What a great hymn and how well
sung. Thank you. While you're turning to Ephesians
chapter 1, let me make a few comments. Shelby and I have looked
forward to coming back to be with you since we were here a
year ago with great anticipation. We didn't have any idea it would
be so soon. You didn't either, but we're so delighted to see
you again. And please presume that I have
a very short memory. When I shake hands with you,
tell me your name again, and that way I won't call you Joe
when it should be Mike. We're going to hear Brother Ella
lecture on heroes of the North. I was a little alarmed when he
first told me that. Being a Southern boy, I don't
have any heroes in the North. But then he told me it was going
to be Heroes of the North here in England. That's a little better.
So we'll look forward to that. In this day, both in our part
of the world and in yours, it is becoming more and more obvious
that men are seeking to find a way to compromise gospel truth
while pretending to hold to the old paths. I see in writing and
I hear in preaching men who are constantly redefining doctrine
and re-explaining their positions as they call it on various things.
So I think tonight I'm going to give you a message, the outline
of which I prepared and delivered when I was 18 years old in Springfield,
Missouri, to a congregation just about this size. I was attending
an Arminian free will Bible college, in other words, an idolatrous
Bible college, and folks opposed the gospel of God's grace and
it was a constant battle all the time I was there. My subject
tonight is God's salvation. and it is described with explicit
clarity here in the first chapter of the epistle to the Ephesians.
Salvation is described in the scriptures as being that which
is of the Lord, that which belongs to the Lord, and that which is
performed by the Lord. We recognize that God saves sinners
in and by Jesus Christ alone. Christ is God's salvation. He is alone God's salvation. But let us never imagine when
we speak of the glory of Christ as our Savior. The psalmist said,
His glory shall be great in thy salvation. Don't ever imagine
that the persons of the Godhead somehow are sitting back idly
and not involved in salvation. That which is performed by Christ
involves all three persons in the Holy Trinity. We do worship
one God in three persons. John says there are three that
bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one. And these three persons in the
Trinity are set before us here in Ephesians 1, showing us the
salvation as God the Father purposed it, Salvation as God the Son
purchased it, and salvation as God the Holy Spirit performs
it in us by His grace. Let's begin at Ephesians 1 verse
1. Paul, an apostle, not Reverend Paul or Dr. Paul,
just Paul. Folks often ask me how they should
address me. Don will do just fine. Brother
Don's even better. What could be a higher, higher
honor than for one in God's family to address me as his brother?
Reverend, I despise. Titles of honor, I despise. Outside that door, that's all
right. But in the kingdom of God, there's no place for one
man to be honored above another. Paul, an apostle, We have no
apostles in our day and no men with apostolic gifts in our day
in the strict sense of the word. But this word apostle really
essentially is messenger. Paul a messenger. Oh God make
me that, a messenger. I have no interest in standing
here and talking to you about religious theory and religious
moralisms and religious dogma, much less denominational theory
and denominational dogma. But oh, how I long to be God's
messenger to your heart right now with a message from God for
your soul that you who know him not may know my Redeemer. and that you who know Him may
hear from Him the word of His grace. Paul, a messenger of Jesus
Christ. One who has come to deliver the
message, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the message of
this book. If I could persuade this generation
of preachers To understand anything about this book, it is a hymn
book. It is all about hymn, H-I-M. Beginning to end, the message
of this book from Genesis through Revelation is Jesus Christ our
Lord, our Redeemer and our Savior. A messenger of Jesus Christ by
the will of God. Either I stand here to speak
to you as God's messenger to your soul by God's will or by
my own. And it can't be both. By the
will of God, who ordained me his messenger before I ever came
into this world, who gifted me as his messenger by the supernatural
work of his spirit, who has called me and sent me forth as his messenger
and continually does so by his grace in me." A messenger of
Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints. Now how could
he know that? To the saints? Well, he knew
some of those folks, but he didn't know them all. He's writing to
these saints in Ephesus. I'm looking at Saint Jill. Well,
you shouldn't say that. That's how papers talk. Well,
just because papers use words, that doesn't mean they're all
wrong. St. Jill. Not going to be saint. Not might
be saint. Not if you do enough you will
become a saint. But St. Jill. All of God's people
believing on Jesus Christ the Lord are saints. Sanctified ones. They are sanctified in Jesus
Christ the Lord. Read through this book one more
time. You will discover that sanctification is not a process
by which you make yourself holy before God. It is a work of grace
performed by God Almighty for you and in you in Jesus Christ
the Lord. So Paul tells us here something
that's true in the very outset of this passage that God's people
are saints and it tells us something else about them and the faithful. To the saints at Ephesus and
to the faithful. We often talk about believers
and Christians. They're this, they're that, they're
the other thing. Let me tell you something about God's people.
I'm not talking about religious folks. I'm not talking about
folks who've been in church all their lives. I'm not talking
about folks who've had a little experience here or there. I'm
not talking about folks who say, I believe in Jesus. I'm going
to tell you something about God's people. They're faithful. They're
faithful. They don't look at themselves
as faithful, but they're faithful. You can count on them. That's
what faithful is. You can count on them to be what
they profess. You can count on them to live
as they profess. You can count on their devotion.
You can count on their commitment. God's people are faithful for
the faithful God makes them so. Faithful in Christ Jesus. Fourteen times in this chapter
Paul says, in Christ, in Him, by Him, for Him, 14 times. He tells us everything he's talking
about here with regard to God's salvation is in Christ. Please understand this. You have
read this book with absolutely no profit to your soul until
you understand that everything God has for sinners is in Christ. Everything God gives to sinners
is in Christ. Everything God does for sinners
is in Christ. Only in Him. Grace be to you. Grace. What kind of grace is
he talking about? Any kind there is. Grace be to
you. Grace. Daily grace. Providential
grace. sufficient grace. God's grace
be to you. And wherever grace comes, peace. And this grace and peace are
from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, here
is the purpose of our God. The purpose of our God. This
world is governed by divine purpose. And the purpose of God is absolute,
immutable, and sure. Everything that God purposed
in eternity, God performs in time. And nothing comes to pass
in time except that which God purposed in eternity for the
saving of his people. All begins with this word, blessed. Blessed. It's not the word that
we commonly look at as blessed. It's not the word happy, though
certainly he could say, happy be God, but that's not what he's
saying. He's saying, speak well of God. It's the word that we
would use if we were to speak of the eulogy at a funeral. You
want to say something good about one who's died, speak well of
him. Paul says, speak well of God. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Speak God's praise. Speak forth
God's honor. Speak forth God's dignity. Extol
Him. Lift up His name. The God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for this reason. Who hath blessed
us? Who hath? blessed us. Past tense. Be sure you read
it that way. It's done. H-A-T-H means it's
done. Hath blessed us. How did he bless
us? With all spiritual blessings. He hath already at one time in
the past blessed all his people with all spiritual blessings?
Brother Don, how far can you carry that? You carry that just
as far as your mind's imagination can stretch it. And I promise
you, you haven't begun to scratch the surface yet. He hath blessed
us. Every sinner who believes on
the Son of God hath been blessed by God Almighty with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. What does that
mean? That means that God gave His
people from old eternity everything God can give His people. I chose
my words deliberately. Everything God can give His people,
He has given to His people in Christ from eternity. All blessings. They were redeemed, and sanctified,
and justified, and glorified, and all blessedness made theirs
in Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world before
ever the world began. He gave us all spiritual blessings
in Christ, our surety. God hath saved us and called
us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according
to his own purpose and grace, which were given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. Well, how could we be blessed
in him when we had no being? Oh, but we did. We had being
in him. Our Lord Jesus was set up from
the beginning as our covenant surety. He stood forth from the
beginning as our covenant surety before ever the world was. And
as long as He has had being as our mediator, we have had being
in Him. He is our life and our life is
hid in Him and has always been hid in Him. He blessed us in
Him as our surety then. He blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now how did he do
that? Verse 4, according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, blessed is the
man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee. He blessed
us with all spiritual blessings according to His electing favor
in Christ Jesus from eternity. Election. Oh, what a blessed
thing. Tis not that I did choose thee,
for Lord, that could not be. This heart would still refuse
thee, hadst thou not first chosen me. He's blessed us then according
to His election. Election before the foundation
of the world. And He did it for this purpose,
that, that we should be holy and without blame before Him. Now I read after good men. I only read good commentaries.
If I pick up a bad one, I just set it aside and go find a good
one. But most of the good commentaries make that to mean this. He has
chosen us that we should lead a holy and blameless life. Now
that'd be a good trick if you could do it. But you're not about
to. You're not about to. Now it's
not hard for me to live a holy blameless life before you. I
can handle that. I can keep you fooled all the
time. That's not difficult. But that's not what it says.
That we should be holy and without blame before Him. This is the
object of God in election and predestination, that He should
have a race of men and women exactly like His Son, holy and
without blame. And when He's done with us, He
will present us before the presence of His glory, holy and unblameable
with exceeding joy. He with exceeding joy and we
with exceeding joy. Without spot or wrinkle or any
such thing. In love. Should that go with
verse 4 or go with verse 5? Yes. He chose us in love. And he did this in love as well,
in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself. The adoption took place when
he chose us. God sends forth the Spirit of
His Son into the hearts of His people in time, in the experience
of grace, causing His people to enjoy the blessing of adoption,
causing us to look to God in heaven and lift our hearts to
Him and call God Almighty our Father with confidence and delight. And then there is yet an adoption
coming. The adoption which is finally
accomplished in the resurrection of the body when we shall enjoy
the glory God prepared for us from eternity and that blessed
inheritance that's ours in Christ Jesus. He predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. And all this
he did according to the good pleasure of his will. Why should he love me so? Just because he wanted to. Why
should he choose you? Just because he wanted to. Why
should God set his heart on you? Just because he would. There's
no other reason. Read on. to the praise of the
glory of His grace. He's done all this so that His
name might be exalted, so that His name might be magnified,
so that His name might be praised, so that all men everywhere might
know Him to be the God of all grace. Wherein, that is in this
grace, wherein He hath made us, there's that word again, hath accepted in the beloved. Oh, what an honor for God's people.
What a name for our Savior. Accepted. Accepted. Now hear me, children of God. Hear me, if right now God gives
you faith in Christ, if right where you sit, you now find yourself
believing the Son of God, you are accepted into beloved. And that acceptance is absolute
and unchanging from eternity. Our acceptance with God has nothing
to do with what we do or feel or experience before faith or
after faith has come. Our acceptance with God is in
Christ the Beloved, the object of the Father's love and the
object of our love. Our acceptance with Him is in
Christ from eternity. He accepted us in Him before
ever He made the world. He accepted us in Him before
He made Adam and created us in Adam. He accepted us in Him and
we were not less accepted when we went astray in our father
Adam. And we were not less accepted
when we went astray from our mother's womb speaking lies.
And we were not less accepted when we lived all the days of
our life with our fists shoved in God's face and would have
killed Him if we could. We were accepted in the beloved
from eternity. Well, that's good doctrine, Brother
Don, but what about since we're saved now? Now that acceptance
depends on us. Oh, no. No. No, no. What I do in no way has any bearing
upon my relationship with God Almighty. What God does for me
And my relationship with God in Christ has great bearing on
what I do. But what I do, be it good or
evil, has no bearing on my relationship with God. But Brother Don, what
happens when a sinner, when a believer sins? Let me ask you another question.
Just exactly when is it you don't sin? When did you read this book and
not sin? When did you stand here in this
place to lead this congregation in prayer and not sin? When did you have a thought toward
God and not sin? I'm talking about when a fellow
falls really into sin. There's a difference, isn't there?
Did you ever notice In 2 Samuel 11, the very last verse, after
David had taken Bathsheba and murdered Uriah, this is what
the book says, and the thing that David did displeased the
Lord. Why didn't it say David displeased
the Lord? Why? It says the thing that David
did displeased the Lord. And God showed David his displeasure. And he showed the nation of Israel
his displeasure with David's sin. And he showed us his displeasure
with David's sin. But he didn't say David displeased
the Lord. Because David was accepted in
the beloved just exactly as we are. Our holiness, our righteousness,
our perfection does not vary. It was that which God gave us
in eternity and he never changed his mind. Accepted in the beloved. In other words, though He shows
often a frowning face, the God of glory always smiles on me. He always smiles on me. He sees me and embraces me in
His Son. Now I hear folks say, well that's
the way God sees things. I'm going to let you in on a
secret. I'm going to let you in on a secret. However God sees
things, that's how they really are. That's how they really are. I
am accepted in Christ. When I feel it and when I don't.
When I sense it and when I don't. Accepted in the beloved. All
right, read on. Here's the basis of it. Here
is the purchase of our Redeemer. In whom? There it is again. In
Christ. We have redemption. This word
redemption is a word that involves more than just atonement. It
involves more than just the putting away of sin. It involves more
than the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary. How could it involve
more than that? It's like the word salvation.
It involves the whole of God's work of grace. It speaks of the
loosing, the deliverance of God's elect. It is talking about the
complete deliverance of God's people from all the ruins of
the fall. Our absolute complete deliverance
by the blood of Christ, by the righteousness of Christ, by the
grace of God, by the power of God. It all belongs to us. All
that's involved in redemption reaches back to eternity, up
to eternity, and includes the whole work of God's grace. In
whom we have redemption, in Christ we have redemption. Redemption
one way, through His blood. Jesus Christ, God's darling Son,
assumed our nature. I keep saying that and I keep
trying to catch myself. I've been trained to say it,
but that's not right. That's not right. The book says
the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. I know the theologians
say well God couldn't become a man. He did. He did. The word was made flesh. Really
made flesh. He is as much man as though he
were not God, as much God as though he were not man. He took
our nature into union with himself as our mediator. And when he
was made flesh, he lived here as our righteous representative
in complete obedience to God, doing his Father's will in all
things until the day at last when he cried it is finished
and bowed his head and gave up the ghost and by his sacrifice
of himself one time through his blood he put away our sins. Put them away. in whom we have
redemption through His blood. Redemption that satisfies the
justice of God. Redemption that magnifies and
honors the law of God. Redemption through His blood. What does that mean? Redemption. If you have room in your Bible
and you don't mind making a little mark in it, put little equal
marks there. Right after redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Now I stress this. If Christ died for you, forgiveness
is yours. If Christ bore your sin, forgiveness
is yours. If Christ bore the wrath of God
for you, forgiveness is yours. to suggest or to imply in any
way that there is a sense in which Christ died for folks who
are not forgiven of all sin is to declare that Christ's blood
is not worth spit. It is to declare that he died
in vain and forgiveness somehow depends on you. Redemption after
all somehow depends on you. And such doctrine is utter blasphemy. I know that What I say is not
very popular most of the time, so this would be no exception.
I have in my library a book by a liberal back in the late 30s who said that Jesus Christ must
have been the bastard son of a blonde-headed German soldier
stationed in Palestine at the time when he was born. And I
cringe at the thought of such an expression. My heart cries
blasphemy, blasphemy, blasphemy. But that is no more blasphemy
than to suggest that Christ tried to redeem folks who aren't redeemed.
Or that he tried to put away sin that is not put away. Or
that he died for nothing. Those for whom Christ died are
a people for whom he was made sin and he being made sin for
us bore our sins in his body on the tree and bore them away
under the wrath of God until justice is fully satisfied and
sin is put away and now God in justice cannot and will not charge
his people with their sins. Top lady put it this way, and
I've never heard it expressed better, payment God cannot twice
demand, first at my surety's hand and then again at mine. It can't be done. Oh, I believe
in the forgiveness of sins. Complete forgiveness. Absolute
forgiveness. Unvarying forgiveness. Everlasting
forgiveness. What would you give? If you could treat your life
like a... We used to have videotapes. Had to find another illustration,
but they're still fresh enough you can remember. Stick it in
the machine, you push the rewind button. And you start all over.
You start all over. Start all over with a clean record
before God with no possibility of corrupting the record. Oh, brother Don, is that possible? If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Old things are passed away and
behold, all things are become new. Every sinner believing on the
Son of God has a clean record in heaven. And it's impossible to mar the
record. That seems shocking to you, doesn't
it? No. That's called real substitution.
Our salvation is all together in and by Christ Jesus. Are you suggesting, Brother Don,
that our sins don't matter? What a shame that you should
imagine such a thing. No. I loathe what I am. And I seek
by God's grace not to yield to what I know I am. I seek by God's
grace to honor my Redeemer in thought, in word, and in deed. But nothing can be more honoring
to Him than that I should trust Him in the teeth of my sin, or
more dishonoring to Him than that I should deny Him by not
trusting Him as my only redemption and my only righteousness. All
right, read on. Where is it? He's given us this
forgiveness according to the riches of His grace, wherein
in this grace, His free grace, wherein He hath abounded toward
us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the
mystery of His will. He abounds to us by the revelation
of His Word in all the wisdom of God and with all the skill
of God. All the wisdom of the infinite
God and all the skill of the infinite God. Making known to
us the mystery of His will. What's God doing? What's God
doing? As your pastor said, we live
in a dark day. But I think I have some understanding
in what God's doing. God is working salvation in the
midst of the earth. I have never been more excited,
more encouraged, more full of anticipation with regard to the
preaching of the gospel than I am right now. God Almighty
is working salvation in the midst of the earth. He's doing it as
much in this day of apostasy and darkness as he was all the
while the children of Israel were in Egypt. He was working
their deliverance from Egypt exactly according to his purpose.
And this is what God's doing now. When you read your newspapers,
don't ever interpret God's will by the newspaper. Interpret the
newspaper by God's revealed will. Don't ever interpret God's will
by your experience of providence. Interpret your experience of
providence by the revelation of God's will. Well, what is
it? Read on. Having made known to us the mystery
of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He hath
purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness
of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ,
He's going to gather up everything, both which are in heaven and
which are on earth, even in Him. He's going to gather up everything
that has been. Everything that you look at and
thought was evil and everything you look at and thought was good,
Everything performed by the angels of God. Everything performed
by men. Everything performed by the demons
of hell. Everything in heaven, earth,
and hell. Everything! He'll gather it all
up and it'll all shout praise to Him. And it will be demonstrated
that everything that has been has been exactly according to
the will of Him who is God our Savior working salvation in the
midst of the earth. Everything in Christ Jesus. Read
on. Verse 11. In whom we have obtained
an inheritance. The Lord willing, Brother Carty
tomorrow is going to be preaching to us on the future of salvation. But this says we've already got
it. In whom we have obtained and
inherited. Oh, we're going to be heirs of
God. Yeah, but this says we already are. We've already obtained it. The Lord Jesus, you remember
when he spoke to the Father in John 17? His high priestly prayer,
he said, Father, Glorify thou me with thine own self, with
the glory which I had with thee before the world was." He concludes
the prayer this way. He says, the glory that thou
hast given me, I have given them. All the glory that Jesus Christ
the God-man mediator possesses right now as he sits upon the
throne of grace, all that is his, rightfully his, because
of his obedience to the Father's will, is ours in Him. We're heirs of God and joint
heirs with Jesus Christ. Joint heirs. What a word. I don't
even own a piece of ground to bury myself in. I'm going to
buy one of those before I die, I hope. But so my daughter and
son-in-law won't have to take care of it. But let's just suppose
I'm a filthy rich fella. And I've got scads of money,
lots of property. And I leave my inheritance to
my immediate family. That'd be my wife, my daughter,
my son-in-law, my two grandchildren. And they have an equal share
in my inheritance. They're not joint heirs. They
all get a little piece. Maybe they all get a big piece,
but they all just get a piece. We are not sharers in Christ's
inheritance. We possess his inheritance. Everything that belongs to the
mediator belongs to us, his people. Everything belonging to our covenant
head belongs to us and is possessed by us right now by our forerunner
in heaven's glory. And soon we shall come to the
enjoyment of it. Read on. We have obtained this inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of him Now, here's
present tense. Who worketh. Who worketh all things. Well,
how far can you carry that? Just as far as you can carry
it. All things. All things. Brother Russell Smith
drove me over from Ireland yesterday and was talking about a message
he was preaching the night before. Quoted Isaiah 45, 7. God describes
himself like this, says, Behold, I make peace, and I create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. He said that's a powerful statement. Oh yes. And explain that. Some things I think are best
left unexplained. Because you tend to explain them
away. God Almighty graciously, wisely, in wisdom ordained, and
in prudence executes his purpose in all things. The psalmist said, Surely the
wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath thou
wilt restrain. While it is difficult for us
to grasp, oh, what a blessed revelation
it will be, When we look back over the mountains of time and
the experiences of God's grace and say, my, what wondrous things
the Lord has wrought. Everything, everything, everything
worked and working by the sovereign manipulation of God, who is in
control of the thoughts and intents of every man's heart, as well
as the deeds of his hands, working them to do me good. Everything. Everything. Everything
in my life, and everything in everybody else's life. Oh my. We worship a great God. Verse 12, he does it all for
this purpose, that we should be to the praise
of his glory who first trusted in Christ. After preaching the
gospel for better than 50 years, Robert Hawker, laying on his
deathbed, and someone was reading to this first portion of Ephesians
chapter 1 and he got to verse 12 and Harker said to the fellow
reading to him and who first trusted in Christ God first trusted in Christ the
triune God first trusted Christ as our mediator put all things
in His hands, His glory, His will, His people. Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, trusting that God may mediate to our surety
from old eternity. And He says now, He's done all
this for us in Christ, that we should be to the praise of the
glory of the triune God. Verse 13, here is the work of
God the Holy Spirit performed in us. in whom you also trusted,
after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation. Your pastor stands here and preaches
the gospel to you, and preaches the gospel to you, and preaches
the gospel to you, and then one day he's preaching the same message
he's been preaching to you these many years, and suddenly you
find yourself believing because God the Holy Spirit brings the
gospel home to you as the word of the truth, the gospel of your
salvation, enabling you to trust his darling son, in whom also
you also trusted after that you heard the word of the truth,
the gospel, the good news of your salvation, in whom also
After that, he believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise. Now, let me give you a better
reading of that. And when I look at the King James
translation, I offer a better reading. Believe me, that's rare.
As we say back home, that's scarce as hen's teeth. But this is a
better reading. Having believed you were sealed. It's not talking about some kind
of a second work of grace. It's talking about that which
is the immediate consequence of faith in Christ. By the Spirit
of God, all these covenant blessings God gave us in Christ from eternity,
and the redemption that's ours in Christ, the forgiveness of
sins, the deliverance of our souls by His blood and by His
grace, all are sealed to us by believing on Him. Sealed to us
by the gift of the Holy Spirit giving us faith. in whom you're
sealed. Sealed. I think I may have told
you this last year. If you didn't, tell it now. I'm
not much of a hand to help around the house. I acknowledge that.
I would have been a pretty good husband 150 years ago, but I'm
not much of a hand these days. I do help my wife when it comes
canning time. She cans beans. And we put up
everything we eat. She puts up everything we eat.
Come time canned beans, my hands are still a little stronger than
hers, and my job is to salt conceal. Some of you ladies have done
it. Put beans, she puts them in a canned fruit jar, I put
a teaspoon of salt in there, she pours in boiling water, I
put a lid on it, tighten that thing down. Set it over in the
canner, put the pressure canner lid on it, turn it on, 20 minutes
later, take it off, and sit down and work up some more beans while
we're waiting on something. We take those beans out and we're
sitting there listening, listening for a ping, ping, ping. And those seven jars are sealed.
And do you know a year later, she'll start to open those things
up and she listens for this, shwoop. If there's no shwoop, the beans
are bad, the seal broke. And just in case the shwoop's
not just right, I watch her. That dear lady will take one
of the beans out and taste it and be sure she's not giving me a
bad one. And if it tastes right, throw it away and get another
one. Sometimes the seal breaks because it's made by me, not
this one. sealed, preserved, kept in Jesus
Christ by the will of God from all eternity and now sealed and
kept by the will of God in the experience of His grace through
every trial and temptation and fault and failure and weakness
kept and preserved and sealed until the day of redemption until
the day when He brings these bodies out of the grave One more
line, which is the earnest of our inheritance, the down payment,
the earnest money, the pledge. You driving down the road and
you're kind of getting tired of that old car you've been driving
and you see one that you've had your eye on for a while and you,
I believe I'll go get it. And you go in there and the fellow
said, there's so much money in you, write him out a check for
a down payment. And you say, I'll be back tomorrow,
take care of the rest of it. In most places of business, that
means either you'll be back tomorrow or you lose your down payment.
That's the earnest money. God the Holy Spirit dwelling
in you. giving you faith in Jesus Christ,
the spirit of promise, the spirit of life promised from God himself,
is God's own pledge, his earnest money. that you shall be raised
in glory with Christ Jesus the Lord, and at last presented thoughtless
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. And that
is God's salvation. Amen.