Studying this morning the the book of Ephesians That is spelled wrong on the title on your paper. I know it's but should be EPHE I'm not changing the Bible just a misspelling No Ephesians not Ephesians The Title under that is the heavenlies the heavenlies and It's going to tell us some things about the heavenlies in the book of Ephesians. But key verse, Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9. A very familiar passage of Scripture. It says this, "...for by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." By grace are you saved through faith. Those of you that are here on a regular basis, you know that I mention this verse nearly on a weekly basis. The fact that we are saved by the grace of God through faith. Faith is the door that we must enter through to receive the grace of God. and That is a central passage for this book of Ephesians It lends sheds a lot of light on what Paul covers in the rest of the book of Ephesians He says in verse number nine not of works lest any man should boast by grace You saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, you know There's every other religion Today, every cult that's out there, in some form or another, there are works involved in their what they call salvation. In whatever they're counting on for eternity, there are works involved. And in different levels. Some might say you have to you know, crawl on your hands and knees across burning coals and crushed glass. Some might say you have to give 30% of everything that you make. Some might say you have to sacrifice your children. Whatever it is, there's some form of works. And whether it's, say, Hail Marys and Our Fathers or whatever it is, it's works. And he says here, he makes it very clear in this passage, not of works, it is the gift of God, not of works. Why? Lest any man should boast. There's nothing I did to save myself. And therefore I have no means by which I can go back and say, hey, look what I did. All I can say is, Look what God did. Let me tell you what God did for me. When I share my testimony with somebody, when I tell somebody else about how I got saved, all I can say is, let me tell you what God did for me. That's what our testimony is. It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. You and I have no reason to boast. That's why I tell you, you know me, I say all the time, people say, how are you doing? Better than I deserve. because what I deserve is to be burning in hell. And anything less than that is better than I deserve. And when we keep that in perspective, when we keep that in our mind, it helps us in a lot of other areas. I can't help but think, Brother Jack mentioned, him and I were talking this morning about just some different prayer needs. Brother Zane Fischel, a pastor up there where they were at the meeting this last week, his wife has been, about five years ago she was in a four-wheeler accident and her and her sister both have been through some horrible, horrible medical issues, physical issues because of that. It was the first time in five years that the pastor's wife was able to be there for their jubilee. just everything they've been through. But to see God work and to see what God does in lives. Talk about one of the truck drivers that just found out this week that his 13-year-old son had a sore throat and they took him to the doctor, sent him to Eggleston in Atlanta and found out that his 13-year-old son, a young man named Matt Gould, put him on your prayer list, has leukemia. You just never know. God works in all kinds of different ways, but God is definitely on the throne and in control. And we need to be reminded of that. We have no way to boast. We have no reason to boast. If you've ever had a medical problem and you've come through it, you want to know why? Because of the grace of God. Had it not been for the grace of God, it doesn't matter if it's just a cold. It doesn't matter what it is. If you survived it, it's because God allowed you to. The key words, some key words here. First of all, the word grace used 12 times. First time used in chapter 1 and verse 2. Most significant use would be in chapter 2, verse 8 that we just read. By grace are ye saved. You know, for you and I, that's the most important piece of grace. There's a lot of other grace that we receive in our lives, but the most important grace that we receive in our lives is that of salvation, the grace of God for salvation. For by grace are ye saved. And then the second key word is the word body, used nine times, talking about the body of Christ. And the first used, chapter 1, verse 23, And that says this, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. And then the most significant use would be the same as well, the body of Christ talking about you and I. And then walk, the word walk is the third significant or key word in the book. Used seven times, first time used in chapter two, verse 10, right after what we just read. And that says this For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them And again, that's also the most significant use of that particular word. We are to walk in the things that God hath before Ordained we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in What does that mean? That means that once we're saved, we're to walk in accordance with the Word of God. We're to walk in obedience to His commands in the things that He's put forth in His Word. The theme of the book is, as a part of the body of Christ, the believer has been given a heavenly position and should conduct himself in light of that position. In other words, are you a Christian? If the answer to that is yes, you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. If the answer to that is yes, then the theme of this book is act like it. Act like it. If you're saved, if you know the Lord as your Savior, if you're a child of God, act like it. I've told you before, more than one occasion when I was growing up in the king household, that I heard my dad say, are you a king? And of course the answer to that is yes. That's my last name. I am a king. And he would say, then act like it. Then act like it. I even heard my grandfather say, and he wasn't saved. He would say, are you a king? Then act like it. Grandpa, I mean grandpa told us when I when we were teenagers and kind of would do stupid things and mess around even just messing around on the on the you know at the farm and not necessarily doing anything wrong just goofing off I Heard my grandpa say on more than one occasion at that time probably in his 70s That's not how Kings act There was a lot of, my grandpa had a lot of pride in his family name and what that meant and had spent his lifetime building a reputation. He said, if you're a king, act like it. Otherwise, tell everybody you're a Coates. That's what he, the neighboring farm was the Coates's. He said, if you're not gonna act like a king, tell everybody you're a Coates. Because, you know, hey, he said, we, you know, our family spent years, our family has lived on that farm since the Civil War. He said or the war between the states He said If you're gonna be a king act like a king otherwise change your name There's a lot of people, you know, I've told you before I've heard many people say I would be a Christian if it wasn't for Christians Man if you're gonna live like the world then just don't tell people you're a Christian Because you ruin it for the people that are trying to live like Christians and win other people to the Lord There's something about now you say should I just not tell people? No, you should start living in obedience to the Word of God live the way that God wants you to but there's something about That saying, you know That being the theme of this book that Paul says if this is who you say you are if that's who you are Then act like it Live like it Just at church? No. Just on Sundays? No. Just Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night? No. Every minute of every day. Act like it. Live like it. The date of the writing is AD 64, the Apostle Paul. Of course, we know back from 1 Corinthians when we covered that book some things about Paul. It was written to the believers or saints at Ephesus, written from Rome. One of the four prison epistles, Ephesians, Philippians, Philemon, and Colossians, all written from prison while Paul was in prison. It's the 49th book of the Bible, the 10th book of the New Testament. Only six chapters and 155 verses. The purpose of the book, first of all, to strengthen believers in their faith. And can I tell you something? You and I, as believers, on a regular basis, need to be strengthened in our faith. Then secondly, to encourage them to walk worthy of their position. In other words, to act like it. To act like it. Walk worthy of that name. There's a lot of things that we'd like to be called. They say in business dress for the position that you want Not the position that you have in other words Hey, if you come to work if you want to be in management someday and you're in business, but you come to work all Disheveled and some grubby t-shirt and a ripped pair of jeans and tennis shoes that are falling apart And that's the way you come to work every day You're probably not the first one that people are gonna think of when they look at you and say, there's a person that would make a good manager. Now I understand, depending on what your job is, you're not gonna wear a three-piece suit to go work in a factory every day. But there's some, you can wear jeans and a t-shirt and a pair of work boots and look sharp, or you can look like a slob. We need to dress and act and carry ourselves according to what we would desire to be known as. And there's so many things, I tell my children, the way that you keep your room, the way that you take pride in your personal appearance, take pride in the way that your bedroom looks, the way that your clothes are hung, all of those things, why? Because it carries over, it carries over to the outside world, it shows, it shows. They encourage them to walk worthy of their position. Then number three, to reveal the mystery that all believers, Jews and Gentiles, are members of the body of Christ. Paul makes it clear again, and you see this in nearly all of his letters that Paul writes. He alludes to this in some way that Jews and Gentiles are all part of the body of Christ. Again, not talking about the universal church, but talking about the body of believers as the body of Christ, and it doesn't matter what nationality you are, what color you are, if you're male or female, tall or short, none of that matters. If you're saved, you're part of the body of Christ. Some divisions of the book, two different ways you could divide it. First of all, going into the mountains to worship, chapters one through three. And then going into the meadows to walk, chapter four through six. And if you read those chapters, you can kind of see how you would get that out of that. And then the second way you could divide it is the creed of doctrine. This is our creed, the doctrine that we live by. In other words, what we believe in chapters one through three, this is Paul says, this is what we believe. This is where we stand doctrinally. And then our conduct or deportment, how we behave in chapters four through six, one through three, this is what we believe four through six in light of what we believe. This is how we behave. The way that we carry ourselves, the way that we act, the way that we, uh, the way that we, the way that we behave, how we behave. Yes, ma'am. Um, that is what, what Paul says is, you know, there's, why should I, when somebody says you ought to behave this way, if you were to say to your children, you ought to behave this way. If your child says, why should I act that way? What do you tell them? Well, sometimes when they're little, you say, because I said so. When they get a little older, you might explain to them, you might sit down with them and say, this is what the Bible says. This is what we believe. And based on what the Bible says and what we believe according to the word of God, this is how we behave. I've told you before, we're talking about on Wednesday nights, we're going through biblical principles. And I've encouraged since I very first came here, and actually all through my years in the ministry, I've always said, live your life based on biblical principles. In other words, find out what the Bible says about the issues in your life, about the basic Bible doctrines, about what God says about, you know, we just finished, the biblical principle of unfeigned love. In other words, genuine love, something that's not faked. And what the Bible says about that And in light of that, develop biblical principles in your life based on what the Bible says and allow those to be the things that make your decisions for you. If you have biblical principles established in your life before you come to the situation that you're going to face, then you can say, based on, for instance, some of the easy ones would be something like, Alcohol should I drink alcohol or not? I've encouraged my son. He's 16 years old I said AJ now as long as he's living in my house There will be no alcohol. We make that very clear. But I said at some point you're gonna be on your own You need to decide for yourself Are you gonna drink alcohol or not? And initially, you know several years ago and I had this conversation with him He said dad, of course, I'm not and I said why not? Well, because it's wrong. Why is it wrong? Well, because the Bible says so. Okay, how do you know the Bible says so? Because you told me it does. I said, okay, you need to find out for yourself. You need to go read your Bible. I'll give you the help that you need. I can direct you and I can help you to understand some things, but I said, you need to go and read your Bible and figure out what does the Bible actually say about alcohol And then from that, decide for yourself, decide as a biblical principle that you're going to apply to your own life, are you gonna drink alcohol or not? And then when that time comes, because inevitably in 99.999% of people's life, it's going to be offered to you at some point. And if you have prayed about it and studied it and decided for yourself, I'm not gonna drink. Then, when somebody says, here, have a drink of this, you can say, no, and when they say, why not? You don't have to say, because my daddy told me not to. Because then they'll say, oh, are you some daddy's boy or mama's boy that can't decide for yourself? Instead, you can say, you know what? A long time ago, I decided I wasn't gonna do that. I decided for myself that that's something I wasn't gonna partake in. And if they ask you why, you can say, look, I studied the Bible and based on Bible principles, I developed a principle in my own life that I live by that I'm not gonna partake in. But the importance of developing principles, the doctrine and what you see in chapters one through three, and then the deportment in chapters four through six of taking the doctrine and applying it to our lives. In light of this, this is how I'm gonna live. because it says this, this will be my decision because of that. The outline, talking about the church in Christ. the called-out assembly, the body of believers, this group right here in Christ, some things about the church. First of all, its origin. You see that in chapter 1. It was selected by the Father. And I was going to go to all these passages, and I'm not going to have time to do all of that, but I'd encourage you to look these things up. Selected by the Father. Again, that's not talking about Calvinism there, where God decides who's going to get saved and who's not. We all have a free will. But He did decide some things. God had before ordained some things about those that get saved, those that accept Christ as their personal Savior, and what that means for them going forward, but selected by the Father, saved by the Son, and sealed by the Spirit. Again, talking about a lot of people that would dispute the Trinity. If you read those verses and read those passages of Scripture, it does a great deal to tell us about the different responsibilities or parts that each of them, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit play, the roles that they play in our salvation and in our eternity. We're saved by the son, sealed by the spirit, selected by the father. Then Roman numeral two, the formation of the church. Verse number five, again, in chapter two there, it was raised. What does it mean, raised? Let me read that for you. Verse 5, "...even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are saved." He talks about the fact that we're being raised from the dead. If you are saved this morning, if you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you were dead and you were raised from the dead. You're made alive again in Christ. That's what Jesus did for you. been raised, recreated. Verse number 10 of chapter 2 says this, For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Been recreated. Then we've been reconciled. Reconciled verse number 16 of chapter 2 and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross having slain the enmity Thereby we've been reconciled and then reunited verse 19 now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the Saints and of the household of God we've been reunited and We've been brought together Then Roman numeral three there its design the design of the church God you understand when God established the New Testament Church He had a plan He didn't just kind of throw it all together throw a bunch of stuff in a pot and says see well Let's see what's come what comes out of it. He had a plan. He had an organization established before this all ever started the plan in verses one through six. And again, I don't have time to read the whole passage, but he lays out a plan, how he begins to, how he's established the church. And then the power in verses seven through 12 there of chapter three, the purpose of the church in verses 13 through 20 and the praise of the church, verse number 21. There's something about understanding. If you just take the time and read chapter 3 of understanding that God put some things in place and ordained that things should be done a certain way. He had a design in mind from the very beginning. And then it's duties, the duties. What are the duties of us as Christians, as a church? What is our duty? You see that in chapters four through six, first of all, letter a to walk. How are we to walk? I'm a Christian. Okay. I'm saved. I'm a part of the new Testament church. Now, what am I to do? What is my responsibility? First of all, we're responsible to walk in unity. We're to walk in unity. I mention this on a regular basis. You see it throughout Paul's epistles. He stresses over and over and over again the importance of unity, of the body of Christ being unified. In other words, the people in this room being on the same page, having the same goals in mind, the same purpose in mind, the same focus in mind, the importance of unity. And the Bible says, only by pride cometh contention. When you have disunity, it is inevitably a result of pride. Now, you say, Pastor King, I stand for what the Bible says, and if somebody else doesn't, that's their problem. You're right about that. I'm not talking about compromising biblical standards and convictions and doctrines. What I am talking about is in those areas of preferences, and hang-ups and different things like that of understanding, hey, the people here are my brothers and sisters in Christ. We're part of a family. He stresses, first of all, unity. Second of all, purity. And can I say, if we all have purity as a focus, unity will be a lot easier. If we all have a desire for purity, and if we're all working to live a pure life, It makes unity much easier. Then he talks about love. We're to walk in unity, walk in purity, walk in love. Again, Wednesday nights we've just been over that unfeigned love. Talking about that, and Paul addresses it quite a bit in his epistles. To walk in the light. You see in chapter 5, verses 7-14, Walking in the light and then walk in caution, you know, we need to be careful We need to walk in the light that makes it a lot a lot easier to walk in caution when you're walking in darkness It's pretty hard to keep yourself from getting in trouble But when you walk in the light By was his walk in the light is he in the light we have fellowship one with another unity it results from walking in light Then in caution we need to be careful and in harmony you say aren't harmony and unity the same thing in a lot of ways they are But there's something about let me give you an example you can have Four people singing in a singing group that are all singing in unity, but not necessarily in harmony But there's something about when you get them all singing in harmony and that makes the unity that much sweeter. Hey, we can all sing together, and we can all sing the same words, but when we all get on the same notes, that makes it much more beautiful. The importance of harmony. So then you see letter B, to war. It's our duty to walk, and it's our duty to war. Number one under that. We are at war with the enemy, with which we are fighting. That's talked about in chapter 6, verses 10 through 12. And then, we're familiar with chapter 6, verses 13 through 17, the equipment with which we are fitted. The whole armor of God. What do we need armor for if we're not going to battle? We are in a battle. We're in a war. And then, Chapter 6 verses 18 through 24 the energy With which we are filled, you know, there's something about a lot of people that try to go to war there There are Christians today that are going to war In their own strength in their own energy and you know what happens They get burned out they get war out they get beat down Because they're doing it in their own strength See, I just don't I just can't do this anymore. I you weren't meant to do it by yourself from the start. And when you struggle in that way, it's because you're trying to do it by yourself. Then just some miscellaneous things through the book. You see we have six chapters there, and just a one-word summary of each chapter. Chapter one, you have blessings. Chapter two, you have the body. Chapter three, you have the building. Chapter four, our behavior. Chapter five is the bride. And chapter six is the battle. Just some helpful things that help you as you go through the book of Ephesians a lot of Wonderful things in there for for a church as a whole but also for each of us Individually as Christians, let's pray Heavenly Father. Thank you for this morning Thank you again for the opportunity to be in church Lord. I pray that you would Take these truths and help us to apply them to our lives individually and corporately God I pray that you'd bless the morning service in just a few minutes and We'll be sure to give you the praise and glory for all that you do. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.