Overviewing the Letter As a Whole

Transcript

GR 164
1/11/1976
Overviewing the Letter as a Whole
Ephesians 1-6
Gil Rugh

By turning your Bible for the book of Ephesians, we have been in the book of Ephesians for a number of months and it is possible that we consider each little section as a unit that you lose sight of the flow of the book and how these individual pieces flow together. So I would like to just look over to chapters in a survey fashion this morning, and tie it together with the closing verses at the end of Chapter 6 and then some concluding remarks from the Book of Revelations Chapter 2.

So please get to Ephesians in your Bible and if you haven’t been here for the study of Ephesians, so I trust its overview will be helpful to you anyway in getting some idea of the flow of the book that Paul wrote to the believers at Ephesus. Ephesians and the First Chapter where we begin, remember that first three Chapters dealing primarily with our position, we sometimes call it doctrinal. The last three Chapters dealing with the practice that falls out of our position and our position is not understandable or not read to our doctrine, and our practice is not understandable unless you pulls out as our position, they go hand in hand and are tied together.

Now in Chapter 1 as Paul is writing after the first two verses which are introductory and reading, then in verses 3 to 14 Paul is right down to the issue; what is the origin or the calling of the church or the believer? Idea of the church flow through the book so I will be using them interchangeably. The origin of the church or the origin of the believer, the calling of the believer they go hand in hand.

In verses 3 to 14 you have the origin of the calling and Paul gets right down to the groundwork. Why is there such a thing as the church of Jesus Christ? Why are you and I here this morning as believers in Jesus Christ, the First Chapter and down to verse 14? Paul makes very clear it is because of the work of God. Verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with our every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.

We noted as we began this epistle that God has already bestowed upon every believer every blessing that we could ever have. All spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, and the heavenlies is the place where we have been established with Christ as we see at the end of Chapter 1. So there are no further blessings, position the way that I see. Everything that I need, everything that I could ever want has already been given to me. Now the rest of my Christian life I spend growing in appreciation and understanding, an experiential realization of what I already have in Jesus Christ but I need not seek for something else because I have already been given every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. That is my position, that is my positional possession, and out of this will flow all that I do.

Now verse 4 deals with how this all came to be; just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him. God elected us, so how did I come to be blessed with every spiritual blessings in the heavenly. Very simply God chose me for himself, by divine election God elected me; wretched sinner to become heir worthy of son Jesus Christ and connect with that in verse 5; he predestined us to adoption as son. So he called me, he elected me, he chose me and that he predestined me to be a son.

What this does is still about my initial calling I was called by God and not only the beginning but the ending because when he called me, when he elected me he predestined that I would be placed as the son so that my destiny was laid out in my call because everyone who was elected was predestined to be placed as his son. That ties with what Roman 8 talks about when we will be unveiled fully as the sons of God when the creation undergoes redemption at the second advent of Jesus Christ to earth. So all find its basis in God. He elected, he predestined, as the Book of Ephesians starts out with the strongest statement you can want on the sovereignty of God over believers and the destiny and so on.

Now God’s purpose in this and motivation in it is just as direct and blunt, in verse 5 we are told that he predestined us according to the kind intention of his will and we have in the margin the good pleasure and that is what it is, according to the good pleasure of his will he did it. Verse 9 says the same thing according to his good pleasure, verse 11; according to his purpose who works all things after the council of his own will, so here we get God acting absolutely sovereignly and independently of anything that man does. He very simply chose on the basis of himself to choose some for salvation and then he predestined them to replace as sons. The purpose in it all, verse 6; we repeated the praise in his glory, verse 12, the end of the verse; to the praise of his glory, verse 14, end of the verse; to the praise of his glory. He elected a group, predestined them and replaced his son in order that his glory might be exalted among men. So the God’s purpose in dealing with mankind is not to bring some to salvation.

God’s purpose in dealing with mankind is to glorify himself and part of that is accomplished by joining them to himself, with the ultimate purpose -- is to bring glory to himself. The fact and he will be saved is the testimony to God’s glory as well as the fact that those who allow will be the testimony, the glory as well. Now this sometimes gets us often on the wrong foot, all places to start a letter, we start out, write a letter to a Christian friend and write the first page of it on the doctrine of election, you probably raised a controversy and you don’t even leave the rest of your letter, you will be so taken up with this.

Paul sees no problem and I think we should need it, I simply read the word find out what God did and praise him for it, you say maybe that is not fair, maybe that is not right, remember God does what is right, what he does is right. He is the standard everything is measured by him so I find out what he did, I know it is right, he did it, I know it is fair, he did it and he is the standard and I simply praise him for it. So verse 14 then, we talked about the church, we talked about believers, God himself is sovereign from beginning to end, there are believers in Jesus Christ because of the work of God, and the Church of Jesus Christ is built of all true believers because of the work, the sovereign work of God, he takes all the credit to himself and thus all the glory accrues to him.

Now verses 14 to 23 or verses 15 to 23, the end of the Chapter we have the first prayer of Paul, first two prayers and really revolves around the possessions of believers. What are the possessions of the church and we have to be entering into an experiential knowledge of the possessions that we have as believers and Paul -- and praying for them, his prayer in verse 17 is that the Father of glory may give to you a spirit of wisdom and a revelation in the knowledge of him.

This is the full knowledge of him if you have that spirit of revelation and wisdom so that verse 18 your eyes and your eyes of your heart may be enlightened that you may know the hope of his calling, the riches of his glory, of his inheritance in the saints and a surpassing greatness of his power. So he is believer or to be grasping something of our possessions in Christ, to be entering into a full knowledge of the hopes of his calling, the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and the surpassing greatness of his power and this is the same power in verse 20 that exalted Jesus Christ in the heavenlies, that same power is operative in my life and I’m to be entering into a full realization of it, so after following on how that we come to be and emphasizing the sovereignty of God my responsibility is to be entering into a more full understanding of this sovereign God and his work and greater appreciation of his calling, the hope of his calling of the surpassing greatness of his power and the riches of his glory.

Chapter 1 talks about our origin, talks about something of our possession in light of our position. Now as you come to Chapter 2 in Ephesians there is something of the character of the church revealed in the first ten verses, first what the church was by nature. You know, you were dead in trespasses and sins, walked according to the course of the world, the prince and the power of the air, the spirit now working in the sons as disobedience, live formally all of us, all formally lived in the lust of the flesh and dousing the desires of the flesh, of the mind and we are by nature children of raff. We are talking about the church and the character of the church, the church by nature was composed -- was the children of raff we were all in this condition at one time. The only question is are you still in this condition, there is no one who was not or is not in the condition described in the first three verses of Ephesians chapter 2.

Now there is a group of people who have been in this condition, thus in verses 4 to 10 have undergone a change and so talking about our past what we were by nature. Now talking about what we are as believers, the standing we have before God by his grace. Verse 5 even when we were dead in transgressions, God made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenlies in Christ. You know that was why I was in the simple condition that God operated on my behalf, I didn’t gradually get better and cross the line but I was as vile could be and in an infinite change a change occurred. And I came from the last sin, being exalted to the highest position in the heavenlies because it was the work of God’s grace, it had nothing to do with my works and this is emphasized verse 8; where by grace you have been saved through fate that not of yourself which is the gift of God, not as a result of works that no one should boast, very simply and concisely put.

They were positioned before God as a result of his grace, grace being that which is underserved or unmerited has nothing to do with what you have done. You are faithfulness, your works, your religious activity, your baptism, your communion, your giving or any such thing has to do with God’s grace as a result lot of faith in Christ. He totally cleanses us but works then are the result of this, in verse 10; we have been created unto good works. So the works flow out of what we are, so it is simply in the character of the church here, what the church was by nature for redemption and what it is now, its position before God as a result of his grace.

In chapter 2 verse 11 we pick up with this discussion of the unity of the church and that carries over in to chapter 3 verse 13. The unity of the church, so this group now that has been sovereignly elected by God that now has a hope and riches and strength, the power of God operative on its behalf, that was formally immersed in its sin but now has been cleansed by grace, has been brought into a oneness before God, in verses 11 to 22 at the end of Chapter 2, talk about the reconciliation into one body. This group has been cleansed that has been brought into one body Jew and Gentile, now are wed into one body.

Gentiles had no part in the promises of the Old Testament, the Gentiles were not part of the promises of the Old Testament, the Jews were not the evangelistic people of the Old Testament in spite of some teaching on that. The Jews were a closed people, they did not evangelize the word and the Gentiles were not part of the promises given to the Jews. There were some Gentiles who converted to Judaism and became believers, by and large it was just for the Jews. Gentiles had no part but now God has taken Jews and Gentiles and wed them to one.

Note the end of verse 15 making the two into one new man establishing peace that it might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross by it having put to death the enmity, so he is making one new man, one body. You note the unity here, he has reconciled us into one body, one new man, they are not Gentile Christians and Hebrew Christians to Jews, they are just Christians now, believers. I lose my former identify, I don’t carry it over, I realize that I have a background and I may have been a Hebrew or a Jew and become a convert to Christianity, that does not mark me off as distinct from a Gentile who has become a believer. I’m now simply part of the family of God and that one body be it me and this emphasis on the unity flows through the epistle to the Ephesians.

At the end of the chapter he developed this in the context of what the spirit is doing in building us up into the temple of God, we will come back to that later. Chapter 3 still talking about the unity, Paul talks about the revelation of this reconciliation that was given to him in the first 13 verses. How would this matter of reconciling into one body be made known? God chose direct revelation. He spoke to the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Paul told men what God had revealed.

Thus you have in verse 4; by referring to his when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men. Now it has been revealed to his holy Apostles and Prophets in the spirit that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members, fellow partakers in Jesus Christ through the gospel.

So how do I know, God has chosen to reveal himself, that is the only way I could know about the church, and interesting; they have people worshipping in churches in full today who don’t believe in the bible as the inspired word of God. That is the only place you can go to find about revelation from God regarding the church. That God has revealed that he is making all of us one, one body in Jesus Christ and you note it will move through here but there is the emphasis on the oneness as well as the emphasis on the diversity in the oneness.

The chapter ends with the second prayer of Paul, talking about the fullness of the church. This oneness that we have been brought into in Jesus Christ is for the purpose that we might realize to the fullest all that God has for us and Paul prays, he prays that they would be strengthened in verse 16; with power to his spirit in the inner man that Christ made dwell in your hearts through faith to be wounded and grounded in love.

Verse 19; you might know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God, that does not mean that I’m becoming God or becoming deity because I’m a created being I can never become God because God is eternal he has always has been, the necessary attribute of deity; eternality, in the past as well as the future. I’m eternal in that I will never end but I’m not an eternal in the sense that I didn’t have a beginning, God is eternal he never had a beginning and never has an end.

But I’m being filled up to all his fullness, his character, his qualities, how do we manifest to the fullest extent in my life and that is his goal; to bring me now in my practice into conformity with what he has made me in my position perfect, holy, blameless and now by the work of the spirit he is conforming me in my practice to what he made me in my position and I’m being filled up to all the fullness of God. So this one body, this one new man is not being developed by the spirit of God so that it perfectly reflects the character of God, now of course he is certainly involved in this, is the work of the spirit in conforming each individual part of this overall body into conformity with Jesus Christ.

Filled up to all the fullness of God, now that brings us to the end of the first three chapters where the stress is primarily has been on our position in Christ now and wed with these other areas in our conduct as well but it has stressed our position. Chapter 4 then began therefore in light of this position that you have in Christ walked in a manner worthy of the calling, walked in a manner worth of the calling you have received. They have to know something about the calling you received to walk in a manner worthy of it and if you are a believer who doesn’t understand your position in Christ how you are going to walk worthy of the position that you have?

You have to know who you are and what you are before you can live in light of that. However it is important that realizing who you are and what you are positioned before God that it follows through that you live in light of that. It is not enough that I know who I’m or what I’m but I fail to live consistently with so it is not proper to begin a study of the book of Ephesians with chapter 4. Walk therefore in a manner worthy of the calling what calling, what is my position but it is to fun to preach unpractical things because we can drive it home and some people like to emphasize Chapters 4 to 6 and miss Chapters 1 to 3.

However it is not proper to give our emphasis to Chapters 1 to 3 and skip Chapters 4 to 6, either one are an improper balance, out of balance and that is a heresy of its own kind. One is a practice without any foundation, one is a foundation without any building and both are the distortion of the word. My position results in my practice, my practice is a result of my position and they go hand in hand and a study one divorced from the other just is not the follow through in the biblical understanding and the handling of the word.

Chapter 4 then opened up with talking about the unity of the church again. You know we talked about the unity of the church in chapters 2 verse 11 through Chapter 3 verse 13; there we saw the unity as was given in our position, made one new man, now in Chapter 4 we opened up with talking about the unity of the church in the first 16 verses talking about the outworking of it primarily in the practice.

This is my position flowing through into my practice. If I’m one new man in Christ, is it too much to expect that I function as one new man and so we find the first six verses dealing with the seven fold unity of the believers. We are preserving the unity of the spirit and there is one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father. So where is that oneness and I’m manifesting that oneness, being diligent in verse 3 is to preserve the unity of the spirit. Now I don’t make the unity, I’m already unity -- unified, one in the spirit, I’m one new man but I must keep that unity in my practice and in my relationships with other believers.

Now verse 7 to verse 10 he talks about the diversity and this unity, the gifts of the spirit because unity is not sameness, it is diversity within the unity. It is like this body, there is one body, there is one human body but there is diversity in the body. Now the diversity does not work against the unity but that diversity promotes the unity that as each part of the body functions as it was created and intended, the overall body is benefited and prospered and the unity as is developed, I become more of a co-coordinated whole, the purpose of this is the growth in unity in verses 12 to 16, so there is unity and there is diversity in unity, the purpose of the diversity is to promote the unity. Look at the end of verse 16, all these different parts working together causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

The manifestation of the various gifts, the various parts of the body are for the purpose of developing the body, edifying it, building it up and so as the body is built up the unity ought to be more manifest. We use the analogy of a new born baby that does not yet have its parts in a co-coordinated manner, the hands move, the eyes are not co-coordinated, the body just does not function or co-coordinated yet, there is a unity there, a basic unity but that unity is not yet realized in its experience and practice but as that baby develops it is to become more and more unified in its functioning as well as in its creation.

Now if it does not, it is an indication there is something wrong, if I have a disease that attacks the nervous system or the muscular system of my body my body; my body ceases to function in a co-coordinated fashion and that indicates there is a problem that needs to be dealt with. And when a body of believers, and believers; speaking of the church generally and then of course obviously in local bodies cease to function as a unified body it indicates that somewhere there is a breakdown, there is only one head Jesus Christ, when I cease to function in submission to the head naturally there is going to be disharmony in the body and disunity but the purpose is that the unity that we have in Christ, that oneness be expressed in our practice in our relationships with one another.

Verse 17 of Chapter 4 through verse 14 of Chapter 5 , we have the life of a church talked about and the conduct of a church generally in its various ways and practices. Verse 17 -- verses 17 to verse 19 says that the church’s life is not to be lived as the Gentiles, the church and the individual believers composing the church but not to be lived as the Gentiles because the Gentiles live in darkness divorced from God having no knowledge or no awareness of him. So understanding my position I realize I can no longer live like the unbeliever, so my life begins to change. The things I do, the things I say, the things I think about, the people I enjoy there is a radical change coming about and I’m becoming more and more conforming to what I’m positionally, I don’t live as the Gentiles any longer. Verses 20 to 24; I being renewed in the spirit, verse 23; you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, we are talking about the work of the Holy Spirit and making the spirit of my mind renewed.

Mind is the controlling factor of my body. It is now being made a new mind, dominated by the Holy Spirit. So the spirit of my mind is now under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God and I’m being made a new creature. In verses 25 to 32 this means I’m not aggrieved the Holy Spirit, looking up at some of these key phrases verse 30, I aggrieved the Holy Spirit so I don’t walk as the Gentiles but I walk as one being renewed in the spirit of my mind which is a way of not grieving the Holy Spirit. The spirit is grieved, caused pain and anguish when I cease to function in a way that is harmonious with my position in Christ. I’m going contrary to God’s purpose in my life to the work of the spirit through me and thus he is grieved. Chapter 5 through the first 14 verses; revolve around in the life of a church imitating God, just pick that up from verse 1; therefore the imitators of God mimic God and in his qualities in his character, pattern your life after God, mimic him, be just like him.

Now again we are talking about those who have a position in Christ because it is almost sacrilegious to go and tell a man on the street you have to pattern your life after God, as though he had any ability or the power to do such a thing. The only reason the command can be given to be imitating God is because the Holy Spirit of God has established in the heavenlies with Jesus Christ and now the spirit work is the conforming in my practice to what I’m in my position which is perfectly conformed to the character of Jesus Christ and thus I can imitate God how; by submitting myself to the spirit, by allowing my life to be conformed to him because his holiness is seen in my life, that his love the characteristic of my life, that his peace be part of my life, that his joy and so on, true to the spirit as they manifest in the life of a believer.

Now we come to the Chapter 5 in verse 15 I just called up the filling of the church and again this all four together were just to break it down for our own help, the filling of the church, picked that up from verse 18; be filled with the spirit. In verses 15 to 21, we talked about this conforming to spirit, he is to be controlling me and then picking up with verse 22, we talk about the evidences of the control of the spirit and when a wife as a believer in Jesus Christ is functioning in a submissive way to her husband and trust in what she does and what she thinks and so on, she is manifesting spirit into controlling her life, when a husband is loving his wife with that pure unselfish love that Christ had for the church, he is manifesting with the spirit of God who is in control of his life.

These are natural for the flesh that a wife should be submissive to her husband that her husband ought to have that pure unselfish love for his wife. That is a work of the spirit in the life of a woman, in the life of a man. Chapter 6; when a child is being obedient to his parents, it is an evidence of the spirits working his life because one of the basic characteristics of the flesh is rebellion and thus a child manifest his submission to the spirit by obedience and a slave in verse 6 does the same thing. Verse 5 and falling through verse 9; so we as believers, the church generally is to be functioning in submission to the spirit of God and this submission to the spirit will manifest itself in submission in a proper way and in the proper functioning within the body itself.

The last section, the section we just concluded studying in verses 10 to 20 talk about the conflict of the church that in our practice and are living out of the position; we have an enemy arrayed against us that enemy, the forces of the spirit world are arrayed under the devil, under the Devil and his followers, on a state of perpetual rebellion against God. The enmity against God is unceasing day and night and now we have been established with Jesus Christ in the heavenlies as the children of God, we too have become the arch enemies of the Devil and he has arrayed his forces against us, unfailing armor has been provided for us as believers and we noted this armor has to do with our practice where we saw the various pieces of armor that are related to the practice of a believer as he functions in submission to the spirit which makes us invulnerable to the mighty power of the Devil.

Thus we flow through the Book of Ephesians talking about our practice, talking about our position, talking about our position and our practice, you cannot have one without the other and you have to understand your position in Christ, you have to rejoice in that, never cease the glory and that Jesus Christ has established you in the heavens in his Son Jesus Christ by simply placing your faith in him.

But you ought to realize that the glorious position is to manifest itself in your conduct in every way, is to pervade my life, to preach about a law but not to manifest it is heresy. To preach about unity and not manifest it becomes heresy because it becomes an emphasis of one portion of the word and the exclusion of another. And heresy is simply an improper emphasis, it is a distorted emphasis, it is emphasizing something to the exclusion of another. I can emphasize one portion of the word to the exclusion of another and as I’m not true to the word and I’m functioning in a heretical fashion.

As the book closes we noted Paul’s comments about Tychicus last week in verses 23 and 24. Peace to the brother and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Begins where -- he leaves off where he began really, talking about peace, this is peace to the brethren, that inner peace that only God can give and it is just for the brethren, it is just for God’s children and the word has a semblance of peace, the problem with the world’s peace is that it is not lasting.

It is a peace conditioned by circumstances and situations; it is not a peace that is unshakeable and unmovable. God gives peace to the brethren and even here as Paul closes; he notes that unity to the brethren and brethren are not to be divided. And the Old Testament speaks about those who saw this unity among the brethren, God hates it and here peace to the brethren and how do we treat each individual who believes on the inside and not manifest itself in our character on the outside. Because you don’t know where lack of peace comes from, well James says it comes from inner turmoil, not the way of conflicts among believers because we as believers are not enjoying the peace of God in our daily functioning as believers. And that restlessness and that turmoil comes out in our dealings with other believers, and thus we don’t have peace in our practice with one another because we are not enjoying the peace of God as he intends it.

Love with faith and love and faith are joined in Chapter 1 verse 15 as well, faith in Christ and love for other believers and here Paul joins love with faith again. Can we rest upon God, of course his love is produced by the spirit and with that reliance upon him that produces this love and if I’m not manifesting love as I should it is an indication there is a breakdown in my faith, I have ceased to rest upon him because he produces that love. So it is not somebody else’s fault because love isn’t produced from the outside in, it is produced from the inside out, love as I’m resting in faith upon him he will produce that love, so if I don’t have love for the brethren and love for Jesus Christ as I should, it is an indication that I’m not resting as I should and that he is not free to produce his qualities in my life as he desires.

The stress on the deity here as Christ since he is the source of peace and love along with his Father and again this prevails in the Bible; the deity of Jesus Christ, till that peace and love coming from God, the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ you have read the two together. You have the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, three distinct persons all partaking of the essence and nature of deity. So they are all God but they are distinct in their persons, this Father, Son and Holy Spirit; they have all partaken the same essence or nature which makes them deity, but they are distinct persons, to equal and through eternal. Paul concludes grace be with those who love our Lord Jesus Christ, for they love incorruptible, grace has been the foundation of everything that Paul has said.

We are not talking about the grace of God that brings salvation, we have read that grace by grace are you saved in Ephesians 289. But here his desire is that the believers be experiencing the grace of God and it is always God’s unmerited favor continually being poured out upon them so that they might function as God intends and that is the Rome in which we live, we are saved by grace and live by grace. We are saved by grace and live by works, we are saved by grace and live by grace and my works fall out of the grace of God because I’m being conformed in the character of Christ, what is it? It is the spirit of God producing God’s character in my life and nothing to do with my works, all I’m doing is submitting to him.

The character of God is the work of the spirit; I can’t produce the character of God, only God can produce his character. Paul desires that the believers be experiencing God’s grace every day in all their situation. He identifies here with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in a love incorruptible. It is very interesting that the spirit of God motivated Paul to end on this note; love incorruptible, loving Christ with an incorruptible love means that love that does not decay, the love that does not fail. Most of us at one time or another went through a stage what we call puppy love, we see it in your children where they are madly in love with other sixth grader or whatever but that is not the type of love we are talking about, that is a fading type of love.

You are not afraid they are going to run off and get married tomorrow, some as they get older experience this type of love or it is maybe their determining factor though we see it as a fading type of love, we are not talking about that type of love. My love for Jesus Christ ought to be just the opposite, it ought to be a growing and increasing love, I would be more in love with him today than I was last week.

Paul ends this note so strongly doctrinal, so strongly tied to our position in Christ with an emphasis on loving him with an unfading, unfailing love, why? What is the whole purpose of considering my position, what is the whole purpose of considering the word of God? It is to know him better to love him more that becomes a subtle track that I study the word so that I might know more about the word. I study what I’m in Christ so that I may know more about what I’m in Christ. And instead of becoming more and more in love with him, I’m being lifted up more and more in pride because of all I’m getting to know about him, but I don’t know him very well. You know just like we know a lot of facts about the President of the United States, but most of us here don’t know him personally, and many of us believers are so intent on getting some facts down by looking how to master the Book of Ephesians.

Well I have been through the Greek, I have been through the English and all, I just know the book of Ephesians. Am I not wonderful, I wouldn’t express that but that is often what I’m thinking of and I get caught up with the wrong thing, I failed in life and I have been more in love with him now than when I started the study of this book why, this book was a revelation of him. The more I know about him, the more I ought to love him, well this is so crucial because we are going to end our study of Ephesians where we began it that is in Revelation Chapter 2.

We will turn over there, just to remind you, Revelation and the second Chapter, as you are in Revelation Chapter 2, just listen to as I read these words of Paul to the leaders, the elders of the church at Ephesus when he visited them in Miletus; be on your guard for your selves and all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, the sheep of the church of God which he purchased with his own blood, after my departure savage wolves will come in not sparing the flock.

Verse 32; and now I commend you to God to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. Now as in Acts Chapter 20, a warning about doctrinal drifting and attacks, now to close the Book of Ephesians, we talked about God’s grace not only be manifest but enable them to stand against the attacks of doctrinaire, that God’s grace being manifest to those who love Jesus Christ with an incorruptible love and the Ephesian elders and the Ephesian church emphasized the one to the exclusion of the other.

Thus in Revelation Chapter 2 we have the commendation from Christ to this church in verse 2; and I know your deed, your toil, your perseverance, you cannot endure evil men, you put to test false Apostles and find them to be false. You have perseverance and have endured for my namesake and have not grown weary. We have a church that is unmovable doctrinally and stood for the word unfailingly, they don’t tolerate false preachers, they have got good sound doctrine and yet the heir is so great that Jesus is about to snuff out this church unless there is a change and that is brought out in verse 4; but I have this against you that you have left your first love, remember therefore from where you have born, repent and do the deeds at first because I’m coming to you and will remove your lambs, stand out of its place unless you repent, that this you do have that you hate the deeds of the deeds of Nicolaitans which I also hate.

You note that stress on the doctrinal purity; I hate them that hates you with a perfect nature as David said, the problem was that it wasn’t balanced with; I love you with a perfect love. It is not enough to hate the enemies of the Lord with a perfect hatred, but you almost must love him also with a perfect love, and the church at Ephesus was so taken up with this doctrine of correctness that they lost sight of the purpose of doctrine of correctness. To reveal Jesus Christ more fully and all his glory so that they might love him more. What did Jesus say? I don’t need your doctrine of correctness without your unfailing love and devotion.

So in spite of these good things I have to say about how hard you are going at by your diligence in the battle, your purity of doctrine, I’m going to remove your candlestick unless you repent. And you note how he makes the correction that the Ephesians could have done some thirty years after they read the Apostle Paul’s letter, repent, change your mind and do what you did first. Go back to where you loved me foremost then you study the word to know me better because you loved me so much that before the study of the word became an intellectual pursuit, so that you could discuss these great issues.

Go back to where you were, you may have to go all the way back to the early days of the conversion when all you could think of was Jesus Christ and how wonderful he was and somewhere along the line we get off the track and in our study of the Book of Ephesians we ought to be rejoicing in our position, we have to be glorying in the practice that pulls out of our position but through it all we are to be falling more and more in love with Jesus Christ, and he ought to be the one who is the object of our attention and our affection. So as I study this word it saturates me with him and the more I’m saturated with him, the more I love him.

We have been considering believers this morning and who are actually not part of this body, we have been talking about. Perhaps you are now part of this one new man that God has made, it’s very simple you headed with us whereby grace you are saved few things and not by works, it’s by grace. If you come to the point in your life where you recognize your sin that Jesus Christ died for you and on that you just placed your faith in him. If so at that instant in time you are born into his family, if that hasn’t happened it can happen this morning and you can be part of that glorious body that we have been talking about this morning.

Let us pray together. My Father again, we praise you for your love. Lord, we thank you for the position that is ours in Jesus Christ that we have been exalted with him in the heavenlies. Lord for the privilege of having the spirit conform us in our practice so what you have made us in our position. We pray that we might examine ourselves very closely, we will examine our position, we might examine our practice to see that there is no inconsistency. Lord pray that # as we study what the word says about our position, as we study what the word says about our conduct, that we might be falling more and more in love with Jesus Christ. We might see the word as the revelation of him, we might be growing in our full knowledge and understanding of his person and work, we might love him more day by day and guard us from the error that the Ephesians fell into and were unable to correct, or that we should be taken up with the doctrine of purity of this body and lose sight of the obligation of this body to be loving Jesus Christ for that he might always be our first love, so we pray in his name, Amen.