Want to remind you, we will not
be having services this Wednesday night services Friday night at
the conference and after the services would be helpful if
some men could set up the tables for the conference. I've entitled this message. The
faith of Christ. Read verse 12 again. in whom we have boldness and
access with confidence by the faith of him. Now, if you don't have a King
James version, you probably read by faith in him. The New Testament was inspired
through the Greek language. And there have been many translations
of the New Testament since then. And I believe that by far the
best translation is the King James Version, not the New King
James, but the King James Version. I don't hold to that King James
only that many people hold to. They think the actual King James
language was inspired. I don't believe that. It is a
translation. Thank the Lord for translations.
And this is an example of why I believe the King James version
is the best translation. It's the only one that translates
of, of. All the other translations that
you read will translate this word in. And actually that changes
the meaning. That's how important this is.
If it said that in whom we have boldness and access with confidence
by faith in him, that's a totally different meaning than the faith
of him. Now, I want us to consider the
faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Mark chapter 11, verse 22,
you don't have to turn here, but it says, have faith in God.
But my marginal reading says, have the faith of God. Have the faith of God. Believe what God believes. Have that faith of which he is
the author, of which he is the subject. Exercise that faith
that he has. Believe the same thing. Does
God have faith? Yes. Because the Lord said, have
the faith of God. That's the only time that phrase
is found in the scripture, but that doesn't take away from the
importance of it. I think it's very similar to
Hebrews chapter 12, verse two, where we read where the Lord
Jesus Christ is the author and the finisher of faith. He's the
author of it. If you have true faith, he's
the author of it and he's given it to you and it's his faith
and he's the finisher or the perfecter of it. Turn with me
to several scriptures. I want you to see this Romans
chapter three. Romans chapter three, verse 19. Now we know that what
things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under
the law that every mouth may be stopped. No self-indication,
no self-justification, and all the world may become guilty before
God Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh
be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of
sin. That's all God's law does is
it exposes sin. Verse 21, but now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested. Now the law is honored by Christ,
but this is without mine and your personal obedience to the
law. Now in Christ, I did personally
obey the law, but in myself, I haven't done it and neither
have you. Now let's go on reading. Therefore, verse 20, or verse
21, but now the righteousness of God without the laws manifested
being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ. Doesn't say that,
does it? By faith of Jesus Christ. Not by faith in Christ. If I
say my righteousness before God is because of my faith in Christ,
I'm making my faith my salvation rather than Christ himself. And
that's how important this is. It changes the meaning, the faith
of Christ, the righteousness, which is by the faith or the
faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. This righteousness that
every believer possesses. And it's mine. is holy by the
faithfulness, the faith of Jesus Christ. I'm relying on his faith. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
two. Galatians chapter two, verse 16. Knowing, Galatians 2.16, knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law, And let
me make this comment about this. What does he mean by the works
of the law? Is he simply talking about the 10 commandments? No. A work is anything that you do
where salvation is dependent upon something you do. That's
what is meant by works. If any part of your salvation
is dependent upon you doing anything, works. Now let's go and read
him. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Now just about every translation
will say by faith in Christ. That totally changes the meaning.
We're justified by the faith of Christ. Even we have believed
in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of
Christ. not by the works of the law.
For by the works of the law there shall no flesh be justified.
I'm justified not by my faith in Christ. I'm justified by the
faith, the faithfulness, the active and passive obedience
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is my justification before
God. I'm not justified because of
my faith. I'm justified because of the
faithfulness of Christ. Galatians chapter two, verse
20. Paul says, I'm crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by
the faith of the son of God. Not by faith in the Son of God,
but by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me. I live off his faith. He trusted
God perfectly. He's the one who said, though
he slayed me, yet will I trust him. Ain't none of us ever said
that. Every time something's going wrong, we're thinking of
some kind of judgment against this, we're not trusting him.
But he, even in the darkness of the cross, never stopped trusting
his father. He said, my God, my God, why
have you forsaken me? He knew the answer. He said,
Father, in the darkness of death and separation from God, He said,
Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. What faith the Lord
Jesus demonstrated. Somebody had to believe God perfectly.
He did. And I'm trusting His faith. I'm
living off His faith. Somebody says, don't you have
to believe? Yeah, you gotta believe that. You gotta believe that.
We live off his faith. Turn with me to Philippians chapter
three. Verse seven, but what things
were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. I used to put
them in the positive column as being for me, and now I see they're
nothing but rubbish. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but loss. for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of
all things and do count them but done, that I may win Christ
and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is
of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ."
The righteousness, which is of God by faith. Now here's what
Paul's saying. When God comes looking for me,
and He will, He will. We must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ. He will. When God comes looking
for me, I simply want to be found in Christ. That's it. I don't want to be seen in any
other light, but in Him. so that all God sees is Jesus
Christ. He doesn't see me in any way
independently of Him. He sees me in His Son. I can only be found in Him. The righteousness of God is that
faithful obedience that Jesus Christ worked out. That's the
only righteousness we have. Now, do you see the importance
of this word of? In the Greek language, this is
the way it should be. It's in what's called the genitive
case, and it should be of. I mean, I don't wanna get technical
about that, but it should be of. And I reckon the translator
said, well, that doesn't make sense. Let's put in in its place.
And thus, it's no longer a translation, but an interpretation. I don't
want anybody's interpretation of the scripture. I wanna know
what it actually says. And we're justified by the faith of Christ. And then in our text, let's turn
back to Ephesians chapter three. The last four words of chapter
11 is Christ Jesus, our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with
confidence by the faith of Him. Not by faith in Him, but by the
faith of him. Now, the only thing I have boldness
in is the faith of him, not my own faith, not my own ability
to believe. The only thing I have is boldness,
a boldness that causes me to come into God's presence is the
faith of him. I'm not bringing my puny faith.
I'm looking at the faith of him. The only thing that gives me
access into the very presence of God is the faith of him. faithfulness. The only thing
I have confidence in is the faith of Him. Now the verse begins
with this little phrase, in whom we have pockets. Now the we is
everybody in Him. Not everybody's in him, this
is God's elect, those who Christ died for, those who God the Holy
Spirit gives a new nature to, they've always been internally
in him. That's the way he's talking about
it. Now, in him. we have this boldness
and this access into God's presence, His very presence with confidence
by the faith of Him. Now, consider this phrase, in
Him. There's not a more important phrase in the Word of God. Well,
what's it mean to be in Him? And to me, the easiest explanation
of it in the Scripture is where the writer to the Hebrews in
Hebrews chapter seven, verse nine, talks about Levi, who is
the great grandson of Abraham. Levi paid tithes in Abraham. It didn't say it's as if he paid
tithes, or it was just like he paid tithes. He paid tithes because
when Abraham paid those tithes to Melchizedek, Levi did too. And that's what we say in baptism.
When Jesus Christ obeyed the law, I was in him. I did too. When he suffered under God's
wrath as the sin bearing substitute, I was in him. I did too. It's the same thing with Adam.
When Adam sinned, the scripture says we sinned. It doesn't say
his sin was charged to our account, although it was. It says we sinned
because we were in the loins of Adam. When Adam sinned, me
and you sinned too. We were guilty of that sin. Somebody
says, I don't think it's right for me to be charged with a sin
I didn't commit. You're not. You did. You did. Is that clear? You did. That's
what it means to be in the Lord Jesus Christ. What he did, I
did. I love it when he said to John
the Baptist, thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Everything the Lord Jesus Christ,
he did, he did as an us. Now, the blessing that we have being in
Him. Turn with me to Colossians chapter
two. What is in the Lord Jesus Christ? Colossians chapter two, verse nine. For in Him, in the Lord Jesus
Christ dwelleth all The fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him. What's in the Lord Jesus Christ?
All the fullness of God in His very body and you. You. Every believer. And you are complete
You know what that means? You don't lack anything. You
don't lack anything. You may feel lacking, but you're
not. You're not. You're complete. All God could
possibly ever want out of you, you have. You're in His Son. You're complete. You lack nothing.
You're perfect. You're holy. You're righteous.
You're altogether lovely in the Lord Jesus Christ. You have no
sin. You're perfect in Him. Isn't that wonderful? What's
in Christ? Well, all of the fullness of God and you. That's glorious. Oh, the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Of him are you in Christ Jesus. Now, in whom we have this
boldness and access and confidence. What all is in Christ? Well,
all spiritual blessings. Ephesians 1, 3, he hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
Now, what does the world think of when they think of blessings?
Material blessings, physical blessings, health, not having
troubles, not having trials, going downhill, everything's
smooth, all the bills are paid, plenty of money in the bank,
Healthy, wealthy, I'm blessed. Well, I've got to admit, I would
rather be healthy than sick. Wouldn't you? I've been sick.
I'd rather be healthy than sick. And I'd rather be able to pay
my bills than not be able to pay it. I'd rather have enough
money in the bank to pay the bills. And I'd like to know how
to get on in this world. But here's the point I want to
make. Where in the world can we even say that these are blessings
from God? I mean, whatever you have, he
gave you, but here's the point. It might be a curse. It might
be that God is cursing you like he did the rich man who fared
sumptuously every day. And Lazarus, he had a horrible
life, as we would speak, but which one was blessed of God?
Lazarus was. The rich man was under God's
curse. Now, you may have material blessings, and what material
blessings? Every believer in here, you're
thankful for them, aren't you? You are thankful. But what are
they compared with spiritual blessings? Like being elected,
according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation,
or having God chose you. Why me? Being accepted. Having all of God's acceptance.
We're accepted in the Beloved. Having the forgiveness of all
your sins. You know, what a blessing it
is to just think about this. That all my sins, all my sins
are forgiven sins. They're forgiven. I'm justified
before God. What a blessing that is. To be
just before God. To stand perfect before His righteous
law. to be predestinated, to be just
like the Lord Jesus Christ, conformed to him as image, to have the
full inheritance that's in him. Oh, the blessing that there is
in him. Now, he names three things in
Ephesians chapter three, verse 12, that we have in him. In whom
we have boldness, in whom we have access, and in whom we have
confidence. Let's consider those three things.
Boldness. Boldness. Now what is someone
who is bold? It means he's not afraid. He's
not afraid. He feels like he can come into
God's presence with boldness. No fear. Now that doesn't mean
there's never a time when we don't have the fear of God. We
always have the fear of God. We always have the reverence
and respect for God. This is not talking about some
kind of presumption, but it's what the scripture teaches. The
believer has this boldness to come into his presence, this
absence of fear. I love that passage of scripture
in second Corinthians four 13 says when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John, this is the Pharisees. The way they were
standing for the gospel in the midst of all its enemies without
flinching when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, how they weren't
going to give in. And they perceived that they
were unlearned and ignorant men. They thought, man, these guys
got nothing going for them after the flesh. They took knowledge
of them that they had been with Jesus. Now, the boldness any
believer has is with him. It doesn't have anything to do
with my own personal courage and boldness and I'm willing
to, no, the only boldness we have is with Him. Colossians
chapter, no, I mean 2 Corinthians 3, verse 12, seeing that we have
such hope, we use great, the word plainness is the same word
translated boldness. We use great boldness of speech. Seeing we have such hope, this
hope that everything God requires of me, I have in Christ. I can't
get any more saved. I can't get any more justified.
I can't get any more glorified in the Lord Jesus Christ. What
a hope. Seeing we have such hope, we
use great boldness of speech. We say things like, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who is he that condemned? It's
Christ that died, yea, rather than prison again, who's even
at the right hand of God. We use boldness of speech, don't
we? Hebrews chapter three, verse
six says, whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence,
that's the boldness, the confidence. and the rejoicing of the hope,
and we rejoice in Christ only, and we have confidence. This
is the beginning of our hope. We have confidence that he's
all in salvation, don't we? That's all I have confidence
in. I don't have any confidence in
myself. You know when people say, well, I don't doubt him,
I just doubt myself. Duh. You ought to. I mean, that's
crazy to look for yourself for anything. We have confidence
in him and him only. And don't say, well, I don't
have confidence in myself. Well, of course you don't. You shouldn't. Really,
when it comes right down to it, that smacks of self-righteousness.
If I could be a little bit better, if I could have a little bit
more confidence in myself, no. We have confidence in him. Nowhere
else. Hebrews chapter four verse 16
says, let us therefore come boldly under the throne of grace. Everybody
in here, it's a believer. Let us come boldly under the
throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need. Bonus. Let me show you a couple
of scriptures in first John. Turn to first John chapter two. Verse 28. And now little children
abide in him. It's like this morning about
abiding in the house with blood over the door. That's what it
means to abide in Christ. You only want to be found in
him. If all of God's favor was in this room and everything you
could ever desire was in this room and all of the pleasures
of knowing God was in this room and outside of this room, there
was nothing but hell. Where would you want to be? You'd
want to be in this room, wouldn't you? And that serves to illustrate
what it is to simply abide in Christ. I don't want to be, at
all times, I don't want to leave Him. I want to be in Him. David
said, I want to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days
of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in
His temple. That's the same thing he's saying. He's not saying
I want to dwell in the physical temple all the days of my life.
The house of the Lord is the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's
where I want to be. Now he says in verse 28, now
little children abide in him that when he shall appear, we
may have confidence. That's the same word as boldness.
We may have boldness. Now, you think of the second
coming of Christ and having boldness? It's every believer's possession
because we're in him. First John chapter four, verse
17. Herein is our love made perfect
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. Now, I want
you to think about that statement, standing before God in judgment,
where he's judging you and you have boldness. How can that be? Well, the answer is Boldness in the day of judgment
because as He is, so are we in this world right now. Now, can
Christ have boldness on judgment? Of course He can. And you have
no reason to have any less boldness than He does because as He is,
so are you in this world right now. boldness on the day of judgment. Hebrews 10, 19 says, having therefore
brethren boldness to enter the holiest. And you remember what
that is. Nobody was allowed to enter the
holy of holies, but the high priest of the Old Testament.
If me or you would have come waltzing in, it would have been
death right off the bat. But now we have boldness to actually
enter into the holiest. the very presence of God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And this holy boldness is only
connected with in him, in whom we have boldness. The moment
you start thinking about the boldness you have, you've missed
it. It's in Him, in whom we have boldness. Now, the next thing
he says we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, because of the faith
of Christ, and don't miss that. This boldness doesn't come from
our faith in Christ. It comes by the faith of Christ.
But the next thing he says we have is access. Access, freedom
to enter. In him, we are always welcome. We are never intruders. We don't come presumptuously.
We have continual access in him. There's never a time when the
father thinks or says, what are you doing here? What right have
you to come in here? Never a time. Because I'm coming
on the rights and the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. Does
he ever have a time to think of his son? What are you doing
here? No, his son is always so welcome. You think about how welcome Jesus
Christ is to the father. That is how welcome every believer
is. We have access. into the very
presence of God. Now, how many times when you've
sinned, do you feel like you need to work up some repentance
and some sorrow? And you can't come into God's
presence feeling like this. You need to work up some kind
of good feelings. You need to work up some kind
of holy feelings. You need to work up something
before you come into God's presence. No. That's bypassing Christ. The
only way you come into God's presence is through the Lord
Jesus Christ. And you have continual access
because this access is only in him. It's always in him. It's completely in him and it's
sufficiently in him. And I'm always complete in him.
Therefore, I always have access. Right now, if a believer, I don't
care how you feel, you have access. I want you to turn with me to
the book of Esther. Right after Nehemiah, there's
Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, I think Job's the next book. So it's
right before Job, right after Nehemiah, the book of Esther.
Now in this passage of scripture, Esther, Or in this whole book,
Esther is a beautiful type of Christ. I was thinking about
this. I thought, I want to preach on this for a long time. I preached
on it a long time. I never will forget when I was in college,
a guy told me that he knew the Bible wasn't all inspired because
of Esther. Because the name of God is not mentioned in the book
of Esther. I remember that scared me. I
was 18 years old. I thought, well, it's not in
there. I read it and it's not in there. And then the Lord revealed
to me that Esther is a type of Christ, and this is the gospel.
And we're going to see how powerfully Esther is a type of Christ. More
to come. had told her to go in and represent
the Jews because there had been a decree by the king to kill
all the Jews. This is what Haman wanted to
do. And Mordecai says, you need to go in and represent us because
she was the queen. If you'll remember that, it's
almost funny, almost funny, it is funny. The king had a, he
told his wife to come out and show her beauty to everybody
and she said, I'm not going to do that, I'm not going to be,
I guess she was the first, well, whatever, she wasn't going to
do it, she wasn't going to mess with that. So the men, they said,
you've got to do something about her. All of our wives are going
to start acting like her. They're all going to disrespect
us. We're going to be in trouble. You need to do something about
her. So he banished her as queen. And he had a beauty pageant.
And if you'll remember, Esther won. And she became the queen. Queen, she became his wife. And this is when, and she was
a Jew. He didn't know it at first, but she was a Jew. And so Mordecai
says, you're going to have to represent us because there'd
been an edict from the king that all the Jews are going to be
wiped out. I look here in verse 11 of chapter four, this is Esther
speaking. And she says, all the king's
servants and the people of the king's provinces do know whosoever,
whether man or woman, shall come into the king and to the inner
court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put him
to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden
scepter, that he may live. But I've not been called to come
into the king these 30 days." Now here's the rule. The only
way you can come into the inner chamber of the king is if he
calls you. If you initiate this, death. Death. God is holy. God is holy. Look in chapter
5, verse 1. That came to pass on the third
day that Esther put on her royal apparel, Mrs. Christ appearing
for us, and stood in the inner court of the king's house over
against the king's house. And the king sat upon his royal
throne in the royal house over against the gate of the house.
And it was so when the king saw Esther the queen standing in
the court. that she obtained favor in his
sight. And the king held out to Esther
the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther drew near
and touched the top of the scepter. Then said the king unto her,
what wilt thou, Queen Esther, and what is thy request? It shall
be given thee even to the half of the king. Now, when I come
into God's presence, it's because I'm brought in by Christ. And
Christ touches the golden scepter. He's always welcome. Whatever
you want, the Father says to Him, you have. And every believer
is in Him. That is our access into the presence
of God. And we have it continually. We have boldness and we have
access through the Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore, he is able
to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him. You
see, that's how we come, by him. Seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession for them. And not only do we have boldness,
not only do we have access, we have confidence. Confidence. in him. Now, it's not just confidence. Why? I have confidence that I'm
saved. I have confidence that I have
full assurance of faith. I have confidence that I'm one
of the elect. I have confidence that I've been
born of the spirit. I have a way. As soon as I start talking that
way, I lose all confidence. You see,
the confidence is in him. It's not in me or what's done
in me. My confidence is in Him. In whom
we have this confidence, this trust, this reliance. I love
what Philippians chapter three, verse three says, we are the
circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, rejoice, glory,
have confidence in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the
flesh. Now I can say this with some
depth of conviction. I don't have confidence in my
flesh. I only have confidence in Him. If my fingerprints are
on it, I have no confidence in it. My confidence is only in
Him. I love that scripture in Ephesians
chapter 1 verse 12 that says, we should be to the praise of
his glory who first trusted in Christ. I love to think of the
father first trusting in Christ and entrusting my salvation to
the Lord Jesus Christ as my surety before time began and Christ
took complete responsibility for me. The father trusted him
completely. Now, how much did the father
look to me for my salvation? He looked wholly to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, I have confidence in his
ability. I love it when those two blind
men came up and he said, do you believe that I'm able to do this?
Yes, I do. I believe he is able to save me without any contribution
from me. I believe salvation is of the
Lord. I have confidence in his righteousness. There is no other
righteousness. I have confidence in his blood. If Christ died
for me, I must be saved. That's how powerful his blood
is. He's incapable of failure. I
have confidence in His blood. We have confidence in His intercession. Oh, if He brings me before the
Father, everything's fine. It's totally, my confidence is
in Him. I have confidence in the sufficiency
of His grace. He said, my grace is sufficient
for you. He said that to Paul. And that's in light of, Paul
had this thorn in the flesh. I was listening to a preacher
preach last week and he said that thorn in the flesh couldn't have
been any sinful, couldn't have been anything sinful because
Paul, you know, but that, Wow, I guarantee it had something
to do with sin. Somebody says, well, it was because
of some kind of physical ailment he had. He had physical ailments,
but I don't think that that's, it's a thorn in the flesh. What
do you think he's talking about? A thorn in the flesh. And what does he
do? He says to the Lord three times,
let this depart from me. And I think it's interesting
how the Lord didn't say, no, I'm not going to do it. Because if
the Lord said, no, I'm not going to do it, Paul would have been
okay with it. But he said, my grace is sufficient
for thee. The sufficiency of his grace. And we end this thing up where
we began. Back to our text in Ephesians
3.12. we have boldness and access,
freedom of entrance with confidence. How? By the faith of Him. I'll tell you what, if it said
by our faith in Him, that'd scare me to death, but it says by the
faith of Him. It was said of Abraham, he considered
not his body now dead, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb.
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but
was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded
that what God had promised, he was able also to perform. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you. That you sovereignly. Put us
in your son. And that we're saved by the faith
of him. And Lord, we confess He is all in our salvation. And Lord, we love it being that
way. We wouldn't want it to be any other way. Lord, we once again pray for
your blessing upon the upcoming meeting, that you would be pleased
to speak, that you bless every man with a word from you and
give us hearing ears and receptive hearts. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.