If you will be turning to the
book of Ephesians, I want to talk to you for a minute. Shelby
sends her love and warmest greetings. I have told several of you already
today there are only a couple of places where I go without
her since the last bout I had with severe illness. You're fabulous,
I can tell you this. Anybody listening later on will
have to just understand. She doesn't let me go to the
bathroom by myself if I close the door, so I don't go many
places without her. But she knows when I come up
here, Bridget in Alberta will take care of me and she has to
do some things at home now and then. And so I almost have to
force her to stay home, but she sends her love to you. And you
folks have been dear to me for a long, long time. This congregation,
congregation at Dingus, God's just mixed our lives together,
our friends at Ashland, in such a remarkable way. And there's
never a day, never a day that passes that I don't call your
names before our God in prayer and give thanks to him and seek
his grace for you. For a good many of you, I have
had occasion to rejoice with you on many occasions and some
occasion to weep with you. And I've given you the best counsel
I know in time of trial and difficulty and heartache and heaviness.
The best thing you can do is bury yourself in the book of
God. Bury yourself in the scriptures. Great heaviness. The heavier
the burden, David, the less I talk about it, doesn't do any good.
Doesn't do any good. The greater the heartache, the
less I talk to anybody about it. I try to bury myself in scripture,
bury myself in my Redeemer, and bury myself in the things of
heaven. And that's where I've been for
the last several days. And I want to, if God will enable
me, talk to you tonight about heavenly places in Ephesians
chapter six. God, the Holy Ghost, always focuses
the attention of believing sinners on Christ, on heaven, on heavenly
things. He always draws us away from
self to Christ. away from wickedness to righteousness,
away from flesh to spirit, away from earth to heaven, away from
trouble to the arc of safety and salvation. Anything that
focuses your mind and mine on anything less is not of God. Did you hear me? Anything that
focuses your mind and heart or my mind and heart on anything
less than Christ and eternity and heavenly glory is not of
God. It will do you no good. It will
not benefit you. Listen to the scriptures. You
don't need to turn to these passages. They're familiar to you. I'll
just give you the reference and you look at them later. Just
listen as I read. In Philippians chapter 4, verse 8, the Spirit
of God says to us by the Apostle Paul, finally, brethren, whatsoever
things are true, that's Christ. Whatsoever things are honest,
that's the gospel of God. Whatsoever things are just, that's
God's salvation. Whatsoever things are pure, that's
the love of God in Christ. Whatsoever things are lovely,
that's Christ, the altogether lovely one. Whatsoever things
are of good report, that's the person and work of our Savior.
If there be any virtue, that's our Redeemer. If there be any
praise, that's the triune Jehovah, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
all his person, all his works, all his grace, all his providence. Think on these things. think
on these things. We have about us a horrid evil
propensity to think on evil rather than good, to dwell on pain rather
than pleasure, to talk about miserable things rather than
delightful things, to focus our minds upon carnal, corrupt, dying
things rather than spiritual, eternal, undying things. And
that's always wrong. Let us set our hearts and ask
God to graciously set our hearts on Christ our Redeemer. Listen
to what he says to us in Colossians chapter three. If then ye be
risen with Christ, and we are, Seek those things which are above. Oh, Brother Don, you know we're
seeking heaven. That's not what he's talking about. That's not
what he's talking about. He tells us what he's talking about. Seek
those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Now, this is what I'm telling
you. Set your affection. Singular, not plural. Set your
affection. He said, Don Fortin and Tom Harding
fix your heart on one thing. Fix your heart on just one thing.
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. How come? For you're dead. All
of this. I'm crucified to the world and
the world to me. Neither that's true or it's not
true. I'm crucified to the world and the world to me. You're dead.
Your life is hid with Christ in God. So why always be thinking
about death? I'm not talking about dying.
That's a good thing to think about. Then you're going to glory. I'm
talking about this state of earthly death where nothing exists except
corruption. The Apostle Paul writes in 2
Corinthians chapter 4, and you ought to always, when you read
the last two verses of that chapter, go before it and read at least
the first 16 verses in chapter 4. Paul was talking about shipwreck
and betrayal and sickness and imprisonment and bonds and persecution
and affliction. Now listen to how he describes
it. He's talking about the life of a believer in this world.
What is that? It's a life of betrayal. It's
a life of sickness. It's a life of bondage. It's
a life of death. It's a life of affliction. It's
a life of sorrow. That's just what it is to be
a child of Adam. That's what life in this world
is. Brother Scott Richardson once said from our pulpit, he
said, he said, life begins with a slap on the bottom and ends
with a shovel full of dirt in your face and ain't nothing in
between but bumps and bruises. That's a pretty good description.
Now listen to how Paul speaks of it. For our light affliction,
he puts them all together as one. Our light affliction, our
featherweight trouble, whatever it is, our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, it just, it's gone. What was that bump you had on
your head compared to all your life? It's gone. It's gone. I
light a fiction which is but for a moment. Worketh, isn't
that a wonderful word? Worketh, not it's gonna turn
out okay. It's okay right now. It worketh
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Our God, Our God wisely and graciously,
before the world began, arranged every heartache, every tear,
every bereavement, every trouble. And in his providence, he graciously
brings them to pass, sometimes by the hand of angels and sometimes
by the hand of devils, sometimes by friends and sometimes by foes. But all the while, they weren't
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Peter put it this way, the trial
of your faith, more precious, more precious than all the things
on this earth. What is going to redound to the
praise, honor, and glory of our God? Paul is telling us, the
Spirit of God is telling us, Whatever your affliction is,
whatever it is, and they're all lumped together, whatever it
is, don't get too downcast with it. Don't get too upset with
it. Don't get angry with God. Heaven
could not be so glorious as it shall be when the affliction
is over. I've lied affliction. worketh
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While
we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which
are not seen. For the things which are seen
are temporal. Now let me tell you exactly what
that means. They just don't matter. They just don't matter. But Brother
Don, you don't know what I'm going through. Yes, I do. Oh,
yes, I do. Oh, yes, I do. They don't matter. They're featherweight. They're
featherweight. But the things which are not
seen, they're eternal. Now, that matters. That matters. The things which are not seen.
All right, let's go to Ephesians chapter 6. As God, the Holy Ghost
will enable me to do as enable me to do so. I want to preach
to you tonight about heavenly things, heavenly places. That's my subject. When you read
through the book of Ephesians, I'll help you understand it.
Throughout these six chapters, the Spirit of God is driving
home one blessed truth, just one thing, just one thing. He's
talking to believers to save sinners, to redeem, justify regenerated
men and women, and he's telling us about our union with Christ. That's what the whole book's
about, our union with Christ. He's telling us as saved sinners
that we have with Christ a union of eternal grace, in the experience
of grace, in the life of grace, and in the warfare of grace.
The believer's life is a life union with Jesus Christ in heavenly
places. If you get that, you go home
and just sing praise the rest of the night. The believer's
life is a life union with the son of God, our divine God, man,
mediator, a life union with Jesus Christ. Now I'm not talking now
like just a marriage union. That's wonderful. But, uh, the
marriage union soon going to end. I'm not talking now just
about a family union. My granddaughter came over this
morning. I had to put off starting my trip up here for a couple
of hours, and it didn't bother me a bit. I got to see my granddaughter
for a couple of hours. Man alive, Tom can wait a while.
I got to see my granddaughter, but that's going to end soon.
That union is going to end soon. I'm not talking just about a
union of friends. Oh, it's so good to see you,
my friends. Oh, that's good. I drove up, Tom, Bridges Driveway
this afternoon before I got out of the truck. He came out there,
reached out and hugged my neck. That's good. But that union,
that's gonna end. That's gonna end. I'm talking
about a union from which there is no separation at any time
from eternity. I'm talking about a union that
can't be dissolved, that can't be interrupted, that can't be
in any way injured, an eternal union with Jesus Christ the Lord,
really and truly. Now I know you're going to hear
this and think that's wonderful and kind of pass over it real
quick, I hope, or I pray God will just drive it into your
heart and let your mind just Be completely consumed with it.
This union is real. It's a real union. More real
than the union of that hand to this body and this body to this
head. It's a real union. You can sever
the hand or the head from this body, but not this union. We
have eternal life in Christ. Eternal life with Christ. You may have noticed this if
you use the concordance when you study scriptures. In the
word of God, in the New Testament, you run across these words, eternal
life and everlasting life. Do you know the words are exactly
the same in the Greek text? They're exactly the same word.
But our translators exercise great wisdom Every time they
use the words eternal life, every single time, they're referring
to that which God gave us in union with Christ before the
world was. Every time they speak of everlasting life, they're
talking about our experience of it in the grace of God, every
single time. It's eternal, but I didn't know
anything about it until about 1967. And then it is put in there,
Christ in you, the hope of glory, and it is everlasting life. This ain't gonna end, it's just
gonna get better. It's eternal. How long? Have I had life with
Christ for as long as I've been in Christ? For as long as I've
been in Christ and Lionel, there was never a time when I wasn't
in him. How do you explain that? If I could explain what I preach,
I'd be a sharp fella, but I can't. I just simply tell you what I
know God reveals in this book, that much and no more, and I
hope no less. I have had life in Christ and
life with Christ forever from eternity, from eternity. It was
made manifest in time. It was experienced in time, but
it was mine long before Adam was created in the garden in
eternity. All right, now let's look here
in Ephesians 6 verse 10. As Paul draws this epistle to its conclusion,
he uses a strong, strong admonition, urging us to be strong in the
Lord. Finally, my brethren, let me wrap this up. Be strong in
the Lord and in the power of his might. If we would live for
God, if we would honor God, if we would serve God, the cause
of God, the glory of God, the gospel of God, the people of
God, we must get our strength from him, from the power of his
might, from the vigor of his force, from the vitality of his
omnipotence. Now don't dismiss that casually.
If God the Holy Spirit has given you faith and life in Christ,
if he's called you to trust the son of God, you cannot be a stranger
to the warfare that every believer experiences in this world. And
if we would wage a good warfare, we must know where our strength
lies. Now, listen to me. You can't
find any in yourself. It's not in your experience.
It's not in your knowledge. It's not in your ambitions. It's not in your sanctification. It's not in your resolutions
and determinations. It's not in your living right.
Nothing, nothing. It's nowhere in you, but rather
in the Lord. Be strong in the vitality of
his omnipotence, in the power of his might. Live constantly
leaning upon him. You remember the Apostle Paul
describes his experience in 2 Corinthians 12, and he learned, when I am
weak, then I'm strong. But when I foolishly imagine
that I'm strong, I'm not just weak, I'm utter weakness. Christ
alone is strength. His grace alone is sufficient. We have no sufficiency in ourselves. His strength, His righteousness,
His blood, His grace, His intercession, that's our strength. David's
saying, and oh, for God to give me grace that I may, I will go
in the strength of the Lord God. I will make mention of thy righteousness,
even of thine own. But what's your strength? Christ,
my Redeemer, my God, Jehovah, my Savior, His righteousness. That's how I walk through this
world. Next, the apostle tells us in verse 11, that we must
put on, put on. I got out of the truck out there
a little bit ago, and I reached in the back, pulled this coat
off of the hanger that my wife hung it on, and I put it on. I put it on. I didn't press it. I didn't clean it. I just put
it on. I didn't make the coat. I just put it on. As a matter
of fact, it was a gift. I didn't even buy the coat. I
just put it on. I just put it on. That's talking
about deliberate Willful, determined, decided purpose. Put into action. I reached in a truck, got the
coat and put it on. Now children of God, constantly
acknowledge your weakness. And acknowledging your weakness,
look to Christ, put on the whole armor of God. Put on the whole
armor of God. And it tells us why. That we
may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Being
in a state of war, we must always be ready for battle. In a state
of war, the soldier is never separated from his weapons. He's
always prepared for battle immediately. When there's no war, he maybe
even can't go fishing. But in a state of war, if he
should get an opportunity to catch a fish, he's got his weapons
right there with him. We are always in a state of war. Let us always be ready for battle,
always putting on the whole armor of God. In this specific place,
Paul is not talking to us now as our Lord Jesus does in Matthew
16, says, the gates of hell shall not prevail against you. That
means you and I, the church of God, God's servants, we are to
assault the very gates of hell with the gospel of God's grace
and watch them fall. That the gates of hell are weapons
of defense. And we assault the gates of hell
by the gospel. But here he's talking about something
else. He's talking about standing. He's talking about standing.
Be ready always for the assault of Satan against you. Prepare
to withstand the wiles. What a wise word to use. The crafty, subtle, deceitful,
serpent-like ways of the devil. They're always wiles. They always come from fellows
like Joab. They run out to greet you just
like Brother Tom did me when I came up. Oh, brother, it's
good to see you. And you got it under the fifth
rib. The subtle, crafty wiles of the devil. How come? that
we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried
about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning
craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Then in verse
12, Paul tells us with whom we do battle and where. For we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. Our enemies are not frail,
mortal men, flesh and blood. Our enemies are not abortionists
and sodomites, and prostitutions, and drug addicts, and all that
stuff. Our enemies are not the political
forces of the world. Our enemies are not the governments
of the world. Our enemies are not all of the
various things in this world. I recognize, you and I, we're
from a part of the country that they kind of refer to us as rednecks,
and what they don't realize is we wear it as a badge of honor.
I understand that. But folks living as we do with
a conservative southern bent of mind, I'll be polite, we have
just a natural tendency to be drawn to conspiracies. Oh, they're
in a conspiracy. They're going to get us. And
we get intrigued with it. That's not who our enemies are. Leave them alone. Leave them
alone. are the rulers of the darkness of this world. I'm not
so much concerned about the United States government passing laws
telling me I can't say certain things from pulpit because it'd
be a hate crime. That's not going to bother me any. I'll take whatever
the consequences are. That doesn't concern me near
as much as this. He's talking about messengers of Satan. demons of hell, and men who transform
themselves into angels of light, that they may turn us away from
the simplicity of Christ. 2 Corinthians 11 verse 4, the
simplicity of Christ. You know what that word is? Well,
again, that word is the singleness of Christ. What word? What's he talking about? Turn
you away from Christ to something else, that's all. Doesn't matter
what it is. What is it that you hope for?
What is it that you rejoice in? What is it that occupies your
mind? What is it that you preach? What is it that you study? What
is it that you want to know? What is it that you want to be
devoted to? Christ. Well, what else? Nothing. Everything
else is an interference. Everything else is a distraction.
Everything else will just draw you away from Him. Be it political
or be it spiritual, be it doctrinal or be it civil, whatever else
it is, it will draw you away from Him. These words translated
here in high places are used five times in the Word of God,
just five times. Every other time they are translated,
the exact same words are translated in heavenly places. All five
times they're used in the book of Ephesians, only by the Apostle
Paul. So I want us to look at those
five references to these heavenly places and remember as we do
that Paul is talking to us about the blessed, blessed union of
our souls with the Lord Jesus Christ. Go back to chapter one.
I'm not going to do much preaching tonight. I'm just going to read
scripture to you and let you just wallow around in it. Ephesians
chapter 1, in verse 3, the Spirit of God tells us that our union
with Christ is an eternal union of blessedness, an eternal union
of love, an eternal union of acceptance, an eternal union
of complacence. An eternal union of delights
of God with us. An eternal union of God being
complacent, delighting in, rejoicing in, accepting, favoring, and
smiling on us. A union that nothing in time
can change or affect in any way. You mean, Pastor, God Almighty,
the triune Jehovah, in all His holiness, righteousness, justice,
and truth, was before the world began, pleased with us, delighted
in us, favored us, accepted us, rejoiced in us, was completely
satisfied with us, I wouldn't tell you that for the world.
Let's see if God does. Let's see if God does. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath,
oh, what wonderful words, at one time, with finality, in the
past, blessed us. How is that? With all spiritual
blessings, Everything that God can give to a man. Everything, everything that God
can give to a man in his favor. Everything. Every blessing God
can heap upon humanity. Every blessing God has for anybody. He blessed us with all spiritual
blessings, look at it now, in heavenly places. How's that? In Christ. In Christ. In Christ. To be in Christ is to be blessed
of God, loved of God, Delightful to God, rejoicing to God's heart
from forever. Read on. According as, that is,
this is how God blesses men. He hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. And folks talk about election
and predestination, say those are hard doctrines. No, Paul
just told us this loving doctrine, most loving doctrine in the world.
If it weren't for election, there'd be no blessedness. If it weren't
for predestination, there'd be no salvation. A few years ago,
I was having to take some therapy at a wellness center, and word
got out I was a preacher. And one of the young ladies,
always beware of female theologians, but she said to me in front of
a bunch of folks, she said, you're not one of those Calvinist are
you? Of course she knew I was. Word's been out a long time.
I tried to hide it. Now, I don't use that term much,
don't like it much. And I said to her, since everybody
was listening, I said, honey, I'm so Calvinistic, I'd make
John Calvin look like an Arminian. If you're talking about election
and predestination and limited atonement, of course I believe
it and preach it every day. She looked shocked. Everybody
else did too. God did this from eternity. You can't be blessed
except by God's election. Deny election, you deny salvation.
Deny predestination, you deny God. And this is the most loving
thing on this earth. In love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will. Well, that's deep doctrine. I
don't see how you can understand that. I don't know anybody I've
ever met in my life who understood the English language, who didn't
know what it was to predestinate. That's one of the simplest words
in the Bible. The problem not understanding it, the problem
is you do. And you hate the fact that God does it. You hate the
fact that God's God, not you. That's the only time folks get
upset with that. Read on. He did this according to the
good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his
grace, where he, that is in all his matchless blessed grace from
eternity, he hath made us accepted in the beloved, so that God looks
at Tom Harding, and I'm sure this never happened, but when
Tom gets out of sorts and Bridget's mad at him, she can throw bricks
at him, and God's smiling all the time. And she's got reason to be mad.
That's right. That's right. He accepted us. Not he accepts us up and down. He accepted us at one time, with
finality, in eternity, in Christ. Always smiling. Sometimes he
hides his face and you can't see his smiling face. And sometimes
he looks like he's angry, but all the time he's smiling with
delight. The word used here is the very
same word used when the angel came to Mary and said to her,
thou art highly favored of God. God has favored us with his favor
in Christ Jesus. You believe you're one of God's
favorites. Yes, I do. What are God's favorites? You
think you're something special. Yeah, I do. How much so? Read on. In who? In Christ the beloved,
in whom we're accepted and blessed from eternity in the union of
life with him, we have redemption. What is that talking about? Redemption
through his blood, that's the forgiveness of sins. Everybody
for whom blood was shed has been forgiven of their sins from eternity,
for Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Oh, how can that be? According to the riches of his
grace. Where is it? It is in all this
grace. He hath abounded toward us. He
showed it to us in all wisdom and prudence, in all wisdom and
skill, having made known unto us the mystery of his will. How do you know you're one of
God's favorites? Because he showed me. According to his good pleasure
which he purposed in himself 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 on earth even in him
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise
of his glory who first trusted in Christ." Who first trusted in Christ? Who was it? It was the triune
God who trusted the mediator, who stood before God as our surety
before the world was. He trusted Him with all His will,
all His purpose, all His glory, all His people. If God trusts Christ with everything,
I reckon I can trust my little peanut life with Him. If God
trusts Christ with everything, His will, His purpose, His glory,
His people, everything! the making and the ruling and
the disposing of the entire universe for the glory of God and the
saving of his people. He's a trustworthy savior. All
right, let's move on. In verse 20 of chapter one, we're
told that we have a union with Christ that is a resurrection
union with him. Let's go on in verse 13, in whom
ye also trusted. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost trusted
him, you also trusted him. When? After that you heard the
word of truth. Quite literally, there should
be a definite article here. After you heard the word of the
truth, the gospel of your salvation. Now, I advise folks all the time,
don't read garbage when you read good stuff. And don't feed out
a trash can when you eat steak on the table. That's kind of
nonsense. So I don't commonly read bad commentaries that I
know are going to be bad. But I have read, over the past
50 years, every good commentary I can find on that statement.
And I haven't found one yet that begins to explain it, so I won't
try to explain it now. But I know it says this much.
When you heard the word of the truth, you heard the gospel of
your salvation. God Almighty came and preached
the gospel to you. God Almighty came and preached
the gospel to you. I can't do that. I just tell
it in your ears. He tells it in your heart. God
came to a fellow named Enoch back before the flood, an ungodly
wretch of a man. a vile fallen son of Adam, a
man living all his life with the wrath of God over his head,
conscious of divine judgment awaiting him. And one day, God
came up to him, stepped into him, and he said, Enoch, I'm
pleased with you. He had this testimony that he
pleased God. That wasn't a testimony that
came from his neighbors. They don't know what pleases God and
what doesn't. Out of the testimony from God
to Enoch, you please me. How's that? I've accepted you
in my son, through the blood of my son. How do you know that?
Read the book of Jude and you'll find out. Enoch prophesied about
his second coming. He knew all about it. How he
knew, I don't have a clue. I'll tell you this, somehow or
another God got it to him. You heard the gospel of your
salvation. What is that? Now watch what
it says here. In whom Also, after that, ye believed. This one,
you trusted. When you believed on Christ,
God Almighty spoke to you the word of salvation by His faithful
servant. It caused you to hear it by His
Spirit. And you believed. I believe Him. After that, you believed. Quite
literally. Let me tell you exactly what
it says. Having believed. I trust Christ. I trust you. I had heard about election and
predestination and redemption and limited atonement. I heard
about those things sitting in Sunday school classes listening
to men faithfully teach the gospel of God's grace. I didn't know
a thing on earth about it. And I believed. I'd heard about covenant
grace and I believed. And God Almighty sealed the whole
thing to me. You were sealed by the Holy Spirit
of promise. Sealed. Sealed to you. I know it refers
to preservation and keeping by all means. But do you remember
what circumcision was in the Old Testament? It's described
as a seal of the covenant. Abraham circumcised his sons
because they were his sons. Not to make them his sons, but
to identify them to everybody as his sons. Most specifically,
to identify them to themselves as his sons. And the new birth,
the giving of faith in Christ, is the circumcision of the heart
by which God says, you're mine. And you lift up your eyes to
heaven and say, my father. So that God, whom you dreaded
and feared, God, whose name you took in vain and cussed, God,
who terrified you to think about Him suddenly, you lift your eyes
to heaven, and with weeping eyes of joy, you say, My Father, God's
my Father. I know because He said so. He
came to me by His Spirit through the Word and sealed to me all
these blessings of the covenant. And he's the earnest, the down
payment, the pledge, the surety money of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchase possession. That means until
he comes back to get us, till he comes to get what he bought,
unto the praise of his glory. Read on. Wherefore I also, after
I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all
the saints, cease not to give thanks for you all, making mention
of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom
and revelation in the knowledge of him. The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened, Now this is what happens when the eyes of
your understanding are enlightened. You know and you keep growing
to know what is the hope of his calling. and what is the riches
of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what is the
exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe according
to the working of his mighty power. Oh, tell us about that
Paul. It's the power which he wrought
in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set it at his
own right hand in the heavenly places. Far above all evil influence,
and power, and might, far above all principality, and power,
and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not
only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and
hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head
over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness
of him that filleth all in all. In the new birth, every saved
sinner raised from the dead. It's called in Revelation chapter
20, the first resurrection. There's another resurrection
coming, the resurrection of these bodies. But this is the first resurrection. And on such the second death
has no power. You mean, pastor, being born
again, we're raised up with Christ from the dead? Yeah, because
we already were. When He lived, we lived. When
he obeyed, we obeyed. When he died, we died. When he
was buried, we were buried. When he arose, we arose. When
he ascended into heaven, we ascended into heaven. When he sat down
on the right hand of the majesty on high, we sat down with him.
Is that what the book teaches? That means God can no more disown
you, who are his, than he can disown him. God can no more refuse
you who are His than He can refuse Him. God can no more cast you
off if you're Christ than He can cast His Son off. God can
no more charge you with sin than He can charge His Son with sin,
for He bore our sin away. He put it away. He put it away.
Brother Don, I never heard it like that. We have now. We're
one with Christ. really one with Him, so much
so that John says, he heard the saints of God in heaven singing,
worthy to Him, for He's redeemed us out of every nation, kindred,
tribe, and tongue, and made us kings and priests with God. Every believer, kings and priests
with God, so that seated with Christ in heaven, We live constantly
above the fray of the world, ruling the world with our Redeemer
and priest with God. Our great Savior, our great high
priest intercedes in heaven for us. He is that one Paul describes
who searches the heart. knowing the mind of the Spirit,
and makes intercession for the saints according to the will
of God. Five bleeding wounds He bears,
received on Calvary, they pour effectual prayers, they strongly
plead for me. The Father cannot refuse the
presence of His Son." That's the reason our Savior
tells us by His Word, by His Spirit, Ask anything in my name
and it's yours. What's that talking about? You
don't know what to pray for. We're so dumb, we'd pray for
God to heal a broken arm. I'll give us a new Cadillac.
I'll keep us from trouble. You don't know what to pray for,
but the Spirit of God does. And he put a new man in you,
and he only wants what's will of God, the glory of God, the
good of God's people, the good of your soul. And the Savior
says, Father, give it to him. Give Don Fortner your grace,
your mercy, overflowing of your love. Your
forgiveness, your kindness, your wisdom, your providence, your
world, give it to him. And this is how he does it. Five bleeding wounds he bears. They pour effectual prayers. They strongly plead for me. You got that? Our union with
Christ is a resurrection union. All right, move on to chapter
2. Here's the third time Paul uses these words. In verse 6,
he tells us that we have a blessed experimental union with our Savior. Oh, thank God for that. Thank
God for that. You hath He quickened, made alive. who were dead in
trespasses and in sins. Wherein in time past ye walked
according to this world, and lived just like everybody else.
According to the prince, the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also
we all had our conversation. That's the way we lived in time
past, in the lust of our flesh. We lived like hell, like everybody
else does, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature children of wrath, even as others. And I
wouldn't take a world of gold for those next two words. But God, oh, but God, I was running
fast as I could to hell. And God stepped in my way. He
said, hitherto shalt thou go in no further, and stop me in
my mad rush. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love. No
other reason. Wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. What does that mean? By grace
you're saved. And hath raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ. But we read
that back in chapter one. And we were already seated with
Him in this union before the world was. When Christ arose,
we arose, we sat down with Him. Why is He telling us again? I
didn't know about it. I didn't know about it. I was
totally unaware of it until God came and raised me up and caused
me to experience His grace and His life in union with Jesus
Christ the Lord. Why did He do that? Why would
God do that? Let me tell you one reason why.
That in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches
of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
So that in the ages to come, he might display to wandering
worlds, angels and devils, to Satan himself, to all his saints
and all the damned, that he might show the riches of his grace and His kindness toward us through
Christ. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Now watch this next line. For
we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.
Now I know that about everybody, gets to chapter two, verse 10.
Now we've been talking about grace and predestination and
election, but we want you to understand this is so you'll
behave good. That's not Paul's doctrine here.
That's not, and it's wrong to use this for Paul's doctrine
here. Don't you think folks ought to live right? Come on. You folks know me for a long
time. Anybody here ever thought I thought it was all right not
to live right? Have you ever gotten that notion from anything
I've ever said or written? Of course not. Of course not.
What's he saying? You're saved by grace. We're
his workmanship. Somewhere you ought to write
in the margin of your Bible or a piece of paper so you remember
it. Masterpieces. That's the word. Masterpieces. Masterpieces. Did you ever hear
about those masterpieces of Michelangelo. Brother Darwin put, before we'd
never go to the Library of Congress and looking at the Dutch masters. Now I always thought those were
cheap cigars. Those are talking about fellows who are real artists.
They're masterpieces. That's the very best they can
do. That's the very best they can do. Look here, look here. Look at this man, this one talking
to you right now. This is the very best that God
Almighty can do. This is the best He can do. He
takes us worms, Brother Gary, and makes us to be the very image
of His dear Son who was made a worm for us. So that when God
sees Christ, He sees me. And when God sees me, Let me
tell you what God sees. Are you listening? He just sees
His Son. He just sees His Son. He just
sees His Son. And when God's done with this
world, He's gonna show all the powers of darkness and the rulers
of this world, this is my Son. Look here what grace has done. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. Laconan chapter 3. Here Paul
moves over this thing of our union with Christ and tells us
that it is indeed a displaying union. God the Holy Spirit tells
us that our union with Christ, this union of grace by which
and in which the triune God is so gracious to us displays the
manifold wisdom of God to angels and devils manifold wisdom in
saving such things as we are for this calls I Paul the prisoner
of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles if you've heard of the dispensation
of the grace of God which is given me to you would have it
by revelation he made known unto me the mystery now pastor that
looks to me like Paul is identifying one mystery as the other mystery
You read about the mysteries of the kingdom of God. You read
about the mystery of the Gentiles. You read about the mystery of
iniquity. Paul says, God made me a preacher of the gospel and
revealed to me the mystery. What is it? Whereby, when you
read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. which
in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is
now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit that
the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and
partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. Now, it is true
in this chapter Paul is telling us that Jew and Gentile are one
in Christ, but that's not what he tells us in that verse. He's
telling us that the mystery is that sinners are made fellow
heirs and of the same body and partakers of God's promise to
Christ in Christ. The son said, I'll go and redeem
them. I'll fulfill righteousness. I'll
magnify your law and make it honorable. I'll bring them and
present them for you wholly and without blame, without spot of
blemish or any such thing. And the father says to the son,
do that and then ask of me and I'll give you the heathen for
your inheritance. I'll put everything in your hands. I've given you
all glory. And we are heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ because we're one with Christ. Read on. unto
me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given
that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches
of Christ and make all men see what is the fellowship of the
mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in
God who created all things by Jesus Christ now watch this to
the intent that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places
might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God according
to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our
Lord in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by
faith of Not by our faith in him, by his faithful obedience
as our mediator and substitute. We have boldness and confidence. You struggle with assurance. We all do from time to time.
And I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. Because you
start looking at something you feel, or something you think,
or something you know. or something you've done, or
something you've been told, and you, well, do I know enough?
Have I repented enough? Am I sorry enough? Do I feel
bad enough? Do I feel good enough? Am I sinful
enough? Am I holy enough? You're looking for something,
and you keep leaning on those broken spears that are gonna
pierce you through as with a dagger. But you come to God, a naked,
empty-handed, helpless, doomed, damned, worthless sinner, trusting
Christ alone. There's one person in this world
I know is accepted at the throne of grace. That's the fellow who
needs it. I need His grace, and I know
God accepts anybody who seeks His grace, anybody who trusts
His Son, having boldness and confidence, full assurance of
faith because of His obedience. Verse 13, wherefore, I desire
that you faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.
For this cause, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
that he would grant you, that God would give you, according
to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by
his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith, that your being rooted and grounded in love may
be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and
length and depth and height, and to know the love of God which
passeth knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness
of God. You can't expect that, how come?
Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above
all that you ask or think, according to the power that worketh in
us, to him be glory. by the church, in the church,
with the church, in Christ Jesus throughout all ages. Now, let's
look at chapter six. Here, Paul talks about a warfare
union, a union involving constant warfare, a war in which We must
always be ready for battle, always ready for Satan's hellish, subtle,
deceitful, serpent-like assaults. Finally, brethren, be strong
in the Lord, in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor
of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil, to just stand. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities and powers. against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places, in heavenly places. This is a warfare against spiritual
wickedness. It is a warfare against ourselves,
against our flesh. A warfare from which there is
never a brief second of reprieve while we live in this body. A
constant fighting of flesh against spirit, spirit against flesh.
Romans 7, Galatians 5. And this is a warfare against
the rulers of the darkness of this world. That is against the
spirits Satan sends to deceive you and turn you from the simplicity
that is in Christ Jesus. Those false apostles, those deceitful
workers who transformed themselves into the apostles of Christ and
angels of light and righteousness, whose end shall be according
to their works. This is a warfare with cunning,
crafty, false religion. The religion of Balaam, and of
Korah, and of Dathan. The religion that would turn
you away from Christ. In this part of the world, and
Kentucky and Tennessee particularly, though it spread to other places
rapidly, a little more than 150 years ago there was a fellow
who came around who had been raised as a thoroughly Calvinistic
Scottish Presbyterian who had already embraced the insane doctrines
of free will religion by the name of Alexander Campbell. And
he came amongst Baptist folks. And he came with, he didn't call
it New Light, the old Baptist used to call it New Light folks.
You got Church of Christ, Campbellite churches all around here, Christian
churches, they all came from Alexander Campbell. And he came
preaching restoration light. Now, this is what he said. And
this is what false prophets commonly do, have throughout history.
This is old truth. It's been around a long time,
but it's been hidden for a long time. And nobody knew this until
God gave me light. And now God has appointed me
to tell you about this light. Let me tell you something. Their light, they come to give
you light. Man, that sure is confusing to
me. That's called darkness. That's
called darkness. Always darkness. Always darkness. Always darkness. God causes his
people to walk in light. Put on the whole armor of God,
the girdle of truth, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate
of faith and of righteousness, and stand fast with your feet
shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and withstand
the wiles of the devil. Don't be turned aside from the
simplicity that is in Christ Jesus. Let no one do it, no matter
how dear he may be to you. no matter how dear he may be
to you. In heaven's everlasting glory,
we're certain we shall inherit all the fullness of this blessedness. Come back to Zechariah chapter
14. I'll wrap this up very quickly. Zechariah 14. You see, this warfare
is a warfare that's already been won. A warfare we shall most
assuredly win. I mean by this, children of God,
failure is not even a possibility. Our blessed Savior has already
trampled Satan beneath his feet. He's crushed the serpent's head.
And soon, soon, back 40 years ago, my doctors and I And my
family thought I was going to be dead soon. And a dear friend
of mine sent a card to me. He never even signed it. I just
happened to recognize his address. He sent a card to me, all it
had on it. Opened the card up, didn't have any of the silly
writing folks put on cards. It was just blank inside except
for one thing. He just wrote down Romans 16 20. And I couldn't
remember what Romans 16 20 said, so I turned and looked at it.
And if I could have, I'd have danced around in the bed. He
said, the God of peace shall brew Satan under your heels shortly. It won't be long now, and I'm going to stand in the blessed experience of
full salvation accomplished with my feet on Satan's neck underneath
me in the sweet experience of everlasting glory. And when that
happens, the warfare will be over and there'll be no more
Canaanites in the land. Look at Zechariah 14. In that
day shall there be upon the bales of the horses Reckon there's
going to be horses in heaven, I don't know. And I don't care.
I don't know. But he's describing folks riding
in a royal carriage, paid with gold, and drawn by
magnificent stallions, and on their bales, on their harnesses,
You're going to read, Holiness to the Lord, and the bells are
going to be singing, Holiness to the Lord, Holiness to the
Lord. And the pots in the Lord's house,
that is everybody there on their cook stove, shall be like the
bowls before the altar as a sacrifice to God. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem
and in Judah shall be holiness under the Lord of hosts. Holiness
to the Lord. I can just imagine if Satan should
be allowed there. or if a lot of other folks be
loud there, they might, Don Fortner, what are you doing here? How'd
you get here? What have you to make you acceptable
here? And I will sing holiness to the
Lord. I inherit heaven's glory by perfect holiness, mine in Christ, who
of God had been made to me wisdom and righteousness and sanctification,
holiness and redemption. And they all that sacrifice shall
come and take of them and see therein and in that day there
shall be no more Canaanite In the house of the Lord, no
more enemies with whom to contend, no more evil to drive out, just
holiness and the joy and the blessedness of that everlasting
perfection of life. That's what holiness is. That's
what holiness is. We like to say holy. Oh, he was
such a holy man. Oh, he was the holiest man I
ever knew. Holiness, H-O-L-I-N-E-S-S, has
something to do with wholeness, W-H-O-L-E-N-E-S-S. When Adam fell in the garden,
man's wholeness was ruined. God comes in all his wholeness,
in all his holiness, to fallen sinners. And what did he do when
he came on this earth, Tom? He healed a lame man, or a man
with a wounded arm, or a blind man, or a mute. What'd he do? He made him whole. He made him
whole. He gonna make us whole. Amen.