Accepted In The Beloved

I invite you to turn back to
the fifth chapter of the book of Ephesians, and I want to look
at one verse here, and then we'll use some of the verses that are
in the chapter as we get into the message this morning. But
I want you to look at verse 30, verse 30 of Ephesians chapter
5. For we are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones. And then look over in the first
chapter of Ephesians at verse 6. Ephesians 1 and verse 6. To the praise of the glory of
his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. I felt somewhat this morning
led by the Spirit of God in this direction. I hope that this is
of the Lord. I want to speak this morning
on being members of Christ or being accepted in the Beloved. Now, this is no new truth. This is no new truth. Gary Shepherd,
a preacher down in Kentucky, made this statement. He said,
you can be sure of this fact. with regard to all doctrine.
If it is true, it is not new. And if it is new, it is not true. And so this is not a new doctrine
that I'm preaching here this morning. This is Bible doctrine
and it's old doctrine. And the truth, like John Trapp
said, is like our first parents. They're most beautiful when naked. And this, this morning, is naked
truth that we're preaching. And I hope that we'll be able
this morning to enter into this doctrine as it's set forth in
the Word of God, and that we can receive it into our hearts. Now, accepted in the Beloved. Let me begin there in Ephesians
1, 6, where it says, to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein
He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. Now, I believe one of
the reasons why that I feel so duty-bound to preach on this
subject is because I often meet with those, not so much around
in this area, but in other places where I go, that are somehow
or other, they've been influenced by the Camelites and by the landmark
Baptists to believe that The only way that an individual can
become a member of Christ's body is to join a local church. Or
the only way that you can become a member of Christ is to get
into a local visible assembly. And of course, we know that that's
contrary to the teachings of the Word of God. And I want this
morning for us to be able to understand this truth to our
comfort and to our edification. and i hope the lord will be pleased
to help us to do that accepted in the beloved now these four
simple words accepted in the beloved i believe reveal the
whole doctrine of salvation by the grace of god they contain
the very essence of the gospel of substitution the very essence
of the gospel of substitution accepted in the beloved now god
our father has made us He has made us, according to His own
choice, His people, His elect people. And all who believe,
all who believe are His people. All who are brought to believe
are His people. And if you are brought to believe,
it is because God has chosen you and has accepted you before
all worlds in the Lord Jesus Christ. Accepted in the Beloved
One. Now I want you to note that the
whole of our salvation and the whole of our acceptance with
God is in Christ, who is our surety, our substitute, and our
representative. Now those who clearly understand
this doctrine Those who clearly understand this great fundamental
truth of the gospel will not greatly err in any other point
of doctrine. If you understand this point
of doctrine, that the acceptance of a sinner The acceptance of
a poor, lost, undone, unworthy, miserable sinner by a thrice-holy
God is in the Beloved. It's in Christ that we're accepted. Now, those who fail to lay hold
of this matter, of that believers and their acceptance with God,
cannot, they cannot, if they fail to lay hold of this, they
cannot see any other point of divine truth. very clearly. They never will. They'll never
be able to receive it. And so this morning if you want
to start on the foundation then you listen to what we're saying
this morning. And if you want to begin to see
clearly divine truth, then you must begin here at this point
and understand how God accepts sinners and how God makes sinners
one with His lovely Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and how He
deals with sinners through the merits and loveliness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, all believers are in Christ. All believers are in Christ. Now you may wonder about yourself. Are you a believer? Has God given
you the gift of faith? Have you been brought to the
place where you can commit your soul into the hands of the Lord? Have you been brought to the
place where you can believe that God Almighty sent His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, to die on that cruel tree, to die the just
one for the unjust, that you might be brought to God. Can
you believe that? Can you believe in your heart
that Jesus Christ was your substitute and that when he died on the
cross that he was dying in your room, in your stead, in your
place? Can you believe that? Well, my
friend, if you can believe that this morning, you're in Christ.
You have been put into Christ. You were put into Christ before
the world began. You were put into Christ before
man was ever created. You were put into Christ by God
Almighty. Now, we're in His hands as our
surety. were in his hands. I believe
that the Lord Jesus Christ paid all my debt. I believe that he
stood for me when God demands an exact payment for a broken
law. I believe that Jesus Christ stands
for me and that he pays my debt unto God. I do not believe that
I have ever paid any part of the debt that I owe God Almighty.
I've never raised one red cent toward the debt that I owe to
God. And I think this morning that
if we could get that clear, that we're in the hands of the Lord
Jesus Christ concerning Him being our security, that He's paid
our debt in the full, that He took our legal obligation upon
Himself, and that He became sin in our place, and that He answered
to God for those sins, and He suffered for those sins and paid
that debt in the full. Now, we're also in the heart
of the Lord Jesus Christ as our husband. I believe that Jesus
Christ, I believe that all believers are married to Christ. I believe
they are. I believe they're in Him, joined
to Him. I mean, they're in the Lord. They that are joined to the Lord
are one spirit. They're in Christ. They're joined
to Him. Just like a man and a wife is
joined together, so believers and Jesus Christ are one, one
with another. Now then spiritually we're in
his loins as our covenant head and our representative before
God Who is it that represents us before God? It's the Lord
Jesus Christ. He represents us before God He's
the one we stand in him and we are represented by him There's
only two men as we've said before that ever lived representatively
speaking and that's the first Adam and the second Adam who's
the Lord from heaven and all men are in the first Adam by
virtue of the fact That Adam is our parent our parent in the
Garden of Eden Adam was created he was put there and and from
his loins has sprang all the human race and And the Lord Jesus
Christ is the covenant head of all of God's elect, and stands
as their representative. And He's the one, by His merit,
they're saved, and by His merit, they're accepted before the Father. We're chosen in Christ in eternal
election. We're made the righteousness
of God in Christ by His obedience to the law of God as our representative. The Lord Jesus Christ represents
me before God concerning the law All of the righteousness
and the obedience of Jesus Christ is mine, is mine, and that's
my righteousness before God. And I'll tell you what, beloved,
if we have this substitute, if we have this representative,
then we shall farewell before a holy God. And whatever accusation
anybody wants to bring against a believer, the law of God cannot
touch a believer in that that their representative, the Lord
Jesus Christ, has lived a perfect life under the law and has submitted
himself unto God and lived a perfect life under that law. He had no
obligation to do so, but he did so, representatively speaking,
he did so vicariously, he did so in order that all those who
he would be the head of, the covenant head of, that all of
them would have what God the Father demanded of them, and
that was a perfect righteousness. And we all have that righteousness
if we be in Christ this morning because our representative is
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let anybody improve on that
if they can. I don't know how anybody could
improve on it. My friend, that cannot be improved
upon. You have never improved on your
position before God because your position is in Christ and it
cannot be improved upon. Now look, redeeming in Christ,
we have been redeemed in Christ by His sin-atoning death. as
our substitute. In Him, I say, by His sin-atoning
death, as our substitute. Our sin-debt is paid. It's paid
in full. And we're in Him by vital union,
in regeneration, having His nature, the very nature of God imparted
to us by the power and grace of God the Holy Spirit. Now every
believer has God living in them. That's what salvation is. It's
God in a man, God in a woman, God in a boy or girl. It's God
living in them. It's the divine nature being
imparted. And this happens in regeneration.
This happens when that vital union is actually formed between
the soul and Jesus Christ. Now I want you to note this.
Our being in Christ, Now this is where it gets sticky with
some people, and this would jack the jaws of some people if you'll
pardon the expression, but I want to make this clear to you. Our
being in Christ this morning in its entirety is the work of
God's free and sovereign grace. Our being in Christ. Now I preached
one time out in Indiana, the old church there where I used
to be, and that's been since I came to Montana. And there
was a fellow there by the name of, well, I won't call his name.
It wouldn't mean anything to you anyway. But anyway, he followed
me outside of the building and I had plainly said that there's
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. And I had
tried to explain what it meant to be in Christ Jesus and not
to be facing any judgment in eternity to come. And he followed
me outside of the building and said, but you failed to emphasize
and to say that a man had to be in a New Testament church
to be in Jesus Christ. Well, I told him, I said, as
far as I'm concerned, that is heresy. There is no way. Of Him, the Bible says, are ye
in Christ Jesus. Now, listen to me. Our being
in Christ cannot be in any way attributed to us. It cannot be
in any way, I want to emphasize that, in any way, God put us
into His Son. It was an act of God. The cause
of our being in Christ is God's decree and that alone. That's the only thing that puts
a man in Christ. You're coming to a local church
and you're coming for baptism and you're coming and being baptized
and put into the membership of a local church does not put you
into Jesus Christ. It does not. If you're not in
Jesus Christ before you come to a local church, my friend,
you're coming to a local church or come to any local church from
the southern tip of Florida to the uppermost part of British
Columbia, all local churches in the United States, Join them
all if you want to, and if you haven't been put in Christ before
the foundation of the world by a sovereign act of God, then
my friend, you'll never be in Christ. You'll die outside of
it if you're a member even of all the local churches in America.
The only way to be in Christ is by God's sovereign decree. God are you in Christ Jesus Paul
said in 1st Corinthians 1 and verse 30 now grace alone has
given us an eternal immutable indissolvable union with Christ
and made us one with him grace alone grace alone Now I don't
think that I'm Exalting the grace of God too much or God's sovereign
decree. I don't think I'm giving any
Thing to that that doesn't belong to it. Do you? My friend we must
be honest I'm talking about the bare naked truth a man doesn't
get into Christ anyway Except to have been put in him by a
sovereign act of God salvation is God's work from the beginning
to the end and And I don't know where you thought you got involved
in it, but you're not involved in it. Salvation is God's work.
God saves sinners. God purposed the salvation of
sinners and God has executed this salvation in sending His
Son to die and His Spirit to work effectually in the hearts
of those that He chose this salvation. This is God's work. Now being
in Christ, then, I'm going to make this statement because the
Word of God makes it and because it's warranted, we are accepted
of God. Glorious, glorious thought. We
are accepted of God because we're in Christ. Accepted of God. Now then, have you ever wondered
how God could ever accept you? Have you ever wondered? Well,
if you're a sinner and if you know the truth about who you
are, What you are, you surely wondered about that. How could
God ever accept me? Well, if you're in Christ, you
are accepted. That simply means that we're
the objects of God's love, that we're the objects of God's favor
and God's delight. That's what it means. God sees
his elect. God sees those that he chose
and put into his son. He sees them in his son. That's how he looks on them.
Because I don't think that he ever looks at our personal worth
and merit. I think he gave up on that. And
that's why Jesus went to the cross. That's the meaning of
the cross, is that God give up on your personal worth and your
merit. He doesn't figure in anymore.
He doesn't have a place in the calculations of God Almighty. God wouldn't even begin to fool
with your personal worth and your merit. He would not. And
so He doesn't look upon your personal worth and your merit
because we really have none before God. We have none. God sees us in Christ and He
accepts us upon the grounds of His Son's worth and merit. Beloved, I'm simply telling you
the truth. If you want any happiness, if
you want any joy, if you want any spiritual comfort in your
soul, you're going to have to understand that truth. And now,
I think this ought to mean something as to what I said before, that
if you don't get this straight, you'll never get anything else
straight when it comes to the Word of God. But God sees us
in Christ, accepts us upon the grounds of His Son's worth and
merit. And in Christ, I want to make
this statement because it has to be made. All of God's elect
are equally accepted. Say, well, I think that if you're
a member of the right kind of Baptist church that you've got,
you're going to be in the bride. And if other folks that are not
going to be in the bride, if they're not members of the right
kind of Baptist church. Friends, let me tell you something.
In Christ, We are all, as God's elect, we are all equally accepted
of God. And there isn't one thing that
you can do to make yourself more accepted of God than any other
sinner is accepted of God if he be in Christ. Nothing you
can do. Let me say that there are no
degrees of love, there are no degrees of love, there are no
degrees of favor, and there's no degree Acceptance with God
no degrees. It's just you are in Christ.
You're accepted of God now listen God loves us exactly He loves
us exactly as he loves his son That's how God loves his people.
He loves you just as much as he loves you as he as he loves
Jesus Christ If you be in Christ, he delights in us exactly as
he delights in Christ. Do you believe that God delights
in his son? He said, this is my beloved son
in whom I am well pleased. Do you believe that God delights
in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ? Jesus said, at low in the volume
of the book it is written to me, I've come to do thy will,
O God. He said, my meat is to do the will of Him that sent
me and to finish His work. He said, Father, I know that
you always hear me because I do those things that are pleasing
in your sight. I believe that Jesus Christ delights
the heart of God. And I believe that all those
that are in Him delights him equally because they're in him
and they're considered and looked upon by God the Father to be
just as lovely as the Lord Jesus Christ himself and they're just
as righteous as the Lord Jesus Christ is and So they're accepted
with God. He delights in them and God accepts
us exactly as he accepts Christ exactly Now, why does he accept
Christ? because The Lord Jesus Christ
was without sin. And let me say that in Him, there
is no sin. In Him, there's no sin. If you're
in Him, then there is no sin. God does not look upon your sin.
Your sin has been charged to the Lord Jesus and the sin debt
was paid. And if there's one sin charged
to any man who is in Christ, then that sinner, he has lost
Undone and you'll go to hell the only way to be in to be accepted
of God is to be without sin and Jesus is it was without sin. He has no sin and you and I in
him are without sin Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will
not impute sin and who is that man? It's that man that's in
Christ and That man who is in the Lord Jesus, that man who
stands in Christ, God does not impute sin to that man. Now then,
these things are a blessing to me. Now, this union between Christ
and his people, this is no fiction, and it's not a dream, and it's
just not something that has been worked up by somebody's heated
imagination. No, it isn't. Sin separated us
from God and in undoing what sin had done to the elect Christ
joins himself in a union more real than any other in the whole
world. He joins himself unto his elect
people. They are joined together. Now
this union Is very near and very dear and very complete Because
we're so near to christ that we cannot nearer be for we are
one with him We're one with him. He that is joined to the lord
as we quoted a while ago out of first corinthians is one spirit
Now this is a wonderful union because the more you think on
it the more you will stand in awe Before such a marvel of grace
You just simply cannot understand this doctrine without being awe-stricken. All of this strikes me with awe
because it gives me hope. It gives me hope. Anything that
can give a sinner like I am hope, my friend, it'll strike you with
awe. If you, a worthless, undone sinner,
can have hope of being accepted of God and being entertained
for all eternity, just like Jesus is entertained. My friend, that's
a marvel of the grace of God. And the poet said, 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. So this is a thing that we ought
to consider and it ought to be considered often because I believe
it's chief among those things that the angels desire to look
into. Christ and his people everlastingly
one. God looking at his people and
sees them as one and that one being the beloved. the Lord Jesus
Christ. Isn't that a marvelous, a marvelous
and wonderful thing? This is a joyous and a very cheering
doctrine. He that understands it, Charles
Spurgeon said, has an ocean of music in his soul. He that understands
this doctrine. We sit in heavenly places in
the Lord Jesus and there is no distance, there is no distance
between the Lord Jesus Christ and us, no distance, because
we're one. Now then, this union is set forth
under various forms in the Word of God. Let me just mention them
to you. Four of them here that I want to mention first of all
the foundation and the stone Let's turn to the book of first
peter Turn to the book of first peter if you have your bible
and and notice this with me this morning first peter chapter 2
And I want to read verses 4 and verse 5 to whom coming as unto
a living stone Now the lord jesus is the living stone Disallowed
indeed of men but chosen of god and precious Ye also, as lively
stones, living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy
priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
by Jesus Christ. Now here we have the Lord Jesus
as being the foundation stone. He's that living stone that we've
come to by faith being drawn by the effectual work of God's
Holy Spirit and we have become living stones built upon this
foundation and there's being built up a spiritual house which
is the Church of the Living God being built upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then in the 15th chapter
of John, if you would turn back there and look at verse 5, we
see where that we have the illustration of the vine and the branches.
And in verse 5 of John 15, he says, I am the vine, Ye are the
branches he that abideth in me and I'm him the same Bringeth
forth much fruit for without me you can do nothing now this
speaks of the union here's the vine and the branches and of
the fruitfulness that comes because there is union of vine and branch
and Jesus said without me Without me, if you weren't in me, if
you were separated from me, you could bring forth no spiritual
fruit, none whatsoever, because it's by virtue of this union
that there is fruit. Then we have in Ephesians 5,
again, we can turn back to that chapter, and I want you to look
at verse 31 and 32. We have the union of the husband
and the wife. Ephesians 1, Verse 31 and 32,
for this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother and
shall be joined unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh.
This joining together the man and the woman, they become one
flesh. And this is marriage in the sight
of God. This is what it is. When the
man and the woman is joined together, this is marriage. Now, I recognize
that most people think, well, it takes justice to the peace,
or it takes the preacher, but that's not the way it is in the
sight of God. The joining together, the man
and the wife, this makes them one. And there was, and I don't
know whether it's still on the books or not, I think it is,
in some of the southern states, Georgia, one of them, I believe
that Louisiana and Florida, I believe in those, at least those three
states. Now it may be so, it may be so
in others, where that if a man and woman stop in that state
and spend one night together, they are under the law married. They are married and it can be
proven in court that they have in the spiritual relationship.
Now notice he says in verse 32, this is a great mystery. man
and woman being joined together and becoming one. This is a great
mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. All the
Lord's people are automatically one with the Lord Jesus Christ
when the union in regeneration takes place. They're one with
the Lord Jesus. And then Ephesians 5 here in
verse 23 and 30 we have the head and the members look in in verse
23 of Ephesians chapter 5 Where it says this for the husband
is the head of the wife Even as Christ is the head of the
church and he is the Savior of the body and then in verse 31
of our text for we are members of his body And so then you have
the head and the members, and so you see there is a definite
oneness between the head and the members of the body, in the
body. So this is true concerning those
Christ is the head those that are his elect are members of
his body Even of his flesh and of his bones. We're members of
Christ as the Lord's living family now Let's give you some of the
meaning. I think there's the meaning of this union is very
important now notice with me as I give you the meaning of
this union that believers have with the Lord Jesus Christ first
of all, there's union of life and union of life. There's no
life apart from this union. There ain't no way in the world
that a man or a woman can have spiritual life apart from being
joined, vitally joined to the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, well,
I grew up in the church and I've been trying to keep the commandments.
I've done this, I've done that, I've done something else. I've
never done this, I've never done that. There's so many things
I haven't done. My friend, this is a union of
life. And there's no way to have spiritual
life any other way except this union take place between Christ
and his people. Are you joined to Christ? Don't
care about your religion? Wouldn't give you a dime for
all the religion you can come up with. Unless you're joined
to Christ, no life. This is a union of life. Then it's a union of relationship. I said a few minutes ago that
he's our husband. Christ is our husband. The church
and the Lord Jesus Christ have been joined together by a sovereign
act of God and we're married. We're related to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's our husband and he's our
elder brother and we're members of the same body. Believers in
Christ. And then this is a union of service.
Because I believe that the Lord chooses to work in His elect.
He works in and through His people. We exist to do His will as the
body, the will of the head. Your body serves your head, if
things are right. And we exist as the people of
God to do the will of the head, to serve Him, the Lord Jesus
Christ. All right, then it's a union
of feelings. Yes, thanks being to God we feel something. I don't
know whether you felt anything this morning or not, but I have.
I've had some feeling this morning as I preach these things to you.
Now listen to me now. Feeling that being a part of
God. feeling of being a part of the
eternal redemptive purpose of Almighty God, that we're involved
with something more than just earthly things, that we're involved
with God Almighty and we're involved with His eternal plan of redemption
and salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, that we're part of this
thing, that we're in it, involved in it. How did I ever get involved? Do you ever hear anybody say,
well, how in the world did I ever get involved? Can you believe this?
I could just die. I'm involved in this thing. Yes,
sir. We're involved in it. We're involved in it. We're involved
in it. We're a part of it. And you just
can't, and God made us a part of it when we wasn't even conscious.
Before we were ever born, he made us a part of it. Isn't that
a wonderful thing? Praise be unto the Lord. Well, no wonder
Paul said there in Ephesians 1, to the praise, of the glory
of his grace. We got involved in this thing
when we didn't even know we were getting involved in it. Glory
to God. And you know people get involved
in some things they don't know they're getting involved in and
they live to regret it. But my soul, you will never regret
getting involved in this thing. God getting you involved in this
before you were ever born. Isn't that a glorious, glorious
thing? Praise God. All right, union
of feelings. And then it's a union of necessity.
A union of necessity. It's got to be. We've said this
before in another way, but I've got to say it in every way I
know how. It's a union of necessity. I mean Christ's fullness. Your
emptiness. Look at your emptiness. Look
at what you are by nature. Just look at what you are, the
failure you are. I mean the sinner you are. I
mean look at how destitute you are of anything that God will
consider and look upon as being worthy of acceptance of Him. Just look at you! I'm talking
about it being a union of necessity. It's got to be! Or you can't
have any part or lot in this thing that we're talking about.
And then it's a union of possession. We're not our own, we're bought
with a price, the scripture says. God owns us. And because he joined
himself, it's like a husband being jealous over his wife,
and a wife jealous over her husband. They belong to each other. They
just belong to each other, that's all. They do. And they just simply
cannot. It's not tolerable for them to
consider that there's anybody else involved in the situation. It's a union of possession. And I think you know what I'm
talking about. You know what I'm talking about. We belong
to Him. We belong to Him because He's
joined Himself to us. He's married to us. Now, it's
a union of present condition. Now, We are the sons of God. We're the sons of God right now.
It's a union that exists now. Now if you can get that into
your head that this is the way it is now. Not the way it's going
to be. I'm not telling you right now
how it's going to be. I'm going to tell you that in
just a minute. But it's like it is now. That's what I'm telling
you. That you're one with Him right now. That you're joined
to Him, married to Him, accepted in Him. All of His merit is yours
and God looks upon you in Him and delights in you and favors
you because you're in Him now. That's the way it is. This morning.
With your hair, however it is. Whether you got it or whether
you haven't got it. I mean, whatever be your situation. Whatever be.
Is it money, whether you've got it or whether you haven't. Are
you one of God's elect? If you are, This is the way it
is now. This is union of present right
now. It's present condition I'm talking
about. You're saved in the Lord now
because of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, it's a union also of
future destiny. Then we won't be able to question
it. We do now. But then we won't be able to
question it. And this I do find, the poet said, we two are so
joined, he'll not be in glory and leave me behind. If he gets
there, I'll be there. Because we're in him and we must
be there. And further the poet said, since
Christ and we are one, why should we doubt or fear? If he in heaven
hath fixed his throne, he'll fix his members there. He will. And so it's a union of present
or a union of future destiny. We're going to be there with
Him and that union's not going to only be something that last
here, it's going to last throughout eternity. Well, there's some
practical lessons that I want to give you and we'll close.
Some practical lessons that come from this doctrine. If we're
one with Christ, we should have no doubt about it. We should
really have no doubt about it. Well, salvation is by faith. Damnation is by unbelief. And if we're in Christ, if we
are saved, there's no comfort in unbelief. If you don't believe
what I'm telling you this morning, you will never be comforted spiritually
as long as you live. Believe anything else you want
to, you can't get any comfort. I'm on the foundation this morning. I'm right down where it counts
this morning. And you can never get any comfort
as long as you live if you don't believe what I'm preaching to
you this morning. This is it. This is where you bottom, friend.
This is where you start building. And if you don't believe what
I'm telling you this morning, you can't be comforted. You just
can't be. Now, I've lived a while myself,
and I know what I'm talking about. I know what it is to scratch.
I mean to dig through all sorts of things to try to get down
to something that you could say, this is it, and it's not gonna
ever be any different. This is it. And this is it. This is it that I'm talking to
you about this morning. This is the foundation. Okay,
then there's no virtue in doubt. We must believe it. We must believe
what we're preaching here this morning or we shall never have
any comfort. Never. Now then, I think also
practically it means that we ought to go through this world
like a prince. We ought to hold our head up.
We ought to go through this world like a prince. You remember what
Abraham said to the king of Sodom? You remember what he said to
him? Now I want you to get something here. I want you to turn back.
I want you to look in the book of Genesis chapter 14. I want
you to look what he said. We are to treat the world in
the same way that Abraham treated the king of Sodom. And the king
of Sodom said in verse 21 of Genesis chapter 14, he said unto
Abram, give me the persons and take the goods to thyself And
Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up my hand unto the
Lord, the Most High God, the Possessor of heaven and earth,
that I will not take from a thread even to a shoe-latchet, and that
I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldest
say, I have made Abram rich. We're to treat the world in the
same way. World, we're to say to the world, world, you cannot
bless me. World, you cannot curse me. There's no way. I'm in Christ. You can't bless me and you can't
curse me. You do what you want to, you
do what you will, but you can't bless me or curse me. I'm in
the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm one with God, accepted in
the beloved. I stand before God just like
Christ does and you can't curse me or bless me. I'm in the Lord
Jesus. God has blessed me. God has smiled
on me. I don't need the smile of the
world. I don't need it. Because God has smiled upon me,
put me in His Son and He's happy with me. He's delighted with
me. He shows favor to me because
I'm in Christ. Now then, the third thing I want
to say is this. Now that has reference to the
way we walk in this world. You say, well I'm just, somebody
says, how's the world treating you? Anybody ever ask you that
way? How's the world treating you? Well, my friend, that doesn't
make, that doesn't even, that doesn't enter into this thing,
how the world treats you. The world can't treat you, the
world can't bless you or curse you if you're in Christ. They
just can't. Well, This is good. I don't know whether it's good
preaching or not, but it's good from my standpoint because it
meets the need of my soul. And I think it probably is good
preaching, too. I think it is. I think it is.
Okay, now, the next thing is this, and that is to dishonor
ourselves. If we be in the position that
we've described this morning, that the Scripture sets forth
that we're in, if we dishonor ourselves, we implicate and involve
our head also Jesus Christ. Now this I want to show you 1
Corinthians turn back to 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and I want you to look
at this because so many of us would dishonor ourselves and
in doing so would dishonor the Lord Jesus Christ at the same
time. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and I begin with verse 15 And look
at this. Know ye not that your bodies
are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members
of Christ and make them members of an harlot? God forbid. What? Know ye not that he which
is joined to a harlot is one body? He's married to the harlot. Let me say this. I want to make
it clear to you this morning because it's the gospel truth
that every man or woman, every time they're joined together,
whoever they're joined together with, they're married to in the
sight of God. I want to make that clear. You say, well, I
don't agree with that. I think you've got to go before
the governor or go before the preacher or the magistrate. I think you've got to go before
somebody. Well, no, God says no. He said
no. Well, two saith he shall be one
flesh. Now I'm talking about if you
dishonor yourself, you're implicating your head, Jesus Christ. You're implicating Christ. But
he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. There's that verse
I've been quoting two or three times this morning. So he said
flee fornication, because every sin that a man doeth is without
the body, but he that commiteth fornication sinneth against his
own body. He's sinning against his own
body, and he's implicating his head, which is Jesus Christ.
What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost,
which is in you, which ye have of God? And ye are not your own,
for ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and your spirit, which are God's. So my point is this, practically
teaching, is that if a child of God who is one with Christ
dishonors himself and joins himself to a harlot, that he becomes
one with that harlot when he's already one with the Lord Jesus
Christ. Therefore, he implicates Christ
our head. Remember your head. Remember
your head. Your head is Jesus Christ. I'll finish with this poem. Lord
Jesus, are we 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 own this wondrous mystery, that Thou with us are
truly one and we are one with thee. Father, we give thanks
this morning for your word and for this truth how it has rejoiced
our hearts, how it has brought us back, as it were, to foundational
truths and enabled us, our Father, to anchor anew and afresh this
morning upon your precious, precious, glorious gospel substitution,
and how we praise Thee for Christ, our representative. Do Thou,
our Father, receive our thanks, receive our praise, and be pleased,
O God, this morning to, for Christ's sake, Give us a remembrance of
this truth that we shall never in this life forget, but that
we should live in the light of it, walk in the light of it,
and receive the comforts and the joys that are ours in Christ. We pray it in His name and for
His sake. Amen.

Accepted In The Beloved

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Accepted In The Beloved

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