Go with me if you would back
to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians 6, one verse is going to be our
text tonight. I read this and it just touched
my heart and I immediately wanted for us to look at this together.
It's verse 23. We've looked specifically at
verse 24 before. But tonight I want us to focus
in on verse 23. It says, peace be to the brethren and
love with faith from God, the father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that wonderful? That is
so wonderful. Peace be to the brethren. We were just singing, it is well
with my soul. That verse three on that song,
my sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not
in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no
more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
oh my soul. Lord, haste the day when my faith
shall be sight. The clouds are going to be rolled
back as a scroll. The trump shall resound. The
Lord shall descend. Even so, I mean this. I mean what I what I'm saying
as well with my soul. Come quickly, Lord. Peace be
to the brethren and love with faith from God, the Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ. Peace and love with faith. Paul said, that's the desire,
that's the hope, that's the word of blessing. That is the word,
the declaration of blessing from someone to someone. And let's begin the message by
seeing who it is, all right? Who this word of blessing is
to. Verse 23 says, peace be to the
brethren. and love with faith. He said this promise, this word
of blessing is to the brethren. It's to the brethren, to the
world, this entire world, every man and woman ever born in Adam,
all of us. This is a word of warning. And this is a word of truth.
but specifically to the brethren. This is a word of comfort. This
is a word of blessing. Blessing from God. This is a
word of peace and love with faith. Don't you love the thought of
being counted as a member of the brethren. I tell you this
all the time, but as I study this, I have time to think about
this stuff and dwell on this stuff and you don't get that.
So I try to give you moments like this to enter into this. Don't you love the thought? Can you believe, can you imagine,
are you amazed at the thought of being numbered with, counted
to be one of the brethren, included in God's brethren. Just the thought of that, that
brings so much warmth to me, that brings so
much comfort to me. It brings so much comfort to
me. I'm so thankful to God just for being able to think about
the fact that I could be included in the brethren. The eternal, ever-living, ever-loving
family of God. Does that not bring such thanks
to your heart to think that you would be counted among the I want to be counted among the
brethren so badly. I do. I want to be counted among
the brethren. The promises in this word, promises
of peace and love with faith. These promises are not to the
world. They're not to the world. This world is full of people
who do not have access to these promises. This is why it ought
to be so amazing to us. Every year, they put out a list of the richest
men and women in the world, in the nation, or the world, or
whoever. They list who has the most money. It may just be a handful of people. All that money, $180-something
billion per per person because they list
all of these rich, rich people. This world right now is full
of people who will never have access to that money. Never. Riches, riches, riches. This world is plumb full of people
who will never have access to that money. But do you know who
will have access to that money? Their brethren. Their families,
their children, their children's children, they have access. Well, in the same way, the promises
of God in this word. What we hold right here, these
are riches that can never be told. These are riches that could
never be described and never be told. And do you know who
has access to these glorious riches? The brethren do. The family of God, they do. Oh, the amazing grace to think. You talk about take something
for granted. The amazing grace to think that I and you could
be counted, counted among the family of God, the brethren. That's just amazing. What an
amazing thought. Look at Ephesians 3 with me.
Ephesians 3, the Apostle Paul said in verse 8, he said, unto me who am less
than the least of all saints. live long enough and you'll start
to believe that about yourself. Paul said, unto me who am less
than the least of all saints, is this grace given that I should
preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ
and to make all men see what is the fellowship, the brotherhood,
brethren, to make all men see what is the fellowship of the
mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in
God, who created all things by Jesus Christ to the intent that
now unto the principalities and powers and heavenly places might
be known by the church, the manifold wisdom of God. According to the
eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Look
at verse 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by
the faith of him, we have boldness and access. Wherefore, I desire
that you faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.
Verse 14 says for this cause. I bow my knees unto the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven
and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches
of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the
inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that
you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend
with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height,
and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that
you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto
him that's able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we
ask or think according to the power that worketh in us, Unto
him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages,
world without end. Amen. Oh, the blessing of being
made to be a partaker with the brethren. Every promise of peace
and love with faith is to the brethren. And every one of those
promises to the brethren, all of them are from God the Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Look back at Ephesians 6 verse
23. Peace be to the brethren and
love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, we know something about having small, brief moments. I mean, very small, very brief
moments of what we would call peace in this world. Small, small
moments, meaning we have a little moment where we're not in the
middle of a crisis right now. We have small moments. small moments where we experience
the peace that this world has to offer us. But one day, real
soon, we're going to know only the experience of the peace of
God, the peace that God has. Let me say that again. Real soon,
we're only going to know the experience of the peace that
God has. He is at peace. He is at peace. Turn with me, if you would, to
John 14. John 14, verse 27, the Lord Jesus Christ said, Peace, I leave with you. My peace, I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give
I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. Just say that over and over again
to yourself. Let not your heart be troubled.
Neither let it be afraid. Don't let your heart be troubled.
Don't let it be afraid. We have peace from God, not only
peace from God, we have the peace of God. We have it right now.
He said, my peace, I leave with you. I give it to you. We have this peace right now,
peace from God, peace with God. There may not be peace anywhere
else, but there's peace with God. And it comes from the peace
of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. We have this peace right now
from him. Our souls are at peace from judgment,
aren't they? We're at peace from judgment.
Our souls are at peace from death. And it's because the peace of
Christ Himself has been made known to us. The turmoil of this
world constantly distracts us from that peace. It constantly
distracts us. We sang a moment ago, turn your
eyes upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The moment we turn our eyes back
to the Lord Jesus Christ, his peace comes again. But the turmoil
of this world is constantly distracting us. One day though, the silver
cord will break. And I as now no more shall sing
and oh the joy when I shall wake within the palace of the king
and I'll see him face to face. And at that moment I'm going
to know the peace of God. I'm going to only know the experience. of His peace. We will know the
fullness of His peace. And we will know the fullness
of His love. We know a little something about
love on this earth. A little something. But the love
that we experience most of the time is a selfish love. We've said it many times and
we have to admit that it's so. We love our children because
they're our children. We love our spouses because they're
our spouses. We love our things. We love our
gratification. It's because we love ourselves.
We love ourselves. But, oh, the selfless. Just enter into the selfless. Everything in this life is about
self. Oh, the selfless love of God
in Christ, the love of God that is in the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God that brought love down. Brought love from God and produced
love with God and to God in God. One of these days, we're going
to know the full experience of that love. And I can't wait,
I really can't wait. I'm looking so forward to it.
God commended his great love to us. His great love to us,
that's what he did. Love so great it was sacrificial. We're right here in John, look
at chapter 15 verse 13. It says. Greater love hath no man than
this. That a man lay down his life
for his friends. God commended that love to us. That's the love that we've received
from him. Love so great, he laid down his
life because of it. Love so great, he emptied himself
of all but love. He emptied his blood. because
of that love. Love so great, he laid hold of
death for his people. John 13, if you turn the page
back to John 13, verse 1 says, Now before the feast of the Passover,
when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart
out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were
in the world, he loved them unto the end. Paul said, I pray that
that love, the love of God that is found in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that love would be with you and me. Peace and love with faith. Being believers, we know a little
something about faith. Just a little something about
faith. We do have faith as the grain of a mustard seed. But
our faith feels so weak, doesn't it? It feels so weak. It needs to be increased. It
needs to be helped so desperately. Don't you feel that in yourself? I need for my faith in Christ
to be strengthened, to be increased, to be helped. Faith looks to
Christ. That's what faith does. Well,
even though right now we see him through a glass darkly. One
of these days. That veil is going to be removed. And we're going to behold God. And we're going to behold Christ
as he is. We're going to see him in all
of his fullness. And this is this will be the
experience we will have. We will know him. We will see
him. We will trust in him as God,
the father knows him, sees him and trusts in him. And as Christ
knows God, the father and sees God, the father and trust in
God, the father, that ability to look. to behold, to live,
that's a free gift. That faith is a free gift to
every single one of the brethren. Turn with me over to Ephesians
2. Ephesians 2 verse 4 says, But
God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ. By grace you are saved and hath
raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. that in the ages to come he might
show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them." Before ordained. Acts 13, 48
says, as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. As
many as were ordained received this glorious gift of faith. This peace and love with faith. This is a gift from God the Father.
and the Lord Jesus Christ to all of God's people, all of his
family, all of the brethren. And I want to be included in
that. I desperately want to be included in that. How can we
know if we are members of the brethren? I want to be one of
the brethren. How can we know if we are members
of the brethren, members of his family? Here's how we can know. Every member of God's family
will ascribe all authority to him. All authority. Every member of God's family
will ascribe all work to him. And every member will ascribe
all love to him and to him alone. And this is what that means. On this earth, when we talk about
being a part of a family, there are three ways that you can be
made to be a part of a family. I want to be, and I want us all
to be, members of God's family. And how on this earth does someone
become a member of a family? Three ways. Number one, you can
be born into it. You can be adopted into it. Or
you can marry into it. And all of God's people claim
all three of those ways. All of God's people will say
all authority be to him. Because we were born of him.
We were born of him. All of God's people will say
this was his will, his purpose, his choosing. All of God's people will say
all work be to him. Because we were adopted by him.
He accomplished that work. This was His work, this was His
payment, this was His deliverance. His deliverance of us. And all
of God's people will say all love be to Him. In being joined
together in marriage with Him. Our maker is our husband. He's
our friend, He's our life, He's our all. Christ Jesus our Lord,
He's our all. He's everything. In every way
possible, God's people have been made to be members of his family. If we have been given this gift
of being able to say that, being able to believe that, then we
are the brethren. If we can honestly say all authority,
all work, all love. be unto Him, then we're the brethren. And if we're the brethren, then
this is God's word of promise and blessing to us. Look one
more time, back at Ephesians 6, verse 23. This is God's word in Christ. Peace be to the brethren, and
love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all them that love
our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. What a word of encouragement,
comfort, hope. Amen. All right, let's all stand
together.