Let's open our Bibles to the
book of Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3. And I want to talk to you a few
moments about the whole family of God. God's family. Paul mentions that in verse 15
here. We're gonna begin at verse 14. He says, for this cause I
bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That
means pray. I pray. And he says, of whom
the whole family in heaven and earth is named. The whole family
of God. We all have our families, don't
we? And we cherish our earthly families. And we should. We should
see our earthly family, hopefully, as a gift from God, a precious
possession to honor our families, honor your father and your mother,
honor the elderly, your grandparents, your children, train them up
in the ways of the Lord. But the only permanent, eternal
family there is is the family of God. And this is a spiritual
family. People of all different walks
of life, all different races, all coming together by a common
power, by the grace of God, knit together by the same spiritual
power and truth and love that God gives to His children. Brother
Jim read that in 1 John chapter 3 in verse 2. Listen, Beloved,
now are we the sons of God, the sons and daughters of God, the
children of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when Christ shall appear, we'll
be like Him and we'll see Him as He is. And then John identifies
this family, these children of God. Verse three, and every man,
every man and woman, every sinner saved by grace that hath this
hope. Now what we need to understand
here is what is this hope? What is that hope? If you have
this hope in you, pureth or purifieth or cleanseth himself even as
Christ is pure." In other words, we're one with Christ. What's
the evidence that I'm one with Christ? I have this hope. And
what is this hope? It's not wishful thinking. It's
not just positive thinking. Some of you may recall the popular
bestseller so many years ago, The Power of Positive Thinking.
Well, there is some good out of that as far as our life here
on Earth. But this hope is more than just
thinking positively. This hope is the assurance of
eternal salvation, eternal life and glory, based upon a proper
authority, a proper ground. And that ground is the promise
of God to save his people, his family, by His grace, through
the blood, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the hope we have. And not only that, but we rest
in His power to preserve us all the way through unto glory. It's
what John means when he says, they that are born of God commiteth
not sin. He's not talking about we're
no longer sinners when we're born again. We're sinners saved
by grace. Only two types of people on this
earth. Sinners lost in their sins and sinners saved by grace.
But we're only sinners saved by grace if we know Christ. But
what's he talking about? He's saying there that those
who are truly born of God, they can never, they can never fall
away completely unto perdition. They can never leave Christ.
They're saved until the end. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. Now notice Paul didn't
say there, I am persuaded that I am able to keep, which is,
he said he is able, Christ is able. And what have I done? By
the power of God, I've committed all of it unto him. What have
I committed unto him? My whole salvation. Every aspect
of my salvation, my election, my adoption, my justification,
the forgiveness of my sins, the declaration of being righteous
in God's sight, the new birth, power of life given by the Spirit,
it's committed to Christ. It's conditioned on Christ. And
he fulfilled the condition. Well, that's the whole family
of God. Look at what Paul says in verse 14 of chapter 3. He
starts off in Ephesians 3, 14, for this cause. Well, what cause? Well, it's the same cause he
mentioned back up in verse 1 when he said for this cause. And it's
mainly the cause of the glory of God and the gospel of His
grace through Jesus Christ. That's what we're here for. I
want to glorify God. I'm not here to glorify you or
to glorify me. It's the preaching that all who
are saved, Jew and Gentile, are saved by grace through the righteousness
of Christ freely imputed and received by God-given faith,
the gift of God. It's the cause of preaching that
both Jew and Gentile in Christ are equally saved, joint heirs,
equal partners, in this thing of salvation. The Jew is no better
than the Gentile. The Gentile is no better than
the Jew. It's all by grace in Christ. That's the cause. Grasping,
listen, grasping, understanding the grace, the greatness of God's
plan and purpose by which Jews and Gentiles are joined together
in Christ. There's no hierarchy here. There's
different offices in the church, there's different gifts, but
there's no hierarchy. I heard one old pastor say, there's
no big I and little you. We're all one in Christ Jesus.
And Paul prays unto our covenant God and Father concerning the
preservation, the perseverance of those who will suffer the
reproach, the hatred, the persecution. that comes from the world over
their testimony of the gospel. Why does man by nature hate the
gospel? Well, it's because it exposes
men and women for what we are. And it reveals that any hope
of salvation other than the hope of God's grace in Christ is a
false hope. Sham religion. Even idolatry. Because there's only one God
and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
He saves one way and no other way. Christ told his disciples in
light of this message. He said, I've spoken to you these
things that you might have peace. We have peace with God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. He said, in the world you're
going to have tribulation, trouble. to be of good cheer, I've overcome
the world. And then he says in verse 15,
he says, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.
Who is this family of God? Well, they're given different
names in the scripture. The whole family of God, who are they?
Well, they're all the elect of God, given to Christ before the
foundation of the world. Adopted into his family, justified. What does it mean to be justified?
It means to be forgiven of all my sins on a just ground, a righteous
ground. And what is that just, that righteous
ground? The blood of Jesus Christ. It's
to be declared righteous in God's sight on a just ground. Now that
can't be declared righteous by my works, because that would
be unjust. My works aren't righteous. There's
only one work that's righteous and that's what Christ did. That's
called the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel. So it's
being declared righteous in God's sight on the ground of Christ's
righteousness imputed to me. It's to be redeemed by Christ.
Redeemed by the blood. Redeemed how I love to proclaim
it. Redeemed by the blood of the
lamb. And then they're called his sheep.
Christ said the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.
They start out as lost sheep and then the shepherd finds them
and puts them on his shoulder and brings them into the fold.
And they hear his voice. How do we hear his voice? In
a dream or a vision? No, in the preaching of the gospel,
which is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. God-given faith. They're called his church. That's
who the whole family of God is, his church. Not churches. Now
we have local congregations of believers called churches, but
altogether the whole family of God is the church which he purchased
with his own blood. And that's all for whom he died.
That's not every religious organization. It's not every building. that
calls itself a church, it's where the gospel is preached. It's
where God is presented from the Word in His sovereignty, His
holiness, His justness, as well as His mercy, His grace, and
His love. Yes, He is a loving God. He's a merciful God. He's a God
who saves. But not without justice and righteousness
and truth being satisfied, he must be both, as Isaiah put it,
a just God and a Savior. And that's what's preached in
his church. How can he be both a just God
and a Savior? It's what I've said before, that
hope. It's what Christ accomplished in his obedience unto death as
the surety, the substitute, the redeemer of his people. The word church means called
out, called out people. Called out of what? Called out
of the world, called out of false religion into the family of God. The whole family of God, Christ
calls them his brethren. You remember when he was preaching
in a particular home, people were listening to the Lord preach
and his mother Mary and his half brothers Mary and Joseph had
other children. Christ was not born of man, he
was born of the Virgin, the power of the Holy Spirit. But Mary
and Joseph had children later on. Now some religions teach
that that's not true, but it is true. They were his half-brothers. And so Mary and his half-brothers
came on the scene, and they couldn't get into the house, so they sent
a messenger in and they told Christ, they said, your mother
and your brothers are outside and they wanna talk to you. You
remember what he said? I think this is recorded in Matthew
12. He said, who is my mother? Who are my brethren, my brothers? And he said, those who do the
will of my father. And what is it to do the will
of his father? It's to believe on the son and
love the brethren and follow him, rest in him. He wasn't being cruel to his
earthly mother. He was making a valid, vital
point that we all need to see. And that's this, when God brings
us into his family, calls us out of the world into his family,
we have a relationship now that can never be broken. It's there
forever. And look at what he says here.
He says in verse 15, of whom the whole family in heaven and
earth is named. Named how? Well, the Book of
Revelation tells us. It says that the names of his
family were written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the world
began. Back in the Old Testament, the
high priest who went into the tabernacle, into the Holy Stavos,
he had a breastplate that had 12 names on it. Six on one side,
six on the other. And he wore amulets on his shoulders. Six names on this shoulder, six
names on that shoulder. And what were the names on his
breastplate? The names of the tribes of Israel. That was a type, a picture, of
all the names of his whole family. The elect of God, the church,
the sheep. Written on his shoulders and
on his heart, his breath. On his shoulders because he carried
the whole load. of our sins as they were charged
to Him. He carried them to the cross.
He bore our iniquities, the scripture says. He was made a curse for
us. He died the just for the unjust,
not being made a sinner, not being made sinful, but being
made sin, a sin offering, because God the Father had made Him our
surety before the foundation of the world. What's that mean?
That means our sin debt, was put to his account, and he willingly
took that debt in the covenant of grace, and he bore our sins
to the cross. And what did he do? He paid the
penalty, the full penalty. Hebrews 10, 14, by one offering,
he hath perfected, finished, completed, Fully satisfied, forever
them that are sanctified. That's another name for the whole
family of God, those who are sanctified. Set apart by the
Father in sovereign electing love, love with an everlasting
love. Set apart by the Son on the cross,
when He died for us, He died for His people, He died for His
sheep. and set apart by the power of
the Spirit in the new birth when he brings us to hear the gospel
and believe it. Listen to this, let me read you
this. This is John chapter 10. He says in verse one, verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into
the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same as a
thief and a robber. There's only one way into the
sheepfold. That's by God's grace in Christ.
And in verse two, John 10, he says, but he that entereth in
by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. Christ came through
the door. He is the door. He said that.
He came through the door of suffering. He came through the door of perfect
obedience. He came through the door of the
glory of God. And it says in verse three, to
him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice. Am I one
of his sheep? I'm one of his elect. Well, do
you hear his voice? You say, well, I hear your voice,
my voice. If I'm preaching his word, it's his voice. When it says do you hear it,
I know you hear it with the physical ear. But do you hear it spiritually? Is it joyful news, good news,
the greatest news you ever heard? That's what it is for a sinner.
Oh, be merciful to me, the setter. I have no hope. But Christ crucified
and risen again. And it says, to him the porter
openeth, the sheep hear his voice, and listen to this, he calleth
his own sheep by name and leads them out. He knows their name. The Bible says the Lord knoweth
them that are his. He knows them. He came to die
for them. He even said this in John 6,
37, he said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. How do you come to him? By God-given
faith. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, of all of our salvation. Pleading
his blood, his righteousness as your only hope. And then look
at the next verses. In verse 16, we have again, here
in Ephesians 3, the identification. of the members of his family.
It says that he would grant you according to the riches of his
glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner
man. And he says in verse 17 that
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you being rooted
and grounded in love may be able to comprehend, understand with
all saints, sanctified ones, what is the breadth and length
and depth and height, all dimensions, and to know the love of Christ,
which passeth knowledge. It's beyond man's knowledge.
Natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
He can't comprehend them. And so this passes knowledge.
Now what does that mean? It means it's gotta be revealed.
I mentioned this morning. I was writing an article last
night called The Highest Learning. And we talk about higher learning.
Some of you are getting ready to, some of our young people
are getting ready to enter college, go to an institution of higher
learning. And a man asked me, he said,
have you ever been to a seminary? And I said, yes, I was at a seminary. And he asked me, what did I learn
there? And I said, well, let me just put it to you very shortly. Here's what I learned at the
seminary I attended. I learned that a person can read
their Bible, study its words, learn Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek,
learn the history of the Bible, memorize the Bible, and still
not know Christ. That's what I learned. Just like
the Pharisees of old, when Christ looked at them and He said in
John 5.39, you do search the Scriptures, for in them you think
you have eternal life, they are they which testify of Me. Well, that's the breadth and
the length and the depth and the height. And to know that,
the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. How could Christ love
a sinner like me? Most people today, really, even
though they may not state it this way, they believe they deserve
God's love just because He created them. It's not true. And then the power of the Spirit
that worketh according to the power that worketh in us. Works
in us to do what? Huh? To speak in tongues? No.
No. To communicate the gospel? Yes.
to witness for Christ, but to glorify God. Look at the last
verse. This is his doxology. Unto him be glory in the church
by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. The people of God, the whole
family of God are those who are strengthened with might by his
spirit in the inner man. And it's a gift that comes that
He would grant you. Look at that again. This thing
of the inner man. Verse 16, that He would grant
you. That's free. It's a gift. You didn't earn it. You don't
deserve it. And that's the way it is with
all the blessings that God gives to His children of salvation.
That's what grace means. It means you don't earn it. and
you don't deserve it. It's freely given. That's what
the natural man, the unregenerate person does not understand. He
doesn't understand the things that are freely given. I'll repeat
myself again. You've heard me tell the story
about when I had a guitar, and I had to have it worked on, and
I gave it to a man who was known for being really skilled in working
on instruments and things like that, the brother in Christ.
And when I brought it to him, it was in an old shabby case,
just about to burst open. And he took the guitar, and several
weeks later, he brought it back, but he brought it back in a brand
new hard shell case. Now, if you know anything about
music, you know those things are not cheap. And he gave me
that, and I said, his name was Ted, I said, well, brother Ted,
I said, I didn't give, that's not my case. He said, it is now.
I said, well, Ted, this thing is expensive. Let me pay you
for that case. He said, no, it's a gift. And
I said, well, let me give you something for it. And he looked
at me and he says, do you know what a gift is? And I thought about that. By
nature, we don't really know what a gift is. Paul in 1 Corinthians 2, he made
this statement. He said, when the Spirit of God
reveals the Lord God in Christ to us in salvation, he reveals
unto us, teaches us those things that are freely given, unconditionally
given. That's why when you go to a place
and you hear them preach somewhere or teach, and they make salvation
conditioned on you or on me, they're not preaching the gospel.
They're not preaching grace. They may call it grace, but it's
not grace. Grace is freely given without
condition. How do you know that you have
this grace? Because even the gift of faith is given to you.
For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, freely given, not of works, lest any
man should boast. That's how. But this phrase,
and it's according to the riches of his glory, Paul says, what
is this inner man? There in verse 16. The inner man. The Apostle Paul
used that phrase several times in the New Testament. The inner
man or the inner person is another way of describing the spiritual
life of one who has been born of God, born from above. Think
about this, the outer man, by contrast. would be the visible,
external aspect of a person. You can see me. You see my outer
shell. You know, people have argued
over the centuries about the constitution of human life, man. Some say that man is body, be
our physical bodies. and soul and spirit. Others argue
that there's only two parts. There's only body and soul, or
body and spirit. And sometimes in the scripture,
in the Old Testament, especially when it refers to a soul, it's
referring to the whole person. But I believe the Bible teaches,
and I'm not gonna go to war on this thought, but I believe the
Bible teaches that we are body, that's physical body, physical
flesh, and that we have a soul that's life, even physical life. God breathed the breath of life
into Adam. And then God's people who are
born again by the Spirit have the Spirit of God. Now man by nature is spiritually
dead. He's body and soul, he has a
mind, he has affections, but he has no spiritual knowledge,
understanding, or desire for God. And you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins. You see that? So the outer
man is our physical bodies through which we experience the world,
functioning primarily through the five senses. We see, we taste,
we touch, we smell, we hear. meeting the innate needs that
drive us to eat, drink, sleep, what forces us and moves us and
motivates us. Our bodies, this physical body
is not evil. Christ had a physical body, that's
his incarnation, but he had no sin. Our physical bodies will
suffer the consequences of sin. You young people, just wait,
it's coming. My hair used to be black. You
believe that? I can show you pictures. Used
to be cold black, didn't it? Jim used to have hair. You know, that's the consequences
of sin, it is. Somebody looks at us at gym,
they say, well, you guys must have really been big sinners.
Well, we're all big sinners. I had a fellow tell me one time,
he said, I got saved and he said, I'm no longer a sinner. I said,
well, you're just gonna stop getting old and you won't die. No, the wages of sin is death.
The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
But our bodies are not evil inherently, but we have a soul and the spirit
of man that the Bible calls it. which is evil, you say, well,
pastor, I'm not evil. Listen, when it comes to a right relationship
with God, and here's how we have to learn to think, when it comes
to a right relationship with God, how God saves sinners, how
a sinner can be right with God, Anything less than perfection
of the law is evil. You believe that? Else, why would we need the righteousness
of God for salvation? So what is our hope? Our hope
is to look to Christ as our righteousness. He is the perfection of righteousness. The Bible says in Romans 10 and
verse 4, Christ is the end of the law, the fulfillment of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. I have no righteousness
of my own. And nothing I do makes me righteous
before God. Even my preaching. I preach the
Word of God. I preach the truth. Check it
out with the Word of God. But that's not my righteousness.
Christ is. He's Jehovah Sid Canoe in the
old Hebrew. He's the Lord my righteousness.
And when God the Holy Spirit imparts spiritual life and knowledge,
that's the inner man. It's a new heart. What is the
heart? The mind, the affections, the
will. He changes my knowledge. He gives me knowledge I didn't
have before. Christ said, this is life eternal, that they might
know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast
sent. He teaches me about who God is,
not only in His love and mercy and grace, but also in His sovereignty,
His justice, His holiness. He teaches me who I am as a sinner,
a wretched, depraved sinner. Incidentally, the greatest evidence
of the total depravity and sin of man is evidenced in how you
respond to the preaching of the gospel. That's right. Walking away unaffected. And he teaches me who Christ
is and how God saves sinners. And he gives me the gift of faith. that brings me to lay hold of
Christ and hold on for dear life. That's a gift from God. That
didn't come from me. That's not natural to us. It
didn't come out of my so-called free will. By nature, I was unwilling,
being spiritually dead. But God made me willing in the
day of His power. Somebody asked me one time, said,
well, are you preaching that God brings us to Christ against
our will? Well, it's against our human
natural will, sinful will, but God changes our will. That's
who God is. And he makes us willing in the
day of his power. The inner man includes the conscience,
the seat of judgment, by which we determine and judge right
and wrong. And in our natural conscience,
it's all messed up. People call good evil and evil
good. that He gives us the right way of thinking. And all of this,
in all of His will. And so then Christ, in verse
17, He dwells within us by His Spirit and by His Word, driving,
convicting us of our sins continually, but yet not leaving us in despair,
but driving us to Christ for peace. Driving us to Christ for
righteousness, for forgiveness, for assurance. And where does that bring us
to? It brings us right here to verse 21. Unto him be glory in
the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.
Amen. Let he that glorieth, you're
going to boast, you're going to claim salvation? Let he that
glorieth glory in the Lord. Not in himself, but in the Lord. May the Lord bless His word to
our hearts. All right, let's get our hymnals
and turn to hymn number 226.