The Ephesians Story (Part 6)

The Father surrounded the Son whom He loved, and the Son surrounded you. Who is the one who is beloved? Now you tell me who’s going to get there to take you away from Him. Whoever does that’s going to have to get through the Father and get through the Son to get to you. You like that, sister? He is our wall that encompasses us not only this way but this way. It’s a wall like a wheel and a wheel. It’s a wall and a wall.

Alright, let’s back this up. Let’s go in reverse. Here you are, and here is the Son, and here’s the Father. And the Father has given you sonship, and the Father has predestined you. The Father has put you in the Son. The Father has given you all an eternal grace. He has reckoned you always in the Son, and you always are in the Son, and He sees you as blameless. Can you give me a positive word? What’s the opposite of blameless? Unblameable. Okay, let’s just take them all. Here we go. Unblameable, righteous, holy, pure, perfect, justified, glorified. Wait a minute. Sanctified, glorified. No charges can be raised, Lord, against you. Nothing. Blameless and holy and all of that took place while you were surrounded by the Father and by the Son, and you were in Him whom the Father loves so much, and all of these wondrous things. The Father, I don’t know how, I wish I were Shakespeare. Here is the Father lavishing all these things on you who are in the beloved and as freely as and as unhindered as He loves His Son. How freely and unhindered that is, I don’t know; all I know is it’s a perfect relationship. Before the creation of the world, He lavished and freely, freely, freely without hindrance, without thought, without reservation, without wondering. He freely gave you all this while you were in His beloved Son to the praise of the glory of His grace.

Well, you know, brother, you don’t have to believe this, sister. Alright, sister, you don’t have to believe this, but if you don’t want to believe it, then you’re going to have to come up with what you do believe. And I’d rather believe this than what you believe, unless what you believe is even greater than that, if I have inadequately stated your Lord.

Which He freely bestowed on us in the beloved. Now I want us to be very careful here. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight, He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention, which He purposed in Christ, with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of time, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose, which He works, all who work all things after the counsel of His will. And if you’re wondering why I’m not taking a breath, it is because from verse three through verse 24, it is all one sentence, and this just keeps on going and keeps on piling up. And the man never once made a period, only commas. And he goes on and on and on and on, and because we’re just about to round it up here, I just got this to say to you about the praise of the glory of His grace which He freely bestowed on us in the beloved. Everything from 1 to 6 is in Christ. Now, in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins according to the riches of His great grace which He lavished upon us.

Last night, I lined up four brothers here; one to condemn us, and brokenhearted, he left the room, having nothing with which to condemn us. Actually, our brother said, “Thank God. I’m very delighted to have nothing.” Then we had 18 references to Christ and 22 to the Father. And how many “in”? Okay. Now we come to “in.” To clarify for you what I’m about to say, let’s start with verse one and go through this really quickly.

The will of God, faithful, chosen, and predestined, the world, holiness, adoption, redemption, forgiveness, trespasses, and grace. Now, do you know what I just listed? Do you have any idea what I just listed? I just listed the battlegrounds of Christendom. Here are the great doctrinal disputes of all time. And Arminius, help me with him. Where are you, Scott? You’re the one who did this to me. What’s his name? Arminius, who was not an Armenian. Arminius and Calvin fought over predestination till the blood ran red. The Catholics fight with the Protestants over forgiveness and over redemption. We all have had our fights over holiness and righteousness. These are the battlegrounds. I would like to make a suggestion as we come to verses 7 and 1-6. I would like to get Arminius and Calvin in here and say a few kind words to both of them.

Brother, you missed the point. It wasn’t predestination, and it wasn’t righteousness, and it wasn’t holiness, and it wasn’t redemption, and it wasn’t forgiveness. The point is, “in Him.” In Him. Those two guys fought over this, and to my knowledge, they never said “in”. And the Catholics and the Baptists and the Presbyterians have all fought over forgiveness and sin: what it is and how it’s dealt with, and what’s your reaction to it. I just want to read verse 7.

Brother, I do not know what you have when you have redemption, but I want you to know that redemption is in Him. That all that is going to be redeemed is in Him. You have redemption through His blood, but the redemption of that blood is in Him. I do not know how His blood works, and I cannot tell you how you are fully redeemed, but I can tell you it is in Him. A brother asked me recently, “Gene, do you believe in a constant cleansing of the blood, or do you believe in a once and for all, and do you believe that we have to constantly keep our sins forgiven? And boy, you know, I stopped short and I said to him, you know, I forgot. I forgot that people fought over that. Yeah, I still do, and I have to tell you where I am in this dispute. I am in Christ, and it doesn’t really matter. Either way, it’s unmovable. I have redemption through His blood. I have the forgiveness of sin because I am in Him, and this was settled before the foundation of the world. I was redeemed before I was lost, and I’m redeemed after I’m lost, and I’m redeemed when “lost” is all over with, and the world in all its content that caused the lostness. I was redeemed before I was put in a pawn shop. When that pawn broker got me, and he made out a little slip, he noticed at the end of the slip, it said that it’s already been redeemed. It’s already been bought back, and I have His blood. I had His blood before I was ever lost. I had His blood when that Lamb’s blood flowed red and free when He was slain, before He dared create. There was a daring in God’s creation. We all realize the risks He took, and he covered them all, and the blood flowed red, and the redemption was sealed when a Lamb was slain.

Is the Lamb continually slain? No. He is slain once for all. Well, was He not slain twice? Before the foundation of the world and at Calvary? No. We, who are locked and fettered to time and space, simply witnessed that which had already taken place and that which is eternal, an eternal crucifixion. The eternal intersected the time, and the cry of that Lamb echoes in both directions across eternity. But He was slain for you and me, and we were in that Lamb, and we were in that death, and we were in that blood, and we were in that redemption before we were lost or sinned.

Brothers and sisters, whatever you want to feel about your sin or your redemption or the forgiveness of your trespasses, would you just remember one thing, that is, if you believe in the future, present, or past, just remember one thing: you have always been in Him. And the forgiveness of those trespasses is in Him. They are not in you, and they are not in time nor space. They are in Him, and so is His blood and His redemption. And that’s verse seven.

Brothers and sisters, the forgiveness of your trespasses was given to you grumbly. He said, “I’m going to forgive you, but I don’t want to. I’m going to let you have the blood of my Son and be redeemed, but I’m just doing it under protest.” Well, now you’re looking at me and kind of laughing, but those are your words. Carisia, don’t tell me, I know how you feel, that whenever you really pull a big one, He just barely forgives you because He is really getting disgusted with you, sisters. You just keep doing this over and over again. We had a meeting of the brothers, and we discussed this. You just keep on and on and on, and we’re getting impatient with you. And by the way, Arlene, your name kept coming up, and we noticed that these things have been going on not only as long as we’ve known you, but we’ve heard rumors that this was going on before we met you, and God is getting a little impatient. The only reason He’s forgiving either one of you is because He’s bound to it.

Alright, have I not struck a chord here? Can you not identify somewhere? Do you not feel a tremendous sense of condemnation in the presence of His forgiveness? Well, my brother here, who lived 2,000 years ago, knew that, and He tells you that in the act of the forgiveness of your trespasses, it was a rich moment in the life of God. Wonderful moment in the life of God. Joyful moment in the life of God. Have you ever joyfully forgiven? I bet at some time or other, if you’re a parent, you have. It might have been rare; it might have been only once, and maybe it hasn’t happened yet. But there’ll be a time when you will joyfully, lavishly, richly, wondrously, mercifully forgive. I wish I could have done it more.