From Greenville, South Carolina, we present Let the Bible Speak. Let the Bible Speak is the radio ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America, preaching Christ in all His fullness. Once again, we count it a privilege to welcome you to another broadcast of Let the Bible Speak, featuring the recorded messages of Dr. Alan Cairns, Minister Emeritus of Faith Free Presbyterian Church in Greenville, South Carolina. Today, Dr. Cairns continues his series of studies explaining the basic teachings of each of the books in the New Testament. The focus in this message is Paul's epistle to the Ephesians. In introducing the message, Dr. Cairns characterizes Ephesians as the deepest and most sublime of all the letters Paul wrote. It seems to leave off where Romans ended, focusing on the Christian's position with Christ in heaven. Its main emphasis is upon the Church as the Body of Christ. The spiritual depths of Ephesians are beyond human understanding. Yet it is full of light and glory, demonstrating the victorious faith of the Apostle, even though he was confined in a Roman dungeon. It is a glowing testimony to the victory of grace through faith in Christ. In just a few minutes, Dr. Cairns will begin this overview of Ephesians under the title, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ. Before he comes, we invite you to enjoy this brief devotional thought found in Faith's Checkbook, a collection from the writings of the great 19th century English preacher, C.H. Spurgeon. Our devotional for today is entitled, The Overcomer's Reward. The text is found in Revelation 2, verse 17. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. My heart, be thou stirred up to persevere in the holy war, for the reward of victory is great. Today we eat of heavenly food, which falls about our camps. the food of the wilderness, the food which comes from heaven, the food which never fails the pilgrims to Canaan. But there is reserved for us in Christ Jesus a still higher degree of spiritual life, and a food for it which, as yet, is hidden from our experience. In the golden pot which was laid up in the ark there was a portion of manna hidden away, which, though kept for ages, never grew stale. No one ever saw it. It was hid with the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. Even so, the highest life of the believer is hid with Christ in God. We shall come to it soon. Being made victorious through the grace of our Lord Jesus, we shall eat of the King's meat and feed upon royal dainties. We shall feed upon Jesus. He is our hidden manna, as well as the manna of the wilderness. He is all in all to us in our highest, as well as in our lowest estate. He helps us to fight, gives us the victory, and then is himself our reward. Lord, help me to overcome. He who began this great work anew, Will nurture and lead as he sending would do, With a humble voice love to his word have been true. so for the look in his eyes, and for the crown that will not fade away. Forget things behind. Reach farther ahead. Oh, follow the Savior's example instead. Count all gain as God's loss, And all loss as God's gain, To know Him our glory are all. Be not ashamed with boldness pursued, Proclaim His great word. Be consumed in His love. Pursue Him alone until within. He cries for the look in his eyes and for the crown that will not fail. ♪ Tell the Savior take them all instead ♪ ♪ That all gain has but loss and all loss has but gain ♪ ♪ To know Him, to know Him, to know Him, to know Him ♪ It was a number of years ago that Dr. Alan Cairns preached these messages in which he explains the teaching of each of the New Testament books. These messages let you get a grasp of the heart of the New Testament's teaching and show you how relevant it is to your life in the modern world. This series was published in a book entitled A Sure Foundation, a book which tells you how to live in the light of the gospel, in the freedom of faith and not in the gloom of guilt and frustration. This is not another how-to book of self-help tips. Its constant theme is the acceptance believers have with God because of the imputation of Christ's righteousness to them, which is the heart of the gospel. Let the Bible Speak has obtained a limited number of copies of this publication. and we're happy to make them available to our listening audience. The price for each copy of Assure Foundation is $10, which includes shipping. You may have a copy by sending your check for $10 made out to Let The Bible Speak. 2 Let the Bible Speak, 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, SC 29615. Again, supplies of Assure Foundation are very limited. Be sure to request your copy today. you Returning this morning to Ephesians chapter 1, as we continue to take a one-week look at each of the epistles, Ephesians chapter 1, verse 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. Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. in 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 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 also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated 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. in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. Wherefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. and 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. and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all." Amen. The Lord will add His own blessing to this very familiar passage from His own precious Word, for His name's sake. In chapter 3 and verse 8 of Ephesians, there's an expression which I don't want to take so much as a text as what Dr. Bob Jones, Jr. often calls a pretext for a preacher. That is, it's a little expression that seems to me in many ways to sum up the meandrift of the epistle to the Ephesians. Ephesians 3, verse 8, at the very end of the verse we have the expression, the unsearchable riches of Christ. And I would hope as we go through this epistle this morning that we'll see why Paul used such an expression, and that we've come to understand something of the unsearchable riches of the Lord Jesus Christ. The city of Ephesus was a very important city, the capital of pro-consular Asia, or what we are more likely, though not exactly, to term Asia Minor. Ephesus was, in many ways, like the city of Athens. It had borrowed many features from the Greek capital. was a center of culture, a city of architecture, and it was noted for its literature, its arts, and its learning. It was the site of one of the seven great wonders of the ancient world, the temple of the goddess Diana, as she is called in scripture, or the fertility goddess. But the worship of Diana brought a lot more than architecture to the city of Ephesus. The temple, at least in one part of it, became Asia's most secure bank. Many rich men, many great rulers felt it safe there to store their gold and their gems and their worldly acquisitions. It also was the center of a bustling trade, as Paul was to find out when he went to that city. There was, as now, a great number of people who would be willing to spend great amounts of money on all sorts of gadgets religious. And so there was a bustling trade around the temple of Diana, And then, like all heathen worship, the temple of Diana brought to the city unspeakable lewdness, wickedness, immorality, vice, and sin cloaked under the cloak of religion, its rites, and its ceremonies. That was the city. Now, the church in Ephesus was the fruit of Paul's missionary labors. His first visit there was extremely brief, but he did a very wise thing. He left behind him the able witness of Aquila and Priscilla. When Apollos came to that city, these two converts of Paul were able to lead him into the full knowledge of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Apollos carried on the work which Paul had seen begun, but it had to leave in its infancy. When Paul returned there, he spent three years of concentrated evangelistic effort and church-building endeavor. to use his own words. When he came there, he found a great door and effectual opened unto him. He found tremendous opportunity, and he burned himself out, as it were, day by day, working with his hands and yet preaching the gospel. A great door was opened. But, as he also said, there were many adversaries. As Paul labored, He saw the Lord do great things. His preaching was mightily blessed. Many souls were saved and a strong church was established. But he not only saw God bless, as he preached he saw the devil raised to fury. And so hot was the conflict that he could testify that it was like fighting with wild beasts in Ephesus. The craftsmen who made their fat living out of the worship of Diana stirred up a riot against him, but they all together failed to stop the movement of the Spirit of God and the blessing that was on the work in Ephesus. And so this church was formed. became a center of eminent piety and church purity and faithfulness to Jesus Christ. And it was to this church that Paul addressed this letter. Well, at least in part. I don't want to get into dry academic discussion, but in verse 1, the words in Ephesus are some of the most hotly controverted words in the Greek text of the New Testament. Some manuscripts have them, some don't have them. And when you look at all the evidence, you can only come to the conclusion that what we have in the words in Ephesus is a copy of the manuscript that was sent to Ephesus. But this was not so much a local letter as the Corinthian or the Galatian or even the Roman letter. This was not so much a local letter as an encyclical letter. In other words, it was being sent out to various churches. When Paul wrote to the Colossians in chapter 4, verse 16, he mentions that they should send their letter to the church of the Laodiceans and they should obtain a copy of the letter that was sent to the Laodiceans. There's strong evidence that the letter that was sent to the Laodiceans was this very letter. And so that this encyclical letter sent to various churches was also primarily sent to Ephesus, and that's what we have retained for us in the providence of God in the New Testament. So it was to the church at Ephesus then that he wrote this unique production. In many ways, this Ephesian letter is the deepest, or at least it's the most sublime of all the letters Paul wrote. In many ways, it's the most difficult. because there are things described here in a mighty flood of divine oratory which totally go beyond the ability of any mere man to understand. It seems that This letter starts off where the book of Romans ends off. Where it left off, this starts off. In Romans, the believer is identified with Christ in his death, in his resurrection, and then in his ascension. In Ephesians, it's as if the book starts off with Christ ascended at the right hand of God and heading up all things in Himself, so that we are now seated with Christ in heaven. That's our position, and from that position, everything else is discussed. In the book of Romans, the emphasis is upon the personal. Though God does have various things there to say that affect the church as a body, yet the emphasis is personal. In Ephesians, while the Lord says many things that are personal, the emphasis is on the church as a body. This is the great epistle about the church of Jesus Christ as such. Now, there's one thing that I think has an outstanding application. It is no small testimony to the power of the gospel that such an epistle, full of glory full of the light of heaven, full of the smile of God, full of the joy of grace, full of the triumph of Calvary, their empty tomb and the throne of Christ, that such an epistle should have been written by a man in a Roman prison, standing in jeopardy of his life. You think of that. Writing from prison. Paul was not licking his wounds. Paul was not cast down into the depths of defeat. He was not frustrated. He did not feel, in the slightest, to use the modern jargon, unfulfilled. He didn't imagine that somehow he had got almost to the finishing line of his race, but he hadn't quite gained the prize. None of that was in Paul's mind. Paul's faith was in the victorious Christ. For Paul's knowledge of the sovereignty of God, let him understand that the God who gave him revival in Ephesus was the God who had him in a prison in Rome, and he was working it all out. As he says in the epistle we look at next week, God willing, all these things fell out rather to the furtherance of the gospel. And so here is the victory of grace. I want to tell you, my friend, when you are really in the hard passages of life, when you're really facing the difficulties of this life, There's only one thing that can truly give you joy, only one thing that can truly give you peace, only one thing that can make you more than a conqueror, and that is a personal knowledge of the grace of God. You've been listening to Let the Bible Speak, the radio ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America. We hope you've enjoyed and benefited from today's program. We're here as your servants for Christ's sake. If we can be of any further help to you in the things of the Lord, we invite you to contact us. If you would like to receive our booklet, Separated Unto the Gospel, a booklet that sets forth the beliefs and standards of the Free Presbyterian Church, You may have a copy free of charge simply for the asking. Our mailing address is Let the Bible Speak, 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, SC 29615. That's Let the Bible Speak, 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, SC 29615. Our email address is info at faithfpc.org. That's info at f-a-i-t-h f-p-c dot o-r-g. If you would like to learn more about the Free Presbyterian Church of North America, or if you'd like to see if there is a free church in your area, we invite you to visit our website, www.fpcna.org. That's www.fpcna.org. On behalf of Dr. Alan Cairns, this is Charles Kelsch saying thank you for listening and inviting you to join us again as we Let the Bible Speak.