We're going to start in the book of Ephesians tonight. I don't know, I'll have to look. Well, it took us 17 months to get, months, 17 weeks to get through the works of the flesh. So, yeah, it's been a while, but Book of Ephesians, start at chapter one, of course, is the beginning of it. And so that's a good place to start. And Brother Dale, why don't you open us in prayer. Father, we're thankful for the word of God, thankful for the things you show us and reveal to us for our own lives. Father, I pray for the study tonight that you would be a pastor and be with us, Father, that we'd soak it in and learn from it and grow from it, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. All right. Well, Ephesians chapter 1 starts right at verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Now, Paul's openings to his different epistles are very similar, for the most part. There's some shifting in wording and all of that. When it comes to the book of Hebrews, the only way you can decipher that that is Paul, other than just seeing him taking the reader by the hand and taking them through the law, you see that token of his epistle at the very end of saying, you know, grace and peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, amen. But here, a good exercise to do, and this is something that Pastor Asquith has recommended, and it's what he tells all his students, and it's a great exercise, and I've begun it, I've nowhere near finished it, but starting at the Book of Romans, and go through all 14 of Paul's epistles, and break it down word by word, phrase by phrase. Starting right with Paul, what does the entire Bible say about Paul? Look up Paul everywhere his name comes up, even back when he was Saul of Tarsus and all of that. And then it says an apostle. Well, what is an apostle? What does that mean? In relation to what we're looking at here in Ephesians, you're still continuing in that same light, going in that same mind of things. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, alright? By the will of God. Where was the will of God exercised in calling of Paul and such like that? You know, these types of studies, if you go through that and go through line by line, precept upon precept, and phrase upon phrase, and all of that, by the time you get to the end of the writings of Paul, you're going to have an entire layout of the entire Bible. of doctrine, because Paul's job was to teach us doctrine out of the Old Testament, to teach us the law, to teach us the prophets, to teach us all of those things. And so, you know, as we go through those things, you know, that is, again, a helpful tool to drop back into the law in these things, where you see him mention sacrifices or blood or sanctification or something to that effect, anointing, you know, those things. Go back into the law and look at what he may be speaking of and decipher those things back and forth like that, and it's going to be a big help to you. But here, just his introductory remark there in verse 1, that it was by the will of God that he's an apostle of Jesus Christ. What we have to understand about Paul is that his understanding of the law made him perfectly fitted to do what he is doing right now. In writing to the church at Ephesus, this is clearly a Gentile church. There would have been Jews in the church there, obviously, because in every city there were synagogues. And that goes all the way back to the time of Alexander the Great, when he was marching on, going and conquering and everything. He'd come upon Jerusalem, And the leaders came out and they had prophecies from the Old Testament and showed them, you know, we've been expecting you to come. These are the prophecies that foretold in Daniel that you were going to be coming. And that so impressed him that he took those Jews and he took them with him and settled them in each of the provinces that he conquered and such. And that's why there's a dispersing of Jews. And that's why every town that Paul goes into, where does he go first? The synagogue. Well, this is in Asia. This is in, like, you know, the regions way beyond anything that a Jew should be in, but yet there's a synagogue there. And the reason is because of Alexander the Great. And it's just a little extra information there. But he calls this out to all the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Now, again, that phrase, in Christ Jesus, whenever you come across that, and we're going to get to this when we get to chapter 2 and verses 6 and all of this, but that is much more than just our position, okay? That's more than our legal position, that's more than just our status, okay? That is actually our location. Look over, just glance over there at Ephesians 2.6. It says, "...and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." So this is our actual location. We're no longer just located here on earth. Once you're born of God, God takes your spirit and unites it with the body of Christ in heaven. And that is where you are. When God looks at you, that's what He pictures. You are now in Christ Jesus. And you're not only just in Christ Jesus, you are in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You're already there. And again, that's tagging in, and we're going to get into this and look at the scriptures and everything. Absence of body is to be present with the Lord and all of that, and we're going to look at that in context when we get there. But that's the reason that the angels no longer come and carry someone away when they die. If they are born again, they're already in Christ. So when they die in this body, they don't have anywhere to go because they're already in Him. Okay? And so it isn't like it used to be where the angels came and carried Lazarus to Abraham's bosom. That's done away with because he led captivity captive. Those who were captive, they were that captivity in Abraham's bosom are now captive in Christ Jesus, seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. All right? And so it just, you know, filling in the gaps there. And whenever you find that phrase in Christ or in Christ Jesus or in him, Understand it's more than just your position, all right? There's an element to that, but it is your actual location. It's where you're at, okay? Which then again, you know, hammers home this idea that, you know, how are you going to take back your salvation? How are you going to give it back? How are you going to lose that thing? Are you going to go up into heaven and pull your spirit out of the body of Christ? Are you going to open up the hand of the Father and open up the hand of Jesus Christ and pull yourself out of that thing? No, you can't. Okay? And anybody, honestly, anybody that would say, hey, you know what, I don't want Christ anymore. I don't want anything to do with this thing. I am no longer a Christian. They were never born again to begin with. They were never born again to begin with. And so those things are easily reconcilable when you take the Bible for what it says rather than taking doctrine from men. And it's these little words of in Christ Jesus and seated in Christ and in heavenly places. All of those things, they build our doctrine to understand, hey, this is a salvation that lasts. It gives assurance forever. All right, how can a salvation that you can lose or that you can even give back, how can that be an assurance forever? It can't, okay? That's a different Jesus preached. That's a different Christ. It is that spirit of antichrist. All right, verse two. It says, grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, so now he is laying this out and showing, separating God the Father and God the Son here. All right, showing that God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, two distinct separate entities. And that's why this Jesus-only movement falls right apart when you start looking at the Bible. So many places, going even into Hebrews 4.12, where it says, It separates those two things and shows the separation of those. And it goes in and you can dissect the Godhead with the Word of God. It is that sharp sword that goes in there and you can dissect that thing and you can look into the Godhead and you can see each individual one as a person, but yet within that, what we'll call the bubble of the Godhead. The only thing that I have really against Patrick, you know, the Catholics call him St. Patrick, and his three-leaf clover analogy that he used, is because when you look at that three-leaf clover, initially you can see three separate heads. But when you look at the Godhead as a whole, it's more like a bubble. And when the son takes the stage, he takes the highlight. He is the one that is speaking, the one that is acting, the one that is doing whatever it is. He will step out of that bubble. And he is there and he is now in the spotlight. He is highlighted as the one that is acting. When he is done speaking, he slips back into that bubble and he is the Godhead. Same thing with the Father, when the Father steps out, and here He is brought to the highlight, okay? The Father is brought into the spotlight here, but yet we still see they are all three God. When you come into the place of the Holy Ghost and you see that Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, the Comforter does specific things. He reproves the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. When you see those things taking place, you know, okay, hey, this is the Holy Ghost stepping out of that bubble, but yet still fully God. And then step back into the bubble of the Godhead. And the most interesting thing about the Holy Ghost is He doesn't really step out as His own individual person until Matthew chapter 1. Until the beginning of the New Testament, that's when the Holy Ghost steps on the scene as an individual person. You see Him at work, you see Him moving, you see Him working behind the scenes, but He doesn't come out and take that title of the Holy Ghost until that point. And so, just an interesting thing there, also something to note, and you're going to see this in Paul's greetings and his farewell statements, is that grace comes before peace. Grace always comes. There's an order to that. Grace be to you and peace. You cannot have peace until you have grace. Until you are under the grace of God, you are still under the law of God. And until that time that He has released you from that law and you have been born again, you're not going to have peace. We know that we need peace, okay? We understand that there's something within us that says, hey, there is something that is not right, there is something that we need that we do not have, and it's peace. Most importantly, it's peace with God. But you even talk to any group of society, any person that is in any framework of theology or any, you know, whether it be Eastern mysticism or right down to the hippies, okay? They know that there is something not right. There is a euphoria, there is a utopia out there that they know should be that isn't there. There should be peace on earth, okay? Miss America, what do they always wish for? You know, well, peace on earth, right? And if those of you listening to the recording, I was rolling my eyes there. I don't know if I did it loud enough. As you look at that, that understanding, hey, there is something that's not right in my life, there's something that's not right in the world. Evolution cannot account for that. It just can't. There is no reckoning in the evolutionary theory of how things came to be that can reconcile morality. And that there is a level of morality in every structure of government, in every structure of society, in every people group, in every town, in every society across the world, in every civilization. There is a level of morality. Okay? And they all have self-control. All right? Pastor Asquith just did a tremendous write-up on his blog about temperance. And having just gone through those things in the Thursday Night Bible Study here with the works of the flesh, I thought, oh, this will be interesting. Let's just see what his take on it is. And things lined up quite well, and I was happy to see that. The basic idea behind it is the difference between self-control and temperance, and the New Bibles mash that into one. They take the word temperance out and they put self-control in. As we said at our Thursday Night Bible Study, it is much more than self-control. It's knowing how much to have, what to do, the right amount of those things. A mass murderer even has self-control. He controls himself as he goes and he commits those murders. Why? Well, because he'll go to the bank and he'll cash a check while he's still under the radar. He'll go to a restaurant and he'll order food. He doesn't just kill everybody everywhere he goes. He's controlling himself. That man has self-control, but zero temperance. And so you see the difference there. And that peace will not come until you have grace. Just like that temperance will not come until you have the Spirit of God. So the grace of God brings all of these things. It brings all of this about. And so he lists that out in very clear order. Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings, where? In heavenly places, where? In Christ. Okay? Tagging that again in over here in chapter 2 verse 6, that is why he hath made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that he can bless us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And that's why we know it's our spirit that is in Christ. that our spirit is united with his spirit just as much as his spirit is united with our body, okay? In his physical body, as he is seated there, right at the right hand of the Father, all right? And as we would step up and we would look at him, the Father would be here and Christ would be on our left side, but he's seated at the right hand of the Father, okay? Just, so yeah, if you need an image for that. But those spiritual blessings, and we're going to look at a bunch of these spiritual blessings, and they're going to all come out. One thing that I'm going to lay out here now, before we jump into these next verses here, the majority of the spiritual blessings are encompassed in walking with Christ, walking in Him. The majority of the spiritual blessings that we have are for this life. It's the release of our sin. It's the release of our sin nature. It's the new creature on the inward parts. It's walking in Him now. The goodness of God now in this life. We're going to have eternity and the whole reason we have eternity, and it says it here in verse 7 in chapter 2, that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. So we're going to have eternity simply for the fact that we can search out the riches of His grace, and it's going to take for all eternity. It's going to take the ages to come in order to even begin to scratch the surface on those things. And three trillion years from now, we're still going to be digging into things in this Bible. And we're still going to be finding things. We're going to still be finding riches and goodness and the glory of God. But these spiritual blessings, they're for this life now. Think about what Christ said, and I can't quote it exactly, but he says, you know, there's none of you that's left father and mother and house and wives and lands and all of that, that you shall not receive in this life. those things, and in the life to come, you know, life everlasting. So there's blessings, there's spiritual blessings in this life. And it's because God wants to make you what he knows he is going to make you into. I say that way very, very carefully in framing my words, even though it may have sounded a little muddled. But the entirety of Ephesians chapter 1, from this point forward, we're going to see something laid out. And I want us to have in mind exactly what the adoption is. We're going to look at the adoption. We're going to see what that is. And the very first place we're going to turn to before we go on here, before we go on into verse four, I want you to turn to Romans chapter eight. And we are gonna look at what the adoption is, what it is to have the adoption of sons, what it is to be adopted, okay? Romans chapter eight, and I'm gonna start in verse 15. We're gonna run down through these things, we're gonna bring it right into play. Romans 8.15, for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And again, looking at that it, it's not a he. So we know that's not speaking of the Holy Ghost. That spirit there, it's not the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And we found that also in Galatians 4, 6 when we were looking at those things, okay? That he is there crying, Abba, Father. And that same spirit's whereby we cry, Abba, Father, okay? But let's keep going here. Verse 16, the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And this is assurance of your salvation. The Spirit itself bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. If the Spirit of God cannot bear witness with your spirit that you're a child of God, then you are not a child of God. If you're sitting under preaching, and you're seeking God, and you're desiring and you're searching that thing out with fear and trembling, and you're weighing the Word of God against what you have in your spirit, and you cannot find that full assurance of faith, The Spirit of God cannot bear witness with your spirit that you're a child of God. It means that you are not a child of God. Now your heart can deceive yourself, but I'm telling you what, God is greater than your heart and knoweth all things. We saw that in John chapter, 1 John. I can't remember where it was in 1 John, maybe chapter three. Well, we'll continue on, Luke verse 17. And if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." Now, what is the creature? What is the creature? If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold, all things have become new. Now, when you were born again, those of you who are in here who are born of God, did you get a brand new body? Did you get all the scars from the life of sin and all of that on your physical flesh? Did you get a new body for that? No. So the creature is not the creation. Your creation is your body. One place again, and I don't bring this up other than to just point it out, the new Bibles will change that word creature into creation, which puts the emphasis on the wrong thing. It's on the outward appearance now. Ah, and religion can change that. One thing that Satan cannot do is change you on the inward parts, to put holiness in you, to put righteousness in you. Satan cannot do that. He can pretty up the outside. He can give you a new creation on the outside. But He cannot do anything for the creature on the inward parts. That new creature is Christ Jesus. It's Christ in you, the hope of glory. And we're going to see those verses later on tonight. Okay? But we'll continue on in this though. Let's see. Verse 22. So we were talking about the creature. Now we're talking about the creation. So the whole creation. This goes beyond just your body groaning and moaning and in pain and agony in the age of life and the aging process and the slow decay of your body. This is creation itself. The ground itself groans. I've heard different recordings where they've taken the radio waves that are, you know, from like the solar flares and the various things and various deep space radio waves that they've picked up and all that, and they put it into a sound wave. And it literally sounds almost like whales moaning. It's that same type of thing, okay? Creation itself is groaning because it's falling. Initially, it fell when Satan rebelled against God. The ground was cursed when man repelled against God. So keep those things in mind. But the creation itself, the whole creation, groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. In verse 23, this is the key, this is where we're at. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit. Now, what are the firstfruits of the Spirit? Well, it is that fruit of the Spirit. But think of this, when Israel first went into the promised land, what were the first fruits of that land? Can you remember? The grapes of Eshcol. They were the first fruits. They brought them out. They carried them on a staff between two people because they were so big. When God had first initially told them to go in, Now, obviously, if they didn't, spend another 40 years, and then so, you know, thinking of those first fruits, just wasting away. But what are the first fruits in us? The first fruits of the Spirit of God. When God has made you perfectly fitted for the Kingdom of God, the first fruits of that Spirit are His attributes. Okay? What he has made you on the inward parts, once you're born of God, what he makes you on the inward parts is perfectly fitted for the kingdom of God. There is nothing else that has to be done to you on the inward parts to make you ready to walk right into that millennial kingdom. Nothing. But yet, Paul says, in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. Your flesh has not been adopted yet. Your flesh is not in the family of God. The new creature is, you've been born of God. You actually had a spiritual birth. If I can put it this way, you had a literal spiritual birth on the inward parts. Born of God. God is now your natural born father. But your body must be adopted. And that hasn't taken place yet. Okay? Let's read verse 23. having the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption. Okay, so here we are. We are our own selves are waiting for the adoption. We're groaning within ourselves. And what is that groaning? It's the fight of the flesh. It's the carnal mind still desiring to take control. That old man is crucified with Christ. He's dead and gone, but your flesh learned an awful lot from that old man. We put off that old man then. We put off the sins of the body. How shall we who are dead to sins live any longer therein? And what do we do? We put on the new man. We put on Christ. Add your faith, virtue. All right? Virtue, knowledge. All right? My sister-in-law the other day was telling me, came and told Natalie and I about that. She was reading about the woman with the issue of blood, had that issue of blood for all those many years. And she was looking at the, you know, that she spent all of her substance, you know, on the physicians and it only made her worse. And she says, if I can just get and touch the hem of his garment, I'll be made whole. And so she went to Jesus with her issue and he touched her, or she touched him rather. And it says, virtue went out of him. He knew that virtue had gone out of him and he turns about and they have this conversation and he tells the woman, thy faith hath made thee whole. She received the faith of Christ. How did she receive that? Well, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. She heard the things that Christ was doing. She heard the report that he was the son of God. She heard these things, that faith came to her, she believed it enough to reach out and touch the hem of his garment. He says, thy faith hath made thee whole. All right, that's not faith she worked up, it's faith that was given to her as she heard the word of God. Okay, you see how that works. But you go into Peter, I think it's 1 Peter, is it 1 or 2 Peter? Add to your faith, 2 Peter, add to your faith virtue. Okay, that woman added to her faith virtue. When she reached out and touched the hem of her garment, she had faith, but she touched that thing, and virtue went out of Jesus Christ, and it went into her. And the thing is, and this is tremendous, where did she find virtue? At the feet of Jesus Christ. So how do you, as a born-again believer, add to your faith virtue? You get at the feet of Christ. You get at the feet of Jesus. That's the only place you're going to find virtue. Because if you add knowledge to your faith before you add virtue to your faith, you're going to be puffed up in pride because knowledge puffeth up, charity edifieth, okay? You're going to be puffed up in pride and you're going to fall. You're going to destroy others on your way down, okay? That's why you must add to your faith virtue. When you've received the faith of Christ, you're born of God, you get at the feet of Jesus and learn of Him, okay? Just a little aside, but I thought that was tremendous. That was excellent. What excites me the most about that is that is taking the word of God and allowing the Holy Ghost of God to direct you and guide you into all truth. to discern these things doctrinally, okay? And it all fits if it's perfectly, all right? And I just, I'm not patting her on the back at all. I'm just saying that's tremendous. The Lord did that. Okay. Back into here, verse 23. We're going within ourselves, waiting for the adoption. And then he tells us what the adoption is, to wit, the redemption of our body. Okay? That is what the adoption is. We've received the spirit of adoption. That is the earnest of our inheritance. That's the seal of our inheritance. Okay? That spirit bearing witness with our spirit, that is that seal. And we're going to see that in Ephesians. Okay? But we're about to go into some things here that have been misconstrued with leaning heavily upon the writings of man. But we're just going to use the Word of God as that quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, and we're going to allow the Word of God to build precept upon precept what these things mean. And the first thing we have to understand is what it is to be adopted into the household of God. It is the redemption of our body. Now, when is our body redeemed? 1 Corinthians 15 tells us that. when this mortal shall put on immortality, when the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up with them, and then shall we ever be with the Lord. That event, whether it's the resurrection, if you're a dead in Christ, or it's what we call the rapture, that being caught up, Whichever side of the grave you're on in that thing, that is the adoption of your body. That is when you get your body is adopted into the family of God. And it is made perfectly fitted for the kingdom of God. As I said, once you're born of God, you on the inward parts are perfectly fitted to walk the streets with Jesus Christ in the millennial kingdom. perfectly fitted for that. Nothing more has to be done to you on the inward parts. You've been changed and made into a new creature in Christ, okay? But your flesh is still wicked, it's still corrupt, and that must be purged, that must be purified, that must be made into the image of Christ, okay? So keeping that in mind, the adoption is going to conform us into the image of Christ. Let's go back to Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 4. according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world." And that right there is where the majority of theologians will stop, and they'll take a camp on one side of the aisle or the other. They'll either say, yep, right there, proves it, predestination, God knows who's gonna be in heaven and who's gonna be in hell, and there's no chance either way of getting one side or the other. All right? You're either predestined to heaven or you're predestined to hell. That's not what that says. Or you're on the other side of the camp and takes up the gauntlet against those ones and raises up their sword and says, no, man has the free will to choose. Okay? One side or the other. And until about 30 years ago, 40 years ago, those were the only options. Right? Back in Sammy Allen's day, when he first got into the ministry, he had to make a choice whether he was an Arminian or a Calvinist. the mainline, middle-of-the-road, Baptistic, Biblicist mindset that, okay, I see some things in Calvinism in the Bible, and I see some things in Arminianism in the Bible, so why don't I just follow the Bible instead? Okay? And again, this is a grief to my heart. is that many of my brethren, and myself included for many years, and I still don't know how to adequately do it properly, but many of my Baptist brethren only know how to prove their point. They don't know how to help anybody who doesn't believe their point. They only know how to either prove that Calvinism is right or that Calvinism is wrong. That's all they know how to do. They either know how to prove it and blow that one out of the water, or prove it and blow that one out of the water. They have no idea how to help anybody. What God's laid on my heart is that we would be a church, that we would be able to take the word of God and in meekness instruct those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. Taking the word of God for exactly as it says, using the sharp sword skillfully, having been given skill and understanding in the way of doing it, and being able to lay it out in such a way doctrinally, so that the person that doesn't agree with you, that God can convince them of the Word of God. But you also got to realize something. I don't have everything 100% right. Neither do you. And so when the Word of God disagrees with what you believe, you are wrong. You cannot take a King James Bible, in context, for exactly as it says, to whom it was written, for when it was written, and you cannot take those things and build false doctrine. It's impossible. The wording of the King James Bible is absolutely perfect. It perfectly matches, it perfectly interprets the words of God from the Greek and the Hebrew and the Aramaic into English. It's the exact representation of those words, exactly as God wanted it to be. You can't interpret it better, you can't translate it better. Even the King James translators themselves said, we are making one more exact translation. That was their idea, that was the mind that God had put in them, that was the charge they had gotten from the king, and that's what they set out to do, and that's what God accomplished through them. And so with these things, that word predestinated, that word chosen, the word elect, those are God's words. You cannot throw them out because a Calvinist believes them. You cannot throw them out because you don't want to line up with what they might say. You have got to look at what the Bible says for exactly as it says it. Now, what we've done is we've looked at that word adoption. And we're gonna see that laid out here in just a little bit. But right now we're looking at this being chosen. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. Now, again, if we stopped there, we could pick up that Calvinistic thing. Hey, that's what the Bible says. He has chosen us before the foundation of the world and I'll shout that from the rooftops. And I'm sorry if he hasn't chosen you, there's no hope for you. And that's where it falls short, yes? That's between Genesis 3 and Genesis 4, okay? That was fully accomplished when Abel's blood was shed. No, the earth and the world are two different things. Yes, absolutely. Yep. So, good question though. But this continues, all right? What did he choose us for? Let's look at it. That we should be holy. and without blame before Him in love." That's what He chose. He said, the ones that believe on Me, I am choosing that they will be holy. And without blame before Him in love. How about that? Blameless, before the throne of God. Blameless, standing before Him. Blameless and holy. Now, the question stands. When will we actually stand before Him? At the adoption. At the resurrection. That's when we'll stand before Him. And He has chosen that those that believe on Him will stand there at that day, and He has decided they will be holy and blameless when they stand before Me. That's what that chosen is. It's literally what the Bible says right there. Now, let's see what he predestinated us for. Look at this, look at verse five. Oh, let's see. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children. Okay, now this is the key word of this whole thing, unto. The difference between the word to and unto is very subtle, but it's a very clear distinction. If I write a letter and I put it in the mail, I have mailed it to someone. Let's just say I sent a letter to Sean. Okay, I wrote a letter, put a stamp on it, addressed it right, put it in there, I mailed it to him. But, Let's just say down at the post office, something happens, it falls off the cart, gets kicked under a table, and it never gets delivered. Did I still mail it to him? Yes, I did. But if I mailed that to him, it went through the post office, got into the hand of the delivery guy, he puts it in the mailbox, closes the thing up, Sean comes down to the mailbox, opens the mailbox, pulls that letter out, opens it and reads it. Guess what? I mailed it unto him. It was delivered to His hands. It made it all the way to its intended place. Now, with that in mind, the unto denotes delivery. It has arrived to the destination that it was sent to. Let's look at this. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children. It's a location. This is speaking of the rapture. He predestinated us that we would be holy and blameless before Him at that rapture. All the way to the rapture, all the way delivering you standing right before God. That's that adoption. When you are born of God, it is an actual birth. There is travail, there is great pains, there is great agony, and then there's great joy when that child is delivered into the kingdom of God. And then that day comes. when you're adopted, when your flesh is adopted, when your flesh is resurrected, and everyone stands before God, and then you are then made perfect. There is nothing about you that could ever be brought as far as blame goes. That's why it says without blame before Him. You can't even be blamed for anything. So let's keep going with this. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, to himself. So, how did he do it? It was by Jesus Christ. That's how he did it. That sacrifice of his son, it was all him. It wasn't just through him, it was actually by him. He was the one that did it. And that's why I say that spirit of adoption, I kind of see that that really lines up with Jesus Christ in that. And in that, though, it's an interesting thought, if you want to just figure, you know, toy with this for a second. When a child is going to be adopted, I think of Kylan and Shana, you know, adopting the boys. Did the boys have anything to do with that? Mm-mm, all they had to do was show up. They were children, they were babies, they were infants, okay? They had no decision whatsoever. But who was the one that had to make that decision? It was the father. The Father made the decision, I am going to adopt these children. But yet here we see it was by Jesus Christ. Why wouldn't it be the Heavenly Father then? Well, is He not called the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, okay? Yeah? If you read further, according to the good pleasure of His will, you can see the reward of His suffering. Yep, that's good. Tie that in with what we looked at in verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. Paul is in this whole thing too. He's laying this all out that this is why I'm here. It's because of the will of God. And I want you to just tie this idea in, lest any of this should get burdensome with the doctrines of men. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He has made it so that all should come to repentance. They should. He's given them everything they need to. He's given them every opportunity to. They should come to repentance, but not everybody does. It's not a shall, they should. Had that said, shall come to repentance? Well, then I would say, yeah, Calvinism is true. That predestined to heaven, predestined to hell. But it should. It's according to the will of man. Your will is the only thing that can disrupt the will of God. It's the only thing. Your unbelief. You're not gonna enter in because of your unbelief. Jesus couldn't do many mighty works because of their unbelief, okay? They chose not to believe the things that were given. They chose not to receive them, right? Now, those of you who are here who are struggling with belief, I know it is a grief to you. I understand that. I understand it is a grief to you hearing, all I have to do is believe. I know, but I can't believe. Let me just rest you something. You're here tonight, sitting under the preaching of the Word of God. You're here seeking the mind of Christ. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. This is the work of God that you believe on Him whom ye hath sent. And He's speaking to you by His Word. He is building within you, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little, the faith of Jesus Christ. Ultimately, when you look at the faith of Christ, and it's that faith that God gives you, okay? It's that faith that comes to you, that comes by the hearing of the Word of God. Ultimately, that faith is the faith of the resurrection. It's believing there is that resurrection waiting. That's what Jesus hoped in. It's the hope of the resurrection. We're gonna see that later on when we get into some things dealing with hope, is it's that hope of the resurrection. The entirety of the Christian experience rests in the hope of the resurrection, the entirety of it. That is the one thing that they scoffed at in Athens, was the resurrection. That was the one thing that the Jews scoffed at, was the resurrection. It's the one thing that cannot be rationally perceived, because it's a spiritual thing. And it can only be delivered to you by God. It can only come from God. Flesh and blood cannot reveal the truth and the reality of the resurrection to you. That is only something that God himself can do. Only He can do it. And it comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the Word of God. But he's, verse five again, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. And again, we can look into that good pleasure and we could see that, you know, for the joy that was set before him and all of those things. And you go into Isaiah 53, and I think it's in verse 11 maybe, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days and all of those things. But that is that good pleasure. All things were created for Him and for His good pleasure. That's why we're here, it's for His good pleasure. And God doth not take pleasure in the death of the wicked. Keep that in mind. You who are lost, you are those wicked. That's what the Bible says. And He does not take pleasure in your death. He will not take pleasure in that, because He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And therein comes, in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure, and that's maybe he will, maybe he won't, give them repentance, excuse me, to the acknowledging of the truth. But he cannot give you repentance to the acknowledging of the truth if you do not have a love of the truth. But one thing that I have seen in every, almost every one of you, and the ones who are in the church, we counted them up the other day as we were praying through them, there's 11. Eleven different souls in this church have come to me at one point or another and indicated that they don't have Christ. They're seeking Him. I thank God for that. I thank God for that. But as you look at that, as He is drawing you, He is going to give you those things that you need to hear. And as you are receiving those things, what I'm seeing in at least the ones who are here tonight, one thing that God has given you repentance in is that you now have a love of the truth. You're still having a hard time believing the truth, but you have a love of the truth. Those things that you once bucked at, you now are receiving with joy. That's the work of God. You cannot lower that at all. Diminish it. Minimize it. That's God working. That's God at work. So it's according to good pleasure of His will. We still got time. We'll keep pressing on. Oh, let's see. So the adoption is the redemption of our body according to Romans 8 23. Okay. And it's talking of that resurrection and he has predestinated us. He has chosen that we would be holy in that day. All right. That is what that chosen is. That's what that predestination is, that we would be predestined unto the adoption of children and we would look just like him at that day. Okay. Now, uh, verse six, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Now this is a beautiful thing, okay? To the praise of the glory of His grace. And again, spoke of that grace at the beginning. It is those things, it's those spiritual blessings, it's the goodness of God that nobody deserves. That's what grace is. All right, that acronym that they break that word up, I like it. God's riches at Christ's expense. That's what it is. But when you look at this, wherein, it's in that grace that He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. It was a creative act. It is that new creature. That's why when you are born of God, you have been made accepted in the Beloved. So that at that day of the resurrection, you're going in it. Your ticket is already punched. You're sitting there. They've got the stub. All you're waiting is for that call. That's it. And whether that call comes when you're dead and in the grave, or whether that call comes while you're sleeping, or walking, or working, whatever it is, you're waiting. Waiting for that day. Earnestly waiting for that day. It's interesting, those watch night services that used to be held years and years and years ago, at the turn of the 19th into the 20th century, so the early 1900s, They were watching for the coming of the Lord Jesus. That's what they were doing. That's why it was a watch night service. They would stay up all night praying, waiting for Christ to return, right? That's the origination of those services, okay? And so it's interesting that we've lost touch in that, okay? But that's another thing for another time. Let's turn to a couple of places. I wanna look at this whole thing of he's made us accepted in the beloved. Go to Matthew 3.17 first off. Matthew chapter 3. I think it's just one verse here we need to look at. Yes. I'll look at verse 16 to kind of get the whole context. Look at this. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water. And lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. Okay, now in the other accounts, in Luke and in John, at least in Luke, I know, that Spirit of God is defined as being the Holy Ghost. Okay, so in this instance, this is one place where the Spirit of God is the Holy Ghost descending, okay? Verse 17, and lo, a voice from heaven saying, this is my, what? Beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased. And it says, in his grace, he hath made us accepted in the beloved. We're again speaking of being in Christ. You are in Christ. He is the beloved. He is the beloved son. Go now to Colossians chapter one. I think we're gonna have to probably pick up here next time. We've kind of gone through an awful lot and I don't wanna belabor it too much. Colossians one. I'm on the wrong page. Let's see. Verse 12. Ah, yes. And again, look at this. Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet, that means perfectly fitted for it, to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. He made us meet. We are perfectly fitted for that. What did we just look at? He hath made us accepted. He hath made us meet to be partakers of that inheritance. Verse 13, who hath, already done, it's already done, delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. And there again is that dear son. He's translated us into that kingdom, taken us, our inward man, and made us perfectly the exact thing that's needed in that kingdom. Translation in the Bible is an interesting study. If anybody would be interested in it, it's a pretty brief study, but it's neat seeing what God considers translation. What we consider translation and what God considers translation. Just study that out, translated and all that. Like I said, it's a very short study, but it's a good one. But, it's been translated into that kingdom. You can even look at verse 14, because that continues on into this next verse over here in Ephesians. "...in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." Okay? Now that word, even, it's italicized, okay? Which denotes that it wasn't in the Greek. It was not in the Greek text. And the King James translators were very particular about the use of italics in that. That was further refined after Robert Barker had botched the whole thing up in his printings, as those refinements came along in the early 1700s. Okay? Those use of italics was scrutinized very, very carefully. All right? And again, I'm going to give this example. In English, we would say, I need to go to the store. Okay? It's seven words that we would use to say that sentence. In Spanish, it would be, necesito ir al supermercado. It's four words. Those extra three words would be in italics. That's what that is. That's all that that is. The King James Translator did not add anything into it, but in order for it to be grammatically correct, so that it isn't just mumbo-jumbo, that is what they did. I'm going to leave it there. There was another thing I wanted to say about 1 John, but we all know it and I'm not going to get into it right now. But that word even there, it's almost like it's saying which is to say, okay? I have yet to find a place where that doesn't work, all right? And I've been looking very carefully because I was told that many, many, many years ago, even before I believed every single word of this Bible. This was probably back in 2008, 2009, 2010, that range of time. I was told, hey, those italic even, it's basically saying which is to say, okay? So look at this. in whom we have redemption through his blood, which is to say the forgiveness of sins. So the redemption through his blood is the forgiveness of sins. Okay, that's what that's speaking of. Now, with this in mind, let's go back to Ephesians chapter one. We're gonna be in verse six again. It says, "...to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." And the riches of His grace, it's not out of. Trying to think of the best way to make this example. When you are going to take flour out of a container of flour, you take a scoop, and you might take one or two scoops out. You've taken flour out of that. But if you take it according to the measure of that container, you might fit five pounds of flour in that container. And if you are taking flour according to the measure of that container, you're taking the entirety of it, the whole thing. Okay? With that in mind, look at this. "...in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." It's not just out of the riches of His grace, it's according to. And how deep are the riches of His grace? Oh, we're just gonna need the ages to come to be able to even scratch the surface of it, okay? That's the goodness of God to sinners. The forgiveness of sins, grace. And it's according to the riches of His grace, not out of. You know, I think that's where we'll stop right now. I think that's good. I'll read Ephesians 2-7 here just because I've got it as a cross-reference I wrote in. That in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. And that's kind of the culmination of that. But as we continue on from here, we're going to see time and time again, let's see in verse 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14, on down through really all the way to the very end of chapter 1, we see time and time again, the resurrection, the resurrection, the adoption, the resurrection, holiness in that day. That is what it is. He has chosen before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless in that day. He has predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his son. We're going to see that elsewhere as we as we dig deeper into this. OK, that's what that predestination is. That's what that that that choosing is. He chose us to be holy. He chose us to be conformed to the image of His Son, and it all takes place at the adoption, the rapture, the resurrection, that event. Any closing thoughts on that? We'll wrap it up for tonight. That's it. The joy that was set before endured the cross, despised the shame. It's good. for someone that is searching their, verse seven, the forgiveness of sin. Someone's gonna say, well, I've sinned too much. I've spent my life as a sinner. There's no way God's gonna forgive me. But according to the riches we just mentioned, the unsearchable riches, there's nobody that has sinned so much that they can't receive that forgiveness of sin because of the unsearchable riches of his grace. You know, it just struck me too, you know, in whom we have redemption through His blood. It used to be redemption was only for Israel. And there was the token of that redemption that was given in circumcision. Paul says, circumcision availeth nothing. Look at it. For in Christ, this is actually Galatians 5.15, 6.15. For in Christ, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. That's what avails. And we're seeing that played out here. But look at this over in chapter two, verse 13. All right, and it goes into the Gentiles, they're aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope without God in the world. Verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus, ye who were sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. And that word nigh means nothing between. It's so much different than near. Near is such a relative term. Near is a relative term. Nigh means there's absolutely nothing between you and whatever else is there. And those of us who were Gentiles, who were a far off, you who are lost and still Gentiles and a far off, he is drawing you nigh unto himself. And he's going to accomplish that work by the blood of Christ, made nigh by that blood. And so, you know, once you're born of God, there's neither, nor more Jew, nor Greek, bond, nor free, male or female, but all are one in Christ. A Jew is no longer a Jew in God's eyes once they're born of God. They're in Christ. A Gentile is no longer a Gentile in God's eyes once they're born of God. They are now in Christ. They're as natural born children. And so, I just got a little stirred up on that, so. Anything else you want to add to that? Yeah, sure. In Colossians 1.12 there, what did you say that made us meet? Okay, so the word meet, M-E-E-T, I'm spelling it for the ones that might not have their Bibles in front of them. That means basically it's perfectly fitted for a purpose, okay? Yep, when you think about Adam, and Eve. God made Eve to be His help, meat for Him. We lump that word help and meat together and we make it a help meat, okay? And there's nothing really wrong with that, but you kind of lose the understanding of it. It's a help that is meat for Him. It's perfectly fitted for Him. That's what a wife is intended to be. God's wife for you is you who are in here who have yet to get wives. God has a wife for you Lord willing, and if there is that wife for you, she is perfectly fitted for you, okay? She's made exactly for you, right down to the fact that your hand is gonna fit her hand better than any of the other eight billion men in the world, okay? Your arms are gonna wrap around her different than every other man's in the world. Okay? It's perfectly fitted. Her heart is going to be such that you are going to safely rest in that thing. You'll have no need to spoil. It's perfectly fitted. It's meat. Okay? And so that's that same context here. He hath made us meat to be partakers of the inheritance. Think about this. A Gentile would not be able, according to the law, to take an inheritance in the land of Israel. just would not be able to, even if they, you know, were proselytized in and they'd been circumcised and all that, they still would not have any inheritance in that land. Okay. But God hath made us meet perfectly fitted to be partakers of that inheritance, something that the law could never do. God did it. And it was by his son. So, yep. Paul was because he was the apostle to the Gentiles. Yep. And teaching the Gentiles all the law of the doctrines. You know, I just think, what a hard task. Well, as you said, he was the one, God had chosen him to be the one, I think, when he was on the backside of the desert. But, even knowing his life beforehand, sitting under the feet of Gamaliel on the Sanhedrin Council, he learned something along the way. God used it for his good. Though, it wasn't for good when he was here. God took it because of his spirit. And he learned from all those things, and rather than being puffed up in them, he counted them as dung. He counted them loss. Yeah, he says that. Yep, yep. Good stuff. Anything else, we'll close it up tonight. All right, Theron, why don't you close us in prayer? Dear Lord, it's been good to dig into your word again tonight, Lord. Thank you for the things that we've covered, the things that you've shown us. Just enlighten our understanding even more as we dwell on these things and think them over. Give us safety as we travel home.