Alright, turn with me to Ephesians
chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3. We're going
to have you turn to some Scripture here. All the Scripture is going
to be in the New Testament, so it should be easy to get to.
The title of this message is, By Jesus Christ. Now, if you wonder why I preach
Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Why I'm set on that message of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, I hope by the end of this you'll
at least have some understanding of why that is. Alright, first
thing I want you to see is that, and as we look at these scriptures,
all the scriptures we're going to look into has this phrase
in it, by Jesus Christ. Alright, first of all, everything
was made by Jesus Christ. Ephesians 3.9 says, 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."
Now, what are some things you enjoy? What are some things you
enjoy? Let's start with one that I'm
fairly certain we all enjoy. Do you like to breathe? Do you
like to breathe? The air was created by Jesus
Christ. That's what that text just said.
You like the sky and the stars and the moon? Do you ever consider
the heavens and look at the things that have been made? Those things
were made by Jesus Christ. You like the ocean? You like
the seas? The oceans were created by Jesus
Christ. You like drinking water? It was
created by Jesus Christ. Every toy, every car, every boat,
every computer, everything that you enjoy was made from things
that were made by Jesus Christ. They were just put together from
things He made. All things were made by Him and
without Him was not anything made that was made. Now, Surely
since we consider that everything you enjoy and everything that
you really like about this world. He made it and He's letting you
use it. So considering that let's just
for a few minutes Hear what else he's done. Let's hear what else
he's done. All right Here's the second thing
turn over to John chapter 1 John chapter 1 verse 17 We read here, the law was given
by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Now, simply put, that means the
gospel is Jesus Christ. The Gospel is Jesus Christ. The
Lord Jesus Christ is grace. The Lord Jesus Christ is truth. He is the Word. Without Him giving
you grace, you can't know Him who is the truth. And without
Him who is the truth, you can't know anything about His grace.
Now, the Word was made flesh. He's the Word, He's the Gospel.
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. It's not that grace and truth
was just put in Him. He is grace and truth. Now the law has no grace in it. The law has no grace in it. And
you need grace to know the truth of the law. You know, when Israel
came to the Mount, Mount Sinai, and Moses went up, and they woke
up that morning, the Mount was on fire and it was quaking, and
they cried out and said, Moses, mediate for us, go up to God,
we need a mediator between us and God. Well then later, when
Moses came down with the law, and they had the law, and they
walked in the wilderness with the law, they didn't fear and
cry out for a mediator. In fact, they murmured and complained
against Moses the whole time. What did they cry out for? What was the reason they cried
out? Because of the presence of the law giver. And Christ
is, by Jesus Christ, Everything was given and grace and truth
comes by Jesus Christ. And when he enters into the heart
by grace, the truth is we behold what we are. We can actually
hear the law when the commandment comes, when the word comes, when
Christ enters in, we can hear what the law says for the first
time and we realize what we are and then we cry out and then
we hear the good news. Fear not. I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name.
Thou art mine. Alright, here's the third thing.
Turn over to Romans chapter 5 verse 21. Romans chapter 5 verse 21. As sin hath reigned unto death,
Even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the third thing. Grace
reigns over sin and death by Jesus Christ. Every man is under
the reigning power of one of two things. you're under the
reigning power of one of two things, sin unto death or grace
unto eternal life. There's no in between. It's either
or. Each one reigns because of someone else. Adam sinned and
sin reigned unto death over all men whom Adam represented. By Jesus Christ the righteous,
grace reigns unto eternal life over all men whom he represented. By Jesus Christ, grace reigns
through righteousness, that is, through the satisfaction that
Jesus Christ is and has made for all those he represented
in God's holy justice. He satisfied it. All for whom
he lived and died shall be born in regeneration because righteousness
demands it. All whom he lived and died for
shall be brought under the reigning power of grace because righteousness
demands it. All for whom he lived and died
shall have life eternal because righteousness demands it. Grace
reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. Here's the fourth thing, Acts
chapter 10. Acts chapter 10. Verse 36. Peace is by Jesus Christ. Acts 10, 36 says, the word which
God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus
Christ. He is Lord of all. My gospel
is the good news of reconciliation unto God accomplished by Jesus
Christ. You who hear me and don't believe
on Jesus Christ, the Son of God, you're at war with God. You're
at war with God. And you will meet him and God
will win. You don't like coming to hear
about God because it reminds you that you're on a collision
course with God. And you're like the troubled
sea every time you're reminded of God. You're like those waves
casting up mire because you're at war with God. But my gospel
is this, there is peace with God. There is peace between you
and God one way and it's by Jesus Christ. Let me read this to you. Paul says of himself and the
other believers, he says, all things are of God who has reconciled
us to himself by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry
of reconciliation. Paul said, the grace I have,
the reconciliation I have, the gifts I have, the ministry I
have, all of it is of God by Jesus Christ. Because God was
in Christ reconciling the world, not just the Jews, not just one
little portion of the globe, but His elect Jew and Gentile
spread over all the face of the earth. He was in Christ reconciling
the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. not
charging his elect with their trespasses, he charged them to
his son. And Paul says, and he's committed unto us this word of
reconciliation, this gospel of reconciliation, this gospel of
peace, as though God did beseech you by us. by his preacher, as
though God did beseech you by us, we pray you, we beseech you
in Christ's stead, in the standing in the place of Christ, for Christ,
on behalf of Christ, we beseech you, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. The scripture says, being justified
by faith, by his faithfulness, we have peace with God, through
our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's by Him that we have
access by the faith He's given to us to come into this grace
wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
You know what's amazing? You know what is an amazing thought
to think about? To just think of this. Peace
with God comes by simply believing on His Son. Isn't that amazing? It means
you can stop trying to be your own wisdom. Stop trying to be
your own wisdom. And trust Christ Jesus the Lord
to be your wisdom for you with God. That's what He's saying. You can stop trying to justify
your sin and make excuses for it to convince your own self.
You're not convincing anybody else. You can stop trying to
justify yourself before men. You can stop trying to make yourself
presentable to God and trust Christ to present you by His
person and work faultless and complete to God. When you cease
from all your labor and you enter into this rest, you'll find great
peace for your soul. Great peace. all because of who
Christ is and what he's accomplished. The work of righteousness shall
be peace and the effect of righteousness. The work he accomplished is peace
for somebody and there's going to be an effectual sure, there
is an effectual sure result of that peace and it is quietness
and assurance forever. All the children shall be taught
of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children. For
ye shall go out with joy and be led about with peace. The
mountains and the hills will break forth before ye in a singing,
and all the trees of the field will clap their hand." You'll
realize everything really wasn't made for your belly. Everything
was made to glorify Christ. In the back, Brother Harvey just
read from Psalm, was it Psalm 9? Psalm 8. And consider the
heavens, consider all the handiwork. And yet, He made the Lord Jesus
Christ a little lower than the angels and crowned Him with glory
and honor. And when He crowned Him with
glory and honor, He crowned all His children with glory and honor.
And He gave them dominion over all the seas, over everything,
because He has the dominion over His people. As Brother Hyman
pointed out, who are beasts of the field that's been saved by
grace. so that now we can look at the stars and the heavens
and all those things and we can see, oh, the sun that comes up
in the morning and shines on the moon that has no light in
itself, but lights up the moon so that the moon shines bright,
that's a picture of Christ Jesus, the Son of Righteousness, who
shines His light into empty, dark planets like that moon,
bodies like that moon, and fills them with light. You can look into all about you
and you see and clap your hands because you can see Christ in
these things now. Well, here's the review right
now. Everything was made by Jesus
Christ. The gospel is by Jesus Christ. Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ. Peace with God is by Jesus Christ. Now, here's the fifth thing.
1 Corinthians 1 verse 4. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 4. The grace of God is given by
Jesus Christ. Verse 4. I thank my God always
on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by
Jesus Christ. Now what does all that include?
What does that grace include? What does that mean? Read on.
Verse 5. That in everything. He's talking to believers now.
that in everything ye are enriched by Him, by God, by Jesus Christ,
in all utterance and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ
was confirmed in you, even as the gospel was established in
you by Jesus Christ, that you come behind in no gift You're
not, you're not, there's not going to be any worry that you
won't have the gift you need at any time in your life, in
any situation in your life, at any moment in your life. There's
not a possibility that you won't have the gift you need as a believer. As you wait for the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ, and He'll also confirm you to the end,
that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here's the best part about this. It's because His grace is absolutely
free. It's absolutely free. The grace
of God given you by Jesus Christ. You see, all the work is done
by Him and all the grace you need has been purchased by Christ
so that for you it's free. You don't have to do anything.
You don't have to do anything. It's yours. It's free. It's finished. But I'm such a sinner. I'm so
empty of all knowledge and all gifts and I'm so weak and I'm
so base. The supply of grace is never
ending though. You won't come behind in any
gift because the supply of grace is never ending. John said, of
his fullness. have all we received grace for
grace. Never ending. No limit to it. And it's purchased. It's yours.
It's yours. It would be like one of these
big super stores that has all the groceries and all the canned
goods and all the things you need for your house and for your
vehicles and it has everything under one roof that you need.
Everything. And somebody saying, here's the
keys to it. Anything you need, just go get
it. It's yours. Free. It's all been bought, purchased,
it's yours. Now, not to rejoice and to ask
God for that and to say, Lord, I want that grace. I want to
enter into there. It'd be like somebody doing that
for you and you're saying, well, but I got this old dry piece
of ground here and I'm going to work on it just so I can get
some few beans to come up just so I can eat beans tonight for
supper. That'd be ignorant, wouldn't it? When you've got two and a
half inch porterhouse steaks sitting down there for you just
to go in there and get them? That's what He said. It's never-ending
grace. It's yours. It's yours. In things
spiritual and things temporal. It's all yours. Here's the sixth
thing. We turn to 1 Peter 2, verse 5. 1 Peter 2, verse 5. The spiritual sacrifices of every
believer are acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Verse 5. Ye also, as lively stones, are
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. And I kind of
wonder here, I kind of wonder here if the comma would actually
be better if it was placed after the word God and before the word
by. Because everything he just said
is by Jesus Christ. If you're living, you're spiritually
alive, it's because he's made you a living stone. If you're
in his spiritual house, his church, it's because you've been built
up by him. You've been placed by him right where he would have
you to be. If you're a holy priesthood so
you can offer the cast of your lips and yield the members of
your body and the substance that He's loaned you for this service,
it's because He gave it all to you. If you're acceptable to
the holy God, it's because you must be holy to be accepted of
God, and that's by Jesus Christ, your holiness, by whom you and
your sacrifices are acceptable to God, by Him. Well, it keeps
getting better, don't it? It just keeps on getting better,
don't it? We turn into Philippians chapter
one. Well, I see all this. I better start trying to muster
up some strength and do some things and sacrifice and bring
forth some fruit unto God. Well, you don't have to strive. You really don't. It comes as
natural as apples on an apple tree. Because believers are filled
with the fruits of righteousness by Jesus Christ. Look at verse
11, Philippians 1.11. Being filled with the fruits
of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and
praise of God. You get fruit from, you plant
a seed in the soil. He is the incorruptible seed. Christ is. He had to be born
again of His seed. He's the incorruptible seed.
You get fruit from branches. Christ is the vine. His children
are the branches. Just like the sap flows from
the vine into the branches. They're one and that vital union,
His Spirit flows from Him into the branches so that you're one
just like the tree and the branches are. And just like the branches
that are connected to the grapevine don't have to strain to produce
grapes, the grapes just come forth of the branches. So it
is that you're filled with fruits of righteousness by Jesus Christ. If it was any other way, you'd
glory in it and take Great gratification in that you brought forth some
fruit. But he'll make you understand that the fruit didn't come in
for you. Because no sooner than you start being proud about the
fruit that you brought forth, he'll just give you a little
season and let you see. He'll let the winds blow on the
branches and let you see that if he don't provide the sap to
the branches, there won't be no fruit. Won't be no fruit.
All right. Me turning now to Romans 2. Verse 16. Let's review this again. Now, what have we seen so far?
We've seen that everything was made by Jesus Christ. We've seen
that the Gospel is by Jesus Christ. We've seen that grace reigns
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ. We've seen
that peace with God is by Jesus Christ. We've seen that the grace
of God is given by Jesus Christ. We've seen that spiritual sacrifices
of believers are acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. And we've
seen that believers are filled with the fruits of righteousness,
which are by Jesus Christ. Now, here's the eighth thing. God's judgment is by Jesus Christ. You can see why, can't you? You
see why, can't you? Look at Romans 2, verse 16. In the day when God shall judge
the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. No matter
how you may think that you've polished up the outside, so that
all your closest companions think that you're pretty good, you
have secret sins. that only you know. But God knows
them. God knows them. Secret thoughts,
secret words, secret actions, the true motives of your heart. The true motives behind everything.
The standard of righteousness, when you come before God, will
be the righteous God-man, Christ Jesus the Lord. Perfect in nature. without any help from anybody,
a man, perfect in nature, perfect in life, in thought, word, and
deed, perfect in faithfulness, even when he bore the wrath of
God in behalf of sinners, still faithful, never turned from God.
Faithful, even unto death, even bearing the death of the cross.
Faithful, right now, in glory, working all things together for
good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to His purpose. Faithful, this one, who all these things are
by that we've seen. He's going to be the standard
of righteousness by which the very secret things that only
you know are going to be judged. He said, You're going to be judged
by my word, the Lord said. When he walked with her, he said,
by the words that I've preached to you. You're going to be judged
by those words. And he shall be the one who judges. Because all judgment has been
given to the Son. God himself given all judgment
to the Son. But here's the good news. Here's
the good news now. Here's the good news. For those
who are found trusting in Christ Jesus, by this grace that's come to
you by Jesus Christ, He says, what sin? What sin? Your sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. I won't remember. I won't remember. I think I'm going to have this
quote right. I think it was David Pledger
that said, God won't remember what we can't forget. That's
right. Kiss the son lest he be angry
and you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little.
Because blessed, blessed, happy are all they that put their trust
in Him. Alright, we're looking over to Galatians 1. Somebody
might say, and I do pray somebody would say
this, somebody might say, Preacher, my heart's overflowing. When
I hear all these things that are by Jesus Christ, my heart's
overflowing. I have to have Christ Jesus.
I got to have Him. And you start to say, oh, this
is precious good news. Thank you, preacher. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for bringing
me this good news. And I have to say this to you.
Thank him. Thank him. Because here's the
ninth thing. Every true preacher of the gospel
is given by Jesus Christ. Galatians 1.1. Paul, an apostle,
not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the
Father who raised Him from the dead. Now, somebody might say,
well, yeah, but Paul was called strictly by Jesus Christ. So's
all his pastors. You say, Paul was sent just by
Jesus Christ. So's all his pastors. When He ascended upon high, He
laid captivity captive, and He gave gifts unto men. He gave
some apostles, and He gave some prophets, and He gave some men
evangelists, and He gave some men pastors and teachers. But
He gave them. He gave them. If you have a faithful
pastor, it's because he came directly by Jesus Christ. Thank Him. Thank Him. Well, preacher,
I didn't expect to come in here today. Look over to Ephesians
1. I didn't come in here today.
I just didn't come in here today expecting to find myself rejoicing
for the first time in Christ Jesus. I just didn't. I didn't. And here I am rejoicing in Christ.
How'd all this come about? How'd all this come about? You're
going to be surprised if I tell you. that God the Father blessed
you with all spiritual blessings when He chose you in Christ Jesus,
and that He predestinated you unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ unto Himself. Look down at verse 5. Having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself. And because you are sons, God
has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, whereby
you can cry, Abba, Father. Abba, Father. And He did it according
to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved Jesus
Christ. That's why I preach Jesus Christ. The Father sent Him forth to
be praised and exalted and honored and glorified. The Father hath
crowned Him and honored Him. And He'll have all men to bow
down and crown Him and honor Him as Lord of lords and King
of kings. And that's why I preach Jesus
Christ. Amen.