I invite you to turn with me
this evening to Ephesians chapter 1. When I'm nervous about speaking,
I like to pick a text that will preach itself. And that's exactly
what Ephesians chapter 1 does. I want you to know that I count
this an honor and a privilege to be here and worship with the
saints of God When I think about all the places that I've been,
things that I've done, and think about what I'm doing now and
where I'm at now, I'm humbled and I'm thankful to God. Think
about it. In all this world, in all the
darkness that we walked in, walking in the vanity of our And the
Lord found us and taught us and brought us to know and to see
things that even the princes of this world were not permitted
to see. I thank God for your pastor and
his faithfulness to this assembly and to our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. We're stewards of the mysteries
of God and it's required by our Lord that we be faithful in that
calling. It's my hope and prayer to God
that I can be of some help to this congregation and to your
pastor, some benefit in God's kingdom. Of all the enemies and
opposition in the world, I don't want to add to it. Do you? I want to be of some
benefit. So pray for me that God will
give me a message for you and for this hour. A man asked me some time back,
one of my neighbors, he died the other day, and he saw me
out in the garden working and he came over to the fence and
he introduced himself and he began to talk to me a little
bit and he knew something of what this church preached. like
other unbelievers that had been turned upside down and sideways
so that he didn't really know what we preached at all. But
he said this to me, he said, Do you believe that anybody who
wants to be saved, anybody who wants to be saved can be? Or do you believe only certain
ones shall be saved? Isn't it marvelous how Satan
twists things in the minds of men so that they ask this question
in such a way as if you answered it quickly and without thinking,
you'd do more damage than you did good? And so I thought about
it a little bit and I said, it's all according. It's according. He said, what do you mean it's
according? According to what? And I said, well, it's according
to what you mean when you say saved. We may not be talking
about the same thing at all. It's according to what you mean
by desiring salvation. Does he see himself as the leper? Is this what we're talking about,
a man like the leper seeing himself altogether filthy and vile and
hoping to be cleansed? Or is he just trying to climb
up the social ladder? It's according. It's according. And that's my message to you
tonight. It's all according. This word,
according, as it appears in the Scripture, means the basis, the
foundation, the reason. It's according. According. And Paul uses this term six times
in Ephesians chapter 1, guiding to this beloved church and giving
to them the basis of their hope before God and the reason for
His thankfulness to God on their behalf. And what I want to do
tonight is to go through these verses and see if maybe the Lord
will straighten us out on our thinking just a little bit when
it comes to these terms like saved and sanctified and called
of God, our hope before God. Now, keep this in mind as we
go through this thing that Paul is talking about. He is talking
about the fundamental principles of our faith and the basis of
the salvation of our souls. Now, the first thing that the
Holy Ghost moves this apostle to write is concerning our election
of God. In answer to this man's question,
Do I believe only certain ones shall be saved? I said, well,
I believe that any man, anywhere, who's called of God, who's enabled
of God to see and to know and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
whose eyes has been opened to see what he is and what condition
he's in, shall be saved. I do believe that. Any man, anywhere,
anytime. I believe that the whosoever
wills and the elect of God are the same people. But having said that, I do not
believe that any man left to himself, left in his inability
and ignorance, will ever seek, find, or believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. He'll search this country over
until he finds something in common with his depraved nature. Something
in common with the lies that Satan has pressed upon his heart.
He'll find what appeals to him, and that's where he'll join,
and that's where he'll sit until he dies and wakes up in hell. If God leaves you to yourself,
you'll never seek Him. We're told plainly in the Scripture
that there is none that understandeth, And there is none that seeketh
after God. How many? None. None. We're told that the way of peace,
the way of peace, that's the way of Christ, that's the way
of sovereign grace, the way of peace, they've not known. They've
not known. They're religious, but they don't
know. the way of peace, and Christ
said, I am the way. So then salvation is an act of
God's free and sovereign grace and finds the beginning of its
hope in God's election of grace. God did not and would not leave
man to perish in his sin, but chose out from among the wicked
masses to save for the glory of his name a people in His Son. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3. Paul said, Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ. Are you listening? Here's the basis. Here's the
reason. 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. Preacher, why do
God's ministers feel compelled to preach the doctrine of election? Don't you know it's going to
cause opposition? It does in Arkansas. I don't
know what it does out here. Those don't like it down there.
They don't like Don't like it much in Kentucky either. Why do you preach it then? Why
do you feel so compelled to preach the doctrine of election knowing
that it's so controversial? Because it's the first basic
principle of the believer's hope in Christ. That's it. Where does
any man whom the Lord has opened His
heart and mind, go, to establish that hope before God. You know
what Paul said to that Thessalonian church, that Gentile, that group
of Gentile believers? They didn't know who the Christ
was. They didn't know what the Christ was. Just like our generation. They use His name, and they hear
His name talked and preached, but they don't know who He is.
They don't know anything about it. You know what Paul told them? Having preached to them and having
seen that marvelous work of God in their hearts, he said, brethren,
beloved, knowing your election of God. That's what he said.
Your election of God. That's where he took them. He
took them back to that time that made the difference in humanity,
that time when God chose a people and put them in His Son. They're
going to be different than the rest. They're going to be treated
different than the rest. They're going to have things
and opportunities that the rest of this world may never know.
There's people in this world that have never heard the gospel
and never will. Never will. What's the first thing our Lord
made known to His disciples? He said, you've not chosen me,
I've chosen you. What's the first thing? Paul
the Apostle, that great learned man, he was a theologian brought
up under the greatest teacher Israel had ever heard, Gamaliel. And he sat there and this learned
man, God blinded him, took him off that proud white horse and
put his face in the mud and blinded him. and made him go down there
to a man of his choosing to tell him the truth. And the first
thing that man said, he said, the God of our fathers hath chosen
thee. Isn't that something? All preachers
don't preach on election. It will scare them off. It's
the first thing our Lord said. It's the first thing that this
man told the Apostle Paul, and it's the first thing the Apostle
Paul told these Ephesians. My friend, I'm not trying to
close the door on any man's salvation, but there is no door at all apart
from election. I'm not closing the door, I'm
trying to point you to it. If it weren't for election, we'd
all been damned in the garden. Election says there's yet hope
for some. Election says all shall not perish. A fellow told me one time, he
said, God's not willing for anybody to perish. I said, that's not
what that Scripture says. Oh, yes it is. He said, I'm quoting
it word for word. He's not willing that any should
perish. I said, well, let's go read it. And we turned over there
to the book of Peter, and I read it to him. And I said, here's
what it says. God is longsuffering to usward,
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repent.
Now I shall just go back a little further and find out who the
usward is. They're the elect of God. Oh my soul, God said, I'll destroy
man whom I've created. Every thought of the imagination
of his heart is only evil continually. I'll wipe him off the face of
the earth. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. When did he find it? Back yonder
in eternity, when God chose him and his son. It was an election
of grace, isn't that what Paul said? An election of grace. He found that grace first in
divine election. And even so, Paul said, there
is at this time also a remnant according to the election of
grace. Nobody except those chosen of God in Christ shall ever be
saved. All spiritual blessings, representation,
covenant mercies, substitution, incarnation, spiritual union,
regeneration, faith and repentance, justification, sanctification
and final glorification were all appropriated and given to
the church according as we were chosen in Him before the foundation
of the world. What if God had not chosen to
save some? You ever thought about that?
What if God decided to leave them to themselves, leave them
to their vain imaginations, leave them to walk in the vanity of
their minds, leave them to wander around in the darkness? Huh? Then they'd be just like the
devil and his angels, Jude verse 6, reserved in everlasting chains
of darkness unto the judgment. of that great day. And what of
those who, like Israel of old, set aside the Christ of God in
whom we were chosen? Deny the election of God. Deny Him in whom we were chosen,
Him who is our hope. The Scripture said there is nothing
left for them but a certain fearful looking forward judgment and
fiery indignation which shall devour all His adversaries. So if you want to talk about
the salvation of men's souls, let's be clear on this. It's
according as God hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world. And then the second basic principle
of the salvation of our souls is in the eternal, unchangeable,
almighty will of God. I hear a lot about will in our
day, man's will, free will. Won't you do this? Won't you
do that? Ephesians chapter 1 verse 5 says,
having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. Somebody told me one time, said,
preacher, let me tell you what election is. I said, I'd like
to hear it. He said, it's God looking down
through the telescope of time and seeing who would and would
not choose him. That's not what the scripture
says it is. The scripture said, I just read
it to you. yet predestinated us unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to
the good pleasure of His will. It pleased Him. Why? I don't have a clue. I can't find the reason. I keep coming back to Him. That's
the only reason. According to the good pleasure
of His will. There's nothing in me. There's
nothing in anything I've ever done. There's nothing in anything
I've ever said. There's nothing in the way of
potential in me. You look for a reason, you can't
find it anywhere except in God. It pleased Him. If it pleased
Him, it pleases me. He's God. He's God. When God chose us in His Son,
He predestinated us unto the adoption of children. And when
God put us in union with His Son, we were considered as sons. We're not sons apart from being
in Christ, but He chose us in Him, and in Him we're sons. He's the first begotten of many
births, many sons. And there's no sonship outside
of that union. Walking down an aisle doesn't
make you a son of God. And walking to the front of the
church and shaking some preacher's hand is not going to make you
a son. Accepting Jesus as your personal
Savior, that's not the way to sonship either. We are made sons
of God by the irresistible, unchangeable will of God. Listen to what James
says in James 1.18. Of His own will. Whose will? The unchangeable God. With whom
there is no bearableness, neither shadow attorney. Of his own will
begat he us with the word of truth. Now he said, you'd be
better off to shut up and listen than to start talking and arguing
about it. Because of his own will. Of his
own will. He said, now be careful how you
listen, be careful how you hear. Children of God brought to faith
in Christ do not praise or preach the will of man. They preach
the will of God. They preach the will of God.
I tell you, I study for a message and I do a lot of things, but
more than anything else I want to please Him, don't you? I want
to do His will. His will. Men become the sons of God and
believe on His name, like John said, which were born not of
the will of the flesh and not of the will of man, but of God. Believers pray, not my will.
Isn't that how they pray? That's what the Lord said. Not
my will, but Thy will be done. Where? On earth as it is in heaven. His will. Nebuchadnezzar, with a new heart
and new principles of grace, he said, he doeth according to
his will. He didn't believe that just a
little while earlier, did he? But I tell you, when God does
a work in your heart, Put you out there and let you eat with
the beast of the field. Make you to realize that's what
you've been doing all your life. Out there eating with the beast.
Looking like a beast. You were a beast. And then He
gives you a new heart. And a mind to know Him. To understand
the mysteries of God. Then a man said, He doeth according
to His will. And none can stay His hand, or
even question what He does. And then thirdly, the salvation
of our souls is according to the riches of His grace. Ephesians
1, verse 6. To the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted into blood, in whom
we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. according to the riches of His
grace. That's the reason. That's the
reason. All of the religions of this
earth are divided into just two categories. I've worn myself
out over the years trying to find out what all these different
religions believe. And one day I was listening and
Brother Mahan said there are just two religions. Boy, I perked
up. Works and grace. I don't care
what you are. I don't care what kind of name
you wear. You're works or grace. That's
it. There's just two kinds of religion.
Works and grace. Romans 11, 6 defines the terms. It said, if by grace, then is
it no more works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be
of works, then is it no more of grace. Otherwise, work is
no more what? How are you saved? By works or
by grace? Well, I can tell you how God's
people are saved. They're saved according to the
riches of His grace. Our election of God, our predestination
to sonship, our acceptance with God and forgiveness of sins is
according to the riches of His grace. And men's works are only
considered in their wickedness and in their evil, which demanded
the death of our Substitute and Redeemer. And any gospel that
puts man's works as somehow meriting or winning God's favor is another
gospel. And that man is to be considered
as accursed of God. You don't have to be polite to
him. Tell him you don't want to hear him. Oh, you heard his
feelings. I hope so. I meant to. I meant to. That man's accursed of God. He's
an enemy of the children of God. I listen to people talk about
grace. Grace not a passion in God making
Him willing to give but dependent on men's will? Is that what you
think grace is? Just a passion? Passioning to
all His sole graces. It's not an empty desire, wanting
to save but unable to violate man's free will. I'll tell you
this, if God ever saves you, He'll give you a whole new meaning
for the word violate. Yes, He will. You violate your
own will, don't you? You get on God's side on this
thing of will. It's not a passion. His grace
is sovereign grace, irresistible grace, effectual grace. My grace,
our Lord told Paul, is sufficient. Sufficient. He didn't tell him
what it's sufficient for, did he? You know why? Because it's
sufficient for anything. That's right. My grace is sufficient. Sufficient to make provision
for the sinner. sufficient to accomplish His
redemption, sufficient to call Him out of darkness, sufficient
to open His blind eyes and deaf ears, sufficient to make Him
a new creature in Christ Jesus, sufficient to preserve Him and
keep Him according to the power of God through faith unto that
day, and then to present Him faultless before the presence
of His Father's glory by Grace, Paul said, are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves? It is the gift of God, not of
words, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. You know, folks think he left
what he was saying there before about faith, and then he moved
on and started talking about your good works. Oh, no. Oh no, this is all part of that
faith that he's talking about. Faith is the gift of God. And
it's a good work. Isn't it? Love is a good work. He that loveth not, knoweth not
God. Love is a good work. Faith is a good work. And God
has foreordained that we should walk in these things. Walk in
these works. The salvation of our souls is
according to the riches of His grace. And then, fourthly, the
basis of our faith and the salvation of our souls is according to
God's good pleasure. You can say this about everything
we believe and preach. According to His good pleasure.
Election. It pleased God to make you His
people. A picture of calling. Paul said,
Would it please God? who separated me from my mother's
womb, to call me by His grace and reveal His Son in me, that
I might preach Him among you. Salvation accomplished in Christ.
This is my beloved Son, God said, in whom I'm well pleased. Faith. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Creation. Thou hast created all
things, and for Thy pleasure They are and were created. Why does God do this or that?
Why does He do things this way and that way? Because it pleased
Him. It pleased Him. David said, Our
God's in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He hath
pleased. Why preach? Why preach? I came halfway across the country,
Don did, out here to preach. Why preach? Why don't we just
buy some Bibles and send them out all over the country? Just
give them to everybody. Send out some Bibles and let
whoever reads them and God work this thing out. Just let them read and figure
it out. Why? Why preach? Why preach? Because it pleased God through
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. That's
why. Pleased Him? Well, preacher,
you're trying to limit God. I'm not trying to limit anybody.
It pleased Him to do it this way. Why would I want to go do
it some other way? I'm telling you, when you know
what this thing of salvation is, and people start arguing
about the means that God has ordained, it's ridiculous. It's
just totally ridiculous. Why do you want to argue with
God's grace? Why do you want to argue with God's wisdom? Why
do you want to question God? If you please God through the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe, find a preacher
and sit down and listen to him. If you don't, you'll never hear
from God. That is so. You and I would never have known
the redemptive will of God in Christ except that it pleased
Him to abound toward us in all wisdom and truth. If he hadn't,
we'd never figured it out. We'd be up here in the grass,
just like the rest of them. The end of the world's gonna
be next Thursday at 2.30. Because, it says over here in Daniel,
we wouldn't have known anything, nothing, about the sovereign
will of God. But it pleased God. Pleased God
to abound toward us. And in Biblia, our salvation
is according to God's eternal purpose. Ephesians chapter 1
verse 11. In whom also, that is, in Christ,
we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according,
see that word, according? This is the reason. According
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. Somebody was questioning me on
the necessity of gospel preaching, and I said to him, let me ask
you a question. Does God save men on purpose
or by accident? On purpose, I guess. If God saves men on purpose,
then nothing's left to chance and circumstance, is there? There's either an eternal, all-wise,
almighty God arranging all things, working all things according
to His purpose, or there's no God at all, and everything's
left to chance and circumstance. One of those is true. And Paul
said, God hath saved us and called us, not according to our works,
but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. And then very quickly,
let me give you this. The basis of our faith and the
salvation of our souls is according to the work of his mighty power. I read this scripture in Philippians,
the first thing that entered my mind, Paul sounded like an
Arminian. He said, let every man work out
his own salvation in fear and trembling. Sounded just like an Arminian
preacher did, except he didn't stop there. He said, for, for,
that's another word that means the basis. It is God that worketh
in you. both to will and to do of His
good pleasure. Which was the significant work?
The man who stretched forth his hand or the power of God that
enabled him to stretch it forth? Which was the significant work?
The man standing up and taking up his bed? or the power of God
that enabled that paralyzed man for 38 years to stand and walk. We don't preach that God saves
men who are unwilling to be saved. I've never preached that. I've
never heard that preached. We preach that His people shall
be willing in the day of His power. They're going to be willing. Enlightened saints see the exceeding
greatness of His power to us who believe according to the
working of His mighty power. I tell you, I look at our little
church. I had a preacher come down and preach for me not too
long ago, and he told our congregation, he said, this place is so far
out in the country you have to go to town to hunt. And I told them this past Sunday,
I said, when I look at this little building, We got windows about this wide
in it. It looked like a trailer somebody put siding on. It's
just an old shabby building, and they built it in a frog pond.
It's just there's water all around the church. It looked like a
castle with a moat around it half the time. And we're way
out in the country, and we're in this little unknown town,
and we're the most depressed state in this union, I believe. You go through the little towns
in Arkansas and there'll be two or three businesses open and
50 of them closed. It's so pitiful. So pitiful. And I said, where did God choose
to raise up a gospel church? In Taylor, Arkansas. Rescue, California. Somebody said, when I come through
Taylor, I'll visit you. I said, nobody comes through
Taylor. You come to Taylor, you haven't
come there on purpose. Enlightened saints, they see
the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe according
to the working of His mighty power. Oh, may He be pleased
tonight for the glory of His great name. to manifest that
power in our hearts.