All right, now if you'll take
your Bibles and turn with me to the first chapter of the book
of Ephesians. Each week I'm going to continue
to go back and recap over these things because there's so much
here that it's impossible for me to stand up here in 30 minutes
and and build a base for it as I go so what I'm going to do
is just recap and just move forward a little bit and then the next
week I'll recap and we'll move forward a little bit more and
so on because what he's doing here in Ephesians chapter one
is giving us a list he's manifesting like a manifest is a mariner's
term when they loaded the ship up and put the things on the
ship they they had a manifest And this manifest told you everything
that was on the ship, and that's what Paul's doing here. He's
giving us a list of things. He states the way in the very
beginning of this. He states the way by which fallen
sinners can, in the purpose of God, have a relationship with
Him, and that is as God our Father. He's God and Father of all His
elect. He's God of all men. But He's
God and Father of all those He chose in Christ. And then Paul
begins to go down and show you how these things, list these
things, manifest these things. And this first chapter of Ephesians
sits before this relationship in which the living God purposed
to communicate to us That's what men are ignorant
of, is how can God communicate these things? We're all in disagreement
with this. We're in disagreement as to how
God communicates. You won't find anybody that's
going to tell you that God's not going to be gracious or merciful.
The disagreement is in how. And that's what all of these
epistles, when you go through them, that's the issue, is how. How God is going to do these
things? Why is God going to do these things? And to whom is
He going to do them? And all of these things are stated,
and they were very controversial then, and they're very controversial
now. But that's what He's doing here.
He's showing us how. He's showing us this relationship
in which the living God's purpose to communicate how His elect
are blessed, accepted, and received into His presence. And that is
as God and Father. And to accomplish this eternal
purpose of grace, He appointed His Son to be the firstborn.
God's purpose to have children. He's purpose to have a family.
He's purpose to manifest His glory through that type of relationship. And so He appoints His Son as
the firstborn. That's how He communicates this
to us. Here's the firstborn. Here's the firstborn son. And
He's firstborn in the eternal counsels of God. It always speaks
of Him as the Son. In all the Old Testament prophecies,
even when He's talking about Him in the eternity past, He's
represented as the Son, as the firstborn. And then in Romans
chapter 8, now there's three places in the Scripture where
He speaks of predestination. Romans chapter 8 and Ephesians
chapter 1 in two different verses here. But back here in Romans
8, verse 29, speaking of all those to whom he called according
to his purpose, he says in Romans 8, 29, for whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
son, that he, his son, might be the firstborn among many brethren. And he tells us in Ephesians
1-4 that he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the
world. We were chosen in him to be sons. Chosen in the firstborn. And the Christ, whenever we talk
about the Christ, that's what this mediator, that's what this
testator, this covenant head, this angel of God, ever how he's
represented all through the scriptures, this priest, this prophet, this
coming one. He's called the Christ. The Christ. And He is the second Adam. And
if you read and study Romans chapter 5, verses 12 through
the end of the chapter, you'll quickly see that God's primary
dealings with men are just in these two men. He never mentions
me. I can't find my name in here
anyway. I can't find your name. I can't even find the names of
most of the men to whom Paul ministered and Peter ministered.
Just calls them those of the common faith. He calls them God's
sheep, whatever they are. But when he mentions how he deals
with men, he just deals with two men. He deals with Adam and
Christ. Adam and Christ. All the way through there, you
see him dealing with Adam and Christ. And over there in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15, he does the same thing. In Adam, all die. In Christ, shall all be made
alive, in these two men. All mankind, as they are sons
of Adam, and sons born after his fall and his curse, their
birth in nature, after his fallen image and character, sinners
by nature, by choice, by practice. And then God's elect, whom he
chose in Christ before he created Adam, before he ever created
the world. And by virtue of his appointment and his election
of us in him, we enjoy these benefits that we now have. If
it wasn't for that, there'd be no gospel preached. There'd be
no Holy Spirit poured out. God would have wiped this world
out in Adam when he sinned if there was not a purpose of God
to redeem a people for the glory of his name. And I know men wrestle with this.
He says in verse 5, it's that this predestination, God hath
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself. And here's the reason he gives,
according to the good pleasure of his will. That's all you can
find about it. You can look and search and hunt.
I've done it. You don't find anything else.
That's it. That's it. And that's how David described
him. He said, our God's in the heavens. He said, I'll tell you
about our God. He done whatsoever he pleased.
That's what he did. All of the means to accomplish
the end, all of the details of providence, creation, and salvation
arranged and fixed before the world began. That's hard to imagine. I'll tell you how we know that.
I've listened and heard and I was listening here recently to a
tape and on this tape he was refuting some kind of an argument
about creation and they went back and forth about creation
and how it's partly of God and partly of evolution and all this
kind of nonsense. But it says over in Hebrews chapter
11, by faith, We understand that the worlds were framed by the
word of God. That's how you know it. You're
not going to know it by studying science and you're not going
to know it by standing out here at night and looking at the stars.
You're going to know it by faith because that's what God said.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Those
of faith believe God. That's how they know. That's
how I know this world was spoken into existence by God himself. I got no other, that's my foundation. That's why I believe that. And
I don't, all the carbon dating and all the dinosaur bones I
can dig up from now to eternity is not going to convince me otherwise.
I'd rather let every man be a liar and God be true. That's how I
feel about it. And so these things of faith,
why is it we want to accept We want to accept that God created
the heavens and the earth, but we don't want to accept God's
word on this thing of salvation. Why is that? Huh? Why is that? I believe God, when
he created this world, he created it in the fashion that he did
as a bold declaration of who he is. I'm God. I'm God. I created all things. He created
us. and the birds, and all the things
that you see, and the ground that you walk on, and the sun
that comes up in the morning. He tells us those things. And
how often does he go back and talk about this creation in relation
with salvation? Over and over and over. All of the means. That's just
so hard for us as finite men to grasp, that all of the means
to accomplish God's ends and all of the details of His providence,
all the details of creation and salvation, arranged and fixed
and purposed in the Redeemer before the world began, predestinated. That's what that word, that word
encompasses everything that God does. He predestinated. Well, preacher, don't that make
men puppets? No, it makes God God. Now if you want to see a
puppet, look at a natural man. Satan's got him on the strings,
dangling him, making him dance to his music. That's the puppet.
This is not presenting man as a puppet. This is presenting
man as a responsible creature created by God. That's what Paul
preached to those philosophers and wise men on Mars Hill. He
said, God, hath appointed a day in which he'll judge this world
in righteousness by that name. And he commands you to stand
before him in comparison and be judged according to that righteousness. Now you'll either have it and
wear it or your works will be compared to it and you'll be
judged on that basis. Man in his fallen state is a
puppet and he walks according to the prince of the power of
the air. If God were not in absolute control
of all things, I want you to hear me. Let me start over with
that statement. If God were not in absolute control
of all things, then nothing for a certainty could be believed
in the Word of God because it would be subject to circumstance
and time. I couldn't take the promise of
God anywhere in this book because those promises might be subject
to circumstance and time. But if God is in control of all
things, then I can with certainty believe everything that's written
in this book. You see the importance of this
thing of God's absolute sovereignty and God's perfection of wisdom
and God's predestinating purpose. It's important. A fellow told
me one time, he said, well, why do you even want to talk about
predestination? I don't see what that has to do with anything.
It doesn't have something to do with anything. It has something
to do with everything. Because nothing else is solid. Nothing else is substantial.
It's all shifting. and moving, and it's like a great
maze. You look at it, and you can't
see into it. It's like a vast jungle, and
you're looking down. But God sees it, and He declares
it, and His counsel has ordained it before the foundation of the
world, and it's going to come to pass exactly as God says it
will. And if you don't, if he's not
in absolute control, then you might as well forget these promises.
Because every one of these promises in here is iffy apart from that. I love what Tim James, a preacher
down to the Cherokee Indians down in North Carolina, said
one time. He said, take all the ifs in the Bible and put them
on a silver thread and hang them around the neck of the Savior.
Because everything in Him is yea and amen. No ifs. No ifs. Another thing he told
one time, he stood up down here at Kitchens Creek, where I was
pastoring at the time, at a Bible conference, and he said, I love
absolutes. Because he said, with absolutes,
there are no alternatives. Our God is absolute. Now watch
this, Ephesians 1, 6, "...to the praise of the glory of His
grace." Oh my, this is not only according to the good pleasure
of His will, but now Paul's, he's kind of shifting a little
bit, he's adding a little bit here, and he's telling us that
this eternal, fixed, immutable will of God has included in it
His grace. His grace. This is the goodwill
of God toward His people. The goodwill of God. To the praise
of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
beloved, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins. God's not only chosen us to be
His children, provided the way of adoption, but he's fixed the
means to make it so. And the chief of these means
is Christ himself. Christ himself, who come into
this world as a man and lived and died on our behalf and purchased
us with his own blood, put away our sins, made for us a righteous
covering, accomplished the will of God, satisfied divine justice,
ascended to the throne of God, put on the crown, and reigns
and intercedes for us. He's our advocate. We have an
advocate with the Father. I used to have a businessman
I dealt with, and he was afraid of nobody. And the reason he
wasn't afraid, because he had a lawyer. And I mean he was some
more lawyer. And if you messed with him, he'd
just stick his lawyer on you. Paul said, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. The righteous. Don't pick on
me. I'll turn you over to Him. There
He is. Pick on Him. And all of this according to
the riches of His grace. And then having ascended back
to the Father, Here's the next gift which is given. It's the
revelation of His wisdom and will and that in everything accomplished
and demonstrated to men from that bloody sacrifice of Abel
and in the garden all the way through to the cross of Christ.
He abounds toward us in wisdom and prudence having made known,
look here in verse 9, having made known unto us the mystery
of His will. Now isn't that the problem? Man
doesn't understand the will of God. He either sees God as this
mean, tyrannical sovereign who has no affection for men, who
not impressed with men who has no love and no affection and
no care and no purpose toward men, or he sees God altogether
the other way, not as sovereign, not as just, not as holy, but
just this old gray-haired granddaddy up here that's altogether affected
by everything that you do. He does not see God as he is. God is just and justifier. God not only stands and sits
as sovereign over all things, but He sits as the Father of
His people. He has affection. Affection. It's hard. You know, David said,
I'm just a worm. He said, I'm a nothing. But he
said, here's what I like to think of. He said, God thinketh on
me. Isn't that so? Can you imagine? The God of glory, Winston, in
your trouble, and in your agony, and in your trials, and in all
of the things that you go through in this world, and under that
influence, and under all of that sway, and that power, and all
of that sin, and the sin that's in you, and your mind constantly,
God thinketh on you. Isn't that something? And He
thinks on you with affection. You're His child. You're His
child. He arranges His providence for
you. Here you are. What are you going
to do? You're going to wander around until you find some deception
of Satan. Whatever it is, be it the world
or religion, you're going to find something there that suits
you. You're going to find something there that appeals to the appetites
of your heart, and you're going to join up, and that's where
you're going to be until you die. Now, that's just the truth,
isn't it? But God looks on you and thinks
on you because you're His. You're His child. And He arranges
His providence in such a way as to bring you to hear the truth.
And He sends His Spirit and opens your heart and presses that truth
on your heart. You see what He's saying here?
He hath abounded toward us. He hasn't abounded toward all
men. All men don't understand the mysteries of God. I hath
not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit." Huh? Why would he do that? Because
you're his child. You're his child. That, that,
the father of the prodigal, I know without, I'm reading between
the lines here, and I know that, and I'll tell you that. But I
cannot imagine a loving father sending his son out, knowing
where his son was going, without having somebody there watching
over him. They watched over that boy the whole time he was gone.
And the father knew when he was coming back. Had the calf already
in the stall, fattened up, ready for, had the ring polished, ready
to put on his fingers. All things provided, all things
for him. And the father himself looked. He looked. Why? Because that's
his child. That's his child. That's what
this whole first chapter is about. This is not about necessarily,
and I hope you can divide the difference here. I'm not trying
to tell you that there's an unimportance to doctrine. But I'm trying to
tell you that you can have doctrine and not see the whole picture.
And this thing of predestination is not just a doctrine, this
is the purpose and desire, the very heart of God concerning
His children. And He's fixed these things because
He loves you. He's fixed these things because
He cares for you. He arranges these things because
He thinks on you. And He does it all. according
to the good pleasure of His will and according to the riches of
His grace. And He abounds. And that's what
I want you to see this morning, how He abounds. Oh, just go back
in the scriptures, and we've just finished that study in Genesis,
and now we're moving on to Exodus, and we're seeing in creation,
and we're seeing in the history of men, and we're seeing in the
destruction of the world, and in the ark, and in all of these
things. I'm seeing the predestination of God as it's being brought
to pass, and it's being foretold years before it comes to pass,
and then when the fullness of time comes, here it is, and it
comes to pass. It comes to pass. And He abounds
toward us in that. He shows us that. He unlocks
those mysteries. Paul said he preached the wisdom
of God in a mystery. It's a mystery. Men and women
don't understand it. It has to be revealed. I can't
sit down with you one-on-one and convince you of anything,
none of these things, because I can't touch your heart. But
God can touch the heart. That's what Paul said. He abounds
toward us, toward us with all of these things. All of these
appointments of Christ and all of these offices and all of this
work that he does and his providence. Paul said, and we know all things
work together for good. How did he know that? Because
God unlocked the mysteries and he let him see it. Those Jews
rejected his message and he said, okay, I'll turn to the Gentiles.
And then Paul was unlocked the mystery to the Gentiles. He just
keeps telling us that in his epistle. Nobody ever thought
about Gentiles being saved. But God, through Paul, he unlocked
that mystery and he sent him out there as a missionary to
these people and to these Gentiles. Unlocked that mystery to Peter
and told him, Peter said, I put that big cloth out and put on
all that stuff that Jews were forbidden to eat. Peter said,
I ain't gonna eat that. God said, don't you call unclean
what I say is clean. Don't you call it unclean. He
had learned that again too, didn't he? Down in Galatia. Oh, the
predestinating purpose of God. And God in that purpose, God,
His purpose to unlock these mysteries. Unlock these mysteries. Unlock
the hearts. I tell you the truth, I said
this the other night, back Wednesday night, if it wasn't for the predestination
of God and God's absolute sovereignty, I wouldn't waste my time preaching.
Why would you? What can I do? That's like Moses. If you look at this picture back
in Exodus of Moses, here's Moses. He was raised in the house of
this evil king. So he knew his ways and he knew
his powers. And he knew something about his
glory, and he knew everything about his evil. And God said,
you go down there and tell Pharaoh, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute.
Are you going with me? Because I ain't going if you
ain't going. Huh? That's what I'm saying. I wouldn't
waste my time. If God's not going, why? Moses
would have been consumed. He'd have died in a matter of
seconds before Pharaoh. All Pharaoh had to do was nod
his head. He'd been gone. But there he stands with nothing
but a shepherd's staff and telling him, thus saith the Lord. That's
what I'm doing here this morning. And where am I at? I'm down in
the palace of the evil king. I'm right down here where his
authority and his power and his glory is manifested everywhere. And I've got nothing except the
staff and the word of God, thus saith the Lord. And I have to
wait on God. Wait on God. And that's the way
it is. We all shut up to this absolute
sovereign God. But this sovereign God is gracious. Huh? He's gracious. And He's
loving. And He's engaged Himself to the
salvation of His people. Engaged Himself. What a glorious
thing. Having made known unto us the
mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He
has purposed in Himself, purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation
of the fullness of times, He is going to gather together in
one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which
are on earth, even in Him. That is what Paul prays. The
Sovereign God redeeming all things to Himself in the person and
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what's going on. And He
said, In Him we have obtained an inheritance. In Him. In Him. That's where it's at. It ain't in eye walking. It ain't
in kissing rings. It ain't in eating pills. Here's
where it's at. It's right here. It's in Christ
Jesus. in Christ Jesus. May God be pleased
to help us to see that, believe it, and trust it.