And so I prepared for this message. I couldn't help but struggle
trying to come up with the right title for it. There's so many
good things. And then you sing this song,
He Did It All For His Glory. Wow, I think that might be the
new title of the message. But I started off with the spiritual
blessings in Christ, and then I went to salvation is of the
Lord, and now He did it all for His glory. What a wonderful,
wonderful message in that song. If you would, turn with me to
Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter one. I'm going to be focusing mainly on
verses three through nine. I want to start off with verse
1, just like Paul always does in his epistles to the churches.
He starts off with a greeting. Here he says, Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints, not everybody
at Ephesus, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful. Not everyone is faithful. then
Christ Jesus. He makes us that way. He gives
us that faith. A chosen people, you see. A peculiar
people. Not just everyone. Salvations
of the Lord. And He chooses who He will. We'll
find out about that today. It says, verse 2, Grace be to
you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is a typical Greeting for Paul, but if you notice, it's
only two verses. His greetings usually go pretty
long. It's like he just couldn't stand it any longer. He had to
get right to the message. And in verse three, he tells
us, blessed be God and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. God has done this. He blessed
us with all spiritual blessings. And the Apostle Paul gives us
in these next four or five verses here, five spiritual blessings
that we receive in the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we go through
these blessings, you can't help but think how false religion
reads the same scripture that we're going to go over today
and can come up with a totally different answer and a different
explanation to all that the apostles say. It's because they do not
know who God is. They do not know the Son. They
cannot understand the things of God because they don't know
Him. But yet, they think they know
Him, and they're very apt to tell people what they know, even
though it's a lie. Now here in verse 4, we have in verses 4, 5, and 6,
sovereign acts of grace that are done by God the Father. The
first three are the acts of God the Father. The fourth in verse
7 is the act a sovereign, gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And then in verses 8 and 9, we'll see that the fifth blessing comes
from the Holy Spirit, God's Holy Spirit, in blessing His children. And as we go through here, I
want us to be aware that salvation is of the Lord. All these things,
these blessings that we're going to cover today, are things that
the triune God has done his children, those he chose, his elect, those
he predestinated and put in Christ Jesus. These blessings are for
us. And he does every, I stress that
word, every single thing there is to our salvation, he accomplished. The triune God accomplishes.
That doesn't leave any room for man and his vain imagination
or his works. Now in verse 4, we see the first
spiritual blessing that we receive is that we're chosen in Christ. Verse 4 says, according as He
hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. God does this work here. He chose
himself a people. That's the first act by God the
Father. He chose us. And it says here,
before the foundations of the world. Now, this phrase is used
only in the New Testament, and it's used 11 times. But I want
to give you the actual translations of this, because we think that
it's before he formed the earth. It appeared out of darkness.
But it actually means, before means prior to the foundation,
that word translated is deposition. Before the deposition. And that
means, it's a legal term, just like you would think, you get
arrested, you go to court for a deposition. It's a legal matter. What it's talking about is before
the fall. Prior to the fall, our God and
Father chose us and put us in His Son before we fell. And that's important. That's
very important. We'll get to that. But He put us in Him before the
fall, and it says that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. God is returning in salvation. He is returning us to our former
glory. Adam, we're told that he walks
daily in the presence of the Lord. The only way you can walk
in the presence of the Lord is if you're holy and blameless,
right? What happened after Adam fell?
He kicked him out of the garden. That's where the Lord was. That's
where our God was in that garden. He was removed from God's presence
because of sin. But, praise God, thank God, he
chose us in Christ before we fell. He knew we weren't gonna
fail. That was his whole plan from
the beginning. Why else would he have a lamb
slain before the foundation of the world if God didn't know
whether or not man was going to fall. Now he knew full well
what he was going to do. This was his design. And it's
also his design to save us to the uttermost so that he gets
the glory as you just sang about. It's all to his praise and glory,
and we'll read that here. So the first act of God the Father
is choosing Himself a people And that we should be holy and
without blame as we were before the fall The second thing is
in verse 5 He predestinated us in Christ. All these blessings
are in Christ False religion tells you that
it's in you you have faith that you can somehow develop and create
on your own? I don't know, they're lying.
The Bible doesn't say that, does it? He says, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, by
Jesus Christ to Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure
of his will. Predestination is different than
choosing. Choosing is what He did and predestination
is the means of how He chose us. He put us in His Son. He predestinated us to the adoption
of His Son. Now that word adoption means
to place a son. He placed us in His Son before
the fall. Very important, this was done
before the fall, because we're safe. I said, it's in Him. He's not going to leave salvation
up to us. Salvation is of the Lord, period, just like David
Edmondson told us when he was here last. He said, there's a
period after that. There's nothing else. It doesn't
say salvation is of the Lord, plus what you do, or if you will
let Him save you. Correct? How many of you have
heard that in your lives? Watch TV, Franklin Graham says
it at least four or five times a night when I'm trying to watch
Jeopardy. I don't know. I'll let it go. Predestination
is the means of God's choosing. He ordained us to the adoption
of sons in Christ to salvation. And this was according to His
will. According to the good pleasure of His will. This is why God
the Father does these three acts that we're going to cover. It's
according to the good pleasure of His will. Not your will. You didn't choose Him. You would
never choose Him. That is a doctrinal truth. We will not choose God. We don't
even know who He is by nature. But it was done. He chose us
in Christ. He predestinated, that's the
means by choosing us. He predestinated, placed us in
Christ by adoption. You can't save yourself, but
in Christ we have salvation. Why? Salvation is of the Lord. This is His work and He will
see to it that He accomplishes His work. It will not fail. It
will not come back to him void. So then first we have He chose
us. Then the second blessing that
we receive by God the Father is that He predestinated us in
Christ Jesus. And the third one here in verse
six, to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein Here's the
third one. He hath made us accepted in the
beloved. Accepted in Christ. Accepted
in Christ. This was done before redemption
was necessary. Before the fall, he accepted
us. What did he accept? It says he
accepted us in Christ. So then, whatever was done for
him to accept was done by Christ for us and we are in Christ. He accepts the sacrifice that
the Lord made. Redemption. We'll get to that.
That's the next lesson. He accepts us in Christ's blood. It was his blood that paid the
ransom for our sins. Full ransom. Nothing was left
undone. Nothing was left for you to do.
Salvation is of the Lord. I'm going to keep repeating that
one. That's something we need to have hammered in our minds. It's
a wonderful salvation. Five words. Wonderful words. Salvation is of the Lord. Why
do I hear it? You young people are going to
go out into the world. The older people know this already.
And you're going to hear all kinds of lies. People telling
you that God loves everyone. That's a lie. God's gonna save
everyone. That's a lie. He made it possible
for you to choose. That's a lie. You don't put yourself
in Christ. You don't know who he is by nature,
but people are gonna tell you how to get saved, and it's not
according to the scriptures. That's very important for you
to remember as you get out into this world. Tell the truth to the people. You don't have to fight. You
don't have to argue. You can keep your mouth shut
and try to walk out of there. But they're going to, as soon
as they find out what you believe, they're really going to start
in on you then. They're just going to start picking on you.
Tell them the truth. The truth will set you free,
right? God will take, when you speak the truth, God's there
to defend you. He's not going to let you fall.
They might hurt you. Sticks and stones will break
my bones, right? They can hurt us. They're not going to kill.
God's the only one that can destroy the soul. These people, let them
be. Let them do what they do. He's
going to get the glory from it in the end. And he does these
things for his glory, as you say. Chosen in Christ. predestinated
in Christ and accepted in Christ, accepted in the work of Christ,
accepted in his blood. He hung on that cross and took
our punishment that was due us. When his blood was shed, when
he died, his blood was shed, that centurion stuck that sword
in his side and it wasn't just any part of his side, it was
through the certain rib, I believe they call it the fifth or sixth
rib, That's where they would get to the heart the quickest.
They wasn't just wanting to see if he was alive. He was going
to make sure he wasn't alive. And when that blood, when he
pulled that sword out, blood and water comes out. There's
the blood that the Passover lamb was a picture of. The blood that
was promised from before the fall. Here it is on the cross
2,000 years ago. That blood was shed. And guess
what? The number of the children of God in heaven are like the
sand of the sea. One drop of that blood was enough. It was so precious. What we read
already about it being more precious than silver and gold. You can't
buy the salvation. That one drop of blood covered
all the sins of all of his people for eternity. It's not going
to run out. There's enough there for all
of his children. What a special gift, what a special
blessing God has given to us. And the kid, what did we do to
get that? Nothing. We didn't even know
about it. I think I was in my early 20s
when we started coming here and hearing a sovereign grace preacher
tell the truth for once. Up until then, I'd been believing
lies. They said it, I trusted them. You know, you trust your
parents. They took us to false religion. That's not their fault. God had
this all planned. That's just part of your salvation.
Did he put you under false religion just to bring you out of it?
That's to the praise of his glory. Have you been somebody who's
been raised up in the gospel all your life? That's to the
praise of his glory that he put you there. All these things that
God does is for his glory and for our good. And that's what
the apostles tell these people at this church in Ephesus. This ain't for everyone. He eliminated
everyone in the first couple verses. This is for a peculiar
people. Highly loved. Look, is this love,
what he's done for us? That's a great love. Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You're going to see the love
that they have for their children, for us. And again, God did this. God the Father blessed us with
these three blessings according to the good pleasure of His will. He didn't do it because you asked
for it. He didn't do it because you deserved it. He did it because
it pleased him to do so. And he will get the praise, glory,
and honor because of it. How do I know that? We read earlier
about the trials. God will turn that fire up on
you. You're one of his children. I
promise you, you're going to go through the fire. I think
it's Isaiah 42 that says that. When you go through the fire,
I'll be with you. When you go through the flood, I'll be with
you. God is with his children, and everything that's happening
in our lives is according to his purpose. He will not change
his mind for anyone, especially man or any of his creation. Satan is his creation. He's not
going to have to change his mind for anyone. He's God. He's sovereign. If he says it,
that's the way it is. And I'm glad of that. Aren't you? Now let's go on down
here to verse 7. Now we get into the gracious
act of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 7 says, In whom we have
redemption through his blood. That's talking about Christ. The forgiveness of sins. And
look at this. The Lord Jesus Christ does this
according to the riches of His grace. God gave us the other
according to the good pleasure of His will. The Lord Jesus Christ
redeems His according to the riches of His grace. Riches of
His grace. That means an abundance of grace. Salvation. All right. This sovereign act of grace was
done according to the riches of His grace. Four or five little
points I'll make on this on the cross here. First, things I just
want to point out, we have redemption and have. That word is past tense. We have been redeemed by the
lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world, before
we fell into sin. He was already set up to be our
sacrifice. Past tense. Christ declared it
to be finished on the cross, John 19, 30. You know what it
says. He said, it's finished. He's talking about the work of
salvation, the work of salvation. He saves us. Salvation is of
the Lord. When he hung on that cross, what
was he doing, Dave? He was saving his people from
their sins, period. Doesn't say anything about me.
There's all kinds of his people standing around here. They did
nothing. They watched. And you think about
that cross. Does it not tear you apart inside? You're so glad He did it. Because if He didn't, we wouldn't
have any hope. But it hurts to see what He had
to suffer just so I didn't have to suffer. What a gift. What love. What great love. All
to the praise of His glory. There's nothing. Now get this,
there's nothing that can be added to this work. He will not accept
it. God's not gonna accept your works.
He didn't leave salvation up to you, why? You're faulty. You can't be trusted with your
own salvation. He only put it in his son, our
surety. It's going to happen. This work
is going to be accomplished, and it's going to be accomplished
in his son. Not us. Does He love us? Yeah. He ain't
gonna leave salvation up to us. Thank God He didn't. Praise God
He didn't. That's why He did it. For His
own praise. Here's a second point I would like to make on the redemption
of Christ. The greatness of this redemption is enhanced by the
greatness of the Redeemer. You see, we don't always appreciate
what it is that we receive from Him. But He is so great. The greatness of this redemption
shows just how great He is as a Redeemer. God and man in one
person, the God-man. Hear how the scripture speaks
of our blessed Redeemer here. Isaiah 54.5, you don't have to
turn, I'll look it up. Isaiah 54, 5. This is what the
scripture says about our Redeemer. For thy maker is thy husband. The Lord of hosts is his name.
And thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole
earth, shall he be called. That's your Redeemer. Walk down
here road. Go down the road. You don't even
have to get your car. You can walk. There's a church, I'm sure,
close enough that's going to be preaching lies. They're not
going to tell you that He redeems you. They're going to tell you
how you can redeem yourself. Walk down the aisle, repeat after
me, Lord, I'm going to allow you to save me. Folks, those
are lies. That's not what we're learning
about today. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
not of you and me. Isaiah 43, 1 through 7, listen
to what what the scripture says here. But now, thus saith the Lord, that created thee, O Jacob, and
he that formed thee, O Israel, I told you 42 verse 43, fear
not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name,
thou art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, You know, I'm giving you five blessings today that
the Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians. Now listen to this
blessing here. I love this scripture. When thou
passest through the water, and you will, I'll be with thee. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did, the Lord was with
them, Nebuchadnezzar saw. When thou walkest to the fire,
thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. Why? For I am the Lord thy God,
the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Saba for thee. Since thou wast precious in my
sight, thou hast been honorable. Well, that don't feel like that
fits me, does it you? Honorable, and I have love. We're
honorable in Christ. All these blessings are in Christ,
not in and of ourselves. There's nothing here to honor.
What do I know about myself? I'm a sinner. It only took one
to get Adam kicked out, right? One sin, and Adam threw the whole
world in. This is one. How many have I
got? I can't even. The ones that I'm not, that I
don't even know about, are probably enough to pile all the way up
to heaven. God knows it. He created me. He knows everything
about me, and you. Since thou wast precious in my
sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. Therefore
will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. Fear not. For I am with thee, I will bring
thy seed from the east and gather thee from the west. I will say
to the north, give up. And to the south, keep not back.
Bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the
earth, even every one that is called by my name. For I have
created him for my glory. I have formed him, yea, I have
made him. We can sit and wonder all day
long what this is all about. Open your Bible, and it tells
you. Don't wonder. Get in the scripture and read
it. He did this for His glory. You think about what a blessing
it is to be chosen. You know if you're one of God's,
there's nothing in us that made Him want, desire us. This was
all His will. Many, many people are trying
to attract God to save them. They're trying to do something
to please Him so that He will save them. We were created unto
good works. Your good works don't save you,
though. Your good works are proof that you have been saved. There's
no salvation in your works. Do the good works. God says to
do it. Love one another. That's what he's talking about.
Love one another. Can you do that? Some people
make it real hard for me to love them. I make myself hard for me to
love. All right. Now, a third point on
the redemption. How redemption was accomplished. Through his
blood, no created angels This is His creation. Angels or men
could even conceive or fully understand the purpose of God
in redemption by the shedding of His blood. You mean to tell
me that God is going to save the whole world by killing His
Son? That blows the minds of men.
That's talking about Christ crucified. And as you know, That is the
offense of the cross that many, many people cannot stand. They
do not want to hear Christ that died for you. They want to hear
about the little baby Jesus in the manger that needs you to
do something for Him. That's not in this book. The
birth of Christ was a wonderful miracle and a blessing. It was
a promise fulfilled by God when He came here in the flesh. That
birth didn't save us. It was His death. And that's
what people find offensive. But to the saints, to the chosen,
to those, the elect of God, those words are precious. In Him we
have redemption through the shedding of His blood. Yeah, it blows
our mind that God would even allow Him to be set up. But then to go ahead and look
at His Son and actually put all of our sin on Him and turn His
face from Him when He was on that cross because God will not
behold sin. He's not going to look at sin.
And when His Son hung on that cross, this is how you know He
had our sin on Him. God wouldn't look at Him. He
turned His face from Him and His justice was satisfied in
killing Him instead of us. The three things God did were
before we fell. is the process of the present. He did this 2,000 years ago on
the cross, but every one of his saints, every one of his chosen,
his elect, are going to experience the redemption of the blood of
Christ for us. The fourth thing I want to point
out is with his blood, we have the forgiveness of all our sins. Only in Christ himself do we
have this great mercy. Just how much sin this blood
covers, the number of sins, the nature or quality of the sins,
this blood covers sins past, present, and future. The efficacy
of his blood reaches through all time and all eternity. The power of his blood cleanses
all sin. Let me read this from 1 John. Chapter 1, verse 7 says, but if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all
sin. Didn't say some sins, like it
leaves it up to us. All sin. Salvation is of the
Lord and it's to His glory and praise. He gave us this for His
glory. What a gift, what a gift we get
from that. Are you praising Him, thanking
Him for His glory? For this gift and blessings that
we receive? And then the fifth point I'd
like to make about the redemption. This is done to shut up the proud
and to take away the fears of His elect. It's said to be the
sole result of the riches of His grace. Back in Ephesians
1, verse 7, this is done according to the
riches of His grace. It was by the riches of God's
free grace to not only admit a surety, you know, He didn't
have to allow one, but He did. He set one aside for us. But
to provide a surety for us. This was God's doing. God the
Father gave His dear Son to be the head of the church, the husband
of the church, and the surety of His church. Hebrews 7, let
me read this for you. Hebrews 7. Verse 22, by so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament. You see the first, the Old Testament,
the first testament was a covenant of works. Man could never keep
those works. He fell miserably. But he consented
his son to be the surety the surety, it's gonna happen. He's gonna do, He can do, and
He will do all that there is for the salvation of His people.
Why? Because salvation is of the Lord,
period. It's good news, folks. And He
does this to magnify the riches of His grace. The church falls
into sin, and forgets our adoption that
we had because of sin. What do we even know about adoption?
We don't know him anymore. The Holy Spirit, Adam died spiritually. We're talking about spiritual
things here, spiritual blessings. When he died, we have no knowledge
of what it was like before. when he had the spirit of life
in him. We have no knowledge of that.
He gives us that. He did this to magnify the riches
of his grace. The church falls into sin, forgets
her adoption, and is under the curse of a broken wall. And here opens the way for the
fullest display of his grace in recovering his elect to their
former state. And that former state was spiritual
life. Adam had that spiritual life
before he fell, correct? He walked daily in the presence
of the Lord. Now redemption did not cause
our adoption. Our adoption was done before
we fell. Redemption came after the fall. But it is the cause of our pardon,
redemption, is the cause of our pardon. When we've sinned and
come short of the glory of God, the Lord Jesus Christ laid his
life down in our place, shed his blood, and gave us that sin-atoning
blood on the cross. He put away our sins once, for
all, forever, in one act. And we didn't have anything to
do with that. The people at the cross stood there and watched.
They didn't do anything. Those who were saved and His elect
that were standing there with Him that day watched Him save
all of humanity. All that He died for, all that
He chose, redeemed. They got to see that. Many people
saw it and still didn't understand it. That's because God made the
difference. He chooses. He predestines. He accepts. The Lord Jesus Christ
redeems His people. And that brings us to the next,
the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1, verses 7 and 8. I'm sorry, 8 and 9. Let's read
these. Now the Holy Spirit, He moves. He inspires, he teaches. Read
what it says here in verse seven. In whom we have redemption. I'm
sorry, verse eight. Wherein he hath abounded toward
us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the
mystery of his will. And this is according, look here.
According to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself,
the Holy Spirit. See, we're talking about now.
He did this according to his good pleasure, which he had purposed
in himself. The Holy Spirit is the one that
teaches us about our condition. It teaches us about Christ and
what he's done for us. Now we have the sovereign act
of God, the Holy Spirit, which was done according to his good
pleasure, which he had purposed in himself. And that is the work
of regeneration. That's what the work of the Holy
Spirit is. The Spirit's work is to reveal
and make known the mystery of His will. To take the things of Christ
and reveal them to the soul. The Holy Spirit is the one that
whispers in our ear, that convinces us of our sin and convinces us
about Christ and what He's done. To convince of sin, righteousness
and judgment. Let me read this verse for you.
John 16 verse 8. And when He has come,
the Holy Spirit, He will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment. That's the work of the Holy Spirit.
We're dead and trespasses and sin until the Spirit quickens
us, makes us alive Regenerates our fallen nature look at Ephesians
chapter 2 verse 1 right there next to you if there be therefore
Ephesians And you have he quickened who were dead in sins and trespasses
in the sins You see that's the work of the Holy Spirit. I We're
dead in sins until the Spirit quickens us and regenerates us
and regenerates our fallen nature. The Holy Spirit causes us to
feel and know the burden of sin, and then causes us to see how
that the blood of Christ has done away with our sin. The blood washes away our sin,
so much so that when the sins of His chosen are sought for,
They won't be found. Turn with me to Micah chapter
7. Micah chapter 7 is between Jonah and Nahum. Micah chapter 7. And look at verses 18 and 19. I told
you that the Holy Spirit tells us about the blood of Christ
and how that it removes sin. And you're not even
going to be able to find it. Look at Micah 7, verses 18 and
19 here with me. Who is a God like unto thee that
pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant
of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever,
praise God, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again. He will have compassion upon
us. He will subdue our iniquities. And thou will cast all their
sin into the depths of the sea. You're going to look for somebody. If they ever try to find my sin,
they're not going to find it. Why? Because God has put my sin
off of me and cast it into this deep sea. You throw something
into the sea, you'll never find it again. You might as well not
even look, right? The sin's not there. Why? Because
the efficacy of the blood that was shed to pardon my sins. That's a spiritual blessing,
folks. And that's the work of the triune God, God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Salvation is of the Lord. Not
man. He doesn't leave this up to us.
Salvation is up to the Lord. And it's to the praise of His
glory. God, before the fall, before
ever sin was entered into this world, God chose us. He chose
us in Christ. He predestinated us in Christ. Made us to be His sons by the
adoption of His Son. We are sons of God. That means we have an inheritance.
Everything that Jesus Christ has is ours by inheritance. You couldn't have done that on
your own. You couldn't make yourself a son of God. Only God could
do that, and he did. And he accepted us in Christ
before the fall. And then the fourth blessing
is the act of our Lord Jesus Christ in the redemption of his
people. by the shedding of his blood,
the forgiveness of sins. And the last and the fifth blessing
that we receive is from the Holy Spirit, and it's how and when
he regenerates us. Our Lord told Nicodemus that
it must be born again. What he meant was the Holy Spirit
coming and creating this new spiritual life in you And all
the days of our life on this earth are going to be growing
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Spirit. He's going to give us this spiritual
life again. And then when we die, it will
be perfected in glory forever, just as long as the blood of
Christ washes away your sin. And that is forever. You'll never
have to worry about this sin again. If you're in Him, do you
believe God? Do you believe the message you
hear today? Go to Him and ask Him to give
you faith. Ask Him for that faith to believe.
It's His to give away. Ask Him for it. The Lord says,
you ask and you shall receive. Ask Him for that faith to believe.
This is a wonderful blessing that the Apostle Paul gives these
people at Ephesus and us here today and all who ever read this.
Five spiritual blessings from God the Father and not from you. He doesn't accept any of our
works. He did this before we ever fell. It was his plan and purpose and
as you can see, His plan and purpose is going on right on
schedule according to his purpose, according to his time clock.
All right, I pray that this has been a blessing for you. Brother
Dave, would you lead us in prayer?