One thing about singing is that
singing songs, music affects the soul. I've taken an experiment
before with college students sitting in my van and driving
through a parking lot and waiting on some sushi in California.
And we're talking with them about music, how powerful music was.
They had gone to a conference the week before and Pastor, can
we sing some of these really awesome songs that we learn in
our conference? And I'm like, well, sure, let's
let's hear what they are. So they flip their iPod over
and they begin to play these songs and they're powerful and
they're moving and they're mood altering. The substance of the
words just lacked. For example, one of the songs,
not necessarily it was like this is a simile here. You are wonderful. You are beautiful. You are great. You are wonderful. You are beautiful.
You are great. Oh, how we love you. How we adore you. How we
long for you. And such beautiful words in an
expressive, poetic manner. And I began to listen to the
song and find myself. Oh, this is just so wonderful.
And oh, how how I could not wait to see that sushi. Oh, how I
loved it and how I longed for it and how I adored it. And the point was made and to
some extent, well, you know, nothing wrong with it. No, it's
not music in itself. It's the it's the truth that
lies within the music. Why are we wanting Christ? Why
are we longing for God? Why are we seeking his face?
Because. This truth and that truth and
this truth must be evident in our lives. We worship in spirit
and in truth. Our emotional connection with
God, if you will, if I dare say it that way, is definitely a
spiritual connection. That affection and that intimacy
we call worship in spirit is something that is derived from
the doctrine of truth of who He is. Otherwise, we worship
Him based on our experiences apart from truth, and we worship
Him based on our experiences of what someone else has shared
with us, or we worship Him based on our experiences of what we've
seen other people experience. And so we want to ride that emotional
wave, and it's okay to ride an emotional wave in worship, but
it must root itself and give birth from truth. And so that's
why we sing the songs that we sing. And yes, we are learning
more and doing what we can. But ultimately, we want to make
sure that the gospel message is clearly in everything we do,
everything we do. I took this little experiment
a moment, a little bit further, and I took my iPod and I plugged
it in and I have every genre under the sun, but country on
that thing. No country. The closest country
is Getty, and Christ alone is about the only thing I can listen
to them. Because I just don't know why I have this aversion
to that sound. Just cat in a blender. Fingernails on the chalkboard
type thing. It's, you know, freshman saxophone player. Squeaky. And
so I began to dial through some instrumental music and I had
some hip hop music. And I said, now look at the front
of this building as we waited. And there were some car, not
car lots, but like the balloons that you see at car lots tied
there. And I put on some hip hop music
and it was a little, and people would come out of this store
and come out of this store. And I said, now, what feel do
you have? Well, I feel like I want to go hit something. I want to
go punch somebody. We need to go work out. We need
to go, OK, cool. And then I put in some 12 stones or some rock,
some bean bag type stuff. You never heard of those guys?
All right. Don't listen to them. You can't understand what they're
saying anyway. This heavy metal Christian music, if you will.
And that's what we used to play in our Kung Fu classes. And I
put that on and I said, now what do you do? Oh, now we want to
burn the building down. You know? It's really getting
me angry. I'm angry at sin. Let's just
go. What's he talking about? I have no idea what he's talking
about. So then I put on another song, a kid song, in the beginning
of that. And they said, oh, now I feel
like I'm being patronized. I'm being made fun of. I feel
like I'm at a circus. I said, so see the music, you're
looking at the same scene. And you're seeing the same stuff,
but you're listening to different types of music and it's causing
a different emotional response. So therefore, we in the church,
we must be very careful. Because music is not inherently
wrong, it's the lyrics that move us. So if the music moves us
to empowerment, then let the empowerment come from the truth
of the language of the music, of the song. If it moves us to
laughter, let it be a joy that comes from the Lord and His amazing
grace. So I thought I'd share that with
you, it's intimacy. But we cannot have intimacy with
God without the intellectual connection of truth and doctrine
that's given only to the Holy Spirit of God, not through wisdom,
because the wisdom of man is foolishness. And the foolishness
of God is greater than the wisdom of man, Paul says in First Corinthians,
chapter one, and the weakness of God is greater than the strength
of man, and that's what's so ironic is this. There's no such
thing as foolishness or weakness of God, but if there were, even
his lowest attributes would be greater than the greatest of
men's attributes. So we need to be careful as we
sing. You may be able to sing. I love you and you're awesome
and you're beautiful and I long for you and have the truth within
you to worship. But corporately, not everybody's
on the same page. So we were careful, very careful. The same thing is true in this
letter to the Ephesians. As we see Paul in the very beginning,
as we started this 18 weeks ago, as we look at this text and begin
to see this doxology, this worship, see praise, doxology is an exclamation
of praise. Praise God from whom all blessings
flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Father, Son
and Holy Ghost. Amen. You know that song? How
horrifically I used to make fun of that when I was in my early
20s, part of a traveling worship band called one soul. And we
would start out that as an organ and we would sing it in four
part harmony and it sounded pretty good. And then our drummer would
kick the bass drums and then we do a Christianized version
of Proud Mary. Really such enlightening, spiritually
moving things. As I think about it, though,
and I look back on those days and I thought, how ignorant and
blind was I to see that this truth, praise God from whom all
blessings flow. You know, we ask a prayer most
of the time over our meal and we say, God bless this food. He's blessed it already. Are
we mindful of the fact that it came from his hand? Or do we
think it's owed to us because we dared ask that waitress to
bring it? or that our spouse, or our neighbor, or our friend,
or our roommate cooked it, or that we prepared it? Do we dare
think that we made our own meal and provided our own sustenance,
even in the food that we eat, no matter how healthy or not
healthy it might be? No. Praise God from whom all
blessings flow. See, there's a reason there.
Paul is singing that same song there in Ephesians. Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us in Christ with every spiritual blessings in the heavenly places.
And he lists these blessings out, and we've spent some time
in them. And now we're here at the end of chapter 2, going into
chapter 3, and it's this one big doxology, and he praises
God, and he teaches God, and he prays to God, and he praises
God, and he teaches God, and he prays to God, and he continues
to do that here. And he does it over and over
again. And we see now that Paul is building
up to the point where He is established very clearly. He's not done.
He never finishes. Even in chapter six, he said,
stand firm in the power of his might. In chapter six, the spiritual
warfare chapter that we like to extract from the entirety
of the Scripture and paint on a post board and go, OK, now
this is how we make war. Now we make war leading up to
that with all of these other truths. We make war in the power
and the might of God so that because of who He is and He owns
and controls all things, He's sovereign over the devil. He's
sovereign over demons. He's sovereign over spiritual
warfare. He's sovereign over the church.
And He's sovereign over man. And He's sovereign over the decisions
of men. He's sovereign over the unbelief of humanity. And He
saves us in spite of our unbelief. So stand firm. And now Paul is
going to begin to talk. I want to preach like the first
22 verses, but I'm not going to get through the first two
or three. So I'm going to have to use some of those to build my
argument and then or Paul's argument. And then as the weeks progress,
we're going to go back a little bit to chapter one today, back
a little bit to chapter two, and we're going to get an entire
summary. And this is the end. So in case
you have to leave, this is what I'm about to show you. I'm about
to show you that the power of God's grace enables us to do
impossible things for the sake of others and for His glory at
the cost of ourselves with joy in Christ. That's what that text
that I'm going to teach you today in chapter three teaches us.
So let me break that down for you. God's power, God's grace
given to the church corporately, individually, and that power
enables us to do things that are impossible for us to do.
And endure. So that. Others may benefit from
our suffering. And as we suffer, we willingly
suffer and rejoice in our suffering for the glory of God. That's
what Paul is showing. So up to this point, he has shown
us a lot of action. This is what God has done and
is doing. That's what Paul has done up
to chapter 3. God did this. God has blessed
us. God has done that. God has an inheritance in the
saints. We are His inheritance, is what Paul says. We don't inherit
God. He inherits us. He's claimed
us, called us out of the world, saved us out from His judgment,
put our penalty, put our debt on Christ, and therefore He is
satisfied in us because Christ has paid our debt. That is called
the atonement. On Easter Sunday we dealt with
that. The week before that we talked about the necessity of
atonement. How far we were away from God. How much enemies we
were. Or how great of an enemy we were.
And so now we get into careful with my words. Don't hear what
I'm not saying. We get into the application of
what the church now must be doing in light of God's power and his
grace and his action toward us. What is the response of the church? Look with me as we read. Where do I start? Let's just start in chapter two,
verse eleven. I just want you just need to get
this fresh. Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles
in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called circumcision,
which is made in the flesh by hands. Remember, therefore, remember,
he says that's why that you were at that time separated from Christ,
alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. and strangers to the
covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the
world. But now, see, here's the here's the contrast. Remember,
you once were, but now you are have excuse me, in Christ Jesus,
you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood
of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both
one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility
by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that
He might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross,
thereby killing the hostility. As He came and preached peace
to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near,
for through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then, you are no longer strangers
and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and
members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone
in whom the whole structure is being joined together, grows,
as we talked about last week, into a holy temple of the Lord.
In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place
for God by the Spirit. For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner
of the Lord Jesus Christ, on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming
that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given
to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation,
as I have briefly written, When you read this, you can perceive
my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known
to the sons of men in other generations, as it has now been revealed to
His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is
that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body,
and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Of this gospel, I was made a minister according... Huge stuff. It's
the key. action of our text today. I was of this gospel. I was made
a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given
me by the working of his power. And I will stop there because
it's overwhelming. So what Paul is doing now with
this, therefore, in chapter 3, verse 1, for this reason, what
reason? He's starting back in chapter
2, really all from the very beginning of the letter, for this reason.
He says that again, if you look at verse 15 of chapter 1, for
this reason, what reason? Because you're blessed in Christ.
Because God has enabled you to become partakers of of the new
covenant. You have been given the grace
of God. Therefore, I bow my knee. He will say in a few verses,
therefore, I give thanks to God for you. I am thankful for that. You were dead. Now you were the
uncircumcision. Now remember this because you
were so for this reason, because you were. And I'll fill in this
gap for you just to catch us up. For this reason, because
you were Gentiles in the flesh, you were not of Christ. You were not in Israel. You were
separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel.
You were strangers to the covenants of promise. You did not know
it. You could not see it. It was not there for you. Therefore,
you had no hope in the world without God. Thou, you have been
brought near by the blood of Christ. You have been brought
near by Christ who is our peace, and He has united us as one people. And He tore down the wall of
hostility. He tore down the wall of division. And He's created
one new man from the two, reconciling us to God through the cross,
bringing us to one Father. Therefore, we are now citizens. Members of the house, not just
citizens of the land. Oh, you once were foreign, now
you're sort of naturalized. No, we're members of the home.
We're daughters and sons of God. Members of the house of God,
not just the city in which He dwells, but the very house. Given
the foundation of the prophets, Christ is the cornerstone of
the building in whom the whole structure is held together. For
the sake of what? Why has God built Himself a church? So that we might be mature and
holy and unified in Christ to be a people for his own glory. For this reason. You see how
that works? Everything I just said, now Paul
summarizes that in, for this reason. Because of all that,
I, Paul, and then he starts to qualify who he is. He's very
clear. Now, see, Paul was in prison.
There's a lot of debate on where he was in prison. So we're not
going to deal with that right now. It's not important to what I want
you to see here. We may talk about it some next
week. But the debate on where we know he was in prison, whether
it was in Rome or whether it was in Turkey or wherever, we
just know he's in prison. Paul, his apostleship continually
came under fire because he was arrested so often. See, this
is the theology that we have in the church today. Nothing's
changed. Oh, that pastor's suffering. Oh, that church member's suffering.
They're losing their house and they're sick and something's
wrong. They're not walking by faith.
You hear it all the time. And the people were saying the
same thing about Paul. His apostleship was continually having to be
defended. And so instead of just ignoring it and just preaching,
Paul grabs right there the bull by the horn and says, I'm a prisoner.
I mean, slaving, he doesn't just say there's several letters,
but I got so over. I got so enthusiastic about looking
at the imprisonment of Paul that I almost forgot to get ready
for the sermon that I was preaching. It was just incredible imprisonment
of Paul. And so now we have this we have
this prisoner and he says, who is he a prisoner for? He was
arrested. By Rome, we know that the Roman
authorities most likely had him arrested. If it wasn't here,
we know ultimately he was arrested by Rome. Why was he arrested? Because he preached to Gentiles.
So look what Paul says here. He says, for this reason I, Paul,
a prisoner for Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles. Now
we're going to stop. And just deal with that for a
minute. See, Paul is saying he's not a prisoner of Rome. He's
not a prisoner of the Jews. He's not a prisoner of any particular
person or he's not a prisoner of a government. He's not a prisoner
in a court system. He's a prisoner of Christ. He's
a prisoner of Christ. In 2 Corinthians. Chapter 10,
verse five, it says, we destroy arguments in every lofty opinion
raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought
captive to obey Christ. See, Jesus teaches that we're
either a slave to sin and John chapter eight, he teaches the
Pharisees that. They are not free except the
Son sets them free. And they were really outraged
at the fact that they had forgotten that they were slaves in Egypt
and actually occupied by Rome at the time. We've never been
slaves to anyone. He says, you who do sin are slaves
to sin. And the Scripture also teaches
us that we should not be slaves to sin in the flesh, but slaves
to righteousness and to Jesus Christ. So Paul is very clear
that he was made a prisoner of Jesus Christ. He was enslaved
by the gospel, but yet it's that enslavement that made him free
from the slave of sin and the yoke of slavery in the flesh.
Why? Because of God's grace. Why did
Paul? Why was he arrested? Why was
he beaten? Why did he suffer so? Because of God's grace to
preach to the Gentiles the mystery of Christ. That's what he's teaching
there. And so Paul is exclaiming, I am free, except that I'm a
prisoner of Jesus Christ for your sake, that I might preach
the mystery of the Gospel, the mystery of Christ. See, if Paul
had kept his mouth shut, if he had just been a little bit more,
secretive, if he had just sort of waited about five to ten years
and started a movement, a little underground type thing and just
sort of got the word out gradually, it wouldn't have all come back
to him and he could have actually had a lot more influence. Baloney. That isn't the way the gospel
works. That isn't the way it works. I was in a discussion
this week with someone about evangelism, and they were rebuking
me very so lightly in the fact that they made the comment that
if one is a believer and tries to share a gospel with his mouth,
but yet he fails to follow morality with his life, then that gospel
will not bring anyone to Christ. For the walk is what brings people
to Jesus, he said, not the gospel. And I'm like, you, you're on
some bad drugs. Take that stuff, whatever corner
you bought it from, and get a refund because that's bad. You're not
reading the Scripture that I read. God saves people in spite of
our wickedness. God used a donkey to speak the
gospel to Balaam. So God can use a wicked man.
God used Pharaoh. God used Judas to preach the
gospel for crying out loud. Hated Christ, loved the money,
but he worked for Jesus, he preached, cast out demons. Paul, when we
see in one of his prison epistles that there are some who would
preach the gospel through vain rivalry and conceit, but whatever
reason, their hearts, that's their problem, but the truth
is coming out of their mouth. If God needs our righteousness
before men in order to save men, then those men aren't culpable
for their rejection of such gospel if I have pushed them away from
Christ. Friends, yes, we are wickedly hypocritical to live
one way. and speak another. And as a matter
of fact, John says in his first epistle that if we say we have
fellowship, but walk in darkness, we're a liar. We do not practice
the truth. And that goes from worship. That goes for an affection
for the Word of God. That goes with the fellowship
of the saints and taking care of the needs of the brethren.
If we close our heart against someone in need, we hate that
brother. And if we hate that brother, we can't love God. If
we don't love God, we don't have salvation. So Paul didn't care
about imprisonment. As a matter of fact, He wants
to instruct us to listen. Look at this, assuming that you
have heard of the stewardship of God's grace. Now, there's
a lot, even Calvin here gets a little bit weird. and talks about the
idea, maybe not in this point, but in the sense of what he has
already written. He says, well, maybe he wrote another letter. There's
no evidence that he wrote another letter. There's no evidence that Paul
was writing to unbelievers here. Paul has already said, you are
the blessed in Christ. You have been saved. But there was some
time since Paul had been to Ephesus, just as if you skip church for
about six weeks and you come back, you'll probably see a new
face. You'll probably see new people. I mean, you stay gone
for six to eight weeks, there may be two or three more children
in this room. Who knows? So, you know, there are always
new ears, there are always professing mouths and unregenerate hearts
that sit among the church who warmly and comfortably just consider
themselves saved because they live such a good life. And God
saved me, I know, because I don't sin. Oh, wow. John says, if you
say you have no sin, you're a liar. The truth is not in you. So in
that, we know we are sinful. We might not practice sin. We
should practice righteousness. But in that sense, we know that
sin forever dwells in me. My brother Brooks was sharing
with us this morning. His mind was sinful. Whether
he acted on it or not, it was a debate. It was a divide. It
was a struggle. All of us are in that same shoe.
Even after we get through here in preaching, as we get on our
face to pray for God to work in our hearts, we fight the flesh.
Some of the vilest things, some of the most disruptive hatred
and bigotry can come into your heart and mind when you feel
as though it's time for you to truly serve the Lord. And what
do we do but throw our hands and quit? No, we stand bold before
the throne of grace and say, oh, God, if you do not save,
if you are not the one in whom I have hope, I have none. For
even as our meditations on the Word of God come to our minds
and our hearts and our eyes, and even if we express it with
our lips, Jesus is very clear that many can praise him with
their lips, but their hearts are far from him. It is not to
quote a hip hop star, but it's amazing what you can do with
a cold heart. It's amazing how many people
serve in the local church who will never see Christ. Listen, he says, have you heard? I know most of you have heard,
Paul says, but some of you probably have not. You are new and don't
think that just because just because these people tell you
that you understand my heart, that you understand, I know you
hear the rumors that I'm in prison and therefore it is a proof that
my apostleship is at question. But you. should hear and listen. Do we hear, church? Do we hear
the Word of God? Do we listen and do we perceive
as we see and know and believe? Or do we hear and know the Lord
and His Word? Or would we sit here dumb and
blind? and numb to the Holy Spirit?
Or are we battling with Him? Is our flesh making war in such
a way that we struggle? And we say, what must I do to
be saved? How is it that I am so wretched and I want to have
the joy of Christ, but yet that sin within me I know is winning
the battle. It is just by faith to know that
Christ has already defeated that sin. Do you understand that? Do you comprehend that? Do you
embrace that? Do you see that? Do you love
that? Has God transformed you? This mystery. This mystery. Last night, and I'm driving through
town, and I see out there on the sign, Isaiah 45, verse 3. And I see these words, and there's
an ellipsis, and I'm like, hey, they skipped some. So I've got
to go back in there, but it's too big to put on the sign. So
I looked at it, and I read it, and God says, I will go before you and level
the exalted places. I will break in pieces the doors
of bronze and cut through the bars of iron. I will give you
the treasures of darkness and the hordes and secret places
that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel,
who you call by your name. I was that was a good night to
walk and drive, trying to get a coffee and to see that it was
a good night. To know that God gives us the
treasures of darkness. What's that mean? Not the wicked
treasures, not the evil treasures. But we can make a case to know
that God owns even the treasures of the wicked. But most importantly,
is that God, what is hidden from our sight, what is hidden, the
greatest treasure of his riches, of his glorious grace, as we
see Paul exclaiming. So see, this doctrine, it didn't
come from Paul, it came from God. It's impossible for us to
see and receive and believe and hold and have affection for and
move with. And God gives us that by giving
us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. He shines in our heart that we might see that.
That which was hidden from us for centuries and centuries and
centuries. And if it were not for God's
grace, we would not see that mystery that is now made known.
Paul speaking in 1 Corinthians says, Behold, I tell you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment
in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet
will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we
shall be changed. See, Paul was made a prisoner
for his joy, for the good of the church and for his good.
Romans 8, 28, for God calls us all things to work together for
good, for those who love him and are called according to his
purpose and for all who are called. The Gospel is a tree of life. It is rejoicing. It is the knowledge
and righteousness of sin. 1 Corinthians 1, starting in
verse 27-8, somewhere around in there. You'll see that. I
will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will
curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
God spoke to Abram. Paul is not a prisoner of man,
but of Jesus Christ. He's praying continually. for
the saints, for the church. And what does He pray? He's praying
for them to grow. He says that I want you to grow. I want you to grow in a unified
body. Folks, the greatest mockery of
the cross is when the body of Christ does not stay united. Maybe not the greatest, but I
believe it's the greatest picture. God has created the church. The
greatest mockery of the cross is when relationships are severed
because of pride and sin and wickedness. Yes, we have to part
ways at times. Yes, institutions called churches
split and divide because hopefully and prayerfully, it's not over
the color of the rug, but rather the truth of the gospel. And
people are tired of sitting under false teaching. People are tired
of sitting under a gospel that's man-centered and hallelujah focused
with a good commitment to give financially for the next 12 years
so that we might reach people with hot dogs and popcorn and
wonder where they are when they're 15. Because they never came to Christ,
they came to popcorn Christ. Jesus, Oscar Mayer. Nothing wrong with hot dogs and
popcorn, we eat them. But that's not evangelism, that's
not the gospel. How awful would it be if you
pulled up to the gas pump and you were going to get gas? And
they said two dollars a gallon. And there was a line from here
to Glenville. And we sat there in line. And after an hour, we
got up there and it wasn't gas at all. It was fruit punch. And
people were pumping fruit punch from the gas pumps into their
jugs to take home to drink. What a disappointment. Now, you
may take that punch, you may go home, but oh, my gosh, would
it be a point of contention for the rest of the week? I wasted
all day. Didn't even get two dollars worth
of gas. I ran out of gas waiting for that. Because I thought I
was going to make some money. Farmers lined up with their big
500 gallon tanks and trailers ready to get that fuel and oh
my goodness, what a surprise. The same it is with hot dogs.
When we say that we show you Jesus this way by bringing you
here for this and hey, if you want to have a good time, if
you want to enjoy friendship, if you want to enjoy these things,
come, come, come, come! Step right up! Come one, come
all! I'd love to have a winding organ
and a monkey as we see some evangelistic outreaches in most churches.
Ladies and gentlemen of the big circus. I mean, it's just and
then we say, look at what we have for you. And then we close
the curtain. Now, let me tell you why you're
here. Don't leave. You need to get right with God.
OK, can I go now? I got my hot dog. You have a
hot dog tomorrow. I'll be back. And I use hot dogs because it
seems to be a common theme. Nothing wrong with them. Please
don't say that I'm preaching against hot dogs. But they won't
save you. Nothing will, but Christ, nothing
will, but the grace of God, this mystery is now known. And Paul
is saying he wants the church to grow into a unified body,
not just together relationally. We don't compromise truth for
a unity that is not real. We don't say, oh, we just get
along and ignore all the issues where you believe this and I
believe that. We have to be unified most certainly in doctrine first
and foremost. For the bond of peace and the
unity that comes in Christ is his essence. He is the unifier. He is the author and the perfecter
of the faith. He is the one who sanctifies
the church, who grows us in maturity so that we will be like Him as
He prepares to present us to the Father. And if we're looking
at a different gospel, we are preaching heresy. And now Thomas
Paul says to the Galatians, Who has cursed you? Who has bewitched
you? Who has cast a spell on you?
You say you believe in the sufficiency of Christ alone by faith. Period. And yet you're falling into the
Judaism game. You're falling into the circumcision
issue. You've got to dress this way,
and act this way, and talk this way, and eat this way, and read
this book, and sing that song, and walk this aisle, and say
this prayer. You're falling into sin. See, and Paul says, Anathemas,
be damned. If I preach another gospel, let
me or an angel from heaven be forever accursed. That's the
more politically correct with young ears to say accursed. But
it actually is damnation. Be cut off. But through it all, Paul is wanting
us to grow into maturity for the glory of God and the display
of the manifold wisdom of God, as we'll see in verse 10 next
week. of chapter three. But this Paul, this pain that
he's suffering, this arrest, this incarceration is resulting
in joy. It makes no sense to the world,
but for the saint, we understand that Paul is joyful. Matter of
fact, I won't go through all of these things, but Paul says,
therefore, I rejoice in my suffering. He gives doxology. He is thankful. He has gratitude and he prays
accordingly. Paul is incarcerated as a prisoner
of Jesus Christ for the sake of the church with joy and gratitude. See, thankfulness and joy. How
am I supposed to praise God in all things? You're thanking for
Him. How am I supposed to thank God in all things? You are excitedly,
overwhelmingly joyful in them. True worship is really about
gratitude. That's really the heart of it. You're grateful
or you're not. And the antithesis of gratitude
is pride. And pride gives birth to all
sorts of things. As Solomon says, pride comes before the fall.
That's no joke. Pride comes before the sealing
of destruction. Pride comes before the hardening of the heart. Pride
comes when the body and the mind and the heart says, I do this.
I owe this. You owe me. Where is this for
me? Don't you know who I am? We're nothing. the recipients of grace. Paul
is grateful in verse 15 of chapter one, it says, for this reason,
for this reason, I give thanks. He prays that the God of the
Lord Jesus Christ would give the church a spirit of wisdom. Listen to this. And revelation
and the knowledge of him having the eyes of your hearts enlightened,
that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.
He prays that the church may know the riches of His glorious
inheritance. In the saints, we are the inheritance
of God. He prays that the church may
know what is the immeasurable... Oh my goodness, listen. What
is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe
according to the working of His great might that He worked in
Christ when He raised Him from the dead. You see that? And Paul
closes this letter out with that same power, with that same awesome
great might. Ephesians and Colossians go very
hand in hand. He prays for the church of Colossae
in the same manner. And so, from the day we heard,
we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled
with the knowledge of His will and all spiritual wisdom and
understanding, in order that you will walk in a manner worthy
of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good
work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you, Paul's praise,
be strengthened with all... I remember preaching this and
it got me excited. Strengthened with all power according
to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy,
giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in
the inheritance of the saints in life. He has delivered us
from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the... to the
kingdom of His beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the
forgiveness of sins. See, Paul, if you will, was made
a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which has given
me by the working of His power, he says in verse 7 of chapter
3. And Paul is grateful for that. Paul is grateful to be imprisoned
because he recognizes, and this is the next point if you've been
taking points, he recognizes that he is imprisoned by the
grace of God. Wait a minute. OK, let me put
it this way. Paul at conversion was told by
the prophet that he would suffer much for the sake of the name
of Christ. Paul was told numerous times over and again, especially
in his stint to Rome, that he would suffer and be imprisoned
for the sake of the gospel. Then Paul, in turn, is grateful
for his suffering. He rejoices in his suffering.
He says it's for his good that he is in prison. He said it is
for the sake of the gospel that he is in prison. And yet he is
not a prisoner of man, but a prisoner of Christ. And that means he
has he is where Christ needs him to be. Therefore, Paul has
been imprisoned by the grace of God. God's grace is a gift. For by grace you have been saved
through faith, and faith is a gift from God. Not of yourselves,
not of works that no one can boast. Who gets the glory? Paul
was imprisoned by the grace of God. He tells the Philippian
church, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me
has really served to advance the gospel. What has happened
to him? He's been arrested and beaten and flogged and everything
else, and he's in jail. He says, I want you to know,
brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance
the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole. Listen,
Imperial Guard and to all the rest, the rest of what the prisoners
and the jail. The guards know and everyone
in that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers,
having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are
much more bold to speak the word without fear. He tells them it is right for
me to feel this way about you, he was grateful. For their support. Because I hold you in my heart.
For you are all partakers with me of grace. Both, see, you are
partakers, listen to this, you are partakers with me of grace,
both. And he's about to give two ways
they're partakers in his grace. In my imprisonment and in the
defense and confirmation of the gospel. So Paul says in Philippians
1-7 that his imprisonment is a grace of God and that the church
is partnering with him in that. And he says that the confirmation
defense of the gospel is also what the church is partnering
him with. And that that is grace of God.
It was grace. God gave it to him. So therefore,
we know that Paul was imprisoned by the grace of God. He was imprisoned
and then he was empowered by the grace of God. That's what
we see here. He was empowered by the grace
of God. He says it there. By His power, verse 7, according
to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of
His power. So God's power and His grace
are hand in hand. In Acts chapter 20, we see, and
behold, now I am going to Jerusalem. Paul speaks, constrained by the
Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there. Except what? He says, I do not know what will
happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to
me that in every city imprisonment awaits. Wouldn't you love to have that
insight in the future? How many of us would get out
of bed if we knew every day, every city, every time we tried
to share the love of Christ, we'd get arrested. He said, I know nothing of what
will happen to me except by the Holy Spirit who testifies to
me that in every city imprisonment and afflictions await me. But
I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself. If only I may finish the course
and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify
to the gospel and the grace of God. Now, Paul, then in Colossians
1, says this, I rejoice in my suffering for your sake. Carefully
listen. And in my flesh, he says, I am
filling up what is lacking in the suffering of Christ for the
sake of his body. That is the church of which I
became a minister. according to the stewardship
from God that was given to me for your sake, to make the Word
of God fully known, which is the mystery hidden for ages and
generations, but now revealed to His saints. To them God chose
to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of
His glory, of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of
glory." See, this power of God is the means and the fuel for
such praise and glory and joy. God's grace locked him up, God's
grace empowered him, God's grace gave him gratitude and prayer
and joy and sufficient hope and knowing that it was what God
desired from him. So what is the outcome of Paul's
imprisonment and closing? We see Paul doing several things,
and I could pull on them, but specifically in this text, we
see Paul preaching and writing. Paul writing letter in prison.
Paul preaching in prison. Paul writing letters about his
preaching as he's imprisoned. And Paul preaches and writes.
Why? So that the grace of God may be given to the saints. so
that the grace of God may be given to those who are blind
and dead that may come to life through the writing of the Scripture.
It is only sola scriptura, as we say, it is only through the
Word of God alone that one comes to faith. It is not through situational
evangelism, relational evangelism, incarnational evangelism, classical
apologetics, all of these different things. Those things are just
ways for us to get talking to people and looking at people.
But unless we articulate the exact gospel from the exact pages
of the exact Word, No one will come to faith, and if they do,
they're coming to something besides the true reality of God. They're
coming to some Christ that they have accepted in their lives
and in their hearts that is not from Scripture. That's why it's
so difficult when people begin to read the Word of God for what
it is and they see the true Jesus. They go, that's not the God I
know. That's not the God. I've never heard that. I've never
known that. What are you talking about? Because they don't know
the true Christ. Jesus says in John 17 that this
is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God, and the
Son, Jesus, whom you have sent. How do we know Him? He makes
Himself known through His Word. The Word became flesh and glowed
among us, and we have seen His glory. Glory to the only Son
of the Father, full of grace and truth, and from this fullness
we all receive grace upon grace. Paul says if we don't go, how
will they know? How will they come to believe? For faith comes through hearing,
and hearing comes through the words of Christ. So Paul preaches and he writes,
he says, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation
in verse three, as I have written in verse four, when you read
this, you can perceive my insights into the mystery of Christ. In
other words, when you read what I write, God will give you the
revelation to come to faith. God will give you the grace to
be able to stand under the curtain of oppression and persecution
and suffering. And you will joyfully and gladly
accept the plundering of your property, is what the writer
of Hebrews says. For you know you have a greater reward, an
enduring, eternal reward. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus,
by the command of God, our Savior and of Christ Jesus, our hope.
To Timothy, my true child in the faith, grace, mercy and peace
from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. And Timothy,
that's 1 Timothy chapter 1 at the end of that letter. Oh, Timothy,
guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble
and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge. For
by professing it, some have swerved from the faith. Grace be with
you." Paul gives grace to you through his writing, and he says,
Grace be with you as he concludes it. It's the grace of God given
through his word. Colossians 418, I'm Paul Wright,
this greeting with law on him. Remember my chains. Grace be
with you. Second Timothy one. Listen to
this. Therefore, do not be ashamed, young Timothy, about the testimony
of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoners, but share for the gospel and
suffering by the power of God. who saved us and called us to
a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of His
own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ before the
world began and which now has been manifested through the appearing
of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life
and immortality to life through the Gospel, for which I was appointed
a preacher and apostle, which is why I suffer as I do. But
I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed. And I am
convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has
been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound
words that you have heard from me in the faith of love and love
that are in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit who dwells within
us. Guard the good deposit entrusted you. He tells Timothy after that,
he says, then child. You be strengthened by the grace
that is in Christ Jesus. And what you have heard from
me in presence of many witnesses. And trust the faithful man who
will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a
good soldier of Jesus Christ. See, Paul taught his disciples.
Paul taught the church. He's teaching us today. God is
teaching us that we ought to see suffering and not avoid it,
not try to steer around it if it catches the spine, but see
it and walk head on into it. That we know that it is that
place where the gospel is needed. That it is that place where the
power of God is most powerful and it is that place where the
fullness of the grace of God is manifested most perfectly
in the life of the saints. It is suffering. Walk and endure. Share and suffer. You share your
food. You share your toys. You share
what is precious. Why would you share suffering?
For it should be precious to the soldier of Jesus Christ.
Paul has the grace of God and the grace of God enables him
and puts him and commits him to prison and to suffer for the
sake of the gospel so that the church might become mature, might
become true, might become alive, And then, therefore, they would
endure all that is coming to them. Friends, you think you
have suffered. Look at our brothers and sisters
who fight for their lives on the Lord's Day or any day just
to see or hear the Word of God for a few moments. We haven't suffered and we should
take advantage of that lack thereof, but I'll be honest with you,
I really believe it takes suffering sometimes to weed out true believers
and false believers. as the press presses, as gold
is refined by, though it perishes by fire, Peter says, these trials,
and 1 Peter, that you must endure if necessary, result in the tested
genuineness of your faith that results in praise and glory and
honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you do not see
Him, you love Him. Though you still do not see Him,
you love Him with a love That is, what is that word? Let's
look at it. I hate when I forget a text. Chapter one. Oh, wrong one. You have not seen him, you love
him, though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice
with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining
the outcome of your faith, which is the salvation of your soul.
First Peter, chapter one is what I was just quoted. Paul has the grace of God by
the working of the power of God. See, Paul's imprisonment is for
the unity of the church. Verse six, this mystery is that
the Gentiles are fellow heirs. Look at it. Verse six, members
of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus
through the gospel. Paul suffers so the church would
become one. Paul suffered so that God's manifold
wisdom might be displayed. Paul's imprisonment is for the
unity of the church. The second thing, the outcome, the purpose.
Paul's imprisonment is to display the suffering of Christ as peace.
Peace. For he himself is our peace,
made us both one and has broken down in his flesh, the dividing
wall of hostility. Ephesians 214 and Paul's imprisonment
is for the maturity of the church. Chapter one, verse four. Even
as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and blameless before him. Paul's imprisonment
ultimately is for the glory of God. It's for the glory of God. In chapter three, verse 10, as
we'll see in a few weeks. To me, though, I'm the very least
of all the saints, Paul says this grace was given to preach
to the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring
to light for everyone. What is the plan of the mystery
hidden for ages in God who created all things? And here's the plan
so that. Through the church, the manifold
wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities
in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal
purpose that he has realized in Christ, our Lord, in whom
we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith
in him. So I ask you to not lose heart over what I'm suffering
for you, which is your glory. As we close and as we prepare
to pray and dismiss, What difference does this truth make in your
life? What reality is going to be shaken to the core by seeing
just the fact that God empowers us to endure, calls us, and that
by God's gift, He places suffering in our lives? Do we suffer well? Do we suffer with joy? Do we
suffer for the sake of the Gospel? Or do we suffer like the world,
whining and complaining? Complaining about our first world
problems. Oh, the air is not quite cool. The eggs I ordered
is a little cold. Gas is too high. And all of those
are complaints that I have made in the last few days. So I'm
not talking about you. And if you went, well, that's
me. I'm not talking. I'm talking about me. Oh, this
Bible got wet. Oh, my computer is too slow. That person talks way too loud. Christ died, the apostles died,
the saints of the first century died, the reformers put their
lives on the line and died. Where is the church? Where's
the church of Jesus Christ? Where's the good works? Hot dogs
and popcorn, no, no, it's not good words. Where's the proclamation
of the gospel? The effects of this truth on
the church, we ought to strive to worship with our minds. Through
growing here deep in the knowledge of grace, we ought to strive
to worship with our hearts as we put our affections toward
Christ deeply in the Word, that we also then love with our hearts
deeply each other beyond bloodlines and family lines and relational
lines, but the blood of Christ lines. The body of Christ. The bride of Christ. And then we put our hands in
worship. That we do what we do all for
the glory of God, that we drink orange juice, that we wipe our
bottoms and we clean floors for the sake of His glory. Kids are
laughing. They're listening. See, we're
saved in the reality of what we see Paul teaching here. We're
saved unto good words. We're saved unto suffering. We're
saved unto teaching. We're saved unto preaching. We're
saved unto unity. And that unity isn't just gathering
together without killing one another. It's gathering together
solidly, focussly in unity of doctrine and truth, in unity
of faith, in unity of affection, and in unity of the proclamation
of the Gospel. With our minds, hearts, hands,
mouths, and lives. So what difference does this
make to you, church? As God continually is sought
and you seek His face to be part of this body. Maybe you can,
maybe you can't. Maybe you will, maybe you won't.
Where is it and what is it in your life that God is calling
you to? If you do not know, ask for wisdom. He will give it to you. Then
stand on what God has shown you. That's difficult for us. It's
difficult for us to do because our minds are a whirlwind of
minutia. And we need to solidify ourselves
in the Word and pray diligently that God might even call our
children to die for the Gospel. Is that the call of God? He may not ask you to, but we
are to suffer. And Paul suffered with joy. And
he suffered by the grace of God for the purpose of God's glory.
The least we can do is sing and worship with an affectionate
heart because of that great love. Let's pray. Father, we are just
most certainly beyond expression. Lord, as we close our time today,
I know that there are some in this room who are struggling
with the reality of what they've heard. Just putting it all together,
God, I pray that if it pleases you, you would help them see.
Lord, I pray that distractions from our hearts and minds as
we go throughout our day would just diminish and that the Word
that is planted there would just rise up in us. Lord, do that
for us, please. If you do not work in us with
your Spirit, we will not. We will not be able to stand. Thank you for the cross. Thank
you for Christ who sufficiently provided A sacrifice, a life
that pleases you in the flesh of humanity. and willingly lay
this life down that we might live, that you could rightly
and righteously forgive us of our sins. Father, I pray that
you would bring some to faith, whether they hear this message
here or down the road, Lord, that the word that is heard in
the hearts of these children in this room, God, that you would
bring them to faith. They would make difficult choices
and do difficult things and not fall the easy way of this world. but squeeze through that narrow
gate of righteousness. Lord, help us to be a people
who are a force to be reckoned with in a city, in our cities.
That we might rightly know that you are at work in us as we are
nothing but jars of clay. Father, we thank you for your
love for us. We pray these things in the name of Christ Jesus,
our King and Savior. Amen.