Let's read verses 1 and verse
13. For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner
of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles. Verse 13. Wherefore, I desire
that you faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. Natural man wants a preacher
well regarded by the masses, a gospel well received by the
masses, and a Jesus accepted by the masses. Natural men need
to see things to assure them that their gospel is true. And yet the apostle Paul was
sent by Christ himself. And he was so despised by the
masses that they beat him and threw him in prison. His gospel
was so despised by the masses that they called it anti-law,
they called it licentious, they called it blasphemous. And our
Savior was so despised by the masses that they crucified Him. And sinners are just as depraved
today. Nothing has changed. And religion,
true religion, is still in the minority in our day. So, knowing
this kind of rejection that comes, it can cause discouragement to
believers. And so Paul gives five words
of assurance here in Ephesians 3 to assure his brethren. Now
these are five things that Christ had done for Paul. And you got
to remember this too, when Paul is writing this, he's writing
this under the direct inspiration of the Spirit of God. So this
is Christ himself comforting his people through Paul. This
is Christ comforting his people, giving Paul the words to write
to comfort his people. I've titled this Assurance in
Persecution. When we're rejected for Christ's
sake, we should assure our brethren to comfort them that this is
reason to rejoice. It's not reason to be discouraged,
it's reason to rejoice. Now the first thing that We see
here Paul assures his brethren that Christ gave him a stewardship
for them. Now we know that Paul experienced
some things as an apostle that preachers in our day do not experience. Believers in our day do not experience.
He was taken up to the third heaven. He was taught by Christ
himself. And yet these five things are
things that every God-sent preacher must experience to a lesser degree
if they'll be a preacher of the gospel. In fact, these five things
are what every believer must experience. They shall and they
must in order to be a witness of Christ, a steward of the gospel
of Christ. Now, these things These things
are a must. He says first of all here that
Christ gave him a stewardship for them. Look at verse 2. He
says, You have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is
given me to you. That word dispensation means
stewardship. It's Christ gives his preacher
a stewardship to dispense the gospel of God's grace to the
Lord's house. Let me give you an illustration
of dispensation. This is the simplest illustration
I could find. It's in the scriptures. Paul
told the Corinthians, I have received of the Lord I have received
of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you. That's a dispensation. To receive it from the Lord and
deliver it to the Lord's people. That's a dispensation. Here he
says the dispensation, the stewardship of the grace of God, of the gospel
is given to me to give to you. That's a stewardship. That's
a dispensation. That's how dispensation works.
Now the chief dispensation is from God the Father to His Son,
Christ Jesus, to give to His people. After Christ accomplished
the redemption of His people, God raised Him from the dead. Look back up there to Ephesians
1 and verse 20. which he wrought in Christ when
he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand
in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and
might and dominion and every name that's named, not only in
this world but also in that which is to come. and hath put all
things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things
to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth
all in all." Now that's a great comfort to us, brethren. It's
a tremendous comfort to us because as we suffer for Christ's sake,
This is what we can be assured of. Christ, our head, has the
dominion over all things, over all power. And His church is
His body. Do you protect your body? Well,
His church is His body. Every individual elect child
is His body. Christ has made Himself so one
with His elect that He is as incomplete without us as we are
without Him. The fullness of His body is His
people. He's going to continue to send
the gospel forth. He's going to continue to call
out his people to we all, all God's elect, come to the unity
of the faith, to the measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ. He's going to keep doing that.
And it's Christ who is filling all in all. He's the one who's
doing it. He's sending forth his preachers
with the gospel, but it's Christ that's filling all in all. He's
the one that's doing that. All grace that God the Father
has for His elect, Christ Jesus dispenses to those elect. That's what a dispensation is.
It's a license to dispense. And He has all grace for His
people and He's dispensing that grace to His people. And with
Him having all power, nobody or nothing can stop Him from
doing that work. Nobody can. Besides this, whenever
the Lord called Paul, when the Lord Jesus called him, he told
him, he showed him how great things he must suffer for Christ's
name's sake. He told him he must suffer. And
he's told us that. Look at Matthew 10. Matthew 10. In verse 24. The disciple, that's what you
are, if you're a believer, if you've been called by His grace,
you're a disciple. The disciple is not above his master, nor
the servant above his Lord. It is enough for the disciple
that he be as his master and the servant as his Lord. If they've
called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall
they call them of his household? Fear them not, therefore, for
there's nothing covered that shall not be revealed. And nothing
hid that shall not be known. So he says, What I tell you in
darkness, that speak you in light. And what you hear in the ear,
that preach you upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill
the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear
him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. See,
we're following Christ. And if He suffered, we're going
to suffer. But the one we're suffering for has all power. He has all power. and he's ruling
everything for us and therefore Paul's declaring to his brethren
here he's telling them that he's not ashamed of the things that
he's suffering at all because these things were appointed him
to suffer by Christ and so he's given us an example to follow
whenever we suffer for Christ's sake you're rejected by family
you suffer maybe at your workplace or whatever we don't face right
now in our day and time what Paul face you're not apt to be
thrown in prison for preaching the gospel but are beat for preaching
the gospel but whatever you do suffer for preaching the gospel
you know it can discourage us it can it can make whenever you
see somebody walk away from the from the gospel whenever you
see somebody you know and men don't just walk away men men
walk away bad-mouthing the preacher, and bad-mouthing the gospel,
and bad-mouthing the brethren. And that could be discouraging.
But assure one another, I'm suffering for Christ. I'm not ashamed of
this gospel. He called me. He gave me a stewardship
to dispense this gospel. I'm not ashamed of suffering
for his sake. I must suffer for his sake. It's a privilege to
suffer for his sake. Alright, look here. Here's the
second thing he tells them back in Ephesians 3. He says, He has a revelation of the gospel,
verse 3. He says how that by revelation
he made known unto me the mystery. He gives them assurance here
that his gospel is the certified gospel. He's given them assurance
that this is the true gospel. I received it from Christ, he's
saying. You know, isn't that what happens when when men start
rejecting the gospel and they start speaking evil of Christ and of our gospel,
have you, the fleshly man within you will start thinking doubtful
thoughts. And Paul is assuring his brethren
here, don't be doubting this. I got this directly from Christ.
This is the gospel I'm delivering to you. Can you say with certainty
that you know that this gospel is the gospel of God I can say
with certainty, I would not stand here and speak to you if I wasn't
certain what I'm telling you is true. I don't get up here
and tell you things that I'm speculating about. I don't want
to waste your time, and that's just a waste of time. If I say
it from here, it's so. because this book says it so.
And I'm certain of that. I'm certain of that. Now, the
parentheses he gives here, he says, I wrote a four and a few
words. He's talking back, he's talking about the first two chapters.
So everything that he said up to this point, he's saying this
is the gospel. God chose us in Christ before
the foundation of the world. We have redemption through His
blood. He's predestinated us to the adoption of children to
Himself by Jesus Christ. In that last day, He's going
to gather us together in one in Christ Jesus. You were dead
in sins, He came to you and He quickened you and He gave you
life and the gift of faith were His workmanship. Now we're no
more two, now we're one body. Now He's made His elect Jew and
His elect Gentiles one body in Christ and we're no longer citizens
of this world, we're fellow citizens with the saints. were of the
household of God. And he says, now for this cause
I'm in prison. And he said, but don't think
that I'm ashamed of being in prison for this cause. He said,
I was given this stewardship by Christ and I was given this
revelation by Christ. This is the gospel. This is the
gospel. He says there in verse 6, he
says, He declares it again that God chose an elect people. He
says that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs. This was the
mystery. This was the mystery from hidden
before the foundation of the world that God's elect was not
Israel. It's a chosen people chosen throughout
the world. and he's made his people one
by his work. He says here that Christ redeemed
each one by fulfilling the law for us, making us, verse 6 says,
of the same body. We're of one body. And he says
Christ sends his preachers and he sends the Holy Spirit and
he gives life, faith, and repentance, verse 6, making us partakers
of his promise in Christ by the gospel. By the gospel. And he assures them then there
at the end of verse, at the beginning of verse 7, he says, whereof
I was made a minister. I was made a minister. He suffered. Paul was beaten several times
for preaching the gospel. Men have been martyred for preaching
the gospel. Do we want to say, I don't think
preaching of the gospel is all that necessary. You know what
you might as well do? You might as well spit in the
face of men who died preaching the gospel. That's right. Because they gave their life
preaching that gospel and wouldn't back up. and declared the truth. And Paul did, and that's what
he's saying here. I have a revelation from him to preach this. Look
at Romans 1. Here's what he's saying, Romans
1, verse 16. This gospel is such a mystery
to a dead sinner. God is so hated by a dead sinner.
It takes a revelation. He has to reveal this in his
people or they can't know God. Look at this. This is what Paul
is saying, Romans 1.16, I am not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ. For it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek." Always pay attention when it says, to everyone that
believeth, because it's not the power of God to those that don't
believe. They'll tell you it's not. They don't care anything
about the gospel. But to those who believe, who
experience the power of God, know the gospel is the power
of God unto salvation. To the Jew first and also to
the Greek, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. We have to have this revealed.
So Paul says, I'm not ashamed of it. There was a preacher in
the 1700s. And he was in prison for preaching
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said this, he
said, I glory and take delight in my chains. In my chains. He said, I esteem them at a higher
value than chains and rings of gold. The rattling of my chains
is music in my ears because I am bound for maintaining the truth
of the gospel. Now that's a good testimony.
A man can't say that. I can't, no other man can. Unless
he's been made a steward of the gospel by Christ and given a
revelation of the gospel by the power of God. There's just no
way to do it. Be held up and sustained by his
grace. Here's the third thing. He assures
his brethren that he was called by God's effectual grace. Look
at verse 7. Verse 7. He says, "...whereof
I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God
given unto me by the effectual working of his power." The only
man who preaches and bears witness of God's effectual grace faithfully
is the man who has experienced God's effectual grace. Now, a
man may preach it for a while and stop preaching it. But the
man who has been saved by God's irresistible effectual grace
will be upheld by that same grace and he'll keep preaching it faithfully.
And that's the only way we can. The only way we can. And every
believer is born of this effectual grace. And the only way we'll
continue believing Christ and bearing witness of Him is to
be upheld by this effectual working of His power. That's the only
way. We don't have sufficiency in ourselves. You and I are like
a flower in the scorching sun. We don't have any sufficiency
in ourselves. He has got to give it to us. The reason, the very
reason the gospel is the power of God unto salvation is because
Christ is that power. Christ is that power. Like I
said, He's the one dispensing the grace. And He's the one that
comes in person, in spirit, and makes it effectual in the heart.
What comfort! Paul knew that Christ was overruling
everything. When I know that He saved me
by His effectual power, And I know that that power is... If that
power was strong enough to save a stout-hearted, stiff-necked
rebel like me, with a hard heart like me, he can rule everything. He can rule anything and everything. And so, Paul could sit there
and say, if he brought me down into the dust and he taught me
this gospel, I can assure you he's ruling everything else in
my life right now too. And so Paul could say, Rome didn't
put me in prison, the Jews didn't put me in prison, Christ put
me in prison. That's who put me in prison.
He says there in verse 1, I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ. And he wasn't ashamed of it.
He said, I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ. Remember what
he said over in 2 Corinthians 4.1? Seeing we have this ministry,
As we have received mercy, we faint not. How did we receive
mercy? He said, As we have received
mercy, we faint not. How did we receive mercy? By
the gift of the grace of God. By the effectual working of His
power. And that's how we faint not.
by the gift of His grace, by the effectual working of His
power. That's the only way we don't faint. That's the only
way we don't just fall out of the gospel and fall out and fall
awake is because we're saved by His effectual power. That's
one reason that men will go a while and, boy, everything's wonderful
and you just go on and on about the gospel and on and on about
you and on and on about everything. Everything's so wonderful. And
then little by little, they're gone. Because it's not the effectual
working of his power. They have no root in themselves,
the Lord said. And so when persecution arises
for the gospel, they become offended and they go a different way.
But those that Christ has saved, He's holding them. He's preserving
them. He's got them rooted and grounded
and planted and He's holding them and they won't fall away.
Perseverance of the saints. We persevere believing Him. But
the only reason we persevere believing Him is because He's
preserving us. That's it. That's it. After all
of His suffering, after men trying their best to get Him, doing
to Him what He was doing before, beating him and trying to oppress
him into denying the gospel. And even after all of that, even
after they put him in prison, he still said this, We have this
treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may
be of God and not of us. That's why he didn't faint, that
effectual power. So Paul is assuring his brethren
that this same grace, now you think about it, this same grace
that he's talking about here, This gift of the grace of God
given by the effectual working of His power. If Paul is sitting
there saying, if I'm still maintaining today because of this grace,
I'm still here now preaching this gospel because of His grace,
he's telling his brethren, you were regenerated by this grace,
you were chosen by this grace, you were redeemed by this grace,
this grace is going to keep you too. That's comfort to a believer. Very much so. Comfort. Look here
now and this is the fourth thing, Ephesians 3, verse 8. He assures
his brethren that he's nothing and Christ is all. Verse 8. Unto me who am less than the
least of all saints, less than the least of all saints, is this
grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ. Christ made Paul behold his nothingness. He says, unto me who am less
than the least of all saints is this grace given. Grace is
for sinners. Grace is for sinners. Grace is
for sinners who are the less than the least. That's who grace
is for. And grace makes a sinner realize
that he's less than the least. Grace is given freely. Freely. It's not of works or it stops
being grace. It's just completely the opposite
of works. When we declare that it pleased God to save by the
foolishness of preaching, when we declare that, when we declare
that God is going to cross the path of his child with the gospel
and he's going to You're going to save them by the gospel and
continue saving them through the gospel. Keep them through
the preaching of the gospel. Men will do this. I've had this
happen. Men will say, you're preaching Roman Catholic doctrine.
You're saying you're the Pope. You're saying you're trying to
give yourself that kind of like they do. You know, you can't
hear it but through me. Well, we're in good company because
they said that about Moses. They said, you take too much
on yourself. We're all holy. But this is what Paul is doing
here. He's saying, I'm nobody. I'm
nobody. I don't have any power. He said,
I'm less than the least of all the saints. But until a man's
been made to be less than the least of all the saints, he won't
declare Christ as all. Christ made Paul know his nothingness,
and that's when Christ became all to him. That's when he started
preaching Christ. And then, you see, what we're
saying by saying that God's going to save through the gospel, we're
saying he has the power to bring the gospel to his lost child. We're saying he has the ability
to do what he says pleases him. He has the power to do so. And
I have to bow to that. I have to lay every bit of baggage
I'm coming with, and every vain thought I'm coming with, I got
to lay that down at His feet. And say, this is how He says
He saved. This is how He saves. And that's what you do when He
saved you by His effectual power, is you'll lay it all down at
His feet, and what's not of Him is of self, and you'll throw
that away, and rest in His Word, and trust His Word. Paul had his letters. You can
picture Paul, you know, he's riding high in the saddle and
he's, man, he's going to do what he will and nobody's going to
tell him. And he's just certain he knows the truth. And he's
doing what he's doing for the glory of God. And then he met
God. And He put him in the dust. And
he was going along saying what he was going to do, what I'm
going to do, what I'm going to do. And he put him in a dust.
And then the scripture says, And he trembling and astonished
said, Lord, what will thou have me to do? That's what has to
happen. What did Christ command him to
do? Look at verse 8. He said that I should preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. and to make
all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the
beginning of the world has been hid in God who created all things
by Jesus Christ. You know, we got all our riches.
We get all our riches heaped up on us and man, we're rich,
we don't need anything. We got our church history, we
got our experiences and we got all our riches, all our good
works and all our good deeds and all our knowledge of doctrine
and all this stuff. And Christ has to show us His
counterfeit riches and make us see the true riches, the unsearchable
riches. And when He stripped us of the
counterfeit riches, then we'll start preaching the true riches,
the unsearchable riches. There is not any good news in
the message of salvation by works. Not any good news in that message.
You think about it. If you were paralyzed from your
neck down, And I came to you and told you that the only way
you could be saved is partially by Christ's work and partially
by your good works. What are you going to do? You
can't even move. You can't do any good works.
Is that any good news to you? Well, that's just how unable
we are to do any good works, like a paralyzed man. Salvation
is of God. That's good news. That's unsearchable
riches. That's unsearchable riches. When
you find out that Christ has done it all, that God is saved
by grace, free, You know, we go every day, we spend our time
going to stores and going out and whatever it is we're purchasing
or whatever, you know, and we're trying to get folks that we're
buying things from, we're trying to get them down on their price. Get down on your price, get down
here to something I'm willing to pay. And what I'm trying to tell you
is, I'm telling you about a salvation that's absolutely free and you
won't take it. That's the best deal ever. It's
free. It costs God everything. His Son. His own blood. It don't cost you anything. It's
free. The message of grace is the message
that God saves by. It's the message that declares
all flesh is grass, but the word of the Lord endures forever.
all flesh is grass, but thy God reigneth." That's the message
that God saved by. That's what Paul is saying. Can you imagine how he felt knowing
that he held Stephen's coat while they stoned Stephen to death,
consenting unto his death, and he sat there and listened to
Stephen preach up. He preached the gospel. The whole
time they were stoning him, Stephen preached the gospel to them.
The whole time. That may be the first place Paul
ever heard the gospel. But he heard it then. And then
when Christ made him to know that what Stephen told him was
the truth, can you imagine how that cut him to the heart to
know he killed the man and while he was killing the man, the man
preached the gospel to him? But thankfully, Christ made him
see, you're forgiven. I'll put that sin away, Paul.
That'll make a man preach. That'll make a man see, I am
less than the least of all things. And I've got one message, the
unsearchable riches of Christ. Let's look here now, this is
the fifth thing. Paul assured them that whatever Christ gives
us to suffer, Christ is using it to minister to His saints. Now look here. Notice Paul says
at the end of verse 13. He says, I desire that you faint
not at my tribulations for you. He says, these are my tribulations,
but they're for you. He says, which is your glory. They're for your good. He's telling them, me being in
prison, me being beaten, is for your good. Look at 2 Corinthians
1. 2 Corinthians 1. Verse 3, Blessed be God, even
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies
and the God of all comfort. "...who comforteth us..." Paul's
talking about himself here and his fellow laborers in the gospel.
He says, "...who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that
we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the
comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as
the sufferings of Christ abound in us..." Now get this, we're
suffering because we preach Christ. As the sufferings of Christ abound
in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. We're suffering
for Christ, but we're consoled by Christ. And he says, and whether
we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which
is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which
we also suffer. He said, you're going to endure
this like I'm enduring it by the effectual working of his
power. And he says, or whether we be comforted, it's for your
consolation and salvation. And our hope of you is steadfast,
knowing that as you are partakers of the suffering, so shall you
be also of the consolation. You see, in his suffering, Paul
was comforted by Christ so that he could endure the suffering.
He was comforted by the Lord. And so Paul was able to assure
his brethren by experience that as they suffered, Christ would
comfort them. He, in his weakness and being
imprisoned and having nothing and just being stripped of everything,
and he found out that when he was at his utter weakest, that
Christ's grace is sufficient. And so he knew that by experience.
So now he can tell his brethren by experience, when you come
to your utter weakest and he brings you to where you have
no power in you whatsoever, you're going to find out his grace is
sufficient. He can say that by experience.
You don't want somebody that knows what they're talking about.
You don't want somebody that's just talking in theory. You want
somebody that's been there. Somebody that's experienced it
and can tell you, this is so. I know this is going to happen. Donny Bell and Mary Bell. Mary's
got cancer and she's so sick and Brother Donny, they're suffering
that together. But you know what? He's preached
some, I mean some outstanding messages this year. Just outstanding
messages. He wouldn't have had those messages
if he hadn't suffered that. And there's saints all over the
world that's being blessed by it. And there's a whole bunch of
good come out of it. I know for a fact a good many
of the messages I have preached I would not have been able to
preach without suffering rejection. And it's just so. And the rejection
is not fun and you don't want to go through it and you'd a
lot rather see folks rejoice than reject it. But I can say
with Paul, I know what he's saying here that The same one that consoled
me in it is going to console you in it. And I can tell you
that by experience now. It's always good. It's for your
good. The Savior that we preach is
a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. And He's going to make
His ministers and His people men of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. but that's for our good. That's
to teach us not to put any confidence in His flesh, that's to wean
us from this world, and that's to bring us to His feet to trust
Him and rely entirely upon Him. That's good. I don't care what
it is that happens to us and how painful it is, it'll be good
in the end. It'll be good. Let me point out
one more thing to you. Look here at verse 12, Ephesians
3, 12. Now this one he's been talking
about that did all this for him, this one that's given him these
words to speak to his brethren, he reminds his brethren of this.
In whom? In Christ. We have boldness and
access with confidence by the faith of Him. We have boldness,
we can approach His throne of grace, and we have access to
His throne of grace. by Him, by the faith of Him,
by the faithfulness of Christ, we can come to Him. Because He's
redeemed us, He's put our sin away, and God the Father will
hear us for the sake of Christ, whoever lives to make intercession
for us. You see, He's saying this very
one for whom we're suffering, this very one That is the reason
why men have thrown me in prison and it's the reason you're suffering
and I'm suffering. This very one is the one that
we can come to to find grace to help in time of need. And
so he starts the very next verse in verse 14 and he says, For
this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. What I'm saying to you is we have this access, we have
liberty to come to Him for grace, to help in all time of need. And so Christ, when He makes
us bow and He brings us to our knees to really pray to Him. Have you ever been brought to
your knees to really pray to Christ? Pray to God? Those are
the most difficult times. I mean, those are hard times.
Those are the best times. They're the best times. When
you're forced by Him to pour out your heart to Him, because
you've got no other option. He's closed you up and hedged
you about, and you've got no other option than to just cast
your entire care into His hands. That's a sweet time. The rest
of the time, we go through the motions, but we're really kind
of halfway looking to Him and halfway looking to us. But that's
time when He's got you shut up to Him. That's a good time. That's a good time. Stay at His
feet. Stay at His feet. We're going
to see men come and go. You know, whenever somebody's
already offended at the gospel, looking for some reason to justify
leaving, all they need is some scandalous report about the preacher.
Some, you know, scandal in his doctrine, what he's preaching,
whatever. That's all they need. And they're gone. I knew he wasn't
any good. And the whole thing was, it was
enmity against God all along. They were looking for an excuse
to leave. That's going to happen. That's going to happen. But brethren,
you who God has called, you who God has planted, reassure one
another. Reassure one another of these
five things. That I've been given this stewardship
by Christ. He's revealed the gospel to me.
He's done it by His effectual power. That I'm nothing and the
riches are with Christ. He has all the riches. And that
whatever we're suffering, it's for the good of one another. That's assurance. That's assurance
in persecution. You can assure one another with
that. And don't ever stray from His feet. Stay at His feet. Christ
shall keep those who are His. And He won't lose one. I don't think I gave you this
illustration, but you know a soldier that's fighting They fight under
the banner, they fight under their country's banner, country's
flag, fight for the commander-in-chief, and they may be wounded, they
may be severely hurt by it, but they consider it an honor to
get to fight for their country. Well, anytime we suffer for the
Lord of Lords and King of Kings, anytime we're given the privilege
to be wounded for Him, We are to count it the highest honor
and the highest privilege. That's true. All right, brethren.