Going back to the scripture that
Brother Gerald read a moment ago, I'm going to bring a brief
message tonight, and then Ronnie and I are going to show you some
slides of the mission field down in St. Kitts. But I wanted to
give you a word from his word tonight. In Ephesians chapter
1, if you'll just open to that scripture, and let's look at
verse 3. That's my text tonight, verse
3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And most people feel
that that reads better to read it this way, he hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. Now there are so many areas where
the true believer needs growth and where we need to pay our
strong and utmost attention. I hesitate to say that any area
is more important than the other. Because there are so many areas
where I need work and where you need work, and we know it. And
Paul said that. He said, I haven't arrived. I
count not myself to have apprehended. But he said, I reach forth to
lay hold upon that for which I have been laid hold of by Christ. I'm not perfect. I don't claim
to be. I have not arrived. And he said
this, who is weak that I am not weak? But there are a lot of
areas where I realize that I need work and you need work, we need
growth, we need to pay attention. One of them is faith. There is no perfect faith. I
think sometimes there is no strong faith. I think sometimes there's
no faith as a grain of mustard seed. The Lord said, when the
Son of Man cometh, will he find faith on this earth? I want to
believe God, believe God, like Abraham believed God. Abraham
believed God. He didn't know where God was
sending him, but he went, believing God. He didn't know how he was
going to have a son, but he believed God. And that scripture that
John read in the study tonight, when he took that boy and laid
him on the altar, while John was reading that, I was visualizing
that experience and raised that knife to plunge it into the heart
of his son. That's believing God. And when
I read a faith like that, I think, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Another area is love. Our Lord
said, by this shall all men know you're my disciples, if you love
one another. I wonder if there's enough love
in me to lead anybody to suspect that I'm a Christian. I wonder
if I manifest enough compassion and kindness and love toward
others. I'm not talking about toward
my family now, my immediate family circle, or even my friends, but
toward people in general. Our Lord said, if you love them
that love you, what thank have you? Anybody does that. And I
want to manifest the love of Christ. And another scripture
says this, we know we have passed from death unto life if we love.
Well, if that be true, is this also true? If we don't love,
then we haven't passed from death unto life. Evidently. So we need
work in that area. What about prayer? I'm sure that
I pray more than I used to pray, but I'm sure also that I don't
pray as much as I ought to pray or as I want to pray. I need
work in that area. Prayer, faith, love, generosity. Can we believe God to such an
extent that we just open our hands and just act as a conduit
through which God sends His blessings? But most of us are like the dead
sea. Somebody tells me the dead sea
has no way for water to get out. It doesn't flow. It's dead. It
just sits. And consequently, nothing in
it lives. And if we're not careful, we'll
be like a dead sea instead of a I can't do it. God sends the
blessings and we damn them up and store them up and keep them
put up and use them on ourselves and we become like a dead sea,
polluted and lifeless, stagnant, selfish. But if we could just
be... But a rushing river is always
clean. The water is always passing through. And you say, well, it'll
run out. It hasn't run out yet. This one
down here hasn't run out yet. I tell you, the river of generosity
won't run out until the fountain runs dry, and he'll never run
dry. He's the fountain. And I need to learn that. It's
more blessed to give than to receive, and I just don't believe
anybody can out-give God. I just don't believe that you
can give away as fast as God can supply the need. But the
problem is we just don't believe Him. We're going to have to,
somebody says, well who's going to take care of you in your old
age? The one who took care of me in my young age. And then
another area is the study of the Word of God. Study to show
thyself approved unto God. A workman that needeth not be
ashamed. To be ashamed, rightly dividing
the Word of truth. Oh, how we need to bury ourselves
in the book. I know it's important to read
other authors and other books and writers, and I profit greatly
by them, but there's no substitute for the Word itself. Faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, the Word of God. And I would exhort us to spend
more time in the Word, spend more time in the Book. And then
in the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, faith, peace, longsuffering,
patience, gentleness, kindness, meekness, temperance, all these
things. But here's the area I'm talking
about tonight. And like I said when I started,
I need work and you need work in these areas, faith and love
and prayer and generosity and graciousness and the study of
the Word and the fruit of the Spirit. But I don't believe I'll
be far off base tonight to say that there's one area of great
importance And I suggest it is of more importance to our Lord
than we can ever imagine. There's one area, and that is
the area of blessing God. Now that's what this says here
in verse 3. That's what I'm talking about.
Paul, he begins, says, I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ. Not
by the will of man, or the hand of man, or an act of my own,
but by the will of God. And I'm writing to the saints,
to the believers who are at Ephesus, and to those who are faithful
in Christ, and I want God's grace to be to you, and peace, and
grace always comes before peace. You can't have peace until you're
a recipient of grace from God our Father, from the Lord Jesus.
And then he says, bless God. Bless God. Bless God. What do you mean by bless God,
blessed be God? Well, it means this. It means
to congratulate God for His greatness and His goodness. Bless God.
It is to congratulate God for His greatness, to recognize God
for His greatness and His majesty and His goodness. And then it
not only means to recognize God's greatness and goodness out of
sincerity, But it means to ascribe to Him all glory and honor and
that to Him alone. It means actually. And it's not
just saying it with the lips. I'm talking about the lips speaking
from the heart. I'm talking about the lips being
an expression of that which the heart feels. Bless God. Bless
God. And the form means nothing if
the Spirit's not there. I know that. I'm not too gung-ho
about this prayer in the schools thing, you know. You know he's
having the ritual if the Spirit's not there. There's no use having
the form if the heart is not there. And you can go through
the ritual of prayer and the form of prayer, and you can teach
the little fellas to stand and say words, but prayer is an expression
of the heart. Prayer is communication with
God. Prayer is the spirit of man reaching
to God Almighty. And you can't schedule prayer. Prayer is spontaneous. Prayer
flows from the heart. Prayer is an expression of thanksgiving
and praise and petition to God. And we've got into this ritualism
too much, but this is to ascribe from the heart all glory and
honor to God and to give thanks, and I believe the best word of
all is praise. Praise God, from whom all blessings
flow. Praise Him, all creatures here
below. Praise God. Praise God. Isn't that the theme of the Psalms?
Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. And I'm saying,
this is what I'm saying. I'm saying that this is an area.
We give a great deal of care to doctrinal accuracy. And that's
important. And we give a great deal of care
to moral, a moral wall. And that's important. And we
give a great deal of care to supporting the church and the
missionaries and the ministry, and that's important. And we
give a great deal of care to various other things. But if
we don't give some attention to this, I don't believe God's
blessings are going to rest upon us as they should. To praise
God. To praise God. To glorify God. This is the theme of the psalm.
You read the heart of David in the Psalms. You read the religion
of David in the Psalms. You read the communion of David
with God. I think sometimes we walk in
our doctrinal accuracy with a bad spirit, with a murmuring spirit,
with a grumbling spirit. Yes, I believe all things work
together for good to them that love God. There are two ways
to say that. Well, I'm going to take this, because all things
work together for good, but praise God for my afflictions. They
work for my good. Praise God. Bless God. Bless
God. And that's the theme of the Psalms,
and is not this the song of heaven? Turn to Revelation chapter 5.
Is not this the song of heaven? I'm working on attitude tonight.
This is where I think we need the most work. Is not this the
song of heaven in verse 9 of Revelation 5? And they sung a
new song, saying, Thou art worthy, Thou art worthy, Thou art worthy
to take the book and to open the seals, for Thou thereof,
for Thou was slain and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of
every kindred, tongue, people, and nation, and hast made us
unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth."
That's praise. That's blessing God. Look, turn
a page to Revelation 7. Revelation 7, verse 9, After
this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could
number, of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues, stood
before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white
robes, and palms in their hands. And they cried with a loud voice,
saying, Salvation to our God! which sitteth upon the throne
and unto the Lamb." That's blessing God. Blessing God. It's the theme
of the Psalms. It's the song of heaven. And
listen to this. Is not this the way that prayer begins and ends? The disciples said, Lord, teach
us to pray, as John taught his disciples. You teach us to pray.
And he said, when you pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name. Hallowed be thy name. That's
blessing God. And it ends, talks about daily
bread and forgiving sins and so forth, then it ends with,
Thine is the power and the glory and the honor forever. That's
where prayer begins and ends. Blessing God. Blessing God. And then our Lord Jesus Christ,
when He prayed in John 17, started His prayer. He lifted His eyes
and said, Father, Glorify me that I may glorify Thee. That's
why I want to be glorified, so I glorify Thee. Is not this the area where God
dealt severely with Job? Murmuring. That's exactly right.
Turn to Job. Let me show you this. Is not
this the very area? Job was accurate. Accurate, strict,
straight as a string, morally. Doctrinally? God said He said
the right thing. He said, you fellas didn't, but
Job did. He said the right thing. But
I tell you, God came to him in Job 38. Why don't you look at
this? Job 38. Just two or three verses
here. Job 38, 1. The Lord answered
Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this? Who is this
that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now
thy loins like a man, I will demand of thee. And you answer
me, where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Declare if you have understanding. Verse 17, look at 17. Have the
gates of death been opened to you? Have you seen the doors
of the shadow of death? Look at verse 33. Do you know
the ordinances of heaven? Can you set the dominions thereof
in the earth? And you're complaining and quarreling
and griping, finding fault. Can you lift up your voice to
the clouds that abundance of waters may cover thee? Can you
send lightning that they may go and say unto them, here we
are? Look at chapter 4 at 39. Chapter
39 verse 13. Did you give the goodly wings
to the peacock? Or wings and feathers unto the
ostrich? who layeth her eggs in the dust, and warmeth the
earth, and warmeth them in the dust. Look at verse 26. Do you make the hawk fly by wisdom,
your wisdom? Stretch her wings towards the
south? Does the eagle mount up at your command, make her nest
on high? You talk about whittling a fellow
down. So Job in chapter 42, listen to him. Job answered and said,
Lord, I know you can do everything, and no thought can be withholden
from thee, and most people think that means no thought of thine
can be hindered. Verse 5, I've heard of you by
the hearing of the ear, now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I hate
myself, I repent in dustination. Is not this the lesson of Habakkuk?
Turn to Habakkuk. That's about the fourth book
from the end of the Old Testament. Habakkuk chapter 3. Praising God all the time, anytime,
for all things, praising God. Listen to Habakkuk chapter 3, verse 17, look at verse 17. Although
the fig tree shall not blossom, and do you know what it meant
in those countries when the fig tree didn't blossom? And fruit shall not be on the
vine, no grapes, no grapes on the arbor. Verse 17, Habakkuk
3. The labor of the olive tree shall
fail, no olives on the tree. Now that's no figs on the trees,
and that's no olives on the trees, and that's no grapes on the vine. And the field shall yield no
meat, no oats or barley in the field, or corn. The flock shall
be cut off from the fold, no herd in the stalls, hasn't even
got a mule to plow with. I will rejoice in the Lord, I
will joy in the God of my salvation, for the Lord is my strength,
and He will make my feet like hands' feet, and He will make
me to walk upon high places, to the chief singer on my string."
That's my song. That's God's way. That's God's
way. But turn back to Ephesians 1. And if this is not an area where,
I know, number one, this is an area that Almighty God, with
which God is pleased. I know this is an area which
Almighty God requires and demands. Our Lord said, take no anxious
thought for what, for tomorrow, what you shall eat, drink, or
put on. He said, consider the birds of the air and the lilies
of the field. They toil not, neither do they
spend, and yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like
one of these. If your heavenly Father feeds the birds and clothes
the lilies, shall He not much more feed and clothe you, O ye
of little faith? Where is your faith? But seek
ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and these
things will be added to you. Bless God. Bless God. We have
every reason to bless God. That's what Paul is saying here
in Ephesians 1, 3. He said, Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Why do we bless God? Because
He has blessed us. He has blessed us. We praise
and glorify God because He has certainly blessed us. He glorified
and sanctified us. And he says he's blessed us with
all spiritual blessings. He's blessed me. I have right
now in my possession, spiritually speaking, all that heaven requires,
all that heaven demands, all that heaven can bestow, and all
that a sinner needs to prepare him and fit him for heaven's
glory. Read it again. Blessed God, praised
God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, who hath already blessed us with
all, all spiritual blessings, every one of them, all spiritual
blessings God has given us, all that heaven can require, all
that heaven can bestow, all that heaven can demand, and all that
the sinner needs. And where are they? In Christ. That's where they are. Here's
where the blessings are, from eternity past to eternity future. Those blessings always have been,
are now, and always will be in Christ. Every spiritual blessing
is in Christ. Then look at verse 4. And here
are many of those blessings. First of all, he said in verse
4, He hath chosen us. God chose us. God Almighty set
from eternity past, set His love upon us. God Almighty from eternity past
set His love upon us and chose us by name. He said, I know my
sheep. And He calls them by name. And
He set His love upon us and chose us that we should be holy, perfectly
holy, and without blame in His sight
before Him. That's what that says. Almighty
God think of this he had blessed God Oh blessed God praise God
if I ever get a hold of this my feet won't touch the ground
again. That's the fact I Could wade through the deepest waters
and not even feel the current. I Could walk over the roughest
roads and not even feel the pain if I could just get hold Of what's
contained in these two verses right here. God has blessed me You won't even think about not
having some of the things in this world you'd like to have
because you have everything in the world to come. You're the
wealthiest person that ever lived. You're the wellest person that
ever lived. You're the holiest person that ever lived in Christ.
He blessed us with all spiritual blessings. All that heaven can
bestow has been bestowed upon us in Christ. He chose us that
we should be holy. And in Christ we are, and without
blame, not just before men, before Him. He chose us that we should
be holy and without blame before Him. I believe this ought to
read this way, in love, in love, His love toward us, not our love
toward Him. In love, having predestinated
us to the adoption of sons. He's taken me into His family.
He's adopted me by choice. By deliberation, by determination,
by predetermination and destination, He has adopted me into His family
and made me an heir, a joint heir with Jesus Christ His Son,
His only begotten Son. He has made me an heir of God.
All that God is and has is mine in Christ. All things are yours. Predestinated all the means. all the means, the instruments,
the ways by Jesus Christ to Himself according to His own will, the
good pleasure of His will, not yours and mine, but His. He did
it on purpose. He went down to the orphanage
and picked us out and adopted us and made us His sons. And
then verse 7 says, verse 6 says, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath something else. He chose us, He blessed
us with all spiritual blessing, He predestinated us to the adoption
of sons, and He's accepted us in the beloved. A lot of my preacher
brethren do not like the term, will you accept Jesus? And I'm
not totally convinced that they're wrong. It's not a good term. Because we don't accept him,
he accepts us. He has accepted me. How in the
world could such a lowly worm talk about accepting a king?
I can bow to the king, I can kiss the king's feet, I can submit
to the king, but accept him? He is accepting. And God hath
accepted us in the Beloved. It's God accepting me, not me
accepting Him. I'm the one on the outside. I'm
the one that's the offender. I'm the one that's in trouble.
I'm the one with the flaws, not Him. And He hath accepted me. Now wait a minute, not in myself.
Not in my deeds. Had a fella call me from Oklahoma
a while ago, about an hour before church. And he said, you ever
going to preach out this way? I said, I don't know. Don't think
so. Not this year. I said, I'll be
in Arkansas. He said, well, we'll just come
down there and hear you. He said, I heard a sermon you preached
about 10 years ago that's had a great effect on me. I've been
listening to it. And he said, you said something
about even the best deeds we do are not acceptable in God's
sight. What do you mean by that? Where
did you find that in the Bible? Well, I said, Isaiah 64, 6 says,
we all do fade as the leaf. We've all been driven away, and
even our righteousnesses are filthy rags in God's sight. He
said, that's it. That's it. That's it. I said, that's what it says.
All our righteousnesses, and that's the best we've got, are
filthy rags in God's sight. So He's not going to accept us
in anything that we give or do or say or think. But He has accepted
us in the Beloved. I'm accepted in Christ. I'm legally,
spiritually, by decree, by God's mercy, in Christ. And God doesn't
accept me at all. He accepts Christ and me in Him. I don't know how to make that
plain enough, but so anyhow. It's so. I don't care what you
do, say, or think about it. does not look upon us with any
favor at all except in Christ. And God can have no fellowship
with us in any way except in Christ. And God cannot even be
spoken to by us except in Christ. He's accepted us because He accepted
Christ in the Beloved. And then he said in verse 7,
listen, we have redemption. We have redemption. In whom?
That's where we have redemption. We have it in whom? Well, who's
the whom? It's Christ. Chosen in Christ.
Predestinated by Christ. Accepted in Christ. In whom we
have redemption. Christ through His blood. Even
the forgiveness of every sin. God said past, present, and sins
to come. according to the riches of His
grace, not dependent upon my works, but according to the riches
of His grace. And my sins are separated from
me as far as the east is from the west, as long as His grace
holds out, which is eternal. Can't be exhausted. Wherein He
hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, I tell you
another, but He has made known unto us, look at verse 9, He's
blessed us, He's made known unto us the mystery of His will. Now, you might take that with
a grain of salt, but I'm telling you, you better not, because
this book is a mystery. There's the mystery of Christ
and the church, there's the mystery of the Jew and the Gentile, there's
the mystery of iniquity, which doth already work. Behold, I
show you a mystery which shall not all sleep. There's the mystery
of the gospel. God, you say, well, I understand
those things. God taught you those things. God revealed them
to you. Oh, it always bothers me to hear
somebody say, well, they just preached a gospel sermon, same
old thing. Same old thing? Same new thing. Same new thing. Having made known
unto us the mystery of His will, I never cease to be amazed concerning
the things I know. I know some secrets of God. I
know some secrets that the princes of this world didn't know. Had
they known them, they wouldn't have crucified the Lord of Glory.
I know things that Caesar didn't know, that Nero and Festus and
Agrippa didn't know. I know some things that the rich
rulers of this world don't know. I know some things that the most
educated, learned people in this world don't know. I know the
secrets of God's counsel in Christ. That's right. I know things angels
desire to look into. You say, you ain't so smart.
I know that. Oh, I know that. Not in earthly things, but I'll
tell you this, if you know Christ, You're wise in heavenly things,
because he's wisdom. No man is educated who doesn't
know Christ. That's exactly right. How can
you be educated and not know the truth? Ain't no man educated. I don't care. You can go around
with all these keys hanging down, Phi Beta Kappa key and all the
other keys, and swing them until you might go all the way around
like this. But if you don't know Christ, you're a dumb bunny,
because you don't know the truth. That's right. That's exactly
right. Exactly right. He has revealed
to me. And then verse 11, He hath given
us an inheritance, in whom, here we go again, in whom, you don't
have a thing of your own, but in whom you do. Verse 11, in
whom we have already obtained an inheritance. What is that
inheritance? Glory. The Kingdom of God. Eternal life. being predestinated
according to the purpose of him that worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. Verse 13, in whom you trusted
after you heard the word of truth, who gave you ears? God did, the
gospel of your salvation. In whom also? In whom? There's
that, I guess I ought to preach the sermon on in whom. Every
time I look at this chapter, it says in whom? In whom? In
whom also after you believed you were sealed? Sealed in Christ. He said, no man can pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them is
greater than all. No man pluck them out of my Father's
hand. I'm in His hand. And then, here's what I'm getting
to in closing. Every bit of this, verse 14,
the last line, to the praise of His glory. Bless God. Bless
God. Now, old brother Fletcher one
time years ago came around here, brought a message from this first
chapter, and he said, the first five verses tell the work of
the Father, chose us, predestinated us. Verse 6 says, to the praise
of the glory of His grace. The next few verses tell us about
the work of the Son, and verse 12 said, that's to the praise
of His glory. And then the work of the Holy Spirit is given and
that to the praise of His glory. When are we going to start praising
God? When are we going to start? Well,
I'll tell you, I just believe it's an area, I believe it's
an area when our feet hit the floor in the morning. We talk
about, I can't get my motor running and all that, I can't get this,
that and the other going. I tell you all, praise God you're
even going. I don't know why, but our feet
hit the floor. Our first thoughts ought to be thankful, thankful,
thankful. When we come to the table and
the food is there and our coffee and orange juice, praise God.
Little children, our children run through the house, get out
of here, you're getting my floor on me. Thank God I got a floor.
They don't have it in Mexico. Thank God, praise God. Got to
go to work this morning. Oh, praise God, I got a job to
go to. Could be out of work. We all could be in a soup line
down here. Praise God if we are. There is soup in the line. That's
why we've got to, we're going to have to, or we're going to
have His displeasure. That's all there is to it. I
just don't believe we're going to have His pleasure and have
His fellowship as we ought to have it until somehow We sing
with our hearts like we do with our lips and mean it. Praise
God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here
below. Praise Him above ye heavenly
hosts and down here ye earthly folks. Praise Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost. See if we can learn to praise
God. I believe His blessings will rest upon us. I know this,
that Israel's murmuring brought the judgment of God. Israel's
murmuring. Can we? Well, I'm rebuking myself. I'm not just preaching down to
you. The reason I get these sermons out of my heart and out of His
Word. I need it. Let's praise God.