Ephesians 6, 21 through the end. And I'll be straight with you,
Church, I see a bunch of sermons here, 200, 300, a good 20 years' worth. In all
reality, you could preach several things here, but in holding to
the apostolic authority of the text, I think that what Paul
is saying is well said. And so it would be well served
for us as the people of God to hear that which Paul has sent
to us. So here Paul says in chapter
6 of Ephesians, verse 21 through 24, So that you may also may know
how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus, the beloved brother
and faithful minister in the Lord, will tell you everything.
I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know
how we are and that he may encourage your hearts. Peace be to the
brothers and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our
Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. So if I were to say what is the
message today, It is that the insurpassing power of God through
the gospel of Jesus Christ is that He loves with an incorruptible,
everlasting, eternal love that always has been for you, beloved. And that because of that, all
that He has purposed in you and for you comes to be seen by His
hand and by His incorruptible love in Christ Jesus. Therefore,
all that you are, is a result of all that He has made you to
be. And that's why, as we've seen through this letter, there's
some tall discussion. There's some tall orders. There's
some absolutely, amazingly difficult things that we're commanded to
be and to do and to say. And Paul is closing this letter
to be an encouragement to you. Friends, I believe that the Word
of God for the church is at all times an encouragement. It is
a builder of the people of God. Yes, it may cut and prune, but
cutting and pruning is for your building. Never has the Word of God come
to the saints of God to take them down. Never has the Word
of God come to the saints of God to tear them up. and to put
them in condemnation. For there is now therefore no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Friends, there
is such a misnomer that has pushed so many of pulpits to a topical,
feel-good, felt-need message because the true exposition of
Scripture has beat the brow of the church to a place where they
cannot stand to stand. Paul says, Stand therefore, as
you stand. Stand up. So if we are indeed
standing, we're standing sola scriptura, as we learned just
a few weeks ago, that we are indeed empowered by God's grace,
given through the Word of God, and that we prayerfully submit
and subject ourselves to the power of God through prayer.
And that God affects prayer in His people, that we would pray
and then therefore be empowered to walk as a people for His namesake. This is an amen. It's done. It is. And God has effected it. And so often it's easy for us
just to take these closings of these letters and just go, and
Paul says, Grace and peace be with you. Don't let the doorknob
hit you. It's over. See you later. It's
just too fast. It's almost a recapitulation
in theme and necessity of everything that he wants to show you. And
what he's doing is if you remember back in the day when he started
writing this and we were over on Park Avenue and crammed into
my living room and we heard these words as I read that very second
week. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus
by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful
in Christ Jesus. See how that rings? Grace to
you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he closes this letter with exactly the same thing. Grace is given
to you. And he closes this letter with
grace now be with you. So what Paul is doing, and it's
very, not very, it's not really a big epiphany, but it is, is
that Paul is saying that what he is about to write to these
people, grace is going to come through it. So grace comes to
us through the hearing of Paul's words by God. And of course,
he reiterates that in the introduction and then in the close, peace
and grace be with all of you. So now that I've given you the
power of God through his word and told you the gospel, I've
taught you the gospel and Paul and his mind was not writing
scripture. He was just teaching the gospel. And God ordained
that the apostles would be the new covenant writings for the
church. And since this day, this letter
has been part of this canon. And so we Know then what Paul
says in verse 3 of chapter 1, Blessed be the God, Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who has, what, blessed us in Christ with
every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. And so we now
have gotten this introduction, and Paul prays several times
in this letter, and he says that this is who we are, this is what
God has done, and this is how we ought to look, and this is
how we ought to act, this is how we ought to think, and this is how we
will be, because we were are now made alive in Christ because
of God's mercy and the great love with which he loves you.
You are now made alive together in Christ. So then he closes. And he's already asked for prayer.
We looked at that last week and he asked for prayer specifically.
And he wants to remind the people here, not necessarily through
letter, but face to face. There's a time for updates. There's
a time for getting some information about our brethren and our sisters
in the ministry and in life and in the church. And so we need
to figure out time to do those things. But Paul doesn't want
to put it here. So Paul says, would you pray
for me? I'm in chains for the sake of
the gospel, but I need you to pray for me. And what does he
say? I need you to pray that the words be given to me boldly,
that in my mouth I may proclaim the gospel ever so boldly. There's
a paraphrase. Not free me, not help me, not
heal me, not save me, not release me. Nothing. But I'm prisoned.
Hallelujah. I'm broke. Praise God. I'm sick. Bring it on. I need to preach. So pray for me that I preach.
In change, not that the change can come off, but I'm in change
and I preach in change. I want to be in change for the
glory of God. I pray that my, what? In Colossians
he says, I pray that my suffering, that I may fill up what is lacking
in the sufferings of Christ. For your sake, the church, that
is his body. So that now, and when he asked
that, what do we do as people who love Paul? We don't know
Paul, I mean. Let's just say Paul was in our fellowship. He
was a missionary. He wrote us this letter. And we're worried. And we go, oh, after service,
we're going to have some prayer for Paul. I'm going to pray.
I'm going to be praying for Paul to be released. I'm going to
be praying for Paul to be let free. And Paul's saying, I don't
need that type of prayer. I want you to pray that I may
boldly preach the gospel while I'm here. That's God put me here.
I'm going to receive that. And so therefore, his grace is
sufficient for me in this prison. I need to preach. I don't need
to miss that which God has called me to do here because I want
to get out and play games or Go to the game or grill out with
my kids or my grandkids. It's not about that. That's not
what life is. And so then he tells them, so
that you may know how I am and what I am doing. Because that's
a concern. We as the people of God, this
is practical expression. This is not teaching. Paul in
no way is teaching, not purposefully teaching anything right here.
He is speaking from his heart. And by doing so, now he is showing
that the saints of Ephesus have a kinship. What is it? You are
all one. You who are far apart are now
made one. You are brought near by the blood
of Jesus Christ. So there is neither, what Paul
says later, Greek nor Jew. What does he say to the Romans?
It is not the offspring of Abraham who are Jews, but who? Those who are in Christ, who
are Israel. So in this, Paul is speaking
to Jewish Christians and Greek Christians. He's speaking to
American Christians, which I think is just really funny. I don't
like to hold that I'm an American Christian. I'm a child of God,
not of this world, who happens to be born in America. So my
place in Christ and my position in peace with God has no bearing
on my nationality or ethnicity. There's a psalm I want you to
learn next week, and it talks about how the blood of Jesus
has redeemed all races. And we know that. We don't hold on to it. And as the blood of Jesus, as
we'll see in a minute, brings peace, and as John writes that
the blood of the new covenant cries out greater than the blood
of Abel, we'll see that this blood is
really the unifying, effectual, certain unity in the body of
Christ. If we need anything but the gospel
to be intimate, we aren't in the gospel. Want to hear that
again? If we need anything but the gospel
to be intimate, we're not in the gospel. And the gospel's
not in us. Friends, it is a fallacy to think
we have to have ethnocentric, seeking-centric, idealism-centric,
philosophical-centric and community-centric outreach and in-reach and over-reach
and up-reach, whatever you want to call it. We need the blood
of Christ, effective in our hearts, and that's it. We don't need
air conditioners. We don't need hymns. I like them
both, but we don't need them. So Paul, because these people
are at one with him in his heart, they care for his needs, and
they want more than just the didactic. Expression of this
is what you need to do. This is who Christ is. It's good
stuff. It's power. It's grace. It's all amazing
life. But Paul knows they care about
him personally. Secondarily to the gospel, but
because of the gospel, they care about him. And so he says, I'm
sending Titicus and some people pronounce that Tychicus and some
people announce that Tychicus and all this. You pronounce it
how you want to. There's nobody I know by that name, so nobody's
going to be offended when I mispronounce it. But I've heard many scholars
pronounce it different ways. So he's sending Titicus to them
so that they may know how and what he is up to. How he's doing
and what he's up to. Friends, there's a lesson in
that we need to be concerned about how and what we're up to. Not just how, but what we're
up to. Each other. Why do churches need to start
clubs? Why do churches need to become riddled with programs
that can make belonging happen? Because there's no belonging
in the intimacy of the church. Partly because there's no preaching
of the true gospel which brings supernatural affection spontaneously. You don't have to grow in it.
You do grow in it, but you don't have to grow in it. When the
Word of God hits you, square between the soul, you love the
people of God. Even the ones that might rub
you. Even when they sin against you, you love them. More you
love them and you're willing to die for them, more than you
want them to get right with you. Soapbox off. Look at this. Look at who he
is. I believe this is an expression
of what Paul has taught in practical means, not purposely, but showing
now that this really does happen. One, there's a unity in the body
of Christ by the power of God's grace in Christ Jesus, given
through the Spirit of God, grace given through the Word of God,
and now Tychicus is coming and he is going to share with you
that intimacy that you have concerning Paul, Ephesians. Then he calls
him something. He says, Tychicus, the beloved
brother and faithful minister in the Lord. See, what's happened
here is Paul wrote this letter, and he gave it to Tychicus, and
Tychicus took it to Ephesus. And Timothy got it, read it,
read it to the churches, and other elders read it to the churches.
Timothy was one of the lead elders in Ephesus. who, by the way,
was a protege of Paul for years, being taught. And then Paul recognized
his call and Paul laid hands on him and wept over him and
gave him the power of the Holy Spirit and the anointing of God
to be a gospel pastor and an elder. Look at the letters to Timothy.
I wept with tears when I remember you in my prayers. of how your
faith and the faith of your mother, Lois, and your grandmother, Eunice,
which is now in you, Titicus is a beloved brother.
It's not just a brother. It's not just the brother in
the Lord. That's obvious. He wouldn't be sending a pagan
to give scripture to the church. It's like redundant. So what's
the point? The point is here that all of
a sudden there is people with Paul doing the work of the ministry
together, unified. And Titicus cares about Paul
and he cares about the Ephesians and he cares about the Colossians.
And there's some connection there. And it's not because they had
great pita bread or gyros. It's not because they had good
chicken or good fellowship around the campfire. It's because they
suffered with the preaching of the gospel. It's because they,
when the world said die, they stood and lived. And Paul says he's a beloved
brother. That's more than just saying that's a brother. He's
a beloved brother. This man was most like Timothy,
probably, to Paul during this season of his life. So what's the teaching there?
Do you not see it? Here's Paul, the apostle of the
apostles, and he is continuing to replicate himself in other
men. So he tells Timothy, Be strengthened
by the grace that is yours in Christ Jesus. And hold fast to
that which I have taught you and entrust it to other men who
can, to reliable men, who can teach it to others also. So many churches can't do that.
Can you? Men, can you teach other men?
Younger men? Women, can you teach other women?
Younger women? who are teaching young women,
who are teaching girls, who are teaching children about the Word of God, that's
good deposit, fan in the flame, this deposit that was entrusted
to you. You're an ambassador in change. And friends, in America,
we're an ambassador with freedom. Maybe you can't teach others
because you are too busy doing the church stuff. Maybe you can't
teach others because you're too busy building retirement, which
I don't understand. I understand getting out of the
world's work, but I don't understand quitting and going riding on
the beach in a bicycle forever. Do that for a weekend. Forever? That's awful. Playing football
forever? Blah! Hunting forever? skiing forever. It's awful. It's awful. Faithful minister
and beloved brother. The people of Ephesus, Paul has
already said, the faithful, those, I'm writing to you, the very
first two verses, the faithful who are in Ephesus in Christ
Jesus. And now here's one coming to you who's also faithful. Friends,
how do you measure success as a Christian? I want you to be encouraged here.
But if I were to hand out little cards and sometimes I used to
do this in the past, it takes too much time. If I were to hand
out little cards, I want you to write down in a sentence how
you how you measure success as a Christian. And I get a lot
of answers. And I get some answers to say,
because I serve. That's nice. It's required of
us. It's called of us. It's equipped
in us. It's equipped in us, which is the really good thing. It's equipped in us. It's given
to us as a gift, service. Because we love one another.
Absolutely, John says that. If you say you have fellowship
with Him and you walk in darkness, and one of the indicators if you're
in darkness, you don't love your brother. And how you don't love your brother
is you don't teach him and feed him. And he has the world's goods
and you have it. He needs them. You have the world's
goods, he needs them, and you turn your heart against him,
you're a liar and the truth's not in you and the love of God is not in you.
And so, yes, that's one way of measuring your faith in the sense
that it's there. But just because you love your
brother doesn't mean it's there. How do you measure success? Somebody
said, well, I've been teaching the Bible for 50 years. So has
the devil, wrongly, twisting the word of God. Well, I've been
effectively teaching them. Okay, well, you're close, but
it's not really that. How do you measure success in
the life as a Christian? You measure success, I believe,
if you go and you think about what Jesus has said. Let's just
don't deal with the apostles. The apostles affirm that which
Jesus says. And Jesus says the Father is seeking worshippers
who worship in spirit and truth. Do you worship with all that
you are? with all that you have and all
that you've been given? Is everything that you are an attitude of worship
and an outward of worship? And you must say, well, man,
it's not. I'm a failure. Not so close. Not so quick. Is that
really measuring success as a Christian? No. It should be there, but it's
not how you measure success. How will you measure faithfulness
in ministry? By just that. Being faithful
in ministry. Are you faithful to pray? Are
you faithful to study? Are you faithful to proclaim?
Are you faithful to stand firm when there's no one to listen
and no one there beside you? There should be. But sometimes
God will take everything away that you may trust completely
in Him and that as you seek Him and His righteousness and His
kingdom, all those things will be added unto you. Faithful minister, a faithful
pastor is not one who sees conversions. A faithful pastor is not one
who sees faithful people. A faithful pastor is one who
faithfully perseveres when there's nobody to preach to. And when
every sheep looks like a pig and smells like one. A faithful
sister and brother in the Lord is one who faithfully makes certain
that they remain faithful to their church and to their Lord
and to their calling. And they don't get tangled up
in the civilian affairs. They don't get tangled up into
worldly pursuits. They don't get tangled up into
pseudo-American church, so-called spiritual Christianity. They
don't get caught up in all of these benevolent ideals that
are supposed to bring people to faith. They are caught up
in the glorious beauty of Jesus Christ and His gospel alone as
the absolute power to sustain them even when they're faithless. And out of that, they're faithful.
And Paul says, I send this faithful minister. So many of us are not
sent because we're not worthy to be sent. Now let me give a
caveat right there. None of us are worthy to be sent.
I was interviewed this past week and the person asked me, what
qualifications do you have to plant this church here? And I
said, two different schools of thought. One, the world's ways,
almost two decades of pastoral ministry, desire to serve the
Lord and to teach the Bible, education. I said, but the Bible says this.
And I showed them and referenced Timothy. I said, and none of
us are equipped fully and regarded effectively, certain perfectly
in this, but by God's grace, we're forever being perfected.
This is not named among us. So what qualifies me to plant
a church is first and foremost, that God has called me to that
and commanded me to that. And secondly, that there are
people who are in the church who confirm that call. It does
not separate. If none of you confirmed it and
never showed back up, then there'd be no church. and then churches that do sin,
sin pastors who go plant churches and not the other way around. So what qualifies you to be an
effective minister, a faithful minister in the Lord? What qualifies
you is God. Christ qualifies you because
you have been given grace and are standing at peace with God. That's what qualifies you. And
the Word of God empowers you when it's time. Do not put much
thought in your learning, but don't stop learning. Learn as though you must learn
it all, but don't trust in it. It's one of the sermons that
I will preach in the weeks to come. It's a misnomer that doctrine
is for pastors. We'll talk about that some in
the future. But faithful ministers in the
church are sent to others in the church, sometimes within
this congregation, sometimes within another congregation,
sometimes within another city, sometimes for people who aren't
in the church at all, but in some sense, God's connected us
to them that we might minister to them. I have sent him to you for this
very purpose. That you may know how we are
and that he may encourage your hearts. So I don't want to belabor
that. I just want you to put that there. And then what we're
going to preach is the next two verses. Paul sent this letter and the
brother with it to encourage the hearts of the Ephesians.
Paul sent the letter to Rome to encourage the hearts of the
Romans. Paul sent the letter to the Corinthians to encourage
the heart of the Corinthians, even in rebuke. We are to what? Grow and mature into him who
is the head, so that we are what? Growing together. We are maturing
to full manhood, to the stature, this is how Paul qualifies it,
to the stature of the fullness of Christ. So we're measuring
ourselves against Jesus. He is our qualifier. He qualifies
us to be faithful. He perseveres us. All who come
to me, I will never cast out. No one will pluck them out of
my hand. We don't hold to the doctrine, or to the, let me make
this, we don't hold to the theological teaching that we've been coined
to say, once saved, always saved. You're either saved or you aren't.
And if you are, you're saved forever. And if you're not, you
never were. But we don't need to come up
with these little cool little creepy things of trying to teach
people that just because you're living apart from God doesn't
mean you're lost. It's a very dangerous place. The Word of
God is clear. If you walk in darkness, you
need to repent and believe the Gospel. Don't put your faith
in what you did last week. Put your faith in what Christ
did 2,000 years ago and that He is the only hope that you
have to ever stand justified before the Lord. For He is the
holy God-man of all creation. He is the only person that's
ever lived air into human lungs, breathed air into human lungs,
who stands perfect before God from birth. And only Christ sets you before
the Father perfect as He is perfect. And the Word of God is to encourage
your hearts. How and why would He do that? Because I have a
feeling if you were anything like me as we went through chapter
6, right after chapter 5, therefore be imitators of God as beloved
children. Well, let's just quit right there. not to count the
stand against the enemy, to stand with the righteousness of Christ
as our breastplate, to stand with the truth of the gospel
as our belt, to stand with the readiness given by the gospel
of Christ as our hues, to hold fast to the confession of our
hope with the helmet of what? Salvation as the guard of our
mind, Romans 12, 1 and 2. We just go, well, I may work
with Helpless Christian. That's what we'll do if we get
to that. So Paul is reiterating again his encouragement to them.
And he's saying there's a brother coming. You're faithful. He's
faithful. He's coming to encourage you.
I'm not coming. I didn't write this church to beat you up. I
wrote this to build you up to maturity. I wrote this that your
joy may be full, that you would rejoice in the depths of darkness,
knowing that there is no way that it will overcome your life
and bury you in the sand of depravity and depression. You are more
than conquerors. That's why Paul wrote this. And
you as the people of God will stand and rise to the occasion
of giving glory to his name. You will look at the face of
Christ and the world will look at you and they will be baffled
and amazed for who you are as one body will blow their minds
and they will hate you for it or they will come looking to
see what it is that gave you that power. And so be encouraged. Be encouraged. Paul usually says, grace and
peace be with you. Here, he flips it. And I believe he flips it. Because
there's a there's a battle that we just learned going on. And as we learn about the battle,
we actually are actively in the back. And so at the end of the
learning, we're in the battle and we're getting either apathetic
or frustrated or we're fearful of our faith in our faith. And so what we feel And I'm just
thinking outside here, what we feel is that we don't have any
peace. Pastors preach this stuff, he's
spent and hollered and stomped and yelled and cried and prayed
and every week I go home and I'm not at peace with this. I
don't have peace in my heart. I feel like I'm just, I want
to dig a hole and join the ostrich family and pop my head into the
hole and stay there. And just be blindly oblivious,
ignorantly, blissfully ignorant and oblivious to the world around
me. I don't want to think about it. I just want to go home. God,
take me home. God's given us this life as saints
to be encouragements, to teach, to grow each other up, for the
Word of God and the pastors of the church to teach and to prepare
the church for the work of the ministry, Ephesians 4. And so,
in that, now, Paul, I believe, switches his customary closing
from grace and peace be with you to peace be with you. And he doesn't just say peace.
And when he says brothers, he means sisters, brothers to the
brethren, the siblings. Peace be to the brothers, and
love with faith. Alright, let's just take those
conjunctions there. Peace be to the brothers. There it is. Where is peace?
It's given in being with the brothers. It works and operates
with the brothers. It's there. It's on them and
with them and it exists with them. So that's what the language
is saying. Peace is with the brothers and love is with the
brothers and faith is with the brothers. And so now Paul has
not only just reversed it a little bit, but he's actually added
some stuff to it. Peace and love and faith be with
the brothers. So as you fight, peace is with
you. And love is with you. And faith
is with you. And it would be real easy for
us to then go, I don't feel it. So he reminds us from God the Father and from
the Lord Jesus Christ. So what's happening? In an effort to walk as the people
of God with all of this stuff going on, sometimes the war causes
us to lose sight of where we stand with God. And when we lose
sight of that, we lose sight of the effectiveness of that
standing which is love, and we lose sight of that love and how
it's given, which is faith. And so Paul then says, here you
are. You stand in peace. We have been
made what? The righteousness of God. He who knew no sin became sin
that we might become, that we might be the righteousness of
God. He made peace through the blood
of his Son. He made peace by the cross. We were at odds with God. We
were enemies with God. We had enmity between us and
God. We were just due wrath and judgment
and destruction eternally. And Christ made peace with God. through His flesh, and we are
justified, and therefore we are at peace. All war and the battle
is not between us and God. The battle is between us and
us and us and the devil and each other. But ultimately, the battle
is between the enemy and God. And we are the players in the
war, but there is peace already. We think of war, and we think,
what do we want? We want peace. What does every
beauty queen want? World peace. What does every small child want?
World peace. What does every Ph.D. in education
want? World peace and smart children. And so, we just... There's already peace. You see how that thinking changes?
You've got to internalize this stuff as it was given. You've
got to think a little bit. You've got to stop just reading
it and have peace and rest. Yada, yada. Good. I'm glad to know
I got it. Well, how is that peace affected? It's affected by the
love of God. And then the love of God, effectually,
is the result of that peace. We have love for one another. We have faith. And it comes from
God the Father. It's not within us, church. Peace
and love and faith is not us and ours to muster. We don't
muster it up. We don't build it up. We don't
reach down in there and, I think I can, I think I can, I know
I can, I know I can, I'm doing it. No! We quiver and hide in
the corner like children who just lost their ice cream to
the sun. And we grieve over the mess that
it made. If I could just have peace, if
I could just have faith, it's yours already. Blessed be the
God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed
us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even
as He predestined us and called us and adopted us and loved us
and gave us the knowledge of Him. If that's not encouraging, church,
nothing is. If that's not power to us, there's
no power. The Lord God gave us this peace
and this love and this faith and this is ours and it is in
us and it is ours to see effectually, outwardly. And not just God the Father,
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, hold that and look at verse
24. Grace be with all who love our,
again, Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. And I swear I could teach a full
two sermons on that. This is what Paul is trying to
show us. The Lord Jesus Christ and God
the Father give peace and love and faith and it is yours in
Christ. And then how, how, how is it
in my life? How is it given to me? How am
I able to overcome grace? Unmerited, unworthy, unpurchasable,
unreachable grace. If every good thought and deed
and affection you could pull out of history were put into
a sack, it would be a garbage sack. If we try to use it to earn favor
from God. Grace be with all. And there's a clarify there. Who is grace with? So here's
here's the trick. I just don't I don't have grace
in my life, I don't feel the power of God in my life, I don't
see. I just can't overcome it. Grace be with all who love our
Lord. See that possessive plural, possessive.
Our Lord with a love incorruptible. Do not miss that church. If grace isn't effective in your
life. Let me put it this way. Let me
be encouraging. Grace is effective in the life
of all who love Christ. as their Lord with love incorruptible. It's not given to those who don't
love Christ as Lord with love incorruptible. Yes, Christ's
love is incorruptible. And I wanted to preach that today.
That's not what he's talking about there. It is, but it isn't. It is because we love God because
he first loved us. How did he love us? By giving
his son. to effectively secure our salvation, to be received
by faith alone. So if grace is given only to
those who love Christ as Lord with incorruptible love and grace
isn't yours, the question then is, do you love Christ as Lord
and did you love him with an incorruptible love? Let's take
a picture how that looks. Lord means No better lesson than scripture. For it is not I who live, but
Christ who lives within me. For I live this life. How does he say that? In the
flesh by faith. It is Christ who lives within
me, for I live this life by faith. I live this life in the flesh. Christ lives because it is Christ
who lives in me, who loved me and gave himself for me. What does it look like? Incorruptible. But I do not know that which
I will choose. For it is far better for me to
go home, to be with Christ. And that is good. Paraphrasing
here. But it's far better for you that
I remain in prison. For to live is Christ, and to
die is far better. That's what the Greek says. That's a love for Christ? I want
Him forever! And that's all I want. You can
have everything I have. You can have this flesh, and
these clothes, and this work, and this family. You can have
it all. I want Christ. I want to die. I want to be with Him. That's
an incorruptible love. I want Him all. He's mine and
I'm His, and I'm wasting away here. so that I can get there. But in both of those circumstances,
I live by faith. It is far better for me that
I go. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me. To live is Christ. To die is
better. But Him being Lord looks like
this. I want Him, but I'll live for
Him while I wait for Him. You see that? Grace is only given
to those who love and live that way. Now see, here is a derailing
moment. And if we're not careful, we'll
miss it. Don't hear what I did not say.
And what I did not say, hear what I'm telling you I didn't
say as I say it. What I did not say is that you must love and
live for Christ to earn his grace. What I am saying is if you're
not living and loving Christ, you haven't received his grace.
Don't play games, Church. Don't sit comfortably numb, considering
that your position in Christ is peace, peace, peace, when
there is no peace. You will persevere in trial,
ultimately. You will persevere in relational
discord. You will persevere in the mind.
You will persevere over addiction. You will persevere in God's time
through His grace. And until you do, you hold fast
to He who is worthy, and the confession of your hope, who
is Christ. There is no victory in the battle
for those who are not in Christ. They are already dead. They're
not even fighting. I want you to see that an incorruptible love It's
the only true love that perfectly sets us in the eyes of God justified. For it is God who has an incorruptible
love. Peter. Oh, I love this text. If I can find it, I'm in Revelation
now. I need to back up. Blessed, sounds like Paul a little
bit. Be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul had
to rebuke Peter often. According to His great mercy,
He has caused us to be born again to a living hope, to the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable,
undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. What's kept
in heaven? You are. who, by God's power,
are being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. In this, you rejoice, though
now for a little while. So see how that warfare comes?
Trials, grief, depression, anxiety, frustration. I rejoice because
You rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have
been grieved by various trials, so that, this is why you've been
grieved by trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith,
by the way, which is more precious than gold, that perishes when
it is tested by fire, may be found. So your faith, when it's
tested, may be found genuine, and it's found to result in praise
and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have
not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him,
you believe in Him. You trust Him. You have faith. You fear. Same word. and rejoice
with a joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining
the outcome of your faith. And I'll include, which is the
salvation of your souls. And Peter goes on to say, concerning
this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace
that was to be yours searched See, they were given the Word
by God, and God said, Speak. And God, through the mouth of
the prophet, said, There will be grace. You'll be made one.
You'll be redeemed. And they searched and inquired
carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ
in them was indicating when He predicted the sufferings of Christ
and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that
they were serving not themselves, but you. And the things that
have now been announced to you through those who preach the
good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things
into which angels long to look. Now, Peter is writing to Jews who are exiled. But this text, I believe, is
a perfect illustration of an incorruptible love that God gives
toward us and an incorruptible love that God puts in us. Grace be with you, all who love
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with an incorruptible love. Do
you love Christ? above all things. Is he the water that you would
drink at the last point of your dehydration? Or would you go
for the flesh and see the last piece of bread that you would
devour when you have one more heartbeat away in starvation? And see the light of all that
is good and holy and pure and true Or are you shining lights
into the closet of despair, looking for hope? Is He sufficient? Is His flesh a morsel of satisfaction? Is His blood a fountain of glory? Is His mind a pure release of
freedom? And is His law a beautiful expectation
of what you are being made to be? If not, repent of your unbelief. Trust fully in the fullness of
Christ. Believe on His name, church.
You are a people created by His grace for His glory. So there walk in it by His grace,
for His glory. Let's pray. Lord God, it is so good to hear
your word. Just seeing short little sentences
and how the apostles would just write, pray for me, and I'm sending
this guy to tell you how good we're doing. Grace and peace
be with you. Love and faith in Christ. Lord, it is only by your Spirit
that those words are alive in us. If it were not for you and
your love toward us, we would hear them and think, what's for
dinner? Father, we hear them and we think,
oh, how great a banquet it is going to be. Oh my, I have sat
too long and I have missed dinner. Father, help us to always persevere. Help us to never walk guilty
in our consciousness, except where we sin against You, but
freely know that we are forgiven as we stand bold and come before
Your throne of grace through the living, bleeding body of
Jesus who died and was raised from the dead. Encourage us forevermore
through Your Word, forevermore through Your Spirit. Fill us
with all Your fullness, knowing that we are indeed sanctified
in Christ Jesus. Draw us intimately together as
we prepare to go into the world and to proclaim the gospel so
that all may hear the good news of Jesus Christ. And Lord, until
we meet again, equip us. Equip us to be a people that
the world would look at and say, there is a God in heaven. And
when they come nigh, we proclaim Jesus. And Lord, I pray that
You would save them who hear. And it's in Christ's name that
we pray. Amen.