But this message is kind of born
out of this conversation I had yesterday morning, a very distressing
conversation, a conversation that left me stunned
and not knowing what to say or what to do. But yet examining
my own heart, my own message, examining my message, if I don't
do it, It's not going to be done. But here in Ephesians 1, now
let every preacher, teacher, spiritual leader take note. Take
note. Here is the old Pharisee writing
here. This is the old Pharisee, Saul
of Tartus, the old Arminian. This is the old Pharisee, the
old legalist, steeped in ceremony, steeped in legalism, steeped
in ritualism, steeped in self-righteousness. That's where God found him. That's
where God found, that's where God found some of us. Steeped
in religion, steeped in self-righteousness, ritualism, ceremonialism, all
other kind of isms, that's where God found Saul of Tartarus. This
is the one writing here, the one whom God found many years
before this in his Arminianism, in his self-righteousness. All right, here's the man whom
God broke on the Damascus Road. God met him on the Damascus Road
and God smote him, broke him. stripped him, humbled him, blinded
him, drove him out into the wilderness to sit at the feet of Christ
to learn the gospel. Broke him. He broke him. Some of us came through that
experience. I was pastor of a church down in Chattanooga, came up
here as assistant pastor to Brother Wells. God sent Ralph Barnett
our way with the message of the Lordship of Christ whittled me
down and knocked my foundations out from under me and stripped
me and laid me low at the feet of Christ and sent me out into
the wilderness to learn the gospel. And that's the same fellow right
in here. All right? Thirdly, here's the
chosen vessel to the Gentiles. God had his hand on him all the
time. I've heard people say, well, if you learn the gospel
after you start preaching, how do you know you were called to
preach? I was called to preach from my mother's womb. Anybody
that's called a preacher is called a preacher in their mother's
womb. I show you that over in the book of Jeremiah, if you
want to turn it over there, it applies to all of God's people.
Saul of Tarsus, you remember when God broke Saul and brought
Ananias to speak to him? God said, Ananias, he is a chosen
vessel unto me to bear my name to the Gentiles. If you're called
of God now to preach, you always have been. You always have been. In Jeremiah 1 verse 5, before
I formed you in the belly, he said to Jeremiah the prophet,
I knew thee. Before you came out of your mother's
womb, before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you, set
you apart, ordained you to be a prophet unto the nations. I ordained you and set you apart. This divine call, it doesn't
matter when God uses a man. He may use him when he's 20,
30, 40, 50, 60, 70. It doesn't matter when God's
pleased to use him, God always has called him. Here was a chosen
vessel to the Gentiles, missionary to the world, missionary to the
world, founder of churches, writer of Scripture. Here's a successful
man, this man who was the old Pharisee, who met God on the
Damascus Road, now a successful preacher of the gospel, founder
of churches, writer of Scripture, bearing in his body the scars
of persecution. and the scars of trial. He'd
been through agony for Christ. He'd been in prison. He'd been
in dungeon. He'd been in the ocean, in shipwreck
two or three times. He'd been scourged. He'd been
whipped. He'd been stoned. He'd been beaten with rods. He
bore in his body the marks of the battle. Here was the old
warrior just about to hang it up. He's just about to hang it
up. I don't know how long he'd been
preaching and traveling and serving God. I don't know how long he'd
been in the battle, but I know he was just about to hang it
up. He said, the time of my departure is here. I fought a good fight. I've kept the faith. They've
laid up for me a crown of righteousness. All right. He's writing to his
friends at Ephesus. Now, get this picture. Here's
the old Pharisee. Here's the man who met God in
that traumatic experience on the road to Damascus. Here is
God's chosen vessel. He's been used for many years.
Here's the old warrior about to finish his course. And he
writes to these friends down at Ephesus. To the saints, he
said, look at it, Paul, an apostle, an apostle, an important man,
an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. To the saints,
to the believers at Ephesus, to the faithful in Christ Jesus,
that's who I'm writing to. God's grace be upon you, God's
peace be upon you, from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus
Christ. All right, what's he going to
write about? What do you suppose he's going to write about? Now, let's see. First
of all, he says, bless God. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Praise God from whom all blessings
flow. That's where he starts. Praise
God from whom all blessings flow. Praise God who's blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. All
spiritual blessings are from the hand of God and they're all
in Christ. That's where he starts. Everything
that we have is from God and it's in Christ. That's very simple. Nothing overly profound there,
nothing new and startling there. Blessed be God and the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. Praise God from whom
all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here
below. Praise Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost. Well, let's read on. according
as he hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the
world." He's not too old to preach on election, is he? He hasn't come so far that he's
beyond going back to the old foundation truth. He's not ashamed
to declare to these faithful in Ephesus, that all the blessings
that God has given us in Christ were given us in Christ before
the world began. Given us before the world began.
It pleased God to make you His people. It pleased God that in
Christ should all fullness dwell. It pleased God to bruise Him.
It pleased God to reveal His Son in us. It pleased God by
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. The
Apostle Paul has not graduated beyond going back and tracing
our blessings to God's elective grace. I think sometimes that our preachers
get so wise that we're going to handle people so delicately
and carefully to keep from offending anyone that we violate our commission. in being honest and truthful
with the hearts of men. Paul said, I bless God from whom
all blessings flow, all heavenly blessings in Christ. And they're
ours because God chose us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. Let me never be ashamed to stand before any congregation
and declare that I have what I have by the grace of God in
Christ Jesus. He elected me. Christ said, you
didn't choose me, I chose you. We seek Him because He sought
us. We love Him because He loved us. We call upon Him because
He called on us. God chose me in Christ before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before Him. Watch this now. He moves on,
having predestinated us. having predestinated us under
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. All of God's
children will be just like Christ. This is his divine purpose, predestinated
from all eternity. I'm not going to avoid the doctrine
of predestination because men have abused it, misused it. Predestination's
in the Bible. It's a very precious doctrine.
This is what Paul's saying. He starts where he is. He says,
God has blessed me. God has blessed me with all spiritual
blessings in Christ. And he takes a step back and
he says he's blessed me right now with his spiritual blessings
because he chose me. Not because I was worthy, not
because I deserved it, not because I earned it, but I have these
blessings because God chose me. God chose me out of all mankind. God elected me. He elected me
in Christ. And then he takes another step
backward and said, he elected me in Christ because he predestinated
or predetermined that he would have a people just like his son.
Heaven's going to be a, Barnard used to say, heaven's going to
be populated by a people that love what God loves and hate
what God hates. They're all going to be just
like Christ. Men aren't predestinated to go to hell. They're predestinated
to be like Christ. Almighty God doesn't have to
elect a man to damnation. He's already damned. God doesn't
have to elect a man to condemnation. He's already condemned. Christ
didn't come to condemn the world. The world was already condemned.
All the living God has to do to damn a man is just leave him
alone. Just leave him in his darkness and leave him in his
sin and leave him in his unbelief. He'll perish if left to himself. And then he takes a step back
and he says, all of this is according to the good pleasure of his will.
That's sovereignty. What I'm trying to point out
here is, here I am 55 years old, supposed to be in the prime of
my ministry, but so are my friends. And some of them seem a little
hesitant, they seem a little shy, they seem a little reserved,
they seem a little intellectual, they seem a little bit determined
to do something that the Word doesn't do, to pacify or to get
along with people or to build something that God isn't building. Here Paul is, coming to the end
of his journey, Paul who's experienced more than all of us put together
ever experienced in a half a dozen lifetimes, and when he writes
to this church at Ephesus, he just writes the plain, simple
truth, foundational truth that we started with. Here he's just,
after all these years, right back where we started. Bless
God. Praise God, from whom all blessings
flow. And all these blessings are in
Christ, and they're given us in Christ, because God chose
us. God chose us. And God chose us
because God predetermined that He'd have a people just like
Christ. And God predetermined to have
a people like Christ because that was His will. According
to the good pleasure of His own will, He worketh all things after
the counsel of His own will. You see that in verse 11? 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. And then he takes another step
back, verse 6, and says, all of this to the praise of the
glory of His grace. Glory. These are the words, you
know, if I were to announce next Sunday night I was going to preach
on election, predestination, sovereignty, and glory. Somebody
would say, well, he's going back over the same old things, ain't
he, when he's going with Hirst the same? Yes, sir, I sure am. That's what Paul's doing. It's
the same old thing. I'm just trying to think of another
way to say it. It's the same thing. But it's all, God has
blessed me according as He chose me, having predestinated me to
be like Christ, according to the good pleasure of His own
will, and that, verse 6, to the praise of the glory of His grace.
Now my friends, why don't you listen to me here just a moment.
I hope I've learned this and I hope you have too. There is
a glory of the sun. There is a glory of the moon.
There is a glory of the stars. There is a glory of the forest
and the sea and the mountain. There is a glory of the angels. There is a glory of the heavenly
creatures. And there is a glory of man. But everything that God
has made in heaven, earth, and under the earth will be for his
glory. And you and I haven't learned
anything about the Lord God until we learn that in all things,
past, present, and future, all things in heaven, earth, and
under the earth, all things in the skies and the seas, all things
written and unwritten, all things visible and invisible, will be
for His glory. He will be glorified in all things. He will have the preeminence.
He will not share His glory. He says, My glory I'll not give
to another. Everything, Paul sums all of
this up. He says, Bless God who has given
us all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ, according
as He chose us, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children,
according to the good pleasure of His own will, and all of it
to the praise of the glory of His grace. Look at chapter 2,
verse 7. That in the ages to come, He
might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. Now, look at verse 7. And the
Apostle Paul, I want to make this brief, The Apostle Paul
comes now to God's chief glory, His redemptive glory. Verse 7,
In whom? In whom? In the Father who chose
us, in the Son who redeemed us, in the Spirit who called us,
in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sin according to the riches of His grace. Let me point out four
things from this seventh verse here before we partake of the
Lord's table. First of all, I want you to look
at four words, redemption through His blood. Notice this, it is
not redemption through His love, although apart from His love
we were not redeemed. It is not redemption through
His power. although the gospel is the power
of God unto salvation. It is not redemption through
His grace, although by grace through faith you are saved,
but it is redemption through His blood. Without the shedding
of blood there is no redemption. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no ransom. If anything is set forth clearly
in the Scriptures, it is this, there is no redemption apart
from blood. Turn to Leviticus chapter 17.
In Leviticus chapter 17, there is no redemption apart from the
shedding of blood. In Leviticus 17, verse 11, for
the life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you upon the
altar to make an atonement for your souls." It is the blood
that makes the atonement for the soul. This is what the Passover
is saying. This is what the Lord's Table
is saying. We are redeemed through the blood. Now, Mr. Spurgeon
pointed out three things. He says redemption through blood
honors God, enables God to be just and justified. Secondly,
redemption through blood gives comfort to believers. I have
found a ransom, a sufficient ransom, an effectual ransom,
an acceptable ransom. Without a ransom, we could have
no comfort, we could have no assurance, we could have no confidence.
And then thirdly, he says, redemption through blood gives dying grace. David said in his last words,
although my house be not so with God, Yet He hath made with me
an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure, and
this is my confidence, my salvation, my hope, my refuge, my strength,
my all." This gives dying grace. And this is what we celebrate
here tonight, redemption through the blood. All right, look at
the second thing. He says we have redemption through His blood.
Four more words. The forgiveness of sin. Now,
this has to set the heart of the sinner. The forgiveness of
sin. The forgiveness of sin. What
do we mean by the forgiveness of sin? What does the forgiveness
of sin include? Well, it includes three things.
Number one, the penalty is gone. Blessed is the man to whom God
will not charge sin. Look at Romans chapter 4, verse
7 and 8. Blessed is the man, David said,
In verse 7, Romans chapter 4, blessed are they whose iniquities
are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Happy is the man to
whom the Lord will not charge sin. The penalty is gone. Not
only is the penalty gone, but divine favor is restored. We
have fellowship, John said, fellowship. I not only forgive you, but come
and take your place with me. And not only that, but peace
of heart reigns. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace. Peace with God, peace of conscience,
and peace of heart. My sins, past, present, and future,
my sins, the multitude of them, my sins, and all manner of sin
and blasphemy, my sins, oh, the bliss of that glorious thought,
my sins, not in part, but the whole, are nailed to the cross. I bear them no more. Praise the
Lord, it's well with my soul." See what the table means? Redemption
through blood, the forgiveness of sin. Now what's the next word? According to the riches of His
grace. Redemption through blood and
the forgiveness of sin is still a matter of grace. And grace
alone. According to the riches of His
grace. Now, let me show you this. Redemption,
really, in one sense of the word, is a matter of justice. Redemption, in one sense of the
word, is a matter of justice. It's justice, a matter of justice
with God, because the law is sufficiently honored And justice
is sufficiently satisfied so God can be just and justified. So really and truly, redemption,
my redemption, if you think of it in this sense, my redemption
with God is just. There's a sense in which it is
just. It is an act of justice because
Christ has fulfilled all that God requires. He satisfied justice. He's honored the lost sin has
been put away. It's like Jim Harris said to
me today that he quoted a little poem up at Bledsoe, Kentucky
last Sunday, payment God's justice cannot twice demand. First at
my bleeding shirt, his hand, then again at mine. So my redemption
and forgiveness really in one sense of the word is a matter
of justice. Christ has satisfied me. Christ has redeemed me. But it's
a matter of grace in this. in that it was grace that purposed
to save me. It was grace that chose to save
me. It was grace that gave God's
Son to satisfy justice and honor the law. It was grace that called
me to faith, and it's grace that keeps me in faith. Here's an
old hymn they used to sing years ago. Grace is a charming sound,
harmonious to the ear. Heaven with the echo shall resound,
and all the earth shall hear. Grace first planned the way to
save rebellious man. And all the steps that grace
displayed drew that wondrous plan. Grace first inscribed my
name in God's eternal book. It was grace that gave me to
the Lamb who all my sorrows took. Grace taught my soul to pray
and made my eyes overflow. It's grace that kept me to this
day. And grace. it will not let me
go. So my redemption through His
blood and my forgiveness of all sin is really in one sense an
act of God's justice. For Christ has honored the law
and satisfied His justice, but all of it is the gift of His
grace. Now watch this. Go back to the
first part of the verse again and watch four words here. I've
given you these different four words, but watch these four words
in verse 7. In whom we have. Now what have
we been talking about? We've been talking about redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sin, the riches of His grace,
and it says here, in whom we have. What's that saying? That's saying this, that right
now I have redemption. Right now I have the forgiveness
of sin. It's mine in Christ. Not going
to be, it is right now. I was reading Spurgeon last night
and he said a minister stood up in a preacher's meeting which
he was attending in London one day and declared that he doubted
that any person could be assured of redemption and forgiveness
right now. And Spurgeon said, I couldn't
restrain myself I had to jump up and say, not so! For the Word
of God declares in Ephesians 1, 7, In whom we have redemption
through blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of His grace. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. Right now. And this is what comes
back to, right here, comes back to the fact that Christ loved
us and gave Himself for us. Christ loved us and gave Himself
for us. And we meet tonight around this broken bread and this wine,
symbolic of His precious body, perfect, holy, without sin. Our substitute, our sin offering,
nailed to the cross, in our place instead. His blood was shed for
the remission of our sin. And we come together tonight
discerning, understanding, comprehending our substitute, Jesus Christ.
I take this bread. which represents my Lord's body,
not is His body, but represents it. And I put it in my mouth
and chew it up and swallow it like I received Christ by faith.
And I take this wine, symbolic of His shed blood, this is my
hope, this is my place, that when Christ died, He died for
me. This is my salvation, this is my redemption, this is my
sanctification, this is my righteousness, this is my holiness, this is
my acceptance, this is my claim on God. This is my title to heaven. This is my title to life eternal.
Christ loved me and gave himself for me. You got any other title?
So that's the simplicity of Christ, simplicity of the gospel.