I want to try to look at all
13 of these verses this morning, but the title of the message
comes from verse 11. I thought about this, and I think
about this in some form or another. I'm forced to quite a bit. The least, less than the least,
preaching the greatest. The lowest of the low. You think
about what he said there. The lowest among the low preaching
him whose riches are unsearchable. A nobody telling everybody about
somebody that can save anybody. That's what old Scott said one
time. That's pretty good. That's what's happening this
morning. That's what Paul was doing. He was a nobody telling
everybody about that somebody that can save even you. His riches
are unsearchable. God's still in that business.
He's still in that business. And Paul said, for this cause,
I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles. Now, Paul calls himself here
the prisoner of Jesus Christ. Not a prisoner for Jesus Christ. He calls himself the servant
of Jesus Christ in Romans 1.1. He calls himself an apostle of
Jesus Christ in 2 Corinthians 1.1. He calls himself an ambassador
of Jesus Christ in 2 Corinthians 5.20. But here the prisoner of Jesus Christ, and he's not saying
I'm a prisoner for Christ's sake although that was true He said
in 2nd Timothy 1 a be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony
of our Lord Nor of me his prisoner his prisoner But be thou partaker
of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God
Paul knew who it was who put him in prison and And he knew
that whatever reason for it, and I'm sure he wondered about
that, why? It seemed like, you know, seemed like he could do
a whole lot better in preaching the gospel out of prison than
in. But I'll tell you this, it was
a great blessing to me recently to hear someone that I love very
much, who wasn't particularly happy with their present circumstances,
Say nonetheless, I know everything will work out exactly how it's
supposed to. I know I'm where God put me.
That was a blessing to me to hear that. And if we put our
profession in the blank, whatever it is, and add of Jesus Christ,
whatever it is you do, whatever you are, you're that of Jesus
Christ if you're his now. And even if you're not, If we do that, it'll remind us,
for one thing, it'll remind us who we're doing it for. I'm telling
you now, we forget this, I forget this a lot, and I got a feeling
you're a lot like me in that. It's not for us, it's not for
you. Paul said your body is not for
you, it's for the Lord. And what you do with it is not
for you, it's for the Lord. You young people remember that,
it's for the Lord. Whatever you do, do all to the
glory of God. And I'll tell you what glorifies
God, glorifying His Son. That's what He's in the business
of doing. And I won't end on that, and I hope you do too.
I know you do. It'll remind us who we're doing
it for, and why we're doing it. Why we are where we are, and
who we are, and what we are. And then he said, for you Gentiles,
I'm a prisoner of Christ for you Gentiles. There's a lesson
for us here, I believe. And I want to be careful about
this, but God uses his people for his people. This is of the
Lord. You saw it all through the language.
God did this. He put me where I am. He made
me what I am. I am what I am by his grace.
But Paul was called of God for a specific purpose, not exclusively
to preach to the Gentiles, but primarily, listen to what he
said to Ananias in Acts 9 15. He said, the Lord has chosen
him. Go that way. Ananias wasn't real happy about
working with Paul with Saul of Tarsus, but the Lord said, I've
chosen him. Go your way. He is a chosen vessel
unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles. And kings and the
children of Israel, you remember he went into the synagogues often
too. He had an unusual opportunity to go into the synagogues. Not
many of the apostles could have gone into the synagogues and
preached like he did. But he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews
and they knew him as one of their leaders before. And so God gave
him that opportunity to speak to them. They didn't like what
he said, but they heard it. They got in both barrels of it.
But Paul is saying in our text, I'm a prisoner of Christ for
you, for you. And I thank God that God has
some people in this world that are for me. Aren't you? They're
just for me, and I know they're for me, and that blesses my heart. I've known several cases, and
I just sometimes I question whether I ought to say some things, but
you know, we're not gonna be here long. We might as well tell each
other the truth. Just say what needs to be said. There's some
warning here now. I know of several cases where
God has sent men to some folks, called them to leave their family
and their friends and their home and go for a people. And those
people didn't care, they didn't value them or appreciate them,
and God took them away. And that says a lot about people.
God's people are thankful and appreciative when God does something
like that. Paul said, God sent me for you.
I'm his prisoner for you. And the point is not that the
person sinned or used of God is giving anything up, you know,
it's all for you. Paul traded, you think about
this. Paul had status in this world. He had wealth and glory
and the praise of men. I imagine he was doing pretty
well, don't you? In the position he was in? And
wasn't worried about much, was he? But he traded all that for
what? Trouble and opposition? Stoning
and a thorn in the flesh that he begged God to remove and God
wouldn't do it? And stripes and imprisonment?
And you know something? He wouldn't have traded back
for anything in the world. Not for anything in the world.
He said, I count it all but dung. Just like Moses, he counted it
greater riches to suffer with the people of God. The riches
of Christ, the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures
of Egypt. But I'll tell you this, when
you're on the receiving end of God sending someone like Paul
for you, and I've got some in my life, that's humbling, isn't
it? God did that for me. I'm sure
there are other reasons. It's cause for great thanksgiving. God did that because he wanted
to save the Gentiles. There were some Gentile dogs
in God's book. And so God made Paul a prisoner
of himself. We're not bragging on Paul or
any other servant of God. Remember that Paul wasn't exactly
a stellar candidate for a preacher of the gospel, was he? He was running to hell as fast
as he could go. No wonder he wouldn't go back.
Now that his eyes were open, who would go back to that? But
we're saying, though, that when God does things this way, it's
a great privilege and an honor and a blessing for everybody
concerned. It's a win-win-win-win-win, this thing God has done here. And it's the very dispensation
of His grace. Look at the next verse. If you
have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is
given me to you word. What he's talking about him making
him a prisoner of Jesus Christ for the Gentiles. He gave his
great that's that's the dispensation of his grace. In other words,
God dispensed his grace to the church at Ephesus among others.
By dispensing his grace upon Paul. the dispensation of his
grace. It was given me, Paul said, but
it was given me to you, word. You think about that. How many
gifts has God given to other people, but it was given to me,
word? Isn't that beautiful? We're fixing
to realize just how blessed we are, y'all. Not only what he
gives me, But every good gift he gives is to me word and to
you word all things are yours paul said it's for his people
He does it to you word How many beautiful wonderful gifts has
he given to me word? How delightful is this arrangement
here? Look at what god is doing and
this is all talking about the preaching of his gospel to his
people for the salvation of his sheep That's all this is But
oh, all this is, what else is there? That's why he made this
world now. Can we get in on that? He didn't
make this world so we could make a fortune and go enjoy it and
indulge in our flesh. He made this world for this right
here, right here. He dispenses his grace to me, word. I see that. Look at what he's doing, look
at what he's done here and marvel and praise him and what he is
doing. The word dispensation has to
do with the management of a household. This is how God runs his house.
I kind of like it, don't you? That's the way he runs his house.
He bestows grace upon somebody and everybody's blessed. Don't
you love the way he runs his house? He bestows his grace and
what happens? Christ is exalted. His people
are brought together in fellowship and love. When Paul uses this
word dispensation, the churches at Ephesus, he's speaking of
them as being God's house. God's house, not a building,
but a people. And he's managed that house by
providing a head over it, a steward, an under shepherd, a bishop in
charge of them to care for them. His church is precious to him
now. He purchased his church with his own blood and he's established
it upon himself and it's unshakable. He said it's unshakable, the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it and they'll try. He
sends his glorious gospel to them, the very power of God and
the salvation to them that believe, which are his church, his people,
his sheep, not a building. Speaks peace and comfort to them
in the gospel. He sends his Holy Spirit. You
see those words by the Spirit. We'll see him later To take the
things of himself and show them to us That's what this thing
is all about now he's showing himself to somebody Whenever and wherever they're
gathered together, even if there's just two of them He said if there's
just two of y'all be there to comfort and strengthen and
teach and bless. In verse three, he said, 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. What did God
do in the management of his house? He revealed something to somebody. so they could tell everybody
else. A mystery. What mystery? He spells it out, doesn't he?
The mystery of Christ. The mystery of Christ. He sent
Paul to tell them the things of Christ that very few people
know anything about. It's a mystery to them. He said
in 2 Corinthians 3, 12, seeing that we have such hope, we use
great plainness of speech. We say it just as plain, it's
as plain as the nose on your face now. And he calls the gospel
the simplicity that is in Christ in 2 Corinthians 11, 3. How then
can it be plain and simple and also a mystery? You know the
difference? It's that little R word in our
text, revelation. It'll be a mystery to you until
the light comes on. A lot of things are mysterious
in the dark, aren't they? When the light comes on, it's
plain. No man knoweth the Father save the Son. You see, this is
God that does this. We see His power, the power of
His grace and love all through this, and this revelation is
part of that. No man knoweth the Father save
the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. Has
the Son revealed God to you? That's why He made a world to
reveal Himself to the people to the praise of the glory of
His everlasting grace. Paul said here that when you
read about how God saved me, you'll understand how I know
what I know. I didn't learn it in school. By the grace and amazing power
of the Lord Jesus Christ, he flat out assaulted Paul and reduced
that proud persecutor to a broken and willing servant. And all
of this, Paul said, was to you, word. God was thinking about
you when he knocked me off my horse and put me in the dust. And he was thinking about us,
too, because he wrote most of the New Testament, didn't he? Oh, God had been goading him
like a mule ever since the stoning of Stephen. You know the story.
Is it hard for you to kick against the goads? And God finally broke him on
that road to Damascus and he did it in part for the purpose
of saving these Gentiles. The circumstances of Paul's conversion
and calling are singular. But the same thing happens now
and always has and always will wherever God has a people in
this world. God said to Ananias, I've got
something for Paul to do. I've got an assignment for him. My household is gonna be provided
for. I'm going to dispense my grace in my house, and they're
going to be taken care of, they're going to be blessed in every
way, and I'm going to use Paul to that end. If he's led us in
on that, we ought to rejoice in that. Verse 5, which in other
ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now,
and those are the key words there, they weren't in the dark in the
Old Testament, they knew something of the holiness of God, didn't
they? And they knew something about their own wretchedness,
and they knew They knew what God had done about it. That he had provided himself
a lamb. They sure did, but not as it is revealed now. And the
difference is between the picture and the person that the picture's
of. And that's right from the word
of God. We'll see that, but he spoke of the mystery in the previous
verse, and here, Let's read did we reverse six that the Gentile
listen to this that the Gentile should be fellow heirs and of
the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the
gospel you see But there's a lot of language there, but but that
the essence of that is he did what he did that his people would
be saved from whatever nation they're from he did it to save
his people and spoke of that mystery in the
previous verse, and here of the union of the body of Christ.
And this is interesting those two things think about those
two things very simply. Mystery and the union of the
body of Christ the same body partakers of His promise in Christ
by the Gospel that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the
same body and the mystery of that. Think of that mystery and
unity and listen to Ephesians 5.30, for we are the members
of His body. of his flesh and of his bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and
shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh."
You know what that's talking about? Well, that's talking about
marriage. That's the institution of marriage.
No, that's talking about Christ and his church. That's talking
about you and Jesus Christ being one. And Paul said it's a great
mystery, the unity. You see why we're coming to this
verse? But I speak concerning Christ and the church. You're going to leave your father,
your mother, your brother, your sister, your own life also. And
you're going to be joined unto Jesus Christ. If he ever comes
where you are, you're going to be married to him. The mystery
of Christ was not made known in ages past, as it is now revealed. They hoped in Christ. They trusted
God concerning his son in prophecy, but they didn't see as we see.
They saw the pictures, they saw the types, but we see the person. We have his very words and his
very deeds upon this earth. We saw what he did by the revelation
of God. They saw the shadow. This is
the way the Word of God puts it. They saw the shadow, but
we see Christ Jesus, the one who cast the shadow. He was casting
the shadow already. He was already who He is. He's
the eternal Son of God. Listen to Colossians 2.16. Let
no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect
of any holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days.
You see, what I'm about to read in verse 17 of Colossians 2 is
in the context of forget everything and everybody else. All of that,
the true ceremonies as God instituted them, the holy days and the new
moons and the sabbaths and all that were a shadow of things
to come. Forget all that now, because
the body, Colossians 2.17, the body is of Christ. Now what is he saying? The body
is of Christ. You know what that word body means? That which casts
a shadow as distinguished from the shadow. Forget the shadows. Christ is calm. Don't let anybody tell you any
different. Don't let them tell you you need to be keeping a
holy day. Don't be chasing shadows. Flee to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse seven, whereof I was made a minister. And then you know
how you remember how God Arrested him and broke him and taught
him Saved him According to the gift of the grace of God you
see God's great all through this he revealed He made me what I
am his grace was bestowed He's dispensing great in his house
and The grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of
his power. You see, a man doesn't decide
he wants to be a preacher or a believer or anything. And no man is qualified. Paul
asked who is sufficient for these things. He didn't find qualified
people. He deliberately chose fishermen and rabble-rousers
and nobodies. A tax collector. Paul said, our sufficiency is
of God. And this is the same way you
know God. How do you know God? When God
saved Paul, he happened to have made him a minister of the gospel.
He may not have done that in your case, but he saved you the
same way. The same way you know how you
know God? According to the gift of his grace. by the effectual
working of his power. His grace in that he wanted to
save a worm like you, and his power in that when he said about
to save you, who's gonna stop him? God made up his mind he was gonna
save Saul of Tarsus. He didn't wait for Saul to make
a decision. He just saved him. That's what
he did for me, too. He just saved him, in spite of
him. Oh, look at verse eight. Unto
me, who am less than the least of all saints. See, that's why
they call it grace. What passes for grace in this
religious world is not grace now. Grace is God coming to the
worst of the worst. Not who used to be the worst
of the worst, but who are the worst of the worst. Who are blaspheming
and persecuting Him and on their way to persecute Him more. They
ain't turned over a new leaf. They hadn't made a decision. They're running to hell shaking
their fist in His face all the way there. And he just gives his grace. And not only did he save Paul,
but he made it so that he should preach among the Gentiles the
unsearchable, unsearchable riches of Christ. You see why God made
a universe? Because this is worth talking
about now. God made a world as a stage. for sinners to talk
about the unsearchable riches of his son. There's not a whole lot more
to it than that. That's pretty much it. What else is there? We're gonna do that throughout
all eternity somewhere. We're doing it down here now. We're
gonna do a whole lot better later. We're still gonna be doing it.
We're gonna be rejoicing in and telling forth, exalting the Son
in His unsearchable riches of His grace and glory. That's what
it's all about. And every time somebody says
that's what it's all about and they ain't talking about that,
they don't know what they're talking about. This is the man that God uses.
Why was Paul in prison? Why do you think Paul was in
prison? You ever think about that? Surely Paul could have
been a whole lot more effective as a preacher of the gospel and
administering to the churches and all that. How in the world
was that the best way for him to serve God? But you know it
was because God wouldn't have put him there. If it wasn't, The means that God uses are going
to exalt His power and grace, and not the means. The means
are not going to be exalted. And the minute they do, the minute
they are, and I cringe a little bit sometimes, and I don't want
to say this the wrong way, because believe me, I appreciate your
encouragement, and it blesses my heart, and don't stop encouraging
me if it's real. Okay? But don't ever brag on
me. Don't ever brag on me now. The
minute one of us gets a little too big for our britches, we'll
be taken out. That's what'll happen. We've seen it happen. You may not know that's what
you saw, but you've seen it happen. Don't ever brag on the means.
God's gonna make sure that the means are never exalted. Paul said, lest I be exalted
above measure. He gave me a thorn in the flesh.
And here was another one. I don't know how many thorns
Paul had, but I imagine one of them was being in prison, don't
you imagine? I wouldn't like that much. I would beseech him
to let me out of here. But God didn't do it for a time. And listen now, the
means will be manifestly base and weak and ineffectual now.
God'll make sure of that, that you know that. But his power
is effectual. According to the effectual working
of his power. You saw that? You know what effectual
means? I think I like the definition my pastor gave me years ago the
best of that. It gets the job done. That's
what it means. Effectual means it gets the job
done. Effectual is not going through
the motions and doing everything that you're supposed to do to
get something done. Effectual is getting it done. Period. This is the God now. This is
the God that said to Gideon, you go and save Israel from the
Midianites. That's what I want you to do.
And this is just him saving his people. just a picture of the
Gospel isn't it? And Him saving His people in
this world. Gideon you go save the people of Israel from the
Midianites. Gideon's got an army of 32,000
men against a Midianite army of 135,000. And clearly Gideon
was a little bit nervous about this. Because if you read in
Judges chapter 6 He keeps asking the Lord for reassurance. Lord,
are you gonna go with us now? Give me a sign. He said, you
remember the fleece? If you're gonna go with us, if
we're gonna be victorious here and you're gonna be there and
win the battle for us, then let there just be dew on the fleece
only and none on the ground. And he asked two or three times
for signs and for reassurance. And then in chapter seven, God
said, Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for
me to give the Midianites into their hands. I can't do it that
way. I'm not gonna do it like that.
And Gideon was already nervous now. He was already worried about
it. So God told Gideon, he said, you say to the people, if any
of you are afraid to fight, you know, look at you, 32,000? And
there's 135,000 of them. This could be a problem. If any of you want to go home,
go home. And 22,000 of them went home.
Gideon probably thought, well, maybe a handful, maybe got a
few cowards in our midst, maybe a handful. 22,000 out of 32,000
went home. And so he's left with 10,000
men. The math is pretty easy, isn't
it? Gideon's got 10,000 men now. And he was worried before when
there were 32,000. And then God said, I'm sure exactly what Gideon
wanted to hear, there's still too many. Still too many. So God said,
take the men down to drink from the water. You remember that
part, I'm sure. Some are going to drink a certain
way. and others are going to drink a different way. And I
want you to set them apart. Put the ones that drink this
way on this side and the ones who pick water up in their hand
and lap it like a dog with their tongue, put them over there.
And the ones that bend down and drink out of the water on their
knees, they go on this side. And 300 lapped like a dog and
9,700 of them got down on their knees and drank directly from
the water. And you know, you know what happened then. The
hits just kept coming for Gideon, didn't they? With the 300, with those 300
led by Gideon, God gave victory to his people. And every time his gospel is
preached, Paul said it's a victory. And who's he using to do it?
Who's he using to save his people from this world, from their sin? The means that he uses. It can't
be too much. Can't be too much. Why in the world would he do
it that way? The same reason that God chose Saul of Tarsus
of all people. I imagine Saul was probably his
greatest enemy in the world at that time. Wouldn't you imagine
the way he's described in the scripture? His worst enemy. And
God says, you're mine and I'm gonna use you to preach my gospel
to my people so that they might be saved. That's the God we're
talking about now. His unsearchable riches are seen
in who he chooses. Because we're talking about the
riches of grace. The riches of his grace. But
his unsearchable riches are mostly seen in his great love and mercy
toward his sheep. that God would do that anyway,
that sin saw who he chose and who he sent him to. You see your
calling, brethren, how that not many wise are called, not many
mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the vague
and the base and the foolish and the weak and the despised
and the things that are not to put to naught the things that
are. Why? So that no flesh should glory in his presence, but that
all flesh should glorify him Romans 9, 23, that he might make
known the riches of his glory. How? On the vessels of mercy,
by showing mercy to wretched, vile sinners like you and me,
which he had aforeprepared unto glory. His unsearchable riches
are seen at Calvary, where he shed his precious blood for sinners
like us. You think about that for a second. Paul, here in our text, What
did he say he preached? What did Paul preach? What did
he preach? Well, he said, here I preach
the unsearchable riches of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 1.23, he said,
I preach Christ crucified. Same thing. Same thing. His unsearchable riches are in that he was crucified in his
redemptive character, in that he shed his precious blood for
wretched sinners to save them from their sins. And this is
the same message. Now the unsearchable riches of
Christ is Christ crucified. We're gonna be singing about
that throughout all eternity. Worthy is the lamb that was slain.
Because when he was slain, he redeemed us to God with his precious
blood. Peter and John said, we don't
have any silver or gold. That's what this world calls
riches. We don't have any of that for you, but such as we
have, such as we have. What did they have? The unsearchable
riches of Christ. How much is your soul worth to
you? How much is your soul worth to
God? Have you ever thought about that? There is nothing, I know
this, I know this, and you do too. There is nothing in this
world of greater value or that can even be compared, period,
to the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The unsearchable,
all the unsearchable riches of his grace and glory are bestowed
upon sinners in that he shed his precious
blood for sinners on Calvary. And that's what God sent us to
talk about, to declare the unsearchable riches of Christ, to declare
to sinners. What did he say to talk about?
All flesh is grass, though your sins be as scarlet, though they
be red like crimson. All flesh is grass but the word
of the Lord. There's a word from God, and
it endures forever. And that word is mercy. Though they be scarlet, they
shall be as white, or as white as snow, by the grace of God,
by the dispensation of His grace in His house, and by the bestowing
of His grace upon His people, and His love. Oh, what manner
of love the Father have bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him and by His stripes
we're healed. God laid our iniquity on His
Son and He healed us by that. He didn't do that and then hope
for the best. By his stripes, somebody, somebody's sins are
made white. Somebody's sins are made as white
as snow by the precious blood of Christ. And what a privilege
it is to preach that. The power of his blood, the effectual
working of his power. When my Lord Jesus Christ died,
I know, I've heard about some Jesus that did his best and now
left everything up to man. But my Lord Jesus Christ, when
he came and offered his very soul in offering for sin, it
was effectual. It got the job done. He obtained
eternal redemption for us, Paul said, when he did that. And may
God give us grace to preach more and more the blood of Christ,
the unsearchable riches of his grace and glory are seen in Christ
crucified. And may we have boldness and
freedom and great plainness and wisdom by his grace. and steadfastness
to preach him and him alone. What a wonderful grand design
God has. And you know what happens when
the last one that he shed his precious blood for comes home. Then we're all going home. And we're going to find out sure
enough what it's all about then. Amen, let's pray.