Ephesians 1. Paul preached the gospel in Ephesus
about two or three years. That was longer than he stayed
in most places, two or three years. He stayed in Corinth about
18 months. But the Lord raised up here at
Ephesus a great, strong assembly of believers. And this epistle
to the church at Ephesus, he says to the saints, to the faithful,
was written during Paul's last days on earth. He was in Rome
in prison and wrote this epistle. Now these verses that I'll be
dealing with this morning in the early part of the epistle
have a two-fold purpose. Number one, Paul feared. that
ambitious preachers and teachers, covetous preachers and teachers
would enter in among these people and draw them away from the simplicity
of Christ. In fact, he warned them the last
time he preached to them, he is recording in Acts 20, the
very last time that he preached to the elders of Ephesus. He
called them all up to Antioch, and he brought this message in
Acts 20, and these are the closing words of his last message to
this church. Verse 28, Acts 20. Take heed,
therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the
Holy Ghost has made you overseers. He's talking to the elders from
that church, those churches. Feed the church of God. which
he purchased with his own blood. Feed them. Feed them what? The
word. Teach them the word. For I know this, that after my
departing shall greedless wolves, and that's what our Lord calls
them. He said they are wolves in sheep's clothing. Beware of
false prophets. They're wolves. Devour the sheep. Grievous wolves enter in among
you, not sparing the flock, also of your own selves shall men
arise, speaking perverse things." Why would they do that? To draw
away disciples after them? That's why they do that. So I
warn you, he said. I said it's twofold. Back to
Ephesians 1. He wrote to establish them firmly. in the doctrine
of Christ. The doctrine of Christ. That's
what the gospel is. It's the doctrine of Christ.
Now a church can survive trials. Trials are good for us. And the
church can not only survive but prosper through trials and grow
in grace. And a church can survive troubles
and poverty and persecution. and be the better for it. And
the church can survive the loss of revered leaders. We've lost
some here. They're dear and precious to
us. And we can survive even divisions
over various things that are temporary. They don't last long,
but they come and go. But a church cannot survive a
departure from the doctrine of Christ. It can't survive. It's finished. It's finished. It'll prosper through trials
and troubles and sickness and sorrow and death and even divisions. But it cannot survive a departure
from the gospel, from the doctrine of grace, the doctrine of Christ. If you'd like to turn to 2 John,
let me read you here how strong the apostle John talks about
this, the doctrine of Christ. And the doctrine of Christ is
the doctrine of Christ regarding his person and work and all about
him, everything about Christ, who he is, what he did, why he
did it, where he is. From eternity to eternity, it's
Christ. In 2 John verse 7, for many deceivers
are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ,
God Almighty, Son of God, is come. He was. He is, he ever will be. He's
come in the flesh. God manifests in the flesh. If
a man does not confess that, he's a deceiver, he's an antichrist.
Now look to yourselves that you lose not those things which we
have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ He hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any
unto you, and bring not this doctrine of Christ, don't receive
him, receive him not into your home, and do not bid him Godspeed,
God be with you. Shalom! For he that biddeth him
Godspeed is a partaker of his evil deeds. So you can't survive
the loss. the doctrine of Christ. Back
in the Middle Ages, back in medieval times, back to 1100, 1200, 1300,
up to 1483, the whole church was under the Holy Roman Catholic
Church. It was an empire, a religious
empire, and the whole world was Catholic. The whole world was
under the arrows of the Catholic Church. It had degenerated into
terrible, terrible bondage. The whole world. And there was
a man born in 1483 named Martin Luther. And God used him and
his friends to begin what we call the Great Reformation. The Great Reformation. 1483 he
was born. And during the years of 1500
and 1600, there was a great reformation,
a departure under great persecution, horrible persecution. So many
martyrs put to death for believing the doctrine of Christ. And there
arose believers, dissenters, people who believed the gospel,
and they were Lutherans And they were Presbyterians, John Calvin,
John Knox, in France, in Scotland, Lutherans in Germany. The Church
of England rose up in England, left the Catholic Church, and
God used the monster Henry VIII to bring them out of the Catholic
Church. And the Dutch believers, the Dutch and the Baptists, and
that was it, those were the people of God. Those were anti-Catholic,
anti-works, they were pro-grace, they were people who preached
the grace of God. You just sang a hymn written
in 1700 and something by Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts, Joy to the
World, 1700 and something. These, God raised up giants in
those days, giants, giants, and those were the five dominating I hate to call them religious,
but evangelical believers. You may find this hard to believe,
but basically they all believe the same thing. When I left religion,
when God revealed the gospel to me, I brought up in Baptist
churches and Baptist school and heard the gospel. I made it my
business to find out. what my forefathers believed,
what the conflicts were over, what the persecution was, what
caused it, what the divisions. I studied these men and their
ministry and these followings, the Lutherans, the Presbyterians,
the Church of England, the Episcopalians, the Church of England, the Baptists,
anti-Baptists, and the Dutch. And these people put what they
believed on paper. You can get a copy of it, I did,
and I read them all carefully. The Church of England, with all
of its air and now, they had what they called the 42 articles
when Mary took them back into Catholicism in 1552, 3, 4, and
5. But then when it came back, when
she was killed and her sister Elizabeth took the throne, the
Elizabethan time, oh, God sent a revival, and the Church of
England wrote 39 articles. 39 articles of the Church of
England, Episcopalians, in 1560. 39 articles. Read them. They're precious. They're rich. They're God-glorifying. They're
Christ-glorifying. They're honoring to the gospel. And the Presbyterians, in 1643,
wrote the Westminster Confession of Faith. Who had ever heard
of it? I could adopt every word of it
except two or three places. That's what I believe. The Dutch wrote the Heidelberg
Catechism in 1563. The Heidelberg Catechism, write
those things down, the 39 articles of the Church of England, the
Westminster Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, 1563. When I preached
for the Dutch people up in Grand Rapids in the early fifties,
they had copies of this in their home. God's sovereign, God elected
a people, God made a covenant with his Son and gave him a people.
Christ came and paid their debt and suffered for them, and was
buried and rose again. He's our high priest. Everything
I believe is written there in the Heidelberg Catechism in 1563. And the Baptists, in the early
1600s, they wrote the London Confession of Faith. And believe
me, you may find this hard to believe, because a whole bunch
of them are gone now. They lost the truth, they lost
the gospel, they departed from the truth, they started wanting
numbers and people, and they sold out to the world, they quit
preaching the word of God, and their preachers compromised,
and they've all gone to pot now, wherever pot is, that's where
they are. But you may find it hard to believe, but it's so.
I know, I've studied these men, studied their writings, studied
their confessions of faith. Now the Methodists didn't come
up with one, they didn't have one. I can't find it, but Charles
Westley, the great hymn writer and the primitive Methodist,
played the gospel. But these people, the Church of England,
the Presbyterians, the Baptists, the Dutch, you may be astounded
and find it difficult to believe, but all their major catechisms
of faith and their confessions of faith were practically the
same, except one, two, or three points. Number one, baptism. The Baptists were the only ones.
that emerged, only one. The Presbyterian, the Church
of England, the Dutch, the Methodists, all of them, carried on that
sprinkling of infants. They came out of Catholicism,
but they didn't get all their grave clothes off. They came
out wearing a sash or two. And somehow they just couldn't
pass the babies by. They just couldn't bring themselves
not to sprinkle that infant. The Baptists did. They said baptism
is for believers. Baptism is confessing what has
happened, not talking about what might happen. Baptism is a death,
burial, and resurrection by motion. The word baptize means to a person.
But that's the part they disagree on, influence, strength. And
the second part is church government. The Baptist said Christ the head
of the church and all believers are equal. All believers are
brethren. But the other denominations put
synods and bishops and presbyteries and these things over the people
to keep them straight or do whatever they do for them. And then receiving
members, the Baptists only received those who believed, those who
came to the knowledge of Christ. But these others, that's one
reason that Jonathan Edwards left his church in Northampton,
Massachusetts and became president of Princeton University. is he
would not serve the Lord's table to unbelievers. But the church
he pastored, like some of these, believed everybody was a member
of the church at birth. And he said, I will not, I will
not pastor an unregenerate membership. And he left. And that's what
it is. It's a parish, you see. The priest,
as you got there from Catholicism, the priest is the priest of the
parish. And the pastor is supposed to
be the pastor of the whole parish. But you can't pastor goats, you've
got to have sheep. And that's where they disagree.
But let me tell you something. If you'll make it your concern,
some of you young people that want to prove things. What happened, you say, in the
last 200 years? Well, the very things Paul warns
us about is covetous preachers and wolves coming in and denying
the truth of the gospel, the truth of the doctrine of Christ.
And I'll give them to you one more time. There's the 39 Articles
of the Church of England, 1560. The Westminster Confession. My son Paul called me last night
and he was visiting with a man down near Whitfield, a man that
owns a farm. He went to see him about some
equipment. And the man was a Presbyterian, and Paul said he got in his truck
and he had a copy of the Westminster Confession of Faith on his dashboard.
Paul said, I couldn't believe it. I said, you believe this?
That's a rarity to find somebody that believes what his forefathers
believed. But Westminster Confession, the Baptist Philadelphia Confession,
we've got copies of it in here, the London Confession, and the
Dutch Heidelberg. love this gospel I'm going to
read to you here. Let's go to Ephesians 1, and
the author is Paul, Paul an apostle, Jesus Christ by the will of God.
His author is an apostle, his authority by the will of God
and his people to whom he writes are the saints and the faithful
in Christ and his prayer for them is grace be to you and peace
from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. And here
in verse 3, he gives the cause and the reason for our salvation.
Here is the cause and reason of our hope of eternal life.
It's found in one source and one place, in God our Father. Look at verse 3. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. What do you do when you
bless God? You congratulate God. You congratulate
God. You ascribe to him all honor
and majesty and praise and glory. For a man can receive nothing
except it be given him from above. And how is God, the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ? Well, Jesus Christ was made flesh. Jesus Christ came into the world
and became a man. And as a man, as I mean later,
our God is his God and his Father. as a man. He said to Mary, I
believe it was, I go to my Father and your Father, my God and your
God. He was so identified with us
that when Paul identifies our Mediator and Savior, he says
God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as is
your God and Father. But now listen, God is the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ as he is Father to no one else. For
Jesus Christ, God said, is my beloved son. This is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. Jesus Christ is the son of his
love. Jesus Christ is the king of his
kingdom. He's the father of our Lord Jesus
Christ as he is not the father of any other man. But let's go
on. Bless God, the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our
God and father. He has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. What are these spiritual
blessings? We're not talking about common,
everyday, temporal, earthly blessings. We're not talking about prosperity
in the flesh or health in the flesh. These spiritual blessings
have to do with justification. These spiritual blessings have
to do with holiness, God's holiness, righteousness, eternal life. And God has blessed us in giving
us all of them, all spiritual blessings. Christ has made unto
us wisdom, all wisdom, righteousness, all righteousness, sanctification,
all sanctification. Redemption, all redemption, all
spiritual blessings, all that heaven can bestow, all that heaven
can require, all that Jesus Christ purchased and paid for in his
death on the cross. God has blessed us with all those
spiritual blessings, and they are in the heavens. Now, watch
this. Turn to 1 Peter 1. They're reserved for you. Oh,
you participate and partake of them now, but they're reserved
for you. They're laid up for you. They're in the heavenlies.
Their fulfillment will be in the heavenlies. 1 Peter 1, verse
2. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, and through obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you
and peace be multiplied, Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten
us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, faded
not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power
of God. unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in that last time. So that's the source, God the
Father. The Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ has blessed us, already blessed us, with all spiritual
blessing, in the heavens, laid up, reserved for you, ready to
be revealed. All right. Where and when did
all this begin, as far as we're concerned? When did it begin?
Look at the next verse. According as he hath chosen us
in Christ. When? Before the foundation of
the world. Why? Because we were holy? No. That we should be holy and
without blame before him. God in his eternal purpose. Now
listen, here's one of the old writers, one of those old timers.
God in his eternal purpose determined to have a holy people, conformed
to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, to populate his eternal
kingdom and his new earth. And because of man's depravity,
man's inability, man's dead state, man's unwillingness to choose
God, the Lord God himself chose a people. He chose a people out
of every tribe, kindred, nation, tongue, people under heaven,
and gave them to Christ, committed them to him as their surety and
Redeemer, to bring them to God, to make them holy, and to redeem
them eternally. And God told Israel this. Let
me show you over here in Deuteronomy. He told Israel this back in the
Old Testament days, that he chose them. that they didn't choose
him. He told Israel this. In Deuteronomy
7, look at verse 6. Thou art a holy people to the
Lord thy God. Deuteronomy 7, verse 6. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself above all the people
that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord didn't set his
love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number
than any people. You didn't impress him by your
numbers and by your talents and by your strength, you were the
fiercest of all. In fact, when we started, there
was just one of you, Abraham. But because the Lord loved you,
not because you loved him, he loved you. And because he would
keep the oath, he swore to your fathers. He told that to Israel. Look at Deuteronomy 14, while
you're over there. Chapter 14, verse 2, he told
them this again. In Deuteronomy 14, verse 2, Thou
art a holy people to the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen
thee to be a peculiar people unto himself above all the nations
that are upon the earth. He said that to Israel, he said
that to his disciples. He said to them in John 13, verse
12, as they sat before him in John
13, verse 18, he said, I speak not of you all. I know whom I've
chosen. There was one that didn't belong
to him, there was one called Judas. I speak not of you all,
I know whom I've chosen. But that the scripture might
be fulfilled, he that eateth bread with me hath lifted up
his heel against me. John 15, verse 16. He says to his disciples again
in John 15, 16, you've not chosen me, I've chosen you. And I've
ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit. Your
fruit should remain. Whatever you ask of the Father
in my name, he'll give it to you. Verse 19, if you loved the
world, the world would love his own. But because you're not of
the world, I've chosen you out of the world. Therefore the world
hateth you. And he said that to us right
here in Ephesians 1, verse 4, according as he chose us in Christ. He chose us in Christ. Paul,
writing to the church at Thessalonica, said, Beloved of the Lord, I'm
bound to give thanks to God for you, because God hath from the
beginning chosen you to salvation. Chosen you to salvation. All
right. Verse 5. Now, bless God, he chose
us in Christ. He loved us in Christ, he elected
us in Christ. Verse 5, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, God hath ordained the persons,
God hath ordained the Savior, the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the And God has ordained the end, that we should be conformed
to the image of his Son. And God has ordained the means
by which he'll accomplish that end. Now, election has to do
with persons. Turn to Isaiah chapter 42. Election has to do with persons.
God chose us. God chose us in Christ. has to do with person. God chose
Christ and chose us in him. Christ be my first elect, God
said, and then chose us in our head. But listen to what he says
about Christ. Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I put my spirit upon him. The
same thing can be said of you and me. Behold my servant, mine
elect, whom I have chosen. I chose you. You didn't choose
me, I chose you. Predestination has to do with
what God will make of those whom he chose, and the means he will
use to bring them to himself. Turn to the book of Acts, chapter
13, verse 44. Verse 44. And the next Sabbath
day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of
God. But when the Jews saw the multitude, they were filled with
envy, and they spake against those things that were spoken
by Paul, contradicting, blaspheming. That's against the gospel. Then
Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said, It was necessary that
the word of God should first have been spoken to you, to the
Jew first. But seeing you put it from you,
judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, return
to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded
us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that
thou shouldest be for salvation to the end of the earth. And
when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and they glorified
the word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained to life,
believed. That's right. God chooses people,
but God also chooses the means by which he'll accomplish their
salvation. And the means are the sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. And I'll ask you to turn
to 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. Sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth. He's predestinated us to be conformed
to the image of his Son. And he uses the preaching of
the gospel to bring us to faith in his son. In 2 Thessalonians
2, verse 13, But we are bound to give thanks always to God
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through these means, sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Those are the means. God has ordained the Savior,
he has chosen and ordained the people, he has ordained the redemption,
he sent Christ into the world to bear our sins in his body
on the tree, and he has ordained the means, the preaching of the
gospel, to make his people willing in the day of his power. and
give them life. He's begotten us again unto a
living hope, not with corruptible seed, but incorruptible seed,
by the word of God. Of his own word begat he us with
the word of God. And those who are ordained to
life, they believe. They're called and they believe.
They're called and they come. Thy people are made willing in
the day of thy power. So, back to my text. Bless God, the Father. Verse
3, he blessed us, all spiritual blessings. Verse 4, he chose
us. Verse 5, he predestinated the means, the means by which
we would be brought to the throne. Let me give you an illustration. Jacob had 12 sons, and one unnamed
Joseph. And God's purpose, now here's
this Jew, there's just 70 of them, 70 in this whole conclave. And Joseph was one of them. He's
his father's pet. He was disliked by his brethren.
But God's going to put this boy on the throne in Egypt, the most
powerful nation on earth, the most powerful army, nation, people
on earth. This boy is going to be on the
throne, second in command. in order that this 70 people
might be saved from a famine, and that they might come to Egypt,
and that they might be even put in slavery for 400 years, that
he might raise up Moses, a type of Christ, and throw a Passover
on him to bring them out of captivity to show the addiction of his
people. Now, how is he going to get this boy, a Jew, on that
throne, the Gentile throne? Well, he predestinated it. I guarantee you Joseph is going
to be on that throne. And I guarantee you everything
that happens in Joseph's life from the time he was born in
this home was directed to that day and planned and purposed. And boy, it was tough on him.
I mean he had some high points and some low points. He had some
suffering points and some happy points. He got put in a pit. He got put in jail. His father
suffered. His family suffered. But God
moves in mysterious ways his wonders to perform. Plants his
footsteps on the sea and rides on the storm. And that boy will
be on that throne. born in Alabama, and that one,
wherever you came forth, in Pentecostalism and all the rest of it, and you,
and all of you, you're going to be on a throne someday. In
Christ, reigning with him, Son of God, King-Priest, and I in
the world, is he going to get you out of your dunghill onto
his throne, out of your rags into his righteousness. out of
your self-will and perverted ways and twisted imagination
and hatred for God. How in the name of common sense
is he going to get you from where you were born to his throne?
He predestinated it. That's what predestination is. You're going to be like Christ.
And God predestinated every step your daddy took and your granddaddy
took and your great-granddaddy took and your great-great-granddaddy
took. And every step you walked, the steps of a righteous man
are ordered by God. And he brought you one day to hear
this gospel. And you didn't at first like
it. And you twisted and cavorted and did everything you could. But he'll conquer you. If you
belong to him, he'll conquer you. If you belong to him, he'll
stick to you. If you belong to him, he'll bring
you to the throne. That's predestination. I love
it. You can chart your path if you
want to, but you're going to get lost. Because there's a way
that seems right to you that's not his way. And your thoughts
aren't his, and your ways aren't his. You just chart your little
course, all you want to do. I'm going to join this church,
and I'm going to find the right church, and I'm going to find
a preacher I like, go right ahead. But you're going to wind up missing
in action. I want him to chart my path. Lead me, because if you turn
me loose, I'm a goner. Lead me in a plain path. He said, you make a man a puppet.
I'd rather be his puppet. Hadn't you? I'd rather be his. He can pull the strings as far
as I'm concerned. Yes, sir. I'd rather be his puppet. That's all right. But we're not
puppets. We're not robots. He makes you
willing. He'll bring you to Christ and you'll come running. He'll
bring you the gospel and you'll love it. He'll bring you the
crown of Christ and you'll bow at his feet. Yeah, you will. You'll be the ringleader, just
like you were the ringleader in sin, you'll be the ringleader
in God's righteousness. Yeah, you will. Why did he do this? To the praise
of his glory. Verse 6, he made us accepted
in the beloved. That's a good note to close on
in. He blessed us, God the Father. He chose us before the foundation
of the world. He predestinated us to be conformed
to the image of his Son, to sit on his throne. And he accepted
us. Where? In Christ. Not in your
baptism, not in your parade down the aisle to make your decision.
You know, this world talks about accepting Jesus. I believe Christ,
and I receive Christ, and I bow to Christ, but he accepted me.
He accepted me. In the Beloved, accepted am I,
risen, ascended, and seated on high, saved from all sin by his
infinite grace, with the redeemed ones accorded a place. In the
Beloved, God's marvelous grace causes me to dwell in that wonderful
place. God sees my Savior when he sees
the blood. Then he saves faith. In the beloved,
accept it. Now that, my friends, is the
foundation. That's the rock on which he builds
his church. And you go chipping at that,
it's a goner. We go through trials and troubles,
but we can't surrender one single point of the glory of Christ. All the glory is here. We'll
pick up there tonight, the Lord willing.