this morning is accepted. Accepted. Now, beloved, these four simple
words, accepted in the beloved, reveal the whole doctrine of
salvation by God's grace. They contain, I believe, the
very essence of the gospel of substitution. These four words,
accepted in the beloved. Now the whole of our salvation
to God's people and the whole of our acceptance with God is
in Christ, who is our surety, our substitute, and our representative. And those who clearly understand
this great fundamental truth of the gospel will not greatly
err in any other points of doctrine. Those who cannot lay hold, those
who cannot apprehend this matter of the believer's acceptance
with God cannot and will not see any other divine truth clearly,
will not be able to do so. Our being in Christ is entirely
the work of God's free and sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 1 and 30, of God
are ye in Christ Jesus. We've been placed in the Lord
Jesus Christ by a sovereign decree of Almighty God. Now, a thousand
sermons would never exhaust the theme of the union of the people
of God with Jesus Christ, their head. A thousand sermons, you
could not exhaust this theme. Accepted in Christ. No theology
is sound which does not recognize this doctrine that we are accepted
as the people of God, believers are accepted upon the merits
of another and in the person of another, that being the person
of the beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ. no experience can be
very profound which does not lead the soul more clearly and
more fully to rejoice in this glorious and precious truth that's
revealed here today in the last part of verse 6 of Ephesians
1, this chapter, which is a chapter of matchless praise unto our
God. Now, excepted, those who feed
Spurgeon said this, and I thought it was good, those who feed upon
this God-honoring, this soul-comforting truth will be found like Daniel
and his companions, to be fair in countenance and fatter in
soul than any others. So may this morning the Lord
be pleased to feed our souls on this precious and great truth
that we might be fair in countenance and fatter in soul when we leave
this place this morning. Now, beloved, it's a very sad
fact, and I think you'll be able to sympathize with this. because many of us have been
victims of the same sad tragedy. The fact is this, not many, not
many of the professing family of God have a personal and experiential,
a daily realized assurance that they are loved of God and that
they are accepted of God. Now, this is true of many of
us here today, I'm sure. I'm sure of this. And that daily,
weekly, when you have time just to reflect, when you really think
about it, could you say that you have a consistent, regular,
personal, and experiential sense of the love and the acceptance
of God. Could you say that? Could you
say, yes, that is my experience? Well, my friend, I don't believe
that very many of the people of God could give that as a personal
testimony and it be absolutely correct and true. Now, this is
very sad. This is something I'm sure that
all of us struggle with, and I'm sure to a greater and lesser
degree, from time to time, we find ourselves in battle right
here. Am I truly loved of God? Am I
accepted of God? Is it true? I mean, is it a real,
blessed, holy fact that I have been loved of God from all eternity
and that I am accepted right now of God? Now, are you surprised
at what I'm saying here? Surely you're not. Surely you're
not. Are you shocked at what I'm saying
here, what I'm suggesting to you this morning? Is this the
truth? Beloved, it's the truth if I were told it, that there's
not many of the people of God who are living with a conscious
experiential assurance of the love of God and the acceptance
that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ in their daily experience. Now, I know that we don't want
to admit the truth, in particular, about ourselves. We don't want
to say, well, preacher, this is true. I'll raise my hand.
I have to admit that it's true about me. And it's simply because
somehow or other we believe that it's going to bring us down in
the esteem of others if we admit the truth about ourselves. that
we're in battle right here, that we're struggling right here.
We just simply do not have the assurance that God loves us and
that he has accepted us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, let's
put away this concern that we have about how others are going
to feel about us if we admit the truth, and let us this morning,
if we can, examine ourselves at this very point. at this very
point. Do I daily, consciously, experientially
live my life with the sense that I'm loved and accepted of God? Now God truly loves those who
are in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the beloved. God truly loves
them because Christ is the one in whom the Father, and the Greek
word here for beloved, This word beloved, now in the King James
it's not capitalized, but I capitalized it in my Bible because this is
talking about a person. It's talking about a person.
The beloved is Jesus Christ. And what the word really means
is that Christ is the one that the Father has channeled. He's
the one that is the receptacle that the Father has funneled,
if you please, His best, His great, His rich love into. God's love, my friend, is in
the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, well, God didn't have
anybody to love until He made Adam in the Garden of Eden. My
friend, that's not true. God loved His Son. The Son of
His love, Jesus Christ, was loved from eternity and was chosen
to be the servant of God. He was elected and we were elected
and chosen in Him, but He was elected first. And He is the
Son of God's love, and all God's love is in Him. And when men
and women are put into Him, then, my friend, they are truly loved
of God. Listen to what the Scripture
says, John 15 and verse 9, As the Father hath loved me, So
have I loved you, continue ye in my love. John 17, 26. And
I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that
the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and
I in them. Beloved, the very same love that
God has toward His Son is the love that He has toward those
that are in His Son. And the very acceptance that
Jesus Christ has received at the right hand of the Father
is the acceptance that you and I have in Him. We're accepted
as He is accepted. We're as near to God as He is
near to God. We're near to God in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God loves and accepts his people.
And beloved, that is a fact. And we ought to enjoy this fact. We ought to truly experience
it. We ought to be stronger because
of it. And we ought to be joyful because of it. And we ought to
be more useful. And I'm sure that we will be
whenever this fact comes home to our heart. that we are loved
and accepted in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, not many of us,
as we said, live in the light of this truth that I've just
stated. Now, if you don't, this is a glorious gospel truth, and
it may be, as some say, that this truth is for advanced believers. But personally, I believe that
all of those who are in Christ Jesus, they ought to be told
about their position, and they ought to be made aware of their
privileges in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now my friend, I think
this morning that I would do you a disservice if I didn't
preach this message to you. I know about these struggles
because this is something that I struggled with for years. And
I believe this morning that God would have me to bring these
thoughts to you in order that your soul would be edified and
strengthened and that you might receive some help this morning
in your heart. Well, why is it so? And I think
this morning that if you are here and you say, I am living,
preacher, with this consciousness, this assurance, experientially,
I'm living with it, and I am happy, and I do rejoice in the
Lord, and I am glad in the Lord, and this truth of God has made
me strong in my soul. Well, you're an exception. You're
an exception. Now listen, why is this so that
so few live up to their privilege? If a man is in honor, the Bible
says, and he understands it not, then he's like the beast that
perisheth. May God open your eyes this morning
as we try to deal with this subject. Why is it so that so many of
the professing people of God do not feel accepted? They do not feel loved of God? Well, I suppose that there's
many reasons, but I believe they can be reduced down to just a
few. And one of the reasons is that
all of us seem to bring in, we bring baggage out of our past
lives and past experiences over into our Christian lives. Now,
if we have ever known what it is to doubt the love of a parent
or to question the love of a father or mother, or if we've ever experienced
a traumatic rejection from someone who has been very dear to us
and very important in our lives, inevitably we bring that sense
of rejection and not being loved over to our Christian lives,
and we say to ourselves, They felt that way about us, and so
God probably does too. We were rejected by mom or papa,
we were rejected by this lover or that lover, and so probably
God feels the same way toward me as men and women have felt
toward me. Well, God is not a man that he
should lie, neither is he the son of man that he should repent.
God has said that we are loved in His Son. This is a statement
of Holy Scripture, and it's an absolute true statement. And
so, beloved, do not think, as you think upon God, that He is
like your friends, or like your parents, or like somebody that
you've known in your human experience. Do not look upon God as being
that way. God is not a man. Now, another
reason, and I think the real reason, really, is that we have
trouble here, is that we are constantly muddying up the waters
of the gospel with a legal perception, with a legal perception of the
gospel. Now, we just keep telling ourselves
the same thing over and over again. And this is what we tell
ourselves. Now, we tell ourselves that when
we have no assurance of God's love toward us, no assurance
that we're accepted in the beloved, we keep telling ourselves over
and over again, I have believed, I have repented, I tried to do
as I ought to do, but there's still me. many things that are
wrong with me, that are wrong in my Christian life. And if
I don't get myself straightened out, if I don't take care of
my problems, if I don't get some things out of my life that's
in my life, then God will not, God cannot love me, God cannot
accept me. Now this is what we keep telling
ourselves over and over and over again. And my friend, what we're
doing is perverting the gospel of Jesus Christ when we tell
ourselves these things. And this morning as I say this,
am I knocking on your door? Are you home? Do you hear what
I'm saying this morning? Have you told yourself that over
and over again? I don't feel like God loves me.
I don't feel like I'm accepted of God. And the reason is to
be found with me. No, according to the Word of
God, we're accepted in the blood. We're accepted in Christ. That
God accepts us because of the merits of another. The merits
of His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, is this reality? Or have I falsely concluded something
here that's not true? Are we doing this or not? Are
we perverting the gospel or are we not? I say to you this morning
that we are. This is a very common and chronic
problem that God's people have. We can have a clear understanding
of the gospel on Sunday morning and then all week long think
legalistically. And that's exactly what we do.
And we muddy up the waters of the gospel because we keep entertaining
the thought that somehow or other that God's going to accept us,
think more of us, favor us more highly if we can just get these
little things, all these big things, straightened out in our
lives. and there isn't an ounce of truth in it. Listen to me,
hear me. Paul would say to you this morning,
you are accepted. He would say, you are accepted
this morning. This is exactly what he's saying.
Now, have you ever just sat down and meditated on what Paul is
telling us here, that we're accepted in the beloved? Well, most people
have never considered it. They've never considered it.
Now, then, this clear statement of Scripture, this is something,
and this is the problem. People do not meditate, they
do not pray over, they do not think over the Word of God. And, beloved, we must get the
clear statements of Scripture into our spiritual system. And
we must meditate upon the Word of God until we get these truths
affixed in our hearts and until we become a part of it. Now,
beloved, this is so important. Notice, if you will, I want you
to hear me this morning. You and I, by nature, as we stand
this morning by our own action, you and I, as we stand naturally
from the womb and by our own choices, are not accepted, nor
are we acceptable to God. Now do you understand that? That's
in a state of nature. We are not accepted, and we are
not acceptable unto God. We do not come into this world
acceptable My friend, we come into this world sinners. We come
into this world enemies of God, rebels against God, unholy, uncaring
rebels that are under the wrath of God. That's how we come and
make our entrance into this world. And nobody comes into this world
ready to make their exit out of this world because we all
come in speaking lies from a mother's womb. We all come into this world
sinners. and we all are deserving of the
wrath of God. Now, one of the most difficult
things in the world for a preacher to do is to get a lost man to
believe that God has rejected him and to get a saved man to
believe that God has accepted him. This is a tremendously difficult
thing to do. I mean, you can preach to men
and women and you can tell them that God has rejected them because
of their state of nature, because of their sin and rebellion, because
of the fall of the Garden of Eden, and because of their rejection
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they won't believe it. They won't
believe it. They'll not accept that. Somehow
or other they believe that God surely is going to take account
of their works and their goodness and what they've done and the
things they haven't done. Surely God will figure it all
up one of these days and I'll be accepted of Him. My friend,
it's not so. You're under the wrath of God
and you shall spend eternity in that place where the worm
dies not and the smoke of men's torment ascendeth up forever
and ever where there's no rest neither day or night. That's
where you're going because you're not acceptable to God. You're a sinner in rebellion
and sin. But those that have been regenerated
by God's Spirit, those in whom the Lord Jesus Christ has been
formed, those in whom He lives, they ought to receive this truth
that they are loved and they're accepted of God. But it's mighty
hard to get them to believe it. They just simply can't believe
it about themselves. And when you're preaching to
lost men, the sheep of Christ, they say, Oh, I think he's talking
about me. I think he's talking about me. This is my condition. I don't feel loved. I don't feel
accepted. I don't feel like I belong. My
friend, listen to me and hear me this morning. If you're here
and you are saved, if you're a child of God, if you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, you have been accepted. And the only
thing I believe we can do, although it's difficult to deal with,
is just keep on preaching the truth of God and to the hearts
of men and trust God to undertake. Because unless He does some internal
work in your heart and in the hearts of others, of men and
women, there's no hope. at all. Nothing I can do will
ever make any difference unless God is pleased to do a work in
your heart to convince you that you're unacceptable to God if
you're lost outside of Jesus Christ and teach your heart and
tutor you if you are in Christ and help you to rejoice in this
glorious truth. You are loved and you are accepted. Now then, God has accepted us
over against the fact that the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness, and that He's angry with the
wicked every day. He has accepted us and loved
us over against the truth of John 3 and 36, where it says,
He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath
of God abideth on him. The declaration of the gospel
is this, that God in Jesus Christ accepts all those who believe
savingly on His Son, the Beloved. God accepts them all, and if
you believe on Him and trust Him, then God has accepted you.
Now this is the good news today for you, my friend. God has accepted
you, believer, on the merits. of another on the merits of his
own son, the God-man Jesus Christ. God has accepted you, hear me
now, despite the worst, despite the worst that remains in you,
God has accepted you. Now this is part of the problem
we just talked about a little bit. We know that we're still
sinners. Daily experience teaches us that. We're often heard crying out
with Paul, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
the body of this death? And do you know this morning
what I'm talking about? If you're a child of God, you
do, because I'm talking about Christian experience. All of
God's true, tested, and tried family, they know what it is
to cry out, O wretched man that I am. They know what it is to
experience failings and to have difficulties and trials and adversities
in their life. They know what it is to have
upheavals and to be cast down. One day to be up, the next day
down. They know what this is. This is Christian experience.
God's people have all kinds of problems. John Bunyan said, we're
born into this world as sparks fly upward. That's the scripture.
And he says, then we're born into double trouble. We're converted.
And then we have all kinds of trouble because of the new life,
the principle of life that is within us and the struggles that
are in the world. I'm sure you know what I'm talking
about. But, beloved, we're not to give up here. We're not to
give up and say, I got all of this going on, and I know I'm
a sinner still, and I know things are not as I desire for them
to be. We're not. We're to go back to
the gospel, just like Paul did there in Romans 7, 25. He says,
I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. There is victory in
Christ. We have been accepted in Him.
Go back to the gospel and to the gospel of God's truth that
we are accepted in the beloved. He has accepted me in spite of
the worst there is about me. Now, I can tell you, and I know
for a fact, that this is true. Now you listen to what I'm telling
you, that the people of God are a messed up bunch of people. Now when I'm talking about Him
accepting us in spite of the worst, There is about us, and
I've said we are sinners. Daily experience teaches us that.
We feel the weight and the burden of the old body of sin, and I've
said that. But beloved, I want to impress
this upon you, that we're a messed up bunch of people, all kinds
of problems. God's people are not exempt from
the problems that other people have in the world. And we have
all kinds of problems there. Now listen, I know I've talked
to many of God's people, and beloved, there's few exceptions
to this rule I'm talking about. When you put aside the pizazzle
that we wear to church, When you put aside the veneer and
you find someone who is willing to talk to you, somebody who's
willing to try to help you a little bit, often we confess. what kind of a mess we got on
our hands, what kind of problems that we really have in our life,
how things really are with us. And beloved, listen, our depravity,
it is bad. And then not only that, but things
just go wrong in our lives, don't they? They just go wrong in our
lives. that which God has made crooked
no man can make straight and in the providence of God there
are many things that just simply that are right to him because
things that seem most wrong are right if it be his we will but
it seems wrong to us and we feel it that it's just not right now
listen to me we think that if we live right We've been taught
this. We got it someplace that if we
live right, if we do right, that we'll never be sick a day in
our lives, because if we get sick, somebody will come right
along and heal us, that our children will all grow up to be model
children, and that everything's going to go well in our families,
and the business is always going to do well. We just somehow or
other got that impression that if we do right, if we live right,
that this is going to be the outcome, that the crops will
all But my friends, it's not so.
It's not so. It's not so. Listen to me this
morning. It's when we have losses and crosses, and when we have
more failings that we have to face, it is when Christ as I
have, pray as I have, and still things have not turned out like
I wanted to. Still my children do not turn
out like I would like. They're still not model children.
And we must get rid of this, I think, this unbiblical idea
that if we just do it right, then everything is going to be
all right. It's going to be just like we
want it and like everybody else thinks it ought to be. My friend,
this is an unscriptural expectation. Nowhere in the Bible is this
promised. Because I tell you, what God
makes crooked, no man can make straight. Well, it is then, it's
when all of these things are happening. You know, the Bible
talks about how that we're more than conquerors through all list
of things. There in the Book of Romans,
more than conquerors. But it's not as we go around
these things, over the top of these things, under these things.
It's as we go through these things. that we're more than conquerors
in the Lord Jesus Christ. So it is as we must believe this
declaration. It's then that we must believe
this declaration of Scripture that we're accepted in the Beloved,
that He's accepted us no matter what the worst is about you and
I, that He has accepted us on the merits and the basis of another,
and He's accepted you with no regard, no regard, Listen to
me now, this is important because just as I said that he accepts
us regardless, no matter what the worst is about us, he has
also accepted us with no regard for the best there is about you. The best there is about you.
Now you say, Preacher, you're putting me out of business now.
You're just putting me completely out of business. I'm going to
have to go out of here praising his grace. And some people like
greats on some people. They just don't like that. They'd
like God to forget about the worst in them and take some account
of the best that's in them. But I'll tell you what, in regards
to God loving us and accepting us, He does not do it on the
basis of your worst or your best. Got nothing to do with it whatsoever. This is the other side of the
coin. We think That if we don't smoke, and if we don't drink,
and if we don't chew and spit on the sidewalk, and if we just
give a little bit of money and don't fool around and go to church
once a week, then surely God has to accept me. He must, because
I'm religious, because I go to church, because, because, because,
because. No, my friend, you don't understand
the gospel at all if you believe that. That's got nothing to do
with God accepting a man, a soul. It's got nothing to do with it.
God accepts me. Somebody said, preacher, and
I want you to hear me. I've heard it. I've heard it.
I've had him tell me. God accepts me, preacher, because
I am an obedient Christian. No, no, no, no, my friend. No,
that's not true. God loves and accepts you because
of the beloved. That one who never had a thought
went through his brain except it was a righteous and holy thought.
God accepts you in Christ, who never broke the law, not one
time. He accepts you in that one who
is perfect, that one who is without sin, and you're accepted only
in Him. And when you stand before God,
nothing else is going to account except your relationship to Him. Are you in Him? Do you stand
in Him? Now, this is very important that
we understand this. His blessings toward us are of
pure grace. Pure grace! Wasn't that what
he said? To the praise of the glory of
his grace wherein he hath accepted us in the beloved. Now, he approves
of a heart that loves him, a heart of love toward him, a motive
of love toward him, but his blessings are blessings that are and come
and spring from pure grace. Now, we all struggle with this,
but my friend, will we ever really understand the gospel? Pray that
God will enable you to understand the gospel. Now, there was an
old gentleman that lived in the north of Scotland, and there
was a time of great famine, a time of great Famine and the potatoes
were about all gone and that's all I had left in the house was
was just a few little Nubby potatoes, you know when you use potatoes
you get the best ones out of the sack first and keep leaving
the little ones and the little ones Well, all they had left
was just a few nubby potatoes and so He was an old road worker
and his name was John and so he called a friend and said I
from next door said, come over, we're going to borrow the last
potatoes we have and we're going to have a feast. And so the friend
came over, they got all these little nubby potatoes out and
they borrowed them and they put them on the plate. And the friend
looked at the potatoes and he said, John, he said, these are
indeed nubby potatoes. And John said it's true. He said
it's true. They're nubby potatoes. But he
says, I see upon every one of those potatoes the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. What did he mean by that? What
he meant by that was this, that every blessing that a child of
God enjoys and has in this world was bought at Calvary by the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And oh to know, the wonder to
know, the beauty to know, the glory to know, the joy to know,
that despite the worst about us and with no regard for the
best there is about us, God has accepted us for Christ's sake. That is marvelous, my friend.
Accepted in the beloved. Accepted in a person. All of
God's gracious dealings with sinners are in and through Jesus
Christ. You must never think of God's
blessing apart from Jesus Christ. Every time you experience anything
that just makes you stop and think, this came from the hand
of God. Never think about a blessing
unless you think about Christ. Because it was his blood that
bought it. You wouldn't have it. God wouldn't
give you. Listen, my friend, you would
starve to death. He'd never bless you with common
grace. You would never be able to drink
his water and eat his food and wear his clothes and breathe
his air if it was not for Christ. This world stands to this day
because of God's eternal purpose in His Son that He's redeemed
the people and He'll have them all. That's the only reason why
it's here. You got some idea that this thing's running here
for you. It's not running for you. It's
running for God. He created all things. All things
are for His pleasure. And they were all created by
Him to further and to accomplish the purpose, that eternal purpose,
which He purposed in His Son, Christ Jesus. Well, I glory in
this truth that Jesus Christ brought every blessing I ever
had, even the nubby potatoes that I've eaten. I glory in that. I revel in that. And we all should. Well, just to kind of wind this
all up, what can we do to get ourselves online? What can we
do to get ourselves straightened out and to where we can live
with an experiential consciousness of assurance that we're loved
of God and have it work so in us that we feel our acceptance
with God? Well, how can we do it? Well,
I think we have to talk to ourselves a little bit. My father used
to tell me that it was all right to talk to yourself as long as
you didn't answer yourself. You could ask yourself questions
and so on, but I've done a little bit of both in my time. I talk
to myself a little bit, and I believe that children of God must. David, if you'll read the Psalms,
you'll see where he talked to himself. He said, my soul, he
said, my soul, why art thou so cast down? He talked to himself. And I think you and I have to
do the same. There's some things that we have
to say to ourselves. Number one, let me just give
you a few of these and then we'll close. I'm not going to keep
you long. Number one, I think we have to say that God, let's
say to ourself, oh soul, God has loved you. He has loved you
from all eternity, and he's loved you from all eternity by name. By name. In other words, God
wrote our names down in the Lamb's Book of Life from before the
foundation of the world was ever laid. Before man was ever put
in the Garden of Eden, God had already penned the names of his
people in the Lamb's Book of Life. Christ was the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. Now, my friend, it's not enough
for you to say, well, I believe that. Well, I believe that. No,
my friend, it's got to be more than that. This must become the
very blood that flows through our spirit that God loved us
from all eternity and that he loved us by name from all eternity. Number two, talk to yourself
a little more and tell our souls that God has proved the greatness
and the reality of his love toward us through Jesus Christ, that
he's proved that. Just think a little bit and talk
to yourself a little bit how that God has proved his love. He spared not his own son, but
delivered him up for us all. How shall he not also through
him freely give us all things? Now, I have seen my children
off a few times. It always grieves my heart to
have to tell my children goodbye and send them away. But there
came a day when the ancient of days, God Almighty Himself said
to His only begotten Son, the Son of His love, He said, Son,
He said, you go forth Into the world you go forth there to accomplish
the work that I have given you to do and the Lord Jesus Christ
left heaven To come down here to this world to accomplish the
work of redemption To save his people from their sins and God
the Father watched him He watched him as he was being formed in
the womb of the Virgin Mary He watched him when he was born
in the stable He watched him as he lived out his life and
was growing in stature and in wisdom. He watched him as he
worked in the carpenter shop. He watched him as he was in the
ministry. He watched him when he was in
the garden of Gethsemane. He watched him when he was nailed
to the gory tree outside the city of Jerusalem. I want you
to know this this morning, that God Almighty has proved He has
proved His love for us. He sent His only begotten Son,
and would He give His best for us, and then withhold the lesser
blessings? No, my friend. God loves His
people, and He accepts His people, and every blessing that has been
The promise of the Almighty God to His people will be made good
because the everlasting and eternal covenant seals that forever to
the souls of God's people. Now then, thirdly, God loves
me for the long haul. I should tell myself that. Now
God didn't get into this thing with me just for the short haul. You know, we recognize that men
and women are just that. Men at the best are only the
best men. And we know that there are many
examples in the world where people don't get into things for the
long haul. They just can't stick with it,
and it don't work out, and they don't. But listen, God didn't
get into this business of salvation. With you and going to reject
you down the road someplace. No, it's he's in it for the long
haul now brother Whatever is necessary God's going to see
you through now having loved his own when he was in the world
John 13 and 1 says he loved them to the end. He loved them to
the very end And you and I have made some serious mistakes in
this life, but God loves us still, and we need to tell us that.
God's in this thing. I'm not shut up to my choice
of God. I'm shut up to His choice of
me, and we're in this thing for the long haul, and it's not going
to ever vary or change. Number four, I'm telling you
how to talk to yourself. This is the way. God loves me. God's love for me will bring
me through every danger. Every toil every snare and will
cause all of these dangers toils and snares To everyone work out
for my good and for his glory now. It's one thing to say that
it's another thing to believe it It's one thing to say that
when you haven't had any very when you've had very few Dangerous
toils and snares and it's a whole lot more to say it when you've
had some that's almost tripped you up It almost puts you in
the ditch. And I'll tell you this, God's
love will bring you through every danger, quarrel, and snare. Never leave Him. Never leave
Him. God will continue to love you, and He'll make everything
work out for your good in His glory. You can't figure it out,
but He's got it. He's got it down, and He's working
it out. God loves His people as much
as He ever did, and nothing can ever alter or change His love
for His people. His love, no variations, no! No, no variations. Now, number
five. God loves me enough to want to
bring me me to glory. I am accepted and expected in
glory. I'm going to be there. Now, he
wants me there, and the reason he wants me there is because
I'm an object of his love. It's because I'm in Christ and
I'm loved by God just like Christ is loved by God. And the head
will not be in heaven. That head won't be in heaven,
Jesus Christ, and the body left here in the world. No, the Lord
is going to have his people and he loves us enough and we need
to tell ourselves that. That we are accepted and expected
to be in glory. Now we don't believe any of this
really, do we? Do we really believe this? If
we really believe it, we can talk to ourselves about it, and
it will help us to realize our love and acceptance in the Lord. My friend, it is because of this
unconditional love that we have significance, that we have meaning,
and that we have security and have this sense. of belonging. You won't find it in your job.
You won't find it in your relationships, your human relationships. You
won't find it in your friends, even in your Christian friends.
You won't find it in your wife. You won't find it in your husband.
You won't find it in your children. And when you look for it, you'll
always be disappointed if you look anywhere else for unconditional
love and acceptance anywhere except from the Lord, you will
be disappointed, because you're not going to find it, except
in Him. Our acceptance is in the blood,
and it's not anywhere else to be found. It is in this, my friends,
this is where we find it. Heaven and earth may pass away,
but while God and I shall be I am his, and he is mine. This is what it's all about.
We're accepted in the beloved. The poet said, Lord Jesus, we
are one with thee. O height, O depth of love, with
thee we died upon the tree, in thee we live above. O teach us,
Lord, to know and to own this wondrous mystery, that thou with
us are truly one. And we are one with thee. May the Lord be pleased to own
this morning, this message, and bless you with it, help you with
it in your struggles, and just deal with your problems and deal
with your situation on the basis of these things that we've given
you here. And I believe that God will give
you a conscious assurance of your love of his love towards
you and your acceptance in the beloved. May God bless you.