Welcome to Mill Creek Church in Belleville, Texas, where our worship service is in progress. Today, Pastor Monty Byrd continues with his sermon series on the book of Ephesians. And now, Pastor Byrd. Join me in prayer, please. Father, as we approach your word this morning and Paul's letter to the Ephesians, I just pray that you'd continue to open our eyes to your wonderful truth found in this letter. I pray, Lord, that we would appreciate the mystery that Paul describes in our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name, amen. Well today we pick up where we left off last week in the third chapter of Ephesians. Our focal verse has been 8 through 13 is the passage that we've been looking at. Let me go ahead and read that and then I'll do a quick review and then we'll get into the specific verses for this morning. In Ephesians 3 verse 8 it begins by saying, This grace was given to me, the least of all the saints. to proclaim to the Gentiles the incalculable riches of Christ, and to shed light for all about the administration of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things. This is so that God's multifaceted wisdom may now be known throughout the church to the elders and authorities in the heavens. This is according to His eternal purpose accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In Him we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. So then I ask you not to be discouraged over my afflictions on your behalf, for they are your glory." Last week in verse 8, we discuss the placement of Paul in his ministry. And if you recall, in that placement, Paul describes it as his grace. There you see it in verse eight, the grace was given to me. In other words, it was his gift. It wasn't drudgery, it was a gift. And you and I, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, as he has equipped us all with a spiritual gift, we should all look at the exercise of that gift in our life with Christ as a grace, as a gift. It should be something of joy. Now, whenever God gives a gift, he gives provision for that gift. If you look back at verse eight again, this grace was given to me, the least of all the saints to proclaim. That's his gift, to proclaim. And anytime God has given you a gift, he equips you. He equips you with that gift. This last Sunday after church, I had a trip to Chicago and I had all the stuff laid out, got home from church, packed my bags and got up to Chicago. My son Caleb was with me, got in my hotel room. I opened up my bags. I had everything packed except the dress shirts I needed. I called Caleb frantically on the phone. He said, well, dad, I packed an extra shirt. Needless to say, I was not equipped. God equips every single one of us to exercise the gift that he has given us. He has given us provision. And so Paul's ministry, his grace was to proclaim. And in fact, if you look at first Corinthians chapter two, verse one, Paul talks about the provision in exercising his gift. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 1 says, when I came to you, brothers and sisters, announcing the mystery of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling. My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with the demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not be based on human wisdom, but on God's power." If you look at what Paul is saying here to the Corinthians, He is saying that he has been equipped. He's only preaching the message of Christ. He's not preaching human wisdom. And there at the end of verse four, he said, but with the demonstration of the Spirit's power. In other words, he's relying on the power of God for his ministry. That shouldn't be excluded just for Paul. That should be all of us. And in fact, too many times people will not exercise the gift in which God has given them because they want to work it out in their mind in human logic. And I will tell you that if you are going to exercise the gift in which God has given you, you are going to have to step out in faith And in that step of faith, allow God to work through you so that you won't be able to claim any credit. You'll give that power and the joy of that ministry at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. God equips us. He equipped Paul. He gave him provision. And that ministry was to proclaim. So we've looked at placement, we've looked at provision, what's the point of his ministry? He tells us there in verse eight and nine, back in the third chapter of Ephesians. He says, to proclaim to the Gentiles the incalculable riches of Christ. and there in verse nine, to shed light for all about the administration of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things. Now, if you look at verse eight and nine, you'll see that there are two things there. to proclaim to the Gentiles the incalculable riches of Christ and to shed light for all about the administration of the mystery. In other words, the administration, his plan, his plan. So Paul is saying that he is to proclaim the person in the plan of Christ, the person in the plan of Christ. Now let's first talk about the person of Christ in which Paul describes as incalculable riches. And as I was thinking about that, incalculable riches of the Lord Jesus Christ. As humans, we compare, don't we? We do it with everything. We do it when we go out to eat. If you go out to eat to a new restaurant, you go, well, it was good, but I like this particular restaurant. Or if you're car shopping, we compare, don't we? I went and looked at this particular brand, now I'm gonna go look at that particular brand. We're comparative people. And when I was thinking about this, the incalculable riches of Christ, what would you compare that to? And I think Solomon does a really good job of that in Ecclesiastes 2 as he tells us how to gauge the riches of the world. You know, you and I have limited means, don't we? There's a limit on what we can spend money on, whatever we desire to spend money on. There is a limit. Everybody has a limit. Not so with Solomon. And when you look at the second chapter of Ecclesiastes, he tells us that he pursued all of the riches of the world. And if you look at the second chapter, we'll do a brief survey But in Ecclesiastes chapter two, verse two, he said, I said to myself, go ahead, I will test you with pleasure. Enjoy what is good. He had unlimited resources. How did that turn out? It says, but it turned out to be futile. Verse two, he said, I said, about laughter, it is madness. And about pleasure, what does it accomplish? In verse four, he said, I increased my achievements. And then he goes on and he talks about all of the things that he spent money on in his building programs. And in verse 10, he said, all that my eyes desired, I did not deny them. I did not refuse myself in any pleasure, for I took pleasure in all my struggles. This was my reward for all my struggles. When I considered all that I had accomplished and what I had labored to achieve, I found everything to be futile in a pursuit of the wind." That's everybody that experiences life. People say, if I could just acquire this or that, then I will find happiness. And at the end, you find that it was futile, vanity. That's the riches of this world. And here Paul is describing Christ as incalculable riches. Later on in the same chapter, in chapter 3 as we get to my favorite prayer in the New Testament, in verse 17 he says, I pray that you being rooted and firmly established in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God's love and to know Christ's love that surpasses knowledge, that surpasses knowledge. In other words, we can't comprehend the person of Jesus Christ will never get satisfied And we should never be satisfied in our knowledge of Christ. And Paul is saying, I am to proclaim the incalculable riches of Christ. If you think about when he wrote this and when he wrote the next letter to the Philippian church, an older man at this point. And in Philippians 3 in verse 10, he says, my goal is to know him. He didn't say my goal was to know him. He wrote that in the present tense. My goal is to know Him in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead. The goal is to know Christ. And if you think that your salvation is just about a ticket to heaven, I will tell you that you're sorely mistaken because the purpose of your salvation is to know Jesus Christ. It's to have a relationship with him. All throughout history, as you look through the Old Testament and the New Testament, the story of God is that he wants a relationship with his people. A relationship. It's rather self-indulgent, don't you think? If you just limit your view of salvation of, oh, yes, Christ died for me so that I can escape the flames of hell. He died so that you can escape the flames of hell so that you can have an eternal relationship with Him. And we should be pursuing the person of Jesus Christ. Our salvation isn't just an idea. It's not a theory. Our salvation lies within the person of Jesus Christ who is alive right now at this very moment at the right hand of the Father. He shed his blood so that you might have a relationship with him. And just as Paul stated to the Philippians, my goal is to know him, present tense. It should be our goal too. Our goal is to know the person of Jesus Christ. It made me think of that great song that Steve Green sang, I want to know him more. I want to know him more. Well, how do you do that? Spend time meditating on his word. Spend time studying the life of Christ. You know, we know more about the Lord Jesus Christ than we know about any other person that ever lived in the ancient world. We have the ability to know Him, to meditate, to pray. We should be about the pursuit of Christ. But it doesn't stop there. Paul said that he also was to shed light on the administration of the mystery. Now, if you remember a couple of Sundays ago, this mystery of Christ is, is that Paul is saying that we both Jews and Gentiles are being called together. We're a new people together for the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the mystery. This is the story of the church. And he said, I'm to shed light for all about the administration of the mystery. First of all, I'd like for you to think about what your life was like before the Lord Jesus Christ. We were in darkness, weren't we? In fact, 1 Peter 2.9 says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Ephesians 5.8 says, for you were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 5.5 says, for you are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or the darkness. As God calls us into the light, we're in the presence of God. But we also, through His graciousness, are able to understand the things of God because the veil's been lifted. If you go to 1 Corinthians 2, verse 10, and you think about being in the light as I read these verses, if you think about in the context of being in the light and being able to understand, as Paul says, my goal was to preach his administration or his plan. If you look at 1 Corinthians 2, starting in verse 10, it says, now God has revealed these things to us by the spirit, since the spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except his spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the spirit of God. Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit who comes from God, and here's the really important part, so that we may understand what has freely been given to us by God. He goes on in verse 13 and he says, we also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. In other words, as we have given our life to the Lord Jesus Christ, as he has called us out of darkness into light, you and I have the ability to understand the things of God. But if you look at verse 14, verse 14 says, but the person without the spirit, does not receive what comes from God's spirit because it is foolishness to him. He is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually. The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything. And yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone for who has known the Lord's mind that he may instruct him. But we have the mind of Christ." Talking about a grace. The unbeliever can't understand. They think it's all foolishness. For us as the believer, as the word is preached, We understand. The veil's been lifted. The Spirit resides in us. The Spirit teaches us the things of God because we have the mind of Christ. And as Paul says that he is preaching the plan of Christ, we're illuminated in it. Now, if you think about the plan of Christ, and you can approach this in a lot of different ways, If you just think about it as a timeline, we're chosen before the foundation of the world, we're called from darkness into light, we become a new creature in the Lord Jesus Christ, we're a new creation, and we will dwell with Him in glory. If you think about that in doctrinal words, we're justified, we're sanctified, we're glorified. Christ has a plan. It's not happenstance. In Hebrews 1, verse 1, it reads, ìLong ago God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days He has spoken to us by His Son. God appointed Him heir of all things and made the universe through Him.î "'The sun is the radiance of God's glory "'in the exact expression of his nature, "'sustaining all things by his powerful word. "'After making purification for sins, "'he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. "'So he became superior to the angels, "'just as the name he inherited "'is more excellent than theirs.'" As I look at those verses and I think about the life of Christ, he's my creator and he's my sustainer, isn't he? In John 12, 32, Christ said, as for me, if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself. And as I look at this world that we live in since the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as he was lifted up, we see people every single year coming to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as he's drawing all people to himself. He has a plan and He is executing His plan. In Revelation 4 verse 9, it reads, Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to the one seated on the throne, the one who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders, that's us, fall down before the one seated on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne and say, in verse 11, our Lord and God, you are worthy to receive glory and honor and power because you have created all things and by your will they exist and were created. Let's give that some context. First of all, you and I are going to say, verse 11, You and I as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we will surround his throne and you and I will say verse 11. It will come out of our mouths. And what are we giving him credit for in verse 11? You have created all things and by your will they exist and were created. Let's give that some context for the moment. At that particular point, you and I have total clarity. You and I sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ have total clarity and we will look back on history and we will look back on our life and we will see where it makes perfect sense and how God was in control the entire time and we will give him the glory. See, it's so important that we worship the person in the plan of Jesus Christ. And as we worship Him, and as we have faith in Him, and as we have confidence in Him, I will tell you one thing that we can have is you can have rest. You can have rest. If you worship the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have confidence in the plan of Christ, if you have confidence in the sovereignty of Christ, I'll tell you right now, whatever you're going through in life, you can have rest as you worship Christ. You know, we always read Romans 8 when people have problems. And if you look at Romans 8, 26, it says, in the same way, the spirit also helps in our weaknesses because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the spirit because he intercedes for the saints, how according to the will of God, according to the will of God. I've said this before, I'll say it again. I look back at my prayer life when I was a young Christian and it was absolutely embarrassing because it was so self-centered. I might as well have been sitting on Santa's knee because that's how I viewed my prayer life. I was to pray for what I wanted. Thank God, while I was praying totally selfish prayers, the Spirit was inside of me, interceding for me in praying according to the will of God. And as believers, you and I need to have comfort knowing that the Spirit is interceding for us according to the will of God. And then we get to that verse that we're all familiar with in verse 28. We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to His purpose. His purpose. Now sometimes people just flippantly say, oh yeah, Romans 8, 28. I will say that if you're going through a trial or tribulation and you recognize that all things are working according to His purpose, you can have rest. You can have rest. Philippians 4, starting in verse 4, it says, rejoice in the Lord always. I will say again, rejoice. Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Don't worry about anything. but in everything through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. You think, well, what does that have to do with preaching on the person and plan of Christ? I don't have to worry if I rest in the plan of Christ. You don't have to worry if you rest in the plan of Christ. That gives us peace. We're in an election time and politics in my house is like a blood sport. We're all into it. But the one thing that I have to remind myself is that God's in control. He's in control. I don't worship a person with clay feet. I worship perfection in the person of Jesus Christ. You and I worship perfection who sits on his throne and is in control. You and I worship perfection who will reign for eternity. And may we always be about as believers May we be about the person in the plan of Jesus Christ. Join me in prayer, please. Father, I just pray that in all of our lives, that we might focus on the person and plan of Christ. I pray, Lord, that we'd be passionate about it. So passionate about it that we would tell others about Jesus Christ. I pray that we'd be passionate so that we would be faithful students of your word, that we would be committed to seeking you in prayer, that we might adopt Paul's goal to know Christ every day. I pray, Lord, that if there's someone listening either here or in our sermon audio audience that does not know Christ, that they would become a Christian today by surrendering their life to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray, Lord, that we'd be faithful stewards in this church. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for joining us as Pastor Bird continues this sermon series. If you wish to hear more, you may find him at millcreekchurch.org or go to sermonaudio.com slash millcreekchurch. Prayer requests may also be left at millcreekchurch.org. Our church services are as follows. Sunday morning Bible study is at 9 a.m. followed by our worship service at 10 a.m. We have Wednesday night prayer meeting and Bible study and they are at 630 p.m. For more information and our mission statement please visit our website millcreekchurch.org