That's the title of this message,
Accepted in the Beloved. I was listening to a local preacher
yesterday. Evidently it was a replay of
a message preached around Christmas time. And this person was talking about
the customs of the Jews in those days. It was their custom to
circumcise the infant on the eighth day. It was their custom
that the woman who gave birth to a child come before God, in
the case of a boy child 40 days after birth, offer sacrifice,
and they've been of a girl 80 days, and all of this was portrayed
in the message as the way they did it, custom, their tradition,
and this is the way we do it now. Well, that's not right,
and it's not right to present what they did in that passion
They did what they did, instructed of God as a type and picture. Everything that was done in the
design of the temple, the tabernacle, in the priesthood, his clothes,
every color, every bell, the number of them, the tabernacle,
the coverings, the four coverings, badger skin, goat skin, dyed
red, white linen, the furniture in the tabernacle, the sacrifices,
each sacrifice, each holy day, each special season, everything
meant something, had something to do with Christ, with the Christ,
with the Messiah, with the priesthood we have in him. Everything was
meaningful. They weren't doing these things
because they came up with them. God said to Moses when he gave
him the design of the tabernacle, the law, everything, he said,
see that you do it exactly as I told you. Each, you see, so
when you're reading the Old Testament and you read the Feast of the
Tabernacles and the Feast of the Firstfruits and the Feast
of Pentecost, it wasn't a Jewish custom. It was God's way of picturing
Christ. The year of Jubilee, the Sabbath
day, the rest, the priesthood, the different sacrifices, the
goat, the ram, the scapegoat, the bull, the altar with its
four horns, it means something. Each, the gold covering over
the ark, the mercy seat, the cherubim, Everything, not one thing in
that Old Testament is a custom. It's an instruction. It's a picture
of Christ Jesus. And I tell you, if we haven't
found out that the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified is the
foundation of this whole volume from Genesis to Revelation, we've
read this Bible with no profit. That's exactly right. And what
religious knowledge we have of what we call customs and traditions
and days and feasts and all these things, if we haven't seen Christ,
this religious knowledge will only add to our condemnation
and the judgment. Without Christ, without Christ
incarnate, In the perfection of his life,
Christ crucified, risen, ascended, exalted without Christ. Our religion
is like a heaven without a sun, blackness, coldness, deadness. Our religion is like a hunter
in the woods with a compass, but he has no needle. He's a
lost soul. No direction. Without Christ,
there's no direction in here. I mean Christ crucified, risen,
ascended. Without Christ, this book is
like a clock without hands. There's only one way that that
clock tells time, and that's got hands. Without hands, throw
it in the garbage can. Without Christ, throw this in
the garbage can. It's not a book of poetry or
love or Proverbs or beautiful sayings are a place to save a
lock of Susie's hair. This is God's word. And without Christ, it's like
a lamp without oil. There's no light. Now, religion,
religion will not redeem you from sin. Christ will. Religion will not comfort us
in trouble. Christ will. Religion will not
sustain us in the valley of death. Christ will. Religion will not
atone for us in the judgment, nor plead for us in the day of
reckoning. Christ will. If any man sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. the righteous
one, the crucified one, the risen one. Religion won't deliver our
souls from hell, but Christ will. I just read it to you. All that
a holy God has for a sinner is in Christ, in Christ, in Christ. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. We are complete in him. The Father
loveth the Son, hath given all things into his hands, and these
spiritual blessings are ours because of a union with Christ.
In Christ I have the mercies of God. Out of Christ the wrath
of God." This is the thing that is frustrating to me and amazing
to me at the same time. why people of the world, I know
you understand, but why people out there cannot get hold of
this thing that God's love and mercy is in Christ. And outside
of Christ, there is no promise of grace or love or mercy or
goodness or anything. Outside of Christ, there is judgment
and wrath. Outside of Christ, our gods are
consuming fire. But in him, there's security.
It's like the old cities of refuge. That's why they're given in the
Old Testament the cities of refuge. It wasn't a custom. It was a
refuge. A man who accidentally killed
a person, there were no witnesses. He accidentally killed a man
out in the field, just him and the man. But his brother or father
He's going to get vengeance. He's going to track down the
killer and kill him. But if this man, who had accidentally
killed, could get to a city of refuge, and there were seven
of them, and there's no accident that there's seven of them, if he could get to the city of
refuge, he found safety. in the city. He couldn't stand
out and admire the city. He had to be in the city. He
couldn't even be at home and have a knowledge that there is
a city. And he intends someday to get to the city. The man was secure and safe in
the city. Outside, he's subject to death. He's subject to wrath. He's subject
to vengeance. But in the city of refuge, they
couldn't touch him. He was protected by the high
priest and by the word of God and by the decree of God. Christ
is our refuge. But it's to be in him. And then when the flood came, when the flood came, there was
no place of safety. There was no escape from the
wrath of God, the judgment of God, except one place, in the
ark. Everyone in the ark was secure
and safe from the flood, from the rain, from the water, from
the judgment, from death. And that's what this scripture
is teaching us here. But in Christ, in the Beloved,
that's what Mike was singing, accepted am I, risen, ascended,
seated on high, saved from all sin by his infinite grace, with
his redeemed ones afforded, I go to prepare for you a place. In
the Beloved, how safe my retreat, in the Beloved, accounted, complete. Who can condemn me? In him I'm
free. Savior, keeper forever is he. I am the good shepherd. I am
the great shepherd. I am the chief shepherd. Come
to me and you'll find rest for your soul. In the beloved I went
to the tree. There in his person by faith
I can see infinite wrath rolling over his head. infinite grace,
he died in my stead. In the Beloved, oh, God's marvelous
grace, but that's where it is, it's in the Beloved, calls me to dwell. Blessed is he that dwelleth in
the secret place, in this wonderful place. God sees my Savior, then
he sees me. I'm covered in Christ. I'm robed
in Christ. I'm safe in Christ. I'm hidden
in Christ. He said, My Father gave them
to me. No man can pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which
is greater than I, gave them to me, and no man can pluck them
out of his hand. How safe! If you gave me a precious
jewel, and I put it in this hand, and then Dan came up and put
my hand in his hand. You'd say, well, it's pretty
secure. But what if I was in God's hand, in Christ's hand,
and God's hand was over that hand? I ain't pretty safe. I'm secure eternally. And my
friends, that's where we'd better be. It's not I'm a Baptist or
a Catholic or a Presbyterian or anything else. Those names,
they're not in here. They've been invented by men.
It's just a satanic ploy and way of diverting our attention
away from Christ. We're in Christ, in God, secure,
safe, in him, by faith. Grace! Look at our text. Paul,
an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, writing to the
Saints which are at to the faithful in Christ Jesus. That's where
we are, that's where they were. Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I want you
to see something very simply here, very simply. There are three persons dealt
with here, four counting But all three of these engaged on
our behalf to do something for us. God has engaged himself and
his Son and his Holy Spirit to redeem a people, us, the faithful
in Christ Jesus. And the Apostle Paul begins with
the Father. You can write there by verse
3 what I have written in my Bible, the Father, the Father. And Paul said, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's our Father because
he's Christ's Father, and we're in Christ. And Paul begins where
he is, what the Father has been pleased to do for him and for
those people, those people at Ephesus. He said the Father has
blessed us. He's blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in the heaven that's in Christ. The religious world
today is taken up with blessings. But the blessings with which
they are taken up with are carnal things. They are talking
about the healing of the body, and clothes, nice clothes, and
jobs, and homes, and cars, and financial things. misled to think that if they
have plenty, it's because God's blessed them. If they don't have
anything, it's because God hasn't blessed them. Well, that wouldn't
work with our friends in Mexico or Africa, would it? But these
blessings, Paul begins where he is, and he says, God blessed
me with spiritual blessings, spiritual blessings. This is
what I need. I need wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.
I need justification. I need my sins forgiven. I need
to be redeemed. I need spiritual blessings. I
need my name written in the book of life. I need a spiritual inheritance. I need heavenly blessings that
are from heaven and lead to heaven. It doesn't matter whether I wear
a nice suit or overalls. It doesn't matter whether I wear
iron shoes or sandals like my friends in Mexico. It doesn't
matter if I have good health or bad health. I need Christ.
I need mercy. I need my sins forgiven. Christ
said, Don't rejoice that the devil is the subject to you.
Rejoice that your name is written in heaven. God has blessed us in Christ
with spiritual blessings. Christ is our righteousness.
our wisdom, our justification, our sanctification, our redemption.
In heavenly places, he's blessed us. Now, what's
the next verse? According. Paul starts where
he is, and he talks about his blessings, and he said, Where
did I get them? God gave them to me. Why did God give them
to me? There are people who don't have
them. There are people in our immediate
families You know, brothers and sisters and parents sometimes
and cousins and nieces and nephews who don't have this blessing,
not interested in God, not interested in the Bible, not interested
in the things of God. They're taken up with the world.
Why me? Look at that verse 4, "...according
as he chose us." He chose to do it. He elected us. We're God's
elect. In Christ, Christ was the first
elect. A hymn writer wrote a hymn about
that. He said, Christ be my first elect, God said, and then chose
us in our heads. But he chose us. It's not by
accident that I'm in Christ. It's not by accident that I have
faith and believe the gospel. It's by grace, God's grace. He
chose me. When did he choose me? Before
the foundation of the world. Known unto God all his works
from the beginning. God didn't choose me because
I believe. I believe because he chose me. God didn't choose
me because I came to Christ. I came to Christ because he chose
me and called me to Christ. God didn't choose me because
I love him. I love him because he loved me first. That's what
the scripture says. He chose us in Christ before
the foundation of the world. Look at the next line, that we
should be holy. God's purpose for us is to be
holy. He didn't choose me because I'm
holy. He chose to make me holy in Christ and without blame before
Him. I'll never be without blame before
the world, just and unjust, right and wrong. I'll never be without
blame before my own judgment. I'm chief of sinners. But in
Christ, I'm without blame before God. holy and without blame. He chose me to make me holy in
Christ and without blame. Give me a righteousness. Turn
to Colossians just a moment. Colossians chapter 1, verse 21. And he says, And you that were
sometimes, one time alienated, enemies in your mind by your
wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his
flesh through death. To present you, Christ is going
to present you, not introduce you, present you. Holy, unblameable,
unreprovable, where? In his sight, in God's sight. So Paul says, bless God who has
blessed the Father who has blessed me with everything I need, all
spiritual blessings, everything I need. He provides all our needs,
not our wants or wishes, our needs, spiritual needs in Christ,
according as He chose me. Paul starts where he is, and
he says, God's blessed me with position, He's blessed me with
a place, He's blessed me with righteousness, He's blessed me
with everything I need, because He chose to do it. He chose us in Christ before
the world began. But before the choosing, there
was a predestination. There was a foreordination. The
word predestination means foreordained, foreordained, foreknown. Before God chose us, he said,
everybody whom I save is going to be like Christ. predestinated
to be conformed to the image of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure
of his own will. Paul starts where he is. He said,
The Father has blessed me with all spiritual blessings because
he chose me. He chose me that I should be
in Christ, accepted and holy and righteous. And back before
he chose a people, if you can say it that way, if you can put
God in time, God says, I'm going to have a kingdom, I'm going
to have a people, I'm going to have all of them, a family, and
they're all going to be just like Christ, predestinated to
be conformed to the image of God's Son. That's where we're
going to be. And he did that because he willed
to do it. Not because we willed it, he willed it. Now watch this
sixth verse. And he did it to the praise of
the glory of his grace, wherein he made us accepted in the Beloved. Accepted in Christ. That's where
we are loved, that's where we are chosen, that's where we are
accepted, and to be like him is the end and goal of predestination. You see that? And then in the
next verses, write the word, the Son. The Son, verse 7. In whom? In Christ, in the Son. We have redemption. Already have
it. We're redeemed. Walter Gruber
told a story here several years ago about one of the little Mexican
boys. The little Mexican boy, they're
very poor, and they love kites. They fly kites down there, but
they make them like we used to years ago with newspaper and
wrapping paper and sticks that you cut out in the woods, put
sticks together, you know, and then put that newspaper over
the string around the top and the bottom and then flour paste,
get some flour and make some paste and stick them together.
And this little boy had that kite he and his daddy made, and
he ended up flying it, and the wind got it and broke the string,
and it just got carried off in the wind. This is a true story.
And Walter said several days passed, and this little boy and
his daddy were in another Pueblo and passed this little junk shop,
and there was this kite in the window, and it had a price on
it. And the price was three pesos. And little boy said to his daddy,
that's my kite. He identified it. He went in and told the proprietor.
He said, that's my kite in the window that you got for sale.
Man said, no, that's my kite, son. I found that kite. It belongs
to me. And it's got a price on it. And
if you want it, you can buy it. But that's my kite. Little boy
looked up at his daddy, you know, brokenhearted. And his daddy
reached in his pocket and got out three Hard-earned, tough
pesos. He paid for that kite. And that
little boy got it and wrapped it up in his arms and started
out the door. And he said, well, you're twice mine. You're twice
mine. I made you, and then I bought
you. And you're twice mine. And that's
us. He made us. And we lost. We were taken away
by the wind of sin and evil and corruption. taken away. And we had a price on us. The
law had us. Justice had us. We had a price
on our head. But he said, They're mine. The
Father gave them to me. All that my Father giveth me
shall come to me. They're mine. I came down from
heaven, not to do my will, but the will of him that sent me.
This is the will of him that sent me, that all he giveth me
I'll lose nothing. They're mine. And he went to
the cross and paid the price on my head. and bought me, and
I'm twice his, in whom we have redemption." He redeemed us.
You see, the word redeemed is to buy back, to pay everything
demanded or required. And we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins, all of it according to
the, not we deserve it, not we've earned it, not we've merited
it, the riches of his grace. Isn't that clear? And verse 8 says, wherein he
hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. Christ is
our wisdom. He in wisdom and knowledge, not by trickery, but by honest,
legal means, he redeemed us. And he enlightened us. He made
known unto us the mystery of his will, how God can be just
and justified. He's revealed the Word to us.
According to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself,
in the dispensation of the fulness of time, he's going to gather
together all things, gather together in one, all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven. Moses is already there, Abraham,
David, Isaiah, all the multitude of believers, Hannah, Rebecca,
Sarah, People here on earth, when this thing is over, when
the dispensation of the fulness of time, God is going to gather
together all things in Christ, those he chose and those he saved
and redeemed, even in him. And in Christ we have obtained
an inheritance. And Peter writes about it over
here in 1 Peter, in 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1, verse 1, "...Peter,
an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, elect according
to the foreknowledge, the predestination of God the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit, unto 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 have begotten us unto a living hope by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance,
incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in
heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation. Christ hath redeemed us, forgiven
our sins, enlightened us, opened our eyes to know the mystery
of his and given us an inheritance. I go to prepare a place for you."
What a place! It's a place where he's the heir
and we're joint heirs. It's a place where the glory
is his and we share that glory. It's a place where the majesty
and happiness and joy is his and we share in the joy of being
married to him. And then in closing, here's the
Holy Spirit. Verse 12. that we should be to
the praise of the glory of his grace who trusted in Christ Jesus. He's talking about the apostles.
They first trusted in Christ. Christ brought them the word,
the message. They first trusted. In whom you also trusted. You
trusted him. After you heard the word of truth,
the Holy Spirit heard this word right here of truth. what I'm
preaching. This is the Word. We're not trying
to build a religious empire. We're not trying to build even
a religious following, or build a denomination. It's not going
to stand. Everything me and Bill, they
put their names on it and it goes down sooner or later. Everything. Schools and churches and organizations and denominations. We preach Christ. And God saves
men individually, women individually, young people individually. It's
your soul between you and him. And we preach in the gospel.
We trust in Christ. Now, you trust him. And you'll
trust him after you hear this word of truth. It's got to be
the Word of Truth. It can't compromise God, His
character, and His purpose, and His will. I wouldn't be telling
you the truth if I said salvation was up to you. The Bible doesn't
say that, that salvation is of the Lord. I wouldn't be telling
you the truth if I said it's all up to your will. No, it's
up to His will. It's not of Him that willeth
or of Him that runneth. It's of God that shows mercy.
That wouldn't be right, would it? And you can't trust an unrevealed
Christ. You've got to trust one that's
the Christ. And you trust him after you hear
the word. What word? The gospel of your
salvation. In whom also, after you believe.
Now, here's the Holy Spirit. He's the one that opens our eyes
and teaches us and preaches us the gospel. And after you heard
and believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit. baptized
in Christ. We're not baptized in Christ
by the water. That's a confession of Christ.
We're submerged and immersed and baptized into the body of
Christ by the Spirit of God. That's the baptism of the Spirit. He takes the Word and brings
life. We believe, and we're submerged
into Christ, baptized into Christ, and sealed there, sealed there
by the Holy Spirit, kept there, secured there. And then the Holy
Spirit is the earnest. He's the pledge. He's the token.
I've often used this illustration. A young man proposes to a young
lady. They've been dating, and now
he gives her a ring. an engagement ring. That's an
earnest. He promises to marry her and
she promises to marry him, and that ring is a sign, a token
of his love and his promise. Sometimes men break their promises
and women break their promises, but God never. He seals us with
the Holy Spirit and gives us the Holy Spirit as a promise
of glory to It's a promise, it's a token. If any man be in Christ,
he has the Holy Spirit. He's sealed by the Spirit, and
the Holy Spirit in him is the pledge or earnest of his inheritance
until that person closes his eyes in death. And then the purchase, possession,
is laid hold of. He enters into his inheritance. The Father's purpose to save
us, chose us, predestinated us to be like Christ, accepted us
in Christ. The Son came and redeemed us,
put away our sins, opened our eyes, enlightened us, gave us
an inheritance. And the Holy Spirit in time took
the Word, preached, opened our hearts. revealed Christ, led
us to faith, we believed, sealed us in Christ, and gave us his
Spirit as a pledge, a promise that God will keep, lay hold
on eternal life, which God promised, who cannot lie, before the world
began. And all of it to the praise of
his glory. To the praise of his glory. God
will make that a blessing to you.