Join me in the book of Ephesians. It's been a couple of weeks since we've been in this book and had some topical messages So we needed to get the book back before us as it were. And so that's what we're going to do today. I have sort of things happen this week where I did not I have all this internalized. I have no notes to use this morning. But I trust that the goal will be to get the book back before us and before our eyes and get settled back into it. I did have another topical message I almost brought on the problem of evil, but I wound up giving it on Wednesday. Topical messages aside, Paul tells Timothy to give attention to the public reading of Scripture, exhortation, teaching. So ultimately, we devote ourselves to hearing what the Lord has to say and not coming up with our own messages. So it's good to come back to a study of a book of scripture and to hear what it says to us and to let it work on us. So, we're left off in verse 18 of chapter 5, but if I had to read just one verse for this overview, I would pick chapter 1, verse 10. Specifically, where Paul says, with a view to an administration, and this view is God's view, This is what he had in mind. When you're doing something, you may say, doing such and such with a view to some goal. And so it is God's goal in mind here, with a view to an administration. This is His providence over all things, suitable to the fullness of the times. That is the summing up of all things in Christ. Things in the heavens and things on the earth. This is the goal of God. Let's go, Lord, in prayer. Lord, we come before You today in the name of Your Son. Lord, we just ask for Your help to know You, to live out that knowledge of you, to see how it is you would have us to live during our time of stay on the earth, to see what is the purpose that we were created for, to see where all things are headed, all births, all noises from children, all leaves, all crickets, all grass, all leaves falling off the tree to see where they head and to see how we fit into this great plan of yours and to see what your will is and what we should be doing. So we just start, Lord, this morning as Samuel, when he said to you there, speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. Or as we think of Abraham, he fell on his face and there you spoke with him. So we want to, if not fall on our face physically, fall on our face emotionally, volitionally, intellectually before you and say, Lord you speak, you tell me who I am, you tell me what my problems are, you tell me what my solutions are. You tell me what to name things. You tell me what to avoid. You tell me what to think and how to live. You are God and I'm not. You're the Lord and I'm not. So, Lord, help us this day through Your Word. In Jesus' name, Amen. So I never tire of saying that when you open the book of Ephesians, you find it to be a shocking letter. And that is because the salutation does not match the situation. It's called the book of Ephesians because it's obviously written to these churches that were in Ephesus. Ephesus was the western coast of Asia Minor. And around 50 or so AD, the Apostle Paul comes through this place very briefly on his second missionary journey. And he very briefly, as I said, spends time with them there for first contact. He leaves behind Aquila and Priscilla to finish the work. And then on his third missionary journey, he passes through twice on the first leg through. He spent about three years, you read about that, at length. in the book of Acts. That's where the sorcery and things like that that were practiced is mentioned, the book burning, and great is Artemis of the Ephesians, all of that. And so he spends about three years there teaching and preaching amongst them. And then he leaves and he has a third contact with them in Miletus as he's coming back on his third journey and he calls for the elders, you read about that in Acts 20, to come down to Miletus and he speaks to them. So it's about 30 miles south of Ephesus and then he goes to Rome where he is, I mean he goes to Jerusalem first, he does go to Rome, but he goes to Jerusalem to end that journey, and he plans on taking a gift to the Jewish churches from the Gentile churches, but he's arrested in Jerusalem. And he appeals to Caesar, and being a Roman citizen, he had that right. And so as a result of appealing to Caesar, he has to be brought through the ship all the way to Rome. And so the book of Acts ends with Paul in Rome in prison. And so these Ephesians are basically a church that began in around 50 AD. The Apostle Paul winds up in prison around 62. and he wrote four letters from that first Roman imprisonment, Philippians, then Colossians and Philemon, and then finally Ephesians, this book. And so he's in Italy and he's got Greece in between him and then Ephesus over here. So he writes this letter and he sends it to them. Now, the Ephesians then from 50 to 62, if that's the window, they have been, from what we learned from Acts in this epistle, they have been suffering from persecution from the state for 12 years, temptation to false religion for 12 years, division within the churches, for twelve years. So you think, you got all this going on out in the world, at least I have a nice comfortable church to come to. No, there's division within the churches. And all of that, without mentioning their individual lives, And then here is the apostle to the Gentiles. There was a great work about to go on. He was about to deliver this ministry, this gift to these Jerusalem churches from the Gentile churches, and wow, that was about to bridge the division. It was about to be a glorious work, and then he's called. in Jerusalem and now he's in prison in Rome, the apostle to the Gentiles is now shut down, which is to say the situation looks discouraging. It looks bleak. It looks dark. And you might expect a letter from Paul to where he writes, and it's something along the he-ho-hum line of, yeah, I know y'all are struggling, I'm sorry to hear about Joe and Kenneth, and yeah, it's kind of rough. You would expect that kind of tone. But you literally feel like you walked into Handel's chorus. When you open the letter, it is a peon of praise shot from the Roman prison unto the Father, unto the Son, and unto the Holy Spirit that have had theologians studying it for 2,000 years. He says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. And then he just goes on enumerating. And essentially, if you had to outline it, Praise to the Father in the first six verses for planning the restoration of all things in Christ. And then you have praise to the Son for initiating it all the way down to verse 12. And then you have praise to the Spirit for consummating it in verses 13 and 14. So, I simply bring that up to say, to read this letter according to truth and facts is to be confronted with a question. It necessitates a question at the very beginning. Paul, are you even aware of reality? Are you just swooned into some religious hype? Do you not see the situation, Paul? Do you not see the world around you? Do you not see how your own ministry is going? Do you not see the failure of not executing that plan? You're about that? What are you singing about? And so Paul stands in relation to these Ephesians in the first half of chapter 1 the way every worship leader should always stand in relation to the people. Paul Washer used this example one time. He said he didn't know why, but he was called to teach on how to lead worship. He's never led worship, he said, as far as singing goes. So, life. But he used this illustration of someone standing up. He just started staring at the ceiling. And he just held staring at the ceiling. And eventually, people started looking up at the ceiling, and he said, that's how you lead worship. the worship leader, you should come in and he is staring at something, some truth about God and about Christ and about life. Of course you come into the meeting not seeing it. That's the whole point of the meeting. So you come in and you're not seeing it, and he's seeing it, he's looking at it, and the point is, hopefully by the end you are brought up into the worship. Now turn to chapter 3. And in verse 20 and 21, there's bookends of this first section. It begins with praise and it ends with praise where he says, Now to Him who's able. And he begins to go back into glory to Him and in the church forever. The idea is, As I pass with Paul through these first three chapters, I now am able to join him, and I understand why he's worshiping God the way he is. We have a great old hymn that talks that way, right? "'Then' sings my soul. Then, when I think such and such, then sings my soul.'" So, that is how it begins. It begins with Paul praising God. Verse 10 would be the theme. All commentators agree verse 10 is the theme. The summing up of all things in Christ. This is the Christian worldview. We talk about the Christian worldview. This one Greek word, which is translated, summing up, or you may have reuniting, it's just this idea of there's a heading, and you're going to put parts under a heading, but again, for a second time. So it's just the worldview that in Adam, the world was shattered apart into pieces, and in Christ, it is all being put back together again. Literally, our bodies are shattered apart into pieces. Adam is a decomposer, Christ is a composer. Adam is a divider, Jesus is a uniter. That's the particular view of Ephesians. To put it this way, When you come to this book, you say, well, what is it about? Well, you just start and work your way in. It's a book of the Bible. So what does that tell us? That it's about Jesus Christ, His person and His work. And then you say, well, it's a New Testament book of the Bible. And what does that tell us? That tells us it's about the person and the work of Christ that has already been done. And then you say, well, amongst the New Testament, it's a letter, or what we call an epistle, rather than a gospel. So what does that tell us? Well, that tells us it's about the meaning of the facts. You see, the Gospels are predominantly telling you He was born, He was crucified, He rose from the dead, but it's only in Paul that you get... No, no, you rose with Him and you died with Him. You see, you get the interpretation of the facts and the meaning of the facts. It's not sufficient to say, well, yeah, I know He died, He rose. No, no, no. What does it mean that He died? Because two other men died on the cross beside Him also. So what is the meaning? What is the significance? Why can't we follow Muhammad? Why can't we follow Aristotle? Why can't we follow the Buddha? What is significant about the person and work of Jesus Christ? That's what the apostles are saying. No, He is the mediator because of the uniqueness of His person, the uniqueness of His work. So that's what it's about. But then you say, but amongst all the letters, Ephesians is, well, Ephesians. And that means it has a peculiar aspect of the diamond of the person and work of Christ that it's looking at that is distinct from all the other letters. What is it? It is this. We can go to Romans and see there's two men and all men, and the actions of this man is counted in the actions of this man. And that's here, but the particular aspect Paul is looking at here is that when Adam sinned, all the results that came were divisive results. He divided man's relationship with God. He divided man's relationship. Now Adam and Eve were fighting. He divided man's relationship of his soul and his body. Our bodies are going to decompose. That's a divisive work. That's a shattering of the image of God. But in Christ, Paul is going to say, what you see is the bringing back together again. In a sense, what Paul is saying, Adam is Thanos and Jesus is Iron Man. Adam snaps his fingers and everybody dissipates. Jesus snaps his and it all comes back together again. Adam is a divider, Jesus is a uniter. That is an aspect of His work. He aims to make all things new, to bring back together again creation. God did not create the world to just throw it away. That is a pagan, platonic, Greek idea, not a biblical one. God created, He tells us in chapter 1, it is good, it is good, it is good. So, we see here, in the very first section, the Apostle Paul praising God because he knows he is bringing all things back together again in Christ. Jesus' resurrection body is the first piece of side laid down, the first fruits of everything else that's come. So you would say, really, Ephesians then is a book with one message, and so far, one response. It's a book of God summing all things back up in Christ in heaven and earth, and number one, we ought to be praising Him for it. There should be praise. We should come here once a week and sing. Your little children should grow up seeing you singing about something. Why are you singing? That would be a good answer. Well, God is summing all things back up in Christ. Seems like something to sing about. Okay, mom, it makes sense. That's why we're going and singing. So, that's the first thing, but like we said, it's shocking, it's not what you would expect, and that leads to the second. The second half of chapter 1, Paul stands in relation to them the way Elisha stood in relation to a servant, a servant who couldn't see. What are you talking about? Why are you encouraged? You're the worship leader. I don't see what you see. And Paul says, I know. Because even though you're a Christian, look at how he starts in verse 15, for this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus. So we're not talking about lost people. He says you have faith in the Lord Jesus. It's real faith. And it exists among you. And you have love for all the saints. Well, why don't I see it, Paul? He says, I don't cease giving thanks for you, mentioning you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. What are you talking about? I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. This is good to admit. This is good for us to admit. When you're converted, when you're lost, Paul says in Romans 1, the mind is darkened. It's called in Reformed theology the noetic effects of sin from the Greek word nous, which means mind. It means when man is depraved, when he's fallen, to say he's a sinner is not just he's a sinner in his will, and he's a sinner and he's fallen and darkened in his emotions, but he's fallen and darkened in his intellect. He cannot see the kingdom of God. And the mind is dark, and therefore God, who says light shall shine out of darkness, has to shine in the heart to give illumination. They use that word. The ability to know the truth. The ability to know who God is. Mankind is no longer in the position. You cannot even reach Him. He's absolutely turned off from head to toe, Isaiah says. The whole thing is sick. Now when you're converted, that means the lights are turned on, but it's like a dimmer switch. They're not all the way turned on. That's why we struggle. So we must Reject this idea, oh, I know what my problem is, and I know what I need, and this is why you're not helping. No, no, no, no, no. None of us know what we need. According to this verse, we need the eyes of our heart enlightened. You have two sets of eyes. Remember, Jesus says, seeing they do not see. It's the eyes of the heart. And your heart needs to be enlightened so that you will know. And it comes through prayer. So God, yes, has started summing up all things in Christ, but we still have darkened hearts. We still lack eyesight. We still have mud in the eyes. We still look through the glass darkly, Paul says. Like our mirror going down the road is just smeared and smudgy, and you can't see everything. So, praying, as Paul says, prayer about this is another thing you should do. You should be praying privately, publicly, groups of believers. Why? Again, why is it so important? If someone asks you, the children, why do we have to go to the prayer meeting? Why are you going for a walk? You have to go pray. Because the eyes of my heart are dull. And one of the ways it is helped is through prayer. And what Paul prays that we see, Is this value of the gospel what we're even talking about? Remember we said it's like that woman who had that Rembrandt painting hanging above the hot plate all those years, had no idea it was worth several million dollars. And that is you and I with this gospel. We talk about, oh yeah, this and this. He says in the next chapter, This kindness of God in Christ is going to be revealed to us under the ages of the ages of the ages. We have not even begun understanding what He did for us on the cross. So you could say, what do we have now? Two responses. God is summing up all things in Christ, therefore we should praise it, we should pray for it, and then you turn the page to chapter 2 and 3, What do you find? Preaching about it. Preaching about it. It's not just prayer that we need, but when our eyes open, what we need to see is the truth of what has happened. So Paul begins preaching about this in chapter 2 and 3, and he essentially says to us, just consider what God has already begun doing. Think about it. It says in the first half of chapter 2, he says, look how God has already begun uniting the things in the heavens with man's vertical relationship with God. He says, look how bad it was. Verses 1 to 3. But look what God did through Christ. Did He not reunite your relationship with your Creator? Yes, he did. That's a work of unification, reunification. Then he says, verses 11 to 22, the rest of chapter 2, he says, look at how God has already begun reuniting the things on earth. That is man's relationship with man. Paul believed Jesus Christ's cross work that he is a person of consequence. You ever hear people talk like that? So, here we're a person of consequence. Paul believed Jesus was a person of consequence, that time should be divided based on Him, because one consequence is He reunited, do you remember what He said? Behold, I'm making all things new. He reunited man's relationship to God and His cross work reunites man's relationship to man. There's nobody here that has any offense, that has any grief, that has any hurt, that can't be united through the crosswork of Jesus Christ. Because, if you're offended, it's because someone broke the law against you. Someone broke one of God's commandments against you. Well, Jesus has taken that law of punishment upon Himself. He's abolished that enmity. So if we believe the gospel and we believe in propitiation, Jesus died propitiationally not just toward God, but towards us. So if Jeremy has offended me, then the cross works stares me and says, did I not pay for it? Be satisfied. Be propitiated. Become favorably disposed toward him. You see? So there's just no reason for the division, but we need preaching on this. About a few years ago, there was all this talk about justice, and we need to have a conversation about... Yes, we need to have a conversation about the cross. There's no other conversation to be had for peace. And so then you say, well, okay, Paul, I see how God has already begun reuniting all things in Christ, in heaven, and on earth. But maybe it won't make it to the end. Maybe it won't finish out. And so, chapter 3, what does Paul do? He says, this thing stands in relation to the rest of the world and everyone who thinks it's foolish, the way Joseph stood in relation to his brothers. Everyone saying, we will see what will become of these dreams, and then they come about. He says in chapter 3, look, if I'm a prisoner, how does he put it in verse 1? I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus... Paul, you're a prisoner of Caesar. No, I'm not. If I'm a prisoner, it's because Jesus wants me here, and it's still for the sake of the Gentiles. It can't be stopped. Do you see? And he goes in and then he finishes and he says, for this reason do not lose heart in my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory. We actually glory in the tribulation because we know even it is going to be used. And how? Well, he goes through, he says, this is all about the eternal purpose of God. God has, look at verse 11, this is in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ. So Paul believed this thing was invincible. It is unstoppable. Like Gamaliel said, will you be fighting against God? So, yes, it is not only begun, but it is going to finish. As Mary prayed, behold, He has brought down rulers from their throne. He has exalted the little. This is a motion and a providence and a movement of God that is underway and will not stop and is going to carry on to its end successfully. So what do we have? The theme, God is reuniting all things together in Christ. praise for it, prayer for it, preaching on it. We need to come, not just from here, But when you start saying, so-and-so offended me, go to Ephesians chapter 2. We must resist the idea of just having a conversation. Brother, open your Bible to Ephesians 2. Let us read the Scriptures together. What does it say about our offenses? Does it not teach here that we can be reconciled through the cross of Christ? Do you see? That's how. So, preaching about it, constantly talking about it. Then you turn the corner in chapter 4. And there's not just things that have already been done, there are things that are left to do. The work is underway, but it's not done. And so you say, okay, well then what do we do as a result? He says in chapter 4, Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling. That you have a certain way to walk. There is something else for you to do. So we're not to be like those vultures on the Jungle Book that are just sitting around and watching Dumb and Dumber and TV and YouTube video and, you know, what do you want to do today? I don't know, what do you want to do? A Christian is a person who should have a purpose to their life. Every day you wake up, you should know why I woke up, why I'm going about my day. I have a purpose, I have a point. I know where reality came from. I know where it is going. I know where I fit in the midst of this. I'm aware. What is the purpose then? What is the first thing to do? He says, to preserve this unity. So you go from praising it, to praying for it, to preaching it, to preserving it. The very first thing God calls us to do, notice, we're not called to create unity. Only the Spirit of God can do that. It's like Woody and Buzz, why should they be united? Oh, because Andy wrote his name on the bottom of Buzz, that's why. But what's the basis of being united? He has the Holy Spirit! What else is there to discuss? Well, this theology is not... Look, I am serious about this. I'm serious about theology as much as I feel like I am. But if there's one Christian on the planet that has the Holy Spirit of God indwelling him, he could be Arminian as all get out, I better wrap my arms around him. Because God has. I somehow have to fellowship with Him. I somehow have to communicate, you are in. And you're my brother. Whatever is unsanctified yet, you can still be in. Not in as JV, but in. This is what you see in the book of Acts. The Spirit falls, and they're like, well, what? And Peter's like, you know? Who am I to put the Lord to the test? He poured out His Spirit on them. That's the mark. That's the seal. Just like you lift up... I don't like this buzz character. Well, you better get to liking him. Because Andy's name is written on it. I remember Si posted a few weeks ago, he said he can't wait to get to heaven to worship with people who wishes he wouldn't be there. They don't want to be in that spot. I ask you, by not my authority, but this Word by Paul, is there any Christian in your life who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God that you are stiff-arming? That you refuse to be cordial with in the faith? Because we're not called to create the unity. Everybody's always like, well, how can we get unified? If you're thinking that way, it's already over. The only way to get unified is to realize we can't create unity. And then you start thinking properly. You say, well, he already... So, oh, what he's called me to do is preserve it. Just play goally. Just play goally. An idea of division? Get that out of here. Get that out of here. Block, block, block, block. You're just constantly blocking worldly thoughts coming into the church. Just don't touch it. Just leave it alone. Just let it be about Christ in the Spirit. Don't add any organic vegetables, or education, or schooling, or TV, or do you go to the opera or not? Leave it Christ in the Spirit. So it's a unity that's already there. The only thing we can do is mess it up. And so he says, preserve the unity of the Spirit. in the bond of peace, what are the things that keep us together? The fact that there's one body, one spirit, what I was just mentioning, one hope. One Lord, one faith. I mean, look, one faith. If you're looking away from your works unto Jesus, if I say, you say you're going to heaven, you say God has saved you, like, what? What is your hope? I'm trusting entirely on the finished work of Christ. I do not care what else is wrong in your theology. If that's really what you think, you're in. You're in. You're a believer. Let these things be the things that make for peace. So God has begun the process. Remember, this is the unique view of Paul in this letter of reuniting, unity, reformed people. Unity is emphasized in this book. And so he's begun this process of reuniting all things. This is a value to God. Blessed are the peacemakers. They shall be called the sons of God." We should be people that value unity, that go after unity, that pursue peace. It's not to say that there's not division. Don't hear me. We don't have to do that. Hear the text this morning. It's not like every time you come to a text, people are like, well, the sermon was long. It's like, well, goodness, every truth, you had to qualify it with another. So the sermon doubled just by having to give out all the qualifications. Let's just hear Ephesians this morning, that unity is a value. So, we should praise God for it, we should pray for it that we would see it more, we should preach it to one another, and we should preserve it. That's number four. But verse seven says, but, so we saw that there was more. Number five is, we don't just play defense. God wants us to play offense. That is, to push this unity, to push it out into the world. He says, each one of us, grace was given. If you're converted and you have faith, this is another reason you don't want to stiff arm your brother. He has grace. You remember Winnie the Pooh? He ran out of honey, so he had to go to Rabbit's house, because he had the rest of the honey. Well, God has only given you a measure of honey. And in great wisdom he's done this, because you need your other brother for the rest of the honey. You love honey? Well, you get it from your other brother. That's the way he set it up. So, each one of us is given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift. That means every believer has some measure of the grace of God in them that I don't have in me. So much for this idea, I could just read my Bible at home and know the Lord. No, no, no, no, no. Knowing the Lord is a community project. It is with all the saints together, because He has given various gifts to the saints, and you don't get them if you stiff-arm that saint. You lose them and you become sickly. And so, verse 7, Christ has these gifts, Verse 8 and 9 tell us he obtained these gifts through the gospel, through his descent and ascent. That's what the book of Acts is about. The risen Jesus, Peter says to the Pharisees and the Jews, whom you crucified, has poured forth this which you both see and hear." That means he views Jesus as going on acting after the resurrection. He's not sitting on a couch taking a nap for 2,000 years. He's the ruler of the world. as foolish as that sounds still today, 2000 years later. And he gives these gifts to the church that he might rule all things. Look at the goal in verse 10, so that he might fill all things. It's like, yeah, that means the math class. That means, I was about to say blockbuster, that's way too old. That means every building, every place, every state, every property line, all things. How's that going to happen through the church? Well, by growing and changing, verse 11 and following, by growing, you have to grow up into the measure of the full man of Christ. You see, remember Mary, you remember that discussion of Mary where He said, don't grab me, I've not yet ascended. Why? You remember that sermon? Because He's ordained that we know Him through each other, through the body of Christ. If you sin very, very bad, and you need to be forgiven, the Lord's ordained that that come through the body of Christ. You experience the grace of His forgiveness by confessing that sin to another brother. And you see the way He reacts, and you experience Christ through that. He's ordained to reveal Himself through His body. So He equips us and He fills us. The Pope is not the vicar of Christ on earth. The body of Christ is the vicar of Christ on earth. Now, we have a long way to go. You say we're tossed here and there by every... But that's what this little meager local church here plays a role into the making known of the truth, into the going into the text and setting it out, and into it applying to our souls, and we're brought further up into maturity until we attain the stature And then there is this putting off and putting on, the changing of the clothes, of being who you are. That's the way to push it out into the world. You're like Peter in the world. You have this ability to sit there around the fire. No, I don't know him. You have the ability to lie that God hasn't converted you, that you're not born again, that you're not regenerated, that you're just like the other person. You have that ability. And a Christian will sometimes sin, and they'll sometimes fall back into a pattern of sin, and they'll sometimes start thinking, well, I guess I'm just like everyone else. And then, you know, there normally comes another well-meaning brother who's not very far along in the faith, and he takes a look, he says, yeah, you look just like everybody else. And so you stay in that discouragement, but the way out of the pit, that Paul says is to be renewed in your mind and to realize, no, that's not who you are. That you did those things because you believed a lie, the deceitful lust. And you need to be renewed into who you are. And so Christianity is not becoming something you're not. It's just a transformer type sanctification. You just unfold and you be who you are. And so he listed those. So what have we had? He lists them specifically all the way to verse 15 of chapter 5. Praise it. Prayer for it. preaching on it, preserving it, and pushing it out into the world. Now, that pushing it out into the world raises a question. It's like, what kind of... Do you mean vote Republican, Jeffrey? Like, what do you mean, push it out into the world? Like, are we promoting moralism here? What do you mean? I struggled to try to sum up the last part. We came to verse 15 of chapter 5. The last thing he essentially says here, this summary conclusion, it goes, remember the reason we viewed it as a unit, he starts with the days are evil, chapter 5 verse 15, but then he ends, He ends in 613, in the evil day having done everything to stand. So this is a unit, it has an internal logic to it. And the last thing he essentially says here, I suppose you would say is, you could say purpose it, you could say pursue it, He says, therefore, be careful how you walk. Be careful, it had that Greek word in it, akron, for point. Like, have a specific purpose to the way you live. A specific thing you live with. And then he gave three contrasts. Not as unwise, but as wise. So there's a wise purpose to live for. And that's his concluding remark to this letter. In light of everything I've said, he's like, be very particular how you live. And then the second contrast, which is further amplifying it, is don't be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is. So you ask, well, what could he be talking about in this book that is wise in the will of the Lord? Well, you know from chapter 1, He's working all things after the counsel of His will. And He has given us this wisdom of insight into the goal of all things. To walk with a purpose that is in the way you're doing it is according to wisdom and according to the will of the Lord simply means live your life for the goal of the gospel. Live your life in sync with the providential purpose of God. Because every other purpose comes to naught. Many are the plans of man, but the counsel of the Lord stands. There is no legacy. I'll say it again. There is no legacy for you or for me. There is no memory. There is no way to obtain. You cannot form a committee to do a statue of yourself to prolong your memory on the earth. There is one legacy. There is one redemption. There is one immortality. And it is through the person and work of Jesus Christ. You cannot store it. You can lose your stuff on the internet. Your photo album is a physical thing, and sad as it is, it will rot and perish eventually. The sweet photos of your children will rot and perish eventually. They won't last. and you will eventually die and everybody will be walking around, weed-eating around your grave, knowing you not, that you ever lived or breathed or who you loved or anything you did that Achilles mentions on Troy. Will they remember who we love and how fiercely? No. No, they won't remember anything. That is why Paul says, apart from the resurrection, we're of all men most to be pitied. And why he could not possibly have believed in the prosperity gospel or any soft form of it. And I mentioned there's a soft form of it that we fall into. We say, oh, well, we're not saying name it, claim it, grab it, blab it. We do have this expectation to have a nice looking little family and a little picket fence and all our boys with their hair parted to the side and their catechisms in their hand. We expect that, a good night's sleep, right? Did you hear the scripture read today? Hunger, sleeplessness. So we expect a good night's sleep and a good... I mean, we're not prosperity, but, you know, these things... No. God has not promised you those things. He might very well have in His purpose to take those things. The only thing we know for sure that He's purposed is to sum up all things together in Christ. And that is what we're to give our life to. And if that is what gives life meaning, then you're okay with the rest. But Paul could not have possibly thought that. Why else would he say, if we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we're of all men most miserable. If he thought of this life as a wonderful life. How could he write Romans 8? Nothing will separate you. Not life. Why would life be separating me, Paul? It's wonderful. Of course it's not. So, to walk wise and to know what the will of the Lord is, is to act like we have a revelation in front of us. To act like God has revealed His purpose for the world through Christ. And He has. And the third way he had put it was to be filled with the Spirit. And this answers the question. It's a great question. It's a supreme worry to get involved in politics and morality, you know, or rearrangements. And someone starts talking about you know, pushing it out into the world and you get into like, well, man, are you post-millennial? What are you? And I always say, I don't know what else to do. Say like Jesus, how does it read to you? Look back at chapter 4 verse 10. I don't know how else to read it. The logic is clear. Christ has ascended and He's given grace to the church that He might fill all things. I don't know how else to read that than to say it eventually means to take over the classroom. Yes. It eventually means to take over every nation and country. Yes. So, I'm an untiliest. I don't know. You preach the gospel until. I mean, that's another psalm based on that, right? He must reign until. That I know. Do I know when there'll be like a spurt of success and two steps back? You know, the world has a sanctification too, and it's like up and down. I don't know. We're told it's not for us to know. We're just told to be witnesses. So what does this mean to be filled with the Spirit then? That's the third contrast. It's parallel to not being foolish and know what the will of the Lord is, and it's parallel to not being unwise but wise. We've been through that, a whole sermon on that. That answers the question. That answers the question. How to pursue the betterment of the world, to be living for the reunification of all things by the Spirit, that answers the question. Because to be filled with the Spirit in this book, It's used fullness a lot. There's the fullness of God, the fullness of Christ, He's filling all things, that you may be filled up, faith in your heart, all this. To be filled with the Spirit just simply means to be filled with the redemptive presence of God in Christ and to be energetically motivated through that faith to redeem all things. To sling yourself into redeeming all things like a hummingbird. I mean, that's what it means. It doesn't mean to throw your theology out, though. You run across someone else, they don't want to redeem all things in Christ. They have a darkened heart, they don't want to follow. Then you preach the gospel to that person. And you pray and you wait on God to convert that person. It spills from one heart to the other. So you think of it this way. Sometimes kids illustrate this with a balloon. It's a balloon that has like a picture drawn on it. And the more you blow it up, the more it fills in this picture. That would be Paul's view of, you know, eventually this whole balloon is changed, but through one way, through blowing this air in it. It's filled with the Spirit. So that is all I can tell you, to make sure you're doing it by the gospel, by the Spirit, to continue to blow the gospel and to blow the Spirit into the earth. And by the way, that's why it should make sense to you that he starts talking about, you know, this relationship and family relationship and work relationship. It's like, Paul, hadn't you ever heard of the sacred-secular distinction? Hadn't you ever heard that separation of church and state and there's a civil sphere and all this? And he's like, no, no, I've just heard that God created the heavens and the earth and He owns it all. and that He means to redeem it all, it all belongs to Him. And somehow He is going to do that, and that sounds incredibly foolish. This very sermon, no doubt, sounds... What are you talking about? Come on, let's go eat chicken. This sounds foolish. Take over the world, look at us. Yes, I remember. Look at those twelve, and look at where the world is now. Not by might. Not by... We want something... You know, Abraham rejoiced to see his day. He looked ahead. His life was for our sake. David served the purpose of God and his generation and fell asleep. Like, why do we always fall... We have this modern problem. Every generation thinks they are the generation. You know? Like, ambition. We're discontent to just serve God and trust Him with the results. Just live an obedient Christian life and try to push the reunification, try to redeem yourself, your family, your community. Do as much good as you can and then trust the plan. That is the ethic of Ephesians. Do as much as you can and trust the plan. But no, we need a movement, we need a following, we need something flashy. And we fall into that constantly. So what is the Christian worldview? We talk about it all the time. It's simple. The world fell. God's redeeming it. He's bringing it back together again. And it's all about Him. So don't worry about having a flashy ministry. Don't worry about becoming an influencer. Just serve God. Redeem as much as you can. Fall asleep. Wait on the resurrection. That's the Christian worldview. Only one life will soon be passed and only what's done for Christ will last. So give yourself to that. Do that in your family. Tell your children that. This is the purpose of all things. You need to live for this. Spread that to as many people as you can. Find as many people in your community as you can and give them that. And God will bring it to pass in His own way. Let's pray. Lord, thank You for today. Thank You for Your Word and Your Gospel. Thank You for life. Thank you that you help us more and more every time we study your word to live it in a way that's good for us. Pray for everyone here. Pray that they might have a Christian worldview about themselves, that they might be renewed in their mind and get their headlines from the apostles of Christ, not from the news channels. and realize that as bad as it looks, like the servant, alas, we're dying, that you might open our eyes to your apostle and show us that you are restoring all things in Christ. You're just doing it your way, according to your plan, your secret counsel. And so, Lord, we should praise You for what You've already done. We should pray to You that You would enlighten our minds to see the rest. And we should preach and listen to preaching about the rest. And then we should preserve it. And then we should labor to push it. out into the world and then we should purpose it in our mind. This is what we are living for every day as we seek to live our lives and be a blessing to others. In Jesus name, Amen.