Ephesians

[0:00] Thank you.

[0:30] Thank you.

[1:00] Thank you.

[1:30] Thank you.

[2:00] Thank you.

[2:30] Thank you.

[3:00] Thank you.

[3:30] Thank you.

[4:00] Thank you. Thank you.

[4:34] Thank you. Thank you.

[5:34] Thank you.

[6:34] Thank you.

[7:34] Thank you.

[8:34] Thank you.

[9:06] Thank you. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[9:18] Thank you.

[9:50] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[10:02] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[10:14] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. if he sends you into hospital that is a blessing if he sends you into a place wherein you may be persecuted for his name's sake that is a blessing because the will of God in its immutability and its faithfulness concerning his people will indeed exercise that inscrutable care over them that they shall suffer no loss but by all these things be enriched and enriched more and more in the riches of that grace which is in Christ Jesus we pointed out this morning that word rich how that it occurs so frequently we believe within this epistle and how that in fact with the riches of his grace and of his glory is the according to the eternal purpose of him it is according to the will of God concerning you oh we do not realize and Paul is telling us this or rather not Paul but the Holy Spirit through Paul how little we praise the tremendous privilege the tremendous privilege that God has bestowed upon us in that wherein he has brought us into the position of sainthood separated unto himself and separated in the evidence of the exercise of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ where there is no exercise of faith in him there is no evidence that you have been separated by God you hear people say sometimes

[12:43] I'm no saint oh my dear hearer if you're a believer you're a saint and if you are not a saint then you're an unbeliever no we are not to start away from that word because of that which man has attached to it when this letter was written you know in the original manuscript from which this translation the authorised version has been taken in and to them in ethicists it doesn't appear it is like an open secular letter it was to be saturated amongst the churches to whom he wrote and therefore there was a blank left that the very churches might indeed have their name inserted it is not essential for us to have the repetition of it again and again even in that wherein it may have been circulated through Galatia or Curranc or anywhere else here is that wherein its destination is epicent what does it all mean if it is a secular letter then it isn't only designating a certain number of people that may be in the church of ethicist it is broader it widens off it embraces all the believers in Jesus Christ and it declares that they are all saints yes do you realize what you are or am I as it were going to turn the back on it and say no I'm no saint

[14:53] I say don't condemn yourself utterly and willingly what it contains within this book is for the saints and if you say that you are no saint then you are stealing if you are taking from this blessed book some of those glorious blessings and promises that God has given unto us in and through it know it to the saints that these things are written and let us for a moment then look at that name by which they are the saints what is the saints well in the first place the language used here is in the language of discrimination there is the discriminating between one person and another either a saint or an unbeliever now what have made you to this what have brought you into that position wherein though you can look back to those seasons wherein your heart and your will and your luck were entirely in the world now you feel utterly a strange promise well what is the answer well let's get you tell us what the answer is to it why do we why do we declare us

[16:39] I can't quite yes here it is now therefore he says we are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and with the household of God you belong to the family you have a father you are a fellow citizen with the saints how did you come together now I'm going to put it very simply you remember the prodigal son the parable that our lord so taught to instruct us relative unto his reception by the father you see him a great way off you see him indulging himself in everything that relates unto self he's living for self the only idol that he has the only god that he knows is self and unto self he panders he gives unto it everything that it wants for everything that it wants until the time that the famine came now remember this you can have plenty around you in the world but if you haven't the purchasing power to possess it so far as you are concerned you're in a state of famine you're in a state of need and in a state of want yes the prodigal boy came into that state he had left he had lost everything lost his character lost his self respect lost all that was related unto the means of his support and so he hires himself out unto a citizen of that country and those to feed the swine

[18:59] God knows how to make the difference I have been speaking about the will of God previously now see it here as it is brought out therefore if he had been able to obtain employment elsewhere he would have done so wouldn't he he would have stayed in the place where he was and he would have sought from his employment still to reap that which was conducive unto the desires of his flesh but the doors were shut he couldn't find anybody as it were to take him on and all he could go is to go and feed the swine glad as it were to eat the very hut that the swine didn't eat ah here is a hunger here is a yearning what is brought home to him it is a remembrance it is a bringing to mind yes it is the father's house he begins to envy them that were in that house and he by his own foolishness had indeed thrown it and all away and he rejected are you like him can you look back to the season when though everything as it were was set before you you said

[20:51] I don't want it I only want my own will I only want to do what I want to do oh yes you take to the house of God and all the time you were in the house of God you're watched were outside thinking about what you're going to do on Monday morning you saw and all the rest of it no worshipping you saw no glory here to God you were a Pharaoh and you were in a state of famine because there came a time when you began to feel a hunger for the things of God what has made the difference why the man's inability so to find for himself that which he would have had so to ponder unto his own lust and his own desire what is the result he says I will arise and I will go unto my father he would confess his sin my friend that is a saint he believed he believed that there was in his father's house bread enough to spare and where there is a living faith there is a movement and where there is a movement there is a coming and in the coming there is a hope and it is unto such that the father comes and he embraces them there is no good you now trying to say let me be as one of thy higher servants he is not going to listen to it because it isn't true you are one of his saints one who is set apart unto him because you are one of his children yes what it may be to differ you know how in the old testament in regard to the tabernacle there were various vessels in connection with the service of the lord that were to be put on one side they were to be holy unto the lord in other words they were for the lord and the lord alone and now paul is raising them to the king and he said you have been put on one side you have been made to differ from others and why have you been put on one side but because you are a children thus for unto the lord the lord owes you i can't understand people when they seem to think as well the lord looks upon them one day with favor and the next day with this favor i know that the lord will chasten you for your sin if you are a child of his but my friend it's the chastening of love it's the chastening of divine favor oh it is wrought is against them of whom we read in the next chapter the children of disobedience the children of wrath but you who have been made to differ oh he have you with you and with sons and daughters why because he set you apart unto himself is like he said

[24:34] I believe it was in connection with whole seer where he was bitten so to take a woman unto himself and he was bitten to say thou shalt be for me and not for another lost so and another Did I hear somebody say, ah sir, you don't know my past history.

[25:23] So there was a time when I was set apart unto the Lord in that wherein I realized it in that in which his love was shed abroad in my heart.

[25:36] But you don't know how I've sinned since that day. How I've wandered. How I've backslidden. How I've gone astray.

[25:50] Don't go on. Don't tell me anything more. We all know our own hearts. We all know what we are by nature. There's no need to tell us that. If the Lord is teaching us, he'll teach us well what we are without us going, as it were, and confessing it in morbid language unto our fellow men.

[26:11] No. He'll have us to go to himself and to confess it. But here make us aware of this, that having set us apart for himself, he is not going to let thee belong to another.

[26:29] Satan's not going to have you. The world's not going to have you. That wherein you live for yourself at one time is not going to have you. No.

[26:40] The Lord comes. And what does he say unto your heart? Return. Ye backsliding children.

[26:53] You know, when he speaks that word unto your heart, you'll return. That's a prodigal boy, don't you? You can't keep away from him.

[27:05] Oh, what a blessed attitude it is that you are set apart when you have to say, I can't keep away from him. I have to go to him. Why, I have to tell him about all those things that come into my life.

[27:18] And just a little while ago we were talking together about the little things being committed unto him.

[27:29] Why, my friend, if I was to tell you some of the little things that I had to commit unto you, unto him, you, I'm sure, would laugh. You would laugh at me.

[27:39] The things that were so simple. Why, those little things that I couldn't mention to anybody else, I had to take to the Lord.

[27:53] And you know, the Lord has heard me. And the Lord has remembered me for good. And why? Because he has set thee apart unto himself.

[28:09] And therefore he will have you to come to him and to bring everything to him and to defend upon him utterly and entirely. Because in all this there is his workmanship being displayed concerning you.

[28:25] We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Wherein he hath the God ordained or appointed that we should walk in them.

[28:39] Can you explain everything in your life as to why you go to him as you do? Oh, you go through the day and at times there is an uplifting of your heart.

[28:52] And to him it isn't an effort of your own. It isn't something that comes into your mind and you say, Ah, now I'll look up unto the Lord.

[29:03] I'll ask him about this. No, you find the signs that your heart is engaged with the Lord. There is a sweetness of communion.

[29:16] It tricks you and him. In other words, silently. There is often you were spoken. You are committing yourself unto the Lord.

[29:27] You are simply looking to him. You feel your dependence upon him. You want his blessing. And everything that you do, why will you go out for a walk?

[29:39] You ask the Lord's blessing upon it to keep you and to preserve you from all evil. Yes, some of us is as simple as that. That we have to ask the Lord to be with us in all our goings out and our comings in.

[29:51] My friend, we can't keep away from him. It isn't because of what is in my nature. Because my nature is very different. But there is that compelling influence, that attractive, drawing love of his, that I can't keep away from him.

[30:09] Because I know I've got a father and I've got a friend. And I've got one to whom I can commit everything. Oh, I love every night, before my eyes close each week, to be able to say, I know whom I have believed.

[30:28] And I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that, which I have committed unto him, against that day.

[30:41] If there were me, for a moment, as I just relate, one experience, another forgotten experience that I had, I remember when I was agonizing upon my bed on one occasion, when everything seemed to be so helpless and hopeless, when all my circumstances seemed, as it were, to be turned upside down and I didn't know what to do or where to go, everything seemed so dark.

[31:12] What happened? In a moment, there was a fire that was brought into my spirit. I felt so utterly helpless and hopeless that there was only one thing that I could do, and that was to fall upon the everlasting arms.

[31:36] And I did. I literally turned over in my bed and I, as it was, felt that everything, the burden, everything was gone.

[31:46] And that I was rested on the everlasting arms. Set apart unto him so.

[32:00] Holy, glorious thing, he says, Paul, I'm writing to you because you were set apart. I want you, he says, to realize them. I want you to rejoice in them.

[32:13] I want you to know more and more and more and more of the exceeding riches of his grace. Oh, you've got that you're restricted view. It is as though he's selling them.

[32:24] I know you've got love to him. I know you've got faith in him. But oh, how little you know of him in all that wonderful sufficiency, sensibility, and wholeness that is in himself before sinners like you.

[32:40] Oh, he would have thee to know more and more of these things. Is he speaking to you this afternoon? Is he telling you?

[32:53] Ah, poor child. True, you have known my goodness. You have known my mercy. You have tasted of my love.

[33:05] There are times when you walk through this pilgrimage down here when you wonder. You are inclined to give over to doubt and to fear.

[33:19] But did Jesus once upon thee shine? Then Jesus is forever mine. Can he have brought me but far at length to put me to shame?

[33:33] No, blessed be his name. Set apart unto himself his cities according to his will, the will of God. Then he appeased me and he preserved me unto his heavenly kingdom.

[33:47] And in the process, as it is included in the word saint, there will be the work of sanctification. Here, sanctification.

[34:01] Oh, yes. Here, make me to know where the dross is. Here, make me to know what a poor, weak, sinful creature you are.

[34:12] Here, make me to know what a poor, weak, sinful creature you are. You know, the man who is possessed with much grace, yea, I go further, I will say, who has the most grace, is the one who will tell you, if you listen to his inward reasons, he will tell you that he's one of the greatest sinners that lives.

[34:36] What is it that makes the man talk like that? It is that wherein there is a spirit of holiness within his heart.

[34:48] And that spirit of holiness in drowning him reveals and makes known to him the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Why, some of you, when you were first brought to the Lord, always have your sorcery sinners, shouldn't you?

[35:04] Don't you think that you are a greater sinner than ever this afternoon? You know, if you're set apart for the Lord and sent you by, for the must of you, that is going to be the effect in your own soul.

[35:21] You're going to know more of what you are. Because he's going to have all the honor, he's going to have all the glory, he's going to have all the praise, and he's going to get it from you.

[35:37] And the more you go down in your estimation, the more you're going to learn the language of John the Baptist when he said, he must influence, but I must deflate.

[35:51] Yes, it is to the saints and the faithful in Christ Jesus. Saints differing, saints, knowing the fact that they're doing, the cutting off from that which was once their own environment.

[36:15] Listen, you're happy for them, these are the saints, martyrs, you happy for them, who were dead in test cases and sins, where in vain fast ye walked according to the cross of this world.

[36:33] You thought of his passion, but the world did you do. You went along with it. And you didn't know that it was according to the prince of the power of the air, that Satan was the one who was so leading you on to destruction, that it was Satan who was indeed the power that so watched in the children of disobedience.

[36:59] He well knows those corruptions within my flesh, and he knows well how to play upon them. And I'm sure he does in yours.

[37:12] Now I'm going to break him, I have to speak of those things which I have handled case to himself. Don't you think Satan often stumps and he blames you?

[37:26] He knows your weakness. He knows where to touch you. He knows how, as it were, to light the flame within your fallen nature.

[37:43] But you know that one thing, that you are set apart and to guard your conscience on it, before you want, you were led blindly, you were led indifferently, as it is over you now.

[38:01] You realize from whence these things come, why you have said it, why, what an awful thought has come into my mind. Where did it come from? I'm sure it didn't come as it were out of my soul.

[38:13] Oh, it's come as though somebody has been shooting arrows at me. You won't leave me. Yes, Satan has been busy, very busy with you. And then what have you done?

[38:30] Have you given in to the devil? Had the temptation proved too strong for you? Or have you said, Satan, Satan, why are you so busy with me?

[38:50] Why are you trying me like this? But these things which I hate can detect, why do you keep bringing them into my mind?

[39:03] Well, amongst all the other answers that might be given, I'm going to give you one, because you're set apart unto the Lord, and he knows it. And as long as he convects you in this life, he adjoes it.

[39:18] He did it to the end of my Savior's life when he hung upon that cross. And my friends, if you are indeed in the mystical body of Christ, he adjoes it to you.

[39:34] But be sure of this, you are never triumphed. He'll never get the victory over you. And I'll tell you one clear way whereby you may be assured of getting the victory over him.

[39:48] I proved that one thing the devil didn't like, and that's for you to remind him of the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the blood which cleanses from all sins.

[40:04] He'll never point you to the blood. to try to get you away from the cross. But you, poor sinner, oh yes, there's only one place for you.

[40:16] Other refuse, have you none? Hang your hopeless soul on him? And I think of those words too because they are expressive in my own soul.

[40:27] though Christ got all I want more than all in thee I find. Did you say amen?

[40:42] And my friend, the glorious truths that are contained in this chapter, they are to thee because you are one that is set apart by the will of God unto himself.

[41:00] You are a saint. Yes, and his design is to bring thee holy and blameless in that day before himself in love.

[41:11] the work of sanctification will go on until this poor body is laid in the grave. Then, listen to God, that diabolical work of Satan will be finished even though no more.

[41:31] And through the death of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I have done the door open whereby my spirit can indeed enter into the very priesthood of heaven.

[41:46] Glorify. Set apart to him forever more yes, I hear you say it, one or two of you.

[42:04] Ah, you say, that's what I want. That's what I want. I want to be his. I want to belong to him. I do want to be with him to all eternity.

[42:18] That is your calling. calling unto the inheritance. That is what you are going to enter into. That is the assured destination for your soul.

[42:32] God, because we are a saint set apart unto his soul. that is the first time. But in closing this afternoon, although there is so much else that might be indeed spoken of from the text, let me remind you of what goes with saint, and that is saint.

[42:57] the first time of the Christ Jesus, there is an exercise in your soul.

[43:10] If you are a saint, it is the exercise of faith. The object of that faith is the Lord Jesus Christ.

[43:21] if he is the object of thy faith, then thou shalt indeed apprehend and know those things for which he has apprehended you.

[43:38] Well, in the paper subject, I would that I could go on. These blessed rules are not only the time, you know, therefore eternity.

[43:55] I've had a chance of it. I hope you have. They're real. They are vital. And they outweigh every other consideration in life.

[44:09] Oh, we don't then want to, as it were, we don't want to get rid. We don't want everything to be comfortable. All we want is that which is according to the will of God and we're satisfied with that because all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the good according to his purpose.

[44:33] You see your calling, brethren? Amen. away.

[44:52] They're young. They're hurt.

[45:02] Thank you.

[45:32] Thank you.

[46:02] Thank you. Thank you.

[47:02] Thank you. Thank you.

[48:02] Thank you. Thank you.

[49:02] Thank you. Thank you.

[49:34] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[49:48] May the grace, the love, and the communion of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost be with us all now and evermore.

[50:35] Amen. Amen.