speak of ministry. But I want
you to understand and have some appreciation for the open doors
God has given in our generation for the gospel such as have never
been in days gone by. Let nothing in your mind, nothing
in your thoughts suggest, and I earnestly, earnestly beg that
God will cause those who hear this by audio recording of any
kind to hear what I'm saying. There's nothing that will supplant
and nothing that will replace the gathering of God's assembly
together to worship God. There's a congregation out in
Taylor, Arkansas. Their pastor died nine years
ago, Brother James Watson, after serving them for 40 years. And
I went and preached to them about every two months for nine years.
They asked me to serve as their pastor until they got one. Meantime,
all of them in the congregation got our videos, and they lived
an hour to an hour and a half apart, all of them, every week,
just like you do. They could have stayed at home
and watched the videos, but they met together and watched the
videos and worshiped God as a congregation, seeing the need for the fellowship
of God's saints. Would to God that all would be
so wise. And then in time, the Lord sent
them a pastor, Brother Darwin Pruitt, who asked me to send
you his regards today. I just heard from him earlier
this morning, and God's blessing the work there. Last month, last
month, I haven't seen last month, month before last, the Free Grace
Radio internet service that we have, we started this two and
a half years ago. Just the month of February, just
that one month, we had 23 thousand gospel sermons downloaded
in 86 countries in all of the United States. God has graciously
opened a tremendous door of ministry. Let us not despise this day. We have opportunities and do
things now that God's servants and God's people could not have
done just a few years ago. I recall trying to encourage
Brother Henry Mahan when they had started putting the messages
up on the internet. And Henry's 80, what is he, 82
or 83 now? 82, be 83 in August. He doesn't
use the internet much, as you can imagine. And I was encouraging
him a little bit with chatting and telling him how many people
are seeing these things, are using these things. And he responded
this way, he said, Well, the Lord told us that before he comes
again, this gospel will be preached in all nations. Maybe this is
the way. Imagine that. We're privileged
to preach the gospel in all nations, in all nations around the world.
Pray for God's blessings upon that labor as your pastor's messages
are uploaded and my own. We have, I think, You can look
at them at your leisure, but there's 40 or 45 men. Every week
we put up three or more messages by them and they go literally
all over the world. Okay. Turn with me to Ephesians
chapter one. I believe you will find delight
in the things God's given me here without question. This is one of my favorite portions
of scripture. It speaks. so plainly of God's
free grace. I have sadly seen many in recent
days updating their doctrine, altering their message from what
it once was, and some even boasting that their doctrine is continually
evolving. And I am often rebuked, though
not to my face, I'm often rebuked because I am so dogmatic and
folks say, What if your doctrine changes? And I've been asked,
what if your doctrine changes tomorrow? It's not going to. How can you be sure? Because
I'm not looking for anything. This message that I'm going to
bring you this morning, if God will enable me, the basic outline
of it is one that I preached when I was 19 years old. That's
been almost 40 years ago. That's right, almost 40 years
ago. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 1. Paul, an apostle, a messenger
of Jesus Christ, a messenger sent from Christ, a messenger
whose message is all about Christ by the will of God because God
ordained it, because God chose me, because God gifted me, because
God sent me. I am Paul, an apostle, a messenger
of Jesus Christ by the will of God. Now watch this. To the saints. What a presumptuous statement.
That's not presumptuous at all. To the saints. He looks upon
these people at Ephesus who profess faith in Christ as his brethren
in Christ. And though he did not know them
personally, though he did not know each of them individually,
though he did not know how they behaved, how they talked, how
they walked individually, he knew one thing about them. He
knew they were believers in Jesus Christ and that makes them sanctified
ones. God's elect are justified and
sanctified in Jesus Christ, made holy by God's grace. made righteous
by the imparting of Christ's righteousness to us in free justification,
and made holy by God giving us the very nature of his sons in
the new birth. Saints. And to the faithful. Now he's not talking to two different
groups of people. Saints are faithful people. Believers are
faithful men and women. They're not some who are faithful
and some who are not. They're all faithful. All of
God's people made by His grace to be saints are made by His
grace faithful. That means you can depend on
Him. You can count on Him. I can't think of anything about
the character of our God that I more admire than His faithfulness,
His utter faithfulness. And there's nothing I admire
in the character of a man. are in the character of a woman
than faithfulness. You can just flat depend on them. God's saints are made by grace
to be faithful. Faithful in the cause of Christ,
faithful to the glory of God, faithful to the gospel of His
grace, faithful to one another. Read on. To the faithful in Christ
Jesus. In Christ. Now mark those words. In Christ. 14 times in this text
we're going to read this morning verses 1 through 14. 14 times. The Apostle by inspiration uses
those two words in Christ, in him, by Christ, by him, in whom,
14 times. Because the Spirit of God would
have us to understand that everything God does for sinners, everything
God gives to sinners is in Jesus Christ. God will not come to
us and he will not allow us to come to him except in Christ
the mediator. You have read this book. God
help you to hear me now. You have read this book with
no profit to your soul until you discover that everything
in this book is about Christ. I don't mean it's been of a little
profit. You have read this book. with no profit to your soul until
you discover by God's grace that it is the revelation of Jesus
Christ, our Lord, that all the blessings of grace, all the mercy
of God comes to sinners in and by and through Jesus Christ.
Verse two, grace be to you and peace. The two things always
come together. If God gives you His grace, His
peace will follow from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then Paul proceeds to tell
us how this grace and peace comes. This grace and peace which is
God's salvation. And in these next verses, he
shows us how that we are saved by the triune God, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. How we are saved by the work
of the Father, the work of the Son, and the work of the Holy
Spirit. Christ is our Savior. But don't
ever imagine that we do in any way neglect or fail to observe
or fail to give praise to God, the triune God, who is revealed
to us and made known to us in Christ Jesus. We are Trinitarians. Paul, or the Apostle John, speaks
in this way, 1 John 5 verse 7. There are three that bear record
in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these
three are one. There are three that bear record
in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these
three are one. If there were no other reason,
for using what we call the authorized version then that reason listen
to this that one verse is the only place in all inspiration
where the doctrine of the trinity is stated clearly it is demonstrated
many places but it is not stated but one place in all the scriptures
and it is stated in first john chapter five verse seven and
every modern translation clips it out. Every one of them cut
it out. The passage is clear, it is authoritative,
it is inspired, and it is rightfully put in 1 John 5, verse 7. Here the Apostle Paul in Ephesians
1 shows us how that we are saved by God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. First, in verses 3 through 6,
We are saved by the purpose of God our Father. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed, praised, magnified,
honored be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
when we speak of blessing God, obviously we add nothing to God's
blessedness. Obviously, we don't contribute
anything to God's happiness, but we do Ascribe blessedness
we do ascribe honor and glory to him as we give him praise
And this is what he calls for give praise to our God the God
and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us hath
blessed us past tense at one time in heavenly places before
ever the world began God the Father blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in these heavenly places in Jesus Christ, His Son. Every
spiritual blessing, every blessing of grace, every blessing of salvation
was given to His people in Christ Jesus before the world began.
These heavenly blessings, these spiritual blessings with which
we are blessed are called redemption and righteousness and sanctification
Glorification acceptance with God adoption and so on all these
blessings were bestowed on us in Eternity and our covenant
surety and mediator the Lord Jesus read on He's blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. How'd he do it verse 4? according
as according as He hath chosen us in him How does God bless sinners? According
to the election of grace. I realize that we live in a day
when folks almost everywhere in the religious world look upon
election as a cuss word. You don't dare talk about it.
Election is a blessed, blessed revelation of Holy Scripture.
Our Father chose us in Christ Jesus and all the blessings of
God freely flow to sinners through Jesus Christ the Lord according
to His choice of us in His Son. He chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world. Before ever the earth was fixed
in its place, God chose us in Christ Jesus. He chose us in
His Son before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before Him. You'll hear preachers talk
about this text Talk about election and they'll start to apologize
for preaching election a little bit and they'll say, now God's
chose us to live a holy life. That'd be a pretty good trick
if you could do it, but you're not going to do it. You're not
going to do it. He didn't choose us to be as
holy as we could be. He chose us to be holy and without
blame before him. That's a heapsight different
than choosing us to live as well as we can live in this world.
Now, don't misunderstand what I'm saying, and I know you don't.
Don't misrepresent what I'm saying, I would say, to this world. I'm
not suggesting that God's people do not seek to honor Him in all
things, but that is not what's being said here. He chose us
in Christ that we might stand at last before Him Altogether
holy and without blame in any regard in Christ Jesus the Lord
That's how we stand before God our standing before him does
not depend on what we do It does not waver by what we do We are
accepted in the beloved as we'll see in just a moment the Lord
God chose us in Christ before the world began to make us holy
and blameless in love I read this and every time I
read it, I try to decide, do those two words really best fit
at the end of verse 4 or at the beginning of verse 5? And every
time I come up with the same conclusion, yes. They conclude,
verse 4, God's election, His choice of His people is the act
of His infinite love for us. "'Tis not that I did choose thee,
for, Lord, that could not be. This heart would still refuse
thee, hadst thou not chosen me. He chose us in love, and in love
having predestinated us. Having predestinated us. Having
predestinated us. Now that's deep doctrine. That's not deep doctrine. That's
as plain as nose on your face. That's as plain as nose on your
face. And nobody can read this book and speak with honesty and
say this book does not teach the doctrine of predestination.
Any man who says it doesn't is a bald-faced liar if he's read
the book, either that or he has not read the book. Now, a man
may not understand what the Scriptures teach about predestination, but
any man who denies that this book teaches it either has not
read this book or he's lying to you about this book. Predestination
is taught everywhere in this book. What does it mean? It means
to determine beforehand. It is destiny prearranged. That's simple enough, isn't it?
He hath predestinated us. Predestinated us unto the adoption
of children. Now, He adopted us when He chose
us, but He's predestinated us unto the adoption, unto the glorious
liberty of the sons of God, unto the blessed experience of adoption
in time, and unto the final consummation of adoption in resurrection glory.
He's predestinated us at last to be conformed to the image
of His Son in body, soul, and spirit perfectly. That's the
adoption of children. What's this mean then? He's predestinated
us to this. He's predestined, He's previously
arranged everything that comes to pass in time to bring to pass
the final consummate glory of all His children in Jesus Christ
for the glory of His Son. I'm often asked, what does it
take to save a sinner? It takes everything that has
been, is, and shall be. Everything. The Lord God Almighty
minutely, meticulously arranged before the world began everything
that comes to pass in time exactly in the way in which it comes
to pass exactly according to his infinite wisdom and goodness
for best to serve his glory to save his people each of us from
our sins. Our Lord Jesus says to his disciples the very hairs of your head are
all numbered. Literally have been numbered. They were at one time counted
up and numbered in such a way that by the numbering of your
hairs in eternity, that's the hair you have on your head today,
the hair you had on your head yesterday, and the hair you have
on your head tomorrow. Now, I'm not much given to such
things. But I try occasionally when I
think about that just to count the hair right there. And you
know, I've never succeeded. And I've done it just so I can
tell you this. I've never succeeded. You try it. Just try to pull
them apart and count them. Just right there between those
two knuckles. That's all. Just try it. Well,
Brother Don, that's silly. That's redundant. That's paying
real close attention to things that don't matter to us. But you see, you and I control
nothing. Our God controls the universe.
And our Lord in telling us that the hairs of our head are numbered,
He's telling us that our Heavenly Father pays attention to every
detail before ever the world began and ruling All the small
things rules every big thing. You can't govern the big things
if you don't govern the little. So tender is your father's affection
for you. So tender is our father's love
for us that before the world began, he numbered the hairs
on our head. Now, and you're going to fret
about what you eat tomorrow? You're going to worry about where
you're going to live the rest of your life. You're going to
fret about what you wear. After all these things, the heathen
seek. Set your affectional things above.
Read on. He's predestinated us unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. Isn't that good? Not to heaven,
not to glory, not to bliss. All that's included. He's predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. Why on earth did God choose to
save me? Just because he would. That's all. Just because he would. Nobody else would. But He would. Just because He would. And He
did it to the praise of the glory of His grace. All this our Heavenly
Father in His eternal purpose accomplished for us to the praise
of the glory of His grace wherein, that is in His grace. hath made
us accepted in the beloved. Not acceptable, accepted. Accepted in the beloved. This is my beloved son, he said,
in whom I am well pleased. Not with whom, in whom. What's
he talking about? He's well pleased with the actions
of his son. that's what he is well pleased with indeed it is
but where he says this is my beloved son in whom I'm well
pleased he's not talking about the action of his son he's not
talking about that then he'd say I'm well pleased with my
son I will gladly talk to you about my grandchildren if you'd
like and I'm very pleased with them I am very pleased with them
they're smart they're obedient they're handsome and pretty All
those things, I'm well-pleased with them. But if I said to you
I'm well-pleased in one of them, you'd think, well, Brother Don
needs some instructions in grammar. I'm well-pleased with them. Our
Heavenly Father declares Himself well-pleased in His Son. And He's well-pleased with Alan
Jellett in His Son. He's well-pleased with you in
His Son. He's well-pleased with me His
son and he's never well pleased with us except in his son But
he is always well pleased with us in his son All right, we're
saved then by the purpose of God the Father look at verse
7 Second we're saved by the purchase of God the Son in whom that is
in his son the beloved in whom We have redemption through His
blood. Redemption through His blood. With His own blood He entered
in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for
us. Redemption through His blood.
Jesus Christ died in the room instead of His people. These
people the Father chose from eternity these people who were
predestined to the adoption of sons, that we should be holy
and without blame before Him. He died in our room instead,
and now in Christ Jesus we have redemption through His blood.
That is the forgiveness of sins. When you read this, if you want
to make a note, if you're taking notes, redemption equals forgiveness. In whom we have redemption. That is the forgiveness of sins. Christ Jesus by His blood actually
put our sins away. Christ Jesus by His blood actually
cast our sins behind His back. Christ Jesus by His blood has
removed our sins from us as far as the east is from the west.
What's that mean? They're gone. They're gone. He's
blotted them out. They're gone. They're gone. He
gives us no Charge of iniquity our sins are never imputed to
us. They cannot be charged to us
They've been put away by Christ Jesus the Lord by his precious
blood and those who preach and teach otherwise Deny the very
Godhead of Jesus Christ There is no point of the gospel more
important No point of the gospel more vital to the revelation
of the glory of God than this thing of particular redemption
limited atonement I hear folks all the times. Well, he he says
dear brother He just he just doesn't believe quite like we
do about the blood of Christ. What do you mean? Well, he believes
that Jesus died for folks and tried to save him, but they go
to hell anyway He believes that Jesus died for folks, but God
charges him with sin anyway He believes that Jesus died for
some people who, after all, will be lost in the end anyway. Oh,
you mean he believes that Jesus Christ is a miserable, worthless
failure? Is that what you'd call it? If
you, any of you, go back there and decide to pick up that music
stand right there, and you just start to pick it up, and you
can't get it off the ground, you'd be embarrassed. Even if
there's something wrong, you'd be embarrassed. Even if you are
sick and you're weak, oh man, they saw me try to do that, I
couldn't do it. You'd be embarrassed because you tried to do what
you were not able to do. You failed. That is not God. To deny the efficacy of Christ's
shed blood. To deny that Christ Jesus actually
redeemed his people is to deny that Jesus Christ is God Almighty. Surely you don't mean folks to
hear that. This is going all over the world. I'd like for
the whole world to hear it. I'd like for every blaspheming preacher
to hear it. To deny the efficacy of Christ's
blood is to deny that Christ is God. There are people all
over Danville, Kentucky preachers all over our town. I don't live
in the Bible belt of the U.S. I live in the buckle. And we
got preachers in churches everywhere. And none of them believe anything.
None of them believe anything. We'd be better off without any
of them. Without any of them. They just flat deny the gospel
of God's grace. And those same men would fight
you tooth and toenail if you would deny that Christ is the
virgin-born Son of God. They'd fight you tooth and toenail
because that's a denial of His deity. That's exactly what I'm
saying. I would just as soon hear a man
deny that Christ is the virgin born son of God as to deny the
efficacy of blood atonement. Read on. In whom we have, this
is present tense, redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sins, watch this, according to the riches of his grace. Redemption according to His riches,
the riches of His grace and His glory in Christ Jesus. Not redemption,
the forgiveness of sins out of the riches of His grace. Redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sin exactly according to His
infinite riches of grace. Wherein, watch this, He hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom prudence the riches of his grace
abounding toward us in Christ constantly flowing out to us
from the throne of God in Christ Jesus in all wisdom and prudence
in all infinite brilliance and skill he gives us a the riches
of his grace from eternity through all the days of our lives on
this earth at last in everlasting glory according to all the wisdom
of God and all the skill of the infinite wise God he gives us
these things in abundance having made known unto us the mystery
of his will As soon as the sinner believes on the Son of God, God Almighty in His Son has made
known the mystery of His will to that sinner. Faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
How do you know your name is written in the book of life?
How do you know that Christ has redeemed you? How do you know
that the Spirit of God's called you? I trust His Son. I have proof in here of the mystery
of God's will. He chose me. Read on. He's made
known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure
which He hath purposed in Himself. Now, here it is, that in the
dispensation of the fullness of times, that is when God wraps
this whole thing up, He might gather together in one all things
in Christ God Almighty has determined to
gather up in Christ Jesus all things I can't help but to think this
means more than just all his elect men and angels all things
every creature in heaven and in earth John said I heard crying
Alleluia all things there's a day coming when God Will gather all
his elect into glory and he will show how that all things all
things in heaven earth and hell everything is For the praise
of his glory He'll gather together in one all things in Christ both
which are in heaven and which on earth even in him in whom
also We have obtained an inheritance. We've already obtained it. I
haven't come to the full possession of it in personal experience
yet, but it's already obtained. We already have this inheritance.
Paul puts it in Romans 8 this way, we're heirs of God and joint
heirs with Jesus Christ. Heirs of God and joint heirs
with Jesus Christ. That means that God's going to
divide up his kingdom and give it to us as we enter into heaven,
give each of us a part. No, that's not what it means.
The Lord Jesus said in John 17, Father, restore unto me the glory
which I had with you before the world was. And the Father gave
him power, authority over all flesh to give eternal life to
as many as he had given him. He gave his son, Everything he
created, everything. Well, he didn't do it as his
son because the son created is already his. He gave it to him
as our mediator. He gave it to him as his obedient
servant. He gave it to him all things as our substitute. He gave him all things as the
God-man, the man who is God. He gave it to him because he
fully deserved it because of his obedience. And the son says,
the glory thou hast given me, I've given thee. That's what
it said, John 17, 22. We're heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ. That kind of takes away the notion
of degrees of reward, doesn't it? That takes away the notion
that somehow we've earned something better than what somebody else
has. The notion that we're gonna have a little bit bigger crown
than somebody else will have the notion that somehow they're gonna
be some folks living in palaces in the New Jerusalem and other
folks living in the ghettos in the New Jerusalem No, no, we're
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. He's given us this
inheritance Being predestinated according to the good purpose
of him. Watch this now who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will after preaching the gospel for better than 50
years, when Robert Hawker was laying on his deathbed, one of
his friends came in and was reading to him Ephesians chapter 1. And
he got to verse 12. And he read, that we should be
to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. And
Robert Hawker said to his friend, he said, read that again. And he read it again. that we
should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. He said, and who first trusted
in Christ? And who first trusted in Christ? And the man paused and didn't
know the answer. He said, God the Father first
trusted in Christ. The triune God first trusted
in Christ. Our surety was trusted by the
triune God with all the glory of God and all the souls of his
people from old eternity and we are ordained of God to be
to the praise of the glory of the triune God who first trusted
in Christ and Then the Apostle proceeds to tell us of the salvation
that is ours by the power of God the Holy Spirit in whom ye
also trusted Now watch this. After that ye heard, faith comes
by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. God has ordained by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Well, Brother
Don, don't you think that men and women would be saved if they
just read the Bible? If I did, I would spend every
bit of money I could raise and make copies of the Scripture
as cheaply as possible, and I'd fly overhead in a helicopter
and litter the world with them. That's not how God saves sinners.
Well, you're taking things away from God's sovereignty. God could
save sinners by writing their names in the stars in heaven
if that were his purpose. But God has ordained the foolishness
of preaching as the means by which he saves his elect. That's
the only way God teaches sinners anything. Let it settle in. Let it settle in. Well, Brother
Don, I was just reading my Bible and this came to me, boy, it's
so good. If it's truth, somewhere along the way somebody opened
this book and declared it to you. That makes the preaching
of the gospel of immense importance. God does not edify, strengthen,
minister consolation, or grant saving faith to sinners apart
from the preaching of the gospel. That means that your pastor and
the man standing here talking to you now, we are men responsible
under God to seek His message for you each time we stand to
speak to you. And to speak to your heart, speak
comfortably to Jerusalem. Speak to the heart of my people.
I can't speak to your heart. I can't do that. A message for
that lady and that man and that lady and that man and that lady
and that man from all your different circumstances, all your different
trials and heartaches. I can't do that. He can't do
that. But we're responsible to, if we're God's servants. Who's
sufficient for these things? Our sufficiency is of God. So
pray for God to grant that direction. And pray for God to open your
heart as you hear the Word. and listen for God to speak. In whom ye also trusted, after
that ye heard the word of truth, having heard the word of truth,
and here it is, the gospel of your salvation. And quite literally,
the text reads, having heard the word of the truth, the truth
of the gospel of your salvation. When God Pleased to take his
word and Speak to your heart giving you faith in Christ What
he causes you to hear is that Christ has redeemed you Christ
has put away your sin giving you faith in him God declares
by his spirit in your conscience that your guilt free before God
No condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus read up in
whom? Also after that you believed
now, this is not talking about a second work of grace It's talking
about what comes with the hearing of faith in whom also having
believed You were sealed Sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise
sealed My wife and I Raised a garden
we went out and looked at Alan's garden this morning at home folks
called it Shelby's garden because she does most of it But we raise
a considerably larger garden than he does. And we put up a
lot of vegetables. Lots of years, you'll put up
100 quarts of green beans. And I have a specific job. I
salt and seal. We'll break up the beans and
get things boiling. And then we'll go over and put
them in these cans, fruit jars. We'll put them down in hot water
baths. You'll fill them up with hot water. boiling hot water,
and I take a teaspoon of salt, dump it in each jar, and I put
a lid on it. I put a ring on it, and I tighten
that thing down. Put them in the canner, pressure canner,
20 minutes, take them off. Set it down and break up some
more beans. Break up more beans. And then, well, a little while,
we can take that thing off and set the beans out. Break up more
beans. Break up more beans. And we're sitting there. She's
listening for something all the time. And she can't hear very
well. She's listening all the time for those cans to go ping. And she'll listen for seven pings.
If she doesn't get it, she'll get up. Just a few minutes, one
of them didn't seal. Dump it out, we'll have that
for lunch tomorrow. It didn't seal. If they're sealed, they're
good next year. And they're good the next year.
And if she would keep them long enough, they'd be good the next
couple of years. They're sealed. And just to be sure they're good,
she'll open those things up and go, And I've seen her many times. Before she cooks them for me,
she'll reach in there and take one and eat it and be sure it's
all right. And it's just as good one day we put it up. It's been
sealed. That's what God the Holy Spirit
is for His people. He seals to us and seals for
us and seals in us all the blessings of covenant grace in Christ Jesus. In the Old Testament, this seal
was represented by circumcision. By the circumcision of those
infant children, the children of Abraham had sealed to them
all the blessedness of the covenant God made with Abraham. And when
God the Holy Spirit gives the sinner faith in Christ, He seals
to us all the blessings of grace the Father gave us in Christ
before the world began, which is the earnest, the pledge, the
down payment, as we saw, of our inheritance until the redemption. There's that word again. I thought
redemption was finished at Calvary. Well, it was. I thought redemption
was finished before the world began. Well, it was. But there's
a redemption yet to be finished. The redemption, you see, is the
word really that we use all the time for salvation. It speaks
of the complete deliverance of God's elect from all sin from
the fall from the ruin from the sin and all the Consequences
of sin into the glorious liberty of the sons of God by God's free
grace in Jesus Christ complete deliverance He's talking here
about the resurrection of the body. He is the earnest of our
inheritance this inheritance We've already obtained this inheritance
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began until the redemption
of the purchase possession unto the praise of his glory. Until the complete deliverance
of the purchase possession. Several years ago when our grandchildren
were considerably younger we had a little tree in the backyard
right beside our deck behind the kitchen and then And Robin
came, built a nest in there a couple of years, right in the middle
of that tree. And you could stand on the patio
and look just that far over, and there was that nest. And
she laid three blue eggs in that nest. And our granddaughter,
every time she'd come, she'd run out there and look at those
eggs. And then she'd, one day, went out there, and there was
little birds in that nest. And one time she came and went
up there to look and they were gone. And just shells laying
around the ground, some in the nest. And I explained to her
the birds had hatched and grown and they flew away. Everything's
all right. Soon I'm going to drop this shell
and fly away and everything will be all right. Everything. for that shall bring about the
redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. Amen.