Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. We're just
going to look at one verse. Verse 18. Ephesians 2.18. For through Him, through Christ,
we both have access by one Spirit, by God the Holy Spirit, unto
the Father. Unto God the Father. Believers
have access to God. We have open, welcome access
to God. Now when God created Adam in
the garden, He created him upright and Adam had access to God. He had communion with God because
he didn't have any sin. But as soon as Adam sinned in
the garden, as soon as sin entered in, God drove Adam from the garden
and man lost communion with God. We lost access to God. Now that's exactly how it would
have remained were it not for God. That's how it would have
stayed that way. Sinful man wants no access to
the true and living God. Man doesn't want to go to hell.
Man wants to go to heaven, but man does not want God, not the
true and living God. And so, had God left us to ourselves,
we would have never had access to God, nor would we have ever
wanted access to God in our hearts. We would have been forever separated.
Yet, thankfully, thankfully, God elected a people unto salvation
that He would give access to Him, that He would bring into
His presence. God did this. But God couldn't
simply open the way and give us access. He couldn't simply
throw open the door and say, enter in. Why not? Because we
sinned against God. We broke His law. And so every
elect child that God purposed to save had to die. Justice had
to be carried out on them. Their sins had to be purged.
And not only that, each one has got to be created, born again,
conceived, given life, made a new creature in Christ by the Holy
Spirit, then through faith in Christ we can have access to
the Father. Yet we couldn't do any of that for ourselves. We
could do none of that for ourselves. There's nothing a sinner can
do to bring himself to God and give himself access to God. So
God started in the garden and all through the old covenant,
He started showing us how it is that He gives a sinner access
to Him. Now, in order for God, I want
you to get this, this is my point, this is my main point of the
message. In order for God to receive all the glory, In order
for God to receive all the glory, all three persons in the Godhead
have to do their respective work in bringing a sinner into God's
presence. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is of the Lord. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. In order for the Lord God to
receive all the glory, all three persons in the Godhead have a
part to do in this work to bring a sinner into God's presence.
I've titled this, One Access, Three Persons. Or did I say three? Three Persons, One Access. That's
it. Three Persons, One Access. Now notice here, all three persons
in the Godhead are spoken of in our text, Father, Son, and
Spirit. Verse 18 says, for through Him,
through Christ, we both have access by one Spirit, there's
God the Holy Spirit, unto the Father, there's God the Father.
Now the three persons in the Godhead are going to make up
our divisions. First of all, the believer's access is through
the Son of God, Christ Jesus, through Him, our text says, through
Him. When He was here, He said, I
am the way. I am the way. I am the truth.
I am the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. That means if we're going to
the Father, we're going through Christ. That's the only way to
have access. Now God showed us this. Look over at Hebrews 9.
Turn to your right there a few pages to Hebrews 9, and let's
see this. God showed us this all through
the Old Covenant, all using Israel. God gave Moses a pattern for
a tabernacle. Told him, say, make this tabernacle
exactly like I showed you. And that tabernacle pictured
heavenly things. That's what Hebrews 8.5 says.
It pictured heavenly things. Now look here in Hebrews 9. In
that earthly tabernacle, God commanded Moses to make a room
by hanging a thick veil. It was a square room made out
of a veil that God said, hang up. Hang up this veil. That was
an odd thing, wasn't it? An odd thing. Think, holy God,
telling somebody to hang up a curtain, a big thick curtain in this room. Why? Look at Hebrews 9.3. After
the second veil was the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of
all. When you went into that second veil and you went into
that room, that was called the holiest of all. That was the
holy of holies. That represented the presence
of God. Are you listening to me? That
represented the presence of God in that room. Alright, in the
holies of holies was a little box, about this big, a little
box called the Ark of the Covenant. Look here in verse 4. which had
the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid round
about with gold wherein was the golden pot that had manna and
Aaron's rod that budded in the tables of the covenant. That
ark pictured Christ. We're going to see this in the
second hour. That ark pictured Christ. It had the law of God
in it. The covenant, the everlasting
covenant was in that ark. That's where it was. It pictured
Christ with God's law in His heart who came to fulfill the
whole law and the whole covenant of grace for His people. That's
who Christ is. And above that ark was a mercy
seat. Look at verse 5. Over it the
cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat. Mercy seat came
between God and His people. Here you got the ark, you got
God above it, and you got His people. And between them, there's
a mercy seat on top of that ark. That mercy seat pictured Christ
our propitiation, our seat of mercy, the mediator between God
and His people, through whom God gives mercy to His people.
That's who the mercy seat pictured. And God chose a high priest.
You listen to it? God chose a high priest from
among his brethren to go into that holy place. Look here at
verse 7. Into the second, into that holiest
of holies went the high priest alone. He went there alone, once
every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself
and for the errors of the people. This high priest chosen from
among his brethren is a picture of Christ. He's our high priest
chosen from among God's chosen people. He was made flesh. He was chosen from among his
brethren. And the high priest was the only one who could go
into that holy place. That picture of the presence
of God, he was the only one who could go in there. Christ is
the only one who could enter into the presence of God for
his people. And when he went into there, that high priest
had to enter there in that holy place with blood. With blood. A lamb had all the sins of Israel. Not the sins of everybody in
the world, but the sins of Israel. Laid on it, and that lamb died. It died in place of Israel. And
then the high priest brought the blood of that lamb into that
holy place. to make propitiation, to make
atonement for the sins of the people. Christ is our high priest
and Christ is the Lamb. Christ is the one who took the
sins of His people upon Himself and put them away. He enters
into the presence of God with His own blood. Alright? And look
at this. And that high priest sprinkled
that blood seven times before the mercy seat making ceremonial
atonement for Israel. Christ is that one. But He had
to do it again next year. You know why? Because He never
put away sin. It never put away sin. It never
did. But Christ has made atonement
for God's elect by His blood, by one offering, for all time. He's done. Alright, now, the
next verses tell us all that. Don't ever take a man's word
for anything. Don't ever take it just when
a man says it. Let him show you in the Scripture.
Alright, we're going to see this in the Scripture. Look here,
Hebrews 9, 8. The Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, this signifying
that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest
while as the first tabernacle was yet standing. While that first tabernacle was
standing, the way into the presence of God was not yet made known.
Which, look at verse 9. which was a figure for the time
then present. That's all this tabernacle is.
It was a picture. It was a type in which were offered both gifts
and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service
perfect as pertaining to the conscience. Drop down to verse
11. Verse 11. But Christ being come a high
priest of good things Christ, come a high priest, by a greater
and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is
to say, not of this building, not like that tabernacle, neither
by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, He entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. Christ obtained eternal redemption.
Drop down to verse 24. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
truth. They're types. You know, say, I believe in a
literal interpretation of the scriptures. Well, then you're
going to miss this because God said that's a spiritual picture.
That tabernacle is a spiritual picture. You don't really believe
we're trees, do you? No, that's a spiritual picture.
Trees of righteousness. We're not literally trees. We
believe this book spiritual. Now look here. But he's entered
into heaven itself. Now to appear in the presence
of God for us. That's what that Holy of Holies
picture. Nor yet that he should offer himself often as a high
priest entereth into the holy place every year with the blood
of others. For then must he often have suffered since the foundation
of the world. But now what? In the end of the world, if he
appeared, here's why Christ came, to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. Now either he accomplished that
and he's a success, or he didn't do it and he's a failure. That's
exactly what he did. He accomplished. He put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself. That means somebody's sins put
away. Who's? Everybody for whom he
died. That's right. Look at verse Hebrews
10, 14. For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that
are sanctified. Those that God the Father chosen
put in Christ, those that God the Holy Spirit is calling by
His grace, those are the ones that Christ sanctified. He made
them perfect. When Christ finished that work
and said it's finished, you know what happened to that veil in
that tabernacle? That literal veil in that literal tabernacle,
you know what happened to it? It split from top to bottom.
That thing was about six or eight inches thick. It split from top
to bottom. Because God was saying, that's
done, that's over, I'm finished showing you pictures now, here's
the way. Christ is the way. He's the way.
Now you see, access can only be granted in a lawful, righteous
way that upheld God's glory. That's the only way access could
be granted. I hear people all the time, religious worlds, always
talking about the love of God. The love of God, the love of
God. Let me tell you something about the love of God. The love
of God alone could not give you access to God. But here is the
love of God. Listen. In this was manifested
the love of God toward us. Because that God sent His only
begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. Here
in His love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and
sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. To put away sin
by the sacrifice of Himself. And that's what Christ did. And
so access was given in a manner that's consistent with God's
holiness. God's people sinned against God,
so justice had to be satisfied, and Christ satisfied it. And
to receive all the glory, God himself had to do the justifying.
And that's who Christ is. He's God. Therefore, Christ,
who's God, paid those wages and justified his people. Now, by
Christ's death on the cross, the character of our lawgiver
is magnified. The character of our God is magnified. We see God's presence is the
holy place into which no sinner and no sin can enter. Sinner,
you can't enter God's presence. Right now, if you died, you'd
go to hell, and justly so. You'd be there forever, and justly
so. You'll never pay what you owe to God. We see God is holy and righteous.
He's set against all sin, even when it's laid on His only begotten
Son. We see that God and His love's not indifferent to sin.
God's love's not indifferent to sin. God's love's not willing
to sweep justice under the rug. But on the contrary, God's love's
holy, propitiating, redeeming love. Christ's death. being God's own son, Christ's
death being God's own son, shows that God won't modify His law. He won't lessen the penalty.
He won't be lenient towards sin in any way. When sin was found
on His son, He crucified Him. He killed Him. And justly so. In all this, it shows us that
the upholding of God's divine glory comes before everything
else. before anything else. You see,
your salvation and my salvation, it's not about us. It's not just
about us being saved from our sin. It's to declare God's glory. So all this nonsense that's going
on in churches where they're just creating a big old country
club and a big sorority and a big fraternity where they just party
and have a good time and it's called a lascivious giving themselves
over to lasciviousness, working lasciviousness with all greediness,
is what it's called in Scripture. Because there's no glory spoken
of, there's no righteousness satisfied, there's no holiness
of God spoken of. And it's all a lie. Alright,
let me show you something else now. Our text says we both have
access by one Spirit. All God's elect, born the first
time, are born of Adam's corrupt seed. And so we were born dead
in sins as sons of Adam. We're born of corrupt seed. Dead
sinners are the children of Adam. Born of Adam's corrupt seed.
So God's elect had to be born again of Christ's incorruptible
seed in order to be children of Christ, our last Adam. We
had to be born again. This is a necessity. Now this
is true of all God's elect. It says there in verse 18, through
Christ we both have access by one Spirit. This is true of every
single person God saves. They got to be born of the Holy
Spirit. Before being born of the Holy Spirit, as dead sinners,
we had no desire to enter the presence of the true and living
God. We didn't have a desire to do that. As dead sinners,
we were not alive to even know that we were without God, without
Christ, and without hope in the world. I sit here and preach
the gospel week in and week out, and I see some of you sitting
here that you have no clue you're dead. You have no clue you're
going to hell. You're on a fast track to hell
right now. And don't even care. More concerned
about the color of your shoes than you are whether or not you're
going to hell or not. That's sad. But that's the case
of every sinner dead in sin. They have no idea they're dead.
And you know what? We all know fathers and mothers
who raise in their children without having them under the sound of
the gospel. I know children in my neighborhood that are being
raised without being under the sound of the gospel. They're
scared to death of death. They have no idea what it is
or what happens afterward. Why? Why do parents do that? Where there is only enmity against
God, the sinner prefers to be separate from God, and the further
away, the better. The gospel reminds him of his
sin. The gospel reminds him that God's will is going to be done
and his will is not going to be done and a sinner don't like
that. It reminds him that God is righteous and he's a sinner
and a sinner doesn't like that. It reminds him that God hates
sin and the sinner loves sin and so the sinner hates to hear
how much God hates him and his sin. And a sinner hates God so much
that he'd rather throw his child, his own child, to the fires of
hell than risk his child meeting God and then his own child preaching
the gospel to him. That's enmity. So the sinner
will choose himself over the salvation of his own child any
day. It's because God is a million
times worse than hell to a dead sinner. That's what enmity is. That's
what all sinners are while dead in their sin. You can sit there
and say, I'm not like that. God says you are. God says you
are. Christ said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of God, because that which is born
of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto you, you must be born again. Turn
over to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. You see, we've got to be born
of incorruptible seed. That incorruptible seed is the
Word of God which is preached unto us. God the Holy Spirit
makes that conception happen. He makes that Word enter in and
makes us a new child to be born within. Look at 1 Peter 1.23.
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, that's how you were born
the first time, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. Our eternal life is by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Now look, for all flesh
is as grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of grass.
The grass withers, the flower thereof falleth away, but the
word of the Lord endures forever. You want to live forever? You
got to be born of this word, this incorruptible seed. And
this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
And when we're born again, then we become, look at chapter 2
verse 2, then we become as newborn babes, and we desire the sincere
milk of the word that we may grow thereby. How do you know
a person's been born again? How do you know a child's been
born? They drink the milk. Don't they? And they don't...
Have you ever seen a child that stopped drinking milk? They die. They die. You know God's child's
born again because he keeps drinking the milk. He's got to have it.
He don't drink it sometimes, now and then, and fits and starts.
He drinks it all the time. He's got to have it. Now, not
a single person in here would have a being. You would not have
a being as a child of Adam except you were conceived of seed from
your first father Adam. None of us here would even have
an existence were that not the case. Well, likewise, no elect
child of God has any existence whatsoever until we're conceived
of the last Adam, Christ our everlasting Father, by the incorruptible
seed. This birth performed because
God said He would. He said in the Old Testament,
I'm going to sprinkle clean water on you. I'm going to purge you
from your filthiness, from your idols. I'm going to give you
a new heart, a new spirit. I'm going to put it within you.
I'm going to take the stony heart out of your flesh. I'm going
to give you a heart of flesh. I'm going to put my spirit in you.
I'm going to cause you to walk in my statutes and my judgments.
For His church, Christ our Heavenly Father came. He came. Christ
came that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of
water by the Word. That He might present it to Himself
a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish. And it's the
Holy Spirit by whom Christ accomplishes this work in all God's elect.
Not by works of righteousness, which we've done, but according
to His mercy, He saved us by the washing of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ our Savior. That being justified by His grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
When that Holy Spirit gives us life, He puts that new spirit
within us, He gives us a broken and contrite heart. You know
what a broken and contrite heart is? A broken and conflicted heart
is willing to be saved on God's terms. That's what it is. Stop saying but, but, but. But
I think this and I think that. Who do you think you are to exalt
yourself to such heights that you can just randomly out of
the air pull vain thoughts and say, but this is how I think
God is. What audacity. What audacity
to say something like that. God says plainly in His Word
how He saves, who He is and how He saves. And this is how He
saves. And when that Spirit enters in,
He bears witness with our spirit of what God has freely given
unto us. The Scripture says, We have received
not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God,
that we might know the things that are freely given to us of
God. Look back at Hebrews 10 verse 15. Look at Hebrews 10
and verse 15. He says there, and hold your
place here, we're going to come back, whereof the Holy Ghost
also is a witness to us. He teaches us the Gospel. He
says, after that He had said before, this is the covenant
I'll make with them after those days said to the Lord, I'll put
my laws into their hearts and their minds will I write them,
and their sins and iniquities I'll remember no more. We've
got to be taught that. And so the Holy Spirit teaches
us that. And He teaches us this in verse 18, where forgiveness
of sins is, there's no more offering for sins. And so, that's when
the gospel goes from our head to our hearts. And that's where
it's got to go. That's where it's got to go.
I hated particular redemption. I hated the doctrine of particular
redemption. That God died for an elect chosen
people and put away their sin. I hated it. And then I learned
that true doctrine of particular redemption. I learned it. I was
taught it. And it made more sense than universalism
did. It made more sense to me that
if Christ died, He died for somebody. And if He put away sins, which
it says He did, He put away somebody's sins. That made sense to me. But still, the doctrine of universal
atonement was no offense to me. It wasn't offensive to me. But
then one day I began to see my sins. And then I began to believe
Christ is my Lord and my Savior, that He died for me. And I began
to see I could call out to God because God is my Father. And
I began to cry out to Him. What happened? What happened? The Holy Spirit of adoption entered
into the heart. You've not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear, but you've received the spirit of
adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Now, when somebody talks
about my Father, it offends me if they're not speaking truthfully
of Him, because I love Him, because He gave me a heart of love. Don't
you get offended when somebody speaks against your mother, your
father? Well, I get offended when somebody speaks evil, untrue
about my Heavenly Father. This is personal to me. It's
my family you're talking about. Isn't it so with you? One day
the sinner finds himself being able to cry out to God his Father
in truth like a little child. Why? The Spirit helps our infirmities. For we know not how we should
pray as we ought, but the Spirit makes intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered. The Spirit draws prayer out of
us and teaches us what to pray and how to pray and draws us
to God to pray and that's when we really start praying. And
then we delight to join with our brethren, because by this
one Spirit, we're all baptized into one body. Whether we be
Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, we've been all
made to drink into one Spirit. And so there's one body and one
Spirit, even as you're calling, one hope of your calling. There's
one Lord, there's one faith, there's one baptism, there's
one Godfather of all who's above all and through all and in you
all. And I know every religion in the world makes that claim.
But you just see this revolving door in religion. God calls some
people in this world and He makes it stick. He makes them planted. And they don't leave. They don't
leave. He that's joined to the Lord's One Spirit. And all these
fruits of this One Spirit are the same in every believer. It
may go about in a little different manner, but they're the same.
He does this. He gives you a conviction of your sin. He gives you a conviction
that Christ is our only righteousness. He gives you a conviction that
judgment is accomplished. And He gives us repentance and
faith and hope and love every time. Every time. Senator, do
you know what I'm speaking of? If you do, don't grieve the Holy
Spirit. He's going to win. So give in to Him and be saved.
There's another member of this Godhead, and I'm just going to
be brief here. It's God the Father. It's God the Father. For through
Him, we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. By Christ,
through the Holy Spirit, by the Father. It was God the Father
who initiated this access in the first place. Before we fell
in sin, God the Father chose who He was going to save out
of the race and said, here's how I'm going to save them. In
Christ my Son. He made everything ordered and
sure before He ever even made the world. You see, God's not
a... He's not a lackadaisical, lazy
procrastinator like me and you. He didn't create a world and
watch it sink into sin and then stand by helplessly and say,
now what am I going to do? Oh, I've got to come up with
a plan. No. He had it all ordered and sure before the world was
made. He loved His elect all over the world so much that He
sent His only begotten Son to put away our sins. And it's God
the Father who sends the Holy Spirit. When Christ said, I'm
going to intercede for you, He said, I'll pray the Father. And
He'll give you another comforter that He may abide with you forever.
There's the three persons. Christ said, I'm going to do
the praying. I'm going to pray to the Father. And the Father's
going to send the Holy Spirit. And He's going to comfort your
hearts. So now we have access to the Father by Christ through
the Holy Spirit. Go back to Hebrews 10 verse 19. Here it is all summed up for
us. Hebrews 10, 19, Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter the
holiest by the blood of Jesus. A new way as opposed to that
old covenant way. By a living way as opposed to
that dead literal way. By a new and living way which
He hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, is
His flesh. And having a high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near, here's the Holy Spirit,
with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
And who we draw into? God our Father. God our Father. Then how is He going to receive
me if I come? He is going to receive you like
the father received the prodigal son. Never turning one away. Putting that best robe on them,
that ring on their fingers, shoes on their feet, and keeping it
there. And receiving them gladly. Sinner, you have a desire to
come to God. Do you have any desire to come
to God? Then come. And come with full
confidence of the assurance of faith that God will receive you.
Soon there's going to be a great gulf fixed and you won't be able
to come. But now's the day of grace. You
can come now. How do I know I can come to Him? Do you desire to come to Him?
Do you desire to believe on Him? Then believe on Him. Confess
your sins to Him. Believe on Him. Stay at His feet. Desire to hear the sincere milk
of the Word. Now, our proposition was this.
In order for God to receive all the glory and our salvation,
then all three persons in the Godhead have a work to perform
to give us access. If we say that the only thing
necessary is to be elected of God the Father, then we leave
out redemption by the Son and regeneration by the Holy Spirit.
If we say that the only thing necessary is to be elected by
the Father and redeemed by the Son, we leave out regeneration
by the Spirit and we reject Christ's very Word that we must be born
again, that we must repent, that we must believe on Christ. But
when we're regenerated and given a new heart, given that new Spirit,
given a willingness to be saved on God's terms, we rejoice that
God the Father chose us, Christ the Son redeemed us, and the
Holy Spirit regenerated us. And we give the glory now to
all three persons in the Godhead, because all three persons, our
one God is who gave us access. For through Him we both have
access by one Spirit under the Father. Therefore, brethren,
our access is even better than what Adam had. His could be broken,
severed. Ours never. We've been born of
eternal God. Never again shall we be separated.
Read Romans 8. Who shall separate us from the
love of God? Nothing. Nothing. For those without Him,
without God, without Christ, without hope in this world, I
pray God give you this access today. It's going to be one way. Through the three persons of
the Godhead. Amen. Alright, brethren. We got about