He would remain in the book of Ephesians, or if you're not there, please turn there. I want to especially say thank you for praying for me as I prepare to preach this morning. That's something that all your elders would say to you regularly. We appreciate very much your prayers. This morning, we're returning to the book of Ephesians. We're not going to make actual progress to the text today. I want to go back and look at some things that we've already looked at, hopefully in a way that will be of use to you. In many ways, every day, in every place and with everyone, our lives are involved in doing our duty. As believers, we're very concerned. that we live in every way a moral life, carrying out our duties morally. We all struggle with this. We struggle with it because we deal with warring factions that uniquely but commonly tempt us at times into breaking our moral code. However, that is only one aspect. of the difficulty of living life with a sense of moral duty. Another, just as vexing, I think, is our battle with something basic to morality, our motive. The reason we do what we do. We have a strange capacity in our sinfulness with which we battle. That capacity is that we can do our duty and to even some extent conform to our moral code for all the wrong reasons. This has been on my heart for a long time. I struggle with this myself. We can perform our duty in a way that appears to conform to our moral code, but we are doing it for purely selfish reasons. We do it because it serves our best interests or because it is easier in our estimation or we haven't given it much thought. We just do it. Or because we've realized that we can in this way gain the honor of those whom we value. These issues of self-interest and the honor of man leave us bound to our duty and the performance of our moral code for sinful reasons and with sinful motives. This is a difficult thing to think through, and I'm not going to in any way deal with it comprehensively today. But I do want to challenge this approach to. One's life and how you are motivated in living your life, I want to consider Paul's instruction to the believers who were in the city of Ephesus at the church that was there and review what he wrote with the purpose of discerning this very important issue of motive. He gave them a large number of imperatives. Especially, especially as we began to look at chapters four and then five, and then as we built on into chapter six. But they were not different from us. Those people who received those imperatives as we have received them by the spirit, they were really not different from us in this issue of motive. They struggled with it like we struggle with it. The particulars in this are as varied as the number of people who are moved. However, the principles involved are common to every Christian, and that's what I hope to hit on today. I sum it this way, the grace that has saved us radically reforms our whole way of living, including our motives for doing our duty morally. Paul gave our brothers and sisters who live in Ephesus instruction about this. I hope I can bring it out to you today in a way that will be helpful to you and a strength to you. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, we are so very thankful that we come to you this morning in the name of Jesus Christ, the Lord. We thank you that in all the opposing things that go on in our minds. That would destroy our joy and our confidence and our hope and our peace with you. It was a it was paid for and purchased and provided at such dear cost to your son. To use our father, we are so thankful that we can come to you this day. Knowing that we have a savior. It was so demonstrated your loving kindness. Though we have these opposing things in our minds, we can come to you. With confidence, confidence that our sins have been pardoned in the blood of Christ, confidence that in his resurrection, We have accusations that continue to call out for our condemnation. We're so thankful that we come before you this morning aware that you have quieted your own accusations so that we are confident in our Savior, the Lord Jesus, as we come before you. And that you, having freely provided us your own Son to be our Redeemer and Savior, will with Him freely give us all things that we have need of. We're so thankful to come with this confidence, come knowing of our Savior this day. We come needing strengthening from His Word and strengthening from the Gospel. Give grace to the preacher this day, we ask. We might hear again of Christ. The nourishment of our souls, in his name we pray, amen. I want to mention this morning three things in general heading, they're not things that are new to you in any way. It's just really mainly, as I said earlier, a review, but with a point that I hope I can bring all this to before we finish. First of all, we have in these, I want to mention just three general headings that give us motive. And then I'll try to discern out of that a special point that brings it all together for us. First of all, Paul preached to those people in Ephesus the greatness of God. We need to remember this, there were certain things that that Paul laid out before them. Things assumed when he wrote these believers at the churches at Ephesus about God and His character and His being and His attributes. He had previously taught them the Old Testament so that they already had a good grasp of who God is. Jew and Gentile believers there at that church knew of God's work in creation. They knew of God's work in calling Noah, in calling Abraham, in calling Moses and David and Isaiah and the prophets. He gave them a good, basic understanding of God in all this and His power and His majesty and His glory, that He was full of these things. And they had this in mind. They understood that He was a purposeful creator a purposeful sustainer of all that exists. He mentioned what I think is one of the best summary statements of this in all of the Scriptures. In chapter 1, verse 11, when he spoke of God's purpose in saving these people and he said, That him, excuse me, in verse 11, that we were saved, we were predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. We have a very comprehensive statement of God's purpose and sovereignty and carrying it out and that they knew and they understood that he alone. Does all his holy will. There is no one, there is no being like God. He was not a product of the humanly imagined Greek and Roman pantheons. He was not a fallible being. There was this great God, as we just sang in proper Christian understanding, that there's this absolutely sovereign master who does as he pleases in all creation and with all creatures. including all of mankind. He closed chapter one with these tremendous statements about Christ. He said in verse 20 that he'd raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above. in sovereign and supreme authority and power over all principality and power and might and dominion in every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. And he put all things under his feet. It's a picture of total domination. God is a God of purpose in all that he was doing and all that he was accomplishing. He may be unperceptible to our senses, but by faith, these members of the church at Essos knew these things, the greatness of God. Moreover, they knew that he is justly and inflexibly offended by all breaking of his law. They knew this about the character and being of God, that he is righteous in his wrath and hatred of all sinful beings. It's no wonder that we read in the beginning of chapter two that that they were dead. Dead in trespasses and sins, dead. And every sense of that word without power, fully corrupted, He spoke of them as we go on, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. Now, in this, as he described them, we must not miss what he's saying about God. And God's assessment. Because of his holiness and his righteousness. among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath." The character of God being displayed before them. But everything Paul taught them about God has this context. He is the God who on purpose in unobligated and uncoerced saving favor, planned, fulfilled, implemented and maintains their salvation. He is a great God. In all his ways, he is loving, full of mercy and pardon for all who are brokenheartedly repentant about their sin, who trust and provide a just sacrifice for their guilt. who grants full reconciliation and His gracious salvation. No wonder he goes on in verses 4 and 5, but God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. Here's the character of God displayed in all His greatness and power and glory and holiness. and love and pardon and mercy. Here's God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, each doing freely what was covenanted by God, who had secured their salvation, who had secured their change of status, who had secured their discipleship and secured their inclusion in the eternal household of God. They were loved, rescued and destined for glory. And it was all of his doing and none of theirs. Look at this character of God. Verse eight. For by grace, you've been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works as anyone should boast. Paul proclaimed, Paul preached and Paul wrote of the greatness of God with whom they dealt. So it is for all. throughout the centuries who've come to bow in faith and repentance before his son. They have come to see something of his greatness, and though that greatness terrifies them and though that greatness strikes fear in the depths of their being and though that greatness shows how undone they in fact are outside of him. That greatness of God also displayed love and mercy and patience and pardon. We trust and follow the triune God because he is uniquely great. And. By his own will in love, he rescued us, gave us faith, gave us understanding and gave us hope and gave us and eternal inheritance and glory. Notice how he puts this back in chapter 1, in verse 17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, and this was part of his supplication, his prayer for them, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Here's this great God of creation, this great God of all purpose, this great God of wrath and justice. and love and mercy that he beseeched would come and give them understanding. The supremacy of God, the transcendence of God and the greatness of God and how different he is from us. The apostle was teaching them something about the character of God and he comes near to his people. And he can be prayed to. supplicated that the eyes of your understanding may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. The eyes of your understanding be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of His calling. What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints? And what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power. Paul set this before these people at Ephesus to settle them, to give them motive for the imperatives he was going to lay upon them. It's a doctrinal teaching, isn't it? There's substance here. There's theology here. But in all of this, we must not fail to see there's motive here. It gives us reason for living our lives for His glory, which we'll get to in a moment. He accomplished this in His Son, Jesus the Christ, so that we trust and obey Him. He is God Himself, sovereign, holy in all His perfections, and at the same time condescending, gracious, self-sacrificing and merciful to sinners. Paul proclaimed to them the greatness of God. And reminded them of these things, many of things he had already preached to them, already taught, were ongoing in their teaching to them by their pastors. But here in this letter, again, brought them to mind, set them before them so they would find strength daily in their living the Christian lifetime, as one person has recently said it. So Paul preached and taught and wrote of the greatness of God to give them motive and strength and encouragement. As they went about their life, secondly, Paul preached the greatness of their salvation. Now, let me Let me explain this a little bit further. I've already touched on this because you cannot touch up. You cannot fail, but touch on that as you think about the character and greatness and being of God. As he displayed himself to them. But we must take this in a way as a separate issue, distinguishing it, but not extracting it out of God, I don't mean to do that. But to bring it to mind in a way that I hope will be helpful to you, Paul preached and taught and wrote of the greatness of salvation. The triune God whom Paul had proclaimed to them, whose word he wrote to them, whom they had heard, whom they had believed. They accepted, as Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, they accepted that word priest as, in fact, the word of God. If you look with me over in chapter 2 and verse 17, Speaking of Christ. We know Paul was the one who came and preached, we know Paul was the author of this epistle. But notice how he put it. And he came, that is Christ, the crucified one, he came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near to Jew and Gentile. So in the preaching and proclamation, in the writing out of the epistle, in the teaching that he had done, it was God preaching the word and they were hearing what was said by a man, by a sinful man. As a fact, the word of God to them. And in this word, there was this message that went beyond all their imagining in providing their need. while their need was unknown to them. Before they ever realized this, God pitied them. He worked in face of their uncaring inability to do anything about their need. You were saved a little bit later in life. You know what I'm talking about. You can look back and see this in yourself. You had no concept of your powerlessness. But to make it worse, you didn't care. You did not care. And yet God was at work while they were in the deepest extent of poverty. They may have been the most wealthy person in the city, we don't know, but they were poverty stricken when it came to the things of the holiness of God and righteousness and of the things of the spirit. At the greatest cost to himself, he paid the price of their rescue with the abundant generosity of divine love. He paid that price, and we notice in the reading of this letter the depths of this eternal love of free grace, which before they had ignored, if not in fact outright despising it, But we see here grace that provided every possible need for the objects of that love and that grace. Listen, listen to it again as as I read it from chapter one. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, which he made to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he made us accepted in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in him. In him also we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory in him. You also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory. He plumbed the depths of eternal love. Think of the concepts that Paul marshaled to explain to them the vastness of the provision made in God's rescue of them. Election. Predestination. Acceptance. I love this phrase being accepted in the beloved. I try to remember this in my praying that we are welcomed into the presence of God, just like Jesus Christ is welcomed into the presence of God. Can you can you fathom that really? All you can do is believe the text. And war against everything inside you that says that cannot be true, that surely is not true for me, that really cannot be. And yet the text teaches us. And so Paul brought these things to his election, predestination, acceptance, adoption. Redemption. Justification, all these wonderful words that have full concepts to us and the doctrines that have been taught to us, reconciliation. And healing. guarantees that what Christ did on the cross will, in fact, be fully accomplished. What a great salvation he taught them. He then explained the nature of this power of God that secured such blessings on them. What was the nature of that power of God that was at work? Well, he described it for us there in chapter one in verse 19. And what is it? The exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. It's resurrection power. It's something that's a foreign concept to us. It's something that we don't see. We've never experienced. Again, we must simply believe the text that God, who made all things by the work of Jesus Christ. And this wonderful message can take simple people like us who are dead in sins and trespasses and raise us to life with himself. I cannot understand that, but that's what the text says. if we did not get it there. Notice what he says in chapter 2. But God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you've been saved. You look like very normal people to me. You don't look that much different than people that I might rub shoulders with in the mall or pass the driving down of the freeway. But when I look out upon you, I see resurrected saints, sinners whom God has had mercy upon. I see people who, though you look like everyone else, in Christ a miracle has been worked in you. bring you from death to life. This is the greatness of the salvation he spoke to them about. He explained, furthermore, at length, the cost to God, which he freely paid that removed all obstacles, all detriment and secured all blessing for these who had formerly been wholly undeserving. Notice in verse 13 of chapter two, but now in Christ Jesus, who you you who once were far off have been brought near. Here's the price that it costs God to provide that this would be justly accomplished. By the blood. Of Messiah. Who is the son of God? Who is his beloved son? This is what it costs. Verse 16, he reminds them again, they might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, the place of death, the place of separation. Chapter three, verse 11, don't miss it, according to the eternal purpose, which he accomplished in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Now, I understand that word encompasses all that Christ did, but it encompassed the cross where Christ paid the price to redeem our souls. This is the power that sinners need. This is the provision that alone would meet their desperate needs. To this day, the only remedy from our side of looking at this is to repent and turn in faith to this redeeming Messiah. To come to understand what my sins required, to come to understand what God did in the face of that, to hear the message of repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ. Having done so, you would find that you had been thought of and loved before time began. That's how great our salvation is. Every place, every way you look at it, it makes that word great. It's just not enough, is it? We use that word to indicate the most superlative things. I understand it's trite. We overuse it. We use it for things that are not great. But here's its proper use. Every way you look at this salvation. It's great. Nothing is like it. You would find having come to this salvation. That the Savior, the son of the living God, had already saved His people in His work. We're not coming to do the work. We're coming because the work is finished. It's done. It's secured. It doesn't require something more of us. So it was with Him. So it is with us. So it will always be in this age. You would find that your sins slay you That though your sin slayed you, the evil one enslaved you, and God's wrath had condemned you, God Himself and His Son's work and the Spirit's power has provided all that was required. All that was called for. So we read in chapter 3, in verse 19, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. In chapter three, in verse six, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. How can we sum salvation as God in you? All the work that he accomplished to bring things to that point. We have a great, great God, and we have a great salvation that is ours. And these doctrinal theological teachings become motive. Do they not? Become motive. I can think about my duty. I can think about doing my duty morally, and I find reason for staying at that and pursuing that and going at that because of the greatness of God, because of the greatness of my salvation. Also, let me add this. Paul proclaimed to them the greatness of salvation's goal. It also becomes motive. If anyone If any one of us set out to accomplish some grand plan, we had labored to develop and bring it to fruition, we would have a goal in mind, would we not? And that goal would move us and steer us. Paul explained to the people at Ephesus who were believers, who were members of that church there, That's so it is with God. He appears to be like us in this way, because we are a little bit like him. And only the scriptures can help us think through that properly. But in this great plan of salvation, He was moved and steered by the only real purpose for anything in existence, and that is to manifest his glory by his grace. Now, I could call all this whole sermon the greatness of God, I could call this whole sermon the greatness of salvation, I could call this whole sermon the greatness of salvation's goal. We kind of distinguish them out because it helps us put them together. He says it for us in chapter three in verse 10. Notice the words he uses to the intent. That now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. We talked about this before, but I want you to focus this morning on this issue that God has this goal before himself in saving by grace those people and everyone he saved since then and will save. His goal is worthy of the price he paid to attain it. The pouring out of his wrath. on his beloved son, being separated from him in the crucifixion so that the triune God would be known, would be explained, would be shown, would be manifest. In chapter two, verse seven, notice where he says that there's another statement of intent. He's got a goal in mind. He's moved to reach that goal. He steered in reaching that goal that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. This goal was ever in his mind. as he worked to reveal himself, as he sent his son, as his son did his work, as his son saved, and as the Spirit goes to apply the merits of that salvation in sovereign, resurrecting power. God's goal is ever before him. Chapter 5. I can see this carried out a little bit. You don't have to turn there. You've heard it before. Walk in love. Walk in light. Walk in wisdom. What's going on in the walking? God's being shown. Grace is being manifest. The wisdom of God displays. and those church members before the people they live. Let me expand on that a little bit. All aspects of the Lord God's saving work had this great purpose and goal to manifest the multifaceted, variegated majesty of His wisdom in saving sinners. He made Himself known by graciously showing mercy to the completely undeserving. Chapter 3, verse 21. This is why Paul says, To him be glory in the church. I'll expand that in a moment. By Christ Jesus, to all generations. It's been going on for almost 2000 years now. I don't know how much longer it will go on. That's God's business, not mine. But he's bringing glory to himself in saving people like us, just like the people he saved back there in Ephesus. All the work of the triune God described by Paul in this letter and all the other letters he wrote was required to put this salvation into place, to bring it to fruition, on track to accomplish God's goal. It could not have been done any other way. Moreover, not only had what God had covenanted to do, what Christ had done, what the Spirit was doing in saving them, but also a new order among mankind had to be put in place to see this goal achieved. God's goal could only be achieved by reconciling the world to himself, elect from every nation, Jew and Gentile, all contention gone, all problems broken down so that they are one new man. That God might be glorified. It took everything I've talked about this day to get to that point, didn't it? So that God would be glorified. God's goal could be only achieved by establishing the elect in local churches. What does he say in chapter two in verse 19? Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Reconciliation, elect from every nation. being conformed to this goal, having built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit. God's goal could only be achieved by reconciling the world, bringing the elect from every nation and establishing them and forming them into local churches. God's goal could only be achieved by ordering churches as assemblies, ordering them, forming them, according to His Word, as assemblies of worship where the message of free and sovereign grace would be preached and taught, believed and understood, obeyed and lived out. before the watchers on and off the face of this earth. We don't see them. We don't know much about them. Some of them, the ones on this earth, we do. But we're being watched. Why? Because God is revealing Himself in us. I don't understand all that. I believe it's true. This required qualified pastors and teachers to properly teach the message. That's what he's talking about in chapter four and verses one through sixteen, basically. He gave them pastors and teachers so that they would equip the saints, so that they would do the work of the ministry, so it would edify the body. This required church members who are maturing in doctrine and the practice of loving godliness. So he described that in chapter four, beginning at verse 17. Quit thinking like pagans. Put off those old things of the old man. Put on the things of Christ. And he described that for them, didn't he? In great detail. Why? So that God would be glorified in saving people just like us. These officers and members of the church believing the doctrine and obeying the imperatives under the scrutiny of the unbelieving with whom they lived and worked. They would be wives and husbands and children and parents and slaves and masters manifesting God's glory in the wisdom of his grace upon them. We have a great God. We have a great salvation. And we have a great goal in that salvation. They were brought into that. We have been brought into that. It remains so to this day that God is pursuing his purpose to glorify himself in his elect people. Purchased by his son, raised by his spirit, taught by his pastors and teachers as they submit to one another in membership and as they marry and parent and work. Yes, it's God's work through the quietness of godly living. If you wonder what is the purpose of life, I call you to look no further than this. God calls estranged sinners throughout the world to come, bow before his son and know the joy of his saving grace, the freedom of his doctrine and his commandments, and join in the only goal worthy of your full, entire, undivided devotion. I have nothing else to give you. Everything else will be paltry in comparison. If you look elsewhere, all other goals will turn bitter in your mouth and vain in your mind. They will betray you for they are idolatry. They are not worthy goals in themselves. And you were designed for this goal, pursuing God's glory. Say one other word to the unbelieving who might be in our midst. Refuse this goal. If you refuse this, you're refusing not just the goal, but you're refusing the God of gracious majesty. Who gave his only begotten son. To redeem simple people. And who's just condemnation lives on you. It's more present than the air you breathe. It lives on you and will in your last day fulfill His goal. Not for your well-being, but for your damnation. This is part of the message. I must not neglect it. We have a great God. We have a great salvation. And we have a great goal in that salvation. And these are doctrines that we hold and we protect and we guard. But they also provide us motive. As we think upon the greatness of our God and we think upon the greatness of our salvation, we think about the greatness of the goal. They're motive, aren't they? They're reasons. that I can bring to bear. So in all this, we have a great motive for obedience, doing our duty morally for the joy of having the triune God being purchased by his son, sealed by his spirit and included in one of his churches. We have a great God who has no peers. We have a great salvation before which all others prove a sham. And we have a great goal truly worthy of one's entire thorough submission and allegiance. These form the major part of our motivation to live as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Another way I would put it is we were rescued to serve and obey him in love and faithfulness. And the right motive to that is essential. We'll never get it perfect, but we must know what that motive is. We must bring that motive to bear. Being raised from the death of sinful enslavement, we have been called to the work of growth, repentance, reformation and loving service to God and our neighbors according to His Word. At every point, so we won't go astray. Now, this last point, I'm trying to bring some some application, I'll try to drive this to a fine point. How will we get ourselves moved to go with this work? How we get ourselves moved to stay at this work, how we get ourselves moved to renew it when we realize we have lost it. I'm not doing it with less or excuse me, or we are doing it with less than wholehearted love. for our Lord. What are we going to do here? Let me say this. Realize, because God is your creator and your sustainer and your master, your life hangs on His pleasure. It's never any different than that. And you owe Him 100% of yourself. You owe him 100% of your time, your energy and everything he's given you in this life. Creaturely duty is a given. We're not lessening that. Only the rebel refuses to see his creaturely duty or balks at it. However, sin in us has corrupted this proper and holy and good design. Even as believers, mustn't we admit there are times we rankle and chafe in our inner being over this. We remain ignorant of his goodness, rebellious to his freedom, left to ourselves This is why we must look at this proper doctrine and use it for proper motivation. Because left to ourselves, we don't naturally do what's holy, do we? A war has ensued in which we are now in conflict with ourselves, where before we were primarily in conflict with God. Now there's this war within us. Conflict with ourselves, we can sometimes confuse this, but being in Christ has changed our combat status. He is for us. We are for him. That wasn't the case before. But this is a very interesting struggle, and we'll talk more about this as we go into the book. Let me bring this motivation down yet to a finer point. How do we deal with this? The Lord God has given us of the richest of his favors in the gift of his son to save us. And we would all say, amen. However, our need of this gift is ongoing. It's ever present. It's every day, every hour, every moment. We need this gift. all the time that God has promised to us. This gift of His Son. This knowledge that the Son has gone to the cross in your place. He's given His life that you might have life. As you read and as you think through this short letter or any of the New Testament writings, make yourself alert to the many references to Christ's work for us, especially his death on the cross. This ought to mark your thinking all the time. Listen, notice what Paul did with this. Chapter one in this very book, verse seven, in him we have redemption through his blood. That's the cross. That's his death. His substitutionary atonement. We could go make other references in chapter two, we see it again in verse 13. We have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Verse 16, reconciling both the God and one body through the cross. Chapter three, verse six, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ through the gospel. What's central to the gospel? Christ crucified, Christ shedding his blood, Christ dying in behalf of others. You can trace this out throughout the book. In verse eight, he spoke again of the unsearchable riches of Christ. Does that not certainly include his death? In your place, in my place, in the place of sinful people throughout the ages. We already mentioned it in verse 11 with that word accomplished in Christ, in his prayer in the last half of chapter three, that to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." What is this love of Christ? We talk about its height and width and depth and length. It's His, at the very least, His death on the cross. Certainly it encompasses all His work. But central to that is death in our behalf. Chapter 4. You've got to look for these things. You've got to pay attention to them. You've got to make yourself think about them. Chapter four, verse five, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. What's the issue in baptism at the very least? It's my union with Christ and my identification with Christ in his death. And certainly in his in his very own resurrection. But he's bringing the centrality the death of Christ to bear over and over and over and over in His instruction. So far, up to the end of chapter 5, where I've preached in this book so far, at least 14 times in those brief, short words, He's made reference to the death of Christ on the cross in their behalf. This was not incidental to Paul. He would not allow it to be incidental to the churches. And it must not be incidental, but of the fabric of your very being. That you bring. The greatness of God, the greatness of your salvation. the greatness of the goal of your salvation to this fine point that Jesus Christ went to the cross in your behalf. Nothing will move you to pursue the radical call of discipleship. of obedience, like thinking and meditating upon Christ on the cross. We must never lose this. You must hang on to this. You must look for this. Christ died for you. And that makes all the difference and gives you all the reason to pursue His will every day, all the way, in every aspect of your life. Now, lest you think I'm getting carried away Will you look at one more verse? Turn to chapter 5 and verse 1. Therefore, remind you of Romans 12, 1. Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also loved us, has loved us and given himself for us. an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. That's the stench of tortured Christ on a Roman cross bearing the wrath of God poured out that we all deserve. And it provided that we receive pardon. justification, cleansing of the conscience, mercy, reconciliation, and the hope of eternal life. May God give us grace to grasp