This is a big moment. We're ending, we're finishing the book of Ephesians. A historic event in our church. Jokes aside, we shall go to the final two verses in the book of Ephesians. Ephesians 6, 23 and 24. Ephesians 6, 23 and 24. And look at the blessings or the benedictions to the church that are given. I'll read these two verses and then we'll have an exposition, doctrine and application of the text. Paul is writing, Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ, with love incorruptible. Amen. And there ends the whole letter. Here is Paul's final greeting of the book, his benediction, his ending blessing or benediction to the church. As he always ends his epistles and starts them as well with benediction with words like peace and grace and love, And all those things, that's how he ends his letter always. Peace be to the brothers and love with faith. He starts by saying peace to the brothers. That is peace to the Christians, not just men, not just the male brothers, but also to the sisters. But the word brother is an overarching word when you speak to a group. You use the male word like you do in French. If there is a big group of women, and if there's just one man, the rules of the language is that you address them as him or her. even if the majority of the group are women. So that's how the language works, and that's how he uses the word, please be to the brothers. He speaks to the entire church, to the Christians. The word brother is used for Christian brothers and sisters, those who are Christians. And then, He says, love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Love with faith. Some Swedish translations may say love and faith, but it truly talks about the faithful love from God. The faithful love from God, not just the Father, but from the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful love from the Father and the Son. And then grace, the final verse, grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, it's for the church. the brothers, those who love the Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible, with love incorruptible, not as another Swedish translation says, grace and incorruptibility or incorruptive life be with all who love the Lord Jesus Christ? No, it is the love incorruptible. Those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love, a love that cannot be corrupted, a love that cannot fade, a love that cannot rot, A love incorruptible. Again, this is a blessing for the church, for those who love the Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love. So in summary, Paul here is giving benedictions to the church at Ephesus. He's blessing them. He wishes them well. He's saying good words to them, good sayings to them. He wishes them peace, he wishes them faithful love, and he wishes them grace to the church. We can compare this with how Paul began the epistle in verse one and two. Chapter 1, verse 2 and 3. 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. Just as he began, he finishes And he is referring them to that blessing that God has already given them. The church has already been blessed by God with the eternal, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. But it doesn't end there. It keeps being blessed by God. If you remember the whole, if you would summarize the book of Ephesians in one sentence or two, it is what has God done to the church or for the church? God's work for the church and what God is continuing to do to the church. what God has done for them and what God is continuing to do for them. We have this first part of the letter with the doctrine of salvation, of election. Ephesians 1 and 4, He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, and we have the Holy Spirit, the seal. We have been sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. This is what God has done for the church. By grace you are saved through faith, not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. It is the gift of God, as Paul says in 2.8 through 10, not as a result of work so that no one may boast, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. This is what God has worked, what God has done. He has, we are His worksmanship. He has made us new creatures in Christ. And then His continuing work, those good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And that's the second part of the letter where Paul commands the Christians to practice, to do the good deeds, to do all these things, to love husbands and wives, parents and children, slaves and masters, and all Christians loving one another, submitting to one another in the love of Christ. This is still God's continuing work in the church. As He commands us in the Bible, in His Word, to do all these good works, He is also working in us that His good will may come to pass, will happen. He has not just saved us and left us fatherless. He has given us the Holy Spirit, the Helper, to help us in our sanctification. And He is still working in us. We are created. We are His workmanship. And He is working with us. This is what these final benedictions also point to. You are blessed by peace. and eternal love and faithful love by God. And as you continue to love the Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible, grace will be with you. You are blessed. The church has been blessed and is still continuing to be blessed. That's the whole theme of the letter. God's work and God's continuing work. Some say that these words, Paul is beginning and ending his letters with grace and peace and faith. These are just Greek phrases. These are just greeting phrases. He's just using those those greeting phrases that they all used in Greek. And they are sort of just empty sentences, just like you say hello, goodbye, how are you, how are you doing? Those are just empty phrases. When you're greeting someone from America and he asks you, how are you doing? You shouldn't answer, yeah, I'm good, I'm fine, thank you. You should just say, hi. They don't really mean it. It's just a phrase. You don't answer how you're doing to the question, how are you doing? It's just a greeting phrase. So that's what they say Paul is doing here. But, so they say that when he uses the word peace or it's the Hebrew word shalom, you say shalom in Hebrew, hello, shalom, which means well-being or welfare, prosperity and harmony. And that's what that means as an empty sentence of, you know, I wish you well and prosperity. But if we look at what Paul means by the word peace in verse 2 and 13. When he uses the word peace, he's not using it flippantly like a greeting phrase, like an empty phrase. He has been speaking very profoundly about peace. But is peace really in the Bible, in God's mind, as an inspired apostle? in chapter 2 verse 13, But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one. and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he may create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross. thereby killing the hostility and he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near etc. Peace here means the peace between man and God through Jesus Christ who broke down the wall of hostility, abolished the law of commandments and reconciled us to God. Peace between God and man. Not just that, also peace between men and men, Jews and Gentiles. In Christ there is peace on earth between all nations who are in Christ. Jews and Gentiles, Finns and Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, Germans, Africans. There is peace. We all come from tribes that had been at war with each other, if it weren't for Christ. He is our peace, but First and foremost, he is the peace between God and men. This is what Paul means by peace. Not just shalom, live well, have a nice life, be prosperous. And then he wishes them the faithful love of God. Here, this verse, the faithful love of God. How does the faithful love of God, what does that look like? The book of Ephesians. We have verse 2 and chapter 2 verse 4. God being rich in mercy. Because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. And raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Here Paul explains the great love with which God has loved us, that faithful love that is not because of us. You see, we were dead in our trespasses. He loved us with a faithful love that he had decided before time began, before the foundation of the earth, to love and save and resurrect, make us alive together with Christ. He was faithful to that decision in His everlasting eternal love to His elect. He was faithful in His love and did as He had decided to do. We have the phrase in verse 7 here in chapter 2, grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. There is a phrase in Hebrew that is used to translate into grace or into loving kindness, into faithful love, chesed, the Hebrew word chesed, which is hard to translate, but it translates into faithful love. God's faithful love to do what he has decided to do in love to his people, to the people of Israel in the covenant. Talking about his covenant love where he's faithful to the people of his covenant and also to his new covenant people, the Christians, his people. with his faithful love. God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, saved by faith. So that's his faithful love, peace, his faithful love. It all has to do with salvation. And then grace, how he ends it. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love. How has Paul been talking about grace? Is this just the Greek greeting phrase charis, As you say, charis. That's a Greek phrase for hello or bye, goodbye. Is that just what Paul is? He's just using an empty phrase here to say goodbye to them. Now the letter is ended. Goodbye. Good riddance. Have a good day. No. Paul would never use this profound word so flippantly as well or either. He has used this word grace all over the book. Here in verse 8 in chapter 2, of course, the central verse, such an important verse, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Grace, what does he mean by grace? He means unmerited favor. He means that he is giving something that we do not deserve. He has given salvation to people who don't deserve it. To a people who deserves hell and death because of their sin. Instead, in His faithful love and mercy, He has given them grace, something that they don't deserve. He has given them eternal life in heaven instead of eternal damnation in hell. He has given grace to them to be saved. Grace is not of their own doing, he says. It is the gift of God to be saved, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. It is unmerited. It is grace. And then he points on to the continuous work of God in the church by the final wording, to those who love the Lord Jesus Christ in an incorruptible love. Now how does this go together? How can grace be unmerited if it says grace to those who love the Lord Jesus Christ with an incorruptible love? How can that be grace then? Well, as we understand from the whole letter is that this love comes is given from God. This love is something God is working out in the church. He is keeping them in that love. So we read in chapter 2 again, verse 10, continuing from this, by grace you have been saved. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. This incorruptible love is something that God has given to the Christians in the new creation by making them new creatures in Christ, giving them a new heart, giving them new desires, giving them an incorruptible love for God, a love that cannot die. cannot be destroyed. That's how he keeps them in the love. So he points to the continuing work in the church, to those who love the Lord Jesus Christ with an incorruptible love. This can only be done by those who are born again. It can't be done by anyone else. Those who are outside Christ, those who are not born again, they cannot love the Lord Jesus Christ with any love at all, let alone an incorruptible love. So, love God and keep being blessed by God. Have you been given this blessing from God that Paul is talking about, this eternal blessing in the heavenly places, this spiritual blessing in heavenly places, the eternal blessing where he has chosen you from the foundation of the world, where he has adopted you as his child, where Christ has died for you to redeem you from your sin and trespasses, where you've received the seal of the Holy Spirit, have you received this blessing from God? Have you been given the peace of God, not just the feeling of harmony and well-being, but the peace from having being an enemy of God, at war with God, to now being at peace with God, where God is no longer at war with you and you at war with Him, where God's wrath is no longer weighing heavily upon you. to crush you, but where he has now become peaceful to you, loving to you, at peace with you through Christ. Have you received this faithful love from God where you were dead in your sins and trespasses? You are a sinner again at war with God, dead in God's eyes, of no use other to judge and cast into the lake of fire. Have you been given this faithful love? Have you experienced God's faithful love? Not a feeling with purple hearts and pink hearts and Chocolate boxes, flowers, not that kind of love, but the undying, everlasting, faithful love of God. Were you who were dead in your sin and trespasses, He loved you with an everlasting love, faithful love, and gave you new life. from being dead. Have you experienced this love? Is this a reality in your life? Is this real? Have you been given this grace by God of being a new creature in Christ, alive with Christ, receiving this gift of God of salvation by faith, not as a result of works. These questions are not for you to boast. These things have happened to me because I'm so great. You have received grace. Have you received this grace from God and been created in Christ Jesus for good works? If these things are true, if you have received this blessing from God, this eternal heavenly spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, this peace, this faithful love, this grace, then the letter here concludes by commanding, exhorting you to keep on being in that blessing with you May the grace be with you all who love the Lord Jesus Christ with an incorruptible love. If you have been blessed by God, then love the Lord Jesus Christ with an incorruptible love, and grace will still Stand, abide with you. This is how Paul ends the letter. If this is true with you, love the Lord Jesus Christ with an incorruptible love. The Lord Jesus Christ is to be loved. With all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, because He is God, and you shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That's what the law tells you. That's what the law tells you, the law of God. so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Christ is worthy to be loved. If he has blessed you like this, you must love him with an incorruptible love. even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love. In love. And then chapter 5, verse 2. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. If he has done all this, you shall love him back with an incorruptible love. And this is God's work continuing in you. If God has already blessed you, if that is true, he will keep blessing you and you will walk further in the love. God will keep working in you. Grace will abide with you. Love the Lord Jesus Christ with an incorruptible love. Peace be with all who love the Lord Jesus Christ with an incorruptible love. That's the final message of the Book of Ephesians. Amen. Let's pray. Our Lord and God, we thank you for this book of Ephesians, for what you have told us, your church, through your apostle. We pray that this will be true of us, that peace will be with us, peace will be to us, that your faithful love will abide with us, from you, God, the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us, God, to love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. Give us that grace. We are in need of grace, even to do that so that we will be able to do this and have even more grace from you, God. Help us, help us to take, remember all these things, not just as a sermon series of Ephesians that we listened to many years ago. Let us all remember what this epistle tells us, and when we read it, continuously speak to us And God, again, help us to understand that love with which you have loved us, that love that surpasses knowledge, so that we understand, so that we, having been blessed by you, will keep on being blessed by you, by loving our Lord Jesus Christ, receiving more grace from you. We pray all these things in his mighty name. Amen.