The Apostle says here in verse
three, blessed, blessed be the God and Father by our Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, what a blessed God and Father
He is to His blessed Son, because He has blessed us, blessed us
out of His, all of His blessings, all the blessedness that's in
Him. He blessed us with all spiritual blessings, all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places. But these blessings are all in
Christ. And here's one of the first blessings
we have, His election, according as He has chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world. And He did this that we should
be holy and without blame before Him. Be holy without blame before
God. Oh, what a blessing! And then in love, having predestinated
us under the adoption of children, I'm going to take these children
into my family. I'm going to make them legal
heirs. I'm going to make them have everything that my son has.
I'm going to make them join heirs with my son. I'm going to make
them legally mine. by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will. And He did this to the praise
of the glory of His grace, and oh my, listen to this blessing,
wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. Oh my, blessed
us in Christ, chose us in Christ, adopted us in Christ, made us
accepted in the Beloved. That's what I want to talk about,
accepted in the Beloved. accepted in the Beloved. I know
three people, three things or persons in this world
that Christ is beloved to. He's beloved of His Father. When
our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized and He came up out of the water
in the spirit of the The dove came upon him as the Holy Spirit,
in the form of the Holy Spirit, so they'd know that it was the
Son of God. And the Father spoke from heaven, while our Lord was
still standing there wet from just being baptized by John.
And He says, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Oh, how he was pleased in his
son. Beloved. He was beloved of the Father.
Now, you keep Ephesians 1. Look with me over in Proverbs
chapter 8. I want you to see this. He's
beloved of the Father. And you know the Father sent
him into this world, and He's going to glorify His Son while
He's in this world. I mean, He sent His Son into
this world to glorify Him, to honor Him, and to make Him to
be beloved of His people. But He's beloved of the Father.
That's the first one that loved Him. Oh, the Father loved Him. He was in the bosom of the Father.
No man ever seen the God at any time save the only begotten Son
who's in the bosom of the Father, in the heart of the Father, held
close to the Father. And He come and told out His
Father. Look what He said here in Proverbs
8.22. He's talking about Christ. The Lord possessed me in the
beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up
from everlasting, from the beginning, wherever the earth was. When
there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no mounds,
abounding was water. Before the mounds were settled,
before the hills was, I brought forth. while as yet he had not
made the earth nor the fields nor the highest part of the dust
of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there. When
he set a compass upon the face of the deep, there, when he established
the clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, wherein
he gave to the sea his decree that the water should not pass
his commandment, when he appointed the foundations of the earth,
listen to it, then I was by him. As one brought up with him, I
was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him." Oh, he was, the father loved
him, daily delighted in him, rejoiced in him. And now his
Lord Jesus said, he upset himself, he said, I do always those things
which please my father. He was beloved of the Father
because that was the only council between Him and His Son. I mean,
beloved, He worked Him and His Son, created this whole world,
and that's what our Lord said there. Before anything ever happened,
I was there. And then when it happened, I
was right beside Him. He said when He brought forth
the hills, I was there. When He brought forth the mountains,
I was there. He was beloved of the Father
in the creation because He made Him the Creator. He was the only
one that the Father took counsel with. It was Him and His blessed
sons. They made the covenant of grace. They entered into the
covenant of grace to save His elect. He said, Father, they
were Thine. You gave them to Me. Now I'm going to save them
and I'll keep them, all that You gave Me. So He's beloved
of the Father. And I'll tell you who else He's
beloved of. He's beloved of the church. He's beloved of His people.
I preached on that here a while back. I am my beloved's and my
beloved is mine. Oh, he is beloved of the church.
He's not beloved of the world. No, no. I read a thing this week
and, well, I won't even mention it. It's just too awful to mention.
But he's beloved of the church. You know, he asked Simon Peter,
he says, Simon, do you love me? Asked him three times, and you
know what Simon said? Lord, you know. You're the one
that knows my heart. You know my soul. You know my
love. You know my mind. You know my
will. You know where I am and what I am. And Lord, you know
that I love you. And Peter said this in 1 Peter
1a, whom he had not seen, you loved. Never having seen him,
you loved him. And you rejoice with joy unspeakable,
full of glory, receiving the end of your salvation, even the
salvation of your souls. So He's beloved of the church.
We sung that song this morning. Oh, how I love Jesus. Don't love
Him like He's worthy to be loved. Don't love Him like we want to
love Him. And certainly don't love Him like we're going to
love Him one of these days. But we do love Him. We do love
Him. Oh, how we love Him. Oh, my soul,
how would we love to have our hearts set on fire for the love
that we have to Christ. And I tell you what, that old
Barnard preached a message one time, if you can ever get a hold
of it, you need to listen to it. Sweetheart, love for Jesus.
Oh, my, if you can find that, get it and listen to it. And
not only is He beloved of the Father, He's beloved of the church,
but the angels in heaven love Him. Oh, He's beloved of the
angels. You know what they do? When He
says go, one goes. When He says come, one comes.
And the angels just constantly stay in His presence and they
got one thing to say. They sing one note over and over
and over and over and over and over. Holy, holy, holy, Lord
God Almighty. Holy, holy, holy. And I tell
you, he's beloved. I call you beloved all the time,
because you are. Beloved of the Father, beloved
of the Church, and beloved of the angels. Now let me give you
three points. I got a little three-point message
this morning. We're accepted in the Beloved. Talks about our
union with Christ. How we're joined with Christ.
We're worn with Christ. And secondly, about how the glorious
condition, the cause of our union with Christ, our standing, how
greatly blessed we are of our standing, our condition before
God. And thirdly, the blessed cause
of us being accepted in the Beloved. Now let me give you my first
point. We're accepted in the Beloved. This tells us about
our union with Christ. Ain't that what it says? God
hath chosen us in Christ, gave us special blessings, spiritual
blessings in Christ, adopted us in Christ, accepted us in
the Beloved. Now, let me tell you, when we
were in union with God, we were one with Christ. We were in union
with Him. We were in His heart. We were in the Beloved's heart
from the very beginning. We really were. Jeremiah said
this, Yea, I have loved thee. God told Jeremiah, He said, You
tell my people. This is what I want you to tell
me. He said, Yea, I have loved you with an everlasting love,
and with cords of lovingkindness. Cords of lovingkindness have
I drawn thee. And was it cords of lovingkindness
that brought us to the Lord Jesus Christ? And you know it always
talked about John, that disciple who leaned on our Lord's breast. It always talked about that disciple
whom Jesus loved. And do you remember when our
Lord Jesus Christ, when he heard about Lazarus being sick and
he's going to die? And the scripture says that Jesus
loved Martha, and his sister, and her brother Lazarus. Loved them. And when he stood
outside their tomb, and tears began to come down that holy,
sinless face, and he stood there and they wept before that tomb,
they said, Oh, how he must have loved him. And let me show you
something in John 15 and 9. Oh, we were in His heart. And
having loved His own, He loved them unto the end. Look in John
15 and 9, just a moment. Oh, we were in His heart. And what I mean by that, beloved,
I mean our Lord Jesus Christ. His heart is His self, His soul,
who He is. And we were in His heart. He
loved us. His heart was for us. His will
was for us. His purpose was for us. His counsel
was for us. His blood was for us. Everything
about Him was for us because we were in His heart. Look what
He said here in John 15 and 9. As the Father hath loved me,
so have I loved you. Hasn't the Father loved me? He said, that's how I love you.
That's how I love you. Now, beloved in Adam, we fell. We fell from life to death. We fell from uprightness down
to sin. We fell from our standing of
the first time we ever had a free will and we lost it and we became
sinners. We went from life to death, we
went from life to darkness, from fellowship with God to alienation
from God. But beloved, I'll tell you something
we can never ever do. We can never fall out of our
Lord Jesus Christ. We can never be done. Because
as Eve was in Adam, Eve was in Adam before that fall. We were
in Christ before we ever fell. Before Adam ever fell. We were
in Christ. We were chosen in Christ. Elected
in Christ. Predestinated in Christ. Blessed
in Christ. Everything that God had for us,
He had it in Christ before this world ever began. Now that's
being accepted in the beloved. That's a union, ain't it? And
oh, beloved, I'm going to show you some things about the high
priest. You talk about our union with him. Now you keep Ephesians
1. Look over here in Exodus 28 with me just a moment. You know,
the high priest, when he was so warm with Israel, that God,
the Father, gave him all the names of the
children of Israel in three different ways. And he was supposed to
bury these people because he had them on his person. He had
them on his person. He had the names on his shoulder,
had the names on his heart, and had their holiness before on
his head. But look here what it says in
verse 9 here of Exodus 28. And thou shalt take two honest
stones and engrave on them the names of the children of Israel,
six names on one stone, six names on the rest of the other stone,
according to their birth. Now what's this? See, God had
our birth You put them on there according to when they were born.
Now listen to this. And then with the work of an
engraver in stone, like the engravings of the signet, thou shalt engrave
the two stones with the names of the children of Israel. And
then you got these two little pouches of gold up here, said
stick them two onyx in them little things of gold up on his shoulder.
Now look what it says. Thou shalt put the stones upon
the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial unto the children
of Israel, and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord upon
his two shoulders for a memorial." Christ bore our names upon His
shoulders before the world ever began. Now listen, not only on
His shoulders, bearing our weight. He carries us. He's the government's
on his shoulders. He was our great high priest
forever after all of Melchizedek. Now look down in verse 29. And
I'll tell you, he names off six, twelve
different stones and diamonds and sapphires and rubies and
emeralds and carbons, my goodness, the names, all these things he's
going to put on these stones on the front. And then he said,
look what he said, and Aaron, shall bear the names of the children
of Israel in the blessed plate of judgment." Oh my, the blessed
plate of judgment on the heart, upon his heart. When he goes
into the holy place for memorial before the Lord continues, he'll
bear the name of the children of Israel on his heart, on that
judgment, he'll bear the judgment when he goes into the presence
of God. There are names on his heart and he'll bear the judgment.
And so you see we're on his shoulder and we're on his heart. Look
down, verse 36. And thou shalt make a plate of
pure gold, engrave upon it like the engravements of a signet.
Holiness to the Lord. And thou shalt put it on blue
lace, that it may be upon the mitre, upon the forefront of
the mitre shall it be. And it shall be upon Aaron's
forehead that Aaron may bear," now listen to this, "...bear
the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel
shall holler, and all their holy gifts. And it shall be always
upon his forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord."
He bears his holy souls. You're talking about a union
with him. You see, Aaron, he's just a hybrid,
but I mean, God counted when Aaron was walking around, he
saw the children of Israel with him. He saw them in Aaron. God saw us in our Christ, saw
us in His blessed Son, and they were our names. On his shoulders,
on his heart, and when he goes in all of our sins, we're in
here doing holy things now. When you pray, that's a whole
hallowed thing. And he said when you read and
all the things that we do, the singing and the worship and the
praise, he said when he goes in, because it says, hold us
to the Lord, because of that, he bears all the sins of all
the things that we do and I worship, and makes us accepted before
the Lord. And we're holiness before the
Lord, before Christ. Now let me tell you now, not
only that, but let me tell you, not only we're in union with
Him in His heart, but we accepted in the blood that we were in
Christ's book. Did you know Christ had a book? Yeah. He had a book. God had a book.
It's called the Lamb's Book of Life. Revelation 13 and 8 says,
the Lamb's Book of Life that was slain before the foundation
of the world. And everyone who has not written the Lamb's Book
of Life before the foundation of the world will be cast into
the bottomless pit. And let me show you something.
I know we're looking at a lot of scriptures, but we've been
through this before, but this is something right here. Look
in Revelation 5. You know, our Lord Jesus, if
you read his book, that's what Paul told the Philistines, he
says, whose names are written in the book of life. You know,
Christ, God said, Christ be my first elect, he said, then chose
our souls in Christ our head. Look what it says, now John said,
I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne. A book!
Written within, and on the back side sealed with seven seals.
This book was closed up, written within, seven seals across that
book. Seven latches on it. And I saw
a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who are they? Open
the book, loose the seals there, take them seven seals off of
it. Who's able to tell us what's
in that book and expose it and to make it to be known? No man
in heaven, no man in earth, neither under the earth was able to open
the book there or not even able to look on it, even with the
seals on it. Oh, John began to cry. He said,
Oh my, if that book ain't open, there ain't no hope for none
of us. Because no man was found worthy to open and listen to
it, read the book, or even look on it. And one of the elders
said unto me, weep not. Behold, I will show you something.
The Lion of the tribe of Judah, The Root of David hath prevailed. Where did he prevail at? He prevailed
way back yonder in eternity. He prevailed on the cross. He
prevailed in the purpose of God. He prevailed in the will of God.
He prevailed, beloved, in the decree of God. And he says this,
and hath prevailed open that book. And not only that, but
he took off every seal on it. Not sealed anymore. And I beheld
and looked, and neither what I saw I saw in the midst of the
throne. And of the four beasts and in
the midst of the elders stood a lamb, this had prevailed to
do it, as it had been slain, having seven eyes, seven horns,
which are the seven spirits of God. And he came, now listen
to this, anybody can't come into the presence of God and take
something out of context. No, no, no. Not just anybody
can walk up to God. I know a lot of people think
they can walk up to God and tell Him what to do and how to do
things. But that's not the way it is in this world. I mean,
you know, it takes a powerful person. It takes a holy person. It takes a sinless man. It takes
one that God accepts fully and powerfully and completely and
entirely to be able to take that book, to walk up to God on His
throne. And look what I said, and that
Lamb, He took the book out of the right hand of him and sat
on the throne. And oh, beloved, look what it
said down in verse 9. And boy, when He opened that
book, they sung a new song. Oh, we sang a song to Him. Thou
art worthy to take the book, to open the seals, for Thou was
slain. and hath redeemed us to God by
thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.
Oh, bless his holy name. Let me tell you another book
we've seen. Now, that's just one book. That's that book. Now,
look at Psalm 139. I know I want you to look at
these things, but I tell you, they were such a blessing to
me as I was preparing this message Friday. Oh, listen to this now. Psalm 139. Behold mine elect, in whom my
soul delighteth." You know, Christ is the firstborn.
He's the firstborn. He's got the first name. Let
me tell you something. If you can disprove His Sonship,
that He's not the Son of God, then you disprove ours too. I
heard a woman, a young woman the other day, The person asked
her, said, Do you believe that Jesus Christ was virgin born?
This is a news person, a popular news person that this person,
that they asked this person to, a woman. Do you believe that
Jesus Christ is virgin born? I do. I not only believe He's
virgin born, but I believe He's not only the Son of God, but
I believe He's God Himself. She said that. She said, I belittled
believe the Bible. I believe it. I'm an Orthodox,
whatever you want to call them, an Orthodox Christian. I believe
it. And, beloved, I'm telling you,
that's for somebody to publicly confess that. When somebody asks
them, somebody that does not even believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God, the person who asked that question don't
even believe. He said, he believes there's
lots of ways to get to God. And she says, no. She just told
him flat out, no. But look what he said here in
Psalm 139, verse 16. Listen to me. Well, look in verse
13. For thou hast possessed me, possessed
my reins. That means you possess my emotions
and possess my affections. And you covered me in my mother's
womb. You covered me in my mother's
womb. You put your hand on me, covered
me and my mother. I will praise thee, for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made. You're the one that made me.
You put me in my mother's womb, and marvelous are your works.
And you know what? My soul knows that right well.
Now watch this. My substance was not hit for
thee. My being, all that makes me, me, my substance, my body,
my mind, my soul, my everything of that, my substance was not
hidden from me. When I was made in secret, God makes His people
in secret. You know, I mean, He puts that
baby in the womb and makes it be in secret. When I was made
and churched and robed in the lowest parts of the earth. Now
listen. Thy eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect, And in thy book all my members
were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there
was none of them. before I ever was. He said, before
I existed, and you saw me and know me and covered and wrought
my birth in my mother's womb, made me fearfully and wonderfully.
He says, before my substance, before being yet unperfect formed
in the womb, not a full baby yet, not a full person. He says,
I've seen your book. I've seen your book. Oh, beloved, in all things our
Lord Jesus Christ has the preeminence. And that book sealed with us
seven seals, He prevailed to open it. You see, we're in Christ's
hands. Not only are we in His heart,
we're in His book, but we're in His hands. Do you know what
it is to be in the hands of Christ? To be in His hands. Do you understand
the hands of God? that he measures the waters in
the hollow of them, he just took the heavens and spanned them
out like that. And he said, I and my father are warned of you in
my head, and we're in his hands as a surety. As a surety. He guaranteed. to meet all of
our obligations, all of our debts, and to pay everything that was
necessary against us. We're in His heart as one who
loved us. We're in His book as His blessed
elect. We're in His hand as our surety. Now, I'm going to show you two
things. I want you to see both these
things. I agree in no hurry to go anywhere but look in Genesis
31. I want you to see these two things. Genesis 31, talking about
Christ being our surety. You know what a surety is? It's
someone who stands good for someone who does not have the ability
to stand for themselves. For someone who owes a debt,
they cannot pay it themselves. For someone who cannot go their
own bill, for someone who cannot pay their own debts, for someone
that's so bankrupt that not only does they not only pay all their
debts, but take all their debts that they owed before. Look here
in Genesis 39, and down in verse 31, excuse me, I said, let me go
back to 31. Did I say 39? Let's go to 31. I'm sorry. 31, 39. What did I
say to start with? Did I say 31 to start with? Okay. In verse 39. Okay. All right. Now watch what
it says here. In verse 36, it said, Jacob was
wroth and choked with Laban's sin. Jacob answered and said
to Laban, What is my trespass? What is my sin that you so hotly
pursue after me? Wherein hast thou searched all
my stuff? What hast thou found of all thy household stuff? Set
it here before my brethren and thy brethren, that they may judge
betwixt us. Listen to it. These twenty years have I been
with you. Thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their yoke, and
the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. Now listen to it. This
is what I want you to get. That was torn of beasts I brought
not unto thee. I bear the loss of it. Of my
hand you do require it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. He said, everything you require
of me, I bore the blame of it, I bore the loss of it, and I
gave you the best. And I, Lord Jesus Christ, bore
the loss of all of His people and gave God the very best. Certain
God, all of you. Now look over in Genesis 43.
He bore the loss of it. He bore the loss of it. And there was no miscarriages.
He said, and any loss that there was, I bore it. And any loss
we have, Christ bore it all for us. Look what he said here in
Genesis 43 and 9. Judah, remember Joseph wanted
Benjamin to be brought back down there. He had never seen Benjamin.
And oh, the Father Judas said unto Israel, Father, send the
lad with me, and we'll rise and go, that we may live and not
die, both we, you, and also our little ones. We're going to die
if we don't take him down there. Notice what he said. I'll be
surety for him. Of my hand shalt thou require
him. If I bring him not unto thee,
and sent him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. Now, that's exactly what happened
in eternity. Our Lord Jesus says, Father, You let Him go down with me.
Let Him go to the cross with me. Let Him die with me. Let
Him bear the judgment with me. Let Him bear sin with me. Let
everything that gets to be, let Him go with me. And I tell you
what, if I don't bring Him to you and set Him before you, when
it's all said and done, if I don't bring Him to the end and bring
Him back and set Him before you, then let me bear the blame forever.
And you reckon we'll be set before the Father? What He just said
was accepted in the Beloved. You see, He's the Great Shepherd
of the sheep. He's the Great Shepherd of the
sheep. He knows all of them that are His and He knows them by
name. He said, I give unto Him eternal life. They shall never
perish because The Father which gave them me is greater than
all, and no man will ever pluck them out of my hand or my Father's
hand. And I mean to be in the hands of Christ. To be in the
hands of the Great Shepherd. And let me tell you something.
Have you ever found a sheep that was responsible for itself? Christ is the Shepherd of the
sheep, and beloved, He's going to take care of His sheep. That's
one reason why, beloved, we don't preach words. That's why we don't
preach free willism. That's why we don't preach You
know, that if you're not used to living a certain way or something
like that, there's no way you make it. But I'll tell you something,
it's not my place. I'm finishing. And I'll watch
over the sheep. And God helping me, I'll pray
for the sheep and warn the sheep. But it's Christ who died for
the sheep, and He's responsible for the sheep. It's His sheepfold. He's the door to get in the sheepfold.
And He says the Holy Spirit to put Him in the sheepfold. And
He's the shepherd of the sheep. The Lord is my shepherd, and
I shall not want. Oh, ain't you grateful for that? Oh, I'm so thankful that He's
the shepherd of the sheep. I'm grateful that I'm not the shepherd. You know, I'm an under-shepherd.
If that's what you confess, I don't know what any more of them is.
Way under, way under, way under. Lord, let me say something else.
Not only in his heart, not only in the book, not only in his
hands, but we were in Christ's loins. Now, what do I mean by
that? We were in Adam's loins when
Adam was created. When Adam failed, wherefore has
not one man sinned in this world? And death passed on all of us,
for all of us have sinned." Where'd we sin at? We sinned in our father
Adam. We can trace our lineage all the way back to Adam, because
we were in the loins of our father Adam. There's five generations right
now for Riley and Bentley. Five generations. That's a rare
thing. Five generations. It'd be a lot
at one time. But before Riley was ever born,
she was in the loins of James Herman Tucker. Five generations
down the road. And before we ever were, just
as we was in the loins of Adam, have that incorruptible seed. We were in the loins of Christ.
We were the seed of Christ. We were begotten of Christ. And
because God said this, because we cannot sin because His seed
remains in us. And Peter said, being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible seed, by the Word
of God which liveth and abideth forever. There was a seed planted in us.
It's the seed of Christ. And where did that seed come
from? It came from Christ. That's why it's a sinless seed.
It's a perfect seed. It's an eternal seed. And it
begats a multitude that no man can number. Oh, my. You know, Isaiah 59, 21, you
don't have to look at it, but it says there, he says that I
am going to bless I'm going to magnify, I'm going to wondrously
save, I'm going to redeem, I'm going to keep, I'm going to prosper,
I'm going to cause your seed to be blessed of your seed. Christ's seed is going to be
blessed of Christ. Oh my! He shall see His seed
and shall prolong His days. You see, we're trees of righteousness
planted by the Lord. You know, Levi, It tells us Levi,
that's the tribe of Levi that Aaron comes from. Aaron was a
son of Levi, so the whole priesthood comes from Levi's tribe. But it says that Abraham, that
Levi paid tithes in the loins of Abraham to Melchizedek before
Levi was ever born, before Jacob was ever born. before Isaac was born. You know
Abraham, before Isaac was even born, Abraham paid tithes to
Melchizedek, that great high priest. So it says Levi paid tithes in
Abraham. And that was generations and
generations and generations before Levi was even born. So if he
paid tithes in the loins of Abraham, And the less is blessed by the
greater, then how great is Christ to whom we were blessed in His
loins before we ever were. We've paid our tithes, we've
paid all our obligations, all in our great high priesthood,
yes we have. And then let me hurry up, I've
got to hurry up. Not only were we in Christ in His loins, For
we are in the person of Christ Himself. In the very person of
Christ Himself. Not only His hands, His heart,
His book, and His loins, but also in Him
Himself. Paul said, I'm crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ. Christ liveth in me. Christ lives
in me. And the life I now live in this
body, in this flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who
loved me and gave me this life. Well, Christ is our life, Colossians
said. Our Lord said, I'm the vine,
you're the branches. And the only way you get life
is from me. So we, I'll tell you, and I've
said this, I know I've said it a thousand times, at least that
many times, is that when God sees us, He
sees only Christ. If He ever looked at us outside
of Christ, there'd be no hope for us. Huh? And I heard Don Ford make this
statement, and boy, immediately I know it's true. And I hope
you understand this. If you don't, I'm sorry for you.
But he said that David, when he was in the arms of Bathsheba,
was as much accepted of God as when he was dancing before the
ark. Because acceptance is only in
Christ. And you say, well, I ain't sin
like David. No, probably he's a sight worse. Probably don't
tell how much sins you've committed in your mind. See, we want to catalog sin.
We say, that one's bad, and this one over here's not so bad. God
don't catalog them. God made Christ to be sin. Oh, bless His name. Ain't you
grateful that He don't catalog them? Oh, my. Only God can catalog my sin.
But I'm grateful that He don't. Now, let me go on now. We're
accepted in the Beloved. That's our union. Heart, hands,
book, loins, in the very person of Christ himself. Then it says,
accepted in the Beloved. You know what it means to be
accepted in the Beloved? First of all, we're justified
before God. That's the first thing. When
you're accepted in the Beloved, all spiritual blessings are in
Christ. You see, that means that before
God, we're justified. We're clear of all guilt. We're
clear of all debt. We stand righteous before God
Himself. And then I'm going to tell you
something they said there in Ephesians 1. We are accepted in the Beloved. And we are accepted only, only
in the Beloved. Accepted only in Christ. No place
else to be accepted of God. No place else to be accepted
of the Father. And I'll tell you now, that means
not only that, that we are justified before God, but God Himself looks
at us and we're objects of His pleasure, objects of His delight,
objects of one that God can look on and say, that's mine. He's
not ashamed to call us His brethren. He's not ashamed to be called
our God. He's not ashamed to say, I'm
not having none, them are mine. These are my children. These
are my beloved. These are my vessel of mercy.
These are my vessels of honor. These are my delightful people. He rejoices. I'll tell you what,
over in Joel, it says this. He said he rejoices and sings
over us. Rejoices and sings over us. You
think you can sing, you imagine what it is for Him to sing. He
rejoices and sings songs over us. And you know what, I'll show
you something else about this. Can you imagine a better way
to be accepted than to be accepted in the beloved? Do you know a
better place or a better way to be accepted than in Christ?
This is the best way at all to be accepted. You couldn't be
made accepted in a better place by a better person. Could we
be accepted in ourselves? No. Ten thousand times no. Could we be accepted in Adam?
No. Never. You see, the Armenian
says, walk worthy. Live a good life. Give up all
your bad habits and walk worthy and then you'll be accepted.
And then if you walk unworthy, you'll become unacceptable. Oh,
I don't want to have none do that. Oh, to be in Christ, to
be accepted in the Beloved. Acceptable. He's acceptable to
the Father. We're acceptable to the He's
acceptable to the law, we accept him before the law. He's acceptable
to justice, we're acceptable to justice. He's acceptable to
the holiness of God, we're acceptable to holiness. He's acceptable
to the righteous, we're acceptable. We are acceptable all in one
place and we love it. Oh, the old hymn writer said,
In thy surety thou art free, here still blood was shed for
thee, with thy Saviour's garments, so holy as the Holy One. Now look over here at Ephesians,
and I'm going to wind it up with this. How in the world was this
being made accepted in the Beloved? How did we have this blessed
union? How did we have this glorious
condition of being justified, being delighted of the Father,
being the objects of His love, object of acceptable? How in the world does this happen?
Look what it says in verse six, to the praise of His glory, of
His grace, when He hath made us accepted. Did you notice that? He hath
made us. Do you know how many times it
says in the Scriptures, he hath made us? He hath made Christ
to be sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God. Christ
is made unto us. God hath made Christ our wisdom,
our righteousness, our redemption, and our sanctification. God made
Christ us all these things. So how in the world did we get
into Christ? He hath made us saved. Huh? Look in Colossians 1.12, over
a couple of chapters, and I'll line this thing up. Colossians
1.12, look what it says here. Here's another one of them, hath
made us. You ought to go through that one of these times and look
at all the things He hath made us. He hath made us! and not
we ourselves," the hunter's son said. He hath made us his sheep,
and not we ourselves. We didn't make ourselves his
sheep. Look what it said in verse 12, Colossians 1. Giving thanks
unto the Father which hath made us fit, able to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in life. It's God who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the
kingdom of His dear Son. He hath made us accept Him, the
Beloved. Made Christ unto us wisdom and
righteousness. Made Christ to be seen that we
might be made to righteousness of God in Him. And He did this
by His power. Just as Jonah was in the belly
of hell, as in that whale's belly, and he said, salvation's of the
Lord. And when he learned that, you know what happened? That
big old whale went up on the seashore and spit him out on
dry ground. And when we find out salvation's
of the Lord, we're free. No longer in hell. No longer
in bondage. We know now that salvation's
of the Lord. Huh? I do believe, I will believe,
that Jesus died for me, that on the cross He shed His blood
from sin to set me free. Let me ask you four questions.
Four questions. Are you wholly, completely, entirely
dependent on Him, on Christ? Huh? Are you wholly and entirely,
completely dependent on Him? Do you know, second question,
do you know, do you feel your need of Him to make you acceptable
to God? Do you know it? Do you feel it?
That He's the only one to make you acceptable to God. Third
question. Do you love Him? Do you love
Him? You see, in a marriage, two become
one flesh, and we're joined to Him, and we become one in Him. Do you love Him? And there's the fourth question.
Is there life in you? Is Christ in you, the hope of
glory? She put that new life in you. Is that Christ in you? Does that make you cry out to
Him and say, yes, Lord? Do you have that life in you,
that answers to Christ, to Christ's love? Accepted and beloved. Oh, our Father, our Father, our
Father,