In Ephesians 1 verses 3 to 6,
to those poor sinners who have tasted the bitterness of their
own sin and who have come to know and to feel their own depravity,
when grace is preached, it's a sound that is charming. It's
a sound that is wonderful to our ears. But there are many
people who taste the Word of God who hear the doctrine of
God's grace and they find it to be bitter in their mouths
and in their ears. God's grace to many people through
this world is disturbingly unpleasant to them. I pray that's not true
of you. But God's grace does not tolerate
any rivals. God's grace does not tolerate
anything to be added to it. Grace, you see, stands alone. No words describing grace can
do it justice. No song of men has such a sweet
melody as grace to a sinner. No sermon can expound the depths
or the heights of the glory of God's grace. But at the same
time, every redeemed sinner rests in God's grace and is motivated
by God's grace. Grace to a child of God becomes
the source of his comfort. Grace is the basis of his conviction. Grace is what fills a believer's
heart with joy, gives him tears, gives him a desire and a fulfillment. It's the basis for his meekness,
but it's also the basis for his boldness. Those who have experienced
the wonder of God's grace love God's grace. Those who have experienced
the beauty and the power of God's grace find their minds and their
hearts are consumed by God's grace. Grace is mystery and grace
is revelation. The language of believers is
salted with God's grace. Their relationships are motivated
and measured by God's grace and their souls are filled with it.
You see, God's grace is the glory of God. On Mount Sinai, Moses
asked God to show him His glory. And in Exodus 33, verse 9, we
have God's reply. God said to Moses, I will make
all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee. and I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show
mercy." This morning, I want to talk to you about just one
of God's great, wondrous works of grace. In our text it says,
wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. That's what I'd
like to talk to you about this morning. In Ephesians 1, beginning
in verse 3, Paul wrote, and remember that Paul is inspired by the
Word of God, and Paul wrote, Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, 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 to 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."
Here in Ephesians 1, the Apostle Paul, writing by divine inspiration,
tells us that God Almighty has from all eternity chosen, predestinated,
adopted, and blessed us in Christ, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. That's
God's grace. He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. That's God's grace. With those
words, the Holy Spirit reveals and declares to us one of the
most comforting, one of the most delightful truths of Holy Scripture
that I think anybody could ever know. It's a truth which is that
there is an everlasting and an indissolvable and an unchangeable
union between the Lord Jesus Christ and His people in which
Christ enters into us and sinners become new persons, entirely,
completely new and righteous persons in Jesus Christ. That's
God's grace. Turn please to Ecclesiastes 3
and verse 14. I think it's very important for
us to see at the very outset of what we're thinking about
that our acceptance in Christ is spoken about as something
that is accomplished by the Lord God himself in eternity. It's not something accomplished
by us in time because our acceptance is something that is done by
God from all eternity. God's grace is not in any way
dependent upon us. If it was, it wouldn't be grace. In Ecclesiastes 3, verse 14,
the preacher says, I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall
be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor
anything taken from it. And God does it that men should
fear before Him. By nature, men hate what the
preacher says here in Ecclesiastes 3.14. Even many people who say
that they trust Christ, by nature, they will insist on having their
own free will and they'll want a part in their own salvation. That's why most religion insists
that salvation depends on some point on man's will, man's work,
somehow on man's contribution. Look at Ephesians 1, 6 again. hell-bent, hell-deserving sinners
by nature, but for maternity were chosen and redeemed and
called by His grace. He has made us accepted, highly
favored, honored, pleasing, and delightful to God Himself. Can
you imagine being delightful to God Himself? He has made us
delightful in the Beloved. He's made us delightful in the
Lord Jesus Christ, His dear Son, our Savior. Oh, I pray that you
can hear this. I hope that you can hear it with
an understanding and with God-given belief and faith. By God's mercy
that you can believe this salvation truth. The difference between
saved and unsaved sinners is that those who believe God trust
Christ and those who do not believe God trust themselves. Hear me
please I pray that God the Holy Spirit will use my lips to preach
as he taught David's hands to make war. And that God will enable
me to minister to your hearts and bring comfort to your hearts.
As I try to set before you this wondrous revelation of God's
grace. He, God, has made us accepted
in the Beloved. Isn't that wonderful? I can't
get that phrase out of my mind. He has made us accepted in the
Beloved. He's made us accepted in Jesus
Christ. Everything in this first chapter
of Ephesians is about, and it points to, a beloved person,
our great Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Christ
is revealed here as the Beloved. I can't imagine a title or a
name that would be any better for Christ than the Beloved. He's our Redeemer. He's our Beloved. This sweet golden name, The Beloved
is the one name that suits our Savior in all of his relationships
with the Triune God. The angels of heaven and to his
people in heaven and on the earth, Christ is the Beloved. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Beloved of his Father's heart. In Matthew 3.17 it says, And
lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my Beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased. And in Matthew 17.5 it says,
While ye yet spoke, behold, a bright colored cloud overshadowed them,
and behold, a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. Turn please
to Proverbs 8 verses 22 to 31, which was read as our call to
worship. I got excited about this passage, talked about it
this morning in our opening exercise. We had a good time there. I think
that none of us can begin to imagine how dear and how beloved
the Son of God is to His Father. Who can enter into the relationship
of the three divine persons in the eternal trinity? I certainly
can't. Can you? Can you understand how
they love each other and how they work together? We can't
begin to imagine the kind of love that the Father has for
His Son. But we do have abundant evidence of that love, and we
have many illustrations of it in the scriptures. Proverbs 8
is one of those places. God the Son was one with the
Father and beloved by Him as our surety in the counsels of
grace in eternity. In Proverbs 8, beginning in verse
22, the Son of God says, The Lord possessed me in the beginning
of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting,
from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no
depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before
the hills was I brought forth. He had not made the earth, nor
the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When
He prepared the heavens, I was there. When He set a compass
upon the face of the depth, when He established the clouds above,
when He strengthened the fountains of the deep, when He gave to
the sea His decree that the waters should not pass His commandment,
when He appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by Him
as one brought up with Him, and I was daily His delight. rejoicing
always before him, rejoicing in the habitable part of his
earth, and my delights were with the sons of men." Now go back
to Ephesians 1, please. Ephesians 1, 3. In the covenant
of God's grace, all the blessings of grace were bestowed on chosen
sinners only in the Beloved. Ephesians 1.3 says, Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ,
in the Beloved. And in 2 Timothy 1 verses 9 and
10, it says about God, who hath saved us and called us with a
holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His
own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ before
the world began. but is now made manifest by the
appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ who has abolished death
and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
That's God's grace, isn't it? That's God's grace given to us
in the beloved Jesus Christ. When the Lord God stopped to
create all things out of nothing, when the Father called to the
Son and said, let us make man in our image and after our likeness,
And in John 1 verse 3 it says about Christ, for without Him
was not anything made that was made. Everything that the God
the Father has done and decreed to be done was done to glorify
the Son, God's beloved Son, that in all things He might have the
preeminence, as Colossians 1.18 says. And God the Son lived on
the earth as a man. He died as our substitute and
He lives again as our exalted King and Priest in Heaven that
He might glorify the Father. Christ is the Father's Beloved.
Jesus Christ is the Beloved of the Father in the words of His
person and in the work of His hands and in the words of His
mouth. Because for all who come to God by Him, Christ demands
salvation. He points to their names on His
breast and He spreads out His wounded hands as proof that they
are His, that He bought them and that He paid for their sin.
Turn now please to John 16 verses 13 and 14. The Lord Jesus Christ
is also the Beloved of the Holy Spirit. It is the office and
the work and the good pleasure of God the Holy Spirit in all
His gracious operations and influences to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, who is the beloved
of the Father, is glorified by the Holy Spirit. In John 16,
verses 13 and 14, Jesus said, Howbeit when he, when the Spirit
of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall
not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he
speak, and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me,
Jesus said, for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto
you." The Holy Spirit glorifies the Beloved Son. Now turn to
Isaiah 6, verses 1-8. Surely the Lord Jesus is beloved
by all of the heavenly angels. I don't think I'm stretching
Scripture too far. When I say that the heavenly
angels, those Holy Spirits who wait constantly before God's
throne, look on the Lord Jesus Christ as their beloved. It is
before His throne that they vow. It is His praise that they sing.
It is His will that they wait to perform. In Isaiah 6, verses
1-8, we have a marvelous description of heaven and of that throne
room. And the description, it says
this, In the year the king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting
upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the
temple. Above it stood the seraphim,
each one had six wings, and with twain he covered his face, and
with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And
one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that
cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe
is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, that
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes
have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the
seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had
taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon
my mouth, and said, This hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity
is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the
Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And then
said I, Here am I, send me." When you look into the throne
room of heaven, you can't help but see that Jesus Christ is
loved and adorned by all. Turn please to the song of Solomon
1 verse 14. This I think I can say to you
with a certainty. Without question, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the beloved by all of his people. Safe sinners everywhere
in heaven above, both scattered throughout the earth, look on
the Son of God as their Redeemer. Much of Song of Solomon is about
the love of the Church of God for Jesus Christ, the beloved
Son of God. In Song of Solomon, Chapter 1,
verse 14, the church says, My beloved is unto me as a cluster
of camphor in the vineyards of Engedi. And in verse 16, she
says, Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant. Also our bed is green. Then in
Song of Solomon, chapter 2, verse 3, the church says, As the apple
tree among the trees of the wood so is my beloved among the suns
I sat down under the shadow with great delight and his fruit was
sweet to my taste and in verses 8 to 10 she says the voice of
my beloved behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains skipping upon
the hills my beloved is like a roe or a young heart behold
he standeth behind our wall he looketh forth at the windows
at showing himself through the lattice. My beloved spoke, and
he said to me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away."
Doesn't it make your heart sing to know that God loves you? He loves all of his church. He
loves all of his people with an everlasting love. And continuing
in chapter 2 and verses 16 and 17, the church says, My beloved
is mine, and I am his. he feedeth among the lilies,
until the day break and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved,
and be thou like a roe or young heart upon the mountains of Bethar."
And turning to Song of Solomon in chapter 5, verse 2, the church
says, I sleep, but my heart waketh. It is the voice of my beloved
and knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove,
my undefiled. For my head is filled with dew,
and my locks with the drops of the night." And in verse 4 she
says, the church says, My beloved put in his hand by the hole of
the door, and my bowels were moved for him. Well that's enough
of Song of Solemn. It's just the whole book is filled
with love, the church's love for Christ. I could go on and
on because I love to read about that love. and the love of Christ
for his church. Never was the term beloved so
full of meaning, or so well deserved, and yet so incapable of expressing
all that is meant by it when it is applied to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is our beloved. We love him because he first
loved us, as 1 John 4.19 says. But we do truly love him. How our hearts rejoice to look
up to heaven to see the Son of God and to call Him my Beloved.
The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
His love for us is kindled in our hearts, has kindled in our
hearts a flame of undying love for Him that neither life nor
death can quench our love. And this is the reason why the
Lord Jesus Christ is the Beloved of our souls. Because by God's
grace, He is our Lord and Savior. In 1 Corinthians 16 verse 22
it says that, If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let
him be an anathema maranatha. And in 1 Peter 2 verse 7 it says,
Unto you therefore which believe, He is precious. But unto them
which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed,
the same is made the head of the corner." Blessed is that
person who can, with a full heart of gratitude and faith and love,
lift up his eyes to heaven and say, Christ is my beloved, and
I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine. Do you know this beloved
person? Do you know this one who is so
filled with love? Do you know the Son of God? Is
Jesus Christ your beloved? Think on that and meditate on
that, I pray. If He is, I want you to see now
and know and rejoice in the next thing that is revealed in our
text. Recently I have been studying and meditating a lot on the believer's
everlasting union with Christ. I find it a subject to be absolutely
fascinating. I can't think of a theme which
is more delightful to my soul than a believer's union with
Christ. And so I have preached on it several times lately. Because
our everlasting union with Christ is the source and the cause of
all of the blessings and benefits of God's grace which we enjoy
in this world and which we hope to enjoy in the world to come.
If you love Christ, then it is your joy. to be with Christ,
to be in Christ, and for Christ to be in you. Did you notice
when we read it that in the first chapter of Ephesians the Holy
Spirit very specifically states that everything is in Christ? Surely God would have his people
understand that all of the blessings and all of the benefits of God's
covenant of grace and love are ours only by virtue of our union
with Christ. And our everlasting union with
the Son of God is the basis of our safety and our security too.
God's elect are as safe and as secure as Christ is secure himself. Because we are accepted in the
Beloved, we also are safe and secure. Now let me show you what
the scriptures clearly teach about this everlasting union.
The subject is too big for me to understand completely, and
I'm not at all sure that I can describe it to you like I would
like to. But I can show you that which is obviously revealed.
No doctrine is sound that doesn't recognize the everlasting union
of God's elect with Christ. And yet, whenever I mention this
glorious subject of our union with Christ, I feel very inadequate
to proclaim it. Still, that's my privilege. That's
what God has called me to do. It's my responsibility to preach
our union, the believer's union with Christ. And so I'll do the
best I can. Turn please to 2 Timothy 1 verses
9 and 10. Now I'm not talking here about
our revealed union with Christ. That's a blessed thing, our revealed
union with Christ. When a sinner believes on the
Lord Jesus Christ and he begins to enjoy a personal and a conscious
union with Christ, that's a blessing. But our union with Christ began
long before we believed on Him. Our faith in Christ isn't the
cause of our union with Christ, but it's the evidence of it.
In 2 Timothy 1 verses 9 and 10 it says about God who has saved
us and called us with a holy calling not according to our
works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. But is now made
manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ who hath
abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to life
through the gospel. The subject of Ephesians 1.6
is not about our manifest union with Christ in time. It's about
the subject of Ephesians 1, 6 is our everlasting union with Christ
from eternity. Our everlasting union with Christ
is a five-fold union. Look again in Ephesians 1, verses
4-6. When Paul writes that we are
in the Beloved, I think that he means that we who now believe
All who have believed and all who shall believe are in Christ
from everlasting, from before the creation of the world and
all the things that are in it. First, our everlasting union
with Christ is an election or an elected union. We were chosen
in Christ before the foundation of the world. This elected union
is the basis for all of God's gracious operations toward and
in His people. we are elected in Christ. In Ephesians 1 verses 3-6 we
read, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him, in
Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love. having predestinated
us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to 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. Salvation must begin with somebody's
choice. Most religion says that salvation
begins with your choice, but the Bible declares that it begins
with God's choice. God's choice of sinners unto
salvation in Christ is what the Bible calls the election of grace.
In Romans 11.5 it says, Even so, then at this present time
also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. The election of grace is the
basis and the first part of God's salvation in Christ. Without
election no one would ever be saved. Although election is personal,
election is distinguishing, We were not chosen separately and
distinctly as individuals alone and apart. We were chosen in
Christ. There is no election of grace
apart from Christ. There is no union with Christ
apart from the election of grace. Christ was chosen to be the Redeemer
and we were chosen in Him. In 2 Corinthians 2 verses 13
and 14 it says that we were chosen to be the redeemed. We were chosen
to be the redeemed. 2 Corinthians 2 verses 13 and
14 says, But we are bound to give thanks always to God for
you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the
beginning, from before the foundations of the world, from before any
creation, God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Whereunto
he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's something like this, God
said to his son, be my first elect. Then he chose our souls
in Christ our head. We were chosen in Christ. Here's
the blessing of the doctrine of election. Election guarantees
our eternal security. Our election and our Savior's
election stand or fall together. The Lamb's Book of Life, which
begins with the inscription of His name, is the same Book of
Life that holds our names. Until the pen of hell can scratch
out our Savior's name, it can't scratch out our names, because
we were chosen by God to be saved in Christ. You'd have to get
rid of Christ. You'd have to get rid of God.
We are in Christ. Second, our everlasting union
with Christ is also a legal surety ship union. Just as the surety
and the debtor, which are Christ, are one before the law, so also
the Lord Jesus Christ and his people are one before God in
a legal sense. Christ became our surety in the
covenant of grace before the worlds were made or before the
earth was. Hebrews 7 verse 22 says that by so much was Jesus
made a surety of a better testament. As a surety of the covenant,
Jesus Christ drew near to the Father in the name of his elect.
He made himself our substitute, laid himself under an obligation
to God to pay our debts, to satisfy all of the demands of God's law,
justice, and righteousness for us. and to procure on the grounds
of strict justice satisfied all of the blessings of God of grace
and glory for us to the praise of the glory of His grace. Turn
please to John 10 verses 15 and 16. Oh, I pray you can hear this. Hear it with a heart that God
has changed and made so that it could receive these things.
They're precious things that we're talking about. When Jesus
Christ became our surety, our sponsor before God, He became
totally responsible to God for us. He became responsible to
pay our debts, to fulfill our obligations, and to bring us
to glory. In John 10, verses 15 and 16,
Jesus said, As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father. And I lay my life down for the
sheep. And the sheep I have, which are
not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my
voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." When
Christ became our surety, God ceased to look for satisfaction
from us. When Christ became our surety,
our salvation was finished. Insofar as the Lord our God is
concerned, In Romans 8, verses 28 to 30, Paul said, And we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are called according to his purpose, for whom he did
foreknow. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified,
and whom he justified, them he also glorified." In 2 Timothy
1 verse 9, Paul says about Christ, who has saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace. which was given to us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. When Christ became our surety,
our everlasting salvation and security became a matter of absolute
certainty because we are chosen by God in Christ. We are one
with Christ, our Savior, all according to God's will. The
Lord Jesus Christ, our covenant surety, is our legal head and
federal representative before God. As Adam was the federal
head of all men, so also Jesus Christ is the federal head of
all of the elect. Romans 5.12 says, Wherefore,
as by one man, by Adam, sin entered into the world, and death by
sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Romans 5.18-19 says, Therefore,
as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men under justification of
life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous." Everything that Adam did in the garden,
he did not as a private individual, but as the federal representative
of the whole human race. All of Adam's acts were representative
acts. As our representative, if Adam
had obeyed God, then all of his descendants of that original
man would have enjoyed all of the benefits of his obedience
to God. But Adam was not obedient. He
sinned. He fell, and we fell in him.
He died, and we all sinned, fell, and died in Adam representatively. Now, in exactly the same way,
the Lord Jesus Christ is the federal head and representative
of God's elect. Christ was our federal head from
eternity. He is our federal head now and
he will be our federal head forever. I hope you can get hold of this.
I hope you can see it and I hope you can understand it. If you
can, it will bless your soul as nothing else that I know could
do. Jesus Christ was our federal
head and representative in the covenant of grace before the
world began. He was given for a covenant to
the people. He is the mediator, the messenger, and the surety
of that covenant. It was made with Him, not as
a singular or as a private person, but as the head and representative
of all of God's chosen and elect people, who were given to Him
as a people to save. What He promised in the covenant,
He promised for us. What He received in the covenant,
He received for us. Thus, we are blessed in Him and
saved in Him before the world was made. When the Lord Jesus
Christ obeyed the law of God and made it honorable, we were
in Him, obeying the law and making it honorable. When Christ suffered
and died under the wrath of God, we suffered and died in Him. Turn please to Galatians 2 verse
20. When Christ was buried in the
earth, we were buried with Him. When the Son of God arose from
the dead, we arose with Him, triumphant and victorious. When
He ascended into heaven and took His place at the right hand of
the Majesty on high, we ascended with Him and we sat down with
Him in His Father's throne as the rightful possessors of heaven
and glory with Him, our federal head and representative. As Paul
said in Galatians 2.20, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, in the life which
I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me." If you notice
in the bulletin, we're planning to baptize Mark Iverson next
Sunday. Mark is asked to be baptized because his baptism, according
to his words, will be his testimony to you. that he believes that
in Christ he died, in Christ he was buried, and in Christ
he rose again to live in Christ. And that's the union with Christ
that baptism pictures. That's the only purpose for baptism
is to be that kind of a testimony. Baptism is a picture of a believer's
union with Christ. Then third, our everlasting union
with Christ is a mystical union. I don't know a better way to
express this aspect of our union with our Savior than by using
this word, mystical. We are one with Christ in the
same sense that we are members of His body. Not a mystical way,
but in a spiritual sense, a mystical sense. Ephesians 5.30 says, for
we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.
Turn please to John 17 verses 21 to 24. I can't begin to explain this
mystery. This mystery that we are one
in Christ, as the head is one with the body, as the Father
and the Son are one, just as in His glory as the God-man and
as the object of His Father's love. But that's the way Christ
described us as one in Him in His prayer to His Father. I love
this chapter, John 17. It's a marvelous prayer. But
I want to look at verses 21-24, particularly today. Jesus prayed
for us. He prayed, "...that we all may
be one as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they
also may be one in us, that the world may believe that Thou hast
sent me. And the glory which Thou gavest me I have given them,
that they may be one even as we are one, I in them, thou in
me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may
know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast
loved me. Father, I will that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me
before the foundation of the world. And fourth, once chosen
sinners are born of God, once we are given life and faith in
Him, once we are manifestly in Christ, our everlasting union
with Christ is a willing marriage union. The Son of God chose us,
espoused us to Himself from eternity. And so now in time, He has won
our hearts. He has conquered us by His love. And so we love Him because He
first loved us. And fifth, let me show you that
our everlasting union with Christ is a vital union. It's vital
to Him and it's vital to us. Our union with the Lord Jesus
Christ is so essential, so vital, that without it, we could never
be saved and Christ could never be complete as our mediator and
head. In John 15, verses 5 and 6, Jesus
described this vital union this way. He said, I am the vine and
you are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me you
can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he
is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them
and cast them into the fire and they are burned. And in Ephesians
1.23 he says, The church is his body, the fullness of him that
filleth all in all. I don't have time to say much
about it, but I must say at least a little about this third thing
which is revealed in our text. It's the glorious position of
our being accepted in the Beloved. The Holy Spirit tells us that
we have been made accepted in the Beloved. The word translated
here in our text as accepted is a stronger word in English.
I mean, it's a stronger word than our English word accepted.
This word translated as accepted means highly favored, laudable,
and praiseworthy. Now we are not, and we never
could be, accepted before and by the Holy God except in Christ. But in Christ, in the Beloved,
every believer, every chosen sinner redeemed and called by
grace is so completely and totally accepted by God that even in
the eyes of the holy, omniscient Lord God, we are highly favored,
laudable, and praiseworthy. I don't think of myself as highly
favored, laudable, and praiseworthy. Do you think of yourself that
way? But that's the way God sees us. That's the way God sees us. Let me show you three things.
First, our acceptance with God is thorough, complete, total,
and absolute. To be accepted in the Beloved
is to be justified from all things, freed from all sin, the objects
of divine complacency and delight to be made worthy of our heavenly
inheritance. In Colossians 1.12 it says we
are accepted, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us
meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Second,
our acceptance with God is only in the Beloved. God the Father
is well pleased with His Son and He is well pleased with us
in His Son. In Matthew 17.5 God says, In
whom, not with whom, I am pleased. And in 1 Peter 2.5 it says, He
also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy
priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
by Jesus Christ. And third, our acceptance with
God in Christ is everlasting and therefore unchangeable. Praise
God, our acceptance does not depend upon us. It didn't begin with us, it isn't
maintained by us, and it can't be altered by us. We fell and
we became sinners in our Father Adam, and yet we are accepted
in the Beloved. We came forth from our mother's
womb speaking lies, yet we are still accepted in the Beloved. We spent our days from our youth
up in rebellion against God and in league with hell, and yet
we are still accepted in the Beloved. And even though after
the Lord God has saved us by His wondrous grace, when we sin
and fall a thousand times a day as we all do, Yet it stands in
Scripture that we are still accepted in the Beloved. What a glorious
position this is. You and I who believe and trust
Christ are accepted in the Beloved. We can't be accepted by God in
any other way. We are accepted in the Beloved.
And I pray that you can see that all of this is all entirely the
work of God. It's a divine operation which
began in eternity past and will continue through time by the
will of God through all eternity. Our text in Ephesians 1.6 reveals
a beloved person. It reveals the Lord Jesus Christ
and everlasting union in the beloved. A glorious position
accepted in the beloved. And fourth, it is all a divine
operation. It is all the work of God in
Christ. Look at Ephesians 1.6 one more
time. It says, He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved. Grace is stamped upon the whole
thing. From beginning to end, the work
of our acceptance is God's operation. Our text declares salvation is
the Lord. Our being in Christ and accepted
in Christ must be the work of God alone because no one else
existed when it was done. It's a work that is finished
from eternity. God the Father put us in the
Beloved by His sovereign decree because of His everlasting love
for us. God the Son made us acceptable
and He accepted us in Christ. God the Holy Spirit revealed
our acceptance to us by divine regeneration and by giving us
the faith of Christ. as 2 Timothy 1.10 says, but is
now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ who
has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light
through the gospel. Listen to this carefully. Hear
me please. If you today, if you this day,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, then the Lord God has made you
accepted in the beloved. Your faith in Christ is the gift
of His grace, and that faith is the fruit of your being accepted
in the Beloved. Your faith in Christ is the evidence
of your being accepted in the Beloved. Your faith in Christ
is the assurance of your being accepted in the Beloved. He who
has begun His good work of grace in you and in me, making us accepted
in the Beloved, will complete His work and make us perfect
in and with the Beloved. for all eternity. As Mark 16
verse 7 says, Go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that
he goeth before you into Galilee. There shall ye see him as he
said unto you. And so let us give all praise
and honor and glory to our great God alone. Praise God from whom
all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here
below. Praise him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost. Amen.