Open your Bibles with me this
morning to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. We'll read these first 14 verses
together. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the
faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to 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 things and heavenly places in
Christ. according as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us under 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
abounded 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 of the
fullness of time he might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on 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 own will. That we should be to
the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ, 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. which is the earnest
of our inheritance unto the redemption of the purchased possession unto
the praise of his glory. Indeed, our father, we come to
bless your glorious and holy name through our Lord Jesus Christ. He said that you were his God
and his father. As a man, you as his God and
you as his Father, and eternally you as his Father, and eternally
he was your son. Great mysteries, Lord, great
mysteries. But Lord, we do come to bless
you and to praise you, to honor your blessed name, and our hearts
submit to you, and our hearts Acknowledge our utter and absolute
dependence upon you. That not only do we need your
strength, but be our strength. Not only do we need consolation,
but be our consolation. Lord, you say in your word that
you're all and in all. And so, Lord, if you're all and
in all, that means that we have nothing, know nothing, can do
nothing. apart from you. So Lord, bring
glory to yourself today. Cause the gospel to run well.
Save your people in this place. Touch hearts, touch minds, touch
wills. Tender hearts, tender minds,
tender wills. And oh, be merciful to our children,
our grandchildren, to those that we love that's lost, It seems
like what we say falls on deaf ears, and they do, until you
give the hearing ear and the seeing eye. God, I ask that you
do that. Those who are greatly tried and
greatly burdened in the services, we ask for your blessings upon
them, your strength and encouragement towards them. and have mercy
on us today. Fill us with your spirit and
give us your grace in abundance. And we ask it in Christ's name,
amen. Go back to Ephesians 1. And I want you to look there
at verse 3 with me. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. The apostle here found his, has
found blessing God, praising God. And the reason he blessed
God was because God had blessed him. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be His name. He's the Father. He's the Father that's in heaven.
He's the Father that is holy. He's the Father that gave His
only begotten Son. He's the Father that loved us
with an everlasting love. And He was the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ, our God. And He came to this world and
they said, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And He said that because He hath blessed us. I'm gonna
bless Him because He blessed me. Ain't that the way it is? We
bless Him because He blessed us. And oh, what did he bless us
with? Spiritual blessings. All these spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. And that's why the psalmist says,
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that was within me. Forget not all of his benefits.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, who healeth all thy disease and forgiveth
all thy iniquities. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And
I tell you, the apostle counted the spiritual blessings given
to believers in Christ as the greatest of all things that you
can possess in this world. In this world. And he didn't
even think that temporary blessing should be mentioned in the same
breath with the blessings that we have in Christ. I was reading, you do this yourself. One day this week, you do this.
You read Deuteronomy 28. Blessings, all that you'll get
if you obey God and keep all of his commandments and all of
his laws and all of his ordinances. Great, great blessings. And then
when he says, if you don't do that, curse, curse, curse, curse,
curse. So in under the law, you had
to TEMPORAL BLESSINGS WERE BASED UPON HOW YOU LIVED, HOW YOU REGARDED
GOD'S LAW, HOW YOU RESORTED TO ALL OF HIS ORDINANCES. BUT UNDER
THE LAW, TEMPORAL BLESSINGS WERE CONSIDERED GOD'S FAVOR UPON YOU
IF YOU ACTED OBEDIENTLY. BUT BLESS HIS HOLY NAME, WE'RE
NOT UNDER THE LAW, BUT WE'RE UNDER GRACE. THANK GOD FOR THAT. THANK GOD FOR THAT. AND BECAUSE
OF OUR FALLEN NATURE, We don't have correct views of God's blessings. They don't have them. We don't
have our measuring stick is wrong. Ours is too short and it's too
crooked. And let me see if I can illustrate this and if you can
get it this way. You know, if someone's blessed
with physical beauty, great physical beauty, Boy, they'll say God
really did bless them with spiritual beauty, didn't he? Boy, God blessed
them, oh my goodness. And then you get somebody that's
not beautiful. Someone that's kind of homely.
Does that mean God hasn't blessed them? Does that mean God has not blessed
them with favor? And though that beautiful one
is proud, Leads a vain life, lives for self, beauty pageants. But that one who's not so beautiful,
she comes and worships the true and the living God. So people look at blessings all
the wrong way. And what about prosperity? What
about wealth? What about prosperity? If someone
is prospering and doing very well financially, does that mean
God's blessing them? Huh? Though it hinders them in
their worship of God and attendance to the gospel because they've
got so much that they want to go here and yonder and do this
and do that because they are able to do it financially. Does
that mean that God's greatly blessed them with prosperity?
And then you take the other side of it, someone so poor that they
have to just scratch to get by. Does that mean God's against
them? Don't misunderstand me. Don't
misunderstand me. The same God who loved us and
chose us in Christ will see to it, see to it, that he'll meet
all of our needs while we're in this world. He's done promised
us that. He promised us that we'll be
clothed, that we'll be housed, and we'll have food to eat. He's
promised us that. He's promised us that. And He'll
do it. He'll do it for us in spite of
all the hindrance we have in this world. He says, seek ye
first the kingdom of God and all His righteousness and everything
else will be added to you. Add it to you. And I tell you,
oh listen, God's always met our needs. Let me show you something.
You keep Ephesians 1. Look in Luke 22, 35 a moment.
Let's look at this. You know, God's blessings, we
need to understand this so clearly. This is so important and so needful
that God's blessings, Luke 22, in verse 35, that God's blessings
has to do strictly with spiritual things. And if you count your
blessings based on anything other than that, then you got the wrong
measuring stick. Because God can take anything
you got away from you in the blink of an eye. As old Scott
Richardson said, he can choke you to death on your own spit.
He can reach in your home, take any child He wants. He can take
your wealth just like that. He can take your health just
that quick. So when it's all said and done, whenever you've
had everything that this world could give you, when He reaches
in there and takes away something that's most precious to you,
then you really truly understand that what you have in this life
is so temporary. And look what He said in Luke
22, 35. And he said unto them, when I
sent you without purse, without money, and without script, and
without any shoes, did you lack anything? And they said, nothing. I ain't going unless my pockets
are full, unless I got on the best shoes that money can buy.
I ain't going. He said, I sent you out to preach. Sent you out to be a blessing.
I sent you out to tell the truth. I sent you out to glorify my
name. I sent you out to honor me. Did
you lack anything? Not a thing. Didn't lack nothing. Nothing. And our Lord says, you
know, we have need of these things. And when we come to our Lord,
when we came to our Lord Jesus Christ, we came because we had
nothing. Is that right? We came because
we absolutely had nothing. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs shall be called the kingdom of God. They shall be
made rich. And we came because we had nothing. Now, because we have a few things,
does that mean we don't come the same way anymore? We got
to come the same way we started. We got to come, we come with
nothing and we got to stick upon coming with nothing, with nothing.
Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. And I'll tell you something,
beloved. Spiritual blessings is the true
interest of a child of God. Spiritual blessings are the true
interest of a child of God. The Lord teaches his people to
discern between temporal and eternal. Second, keep Ephesians. Look in 2 Corinthians chapter
4 and verse 18 with me. Look at this. Spiritual blessings
are the true interest of God. When you pray, don't you pray
for mercy? Don't you pray for grace? Don't
you pray for wisdom? Don't you pray for understanding?
Don't you pray for a greater knowledge of God? Don't you pray
to grow in grace? You pray for spiritual things.
And even when you pray for other people, you pray for God's blessings
and mercies upon them spiritually. God do something for them spiritually. They get bad news, God have mercy
on them, give them strength, give them courage, give them
consolation. Look what he said here in verse 18. 2 Corinthians 4, while we look
not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not
seen. We're not looking at things you can look at, but at the things
which are not seen, for the things that are seen are temporal. He
said, what you're looking at, everything about you, He said,
when you look at the building, temporal. Look at your life,
temporal. Look at your job, temporal. Look at your health, temporal.
Look at your fellowships, temporal. Everything about us is temporal.
If you can touch it, if you can taste it, if you can reach and
get it, see it, hear it, and feel it, it's temporal. But look what he says, but the
things which are not seen, they're eternal. And that's what we're
looking at. We're looking at these eternal
things, huh? Look at these eternal things.
If I have health of body and not healed of my spiritual
sickness, what shall it profit me? If I have money and don't have
Christ and the riches of His grace, what shall it profit? If I'm happily married and yet
not married to Christ, what will it profit me? If my children,
all of them, obey me implicitly and give me joy and peace and
I'm not a child of God myself, what will it profit me? If I go and join well-meaning
civic organizations and I'm not joined to the Lord Jesus Christ
by faith, what would it profit me? You know who is blessed? The man who fears the Lord and
trusts the Lord. That's the man that's blessed.
Now I want to give you some blessings here. Blessings that truly count. The true blessings of God. And
they're really from God. Ain't that what he says? In verse
3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
hath blessed us according to his spiritual blessings in heaven
and in places in Christ. God is the blesser. So we bless
His name, we bless His person. He's the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And look what it says, who hath
blessed us? That means it's in the past tense. That read in
the past tense, before you, I ever lived. He hath blessed us, blessed
us, past tense. Something that He done for us
before we ever knew anything about it. And He blessed us,
what did He call them? Spiritual blessings. Great spiritual
blessings. Heavenly blessings. Heavenly
things. And look where it says they're
at. These blessings are in Christ. This is where all God's blessings
are. If God gets anything for any member of the human race
that's worth having it all, He gives it to us in Christ. The
love of God's in Christ. The grace of God's in Christ.
The mercy of God's in Christ. The life of God's in Christ.
The power of God is in Christ. The wisdom of God is in Christ.
Justification is in Christ. Everything we have, God gives
it to us in Christ. All things are in Christ and
everything that God gives a man, He takes it out of Christ and
gives it to him. And Christ has as much as He
had to start with when He gave us all that we have. He's not
any less than He ever was. Huh? Oh, this is, they have always
been in Christ. He's the promised seed. Here's
the first blessing that we have. Look what he says here. Here's
a spiritual blessing. And all through this chapter,
all you hear about is spiritual blessings. Look what he says
here now. According as he hath chosen us.
Huh? And this election's in Christ. We're chosen. This is election.
He chose us. He said he's affectionate, he
chose us. People get upset about that,
but election and chosen is in the New Testament alone, I think,
14 times. It's either 14 times or 27 times,
and Christians only mention three times. Election and chosen and
predestination and fordnation is all the way through the Bible.
How in the world, why there was Abraham? He was an idolater and
God loved Abraham and chose Abraham. Then he passed by Ishmael and
he chose Jacob. Then he passed by, and then he
chose Isaac. And then, beloved, and then he
went, and all these things told us about our relationship with
God in Christ. He hath elected us, chosen us. Gary read this scripture and
had y'all turn to that here the other day, where he says in Psalm
65, A court, and you know, blessed
is the man whom God hath chosen, and CAUSES, CAUSES, CAUSES to
approach unto Him. You know what election is? Election
is God, it's not, we're going to have an election. Everybody's
in an uproar about the election. I'm aggravated about it, I'm
frustrated with it. I don't, there ain't one of them
you can turn your hands for the difference for. And whoever gets
in office, I'm telling you what, we're in a mess no matter who
gets in there. God's got his hand against this nation and
he ain't fixing to lift it. When you got nothing but infidels
running this country, then that's when you got, and I mean infidels,
I'm talking about infidels. Well, that's what you got running
this country, lock, stock, and barrel. But I tell you, the only
election I'm interested in wasn't God made. He chose us in Christ. And I tell you what, bless His
holy name, He said, and He didn't look down through time to see
how I was gonna react or you was gonna react, whether we was
gonna choose Him or not. He chose us in Christ, when did
He say? Before the foundation of the
world. And He asked Job, said, Job,
where was you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Where
was you, Job, when I put the stars up in the heavens? Where was you, Job, when I stretched
the heavens out just like stretching out a curtain? And he said, I
can measure the waters in the hollows of my hand and all the
nations are dropping the bucket. But he said, I got a child that
I love from the foundation of the world, and I'm going to make
him mine. And his name's Donnie Bell, and he's going to be born
on February the 9th, 1950. And I'm going to bring him to
myself in his 20s. And I'm going to make him love
me, and need me, and depend on me. And he didn't wait until I raised
my hand and said, I want to be one of them. Oh, no. But no wonder David said, happy,
blessed is the people who have the God of Jacob for their help. And I'll tell you something,
he didn't do it because there was any good in us or because
we was too bad or there was any bad in us. But look what it says
here in verse 5, in the last part of the verse, he did it
according to the good pleasure of his will. It just pleased him to do it.
He told me, he said, it pleased me to make you my people. It just pleased me to do it.
I love to do it. And then look what it says. According
he hath chosen us, and here it is, and it's always in him or
in whom and by whom. In him. You know who God's first
elect is? The Lord Jesus Christ. He was
God's first elect and what did God elect him for, choose him
for? He chose him to be prophet, priest,
king, redeemer, savior, surety, salvation, He chose him to be
everything to us and he chose, he made him his first elect. I make you my elect and you won't
fail and you won't be discouraged. I give you a people. I've chosen
you to have a people. I've chosen you to redeem those
people. I've chosen you to save those
people. I've chosen you to put their
sin away. I've chosen you to make them
holy and without blame before me. And I've chosen you to make
them people yours. Oh, listen. I choose you to be
a representative. I choose you to be their sole
salvation, to be their all and end all. Keep Ephesians, look
over in 1 Corinthians 1.30, just look at this, Ephesians 1.30.
Now let me ask you, would you rather have this and have nothing
else in this world? Look what he says now. First
in verse 29, 1 Corinthians 1 29. God blessed men and chose men
and called men that no flesh should glory in his presence.
No body in their human nature should ever glory in his presence.
Why? But of him, of God, Are you in
Christ Jesus? How do you get in Christ Jesus?
God puts you in Christ. When did He do it? Before the
foundation of the world. How did He do it? By choosing
us in Him. By electing us in Him. So He
made, put us in Christ Jesus and then He turned around and
He made Christ unto us wisdom. We're going to know any wisdom,
spiritual wisdom at all? How are we going to know God?
How are we going to have any spiritual sense? Christ gives us wisdom.
And then He made us righteous, He made Him righteousness to
us. In righteousness, I'm telling you what, before there's nothing,
nothing, nothing that will ever cause us to be unrighteous. We're
as righteous now as we'll ever be. And listen to this, and then
sanctification, holiness. He's going to take that body
and make it a brand new body when He comes back again. That's
what He's talking about. And here's why it happens this
way. God made Christ everything thus, that according as it is
written, if a man's going to glory, going to boast, and going
to rejoice in anything, let him only glory in one person, the
Lord. That's why it happens that way.
And then before the foundation of the world. The children not
yet being born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. He says, Jacob hath a loved,
and Esau hath a hated. What are you going to do with
that? I ain't going to do nothing with
it. I'm going to believe it. Oh, look what it says here. In
the last part of that verse, the court hath chosen us him
before the foundation. And here's the reason, another
reason why I did it. That we should be holy. You know, holiness
is a state of being. I've told you this, I've told
you this. People all the time talk about living holy lives.
Preachers telling you you need to live a holy life. And you
heard a preacher talking the other day about, you know, when
you come on the Sabbath. And he calls Sunday the Sabbath
now. And they're striving to be holy. You know, we start out
where they hope to end up at. We start out being holy. They
hope to live good enough life to be holy at the end. But we
start out with where they want to end up at. And when we start
at, that's where we're going to end up at. And God chose us
in Christ that we should be holy. And look what else he says. And
without blame. Who's gonna lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's Christ that died, huh? Oh, and listen, this is where
it counts, before Him, before Him. That's where it counts,
to be holy and without blame. And He chose us to be holy and
without blame, before Him. And then look what it says, in
love, in love. in love having predestinated
us under the adoption of children. And he did it by Jesus Christ,
again, by the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what adoption means?
Somebody mentioned wanting to adopt somebody the other day.
Wanting to adopt a child and give him his name. Now when you
adopt somebody, they get your name. They become an heir of
yours. But when God adopts us, since
He only had one son, God only had one begotten son. Only one. One begotten son. So how is He
going to have a family? How is He going to have children?
Unless He adopts them. But now here's the thing about
the adoption. How are we going to be heirs unless we adopt Him?
But adoption, and where God does it is, is that God make us legal
heirs. Join heirs with the Lord Jesus
Christ and inheritors with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you can
adopt somebody. Make them legally your heirs
and make them have your name. Give them your name. Take them
into your home. But one thing you can't do is
you can't change their nature. And that's what God does is he
not only adopts us and makes us heirs and make us legally
his and puts us as children of God and in the family of God.
But he can also give us his nature and change our nature and give
us the same nature that he has. Make us partakers of the divine
nature. You know, now I know I'm an heir. I know I'm a child of God. Not
only did he adopt me and make me a legal heir, not only did
he make me a joint heir with Christ, but he gave me a nature. Gave me his nature. And oh, listen to what else it
says here. Having predestined us under the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to self, According to the good pleasure of His will,
look what He says, to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein
He hath made us accepted. Accepted. And again, in the Beloved. You know everything. We can't say it enough. Everything's in
Christ. In Him, by Him, through Him,
by Him, in whom. And acceptance. And this is the
thing that blesses my heart when I stand before God. And I will
someday. I stand before Him right now.
I stand before Him now. I'm before God. David sat down
before the Lord. And every one of us right now
are in the presence of God. God sees us. God knows us. He
knows our thoughts. He knows the intents of our hearts.
He knows where we're at, what we're doing, what we're thinking,
what we think before we think. God knows everything about us.
And then when we face Him, right now, I'm not ashamed. I'm not
ashamed of God. And here's the blessed thing
about it, He's not ashamed of me. He's not ashamed to be called
my God. And in our acceptance in the
Beloved, we shall not be brought to shame. We shall not be ashamed. And what a blessed truth to soak
your soul in. This world is going by so fast. We worry about, well, this doesn't
accept us or that doesn't accept us. Is this enlightenment? Is
that enlightenment? Does this have something to say?
It don't make any difference when it's all said and done.
Are we accepted of God? Does God accept us? And we are
accepted of God himself. Everybody wasn't accepted of
God. Everybody wasn't allowed to come into the presence of
God. The first person allowed into the presence of God? As
far as God said, come into my presence and you stand with me
face to face, was Moses. And after that, Aaron was the
only one allowed to go into the presence of God. And every one
of his sons after him could go behind the veil. Now, beloved,
God said, don't let anybody else come. And now all of us can come. All of us are accepted. All of
us can go behind the veil. Huh? And life and everything
else is going by so fast, so fast, so fast. Well, let's just
stop and let's think and let's look at what we have in Christ.
What else matters? When it's all said and done,
what else matters? What else matters? What else matters? I'm serious about that. What
else matters? One of these days, y'all gonna
come up here and there's gonna be a casket here. And if I'm not all withered up
with some kind of awful disease, you'll open it up and you'll
walk by and say, boy, it's Brother Donnie. There's the preacher. And listen. You know what you
can rejoice in? He's accepted in God. He's with
his beloved now. And oh, that's all that'll matter. That's all that'll matter. And
then look what else it says about him. In whom we have redemption through his blood. Oh, listen. justified freely by His grace
through the redemption, through the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sin has to be paid for. The debt
has to be paid. The wages of sin is death. So
we have to have redemption. We have to have our sins paid
for. We have to be redeemed. And God said redemption was through
His blood. through the blood of the Son
of God. And the payment price for our sin, the payment price
for us to be redeemed, was the Son of God Himself who made His
soul an offering for sin, who poured out His life, who shed
His blood, and offered that blood without spot to God. And when
God accepted that blood, Every one of them was washed away at
that time right there. The payment price was fully paid. Whatever it was, God set the
price. Christ said, I'll pay it. Well,
it'll cost you your life. That's okay. It'll cost you suffering. That's all right. It'll cost
you tears and agony. That's all right. It'll cost you tears. That's
all right. It'll cost soul suffering that
you, it'll cause your soul itself to suffer. That's okay. And you'll
have to take a cup and you'll have to drink that cup and you'll
have to drink it dry with all the dregs and the fury of my
wrath in it. That's okay. That's okay. I will cost you being forsaken
of me, your father, your God. That'll be all right. That'll
be okay. And our Lord Jesus Christ, for
the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame. And now you know where he's at?
Set out at the right hand of the majesty on high. Oh, the
payment price has been nabbed. Y'all know the story of Gomer.
You know, God told Hosea, go marry this woman named Gomer. Well, Gomer decided she didn't
like being married to Hosea, so she went out and started hiring
herself out. Started hiring herself out. And
then she got old and she got haggard and nobody's bringing
her anything anymore. And they brought her out and
they put her on the auction block, this old, wretched, miserable-looking
gober. What do you give for her? Hosea said, I want her. I want her. She's played the
harlot. She's mine. I love her. God gave her to me. And he took
Gomer, took him home with him. Oh, listen. And I tell you something
else, it's not a bond that Christ gives us and makes a payment
price and sets a bond for us and we have to appear in court
later. The price has been paid in full. Amen. And then look
how he did this. The forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of his grace. According to the riches of His
grace. Now this is true riches. This
is true, true riches. The riches of His grace. This
satisfies a hungry heart. His grace is so rich and free
that it'll take all eternity for us to even have a clue of
what it's like. That in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding
riches of His grace toward us. given us in Christ. That's what
it says in Ephesians 2, 7. And then look what it says in
verse 8. Look about this grace, the riches of His grace, and
all these things that God's blessed us with. Wherein God hath abounded
toward us in all wisdom and prudence. That's what His grace did. That's
what His blessings has. That's what His election's done.
That's what His predestination and adoption's done. That's what
His acceptance done. He hath abounded toward us in
all wisdom. Oh, listen. And look what he
said, having made known unto us the mystery of his will. His
grace abounded towards us in all wisdom, in all of his governing,
in all of the way he provides for us in this world, made known
unto us the mystery of his will. What did he make us know? That
he's, first of all, he's a God of purpose because he purposed
everything in himself. Ain't that what it says? Which
he hath purposed in himself there in verse 9. That's the first
thing. That's the word that God used
to teach me the gospel. That teach me about God and what
he's like. He taught me the first word I
started studying was purpose. God does things on purpose. And
I tell you, let me give you some of the mysteries that he's made
known to us by the mysteries. The gospel was a mystery to us
at one time. Wasn't it? The gospel of free
grace in Christ. What a mystery that was to us.
We knew about works. We knew about legalism. We knew
about living right. We knew about altars, but we
didn't know nothing about the gospel. It was a mystery to us.
And election. Boy, that was a mystery to us,
wasn't it? And grace. You talk about a mystery.
Grace was really a mystery to us. Well, how in the world do we
do it? How do we find out about this? Having made known unto
us the mystery of his will. How did, why did he do it? Because
he purposed to do it. When it's time, old Tim James
always tells, says this, he said, I'll see you when it's time. And that's what God does. He
says, when it's time, when it's the time of love, I'll pass over
you and I'll say live. Yea, I say unto thee live. And
then these mysteries of predestination and adoption and coordination
and the gospel and grace and righteousness and justification
and all these things, it was a mystery to us. He's made known
to us. He's taught us these things.
And all listen to what he says again there in verse 10. And
then when all the time has been fulfilled that God has purposed
in this world, and all the times, the times of the Jews, the times
of the Gentiles, the times of blessings, the times of cursing,
the times of what happens in this world, the times of life
and times of death, and every time and season under the heavens,
there's a purpose. And there He's going to gather
together one in one all things in christ that includes thank
people it's already in glory and people here on this earth
he gonna bring us all together he gonna gather us all together
in christ ain't that what the scriptures teaches us that the
dead in christ shall rise first and them them which are alive
and remain shall be caught up together what are they gonna
do they gonna meet the lord in the air And then all those saints
up there, beloved, all those are gonna be gathered up. He's
not gonna have that marriage supper. He's not gonna have all
his people, some here and some yonder. He gonna bring us all
up at the same time. Gonna make us all together at
the same time. The bride will be at the bridegroom. And the Lord Jesus will set the
table and he'll have the best wine on the table. If you don't drink wine, don't
go there because he gonna give you that wine, that beloved's
in the new kingdom. I tell you it's gonna be, it's
like he was at that marriage at Canaan. Oh, he put the, he
saved the best wine to the last. I tell you what, that's what
he gonna do for us. He's gonna save the best wine to the last. He
said, I'll never know, he told his disciples, I'll drink no
longer. The fruit of the cup. the fruit of thine, until I drank
it anew in the kingdom. I with you. Listen, I tell you. Oh, what a blessing. And the
Lord Jesus will, what kind of table you reckon it's gonna be
that he gonna set us all at? And you know what, he'll set
us all at that table, he'll feed us all, give us all that best
wine. And he'll walk around that table and I'll tell you what,
he'll take care of all of his people all at the same time. That's a mystery. But that's
what the Bible teaches. But he's the Lord. If he could
save all of us, surely he could get us all to the same place
at the same time. And we won't be late and neither will he. Then look what else it says about
it. Oh, even in him, in him, see everything's in him, purposed
in himself. And in Christ again it said,
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance. Oh, we've obtained
an inheritance. My, Christ is the heir and we're
joined heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. And I've told you this
before, we get it all. We get it all. Every one of us. You know, parents can't do that.
If you got two children, three children, four children, one
child, and grandchildren, the state
is split up. But in Christ, we get everything
that he has. I get the whole pie. I get the
whole cake. I get all the wealth that he's
got. I get all the riches that he's got. I get everything he's
got. Look in Genesis 24 with me. Genesis
24, 36. This is what I'm saying. And he's the heir of all things. And that's settled. That's settled. And we've obtained an inheritance
in him. We've obtained an inheritance
in him. He's the heir of all things. Look what he says in
verse 36. And this Eleazar go to get a
bride for Isaac. And Sarah, my master's wife,
bear a son to my master when she was old. Now listen to this,
and unto him hath he given all that he hath. The father loveth the son, and
hath given all to him. Now back here in Ephesians, let
me hurry up here. And why did he do all this? How
did he do it? Why did he do it? In verse 6
says, to the praise of the glory of his grace. God does what He does, to the
praise of the glory of His grace, that He gets all the glory. We
will bless Him for His grace, always and ever. And then we
should be, in verse 12, that we should be to the praise of
His glory, who first trusted in Christ. Todd told me he was
going to be a pastor. He was going to be a pastor. He preached on that, I think
he said Wednesday night, or maybe he's gonna preach on next week,
but he said, you know who's the first person to ever trust in
Christ? God did. The Father did. He trusted him with everything
he had, me and you included. He trusted him with the salvation
of all his elect. And not only to save them, but
to keep them saved. And then, look, you also trusted
in the world that the gospel of your salvation, and look what
it says in verse 13, in whom also after that you believed,
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. sealed with
that Holy Spirit of promise. You know, the Spirit Himself
bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
And you know what? We're sealed with the Holy Spirit
and it says, which is the earnest of our inheritance until we're
redeemed and absolutely. He bought us and paid for us
and we're His purchased possession and He's going to come back and
He's going to get us and He's going to take that redeemed,
that purchased possession, us, unto glory. But He gave us In
earnest, He gave us the Spirit of God and He sealed us and that's
how we know we're gonna go be with Him. And you know what the
seal means? First of all, a seal means ownership.
Means ownership. And the second reason the seal's
put on something, to prove it to be genuine. Prove it to be
genuine. And the third reason someone's
sealed is to preserve them safe. To preserve it safe. And God
owns us. We're genuine and we're preserved
safe in Christ Jesus. Ain't that right? The foundation
of God stand assure having this seal, the Lord knows them that
are his. Now, what kind of blessings do
you want? What kind of blessings do you
have? Can you beat them blessings? Do you want those kind of blessings? Could anything keep you from
those blessings? Not if you're in Christ, it can't.
Not if you're in Christ. Oh Lord, our God, in the blessed
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, bless your word to our hearts,
our minds, our understanding. Lord, that Message is vain unless
you cause it to be blessed to the heart. My voice is just a voice. But, oh, if they hear the voice
of God, if the Holy Spirit himself speaks, then may it be so. Lord, you're a sovereign God. People's at your mercy and at
the back of your will. and you're the only one that
can speak and men hear. God bless your word for Christ's
sake. Amen.