amen Ephesians chapter number three the Bible starts out there in verse number
one saying for this cause I Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you
Gentiles if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which
is given me to you word and the title of the sermon this morning is
the dispensation of the grace of God the dispensation of the grace of God
now this word dispensation is often misunderstood in the Bible because
there's this false teaching out there this wrong doctrine called
dispensationalism and they've got all of these elaborate ideas about how the
Bible all works together and it's just a lot of false doctrine that's contrary
to Scripture and so because of this system that's so famous called
dispensationalism this causes a lot of people to become confused about what
this word means what they think it means is that it's like this certain
period of time and that there are these seven dispensations and things like that
but if you just look at the word dispensation the way it's used in
Scripture and just according to the basic dictionary definition of this
word a dispensation is a giving out or a dispensing you know if you think
about a PEZ dispenser what does it do right it gives you PEZ and so a
dispensation is a distribution or another word that could be used for
dispense could be like when something is used up you could say that you know we
could dispense with the formalities or something we can kind of do away with
something something could be used up given out distributed but what it's
saying here in this verse when it says the dispensation of the grace of
God which is given me to you word if you want to know what that means
let's compare Scripture to Scripture go down to verse 9 and you'll see that
actually or I'm sorry go back to verse 7 and see that if we compare Scripture
with Scripture we can see exactly what this means because it says in verse 7
where whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of
God given unto me by the effectual working of his power so the Apostle
Paul says I was made a minister according to this gift of the grace of
God given unto me compare that with verse 2 where he says if you've heard of
the dispensation of the grace of God which has given me to you word it's
talking about God giving Paul grace to distribute unto others right there's a
distribution or dispensation of the grace of God given to Paul to you
word meaning to the Ephesians because Paul has been ordained to be a
minister to be a preacher to be an apostle that's going to preach the
grace of God to all of the Gentiles including the Ephesians so it says
for this cause I Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles if you've
heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which has given me to you word it
makes perfect sense when you put these theological ideas out of your
head and just understand what he's saying that God wanted to impart grace
to the Gentiles he wanted to be a grace dispenser and he's using the
Apostle Paul as his instrument to distribute this preaching of the grace
of God throughout the world to all nations now the context of this chapter
is that in chapter 2 we just finished up with the famous part about how
salvation is by grace through faith and it's not of works lest any man
should boast so that's what's discussed in chapter 2 how salvation is
by grace it's through faith it's not by our works but then the latter half
of chapter 2 is all about how there used to be a distinction between the
Jews and the Gentiles and the Gentiles were far off and Israel were the people
of God but now those strangers and foreigners of the Gentiles who were once
far off have been brought nigh by the blood of Christ and that now there's
just one body there's just one sheepfold one shepherd and that we as
Gentiles are now fellow citizens of the Commonwealth of Israel according to
chapter of course that totally goes against what dispensationalism teaches
we are fellow citizens fellow heirs and the Bible teaches that in the New
Testament there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek there is
neither Jew nor Gentile there is neither bond nor free we're all one
in Christ Jesus and so that's what chapter 2 is about and then in chapter
3 he says I Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ now why is he talking about
himself being a prisoner well he's literally in jail while he's writing
this and these epistles Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians are
known as the prison epistles of Paul and of course even in the pastoral
epistles he talks about being in prison and if you think about it in
2 Timothy he says therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes that they
may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory so
the Apostle Paul says hey the reason I'm going through all this the reason
that I'm willing to go to prison and be beaten and deal with all of
these trials and tribulations I do it for the elect's sakes that they may
also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory what does
he mean by the elect the elect is referring to the saved and he's saying I
do it for the people that are going to get saved the ones that are gonna
get saved that's what makes it worth it for me to endure whatever trials
that I have to go through to dispense the gospel to get the gospel out to as
many people as possible and that's perfectly consistent with what we see
here where it says I'm the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles right
I'm doing it for you guys I'm doing it for you Ephesians the church at
Ephesus those that get saved make all the trials and the prison and everything
else they make it worth it and so he says if you've heard of the
dispensation of the grace of God which has given me to you word verse
3 how that by revelation he meaning God made known unto me the mystery as I
wrote a four in a few words whereby when you read you may understand my
knowledge in the mystery of Christ so there are certain things that to the Old
Testament believer or to the believer who doesn't have a written copy of the
New Testament in their hand like we do are pretty mysterious because in the
Old Testament they really saw through a glass darkly they couldn't really see
like the big picture of everything that God was doing and where everything was
headed they knew a little bit but they didn't know as much as we do
because we have the entire Bible the whole written word and it's so easy for
us to see a big picture when we read from Genesis to Revelation but it was
mysterious at that time and so these things are being repeated revealed to
the Apostle Paul so that he can preach them to others so that he can
write these epistles that will end up making up a huge portion of the New
Testament you know these mysteries being revealed the revelation it says in
verse 3 how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery right because
what's the opposite of a mystery it's like a reveal if you were reading a
mystery novel at some point in the novel what's coming the reveal is
coming right and so things that were once mysterious in the past are made
manifest in the New Testament they're revealed through apostles like the
Apostle Paul and so by me it says you know the mystery is made known whereby
when you read verse 4 you may understand my knowledge in the mystery
of Christ he's sharing that knowledge about that mystery so that they can
understand so we can understand because the book is written to us it says in
verse 5 which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men right
there are things that we can learn from reading the New Testament the
epistles of Paul that weren't revealed in the Old Testament isn't that just
kind of common sense that obviously if you're living in the time of King
David you don't have as much scripture you don't have as much
information about God's big picture plan whereas now we do so in other
ages these things were not made known unto the sons of men that's just
referring to the fact that they had less scripture they had less
revelation from God in those time but then it says but now it says they were
not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto his
holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit then he's gonna get specific
about something that was a mystery to those in the Old Testament but that
now is clear and obvious it says in verse 6 that the Gentiles should be
fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by
the gospel a lot of people in the Old Testament didn't see this coming that
in the New Testament there wasn't going to be a difference between Jews
and Gentiles that everyone was gonna come together into one body and that
we wouldn't have a separate messianic Jewish Church over here and then a
Christian Church for Gentiles over here but that there would be one body
and that we would be one in Christ Jesus and that we'd be fellow heirs and
of the same body really just reiterating what he taught back in
chapter 2 and he says in verse 7 whereof I was made a minister
according to the gift of the grace of God unto me by the effectual
working of his power unto me who I'm less than the least of all saints is
this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ and what he's saying here is that going and preaching to the
Gentiles is a privilege because the Gentiles are not second-class citizens
okay it's not like oh well you know I'm kind of the black sheep of the
Apostles so I got exiled into Siberia to go preach the gospel there whereas
the the main Apostles Peter James John people like that you know they get to
stay and preach in Jerusalem and Israel and and whatever I'm exiled to
Timbuktu to preach the gospel that's not what happened first of all number
one Jesus Christ commanded all of his Apostles to go teach all nations in
Matthew 28 when he met with the 11 Apostles before he sent up he said go
ye therefore and teach all nations now unfortunately many of the 11 Apostles
stayed in Jerusalem way too long they stayed in Israel way too long they
should have gone into all the world sooner eventually they do get out there
and Peter gets out and and you know legend has it that Thomas went to
India but even from the Bible we know that Peter eventually left and went to
Babylon and and so forth so here we see that the Apostle Paul is magnifying
his office and saying hey you know it's it's a blessing it's a privilege
it's exciting to go and preach the unsearchable riches of Christ among the
Gentiles you see it doesn't matter who were preaching the gospel to the gospel
is a privilege to preach it doesn't matter who were preaching it to red
yellow black and white a soul is a soul it doesn't matter if they're rich
poor what ethnicity what nationality it's just about preaching the gospel and
getting people saved and so he says it's it's it he says unto me who I'm
less than the least of all Saints is this grace given he's saying you know
this is grace that I've received to be able to preach among the Gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ verse 9 and to make all man see what is the
fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been
hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ and now again we have
this idea that this was not known in the past it was hidden in the past it
was mysterious in the past whereas now it is made manifest and so it says to
make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery you know it's time for
everybody to know the truth about this whereas in the past this was hidden by
God who created all things by Jesus Christ verse 10 to the intent that now
under the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the
church the manifold wisdom of God according to the eternal purpose which
he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord now don't miss this because what he's saying
is that even though this is just now being understood or made known or being
preached to every single person this was always God's eternal purpose and
eternal plan he hid this from us you know that's an active term of saying
that God hid this that means that God knew exactly what he was going to do
but he chose not to reveal it until later but you hear so much goofed up teaching
from these dispensationalists where they'll say things along the lines of
well you know his his plan his goal was to do it through Israel but then
because they didn't pan out he had to move on to plan B which is the
Gentiles folks the Gentiles are not plan B the Gentiles are plan a he just
did not explicitly reveal that he always knew that the plan was to redeem mankind
and to bring everybody under the same canopy where a Christian is a Christian
is a Christian it doesn't matter their ethnicity it doesn't matter their
genealogy we're told in the New Testament to avoid genealogies that
was always the plan God worked through Israel in the Old Testament he had a
chosen nation in the Old Testament that was the plan for that time and we
could go into all the reasons for that but the point is that God always always
loved and cared about the world everybody the Gentiles God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son he didn't just love Israel then
they rejected the gift and he's like well who am I gonna give this gift to
oh the Gentiles no it was always planned that he would lighten the
Gentiles now once you know that it's easy for us in the New Testament once
we have the New Testament explaining all this we can go back to the Old
Testament and find all the foreshadowings of this and we could
find all the prophecies about how Jesus would be a light to lighten the
Gentiles and about how through Abraham all the nations of the earth would be
blessed and then the New Testament explains hey that's because Jesus is
going to be saving people of all nations and people are going to be saved
all over the world hindsight's 20 20 they didn't necessarily understand
these things back then because these things were hidden by God the Bible
says and now they're revealed in the New Testament they're made clear
they're made open and they're made explicit but it's according to the
eternal purpose verse 11 that means it was always God's plan it's in it's
an eternal purpose it says which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord in
whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him
wherefore I desire that you faint not at my tribulations for you which is your
glory for this cause I bow my knees unto the father of our Lord Jesus
Christ of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named and then he
kind of moves on to another subject that we're gonna get to in a moment
but the point that I really want to drive in here is that the error of
dispensationalism is to break things down into this dispensation of
innocence dispensation of conscience dispensation of human government they
have all these made-up dispensations that are never mentioned in the Bible
because the Bible only used the word dispensation four times yet they have
seven dispensations and the four times are all talking about the same
dispensation and so how does that work okay but they've made up the
system and here's the problem with it is that if you're gonna say that the
dispensation of the grace of God is a period of time here's the problem with
that that would imply that the time before that is not the dispensation of
the grace of God and that the time after that is not the dispensation of
the grace of God and you'll get this false teaching that says oh well
people were saved by their works in the Old Testament or they had to keep
the law to be saved or they had to do animal sacrifices to be saved or
what have you and that maybe sometime in the future salvation will again be
by works or that it was by works back then or it's gonna be by works the
future here's what's so stupid about that how could anyone works ever save
them when we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God and all our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags how could that ever save you well
filthy rag used to save you but then Jesus died on the cross now you
gotta be saved through Jesus for now and then in the future a filthy rag
will once again come into play it's absurd and in fact if you could be
saved by works in the Old Testament why not just stay with that program why
would Jesus even have to die on the cross just stay with that program of
being saved by works folks because no one has ever been saved by works from
Genesis to Revelation from Adam until the last person who was ever born no
one has been or ever will be saved by their works because the only way to
be saved is through Jesus anybody on the Old Testament had to be saved
through Jesus now you say well Jesus hadn't died yet Jesus is the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world God knows the end from the beginning God
dwells outside of time so from God's perspective Jesus had always died and
been buried and risen again that's why he can talk about it in the Old
Testament like it already happened that's why you can read Isaiah 53 and
it says he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our
iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes
we are healed how could Isaiah preach that 700 years before Christ died we
are healed by his stripes well Jesus hadn't died yet yes he had from God's
perspective he's the lamb slain from the foundation of the world and so
Isaiah can say in 700 BC and by the way BC stands for before Christ in case
you didn't know all right so if before Christ and yet he says by his stripes
we are healed we are healed why because people in the Old Testament are
saved by looking forward to the cross we are saved by looking backward to the
cross but that's the defining moment in time it's Christ's death on the
cross that made salvation possible for anyone and teaching that people were
saved some other way before the cross is basically teaching that there's some
other way to be saved besides the cross besides Christ besides Jesus that
there somehow your works or your deeds could somehow earn your way into
heaven let me ask this if that worked in the Old Testament why
couldn't it work now it could never work because your works are garbage in
the sight of God even my best even your best compared to a holy God is
just chump change compared to the price of the precious blood of Jesus
Christ and so that's what this passage is just explaining that you know in the
past people didn't realize how the Gentiles are gonna be fellow heirs
with Christ now we see that now it's all making sense now it's all coming
together how God's ultimate goal was to offer salvation to all of humanity
and even the Old Testament we see heathen people getting saved and hearing the
Word of God preached and you see prophets like Jeremiah preaching all over
the world and so forth people have always gotten saved even from other
nations even in the Old Testament but the difference in the New Testament is
that there is no physical nation that's a chosen people but rather we
as Christians are all God's chosen people and we're not part of a
specific nationality or nation there's no hierarchy of like well these are the
Jews and then these are the heathen now we're all brought together but what
he's not saying in this chapter is hey salvation used to be by works now it's
by grace that's not what this is teaching at all and not only that but
sometimes you'll hear them say the age of grace which is again misleading
because Noah is saved by grace Abraham saved by grace Isaac saved by grace
Jacob say David saved by grace Romans chapter 4 talks about Abraham and
David both being saved by faith without works
crystal-clear Romans 4 1 through 8 but not only were these people always saved
by grace in the past they all people will always be saved by grace in the
future there's not going to be some other mode of salvation in the future
but then you also hear them sometimes say the church age which again the
problem with this term the church age is an implication that it's going to
come to an end and that there's going to be some other age that's going to
replace it we'll jump down to the end look at verse 21 of this chapter
and and so we're using the actual chapter itself that says the
dispensation of the grace of God to debunk these wrong-headed ideas from so
called dispensationalism but look at verse 21 it says unto him be glory in
the church talking about God unto him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ
throughout all ages world without end amen so it doesn't sound like there's
going to be an end to the church age because the Bible says that glory will
be given to God through Jesus Christ and it says in the church throughout
all ages world without end so so ages and ages from now it's still going to
be Christ being glorified in the church so there's no end of the church
age but again why does this dispensationalism teach this because
this is what they teach they say well you know in the Old Testament God's
dealing with Israel which obviously for a large part is true a lot of the
Old Testament is God dealing with the nation of Israel and then they say
but now he has pulled back from dealing with Israel and now he's
dealing with the church you know and now it's just all about the Gentiles and
Christians of all nationalities so it's like okay that makes it but this is
what they teach they teach that in the end times God is gonna go back to
dealing with Israel and this is false the only thing that we read about God
doing with Israel in the end times is destroying them pouring out his wrath
on them punishing them avenging them okay that's what the Bible actually
teaches if you read in the book of Revelation that's what you're gonna find
you're gonna find God actually just judging and punishing and that's what
so you say is God through with Israel he's not through kicking their
buts but is he through with them being his chosen people absolutely done
finished over permanently because there aren't seven dispensations there are two
Testaments Old Testament and New Testament and guess what we're not going
back to the Old Testament it's New Testament is eternal never ends so the
phase that we're in right now which is called the New Covenant the New
Testament never ends it never gets replaced we don't need the Book of
Mormon to come along give us another Testament of Jesus Christ there's two
Old Covenant New Covenant and the New Covenant never gets replaced the Old
Covenant is replaced by the New Covenant but the New Covenant never gets
replaced that's what the Bible actually teaches okay and so when you read
verses like for example when Jesus says that the twelve apostles are gonna
sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel you got to
remember this one little prepositional phrase in the regeneration in the
regeneration the twelve apostles will sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve
tribes of Israel what's the regeneration the resurrection so what's
gonna happen is that one day in the future second coming of Christ there is
going to be a resurrection all of the saved from all ages will rise
again bodily from the dead a bodily resurrection and when that happens then
the twelve apostles are gonna sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve
tribes of Israel okay now how does that work well think about it this is
referred to as the millennial reign of Christ right where Christ is ruling
and reigning on this earth well when Christ is ruling and reigning on this
earth the twelve apostles they're gonna get resurrected too okay and you know
obviously we're not talking about Judas Iscariot obviously Judas is replaced
by either Matthias or the Apostle Paul or whatever but depending on what you
believe about that but the point is those guys are getting resurrected
because all believers are getting resurrected at the second coming of
Christ right the dead in Christ shall rise first and that's talking
about obviously the future coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the clouds his
second coming he's gonna rule and reign on this earth and so there's gonna be a
resurrection of the twelve apostles along with all the other saved
Christians again Judas being swapped out Judas is in hell forever but he says
judging the twelve tribes of Israel now here's the thing if every saved
person who's ever lived is gonna be resurrected wouldn't that include all
the saved Israelites from you know 1,500 years of that Old Testament
period from you know the time that Moses is at Mount Sinai sometime in the
sixteenth century BC all the way up until the New Covenant in the first
century AD right over the course of that fifteen sixteen hundred year period
right you have a lot of Israelites there and even from the 400 years in
Egypt let's bring that in and say hey saved Israelites from the twelve
tribes during that period in Egypt so you know you got like two thousand
years approximately of twelve tribes of Israel people to be saved to be that
crowd so when the Bible says that the twelve fathers are gonna sit on twelve
thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel we're not talking about a bunch
of people today that are just called Israelis or Jews because let me ask
you something are Jews or Israelis are they twelve tribes absolutely not there
is no such thing in 2023 it does not exist in this world the tribe of Reuben
doesn't exist GAD doesn't exist Asher doesn't exist there is no one on this
planet right now that is of the tribe of Issachar of the tribe of Zebulun
those tribes have ceased to exist many many centuries ago long time ago
now at the time that the New Testament was first written in the first century
AD there were remnants of people from those tribes that still kind of
maintained their identity as being of Asher or Simeon or Gad or Reuben or
whatever but guess what it's two thousand years later and those tribes
have long long ceased existing which is why in Israel today nobody talks
about their tribe we went we went and interviewed a whole bunch of rabbis and
experts about this they said no one no one can show what tribe they're from he
said the only people who make a claim to be from a certain tribe are
pretty much some people will say oh I'm a Levite or I'm a priest or
something and it's dubious because they have no genealogy to prove that
but that's the claim that's made nobody's walking around saying that
they're of the tribe of Gad and Asher unless they're just some one of these
like black Hebrew Israelites that say that like Puerto Ricans are the tribe
of whatever they can anybody help me out what the Puerto Ricans are supposed
to be you know you don't have their bizarre doctrine memorized but they'll
be like oh Puerto Rico you know and I'm just making this up because I'm not
gonna get it right but they'll be like Puerto Rico is the Bulan and you
know Africa and they have all these weird it's just made up craziness but
the so-called Jews today or Israelis today they're not 12 tribes they're just
they're the tribe of white people is but you know is what 90% of them belong
to okay the tribe of whitey is 90% and then 10% of them are Sephardic or
something else but 90% of the Israelis or Jews or whatever that you run into
are Ashkenazis which the Ashkenazi look up in your Bible who Ashkenaz is
he's a white dude it's Europe they're Europeans that's why they have red
hair and freckles half the time they have blonde hair and blue eyes and
they're you know they're they're claiming to be you know from Palestine
or something it doesn't make any sense so anyway I don't want to get off too
far on that but the point being that when you read these future prophecies
about Israel it's always 12 tribes like if you're reading a revelation and it
talks about the 144,000 notice it's 12 tribes 12,000 for master 12,000 again
why because those are people that are going to be resurrected in the end
times because all believers are going to be resurrected at the end of the
world that's what that's talking about okay and so it's not you say is
God done with the physical nation of Israel yes it's so done it you know
it's over that's why there's this fake Israel over there that's just a bunch of
white people saying that there is real but again that's not the real Israel
it's a counterfeit and just as in the end times there's going to be an
Antichrist which means in the place of Christ or in instead of Christ well
there's an anti Israel too there's a fake Israel but the Bible says that
we're the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ
Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh he's not a Jew which is one
outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh he's a Jew
which one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart and of the spirit
and not of letter we are the true spiritual Israel Christians are the
spiritual people of God people who don't believe in Jesus they're nothing
let me tell you something let me say that again people don't believe in
Jesus have nothing are nothing all they are is a mission field you know and as
soon as they get saved as soon as they believe in Jesus now they are
important now they are somebody now they are ambassadors for Christ now they
are kings and priests unto God and our father but until then what are they
they're lost they're lost people they're doomed and obviously we want to
get as many of them saved as we can whether Jew or Gentile I want to get the
Jews saved we want to get the Gentiles say we want to get everybody we
possibly can't save because if you don't have Jesus Christ you have
nothing and you are nothing okay the pasta Paul said in me that is in my
flesh dwelled no good thing you know and without Christ everyone is doomed
the only way to be saved is through believing in Jesus Christ no man
cometh unto the Father but by him Israelis praying to God they're not
doing it in Jesus name the prayers are hitting the ceiling because no man
cometh unto the Father but by Christ is it well unless he's Jewish it's like
it's some backdoor loophole or something oh look at this Israeli
soldier praying on the battlefield isn't it wonderful is he praying in
Jesus name because when I pray I say in Jesus name amen and it's just like a
guaranteed it's like a stamp on my letter that says hey this is
guaranteed to reach the desk priority mail it's gonna get there Jesus name
versus this thing of oh you know God of Abraham God of Isaac it's like I'm
waiting if you're not gonna acknowledge the son you don't have the
father that's what the Bible says you but he that acknowledges the son
listen that word acknowledges he that acknowledges the son hath the Father
you can't ignore Jesus you must acknowledge him in order to reach God and
so that's what this chapter is is actually talking about that that
basically the the Jews and the Gentiles are all one in Christ Jesus and what's
funny is you preach this people say like oh you're you're anti-semitic you're
you're negative toward the Jews no all I'm saying is that they're the same as
everybody else with Christ they're saved without Christ they're nothing
that's all right it doesn't matter what nationality you are isn't it funny how
saying that everyone's equal is anti-semitism saying that the Jews
aren't special as anti-semitism they're not special I'm not special you're not
special Jesus is what makes anybody special and it doesn't matter what
color we are we're all the same and so that's what this chapter is actually
teaching is that God has now revealed and made it crystal clear somehow the
dispensationalist didn't get the memo but he's made it crystal clear that
actually the Gentiles are fellow heirs fellow citizens of the Commonwealth
of Israel according to Ephesians chapter 2 this shouldn't be a mystery
anymore you know people are still apparently confused but yet it's not
supposed to be a mystery it's supposed to be crystal clear and then he says in
verse 14 for this cause because of all that that we've seen in chapters 2 and
3 of Ephesians for this cause I bow my knees unto the father of our Lord
Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named
that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be
strengthened with might by the spirit and the inner man that Christ may
dwell in your hearts by faith that is that interesting he says I bow my knees
unto the father of our Lord Jesus Christ you know again emphasizing that
there's a father and the son it's not just oh we're all worshiping the same
God it's a no you better be talking father son Holy Ghost that's the God
of the Bible but isn't it interesting of whom the whole family in heaven and
earth is named now think about the whole family is named what Christians
not guardians not Abraham Isaac Jacobians it is the whole family is named
Christians Jesus Christ is the name that we claim Jesus Christ the name
that's above all names and so the whole family whether Jew or Gentile is
knit we don't go right even though we are the spiritual Israel even though
God says that spiritually we're the true Jews we don't go around calling
ourselves Israelites or Jews or Israeli you know how is this family
named when everybody is one in Christ Jesus we're named as Christians that's
the name and it has Christ in it okay and so he says that the whole family
in heaven and earth is named that he would grant you according to the
riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner
man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that you being rooted
and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the
breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ
which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fullness of
God now what is the length what is the breadth length depth and height of
the love of God what is that well here's let me tell you the breadth
of the love of God is not just Israel it's broader than that you see he's
saying look isn't this exciting he's preaching to the Ephesians and we
didn't have time to go through chapter 2 I kind of just gave you a
synopsis but you know go home and read chapter 2 and chapter 3 even chapter
1 for crying out loud already starts bringing this up but these first three
chapters of Ephesians it's talking about how God has extended this
privilege of being the chosen people the elect being special he's extended
that to the Gentiles see God's love is broader than just well I love Abraham
Isaac and Jacob and I love the nation of Israel no God so loved the world
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son so when we
think about the breadth and length and depth and height it's something that's
universal in the sense that it reaches out to every corner of the world and
all nationalities are invited to come and be saved through Jesus and so that
shows us this amazing breadth and length and depth and height of God's
love of the love of Christ that passes knowledge right it is Christ's
love is beyond our comprehension and it says in verse 20 now to him that is
able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to
the power that worketh in us unto him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ
through all ages world without end amen so at the end of this passage you can
just see Paul is just excited about this phenomenon that God's Word is
going all over the world and people are being saved and that that you know
the whole world has access to the Word of God and the gospel and
they're getting saved they're hearing the truth and he bows his knee to the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and and he is praying that this will continue
to abound and and and he's just talking about just how unsearchable and how
wonderful God's love is and the extent of his grace and and all these
things and in the end he just ends up by glorifying God and just saying
wow isn't God amazing isn't this great what's interesting here when he talks
about this is that one of the things that makes it so exciting for the
Gentiles to be brought near and to be actually part of the group and to be
part of the in crowd and to be fellow citizens and fellow heirs is that they
once were not you know that's what makes it a privilege and you know I
talked about this back when I was preaching on the Exodus series about
the fact that you have all these chapters in the Mosaic law where God
just goes on and on about how holy he is and how unapproachable he is and
how they've got basically the most holy place and the holy place and
they've got the courtyard and there are like these concentric circles of
holiness where you know only certain people are allowed in the camp of
Israel and then certain people are allowed in the courtyard of the
tabernacle and then other certain people are allowed in the temple proper the
holy place but then when it comes to the most holy place one man once per
year the high priest goes in there only one time per year and there are
all these rules about exactly how he has to approach the presence of God in
that most holy place and you wonder like why go on and on about that for
chapter after chapter but it's because God is showing how holy he is and how
unapproachable he is to sinful man so that then when Jesus Christ comes
along and opens the door wide and tears that veil in twain and just
reveals the most holy place I mean when Jesus died on the cross what
happened at the temple the veil to the most holy place was just ripped in
half there's an earthquake and just rips in half it tears apart the curtain
and obviously that was God showing we now have direct access to God through
Jesus Christ you know if you think about it it's it's such a privilege for
the Gentiles to be fellow heirs and for all of us of all nationalities to
be first-class citizens of the kingdom of God because that was once not the
case in the Old Testament that's what makes it a privilege in the New Testament
it's what makes it special the fact that these things were not revealed in
the Old Testament makes it so much cooler to know about them in the New
Testament and to have direct access and to be first-class citizens in the
kingdom of God and so that's what he's getting across here in this passage
showing look isn't it amazing isn't it exciting and maybe part of the
reason for sending this letter of the Ephesians is there are probably
Judaizers trying to make them feel like a second-class citizen or that
they were somehow secondary that you know really Christianity's for Jews you know
like like silly rabbit tricks are for kids you know and it's really for the
Jews like well I mean I guess if you Gentiles want to get saved I guess you
know I guess we could have one Gentile in the church or whatever but
it's mainly us and and it's our culture and so you know God's making it
clear no you Ephesians are just as Christian you're just as saved you're
just as much the chosen elect people of God as the Jews as the Israelites
there's no difference you guys are in the family and we all claim the name
of Christ that's what makes it special and so don't fall for this
dispensational teaching that somehow claims that there were other modes of
salvation in the past or that there will be in the future or you'll have
some people that are like a halfway dispensation was it well it's not it's
not different modes of salvation it's just you know it's just that God was
was dealing with Israel now he's dealing with the church he's gonna
deal with Israel that's not what the Bible teaches okay God's program
doesn't move backwards it moves forward and you say well is there any
hope for Israel is there any hope for the Jews I mean are they just done is
it really over for them hey let me tell you something any Jew anytime they
want to all they have to do is confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus
and believe in their heart that God is raising from the dead and they
shall be saved but if they don't do that they're done it's over for them
so no God is not going to go back to dealing with that nation except just to
judge them and punish them for hating and rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ but
when it comes to the individual of course every Jew every Israelite has
the opportunity whenever they want to to get in on the party you know oh
they're being excluded yeah of course they're excluded everybody who rejects
Jesus is excluded but they can come to the party whenever they want by
believing in Jesus that's it and if you think that there's going to be
some mass conversion of Ashkenazi white people pretending to be Jews in the
Middle East if you think that they're all just gonna get saved in the end
times that's a false doctrine that is not gonna happen it isn't true it
isn't real they're you know who they're gonna love they're gonna love
the Antichrist when the Antichrist shows up they're gonna love it they're
gonna they're gonna accept and people say well when they see Jesus come in
the clouds that's when they're all gonna get saved folks that's not how you
get saved you get saved by faith in the Word of God faith comes by hearing
hearing by the Word of God it's not like well you know Jews have been
going to hell for the last 2,000 years but since you were lucky enough
to be the Jews who were alive when Jesus came you're gonna see him in
the clouds and automatically get saved isn't it lucky for you that you're
not gonna go to hell like your dad did and your grandpa did and your
great-grandpa did you get to go to heaven because you just happen to be at
the right place at the right time when Jesus that's not how salvation works
okay the way that salvation works is that first of all Jesus Christ died
for the whole world Jesus Christ loved the whole world God the Father
loved the entire world and he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life how does that happen
why does one man get saved another doesn't here's what happens the Word of
God is preached okay and that Word of God either falls on good ground or
poor ground and whatever it has to do with the heart of the person who's
hearing the Word of God preached and so when the Word of God is preached
some people are gonna believe some people are not gonna believe and at
the end of the day it's a choice that every person has between life and death
choose life the Bible says and it's made available to all salvation is
offered unto all and it's up for the person who's hearing the Word of God
to make that choice to choose life to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
be saved it's that simple it's not that well if I see a miracle then I'll
believe if I see a sign I'll believe but otherwise you know I'm just gonna
refuse to believe you know I have to see evidence here's the there are all
kinds of people in the Bible who saw all kinds of evidence and still didn't
get saved there are people who watch Lazarus rise from the dead and didn't
get saved you know because if they are not persuaded this is what Jesus
said actually it was Jesus saying that Abraham said if they are not
persuaded by Moses and the prophets what's Moses and the prophets the
Bible the Word of God he said if they won't be persuaded by Moses and the
prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead
you could you know you could show Jesus coming in the clouds is not
gonna make people automatically believe on him okay people will just find
some way to not believe in that or just to reject that and so that's
a fantasy this this idea of and then every once in a while you'll hear these
reports about how like millions of people millions of Jews are getting
saved and millions it's like it's always a hoax go there and talk to
those people and see how receptive they are in fact don't even go there
just go to southern Tempe just go to neighborhoods in in in Phoenix that
are rife with Jews and hey we do it all the time I knocked the door of a
Jewish person within the last couple weeks and guess how far I got with the
gospel I didn't even get to Romans 3 23 because there's some of the most
unreceptive people on the planet and they're not gonna magically become
receptive in the end times and you know what I'm not a Calvinist I don't
believe in this garbage that says well God just picks who gets saved and
it's all up to him what no no it's up to God would have all men to be
saved it's up to the listener it's up to that person to choose life and to
receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and so God's not just gonna
magically snap his fingers and all Israel gets saved in the end times
that is a false dog it's a twisting of Scripture if if Jews want to get
saved they better do it today if Israelites want to get saved they
better do it today because eventually it's gonna be eternally too late for them
to get saved and when they have that mark of the beast in their right hand or
in their forehead I don't care what they see coming in the clouds they're
reprobate they're doomed and it'll be too late for them at that point and
so they need to seek the Lord while he may be found and so isn't it
exciting and a blessing for us as God's people to know that we are saved
that we're going to heaven that God loves us the hairs of our head are
numbered he has all kinds of thoughts toward us he's able to do exceedingly
abundantly above all that we ask or think his love for us is beyond
comprehension think about the person that you've loved more than anyone else
that you've ever loved in your whole life God loves you more than you've
loved that person God's love surpasses anything that we could ever imagine
God loves us he has brought us into the inner circle we're in the in crowd
we are the chosen people of God and it's our job just as Paul was given
that dispensation of the grace of God we've been given that same
dispensation of the grace of God toward unsaved people now it's time
for us to go out there into this world instead of whining about how oh it
isn't fair to poor little Jews or something you know hey it's our job
to go out there and offer this grace to everybody Jew and Gentile included
everybody let's let's go out there and be a grace dispenser a gospel dispenser
a salvation dispenser that's our job as Christians just as it was Paul's job
let's borrow words of prayer father we thank you so much for this great
chapter Lord and I pray that the study of this chapter and and hearing
it preached Lord would help to cut through some of the the wrong
teachings that are out there Lord that somehow would teach that unsaved people
are the chosen people that that people who reject Jesus are somehow elect or
chosen Lord help us to understand this chapter and realize that we are the
elect we are the circumcision we are your people and Lord help us to
invite as many people as we can to also join in on this grace and join in
on this blessing that we have as your children and in Jesus name we pray