Ephesians, the second chapter.
I tried this morning to give you a brief exposition of chapter
one, showing the explanation of God's grace as it's given
by inspiration in that chapter. Tonight I want to talk to you
about the experience of grace, grace experienced in the heart. I trust that you have experienced
that you are experiencing it. And if you have not yet experienced
it, it is my prayer that God will call you this night to be
the recipient of his marvelous free grace. All right, let's
look at chapter two. In this second chapter, the Holy
Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to give a detailed experience
or a detailed description of every believer's experience of
grace. Now this is not just a testimony
concerning what I've experienced, this is a declaration of what
every believer experiences. And those who do not have this
experience of grace have not experienced grace, period. The
grace of God as we experience it in this world, I stress the
grace of God as we experience it in this world, involves two
things distinctly. Now, the grace of God certainly
involves many, many things. We looked at God's election,
God's predestination, so on, but as we experience it, it involves
these two things, regeneration and reconciliation. We are born
again, that's regeneration, the new birth, by the power of God's
grace, and being born again by the Spirit of God, we are reconciled
to God in our hearts through faith in Jesus Christ the Lord. We must be born again because
we were born wrong the first time. We must be born again because
by nature we are born in spiritual death, dead in trespasses and
in sins. And we must be reconciled to
God because by nature our hearts are enmity against God and we
hate him with every fiber of our being. As distasteful as
that is to acknowledge, as painful as that is for us as believers
to acknowledge, and as impossible as it is for the self-righteous,
haughty, unbelieving religionists to acknowledge. Every one of
us by nature hates God with every fiber of our being. That's the
nature of man. Man's nature despises God being
God. We want to be God ourselves. That's our problem. That's our
problem. If you're yet without Christ,
that's your problem. The reason you will not surrender
to Him, the reason you will not come to Him, the reason you will
not believe on Him, the reason you will not bow to Him, is you
despise the idea of giving up dominion of yourself. And you
won't do it. You won't do it. You won't do
it until He calls you by His grace to be reconciled to Him. All right, first, look at regeneration. Regeneration, the new birth,
is the sovereign work and operation of God's Spirit performed in
our hearts, the hearts of chosen, redeemed sinners, by God the
Holy Spirit. It is the irresistible operation
of grace. That which centers by grace are
caused to live, though that which causes sinners to live by grace
is the power of God. And we who are by nature both
dead and depraved and deprived of all things spiritual, being
chosen of God and redeemed by Christ, have been called from
death to life in the new birth. Look at verses 1 through 10.
Now this new birth is not accomplished by man's will, Never has been,
never will be. It is not accomplished by man's
decision. It is accomplished by God's will
and by God's decision. It is not accomplished by something
we do, but by something God does. It is not something that is a
joint effort, a cooperative program where man does his part, God
does his part, and you wind up with a sinner being born again.
Not at all. The new birth is the work of
God Almighty raising chosen sinners from spiritual death to spiritual
life in Jesus Christ. It is called a resurrection.
Indeed, it is that first resurrection of whom the Apostle John says
in Revelation 26, blessed and holy is he that hath part in
the first resurrection, on such the second death hath no power. Look at verses 1, 2, and 3. Here
the Apostle Paul, by divine inspiration, declares to us the condition
all men are in by nature. You hath he quickened who were
dead. Dead. What a horrible picture. What a fateful picture. Every
son and daughter of Adam born into this world by nature is
dead spiritually. without life spiritually. Having lost the life that God
put in man in the beginning, having lost the image of God
that he has stamped upon man in our father Adam, having lost
the favor of God, having lost fellowship with God, having lost
communion with God, having lost the knowledge of God, man by
nature is dead. And not only dead, but born in
utter depravity of heart. Those who are spiritually dead
are depraved. Depraved. So that no mother,
no father, ever had to teach a child to do evil. It comes
as natural to us as drinking water does to a thirsty man.
The natural man is a man or a woman who, from going forth from its
mother's womb, that is, as soon as it comes forth and draws its
first birth, it goes forth in rebellion against God, speaking
lies. It's the nature of man. It's
the nature of man. Look what it says. Where it ain't
in time past, verse 2. You want. This is the way we
live. According to the course of this
world. Everybody. Everybody. Now some live according to the
course of this world in drunkenness and reveling and rioting. Some
walk according to the course of this world in religion and
self-righteousness and morality. Some walk according to the course
of this world just serving their lusts after sensual things. Others walk according to the
course of this world, serving their lusts after material things.
But all walk continually according to the course of this world.
You did, I did. Your children do, mine do. It
is the nature of man to walk like this because he's dead and
depraved. Look at it. According to the
print, of the power of the air. All of us by nature, willing
Satan. Every one of us. You and me too. Now we don't act like a nut. I don't guess any of you ever
did. I haven't been quite mad enough to sit down around a campfire
and drink blood and lay chickens feet out and decide what all
to do. They don't act that silly nonsense
that men do in their practice of occult religions. But every
solitary woman, by nature, spent our lives walking up in the course
of this world according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit of disobedience. So did our children. They got
it after us. We taught them how. We gave them
the nature. The spirit that now works in
the children of disobedience, among whom also, we all, notice
how Paul stresses this, we all, Jew and Gentile, black and white,
moral and immoral, religious and irreligious, we all had our
conversation, our manner of life in times past. In the lust of
our flesh, Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature children of wrath, just exactly like everybody
else. Now then, read this next slide, worship. What changed that? What made
the difference? What turned you around? What
interfered? What turned your life around?
What altered your way? But God. God Almighty, 30 years ago,
put himself in my way. And he said, you're not going
to hell, you're mine. That's all. That's all. The sovereign
intervention Now men these days talk about man's free will and
boast of man's free will. I heard one idiotic preacher
years ago on television say, God's too much of a gentleman
to interfere with your free will. Thank God he interfered with
my free will. And I pray he'll interfere with
yours. If he leaves you alone, oh, if he leaves you alone, you're
gone. If he leaves you alone, you're
going to hell. There's no question about that. Because that's what
you've chosen. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love. Paul just, he just keeps adjectives
on top of adjectives on top of adjectives. But God, who is rich
in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, Now
this is the conclusion of the matter. By grace, you're saved. By grace, you're saved. What
are you saying, Pritchard? I'm not saying anything, I just
read to you what God said. That's all. I haven't even commented
hardly, I'm getting ready to read what God said. God said
you were dead. God said the reason you're alive
now is cause he stepped in. God said you walked according
to the course of this world, the prince of the power of the
earth. God said the reason you no longer walk that way is I
stepped in. And I raised you up. I made you
sit together in heavenly places in Christ. Hold on a moment. Why on earth did he do that?
Verse 7. that in the ages to come he might
show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. He's going to take such things
as we are and display to wandering of angels
and demons and reprobate men. And I think the most wondering
of all, wondering worlds of redeemed sinners themselves. And He will
show forth to wondering worlds in us what His grace has done
for the glory of His name. Now here's the character of God's
grace. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves." Well, what's not of yourselves?
The salvation, the faith, and the grace. That's not of yourselves. Notice he uses one article to
refer to these three nouns, and when one article is used to refer
to three distinct nouns, All three nouns are those things
that are spoken of in the context. And so he's telling us that the
grace, the salvation, the faith, this whole package is not of
yourself, it's the gift of God. It's not of works, it's not the
result of a decision you made, it's not the result of some good
God saw in you, it's not the result of something God hoped
to find in you, but rather it is the gift of God's grace. Not
of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship. Years ago I heard a fellow say,
and I think this is probably the best translation of the word,
we are his masterpieces. God's masterpieces. I was down at Rex's office a
few weeks ago and stopped in to see things he'd done there.
Man, he's a craftsman. He's a craftsman. I look at that
and I, fabulous work. And there's a good reason why
he got it there. He got his masterpiece work, not in Debbie's kitchen,
but down in his office. Sorry, Rex, but that's where
it is. The best work's not in her kitchen.
I've been to the kitchen, it's nice, but it's not like that
office. Because nobody comes to the kitchen that's gonna be
buying that stuff. He got masterpieces down there in the office. The
best he got. I mean, top-notch stuff. Listen. Here we are. An assembly of redeemed
men and women, robed in the righteousness of the Son of God. God's masterpieces. What are we? We are exactly what
God himself has made us to be. Exactly what God has made us
to be. And we shall at last be demonstrated to all the world
in exactly the character that God himself beholds us in right
now. Holy, unblameable, and unreprovable. Created in Christ Jesus. There again he's talking about
this new birth. Created in Christ. How? How are men born again? How does
spiritual life come to dead sinners? By the creative act of God! Not by the preacher's eloquence,
or the spellbinding stories he tells, or the choir songs, or
the manipulation of the congregation, but by God's created power. Created
in Christ Jesus under good works. Believers will walk in good works,
I reckon so, God created them to, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. I presume if God has ordained
that we should walk in them, if we are indeed his masterpieces
created to this end, we shall walk in them. Now then, the result
of this regeneration is reconciliation. I'm talking to you now about
the believer's experience of grace. We were legally, judicially
reconciled to God through the death of his son at Calvary when
our price, our ransom price was paid by the blood of his son.
So that judicially, all our responsibilities have been shifted from us to
the substitute and in Christ we were reconciled to God by
the death of his son. And we have now received the
reconciliation, we have received the atonement by faith. And yet
there is a necessity for reconciliation to God in our hearts. Because
though we were judicially reconciled to God at Calvary, all we came
for was to spend our lives rebels against God, hating God. Something's got to happen to
stop you from fighting God. Something's got to happen that
will cause you to lay down your weapons and quit trying to kill
God. What happens? The Lord God Almighty
invades the hearts of chosen sinners in sovereign grace and
He conquers them by His grace. Makes them willing subjects in
the day of His power. Look what it says here. Here's
a fact to remember. Verse 11, wherefore remember,
remember, oh my soul remember, don't ever forget that in time past you Gentiles
in the flesh were called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision
in the flesh made with hands. That at that time, you had six
horrible, desperate needs. You were without Christ. Without Christ. Oh, my soul, it matters not what
you have. You're without Christ. without Christ. Aliens from the
Commonwealth of Israel. Our brother Paul Harry is here
visiting us from Scotland. He's an alien. You know what
that means? That doesn't mean he looks funny.
He does talk a little funny, but it doesn't mean he looks
funny. It means he's got no rights. He's got no rights. He has absolutely
no legal rights in this country to anything. No. He's an alien. He lives on this property by
the gratuity of the government that allows him to walk on our
borders. That's all. He's got no rights. This is where we were by nature.
This is where you are by nature before God Almighty. You've got no rights. You've
got no rights. None. Aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel. Strangers from the covenants
of promise. Outside Christ. I know this is
strange language in our generation and I know that people everywhere
have been bombarded. You've been bombarded with it.
I've been bombarded with it since I was to a grasshopper smile,
God loves you, God's got a wonderful plan for your life, God wants
this for you, God promises that to you, everything works together
for good to you. Nothing in this book, nothing
in this book is given to you through or without Christ. There's
not a word of promise in this book that can be claimed legitimately
by anyone apart from faith in Jesus Christ until you believe
on the Son of God. Until you bow to the Son of God,
you have nothing from God except wrath. Boy, that did make me feel good.
I hope it makes you understand that you're under the wrath of
God. Having no hope. You ever come to that? No hope. No hope. I can't think of a more horrible
place to be in God's universe except in hell itself as to be
in the place of no hope. I've been there. No hope. No hope in life. No hope in death. No hope. No hope. Because you're
without God. Now then, look at the next slide. Here's a fact to realize. But
now, in Christ Jesus. Oh, what good news in Christ,
in Christ. You who sometimes were far off,
so far off from God that you didn't even know you were far
off from God, so, so far off that you could not and would
not of yourself ever come back to God, far off, are now made
nigh by the blood And then in the latter part of
the chapter, he goes on to tell us that we, being redeemed by
the blood of Christ and built together upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, that is on the foundation of
Jesus Christ and him crucified, we are joined together as living
stones in the temple of God. You take and lay a foundation
Then you start laying the block on the foundation. And each of
those blocks connected to the foundation and connected to one
another are intricately tied together. And the foundation
and the blocks connected to the cornerstone form one building
in the Lord. Now, that's exactly the analogy
that Paul gives in the second chapter of Ephesians. He says,
since we have now been brought nigh unto God by the blood of
Jesus Christ and we are built upon Christ and holy habitation
of God through the Spirit, we are one living temple built on
one foundation, united together, and God's taken away that wall
of partition that separates us. Specifically, he's talking about
Jew and Gentile. He says God has taken away those
carnal ordinances and ceremonies, circumcision and the tabernacle
and temple and priesthood. He's taken away all those things
that separated the Jew from the Gentile and we find those things
fulfilled in Christ. Not only that, God has graciously
taken away that which separates believers of every category,
of every place, of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue, of
every race under the earth, so that we stand together in Jesus
Christ as one in Him. One man, and Christ is all and
in all. Being then born of God's Spirit,
we are fitted together in His kingdom. I love the way this
is illustrated for us in Scripture. You remember in the temple in
the Old Testament, when rocks were hewn out of the quarry for
the temple, they were never cut to size. They were rather brought
into their place and sat down, one rock between two others,
and just worked, and worked, and worked, and worked, and worked,
and worked, and worked, until they just fell. They just fell. That's exactly
what happens with us in the daily experience of grace. God puts
us in this church, right where he wants us, in exactly the place,
can I use the word where we're needed? Needed by one another,
not by him. In exactly the place where God
has created a need for us. And he loves us, Loves us, loves
us, loves us, loves us, so we feel it. We just feel it. Sometimes rubbing gets a little
aggravating. Some of us got more rough edges than others, but
we just feel it. We just feel it. Now then, in
chapter 3, Paul describes what I will call the enjoyment of
grace. There comes a time After a person's converted, after
they begin to grow a little in the grace and knowledge of Christ,
when many women who believe God grow to enjoy the grace of God, we're excited about it to begin
with. And the excitement, oh, wouldn't
you, God, it would never die. But we begin as we grow comfortable
in grace. And that's all right. That's
all right. I'm far more comfortable with God than I was in the beginning.
Far more comfortable with His grace, His promises, His Word,
His Son. But as we grow comfortable with
God and His grace in Christ, we begin to enjoy His grace.
You see what I'm illustrating? Shelby and I were married to
get this right. It's going to be 29 or 28 years.
I can't see you, 29 I think she said. 29 years in June. And 29 years ago, I kindly enjoyed
being married to her. It was pretty good. A lot of
excitement. And still a lot of excitement.
Just hang around, you'll see. But now, the jealousies of you,
and the insecurities of untried love, and the instability of
unproved faithfulness. That's kind of out the window.
That's gone. And we enjoy each other more.
Just enjoy life together. You grow into the enjoyment.
And Paul in this third chapter describes His enjoyment of grace
and his desire for believers to enjoy God's grace. Though
it cost him his life, as it will every faithful gospel
preacher, will cost him his life. Yet Paul considered it his greatest
honor, his highest privilege, His most delightful joy to preach
the gospel. He said, look what God gave me.
He made me a minister. He put me in ministry. Unto me,
for in less than the least of all senses, this grace given
that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches
of Christ. And for that, he was put to death. And yet Rex, he willingly put
himself in a position to be put to death for this great joy. And I'm telling you that every
faithful preacher gives his life to preach the
gospel. Gives his life. And that's not
something to You get done, you come, pat me on the back and
say, well, I appreciate you giving your life for this. Oh, no, that's the
privilege. It's the cost, but it's the privilege.
So that everything is secondary. Everything else is put on the
back burner. Everything else is just cut off
and thrown away. This is it. This is it. I sometimes
talk to men who talk to me about being called to preach You know,
after I do this and after I do that and after I do the other
thing, once I get my pension fixed, I'm going to start preaching. Well, you might, but I don't
want to listen to you. Once I get everything fixed and everything's
comfortable for me, I'm going to start preaching. No, you're
going to start playing more games. God's servants give their lives
to the business of preaching Christ and enjoy it. as a faithful gospel preacher,
as a pastor with a pastor's heart. Paul wanted those people to whom
he preached to know in the fullest way possible, by personal experience
each one, all the blessedness of God's abundant free grace
in Christ. Now let me just skip the surface,
verses 9 through 21, but you read them carefully. I know exactly
what Paul's words express in this chapter. As he expresses
the desire of his heart for these Ephesian saints, my own heart
echoes the same desire for you. This is the burning passion of
my soul. As I endeavor to study and preach,
seek a message from God, I want you to know my personal experience. the abundant, matchless grace
of God to the fullest enjoyment possible while you live in this
world. He said, I pray that you will
come to know the manifold wisdom of God in the scheme of grace,
to make all men see this mystery, how that it may be known by the
church, the manifold wisdom of God. Then in verse 11, He speaks of the purpose of God's
grace. You have folks wonder, maybe
some of you do, I don't think so, but maybe some of you do.
Why does Brother Don always, always got to talk about God's
purpose and predestination and election? Because I want you
to know his purpose. Want to know the purpose of his
grace? You will never know the enjoyment of God's grace and
the comfort and satisfaction of His absolute, inviolable purpose,
so that you stand and look Him in the face and understand that
God says, my purpose is to stand. I'll do all my pleasure, no matter
what. No matter what. I'll do all my
pleasure. Oh, I want you to know the free
accessibility of God's grace. Look at verse 12. In whom we
have boldness. The word doesn't mean cockiness. It doesn't mean brashness. It
means boldness. Confidence. Confidence. Confidence that gives
you freedom. in whom, that is in Christ, we
have this confidence that brings freedom before God and access
with confidence by faith of Him. Look at verse 17, that Christ
may dwell in your hearts by faith that you be rooted and grounded
in love. Oh, you may grow up. And then Paul says in verses
18 through 21, I want you to know the infinite
superabundance of God's blessings. Meryl, this is my prayer for
you, and my prayer for you and your family, for this congregation,
you men and women, your family, that you may be able to comprehend
with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height
and to know the love of Christ which passes by me." Strange language, isn't it? That
you may know what you can't know. That you may know with confident
assurance and experience that love of Christ that you can never
comprehend. That you may be filled with all
the fullness of God. You get filled up on that, you
won't covet too much else. Filled with all the fullness
of God. Now, unto him that is able to
do exceeding abundantly, above all that we ask of thee. According to the power that worketh
in us. Here I stand, A man having experienced the
things I've just been talking to you about. Snatched from the
very gates of hell. Set in the kingdom of light.
Translated from utter, utter depravity and death and darkness
to light, light. And then there, in unbelief to
question that God Almighty is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that I ask of Him. That's the fullness of His grace.
Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all
ages, world without end. Amen. Then in chapter four, the
apostle shows us something about the education of grace. Let me
just call your attention to three things in this chapter. First,
he calls for an endeavor. He tells us to walk worthy of
the vocation wherewith we are called, with all lowliness and
neatness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another, in love. Look at verse three. Endeavoring
to keep the unity of We ought always to strive to promote and keep true unity
among true believers. Promote peace. Speak well of
one another. Rattle your tongue. Keep your
opinions to yourself. It won't hurt you. It won't hurt anyone. If you
have evil thoughts, keep them to yourself. They don't need
to be shared. Nobody needs to hear them. If you have a bad
opinion about Bob Thompson, my soul, keep it to yourself. Just
keep it to yourself. Nobody else needs to hear it.
If you speak of him, speak well of him. Promote unity and peace. For there's one body, just one. One spirit, just one. You're called in one hope. Don Fortner, Ninja Campbell,
have the same hope. If we have good hope, our hope
is Christ, His blood, His righteousness, that's all. One Lord, just one. One faith, only one true faith. Either what I'm preaching to
you is the faith, the faith of God's elect, and everything contrary
to it, heresy, or this is heresy and the true faith's out there
somewhere else. But they're just one faith. They're not multitudes
of faith. Just one faith. One baptism. You saw it this
morning. One baptism. One way to confess
Christ. One God. Not in multitudes of
God. Not many, many different kinds
of God. Just one God. That God who is
absolute, sovereign Lord of everything. Who's Father of all. For He is
above all, through all, and in you all. And then Paul speaks
of an endowment, an endowment of grace and gifts, which Jesus
Christ has received for and bestows upon his church. Look at verse
7, unto every one of us is grace given according to the measure
of the gift of Christ. What on earth does that mean?
That means that God Almighty has given Don Fortner exactly
such gifts of His grace as I am useful to administer and use
for His glory by His grace and your good. And He's given Bobby
Estes exactly such gifts as are best for His glory for Bobby
to use for His kingdom, His gospel, and you. and has given Sally
Pottser exactly such gifts as are best for her to use for the
good of his church and the glory of his name. That ought to do
away with envy and jealousy among God's people. It did not do away
with it. What's the Lord going to let
me do? You mean he will allow me to
do something in his kingdom for him? Shortly after God saved
me when Shelby and I were first married, I worked as a janitor
in our home church. I was tickled to death. I really
was. I was tickled to death. It was
my privilege. It was my privilege. to open
the door, clean out the trash, scrub the toilets, sweep the
floor, turn on the air conditioners, turn on the heat, set things
comfortable for many women to come hear the gospel and worship
God. What a privilege. What a privilege. My privilege
to feel that bad distress from any women to confess faith in
Christ. What a privilege. He let me preach his gospel.
Oh, what an honor. And it requires a lot of trouble. No trouble. No, this is life. This is life. And he gave some apostles, verse
11, and prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.
Why did He give you pastors? To teach you for the perfecting
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying
of the body of Christ, till we all come in unity of faith and
the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man. That you be
no more tossed about, children tossed to and fro with every
wind of doctrine, carried about by every slight, every wind of
doctrine by the sight of men. And then in verses 17 through
32, he speaks of an education. The grace of God will teach you
how to live. It'll teach you. The grace of
God teaches you to abhor ungodliness, filth, and perversion. The grace
of God teaches you to abhor those things that the rest of the world
loves. The grace of God teaches you
to cling to Christ. Paul said, You didn't learn this
from Christ. In verse 17, he said, this is
not something you learned from Christ. You got this from somewhere
else. In Christ, you learn to walk uprightly. In Christ, you
learn to love each other. In Christ, you learn to be kind,
tenderhearted, forgiving of one another. The grace of God teaches
you to fear grieving the Holy Spirit. Not to fear in that you
somehow are afraid that He's going to turn upon you in wrath.
That's not it. But to fear because you would
have nothing to disrupt that blessed harmony, worship, sweet
communion that's found only by His grace. Man and woman love each other.
Sometimes they make themselves tense for fear of offending,
for fear of grieving, for fear of hurting. Why? Because a woman's
afraid her husband's gonna take a bat and hit her in the head?
No! No! Because she fears any break in that blessed, blessed
relationship. That's why I'm talking about
grace. has given us such a relationship with our God that we grieve the
thought of grieving the Spirit of God whereby we're sealed to
the day of redemption. In other words, grace makes people
gracious. It just does. The Apostle describes for us
the exercise of grace by believing people. You can read the chapter
at your leisure, but he talks to us about walking in the light. He talks to us about awake. Awake thou that sleepest, arise
from the dead and Christ will give thee light. So that the
believer is a person who who being led by God's Spirit, taught
by God's grace, seeks to walk according to the light that's
given him for the glory of God, constantly, constantly, constantly,
necessarily stirring himself up to awake, lest he fall into
that terrible lukewarmness to which we are so terribly, terribly
called. Lukewarm. You can't think of anything worse
than lukewarm stuff. You just take a glass of milk,
pour it out of that cold carton, and set the carton back in the
refrigerator, and you set it down, and you get the telephone
call. You go out, and you come back in, and you start to take
a drink of that milk, and something else interrupts, and after a
couple hours, that milk's been sitting there on the counter
with the sun shining through that window. And you pick it up, and
you pour it out. You can't get it out of your
mouth soon enough. Look, boy. Useless. Without feeling. Without care. Without emotion. Without passion. Look, boy. Oh, God. Awake. That's a command. Calling for us to awake ourselves
and allow us for this death of lukewarmness. In Christ you'll
be delighted. So He admonishes us in the exercise
of grace constantly to stir up ourselves
to seek Him, follow Him, obey Him, and love Him. If you don't,
something will get you real quick, and you soon fall naturally,
sinfully, vilely into that lukewarmness of indifference. I start to talk to you about
God's grace, and I'm so astonished that I can think of without my
heart breaking out either in laughter and joy, in song and
praise, or in utter sorrow and tears of repentance, much less
preaching. And I'm astonished that you can
hear it and be unmoved. I'm astonished. And yet I'm not astonished at
all. Because that lukewarmness is
so, so natural to us. And be filled with the Spirit. Now that's not some kind of charismatic
theater, Pentecostal spasm. That's not what we're talking
about. That carnal flesh, the flesh-promoting, flesh-honoring,
devilish religion that's so centered in the flesh is without foundation
in this book. You know about being filled with
the Spirit? He's talking about living in this world in the Spirit
of Jesus Christ, by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, for the glory
of Jesus Christ. What do you mean? Giving thanks
to God for everything. Giving praise to God always. Submitting Your will to God's
will and your ways to God's way and yourself to one another,
even as the Lord Jesus did. Imitating Christ, walking in
love. That's what it is to be filled
with the Spirit. And then finally, in chapter
six, the apostle gives us this exhortation of grace. You'll
find this really in the latter part of chapter six, verses 10
through 24, First, he gives us this exhortation, be strong in
the Lord. Be strong. And stand. You start to say, stand your ground.
No, stand his ground. Stand. Having done all, stand. That's the language in the book
here. I don't know what to do. I'm faced with this, I've got
this. Nobody pays any attention. I just don't know what I'm making.
Just stand. Just stand. Then he says, put on the whole
armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil. And that armor of God is this
seven-fold complete armor. It's the girdle of truth. Now,
that word girdle, of course, we live in a different age than
when I grew up. It's not talking about the kind of thing women
wear. It's talking about the strength that's given around
a man's waist in times of warfare. A girdle gives him strength,
holds his back, holds him firm. And that which will hold you
firm is truth. the breastplate, that impenetrable
armor through which the fiery darts of hell cannot reach. That impenetrable shield of armor
covering your breast through which no, no trouble can come
to disturb your soul is the breastplate righteousness, not yours, His. The hard-nailed sandals of gospel
truth, the gospel of peace, will enable you to stand your ground
in the shield of faith by which you shield off the fiery dutch,
the wicked one, and the helmet of salvation, and the sword of
spirit in prayer. Oh brethren, pray always with
all prayer and supplication in spirit, watching with all perseverance
and supplication for all saints, and especially for me. That utterance
may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make
known the mystery of the for which I'm an ambassador in
these bars. And that's the lessons I've brought. Grace explained and experienced
in joy. Grace by which we are educated. Grace we are to exercise. Grace by which we are exhorted
ever to stand. Stand, putting on the whole armor
of God, for the glory of our God. Amen. Ladies and gentlemen,
come lead us in the hymn of the deacons who serve the Lord.