All right, if you would, let's
look at Ephesians chapter 1. And I'll read just the first
two verses. Ephesians chapter 1, beginning
in verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus. and to
the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm just going
to stop right there. This is Paul's introduction,
the beginning of his letter to these Ephesian believers. and
believers alone. Now, I have been shamed by a
fella. I have a tendency, and I think
it's a tendency of a lot of people, you kind of breeze right past
these introductions to get to the meat. It's true. I'm guilty of it. I have done
it. And I heard a fella start on one of these, and actually
on the Romans 1.1, and did a wonderful job just of what Paul said here
in this first verse. And it made me want to do it. That and Walter talked me into
it. So if this doesn't work out, we're all going to blame Walter.
It's OK. Hopefully, I'll be able to relay
this truth, because that's what's here. Every word of this is inspired. Every word. Every word is important. And if I miss the meaning of
it, that's my fault. The truth is here. There are
some verses, Walter, I don't get in some places in some books.
That's not God's fault. That's my fault. I am still fallen. And without his spirit, I will
never know. But I wanted to maybe share a greater respect
and admiration and love for these introductions to these New Testament
epistles. Now, here in this first verse
we do have a basic description of believers. The fellow I was
listening to said the bare minimum. And you know that kind of It
bothered me. Because, well, it's not a bare
minimum. The title is Saints and Faithful
in Christ Jesus. That's what I want to talk about.
Saints and Faithful in Christ Jesus. That's a pretty good definition. But then I thought about it,
because then you go right into, oh, chosen before the foundation
of the world, predestinated, to the Jesus Christ to himself
according to the good pleasures will to the praise of glory in
whom we have redemption. There's a lot more description
yet to come. So in this first verse we actually do have the
basic minimum. But to start out I do want to
say this. This was written by Paul, an
apostle. Now that word is actually translated
from Apostolos. It's basically a transliteration.
They took the Greek word and made it English. But what the
word means is a delegate. By implication, an ambassador. Someone who is appointed to speak
for the government now. Now in the old days, it was someone
who spoke for the king. The kingdom. That's what Paul
is. Paul is an authorized, duly designated
agent of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is his message. And then he says, by the will of God. Now Paul
is an apostle. He is the one that is sent. And
I do want to put this in, Paul is an apostle and you are not.
And that goes for anyone who hears that. There are no apostles
now. Why? Because of this word right
here, by the will of God. Jesus Christ chose his apostles
his apostles were ones that had seen him He had given to them
to give us this foundation of this New Testament, and we have
it now 2,000 years later in written form There in the 70s for a long
time you had it in the spoken form read by Alexander Scorby
Which was nice People who couldn't see could hear the word read
to them But this word has been preserved through the ages by
God. And it is the foundation that
these apostles gave us upon everything else is built. Because other
foundation can no man lay than that which is laid of Jesus Christ. He's an apostle of Jesus Christ. He's not an apostle of the Baptist
church. He's not an apostle of the Catholic
church. He's an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. That's how all 12 became apostles. By the will of God. They did
not choose. They didn't choose. They were
chosen to be apostles. And Paul takes his place right
here by the will of God as an apostle. And one more thing I
want to put in here, just for the fun of it. The word will
here is not a verb, it's a noun. It's the word of God, the will
of God. The determination of God, the purpose of God, is that
Paul was an apostle. Paul was made an apostle. And
I want to tell you this also, for free, by the will of God,
That does away with what people call apostolic succession. Now the church that I used to
be a member of is big on that. They call them popes now. There are no apostles now. There are no apostles now. There
were apostles and they did wonderful things and they did miraculous
things, And they gave us the word of God. But that time is
over. And the only way you could ever
become an apostle was by the will of God. It's not handed
down. It never has been handed down.
It never will be handed down. That's Paul. What I want to talk
about is the saints. Now the word saint means separated. Holy. That's the most it's been
translated. I think it was like 162 times
this word's used. It's translated holy. That's what saints are. That's
what saints are. And this is again, not Catholic
saints, not Roman Catholic saints, not anybody else's saint. This
is talking about believers. It comes perfectly clear in what
Paul expresses. Believers are called the saints
of God. The holy ones of God. Now how can that be when we're
depraved? How can we be holy? How can we
be separate? Well, you can't. You have to
be made that way. Made to be saints. This is the
ones that this letter is addressed. Saints and faithful in Christ
Jesus. One of the biggest mistakes of
this world is that they think the Bible is written to them.
They think the Bible is for everybody. They do. I've been there, I did
that. You talk to people, they think
it's written to them. It's not. This book was written
for and to God's people. And if you go on in this chapter,
it was written to and for God's chosen people, who were chosen
from before the foundation of the world. That's the only ones
whom this book, every book in this book, is written to. And Paul is emphasizing this
here. This address, and even more specifically, this letter
was written to the converted. It's not written to the unregenerate
elect. Even though they may be elect,
but being unregenerate, it wouldn't do them any good. Now there is
a sense, and Earl talked about it, Walter's talked about it,
now it's my turn. You can know this doctrine intellectually. You may study this letter grammatically
and structurally and there are books written on it. I've got
some and they're really good. And you can know this stuff in
your head, but until this has happened to you, you will not get it. It doesn't happen. until God
does something for you, like breathe life into you spiritually,
you won't get any of it. But the world thinks it's to
them. It's not. It's not. The other thing I do
want to point out about this, this is not addressed to scholars
or theologians. The studious, even. It's addressed
to the saints. All the saints in Ephesus and
the faithful in Christ Jesus. That's the address. This is not
even addressed to the preachers, Walter, or the pastors, or the
bishops, or the elders, whatever you want to call it. No, this
is for every single converted child of God. That's who these
words are for. That's who Paul is writing to.
Now there is some discussion about where it says at Ephesus
that that was left out of the oldest manuscripts. Okay? Well,
that doesn't surprise me because I'm going to tell you something.
The oldest manuscripts we have in evidence are usually the wrong
ones. They used to be at the place
where that guy Origen used to hang out. And Origen seriously
messed with the scripture. He was a heretic. But that's
the oldest. And I'll make it the best. The
clear majority says Ephesus. But I do like how he adds, and
to the faithful in Christ Jesus, that's us. I'm not at Ephesus,
but I am faithful in Christ Jesus. And if you qualify, he's writing
to you. If you don't qualify, he's not
talking to you. And that's the way it is. But
this is addressed simply to the saints in Ephesus and the faithful
in Christ Jesus because this epistle is for you and for me. If you believe, if you've been
converted, if you've been brought to Christ by the Holy Spirit,
these words are for you. The doctrine and the message
that Paul's going to put forth is for every single believer. Every saint in Ephesus. Everyone
who's faithful in Christ Jesus. Now that kind of puts a hole in that argument
we get every now and then where people will tell you that they
believe election Preachers are saying. They believe election. They believe in predestination.
Even Bible predestination like Paul talks about. Now we were told what Bible predestination
was one time. And it was wrong, way wrong. They will tell you they believe
it, but they'll say they can't preach it. Because it'll split
their church. They're probably right. It probably
will. But who says that's a bad thing?
Right. Come ye out from among them and be ye separate, O ye
my people. Come ye out from among them and
be ye separate, O ye my people. God's people. Now somebody separates themselves
from you because of this word There's a problem with them.
I have never separated myself from anyone because they told
me the truth. Now I have separated myself from
some and I don't talk with some who lie to me about God and I
will continue to do so. From such, turn away. But if you tell me the truth,
I'll shake your hand. I will, because I am happy to
hear the truth of God. Why? Because I believe I am a
saint and one of the faithful in Christ Jesus. I put myself there, in that category. Why? Because He put me there.
What's it mean to be a saint? It means to be holy. And this
is a weird thing for me to say, but I am holy. in Christ Jesus. I am separate in Christ Jesus. I am different. Who maketh thee
to differ? I am different in Christ Jesus. This is my epistle. And this
is your epistle. These are your Paul wrote these
words to you for your edification, for your knowledge, for your
learning, for your growth in grace and in the knowledge of
our Lord Jesus Christ. That's a special thing. That
is a special thing. Because Christ prayed for us. Not only for these do I pray,
but for all that shall hear my words through them. Man, that's
good. What Christ says is forever. And what Christ says is. What he says is, it's reality. His voice will not return unto
him void. It shall accomplish that for
what he sent it. And he sent this word to his
saints and the faithful in Christ Jesus. And that doesn't matter
where they are. And it doesn't matter who they
are. All that matters is that they are. Now what does it mean to be a
saint? It does mean to be separated. It means to be set apart, sanctified. Now we're separated from the
world, we're in it, but we're not of it. We're in it, but we're
not of it anymore. I went into that last week. But,
we are also separated from unbelievers. And that's elect or not elect.
Elect or reprobate, sorry. I forgot, I'm not supposed to
say not elect anymore. Elect or reprobate, that's the
opposite. The opposite of lost is saved. The opposite of elect
is reprobate. The opposite of a vessel under
honor is a vessel under dishonor. And the difference is the potter,
not the preacher. And not the message. The difference
is the potter. He has power over the clay. Guess
what? Vessels unto honor are saints. Once they've been converted,
once they've been brought to Christ, once he has brought them
into himself, he puts that sheep on his shoulder and he carries
it in. That makes you a saint. He makes you a saint. Unbelievers won't like you anymore.
I can tell you that from personal experience. And some of you have
told me that from your personal experience. They don't like to
hang around you anymore. You're no fun anymore, David.
That's the way it is. They don't like you. They don't
like what you think. I'm going to tell you why. Because
they don't understand who you believe. Now sure there's a problem with
what you believe, but the problem with what you believe is because
they don't know who you believe. Jesus Christ to this world is
an alien. The true Christ of the Bible
is an alien to this world. They don't get it. They understand
better little gray men in spaceships hovering over New Mexico and
coming over the mountain there in Wyoming. They understand that
better than the true Jesus Christ of this Bible. But the other reason they'll
separate from you is because you make them uncomfortable. Yeah. Now I do will it recognize
and admit to a gift for making people uncomfortable even before
God converted I Had a bad habit of saying what
come into my head And I could be mean sometimes But when you
start talking about Jesus Christ You start talking about, just
a little bit, about, no, it's not up to your free will. It's
up to God's will. You make people uncomfortable.
Because most of them, anymore nowadays, haven't ever heard
that before. And it goes directly against
their man-centered religion, if they are religious. And it
goes directly against the Big Bang Theory if they're not religious
and they're scientific. Secular. But they don't understand
the Christ of the Bible. And thereby, because of that,
they don't understand you. I have been told I seemed like
a reasonably intelligent person. Yeah, I know. It surprised me,
too. Well, looks can be deceiving, you know? They just said I seemed
like one. They didn't say I was one. I
don't see how you can do this and place this, have this blind
faith in a God that you don't know. I don't have blind faith.
I have sighted faith. Now I haven't seen him in a vision
or any other thing like that, but I have seen him in his word.
I have heard him with my ears and I know in my mind and in
my heart that he is real. He is so. And these are the things,
according to this book, that saints know. Saints know Him. That's the definition of a saint. We are separated from sin, freed
from it. It doesn't say we're not guilty
of it, but it says how shall they that are freed from sin
live any longer therein? I don't live there anymore. Saints
don't live there anymore. Saints don't live in sin anymore.
They sin, but that's okay. No, it's not, but it's reality. I cannot control my flesh, but
blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. That man is blessed He is happy
and that's why he's a saint. That's why he's holy. Separate. Why? Because the Lord will not
impute sin to him. He calls those things which be
not as though they are. And that's me. You know Christ. You care about
the things of God. You care about the things of
Christ. But you didn't used to. You didn't used to. And this
will manifest itself outwardly. You want to talk about walk?
There is one for the child of God. I'm not going into a great deal
of detail, but this inner change results in an outer change. And people may not know exactly
what happened to you, but some people are going to notice that
you are different. That's the ones that get uncomfortable and
usually quit hanging around. That's the ones that don't invite
you to parties anymore. He's a downer. He won't drink,
or he does, and then he talks about God, even if he does drink. Well, there's nothing that upsets
rednecks more, sorry, around here than talking about God at
a beer party. Especially the true God of the
Bible. The true God of the Bible. The
true Christ of the Bible. They'll argue you gotta live
it for the rest of your life if you're willing to stand there.
I'm not. But that's part of my separating
myself from some other people. Especially if alcohol's been
involved. Our separation is sometimes physical. Christ said it. I didn't come
to bring peace, but a sword. I didn't come to bring peace,
but division. To set you at variance with your
very family. It's happened to me. It's happened
to a lot of you. Just about every one of you.
One way, shape, or form. One piece of the family or another. I'm glad some of you are here
as families. I really am. And I hope you understand
how wonderfully you are blessed that your family believes God.
Because most don't. Our separation sometimes is physical. But it's not of ourselves. It's of Jesus Christ. It's in
Christ Jesus. Now these saints, Paul says,
are in Ephesus. I know this says at Ephesus,
but it's the same word as in Christ Jesus here. Either at
Ephesus or in Ephesus, I do want to point this out. These saints
had a place to gather. They assembled. They had a place
to gather. You know why? That's what saints
do. That's what saints do. They gather
together. Why? Because they're in Christ
Jesus. And to hear about Christ Jesus. and to talk about Christ Jesus,
and to learn about Christ Jesus, and to love their Lord Christ
Jesus. Saints gather. The word church
is ecclesia, assembly, a called out assembly. Hey y'all, come
here. If you're a saint, come here.
This is what saints do. Saints do. Saints gather together
to hear the gospel preached and to worship. Worship is not what you watch,
it's what you're supposed to do. There's a lot of people who
like to watch worship. Yes, we went and the worship
service was wonderful. I watched the choir sing. And some guy got up and said
something, but I can't tell you what he said. All I know is I'm not supposed
to go to the movies. That's what some messages end
up being. Stay out of beer joints, stay away from movies, and don't
smoke cigarettes. And I'm guilty of all three. No, I don't go to beer joints.
Mostly because I don't like beer that much. And I don't want to
go. I don't want to go. I like to
gather here. I do like to be here. And I like
to gather with you people who are of a like mind, and of a
like faith, and I believe have the like spirit. And that's what
it means to be a saint. God not only saved these people,
He gathered them in Ephesus. They gathered together. Paul
was writing this to the saints. Plural. Not just one guy, but
to the saints, plural. And he meant all of them that
were there, even the ones he didn't know. And guess where they'd be? Well,
if they know about it, they'd be gathered with those saints
in Ephesus. Because believers assemble themselves together. Now, this was a pagan city. Lord,
when Paul was there before, there was a disturbance. There was
a disturbance, if you want to call it that. It was almost a
riot. Well, this man Paul's coming. And one was Alexander, who Paul
said later, he's a coppersmith. He's done me much evil. The Lord
will reward him according to his works. These guys who made these little
brass idols of Diana, they thought their livelihood was slipping
away from them, and they stirred up Two things. They stirred up
the religious people that worshiped Diana. But not only that, they
actually started with the businessmen. You don't put your health in
business. I know businessmen. I don't like them most of the
time. Oh, I'm serious. I have been
told. God will overlook that. It's just business. Lying, cheating,
stealing. God don't overlook that. I don't
care what the reason is. God is angry with the wicked
every day. If you think business is lying, cheating, stealing,
he might be angry with you. And don't ask me where that puts
the politicians. But I'll tell you. Not for the
record or for the NSA, but I'll tell you. These folks got together and
they got the people stirred up against Paul and against the
saints at Ephesus. And for over the space of two
hours, it said, I looked, Walter, two hours. They hollered, great
is Diana of the Ephesians. Great is Diana of the Ephesians.
Great is. They thought they would be heard
because of their much speaking. I think Christ talked about that,
too. And finally, some guy, town councilman,
stood up and said, listen, these guys ain't bothering you. Go
home. And they finally did. Paul wanted
to go in. They stopped him from going in.
Why? Because they were fussing at
his brethren. He was there at the time. Well,
they did. That was one of the things. He
causes trouble wherever he goes. This is a pagan city, but in
the middle of this pagan city, there are saints. And they gather
together in Ephesus. And to the faithful, that word
and is a conjunction. The faithful in Christ Jesus
and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. These two, saints and
faithful, can almost be considered synonyms. A word meaning the
exact same thing. Holy and faithful. They are inextricably,
totally, intrinsically, at a molecular level, if you want to put it
that way, tied together. The separated ones, the saints,
are the faithful. And the faithful are the saints. This word and is not adding.
It's not an addition. It just means they're together.
It's a conjunction. It ties them together. Paul is not saying that there
are saints and then there are faithful saints. I've heard people
talk about that. This is not another higher level
of Christianity. That's not what it is. He's talking
about the saints, and he's talking about the faithful, and they're
the same bunch. Now he specified in Ephesus. But this letter kind of got translated
and copied and sent around, and we've got it translated here
now. The saints and the faithful. If you're not faithful, you're
not a saint. If you're not full of faith, that's what the word
means. Because there is faithful and
then there is faithless. That's the opposites there. I
used to be faithless. I used to be that. Had no care
for God in this world. Didn't know Jesus Christ from
a hole in the wall. And didn't care. But now I do. Why? Because He has made me full of
faith. Because if you are one, you are
the other. Only saints are faithful and
only the faithful are saints. How can you say all that? Well,
Paul wrote it this way. God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit. What? That's not
all. And belief of the truth. How do you believe the truth? By faith. By faith? Why? Because you're one of the
faithful. He's going to go on in Ephesians
2 and explain all this. By grace through faith and that
not of yourselves. It's the gift of God and guess
what that hadn't gone anywhere either We just haven't got to
it You're faithful because he gives
you faith You're faithful because you have been given grace Now I'm running behind One strange
thing I do want to point out here, and I've never seen this
before because I've never really looked at it this close, and
this is one of the reasons for looking at this stuff. This word,
saints, and the word faithful, they are not nouns. They are not nouns. We read them
like the saints, you know. They're not nouns, they're adjectives.
I didn't know that. I did not know that when I was
looking online. See, an adjective modifies a noun. The only reason I can keep them
straight is because an adverb modifies a verb because the word
verb is in the middle of adverb. An adjective modifies a noun.
It has to have a noun to be attached to, to be of any value. I like
that thought. Because I looked at it, I could
not figure it out. I'm serious. I was puzzled for
a while. Thinking, why in the world is this an adjective? Well,
guess what? Saints and faithful are only
in Christ Jesus. If you're not attached to the
noun, your adjective is no good. How about that? Grammar is gospel.
It's amazing how the little things work out. And they wonder why we think
this book might be the inspired word of God. When grammar points
toward God. Saints is an adjective. Faithful
is an adjective. But unless you're in Christ Jesus,
you ain't a saint and you ain't faithful. You're basically depraved, dead,
in trespasses and in sin. Whether elect or not, it's got
nothing to do with this. Now we're talking about the converted
here. This is the third connecting
part, in Christ Jesus. Because without Him, there are
no first two parts. Now Paul said he was writing
to these saints and to the faithful, but in Christ Jesus. In who? the God-man. These are those who have been
brought into Christ Jesus in time. Now in just a couple of
verses he's going to go into when it was chosen for this to
happen. People are predestinated. Guess
what? Saints are predestinated. Saints were chosen before the
foundation of the world. These three cannot be separated. Saints, faithful, and in Christ
Jesus. The connection cannot be broken
because, well, you can't break it because you didn't make it.
And he can't break it because what he does is forever. Nothing can be put to it. Nothing
can be taken from it. God does it. And it's forever. And he does
it so that men should fear him. I thought God was love. No, God
is love. Not God was love. God is love.
But God is fear. And look upon me and tremble. When Isaiah saw the Lord, he
said, woe is me. Spoke about that a little while
ago. Christ Jesus is the noun, and
we are his adjectives. We have no value. We have nothing
without him. And we have everything in him. Paul's going to start listing
it here in a little bit. And He says, Grace to you and
peace. Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. In two verses, He's used Jesus
Christ's name three times. I think it's important to it. You already have grace. Paul wants grace to continue
to you. Just as you are to continue in
His Word. Grace will continue. He's promised
it. He's performing it. And peace. Because we do have everything
in Him. We lack nothing. We want stuff
all the time, but we lack nothing in Christ Jesus. This is the definition of saints. And the faithful, they're in
Christ Jesus. Now this guy wrote something,
and I copied it down and actually had it last week and didn't get
to read it. And I'm already late, so I'm going to read it anyway. This is hopefully as an encouragement
because it did encourage me that at least this guy who had been
preaching 40 some years recognized my problem. The main trouble,
this is his quote, the main trouble with most of us is our failure
to realize the greatness of the salvation into which we have
been brought. In which we enjoy together. That's true. I am my own worst enemy. I always
have been. And unfortunately, you guys are
your own worst enemy. But if we can lay hold of saints
and faithful in Christ Jesus, then you can go on to the rest
of this stuff in Ephesians. Because that's who He's talking
to, and that's who He's talking about. He's talking about us,
if you fit the description. Our Heavenly Father, we are thankful
again for this time and this place. But most of all, Lord,
thankful for Your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, who did give His life, suffer
our penalty, take our guilt and our sins upon Him and cleansed us, redeemed us,
reconciled us, justified us, and gave us His righteousness.
Thank you, Lord. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.