upper hands as we call on your name, will you meet us here? I have an answer to that question. On the authority of the word of God, I say yes because we're two or three or together in my name. There am I in the midst of them.
He is here this morning. He's in our midst. We're hearing that he was among us. He was among us.
As he traveled this earth, he was among us, but he's still among us. He's here. And it doesn't matter how I mess up this morning. Jesus Christ the Lord is here.
Look for him. Listen for him. And you will hear him and you will see him as the word of God is opened. Before I start, I just want to thank the assembly.
Recently we've experienced a death in our family. My wife's brother and thank you to whoever is in charge of doing this for sending the flowers. Thank you all of you who are praying. That's probably the best thing you can do.
But the second best thing you could do is get on your phone and give my wife a call. There's not going to be anything like that that's going to touch your heart to hear from you at this time of her bereavement. I just give you that little tip. And if you don't have a number, I do.
Okay. It's called speed. I'll have to look it up on my phone. But I can find it.
Jesus Christ is here. And I want to talk to you this morning about him and about this theme that I have chosen from the book of Ephesians, the Axios, the Worthy Walk. The glory of his grace is what we're looking at here in this study at this time. And I, of course, this will not work ever.
There we go. Thank you. I'll probably just have to wave to you rather. Okay.
In Ephesians chapter four verse one, this is the theme verse of this book, I believe. Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. Paul implores us. He begs us to walk worthy of the calling that we have on our lives as believers.
It's a worthy thing to do. And we should walk in a worthy manner worthy of who we are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Axios means worthy. Now, hard the message of this epistle written to believers in any locality calling them to a life that conforms to the calling of God upon their lives.
That's what we want to do. Before we go any further, let's pray. Lord, thank you for being among us today. Lord Jesus Christ, that you dain to be among us is a mystery in a marvel to our minds.
But you do. And you are here today. And so speak to our hearts of pray. Lord Jesus.
If I go astray, if I get carried away, if I go on a bunny trail, it's not worthy. Please help these people to forget what I say and to see the Word of God, the written Word, and the living Word in their hearts. And may the Lord Jesus be glorified today. He is worthy of our walk.
We ask this in his precious name. Amen. Let's go to the next slide. Our calling.
Our calling. What is going to work now? Oh, let's see. Look at that.
I'm feeling good. All right. Our calling is a heavenly calling. This is just a little bit of review.
But if you were with me six months ago and we started this or more, this was something that we talked about, the calling of God upon our lives. And that is a heavenly calling. Hebrews chapter three verse one. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus the apostle in high priest of our confession.
It's a heavenly calling. Call that came from heaven and a call that leads to heaven. Not because we walk a certain way. We don't get to heaven because we walk a certain way.
We get to heaven because of the Lord Jesus Christ and the blood that we shed at Calvary's cross for us. But we can walk onward and upward as it were as we follow our Lord Jesus Christ. My brother in law used to live about a mile away from us. And when my kids were going up, he would often walk down from Robert's island about a mile away, walk to our place.
And we would sometimes say, Uncle Buddy, why didn't you just bring your car down? And he would say, and he would quote 1 John chapter 2 verse 6, which says that we ought to walk even as he walked. So he was being very spiritual about his walk. But we can be spiritual about our walk.
We can walk as the Lord Jesus would have us walk. Secondly, it's also a holy calling. Second Timothy 1, 9, speaks of God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling. Not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was granted to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.
Our walk is to be a holy walk. We are to walk in holiness. We ought to be holy people, set apart for the Lord himself, living lives of purity. Yes, again, not to get to heaven, but because we're on the way to heaven.
All right, please don't confuse this. We're not talking to you about a worthy walk. It's not a walk to get to God's favor. We have God's favor.
We are walking because we have God's favor. We're walking this way because we belong to him. We're his child and we want to walk to glorify him on him. It is also a high calling.
Flipping's three verse 14. I had to steal this from the King James because the new American standard that I usually speak from, I didn't have it right. So King James says this, I press forward toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God and Christ Jesus. Of course, it had to be an H.
So I needed a high calling. The other translation talks about an upward calling, but that doesn't work with my outline. It's a high calling. It is a high calling.
You and I are children of God. We are walking in this world as ambassadors. I told you the story of an ambassador. If you want to go back months and months ago, you can hear that story again.
I can tell you again. It's a high calling. You are an ambassador for Christ. And then it is a hopeful calling.
Ephesians 4 verse 4. There is one body in one spirit just as also you were called in one hope of your calling. Titus 2 verse 13, I think, tells us what that hope is. Looking for that blessed hope.
The appearing of the glory of a great God and Savior Jesus Christ. What a day that will be with my Jesus I shall see. He's among us today. I can't see him.
Oh, but one day I will. One day. You know, we have dear ones that we have said, goodbye to you here in this world and they are faced with Christ Jesus. They are beholding him in all his glory.
And one day, if you are a believer, you will be holding him in his glory too. You will see him face to face. What a day that will be. So it is a heavenly calling.
It is a holy calling. It is a high calling. It is a hopeful calling. God has called you to something amazing.
He has called you to live a life for the glory of Christ. He has called you to life. Life that is worthy of the God who has called you. So what would motivate you and I to live our lives for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Has to be his grace displayed in Christ on our behalf. We looked at Ephesians as a book that is divided into two parts. Part one of Ephesians, what our calling is, who we are in Christ Jesus. It is our motivation for a worthy walk.
And then part two of Ephesians is how to walk that worthy walk. Walking is Christ would walk. A manor. A manor that is worthy.
You know what? I was thinking about this as I have been reading through the book of Ephesians. And the first three chapters, these are going to be easy to speak about because it is what God has done for us. But if God gives me health and strength and long enough time to live in this world, and we get to the second part of Ephesians 4 to 6, I am going to struggle there.
Because I know that when I start talking about how I should be walking as a worthy walk before the Lord, I am going to struggle with that. Because I know that I don't live up to that. You and I are going to have to work through it together. The walk, the worthy walk before the Lord.
Ephesians, when we are talking about motivation for a worthy walk, Ephesians chapter 1 verses 3 to 14 begins that study. And we are talking about three parts to this group of verses. First of all, the Father's plan in verses 3 to 6, the son's provision in verses 7 to 12, and the spirit's pledge in verses 13 and 14. The Father's plan verses 1 to 6, and in verse number 3, his plan was to bless us.
And we talked about the extensiveness of his blessing. Verse 3 talks about this God of ours being blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. He has a praise worthy God, a God who is blessed. That's what that word means.
Blessed, he's praise worthy. It's the Greek word for which we get the word eulogy in English. He is worthy of our praise. He is worthy of our adoration, isn't he?
Amen, goes there. There we go. One, thank you. He is worthy.
He's a personal God. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is also as we saw when we did this part of the lesson, our God and our Father. He's personal and he's the prodigal God because he's given us and blessed us every spiritual blessing. Everyone, not just some, but everyone.
Then this motivation includes not only God's blessing of us, but the fact that he chose us. And that's what we spoke about last time. He chose us and we talked about the enigma of his choosing. God's choosing us is an enigma.
It's something difficult to understand. We talked about did he choose us or do we choose him? Where does God's sovereignty and human free will work into this? Go back to April 27th in the series of messages from this assembly and you will hear that gone over because I can't go over it again.
But if you don't understand that, it's simple as pie. It's the I H and I postulate. I have no idea. Postulate.
And you go back over that and you will see that God has things that are true. God tells us things that are true that are just, we're just not able to figure out. But we accept them by faith, right? Figure out the virgin birth of Christ.
Can't do it. Figure out God speaking the universe into existence. You cannot do that. You can't figure that out.
You can't explain that. But you can believe it. I have no idea how God created the universe. I have no idea how Jesus Christ could exist as totally human and totally divine.
I can't understand that. But I can believe it. I can believe it because the Word of God says that it's true. Knowing this, that God has chosen me, this amazing thing isn't it?
He chose me. Why he chose me? Why he chose me? Why he chose you?
The Scripture says here so that we could be holy and blameless in his presence. We who were helpless, we who were ungodly, we who were sinners, we who were his enemies can be holy and blameless in his presence. He chose us to change us. He chose us to be with him for all eternity.
I don't understand it. But I know that it's all in Christ. We can be holy and blameless in God's sight if we're in Christ. Only in Christ can we ever be in his presence.
But in Christ we have absolute security. Before I existed, God chose me to be his own and to be holy and to be blameless. Do you suppose that that's not going to happen? Do you suppose that what God has done from eternity past to God has chosen me to be holy and blameless?
Do you suppose that's going to fail? Never. Never. We have this as a word of security to our hearts.
When you and I, and unless you're really different than I am and I don't think so, we fail. We fall down. We bite the dust sometimes. We blow it and we have to go groveling to our wives or spouses.
We have to go groveling to our kids. We have to, you know, I blew it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
We have to go groveling to God. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But this first tells me God chose me.
Not withstanding that. He chose me. And I will be holy and blameless one day in his presence. I will.
And nothing's going to change that. I have total security in the word of God that I shall be as I should be. But that's all in Christ. And I would ask this question to you.
I mean, we have a fairly large group this morning. My question to you is, are you in Christ? Are you a person who has trusted Christ as your Savior? Are you?
Or aren't you? It's a simple yes or no. If you are in Christ, these things that we're talking about are true of you. But if you're not in Christ, it has nothing to do with you.
You're under condemnation. You're a guilty sinner. We're the of God's judgment. And I don't say that to mock.
Would it be proud? I say that because I was there too. I've tried that road. I know what it's like.
Well, thank God or King of the day many, many years ago when I trusted Christ as my Savior. And you can too today. You can become in Christ by trusting Him as your Savior. Father's plan versus one to six.
First of all, it's to bless us extensively, to choose us indigmatically and then to predestinate us excellently. The excellence of his predestination in our lives. In love, verse five says, he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself according to the kind intention of his will. Just in case you thought, well, okay, God may have picked me.
God may have chosen me. I remember being on, do you remember when you were in school and when I was in school, I remember being on the playground and we had a little ball field in the back of our school. And we would choose, you know, who's team, who's going to be on the captains would stand up. The good, the big guys, you know, the big kids in the way to play ball.
And they would stand up and they'd start choosing. Okay, I take for that. I take Ralph. I take Ralph.
I take Ralph. I take Ralph. And at the end it would be, I take Clay. You know, you're still standing there.
He's no good. He's not going to be helped with the team. He'll probably strike out, but I choose him. And sometimes we think, well, that's how it was with God, right?
We were just standing there and God said, oh, well, I'll take them. I'll take them. Nobody else is going to take them. No.
And if I take them, you know, maybe he'll get tired of the game and walk away and it'll be good for the better of the team, right? No, no. That's not how God chooses us. And you know, in this, this part right here, this predestination part, just in case you thought that even though God chose you, there may be some wiggle room for you to mess up God's purposes for you, God says that he has predestined your future.
We have to pull over and park on this one for a bet and talk about it. Our destiny is not in the hands of the universe, of the stars. You don't go to your astrological table to see what your destiny is. It's not in the hands of fate.
It's not in the hands of the hockey gods. All right? Those of you who watch hockey, you'll know that term comes from. And certainly not in your hands or in my hands, thankfully.
But where do God states clearly that God has predestinated us? It's not amazing. God has predestined us. Aren't you glad?
How does that make you feel? HDY, HTT, MYF, HDT, MYF. How does that make you feel? That God has predetermined your future.
Now, I don't believe that necessarily every single thing is predetermined. I mean, he has a chance to make choices. We do have this choice thing going on. But our ultimate destiny, God, has predetermined.
Are you and I happy that God is doing that? Or would you rather plan your own destiny? Sometimes I think I'd be happy enough to plan my eternal destiny and just let me work out my own day-to-day destiny. Do you feel that way?
What in the world is wrong with us? Why do we think like that? Why do we think for a moment that we can plan our own future in this world better than God could? Why do we think that way?
I'd like to put the kibosh of that in my own head. Why do we know about the destiny that God has for us? What do we know about that? And this is just the basics.
I'm not going to pinpoint anything, just the basics about it. First of all, why is God's predestination excellent in love? He predestinated us. It says, to adoption of sons for Jesus Christ, according to the kind intention of his will.
And I want to talk first of all about the controlling attitude of his predestinating will. And that attitude is an attitude of love. His predetermination of our destiny is done in love. The end bit of verse number four in most translations actually belongs most likely with verse number five.
So God determined that our destiny is within an attitude of God's love towards us. That knowledge makes his determination of our future so much more appealing than if we were to suspect some sinister motive in the heart of God. Have you ever heard of power of eternity? But some of us have power of eternity.
What is that? What is power of eternity? Well, power of eternity is when somebody else is given the power to make decisions for you when you have no longer the capacity to make those decisions. They have power of eternity.
Let me ask you, who do you give power of eternity to? Who do you give that power to? You know that you're going to lose your capacity to make decisions. So you want someone else to have that capacity for you.
Who do you give that power to? Bingo. Someone you trust. Not necessarily the one who's best in math or economics, but someone you trust.
You know that they're going to do the best for you because they love you. The scripture says that the controlling attitude of God's predestinating will is love. In love he predestined us. Can we trust what he's doing in our lives?
Not just ultimately for the future, our future destiny, but can we trust what he's doing in our lives right now? Even when it seems so chaotic, so difficult, so heartbreaking, so why, why, why, why, why God? Why? Can we trust him?
That he loves us. How much does he love us? So, so loved the world. That he gave his only son.
God gave his son for you and for me, he loves us. We can trust that love. Knowing that he loves us, that his attitude toward us is love, assures us that whatever he has determined be our lot, it's truly good for us. And then secondly, why is God's predestinating love excellent is because of the, not only the controlling attitude of love there, but also the covering intention of his predestinating will, which is kindness.
The scripture says in love he predestined us to adopt his son through Jesus Christ himself according to the kind intention of his will. You see that there? The covering intention of his predestinating will is kindness. Our God is a kind God.
Isn't that good to know? God's predetermination of our destiny is according in accordance with a kind intention. He does not wish us ill, but well, he is kind. Kind, kind is a difficult word to define, but you know it when you see it, don't you?
When you run into a kind person, you know that person is a kind person. There's an attitude about them. There's a way about them. There's a sense and so many people see God as a tyrant who just watches to do nasty things to all those who aren't following the straight and narrow.
He's waiting his time to get back at you. It's sort of a Trumpian ideology, right? Sorry. I'll get you in my own time.
That's not God. That's not God. He is loving. He is kind.
He means you good. Even when you're not walking a worthy walk. He even when you're not living a life that's to his glory as it should be. And you know it.
Even when you choose to sin, not just fall into it, but you choose. He still loves you and he's still a kind God. And he will treat you kindly. His will concerning you is clothed in loving kindness.
And then thirdly, there's the comprehensive object of his predestinating will. That is that he should adopt us as sons, adoption as sons. In love he predestinates unto or to adoption as sons. So what does that mean?
Now, our idea of adoption, right? The modern word adoption means that somebody who is not a part of your family suddenly becomes legally a part of your family. They have no blood connection, but for some reason one reason or another you have decided to take that person, be it a child or an older person, into your family through a legal means called adoption. And they suddenly are able to take on your name.
And they become a part of your family. And with all the rights and privileges that pertain their to. But that is not what this word means. Isn't that something?
Wouldn't it be great if we used a word, a different word in there, but the translator used the word adoption as sons. I use that phrase. What does that mean? Well, first of all, again, let's be clear.
It is not a term that means that we get into the family of God by adoption. I've heard many preachers say that. That God has adopted us. No, we don't get into the family of God by adoption.
We don't. We get into the family of God how? By birth, rebirth, regeneration. God has not predestinated us to be saved.
Born again, if you will, born into his family. He's not predestinated us to that. That's not the way it is being. And he's not predestined in others to be lost.
That's not biblical. Predestination is always to some special place of blessing, predetermined for one who is already a child of God. I give a verse here, Romans 8, 29. For those whom he foreknew, those who he knew would be born again, those who he knew would be saved.
He also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son. You see that? They're predestined not to be saved. But to become conformed to the image of his son will be like his son.
One day, what a change that will be. The blessing of our future Christ likeness. This predestination is applicable only to those who are God's children. Those who were, he has chosen before the foundation of the world.
So, what does adoption as sons really mean? I've given you the Greek word there. And that is a compound word that comes from the word huos, which is a son. And the word thesis, which means a placing.
And so it literally means a son placing. A son placing. But what does that mean? Well, I went to Mr.
W. E. Vine for a little help on this. And he said, adoption is a term involving the dignity of the relationship of believers as sons.
It is not a putting into the family by spiritual birth, but the putting into the position of sons. That from W. E. Vine.
So let me explain this. In biblical times, it was not uncommon for a man to have more than one life. It was not according to God's will. I don't believe, but it was not uncommon.
We don't always do what God wants us to do. And so there would be wives, plural sometimes. Some of those wives would be wives of position, who would bear children. Some of those wives might even be slaves, but they had children by the husband.
All right? The husband wouldn't necessarily want all of the children that are born to him to be his heirs. He would want certain ones to be his heirs. And when that man chose the ones that would be his heirs, he would take those kids, those children, probably grown children, to a legal place, a place where legal transactions are made, and there they would become legally his heirs, his sons.
It used to be years ago you would see signs hanging windows or up over an establishment, and it would say Blackstone and Sons, right? Blackstone and Sons. And you know that the sons were grown people who had taken over part of the business. They never said Blackstone and children.
Can you imagine going to a legal firm and saying Blackstone and children? Well, I don't know. Children, Blackstone and Sons, because they had a place of maturity, they had a place of position, and that's what this adoption as sons, that's what it means here. It is a placing in position as adult, mature sons and daughters who would inherit God's blessing, inherit whatever God has to give as an inheritance.
We are made, let's review this, we are made the children of God by regeneration, rebirth. That's how we become sons and daughters of God. We have now received the Holy Spirit who is the spirit of adoption, a foretaste of what is to come, and we are predestined as his heirs according to the kind intention of his will. That's a future event that we shall inherit, in which we shall inherit all of God's riches for all eternity.
But how can it ever be that a guilty sinner like me can know that God has chosen me, predestined me, and at last will place me at his side as one of his own sons? It is not according to how I feel about it. It is not according to the strength of my faith. It is not according to my devotedness to Christ, but it is according to the kind intention of his will.
The kind intention of God's will. It is the will of God that you and I who bear trust in the Lord Jesus Christ should share in the Savior's glory for all eternity. That is God's will, the kind intention of his will. How can we ever fear the will of such a kind and loving God?
Harry Ironside, a Bible teacher, preacher, theologian, pastor, and author from the past wrote this, the greatest mistake any Christian can make is to substitute his own will for the will of God. Ever worry about making mistakes? You have choices to make. Decisions to make.
Will be a good one. Maybe not a good one, a bad one. Do you worry about decisions? Choices?
Here's the worst one you can make. The very worst. To think that you can place your will over the Father's will and it's going to turn out just fine. It won't.
It won't turn out just fine. And it's not because God has evil intentions for you. It's not because God has ticked off at you. It's just that you simply don't have the intellect to make good decisions.
Not when God, not compared to God, who knows the first and the last, the beginning and the end. He knows everything that's coming down the pike, brothers and sisters. And his will for you is the best. Harry Ironside said that.
And here's a quote from another very prominent individual. Okay, not so prominent. Yes, he's a nice girl. If you are still unsaved my friend, I will say this.
The greatest mistake that you can ever make is to suppose that by trusting Christ, you will in some way be losing out on life. That was my fear. That somehow by trusting Christ, I would miss out on life. That's utterly ridiculous.
You will never ever know peace in your heart. You will never ever know true happiness, real joy, unless you trust Christ as your Savior, coming as a guilty sinner to the foot of the cross of Christ and receiving forgiveness of sins and a whole new life to live for him. It is only in and through Jesus Christ that you will know God's choice of you, his predestination of you, to adoption of sons, and only in Christ that every spiritual blessing that he has to give can be yours. These are all to be found in Christ alone, by grace and by faith in Christ alone.
Dr. Harry Ironside, the same Ironside that I mentioned before, he told a story on his book on Ephesians, on his commentary on Ephesians in the heavenlies. It's called, and it relates to a story of one of the many attempts on the life of Queen Elizabeth I, or many attempts on her life. This one was known as the Babington Plot of 1586.
A wealthy Catholic gentleman by the name of Anthony Babantin and a priest by the name of John Ballard planned to rescue the imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots who was a relative of Queen Elizabeth, and she was a Catholic as well. They wanted to assassinate Queen Elizabeth who was a Protestant and put Mary Queen of Scots on the throne in her place so that England would become a Catholic nation again. It's all very simple. All very simple.
What they would do, part of the plot was, that they would dress up a young woman in the garb of a page, a royal page, and that person would slip into the palace and then in the night dispatch the Queen into eternity. Well, the woman was found in the wardrobe of the Queen, nestled in among her robes, apprehended and brought before Queen Elizabeth. Who was a little bit miffed? All right.
The young woman realizing her state was bad. This situation was not good. Fell before Queen Elizabeth and pled for her to have compassion on her and to show grace towards her. And Queen Elizabeth said this, if I show you grace, what promise will you make for the future?
What are you going to do in the future? How can I trust you to live as you should live, to be my faithful servant and so on and the woman looked up and said, now if I didn't know that woman, I would have said, you have to worry about me. I'm going to walk us right now. I'm going to be your faithful servant.
I would have had every promise in the book, right? Just don't execute me, right? Listen to what this woman said. Grace, your majesty, that have conditions, grace that is fettered by precautions is not grace at all.
An assassin, a would be assassin, a great theologian. All right? She was right. Absolutely right.
I can imagine the gall to say that to the Queen that you were just about to murder. But that's what she said. And she was right. Brothers and sisters, listen to me.
And you who are not saved in this group, listen to me. God's salvation is by faith is by his grace through faith. His grace, no strings attached. He's not saying, I will save you if you promise to this, this, this, this, and this.
He is not saying that. I will save you. I will pardon you. I will give you life if you only trust my son.
If you'll only realize that he died on the cross for you. Do you hear that? No strings attached. No promises to make or keep.
You know what? Queen was with it? She said, you're right. You're right.
What I was asking of you had nothing to do with Grace. I pardoned you by my grace. She pardoned her. And here, Aaron's side goes on to say in the commentary that that woman did go on to serve her Queen the rest of her days.
Not because she had to, but because that Queen had pardoned her. That Queen has shown her grace. And she would serve that Queen. This is the way it is.
With grace is absolutely unfettered by any vows or promises by its receiver. God's grace in saving us has no strings attached. Nothing is required of us by God other than our accepting His precious gift through Jesus Christ. As such, all that God has planned for us, that is to bless us extensively, to choose us inecomatically and to predestinate us excellently is to the praise of the glory of His grace.
We're going to have made us accepted in the beloved. According to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, freely bestowed on us in the beloved. You can take that last verse, verse number six. And you can look it up if you go to Bible gateway.
And you can find in excess of 60 translations of that verse. Check it out. None will contradict the other. They will say it differently.
But I'm going to choose to use the King James Version to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He has made us accepted in the beloved. You know why? Because I like it. All right.
I like it. I grew up with His translation. And that particular translation of verse number six, I like it. It doesn't contradict any of the other translations.
It's just a little different take on it. But I love the fact that it says He has made us accepted into the beloved. A safe center does not stand before God in any righteousness of His own, nor does He plead any merit of His or Her own, but by grace through the death of Christ on the cross He has received into the very embrace of God. Forgiven.
I am forgiven this morning of all my sins, but not merely forgiven. I am justified. Declared righteous before God, but not merely justified. I am washed from my sins through the blood of Christ, but not merely washed from my sins.
I am cleansed from my defilement, but not merely cleansed. Do you know what I am? I'm accepted in loving kindness into the very arms of God. Received with the same kind of love and affection as God receives is only begotten Son Jesus Christ.
Isn't that amazing? Isn't that marvelous, infinite, matchless grace? If you are a believer today know this, that God has chosen you in Christ. God has predestined you to adoption as sons.
You are His heir through Jesus Christ. God has blessed you with every spiritual blessing, and you are completely accepted by God in the same level of acceptance that Jesus Christ has. I've shown you this hymn before. I'm sorry.
I get stuck on hymn sometimes. But this hymn, a mind at perfect peace, by a cat's be pageant. This one just blows me away every time we sing it or we read it. A mind at perfect peace with God.
What a word is this. A sinner reconciled through blood. This, this indeed, is peace. By nature and by practice far, how very far from God.
And yet, now by grace brought an eye to Him through faith in Jesus' blood. So near, so very near to God I cannot near be, for in the person of His Son I am as near as He. So dear, so very dear to God, more dear I cannot be. The love wherewith He loves the Son such as is left to me.
And then finally, verse 5, why should I ever careful or fretful or anxious be? Since such the God is mine, He watches for me night and day and tells me mine is mine. Everything He has is mine. Isn't that amazing?
The eternal God, the possessor of all things, has predestined me to be His heir. And because this is so, we are no longer slaves to fear. We sang about that this morning. I did not ask for that song, but we sang about it.
I'm no longer a slave to fear. I am a child of God. No longer a slave to fear. Romans 815, you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons.
There's our phrase, by which we cry out of a Father and lead by the spirit, no our true identity, that we are sons of God. Galatians 4 verse 5, but when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who are under the law that we might receive. What? The adoption as sons.
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of the Son into our hearts, crying, Abba Father, He's our Father. We know who we are. We're the sons of God. And we know beyond a doubt, I'm stealing this from Him.
We know that the best is yet to come. The best is yet to come. Romans 823, we know that the whole creation groans and suffers and pains of childless together until now. And not only this, but we also ourselves having the first fruits of the spirit.
Even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. We have been accepted in the beloved. We belong to Him. He wants us near.
And all this is true only when a person is in Christ. Are you in Christ? Have you taken your place as a sinner and trust your Christ as the only Savior of sinners? You say, I just can't imagine that God would want me, but He does.
I can't imagine it either, but He wanted me. He wants us to become His child. He wants us to be in His presence. He wants us to inherit all He has for us.
Tell you a story. It's another story about Jay Boy Nicholson. When Jay Boy Nicholson was younger and his family is just starting, he had a little boy whose name was Jay Boy Nicholson was in his study, working away on the Word of God, right? Working away, studying, preparing, getting ready to speak and to share the Word of God with others and blessing his own heart.
And as he was there in the study, the door was closed. And as he was there on the study, there came a, yeah, on the door. Just a little light tap. And he knew very well that it was Jay Boy.
And so, Boy said, what do you want? Yeah, real kindly, Boy's. What do you want? And little voice came through the door to Him.
I want you, Daddy. A split second later, Boy was opening the door on his knees, receiving his son into his arms. I want you, Daddy. Is that your heart today?
To God. I want you, Father. I want you. You're not saved.
And the Spirit of God is working in your heart. That's the response. And that's all the response he's looking for. I want you, Daddy.
Jesus said, no man comes to the Father by me. He is the door for you to knock on. I want you, Daddy. Brothers and sisters in Christ, God has planned amazingly for us.
He's blessed us. He's chosen us. He's predestined us. And it's all to the praise of the glory of His grace.
Our God is an awesome God. We don't deserve any of His grace, do we? That's why it's called grace. But we can rejoice in that grace today.
And I know I have some musicians here. I'm wondering if they could come. And if we could do, it's Him, number 273, and Him's the truth and praise. We sang it last time that I spoke as well.
Marvelous grace. We're greater than our sin. Marvelous grace of our loving Lord. You did?
Well, let's just give...