Okay, leave your Bibles there in Ephesians chapter 3, look at verse number 2. Ephesians
chapter 3 verse number 2, it says, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God,
and I'll just stop there, that's the title for the sermon tonight, the dispensation or dispensation
of the grace of God. Now I don't know what that means to you, what does that mean to you as you
read that? Dispensation of the grace of God, actually it's not that complicated. There are
some people that really want to make this really complicated and I hope as we go through this
chapter today with you that it'll be made clear for you, Ephesians chapter 3 there, and it's just
continuing the same thoughts that we left off in chapters number 2 and chapter number 1. So let's
start off with verse number 1, the Ephesians chapter 3 verse 1, Ephesians chapter 3 verse 1,
it says, for this cause I Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. I love verse
number 1 immediately. Now if you don't know, Paul right now, he literally is a prisoner. He is
literally in Rome as a prisoner behind bars and he writes this letter. This is one of many many
epistles that he writes while he's in prison and you would think, how would you feel brethren if
you're in prison? How would you feel if you're behind bars, you're arrested and you don't have
your freedom? Obviously you'd be cast down, obviously you'd be upset. You know what if you're
in prison for the cause of Christ though? You know what if you, it's still be difficult, you're away
from your family, away from your friends, away from the people that you know, but I love the
positive attitude that Paul has. He says, look, he's a prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles.
In other words, he says, look, I'm in prison, you know, I would love to be free, I would love to be
out there visiting churches, I'd love to be out there preaching the gospel, I'd love to be out
there visiting and preaching all these churches and encouraging the brethren, but he says, look,
I'm in prison for you because what opportunity did he have then to be in prison? The opportunity
presented himself where he couldn't move, where he was stuck in that place, he had nothing else to do
but to write an epistle to the Ephesian church and of course this is scripture, this is given
by inspiration of God for the Ephesian church to grow and for us to grow. So praise God that Paul
was a prisoner for Jesus Christ because by this process we were able to have these other epistles
for us that became the canon of scripture and so I love his positive attitude and brethren, the
heart, the thing that I want to challenge you with tonight or this evening is that when you go through
difficulties, now you may never be thrown in prison, but when you go through hardships, when you go
through sicknesses, when you're broke, when you're having conflict with your family and your, you know,
your friends, when things aren't going well for you, I hope you stop and consider and ask, well God, I'm in
a tough place but how can I remain positive? How can I remain having a positive outlook to life?
You know, it's no secret brethren that if you're somebody that struggles to make friends,
if you're someone that struggles to get along with people, think about your attitude, think
about the kind of character you are. You know, there are a lot of people that can't make friends
simply because they're always negative, always negative. You know, something happens, I've got to
talk about how bad this situation is. You know, this person, instead of edifying brethren in
the church, instead of saying praise God for brother so-and-so and sister so-and-so, no, they'll
look at the negative. Look at brother, why isn't brother so-and-so in church today? Why isn't sister
so-and-so, you know, have a smile on her face today? And you know, a lot of people have a very negative
or a very critical attitude to life. Oh, the pastor didn't preach great sermon this week.
Instead of what was that one point that you may have taken out of the sermon to help you grow in
life. And you know, if you're always a negative person, people aren't going to want to be your
friends. I mean, if you're just constantly negative about everything. I'm not saying there's never a
time to be negative, I'm not saying there's never a time to be sorrowful and to be cast down, but
you've got to invest in other people as well. You know, Paul looks at his situation, I'm in prison
but praise God for you Gentiles. I get to be here and be a blessing towards you by writing this
epistle to you. That's a positive attitude, right? He doesn't whinge and complain about how he's in
prison, how he doesn't have the best food, how he doesn't have his freedom. He just praises God for
the situation that he finds himself in. You know, God will use negative circumstances in your life
to work in your life and you've got to have a positive attitude. You've got to turn around and
say, well God you must have put me in this situation for a reason. What is that reason?
How can I be a blessing to others while I find myself in a very tough situation?
I'm just going to read to you, you guys say that I'm going to read to you from Romans chapter 5
verse 1. It says, therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in
the hope of the glory of God. Praise God that we can rejoice in his grace, we can rejoice in
his glory. But then it says this, and not only so. So not just when things are going well,
he turns the corner here in verse number three, he says, but we glory in tribulations also,
knowing that tribulation worketh patience. Paul was going through tribulation here, arrested,
but he says when God allows us to go through trials and tribulation, it's going to work
patience. You know what I've seen Paul? He's someone that is patient. He's in tribulation,
but he's patient about it. Well I'm here, I'm going to write this epistle to the brethren
there in Ephesus. And then it says here, verse number four, and patience experience and experience
hope and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given unto us. Brethren when you're going through tribulations, ask God once again,
how can you work patience in my life Lord? Are you helping me to be more patient? And then with the
patience comes experience, right? And you know going through experience is what helps you grow.
You know being a model employee, being someone that works hard and knows their job well, that
comes with experience. You know being knowledgeable in your Bible comes with experience of reading
your Bible, okay? If you don't read your Bible, you're never going to be an experienced person in
the Word of God. You know if you want to be an experienced soul winner, you need to get out there
and go soul winning. You can't say well I won't go until I'm experienced. Well you're never going
to be experienced. You've got to get out there and gain the experience. And then when it comes
experience, hope. Hope's the next thing. Once you gain experience, you gain hope. And that's the
attitude we need to have. A hopeful attitude. No matter what situation we find ourselves in,
find hope. Find a positive view from where you're at. And it says and hope maketh not ashamed.
Brethren, how much boldness do you have in the faith? How confident are you in the faith?
Or would you say to me, Pastor Kevin, actually I'm quite ashamed. You know when I have the
opportunity to speak to someone about the Gospel, I actually, I don't open my mouth. I'm ashamed.
If someone challenges me with what the Word of God says, which is contrary to this world's
philosophy, are you ashamed to tell people what the Bible says? I hope not, okay? I hope that's
not you. If you can learn to gain hope, you allow God to use the negative experiences in your life,
you're going to come out as someone with great power, great boldness, and great strength. And
this is kind of the theme here of Ephesians chapter 3. Look at verse number 2. Ephesians
number 3 verse 2. And ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God,
which is given me to you word. Pastor Kevin, do you believe in the dispensation of the grace of
God? 100%. We just read about it there in verse number 3, okay? What is the dispensation though
of the grace of God? What is it there? Well you know what some will tell you?
Let me see a show of hands. Who's heard of the dispensation of grace as a theology in church?
Who's heard, maybe you've not heard of that, who's heard of the church age?
Okay, well basically it's the same thing, okay? It's the same thing by different terms. It's the
same idea. And I've talked about dispensationalism when I was preaching through Ephesians chapter 1.
Well here we have the word dispensation again. And look, I've done Bible college, not Bible college,
but I've done Bible college courses, okay? And some of these courses, and one of them is called
hermeneutics. And hermeneutics is just a fancy Greek word of saying interpretation, okay? I've
done a course of Bible interpretation, which have a lot of great things in it, don't get me wrong,
a lot of good things that I learned in it, but I was taught dispensationalism. Say what is
dispensationalism? Well dispensationalism teaches, generally there are different views of this,
generally teach that there are seven dispensations or seven ages that God works in, okay? And those
seven dispensations or those seven ages are the age of innocence, the age of conscience,
the age of human government, the age of promise, the age of law. The law has to do with the Old
Testament, then the age of grace or the church age, which apparently we're supposed to be in now,
and then the age of the millennium or the, yeah, the millennial age, whatever. Seven ages,
and I say these are different dispensations. Now you're probably wondering what dispensations?
That's what I say. Seven dispensations, seven periods of time which God would work with mankind,
and then man would fail in one dispensation, and God would say well you failed, I've got to
give you a new dispensation, and then man will fail in that dispensation, well you failed again,
you know, I had to flood the earth for example, now we've got to try another dispensation. Well
you failed again, now we're going to try another dispensation. This is, honestly this is what they
believe, but think about this for a moment. Now I don't believe in this, okay, but then when you
get to the dispensation of the church or the dispensation of the grace of God, you know,
this is the time when Christ has come and died on the cross.
How in the world would this dispensation fail? How in the world? If that's, if it's true,
if what they're saying is true, okay, listen, Christ became sin for us on the cross. Christ
died for our sins, not just died for our sins, but he took on our sins in his own body, and he
rose again from the dead, okay, and he's imputed his own righteousness upon us, so when we stand
before God the Father, we're perfect, we're clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
What a great promise. If we're in the righteousness of Christ in this age, church age,
church age, okay, if we're in that, how do we fail? We're in Christ. Think about that. If
you're saying, well we're going to fail this age until God has to bring in another age afterwards,
well then Christ failed, because we're clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
It's such a false teaching brethren, and it's not that complicated. If that went over your head a
little bit as I was going through those seven dispensations, don't panic. You're not missing
that or anything important, okay. I'll tell you what this is about, and like many things,
I just wish I could teach you through Ephesians chapter three, but you've got to debunk these
false teachings, so we can fully appreciate what this, what this is teaching, right.
Now it's not difficult. Look at verse number two again. It says, if ye have heard,
now notice the next words, of the dispensation of the grace of God, okay, dispensation of the
grace of God. Now very quickly, I mentioned this as an example before, but maybe in your workplace,
maybe even in your home, you've got a water dispenser. Some people call it a water cooler.
You know what I'm talking about. You go there, you go to one of those machines,
you put your cup in there, and it dispenses water for you.
I just drank from a dispensation of water, okay. You know, that machine dispensed it,
and there I had it, right. In other words, the machine, the water dispenser, or the, like the,
like a vending machine, okay, it dispenses, you know, it dispenses Pepsi, it dispenses Coca-Cola,
it dispenses, what do you guys like eating? Burger ring. All that's bad for you, by the way,
but anyway, it dispenses all this junk, but it's a machine that gives something, right,
it gives something, and that's all dispensation means. It is given of the grace of God. Now look,
the good thing about the Bible, it defines itself. You know, you don't have to take my word for it,
drop down to verse number seven, drop down to verse number seven, look at this,
whereof I was made a minister according to, now let's focus on the next words, according to
the gift of the grace of God, given unto me. Compare that to verse number two,
of the dispensation of the grace of God, verse number seven, according to the gift of the grace
of God. It's already defined for us. What's the dispensation here? The gift, okay, the gift of
the grace of God, given unto me by the effectual working of his power. When the water dispenser
gives me, you know, dispenses water for me, it's given me water, okay, and when Paul says here,
that he's, you know, when you've heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is given
me to you, word, what he says is God has given me the gospel. God has given me his word, and I'm
going to now dispense that. Not only has God given dispense that to me, now I'm going to give that
to you. You know, when I come here, and I preach for you, when I open the Bible, God has dispensed
his grace and his words for us right here, and I receive that, and I come, and I give that to you,
word. That's preaching. That's what, that's all that's going on, guys, right? And I come here,
and I give that to you, and Paul is saying, look, I'm just taking up the grace of God,
and I'm giving it back to you, Ephesians. Is that complicated? That's what it says. That's
what it means, brethren. It's dispensing of something is giving of something, and God has
given us his grace. Now let's keep going. Let's drop down to verse number 21. Actually, before
we read verse 21, because they say, those that teach dispensational theology, they say, well,
we're living right now in the dispensation of the church age. You know, the church age, right,
and they say, well, before this, there was no church, and then after the rapture is the end
of the dispensation. They'll say there's no other church age after this. Okay, but is that true?
You know, when they think of the church age, when they think of the dispensation of the grace of
God, they're thinking of a time period. They're thinking of a time period, right, where there's
sort of this magical people called the church of God. You know what, brethren? There's no such
thing as a universal church of God. You know what the church of God is? You, right here,
gather together. This is a church, okay? Another way of saying church is congregation.
Keep your finger there, and go to Hebrews chapter 2, please. Go to Hebrews chapter 2.
Hebrews chapter 2, and I'm going to turn to Psalm 149. You guys go to Hebrews 2,
I'm going to Psalm 149, okay? Hebrews chapter 2, verse 11. Hebrews chapter 2, verse 11. Look at
this. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause
he is not ashamed to call them brethren. Now look at verse number 12, sane.
Now before we read what he's been said, when it says here sane, this is something that was said
in the past. But let's look at it here. Sane, I will declare thy name unto my brethren,
and in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. What did it say there? In the midst
of the church will I sing praise unto thee. You know where this was said? In Psalm 149 verse 1.
I'll just read it to you. Psalm 149 verse 1, praise you the Lord, sing unto the Lord a new song,
and his praise is in the congregation of the saints. Actually that's the wrong passage,
sorry guys. Psalm 22 verse 22 is actually where it's found. Psalm 22, 22, it says I will declare
thy name. Now you guys are in Hebrews 2 right? You stay in Hebrews 2 please. Look at verse number 12
again. You guys stay in Hebrews 2. Look at verse number 12. I'm reading to you from Psalm 22, 22.
Okay, now let's compare what's in Psalm 22. It says I will declare, is that how verse 12 starts?
Saying I will declare, let's keep going, thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation
will I praise thee. That's what Psalm 22, 22 says. In the midst of what? The congregation.
What does Hebrews chapter 11 say on 12? In the midst of the church. Okay, the Bible has defined
for us what the church is. It's not some magical period of time made up of all the believers that
exists out there during that time. No, the church is a congregation. What's a congregation? It's a
gathering of people. It's an assembly of people. We're gathered together tonight. We are the body
of Christ. We are a church right now. Okay, because we're made up of those that Christ
has redeemed, who Christ has sanctified. Now please go to Acts chapter 7. Go to Acts chapter 7 verse 37.
Because obviously those that believe in dispensations or dispensationalism,
they won't deny what I just said. They also believe what this is that tonight is a church.
But they also believe in this sort of magical church out there as well, okay, of an age.
But they won't disagree with this. But they believe, okay, you guys are going to Acts chapter 7.
You guys are going to Acts chapter 7. They believe that the church started, okay, after the Christ
resurrection. They believe, in fact, not immediately after the resurrection. Usually
they might, they probably believe it's like the day of Pentecost when the power of the Holy Ghost
was given to many of the disciples and they were able to speak with many languages, preach in the
gospel. Many at that point will say, well this is when the church started, okay. Now I'm sure many
of you were told the church started in the New Testament. Many of you were told that the church
started after Christ's resurrection, okay. But praise God we've got His Word. And look,
if you've been taught that and you believe that, I hope you're humble enough to read what we're
about to read and change your mind. Not because Pastor Kevin says so, but change your mind because
the Word of God says so, okay. Acts chapter 7 verse 37. Acts chapter 7 verse 37. It says,
this is that Moses. Is that the New Testament? No. With Moses, what did Moses bring in? The Old
Testament, the Old Covenant with God, right. God gave Moses the Old Covenant. Moses then gave that
to the children of Israel. Let's keep going. This is that Moses which said unto the children of
Israel, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me,
him shall ye hear. This is he that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which
spake to him in the Mount Sinai and with our fathers who received the lively oracles to give
unto us. Brethren, you know what? There was a church in the Old Testament. There was a church
that was gathered around Mount Sinai when God gave Moses the Old Testament, gave Moses the Old
Covenant. They were in the wilderness. Were they not? Christ had not yet come. Christ had not yet
been born. Christ had not yet died and been resurrected. This is thousands of years before
Jesus Christ and the Bible tells us this is a church in the wilderness. Praise God for his
church. Brethren, listen, it's not the Jews are one people and we're in the New Testament,
some other people. We're all a church. When we've been gathered together as a body for Jesus
Christ, they are too called a church in the wilderness, okay? Now what's beautiful about
this is if you guys go back to Ephesians chapter 3, Ephesians chapter 3, so what have I shown you
so far? That the Old Testament congregation of believers were a church. What have I shown you
also? That in the New Testament when we're gathered together, we're a church. I mean that
destroys dispensationalism immediately because they believe no, no, no, this is the church age
today. You know there's one age for the church and it blows my mind when we can just read the Bible
clearly and it says the total opposite. Look at the last, look at verse number 21. Verse number
21 in Ephesians chapter 3, it says unto him be glory in the church. Let's stop there. You know
a church ought to give glory to God. A church ought to give glory to Jesus Christ, amen?
That's why we're here, to give glory to God, but let's keep reading. Unto him be glory in the
church of Christ Jesus throughout all ages. Oh man, I thought there was just one age,
just one church age, that's when, no, throughout all ages. Doesn't that make sense? We've got a
church in the Old Testament, we have churches in the New Testament and not just that, it says
throughout all ages, world without end, amen. You know what, church will never end, never end guys.
It says the world without end. You know for all eternity we're going to be gathered together as
a congregation. Okay, once we're in heaven with God, guess what we'll be doing? We'll be having
church. Okay, keep your finger there and go to Hebrews chapter 12. Go to Hebrews chapter 12. Let
me just show you this. Hebrews chapter 12 please. Hebrews chapter 12. You thought this was the end
of church? Once you die there's no more church? No, no, no, it keeps going guys. We're going to
continue having church. Look at Hebrews chapter 12 verse 22. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 22.
It says here, but ye, Hebrews chapter 12 verse 22, I want you to see this, but ye are come
unto mount Zion. Now stop there. Now we know there's a mount Zion in the Bible, in the Bible,
you know Jerusalem was called Zion and close to Jerusalem there was a mount known as mount Zion.
Okay, but is this talking about an earthly mount Zion? Let's keep going, but ye are come unto
mount Zion, look at this, and unto the city of the living God. Say, what's God's city? Is that
Jerusalem in the Middle East? Let's keep going. It says here, the heavenly Jerusalem. Now if you
guys know your Bibles in the book of Revelation, God after Christ's millennial reign, Christ is
going to create a new heaven, isn't he? And a new earth and what comes out of heaven? The new
Jerusalem, the heavenly city. So the context of what we're seeing here in Hebrews 12, what are
we talking about? We're talking about eternity, we're talking about the new heavens and the new
earth, we're talking about the heavenly Jerusalem, not the earthly Jerusalem. Let's keep going.
To an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and the church of the firstborn,
which are written in heaven and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made
perfect. You know what the Bible is saying here? After the millennial reign of Christ,
when God creates the new heavens and the new earth and the new heavenly Jerusalem comes down
out of heaven, we're going to have church, okay? It says there, the church of the firstborn.
You know what? It's not just going to be a church, how much is that? Maybe there's like
35 of us here, I don't know, 40 of us here. It's not going to be a church of 40 people,
it's going to be a church of all believers, of all the saints, okay? From the church in the
wilderness to the church in the New Testament to the church throughout all ages, world without end.
You know, this world's going to end, but God creates the new heaven and the new earth,
a new world to come that will never end. We're going to keep having church. I'm looking forward
to hearing Jesus Christ preach a sermon, okay? Because he preached many sermons when he was here
2,000 years ago. Man, it's going to be awesome to hear it from the word of God himself.
What a powerful thing, okay? So, don't be fooled that there's a church age,
one church age that we're living in today. No, frat, all ages, all ages, even into eternity,
we are going to be having church services together, all right? So, Brethren, Brother
Ramzan, Michael, I mean Luke and Matthew, you guys are song leading, you don't know,
Christ might call you up to song lead in heaven, all right? So, get cracking, you know,
get those voices in tune, learn the hymns, all right? Get ready for church in heaven, praise God.
All right, go back to Ephesians chapter three, please. Ephesians chapter three.
Now, I don't want to keep debunking dispensationalism, we just, we want to get what
this chapter is about, okay? But I just, I have to do that because some will read that and just
immediately go, oh man, seven years of, seven dispensational periods, we're in the church age
now, and you know, just confuses people, okay? Now that we know what it means, and it's not
complicated, okay? Paul was given the dispensation of the grace of God. In fact, we've all been given,
we've all been dispensed the grace of God to show others the gospel of Jesus Christ,
but look at that, soon look at verse number three, Ephesians 3, how that by revelation,
he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote a four in few words, whereby when you read,
you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. Now, he's talking about a mystery,
okay? It says here in verse number five, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men,
as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit.
Brethren, we live in an exciting time where God has revealed to us his mystery, okay?
He's shown us through the holy apostles and prophets that it said there, but it says here,
in ages past, this mystery was not made known to the sons of men, okay? They say, what is that
mystery? It's what we've been preaching about for the last few times as we've been going through
the chapters here, and I'll just tell you what it is very, very quickly. It's that God will make of
one people, the Jews and the Gentiles, okay? That's what we've been covering as we've been
going on, but that's the mystery, because in the Old Testament, they thought, you know, to be God's
chosen people, you had to be part of a physical nation. Well, the mystery is God's not restricted
by a physical nation, that God has allowed everybody, both Gentiles and Jews, to be part
of that spiritual nation, okay? And we'll keep, I'll show you this in a moment. If you can,
if you can, keep your finger there and go to Luke 24. Go to Luke 24 for me, Luke 24,
and as you're turning to Luke 24, I'm going to read to you from Acts chapter 10, okay? Acts
chapter 10. In Acts chapter 10 verse 42 it says, and he commanded us to preach unto the people
and to testify that it is he which is ordained of God to be the judge of the quick and the dead.
Now it says this in verse 43, pay attention, to him give all the prophets witness,
all the prophets gave witness of Jesus Christ. Hey, but they didn't fully understand the mystery.
This is the advantage we have, brethren. They didn't know the name of Christ. They didn't
understand the full picture, you know, of Jesus Christ, but we have that. It says here, to him
gave all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive
remission of sins. You know what the Old Testament prophets taught? That through his name whosoever
believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. You know what the Old Testament taught to be
saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. They taught that even though they
did not know the name of Christ. They knew God by other names, you know, God Almighty or Jehovah,
you know, they called upon other names that God had revealed to them. Today we have the name which
by we are to be saved, that's the name of Jesus Christ. You guys are in Luke 24 verse 25. Luke 24
verse 25 says, then he said unto them, these are the words of Jesus, O fools and slow of heart to
believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ have suffered these things and to enter
into his glory? And now look at this in verse 27, and beginning at Moses, you know what Moses,
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, beginning with from the very beginning of the
Bible and all the prophets, all the writings, all the scriptures, he expounded unto them in
all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Brethren, all of the scriptures, all of the Old
Testament is speaking of Jesus Christ. You know, even the sacrifices, they're pictures of Jesus.
The priests, they're pictures of Jesus. You know, so many things. You know, the rock by,
you know, which came out the waters, you know, to give, to help the thirst of the Israelites.
That rock is a picture of Jesus Christ and so many things. I mean, I was teaching on a Sunday
to my church in Queensland where Jacob is wrestling with the man, you know, that man,
then he says, man, you know, I've seen God, that's Jesus Christ. You know, everything is pointing us
to Jesus, but it was still a mystery to the Old Testament prophets, though they wrote about it.
So how do they write about it if they didn't know about it? Because it's the words of God,
okay? They were moved by the Holy Ghost to write these things, all right? And the last portion,
you guys go back to Ephesians 3, the last portion that I'll read to you is John chapter 5 verse 46,
and Jesus says this to the Jews that don't believe on him. He says to them,
for had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me. Who wrote of Jesus?
Moses wrote of Jesus. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?
Another thing, just a quick one, guys, Judaism is a false religion. Judaism, okay, the religion
of the Jews is a false religion. It's not that they're following Moses. They believe what Moses
wrote. It's not, because Jesus says, for had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me.
Do the Jews believe in Jesus? No. You know why? Because they don't even believe Moses.
They don't even believe the Old Testament scriptures, okay? It's not Old Testament
Christianity. What they believe today is a false religion, and it is not what the true
faith of the Old Testament saints were. The true faith of the Old Testament saints
was placed still on Jesus Christ, though the full mystery was not yet revealed unto them,
okay? Back to Ephesians chapter 3 verse 6, Ephesians chapter 3 verse 6. This is the mystery,
brethren, and I already spoiled it for you, but you know, I wanted to build upon this. Verse
number 6, this is a mystery that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body
and partakers of His promise in Christ by the Gospel. The Gospel, brethren. Do you know what
the Gospel is? Death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Salvation by grace through faith
without works. That's the Gospel message, right? And then verse number 7 says this,
whereof I was made a minister. Oh man, Paul, did you go to Bible college and get your qualifications?
Is that the ministry that you got into? You know, have you been lifted up? No. When it says here,
whereof I was made a minister, he's saying I'm a minister of the Gospel. He's a preacher
of the Gospel. And this is according to the gift, there it is, that's the dispensation,
of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of His power. You know what makes you an
effective soul winner, guys? We can tap into the power of God. God has given you His power,
He's given you His Gospel, so we can get out there and open our mouths boldly and preach the Gospel,
okay? Verse number 8, unto me, now I love his humility here, but notice what it says,
unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach among
the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Keep your finger there and go to 1st Corinthians,
please. Go to 1st Corinthians, keep your finger there. What does Paul say about himself? He goes,
I'm the least, right? I'm the least of all the saints. And Brevin, I don't know how you feel
about yourselves, okay? I don't know if you feel I'm just, you know, I'm too old to preach the
Gospel. I'm too old for God to use me. I'm too young for God to use me. I'm too sick for God
to use me. I've only been saved for a month. How can God use me? You know, I'm not like these other
saints. I'm not like these other believers. I don't know. Is that your attitude? Well, Paul
says I was the least, and you know what? God still uses the least, okay? It doesn't matter how weak
you are. It doesn't matter what your failings are. It doesn't matter what your struggles are.
God has given us all the ministry of reconciliation. God has given us all the
ability and the power to preach his Gospel to this community. You guys are in 1st Corinthians,
chapter 1. Look at verse 26, 1st Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 26. 1st Corinthians, chapter 1,
verse 26. Brevin, I don't know what you think of me. I don't know if you think,
man, that Pastor Kevin, he's all right. You know, he can preach pretty powerfully the Word of God.
Brevin, I'm the least, okay? I'm just a normal human being with the same doubts, the same fears,
okay? When I come up here to preach, I have butterflies in my stomach. I'm nervous,
and I'm praying to God, can you use me? I think I'm going to forget everything I prepared.
You know, I have nightmares where I get behind the pulpit, and I don't even know what I'm preaching
today, right? But who does God use? Look at 1st Corinthians 1, 26. For ye see your calling,
Brevin. Brevin, are you a brother in the Lord? Are you a sister in the Lord? This is for you,
Brevin, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called,
but God have chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God have chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things,
you know what base means? The basic things, the simple things of the world, the things which are
despised, God, sorry, have God chosen ye and things which are not to bring to naught things
that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. You know who God uses the most to do
his work? The weak, okay? The weak, the humble, the least, the simple, okay? You need to, if you
think you're, oh man, look at me, I'm so good, I've been saved for so long, look how good I,
God's not going to use you if you have that attitude, okay? You're going to have the attitude
of Paul, he had power, but he was also very humble. He realizes, man, if not for God,
I'd be weak in this world. If not for God, I'd just be a foolish person, you know? And I'm
telling you, Brevin, I don't care how weak you think you are, how old or how young or how immature
or carnal, if you're a believer in Christ, God can give you the power to do his mighty works,
okay? I'm going to read, well, you guys, you guys are in 1 Corinthians, so go to 2 Corinthians,
next book over, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, please, verse 18,
2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 18,
2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 18. It says, and all things are of God who have reconciled us,
who's us, all of us, he's reconciled us, right, to himself by Jesus Christ and have given to us
the ministry of reconciliation. It's not just Paul that was given this dispensation of the,
you know, of the grace of God. It's not just him that was made a minister. To us, he's given us
the ministry of reconciliation. If you've been reconciled to God through salvation, guess what?
Now you're a minister. You're here to serve God by reconciling other people to God. You know what
you need to do? You go and preach them the gospel. Anytime you have the opportunity, you know, maybe
you have a time with the church, you haven't done it before, go as a silent partner. Go with someone
that has preached the gospel, someone that's gained experience, go with them and learn,
brethren. And let's keep going, verse number 19, to wit that God was in Christ, this is 2 Corinthians
19, to wit that God was in Christ, you know what to wit means? To witness. You know when you go and
you preach the gospel, you're witnessing to others what God has done for us in Christ. To wit that God
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them and have
committed unto us the word of reconciliation. The word of reconciliation. Do we have any gospel
tracts here? At the top? All right. Some churches do this. Oh man, I've been given the ministry of
reconciliation. Where's the closest letterbox? I've done my job. Praise God. I've delivered the
piece of paper into the letterbox. Oh man, what a great minister of God. What did it say there?
In verse number 19, and have committed unto us the word of reconciliation. You've got to open
your mouth and tell people about Jesus Christ. This is not what God's called you to do.
Letterbox. All right. Now I'm not saying there's never a time for that. I don't mind. I don't mind
seeing the kids out there doing a mass letterbox round and inviting people to our church,
but that should never ever replace gospel preaching. Door to door gospel preaching.
Now brethren, I don't like, I don't know, maybe you don't like it when I preach about
the gospel, preaching the gospel. I don't know how I could preach the Bible to you
without ever talking about the gospel, like preaching the gospel. You know, I've been in
churches that have encouraged you to go soul winning. And when I've not gone soul winning,
I've been feeling really guilty. Like, oh man, I need to get out there. I need to get out there.
All right. But then I've been in other churches where they never talk about going out preaching
the gospel. And then you feel pretty good about yourself because you never feel, you're not
convicted that you're not doing like you are not. This church doesn't require me. Now, look,
it's not like I come here and I'm trying to, it's not like I'm trying to put pressure. I don't come
in on Tuesday night thinking, you know what, I'm going to really put a lot of pressure on people
to go soul winning today. I'm just, I'm preaching through Ephesians three, right? I don't know how
pastors open this book and fail to mention the need to preach the gospel to people.
I don't understand that. It's on every page, in every chapter. It's in every book of the Bible,
the need to get out there and preach the gospel. And if you don't preach the gospel and this
message makes you uncomfortable, good, good. It's not me making you uncomfortable. It's the word of
God making you uncomfortable. Okay. And if you don't come to be challenged, then why do you come
to church? Do you come to church just to be told, oh, you're doing well, brother. You're doing well,
sister. Just stay as you are. You don't need to keep growing. Then you come to church because you
need to be challenged to work hard, to grow, to mature. To be a blessing to others, to see souls
saved, to have your eyes set on eternity and not just on the temporal things of this world.
Back to Ephesians chapter three, Ephesians chapter three and verse number nine, Ephesians chapter
three verse nine. It says here, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of this mystery,
which from the beginning of the world have been hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ.
Now, another thing that I need to just mention about dispensationalism.
Dispensation, remember how I told you that God has, you know, they teach that God has set up
a dispensation and then men fail, so God has to create a new dispensation. Well, they teach that
basically when Jesus Christ came to this earth, that he came basically to be the king of the Jews.
He came to set up his kingdom right there and then, but because Israel rejected their Messiah,
because Israel rejected God, well they failed and so God then had to open up a new dispensation.
And the idea behind that, I mean think about that, and so instead of Christ being the king
of Israel at that point in time, then well what else is Christ going to do? Oh, let's die on the
cross for the Gentiles now. Since the Jews have rejected me, now I'm going to die on the cross
for the Gentiles. How does that make you feel though? If that's true, that Jesus came for,
just for the Jews to be the king, but since, thank God they rejected Christ, thank God they
crucified him, because now I get in. You know what, this basically, that teaching just says
you're plan B. You know, plan A failed, right, they failed, so God opened up a new dispensation
and now you're plan B and you get in on plan B. No Brevin, you are plan A. Christ came to die on
the cross, no matter what was going on, that was his ministry, that was the work that God
gave him to do, even before he started his ministry. What's the first thing he does?
He gets baptized, picturing his death, burial and resurrection. He knew when he started his ministry,
he went to join the Baptist and go, well right from the beginning I know I'm going to die on the
cross. So he gets baptized as a picture of his, the end of his ministry, you know, the climax of
his ministry and I say that because look at verse number nine again, it's not plan B, it says,
and to make all men see what is this fellowship of the mystery, look at this, which from the beginning
of the world have been hid in God. It's not like, well we've got to come up with a new plan now,
it was the plan from the beginning, it was just hidden. In the Old Testament days, it was just
hidden, but when something's hidden, it means it exists, all right. If I'm going to hide these
keys, I'm going to hide them back here, it doesn't mean that the keys don't exist until I pull them
out, oh plan B, now, oh when I hit them, they existed, it was, it just, you couldn't see them,
but now no more hidden, it's been fully revealed, right, fully revealed and this is important
because I'll just start, I'll speed up here, I'm going to read to you from Matthew 13 verse 16,
Matthew 13 verse 16, Jesus says this with these words, but blessed are your ears, you're sorry,
blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear. Now look what he says here,
just pay attention to the words of Christ, for verily I say unto you that many prophets and
righteous men have this desire to see those things which you see. The Old Testament prophets,
the Old Testament saints, they desired to see what we see, see, to hear what we hear.
They knew about a hidden mystery, they knew it existed, but they didn't fully understand it.
It says here and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard
them. So they knew about the mystery, it just wasn't fully revealed, you know, this kind of
reminds me of the book of Daniel, if you remember the book of Daniel, I've got the reference here,
after Daniel writes the whole book, you know, and part of it, half of the book of Daniel is about
present time and the other half of the book of Daniel is about future events and then Daniel
asked this question towards God after he's finished writing it, he says and I heard,
Daniel says these words and I heard but I understood not. Daniel just finished writing
this book, he goes I don't understand it. Then said I, oh my Lord, what shall be the end of
these things? And he said, this is what God says to Daniel, go thy way Daniel for the words are
closed up and sealed till the time of the end, okay. So Daniel, he writes this book and he
doesn't fully understand it, right, and God says well it's not for you to understand, it's for the
end and thank God we've been given the book of Revelation, Revelation is to reveal, now we know
what the end times are about, now with the understanding of the book of Revelation and the
other epistles about the end times, we can go back to the book of Daniel and see how that ties in
with the end of the world but Daniel did not have that, he knew, he knew, he desired to see what we
see but he couldn't understand, you know, it was hid from him, you know, the book was closed up
and he wrote his own book and he didn't fully understand what he was writing, again because
it's from God, you know, the Holy Spirit is the one that writes the Bible, not men. Back in Ephesians
chapter 3 verse 10, Ephesians chapter 3 verse 10, it says here, to the intent that now unto the
principles and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifest wisdom of God.
Now that verse tends a little bit tough to break down, let me explain to you very quickly, when
it says here the principalities and powers in heavenly places, you know, it's talking about,
it's talking about the heavenly host, you know, the angels, the seraphims, the all the kind of
creatures that are in heaven that make up their heavenly hosts and this is what's interesting
about the local church, okay, the body of Christ, it says here, I'll read it slowly, to the intent
and now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church,
so the heavenly hosts have been made known, they've been made aware of something by the church,
what's been made known? The manifold wisdom of God. Brethren, I don't think you understand the
importance of church, okay, when the heavenly hosts look down at New Life Baptist Church here
in Fairfield and other churches that belong to God, okay, they see the manifold wisdom of God,
they say, wow, this was God's plan all along for Jesus Christ to go and die on the cross
and to gather believers together, Jews and Gentiles into one body, when the heavenly hosts
look at us gathered together from all places, all different backgrounds, all kinds of nationalities,
they see the wisdom, the manifold wisdom of God, you know, they're surprised by the wisdom of God,
by us just gathering together, you know, when we gather together, man, the angels of heaven are
watching, look at the wisdom of God go there, right, so church is very, very important. Verse
number 11, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now next words, verse 12, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.
Brethren, let me read that again, in whom in Jesus 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. You know Paul's going through tribulation, he's a prisoner, he goes, I don't want you to
faint, I don't want you to give up, I want you to have boldness, I want you to have confidence in
the faith. Paul said, man, I have confidence in Christ, I have my faith in Christ. Brethren,
please strive, ask God, pray for boldness, pray for confidence. You know who should be the most
bold people in this world? The most confident people in this world? Should be you, because
you're in Christ Jesus. Brethren, when you go and knock those doors, when you go and preach the
gospel, don't be like, hi, yeah, I'm here to preach the gospel. No, you go there, bang, bang, bang,
hey, I've got the best news for you, all right, you want to know how you can be 100% sure you're
going to heaven? Guess what, I'm 100% sure I'm going to heaven, praise God, not because I'm good
enough, in fact I'm a failure, I know I'm going to heaven because of what Jesus Christ has done for
me, you give me a few minutes, I'll show you right now how you can be sure of going to heaven. And
you've got to have confidence, you've got to have boldness in Jesus Christ. I don't know about,
you know, I've had times when I've gone soul winning, and people have tried to make you
afraid, okay, they swear at you, they might say, hey, I don't go to your house locking your doors,
you know, can you stop coming to my house, can you stop bothering my neighbours, you know,
my response is, I'm sorry, I'm sorry to bother you, I'll keep going. I say, no, I'm going to keep
coming. I say, oh, I'll call the police, call the police. I've had people ring me and say, hey,
your church is littering, they've littered on my front door. I said, well, no, we just left a leaf
let on your door. Oh man, you know, littering is a crime, I'm going to call the police. Then why
are you calling me? If someone's committed a crime to me, I'm not going to call the criminal,
I'm going to call the police. Honestly, people say I'm going to call the police. I always say,
look, especially via email, or stuff like that, I'm like, either call the police or call me.
Call someone, talk to someone. All right, I hope they call me so I can give them the gospel or the
phone, okay. I mean, look, we live in our inner generation brethren, and it's because of television,
when they show pastors, you know, they show these pastors that usually are unmarried,
no children, you know, timid men, you know, afraid to stand up, you know, using their
weak little voices. You know, God loves you. They preach sermons like this. Oh man, live your best
life now. No, brethren, that's not how we ought to be. That's not how you need to be. I'm sorry,
TV has fooled you. I'm sorry that those churches you've been at where you think Christians are
these timid little creatures going around that, you know, no, no, that's not Christianity,
brethren. That's not Christianity. Christianity is in the face of going to prison, in the face of
being a prisoner for Jesus Christ. You still have confidence. You still have boldness in the faith
because of Jesus Christ. Don't let anyone scare you when you give the gospel. These are the words
of life. Don't let anyone scare you away, brethren. And if you get attacked, give glory to God,
because great are your riches in heaven. Great are your, now look, I've never been physically
attacked. I've upset a lot of people, but I've never been physically attacked. The worst I've
gotten is a dog nipping at my heels. Didn't get past, they didn't get far, okay, but that's the
worst I've had. Now we live in a country where you pretty much, you're free. It is your legal
right to go to someone's door and tell them about the gospel, okay. Don't be afraid, okay. Number
one, you have the law on your side, but who cares if the law is not even on your side. You have
Jesus Christ on your side and he's given you the ministry of reconciliation. Verse number 14,
verse number 14, for this cause I bow my knees unto the father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom,
now I love these words, the whole family in heaven and earth is named. The whole family.
You know, brethren, this is your family here in the church. These are our brothers and sisters
in the Lord. We also have other family of other believers that are out there meeting in churches.
You know, even other brethren that don't attend church, that's our family. The saints that have
gone before us, that's our family. Moses, Abraham, Jacob, King David, Solomon, Gideon, Samson, Paul,
Peter, James and John. These are all our family, okay. All our family. Old Testament saints,
New Testament saints, we're all made one. Now notice again there, I'll just read it again.
Verse number 15, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. How are we named?
Look at verse 14, for this cause I bow my knees unto the father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom,
of whom Jesus Christ, that is whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Once again,
the Old Testament saints were saved because of Jesus Christ. That's what makes them the family,
okay. Again, mystery. They didn't know it all. It wasn't fully revealed, but they were saved the
same way. Faith in Jesus Christ, okay. That's what makes them family. Verse number 16,
that he would grant you, that's Jesus, that he would grant you according to the riches of his
glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. There it is. I told you we need
the confidence, we need the boldness and if you're saying I'm lacking confidence, I'm lacking
boldness, well this is what you need. You need to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit, okay, in the
inner man. What's the inner man? That's the same way of saying the new man, the new creature,
the spirit, okay. Not the flesh, not the old man, not the carnal mind. You need to be strengthened
in the inner man by the Holy Spirit, okay. Don't find strength in your own abilities.
Look for strength through the Holy Spirit, okay, to have that confidence and the boldness you need
to serve Christ. Verse number 17, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye
being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend. You know the word comprehend is
to understand, right? That you may be able to comprehend or understand 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. Brethren, the love of Christ, okay, the love
of Christ here, it talks about its breadth, its length, its depth and heights. I've often heard
this said, you know, that we live in a three-dimensional world, okay. You know,
we see things in three dimensions, don't we? Length, breadth and heights, but when you look
at the love of Christ, there's a fourth dimension. It's outside of our dimension, okay. It's breadth,
length, depth and heights and I don't fully understand that because it's outside of our
dimension and that's why it says here, it says here in verse number 19, and to know the love
of Christ which passeth knowledge. Now you might misread this. What this is saying is,
it's outside of our knowledge, okay. It passes our knowledge, like we can't fully know it. It
passes it, okay. It's not saying the love of Christ passes, like gives us knowledge. I guess
it gives us knowledge as well, but it's saying that it's so infinite, it's so wide that our
knowledge can't fully understand it, like it just passes by as it were. That's what it means there,
that you might be filled with all the fullness of God and I think what it says here, being filled
with the fullness of God, this is where the fourth dimension comes in, like we see things in three
dimensions, but this can't pass through me, right, but the love of God can pass through me. The love
of God, the love of Christ can pass through us. We can be filled with the love of God and I think
that's where the fourth dimension is. Something that a three-dimensional object cannot do,
okay, cannot go through objects, but the love of Christ can go through all of us.
It's a great thing, can reside inside of us and it says in verse number 20,
now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think
according to the power that worketh in us. Look at that, unto him be glory in the church by Christ
Jesus throughout all ages, world without end, amen. Just to summarize verse 20 because I've
already covered verse 21, but verse 20 once again let's end on that. It says now unto him that is
able to exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. God can do more than you could
possibly think for you. You could serve God in a greater capacity than you could possibly think.
You might say right now God I could never go to like a third world country and serve you on
the missionary field. Maybe you're saying God I could never be a pastor. Lord I can never know
what the bible teaches so much. You know God can do abundantly more than you could possibly think
or even ask for. You just need to tap into the power of God, tap into the power of God, tap into
the love of Jesus Christ. You know the inner man, the new man, that's where you need to be walking
by, not this flesh. You know we're all sinners meaning we all walk according to the lust of this
flesh from time to time, but if you really want the power of God in your life you need to minimize
that as much as you possibly can. You need to be walking in that new man. You need to be seeking
the spirit of God in your life. You know instead of filling your minds with this world's entertainment
you know fill your minds with the bible, fill your minds with good preaching, fill your minds with
church attendance, fill your hearts and your minds with prayer as you go to the Lord. Fill
your minds with the heart of, sorry with the love of Jesus Christ. You know meditate on what Christ
has done for you. Think about the ministry of reconciliation that God has given you. Brethren
how much are you fulfilling that ministry that God has given you? If you say well I've never once
given the gospel ever. Well brethren you're failing, you're failing you know. You need to give the gospel
to somebody. If it's your family, if it's your friends, your children, it's a whatever, a loved one,
get time. Ask God, oh God give me a time, give me an opportunity and when God gives it to you
you take it. You know when I was at the beginning when I was afraid to go soul winning I would say
to God well God can you just give me time like alone time with one person to give him the gospel.
This is early on and God will answer that prayer. God will give me time alone with somebody
and then I'd freeze and I wouldn't give him the gospel. That's failing. It's failing okay. Maybe
you failed. I've known I failed but then we do we just stay there. We just stay there in in in the
position of failure or do we just mourn about it. We just get sad about Lord I failed you.
Please forgive me. You answered my prayer and I didn't do my part of the bargain. I'm sorry God.
Next time I'll do it. Next time. Next time you might fail again. Lord I failed again. Help me
get up one more time. Help me give the gospel to somebody. You know the easiest thing to do
brethren if you if you've never done it just go out as a silent partner. Just on Sunday when you
guys go out just say look I'd like to go just quietly, solemnly. I don't want to open my mouth.
Hey there'll be somebody that can take your soul with you okay. You know ask Christ to help you.
Ask Christ for his confidence and his boldness in your life. Let's pray.
Let's pray.