Ephesians chapter 6. We started Ephesians 6 back in
November 2020. This will be our last in this
study through epistle to the church of Ephesus, but it won't
be the last time we'll be back in Ephesians. I hope we come
here often. Paul wrote this whole letter.
all the wonderful things directed by God the Spirit. He plainly
gave us the gospel in this letter. He tells His brethren there at
Ephesus and us how to walk in this world. What this means,
when you go to your jobs or you go to the grocery store or you
pump gas, that these things will be on your mind. People don't
know, believers pump gas. And sometimes you think, well,
look how many liquid molecules are going through this hose.
My Lord made this hose. He made that gas, put it under the ground. Somebody went and mined it out,
gave them the knowledge to do it. Next thing you know, it's
clicked off and you're sitting there thinking about the Lord.
That's called walking with the Lord. Ain't what people think,
is it? It ain't good holy living and
high talking. Paul showed us what that looks
like. Husbands and wives. Here's how you get along, here's
why. Well, we have the perfect marriage in this world. No, you
don't. You've got a perfect marriage
in your heavenly kingdom. Christ your husband. Paul gave us these things. Then
there at the end we looked at Tachikos, his laborer with Paul
and Onesimus. worked together and got trained
up by Paul, loved Paul, labored with Paul, gave his life over
lock, stock, and barrel to go to Ephesus and do whatever they
needed to be used up, to be consumed for their sakes. He brought this
letter to them. But Paul ends it with two short
verses to close this letter. He petitions the Lord's throne
of grace one more time for these brethren. Here in chapter 6,
verse 23. We read over these so fast, don't
we? This is just the closing. Something you say at the end
of a letter. Sincerely yours, Kevin Thacker. Just something you stick down
at the bottom, isn't it? That's it. Something much more
than that. Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith. From God
the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace be with all them
that love our Lord Jesus in sincerity. Amen. The title of my message is Closing
Prayer for You. This is my prayer for you when
I'm pumping gas and I think about you. I walk up down the driveway
to go check the mail and I think about you. I wake up at 4.32 this morning
and I think about you. I go to sleep last night at 1
something and I think about you. It's my prayer for each person
in here, each child in here, my children, your children, your
grandchildren. Me, my wife, this is my prayer for you. This is
Paul's prayer for those brethren of Ephesus. This is our prayer. It says there, peace. Peace be
to the brethren. The same peace everybody's son
is. We looked at that brethren last
week. This is a prefix, brother, sister,
brethren, bought by God. The blood of his son is what
purchased that first name, that prefix, brother, sister. His
blood and who He is is what purchased your surname, the Lord our righteousness,
whereby she shall be called the Lord our righteousness." Think of everybody underneath
the sun. This is the brethren. The brethren. Children of God. He says, peace. Believers have
peace. Do you know that? We don't have
it all the time, but we have peace. And I want you to have
peace. I want you to have peace. Peace
runs throughout. From the moment we first believe,
when the Lord comes, when He sends us a preacher, God, the
Holy Spirit does a work in your heart, you have peace right then.
Sometimes it kind of, you don't remember being born, do you?
In this world, sometimes it's a slow thing, but you have peace.
You first find out you're at enmity with God, and right then
you find out there's peace. We have it when we first believe
and we have it till we close our eyes in death, dying grace. We've been given peace to leave
this world, to enter into eternal peace, eternal rest. We don't
feel like we have much peace, nor do we have it often. It's
with us always. It's low, I'm with you always. We don't feel like we have it,
sure don't feel like we deserve it, do we? But I pray that you,
and I pray that I, everyone sitting here, have more peace. We have
more peace. Where did all this peace begin?
For a believer. For brethren. Not for everybody.
Those Christ bought for brethren. Where did all this begin? Peace
began with the Father. Turn back to Ezekiel 37. The
very one we offended. A man will truly enter into peace
when he realizes he didn't offend something, he offended someone. I didn't offend the law, I offended
the God that wrote the law. You ain't got no peace till you
know Him. Ezekiel 37. This Lord we offended, now there's
no condemnation between us and Him. There's peace with the one we
were at war with. You and I, we were enemies against
God. We sinned against Him and Him
alone. And you know how does peace come
about? He came to us. We could come
to Him, as Bob read that this morning. He came to us while
we were still in rebellion against Him, while we were still heathens.
and the Spirit moved upon us. It pleased the Lord to move the
Spirit upon His people. Look here in Ezekiel 37 verse
21. And saying to them, Thus saith
the Lord God, Behold, I will take the children of Israel from
among the heathen, whether they be gone, and will gather them
on every side and bring them into their own land. And I will
make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel,
And one king shall be king to them all. And they shall be no
more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms
any more at all. Neither shall they defile themselves
any more with their idols." Them idols will get put away. God
says so. nor with their detestable things,
nor with any of their transgressions, but I will save them out of all
their dwelling places." Well, if he's got a child on some shipwrecked
island somewhere, or some desert island, he'll shipwreck Paul
to go preach to him on it. Or if it's some child of his,
he's going to go get him. They're going, we'll see us this
evening, Lord willing. He sustains us until then. They
follow him. They join with his people and
they follow him. He'll go get them. He said, but
I will save them out of their dwelling places wherein they
have sin and will cleanse them. So shall they be my people and
I will be their God. Lord's going to come to his people.
He's going to save them to the uttermost. That's not just something that's
written in black and white letters on a piece of page, is it? Something
comes with that. Something happens on this earth.
It's sitting in a parachute to escape hell. Boy, I don't have
to go to hell now. He gives you something to walk
in in this world. Look here in verse 26. Ezekiel 37, 26. Moreover, I will make a covenant
of peace with them. People say, I made my peace with
God. No, you didn't. You might have made your peace
with a God. You didn't make no peace with God. God's the one
that makes peace. We're the offending party. We offended Him. He's
the one that makes peace. It says, Moreover, I will make
a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant
with them. and I will place them, put them
right where I want them, I'm going to multiply them, the preacher
of the gospel, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them
forevermore. Christ is going to dwell in his
people. My tabernacle also shall be with them, yea, I will be
their God and they shall be my people. You want peace, where are you
going to find it? The Lord of our peace. He has
to come to His people. It's the only place where peace
can be found. It begins with Him. It starts with the Lord
we offended and it comes to our hearts. We pray for peace. Peace be to you. That ain't something
to throw around now, is it? That ain't cheap. That ain't
dime store words we just toss. That's God's peace. It starts
with Him and it comes to our consciences. It comes to the
heart of a believer. When you truly notice, you know
what, I've offended God. I don't care what's going on
next to me. I don't care how many brothers and sisters I have in
this flesh. I don't care how many dope dealers
are down the street. I don't care. All of a sudden,
God comes to somebody, convicts them of sin, you're going to
have a problem. You're going to be shook up worse than a can
of soda. He's going to do a work in His people and you're going
to realize, I've offended Him. And all of a sudden, this is
a one-on-one interaction, isn't it? This ain't a group effort. My grandma was so not, you don't
care about grandma. You want a present to God, Holy
Spirit's coming to you. And he speaks, he said, peace
I leave with you. My peace I give unto you, not
as the world giveth. give I unto you. This ain't what
we think. This ain't what we dream up.
We're just going to be sitting cross-legged saying kumbaya and
just hunky-dory and smiling all the time. You're going to have
some low spots. And that's when you need it, isn't it? Oh, he's
going to give you peace in that trough of the wave. Now, the
lowest part of that miry pit of trial you're going to walk
through, that's when he's going to come. He'll say, fear not,
it's I. Don't be afraid. That's speaking
peace into somebody's heart. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. From Romans chapter 5. Peace is in the heart of a believer.
This is the peace I pray that I have and I pray that you have. We understand what we are, who
we've offended, who has to originate the peace. He speaks peace in
our hearts. Look here in Romans 5 verse 8. God commendeth His love towards
us. He sent His only begotten Son
because He loved us. He commendeth His love towards
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if,
when we were enemies, we were irreconciled to God by the death
of His Son, much more being reconciled, shall we be saved by His life." That's the bee of sin, the double
cure. Go cry unto Jerusalem. Go cry unto Israel. Tell them
her warfare is accomplished. She's received double for all
her sins. I racked up a sin debt that can't
be numbered. At war with God, And He come
to me and He said, Peace. I'm going to make an everlasting
covenant of peace through my Son. I put you in Him before time
was. You're going to have peace. But it's double. It's double. It's not just a clean slate.
You're not hitting a reset button. You're not, it's like a computer,
turn it off, turn it back on, see if it works. This ain't it. Double. There's a holy nature imparted.
Put in. And then the Lord looks at it
and He says, there it is. My Son's inside of that. Perfect. Good and faithful servant. He
counts it because that's where it sits. Already inside of His
people. That's peace, isn't it? We fly and flounder and flop
like a fish out of water in this world. Oh, what am I going to
do? We'd pray a whole lot better if we were handcuffed face down
on the ground. If we're in a serious trial,
we speak to the Lord plainly and talk plainly to Him. Tell
Him what our heart trouble is. When we get down to brass tacks,
too, Lord, I've got a heart problem. Forgive me. Be merciful to me,
a sinner. And He gives the peace. Is there
anything that God requires other than Christ to be in His presence?
Is He able? Is He able to save His people?
Do I need to understand how He does it? I don't have to have
a working knowledge to go in and diagnose this stuff. Is He
able? Am I in need? We have peace with God the Father.
He gives us that peace in our hearts. And then we have peace
with brethren. We have peace with brethren. Psalm 122 says, Pray for the
peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love
Thee. Pray for your brethren. It'll
do good for you and it'll do good for them. It'll be prosperous.
Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy palaces.
For my brethren and companions' sake, I will now say, Peace be
within thee. My companions, my brethren, I
pray you have peace in you. I want God to save His people.
Southern California, everyone that's heard the general call,
the truth of Christ, I pray for them. Lord, give them peace.
Give them Christ in their hearts. Do a work in them. It's your
will. You'll call out. I know it. I
know I'll do it. You talk about getting your prayers fulfilled.
Lord, thy will be done. You go and get your prayers answered.
Call out your people. Because of the house of the Lord
our God, I will seek thy good because of his glory. I'm mine.
Oh, look how many people Kevin preaches to down here. That ain't
it. I want sinners to know God. I want His sheep to be called
out and Him to work in them and Him to bring them into the fold.
And then I got another brother or sister walking this earth
that I can cry with and rejoice with and hug. And then we can
go home. That's a blessing, isn't it?
That's peaceful. Paul told Satan and Ephesians 4, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. How in
the world are two people just diametrically opposed to one
another? From different backgrounds, different politics, different
everything. Upbringing, rich, poor, educated,
uneducated. You've got different opinions
on everything. If you have three people for something, you'll
get four opinions, won't you? How could they get along? There'll
be times they rub, ain't there? in peace. That unity must take
place in the peace that God sends. The Lord's come and saved you.
Christ died for you. I ain't got no problems with
you. He don't. If we remember our first love, keep looking
to Him, now all of a sudden it makes it go a lot smoother, don't
it? Peace with God because of Christ, because of His workmanship
in us. Peace that He gives in our hearts.
Now, peace with brethren, those that love Him, because we finally
have true brethren. and finally understand what that
word means, and we experience that together, then we have peace
with all men, don't we? That's some growth there. You
see the baby steps? God did a work for you, and then
He notified you, does a work in you. Now, wait a second, I
got brethren. I want to get to know you folks. Let's go have
dinner together. And then you'll have peace with
all men. You will live peaceably with all men. They may be our
future brethren. Do you know that? That person
down there at the grocery store, I want to give him the business.
Well, if that's one of God's sheep. I used to be somebody
that people wanted to give the business to. They wanted to yelp
me all day. I had it coming. Got whipped when I was a kid.
Probably should have got whipped a whole bunch more, huh? Jeremiah 29 says, and seek the
peace of the city. Well, who in all is in that city?
Everybody in the city. Seek the peace of the city whether
I have caused you to be carried away captives. If they arrest
you, take you down to a city across the border, pray for that
whole city. And pray unto the Lord for it.
For the peace thereof shall ye have peace. And the peace that
the Lord gives you for praying to Him, you're going to have
peace. And the Lord will bless it as
He sees fit to those brethren I see. Pray free enemies. Isn't
that what we've been told? Those that despitefully use you,
they are out to get you. Premeditated, out to get you.
Pray for them. Seek peace in their hearts. Lord,
show them your peace. Show them peace in Christ. It's
my heart's desire for each of you, for me, and for those that
the Lord's yet to call. He has sheep here that he ain't
caught out yet. That the peace that only God can give is shed
abroad in their hearts. He makes that through Christ.
That's how he does it. And if they're giving that peace
with him in themselves, they're giving peace with their brethren,
true brothers and sisters of the Lord, children of God, and
they're giving that peace to walk out that door and walk around
this town. Wouldn't that be something? What
will accomplish that peace? What's going to do it? Look back
in our text. What's going to be the working shoes that gets
us through that? Ephesians 6 verse 23. Peace be to the brethren and
love with faith. I started to break them up. But
it says with, don't it? It says, love with faith. They can't be separated if they're
given of God. If the Lord gives love, His love
should have brought someone's heart. If the Lord gives someone
saving faith, they're going to go hand in hand. It can't be
parted. It's one and the same. Believers
have love and they have faith. Here Paul's praying that those
brethren in Ephesus, that they grow, that they increase in love
with their faith. That those two things grow together.
This combination, it gains some things. Did you know that? When
you have love and faith, you get something out of that. It
produces some things. Look back in Galatians chapter
5. What does it produce? What does
love and faith working together produce? It gives more peace.
It gives more love. It gives more faith. It's called
growing in grace, isn't it? Look here in Galatians 5, verse
6. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision
availeth anything nor uncircumcision. And Christ is our salvation.
He's our righteousness. He's our wisdom. There's sanctification
in it. So you can take that and insert,
in sanctification neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision.
Works don't help you. What about in wisdom? I'm going
to get smarter. Works don't help you. What about redemption? Works don't help you. What profits
us in that? But faith which worketh by love. Saving faith is work by love. The love of God in me. As the
love of God increases in us, our believing Christ, resting
in Him, trusting Him, that increases. And as we believe more on Christ,
we see the love of God more and we feel it more. Those go hand
in hand, don't they? Our Lord who saved us and for
our brethren that He works in, that increases. Longer we go
without being reminded of it. Isn't that true? Take a month or two off. Don't
pick up the scriptures. Don't listen to the message.
Don't think on God. Try not to. What happens? They
both decrease. Doubt moves in. Fear. What's going on? Did you see
the news? What are they doing? Decreases, don't it? It gets
worse. Unbelief shows up. Devouring
starts showing up. I don't think y'all do it that
way. You think the Lord can sort it?
I think he can fix it. When God gives faith in Christ,
God gives a love for Christ and he gives a love for Christ's
sheep, for his people. He said in 1 John 5, Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone
that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of
him. If you love the Lord, if he's made you his child, gave
you that new birth in the heart, you're going to love his people.
You're going to love your brethren, those that he died for. So 1 John 4, in this commandment
have we from him that he who loveth God also loveth his brother. The Lord said to. Turn over to
2 Thessalonians 1. 2 Thessalonians 1. We are bound
to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because
that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity, the love, your
faith's growing, and the love of every one of you all toward
each other aboundeth. The more God helps our unbelief,
the more he grows us in faith, the more he grows us in love,
we abound towards one another in what? Love and faith. The
love of God and the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What better
thing could we give someone? What better thing could we show
to someone? To the brethren that we love? It's love and faith. Where's peace at? I ain't got
no peace, Kevin. I can tell you where peace is.
I don't have no peace for you. I can't do nothing. I can change
a flat tire or something, but change an oil, I can't do nothing
for you. But I can tell you where peace
is found. Let's go look at this again. Give it until this evening. We won't know where it is at.
We'll forget it. I'll forget it. We need to be
reminded often. We saw that in Philemon. Paul
wrote to Philemon. He said, I thank my God, making
mention of Thee always in my prayers, hearing of the love
and faith which Thou hast towards the Lord Jesus and towards all
saints. Love and faith towards the Lord Jesus, towards all saints.
That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by
the knowledge of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. That that knowledge of faith,
that communication, that knowledge of love, when we communicate
faith and we communicate love, we don't just say it. I can get
a tape recorder to do that. You can download something off
the internet that can say it. We give it. To communicate means
to give. We give a message with our mouths.
We give a message with the writing of the pen. But we come and hand
over love. We hand over faith. Pass it back
and forth. Talk about it. Communicate these
things. Speak of these things. Show these
things. That's not just giving of money and time and things
like that. That's giving of thoughts, prayers,
a listening ear, Everything we can give. That's growing in love
and growing in faith. See how love with faith? Those
go together. It says, Peace be to you, brethren,
and love with faith. There's so many that seem to
believe. And they seem to have faith because they've got their
doctrine in a row. All their ducks in a row. But there ain't
no love there. It's the logic of it. The deductive
reasoning. If I read these scriptures and
this fits. This theological doctrine you
have, this fits the scriptures. This makes sense. That's not
love. That's not saving faith the Lord
gives somebody. He wrote to him in Ephesus, or
to the church of Ephesus 50 years after Paul wrote this, and he
said, I have something against you. You got your doctrine down,
Pat, but you've left your first love. That's your first love. God's got to give love for His
gospel, for His Son, and He has to shed that love in us. That's
what we looked at last week in Psalm 40. Oh Lord, let Thy loving
kindness, it's His, and Thy truth, like Christ, my faith, my truth,
my love, my hope, it's all in Him, continually preserve me. Where do we get all this? Where
do we get peace? Where do we get love? Where do
we get faith? Love with faith. The more I look into these things,
the more I see I ain't got no hand in this. How unequipped
I am. Where do we get it? Look back
in our text, Ephesians 6. It says, Peace be to the brethren
and love with faith from. This ain't your love. This ain't
your peace. This ain't your faith. The one
that's from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It's His. May it be to you. What a prayer,
isn't it? The best question that we can always ask ourselves,
the best question we can always ask ourselves is who maketh thee
to differ from another? What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? I should ask myself that 200
times a day. I have life. I'm walking this
earth right now physically. Who made me different? I used to be 6'5". Now I'm 6'4". I'm 242 pounds. I can reach stuff
on a top shelf. Who made me different? The Lord did. I have faith. He's given me eternal life. Does
that put me above somebody? That make me different than another
sinner saved by grace? He's made me different. I have
a righteousness. Ain't mine. I have a hope. Eternal
hope. An expectation. But I ain't looking
to myself. The Lord's coming back. What
a day that'll be. It'll be something about this
day we start hearing trumpets. I don't know what it's going
to look like, but we'll know when it comes. But wouldn't that be something?
To be with the Lord. To shed this body of death. Get
out of this old world. Go be with Him. Be made like
Him. We have acceptance with God, and all that comes from
God. That's who made it to differ.
He said, now if thou didst receive it, He's the one that gave it.
He gave the peace, He gave the love, He gave the faith, He gave
the knowledge, the understanding, He gave you everything. Lie?
Why dost thou glory as if thou hast not received it? I read
these things and I think, boy, I got peace. You see me? I got
faith. I got love. I love my brethren.
I need to be around my brethren. I like them. And I love them.
You love somebody and not like them. I like them and I love
them. And I need to be with them. Now I think like I did something.
I didn't do nothing. The Lord gave me every bit of that. Why
am I boasting about that? You see how good I loved Him?
You see how good Christ loved Him? He just happened to use
me. I'm just a hammer. I'm just a screwdriver. It's
something He uses. I pray for you that the Lord
gives us peace. And that He gives us love. His
love. And that He gives us His faith.
And that will work together, won't it? It will be with. James
said, faith without works is dead. He said, you want me to
show you? I'll show you my faith with my
works, right? What's the works? The works of righteousness. Believing
on Christ and loving the brethren. I'm going to be long-suffering. Wouldn't that be something? What
do we call that? The Lord giving us all these
things. The Lord making us to differ. This peculiar people.
Brethren. Blood-bought children. What's
the workings of that? Look here at verse 24. Grace. What do y'all preach down there?
I don't want to give you two words. Sovereign grace. Free grace. Preach the love of God, saving
sinners. Somebody asked, what do you preach? I said, I don't
know. You got about four hours? You got some time on your hands?
I'll tell you about it. It ain't going to be quick. Grace be with
all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. When the
Lord gives this gift of faith to a person, this love, this
peace with God and man, what is the proof that's given with
it? Sincerity. Sincerity. I hope we can look
at that this evening. Can a man or woman have assurance
that our peace is true peace and not just something we've
conjured up? Can somebody walking this earth, can we be sure that
this is the love of the Father and not what we think is love?
That love given is with faith, true saving faith, not something
we conjured up, the faith of Christ in us. Can we know that?
Do you not have that? Do we know we have that? We examined
ourselves and we know it. The proof is here in verse 24.
Love Christ in sincerity. The word in sincerity means without
corruption. Do I love Christ without corruption? You've got a new man, he does. Do you live without corruption?
Every time I think of corruption, I think about mobsters and politicians.
And I thought, is there a difference? About the same thing, isn't it?
But there's a quid pro quo in corruption, right? This for that. Somebody's going to get some
money out of it. Somebody's going to get a position, power, pride,
or they have access. They're getting something out
of it. Something's traded. That's not free, is it? It's
not free. If the Lord Jesus Christ does
something in and for a person, it's not conditional on us doing
something. There's nothing left in our hand.
There'll be a response. But there's nothing left in our
hand to do. If it were, it would not be free grace. It would not
be peace. A peace that I can purchase is
not a sustained peace. If I get a peace treaty, if man
wrote it, man can unwrite it, can't he? That's to be of Him.
Faith wouldn't be a gift then, would it? If we had to do something,
it would be a reward. It would be a payment. If man
had to do something to keep his faith or get his faith, what
nonsense? That ain't a free gift. But the God that changes not,
He's loved His people with an everlasting love. And those that
He loves will have a sincere love of Christ. The only thing
I want out of my love for Christ is Him. And what more could you
want? What more could you ask? I don't
want a mansion in the sky. I want gold streets. I don't
want other stuff. I want Him. I want a person. When you love Christ in sincerity,
and you love His people because that love was accomplished with
faith that He gave, there's peace then. That's when we have peace.
Paul says, Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus
Christ in sincerity. There's two kinds of people in
this world. Those that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity and those
that are at enmity with him. Those that are at war with him.
There ain't no fence straddlers. Indifference is being at war.
You either love him or you don't. It's one or the other. Those that are at enmity against
God and reject His gospel, Paul said, if any man love not the
Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. Let him be
cursed forever. That's what old John and James
did, them sons of thunder. And people didn't receive Christ.
Well, you know Christ. Somebody don't receive Him, there'll be
a little bit of tins going on there. You'd like to pee, you
want to lop an ear off. They said, Lord, can we call down
from fire from heaven right now? That come on like a thunderstorm,
didn't it? That's probably why He called them that. It spun
up pretty fast. But then there's those that love
in sincerity. And do you know what the product of that is?
Peace, love with faith, rest, isn't it? Sincerity. Grace. Oh, boy, what a sweet word. Peace,
what a sweet word. But we can't end this without
looking at the last word there. Amen. Amen. Do you know what amen means?
Christ wrote to the church at Laodicea and he said, under the
angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, these things saith thee,
Amen. Capital A. The faithful and the
true witness. The beginning of the creation
of God. Christ's name is Amen. This word
means it's a faithful and true witness. Everything that's said
here is faithful and true. And Christ is indeed that true
and faithful witness, isn't He? That's His name. Amen. A faithful
and true witness. We in this book, with a faithful
and true witness to this Word. To His Word. That's so fitting,
isn't it? Paul was moved to write this
whole thing to us. And he says, Amen. I hope it's a blessing for you.