And I'm glad to be here. I appreciate
your pastor inviting me to preach today in both services. I pray
that he'll have a very successful meeting out in San Diego, California,
down that way. I want you to open your Bibles
this morning to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 1. In verse 1, the apostle Paul
said, writing to the church at Ephesus, Paul, an apostle of
Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints which are
at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Now Paul was
an apostle of Christ by the will of God. And he's writing to some
people that are very important to him. You remember he brought
all the elders in Ephesus to Antioch and spoke to them for
the last time. But Paul in the early days was
not an apostle. Paul was a rebellious man. We
find this that Paul for many years, many years, until he was
over 40 years of age, Paul was steeped in religion, despised
the very mention and name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was
legalistic. He was self-righteous. He hated
the gospel. But then, when he was past forty
years of age, he met Christ on the road to Damascus. And God
smote him, broke him down, blinded him. And the Lord Jesus said,
Son, why persecutest thou me? Looking up to heaven with sightless
eyes, he cried, Who art thou, Lord? And our Master said, I
am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. Lord, what would
you have me do?" Well, the Lord told him what to do. He told
him to go to Damascus, and someone would lead him there. And the
Lord revealed Christ to him through Ananias the prophet. And Ananias
said this to Paul. He said, The God of our fathers
hath chosen thee, that thou mayest see the just one, and know his
will, and hear the word at his voice and be a witness to all
men. So from a self-righteous Pharisee
to a broken sinner to a submissive servant, he served the Lord with
great, great strength, effort, and devotion. Now, when I'm reading
here, The Apostle Paul is a veteran missionary, about to be called
home, about to be taken back to heaven. And he said, I'm ready. I'm ready to be offered. The
time of my departure is at hand. I've finished my course. I've
kept the faith. There is laid up for me a crown
of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give
me in that day, not to me only, but to all them that love his
appearing. These are the last days of the
apostle. And he's writing to his friends
at Ephesus here in chapter one. And I call this a glorious doxology. a glorious doxology. And I learned
this several years ago, that these verses from, he said in
verse two, grace be to you and peace from God our Father and
from the Lord Jesus Christ. But starting at verse three,
this glorious doxology, it just has human words and human effort
to reveal it or to preach it. But Paul gives this doxology
in three sentences, just three sentences. And I want you to
look at it, then we're going to talk about each one of these
phrases, each one of these sentences. Start with verse three. Verse three. And Paul said, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heaven and places in Christ.
There's a colon there now, there's not a period. This is, these
are long sentences, now you watch them. According as he chose,
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 period."
That's all one sentence. And I want you to watch this
very carefully, and let this be my first point. Paul, in verse
3, starts where he is. He said, Bless God. What does
that mean, praise God? fall before Him in worship. Bless
God. Why? Well, because He's God. And He's worthy of praise and
adoration and blessing. And because He's the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God, the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And then He said, Who hath blessed
us? Bless God. Bless God, the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who has blessed us? So Paul starts
where he is, and he says, God has blessed us. How has God blessed
us? Well, we think about material
blessings, wealth and family and friends and home and children
and automobiles and boats and cars, but that's not what he's
talking about. He said, God has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings, not the trinkets of this world, but spiritual blessings. He's made unto us wisdom, the
wisdom of God. He's made unto us righteousness,
the righteousness of Christ. He's made unto us sanctification,
holiness. He's made unto us redemption. All that I need, all that I need
is in Christ my Lord. Oh, Paul starts where he is.
Blessed be God who has blessed me, who has blessed us with all
spiritual blessings, all spiritual blessings. But now he takes a
step back. Watch it. Blessed be the God
and Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in the heavenlies now, in Christ, according according
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. Our Lord said to his disciples,
you didn't choose me. I chose you. I chose tis not
that I did choose thee. Lord, that could not be. This
heart of mine would still refuse thee that thou hast chosen me. God has blessed us. takes a step
back because God chose me. He chose to bless me. Brother
E.W. Johnson, my friend of many years,
he died when he was past 90 years of age, but he learned the gospel
of God's grace before I did, several years before I did. He
was pastor of a church in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and he was preaching
these messages right here Brother Todd preaches and I try to preach
in God's sovereign grace. And he's on the radio. And a
preacher friend of his in the same town was on the radio too. And he started taking off on
Brother Johnson's messages. He called him the fellow that
preaches Calvary and Ism. His church was Calvary Baptist
and the preacher called it that Calvaryism doctrine. But Brother
Johnson knew this man. They went to the seminary together.
So he decided to go and have a word with him about this Calvaryism. And he went to the pastor's office
and told the secretary, I want to see the pastor. She escorted
him in. And of course, the preacher was
friendly and shook hands with Brother Johnson. Brother Johnson
called him by name and he said, He said, you know me and I know
you. We went to school together. We're supposed to study the same
thing. He said, I have three questions for you. And when you
answer these three questions, I want you to leave me alone.
Don't call my name again on the radio and don't you talk about
Calvinism anymore. He said, well, all right. I said, what do you want to know?
He said, number one, I want to know, did you choose God or did
He choose you? Pastor Paul just paused a minute
and he said, He chose me. He said, my second question is,
when did He choose you? He said, when I believed. He
said, now come on, what does the scripture say? Chose me in
Christ before the foundation of the Lord. Isn't that what
it says? He said, yes, that's what it says. He said, my third question
is, why did He choose you? Of all people, why did He choose
you? And the preacher said, according to the good pleasure of his own
will. Now he says, don't bother me
anymore. You preach what you want to,
but I'm preaching what God sent me to preach. Bless God. Oh, how he's blessed us. All
spiritual blessing. I'm not talking about these things
here. I'm talking about those things there. According as he
chose me. Now what's the next line? According
as He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world,
not because we are holy, but that we might be holy, and might
be in Christ before Him in love, having predestinated us. Are we going back now? Bless
God who chose us, having predestinated us. Brother R.T. Kendall and
I were playing golf together way back years ago, years ago,
when he was still living in my part of the country. And we were
playing golf together. And we went up to a little golf
course in Cerrito, West Virginia. And it was right in the town. And so we walked over to get
a Coca-Cola. And I walked into the office the filling station, service
station, and it was a Bible laying on the desk. And attracted my
attention. You don't find a Bible open in
a filling station in too many places where you train. And I
turned to the fellow sitting there, I said, that's a nice
Bible. He said, my wife got me that. He said, by the way, believe
it or not now, he said, by the way, do you believe in predestination? I said, I usually ask, what do
you mean? Well, he said, you know, some
God chooses, some go to heaven, some go to hell. I said, I don't
believe that. But I believe predestination.
I said, where is it in the Bible? I played like I wasn't a preacher.
He said, I don't know. I said, well, when you condemn
something, you sure ought to know something about it. I'll
tell you something about it. I have looked at it a little
bit. The word predestination is not used in the Bible four
times. It's used right here twice in Ephesians 1, and it's used
over here twice in Romans 8. Predestinate. And I said every
time it's used, it's used in connection with what we're going
to be. You see, friend, election is
our people. God elected. He chose us. He chose us. He elected us. But He predestinated us to be
something. So election has to do with people
and predestination has to do with what God's going to do with
those people. And He's going to make them like
Christ. Look at it. See if that's not what it says.
Verse 4, according as He chose us in Christ before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love, having predestinated, predetermined for knowledge,
having predestinated us unto the, what? The adoption of children. God's going to make everybody
whom He saved just like Christ. I'm going to wake one day with
His likeness. I'm going to be like Him. You're
going to be like Him. God has chosen us in Christ to
be like Christ. And I looked at that fellow,
and I said, don't you want to be like Christ? Oh, yes, I do. Well, you've been predestinated
to be like Christ. That's what the Scripture said.
Just like God predestinated Joseph, that little boy with the bright
colored coat, down in Israel to be king in Egypt. And every
step he took in that direction, God ordained. And God predestinated. And God made him king of Egypt. And one of these days, you're
not going to be kings and princes in Christ, but God predestinated. God ordained it. God foreknew
it. And He's going to make us like
Christ. Alright, what's the next step?
Bless God, He blessed me. Because He chose to bless me. He chose to bless me. And then
I take a step back, He predestinated us to be like Christ. We're going
to be like God at Christ's, aren't we, that next birth? According
to verse 5, having predestinated us into the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ Himself according to the good pleasure of His own
will, to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He made
us accepted in the Beloved. God Almighty blessed us. He chose us. He predestinated
us and He accepted us. I didn't accept Him. He accepted
me. That's right. Colossians says
this, giving thanks unto the Father who has made us fit, qualified
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life, who delivered
us from the power of darkness and accepted us and put us in
the kingdom of his dear God. Accepted us. The Father chose
us. The Father predestined us to
be like Christ and He accepted us. "'Twas grace that taught
my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious
did that grace appear the hour I first believed. "'Twas grace
that inscribed my name in God's eternal book. "'Twas grace that
gave me to the Lamb, who all my sorrows took.'" There's the
first sentence. And you see how it ended? It
ended to the praise of the glory of His grace. Why did God save
you? To the praise of the glory of
His grace. We might forever praise Him for
what He's done. That's the work of the Father
in redemption. Now, the next sentence is the
work of the Son. Here it is right here in verse
seven. In whom? By whom? Through whom? in whom we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of his grace. Peter said this, for as much
as you know, you were not redeemed with corruptible things such
as silver and gold. We go back to the Old Testament
tabernacle and Solomon's temple, all the gold and silver and uniforms
all of these things that were there. But let me tell you, we
were not redeemed with those things. We weren't redeemed with
those things. We were redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb without spot or blemish, who
was foreordained before the foundation of the world what was manifested
in these last times for you who are kept who do believe and who
are kept by the power of His grace. We're redeemed by the
precious blood of Christ. I want you to turn just for a
moment. We'll go away from our text a minute and go over to
the book of Isaiah. Go to the book of Isaiah just
a moment. Isaiah, let's look at chapter
53. I probably have given you this
in a previous message, but did you know in that So it's 12 verses
of Isaiah 53. The pronoun he, him, and his
occurs 43 times in 14 verses. There's no question about who
our Redeemer is and how our Redeemer redeemed us. Let's look at Isaiah
53. Just read a few of these verses.
Verse 1 of chapter 53. Who hath believed our report?
To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up
before him as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground.
He hath no form, no comeliness. When we shall see him, there's
no beauty we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of solace acquainted with greed. But we hear, as it
were, our faces from him. He's despised, we esteem him
not. Surely he has borne our griefs. He has carried our sorrows. Yet
we did esteem him stricken of God and afflicted. But he was
wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
were laid on him. And with his stripes we healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We turned everyone to his own way, but the Lord had laid on
him. How are we redeemed? On him. The Lord had laid on him the
iniquity of us all. One of the old writers said this. I'll tell you this. If Christ
died for us, the Father must have willed him to die. If Christ
died for us, there could be no other way of salvation. If Christ
died for us, we must have been hopeless. If Christ died for
us, we'll never die. For who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? Who is he that condemneth is
Christ that died, and who can separate us from the love of
Christ? I was sitting in my study one
day, and a young man walked in whom I'd never seen before. I
would say at that time he was married and he was, I guess,
23 or 24. And he said, could I have a word
with you, Preacher? I said, yes. He said, I've been
watching you on television. He said, I've never been religious. I've never made any kind of profession
of religion. I've just been kind of a heathen
all my life. But he said, I got under some
kind of conviction. I got trouble about myself, so
I bought me a Bible. And he said, I've been reading
it. And I started in Genesis 1. Started reading through the
Bible. And I read through Genesis and
Exodus and Leviticus. And he said, I said to my wife
one day, I said, honey, if we're going to be saved, we're going
to know God, we're going to have to have a lamb. Everybody I read
here's got a lamb. Abraham's got a lamb. Moses got
a lamb. All of them got a lamb. We don't have a lamb." And he
said, I heard you on, last Sunday on TV, and you said, I'm going
to preach this morning on the subject, Behold the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sin of the world. He hollered for his wife,
come in here, that man's going to preach about the lamb. So
I preached about the lamb. And he said, now, you going to
preach Wednesday night in this church? I said, yes, sir. He
said, I'm going to be here. And I'm going to be here until
I hear about that lamb. And that's what I did. I told
him about that lamb. And he received that lamb and
believed that lamb and went to our preacher school and became
a preacher, preaching about that lamb. But that's the way men
say. In whom we have redemption. We
have redemption. Not going to have it. We have
redemption through His blood. the forgiveness of all our sins. But let's read on a little bit
about the work of the Son. He redeemed us, and then He said,
He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom. That's that wisdom
you were talking about, Mark, in the Sunday school class this
morning. In all wisdom and prudence. Watch verse 9. Having made known
unto us the mystery of His ways. He revealed, his son not only
redeemed us, but he revealed God to us. He revealed God, the
mysteries of Godliness, according to his will, according to the
good pleasure which he purposed in himself. And then he said
in verse 10, he not only redeemed us and revealed, enlightened
us, but he also enriched us. Look, verse 10, that in the dispensation
of the fullness of time, he's going to gather together all
things in Christ, both which are already in heaven, those
who have gone before. Paul's writing this here in the
first century, and those people, some of them are already in heaven.
He said, those who are already in heaven and those which are
on earth, even in this, watch this, in whom we have obtained. and inheritance. I told somebody
not long ago in a message about a lady up in Columbus, Ohio who
died. And she wrote out a will. And this lawyer came down to
the church in Ashland and told me that the lady had died and
she'd willed all of her possessions to me, to you, preacher, and
to Jimmy and to the Church of Christ and to E.J. Daniels. I said, all four are going to
be in this deal? He said, that's right. She watches
all of you on television, one right after the other, you know.
And I said, what do you want me to do? He said, get you a
lawyer because the family is going to contest the will. I
said, I don't blame them. I'd contest it too, wouldn't
you? Well, he said, you've got to go to court. I said, no, I'm
not. You just give me a paper and I'll sign it. You take that
lady's inheritance and give it to whomsoever she wants to, but
I'm not going to court and fight over some woman's will. And he
had me sign. That's the last I heard of it.
Another lady, listening to television, got guarded. She sent me the
deed to her house. and told me, said, I want you
to preach my funeral in McDowell, Kentucky, and I want you to take
this house and sell it and use it for what you want to use it
for. Her sister got in touch with me and told me that, darn
it, leaving the house to me. And I said, now, what was her,
I forget her name now. Anyway, I said, don't worry about
this. The house goes to you. She was
a poor lady. I said, the house goes to you.
I'll just wait until God dies and I'll give you the house.
Same thing happened to a young man in Huntington. I lose my
inheritance every time I get one. This boy Walker in Huntington,
he died. His wife was divorced. He had
one son. He was in late teens, maybe 20s. But he died, and I preached his
funeral, and a boy came to me and said, Preacher, I'm hard
up. Dad's left everything to you,
and I'm not going to have anything. I said, son, you got it all.
You know, we don't covet men's silver and gold. We're not interested
in things like that. We have an inheritance. That's
what it says here. Verse 11, in whom we have an
inheritance. being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel
of his own will. We're rich in grace, in God,
in love, in all things rich. That's right. Everything we need,
he provides. Everything we need. Well, how
did he end that sentence? Just like he ended the first
one, that we should be to the praise of His glory who first
trusted in Christ. The Father blessed us. He chose us. He predestinated
us. He accepted us. The Son redeemed
us. The Son enlightened us, illuminated
us, revealed the gospel to us. The Son gathers us together in
Christ, those in heaven and those on earth, and the Son of God
gave us Glorious inheritance. Glorious inheritance. I heard
a song not long ago. I don't know whether I remember
it or not right now. I remember these old songs, but
not the new ones, you know. Something about, I'm satisfied
with a cottage below, a little silver and a little gold. But
he said, just a little now, a little silver and a little gold, and
a cottage below. But as I wonder, Down through the years, he said,
God's going to give me a mansion and I'm going to walk on streets
of gold. That's covetous, isn't it? Isn't
that human nature? He's given us an inheritance. And he did it to the praise of
the glory of his grace. Now, here's the third question.
The third statement, sentence. In whom, watch this now, in whom
you trusted. in whom you trusted after you
heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in
whom, after you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise." My friends, there can be no faith where there is
no gospel. There can be no faith where there
is no gospel. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Scripture said, heareth my word, and believeth on him that
sent me, hath everlasting life, and is pious from death unto
life." And watch this, verse 14, which is the earnest, what
is that word? That's the pledge, the token. This, the Holy Spirit of promise
has sealed us, and this, his sealing of us, is the earnest,
the pledge. I'll give you an illustration
here. When you buy a house, and you're not fully settled on it,
and the person demands what? Earnest money. So you write out
a check and give it to him. And he holds that house for you
because he's got the earnest money. Isn't that correct? Well,
let me tell you something. God is holding our inheritance,
and He's given us the earnest money, and it's a promise of
the Holy Spirit. That's our earnest money. That's
our token. That's our pledge, which is the
pledge, which is the earnest, which is the token of our inheritance
until the redemption of the purchased possession. Mwah! To the praise
of His glory. The Father blessed us, chose
us, predestinated us to be like Christ and accept us. redeemed
us, revealed Christ to us, enlightened us, gave us understanding, and
the Son gave us an inheritance all to the praise of His glory.
And the Holy Spirit came in time and called us and revealed the
gospel to us. And we have that pledge of His
promise, token of His promise until the Redemption of the Purchased
Possession. We close with a little illustration. Our Lord used parables. And I think it's some of the
best preaching in the world to illustrate what you're trying
to say. But in Chicago, back many years ago,
There was a rescue mission where, I believe it was called Mel Trotter's
mission, rescue mission. Takes people in, feeds them and
clothes them and preach to them. And the way I heard this story
is this young man was really in bad shape, real bad shape,
dirty, ragged. Didn't have anything, no place
to live. He was sleeping on the streets
and in buildings. And he was lying back one night,
cold and rainy, and a piece of paper blew across his foot. And he reached down and picked
up the piece of paper. And he couldn't tell much about
it, but he saw a rescue mission, Mel Trotter's rescue mission.
Gave an address. And then it said, all you need
is John 3.16. All you need is John 3.16. He
saw the address. He thought, well, I've got a
lot of need. And all I need is this number
here. I'm going to go look that fellow
up. So he started walking and asking people about this address. Finally, he found the street.
Finally, he found the number. He knocked on the door. Late
at night, the elder of the man came to the door and opened it.
And he had that piece of paper there, and he said, this paper
said, all I need is John 3, 16. But he said, son, welcome. Come
on in. So he came in. He said, you're
awful dirty. Your clothes are awful ragged.
Why don't we take you back here and give you a bath? Take these
old clothes off and let me give you some new clothes." So she
took him back there and gave him a bath and waited for him
outside. Then he came out cleaned up and
hair combed and pajamas and a robe on. He said, now I said, while
you was getting your bath, he said, I was fixing you something
to eat. Come on back here and let me give you something to
eat. So the boy went back and sat down. And the man had all
kind of food. And he ate and ate. And finally
he got food and said, that was wonderful. I'm so glad I'm clean
and got this new clothes and this. And he said, aren't you
tired, son? You look weary. You look tired,
very tired. You need to rest. He said, let's
take you down here to this place where you can sleep and get on
this cot and make yourself at home. And we'll talk in the morning.
So he went and laid down and said, before the man left, he
said, say sir, he said, what is this John 3.16? He said, must
be something awful wonderful in John 3.16 to clean up a dirty
man like me and give clean clothes to a naked man like me. This John 3.16 must be something
special for me to be fed like this. And now they're sleeping,
they rest like this. What's this John 3, 16? He said,
Son, in the morning I'm going to tell you all about it. But
this is what it said, For God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him will never perish
but have eternal life. And he's the one that cleanses
the filthy. He's the one that clothes the
naked. He's the one that gives food
to all that hunger and thirst, and He's the one that gives rest.
And next morning, He told him about the Savior. That's what
I'm trying to do, is just paraphrase about Him. Bless God. Bless God. who blessed us, chose us, predestinated
us, etc. Blessed us, Lord Jesus Christ
who redeemed us, who opened our hearts and enlightened us, who
gave us an inheritance, and blessed God who gave us His Holy Spirit
to see what it says in John 3, 16. Not only what it says, but
what it really means. Christ died for our sins. Our
Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You, Lord, for revealing
to us our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank You, Lord, for giving us
a love for Him and a love for His Word. Thank You for this
congregation that You brought together in this place to worship
Thee. Thank You for the dear pastor
that ministers to them. The Word of God, every Lord's
Day and Wednesday night. Thank you. We give you the praise
and the glory. And we pray this morning, if
it pleases thee and to your glory and praise that somebody else
here in this place may hear the gospel of this of our Lord Jesus
Christ who loved us and gave himself for us and look to him
and receive him and believe on him. Lord, order our steps through
this day and bless us tonight as we gather together again and
bless your word to our hearts. For Christ's sake we pray. Amen.