So we are few today, so I greet those who
are catching us online on the stream. And while we are few, as Brother
Mike prayed, we anticipate the day when we will join in the
chorus with the great multitudes of the saints. We talked about
this last week. We looked at, in Revelation 7,
of the Apostle John's vision that he received. The multitude
of the saints joined together in chorus, worshiping the Lamb.
Revelation 7, verse 9, after this I looked and behold, a great
multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes
and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before
the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands
and crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God
who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. And all the angels
were standing around the throne and around the elders and the
four living creatures and they fell on their faces before the
throne and worshiped God saying, amen, blessing and glory and
wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our
God forever and ever, amen. Then one of the elders addressed
me saying, who are these clothed in white robes and from where
have they come? I said to him, sir, you know.
And he said to me, these are the ones coming out of the great
tribulation. They have washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Therefore they are
before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his
temple. And he who sits on the throne will shelter them with
his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more. The sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat, for the lamb in the midst of the throne
will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of
living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. So we will continue today in
Ephesians chapter one. One of the challenges that I'm
running into with preparing to teach out of Ephesians is that
Paul repeats himself a lot, and it almost feels weird to stand
up here week after week and teach you the same sermon. But I remain guided by the word,
and as the word repeats itself, so will I. Paul takes care to
teach us about the depth of the gospel of Christ in many different
ways. He expresses the nature of God's
salvation in many different ways, so that through that we may explore
the depths of his grace. So just to review where we've
been, we're gonna be in verses six and seven of Ephesians 1
today, and so I'll start by reading the first five verses of Ephesians
1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus
by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful
in Christ Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even
as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined
us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the
purpose of his will. And Paul goes on, and we will
get to verse six. So last time I was here, it was
last week, we spent most of our time in the last two words of
verse 4 and in verse 5. And I focused in on the phrase,
in love, there at the end of verse 4. So as a way of review,
I want to hit a few of the points that I worked from last week. This love that Paul is talking
about in verse four. There are three observations
that I want us to make about the love of Ephesians one. First, this love is unique to
the elect. The expression, the manifestation,
the communication, the way in which God loves us, the things
that God has done in order to express this particular love
are unique to his people. They are unique to the elect
of God. And this love is unconditional. This love that God has for his
people is not based on anything that he has found in them. Remember we saw in verse four
that this love is the result of God's choosing us, choosing
his people before the foundation of the world. And so because
this choice, this election occurs before the foundation of the
world, it cannot be based on merit. We haven't earned the
love of God. We haven't earned the election
of God. And further, this love is effectual
for the salvation of the elect. Because God has loved us, his
people, he has done the things that he
has promised to do for those he loves. Because God has loved
us, his people, he has given us as a bride to his son. Because God has loved us, his
people, Christ has washed us in his blood. Christ has secured
for his people propitiation, justification, sanctification,
all these things he has done on his cross where he died and took on the
wrath of God for our sins. And it is in this love that he
rose again. So that just as he tasted death
and death could not hold him, we will taste death in this life. But death will not hold us. The same power that resurrected
Christ from the dead will bring life to our bodies in eternity. Last week we also talked about
God's adoption. Right, verse five says that he
predestined us for adoption as sons through Christ Jesus. So one of the things that I wanted
us to think about was how if you go out into the world and
you speak with other professing Christians,
with members of other religions, People who generally have a belief
in some higher power, you will hear things like, well, we are
all God's children. The world will tell you, at least
the ones that believe in some God, will tell you that we are
all that God's children. And so we explored in John chapter
eight how Jesus relates to the Pharisees. and how the Pharisees
claim to be children of God, and Christ refutes their claim. These Pharisees claim to be children
of God on account of two things. One, their works of the law,
right? They claim to be perfectly obedient
to the law. They claimed to have been cleansed
from all of their sins, if there were any to be cleansed from. And they claimed their relation
to Abraham. If you remember in Genesis, it
starts in chapter nine or so, Abraham is given this promise
that he would be the father of many nations. God makes a covenant
with Abraham. And Abraham is the father of
many nations, is the one who these Pharisees claimed to be
descended from. And I'm sure they were. But it
is not the children of Abraham according to blood who are the
children of God. This is what Jesus refutes in
John chapter eight. Instead, it is the elect of God.
Those who by faith are children of the promise given to Abraham. God's true children are those
who are God's children on account of the work of Christ and their
relation to him. Remember, the Pharisees claimed
to be children of God because of their own work in their relation
to Abraham. And we, the people of God, claim
to be children of God on account of the work of Christ and our
relation to him. And our relation to him is that
we are the bride of Christ. Christ is our bridegroom. And so it is in this that the
elect of God, the church, the gathering, They're the only ones
with a legal claim to be children of God. Christ is the son of God, and
we claim that God is our father because Christ is our bridegroom. So that's our review of verses
four and five. So getting into the end of verse
five, Something we didn't get to last week was this phrase,
according to the purpose of his will. So the first thing I want
you to observe about this phrase, according to the purpose of his
will, is that nobody talks like that. Right? Have you ever used
that phrase in conversation? Right? We would never say, well,
Pastor James decided to paint the walls purple according to
the purpose of his will. Why don't we talk like that? Because that's not how we make
decisions, is it? Right? We are influenced by all
of these outward things. All of our experiences, all of
our opinions, our emotions, these things influence the way we make
decisions. And so I could not say that I
elected to paint the walls purple according to the purpose of my
will. Because there are so many other things that influence how
I make those decisions. And so when Paul says according
to the purpose of his will, talking about God, he's saying that there's
a difference in how God makes decisions. God does not make decisions the
way men make decisions. I saw this a few weeks ago when
we were in the book of Numbers. We saw that the Lord is not a
man that he should lie, nor son of man that he should change
his mind. Right, the decrees of God come
down from eternity. The decrees of God are truly
and properly free. Meaning that the reason that
God has done things because he has a purpose. He is not influenced
by our decisions. He's not influenced by anything
outside of himself. So when Paul says, according
to the purpose of his will, he is contrasting that with how
we are fickle, emotional, mutable beings. So Paul establishes for us there
God's reason for adoption. Why has he done these things?
Why has he blessed us in Christ? Why did he choose us before the
foundation of the world? Why did he make us holy and blameless? And why did he predestine us
for adoption? It's that he has some purpose. He has a purpose. It is intentional. He has a plan. And that ultimate purpose would
be explained to us here in the beginning of verse six, to the
praise of his glorious grace. If you are familiar with some
of the catechisms, the first question you'll often see asks
what is the chief end of man, right? What is our purpose? Why
do we exist? And the answer is to glorify
God and enjoy him forever. And that is echoing what Paul
is telling us here in verse six. The purpose of God's will is
that he might be glorified, that we might praise his glorious
grace. And for the child of God, this
should be a satisfying answer to all sorts of questions. Right, what is the first question
that often comes to mind when you face a trial in your life? When you experience pain in your
body, when you experience tragedy in your family, We want to know why, right? We want to ask God, why have
you done this? And while the details, the explicit
answer to that question may not be clear to us, we can find comfort in knowing
that God has a purpose in all things. We can find security
in knowing that Christ is faithful to fulfill his promises. That Christ will be faithful
to preserve our faith unto glory. We can find comfort and peace
in knowing that Christ will preserve our faith in the face of trial. The child of God can have full
assurance of their salvation, no matter what. But there's something
important that I want you to understand that this does not
mean. When I tell you that you can have full assurance in the
work of Christ, this does not mean that you have to be happy
and emotionally stable all the time. I've heard so many people say that You know, if you don't
find joy in everything, you don't have enough faith. Enough faith
for what? Right? Was Jesus happy and emotionally
stable all the time? Sister Karen was telling me before
the service that she wanted to read more of Luke, and It's by
the Lord's providence that we will be in Luke here for a little
bit. Remember the idea that I want
us to get away from is that the peace of God means that we're
going to be just okay, happy, filled with joy no matter what. because Christ, the Son of God,
the God-man, was not. In Luke chapter 22, verse 39, and he came out and
went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples
followed him. When he came to the place, he
said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation, and
he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed,
saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
yours be done. And there appeared to him an
angel from heaven, strengthening him, and being in an agony, he
prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops
of blood falling down to the ground. This is not a picture of a man
who has everything in order, is it? No, Jesus Christ was as human
as you and I. Jesus Christ in his humanity
experienced the full range of human emotion and yet was without
sin. And so when we look at Jesus
and how he's feeling here, we can know that it is possible
for us to experience these emotions by the power of the Spirit without
sin. Jesus here is faced with knowing
what is coming. Jesus knows what is about to
happen to him. Verse 44 tells us the drops of
blood came out of his face. The advent of medical science,
we know what that is and how it happens. The word for it is
hematidrosis. You can check the Wikipedia page
for it. It says, hematidrosis is a condition in which capillary
blood vessels that feed the sweat glands rupture. causing them
to exude blood occurring under conditions of extreme physical
or emotional stress. Severe mental anxiety activates
the sympathetic nervous system to evoke the stress, fight or
flight response to such a degree as to cause hemorrhage of the
vessel supplying the sweat glands. It has been suggested that acute
fear and extreme stress can cause hematidrosis. And so here in Luke 22, we see
Jesus Christ, the son of God, our savior, experiencing the
intense mental anguish of knowing that he is about to die. And so to anyone who would look
at your anxiety, look at your stress, and just tell you to have a little
bit more faith, I would ask them, would you say that to Jesus?
Would you tell Jesus that he does not have enough faith? Now, just as I said that we can
experience this acute horrible mental stress without sin by
the power of the Spirit, there is, of course, a sinful way to
engage with it. It comes down to what you do
with it. Philippians chapter 4, verses
6 and 7, Paul says, do not be anxious about anything. But in everything, by prayer
and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known
to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses
all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in
Christ Jesus. It comes down to what you do
with it. The Apostle Peter, in his first
letter, says, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand
of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting
all your anxieties on him. because He cares for you. Now, if we read Philippians 4
there and we stop at, do not be anxious, we might say, okay,
this is a command of God, do not be anxious. And then if you
are ever anxious, then you have sinned. But Jesus was anxious
about the impending crucifixion. But what we see in Luke 22, What
Jesus does is, of course, consistent with the instructions of the
apostles here. Do not be anxious about anything but in everything
by prayer and supplication. With thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known to God. And we see in Luke 22, being
in agony, he prayed more earnestly. And so when you have anxiety,
when you have this horrible acute mental stress, the instruction of scripture
is not choose to feel better. Right? So many people say that
that is the solution. That depression, anxiety, it's
just a matter of lack of faith and you need to choose to have
more faith. And that is not the instruction
of Scripture. Instead, the instruction of Scripture
is to lean all the more on Christ in prayer and supplication. To lean on Christ for that supply
of faith. To in your agony pray more earnestly. so that by the power of God's
Holy Spirit we might come to the conclusion of Job. Remember
what happened to Job? We talked about Job a couple,
either last sermon or the sermon before. Remember, Job was sick
in his body with horribly painful diseases. The author describes Job as sitting
in the ruins of his destroyed house surrounded by broken clay
pots, scratching the boils on his skin with the shards of pots. Job had everything taken away
from him. And his idiot friends and his
wife said, surely you have done something horrible and deserve
to die. Why don't you curse God and do so? And yet the Lord appears to Job
and speaks to him through the whirlwind. And Job experiences this peace
of God. Job experiences the peace of
God which surpasses all understanding. When it says surpasses all understanding,
that means it doesn't make sense for you to be okay. Job answered the Lord and said,
I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours
can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel
without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what
I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I
did not know here. And I will speak, I will question
you and make it known to me. I have heard you by the hearing
of the ear, but now my eyes see you. Therefore, I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes. Cast your fears on Christ. Cast your anxiety on Christ. Pray more and more of supplication
with thanksgiving. Make your requests known to him. Scripture does not instruct us
to just feel better. Just have a little more faith
and you'll be okay. Scripture instructs us to pray
more and more and it shows us our Savior doing exactly that. Moving on in Ephesians. Into verse seven now. Paul tells us that in him we
have redemption through his blood. I was telling Ben before the
service started that this sermon was gonna be three largely unrelated
points. And so now we're gonna get into
the deep theology of Ephesians one. We're gonna talk about redemption
through his blood. And we're gonna talk a little
bit later about why it is important for us to explore theology like
this, to explore the solid food of scripture. But recall from
Ephesians 1, 4, when you talk about being in Christ, when we
talk about God's giving of the bride to the son, Paul is outlining for us this
heavenly transaction, this eternal covenant, this deal that is struck
between God the Father and God the Son. Before the foundation
of the world, He chose us in Him. That is, the chosen, the
elect of God, the bride of Christ, are chosen in Christ. These are the ones that God has
given to the Son. And in exchange, Christ is given
the task of cleansing them. so that those who are saved are
saved on account of the work of Christ in doing so. That is
that Christ satisfied God's wrath, satisfied God's justice on their
behalf. We call this the covenant of
redemption. It's an eternal covenant made
between God the Father and God the Son. God the Father promises
to glorify the Son as the bridegroom by giving to him a bride with
whom he may enjoy eternal communion. And in exchange, God the Son
must do the work to cleanse them so that they may be suitable
as a bride and suitable to enjoy the presence of God forever. And our main text for seeing
this play out was in John 17, beginning in verse one. Father,
the hour has come. Remember, when we talked about
this last time, we said Christ is making a demand of his Father. Remember, you read through the
Gospels and you see Christ who, according to his humanity, is
submissive to the will of the Father. Christ talks about this. And now in John 17, Christ makes
a demand, glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you. Since
you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal
life to all whom you have given him, And this is eternal life,
that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished
the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, and here
he goes again, demanding of the Father, glorify me in your own
presence with the glory that I had with you before the world
existed. And so here we see the Father's
end of this transaction. the Father's blessing given in
this covenant, the promised glorification of the Son through the redeeming
of his bride. And John goes on talking about
the giving of this bride to Christ. John 17 verse six, I have manifested
your name to the people who you gave me out of the world. Yours
they were and you gave them to me and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything that you have given me is from
you, for I have given them the words that you gave me, and they
have received them and have come to know in truth that I came
from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying
for them. I am not praying for the world. but for those whom you have given
me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours
are mine, and I am glorified in them. I am no longer in the
world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy
Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that
they may be one, even as we are one. And so Christ here, praying
in the garden, has in mind the work he is coming to finish.
He has in mind his work on the cross in enduring the wrath of
God for the sins of his people, and he tells you who he does
this for. I am not praying for the world,
but for those whom you have given me. Christ is here to do the
work of making his bride clean. He has come for her and her alone. He has come to redeem them. And this is what Paul is talking
about when he says, in him we have redemption through his blood. He's saying Christ has done this
work. And so what is the challenge
in this? Why can't God just declare us clean? God demands justice. Right? Christ is given a work
to do. He has to do something. He has
to make us clean because we are not clean. The law of God demands
that our blood be spilled upon the ground. The law of God demands
that we suffer the wrath of God forever because we are cursed
in Adam. And by our own will, we sin every
day. By our own will, we are unable
to meet the demands of the law. We are unable to meet the demands
of righteousness, and so Christ must come and justify us. And we see this foreshadowed
in the Old Testament. In the covenants of the Old Testament,
the covenant of works, you might call it, the sacrifices of the
temple, We see this pattern, and Paul explores this thoroughly
in Hebrews. Every time I do this, and I have
done it before, I'm just tempted to read Hebrews 7 through 11
and just call it a day. Instead, I'll just read Hebrews
9, verse 22. Indeed, under the law, almost
everything is purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood,
there is no forgiveness of sins. That's the law. Without the shedding
of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. And this is exactly
what we see in Ephesians 1-7. In him we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. So, let's talk
about the Old Testament sacrifices. I said that these things were
a foreshadowing of Christ. When we read the Old Testament,
having the full revelation of the gospel of Christ, Being aware
of the work of Christ, being aware then that all of these
sacrifices are shadows of it, we can go to the Old Testament
and in them we can see the gospel of Christ. We can see it plainly because
we know. We have been given the gospel. We have been given the revelation
of the promised Messiah. The Pharisees did not understand
this. The Pharisees did not understand that these works of the law,
these sacrifices, were shadows of the promises of the Messiah.
They thought they were it. They thought these sacrifices,
these works of the law, were the whole point and that the
Messiah was coming to kill all the Romans and save all the people
who followed the law. They believed that their works
of the law justified them. But we need to have a right understanding
of how the works of the law, the sacrifices of the temple,
related to the salvation of the Old Testament saints. And I'll
just tell you, those who in faith, faith in what? Those who in faith
in the promise of Christ subjected themselves to the sacrifices
of the Old Covenant found themselves justified on account of the promise
of a Messiah. whose work is typified in those
sacrifices. It wasn't the sacrifices themselves.
It was, as Paul tells us in Romans 4, the faith for which they were
accounted righteous. We know it couldn't be the sacrifices.
Hebrews 10, 4, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats
to take away sin. It's impossible. God is not pleased in the blood
of bulls and goats. And so for the blood of bulls
and goats, the wrath of God is not satisfied. Right? Remember, God is just. God demands
justice. And so God's wrath must be poured
out against all wickedness. God must execute his wrath against
all sin. So we might ask the question,
what about the Old Testament saints? If God was not pleased in the
sacrifices of the law that they carried out, what about God's
wrath for their sins? Paul answers this question for
us in Romans 3. There is no distinction. All have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God. 1st Paul presents us with the problem.
You sinned, they sinned, we all sinned. Everyone falls short of the glory
of God. but we are justified by his grace
as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by
faith. And here's where Paul answers
the question. What about the sins of the Old Testament saints?
This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance,
he passed over former sins. On account of the faith of the
Old Testament saints, they were counted righteous. and God in his divine forbearance,
which means he's putting it on hold. He's reserving it for a
future time. God withholds his wrath against
their sins until the lamb came. God withholds his wrath against
the sins of his people until Christ comes and then Christ
takes on the wrath of God for their sins. This is what the
word propitiation means. Christ Jesus, whom God put forward
as a propitiation, as a satisfaction of wrath by his blood to be received
by faith. So God's wrath against the Old
Testament saints is withheld until it could be poured out
on Christ for their sins. And so in Christ, God's wrath
for their sins is fully and completely satisfied. And in Christ alone. It's not like they got some credit
from killing a bull and a goat. Right? They were counted righteous
on account of their faith and then Christ made the sacrifice
once and for all. So this plan of salvation is singular and mutable. This
plan of salvation that God has for his people in the Old Testament,
his people in the New Testament, his people today, it's all the
same plan. All who are justified are justified
by Christ. All who are given to the Son
are justified by Christ. And this giving to the Son occurs
before the foundation of the world. There is one plan, there
is one work, and there is one Christ, one sacrifice. Just as
it is for the Old Testament saints, so it is for all the people of
God. I tell you this because there
are many denominations, many flavors
of theology that will teach you that the plan of salvation changed. God's economy changed with Christ. That God was satisfied. and the
sacrifices of the Old Testament until Christ came around. Just read Hebrews. So my last point, which has 20
subpoints, I wanna talk about sort of why
we're exploring theology like this here in Ephesians 1. Aside
from the obvious, because Paul does it. The instructions were given in
Hebrews 5, starting in verse 12. For though by this time you
ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the
basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid
food. For everyone who lives on milk
is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child. But solid
food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment
trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
And so, what Paul is doing here in the first 14 verses or so
of Ephesians 1 is Paul is exploring the depths of the gospel of Christ. Paul is taking this gospel that
is milk, and Paul is expanding his teaching into solid food. So naturally, as we explore Ephesians
1, we are going to expand our teaching into solid food. Remember, this presupposes, and
Scripture does too, and we'll see why. The gospel is simple,
right? So simple, in fact, that a child
can understand it. And not like, you know, we talk
about, that 17-year-old's a child. I mean, a little, tiny kid can
understand the gospel of Christ. And this is evident from Matthew
18. At that time, Starting in verse one, at that time the disciples
came to Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven? And calling to him a child, he
put him in the midst of them and said, truly I say to you,
unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter
the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like
this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I've always thought about doing
a sermon series on dumb things that a disciple said, and it
would last for weeks and weeks on end. And this is one of them. Why are they even thinking like
this? I just don't understand. Who's the best? Jesus is the
best, dummies. Jesus brings to him a child,
and he says, this one. just to knock him down a peg.
Here's the point I want you to get from this. If belief in the
gospel requires a high-level intellectual understanding of
theology, what is Jesus talking about in Matthew 18? What is
the faith of a child if faith requires intellectual understanding
of theology? Let me answer the question for
you. Putting complex intellectual requirements onto belief in the
gospel destroys the childlike faith that Christ speaks of in
Matthew 18. In fact, doing so makes you guilty
of the sin described in verses five and six of Matthew 18. Right, Jesus gives us a warning
with this. He didn't just say, be like a
child, And so while Jesus is sitting there with the disciples,
he grabs a literal child to give
an object lesson. But when he says, whoever receives
one such child in my name, he's not talking about a literal child
there. He's using this literal child as an example, but he is
pointing to the childlike faith that he is describing. Whoever receives the one with
this childlike faith in my name receives me. But whoever causes one of these
with childlike faith in me to sin, it would be better for him
to have a great millstone fastened around his neck to be drowned
in the depths of the sea. So there are two ways that I
want to talk about. We might fall afoul of this grave
warning. First is legalism and works hunting. Causes children to fear. Testimony of scripture is clear.
This childlike faith is sufficient for full assurance in the work
of Christ. Remember we talked about this earlier. Right, that mustard seed faith
is sufficient for full assurance in the work of Christ. Full assurance
in the promises of Christ. and any teaching that causes
this one with this childlike faith to fear that they have
not done enough good works or that their faith alone is insufficient
for full confidence of salvation destroys this childlike faith. If I look at you and I make you
wonder if you're saved because I make observations about the
way you live your life, then I destroy your childlike faith. Right, because this fear of damnation
is a sin. Right, it is a sin for the child
of God to fear this damnation. To cause this in others makes
you guilty of the sin described here in Matthew 18. It would
be better for you to be drowned in the sea. To sow division,
to sow fear among the people of God based on your perception
of how they should be living. To place a yoke of burden on
the people of God based on some work of the law is to cause the
people of God to fear. This is what Jesus is talking
about. It destroys childlike faith. And the other thing, and we talked
about this a little bit earlier, these complex intellectual requirements
for faith. Suspicion and heresy hunting
causes children to fear. Just as legalism places a burden
of works upon the saints, so can your suspicion. A suspicious heart denies Christ
by denying that this childlike faith is sufficient. You're not the heresy police,
right? You should not be sniffing around
for theological errors in your brothers and sisters. It smells like Pelagianism. You are not a divinely appointed
drug dog. When you do that, you start to put intellectual requirements
on faith and you cause those with a childlike faith to fear. So what's the point? When James
and I teach up here, we're required to explore the depths of the
truth of God with you. We're required to give you this
solid food. This deeper understanding, which
Paul begins to explore here in Ephesians 1, is essential to
the strengthening of your faith. And we'll get here eventually,
but Paul gives us the application of this in Ephesians chapter
four. And he gave the apostles, the
prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers to
equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building
up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the
faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood,
to the measure of stature of the fullness of Christ so that
we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves
and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning,
by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in
love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head,
into Christ. From whom the whole body joined
and held together by every joint with which it is equipped. When
each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it
builds itself up in love. So it's important for you to
grow in your understanding of scripture so that your foundation
is strengthened. Right? Deeper knowledge into
the truth of God is what protects you from this wind of doctrine.
It secures your faith against the schemes of the world. One of the places we see these
winds of doctrine running rampantly is on social media. I've largely quit interacting,
but I keep an ear to the ground for the things that are going
on in some of the Christian circles. Every few months, a new pet doctrine
blows up all the forums. Someone comes up with something,
and all of a sudden, it becomes one of these complex intellectual
requirements for salvation, and you've got these theological
drug dogs sniffing around everyone, checking to make sure you don't
believe the new heresy of the week. I've seen people divide
with old friends over something they learned about yesterday. It happens all the time. I've seen it happen so many times. So stop, please. Stop it. So that is why we explore the
depths of theology contextually out of scripture. to equip you for the work of
the ministry, to protect you from the winds of doctrine, so
that you may know when someone comes to put legal requirements
on you, you can look at him and say, no, Christ is sufficient
for me. So that when you have simple
faith, the faith described throughout scripture, this faith of a child,
and someone asks you, yeah, but what's the timing of justification?
You can say, the work of Christ is sufficient
in justifying his people. I am counted righteous for my faith
in that work. It doesn't have to bother you. You can move on with your life
and continue to love the saints. So we teach and we grow together. This isn't just what I do and
what James does, right? Because you read the Bible for
yourself too. And as you fellowship with one
another, we encourage one another in the faith. We teach one another what we've
been learning. We praise God together as we
marvel in his grace taught in scripture. And it is through this deeper
teaching that we really see the riches of God's grace. This is
what Paul talks about at the end of verse 7. In Him we have
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of trespasses,
according to the riches of His grace. There's so much more to see and
to understand and to know about God than just what He has done
for us. His word is rich in knowledge. His grace is rich. His grace is sufficient for you
for all things. And it is all in Christ. One
plan. One people. One salvation, one
Christ. And his work is sufficient for
your peace and for your joy and for your comfort. And when you
want to cry out in agony, do it. Cry out to him. Let's pray. God, we thank you for your word,
that it answers our questions. and that when in our flesh we
aren't satisfied with your answer to our questions,
we know that by the power of the Spirit you have promised
to give us peace and comfort in your truth. God, I pray for all of our people
who are not with us this morning, who are dealing with illness,
who are traveling, pray that you would bring them healing
guide them safely and bring them back to us. We pray these things in the name
of Christ. Amen.