SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 3, verses 1 through 5 is their text this morning, Paul begins.
SPEAKER_00: For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly.
SPEAKER_00: When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: He was not always so.
SPEAKER_00: He was not always a prisoner for Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He was not always even the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't always Paul.
SPEAKER_00: If you're familiar with his story, the story of the man who wrote the book of Ephesians is one of the most staggering reversals in all of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It is the stuff of fairy tales, or more accurately, providence.
SPEAKER_00: Only God could make this kind of story up.
SPEAKER_00: Before he was the Apostle Paul, he was Saul the Pharisee.
SPEAKER_00: He was a leader of a strict Jewish sect.
SPEAKER_00: Radical Jews, if you will, he was one of their leaders.
SPEAKER_00: He, by his own admission, was a Pharisee of Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: He was named Saul after Israel's first king.
SPEAKER_00: He loved Judaism, especially his own interpretation of Jewish law.
SPEAKER_00: He loved his own understanding of what we now know as the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: He was devoted to it.
SPEAKER_00: Pharisees and scribes were experts in the law.
SPEAKER_00: They knew the numbers of words in each book of the Old Testament, for example.
SPEAKER_00: They could write it out.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, these people were as expert as expert comes.
SPEAKER_00: They had a worldview that divided the world between clean and unclean.
SPEAKER_00: Clean, of course, was the Jews, and unclean, of course, was the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: Everything in the world was divided, such, though, the division went to food.
SPEAKER_00: Some food was clean, some was unclean, to what you could do on days of the week, things you could touch, places you could go, and strictly off limits, of course, again, were Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: What clothes you could wear, how you wore your hair, everything was connected to this concept of cleanliness, uncleanliness.
SPEAKER_00: Pharisees were experts in the system.
SPEAKER_00: They were the judges, they were the rulers, they rendered verdicts about what was acceptable and what wasn't acceptable.
SPEAKER_00: That was the former life of the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_00: When he was Pharisee, Saul was devoted to such things with a zealous fever.
SPEAKER_00: And it was one that eclipsed even the fever of the other Pharisees, even their fervor was eclipsed by Saul.
SPEAKER_00: And so when Christianity started, Saul had a front row seat.
SPEAKER_00: He heard the preaching in the temple that first Pentecost morning.
SPEAKER_00: He heard the testimony of Stephen before Stephen was executed for his faith by people throwing rocks at him.
SPEAKER_00: This is described in Acts chapter 7, and it says that Saul had a front row seat to it.
SPEAKER_00: He held the jackets of those who threw rocks at Stephen until he died.
SPEAKER_00: The first Christian martyr was done not just with the purview of Saul, but with his approval.
SPEAKER_00: And that sparked something in him.
SPEAKER_00: Saul became convinced that Christianity was a threat to the entire Roman Empire, but specifically to the Judaism religion that he so passionately loved and embraced.
SPEAKER_00: If Christianity was allowed to expand, then Judaism would wane, and Christianity was expanding on this preaching that God had torn down the dividing wall between clean and unclean.
SPEAKER_00: The very pillar, the very foundation, if you will, of the Jewish worldview was being eroded by the Christian preaching.
SPEAKER_00: And so Christianity for Saul was more than just another religion that was contrary to his.
SPEAKER_00: It was antithetical to everything he believed in.
SPEAKER_00: He saw it as a threat, and he responded to that threat by embracing the martyrdom, the execution of those that held it.
SPEAKER_00: And he set off to do just that.
SPEAKER_00: Now, after Stephen's death, the Bible says many of the believers scattered out of Jerusalem, and some of them went to Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: And so Saul took it upon himself to likewise go to Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: He got orders, papers from the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem authorizing him to arrest and imprison Christians who had fled to Syria.
SPEAKER_00: Syria also under Roman rule at the time.
SPEAKER_00: Those papers would have been effective for Paul.
SPEAKER_00: He could have even possibly turned over those Jewish converts to Christianity to the Roman authorities.
SPEAKER_00: They could have been put to death themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Or at the very least, the Jews could have put them to death, like they did Stephen, with Roman approval.
SPEAKER_00: That was Saul's mission.
SPEAKER_00: Viewing Christians as a heretic and a threat to his worldview, he threw his whole life, his whole body, his whole self into shutting down the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: He was zealous with bloodlust.
SPEAKER_00: But on his way to Damascus, of course, you know the story.
SPEAKER_00: He had an encounter with the resurrected Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord blinded him and then revealed himself to Saul.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the order, of course, would be reversed if we were charting this out.
SPEAKER_00: But in God's working, that's exactly how it happened.
SPEAKER_00: Saul was blinded by a blazing light.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus appeared to him.
SPEAKER_00: Saul was able to perceive and understand who it was, of course.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Jesus asked him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
SPEAKER_00: And Saul said, Lord, who are you?
SPEAKER_00: You know, his salutation betrays that he knew exactly who he was talking to.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus sent Saul away to Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't even have him do you turn and head back to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Said, no, you keep trucking, my friend.
SPEAKER_00: You get to Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: You go find those Christians you're after.
SPEAKER_00: And so Saul is now forced, blinded.
SPEAKER_00: His companions had to lead him by the hand to Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: And then they left him there in a house.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't want, once they delivered into Damascus, they didn't want anything to do with him.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they were on their way to kill Christians, and the head Christian, Jesus, struck their leader blind.
SPEAKER_00: So they're out.
SPEAKER_00: Package delivered.
SPEAKER_00: If you need us, we'll be back in the temple in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Good luck, Saul.
SPEAKER_00: And you remember the Lord appears to Ananias, who was a Jewish convert to Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: He was a member of the way.
SPEAKER_00: At this point, the Christians were known as the way, based off of Jesus' words in John's Gospel, which had yet to be written, of course, one more of the authenticating factors of Scripture, that the believers were known as the way, which comes from something written in John's Gospel.
SPEAKER_00: John's gospel wasn't going to be written until 60 years after this.
SPEAKER_00: And yet it accurately contains the words of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The believers understood that Jesus described himself as the way, the truth, and the life, and so they called themselves followers of the way.
SPEAKER_00: One of the leaders of that group, a man named Ananias, Jesus appears to him and says, You know Saul, the one who was there putting Stephen to death, go to him.
SPEAKER_00: Ananias says, No, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus politely tells him, you know, consult the flowchart, Ananias.
SPEAKER_00: You work for me here, my friend.
SPEAKER_00: And so Ananias goes to Saul and prays for him.
SPEAKER_00: And Saul is soundly converted to faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The scales fall off of his eyes.
SPEAKER_00: This is described, by the way, in Acts 19.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord said to Ananias, Go, for Saul is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And you can just, as you're reading that, pause there and just think how insane that is.
SPEAKER_00: Saul, who is wanting to put to death Christians, is not just that God's going to save him, he's going to make him, quote, a chosen instrument.
SPEAKER_00: Paul will become the apostle to the Gentiles, which is another radical reversal.
SPEAKER_00: The one who was so angry at Christians for saying that the separation between clean and unclean was torn down, is now going to be an apostle to the very people who were defined as unclean.
SPEAKER_00: He was so hostile towards Christians for saying these kinds of things, and now he's going to be a messenger to the very people who were outside of Judaism before.
SPEAKER_00: And he will go before kings and before the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Speaking of Gentiles and Jews, children of Israel being Jews, of course, kings.
SPEAKER_00: There were no Jewish kings then.
SPEAKER_00: This is obvious that he's going to be a missionary to Gentiles, specifically kings.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, his name does not become Paul when he gets converted.
SPEAKER_00: He goes by Saul still in his Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: His name becomes Paul when he witnesses to his first Gentile king who becomes a believer.
SPEAKER_00: The first king who hears Paul's preaching and gets saved.
SPEAKER_00: That king's name was Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Paul took the name of the first king who was converted from his preaching.
SPEAKER_00: He was no longer be Saul the Pharisee putting to death Christians.
SPEAKER_00: He would now be Paul, an ambassador to Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus continues in Acts 9, verse 16, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.
SPEAKER_00: That is so unlike the kind of gospel presentations here today, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Often the gospel presentations today consist of, you know, health and wealth.
SPEAKER_00: You want your problems solved in life, you want your difficulties in life to get away, you want a better family, you want better kids, you want a better dog.
SPEAKER_00: Well then come to faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the gospel presentation that Saul heard.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, I'm the Lord, and I made you blind.
SPEAKER_00: I alone can make you see, and also you will go through great suffering for my sake.
SPEAKER_00: You want in or not?
SPEAKER_00: And if you remember how this plays out, Saul believes.
SPEAKER_00: He puts his faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, the scales fall off of his eyes.
SPEAKER_00: And he can now see.
SPEAKER_00: Ananias came and prayed for him.
SPEAKER_00: And scripture says, quote, something like scales fell off of his eyes.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can picture Luke.
SPEAKER_00: Luke, who is a physician, Luke, who is a doctor, understands medical terminology here, and he says, I've never seen anything like this.
SPEAKER_00: Something, let's call him like scales, fell off of his eyes.
SPEAKER_00: He regained his sight.
SPEAKER_00: He was immediately baptized.
SPEAKER_00: Remember when the Pharisees tried to be baptized before, back in Matthew chapter 3, they came out to John the Baptist to be baptized before, and John said, You brood of vipers, who told you to repent?
SPEAKER_00: I thought you were the ones who added all together.
SPEAKER_00: If you want repentance, then repent from your sins.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to come out here for some kind of show, go away.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Saul, when he gets converted, immediately is baptized and becomes the apostle to the Gentiles, sees a king, Paulos converted, changes his own name to Paul, and submits his life to the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: The scales that fell off of his eyes illustrate his approach to the scripture.
SPEAKER_00: When he was a Pharisee, he viewed the Old Testament very closely.
SPEAKER_00: He saw the details of the Old Testament, but he didn't get the point.
SPEAKER_00: Now that he's a believer, he goes from blindness to sight.
SPEAKER_00: Now that he's put his faith in Christ, he can actually perceive the truth of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the great reversal.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisee who persecuted Christians becomes persecuted as a Christian by the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: The one who was opposed to Gentiles saw Gentiles as his mission field.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the great irony behind Ephesians 3, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reversal.
SPEAKER_00: He's in prison, if you remember, because his exact charge was bringing a Gentile into the temple court.
SPEAKER_00: We'll look at that at the end of this morning's service.
SPEAKER_00: So he was a prisoner for the specific charge of bringing Gentiles into Judaism.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, that's not what he was doing.
SPEAKER_00: He was bringing Gentiles into the faith of the promised Savior, the Savior who was promised to Adam and Eve and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the Savior who's in the line of King David.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, he should be a light to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he should be a light to the world.
SPEAKER_00: This is 1 Kings chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: Solomon, David's own son, prayed that the Savior would be a light to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Moses in Deuteronomy 4 prayed that Israel would be a light to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Of course the nations would come.
SPEAKER_00: This is the prophecy in Psalm 90, the nations would come.
SPEAKER_00: Haggai chapter 2, the nations would come to faith in the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's obvious that when the Savior comes, Gentiles would be converted.
SPEAKER_00: But this is something so obvious that the Jews could not perceive it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking forward to our time in Ephesians 3 because Ephesians 3 is its own really special and unique chapter.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 1 is all about the truth of salvation from God's perspective.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 2 is the truth of salvation from man's perspective.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 3 is Paul's prayer for salvation to work itself out in your life.
SPEAKER_00: God predestines you in eternity past.
SPEAKER_00: Christ dies for you before you were born.
SPEAKER_00: His Spirit saves you in your life and seals you for eternity future.
SPEAKER_00: That's chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 2 is you were dead in your sins and trespasses.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus caused your eyes to be opened through the preaching of his word, and now has given you good works to walk in.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same story as chapter 1 and chapter 2, except from different perspectives.
SPEAKER_00: They converge in your heart right now.
SPEAKER_00: That's chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's praying for this truth to work out in your heart right now, but his prayer is interrupted.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't get back to his prayer actually until verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: If you notice the way Ephesians 3 works, he says, For this reason, I, and what he wants to say is, I'm praying for you.
SPEAKER_00: For this reason, I, I'm praying for you, I, Paul, I'm praying for you.
SPEAKER_00: I bow my knees before the Father, he says in verse 14, but he interrupts himself.
SPEAKER_00: For this reason, I, Paul, comma, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, and you want to get into his prayer, but he doesn't go there yet.
SPEAKER_00: He puts a parentheses there in chapter 2, verse 13 is just one long parentheses, one long interruption of his prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And if you roll your eyes at that, I mean you if you're honest, you probably pray like that too, don't you?
SPEAKER_00: You pray, you're like, God, I have just one request, and then you before you almost justify your request.
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is what I'm actually at, because I know you're a good God and you're holy and you're pure.
SPEAKER_00: And I know I'm a sinner and I've sinned in all these different ways.
SPEAKER_00: I know I don't deserve this, but you told me to bring my request to you, and but I really want this, but I trust you no matter what.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, now we're to it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Paul's praying the same way, which encourages me.
SPEAKER_00: It encourages me that Paul interrupts his own prayer with some commentary here.
SPEAKER_00: His commentary is inspired, and so we're gonna look at it.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, we're gonna spend the next four weeks looking at his interruption to his prayer here before the prayer.
SPEAKER_00: So this is kind of the intro to the prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it's the Holy Spirit saw fit to inspire this, and so we're gonna see fit to study it over the next three or four weeks.
SPEAKER_00: This morning we're just gonna look to the first part of this, verses two, three, four, and five.
SPEAKER_00: And this is all, this whole interruption, by the way, is about the mystery of the gospel, the mystery how Jews and Gentiles will be part of the church together.
SPEAKER_00: But we're gonna hold off on looking at the mystery itself until next week.
SPEAKER_00: But for this week, just almost the interruption to his prayer, the introduction to the mystery, it's verses two through five.
SPEAKER_00: And the language that is all over this is about the importance of scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Paul readies our hearts for the mystery, the revelation of the mystery, this foundational and radical shift in God's redemptive program.
SPEAKER_00: He readies our hearts to receive it by speaking and hammering home the authority of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: It's like he's tilling the soil in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: What's going to happen in verses 6 through 13 is so profound, it changes world history.
SPEAKER_00: It's so profound it will radically change your life.
SPEAKER_00: To get you ready for that, he spends these verses, verses two through five, tilling the soil in your heart, turning it over to help you get kind of the ground of your heart ready to receive the seed of the word.
SPEAKER_00: There are nine references, and these verses we're looking at this morning, verses two through five, there is nine references to scripture.
SPEAKER_00: He tells you, he speaks of the mystery as that which you have heard, a reference to scripture.
SPEAKER_00: By revelation, a reference to scripture.
SPEAKER_00: I've already written briefly a reference to scripture.
SPEAKER_00: You'll read this, a reference to his own letter, which becomes scripture.
SPEAKER_00: You'll perceive my insight, a reference to scripture.
SPEAKER_00: It's been made known, another reference to scripture.
SPEAKER_00: It's now revealed, a reference to this very book.
SPEAKER_00: By the prophets, a reference to the Old Testament Scripture, and now by the Spirit, a reference to the inspiration behind this book, which would become part of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Nine references to this.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's very aware that he's writing scripture as he's writing this.
SPEAKER_00: He's aware that this is inspired, and he's reminding the Ephesians, this is the inspired word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what he's doing here, he's preparing them to receive the mystery.
SPEAKER_00: We'll look at the mystery next week, but understand this.
SPEAKER_00: What he's describing is the mystery, something that was hidden and now revealed, is really earth-shattering.
SPEAKER_00: It's worldview altering, and he is making sure you're ready to receive it by reminding you of the importance of the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's why nine times he's telling you, the word of God is what teaches this.
SPEAKER_00: You won't understand how radical of a change this is until you understand the power of the word of God in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And so, for an outline this morning, I want to look at, I'm gonna give this heading, a mature Christian's posture before the word.
SPEAKER_00: He's preparing the Ephesians to receive this mystery.
SPEAKER_00: He's telling them to kind of work on their posture before you get the word.
SPEAKER_00: Look at how you're approaching the word of God, look at how you're receiving the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Posture, I think, is a good word for it.
SPEAKER_00: Posture, you know how we mean by that in English is how you're sitting when you're at work or if you're parenting a teenager, you understand that the outside of them reveals the inward attitude.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they're listening to you like this.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like you're not really listening.
SPEAKER_00: What gave you that idea?
SPEAKER_00: I don't have a teenager yet.
SPEAKER_00: I can use I can use that for one more year before it is too close to home.
SPEAKER_00: The posture for how you receive the word.
SPEAKER_00: So we'll talk this morning about that.
SPEAKER_00: Next week we'll get into the mystery itself first.
SPEAKER_00: You're supposed to read the word with open eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Read the word with open eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Paul tethers his description of this mystery to the fact that the Ephesians are receiving inspired scripture describing it.
SPEAKER_00: And he's banking on the Ephesians' hunger for the word.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he's telling them, I'm assuming you've heard of the stewardship that God's grace was given to me for you.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, I'm assuming you've heard about me as an apostle.
SPEAKER_00: The mystery was made known to me.
SPEAKER_00: So he's telling them, I'm going to tell you something that's worldview-altering, and I know you're going to receive it because you received the word with open eyes.
SPEAKER_00: You received the word with hunger.
SPEAKER_00: He's trusting that they have a hunger for the word because they are believers.
SPEAKER_00: He's rooting their acceptance of this revelation into the fact that God is revealing it in God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And so, my question for you this morning is pretty basic.
SPEAKER_00: Do you approach the Bible with that kind of eagerness?
SPEAKER_00: Do you approach the Bible with an eagerness to receive the Word of God?
SPEAKER_00: Are you hungry for the Word of God?
SPEAKER_00: As the Israelites needed manna in the wilderness, we need the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And the Israelites needed manna in the wilderness daily.
SPEAKER_00: We need the Word of God daily.
SPEAKER_00: It is food for our soul.
SPEAKER_00: It's what the sheep eat.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible describes us as sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Sheep need food.
SPEAKER_00: Our food is scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Our food is to do the will of God who sent Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That will is revealed in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Man does not live on bread alone, Jesus said, but rather on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
SPEAKER_00: That is our food.
SPEAKER_00: So as Paul's reasoning with the Ephesians here, he's trusting that because they are believers, they will have an appetite to receive God's word.
SPEAKER_00: This is a telltale sign of believers.
SPEAKER_00: They want the Word of God in their heart.
SPEAKER_00: They want the Word of God in their mind.
SPEAKER_00: This is a very basic and practical way to fight sin in your life, is to memorize Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: So that when you're tempted to sin, you can bring Scripture to mind.
SPEAKER_00: This is a very basic way to fuel your worship.
SPEAKER_00: You memorize Scripture so that you are just reciting scripture in your mind as an act of worship.
SPEAKER_00: It's a way to power your prayer life.
SPEAKER_00: You memorize scripture so you can pray through parts of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: In your devotional life, you can open the Word of God and read a passage of Scripture and pray through that passage.
SPEAKER_00: Ask questions about that passage.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is the basics of the Christian life here.
SPEAKER_00: There was an old word, it's not used often anymore, but just the word quiet time.
SPEAKER_00: When I first got saved, my pastor said, you know, a basic part of being a Christian now is you need to have a quiet time.
SPEAKER_00: And that word is fallen out of style now.
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't hear it very often anymore.
SPEAKER_00: But it's such an important concept.
SPEAKER_00: Devotional life is kind of how we call it now.
SPEAKER_00: But devotional life is a little bit broader.
SPEAKER_00: Like devotional life often includes like listening to Christian radio for devotions.
SPEAKER_00: E-gads.
SPEAKER_00: Quiet time is this idea that you sit down and you open your Bible and you read it and you pray through it, you ask questions in your mind about it, and you sit there quietly until you're able to answer the questions with yourself and your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Not with texting a friend.
SPEAKER_00: But you pray to the Lord and you work through a passage and then the next day you work through the next passage.
SPEAKER_00: And that becomes a basic part of your life.
SPEAKER_00: That's feeding your soul the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: That is like Christianity 101.
SPEAKER_00: I'm afraid that often people are missing that in their Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul banks his conversation here with the Ephesians on this reality.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Word of God, so you're going to want to hear it.
SPEAKER_00: And so ask yourself: do you want to hear the Word of God?
SPEAKER_00: Not scripture on coffee cups, which is fine if it reminds you to go have your coffee in your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: But scripture in your heart, scripture from the pages of the Word of God into your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Do you read the Word with open eyes?
SPEAKER_00: John 6, verse 66, after Jesus just ruins his best evangelistic opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a massive crowd that's all out there to hear him, and Jesus gives them commands that are too strict for them.
SPEAKER_00: He says, you know, you've got to eat my flesh and drink my blood, and they all leave.
SPEAKER_00: What's left is the apostles there, one of them who's a devil himself.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus asks them, Are you guys also gonna go?
SPEAKER_00: And what a great response from Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Peter says, I don't know where else we would go.
SPEAKER_00: Why not?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus asks.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter says, Because you alone have the words of life.
SPEAKER_00: We've all believed, Peter says, so we've all come to know that you are the holy one of God.
SPEAKER_00: Notice Peter's connection.
SPEAKER_00: You are the holy one of God, which means you have the words of life, which means we can't leave you.
SPEAKER_00: Why can't they leave Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Because he has the words of life.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus, after his resurrection, does leave us.
SPEAKER_00: He ascends up to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to hang out on a hill in Galilee with him to receive his words anymore.
SPEAKER_00: We can't do that.
SPEAKER_00: He's in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he has given us his spirit, which exposes us to the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: So we read the word with his spirit which dwells in us through faith, brings the word alive to us.
SPEAKER_00: We have spiritual life, or we have what Peter referred to as the words of life.
SPEAKER_00: That's reading the word with open eyes.
SPEAKER_00: It requires faith to do that.
SPEAKER_00: It requires what Peter said, that you are the Holy One of God.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're the Holy One of God, I can hear your words as the Word of life.
SPEAKER_00: And there is a uniqueness to the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: There is no other book like the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I hope you're reading other Christian books.
SPEAKER_00: Because that will fuel your devotional life also, and that will build out your mind.
SPEAKER_00: But those other Christian books are all secondary to the Word of God, because the Word of God alone is the perfect revelation of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's the only authority.
SPEAKER_00: Every other book you read is all secondary to the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Every other book you read is judged through the lens of the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: The Word of God alone has ultimate authority over your life.
SPEAKER_00: There's no salvation without the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: There's no spiritual growth without the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And thus Paul's approach to the Ephesians is rooted in their faith.
SPEAKER_00: If they have faith, he says, I'm a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming you've heard of God's grace that was given to me for you, so they know God's grace, so that you will receive the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: As I'm writing to you briefly, he says in verse 3, I want you to receive the Word of God through your faith.
SPEAKER_00: It requires faith to open your eyes to see the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Did Paul read the Bible before his salvation?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: He was a Pharisee.
SPEAKER_00: But did he read the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: He couldn't understand what it was saying because he had exalted himself in his own religion above the very teaching of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: This is the nature of man-made religion.
SPEAKER_00: It interprets God's word through its own lens.
SPEAKER_00: God's word is not the authority, their own rules and regulations are.
SPEAKER_00: And so to really understand the word of God, you have to humble yourself and put yourself under the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: The non-Christian's posture before the Word of God is his eyes are closed, even if his eyes are open.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, even if he's getting a PhD in, you know, from in literature studying the Bible, and non-believable, it's amazing to me how many non-believers will get PhDs in biblical studies.
SPEAKER_00: It's really astonishing.
SPEAKER_00: They can be experts in the Bible and not know that Jesus Christ is the Lord of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: Because they're reading blind.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it works better.
SPEAKER_00: Reading works better with your eyes open.
SPEAKER_00: It really does.
SPEAKER_00: This is why Paul's conversion comes back to it.
SPEAKER_00: For you to be a recipient of the Word of God, you need to be converted.
SPEAKER_00: You need, and when he gets converted, remember the scales come off of his eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Now he can see.
SPEAKER_00: That's just not that's just not like a cool thing that happened.
SPEAKER_00: It's a metaphor for us.
SPEAKER_00: And what's a metaphor for?
SPEAKER_00: To teach you the truth behind it.
SPEAKER_00: Your conversion is the same way.
SPEAKER_00: You know, scales fell off of your eyes in your conversion.
SPEAKER_00: You went from being blind to the truth of the Word of God to being able to read it and perceive it.
SPEAKER_00: So eyes open here is a metonym for having faith.
SPEAKER_00: When you have your eyes open, it's because you have faith you can now perceive the truth of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, this is not beneath you.
SPEAKER_00: You might be educated, you might be influential in politics or influential in government or influential in law enforcement, you might be wealthy and wise and importance and all that, but you're nothing unless you humble yourself before the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: You have to have a contrite spirit and submit yourself to God's word.
SPEAKER_00: A passage that speaks to this so perfectly also in the book of Acts, Acts 17.
SPEAKER_00: Speaking of the Berean Jews, these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica.
SPEAKER_00: Which, by the way, the Jews in Thessalonica, Paul specifically esteems them in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, I think, for receiving the word of God, not as the word of men, but as it is the very word of God.
SPEAKER_00: So those in Thessalonica did receive the Word of God, and Paul commends them for it.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, there was a class of people that was even better than them at this, the Bereans.
SPEAKER_00: They were more noble than those in Thessalonica, for they received the Word of God with eagerness.
SPEAKER_00: The Thessalonians received the Word of God and said, This is God's word, amen.
SPEAKER_00: And they were believers, but the Bereans went further.
SPEAKER_00: They received the Word of God with eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
SPEAKER_00: They both came to faith.
SPEAKER_00: The Thessalonians heard Paul's preaching and said, That's the word of God, we believe, and Paul commends them for it.
SPEAKER_00: The Bereans heard Paul's preaching and they said, We believe that because it matches the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Both paths are salvation, but Paul here in Acts 17 says the second path is even better than the first because it pushes Scripture up higher and higher and higher.
SPEAKER_00: Many of them, Paul says, Acts 17, verse 12, believed with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.
SPEAKER_00: I love that phrase thrown in there.
SPEAKER_00: You see the difference between the Jewish world and the Greek world a little bit too.
SPEAKER_00: And some of them got saved through Paul's preaching.
SPEAKER_00: Because they heard his preaching and they checked the word of God and they saw that it was true.
SPEAKER_00: This is Greek women who are hearing Paul's preaching, Old Testament prophecies fulfilled, and they're saying, What's Old Testament prophecy?
SPEAKER_00: Show them to me.
SPEAKER_00: And so you picture these Jewish people having to like walk these Gentile, prestigious, wealthy, Gentile, influential women through 2 Samuel chapter 7 in the Davidic covenant.
SPEAKER_00: Like, let me explain this to you.
SPEAKER_00: And this is how it's fulfilled in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, oh, it matches, I believe.
SPEAKER_00: What a crazy scene, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope it convicts some of you.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, I fear, fancy yourselves is too important to submit yourself to the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Here's important, influential people.
SPEAKER_00: High standing.
SPEAKER_00: Also a couple men thrown in there, too.
SPEAKER_00: And they were able to submit their hearts to the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: The Bereans should be your example, receiving the Word of God with eagerness.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first part of your posture.
SPEAKER_00: Receive the Word of God with ignorance with eagerness.
SPEAKER_00: The second part, perceive the Word with a humble heart.
SPEAKER_00: Perceive the Word with a humble heart.
SPEAKER_00: Read it.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, I'm drawing these words, I'm not making them up here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm drawing them from verse 4 of Ephesians 3.
SPEAKER_00: When you read this, that's the first one, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So that's where this outline is coming from.
SPEAKER_00: Read in verse 4 and then perceive in verse 4 into the mystery of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, we're going to hold off on what the details of the mystery until next week.
SPEAKER_00: But here he's saying, because you read, you will perceive.
SPEAKER_00: It's not enough to have open eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Your posture is not complete with eyes open.
SPEAKER_00: You complete your posture with eyes open and then a humble heart.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm becoming more and more convinced that this is going to be one of the critical attributes of a mature Christian in the coming generation.
SPEAKER_00: As you see persecution increase, as you see Christianity becoming less and less politically accessible and tolerable, there's different responses to that.
SPEAKER_00: And some Christians might respond to that by being bold and strong and angry and taking on the world and taking on the culture, which is a Don Quixote going at windmills kind of approach.
SPEAKER_00: The right response is to humble your heart beneath the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Let the Word of God do the work in the world for you.
SPEAKER_00: And you humble yourself beneath the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is why faith is needed to understand God's word, because humility in your heart is needed to perceive God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Let me try to explain it this way, because often it just becomes theological concepts that you need salvation to be submissive to God's word.
SPEAKER_00: But let me like walk you through the way this works.
SPEAKER_00: A non-Christian sees himself as the authority.
SPEAKER_00: He is the judge over God's word and what is true and what is not, which means he's not in a very good position to render a verdict on it.
SPEAKER_00: The first function of God's word is to convict the sinner, right?
SPEAKER_00: God's word is given to expose you as a sinner and to convict you.
SPEAKER_00: So if you are the defendant and God's word is prosecuting you, you cannot also be the judge.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if any of you have been a defendant in a trial.
SPEAKER_00: I have.
SPEAKER_00: It was speeding.
SPEAKER_00: I was the defendant.
SPEAKER_00: I presented a very good case.
SPEAKER_00: After my case, the judge did not ask me, so now that you've heard your evidence, what verdict do you render?
SPEAKER_00: I wish she had, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Because I had a good case.
SPEAKER_00: She just was not persuaded by it.
SPEAKER_00: I still feel to this day, had I appealed, I would have won.
SPEAKER_00: If you're the defendant at the trial, you don't get to render the verdicts because you are the one who is on trial.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God prosecutes you, it convicts you as a sinner, it exposes your sin.
SPEAKER_00: So if you respond to it defensively, or making excuses for your sin or getting around it, or like W.
SPEAKER_00: C.
SPEAKER_00: Fields said when he was confronted with the Bible, somebody said, What are you doing reading the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: And he responded, I'm looking for a loophole.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way many people respond to the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Looking to dodge around it, looking for an excuse to get away with it.
SPEAKER_00: That's not a posture of humility before it.
SPEAKER_00: When you come to faith in Christ, you receive Jesus as your Savior, you confess your sins, you believe He died on the cross as bearing the wrath for your sin.
SPEAKER_00: You believe he was resurrected, you receive that by faith.
SPEAKER_00: You now have the Holy Spirit who dwells in you who is also convicting you of sin, and all of this should put you under the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: So you're no longer reading it in a position of authority, like you're reading it as I'm determining what's true and what's not.
SPEAKER_00: You're reading it as the position of a soldier getting orders from a commanding officer.
SPEAKER_00: You're now not responsible for weighing which part of the Bible is true and which isn't, which has authority and which doesn't.
SPEAKER_00: No, it all has authority and it's all true, and you are submissive to it.
SPEAKER_00: Saving faith is believing that Jesus Christ died because you are guilty of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: So the Bible wins.
SPEAKER_00: It declares you to be guilty.
SPEAKER_00: You submit, you surrender, your sentence is given to Jesus instead, and now you are declared free, a free man, and your freedom is seen underneath the authority of the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: So a believer should have a submissive attitude towards the Word, not a hostile attitude towards the Word.
SPEAKER_00: There are those that have an attitude towards the Word of God, they don't want it infringing on their autonomy.
SPEAKER_00: They're okay with much of what the Bible says as long as it doesn't step on their toes.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's a social distance approach to the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Like, give me some space here, God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Give me some space.
SPEAKER_00: You can have lots of things saying about how all those people are sinful and how all those people are sinful, but I need a six-foot perimeter around me at all times in my quiet time.
SPEAKER_00: Don't start convicting me about being a better husband or a more godly wife or a more obedient child.
SPEAKER_00: Don't start convicting me about my work ethic.
SPEAKER_00: Don't start convicting me about my love towards my spouse or my devotion to my marriage.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: That is strictly off limits.
SPEAKER_00: God's word can do its work in all kinds of other areas.
SPEAKER_00: Politics.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot to say about politics.
SPEAKER_00: But my heart, get out, God, and your word.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way I think a lot of people have the attitude towards the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: They read the Bible like they read Yelp reviews.
SPEAKER_00: They scroll through it looking for something that appeals to them.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that psalm's too convicting.
SPEAKER_00: Nope, that psalm's too convicting.
SPEAKER_00: Nope, that psalm doesn't seem appropriate.
SPEAKER_00: Nope, this psalm, oh, that just daisies and puppies.
SPEAKER_00: I'm all in with this psalm.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible should not be read that way.
SPEAKER_00: Some read the Bible like treat the Bible like they treat a tour guide.
SPEAKER_00: Here's some different places you might want to go.
SPEAKER_00: What interests you?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that interests me.
SPEAKER_00: And then you you tip your tour guide when it takes you to places you wanted to see.
SPEAKER_00: If you approach the Bible that way, you will have your own preconceived notions built up and you will not be convicted of sin.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible isn't that kind of book.
SPEAKER_00: It's the kind of book that demands that it be followed and demands that you submit yourself to it in order to understand it.
SPEAKER_00: What's behind the attitude of people who are less than submissive to the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: It's usually sin.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's not even the most academic person who says, I can't believe the Bible is God's word because of, you know, evolution or because of, you know, the Q document, that's the first three Gospels that's redacted to a certain blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: It's usually not, those aren't the real objections to the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: The real objections to the Bible is that they want to have an affair on their wife, and the Bible tells them they can't, and so they come up with some excuse to say why the Bible can't be true.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's that's really what you're dealing with there.
SPEAKER_00: The real objection is they want to cheat on their taxes and not feel guilty about it.
SPEAKER_00: And so they come up with this fancy excuse with all kinds of letters that go after their name to justify why they don't need to believe the Bible is the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And it's all so they can lead a sexually immoral life or a financial a life for financial gain.
SPEAKER_00: And that attitude is not confined to the kind of liberal academic world.
SPEAKER_00: That attitude is very much prevalent inside of evangelicalism, where people make excuses for why not all the Bible is true to justify their own sin.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, the Bible says divorce is wrong, but Jesus has a better wife for me.
SPEAKER_00: Kind of attitude.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, the Bible says sexual immorality is wrong, but you know, that doesn't mean I can't sleep with my girlfriend.
SPEAKER_00: What's the big deal?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible doesn't mean like you have to follow all the parts of it all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: That attitude is the attitude of unbelief, and it is not receiving the word of God with open eyes or with a humble heart.
SPEAKER_00: So let me be very specific.
SPEAKER_00: When you receive the Bible, do you submit yourself to it or do you make excuses to justify your own sin?
SPEAKER_00: Do you harbor sin in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Do you harbor sin with your boyfriend or your girlfriend?
SPEAKER_00: Do you harbor sin with your finances?
SPEAKER_00: Do you give God's word borders that it shouldn't cross?
SPEAKER_00: Be it a sexual sin or an intellectual sin that you just want to elevate your own intellect above the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: You're too smart.
SPEAKER_00: You know those Israelites, they barely had an alphabet that's workable.
SPEAKER_00: How can they know the origins of the world?
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have the Hubble telescope.
SPEAKER_00: We do.
SPEAKER_00: Some people reject teachings of the Bible because they say, oh, that's only taught in one verse.
SPEAKER_00: It's like saying the judge only said guilty one time to me.
SPEAKER_00: Rejecting what God teaches about creation or about marriage or about ethics because God only said it one time, rejecting what God teaches about controversial topics because it's not politically correct, that kind of intellectual snobbery is actually spiritual adultery.
SPEAKER_00: Powerful verse about this, Isaiah 66.
SPEAKER_00: Thus says Yahweh, heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool, what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?
SPEAKER_00: All these things my hand is made.
SPEAKER_00: So all these things came to be, declares Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 1 is just an introduction to verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: God says, I made everything.
SPEAKER_00: Everything there is, I made it, it all belongs to me.
SPEAKER_00: Mine, God says.
SPEAKER_00: I made the mountains, I made the cattle on a thousand hills, I made all of it.
SPEAKER_00: You see it, it belongs to me, says God.
SPEAKER_00: But this is the one to whom I will look.
SPEAKER_00: He who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.
SPEAKER_00: God says, I could have anything I wanted.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need a fancy temple.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need sacrifices.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need proud people.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need strong leaders.
SPEAKER_00: He says, That's not what he's looking for.
SPEAKER_00: He's not looking for strength and assertiveness.
SPEAKER_00: That's not who his eyes are roaming around looking for.
SPEAKER_00: He's looking for humble and contrite people who tremble at his word.
SPEAKER_00: God does not need lawyers to justify him, he doesn't need a jury to acquit him, he doesn't need voters to approve him, he doesn't need an army to defend him, he doesn't need police to rescue him.
SPEAKER_00: What he is after is people who bow their hearts before him and his word.
SPEAKER_00: So you should ask yourself, what is your posture before God's word?
SPEAKER_00: If you want to stand before the Lord when you die, you have to kneel before his word now.
SPEAKER_00: The person who is upright in heart is contrite before the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Boldness in this world requires humility before this word.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul's banking on the Ephesians, receiving the Word of God, seeing the Word of God with open eyes, perceiving it with a humble heart.
SPEAKER_00: So they're ready to hear the mystery.
SPEAKER_00: Now there were riots, of course, in Paul's preaching and his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Just like in our own world, I mentioned this at the beginning of our service today.
SPEAKER_00: There were riots in Paul's life.
SPEAKER_00: The most significant one is described in Acts chapter 21.
SPEAKER_00: Paul, after having gone to Ephesus already and ministering there, goes back to Jerusalem and he brings a man named Trophimus with him.
SPEAKER_00: Trophimus was a Gentile who was converted to Christ and became Paul's traveling partner.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, so it's not surprising that he would have converted Gentiles with him.
SPEAKER_00: Paul goes back to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He'd been there before with Timothy and had Timothy circumcised and could bring him into the presence of God and the Jews there.
SPEAKER_00: But Trophimus was a full-on Gentile.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul goes to Jerusalem with Trophimus, leaves Trophimus at their house, wherever they're staying, and Paul goes to the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul goes to the temple every day during the week without Trophimus.
SPEAKER_00: Gentiles were not allowed into the inner part of the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was, as a Pharisee, of course.
SPEAKER_00: This is a world without Facebook.
SPEAKER_00: It's a world without the internet.
SPEAKER_00: People don't recognize everybody.
SPEAKER_00: You think many of them would recognize Paul because he used to be a Pharisee there, but years had gone by, and so he's basically going in and out of the temple unnoticed.
SPEAKER_00: But what does get noticed is some Jews from Ephesus arrive in Jerusalem and they recognize Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, there's a massive riot in Ephesus earlier when Paul first arrived in Ephesus.
SPEAKER_00: So the Jews certainly recognize Paul.
SPEAKER_00: They see that he has Trophimus with them, and so they spread a lie that Paul had been bringing Trophimus into the temple with him.
SPEAKER_00: Which was a lie.
SPEAKER_00: It was not true, the scripture says, but they spread it.
SPEAKER_00: This produced a riot, a riot that a centurion and his hundred soldiers could not put down.
SPEAKER_00: Eventually it fell to what the scripture refers to as a tribune.
SPEAKER_00: A tribune is someone who oversees 600 soldiers.
SPEAKER_00: Six centurions.
SPEAKER_00: This is a massive continuum.
SPEAKER_00: He's likely the highest-ranking officer in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Mobilizes all of his troops.
SPEAKER_00: They go to rescue Paul, knowing that Paul was a Roman citizen.
SPEAKER_00: They pull him from the clutches of the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: This is a massive, massive riot.
SPEAKER_00: They rescued him, but they couldn't get him out of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: So remember how they how they, quote, rescued him?
SPEAKER_00: They stuffed him in jail and guarded the jail with their 600 soldiers.
SPEAKER_00: That was Paul's rescue.
SPEAKER_00: Eventually they are able to move him to Caesarea for trial, with Jews that accompany him to Caesarea for trial.
SPEAKER_00: At trial, Paul appeals to Caesar, which was his right as a Roman citizen, and Paul's transferred to Rome.
SPEAKER_00: In Rome, he's placed under house arrest, chained to guards.
SPEAKER_00: This is where Ephesians is written.
SPEAKER_00: He's left in Rome waiting for the Jews to travel from Jerusalem to bring the charges against him.
SPEAKER_00: Who knows if they ever show up?
SPEAKER_00: The book of Acts ends before they do.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul spends much of the rest of his life.
SPEAKER_00: He's eventually going to get his freedom, he'll be rearrested and eventually martyred.
SPEAKER_00: But do you understand that he spent years in jail?
SPEAKER_00: The charge against him was ministering to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: This is the mystery.
SPEAKER_00: So when Paul says in verse 1 that I am a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, those are not idle words.
SPEAKER_00: What would make a person who hated Gentiles go to prison for the sake of giving them the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: Only the Word of God can make that kind of change in someone's life.
SPEAKER_00: So ask yourself this morning: has the Word of God made that kind of change in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Have you gone from darkness to light and blindness to sight?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we're thankful that the Word of God does its work in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: We want to submit our hearts to your word.
SPEAKER_00: We want your word to do work in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, please convict us of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Expose sin in our life.
SPEAKER_00: Help us love you more than this world.
SPEAKER_00: Help us love you more than our lust.
SPEAKER_00: Help us love you more than our money.
SPEAKER_00: Expose ways that we sin.
SPEAKER_00: We know it's a dangerous prayer to make, but we we do make it with eagerness because we value the truth of your word above our own reputation.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for those who are perhaps proud before your word, who reject parts of your word, I pray that they would be convicted of their intellectual snobbery, that they would be convicted of their own arrogance this morning.
SPEAKER_00: They would humble their hearts, humble their minds, and put them under your word.
SPEAKER_00: We're grateful for your word, and we pray that it would work in our hearts this week as we go into the world.
SPEAKER_00: We ask this in Jesus' name.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us today.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, I would love to meet you personally at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our service times and other church information is on our website at ibc.church.
SPEAKER_00: If you want information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to tms.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been an encouragement to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord bless you.