Accepted In The Beloved

Q: What does the Bible say about being accepted in the beloved?

The Bible teaches that we are accepted in the beloved through Christ, highlighting God's grace and love towards us. Ephesians 1:6 states, 'to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.' This signifies that our acceptance before God is not based on our merit, but solely on God's grace through Jesus Christ. Being in the Beloved means being enveloped in His love, reflecting how Christ is adored by the Father, and by extension, we are embraced in that acceptance when we are united with Him. Throughout Scripture, God's eternal affection is highlighted—He chose us, loved us with an everlasting love, and made us fit for communion with Him, which fortifies the foundational belief in sovereign grace theology.

Q: How do we know Christ's love is genuine?

Christ's love is demonstrated in the scriptures and the sacrificial act of His atonement for our sins. The authenticity of Christ's love is found in various scriptural declarations, such as in John 15:9, where it states, 'As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.' This love is the model of genuine affection, revealing the depth and consistency that believers experience. His love is not contingent upon our actions but is based on His gracious choice to love us. Furthermore, Romans 5:8 reinforces this by stating that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, highlighting the unconditional nature of His love. This certainty provides believers with both assurance and security in their relationship with Christ, emphasizing the Reformed belief of being justified solely by His grace.

Q: Why is union with Christ important for Christians?

Union with Christ is essential as it signifies our identity, salvation, and acceptance before God. Union with Christ is a central theme in Reformed theology, illustrating how believers are intimately connected to Him. This union is crucial because it impacts our identity; as stated in John 17:21, we are called to be one with Christ as He is one with the Father. Our acceptance before God, our justification, and our sanctification all stem from this union. When we are united with Christ, we benefit from His righteousness and holiness as if it were our own. Furthermore, this union provides assurance in our salvation—our security rests not on our efforts but on Christ's perfect work. Thus, it is vital for Christians to understand and embrace this doctrine.

Q: How can we be assured of our salvation in Christ?

Our assurance of salvation comes from our trust in Christ's work and God's promises in Scripture. Assurance of salvation is a key aspect of Reformed theology, grounded in the faithfulness of God's promises and the sufficiency of Christ's atonement. Romans 8:1 proclaims that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, highlighting that our standing before God is secure. Furthermore, 1 John 5:13 assures believers that they can know they have eternal life. This assurance is not based on subjective feelings but rather on objective truth found in Scripture—believers can take comfort in the consistent character of God and the finished work of Christ. Understanding the depth of our union with Him, as emphasized in Ephesians 2:8-9, reinforces this assurance, reminding believers that salvation is entirely by grace through faith, not by works.

I sure am glad I was here to
hear that. And glad I was here last night
to hear Brother Don. My, my, what preachers, what
preaching. I told Bruce today, I feel like
it, you know, I don't even know that
I've started scratching the surface of preaching. I don't know. But
I enjoyed what you all had to say, both of you. And he was
talking about knowing you. I remember the first time I heard
you preach at Don's, I think maybe one of the first, second,
third conferences. And you preached on Behold the Lamb. And it was
really good. I remember it very well. I really
do. I remember us meeting the Scotts.
Oh, boy. Been down the road a long time.
A lot of the Lord's people enjoy one another. And after all these
years, still put up with one another, still enjoy one another.
That's just, that's only the grace of God and the love of
God in a man's heart. Amen. Turn with me to Ephesians
chapter one. Thank you all so much for allowing
me this blessed privilege to be here. I told Brother Bruce
again last night when we got home, I said, these people listen
so good. They listen so well. They enjoy
it so much. Read one verse of scripture. Ephesians 1.6, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. Accepted in the Beloved. Don
read last night in Colossians 1.12, where the Apostle said,
giving thanks unto the Father, who hath made us meet, made us
fit, made us able, be a partaker of the saints in light. And hath translated us and put
us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. So you see we accepted
in the Beloved. He put us in the kingdom of the
Son of His love. And God did that. But it says
here accepted in the Beloved. The Beloved. Song of Solomon
8.3 says this, I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine. Christ
is called Beloved and He is Beloved. He is Beloved. We're in the Beloved.
He's Beloved of the Father. Oh, how the Father loved His
Son. He spoke from Heaven when our Lord Jesus was baptized.
He says, This is my Beloved Son. This is my Beloved Son. And I
tell you, look over in Proverbs chapter 8. He was His Beloved
Son from all... As long as there's been God,
there's been His Son. And in Proverbs, Proverbs chapter
8, He was beloved of the Father
and the councils and the creation. And the Father come to glorify
His Son. He said, you know, He sent His
Son into this world to glorify Him. And He said, Father, glorify
Thy Son. And He said, I have glorified
it and I'll glorify it again. And oh, look what he said about
him here in Proverbs chapter eight and verse 22. So this is
what our Lord Jesus is saying. The Lord possessed me in the
beginning of his way before the works of old. When God, before
he done anything, I was his and he was mine. And I was set up
from everlasting, from the beginning, wherever the earth were. There
was no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, This is what God says about his son.
Before the mountains were settled, before the hills were brought
forth, while as yet he had not made the earth or the fields,
nor the highest part of the dust of the world, when he prepared
the heavens, I was there. When he set a compass upon the
deep, when he established the clouds above, when he strengthened
the fountains of the deep, when he gave to the waters his decree,
that the waters should not pass his commandment, when he appointed
the foundations of the earth. Then I was by him, as one brought
up with him. I was daily, daily his delight,
rejoicing always before him. Christ was always the delight
of his Father, daily his delight. Not only was he beloved of the
Father, but he's beloved of the church. All of God's people love
the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, we love him, Paul said,
those that love him in sincerity. We love the Lord Jesus Christ.
When our Lord asked Simon Peter, after he had denied him, he asked
him, he said, Simon, dost lovest thou me? Yes, Lord, I do. Simon,
do you love me? Lord, I do, I do. And he says,
Simon, do you love me? And then he turned around and
said, Lord, you know, you know. And I tell you, beloved, and
I know this from the depth of my heart and soul, that we, our
relationship on this earth is gonna come to a close, it's gonna
come to an end. And it's only Christ that our
relationships will be forever. And only Him is our relationship. And I love Christ. And I'll say
this without any fear. I love Christ more than I love
anything in this world. And I need Christ more than I
need anything in this world. When all relationships are gone,
When we get to glory, David said, one thing have I desired, and
that is you. And there's nobody in heaven
but you for me. He said, I don't wanna go see
my mother. I don't wanna go see my father. I'm not gonna go see
my wife. He said, Lord, I don't have nobody
in heaven but you and you alone. And beloved, that's the only
hope we have is what we have in Christ. And when you got that
relationship with Christ, whatever comes, and that's why Peter says,
you know I love you. And I tell you, our Lord Jesus
Christ, oh, you know, we don't love him as we should, don't
love him as he's worthy, don't love him as we want to, but he
knows, he knows in our hearts that we love him. We love him. We need him. And I tell you,
not only is he beloved to the church and for his blessed people,
but he's beloved to the angels. The angels just constantly praise
him and bless him and honor him and shout hallelujah and glory,
glory, glory, and holy, holy, holy. Constantly, he's beloved. And that's why he says he's the
beloved of the Father. And I tell you, we accept in
the beloved. Let me give you three points, just three little
old points. First of all, I'm gonna talk about our union with
Christ. accepted in the beloved. Secondly, I want to talk about
this condition of us being in Christ, this glorious condition,
and then how in the world we got in Christ. How we got there. First of all, we in the beloved.
Let's talk about our union with our Lord Jesus Christ. Don dealt
with this so wonderfully last night, our union with him. But
I tell you what, I know this, that we were in union, we was
in our Lord Jesus Christ's heart before the world ever began.
We were in his heart, we was loved of him, we were chosen
of him, had his affection set on us before the world ever began.
He said this in Jeremiah, he said, Jeremiah said, I've loved
you with an everlasting love and with cords of loving kindness
have I drawn thee. And he sold us over and our Lord
Jesus said in John 13, having loved his own, not just anybody,
having loved his own, which were in the world. He loved them unto
the end. I want you to look at several
scriptures with me tonight. And the first one I want you
to look at with me is John 11 five. This is wonderful. Oh, we're
in our Savior's heart. And you know, I don't know how
else to say it, but in his heart, there was that disciple whom
Jesus loved. Every time that John was mentioned,
he said, that disciple whom Jesus loved. that disciple whom Jesus
loved. And look what he said about,
but you know in verse four, Jesus heard Martha and Mary said to
the Lord, said, he whom thou lovest is sick. The Lord heard
and said, this sickness not unto death, but for the glory of God,
that Christ might be glorified thereby. Now look what it said
here. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Wouldn't you love to have your
name put there? Now, Jesus loved Larry Cribs. Jesus loved Daryl
Harper. But I tell you what, you can
put your name in there. Now, Jesus loved. Jesus loved. He calls them by
name. He loves his sheep and he calls them by name. And that's
why he says, and look over here in John 15 and nine. Just put
your name there. Look in John 15 and nine now.
Talking about love. Oh, we were in his heart. Look
what he said here. As the Father hath loved me,
how reckon you how the Father loved his blessed Son? As the
Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Ever how the Father
loved me, that's the way I love you. Continue in my love. You see, beloved, in Adam, we
fell from life to death. We fell from uprightness into
sin. But I tell you, we can't fall
out of Christ our Lord. We can't fall out of him. No,
no, as Eve was in Adam. When Adam was first made, before
the fall, when Eve was in Adam, and that's the way we are in
Christ. And beloved, we cannot get out of Christ. These people
that think you can be lost again, how do you get out of a body?
How do you get out of a person? And how do you get out of union
with a person? And as Eve was in Adam before
the fall, we were in Christ before the fall. And I'll give you a
couple illustrations how we're so one with our Lord. I want
you to turn to Exodus 28. Now everybody knows about the
high priest. The high priest, you know, he had these beautiful
garments on. And he went before God for the
people. He went before God. And you know
the high priest, he had garments and he had these stones upon
his shoulders. And then he had this breastplate
on and he had four stones here, four stones here, Three stones,
three stones, three stones, 12 stones on his breastplate. And
all these stones on his shoulder and also on his breastplate had
names written on them, engraving on them. And beloved, when that
high priest went before God, he had the names of all the children
of Israel on him in two places. First of all, on his shoulders,
to carry the burden of Him and the weight of Him as a memorial
before the Lord and then on His breast to show Him that He also
had Him on His heart and also loved Him and protected Him in
this glorious thing. Now look what is said here in
Exodus 28 in verse 11. Now there were six stones and
all these names on six, one on each shoulder. And with the work
of an engraver in stone, like the engraving of the signet,
thou shalt engrave the two stones with the names of the children
of Israel. Thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold.
And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod
for stones of memorial upon the children of Israel. And Aaron
shall bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders
for memorial. And there's even two stones up
there. Every time he went in the presence of God, he took
Israel with him. Every time Christ is in the presence
of God, he's got us with him, got our names on him. Now look
over here in verse 29. Oh, bless his name. Listen to
what he said in verse 29. And Aaron shall bear the names
of the children of Israel upon the blessed plate of judgment
upon his heart. when he goeth unto the holy place
for memorial before the Lord continually on his heart. Now look down verse 36. So he
had his names on his heart, on his breastplate, and he bore
these names. He bore us on his heart, on his
shoulders. And look what he said down in
verse 36. Now listen to this. Talking about this union and
Christ's love and how he had us in his heart. And thou shalt
make a plate of pure gold, engrave upon it the engravings of a signet,
holiness to the Lord. And thou shalt put it upon a
blue lace, that it may be upon the miter, upon the forefront
of the miter, it shall it be. And it shall be, listen to this,
and it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear
the iniquity of the holy things with the children of Israel,
shall howl in all their gifts, and it shall be always upon his
forehead. Now listen to this, that they
may be accepted before the Lord. You're talking about a union
on his shoulders, on his heart, our names are there, and then
that holiness to bear the iniquities of our holy things. What is that?
That's our praying, that's our preaching, that's our listening,
That's our singing. Anything we come in in a worship
service to do, anything that we call worshiping God and all
the things and sins involved in it, Aaron, God bears that
holiness before the Lord. Not our holiness, his holiness. And we're accepted before the
Lord because of him. And that's why, oh, we're accepted
in the beloved. Oh, accepted in the beloved.
Let me tell you something else back over in our text. and have
union with him in his heart. We were in his heart, loved us,
always loved us. He read it tonight, all to know
the depth of the height and the breadth and the width of the
love of Christ that passes understanding. Not only that, but we were in
Christ's book. We were in such union with our
Lord Jesus Christ, we were in his book. And there's two books
in the scripture. Revelation 5, it says this, that
there's a book written with the N on the backside and sealed
with seven seals. And John sat there and he cried
like a baby and he said, now who in the world is worthy to
take that book and open that book? And that book contained
all the will, the purpose, the names, everything that God purposed
in this world was in that book. Oh, every name of every child
of God, every name of every soul that he loved, every name for
whom Christ died, and he calls the Lamb's Book of Life. And
John began to cry, and all of a sudden there was a lion of
the tribe of Judah, a lamb as it had been slain, and the scripture
said he went right up to the throne, walked right up to the
throne and wretched off that throne and took that book out
of the hand of God. And he opened all the seals,
And beloved, you know what? My name wasn't written in the
book of life the day I believed. I believed because my name was
already written in the book of life. Ain't that right? A lot of folks say, well, if
you believe tonight, put another name in the book. If you believe
it's because your name's already in the book. Ain't that right,
Don? Oh, listen, I tell you what,
that's what he said. And everyone whose name was not
written in the Lamb's book of life was cast into outer darkness. Let me show you something in
Psalm 139. I hope this will be a blessing
to you, Psalm 139. You know, we're in Christ's book. Christ be my first elect, God
said, and then chose our souls in Christ our head. But look
over here in Psalm 139 just a moment. I'll not hold you very long.
Psalm 139, look what it said in verse 13. This is David talking
now, talking about God's creating him, creating him, and all that
he'd done for it when he was made in secret. He said, you
possess my range, you've covered me in my mother's womb. You covered
me, it's you that created me, it's you that covered me, and
I'll praise thee for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. You're
the one that made me. You're the one that created me.
And I know my soul knows it. Now listen to this. My substance
was not hid from thee, the strength of my body. When I was made in
secret, he didn't know when he was conceived, his mama didn't
know when he was conceived, and his daddy didn't. God said when
he was made in secret. And curiously wrought in the
lowest parts of the earth, born down here on the world. Born
down here. His grandmother was Rahab, like
he just said. And then he says, Thine eyes
did see my substance, my body, everything about me, yet being
unperfect. And in thy book, oh, listen to
this now. In thy book, all my members are
written. My mind, my heart, my will, my
affections, my understanding, everything that makes me me,
you put it in the book. Which then continues, were fashioned,
and when as yet there was none of them, you put me in the book. You wrote everything about me
in your book. You see, Christ was the firstborn, and that's
why you know it in that book. He is named the very firstborn.
Christ the firstborn. He is the first name. He's God's
elect and we're chosen in him. And if you can disprove the sonship
of the Lord Jesus Christ, you disprove ours too. And all things,
our Lord Jesus has the preeminence. And that book that nobody else
could open, only he could open it. And he opened that. And because
of that, everything's fixed and he just made us to know it when
he opened that blessed book. You see, not only we're in Christ's
heart, we're in his book, but we're in his hand as our surety. Now wouldn't you, people say,
well, you know, you think only a handful save. Yeah, well, I
do. I think only a handful save. But it's his hand. It's God's
hand. That's right. I don't have a
handful saved, but it's God's hand. And that's what, you know,
we're in His hand is our surety. And what that means that our
Lord Jesus Christ dedicated Him, gave Himself and contracted Himself
and covenanted Himself to stand good for everything that was
against us. Every debt, every transgression,
every imperfection, every fault, every flaw, everything that was
against us. He said, I will stand good for
all that's against them, and if I cannot take every one of
them and deliver them to you, faultless and without blame,
perfect, holy and without blemish, then I'll bear the bane of it.
And our Lord Jesus Christ, and that word surety means someone
who compensates for the lack of, quality, incompetence, everything
that there could be wrong with a fellow. He said that's what
a surety does. And I'll tell you, you talk about incompetent,
I needed a surety. Not smart enough to do it for
myself, I needed a surety. A debt I could not pay, I needed
a surety. So he took us in his hand and
said, I'll guarantee you. He said, Father, they were thine
and you gave them to me. You gave them to me, and I'll
bring everyone. That's what I love about this
gospel. It's Christ is responsible for the sheep. God never once
looked to me for anything. He never did then, he does not
now, and he will not tomorrow. When I lay down to face him as
he sung tonight, Christ is all, and if I can able to die with
a smile on my face and enter into Christ's glory, God still
won't expect nothing from me. Now what can I possibly give
to him? And so when I face God, I'm gonna
stand there with Christ. He paid every, unto the uttermost
farthing. Oh, bless his name. I'll tell
you what, Tim James said it like this. He said, you know, we got
a double-fisted salvation. Christ said it, no man's able
to pluck him out of mine. And he says, no man's able to
plug them out of my father's hand, which is gave me. So you
got salvation by two fists. God's fist. That's pretty secure,
ain't it? That's pretty secure. We're in
his hand as surety. We're in his heart as his heavenly
lover. We're in his book as God's elect.
And we're in his hand as surety. It's like when Judah said, oh,
take Benjamin, let me take him down there. And if I don't bring
him back to me, required of me. And if God don't take us to glory,
like John Jasper said, if God don't take us to glory that's
trusted in Christ and Christ died for and redeemed, God's
got much more to lose than we do. But I'm telling you, I remember
years and years ago, one of the first times I heard you preach,
you preached from Isaiah 42, he shall not fail. I remember
you and Henry were preaching down in Nashville years and years
ago, and a fella named Bob, somebody there, that started a church
after it split from some other place, and all that was left
was a few splinters. But you and Henry was down there
preaching, and I remember, boy, you was over there pooping, and
you was doing this here, and you said, oh, but he shall not
fail. I remember that. And Ed Elmore
got that tape and just wore it out. He won't fail, he cannot
fail. He saved a bunch of failures, but he can't fail. He saved a
bunch of incompetence, but he can't fail. He saved a bunch
of harlots, but he can't fail. He can't do it. And I'll tell
you, when you was talking about Rahab, whether you know some
and looking at her, I wonder if Rahab thought, you know, I
don't know if I'll marry Solomon or not, you know. He may not
be the only fish in the sea. You know, God saved me. There
may be another believer around here. Everybody acts like he
had to come down and do that, but I tell you what, what about
her? Yeah, you know, when God saves a person, I'll tell you
what, that's all it takes. They're holy and perfect right
in there. And then I'm gonna tell you something, I'm gonna
say something. And we're not only in his heart, we're in his
hand, and we're in his book, But we were in Christ's loins
from the foundation of the world. Now what do I mean by that? Well,
were we not in Adam's loins? Were we not all descendants of
Adam? We inherited his nature, we inherited his sin nature.
We can trace, you know, Mary's a great genealogist. She got
She's got genealogy for everybody in the county, and people come
and get big stacks of paper from her, and people call her all
the time, and she can sell books. She knows it frontwards and backwards. But I keep telling her, I say,
Sweetheart, you're going to go back so far one of these days,
you're going to find out you're joined to Adam. But we were,
we were joined to Adam, and we were descendants of Adam. Adam's
nature is in us. And when he fell, we fell, one
by one, man sinning in the world, death by sin, death passed upon
all, for all have sinned. Now, then the other side of that
is, is that we were the seed of Christ. We were chosen of
Christ and we were in Christ's Lord. How do you think we got
a new nature? How do you think we got a nature
that loves God and desires God and desires Christ? I believe
I can prove that from the scriptures. We were in the Lord's of Christ
from all eternity. We're his seed. Look over in
1 John 3, 9. And you go through the scriptures,
and you go through Psalm, there's several places where God calls
us the seed. You know your seed will be blessed
forever. But look here in 1 John 3, 9. And that's why he said, you know,
he shall see his seed and prolong his day. You know I was in, let
me say it this way. There's my dad, then there's
his dad, then there's his dad, then there's his dad, and there's
his dad. And then there's his dad, and
then there's his dad, and there's his dad, and there's his dad,
and I can go back ten generations. And I was as much in that first
one as I was in the tenth one. Everything I was and everything
I was going to be. My height, my weight, my hair color, Everything
about me was in years ago, in that seed, years ago. And guess
what? I come out just like my daddy.
I was in his Lord. And that's the same way we were
in Christ. What we are spiritually. What we are spiritually. We got
it from Christ, is that not right? We got it from the seed of Christ
put in our hearts. What we are spiritually, what
we know spiritually, what we experience spiritually, what
we understand spiritually, the wisdom we have, the knowledge
we have, the understanding we have, the love we have, everything
we have, it comes with us in Christ. Now look here in 1 John
3, 9. Listen to this now. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin, Why not? For His seed. Whose seed? Christ's
seed. The Word of God. The Living Word
in us. And He cannot sin because He's
born of God. Now how in the world can that
be? I don't know, but I know that's what it says. And I believe
it. I believe it. Let me show you over in 1 Peter
1.23. Yeah, it's 123, I believe. Listen to this. Look in verse 23. Being born
again, not of corruptible seed. You know what the corruptible
seed is? That's what we got. But of incorruptible, by the
word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. God takes his
seed and by the preaching of the gospel, he plants a seed
in us. And we were in Christ, all to think that we are spiritually,
we are the Lord, God said we are the Lord's planning. And
let me see if I can illustrate this way, and I will quit just
in a minute. Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek. Is that not right? And it says that the less is
blessed by the greater. Abraham blessed Melchizedek blessed
Abraham who was better. But it says that Levi was in
the loins of Abraham and he paid tithes to Melchizedek. Ain't
that right? And you know why we worship Christ
and love Christ and need Christ and desire Him above everything? Because His seed is in us and
that's the Spirit of God's in us. We're the children of God.
And I tell you, He's the one that began us again. He's the
one that gave us life. And I'll tell you something about
the new birth. Now, if you can believe it, I really believe
this is so. And if you fellas disagree with
me, wait till after we have to go to service. Don't do it while
I'm up here preaching. But I'll tell you, when a man is born
again, regenerated by the Spirit of God, when that seed of Christ
comes to fruition, when a man's regenerated, God
brings into existence a person who never existed before. Wouldn't
you agree with that? There's a person that God brings
into existence that never existed before. And it's a spiritual
person. And because of Christ in them,
they are a spiritual person. They think spiritually. They
look spiritually. They never thought about God,
and then one day, they want Him more than anything else. They
didn't think about sin, and then one day, they want to be done
with it more than they want to be done with anything else. One
day, they wouldn't read the Bible. If you could pay them money,
sit down and read the Bible, they wouldn't do it. Now they love
the Word of God. And did you ever think in your
life that you would come and sit here and listen to two preachers
back to back, both of them long-winded, and sit and enjoy it and rejoice
in it and delight in it? What in the world took place
that made you that way? You know what it is? Christ in
you, that life of Christ. Well, let me give you this, and
we're not only in His loins, in His book, in His heart, in
His hand, but we're also in the very person of Christ. We're
in Him. We're chosen in Him. You said
last night, perfect in Him, complete in Him. And beloved, that's why
Paul said, I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live,
and yet the life that I now live in the flesh, I live it by the
faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for
me. Now let's look about accepted in the beloved, our glorious
condition. That's our union. Very simple. Look at our glorious
condition. Back over here in Ephesians,
it says this. He has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. He's blessed us first
of all with our election. Chosen us in him before the world. And he's blessed us with holiness
and without blame. He predestinated us. and he done
it to Jesus Christ according to his good pleasure. We have
redemption through him in verse 7. He has abounded toward us
and made known the wisdom to we have obtained an inheritance
in it. And we're justified before God because all blessings are
in him. And we accept it only in Christ
and Christ alone because that's the only one God accepts. And
let me ask you this. Do you know of a better way to
be accepted of God? Do you know of a better way to
be accepted of God than accepted in the beloved? Huh? If you find
a better way, I've never found a better way. Huh? And you know
what? Over in Luke 1.28, it says this, that when the angel came
to Mary and said, Hail, thou art highly favored among women. You know what? That's the same
word as accepted here. Thou art graciously accepted
highly graced of God. We're graciously accepted and
highly, much graced in that word acceptance. That's what it means.
In ourselves, rejection. Not acceptable. In Adam, not
acceptable. The Armenian, the freewheeler
says, walk worthy and you'll be accepted. Walk unworthy and
you'll become unacceptable. But in Christ, acceptable. Come on, let's say, Father, is
there any fault you can find in me? No, sir. Law, come and
see if you can find anything that I've broken about you. Have
I broken any law at all? No, sir. Justice, come on, pull
out your sword and see if you can find any sin in me that you
can punish me for. I ain't fixing to pull it out. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's Christ that died. Who can
condemn? It's God that justifies us. And
so we're acceptable. And I'll tell you, beloved, let
me tell you this, how it was accomplished. Look back over
in our text, and I'm through. Look what it says there. To the
praise of the glory of His grace we're in. Now listen to this.
He hath made us. He did it. He's made us. Why are you accepted? He made
you accepted. He made us accepted Justly, if
I can say it that way. He made us accepted justly because
Christ made us able to be accepted. He hath made us by His power.
It says, you know, salvation is of the Lord. And by His power,
He made us accepted. And I do believe it. And I will
believe that the Lord Jesus died for me. That there on that cross,
He shed his blood from sin to set me free. God made me, put
me in Christ. You know, he said, Christ is,
and Don used it last night. First Corinthians 1.30 says,
God hath made Christ unto us. Has Christ made anything? God
has to make Christ unto us. How do we get in Christ? God
puts us in Christ. How do we, Christ made wisdom?
God made him wisdom. How did He become our redemption?
God made Him our redemption. How did He become our righteousness?
God made Him our righteousness. How did He become our holiness?
God made Him our holiness. And let me say this and I'll
ask you four questions and I'm done. Do you know that holiness
is a state of being? You can never be more holy at
one time than you can at another? Now you think about that. That's
right. God is holy, Christ is holy. Could he be more holy at
any one time than they are? Are we holy in Christ? Are we
sanctified in Christ? Then we cannot be any more holy
at one time we can another. Now I know you're gonna feel
like you are when you feel real spiritual and you've prayed real
good and you've come to the service and you jumped up and down, but
that's not the way it is. But let me ask you this four
questions. Are you holy and absolutely dependent upon the Lord Jesus? absolutely, wholly, completely
dependent on the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you? Second question, do you feel
your need of Him to make you acceptable to God? That He's
the only one that can make you acceptable. Do you feel that
need of Him to make you acceptable to God? Him and Him alone. Third
question, do you love Him? Do you love Him? Just like a
marriage is two people. They become one flesh. And the
longer the marriage is, the sweeter it gets, the stronger the union
gets, and that's the way it is with Christ. We're joined to
Him. Do you love Him? And the last question is this.
Is there life in you right now? Is life in you right now? Is
there new life in you? Is Christ in you? is our new
life in you, right now, not tomorrow, right now. Our Father, O our gracious, gracious
God in heaven, we bless you for this time to meet here with these
dear saints in Alabama, here in Sylacauga. Thank you for the
saints who drove and came to worship with us. Thank you for
these two preachers, this and Brother Larry, the pastor here.
God, I thank you for these men, used of God so blessed to my
heart so many times. Thank you for the good attention
of these people, their generosity, their love. And I pray, Lord
Jesus, that you would cause this church to flourish and to grow,
cause it to bring glory and honor to you. Take this congregation,
and come among them. Enlarge their tent. Send your
sheep in to hear the blessed gospel from this dear man. Thank
you for allowing me the privilege for their love and generosity.
God bless these dear saints as they go on in their lives worshiping
you and honoring you. We thank you for them in our
Lord Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, brother. Thank you, folks.

Accepted In The Beloved

What does the Bible say about being accepted in the beloved?

How do we know Christ's love is genuine?

Why is union with Christ important for Christians?

How can we be assured of our salvation in Christ?

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Accepted In The Beloved

What does the Bible say about being accepted in the beloved?

How do we know Christ's love is genuine?

Why is union with Christ important for Christians?

How can we be assured of our salvation in Christ?

Sermon Transcript

About Donnie Bell

Comments

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