What a great hymn. He swore that
once the deed was done, it was settled by the Great Three One,
Christ was appointed to redeem all that the Father loved in
Him. We have a great God and a great
salvation and we have the extraordinary wonder of being able to to be
here in 2020, 2,000 years almost, after these events, and to look
back and look around and see the hand of our great, great
God in the midst of all of this. One of the first things I wanted
us to note in these verses is that Paul, in those two events,
was absent. And when Paul wanted to be there,
the people who were his friends, who were the chief Roman rulers
of that region, said to Paul, you're not coming into this assembly,
because obviously Paul's presence would have stirred up a crowd
that had gone effectively mad, screaming and yelling all sorts
of things. So Paul was no coward, but my
point is of course, and the point that I trust the Holy Spirit
would cause us to see with some clarity, is that God's promises
are fulfilled, and he chooses at a time of his good pleasure
to use people, and he chooses to work. He chooses to work by
his work in their lives, and you can work by removing them
from the scene altogether. Our God is a God of absolute,
sovereign, supreme purpose, isn't he? And so in the midst of all
of this riot, and it would have been an extraordinary scene,
wouldn't it? I want you to picture what it would have been like
for you to have been one of the members of that church that morning
as that riot began, and your friends, Gaius and Aristarchus,
who had come all the way from Greece, to be with you and to support
you. Paul had been dragged by this
unruly mob that screamed and yelled. And yet, I want us most
of all to see that in the midst of the chaos of this world around
us, our God is a God of calm purpose. Our God in the midst
of the chaos of this world has his purpose and his purpose is
revealed to his people. It's only ever revealed to his
people. But also he has a comfort for
his people in the midst of all of this. The comfort of God's
people is the character of God and the purposes of our great
God. It is a great Picture, isn't
it, this riot in Ephesus, this crowd. Imagine that, being part
of a crowd. In verse 32, just look at it.
In verse 32, some cried one thing and another, some another, and
the assembly was confused. And the most part, the most of
them, didn't even know why they had come together. Imagine one
of those men going home to his wife that evening and saying,
well, what did you do today, darling, down there? He said,
oh, we went down to the theatre in Ephesus. What did you do down
there? We all screamed for two hours. Great is Diana of the Ephesians.
Why'd you do it? I don't know. What were other
people doing? I don't know. We can laugh. We can laugh at
the silliness of men, and we need to be reminded that these
are pictures of the fall of man. Pictures of the fall of man. It's interesting, the word that
is used again and again throughout this text of scripture, it's
in verse 23, there's no small stir. It's in verse 29, the city
was filled with confusion, and verse 32, the assembly was confused. Verse 40, it talks about an uproar
and a concourse. That word confused is the same
word that's used for the first time in the scriptures. It's
used in Genesis chapter 2. And it's used in the opposite
sense of this. In Genesis chapter 2, after the
creation of man, and it says, and they were both naked, the
man and his wife, and were not ashamed. That's what that word
means. They were not ashamed. They were
not confused. We fell, brothers and sisters.
We fell. We fell. We fell. representatively, we fell in
Adam, we were there according to Romans 5.12, so don't think
you weren't there, and if you think you would have done any
better, then think again, brothers and sisters, you wouldn't have
done any better at all. We were there, we were there
representatively, we were there personally, and we were there
really. And what a fall, what a fall.
We fell from fellowship to enmity against God. We fell from wisdom
and knowledge of God into darkness and superstition. We fell from
sinlessness of relationship into sin, where we run from the One
who can bring us covering. We fell from meaning God gave man a meaning and a
purpose in the garden. They had to tend that garden,
that extraordinary garden. There was lots for them to do. They fell from a place of meaning
where they were there to represent God and represent God in covenant
relationship as husband and wife, and they fell into emptiness,
into vanity. They fell from the rule of creation,
the wise and good rule of creation, to being creatures at the whim
of a creation which is unruly. They fell from righteousness
and they fell into self-righteousness. They fell from simplicity and
singleness and they fell into confusion. They fell from innocence
into being ruled by Satan. They fell from freedom into captivity. We fell by doubting the word
of God. We fell by standing in judgement
of God and his goodness and his character and his word of promise.
And we fell by seeking the rewards, take and eat, the rewards of
disobedience. And why? Why the fall of man? Why man revealed as he is in
this? It's all for a purpose, isn't
it? Our God brought about that chaos
in the garden, He brought about that shame in the garden, that
He might reveal Himself, that we might know, we might know
His love, we might know His grace, we might know His sacrifice,
we might know His holiness. We might know His righteousness. We might know His salvation. And it's so beautifully pictured,
isn't it, in Genesis chapter 3. This pair, Adam and Eve at
the end of chapter 3. The Lord God brings them to Himself. and he strips away from Adam
and Eve the fig leaves of their own righteousness and their own
works and their own attempt to get right with God and he slays
a lamb and he covers them and then he sends them out into this
world. of these strange gods in Ephesus
and throughout the world is just a picture of the ongoing effects
of the fall of man. You don't have to read much into
Genesis beyond chapter 3 and you realise that the first activity
of man outside of the garden is to murder. And then you only
have to read chapter 4 and you realise that that murder just
grows and grows and grows. Let's just turn over in our Bibles
as we think about that shame and we put that into context.
In Ephesians, Paul no doubt had these momentous events on his
mind as he pondered not only what he was dealing with in Ephesus
but what he dealt with everywhere, that man is an idolater by nature. Man just has to be left to himself
and he will create idols. Man just has to be left to himself
and he will be captive of Satan. Ephesians chapter 2, this is
Paul's description, this is God's description of man by nature. In chapter 2 verse 1, you is
he quickened, you made alive, you are dead in trespasses and
sins. You're dead. You're dead to the
things of God. You are spiritually and completely,
utterly dead. So when we're dealing with people
and we find that they're dead, expect that they will be dead.
And there's one solution to deadness, and that's the quickening work
of God. There has to be life given, life given from above.
But look what happens to these people. Verse 2 of chapter 2
of Ephesians. You walked according to the course
of this world. You walked according to the course
of this world. You just follow the world. You
just follow the world. When our kids were growing up,
we used to continually, when they went to school and saw what
their friends were doing, they'd continually come home and they'd
say, well, everyone else is doing it. And they knew, after a little
while, that the response to everyone else doing it is, well, you're
not going to do it. And we're not going to do it.
Anyway. We walked according to the course
of this world. We walked according to the power
of the air. According to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience, the children outside of Christ, are ruled
and controlled by demonic forces and there's no wonder that we
see them playing with all sorts of demonic things like these
people in Ephesus are playing with. That's where you were,
that spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. That's why John could say at
the end of his letter when he was in Ephesus, he said, the
whole world lies in the wicked one. That's what we know. Do
you know that? When we look at this world, That's
how God's children see it. Among whom, verse 3, we all had
our conversation in times past. This is how we lived our lives
in times past. Listen to it. The lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. So it's a fleshly activity, but
it's an activity that's thought about as well, it's in our minds
as well. And by nature we were, by nature,
the children of wrath, even as others. We go down to verse 12,
chapter 2. At that time, you Gentiles, at
that time, all of us except Paul, you were without Christ, being
aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. You were without Christ,
you were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants
of promise. You had no idea that there was
a covenant of promise. Having no hope and without God
in the world. without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you
were sometimes far off. We were far off from God. These people that say that they're
close to Him and they've been seeking Him and they've lived
with Him all their lives, it's too long. You've been far off. You have to be dead to be made
alive. You have to be wounded to be healed. The Lord Jesus
heals all that are in need, and only God can cause us to see
our need. Go down to chapter 4, verse 14,
and we have another description of us. that henceforth we'd be
no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every
wind of doctrine by the slight of men and the cunning craftiness
whereby they lie in wait to deceive." So if you're carried, if you're
tossed around, if you're carried, someone else is determining where
you go, brothers and sisters. 17. Therefore I say therefore and
testify to the Lord that you henceforth walk not as other
Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind. There is this
extraordinary city with this huge temple to Diana and all
of the things that went with it, all of the craft and all
of the other activity. The temple of Diana was enormous.
If it was, one corner was where the School of Arts, the Far Side
of the School of Arts, it'd cover this and it would go down into
the Woolworths car park and it would be twice as high as the
School of Arts. It was one of the seven wonders
of the world. And Paul says it's vanity. Paul says vanity, it's
the activities of empty minds. Having, verse 18, having the
understanding darkened. So if an understanding's darkened,
it can't see. Can't see where it is, can't
see where it's going, can't see what's around it. What a mind
to have, what an understanding to have. Being alienated, from
the life of God through the ignorance that is in them. It's empty,
empty, dark, and ignorance, and it's in people, it's in people. Verse 19. Ignorance is in them through
the blindness of their heart. Verse 19, who past feeling have
given themselves over to lasciviousness, to all uncleanness with greediness. With greediness. The old man in verse 22, which
is corrupt according to deceitful lusts. Chapter 5, verse 3, it speaks
to the fact that they lived in fornication and uncleanness and
covetousness, filthiness, foolish talking, and jesting. Have you ever lived like that? I don't wish for a show of hands.
That's God's description of us. That's God's description of us.
It's God's description of us that we might see, that we might
see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, only real sinners,
only lost riches need a saviour. If that's your state, And God
has shown you that's your state, then you need a glorious Saviour. You need the Saviour that Paul
speaks of in Ephesians 1 and in Ephesians 3. A Saviour who
has the power, a Saviour who has life, a Saviour who is a
creator, a Saviour who can create anew. So the purpose, first purpose
of this depravity in Ephesians, in this Ephesian multitude is
for us to see that that's what we are. And if we don't see ourselves
as one of them, then we are even more deceived. We are more deceived. Wherever
Paul went, he met with idolaters. And Paul, Paul was one of them. You see, the worst idolaters
are not the idolaters that are parading around in temples. Paul
was the most zealous, moral, righteous man you could ever
wish to lead. His righteousness was extraordinary. He tithed his mint and his cummin.
He prayed on the street corners. He dressed himself beautifully
every day. He lived his life imagining that
he was worshipping God. And what happened when he met
the Lord Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road? What's his first question? Who
are you, Lord? Who are you? He met God, and
his first question is, who are you? Because he had no idea who
God was. He had all the religion in the
world. He had all the righteousness that the world could see. And
if he came back today, he'd be head of a denomination, head
of a church, and he'd be speaking in Bible conferences all over
this world. I promise you, I guarantee it. Who are you, Lord? See, we don't just need a reformation
of that mind. We need a new one. We need a
revelation of God himself. We need God, as he says in Ephesians
chapter 2. God. You hath His quickened, the God
who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved
us." And when Paul saw those riots and he saw Alexander going
in there with all of his righteous Jewish legalism, he would have
seen himself in all those things. Brothers and sisters, when we
see the depravity of the world around us, may God cause us not
to stand above them as if we can't be like them. We are kept
by grace. We're not kept by anything other
than a sovereign God who works all things. We want to see ourselves as what
we really, really are when we see the depravity around us.
We are the sinner. We are the sinner. Paul knew that he was an idolater. He was a religious idolater.
These men were idolaters in the cause of Diana. He was a religious
idolater. He saw also that wherever he
went, he was going to be dealing with other idolaters, and there's
one cure for idolatry, and there's one cure for blindness, there's
one cure for being in darkness, there's one cure for a heart
that is dead and a heart that is eminent. It is a new creation. It is something that God does,
and how does he do it, brothers and sisters? He does it through
the preaching of the Gospel, through the declaration of who
the Lord Jesus Christ is. Paul had declared the Lord Jesus
Christ in Ephesus for these two and a half years, and the centre
of that operation he declared the Lord Jesus, wherever he went
he just did one simple thing. He just declared, our God reigns,
our God reigns, our God rules, all flesh is grass. All flesh
is grass. Everything outside of the Lord
Jesus Christ is vanity. And so all these other activities
that religion gets into is just vanity. We have, as the Church
of God, a glorious task and a glorious mission is that God's people
born into that world, that world of darkness and superstition
and confusion, because it's a confusing world, isn't it? Isn't the world
confusing? You look at the religions of
the world and it's confusing. You look at Christianity and
it's confusing. Which one do you choose? We worked
in a missionary school there with hundreds of mission children
and meeting hundreds of missionaries on a yearly basis. The end result
of being, for five years of being, going through that school, the
end result for all the children there was confusion. Which way do you go? Who do you
believe? It's confusion. It's shame. Everything outside of the Lord
Jesus Christ is confusion. So Paul, when he writes to the
Corinthians, he's concerned that as Satan has Satan deceived,
you would be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ Jesus. That word simplicity means singleness,
that oneness, that sincerity, that mental honesty. the simplicity
that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a simple message, a simple
message of our God coming in human flesh to save those that
God the Father had given him from the foundation of the world.
He came as a covenant surety. He came as a mediator. He came
for a bride that he loved from all eternity. He came as a sovereign
God. He came as a saviour. He came as a substitute. He came as a sacrifice. And he was infinitely successful. When God the Father put the Lord
Jesus Christ to death, when God made him to be sin who knew no
sin, God the Father made all the sins of all of God's people
to meet on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a simple message, and all
of them will be saved. It doesn't matter whether they're
Ephesian idolaters or idolaters from Tererah. or idolatrous from
Birgha, or idolatrous from anywhere in this world, every single one
of them must be saved, must be kept, must be preserved, because
God the Father has put them in the hands of His Son, and they
cannot ever be lost, brothers and sisters. Our God cannot fail. He shall not fail. The law has
been perfectly kept by our sovereign Saviour. He kept it perfectly. Every little tiny thing that
we've ever done in sin against our God was laid perfectly on
His Son. By a holy God who knows everything
and sees everything. And that same God, that same
resurrected Saviour, now sits on the throne of the universe.
And so in the midst of this world of chaos, and Paul was going
from this bit of chaos to more chaos. He was going to chaos
in Rome, he was going to chaos on a boat, and chaos in Jerusalem. In the midst of all of that,
God brings a peace to his people. We have all the trials and struggles
that the rest of the world has. that when God, in mercy and grace,
causes us to turn from what we see around us, and to see Him
on His throne, and to see that He does all things well, we can,
like that church in Ephesus, and like Paul and his others,
we can be at peace. All of God's children drink.
All of them drink. I love what 1 Corinthians 12.13
says, for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether
Jews or Greeks, bond or free, and we've all been made, we've
all been made to drink of one spirit. A singleness, a singleness
of our God. And the new creation that God
creates And he alone creates. That new creation that he creates
rejoices in Christ Jesus, the Lord. The old creation, the old
creature, is ashamed of Christ and ashamed of his people, and
their confusion just leads to more confusion. My point simply is, brothers
and sisters, isn't it, that the solution to this problem that
we see in Ephesus, the solution to this problem that we see all
around us, the solution to the problem that we see in the hearts
and lives of all of God's people, all of the people of this world,
is just to proclaim the Gospel. Just to proclaim the Gospel.
Proclaim the gospel to each other. Proclaim the gospel in this land. Proclaim the gospel to this lost
world. You can't work your way out of
the situation that you're in. The idolatry that is naturally
a part of all of our hearts is a real and serious idolatry. The depth of the sin that we've
fallen into, the depth of the shame and confusion that covers
this world, is too big. It's too big for anything other
than a sovereign God to work. The promise of the scriptures
is that those that fall into idolatry and make their idols
become like them. There's a lovely picture in Psalm
115 and it's one of dozens and dozens in the scriptures. It
speaks of these idols. Psalm 115 verse 4 it says, their
idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths but they speak
not. Eyes they have, but they see
not. They have ears, but they hear
not. Noses have they, but they smell
not. They have hands, but they handle
not. Feet have they, but they walk
not, neither speak they through their throat. This is the judgment
of God on them. Verse 8 says, They that make
them are like unto them. So we become like the idols we
make, and so is everyone that trusts in them. The answer is in the first verse
of that psalm, isn't it? to the God's people, not unto
us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for
thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. And wherefore should the heathen
say, where now is their God? But our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Are you pleased with that? When
you look at everything that's ever happened, and everything
that ever will happen, that banner goes over it, doesn't it? Our
God's in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased.