All right, go with me if you
would to Ephesians chapter 3 Ephesians chapter 3 We were just
in this chapter for the morning message We ended with verse 11
and And the last four words of that
verse say, Christ Jesus our Lord. Christ Jesus our Lord. Now verse
12 is our text tonight. And it says, In whom, Christ
Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness, and access with confidence
by the faith of Him. The title of this message is
Boldness, Access, and Confidence. And Paul said those three things
come to the child of God by the faith of Christ. Those three wonderful things. come to God's people by the faith
of Christ. That word of is a very important
word in the scripture when it is attached to faith. Very, very important. Now I'm
using, this is a Cambridge Bible. It's called a presentation reference. King James Version authorized
the authorized King James Version Bible. Recently, some of the
churches went in together. And we all had this Bible reprinted. Because they don't make it anymore.
I just love the and so many love the layout of this Bible. They
don't make it anymore. But the scans. as the scans were
being proofed, the printer, the man who was handling the printing
of that new Bible that we have, he asked the question, he named
a few scriptures, he made a phone call, and he called one of the
men that he was dealing with directly, and he gave some scriptures
And he asked the question, do you want me to print those scriptures
the way that they were originally written with the word of in them? Or do you want me to change it
to the word in like so many people are going to now? Which would
you prefer me do? And obviously we said, don't
change it. Do not change it. Leave it the
way God wrote it. That's what God said. Print the
word of. Make sure you print the word
of. It's His. It's His. It's the faith of Christ. Now, do believers have faith
in Christ? They most certainly do. Absolutely
they do. But God's people know that the
only reason they have faith in Christ is because He gave it
to them. That's the only reason. That
is the only reason. It's His. It's His to give. It's His to withhold. It originates
with Him. It comes from Him. It is performed
by Him. What can we glory in? In this
whole thing of being a believer, what can we glory in? It's God which worketh in you
both to will and do of His good pleasure. Faith is not our initiation
to Him when it comes to this thing of salvation. The Scripture
says, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Faith is not our initiation to
Him, it's our response. It's our response to Him. So
it's very important that we never lose sight of the fact that it's
the faith of Christ. The faith of Christ. Through
the faith of Christ, or by the faith that Christ gives, This
is what the child of God receives. It's His to give. He gives it. And through Him giving it, this
is what the child of God receives. I want to look at those scriptures
He named. Some of those scriptures that
that man gave, alright? Go with me to Galatians 2, where
we just read a moment ago. Galatians 2 verse 16 says, Knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law. Justified means declared to be
in perfect agreement with the law. Alright, you're going to
stand before a judge. Am I going to be convicted? Am
I going to be... If he pronounces justified, it
means you are in perfect agreement with the law. You didn't do anything
wrong. You're justified. It means innocent. It means right. It means not
a lawbreaker. Justified. Now think about what
this is saying. I would love to tell many people
this. There are some things that when
I see them and they hit me just right, I think, I'm so glad the
Lord has called me to do this. And I pray He gives me opportunity
to tell as many people as I can. Think about what this is saying.
Verse 16 says, Knowing that a man is not justified By the works
of the law. A man is not declared to be in
perfect agreement with the law. A man is not declared to be innocent. Not declared to be right. Not
declared to be not a lawbreaker. By the works of doing the law.
That is not how men and women are declared justified before
God. Well, how are men and women declared
to be justified before God? Verse 16 goes on to say, by the
faith of Jesus Christ. It is very important that it
does not say in right there. The word of gives all the glory
to, it ascribes all the work to Jesus Christ. Justification
before God started with Him, it came from Him, it was a work
performed by Him, and then the result is in Him. After all that's finished, The
result is in Him. Do we have faith in Him? Yes,
we do. Because of the faith of Him. The faith that causes us to look
to His accomplishment on the cross for our justification. What is our justification before
God? We're going to go stand before God and when that question
is asked, what right do you have to be here? Don't we all say,
I'm not here on my own right. I'm here on the right of another. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it came through the faith
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's read the whole verse.
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but
by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus
Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law. For by the works of the law there
shall no flesh be justified. We believe in the faith of. We believe in the faith of. We're justified by the faith
of the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, now look with me at
verse 20 in this chapter. Galatians 2 verse 20. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me." What he's saying is, I am not
spiritually alive in the flesh right now because I loved Christ
and gave myself to Christ. That's what he's saying. I'm
not alive in the flesh. Right now are we the sons of
God quickened together with Christ. Life. And he said, I'm not alive
in the flesh right now because I loved Christ and gave myself
to Christ, gave my heart to Jesus. Don't you love Jesus? Had a man
ask me that one time. He could clearly see we're not
religiously on the same page. So he finally wanted to stop
that conversation. He said, let's ask this. Do you love Jesus? That was his question. That's
what everybody wants to know. Do you love Jesus? Have you given
your heart to Jesus? He said, I'm not alive because
I loved him and gave myself for him. I am spiritually alive only
because Christ loved me and gave himself for me. It started with
him. And that's my answer to that
question. I do love him. Not as I want
to, but I do love him. But more importantly, does he
love me? Does he love me? We're justified by the faith
of Christ. We live by the faith of Christ. The just shall live by faith.
Alright, now go with me to Philippians chapter 3. Philippians 3 verse 7 says, But what things were gain to
me, those I counted loss for Christ. What I used to think
was so important. What I used to think was just
such great gain to me. Now I counted all loss for Christ. Verse 8, He said, Yea, doubtless,
and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ
and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which
is of the law, but that righteousness which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Not only does the faith of Christ
justify us before God, the faith of Christ makes us righteous. When the Holy Spirit brings the
gift of the faith of Christ to a sinner, and that sinner believes
on Christ. That faith, the faith of Christ
makes that sinner righteous. It makes that sinner justified.
We're justified by the faith of Christ. We live, we're quickened
all of a sudden from darkness to light, death to life through
the faith of Christ. And we are made righteous. That
means right. It means good. We're made good. Outside of Christ, there is none
good. No, not one. But in Christ, we're
good. That's amazing. That's amazing. We're holy. We're
pure. We are perfect. The scripture
says, Abraham believed God. And it was counted unto him for
righteousness. God said he's good. In the faith
of Christ. We're justified by the faith
of Christ. We live by the faith of Christ. We are righteous by
the faith of Christ. And turn with me to Colossians
chapter 2. Colossians 2 verse 9 says, for
in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you
are complete in him, which is the head of all principality
and power, in whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision
made without hands. in putting off the body of the
sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." That means when He
was cut off, your sins were cut off. Verse 12 says, "...buried
with Him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with Him through
the faith of the operation of God." who hath raised him from
the dead. We are risen from the dead by
the faith of Jesus Christ. Verse 13 says, and you, being
dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His
cross. One of my favorite portions of
Scripture. We suffered with Him, died with
Him, We were buried with Him and we have risen with Him and
every bit of that comes to us. It is applied to us. Made effectual
by believing on Christ. By laying hold of Christ. And we believe on Christ by the
faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we are justified. We live. We are righteous. and we are
risen. Alright, now go back with me
to our text and we'll see one more glorious thing that we have
by the faith of Christ. Ephesians 3 verse 12. In whom we have boldness and
access with confidence. Now just listen to the definitions
of these words. Boldness means freedom in speaking. Openly, frankly, without concealment. Freedom in speaking. It means
cheerful courage. Access means admission. An open way without denial. It means ability, right, and
permission to approach and enter in. Ability, right, and permission
to approach and enter in. An open way without denial. Confidence
means trust, reliance, and assurance. in whom we have boldness and
access with confidence." Boldness, access with confidence. Now I
want to tell you a story that perfectly describes this boldness
and access with confidence. It's been a long time since I've
told this. I've told some of you this years ago. This is a true story. And this
is a precious, precious story. I love this story. It's about
a Union soldier in the Civil War. This Union soldier got word that
his mother was dying. And he wanted to go see her before
she died. And his only hope of being able
to do that. His only hope of being able to
get to her was if he could get to the White House and if President
Abraham Lincoln would give him leave, permission to go. So he made it to the White House. And he walked up to the front
doors of the White House and the guards were there and he
told them who he was, and what was going on, and what he was
trying to do, and he begged them, can I please see President Abraham
Lincoln? And they said, I'm sorry, no
you can't. You can't see the President.
And he said, you don't understand, I've come all this way. I've
come so far. I need to see the President. I have to get to him. They said,
I'm sorry, we don't care how far you come. We don't care what
your situation is by direct commandment. These are our orders. We are
under orders by direct commandment. We cannot let anybody come in
here. The soldier said, this is my
only hope. This is my only hope of seeing
my mother before she dies. They said, you are unauthorized. We are under orders. We are terribly
sorry, but you cannot come in. Can't come in. So that man It just broke him. He was just
broken. Hope was gone. He sat down on
the front steps of the White House, head in his hands, and
that poor fellow cried and cried. A little boy was walking by,
and he saw that man crying, and he said, what's wrong, mister? And the soldier said, son, you
would not understand. He sat down next to him, and
he said, well, just tell me, what is it? And so he told him,
my mother is dying. And my only hope of getting to
go see her before she dies is if I could get in and see President
Abraham Lincoln, and if he would give me leave to go, and I can't
get in. And the little boy said, well,
I'll take you in. Come on, let's go. So they got
up. They walked right past the guards
he just talked to. Straight into the White House.
Walked down the hall. Past another set of guards. Came
up to a door. Walked straight into the door
into the Oval Office and there sat President Abraham Lincoln.
And he looked at that little boy and he said, what can I do
for you, son? And the little boy said, Dad,
this man needs to see you. That little boy's name was Tad
Lincoln, the son of the president. That's what we have in Christ. That's what we have in Christ.
We have boldness, not arrogance. Not arrogance. We have cheerful
courage. Can you believe what that man
was thinking when he walked past those guards? I'm in. There's
another set of guards. There he is. We have boldness. We have access. We have an open
way without denial. We have the ability, we have
the right and the permission to approach and enter in. And we have confidence, we have
assurance that we will be received. Now let's close with this verse
of scripture. Go with me over to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 14 says,
Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that is passed into
the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an High Priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. but was in all points tempted
like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. And what we have in Him, what
we have in Him by the faith of Him. It all started with Him.
All that kindness was freely given and wrought for us. And now because of that, we have
it all. We have everything. Boldness, access with confidence. All right, let's all stand together.