We're starting a brand new book tonight, the book of Ephesians, and this is a powerful
book.
It's one of the most important books in the New Testament.
The first three chapters really hammer a few points over and over again.
First of all, they talk a lot about the fact that salvation is only by faith.
They also talk a lot about the fact that we are one in Christ Jesus, whether we are Jews
or Gentiles, how God has broken down the middle wall of partition between us and that there's
no difference between the Jew and the Greek.
That's something that chapter two really emphasizes, but really the first three chapters deal with
that quite a bit.
And then chapters four, five, and six of Ephesians are just packed with famous verses and the
famous passage in chapter five about husbands and wives, chapter six about children obeying
their parents, and then talking about the whole armor of God.
So really, this is a very familiar book to most people that's packed with a lot of famous
verses.
But in chapter one, verse one, the Bible reads, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will
of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus, grace
be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, the first thing I want to point out is that throughout the New Testament, the Bible
consistently uses the word saints to refer to those that are saved.
This isn't some special group of people who've reached sainthood by living a very godly or
righteous life.
The faithful in Christ Jesus are the same as the saints.
And if you look at the beginnings of a lot of Paul's epistles, he addresses them to the
saints in Christ Jesus which are at this place or that place or the other, because that's
just the term for those who are saved.
And the Bible says, grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus
Christ.
And always Paul mentions grace and peace in that order.
Why?
Because it's impossible to have peace with God without first being saved by the grace
of God.
It's the grace of God and being saved by grace through faith that gives us peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
So grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated
us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure
of His will.
Now what does this talk about being chosen and being predestinated?
Let me say this.
Calvinists, they love to turn to Ephesians chapter 1 and Romans 9.
Those are pretty much their two go-to passages to prove their false doctrine of Calvinism.
And they'll twist these passages to try to make it seem as if God chooses which people
go to heaven and which people go to hell.
That's not the case.
The Bible says that Jesus is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe.
But He's the Savior of all men.
The Bible says that He will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of
the truth.
The Bible says that Jesus gave Himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time.
Go with me.
Keep your finger here and go to Romans chapter 5.
I'm going to show you what Ephesians 1 is actually teaching.
First I just want to make sure it's really clear in your mind that Calvinism is a false
doctrine.
And the biggest lie of Calvinism is the lie that says that Jesus did not die for everybody.
Out of the five points of Calvinism, which are represented by the acronym TULIP, the
worst heresy is the L in TULIP, the limited atonement.
Limited atonement is the most unbiblical part of Calvinism.
That's why when somebody comes at me saying that they're a Calvinist or that they believe
in the five points of Calvinism, I just go straight for the jugular and I just say, let's
talk about limited atonement.
That's the easiest one to prove wrong because there are just so many scriptures about Jesus
Christ dying for everybody.
I just quoted a few of them.
There's so much teaching on that.
But the Calvinists will inevitably say, well, all doesn't really mean all in those verses.
When it says that he gave himself a ransom for all, it's not really all.
When it says he died for the sins of the whole world, it's not really the whole world.
And they try to do mental gymnastics to get around that.
Romans 5 is a good way to just put this to bed.
Look what the Bible says in verse number 15.
It says, but not as the offense, so also as the free gift.
For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the gift by grace, which is
by one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many, and not as it was by one that sinned,
so is the gift.
For the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto
justification.
For if by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they which receive the abundance
of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ.
Look at verse 18.
Therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation.
Even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification
of life.
Well, all doesn't really mean all, but hold on a second.
In the first half of that verse, it says, therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment
came upon all men to condemnation.
Now everybody would agree that when the Bible says that all have sinned, there are no exceptions
to that.
All have sinned.
The judgment came upon all men to condemnation.
Well, in the same sentence it says, even so, meaning in the same way, even so, by the righteousness
of one, that's Jesus, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
So you can't sit there and say, well, the all in the first half of the verse is really
everybody, but the all in the second half is only for certain people that are four chosen
and four ordained.
That's bizarre, folks.
I mean, this verse just puts it to bed right there in Romans 5, 18.
It says in verse 19, for as by one man's disobedience, watch this, many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
So Calvinists will look at the word many there and they'll say, well, see, it's not everybody,
it's just many.
But if we compare verses 18 and 19, we can see that all and many mean the same thing
here.
See, if everybody is a sinner, that means many people are sinners.
And if all have the opportunity to be saved, that's many.
That just means many as opposed to one.
He's saying one person sinned Adam and caused us all to be sinners, and then one person
came and died on the cross for our sins and offers a free gift unto all.
The difference between who is saved and who is not saved is who has faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, who believes on Jesus.
See, the Bible says the word was preached, the gospel was preached unto them as well
as unto us, but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith and
them that heard it.
So it's the faith that we place in Jesus Christ that allows us to receive that free gift,
but the free gift has come to all.
It's available to all.
Whosoever will, let him come and take the water of life freely.
And that would be very disingenuous of God to over and over again say that he died for
the whole world and that whosoever believeth in him may come and be saved.
And then turn around and say, just kidding, I already picked certain people to be saved
and I already picked you to be damned, sorry buddy, you have no hope, you have no chance.
Calvinism is a false doctrine.
The Achilles heel of Calvinism is limited atonement.
It's the easiest thing to disprove.
Thousands of verses fly in the face of it.
And their arguments for it are all based on logic.
They're not based on scripture.
It's just like, well, if Jesus died for us and then we had to die to pay for our own
sins because we're not saved and that's two people dying for the same sin, just believe
what the Bible said, okay?
He died for everybody.
You don't need to logic some weird doctrine of limited atonement.
It's false.
But all five points of Calvinism are false.
Every bit of it is false.
And this doctrine is extremely dangerous.
I've hated it my whole life.
I've hated it.
And I remember when I was newly married, I got in touch with an old friend from elementary
school and I went to fourth grade with this person.
And the one thing this person remembered about me when I was nine years old in fourth grade,
they just said, I remember you arguing on the playground, rebuking Calvinism.
You hated Calvinism and you were preaching to these students that were into Calvinism
and I know exactly who they're talking about because they live down the street from me.
And the church they went to, I called it the beer church because these Calvinist reform
types, they always do a lot of drinking because they condone drinking.
They're always into drinking.
And so these people would have their friends come over, they'd go through a whole 24 pack
together with their friends from church.
Everybody at that church drank.
We called it the beer church, but I hated Calvinism even back then.
And this is why I hated it is because I love soul winning.
And if you love soul winning, you're going to hate Calvinism because Calvinism tells
you that soul winning doesn't make a difference.
That the outcome is already predetermined and whoever's been chosen is going to go to
heaven and whoever's been chosen not to go is not going to go.
And so how do you get motivated to go soul winning if whoever's going to go to heaven
is going to go anyway and whoever's going to go to hell is going to go anyway?
And the Calvinist will say, well, but you get to be a part of it.
Sorry, that's just not that cool to me.
I think I'll just do less soul winning if the same people are going to go to heaven
or hell, whether I do it or not, count me out.
I'll do an hour or something and check it off that it's done, but I'm not going to travel
to some Indian reservation and spend hours in the car and spend hours out knocking doors
if it doesn't even matter.
Well, let me tell you something.
That is a lie out of the pit of hell to make Christians apathetic so that they'll sit back
and be lackadaisical because they think it doesn't matter because whoever's saved is
going to be saved.
And then you say, well, we've got to get these people to the gospel and they say, well, if
God has chosen that person, he'll find a way to where they'll hear the gospel and he'll
work it out to where, you know, and then they'll tell some story about some missionary who
had some Indian walk for three days, day and night.
And then he finally found the missionary because he had some vision that he was supposed to
just walk west.
And then when you find the pale face, he's going to give you the gospel.
And then that, you know, because that one guy was, was elect.
He was no wrong.
We're to go to them.
We're going to take it to them.
We're to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
And the Bible says, if some have compassion, making a difference and others saved with
fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
Let's go into Ephesians one and see what the real predestination is.
Let's see what the real chosen is.
The Bible says in verse four, according as he had chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, look at the next phrase, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love.
What he chose is that we would be without blame before him in love.
Keep your finger here and let's look at similar wording in first Peter chapter one toward
the very end of your new Testament.
Look at first Peter chapter number one, first Peter chapter number one, the Bible reads
Peter, this is verse one chapter one, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered
throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge
of God.
Now, that's a key phrase right there that you should underline.
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God.
So what is the election based on?
What is the choosing based on?
God's foreknowledge.
Why?
He knows who is going to be saved and who is not going to be saved, but that is different
than God deciding which one will be saved and which one will not be saved.
It's sort of like if there were a sporting event, let's say there were a football game
that were played on TV and someone were to record that game and watch it the next day.
And let's say they heard on the radio or read in the newspaper what the outcome of that
game was.
And they're sitting watching the game and then they say to their buddy, watch, he's
going to make this touchdown.
How did you know that?
You had foreknowledge because of the fact that it's a game from the day before, you
heard it on the news, you already know the outcome.
But does that mean that you are controlling the outcome?
Does that mean that you made him?
You have the power to make that guy win.
That doesn't make any sense, does it?
So just because you know the future does not mean that you are necessarily controlling
the future or controlling the outcome.
Aren't those two different things?
God knows all things.
He knows the end from the beginning and he already knows the names of every person who
will ever be saved and he already knows who is going to be damned because he knows the
end from the beginning.
That does not mean that he controls it.
He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
He will have all men to be saved.
That would be his will.
That'd be his desire.
But free will is something that he has given us.
The word free will is used over and over again in the Bible and it talks about over and over
again the fact that we have the choice, we have the decision, we choose whether we're
going to worship a false God or worship the God of the Bible, whether we're going to place
our faith and trust in Christ.
So our election is according to the foreknowledge of God.
Now another thing I want to point out that's pretty important is that the theme of Ephesians
1, 2, and 3 is that the Gentiles are fellow partakers in the spiritual heritage of Israel.
They've been graphed in.
And Ephesians 1, 2, and 3 really hammer the fact, especially Chapter 2, that the Gentiles
are now God's chosen people as well as the believing Jews and that there's no difference
between the two and that God has made them one in Christ Jesus.
There's no difference between the Jew and the Gentile.
Well, the context is similar here in 1 Peter Chapter 1.
Who is he writing to in verse number 1?
The strangers, that means foreigners, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia,
and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God.
What these authors are getting across here in these epistles is they're telling the Gentiles,
the foreigners, the people of all different nationalities, hey, you're elect too.
You're the chosen people.
That's why the word elect is coming up so often in these epistles.
That's why chosen is coming up because in the Old Testament, the Jews were God's chosen
people.
And now in the New Testament, he's saying to the Gentiles, you're elect.
You're chosen.
That's what's being emphasized.
He's not saying you individually are chosen to go to heaven and someone else is individually
chosen to go to hell.
He's saying, look, you're one of God's chosen people now because if you're saved, if you
believe in Jesus Christ, you are the chosen people of the New Testament as opposed to
Old Testament where it was a physical nation of Israel.
Now it's a spiritual nation made up of all believers no matter what their nationality.
Let's go back to Ephesians chapter one.
So we're elect according to the foreknowledge of God and God has chosen us as Gentile believers.
That's who he's writing the book of Ephesians to, Gentile believers.
In fact, he says in chapter three verse one of Ephesians, for this cause I Paul, the prisoner
of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles.
So he's writing to them and saying, hey, you guys are the Gentiles.
Well in Ephesians chapter one, he says God, in verse four, hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world according to what?
His foreknowledge.
He's chosen us before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame
before him in love.
So he has chosen us as Gentile believers of the New Testament to be a peculiar people,
to be holy and blameless before him.
Verse five, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself
according to the good pleasure of his will.
So again, he looks at the New Testament Gentile believers and says, you have been predestinated
under the adoption of children.
Your destiny is to be a child of God.
And this is exactly what it says in Romans eight when it says, for whom he did foreknow.
Here's the foreknowledge again.
He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son.
So none of these verses says you were predestined to go to heaven and this guy was predestined
to go to hell.
What it's saying is those that are saved, those who have faith in Christ are predestined
to inherit all these spiritual blessings of being the chosen people, of being holy and
blameless, of being the children of God and adopted and so forth.
It says in verse number six, to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath
made us accepted in the beloved.
So notice the emphasis over and over again telling these Gentiles you're not a second
class Christian because you're a Gentile.
You're not taking a back seat to the Jews.
You're elect.
You're chosen.
Your destiny is to be an adopted son of God and to walk before him blameless in love and
holiness and you are accepted in the beloved.
You're not outside the gate.
I mean you are the inner circle of God's people.
It doesn't matter whether you're red, yellow, black or white, you're accepted, you're chosen,
you're predestined.
It says in verse seven, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins
according to the riches of his grace wherein he had bounded toward us in all wisdom and
prudence having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to the good pleasure
which he had purposed in himself that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might
gather together in one all things in Christ which are in heaven and which are on earth
even in him.
So what is the mystery of his will in verse nine?
What is the good pleasure which he had purposed in himself?
Why is it God's will that they would be predestinated under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ?
That's all according to his will because it was God's will that both Jew and Gentile would
both be saved by putting their faith in Christ and that they would all be the people of God.
That's why he says in verse 10, here's the will of God, here's the mystery of his will.
Verse 10, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together
in one all things in Christ.
Gather together in one all things in Christ.
Look at chapter two.
Keep your finger there in chapter one and go to chapter two and see this stated even
a little bit more clearly.
The Bible says in verse 13, I'll go into this in more depth next week when we're in chapter
two, but it says in chapter two verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes
were far off, talking about the Gentiles, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
For he is our peace who hath made both one, do you see that?
And hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us.
So that's what he means in chapter one when he said he's going to gather in one all things
in Christ.
He's saying, look, he made both Jews and Gentiles, he made them one.
And then in chapter three, he emphasizes this even more when he talks about the Gentiles
in verse six should be fellow heirs and of that same body, do you see that?
Same body.
We don't need a separate church for Jews and a separate church for Gentiles.
We don't need a Messianic Jew church, we need a Baptist church with Jews and Gentiles where
all nations can come to that house of prayer for all people.
So the Bible says that they're part of the same body and partakers of his promise in
Christ by the Gospel.
Then in chapter four, he mentions it again when he says in verse number four, there's
one body and one spirit even as you're called and one hope of your calling.
One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who's above all and through
all and in you all.
So let's go back to chapter one.
So we see that there's a big emphasis in the book of Ephesians on the fact that Jew and
Gentile are one in Christ.
That's a big thing that's brought up over and over again.
Chapter two is the main chapter on that.
And Jesus taught something similar when he said, other sheep have I which are not of
this fold, referring to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
He said, other sheep have I which are not of this fold, them also must I bring and there
shall be one fold and one shepherd.
So one church for white and black, one church for Jew and Gentile, one church to be a house
of prayer for all nations, all people.
Now the Bible says that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, what does the word
dispensation mean?
Well, the word dispensation, if you were to look it up in a dictionary, has a few different
definitions.
And if we were to take a biblical definition of dispensation, which I believe is used four
times in the Bible, the most basic definition of dispensation, and this is usually what
it means in the Bible, is to basically give something out to distribute something.
So for example, if we had a PEZ dispenser, a PEZ dispenser gives out PEZ, right?
If there were a paper towel dispenser, it's giving us a paper towel.
Soap dispenser gives out soap.
It dispenses soap, okay?
But then there's another meaning of dispense or dispensation, and that is to do away with
something or to use up something.
So for example, if I were to say, let's dispense with the formalities, I'm saying that we can
do away with the formalities.
Then there's another use of the word dispensation, which is not used in the Bible, which is one
that says that someone's giving you grace to break a rule, okay?
So for example, the Roman Catholic Church has all these rules, and then they will grant
a dispensation unto you where they'll let you do something that's unbiblical or sinful,
but you get a dispensation from them.
They'll give you permission to do some.
So they'll grant you a dispensation to break some rule or to do something that would not
normally be allowed.
You know, let's say in the Middle Ages, you want to marry your cousin, and that's not
really allowed.
Well, you may have a dispensation, my son, that'll be $10, and you know, you can go marry
your cousin or whatever you want to do.
So that's another meaning of the word dispensation.
And then a lot of people will use the word dispensation to refer to these periods of
time where God is dealing with man in a different way.
And there's a teaching called dispensationalism, and it teaches that there's seven dispensations.
And that theological system, dispensationalism, is not something that I believe in at all.
I don't subscribe to it.
It teaches a lot of unbiblical doctrine.
And the funny thing is that they get the word dispensation from Ephesians chapter 1.
This is where they get that, because they look at that dispensation of the fullness
of time, and they say, hey, that's a period of time there.
And this is where they get the word dispensation.
But what's funny is they can't see the forest for the trees, because what's chapter 1 about?
What's chapter 2 about?
What's chapter 3 about?
That the Gentiles are God's people, and that they're one with the Jews.
And the biggest teaching of dispensationalism is you've got to make a distinction between
the church and Israel.
In the church age dispensation, we must make a distinction between the church and Israel.
So what's funny is that the whole doctrine of dispensationalism takes its name from Ephesians.
And yet you can debunk dispensationalism with Ephesians alone, just by showing that Christ
has made us one, and there's no difference between the Jew and the Greek.
And then also, the dispensationalist teaching of the church age is debunked in chapter 3
verse 21, because chapter 3 verse 21 says, unto him be glory in the church by Christ
Jesus throughout all ages, world without end, amen.
So you say, well, yeah, but Pastor Harrison, you have to believe in dispensations, because
the word dispensation is in the Bible.
Well, the word presbytery is in the Bible.
That doesn't make me a Presbyterian.
And the word Nazarene is in the Bible, and that doesn't make me a Nazarene.
The word champagne is in the Bible, it doesn't mean I'm going to drink champagne.
I mean, just because the Bible says dispensation doesn't mean that it means what they're saying
it means.
Okay, what it's saying here, the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather
together in one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth,
even in him.
And what that's saying is that basically when a certain time period had gone by, or
a certain time period had expired, or when the certain time had come, known as the fullness
of times, then the Jews and the Gentiles were made one in Christ, by faith in Christ, okay?
So what that's saying is that in the Old Testament, the Gentiles were a far off, but in the New
Testament they've been made nigh, and the middle wall of partition between them has
been broken down.
And so it's just basically stating that that didn't come about until the New Testament,
until the time when Christ died and was buried and rose again, which is known as the fullness
of time, because there was a lot of buildup to that, 4,300 years or so of building up
to Christ coming on this earth, which is the most significant event in the history of mankind.
So that's why it gets that title of the fullness of time, because it was the culmination or
the climax of human history, which is why even our date is based upon how many years
we are beyond that, you know, 2,017 years past the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now look at verse number 11, in whom also we've obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of him, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,
that we should be to the praise of his glory.
So we're predestined that we should be to the praise of his glory, but look at the key
phrase here, who first trusted in Christ.
So which came first?
First to trust in Christ, okay, that's what you do first, you see that?
It says that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
So you trust in Christ, now that you've trusted in Christ, now you're predestinated to get
all these other spiritual blessings.
So it's not that you're predestinated to get saved, no, no, no, God foreknew who would
get saved, and he predestinated those people to inherit all these other blessings and be
adopted and be the praise of his glory and be conformed to the image of his Son, etc., etc.
That's why that phrase is important, who first trusted in Christ.
So which came first, trusting in Christ?
Now God knows all things from the beginning, so yeah, before the foundation of the world,
he saw you trust in Christ in 2017 or 2014 or, you know, 1986 or whenever, he saw you
that you trust in Christ, and then he said, okay, this guy's a Gentile, he's believed
in Christ, I've got a destiny for him.
He's going to be conformed to the image of my Son.
He's going to inherit all things in Christ.
He's going to be brought nigh unto Israel, and so forth and so on, that we should be
to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ.
Now verse 13 is a powerful verse, it's a great salvation verse.
In fact, so much doctrine is packed into this verse, you know, you could pretty much win
somebody the Lord with this verse.
I mean, this verse is packed with salvation doctrine.
I mean, this is a great salvation verse, Ephesians chapter 1, 13, and another thing I like about
verse 13 is that it helps us define what the word believe means in regard to salvation.
Because some people will try to twist what believe means and say like, well, believe
means you're going to do works.
Well, that doesn't make any sense, because the Bible says you're saved by believing and
not of works.
But look what it says, it says, in whom also ye trusted, that's a key word right there.
You trusted after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in
whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
Now, there's a lot in this verse.
One of the key things is that you'll notice that the words trusted and believed are used
interchangeably, because he says, in whom also ye trusted after that ye heard the word
of truth.
So there's a sequence of events here.
First you heard the word of truth, right?
Step one, you heard the word of God.
Step two, you trusted in Christ.
Then it says, in whom also after that ye believed, and the after ye believed is referring back
to when you trusted.
You were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
So it's a three-step process, right?
You heard the word of God, you trusted or believed in the gospel of your salvation that
you heard through the word of God, and then number three, you received or you were sealed
with that Holy Spirit of promise.
So when you hear the word of God, you have the choice to believe it or not believe it.
If you hear the word of God and you trust in the Lord as your Savior, then boom, you're
sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
So believe means to trust.
So it's not enough to say, well, I believe the facts about Jesus in the sense that I
believe there was a man named Jesus who died on a cross and was buried and rose again.
You have to trust Jesus to get you to heaven.
And what do I mean by that?
You can't trust in your deeds or your works.
So if somebody says, well, I believe in Jesus, but I'm going to heaven because I'm a good
person, that's not the biblical believing in Jesus.
When the Bible says believe in Jesus, that doesn't compute because believing in Jesus
is trusting in Jesus.
So that means that if I say I believe in Jesus, but I'm going to heaven because I'm such a
good person, my trust is in myself, I'm actually believing in myself.
Whereas if I say, well, I'm a sinner, I deserve hell, but I believe that Jesus died on the
cross and was buried and rose again, and I'm trusting him to get me to heaven, his death,
his burial, his resurrection, that's saving faith right there.
Trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, not trusting in our own deeds
or our own works.
And that's why Jesus said, many will say to him in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name and in thy name of cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works.
And then while I profess in them, I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity.
Any saved person who's sitting in this church right now, if they were standing before God,
would never say to God, whoa, God, what about all the wonderful works I did?
No one would say.
And what's funny is people who believe in work salvation, they're so blinded, they will
literally turn you to Matthew 7 to teach that you can lose your salvation, when it says
I never knew you.
How is that losing your salvation if he never knew you?
And then they'll use it to say, see, you got to do works.
And you're like, what?
These people are saying they did works, and that's why they're not going.
Because if you or I were ever to stand before God and he were to ask us, why should I let
you in heaven?
We wouldn't say, well, let's see, I prophesied in your name, I've cast out devils, I've done
many more.
No one in this room would say that.
That's why anyone who would try to pin that verse on us is being ridiculous.
Because anyone in this room would say, well, because I believed on Christ.
And you said that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.
You said whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
You said that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in
thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved, and I've done that.
That's why.
That's what anybody in this room who is saved would say.
You know who would say that thing in Matthew 7?
A bunch of Pentecostals would say that.
Oh, we've cast out devils.
We've prophesied in your name.
We've done many wonderful works.
Okay.
And you know what?
Many will say that.
And there are many Pentecostals.
Well, how many people go to Phoenix First Assembly, 10,000 or something?
It's a huge church.
And right in their statement of faith, it says you can lose your salvation.
Why?
Because they're trusting in their deeds and works.
That's why.
Because look, if it's all based on the finished work of Christ, how could you lose it?
If I was never good enough to be saved in the first place, how could I be bad enough
where He'll take it away from me if it's all by grace?
If once we're saved, we have eternal life, and we're sealed by that Holy Spirit of promise,
and we're sealed unto the day of redemption, the Bible says elsewhere, and that He which
has begun a good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
But these people who believe you can lose your salvation, Pentecostals believe that,
they don't understand the gospel.
They think they have to maintain it.
They think that God put down the down payment and they have to make the payments every month
or salvation is going to be repoed.
They think their salvation is going to be repoed if they miss a payment.
And they're like, well, there's a little grace period.
You know, if I miss a payment, I can catch that up a little bit as long as I send them
a little money every month.
You know, as long as I say I'm sorry and ask forgiveness and kind of try to go to church,
you know, then it'll keep the bank from repoing my vehicle.
It's like a repoed salvation is what they believe in.
They believe in some predatory lender as a God.
God says use car dealer.
It's going to come a repo.
There's no, no, no.
It's a free gift.
Look, if somebody gives you a free gift, you don't have to make payments.
Hence the word free that we looked at in Romans five earlier, the free gift that came upon
all men.
The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
So this is a great verse, verse 13 and whom also you trusted after that you heard the
word of truth.
The gospel of your salvation in whom also that after that you believed you were sealed
with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance.
Earnest means down payment.
The earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise
of his glory.
This is not you make, this is not him making the down payment and then you make the payments.
No, no, no.
This is him giving you the down payment and saying, I've already paid for the rest and
you'll receive it upon the second coming.
That's when you'll receive the full inheritance.
Right now we've got the first fruits of the spirit.
Right now we've got the earnest of the spirit.
God's given us the first taste of what we're going to inherit, but I have not seen nor
ear heard neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God had prepared
for them to love him.
There's a lot more coming spiritual blessings and inheritance among the saints in heaven,
but right now all we've got is just the earnest of the spirit, but that earnest is the down
payment that proves that God will make do make good on the rest of his purchase, which
is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchase possession unto
the praise of his glory.
And maybe down payment's not even really the best word for earnest because when you buy
a house, the earnest money is not so much a down payment as you put down money to show
that you're serious because sometimes people will make an offer on a house and then the
seller will accept the offer and then the buyer's like, oh, just kidding.
I was just kind of testing the waters.
Some people are looky-loos and they're just looking at houses and putting in offers as
a pipe dream.
Yeah, we might want to move or something.
They're not serious.
But you know, when somebody puts down a thousand dollars of earnest money and says, here's
my offer, then you take it seriously.
You know, hey, this guy wants to follow through.
That's what God did by indwelling us with the Holy Spirit.
He's proving his follow through that he, which had begun a good work in us, will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ.
And he's showing right there that he's purchased us, he's bought us, and he will make the full
payment and we will gain the full inheritance, which is the earnest of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory.
Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints,
cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of him.
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his
calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what is
the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe according to the working of his
mighty power.
What's he saying here?
His prayer request for the Ephesians is that they would learn more.
He said, I want you to have more knowledge, more wisdom.
I want you to be enlightened and understand what it means to be saved, what it means to
be indwelled by the Holy Spirit, all the blessings that God has in store for us.
He's praying that they would know the Bible and that they would understand spiritual things.
That's his prayer request.
He says, I make mention of you in my prayers.
So Paul was praying and saying, Dear Lord, please help the Ephesians.
And I'm sure he mentioned many of them by name.
Please help the Ephesians, Lord, to learn the Bible.
Help them not to be shallow.
And later on, he talks about this in Chapter 4.
He said, I don't want you to be children tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine and
cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
He said, I want you to grow up in him.
I want you to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
And so we as Christians need to understand the importance of being a church that knows
the Bible, a church that knows doctrine, a church that understands spiritual things
and has wisdom, not to be a shallow church.
And the only way you're going to get that is by reading your Bible.
You've got to read your Bible.
You've got to study to show yourself approved.
Yes, come to church and listen to the preaching, but then go home and search the scriptures
daily whether these things are so.
That was Paul's prayer request for the church at Ephesus, and I'm sure that it would be
God's desire for every church that they grow in knowledge and wisdom and understanding.
It says at the end of verse 19, according to the working of his mighty power, which
he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand
in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every
name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come and has
put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.
So Jesus Christ is seated right now at the right hand of the Father in heaven, and the
Bible says that he's above all and that his name is greater than every other name that's
named, past, present, or future, even in the world to come, even in the new heaven, the
new earth.
He's saying, look, the greatest name is the name of Jesus.
That's the name that's above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow
of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
And so that should show you how exalted the name of Jesus is above any other name.
It's the name above all names.
And so we should be careful to hallow and reverence that name of Jesus.
It's the last thing that should ever be used as a cuss word.
I would rather hear any four-letter word, any profanity, any...
The last thing I ever want to hear is somebody taking the name of Jesus Christ in vain.
To me, that's the worst possible cussing that anyone could ever imagine, is when people
hammer their finger and just call out the name of Jesus as an expletive.
That's the worst.
And I don't care what the TV says or Tipper Gore says or the Motion Picture Rating Association
of America, you know, if they're going to bleep something, they ought to be bleeping
out Jesus being used as a curse word when Jesus is the name that's above all names should
be exalted and hallowed and held in great reverence.
And by the way, don't let anybody tell you that his name's not Jesus.
If anybody tells you that his name's not Jesus, they're not saved.
That's the only name that can save you.
People try to come up with all these weird conspiracies and go on YouTube and say that
Jesus means, hey, Zeus, like the god Zeus, or, you know, just these crazy half-baked
theories of, you know...
Look, that stuff's of the devil.
Any attack on the name of Jesus, just take it to the bank.
It's of the devil.
I don't care if it's the black Hebrew Israelites or the Hebrew roots or whoever.
Anybody who tells you anything negative about the name of Jesus, just take it to the bank.
They're a false prophet.
They're not saved.
Why?
Because no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus Christ a curse.
That's why.
The Holy Spirit inside any person is not going to lead them to say anything against the name
of Jesus, the name that's above all names, the name, the one name, the only name that's
associated with salvation in the New Testament, the name whereby we must be saved.
There's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, the name
of Jesus.
So as we get into the book of Ephesians, the main things that we're going to be dealing
with in this book are about salvation by grace through faith.
That's something that's hammered over and over again in this book.
And also the doctrine of oneness in Christ, whether we be Jew or Gentile.
No matter what our ethnicity, no matter what our background or nationality, that we all
come together in the church, and that's where we find real unity.
And the Bible talks a lot about unity in the book of Ephesians because that's one of
the themes.
And so unity is something that we should strive for in the local church.
Not to have unity with all of mankind.
That's impossible.
God's word divides us.
But when we come together in the house of God, we should strive to have unity.
And there should be no divisions amongst us based on carnal things such as skin color
or nationality or based upon our financial standing or based upon things of that nature.
We should all come together and be one in Christ here, in the body, in the local church,
in the house of God.
It's a house of prayer for all nations.
It's just as foolish when the white supremacist does it or the black Hebrew Israelite or the
Judaizer, the messianic, it's like, why don't you call yourself a messianic?
We all believe in the Messiah.
What makes you special?
Nothing.
Nothing makes you special because we're all saved by grace in Christ.
We're all saints.
We're all saved as long as we believe in Christ.
We need some special church down the street, the Jew church down the street.
No, no, no.
This is the church for everybody.
And any other Baptist church that's like it, any other church that's proclaiming God's
word as being infallible and preaching the right salvation, that's all we need.
We don't need a Chinese church or a black church.
We just need one church for everybody in each area where we can all come together and worship
the Lord and put aside carnal differences because what we have spiritually in common
is much more powerful than anything carnal that would separate us, such as financial
standing, ethnicity, background, whatever.
Let's bow our heads now.