Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians, Chapter one. If you, as you find your place. If you've been waiting to invite someone to church and they say, I'll come when pigs sing, you just tell them you saw it tonight. I don't know if y' all noticed, but Mercy had a pig singing with her, so pigs have sung. Tell your friends to come to church.
[00:00:27] If you try to take it from her, you. You might see pigs fly.
[00:00:31] Casey just said yes. And secondly, if we ever do LL Cool J's Mama said Knock youk out as a song, Will Carver will probably actually knock someone out.
[00:00:43] If you're not having the kind of fun he was having singing a song, you should. You should go get. Get some classes from him because my man was doing it.
[00:00:53] I flinched a couple times. Praise God.
[00:00:57] Thank you, C3 leaders. Thank you, C3 kids. It's always a blessing if you're. If you have a kid, a little kid there, you probably were just locked in on them. My problem is my kids are big. I can't decide who to watch. I just want to watch them all individually because it's all just a blessing to watch them process their nervousness or the message that they're. They're sharing in song. And it's. It really is a blessing. Thank you. You want to say something? Car.
[00:01:29] Amber. Forgive her. She's a woman of a certain amount of years.
[00:01:35] I'm not wrong. All of you are.
[00:01:39] If you have your Bibles, I'd like to turn your attention.
[00:01:43] I was going to say briefly, but that always feels like somewhat of a.
[00:01:47] But briefly in relation to what we've been doing, typically.
[00:01:51] I just want to introduce the book in the lightest way. I hope it wets your whistles. We've given you the preaching schedule for the next several months. There in the bulletin, you can begin to read and study the book. Take your own notes, be ready for life together groups and discussions over cups of coffee and things like that. And Joe Lune has given you a great factual introduction into the book in your bulletin when it was written. By whom? And I'm going to leave all that stuff to the bulletin and just handle a couple of big pieces.
[00:02:24] In Ephesians, the first two verses read like this.
[00:02:28] They say this Ephesians, Chapter one, verses one and two read like this. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you.
[00:02:43] Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That's. That's how simple it is. I'll go ahead and tell you one big, one big theological, academic argument about the Book of Ephesus is they have several very early manuscripts that don't have the word in Ephesus. And I'll just go ahead and tell you there are several theories about that. I stand with the theory that it probably got circulated to many churches.
[00:03:08] They realized it was to the church and many of them didn't feel the need to write in Ephesus and all the copies. But you know, if you go on YouTube and type in why is not in Ephesus, in the bi. In some old copies of the Bible, you'll find people saying it's not a legitimate book. You'll find this, you'll find that. Let me give you an academic characterization of all that.
[00:03:37] Even if every copy had in Ephesus, it would be to the whole church. And if no copy had in Ephesus, it would have been written for the believers in Ephesus too. Somebody say amen.
[00:03:47] We don't determine.
[00:03:50] We don't determine the books of the Bible. We discover the books that God has given us to have in the Bible. Amen.
[00:03:57] So let me give you a few thoughts and I There's no place in this book where Paul just kind of gives this bullet thing, says, I wrote it just for this. But you can tell why he wrote it. You can tell why he wrote this letter to the Ephesians and to the church. I think it's because they needed encouragement. They needed encouragement in their identity. They needed encouragement for the things they were facing. And if we were just to take those two items, the things we're facing and our identity in Christ, the don't we need this letter today?
[00:04:28] If you're a Christian, if you're a Christian and you're in this world, there are going to be things hammering at your life constantly and hammering at your idea, your belief, your confidence in who you are in Christ. So we need this letter today. Amen. I believe we really do.
[00:04:46] I believe what Paul ultimately is trying to convey is like, hey, hey, the enemy is conquered.
[00:04:55] Christ is going to reconcile everything to himself.
[00:04:59] Sin is paid for.
[00:05:02] You know, I am not going to let you down. Everything is solved.
[00:05:08] I think of when I read Ephesians now, my good friend Matthew Acre, it's his favorite book in the Bible. He's already disappointed that we're only going to be in it six months.
[00:05:18] He's literally a little bit down about that.
[00:05:21] I think we need this book.
[00:05:24] I think we desperately need this book. But I'm here to tell you that I think one of the most critical things about it is it's like a letter to little children.
[00:05:36] Now, the reason I had all that set up is because Matthew is going to be tempted to be. To be offended. This is like a letter to little children.
[00:05:44] Now, if you're a parent or grandparent, raise your hand. Parent or grandparent, raise your hand. All right, keep them up. Keep them up. If you've ever spent time around little kids, raise your hand.
[00:05:53] Okay, Right.
[00:05:54] Have you ever seen a little kid upset about something? You can put your hands down now.
[00:06:02] And you knew it was going to be okay, but it was hard for them to believe that.
[00:06:07] You ever seen that?
[00:06:09] You know what I'm saying? Like, I'll never forget one time one of my children, I'm not going to say which one. Rachel, had an absolute meltdown while eating lunch because I didn't give them the spoon with this something on the handle.
[00:06:26] They're, like, dying, crying, yelling. And now I am a very sensitive dad.
[00:06:32] Very kind, very humble, very patient.
[00:06:37] I said, shut up.
[00:06:40] It's not politically correct. But I'd had it.
[00:06:44] And I'll never forget this. True story. I'll never forget.
[00:06:48] I was like, okay, it's time for you to go have your quiet time. Jesus name, Amen. I was home alone.
[00:06:54] You need to go have your quiet time. You're melting down over whatever lunch was that day.
[00:06:59] You're melting down over the spoon. I need to go talk to Jesus.
[00:07:03] And I was in Ephesians in my personal study, and it's like, God's like, you need this because you're being childish.
[00:07:09] Like, she doesn't know that'll be okay. And you're acting like you don't know this will be okay.
[00:07:14] And I'm trying to tell you that even all the works of Satan are going. Like, I'm going to defeat him. Everything's going to be okay. Everything that comes against you.
[00:07:24] And, man, I sat there and I don't remember if she went to sleep that day. But when quiet time was over, I apologized to her. I really did. And it was like she had moved on.
[00:07:37] She had totally moved on. Like, she. She looked at me like, what are we talking about here?
[00:07:42] You know, she probably wanted a gogurt or something and, you know, go eat some dirt, you know, And I've gone on this journey with God about being a bad parent and forgetting my faith and, you know, and. And she comes out from quiet time like, what's up? How. How you Doing mom home.
[00:08:01] This book is a book to little kids.
[00:08:03] Because little kids, in the moments where life is just laying a licking on us, we become little children who forget that God has said there's going to be rocky days, but none of that is going to determine the ultimate victory.
[00:08:20] And if I was giving you a big overview of, of Ephesians, that would be it. I want to quote something I read just a few weeks ago as I've been looking at this little book over and over again. It's from Charles Hodges commentary on the letter to the Ephesians. And it reads like this. I'll put it on the screen because I want you guys to be able to see it as I read it.
[00:08:40] He says this. All her triumphs, meaning the Church. All her triumphs over sin and error have been affected by the Word of God. So long as she uses this and relies on it alone, she goes on conquering.
[00:08:53] But when anything else, be it reason, science, tradition, or the commandments of men, is allowed to take its place, it being the Word of God. When it's allowed to take its place or to share its office, then the church or the Christian is at the mercy of the adversary.
[00:09:15] Hox signo Vinces.
[00:09:18] That's, that's, that's an old saying about what happened with one of the emperors. It means in this sign you will conquer. What he's saying is this word. Through this sign of the Word, the apostle may be understood to say to every believer and to the whole church. In other words, he wrote the letter because they needed this word from God. And anytime we're relying, depending on or given equality to anything besides the Word of God, anything, church, believer, anytime we're given anything, even equal standing with the Word of God, we're subject to the attacks of the adversary.
[00:09:59] So he wrote this letter saying, listen, listen, listen to the Word of God. Know who you are in God. Give heed to the things of God. The Word of God. It is God who will sustain you. It is his Word that will direct you.
[00:10:12] And I don't know if I found a more succinct quote than that one from Charles Hodge to say that. Just look at it again. All her triumphs, all the church's triumphs overseeing an era have been affected by the Word of God. Let the church say Amen.
[00:10:26] And look, you know, this was written 150 years ago, Majing A Ling 150 years ago. What was he saying? Was the things that they were tempted to put in line or in link with the Word of God. Reason Science, tradition, commandments of men.
[00:10:45] Isn't that where we are today?
[00:10:49] People will say, follow the signs. Okay, follow the signs. Until the science disagrees with the word of God.
[00:10:56] Follow the signs. But you better use the word of God as you follow the signs.
[00:11:00] A lot of folks want me to follow the signs, and they won't follow the signs.
[00:11:06] That's a story for another day. Jesus name. Amen.
[00:11:11] A lot of people say, just think about it.
[00:11:14] Well, if you think long enough, you can talk yourself into anything.
[00:11:18] Am I right or wrong?
[00:11:21] So five very quick thoughts with that as an introduction. First is this.
[00:11:26] This book is. Is from a sent man of God, and he has a word from God.
[00:11:32] This is from an apostle in Romans, chapter one, which I'm attempted to go to, but I won't let the east rockers say, thank you, God.
[00:11:42] You know, his apostleship, his teaching, his authority, the apostles. Paul's authority has been questioned at every turn. I like what he says in the first chapter of Romans. I like what he says all throughout Corinthians, especially second Corinthians. He's like, look, man. Look, man, if you want to test my walk, you better listen to my talk and you better watch my suffering.
[00:12:05] This is from a tested apostle of God. This is a sent man. He's been sent by God to the lost and to the saved. To the lost, that they might hear the gospel. To the saved, that they might walk in it. Secondly, the sainted people of God have a word from God. Now, I love this phrase. I labored over it. I feel so smart even coming up with it.
[00:12:27] Let me tell y' all how smart I feel. Look at the second part of verse one. To the saints.
[00:12:33] Now, our friends the rcs, and I don't mean the Royal Crown Cola people, I mean the Roman Catholics, they believe only special folks become saints.
[00:12:44] You got to do something big and you got to be affirmed as a saint. Now, I'm not trying to start an argument with the Roman Catholics over just that.
[00:12:56] Thank. Thank you, Brett. Thank you. I. I needed that so bad. It's been a hard weekend. Thank you, brother.
[00:13:04] But I'm going to say what. What does the Bible say someone hidden in Christ is?
[00:13:11] And I don't know if you guys have noticed, but Micah Carver put a sign out on the pole on this. That side from a few weeks ago. Resurrection Sunday's message. You a saint or what church?
[00:13:23] You a saint or ain't? It's two categories for y' all visitors.
[00:13:27] We don't get any smarter than this.
[00:13:30] Casey knows Bigger words. Steve knows longer sentences.
[00:13:35] Me and Brett tell them, Brett, here we are.
[00:13:40] You a saint or you ain't. But here's the thing. If you're in Christ, guess what? You are.
[00:13:45] You're a saint.
[00:13:47] And you don't get any more special than being in Christ.
[00:13:49] There's nothing more special. So who does he write the letter to?
[00:13:53] And this is another thing. If you really studied this book, this is the only place he ever uses this greeting. And there are tons of people say, oh, he's written this to two different kinds of people because he writes it to the saints, to the, to the hagios, the holy ones. That's the word in Greek. The holy ones, the set apart ones, the sacred ones. They're not sacred because they behave sacred. They're sacred because God says, I will not let what will commonly happen to every other sinner happen to you. What will commonly happen to every other sinner is they will depart into darkness in the lake of fire for eternity. Out of my presence. You are set apart.
[00:14:33] You're hagios. You're sacred by my designation, by my preservation.
[00:14:40] But he also writes to these people who are faithful.
[00:14:45] I like this word in Greek, the word. And you know, if you're a visitor, please come back. I don't try to do Greek every week. Hallelujah, Jesus name. But they got a couple of my favorites this week. The word for the faithful here, those who are faithful in Christ Jesus is the word Pistos.
[00:15:02] Pistos.
[00:15:04] And you might not believe this, but it's actually the same root word where we get pistol.
[00:15:10] And that's why I like it, because I'm a nerd.
[00:15:14] But what it basically means is that person who goes about attempting to have reliable living in lieu of their belief.
[00:15:24] And so you might get as an image, he's writing it to the saints who are shot out in him living what they believe.
[00:15:32] That's the word preacher, I'm going to draw for you. They're out doing it, man.
[00:15:37] Now, if you live long enough and talk to enough Christian folks, you'll find folks who, they can tell you all the right information, but they don't live much of a transformation. And why am I beating on this? Because the rest of this letter has got to be received by people who are in Christ and plan on living for Christ because without application, the things of God are devoid of their power. If it just exists as information, you got to live that stuff, man.
[00:16:05] So he writes it to the saints and to the, to the pistachios, to the faithful in Christ.
[00:16:12] And if you were to go and stop right here and pause and read the book of James, you would find out that the people who say the Apostle James and the Apostle Paul have this big argument. I would submit to you academically that that's hogwash.
[00:16:26] Because what Paul just said, if y' all will let me put it in some of that McGee's mill language for you, he said to y' all who are in Christ and who live like you're in Christ, that's who I'm writing to.
[00:16:44] Finally, of these three things, this book is written because the Savior is a sucker or a succour from God for his people. Now, I chose that word. That's an old fashioned word and I chose it on purpose.
[00:17:03] Kelly. Where's Kelly? Kelly. It's an S word. There were S words.
[00:17:07] Kelly is always catching my alliteration vibe, so I have to give her some props tonight.
[00:17:14] But I love this word. If you'll look at verse two. Grace, unmerited favor. Say amen.
[00:17:20] Unmerited favor to you.
[00:17:22] Peace, settled, whole relationship with God. Why is he writing this letter? Because the world is crazy and they're tempted to be crazy with the world. So what? I want the unmerited favor that brings the wholeness of God's plan to your life.
[00:17:39] I thought that was just words you said at dinner time. No, Power pack stuff. Right there. Grace and peace to you. It is a succor.
[00:17:48] S U C C O R.
[00:17:52] I didn't study to find out if succor comes from succor, but it's highly likely. I don't know. I can tell you.
[00:18:01] You guessed. I just want to impress you. Guess I took a lot of Latin and I can almost speak English now, but sucker comes from two Latin words that mean subcurere. Subcurere. Sucker. Subcurere. And do you know what that basically means? It means running to help, coming from under. It means you drop what you're doing because I'm about to ruin the image in the style. Oh, no, wrong.
[00:18:34] Sorry. The 80s got caught in my brain.
[00:18:37] It means someone who drops what they're doing comes to help you.
[00:18:43] Y' all know any people like that in your life who, when you need something, they'll drop what they're doing and come take up what you're doing. Now, I want to put something in your view. I want to put all of Philippians 2 in your view right now. Don't worry, I'm not going to put it on the screen. What is being taught in Philippians 2, he did not keep hold to glory.
[00:19:04] He did not count glory as something that he had to hold on to. He did not count his rightful position in heaven is something that had to be held onto.
[00:19:17] But he took on the form of a man. Why? Because he dropped what he was doing to bring aid to the elect of God.
[00:19:25] That's why I say the Savior is a sucker. The unmerited favor of God that purchases us peace through Christ Jesus.
[00:19:35] That's what this book is going to remind us of over and over and over, again and again, in increasing depths, how far God has come so that you can't even see how far he plans to take you. Let me say that again. This book is going to remind you, show you, prove to you, reiterate to you how far God has come with a plan to take you places you can't even imagine. You know where I get that from?
[00:20:01] Chapter 3, verse 20.
[00:20:03] Now, to him who is able to do how much y' all Far More King James Version, New King James says exceedingly, abundantly, this has had such an impact on me that when we opened our home school, we called it Far More Academy. If you look on Katie and Rachel's transcripts, they graduated from Far More Academy. Now, it might have been a prayer of desperation. Lord, if I'm going to teach these children, I'm going to need far more help than they realize.
[00:20:33] Now, I live on a resplendent 2.63 acres in downtown Bushy Fork, and we have lovingly entitled it Far More Estates. When you live on a little piece of property calling it estates, it's not arrogant, it's hopeful.
[00:20:51] But we named it that on purpose. Far More Estates. God do far more than give us a life here. Do far more than give us a place to sleep, far more than a place to have our meals. God make this a ministry center and do things in our home that are far more than we can imagine.
[00:21:09] When I tell y' all that this book is to tell y' all to show us how far God came to show us how far he plans to take us. And we can't even understand the depths, the heights, the riches of where he plans to take us, we're getting ready to go on a journey in Ephesians that if you're a Christian, you're going to come out of this walking away so very quickly. A quick overview of the whole book. And I would say you need to.
[00:21:41] You kind of need to keep these two big ideas in mind the next 22 weeks.
[00:21:46] First one is this Christ has reconciled all creation to himself and to God.
[00:21:51] Christ has reconciled all. All creation to himself.
[00:21:55] And you say, wait a minute. Isn't Christ God? Yes. Okay, well, I'm telling you, he came in the flesh to do in the flesh what Adam had dropped in the flesh. So it's to himself, both as the rightful ruler of earth in the flesh and to the Godhead, to reconcile, to make it all right.
[00:22:15] Clay. Clay, usually over here.
[00:22:18] You get back to your seat, sir.
[00:22:21] Clay is.
[00:22:23] We live in the Same House over 20 years, and I've wanted to make this shed into an office at the house.
[00:22:29] Well, you know, we're just now getting it done. Clay is helping us. It's really cool. It's really great. Except we have all this stuff, right? And, you know, the stuff you have in your shed, I don't care about, so it's junk.
[00:22:47] But the stuff I have in my shed, I care about, so it's stuff.
[00:22:51] We're trying to make some of our stuff junk, and some of our junk stuff.
[00:22:56] Because when Clay finishes this, we have nowhere to put all our stuff.
[00:23:01] So yesterday it was really funny. And what we were doing is we were reconciling everything, right? Like some of this stuff with books. I'm gonna keep these books. I want to throw these books away. And Kara's saying, no, let's take this to that place over in Mebbett and get some credit for them. I was like, I don't even want people reading those books. They stink.
[00:23:22] And she just gives me one of these, which is her really sweet way of saying, I'm not going to listen to you.
[00:23:33] And I start quoting Ephesians 5:21, submitting to one another in reverence for Christ.
[00:23:41] But think about it like, God is going to reconcile some things by putting them exactly where they belong, and he's going to reconcile other things by putting them exactly where they belong.
[00:23:54] We're working through our stuff, and some of it belongs in the trash, and some of it belongs in the shed, and some of it we can't decide. We really can't decide, you know? But what are we going to do before this process is over? We're going to figure it out now from God's omniscient angle, he knows where all this is going.
[00:24:15] From our limited angle, we don't. What we need is confidence in the One who knows.
[00:24:21] So Ephesians doesn't answer every question ad infinitum, but it does keep pointing us to the One who is infinite.
[00:24:31] Lastly, very quickly, Christ, Ephesians will point us to this. You need to look at it over and over again. It will show us how Christ has united people from all nations to Himself and to one another in his church.
[00:24:44] I could have said this. I should have said it probably in a very McGizmeal way. God's plan A is the church and he doesn't have a plan B.
[00:24:55] People will either be united together in the church or if they're not, in his church, in his worldwide, true and living church that manifests across many languages, all kinds of colors of people, races, economic strata. If you're not in the true church, hidden in Christ, Ava, buried with him and raised with Him. Amen.
[00:25:21] If you're not in that church, you're not in that church.
[00:25:26] And this is so mind boggling that in the book of Ephesians he tells us, like this thing is so mind boggling, even the angels didn't see that one coming over in chapter three. We'll get to that in several weeks.
[00:25:40] But here's my point.
[00:25:42] He is reconciling all things. And the keepers, the keepers are the church.
[00:25:52] So tonight I would play, not play, excuse me, I would point your mind back to sort of that opening statement in that quote by Charles Hodge and that idea that God wants to encourage and exhort and edify his church.
[00:26:12] I want us to know this, that before the times reach the fulfillment of God, finishing the work of salvation, there will be hostile cosmic powers who will wage war all along the way against God's church, God's families and God's people.
[00:26:38] We must prepare ourselves for battle, must clothe ourselves appropriately. Ephesians, chapter six. I'm hinting at.
[00:26:46] We must stand united together and in Christ.
[00:26:52] Let me say that again. We must stand united together in Christ so that in the midst of this war, our chief weapon will be the gospel, both both to condemn the wicked powers and to compel those who are being called into salvation.
[00:27:12] One weapon, the word of God, one consolation, the Word of God, one salve, one sucker, the person of Christ.
[00:27:24] And so God has given the church a critical role in his worldwide work. And when he sees his people down, he sends an apostle with a word saying, look up, look up, look up. Church, stand up. Church, stand out. Church, stand ready. Church, be clothed with gospel clothing.
[00:27:50] You can't avoid the war because it's going to go on until Christ calls His church home.
[00:27:58] So be ready to face it knowing.
[00:28:01] Knowing that God can do far more than you could ever think or imagine. Would you pray with me, Father? God, we thank you for a Chance to look briefly into your word. And now, Father, as our hearts turn toward the Lord's table, would you encourage us to remember our baptism, to remember our days of repentance, to remember believing, to remember trusting you? Would you call us back into the sweetest days of when we first began to walk with you? How when we trusted your blood to count for us, and we trusted your life to be in us.
[00:28:36] And would you renew us in a fresh way in Jesus? I pray we're going to sing a song in just a moment. This song has a lot of purposes. It helps us change gears out of the message into the next thing, which will be the Lord's table. More on that in a moment. It also helps us have man. How do I respond to that? How do I respond to this reality that that guy just sat up there and smiled and said, you're going to be at war until you go to heaven.
[00:29:02] The song just helps you start to respond.
[00:29:05] We sing together. What are we singing?
[00:29:09] Oh, great. Is that perfect? If I would have just waited. There it is.
[00:29:13] It also gives space where we've all heard something together. That the spirit will begin working in you uniquely. And I have to ask you a question. Well, I have to ask a series of questions.
[00:29:25] Are you in a right relationship with God?
[00:29:29] Remember, it's not based on our works. If it was based on our works, number one, we'd all be in trouble.
[00:29:37] Number two, we would be tempted to boast.
[00:29:41] It's based on the work of Christ. And the Bible says, if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, that he was raised from the dead, then all of his work will count for you. Without faith, it is impossible to please God.
[00:29:56] Have you by faith believed on Christ?
[00:29:59] And having believed, have you begun that first obedience, that first obedience of a believer's baptism?
[00:30:07] We saw a beautiful, wonderful, beautiful, submissive example tonight. Ava didn't fight baptism at all. She's just like, I need to get it on the calendar. That's. We're fighting the calendar, not my wheel. Hallelujah. That's a testimony.
[00:30:23] Have you believed? Would you be baptized?
[00:30:26] And believers, the table's always special to us. Say amen, and we need to be ready to take it. It's not about being worthy. If it's about being worthy, we'll never be worthy.
[00:30:41] Our only appropriate response would be to shout out, I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy. Right.
[00:30:47] But it is about being aware. Are we aware of our sins, and do we bring them in a fresh way to the cross, believing God again that he is faithful and just. To do what? Forgive us. And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The table isn't meant to shame you away from the Lord. It's meant to soften you to come to the Lord.
[00:31:07] So as we sing, maybe you need to do some work of repentance.
[00:31:12] Know that your Father points it out because he means to minister to you. Amen.
[00:31:17] Let's stand together and sing. Great is Thy Faithfulness.
