Well, today we will continue our series, our new series in the book of Ephesians, or the letter of Ephesians. So if you have a Bible, you can turn there, Paul's letter to the Ephesians. So last Sunday we began this series and we'll be going through the whole letter of Ephesians. It will probably take us about a year to go through the whole letter. But before we look at today's passage in Ephesians, Have you ever been in a discussion with someone and at some point in the discussion you realize, you know, you're talking about something and initially you thought you're talking about the same thing and suddenly, the more and more you talk, you're like, wait a minute, I think we're talking about two different things, you know, you might be talking about a person, like, I don't know, John, and you both, oh yeah, I know John, I know John, and at first, okay, yeah, John is from And then the more details in your discussion, at some point you're like, no, wait a minute, no, this is different, John. It's not the same person. You're using the same word. whether it's John or some word to describe something else. But at some point in the conversation, you realize that what you mean with that word is two different things, whether it's two different people or two different ideas or whatever. And I've certainly been in that kind of situations where at some point I was like, wait a minute, we're talking about different things. As I mentioned even earlier, in our society there are words that are being purposefully completely redefined. Words like marriage, it's completely redefined to mean something that it meant before it no longer means. Or manhood or womanhood or things like this. But there are also religious words or Christian words which to some degree there are a lot of misunderstandings and also kind of redefinitions, unbiblical redefinitions of certain words. And today we'll be looking at a few of those. So today's sermon I entitled Apostle Saints and the One True God. And there's three different kind of categories that people understand wrongly in different situations. Are there apostles still today or are there not? And what is a saint? What makes a person a saint? Are there saints still today or were there just in the past? What's the idea of a saint? Because you might be talking even with someone and use the word apostle, How does the Bible define the word Saint? And most importantly, how does the Bible define who the one true God is? because that's for sure you know you can talk with a lot of people and you might say oh yeah I believe in God or they might even say I believe in Jesus and then you discuss for a while and you start asking questions so who is this Jesus well Jesus is the brother of or Jesus is another name for Michael the Archangel and he was of who Jesus is. And because, you know, it's one thing to misunderstand what an apostle is or what a saint is, but especially about God, when we're talking about Jesus and God defining who it is, it is important that we understand who the one true God is. It's not enough to just use sane words and just assume that everyone defines it the same way. And if we have the wrong idea of God, you know, it's a question of heaven and hell, life and death. It's the most important thing in all the universe for us to get right. But before we get to that, we will begin with thinking about the question of an apostle. So, let me read first Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 1. And just to kind of, for us to get the context, I'll read until Verse 14, Ephesians 1, beginning at verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to a counsel of his will, so that we who were the first Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 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, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. Just as a side note, all of that which I read In Paul, when he wrote the fish, it's one sentence. So he doesn't stop to breathe in between. You know, it might be even just breathing. Like, there's just so much content. Well, we'll get to that in future sermons. But yeah, it's kind of Paul getting carried away with praising God and God for his greatness. But what we'll be looking at today is verses one and two. So it's kind of the introduction. the part that is basically the same almost in all of Paul's letters. And still today, if you write a letter to someone, you probably, depending a little bit on your country, there might be different practices. But in Finland, if you write it, you know, maybe put like, Dear Miska. And then, you know, that's who it's addressed to. And we usually then put all the way at the end, you know, so you have to read the whole letter and then there is, you know, whoever wrote it, you know. greetings from Jere or something you know and so there's a different practice but but back then the practice was that you would not only say who it is for but also even before that who it is who's writing and that's why Paul identifies himself right at the beginning of the letter and you know I want to restate everything I said last time, but you know, but Paul is the writer and even though this is questioned in a lot of kind of liberal Bible schools today, they say, oh, Paul didn't really write Ephesians. Well, Paul did write Ephesians and there's good reasons for that. Church history bears witness to that and the text itself says Paul. And there's no reason to not believe that Paul wrote it. But Paul, he as the author so what is he what is this guy Paul exactly what does he mean when he says that he is an apostle an apostle of Christ Jesus what does it mean to be an apostle well the word apostle simply means someone who is sent so basically an ambassador you know someone who's been sent by a king or some high official and represents him so the apostles selected and gave them authority to do great miraculous works and to proclaim the gospel and to represent him. That is an apostle, someone who's been sent by someone. So, in a general sense, yes, there can be apostles and there might be a lot of apostles. and they can still be apostles today, in some ways, than someone who's been sent by someone else. If we, for example, send someone from our church, well, we have postal service now, but say, okay, Jere, you need to take this letter to somewhere in England, to another church, and you function as our representative, you function as our messenger. Take our message to them. You know, and in that, in a little way, you could say, yeah, that's an apostle, a messenger, someone who's been sent. So in that sense, sure, there can be all kinds of apostles, and there can be all kinds of apostles throughout history and still today. But that's not how, generally speaking, that's certainly not, in most cases, how the New Testament uses the word. And even as Christians, when we speak of an apostle, Here we mean someone who has an authority, someone who's been appointed by Jesus himself. And that's why it says, not just an Apostle, but an Apostle of Christ Jesus. An Apostle of Christ Jesus. And these kind of Apostles, like capital A Apostles, so to say, the Apostles, these kind of Apostles, there are none today, and there cannot be. And there hasn't been after the Apostle Paul. And the reason for that is that there are certain qualifications that make one an apostle of Christ Jesus. And it could be said that there's these three qualifications. Number one, that this person has to have been directly chosen by Jesus Christ himself. Not just in some spiritual way as, oh, every believer is chosen. No, directly in the flesh, Jesus chose and appointed did with his 12 disciples. And as we read in Mark 3 verse 14, Mark 3 verse 14, and there's many passages that we could turn to, but I wanted for us to turn to one passage regarding each qualification. This is when Jesus appoints the 12 apostles, and verse 14, and he says, and he appointed 12, whom he also named apostles, so that they might be with him, and he might send them out to preach, and have authority to cast out demons. And he appointed the 12, and then he gives the list of the names. So here we see that to be an apostle of Jesus Christ is not something that a person himself does not just, you know, I'm going to be an apostle of Jesus, I appoint, you know, I appoint myself as an apostle. No, no, no, you can't do that. Jesus was the one who appointed and chose these twelve and he then named them and called them apostles. So you have to be directly appointed by Jesus himself. part of God's plan, and then later Paul. And Paul is in that sense a unique situation because you might say, well, how was Paul? Paul wasn't part of the original. He wasn't appointed then. Well, let's see now. I've got too many references that I want to go through now. Oh yeah, 1 Corinthians 15. Sorry. 1 Corinthians 15. So here, Paul, kind of as a side note, speaks about himself and how he came to see the risen Christ. He speaks about the importance of Jesus rising from the dead. He talks about how he appeared to Cephas and all the twelve apostles. In 1 Corinthians 15 verse 6 Paul says this, Judas had been, of course, replaced at that time. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. And then verse 7, then he appeared to James and then to all the apostles. Verse 8, last of all, last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God." So, Paul is kind of in a unique situation as he says himself, he was one of the And if you know Paul's story, he hated Christians and he had Christians killed before he himself became a Christian. And he became a Christian by Jesus himself coming and appearing to him after his resurrection. Even after his ascension, Jesus came and appeared uniquely to the Apostle Paul. And so even though Paul was not a witness of the original resurrection of Christ, he was kind of chosen by Jesus himself, he was chosen afterwards when Jesus appeared to him. And notice what Paul says, last of all, last of all. So after Jesus had appeared to all these other people, The last one to whom Jesus appeared in his resurrected body was to the Apostle Paul, and he appointed him to be an apostle. And that brings us to another qualification. of an apostle. So you have to be chosen directly by Jesus himself. And also you have to be an eyewitness of the resurrected Christ. An eyewitness of the resurrected Christ. So if we turn in Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1 verse 22. We see that As they were, you know, Judas had betrayed Christ and as they were seeking for someone to replace him, one of the qualifications of an apostle is given to us is here in Acts chapter 1 verse 22. It says that Beginning in verse 22, it says, Beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection. Notice that, one of these men who had been with them and seen Christ and seen his resurrection, one of these men, when they were choosing an apostle, has to become a witness to his resurrection. So that's another qualification that the apostle had to be a witness of Jesus' resurrection. Not just a witness as in a person who believes in Jesus' resurrection, because that's what all Christians are. Of course, and I'm a witness to Jesus' resurrection in the sense that I believe, you know, that happened and every Christian believes that. But I'm not a witness in the sense that I haven't seen the resurrected Christ. I have not. so but an apostle had to see that and Paul again he was not part of the original but he saw and he was the last one to see the resurrected Christ as he said in first Corinthians 15 verse 8 to Paul and appointed him to be an apostle. And that's the kind of, because you might say, why are you talking about this? Like, of course there are no apostles today. There are Christian churches and movements who claim to have apostles still today. There's sometimes even in Finland, there's some speaker from, you know, wherever, an apostle such and such is coming to speak. There's a whole movement called the New Apostolic Reformation is to have revived the office of an apostle, and they call themselves apostles, this and this and that, you know. And they completely, of course, neglect these biblical qualifications of what an apostle is. But that's why it's important first to understand what is a true apostle. An apostle in the biblical sense, an apostle of Christ Jesus, with a big A, so to say, big apostle, is one who has been chosen directly by Jesus himself, And he's an eyewitness to the resurrected Christ, which no one has been after Apostle Paul, which means there cannot be any today. And the third one is that an apostle needs to perform signs of an apostle, miraculous workings, have miraculous gifts, the sign of an apostle. And to this, I want us to turn to 2 Corinthians Chapter 12, verse 12. As Paul speaks to the Corinthians, and kind of as a side note, he says this. In 2 Corinthians 12, verse 12, he says, Already in Paul's time there were people claiming to be apostles who were not true apostles, they were false apostles. And there are still people today and throughout history to some degree there have been different people who claim to be apostles. But Paul says one of the qualifications is of a true apostle, the sign of a true apostle. were performed with signs and wonders and mighty works. So there's great miraculous healings and great miracles happen. And these were real miracles, real healings, real there's a lot of Christian circles there, it's all kind of whatever, such and such faith healer, you know, Benny Hinn is in town, come and get your healing, whoever, you know, Reinhard Bonnke, or some of these who most of them preach a false gospel, a false message, which does not glorify God at all, and these so-called miracles which happen are not real miracles. You know, you just look it up. It's just like, you know, at the best, best, oh, my back hurts a little bit. Oh, now it's feeling better. And then a week ago, a week after, you know, the back is still as, you know, hurtful, or they've died, or whatever. It's, you know, it's questionable at the best. And it dishonors the true work of the Holy Spirit. Because when the Holy Spirit, through the apostles, and through Jesus, and in the Old Testament, when God does miracles, He actually does miracles. walk like real supernatural miracles. So when there's people today, which there are a lot of Christians even who claim that these so-called, you know, miracles and so-called things are real, which at the best, you know, are, you know, pretty much laughable and even, you know, non-believers see that and Christians, if they're in their right mind, see that it's all false. You know, it dishonors God and it dishonors the true work of the Holy Spirit. But when the apostles did miracles, they actually did real miracles. When Jesus did miracles, he actually did real miracles. And no one could argue. It was not just about, oh, did that foot get a little bit longer? You know, whatever, this kind of street trickery. Or did your back heal? No, no. It's like, oh, that guy, he didn't have a hand. Now he has a hand. Or he was smelling it. His eyes were like broken completely and now he sees like real organic miracles, not just something, oh I feel a little bit, my headache is a little bit better. So Paul says that this is one of the signs of a true apostle, of a true apostle, that they performed signs and wonders and mighty works. And that's what the apostles did. And if you read the book of Acts, they did real miracles. And the question then is also, you know, people and even Christians, well, if that happened then, it should happen now, you know. Why doesn't it happen today? Well, if you even read the Bible, it hasn't always happened. It's happened in specific times of history. Most of the Old Testament, you know, there was not any miracles happening. In most of the New Testament, in some ways, there's no miracles happening, because in most of the letters, miracles happening. They were happening for a specific purpose at a specific time. Jesus did miracles because he proved who he was. And the apostles did miracles. Why? Jesus had given the apostles authority to preach the gospel and to edify the church and write, you know, the scriptures which we now have and all the rest. And so how would people know these are the true apostles from the fake ones? They did real miracles and you could see them. And they preached the real message. So there was a reason for it. The reason was not just that, you know, God is always doing miracles all the time. He was giving witness to the message that was being preached. There was a purpose for it. They were signs so that people would see. And then after people have seen and they know that, yeah, this is the true God and this is the true message. Now we have that message. Last time we talked or I preached on the but specifically as we look at Ephesians, it's a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote and we still have it 2,000 years later and learn from it. So there is no need for these miraculous gifts anymore because there is no need for the message to be conferred in the same way it was conferred and now we have it inscripturated and Jesus himself said in that story he told about the rich man Lazarus from the dead. So if you do not believe scripture, if you do not believe when the gospel message is proclaimed to you, you would not believe it even if you saw a real bonafide miracle. Just like people did not, most people did not believe it when Jesus rose from the dead or when he did miraculous works. So now uses and works, and he convicts men and women of their sin and opens their eyes to see the truth of the gospel. But, yeah, I got kind of a little bit carried away, but that's what a true apostle is, chosen directly by Jesus himself, and is a witness to the resurrection of Christ. And Paul was the last one, as he says in 1 Corinthians 15a, and then that the apostles, the true apostles, perform true signs and wonders and mighty works, true supernatural And that's how you could tell an apostle from something who is not an apostle. So anyone who today claims to be an apostle of Jesus or claims to be an apostle of Christ, you know, Well, if they want to completely redefine, you know, they want, okay, I'm a messenger, you know, in some ways, I guess, yeah, you can say as a Christian, you're a messenger of Jesus, you're, you know, you're telling his message. So in some little way, you can say you're an apostle, but when these people use the term apostle, they use it as a kind of, that there is something special and they have certificates and as far as I understand you can even buy these online on their website or whatever, you can get in the school of apostles, whatever. And that's all false and that's all wrong and that's misusing the Word of God to somehow boost up men and give men some supposed authority which has not been given to them by God. And even here we see in verse 1, as Paul says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God. Notice, by the will of God. Paul did not appoint himself as an apostle. Paul did not appoint himself as some, you know, apostle on his own. Christ did, by the will of God. That's how all the apostles were appointed by Christ himself. And that should be still today, even as a kind of talking about pastors. Pastors should not appoint themselves as pastors. I just want to be a pastor. I just want to start a church. Come on. I want to be something special. No. men to that but he then uses the church other believers around to confirm that okay yes I think I think you're the man for the job you know you teaches the Bible you teach us to well we can understand we see your life we see that you follow the qualifications of in first Timothy and yes you should be a pastor and and the other believers confirm that call Because this again happens a lot in Christian circles. Someone wants to just be something and appoints themselves as something. And that's again wrong. We should not be seeking to uplift ourselves and appoint ourselves to anything. But if we've been called to that, whether Paul as an apostle, he courageously did the work that Christ called him to, And even still today, whether it's a pastor or something else, we should do that faithfully. But not to somehow appoint ourselves. But others will confirm it. So, a true apostle. And that's what Paul was. And he was writing with apostolic authority. And that's what it is. An apostle has authority. and the writings in the New Testament, the way we kind of even know, okay, what should be in the New Testament is that it was written by apostles or apostles' associates, so it was all written under apostolic authority. And Jesus had given this authority to the apostles and had promised that the New Testament would come into existence when the Holy Spirit So when people today claim to be some apostle, they're trying to give themselves some more authority which has not been given to them by God. And instead, what we should do, and what God calls But this Word, the Word of God, has God's authority, and He has apostolic authority, which is God's authority. And when this Word is rightly preached, it is authoritative over you, and over me, and over everyone. So you should not believe anything just because He says it, but if it is, if you say, yeah, I can see it there in the text, I can see what He says is true because I can read it here in the Bible, then, yeah, that's authoritative, that's binding on your life, that's God's Word that you have to give an account to. That's the apostolic Word which continues and needs to be preached. briefly, okay, what is a saint then? That's another thing like, you know, and maybe even more, especially if you talk with, well, whoever, you know, non-Christians or atheists or other people use the word saint, and people use it in different ways, you know. I guess most often people say that, you know, oh, he's such a saint or I'm not a saint or something, and they mean a person who somehow morally You think you're a saint? You know, you're telling me I can't do this? Are you a saint? You know, are you some perfect person? So that's how many people think about the word saint. And then also there is, for example, the Roman Catholic Church has official saints, and they appoint people. So, you know, usually all of them are dead because they only appoint them as saints afterwards, but, you know, throughout church history or, you know, if I remember rightly what mother Teresa is now a saint like officially according to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church and The idea and then they have some weird qualifications some miracle had to have happened with a saint and basically But long should long story short. There's only not not every Christian for sure is not a saint. There's this individuals who somehow raced so high, like Mother Teresa, even though there's a lot of questionable things about her life, but, you know, somehow did something moral, excellent, and then the Church pronounces them as saints. And then we think that a saint is someone who has like a halo around their head. But all of those ideas are against what the Bible speaks about when it talks about saints. The word saint means holy, set apart. And when Paul uses the word saint, and as he says, he notices, he says, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Paul is not saying, oh, you know, say there's 60 of you, there's three of you, those saints, you know, I send greetings to them, the ones in the corner, the ones that have their heads glowing, the ones that are somehow special. No, he's saying, he might as well say, to the Christians who are in Ephesus. To those who have turned from their sin and trust in Jesus Christ who are in Ephesus. To those who belong to Jesus Christ who are in Ephesus. You know, saint, that's what it means. Saint is someone who has repented of their sins realize that there's a holy God who hates all evil and all wrong and recognize that they themselves have sinned against this holy God and they come to God confessing their sins before Him and asking for forgiveness and trusting in Jesus Christ alone. Jesus Christ alone who is the one who is able to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So no one is born a saint, and I can testify. I have three little boys. None of them, at least, have been born as saints, even though they might be cute at times. And if you have kids, you'll quickly learn they're not born as saints. No one is born a saint in any way. And I was, of course, using a little bit different way the word saint there. But even in the spiritual way, no one is born a saint. And no one becomes a saint by some of their own words, like, you know, I'm going money there and I'm gonna start an orphanage and all this and whoo maybe I'm a saint now those great things you know do it if you can but that won't make you a saint the only thing that makes a person a saint is turning from your sin and trusting in Jesus Christ alone trusting in him alone that is what makes a person a That's what a true saint is. That's what a Roman Catholic idea of sainthood is wrong and unbiblical. That's why the kind of society's flippant idea of saints is wrong. And I know I've said this before in other messages when the word saint comes up, but I want to mention it. And in that sense, it is, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you are a saint. You are a saint. I'm a saint. Not because of what I have done. If I would get what I deserve, it's eternal judgment and hell. The wrath of God against me and my sins. That's the only thing I deserve. That's the only thing you deserve. But I'm a saint because Jesus Christ, the righteous one, died for the unrighteous. His goodness is given to me because by faith in Him, I'm counted righteous. And that's how a person becomes a saint. There's nothing to boast about. There's not a saint who boasts and hasn't understood why he's a saint. And Paul certainly did not boast. But he says to the saints, to the Holy One in Ephesus. And these believers, again, briefly, I said a few words last time about Ephesus, but there's a few things I did not get to get to say, which I wanted to say, well, Ephesus, you know, was a very, the church in Ephesus was a very strong church. And it was most likely started by Priscilla and Aquila, if I remember correctly. And then a few years later, Paul himself, so the Apostle Paul, spent chapter 19 when Paul was in Ephesus and a lot of things happened in Ephesus and great miracles were done by Apostle Paul and other things but then there's also most of the time what Paul actually did so he basically pastored this church for three years in Ephesus and in Acts Chapter 19, verse 8, it says this. It talks about Paul's time in Ephesus. It says, And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks." So Paul spent from what we know, three years roughly in Ephesus. And what did he do most of the time, especially if, as he says, he continued for two years? He took his disciples. So Paul, you know, there were people who had become believers whom he was basically training to become future leaders, leaders in the church of Ephesus and probably in other places also. So there were men daily in the hall of Tyrannus, sort of place there. Daily he would be, you know, teaching them and they would be discussing and basically what we see here is we see the first Christian seminary established, first Christian Bible school. 12, and he was in Bible school. But, you know, I'm saying kind of tongue-in-cheek, but in some ways, that's what a seminary, a good, right seminary should be, preparing men to become pastors and teaching them. And that's what Paul was doing in Ephesus. he really invested in them and taught them for two years. And that's why the church in Ephesus was also then very strong and very healthy because they have strong leadership that Paul the Apostle had taught and trained for two years and over. And that's why then, as I said last time, you know, Ephesians is kind of a positive letter in that sense, that there doesn't seem to be any clear problem. They didn't have any clear problem that Paul is addressing. Most of the letters that Paul wrote to churches in the New Testament, they had some issue going on, some clear sin or something, and he just, he had to write to correct something. But Paul, when he was writing to the Ephesians, there wasn't as clear a purpose, so he was kind of from a positive point of view, just reminding them of God's blessing and how Christians should live and all the different challenges of a Christian life. So the Ephesians, we see in that sense also, because Paul didn't have anything clear to criticize, they were doing really well. And I'm sure it was because Paul had trained these leaders so well. And that's why still today, you know, I spent three years in America studying in seminars. Great blessing to me. It was a dream come true. And of course, you know, schools are more organized now. There's tuition and other things that you don't just sit in a marketplace with Apostle Paul for two years, you know. But the same idea should be. real truth from the Bible being taught to especially faithful men who can then become pastors, but also in different contexts, also to women who can teach Sunday school or teach other women in other contexts. But especially that the leadership of the church would be grounded in the word of God, so that they can then help the church be grounded in the word of God. But, it's interesting, another thing about Ephesus, is that this letter of Ephesians, which we're looking at, is not the last letter they would get. 30 years after they got this letter, they would get a letter from Jesus Christ himself, in the book of Revelation. Let's return to Revelation chapter 2. Revelation chapter 2. In the beginning of the book of Revelation, there's these letters that are from Jesus himself, who's the head of the church. And he sends to different churches in Asia Minor. And one of them is the church in Ephesus. And this is roughly 30 years after Paul brought Ephesians. So think about this. Paul basically pastored a church for three years, strengthened its leadership, a very healthy church. Then years after that, they get the letter of Ephesians. Everything is well in the church of Ephesus and they're a very strong, model church. 30 years later, what has happened? Is everything still okay? No. And this is not just Paul writing at this point or someone else, this is Jesus himself through the Apostle John writing to the church in Ephesus. And he says to them, I won't read the whole thing, but in Revelation chapter 2 verse 5 he says, well, let me read it from verse 4. But I have this against you. So Jesus has first said there's good things, you know, if you stand against false teaching and you're strong in your witness and all that. But there's one thing, there's one thing that Jesus himself has against this church in Ephesus. I have this against you. That you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. If not, if you won't repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. Yet this you have, you hate the words of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is the paradise of God. Jesus himself writes to the Ephesian church, and what does he say? First he says, you know, I know you're patient. And think again, Ephesians was a model church. They had the right doctrine. They hated false teaching, which Jesus said, it's good. It's good you hate false. It's good you hate what is false, like the Nicolaitans, which were some false teachers of that age. And they were very strong in their doctrine, and they were a model church in many ways. But there's one thing, 30 years later, which they were missing, and Jesus says, you've left your first love. Your first love, they've grown cold. And Jesus says, you need to repent. You need to confess your sins. You need to return back to how you started. And if you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. And the idea of lampstand is the witness of the church. There are many churches throughout history and still today who have been faithful churches in the beginning, but at some point, whether it took 30 years or 300 years, They lost, whether in doctrine or in their love to Christ, and they lost their witness, and Christ, the head of the church, takes the lampstand away. that church or with that church and is not glorified in that church. The witness of the church has been taken away because they would not repent of their sin. And as we think of Ephesians as a whole, that's warning for us also, and maybe Paul even, even though he did not address anything very specific in his letter to them, maybe Paul even had a little bit of a hint about this, that I know this church is so good, they're so strong, and they're doing so well, but I am afraid that they will lose their love toward Christ. And maybe that's one of the reasons even why he wrote Ephesians, just to kind of strengthen them even more and remind them of God's greatness and how all these blessings that are ours in God, that the church would be grounded and not drift away. And granted, it took 30 years, 30 years very faithful, but then for some reason they drifted away and Jesus was calling them to repent. And that's a warning for us as a church, That's a warning for us as individuals, that just because we might be doing well now, and we're just a little tiny church here in the eyes of the world, we're pitiful and nothing, but we seek to be faithful to God and do what He has called us to do as a church of the Lord Jesus Christ. But even if we might be doing things well now and be faithful to Him, and if Paul brought the letter to us, you know, maybe even if it wouldn't be too critical, there's a danger that 30 years later, or 15 years later, or 5 years later, there'd be another letter that would be critical. And that should be a reminder to us, as the New Testament calls us, that the one who stands, take heed, lest he fall. So even though we might be doing spiritually well, We need to always be on guard and to know that there's many ways to go off the tracks. There are churches who go off track that they start teaching wrong things, teaching wrong doctrine, and many of the other churches that Christ writes to in the book of Revelation had that problem. There are many churches that have moral problems, sexual sin, immoral faith, whatever sin is just rampant in the church. Problems like that. But then there are also churches who might have right doctrine, right practice, but they lose their true love toward Christ. That's what the Ephesian church had done in the later on, 30 years later after Ephesian. And that is a danger that we all need to be aware of. and daily repentable sin and turn to Christ and to believe and trust in Him. And even if we found ourselves in that situation, like Jesus said, the solution is to repent. The solution is to confess your sins to God. Last, and this will be brief, the last verse 2 here says this, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So I said people have, you know, wrong ideas about what apostles are, people have wrong ideas about saints. But even if you have a wrong idea of those, it pales in insignificance compared to if you have a wrong idea of the one true God. You might use the word God, you might say the word Jesus, but if you define Him, if your understanding of Him is different than what the Bible presents God to be, it's life and death, it's eternity in heaven and hell. Because without the one true God, there is no salvation. And there is only one true God. And what we see here is that God is not just a generic some God, but He's very specific. He's the God. He's from our God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. So there are people who might use the word God, and, oh, I believe in God, but do you believe in the God of Scripture? No, no, no, no. Well, no, that's the only true God that there exists. Everything else is dead. And, you know, we come up with their own idea of God. But God has revealed himself through the prophets to Moses, the patriarchs, then Jesus, and then the apostles to us. And this God is a very specific God. He is the God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. And notice this, and I've said this before when there's other passages, because Paul at every letter he says basically the same thing, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice here, so he says grace and peace from God. Grace is unmerited favour, unmerited favour which only comes from God. a nice peace feeling, but peace as in having our sins forgiven as we were once enemies of God and now we're children of God. We have peace with God. Peace and grace only come from God. I cannot give you grace. I cannot give you peace, true peace. You cannot give me grace. You cannot give me true peace. It only comes from God. You know, God can use other people to bring peace into our life, and be a blessing, and grace, all that. But, ultimately, it only comes from God. And you may say, okay, yeah, whatever, I understand, it comes from God. Yes, but the important point is here. He says, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. What is Paul doing here? He says, God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. He puts them side by side as the same source. Grace and peace only come from God and the Lord Jesus Christ, meaning that the Lord Jesus Christ is God. He is divine. He is deity. Jesus Christ is God. spirit. And if you cannot fully comprehend that, join the club. You know, I cannot fully comprehend it. I cannot fully comprehend that God has always existed. But this is a very important thing because, again, there are movements and, you know, whether it's Mormons or Jehovah's Witness or Oneness Pentecostals, you know, or some people who deny and say that Jesus Christ is not God. They say that Jesus is something created by God, just like Michael the Archangel. That is flat out false. And that kind of belief about God will lead a person into eternal hell, because it is the wrong God. Again, as I began this whole thing, you might have a discussion with someone, It's not the same John. The more you start knowing about what this other person says John is, you realize, no, that's not the John I know. So you know you're talking about two different things. On the surface, it looks like, and they might even have the same name, you know, my friend Daniel Stevens, you know, apparently a Christian author called Daniel Stevens. And I wrote to Daniel, you've written a new book. And he's like, what? I didn't know there was a Christian author called Daniel Stevens. And not just Daniel Stevens, Daniel J. Stevens. But the idea is you could have the same name and do different people. And people speak about the Lord Jesus Christ. But then you start asking, who is this Jesus? Oh, no, wait a minute. No, no, that's not the biblical Jesus. And that's why it's so important for us to understand that the one true God is our God and Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And to have a wrong understanding of Christ, if we do not truly have the Son, as 1 John says, we do not have the Father. The Biblical Jesus, not just the letters Jesus which speak for something else, but the Biblical Jesus who is God. If we do not believe in Him, we do not have salvation, and we do not have peace with God. And I want to read just a few verses to end here from Romans chapter 5, which speak about God's peace. So Paul, in Ephesians, he says, grace to you and peace, and he doesn't obviously elaborate more, but in other places, for example in Romans, he talks about what peace with God means. And this is the background, this is the understanding that you, when Paul says grace to you and peace, it should remind us of our peace with God through Jesus Christ. And he says in Romans 5, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, Though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die, but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more now we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. That's how you get peace with God. And without that, you're an enemy of God. You're an enemy of God. However nice you might be, however well you might do in life, without trusting in Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior and Lord, you remain under the judgment and anger of God. But the good news is, by faith in Him, you belong to Him. And that's why it's so important for us to have the right understanding of this Jesus, of this Savior. Because if we just use the letters and define Him as something else, we do not have this salvation and this peace that only comes from Him. So let us pray. Our Father, we thank You for this time together. We thank You for the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Head of the Church. as he even wrote to the Ephesian church in the book of Revelation. Lord, help us, help us to be on guard in our personal life and as a church, that we might never fall away and that, let us be careful in our day-to-day life that we might be quick to turn away from sin and to confess our sins to you and to know that in Jesus Christ our sins are forgiven and that you're faithful and just to forgive us all of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, the true Lord Jesus Christ, as he is revealed in the scriptures in the New Testament. We thank you for this time together. We pray that you bless us in our week ahead. Help us to be faithful to you and trust in you in all things. We pray this in Jesus' name and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We have one more song to sing.