Now the Lord willing, tonight
and for the next several services, I'm going to be preaching to
you from the book of Ephesians, the first chapter. Lord willing,
we will return to our messages in Exodus, Zechariah and Luke
shortly, but I have had these opening verses of Ephesians strongly
impressed upon my heart, I believe, by God the Holy Spirit. And I
want to show you what I can from this blessed portion of scripture. Tonight, I'm going to preach
to you about God's messenger and his message. And our text
will be Ephesians 1, verses 1, 2, and 3. When we open this great epistle,
we immediately open the door to a treasure house of grace. Everything in this short epistle
is profoundly delightful and wonderfully sublime. The things
written on these pages could not have been written. They could
not have been known and could not have been written but by
the finger of God, by divine inspiration. And they cannot
be known, understood, comprehended, believed, except God who wrote
them. Open our hearts and teach us
wondrous things out of his word. The fact that there was a gospel
church established in Ephesus is itself a matter of great astonishment. This was a large, large city
for the day. Somewhere in the neighborhood
it's estimated of 225,000 to 250,000 people. A wealthy, prosperous
city. A city envied by most. A city of tremendous commerce
and trade. But a city like Athens, wholly
given over to idolatry. There was in Ephesus an extravagant
wondrous building to look at it. It was called the Temple
of Diana. It was a temple built for the
worship and veneration of that pagan, dung-heeled goddess, Diana. And in that temple, every imaginable
evil was practiced in the name of worshiping a god. The debauchery
that was found in the city, like the debauchery found in our land,
was indescribable. Indescribable. Such debauchery
as always follows idolatry and works religion. Yet, in that
city, scattered among the peoples of that city, God had some of
his hidden ones who must be called. And at the appointed time of
his mercy, he sent the apostle Paul to preach the gospel to
them. Paul labored among the Ephesians
for three years, laboring night and day, preaching the gospel
from house to house, preaching the gospel day in and day out
continually for three years. And a great many were called
by God's wondrous grace, exactly as he had said he would do in
his covenant. He sent his spirit upon them,
poured out upon them the spirit of grace and supplications, and
caused them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And a gospel
church was established, a strong gospel church. A church that
became a lighthouse for the truth. A church that was known and respected
throughout the Christian world for many years. From these Ephesians,
God sent forth the word of his grace into all the world known
at that time. But that church is no more. The Lord warned. He said, I see
something in you your pastor doesn't see. I see something
in you you don't see. You've left your first love and
except you repent, I will come quickly and remove your candlestick
out of its place. They didn't and he did. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. Ephesus stands
as a loud sounding trumpet of warning to churches like Grace
Baptist Church in Danville, Kentucky. Let us take heed that we earnestly
pray that God will continually pour out His grace upon us. by His Spirit continually calls
our hearts, as you prayed a minute ago, to hunger and thirst after
Christ, and faithfully serve our Redeemer. Pray for grace
to that end. You see, the church of God, nothing
is going to harm God's church. Not going to happen. God's church
will stand so long as time shall stand. And then, when time is
no more, His church shall still stand. But a local church, like
this one, is just a candlestick. It's like a lamp in your living
room. It's just a candlestick in the house. That means this
church is expendable. You are expendable. And I am
expendable. You can take away the candlestick
and make no harm whatever to the house. And the Lord Jesus
took away this candlestick, but his house still stands. His church
was not injured at all. The only folks injured were the
objects of his judgment, from whom he withdrew his light and
made that once great lighthouse to become a den of darkness,
and they never knew it. The time will come, maybe very
soon, when the Lord God will have put a period to our work
together, to our work with me as your pastor. And when my work
is finished, He will take me out of this world. And when that
time comes, I urge you to take great care in seeking a pastor. who will feed you with knowledge
and understanding, a pastor after God's own heart. Be wise, be
wise, and recognize that other pastors, faithful gospel preachers,
will be your best allies. Seek their counsel and depend
on their counsel and follow their advice as they seek to help you.
Find for yourself a man whom God has gifted specifically to
preach the gospel to you. I'm thoroughly convinced. I'm
thoroughly convinced. God doesn't just raise up churches
and raise up preachers. God raises up churches and raises
up ministries around a man whom he specifically gifts to minister
to that congregation in that place. Such a man. must be a
man called and gifted of God to preach the gospel to you,
so that you anxiously anticipate the next time you get an opportunity
to hear God speak by that man. Now don't misunderstand that.
This preacher is nothing, less than nothing. There's not
one thing on this earth, Bobby Estes, I can do for your soul
or anybody else's. I can't. But oh, if God will
be pleased to speak through an empty, worthless, broken, useless
pipe like this one, your gathering to hear the gospel will be beneficial
to your soul. Pray to that end and seek a man
you are anxious to hear, to hear God speak through. A man who
has pruned himself faithful as the servant of God in his church. A man who preaches the gospel
relentlessly, boldly, confidently, confident
of the gospel itself as the power of God. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth. You know what that word power
is? I've told you many times. If you were to write it out,
as the translators wrote out that word baptizo in the New
Testament, they wrote out baptized rather than translated. If you
were to write out that word power rather than translating it power,
you'd write out dynamite. That's the very word translated
power. Dynamite. What do you do with
dynamite? Light it, throw it, and get out
of the way. That's all. It doesn't need defending. It doesn't need explaining. It
doesn't need fixing. It doesn't need protecting. You
just light it, throw it, and get out of the way. That's how
the gospel is to be preached. Preaching the gospel incessantly.
Now, Paul opens this epistle with his normal, customary salutation. But when I wrote that out, I
thought immediately, the salutation is that. It's a customary thing.
But don't ever read those salutations given in the New Testament epistles
as though you were reading Dear John, or Dear Brother Harry,
or Dear Sally. They're not just courteous addresses
that were customarily used. These salutations are as much
a part of divine inspiration as is the whole body of the epistle. Now look at this salutation.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. By the will of God, to the saints
which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Now here's the first thing. Paul
begins the epistle by identifying himself as the messenger of Jesus
Christ, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. Now there
are no apostles today. The apostolic office ceased with
the death of the last apostle. That means there is no one who
has apostolic authority to cast out demons, no one who has apostolic
authority to bestow upon others the gift of speaking in tongues
or healing or any of those things, that tomfoolery that goes on
in our day in all Antichrist in all the power of Antichrist,
men pretending to be apostles who are not. There are no official
apostles any more than there are official prophets in this
day and age. But the word means messenger.
And every gospel preacher is a messenger of Jesus Christ. This is my constant prayer. My relentless desire. My God,
make me your messenger. A messenger. A messenger is somebody
to whom a message has been given for a specific purpose. to be
delivered just as it is given. That's what preaching is. Paul
didn't thrust himself into this office. He said, I'm an apostle
by the will of God. He declared necessity is laid
upon me. Woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. He didn't give himself this job. He didn't seek it for himself
that he might obtain a good livelihood or secure an honorable name for
himself, but he preached the gospel. He was God's messenger
simply because God Almighty had called him, gifted him, and sent
him forth with his message to deliver to his people. No man
taketh this honor to himself. Any man who does is a pretentious
fool. Yet that man who is called of
God will not shrink from the responsibilities or the sacrifices
or the hardships. Necessity is put upon him. Necessity is put upon him. The church doesn't need more
preachers. We've got plenty of those. Too many. But we desperately
need We desperately need some men who are God's servants sent
with God's message. That man who is God's servant
is sent by the will of God. He can't preach the gospel. unless
he is sent of God to preach the gospel. And that doesn't mean
he can't preach the gospel sometimes. That means unless God Almighty
has sent me to you this hour with a message that you need
and must have this hour, I can't preach the gospel to you. What
do the apostles ask? How shall they preach? Except
they'd be sent. Unless God has sent me to you
tonight, all you will hear are the words of this man whose voice
is getting a little gravelly. Nothing else. Nothing else. That
man who bears the message of God to his people must be sent
of him. Just as our Lord Jesus sent forth
his apostles to preach the kingdom in his day, and our Lord God
sent forth the prophets with the word of the Lord in their
day. Now, turn over to Romans chapter 1 for a moment. Hold
your hands here in Ephesians. We'll come right back. When we talk about a man being
an apostle, a messenger, the servant of God. We can't do better
when we want to find an example of what a gospel preacher is,
than to look at the Apostle Paul. Here in Romans chapter 1, he
gives us an example of the way he describes himself as God's
servant. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be a messenger. separated unto the gospel of
God. That man who is called and gifted
and sent of God to preach the gospel is the willing, voluntary,
bond slave of Jesus Christ. The servant of Jesus Christ. A servant. has nothing of his
own. Nothing. Nothing. Brother John, you got a wife,
daughter, son-in-law, grandchildren. I don't have anything. They're
not mine. They're not mine. And I dare not act like they
are. I can't serve God if I do. Can't be done. It cannot be done. The servant doesn't have any
time of his own, none. The servant must have no ambitions
of his own, none. The servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, called to be a man with a message from
God, called of God. Sometimes you
will hear news reporters trying to explain things in the religious
world, particularly with some wild group like what they call
fundamentalist Islamists or Jim Jones or David Koresh or somebody
else like that. They say, well, he feels like
he has a messianic mission. Let me tell you about somebody
who has or thinks he has a messianic mission. Best thing you can do
with that fella is either get out of his way or get behind
him, one of the two. Because you're not going to stop
him. He's convinced he has a mandate
from God. He can't be bought off. He can't
be bribed. He can't be intimidated. He has
a mandate. Now let me tell you something.
Men who are called and gifted and sent of God, No, they have
a mandate from God Almighty. That makes them meek like Moses. Meek like Moses? Pharaoh, either let us go or
God's going to kill you. Well you can go out under these
circumstances. No. You're going to let us go exactly like God
said do it. Or you're going to hell. That's
called meekness. Because he knew he is God's servant. Not meek like preachers and religious
leaders who bow and scrape and grovel before you as if every
dime you've got they just must have. Not meek like manby, penby,
sissy-footed preachers who bow and scrape before men fearful
that somehow somebody might take their job or their position or
their power. Oh, no, no, no. Meek before God. Like John the
Baptist, a man sent from God. Who is he? Oh, you're talking
about a proud, arrogant man. No! I'm talking about a man who
knows he's just a voice. Not the voice, just a voice,
one among many. A voice. A voice of one insignificant
nobody crying in the wilderness. But God's voice. Therefore when he confronts Herod,
he confronts it. When he confronts An adulterer,
he confronts him. When he confronts a blasphemer,
he confronts him. When he confronts men, he confronts
them. You see, gospel preaching, gospel
preaching, now I know this doesn't fit with religion, but gospel
preaching is never coddling folks and conjoling folks and massaging
folks and trying to persuade folks and get people to somehow
come to your way of thinking. No, no, no. They said to me over
the years, you can catch a whole lot more flies with sugar than
you can with vinegar. I ain't trying to catch flies. That's
not my business. Gospel preaching is always confrontational. It is always confrontational. It is God's messenger confronting
God's enemies with God's terms of peace, and those terms of
peace God himself defines, surrender to Christ the King. That's all. That's all. That man who is sent
of God is separated under the gospel. Separated to the gospel
by God's decree. Before I knew you, Before I formed
you in the belly, God said to his prophet, I sanctified you
and ordained you a prophet. Paul said, when it pleased God
who separated me from my mother's womb, separated under the gospel
by the decree of God, separated to the gospel by God's call upon
him, and separated to the gospel by his own constant determination. And that's the tough part. That's
the tough part. You see, the preacher is just a man, just
like you, who wants all that any other
man wants. For himself, for his family,
all of it, all of it. And is constantly confronted
with and must wrestle with the temptation to give way to something
else, claiming his time and attention. And he must never surrender. Never. Never. Can't do it. Can't do it. Separated
to the gospel. To study in this word. seeking
a message from God for his people, preaching the gospel of his free
grace. And he faithfully serves your
soul. Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter
4, verse 2. Paul says, Let a man so count
of us as the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries
of God. Stewards. Men to whom God has
put in trust with the mysteries of God, with the gospel of His
free grace. Moreover, it is required in stewardship
that a man be found faithful. Look in 2 Corinthians 4. Therefore,
since God has put me in trust with His gospel, with the glory
of His grace, and God requires this one thing of me, faithfulness,
Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received
mercy, oh what a mercy, unto me who am less than the least
of all men, God has granted to preach the unsearchable riches
of Christ. As we have received mercy, we faint not. Fall sometimes, but faint not.
Stumble a lot, but faint not. Get tired, but faint not. but
have renounced, have said no with finality to the hidden things
of darkness, not walking in craftiness. We don't have any hidden agenda,
not God's servants, nor handling the word of God deceitfully. I can't tell you how much I spend
my time seeking from God the Holy Spirit an understanding
in that portion of His Word that I'm preparing to preach to you
from. Not making the Word say what
I want it to say. Not making it fit a creed. Not making it
fit a system. Not making it fit with my own
logic and my own reason. What does God say? We handle
His Word honestly. But by manifestation of truth,
by the openness of truth, by openly, frankly declaring the
truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the
sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that
are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds
of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Now watch this. Paul said, I don't handle the
word of God deceitfully. I commend myself to your conscience
by my open declaration of truth. And if you don't understand what
I'm preaching, it's not because I've hidden it from you. It's
not because I've hidden it from you. I heard someone describe
modern day preachers real well the other day. These modern day
Calvinists, as they call themselves. You know, preachers. Oh, I can't
tell you the number of preachers I've met in my lifetime who will
talk to you about the doctrines of grace, sitting back in your
study, driving down the road, and get together some folks in
the congregation, and talk to this little group here about
those things, because they all agree. And won't dare preach it. Won't
dare preach it. They're kind of like Daniel,
if Daniel had just kept his blinds closed. It wouldn't have cost him anything.
But he didn't dare keep his blinds closed. We don't handle the word
of God deceitfully. Watch this. For we preach not
ourselves. We don't preach about ourselves
or for ourselves. But Christ Jesus the Lord. All
about Him and just for Him. And ourselves, your servants. Voluntarily devoting ourselves. to your service, to the service
of your souls. That's what a preacher is. And
if I ain't that, then Bob Duff, I'm not a preacher and you'd
be better off never to have met me. That's all there is to it. You're servants. Not servants
like a Junebug. Most preachers are kind of like
Junebugs. I call them Junebug preachers. When I was a boy,
I used to catch a gym bug, tie a string around his leg, and
I'd hold him and fly him around. And that fellow just fly and
fly and buzz and fly and fly until his leg dropped off and
I'd go get another gym bug. And that's what churches do with
preachers. God's servants aren't under your control. No, sir. No, sir. No servant
of God will allow himself to be under your control. Not the
control of an individual. Not the control of a deacon board. Not the control of a board of
elders. Not the control of a denomination. No sir. But they are absolutely
controlled by their service for you. Serving your soul for the
glory of God. Then the inspired apostle addresses
God's saints. Here back in Ephesians 1 verse
1. as saints and faithful. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, to the saints. Oh, this man, God's messenger
to them, says, I'm talking to you, my brothers and sisters,
God's saints. God's saints. Many women who believe on Christ,
no matter how young or how old, no matter what their present
circumstance and condition may be, no matter how greatly spiritually
devoted they appear to be, or how fallen they may at the time
appear to be are God's saints. Loved and chosen of God in Christ
from eternity. Bought with the precious blood
of Jesus Christ shed at Calvary. Called, born again, separated
into God by His Spirit in the new birth. Saints by election,
saints by redemption, saints by the effectual call of God,
putting a holy nature in us, making God's people a holy, unblameable
people before God Almighty. And unless Don Fortner and Lindsay
Campbell look at them that way, We view them with pride and self-righteousness
and our view is to be condemned. Each esteeming the other better
than themselves. That means that Darwin Pruitt
is a believer. Trust Christ. professes faith
in Christ, believes the gospel of God's grace. I'm not talking
about religious, I'm talking about believes the gospel of
God's grace. It is my privilege and responsibility
when I look at that man not to see anything but Christ. God forgive my failure. Saints. Saints. You're saints now. And you won't be more a saint
when you give to glory. Sanctified now in Jesus Christ. And the faithful in Christ Jesus. That faith that God gives us
by His grace, that faith God puts in a man, makes him faithful. All God's saints are faithful. faithful and true to Him who
is faithful and true. They don't brag about their faithfulness. They don't see their faithfulness. They confess their utter unfaithfulness. But they're faithful and true.
Grace makes them so. They cannot cease looking to
Christ. They cannot hide themselves before
Him. But rather with faithful and
true hearts, looking to Him alone for everything, they continually
cling to Him and worship and serve Him. Now look at this first
verse again. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, to the saints, which are at Ephesus, to the
faithful in Christ Jesus. In Christ. That's the only place
to be. in Christ. I like living where I do. I'm
thankful God's put me in this place. If I had my choice, I'd
rather not live in New York City or Philadelphia or in any large
city, but especially not one in that part of the country.
I had my choice. But it really doesn't matter
in what town I live, in what place I live, in what house I
live, it only matters that I live in Christ. And Larry Chris, we're
in Christ. In Christ. Of Him are you in
Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. In Christ, by a vital eternal
union of grace, a vital eternal union of grace,
God Almighty has made us one with Christ, our head representative,
mediator and surety, So really and truly one with Christ that
I promise you, we haven't yet begun to imagine how truly one
we are with Him. One with Christ. One with Christ. We are in Christ by an equally
vital union of faith. God-given faith, so that we continually
draw life from Him, continually live in Him and by Him, continually
living upon Him, one with Him, as the branches are one with
the vine, being grafted into Him. Like the wild branches grafted
into the tree. Cut, made in that tree. Cut,
made in that branch. Christ pierced for us, and us
pierced by Him, and then bound together by the power of His
Spirit. so that the two can never be
separated, grafted into Christ. I want to be found in Christ. That's all. That's all. Found in Christ. Not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law. but the righteousness of God
by faith. God make me such a messenger
continually. Now, take off tomorrow. Go out to California. Will you
pray for me? Pray that God will send me with
a message to His people as we gather in His name. Brother Lindsey
stands here every Sunday morning, pray for him, pray God will send
him here with a message. Not just a lecture, not just
a talk, not just a share of something, a message that burns in his bones
and must be delivered. Brother Ron, we preach to you
Sunday morning, Brother Larry, Sunday night. Will you pray for
them? In praying for them, you're serving
your own soul, I promise you. Pray that God will be pleased
to speak by them, and that He'll be pleased to speak to you by
His Word. Our Father, never has a people been so blessed
as we are. Never a people more undeserving. Never has a pastor been so privileged
and honored by the people he serves. We thank you for every open door
of utterance you've given us for the furtherance of the gospel. And we ask our God and our Father
that you will make us faithful to you, to your glory, to your
Son, to the gospel of your grace. Oh God, make us faithful. ever flood our hearts with your
grace, inspiring us with the love of Christ, overwhelming us with the sense
of your goodness. Let us not for a moment forget
your boundless grace to us and in us. And as we give ourselves to the
work you've trusted to our hands, we recognize that we have this
treasure in earthen vessels. That the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. We are made more and more aware
as we ought to be made aware. that our most faithful labors,
our most devoted service is utterly useless and meaningless without
the blessing of your spirit upon the work of our hands. Will you
bless your word tonight? Make it fruitful to the hearts
of these, your people, for Christ's sake. Amen. God bless you. You're dismissed.