Now, I'd like for you to take
your Bibles and turn with me back to Ephesians chapter 3. In the Sunday school lesson,
I gave you five things concerning the eternal purpose of God. I hope now, by the grace of God,
to give you seven fruits of that purpose. Seven things that must
surely come to pass. When we talk about the things
of God, we're not talking about things that may happen, but things
that surely shall happen. My brother once said to me years
ago, he said, if I believed what you say you believe, he said
I wouldn't preach. And I said, not really. I said,
you need to think that over. Because if I believe what you
believe, that this thing was all up to man. I wouldn't bother
to preach because man's dead in trespasses and sin. Only God
can awaken him and quicken him and give him life. He can't purpose
anything. His will, man's will, is so weak
he can't even will off a cold, a coming cold, let alone accomplish
these great things which God has purposed in eternity. It's
because I believe in these things that I preach. Because these
things must surely come to pass. In Ephesians 3 verse 9, Paul
tells us something of the glory of the gospel ministry which
God had given him as a trust. That's what that word dispensation
means back in the early verses of this chapter. It means an
administration or a trust. Paul was to take the highest
form of wisdom and preach it to the lowest form of man, the
Gentile. He was to preach the unsearchable
riches of Christ to these Gentile believers, these heathens. He
was to take that which before had only been revealed to just
a chosen few and declare that mystery and the fellowship of
that mystery to all men. And to show them how that they
were all included under this great purpose of God. It says
in Ephesians 3, 9, to make all men see. Actually, if you look
closer at your Bible, that word men is not there. It wasn't in the original. And
so when he says to make all to make all see what is the fellowship. He's talking about all those
given to Christ in that covenant of grace before the foundation
of the world. To make all men see what is the
fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world
hath been hid in God. Now watch this. Who created all
things by Jesus Christ. Now the sense here is that Paul
had received his calling of God to make these mysteries known,
not to any specific nation, but to all that God had purposed
to save out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue under
heaven. Salvation was not for the Jew
only, and you run into this so often in the scriptures where
he said, to the Jew first and also the Gentile. to the Jew
first and also to the Gentile, showing us that these things
were first revealed to the Jew, typically, figuratively, in the
Jew, and then to the Gentiles. Acceptance was not based on any
kind of physical relationship or blood connection with Abraham,
but by an eternal union given to all those who will believe
in time And it was given to them before the foundation of the
world. And the one in whom all these mysteries are now revealed
is the one whom God appointed to this end before the world
was brought into being. Let me read verse 9 again. And to make all men see what
is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the
world hath been hid in God, who created All things by Jesus Christ. In Colossians 1, verse 14, He
said that this One in whom we have redemption through His blood,
even the forgiveness of sins, is He who bears the image of
God. What in the world is He talking
about? Why would He insert that in there? He said in Him we have
redemption, even the forgiveness of sins. And he says, and this
one is the image of the invisible God. What's he talking about?
Well, to bear his image is to declare his person. That's what
he's talking about. He made Adam after his own image. After the image of God, he says
it again, created he him. Christ is the image of God. He is the image of God because
God has appointed him to bear and declare His person. And this
One who bears His image is the firstborn of every creature.
That second thing He tells us there in Galatians 1. This One
who was appointed of God and anointed of God to declare His
name and bear His image. He is the firstborn of all creation. Every creature. Every creature. It says in Colossians 1.16, all
things were created by Him and for Him. He's the reason for
their being. He is the giver of life and being
to all men. In Him, Paul said, we live and
move and have our being. He's the head of the body, the
church, that in all things He might have the preeminence. He's
the reason for their existence. because of what God has purposed
to do in him, and all creation is preserved, maintained, and
directed to that end. All that in Christ. All right. Now watch this. Ephesians 3,
go back there, and now let's look at verse 10. To the intent,
here's God's intention in there, that now, that is in this gospel
age, Not just to the Gentiles, not just to the lowest form of
intelligence among men, but to the highest. Unto principalities
and powers in heavenly places, now that can only be talking
about angels, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom
of God. There were things of the divine
nature the nature of God, the character of God that cannot
be known simply by creation itself. Now in Romans chapter 1, he says
we have creation as a witness so that we're without excuse.
There's no way, no way that you can look at creation. Nathan,
we know tomorrow morning the sun's going to come up. Why?
Because it comes up same time. been coming up since the beginning
of time. We know that things revolve,
and we know the cycles of the earth, and the seasons of the
earth, and we know all of these things. And all of these things
declare the One Creator. They declare the eternal Godhead,
One who sits on the throne and governs these things. No way
all these things happen by accident. They happen because of one who
has the power and energy to make it happen. And so, not only he
says in Colossians 1, are these things made by him and for him,
but he said, by him all things consist. They all consist. But there's things of the divine
character of God that cannot be known by creation itself. Not by the things created, and
not by the intelligent creatures which he made. There are things
that can only be known by the redemption of chosen sinners,
by the sacrifice of God's Son, and to this end, the great work
of creation was trusted into his hand. God is going to make
known to his manifold wisdom, even to principalities and powers
in heavenly places, all the way down to the lowest form of man,
the Gentile. And he's going to do it through
the redemption of the church by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
that's what he's talking about. All of the great mysteries of
God are made known, not only to these Gentiles, but even to
the angels in glory. And it's going to be known by
God's election, predestination, redemption, and deliverance of
the church by the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The whole of the great mysteries hidden in God, including that
of creation and providence, are declared in His love and salvation
of the church. Everything that I know this morning
about the true and living God, I know by that. I know by God's
actions and by God's purpose and by those things which He
has accomplished in Christ Jesus concerning the church. Everything that God is, everything
that God says, everything that God does is to this end. Now watch this, verse 11, Ephesians
3, verse 11. According to the eternal purpose
which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. I want to give you
seven things that must surely come to pass as the result of
God's eternal purpose of grace in Christ Jesus the Lord. Now,
first of all, I know this, this surely has
to come to pass according, this is the fruit of God's purpose. God purposed this thing. He said,
if I purposed it, shall it not come to pass? This shall surely come to pass.
The Word. The second person of the Godhead
must take to himself human flesh, must take to himself the form
of a man and condescend and appear on this earth as a man. That's
the first thing. God purposed this. His earliest
revelation of his purpose to Adam in the garden was of the
woman's seed. The woman's seed. going to be
a man, a man-child. When she bore her first son,
she said, I've gotten the man. She wasn't talking about I've
got a boy. She was talking about the man, that man whom God had
promised to her, the woman seed. God cannot suffer or submit,
and man cannot satisfy. But the God-man can do both.
He can do both. And it's useless to talk about
a man pleasing God or winning God's approval. God put a perfect
man in a perfect environment, gave him authority over all things
he'd created, and gave him everything his heart could desire. And yet
he could not walk in submission to God. Now, what's a fallen
man in an imperfect environment who's constantly bombarded by
intimidation of sin, what's he going to do? He's not going to
do anything. He's not going to do anything.
Romans 5.12 tells us of the judgment and condemnation of our race,
saying, by one man sin entered into the world, death by sin,
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
The only hope for Adam's race is that the God-man mediator
which God appointed before the creation of man was to be the
savior of a people chosen of God in Him. And to do this, He's
going to come down and take into union with Himself the flesh
and soul of a man. Explain that. I can't. I can't. I just know it so. I just know
it so. So often we'll take something
and if we can't explain it, then we don't want to believe it.
You better not go there. Faith believes God. There's no
way you can explain God taking to Himself human flesh except
just to believe it. You go through here, you can
read about the fate of those under these two headships in
both Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15. There's one mediator between
God and me and the man, Christ Jesus. The man. The man. Let that ring home. The promised
Redeemer of God is set forth in Genesis 3 as the seed of woman. In Isaiah 7.14 it says, "...the
Lord Himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel, God with us." He must come where men are. And
as their federal head, provide them with a perfect righteousness,
and then as their substitute, suffer and die on the cross.
So that the first thing, according to this eternal purpose of God,
is that God must condescend and take to Himself the form of His
beloved church, and to take it forever. Forever. He didn't assume the flesh of
a man, and then when He went back into glory, discard that
body. But that body itself, this union
that He took to Himself is an eternal union. And there's a
man in glory right now, seated on the throne of God, running,
ruling all things, creating all things, accomplishing all things,
a man. All right, here's the second
thing. Having accomplished redemption and righteous standing of his
church, he must be raised by God's divine authority from the
dead to declare God's acceptance of all that he's done. That's
a must. That's the fruit of God's eternal
purpose. Our Lord told His disciples,
He called them aside and He told them, He said, from that point
He told them that he must go to Jerusalem, that he must suffer
at the hands of his enemies, that he must die, and that he
must be raised again the third day. This is a must because God
had purposed it. Romans chapter 4 verse 25, it
said, He was delivered. for our offenses and raised again
for our justification. And Paul argues this point in
1 Corinthians 15 as the very basis of our eternal hope before
God. He argues this point. If Christ
be not risen, then he said our preaching is in vain. What's
the point? A dead Christ can't do anybody any good. A dead Christ can't do you a bit
of good. We have a lively hope, one seated at the right hand
of God, raised from the dead. If Christ be not risen over in
1 Corinthians 15, then our preaching is in vain. He said, your faith
is in vain. And we've found false witnesses
of God. And if Christ be not raised,
he said, you're yet in your sins. And every man, he said, that
died in hope that God would one day raise him from the dead,
has just gone back to the dust. All his hope so obliterated if
Christ wasn't raised. And he said, we who believe these
things in this world are of all men most miserable if Christ
didn't rise from the dead. Ain't that why them disciples
had their head down and moping and walking along that road?
Because they thought that this was the Christ and now he's dead.
They were of all men most miserable. But he said, I'm risen. I'm risen. He said, since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection from the dead. For as in Adam
all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. And then the
third thing that must surely come to pass as the result of
God's redemptive purpose in Christ is that the Gospel must be preached
to all the world. Must be preached. In Mark chapter
13, the disciples were talking to the Lord about things concerning
the end of time. What should be the signs, they
said? What's going to be the evidence? What's going to mark
the end of time? And He's already told them over
and over and over that these were the last days. But in Mark
chapter 13, they ask him specifically about this end of time. And in
Mark 13.10, the Lord mentioned this fact. Now listen to this.
As a mark of the end of the world, when God is going to wind it
up, now listen to what He tells them. And the gospel, M-U-S-T,
must be preached among all nations. According to the purpose of God,
Glenn, it must be done. Must be. God purposed it. A faithful pastor and dear friend
of mine gave three reasons why the gospel must be preached. First of all, he said, because
God purposed it. That's right. It pleased God
through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. God
purposed this thing. And it's going to be done. The
second reason is this. for the salvation of His elect.
Paul said, God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth,
whereunto He called you by our gospel. And then thirdly, to
warn this unbelieving world of reprobates to flee from the wrath
to come. Those who hear the gospel and
Treat it with indifference and unbelief, shall in that day stand
before God without excuse. Remember what I quoted to you
earlier in the Sunday school lesson when those Pharisees said,
if thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. What did He tell them?
I told you. I told you. And in that day,
many of them are going to stand before Him declaring this and
declaring that. And He's going to say, I told
you. I told you. There are things which must and
shall take place as a result of God's everlasting purpose
of grace. The Son of God must condescend
and take to Himself the form of a man. And secondly, He must
be raised from the dead. And then the gospel, proclaiming
His person and work for the obedience of faith, must be preached to
all nations. You read about that in Romans
chapter 16. Alright, here's the fourth thing. Every soul given
to Christ in covenant mercy before the world began and for whom
he suffered and died and rose from the dead must be sought
out. They must be sought out and brought
into the fold of Christ by the effectual calling and regenerating
power of God's Holy Spirit. That has to be done. That's a
must. That's a must. They can't be
left not by their own decisions and will. They cannot be left
in the prison house. The perfect example of that is
old Bartimaeus. Barabbas, I'm sorry, Barabbas.
He's sitting down there in that prison house and he's He's not
seeking the Lord. He's not seeking forgiveness.
He might be dreading the hangman's noose or the cross. But he's
sitting down there a criminal. He had no righteous actions and
no righteous thoughts. But one had been chosen to die
in his stead. And the result of that election,
the result of that substitution, those guards came down and told
him to get out. You're free to go. You're free
to go. That's what I'm talking about.
Every soul given to Christ in covenant mercy before the world
began is going to be sought out. Sought out by the regenerating
power of God's Holy Spirit and the revelation of the Gospel. Our Lord said to those who heard
Him preach, He said, the hour is coming, and now is when the
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that
hear shall live. All right. Fifthly, all God's
elect must hear and believe. They must hear and believe. God of glory saves men on purpose. It's something we need to get
a hold of because this whole generation's ignorant of it.
God saves men on purpose. You can't throw up your hands
and say, well, there's no preacher down here. We ain't got no preacher. Well, reckon whose purpose purposed
that? You reckon that's an accident?
Or is this thing on purpose? You see what I'm saying? There
are no accidents with God. You can look at this thing that
we have on the internet, pictures of the United States, and over
here on the east coast, there's all kinds of churches. And over
here on the west coast, there's several churches. And right in
the middle is a big vacuum. There ain't nothing. Nothing. Just maybe one here and one way
up there. A little tiny group. Why is that? That's on purpose. On purpose. You can't go through the missionary
work of Paul and Peter and them and look at the map where these
churches was and not see the hand of God's purpose in it.
He didn't save everybody everywhere. He raised up a church here and
he raised up a church over there. He calls a man here and he calls
a man there. Now understand something. When
I'm talking about the preaching of the gospel, I'm also talking
about the written form. It's not just verbally spoken
from a pulpit. If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't
bother to write that bulletin, John. It wouldn't be the same,
can it? Nobody's going to be able to understand it. Why write
it? But that's as much the preached word as it is when I preach it
from this pulpit. And these preachers who have
died and gone and long gone, long gone, listen to what he
says of Abel. By him yet speaketh. Ain't that what he said? By him
he yet speaketh. And you can say that about every
preacher that's ever lived. I don't care what he's written. Some men have written thousands
of books. Some haven't written any books. But God uses those
things, and those things are also included in the gospel preach. His sheep hear His voice. They
are given ears to hear and eyes of faith to see and are made
willing in the day of His power. They are convinced and convicted
of Bible truth, of gospel truth, and totally contrary to this
world. Totally contrary. And they believe. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. I'm going
to give you two things, two things, having given you some things before
so you know exactly what it is I'm saying. Hope in election,
apart from faith, is certain doom. Certain doom. I don't care how strong you are
in election, unless you believe and trust on the Lord Jesus Christ,
it's certain doom for you. That make sense? That's what
this Bible says. Every Jew that rejected Christ
was a staunch believer in election. And they all perished in their
own belief. And the second thing is this,
hope and regeneration, apart from hearing the gospel, is certain
doom. Because it depends on an experience. It depends on your wisdom. And
it depends on your will. All right, here's the sixth thing.
As the sure result of God's eternal purpose of grace, Christ must
reign as God's mediatorial king until everything in God's eternal
purpose of grace is complete. He sits on the throne, John,
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. Expecting. Expecting men to believe. Why? Because he's purposed it.
He's bought the right. He sent the Spirit. There's no
excuse for them not to believe. They're all going to believe.
He sits on that throne and reigns. He arranges providence. How's
this one and that one? How's this preacher to know who
God's elect are? All these things. He sits on
the throne of his sovereign dominion, arranging all things, fixing
all things, arranging, putting Pulling people here, checking
all these events in their lives, leading up to this one great
thing, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He must reign. Listen to this,
1 Corinthians 15, 22, where, as in Adam all die, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order,
Christ the first fruit, afterward, they that are Christ at His coming. And then cometh the end when
He shall have." I love that word, shall have. Huh? That's sure, isn't it? When He
shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father. When
He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
For He must reign until He hath put all enemies under His feet. And He will. And He does. The success of all that God is
purposed to do has been trusted into the hands of God's mediatorial
King. And for Him to fail in any part
of His reign is for God's eternal purpose to be overthrown and
His Godhead taken away by the overthrown. Think about it. The assurance of the believer
is the same place that God has His in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's right. It's the same place
God put all His trust is where we put our trust, in the glorious
person and work of God our Savior and King. And the last thing
that must surely come to pass according to God's eternal purpose
of grace is that the bodies of God's elect will be raised incorruptible
from the tomb and see their last enemy death put under their feet. Write it down. It's going to
happen. Turn with me to Acts chapter 17. I don't know if I've ever pointed
this out to you. If I haven't, I want to do so
today. And if I have, you need to be
reminded of it. The commandment of God has gone
out to all men to repent. That is, to turn from themselves
and their idols and to turn from their superstitions and vain
imaginations to the true and living God. Because, Acts 17,
31, because he hath appointed a day into which he'll judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. Now watch this. Whereof he hath
given assurance unto all men. in that he hath raised him from
the dead." Whose body did he have when he raised him, John?
Same body that walked with the disciples, wasn't it? They knew
it. They knew it. Even old daddy
Thomas, he said, stick your finger in my hand. Right there. Stick
it right there in the nail hole. Take your fist and throw it in
this where the spirit pierced my side. You got a piece of fish? Let me have it." He sat down
and ate with them and drank with them. That same body that died
on the cross and was laid in the tomb by the success and by
virtue of His accomplishment was raised from the dead. He's
the firstborn. And that same body was raised
up and seated at the right hand of God. And so shall ours end
that day when He comes. He'll raise thee. Raise us up. The one great hope set before
men to bring about their repentance and establish a hope concerning
this final judgment of this world is our Lord's being raised from
the dead. God raised him from the dead
and joined his beloved spirit again with his body so that those
who knew him before knew him after his resurrection. It was
the satisfied justice and righteousness of God that decreed this sure
release. And in that day, by virtue of
that same justice and righteousness, shall He change, Paul said, our
vile bodies according to the working whereby He is able to
subdue all things unto Himself. That's Philippians 3.21. Everything
that God is purposed to do is done When it's all done, when
it's all said and done, everything that God purposed to do, we should
be brought before the great white throne of God's mediatorial king,
standing before his majesty. Don uses the word august majesty,
and I agree with him. The august majesty of his great
white throne. And standing before the majesty
of His glory, what's going to be your hope? What's going to be your hope?
David said with his dying breath, although it be not so with my
house, yet God hath made with me an everlasting covenant. ordered
in all things and sure, and this is all my salvation and all my
desire. That's what I'm preaching to
you this morning. The man who cannot see God's
purpose of grace here and now in Christ Jesus will not see
it there. That's right. If you don't see
it here, you're not going to see it there. John 17.1, listen
to this. These words thanked Jesus and lifted up His eyes
to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Thy Son
that Thy Son also may glorify Thee. Now how is this giving
and getting of this glory going to be accomplished? He said glorify
Me so I can glorify You. How is He going to accomplish
that? Listen. As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh that
He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou sent." May God be pleased to take these seven things, the
sure result of God's everlasting purpose of grace in Christ Jesus,
and convince you to let go of yourself and all that you can
see and trust in Him. Trust in Him. Don't let the things
of this world scare us, intimidate us, influence us. Brethren, stand. That's what He said. Just stand.
Stand in this God's eternal purpose of grace. You know, we see something
coming up and we want to jump up and grab the wheel. Just leave
the wheel in His hand. Just leave it in His hand. That's
where God put it. Several years ago I went down
to Biloxi, Mississippi and visited with my nephew. This is probably 25 or 30 years
ago. And the last time we'd seen each
other was I was just kind of a rebellious, foolish teenager. Always into trouble. And I talked to him for a long time.
Eventually the conversation turned to what in the world was I doing
living in Louisiana? What brought me from Kentucky
all the way down to Louisiana? And so I related my story to
him, and as I told him the story of my conversion and calling,
his face kind of went down to the floor like men tend to do
in disbelief of what I was telling him. This kind of astonishing
story of my conversion was just more than he was prepared to
believe. And he didn't want to laugh at
me, but he didn't believe what I was telling him. But when I
was through, he asked me four questions. And when I got back
home, they were great questions. I preached on them that Sunday
when I got back home. But here's one that I want to
share with you this morning. He said, I want to have a hope
like what you're talking about. I'd like to have that. I'd like
to have that. I want my children to know and have some knowledge
of the living God. But the world is full of religion.
Full of religion. It's full of testimonies and
the experiences of men. It's full of churches and preachers
and rabbis and priests. How can I, how can I, just a
common man, know who is of God and who's
not? How can I make any kind of intelligent,
rational distinction? How can I know who's sin of God
and who comes in his own name? How can I know who's telling
the truth and who's a liar? And after I sat there for a while,
I gave him this answer. But for the grace of God, you
never will. You never will. God saves men
on purpose. On purpose. And he does it according
to the way he's purposed. And he does it through the one
whom he has purposed. And he does it through his own
power and by his own grace. He doeth according to his will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
He does. He does. And that's a good hope. That's not something to run from.
That's not something to fear. It's not something to fly up
into the face of God over. That's good news. That's good
news. God's going to save a people
in spite of what they are. and in spite of what they think.
God's gonna save them. He's gonna save them.