For our scripture reading this
morning, and I'll also be coming back to this as my text, turn
with me to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to
the faithful in Christ Jesus, grace be to you. and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the
praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted
in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, wherein
he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having
made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his
good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation,
the stewardship of the fullness of times, he might gather together
in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and
which are on earth. even in him, in whom also we
have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory
who first trusted in Christ, in whom ye also trusted after
that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
in whom also, after that you believed, you were sealed with
that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance
until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of
his glory. Wherefore, I also, after that
I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all Cease not to give thanks for
you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of him. The eyes
of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the
hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his
inheritance in the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to usward who believe according to the working of his
mighty power which he brought in Christ when he raised him
from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly
places. Far above all principality and
power and might, and dominion, and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but in that which is to come. And it put all things under his
feet, and gave to him to be head over all things to the church,
which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. If you will turn back with me
to Ephesians chapter 1. What I have to say this morning,
I'm going to base on verse 13. My subject, and God's message
to us this morning, I pray, is the God of your salvation. The God, the gospel, I'm sorry,
the gospel of your salvation. That's what he tells us in verse
13, in whom you also trusted after that you heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Since January of this year, I've
had a little problem. I started out with double pneumonia.
Then I had a stroke. I had back-to-back diverticulitis. and then kidney stones. And needless
to say, I'm a little weak and maybe struggling a little this
morning. But here's the thing about this.
Paul said, when I'm weak, then am I strong. How can that be? I don't feel strong, I feel weak. Well, you're strong because In
your weakness, your flesh is set aside. It doesn't enter into
the... And see, this is the thing. Salvation is a spiritual work.
It doesn't depend on your flesh. It's a spiritual work. It's a
work inside. It's a work that encompasses
all of your being. It encompasses your thoughts.
your affections, your will, everything that is. It's a spiritual work.
It's not a work that I can look at you and see. I can't look
around us and say, well, he's saved and he's not. I can't see
it. It will manifest itself in outward
deeds, but you can't see the work. It's a spiritual work.
It's a work done inside. And how in the world ignorant
men relates this to walking down an aisle or signing a pledge
card is totally beyond me. I just don't get it. I can't
see where they're coming from with this. Salvation is a spiritual work.
In 1 John chapter 4, the apostle said, Believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits, whether they are of God. Because many
false prophets are gone out into the world. The Apostle John refers
to preachers here as spirits. Why? Why? Because the gist of the ministry
of the preacher is established by a spirit. I'm talking about
false preachers, true preachers. The gist of their ministry is
established by spirits. In Ephesians 2.2 Paul says, He
calls Satan, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience. How does he
work? How does Satan work the spirit
in the children of disobedience? He works through deception, lies,
and perhaps the most is natural reasoning. Natural reasoning. You're as
smart as anybody else. You know, I can do this. That's what a guy told me one
time. He was so ignorant, he told me, he said, I'm going to
go home this weekend and read the Bible. And he said, I'll
come back Monday. And I said, then we can talk
a little bit more. Well, here. There's all kinds of problems
with this. But this is how Satan works. He says in 2 Thessalonians 2, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness. And then, but believe not. Deceivableness. And he said this
is after the working of Satan. What's a deceivableness of unrighteousness? That is calling things that you
do righteous. And deceiving yourself into believing
that you're righteous because you come to church. Or you're
righteous because you wear a certain kind of dress. Or you're righteous
because you've changed your habits and changed your speech. That
doesn't make a man righteous. Believers only have one righteousness
and that's in Christ. I don't care how long you've
been coming to church and how much you know, you're not righteous
in yourself. But this is how Satan works. Twisted reasoning causing men
to call evil good and good evil. Those old priests would wave
their hands and sway, and you've seen people do that even now
in these television meetings that they have. And he said,
who told you to do that? God did. Who told you to do that? Who told you to incorporate all
this stuff? He said, it's a smoke in my nose.
What do you call it? Like burning trash. But men call
it good, see? And they believe it to be good,
and so they continue to practice it, and so on. And in so many
ways, not just those things that I mentioned, but in many ways. What they're doing is trying
to find some fleshly way to God apart from Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. They're good works, they're good
intentions, they're promises. On the other hand, that man called
of God is enabled of God to rightly divide the Scriptures. How? By the Spirit. He can rightly
divide the Scriptures. He can rightly apply the message
of grace. And His work is made manifest
in the hearts of God's elect. His gospel comes not in word
only. That's what Paul said. It comes
not in word only. How does it come? It comes in
power. What kind of power? Power to overcome your sin. and its effects on you. It comes
with power. It comes in the Holy Ghost. What's
that mean? That means it comes with a revelation
of Christ. It comes with an understanding
of the Gospel. And it comes with much assurance.
Not confidence in your confidence, but assurance in Christ. Christ
is all-sufficient. hears the gospel, believes the
gospel, understands that Christ is all sufficient. Has nothing
to do with him or anything you'll ever do. It has to do with the
sufficiency of Christ. Christ is all. What are you talking
about? I'm talking about this. Christ
in you, the hope of glory. And the results of that man called
of God, the results of his ministry are threefold. Those who are
given true saving faith worship God in the Spirit. That is, as
the Spirit reveals God in His Son, Christ Jesus, we worship
Him. We worship God in the Spirit.
We worship God having the faith of God's elect and understanding. The Spirit reveals God to them
in His Son. He shuts us up to Christ alone
and convinces us of sin. We worship God in the Spirit.
Secondly, we rejoice in Christ Jesus. Boy, I rejoice. We got a full
house. Well, I'm glad we have a full
house. But I don't rejoice in that. I rejoice in Christ Jesus. What would you do without Him?
Huh? What if all you had was religion? The Lord brought me to see myself
in that very place. All I had was religion. Had some
good feelings, had some good experiences, you know. But I
didn't have God. I didn't have salvation. I didn't
have life. Full provision has been given
in Christ. He blessed us with all spiritual
blessings and heavenly blessings in Christ. Why do I rejoice? Because He
came to save sinners and I'm a sinner. He said I'm the way. Oh, how
I searched for the way and couldn't find it. Christ is the way. No other way. Christ is the truth. Oh, the gospel is the word of
truth. My sister asked me one time,
what makes you think you're right and everybody else is wrong?
Well, I don't know if I can explain that or not. But I do know the
gospel is the word of truth. Once you know it, you know it's
truth. He convinces you of that. His word is truth. You're not sitting here this
morning wondering, is the gospel really the gospel? No, you're
convinced of it. Convinced of it. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. Now listen, no man cometh unto
the Father. But by me. You're not going to
come to an understanding of the Father. You're not going to come
to an understanding of what the Father has given. You're not
even going to come to an understanding of who He is apart from Christ. We who are called of God to faith
in God rejoice in Christ Jesus. And then thirdly, this is the
result now of a true ministry. When the gospel goes out in powers,
goes out in the Holy Ghost, these are the results of it. And this
is the third one. We have no confidence in the
flesh. Zero. Oh, this man's got some potential.
No, he don't. No, he's just dead men's bones.
Lord showed Elijah that, not Elijah, Ezekiel. He took him
out and showed him what it was all about. What do you see? He
said, all I see is bones. Dead, dry bones. That's it. Zero confidence in the flesh.
Why? Because in my flesh, Paul said,
dwelleth no good thing. You're not going to draw from
the flesh. So here's my subject. the gospel of your salvation.
And the context of my text in verse 13 falls on the heels of
this statement that we should be to the praise of His glory
who first trusted in Christ. If you read Ephesians 1 carefully,
you'll see that all of these things are from the Father. He's
telling us about these spiritual blessings that the Father has
given us in Christ. All down through Ephesians 1.
And then, having received our inheritance, being predestinated
to it, he said that we might be to the praise of His glory
who first trusted in Christ. He's talking about God our Father.
Trusting in His Son. Trusting all things. Giving all
things into His hands. You can read about it in Revelation
chapter 5. He's holding that book. That
book of the covenant, that book of God's purpose and decree. He's holding that book and none
can take that book but the Son of God. The Son of God not only
took it, but He opened it and read it. And that's what He's
telling us here. We're to the praise of His glory
who first trusted in Christ. In whom you also trusted. How? Same way God did. All things. Did you know that's what trust
is? We trust Him in all things. All
things. So the context of my text in
verse 13 falls on the heels of that. We should be to the praise
of His glory who first trusted in Christ. And in whom we also trusted after
we heard the word of truth, the gospel, of your salvation, in
whom also, after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise. That is, we see those promises
to be ours. He's made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of saints, enlightened saints, saints in
light. And this is the earnest of our inheritance until the
redemption of the purchased possession I'm not clumsy yet, I'm still
a sinner. Read Romans chapter 7, see if
that's not what you come up with at the end of it. He said, so
then with the mind I serve the law of God, with the flesh the
law of sin. And that's just so, that's just
so. I wish it weren't, I wish, I
don't, desire to sin, that's not what
I want to do, and yet that's exactly what we do. And Paul
deals with that all through Romans 7. Now I've got five things I want us
to think about this morning, and I pray God will help us to
enter into concerning the gospel that saves. How does the gospel
save? Well, that's what I want to deal
with in these five things. But let me just say this. The
gospel is not something that just saves, and then you're saved,
and that's the end of the gospel. The gospel continues to save.
We're kept by the power of God through faith. And that faith
comes through the preaching of the gospel. It's built up that
way, it's preserved that way, it's maintained that way. So first of all, the gospel that
saves Paul says, is the power of God unto salvation. How does
God save sinners? We know that there's salvation
in Christ, but isn't that what the gospel does? The gospel is
about a person. It's about salvation in Christ. But it's the power of God unto
salvation, and that word power has to do with the authority
to be saved. You're not saved because you
want to be saved. You're saved because God wills your salvation. And it also has to do with the
ability to be saved. You say, well, anybody can believe
anytime they want to. Try it. No, you can't. No, you can't. You don't even
know what it is to be saved. John said this, he said the world is out here and
the world was made by him but the world knew him not. He came
unto his own and his own received him not. But somebody did. Somebody did. How come? Because to them gave
he power to become sons of God. He gave them the authority permission
if you will, the right and privilege. And he also gave them the ability
to believe on his name. They shall be willing in the
day of his power. He made them willing. He gave
them power to become sons of God even to them that believe
on his name which were born of God. And let me tell you this, God
orders and arranges his gospel He sends his preachers, he gives
to them what they need to say, and he draws chosen sinners to
hear. Now that's just how it is. When
Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, he's saying, I do
not preach what I fear will fail. I do not preach what I fear might
not work. It's going to work. It always
works. The gospel is not an invitation
that might be tossed aside and fail, but it's the very power
of God unto salvation. His hearers, in 1 Thessalonians
2.13, Paul said, They received it not as the word of men, but
as it is in truth the word of God, which affectionately worketh
also in you that believe. They understand that that message
is not something some man went into his study and sat down and
read a bunch of books and come up with some conclusions. I do
read books. I do make conclusions, but that's
not where it comes from in the end. The Lord will reveal the
truth. He'll help that man rightly divide
the truth. And what he says when he says
it, when it's accompanied by the power of the Spirit, those
who hear it understand that very same thing. They'll say, that's
it, that's it. How'd they do that? With natural
reasoning? No, by the Spirit of the living God. The gospel
it saves is the power of God under salvation, authority, ability,
and especially by revelation. Therein, he said, is the righteousness
of God revealed. Now let me show you what follows
that verse over in Romans 1. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. How is his wrath revealed? Through
the preaching of a substitute bearing our sins and his own
body on the tree. Here's where you see the wrath
of God on the cross. You say, well, that man's sick.
He's suffering the wrath of God. Job's friends tried to tell him
that all the way through the book of Job. Sorry comforters. I'll tell you why you're sick,
Job. You sinned. He said, well, if you're saying
I'm a sinner, you're right. I am a sinner. But that's not
why I'm suffering. That's not why I'm suffering. Oh my. The wrath of God is revealed. We're in a substitute. Dying
for sins. God's sons nailed to a cross. Burying our sins in His own body
on the tree. And I tell you, those sins, if
you think about just the old rite sins and things that men
do, That's not all. This is inclusive of your righteousnesses. He's suffering up there for your
righteousnesses. That's what he said. All our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Well, who's going to pay
for that? Christ did. The wrath of God
is revealed from heaven. And therefore, his righteousness
is established. And that's what he's saying therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. And they hold the truth in unrighteousness. What truth? The truth of a coming
Messiah, Savior. The truth of His incarnate person,
God come into the flesh. The truth of His birth, His life,
His death. All that He accomplished. Did Christ accomplish what He
came to do? He must have because God raised
him from the dead. And false religion holds facts. What kind of facts? Well, they'll
hold the fact of his incarnation. They'll hold the fact that he's
the son of God. They'll hold all kinds of facts,
but the facts have no impact. They have no life to them, no spirit about
them. They'll fight you in the street over Calvinism. And then secondly, the gospel
that saves is a regenerative command. It has a similar authority as
the law. in that there's consequences
for your disobedience. But it goes way beyond that.
It goes beyond that to the authority to create anew. If any man be
in Christ, he's a new creation. He's a new creature. He's not
the same as he was. And that gospel, when it comes
in power, that's what it does. And it always comes in power
to his elect. And when it does, this man's
a new It has a creative power that comes with it. It's not
just words. Oh, you just didn't understand
what he said. Well, that might be, but that's not what... It
comes with a power. I don't know how else to say
that. The Spirit of the Living God
creates men anew. How does He do that? He creates that hope of Christ
within you. He shuts you up to Christ. There's
nothing else but Christ. It's the command of the Creator.
Listen to this. This is 2 Corinthians 4 verse
6. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. So what are you saying, preacher?
I'm saying this. While the responsibility to believe
lies at our doorstep, the power to believe lies at His. That's what I'm saying. By grace are you saved through
faith. Now listen, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. The gospel that saves is accompanied
by divine power. That power enables chosen sinners
to do what no other son of Adam could ever do, believe, repent,
love. Truly, it is what Paul said to
the Thessalonians, it's God that worketh in you, both to will
and to do of his good pleasure. And then thirdly, the gospel
that saves is the eternal provision of God, and one currently arranged
and dispensed by the Lord Jesus Christ through the Spirit of
the living God. The gospel is not a community
candy bowl. Here it is, a big candy bowl.
Come and get it. Come and get it. That's not the
gospel. The gospel that saves is the
eternal provision of God. And I'm going to tell you something. You can't be saved any other
way. You can argue from now to sundown, but if the Word of God
means anything at all, you're saved through the hearing of
the gospel. How shall you hear without a preacher? Not going
to happen. And how's he going to preach
if God don't send him? These things are the eternal
provision of God to his church. And he ordains preachers and
he sends them. And he calls his elect, he draws
them. Those Jews, wow, he thinks Jesus Christ is God, you know. He said, don't murmur. Don't
murmur. No man can come to me except
my Father draw him. He has to be drawn by God. These
are provisions made for His people. And while this gospel may, the
sound of it may go out throughout all the world, and does, and
has, and will continue until the Lord comes home. But I'm telling you this, it's
His provision. This is how God works. Read James
chapter 1. Read what that says up there. All these gifts, they come down
from the Father of Lights, with whom is what? No variableness,
neither shadow or turning. He's not going to change. Well,
He did that back in those days, but today, no, He hasn't changed. He hasn't changed. It's not a community candy bowl. The gospel's sin of God and those
who hear it are drawn of God and enabled to receive it. And
you cannot, you will not be saved apart from hearing the gospel.
How shall you hear without a preacher? How shall he preach except he
be sinned? If I have a good hope through
grace, It is a hope I acquired through the preaching of the
gospel. Listen to this. This is something
else Paul said to the Thessalonians. He said, God has from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. And there's a divine calling
that goes with the gospel. A call to life, a call to light,
a call to obedience, a call to assurance and comfort. He calls
the Spirit the comforter. A preacher, we can hear the gospel
at any time. Hadn't the Lord proved that not
so in the last two weeks? The gospel that saves is the
gospel preached. You trusted after that you heard
the word of truth. The gospel of your salvation.
And then think about this. After that in the wisdom of God,
the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God through the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. It's the gospel
of our salvation. These are not options. This is
not something, If I go and listen, I'll be a stronger, better Christian. That may be, but that's not what's
going on. That's not what's going on. This is the bread, the heavenly
bread the gospel is. It's all about Christ. He's the
bread come down from heaven. I can't live without it. Can
you? Listen to this. This is over in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. In Paul's first letter to the
Corinthians, he points out that no son of Adam, by mental reasoning,
has ever conceived of what God has prepared for his children. He has no idea. And if you don't
believe me, go to any funeral home, any time, go in there and
sit down during the services and listen to what that man's
talking about. If the man was a fisherman, he'll be talking
about him fishing up in glory somewhere. You know, I've heard
so many just unfounded, I know they're trying to make people
feel good about this loved one that they lost, But they have
no idea what heaven is or what it means to rejoice in Christ.
And that's what he's talking about here. They hath not seen
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things
that God hath prepared for them that love him. It's never entered
into their thinking. But God hath revealed them unto
us. How does he do that? Through his Spirit. How does
the Spirit do it? Through the things of the Spirit.
And you read on down in that chapter, and I'll show you what
things. One is the Word of God, which
the Spirit has inspired, the preaching of the Gospel, in which
He makes men able ministers by Himself, by His presence, and by a new birth. Now we have received not the spirit
of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might
know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things
also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth,
but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with
spiritual. Now listen to this next verse,
verse 14. But the natural man, the man
unattended by the Spirit, the man left to his own wisdom and
will, left to himself, he receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. Why? There's foolishness to it. Is the preaching of the gospel
foolishness to you? Then you've rejected him altogether. That's just how important it
is. They won't have it because it's
foolishness unto them. Neither can they know it because
it's spiritually understood. God's preachers are sin of God
and all to whom they speak are providentially arranged to hear. Some to life eternal and others to take away their excuses. That king, Paul preached to that
king and he shivered while he was hearing Paul preach. But
he never did believe. But God took away all his excuses. And only God can separate a man
to the ministry. And without his Spirit, his words
are no more than the words of any other man. But if he's sin
of God, you'd better hear him. You'd better hear him. The gospel that saves is a gospel
preached. And the gospel that saves is
a message concerning a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God he's given me some
discernment, and I've not preached anything to this congregation
about trying to be a self-righteous person in your
community, looking down your nose at everybody, or somebody
that is going to be saved by walking down an aisle or shaking
somebody's hand or saying a few words. Here, pray after me. No, no, you do your own praying. I'll pray for you, but I'm going
to tell you how to pray. To the Corinthians, he said,
I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. To the Colossians, he preached
that Christ is all. And the gospel that saves points
me to the Christ of God. Not just another Jesus, but the
Christ of God. God hath testified of his Son,
as what he says over 1 John 5. This is the testimony of God
that he'd given to us eternal life, and this life is in his
Son. He that hath the Son hath life. How do I know if I have
the Son? You understand that through the
preaching of the Gospel. He tells you who the Son is.
Who he is. If you believe anything in that testimony about the Christ
of God, you can't walk away and not believe. There's nothing
in Christ not to trust. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. We're complete in Him. Think about that. All the fullness
of the Godhead. All that the Father has purposed
and provided, all that the Spirit has sent to reveal. It pleased
the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. He has the
preeminence. And then fifthly, the gospel
that saves is a gospel that manifests the revelation of God. Turn with
me to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. Now hear what I'm saying. The
preaching of the gospel through the preaching of Christ and Him
crucified is manifested in the revelation
of God. No man has ever seen God at any
time. Now he begins by telling us something
about the ministry of the old prophets, verse 10. who searched
diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto
us, searching water, what manner of time the Spirit of Christ
which was in them did testify. When it testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
Now that's what I've been trying to get across to you in our study
of Joshua. This is what these things are
typical of. And it was revealed to them,
verse 12, that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister
the things, now listen, which are now reported unto you by
them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost
sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look
into. Wherefore gird up the loins of
your mind, Sober, hope to the end for the grace that is to
be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Not his last
appearing in glory, in the glory of his father's house, but this
revelation that's brought to you through the preaching of
the gospel. For as much as you know that you were not redeemed
with corruptible things, it's silver and gold from your vain
conversation received by tradition from your father. but with the
precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot, who barely was foreordained before the foundation of the
world, but was manifest in these last times for you." Now listen
to this. I'm going to tell you who the
who is. "...who by him do believe in God, that raised him from
the dead and gave him glory." What's he talking about? He's
talking about the appearance of the Son the life his son lived,
the death his son died, all of those things reveal God to us. He has to die this death to satisfy
the justice of God. He has to live this life to fulfill
the righteousness of God demanded from the sinner. It's all about
God, everything he did. So it's those who by him do believe
in God that raised him from the dead and gave him glory. Now, if indeed the gospel is
the power of God unto salvation, and we've already read it, if
it is in fact a regenerative command, is an effectual calling, is a
revelation of God in the person and work of Christ, Then shouldn't
we be diligent to hear it? That's my point in the whole
thing this morning. Shouldn't we be diligent to hear
it? Shouldn't we pray for those who preach it? Shouldn't we be thankful and
obedient to it? Shouldn't we fear to be without
it? Shouldn't we support it? There's nothing in your life
or mine that we need more than the gospel. Nothing. Nothing. There's things that seem like
they take the preeminence. Don't let it. Don't let it. May the Lord use these five things
to teach us something about His gospel and the preaching of it.