Well, if you would please turn
to Ephesians chapter 3, and I want to look at the first 11 verses
this morning. Ephesians chapter 3. We've seen
some glorious things so far in this epistle to the Ephesians. First of all, God's glorious
purposes in sovereign grace. And then in chapter 2, which
we spent a couple of weeks looking at, the process by which God
takes those who were always the objects of his grace from before
the beginning of time who when Christ lived and died and rose
again they were in him in the purposes of God but yet they
are born sinners with the characteristics of Adam, that Adam nature and
they grow up in unbelief and knowing nothing of the things
of God And at some point, maybe when they're young, maybe when
they're middle-aged, maybe when they're old, maybe in their dying
last few weeks, the Holy Spirit comes and regenerates. So God
in sovereign grace chooses, Christ redeems, by his life, by his
substitutionary atonement and then in time the Holy Spirit
comes and regenerates and gives that which was always the object
of God's grace gives that person who was justified from eternity
in the sovereign purposes of God that knowledge and experience
of it It's, in chapter 2, it was what you Gentiles, because
this is a letter to Gentile believers, primarily. I'm not saying it
doesn't have anything to say to those who are of a Jewish
origin, but nevertheless, it's primarily to Gentile believers,
and it's what you Gentiles were and what you have now become.
in the eternal purposes of God. And remember the illustration
that he used was that of those lumps of rock in the quarry,
in that dirty place, the quarry, children of wrath even as others,
cut by what one king's called the stone squarers, the stone
masons and shaped to the right size to bring to Jerusalem, to
make them into the temple in Jerusalem. And so it is a picture
out of that quarry of humanity His people are taken and shaped
and made stones in what is now the temple of the living God.
Yes, it's individual bodies, but it's his church. His church
is his body. Temple stones. And you Gentiles,
he says, are temple stones. You'd think that was only for
the Jews, wasn't it? For what advantage is there in
being a Jew? Much in every way, for to them
were delivered the oracles of God. says Paul to the Romans,
but you Gentiles too, just like Jewish ones, are made into temple
stones in the church of the living God. And you, who by nature,
by flesh, are Gentiles, of the gens, of the other peoples, of
those who didn't have the oracles of God you are now by faith children
of Abraham not by physical descent but by the same faith as Abraham
and so we've got Jews and Gentiles on an equal footing in God's
gracious purposes because this is always what God said always
what God said you know how the apostles were so the early, in
the early days of the church, you know, Peter didn't want to
go to Cornelius' house in that vision. His natural inclination
was no, I'm not mixing with them, they're Gentiles, I can't eat
with them and it was later even in his flesh that Paul had to
rebuke him for withdrawing himself and only eating with Jews when
Gentiles, when some came from Judea. And yet all the time Isaiah
49 and verse 6 said this, I will also give thee a light, for a
light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the
end of the earth. It was always God's purpose that
his salvation would be unto the end of the earth. and not just
restricted to Jews. And so this summary of chapter
3 and the first 11 verses is the means by which God brings
those he has loved everlastingly and has saved in Christ, has
redeemed in Christ in time how he then brings them to that point
in their life when the Holy Spirit comes and regenerates and brings
about, it's a word that we don't use very much, it used to be
used a lot, but conversion. Be converted. Be converted. You know, I remember years ago,
people would say, are you converted, brother? You know, this kind
of evangelism. Are you converted? Well, conversion
is a good word. A practical conversion. What's
it a conversion from? It's from the lifestyle, the
philosophy, and the spiritual blindness of fallen flesh, however
nice they might be. the lifestyle, the philosophy
and the spiritual blindness of fallen flesh to the knowledge
and experience and the glorious liberty of the children of God. That's what it's about. How we
get from the one to the other. Now I want to look at these 11
verses and draw some lessons from it and then practically
apply it. First of all I want to start
at the end. I want to start at verse 11.
according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus. You see, what do we seek to do
when we study the Word of God like this? What we're trying
to do is to have our minds conformed, our attitudes conformed to the
mind of Christ, to the revelation of Christ. Because by nature,
my mind isn't conformed. to the mind of Christ. By nature,
my mind is conformed to the things of this world, and to the things
of the flesh, and to the things of tradition, and the things
of social habit, and all of those sorts of things. But I want my
mind, if I'm a child of God, I want my mind to be molded,
and formed, and aligned with the word of God. He has revealed
his word that he might teach us, that he might cause us to
think in his way. this is what it is to have the
mind of christ paul says but we have the mind of christ we
want to have our minds conform to this and so we study the scriptures
so we read the scriptures you know i've told you before i've
been looking again at the life of william huntington and there
are other men like him who were just ordinary men from no educational
background from no spiritual stature whatsoever in the eyes
of men and God took them and God made them his instruments
but the key thing was they read this book over and over and over
again. They meditated in this book.
There used to be a saying apparently in London You know John Gill
is often regarded by many in our days who call themselves
reformed Baptists and pillars of the truth. John Gill is regarded
as somebody who was a hyper-Calvinist and because he was a hyper-Calvinist
then he was bound to be an antinomian. There was no greater or more
faithful servant of the living God than John Gill in his day.
And there was a saying in London, amongst the common man in London,
that, you know, we have the saying, like, as sure as eggs are eggs,
you know. Well, they used to say, as sure as John Gill is
in his study. How's the saying? As sure as
John Gillies in his study. Because what was he doing? He
was studying this book. He was digesting this book. He
was meditating on this book. He knew this book, like we say,
like the back of his hand. I don't know how well I really
know the back of my hand, but if that saying is true, I want
to know this book like the back of my hand. I want to know it
inside out. I want to know the mind of Christ
by looking at this book. So what we're doing is looking
at this because it will give us the right attitude and when
we have the right attitude and we think about the practices
that we need to undertake as the people of God for the purposes
of his kingdom in service to him we'll have the right attitude
and we'll approach it in the right way and we'll avoid erroneous
ways because we all know how easy it is to slip into erroneous
fleshly ways in an attempt to do the work of God it's utterly
false so I want to start here in verse eleven All of this is
according to the eternal purpose. He's talking about the revelation
of this gospel to those who were enemies of God, children of wrath
even as others, dead in trespasses and sins. How he brings them
to a knowledge that they are stones in the temple of the living
God, the church of Christ. And he says it's all according
to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus the
Lord. You see, salvation of Gentile
peoples like these And like you and me, that salvation is all,
according to this book, according to God's eternal purpose in Christ
Jesus. This is a comforting thing. God
had an eternal purpose from before the beginning of time. God had
a purpose. And God being God, it's outside
of time, and it's unchangeable. Time cannot change it in any
way whatsoever. He had an eternal purpose. God
eternally loved a people. because of his grace. We can't
see any reason for it. We can't say he loved this person
because he knew they were going to become a bellic. No, not at
all. Just purely by his grace. and
all of these people all of these people that he loved by grace
will be saved now let's have that attitude let's have that
attitude there is a people and some of them are in this world
even now in this in this place of Nedworth living as children
of wrath even as others living, they're dead in trespasses and
sins they have no thoughts for God but yet if they were amongst
this number then they will be saved they will be saved they
will be and you see what this tells me is this that we are
fishing for them in this world Jesus said to the disciples he
called a lot of fishermen and he said leave those nets leave
that means of earning your living leave those things and follow
me and I will make you not fishers of fish and eventually one day
on a beach one day I'll show you how to really fish he says
and I will make you fishers of men I will make you... I'm sending
you out on the trail, to use another analogy, on the trail
of my sheep. This is what we are. If we have
this message in mind that God has sheep out there that are
known to him, you can't see them by any other marks, they look
like anybody else, as long as they stay in unbelief, they are
exactly, in terms of the judgment of God, exactly where everybody
else is, but he has his people, and we're on the trail of those
sheep. And the net that we use, I know I'm mixing all my analogies
up, all the pictures, but the net that we use is the true gospel
of God. The one that He has revealed,
not the one that man has distorted and twisted to make it appealing
and palatable to this fallen flesh. And so we don't use the
world's gimmicks. We don't use the world's methods.
And as we've been just considering in Isaiah 31, We don't go down
to Egypt for help when facing the Assyrians. We don't go down
to Egypt for help. We don't go to this world to
find help in how do we take the gospel. Do we amend it because
we've got to appeal to these people? No. God has his sheep
according to the purpose in Christ Jesus the Lord. We don't try
to be wiser than scripture. So that's the first thing. Let's
be grounded in that. You know if you have this view
that is so prevalent today that the only thing that makes a difference
is our ability to persuade people and not put people off. You approach
evangelism completely differently to the true way which is God's
way. I want to be conformed to his
will. I want to do things the way he
has revealed in his word oh yes this fallen flesh and no doubt
will fail over and over again but with God's help this is what
we want is to be conformed to his truth and to his means and
to his ways now then How do these people, how do you and me, come
to this situation? Look at the first three verses.
For this cause, says Paul, for this cause I, Paul, the prisoner
of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, it's quite probable that Paul
wrote this while he was in prison in Rome, you know, right at the
end of the last couple of years of his earthly life, when he'd
appealed to Caesar in the Acts of the Apostles and he went by
that tortuous journey and that shipwreck and all that way he
went to Rome and there they put him in prison. But do you remember
he had such glorious liberty in those two years of house arrest.
Anybody could come to him and he was able to preach and teach
and he wrote all of these epistles. Why did God allow him, you know,
they said to him, it's been told us that you're going to go to
Rome. And it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I'm going
to go. Don't go down there because they're going to send you to
Rome and it's going to turn out bad. Doesn't matter. God was
telling him he must go there because why? Because there he
had the space and the facilities and the means to write these
epistles of scripture. So many of them, the ones from,
from, from prison. But this one, it seems was written
from that situation. the prisoner of Jesus Christ
for you Gentiles if you have heard of the dispensation of
grace of the grace of God which is given me to you would Paul
says that he was given. You know what, I'm not quite
sure what the grammatical term is, but is it the voice? The
voice of that is the passive voice. He didn't choose it, it
was given to him. He was the passive recipient
of that grace, given to him. How that by revelation he made
known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words. He's
talking about the earlier words he wrote in chapter one, for
example. the revelation of the sovereign grace of God whereby
when you read you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of
Christ. Sounds like he's boasting and bragging about how much he
knows, doesn't it? You know, if you just apply it to human
language it sounds a little bit... All he's saying is that for reasons
completely beyond his own self God revealed truths that man
can never work out for himself and he revealed it to Paul how
that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery and this
is the second thing I want us to note the true gospel comes
only by revelation I could preach to you this morning I could preach
to an assembly of hundreds this morning And I could say exactly
the same words, but the reception of the gospel, the comprehension
of the gospel, is entirely down to the revelation of God by the
Holy Spirit. For to one, it's a savour of
life, and to life, and to the other, it's a savour of death,
a stink of death. It's a horrible gospel, they
hate it. But to the one, it's the savour of life, and to life. The true gospel comes only by
revelation. Do you remember when Jesus asked
the disciples in Matthew 16, who do men say that I am? Oh,
some say you're Elijah and one of the prophets. And Jesus said
to them, but who do you say that I am? And Peter, the spokesman,
you know, always the first to speak said, we believe that you
are the Christ, the son of the living God. We believe what he
said was not just that those words, but we believe that you,
this man that we're stood with now talking to, is the eternal
God become man in human flesh we believe that you are this
one and Jesus said to him blessed are you blessed are you Simon
Bar-Jonas that was his name at the time son of Jonah blessed
are you Simon for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you
but my father which is in heaven Revelation. The Gospel comes
by revelation. Paul tells us himself in Galatians,
he wasn't taught it by flesh and blood. He didn't receive
it by going and studying in the Apostles' School of Biblical
Doctrine in Jerusalem. No, God revealed it to him. It
came by revelation. He didn't choose to do it. He
didn't decide to go and do a course. He was on a road to Damascus
to do damage. And God took him. and God converted
him, and God revealed his truth to him, and God took him out
of that situation into obscurity for three years to teach him
the gospel, to teach him heavenly things, which he said, it's not
right that a man just in human flesh should speak, because he's
seen and experienced things that are so glorious. It's by revelation. Now, worldly, fleshly religion
hates that thought. Get a hold of that. It does.
This is what worldly, fleshly religion thinks regarding Paul. Why was it revealed to Paul?
There were plenty of other good Pharisees, weren't there? No
doubt. There were plenty of others who'd been in the school of Gamaliel
and taught all of the things that Paul was taught. Why didn't
all the other Pharisees have an equal chance to become the
Apostle? Why didn't they? That would have
been fair, wouldn't it? Give them all an equal chance
and let's see the one who's got the most promise or steps forward. No, the message of scripture
is this, that by grace God revealed it to this man, Paul. He revealed
it to him, who he says later on, I'm the least of all the
saints. I'm less than the least of all the saints. He said I'm
not worthy to be called an apostle. He said he's the chief of sinners.
That's what he really meant. He sincerely felt those things.
It was revealed to him. And why is it? It's because God
is God. You know what God says about
the way pots are made? He says there's a potter, and
he takes different lumps of clay, and he makes for honour one pot,
and for dishonour, but use another pot. And we can't understand
it. And we start applying our human
logic to it, and we come to all sorts of false conclusions. But
God is God. He is the potter. We're the clay.
Who are you to say to God, why have you done things like this?
The pot doesn't say to the one who made it, why have you made
me like this? God is God. Let us learn that
lesson from this. God is sovereign in all that
he does. And then next, let's read on,
verse 5. This is the revelation of a mystery. Verse three, how
that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery. Verse five,
this mystery, 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 of the same body. It wasn't. Don't be surprised
that the true gospel is generally hidden from flesh. It was previous
to this New Testament time. In Old Testament, it was all
in pictures. It was all in shadows and types.
It was almost cryptic clues, if you like. It was hidden. It was hidden and hadn't been
revealed widely, as it is now revealed. Now, how has it been
revealed? It's been revealed it says in
verse 5, as it has been revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets
by the Spirit, by the Spirit. We read all those chapters in
John 14, 15, 16 and there's an awful lot in there
about him going away as we saw in recent weeks when we were
looking at those chapters. and that he was going to send
the Holy Spirit to them and how it was good for them that he
go so that the Holy Spirit would come and what a blessing it would
be this is it you know Pentecost is a watershed it really is it's
the opening of the floodgates of the revelation of God the
opening of that. And it was poured out in specific
means unto his holy apostles. Oh, they're very holy. Do you
know one of the most offensive things I ever hear is in the
world of just fleshly religion is in Roman Catholicism when
they refer to the Pope as the Holy Father. When the scriptures
are clear, call no man your father on earth in terms of spiritual
things. Don't do that. Don't do that. What's Paul saying? Is he sounding
above everybody else? You know, like there's a piece
where God condemns the people in Isaiah 65 verse 5. You know,
he says he hates this attitude where you say Don't stand near
me because I'm holier than thou. God says he hates that attitude.
No, it's not that. This isn't a holier than thou
attitude. It's the ones who've been set apart. That's what holy
means. And apostles means messengers.
The ones who are the set apart messengers. You know, it says
the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
Not them themselves, but on what they were built, the chief cornerstone
being Christ himself. It was revealed to them because
the Spirit has been outpoured. All of those Old Testament types,
all of those things, it's been revealed because the Holy Spirit
has now been outpoured. And that apostolic revelation
came. Remember who it came to. What
were they like, those men to whom it came? They were, in general,
rough fishermen. tax collectors, despised in society,
tax collectors, ordinary working men. Of course we know one of
them, Paul, one born out of due time as he says, was a student
of theology. But you know what value he placed
on all of that study that he did, he tells us in Philippians
3. Pharisee of the Pharisees, circumcised the eighth day of
the tribe of Benjamin, and yet all of that that he counted,
you know, a Pharisee as concerning the law, a Pharisee, blameless.
They couldn't find anything with which to blame him because as
a Pharisee he was top of the class. What did he counted as?
Done. Nothing. Worthless. Valueless. because he'd had this revelation.
This comes by revelation, and it comes where it once was hidden,
through his holy apostles, through his apostles set apart, and by
them, if you just turn over a page or two to Colossians chapter
1 and verse 26, Verse 25, whereof, he's talking about the gospel,
whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation
of God which was given to me for you. So he was given a revelation
from God to fulfill the word of God. Even the mystery, this
mystery is this gospel. Colossians 1 verse 26, even the
mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but
now is made manifest, open, revealed to his saints, to his believing
people. It's made open to them. And this
is how God works. God reveals the mystery of the
gospel. The mystery of, why do I say
the mystery of the gospel? Because it was generally hid.
And because when it does come, it divides. To religious folks,
it's a stumbling block, says Paul in 1 Corinthians. It's that
which they trip over. They trip over the chief cornerstone,
which is Christ. It's just, sorry, we're not going
to get right with God this way. No, that's not going to be the
way that we get right with God. And to the non-religious person,
the Greek, the general philosopher of this world, well, what a load
of nonsense. It's foolishness, says Paul.
Foolishness to them. They don't believe it. But to
his saints, it's revealed. It's revealed to the apostles. That which was a mystery, that
which was foolishness, that which was a savour of death, is revealed
and becomes a savour of life to his saints. Then the next
thing I want you to see, 6. That the Gentiles, you see this
was his purpose, that this which was hidden should be revealed
by the Spirit, that the Gentiles, that non-Jewish peoples should
be fellow heirs with Jewish peoples of the same body, of that remnant
according to the election of grace which there has always
been amongst Jewish peoples and partakers of his promise in Christ
by the gospel. That Gentiles, that people like
you and me who are outside, not recipients of the oracles of
God by tradition, that we should be recipients partakers of his
promise in Christ by the gospel. And what is his promise in Christ
by the gospel? It's eternal life. That's his
promise. Eternal life. I am come that
they might have life. and have it more abundantly.
This is why Christ came. He came to accomplish salvation. He came to save his people from
their sins. He came to stand in their place.
He came that they might live in him before the law of God
and thereby their sin debt be perfectly paid and their salvation
perfectly accomplished and that Gentiles should be the partakers
of his promise in Christ by the gospel. There are no racial barriers
at all in respect of God's grace, none whatsoever. I think all
of us here know that. There have been times in not
too distant history where there have been peoples to whom that
has been a hard pill to swallow, but it's the message of the scriptures.
There are no racial barriers in respect of God's grace, none
whatsoever. You see, even here in Nebworth,
We allow Americans to visit with us. We allow Germans to visit
with us. Because there are no racial barriers
in respect. We even allow French people to
visit with us. There are no racial barriers
in respect of the gospel of God's grace. But here's the thing.
That grace is only to be found in Christ and nowhere else. You
see that promise? It's his promise in Christ by
the gospel. There's no promise outside of
Christ, none whatsoever. There's no do your best and you'll
get there anyway, outside of Christ. It's the promise that's
in him alone. And whoever you are, if you reject
the grace of God in Christ, when you hear it, if you reject it,
Then I'll tell you, if you're in Christ, Christ bears responsibility
for you. He's your surety. He's your peace. He's your substitute. But if
you reject him and you stay outside of Christ, you alone will bear
responsibility for your sin before the law of God. That's the truth.
That's what the scripture says. No racial barriers, but there's
only hope in Christ. Then verse 7, remember we're
talking about how these people come from objects of wrath to
stones in the temple, the church of the living God. It's by revelation. But still, there they are living
as children of wrath. How are they going to hear this
thing? How are they going to hear it? How are the people around
us in the world outside going to hear this message? Whereof,
says Paul, I was made a minister. according to the gift of the
grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his
power. Unto me, who am less than the
least of all the saints, is this grace given, that I should preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, whereof I was
made a minister." You see, gospel ministers This is so relevant
today. Gospel ministers are not made
in Bible seminaries. You've heard me say this before,
you've heard others say it, but I more and more fervently believe
it. Gospel ministers are not made in Bible seminaries. They
are not. Education is good, but don't
think for one minute that... I know of men who I respect very
greatly and who know the gospel inside out, and they say they
know not of one anywhere in the world. You know, you say, well,
what about such and such a place? And I know what you're thinking.
I'm sorry, I still have doubts about that in terms of its usefulness. I really do. In terms of its
usefulness in turning out genuine, true, God-called ministers of
the gospel of His grace, I have serious doubts about their usefulness. Gospel ministers are not made
in Bible seminaries. The Apostle Paul was not made
in the school of Gamaliel, not at all. He was taught the gospel
by Christ himself. God ordains men to the ministry
of his word. You know we have We have these
ordination ceremonies, you know, where some, if any of you still
get the Evangelical Times and you read the accounts of a new
ordination, of a new minister going to a certain place, and
it will be all about how all the elders stood at the front
and they all laid hands on the newly appointed minister and,
you know, poured out God's blessing. I'm sorry, we don't ordain men
in our hollow ceremonies. We don't lay our empty hands
on the heads of men for the service of God when there are no apostles
these days. We don't do that. No, it's God
who ordains men to the ministry. What does he do? He gives a man
a message and experience and a gift to preach it. And God's
sheep hear the great shepherd's voice when he preaches. And the
hearers confirm God's ordination of that man. Is that not the
way it works? We've heard it said, very innocently,
I don't hold any grudges about it, but we've heard it said that
we're not a proper church and we don't have a proper minister.
That's just ignorance from the lips of others who really ought
to know better. Who you would have hoped would
know better. Because ordination has got nothing to do with which
Bible college you've been to. It's got only to do with one
thing. Do God's sheep hear the great shepherd's voice when that
man stands up to preach? That's the only, only, only sign
of ordination. And the best training ground
for the ministry, this is a little aside, is the local church. You know that, you think about
the ministry of Henry Mahan down 50 plus years in Ashland and
you think of the number of young men that by listening to him
preach were raised up for the ministry and are now fruitful
ministers of the gospel of grace as a result of that. That's the
best training ground. The best teacher is a faithful
minister preaching the gospel of grace in Christ. Not somebody
lecturing on Hebrew and Greek in a college. That's not going
to teach you the gospel of grace. Not at all. There's enough aids
to help us study the scriptures without doing that. There are
enough resources that are available to us. You don't need to go to
college to learn that. No. No, these were fishermen,
these were tax collectors, and of course, as I've said, a student
of Gamaliel. Think about Elijah and Elisha.
You know, Elijah was, how could they live without him, that great
prophet of God? And when he was about to be taken
away, what did Elisha ask for? His mantle, that his coat would
be put on him, that that mantle of gospel preaching would transfer
from Elijah to him. You see, Elisha was taught in
the school of being with that prophet, Elijah. Verses 8 and
9, I've got to rush. I've got to rush, and I'll do
this very, very quickly. Verses 8 and 9, we've virtually
read them. He says in verse 9, to make all
men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the
beginning of the world has been hid in God, who created all things
by Jesus Christ. It's a tremendous responsibility
is what I'm saying. He says he's the less than the
least of all the saints to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ. You imagine what you would feel
like if the custodians at the Tower of London said we could
do with you looking after the crown jewels for the next few
weeks. Wow, wouldn't you be absolutely shocked and staggered at the
prospect? What are you going to do to protect it? How are
you going to look after it? What Paul is saying is that he's
been given more than that. He's been given the unsearchable
riches of Christ, and a commission to preach it. And note that it
is to preach it, because this is how it gets out, this is how
it gets across, by preaching, by preaching. Preaching, it says
in 1 Corinthians 1.21, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching. Now you can interpret that as
the foolishness of the method itself, of a man standing up
and spouting words for people to listen to. I think it's more
likely to mean the foolishness in the minds of many who hear
it, of the message which is preached. But nevertheless, it is by preaching. Preaching is out of fashion in
these days. Preaching is God's method, by the foolishness of
preaching. And verse 9, again quickly, verse
9 and 10, to the intent, we read the second half, which from the
beginning of the world has been hidden God who created all things
by Jesus Christ to the intent that now unto the principalities
and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church
the manifold wisdom of God. What's the purpose of all of
this? The hidden news of the gospel is out. It was hidden
since creation by Christ but it's now manifested, made known
that creation was by him and for him for the purpose of him
saving his people from their sins. That was the purpose and
who makes it known to angels and principalities and powers
in heavenly places? Who makes it known His church,
look at verse 10, might be known by the church, the manifold wisdom.
They know it by the church. They look at the objects of God's
grace. This is what it was all for.
Do you know the angel's desire to look into these things? Well,
let me read you what Colossians 1 16, for by him were all things
created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and
invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities
or powers, all things were created by him and for him. and now the
angels desire to look into it and they see it because the church
witnesses it 1 Peter chapter 1 10 and 12 of which salvation
the prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied
of the grace that should come unto you searching what or what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow, unto whom it was revealed that
not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things
which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the
gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.
And here's the words, which things the angels desire to look into. The angels, these glorious sinless
beings, who praise God, but why did he do all of these things?
Why did he create? He created it by Christ and for
Christ for a purpose of saving his people that they might be
made known by the church. Right, that was a rush. I just
want, in the last couple of minutes, to apply and to draw some lessons
out for us. Remember, what this word says
should mould our thinking and our approach and our attitude
and the way we do things. How do we fulfill the Great Commission? Do you know what I mean by the
Great Commission? Matthew 28, can't remember exactly the verse
number, but you know, just before the end of Matthew's Gospel,
Jesus said, before he ascended, go ye into all the world and
preach the Gospel, teaching them, baptizing them. Go ye into all
the world. How do we fulfill that Great Commission? Do we
use psychology to soften them up? That's what worldly religion
would say, isn't it? We need to use psychology to
soften them up. Do we use entertainment? You
know, give them a nice atmosphere. Let's have some musicians come
in and that will soften everybody up. That will make everybody
more inclined to listen. And really, this preaching, it's
really hard to sit and listen to it. Have you ever tried listening
to preaching for 45 minutes? Gosh, it's a dreadful strain.
But let's put on a play. And in a play, in a little drama,
we can get the message across quite well. Wouldn't that be
a better way? I mean, kids are never going to come and listen
to preaching these days, are they? Whereas if we put a play
on, they might come to the theatre. How about, no, we've got to make
it attractive for them to come. You know, when Jesus fed the
5,000, The next day they were following him and Jesus could
see in their hearts and he said, I know why you're following me.
It's because your stomachs were filled yesterday and you thought
you'd come and get another free meal today. That's the only reason
that you're coming. You're coming because you know
there's a free meal on offer. You won't come any other time
that the gospels preached, but you'll come whenever you think
there might be a free meal on offer. Don't think for one minute
that I'm saying that we shouldn't be kind and gracious and welcoming
and as comfortable as we possibly can be and remove all physical
barriers that would get in the way of somebody being able to
listen. We don't give people spikes to sit on if we can possibly
help it. We make it so that it's not uncomfortable.
We make it so that things are as easy to listen to as they
can be. We don't make it hard. But I'm
telling you, we won't get people. You know the old trick that,
I don't know whether it ever actually happened, I imagine
it did, where the church bus would go around collecting people
to come to the congregation. And what would entice them is
that under one in every 10 seats, there'd be a $5 bill or something
like that. And that would get people to
get up in the morning and come to church, because they might win
a $5 bill. Let's give them social gatherings, let's give them clubs,
let's fill their lives with activities so that they're not bored. Let's
do all of those things for them. Let's have a good programme.
Let's make sure that there's a boys club and a women's club
and a men's club and a this club and a that club and give people
jobs to do and that will get them coming. Then we'll fulfil
the Great Commission. Let's, oh above all, now this
is what we must do, we need the right type of pastor. Let's find
the right type of pastor. Now, what do we need by a pastor?
Well, he's got to be a social character. Somebody who interacts
with people really well. Somebody who gets on well with
people. Somebody who's a good guy to be around. And what do
we want him to do? Well, we want him to be their
religious social worker, don't we? You know, we want him to
look after their affairs. And above all, when we gather,
we want him to be the master of ceremonies. And we hope he's
not too bad at preaching so that it doesn't make it too painful.
And what else can we do? Well, I tell you what we do need,
we need, you see there's all sorts of enemies of gospel thinking
and of scriptural thinking, so let's present them with intellectual
arguments for the rationality of believing the gospel. And
then maybe that will remove some barriers. And I tell you what,
we can learn a lot from business. Businesses go out to sell their
goods and they get lots of take-up if they use the right methods.
And they grow their businesses if they use the right methods.
And so let's bring in the church growth movement and they'll help
us to get on the way. Let's think that all we need
to do is to appeal to the inherent ability in sinful flesh to hear
and respond to the gospel. Isn't that what Andrew Fuller
was saying 200 years ago and everybody that follows in these
steps these days? Fact is this, there is no inherent
ability in sinful flesh to hear and respond to the gospel. You
might as well go down to the morgue and get the dead bodies
out and talk to them. They're dead in trespasses and
sins. They can't hear it. Know to all of those things.
If we believe this word, know to all of those things. Stones
are taken from the quarry of life and are shaped and put into
the building, the temple of the living God only in this way. We simply preach Christ crucified
for sinners, that's what. We preach Christ the sinner's
substitute. We call on men and women to trust
in the Saviour, to trust that God the Holy Spirit will give
the required repentance and faith to those who are his sheep, his
elect, to believe it and then to live it. That's what we do.
preached the gospel, sowed the seed, the sower went forth to
sow, and it landed on all sorts of ground. But praise God, some
landed on good ground and brought forth fruit. Remember what Jesus
said, all of those efforts are efforts by men to build God's
church. Matthew 16 verse 18, the very
same passage I mentioned earlier about Peter. Jesus said, I will
build my church. I will. Upon this rock. What
rock? Peter? Of course not. He denied him
a few days later. Not him. Not at all. On faith
in Christ. On Christ who is the rock, as
Paul tells us. Christ was that rock whom they
followed. On this rock will I build my
church. Let's be faithful. Let's seek
by his help to be faithful to his word, to his methods, to
his message. Amen.