And I'm glad to be here. I appreciate
your pastor inviting me to preach today in both services. I pray
that he'll have a very successful meeting out in San Diego, California. It's down that way, isn't it? I want you to open your Bibles
this morning to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 1. In verse 1, the apostle Paul
said, writing to the church at Ephesus, Paul, an apostle of
Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints which are
at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Now Paul was
an apostle of Christ by the will of God. And he's writing to some
people that are very important to him. You remember he brought
all the elders in Ephesus to Antioch and spoke to them for
the last time. But Paul in the early days was
not an apostle. Paul was a rebellious man. We
find this, that Paul for many years, many years, until he was
over 40 years of age, Paul was steeped in religion, despised
the very mention and name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was
legalistic. He was self-righteous. He hated
the gospel. But then when he was past 40
years of age, he met Christ on the road to Damascus. And God
smote him, broke him down, blinded him. And the Lord Jesus said,
Saul, why persecutest thou me? Looking up to heaven with sightless
eyes, he cried, who art thou, Lord? And our master said, I'm
Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. Lord, what would
you have me do?" Well, the Lord told him what to do. He told
him to go to Damascus, and someone would meet him there. And the
Lord revealed Christ to him through Ananias the prophet. And Ananias
said this to Paul. He said, The God of our fathers
hath chosen thee, that thou mayest see the just one, and know his
will, and hear the word at his voice and be a witness to all
men. So from a self-righteous pharisee
to a broken sinner to a submissive servant, he served the Lord with
great, great strength, effort, and devotion. Now, when I'm reading
here The apostle Paul is a veteran missionary, about to be called
home, about to be taken back to heaven. And he said, I'm ready. I'm ready to be offered. By the
time of my departure is at hand, I've finished my course. I've
kept the faith. There is laid up for me a crown
of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give
me in that day, not to me only, but to all them that love his
appearing." These are the last days of the apostle. And he's
writing to his friends at Ephesus here in chapter 1. And I call
this a glorious doxology. of glorious doxology. And I learned
this several years ago, that these verses from, he said in
verse two, grace be to you and peace from God our Father and
from the Lord Jesus Christ. But starting at verse three,
this glorious doxology, it just has human words and human effort
to reveal it or to preach it. But Paul gives this doxology
in three sentences, just three sentences. And I want you to
look at it, then we're going to talk about each one of these,
each one of these phrases, each one of these sentences. Start
with verse one, or verse three, verse three. And Paul said, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heaven and places in Christ."
There's a colon there now, that's not a period. These are long
sentences, now you watch them. According as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love. Having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved period."
That's all one sentence. And I want you to watch this
very carefully and let this be my first point. Paul, in verse
three, starts where he is. He said, Bless God. What does
that mean? fall before Him in worship. Bless
God. Why? Well, because He's God. And He's worthy of praise and
adoration and blessing. And because He's the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God, the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And then He said, Who hath blessed
us? Bless God. Bless God, the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who has blessed us? So Paul starts
where he is, and he says, God has blessed us. How has God blessed
us? Well, we think about material
blessings, and wealth, and family, and friends, and home, and children,
and automobiles, and boats, and cars, but that's not what he's
talking about. He said God has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings, not the trinkets of this world, but spiritual blessings. He's made unto us wisdom, the
wisdom of God. He's made unto us righteousness,
the righteousness of Christ. He's made unto us sanctification,
holiness. He's made unto us redemption. All that I need, all that I need
is in Christ my Lord. Oh, Paul starts where he is.
Blessed be God who has blessed me, who has blessed us with all
spiritual blessings. All spiritual blessings. But
now he takes a step back. Watch it. Blessed be the God
and Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in the heavenlies now, in Christ, according according
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. Our Lord said to his disciples,
you didn't choose me. I chose you. I chose tis not
that I did choose thee. Lord, that could not be. This
heart of mine would still refuse thee that thou hast chosen me. God has blessed us. takes a step
back because God chose me. He chose to bless me. Brother
E.W. Johnson, my friend of many years,
he died when he was past 90 years of age, but he learned the gospel
of God's grace before I did, several years before I did. He
was pastor of a church in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and he was preaching
these messages right here Brother Todd preaches and I try to preach
in God's sovereign grace. And he's on the radio. And a
preacher friend of his in the same town was on the radio too. And he started taking off on
Brother Johnson's messages. He called him the fellow that
preaches Calvary and Ism. His church was Calvary Baptist
and the preacher called it that Calvaryism doctrine. But Brother
Johnson knew this man. They went to the seminary together.
So he decided to go and have a word with him about this Calvaryism. And he went to the pastor's office
and told the secretary, I want to see the pastor. And she escorted
him in. And of course, the preacher was
friendly and took him, Brother Johnson. Brother Johnson called
him by name and he said, He said, you know me and I know you. We
went to school together. We're supposed to study the same
thing. He said, I have three questions for you. And when you
answer these three questions, I want you to leave me alone.
Don't call my name again on the radio, and don't you talk about
Calvaryism anymore. He said, well, all right. I said,
what do you want to know? He said, number one, I want to know,
did you choose God or did He choose you? Pastor Paul just paused a minute
and he said, He chose me. He said, my second question is,
when did he choose you? He said, when I believed. He
said, now come on. What does the scripture say?
Chose me in Christ before the foundation of the Lord. Isn't
that what it says? He said, yes, that's what it says. He said,
my third question is, why did he choose you? Of all people,
why did he choose you? And the preacher said, according
to the good pleasure of his own will. Now, he says, don't bother
me anymore. You preach what you want to,
but I'm preaching what God sent me to preach. That's God. Oh, how he's blessed us. All
spiritual blessing. I'm not talking about these things
here. I'm talking about those things I have. According as he
chose me. Now, what's the next line? according
as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world,
not because we are holy, but that we might be holy and might
be in Christ before him in love, having predestinated us." Are
we going back now? Bless God. He chose us, having
predestinated us. Brother R. T. Kendall and I were
playing golf together way back years ago, years ago when he
was still living in my part of the country. And we were playing
golf together and we went up to a little golf course in Cerrito,
West Virginia. And it was right in the town. And so we walked over to get
a Coca-Cola. And I walked into the office the filling station, service
station, and it was a Bible laying on the desk. And it attracted
my attention. You don't find a Bible open in
a filling station in too many places where you train. And I
turned to the fellow sitting there, I said, that's a nice
Bible. He said, my wife got me that. He said, by the way, believe
it or not now, he said, by the way, do you believe in predestination? I said, I used to ask, what do
you mean? Well, he said, you know, some
God chooses, some go to heaven, some go to hell. I said, I don't
believe that. But I believe predestination.
I said, where is it in the Bible? I played like I wasn't a preacher.
He said, I don't know. I said, well, when you condemn
something, you sure ought to know something about it. I'll
tell you something about it. I have looked at it a little
bit. The word predestination is not used in the Bible four
times. It's used right here twice in Ephesians 1, and it's used
over here twice in Romans 8. Predestination. And I said every
time it's used, it's used in connection with what we're going
to be. You see, friend, election is
our people. God elected. He chose us. He chose us. He elected us. But he predestinated us to be
something. So election has to do with people
and predestination has to do with what God's going to do with
those people. And he's going to make them like
Christ. Look at it. See if that's not what it says.
Verse 4, according as he chose us in Christ before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love, having predestinated, predetermined for knowledge,
having predestinated us unto the, what? The adoption of children. God's going to make everybody
whom he saved just like Christ. I'm going to wake one day with
his likeness. I'm going to be like Him. You're
going to be like Him. God has chosen us in Christ to
be like Christ. And I looked at that fellow,
and I said, don't you want to be like Christ? Oh, yes, I do. Well, you've been predestinated
to be like Christ. That's what the Scripture said.
Just like God predestinated Joseph, that little boy with the bright
colored coat, down in Israel to be king in Egypt. And every
step he took in that direction, God ordained. And God predestinated. And God made him king of Egypt. And one of these days, you're
not going to be kings and princes in Christ, but God predestinated. God ordained it. God foreknew
it. And He's going to make us like
Christ. Alright, what's the next step?
Bless God, He's blessed me. Because He chose to bless me. He chose to bless me. And then
I'll take a step back. He predestinated us to be like
Christ. We're going to be like God at
Christ's, aren't we, that next birth? According to verse 5,
having predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ Himself according to the good pleasure of His own will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He made us
accepted in the Beloved. God Almighty blessed us. He chose us. He predestinated
us and He accepted us. I didn't accept Him. He accepted
me. That's right. Colossians says
this, giving thanks unto the Father who has made us fit, qualified
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life, who delivered
us from the power of darkness and accepted us and put us in
the kingdom of his dear Son. He accepted us. The Father chose
us. The Father predestined us to
be like Christ. and He accepted us. "'Twas grace
that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear
the hour I first believed. "'Twas grace that inscribed my
name in God's eternal book. "'Twas grace that gave me to
the Lamb, who all my sorrows took.'" There's the first sentence. And you see how it ended? It
ended to the praise of the glory of His grace. Why did God save
you? To the praise of the glory of
His grace. We might forever praise Him for
what He's done. That's the work of the Father
in redemption. Now, the next sentence is the work of the Son. Here it is right here in verse
seven. In whom? By whom? Through whom? in whom we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of his grace. Peter said this, for as much
as you know, you were not redeemed with corruptible things such
as silver and gold. We go back to the Old Testament
tabernacle and Solomon's temple, all the gold and silver and uniforms
and all of these things that were there. But let me tell you,
we were not redeemed with those things. We weren't redeemed with
those things. We were redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb without spot or blemish, who
was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested
in these last times for you, who do believe and who are kept
by the power of his grace. We're redeemed by the precious
blood of Christ. I want you to turn just for a
moment. We'll go away from our text a minute and go over to
the book of Isaiah. Go to the book of Isaiah just
a moment. Isaiah, let's look at chapter
53. I probably have given you this
in a previous message, but did you know in those 12 verses of
Isaiah 53, the pronoun he, Him and His occurs 43 times in
14 persons. There's no question about who
our Redeemer is and how our Redeemer redeemed us. Let's look at Isaiah
53. Just read a few of these verses.
Verse 1 of chapter 53. Who hath believed our report?
To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For He shall go up
before Him as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground.
He hath no form, no comeliness. When we shall see Him, there's
no beauty we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of
men. A man of solace acquainted with
greed, but we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He's despised,
we esteem Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs. He had carried our sorrows, yet
we did esteem Him stricken of God and afflicted, but He was
wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. To test Heaven, our peace was
laid on Him, and with His stripes we healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We turned every one to his own
way, but the Lord has laid on Him. How are we redeemed? On Him. The Lord hath laid on
him the iniquity of us all. One of the old writers said this. I'll tell you this. If Christ
died for us, the Father must have willed him to die. If Christ
died for us, there can be no other way of salvation. If Christ
died for us, we must have been hopeless. If Christ died for
us, we'll never die. For who shall lay anything? to
the charge of God's elect. Who is he that condemns? It's
Christ that died. Who can separate us from the
love of Christ? I was sitting in my study one
day, and a young man walked in whom I had never seen before. I would say at that time he was
married, and he was, I guess, 23 or 24. And he said, Could I have a word with you,
preacher? I said, yes. He said, I've been watching you
on television. He said, I've never been religious. I've never made any kind of profession
of religion. I've just been kind of a heathen
all my life. But he said, I got under some
kind of conviction. I got trouble about myself, so
I bought me a Bible. And he said, I've been reading
it. And I started in Genesis 1. Start reading through the
Bible. And I read through Genesis and
Exodus and Leviticus. And he said, I said to my wife
one day, I said, honey, if we're going to be saved, we're going
to know God, we're going to have to have a lamb. Everybody I read
here's got a lamb. Abraham's got a lamb. Moses got
a lamb. All of them got a lamb. We don't have a lamb. And he
said, I heard you on last Sunday on TV. And you said, I'm going
to preach this morning on the subject, Behold the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sin of the world. He hollered for his wife,
come in here, that man's going to preach about the Lamb. So
I preached about the Lamb. And he said, now, you going to
preach Wednesday night in this church? I said, yes, sir. He
said, I'm going to be here. And I'm going to be here until
I hear about that Lamb. And that's what I did. I told
him about that Lamb. And he received that lamb and
believed that lamb and went to our preacher's school and became
a preacher preaching about that lamb. But that's the way men
say. In whom we have redemption. We
have redemption. Not going to have it. We have
redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of all our sins. But let's read on a little bit
about the work of the Son. He redeemed us and then he said
he hath abounded poured us in all wisdom. That's that wisdom
you were talking about, Mark, in the Sunday school class this
morning. In all wisdom and prudence. Watch verse 9. Having made known
unto us the mystery of His will, He revealed. His Son not only
redeemed us, but He revealed God to us. He revealed the mysteries
of Godliness, according to his will, according to the good pleasure
which he purposed in himself. And then he said in verse ten,
he not only redeemed us and revealed, enlightened us, but he also enriched
us. Look, verse ten, that in the
dispensation of the fullness of time, he's going to gather
together all things in Christ. Most which are already in heaven,
those who have gone before. Paul's writing this here in the
first century. And those people, some of them
are already in heaven. He said, those who are already in heaven
and those which are on earth, even in this, watch this, in
whom we have obtained an inheritance. I told somebody not long ago
in a message about a lady up in Columbus, Ohio, who died,
and she brought out a will. And this lawyer came down to
the church in Ashland and told me that the lady had died and
she'd willed all her possessions to me, to you, preacher, and
to Jimmy Schweiger, and to the Church of Christ, and to E.J.
Daniels. I said, oh, all four are going
to be in this deal? He said, that's right. She watches
all of you on television, one night after the other, you know.
And I said, what do you want me to do? He said, get your lawyer
because the family's going to contest the will. I said, I don't
blame them. I'd contest it too, wouldn't
you? But he said, you've got to go to court. I said, no, I'm
not. You just give me a paper and I'll sign it and you take
that lady's inheritance and give it to whomsoever she wants to,
but I'm not going to court and fight over some woman's will.
And he had me sign. That's the last I heard of it.
Another lady, listening to television, Doc Garner, she sent me her,
the deed to her house. And told me, said, I want you
to preach my funeral in McDowell, Kentucky, and I want you to take
this house and sell it and use it for what you want to use it
for. Her sister got in touch with me and told me about Garnet
leaving the house to me. And I said, now, what was her
name? I forget her name. Anyway, I
said, don't worry about this. The house goes to you. She was
a poor lady. I said, the house goes to you.
I'll just wait until Garnet dies and I'll give you the house.
Same thing happened to a young man in Huntington. I lose my
inheritance. Every time I get one. This boy
woke in Huntington. He died. His wife was divorced. He had one son. He was in late
teens, maybe twenties. But he died, and I preached his
funeral, and a boy came to me and said, Preacher, I'm hard
up. Dad left everything to you, and
I'm not going to have anything. I said, son, you got it all.
You know, we don't covet men's silver and gold. We're not interested
in things like that. We have an inheritance. That's
what it says here. Verse 11, in whom we have an
inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who works all things after the counsel of his own will. We're
rich in grace, in God, in love, in all things rich. Everything
we need, he provides. Everything we need. Well, how
did he end that sentence? Just like he ended the first
one. That we should be to the praise of his glory who first
trusted in Christ. The Father blessed us. He chose us. He predestinated
us. He accepted us. The Son redeemed
us. The Son enlightened us. illuminate
us, reveal the gospel to us. The Son gathers us together in
Christ, those in heaven and those on earth. And the Son of God
gave us glorious inheritance. Glorious inheritance. I heard
a song not long ago. I don't know whether I remember
it or not right now. I remember these old songs, but not the
new ones, you know. Something about, I'm satisfied
with a cottage below, a little silver and a little gold. But
he said, just a little now, a little silver and a little gold and
a cottage below. But as I wonder down through the years, he said,
God's going to give me a mansion and I'm going to walk on streets
of gold. That's covetous, isn't it? In
that human life. He's given us an inheritance.
And he did it to the praise of the glory of his grace. Now here's
the third question, the third statement, sentence. In whom,
watch this now, in whom you trusted, in whom you trusted after you
heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in
whom after you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise. My friends, there can be no faith
where there's no gospel. There can be no faith where there's
no gospel. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Scripture said, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him
that sent me, hath everlasting life, and is purged from death
unto life. Now watch this, verse fourteen,
which is the earnest What is that word? That's the pledge,
the token. This, the Holy Spirit of promise
has sealed us and this, his sealing of us is the earnest, the pledge. I'll give you an illustration
here. When you buy a house and you're not fully settled on it
and the person demands what? Earnest money. So you write out
a check and give it to them. And he holds that house for you
because he's got the earnest money. Isn't that correct? Well,
let me tell you something. God is holding our inheritance,
and he's given us the earnest money, and it's a promise of
the Holy Spirit. That's our earnest money. That's
our token. That's our pledge, which is the
pledge, which is the earnest, which is the token of our inheritance
until the redemption of the purchased possession. Wow! To the praise
of His glory. The Father blessed us, chose
us, predestinated us to be like Christ and accepted us. The Son
redeemed us, revealed Christ to us, enlightened us, gave us
understanding And the Son gave us an inheritance all to the
praise of His blood. And the Holy Spirit came in time
and called us and revealed the gospel to us. And we have that
pledge of His promise, token of His promise until the redemption
of the precious possession. Let me close with a little illustration. Our Lord used parables. And I
think it's some of the best preaching in the world to illustrate what
you're trying to say. But in Chicago, back many years ago,
there was a rescue mission work. I believe it was called Mel Trotter's
mission, rescue mission. Takes people in, feeds them,
and clothes them, and preach to them. The way I heard this story is
this young man was really in bad shape. Real bad shape. Dirty, ragged, didn't have anything,
no place to live. He was sleeping on the streets
and in buildings. And he was lying back one night,
cold and rainy, and a piece of paper blew across his foot. And he reached down and picked
up the piece of paper. And he couldn't tell much about
it, but he saw a rescue mission, Mel Trotter's rescue mission,
gave an address. And then he said, all you need
is John 316. All you need is John 316. He
saw the address. He thought, well, I've got a
lot of needs. And all I need is this number
here. I'm going to go look that fellow
up. He started walking and asking
people about this address. Finally, he found the street.
Finally, he found the number. He knocked on the door. Late
at night, the elder of the man came to the door and opened it.
And he had that piece of paper there. And he said, this paper
said, all I need is John 3, 16. But he said, son, welcome. Come
on in. So he came in and he said, you're
awful dirty. Your clothes are awful ragged.
Why don't we take you back here and give you a bath? Take these
old clothes off and let me give you some new clothes. So we took
him back there and gave him a bath and waited for him outside. Then he came out cleaned up in
a hair cone and pajamas and a robe on. He said, now, I said, while
you was getting your bath, he said, I was fixing you something
to eat. Come on back here and let me give you something to
eat. So the boy went back and sat down. And the man had all
kind of food. He ate and ate. And he got food
and said, that was wonderful. I'm so glad I'm clean and got
this new clothes and this. Aren't you tired, son? You look
weary. You look tired, very tired. You need to rest. He said, let's
take you down here to this place where you can sleep and get on
this cot and make yourself at home. And we were talking in
the morning. So he went in and laid down.
And he said, before the man left, he said, say, sir, he said, what
is this John 3, 16? He said, must be something awful
wonderful in John 3, 16 clean up a dirty man like me, and give
clean clothes to a naked man like me. This John 3.16 must
be something special for me to be fed like this. And now that I'm sleeping, it
rests like this. What's this John 3.16? He said,
Son, in the morning I'm going to tell you all about it. But
this is what it says, For God so loved the world, that he gave
his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth on him will never perish,
but have eternal life. And he's the one that cleanses
the filthy. He's the one that clothes the
naked. He's the one that gives food
to all that hunger and thirst, and he's the one that gives rest.
And next morning, he told him about the Savior. That's what
I'm trying to do. It's just paraphrase about him.
Bless God. Bless God, who blessed us, chose
us, predestinated us, accepted, blessed us. Holy Lord Jesus Christ,
who redeemed us, who opened our hearts and enlightened us, who
gave us an inheritance, And bless God who gave us His Holy Spirit
to see what it says in John 3.16. Not only what it says, but what
it really means. Christ died for our sin. Our
Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You, Lord, for revealing
to us our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank You, Lord, for giving us
a love for Him and a love for His Word. Thank You for this
congregation that You brought together in this place to worship
Thee. Thank You for the dear pastor
that ministers to them the Word of God every Lord's Day and Wednesday
night. Thank You. We give You the praise
and the glory. And we pray this morning if it
pleases Thee to your glory and praise that somebody else here
in this place may hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who
loved us and gave Himself for us and look to Him and receive
Him and believe on Him. Lord, order our steps through
this day and bless us tonight as we gather together again And
bless Your Word to our hearts. For Christ's sake we pray, Amen.