like a fetter, bind my wandering
heart to thee. That's my prayer. We're so happy to have Clay Curtis
with us. Clay pastors the Sovereign Grace
Church in New Jersey, and he was here last year. We welcome
all you people from the Danville Conference. Glad having you with
us, and we're looking forward to hearing you preach. So you
come up and preach to us. It's good to see you all again
this year and we enjoyed ourselves immensely down at Danville and
pray the Lord to be with us tonight. Let's turn to Ephesians chapter
2. Our subject tonight is His great
love. We find it here in verse 4. But
God, who is rich in mercy for His great love, wherewith He
loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ, By grace ye are saved, or by whose grace ye are
saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. His great love. God saves his people. He saves his people. God saves
his people because of his great love wherewith he loved us. God saves his people because
of his love, by his love, for his love. He saves his people
for his great love wherewith he loved us. Notice first of
all who it is God loves here. Notice here in verse four, it
says, for his great love, wherewith he loved us. Who are the us? Who are the us that God loved? If Brother Bob wrote a letter
or if Brother Bob had given me a message and I wrote a letter,
wrote a letter to you, and I said, Bob's going to take us to the
ballgame. That means Bob's going to take us to the ballgame. Us. It doesn't mean all of Lexington,
it means us. Well, when we go up to Ephesians
1 and verse 1, we see who Paul is writing to here. And he says
he's writing to the saints, to the saints, which are at Ephesus,
those that have been sanctified, those that have been made saints. That's who he's writing to. And
then he says there, to the faithful in Christ Jesus. He's writing
to those that have been given faith in Christ. The us that
God saves are His saints. They're those that He makes saints. They're those He gives faith
unto. And then the us that God saves,
or that God loves, are the us that He loved before the foundation
of the world. Look at verse 3. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, to the
praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved. God loved His elect, He loved
them, therefore He blessed them with all spiritual blessings,
and He blessed them according, this is how He blessed them,
according that He chose us in Christ. And He not only chose
us in Him, He predestinated from the beginning that we would experience
the adoption of children into His family. And in all of this,
He made us accepted in the Beloved before the beginning. This is
who God loved. God set His love upon each child
He would save. That's who his love was set upon.
Before he made the world, before he made anything that was made,
his love was upon those he would save. That's who his love was
upon. He would save them because he loved them. Because he loved
them. Because he loved his children,
he counseled, God counseled with himself and coveted, entered
into covenant with himself. to perform all the particulars
involved in the salvation of this people that he loved. You
know, you remember when the Lord Jesus Christ said, if a man's
going to build a house, he sits down first and he counts the
cost to see if he has sufficient wherewith to build the house.
He does some planning. He does some work prior to even
beginning the building. Well, there was no possibility
whatsoever that God could fail. He's wonderful in counsel and
excellent in working and no doubt about it. But he did counsel
with himself and enter in covenant with himself and made everything
ordered and sure. and how He would perform the
salvation of this people that He loved before as yet He even
made anything. He did that before He ever made
even a drop of sand. That's what He did. Ephesians
3.11 says, According to the eternal purpose which He purposed in
Christ Jesus our Lord. The foundation of God's mercy,
of everything He does for us, brethren, is His love. It's his
love for his great love where with he loved us. Whenever I
went over to my children got to a point where they wanted
a dog. And so I heard dog, dog, dog, dog, dog, dog. That's all
I heard. And so I knew I got to get a
dog. So finally, I got online and I found this, this little what is it? What is what is our
dog? a multi-poo, a multi-poo. I got online, I found this multi-poo,
and it was a little female and a cute little dog, and I thought,
they'll love this dog. It's over in Amish country, way
over in Pennsylvania, so we have a little Amish dog. I went over
there, and I got to the place where I was gonna buy this dog. And there they are, in a little
pen there, it's not very big. And this little female sitting
there that I was going by and she's quiet, just sitting there
looking up at me. And this little male over there,
he just went to barking and jumping and turning flips and doing everything
he could to get my attention. And he did. And so I chose him. I picked him. He won my favor. Well, God didn't look down through
time and us start barking and flipping and turning around and
trying to get his attention. and win his favor. That's not
how God chose us. But God did choose his people
and God did have the prerogative to choose whom he would, to love
whom he would. That's God's prerogative. He
can do that of himself. He doesn't show mercy to everybody. God does not show mercy to everybody
because God does not love everybody. He doesn't love everybody. And
I know people will say, but God is love. And that is true. God
is love. And if God had never set his
affection, had compassion on anyone whatsoever, it wouldn't
change the fact that God is love. He would still be love. He would
still be love. But God could choose whom he
would. He could love whom he would.
I can't tell you who to love. You can't tell me who to love.
Well, we surely can't tell God who to love. God loves whom he
will. You think about it. It's his
glory to do so. That's what he told Moses. It's
his glory to do so. He said, I'll have mercy on whom
I'll have mercy and I'll have compassion on whom I'll have
compassion. You think about These two boys are in Rebecca's womb. They have the same mother. They
have the same father. So you couldn't look at their
mother or their father and say that one of them gave them a
leg up. They both conceived at the same
time. They're as equal as can be. Here
they are in the womb. They haven't done any good or
evil. So you can't say that's what, they weren't doing back
flips. You can't, you can't, there's
nothing they did. But according to the purpose
of God, that the purpose of God, he did this on purpose, that
the purpose of God according to election might stand. He said,
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. He loved Jacob and hated
Esau. Now, we can't say there's unrighteousness
with God for doing that. God forbid, because he told Moses
when Moses asked to see his glory, he said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom I will.
He can love whom he will love. Now, look, that's the first thing
about these people. They were loved before the world
was made. Here's the second thing about
these people. Look at verse 5. It says, even when we were dead
in sins, these people whom God loved were born into this world
dead in sins. That's how we came into this
world. If God had of looked down through time, in and of ourselves,
apart from God doing anything, if God had looked down through
time, all He would have found among all Adam's race would be
dead sinners. That's all He would have found,
would have been dead sinners. So there was nothing He could
look at in us to find any worthiness in us. Then look at verse 2.
It says, not only were we dead, but we were under the power of
the devil. Look at verse 2, wherein in time
past you walked, and look at the end of the verse, according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience. I preached a whole sermon on
this one subject back home, because this is an amazing thing. The spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience. Those who have not been called
by God, they're under the power of the prince of the air. They're
under the power of the devil. I don't know how many evil spirits
there are in this world, but there was 1,000 or 2,000 that
came out of that man in Gadara. And they're all about us and we don't wrestle with
flesh and blood. We can't see the evil. It's amazing
to think that there's probably evil around us that we don't
even see constantly, continually. And these ones who God loved
will come into this world under his power. And then look what
it says, not only dead and possessed by the devil, but also God haters. At the end of verse three there,
it says, And we were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. We hated God. We came into this
world hating God. Well, what? And people say, I
don't hate God. I did have somebody tell me one
time I never really hated God. But you didn't bow to his son.
You didn't honor his son and glorify his son. That's hating
God. That's hating God. And now people
People say, well, I don't like this doctrine of election. It's
not that men want to be elected. They don't want to put themselves
in this place of being dead and being under the power of the
devil and being God-haters. And these ones that God loved,
that's who we were when we came into this world. That's who we
were. So the us were loved of God, chosen, blessed, predestinated,
accepted in the beloved from eternity and came into this world
dead under the power of the devil himself and God haters. That's
what we were by nature, children of wrath, even as others. Now,
how do you know somebody loves you? How do you know somebody
loves you? The only way If there's a brother
in here, in Christ, the only way another brother in Christ
is going to know that you love them is if you do something for
them. You have to do something for
them. You have to show that you love them. You can say, I love
you. Anybody can do that. But to know
somebody loves you, you have to do something to convey to
them that you love them. Now look here in verse 5. It
says, even when we were dead in sins, God had quickened us
together with Christ. For His great love, wherewith
He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, He quickened us
together with Christ. Now, the fact that it says with
Christ tells us that Christ did something for us prior to us
being quickened. Now, let's go to 1 John chapter
4 and see what that is. Let's see something about God's
love in what God did for us before we ever knew anything about it.
1 John verse 4 and verse 9. In
this was manifested the love of God toward us because that
God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might
live through Him. That's how God manifested His
love. He sent His only begotten Son
into the world. You think about that. Sending your son into a... Just try to think of a place
you would not ever want to send your son. Think of a place that
you would not dare want to send your son, your child, alone by
themselves. Well, that's not nearly as bad
as God sending His Son into this world. This world of dead, God-hating
sinners. God loved this people so much,
He sent His Son. He sent His Son. And it says
that we might live through Him. The word might here doesn't mean
possibility. It doesn't mean... God did not
send His only begotten Son into this world to die in hopes that
somebody would believe on his son. He didn't do that. It doesn't mean possibility.
You know what that is? To say that, you might as well
be saying, if a person says something like that, a person might as
well be saying, calling God ignorant. Because if I said something to
you like that, if I said If I said, Bob, I'm going to use you a lot
tonight. Bob went and bought a gift, went and purchased a
gift, spent a lot of money for this gift and set it up on a
shelf just hoping somebody would come get it. You'd say, well,
that's kind of ignorant, Bob. You went and bought a gift and
put it up on a shelf and you didn't buy it for anybody. You're
just hoping somebody would come get it. That's calling God ignorant. God didn't do that. We don't
do that. God didn't do that. God sent
his son into this world for a particular people. It means through sending
his son into this world, God gives this people life. He gives
them life. through sending His Son into
the world. That's what our text said. For His great love, wherewith
He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, He quickened us
together with Christ. He gave us life. That's why He
sent His Son, that we might have that life. Look at 1 John 4.10. Herein is love. Not that we love
God, not that we love God, but that He loved us. and sent His
Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now, what is this word
propitiation? We have to get this. Be sure
to get this. The way that we're going to understand
that God sent His Son into the world to save the children He
loves and that He accomplishes that salvation is, we're going
to have to understand what this word propitiation means. This
is the offense of the cross. This right here is the place
that offends men because men who want to have to say that
they did something whereby they contributed to their salvation.
This is what offends them right here. This is the offense of
it. God sent his son to be the propitiation for each child he
loved and Christ is that propitiation. Now, turn to Hebrews chapter
9. You can leave first, John. I don't think we're coming back
there, but Hebrews chapter 9. Now, before we read this, I want
to just say this and then I will read it. To understand propitiation, think
of the mercy seat on top of the ark over the broken log. Okay,
that high priest was the only one. You had the court of the
tabernacle, you had the sanctuary, the holy place of the tabernacle,
and you had the holiest of holies. And that high priest was the
only one who could go into that holiest of holies. He was the
only one that could go in there. And when he went into that holiest
of holies, he was representing the children of Israel. He was
not representing, there was a bunch of other nations, but he was
not representing them. He was representing the children
of Israel. A picture of Christ representing
this people that God loved, for his great love. Well, when that
high priest went in there representing Israel, he had to go in there
with the blood of a lamb. This lamb had had all the sins
of all Israel, the children of Israel, laid upon this lamb in
type, in shadow, in picture. It was a shadow. It was a picture.
And this lamb was killed. It was slaughtered because injustice,
justly. It was slaughtered because it
bore the sins of Israel. And then that priest took the
blood of this lamb and he goes into that holy place. He's the
only one who could do this. And he could only do it once
a year. And he goes in there with the blood of that lamb.
And there's the Ark of the Covenant. And there's the Mercy Seat. And
under that Mercy Seat in that Ark, among other things, is the
broken law. These children of Israel broke. They broke it. And there's that
broken law. But between that broken law and
God is a seed of mercy. Right there. There's a seed of
mercy. And He takes that blood and He sprinkles that blood seven
times before that mercy seed. He makes atonement. He appeases
God for the sins of this people so that God will pass over them
for another year. But it had to be done next year. It had to be done next year.
That mercy seat right there. Now, look, even in the tithe,
even in the shadow, the high priest got the job done. He got
the job done, even in the shadow. He got the job done at least
for one year. God received it. God met with
him right there. That mercy seat is the propitiation. That's who Christ is. In fact,
Christ is the high priest. Christ is the lamb. It's Christ's
blood. And Christ is the mercy seat.
And Christ is the... He's the God receiving it. He's everything involved. Now
let's read it here. Hebrews 9 verse 1. Then verily
the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly
sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made,
the first wherein was the candlestick and the table and the showbread,
which is called the sanctuary. After that was the second veil,
the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all. It had the
golden cistern, the Ark of the Covenant, overlaid round about
with gold wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's
rod that budded in the tables of the Covenant, that broken
law. And over it, the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy
seat. Looking at that mercy seat, they
were looking at the propitiation. They were looking at that place
of propitiation. And it says, verse 6, Now when
these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into
the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But into
the second went the high priest alone. once every year, not without
blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people.
The Holy Ghost, this signifying that the way into the holiest
of all was not yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle
was yet standing." If you go on and read over Hebrews 10,
it says, now it is made manifest. It's a new and living way into
that holiest of all. Alright, let's read on here.
Which was a figure for the time then present. All this was a
type, it was a picture. In which were offered both gifts
and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service
perfect as pertaining to the conscience. They stood only in
meats and drinks and different kinds of washings and carnal
ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation. But
Christ, being come and high priest, of good things to come, by a
greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is
to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." Now look,
He obtained eternal redemption for us. Look at Hebrews 10. Verse
one, the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the
very image of the things. They're not the very image of
the things. They could never, with those sacrifices which they
offered year by year continually, make the commerce there unto
perfect. For then they would have ceased to be offered. But
because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more
conscience of sin, they should have just done away with it.
But they did. But in those sacrifices, there's
a remembrance again made of sins every year, for it's not possible
that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. But look
at verse 9. Christ came, God gave him a body
to do this work, to be made sin, to bear the fury and wrath of
God in place of his people. And look at what he did. Look
at what he did. Verse 9. Then said he, Lo, I
come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second. He took away the picture that
he may establish the everlasting covenant of grace by the which
will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once. through the offering of the body
of Jesus. That's what it was made for.
He was made to bear sin in his own body, who his own self bear
our sins in his own body. It was made to bear the the fury
of God's wrath in place of his people. It was made to be marred
more than any other man. It was made to take the place
of God's people, those that he greatly loved to take their place. to satisfy justice, and it says
here, every priest, verse 11, every priest standeth daily ministering
and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take
away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. That's what Christ accomplished
for these that God loved with His great love. Now, Christ came
to satisfy justice. He came to be the place of mercy,
to be the propitiation for God's people. And Christ finished the
work. He finished the work. He made
the justice of God the justice of God, the fury of God, the
wrath of God, that must be poured out on every sinner, for every
sinner has got to die, and every sinner will die, either in a
substitute or in ourselves, but every sinner will die. They have
to for God to be just. And I'm not talking about that
death that you die when they put you in a pretty little box
and put you in the ground. We're talking about that one
after that one. The death Christ died, the eternal
death Christ died, whereby He satisfied justice for His people,
was the death He died when He hung on that cross and God forsook
Him on that cross and He bore the hell that His people deserved
when He hung on that cross. That's the death He died. And
when He said it's finished, it was It's finished! And when he
gave up the ghost, it was manifestation to us that that death was done
for his people. It was done. And God, to show
us it was done, three days later brought him out of the grave
and said, it's done. It's finished. It's finished.
It's finished. That's what we're talking about
when we say God sent him forth that this people might live.
He sent him forth, not that we love God, but that God loved
us and sent forth his son to be the propitiation for his people. That's why he sent him forth.
And he's continually that propitiation. If we sin, You know what the
if there means? It means we're sinning all the
time. We're constantly sinning. We
don't do anything but sinning. But every now and then God makes
us to see again what you are. And when He does, We have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he
is the propitiation for our sins. He's that place of mercy. God
sees his son and God is satisfied and God ever, he ever lives to
make intercession. And as long as he ever lives
to make intercession, God is ever merciful because of that
propitiation. He looks at him and says, Mercy
for my people. Mercy for my people. Now who we glorify? Who we're
going to glorify for that? You take a designated batter
in baseball. That designated batter comes
out, and he takes the place of the man that's sitting over there
on the bench. And he comes out, and he swings for the fences,
and it goes over the fence, and it's a grand slam. And all three
people on base come around, and he comes around third base, and
he comes in the home plate, and the whole team's out there, and
they're high-fiving the man in the dugout? No. They're high-fiving
Him. He gets all the glory. He gets
all the praise because He did all the work. Christ did all
the work. He's the only one we praise.
The only one we praise. Here's something else. This is
the next thing. Go back to Ephesians 2 with me. There's something else God does
for His people He loves. Now let's go back and look at
verse 4 again. Verse 4 and 5. For His great
love, wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins,
hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace, you're saved,
and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. Now, God actually raised us up,
brethren, when He raised Christ up. He raised us up with Him.
We were quickened together with Him and rose with Him and sat
down with Him when He rose from the grave. And because of that, Christ sends
forth His preachers with His gospel, because all His people
have been reconciled to God. Now they got to know about it.
They got to know what Christ has done for them. And so He
sends forth His preachers with His gospel, with the good news,
and they come forth declaring this good news of what Christ
has done. And as they're doing that, the
Spirit of God enters in and He gives life. He quickens us together. He regenerates us, gives us life
inwardly. We were dead. That's all we were. We were dead. But God, for His
great love wherewith He loved us, quickened us together with
Christ, gives us life. Christ is formed within. We walked
according to the course of this world, but God raises us up out
of that walk of death and that pit of death we were in. And
He puts us in Christ and puts Christ in us. We were under the
power of the devil, but Christ comes forth and He finds His
child and through the gospel, He binds the strong man and He
delivers us up from that one who was stronger than we were.
We walked in the lust of our flesh and we were by nature the
children of wrath even as others. That's all we had was flesh.
That's all we were was flesh. But now God says, you're not
in the flesh, you're in the spirit. Because God says, I put you in
the spirit. I put the spirit in you and I put you in the spirit
and you're in the spirit now. You're not in the flesh, God
says, you're in the spirit. Oh, you have flesh and it still
has those old fleshly lusts. But God says, you're in spirit. And he put us, he gave us a new
nature and made us partakers of the divine nature. All we
were by nature, all we were was bankrupt in sins, but thankfully
God by nature is rich in mercy and has great love wherewith
he love does. He's rich, he's rich in mercy
and love and so he did this for us. And look at verse 5 and 6
again. This is what he did. He quickened us, he raised us
up, he made us to sit. He did it all. He quickened,
he raised us up, he made us to sit. We rest when He calls us. When He calls us, we enter into
rest and we sit down because there's nothing else to do. God's
done everything so that He can justly accept us and shower us
in blessings and show us these riches of His grace from here
on so that there's nothing else to do. We rest in Him. And when
Christ comes across the mountains through this gospel and He enters
in and He shows you what He's done and He gives you eyes to
see and He grants you repentance and He purges your conscience
from dead works and turns you to Him so that you behold Him.
Beautiful upon the mountains are His feet. And this book opens
up and you have the key to the book. And His feet are beautiful
upon every mountain through this book. Every mountain. He said
it would be. He said in that day my people
shall know my name. They shall know it's I. It's
I that speaks, He said. Beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of Him. Now we look to Mount Uriah and
we see Abraham go up that mountain and he says, God will provide
himself a lamb. And we see Jehovah Jireh, our
Lord providing himself a lamb, our God providing himself a lamb
in Christ. Now we go to Mount Sinai and
Christ's feet are beautiful on Mount Sinai. Before we went to
Mount Sinai and we was trying to please God. Now we go to Mount
Sinai and we see the law was given to shut our mouths and
to show us our need of Christ. And we even look at the law now
and see our beloved representative, how holy and just and right he
is. Because he fulfilled it and established
it for us perfectly. Now we go to that exceedingly
high mountain where Satan tempted Christ and Satan could find nothing
in Him because Christ is so faithful and we see Christ the faithful
one who was faithful to God and will always be faithful to us.
Now we go to that mount where He preached the Sermon on the
Mount and we see Him go up into that mount and sit down and start
teaching His people in their heart and we see Christ who is
seated in that mount and He is teaching us in our hearts right
now effectually and He is not having any trouble doing it.
He is doing it just fine. Christ's feet are beautiful upon
Mount Gerizim. That is where He converted that
woman at the well. And we go there and we see His
feet beautiful because we see His power to quicken and to convert. And we've experienced it. We
know about it. And we read about what He did for her and we say,
that's what He did for me. Now His feet are beautiful upon
the Mount of Olives because that's where we see Him go by Himself
all alone to pray to the Father on behalf of His people. And
we see Him there right now ever living to make intercession for
us. Now His feet are beautiful upon the Mount of Transfiguration
because now we see that the Law and the Prophets were given for
us to go to the Law and the Prophets and try to find life in them.
God gave the Law and men are going to go to the Law and try
to find life in the Law. God gave the Law to point us to Christ.
He gave the Prophets to say Christ is coming. Men are going to go
to the Prophets and try to find out all this stuff that they
don't have no business trying to find out. He gave us church so
that we could come together and hear about the head of the church
who's feeding his family and providing for his family and
loving his family and quickening his family. And we'll try to
come to God and say, I went to church. We take the things that
He gave us to point us to Christ and try to get life by them.
But now on the Mount of Transfiguration we see the law and the prophets
were given to bring us to the glory of Christ so that we bow
and worship Him alone in His glory. Now we can see His feet
beautiful most of all upon the Mount Calvary. The cross is never
looked at again the same once He quickens you. Once He comes
across those mountains and gives you life in your heart, the cross
is never the same. We look at it now and we see
God's glory now when we look at it. We look at it now and
we see the Lord. We see the Lord God. We see Him
merciful and gracious. We see Him long-suffering. We
look at the cross and we see Him abundant in goodness and
truth. We see Him keeping mercy for
thousands. We see Him forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin. And we see Him by no means clearing
the guilty. And another place His feet are
especially beautiful to us now is Mount Zion. Look here at Ephesians
1 verse 20. He raised Him from the dead and
set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places, far above
all principality and power and might and dominion, and ever
named this name, not only in this world, but also in that
which is to come. And He's put all things under
His feet and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church,
which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.
Can you see Him there in that mountain? That's our Savior. That's one who is one with us
in our nature, there, right now, doing everything in this world
for our good. Everything that He's doing. Notice
here in our text, too. I'm going to hurry, I promise
you. Can I show you just a few more things? I've got to show
you something. Look at Ephesians 2 and look
at verses 5 and 6. Notice these togethers, these
three togethers. Verses 5 and 6. He quickened
us together with Christ. Verse 6 says He raised us up
together. He made us sit together. Now
He brought us together and made us one in Christ. And He brought
us together with one another in Christ. I think about our
congregation in New Jersey. We've got folks there that were
born and grew up in South America. I grew up in South Arkansas. And there's folks there from
Long Island, New York. Do you think when I was a boy
running around in South Arkansas and I was a teenager running
around in Arkansas, do you think I would ever have thought, I
sure wouldn't have thought I'd have been a preacher, but I never
would have thought I'd have been a preacher for folks from South
America and from New York and from Pennsylvania. I never would
have imagined those things. And I haven't done anything to
make that happen now. God just, He puts His people
together. He put us together before we
knew He put us together. He put us together, He quickened
us together in Christ, He brought us together with the Gospel,
and He's continually bringing His people. Who He would have
together, He's bringing them together, and they're going to
be together. Because He was going to have it that way. We need
each other, and He's going to make it so that we need each
other. That's just so. God foreordained for sin to enter
this world and for it to divide and divide and divide and divide.
That's all sin does. It divided us from God. It divided
us from men. Then He made Israel and all that
did was make Israel want to divide from the Gentiles because they
thought they were better than the Gentiles. We divide between
male and female. We divide between rich and poor.
We divide between bond and free. And God's foreordained by His
determinate counsel for sin to enter this world and all this
division to come about over this whole world. Why? Here's why. That God might give Christ all
preeminence in making His people one together. Look at Ephesians
1.10. that in the dispensation of the
fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even
in Him. And He's going to get all the
glory for that. And now notice one more thing, back in our text,
verse 5. It says, I mean, verse 6, for
His great love wherewith He loved us, notice where we are sitting. Verse 6, together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. There's a resurrection coming
of our bodies. That's going to happen. But right
now, God says of you, who He's quickened together with Christ
and raised together with Him, you are seated together with
Christ right now in heaven, right now. Turn over to Colossians
chapter 2. Folks, I hear folks say this,
well, it's as though this, and then they'll talk about the description,
but it's as though that, and you know, it's not real, it's
as though these things are happening. You're not really dead, they'll
say, it's as though you're dead. You're not really seated with
Christ, they'll say, it's as though you're seated with Christ.
Let me show you God's as though. Look here, Colossians 2, verse
20. This is God's as though. Wherefore,
He said, you're complete in Christ, He's nailed all these fleshly
things to the cross. Now he says, Wherefore, if you
be dead with Christ from the rudiments of this world, why,
as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances?
Why, as though your life was in this world, are you subject
to ordinances? That's God's as though. Now here's
God's reality. Look at Colossians 3.3. You are
dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. Now that's the
reality. That's reality. You know, the
sun and the moon, the sun is a lot greater than the moon.
It's much greater than the moon. And yet the moon has more influence
over the tides in the ocean than the sun. Why is that? It's because the moon is nearer
to the earth than the sun. Our life's at God's right hand.
That's where our life is. And it's far greater, far more
important than this life here below. Things that are seen are
temporal. Things that are not seen are
eternal. Yet the less important things of this life have a greater
influence on us than that which is far more important. Why? because it's closer to us. This
life and this earth is closer to us. These troubles are closer
to us. These things are nearer to us.
But would you get what that scripture just said? We are seated in heaven. Listen to this. Near, so very
near to God, nearer I cannot be. For in the person of His
Son I am as near as He. Now listen to this, there's more
to it. So dear, so very dear to God,
more dear I cannot be. The love wherewith He loves His
Son, such is His love to me. Paul said, set your affection
on things above, don't set them on things below. You're really
closer to God than you know. We're closer to God than we realize. We're as close as Christ is. That's the reality. And we have
an open way to Him now to where we can boldly come to His throne
of grace and ask for help in time of need. Whatever it is. He says, just come ask me. Just
come ask me. Is there anybody here if, I don't
know, I don't know who's powerful, but if there was somebody in
the government or the president or whoever right now that just
said, here are the keys to the banks, here are the keys to the
place where you can get jobs, here's the keys to everything,
just come up here and get you a key and take off and you can
go have it. I'd be hearing door slam right
now. Everybody would be gone. Well, that's what Christ said.
He said, whatever you need, come on. Now, He's not going to give
us what we don't need. He's going to give us what we
need to keep us where we need to be to keep us to see that
He's our real need. So, but He says, just come ask
me. You're as near as God. as near as Christ is to God,
and loved as much as his own son. He said that the love that
you have for me might be in them, that they might see that as you've
loved me, you've loved them. A king will have mercy. A king
will have mercy. And mercy is a good thing. We
love mercy. You know, say somebody in his kingdom commits some treasonous
act against the king, and the king says, I'm going to have
mercy on him. And he has mercy on him, pardons
him. But what if that traitor is his
son? His son who he greatly loves.
Now he not only has mercy on him, now he takes him and forgives
him, and our God He forgave us, He
justified us, He put away our sin, and He's taken us now, not
only done that, He's taken us up to the king's seat, and robed
us in the king's robe, and put the king's signet on our hand,
and told everybody there, this is my son! Whatever he wants,
give it to him. And sat us down there in his
throne with him. That's what love does. I love
mercy, but I love love. Great love. Now listen to this. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not because it knew him not. Now there's three things to do
with this. Three things you do with this. Number one, believe
on Christ. Don't look anywhere else. Rest
in Christ and seek mercy from Christ. That's it. Number two,
let us love our brethren like Christ loved us. How did he love
us? He put away our sin. So let's
cover one another's sin. How did he love us? He came to
us and gave us the good news. came and applied the soothing
balm when we needed it? Let's do that. He protects us
and keeps us. Let's protect and keep one another.
That's right. To do it, we've got to do it,
don't we? We've got to know somebody loves you, you've got to do it
for them. And here's the last thing. Our life and our reason
for being here is for the promotion of this gospel. because God's
got some other sheep. We're not just doing this just
to hear ourselves hear one another preach. There are preachers that
do that just to hear one another preach, but we're doing this
because God's still got some sheep, and he's going to call
them out. So let's give ourselves, loving
those sheep that are yet to be called out, let's give ourselves
to promote this gospel. In any way that God has given
us gifts to do it, do it. That's it. One of these days
he's going to call the last one out. We go to these conferences
and then we love it, you know, but everybody says the same thing
at the end of every conference. Man, I wish we didn't have to
go home. One day we won't. One day we'll be home. That's
right. Amen. The thought of actually being
seated in heaven is overwhelming, isn't it? That's just utterly
overwhelming. And that shows how real union
with the Lord Jesus Christ is. It's not as if I was there. We're
there right now. We're there more really than
we're here. That was a blessing. Isn't it wonderful? to think
that the Lord has revealed the gospel to you. I just, I'm just
amazed by that. I love that to him. I stand amazed
in the presence of Jesus, the Nazarene, and wonder how he could
love me, a sinner condemned, ugly. We're going to observe
the Lord's table together. The Lord said, regarding the
bread, take, eat, this is my body broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. And then he took the wine and
he said, drink it as often as you do it. This is my shed blood,
the blood of the New Testament, shed for many. This do, as often
as you do it, in remembrance of me. Now, who is to take the
Lord's table? Who should take the Lord's table? Who is commanded to take the
Lord's table? Everybody who believes. That's the one requirement. If
you look to Christ and find rest in Him, and you really believe that all
God requires of you, He looks to His Son for. If you're relying
on that and resting in that, you are commanded to take the
Lord's table. Don't be afraid to take it. Rejoice. Rejoice. I think it's amazing that people
use the Lord's table to discipline and punish and withhold somebody
if they're not living. That's foolishness. Let a man examine himself, not
somebody else. Let a man examine himself and
so let him eat. I remember when I was a young
man, I used to dread the Lord's table and would not want to take
it because it said he that eateth unworthily, eateth and drinketh
damnation to himself. And that used to scare me to
death. I was always afraid of taking the Lord's table because
I couldn't rejoice in it. But I love the way Paul said,
if we judge ourself, if we condemn ourself, we would not be judged. Who's the Lord's table for? Sinners
who need the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pass out the bread.