Ephesians chapter 1 verse 1. Of course, again, as we're surveying the New Testament, just kind of taking an overview look at all this. We understand that the Apostle Paul has now been arrested. He's under house arrest. And it's during this time that the Holy Spirit begins to work in moving him and writing some things under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Notice it says here in Ephesians 1.1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. And as I've pointed out, the ministry in the city of Ephesus probably is one of the most prosperous as far as Paul's ministry is concerned. It's very likely anyway. And from Ephesus throughout all of Asia Minor, Turkey today, everyone heard about the gospel, heard about the Lord Jesus Christ. So as we understand, this ministry had a very strategic position and a ministry throughout all of Asia Minor at that time. Now, the general purpose Ephesians is more preventative than corrective. Let me just point out here, I believe that's one of the reasons why as a pastor, as a teacher, whatever, we have to do some preventative things so that we make sure we have a doctrinal foundation so that the error does not come into the church. I want you to think about Galatians was written more corrective than preventative. Remember, in essence, Galatians was one of Paul's fighting epistles as he's dealing with false teachers that are bringing in false teaching into the churches of Galatia. So, again, we see the general purpose of Ephesians is more preventative. Paul placed great emphasis upon the church. I want to give you three examples of this in, first of all, chapter 1. Chapter 1, verse 19 and following, it says, What is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe? according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, in eternity, and hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be," notice this, the head over all things, to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. Also chapter two, And while you turn it over there, let me just mention here, there's a lot of people who see a universal church in this regard. And let me just say this, the word church is from a Greek word, ekklesia, means a called out assembly. And let me just say this, a universal ekklesia is not a called out assembly. For example, if this body were universal, I might have an arm in Russia, I might have, that's what we're talking about as far as a universal church. The only time that I see a universal church in scripture is when we have all been gathered together and we become the church of the firstborn and we worship at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we have individual bodies. Well, that seems like a monstrosity. Well, let me ask you, when Sam Walton was still alive, was he not the head of Walmart? Well, I thought there were a lot of Walmarts. I didn't think there was just one in Arkansas. There's a lot of Walmarts. So we see here, even as far as on a corporate level, we have somebody who's the head of the corporation. So in that sense, Jesus Christ is the head of the church. We are a local body with Jesus Christ as its head. So we're not talking about some monstrosity. We're talking about a local representation of Christ's body. Notice that it says in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 19 then, and again I want to emphasize, he's writing to a local church. The saints which are where? At Ephesus. So we're talking about a local body, a local church. It says in verse 19 of chapter 2 then, again as we speak of the church here, it says, Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. Notice, even in a real sense, we could call that this is the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. Now, you think about the picture here. In fact, I have a little drawing in my Bible here. Who's the chief cornerstone? Jesus Christ. Who's the foundation? Who makes up the foundation of the church? What you notice here, it's Notice, the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Now, some suggest that that's Old Testament prophets. I don't believe so, because we're talking about the New Testament church. That's Israel, and the New Testament is the church age. I want you to notice here, we have the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Those are temporary supernatural offices. As we think about apostle and prophet, there are no apostles and prophets in the biblical sense today. Why? Because the foundation has already been laid. We have the completed Word of God. We have the foundation. In fact, Paul, back in 1 Corinthians, even says that Jesus Christ is the foundation. And what we see here is that Jesus Christ himself is the chief cornerstone. So he's the one upon which the whole church is built. I wore this tie today on purpose. Notice here, we have the church. In fact, I don't think this tie does, but there's some ties where we even have the face of the Lord Jesus Christ implanted on the rock. So we see here that the church is built upon Jesus Christ. The foundation, as we see in this passage here, are the apostles and prophets. So it's a spiritual house, even as we see here. But notice it says, we are a part of this household. So after you have the foundation, the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone, then the spiritual house is then being built as somebody is added to this local church. They're part of the household. So we see again, even as we heard here recently, that the church is made up of people. It's not a building, though this building is nice to have a place to gather together. but if we, for some reason, did not have this building, as the church, we could still assemble together. So again, we see here, verse 21, in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord. All right, so even as we talk about building a parsonage or whatever on this property. Notice, fitly framed together. All right, so behind this, inside these walls, there's a frame. If you didn't have a frame here, better get out for your lives, right? So again, you have to frame it up. So talking about a spiritual house here, notice groweth, I'm sorry, framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. So we have to be holy before him to be this holy temple, in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. So notice the Holy Spirit is putting together a building. So we also see the picture of the body here. Chapter five, Ephesians chapter five is another reference to the church. Again, he places a lot of emphasis on the church. It says in verse 22, Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife. So now he's using the marriage relationship as an illustration of Christ and the church. Even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so that means we are to be subject unto His desires. That's why we're to seek His will based on what the Word of God says. So let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. So the church is to be submissive to Christ in everything. So if Christ says something, says that we are to do something in the New Testament, we are to do it. We are to submit ourselves to Him. And again, the pastor's not the head of the church. I'm not the CEO. We see that Christ is the head of the church, I'm simply an under-shepherd, leading us to being a biblical church under Christ's headship. Verse 25, husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. So that's why we meet for teaching and preaching, so that the word of God will cleanse us, because Christ wants a clean church. It goes on to say in verse 27, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Now you think about a wedding gown. I have yet to see a wedding gown that is all stained with food and mud and so on and so forth. I have yet to see that. I'm not saying it's never happened, but I have yet to see that. Why? Because the bride-to-be wants her wedding dress to be perfectly white. Not only that, but we know from experience, as I helped my wife a little bit with our daughter-in-law, her mother had already passed away. And so our daughter-in-law, Grace, asked my wife to be the one to care for her wedding dress in her mother's absence. And so she spent about hours trying to, in fact, the steamer, I think, gave out about the time we were done with that project. If you think about the aspect of that, she did not want any wrinkles. She didn't want any spots. A bride-to-be would be horrified if they find a bunch of spots on their wedding gown. Okay, you think about this. We are the bride-elect. We are the bride-to-be as the church. Think about this. Christ wants us to be holy and without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, so that we can be holy without blemish before Him. Someday we are going to be presented to Christ as the Bride of Christ. Verse 32, this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Notice here, he's speaking spiritually, so he's using this illustration of Christ and the Church. So as you think about the The epistle of Ephesians, this epistle can be divided into two main sections. First of all, doctrinal foundation and a practical application. Most of the New Testament epistles are set up this way. There's a doctrinal foundation. Doctrine is not a popular subject today. That's why we see so many problems in churches today. Chapters one through three, we have a doctrinal foundation. First of all, you notice here, God's eternal purpose and our position in Christ, chapter one. Let's just kind of overview this, this doctoral section. It says in verse 3 of chapter 1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. I want you to notice here, we already are seated with Christ, with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Physically, I'm here, but spiritually, I'm already blessed with Jesus in heaven. Verse four, according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. There, see, there's Calvinism right there. God has chosen you and you and you, and He's chosen everyone else to go to judgment. That's not what that's saying. Notice what it says again. He has chosen us in Him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. That's what He's chosen us to. It's not that he arbitrarily chooses some people to salvation. In fact, let me emphasize, I believe scripturally, God has given everyone the opportunity to be saved, but not everyone will. And I believe as you look at this passage, God knows in eternity past who will believe and who will not. He's given everyone the opportunity, He's given everyone the faith as we see in Romans chapter 12 verse 3. So again we see here that He's chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world. The purpose is to be without blame before Him, holy and without blame before Him in love. Having predestination, oh there's predestination. What are we predestinated to? To the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. We're not predestinated to salvation and others predestinated to judgment. Notice this is a result of faith in Christ. We have been predestinated unto the adoption of children. This is a blessing of salvation. according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace. So we're not gonna be saying, I was chosen. In fact, you read some of the writings of Calvinists. They are proud of being selected by God. It's rooted in pride. God chose me and he didn't chose you. In fact, R.C. Sproul, he knows the truth now. Hopefully he was saved. Hopefully he believed a little different than what he taught. He may be in hell today. He had the belief that God regenerates us so that we can believe. I want you to think about this. It's all backwards. I believe, so therefore, the Holy Spirit creates. See, they believe that you cannot be saved, you cannot believe until God regenerates you. Because God has to, you know, because everyone's dead and trespasses and sins. I want you to notice here, we are predestinated not to salvation or judgment, we are predestinated to adoption. Again, in fact, the other time predestination is mentioned is to be conformed to the image of His Son. Notice, according to the good pleasure of His will, the praise of the glory, so we're going to be praising God for His grace, not that we've been saved, we've been chosen, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. We are accepted in Christ, not in my works. in whom, in Christ, whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation, there's dispensationalism, no, not necessarily, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him. Now, let me pause there just a moment. Some say, well, there's dispensationalism. Well, if you want to kind of boil it down, at best, there's two dispensations, if you want to use the term that way, old and new. We're not talking about 7 or 10 or 12, depending on the dispensationalist that you talk to. We're not talking about over-segmenting scripture, breaking it up so it doesn't make any sense. Notice again here, we're talking about this, I lost the verse here, verse 10, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him, in whom, notice again, all these blessings that we have in Christ. We also have obtained an inheritance being predestined, oh, there's that word again, according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. Notice this, who first trusted in Christ. There's the key, I have to trust in Christ. In whom, notice we have a continued thought here, in whom he also trusted after that he heard the word of truth. Notice, I've heard the truth, I trusted in Christ. That's the key, not because I'm arbitrarily chosen to salvation. The gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnestness, the down payment of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory. Again, we notice here that God has an eternal purpose and our position in Christ. Chapter 2, we see that we are saved by grace. Very familiar verses, verses 8 and 9. For by grace are ye saved through faith. And that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Now, we often quote those verses without verse 10. For we are his workmanship. At the time of salvation, God begins a work in our lives, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Even in Sunday school, Dave emphasized in much of the lesson are walking in Christ. Notice, we have been ordained to works. Now, in the last part of this chapter two, he talks about Gentiles and Jews. I want you to think about, this was a big debate in the first century. How can these Gentiles, who are not the recipients of the Old Testament, how can these Gentiles have just as much importance in the body of Christ as we do? Notice it says here in verse 11. Wherefore, remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, these unsaved, these Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision, Jew versus Gentile, in the flesh made by hands." Notice this unity that often took place in churches between Jewish and Gentile believers. That at that time you were without Christ. Here's our description. Here's the description of us Gentiles. Being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, without God in the world. You think about the average Gentile today. Without God in the world, no hope. That's the description of the average Gentile today. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Notice the blood of Christ brings us together. For he is our peace who hath made both one," notice both Jew and Gentile are brought together into one, again as we see the body even mentioned at the end of this chapter, "...had broken down the middle wall of partition between us," this disunity that was often there between Jew and Gentile, "...having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain to one man," one new man, "...making peace," so making peace, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby and came and preached peace to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. So you think about nationalities in this community. How many of you are Czech? Wow. You're in the Czech capital of Nebraska, and none of us are Czech. I'm German, so I'm... You notice here, German descent. But I want you to think about this. The idea of this is, okay, this nationality, this nationality, black and white, is a common thing in our culture. And I believe they're stirring that up on purpose in many cases. But I want you to think about this. Black and white doesn't matter. Oriental doesn't matter. We're all one in Christ. So there should be no division, because again, we see that salvation by grace through faith brings about the uniting of Jews and Gentiles into one body. Then also in chapter three, we see God's plan for the Gentiles for his glory in the church. Chapter three, verse one, for this cause, I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. Now the Jews hated to hear that word. Remember the mob stirred up in Jerusalem when he mentioned the word Gentiles. if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is given me to you, word, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words, whereby when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, notice this is all one sentence, by the way, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and Gentiles said what? Amen. Notice the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. Notice that's the key, the gospel. Whereof I am made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given. That I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to make all men see that what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities of power and so on. Again, we see here that he's brought everyone together into this one body. Now, with that doctrinal foundation, what you notice here, this practical Christianity, practical application in chapters four through six. First of all, again, we talk about the unity. Chapter four, verse one, I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy. Again, we're talking about our walk, how we live our lives. That you walk worthy of the vocation whereof you are called. We have been called to live a certain way with all lowliness and meekness. This is our attitude. With long-suffering forbearing one another in love. Notice, endeavoring, putting forth great effort. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Again, I've said, Satan does not like the unity that our church has. Satan is gonna look for a way to bring in division. But again, we are to endeavor to keep the unity. That doesn't mean we have unity at all price, at all cost. Well, we have to compromise the doctrine of this so that we can have unity. I'm sorry, but I'm not gonna work together with most holy reverend so-and-so. Because by the way, the name holy and reverend is God's name. But again, we see here that we're to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. That means we have to have a doctrinal foundation, we've already seen, so that we can have this unity, because notice it says in verse four, notice how many times the word one appears in verses four through six. For there is one body and one Spirit, even as you're called in, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. But again, what you notice here, again, this unity that we are to endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Then we see here this practical working of this, this unity in verse 11 and following. And he gave some apostles and some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. I believe evangelists are essentially are not always what we think of as evangelists, probably missionary, church planter. I believe that's an evangelist because then you have pastors and teachers. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. We notice here the pastor's not hired to do the work of the ministry. He's not the hired servant. Notice the purpose of the calling of pastor is for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. In essence, my responsibility is to perfect the saints so that as we perform this ministry together, the church is strengthened. Notice again, for the perfecting of the saints, for the edifying of the saints, I should say, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Till, continued sentence, till we all come in the unity of the faith, unity of what we believe. In fact, shallow independent Baptist churches that don't emphasize doctrine, they're becoming divided today over all kinds of issues. Why? Because they don't have the unity of the faith. of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." Notice, Christ is the standard, not the pastor, not brother so-and-so. Christ is the standard. So have we fully met the standard yet? Obviously not. We still have room for growth. Verse 14, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men, trickery, deception, by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive. but speaking the truth in love may, what, grow up, spiritual maturity here, into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. Again, Christ is the head of the church, from whom the whole body, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, notice, every part of the body working together, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. As each one of us find some type of ministry to be involved in, the church is strengthened. It's built up. So again, that's the whole purpose of this. Again, this unity that Christ wants us to have in the church. Chapter four, verse 17, and into chapter five, we see our walk in the world. We must walk a certain way. Even as Brother Dave emphasized, verse 17, this I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of the mind. Having the understanding, let me just say it this way. As you read down through here, the description of the unsaved, the Gentiles, they're doing what comes naturally. We are supernatural creatures in Christ. Notice, we are to not live that way. Something should change. There's been a great change since I've been born. So has there been? Are we constantly changing to become more and more like Christ? So again, their understanding is darkened, they're alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them. Some have more ignorance than others, I guess, but because of the blindness of their heart, but it's also their past feeling. They give themselves over, because their past feeling, they give themselves over unto lasciviousness. Lasciviousness is loose indulgence of animal desires. Well, let me just say it this way. Are we shocked when our young people are living like animals, when they're taught that they evolved from animals? I mean, that's the Gentiles. To work all uncleanness with greediness. but ye have not so learned Christ. So again, he says that our walk in the world should be changed. In fact, what's interesting in chapters four and five, as even Brother Dave mentioned, there's several times the word walk is mentioned. Chapter four, verse one, walk worthy. Chapter five, verse two, it says we are to walk in love. It says in verse one and two, be ye therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. We're to walk in love. Chapter five and verse eight, we're to walk in light. The Bible says that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. It says here, Ephesians five, verse eight, for ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. So there should be a brightness about us spiritually in this dark world. Also chapter five, verse, 15, it says, see then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. I've heard this described as a cat walking on a wall, trying to miss sharp pieces of glass. We are to walk circumspectly. We are to walk carefully. Why? Because we're not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Why? Because we live in evil days. What for being not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. circumspectly. So how is our walk today? So again, he emphasizes we are to live differently. Chapter 5, again, even as Dave mentioned, there's to be something different about us. We're to not even name these things among us, as we see in the beginning of chapter 5. Then in chapter 5, verse 18 and following, we see marriage and family relationships. And I believe, really, as you look at the context, verse 18, about being filled with the Spirit, is in the context of relationships. The filling of the Spirit is so important in our relationships. Now, what relationships are those? The husband and wife relationship, we've already seen some of this. You know, the wife is to submit to the, you expect me to submit myself to him? Well, you notice here, the two responsibilities of the wife, notice what's not mentioned here. Wives love your husbands. That's not mentioned here. No, that doesn't mean the wife is not supposed to love her husband. But notice what's emphasized here, submitting and reverencing. But what are the responsibilities of the husband? Lead and love. Notice that. So in other words, I need to earn her reverence. That's quite a word. So Sarah called Abraham Lord. Sorry, wives are, no. But you think about this. I need to earn her respect so that she can submit. As both of us are doing what we're supposed to do in a marriage, that's how Christ can work in it. But as you think about this, verse 21 says, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. So that means I also have to, there's an aspect of submission I have to have to her. So as you notice that, again, in the context, we're talking about being filled with the Spirit. But then chapter six, verse one, children, children, listen up now. Obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. So if they tell you to do something contrary to this book, you don't have to obey, right? You can disobey respectfully. I don't think there's too much of a problem of that in our church family of parents telling their children to do something that disobeys the Bible. So you're not off the hook on anything then. But children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. It is right for you to obey your parents. Go to bed. No, I don't want to. Don't you cover your ears. It's time for you to go to bed. I want a drink first. Five minutes later, I'm thirsty yet, I want another drink. That's disobedience. They said to go to bed. Take out the garbage. Why do I always have to take out the garbage? honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise. Now, let me just point out something here. As grown children, sometimes there's things we disagree with in our parents. That's not true to the word of God. You know, there's times when a parent will go into doctrinal error. So how do you treat that? You don't follow their doctrine, but you can still honor them because they are still your parents. honor thy father and mother which is, oh, so much for the Old Testament not being a part of our New Testament time. Notice, which is the first commandment with promise. Where do you find that? In the Old Testament. That I may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth. All right, so young people, if you don't obey your parents, what's God saying here? You could shorten your life. Who's my parents to tell me I can't speed down the highway? You may do that at the end of your life. I want you to consider, who are my parents to tell me I can't smoke and drink? You may do that shortening your life. Notice again, that may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth. All right, so here's fathers. Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath. That doesn't mean that you cower to them. But I want you to notice here, to be unreasonable in your discipline, you'll provoke them to wrath. But bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. So after the spanking, you sit down and say, I love you. And here's why we did that. I don't believe it's wrong to tell children why. Because I said so. First of all, when you say that in anger, they don't really think that's worth anything then. Because I said so. That's not really a good reason. I believe that's a teachable moment. Here's why I had to spank you. You told a lie, didn't you? Yeah. Well, here's what the Bible says about lying. So I want you to notice, using that as an opportunity to teach, our young people to understand why the Bible. And of course, the relationships continue on with verse 5 and following, servants and masters. Let me remind you that in the Roman culture, about half of the Roman Empire were slaves with no rights. Servants, by the way, Paul never says, let's overthrow slavery. But what he does is, here's how we can, all right, we have the system. Here's how we can honor God with this. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters. Yeah, my boss is a slave driver, so that's why he's the master. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling and singleness of your heart, not divided. All right, so we're talking about sincerity, mental honesty. Singleness of heart as unto Christ. Notice, as I do my job, I'm ultimately to be serving Christ. Not with eyes, oh, the boss is around. You know, I'm out in a truck. Well, some of our trucks, FedEx trucks, have little monitors. My truck is one of the newer ones that was purchased here recently. It's not a new truck, but it's newer. It's one of the newer trucks that he's owned. Last I knew, anyway, my truck still doesn't have one of those monitors on it. Those monitors actually can tell a contractor How many RPMs the truck is, I mean, you're speeding down 25 mile per hour neighborhoods or whatever. I mean, it can tell you how fast I was going. The truck that I was in with that one accident, they figured out that I was going five miles per hour just before that teenager slid into me, going 25 miles per hour in a little cul-de-sac. He went around a bend and all of a sudden he sees this big white truck in the middle of the road because there was a car parked over here, a car parked over here. He couldn't get stopped on that snow. FedEx tried to pin that on me until that report came back saying I was only going five miles per hour at the impact. FedEx threw it out. Why don't you think about this? Okay, so I don't have a monitor on my truck now. So am I still serving my master the same? Well, my boss doesn't know if I'm sitting here for 15 minutes. My boss doesn't know if I'm taking a half hour break when I shouldn't be. In reality, I don't have a set, okay, I'm supposed to take lunch at this time or whatever. I want you to think about this. Are we serving Christ? You see, after all, Christ knows how much I'm working. Not with I service as men-pleasers. Oh, there's the, my parents are coming around, my teacher's coming around, so I gotta get to work now. But as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. It's from the heart I need to be serving the Lord. With good will doing service, as the Lord, not to men. knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, who will be bond or free. And ye masters, all right, so we could also say boss, parents, whatever, ye masters do the same things unto them. Forbearing, threatening, do this or else, knowing that your master also is in heaven. All right, so you have a master over you, neither is there respect of persons with him. So as, you know, maybe we in a supervisory position or something, notice how we are to respond to those who are serving under us. Notice finally, he speaks of spiritual warfare in verses 10 through 20. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord. Stand up. As we sang earlier, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. You don't stand in His power, you're gonna fall to the devil every time. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood. It's not a people battle, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. So then he talks about the armor of God, we have to take the whole armor. We cannot pick and choose which pieces of armor we want. Because if we don't have the helmet of salvation, then Satan's gonna attack our mind. If we don't have the breastplate of righteousness, he's gonna attack your heart. So again, we have to take the whole armor of God. As we sang earlier, each piece put on with what? Prayer. Notice verse 18, continued sentence here, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. Notice the armor is put on in the prayer closet. If I'm not praying, I'm not putting the armor on. If I'm not putting the armor on, I'm not standing in his strength. If I'm not standing in his strength, I'm a target for the devil. And by the way, let me remind you, there's nothing to protect the back. If Satan's got me running, He's got a perfect target for me, right in the back. So again, putting the armor on. Practical application for a Christian walk. Notice the closing here, verse 21. As Paul emphasizes in verse 20, he's an ambassador in bonds. Then it says in verse 21, but that ye also may know my affairs and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things. whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose that ye might know our affairs and that he might comfort your hearts. So again, this mutual contact that they have. Peace be to the brethren and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is Paul's common closing in the books. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, amen. Written to the saints. But you know, we just read that today, didn't we? Kind of surveyed the book of Ephesians. That tells me the Holy Spirit still has it for us today. He didn't want it just for a church back in the first century, Ephesus. He wanted it for us today. So we have our doctoral foundation, practical application. So now it's up to us with the Holy Spirit's help to put it to practice. Father, I wanna thank you for the opportunity to, again, survey one of Paul's letters. And Lord, I just thank you for the doctrinal emphasis, the truth, even about the church and various things about salvation in the book of Ephesians. Lord, there's so many doctrinal things found in this book. But Father, doctrine is not meant to stand by itself. Father, it's the foundation for our practical Christianity, practical application of truth. So Lord, I pray that you'd help us in our walk. Lord, help us to live differently than the world around us. Father, again, I've emphasized, if we're not different from the world, if the world doesn't see anything different about it, they don't know that they need anything spiritually in their lives. So Lord, help us to be a testimony at work, testimony in our homes. Father, again, help us to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace in this place. Thank you for all these things in Jesus' name, amen.