Okay, Paul writing to the Ephesians. This is a general letter. It was one of the letters that's said to be written from prison, but a lot of the early copies of Ephesians aren't addressed to a particular church, and there's a sense in which this letter is one of those glorious letters, as all the letters are. They are written to us here today, and Paul begins in verse 18. 1 of chapter 3 by saying, for this cause, for this cause, there is a cause. For all of the children of God, there is a cause. There is a cause for which we stand. There is a cause, the cause of God, for which the Lord Jesus Christ takes his people captive.

Listen to how Paul describes himself. I, Paul, the prisoner, of Jesus Christ. What a blessed place to be, to be taken captive by the Lord Jesus Christ, to be shown up by Him in a place where He keeps His people, to have Him as our guard, to have Him watching over us. What a blessed place. For this cause I call the prisoner of Jesus Christ. And then he says, for you Gentiles, all of the blessed gifts that God gives to his people are for someone else. Have you noticed that in the scriptures? If we are blessed, we are blessed for others. We get the blessing by being the recipient of grace, and we get the blessing by seeing the grace of God work in the hearts of other people.

The prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, that word dispensation means the management of a household. God is not the author of confusion or chaos. There is a house of God and people of God conduct themselves in the house of God. But the dispensation is a dispensation of the grace of God, which is given. To me, you would, which is exactly what I said, wasn't it? All of this is given to you. All of God's gifts in the lives of his servants are gifts that he gives that others might enjoy them as well.

How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in a few words, whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge of the mystery of Christ. While you're on that word mystery, when the scriptures speak of mystery, and 22 times the word mystery is used in the New Testament, when the scriptures speak of mystery, it's speaking of something which is mysterious until it's revealed. You think of the glorious mysteries, every time in the 22 verses in the New Testament, every time it's a mystery revealed. When we're in religion, the priests used to have mysteries that they would say, well, don't you worry, don't you trouble your tiny little brain about those things, because that's a mystery and we'll actually, we know it and we can understand it, but don't bother yourselves too much about it. Every mystery in the Bible is a mystery revealed. It's revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ by the Gospel with the power, the enlightening power of the Holy Spirit.

The mysteries are known by revelation. What a mystery it is! How on earth would you consider and contemplate? You can get the brightest minds in all of the world. How could you imagine that God is three persons in one? That God the Father is God Almighty completely. God the Son is God Almighty completely. God the Holy Spirit is God Almighty completely. How could you understand it? How can we understand the wonders of just God creating by a word saying, light be and light was? We'll never figure that out. We'll never figure it out. The mystery of the incarnation that God, God Almighty, the creator of this universe, dwelt in Mary's womb and donned human flesh. We can talk about it, and we believe it, and we can rejoice in it, and we can sing about it, but if we think that we understand that in any way at all, everything that we believe and love to believe, we believe and hold by faith because we don't understand it properly.

What we do have is God revealing this. It's a mystery that's revealed in verse three by revelation. And in verse four, that you may understand, you may understand my knowledge of the mystery of Christ. The mystery of the Lord Jesus Christ being the Christ, the anointed prophet of God who brings us the word of God. He speaks and it's God's word that speaks. He's the anointed priest. He takes us into the holy of holies in heaven with his own blood. He's the priest that represents us before God on the basis of his sacrifice. He's the king that reigns and rules over everything. The mystery of the anointed king. We don't see the Lord Jesus Christ reigning and ruling over everything with anywhere near the clarity that we ought. It's a mystery, isn't it? But it's revealed.

You may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, I think there he's referring to the Gentiles, but is now revealed. It's now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. How is this mystery revealed? How is Christ revealed? The blessed Holy Spirit has to reveal him. And this is what Paul is saying. This is now revealed, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body. and partakers of his promise. Note the promise is just one. It's singular, it's just one promise. There's one promise. It's all in the Lord Jesus Christ. All the promises of God are yay and amen in him.

We don't often think of how special it is as Gentiles to be actually made fellow heirs of the same body, partakers of his promise by the gospel. By the gospel. by the gospel. Whereof I was made a minister. God makes his ministers. In chapter four of Ephesians, when he was ascended on high, he gave some, he gave some apostles, some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors, teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, verse 12, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ makes ministers. Man, in all of his great wisdom, has developed a whole system and structure of making ministers with Bible colleges and denominations and all sorts of activities and training programs. God makes ministers. He said he was going to make ministers. The very existence of Bible colleges and a whole bunch of the religious superstructure that man has invented is just an open denial of the promise of God that he was going to do it. He said he'd do it.

He's made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of His power. The energizing work of the power of our great God. He's effectually working. That word is energising and it's only ever used in the scriptures in relation to God or Satan. This is the work of God. This is the work of God. And then our verse, unto me who am the least of all saints. Paul. began thinking that he was the least of all the apostles. And as Paul grew in life and grew in grace, he grew down and down and down until he became the least of all saints. And then he became the chief of sinners. That's what it is to grow in grace. 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.

That word preach is to gospelise. I should gospelise. The gospel is a declaration of the unsearchable riches of Christ. not the unsearchable riches of wisdom, of man's wisdom, not the unsearchable riches of man's activities, the unsearchable riches of Christ, just Christ.

Turn with me in your Bibles back to Romans chapter 11. There's a glorious passage of scripture in Romans 11 where these words are used, the unsearchable and the riches. And I love how Paul concludes this section of his epistle to the Romans, and it's just so glorious. Romans 11.33. He says, Oh, the depth of my heart. of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. That's that word, unsearchable. It's past finding out. It's beyond finding out. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? All of us have. We're always telling God what to do, aren't we? I spent six months in India pleading with God, saying, look, if you knew as much as I knew about what was happening here in India, you would leave me here. You've trained me in all of these special things. Ridiculous, isn't it? What a load of nonsense for us to be speaking to God like that.

Or who has first given to him that it should be recompensed unto him? You don't bargain with God Almighty. You don't come to him bartering on what you've done and he's going to respond. Now listen to this glorious verse. for of him that means the origin of all things is from him and through him they all come to us through him and to him are all things that's the glorious riches aren't it that's the unsearchable riches of Christ to whom be glory

That's how Paul in Romans speaks of the unsearchable riches of Christ. For from him, for of him, he's the origin of all things. Through him, all things come to us through him and to him and all things are bound to him to his glory. All things, all things. Mark it down, all things. To whom be glory. forever amen the unsearchable riches of christ paul goes on in verse 9 to say to make all men see what is the fellowship of this mystery what is the fellowship of this mystery was from which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ.

And listen to what he goes on to say in verse 10, to the intent, this is still part of the riches, to the intent that now under the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. The multifaceted wisdom of God, the unsearchable riches of Christ. How wise is he? How wise is our God? according to his eternal purpose. This is part of the unsearchable riches. He has a purpose. Everything has a purpose. That's why Paul says, for this cause, for this cause. And when he comes to pray in verse 14, he says for this cause again, on the basis of all that God has promised to do, on the basis of all the character of God, We witness, we preach, we gather, we have a fellowship in this mystery that's revealed.

According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access. What riches are that? Fancy having a throne of grace. And on the throne of grace sits the gracious Saviour. We have boldness and access, listen to it, with confidence. That's the riches of Christ. And listen to this last phrase here. By the faith of him. How rich was his faith. How rich was his faith. Confidence by the faith of Him.

And if you have a Bible and you can make note of the verses, I'll give them to you. If you have a Bible that talks about our faith in Christ, please rip it out or rip this page out or just get a great big black texter and just write over it because it is wrong. And I'll give you the verses, it's done seven or eight times in the New Testament. It's Romans 3.22, Romans 3.26, Galatians 16, Galatians 20, Galatians 3.22, Ephesians 3.12, Philippians 3.9. And all of the modern translations put it down as our faith in Christ. It's not our faith, it's Christ's faith, isn't it? The riches come, we have boulders and access and with confidence by the faith of Him.

Wherefore, I desire that you faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. I believe that. I still haven't figured out what it says. But it's part of the unsearchable riches of Christ. It's the faith of him.

Liz and I, the last pagan church service we went to, a guy preached out of Philippians chapter three, and because his translation said, our faith in him, he took all of the grace and all of the work of God and turned it into our doing. And then he told us that there are two sorts of Christians. There are mature Christians that do the things that he's doing and the rest of us are immature Christians. And the whole sermon would have been undone completely if he had that translation.

we have riches in his word and we love his words so the the preaching is gospelizing don't you love everyone was singing last week about the one time the angels came to preach we seem to preach aren't we what do the angels preach when the lord jesus christ was revealed from him glory to god in the highest That's what preaching is, isn't it? Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and goodwill towards men. Peace on earth, glory to God in the highest. Heavenly grace and heavenly peace sent down to preach.

And preaching, the unsearchable riches of Christ are made known by preaching, but preaching is a grace gift. I need the grace of God to preach. You need the grace of God to hear. Simon needs the grace of God to preach, and Norm needs the grace of God. We need God to be gracious to us, to speak through his servant to us. But we need grace to hear. We desperately need grace to hear. We want to hear from God. We read scripture because we want to hear from God. We read scripture about the Lord Jesus Christ because we want you to look to him and not to yourself.

Preachers sent by God. Paul says he's made a minister to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. Paul was ordained of God to be sent to the Gentiles and Peter and the other apostles were sent to the Jews and then sent all around the world. And I love the fact that all of Paul's Jewish gifts and ancestry and heritage meant absolutely nothing to the Gentiles. And all, every time Peter stood up to speak and James and John stood up to speak in Jerusalem, everyone in that learned place said these are ignorant and God has to give the talents. God has to give the gifts. God has to strip us of all the things that are natural to us and use him and use his people for his glory.

The unsearchable riches of Christ. The unsearchable riches. What a wonderful topic to contemplate, isn't it? The unsearchable riches of Christ. Even just declaring that as a phrase means that I'm failing. Because when we finish, no matter how glorious you might think and see our Lord Jesus Christ, we will just be scratching at the very top of a very huge iceberg. I just love the fact that they're unsearchable and they're riches. The Lord Jesus Christ, the unsearchable riches of the Messiah, the anointed one, God with us. We are speaking about the unsearchable riches of God as he's revealed in Christ.

I love what Paul says in 1 Timothy 3, verse 16 about the Lord Jesus Christ. In speaking of that mystery again, he says, 1 Timothy 3.16, he says, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. Here's the best description of godliness. You might hear the religious world talk about godliness all the time and how you have to be godly, this and you have these godly people. This is what godliness is. Listen to what God says what godliness is. The mystery of godliness, it's revealed, isn't it? God was manifest in the flesh. When you saw the Lord Jesus Christ, you saw God Almighty, the Creator, the Sustainer, the Ruler, the Judge, the Saviour. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles. We're preaching Christ, aren't we? God was manifest in the flesh, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory.

The manifold riches of Christ. How rich is the Lord Jesus Christ? How rich. How rich is he in his absolute sovereignty. How rich is he in his holiness. How rich is he in his justice. How rich is he, name all of the attributes of God. And the Lord Jesus Christ is the fullness of riches in all of them. He who was so rich, how rich was he in glory and praise in heaven? How rich was he? How rich was he in his father's sight? I love what Philippians says of him. Verse 5, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. It was no robbery, was it? No robbery of God at all. thought it not robbery to be with God, but made himself of no reputation, took on him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself. the riches of his humility, became obedient unto death, the riches of his faithfulness and his obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath also highly exalted him and given him a name above every name. What's the name? Jehovah. He is God Almighty, our Lord Jesus Christ. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

How rich was he? You name every attribute and you name every knee that you have and God is rich in that and he's rich to give, isn't it? For we know, this is 2 Corinthians 8, 9, you know this verse well. For we know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

The riches of his word. the riches of his promise. All of the promise, all the promises of God are yay and amen in the Lord Jesus Christ. The riches of him being the surety, I love thinking of him as the surety from before the foundation of the world, God the Father and God the Son in the richness of glory that was then and is to come and is now, The riches of glory God the Father gave a people into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ and they struck hands and the Lord Jesus Christ became the surety and from that moment on God the Father looks to his son for absolutely everything he requires from all of his children. Do you reckon he's satisfied? Do you reckon he says he's satisfied? He looks to his son and he's satisfied. This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. All the in whom's should be well pleased with it as well.

This is the riches of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The riches of his promise. The promise that he came to live, to rise, to die and rise and reign. in glory and to come again. The promise to save all who come to God by him. He just says now come. What riches it is. He doesn't say go away. He says come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden.

The riches of him keeping all of his sheep. They shall never perish. No one's gonna pluck them out of my hand. We have a double handed salvation. We're in the hands of Christ and in the hands of God almighty. The riches of Him providing all they need, including their trials, including Him carrying through their trials. The riches of His love. I've loved you with an everlasting love. I've loved you everlastingly, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you to myself.

The riches of his drawing power. He draws us by his love. The riches of his reign and rule to work all things for our spiritual good. The riches of his gifts. The gift of the grace of God. There's a wonderful story of how rich the children of God are in Genesis 33. You can turn there if you like, but there's just a lovely, you might remember the story that Jacob went over fleeing for his life from Esau, who was going to kill him. And Jacob, the Lord made Jacob extraordinarily rich. in the household of Laban and he came back and then he wrestled with God. God wrestled with him. The Lord Jesus Christ wrestled with him. What a blessing that is to wrestle with God. And God says he wrestled with me and he prevailed. And he changed his name to Israel, a prince with God.

And then the next day, Jacob and Esau met, and you know all the schemes that Jacob had. He sent all these flocks and people ahead in case if Esau was going to kill someone, he might be satisfied with enough blood that he won't come and touch Jacob. He was still untrusting in all of what he did, Jacob. But when they finally meet, and And Esau says to him, what about it? Why have you sent me all these? Verse eight of Genesis 33. What meanest thou by all this drove which I met? All these cattle and sheep you sent before me. And then he said, these are to find grace in the sight of my Lord. And Esau said, I have enough. I have enough. Down a bit further in verse 11. Jacob pleads with Esau to take the, I pray, my blessing that is brought to thee, because God has dealt graciously with me, and I have enough.

When Esau says, I have enough, he says, I have much. God made him very wealthy. When Jacob says, I have enough, he's saying, I have everything. I have everything. I have everything. I have the riches of all of this world. I have the riches of an inheritance with God Almighty. I have the riches of being in the presence and under the covenant of my great God. That's how all of God's children are saved. I have everything. I have everything. The riches of his gifts. The riches of his light to illuminate the mystery. to illuminate the fact that God is a triune God, that God is a God of covenant promises, to illuminate the fact that all the elect were elected in the Lord Jesus Christ, to illuminate the provision and the providence of our God in all things, the riches of his light, to illuminate the incarnation. the riches of salvation, the riches of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, the riches of him being the light of the world, the riches of his peace.

Turn with me back to Ephesians and I'll close in a minute. I just love these verses, Ephesians. 1 and 2 are just extraordinary. We have, according to Ephesians 1, we have already received and have all spiritual blessings. How rich are we? God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings, all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

But I love what Ephesians 2 says. He's made peace. Listen to the riches of this in verse 13 of chapter two. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. The riches of his blood, the riches of the preciousness. How can you possibly value the blood of God that was shed? in Gethsemane's garden and on Calvary's tree.

The riches of his blood, the riches as we saw in Ephesians 3, the riches of his eternal purpose, the riches of access to him, the riches of glory in tribulation And there is just the glorious riches of him bestowing this on his own. These riches don't just sit there so that we can look at them and admire them. These riches are poured out upon all of God's children.

I read that one in verse, let's read some of these riches that are poured out on us. We read the first one in verse three of Ephesians one, but in verse seven, in whom we have redemption. We've been redeemed, we've been bought with a price, the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. the complete forgiveness of all of our sins according to the riches of his grace.

Verse 18, Paul prays that 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. The saints are his inheritance. What a gift, what a special, let's turn over to verse seven. But in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Jesus Christ.

The previous verse says what's happened to us. When we were dead, verse five, when we were dead in sins, he has made us alive. He has quickened us together with Christ, by grace you are saved, and has raised us up together and made us to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We're here, sitting here in this little shed in Terrera. We're really sitting in heaven. God says we're sitting in heaven because he cannot be separated from his bride and his body. We really are there. We really are there.

And in closing, because we were talking about the Lord's work in us as a church, I want us to look at some of the togethers. Because that's what happens when all these riches are applied. These unsearchable riches are applied. The abundance of these are applied. We read in verse 5, He has quickened us together. with Christ, listen to all the togethers, has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ. In verse 13 it says, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were sometimes afar off, we've been made nigh, we've been made together, we've been made close to each other by the blood of Christ. He is our peace, the riches of his peace, who was made who has made both one, has broken down the middle wall of partition between us. He came.

Verse 17 is just such an amazing verse. You listen to what God says about His Son. He's done all of this. He's made peace. He's made peace. He's made the reconciliation and came and preached peace to you who were afar off. He's preached peace, the peace of his blood. He's shown us that his blood was shed for his people in particular, and they have peace with God.

The Lord speaks about this fellowship in the mystery. the riches of fellowship in the Lord Jesus Christ. The riches of fellowship with fellows who are in the same ship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we'll close with these four verses out at the end of Ephesians 2, because this is the cause for which Paul was writing this. This was his cause. Now, therefore, you are no more strangers and foreigners. but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom, what riches, you think about the riches of this, in whom all the building fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.

Talk about riches. If you've been built, if you've been one of those living stones that's been built into this temple, you have riches in abundance. In whom, listen to this, Talk about riches, unsearchable riches of Christ, in whom you also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

I believe that. And I believe that we witness that. How rich has God been to us over these years? How rich? How rich? I'm so thankful there are unsearchable riches, because we've got more to look at. We've got more and more and more. We can keep going through unsearchable riches, and we'll never get to the end of them. That's why heaven goes on forever.

Our God is so glorious and so good. that he'll keep his people to the end of this life, then he keeps them forever and ever. A habitation of God through the spirit. The unsearchable riches of Christ.