If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me to the book of Philippians. Philippians chapter
two. Philippians two is about walking
with the mind of Christ. Tells us, let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus our Lord. We have the mind
of Christ. We're understood, he tells us
in 1 Corinthians 2, we're understood of no one and yet we understand
all things. And the reason, he said, is because
we have the mind of Christ. In Romans chapter 7, he goes
through and finally at the end where he talks about the sin
that was in him and And yet the work of God in him and the struggle
that he went through, he finally just cries out, oh, wretched
man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? He said, I thank God through
Jesus Christ. So then he said, with the mind,
I serve the law of God. What mind? The mind of Christ.
No other way you can serve the law. No other way you can honor
the law. No other way that law can be exalted except with the
mind of Christ. He satisfied the law and satisfied
God. And he's talking to them here,
he's encouraging them, exhorting them to walk with the mind of
Christ. And I was thinking about that
this morning. Salvation's of the Lord. It's all of the Lord. And we won't find any peace or
any rest or any comfort until we come to that conclusion. That's
part of having that mind of Christ. Salvation is of the Lord. It
began with him. It was promised by him. How would
you even know that there is such a thing as eternal life? Well,
he promised it. He talks about it. He communicates
it. It was accomplished by him. It doesn't do you much good to
talk about redemption if you don't see that redemption accomplished
because you can't do it, I can't do it. But he did it. And not only that, but it's secured
by him. God raised him from the dead.
He walked around on this earth to establish his resurrection
for more than 30 days. revealed himself to all of his
apostles and to above 500 people at one time. And then he walked
out with his apostles and he stepped off on a cloud and with
the angels he ascended into glory. What's he doing there? Securing
that salvation that was promised in him before the world began.
So it began with him as promised by him, accomplished by him,
secured in him. And it pleased the Father, speaking
of Christ, that in him should all fullness dwell. And that all things, all things
concerning Christ, he should have the preeminence. Pleased
the Father, pleased the Father. And so the Apostle Paul tells
us in Colossians 2.6, he said, as you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. Walk that way, rooted
and built up in him, established in the Father, as you've been
taught. And abounding therein with thanksgiving. Boy, of all the people on earth,
we ought to be thankful all the time, all the time. If I have Christ, I have everything
God has for sinners. Don't you ever let anybody tell
you any different. If you have him, there's nothing
else. Because everything else is in
him. And what ain't in him, he's gathering. He's gathering to himself. He
tells us in Philippians to stand fast in one spirit. My brother
prayed this morning that we have one mind, and that's what he
said. We stand fast in one spirit with
one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. What's he saying? He's saying,
brace yourselves. Brace yourselves with the truth.
There's some fiery darts coming your way. Brace yourselves. You better because every wind
of doctrine's gonna blow on you by the sleight of men, by the
cunning craftiness of men who lie in wait to deceive, serving
Satan and don't know it. Think they're Christians. Think
they're children of God. Talk about being children of
God. And yet they're serving Satan. Those Jews that came out
and gave Christ all that trouble and called him names and called
him an imposter and did all those things to him, lied about him
and all those things. They thought they were saved
men. They weren't drunkards. They didn't belong to a motorcycle
gang somewhere. These people thought they were
saved. They thought they were the elect
of God. And when he talks about this cunning craftiness, it's
not so much, men do that, but it's not so much them being aware
of what they're doing as it is Satan using them. And they're
unaware of it. But anyway, he's telling us to
brace ourselves because we got trouble coming. And then he begins
in chapter two with these words, Philippians two, verse one. If there be, therefore, any consolation
in Christ, if any comfort of love. If any fellowship of the
Spirit, if any vows and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that you be
like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and
of one mind. Now I titled the message this
morning, Of One Accord. And I'll be honest, I've read
over this and read over it and read over it like I do so many
things and then one day the Lord will open your eyes to see something. According to the dictionary,
that word accord means a concept or a fact consistent with what's
already been said. Now if we're in one accord, it
means that we are in accord with whatever has been established.
Something has been established. Something has been said. Something
has been stated. And Paul's saying that we need
to be in one accord with that. And if you read chapter one,
you'll see what he said before. He said, here's my confidence
in you. He that hath begun a good work
in you will continue it. You'll continue that work right
on to the day of Jesus Christ. There's salvations of the Lord.
He began, and he'll continue it. He'll preserve it unto that
day. He said this. He said, for me,
he said, I'm in a strait between two. He said, I don't know whether
it's better for me to die and go and be with the Lord or to
stay here. It's more needful for you for me to stay. But if
I had my way, I'd go and be with the Lord. And he said, for me
to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Now he's establishing all this,
now he said, is there any comfort or love out there? You got any
of that? You got any consolation in Christ?
Oh, my soul. A believer's consolation is Christ
and nothing in or of this world can console him concerning eternal
things except Christ, nothing. You can pat him on the head.
You can tell him how much you love him. That's not what he's
looking for. Christ will console him. And
I tell you, when it comes down to that last minute, that last
hour, nothing's gonna console you but Christ. He said, if any comfort of love, when the whole world seems to
hate you, wrap yourself up in the warm blanket of God My soul. You think what that means? He said, I hate the workers of
iniquity. But he said, Jacob have I loved. Before Jacob was born, he said
that. Before he'd ever done any good
or evil, he said, I love Jacob. Anything ever gonna change that? Have you got any consolation
in Christ? Does it quiet your fears? Console
your doubts? And what about the love of God?
Do you have any comfort of love? There's nothing in this world
that can compare to knowing that you're loved. With your mother,
your wife, your husband, your children. There's nothing in
this world that can compare. with being loved. How much more
the love of God. To know that God loves you. God
loves you. He loved us and gave himself
for us. And nothing in your life could
ever come along as bad as the condition you were in when God
manifested his love to you. God manifested his love to us
and while we were yet sinners, Christ died. And then Paul makes a statement
that I've read over many times without getting the full impact
of it, being of one accord, in harmony. with the gospel, having
one mind. He mentions it in chapter one.
He said he was so thankful for their fellowship in the gospel
from the first day until the day he wrote that, penned that
letter. In harmony with the gospel of
Christ, having one mind, the mind of Christ. And now if you'll
turn with me to Ephesians one, I'll show you what this being
in one accord is all about. Six times in the first chapter
of Ephesians, the apostle Paul is moved by the Holy Ghost to
write the word according, according. And our being in one accord is
according to God's according. That's what it is. First of all,
he tells us in verse four that all his eternal blessings God
has blessed us with all blessings in 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. Every blessing, I don't care
what it is you name it. Every blessing. that God's purpose
for believers from all eternity rests on God's eternal election. He chose a people. He didn't
just throw his blessings out on the ground. He didn't empty
his blessings on the ground to chance. Wait upon men to find
them and claim them. I'm hearing that all the time
anymore. Claiming, I claim this, I claim that. No. These blessings had an object
and they had an end. The object is those chosen of
God in Christ. And the end is that you might
be holy. Might be holy without blame,
before him in love. That's not talking about you
sitting there loving him, although you will, you will. but that's
not what this guy is talking about these internal blessings
is talking about before you have created and when he says in love
what he's talking about is being loved being loved he chose you
in Christ that he might not ever ever have to stop loving you that's why he can love you no
matter what no matter what he loves you Oh, David, I think about David.
I probably got more in common with him than anybody. God loved
him. There was a time when he didn't.
He loved him. In 2 Timothy 1, 9, Paul said
to this young man, he said, God has saved us. He didn't say God is saving us,
though he were. He said, God hath saved us. and
then called us with a holy calling, not according to our words, but
according to his own purpose and grace which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. You see what Paul's saying
there in Ephesians 1? This according is according to
God's election. If God hadn't chosen us, nobody'd
choose him because there's none that understandeth and none that
seeketh after God. Where would we be without election? Every blessing from all eternity
is according to divine election. And back when I was first beginning
to see just a few things in the scriptures, I was just picking
up books and it'd be about one verse that I'd read or something
I wanted some information on and I'd buy these different books
and then I'd bring them home and read them and be so disappointed.
But I read one time by an Armenian author that God looked, when
he's talking about election, he's talking about God looking
down through the telescope of time and seeing who would choose
him and who wouldn't. But Ball shoots that down with
the very next according. Watch this, Ephesians 1, 5. Having,
now we just talked about election. Just talk about being blessed
with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ.
According as he chose us in Christ, having, this is something already
done, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. All things are of God who hath
reconciled us unto himself. What's he mean all things? He
means all things. He means all things. There wasn't a universe in which
God dwelt at the time and circumstances and time that he had to deal
with. There was nothing but God in the beginning. Everything
else was created by our Savior. Everything. Nothing but God. And the bringing
about of creation and providence is a manifestation of what God
has predestinated. And what God has predestinated,
he says, is according to the good pleasure of his will. There's three places where God
the Holy Ghost speaks of predestination. The first is in Romans 8, 29.
And he's talking there about those he foreknew being predestinated
to be conformed to the image of the Son. Now he's not talking
about a physical shape. He's not talking about looking
at you and there's something similar about you to Christ. And he's just gonna keep changing
you and finally they're just gonna be a bunch of clones. No,
that's not what he's talking about. The image of Christ, Christ
is God. And that image is invisible. In Colossians 2, he talks about
him. Talks about Christ. He is the
image, now listen, of the invisible God. So I know he's not talking
about his shape, he's not talking about making us all look like
Jews. What he's talking about is the very character of God. He's talking about us coming
to know something about the very character of God. And that character's
manifested in Christ, the only place you can see it. no man
knoweth the father save the son and he to whom the son will reveal
him no man cometh unto the father but by me Christ I'm the way
you're not going to know anything about God except what you learn
in Christ so predestination this thing has been predestinated
that we're going to be conformed to that image we're going to
When we come in here to worship, we're gonna worship God in spirit
and truth. We're gonna worship God as he
reveals himself in Christ. He said, they shall all know
me from the least to the greatest. And then in Ephesians 1.5, he
speak of our adoption in Christ being predestinated. Everything
concerning salvation is predestinated. even the death of Christ. God
used those natural Jews and Gentiles and Gentile rulers. And he did, here's what it says
in the book of Acts, to do what God's hand and God's counsel
determined before to be done. His death was predestinated. And then in Ephesians 1.11, he
tells us, the third place he talks about predestination. And
he tells us that we obtained our inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worked with all things after
the counsel of his own will. It was God's will to make himself
known to us. God's will to reveal himself.
God's will to save your soul. Not man's will, that's all I
hear about on the radio is man's will. We used to have an old
guy in that Armenian church, and he said, I'm made to believe,
he'd say, I'm made to believe that man has a free will. I don't
know who made him believe that, but it wasn't God. Wasn't God. Am I in accord with God's election
and predestination? If not, I can't be in one accord. I can't be a monocle, not as
a believer. And thirdly, he tells us in Ephesians 1, 6, it's to
the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein hath made us accepted
in the blood, in whom we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins, according, there's that word again, according
to the riches of his grace. Grace. Everything we have in
Christ, especially his blood-bought redemption, is according to the
riches of his grace. Of his fullness, John said, have
we all received in grace for grace, grace for grace, grace
upon grace, grace before grace, eternal grace, timely grace,
active grace, pervenient grace, All by grace, by grace are you
saved through faith. And then he tells us here that
in Christ we have redemption. We have redemption. I love that
old hymn, Jesus paid it off. If he didn't, then I still owe
the debt. Jesus paid it off. All to him I owe. Sin had left
a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. I don't know if I'll ever be
able to get this across even to my own heart. I think I believe
it. I hope I do. Redemption is a
work accomplished. It's done. He said it's finished. It's finished. Jesus Christ came into this world
as a representative man, a federal head, and when the fullness of
the time was come, God sent forth his son. Why? Because he was
appointed as our representative and our head. He sent forth his
son, made of a woman, made under the law. Why? To redeem them
that were under the law. Why would he do that? That we
might receive the adoption of children, the adoption of sons. buy them out of bondage, to pay
what they could never pay, to satisfy God concerning their
sins. And we have in Christ an accomplished
redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Oh, my soul, what a comfort. That ought to beat our hearts
to understand that God can, without violating His own character,
God can, through His Son, forgive my sins. He can. I get a letter every spring telling
me how much I owe in taxes. Y'all get that? Never goes down, always goes
up. I don't understand that. My house is going down, but my
taxes are going up. But I get this bill every spring,
and I go down to the courthouse, and I pay what I owe, And that
lady down there does this, and she hands me that paper through
the window. What's that paper say? Paid in full. Boy, if I get a bill from them,
I take that paper down, set it down. It says right here, paid
in full. Ain't that your name? That's
my name. OK. You don't know a thing. Oh. When Christ died on the cross,
the scripture said he was delivered for our offenses. God delivered
him for our offenses because he was our representative head.
Our sins was laid on him. They were charged to him and
he was delivered for our offenses. But now listen, he was raised
for our justification. What's that mean? Paid in full. That's what that means. You don't
know a thing. You don't know a thing. Oh. Those men weren't able to God
to lay their hands on him. That's something they could never
do his whole life. I don't care what he did. I don't
care how contrary it was. I don't care what he said or
how mad they got. They couldn't touch him. You
remember he was at that city and he was talking to them and
they got angry. And they were going to, I looked
that up in the natural history of the city. And there's a huge
cliff there, thousands of feet high. And they were going to
take him out and throw him over that cliff. And it says he passed
through the midst. Bunch of angry people ready to
kill him, wanted to kill him, ready to kill him, but they couldn't
touch him. He wasn't a big burly man, big
muscular. He didn't look like Mr. Clean
on the, you know, he was just a man. He was a man. I'm not
trying to belittle him in any way, but he was just a man. He
wasn't muscular. He wasn't a fighter. He wasn't
a wrestler or anything like that. But he platted a whip and beat
those money changers out of the temple and nobody touched him.
Nobody touched him. And they came out to get him
when he was in the garden. Asked him what his name was,
he said, I am. And they fell backward on the
ground. So when they took him to the cross, they weren't able
of God to lay their hands on him. God delivered him over to their
will, it says in the book of John. They nailed him to a cross, hung
him up, and laughed at him until he died. He was delivered for
our offenses, but raised for our justification. And here's
what he says. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Huh? Oh, there's a lot of people
out there who want to throw some accusations around. But who's
going to lay anything against the charge of God's elect? God
to justify, and Christ that died. But more, he not only died, but
he was raised from the dead and ascended up into glory and took
his seat at the right hand of God. It says where he ever leave
it to make intercession. What's that mean? That means
by his person, he just like that piece of paper, paid in full,
paid in full. Salvation not the result of the
will of man, but the will of God, and the will of God is what
has pleased God to do. God's pleased with his son. This
is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Please God through
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. God's
will is gonna be done. And as he does it, he's doing
all his pleasure. All his pleasure. He uses that
word pleasure over and over and over. All right, here's the fourth
thing. Here's another accordion. having made known unto us the
mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he
purposed in himself. That's the will of God, that's
his pleasure. We know that God's revealed will
is his redemptive will. Don't use that word, the will
of God concerning everything coming and going. Use that word,
the will of God, as it's given. God reveals his redemptive will. Everything else comes under that
heading. I don't mean by that that God doesn't control everything.
I'm just simply saying it comes under this heading, God's redemptive
will. The purpose of God in creation,
providence, and salvation is to manifest his glory in the
salvation of his elect through the person of Jesus Christ. His person, His work, all that
He's purposed to do in Him. And when Christ came into the
world, that appearance, that coming, said this. He said, lo,
I come in the volume of the book, it's written to me, to do thy
will, O God. To do thy will, O God. By the
which will, Hebrews 10.10, We are sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. God's will is his redemptive
will. And God, he wasn't put on the
spot when Adam sinned or when the angels kept not their first
estate and cast out of glory. That wasn't a mistake. I didn't
catch God off guard. That's all part of God's purpose. And salvation was already purposed
And all the eternal appointments of Christ had already been made
before he ever made an angel. Fact is, if you read carefully
in the book of Isaiah, I think you'll discover that the reason
Satan got all fired up and left his first estate is because he
was talking to him about Christ and all his appointments and
all the glory that he was gonna manifest. And Satan said, oh
no. He said, I'll sit in the seat
of the congregation. I'll do that. I'll do that. And he was cast out. Salvation was already purposed.
And this is the good pleasure of God concerning his son, his
will, his purpose, and his salvation. Please God, to gather all things
in one by his Son. That's what he's talking about
there in Ephesians 1. He's the steward, not only of salvation,
but he's the steward of all things, of creation. And Don and I got
in a debate over this, and we finally, we saw eye to eye, but
he's the steward over time. Over time. He's the steward over
time. It has to, when the fullness
of the time was come, God sent forth his Son. And here he's
talking about the, in the dispensation of the fullness of time. He's
gonna gather all things unto the Son. He's gathering all things
to him. He's the steward, even over time. Well, where does man's will fit
in? Well, he said in Psalm 110 verse three, thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power. They'd be willing when
God's willing. They'd be willing. God doesn't
save anybody unwilling. He just makes you willing. Just
like he makes you hungry. Just like he makes you lost.
Just like he reveals the truth to your heart. And holiness, he said, in the
beauties of holiness, he's gonna do this. My people shall be willing
in the day of my power, he said, in the beauty of holiness. Now
holiness has to do with the wholeness of God. God's holy character
working in absolute perfection continuously at all times from
the beginning of time until date. It's never, he never violates
the harmony of his character. What are you saying? I'm saying
God won't save a man at the expense of his righteousness. He's not
gonna do it. He's not gonna save a man at
the expense of his justice. Righteousness has to be brought
out. Justice has to be satisfied. All these things. Well, holiness,
when he's talking about the beauty of holiness, he's talking about
our knowledge of this holiness being uncorrupted, being uncorrupted. And we see that and we don't
buck it anymore. We see it and rejoice in it.
We see what it's all about. So it is in the mind of his redeemed
that their salvation, that which they willingly receive is in
the beauties of holiness. It's not a violation of God. And salvation is not something
forced on God to cover some unforeseen flaw. Salvation is according
to his good pleasure, which is purposed in himself. And then
fifthly, the Holy Ghost moves Paul to state this about the
revelation of God's mysterious will, verse 11, that in Christ
we also 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
that first trusted in Christ. Now what's Paul's subject here?
What's his subject here? Well, he's talking about the
will of God, the purpose of God, the grace of God. So the revelation
of the mystery of God's will, which is the redemptive purpose
of God, and to the good pleasure of God, to not accomplish our
salvation, but to reveal the purpose of God behind it. That's
what he's doing. He speaks here of him who first
trusted in Christ. Who's that? That's God. That's
God. I was surprised that some of
the old writers wanted And I hate the word that they used. The
guy that I read so much of, he said, the easier of those born of God. That's how
he began his statement. There's nothing easy about the
birth of God. Is there? We think there is. I think we think that way a lot.
He'd been reading a lot. It's gonna be a lot easier for
him to be saved than for... No. No. It's not a bit easier. He has to be born. You women
have children. Do you have any easy babies? No. God trusted in Christ when He
appointed Him as the one mediator between God and men. And God
trusted in His Son when He appointed Him as our covenant surety. You
know, David's dying words was about that covenant. Oh, he said
that covenant is ordered in all things and sure. Why? Because
God appointed his son surety of it. Can't fail, can't fail. God trusted in his son when he
appointed him head of the church. He's the beginning of the church. As he is the federal head and
representative. And God trusted in his Son when
he gave to him all things to accomplish for our salvation,
so that it's all according to his purpose and grace which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And then lastly, in Ephesians
119, the revelation of Christ, the
knowledge of God, the eyes of our understanding being enlightened,
the knowledge of this good hope we have in Christ and the riches
of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Now watch this,
verse 19. He said, and I hope you will
understand this. I hope God will give you some
knowledge of this. What is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us who believe according to the working of his
mighty power? It's according. If I'm a believer
this morning, and I have good hope that I am, I have good hope
that you are. You seem to rejoice in the gospel
when I preach it. Your being here, my being here,
my being enabled to believe, that's all the result of God's
power, power. I can preach and do. Sometimes
the words just go out and fall on the ground. But other times
I'll preach and I can look out there and here's a man who didn't
know God from a billy goat. He just came in because his friend
asked him. And he's sittin' there and he
goes home mad. And then he comes back again
and he goes home confused. And then he comes back the third
time and I look and the big tears roll down his face. And he just
keeps comin'. Did I do that? No, no, no. I did that. And Paul said, I
want you to know something about the exceeding greatness of his
power, his power, in us that believe. You know, when the rich
young ruler walked away, the disciples looked at each other
and they said, man, he had all the potential in the world. If
he can't be saved, who then can be saved? And Christ, understanding
their thought, he said to them, with men, it is impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. But we need to know that, don't
we? With men, it's impossible. You can't conjure it up. I don't
care how determined you get. You can't do it. But when God
does it, it just happens. It just happens. You'll believe
just as much as God didn't work in you at all. But you couldn't
believe before. And now you can. That's got power. That's got power. Somebody said one time, God doesn't
believe for you. No sir, but faith is the gift
of God and you won't believe without it. You won't believe
without it. They said, what can we do? We
can work the works of God. He said, this is the work of
God that you believe on him whom he has sent. Now go back to Philippians 2.
Let me read this in our cloth. If there be therefore, based
on those things that I've just showed you here in Ephesians
chapter one, all these accordings of God, and believe me, if you
gotta Something you can look it up, you look up that word
in a strong concordance, that word according, and go through
that, man, there are just hundreds of references to it. If there be therefore, based
on what's already been established in the gospel, any consolation
in Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship in the Spirit,
any vows of mercy, will fill you, my joy, that you be like-minded,
having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind, seeing the glory
of God in all that he is and all that he's doing and all that
he has done. And he said, being grateful,
being grateful for all to have the mind of Christ. I tell you,
when I first made a profession of faith, I was in an Armenian
church and I made a profession of faith And what they laid out
for me to do, I didn't know it at the time, was absolutely impossible. But it was so hard I couldn't
do it. I'd get disgusted and quit. And then they'd have another
meeting, somehow they'd get me down the aisle and I'd, you know,
and here I go again, doing what I already knew I couldn't do.
You know, I'd go out there and I'd fail again. And it went on
and on until finally I just quit. I quit coming to any kind of
church, until the Lord saved me. when he said it ain't hard
anymore it's a joy it's a joy we just rejoice people just get
all upset I don't see what you're rejoicing in I know you don't
maybe God will show you one day maybe he'll show you