If you turn with me to the book
of Ephesians chapter 1, let me read just verse 6. Verse 6, to
the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us
accepted in the beloved. I want to begin this morning
with a question. Listen carefully. What is 750,000 miles long and
reaches around the earth 39 times and grows 20 miles longer each
day? What would that be? Well, beloved,
let me tell you what it is. It's the line of people in this
world who are without Christ. That's what that is. It is said
that today nine of every ten people in the world are lost. Of these nine, six of ten have
never heard a clear presentation of the gospel. Of these six,
three of ten have no one near enough to tell them what the
gospel is. These facts are staggering, are
they not? Well, I want to say that I thank God this morning
for those of you, my brethren, who are attempting to preach
the gospel, who are attempting to go to the mission, attempting
to go here and there when you have opportunity and where you
have opportunity to preach the gospel. But my brethren, let
me say that what we need is more than just involvement. It's wonderful
to be involved, and we ought to be involved, but we need Commitment,
we need for the people of God to be committed in every way
to this task of getting the gospel out, preaching the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to have commitment, not
only involvement, but commitment. I remember the story of the Japanese
fighter pilot in World War II that flew 30 suicide missions. He was involved, but
he wasn't committed. He wasn't committed. You and
I need to be committed, brethren. The gospel must go out. Well,
I ask myself the question, being that nine out of ten people are
lost, and that they're lined up, being aligned as we told
you, what should I say if I had an opportunity to speak this
morning to lost people, what should I say to them? What should
I tell them? What should I bring to them?
What kind of a message should I present to them? And this verse
of scripture here is the verse that I believe the Lord would
have me to speak to you on this morning, and I trust that it
shall be enough meat in it to satisfy those who are older in
the faith, and that there shall be some milk of the word in it
to satisfy babes in Christ, and there will be enough gospel in
it to save those that are yet lost. accepted in the beloved. These four simple words reveal
the whole doctrine of salvation by grace. I say they reveal the
whole of the doctrine of salvation by grace. Paul said in verse
6, to the praise of the glory of his grace. wherein, that is
in the grace of God, that is because of the grace of God,
that is through the grace of God, He hath made us accepted
into beloved. Beloved salvation is entirely
by grace. Now I want to be accepted of
God. I believe that every one of you
want to be accepted of God finally. Oh, at the end, you would like
to be received everlastingly into the habitation of God Almighty
to spend eternity with the holy angels and with the Lord Himself. But my friend, hear me out this
morning. Salvation is entirely by the
grace of God. It's by God's grace. We're told
here in Ephesians chapter 2 that even when we were dead in sins
in verse 5, hath quickened us, together with Christ. By grace
ye are saved. By grace ye are saved. Very plain. And then if you go down here
to these very familiar verses. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. were told who has saved us according
to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. The brethren read 1 Corinthians
chapter 1 this morning wherein Paul was thanking God for the
grace that they had received through Jesus Christ. that grace
which had come to them through the Lord Jesus Christ. If anybody
is saved, they're saved by grace. They're saved by grace, not by
works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
His mercy. He saved us by the washing of
regeneration and renewal that's brought about by the Holy Ghost.
If any is saved among us, it is by the grace of God. Well, when the scripture talks
about us being accepted in the beloved, my friend, these words
contain the very essence of the gospel of grace, the very essence
of the gospel of substitution. God our Father has made us, His
people, all who believe, His elect people, accepted in the
Beloved One. Now as I mentioned earlier, I
want to be accepted of God, and I trust that you want to be accepted
too. And I believe that most people
that you would ask, that they would tell you, yes, I certainly
would like to be at the last received and accepted by the
Lord. Well, beloved, if you're going
to be accepted, ever going to be accepted, today or at any
other time, it must be in the Beloved One. Now, the Beloved
One is a person. It's a person, the beloved one,
and that person is the Lord Jesus Christ. Will we ever believe
that salvation and acceptance is through a person? Oh, we got
the idea, and we're so full of religion, you know. We got the
idea that salvation and acceptance with God is because of what we
do or because of what we don't do. That salvation's got everything
to do with our do's and don'ts. But it doesn't have anything
to do with a person. But salvation is through a person
and it's through being in union with the Son of God. Now the
whole of our salvation and acceptance with God is in Christ. is in Christ who is our surety,
who is our substitute, who is our representative. Oh, how thankful
this morning I am to have a surety. Somebody who'd go my debt for
me. Somebody who'd stand before God Almighty and say the debt,
do that sinner, I will pay. I will fully pay that debt. that
that sinner owes. I'll stand in his place. I'll
suffer his hell. I'll suffer his judgment. I will
receive from you, Holy Father, all that your divine law says,
that is, do that sinner, I'll receive it in his place. And
the Lord Jesus Christ stood in our place. He stood in the place
of all those that would believe on Him. He stood in the place
of all those that were chosen of God in the holy covenant of
election and given to Him. He stood as their representative,
as their surety before God. And then we also said that the
Lord Jesus Christ was our substitute. How wonderful it is that we had
somebody that would step in when we failed, and we did. We all
struck out. There's not anybody here this
morning that has not struck out. Before God, you all have struck
out. We all have struck out. We're sinners before God, and
we've broken this law. We're guilty of all of the law
of God, and we've failed. But there's a substitute. There's
a substitute that God has provided. Somebody who kept it all. Somebody
who obeyed the law. Somebody who honored the law,
somebody who fulfilled every jot and tittle of the holy law
of God to the point where that the Father could look upon him
and see no sin in him and could see no imperfection in him. It is said that he was without
spot and that he was without blemish or any such thing. The
Lord Jesus Christ, pure and spotless, the Holy Lamb of God, and He
is the substitute of all those that believe on Him. He can be
your substitute this morning, the one who steps in whenever
you're unable to perform. When you're wore out and finished
and labored and worked, and you still cannot save yourself, and
the Lord Jesus steps in, He becomes our substitute. And then I said,
He's our representative. He's that one that represents
us before God. And all of God's dealings are
with Him. He said, just stand back, sinner.
Just stand back. You can't deal with a holy God.
You can't stand in the presence of a thrice holy God. You can't
stand here and represent yourself before this majesty, this awesome
majesty. Just step back, sinner. I'll
be your representative. I'll represent you. He's the
only mediator between God and man. And God's not going to speak
to you, God's not going to touch you, God's not going to do anything
for you except through a mediator. And that mediator, that representative,
is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He's our representative, just
like the first man, Adam, was our representative. You say,
how'd I get the nature I've got? You say, how was I born a sinner?
Well, he was born a sinner because your old Daddy Adam was a sinner
and he was your representative. Every one of us were in him when
he was in the Garden of Eden. We all were in his loins and
we all came forth from Daddy Adam's loins. And beloved, we
are everyone guilty. We did what Adam did because
we were in him when he did it. And none of us here are righteous
today. We cannot be righteous in and
of ourselves until the Lord Jesus becomes our representative. And
then in him, oh all that he is, is ours. And God looks upon them,
and we'll have more to say about that in a moment, those who clearly
understand. And beloved, there's a need that
the Spirit of God would come among us, and that He would teach
us these truths, and that we would understand the fundamental
truths of the gospel, that we would understand them. And those
who clearly understand these truths will not greatly err in
any other points of doctrine, and we need to stick to the message.
We need to stick to the message of salvation by grace and that
how that Jesus Christ is those three things we just mentioned,
surety, substitute, and representative. We need to stick to the message.
And those who fail, listen, if you're right about Christ, you'll
be right about everything else. And if you're wrong about Christ,
you'll be wrong about everything else. Those who fail to apprehend
this matter of the believer's acceptance with God through the
Beloved One, they cannot see any other divine truth clearly.
I know people, I've known some for 30 or 40 years. And they're
as mixed up and confused as they can be. Now they would tell you
and they're cock sure that they are as straight as they can possibly
be. But those people you listen to
them talk and they just get you more and more convinced that
they don't know a thing on earth what they're talking about. This
Bible is about the Lord Jesus Christ. This Bible is about the
shed blood of Jesus Christ. This Bible is about how that
Jesus Christ came down from heaven on a mission, wasn't satisfied
just to stay up in heaven and send us some good advice. He
came down here and he got involved, he was committed, he gave his
life. for us. That's what this book is about.
He went to the cross and he bled holy blood. He bled sinless blood. He bled in order to satisfy,
to make atonement for our sin, to satisfy, to propitiate God
Almighty. that God's hands would be free
in order that they could take you and take your case and forgive
you and cleanse you and make you one of his children. Now
all believers are in Christ. We are in his hands, as we said,
as our surety. All believers are in Christ.
There isn't any such thing as a child of God who's not in Christ. You need to keep that straight
in your mind, that we're all in Christ. We're all. We're members of His body. We're
members of His church. We're all in the Lord Jesus Christ
if we are believers. We're in Christ. And as we said,
we're in His hands as a surety, in His heart as our husband,
and spiritually in His loins as our covenant head and our
representative before God. chosen in Christ in eternal election,
made the righteousness of God in Christ by His obedience to
the law of God as our representative, and redeemed in Christ by His
senatoning death as our substitute. That's putting into doctrinal
statements what we've just been telling you here this morning.
And in Him, by a vital union in regeneration, everyone that
is regenerated And beloved, we believe in a regenerated church
membership. We believe here that people must
be alive in the Lord. We believe that God does make
people live. Paul said in Ephesians 2, 1,
and you hath he quickened, you hath he made alive who were dead. Regeneration supposes spiritual
death and all are dead by nature, all are dead coming into this
world and by a vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ in regeneration. That means that we were put into
Christ practically and experientially by the Father at the time of
our regeneration. It is true that we were put in
Him by decree before that. It is true that by election we
were put in Him before the foundation of the world. It is true, 1 Corinthians
1 and verse 30 says it, that of God are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Our being in Christ is entirely
the work of God's free and sovereign grace altogether. It's entirely
God's work. Now then, beloved, let's go on
and try to get as much of this in as we can. I don't know how
long I'm going to last, but I'm going to go as far as I can.
Our being in Christ cannot be in any way attributed to us.
I want to make a point of that. God giving me strength to do
that. Our being in Christ cannot be in any way attributed to us. The cause of our being in Christ
is God's decree. And that alone, basically and
originally, grace alone has given us an eternal, has given us an
immutable, indissolvable union with Christ and made us one,
everlastingly one with Him. We have a living, a loving, a
lasting union with the Lord Jesus Christ. No, being in Christ,
we are accepted with God. We're accepted with God in that
we're in Christ. That simply means that we're
the objects of God's love, that we're the objects of God's favor,
and we're the object of God's delight because we're in His
Son. And God sees His elect only in
His Son. Only in His Son. You see, if
you're a believer, you're in Christ, God looks upon Christ,
and He doesn't look on you. Because your life is hid with
Christ in God. And so you stand as perfect as
Christ is before God. Now, beloved, there's nobody
going to heaven that's not as perfect as Jesus Christ. You
must be as perfect as Christ immediately in your mind. I can
see it happening. You immediately go back in your
mind and you say, well, now wait a minute, preacher. I'm not as
perfect as Jesus Christ. But my friend, if you listen
into what I'm saying, you'll see that God has accepted you
in the Beloved and that you stand in Him and that you are as perfect
as the Lord Jesus Christ. And God looks upon you as He
would He looks upon His Son and not on you. To illustrate this,
God has accepted us because of what His Son did and because
of who His Son is and what He accomplished. Now, I remember
this story from long ago that there was a farmer and he had
sheep and one of the lambs died, young lambs, and they tried to
put a bum lamb with the mother and she would not accept the
bum lamb. She wouldn't accept it. And so,
the farmer, he took and he skinned her lamb that had died, and he
took the hide and the wool and tied it on to this bum lamb,
and tied it to this bum lamb and put the bum lamb in with
the mother and she accepted that sheep, that lamb. And there's a picture there of
how that God will not accept us on the basis of what we can
do and the basis of what we are. But he will accept us when we're
clothed in the righteousness of his own Son. And whenever
that sweet smell and savor of the Lord Jesus Christ is upon
us, God will accept us. He will accept us. He will accept
us because of who Jesus is and because of what Jesus did. He
will receive us and accept us into the fold. He never looks
at our personal worth and merit. He never does. Oh, you say, I'm
disappointed. Preacher, I'm disappointed. Do
you mean he never looks? Oh, God is not unrighteous to
forget our labor of love and our work of faith and our patience
in the things of God. And God's not unrighteous to
do that, but He never looks upon our personal worth. Why would
He when He's got somebody like His own Son to look at? Why would
God look at this poor sinner and why would God spend His time
looking at me when He's got His Son Jesus to look at? who is
perfect and righteous and holy in all respects and in every
way. Why would he look at me? Would
there be any reason why that he should? No, no, no, no. But you know, we're always thinking
about, are we not, about just how much we've done, how involved
we've been, and why the Lord ought to favor us, and so on
and so forth. And my brother, listen, listen
to me, the brother just read those verses there out of Mark
here this morning and I was thinking about how that, you know, the
record book, you get the record book out and, you know, there's
things that we could say about uh... i was preaching in rescue
missions and preaching and filling uh... places for preachers and
so on uh... before i got out of high school
don't get the record book out i'm not interested in you getting
that out not interested in that and uh... i got married on friday
night and uh... i stayed had to stay and preached
twice on Sunday and then left on Monday morning, had to be
back by Wednesday night to preach on Wednesday night. But don't
get the record book out. I'm not interested in you getting
it out. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't get that out. And then
there was a time when I left houses and land and mother and
brothers and sisters and a church, a good church. and left and came
up here to this place, but don't get the record book out. I'm
not interested in that record book being brought out. Not interested
in it. And then there's brethren here
that Mike and Larry, they've been deacons here now for a long
time in the church. But they don't want the record
book brought out. They don't want that. And then
we have some folks here that's been here over 20 years, the
Halbert family over here on this side, and they've stood with
this church and stood faithful and loyal to this church, but
they don't want the record book brought out. They're not interested
in that. And we've got others of you.
I could just keep on mentioning your names. here that have stood
loyal and faithful. But you don't want the record
book brought out. You don't want the Lord looking
at your personal worth and your merit. You're not interested
in that. No! The Lord don't bring out the
book. We're not interested in what's
in the book. No, the Lord looks not at our
personal worth and our merit. We have none. Really, all of
our righteousness are as filthy rags in God's sight. I said all
of our righteousness are as filthy rags in God's sight. And beloved,
that hadn't changed any. That has not changed any. Nothing
good about us. Paul said, in my flesh there
dwells no good thing. Dwells no good thing. Ain't no
need of bringing out the record book. Just look, oh God, just
look on your Son and favor me in Him. Lord, accept me because
of what He did. Lord, favor Him because He kept
your law and obeyed every jot and tittle of it and never failed
in any respect. He never failed. He obeyed the
law, and he honored that law, and established a righteousness
which God Almighty could find no fault with. Away with the
record book! We don't want it brought out.
Nobody around here does. I know there's some places where
they say, oh no, no no, we'd like to have it brought out.
But that's because they don't know the gospel. That's because
they don't understand how God saves sinners. They don't understand
how bad they are. They don't understand how much
sin there is in the best thing they ever did. And how much sin
is in their prayers. How much sin is in their giving.
How much sin is in their walk with God every day. There's not
a just man on the face of the earth that doeth good and sinneth
not. And don't you forget it. There
isn't anything about us that was going to commend us to God.
The only thing that's going to commend you and I to a loving
God is our sin. Our sin. Our S-I-N. God took
my case because I was a sinner. Jesus came down here. This is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That's a faithful
saying. That He came to save sinners.
So God sees us in Christ. and accepts us upon the grounds
of His Son's worth and His Son's merit. That's the gospel, my
friend. That's the message of the gospel.
If you want to be accepted of God, then you must be in Christ. You must get into Him. Next,
and in Christ, all God's elect are equally accepted. And you
know, I know there's people all over this country today that
thinks that they're just a little bit better off than other people.
Isn't that something? Oh, there's Landmark Baptist
today that feels like they're the only church in America. They're
the only church in the world that's got anything. Oh, they're
so righteous, you know. So, so righteous. But my friend,
listen. All believers, all that are in
Christ, are equally accepted. Well, let me tell you, it's just
as simple as it can be, and that is because God is not taking
into account your little denominationalism, your little religion that you've
got on the side. He's not taking into account
all these things that you're glorying in. But God's fixed
it up so that no flesh is going to glory in His presence. No
flesh. He said to the praise of the
glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. So you say what you want to about you being head
and shoulders above the weakest saint on earth. But I'll tell
you what, I'll just take it like the Word of God says, accepted
in the Beloved, equally accepted. All of us are equally accepted
before God. You say, I've been in the way
a long time, preacher. Well, I have too. I've been in
the way a long time. Longer than most anybody here
in this place. And I'm going to tell you this.
That I'm equal with that little lamb that has believed on Christ.
That newborn lamb that's been born into the fold. We're all
equal before God. Because God has accepted us in
the beloved one. And that we can never get to
the place where we can glory in our flesh Glory in our flesh. Let him that gloryeth, let him
glory in the Lord. Who has this gospel that fixes
up a sinner. And wherein all of us are fixed
up and shall wear the same kind of wedding garment. All of us. And it won't be our tailor that
puts it together. It'll be the master. It'll be
the master making the wedding garments. and all of them be
just alike. We'll all be looking, nobody
going to come up and say, well, here I am, here I am, like the
bumper sticker says, I'm back by popular demand. No, no, no,
no, no. My friend, we're going to get
to glory by being accepted in the beloved one. We're going
to get to glory being equal with everybody. Hallelujah. Well,
now that may bother some people because there are some people
that are just sure that they're better than I am and better than
other people are. Some religionists, they're sure
they're better, but I'm going to tell them something. They're
not better in God's sight. They're not. They may be in their
own, but that's because they're blind. They're blind. They can't
see. Well, God sees us and accepts
us upon the grounds of His Son. There are no degrees of love
with God. There are no degrees of favor.
There's no degrees of acceptance with God. And boy, that would
make the religionists mad as all get out if they were to hear
it. But I'm telling you the truth. I'm telling you how it is. God
loves us exactly as He loves Christ. Isn't that good enough
for you? Isn't that good enough for you? Loves you like He loves
Christ. My friend, why do you got to
add your little two cents to it? What do you got to keep reminding
God of your religion and where you came from? What do you got
to keep doing that for? Oh, He loves you just like He
loves God. God delights in us exactly as He delights in Christ. Ah, that's major. God accepts
us exactly as He accepts Christ. Ain't nobody here going to doubt
that God accepted Christ back to glory. Ain't nobody here going
to doubt that. You say, I believe you did that.
Well, that there's a true union between Christ and his people
is no fiction or dream of a heated imagination. No, it isn't. Sin
separated us from God and in undoing what sin has done, Christ
joins us to himself in a union that's more real than any other
union in the whole world. You say, well, I'm in union with
my wife, union with my husband. You may be, but this union It's
one that's more real than that. It's more real than any union
on earth. We're in Christ. This union is very near and very
dear and very complete. We're so near to Christ that
we cannot nearer be, for we're one with Him. One with the Lord
Jesus. He that is joined to the Lord
is one spirit. It is also a wonderful union.
The more you think on it, the more you will stand in awe before
such a marvel of the grace of God, that God should have a plan,
a purpose, and a son wherein he could make us accepted. O
sacred union, firm and strong, how great the grace, how sweet
the song, that worms of earth should ever be one with incarnate
deity. One with incarnate deity. Well,
the meaning of this union Let me say just a few things about
that. I'm going to hurry here and finish. It is a union of
life. I say it's a union of life. There's
no life apart from it. No life apart from it. You say
I have hope, preacher, of having someday eternal life. My friend,
you say I'm working on it. Won't do no good to work on it.
Life's in a person. And if you're in union with Him,
then you have life. And if you're not in union with
Him, you don't have life. He that hath a son hath life. Christ who is our life. Christ
in you. The hope of glory. It is a thing
to be considered often, this union is. To be considered often. I believe it's chief among those
things which the angels desire to look into. That God is one
with His people. Christ and His people everlastingly
one. This is a joyous and cheering
doctrine and he that understands it, one old writer said, has
an ocean of music in his soul. We sit in heavenly places in
him. There's no distance between us. Now, I wanted to just, I'm
going to pass over part of my message here because I just,
I don't have the strength to bring out these things like I
would like to. But this is a union of relationship. We are God's
children. We cannot be, you know, this
universal fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man, there's no
truth to that. Nobody is a child of God apart from this union.
It's a union of relationship to the Lord. It's a union of
service. He works in and through his people.
We exist to do His will. He's the vine, we're the branches.
Union of feeling. Feeling, being a part of God.
Do you feel like that you're a part of God this morning? Well,
you're in Christ Jesus. Jesus, you know, He told Peter
when He was washing feet back in John 13 there. Peter said,
you know, I'll wash my feet. Jesus said, if I wash you not,
You have no part with me. No part with me. Now, beloved,
Jesus meant that if I don't wash you in my blood, then you're
not going to be a part of my body. Part of my mystical body. Part of my church. Part of my
family. You're not going to be in my
body unless I wash you in my blood. So, being a part of God
is what this is. Union of necessity. Union of
necessity, I say. fullness, our emptiness. You ever think on those two things?
You think on that a little bit. Christ's fullness, our emptiness,
and you'll appreciate being accepted in the Beloved. Christ is full
of His fullness. It says in John 1, Have all we
received and grace for grace of His fullness. His fullness. Emptiness. Your emptiness. His fullness. Oh, how we need,
how we need this union of necessity, of necessity. You'll go to hell
if there's no union between you and Christ. Can I say it plainer? Can I say it plainer? You're
a lost sinner, bound to face eternal wrath apart from this
union. It's a union of necessity. I'm not talking about something
that is optional. I'm talking about necessity.
You must be in union. with the Lord Jesus Christ. Union
of possession. We're not our own anymore. Nope. You say, I just don't know
about this business of Christ being my Lord and me being sold
out. We just sung that song here,
Surrender All. I Surrender All. I Surrender
All. Did you sing? Did you sing that
song? I Surrender All. Was you lying
or was you telling the truth? Have you ever surrendered? I
mean, threw down your knives and your guns and just said,
I surrender all. I surrender. Listen, let me tell you this,
I gotta tell you. One time they was having a missionary
conference. And at the end of the missionary conference, they
passed a plate. We don't pass a plate here, but
in some places they do. And they were passing an offering
plate, passing it around. and folks were given missionary
calls. And there was a boy there in
the service, and he had listened to the missionaries, and he was
a saved lad. He loved the Lord. But he was
poor. He didn't have any money. And
so the offering plate came around, and this boy, he took the offering
plate, and he set it, went out into the middle of the aisle,
and he set it down in the middle of the aisle, and he took his
shoe off, and he put his foot right in the offering plate,
and he said, I haven't got any money, but he said, I vow before
God this day, to go and to be whatever God wants me to be,
I vow before God to do it. Now my friend, that's commitment. That's where we ought to be.
before God, because we're owned by the Lord. He owns us. And
I don't see anything wrong with that. I don't think any of you
would either. Listen, we've been bought with
a price. And I remember these missionaries
in India, and they said, somebody asked them, said, do you like
to be here? Do you like this? They said, no. They said, we
don't like it. We don't like to crawl through goats manure
into these places where these people live.
We don't like that. But they said this, don't you
think we ought to be willing to do something? Something even hard for the Christ
that loved us and gave himself for us and died in our place.
Shouldn't we be willing to do something hard? Something we
don't like to do for Christ? Well, he owns us, lock, stock,
and barrel. Say, a preacher, I don't know
whether I can get into a commitment like that where somebody owns
me. Well, I'm going to tell you this. Either Christ will own
you or you go to hell. He'll own you. You listen to
me. You must, you must surrender
to the Lord. Let me tell you that The greatest
honor that can be conferred upon a sinner is for God to own them. That's right. I'm telling you
the truth. I'm telling you the truth. The greatest honor that
can be conferred upon a sinner is for God to own them. For a
sinner to say, I'm not my own, I'm bought with a price. Listen,
that's the greatest honor God can bestow upon you. I pray that
the Lord will move some of you here today that have never made
a commitment, move you to understand this message of the gospel, and
that you will submit yourself. God is jealous over His people,
and God is one with you, and the Lord would have you to submit
yourself. I've got one more thing to say,
and that's it. I'm going to give it up. This
is a union of present condition. It's what Mitch was talking about
out of 1 John. Beloved now, are we the sons
of God? Right now. Don't have to wait
another minute. Beloved now, we're the son of
God. I'm in union with Christ, accepted in the beloved now.
I'm the son of God. Right now. And, you know, we're
complete now. You say, well, I think, you know,
all through life, you get a little bit mugged. If you're in union
with Christ, you're complete right now. And then, too, you're
righteous now. You're righteous now. You say,
I think if I clean up my life a little, I'll be righteous. No. No. You'll be righteous when
He puts His righteous garments on. I'm blessed, I'm blessed,
the poet said. I'm blessed, I'm blessed. My
rags are gone, and I am dressed. in garments not my own, in beauty
not my own. I'm married to the Lord the Lamb,
whose beauties I can ne'er explain, nor have His glory show. But
I got on in garments of salvation. And isn't it wonderful talking
about and thinking about this, that you know the Lord, the scripture
says that All the former things will be passed away when we get
to heaven. All the former things will be passed away. You know
this business of time? There was a fellow just recently
I was reading after that said that his son had died 30 years
ago and went to heaven. And he said But you know, time
is something that we know about. Time is this world. Time is what we know. Days, months,
years, and so on. But he said, in heaven there
isn't anything. In heaven, it's always today. In heaven. Always today. Always
today. Now. And so, we're righteous
now as we're going to be then. was holy now as we're going to
be then, complete now as we're going to be then, sanctified
now as we're going to be then in Christ. And I thought that
was good. He said he didn't die and go
to heaven 30 years ago, he died and went to heaven now, today. As good as in heaven. You say,
well I'm, like the fellow said, I'm not ready to go yet. Well,
But isn't it wonderful that if you stand in Christ, you are
ready when the Lord calls you. You're ready to go. You're ready
to go. You're accepted in the Beloved
One. And all of this to the praise of the glory of His grace. Let us pray. Father, in the name
of Jesus, would you own this message and would you bless our
Father, these dear ones, Oh Lord, we'd be a better preacher if
we could be. Lord, we would preach with greater fervency if we had
more strength. Lord, we would do what we could.
And Lord, we have done what we could. And we do pray thou will
own this message, and that there be somebody liberated here today,
listening to the Word of God. We pray it in his name, for his
sake. Amen.