Well, good morning. If you would
open your Bibles with me to Ephesians chapter three. Looking again at Ephesians chapter
three this morning. Before we begin, let's bow before
our Lord and seek his blessing. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent, is your matchless name. And Lord, we dare only
come before you in the name, in the person, in the merit of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Pleading his obedience is our
only righteousness. Pleading his blood is the only
way we can come before you accepted. And Father, we come a thankful
people. Oh, how thankful we are for your purpose, the mercy and
grace to your people by the sacrifice of your own son. Father, how
can we even begin to comprehend such a great gift? How can we
even begin to understand the magnitude of the sacrifice of
the Son of God for sinful men and women such as we are? Father,
we're so thankful. And Father, I pray this morning
that you would show us one more time the Lord Jesus Christ, his person,
his work, that you might Cause your word to go forth in power,
to give life and faith to your people, to feed and comfort and
edify your people, and to draw us to the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we pray you'd unveil
your glory this morning, enable us to, by faith, behold the Lord
Jesus Christ, to see him as everything that we need and run to him.
What we pray for ourselves, we pray especially for our children's
classes this morning, God, you bless in a mighty way. We're
so thankful for all these little ones that you've given to us.
We have them for just such a short time. Father, during this time
of their childhood and adolescence, that you'd make us faithful to
teach them the Lord Jesus Christ, to teach them who and what they
are, point them to the Savior. Father, we pray for your people
wherever they might meet today. Bless your word where it's preached.
Father, for those who are sick and afflicted, hurting among
us, there's so many right now, we pray your hand of healing
would be upon them and that you comfort them with your presence.
And all these things we ask in that name which is above every
name, the name of Christ our Savior, amen. I've titled her,
lesson this morning, the unsearchable riches of Christ. My text is
just one verse, verse eight, but I want to go back here, pick
up in verse three, read from there through verse eight, so
we see these things in context. In verse three, Ephesians chapter
three. How that by revelation, he made
known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words, whereby
when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of
Christ. which in other ages was not made known unto the sons
of men, as is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets
by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of
the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the
gospel. Whereof I was made a minister,
according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by
the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than
the least of all saints, is this grace given. that I should preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Every believer
will agree with this statement. Our God saves the most unlikely
sinners. When the Lord saves sinners,
he always saves the chief of sinners. The Lord saves people
who men would think are a lost cause. And that would be what
the Gentiles were to the Jews. The Jews considered the Gentiles
to be lost causes. They're just heathen, they're
dogs, they're not worthy to know anything, what the Jews know
about the worship of God. They thought they were lost cause.
They thought God would never be merciful to a Gentile. And for centuries, the Lord hadn't
given his worship to the Gentiles. He didn't give them the prophets
and the tabernacle and the sacrifices and the priesthood and those
things, the ceremonies. The Lord hadn't given his worship
to the Gentiles for centuries. Now, during that time, though,
the Lord showed how merciful he is, didn't he? The Lord did
call several Gentiles in the Old Testament, not many, but
he did call several Gentiles, just giving us a taste of what
was to come. You think about Ruth, the Moabitess,
how the Lord called her out of idolatry, how the Lord brought
her to Bethlehem. Rahab the harlot. The Lord gave
that woman faith. She knew, she knew who God was,
didn't she? How about Naaman the Syrian?
Oh, he learned some things, didn't he? How about old Nebuchadnezzar? Boy, the Lord took Nebuchadnezzar
off his high horse and taught him some things, didn't he? The
Lord called some Gentiles. Now, not many, but he did call
them. And you know, the Lord's kept
doing that. Just kept calling and saving and sending his gospel
to the most unlikely of places. The Lord sent His gospel to this
little tri-state area, this little town, and He's kept it here for
generations. Now you think of that. Why'd
He do that? Just because He would. The Lord
has caused His gospel to go out in power, save His people, continue
to feed and instruct and edify His people. He's done that for
us here. It seems like that's the most
unlikely thing God could have done. the safe centers like us. I was talking to a man the other
day, and we're talking about our area, you know, economically,
that, oh, it seems like there's room for industry and jobs, and
nobody wants to come here to open up a business, do they,
and give people a bunch of jobs? God came here, sent his gospel
here, called out his people. And when you talk about how unlikely
you are, you gotta remember this. Go back to when Paul was writing
this epistle. You and I are the Gentiles. We were the ones worshiping
idols. Even if we grew up under the
sound of the gospel, even if we've grown up hearing the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ Jesus, you know what
we were? Idolaters. That's right. We knew some right
doctrine, didn't we? But we were idolaters. When we
were hearing the gospel, and not believe in Christ, what were
we trusting in? Ourselves. We were worshiping
the idol of our imagination, ourselves. I'm telling you, that's
the worst looking idol that's ever been made. We were trusting
in the fact that we knew some right doctrine. We were trusting
in the fact that we were related to believers. Well, my mom and
dad and my grandparents are believers. That's what the Jews were trusting
in, weren't they? Oh, I'm a tribal pensioner. Oh, I'm the son of
Abraham. They were trusting who they were
related to. We were trusting in our morality. You know, we
acted better on the outside than everybody else, but the inside
is still full of dead men's bones and full of corruption, just
like everybody else. We were trusting in something about ourselves. And I'm telling you, that made
us the worst rebels you could find. That made us worse than
the heathen who were out there worshiping a totem pole that
they made or, you know, a bound down to a ceramic statue. They
never did hear the gospel, and we did. They have never heard
the gospel preached. And we did, so that we're without
excuse. We heard of Christ and still
refuse to believe on Him. Oh, but God. But God saved us
by His grace anyway. The Lord was patient with him,
and he revealed himself to us in his time. And when he did,
this had to be our confession. The Lord has saved the most unlikely
sinner, the most unlikely of people. And when it comes time
for God to call men into the ministry, to be preachers of
his gospel, he calls the most unlikely of men. He really does. If you knew teenage Frank Tate
40 years ago, you'd have scoffed If somebody would have told you,
God's gonna make a preacher out of that kid, you'd have scoffed. But the Lord does it that way.
He does it just that way, and you know why? So that we'll be
certain that the message and the power is of God and not of
men. That's why God does it that way.
Saul of Tarsus, the Apostle Paul, who's writing this epistle, started
out as Saul of Tarsus, And if you'd been in his graduating
class there at Gamaliel School, he would have been voted the
least likely to be a preacher of God's grace, wouldn't he?
I mean, this man was the most self-righteous, most legalistic
man that any of the Jews knew. Paul was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. The other Pharisees thought,
Saul's over the top. I mean, this guy, he's kind of
extreme. The other Pharisees thought that of him. He hated
the gospel of grace in Christ Jesus so much, he wanted to kill
anybody who believed it. He was on his way to do just
that, to believers, to torture and kill men, women, and children.
That's what he was on his way to do when God unhorsed him and
met him. That's what he was on his way
to do. The Lord met him in grace. And not only did the Lord save
that mean, spirited, hard, self-righteous rebel, The Lord told him, I'm
gonna send you to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. He made him a preacher of God's
grace and he used him. As far as what is recorded, he
used him more than any of the other apostles. The Lord used
this man to write the lion's share of the epistles that we
have in the New Testament. Paul the apostle was not the
least wit behind any of the other apostles. He went behind them
in any gifts or graces or abilities that God gave him. Now, the Lord
had to be the one to do that, didn't he? He had to be. Saul
never would have done that. No, he couldn't have done it,
and he wouldn't have done it. The last thing Saul of Tarsus
ever would have chosen to do is preach Christ. The Lord did
that. The other apostles wouldn't have
done it for him, would they? I mean, they were afraid of this
guy. They were doing everything they could to avoid contact with him.
They wouldn't have done it. The Lord's the one who called
Paul. and put him in the ministry and enabled him to do it. And
that's what the Lord does with all his preachers. He saves them,
he calls them, he puts them in the ministry, and then he equips
them to do the job. And part of the Lord enabling
and equipping a man for the ministry is giving him some humility.
Not as much probably as we would like or definitely not what we
should have, but the Lord gives his preachers some humility.
The apostle Paul was a humble man. He was probably the most
gifted and most used apostle. I think that's a safe statement
to make. But he considered himself the least of the apostles, didn't
he? He said, I'm not worthy to be
an apostle. Not only did he say I'm the least of the apostles,
he said, I'm less than the least of every believer. Every believer
is better off than me. And that's a great gift. that
the Lord gives a person, humility. You and I will be the most useful
in God's kingdom when we have humility, when we're humble.
The greatest believer is the one who thinks the least of himself.
That's the greatest believer. You're growing in grace. We all
want to grow in grace, but growing in grace is not growing upward
and upward and upward and upward. Growing in grace is growing down.
Growing down in our own estimation of ourselves. Growing down in
how low we see ourselves. Growing in grace is growing down. And it's not false humility.
I'm not talking about somebody, you know, you've got a certain
gift. Oh no, I don't. Well, yeah, you do. God given
it to you. I'm not talking about false humility.
Humility is an honest view. of ourselves. And the view of
ourselves, if God's given us some humility, is a very low,
very low view of ourselves. Any gifts that I do have, God's
given me. But it's a very low opinion of ourselves because
of how dependent we are. I mean, how can a person who's
so dependent be full of pride? I mean, the only fitting attitude
for a believer to have is humility, isn't it? We cannot exaggerate
how dependent we are upon the Lord. We wouldn't know the Lord
unless he revealed himself to us. We wouldn't trust him unless
he gave us faith to believe on. We wouldn't keep believing in
him unless by his grace he kept us. We'd never appear in his
presence unless he brings us there. I mean, totally dependent.
We can't exaggerate how unworthy we are of God's mercy and grace. By definition, you can't do anything
to deserve or earn grace. You can't do it. We just can't
even say how unworthy we are of God's mercy and grace. All we are is just specks of
dust in God's creation. Yet God's been merciful. He sent
his son to die for us. He revealed his son to us. He
sent the gospel to us. He's given us faith to believe
him. And now God's given us this assignment. to preach the unsearchable
riches of Christ to our generation, to our generation. And the word
unsearchable that Paul uses here, it means past finding out. We can't understand the vastness
of it. It's past finding out. We can't
get to the bottom of it. It's just inexhaustible. That's
what the word unsearchable means. And this is what Paul says we're
to preach, the unsearchable, riches of Christ. Now, what is
so unsearchable about the Lord Jesus Christ? What is so rich
about him that would draw us to him? Well, let me give you
a few examples. First, I thought of this, the
unsearchable riches of his nature, the nature of the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus Christ in his nature is both God and man. He
has two natures in one person. His nature is holy and just. His nature is also gracious and
merciful. He's both just and merciful.
What a nature. He ever lives, yet he suffered
and died. What a nature that he had. He's
God over all. Isaiah called him the eternal
father. He's God over all. And you and
I have sinned against him. You know, our sin is not just
breaking the rules. Our sin is open rebellion against
God Almighty, against his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. This one
who's both God and man, we've sinned against him. We're the
ones who yelled crucify. We're the ones that said, we
will not have this man to reign over us. Yet this one is gracious
to sinners. More than that, he delights in
you. He delights to show mercy to
sinners. He's the one we sinned against,
yet he delights to show mercy. He delights to forgive the sin
of his people. This man is holy, harmless, separate
from sinners, higher than the heavens. Yet every time he stopped,
you know who came and just gathered around him? Republicans and sinners. He sat down to eat, publicans
and sinners crowd around the table to sit with him. Publicans
and sinners are comfortable coming to this man who's wholly harmless,
separate from sinners because of his nature. What a nature
he has. We're the ones who have declared
war on God, yet he's the one that said, now you've declared
war on me, you put yourself in this fix if you're thirsty, come
and eat. You're the one that's put yourself
in this mess. You're the one that puts yourself on the hamster
wheel of the law, having to constantly try to keep it and can't do it.
You're the one, now you've done this to yourselves. But if you're
weary, come unto me and I'll give you rest. Oh, I'm drawn
to a savior of that nature. He's God, so he's able to save. And he's man, so he's able to
save sinners. Be the representative of sinful men and women like
you and me. The second, I thought of this. The unsearchable riches
of his work of salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ paid an
infinite sin debt of his people with one sacrifice. With one
sacrifice, he paid the entire sin debt that his people had
racked up. And that work of salvation is
perfect. He'll not lose one for whom he
died. Not one. He's made his people perfect.
by giving them his perfect righteousness, so God's justice demands that
they be saved. God's justice demands they not
be condemned. He makes his people righteous.
Now, now, Frank, does he really? Well, here's what the book says.
He made his people the righteousness of God in him. Oh, he made them
perfect. His salvation is so perfect and
so complete that no matter how vile our sin is, he's able to
save to the uttermost. All will come to God by him.
The perfect salvation. Then I thought of this, thirdly,
the unsearchable riches of his blood. The blood of the Lord
Jesus is the only perfect blood that's ever been on this earth.
And that makes his blood precious. Something is precious because
it's rare. I don't know what, oh that, is
it the Honest Wagner baseball card that's so valuable just
because there's only three or four of them exist, they cost
so much money because they're rare. The blood of Christ is
so precious because it's the only sinless blood that's ever
been on this earth. It's the only blood, his blood
is the only blood the father would ever accept as payment
for sin. He was never pleased, he was
never satisfied with the blood of goats and bulls and calves,
but he is pleased with the blood of his son. The blood of Christ
is so precious, it pays the sin debt of his people in full by
one sacrifice. His blood is so precious, it
cleanses his people from all of their sin, all of it. He shed
his blood, he brought it before the father and put it upon the
altar, and the father said, it's enough, I'm pleased. I'm telling
you, throughout eternity, we will never be able to estimate
the value of the blood of Christ. His blood is why we'll be there. All the unsearchable riches of
His blood. Then I thought about this fourthly,
the unsearchable riches of His mercy. Now mercy is God not giving
us what we do deserve because of our sinful works. Now how
can God be just? and not give me, not give you
what we deserve because of our sin. How can he do that? Only
one way. By the father giving his son
what we deserve. It's the only way God can be
merciful to us is if he charges our sin to his son and then slaughters
him for it. That's the only way God can be
merciful to us and not give us what we deserve. And the son
of man, the son of God, willingly became the son of man. and suffered
all of that wrath for his sinful people. He did it willingly. When Peter said, oh Lord, don't
do that. What'd the Lord tell him? Get thee behind me, say. Oh, he's suffering willingly
for his people. Now that's mercy. And scripture
says our God is rich in mercy. God is so rich in mercy. His
mercy is inexhaustible. It's eternal. It doesn't have
a beginning and it doesn't have an ending. It's eternal. Now,
since God's mercy is eternal, since it's exhaustless, God will
never run out of mercy for you if you're a sinner. He never
will. I've told you this before, Psalm 136. I don't know if you
should say this, It's just so, that's my favorite song. I love
Psalm 136 because it's a psalm written for somebody like me.
The way I learn something is by hearing it over and over and
over and over again. That's how I learn things, that's
how I remember things. Psalm 136 has 26 verses and 26
times the writer says, God's mercy endureth forever. After reading that psalm, Maybe
I'll remember now, God's rich in mercy. Oh, think of the riches
of his mercy. Thinking of the exhaustlessness
of God's mercy. That brings joy to a guilty sinner,
doesn't it? And fifthly, I thought of
this. The unsearchable riches of his grace. Grace is God giving
us what we don't deserve. Now, how can God be just and
holy and right and give us what we haven't earned, what we don't
deserve? How can He do that? There's just
one way. It's by giving us what Christ
earned for us as our representative. It's by giving us the righteousness
that Christ earned by His obedience to the law. You and I do not
deserve to be forgiven of our sin. This is such a flaw. in our society
today, everybody thinks they deserve everything. Even if they
didn't earn it, even, you know, just, well, you know, just give
everybody, you know, just have the government give everybody,
you know, $50,000 a year, you know, to kind of bring them up
to the level of everybody else. I just deserve that. Enough said about that, but that
kind of thinking then prevails into our religion. We're so full
of ourselves, we lack the humility to think, oh, I don't deserve
God's forgiveness. We think we do, we're so full
of ourselves, we think, I deserve for God to forgive me. No, we
don't. Yet God freely forgives his people
because Christ suffered for us. Christ shed his blood, he gives
his people what we don't deserve because Christ purchased it for
us. We don't deserve eternal life. I mean, people say, oh,
God wants you to have eternal life. If you just walk this aisle
and say this prayer and get baptized and start giving and start getting
busy in the church, you know, oh, you deserve eternal life.
God wants to give you eternal life. We haven't earned that. What does the book say? What
have we earned? Death. Damnation. The wages of sin is death. That's
what we deserve. That's our paycheck. But God
gives his people life because Christ earned it for them. Christ
earned that life by his perfect obedience. Christ earned that
life by dying the death his people deserve and giving them his life.
Christ earned it for them. We don't deserve for the father
to accept us. We were at a graduation ceremony
this weekend. And you know, they had the kids
come up and pray, and open in prayer, and have a benediction,
and there was no reverence. There
was, there's just no, I mean, I don't
even know how to say it, it was so offensive. There was no reverence,
there's no, We're coming into the presence of God here. No,
no, we're going to make this little speech, you know, we've
got written down here to say, because, you know, we deserve
for God to hear us and we deserve for God to bless us because we've
worked so hard and earned, you know, our diploma. We don't deserve for the father
to accept us. Now, what we deserve is for him
to cast us out. That's what we deserve. But the
father freely accepts his people. He tells them, come to my throne
of grace at all times. Anytime you need help, come,
come to my throne of grace. And he accepts us for Christ's
sake. We're accepted in the beloved. The Lord Jesus Christ earned,
paid for every spiritual blessing that the father has to give.
He earned it, he bought it. He didn't buy it for himself.
He's the son of God. He was already one with the father. He was already
eternally the delight of his father. But he became a man and
he earned it. And he bought those blessings
with his precious blood. So he could give it to his people
freely. That's grace. Oh, God's rich in grace. I'm telling you, if you're a
sinner, that thrills your heart. The unsearchable riches of God's
grace. What Christ earned for us. Then
think of this, six, the unsearchable riches of Christ our mediator. Christ our savior became a man.
He obeyed God's law perfectly. He took the sin of his people
and he suffered and died for it. But in that third day he
was raised again because his death justified his people. Sin
was gone so death could not hold him any longer and then he ascended
back to the father. And you know what he's been doing
ever since? sitting at his father's right
hand, making intercession for his people. And our mediator
is so rich, he's able to save to the uttermost all that come
unto the father by him. Our mediator is so focused on
his job, he ever lives, he doesn't just make intercession every
once in a while, he ever lives to make intercession for us,
for his sinful people. And I'm telling you, if Christ
is making intercession for you, what is he pleading as he makes
intercession? He's not pleading, oh father,
they didn't mean it. He's not pleading, oh father, they won't
do it again, because he knows they didn't mean it and he knows
they will do it again. What's he pleading as our intercessor?
His sacrifice. Father, forgive them. I suffered
and died and paid their debt for them. If Christ is making
intercession for you, you can never perish. And I'll tell you
a good example, is Peter. Our Lord came and told Peter,
Satan's desired you. He might have you and sift you
as wheat, and he did. Boy, Satan sifted him as wheat
did. But the Savior said, but Peter, I prayed for you, that
your faith fell not. Peter stumbled, he made a mess
of things, but his faith didn't fail, because the Savior prayed
for him. And if the Savior prays for you,
your faith won't fail either. Then seventh, the unsearchable
riches of his inheritance. What's the inheritance of the
son of God? Everything. He gets everything that belongs
to the father. Everything. Now you can't get
more inexhaustible than everything. Well, everything also belongs
to his people because we're joint heirs with Christ. Not because
we earned it, but because who Christ is. Joint heirs with Christ. so that you inherit everything
the Father has for us. Look at 1 Peter chapter one.
1 Peter one, verse three. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
There he is rich in mercy, he's abundant mercy. Hath begotten
us again to a lively, a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead to an inheritance. It's incorruptible, undefiled,
and it fadeth not away. Reserved in heaven for you who
are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
Ready to be revealed at last time. That inexhaustible inheritance
is reserved for you. You who believe on Christ. And
here's the last thing I thought of. The unsearchable riches of
God's great love wherewith he loved us. The holy, pure, perfect, just
God has the capacity to love sinners. And he showed his love
for his people when he sent his son to be the propitiation for
our sins. God's love for His people moved
Him to slaughter His Son that His people might be redeemed. Now, if the Father went to the
extreme to slaughter His own beloved, only begotten Son for
you, is God going to quit loving you now? No, His love is eternal. And that's the inexhaustible
love that I need, don't you? That's what I need. That's God's
love for his elect. It's the unsearchable riches
of Christ. And all that is ours in him. It's just unimaginable, isn't
it? Only God would do something to someone. All right, I hope
Lord will bless that to you.