, just as though
I had never sinned. But there is a deeper meaning
of justification even than that. To be justified by Almighty God
is to know that before the foundation of the world, that was the image
that God has. We're justified in Christ's blood,
but we are recognized and accepted in the purpose of Almighty God
before the world began. So though we've moved and bounced
all over the globe in this thing called faith, yet our security
was from the foundation of the world. Not the day you walk the
aisle. Not the day you said the sinner's
prayer. Not the day that you come to
yourself and say, I can't live like this anymore. I'm gonna
believe, I'm gonna trust. I'm gonna put my hope and trust
in God and through Christ. And I'm gonna believe in him.
I'm gonna accept the righteousness of Christ to my life. Oh, before that, it was all true. All this thing of justification
was true before you ever acknowledged it, before you ever came to that
place in your life, that you wanted something different in
your life, that you actually now wanted to praise God instead
of hating Him and cursing Him. You want to give your life to
Him. God's image of you was already in His heart and soul. Colossians
1 verse 12, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us
meet to be the partakers of the inheritance of the saints of
life. God has brought us this far. He has brought us to recognize
the wonders and the graciousness of Almighty God. But his intention
was for many years before this. It was already stated in all
eternity, God's purpose for us. The Lord God looks upon his people
in Christ with such total satisfaction that he declares us to be pure,
chaste, undefiled. He says in regard to the elect
of Christ in the book of Song of Solomon. He says those precious
words. thou art all fair thou art all
fair though you may have the wrinkles of this life you may
have the warts of this life God looks upon us and he says,
thou art all fair. There's not a wrinkle within
you. There's not a bump in the road
for you because God has placed you on the road of life. And
it's Christ that we walk with. It's Christ that we walk upon.
It's Christ that we live within. Colossians 2 in verse 10 says,
and ye are completing him which is the head of all principalities
in power. What glory we have. This is not
something that we anticipate again. It's something that is
ours already in Christ. The second thing I want you to
know is this. Our acceptance with God is only
the beloved only in the beloved our prayers of the preacher made
mention of earlier in this day our prayers we pray in one name
one acceptance before God is in through Christ remember those
traditional Jews putting that cover over their head yeah Oh
with a tent maker made those type things put that covering
over their head before they would pray. I remember another illustration
so many years ago, they called on this man to pray. He'd never
prayed publicly before. And before he began his prayer,
he said, God have mercy upon me for what I'm about to say. Because he knew to stand publicly
and to pray before a congregation, what a privilege, what an honor. water responsibility. Our prayers
can't leave our lips apart through Christ Jesus. They're of just
word, just breath coming out of our mouth apart from the blessing
of knowing Christ, being accepted in Christ. Our prayers will never
get through the ceiling apart from Almighty God in Christ's
blood. We are accepted in everything
we do. We can't go before God. He can't
hear my prayer. I can't receive anything apart
from the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in the beloved. In Matthew 17 verse five, when
our Lord went to the Mount of Transfiguration, a voice came,
that wonderful voice from heaven that says, this is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. again. Put your name in that. John, Bill and Harry and Pete
and Joe and whatever. I am well pleased. God is well
pleased with you today. You are accepted with God today
because of the merit and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I can never stop saying it. It's through the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ that makes it so. But the intent was in
God before the foundation of the world. He's never changed
his opinion of you. Regardless of whatever sin you
found yourself in, his opinion of you has never changed, never. Regardless of the conduct of
this life, God's attitude, his commitment toward us as his son
does not change. It's immutable. It's all in the
beloved as acceptable, as honorable, as pleased as God is in Christ. So he's pleased with you because
I am, you are in Christ today. Isaiah 64, six says, but we,
are all as an unclean thing, and all of our righteousness
is filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquity,
like the wind, have taken us away. In this life, in our human
existence, our lives are like the leaves outside of this sanctuary. They blow to and fro, yet, in
God's eyes, Our lives don't blow to free up and down the streets. God doesn't love us one day and
dislike us another, and he's ashamed of us this day. God's
opinion, God's intention toward his elect is constant. It's immutable. It doesn't change
forever and ever. I think of my son when he was
a little boy. He was just like nearly every
little boy. We found underneath his bed,
he'd been playing with some matches. And somehow or another, he scorched
the carpet. We didn't know it for a long
time. You know, I thought that boy
was the best boy that ever lived. But you know, I can never forget
the fact that he could have set the house on fire I'll never
forget it. But all the fires that I've burned
and all the fires that I've set in my life is not known of God
because I'm in Christ and he doesn't look upon those things,
my faults, my works, my wrinkles, not looked upon by almighty God. We're upheld in the blood of
our Lord, Jesus Christ today. The third thing, I want you to
remember about verse six is, our acceptance with God in Christ
is everlasting and therefore immutable. Bless God, our acceptance
does not depend on us. When we walk out of this church,
where will your journeys take you today? Where will they take
you tomorrow? How will your week go? Will it
be well with your soul or will there be troubles in your families? It doesn't matter when it comes
to Almighty God and His intentions toward us. It did not begin,
His righteousness did not begin with us. and our righteousness
is not maintained by us. We talk so much about justification. We also talk about sanctification. Sanctification, true sanctification
is in our Lord Jesus Christ. We do our very best in this life
to live an honorable life before this church, before our families
and before our community. But in all that we do, we will
fail. We will fail a thousand times
a day. When God looks upon us, there
is, if he desired, there would be sin a thousand deep, every
single day. But in Christ Jesus, he sees
nothing but his beloved son. And the way the Lord speaks of
us, the Lord thinks of us, the Lord's intention toward us, it
cannot be altered, cannot be altered. Though we fall in our
father, Adam, a thousand times, yet we are accepted in the beloved. Though we came forth from our
mother's womb speaking lies, we are still accepted in the
Beloved. Though we spend our days from
our youth wandering in rebellious pursuit against God, in a league
with hell, we are yet accepted in the Beloved. And though After
the Lord God saved us by His wondrous grace, we sin and fall again a thousand
times a day, yet we are accepted in the Beloved. What a glorious
position we find ourselves in as a child of God, to be accepted
in the Beloved, to be looked upon by Almighty God as pure
and righteous as he looks upon his own son, upon his own self,
sharing the same righteousness of his son. This is a message
to stir our hearts, to cause us to contemplate our actions,
knowing that one time in our life, this is something that
we can't mess up. You know, you can lose jobs for
your own fault and the fault of others. You may lose a wife or a husband
because of your own fault or the fault You may run into all kinds of
problems in life. It may be your fault or the fault
of another. But when it comes to our relationship,
when it comes to our acceptance before Almighty God, it is complete
and final and absolute. We have it in Christ. We can't
lose it. It's something for us to thank
God for His wondrous grace and mercy. May God bless you today.