Introduction / Proclamation of the Gospel

Introduction to the Book of Ephesians and its Uniqueness

0:03 After a number of briefer series of studies over the past few months, since the conclusion of our expositions of the book of 1 Thessalonians, we begin this morning the study of another book, and we will probably be here, unless there are some providential indications otherwise, Sunday mornings for at least the next two or three years, at the rate that we usually move through. And so we begin this morning a study in Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus. Now I'm fully aware for the young theologues present that there is a question as to whether or not

0:45 the letter, usually considered as the letter to the Ephesian church, was indeed written to the Ephesian church, and after spending some hours in investigating the subject, I am satisfied in my own mind that this was, written to the church at Ephesus, but it was also written with a view to having a widespread circulation amongst the other churches that have been established in Asia Minor, probably as little baby churches of the church at Ephesus. Now there are several things that make this letter completely unique amongst the letters of the New Testament. Along with the book of Romans,

1:27 it is unique in that it is the most comprehensive translation of the whole gospel as we find that gospel expounded in the letters of the Apostle Paul. In Romans, the great theme, of course, is the gospel providing a righteousness from God by faith plus nothing. However, here in Ephesians, the perspective is, as Bishop Mool has so beautifully said, the gospel viewed from the standpoint of the life of believers in union with their redeeming head and the consequent oneness of the true church in time and in eternity.

2:11 Whereas we have the gospel primarily from its legal aspect in Romans, we have it from its personal, intimate aspect in Ephesians, namely, union with Jesus Christ in the individual and in the total church as one of the greatest, great, and dominant themes. Another writer has said, the theme of Ephesians is the glory of the church as the society which embodies in history the eternal purpose of God revealed through Christ. The theme is the church, that body which embodies in history

2:54 the eternal purpose of God revealed in Christ. Another thing, that makes the book unique is that it seems as though there were no particular problems at the church which provoked Paul to write this particular letter. The household of Chloe came to Paul and told him of a number of problems in the church at Corinth and so he sits down to write a letter. Many of the letters of the New Testament were provoked by specific problems.

3:23 Even the book of Romans, which wasn't provoked by a problem, was, at least in part, provoked by Paul's desire to have somebody send him on his way as a missionary to Spain. And so he tells them in the 14th or 15th chapter, he said, I'm writing to you now hoping to be brought on my way by you as I go unto Spain. But there's nothing of that nature in Ephesians. It would seem that the exclusive motivation behind the writing of this letter was the Apostle's desire to establish the people of God more fully.

3:59 The Apostle's desire to establish the people of God more fully. In the truths of the Gospel by which they had been brought into the profession of Christianity. You remember in his Word to the Ephesian elders, as recorded in Acts chapter 20, that he said in verses 29 and 30 I know that after my departure grievous wolves shall enter in, not sparing the flock. And he said, from your own selves shall men rise up and speak things that are contrary to truth And will draw disciples after them. About five years has passed, at least five years, since he gave that warning,

4:36 and it would seem that the Apostle's desire is to immunize the people against error by further establishing them in the truth. This is what he indicates in chapter 4, when he says that ye be no more children, tossed to and fro by every slight of man, and by every doctrine, but rather he says that speaking the truth in love, you may grow up into Christ in all things. So, in order to increase our appreciation of this unique letter, which stands along with Romans, head and shoulders above all of the other epistles in terms of its comprehensive treatment of the gospel, I want us to begin this morning, and we'll

The Birth of the Ephesian Church: Context and City

5:21 not have time to finish, it'll carry over for at least another Lord's Day, we want to begin a consideration of the birth of the church at Ephesus and vicinity. For if we understand something of the circumstances in which the church was planted, something of the means by which the church was planted, I believe our appreciation of the letter itself, when we come to a verse-by-verse, word-by-word study, will be greatly increased and greatly enhanced. This morning we shall, time permitting, consider first of all the city itself and its people. The letter begins,

6:01 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God to the saints that are at Ephesus. That was a given geographical location that had its own peculiar marks as a city, had peculiar characteristics amongst its people, and we want to look at those things very briefly. Then secondly, we want to

6:24 consider his companions in that city by which the church was established, and then thirdly, we want to consider the means by which these laborers established the church. And if we can bring those strands of truth together, gleaning information a little bit from secular history, but for the most part from the book of Acts itself and from the book of Ephesians, I believe it will set the stage for a more appreciative study of this great church. Great letter of the apostle Paul. So much then for what we're going to attempt to do, now let's come to the thing itself. What about the city of Ephesus? What was it like? What were its people

Ephesus: A City of Idolatry, Sorcery, and Moral Depravity

7:08 like? Well, there's an excellent digest in just a couple of paragraphs in Hodge's commentary on this particular letter, in which he gives a section on the city of Ephesus, and I read those two paragraphs for you. The city of Ephesus, on the city of Ephesus, under the Romans, the capital of the pro-consular Asia, what we would call Asia Minor, was situated on a plain near the mouth of the river Caster. It was originally a Greek colony, but became in no small degree orientalized by the influences which surrounded it. Being a free city, it enjoyed under

7:47 the Romans, to a great extent, the right of self-government. Its constitution was essentially democratic. The municipal authority of the city of Ephesus was the right of self-government. The municipal authority was vested in a senate and in the assembly of the people. The town

8:00 clerk, or recorder, was an officer in charge of the archives of the city, the promulgator of the laws, and was clothed with great authority. You remember in Acts 19, 24 to 40, when they had a riot, the man who came in and quelled the riot was this particular town clerk. He would be like our mayor. That would be the closest parallel we would have in our day. The city was principally

8:24 celebrated for its tenancy and its history. Ephesus was regarded as sacred to that particular goddess. The attributes belonging to the Grecian Diana, however, seemed to have been combined with those which belonged to the Phoenician Astarte. Her image, as revered in Ephesus, was not a product of Grecian art, but a many-breasted, mummy-like figure of oriental symbolism. Ugly. Any of the things I've seen

8:54 representing this goddess, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I

8:55 don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

8:56 This goddess of the Diana of the Ephesians was a most ugly, grotesque kind of a representation of the goddess. Her famous temple, however, had a Greek building of the Ionic order. In fact, it had become so celebrated that the destruction of the temple of the goddess Diana, 356 years before the birth of Christ, has conferred immortality on the author of the deed. All Greece in Western Asia, contributed to its restoration, which was a work of centuries.

9:30 Its vast dimensions, its costly materials, its extended colonnades, the numerous statues and paintings with which it was adorned, its long-accumulated wealth, the sacred effigies of the goddess made it one of the wonders of the then world. It was this temple which gave unity to the city and to the character of its inhabitants. And you remember the record in the book of Acts is very extensive about the whole riot that occurred because the worship of Diana was jeopardized by the presence of the gospel. So this is significant.

10:06 And you find a great strand of emphasis in Ephesians on the temple of God, the church being God's temple. All of that is against the backdrop of the tremendous predominance of this temple to Diana and its significance in the thinking, of the Ephesians. And so this is necessary. This is not the historical drivel.

10:28 This will help us to grasp the context of Ephesians and help to open up its meaning. The author goes on to say, Oxford in England is no more Oxford on account of its university than Ephesus was Ephesus on account of the temple of Diana. The highest title the city could have assumed was that which was impressed on its coins. It was called, the Neo-Koros, the Greek word for temple sweeper, servant of the great goddess.

11:02 One of the most lucrative occupations of the people was the manufacture of miniature representations of the temple wrought in silver, which being carried about by travelers or reverenced at home, found an extensive sale both foreign and domestic. And with the worship of Diana, the practice of sorcery was from the early years of Ephesians, from the earliest times connected. Now this again opens up the record in Acts. For you remember that in that record, we have the account of how they brought their books of sorcery and burned them?

11:34 That again was all tied in with this matter of the worship of Diana. The so-called Ephesian letters, mystical monograms used as charms or amulets are spoken of frequently by heathen writers. Ephesus was therefore the chief seat of necromancy, exorcism, and all forms of magic arts for all Asia. What certain parts of California are for the new occult and the new mystical religions, that's what Ephesus was to that section of Asia Minor.

12:08 You had all the trinkets, you had all the so-called mystery books that would tell you how to make the incantations. That's what Ephesus was when the Apostle Paul came to it. And then the writer goes on to say that, and what that city once was, of course, it is not now in its glory. And so in this city, the capital of Asia, renowned throughout the world for the temple of Diana and for skill in sorcery and magic, the place of concourse for people from all the surrounding countries, it's into such a city that the gospel was established and the church was founded.

The Spiritual, Mental, and Moral State of the Ephesians

12:46 Now from the book of Ephesians itself, what do we learn about the city and its people? Well, let me suggest three things that are most helpful for our study. We read in chapter 2, verses 11 and 12, that it was predominantly, of course, a Gentile city and that the church was founded predominantly of Gentile converts, not exclusively. Or in Acts 18, 19 to 21, see that a number of Jews were exposed to the gospel.

13:19 But Paul says in writing to them, in general, Wherefore remember that once ye the Gentiles in the flesh, who were called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision in the flesh, made by hands, that ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of the promise, and I think some of the saddest words in scripture, having no hope, and without God in the world. What was the religious state of this people? If you were to ask the average Roman citizen, they'd say, Why?

14:02 That's one of the most religious cities in all of the Roman Empire. That's the seat of the worship of Diana of the Ephesians. That's a religious city. What is God's assessment of their religious state?

14:17 He says, With all of this ritual, with all of the grandeur, of the worship of Diana, they are a people without hope and without God. That's their state, religiously. Without hope, without God. In the midst of all their religious ritual.

14:37 May I say to some of you sitting here this morning, it's perfectly possible for you to be involved to the hilt in all kinds of religious form and ceremony, and yet to be without hope. And without God. Then over in chapter 4 verses 17-19, we have a picture of what we would call their mental state with regard to the truth of God. Their religious state cut off from that stream through which light came.

15:10 Israel, without hope without God. Now we read verse 17 of chapter 4, This I say therefore in testifying the Lord that you'll no longer walk as the Gentiles, that you'll no longer walk as the Gentiles, That you'll no longer walk as the Gentiles, that you'll no longer walk as the Gentiles, That you'll no longer walk as the Gentiles, walk in the vanity of their mind being darkened in the understanding alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardening of the heart notice these words vanity of the mind darkened in the understanding ignorance that is in them that was their state with regard to their minds absolutely darkened

15:52 an opaque veil hung over the mind and through that veil no saving light had come ignorant of God ignorant of truth darkened in the understanding and this will always produce a moral state consistent with the darkness of the mind and the irreligion of the life and so when we turn to chapter 5 what is the description of their moral state? listen to it verses 3 through 7 but fornication illicit sexual activity amongst the unmarried the married the general word used for all forms of the breaches of the seventh commandment

16:37 and all uncleanness sexual deviation described in detail in Romans 1 covetousness the grasping after things let it not be named among you as becometh saints nor filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not befitting but rather giving of thanks for this know of a surety that no fornicator nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance of the kingdom of Christ and of God let no man deceive you with empty words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience be not ye therefore partakers with them for the sake of the Lord

17:21 for ye were once darkness you see what he's saying he says all of these things I've described these specific evidences of aberrations deflections from God's holy law come under the realm of darkness and moral impurity is always the natural child of the ignorance of God and the alienation from true religion and the alienation from true religion and so it's not surprising to find that in this city with all the trappings of Diana worship there were the foulest kinds of immoral actions going on many times

18:04 as a very part of that temple worship and it's into such a city that the apostle comes pretty contemporary isn't it people saying ah the scriptures outmoded this idea of verse by verse exposition we need something that will get the modern man's ear my friend Paul had it right here he's talking to the issues that are baffling the great leaders of our own day how to resolve these problems at the moral level but you see they can never be resolved at the moral level until we go back to the issue of the understanding and of the revelation of true religion from heaven so much for the city and its people

The Labors of Paul and Companions in Ephesus

18:48 of them we could say with Wesley long their imprisonment and spirits lay fast bound by sin and nature's night that was Ephesus now very briefly what about the labors of Paul and his companions in that city well if you want the details just read Acts 18 18 through to the end of Acts 20 I'm not going to do that this morning we did that a few weeks ago as we were working through Acts but again a good summary of what happened I give you a good summary of what happened and I'll see you next time I give you now in just a few minutes after remaining 18 months in the city of Corinth at the conclusion of his second missionary tour

19:33 Paul sailed to Ephesus in companions with his companions Priscilla and Aquila he left his companions there and entered into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews and after a brief period they said stay on with us we want more Paul said no not now but if the Lord wills I'll return to you later and after he had said that after he leaves Ephesus a man appears by the name of Apollos and he's mighty in the scriptures an eloquent man and he goes into the synagogue and he starts proving from the scriptures certain basic tenets but then Priscilla and Aquila overhear him and they say he's true in what he says but he doesn't understand all the gospel so they take him aside they instruct him in the way of God more perfectly

20:18 and then if he stayed at all in Ephesus it was only for a brief time and then Apollos left to make his way to the city of Corinth to minister elsewhere and we have Priscilla and Aquila left behind until the apostle returns and then agreeable to his promise he returned probably in the fall of the year 54 and here he found these disciples who are now in Acts 19 and all they had was a knowledge of the baptism of John Paul further instructs them they come into a new experience in terms of their new understanding and then the apostle begins to preach again in the synagogue and when the Jews reject the message he says alright I'll go somewhere else so he finds this public teaching place

21:01 called the school of Tyrannus and there he meets regularly to expound the scriptures and the word of God tells us that by the space of two years with the school of Tyrannus as his headquarters the gospel went out into that whole area of Asia Minor until it says all that were in Asia heard the word of the Lord so it would seem and now I quote from Hodge that these following things were accomplished by the labors of Paul number one the conversion of a great number of Jews and Greeks two the diffusion of the knowledge of the gospel throughout that whole section of Asia three

21:43 such an influence upon the popular mind that certain exorcists people who cast out demons attempted to work miracles in the name of that Jesus whom Paul's preaching had proved to be so powerful and that other magicians convinced of the folly and wickedness of their arts made public confession and burnt their books of divination and mystic charms talk about the social effects of the gospel here's how they come not by organized efforts on the part of the church but by such powerful penetration of the gospel that even worldlings have to take up and sit up and take note of what's going on then they try to mock it then they try to imitate it but they can't ignore it

22:27 the power of the truth has been felt fourth such a marked diminution dwindling of the zeal and numbers of the worshippers of Diana as to excite general alarm that her temple would be despised a lot of people made money making up these little trinkets and they said our business is in jeopardy we gotta do something we're feeling the pinch in our pockets see it would happen if God would visit this area with a visitation of his spirit and these sinks of iniquity and uncleanness called theaters would close down and the so-called cigar shops and magazine shops would go out of business because no one would buy their filth that's what happened they began to feel the pinch

23:11 so powerful was the influence five a large and flourishing church was established and this proves this is proved from the facts recorded in the book of the Acts so much then for the Lord God for the Lord God for the Lord God the labors of Paul and his companions leaving behind them a strong church an influence so felt that unconverted people feel the pinch in their pocketbooks and begin to get disturbed and now to such people Paul is going to write this letter now the question I would ask and this will introduce the focus of our remaining study this morning and introduce it for next week what was the cause of this great work one of the great cries

The Cause of Transformation: Sovereign Grace and Eternal Purpose

23:56 of the people of Israel who were concerned about our natural resources and the rest is the ugliness of the American countryside and landscape and one of the objects most frequently focused objects of this campaign to clear up our countryside are these graveyards for our automobiles and they are an ugly sight many of you have seen them some of you may have them smack right out in front of your picture window I don't know but they're an ugly sight here you see cars that once shined here you see cars that once shined and people polished and fawned over them and there they lie all battered and beaten and stripped and pushed in and windows pushed out in an ugly sight now suppose there was such an automobile graveyard somewhere in your vicinity

24:40 and you were a commuter and every day as you drove to work you had to drive by one of those graveyards hundreds of cars bashed in wheels off trunks up hoods up and the rest and one day as you drove by you noticed something strange right in the midst of all of that there were six or seven cars that looked different and you paused pulled over to the shoulder of the road and you looked and sure enough you thought you saw correctly all the dents were out of them they were shining all the glass was in no hoods up no trunks up they looked like brand new cars that had been lifted right out of a showroom down here on Bloomfield Avenue and stuck right in the middle of it you say maybe there's something wrong with me this morning I'll forget it and so the next morning

25:24 as you drive by lo and behold you see another section of that graveyard a little bit further over and that's happened and the next day you see a few more well if you're half a human being this can't go on very many days before you're going to stop and ask the question what in the world is going on here something's happening to that graveyard and something's happening by some kind of external force and power those cars have no ability to do that to themselves just sitting there all they can do is get more rusted and get more dingy more dirty and more decrepit but when that process is reversed and the cars start shining and start functioning

26:09 somebody's been monkeying with the cars and you're going to begin to ask the question who's doing this how is it being accomplished may I trust without any in any sense being disrespectful to the Ephesians say that's what the city of Ephesus was when Paul came it was a spiritual graveyard in fact he tells them he doesn't flatter them he tells them that in chapter 2 you who hath he made alive who are dead and when you pass by and see a people religiously without God in the understanding darkened morally bound by their sins and suddenly whole pockets of these people begin to be released from the bondage of sin

26:53 and of death you've got to ask the question how in the world does this happen what's been going on to make the change well there's a general answer and I want to give you a general answer and I want to give you a general answer I want to give you that briefly and then there's a specific answer that breaks down into three aspects the general answer is this as Paul begins to unfold his mind to them in the letter that we call the book of Ephesians he tells them that everything that has transpired in their midst in time is but the unfolding of what God had purposed for them in eternity may I repeat it I'm not just spouting out preachers words

27:38 I'm trying to give you a digest of the whole first chapter in that sentence as Paul picks up his pen to write to the Ephesians he says do you want to know what happened to change that graveyard into something that has no human explanation here it is everything that has transpired in you in time is but the unfolding of what God purposed for you in eternity so that in the first chapter in the first few verses we confront phrases like this chosen in him before the foundation of the world according to the good pleasure which he purposed in himself

28:22 according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will what's the answer for the transformation that came to pass at Ephesus the general answer that is the most accurate is there had been an operation of the grace of God it was God's purpose coming to light in their midst that was Paul's answer and then the apostle says and he mentions the word grace two or three times in that first chapter all that God purposed and it came to light the moving impulse of that purpose was his own

29:06 free grace so in chapter one verses six and seven we read phrases like this according to the purpose of his grace that we should be to the praise of the glory of his grace and so the only explanation for that which transpired at Ephesus was the operation of sovereign grace in keeping with God's eternal purpose may I say by way of application whenever anyone experiences the transformation that these people experience that's the answer to the question how did it come to pass it came to pass

29:50 by the operations of sovereign grace in keeping with God's eternal purpose but God is the God who works by means as we saw in our reading in Acts this morning and so there were specific channels through which that grace was operative in establishing the church at Ephesus and what I want to demonstrate just touching one point this morning and finishing up God willing next Lord's Day morning is that that grace working according to eternal purpose was grace that worked through the message of God communicated by a man of God

The Message of God: The Whole Counsel of God

30:32 using the methods of God how does grace operate in the establishment of churches so that there's a church to which letters can be sent to which preachers can preach and expound the word here's the answer grace works proclamation of the message of God through men of God using the methods of God and we'll only have time to touch on the first this morning it was the proclamation of the message of God for he says in chapter 1 in verse 13 of his letter this very significant phrase in whom ye also having heard

31:16 the word of the truth the gospel of your salvation so bound up in their deliverance from the graveyard of sin is this matter of the gospel that he calls it the gospel of your salvation as though the cause of that salvation were indeed the gospel of your salvation itself now when Paul describes that gospel and does give us some hint as to what its content was how does he describe it what does he underscore as the basic structure of its content what does a man preach

32:00 in a citadel of pagan ignorance such as Ephesus what does a man proclaim in the midst of idolatry in the midst of immorality in the midst of all that is evil is attached to the whole worship of Diana and the spiritual ignorance of that people what does he preach well he gives us a good review of that in his sermon or his exhortation to the Ephesian elders and I refer you now to chapter 20 of the book of Acts and he says in verses 26 and 27

32:43 of Acts 20 wherefore I testify unto you this day that I am pure from the blood of all men and for I shrank not from declaring unto you the whole counsel of God now here's a missionary evangelist and he says I've completed my labors amongst you and as I do I have a tremendous peace in my own conscience that when I stand before God my hands will not be dripping with the blood of your souls I'm clear from the blood of your souls I'm clear from the blood of your souls I'm clear from the blood of your souls I'm clear from the blood of your souls I'm clear from the blood of all men and he says I have that confidence because

33:26 I did not shrink from declaring unto you now notice not a minimum amount of truth which I had determined was the only amount of truth that poor ignorant Diana worshipping pagans could take oh no no no he said I shrank not from declaring unto you the whole counsel of God he said God entrusted me with a body of truth and I declared the totality of that body to you and now I'm going to write a letter to enlarge upon it but he said I'll introduce no new thing but simply enlarge upon what I declared in my evangelism

34:10 and church planting remind you this is not someone who's been there 20 years working through verse by verse this is a man who was an evangelist and a missionary and a church planter well then you ask what's involved in preaching the whole counsel of God well Paul tells us the first thing it involved and it involved this in a very pivotal way in a pagan environment was proclaiming what I'm calling basic biblical theism in other words the basic doctrine of God you say where do you find that well look at Acts 19 and verse 26 here are these silversmiths

34:55 upset because they're feeling the pinch in their pocketbook and they say this is why we are and ye see and hear that not alone in Ephesus but almost throughout all Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away much people saying there are no gods that are made with hands now listen that's a negative gospel that'll get you in trouble you're going into a city the whole life of which is bound up in the lie that there are gods made with hands are many breasted Diana made with hands

35:39 and you tell us seasonal God you're saying our whole way of life is a lie Paul says precisely now why did he do this well I think letting scripture be the commentary on scripture if anyone wants to trace it out you just read Acts 17 and I have reason to believe that the basic structure of the sermon of Acts 17 is probably where Paul began when he confronted the raw pagans of Ephesus knowing that if the gospel is a religion for sinners if it's a message for men who need salvation men cannot know what sin is until they know who God is

36:22 and if you can't know what sin is you can't know what it is to be saved from it and so the gospel with its distinctive notes of grace and forgiveness and justification is religious gobbledygook unless we know something of who God is what he's like what he claims of his creatures what he requires of them so this became an integral part of the evangelism of the apostle Paul and as he went into that city citadel of paganism he says I declare unto you the whole counsel of God and may I say it reverently the pillar upon which all of the

37:05 counsel of God stands or falls is that of right views of the character of God and Paul says I wanted that pillar to be firmly planted if there was to be a church erected there now that ties in with the letter to Ephesians I'm not surprised then that he didn't cause a church split when he wrote his letter and started right in with election why are church splits caused in our day when someone just dares to expound Ephesians 1 and let it say what it says I don't mean in a nasty way I've seen some people they handle the doctrine of election like we're a club with spikes in it to go around splitting heads open I'm not speaking of that

37:48 but I know dear servants of Christ who've been thrilled with the truth that everything that happens in time with regard to the salvation of men is but the bringing to light in time of God's eternal purposes in Christ and people got mad and asked their teens why I'll tell you why they were brought into the profession of the gospel under defective views of God and if you're confronted with a big God it's your conversion you won't have the problems finding out that that God saved you according to his own eternal purpose and it's the little mini God of modern evangelism that has created the climate in which the great doctrines of sovereign grace are rejected and despised

38:32 but not so with these people he can write to them and say blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings according as he hath chosen us according as he hath chosen us he doesn't anticipate a church split why? he evangelized them and he said in my evangelism I proclaim the whole counsel of God and one of the fundamental principles of that counsel was basic biblical theism he set before them the God of scripture who's the unfettered God who does according to his will in the armies of heaven and earth and none can stay his hand and say unto him what doest thou second thing that comprised his message

The Content of the Gospel: Repentance Toward God and Faith Toward Christ

39:17 he tells us in Acts 20 verses 21 and then we'll look for a moment at 24 perhaps we should back up to verse 20 I shrank not from declaring unto you anything that was profitable but teaching you publicly and from house to house testifying both to Jews and Greeks two great areas of truth repentance toward God you see you had to teach them who God was before he could say you've got to repent with reference to God to him it's like telling me go to the garage and I don't know what the garage is if you tell me return to the home I've got to know what the home is

40:02 and so he says I preach repentance toward God indicating he had taught them something of who God was of his holy law of his claims of his governmental rights over his creatures and then he says I taught them faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ giving them first of all something of who Christ is and what he had done in order to be the object of faith and so the content of his gospel that he calls preaching the whole counsel of God is summarized under those two great heads repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ I read from one of the commentators

40:47 just a couple of sentences that were most helpful to me in clarifying it is not intimated that repentance can be exercised without regard to Christ and his salvation nor can faith in Christ and his salvation be exercised without regard to God the Father repentance toward God or with respect to God is that change of heart in life which every sinner owes to God as his rightful sovereign irrespective of any offered mercy although never really experienced till this has been revealed and laid hold of faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ is that belief or trust

41:29 of which he is the specific object and which cannot be therefore reposed in God as God without regard to the mediation and atonement of Christ these two truths constitute the whole of practical religion and comprise all the lawful and obligatory themes of evangelical instruction he who preaches the repentance and faithfulness that is here spoken of in all their fullness and variety will not seek will need to seek no other topics and may humbly boast of having kept back nothing that was profitable to his hearers now you've heard the words so often they can just fall off and you don't hear them

42:13 but you see what Paul's saying he said I proclaimed as I came into Ephesus not only who God was but specifically repentance with reference to him and his government and to the people of Israel and faith with reference to Christ and his salvation and here we see the gospel scheme as the old writers would say in its beautiful balance and symmetry you can't deal with God apart from Christ he's holy you're a sinner you can't deal with God apart from Christ you deserve his judgment and his wrath but you don't deal with Christ alright unless it leads you unto God

42:56 and to his law and to his law and to his government John Bunyan has a most powerful sermon on Hebrews 7.25 that text which says Christ is able to save to the uttermost those that come unto God by him and he takes the little phrase those who come unto God by him and he says the mark of all deflections from biblical Christianity are these number one you have those who try to deal directly with God without coming by Christ he's able to save all who come unto God by him you try to have direct dealings with God apart from Christ you have something less than Christianity you can't deal with him

43:39 there's one God one mediator he said I am the way the truth and the life no man comes to the Father but by me if you want to know God it's through Christ not the church not the preacher not some mystical experience through Christ and Christ alone ah but listen to me if you've rightly come to Christ Christ has taken you taken you to the Father to bow to his government to embrace his laws to submit to his ways to reverence his person no man comes to the Father but by me but all who come by me come to the Father

44:21 and this is the heresy of much of the modern evangelistic movement I don't say this to be throwing out terms but you listen carefully and read carefully the literature and the programs put out by movements like Campus Crusade and the rest and you notice what all the talk is about I introduce someone to Jesus Christ I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and I have listened and read sometimes pages and listened many many minutes and never hear God mentioned never the Father it's all Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Christ, Christ becomes a Jesus only cult and it's out of whack with the biblical perspective

45:03 Paul said I preach repentance toward God and faith toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ and as we get into the book of Ephesians you'll see that beautiful balance where the whole triune Godhead is operative and he says through Christ we have access by the Spirit unto the Father that's biblical religion unto the Father is that your religion? if you've had the gospel preached and applied with power that's your religion and that was the content of the message which the Apostle preached

The Power of the Gospel of Grace and a Call to Response

45:48 and what does he call all this preaching? he says in Acts 20.24 it's the gospel of the grace of God the last phrase of verse 24 the gospel of the grace of God now in closing this morning and again one is pressed for time to know what to enlarge upon may I say and I don't do this with any attempt to be clever but to underscore the principle of the gospel as clearly as I know how when Paul writes this amazing letter he's not addressing it to a group of people who were conned into a profession of faith

46:29 by some psychological manipulation of sales techniques nor was he writing to a people who were duped into a decision by a gospel denuded of its flesh withering demands of repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ moreover he was not writing to a people who were gathered together to a table spread with ecumenical hash concocted the poisonous mush of pagan philosophy the husks of heathen superstition and the chaff of man-made religion he was not writing to a body of people

47:13 who had been deceived into latching on to a man-made do-it-yourself religion which flattered them with the gospel of God which hindered them by inadequate views of the depth of their sin and the magnitude of the grace of God Paul expects no shock when he reminds them that they were dead that they were children of wrath by nature that they were without God they were without hope why? he kept back nothing that was profitable and it's to your profit to know the depth of your malady and I say to you here sitting this morning strangers to God in Jesus Christ you're not sick you're dead in your sins you don't need a little patchwork you need to be made a new creature you don't need a little help

47:56 you need an intervention of divine power and nothing less than that will meet your need now and for eternity and it was through the preaching of that message then that the transformation came may I say it's that same message of the grace of God which will enter the citadels of 20th century paganism and transform them transform men and bring them into the knowledge of the living God so I say to you believers in closing study the message Paul preached absorb it cry to God that it will become part and parcel of your whole inner life read Pastor Chantry's new little book

48:41 to get your mind sharpened on what the real biblical gospel is see it in its sharp relief in contrast with the contemporary gospel secondly pray pray that God will be pleased to make that message a vehicle of grace through you through this church wherever it is preached how could Paul doubt its power when he picks up his pen and he thinks of what those people were before he came what they were when he entered that city wrapped up in their darkness without hope he saw the hopelessness in their faces he saw he saw the ignorance he heard the

49:25 the spilling forth of their blindness when they would philosophize and see your eyes and now as he contemplates those people loving them so much that he weeps and they weep when he has to part from them how can he doubt the power of that gospel from people who had no hope here are people who have hope not only now but for eternity the best confirmation of the gospel is not found in an apologetics class though I hope we get some time to talk about it in the next few minutes I hope we get some time to talk about it in the next few minutes I hope we get some time to talk about it in the next few minutes about things in our apologetics class but it's to know personally and to see operative through me the power of that gospel transforming men so pray that that gospel may be confirmed in your own witness

50:09 and then pray for boldness to proclaim it and then I say to you who are here this morning without hope without God I hope you'll be back as we dig into the book of Ephesians I'm looking forward I'm looking forward to this study myself for my own enrichment frankly I'm scared to death that some passages at this point because I don't know how to handle them I don't know what I'm going to do with them because I don't understand them and so I come with fear but I know God will prove faithful in any passages he doesn't open up I hope I'll have honesty to tell you as I've had to do in the past but you see this will be children's bread and this study should to the heart of every true Christian

50:53 be fuel for praise fuel for deeper devotion to Christ greater zeal in his service but if you don't know the salvation that Paul is going to expand and expound and apply then this study at best will be pretty tedious for you I hope you don't go away because I said that I know a better course you call upon that God for mercy ask him by his spirit to subdue your rebel heart lay hold of his dear son as he's offered in the gospel freely and fully right here this morning you say offered to me I don't have any deep conviction ah my friend do you see yourself undone without Christ are you without hope what kind of hope do you have this morning

51:36 do you have hope in the biblical sense hope is confidence of promised blessings yet to come do you have hope this morning confident assurance you stepped out that door and God were to summon you into his presence it would be to see him with delight and not with fear do you have hope do you have God if you're without hope and without God and know it God doesn't ask any measure of conviction beyond the acknowledgement that there's no hope to be found in men or in yourself but only in the one whom he sets before you cast yourself upon him he says come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden

52:21 I will give you rest and right there will you sit cast yourself upon him and say oh God work in me that's all I want to do for the sake of salvation which transformed the Ephesians and then as we come to study the letter itself this will be perhaps a most glorious experience for you in the flush of your new found knowledge of God through Christ to trace it back to its source in the eternal purpose of God right out to its issue in the practical affairs of life right down to the nitty gritty of fathers, mothers, husbands, wives and all of the great things dealt with in the utter part of the letter so then we close our study this morning

53:05 with this note I trust ringing in our ears that it's this gospel this gospel of the grace of God preached by the apostle and his companions that became God's instrument in that city citadel of paganism and darkness to bring about a transformation that will enable the apostle five years later to sit down and write a letter addressed to the saints at Ephesus what an unlikely place and yet God manifested his grace and his power to him be praise and honor and glory for such a mighty savior and a powerful gospel

53:49 let us pray