I don't know whether you have
times like this, I hope you do, where you are happy in the Lord. You're just happy all by yourself,
maybe, or get happy in the service of God in the church, worship
service. I think Ephesians 1 is one of
the greatest, 1 and 2, is one of the greatest two chapters
in the entire scriptures. It lays it out very clearly that
salvation is of the Lord. And that in itself brings tremendous
joy. begins the first chapter of Ephesians
by just stating the fact that he is an apostle by the will
of God, and that he's writing to the church at Ephesus, who
are faithful in Christ. And then he says, grace be to
you and peace from God, our father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then from there on, he's out of his mind. I mean, we read
it very calmly, but by the time the apostle hits the third verse,
the joy of the Lord has filled his heart and soul. And the way
we would read verse three is something like this, blessed
be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. We don't have it when we read
it that way. It would be more like, hey, hey, hey, blessed
be the God father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings. He's excited. He's excited about
the blessings of God. Today, I would just say, if you
get a little excited, just say it out loud, bless God. You know, just bless God. That's a biblical exclamation,
bless God. Blessed be the God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who have blessed us with all spiritual
blessings. And notice this, past tense. all spiritual blessings. He hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings. You know, like salvation,
deliverance. Nobody said bless God. Okay,
you'll be there before I get through here. who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings. Have you ever thought about this?
I'm not an accident. Not only am I not an accident,
but it wasn't an accident that I came to know Christ. God had
already blessed me with that blessing. That blessing was going
to happen. Thank you. who have blessed us with all
spiritual blessings, not just salvation, but right now, those
of you who are in a safe place over at Grace Centers, those
of you who've graduated from the program, those of you who
have come from the suburbs here who know the Lord and have found
a place of worship in this place, all of that was laid out for
you. None of that is an accident. Oh, okay. I'll wait on you a
bit every once in a while. With all spiritual blessings.
You say, well, pastor, I don't get that. Well, one of our favorite
passages around here is Romans 8, 28. I'm not gonna need these
notes today, I don't think. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love the Lord. Thank you. I don't want to be a blessed
God. Some of you, I was looking as
we were singing and you were singing. As the deer panteth for the water
brook, so my heart panteth after thee, O God. No, I don't think
so. You want to experience God. I'm
about to start on this book I'm going to write, and one of the
things that I'm going to ask right at the first is, why would
you read another religious book? Many of you are book readers,
you've read all kinds of how-to books. Why would you read another religious
book because in this book that God's going to help me to write
eventually called The Poverty Pimp, that would be me. That's what the city council,
that's what the city council named me. So I hope that the
title, I hope even the title creates a little interest. The reason you would read this
book is because it tells the great things God has done here.
And they are great. In fact, I have been preaching
now over for 50 years and I've never seen the things happen
other places that are happening here. I have never seen them. And so I'm experiencing God,
and I want you to experience God, not just go to someplace
with a steeple on the building, but actually experience God where
you have these occasions of you can't help it. Bless God! Say,
well, I don't know what you're talking about. I know. Jesus
said, I'm come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. Brother Barnard, one of my old
mentors used to say, when you're down to cornbread and sow belly,
you better have a deep down hallelujah in your soul. You know, when
things are tough and looking tough, do you have a deep down
hallelujah in your soul? Because you know God's in charge. That this world is not a runaway. So the apostle begins this way.
Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings. All spiritual blessings. Every spiritual blessing. comes
from God. It's not you. You didn't work
for it and you didn't earn it and you sure don't deserve it.
It's a grace blessing. It's a grace blessing. There
we go. It's an unmerited undeserved
favor of God. Doesn't that make the goosebumps
come up on the back of your head? that you deserved hell and he
gave you grace and mercy. Thank God you haven't got what
you deserve. Stay with me now. So you've got
all of these blessings. Wonder what he has for you tomorrow. They're all bought and paid for.
Say, well, if I just believe like you pastor, you know, I
just, I just, I know what you would do. You know, I'm here
because I want to be here today. It's not a have to thing. I'm
here because I want to be here. I want to be here with you. What
I'm saying is there ought to be this joy on the inside of
us when we come to understand that God is in charge, that he
has blessed us, and specifically we didn't deserve it. It's unconditional. And I say, if you ask the question
today, well, are there people better than I am? Yeah, lots
of them. But God blessed you. Let me tell
you, if you don't know somebody better than you, you're probably
self-righteous. I know lots of people that I have seen down
through life travel that I thought to myself, Boy, I didn't deserve
it. I should have gone to hell. But
you know, that person seems like a good person. Now I know this. I know there's none good. I clearly
understand that. But it's when you come to understand
this, that I am a poor sinner. Saved by the grace of God. And
that he saved me by his grace and that he bought all of these
spiritual blessings and that he's actually at work in my life. I'm not a runaway. The world's
not a runaway. God is actively working in my
life through the Holy Spirit of God. Now, the next verse says
this. according as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world. Uh-oh! According as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world. Do you believe
that? Then say, bless God. Wait a minute, that didn't sound
very energetic to me. This is a clear teaching of the
word of God, that God chose a number of people as the sands by the
seashore. People often say to me this,
oh, you believe in election, that God chose this little handful
of people. No, he chose his handful. And
just in case you don't know, God's got big hands. In fact,
the Bible says that there will be a number that no man can number
in heaven. Not a few, not a few. He's a mighty conqueror, a victor.
But ever last one of them were chosen by him. Well, Pastor, I don't believe
that at all. Then you don't believe Ephesians
1, 4. Somebody ought to get happy about it. He chose me, worm that
I am, sinner that I was. Bless God. The doctrine of election
is not something to argue about. It's something to put both your
hands in the air and say, thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me salvation so rich and free. Chosen, you were chosen before the foundation of the
world. Think about that. Before he ever
said, let there be light, you had been chosen by God. It's
true. Before I formed thee in thy mother's
belly, I loved you. So by a pastor, it doesn't say,
it doesn't say love, it says knew. Oh, I know. Adam knew his wife and she conceived. What did that mean? I mean, he
loved her intimately. There was an intercourse that
took place. There was a pregnation that took
place. Before I formed you in your mother's
belly, I loved you intimately. Well, what about all those abortion
babies? Oh, when we all get to heaven.
You know what? All aborted babies, I believe.
And I know some of you watching gonna disagree, that's okay.
Some of you pastors that are watching after this afternoon,
our service, you're gonna disagree. But you ever thought about all
the aborted babies that God elected before the foundation
of the world? All zillion of them are gonna
be in heaven. Heaven's not a small place. Heaven
is a happy place. Heaven is a victorious place. David, when his baby died, said,
I can't bring that baby back, but I can go to it. I have every,
every, I don't know. I just feel so good about heaven.
One, I'm going to see mom and dad and grandma and ma and nanny.
I'm going to see Stewart Ward, my baby. I don't know how big he'll be.
Last time I saw him, he's about that big. But I'm going to see
him. Hey, hey, we've been blessed
with all spiritual blessing. There's no use, no need for us
to go around through life with a long drawn out face. Say, well,
pastor, there's some bad things happening to me. No, there's
not. Because God takes bad and turns it to good. Because all
things work together for your good. Some of you got here by
being bad, you thought. But while you were using and
in your drunkenness and whoring around, the hound of heaven was
there, getting you to the place where you couldn't even wiggle.
And there was nothing for mom and dad to do except call Pontiac
Rescue Mission. Grace centers of hope. And you
were forced, it felt like you were forced in here by your own
mess. But there was an unseen hand
and one that had loved you when you were in the crack house,
when you were shooting up, when you were in the bed with numerous
people that was watching over you. And here you are now in
the house of God. Jesus said it, not me, You have
not chosen me, I chose you. That's what he said in the 15th
chapter of the gospel of John. The apostle Paul said, we're
bound to give thanks to God for you. Because God has from the
beginning chosen you to salvation. When was the beginning? In the
beginning. You ever thought about the beginning
with God? That he has no beginning? I try
to think about that every once in a while. My God had no beginning. That'll blow your mind, you begin
to think about that a little bit. But in the beginning, he
loved me. Never has been a time when God
didn't love me. And God wasn't shocked when I
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the next passage says,
verse five says this, Well, let me not get ahead of myself. 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. Oh, I can think of all kinds
of blame for myself. I don't like to think about it
too much and you shouldn't either. Blame, blame, blame, blame. But think about the love of God. And one day he's going to make
sure you stand before him without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Say, but, but, but, but, but,
quit your butting. The only but you need is but
God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved
us. Without spot. I'm gonna be perfect
one day. I mean, I'm gonna have a perfect
body one day and the perfect presence of a perfect God. Now
watch this. Don't jump out of your seat and
leave. Having predestinated us. Oh,
that is a dirty word to many people, but I love that word.
Say, now pastor, you don't believe in predestination, do you? Absolutely. Bless God. God that he's a God
who doesn't leave us to ourselves. A God who loved us in the beginning
and we went crazy. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned to his own way. But there was a seeking shepherd.
There was a You know, when you were in the
crack house or shooting up with heroin or whatever you were using,
and by the way, we're all addicts. There's nobody in here that's
not an addict. Pastors ministering to the addicted. Yes, yes, he
himself is an addict. In my nature, in my flesh dwells
no good thing. Thank God for the hound of heaven
that sought me down, that wouldn't let me go. You'd be surprised
where the Lord goes with you. You'd be dead if he didn't. You
just think about the awful places you've been. Kind of embarrassing. And the Lord God of heaven was
there. Could have died, could have died a long time ago. Many
of us in here should have been dead a long time ago from all
kinds of things. but God, because he's a God. No wonder Paul said, bless God. When you think about the places
you've been and should have been dead. And I know some of you
know, you had that tuck and roll down really good, but it wasn't
because you knew how to tuck and roll when they were shooting
at you. Some of you people plan to kill in your life. Some of
you have taken a bullet and you're here. Some of you were hiding
in some Baptist church. God does go to Baptist churches
every once in a while, you know. A lot of people hiding in churches
though. Not only Baptist churches. Some
of you here today. What an awesome thing it would
be. if a blessed God came out of
you, the scales were taken off your eyes and you saw that it
was Jesus, that it was salvation by the blood of Christ, that
it was substitution, that he was the propitiation for your
sins, the redeemer of your soul and life, that you saw him to
be the savior of your life. and Lord alone, or Lord and Savior. Well, predestination. That word's
used a lot, and it means just exactly what it says. He predetermined. Predetermined. Oh, thank God
for the power of predestination. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. And some of you may be in here,
you know, Pather, I've been a Christian for 60 years. I've held out.
No. No, you may have been a Christian
for 60 years, but you're lying about holding out. You were a
mess. I'm talking about after conversion.
I'm not talking about before conversion. I'm talking about
since you've been converted. but there was a predestinating
God who wouldn't let you go and he wouldn't throw you away. You
know, God should have thrown me away. Many times in my life,
this thing is broken. This thing is no good anymore.
But God's predestinating power and grace. Well, why'd he do
all that? Well, look at verse six. To the
praise of the glory of his grace. See, some of you are going like,
now pastor, you know, I love you and I appreciate you, but
I just don't believe what you just said. Then you don't believe
what the apostle Paul just said. But why did he do all of it?
To the praise of the glory of his grace. We used to sing a
song in the old church. I stand amazed. in the presence
of Jesus, the Nazarene and wonder. Are you in a state of wonder
today? Then you're not worshiping. Amen. Wonderful grace of Jesus. Greater
than all my sin. Amen. Somebody say, bless God. Amen. Bless God. And you know,
he's listening today. The angels are listening today.
Do you know the angels come to church to hear me preach? I'm
such an honored guy. They do. They come to God's house.
Most of them, many of them, all of them, all of you have a guardian
angel. That's why we have so many angels
here today, because they have to follow us to keep us alive. To the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he made us accepted in the blood. That's
such a strong verse, such a powerful verse. You're not accepted because
you're a member of some denominational church. Some of you just, You
know, you just go, go, go, go, go. I mean, you're at mass every
day. You're confessing to some priest. You're in some church. I mean,
you've got your Sunday school pins somewhere at home. If you
put them all on, you look like Gaddafi. I mean, you just, first
year, second year, third year, you haven't missed Sunday school.
And all of that is good that you haven't, but that's not why
you're going to heaven. You're going to heaven because
bless God, he's been good to you. That's why you're going
to heaven. In fact, if you look at yourself,
it'll turn your stomach a bit. You don't have to look at anybody
else or judge anybody else. He saved us to the praise of
the glory of his grace, where he has made us accepted in the
blood. We're accepted in Jesus Christ and in him alone. Some of you are just so sure
you're here today visiting with us and we're glad you're here
and God brought you here for me to tell you this. You go to
church because you're afraid not to. And you feel like you're
building up some kind of goodness that God's going to accept you.
It's just not true. It's not true. What we're here
for is to do this. Bless God. Oh my soul, bless
the Lord and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. That's
why we're here. To the praise of the glory of
his grace. And here's what the apostle Peter
said, grow in grace. Are you growing in grace? I mean,
are you growing in grace? Now grace doesn't grow. You grow
in it. Is grace getting bigger in your
life? Since you've been coming here
and hearing the message of God's grace, is it a powerful message
to you? Do you say things like this? Boy, I have no problem with the
doctrine of election. I see it had to be God choosing
me because for years and years and years, I was under conviction. I didn't choose him until finally
something happened, which we're gonna find out here real quick.
Okay. To the praise of the glory of
grace, look at verse 7. In whom we have redemption through
his blood. Redemption through his blood. You're not redeemed
with corruptible things such as silver and gold from your
vain conversation, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. There's a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunge beneath that
flood, lose all their guilty stains. It's in the blood. the
propitiation for sin, the blood of Christ, the appeasing factor. Somebody had to pay your debt.
So you had a sin debt and you're bankrupt and I'm bankrupt and
we had nothing to pay. And that's not bad enough. Not
only were we bankrupt, but he demanded a perfect righteousness
and I don't have it. You see two things make this
just make sense that salvation is by grace and that God did
it because I was bankrupt and he paid the price. I needed a
perfect righteousness and it was imputed to me through his
doing and dying on the tree of the cross. And I stand before
God justified today because of him. Oh, what a great message
the gospel is. In whom we have redemption, the
forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. Oh, we're not talking about measly
grace. We're talking about rich grace. We're talking about abundant
mercy. It wasn't just a little handful
of grace that got you here. It was amazing grace. How sweet to sound. Is it amazing
to you? I hope it is. That saved a wretch
like me. Old brother Newton never got
over it to his dying day. He never got over it. You think
about Newton, slave trader. Slave trader. Sexual immorality
with the slaves actually got so bad for him that he was bought
by an African-American lady and he became her slave and ate under
her table. John Newton, you know who I'm
talking about, right? The guy who wrote Amazing Grace. You know why he said Amazing
Grace? Because it's amazing. and you never worship till you
see that. As long as you're going around feeling worthy, you still
don't have it yet. All of your works to obtain the
favor of God are nothing but filthy rags of unrighteousness. It's when you come to him just
as you are without one plea, broken, seeing yourself a poor
sinner in need of a Redeemer and Savior. and you trust him. Well, real quick, real quick. Paul said in verse 19, verse
18, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may
know what is the hope of his calling. what the riches of the
glory of his inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding
greatness of his power to us who believe according to the
working of his mighty power. Now, wait a minute, it was my
faith. For by grace are you saved through faith and that faith
is not of yourself, it's the gift of God. And here the apostle
Paul says that that faith was exercised according to the working
of his mighty grace. Oh, hey, praise God. In other
words, it's a gift of God. Say, well, do you know what the
Bible says? Believe on the Lord. Yes, and you better. And you
should. But after you believe, you're
gonna look back and you might ask this, where did that faith
come from? What a miracle it is when a poor
sinner comes to the place who just trust. People are always
saying this to me. For 50 some years, they've said
this to me. You know what? It's just too simple, pastor.
You just make it too simple. If it's so simple, why don't
you do it? You know, it's a miracle for a crack using, heroin using,
Jack Daniel using, self-righteous church person
to exercise faith alone in Jesus Christ. You know what a miracle
that is? Where you just lay down everything.
I surrender all. I give up. I hoist the white
flag. I surrender. No hope here. I look outside of myself to Jesus
Christ. What a miracle that is. And people
would say this to you, you, you've been out in and out of prison
all your life. You're a heroin addict. Well, I was. Once I was lost, but now I'm
found. Well, who found you? Jesus Christ
found me. And I, you know, people are looking
for acceptance. All of you church goers who are
looking there for salvation, you're going to be accepted.
But that's not the way you're accepted. You're accepted in
Jesus Christ alone. It doesn't make any difference
if you're a Baptist or a Catholic. You know, there is no difference
whether it's cow manure or horse manure, it's just manure. We are accepted in Jesus Christ
alone. When it's time for me to die
and stand before God's judgment throne, will I stand in Christ
or will I stand alone? I'm going to stand in Christ.
When we all get to heaven, Christ is not gonna hear the last of
it from me. I'm gonna give him praise and glory and honor from
now throughout eternity. And I got started down here a
long time ago. Now, I wanna say this, it's three
minutes after 12, but I wanna say this, you were dead. And when Paul says, I want you
to know the exceeding greatness of his power to us. I was thinking
this week, as I looked over these passages about when Ms. Pam had
her heart attack, I mean, she was dead. I was there, nobody
else was there but me. She was dead. You know, I checked her pulse.
I put my head down on her chest to see if there was any heartbeat
at all. She was dead. Her eyes were wide
open, looking right at me. I knew she was dead. And I can tell you this, there
was no, I have never experienced a greater helplessness than at
that time. And God just kind of let her
stay dead for a little while till the ambulance people got
there. And then I wasn't sure about what was happening, but
you know, I would jumped up on that bed and started, I was doing
everything. I was, you know, it's the only
time I've ever really beat her. Like, you know, I was trying to get that heart
pumping again. And I was screaming, oh God. I wasn't very brave. You wouldn't
have been very proud of me. Oh God! Helpless. You were too. You were
dead. You were inactive toward God.
All God has to do is just let you do what you want to do and
you'll go to hell. But there is an irresistible
calling by God. You know, when they got Pam in
the ambulance and I was asking the driver and the people there,
you know, is there a pulse, is she alive, is she alive? And
they're like stone-faced. They're not answering anything.
We get in the ambulance, I'm in the front seat, we pull out
on John Iron, we go about a mile toward Beaumont Hospital. And
out of nowhere, there was a voice, we've got a pulse. Bless God. Yeah, the miracle
of life. And that's why Paul says in Ephesians
2, 1, and you hath he quickened, King
James quickened, made alive, literal. And you hath he made
alive who were dead. Now let me hear you. Yeah. Bless god. I was dead. Don't you remember how dead you
were? Dead and sins and trespasses. Why would you shoot up? Shoot
up. Shoot up. Shoot up. Spend all
of your money, your life, your mess. Dead. Hopeless. Dead in your sins and And something happened. Something
happened on the inside of you. It's called life. It's called
spiritual life. And you began to hate your life. You began to hate what you were
doing. You began to see this is a shipwreck. This is not an
accident getting ready to happen. It's already happened. I am a
total disaster. And then down, down, down. Finally, mom and dad said, can't
come back here. You know, there's a place over
there in Pontiac. That wasn't an accident. That
was a God day. And you came over here. Some
of you tough, hairy-chested guys over there in that dorm infected
with bedbugs was, but things are changing over there for sure. God drawing you to Jesus Christ. Some of you church people came
here and found out that it wasn't your church. You got mad at me
for a little while, After you got life, you began to love this
message of God's grace. Say, pastor, that's about all
you preach. You just preach the same thing over and over. I know,
bless God. Because you see, like the apostle
Paul, whatever happened to me, I've never got over it. And God's
gonna hear it to the day I die. I'm going to bless his name.
I am what I am by the grace of God. How awesome. Now, and you, hath he quickened who
it did? Just like he raised Jesus Christ
from the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, today, perhaps he's spoken to
you. The Spirit of God is here, I
know that. And I wonder who you are. And I will tell you this,
once he gives you life, he quickens you. You're going to want to
confess it. So I don't, you know, I don't
know the books of the Bible. I haven't been to church much.
I haven't done this. I've done that. And, but, but
you're here and the Lord has given you life today. You've
trusted Christ. You, you have seen beauty in
him today that you should desire him. Maybe you're here like this. You know, I've never heard a
message like that. I thought it was going to mass and holy
communion and being confirmed. I thought it was being baptized,
sprinkled Dr. Pour. I mean, I have my baptismal
papers. God's not going to accept those. You better have adoption papers.
You've been adopted by God himself, the father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. But we're gonna give you opportunity to confess him
today in boldness, I don't know much, but I know this, I'm a
poor sinner and Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.