If you will, I'd like for you
to turn back with me to Ephesians chapter 3. Paul begins here with a declaration
of his stewardship of the grace of God. Stewardship of the grace of God. This is something All ministers
have in common, they're all stewards by God's calling of the grace
of God, which God, He said, had given
to me for you. This is God's eternal, free,
and sovereign grace in Christ Jesus. Now, what do I mean? Most of you in here know what
I mean when I say sovereign grace, but maybe some of you don't know
what I mean. You don't see that word sovereign
in the scriptures and you wonder why we use it and why we state
it and why in the world would we put it up before the grace
of God. Because God is sovereign. He's sovereign. What's that mean?
It means he does as he pleases. It means that He's Almighty God.
It means that He's all-wise God. He does as He pleases, and what
He pleases to do is right. He's sovereign. And therefore, that grace which
He gives is sovereign grace. Sovereign grace. Eternal grace. Why would I use
that word concerning grace? Eternal. Because God's eternal. Men get all upset and jump up
and down because somebody stood up and said something about eternal
justification. Well, my soul, is your God eternal?
Or was justification something He thought about somewhere down
in time when He got in trouble? Sure, it's eternal. It's eternal
because our God is eternal. It's eternal, free, and sovereign
grace. in Christ Jesus. And he being
an apostle and chosen to be a witness and writer of the New Testament
was given the revelation of Christ by Christ himself. By Christ
himself. Even modern day so-called apostles
who claim the apostolic gifts and so forth, they're not apostles. They weren't taught by Christ
himself. But there was a few. who were,
and Paul was one of them. He tells his story several times
in the book of Acts and again in Galatians 1, 15 and 16. And then in our text here in
Ephesians 3, 3, he says how that by revelation Christ made known
unto me the mystery whereby when you read, you may understand
my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was
not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed
unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles
should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers
of His promise in Christ by the gospel." Now what I hear The
professing church in my day has an overtone of familiarity with
Jesus Christ. And if I might use the term,
they have a presumptuous arrogance concerning His offices, His purpose,
and His present reign in glory. When they talk about the Lord
Jesus Christ, they call Him Jesus. Jesus said this and Jesus did
that and Jesus does this. Very seldom do you ever find
that word used by itself in the Scriptures. It's almost always
the Lord Jesus or the Lord Jesus Christ. You won't find these
apostles. These men knew something about
who they served. And while Pilate and the Gentiles
and the Jews in that day may have looked on him as some poor
defeated reformer, they didn't see him that way. They knew this
was God come into the flesh. This was the Lord Jesus Christ. These things which God has graciously
revealed to us are of the highest and deepest order. I hardly have the terms to put
it into words, what I'm saying. This is, we're talking about
God. God, in whom we live and move
and have our being. God. Eternal. All-wise, Almighty God. We're
talking about Him. We're talking about what He does,
His will, His mercy, His grace. We're talking about the things
of God. We're talking about majestic
things, high things, glorious things, far above our reasoning. And especially when we're talking
about the Gospel, this is the revelation of the eternal purpose
of God. They deal with the very character
and glory of God. And the gospel is a great mystery
and one which God kept secret from all but just a handful of
men until the fullness of the time was come for His Son to
take in union with Himself the nature and body of a man. The Word, John said, the eternal
Word was made flesh. and dwelt among us. And we beheld
His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.
In Him, Paul said, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."
That man who sat there on the well, he sat on the corner of
a well. We used to have one on my dad's
place where he retired. An old well laid up out of rocks. It had a little wood covering
over top of it and a little door. lift up that door and let down
that bucket and get the water and pull it up and a big dipper
there, you get you a dipper full and get a drink. He sat on the
edge of a well and taught a heathen woman the gospel. And that man who taught her was
God Almighty. Huh? Can you even imagine? That man who set a small child,
he went and took a small child up in his arms and set him down
on his lap and taught us something about humility. This is God. That man who was mocked and scourged
and nailed to a cross was the God-man mediator. This was God
our Savior. Listen to the Scriptures. Great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Oh, my soul. I'm some weary man
talking about putting the gospel in a nutshell. I heard one say
that the other day on the radio. Well, you couldn't put the gospel
in a barrel without a bottom, let alone a nutshell. My soul,
he said, if everything that Christ did, if there was books containing
everything that He did, the world couldn't hold the books. And me and Stand Up, I got one,
two, three, and I just say, go down the road. Paul said it was a mystery, an
eternal mystery hidden from ages, thousands and thousands of years,
hidden from the Gentiles. Gentiles didn't know anything
about it. They didn't have a covenant. They didn't have a Christ. They
didn't have the living God. They had no Bible. They had nothing. It was hidden from them. Hidden
from him. 4,000 years man existed on the
earth, the gospel was hidden from him. Just a handful of this
little nation here in Israel. Just one here and there. In Noah's day, it was just him
and his wife and a few of his children. Paul said, we speak the wisdom
of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained
before the world under our glory, which none of the princes of
this world knew. For had they known it, they would
not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it's written, now listen
to this, I hath not seen nor ear heard Neither have entered
into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. Well, you say the Jews knew God.
Let me tell you something about the Jews. They have everything
in the world in common with modern religion. The Jews expected and
believed in a coming Messiah, the Christ. But they never, not
in their wildest imagination, expected the eternal God to take
upon Himself the form of a man. The Jews believed in a covenant
salvation. But they never, not in their
wildest dream, ever thought it would include the Gentiles. The
Jews believed that God's elect must have and maintain a righteousness,
but not even Gamaliel, their greatest teacher, ever thought
that such a righteousness could be yours by faith. The Jews believed
in election, but they never entertained the thought that God's election
would reach out into all the world. The Jews believed in a
vicarious atonement, but they never thought that the Lord of
glory would sacrifice himself once for all. The Jews believed
that you must be born into the kingdom of God, but it never
entered into their thinking that the natural man must be born
again. The Jews believed that salvation
was of the Jews, but they never entertained a thought. That not
all Israel is of Israel. That he's not a Jew which is
one outwardly, but that he's a Jew which is one inwardly,
and circumcision is that of the heart and not of the flesh. These things are a mystery. And
Paul knew it. He knew that when he ministered
these things. He said, I'm dealing with mysteries. Hebrews 11.3, through faith we
understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God so
that the things which are seen were not made of things which
do appear. That's a mystery, isn't it? That's
a mystery. Paul said, unto me who am less
than the least of all saints is this grace given, that I should
preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery,
which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who
created all things by Jesus Christ." There's a fellowship with the
redemption of Christ and the creation of the world. There's
a fellowship with Christ and the giving of the law. There's
a fellowship with Christ and the priesthood. There's a fellowship
during that whole period of time, including creation, all the way
to the coming of Christ. There's a fellowship of the mystery
of Jesus Christ. A fellow told me, he said, well,
back then, back yonder on that Old Testament, they saved by
law. Now we're saved by grace. Foolish. And there have been
but one way to be saved, and that's by the grace of God. Read
Romans chapter 3 and he'll show you that. To make all men see what is the
fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world
have been hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ to
the intent for this purpose. Now under principalities and
powers and heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold
wisdom of God. Do you know that when we assembled
here this morning, He said we come into the presence of innumerable
angels? Can you even imagine? Here we
are, just a handful gathered together in this church. But
in glory, there's innumerable angels. And they're listening. And you know why? Because they
want to know about these things. To them, this is the greatest
thing, the son of God become a man, came down to this earth,
subjected himself to such cruelty as no man's ever suffered. And
then God raised Him from the dead and took Him back into glory. And by that suffering and death,
He's justified a people, made them righteous, and now sends
men out to preach to them and regenerates them by His Spirit
and calls them and has made a place for them in glory. And the angels
are excited. They want to know. And I can't
get a handful to gather and listen. Huh? These are great things. In our day, they've been made
foolishness. They've been made nonchalant. Just take it for granted. It sends cold chills down my
back when I think about it. There's nothing more exciting
to me or more humbling than to think that the God of glory has
revealed unto me such mysteries as even the angels don't know. and that He called me to preach
these mysteries and promised to make them effectual in the
hearts and minds of His elect. I'm excited about it. I'm not down in the dumps. The first two chapters of Ephesians
are the clearest statements of gospel doctrine that I know of
anywhere in the Word of God. And I won't go through all of
them, but God's eternal election is made known over there in Ephesians
1-4. His eternal predestination is
stated in verse 5 and also in verse 11. And our acceptance
in the beloved, Ephesians 1, 6. Our redemption through the
blood of Christ, verse 7. The understanding of His purpose
and grace in Christ, verses 8 through 12. The giving of faith by the Spirit
of promise who is the very earnest of our inheritance. Salvation
by eternal union with Christ. The understanding of how we are
who were heathen Gentiles should be made fellow heirs and of the
same body with the Jews. Men think they can save themselves.
They think they can produce a righteousness by their own works of which God
will approve. They think their destiny is in
their hands to decide. Men think salvation is at their
disposal. It's up here on the shelf, and
if I really need it, I can go get it. Men think salvation is in their
will and in their decisions. Now, everything I've told you
about Christ is plainly stated in Ephesians 1 and 2, from eternal
election to our resurrection from the dead. And God sent His
holy apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors for better than 2,000
years, proclaiming these things throughout the whole world. And after countless sermons,
this gospel is as much a mystery today as it ever was. Huh? Is it not? Well, you think
after 2,000 years, people get educated. It's as
much a mystery right now as it was then. Preacher, do you actually believe
that when you sit in your study that God guides you in his word
and gives you his message for that hour and for those who gather
there to hear you? I do. What about you? I do. I do. This has been God's way since
the close of the apostolic age and the completion of the Word
of God. Now, having read these things to you and made some comments
about them, I want to ask and answer two questions. Two questions. And these two questions ought
to be familiar. They are familiar to every believer. But you may be asking yourself
this same thing. First of all, why, after so long
a time, are men and women so shocked, so opposed, and so enraged
by the gospel of God's sovereign grace in Christ? They act like,
well, where did you get that? Well, it's only been around for
6,000 years. It's only been revealed in its
clarity 2017 years. Paul said in Romans 10, 18, he
said, But I say, have they not heard? Has this world not heard? Yes, he said, Verily, their sound
went out into all the earth, and their words unto the end
of the world. So why are men so ignorant, shocked, opposed,
and even enraged over the preaching of the gospel? I'll give you
three reasons. First of all, they're ignorant
of the Word of God. My soul, you can go to just about
any bookstore and buy a Bible. I've never met anybody or been
in anybody's home that didn't have one. The Word of God. And men are ignorant of it. They're
ignorant of it. The Bible, my friend, is God's
record that He's given to us eternal life and that this life
is in His Son. It's the only source of information
we have concerning God. It's the only source of information
we have on His purpose and will and His Son, our Savior. The gospel Paul preached and
the one received by men was that Christ died for our sins. Now
listen, according to the scriptures. That He was buried and rose again
on the third day according to the Scriptures. And that He was
seen, first of the twelve and then of over five hundred brethren
at one time according to the Scriptures. And everything we preach in the
Gospel is according to the Scriptures. So when we preach and men find
it appalling, men are opposed to it, men are enraged by it.
Why is that? They're ignorant of the Scriptures.
They're ignorant of the Word of God. I know a fellow that's been going
to church, I guess for, I wouldn't be afraid to say for 20 years,
a fundamentalist Southern Baptist. And he heard me, overheard me
witnessing to a man talking to him about his soul, and was trying
to tell him some things about Christ. And I went over to II
Corinthians 5, and I was going down through there showing him
some things, and I got to verse 21. For he hath made him to be
sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. And boy, here he come carrying
around the side of this thing we were building, and he said,
Whoa! He said, That's not in the Word
of God. I said, sure it is. Where? I said, 2 Corinthians 5.21. No,
he said, that's not what that says. I went out and got my Bible
out of the truck, turned it over, and let him read it. And he went
like that and looked in. Oh, he said, that's that old
King James Bible. Well, I said, go get your Bible. He wouldn't do it, because it
says the same thing. It says the same thing. These
early preachers reasoned with men out of the Scriptures, Acts
17, 2 and 3. Men and women are ignorant of
the Word of God. It's misused, it's misapplied,
it's misquoted, and it's misunderstood. Fellas say, oh, you see, God's
not willing for anybody to perish. I say, it's not what that says.
It says, God is long-suffering to us. We're not willing that
any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And
so on and so forth, all through the Scriptures. In Romans 3,
Paul uses two statements to describe what it is to be under sin. Two
statements. Listen to this. There's none
that understandeth, and there's none that seeketh after God. I'm going to tell you something.
If you seek after God, this is where you're going to find Him,
right here. Where you're going to find Him. It's the only source
of information I have about God is in His Word. None that seeketh after God,
and none that understandeth. All right? Secondly, folks respond
in a negative way to the Gospel because they're depraved in their
nature. It's the nature of man to rebel. Did you know that?
Sure it is. That's why we shouldn't get too
upset and too mad about it. That's where God found us, depraved,
wasn't it? Ignorant. I don't need to get
too upset about it. Folks respond in a negative way
to the gospel because they're depraved in their nature. Listen
to this, 1 Corinthians 2.14. He said, the natural man, What's
he talking about there? He's talking about the unregenerate
man, man left to himself. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. What's the things of the Spirit
of God? Well, this is the first thing
right here. All Scriptures given by inspiration of God. Holy men
of God wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Men are ignorant of the Word
of God, and they're filled with the philosophy and reasoning
of man. And to that man, the gospel is
foolishness. It's absurd. And then Paul said
this. He said, to be carnally minded
is death. That's what it means. If you're
wondering what we're talking about dead sinners, that's what
we're talking about. To be carnally minded is death.
To be spiritually minded is life and peace. The carnal mind is
enmity against God. It's hostility toward God. It's
not going to bow to God. It's not going to bow to His
law. It's not going to bow to His gospel. It's not going to
bow to Him. Why, after more than 2,000 years,
are men and women so opposed and so enraged over the gospel?
Because they're ignorant of the Word of God. because they're
fallen creatures with a depraved nature. And thirdly, because
they're deceived by worldly religion. There's no greater obstacle to
gospel evangelism than false religion. Listen to the language the Holy
Ghost uses to describe false religion. He calls them Babylon. Babylon. He calls them whoredoms,
fornication, perversion, deception. He calls what they do bewitching,
beguiling, spoiling, making merchandise of men's souls. He calls them
blind leaders of the blind. He calls them ministers of Satan. He calls them children of Satan
doing the work of their father. In the Spirit, writes, beware
of dogs. Dogs. In Ephesians 2, 2, he describes
a condition of believers before conversion. And he said, here's
their condition. They walk according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the Spirit, which now worketh in the children of disobedience. Now, when we think about, I used
to think this way, and our church taught us to think this way,
and when we think about Satan's work, we think about bar rooms
and brothels and crime-infested inner cities and druggies and
all of that. When we think about Satan's work,
our mind just automatically goes there. But by far and away, his
greatest work is in antichrist religion. That's where Satan
works. That's where he thrives, in anti-Christ
religion, deceiving the nation. There's hardly a man or a woman
or a child who's not been infected with their venom. Everywhere
in the world. I used to correspond with a young
lady in Australia, and she told me the same thing. Satan is at the helm of false
religion, and to preach the gospel to natural man is to assault
the palace of the strong man. That's what it is. When you come
up to somebody and begin to talk to them about their souls, here's
what you're doing. You're assaulting the palace
of the strong man armed. And I'm going to tell you something.
He'll defend his house when it's assaulted. That's why he's armed. He'll defend his house when it's
assaulted violently if he needs to. Preacher, you really mean you
believe that men and women out here in all these churches and
things around, you really believe most of them are deceived by
Satan? Absolutely. Absolutely. Man's deception. Listen to these
things. I'll give you six things here.
Man's deception is manifested in his willingness to rest his
soul on a baseless whim. Nobody's going to do that unless
they're deceived. Man's deception is manifested
in his love of darkness rather than light. He'll cherish and
defend a lie, but you can read him a hundred promises of God
and he won't have none of them. He'll say, that's your opinion.
Man's deception is manifest in his willingness to sit under
rank heresy even after he's heard the truth. Man's deception is
manifest in his satisfaction to worship a false god. Man's deception manifests itself
in his support, defense, and participation in a religion that
produces proselytes, which the Bible tells us are two-fold more
the child of hell than the man who made them. And man's deception is manifested
in his willingness to subject his children to a religion that's
called antichrist. All of the pictures of false
religion in the Old Testament all involved men and women taking
their children. They heated that altar up, red
and glowing, and these parents would take their children and
lay them in the hot arms of that iron statue and sacrifice them
to a false god. Same thing goes on when you take
your kids down there to hear another gospel. That's the same
thing. They deny everything concerning
the Christ of God. Antichrist is antichrist. And they deny everything concerning
the Christ of God from His deity to His present reign and glory.
And it's all but impossible to give a man a hope who already
has one. Don't have any need for it. So why, after more than 2,000
years, are people so shocked and so prone to oppose and so
enraged when they hear the gospel? Because they're ignorant of the
Word of God. Because they're depraved in their
nature. And because they're deceived
by antichrist religion. That's why. All right? Now, if these things be so, and
I've already showed you in the scriptures that they are, why
bother to preach? Why waste my time and subject
myself to alienation from society to preach these things if man
is not going to have them? Why do it? I'll tell you why. Because God
has given to us certain knowledge and certain advantages. which
are far superior to the obstructions that lay in the way. That's what
Paul was so excited about. We know that the preaching of
the gospel is the chosen, ordained, and proven means to call out
chosen sinners and establish them in the faith of God's elect. We know that, don't we? That's how men are going to be
saved. You're not going to get saved out there on the river.
You're not going to get established in the faith out there in the
workshop. You're going to hear the gospel. Listen to this scripture. This
is 1 Corinthians 1, verse 21. After that, in the wisdom of
God, the world by wisdom knew not God, It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. The unbelief, rebellion, and
ignorance of this world is not some unforeseen catastrophe on
God's part. He says there in that verse I
just read to you that the world in the wisdom of God, These things are fully comprehended
in the purpose and wisdom of God, the same as everything else,
to manifest His glory. And to do these things, He ordained
to save sinners through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. These means are exampled all
through the book of Acts, all throughout the New Testament
epistles and especially in the four gospels. I must needs, he
said, go through Samaria. Why? There's a sinner over there
he needs to talk to. That's why. Why did Paul subject
himself to all this torture? Men took him out and beat him
and left him for dead, stoned him. was whipped within one stripe
of his life three times, shipwrecked. Why would he subject himself
to that if preaching was not necessary to the salvation of
your soul? These means are examples. You'll never find a church recorded
in the New Testament marching in a parade to get rid of alcohol. Get them a banner and go out
and march up and down the road. No. That's not going to do any
good. Not going to do a bit of good. What you do find them doing is
preaching the gospel. Preaching the gospel. All right, secondly. We know
these are the chosen men. God revealed it to us. Secondly,
we have sitting right now at the right hand of God a sovereign
mediator who has told us that he has all power given unto him
in heaven and earth and to go on that basis and preach his
gospel. Preacher, don't you know men
are going to get angry? I sure do. But they're going
to get glad when God sends that gospel to them in power. He has power to arrange providence,
work in the hearts of rebellious sinners, and give them eternal
life. Thirdly, I've got His Word. I've got His Word. In Isaiah
55, 11, the Lord said, so shall my word be that goeth forth out
of my mouth. Listen to this. It shall not
return unto me void. You might spit on everything
I've got to say, but that doesn't mean anything about the Word
of God. It shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereunto I send it." That's the Word of
God. His Word is a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of our heart. It strips us, exposes us, and
uncovers that awful condition of sin in our souls. Neither
is there any creature that's not manifest in His sight. We have His Word. And fourthly,
we have His Gospel. The Gospel is the revelation
of the glory of God in the salvation of sinners through the person
and work of Christ. We have that, and God will bless
it. Paul said, it's the power of God unto salvation, for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. I'm going to tell you something.
We're nowhere in the Bible ever encouraged to read the Word and
ignore the preaching of the Gospel. His Word and the preaching of
the Gospel go hand in hand. You want to know how you're born
again? He tells you in 1 Peter 1.23. Being born again, not of
corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. Then down in verse 25, he said,
and this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you. They go hand in hand. Fifthly, we've got the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is God, and as God, His work is irresistible. Irresistible. And the Holy Spirit
is said to accompany the preaching of the gospel. He's made us able
ministers, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. Our sufficiency
is of God, not of ourselves, Paul said, but it's of God. We're
fellow laborers with God. Now, don't misunderstand me.
I'm not trying to set preaching above the Spirit of God. I'm
not doing any such thing. But this is where and how the
Spirit convinces men of sin and convinces them of righteousness
and convinces them of judgment. This is where He takes the things
of Christ and shows them unto you through the preaching of
the gospel. And you'll find in every place
in there When men are established, they're established in the preaching
of the gospel. And I'll tell you this, when
the gospel comes in power, it always comes in the Holy Ghost. And when it comes in the Holy
Ghost, it always comes with the full assurance that the accomplished
redemption of Christ is sufficient to save the chief of sinners.
And I know it came because that man was convinced. He was convinced. And I'll tell you this, the gospel
is the only ointment that will soothe a heart that's been broken
by God. Nothing else will do it any good.
You can talk to it all you want to. You can't soothe a man's
heart that's been broken by God until he hears the gospel. That
gospel ointment soothes that broken heart. But I tell you
this, it's also true that His presence and power in the gospel
manifest our election of God, and it's the very earnest of
our inheritance until the full redemption of the purchased possession
of the Holy Spirit of God. May the Lord be pleased to use
His gospel today to enlighten our hearts and minds and bring
us into full submission to our Savior.