the doctrine of god

Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on 1 Corinthians 12:13. The main subject of the sermon is how Christians share in one baptism in the Holy Spirit and how they are filled by the Holy Spirit.

Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on 1 Corinthians 12:7-13. The main subject of the sermon is the place of prophecy and spiritual gifts today.

Introduction

This morning as we continue in our study on spiritual gifts, I'm going to zero in on the gifts of prophecy and healing to try to understand those spiritual gifts. As I do, I think about this season of the year, and I think about the Christmas hymns that we sing and how many of them mention fulfilled prophecy in reference to the birth of Christ. One of the clearest is a hymn written by Charles Wesley in 1744, "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus," one of my favorites. And he wrote it with these words, "Come Thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free, from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee. Israel's strength and consolation, hope of all the earth Thou art. Dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart." Well, why was Jesus long expected by the Jewish nation? Well, it's because God told the Jews through the prophets that He would come and He gave many details of the birth, and the life, and the death and the resurrection of Christ through the prophetic gift. How prophets with the eagle eye of prophecy were able to look down through the long corridors of centuries before they even happened, were able to give us details. A supernatural vision ahead of time, even centuries ahead of time of what the Messiah would be like.

The Gift of Prophecy Distributed To Many

This gift of prophecy was given to many different individuals, at many times in various ways. One example is Balaam, who's a fascinating study in prophecy, and he spoke of the coming of Christ in this powerful visionary kind of language. In Numbers 24:17 he said, "I see Him, but not now. I behold Him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob. A scepter will rise out of Israel." So there's that visionary work of the prophet, how he can see the Messiah who was to come, a star rising up out of Jacob, but He was not near, He was far away. Seven centuries before Christ was born, the same kind of visionary gift was given to the prophet Isaiah and he spoke with these powerful familiar words, Isaiah 9:6, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders, and He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." These words are sung in Handel's Messiah and in other hymns, and sermons that are preached. Seven centuries before Jesus was born, that level of clarity on the incarnation was given to Isaiah the prophet. At the same time as Isaiah was prophesying, another prophet, Micah, predicted the exact location where Jesus would be born. In Micah 5:2 it says, "But you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, although you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel," listen to this, "Whose origins were from of old, from ancient times." And so the origination of Jesus was before the foundation of the world, in the councils of the Trinity of the Father, Son, and Spirit.

But little by little, God, through the Holy Spirit, paid out some information through the prophets, so that Jesus was long expected. This stunning ability to see the future, this prophetic gift sets Christianity apart from every other religion in the world. God alone has the power to see the future. He's the only one that can do it, He's the only one who knows the future, only God and those to whom God reveals the future and those who believe those revelations.

God makes His boast in Isaiah the prophet over against the false gods, and goddesses, that Israel was wandering after in Isaiah's day. And God challenged those gods to a duel. And the contest would be a prediction of the future. Listen to what He says in Isaiah 41, "Bring in your idols to tell us what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were so that we may consider them and know their final outcome. Or declare to us the things to come. Tell us what the future holds, so that we may know that you are gods. Do something, whether good or bad, so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear. But you are less than nothing, and your works are utterly worthless. He who chooses you is detestable." In other words, God challenges the gods, the idols, to a duel and He knows they can't succeed.

God’s Sovereignty to Determine the Future

Now the reason that no one but God can foretell the future is that God is sovereign over the future, He's sovereign over everything that happens on planet Earth. And as the Book of Proverbs says, "Many are the purposes of a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." And so, if individuals predict the future and God says, "Yeah, no, it's not going to happen," then it's not going to happen. There's a clear example of this in Isaiah 7, where the kings in the area are conspiring to topple the Davidic seed, the son of David that's on the throne in Jerusalem, and they're making all these plans and schemes, and God says, "It shall not take place, it shall not happen."

Conversely, He says of Himself in Isaiah 10, "The hand of the Lord is stretched out and who can turn it back?" When God decrees to do something, no one can stop Him. That's why God alone knows the future, He also knows the end from the beginning, and the beginning from the end because He is eternal. So what that means is that prophecy and fulfilled prophecies in particular, have always been the centerpiece of our presentation of the Gospel to unbelievers. It's the center of our apologetic, our defense of Christianity. Fulfilled prophecies set Christianity apart from every other religion in the world. There are no Muslim predictions of the future. There are no Buddhist predictions of the future, no Hindu predictions of the future. The cults that tried to predict the future, failed and should have ended that day. I speak of the Jehovah's Witnesses that predicted at different times the end of the world. Didn't happen. I would think that would end it, but it didn't. So the ability to predict the future rests alone with Christianity.

Christianity’s Fulfilled Prophecies

Josh McDowell in his apologetic book, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, speaks of the fulfilled prophecies around the life of Jesus from His birth through His life to His death. There are 61 prophecies that Josh McDowell lists. Sixty-one! The theme of promise fulfillment was central to the way that the apostles presented the Gospel in the synagogues, trying to persuade unbelieving Jews to cross over into faith. Again and again, they would point to the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. They learned this promise fulfillment approach from Jesus Himself. As Jesus began His public ministry in Nazareth, you remember the scene, how the scroll of Isaiah the Prophet was found. He opened up the place in Isaiah 61 where it says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor," and after reading that prophecy rolled it up and set it aside and sat down. And He said, "Today, in your hearing, this Scripture is fulfilled." Now you can imagine how electrifying that must have been there in Nazareth that Jesus was claiming to be the long-expected Messiah. Promise and fulfillment.

So that's how God has used prophecy in the past to identify Jesus as the Christ, the Savior of the world. Born the son of Abraham, in fulfillment of prophecy. Born the son of David, in fulfillment of prophecy. Crucified with His hands and feet pierced, in fulfillment of prophecy. Raised from the dead on the third day, in fulfillment of prophecy. And since that time, the Gospel has spread from Jerusalem through Judea, Samaria to the ends of the earth, in fulfillment of prophecy. And we still have more prophecies to come, especially the second coming of Christ, so Jesus is still the long-expected Jesus, He's the long-expected Savior. One of the last things Jesus said to us through Scripture is, "Behold, I am coming soon." And so, we've been waiting for 20 centuries, and we still wait for the fulfillment of that prophecy.

Dealing With the Charismatic Gifts

Now, what does all this have to do with spiritual gifts? Well, we've been trying to answer one of the more perplexing questions that faces Evangelicals, and it's been divisive in Evangelicals and it has to do with the sign gifts or the miraculous gifts, some call them the charismatic gifts. And the question is: Are all of the gifts listed, that you heard Topher read about a few minutes ago, that you read about in 1 Corinthians 12, are they all still active today, or have some of them ceased? We zeroed in specifically on five in particular, the gift of prophecy, the gift of healing, the gift of miracles, speaking in tongues and the interpretation of tongues, these are sometimes called the sign gifts.

Last week I traced out the history of the Pentecostal movement and the charismatic movement, beginning in Topeka, in 1900, Topeka, Kansas, and then in 1906, at the Azusa Street Revival, and we traced out how Pentecostalism, the movement of Pentecostalism grew. And then a subset of that, the Charismatic movement, similar but different in some ways, grew and spread, and we talked about how widespread in the world it has been and it is. Probably at this point, over 600 million Pentecostal plus charismatics in the world. It's hard to be an evangelical at any length of time without bumping into this issue and questions that arise. And so the goal for me here is to do the best I can, as I did last week, in seeking to address that question. The divide in Evangelicalism between cessationists, which are people who believe that the Scripture teaches, and it's clear that these sign gifts have ceased. So they're cessationists. Versus, broadly speaking, continuationists would be the opposite, that those gifts continue. And there are different flavors really of both.

Now last week, we walked carefully through 1 Corinthians 13:8-13, which is the clearest text on the end of the gifts. And it does say that the gifts will end. It says, "Where there are prophecies, they will cease. Where there are tongues, they will be stilled. Where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfection comes, the imperfect is done away with or passes away." “Imperfect” is not a great translation. The “partial,” the “in part” would be a better translation there. And so, we walked through that. And what I sought to do last week is show that this is clearly talking about the Second Coming of Christ, an eternity in which we will see God face-to-face. And that level of knowledge of knowing God face-to-face, that's decisively what Paul's saying, when the gifts will cease. So rather than teaching I think a clear cessationism, it actually points more clearly to continuationism, but that leaves some questions in front of us, and those are some of the questions I want to seek to answer today, some practical questions.

As we address this gift of prophecy, let me just lay out my cards on the table as I've thought about it. This sermon like last week's was a work in progress right until the time I walked up here, so I have no desire like last week to be a fog machine here, pumping out uncertainties and “inclarities”. That's not even a word, "inclarities." Anyway, you know what I mean. What I'm trying to do is help you think through how you would address this scripturally.

Four Convictions Concerning Prophecy

So these are four convictions I have right now about prophecy. Number one, the New Testament points to a kind of prophetic gift that is less authoritative than scripture. That's a key divide between, let's say, me and a cessationist. Number two, I believe there is not sufficient scriptural clarity or evidence to support a hard cessationism, to make the absolute statement, “Prophecy cannot happen today.” I looked at the clearest Scripture that they have 1 Corinthians 13, and I don't think it's clear enough. To be that ardent and clear, I think, is not helpful. Third, this kind of prophetic gift, if it still functioned today, would be very helpful in our lives, both for personal holiness and for the spread of the Gospel. But now hear me clearly, on this fourth point, unless and until, an individual predicts the future and that prediction comes true, I will not know, and I don't think the church can know that that person's a prophet. And that would make me very different than most continuationists. I think it's reasonable to expect a prediction of the future in order to mark someone as a prophet.

The Gift of Prophecy

The Beginning of the Office of Prophet

So let's walk through this, let's talk first about the beginning of the gift of prophecy and where it started in the Old Testament. The first time the word is used, it's used of Abraham, in that rather scandalous encounter he has in Girar, remember when he lied about his wife, said “She's my sister,” not a great moment for Abraham. And the king of Girar wanted to take her as his wife, and God came to him and warned him in a dream, and then said this to him in the dream, "Now return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, he will pray for you, and you will live, but if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all yours will die." So that's the first time and the actually the only time the word prophet appears in the book of Genesis. However, it definitely appears in the Exodus and beyond. And the key moment there, let's skip ahead to the key moment, and that's Mount Sinai.

At Mount Sinai, God descends in fire on the top of Mount Sinai. There's a terrifying earthquake, there is this unearthly supernatural darkness, and God descends in fire on the mountain and begins to speak to the people, and the people are utterly terrified of God's voice. God speaks the Ten Commandments to the people in the hearing of the people. Deuteronomy 5 talked about that moment, Deuteronomy 5:23-31 says this, "When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, all the leading men of your tribes and your elders came to me and you said, 'The Lord our God has shown us His glory and His majesty, and we have heard His voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even if God speaks with him. But now why should we die? This great fire will consume us and we will die if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer. For what mortal man has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire as we have and survived? Go near and listen to all that the Lord our God says, then tell us whatever the Lord our God tells you. We will listen and obey.' The Lord heard you when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me, 'I have heard what this people has said to you. Everything they said was good. Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commandments always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever. Go tell them to return to their tents. But you, stay here with me so that I may give you all the commands decrees and laws you are to teach them to follow in the land I am giving them to possess.'" Well, that is the formal beginning of the office of prophet in the nation of Israel. This is the beginning of the office.

Later in Deuteronomy 18, He makes it clear that that office would continue after Moses was gone. In Deuteronomy 18:15-20, it says, "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers, you must listen to him, for this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, 'Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore or we will die.' The Lord said to me, 'What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account, but a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death."

So that clearly establishes the opening of the office of prophet, and also what the nature of the work was. The prophet would effectively stand spiritually in the presence of God, God would teach the prophet the words to say and the prophet would then deliver them to the people. That was the essence of prophecy. That pattern continued. Throughout the history of Israel, God raised up what He called "My servants, the prophets," and they would come and they basically would press, effectively press the Mosaic covenant onto the consciences and the hearts of the Jewish people and show where they were failing to keep it. That was the centerpiece of their work, although they did other things. And so God would speak, and this prophet would listen.

You see this pattern with the little boy Samuel, remember that when God was raising him up to be a prophet, and he was sleeping in Eli's house and he heard God speaking to him, and he had to be instructed to say these words, "Speak Lord, for your servant is listening." And so that was the essence of the prophecy, and the prophet, the office of prophet. And so, he would hear the word of God and he was like a table waiter, bringing the words that God spoke directly to the people. It says in 1 Samuel 3:19, "The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground.” So he successfully delivered to the people everything that God told him to say. So, again and again, we have these individuals who hear God speak words and then speak those exact words to the people. 

Jeremiah 1:4-7, "The word of the Lord came to me saying, 'Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet, to the nations.' 'Ah, Sovereign Lord,' I said, 'I do not know how to speak, I'm only a child.' But the Lord said to me, 'Do not say I am only a child. You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you to say.'" And then a verse later it says, "Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, 'Now, I have put my words in your mouth.'" So that's the essence of that prophetic gift, was delivering clearly and directly the words of God to the people. And there were a variety of prophetic communications. Hebrews 1:1, which I already quoted, "In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways."

Now, many of the prophets were commanded to write down the things that God had committed to them, though not all. Elijah and Elisha, there's no record of them writing down any of their prophecies. But Jeremiah and Isaiah were commanded to write them down. And so we have the written word coming from this prophetic gift.

How to Identify Prophets: The Fulfillment of Their Words

Now, the key issue for our purpose today is the question of how can we know that this person is a prophet? It was an issue then and it's an issue now. And so, it was raised in Deuteronomy 18:21-22, "You may say to yourselves, 'How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?' If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him." So in other words, if they make a prediction that does not come true, that is a false prophet. That is a person who has not spoken in the name of the Lord. And so fulfillment of predictions was the marker of the prophet. We see this in Jeremiah's time.

You remember how all of the false prophets were saying to the kings of Judah, that Nebuchadnezzar wouldn't even come? But then he comes, and he takes over most of Judah, and Jeremiah is saying, God is bringing the Babylonians as a judgment. Your only hope is to go out and surrender, which was not very popular with the fighting men on the walls. He looked like a traitor, but he was given the word of the Lord to say. And when it started coming true exactly as Jeremiah had said, he pointed to that and separated himself from the false prophets. He said to the king of Judah, "Where are your prophets who said he wouldn't even come?" The Babylonian king wouldn't even come. There was a false prophet named Hananiah, who predicted that there would be an exile once Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians had come and started to win battles. It's like, "Okay yes, there's going to be an exile but it's going to be really short.” Jeremiah predicted 70 years. And this is what Jeremiah said to Hananiah, the false prophet, "The prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the Lord only if his prediction comes true." There it is again, it's the same pattern every time. This is is how we know. Ezekiel 33:33 says the same thing, "When all this comes true, and it surely will," I love how the prophet says that, "When all of this comes true, and it surely will, then they will know that a prophet has been among them."

A Description of Prophets

Alright, so my own description then is an Old Testament prophet is an individual called by the Lord, who is appointed by God to speak His words directly to the people. He would say, "Thus says the Lord," and everything that followed was the word of God directly to the people. The prophets didn't only predict the future, they didn't even mostly predict the future. There was forth-telling, "Thus says the Lord," and He would uncover the sins and the wickedness of the nation. But it inevitably involved some prediction of the future so that the people could know that the individual was a prophet. And so, he would say directly the words of God. To disobey those words was equivalent to disobeying God Himself.

The Yearning of Moses and the Prediction of Joel

Now, Moses in his day, yearned that all of God's people would be prophets. He says that in Numbers 11:29, "I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put His Spirit on them." Now, Joel predicted, maybe not a universal gift of prophecy, but a widespread expansion of the gift of prophecy in the new covenant. In Joel 2:28-29, it says, "And afterward I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days."

Well, the day of Pentecost came. Jesus had told them to wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit, and as they were assembled there in the Upper Room, 120 of them waiting for the Lord to give His gift, suddenly there was a sound of a terrifying powerful wind, and they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them, and all of them began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them." And a crowd gathered because of the sound of the wind, and because there were many there for the feast of Pentecost, they were all gathered, and so the apostles streamed out into the streets, they had no fear of the Jews at that point, no fear of being arrested, they had a mission to proclaim the Gospel, and so they did. Peter, speaking on behalf of the apostles, preached a message. Now, the people were deriding them, they were mocking them and saying, “They're drunk.” Peter said, "These men are not drunk as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning." I think that's humorous, anyway. "This is that which has been spoken by the prophet Joel."

By the way, someone wrote a book on interpretation of prophecy, This is That,  that's the title of the book. What it is saying is this thing that you're seeing is that which was predicted, it's that promise fulfillment motif. That's exactly what he says, this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, "In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days and they will prophesy."

The Cessationists Understanding of the New Testament Prophets

Now, the cessationists as they look at New Testament prophecy, they effectively say that's what prophecy is and only that, it's scripture-level prophecy. And they rightly say, I agree with them, that the Canon is closed and there is no more scriptural-level prophecy coming. That once the book of Revelation came, that all of that type of perfect revelation which is written down, the perfection of scripture has ended. You remember the end of the Book of Revelation, where these words are written, this is the very end of the Bible pretty much, "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his portion in the Tree of Life and in the holy city, which are described in this book." So he says, this book is a book of prophecy, and you can't add anything to it and you can't take anything away from it. But it's interesting that it's positioned at the end of the last book of the Bible, and so many Christians think that it also is speaking a word in general about adding to or taking away from the Bible, the 66 books of the Bible, saying those days are over. We have the Canon. And I think that's actually not a bad way to look at it.

Now the gift of prophecy was functioning in those days in ways, however, that we don't fully understand. It wasn't just scriptural-level prophecy. The apostles are listed first, then prophets in verse 28, "He gave first of all, apostles, then prophets.” I've tended to see the prophets as the Old Testament prophets, and I don't have any problem with that, but there are clearly New Testament prophets at work in the church at Corinth and in other places. It says in Ephesians 2:20 that the Church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone.

Now cessationist John Stott says this about that, "The simplest knowledge of architectural construction is enough to tell us that once the foundation of a building is laid and the superstructure begins to be built, the foundation cannot be laid again. So in the primary sense of prophets as vehicles of direct and fresh revelation, we must say that this charisma, spiritual gift, is no longer given. There is no longer anyone in the Church who may dare to say, 'the word of the Lord came to me' or 'thus says the Lord.'" I think aspects of what Stott says there are true.

Are There Different Types of New Testament Prophets?

We don't look for scripture-level prophecy anymore, but are there different types of prophecies? Are there different aspects of the gift? This is the point of division between cessationists and continuationists on the gift of prophecy. Wayne Grudem, he's a continuationist, cites a number of examples of the gift of prophecy that's lower than Scripture.

For example, Acts 21:4, some disciples urged Paul through the Spirit, that is by the gift of prophecy, not to go to Jerusalem. But Paul disobeyed and went to Jerusalem anyway. If New Testament prophets spoke with an authority equal to that of Scripture, Paul would not have disobeyed it. So, that's one example. Other examples come in with what we call the weighing of prophecies. Alright, 1 Thessalonians 5, 1 Corinthians 14. 1 Thessalonians 5, it says, verse 19-22, "Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophecies, but test everything. Hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.” And then 1 Corinthians 14:29, "Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said." Wayne Grudem says this, "We cannot imagine that an Old Testament prophet like Isaiah would say, 'Listen to what I say and weigh what is said, sort out the good from the bad, what you should accept from what you should not accept.' It's just a different kind of prophetic gift," says Grudem.

There's also other examples of prophecy which I don't really even understand what they're about. For example, 1 Timothy 1:18, it says, "Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you so that by following them, you may fight the good fight of faith." I don't know what prophecies were made about Timothy. I don't know if we would call them scriptural-level prophecies, or what, just something it seems about his teaching ministry or his gift, but just we don't know what it is. Also this one is very interesting to me. Acts 21:9, "Philip had four unmarried daughters who prophesied." I know nothing about those ladies. I don't know what they said. I don't think that their prophecies made it into Scripture, they just had a gift and they used it. So I don't really know. There's just things that we don't know.

Now sometimes the prophets gave direct guidance concerning the Great Commission. Clear example of this is in Acts 13, "In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul," so that is Paul. "While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.' So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus." So I don't think it's too much to say that it was the prophets who spoke under the influence of the Holy Spirit that said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for this missionary work." And so that would be an example of how the prophetic gift would give a clear guidance of ministry and missions that people could do. And that's why I say if it were still to function like that, it'd be very useful or helpful. So, prophesy didn't always function as predictions about the future but a form of communication of the mind of God.

Prophets also have the ability back then, in the church at Corinth, there were various people with the gifts. We would not say they were all speaking at Scriptural-level prophecy, but they just had a gift. And it's interesting, it says, "If an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all. And the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, 'God is really among you.'" So there's some aspect of the prophetic gift that was at work in the Church at Corinth, which would uncover and lay bare secrets of hearts so that people are convicted and come to Christ.

An Analysis of the Facts

Now Wayne Grudem has an interesting idea of prophecy which I don't share, but I'll just share it with you. How could someone be a prophet and still speak imperfect words? So he says that God gives a revelation to the prophet, and the prophet then puts them into imperfect human words. So the idea is true, but the articulation is different. I have a hard time accepting that because it seems that the verbal communication has always been of the essence of the gift of prophecy, but that would be a discussion we would have. So, if prophecy does not actually literally contain the word of God for us, word-for-word, then what is it? And how is prophecy different today from let's say preaching or teaching? One of the Puritans, William Perkins, wrote a book called "The Art of prophesying." But you shouldn't go get it, it's probably free online. You can read the PDF and it's like I want to be a prophet. Read it, it's just about preaching, friends. It's how people like me should preach, and so they make it equivalent, prophesying and preaching. I don't think that's helpful. I actually just think prophesying and preaching and teaching are different. Grudem thinks so too, I think they're different.

With preaching and teaching, you're taking the written Word of God that we all have, and you're walking through it, and explaining it through rules of exegesis and theology and applying it to people, that's the gift of preaching and teaching. Prophecy is just "Thus says the Lord," and you say it. Or, according to Grudem, a revelation, and you try to articulate that revelation. Grudem says preaching and teaching is more authoritative than that type of prophesying. Well, let me give you my analysis. I think Grudem brings up some interesting points. I'm not ready to say that prophecy doesn't exist anymore, but I have serious questions. I want to know why it is that many of these continuationists set aside my requirement that the prophet, or prophetess, because God uses women too, needs to predict the future before the Church knows that they are prophets.

It's always been there. There are examples of New Testament predictions. Agabus predicted a famine that would come over the entire Roman world. And like in the days of Joseph, they got ready ahead of time for the famine and set aside stores for it because they believed that Agabus was predicting the future. Why couldn't we require that of prophets today? What ends up happening, I've heard, in some of these churches like Sovereign Grace churches, or some of these other charismatic churches, is that they'll have open mics. And if you want to know what's the application, we're not going to see open mics anytime soon. Just, that's a prediction, but it's not a prophecy, it's just kind of a judgment that I'm making. But what happens in these Sovereign Grace churches, and I had this confirmed even a week ago, I talked to somebody who used to attend there. So you would go up and you would talk to the elder and they would filter it, because they were really trying to follow the New Testament prescriptions. want to weed out anything wacky or strange that would be said. And what ends up happening is the prophet or prophetess just ends up doing scriptural exhortation.

“The Lord is saying to us that He is our Shepherd and that we shall not want, and that he makes us lie down in green…” I'm like, friends if you just want to read Psalm 23, read it. That's not a prophecy. Or to say the Lord wants us to be active in evangelism. Again, I do that as a preacher, but I'm not claiming prophecy. “The Lord is saying to all the members, all the men, the married men in this church, that you are to love your wives as Christ loved the Church and you're to lay yourself down…” It's like, look I actually think that's even harmful to call that prophecy because I don't know that the Spirit is saying, that there's a specific deficiency in the husbands of the church that this is an area of emergency that needs a prophetic word. So it's better to just say the Scripture says this, it's binding on all of our consciences, but don't call it a prophecy.

However, if someone is willing to come along and make a prediction and we mark that person as a prophet, then I think we could listen, if they were to say something like a 21st century version of, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." What is that work? X, Y, and Z. I think that would be powerful if God wants to do that, but He first has to mark the person with a clear prediction. What I call, this is very geeky, but here it is: Independently verifiable prediction of the future that then gets verified. Don't predict something that's going to happen in seven centuries. Because how can we know? It has to be verified by fulfillment. And that's always been the rule.

Prophecy in Church History

Now, has anything like that happened since then? Well, Church history gives us some interesting insights. I want to tell you a story of a Viking raider, that was converted by a prophecy. This is fascinating, this man, his name was Olaf Tryggvason, he lived a thousand years ago, over a thousand years ago, born in the year 963, died in the year 1000. He eventually became king of Norway. He was a viking. Viking was more of a verb, it was like a raider, and he went up and down the coasts of England plundering and killing and doing all the stuff vikings would do. But he was anchored at one point in a place called the Isles of Scilly, that is how you pronounce it, off the West Coast of England. And there was there a Christian hermit who was known to be a prophet. In other words, his reputation as speaking predictions that came true was established. Well Olaf was interested in that. He knew a lot about Christianity, but he was not a Christian. So he decided to test this guy, and he sent one of his tall men to pose as himself to the hermit. The Hermit saw right through that. He said, "You are not the king. And the advice I give you is to be faithful to your king."

Well, the man went back, and then Olaf went in person and sought him out and asked if he, Olaf, would attain a kingdom, a kingdom. The hermit replied with a holy prophecy, "You will become a famous king and work famous deeds, you will bring many men to the true faith and to baptism, and in so doing you'll benefit both yourself and many others. And lest you doubt my answer, let this be taken as a token. When you return to your ships you shall encounter a band of traders, and you will yourself receive a mortal wound, and be borne on your shield to your ship, but you'll recover from this wound within seven days, and you'll be baptized soon thereafter." Now, that's a very clear prediction. Well, when Olaf returned to his ships, the events occurred just as the hermit had foretold, Olaf then believed he was a prophet, Olaf then visited the hermit and asked where did he get the wisdom that he could foretell the future? The hermit said that it was the God of the Christians who alone knew the future and who told him all that he was anxious to know. He told Olaf of the many miracles of God, he shared the Gospel with him clearly, and he persuaded Olaf to be baptized. And Olaf and all his men were baptized there. He went on to be the king of Norway. You can look it up.

The Gifts of Healings

Alright, on the gifts of healings briefly, we don't have much more time. Paul speaks interestingly in verse 8-9, he speaks of the gift of healing, in Verse 9, he says, "to another faith, by the same Spirit, to another, gifts of healings," gifts of healings. All of the English translations make gifts plural, but they all make healing singular. It's odd, it's actually double plural, gifts of healings. Therefore, it could be that they're just different kinds of healings and healing ministries that go on. They're not all of the same sort. Now, for us, you could say, I heard John MacArthur in a sermon on spiritual gifts say, "If I could have one gift I don't have, it would be this gift, the gift of healing." And I think anybody who's been to an ICU, anybody that's been to minister to sick people, hurting people, injured people, you know why he says that. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to lay your hands on somebody and pray for them and have them healed? And that would be a remarkable thing.

Jesus Healing Ministry Unmatched

No one in all of human history, no one, has had the gift of healing like Jesus. The apostles did not have Jesus' level of healing. Huge crowds went to Jesus and He healed everyone of every disease, there was nothing He could not do. And as a matter of fact there were huge crowds because of this healing gift. You understand why. When you're sick and dying, or someone you love is sick, and dying, it's top priority for you to get that addressed. And we see a number of individuals that are urgent to get the healing, like the royal official in John 4, and the Syrophoenician woman, all they want is to be well or have their loved one well. We understand that. Now, here's the thing: Disease and suffering and accidents and pain, all of that leading to death, is part of the fall in Adam, it's part of the final enemy, what Jesus, what Paul calls the final enemy: Death.

Jesus in one sense, banished illness from Palestine for a brief three-year period, but everyone He healed eventually died of something. The gifts of healings, were in some smaller measure committed to the apostles, but they didn't have the same level. Paul left Trophimus sick in Miletus. He gave Timothy counsel about his hurt stomach about not drinking water from a well anymore, but taking wine, so that he wouldn't have these microbes I guess. He didn't heal him, he just said, manage it in this way. Paul himself had a thorn in the flesh, which the Lord chose not to remove. There is in some sense a diminishing of the miraculous gift of healing. However, I don't believe that I can say like an ardent cessationist that there are no miraculous healings anymore. And, frankly, in my 21 years here, I have seen again and again and again, remarkable answers to group prayers.

God Answers Prayers for Healing

It says in James 5:14-15, "Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him, and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise him up." So many of us have had people that we know that have had very serious diagnoses, and are prayed for, and they go back and there's just remarkable evidence of healing and there's no medical explanation, and so we've seen that again and again. Now is that the gift of healing? I'm not up here to say it is or it isn't. Imagine if there were a brother or a sister that just had a heart for sick people and loved to pray for them, and followed James 5 and went and prayed all their life, again and again, sick people and saw many people healed. Certainly it's different than Jesus who never failed to heal somebody, but it's more similar to how the apostles sometimes left people sick. And so, I cannot say, like I'm a kind of a black and white cessationist, that that kind of gift doesn't happen. I am skeptical of public healers like TV-type people, as we all should be, because we've not seen organic diseases healed by those individuals. But I think we have seen, there's many testimonies of organic illnesses healed in answer to group prayer.

And to have a brother or sister that might want to be in those groups again and again, and has seen multiple healings to look over 20 centuries of Church history and say that couldn't happen, I'm not ready to do it. So where does that leave us? I don't know, it leaves me out of time. What I would say is that I cannot go with the cessationist scripturally and say that these gifts have certainly ceased, but I have pretty serious questions about some continuationists and the way specifically the gift of prophecy functions. And so, at least for me, and I'm going to commend it to you, dear church, to require prediction of the future for somebody to be identified as a prophet. And if they won't do that, I'll just welcome them as giving me good, sound, scriptural, Christian exhortation. Does that makes sense? 

Prayer

Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank You for the time we've had to study Your word. We thank You for its complexity, its depth, its power. I thank You for the gifts of the Spirit. Lord, as I'm going to say in two weeks, God willing, the ordinary ministry of the Spirit is sufficient to do so many things, and I pray that as in the end we understand spiritual gifts we'd realize that the non-controversial gifts that are going on all the time, that everyone agrees are so powerful and so sufficient to finish the work, but that there may be advancements of the power of the Spirit that we should seek that is often called revival, that we should seek Your face, and ask You would pour out afresh and anew Your Holy Spirit, that we might be empowered to share the Gospel with people who need to hear it so much, and that we be empowered to do all the good works You have for us to do. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Andy Davis preaches a verse by verse expository sermon on Revelation 3:7-13. The main subject of the sermon is the faithful but weak church in Philadelphia.

Introduction

Please turn in your Bibles to Revelation 3:7-13 as we look at the sixth of the seven timeless letters that Jesus gave to the first-century churches.

Since the beginning of human history people have marked the passage of time in various ways. God Himself set the celestial beings — the sun, the moon, and the stars — in the heavens as the first time pieces. Their celestial motions still keep time for all of creation. It says in Genesis 1:14, “And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years.’” This rhythm of the passage of time was established right from the start: “There was evening and there was morning… the first day…; there was evening and there was morning, the second day…”

At some point human ingenuity and technology took over. Increasingly sophisticated and elaborate means of marking the passage of time were developed: water clocks, candles with gradations, sundials, pendulum clocks with escapements, Swiss watches with exquisite internal gears and mechanisms and springs, quartz watches, digital timepieces, up to the latest technologies that use electronic and even atomic mechanisms to keep time with precision and accuracy. With our smartphone apps and other technology, we have no excuses to be late: it has become more and more possible to keep perfectly synchronized time throughout the day. I say to all preachers, “Teach us to number our minutes that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

What is time, really? Physicists call it the fourth dimension; science fiction writers fantasize about time travel; philosophers meditate on the significance of time in human culture; various cultures mark time in different ways; aged people in nursing homes wonder where all the time went and marvel at how quickly it passed.

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s book The Hobbit, the creature Gollum engaged with Bilbo Baggins in a duel of riddles. Gollum tried to stump Bilbo with this riddle: “This thing all things devours: Birds, beasts, trees, flowers. Gnaws iron, bites steel, grinds hard stones to meal. Slays kings, ruins town and beats high mountain down.” The answer to the riddle, of course is time: Time devours all things. Time kills birds and beasts and trees and flowers; all living things eventually die; they pass away as though they never lived at all. Time gnaws iron until all that is left is a pile of rusty powder. Time grinds the hardest stones down along the ocean side; the relentless pounding of waves over centuries erodes the rocks until they are erased entirely. Time slays both kings and commoners alike; their glory fades like the flowers of the fields — here today and gone from all memory tomorrow in a blink of an eye. Time ruins towns and cities alike; they rise up, up, up from the dust of the earth through human technology and ingenuity and energy and drive, but then they eventually reach their peak and they sink back down into the dust from which they came, covered over with layers of silt and sand and clay, some to be discovered centuries later by archeologists. Time even wears ancient mountains down; wind and rain efface the hardest rock until it is gone.

Obviously Gollum had a very dreary view of the effects of time. However, though everything under the sun eventually does wear down, grinds down, dies or comes to an end, yet in and through Christ, time itself has been redeemed. The days of our lives have been redeemed to an eternal purpose.

The biblical way for us to understand time is to equate it with opportunity. Opportunity, otherwise known as time, is a specific set of providential circumstances orchestrated by God that will never happen in that exact way again. Today, this day, this Sunday is unique, and with this particular day comes a unique set of opportunities. These opportunities worldwide are for the church of Jesus Christ to do eternally significant things. These things will be eternal because there is something in the universe that is not wearing down by time, not aging, not past its prime — actually has not even reached its prime yet. Every day makes it more and more glorious, more and more lofty and grand, more and more intricate and detailed, more and more beautiful and massive.

I am speaking of the church of Jesus Christ. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, “On this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overcome it.” Death cannot stop this glorious worldwide building project of the church. It is growing bigger and more glorious and more elaborate and more intricate all the time. Every day, by the sacrificial loving works of the children of God, it rises. We know from Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” At the end of that same chapter, Ephesians 2, Paul sets before us this vision of the rising church of Jesus Christ built by those same good works. Ephesians 2:21-22 says, “In Him the whole building [the spiritual structure] is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.” This is an incredible, eternal building project.

At the end of the book of Revelation, we have a picture of the final product of all of those centuries of labor. In Revelation 21:9-11, the angel said to John the Apostle, “‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a Jasper, clear as crystal.”

Thus, every day that we live is special, unique. It is specially crafted, prepared in eternity past by the mind of God, who is sovereign in wisdom and who has a perfect plan and all power to effect His plan. You are a part of it; so am I. He gives us works to do every day that will shape some specific aspect of the beautiful, magnificent Church of Jesus Christ by our Spirit-filled labor. That is the work we have to do. Time, then, is daily unique opportunity to do something eternally significant to build the Church of Christ with our life of faith and our knowledge of the Word of God. Today is opportunity.

In Revelation 3:8, Jesus speaks these amazing words to the church at Philadelphia: “Behold, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.”

I hope to show you that, as with the other letters we have studied, we should read this statement made to a church almost 2000 years ago as a timeless, living, active Word to us today as a church. This letter urges us to walk through the open door of opportunity to serve the Living God, to build the Church of Jesus Christ through evangelism and missions, spiritual gift ministry, acts of service, discipleship, prayer, the ministry of the word. Today is one of a limited number of days, each one unique as an open door of opportunity for us to walk through.

I. Christ the Sovereign King Addresses His Church (vs. 7)

Let’s review to get our bearings. We are looking today at the sixth of seven letters that the resurrected, glorified Jesus Christ, the Lord of heaven and earth, the Lord of the Church has given as timeless instruction to all of his churches. The Apostle John was in exile on the isle of Patmos. He was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day when he heard a voice behind him. Turning, he saw a vision of the resurrected, glorified Christ moving among and ministering to seven golden lampstands, which we are told represent seven churches (the number seven being a number of perfection and fulfillment) for which He had individual messages. In His right hand He held the stars of these churches, which were the messengers, or pastors, of the churches. Some scholars believe that there were actually seven messengers from these churches in exile with John but that they would be set free to go back to their churches. Others hold that the letters were going to be sent. Regardless, these were literal churches in space and time and history, but they also represent what Christ has to say universally to every local church in every generation. At the end of each of the seven letters, he says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

What Makes these Seven Letters So Precious

Jesus is speaking to us today through this letter that he spoke to this actual church of Philadelphia so many centuries ago. Each of these seven letters begins with, “These are the words of…” followed by some amazing description of Jesus Christ, the Lord, the king of the church walking among them and ministering to them. Usually they begin with words like, “I know you, I know your deeds, I know your circumstances, I know your challenges, I know your successes, I know your failures.”

That is what makes these letters so precious. They give us a glimpse into the mind of Christ as he cares for us as a local church and show us the glory of the One who wrote them. The specificity of His knowledge of us, the fact that He knows us completely reminds us that we cannot hide from Him. He knows and searches us with His eyes of blazing fire. Nothing is hidden from Him, and He speaks words of wisdom and timeless commands to us. I believe each church should read all seven of the letters as though they were a powerful message to us. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Jesus is speaking through the Holy Spirit to us today by means of this letter.

Christ’s Unique Self-Description

In this particular case, the sixth letter to Philadelphia, the circumstance of Christ’s self-description is unique. Typically, He takes some aspect of the vision that John had in Revelation 1 and cites that as a descriptor of Himself. However this time he does not do that. He goes instead back to the pages of the Old Testament.

Verse 7 says, “These are the words of him who is holy, who is true, who holds the key of David, who opens and no one can shut, and who shuts and no one can open.” He begins by declaring Himself to be the One who is holy. “Holiness” means separation. God alone can make this assertion, because God’s holiness is different than the holiness of any of the created beings. God certainly has a perfect separation from all evil and wickedness. He is holy in that regard, just as the holy angels or the holy saints are separated from evil. That is true. But beyond that, God is also infinitely separated above all created things. He is infinitely above all of creation, and so He is the Holy One.

His holiness is so powerful, such an awesome attribute, that it seems to be the focal point of much of heavenly worship. Like the Seraphim in Isaiah 6:3 who cannot stop singing, calling out with loud voices about the holiness of God: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty… the whole earth is full of His glory.” They are holy in themselves, separated from all evil — there is no evil in them; they have never done anything evil. But they are celebrating in triplicate the holiness of God their Creator, the Lord. The living creatures before the throne cry the same thing in the next chapter in Revelation 4:8, “Day and night they never stop saying, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.’”

Jesus’ identification of  Himself as the Holy One is a claim to deity. Jesus possesses undiminished holiness. He has not only perfect separation from evil in and of himself, but also perfect separation from all creatures as King and Lord over all creation.

He also calls Himself “the one who is true.”  Jesus claims to be the one who is true. If something is true, it lines up accurately with reality — either spiritual reality or physical reality or both. It is authentic, genuine, real in the heavens and on earth.

Satan, by contrast, has crafted his evil empire with lies. He lied to himself about his own power and his own capability when he thought he would ascend to Heaven in Isaiah 14 and take over the throne of God. In addition, he lied to the angels who fell with him, who joined with him in his rebellion in Heaven. Revelation 12 tells us that they were cast down and are now called demons. He lied to Adam and Eve at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, saying, “You will not surely die.” Since then, he has lied to every sinner who ever lived; he has built a worldwide empire of sin, all of it based on lies. Jesus said in John 8:44, speaking of Satan, “[The devil] was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

But everything Jesus has ever said is perfectly true, and it flows from the source of all truth. Jesus is Truth and speaks truth. He appears to be powerful because he is powerful. He appears to be glorious because he is glorious. He appears to be sovereign and in charge because he is sovereign and in charge. He appears to be alive after being crucified because he is alive. It is all true. Jesus is holy and true. He himself is the Truth.

He HAS the Key of David

He also says that He has the key of David. The word “key” designates authority. He has the right to open and shut. He has the right to unlock and swing a barred door wide open; and he has the right to slam a door shut and lock it. He said in Revelation 1:18, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” He holds the keys of death and the grave.

Specifically here the “key of David” means he has the right to sit on David’s throne. He is the son of David, predicted to come and reign over all human beings. He is the Son of Man, the son of David, the Anointed One, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. All of that was predicted to be the son of David — David was the focus of the promises God made to place a human king over all humanity. The very first thing that the New Testament teaches us about Jesus is found in Matthew 1:1, a very brief “… record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham.” This is included to show that Jesus is the heir to David’s throne, has the right to David’s throne. But Christ’s throne, unlike David’s, which was real but temporary and symbolic of future glories, is eternal and glorious in the Heavens. For all eternity he will sit on that throne. He has the Key of David.

Furthermore, He has the right to open and close doors. Look at verse 7:“What He opens, no one can shut, and what He shuts, no one can open.” This is a statement of absolute, infinite power and authority. He controls the doors of Heaven and earth. If Jesus wanted a door open, and Satan and all of his demons and all of the wicked men and women on earth joined together to close that door, it could not be closed. If he opens the door, it stays open. Conversely if Jesus wanted a door shut, none of those combined powers could do anything to wedge it open even an inch — it would be shut with immeasurable power and authority. If He shuts a door, it stays shut. “What he opens, no one can shut, and what he shuts, no one can open.” In this way, Jesus has controlled the flow of human history as well as entrance into Heaven itself. “The king’s heart is like a water course in the hands of the Lord. He directs it whichever way he pleases.” He opens doors and their wickedness flows in a specific direction and not in other directions to achieve His purposes. This is the way He is sovereign over wicked people who do not even acknowledge him. He is opening doors and water flows. Their nature is evil, but it will flow in a specific direction. This is how he has controlled human history.

Beyond this, He has the right also to determine who will and who will not enter the kingdom of heaven. That is the most important door. He is the doorkeeper of the Kingdom of Heaven. He says in Matthew 5:20, “I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” You may think, “What right does He have to make that statement?” He has all rights. He has the right to open and the right to shut. And he said the righteousness of the Pharisees and Scribes is not enough for heaven. Even further, He said to His own disciples in Matthew 18:3, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” He said to Nicodemus, “Unless you are born again, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” He has the right to make these assertions.

If Jesus shuts the door of heaven, no one can open it, like Noah’s ark in the days of the flood: when the door was shut, everyone on the outside perished. The hand of God alone had the right to shut that door and say, “No more can enter the ark.” Similarly, the Five Foolish Virgins in Jesus’ parable were not ready when the bridegroom came. They ran off to get oil for their lamps, arrived back too late and found the door closed. They banged on the door and cried, “Let us in, let us in,” but they were not permitted. “I never knew you. Go away,” they were told, and the bridegroom would not let them enter.

He has the right to determine who has access to the throne of Almighty God, the right to draw near to God and address Him. As I got up here to pray, I was struck again with the privilege of prayer. It is a great privilege for sinners like us to have access into the throne room of God. Jesus controls that access. It is by him alone that we have access to God. It says in Hebrews 10:20 that we enter into the throne of grace “by a new and living way… that is his body”, only by the death of Jesus. It says also in Ephesians 2:18, “For through [Christ], we both [Jews and Gentile believers] have access to the Father by one Spirit.” He is the door by which we enter into the presence of God.

As we have seen, then, Jesus describes Himself as holy and true and having the key of David, and he has the authority to shut and no one can open and he has the authority to open and no one can shut — He is the one who is talking to us today by the Spirit. Don’t you want to hear what he has to say to this church? I do.

II. The Church at Philadelphia: Small but Faithful (vs. 8-10)

Christ’s Unmixed Commendation

What does he say to the church of Philadelphia? He begins in verses 8-10 with this word: “I know your deeds. Behold, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars — I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth.”

“I know your deeds…” He always begins with this. He starts with the fruit of the tree, with the works — by our fruit, He will know us. Make a tree good and its fruit will be good; make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad. A tree is known by its fruits. Jesus starts with the deeds, the works. In this case, He actually says nothing about their deeds, good or bad. We do not know anything about what the did; instead, he speaks of the challenges they are facing, specifically from unbelieving Jews, which I will address in a moment.

He says, “I know you have little strength…” This is an accurate evaluation of the church, not a criticism in any way. “Oh, church, you have little strength; you are weak.” But they know it, and that is their spiritual strength to some degree. They are not boastful about what a great church they are; they are not a dominant part of the city of Philadelphia; they do not have a massive footprint in the life of that pagan place. But they are a faithful outpost, a colony of heaven, a refuge for those seeking true salvation, right there in Philadelphia.

The Church seems to have been small in number, not very influential, probably comprised of lower classes of society. It reminds me of what Paul said to the Corinthian church (1 Corinthians 1:27-28): “Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential, not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things… the weak things… the lowly things… the despised things of this world… — and the things that are not —[to exalt His own power and glory,] to nullify the things that are.” They were a church of small strength. When you know and acknowledge the simple truth that you have little strength, you can tap into true power, the infinitely greater strength of Almighty God working through you.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “… for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” To clarify and expand this verse to its full meaning, I would add, and I think Paul would agree, that when I know I am weak and feel myself to be weak and confess my weakness to God in prayer, that is when I am truly strong. Thus, Jesus says, “I know you have little strength…” A church that knows that apart from Christ they can do nothing is a strong church — perhaps the most powerful it can be in this world.

He says, “You have kept my word, and have not denied my name.” That gives a sense of the persecution and the opposition that all these churches were going through. There has been a constant pressure. Maybe they were not facing the same level of persecution as Smyrna, nor perhaps even maybe like Ephesus, but they were under opposition and they persevered, did not give up, did not forsake the name of Christ. They refused to cave in.

He says, “You have kept my command to endure patiently…” We are in a race which we are called to run to the end with great endurance. We are to be bold in our witness, to persevere in a hostile environment. Jesus said in Matthew 10:22, “All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” The author of Hebrews tell us in Hebrews 12:1 that we are to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and… run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” This faithful little church refused to drop out of the race, refused to quit; they kept his word, his command of endurance.

III. Christ’s Provision: The Open Door and Protection

The Open Door

Now we come to verse 8: “Behold, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.” We have already discussed Jesus’ sovereign power over the doors of Heaven and earth. He holds the key of David, and what he opens, no one can shut. He says, “Behold,” which gives the idea that He is unveiling something that we have not heard before: “I will show you something you did not realize: I have set before you an open door. I am giving you an opportunity, and no one can shut it. No demon, nor Satan himself, can shut it. No human ruler can shut it.”

What is this open door He is referring to? It could be just the door of salvation — the right to enter Heaven through Christ, who is the door. In Matthew 7:13-14, He said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many, enter through it, [enter hell]. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” We could see it as the open door to Heaven.

But I think here in Revelation, this “open door” goes beyond salvation. It is a door of opportunity, of work, to serve Christ, to do specific good works that will build His kingdom. Paul uses this kind of expression in 1 Corinthian 16:8-9: “I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.” We should think of the open door first and foremost as opportunities for the external journey of evangelism and missions, to share Christ. This door is open into dark places to shine the light of the Gospel where it has not been shining before.

Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 16 gives us amazing insight into the nature of the open door. Paul was excited and motivated to stay on in Ephesus, because, number one, God had opened a great door of effective work for him. And number two, “I am excited to stay here because” “there are many who oppose me.” Many enemies translates to staying where he is…? Wait a minute… that does not sound like an open door… But yes, it is; apparently, the open door and opposition are not mutually exclusive.

So we must ask again, what is the open door? We should think of it first and foremost in terms of human hearts, the hearts of the elect. One of those in Philippi who listened to the apostle Paul preach the gospel was a woman named Lydia. She was a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira. Acts 16:14 tells us, “The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.” There is your open door. It is elect people who are hearing the gospel and coming to faith. Paul requested similar prayer in Colossians 4:3-4: “And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.” The open door is about the Gospel message and opportunity and people responding to it. Paul’s prayer also reflects the need to ask for the boldness to step up and move through that open door.

The open door represents God’s sovereignty over circumstances and providential indicators that the church should move in that direction for evangelism and missions so that the word of God may flourish there. When Paul and Silas did not know where to go next and were prevented by the Holy Spirit from going up into Asia Minor, they had a vision of a man of Macedonia saying, “Come over and help us.” That sounds like an open door to me. All the other doors were shut. They could not go anywhere else, so they had to go to Macedonia.

Let me give you some examples from church history. In 1949, Douglas MacArthur was ruling over the rebuilding of war-devastated Japan. He urgently called for 1,000 missionaries to come and preach Christ there — this is a matter of recorded history. He said, “Japan is a spiritual vacuum and if we do not fill it with Christ it will be filled with communism.” You might think that was an wild and speculative prognosis, but look at what happened in Korea. Just across a short strait of ocean from Japan, that country went almost 100% communist before the Korean War. Now, it is half Communist. So it was a big threat. What was the remedy? According to Douglas MacArthur, the preaching of the gospel of Christ was the solution. Many Christian workers from many different denominations looked on that as an open door: “If the potentate of Japan says we need missionaries, I am getting on a boat.” Many Southern Baptist missionaries went there to rebuild churches and preach the Gospel and do all kinds of works in Japan.

The Japanese pastor whom Christi and I worked with in a church planting effort in Japan was an 82-year-old godly Christian man named Kubo-sensei. This man, Mr. Kubo, had been in the Imperial Japanese Army and fought against the Americans and the British in the islands and in the Philippines. He contracted malaria, which saved his life and his soul. He went back to Japan to be healed and convalesce and was there when the war ended. It saved his soul because his unit was involved in a battle and the Japanese units generally fought until there were no survivors. So he would have fought until he was dead and would not have known Christ. But in 1950, Southern Baptist missionaries came to Takamatsu and led him to Christ. It was an open door for him, for them to come do work. He walked with the Lord from 1950 on. (He never spoke a word of English to me. I had breakfast with him every Wednesday morning, and we sat there in silence for the first few weeks until I thought to myself, “I’d better get going on my Japanese.”) What a great open door that was.

Throughout the history of missions, Christians have walked through similar open doors of opportunity to advance the Church of Christ. Again, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 16, “There is a great door of openness for the Gospel in Ephesus and also great opposition.” Since the open door by definition means people are coming to Christ, Satan responds generally to that event by mobilizing forces to persecute and shut that church down, if it were possible. We can see the rhythm of much fruit leading to much persecution leading to much fruit. Paul calls that an open door.

After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the Eastern Bloc countries were open for the first time in more than a generation to missionaries. Christian workers flooded into that area, and the Gospel spread rapidly. Many came to faith in Christ. The backlash is now coming: recently, especially in Russia, there has been more of a crackdown; it is becoming more difficult for evangelicals to share the gospel in Eastern Europe. We see openness and we see persecution.

We are also seeing the backlash from the activities of Islamic extremist groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS create an open door. A tremendous disaffection is building in the hearts of many nominal Muslims who express that if that is what orthodox Islam is, what being a “good Muslim” looks like, they do not want any part of it. There is a book about this theme called Leaving Islam. Those who are leaving are not necessarily going to Christianity, but they are considering options, and missionaries are frequently there to share the Gospel.

There are open doors in refugee crises where missionaries and others are serving in tent communities to people who are disconnected from their home culture, separated from their home religion and society, desperate and open to hearing a message of hope like never before. Pray for open doors for the spread of the gospel.

The Opposition

In verse 9, Jesus speaks about the opposition that the church of Philadelphia was facing. He says, “I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars — I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge I have loved you.” This is the second time in these seven letters that Jesus has spoken of the synagogue of Satan, meaning people who claim to be Jews but are not, first to the church at Smyrna, and now to this church at Philadelphia.

According to Jesus, particularly in the Gospel of John, that physical descendants of Abraham who call themselves Jews but reject Jesus as Messiah are not truly Jews. That is Jesus’ attitude. John 8:39-44 tells of a conversation between Jesus and His enemies. “‘Abraham is our Father,’ they answered. ‘If you were Abraham’s children,’ said Jesus, ‘then you would do the things Abraham did. As it is, you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.’ They protested, ‘The only Father we have is God Himself.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father you would love me, for I came from God… You belong to your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire.’” That is a very strong statement, but it is Jesus’ assessment of Jews by physical descent who do not accept Him as Messiah.

Paul said the same thing at the end of Romans 2:28-29, “A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.”

Jesus says it straight out in Revelation: “They are not really Jews. They claim to be Jews, but they are a synagogue of Satan. But I will cause them to come to you, oh Gentile converts to Christ, to fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.” This image would have been very familiar to any careful, zealous, Bible-reading Jew. They had in mind that that was what would happen with the Messianic reign over all the Gentile kingdoms. Messiah would spread the kingdom of David and of Solomon as far the ends of the earth, and their enemies would come lick the dust of their feet — a picture of conquest, of the total humiliation of enemies. It says in Isaiah 49:23, “They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground; they will lick the dust at your feet.” Isaiah 60:14 says, “The sons of your oppressors will come bowing before you; all who despise you will bow down at your feet and will call you the City of the Lord, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.”

Jesus is using the same image. He is saying, “Actually, the shoe is on the other foot. The unbelieving Jews will come to you Gentile believers in Christ, and will fall at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.” It is a picture of vindication from the persecution that they were suffering.

Protection Through the Hour of Testing

Verse 10 is a promise of protection from suffering: “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth.” Jesus is promising to protect this faithful church in or from the hour of testing that was in the future, that would come on the whole earth. This is a fascinating and challenging promise. Let me start with a simple approach, then I will add a little more complexity. Jesus will protect his church: they will not fail, whatever test this is; they will endure through it and make it to the other side because of his sovereign protection. That is His simple promise.

What is the hour of trial that will come on the whole world to test those who live on the earth? The Book of Revelation depicts “the Great Tribulation”, a terrible seven-year period of suffering that will come right before the Second Coming of Christ. The words “keep you from” have been carefully analyzed. Some scholars believe that there will be a secret rapture in which the Lord will come like a thief in the night to rescue His Church out of the world before the Great Tribulation. That may well be. Others see it more as a promise to protect his people in the midst of, not out of or out from, the Great Tribulation — somewhat like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who had a bubble around them when they were thrown into the fiery furnace. The Church will be in the trial, but it will not harm them, at least to a degree. These scholars see Christ as saying, “I will keep you through it; I will make a refuge for you in the midst of it.” The exact translation for this interpretation hinges on the Greek, which I will not burden you with. Suffice it to say that they will be protected from something.

It is possible He is talking about death as the trial: “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” Isaiah 26:19-21 gives a beautiful picture of this: “But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.” [That is all about the resurrection of believers.] Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until His wrath has passed by. [That is interesting — perhaps this indicates that the church will go through the suffering but not be harmed by it in any way. God has always been doing that.] See, the Lord is coming out of His dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will disclose the blood shed upon her; she will conceal her slain no longer.” That harmonizes well with what is depicted in the Book of Revelation. I cannot say whether or not Revelation 3:10 is teaching the secret rapture, but it would be an interesting discussion. But we do know that Christ makes sweet promises to His faithful church in Philadelphia: an open door, fruitful ministry, vindication from their bitter enemies, and protection from the overwhelming trial that will sweep the whole earth.

IV. Christ’s Command: Hold Fast to What You Have (vs. 11)

The Promise of the Second Coming: I AM COMING SOON

In verse 11, He commands them, “I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have [or hold fast], so that no one will take your crown.” First, we have the promise of the Second Coming. “I am coming soon.” That word “soon” has been standing over every generation of Christians for 2,000 years. This should not trouble us, because “with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” (2 Peter 3:8) And according to Psalm 90, a man’s life is like a mist that appears but is gone by the evening, or like an evening watch that it is quickly finished. Either way, He is coming soon. At the very end of this book, in Revelation 22:20, John says, “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” John wrote that around 90 AD, saying, “Amen. You are coming soon. Come, Lord Jesus.” Every generation of Christians has had a sense of the imminent return of Jesus Christ, as well we should.

Christ’s Command: HOLD FAST

Next, He says, “Hold on to what you have until I come.” This is clearly a call to courageous perseverance in the face of mighty struggle. What is it we have? To begin with, we have doctrine. We must hold on to Christian doctrine, to the Gospel. Jude writes to urge his fellow Christians “to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.” 2 Thessalonians 2:15 says, “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.” “Hold on to this brothers and sisters, hold on to what you have. Scripture, the truth of the gospel, faith, doctrine — hold on.”

Further, let us hold on to Christ. Hebrews 4:14 says, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.”

Perhaps He is also saying, “Hold on to your crown.” The crown may possibly mean the crown of eternal life. James 1:12 says, “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.” At the end of a hard life of fighting the good fight, of running a marathon race, finish the race and keep to the faith until the end: “Hold fast and I will give you the crown of life.” Or the crown may refer to specific rewards for serving Christ faithfully. Paul said to his converts in Thessalonica, “For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when He comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy.” — “You are our crown.” Whether the crown of eternal life or specific rewards, we are to hold fast.

V. Christ’s Promises: A Crown, A Pillar, A Name

Christ promises a crown, a pillar and a name. Look at verses 12-13: “Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name. He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” As with each of these seven letters, the conquerors are rewarded. The ones who overcome, who fight and win, who stand firm to the end, do so by the power of the Spirit and by the blood of the Lamb.

Rewards

What rewards were theirs? Besides the crown implied in verse 11, he also says, “I will make [him] a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it.” Remember that I said there is one work that grows more glorious, bigger, grander, more radiant every day, with every generation,. That is the Church of Jesus Christ. Here he is promising the conquerors, the overcomers: “You will be a pillar in that temple.” A pillar is a symbol of stability and permanence and security; it bears glory and honor in the intricate, beautiful decorations on its crown. This pillar that Christ speaks of is strong and beautiful in its privileged place in the eternal spiritual heavenly temple of God, and the overcomers will never leave it.

In Isaiah 56:3-5, God speaks to the Gentiles, the foreigners, the people from other nations who would eventually come to Christ: “Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the Lord say ‘The Lord will surely exclude me from His people.’ And let not any eunuch complain, ‘I am only a dry tree.’ For this is what the Lord says: ‘To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant — to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.’” There is the marvelous consistency of the word of God! Isaiah 56:5 speaks to the exact thing Jesus is promising. He will make the Jew and Gentile believers in Christ who overcome and run this race with endurance a pillars in His eternal temple, and they will never be cut off.

Also, He imparts a sense of His total ownership: “I will write the name of my God on you. He will be your God and you will be his people. I will write the name of the New Jerusalem, the Bride of Christ on you, and also my new name” — the name of Jesus Christ himself. Revelation 22:3-4 says, “No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve Him. They will see His face and His name will be on their foreheads.” Complete, indisputable ownership.

VI. Applications

Understand the Significance of TIME

First, understand the significance of time. I am not talking about the mindless tick-tock tick-tock of a timepiece marking the passage of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years. I am talking about opportunity, about redeeming the time. What makes today special? You should ask that every day. This is the day the Lord has made. Ask Him, “What good works have You crafted for me personally? What open door have You set before me that I should walk through it? What opportunity does today bring for me to serve You?”

If you are not a Christian, there is only one work for you on this day: to believe in Jesus. God gave you the opportunity to come here today to hear the Gospel. Let me say it clearly: God, who made Heaven and earth, is ruler over all nations. He put just laws in place by which we are to live our lives: the Ten Commandments, the two great commandments — to love God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself. All humans have violated those laws. We have sinned against Almighty God. The wages of sin is death, not only physical death, but also for eternity in hell. It is no more than we deserve.

But God, in His mercy and love for us, sent Jesus, born of a virgin, who lived a sinless life and did signs, wonders, and miracles that established him as the Son of God. Most important, He died a substitutionary death on the cross in our place. Our guilt was put on Him and He died. His righteousness is given to us as a gift, and we live even on Judgment Day.

If you will only repent and trust in Christ, you will have eternal life. That is the Gospel. Today is an opportunity for you to walk through the door of Christ into salvation. Jesus said in John 5:24, “…whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” Today you have the opportunity to cross over. In 2 Corinthians 6:2, God is saying this to you: “‘In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” Also He says in Isaiah 55:6, “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.”

For You Christians… SEEK THE OPEN DOOR!!

For you Christians, I say this: Seek an open door. Ask God, “Where have You placed me that I can I be a witness for Christ? What unique opportunity do I have to reach the particular people that I will encounter today? What door have you set before me that I'm supposed to walk through?” Wherever you are in your vocation, you have a mission field with your co-workers, many of whom are unchurched. We have opportunities every day.

Ask the same for our church. We live in one of the best places in the world, the Triangle, for an evangelical church. People are pouring in from all over the country. They come to live here because of mild temperatures, economic opportunities, myriad reasons. We are among the few Bible-believing, Bible-preaching, evangelistic, fervently active churches in this area. And we, with our sister churches, are called to reach the people who are pouring into this area.

Pray for more open doors. Pray for doors to open in these new expensive apartments and condominiums that are rising around us in downtown Durham. Those who will move into these will be people who generally make more money than we do and who will generally not have the same world view that we have. Pray for an open door, for a chance to meet some of those people.

Think about the underserved parts of the community: African Americans, Latin Americans, refugees, undocumented aliens. That is a door of opportunity for us to share the Gospel. Think about unreached people groups like the Gujarati in Morrisville. Think about people flooding into this area from all over the world — perhaps you cannot reach them in their country, but they are here now. We can reach them with the Gospel. Ask God, “Set before this church an open door of opportunity and let us walk through it.”

Ask the same thing with missions. Let us continue to be a missions-minded church. You sent me to Cameroon last week — thank you. We will be sending short-term mission teams to East Asia and other places. Support those teams financially, pray for them, get to know those who are going. Give financially to the Great Commission Fund. Spiritually adopt unreached people groups and pray for them — for people in North Africa, in the Middle East, in Muslim countries — that the door of the Gospel would be opened for them.

Closing Prayer

Close with me if you would in prayer. Father, we thank You for the chance we have had to look at this incredible letter to the church at Philadelphia. Help us to take to heart its encouraging message and to be strengthened in the good works You have for us to do. Thank You for the Gospel, for our Lord Jesus who, at infinite cost to Yourself, by His blood, by His body, opened a door, a new and living way for us into Heaven. Father I pray for those who are lost, who have come here outside of Christ, that they would hear and take to heart the Gospel. Help us as a church to be fervently active in spreading the Gospel, both in evangelism and in cross-cultural missions for your glory. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

I. Introduction

I'd like to invite you to turn in your Bibles to Revelation Chapter 3. We are looking this morning at verses 1-6, Jesus’ warning to the church at Sardis.

John MacArthur, in his exposition of these verses, used an illustration that has stuck with me. I would like to begin with it. He talked about the phenomenon of distant starlight. Physicists tell us that light travels at a constant rate: 186,000 miles per second. Because this universe is so vast, cosmologists have invented a unit of measurement called the light year, which is the distance that light travels in a year; the math works out to 5.88 trillion miles a year. Because stars are so distant from the Earth, it takes that distant starlight many years to travel to the Earth. The light of every star that we see twinkling in the night sky was actually sent toward the Earth many, many, years ago, maybe even centuries ago. For example, the stars that make up the Big Dipper, which is the most famous constellation, range from 78 to 123 light years away from the Earth. That means that the next time you stand and look up at the night sky, at the Big Dipper, you are looking back in time. You are looking, for the most part, at starlight that began its journey earthward over a century ago. It is possible that some or many of the stars in the Big Dipper no longer exist — perhaps one or two of the stars in the handle or in the drinking gourd part are already gone. We do not know, nor will we know with certainty until that star goes dark. Though a star may not exist anymore, the light has been traveling all this time and has not reached us yet.

MacArthur used that as an illustration for the church at Sardis. In Revelation 3:1, Jesus said to this church at Sardis, “I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” They were living on past glories, past starlight. They were walking around with the appearance and reputation of life, but they were in reality dead. They were a dead church. We can liken it to taking a tour of an archaeological site in Europe or in the Near East. For example, we can see the Parthenon or the Acropolis in Athens, or the Colosseum of ancient Rome that is still there today. Those structures provide of vigorous, wealthy, powerful empires, still, to some degree, living off the reputation of past deeds. The faded glory of a dead empire.

We say appearances can be deceiving, but nowhere is that more true than in the spiritual realm of churches, in dealing with the genuine spiritual state of both individuals and churches — appearances can be deceiving. It is possible for an individual person or a church to appear to be alive spiritually, but actually be dead. The Puritans called such an individual a “Gospel hypocrite.” The word “hypocrite” actually is related to the Greek word for “actor,” referring to someone who puts on a mask. When it comes to the Christian Gospel, it refers to a person who goes through the forms, the outward motions of Christianity, but inside is spiritually dead.

Jesus spoke to the Scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23:27-28, saying, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside, are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous, but inside, you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” The same thing can happen to a church as a whole. It can be living on past reputation of spiritual vitality, but inside, there nothing going on spiritually; there is no vitality. The church is dead.

Christ’s words to this dead church stand as a timeless warning to all churches, in all locations, throughout all time. Any church can turn at some point in its history from a vibrant witness, healthy doctrine, and a loving community of saints that is reaching out in its world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, courageously embolded. They can turn and begin a decline towards spiritual deadness, toward death as a congregation. That church might still have a reputation as being a “great church”, but like Samson shorn of his hair, who did not realize that God had left him and taken away his power, so also, this church at Sardis, did not know that their reputation had far outlasted their actual spiritual life.

This is a practical problem all over America. Previously vibrant churches are dying or have died. I drive by churches like that every time I drive here, even churches that First Baptist Church planted decades ago. Some of them have a name and a reputation, but they are dead. Their time has passed.

One poll shows that between 8,000 and 10,000 local churches die every year, while only about 1,000 new churches are planted every year. You have heard this morning about the Annie Armstrong Offering for North American Mission Board. They work to plant churches. Among other entities, those are included in the 1,000 new church plants, a fraction of the number dying every year. Why? Why do so many previously flourishing local churches die? That is a question that today’s passage will lead us to consider.

Thom Rainer wrote a book a couple of years ago called Autopsy of a Dead Church. That is a potent image, isn't it? This book stands as a warning to living churches, as Jesus said to the small remnant within this dead church at Sardis in Revelation 3:2, to, “Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God.” Using this image, then, this morning we will do the sad work of visiting a cold morgue to see the coroner pull out the corpse of a local church, the church at Sardis, and hear the description of how that corpse died. We will look into the face of such a church so that we can be warned, we can be revived, we can be revitalized ourselves as a church, renewed in our zeal for Christ.

We will ask the Lord to search us and know our hearts and show us if any spiritual necrosis is creeping its way through our soul. We will be moved, I hope, with a healthy fear of this happening to First Baptist Durham, and, by God’s grace, will seek to avoid the same fate as the church at Sardis. This is the implication in the final statement in all these letters: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” It is unwise for any church, no matter how healthy and vibrant, to read this letter to Sardis, and say, “Well, thank God that is not us. There is nothing we need to hear concerning this. There is no warning for us. We are fine.” That would be the worst way you could listen to these six verses.

The most powerful tool in the hands of Almighty God for the building of the church of Jesus Christ is a healthy local church, led biblically by godly elders, passionate for the glory of God, preaching the Gospel, proclaiming the Gospel with courage in its community, discipling one another toward holiness and Christ-likeness. That is a fearsome weapon in the hand of God against the spiritual forces of evil; Satan knows this, so he is fighting the battle all around the world at the local church level. Thus, this issue of spiritual deadness is something that we must face. We must study why churches die, and even more, how they live, how they are fruitful, so that FBC can continue to be a weapon for the glory of God in the salvation of lost sinners.

II. Christ Describes Himself: Holding the Seven Spirits and the Seven Stars

Let’s begin with Christ’s description of Himself. For review, in Revelation 1, the Apostle John, in exile on Patmos, had a vision of the resurrected, glorified Christ moving among seven golden lampstands, which is a symbol, interpreted for us in that chapter, of Jesus’ active ministry to local churches around the world. These seven represent the number of fullness or perfection. Jesus is similarly engaged and active in every genuine local church around the world. He is conducting a priestly ministry. In Revelation 2 and 3, he writes letters to each of these seven churches and addresses their conditions. These were real churches that were active in John’s day, but the lessons in each of these letters are timeless. Each of us is warned and encouraged comes to listen to all seven letters, to take to heart these things.

These Are the Words

He begins, as he always does, with verse 1: “These are the words of Him who…” referring to the words of Christ by which He seeks to remedy what is wrong. The link between Christ's words and spiritual life is obvious throughout the New Testament: In John 5:24, Jesus said this: “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my Word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life, and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” In the very next verse, John 5:25, Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.” Do you see the link between Jesus speaking and dead people coming to life? He has that kind of power. It says in John 6:63, “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” And Moses said in Deuteronomy, “These are not idle words for you; these are your life.” That is the link between Jesus’ words and life; Revelation 3:1 is referring to these words.

In the same way, Jesus yearns to speak life into the deadness of the church at Sardis. It reminds me of the powerful image in Ezekiel of the dry bones: The Lord commanded the prophet Ezekiel, “Speak, prophesy to the dry bones and tell them to live.” There is a process, which you can read it in Ezekiel 37, but boils down to this: “As the Word is proclaimed, and as the Spirit moves like a wind, these dead bones come to life.” There is a link between the proclamation of the prophetic Word of God and the activity of the Spirit in bringing individuals from death to life. It is only by the words of Christ that the spiritually dead come to life.

Him Who Holds the Seven Spirits and the Seven Stars

How does Christ identify Himself? Look at verse 1: “These are the words of Him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.” As I have pointed out before, in every one of these seven letters, Jesus identifies Himself by some aspect of the vision that He gave to the Apostle John in chapter 1. Christ, the resurrected, glorified Son of man, is moving through the seven golden lampstands, representing seven local churches, but also the totality of all of the local churches around the world, ministering actively. And it's a clear picture of His constant, vigilant, active ministry to every local church around the world. He actively knows about and cares about all of His churches.

To the church at Sardis, He describes himself as, “Him who holds the seven spirits of God.” How do we understand “the seven spirits of God”? It must refer to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. We know this, because in Revelation 1, Jesus uses the same expression in a clear Trinitarian formula. Revelation 1:4-5: “Grace and peace to you from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come, [that is God] and from the seven spirits before the throne, [that indicates the Holy Spirit] and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the Earth.” There, He gives us a Trinitarian formula, so the seven spirits must in this case as well refer to the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

We have it again in Revelation 4: “Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God.” And in Revelation Five: “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the Earth.” These verses make it very clear that “the seven spirits” refers to the Holy Spirit of God.

Why would the person of the Spirit, who is usually referred to in singular form, be referred to as “the seven spirits”? I do not know for a fact. As we go through Revelation, I will say again and again, “I don't know.” You can come to me later if you disagree with my studied guesses and possibilities for interpretation, and I will say, “I don't know. What do you think?” There is so much symbolic imagery here, interpretations for which we cannot look to the back of the book in an appendix for the answers — this is the back of the book. And the back of the book asks and creates more questions sometimes than giving answers. There are so many unanswered questions. It is a difficult book to interpret.

For this expression, I see good evidence to suggest that we should look at it as the seven-fold Spirit of God, rather than seven individual spirits. Some scholars link it to Isaiah 11, which gives seven designations of the Spirit. First, talking about the anointing of the Messiah, Jesus: “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him…” This is followed by three couplets of two each; three times two is six, plus the Spirit of the Lord, adds up to seven. Isaiah 11 says: “The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, and the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.” In other words, these are seven effects of the activity of the Spirit on Jesus. The number seven is the number of perfection, so we would look on the Spirit’s perfect and powerful effectiveness in bringing about God’s plan. Thinking in terms of the Spirit of God in that way makes sense in our passage in Revelation.

The church at Sardis is dead. The evidence of that deadness is a lack of obvious activity of the Spirit of God there. The problem is made manifest by the fact that there was no encounter with the Spirit of God in the life of the church. The Spirit gives life: a Spirit-filled church is alive, crackling with energy. Spiritual energy is defined by the Word of God: the Word of God is powerfully proclaimed. The worship of God is energetically flowing; the people are passionate about it. The fruit of the Spirit is obvious in the people: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness. The power of the Spirit is on them for bold, risky proclamation of the Gospel in their community and to the ends of the earth. All of these things are produced by the Holy Spirit. Thus, it is the Spirit of God alone who can revive a dead church. It is because the Spirit of God was grieved through sin and quenched in some way that the church has grown dead.

How does Jesus hold the seven spirits of God? This does not indicate ownership. Rather, there is an intimate connection between Jesus and the Spirit of God, in terms of His messianic ministry. He was Messiah (Hebrew) or Christ (Greek), same idea, meaning “anointed.” His anointing, it is clear, was with the Holy Spirit — in other words, the Spirit came upon Jesus. It says in Isaiah 61:1, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.” There is a strong connection between Jesus and the Spirit.

Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert and was tempted by the devil. He returned out of the desert filled with the Spirit. This is a great picture for those of us who face temptation: Enter the temptation filled with the Spirit; leave the temptation filled with the Spirit. It says in Luke 4:14, “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through the whole countryside.” Peter, to Cornelius, said in Acts 10:38, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him.”

At the end of Jesus’ ministry, He promised His disciples that He would pour forth the Holy Spirit of God from the Father — the Father and the Son together pour out the Spirit. John the Baptist said in Luke 3:16, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” And Jesus Himself said, “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, He will testify about me.” The Spirit comes from the Father, through the Son, to the churches. Jesus holds the seven-fold spirit of God because it is in His power to pour out His Spirit on the church.

He also holds the seven stars. The seven stars represent seven messengers of the churches — some interpretations say they are perhaps pastors or preachers. A godly proclamation ministry sets the tone for the entire life of the church. I believe the most significant thing that happens in the life of any church is the preaching of the Word. It does not matter who does it; what matters is what is preached. You can measure the health of the church, first and foremost, by the preaching ministry, and then all the things that flow from it. He holds the seven stars in His right hand; He owns them and He protects them.

Who Was the Church at Sardis?

We do not know much about the church at Sardis. It was probably part of the church planting movement that started out of Ephesus. This movement is mentioned in Acts 19:10, where it says that the whole region heard about the Word of the Lord because Paul was there for two years. He and those with him were sending out teams of people throughout Asia Minor, and we can assume that all seven of these churches were planted in that way. Sardis the city has a long history that you can look it up.

III. Christ Presents the Shocking Diagnosis to the Church at Sardis

Christ diagnoses the church at Sardis and He says, “You are dead.” “I know your deeds. You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” It just, even now, that brings chills to me, goose bumps. Imagine Jesus saying that to a church.

How Does He Know?

Jesus knows this by looking at their deeds. He can read their hearts, but even on the surface, He sees the deeds, the fruits — dead. There is always a link between the heart — the nature — and the fruit. “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good.” All Jesus has to do is look at the deeds. Revelation 3:2: “I know your deeds; you are dead.” “I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God.”

Some years ago, as many of you know, I built a tree house. That is where I write my sermons and practice them. It is a place of prayer for me. I had big plans for this tree house. It was going to be a big tree house — someone who knew my plans once called it the Taj Mahal of tree houses. It has a baseboard heater and a picture window, and all kinds of cool things in it. But when I put the first board in it, a 2x10, I secured it to a tree with a lag screw that was 5/8 of an inch in diameter and 5 inches long. That thing was not going to move. It had a sheer strength of something like 150,000 pounds, and I drove that screw right into the heart of the tree. Apparently, the tree didn't like it. In the following months and years, the tree did not flourish. Finally, in spring a few years ago, I was anxiously looking at this tree, which was holding up one quarter of the tree house, and there were no leaves at all, nothing. I had killed the tree. I knew by looking for evidence of life. Over the next two years, the tree gradually rotted, until soon after, I realized the tree was dead. I put in two 4x4s to support the tree house, and I think it will be fine, but that tree is gone, literally gone. It rotted straight down and is entirely removed. The way I knew, is just by looking for evidence of life.

The same principle is going on here: there is no life, no evidence. It says in John 15:2, “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit,” and those branches are collected and thrown into the fire and burned. That is a picture of hell. There are works that show life, and the works that mark a healthy, living church are obvious, as we have already mentioned: clear and powerful proclamation of the Word of God from the pulpit; vigorous, spirit-filled worship; committed, sacrificial, loving community among the members of the church; bold, consistent proclamation of the Gospel in that community and, when possible, to the ends of the Earth; sacrificial ministry to the poor and needy.

In addition, each individual Christian has his own unique special set of good works “which God has prepared in advance, that [they] should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10.) Healthy churches prepare the members individually to be fruitful themselves in good works that they all are doing. That is a sign of an alive church, isn't it? Do you not want to be part of a church like that? A living church produces fruit corporately and in individual members.

They Had a NAME of Being Alive, But Were Actually Dead

The church at Sardis had a name — a reputation — of being alive, of containing life, but they were actually dead. Perhaps all the works that gained them that name and reputation had been done many years before. Past heroes who had planted that church in Sardis and led it early on were perhaps gone. Instead of the remaining members filling their places with vibrant works, the absence of those heroes has left deadness.

I love church history. I have visited the churches of many of my heroes of the faith. This is a sad exercise. I have been to Geneva to the St. Pierre Cathedral where John Calvin preached; it is effectively a museum. Worship services may happen and there may even be an evangelical congregation there, but there is an old feeling there, and the culture in the surrounding area does not seem to take notice of or know anything about about John Calvin.

I have been to Wittenberg, where Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door; I do not know the health of that church. One church I do know the health of is Jonathan Edwards’ church in Northampton, Massachusetts. Many years ago, that church went theologically, aggressively liberal, and they wrestled with the heritage of Jonathan Edwards, whose doctrines they do not hold at all. When we were there on sabbatical a few years ago, that church had a Buddhist monk coming on Wednesday night to talk to the people about meditation. It is sad. Churches can be on fire for Christ, and then things cool off, and then within a generation, or two, or three, there is nothing there, nothing going on at all.

Why Were They Dead?

The question is, why? Why does this happen? Why was the church at Sardis dead? The cause of death is always the same — it is not a shock to you — it is sin. Romans 6:23: “… the wages of sin is death.” James 1:14-15 said, “Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” That is how death happens.

The specifics of how and why are not as important as the state of death; we know because the specifics are not mentioned. Perhaps there was false doctrine there. Perhaps there was some immorality. It does not say anything about Balaam, or the Nicolaitans, or Jezebel. However, there is a mark in Verse 4: “…you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes.” This gives a sense, perhaps, of immorality, but it could be referring to false doctrine as well. Perhaps it was a matter of persecution, except, as one commentator said, “Why would Satan persecute a dead church?” (I can answer that — he does not; there is no need. They are not doing anything; they are no threat to his dark kingdom.) Perhaps it was some combination of the same problems. But what we do know is that they were dead.

Little by little, spiritual vigor can drain out of a local church. Godly leaders can get old and die. The next generation comes along, and they do not share the same passion, the same vision, and it fades away. The world starts to encroach with its relentless appeal to the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life. The church can stop preaching the clear Gospel of Christ to the surrounding community, or it can alter certain aspects of the message to tailor them to popular tastes, so that they can be more amenable to the surrounding community. The witnesses can increasingly fear persecution and pull back on the vigor and the frequency of their witness.

Thom Rainer’s “Autopsy of a Deceased Church”

Thom Rainer, in his book Autopsy of a Deceased Church, listed his own post-mortem analysis. I meditated on this list and mixed it together with some of my own thoughts to compile an autopsy report for a dead church: The church lost its zeal for local outreach. They had become insular. They cared more about what made them happy and peaceful than what Christ wanted them to do. The church turned its back on solid and careful teaching of the Word and chose to tickle the ears of its members with skillful public speakers that were little more than entertainers, rather than those who exegete the Word. The church ceased disciplining sin but tolerated more and more worldliness on the part of its members. The church ceased praying together. (Please, those who are in home fellowships, do not underestimate the prayer time you have together.)

The church stopped developing godly men as future leaders. The church spent more of its resources — its time, energy, money — on itself, making itself comfortable and apparently prosperous, than on the spreading of the Gospel. The church became more and more worldly in appearance, and fit in with the surrounding culture, especially in key moral issues. In the 21st century, we are not pressed to burn a pinch of incense to Caesar, but we are pressed on other issues, like sexual issues, marriage issues, things like that, where we are being forced to conform to the love of “diversity” according to the world’s definition. We are being pressed into a worldly mold, and if we yield, then we, as a church, will be heading toward death.

The church became increasingly listless, lifeless, cold, and weak. Little was happening in corporate worship. Passion and zeal were lacking. They clung to traditionalism, celebrating the bygone era of past heroes, putting plaques up on walls to celebrate achievements. They held on to old patterns of ministry long after they were not fruitful anymore. Finally, they shrank in number, growing smaller and smaller in number; the median age, decade by decade, inched slowly upward. There were fewer and fewer children — they were missing out, among other things, on the joy of listening to children sing in worship. (Dead churches may have grandchildren visiting occasionally but generally do not have many children regularly attending.) There were no youth, no young families. The church became old. (An aging church is not necessarily an indication of a dying church but it does depend on the zeal of all generations for growth and vibrancy; if you have very zealous older people with the younger generations being spiritually lifeless, then the church will not survive.)

IV. Christ Commands the Remnant: Wake Up!

Christ commands the remnant in verses 2-3, “Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it and repent.” He calls on them to wake up. Jesus has the power to give life to the dead. In Revelation 1:18, He says, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

All Christians, individually, were dead at one point, were we not? Ephesians 2:1-5 says, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But God, because of His great mercy with which He loved us, made us alive in Christ Jesus even when we were dead in transgressions and sins. It is by grace you have been saved…” God has the power, Jesus has the power to bring the dead to life, and He calls on this church to wake up.

I love the mental images of Jesus raising the dead during His earthly ministry. In Mark 5, He comes in where the little girl who died had been placed; and He kneels by her bed and takes her hand so tenderly, and He says to her, “Talitha koum!” which means, “Little girl, get up,” and she opened her eyes, and woke up. That is the kind of power that Jesus has to raise the dead, as though they are sleeping. He says, “Wake up!” and they obey His command.

It is not clear at all that He will give that kind of power to this church, however. When He said to Lazarus, “Lazarus, come forth,” He gave a resurrecting power to him. But here, it seems that they have chosen a tomb for themselves. They have willfully walked into deadness. He was calling on them to repent and walk out of their tomb, to wake up out of that spiritual deadness, and strengthen what remained and was about to die.

Strengthen What Remains and is About to Die

Verse 4 indicates that there was a remnant of people “who had not soiled their clothes.” He says, “They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.” They were not blameless. They were part of the slide into deadness, but they managed to keep themselves from defilement of doctrine and lifestyle. They were worthy, meaning they were genuinely born again. They were made worthy or qualified through Christ and would walk with Christ dressed in white, meaning they would be seen to be righteous in the sight of God. However, they were in great danger. He was warning them to strengthen what remained and was about to die. I picture a car accident, a person lying in the road, with wounds that are not immediately life threatening, bleeding rather significantly. There was a window of opportunity for this small remnant to wake up and take seriously what was happening. By the Word and the Spirit, “strengthen what remains and is about to die.”

Remember and Repent

He says in verse 3, “Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it and repent.” What had they received and heard that they needed to obey? Go back to the Gospel; saturate yourself again in God-Man-Christ response: Remember that there is a Holy God who created heaven and earth. Remember that He created you in His image, to have a relationship with Him — you are fearfully and wonderfully made; you are unique and special as a human being, but you have sinned. You have violated God’s laws, broken His Ten Commandments, broken His two Great Commandments to love God and love your neighbor. Remember that you have sinned, and therefore you deserve death. Remember that God sent His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, who lived under the law and perfectly obeyed every command of God His whole life, who never sinned; who did great signs and wonders to show His deity and power and compassion; and most of all, who died a substitutionary atoning death on the cross, in our place. Remember Isaiah 53:5: “He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds, we are healed.” This is the Gospel, and if you simply repent of your sins, acknowledge that you are a sinner, and turn to Christ, all of your sins will be forgiven. Remember and repent; start being the Church again.

I am saying this to all of you: they had received and heard and needed to obey this same Gospel that we have received and heard and need to obey. You may have been a Christian for decades, a genuine Christian, but you still need to hear that message again and again, to drink it in and hear it in your heart. Remember what you heard and repent of ongoing sin in your life. If you are here and you are still “dead in your transgressions and sins,” — i.e., you are not a Christian — you now know what the Gospel is; I just gave it to you. I am calling on you to come out of darkness into light; come from death to life by believing in Jesus.

Warning:

Verse 3: “But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.” In Matthew 24, Jesus warns, “My coming is like a thief in the night who comes to steal; the owner of the house does not know at what time of night the thief is coming. You had better be ready at all times.” Revelation 3:2 is not talking about the Second Coming in which Jesus will come as a thief in the night. This is more individual, coming as a judge to that local church. This is similar to the warning He gave to the church at Ephesus that had forsaken their first love: “If you do no repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” Or to the church at Pergamum: “I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.” Or like Jezebel: “I will strike you and your children dead.” He has that power to come at the time of His choosing. He says, “You had better wake up and repent and do it quickly, or I will come to you; and you do not know when I am coming.”

V. Christ Promises Rewards to the Overcomers

As with all of these letters, Christ promises rewards to the overcomers. Look at verse 5: “He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and His angels.” The overcomers, those who by faith in Jesus are more than conquerors, will receive the same cleansing from sin and will be covered in white robes of righteousness.

A Name that will Never Be Blotted Out

Jesus says, “I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life.” The Book of Life, which we will see again in Revelation 20, is where He writes the names of all of the elect who have repented and trusted in Christ and who will spend eternity with God in Heaven. He is saying, “I will never blot out your name; you have eternal life and you will most certainly live forever.”

Some, inferring the opposite based on what He says, twist this to say, “Yes, but He does sometimes blot out some people’s names.” There is no verse in Scripture that teaches that those who are genuinely born again, have crossed over from death to life, and have been justified and forgiven by Almighty God can later cross back over from life to death, be unjustified, and consequently condemned. That cannot happen. He is actually promising the opposite: “I will never blot out your name from the Book of Life, but you will live forever.”

Furthermore: “I will give you a name, and I will speak that name to my Father, and to the angels.” Think about that. Isn’t that awesome? “I will give you a name that will never be blotted out. Do not care about your reputation in the community. Do to care what other people think. That does not matter. What matters is what I will say about you. I will give you a name and a reputation that will live forever. I will speak your name to my Father. I will not be ashamed of you. I will pronounce your name to the Father and I will tell the angels what you did. I will tell the angels and my Father your history and your works.” What an honor. That is the reward to those who overcome.

VI. Applications

Be Fearful, Fight Deadness! Understand Deadness Can Happen to Us

First, be fearful and flee deadness, oh, church. It is vital for us to hear and tremble at God’s Word. Do not ever say, “That could never happen to this church.” Oh, it could happen. We must be on our guard constantly. Step by step, we can slide into apostasy. We can give up our personal prayer time. We can start to cut corners in the prayer closet and taking in the Word of God. We can start playing bit by bit, more and more with sins, little sins, and then, bolder and bolder. Last week, I talked about secret sexual sin. That will do it — that will kill a church. We can lose our taste for genuine Christian fellowship. We start to pick holes in the garments of other Christians, to find flaws in them, and make excuses for not going to church. And that happens a little at a time. We slide into apostasy and it can happen. Instead, we must keep before us the marks of a healthy church. I will not review them again today, but you can look them up.

Rely on the Holy Spirit

Second, pray. Pray that the pulpit ministry here would be vigorous and not shrink back from proclaiming the whole counsel of God’s Word, all of it. Pray that we would be vigorous in sharing the Gospel in this community, sacrificially bold in sharing with lost people right around here. Pray that we would continue caring about unreached people groups and missions. Pray that we would have a heart for the poor and needy, that we would be sacrificial toward those who are struggling and suffering, not just in our part of the world, but even, for example, in East Africa with the famine happening right now, that we would sacrificially give to care for them. Pray that we would care about holiness and be fighting sin by the power of the Spirit, vigorously active in each other’s lives. Pray that we would be vibrant in prayer; and that when we come together for corporate worship, it is an electric time of celebrating — not just Easter, but every week — the resurrection power of Jesus Christ.

Closing Prayer

Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time that we have had to look at this warning of a church that was alive and had a reputation for being alive, but became dead. God, I pray, protect us from that. I pray for the elders of this church, myself and the other elders, that you would help us to be vigilant over ourselves and over the flock which the Lord has entrusted to our care. I pray that we would not be arrogant. I pray that we would be humbled, that we would be on our knees and our faces, saying, “Oh, God, we could die. If you don't strengthen us, we will.” Please, you are the vine, Lord Jesus; we are merely the branches. Help us to abide in you and bear much fruit. God, I pray for more evangelistic fruit. I pray for more baptisms. I pray that the church, the people in this church, would be courageous and share the Gospel with lost people. And, oh, Lord, lead us to people who are ready to hear. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Andy Davis preaches a verse by verse expository sermon on Revelation 3:1-6. The main subject of the sermon is Christ's warning to the church in Sardis, which has the reputation of being alive, but Christ announces that they are a dead church.

I. Introduction

Please turn in your Bibles to Revelation 2:18-29. Today we will be working through this letter to the Church at Thyatira.

We are blessed to have some very talented medical people in our church. We had a great day at the health fair yesterday. I am so grateful for all those of you who gave your time, and for the ability to use the knowledge that God has given us to bless the community. About seven or eight years ago, at the church picnic, this medical knowledge was specifically focused on my wife, Christi. She had been having some neurological symptoms, and had had an x-ray and an MRI of her neck. Some of the medical experts among our church members looked at the results and noticed what looked like a degenerative disc disease and a necking-down of her spinal column, such that it looked like an hour glass. It led us to take very seriously what was going on in her body. The neurosurgeon gave us this diagnosis, this prediction of the future: “100% chance of total paralysis without surgery.” That is the kind of prognosis that you listen to — 100% chance of total paralysis if she does not have corrective surgery. Obviously, we got corrective surgery, and then another one after that, and the Lord protected her ability to walk.

I am thinking this morning about the gift that we have here in Durham, frequently called the City of Medicine, of the technology that we have to make such predictions and prognoses, and then provide therapies to treat what is discovered. Here in the City of Medicine, right next to the Research Triangle Park, we have all manner of noninvasive diagnostic tests — x-rays, MRIs, ultrasounds, heart catheterizations, EEGs, EKGs — methods of diagnosis that eliminate the need for more invasive measures to tell us what is going inside of us. It could be something very serious, life-threatening, such as a brain tumor that could result in death if not treated; or it could be a blockage in a major artery that needs to be addressed by a cardiologist; or it could be something a little less serious, perhaps pain or other symptoms; and through these noninvasive techniques and machines, it is possible to make a diagnosis and a treatment plan.

Psalm 139 begins with these amazing words, “O Lord, You have searched me and You know me. You know when I sit and when I rise. You perceive my thoughts from afar.” The Lord has a comprehensive knowledge of each of us. Everything. He knows when we sit and when we rise. He knows our actions, what we are doing all the time. Not only that, He knows our minds and our hearts behind those actions. Everything. At the end of the Psalm, the psalmist invites the very process that God is doing already, saying, “I want You to do this.” “Search me, O God, and know my heart. And try me and see if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

This letter to the Church at Thyatira brings us to face a very serious topic, that of secret sin, sin that is in the heart of individuals in the church. Secret sin is not obvious, not open or easy to see. We are confronted in this text with a Lord and Savior, the same one whom David was talking about in Psalm 139, who searched him and knew him so many centuries ago. He says the exact same thing to the Church at Thyatira: “I am He who searches hearts and minds, and I will give to each of you according to what you have done.” He has eyes of blazing fire and feet of burnished bronze; He is looking at us, searching us, and He knows us.

The issue of secret sexual sin is a very troubling one. It is not the kind of thing I would choose, if I were a topical preacher, to say “I think that's what I want to preach on,” but I can tell you from pastoral experience, it is very much what I need to preach on, among other things. Secret sexual sin is a serious problem in the life of the church today. It is not a minor problem. Many of you are trying to run your Christian race with weights dragging behind you, as though you are running a marathon with cinder block weights tied to a belt around your waist; you are making very little progress, and you are exhausted and discouraged, and you are assassinating your assurance of salvation. It may cause you to wonder to some degree if you are even a Christian. Maybe some of you are in that category because of what you are doing in secret.

I yearn and I have prayed over the last several weeks, especially the last number of hours, that this would be a day of being set free. As Hebrews 12 says “Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,”  and especially one witness in particular, this holy Jesus, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burning bronze — since you are living your life in front of Him — “lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles and run with endurance the race that is marked out before you.” That is what I long to see happen for you today.

More than that, to the whole church, though not every one of you is in this category, there is still a message for you in this passage. It says, “Now to the rest of you who are not involved in this sin…” In our church covenant, we promise to watch over one another in brotherly love, to care about what is happening in each other's lives. Therefore, this is a call to get involved — men with men and women with women in discipleship, parents with their children at deeper levels than you may be going currently — to protect one another from sexual sin. This is a serious message.

My desire is to fill you as best as I can with a proper mixture of fear and hope. I do not know what you individually need the most right now. Some of you really need fear and this Scripture will give it to you, or should give it to you if you will heed its warning. There is a holy fear that leads to holy living. We should fear sin. We should fear Jesus’ reaction to sin. But we should not fear as those who have no hope. There are promises — if we listen, if we repent, if we overcome, we will be richly blessed. I want to mediate these things to you — fear of sin, blessings for repentance. Although we are talking about secret sins, which by definition are not obvious by your faces — I do not know what is going on, what you need — my desire is that the Word of God will be unleashed in your life to set you free.

II. How Jesus Describes Himself: Eyes of Fire, Feet of Bronze

Jesus begins this letter to the church at Thyatira in verse 18 with a self-description. Look what He says: “To the angel of the church of Thyatira write: ‘These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.’” 

Awesome Description

This is an awesome description. As with all of these seven letters, it is incredible that Jesus is speaking to the church. He is describing Himself. He begins here by emphasizing His deity: “These are the words of the Son of God.” His open appeal to deity emphasizes His right to judge and speak these words to us. He has the right to do this. He knit you together in your mother’s womb. He is your creator and He will be your judge. He has the right to talk to you like this.

Usually in these seven letters, Jesus identifies Himself to the church by some aspect of the vision that John had in Revelation 1, but here it is a little different. He uses a term here, “the Son of God,” that you do not find in Revelation 1. There He is described as one “like a son of man.” But here we see Jesus who is God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, and He has a message of purifying power and judgment to give to this secretly sinning church.

He describes His own eyes, “eyes like blazing fire,” which gives a sense of the perfect holiness of Jesus by which He pierces through their secrecy to know everything they are doing. The eyes are His source of information, knowing who you are, what you're doing. The fire reminds us that our God is a consuming fire. It points to His holiness. Habakkuk 1:13 says, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; You cannot tolerate wrong.” Hebrews 4:13 says, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”

The secret sinners, the ones who are learning Satan’s so-called deep secrets in Thyatira, are thinking, “No one sees me, no one knows what I am doing,” but Jesus has eyes of blazing fire. Jeremiah 23:24 says, “‘Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the Lord, ‘Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ declares the Lord.” At the end of Revelation when Jesus comes to destroy His enemies, He uses this exact same description. Revelation 19:11-13: “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice He judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire and on His head are many crowns.” That is the way he deals with His enemies.

He also describes His feet as glowing like burnished bronze, as though heated in a furnace. This brings the image to mind in Revelation 19:15: “He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty,” a terrifying picture of Jesus with perfectly pure feet trampling out wickedness.

III. How Jesus Commends the Church with an Impressive List: Deeds, Love, Faith, Perseverance, Growth

First, Jesus speaks words of commendation to this church at Thyatira. He says in verse 19, “I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.” This is really a very impressive list.

He commends their hard work, their deeds flowing from love and faith. Unlike the church at Ephesus, it seems this church has not forsaken their first love. He commends their love: They love Him, and they love one another. He commends their genuine faith in Christ, at least those He addresses toward the end of the letter. As a whole He speaks to believers, the ones who are living out their faith. By their vision — their sight of the invisible spiritual world (that is what faith is, the eyesight of the soul) by which they see Jesus as Savior, the future, the coming judgment — they have a genuine faith. They are not dead in their transgressions and sins. He commends their service and their perseverance: They are working hard, serving one another with servant hearts. We do not know much about the persecutions they might have endured there in Thyatira, but we can guess they were of the same sort that were going on in the other six of the cities. But they were persevering through those trials. He commends, very strikingly, their growth and development: They are doing more now than they did at first. 2 Peter 1 says, “… these qualities are yours in increasing measure.” Living things grow, and these believers were growing, this church was growing.

IV. How Jesus Judges the Church: Toleration of Jezebel the Immoral

It is hard to imagine that a church with such a comprehensive statement of commendation from Jesus Christ could have a fatal flaw at its heart. On the surface, everything looks good. That is what makes all of this so scary. It is vital for us as 21st century churchgoers in America to hear this and look beyond the surface. A toleration of sexual sin, and the secret pattern of illicit sexual activities effectively nullifies all of these good things. That is the problem here, the issue of toleration. That is what He presses in; that is how He judges the church.

Look at verse 20: “Nevertheless, I have this against you.” Reading those words gives me pause. Do you not feel the weight of that? How serious it is that Jesus would have something against you. Let that press into your heart — “I do not want Jesus to have anything against me.” I am not claiming that we can be sinless and perfect in this life, but I yearn for it, don’t you? Don’t you hunger and thirst that Jesus would have nothing against you? Start with an hour: “O Lord, let me live my life for one hour that You would have nothing against me. My heart and my actions. Let me live that kind of life for the next hour by the Spirit.”

The Danger is from Within, Not from Without

But He says this in verse 20: “I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.” There is a deadly danger from within. It is not like Smyrna, where there is external persecution coming from the authorities, with the threat of imprisonment. Here, it is coming from within. There is an outward, worldly influence, certainly, but Christ is speaking of a heart wound, a cancer within.

The problem is that the church was tolerating it. The letter is addressed to Christians, so it could be that there were individuals dabbling in the sin who were tolerating that within themselves, thinking it was okay — but it was not. Beyond that, even those who were not involved were tolerating those who were; they were not performing church discipline, what they should have done to keep the church pure. This is hard for many in 21st century America to hear: We love and celebrate tolerance. We get excited about the unbelievable levels of evil and wickedness that we can tolerate and be fine with that do no seem to move the needle, that we are kind of chill and cool about. That is not God’s plan for the church. We are called on to be the light of the world. We are called on to be salt in a corrupted world. If the salt loses its saltiness, it is worthless. We must care, not tolerate.

The Threat: Sexual Immorality Taught by a Woman Prophetess

The threat in the church of Thyatira was sexual immorality, secret and hidden, being taught by a woman prophetess. She was alluring and enticing some of Jesus’ blood bought children into immorality; they were being led astray by her. This sexual immorality was undoubtedly linked to the old patterns of pagan religion. It was something that would have been familiar to them, part of the way that pagan worship was conducted back then. But this woman had added some twist to it with Satan’s so-called deep secrets, creating a concoction of pseudo-Christian, pseudo-pagan mess that she was teaching to these servants. It was similar the Balaam/Nicolaitan heresies plaguing the church in Pergamum that we looked at last week. It was a likely a combination of Christian doctrine (that the grace of God covered all sins) and Greek dualism (that body and soul are separate and unrelated and it did not matter what one did with the body) leading to license. They were turning the grace of God into license for immorality.

Christianity cuts across all this. It matters what you do with your body, and it matters what is going on in your mind, in your heart — everything matters. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 says, “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God.” It is very clear. Galatians 6:7-8 says, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will repeat eternal life.”

“Jezebel” the Prophetess

Who is “that woman Jezebel”? The text implies that she was a real woman in Thyatira, though the name Jezebel was symbolic, like a prophetic name. She “calls herself a prophetess.” She was not a true prophetess, called by God, bestowed through the Holy Spirit; she took that honor and office on herself. It is clear that in those days, there were godly prophets and there were godly prophetesses. This woman was not a godly prophetess but a false prophetess. Beyond that, she was teaching both men and women this false doctrine; she was arrogating to herself a teaching role that Paul forbids. In 1 Timothy 2:12, Paul says, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” God has not given to women the role to teach men in an official way in the life of the church. But this woman took that on herself. Even worse, she was espousing false teaching, leading them astray.

Why does Jesus call her Jezebel? This name hearkens back to a well-known account in the Old Testament. In the days of God’s prophet Elijah, King Ahab of Israel married a wicked woman named Jezebel, the daughter of a pagan king. King Ahab was a weak-willed and ultimately wicked man. Jezebel specifically and purposely led Israel into patterns of false religion to worship the Baals and the Ashtoreth, the fertility religions. That worship, similar to this church in Thyatira, involved sexual immorality and worshipping false gods and goddesses. Jezebel personally funded 850 prophets of Baal out of the coffers of the king while she hunted down and killed all of the true prophets. Remember that Elijah thought he was the only prophet left.

Jezebel manipulated Ahab to do all kinds of evil things. When Ahab wanted to take Naboth’s vineyard but was too weak to do anything about it and was crying and pouting in his bed, she took it into her own hands, conspiring to have Naboth murdered by orchestrating false witnesses and enabling Ahab to take possession of the vineyard. Elijah predicted that dogs would drink up Ahab’s blood in that very place. Later, he predicted that the same thing would happen to Jezebel, and it did. She was a thoroughly wicked woman, probably a witch by any definition, with a cultic side to her evil.

The Church’s Sin: Toleration

The deaths of Ahab and Jezebel paint a repulsive picture, and the revulsion that we feel as we hear it is actually completely appropriate. Jesus uses that title to talk about this woman in the church of Thyatira. She was leading them in secret rituals; we do not know the exact nature of those activities but we know they were not done openly. Look at verse 24: “Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets…” In secret, they did disgusting things with their bodies. In secret they ate meats sacrificed to detestable idols. In secret they learned deeper words of knowledge, perhaps early gnostic practices and such.

The Terror of Impending Judgment

And the church was tolerating it. Tolerating it. So Jesus had to bring a terror of impending judgement on them. We must heed warnings in Scripture. It is part of our faith to be convicted — not just filled with the assurance of things hoped for — but convicted, as in a court of law, in reference to our sins. Faith does that and so we heed warnings. Warnings are for us, the elect. The non-elect will not heed the warnings as we do. We heed warnings. So what does He say?

He has already identified Himself as the Son of God whose eyes are like blazing fire. Now He shows how terrifying He can be. In verses 21-23, He says, “I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know [that includes us] that I am He who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.”

Look at the beginning in verse 21: “I have given her time to repent of her immorality…” If you are trapped in a pattern of secrets then these could be some of the scariest words you could ever hear. You can almost hear the clock ticking, time running on, tick-tock, tick-tock. Jesus has allotted a certain time for you and that time is finite. Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” This is the opportunity that Jesus is giving for you to repent. We never know how long we have; the door could be closed at any time. He does not owe this opportunity to anyone. Keep that in mind. This is all grace. He could strike us dead the moment we commit sin, immediately. Your next sin in this area could immediately, instantly be your last. And God would not be unjust. The wages of sin is death.

But He is gracious. He is compassionate. He is slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness. He gives time. He controls the clock; He can give you a day, a week, a month, a year, a decade — we do not know. But He controls it and He is waiting for you to repent.

For Jezebel, her time had run out. There was no chance for her now; she was finished. God promised that He would kill her by a severe disease, but she refused to repent. Remember that I said I yearn to give you a mingling of fear and hope. I have no hope to give to people who will not repent. Evangelical churches have no right to give hope to anybody who does not repent, whether in reference to the big picture of the gospel or individual sin. We have no hope to give people who do not repent.

People think that just because God has not acted on his warnings that He does not care, or that His standards have changed. That is not true. Just because nothing has happened yet does not mean that God has lowered His standards. In Isaiah 42:14 God says, “For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back.” And in Isaiah 57:11: “Is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear me?” And again, in Psalm 50:21: “These things you have done and I kept silent; you thought I was altogether like you. But I will rebuke you and accuse you to your face.” Do not misunderstand the patience of God.

Romans 2:4-6 tells you what the patience of God is about: “Or do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when His righteous judgement will be revealed. God will give to each person according to what he has done.” Instead of using the time wisely, redeeming the time, all you are doing is storing up more and more wrath and judgment if you are truly in the end an unbeliever, if you refuse to repent.

This “Jezebel” in Thyatira was unwilling. Thus, this word of judgment comes in verse 22-23: “So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead, unless they repent of their ways.” He promised to cast her on a bed of suffering. This refers to some kind of dread disease. For the wicked King Herod in the New Testament, his bowels came out — it was just a terrible way to die. It is ironic for this woman: she was accustomed to being cast on a bed of pleasure. There is justice in casting her on a bed of suffering.

This judgment will not be limited to her, but also her “children.” This is likely her disciples, those who are following her, rather than her biological children. They had been following in this secret religion of sex and pleasure. Through this letter, God is giving them a little more time to repent, but if they do not, they will die.

Jesus Searches Hearts and Minds

In verse 23 He says, “Then all the churches will know that I am He who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.” Jesus knows our minds and our hearts. Again and again we see in the gospels that Jesus, even in His days on earth, would read people’s minds. In Luke 7:36-50, we read that Simon the Pharisee thought in his heart, “‘If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is — that she is a sinner.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Simon, I have something to tell you.’” That must have been unnerving. When He healed the paralytic by first forgiving his sins and the Pharisees thought in their hearts that He was blaspheming, He answered, “Why are you thinking these thoughts in your heart?”

In John 5:42, he said, “I know you, I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts.” John 2:25 says, “He knew all men. He did not need man’s testimony about man, for He knew what was in a man.” He knows our minds and our hearts; He searches them. That is actually a part of the sanctification process. That is where Psalm 139:23-24 comes in; we should say, “Do it Lord. Search me and show me who I am. Show me how much I need a Savior.” The person who is asking God to do that will not be struck dead. That person will be progressively delivered and saved and become fruitful. That person says, “Search me. I want to be holy, I want to be pure, I want to be delivered, I want to be set free. I am not refusing to repent.” Jesus is the only one who is able to do this.

Jesus Rewards or Punishes According to our Deeds

He says in verse 23, “I will repay each of you according to your deeds.” We are not justified by works, but we will be judged by works, or perhaps evaluated is a better word — assessed, identified by our works. All He needs to do is look at the fruit and He knows the tree: “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good.” (Matthew 12:33) He alone can make the evil tree good. He has that power to do that. He looks at the fruit; He knows whether you are a Christian or not based on the fruit. It is a consistent teaching. Romans 2:6-8 says, “God ‘will give to each person according to what he has done.’ To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, He will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.” It is very plainly taught again and again. Sometimes that judgment comes early. In the case of Jezebel and her unrepentant followers, the death penalty came, no further warning, they died, under Christ’s just word.

V. How Jesus Commands the Church: Hold Fast to Purity

Churches MUST NOT TOLERATE Sin

What does Christ command the church? First, hold fast to purity. Do not tolerate sin. Sin is not okay. It is deadly. It metastasizes. It is poisonous. We want all of it gone. We hate it. We know we are all Romans 7 sinners, struggling every day, doing the very thing we hate, and the very thing we want to do, we do not do. We understand that churches are for sinners. But if individual members are known to be committing these kinds of sins, and they are confronted and they will not repent, they must be excommunicated.

It is clear teaching. The church in Corinth also had a problem with sexual sin. There was a man who was sleeping with his father’s wife, probably his stepmother, and the church was proud and did not do anything about it. Very clearly, in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul says, “Expel them. Get rid of them. Sever the tie so that everyone in the community around may know that you do not tolerate this kind of wickedness.” He says in 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, “I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people — not at all meaning the people of this world,” but the one who calls himself a Christian and yet is immoral, among other sins listed. “With such a man, do not even eat. What business is it of mine, to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. ‘Expel the wicked man from among you.’”

Jesus Does Not Impose Extra Burdens but Calls on the Pure to Do Their Duty to HOLD FAST

Christ calls on the pure in Thyatira to do their duty. Verse 24-25: “Now to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you): Only hold fast to what you have until I come.” He says, “Hold on, do not get sucked in. Do not be drawn into this wickedness. Do not tolerate it.”

He does not impose extra burdens. I am not sure exactly what that means, but it may mean he does not in any way press them towards asceticism in opposite reaction to the license. Legalism is the opposite but equal mistake of license. He may be saying, “I am not saying forbid marriage, that man should not touch a woman at all, ever.” (A practice the Shakers upheld. That was a weird cult, no children except converted children, I suppose — I am not sure what child would want to become a Shaker. But that was a weird cult forbidding marriage.) Paul talks in Colossians about those who forbid marriage. That is an extreme burden. “I am not laying that burden on you. Enjoy sexual relationship within covenant marriage. I am not pushing you to something you cannot do.”

“Only hold fast to what you have until I come.” Fight the good fight of faith. Run this race with endurance until you cross that finish line. Hold on.

VI. How Jesus Rewards the Overcomers: Authority and a Star

First Reward: Reigning with Christ

If they — we — hold fast, see what reward awaits, verses 26-27: “To him who overcomes and does My will to the end, I will give authority over the nations — ‘He will rule them with an iron scepter; He will dash them to pieces like pottery.’” This seems to indicate that we who overcome will participate in his Second Coming glory. It might relate to rulership in the millennium, but at least finally, ultimately, relates to positions of authority in the New Heaven and the New Earth, sharing in the authority of Jesus.

Second Reward: The Morning Star

In verse 28: “I will also give him the Morning Star,” which is the star that is the precursor to dawn. Balaam called Jesus “a star rising in Jacob.” Morning Star — that is Jesus. “If you will overcome this sin, if you will conquer, I will give you a sense of the coming glory of the full, bright day. You will have a sense of how glorious it will be when we are in the New Heaven and New Earth, and there will be no sin at all. I will give you a foretaste of heaven.”

VII. Applications

This Letter PLEADS with sinners!!

This letter pleads with sinners to come to Christ. Do you not see it? Charlotte gave us a testimony of the gospel before her water baptism this morning, how God sent His son, died for sinners like you and me if you repent. You know yourself that you are not a Christian, but you came in here today to hear this message. Maybe you are trapped in some kind of sexual sin, but you have never known Christ. God sent Jesus, the Son of God, to die on the cross for sinners like you and me. He will set us free. He has the power to set sinners free and to forgive all of our sins, past, present, future. By simple faith, trust in Him. Say, “I know I am a sinner. I know you are the Son of God; you died for sinners. I am trusting in you to be my Savior.” And you will be set free.

FLEE SEXUAL IMMORALITY!!

To you Christians, I want to lay this out for those of you — I do not know who you are — who are struggling with secret sin, especially sexual sin. I am pleading with you to flee sexual immorality. That is the verb given here — Flee. Flee it. I am worried about how super-saturated our world is with sexual images these days. I am worried about internet pornography. I am worried about the development of this evil scheme of Satan, step by step, from the red-light district, to houses of ill repute, to the VCR, where you could rent porn and bring it right into your home, to streaming or satellite, to smartphones constant access through WiFi. The need for strength in this area has never been greater. The need to understand what Jesus means when He says, “Gouge out your right eye if it's causing you to sin, gouge it out. Cut off your right hand.” If you cannot use your smartphone without sinning, then get rid of it.

There are terrible statistics about internet pornography. I will not read all of them to you, but they are sad. I am especially worried about teenagers. Statistics show that 90% of children from ages 8-16 have viewed porn already in their life — 90%. The largest consumers of pornography are boys aged 12-17. 70% of men ages 18-34 visit a porn site in a typical month. $10-14 billion spent annually in this country on pornography. One in six women struggle with porn addiction. And the church is not immune. The statistics are terrible about how the church is doing in this area. Some of you are on a clock now. You did not know, perhaps, before you came in here, but Jesus is giving you time to repent. You do not know how much longer you will have to do so.

Follow True Repentance (Thomas Watson, Puritan pastor)

If you are ensnared in this pattern of sexual immorality, begin with repentance. If any individual comes and confesses this kind of sin to me, this is where I start. I want to commend a book I have mentioned many times: Thomas Watson's The Doctrine of Repentance gives us six aspects of repentance. You need all six: Sight of sin, sorrow for sin, confession of sin, shame for sin, hatred of sin, and turning from sin. That is what repentance is. That is what Christ is calling on this church in Thyatira to do. That is what He is calling on you to do if you are trapped in this sin.

First, sight of sin: See it with eyes of faith. See it as it will look on Judgement Day to you. See it as Jesus sees it now. See it.

Second, sorrow for sin: Grieve, mourn and wail. James 4, as I mentioned it last week, tells us to grieve over it. Maybe you are not the crying type, but maybe you should be. Let it break your heart. The Holy Spirit is grieved. If you are a child of God, indwelt by the Spirit, and you are involving yourself in this, the Spirit is weeping over you, in you. You need to weep with Him, and He will lead you back to sunshine and light and joy and fruitfulness. So grieve. Do not skip it — grieve.

Third, confession of sin: Tell God what you did, what you are doing. Tell Him the story. He already knows. Get down on your knees, get alone, close the door and tell Him what you are doing, what you have done. And as you do, be specific, give it its Biblical name, speak of its wickedness, “aggravate the thing,” as the Puritans would say. Talk about it a lot in your prayer to God of confession; do not minimize it — “Lord, I did a little thing.” Do not do that. Go deep. You want the whole tumor out. Confess it. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” You need to confess that sin.

Fourth, shame for sin: So many people think it is inappropriate for Christians ever to feel shame. I do not understand how anyone would think that that is true… “Jesus has set me free from all…” No. Shame for sin is similar to pain from physical fire. Do you think any of us will need pain from fire in Heaven? No, you will not feel any pain in Heaven, and — this is awesome — you will not feel any shame in Heaven either. Isn’t that amazing? Think about that. You will have no shame in Heaven, but you need it now, and you need pain now to keep you from playing with fire. You should feel a burn inside you. How could I do this to Jesus? How could I do this to my family? How could I do this to my church? You should feel that feeling, and if you do not want to call it shame — because Jesus has set you free from all shame — I understand that. Call it — make up your own word — but let it include a burning negative emotion about the recent history of what you have done. Whatever you want to call that; in English, we call it shame.

I had a painful discussion with a woman who had been sexually abused as a child; she could not accept this teaching from me. She said, “Jesus has set me free from shame. I put all my shame on Jesus. I do not have any shame.” My response was, “I do not know what you should feel for sins you are actually committing, other than shame.” Shame is helpful. It keeps us from doing that which we should not do anymore.

Fifth, hatred of sin: You should burn with hatred for this sin. Jesus hates it. Psalm 97:10 says, “Let him who is righteous hate evil.” Hate it. This is not a mild thing. We are to have a visceral reaction to this.

Sixth, turn from sin: Stop doing it. Make a U-turn. That's what repentance is, so stop doing it. You may say, “Well, pastor it is not just ‘Stop.’ This is a habit. This is an addiction. This is a pattern in my life.” I understand that, but instantaneous righteousness in habitual areas is possible for the genuine Christian. You do not have to coast to a stop here. You are not a slave to sin. You do not ever need to sin in this area again. Tell the next temptation, “I am dead to that sin, but alive in Christ Jesus. I do not need to give into that. I am going to kill it immediately. I do not need a coasting time. I can stop this sin immediately.”

I am not preaching perfectionism here. I know you will have to fight, the Bible knows you will have to fight — but you need to fight. And if you are not fighting, you are not a Christian, it is that simple. Romans 8:13-14 says, “… if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” And they are the only ones who are sons of God. So the Spirit leads you into battle.

John Owen: Mortification — DEATH BY STARVATION!!

John Owen’s Mortification gives us how to do it. I do not have time now to do all the personal counseling I would do, which I have done for years now, with men when I get together with them to talk about this. But my strategy can be summed up thus: Death by starvation. Surround the sin and starve it to death. Let it be a full day since you last violated your conscience in this area, and then let it be two, and then let it be a week, and then let it be a month, and then a year. And little by little the gravitational pull will become weaker, and weaker. It will never fully go away, you must be vigilant the rest of your life, but it will grow weaker and weaker. Death by starvation.

The last minute or so, I have been speaking directly to individuals struggling with secret sin. Now I want to speak to the whole church — to the help givers, the counselors, the disciples. If someone comes to you, or if you are seeking out, men with men, women with women, a discipleship relationship, and you wonder what to do, first of all ask about this area: “Are you struggling in this area? Is this a weak area for you?” If someone confesses this struggle, give them a battle plan; go with them to Watson’s Doctrine Of Repentance. You can download it for free — it is in the public domain online. Go through the six steps I just led you through. Provide the strategy of death by starvation. Set a tone of accountability with the internet; ask about the source of giving in to the temptations in their lives? Encourage them to rely on the Holy Spirit, not on themselves; remind them to lean on the Spirit, pray in the Spirit, grow closer to the Spirit than ever before. By the Spirit, they will put to death these things. Mingle fear and hope for them.

Read over this letter together with them. Say, “Do you understand that Jesus can kill you for this? Do you understand He has the power to do it? He has the right to do it, but He also can graciously give you time. Do not play with this anymore. Give them fear, but then give them hope: “If you confess your sins, He will forgive you and cleanse you, and He will be mighty in your life.” And pray for them.

My final word is to parents: Parents, especially teens. Please do not make any assumptions about what is going on with your kids’ smartphones or other sources of access. You need to get involved, likely more than you are now, with your kids’ use of technology. Pray for them, ask them questions, fight for them.

Closing Prayer

Close with me in prayer.

Father, we thank you for the time we have had to study this sobering letter to the church of Thyatira. We want to be faithful to the message, and God, I pray that you will set your children free. As Charles Wesley put it, “He breaks the power of cancelled sin; He sets the prisoner free.” Lord, you have already cancelled the sin, the debt has been paid, but now it has a certain strange power over us. Break that power and help us to live holy lives, help us to be discipling each other, men with men, and women with women. Help us to be as pure as you want us to be, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Andy Davis preaches a verse by verse expository sermon on Revelation 2:18-29. The main subject of the sermon is the church of Thyatira's fault: refusing to identify and condemn sin in their midst.

Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Ephesians 6:18. The main subject of the sermon is that we are to pray for every member of Christ's Church.

Introduction

Before I begin my message, I just want to invite any of you that would like to join the elders tomorrow night in prayer for racial reconciliation and for wisdom in our community here in Durham and for the situation in Charlotte and across the nation to join us at 6:30. It's a regularly scheduled elder's meeting, but we would like to invite you to come and pray with us if you'd like to. If this is something that has been pressing on your heart, something that you don't know the answer to, we don't either. But we're going to look to God and say, "Lord, just give us wisdom and help us to minister here in this community ." So, that's 6:30 to 7:30. Then we're going to ask you to leave because we've got work to do. I’m just kidding, but maybe you could just join us. Maybe the Holy Spirit will be poured out on us in an awesome way and that would be incredible. We're going to meet in the Welcome Center where we usually meet and if a large number of you come, we'll transition in here for an hour of prayer. Be praying even if you can't come at 6:30, for us to have wisdom to know how to minister here in Durham, in light of recent events.

I would like to turn our attention now to Ephesian 6, specifically to verse 18. There, Paul urges us to pray in the Spirit as the capstone to his teaching on spiritual warfare. "Pray in the Spirit in all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."  We're going to look at each of those phrases today. And really, it is remarkable how Paul brings this incredible letter to a close with a really intensive focus on prayer. We're going to look one week at it. Next week, and specifically praying for evangelism and missions as Paul asked for prayer for himself to boldly, clearly share the Gospel. We're going to talk more about that next week.

Prayer: An Indicator of Spiritual Strength and Maturity

But it is amazing, the astonishingly deep theology of the Book of Ephesians, the reasoning, the teaching, the unfolding of deep, Christian doctrine. All of that means nothing if it doesn't result in a deep, consistent, full prayer life with Almighty God. Martin Lloyd Jones put it this way, "The ultimate test of the Christian life is the amount of time that we give to prayer." The amount of time that we give to prayer. The end to which all knowledge and teaching in scripture is meant to bring us, is to know God, to have fellowship with God, to realize our utter dependence on Him, and the power of His might. To realize it intensively, to feel it and to turn it back up to God in prayer, that's the measure of maturity in Christ. All Christians should have a full, deep, personal prayer life for themselves. Every day, begun with a rich time of worship, of confession of sin and thanksgiving, scriptural meditation, watchful preparation, and the context here for spiritual warfare, mindful of the fact that you yourself are going to be assaulted by the world, the flesh and the devil, and you need to get ready for that. You need to put on the spiritual armor to be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. You need to get yourself ready by putting on the full armor of God, each piece put on with prayer. “Then having done everything in preparation that you should stand firm in the day of testing.” 

But, what verse 18 does for me is, it gets me to branch and to look horizontally and to look at other brothers and sisters in Christ who are going to go through the exact same thing I am today. I should care about that. It shouldn matter to me that my brothers and sisters throughout the world are going to go through the same kinds of assaults that I am, and I should be praying for them. We should be drawing our hearts together in intercessory prayer.

Elijah’s Faithfulness in Prayer

Some time ago, a number of weeks ago, I was meditating on Elijah. I was thinking about James 5:16, which talks about the prayer of elders for a sick person, saying the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise him up, therefore, pray for each other. Confess your sins to each other. Then it says, “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” We should pray for each other because of powerful and effectual, the King James Version says, prayer, produces an effect. Now, later in this message, I am going to talk about how that has scrambled my brain, my entire Christian life and probably will never get unscrambled. I'm going to talk about how I've gotten past that to still pray and to pray fervently. But there is an amazing power in prayer taught throughout the scriptures. Then he gives us this example of Elijah. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain for 3 1/2 years. Again, he prayed, and the heavens produced the rain and the earth produced it's crops. So, that's an example.

Now, in my mind, I was going to the story of Elijah. Now Elijah was an amazing individual. When you say that he was just like us, it's like, huh? But, what he was saying is that Elijah was human, he was just a human being, just a regular human being. You remember the story how he pops up in the account in 1 Kings 17, he pops and confronts wicked King Ahab with these words, "As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, there will be no rain or dew on the land except by my word [going forward.]" Then he disappears. And the Lord commanded him to go to the brook, Caroth, where said, “I have commanded the ravens to feed you.”  It's a fascinating account, and I remember meditating on that. And so in the morning, the ravens would bring him food. Then in the evening, the ravens would bring him food.

Then it hit me, this question came to me, "What did he do for the rest of the day?" There certainly wasn't any cell coverage out there at the brook, Hedron. I don't think he brought any books with him. He didn't have anyone to talk to. He did have that raven meal to look forward to, that was going to be good. My guess is that it probably wasn't sumptuous but just enough to keep him going. He had the brook to drink from. "Now what? I've eaten the raven breakfast, drunk a bit from the brook, I'm good there. What now?"  I don't think that he wondered what to do at all. He spent his day in prayer with God. He walked with God, like Enoch, like Noah. He walked with God. He had such a deep, rich, full relationship with God that it was delightful to him to spend it in prayer. Now, what James tells us, what we didn't know, is that before he even showed up in the account, he has already fervently prayed that it wouldn't rain. That's already happened. The account actually doesn't tell us that. James tells us that. We don't have any information about it. James told us that he prayed earnestly, fervently that it would not rain. It's an odd prayer if you think about it. But he did it because that was in the curses, the Mosaic curses, that if the land turns to idolatry which Israel definitely had, one of the covenant curses would be drought. He prayed fervently that it wouldn't rain.

God’s Power Displayed in Prayer

Then in the course of time, God commanded Elijah to show himself and to have a contest with the prophets of Baal. You remember how all of that turns out. One of the most dramatic moments of redemptive history, Elijah versus the hundreds of wicked prophets of Baal, and how they cried out to a god that didn't exist. "Oh, Baal, hear us."  Remember how there was a contest and they had each set up an altar with sacrifice but they were not to light the fire. The fire would come down from heaven and the god who answers by fire, he is God. But Baal didn't hear, there was no answer, no one was there. The fervent of the prophets of Baal didn't affect anything. It was not powerful at all because there is no Baal. Then it was time for Elijah to show the power of God in answer to prayer. Remember how he has them soak the sacrifice with water, and again, then a third time. It was totally soaked with water down to the trench. The whole thing was drenched. Then he prays a simple prayer. Elijah was a man just like us and he prayed, "Oh, Lord, answer by fire so that, number one, all people may know that You are God, and number two that I have done all of these things at Your command."  Now that's the mystery, God's sovereign initiative and Elijah's prayer. And God answered by fire. He sent fire from heaven and it consumed everything there, and the people fell down and said, "The Lord, He is God."  But Elijah's praying wasn't done for that day. He got down and prayed that it would rain that day because the Lord had already revealed to him that today was the day that the rain was coming. Elijah was just responding at every moment to God's initiative and then the Lord heard and answered Elijah's prayer. Rained poured down from heaven. This powerful thing was prayer.

A Defense Against the Evil Forces

No, I don't understand how it all works, but I know this, the people of God are under constant assault by the world, the flesh and the devil, including you. Prayer is a mighty, powerful, effective force in defending ourselves against satan's attacks. I also know this, we're called on to mission. We're called on to advance. The two infinite journeys, we're called on to advance internally in personal holiness. We're called on to advance with the Gospel to those who are presently lost or even more to those who have no possibility of hearing the Gospel today, frontier missions. We're called to move out and I say to you, both the internal journey and the external journey will be bitterly opposed every step of the way, by satanic forces. Only by prayer are we going to make even a single step of progress. We must pray.

We're coming to the topic of prayer and spiritual warfare. Look at the context again, you've heard it read, verse 10-13, "Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power." If I could just stop say that you do that by prayer. That's how you are strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Draw near to Him in prayer. "Oh, God, give me power and strength to fight the devil today." Verse 11, "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes for our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. When the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground and after you've done everything, to stand.” So I've told you those three steps, be strong in the Lord and His mighty power, draw near to Him in prayer to do that. Put on the elements of the full armor of God, each one of them reminding you so some aspect of God's saving work in your soul. Each piece, put on with prayer, as the hymn writer put it. And then when the day of evil comes, at the time of testing, stand. Those are the three steps.

Now, what we're going to do is to reach out, horizontally, to seek to help brothers and sisters do the same thing. We're not alone, we're in an army, a family. We're in a family that is at war. So, verse 18, "Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”  There is a sense of supersaturation in that language, "all, all, all, every."  We're going to look at it phrase by phrase.

Samuel Chadwick said, "The one concern of the devil is to keep saints from prayer. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom. But, he trembles when we pray!” In spiritual warfare, prayer works in concert with the previous commands. They work together, the ministry of the word in prayer. I think we should see a strong connection between verses 17 and 18. NIV starts like a new command in verse 18, but it really is just a continuation, “taking up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God and praying in the Spirit.”  There's taking up the word, taking up prayer. They harmonize beautifully and powerfully. 

Pray in the Spirit

The Most Vital Aspect of Prayer

Last week, we looked at that first step. The issue of praying in the Spirit. This is vital. This is the most vital aspect of our prayer lives. Cold, lifeless prayer is dead, it's worthless, but the Spirit, as we saw last week from Romans 8:26 and 27, is given to help us in our weakness, specifically in prayer. We don't know what to pray for, we don't know how to pray. The Spirit helps us in our weakness. He does that in a variety of ways. Most importantly, by the fact that He Himself is interceding for us as Jesus is at the right hand of God. The Spirit is interceding for you. So you are entering into the prayer ministry of Jesus and the Spirit as you pray in the Spirit. It's already going on. But, the Spirit also teaches us what to pray for.

What Is It to Pray “in the Spirit”?

We said last week that praying in the Spirit is praying for the right things in the right manner. Then I brought you to the book of Revelation. Remember how we followed the phrase, 'in the Spirit' four times. John was 'in the Spirit' on Patmos and saw Jesus the mediator, the resurrected, glorified mediator by whom we intercede, through whom we have access into the throne room of God. Keep Jesus in mind as you intercede. 'Praying in the Spirit'  means intensely mindful of Jesus' blood, shed for you. To open up access for you into the second vision, Revelation 4, John was in the Spirit and went through a doorway into heaven and saw a throne with someone seated on it, the throne of Almighty God. The God of the universe, the King over all kings, the Lord over all lords. That's Almighty God, He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth. All the people are like grasshoppers, like drops in a bucket, dust on the scales. This is the infinite God. Praying in the Spirit is mindful of the sovereign power of God and the wisdom of God.

Thirdly, in Revelation 17, remember, 'in the Spirit' John traveled and moved. He saw this woman on a beast and it represented the satanic evil, wicked, world system. This woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, and intoxicated with the lusts of this age, and we can see through spiritual eyes, the danger of the world system that we're in. That's the opposition we're facing and so to pray'in the Spirit' is to be very mindful of Babylon, so to speak, and all of the attacks on our soul that are going to come. Finally in Revelation 21, we see the Bride of Christ, glorified, radiant and beautiful. We see how we're going to win in the end, we're going to be glorious. We're going to make it! We're going to make it and all of the elect are going to be saved. They're going to be glorified. They're going to be in Heaven. No one will be lost. It's going to be radiant and beautiful in Heaven. We see that, and we pray toward that end. That was last week.

Pray for All the Saints

A Clear Vision for Prayer in the Church

Now, we're going to extend out to pray for all the saints. We're going to think about intercessory prayer. The Spirit's going to lead us to pray for the saints. Now, again, the word 'saints' does not mean what the Roman Catholic Church meant on September 4th when it canonized Mother Theresa. In preparation for this sermon, I read the rules of canonization, of becoming a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. I got more confused, not less. It's an elaborate process. I don't really know what they mean by 'saint.'  I know that in my town, there was St. Anselm's and St. Jeremiah's and all that. I was a Catholic and I went to St. Jeremiah's and then we went to St. Anselm's. So, the saints are especially special people who have done especially special things. They are voted on by the church. They are then seen to be saints, worthy of special veneration. I don't think any of this is true. I don't think that's what the Bible teaches. Saints are believers in Jesus, simply put. Ephesians 1:1, right in the beginning, "Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus."  Faithful in Christ Jesus are the saints. We see the same thing in Philippians 1. He writes to the saints in Philippi. These are just the set apart ones under God, we're the holy ones, made holy by our faith in Christ. That's what saints are. So, we're to pray for other Christians.

Paul has already given us examples in this book, of prayer for the saints. He prays that. In Ephesians 1:18, he says, "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints and His incomparably great power for those who believe."  For us who believe, so that’s Ephesians 1. Then in Ephesians 3 he says, "I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And to know that love that surpasses knowledge, that  you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."  So Paul is praying that all the saints will be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Paul gives us examples of that.

Paul has also given us, in the book of Ephesians, a vision for the church. A vision for the people of God, for the church. We are to see this, Ephesians 2, a holy temple, this spiritual structure, rising. I love that, that dynamos image, rising to become a temple in which God lives by His Spirit. It's in construction. As we brought in 1 Peter 3, the new, “living stones” that are quarried from Satan's dark kingdom. They're put into the walls. It's just rising in every conversion, every elect person who comes to faith in Christ. It just got a little bit bigger, a little more glorious. Awesome!  That's what's going on now. That's what the Gilowe's are going to do. We get to be a part of that too here in Durham and to the ends of the earth. We get to add new people through evangelism and missions to that Church. It's becoming more glorious, not just by evangelism, but also by discipleship, by sanctification. It's becoming more glorious by putting sin to death and growing in holiness. We're more radiant. We need to have a vision for that. Ephesians 4 has a vision more of a body, joined and held together by supporting ligaments. It's growing and building itself up in love. So we have two different images, but it's the same thing. It's the people of God, the Church, getting more and more glorious and more and more perfect in Christ. We need to pray about that. It's what we're getting at here in verse 18. We need to be involved in that in prayer, by prayer.

Spiritual Warfare Upon Us All

So, you have to see first and foremost that our brothers and sisters are under attack. They’re under attack. They're under spiritual attack. You know exactly what I'm talking about because it's happening to you too. The same things that are happening to you are happening to everyone else around the world. You should care about that. It should matter to you. It's a universal satanic attack. 1 Peter 5:8-9 says, "Be self controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that you're brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of sufferings."  The same kinds as you are. You should take the attacks that you're experiencing in your soul and then just normalize them horizontal and say, "Everybody is going through this."  1 Corinthians 10:13 says, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man." 

What Satan tries to do is that he likes to isolate us, to separate us, so that we're on our own. He can pick us off, one at a time. He likes to isolate us from the Body of Christ. Together, we're terrifyingly powerful to him but isolated, he can pick us off. So, if you are isolated as you face satanic assault you're going to think that you alone are going through these kinds of things. You're going to feel especially dirty, especially weird. Alone, very alone on this struggle. You feel there's no one you can talk to. There's no one who would understand what you're going through. Satan is a master at isolating us. This will tend to increase our guilt at our sin in a very bad way, make us feel that we are unique and really to some degree, unforgivable because there's such a special set of wickedness in our lives. Or, if we're going through afflicting circumstances or trials, it will have the effect of greatly increasing our complaining, our discontent. "No one knows the troubles I see. No one's going through what I'm going through. No one."  If I could just share with you brother or sister, others are going through similar things. It might not be exactly like what you're going through, but actually, people are going through these kinds of afflictions.  

Praying for others, then, lifts our eyes off of our immediate circumstances, up to Heaven, up to Almighty God. From Heaven, horizontally, pray for this brother, pray for this sister, things are going on. Then little by little, you're less discontent in your own circumstance. You're more powerfully able to fight sin in your life. Help starts coming from looking up and then looking around you to the Body of Christ. Intercessory pray also tends to humble you. It tends to make you realize that it's not just Jesus and me, just us two. You know that Jesus is doing a work that's going to blow your mind!  Just think about the words, 'a multitude greater than anyone could count,' looks like. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of people redeemed by Jesus. I just think that the more you meditate on that, the more humble you'll get. Just think about that. "I'm one of 500 million."  There's a lot of people that God has loved. It just tends to humble us. We have to band together.

Therefore, if our brothers and sisters are persecuted, we should care, we should intercede for them. If they're going through natural disasters like hurricanes, floods, or earthquakes, or different things and they have lost their homes, we should care about them. We can care far more in prayer than we can by any other physical means of ministry. There's a limit to how much time, energy and money we have. We have to be wise about how we can help, but in prayer our hearts can become very expansive. We can be grieved about certain situations. We can weep about certain situations. We may never personally touch them, but we can care about them and we can pray. And, if individuals are struggling with sin, it should matter to us, especially in the local church that we are committed to. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:29, talking about all of his sufferings. "Five times I was beaten, 30 lashes minus 1, 3 times beaten with rods."  On top of all that, the ship wrecks and all, you almost get the sense that this is the worst of all. "It's the constant pressure I feel of my concern for all the churches. I'm constantly worried about how they are doing spiritually."  Then he says this, "Who is weak and I do not feel weak?  Who was led into sin and I do not inwardly burn?"  That's the horizontal connection, I care about the sins that my brothers and sisters are struggling with. It matters to me if there is sin in our church, horizontally. It should matter to me. So, we're praying in the Spirit for all the saints. We're going to reach out and pray.

Prayer “Changes Things”

Now, here we come to the mystery of prayer. I touched on it in the beginning. I don't fully understand, it's a mystery. The psychology of prayer, the spirituality of prayer, what it does to me, makes perfect sense. For that reason alone, it's worth doing. It recalibrates my mind. It makes me more heavenly minded. It makes me more loving toward other people. It makes me, makes me, makes me do all of what's true and good and right. How about this slogan, "Prayer changes things."  That's where my brain gets scrambled. "Changes from what?"  They haven't happened yet. Now, that's my engineering mind. That's why I just think too much."Pastor, you overthink things!  Just pray!"  Amen. I'm going to just pray!  How does pray change things?  Well, I think what that means is, before we prayed, there was this situation. Then we prayed and this situation got much better by biblical patterns. I think that's what it means and I think that's simply true. I have reasoned it out this way, that prayer works this way. It's part of God's sovereign plan. He knew that we were going to pray, He motivates us to pray ahead of time. But, He won't do the 'X' until we pray. He withholds certain blessings from a prayerless people. You won't get that thing. Then when you pray, then it happens.

The Pilgrims’ Prayers

I read the story about the Pilgrims. You know that they landed in Cape Cod. Then they had a really rough winter and then they survived, somehow. They planted some crops and then they had the first Thanksgiving celebration in 1621, that's true. In 1622, they did not plant enough crops to celebrate. They couldn't afford a feast so they didn't have it. In 1623, they planted far more crops but there was a drought for many, many, many weeks. As a matter of fact it was so great that the Native Americans said that they'd never seen anything like it. They had no memory of such drought. Their lives were hanging in the balance. So, the leadership of that community called the people together and said, "We need to fast and pray."  They got together, they fasted, they prayed. They prayed all day. By the evening, storm clouds were gathering, literal clouds. The next morning, there came a gentle rain that continued on and off, intermittently, with some sunshine. Then there was more rain for 14 days. Praise God!  Do you think those people thought it was an answer to prayer?  I'm thinking they did. Now, can I figure all this out?  No, I can't figure it out.

Let me give you an illustration that's been helpful for me, geek that I am. On our refrigerator we have a bunch of things that we like looking at, artwork, prayer cards, photographs. They're held to the refrigerator by magnets. How many of you understand magnetism?  One of you raised your hand. I'm going to talk to her afterwards, okay?  I'm serious. You get a powerful magnet, you put it about 6 inches above a paperclip and what happens?  The paperclip clicks to the magnet, just like that!  Can you explain that?  Neither can I, but it works. I don't need to figure out the physics of it. They don't know either. I can tell you right now, I've known some of the smartest physicists and they don't know either. They just have fancier names and more descriptions of the phenomenon. But, they don't know either, anymore than they know gravity. It's a mystery, but it works. All I know is I've got this thing and it goes,"Thunk" and there it is! 

So, when we go to the Word of God, and we find out what God is doing in the world, then we get on our knees, we pray and keep praying. This blessing comes that wasn't there before, we can say, "prayer changes things," and "God answers prayer."  That's the best way I can explain it. If you have another answer, that's fine. It doesn't matter to me, just pray!  Pray in the Spirit and pray for the things that God has called you to pray for. It's very difficult to work out God's sovereignty and human responsibility. But, we know that God answers prayer, powerfully.

How to Intercede for All the Saints

Be in the Spirit

Now, what I want to do for the rest of the time is just step through the phrases to learn something about intercessory prayer. I'm going to try to be a practical as I can in the remaining minutes that we have. We've already talked about being in the Spirit. Let me say again that the first thing you need to do, to intercede for all the saints, is to be sure that you're in the Spirit. What you do is you take a recent spiritual temperature check. "Have I been in the Spirit, leading up into this prayer time?  Have I been characterized by the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control?"  Ask those near you, "Would you say that's characterized me, this afternoon?"  If you don't need to ask and you know it's not, then you need to begin by confessing your sins to God and asking for forgiveness. Ask Him to forgive you for the sins that He brings to you mind. Then pray to be filled with the Spirit. Begin by praying to be filled with the Spirit. Don't waste your time praying if you're not in the Spirit. It would be a waste of time, start there.

Pray At All Times

Secondly, it says, "Pray at all times," effectively. Pray in the Spirit on all occasions. So what this means is, all different opportunities, different times, different occasions in your life for prayer. What I think first and foremost is, just make time for prayer. I believe you need to have a concentrated prayer time doing nothing but praying, everyday. I believe it's best, first thing in the day, early in the morning, like Jesus did. It's not the same as praying while driving. I think that praying while driving is a very good thing as long as you keep your eyes open. That would be a bad form or distracted driving. Calvin is taking driver education. I don't know that they've covered prayer while driving. Thinking not, but you can pray, but keep your eyes open. Now, I'm not talking about praying without ceasing, we'll get to that in a moment. I'm talking about a concentrated pray time in which you're doing nothing but praying. Like we said last week, remember Praying Hyde, how it took like 10 minutes for him to get his heart quiet and right before God and to know who he's talking to? We can't always do that, but there are really special, important times we should do every day. I'm talking about your quiet time. Then having had your quiet time, you can have other occasions like that through the day. Daniel did them three times a day, three times a day!  You can extend those. It doesn't just have to be in the morning. You could do it morning, noon and night. Having had that quiet time, then you're going to want to secondly, "pray without ceasing," so on all occasions. So, we have a concentrated prayer time, then you're going to have "praying without ceasing" throughout the day. Then, we can have other times, like special prayer meetings. I just invited you to come and pray with the elders tomorrow at 6:30pm. That's a special prayer meeting. You have prayer times with your Home Fellowship. Pray in the Spirit on those times. You have all occasions for that, seize the time.

Pray With All Kinds of Prayer

Next, pray with all kinds of prayer. There are different types of prayers that we pray,  "On all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests" he uses two words, prayers and requests. I'm not going to go into the details of different types of words for prayer, but there are many different types of words for prayer. The point is, there are different patterns for prayer. Use them all!  There are quick prayers, there are longer prayers, there are pre-written prayers, planned prayers, impromptu prayers, corporate prayers, small group prayers, retreat prayers, Nehemiah-like prayers, you know where Nehemiah is there, the cupbearer and the king. He makes a 'big ask' of the king. Right before he does, he prays and then answers the king. Those are the quick, arrow-to-heaven type prayers. There are lots of things to pray for. Give time for praying for all the saints. I think you need to organize it, I need to organize it. I have prayed best in intercessory prayer by being organized. I would suggest that you organize your prayer life.

Get Organized

John Piper talked about having no organization in your prayer life is like, "going off on a family vacation with no plan." I love that picture. The whole family gets into the car, they're all there dressed as they were that morning. 'Here we are. Where are we going? Family vacation. Oh, huh. Where are we going? Don't know, we're just driving.'  Pulls out of the driveway. Does he go left, does he go right?  We don't know. That's just ridiculous. We have to plan and think ahead of time, how it's going to be. The more organized that we are in our prayers, the better, to a point. I'm not saying we can't be immediately moved when we hear something, and pray. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that in general, for intercessory prayer be organized. I would suggest concentric circles. Pray much more frequently for the people much closer to you. If you're married, pray for your spouse everyday and even multiple times a day. Same thing for you kids or your parents. If you're single, there's going to be a tight circle of people you know best.

Pray in Concentric Circles

That brings us to most people's circle. That is, pray for your church family. Pray for the brothers and sisters in Christ who you know best, who are around you, people in your Home Fellowship, people that you interact with, accountability partners, people that you meet together with, pray for them consistently and regularly. What should you pray?  I think you can write down requests, you can keep a prayer notebook. If you can remember it, do it, but just pray concentric circles. Pray also for the leadership of the church. Pray for the elders, the deacons. Pray for key leaders in the church, women ministry leaders, others that you know are playing a key role in the life of the church. Pray for them!  Then just pray, concentric circles, for the whole church. Pray for them by name. Go through the church directory. Pray through it once a month. You're praying even for people that you don't know so well, once a month.

Then further out in concentric circles, pray for our community, for the Raleigh-Durham area, for what's going in the city. Pray for what's going in this area and then further out to the state, Charlotte, NC and further on. Pray for brothers and sisters in Christ, for the saints in these locations. Pray for other churches here in the Raleigh-Durham area. Pray for folks that are ministering in Charlotte. Pray mindfully. Further out, pray for our nation, what's going on in the US. Again, pray for Christians in Washington, DC. Pray for Christians in Massachusetts. I mention Massachusetts because I found out that there's a new law that the churches in Massachusetts need to have gender neutral bathrooms and have to use gender appropriate pronouns as the individual is defined. This is going to be a terrible thing for freedom of religion if it takes root, not just in Massachusetts, but throughout the nation. Pray about that. Pray for the proper response to these kinds of things. Then to the world. Pray for the world. Next week we're going to talk more about how to pray for missionaries, how to pray for the spread of the Gospel. Pray for special categories. We'll talk more next week about missionaries reaching unreached people groups. Pray for the persecuted church. Pray for brothers and sisters that are being persecuted.

Pray With A Purpose

I went to Voice of the Martyrs website this morning just to look at it again. There was a brother there, an elder in the Philippines who was killed by Muslims, according to the story. I don't know that much about the story, but they have been trying to get the land that the church owns. The church has been resisting, and now this man was killed. I'm not 100% sure if it was persecution, but it sure looks that way. There are things like this all over the world. There are nations that are making laws that make it difficult to be Christians in that area. Pray for the persecuted church. Pray for Christians that are facing natural disasters. You may ask, "What should we pray for?"  Pray with a purpose. What is God doing in the world?  He's saving the elect, moving them from justification through sanctification, in to glorification. Pray for those things. Pray for Ephesians 1:15-18, Ephesians 3:14-21, pray as Paul teaches us how to pray. Pray for those things. Pray with a purpose. Look at what it says, "With this in mind," or ESV has, "To that end, pray."  Think about what God is doing. “He is saving people that He chose from before the foundation of the world, making them holy and blameless, in Christ.”

Walk through the things that you've learned, theologically, praying purposefully. Then pray alertly. It says, "Pray in the Spirit, on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests, with this in mind, be alert."  Here, there are two levels. One is just, being aware of what's actually going on for the brothers and sisters that you're praying for. What's happening in their lives?  What's happening in the big picture, being aware of what Satan is doing, for we are not unaware of his schemes. You're asking people, "How can I pray for you?  What's happening?"  Be alert, be aware of how Satan is attacking. Or, imagine, what would a pastor, who regularly preaches, how would it benefit Satan to pull me down into sin. If it would be strategic, you could pray for me that, that would not happen. Not just for me but for the other elders. Godly elders are special focuses of Satanic attack. Pray for their protection, as many of you do. You tell me that you do. Keep praying for them. Be aware and then just, be alert while you're praying.

Pray Alertly

Have you ever had a really, really, really quiet, quiet time?  The kind that's really quiet. It's unbelievable. It's like time just flew by, an hour goes by and you don't even know what happened. I'll tell you what happened. The same thing that James, Peter and John were doing when Jesus was praying. What were they doing?  I've had some really sleepy prayer times and it's hard!  For me, I get up early and I don't generally have trouble getting up but sometimes I have trouble getting up and being alert. Sometimes you have to get up and pace back and forth, stir yourself up. Awake my soul and well, don't sing because there might still be some sleeping, and it wouldn't be appreciated. You know how in Proverbs it says, "Greet your neighbor with a loud greeting in the morning, it would be considered a curse.” So don't do that. "But I'm praying for you!"  But be alert. I'm amazed at how often I get sleepy in prayer, almost at any time of day. I actually think it's a satanic attack for me. I want to be alert while I'm praying. Be vigilant. Be aware of what's happening. Let's be alert of what's happening in each other's lives. The church covenant says, "We will watch over one another in brotherly love."  The elders have to do that. We have to be alert. But, you be alert in each other's lives. "What's happening with you, I've not seen you recently. Are you doing OK?  How can I pray for you?" 

The Perseverance We Need

Then, pray with perseverance. It says, "With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."  It is so easy to want to just give up in prayer. Jesus told of the prayer of the persistent widow, that we should always pray and never give up, Luke 18:1. We tend to give up.

George Mueller is one of the greatest examples of persistent prayer that you'll ever find. Listen to what he says about persistence in prayer. "We must continually, continue to wait patiently on God until the blessing we seek is granted for we observe that nothing is said in the text, ‘Ask and it will be given to you,’ about the time and circumstances of when it will be given. There is a positive promise, ‘Ask and it will be given to you,’ but nothing as to time. Someone may ask, "Is it necessary that I should bring a matter before God, 2, 3, 5, or even 20 times?  Isn't it enough for me to tell Him just once? We might as well say that there's no need to tell Him just once, for He already knew before you asked."  Very sharp answer. There wasn't even a need to tell Him just once if there's no need for you to tell Him 20 times. Tell Him 20 times!  As a matter of fact, keep on praying until you have the answer. That's what He is saying. He wants us to prove that we have confidence in Him, and that we take our place as creatures under the Creator. Sometimes He makes us wait just because He's the King, and it would be bad for our pride if He instantly granted everything we requested. We would become so arrogant. We have to wait because it humbles us. Mueller says this, "I am now, in 1864, waiting upon God for certain blessings for which I have daily besought Him for 19 years and 6 months, without 1 day's intermission. Nineteen years and six months, still the full answer is not given concerning the conversion of certain individuals. In the meantime, I have received many thousands of answers to prayer. I have also prayed daily without intermission for the conversion of other individuals, for about 10 years, for others about 6 or 7 years, for others 3 or 4, for others about 2 years, for others 18 months and the answers are still not granted. Yet, I am daily continuing in prayer and expecting the answer. Be encouraged, dear Christian, with fresh earnestness to give yourself to prayer, if you can only be sure that the things that you ask for are according to the will of God."

That's just advice from Ephesians 6:18 on intercessory prayer. Next week I'm going to talk more about praying for the spread of the Gospel. It's been my passionate desire to see this church, far more evangelistically fruitful than we are and I think that prayer is the key. So, next week we're going to talk about that.

Gospel Call

It would be wrong for me though to end without making a direct appeal to lost people to come to faith in Christ. Honestly, you cannot pray in Jesus' name as a non-Christian. The first and most important prayer that you should pray is the prayer of that broken-hearted tax collector who stood a distance and wouldn't lift up his eyes but just beat his breast and said, "Be merciful to me, Oh, God, this sinner."  So, if you are lost, you're on the outside and you're looking in, I urge you to call on the name of the Lord Jesus. I mentioned at the beginning of this sermon that it's because of His shed blood that sinners like us can come into the presence of God and pray. All you have to do is say, "Lord Jesus, save me," and your sins will be forgiven. You don't have to do any good works. Good works will follow, certainly. But just by simple faith in Christ, all your sins will be forgiven. Close with me in prayer.

Prayer

 Father, thank you for the time we've had to look at Ephesians and its instructions on prayer. Teach us to pray. Lord, we're not good at it and we need to grow. Help us to be a praying people. Lord, I pray specifically for tomorrow at 6:30. Would you call out some people from this church to join with the elders in praying about racial ministry in this city, racial reconciliation, and the joy of seeing the Gospel, victorious in this very sad and dark time. Lord, I pray that You call up prayer warriors to do that. Lord, I pray that you would make our church more fruitful and passionate in prayer. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Ephesians 6:18. The main subject of the sermon is that we must pray in the Spirit as part of our walk with God.

             

- SERMON TRANSCRIPT -

Introduction

Well, this morning we come to one of the final phrases in the passage on spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6:18, “praying in the Spirit,” or “pray in the Spirit.” And as I've been saying, week by week on spiritual warfare, the greatest challenge for us is to believe that it's actually even happening that we actually are at war. There's a war going on spiritually we can't see it with our eyes, but it's real. I believe most Christians greatly underestimate the severity of this war and we also greatly underestimate our responsibilities, these commands that are given here in Ephesians, to be ready to fight, to prepare for the fight. We tend to look at the world through our own eyes. We tend to assess dangers based on what we see from our own physical, fleshly perspective and our prayerlessness in particular is key evidence of our self-reliance and our complacency, the fact that we don't pray in the Spirit about spiritual warfare shows that we are essentially on our own, we think we're fine, we don't need any help. Prayerlessness is a clue to our self-reliance.

Now, this is not a new problem, Jesus' apostles struggled with the same thing, they had to be trained to no longer rely on themselves, but on God who raises the dead. They had to be trained that way. It doesn't come naturally. Now, a key example occurs for us in Mark 9, Jesus went up on the mountain, With three of his disciples, Peter, John and James and they went up and there he had that experience with them, he was transfigured, and made glorious before them, but he left nine apostles, not on the mountain to carry on ministry. Now by that time, he had given them the authority to drive out demons and perform signs and wonders to perform healings. They had that power. They'd already done it, but then a specific man came to them with a specific problem, a son, and the disciples failed to drive the demon out from that boy. When Jesus comes down off the mountain, he comes into a scene of tumult of arguing and conflict. Lots of arguing, lots of conflict. The teachers of law arguing with his disciples, Jesus found out what had happened, a man had brought his son to the disciples, the son was demon-possessed, he had been demon possessed from childhood, and the demon often threw the boy into the fire or into the water. The boy's life was constantly threatened by the demon. And he was very distraught, because at that moment, the boy was down on the ground frothing at the mouth. Then the father said, a devastating thing, “I brought him to your disciples but they were unable to drive him out. Now if you can do anything Jesus please help.” “If you can,” said Jesus, “All things are possible to him who believes.” So they had a low opinion of Jesus based on what the disciples had done or hadn't done. Jesus rebuked the evil spirit, came out of the boy throwing him down, so violently everybody thought the boy was dead, but he wasn't, he was healed, and Jesus took him by the hand and helped him up, and he was healed, he was made well. 

Now, later on the disciples came privately to Jesus. Don't you imagine, it was private? And they said, “Why couldn't we drive it out? What went wrong?" And Jesus said, “This kind only comes out by prayer". Wow. So what does that tell you about the disciples? It means they hadn't prayed. They were prayerless. They tried to drive out a demon in their own strength, by their own techniques, by their advanced skills and driving out demons. Can I ask you a question? What kind of demon doesn't come out except by prayer? Is there any demon that's going to fear our piety, and our godliness, and our spiritual technique and run from us? Never! So the disciples struggle with prayerles-ness in spiritual warfare, just like we do. Same thing, prayerlessness is a sure sign we are underestimating the power of Satan and demons, and we are over estimating our own strength, prayerlessness, we are told in Ephesians 6:10, “be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” So we come to the topic of prayer, as the kind of the unification and the final step of spiritual warfare, praying in the Spirit is essential to victory in spiritual warfare.

I. Prayer and Spiritual Warfare

 

Praying in the Spirit Essential to Victory in Spiritual Warfare

Now, Paul has been training the Ephesian Christians, getting them ready to fight an invisible foe. Look again at verses 11-13, “put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything to stand, stand firm then with the belt of truth, buckled around your waist” and he goes on from there. So how does prayer relate to the whole armor of God? How do we understand prayer and all this? What prayer is clearly treated differently than all the other elements.

How Prayer Relates to the “Whole Armor of God”

Paul goes through six elements in a kind of an analogy, to teach them the full armor of God. The prior is treated differently now, all the other elements of the spiritual armor, actually were named as some physical thing that you would see on the body of, maybe, a Roman soldier like the belt, and the breastplate, and the shoes, and the helmet, and the sword, and the shield they're things you could imagine actually being put on the body. And they corresponded to a part of the body, but they were named spiritually, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness. It's been an analogy etcetera. But prayer's just handled differently here. We're not told to put it on. It's not linked to any piece of armor. It's just handled differently. So I think what's happening is in conjunction with all of the armor that we've been talking about, you're going to deal with each one of them by prayer in the Spirit. You really could look to the very previous one, verse 17, The sword of the Spirit, you should take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying in the Spirit. So there's a harmonization of taking up the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit with praying in the Spirit. But I think it extends to the entire thing as we saw earlier that beautiful hymn. “Stand up, stand up for Jesus, stand in his strength alone, the arm of flesh will fail you, you dare not trust your own, put on the Gospel armor. Each piece, put on with prayer.” I think that's it. Where duty calls or danger, be never wanting there. So each piece you're going to be praying in the Spirit. I think that's how it works. 

II. Pray in the Spirit: The Spirit Helps Us in Our Weakness

 

Essential to Genuine Prayer: The Ministry of the Spirit

Now, let's talk about praying in the Spirit. I want to zero in on this particular phrase, and the rest of the time I'm going to be talking to you today, I'm just zeroing it on that one thing. Now, you may think we're never going to finish Ephesians, “We're down to three words at a time, pastor, are we ever going to finish?” Rest assured we're going to finish. Today, we're going to just talk about praying in the Spirit, next week, we're going to extend to talk about intercessory prayer, and all of the things Paul says about it, in verse 18, and then we're going to extend to praying for the spread of the Gospel and with that our look at Ephesians will end.

But let's look now at praying in the Spirit, essential to genuine prayer is the ministry of the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit, The Spirit is given to assist us in prayer. In Romans 8:26-27, it says, “In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We don't know what to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.” That's just so beautiful, isn't it? But what does the text say? It says the Spirit helps us in our weakness in prayer, we are weak in prayer, all of you, I think, can say amen to that. Does anyone want to say, “I actually am very strong in prayer.” I don't think anyone would say that. We all feel weak in prayer, we're not good at praying and we need help. How are we weak? Well, we don't know what to pray for. And we don't know how to pray, and we don't stay with prayer, we don't persevere in it and we don't pray fervently or passionately or in faith, there's just so much weakness to our prayer life. Very weak. So the essence of the call to spiritual warfare however, is a call to be strong, to be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, so the Spirit has come to make us strong in prayer, and we need that help don't we? And isn't is it beautiful how it says there in Romans 8 that the Spirit is interceding for us? The Spirit is praying for us, according to the will of God, and it's beautiful because just in a few verses later, there in Romans 8, it says that Jesus is doing the same thing. In Romans, 8:34, "Christ Jesus, who died more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is interceding for us." So, the second person of the Trinity, Jesus, and the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit are both interceding to God for us, praying for us. So when we enter into prayer, especially spiritual warfare prayer, we are entering into a fervent prayer time that's already going on. The Son and the Spirit are already praying for us, according to the will of God and that's a beautiful thing. And what a mighty resource for victory, we have in the Spirit. 

What is it to Pray “In the Spirit”?

Well, what does it mean to pray in the Spirit? Well, first of all to be in the Spirit, in this case, it's not the same as being indwelt with the Spirit. You can be indwelt with the spirit and not pray in the Spirit. I actually think many of our prayers are not prayers in the spirit, though we are constantly indwelt by the Spirit. What do I mean by that? Well, I believe when you come to faith in Christ, when you believe in Jesus as your savior, at that moment, the Holy Spirit enters into you, it says in John 14:17, “The Spirit of truth lives with you and will be in you.” How beautiful is that? So if you're a Christian, if you're a child of God, you have the indwelling Holy Spirit of God It says in Romans 8:9, "if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ." So conversely, if you do belong to Christ, you do have the indwelling spirit. But that doesn't mean that every time you pray you're praying in the Spirit. I actually don't think that's true. I think we can pray many rote prayers, we can pray cold prayers, we can pray kind of machine-like prayers. My daughter was talking to me, I was raised Roman Catholic, and she asked me about the rosary and I was raised praying the rosary, and it's just these beads, and you pray 10 Hail Marys. I'm forgetting my Catholic training now. Alright, so it's 10 hail Mary's and then in our Father, 10 Hail Mary’s. You work your way around this chain, but it just gets to be like a machine. And you see the same thing in Buddhist prayer sometimes there's this prayer wheel spinning and there's just this machine-like praying. Christians can do that too. 

I talked to her this morning. I said, wouldn't it be cool if you could just record your prayers on your smartphone, and just hit play and then go back and get some sleep while your smartphone did your praying for you?  But that's obviously ridiculous, but some people pray like that, it's like it's a recording. They're not really thinking about who they're talking to or what they're saying. So that's a problem. Praying in the Spirit, I think means to be controlled by the Spirit. Empowered, indwelt. I would say filled with the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit. It says in Ephesians 5:18, “Do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery instead be being filled with the Spirit.” So I think that's what it means. It means to be controlled and I would go beyond that. I think ultimately to pray in the Spirit, means to be lifted up above your immediate circumstances, so that you are actually in some sense, elevated by the Spirit in perspective and in feeling. You're actually almost lifted up and you could have a sense of almost being lifted up out of yourself and praying in the spiritual realm. I think it can get to that level.

You remember that earlier in Ephesians 3, you can look back, if you want, in Ephesians 3:16-19 there Paul talks about his own prayer life for the Ephesians, and there he said, "I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide, and long, and high, and deep is the love of Christ.” Remember that? The infinite dimensions of the love of Christ. You could almost sense the length and width and height and depth like you're almost traveling in your mind to the expanses of God's love for you in Christ and to know that love that surpasses knowledge, that you would be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God that's praying in the Spirit, when you are filled to the measure the infinite measure the fullness of God.

So we would learn to that time, remember that some brothers and sisters have had experiences of spiritual ecstasy almost of being so elevated by the Spirit that they actually didn't even know if they were alive or dead, or awake or asleep. Remember Jonathan Edwards, laying on the ground for one hour and had a vision of Christ in the heavens and his greatness on the throne of God. Remember that? And his wife Sarah another time she felt herself to be like a dust speck floating in a beam of light. She didn't know if she was awake or sleep, alive or dead. She just knew that she was filled with joy and pleasure. Filled with the Spirit. So I think you can pray like that but there are ordinary levels of praying in the Spirit, too. You don't have to reach ecstatic levels, but there are ordinary levels to pray in the Spirit. I think then it, means to pray for the right things in the right way. We could just keep it simple. You're praying for the right things and you're praying in the right way, your demeanor. 

The right things have to do with the work of salvation, God is doing in the world that we've seen unfolded so beautifully in the Book of Ephesians, how God before the foundation of the world chose people to be saved in Christ, and how in Christ, by his blood, we have been redeemed and our sins forgiven and how he is doing this, taking this Gospel and extending it to the ends of the earth and people all over the world are hearing about Jesus and they're finding forgiveness of sins, and they're finding themselves in a right relationship with God because of Christ. And this is going on all over the world, and so, to pray in the Spirit means to pray in light of that, but in the immediate context to pray in light of demons and Satan and his opposition and that there's warfare going on, and you can see that going on, and you pray the right things and it means also to pray in the right way, to pray passionately to pray empowered, inflamed. You remember how on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came, like tongues of fire that came down on the heads of each one, and that flickering flame, there's a sense of the life, and the heat, and the light of the fire and the Spirit comes and you're alive, and your energetic and filled with life and heat in your prayers or the rushing wind. There's a sense of a great movement of God, the power of God in the wind praying in the Spirit.

III. Prayer “In the Spirit”: Four Visions from Patmos

Well, I was thinking about this phrase, the other day. Now we're going to get really, really weird. Okay, this is going to be really interesting. This was going to be a subset of the sermon and it became the entire sermon. So I was thinking about the phrase “in the Spirit”, and I remember that it was at of John the Apostle John on the Island of Patmos. So I'd like you to turn to Revelation 1, effectively we're done with Ephesians today. Okay, so just go to Revelation 1. And I want to give you four visions from the island of Patmos, of what it means to be in the Spirit. The phrase, “in the Spirit”, is used four times in the Book of Revelation, and they give an amazing insight into themes that should be part of our prayer life in Spiritual warfare type prayer. Four beautiful themes. 

In the Spirit: Vision of Christ Glorified

Now, before we get into each of the four times the phrase in the spirit is used, the first in Revelation chapter 1, so you can turn there Revelation. 1:10-11. So just turn there. But just listen, what I'm going to say is that to be in the Spirit means to be, in some sense, lifted up out of your immediate circumstance and transported to see things in the spiritual realm you had not seen before. That's what I think it means. So, a vividness and reality to spiritual things that happen. So I think of it as an elevation and you're lifted up out of immediate circumstances. So, we're going to see that because three times in connection with, “in the Spirit,” an Angel says to John come and I will show you. And then the angel takes him to a place and shows him something. It's just amazing. First time he does, there's not a common, “I will show you,” but it begins on the rocky island of Patmos, the rocky island of Patmos. There, John the Apostle was in exile. Toward the end of the first century around 90 AD. He's on a small rocky island off the coast of modern day Turkey. He's being there. All the other apostles have been killed, but he was exiled, he's an old band and he's there. There's not much to do there except write the Book of Revelation, which is enough to do. And what happens is he's praying on the Lord's Day in the Spirit. 

So that's how it starts. Look at Revelation 1:10-11, “On the lord's day, I was in the spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet which said, write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches,” and what did he see?  Well, turning around in Revelation 1:12-16. “When I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man dressed in a robe, reaching down to his feet with a golden sash around his chest, and his head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire, and his feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters and in his right hand, he held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. And his face was like the sun shining in all of i's brilliance.” Well, this is a picture of the crucified, resurrected, glorified Jesus and he's moving through seven golden lampstands and the Golden lampstands represent local churches that were in modern day Turkey in Asia Minor, real churches, and he's moving through them and ministering to them. It's a picture of Jesus ministering to local churches as a priest, as a mediator, glorified and exalted. Now, look at John's reaction in verse 17, when I saw him, “I fell at his feet as though dead,” he was so overcome with this vision of Christ, the exalted, glorified Christ. So stop, to pray in the Spirit, means to pray mindful of Jesus. Let's just start there, mindful of Jesus as your mediator, your great high priest, as your atoning sacrifice, mindful of that. Start there. So you're in the middle of spiritual warfare, you're fighting sin, you're struggling, you're going to pray in the Spirit. The first thing the Spirit is going to do is exalt Jesus, he's going to exalt Christ in your own mind. You will know as you're praying in the Spirit, without Jesus, you have no access to God. It is by Jesus's bloody death on the cross, by his resurrection, by his saving work in your life, by him as mediator escorting you into the presence of God, that's how you can pray. Without Jesus, you can't pray. God hears everything, God sees everything he's omniscient. That's not the problem, it's not that God doesn't see your prayers or hear your prayers, it's that your sins have separated you from God so that he will not hear, Isaiah 59:2, but because of Jesus, now your sin has been put away, it's been removed from you as far as the east is from the west, your sin has been forgiven, and now through the mediating work of Jesus you can pray. Without Jesus, God wouldn't even look at you or listen to you. I take that phrase from Elisha, who said that evil king Joram when Jehoshaphat was sitting next to him in the Old Testament and they wanted Elisha to prophecy and he hated this evil king of Israel. He said, "I want you to know that if it weren't for the presence of this man, Jehoshaphat here, I wouldn't even look at you or listen to you.” I think that seems a little rude, But that's what prophets can do. They can just say the truth. You're so evil. I wouldn't even look at you, I wouldn't listen to you, but then I started to think, that's what God could say to us, if it weren't for Jesus, if it weren't for the presence of Jesus, he wouldn't even look at us or listen to us.

Or like Esther. You remember how Esther was terrified to go into her husband when he sat on the throne? Because if you have not been invited into the throne room of the king of Persia, he will kill you. That's the law. One exception is if he extends the golden scepter, then your life will be spared, but you don't just walk into the throne room of the king of Persia. She courageously put on her queenly robes and walked into the throne room and he extended the golden scepter. Well, that's a picture of Christ to me. In Christ, God Almighty has extended the golden scepter and he's welcomed me into the throne, So, to pray in the Spirit, means mindful of the greatness of Jesus and what he's done for you, to enable you even to have a prayer life. Ephesians 2:18 says, "For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” We have access, or again, Romans 5:1-2, “since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” So, you have access, you have an opening, you have a new and living way open for you into the throne room of God by the body of Jesus, Hebrews 10. So, to pray in the Spirit, means with a spiritual inner vision of the glory and greatness of Christ as your mediator.

In the Spirit: Vision of God Enthroned

Alright, number two, the second time that this phrase in the spirit is used in the Book of Revelation, is in Revelation 4:1-2. Revelation 4:1-2. “After this, I looked and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me, like a trumpet said, ‘Come up here and I will show you what must take place after this,’” verse two, “At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in Heaven with someone sitting on it.” Alright, so to pray in the Spirit, I believe, again, there's that image of transportation, come up here. How do you do that? He's on the island of Patmos, the door standing open in Heaven, but by the power of the Spirit, he's lifted up off of the island of Patmos, and he sees this door standing open in Heaven and the voice invites him to come through the door and see things. And he goes through the door, and what does he see? The first thing he sees is a throne with someone seated on it. Friends that is the most important reality there is in the universe: That is the throne of Almighty God, It's the throne of the sovereign creator of the ends of the earth. That is the one to whom you'll be addressing your prayers. The first vision is the one by whom you'll be addressing your prayers, But it is to Almighty God, God enthroned, that you will be praying and how great is that throne, how great is the power of Almighty God, how great is he seated on a throne, Isaiah 40, perhaps one of the greatest chapters on answering that question. Isaiah 40 verse 22.

"He sits enthroned above the circle of the Earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy and spreads them out like a tent to live in.” Think of the immense City of God enthroned Isaiah 40:12 says, "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand or the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, Or weighed the mountains on the scales or the hills in a balance.” That's the greatness of Almighty God. "Surely the nations are like a drop from the bucket and like dust on the scales. He weighs the islands as though they were fine dust. Before him, all the nations are as nothing.” they're regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing, that's God enthroned. That's who you're going to be praying to and think of the wisdom of God, enthroned, Isaiah 40:13-14. Who has understood the mind of the Lord or who has instructed him as his counselor? Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way.

 Can I just tell you about your prayer life? You're not able to give God any advice. When you get on your knees to pray, you're not telling him anything he didn't know already, you're not giving him any wisdom, he's not asking your advice. And frankly, if he needed a counselor, he wouldn't ask you. I mean, let's be humble here. But yet, we want to give them all this advice about our lives or people we know, etcetera. There's nothing wrong with making your request known to God, but just remember who you're talking to. He has already worked out everything, the end from the beginning, he has thought all of these things through, he is perfectly wise, that's God enthroned. And this powerful God, his power, is limitless, the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the Earth. He does not grow tired or weary. His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak, that's our God, so to pray in the Spirit means to pray mindful of Almighty God on that kind of throne of power. 

Now, in the New Covenant in Jesus, it also means to see that throne as a source of grace and mercy for you. Grace and mercy. God's power is at work in your life, to give you grace and forgiveness and mercy and love, not wrath and punishment like he could. Isn't it amazing that the throne is pictured in Daniel 7 as having a river of fire flowing through it and that's judgment, wrath, But in Revelation 22, a river of the water of life, flowing clear as crystal. For us as the children of God, we drink from that river and we are refreshed and renewed. And so it says in Hebrews 4:16, "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” So let's go back in your mind to spiritual warfare. That's a time of need, dear brothers and sisters, you need his help, go to the throne of grace through Jesus, go through that door into the throne room of grace and get mercy and grace to help when in need. And that's friends before you sin. It's not just put it this way. A mop to clean up after you sinned, it's power to keep you from sinning, It's grace and mercy in the time of temptation. So that you can say no to the temptation. It's a time of need. So to pray in the Spirit, means to be drawn into the heavenly realms, to see the throne room of God, the sovereign God, your Heavenly Father, who rules over heaven and earth, it is to see his holy hatred for sin, he's pure eyes that cannot look on anything evil. It is to have that vision, renewed by the Spirit to kill all the sin in your life, to put to death every temptation that Satan throws your way. Kill them all and it immediately gives energy and power to your armor, the full armor of God, makes them potent and powerful in your mind. Praying in the Spirit also means to see God enthroned as if on Judgment Day, and what will all this look like on judgment day, and to see God enthroned means to see Satan and his power in light of that omnipotence. Satan's nothing compared to God. Satan is weak, he's a created being compared to God, powerful compared to us, but God could speak him out of existence at any moment. 

In the Spirit: Vision of Satan’s Kingdom Exposed

Third use of “in the Spirit” is in Revelation 17. So look at Revelation 17:1-5. Revelation 17:1-5, third use of "In the Spirit," again in this passage, we're going to get that same sense of come and I will show you transportation. So again, to pray in the Spirit, means you're going to be transported out of the room, you're praying in. It could be your bedroom, it could be your office, it could be anywhere. And then you're seeing things in the spiritual realm. Alright, Revelation 17:1-5, “One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said, to me, ‘Come and I will show you, the punishment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the Earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.’ Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit to a desert and there I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and 10 horns, and this woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering, with gold and precious stones and pearls, and she held a golden cup in her hand filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries, This title was written on her forehead, ‘Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth.’” And then at the end of that chapter, Revelation 17:18, it says, “The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.” So I think it's what Augustine called the City of Man. Well, we could also call it The City of Satan, It's the world in all of its wicked corruptions. It's the world and all of it's alluring temptations, it's the world and all of its hatred to God's people. She's drunk with the blood of the saints, and she's covered in luxury and she's pictured as a horror of luring hearts away from a true, right, love. A pure love. 

Now again, Ephesians 6, is spiritual warfare, praying right, we're going to pray in the Spirit. So what I'm saying is to pray in the Spirit, thirdly is to be mindful of the wickedness of the world we live in the wicked, evil world system that opposes us, and Satan has crafted it to see it clearly, to see it for what it is to see it how evil it is this spiritual Babylon. This wicked world system to see it in the eyes of God. What does he think of this world in all of its wicked sin to see it in the eyes of Judgment Day, what will all of that sin and that wickedness look like on Judgment Day. To pray in the Spirit, means for the Spirit to take us by the hand on a tour of the evilness of the world, and we can see it for what it is and we're like, "I hate that, I don't want that. It's to see how it'll appear on Judgment Day, to pray in the Spirit, means to see the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life, clearly as the deadly dangers they are to pray in the Spirit, means to see the World Properly, spiritually to look at the political forces, political forces, the military situations that are going on on earth, to look at those things with spiritual eyes, to look at the economic things that are going on to look at the stuff they sell in the mall. The stuff that's in the cyber world, the stuff that you surf the web, and then zero in on to see those things spiritually to see them properly. To see Babylon the great as a vast, dark satanic conspiracy a wicked brilliantly conceived alluring temptress away from faith in God. It's to peer into the invisible realm and see how Satan's organized world, system keeps people all over the world enslaved to lusts and false religions and false philosophies, to enslave them to pray in the Spirit, more than that is to see how those things have made inroads into your own heart.

How are Satan's temptations, already putting a rope around your heart and pulling you, so that you can see it with the disgust we should have and cut those ropes and say, "I'm not going to sin, I hate sin.” Praying in the Spirit, is to see how those things are assaulting your soul to see the ways the world is making inroads to look at your spending habits. How are you spending your money? How are you spending your time? What websites are you going to? How are you actually living your life, To see the world system and how it's weakened your zeal for holiness and how it's weakened your zeal for evangelism and missions to see it clearly. 

In the Spirit: Vision of the Future Glory of Christ’s Bride

Fourthly, the fourth vision to be in the Spirit, the last use of the phrase in the spirit is Revelation 21:9-11. And again, we're going to see the same thing, “Come and I will show you” So to pray in the Spirit, means to be transported lifted up from the room where you're praying, your dorm room, your office room, you're praying at lunch, you go into your room and close the door, it's at home, but you're lifted up, that room isn't an ordinary place, anymore. Now, you can see spiritually some things.

So what's the fourth vision? We'll look at it. Revelation 21:9-11, one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come and I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb, and he carried me away,” here's the phrase, “in the Spirit to a mountain great and high and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God and it shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a Jasper, clear as crystal. This is the New Jerusalem, it is the heavenly bride of Christ, this is the people of God finished, at the end of salvation, radiant and glorious and shining with the light of the glory of God, so Revelation 17 and Revelation 21, both show us a woman that's a city, or a city that's a woman. 

There's a complex imagery there of woman/city and so, in Revelation 17, she is vile and corrupt and drunk, and in Revelation 21, she's pure and holy, and radiant and beautiful. What a contrast. So to pray in the Spirit, means to have an eternal view of the Church, the bride of Christ, the people of God as they will look at the end of the world. All of the people, elect, chosen before the foundation of the world. Some of them converted some of them not yet, But they're going to make it all of them are going to be there, They're going to be in Heaven, all of them, they're going to be saved and we can pray. We're going to talk more next week about how to pray and intercede for others horizontally. How to pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests with this in mind, “be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” We'll talk about that next week but it's to pray in light of the Church in glory, it's radiant beauty. 

So the Book of Revelation gives us four uses of the phrase, “in the Spirit,” first, a vision of the glorified Christ as mediator and how much you need him to be your mediator. Secondly, a vision of Almighty God seated on a throne, high above the surface of the earth infinitely greater in power than Satan. Thirdly, a vision of the world, in all of its wicked corruptions, and sins in the power of the devil in the power of Satan, and then fourth a vision of how the church is going to be pure, and beautiful, and radiant, when all is said and done.

Praying for the Right Things

Now those four themes are vital to spiritual warfare prayers. Vital. We need to pray for the right things in detail. The Spirit's going to teach you how to pray. He's going to take those themes and apply them and help you to see things, aspects of each one of those things as you pray. So what I would suggest to you is that when you go to pray, calm your mind and your heart, Allow enough time. Try to not be distracted. Jesus went away to lonely places to pray because it is so easy to be distracted. Calm your spirit and wait to be in the presence of God until you know that you're about to talk to Almighty God through Jesus. 

IV. Prayer “In the Spirit”: Praying the Right Way

There was a missionary in India, named John Hyde, he was nicknamed “Praying Hyde,” And Wilber Chapman tells a story, he was an evangelist traveling evangelist and he was having a evangelistic service, and it wasn't going that well. It turned out that John Hyde was in that town, heard about it, and came and wanted to pray for him. Never refuse when a man like that comes and says, "Can I pray for you?" please. And so, they went into the room together and this is the description of what happened. “He came to my room, turn the key in the door and dropped on his knees and waited. Listen to this for five minutes before uttering a single sound,” five minutes. The man said, “I could hear my own heart thumping I felt hot tears start to come down my face. I knew that I was with God and then with an upturned face, with tears streaming down his face, he said simply, oh God, and then five more minutes, nothing else.” And then when he knew without a doubt he was talking to the God of Revelation 4, the God enthroned, the God of Isaiah 40, he began praying and intercession and request came streaming out from him almost like molten lava just pure and powerful and strong. So do that, look at the ways that prayer is rote and mechanical in your life and get rid of them. Don't pray rote prayers, don't pray machine-like prayers, don't pray cold prayers. 

Thomas Brooks, a puritan and writer said this, “As painted fire is no fire and the dead man is no man, so a cold prayer is no prayer.” “In a painted fire, there's no heat in a dead man there is no life, so in a cold prayer, there is no power, there's no devotion, there's no blessing. Cold prayers are arrows without heads, as swords without edges they are as birds, without wings.” So, they pierce not, they cut not, and they fly not up to Heaven. Cold prayers do always freeze before they get up to Heaven, oh, that Christians would hide themselves out of their cold prayers and chide themselves into a better warmer hotter frame of spirit before they pray. So, you're going to wait until you know you're in the presence of God, lean on Christ, your mediator be mindful that were it not for him, God would not look at you or listen to you. By the blood of Christ, you enter into the throne room, you see the greatness of God, you wait in his presence, and listen to what the Spirit tells you to pray for and then as he tells you to pray, pray. 

A Message to All Non-Christians: Repent and Believe

One final word I want to say, I know that it's possible not everybody that's here today is a believer in Christ. And so I've been talking to Christians about how to pray. But if you came in here and you were not a Christian, you knew you're on the outside looking in, the most important thing you can do is trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. We believe that God sent Jesus, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for sinners like you and me. Raised from the dead on the third day. If you trust in him, not by good works, but by simple faith, your sins will be forgiven, Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and you'll be able to pray in the Spirit, as we've been talking about today. Close with me in prayer. 

Prayer

Father, we thank you for the things we learned from your word. We would not know these things, if you didn't teach them to us. We thank you that the word and the Spirit are so closely connected. I thank you for the vision that John had in the Book of Revelation, I thank you for the fourfold use of the phrase “in the Spirit,” I thank you for what he saw each time. I thank you for Jesus, our great mediator, who shed his blood that we might have access into the throne room of God. And I thank you for the throne room of God. A door standing open, not closed, but open for us, and we can in the Spirit go through that door and come to the throne of grace and see Almighty God enthroned. I thank you that by the ministry of the Spirit, we can see the wickedness of sin and hate it like you do, And I thank you that we can also see our future in the bride of Christ in the Church, pure and holy, I pray that you would enable us to pray in the Spirit on all occasions in Jesus' name. Amen.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Ephesians 6:18. The main subject of the sermon is that we must pray in the Spirit as part of our walk with God.

Introduction

Amen. Well, this journey in Ephesians has been for me amazing and marvelous. It's been very rich. It's really been a journey of worship for me to see the greatness of the salvation that God has been working and continues to work in our hearts, and in the world. Now, we've been learning for many, many weeks of the life of magnificent, new life of holiness and righteousness to which God calls us now that we have been born again, now that we are Christians. As Christians we were chosen, we're instructed in the book of Ephesians, “from before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in God's sight.” We're taught right there in Ephesians 1 that “in love, God predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ.” And what this means is that we were to be conformed to the family image and likeness, we're to be conformed to Christ. And so, this life of holiness is a life of conformity to Christ's likeness, and it's a beautiful thing. And we're told from the very beginning of our Christian life that all of our sins past, present and future have been atoned for by the blood of Christ. “In Him,” [in Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” and how lavish a gift that is I think all of us infinitely underestimates. But we'll know on Judgment Day just how rich, and fully our sins have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and we'll spend eternity thanking Him for it. And we're also instructed in Ephesians 1 that “when we heard the word of truth, the Gospel of our salvation, having believed, we were marked in Christ with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. And that that Holy Spirit that sealing of the Spirit is a deposit, guaranteeing our full inheritance until the day of redemption, until the end of all things.” Now we know without a doubt as Christians that we are going to Heaven when we die. And how at the end of Ephesians 1, Paul prays for the ministry of God to be on the Ephesian Christians, and then through them we can read for us that we would have a sense of the power, the sovereign power of God at work in us to bring us to that rich inheritance we have in Christ. And that we would have absolute certainty that Jesus reigns over heaven and earth, over all powers, visible and invisible to complete our salvation, and what a rich thing that is.

Imitate God in Love

Now, we're in a section in Ephesians where we're told practically how we are to live out this faith that we have. How we are to live out this salvation. And I just, again and again, want to lay that foundation, which I've just been doing for you over the last few minutes, of “justification by faith in Christ apart from works of the Law.” That we are forgiven by faith not by works. We are redeemed by faith in Christ not by works. And we just need to go back to that again and again because the life of holiness is a challenging life. It's a searching life, it's an infinite journey in which we can ever increasingly see sin and weakness in our lives and we know how far we are from perfect conformity to Christ, and we need the power of the Holy Spirit. And so in Ephesians 4:1, he begins that ethical section, "As a prisoner for the Lord then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received." These things I've been talking about since I began. This is the life of holiness in imitation of God. A life of love Ephesians 5:1 it says, "Be imitators of God therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love."

And so we're called to walk in love, to “walk in the light as He is in the light,” to walk in holiness. We're told in Ephesians 5:8-10, "For you were once darkness but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light, for the fruit of light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth. And find out what pleases the Lord." So this is a life, this life of holiness is a life, a daily walk of wisdom. Not of foolishness. As we saw last week in verse 15 of chapter 5. Be very careful then, be meticulous, be rigorous in how you live, not as foolish, but as wise. This is a life of redeeming the time, of not wasting resources that have been given us, precious days, and money, and energy squandered on sin. That we would not live that kind of a life. This is a beautiful new life of holiness that is ours and it's both negative and positive. We've been seeing that rhythm again and again in Ephesians 4 and 5. There are some things that we must put off, that must not be part of our lives, and there are some things that we must put on. And so, we are actually putting even the negative part very positively, we have been set free from soul killing sins. We've been set free from things that are destroying the world, and ruining families. We've been set free from these sin patterns. It says in Romans 6:21-22, "What benefit, [what fruit, what harvest] did you reap at that time from those things of which you are now ashamed? Those things result in death, but now that you've been set free from sin and have become slaves to God the benefit you reap, [the harvest you reap] leads to holiness and the result is eternal life." So Paul teaches the new life in Christ, both negatively and positively. Things we must not do that must never be part of the Christian life, and then those things that we must do. We are taught in verse 19-21 of Ephesians 4, “that we are to put off the old self to be made new in the spirit of our minds and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” And so, that is the life that leads to Heaven and no other. Do not be deceived. That life of putting off being made new in the heart and putting on, that's the life that leads to Heaven, the other life is a life of deception, self deception.

So we've seen again and again, specific aspects of this putting off putting on. So we're told to put off lying, and then put on speaking the truth. And so there's this one-to-one correspondence of what we're told put off, put on. We're to put off stealing, and instead work hard with our own hands, so we may have something to share with those in need. And put off anger and instead put on compassion and mercy and forgiveness like God's been merciful to you. Put off sexual immorality, and put on the beauty of a Christian marriage which we're going to be talking about in a few weeks. Put off, as last week, foolish squandering of time, and instead redeem the time by wisdom and finding out what pleases the Lord.

Clear Prohibition: Do Not Get Drunk on Wine

Personal Context

Now we come to the topic of drunkenness, and we are commanded here, clearly, to put off drunkenness. And again, in that corresponding way that he's been speaking instead “be being filled with the Spirit.” And so we're looking at this clear commandment, this prohibition, "Do not get drunk on wine," verse 18, "which leads to debauchery but instead be filled with the Spirit." Now, let me just speak personally, just to lay my cards on the table. I have not had an alcoholic drink since I became a Christian. I haven't drunk any. My wife occasionally uses wine in cooking, but I've been told the alcohol is gone within a few moments of that. I've had some interesting moments buying single cans of beer for a recipe she had for barbecue once. Felt like I was smuggling drugs across the state line, that was kind of my feeling, I was glad that was in Louisville, glad to get out of there before anyone saw me. Conscience was clear but I wasn't acting like my conscience was clear, so that was kind of interesting.

Actually, I gave up drinking any alcoholic beverage a couple of years before I became a Christian. You may ask, "why?" Well, some of it had to do with just my own family upbringing, and I'm not going to go into detail about that, just for my own reasons. But I've seen personally the effect that alcohol can have in destroying a family, and I'm not going to go into any more detail on that. So my heart here is the heart of a pastor. I'm very concerned about assuming that none of you, that there is no one here listening to me now that needs to hear a warning about alcohol, that may be a couple of negatives. Let me say it again. I think it would be foolish for me to assume that all of you are fine with wine or alcohol. That would be foolish for me as a pastor. And it's not just a matter of now but in the future as well, that there may be habits and patterns that are being laid now that can lead some of you into trouble. And so I think about 1 Corinthians 10:12 where it says, "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall."

So I want to issue from the text and in faithfulness to the text, a warning to any of you who feel that it's well within your Christian freedoms to drink alcohol, which I will say that it is, but half of this sermon is going to be exactly what I think Paul wanted when he penned this command years ago, and that is a clear warning or prohibition against drunkenness. A warning that this sin has the power to blow up your family, blow up your marriage, blow up everything you care about if you are not careful, if you don't heed the warning. I'm willing as I preach this sermon to risk being labeled as legalistic. I'm going to talk about legalism and license in the sermon, but I'm willing to risk that. I hope you'll hear a pastor's heart in this sermon, as I seek to teach accurately what the Bible says about wine and be faithful to Paul's warning here. I also want to very positively contrast the drunkenness caused by wine with the overwhelmingly pure and free and clear joy caused by being filled with the Spirit. Now I'm intending to preach, God willing, a full sermon on what it means to be being filled with the Spirit next week. So the only thing I'm going to say this week will be in contrast to the wine just fitting into the verse itself. Next week, I'm going to give more of a kind of a big picture New Covenant view of what it means to be filled with the Spirit.

Long History of Christians Battling Over This Issue

Now, when we come to the issue of fermented beverages: alcohol, wine, or whatever you want to say, you must know we step into a long history of Christians battling on this issue. Christians have been battling this from the beginning of the Church. There have been movements of both very strong prohibition and even bordering or even crossing the line into legalism, some would argue. And then issues of license as well, this is the kind of thing that is going on. Modern Christians are often surprised to learn that Martin Luther brewed beer in his own basement, and apparently it was very good for those that like that kind of beer. I don't know, what would I know. I feel a little bit like a lifelong celibate speaking about marriage here, but the Bible says that wine and beer are a blessing, and we'll talk about all that. And then people that bought it said he brewed good beer. The pilgrims drank beer when they crossed the Atlantic, and that John Calvin was paid by the city of Geneva, with I think 250 bottles or casks of wine, which he either used or sold for his own benefit. Jonathan Edwards drank wine regularly without any record of him ever getting drunk.

But then on the other side, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, John Wesley and his Methodist movement in England identified gin houses as one of the major corrupting influences of London and indeed of the entire nation of England, and they led a major crusade against drunkenness, and against gin in their country. Denominations and mission agencies, seminaries, local churches, have had heated debates and have instituted policies that have offended the convictions of Christians, and as some have believed violated their freedoms. Many church covenants in our denomination, Baptistic Church covenants, had battles over the language, the actual verbiage of alcohol. So church covenants were saying a bunch of things we're pledging to do and be for each other. And originally, the covenant would read something like this, "To combat the use of alcohol." And then you have war and debate, war and debate, war and debate and it gets moved over and they just add two little letters A, B, "To combat the abuse of alcohol." there's a world of difference between fighting the use of alcohol and the abuse of alcohol, but lots of debates on them. 

South Eastern Seminary, where I am an adjunct professor, has a policy of complete abstinence from alcohol, which has engendered a great deal of debate and discussion. Of course in our nation's history, there's the era of prohibition, and maybe you don't know how powerfully active evangelicals were in getting prohibition to be ratified and passed. The temperance movements were led by Evangelical Christians, many of them women, who saw the devastation in their family lives caused by drunk husbands, who were abandoning their responsibility to their wives and children. And so it led to the 18th amendment which made illegal the production, sale, importation and transportation of all alcoholic beverages, that one from 1920-1933.

Well, as I mentioned the battle, this battle always seems to come down to two opposite extremes of legalism on the one side and license on the other. And I think Tim Keller wisely said, "If you really think that one of those two is the biggest danger in the church, you're almost certainly involved in the opposite." So if you really think the pastor has to be really, really careful about legalism, I would say be aware of license, and then the opposite would be true. So it's just that we have to drive a wise road between these two extremes.

Understanding the Prohibition

Well, let's dig in and try to understand what Paul's warning here or commanding. He says simply, "Do not get drunk on wine." Now for us, for law enforcement officials, etcetera, drunkenness is pretty scientific at this point. We have actual detection devices that can tell if you're legally drunk. There's a billboard right there in North Durham that shows some young guy blowing into a breathalyzer and said, "You just blew." just humorous, I guess, "$10,000". Like if your blood alcohol level is over a certain level on the breathalyzer, it's a $10,000 fine. So they would define the blood alcohol concentration, BAC is that's a percentage of alcohol in the blood compared to the volume of blood, 0.1% is legally drunk. So that means for every 1,000 milliliters of blood the body would contain 1 milliliter of alcohol. Also most states practice a zero tolerance policy when it comes to underage drinking. So if you have any evidence of alcohol and you're below the age of 21, it's against the law. More specifics, apparently the faster you drink alcohol in a given occasion, the higher the BAC is. It's probably just physiological, it's hard to process the alcohol, and the more dangerous the drinking becomes.

A BAC of 0.37% to 0.40% can be fatal. Along with that comes the journey and here's where it gets interesting even for the purpose of this text. At 0.02%, that's like one-fifth of the way to legally drunk, drinkers can begin to feel moderate effects. At 0.04%, that's two-fifths of the way to legally drunk, drinkers can begin to feel relaxed, mildly euphoric, sociable and talkative. At 0.05%, that's halfway to legally drunk, judgment, attention and control are somewhat impaired. The ability to drive safely begins to be limited. Sensory, motor and finer performance issues are impaired. People are less able to make wise decisions about their capabilities, for example, about driving itself, they can think that they're able to do it when they really aren't. Then at 0.08% which actually is legally drunk in many states though not all, a clear deterioration of reaction time and control occurs. By 0.12 to 0.15% vomiting usually occurs. Drinkers are drowsy, emotionally unstable, have lost critical judgment, perception, memory, motor coordination all severely impaired. So that's all technical scientific. Somewhere long before that level, Christians will have violated Paul's command here.

Now, of course, people's body weight and other biological factors significantly impact this. But I think for us in terms of the issue of wisdom, the question is not how close to the line can I skirt and not go over it. And therein lies some of the problem with alcohol, is it becomes somewhat of a slippery slope. And it's hard to know, “Have I crossed the line? Am I sinning now based on Ephesians 5:18?” So biblically, then drunkenness in that they didn't have breathalyzers and BAC reading devices, etcetera, it would be the drinking of fermented beverages to the point of impairment of judgment and motor skills, so that outside observers note, and can tell that you've been drinking wine, because it affects your behavior and your speech. Now, the Bible consistently condemns drunkenness. Obviously, the first example is right after the flood, Noah planted a vineyard and he got drunk on the wine and lay shamefully exposed. After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, we have the story of Lot in a cave with his daughters and they got their father drunk, and had children by their own father which led to the Ammonites and the Moabites.

There's some evidence in the text that Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's sons, were drunk when they offered the illegal offerings by fire that the Lord killed them for, because in the same chapter a few verses later, he warns priests never to be drunk in approaching the altar. And it seems that some of the Corinthians were drunk at the Lord's Supper. In 1 Corinthians 11:21, it says clearly that some were drunk. And in verse 30, it says because of just the way they were dealing with the Lord's Supper, a number had fallen asleep. In other words, had died. So we could imagine wouldn't be surprising that if you came drunk to the Lord's Supper in Corinth that the Lord might strike you dead. Now, the book of Proverbs has many warnings about wine and Proverbs 20:1 it says, "Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler, whoever is led astray by them is not wise." Proverbs 23:19-21 says, "Listen my son and be wise and keep your heart on the right path. Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor and drowsiness clothes them in rags." 

Later in that exact same chapter, in Proverbs 23:29-35, the proverb says this, "Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who linger over wine. Who go to sample bowls of mixed wine. Do not gaze at wine when it is red. When it's sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly, in the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper. Your eyes will see strange sights and your mind will imagine confusing things. You'll be like one sleeping on the high seas, lying on the top of rigging. ‘They hit me, you'll say, but I'm not hurt. They beat me but I don't feel it. When will I wake up so I can find another drink?’" That's a pretty clear warning against the dangers of alcohol, in the end it bites like a viper. Interestingly, in between those two clear warnings in Proverbs 23, is a very strong warning against sexual immorality with prostitutes. It's almost as though the life of wine is linked in some way to a life of sexual immorality. Many of you that are involved in college ministry know how often this happens, there can be parties and whatever and because of alcohol or drugs, you can do things that you would ordinarily never do with people you don't even know, and it can really lead to a terrible level of shame. God makes it clear that those who are unrepentant drunks will not inherit the kingdom of God, as it says in 1st Corinthians 6:9-10, "Do not be deceived, drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God."

The Pagan Background: Drunken Worship

Now, there is a pagan background concerning worship that becomes relevant even for the verse we're looking at here. All around the pagan world drunkenness was part of idolatrous polytheistic worship. And the idea went that as you would drink the gods and goddesses, would kind of take over your body, and make you do things or act out things that they wanted you to act out, including immorality, gross immorality, and other things like that. I think for this reason, alcohol has frequently been called ‘spirits.’ Like back in the Colonial days, you knew that spirits meant fermented beverages, and so there was a link to the pagan or that world of the gods and goddesses. So pagan worship frequently involved drunkenness combined with alluring music, wild dancing, revelry, and sexual immorality.

I think this is part of what Paul means when he talks about debauchery, he says in verse 18, "Do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be being filled with the Spirit." So pagan worship like this would have been very familiar to the people of Ephesus, they would have seen it regularly in connection with the temple of Artemis. Paul is presenting a different kind of worship here. An infinitely better kind of worship and an infinitely better kind of life. Look again at the text, verses 18 through 20. Let's look at that, it says, "Do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." It's a whole different kind of worship. An infinitely better kind of worship than that of the pagans.

Some Thoughtful Questions About Wine

So what I want to do now is stop and just ask some questions, I think, I hope will be thoughtful and helpful for you concerning wine.

Question 1: Is Wine Use Universally Forbidden?

Question number one; is wine use universally forbidden? Well, the answer obviously, biblically, must be no. There's no universal prohibition against the drinking of wine in the Bible, actually quite the opposite. Wine is often presented as a blessing from God in the Bible. In Deuteronomy 7, the Lord talking about the blessings of the Promised Land and all of the rich blessings He would give them, He said this, "The Lord will love you and bless you and increase your numbers, He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land, your grain, new wine and oil, the calves of your herds, the lambs of your flocks in the land which He swore to your forefathers to give you." Again, Psalm 104:15, it says that “God gives wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread that sustains his heart.” Amos 9:13 speaks about the glories of the restoration of Israel, the post-exilic and ultimately eschatological restoration of the people of God. And it says this in Amos 9:13, "Lavish blessings will come on you. The days are coming when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills."

The book of Proverbs itself has many passages that speak of the blessings of wine. In Proverbs 3:10, "Then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine." And then in Proverbs 9 Lady Wisdom is personified, and so Lady Wisdom is going to spread a banquet and a feast for any that will partake. And it says this, Proverbs 9:1-2, "Wisdom has built her house. She has hewn out its seven pillars, she has prepared her meat, mixed her wine, she has also set her table." Wine is among the things that God commanded to be offered on the altar to Him. Of course most famously you're saying when is the pastor going to mention Jesus changing water into wine. Well there you go, I have now mentioned it. Jesus changed water into wine, and said, "None of you are to drink it now. No one drink it, but isn't it beautiful to look at." Well, you know that didn't happen. It was sampled and said to be high quality wine. A sense of instant aging that came on it, but no permission toward drunkenness, not at all. You shouldn't think because there's a large quantity of it he would have counseled drunkenness.

Frankly, Jesus Himself is the key on this question, is wine drinking universally forbidden? We have the example of John the Baptist contrasted with that of Jesus, and here I think there are two godly responses to alcohol. The Angel Gabriel when he came to Zechariah, spoke to Zechariah saying that John the Baptist, He didn't say his name at that point, but this boy would be effectively a Nazirite from birth, he was not to drink any alcoholic beverage or anything, any fermented or strong drink. For he will be filled with the Spirit from birth. So there's a strong link to even the text we're looking at here. But then Jesus in teaching about John the Baptist, he said this amazing thing, He said, "John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking, and they said he had a demon. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners, but wisdom is proved right [or justified] by her actions." Jesus was no drunkard and He was no glutton, but He drank wine. And I don't know how you could come to any other conclusion from a simple exegesis “of the Son of Man came drinking” in context. 

So here we have, I think, two godly examples of what to do about wine. Some are just going to say, it's not for me for my whole life. I'm just not going to do it. I'm not going to drink, I have my own reasons. Could be that you think physiologically in terms of family heritage, whatever you might be prone to alcoholism, for whatever reason, you don't need to give a reason. You can just say, "I'm just not going to drink." and that's fine. We'll talk about judgmentalism, we'll talk about that, but I'm just saying on the issue itself, you're free to decide to never drink wine, and no one should judge you for that. But conversely in Jesus' case, you're free to also drink wine just as long as you're as holy about it as Jesus and never get drunk. So that's the first question.

Question 2: Is Today’s Wine the Same as the Wine in the Bible?

Secondly, is today's wine the same as the wine of the days of the Bible? Now that's a question I don't think we can finally answer. We need a baseline on which to compare it with. We don't really have any accurate measurement of the alcohol level of the wine that was served at banquets back then. John McArthur has done a careful study of it. He says it's much lower, especially because of dilution. There was a lot of dilution with water that would happen, etcetera. And you can read what he wrote and I find it somewhat compelling. In any case, we're not really sure there is some evidence, however that it was of a much lower alcohol content. If it was much lower alcohol content, you had a lot longer run up to drunkenness. It became much more of a willful decision on the part of the drinker to get drunk. And I think there's some evidence in the text in Acts 2. You remember how they having been filled with the spirit had just been exuberantly preaching the Gospel and ministering and joyful and all that? And they said “they must be drunk.” You remember what Peter said? "It's impossible." He didn't say that, but in effect he said, "It's only nine in the morning. There's not been enough time. We were just up a few hours ago and there just isn't enough time.” It implies then low alcohol content at least.

Now modern wines, McArthur says probably ancient wine alcohol at 3% or less content, modern wines much higher and apparently growing ever higher. I want you to notice, if I can just borrow a verb and just bring it out to just in general, the distillation principle of pleasure going on in front of us. There's a law of diminishing returns, since you have to have more and more of the thing that brings you pleasure in order to get the same kick, and it just keeps going higher and higher and higher all the time. You look at any area of pleasure, you're going to see that that's what's happening. There's more and more concentration. An in-flight movie is not enough, now we need 50 of them. And we need to be able to choose. Is that a sin? No, but just watch what's happening, it's like more and more of the thing you love. Same thing with music, you can just zero in and make your own playlist and just drown yourself in your own favorite songs, until they're not your favorite songs any more, because you've heard them into the ground. It's happened to me. I used to like that song. I've heard it 10,000 times now I don't like it anymore. But there's that distillation thing. Well, same thing with alcohol. The content is very high. 10-21% in wines, gin would be 35-40%, vodka 35-46%, whiskey 40-60%. For me, I must assume to drink a small glass of whiskey would be a decision to get drunk. I just look at it that way, sides on the fact I have no desire to do it. I don't know if that's true, but I just think the alcohol is extremely high.

Question 3: Is Wine Drinking Required?

Third question, is wine drinking required? Are there any commands that say that you must drink wine? Well, clearly there aren't, because we have Nazirites that take vows and they don't drink, we have the Rechabites in Jeremiah who swore off alcohol and drank nothing. We have the case of John the Baptist as I already mentioned. We also have the statement made in 1 Timothy 5:23, "Stop drinking only water and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses." So that implies that one of the reasons for drinking wine would be just the sanitary nature of it. So wells of water back then were dirty things. Animals used them, and there are other issues as well. Now, we're very aware, post Louis Pasteur, of the microbes and the dangers. And so beverage bottling companies are meticulous in their cleanliness with an amazingly wide array of safe, non-alcoholic beverages that are available. Fruit drinks galore. How many are there? I don't know if anybody's geeky enough to do this, but go into an average, well stocked convenience store, and count the different number of non-alcoholic products there are available and come back and tell me that number. Jenny thought it might have been in the 300 range. I think it's somewhere in the 150 range. You're like, "Well, how do we know?" are there like seven or eight refrigerator doors. Maybe you could go per refrigerator door how many non-alcoholic beverages are there. My point is, you have a wide array of choices that they didn't have back then.

Beyond that, drinking is not necessary to being a witness. Just because you're at an office party, a Christmas party and everyone's drinking, you don't have to do it, especially post AA. Most people are aware that some just swear off alcohol their whole lives, it's not even a religious commitment, it's just something they've done themselves, and generally it won't pressure them. Even the alcohol bottling companies are making the designated driver a hero, man or woman, this guy's a hero or girl's a hero, because they're not drinking anything at all. They would like them to drink next time and be it on a rotating basis I think, but I don't know that for sure. So I think you have the ability in this day and age to say, "No, I'm not drinking." You don't have to preach about it at that moment but you can say it. So it's not required to be a witness. Now, some may ask, yes it's not required, but is it permitted? Well, I already covered that. Yes, it's permitted but it's not required either.

Question 4: Is Wine Habit-Forming?

Fourthly, is wine habit forming? Is it addictive? It is the devastating testimony of many, not of all but of many, how addictive alcohol can be. People become enslaved to the bottle, unable to get through a single day without drinking. Alcohol clouds the brain and it affects bodily functions chemically. Beyond that, just the mental habit of turning to alcohol to solve problems, the saying "drown your troubles." Well they actually don't get drowned. You actually end up having a bigger overriding trouble that has conquered all the others, and that's alcohol, for those that get addicted. There are an estimated 18 million alcoholics in the United States today, 18 million, estimated, one out of every 12 adults. That includes, tragically, between three to four million teenagers. Ministries that work with people, so enslaved, say plainly that the hardest day for them is they have broken away from this enslavement is the first day, just getting through the first 24 hours of not drinking. So yes, for some people, not for everybody, but for some people wine is habit-forming, it is enslaving. Either way, even if it's a matter of Christian freedom for you and something that you do just beware, beware. Paul said this in 1 Corinthians 6:12, "Everything is permissible for me but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything."

Question 5: Is Wine Drinking Potentially Destructive?

Fifthly, is wine drinking potentially destructive? Well, Paul mentions the word debauchery here, debauchery means literally, “that which is incapable of being saved.” That's what the Greek word means, it speaks of a person who is dying of an illness that can't be cured. It also the word implies wild living profligates, like the prodigal son. Debauchery is a form of self-destruction. Now medically, alcohol has a long track record of killing people who drink it unrestrained. It leads to cirrhosis of the liver, long-term damage, it destroys brain cells, causes multiple other diseases. Then alcohol is directly involved in over 40% of all violent crimes in our country, and over 50% of all traffic fatalities. It's the number one killer of teenagers, alcohol connected traffic fatalities. Beyond that it's just the damage done to families. And I don't know how you can even talk about this. Most of this is just anecdotal, but just what happens, even if the individual manages his or her drinking and they can hold down a job, there's still damage done everyday to the relationships.

 Story of Spurgeon

Some time ago I read this account and it never left me, Charles Spurgeon talked about this of a man he led to Christ, he was addicted to gin, this man destroyed his family by his addiction, he spent every available coin on drink, he stole money to feed his habit. He worked, but spent all of his wages on his own alcohol addiction. His family was slowly starving to death, his wife was begging in London to have enough money to feed their children. His daughter had a dangerous, but curable illness, and this man drank away the money that would have been used for her medicine and she died. It's one of the saddest stories I've ever read in my life. Well, the neighbors basically passed the hat to buy a coffin and a dress, a beautiful dress for this little girl to be buried in. This wretch broke into the undertaker's shop the night before the funeral, opened the casket, stole the dress off the dead girl, closed the casket, sold the dress, drank the money. Confessed all of this Spurgeon after he was converted, conscience ripped to shreds. Can I be forgiven? Is it even possible? Well, thanks be to God. The grace of God is infinitely greater than any wretchedness, any alcohol or drug has ever produced in any life. Yes, he can be forgiven so can you. But I'm just wanting you to note the danger that comes from this debauchery that Paul mentions here.

Question 6: Is Wine Drinking Potentially Offensive to Other Christians?

Is wine drinking potentially offensive to other Christians? Can it cause other Christians to stumble? Yes, it can. First Corinthians 8, Paul talks about a weak brother for whom Christ died is offended by your eating of meat sacrificed to idols. “He said when you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I'll never eat meat again so I'll not cause him to fall.” Well, he takes the same argument and applies it to alcohol in Romans 14:21. He says it's better not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.

Question 7: Is Wine Drinking Potentially Harmful to my Witness?

Next question, is wine drinking potentially harmful to my witness as a Christian? A moment ago I was asking is it offensive to other Christians, now I'm asking, could it affect other non-Christians who are watching you drink? And the answer is it could. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:31-33, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews or Greeks or the Church of God. Even as I try to please everyone in every way, for I'm not seeking my own good but the good of many so that they may be saved." So yes, you can impair your witness by what you do with alcohol if you sin with it. So then the question comes, is it wise to drink wine at all? And that's where I just want to give you those examples of John the Baptist and Jesus. You have to make your own decision. If you want to celebrate as many passages do the gift of wine and drink it, just be sure that you are not violating Paul's clear prohibition here. Be clear that you can drink wine in as holy a manner as Jesus did, or be like John the Baptist.

Question 8: Is It Right to Judge Other Christians?

Now, the final question, is it right to judge other Christians on what they do with this? The answer must be no. It is not right. As long as they're not getting drunk, they've not sinned. Romans 14:4, "Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls, and he will stand for the Lord is able to make him stand." So churches I think are wrong to set up legalistic covenants or rules saying that none of their members may drink any alcohol at all. But having said that let me ask a corollary question, is it right to give counsel or advice to other Christians? Yes, and that's different than judging. I think you should come to your own convictions about this, and then talk about them with each other, and give and receive grace and mercy to each other. But my desire is to just protect this church from sin, that's my desire, and the sin here is drunkenness.

A Clear Contrast: Be Filled with the Spirit

The Joy and Celebration the Spirit

Now, for the few minutes that we have left, I want to give you the clear contrast with being filled with the Spirit. Like I said, we're going to do this much more fully next week. Look again at the text, "Do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ." So like I said, next week we're going to talk much more about the Spirit-filled life and what that means. But here, I just want to focus on the joy, and the elation, and the celebration in these verses. Just the sheer happiness of being a Christian.

The fact that it just flows out in worship. Our hearts are just so elevated and so saturated with the good news of the Gospel that we can't help speaking about what we've seen and heard, and we can't help singing about it, and speaking to one another about it, we can't stop talking about it, because the good news about Jesus is so joyous that it just must take over the whole world as it's already taken over our whole hearts. You think about how when Jesus was born the angels were just celebrating, a great choir of angels just celebrating and praising God from the heavens, Luke 2:13. And then how much more Jesus' resurrection victory. Where it says in 1 Corinthians 15, "Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" It says, "Thanks be to God, He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

The Joy of the Spirit is Supernatural

So it's just so much joy and celebration, this joy is supernatural. It does come from the outside in. Like wine, it's similar in that way. It comes from the outside in, and we can drink the Holy Spirit, it says that in  Corinthians 12:13, it says, “we have all been given the one Spirit to drink.” So drink up of the Spirit. The Spirit in the Old Testament is often linked to or likened to a liquid, boy that was hard to say. Likened to a liquid. But we can drink in like the earth drinking in the rain and producing fruit, so it is the ministry of the Spirit. The Spirit is poured out like a liquid and we can just drink in, and He fills our hearts with joy. You look again at Ephesians 3:17-19. Just listen, I don't have time to look there now, but remember the prayer there, I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And that you would know that love that surpasses knowledge, listen to this, so that you will be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Super saturated with God.

Now, that's something the world will sit up and take notice of. They did on the Day of Pentecost, they thought they were drunk. There's no other explanation for this joyful behavior, and this joy just bubbles out to others. Look at verse 19, "Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs." You may say it said, speak to one another I'm not really good at singing. So maybe for you, you should just speak the psalms. Others like I've said before, I sing best corporately with really loud people singing around me. I actually don't have a bad voice. You can talk to Rick Lesh afterwards, because I was singing right in your ear so just ask him how I sounded. But we can just enjoy singing psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. And just include one another, O magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt His name together. But it comes from hearts filled with joy, with singing in our hearts, and giving thanks from our heart. So it's coming from inside out, and it's just so contagious and so beautiful, and it's something that we just want to do by the power of the Spirit.

Let the Joy Flow Out of You

Now, psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. I don't really know the difference between them. Maybe some people would have to be meticulous, and I don't know that we can differentiate to some degree, but I think all of them involve a meticulous high level of intellectual endeavor. Where individuals are capturing deep theological themes in poetic language. And when you write poetry, you're constraining yourself in rhythm and verse. And so you have to be really efficient and sharp, you think about every word. And so these brothers and sister hymn writers have served the whole Body of Christ, by writing magnificent psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and then we come together and sing them, and it's so intelligent and so thoughtful and so theological, it's so different from the debauchery of drunkenness, when somebody's drooling and stammering. We are singing truth and it just makes us joyful. That's better than drinking. There's no hangover, there's no sin, there's no financial cost. There's just the joy of the Holy Spirit.

Application

Repent and Believe

So briefly, application. First and foremost, I just want to appeal to any of you who are enslaved right now to sin. Any that there might be, it might be alcohol, it might be drugs, it might be any sin at all might have nothing to do with alcohol or drugs, but you know you're a slave to sin, you know you're not a Christian. And you came here today, maybe somebody invited you here I just want to point you to the cross. I want to point you to Jesus who is crucified on the cross and shed his blood for sinners like you and me. And all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and if you will just trust in Him, all of your sins, no matter how dire and how repulsive can be, will be, forgiven. And then if you are genuinely converted, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit will come in and show you that your chains are broken. And He'll teach you that you're already free from sin. And that you never need to sin again, and He'll begin to lead you in new habits of holiness and righteousness. So come to Christ.

Evaluate Your Heart

Secondly, to my Christian brothers and sisters, concerning wine, just start with this, just simply obey the command here. Don't ever, ever get drunk on wine because it leads to debauchery. Start with that. But then secondly, if you believe that wine is going to continue to be part of your Christian freedom in your life, you're certainly free to do that. I think I've made that case, in the pattern of Jesus. I'm just saying beware, the slippery slope. How do you know when you've gone too far? How do you know? How do you know when alcohol, wine has too great a grip on your life? I think, ask people around you? Are they worried about your drinking? Look in your own heart, if you can't live without it, it's gone too far. Any created thing you can't live without is an idol. If you turn to it more and more when you're having problems, it's probably too great in your life already. Turn to the Holy Spirit to solve your problem, if you need wine to feel friendly, outgoing, and loving at a gathering, can I commend the fruit of the Spirit instead, be filled with the Spirit and go reach out to people. Stop thinking about yourself and how you look and all that, don't worry about nobody cares about you. Well they do, but just move out and be friendly and minister and forget what people are thinking about you. You don't need alcohol to do that. If you've ever been drunk before, and especially if you've been drunk recently, then clearly wine is a dangerous place for you. Does that mean you should turn to total abstinence? Maybe, maybe, maybe not. But I'm just saying beware. If wine dominates you're thinking, you just can't imagine life without it then that's how you know.

Drink in the Spirit

And then finally, and we'll talk much more about this next week. Just drink the Spirit, be being filled with the Spirit. Sing to one another, speak to one another, speak God's word to each other, be happy, be evidently happy and joyful and hopeful in this sad world that we live in. People might wonder if you're drunk, you'll be able to speak very rationally that you're not. But you're filled with the Spirit. Close with me in prayer. 

Prayer

Lord, thank you for the time we've had to study today. We thank you for the word of God and how it speaks the truth to us. Father, I want to pray right now for any brother or sister in Christ, who needed to hear this sermon, perhaps they have been hiding drinking patterns, hiding addictions. Oh God, I pray that you would give them help, the help that they need. Set them free. And Lord, I pray for others who have already openly identified these things, and are in various programs, and are making progress. Lord, give them strength for the journey help them to know the good work that they've already done by putting distance between them and the last time that they were sinfully drunk. And God, I pray for any that are addicted to drugs in a similar way, though they're not mentioned in the text, they're implied, Oh Lord set them free. Lord give us the wisdom to know what to do about this, help us not to judge another servant, but to be wise. And God fill us oh Lord, all of us with the Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus name, amen.

Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Ephesians 5:18. The main subject of the sermon is that we should avoid drunkenness and instead be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Ephesians 4:30-32. The main subject of the sermon is the importance of pleasing rather than grieving the Holy Spirit.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now, the earth was formless and empty and darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God, [the Spirit of God] was hovering over the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light, and God separated the light from the darkness and He called the light good.” Those are obviously very familiar verses, but many of us don't realize that they contain the first reference to the Holy Spirit of God in the Bible very early in Scripture. Now, I honestly don't know what the Holy Spirit of God was doing hovering over the waters of creation, but I know He was there. And I've learned since that time that my own salvation was like that moment of creation. I've learned that from 2 Corinthians 4:6, where it says, "For God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."

So God said, "Let there be light," and God spoke a light into my heart, 33 1/2 years ago. I remember distinctly, I was in a lab and I heard a voice telling me I was going to a college retreat that I had no interest in going to. I had been fighting, fighting the Gospel, I'd been fighting becoming a Christian, I didn't want to become a Christian. The next reference to the Spirit of God as I read it in the Bible is in Genesis 6, where God said, "My Spirit will not strive forever with man." And so in my case, the Spirit didn't strive with me forever, He won. He overcame.

And so, today, what I want to do is I want to give each one of you a greater estimation of how much you owe, if you're a Christian, how much you owe the Holy Spirit of God that you are a Christian. I want you to be able to sing not just, "Thank you, Jesus," but "Thank you, Spirit." Because I believe theologically, Jesus would mean nothing to you if it weren't for the Spirit of God. That Jesus would be remote and distant, or even you would even be hostile to Jesus, because it says, "The mind of the flesh is hostile to God, it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot." And so, if it were not for the sovereign Spirit of God hovering over your darkened heart and ministering in a miraculous way the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ, you would still be in darkness to this very day. And I believe you ought to say thank you to Him. I think you ought to appreciate Him, the person of the Holy Spirit of God.

As far as I can see, the next mention or illusion, not mention, but allusion of the Spirit, I see after the waters of the flood when the dove brought back that branch, that olive branch in his beak, and you have, in effect, the Spirit of God hovering over the waters of judgment and bringing back, I think pictured for us, bringing back to the elect a mention of salvation, of peace, of forgiveness with God. And that causes my mind to go ahead to the baptism of Jesus, different waters which Peter says, "Are likened to the waters of the flood." But likened for us, not waters of judgment, but waters of forgiveness and cleansing from wickedness and sin. And the Holy Spirit of God descends like a dove and remains on Jesus.

And so we come in Ephesians 4 that you just heard read in verse 30, to a mysterious text, a very deep, an infinitely deep text. Here we're going to ponder the mystery of the personhood, the personality of the third person of the Trinity, the personhood of the Holy Spirit of God. And my task today, I think, is to greatly increase your sense, your esteem of His personality. And let me just go even beyond it into where the text goes. That you would not grieve Him. That you would realize that sin is grievous to the indwelling Holy Spirit of God, and that if we can put it this way, He takes it personally. And that this should be, amongst some other motivators, one of the greatest motivators you could ever have to live a holy life. That you do not want to grieve this tender loving powerful Spirit who has saved you by ministering Christ to you. Now, I don't understand fully the doctrine of the Trinity. To me, it's an infinite mystery. I don't think we'll ever understand it. But I think we should meditate on this text, and we should meditate on the deep theological truths that teach us about God from this, that we would understand the life that God has for us

The Indwelling Holy Spirit

Understanding the Flow of the Chapter

Now, we need to understand this in the flow in the context of the Book of Ephesians. And I see, is I look at at these six chapters, how they divide neatly into two main sections. Ephesians 1-3 gives us the theology of our salvation, how we should worship and praise God who “chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight, and how God in love predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ. And how in Christ, we have redemption, forgiveness of sins through His shed blood.” That's the theology of our salvation, and how when we heard the word of truth, the Gospel of our salvation, having believed, we were sealed with the Holy Spirit of God. And the unfolding of the theology of our salvation, so mystical and so deep and powerful in the first three chapters, that's what I see there.

And then in chapters 4-6 then, we have the theology of right Christian living, of ethics, of morality, of how then shall we live, based on the saving work of God in Christ. And that begins as we've noted again and again with chapter 4 verse 1, "As a prisoner for the Lord then, I urge you to live a life worthy of your calling." Your calling is to “be holy and blameless in His sight,” your calling is to Heaven. Live a life worthy of Heaven. And how He hasn't left us in the dark, wondering what that is. He's given us toward the end of Ephesians 4, a rhythm of sanctification in our lives, how we are to “no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they've given themselves over to sensuality, so as to indulge in every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more. You, however, did not come to know Christ, that way. Surely you heard Him and were taught in Him, in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the spirit of your minds. And to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

So we have this rhythm, this basic rhythm of put off and be transformed in your mind and put off the old put on the new. And we've seen that in various case studies like lying, put off falsehood, and speak truth. Like anger, put off anger and then at the end of the chapter the text we just heard read, "Now instead put on forgiveness and tenderness and compassion toward others, and put off stealing, and instead labor and work hard with your hands so you can give to the needy." So this rhythm of put off and put on, it's a new life. We are in Christ now, a new creation, and we are to live a new life, an entirely new life, and evil speech, “put off all corrupting speech, all of the evil speech, that was part of the old life, and instead speak only those things to your neighbor that will edify them, and it will give grace to those who listen.” This is the rhythm, in the middle of the flow. In the middle of all of this, we have this statement about the Holy Spirit of God, Ephesians 4:30, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you are sealed for the Day of Redemption." And then moral issues, get rid of bitterness and rage and anger and brawling and slander, and be kind and compassionate and then sexual immorality, there should not be even a hint of sexual immorality or any of kind of impurity of greed. And obscene talk, all of these things, all of these ethical issues flowing. And the whole thing, verse 30, Ephesians 4:30 serves as a kind of a center. In some ways, both the culmination and the preface to everything that follows, it's all of that. The presence and the personality and the power of the Holy Spirit of God is the centerpiece of the beautiful virtuous Christian life.

That's what Paul is doing, and the capstone of this toward the end of this section is going to be in Ephesians 5:18 where it says, "Do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery, instead be being filled with the Holy Spirit of God the Spirit." So only by understanding and yielding to and being empowered by the Holy Spirit of God will we be able to live out this virtuous life. Honestly, many moral people will follow us on many of these issues, on lying and stealing and language and topics like this, and caring for the poor and needy, there'll be a lot of moral non-Christians, but they will not live out their morality like we do by the power of the Spirit of God, for the pleasure of Almighty God. In that way, they are very different and so this is Christian morality, that's what makes this kind of morality different than any other type there is in the world.

The Culmination and the Preface of What Will Come

So now we come to in verse 30, the idea, the doctrine of the personality of the Holy Spirit of God, the personality, the personhood. The verse commands us not to grieve the Spirit of God. Do you see that? “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” Grief is a highly emotional state. It's a reaction we would think, it's an extreme word, it's not just sad, but grief. It's a reaction to, I would think of tragedy, something that somewhat ruptures your world. That's what we use the language of grief for. Usually I think associated with death in many cases. But this word theologically implies that we Christians are in a relationship with the Spirit of God, that is personal, He is a person, He can be grieved. Now, I must say it is hard for us to understand the Trinity. I mean the doctrine of the Trinity is an infinitely complex theology, a study of God. It's something beyond the ability that we have to comprehend.

We can understand, I think the natural mind, can understand one God, monotheism. We know that because there are many unregenerate people in the world who believe in one God and only one God. But this I think of unconverted Jews, Jews who have not embraced Jesus as Savior, believe in one God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I think about Muslims, who believe that Allah is one God, they're monotheistic. So I don't think it takes any supernatural work to believe in one God, I think actually polytheism may be our home state in our rebellion against God. You look at the number of religions that have been throughout the history of humanity that have been polytheistic, I would say most of them have been. Hinduism is certainly polytheistic and animism and all of these religions, these things are polytheistic. So the idea of separate gods. Three gods, I mean that seems like a small number to a Hindu. But the idea of three separate gods, I think they would understand that, but we somehow mysteriously combine those doctrines, one God eternally existing in three persons.

We don't really even know how to think and talk, do we use the plural or the singular? Do we say He or They? We don't really know what to do, and so we go to the theologians and say, "Please teach me how to talk about God," and when they start using this kind of language and find they didn't get burned or stoned as heretics then we feel relieved and we're good and we'll follow these human theologians, and they say, "We can speak of separate," if you use that language, "Persons of the Trinity."

The Person of the Holy Spirit

Now, this battle for the doctrine of the Trinity has generally been fought on two main fronts, the first has to do with the deity of Jesus Christ. That's been battle one on the doctrine of the Trinity, that Jesus, the son of Mary, was also the Son of God. And that's essential to the doctrine of the Trinity. But the second battlefront, is on this issue today, the personhood or the personality of the Holy Spirit, the personality of the Holy Spirit. So, who or what is the Spirit of God? That's the issue that we're trying to understand, and we would say, who is the right way to ask that question. Is the Spirit an impersonal force unifying all living beings? Some capacity, some power that flows mindlessly like electricity or the wind, something you tap into that power, that impersonal power, that source, and you are energized in some mindless, impersonal way?

I'm going to date myself here, but in 1977, I went and saw Star Wars, when it was first out. I went the first week it was out, I never dreamed that, what 33 years later or more I would be seeing the 9th Star Wars movie. How many more will there be? Some of you will be able to tell me, I have no idea. But you know what exactly I'm talking about, one of the most famous lines in that movie as you remember was, "Use the Force, Luke," remember that? How Obi-Wan dead in some way, in the pantheistic weird universe where he was at, was able to speak into the fighter cockpit, and tell them to use the Force. “Use it.” And so it's like, what is the Force? So, we're educated according to Obi-Wan-Kenobi, I can't believe I'm saying these words, but anyway, the Force is what gives a Jedi his power, it's an energy field created by all living things, it surrounds us and penetrates us, it binds the universe together. Yoda, when training Luke, you're wondering how many more quotes, just one more. Yoda, when training Luke said, "My ally is the Force and a powerful ally it is, life creates it, makes it grow, its energy surrounds us, and binds us."

Well in that polytheistic, or better pantheistic world, the force is impersonal. It's something you use, it's something you learn about, you tap into. I guess it's not much different than wind or electricity. Electricity is mindless, it doesn't have anything against a person it electrocutes, it's just the natural force, there's no mind to it, no intentionality. Not so the Holy Spirit of God. Not so. How do you know that? This verse, this one, that I can grieve Him by my sin, that's how I know. He's not to be used. This is actually for me, what makes sanctification so powerful, is that sin is personal. “How could you do this to me? How could you do this to me, after I've done all of these things for you, how could you do this to me?” That's very powerful. It's a motivator for me. I don't want to grieve Him, who has been so good to me. That's the motivator.

The Bible doesn't teach morality as simple rules for right living. Like Poor Richard’s Almanack, “early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” Turn it around, you want to be healthy and wealthy and wise? Then go to bed early and get up early. It's impersonal, it's moralistic, that's a virtuous life. That's not what we're saying here. What we're saying is the best kind of life is a life that pleases God. A life in relationship with God, a life in which He expresses, "I'm pleased with you." Conversely, it's not a life in which He would say, "What you just did grieved me. Don't ever do that again." So, to me, that's very very powerful.

The Word Order

The word order here, the text literally says this, "Grieve not the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God." That's how it's written, it's very intensive, the structure of it, "Grieve not the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God", as if you're saying, "Do not grieve the Spirit even the Holy One of God in whom you have been sealed", that's what's mentioned here, at the end of the verse, "The Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the Day of Redemption."

The Sealing of the Holy Spirit

Now this “sealing” we've already looked at, in Ephesians 1:13 it says, to the Gentile converts there in Ephesus, "And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit." So, this sealing, as we discussed it at the time, is a mark of ownership, I think of authoritative ownership. It's God's way of saying, "You are mine, you belong to Me," it's a sense of authority, like the sealing of an official letter from a king with the signet ring of the king on the molten wax on the seal. And so you have been sealed, and the sealing is the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit. This indwelling Spirit enters your life the moment that He works new life in you, the moment that He brings you to life, He enters you and seals you with a “Spirit of adoption.” It says in Romans 8:15-16, "By which you cry out Abba, Father." And so, that's the sealing of the Spirit. He's testifying to your spirit that you are a child of God. He ministers intimate knowledge about Jesus to you. The infinite dimensions of Jesus' love for you, that's been the Spirit's work in you. Remember how we went through four sermons at the end of Ephesians 3, and how Paul prayed that you “would have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide, and long, and high, and deep is the love of Christ, and that you would know that love that surpasses knowledge, that you would be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Do you remember those words? It is the Holy Spirit's job to do that for you, to greatly expand your sense, the dimensions, your sense of the infinite dimensions of Jesus' love for you, that Spirit wants you to understand that about Jesus. How much He loves you, Jesus I mean, that's the Spirit's ministry.

Now, before the Spirit's work in you, or apart from the Spirit's work in you, you would be distant from the work of Christ crucified and resurrected. It would mean very little to you. It would be historically distant, it would be a dark, historical fact, like something you'd get on a test or something. It would be geographically and culturally remote, it's another place, another time, another era, nothing to do with me. And that's the essence of the way unbelievers live every day. “Jesus? What does Jesus have to do with me? He's a historical figure, distant from me.” Or if you started to educate yourself in the basic ideas of Christianity, you would become increasingly hostile to them, it would be something that you would be angry about, the ideas, the moral teachings of Jesus, the things He claimed, the statements He made about Judgment Day, and the wrath to come, and all of these things would stimulate within you a certain kind of enmity and hostility toward Jesus. How is it then that any of you and I, how is it that we have come to love Jesus? How is it that we have come now to survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, and we look up and we see wonder and glory and majesty, how did that happen? It was the Spirit that did that in you.

The Holy Spirit took redemption accomplished and then applied it to you. He painted the blood of Jesus on the doorstep and the lintels of your heart, He applied it to you directly. Without that, you'd still be lost, you'd be an outsider. It was by the Spirit that the Apostle Paul was able to say, "I have been crucified with Christ," Galatians 2:20. "And I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God," you know the rest don't you? "Who loved me and gave Himself for me." It's by the Spirit that we make it that intensely personal. Jesus loved me. Jesus died for me. That is the awesome, mysterious invisible hidden work of the Holy Spirit of God. He was hovering over your darkened heart in your unregenerate days. He was over the waters of turmoil, and then through the Father and the Son, He, the Spirit, spoke light into your heart. He the Spirit said, "Let there be light, the light of Christ in your heart." That's how it happened, and at that point, He gave you eyes to see, faith. He gave you the eyesight of the soul, the eyes of your heart were enlightened by the Spirit, He gives illumination, and you see Christ, and you were justified by faith, forgiven, adopted, all of that by the working of the Spirit. “You were sealed for the Day of Redemption.”

And so this mysterious third person in the Trinity, who you read more about in the Old Testament, the Spirit shows up, if we can use that language, in some key moments in the Old Testament on, key individuals. You see that, He comes on Moses and enables him to lead Israel through the Red Sea, and you see that same Spirit comes on the prophets, the Old Testament prophets, and enables them to look into the distant future, and write things that were going to come through centuries, even a millennia or more beyond when they live, they're able to write those things down by the Spirit of God. And the Spirit comes powerfully on key individual like Samson, the Spirit came powerfully on Samson and he tore that young lion limb from limb as one would tear up a young goat. The Spirit came on Samson powerfully. Spirit came on Saul and made him fit for kingship over Israel. The same Spirit came on David. But we see in the case of Saul and some others, the Spirit can come and go in the Old Testament. That's why when David sinned with Bathsheba, he was frantic in his prayer in Psalm 51, "Take not your Holy Spirit from me." He didn't want to lose the influences of the Holy Spirit of God and become insane like Saul became.

Well, in the New Covenant that will never happen. Amen? In the New Covenant we have the promise of the Holy Spirit of God. We see that in Acts chapter 2, "The people when they heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, 'Brothers what shall we do?' And he said, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the promise is for you and for your children,'" and listen to this "'all who are far off.'" The promise of the Holy Spirit, for those who are far off, far off geographically, far off in time. “For everyone whom the Lord our God will call.”

So I just thought this would be a good time as I was going over the sermon this morning, to just stop and say, is there anybody who came here today, unregenerate, lost? You're in darkness still? And you came here today? I hope that the Holy Spirit brought you here for such a moment as this, that you would understand that in Christ alone, there is forgiveness of sins, that Jesus is the Son of God, He shed His blood on the cross for sinners like you and me, and that the Spirit is able to take out your hardened heart, that is so filled with hostility and opposition to the things of God, and give you instead a sweet submissive yielded heart to the Gospel and you will believe in Jesus as your Savior, and trust in Him for the forgiveness of your sins. I prayed this morning that that would happen and even now I ask that the children of God that are listening to this, pray for any of your neighbors that are sitting in the pews here, that are lost, that they will come to faith in Christ. Because you cannot receive the gift of the Holy Spirit if you're unregenerate, you cannot receive the pouring out of the Spirit in a lost state, and that's what the Spirit does. This is the very promise made by the Lord Jesus Christ, He says this John 14, "I will ask the Father and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever." Forever. He will not be taken from us. We don't have to faithlessly cry out, "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me," we know that the Spirit will never leave us or forsake us, He'll be with us forever, the Spirit of truth He's called. He'll be in you forever, and in that Spirit we were sealed. And that Spirit comes to every true child of God, not to the special ones or the extra above credit ones, etcetera. As a matter of fact, Romans 8:9 says, "If you do not have the Spirit of Christ you do not belong to Christ." 

What Does it Mean to be Sealed Until the Day of Redemption?

Now, what does it mean in the text to be sealed until the Day of Redemption? Well, redemption, to be redeemed means to be bought with a price, to be bought with a price. We were slaves to sin, Christ paid the price of His precious blood to redeem us from sin. But here's the thing, apparently, because there's still this Day of Redemption yet to come, there is a fuller redemption that we don't have yet, and that spoken of in Romans 8 is the redemption of the body, the resurrection from the dead. And so the Day of Redemption is that future day, the end of the world, when all of God's people will be raised up in glorious resurrection bodies, and we are sealed temporarily, that sealing work of the Spirit is temporary, until we have been fully redeemed. And then we don't need that sealing anymore. We will be in intimate perfect fellowship with Father, Son and Spirit, face-to-face fellowship, no need for faith any longer, no need for the sealing testimony no longer that we're children of God, we'll be in His presence, glorious in resurrection. So that's what it means, sealed or redeemed, sealed until the Day of Redemption.

Deep Gratefulness to the Holy Spirit

So what does this mean for us? Well it means that we should have deep, powerful gratefulness to the Holy Spirit of God. We will spend eternity worshipping the triune God, we will worship Father, Son and Spirit. We will spend eternity particularly thanking each person of the Trinity for what they did for us. You will thank the Father for choosing you by name from before the foundation of the world and for sending His Son. And for crafting this entire redemption plan. You'll thank Him for that, and you'll certainly be able to say, "Thank you Jesus," as we sang earlier, to be able to thank Jesus for shedding His blood on the cross in your place, you'll be able to thank Him and say, "Thank you Jesus for saving me." But you will also thank the Spirit of God for taking the blood of Jesus and applying it to you personally, and for hanging with you through all of those years. That He never gave up on you, though you grieved Him many times, that He was so patient with you and He finished the work that He began in you, you'll be able to thank Him for that too.

I don't believe I can last a single day in Christ apart from the sovereign power of the Holy Spirit of God. I can't make it a single day. The world, the flesh, and the devil are too powerful for me, and so without His work in me, I would stop believing in Jesus. I would have continued in my sins the rest of my life, if it weren't for the Spirit's work. I would have continued to live a life of rebellion, caring nothing for Jesus at all, but the Spirit moved in me, and this is the unique ministry of the Spirit of God. In John 16:14, Jesus said these words, "He will glorify me." Think about that. The Spirit has come to glorify Jesus, and so, the Holy Spirit is always pointing to Jesus, always pointing to Jesus. Now, some go too far in this teaching, they say, "The Spirit never focuses attention on Himself, ever. Always deflecting to Jesus." That cannot be true. Why? Because how would you have a verse like Ephesians 4:30, that teaches us that sin grieves the Holy Spirit? As a matter of fact, how would you know anything about the Spirit of God at all, except the teaching ministry of the Spirit? So, apparently the Spirit wants you to know some things about Him.

And here's my whole approach on this sermon, if the Spirit can be grieved, He can be thanked, if the Spirit can be lied to, He can be talked to. And the Spirit is lied to in Acts Chapter 5 by Ananias and Sapphira, so He can be talked to. And so the Holy Spirit is here to glorify Jesus. Now you may say, "I don't understand the relationship between the Spirit and Jesus." Like in Romans 8:9 it says, "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ." Is that different than the Holy Spirit? No, that's not different than the Holy Spirit. The Spirit has different names.

Do you remember that amazing moment before Jesus was crucified, do you remember when Philip said to him, "Lord show us the Father and that will be enough for us"? Do you remember that? You remember what Jesus said, "Don't you know me Philip?" Show us the Father. "Don't you know me? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." So, now I think you can take the same thing over and you say to the Spirit, "Show us Jesus," and He's going to say, "Don't you know me, after I've been in you all this time? Anyone who has interacted with me has interacted with Jesus." I think this is the only way we can make sense of how the resurrected Christ can say, "Surely I am with all of you always." Or as some folks say, "All y'all always." And you heard it here from me saying, "All y'all." I said I would never say it, but I just did. How Jesus can say, “I'll be with all y'all always.” How is that? By the Spirit. Anyone who has interacted with the Spirit has interacted with Jesus. Please don't quote me on that. I mean the last part yes, not the first part.

Do Not Grieve the Holy Spirit of God

What Does it Mean to “Grieve” the Holy Spirit?

So what then does it mean to grieve the Holy Spirit of God. What grieves the Spirit? Well, the Holy Spirit, that's only one of His names, He's called the Counselor in other places. There are other, advocate, there are other names for Him. But the Holy Spirit is most common name, it's because He hates sin. He is set apart, He is light, and in Him there's no darkness at all, He calls on us to be holy because He is holy. And so when we try to consider what grieves Him, simply put, sin grieves Him. And so, the things we've been talking about in Ephesians, lying and stealing and selfishness in reference to the poor and needy, and corrupting speech and sexual immorality, and bitter divisions and factions and unforgiveness, those things grieve the Spirit of God. All of those things grieve the Spirit of God. The Spirit has called on us to follow Him. And what is He like? How do we understand Him? It's a mystery.

The Spirit is a Dove, a Wind, and a Fire

At Jesus' baptism, as I mentioned, the Holy Spirit descended as a dove and remained on Jesus. Now, when you think of a dove, what do you think of? I think of a gentleness and a purity. I have a picture of gentleness and purity. There are other pictures of God like a ravening eagle, that if you touch His young, He'll rip you to shreds, I think that's fine, but the picture that He wants to present first and foremost is the Lamb of God, Jesus, very gentle, and the dove of God, also very gentle. That's His presentation to us as sinners first and foremost. But that's not the only way He presents Himself, sometimes He presents Himself to us as a wind, a wind. Well, what kind of a wind? Well, also a fire, a wind and a fire, like at the day of Pentecost you remember? How there was a sound of a violent rushing wind, like a hurricane. Now no air was moving, there was no movement of air, but there was the sound of a violent hurricane wind, and then this fire came down, and not a raging fire like it would burn the house down, but like a surgical strike, fire that came to rest on each one individually, filling them with passion, with fire for the glory of God and of Christ. And the sound of the wind was so awesome and so overpowering that it assembled the crowd for the preaching of the Gospel. But then at another time, you remember when Elijah is running for his life and he goes to this holy mountain, Mount Horeb, and he's in this cave, you remember that? And he needs an encounter with God or he's done in his ministry, and God knew that. And so God appeared to him, but first there's the sound of a terrifying mighty wind that tore the mountain apart, but we are told that God was not in that powerful wind. And then there's this earthquake that shook the ground under His feet, but God wasn't in that, no, God instead was in this still small voice, the KJV gives us this, this gentle whisper.

And I tell you, the most of the time, that's how the Spirit's going to lead you. He will whisper to you, “Don't do that.” “Get up, have your quiet time.” Put that sin to death. And if you don't listen to that gentle, quiet Spirit, you're going to become increasingly hard of hearing, you won't hear it as much. And that is the essence of the grieving of the Holy Spirit of God, the increasing hardness of our heart when we don't listen to Him whispering holiness to us and whispering to witness to our co-worker and to make a phone call of encouragement to somebody, to use our spiritual gifts to give money to the poor and needy, to the church. They're these whispered moments and that's the power of the Spirit of God.

Grieving When the Spirit is Grieved

If the Spirit is Grieved, We Should Be

Now I believe that we should be grieved when the Spirit of God is grieved. It's a quarter of... I am not finishing this sermon. Is it okay if I preach on just one verse today? Is that alright? You have no choice, please nod and say, "Yeah that's fine," thank you. We'll get to the forgiveness part next week because I don't want to short change it in seven minutes. I guess what I want to say to you is this, when you grieve the Holy Spirit of God, you should be grieved too. You should be grieved too. And frequently or not, at least not at first, when we sin, we often go on happily playing like sheep going astray, we just keep on jumping and laughing and eating in the fields of sin, while He stays behind grieving over us. But the thing is, He's not passive and just wringing His hands grieving, He's going to go get you and bring you into grief. That's what He's going to do, He's going to go get you and bring you into a grieved state if you're a child of God. If He's rescuing you, that's what He's going to do. He won't give you over and let you play. He's going to go get you and bring you back and say, I want you now to feel what I felt when you did that or said that, or didn't do this or didn't say that. I want you to feel my grief.

It is the Work of the Spirit to Cause Us to Grieve With Him

Now, this is not incredibly popular, this idea, but it is true. The Spirit rescues us by making us weep for sin, when we've sinned. Think about when Peter denied Jesus, remember he denied him three times and then the rooster crowed, then Peter remembered, went outside and wept bitterly. Those are the steps, you remember you get away from the sin that you're doing, put a separation and you weep bitterly over what happened. I think we kind of skip it, we're like, "No I am forgiven, you know, the grace of God, grace abundant more than all," it's like don't do that, because it says in Matthew 5:4, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." It says in 2 Corinthian 7, "Godly sorrow brings repentance, it leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow produces death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you. What earnestness? What eagerness to clear yourself, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done?"

Godly Sorrow is Part of Repentance

So godly sorrow energizes, you don't languish in guilt, and lay back in a black pool of muck. You confess your sin, you grieve over it, you repent and you go kill it. That's what He's calling on you to do, because those who are led by the Spirit of God to mortify the deeds of the flesh, those are the children of God, and so that's what He's going to do, but He's going to call on you to grieve and I think we're just too hasty in this. Watson in his work on repentance said there's six elements of repentance: Sight of sin, sorrow for sin, confession of sin, shame for sin, hatred for sin and turning from sin. The second is, after you've seen it, grieve over it. Sorrow for sin. Watson said this, "It is to intentionally embitter your soul over it," and you do that by talking about it. “How could I do this to you? You told me not to do this, you told me to stay away from that, you told me not to sin in this particular area, and you have been so good to me and you have loved me and look what I have done.” 

You have to be like Nathan to yourself. Remember God sent Nathan to convict David of his sin with Bathsheba and he spoke for Him, and told him this parable, drew him in and then nailed him with the words. "You are the man." And then he said, "Hear the Word of the Lord, I took you from following your father's sheep, and I gave you a Kingdom and if this had been too little, I would have given you more. How could you do this to me?" Talk that way to yourself, preach to yourself. So how could I do this to God, how could I do this to Jesus, how could I do this to the Spirit of God? So, it's not superficial, it's a holy agony. It's called in Scripture, a breaking of the heart, the sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite heart, a rending of the heart. Watson said this, "Sin breeds sorrow and sorrow kills sin," that's how it works.

In James 4, James is addressing worldly Christians who are immersing themselves in the world and they're adulterous spiritually and they don't know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God, and they don't understand how jealous that makes the Spirit of God inside them. And so, he calls on them to grieve and mourn and wail and change their laughter to mourning and their joy to gloom, and to humble themselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up. Lift you up into what? Happiness, joy, restoration, forgiveness. “The work is done now, so move on. You're forgiven, I love you. We've got more life to live, we've got more battles to fight and let's move on.” But don't skip going down into the valley of darkness and grief with the Holy Spirit and let Him take you back up out of it, don't jump that and go straight over to happiness quickly by a light dealing with sin. When you grieve the Holy Spirit of God, you should be grieved too.

Alright, well next week I have no idea what we're going to do. I guess we're going to talk about the next verses, we're going to talk about forgiveness of sins. Maybe I'll combine it with the next sermon, maybe I'll have no idea what we're doing, maybe we'll do something from the Book of Jeremiah, I don't know, but for now, I would just urge you to meditate on this. What this did for me, it moved me to tears, probably four or five times of thankfulness to the person of the Spirit. It made me just want to say, “Thank you, Spirit for loving me.” And so I would urge the same to you. And it also made me zealous as I have never been before in this particular way to be a holy man. So close with me in prayer.

Prayer

Father, thank you for the things we've learned today, thank you for the work of the Holy Spirit of God, who grieves over our sin, and who communicates that grief to us if we'll listen to Him. But who also communicates the joy as fruit of the Spirit, the joy and the peace and the forgiveness that comes from genuine faith in Christ and confession of sin. Oh God I pray that as never before, we would be a congregation that loves righteousness and hates wickedness, that grieves over sin, as the Holy Spirit of God does and fights it by the weapons of righteousness the Spirit gives. I pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.

The Complexity of Our World

We live in a incredibly complex world, don't we? I mean, we look at the world around us, we think about the earthquake in Nepal, and we think about the complexities of plate tectonics, or the mountains, the earth beneath people's feet moving, and all of that and who can understand it? And so, just geology is complex, but we think that physics might be even more complex and we think about the laws of motion and of force and reactions, and we don't fully understand all of those things. And then above that, we have the science of chemistry, more complicated still, and we don't understand all that. I especially don't understand chemistry. I'm sorry, mom. I'm sorry for all the time you spent on that, but I never really did get it. I always looked on it as a bit smelly. That's why I love mechanics. It's just clean. But above that, then comes the complexity of biology, and who can really understand life? Who can understand living cells? Who can understand the most complex living creatures are human beings, and the Psalmist said, "I praise you Lord because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made." But I can tell you, above that is the complexity of human history and the interactions between human beings one to another. And history is a complex, intricate story that was thought of in detail in the mind of God before God said, "Let there be light" and has been unfolding for millennia, now. And it's complexities are far beyond anything we can begin to comprehend.

I love studying church history. I love studying the detailed stories of the ways by which our brothers and sisters were brought from darkness to light. I love hearing those stories. I especially love hearing stories of surprising providences. What some people would call lucky coincidences, unbelievers would, but we know that there's a sovereign hand behind all of that, don't we? Many of you know the story of how it was that Adoniram Judson was brought to faith in Christ. He is the first American missionary who served in India and Burma; led 7,000 Burmese to faith in Christ after a life of terrible suffering in which he buried loved ones, two wives, children, suffered greatly, but saw 7,000 come to faith in Christ. He was raised in a Christian home; he was brought up in a solid foundation, but when he went to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, he began to doubt his faith, especially under the influence of a friend, Jacob Eames, who was a deist, who was a philosopher, who was witty and urbane, and a scoffer of revealed religion, who mocked the Bible, who mocked the God of the Bible, used to ridicule and make jokes. And this onslaught from this intelligent witty, deist friend, Jacob Eames, just destroyed Adoniram Judson's faith. And he kept his rebellion against God, Adoniram Judson kept it private and secret from his family, but finally on his 20th birthday he declared himself openly to be an unbeliever.

 He went to live in New York for a while; in the course of time, he was traveling in a small village and he stayed in an inn. And he tried to sleep, but in the adjacent room there was the sound of an individual dying. It was hideous and there were cries out of desperation and of fear and of pain and terror, really, terror of death. And he could not, Judson, couldn't sleep. And he began to wonder about his own soul, the state of his own soul. Was he ready to die? Was he ready to face the God of glory? And he began to fear for his soul, and then he could hear the humor, the wit of Jacob Eames coming in his mind and really rebuking his irrational fears. And in that way he somewhat made his way through the night, fitfully sleeping, waking, sleeping. Finally, the room next adjacent was quiet and he was able to get a few hours of sleep. And then the sunlight came through the windows and he awoke and felt better, heard the birds chirping and at that point was just ridiculing his own irrational fears. Went down to the front desk and was checking out, and he asked about the individual that had been crying out. He said, "Well, actually, he's deceased; he died." Said, "Oh, well I'm sorry to hear that. What was his name?" "Well, it was Jacob Eames." Now how in the world God contrived to have that individual die in the room right next to him is just one of those remarkable moments of providence in church history. I tell you, God does that kind of thing every single day, every single day. Now some of you look back at your own upbringing and it wasn't that complicated or spectacular or dramatic, but for Judson, he couldn't leave the inn that day; he was there for hours, thinking about his own soul. And eventually that process led him to a solid faith in Christ and to the salvation of 7,000 there in his lifetime and multiplication millions beyond.

I think of another time in church history, in 1536. John Calvin was just beginning to be known. He had published his first edition of the Institutes, and it was well received. He was French and was fleeing for his life as a religious refugee from anti-Protestant France. He wanted to go to Strasbourg, where he was desirous to set himself up just in the life of a quiet ivory tower academic; that's all he wanted to be. But the road to Strasbourg was blocked because at that particular time, there was a war between Henry V, the Holy Roman Emperor, and Francis I. It was pretty obscure war, not many know that much about it, but as a result, the road, the straight road to Strasbourg was blocked by refugees and troop movements. So he couldn't get to Strasbourg directly.

So he had to go through Geneva, to get to Strasbourg. He was just going to be there one day, so he thought. And a reformer there, named William Farrell, heard that John Calvin was staying at an inn or whatever they had in Geneva, all the things that happened in inns; it's amazing. And he went and confronted him and urged him to join in the reformation of Geneva. Well, he had no interest in that. He's not going to go there. Calvin was a very strong-willed stubborn individual, and he's not going. Farrell called down, basically, fire and brimstone on his life of quiet academic study. "May God curse your studies. We need you here in Geneva," and he leaves. Well Calvin couldn't sleep all night, and he's in terror of his soul and his work and all that; he ends up staying in Geneva, effectively for the rest of his life, although he was evicted, he went back to the city. And that's where he was, it was God's will. And one individual, I remember reading about this, wondered if God orchestrated the war so that Calvin would end up in Geneva. Well, that's a little simplistic, but that at least was part of God's purpose. Could God do something like that? Can he orchestrate wars, big events, headline events for small details that will come to pass decades down the road? Yes, he does that kind of thing all the time. 

God’s Sovereignty: Planning and Working Everything (vs. 11)

One Long, Majestic Sentence Continues

As a matter of fact, this kind of view called the "Doctrine of Providence" that God sovereignly rules over the events of this world for his purposes, but the most important of those purposes is the salvation of his elect, bringing the elect from darkness to light; that God orchestrates things to do that. Was ruminated on in a small book in the New Testament, called Philemon. You know the story there in Philemon was that Onesimus was a slave who had escaped, had run away, stolen some things it seems, and had run from his master Philemon and happened to bump into the Apostle Paul in Rome, in the big city of Rome. And Paul led him to Christ. And then [Paul] wrote Philemon, the letter, the Biblical letter that we have to put it in Onesimus' hands and send him back. And what he says in Philemon, verse 15, listen to this, "Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for good, no longer as a slave, but now better than a slave, as a dear brother.” You hear what Paul's ruminating? Could it be that God orchestrated all of this for his salvation and for your eternal relationship. I think God orchestrates that kind of thing all the time. And the text we're going to look at today talks about it directly. It says effectively that that's what God does. Verse 11 in particular, "In Him, we have received an inheritance having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out all things,” or everything, “in conformity with the purpose of His will."

So there we have asserted very plainly the things I've been hinting at or saying right now. “God orchestrates everything according to the purpose of His will.” Now in Ephesians 1:3-14, we have one long amazing continuous sentence in the Greek. English breaks it up into several smaller sentences so we can just handle it. Preachers do the same because there's just so much truth in all of these verses, more than could be handled in any one sermon. So the third sermon now, in these 12 verses, we look in Verses 11-14. We'll have another one again next week, God willing.

What does Paul assert here in Verse 11? Well, he says, "In Him," in Christ, "we have... " I think the best translation would be "obtained an inheritance," obtained an inheritance, it's a difficult Greek expression and gives rise to different translations. NIV has "In Him we're also chosen," but the KJV and NAS, ESV all have, "In him we have obtained an inheritance." So God has sovereignly worked to give us an inheritance. The Holman says, "We were made God's inheritance," and I think that's a wonderful theme, but I don't think that's what's going on here. Because the focus here is on our inheritance and how the Holy Spirit, we'll be told in verse 14, “is the deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.” So that seems to be the focus. 

So, “In Him also, we have obtained an inheritance," and it says that God has purposed all of these things by His own counsel. It says we were predestined, “having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will." Now we've already discussed predestination once; it's been mentioned already, so we have the word predestined twice in this one long sentence here. We had it in verse 4 and 5, if you look, "In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons.” Now, as we talked about last week, the word means to predetermine, to set the boundary lines for ahead of time, to set the lines in advance. God sets up a destination for us before the foundation of the world, predestined. So God elects individuals by name and then predestines them for His purposes. That's what it's teaching here. And in Christ, He fixed our future for us that we will be with Him eternally in glory. That predestination of our final glory in Heaven is part of God's overall grand and glorious plan for His entire universe. So God has a plan. He's worked all of this out in His mind before any of it came to be; none of this was left haphazard or random or to chance. God has pondered every tiny detail before anything came to pass. The word plan is linked with the phrase, "The purpose or council of His will," in some translations. The image there normally would be of a set of royal advisors who are around the throne, speaking wisdom into the King's ear. Those are the plans, the counselors, they're giving wise counsel to the King. 

But in God's case there are no such counselors. There is no one who can speak wisdom into God's mind that He didn't already think of Himself. It says in Romans 11:34, "Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor." Implied answers are no one. He has no counselors outside of Himself and He needs none. There is no created being in the universe that can ever give to God any information He didn't already possess. We can never put things together in an analysis that He hadn't thought of before, and He hadn't seen that angle before and He says, "You know that's better than what I was going to do." That never happens, ever. God has thought through every detail of every aspect of His universe and of human history down to the subatomic level before any of it came to pass. God's plan is absolutely comprehensive. "In Him, we have also obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything,” or all things, “in conformity with the purpose of His will." Now you may think, "Well, you're over-blowing the significance of the phrase, 'all things’ or ‘everything.' The word "all” is frequently used to mean less than absolutely everything you could think of. I agree that that's true in the Scripture. But they're actually many other verses that testify to the comprehensive control of God over even the most insignificant details.

I mean, we see this again and again, don't we in the Bible? Like this one, Proverbs 16:33, "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord." Now, I don't know when was the last time you cast a lot into a lap. I don't think I've ever done that, but I have rolled some dice. And so what does that say? Well, in our language, the roll of the dice comes up exactly the way God willed it to in every case. I mean it comes up a five, a three, a two. I reminded myself when I said these numbers, "Don't go over six," because there aren't any numbers over six on a die. Every number that's ever come up on any dice that's ever been rolled is part of God's sovereign plan. There's no such thing as luck. There's no such things as random coincidences.

Jesus said it this way in Matthew 10:29, speaking to fearful messengers of the Gospel who were worried about what kind of persecution they're going to get, what kind of opposition. He's guaranteeing they're going to have persecution. He's guaranteeing they're going to have opposition, but he wants to comfort them and he says, "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?" He says that because they're insignificant; they're of a very low value. "Yet not one of them falls to the ground apart from the will of your Father." What does that mean? No sparrow dies on the surface of the earth apart from God's plan; that's what that means. And He goes beyond that. He says, "Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." Well, why would that be important?  Well, you may not think it's important how many hairs there are on your head; actually some of you think it's very important how many hairs there are on your head, some of you. But the fact of the matter is, God knows exactly how many hairs there are on your head. He's very well aware. What is Jesus saying? Even the minutest details are part of God's plan. God has thought about all of that. The interconnectedness of both nonliving and living things on this planet is so pervasive; it's actually obvious to some non-Christian scientists who understand the massive effects of even the tiniest detail in the world.

There was a man named Edward Lorenz; he was at MIT. He was in the 1950s and '60s; he was an expert mathematician and a meteorologist, and he was working on early computer models of weather. And he noticed at one point, he was entering data into this... Back then, it was really, really hard to enter data. Things are just so much more advanced in the computer world now. But he had all these punch cards and these different things you had to work with and he didn't want to keep putting out decimals to the 7th decimal point, so he just truncated the decimals instead of putting .636417, he just put .636 in, .636. Everything changed in his weather model, everything. And he started to ponder that when it came to weather. And he coined a term called the "Butterfly Effect" that the details of a hurricane such as when the hurricane started, the exact path the hurricane would follow could be altered by the flapping of the wings of a distant butterfly weeks before. So it became known as very famous as the “Butterfly Effect.”

Science fiction author, Ray Bradbury, actually used this concept in a short story a decade before Lorenz quoted it. He wrote a short story called, A Sound of Thunder, in which a man who loved hunting, was taken back in a time machine; all these time machine stories. And he gets to go back and hunt the biggest game of them all, the Tyrannosaurus Rex, but the rules of the game were that the company had somehow made a levitating path in the ancient world that you could never walk off, and you're only allowed to kill the specific Tyrannosaurus Rex that would have died anyway at that precise moment. The problem was that this individual, this hunter, stepped off the path. When they got back into their time, many significant things had changed and it was found that there was a dead butterfly on his boot. Now, this is 10 years before Lorenz had done the Butterfly Effect, but the death of a single butterfly changed everything. Now, I want you to think more kindly of Noah, and why he didn't kill mosquitoes or flies or anything else you wish he had killed. "That was your chance, why didn't you do it?" He was under strict orders probably, "Do not kill the ticks or the cockroaches or any of the things you hate. Let them be. They're part of the plan."

One poet put it this way, "For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of the shoe, the horse was lost. For want of the horse, the rider was lost. For want of the rider, the message was lost. For want of the message, the battle was lost. For want of the battle, the kingdom was lost. All for the want of a horseshoe nail." Well, non-Christians know these things. Seemingly insignificant tiny events can have actually a huge impact down the line. So if God's going to control big things, He must control tiny things; He knows that better than we do. If He's not going to control tiny things, He can't control big things. He's not just a big picture God; He has to be a God of the details.

 The Infinite Complexity of the Sovereignty of Almighty God

This isn't just theory. God says he does control details. He actively asserts that he controls those details, whether by great kings sitting on thrones, or by peasants drawing water out of a well or plowing a field. Proverbs 19:21 says, "Many are the plans of a man's heart, but it's the Lord's purpose that prevails." Proverbs 21:1 says, "The king's heart in the hand of the Lord is a water course that He diverts whatever direction he chooses." Concerning the biggest event ever in history, the death of Jesus, we're told in Acts 4, as the church was praying, “Herod and Pontius Pilate and Annas and Caiaphas met together in this city to conspire against your holy servant, Jesus. They did what your power and will had determined beforehand should happen." That's the way they prayed in Acts 4. So in Verse 11, here we're told that we have been “predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will.” So the sovereign power of God acted in history to interact with people on a moment-by-moment basis and bring about His intentions is essential to His sovereign rule in the world. God doesn't just stand aloof like the deist would say and then swoop in at key moments. Every moment's a key moment; every instant is a key moment. Every interaction is key. All of it. So it says in Isaiah 14:26-27, the prophet there ruminating on the eminent invasion of Assyria into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. And he tells the Jewish people that this Assyrian army, this king, is under the direct sovereign act of God; that He is moving this Assyrian in, and He's going to move him out again. And he says this in Isaiah 14;26-27. “This is the plan determined for the whole world. This is the hand stretched out over all nations.” Do you hear that? This is the plan; this is the hand. This is the plan; this is the hand. "For the Lord Almighty has purposed and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out and who can turn it back?" Isaiah 14:26-27. So there's a purpose and a power; there's a plan in the hand. His heart loves, His mind plans, His hand brings about His wise and loving plan. Then He gets worshipped and praised and glorified for it. That's what's going on in the world. Friends, that includes earthquakes, that includes riots, that includes elections, that includes Supreme Court decisions, that includes everything. That includes who you happen to sit next to on a plane. It includes all of it. All of this then is applied to our salvation to bring the elect to faith in Christ, involve God moving the pieces on an incredibly complex, multi-dimensional chess board; more complex than you can possibly imagine.

God positions this person at this time to be ready to answer this specific question. And that's not enough to bring that person to salvation, but it's going to have an impact down the road. Others have done the hard labor. John 3, "You have entered into their labor." John 4. "Others have plowed, you get to be there to harvest... " We all want to be there at harvest time, don't we? I want to be there when that person comes over from darkness to light. I do too, that's great. But others did hard work in that person's life, long before they came to faith in Christ. And no, we're not robots. That's too easy. No, we're vastly more complicated, this whole thing's vastly more complicated than that.

“Herod, and Pontius Pilate, and Annas, and Caiaphas, and Judas,” all did exactly what they wanted to do. They follow the dictates of their own wicked hearts. They loved wickedness and did wickedness; that's what they did. They were not compelled; they were not forced; they were not robots. But God sovereignly overruled it. That's how that works. So this kind of detailed providential rule is going on all the time. Paul then addresses a marvelous aspect of that plan and how it moved from being Jew only to Jew plus Gentile. And that had all been part of his plan.

God’s Order: We, First, the You Also (vs. 12-13)

Lots of Debate about “We” and “You”

Look at Verses 11-13. We're going to expand out a little bit now. "In Him also, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will," verse 12, "in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ, when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation." Well, there's lots of debate about the "we” and “you also." What is this? Could be as simple as just "we the evangelistic missionary team" that brought the Gospel to you in Asia Minor, that's fine, and I don't have any problem with that, but I think it's bigger than that. In chapter 2, we're going to get to the issue of Jew, Gentile, unity. We're going to get to the talk, because the Ephesians are Gentiles and we're going to talk about how God has worked to destroy the barrier, “the dividing wall of hostility” between Jew and Gentile, and to remove it by the death of Christ. And how in the death of Jesus we Gentiles who were aliens, and strangers, and uncircumcised, and outsiders “have been brought near through the blood of Christ,” and how the barrier, the “dividing wall of hostility” has been removed by the death of Jesus. Ephesians 2:11-14.

God’s Beautiful Order: To the Jew First

I think that's what's going on here in Chapter 1. Just a little hint, "We who were the first to hope in Christ might be for the praise of his glory.” And now you also, you Gentiles, have been brought into Christ, when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation. “To the Jew first and then to the Gentile," we're told in Romans 1. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, "Salvation is from the Jews." God said, millennia before that, to Abraham when he was still Abram Ur of the Chaldeans. He says, "I will make you a blessing and you will be a blessing and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you." We're told in Galatians 3, that Gentile Christians have become sons of Abraham, by faith in Christ. And so that's what I think is going on with the “we who are the first,” and then “you also were brought in.” God had a sovereign time and place for all of that. He orchestrated a time when Peter the Apostle to the Jews saw a vision and then was mobilized to go to Cornelius' house, and as he preaches the Gospel, Cornelius' house filled with friends and family and all that, and they're hearing the Gospel and they're believing the Gospel and the Holy Spirit comes down and they speak in tongues as a clear display of the presence of the Holy Spirit, and they're brought in. And in Christ, there is now one new man not this division anymore, but this unity in Christ. And so God has this amazing plan, overarching plan, and He's got this hand that stretched out, and He uses means to achieve His end. He's got an end in mind, and that is for all the elect to be in the New Heavens and the New Earth in resurrection bodies together in perfect unity. Glory, Hallelujah, praising Him, that's the end. How's He going to get there? Well He's worked out the means too.

God’s Means: The Gospel and the Spirit (vs. 13)

God’s Eternal Plan Comes Into Time

And the means that he mentions here is the Gospel message and the Holy Spirit. So look at Verse 13, "In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit." So, that's God's eternal plan, coming down into time, in Ephesus. Sovereignty doesn't destroy evangelism, it empowers it; it unleashes it. Some people say, "Well if the elect are predestined, then we don't need to do anything." Man, that's crazy. I mean, who says those kinds of things? It's amazing to me, "God will do it Himself." Others say in a similar vein, "A strong emphasis on the sovereignty of God sucks the life out of evangelism because then people won't share the Gospel because there's no need." Look, the more you meditate on these things the more excited you're going to be to share the Gospel; you want to see God at work, and there's nothing that's going to stop it. It's empowering actually. As a matter of fact in all of church history, there is no one that was stronger on the sovereignty of God over all things, and especially over the salvation, than the Apostle Paul, and there was no one who worked harder in evangelism and missions than the Apostle Paul. He didn't have any problem harmonizing those things at all. As a matter of fact, it's exactly because God had chosen the elect; he was going to go work hard and suffer for them. He says in 1 Corinthians 15:10, "By the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them, yet, not I, but the grace of God that was in me." The Doctrines of Grace empower the people of God, and give us energy, and willingness to suffer, and to work hard. And so Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:10, "Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ with eternal glory." Same idea, the elect are out there I'm going to go, and I'm willing to be beaten, imprisoned, suffer, even to die if that might bring the elect to faith in Christ. So God ordains the means by which the elect are saved.

God Ordains Means by Which the Elect Are Saved

Now the end is that 100% of them will end up in Heaven, the means is explained, and that is the message of the Gospel. Now you need messengers to go out, they've got to go out, got to have messengers because it says in Romans 10, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." This is Verses 13-15. "But how can they call on the one they've not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have never heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?" The sent ones are the evangelists; the sent ones are the missionaries. We are sent out from this room when we're done here into a world that we're surrounded by people who are without hope and without God in the world. We are sent out and some of them are elect and we're going to witness to them. And what are we going to do, we're going to proclaim “the word of truth, the Gospel of their salvation.” What is that? Well, we're going to tell them that there is a Sovereign God who rules over all things, who made laws by which we are to live our lives. Like the Ten Commandments for example or the Two Great Commandments, to love God and love your neighbor. But we don't live up to those laws; we have broken those laws. And so it says plainly in Romans 3, "There is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God, all have turned away. They've together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one." So you heard “the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation.” Salvation from what? From sin, from all of that, and from the wrath to come.

Jesus delivers us from the wrath to come. There's a coming wrath. God in judgment is going to judge the world, and every one of us is going to stand before Him and give an account of our lives. Are you ready? Do you know that you're forgiven? Do you know that your sins have been atoned for? "There is no other name under heaven given to men, by which we must be saved,” than Jesus Christ. God sent Jesus as His only begotten Son who took on a human body, who lived a sinless life, did all these incredible miracles, showed his deity and his humanity, for He went to the cross and He shed His blood, and He died in our place. This is the Gospel, the word of truth, the Gospel of our salvation. God raised Him up on the third day and seated Him at the right hand of God in the heavenly realms, and everyone who repents and believes in Him receives the gift of the forgiveness of sins. That's what happened, the Ephesians heard the “word of truth, the Gospel of their salvation” and they believed it. Well, that's the means to the end, but I tell you that the word of truth is not enough; the Gospel is not enough; the proclamation is not enough. We need also the ministry and the working of the Holy Spirit of God, and without Him no one will be converted.

The Spirit must move in hearts. The Spirit must remove the heart of stone and put in the heart of flesh. The Spirit must bring the dead sinner, spiritually dead sinner, to life. Something only the Spirit can do. And so, we have mentioned here plainly the work of these Spirit of God, “the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.” Now, the sermon here continues for five or six more pages, but I'm not going to do that because I already plan next week to talk about the sealing of the Spirit. So this part, I'm saying, "Well next week we'll talk more about... " Let's just do all that next week. The Holy Spirit of God comes in and seals the individual. We're going to talk about what does it mean the promised Holy Spirit? And how does He seal us?

If you want to know ahead of time what I think about the Holy Spirit of God, the third person of the Trinity, and what the sealing of the Spirit is, think of a proclamation from a king. And you want to know if it's valid, if it's authentic. And so, they would seal it with the authoritative kingly seal. And then you knew that was from the king. So the sealing of the Spirit is authenticating proof. How can I know I'm elect? How can I know I'm predestined? How can I know I'm going to go to Heaven when I die? The sealing of the Spirit is the answer. We're going to talk about that next week. So, God willing, please come and listen more.

Why does God do all of this? Well, as we've seen, again and again, and we can't stop saying it, He does it all for the praise of His glory. That's the ultimate end. And isn't it beautiful how we see the trinitarian work here. We see the work of the Father; we see the work of the Son, and we see the work of the Holy Spirit. And it's interesting that the Father's section goes from 1:3-6 and it ends with, "To the praise of His glory." And then you've got the Son's section, picking up and it goes up to verse 12 and it ends, "To the praise of His glory," and then you've got the Spirit's section and it goes verse 13 and 14, and it ends the same way, "To the praise of His glory.” Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together working on our individual salvation, why? “To the praise of His glory.”

We're going to be up in Heaven and we're going to see it; we're going to talk to all our brothers and sisters. We're going to hear so many stories like that. One about Judson and Jacob Eames; we're going to find out how God saved people. You guys are all going to be super PhDs in church history by the time 10,000 years have passed in Heaven, and you've still got millennia more to study. You're going to learn about brothers and sisters, in every generation, and how God worked by His sovereign grace, and how awesome, and you're going to say, "To God be the glory." And you're going to see your own story in a new light more than you've ever seen it before, and you'll see that none of it was accidental, that God had orchestrated everything to bring you to salvation; and it's all for the praise of His glory.

Applications

Call to Repentance

So, applications for me, very powerfully. First and foremost, I've already said it, I can't bear the thought that any of you would leave here unregenerate. I can't bear that thought. I've been thinking about it. Don't leave here lost. You've heard twice probably maybe three times the Gospel already. Trust in Christ, trust in Him. Cast yourself in full abandonment of faith on Jesus. Say, "I'm a sinner, I have no hope, I'm not ready to die. Probably, I'd be just like Jacob Eames. If I knew I was about to die in an hour or two, I'd know I wasn't ready and I'd be terrified of the flames of Hell. I'd be terrified of hearing from God, the judge, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.' I'd be terrified of that, and I know I'm not ready." Today is a day salvation. You can be delivered. You hear “the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation,” trust in Christ.

Trust in Providence

And then for the rest of us, let's trust in providence, shall we? Let's celebrate it; let's embrace it. Let's just say, "Isn't it incredible that God rules over everything, after the council of his will. There's nothing I need to fear. There are nothing but ministry opportunities here even in the midst of the greatest suffering," and I'm not minimizing the emotions of all of this. We do “rejoice with those who rejoice, and mourn with those who mourn.” We go to misery, and we go to suffering, and we say, "Can we share with these people? Can we bring them out of darkness into light? Whether it's in Kathmandu or in Baltimore or wherever it is, where light needs to be shining?” So I was talking in our BFL class a few minutes ago. Just celebrate Ephesians 2:10. Just realize how explosive all this is. Let's put Ephesians 1:11 together with Ephesians 2:10. Ephesians 2:10 says, "We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance, that you should walk in them." What does that mean that God prepared in advance? Means, the days ahead of time, weeks ahead of time, months, thousand years ahead of time. He went ahead of you and got things ready. BFL folks, do you mind if I give that same hokey illustration about the bird feeder? Hope you don't mind, I'm just going to go head and do it.

You know, you got to Lowe's, and they teach you how to make a bird feeder out of a kit and you can make a bird feeder in 21 minutes. How? Because everything's been cut, sanded, pre-drilled, the glues ready, everything's ready. Bird feeder. That's your day. God went ahead of you and laid out the kit for the good work. And He didn't tell you what the good works are. It could be with another Christian. It could be with a non-Christian. Could be with a relative, a total stranger. You don't know. Just say, "Oh God, make me ready for the good works. You got them ready for me, make me ready for them." Life is exciting that way. Let's do those good works. Let's praise Him for the praise of His glorious grace, and let's not shrink back from this doctrine. I don't understand why people do that. It plainly says it. Do you really want to live in a universe where God's saying, "I don't know. I've no idea what's going to happen next, but we'll be fine. We know how to make lemonade out of lemons. Been doing it for thousands of years, and... Well, an earthquake. I'm reacting to this. What can we do with this?" That's not the God of the Bible. You may struggle with aspects of free will, or God's goodness and suffering and all that, struggle away, but know this, everything to the detail is part of God's sovereign plan. Let's celebrate it and let's go out and prove that a church that believes these kind of doctrines is more evangelistic than it's ever been before because we're willing to “suffer anything for the sake of the elect.” We're not afraid of martyrdom, or losing your job, or losing a friendship. We're not afraid of anything; we just want to find out who the elect are. We want more people to get baptized. We're willing to suffer for these things

These doctrines have power to unleash this. And let's realize that God, the we, and they... We're going to talk more about this, but this is an opportune moment to say it. The only answer to racism is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The only answer to racial divides and disharmony that there is in the world is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the same thing in Kathmandu, the only answer to the grave and people dying is the Gospel of Jesus Christ; so let's shine the light. Let's look forward to the barrier, “the dividing wall of hostility” being completely removed and delighting in the friendship that we have with one another in Christ.

Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time that we've had to study today. It's been an awesome, powerful time to learn how pervasive is the plan of God. How you are orchestrating things all the time; good works, and the spread of the Gospel all the time. Help us to celebrate it and to step out in faith and to delight in it. Oh, God, give us more evangelistic fruit; give us more missions fruit. Give us more laborers for the harvest field. Help us not to be cowardly, but be like Paul was in 2 Timothy 2, “to be willing to endure everything, anything for the sake of the elect.” And Lord, please bring your elect from darkness to light, even now if there's somebody just teetering, holding back, work on his or her heart and bring them over from darkness to light, in Jesus' name, Amen.

Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Ephesians 1:11-14. The main subject of the sermon is God's glorious plan to give Him saints an inheritance in Christ.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches on Galatians 3:11-14, explaining the meaning of God's grace and God's wrath, and that in Christ alone we have salvation.