I invite you this morning to
turn back with me to Ephesians chapter 1. We'll be looking at verses 3
through 12 and maybe even through 14 if time will allow. But the focus of the message
this morning will be on verse 6, where I've taken my title
from, Accepted in the Beloved. It's not my intent to preach
in such a way as to make the Lord Jesus Christ to appear unapproachable. To set him before men and women
and to leave them thinking he's unapproachable, you can't come
to him. All through his ministry in this
world, Our Lord displayed and demonstrated a compassion and
willingness to receive needy sinners. Needy sinners. Not self-righteous religionists,
needy sinners. With open arms. With open arms. To my knowledge, he never sent
anyone away who came to him for help. who came to him to be healed,
who came to him to be forgiven, who came to him to learn and
to know. Freely, he said to the multitudes,
anybody thirsty? Come to me. I'll give you drink. He told that woman at the well.
He said, if you'd asked of me, I'd have given you living water.
Would have been a well within you springing up into everlasting
life. But our Lord had little tolerance
for self-serving, self-righteous religionists who came in pretense
in the outward show. He said the disciples were shocked. And they came to him and they
said, don't you know you offended these men? Yes. He knew he offended them.
And he told his disciples to leave them alone. Leave them
alone. Quit worrying about them. Quit
worrying about their reactions. Quit worrying about how they
respond to the gospel. Leave them alone. They'd be blind
leaders of the blind, and if the blind lead the blind, they'll
both fall in the ditch. He publicly called them hypocrites
and blind. He told them that they, by their
words and deeds, shut up heaven against men. Shut up heaven against men. Close the doors. Cause the guardians of heaven
to prepare themselves to battle. Shut up heaven against men. Shut the doors. Make the kingdom
an unapproachable fortress. He said, you neither go in yourselves,
neither suffer you those who are seeking to enter in to go
in. Beloved, Christ is the way to
God. There is no other way. Christ
is the way. Isn't that what He told them?
I am the way. There is no other way. No man
cometh unto the Father, He said, but by Me. You want to bow your head and
call upon your Heavenly Father for mercies and comfort and things? The only way you can approach
the Father is through Christ. No man cometh unto the Father. You don't come in knowledge of
the Father. You don't come seeking benefits
from the Father. You don't come bowing to His
authority or worshiping Him apart from Christ. None other name, Peter said,
under heaven None other name under heaven given among men,
now listen, whereby you must be saved except His name. His name. So much did these apostles preach
this that Paul said to the church at Antioch, through this man
is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. Not through the church. Not through the isle. Through
this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And men who preach salvation
by works or will or righteousness by the law is making the kingdom
of heaven a closed fortress against those who would enter in. They
close the doors. They're not presenting to you
an open door. They're shutting the door, and
they're barring the way. And this is a fact of which I
was ignorant for the first 30 years of my life, totally ignorant
of it, that all religion is not of God. I was ignorant of that. I thought we were all spokes
in a wheel. That's what they told me. We're
all going to the same hub, all extending out to the outside.
We're all part of one big machine. that all preachers and priests
and evangelists are not sin of God and in fact preach another
gospel, a perverted gospel, another Jesus by another spirit. That's
what the Scripture says. It's ever been Satan's way since
the fall of man and the promise of a coming Redeemer to twist,
distort and rest the Scriptures by deceived men to their own
destruction. and to spoil men who would seek
the Lord by the philosophy and traditional ideas of the world. I said all that to say this.
It's nearly synonymous in every large established denomination
today to persuade men and women, to persuade boys and girls to
accept Jesus as their personal savior. Even some Catholic churches
preach this. What they call charismatic Catholics
preach this. I hear preachers on TV saying
this. I see it on church signs. I hear
it on the radio. And hearing this phrase so many
times, I felt led of God to say a few things about it. And I
hope also to show you the foolishness behind such a thing. Now let's
begin this morning with the moving calls of Jesus Christ coming
down from heaven in the body of a man. Let's begin there.
Religion believes in and declares a universal love of God for all
men and a universal atonement for all men. And since it's obvious
that all men are not going to be saved, they make the will
and acceptance of the sinner the determining factor. Am I
right in this, Richard? He studied these things. Some
of you have studied these things and you know exactly what I'm
saying. You can't believe in a universal atonement and see
people living like the devil and you know they're going to
hell. There's no way that you can explain that universal atonement
except to throw the responsibility on the sinner. Throw it on him. It's all up to him. I couldn't
tell you how many times in the church I attended when I was
young, I heard that preacher say at the end of his message,
they'd have an altar call, for lack of a better word, and they'd
call you up front to this little mourner's bench, and he'd say
to the people, God's done all he can do. Now, it's all up to
you. Let me tell you something. If
God's done all he can do, It's over for you. What could you do that God couldn't?
Let me ask you that. What do you think you could do
that God Almighty couldn't do? I've heard deceived men say God's
done all He can do. The rest is up to you. Religion
always sets Jesus Christ before the people, totally dependent
on their decisions and acceptance of Him. Always. Listen to Him. Listen to the
messages. His life, they say, was an example and His death
a down payment. He made the down payment for
you. What you got to offer for your
sins. What have you got to produce a righteousness before God? If
all He's done is made a down payment, He's done nothing for
you. They make God the Father to be
some old gray-haired granddaddy and his son, having done all
he can do to be pacing back and forth behind the banister of
heaven and wringing his hands, and worried that everything he
did was going to be in vain if the sinner don't receive Him. Let me see if I can draw you
another picture. Ephesians 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according,
that is based on this, because of this, according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to your acceptance of Him." That's not what that says. According
to the good pleasure of His will. There is nothing that Jesus Christ
is, has done, or is doing that's in any way depending on the acceptance
of any fallen son of Adam. Everything he did, he did before
God. The salvation of God's elect.
was as certain at their election in Christ before the world was
as it will be when He raises them from the dead and ushers
them into heaven's glory Himself." Preacher, how can that be? It
can be because the unchangeable, eternal Father, Almighty God,
chose them in His Son who is equal with Him. That's how it
can be. God cannot fail. God cannot change. He tells us that in the Scripture.
He is not going to change. He chose us in His Son and by
that eternal covenant union determined to save these people whom He
loved for the glory of His name. Salvation is not some random
circumstantial event just sort of happens along the way. It's not having exhausted all
the other ways that God in desperation has this one last thing that
He does, hoping that men will feel sorry for Him and accept
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's not salvation. That's
a lie. Now, I'm telling you, your soul
is weighed in the balance of what I'm telling you this morning.
Your soul hangs in the balance. And men will just follow after
these things and swallow up these things because they don't want
to hurt somebody's feelings. Salvation is the eternal redemptive
purpose of God. God had a purpose. Creation has
behind it a purpose. Behind the coming of Christ was
the purpose of God. And that's what he tells us all
through this book of Ephesians. Paul wrote Timothy, he said,
God has saved us. That's past tense, isn't it?
God has saved us. And then he called us with a
holy calling, not according to our works, now listen, but according
to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. But it was manifest in these
last days by the appearing of our Lord. Our Lord was the manifestation
of God's eternal purpose of grace given to His elect in Christ
before the foundation of the world. That's 2 Timothy 1, 9
and 10 if you care to read it. Having predestinated us, he tells
us in verse 5 of Ephesians 1, unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.
I hear these blind leaders of the blind telling their converts,
God is right now writing your name down in the Lamb's Book
of Life. Huh? You want to tell me that man
knows God? He don't know God. Before ever the high priest of
Israel entered into the tabernacle, his garment was made and the
names were on it. Is that right? Before Christ ever entered into
this tabernacle, this body prepared by God, a body hast thou prepared
me. That's what he tells us in Hebrews
chapter 10. Before he ever entered into this
tabernacle to obtain eternal redemption for us, those names
were written. on his shoulders to bear us up
before God and over his heart. He's not written when a man comes
down an aisle. God's not up there writing his
name down in the Lamb's Book of Life. And then when he goes
astray, he takes a big eraser and erases it out. And then he's
born again and again and again and he falls again and again. Everything our Lord did was to
fulfill the redemptive will of God. Huh? Listen to this. Hebrews 10, 7. Lo, he said, I
come. In the volume of the book, it's
written of me to do thy will, O God. Who came to do God's will? Christ did. He said, I come not
to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this
is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which He
has given me, I should lose nothing. John 6.37. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, who hath made us accepted in the blood. God Himself is
the moving cause of our salvation, having chosen us in His Son and
sent His Son, gave His Son the appointments of our high priest,
our king, our savior, our advocate, the one mediator between God
and me and the man Christ Jesus. He received. God did. God gave
Him those appointments. And the Son willingly took them
to Himself. God sent him. That's what he
said. The Lord sent me. And then secondly, Jesus Christ
himself is the reason for our acceptance with God. Oh, don't
you let any man tell you that it's your will that buys you
acceptance with God. That your will and your decisions
is what's going to make his sacrifice acceptable to God. and to make
His salvation effectual. Verse 6, Ephesians chapter 1
tells us that we were made, M-A-D-E, made, accepted in the Beloved. That eternal covenant union was
manifested in a physical union as the Son of God was made flesh
and dwelt among us. You know, people wrestle over
this thing of Christ being made sin. How was Christ made sin?
He was made sin when He was made me. He took not on Himself the nature
of angels, but the seed of Abraham. When He stood before God's holy
law and God's wrath in my sins, I stood there with Him. And when
God killed Him, He killed me. When God was satisfied with His
sacrifice, He was satisfied with me. And when God raised Him from
the dead, He justified me. This One who created all things,
who was before all things, and for whom are all things. He says
he's the head of the body of the church. What does that mean? Well, somebody said that means
he's the authority of the church. It means more than that. He's
talking about the federal headship of Christ. As Adam was the federal
head of the human race, Christ is the federal head of all his
elect. As we all stood or fell in Adam, all that's represented
in Christ stand or fall in him. He's our federal head. And the
Scripture said, in Adam all die. All those represented in him
die. By one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, and death passed upon all men,
for that all have sinned. In Adam all die. Sin entered. Death passed. Man fell under
the condemnation of God. Romans 5.18, by the offense of
one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners. Death passed. Christ is the head
of the body of the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence.
For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.
And having made peace through the blood of His cross by Him,
I say to reconcile all things unto Himself, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath he reconciled by your decision." That's not what this says. You
that were enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath
he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death. to present you holy, unblameable,
and unreprovable in his sight if you continue in the faith.
What faith? That faith which is the fruit
of that sacrifice. That faith which is the fruit
of that man coming in your stead. Your federal head, if you continue
in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel which you've heard. He's the reason for our
acceptance with God. Everything Christ did, he did
before God as our federal head and representative by God's appointment
and according to God's everlasting purpose of grace, Christ. And everything he did, he did
for poor, helpless, hopeless sinners. whose very nature and
depravity of soul prevents them from even the possibility of
saving themselves. I often think about the disciples. With their limited understanding,
they saw that rich young ruler come to Christ. He had every
potential that a man could have. He was learned in the scriptures.
He had a good moral life. to recommend him. He was a successful
businessman. He was a leader in Israel. He was a mature spiritual man. And he came to Christ, and Christ
sent him away with his tail tucked between his legs. He said, what must I do to be
saved? The Lord said, well, you can keep the law. Oh, he said,
I've done that from my youth up. A lot of men believed that. He
did. And the Lord said, well, you
won't have no trouble with this then. Sell everything you have. Take up your cross and follow
Me. And he bowed his head and he walked away sorrowful. And
when those disciples saw that man with every potential walking
away, they looked at each other and they said, who then can be
saved? You know what our Lord said? With man it is impossible. Huh? But with God, all things
are possible. A clear understanding of the
Gospel begins with an acknowledgment of God's testimony concerning
our sins. Man's dead spiritually. He's
dead spiritually. He has a mind, but his mind is
corrupt. He has a heart, His heart is
a cesspool of iniquity. Out of the heart proceed evil
thoughts, adulteries, fornications, all of these things. He has a will, but it's under
the influence of a depraved nature. It's a will not. At his best
state, the scripture said, he's altogether vanity. All his righteousnesses
are his filthy rags. He drinks iniquity like water,
Job said, and there's no fear of God before his eyes. There's none that understandeth,
none that seeketh after God, none righteous, none good. And
yet religion would have you believe that God has rested his eternal
purpose of grace and the glorious person and work of His Son, and
the death and sufferings of His Son on the decisions of a fallen
man. I hope you can see this morning
the foolishness of this thing of making Jesus your person.
You're not going to make Him anything. He's already Lord.
You're not going to make Him Savior when you accept Him. He's
already Savior. Everything He's ever going to
be, He is. Well, whom shall we say sent us? He said, you tell them I
am sent you. Everything He's ever going to
be, He is. The salvation of God's elect
begins and ends with God. And everything from beginning
to end glorifies God and not man. And nowhere in this book
do you find God doing the will of man or changing anything because
men would not cooperate with his purpose. But what it does say, Ephesians
1, 8 and 9, it says we're in, talking about this acceptance
with God that we have redemption of sins by His blood. And then he tells
us we're in, he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom. and
prudence having made known unto us the mystery of his will according
to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself. That in
the dispensation, now I was telling George Fay on the way up to church
this morning, I've read this a thousand times. I've never
seen this before. And I know what the word means.
Every time I read that, I thought, well, this is talking about that
That period in time, that dispensation, that's how we understand that
word. That's not what this word means. That word dispensation
means stewardship. Look it up. It means stewardship. All right, now let's read it
that way. That in the stewardship of the fullness of time. Oh,
you mean God took time itself and gave it to Christ, and he's
the steward of it. That's exactly what he's saying.
He has stewardship of time, of time itself. Now listen to this.
In the stewardship of the fullness of time, he might gather together
in one all things that God gave him to do, everything that's
in him, both which are in heaven, which are on earth, even in him,
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance in this stewardship
of time, 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, of God's glory,
who first trusted in Christ. Faith is not the cause of our
acceptance. It's the fruit. The person and
work of Christ is the cause. And faith is the fruit of our
acceptance. Look over here at Ephesians chapter
2. You, he said, hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins. What do you mean dead? Well, read on. Wherein, that
is in this spiritual death, wherein in times past you walked according
to the course of this world, under its curse, under its teaching,
under its fallen influence, and also according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit who now worketh in the
children of disobedience. Satan's primary work in false
religion, our Lord said to the Pharisees, He said, Your father
is the devil. That's his work as in religion.
Satan and his demonic spirits are called the rulers of the
darkness of this world. Now you walked, he said, according
to the prince of the power there. And that's what this death is,
and where he finds all his elects, living in the lust of their flesh,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were
by nature the children of wrath, just like others. and children of wrath we would
have continued to be. Verse 4, but God, who is rich
in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us even when we were
dead in sins, quickened us together with Christ. Now listen to this,
by grace ye are saved. I didn't know nothing about it,
but I saved. I saved when He chose me in Christ,
when He quickened me together with His Son in that eternal
union, I was saved. I was saved. When Christ came,
entered into heaven itself with His own blood, what kind of redemption
did He purchase? Eternal redemption. And by virtue
of that quickening or that union hath raised us, look at verse
6, raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. Now watch this. That, that means
in order that, in the ages to come he might show the exceeding
riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
It's a what? The gift of God. Huh? It's the gift of God. You didn't
have anything to do with it. You didn't have anything to do
with it. God worked His providence around. He sent His preacher.
He prepared your heart. You heard the gospel. He converted
you. That gospel came not in word
only, but it came in power and in the Holy Ghost and with much
assurance. It's the gift of God. It's not
of works lest any man should boast. Now, my friend, let me
tell you something. If this thing of accepting Jesus as your personal
Savior was actually the way God saves sinners, you'd brag about
it through all eternity. And they do. They do. According to Ephesians 4, verses
8-11, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and pastor-teachers
are all the gift of the ascended Christ, and His presence in glory
by virtue of His accomplished redemption is the guarantee that
all His elect, all for whom He died, shall be received. They're going to obey His gospel,
and they're going to rejoice in it, and He's going to preserve
them unto death. In the Great Commission in Matthew
28, he said to his disciples, all power is given unto me in
heaven and earth. You ever think about what's he
talking about? What is this power? He was God come into the flesh.
What's this power all about? Well, he tells you what it is
over in John 17, verse 2. as thou hast given him power
over all flesh. Now listen, that he should give
eternal life to as many as the Father hath given him. Now he
said, that power is in my hands. Now you go preach. Huh? You go preach. Well, they're
not going to believe me. They will. Yes, they will. The guarantor sits right up there
in glory, everything at his disposal. Power over Providence. Power over time. He's the steward
of time. Everything's in His power. Are
they going to believe? You better believe they're going
to believe. That's why the Scripture says
of the Gentiles at Antioch, The Jews wouldn't have it. They didn't
want any part of it. They turned around and walked
away. They were jealous over all these numbers going to them
and all the multitudes and just this little handful of Jews that
was over there with them. And all these Gentile proselytes
had left them, went over here and was listening to Paul and
Silas. And he read that Scripture that applies that salvation in
Christ to the Gentiles. And they, oh, when they heard
that, they rejoiced. Now listen, and as many as were
ordained to eternal life believed. How many are going to believe?
Everyone ordained to eternal life. Does that mean I shouldn't
preach? No, that's the reason I preach.
I tell you right now, if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't preach.
Because I know what man is. I know what's in man's heart.
And if I was looking to that, trying to find something in that,
some hope in that black hole, I wouldn't preach at all. But the guarantee that all his
elect is going to believe is seated at the right hand of God.
And He's controlling everything. Preparation to the heart of man
and the answer of his tongue is from the Lord. All of God's elect shall believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and find their acceptance in Him.
Listen to this, John 6, 37. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. It's written in the prophets,
he said, they shall all be taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that has heard and has learned of the Father cometh to Christ. By the grace of God, this morning,
we've got two dear ladies who've heard this testimony of God. They've heard this gospel. They
come and they told me this is what they believe. This is what
they want to confess. And if you can make something
else out of baptism other than that, you go ahead. That's all
I see. We're buried with Him, just like
I preached to you this morning. Buried with Him. We're in a divine
union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And by this faith, we acknowledge
that union. And we'll be buried with Him
in baptism. Risen with Him to walk in newness
of life. That's our confession. That's
what I believe. Somebody said the other day,
well, I tell you, those things are deep. You are deep thinkers. No, we're not. He said, I have
not seen or ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things which God has prepared for them that love him,
but he hath revealed them unto us. Now listen, yea, even the
deep things of God.