Back in Ephesians chapter 1,
we've read the chapter together. Look again at verse 6. Speaking of God, to the praise
of the glory of His grace, His amazing grace, His abounding
grace, His reigning grace, wherein He, that is God, not us, but
God, God, He had made us accept What a blessed, blessed state. He had made us accepted in the
beloved. Acceptance by God. Brother Henry, in your bulletin
today, there's an excellent article that he wrote entitled, entitled,
A Believer's Peace. And he asked the question, what's
the grounds of a believer's peace? What really gives them a good
hope before the Lord God, a holy God, that God that we're told
in scripture again and again is appointed a day in which he
shall judge the world. When sinners, every sinner, every
man and woman that's ever lived are ushered into his presence
before the great white throne of that thrice holy God, what
foundation, what ground do they have that they'll be accepted?
We're told right here. Accepted in to be loved. Now it's cold outside but I hope
that God will enable us to have our hearts warmed as we consider
this blessed, blessed truth accepted in to be loved. Now that's a
blanket that you can wrap yourself up in from head to foot and all
the warm, warm comfort that it affords every child of God. The other night as we lay down
in bed Light was out, and Robin said, let me tuck you in, honey.
I said, oh, that would be great. She said, I was talking to her,
Robin, the dog. He's got him a bed right next
to her on her side of the bed, and she tucks him in every night.
And I said, well, I wouldn't mind that. I wouldn't mind being
tucked in. Oh, God Almighty, Paul tells
us here in this text, He's tucked us in. He's wrapped us up in
the righteousness of His Son. That's the reason we're accepted
by Him. How comforting it is to read
that the foundation, the reason, the grounds of a believer's acceptance
is not something they do for God. My soul, that would be the
very opposite of comfort. That would be anxiety, weary,
No, no, no, no comfort in that. But that's what most people believe.
That's what most religious people believe, that at least in part,
at least in part, that their acceptance before God is based
upon what they do, or what uncertain grounds to build on. They would
never have reason to be assured. They could never not, not in
truth, not in reality. They could never have reason
to be assured that they're accepted by God. I've known people. I
stood by the bedside of one who was dying that all her life long
trusted in her works. Religious, meticulous in her
religion and yet when she lay dying she cried and wondered,
will I be accepted by God and had no peace. That is so sad
and the reason was she shouldn't have had peace because she was
looking at what she'd done instead of what God had done for his
people. How can such a person ever have
peace? Because they could never be sure.
Now you think about it. They could never be sure on those
grounds, on that sandy foundation. They could never be sure that
they've done enough. They could never know that God
was satisfied. And more than that, God tells
us plainly in his word that salvation, salvation, all of salvation,
The entirety of salvation, every aspect of salvation, every part
of salvation is not of works. There's nowhere. Now Paul deals
with it from election to being gathered together in Christ.
in the fullness of time and he said every bit of it from eternity
past as we say until eternity to come every bit of it is the
result of God's amazing grace. It's not what we've done for
God, my sir what could we do for God? but what God in Christ
has done for us. Old top lady put it this way,
it's not the labors of my hands that can fulfill the laws demands. When we read that we are accepted,
it's not for anything in us, anything done by us, but what
God has done for us. This is what the text said. He,
that is God, had made us accepted in the beloved. That's why we're
told it's at the praise of the glory of His grace. He gets all
the glory. He gets all the credit because
it was all His doing. And we thank God that that's
so. Our acceptance, like our election,
like our adoption in the previous verses, are God's doing. And God says what He's joined
together, what God's joined together, nobody can put asunder. Paul
said as if he was challenging everything for time and eternity. everything past, everything present,
everything that might come in the future. He says, what? Looking
at it all, taking it all into account, he asked the question,
what? What? Past, present, future, what can
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus? And he says, I'm convinced. I'm
convinced that nothing, nothing can do it, nothing can put asunder
what God Almighty has joined together. For our encouragement,
Amidst all that we meet with in our pilgrimage through this
world, let us remember that there is a fullness of grace. Grace. Unmerited favor. Grace. He had made us accepted. One
translation renders it this way. He has favored us. Mary, you
found favor with God. God's graced you. He's done something
wondrous to you. Oh, let us remember there's a
fullness of grace to supply us, a promise of grace to encourage
us, a throne of grace that we're exhorted to come to boldly, examples
of grace to stimulate us, and a heart of God in the very heart
of God, full of grace, the God of all grace, to strengthen us,
to establish us. Peter says, to settle you, or
to be settled, to be comforted in God's promise of grace. As we begin with grace, we must
go on the same way. Paul asked the church at Galatia,
having begun in the Spirit, Are you now made perfect in the flesh? Having begun in grace, are you
now perfected by works? Having been justified by grace,
are you now sanctified by the law? Oh no, Christ is made unto
us by God, righteousness and wisdom and justification and
redemption. Christ is all. He's all. And if you're in Him who is all,
you must be. You can't be anything other but
complete. Complete in our glorious head. We begin with grace. We must
go on with grace. And we'll end this race by the
grace of God. Our encouragement, our comfort,
lies not in what we are, or what we can do, or have done, but
in what Christ is to us, and in us, and for us. It is for
good reason that we sing. And that old hymn tells the truth,
hits the nail on the head, so to speak. Oh to grace, how great
a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be. How about that, Billy?
Oh to grace, how great a debtor. In the beloved, what a blessed,
blessed place. In the beloved, that is in, don't
you love that expression? In Christ Jesus. Oh, we couldn't
be nearer to God in Christ Jesus. We couldn't be nearer to God
than in Christ Jesus. In Him, this is the place of
no condemnation. In Christ, Who shall condemn
us? Paul said, there is now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. This is the place of reconciliation,
the place of all fullness, the place of wisdom and redemption
and righteousness. This is the place, the only place,
where God Almighty meets with sinners in mercy and in peace. The only place. The only place
where God pronounces peace and mercy upon any son of fallen
Adam is in Christ Jesus. Oh, what a marvelous place. The
only place where God Almighty justifies the sinner. You remember
in Luke 18 when our Lord talked about the Pharisee and the publican
going to the temple to pray? What that publican said in his
prayer was when he said, God be merciful, God be propitious
to me. With an eye toward the mercy
seat and what it pictured. Be merciful to me through a substitute
or in the beloved. Tells us that this place is that
where God accepts sinners is in his son. With those words
God the Holy Spirit reveals and declares to us one of the most
comforting, delightful truths in God's Word. And it's this
fact that there is an everlasting, indissolvable, immutable union
between the Lord Jesus Christ and His people. There is a union
chosen in Him, predestined in Him, adopted in Him, accepted
in Him, called in him, kept by him, presented in him before
the throne of God to everlasting glory. Oh, what a blessed, blessed
union, indissolvable, unchanging, everlasting, unbreakable, in
the beloved. I read a story the other day,
an illustration that Brother Don used. It was about a man
who fell on hard times. So he decided that the only thing
left for him to do was to leave where he was living and seek
a job elsewhere. So he scraped together all the
money he had and bought him a ticket on a steamboat to New Orleans. And it took everything he had
to do that. He didn't have money to eat on
board ship like the other folks did, so he had some cheese and
crackers that he stuck in his coat pocket. And when everyone
the time of the day were making their way to the dining hall
to eat. He would just find him a quiet place somewhere in the
corner out of sight and eat his cheese and crackers. About halfway
on the journey, somebody noticed him doing that. So they asked
him, where are you going? Come into the dining hall. He
said, oh, I can't. He said, I can't. I don't have
any money. I can't eat there. But he said,
I've got some cheese and I've got some crackers. I'm making
my way just fine. I'll be all right. And the man
said, you have a ticket, look at your ticket. And the fella
pulled out his ticket and he said, look at the bottom. And
he read on the bottom, all meals included. It wasn't that he didn't
have a right to go into the dining hall. He had every right to go
in and enjoy the good food there. He just didn't know it. Brothers
and sisters in Christ, when God the Holy Spirit gives us faith
in Christ, that's what he does. He causes us to look at our ticket
and we see that we're accepted in him. Turn if you will to Galatians
chapter 1. That's exactly what we're told
here. Galatians chapter 1, verses 12 through 14. giving thanks, verse 12, giving
thanks unto the Father, He's made us accepted and beloved,
which have made us meet, the word meet there, it means fit. How about that? Fit, has made
us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
life, who have delivered us from the power of darkness, and have
translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have
redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Oh, for grace to look at the
ticket of Jesus Christ, full of grace and truth, and our being
complete in Him. One hymn writer put it this way,
In the Beloved, God's marvelous grace, calls me to dwell in this
wonderful place. God sees my Savior and then He
sees me in the Beloved, accepted and free. God sees my Savior
And then he sees me. Oh, accept it. I like that word,
don't you? Notice at the very outset that
our acceptance in Christ is spoken of as something accomplished
by the Lord God from eternity. It's not something accomplished
by us in time. It's something done by God in
eternity past. And it cannot in any way be dependent
upon us. Religious folks all around here,
I heard it all my life. Preacher says, well, now God's
done all he can. The rest is up to you. God's
done all he can. Now it's all up to you. Thank God that that's not so.
Remember what he told Job? He asked Job, where were you,
Job, when I laid the foundation of the earth? Where were you?
Stand up and answer me if you can. Where were you when I laid
the foundations of the earth? Job didn't have an answer. Remember
what he done? Put his hand over his mouth.
Job wasn't there when God laid the foundations of the earth.
He didn't exist and even so we weren't around. We weren't around
when God chose us in Christ before the world began. Salvation must
begin with somebody's choice and it does. It begins with a
choice. Religion says it begins with
your choice, but God's Word says it begins with his choice. That's
exactly what we read in verse 4, didn't we? Look at it again.
According as he, that is God, hath chosen us in him, Christ,
before the foundation of the world. We didn't have a say in
that. We weren't around. God's choice
of sinners unto salvation is what the Bible calls the election
of grace. This is what Paul wrote in Romans
5. Even at this present time, there
is also a remnant according to what? God's election of grace. Election is the basis and the
first part of God's salvation. Without election, no one would
be saved. Though election is personal and
distinguishing, we were not chosen separately and distinctly as
individuals. Oh no, we were chosen in Him. We were considered in Him. There's no election apart from
Christ. These truths that we love, these
doctrines of grace we call them, they find their beauty, they
find their attractiveness, if you will, in Jesus Christ. What's election? Separated from
Christ and it's just a cold, dead doctrine. No comfort whatsoever. Oh, but consider this, God speaking,
speaking to his son, thou art my first elect, God said, and
then chose us in Christ our head. Isn't he glorious? We can say,
considering him as God's first elect and we being chosen in
him, what the bride said in Solomon's song, my beloved is altogether
lovely. There's no fault in him. Without election, no one would
ever be saved. We were chosen in Christ. And
apart from the election of grace, there would be no salvation.
And there is no union with Christ apart from bad election. Christ
was chosen to be our Redeemer. That's exactly what we read in
Isaiah chapter 42. God said concerning his righteous
servant, my elect, God called him, my elect, in whom my soul
delighteth, he shall not fail. God chose Christ as our Redeemer,
and then he chose us to be redeemed by him. One old writer put it
this way. He said, election, having once
pitched upon a man, it will find him out. And that's what Christ
said, I know my sheep. I know my sheep, and they follow
me. I know them, and I will reveal
myself to them. A lection this man wrote, having
once pitched upon a man, it will find him out and call him home. My sheep's gonna hear my voice,
and they're gonna follow me wherever they might be. A lection called
Zacchaeus out of a cursed Jericho. It called Abraham out of Ur of
the Chaldees. It called that self-righteous
Pharisee Paul out of the Pharisees. Oh yeah, it will find them out.
In whatsoever dunghills God's elect are in, election will find
them out and bring them home. Accepted. Accepted in Christ,
in the Beloved. In the Beloved. God chose us
in Christ our head. Here's the blessedness of the
doctrine of election. It guarantees. It guarantees
our eternal security. No question about it. Our election
and our Savior's election, they stand or fall together. The Lamb's Book of Life, which
begins with the inscription of His name, is the same register
that holds our names. And until the pin of hell It
can scratch out his name, it can never scratch out the names
of all of his people. When Christ became our surety,
our sponsor before God, listen to this, he became totally responsible
to God for us. Responsible, he agreed to pay
our debts, to fulfill all of our obligations, and to bring
us to glory. In the covenant of grace, that's
what he promised his father. He became our surety. Turn, if
you will, to John chapter 10. We quoted this just a minute
ago, or a portion of it. But John chapter 10, verse 15. Listen to the voice of the Great
Shepherd, the Good Shepherd. Our Shepherd, John 10 and 14. I am the Good Shepherd,
and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth
me, even so know I the Father. And I lay down my life for the
sheep, On down in the chapter he told the Pharisee, you don't
believe because you're not my sheep. He said, I'm not talking
to you. You're not my sheep. Oh, my sheep.
They'll hear my voice. Other sheep I have, which are
not of this fold, verse 16, them also I must bring. I must bring. And they shall hear my voice.
And there shall be, there's no question about that, no doubt
about that, there shall be one fold and one shepherd. If ever it should come to pass
that one sheep of Jesus Christ should fall away and perish,
none of us have any hope. None of us have any hope. All
but our comfort lies in this, that we're in the hands of the
shepherd. He's responsible for the sheep, Billy. It's his business
to keep the sheep. I can't keep myself. Neither
can any other child of God. All I can do is wonder. drift,
all but the good shepherd, he says nobody can pluck them out
of my hand. When Christ became our surety,
listen to this, this will give you some satisfaction, this will
give you some comfort, this is part of that blanket you can
wrap yourself in. When Christ became our surety
before God, God ceased to look for satisfaction from us. He
doesn't look for satisfaction from you. He looks for satisfaction
on your behalf in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ
became our surety, our salvation was finished insofar as the Lord
our God was concerned. When He became our surety, our
everlasting salvation, our security became a matter of absolute certainty. No doubt about it. Spurgeon said
this, Justice looks upon the chosen as though they themselves
had suffered all that Christ suffered, as though they had
drunk the wormwood and the gall and had descended into the lowest
depths of the earth. Jesus Christ as their substitute. I like this hymn. This was written
by a man named John Kent. It says, between Jesus and the
chosen race subsists a bond of sovereign grace. that hell with
its infernal train shall never dissolve nor rend in vain. Hell's sacred union firm and
strong, how great their grace, how sweet the song, that worms
of earth should ever be one with incarnate deity, one in the tomb
when he arose, one when he triumphed over his foes, one when in heaven
he took his seat and seraphs sang all hell's defeat. This
sacred tie forbids our fears, For all He is and has is ours. With Christ our head, we stand
or fall. Our life, our surety, our all. And as we said a moment ago,
when God is pleased to call us out of darkness and grant us
life and faith in His Son, then we know that it's ours. We know
that it's ours. Then we read the ticket. This
is what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 1. Knowing, brethren, beloved,
your election of God. Man, that must be something. To know that I'm elected of God.
To know that I've been chosen by God. To know that I'm one
of those blessed ones, favored ones that were given to Christ
before the foundation of the world. How can I know that? The
only way anybody can know. Paul says, for our gospel came
not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy
Ghost, and in much assurance. And as you know what manner of
men we were among you for your sake, and you became followers
of us, and of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's exactly what the
Lord himself said, didn't he? All. All but one. No, no, no. All. All that the Father giveth
me shall come to me. They'll come to me in time, and
they'll come to me in glory. They'll come to me in grace,
and they'll come to me in heaven. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. They'll come to me when I bring
them all around the Father's throne. Oh, and I say, Father,
here they are, here they are. I've lost none. Now the third
thing, some sweet practical benefits, some shoe leather use as Don
calls it. How accepted, think of this child
of God, how accepted we must be. Near so very near to God,
nearer I cannot be for in the person of his son I am as near
as he. I'm as accepted by God and only
grace And faith can allow us to believe this. But if we believe
God, we believe this is so. That we're as near to God, as
accepted by God, as Jesus Christ himself is. This is my beloved
son, he said, in whom I am well pleased. And he's well pleased
with everyone that's in his son, accepted in him. Another thing. Our everlasting union with the
Son of God is the basis of our safety and security. God's elect
are as safe and secure as Christ himself, if they're accepted
in the beloved. Let me give you an example. In
Mark chapter 4, you need not turn there, but the Lord told
his disciples, we read in verse 35 of Mark 4, And the same day
when the evening was come, he said unto them, let us pass over
unto the other side. Us. Christ and his sheep. The bridegroom and his bride.
Let us pass over. Whatever happens to Christ happens
to his people. If they perish, he must perish
first. If they pass over, he passes
over first. They're with him. Verse 1 of the next chapter.
First he says, let us pass over. And they came over. They, together,
one with him. They came over to the other side
of the sea into the country of the Gadarenes. Here's a third
thought. Our acceptance with God is thorough,
complete, total, There's no half-brothers and sisters in the kingdom of
God. No, our acceptance before God is absolute. To be accepted
and to be loved is to be justified from all things. It's to be freed
from sin. It's to be the objects of divine
love, everlasting love and delight. And it's to be worthy, as we
read in Colossians 1, fit, made meet, worthy of our heavenly
inheritance. Our acceptance with God in Christ
is everlasting, and therefore, it can't change. It's as immutable
as God himself is. It doesn't depend on us. It's
not maintained by us, and it can't be changed by us. Though
we fell in Adam, yet we were accepted into be loved. Though
we came into this world, children of wrath, even as others, we
were accepted in the beloved. Though before God called us by
His grace we spent all of our days in rebellion against Him,
we were still accepted in the beloved. And even after we're
saved, oh my soul, since God has been gracious to us, we have
sinned and failed a thousand times and yet we're still accepted
in the beloved. Oh what a glorious position to
be in. Acts chapter 17, in light of
this, Because God hath appointed a day in which he will judge
the world in righteousness by that man which he hath ordained,
whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath
raised him from the dead." Paul said, in that day, in Philippians
chapter 3, I want to wrap up, I want to wrap up in this blanket
of the righteousness of Christ. In that day be found in him.
not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith, all to be found in him." One of my best
memories as a child growing up at home, and I mentioned it to
you before, was after living up that holler. and being caught
out after dark and having to walk that holler. We were the
last house in the holler. Man, I was scared. But then once
I'd get home and go up to my room, my mom would come and throw
that blanket up and bring it down all around me. Man, that
was one of the most secure, peaceful feelings I'd ever had. And oh,
how blessed, how secure, how comforting it is to be wrapped
up to just be wrapped up by God's own hand, just wrapped up in
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Man, that feels
good. That's comforting. As cold as
it is outside, oh that feels warm to be in the Beloved. Let me close by quoting a few
verses of a hymn. I've referred to it already.
In the Beloved, Accepted am I. Risen, ascended, and seated on
high. Saved from all sin through His
infinite grace. With the redeemed ones accorded
a place. In the Beloved, how safe my retreat. In the Beloved, accounted complete.
Who can condemn me? In Him I am free. Savior and
keeper forever is He. In the Beloved, God's marvelous
grace. calls me to dwell in this wonderful
place. God sees my Savior and then he
sees me in the beloved, accepted, and free. Through the praise
of the glory of God's grace and that he had made us accepted,
forever accepted, never unaccepted, and to be loved. Amen.