If you would, and you want to
follow along, I'm going to be in Ephesians chapter 1. For those of you at chapel, yes,
again. It's all right, I like it. And it seemed appropriate, per
the original schedule I was supposed to preach last, and close out
the meeting, Larry Criss was going to preach this morning,
but there were hindering causes. So since it was just me and Walter,
I decided, fine, I'll let him close it out. Well, there are advantages to
going first and there are advantages to going last. But I'm used to
this place right now, so it's fine with me. But in pondering
what I was going to preach on, I've been preached a couple of
messages here in Ephesians chapter one. And in pondering what I
was going to preach on here as per being the last one to speak, you know, we propose, but God
disposes. But I thought this actually is
a very nice place to be. and it's been a good couple of
days, but I want to begin reading in
verse 15. Wherefore, I also, after I heard
of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in
my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of him. Now, I do have a title for this. It's Two Things Paul Heard. Paul heard two things that he
writes down here of these Ephesians. Now Paul is a great user of summation,
of conclusions. The apostle to the Gentiles was
not just writing to write. He had a message. And sometimes
he had two or three messages. But he would write and then he
would apply what he has written. He would write and then he would
conclude and tell you what he has written. He would write and
then he would draw conclusions from what he had written. This
is the beginning of the conclusion for the first 14 verses of Ephesians
chapter 1, which are some glorious verses. And it starts off, verse
15 starts off with the word wherefore. That leads you to know that this
is a conclusion. Young's literal translation puts
it this way, because of this. Well, because of what? Because
of these first 14 verses that he's already written down. Because
of you are saints in Ephesus and the faithful in Christ Jesus.
Because of being chosen before the foundation of the world.
Because of all spiritual blessings in Christ. Because of that we
should be holy. Because of having predestinated
us. Because of the praise of the
glory of his grace. Because of in whom? In him, in Christ. because of the fact ye heard
the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and because
of your inheritance. Paul's writing this conclusion.
Because of all this, I heard some things. I heard some things. Some things
had leaked out about these Ephesians. Some things will always leak
out. Now you can say good or bad, but some things will leak
out and people will hear. You may not know they've heard,
but here Paul is telling these Ephesians, I've heard, I've heard. And what has he heard? I've heard of your faith in the
Lord Jesus. And I'm writing you this letter
because of this. Paul had heard of their faith
and he called it their faith. This is your faith. It's a gift
of God. He's going to go into that in
the very next chapter. And he's going to expound on
it. You are saved by grace through faith and that not of yourselves,
but it is yours. If God has given it to you, it
is your faith. It is personal. It is individual. It is the faith. We emphasize the source of the
faith. When we preach, we try to. We
emphasize the author and the finisher of faith. And we should. That's our duty. Where did this
faith come from? But we never want to forget that
that faith does come to the people of God in time. And it becomes
your faith. And people will hear of it. The
fact that you come to this little place, if you miss the turn,
this place is gone. You're in the state park all
of a sudden. But you come to this little place, and we did
fill this place yesterday, but it took five or six different
churches to do it. This handful of people that want
to hear about the Lord Jesus. I heard that. And this week,
these last two days, this day, I've seen it. And it's an evidence
of your faith if you believe him. Because we want to emphasize
the fact that believers are actually given this faith. Now, the question always comes
up, do you qualify? Do you have the faith of the
Son of God? Do you have the faith of the
operation of God? I like that phrase because it's
God that has to operate on you. It's God that operates on his
people, every single one. But this faith is the gift of
God. It's not something you work up. but it is yours. If he's given
it to you, it's your faith. And this faith is specific, as
Paul calls it, the faith of God, the faith of Jesus Christ, the
faith of Christ, the faith, I got a piece of ice. Excuse me. The faith of Christ, the faith
of the Son of God, the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. Again,
the faith of God's elect. The faith of the saints, which
were at Ephesus. Paul calls it your faith here.
Because this faith had been given to these Ephesians, this faith
is now in them. a part of them, and it's a part
of you. It is your faith. And Paul had
heard of this. Now, he gets a little more specific. This is our faith, your faith,
in the Lord Jesus. Just in case there was any doubt,
this is what Paul heard of these Ephesians, not all Ephesians,
These Ephesians, these saints at Ephesus, the faithful in Christ
Jesus, Paul is always specific when
talking about the faith of the Lord Jesus. Because faith in
science doesn't matter, faith in nature doesn't matter, and
faith in man is what we call totally misplaced. And it doesn't
matter. Paul had heard of their faith
in the Lord Jesus. And this is where I got a little
worried, Walter, because Larry started on this yesterday. Paul
never uses three words when two will do. By the Spirit of God,
he said the faith in the Lord Jesus. He said the faith in the
God-man. He is Lord and he is man. Not was, is. Larry said that
ably. He is right now seated at the
right hand of the Father. A man is sitting in heaven. That man, that God man is the
one that these Ephesians faith was in. In the Lord Jesus. The believer has complete and
total confidence in God and man together in one. That one man. They can't be separated. He has promised they'll never
be separated. Those angels said it, the messengers. This same
Jesus that you've seen go up is going to come back down. The
faith of God's elect is in the God-man. It is in the Lord Jesus. It is those that shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. but only man could die. And then
he went to this verse, Walter, I got it right here. 1 Timothy
3.16, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen
of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world. Received up into glory These Ephesians believed on him
in him in the world This is part of the gift of God to every child
He is going to place every child as a son he is going to bring
in his lost sheep and And they will no longer be lost. They're still sheep. They've
always been sheep, but they will no longer be lost sheep because
they will be given the faith of God's elect. And they will
believe on him who is perfect God and perfect man. The Lord
Jesus was the perfect substitute and sacrifice for sin to the
Father. And our faith is in Him. Or it's not the faith. If your faith's not in Him, it's
not the faith. I don't have any faith in Buddha. Even though I've seen one that
was 15 foot tall. Got pictures of him to prove it. Yeah, with
a little bald-headed guy sitting right in front of him. And people
in there kneeling. And I don't know what they were
doing because, see, they were behind glass and I was outside and that's
the way I wanted to keep it. Your faith is in the God, man. You people, man. That's all you
talk about. Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much. If we get off on anything else,
it's generally a sideline because He is our message. He is the Savior because He is
the Lord Jesus, the God-man. Only the Lord can save. Only. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of God. And he was the complete and perfect
substitute and sacrifice, and he completely satisfied the offended
party. Not you, the Father. The Father. And I wanna tell you something,
if you've made it this far, into this book, this letter that Paul
wrote, he could be pretty confident
that you might believe God. Because if you made it this far
into this letter, without being offended, and without throwing
this letter away, or without trying to explain it away, well
that just means, no, it means what it says. It means that He hath chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love. I believe that. I believe that. I don't understand
everything about it, but I believe it. Because this is the God of
the Bible. This is the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. These three are one, they acted
in unity, in one accord. And Jesus Christ was the lamb
slain from before the foundation of the world. It wasn't an afterthought,
this was the plan from the beginning. This is what he had purposed
in himself. This is what, this is in whom
we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins
according to the riches of his grace. Having predestinated us
under the adoption of sons, the adoption of children, it says,
but the placement of sons by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glory, the
glory of his grace. See, if you can get to there,
if you can get through that, you're doing something 90% of
this world can't do. Because they will not have this
man to reign over them. They will not have this man,
the Lord Jesus. And that is who Paul had heard
their faith was in. It was in him. But that wasn't
the only thing Paul had heard about. Paul heard about your love unto
all the saints. That's one of the reasons why
I thought this would be a nice thing to preach about today. Because I've seen this in the
last couple of days. This place, we came here, we
set it aside, we planned this to come and hear men preach the
gospel to us. And you know what? I love it. I loved it. I loved hearing the
gospel preached. Walter, it's been, this is 2015.
I've known you since 1983. That's 32 years. And I'm not bored with him yet.
Now talk about Walter now. I'm not bored with the Lord yet.
Walter can be kind of annoying, but we're not going to, he picked
on me so I get to pick on him. But so can I. But I am not bored
with him yet in the least little bit. I like studying. I don't know what's wrong with
me. I like studying. I got some books from Earl. Some
of them might be fine because I've got the hindsight now because
I've got what Earl highlighted or underlined. That's right. It's like having a cheating textbook.
You get a used textbook and you hope the guy that had it used
to have an A. Well, I know Earl Cochran. I
knew Earl Cochran. And I'm persuaded that man knew
the gospel pretty darn well. So if he underlines something
in a book, either it's because it's really good or really bad.
That's the only part I have to figure out is when I see what
he underlined, you know. I like doing this still now.
And I like being with you people. Now, there was a bunch of people
here yesterday I didn't know, but everybody I saw was smiling
and happy that they had been here to hear the gospel preached. And they were talking about it,
and they were talking about each other, and they were talking
about other things. But the reason for this gathering is because
of your love unto all the saints. It's not just this assembly.
It's not just this assembly. I love people I don't even know.
Well, granted, that's easier than loving some of the people
I do know. But it's true. David, you said it the other
day. You have a connection with people who have faith in the
Lord Jesus. There's a connection. And I feel it and I know it.
Now I have been fooled before. People have come and people have
fellowshiped and left. But that's on them because I'm
still here by the grace of God. But my fellowship with you people
in the gospel and in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ does
lead to my love for all the saints and these Ephesians. And guess
what? Paul heard about it. There are people that left this
place and going back to where they were. And they're going
to say, we had a good time here. The gospel was preached and nobody
cut a rug, nobody got offended, nobody cried, nobody yelled,
nobody screamed. Rejoice. And again, I say unto
you, rejoice. Why? Because the gospel is preached. Earl explained that to me one
time, Walter. I had said something, I'm not
going to confess what it was. And he was correct in doing so. I've been rebuked before, I will
probably be rebuked again. Well, it's human, and I'm human. I fail. But he looked at me,
he said, well, he said, there's scripture for that. And I said,
of course there is. Because I knew it was coming. I just knew it was coming. This
wasn't the first time he had rebuked me either. We were just
sitting around talking. We were talking about Christ.
And I said something that I probably shouldn't have said, but it was
honest, and I was honestly wrong. So he corrected me. He said,
no, if Christ is preached out of envy,
Christ is preached out of strife, it doesn't matter. Paul wrote,
nevertheless, Christ is preached. And therein I rejoice. And that's
right. As long as it's Christ that's
preached. Now that is the acid test. When the gospel's preached, I
can rejoice. And I do rejoice. And if I don't rejoice, there's
something wrong with me, not with the gospel and not with
this book and not with the man preaching. I mean, I, you know,
we have personal problems. There are sometimes things bother
us and you have secondary things. You have physical afflictions.
I know. Uh, I've spent way too many times
in doctor's rooms and hospitals and my own and other people's,
but I always want to be able to rejoice in the gospel being
preached and enjoy this love for all the saints in faith, the faith in the Lord
Jesus. Now Paul, after he'd heard this,
said, I cease not. to give thanks for you. And I give thanks for this place.
Well, mostly the place over the hill, but this place too, this
week, this assembly. You people like hearing the gospel
preached. You don't know how rare that
is some days. I don't even think about it sometimes, Walter. But
then every now and then the world will kick you in the head. Because the faith, your faith
in the Lord Jesus and your love unto all the saints is an aberration
in this world. It's an aberration now. This
used to be the doctrine known throughout the world. This used
to be about the only doctrine there was. It ain't that way
anymore. Your cousin, or Penny's cousin
and I were talking, he was talking about, he says there's churches
up there I never even heard of before. They're everywhere. They're
everywhere. You've got open-door churches,
you've got closed-door churches, you've got Presbyterian, Freewill,
Episcopalian, you've got Bethel missionaries, you've got everything
under the book. The Sunshine Gospel Church, which there ain't no sunshine,
there ain't no gospel, just in case you wanted to know. Man has heaped, and I mean heaped,
that's a good word, to himself teachers having itching ears.
And he goes to hear where he hears what he wants to hear.
And he doesn't want to hear this gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't want a God who is
in control. He doesn't want a God who is
sovereign. He wants a God of himself. And he'll tell you so. Well,
I can't go there. And there's sometimes you want
to say thank you. I'm serious. Earl and I had that
discussion too. Well, you know, Earl had been
through it. He built that big old Baptist
church, the first Baptist church of Shady Spring. He was pastor
when all that stuff was done. That place was full. And guess
what? He left and air didn't creep
in, it trampled in. And that's all it is now. They
might as well have free will Baptist church written over the
top of it because they won't hear the gospel now. They won't
read this first 14 verses of Ephesians and rejoice in it. Paul said, cease not to give
thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. Because
after Paul heard, he gave thanks for you to God. A true believer rejoices when
others Become believers. That's part of that love for
all the saints. I even like new ones. New as far as they're concerned,
as far as they know. Young ones. If you are not happy seeing people
come to the Lord Jesus, something's wrong with you. Yeah. I like to see the body of Christ,
and that's what this assembly is, enlarged. Because we're dying
off one at a time. We're getting old. We're getting
frail. We need some new blood. I used to be the new blood. Somehow
or other, it's gone. 32 years, Mason. That's how long I've known you,
just about then. And I still like him. Because of this gospel, because
of this Christ, this Lord Jesus, never cease to give thanks for
those who are the saints of God. A true believer rejoices in the
growth of the true church of Jesus Christ. It makes believers
happy and thankful when people come to Christ. Paul prayed for these believers
and he prayed to God for them, thanking God for them because
Other believers are part of God's gift to you and to me. I wouldn't have anybody to preach
to if somebody wasn't here. And I wouldn't be here hearing
somebody else preach unless there was somebody else to preach.
And if we weren't here together gathering, because if I didn't
have this place to go to, I'd probably be at home. But I like coming here. We are
to pray for each other. We pray that God will bless his
people, his household, his believers. Now, you know he will, but we're
to pray for it anyway. He's promised that he would,
and he will, and he does because he has. And we pray for that. That's the best kind of prayer
when you know God's already promised to do it. Well, that's a prayer I know
is in the will of God. God has promised to bless each
and every one. We are predestinated unto the
adoption of children. We have had the mystery of His
will made known unto us according to His good pleasure, which He
purposed in Himself. God the Father has promised and
shall bless His people. and he has promised to have his
people brought to him. Jesus Christ came to this world,
God the Father saying, to reconcile the world to himself. That reconciliation is happening.
And parts of it have already happened. Be ye reconciled to God. Verse 17, that the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give unto you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Boy, is that a verse. To whom
does God pray? Paul pray, he prays to the Father. In the name of the Son and for
the people of God. Who did Christ pray for in John
17? I can tell you who he didn't
pray for. People hate that? Oh my goodness. Smile, God loves
you. My old saying makes more sense now with
that Noah movie out, Walter. That was the bumper sticker on
the back of the ark. You know that, don't you? Smile, God loves
you. No, he shut them in. And in shutting
them in, he shut everybody else out. Now, you can like that or
you not like that. That's what it is. That's the
way it works. And that is the father that we
have been reconciled to, the one who brought the flood,
the one who killed everyone. All except eight souls. God brings death when he wants
to. Ask Pharaoh about that. Ask those mothers in Egypt when
their firstborn died. See, this is not a game. I do
have a good time. And I do enjoy the preaching
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I do enjoy the fellowship of
His saints. But this is serious business.
Because it takes the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, to give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of Him. Every good gift and every perfect
gift cometh down from the Father of lights. And that includes
knowing the Lord Jesus. And knowing the father. Cause
if you've seen him, you've seen the father. Christ was not saying, Oh God,
don't, don't, don't flood the earth. Jesus Christ was that
arc and there is salvation in no
other. And that family, Noah's family, one family was safe and
secure and protected in that ark and everybody else is dead. That's the message of Noah's
ark. It's not a little boat with toy giraffes that you put in
there with their heads sticking out the top. I used to have one
of them when I was a kid. That's not in the children's
Bible story part of it. The people in the ark were alive
and they were safe, but everybody else is dead. And that's the
way it is. Outside of Christ, everyone's
dead. Everyone outside of Christ is
dead. I'm not saying they're not elect,
but everyone outside of Christ is dead. Until he gives life,
there is no life. Until he gives the spirit of
wisdom and revelation, there is no wisdom or revelation in
him. In him. You can have a flash
of genius and design a better mousetrap. I know that guy's
really annoying on those commercials, but OxiClean works. I'm glad
somebody invented something to get my underwear cleaner. But
that's not the spirit of wisdom or revelation. I know, it's just what come in
my head. I was on this morning. And I might hear from Martin Lloyd-Jones
about that illustration. Paul prayed for these saints. And he prayed that the Father
would give gifts to these saints. He will, but we pray for it anyway. Why? Because we're told to do
so. The spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of him and nowhere else. There is no wisdom, there
is no true knowledge outside of Christ. It's either in him
or it's not. What do you call it? Science
falsely so-called. Why? Because science changes
from year to year. Sometimes nowadays from week
to week. But this book is the same. This truth is the same. from the beginning. And the conclusion of all this,
this is the way it's supposed to be. Faith in the Lord Jesus
and love unto all the saints. You can't have one without the
other. You can't have love for all the saints without faith
in the Lord Jesus. And if you've got the faith in Lord Jesus,
and you don't have the love of the Savior, you might want to
make your calling and election sure, as they say. And this is
the order of those gifts also. Faith, then love. This is the way it has always
been. Paul wrote it this way in Ephesians.
Luke wrote it down in Acts chapter 2. And if you want to turn there,
Acts chapter 2 and verse 38, a very famous scripture that
is on the side of a lot of Pentecostal holiness buildings. Well, if I could find it here,
Acts chapter 2, verse 38. Then Peter said unto
them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name
of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now that's where the Pentecostals
stop. That's not where Luke stopped. And I'm not gonna stop there
either. Although what he wrote down is true. But so is what
comes after it. For the promise is unto you and
to your children and to all that are far off even as many as the
Lord our God shall call. You mean it ain't up to you? You gotta repent and baptize.
Now why would you do something like that? He must be one the Lord our God
called. You see why Pentecostals don't
read that verse? But that's not what I'm talking
about. It's just where it is. Acts 240, and with many other
words did he testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves from
this untoward generation. Verse 41, then they gladly received
his word, were baptized, and the same day there were added
unto them about 3,000 souls. I'd like to see that, Walter.
But here's the point, and they continued. And they continued,
and they continued, and they continued, and they continued.
He read it yesterday. If you continue, then you're
my disciples. Well, these that the Lord our
God called, these that gladly received his word, why? Because
if you're of God, you'll hear us. You'll hear us. The world won't hear us, the
world hears itself. But these, they heard, they continued,
what? First thing, steadfastly in the
apostles doctrine. Doctrine is important? Are you
guys sure about that? other places that are very very
very very very proud we don't teach any doctrine here they're
right they don't thank you for testifying brother you don't
know any doctrine and you don't teach any doctrine and you surely
surely do not teach the apostles doctrine see paul luke was even
Specific when he wrote this down. It's amazing how that works They continued steadfastly in
the Apostles doctrine and Fellowship and Breaking of bread and we're
gonna do that later and in prayers First and foremost the Apostles
doctrine Well, guess what I've been reading to you and talking
to you about this morning? There's an Apostle's Doctrine. This is, I mean, this is the
day of Pentecost. This is right at the beginning. How did it start? They continued
steadfastly in the Apostle's Doctrine. What did Paul say? That God would give you spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. That's the
apostle's doctrine. Do you believe it? Do you believe
him? This is the way it started. This
is the way it's going now. And this is what I saw here this
week. I saw people come here who come from different places. We had a fellow come from Indiana
to preach to us. But he preached the same Jesus
that I'm preaching to you this morning. Now he preaches differently
than I do, and I enjoy the dickens out of it. Had a fella come from
there, and a fella come down south. North Carolina is where
Mike Walker was originally from. I don't know where Marvin's from,
but it's the same Jesus. The same Jesus that went up.
It's coming back. That's the same Jesus they're
preaching. And I saw you people rejoice. And I saw the love for
all the saints in you. And I thank God for every one
of you. And I thank God I'm a member of this flock. And that I get
to come here. And I get to rejoice with you. And again I say, rejoice. That's it.