Dr. Crook, who just retired, was a member, or not a member, but of course he's in our presbytery, but went to church with us at Eastern Heights Presbyterian in Bristol. Samantha grew up there. I moved when I was eight, and we've been there for 23 years now. It's been a pretty hard road for me because of my own choices. Because of my stupidity, I decided I needed to go to jail for a couple of years. DUI's gave me a couple of felonies. And then I had to go through a program called Teen Challenge. And I graduated from that in 2010. Two months from the day of graduation of Teen Challenge, I got a scholarship from the church to go to Graham Bible College. And now here I am. Freshly married, back in November. We have a farm. We have two jobs. It's an amazing thing, the grace of God. And it's a pleasure for me to be here with you all today. That was just a very brief background. I won't give you all the details. But if you want to turn your Bibles this morning to Ephesians in chapter 1, I'm going to do kind of an experiment for me. I'm not very tech savvy, so I'm going to attempt to use this little iPad gig. I'm about as un-technological as I can be for my age. Most folks are attached to their little telephones and use this little microphone that you hook on your ear. I prefer to be out in the woods with the cows. That's just me. But it's a very lengthy passage of scripture. I want to look through the first entire chapter so you all can be seated as we read through it. But I would like to go through the entirety of it. And Paul to the Ephesians says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus, grace 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 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 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. 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 our 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 or the administration of the fullness of the times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are upon the 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 or the down payment of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory. Therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease 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 you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, 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, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His 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 age, but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Would you pray with me? Our Lord and our God, what more can we say than to us who have already spoken? Lord, we thank You for the Word that forms the worlds. And that same breath breathes life into us. And as the second chapter of this letter says, we who were dead in sins, brought us from the dead from the same power that brings Christ. And as we read through the Ephesian epistle, Lord, how great it is that you speak to us, that you are, as Francis Schaeffer says, the God who is there and you are not silent, but you have bowed yourself down, stooped. Come to our level, Lord, and you meet us where we are. And I pray, Lord, forgive your servant of the sins, because they are many and exceeding. But I pray, Lord, for your unction of the Spirit, and that your word will go forth, and that it will not return void unto you. Lord, it raises us from the dead, and I pray that we will leave here seeing the glory of Jesus Christ in our own lives. And we pray in His name. Amen. A little bit of background about the Ephesian epistle. Verse 2, or verse 1, rather, says, To the saints who are in Ephesus. There's a little phrase, who are in Ephesus, was added later. If we read in Colossians, you find that there was a letter to the Laodiceans that some say we don't have. The letter to the Ephesians is probably that same letter, written both to the Ephesians and to the Laodiceans. If we notice throughout the whole epistle, Ephesians does not have the personal character that the other letters from Paul have, because he mentions 26 people, give or take a few, in Romans alone. And then in every other letter, he personally speaks to somebody. Ephesians does not have that character. It's probably to all the churches, which is cool for us because that's us. This is a letter for us. Now, H.A. Ironside, the old dispensationalist, breaks it down into three different sections. The first three chapters is theology. It gives us the truth and the doctrine. Chapters four through six, it gives us practical Christian living. What ought we to look like out here? Now, I know what I looked like when I was doing the old stuff. when I was living as hard as I could for myself, basically worshipping Satan, self-idolatry, me. Now I know what I'm supposed to look like in Christ. That's why I read the whole letter. And in your reading and personal devotions, I encourage you to read entire chapters and entire epistles in one sitting. In the 1500s is when we got chapters and verses. And this came out of the Geneva Bible, which John Calvin was part of the translator. We like that guy. But anyway, we get chapters and verses from the 1500s. So if you can sit down and read entire epistles and entire letters and chapters at one time, you will see the entire context of the letter. What's interesting is what is given to us. We have truth first, application later. We can have all the head knowledge that we want, but unless we apply it in our hearts and make it reality, what are we doing? We're just filling cubes. We're just sitting here on Sunday and we're just, I guess as they call it, a carnal Christian. Or as those down the road that want to sit and have someone in the pew and money in the plate. And that's becoming very sad to me and troublesome. To see how few are in churches that are really getting fed meat and potatoes on Sunday morning. And you've got other places that you're getting nothing. We need Jesus in our country. That's what it was originally intended for. That's why we have the First Amendment. Freedom of religion. And the gentleman came over here to worship the living God. And as Paul says in the beginning of his epistle, Grace to you and peace from God our Father. The most powerful words ever spoken to man. Ever. Grace and peace to you. You are no longer in enmity and at war with God Almighty. The wrath of God is placed on Christ, not on me. Amen. Praise the Lord. I'm all about that. Because I know what it's like to go through hell on this earth. Being in prison is no fun. But I understand what it is and what Paul is writing. And that's what's personal for me in these prison epistles. Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, Philemon. They're all written while he was in prison. And if he is joyous singing hymns in prison, and we kind of have the Hiltons today in our prison system. It wasn't like that in Paul's day or in Joseph when he was in the dungeon. We have no idea what it's like. If you've ever been to London to go to the Tower Bridge, you get kind of a little bit of it. Or if you go into an old nasty basement, that's what prison was like. But as Paul later says, he leads captivity captive. That's us. Later on in this epistle in chapter 2, you get five disadvantages of the Gentiles. That's us too. But God in His mercy all through the Old Testament is speaking and bringing the old to the new. And we see how the Gentiles are brought in. Genesis 3.15, "...and your seed shall crush the head of the serpent." Do we remember the story? And you will be crushed, Satan, by the hill. Or the hill of Christ will crush the head of the serpent. And in Numbers, "...if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to Myself." As Jesus is referencing Moses. That's us that He's bringing in. And as we walk out the door on Sunday, how are we looking like Jesus on Monday morning? That's the whole thing of application. What's our conversation about? What are our moods? How do we deal with the circumstances that arise in everyday life? Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ. Our citizenship is verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. What is that? We've got the Holy Ghost. Now, we need not be afraid of him. Not as the charismatic say, but we've got the Holy Ghost within us. That is what gives us the power to say no to certain things. Beforehand, all we could do was sin. But now in Christ, we have the power. That's why Philippians 4.13 says, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. I can actually do something about that now. Because before that, all I could do was sin and please myself. But now, I can live a life pleasing to God through the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what we are when we are blessed in the heavenly places. We have a portion of Revelation in 4 and 5 says we are worshiping right now this very moment with this few crowd, but we are in the heavenlies with a myriad of angels and saints. That will make us Presbyterians pretty happy. Because we're in heaven, there will be no Presbyterian, Methodist, Anglican, there will be none of that. One of my favorite sermons of George Whitefield, when he did a little play on with Father Abraham. Father Abraham, do you have any Baptists up there? No, son. I have no idea what a Baptist is. Father Abraham, do you have any Presbyterians? No, sir. All we have are Christians in heaven. We have many different names on the doors. That's okay because we stand on what we believe. What does this word teach? We have gone so far afield in our country about what we believe about it. And I cannot fly a Confederate flag in my house because of what they think it means. If we know the history of our Southern heritage, the St. Andrew's Cross is the Southern flag. The Confederate States of America was a Christian nation. They adopted the same Scottish Presbyterian flag as their own. That's why we have the stars in the cross. We were a Christian nation. At least here in the Confederacy. And there's a whole lot of history with that. So next time you look at a Confederate flag, remember what your founding fathers of the Confederacy believed. How about that? Not that I'm saying there's going to be a civil war again. That's not where I'm going. I want to see the nation of the United States again where we were when we started. Worshipping the one true God and understanding why there is a church on every corner. Not just the Dollar General, too. But why do we go to church every Sunday morning? To be in the presence of the King. Oh, if we knew what it was to be a king. I went to Uganda in 2011. And they, like the Brits, have a king who is just of name. He has no real authority. You know, King Henry, or King William. shortly, has the king, or has the title of king, as does the king of Uganda. But I guarantee that if that king walked out of his palace and said to arms, that the entire nation would rally around him. No matter what Parliament says. If we understood what it was to have a king in this country, we would understand how to serve him. We have a president, we have democracy, and we have sort of a republic. But we need to understand what it is to serve the king of creation. who speaks by the word of His power, brings us from the dead the same thing that can make wood from nothing, to cause a tree to grow in the garden, and also speaks life to our deadness. And Ezekiel who preaches of those dry bones. Let's not grow weary in well-doing. Don't get tired. Burn as many candles at both ends as you have. I would much rather burn out than rust out. So I will continue in my course until the day that I die, until my last breath is gone. Because I bleed for my brothers and sisters as I drive down the road and seeing, I wonder if they know Jesus. Because if not, they're going to hell. And how much little, or how little are we really preaching the entire counsel of God in our churches today? Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, who is it that does the choosing? That's the grace of God applied to our lives through the Holy Spirit by the finished work of Christ on the cross. It's so beautiful to see the picture. I wish we really understood what it is to serve our King. That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Holy and blameless. Where do we see that? Is that not the Ten Commandments? The whole Decalogue is God's moral character. That does not go away just because Christ fulfilled the law. We now have the power to accept it and to do it. It looks a little different in the New Testament. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. I say love your enemy instead of hate him. If your enemy comes to you and needs something to drink, give him something to drink, something to eat, a place to stay, and your coat too. Looks a little different. This is what the law should have produced. And now, through this grace and peace to us, we have the power to do so. And I hope that we do. Not just on Sunday morning, but when we leave and get up, and as our pastor says, in the real world my phone rings on Monday morning. What are we going to do? Because that's what really matters. When the rubber meets the road is what are you going to do when you're at your job or at home or wherever you are. Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Christ to Himself. Adoption. We have this bouquet of flowers. Consider this as our bouquet of salvation. Predestination. Adoption. We've got sanctification, justification, regeneration, conversion. All of that is salvation. He chose us and Him. Because we can't do it ourselves. In Adam, if you eat this, in this day you will die. In Adam all died. But in Christ we live. That's what Paul's teaching us. To the church in general. To the church of Princeton, Presbyterian, and Johnson City. To the saints who are in Johnson City and faithful in Christ Jesus. Continue on. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed is God. He chose you in Him before the foundation of the world. He chose you and adopted you as His sons and daughters to Himself for His own goodwill according to His pleasure. To the praise of His glorious grace. the repetition of the grace, and He made us acceptable in the beloved. This ought to change the way we think about everything. So when we break down Ephesians again and read the first theological chapters of 1, 2, and 3, and then we get to chapter 6, verses 10 through 17, the armor of God, helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, belt of truth, gospel of peace, sword of the Spirit. The only weapon that we have is this. And Satan knows the Bible a whole lot better than I do. He quoted it to Jesus. But what does Jesus say? It is written. That's what we have taken the Bible completely out of where we need to have it. It becomes the Word of God, it not is the Word of God. And that's where we are. In the ecumenical churches of the day, it becomes the Word of God to you. Whatever it means to you is okay. Not what is. Jesus spoke. And the same Jesus that made the world spoke the Word. Is that not what John 1 says? In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. 1 John 1, the Word became flesh. God with skin on, He put a tent, He tabernacled with us, dwelt among us. We saw it. We heard it. We handled Him. How do you handle Jesus? How do I handle Jesus? In every situation that I'm in, whether I'm at the traffic light or just about to run a red light, what am I going to do with Jesus there? Thanks for stopping me. What am I going to do when the fence post breaks? When a cow gets out? What am I going to do when I've got somebody cussing in my face at the mission? When they're so drunk they can't handle themselves. What am I going to do when I've got a tourist coming through the cave who doesn't believe in creation? And yet they're spouting all this evolutional nonsense to me. But yet I can plainly see in the limestone that there was probably a real big flood. And if we understand how concrete works, And how our limestone is, it's calcitic, it's calcium, carbon, and oxygen, and it's sedimentary rock. The only way you've got sediments is if you've got water. And we see how all of this ties together. Colossians chapter 2, in Him all things consist. Jesus is the glue that holds the universe together. You've probably heard Dr. Blevins say that. Jesus is the glue that holds the universe together. And in the science, apparently they found the smallest atom and molecule in our blood, and it's the shape of a cross. Apparently, He's also the glue that holds us together. Grace to you and peace from God our Father. The most important words we can ever say to one another. That's why Colossians also says, speak to one another in songs, in hymns, in spiritual songs. And what a glorious day that really will be. I love that song. when we all get to heaven. The fairest Lord Jesus. We were listening to the group GLAD coming down here. And I am getting tired of listening to all this nonsense on the radio, but I cannot help but listen to things that praise God. Because I feel so much better. Not just because of my feelings, but my spirit is lifted into the heavenlies. And because of this grace to us in Christ's finished work, I don't have to go to church on Saturday morning and sacrifice the lamb. I can worship in the car. on Tuesday morning. I can go in the very presence of God Himself through the blood of Christ. And as Psalm 131 says, Lord, my heart is not haughty. I can't lift my eyes up. I bow myself before you and not even consider the things I can't even put my little mind around. That's David speaking as an elder. This can't be David the young man. This can't be David the king. I understand what it is to be young, prideful, to be ten feet tall and bulletproof all the time. I cannot say that song. I hope that one day I can. But David says, Lord, my heart has no pride left within it, understanding what You have done for me. Grace to You. In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins according to the riches of His grace. We find so many things in our country today, health system and all the things the government gives us, we find redemption through them. Everything is attacking a symptom as opposed to the problem. Man doesn't need rehab. Man doesn't need to be retrained for his job. Man needs a savior. Man needs removal of guilt. Man needs removal of sin. But they don't teach us that in school or on CNN. because they hate God. As Romans 1 says, we have exchanged the truth of God for the lie of belief. And I think it's Isaiah 44 says, to this piece of wood and to this stone, we will say, you have begotten me. Is that not what we're taught in school today by evolution? That it rained on the rocks for millions of years and out of that primordial scample soup, here comes this little amoeba. And then billions of years later, voila, here we are. Is that not preferential religion? That's what idolatry is. It's a religion of preference. We fashion God after our own image when we are really made in His image. That's why Ephesians is so important for us to take practically, to live it. We must live as a Christian. What do we look like in the world? When I look at you, do I see Jesus? When you look at me, do you really see Jesus when I'm not in a suit and tie and looking like a preacher on Sunday morning? When I'm at the cave looking like a tour guide, or I'm on a mission in jeans and t-shirt? Or if I'm on the farm, do I look like Jesus? If I'm at the gas station and I've spent too much money, do I really look like Jesus? When something breaks. When the economy falls out. Are we going to look like Jesus? Are we going to remember this grace and what we stand on? And Psalm 40 says, He takes me up out of the miry clay and set me on a solid foundation. The rock. That's why the Psalms continually say, He is my rock and my foundation. What are we grounded in? If I don't understand that now, I can't help you at all. And our preaching from the pulpits all across the country has got to be to the hearts. And not just here, but around the world. The Word is sharp, and it penetrates deeply to the core of man, to his heart. That's why people don't like the Bible, because it shatters our hearts. And we don't like that. That's why the church today has stepped away from it, and we try to mimic everything the world does. So we'll drop little Easter eggs out of helicopters, and tell you we can win a little vehicle. Just to get somebody in the pews. Where is Jesus? Last night I heard a message. Nowhere in it did anybody tell me why I should love Jesus. You need Jesus in your life. Yeah, I know that, but why? We've got a whole lot of Christians that can tell you that they love Jesus, but could not tell you why. They don't understand, number one, that we are sinners in the sight of an angry God. And we need redemption. Paul's telling us this. We have the answer in Christ. to the praise of His glory and of His grace, by which He made us accepted in Christ. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins according to His grace, which He made abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence." Where is our wisdom? Where is our knowledge? We are stuck in this movement of existentialism where, you know, do whatever you want to, and also the hedonist. If it feels good, do it. We hear that in church today, too. If it feels good, do it. Wisdom is applying that which we know. Because again, we can have all the head knowledge and all the degrees and little initials behind our name we want to. But unless we apply it to our hearts, we have no wisdom and we are no better than the fool. He made this to abound toward us, having made, though, the mystery of his will. And what's that mystery? That which was being taught in the Old Testament was covered. Revealed in the new in Christ. Atonement is the mystery. According to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, that in the administration of the fullness of the times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both in heaven and in earth in him. Back to Colossians, Christ is that glue that holds us together. 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. Did he not repeat this from Romans chapter 8? All things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose. All things, not just a couple of them. Prison apparently worked together for my good because He called me. I know what it's like to be in there. I can help somebody not go there. You all can reach people I can't. And I can reach those that you all can't. And the closing of this chapter says, And he put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. And did we not see in Romans and other letters about the body of Christ having different members? One's an eye, one's a mouth, one's an ear, one's a hand, one's a foot. We all have our own gifts. That's also here in Ephesians chapter 4. Getting into the spiritual gifts. Some He gave apostles, some prophets, some teachers, some evangelists. We all have our own gifts. Go. Use them to the glory of God in a dark and dying world. If we don't, we are going to lose the very country that we love. Because it's going down right now and we see it. If we don't do something about it, we're going to be nothing more than Rome. or Greece, all these proverbial nations, where are they now? Where is that thousand-year reign of Hitler that lasted 11 years? Where is the thousand-year reign of Rome? It's in ruins. And here we have a little racetrack down the road that emulates the Colosseum. Do we really want to go there? What about the Hunger Games? I'm sure you're familiar with the books and the movies. Let's get familiar with Edward Gibbon's decline and fall of the Roman Empire. The two were pseudonymous. Here we are glorifying death. The Proverbs say, then, to hate me, love death. So we want to kill our children, sacrifice them to the God of convenience, which is abortion and whatever else we want to do? If we don't do something and listen to God speaking to us, He gave us a word for a reason. And He's given us the grace. To speak it. Somebody came through the cave last week and he had a t-shirt on that had a salt shaker and a light bulb on it. And said, be these. Best advertisement I've seen in a long time. Be these. And when we get into Greek, it's a funny thing I got a B in English grammar and an A in Greek. I'll never understand how I did that. But learning participles. Be in the state of being light. Be in the state of being salt. They're in the perfect tense, which means it's an action that is happening and always continues to happen. It's not an aorist which happened and it's done and it's gone. You do it. And you're in a continual state of being. Be soft. Be light. Wherever you go. And don't put something over your light. And the world is going to hate us. They do now. Because they hated Jesus. But we have the tools. to go forth and do it. And we need to sit under the preaching and the hearing of God's Word because that's what changes hearts. Be circumcised and changed in your hearts. Don't bring your garments. Don't be like the Pharisees. Don't do the outward showing. Change your hearts. That's why it says go in your closet and pray. Go in fast, not in front of people. And when you give, don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. Keep it a secret. Do it in secret, then that which he sees in secret, he will reward openly. It's the estate of the heart. How do you handle Jesus? In all of your doing, in all of your speaking. In Romans chapter 3, we have a problem with thought, word, and deed. Echoed from Isaiah. Jesus fixes the problem. In Him, we have this redemption. Predestined us to an inheritance. according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you trusted after you heard the Word of Truth. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing comes from the work. How can they hear without a preacher? How can a preacher go unless he's sent or called? Unless we preach the work faithfully, Nothing's going to happen. It'll be like the message I heard last night, which is as Phil gets, walking away with no word in me at all. We must stand on the Word of God. And look like it, because you may be the only Bible somebody ever reads by what you do tomorrow morning, wherever you are. What do your neighbors see you doing? Are they really reading Christ from you? Do they see that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no one can come to the Father except through Him by what you do? I understand why St. Francis said, preach the Gospel always, if necessary, use words. Right in premise, wrong fundamentally. How can they hear without a preacher? That's what this says. You must, you trusted after you heard the Word of Truth, which is the Gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, You were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Now there are charismatic brothers and sisters whom I love, but they believe that we have to have the second blessing of the Holy Spirit. And you've got some folks who keep trying to seek it but never get it. But Jesus says, isn't it, if you ask your father for good gifts, will he retain them? If I want the Holy Spirit and I ask for it, do you not think he's going to give it to me? That's part of our bouquet of flowers. Once you are calmed and regenerated, you've got all the tools that you need. You grow in grace, as Peter says. Grow in that grace which you were given. So upon salvation, you've got the fullness of God in you. But it blooms, and it grows. You've got to put the weeds out. I like my garden, but there's a whole lot of weeds in it. And I have to do it all the time, and they grow better than the vegetables do. And it hurts to get those weeds Pulled out. And also the Proverbs say that iron sharpens iron. We are supposed to knock those nicks off. If anybody has a kitchen knife and you know how to use a honing steel, after you sharpen it, you hone it. And it takes all those little shards off the blade. When you do that to somebody, it hurts. Because we're nicking these little things off. That's what we do for one another. We're the church. And we worship together. with the saints of glory and the saints of old. And how many are worshipping right now at this very hour? How many preachers are preaching on the East Coast right now? How many will be preaching Midwest in an hour? An hour behind that, West Coast. So 24 hours. We've got somebody preaching the Word because Uganda is 8 hours ahead of us. How many is Australia? What, 22 ahead of us? So 24 hours on this day, somebody is hearing the Word of God. Let's continue. Let us continue. And never grow weary in well-doing. Because that's the power of the Holy Spirit within you, because you can do good to somebody even when they spit in your face. Wipe it off, give them a dollar to get something to eat. That's what Jesus looks like. In whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit, who is the down payment of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory. Sometimes I often think about what heaven is going to be like. I heard a preacher preach once about what the color orange is going to sound like. We've got five senses. And they work pretty well. We understand seeing, sight, taste, touch. What else have we got? Perception? Whatever our consciousnesses are. Open those up completely. Can you see the chords that are being played? When the piano hits those strings, can we see the notes coming off? What's heaven going to be like? Our inheritance. When all things are restored as new and I don't have to bend down and pluck a milkweed out of my beans, but we can go outside and have the best bean we've ever had in our lives. And I know what really good canned beans taste like. Adam had a job in the garden before he had a wife and before he sinned. What's it going to be like? What a day that will be when we see Jesus. And as Paul says, see Him as He is and I'll be known For I will know as I am known. Take away the smoky glass that we look through, and that we see Jesus, and Him only. The light of the Lamb, there'll be no more sunlight, no more halogen lights, no more stupid LED lights. But Jesus, therefore I also heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and your love for all the saints. And I do not cease to give thanks for you in my prayers, making mention of you always. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him. Folks, we have lost wisdom and knowledge here. We are breeding an entire generation of uneducated people. We are stuck upon the Savior of Washington. Because of the checks that are handed out all the time. You ask some elementary school students here, even in your city, because I know several teachers here. What do they say? Well, what are you going to do when you grow up? I'm going to draw. Oh, you're going to be an artist. No, I'm going to sit on the front porch and draw a check like mom and dad does. The Bible says if it doesn't work, we shouldn't eat it. We've got a problem. It needs to be fixed. The only way that can happen is if God sends a spirit of revival. And the only way that happens is through us speaking the Word of God. No matter what the consequences on the other side, because His Word in Isaiah 55 will not return to Him void. That's His purpose. Not ours. We are the little pea prophets now. As John said, I am the voice. Or here's the voice. I speak. I am the Word. He is the voice. That's it. I am the Word. Jesus is the Word. I speak. That's what we must do. That was from Dr. Harry Reader. Heard him last year at PEF conference saying, John, Jesus is the Word. John is the voice. Speaking it. Jesus is not going to believe for us. He gives us the power to do so. Conversion is repentance and believing. Jesus won't repent for us. He won't believe for us. We have to do that. And we speak the Word of Truth in love. And as Galatians says, whether we should consider ourselves, lest we be tempted to do the same things, because we know how fragile we are, and how tempting it is to go back and do what we used to do, that the eyes of your understanding be enlightened and that you may know what is the hope of His coming. And as Peter says, and as Jude also, give a defense for the hope that's within you. Why do you believe in Jesus? Just because mom and dad did? Or because grandma and grandpa did? So I believe that old stuff and it was good enough for them, so it's good enough for me? Is that where we are? Or do we really believe in Jesus because of what He has really done? And that Jesus was a real man that lived in the first century and died on a real cross, shed His real blood, died for our real sins. Do we believe it? If we do, do we speak it? Do we live it? We must. If not, we'll be just as Israel. How long did they wander in the wilderness? Forty years because of their unbelief? And they saw God right in front of their faces? The manna which was given from heaven? Jesus comes down, who is that bread of heaven? I am the bread of life. I'm a beggar showing you over to go get bread. And I have to feast upon the same bread. That's why I love it when we get to come to the table. And I wish we had it more than just once a quarter. Because I need that grace. I need to feed on Jesus. And I'm glad I can do this every day. And feast upon that Word. If I don't, I'm dead. If I don't, I'm high again. I know what I'm going to do. What will you do? How will you handle Jesus tomorrow morning? What do you set your thoughts upon? Think on these things. Things that are noble, pure, lovely, just, praise-worthy and of a good report. John 15.7 says, If my words abide in you, it's very important to have this in your head. If you're going to meditate on this day and night, as Psalm 1 says, you better have some of it in your head. Do you know it? The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He leads me beside still waters. Do we really understand and believe what the Word says? Because Jesus was a real man and a real God in the same person. That's part of the mystery Paul's talking about. I wish somebody could really explain to me the Trinity. God is one God. Three distinct persons. Explain that to this little pea brain. Hypostatic union. Big Presbyterian word. Jesus is fully God, fully man. One body. Explain that to me. How can God be born in a baby? And that little thing contained the fullness of God. And how is it that Jesus spoke life? Let there be light. And there was. And He still speaks to me. And brings me from the dead. And causes me to get up out of bed every day. I have no idea what I'm going to be doing in this life. But I know that He orders every step that I take. You who trusted in Him first. That's what it means. Do you trust in Jesus fully? I heard the preacher last night say, don't worry about paying your bills. Really? What am I supposed to do? Doesn't Romans 8 tell me to not owe anybody anything? Pay my bills? Be a responsible citizen? Understand that my citizenship is indeed in heaven, but give the world an example to live by. Not just making a boatload of money and having a Ferrari and everything else that I want, but being able to live a productive life for the kingdom of heaven. And giving it all away for the glory of God. It belongs to Him anyway. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and a thousand and first, and a thousand and second. It belongs to Him anyway, so what are we doing with it? And how are you really handling Jesus tomorrow morning? And what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of His mighty power? And we've talked about that. That is the Holy Spirit within you upon your conversion. You now have the power to stop sinning. The problem is we don't have the want to. Is there still sin? Yes. Are we going to? Yes. It's still ever with us all the time. But through Jesus Christ, I can do all things through Him. I cannot sin as much today as I did yesterday. And in certain situations, I can make the choice to do the right thing which is pleasing to God. That's salvation and conversion and the power of the Holy Spirit. And if He can save me, Like Paul says, O wretched man that I am. He was a religious terrorist. He can save anybody. And He chose me before the foundation of the world. That's why this chapter is so important to us. It's very timely because we need it right now. We need it today. Which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in heavenly places. Far above all principality and power and might and dominion, in every name that is named, not only in this one, but in the age which is to come. And He put all things, past tense, He already did it. He put all things under His feet. And He gave Him to be the head over all things to the church. Which is what we are. We are His body. The fullness of Him who fills all in all. And we could be here till 4 o'clock looking through the entirety of Ephesians. And we're just scratching the surface. We must get our mind around who Jesus is, who we are, and what we're supposed to do when we walk out those doors in a few minutes. What are you going to think about when you're sitting at lunch? Are we really just trying to beat the baptism stone at the buffet? Or are we really going to think about Jesus today? Because the Lord's Day is that which we're supposed to set aside and believe and worship Him. Isaiah 58 talks about the Day of the Lord. Don't do your own will on the Day of the Lord. Respect Him. Worship Him. Honor Him. Think about Him. And I hope that we will. Let's pray. Our Lord and our God, we do thank you for your many blessings that you pour to us in Christ, and we thank you for the word that you so richly have lavished toward us, Lord, and you have not given us many questions of warning what the Christian ought to look like and what we should look like in the world, but you give it to us plain, black and white. And I pray, Lord, that we can apply it to our hearts and really do it. As James says, be doers of this word and not just hearers, not just hide it, but show it off and do it. It's for your glory. And I do pray for this church that you will grow it and that this will be a light for Johnson City on this end of town and all over the city, really. Lord, there's a great need for revival. And we pray for all of our churches and our denomination as a whole, Lord, it's going in a direction that it probably does not need to go. But I pray that you will raise up those who will stand on your truth and that we will apply and in the face of adversity, stand upon the word. And you've given us the tools. I pray, Lord, that you will indeed open the hearts of our understanding and help us to apply it, to live it and be bold in the gospel and that we understand who we are. and what you really have done for us. And we give you praise with thanksgiving. And we thank you that you have captivated us and brought us into the heavenly places and given us the spirit that we have the power, Lord, to say no or to say yes. And we thank you for your many blessings. We thank you for the blood of Christ that cleanses us from our sin. And Lord, you are holy, you are righteous, and I pray that you will help us to be those, as Peter commands us, be holy because you are holy. And thinking, Lord, I wonder if we really understand what holiness truly is. When we read your law, do we really grasp what holiness is? And do we see your character? And I pray that you'll be with us this day, and that we will see Jesus, and that we continue to be in fellowship with you throughout the day and through the week, through the months and years. And we do pray for revival for our country and that you will bring us back to where we ought to be and set us on the solid rock on the foundation of Christ and the word. And we pray in Jesus name. Amen.