Chapter 1. This afternoon reminded me as to why I don't preach as hard all the time as I used to. How we bless the Lord for what He's done. But He's the God of all grace. It's not just what He's done, it's what He's doing and what He's going to do. So we look to him. Ephesians 1, verse number 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Father, once again, we want to bow in your presence, Lord, and just thank you for what you have done. Lord, so unworthy, even in those times so unwilling, yet You made us willing in the day of Your power. Lord, we are thankful that You didn't step over us, step around us, or pass us by. God, You stopped. Just as You did that day by the pool, You stopped. You spoke to that lame man who for all those many years had been discouraged and yet kept going back, trying physically to save himself. Lord, You spoke to his heart. We can't help but believe that he began to realize in hearing the voice of Christ, things are different. This is going to be a different day. So we thank You, Lord, for a different day. We pray that the Holy Ghost will help us as we continue to look at this wonderful truth of seated in heavenly places. And we'll bless you for what you do in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. The best seat in the house. I believe that there is no argument when it comes to that statement. We cannot debate that fact that this heavenly place is the best seat in the house. And from here, in this chapter, we have looked at testing will of the Father. I'm glad that the heavenly place has allowed us to get a glimpse of some things that we could not and would not understand, let alone embrace any other way than to see it in heavenly places. This Bible is a God-given book. It is a God-centered book. It is a God-revealed book. Man, in his natural state, can read the Bible, can memorize the Bible. I worked for a man one time who could quote it just about backwards and forwards. But just as soon as he got through quoting John 3.16, he could give you a cussing like you've never had in your life. He was a wicked, a vile man, an adulterous man. He was a godless man. And yet, he had read and memorized the Scripture. And so there are those out there that might believe that simply because they can quote a few verses or they can talk about a particular principle, and anybody can discuss the principles of the Word of God. You can. These principles, the principles of morality, of right and wrong, Anybody can discuss those principles, but the deep things of God will never, ever be embraced by man except God open that heart and reveal to that heart those great truths. That's what those early verses are about. God showing us what He purposed in the long ago. And then we begin this morning to look at the atoning work of the Savior. In verse 7 through verse number 12, "...in whom ye have, or we, have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." I don't believe God left anything out right there. when He said that we have redemption, we have it in accordance with the riches of His grace. Now you can give someone out of a certain level of wealth, you can give them out of that wealth, but if you give them according to that wealth, you are giving them on the basis of all that you have. And so God gave Christ on the basis of it was all, and He was all that God had. And we looked at the work of Calvary, the delivering ministry of the cross of Christ to redeem us and forgive us, the defining marks of Calvary, those nail-pierced hands and spirit-riven side, and the deep meaning of Calvary. Oh, what a Savior when we recognize just how much depth there is in that old rugged cross. that the cross was simply a wooden frame on that day long ago, thousands of years ago, as it was planted outside the city of Jerusalem on an old hill that looked somewhat like a skull. that it was just simply another form of execution for that particular hour. But there was something much deeper there. There was something that went far beyond that day and all into the days to come. And so we looked at the work of Calvary. In verse 8 and verse 9, he said wherein, He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself. Not only do we see in this chapter the work of Calvary, but we see the wisdom of Calvary. Paul said to the Colossian believers, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I want to say a few things about the wisdom of Calvary. I'm glad that it is what it is. I'm glad that it is the design of God. That man couldn't come up with this idea, this concept, this particular principle of redemption, man would never come up with that. And so God has given us the wisdom of Calvary. And first, it is that this wisdom through His gospel is restricting men. It restricts men. That's what's wise about it. It takes man out of his element. It takes man from off his high horse and takes from him his powers, as it were. You see, man in some areas, in some arenas of life, has more prestige than other men. He has a predominance. He has a high position. But Calvary, He restricts him of all that he doesn't have. He's not allowed to bring his predominance with him and say, now Lord, I'm better than this man, or I'm wealthier than this man, or I'm more intelligent than this man. is restricted from him at Calvary. I remember what Paul said to the Corinthian believers, not many wise, not many mighty are chosen. I am going to tell you, man still believes in some degree that because of his position in life, his predominance over other men, his prestige and his own personal powers, that they somehow merit him something in the economy of God. If not in salvation, in the realm of service. There are still people out there that believe they ought to have what they consider to be the high positions in the church simply because of who they are. But not only does it restrict man in those areas, it restricts him in his preconceptions. Man has always had a preconceived idea about what it takes to save himself. You can go all the way back to the very beginning when Adam took that bite out of whatever it was he took a bite out of. I'll leave that for everybody else to debate. They used to, somebody always, well, they kind of focused on an apple. I don't know where that got started. Probably where the European Jesus got started. Some Italian painter painted one time a picture of what he deemed Adam and Eve and an apple, standing under an apple tree. Whatever it was, somebody said it was not the apple in the tree, but the pear on the ground where the problem was at. Amen. I'm not sure we even have that fruit in these days. I don't know. But whatever it was that Adam took a bite out of, when he fell, he fell in a position mentally, he fell in a position intellectually that he feared God, but yet he thought, he presumed, and he had a preconceived idea about how He could face God again. So they went out and got him some fig leaves, sewed him together a little apron, him and Eve, and they thought that God would fix it with God and they could go on in their lives. But thank God Calvary, the cross of Jesus, restricts man from his preconceived ideas. There are those tonight that have all sorts of notions about how men are saved. even in what would be named the normal areas of religion, the accepted areas of religion. There are those who believe that it's necessary that they be either sprinkled or immersed in water in order to be saved. There are those that believe that if they do not receive that little cup from the communion and that little wafer, that they cannot be saved. There are those that believe if they do not go along the path of continuing good works, that they cannot be saved. That's how they're stripped far right away. then it restricts man in his prejudices and partialities. I'm going to tell you right now, if it's left up to me to do the saving, there'd be some folks going to heaven tonight that probably won't go otherwise, and there'd be some folks going to hell that wouldn't be going otherwise, if it's left up to me. I have certain prejudices. I stand before you tonight with my hand in the air, admitting that I have certain prejudices. Amen. But only in light of the fact that so does everybody else. This idea that folks point at you or me and say, oh, but you are prejudiced. is simply the reality that they too have their own partialities and their own prejudices. Surely, if it were up to us, we would save our family at the expense of someone else's. At the exclusion of someone else's, we would make sure that our family was saved if it was left up to us. Man has some preconceived prejudices and partialities, some propensities toward one that he doesn't have toward another. Maybe not just family, but we'd make sure certain friends made it to heaven. Sure, we'd want our friends around us. We'd want to have that friendship throughout eternity. We'd make sure that certain aspects of our lives, our contacts in life, we'd make sure that they made it to heaven. But what Calvary does is it strips away every prejudice. It strips away every partiality. It puts man on a level footing. It puts man in the dust before God. Whether he's the richest banker in town or the biggest pauper in town, it puts them on an equal footing. And holy Calvary, holy Jesus, only the blood of the cross can save men. For it restricts men. It also restricts men from their pretensions, their false qualities. Now, I've never met anybody that could impress God. You've never met anybody that can impress God. Now, we've all met some folks who thought they'd impressed Him. But there is that reality, that pretentiousness of men that somehow I am a little bit higher and a little bit better, and if God is going to save anybody, He wants to save me. We don't see that as much anymore for one thing, we've been confined in our church life to this church for the past almost two decades. Hallelujah! And we don't see it as much as we did in earlier days where there were some certain ideas and ideals that took place that because people had certain qualities, that fitted them to do this or that fitted them to do that. Deacons were always elected on the basis of if they were rich men in the town or some other, or other positions were on the basis of, I never had the fight that I had in one church like I had in that church and any other church over Sunday school teachers. That church thought if they were a school teacher, that automatically qualified them and fitted them to be a Sunday school teacher. And oh Lord, what a fight we had over that very thing. In fact, it ended our relationship. They wanted a woman to be the young married Sunday school teacher and I wasn't allowed to happen. So that scrap started and that fight came in to be. And then finally one stood up and said, Look preacher, you always tell us what the Bible says. Well, I felt pretty good at that point, but it was downhill after that. He said, I'm here to tell you we know what the Bible says, we don't need you to tell us. Well, that pretty well fits my position from that point forward. He said, besides that, we know what the Bible said, but we know what we want to do and we're going to do it. I stood right in the middle of the aisle. My wife is here. Mark may remember it. He was awfully small. Brian was just a little old lat baby. But stood right in the middle of the aisle, right in the very middle of the church building and said, we know what the Bible said, but we know what we want to do and we are going to do it. Oh, listen. The first thing I did is I looked at my wife and I said, get you and our babies out of here before this place caves in on y'all. And as soon as I heard the door shut, I gave my resignation. And it took less than 10,000 words to give it. Amen. Oh listen, those pretensions, those false qualities. Men always have the idea that there is something personal about them that qualifies them in some respect that disqualifies others. But not so with Calvary. The wisdom of Calvary is that it restricts man. The wisdom of Calvary is it alone redeems man. Paul said, I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation. To everyone that believes it, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. There is that world that always comes up in the Bible, the Jew and the Gentile. God talks about that world. That's what He's talking about. He's talking about the Jew and the Gentile. Study that and find out it's so. Oh, my soul, man has the idea that something apart from this gospel that God has established in Christ will bring him into a relationship with God. But not so the wisdom of Calvary. The gospel of the grace of God. Paul said to the Corinthian believers, I preach unto you the gospel whereby you believe that saved your soul, and here it is, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture, was buried, and the third day rose again according to the Scripture. Now the strictest sense of the gospel is that, that Jesus died for sins, was buried and rose again. And that gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Then it is the wisdom of Calvary in that his gospel reaches us. I'm going to say this and I'm going to scoot on because I'm not in a debative mood tonight. Jesus paid for what He gets. And He gets what He paid for. Amen. Amen. Oh, the idea that God's got to run around and wring His hands and try to curse folks so that He can fill His heaven. No, no. Jesus, He said, all that the Father giveth Me, shall come unto me. And all that come unto me, I will in no wise cast out." You're saying you don't believe in whosoever will. I do. I believe in whosoever will. Just don't believe in whosoever won't. Brother Paul Kierkegaard used to say, all the whosoever wills go to heaven. The whosoever won'ts go to hell. Nothing you can do to change that. Amen? Oh, how it reaches us. Let me ask you something. Are you saved? Did you get there apart from the gospel? Well, then obviously it reached you, didn't it? Somehow or another, in some mysterious way, God made sure that His gospel reached you. Ah, the wisdom of the gospel, it reaches us. Thank God that it can find us. No matter where we are. Well, we just got through singing a song a while ago, was it not? I believe that was right. Maybe I was singing another one in my own head. That it reaches us. That gospel will search us out. And then the wisdom of Calvary is that His gospel reveals us. You can be sure tonight, saved folk are revealed by the gospel. Now that doesn't mean saved folk are going to be perfect all the time. Number one, we have this container that we have to carry around our saved spirit in called the flesh. And if anybody knows what a burden the flesh is, you're looking at a fellow that knows. I despise my flesh. It lets me down so often. It puts pressure on me. Sure it does. It won't leave me alone. It's like Ishmael and Isaac. Isaac's in there, but Ishmael's been around longer. He's more savvy to the world around him. And Ishmael, according to what God said, wouldn't leave Isaac alone. And it was only as Abraham the father banished him, He didn't go away. That old man didn't die. I know they sing that song, and I hear it, and it's alright, I guess, and there are some that love that song. The old man is dead, but he's only dead if you mortify him. He's alive and well if you give him a little leave. Oh, but how it reveals us! It shows us to be the children of God. Then that gospel, the wisdom of Calvary, is His gospel, reassures us. And then it reinforces us. The same gospel that saved us sustains us. That's why gospel preaching will feed your soul whether you've been saved for five years or fifty years. Old-fashioned gospel preaching will feed the children of God. It is the bread from heaven. All those years out there in the wilderness, what did they eat? They ate bread. What kind of bread was it? It was bread from heaven. It was manna. It was the same thing. It looked the same on the third year than it did on the first year. It tasted the same. It was the same size. It was the same color. It came down the same way. Everything about it was identical and exactly the same as it was before the very first time God ever rained it down on them. and there just before they got ready to go into the promised land on that latter part of those years, 34, 35, 36, it still looked the same, smelled the same, tasted the same, measured the same. It was the bread from heaven and it fed them and sustained them. Oh, when you find somebody that just doesn't seem that gospel preaching will sustain them, you better be wary of them. Something's wrong somewhere. The wisdom of Calvary. Simon Peter put it this way. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect. Three things He said, establish, strengthen, and settle you to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. All the wisdom of Calvary. But what else do we find? Not only the work of Calvary and the wisdom of Calvary, but in this text we find the wonder of Calvary. Look at verse 10. Let's back up to verse 9. "...having made known unto us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He had purposed in Himself." Now watch this. That end. the dispensation of the fulness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him, 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, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first Trusted in Christ. What is the wonder of Calvary? I want to put it in a nutshell. I want to get to our third thought and finish this particular passage tonight. There is the wonder of Calvary in its future dispensation. In other words, Paul said, thank God this ain't all there is. If in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most miserable. He said that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, the future dispensation, he talks about Calvary's supernal wonder, that dispensation to come. unfathomable sin. Paul would say, I have not seen, neither ear heard, neither hath it entered into the hearts of men what the Lord hath prepared for them that love Him, but He hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. It's unfathomable. I'm going to tell you that there's just not enough vocabulary, there's not enough time And it's not just on the preacher's inadequacies. You're inadequate to understand, comprehend everything about it. If I had the adequacy to tell you, and I don't, you wouldn't have the adequacy to embrace all of it. What does he say? He's saying there is a supernal wonder. There is something that is far beyond the earth. But then he talks about Calvary's Eternal wonder. It may be unfathomable, but at the same time, it is unfolded. Along these 30 plus years that I've been in Christ, it's little by little, here a little, there a little, that God has unfolded the things about Himself and the things about His Son, the things about His saints, the things about His service, the things about His Spirit. He's unfolded them. about these eternal truths. Little by little, I've learned more. More, as the old song said, more about Jesus. Oh, that future dispensation. And then in verse 11, there is a fitting disposition. "...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." A fitting disposition. Here again, we are confronted with this word, predestination or predestinated. As it comes into view, we go back and pick up verse 5. "...having predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will." You see, where in verse 5, it pertains to our being fitted for the inheritance to come. That's what he said. We have that spirit of adoption. We've been predestinated under the adoption of children. What has fitted us for that inheritance in verse 5, Verse 11 has to do with the inheritance having been fitted for us. Simon Peter puts it this way, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance. incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." Peter looks at it from the other side of the scene, while Paul looks at it from this side of the scene. The inheritance that's kept for us is also that we are kept for the inheritance. Thank God, I'm going to get everything that God has in Christ laid out for me. Not going to miss out. Not going to miss out. So the Calvary is within the scope of this future dispensation. This fitting disposition where God has fitted both the heir and the inheritance for one another, it's a perfect fit. Maybe that's the way I should say it. It's a perfect fit. You hear these folks that hit the lottery jackpot. And they win a hundred, two hundred, three hundred million. My first thought is, I couldn't live like that. I'm used to spiritual blessings. I'm used to living from the hand of God. I don't know how I could live if it was dependent upon me to make it all work out. But nonetheless, to get to the point, they hit that jackpot. And maybe a year, maybe two, sometimes maybe a little longer. But the biggest percentage of them always find themselves right back in the poverty where they started from. Right back there in the same dust that they were in. Well, I'm going to tell you something about the disposition. An old man told me one time, he said, a man that ain't never had money better not get any, because it will sure mess him up. It will sure mess him up. But not only is there this future dispensation and this fitting disposition that makes Calvary a wonder, verse number 12, there is the faithful's deposition. That we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ. A deposition is simply a legal statement made under oath. That's what it is. It's someone testifying legally to reality. That's exactly what he said in verse number 12. In that dispensation of the fullness of times for all eternity, We will be a testament to the grace of God. Our connection here with the future dispensation suggests that this praise to the glory of His grace is not simply a reverential state of mind, but a rejoicing statement of men. throughout eternity as Brother Hughes used to sing that old song, we'll sing and we'll shout and we'll never lie. My soul, the atoning work of the Son. Let me just give you a thought on verse 13 and 14 about the attending witness of the Holy Ghost. Here we are allowed to come into the very operating room of God, where in both time and eternity He weaves together, as the surgeon wheels his instruments with all the skill, He weaves together His preordained plan, if you want to call it that. He brings it all together, and only the hand of God can unfold it before men. The Sovereign has planned our salvation. The Savior, the Son, has purchased our salvation. Here we learn in these two verses, the Spirit has preserved our salvation. We believe in what, as for lack of a better descriptive than deemed eternal security. What other kind could there be? If this thing is of God, what other kind could there be but eternal security? Now, if it's of man, it's on shaky ground to get started. But here we are introduced to this One, in Whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in Whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, under the praise of His glory." Somebody might say, how do you know you're saved? How do you know you're going to get to go to heaven? The Holy Ghost lives inside me. He is that person of the Godhood that the Lord has implanted in me as an earnest, as a seal of this transaction. There is His person. We don't want to get into a a lengthy descriptive of these things. I just want to kind of wrap this up and move to the next segment. That's not to do despite to the Holy Ghost, but He Himself is always the One who stands in the shadow. He never speaks of Himself. He always takes the things of Christ and magnifies them. You find that bunch that's always wanting to magnify the Holy Ghost over the Lord Jesus, you'd better watch out. There is a divine association ascribed to Him 26 times He's introduced to us as the Spirit of God. The very first association is with the creative order when in Genesis 1-2 it said the earth was without form and void and the Spirit And darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. In Acts chapter 5, Simon Peter would say to Ananias, Why has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? And he clarifies something for men. He said, Thou shalt not lie unto men, but unto God. Lying to the Holy Ghost is lying to God, because they are the same. The divine association ascribe Him. The divine attributes ascribe Him. Romans 8, 11, omnipotence ascribe the Holy Ghost. In Psalm 139, omnipresence, David said, shall I go from thy spirit? Where can I go to get away from your presence? If I make my bed in hell, you're there. The depths, the heights, the length, the breadth, I can't get away from the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 2, omniscience is ascribed to the Holy Ghost. And then the divine actions that are ascribed to Him, He can be grieved, He can be moved, He directs, He guides, He comforts, He helps, He teaches. All things that are ascribed to someone who has personality. And then His presence. There are three major times that you find the presence of the Holy Ghost magnified. The first is in the beginning. The second is in the new birth. And the third is in the battle between believers and this unseen world. And then His purposes. He seeks, He saves, He settles, He soothes, He secures. His grace and bite quickens us. His gifts and bite empowers us. His guarantee and bite secures us. He is the seal. That's what Paul said. You were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Three things about a seal, and I'm done. He's guaranteed. The seal is a mark. of acquisition. It's always on the bill of sale. It's always on that document that declares, this has been purchased by so-and-so. In Jeremiah 32 and verse 9, Jeremiah said, And I bought the field of Hananamel, my uncle's son that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver, And I subscribed the evidence. In other words, we wrote it down. If you don't ever want to buy nothing, you don't get a bill of sale for it. We've all been there somewhere along the line. I subscribed the evidence and sealed it. And took witnesses. And weighed him the money in the balances. So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was opened. And I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Messiah, in the sight of Hamiel, mine uncle's son, and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison." What has he just told us? I bought something and in the process of legally sealing the document, it is mine and no one else's. No one has right to lay claim to it. No one can abuse or use it in any way apart from my permission because it is my acquisition. We have been bought with a price. We have been purchased with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost sealed that purchase and marked it as an acquisition of God. And we belong to Him. We do not belong to ourselves. We do not belong to one another. We do not belong to the devil. And nobody has right to use or abuse without permission. of the owner. It is a mark of acquisition. Then secondly, the seal is a mark of authenticity. Revelation 5 and 1, John said, I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. What is that scroll? That scroll, as I understand it, it was taught to me this way and I believe it to be so. That scroll is literally the title deed of the earth. And it has been sealed to mark it as the authentic deed, as opposed to any other that might be presented. Brother Jerry and I were talking this morning about a situation about a death certificate. And the insurance company required this. We've got to have that original document. You know why they always want the original? Because you cannot feel that seal on a copy. That's it. That's the sole reason. You can make a copy and it can have the picture of that seal. But you cannot feel the presence of that seal except upon the original document. Thank God tonight these things have been sealed up. The original document is sealed and is authentic tonight. It is the real thing. It is a sign or a mark of acquisition, a mark of authenticity, and then here in our text it is a mark of assurance. Why did God seal us with the Holy Ghost? Not just to protect His purchase from all others. He sealed us with the Holy Ghost to preserve His purchase within itself. Here's the thing. If God had not sealed us with the Spirit of promise until the redemption of the purchased possession, the resurrection of the body, that's what he's talking about. If he had not done that, you and I would already have so brought to an abasement what God had purchased, that it would no longer be fit to be received. I believe that. I believe that it was left to us. If God just said, all right, I've saved you, now do the best you can. Keep yourself saved. Do right. Mess. How many in here have done right all your life? Kind of what I thought. Sometimes it's not good to have 100%. God said, just do the best you can. Hang on. Tie another knot in the rope. Hang on. But he didn't. What he did was that same Spirit of Grace, that same Spirit of God that moved into that old dead spirit, that old alienated spirit of man, quickened it, brought it the life of God, granted repentance and faith. We turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, believed on the Lord Jesus Christ with all our heart. How in the world could you do that without God? It's not possible. And so, he sealed us. He put that mark of assurance in us. It's not just to protect us from outside, but it is to preserve us and to continually assure us. It's at our lowest depths. It is on our worst days. It is in our hour of feeling farthest from God that this seal of assurance means more. than it could ever mean in the other way. I'm going to tell you over the last 33 years, I've not been shoulder to shoulder with God every second of the way. There have been some times when I was pretty far out. And if I was just out there without this, what would I do? But the assurance, the seal of God's assurance, A dired man. A dired man. So we see the incomparable majesty of this saving grace. What God has wrought, man, the devil, all the powers beyond cannot undo. For what God has done is not only essential, It is eternal. And we praise Him for that tonight. To the praise of His glory. Amen. Let's stand. Bring us a song, Brother Doug.