God's Great Plan - Mike Criswell

I want to thank you for being here tonight.

It's great to see each one of you and I appreciate so much

your presence. I know when a hot evening it is

perhaps easy to stay home and stay out of the Heat and kick

back and relax. But you've chosen to be here and

I certainly appreciate that because I think it shows your

interest in spiritual things and things that ultimately will

endure forever. You know, this life is fleeting

this life is passing and of course, the things that many

times we hold so dear and near in this Sly freely at the end of

the day and at the end of life's little day, really means so

little. And so you're here tonight,

we're going to study God's word together and certainly, we

believe that what we're going to study is indeed the mind of God.

You know, I think we're blessed tonight that we can actually

hear the words that God had in his mind, you know, a long time

ago, God placed man in the Garden of Eden and God began to

speak to man that point God gave them the rules the laws so that

they might be protected and of course so that they might come

to know him man. Violated that man, still

violates God's laws today. In fact, it seems that the

history of our world is a violation of God's law.

But we're here tonight, we're going to look at some things

that the word of God says. We're going to look at some

things that the Apostle Paul has to say actually in the book of

Ephesians and of course Paul as he began Ins to speak the mind

of God in the book of Ephesians talks about how God predestined

a great plan so that we might be saved.

You know, the book of Ephesians is one of those books that I

love to preach from because it's a book that really, I think cuts

through all of the nonsense and gives us a theological

perspective, a clear perspective of really God's love for us, you

know, on chapter 1 Paul begins and Ephesians and speaks of His

plan that he in his mind long before he created, man had and

of course he created, man, he placed man in the Garden of Eden

man. Sinned and fell from that

initial state of Covenant relationship and even from that

point on God began to prepare the coming messiah.

In fact, one of the greatest passages and I think all the Old

Testament is Genesis 3:15 were God says that the seed of woman

Genesis 3:15

that's Christ the seed. Of woman would come and crush

the head of the serpent. That's the devil.

And, of course, we know that that happened at the cross

because Jesus, the seed of woman, born of a virgin born of

Mary, when he died, Satan had bruised him.

But when Jesus arose, he crushed the head he crushed as it were,

the main power of Satan, you see Satan has always been about

death, the devil is always been about destruction, but Jesus

overcame. That he overcame, death Hades

and the grave, and he arose again the third day.

So the first chapter of the book of Ephesians, Paul speaks of

this great plan, this providential plan where he

predestined those, that would be in Christ, they would be saved.

And then in Chapter 2, you remember that Paul speaks of the

grace of God that very famous passage.

Where Paul says by grace are you saved?

Not of Works. Lest any man should boast now of

course, That doesn't mean that we don't have some

responsibilities as individuals, but it is truly by God's grace

that we are saved now. Grace is God's unmerited favor.

In other words, Grace is something that we don't deserve.

It's something that we did nothing to earn.

And of course, when we look at Ephesians 2 verse 8, in the

Ephesians 2:8

context of Ephesians 1, it's this great plan.

That Paul is still. Speaking of it's the grace that

God Long before we were around so we can't claim any any any

credit in it. It is that plan that God set in

motion out of graciousness out of pure love for us so that we

might be saved. You know, the very famous

passage in John 3:16 Says that God.

John 3:16

So loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, you know

again, when man was so evil. In fact, her Romans 5, when we

were yet without strength, Paul says Christ.

Died for the ungodly. That's one of the most

incredible passages I think of all the New Testament because

there we are shown that while we should have died while we

deserve nothing from God Christ came and God gave us eternal

life. Well, of course, in Ephesians

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3 we begin to see this great mystery.

That Paul begins to elucidate where the Jews and the Gentiles

and all of those of the world can come into the church, you

know, you Today, we talked about the church.

You know, Jesus promised to build his church, he promised to

build the Church of Christ if you will, and he said, Upon This

Rock, I will build my church in that rock.

We discussed was the great truth that he was the son of God.

And of course, that great promise, Jesus fulfilled, on the

day of Pentecost, when he built the church.

But, you know, in the Old Testament as God began to

prophesy about the church, he did that to the Jews.

You remember the old Nation of Israel.

They were God's chosen people. They were the ones that he had

formed out of this ragtag group of slaves that he had brought

out of Egypt under the hand of Moses.

And they became this great nation of Israel and to them, he

gave the covenants and to, then he gave the temple and to them,

he gave the priesthood. But the Gentiles, the others,

the pagans in the world were left out but, you know, God had

a plan even there, didn't he? God planned to bring the Jews

and all of the world together. Ian.

Jesus Christ. And of course the Old Testament

is really the working out of the beginnings of that great plan.

God begins to deal with the Patriarchs or the fathers of

families and then he deals with a nation.

And then of course, the nation of Israel gives way to the

tribes of Israel and to Jesus Christ who then through whom God

begins to deal with the world. And so we're in the Christian

age now. God is giving all people.

All the Races, the world, the chance to be saved.

And of course Paul speaks of that in Ephesians chapter 3, he

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

calls it. A great mystery and by mystery

he doesn't mean something that can't be understood.

He doesn't mean something that is that is difficult necessarily

even understand, but he revealed he refers to something that was

not revealed until the time was, right?

And of course, Paul in Galatians 4 says that when the time was

right, God sent his son made of a woman made under the law to

redeem those That were under the law.

And so the point is this, Paul in Ephesians 1 and chapter 2 and

chapter 3 is preparing the minds of his readers.

There at the church at Ephesus to understand and to truly

appreciate this great Plan of Salvation for them in Jesus

Christ, you know, today, we can enjoy that same plan.

We can be saved today. We can be saved from our sins.

We can have that same relationship with Jesus and With

God that they had back in the first century and of course that

is a wonderful thing for us today because when we heed the

gospel and when we obey the gospel, when we obey the good

news of Jesus coming to this world when we hear it, and we

believe it. And we repent of our sins and we

confess Jesus as Lord and Savior and deity and then have our sins

washed away in baptism. We are added to the Lord's

church. We are added to the Lord's body.

We are added to that group of saved that poor.

All the speaking of in Ephesians ones when he said, God

predestined those in Christ to be saved and to be part of

heaven with god. Well, we can go on through the

beginning fusions and look at the other chapters.

He'll chapter 5, the book of Ephesians is a wonderful chapter

chapter 5 speaks to the analogy of the Christ and the church.

He speaks their of the husband wife and Allergy and gives the

parallels and then a chapter 6, you remember the book of

Ephesians speaks of the Christian Army.

Armor and how that we put on the word of God, and other things to

keep us strong against the devil.

But I want us to look this evening just for a few moments

at Ephesians chapter 4, you know, if these receptor for is

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

one of those chapters that I think is pivotal in our

understanding of the basics, you know, we were talking yesterday

about going back to foundational principles, going back to the

basics because it is the basics on which everything is based

every structure. Every career everything that we

do in life has to be based on the basics.

You know, if you want to learn piano or you want to learn to do

drawing or writing, you have to learn some Basics and I believe

the basics for Christian Living. And even for the church, and

what it really is, is found here at least in part, in Ephesians,

Ephesians 4:1–4

chapter 4, verses 1 through 4. Now typically, when we preach on

this, or when we study it, we realized is that Paul is

speaking of the ones, he mentioned, seven ones in these

four short verses, he speaks of the Oneness of God system and

you know, that makes sense. Because really what he's talking

about is Unity, he's talking about the the the system that

God is created that is complete and cohesive and always holds

together and so then Paul begins to tell us about that system.

Now he does that in a very interesting Way, he begins.

First of all, with relationships in the congregation.

You know, the Church, of course, is about relationships, isn't

it? First of all, the church is

about relationships with God. You know, when we were separated

from God, we come to God in Salvation and through obedience

to Salvation and the Waters of baptism.

And we are united. We are at one with God.

We are at peace with God. And, of course, once we get into

the church, and we become a member of the body of Christ, we

Began. Then to work out our differences

in our differences, in culture, and maybe languages, and and

other things in the church. And so there is a, there's a

point of unity in the church, and, of course, being humans.

Sometimes we strive, we struggle, we struggle with that

note. We sometimes, you know, we had

Crossways with one another. In fact, you know, as I've lived

my life. As I've looked around that, you

know, various congregations that have had problems.

Sometimes it is over doctrinal issues.

And of course, Doctrine must be maintained at all cost.

But many times the difficulties that we experience as Christians

in congregations, many times stem, at least for my

perception, from personal grievances, we have with each

other, we have personality conflicts, we have difficulties,

we're human, we get on each other's nerves and it's kind of

like a family, you know? We again, sort of picking each

other and sometimes that can be even lead to division not, oh, I

want to dwell on that, can I? But that's not my main point and

I see no reason here in this congregation.

I know of nothing that I need to speak on about that.

But nonetheless, Paul begins with the church at Ephesus and

he tells them. Listen, you need to be United

because ultimately God is United, and he's going to get to

these seven ones. The one Lord, One Faith, one

baptism, one God. And Father of all, you know,

that, you know, the seven. Once you've heard them preached

on, I'm sure before, but let's begin.

And 4:1, and as we like to do, we're going To go expository

through the first four. Verses, the Paul says this.

He says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord beseech.

You now, that sets up then the overall context for the book of

Ephesians. Now, the book of Ephesians is a

book that is called a prison Epistles.

The Apostle Paul found himself on this occasion in prison and

he writes the book of Ephesians the book of Philippians and

probably a couple of other letters as welcome.

Washington's. And they need another letter or

sothe high Lehman to individuals and the churches while he is

under house arrest or while he's in prison.

And so, then he begins to write this letter, A begins to focus

upon his own authority and his own situation.

And I think he throws this in there, to make them understand

what he was willing to go through for the cause of Christ

in other words. Jesus was so important to the

Apostle Paul that he was willing to even go to prison and to

death. In fact, of course, tradition

tells us that that's exactly what happens.

Most of the Apostles except for, maybe the Apostle, John, at the

end of the first century died through a martyrdom of of life

because they held onto the tenets of the Gospel will Paul

says listen, I'm a prisoner. He says, I'm a prisoner of the

Lord and then he says because of this or this being who I am and

my willingness to dedicate my life to Christ.

Here's what I want you to do. He says I beseech you or I beg

you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were

called now you know the idea of walking is an idea of continuing

in something, it's idea of maintaining a status in

something. You know, the gospel of our, the

Epistles of John speak, a lot about walking.

You remember John for example, says that if we walk in the

light as He is in the light, we have Fellowship one with another

one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from

all sins, John speaks of this continual walking and of course

in the Greek it's in the continual type tense which

indicates that we don't just take a few steps in Christ.

We have to walk we have to continue walking long term for

Christ to be pleased with us. Well Paul says, listen you

church at Ephesus. I want you to walk in Christ.

I want you to walk worthy. Worthy of Jesus Christ.

Now, of course that would imply, would it not that it is possible

by Our Lives, to walk in an unworthy manner, you know, when

we sin and when we live, you know, riotous wives and our

communities are we don't uphold the gospel we, in reality are

walking in a way that brings shame and reproach upon Christ.

And so Paul says, I want you to hold forth the torch of truth

and light to your community, I want you Wall daily in the way

that you should walk and I want you to be a good influence to

those around you. Now, of course, on a practical

level of the season, that's exactly what we are the news.

Well, we are to go out everyday in our Walk of Life, and we are

to shine forth the Praises of him who has called us into this

glorious life and that others see the light of Jesus Shine

through us you know Jesus in The Sermon on the Mount said, let

your light so shine before. Before men that they may see

your good works and not boy for you, but glorify your father who

is in heaven. And so Paul begins to remind

them that he wants them to walk in Christ, be strong in the Lord

and continue in this. Strong relationship with Jesus.

You know what I think about walking with Jesus, I think

about hand-in-hand that song hand in hand, we walk each day

hand in hand along the way walking, thus, I will not stray.

Hand in hand with Jesus, you may remember that as long as it's

very picturesque, a path that leads off into perhaps the

distant Hills and you with Jesus walking along that road of life,

knowing that you're safe and knowing that you have everything

you need spiritually. Because Jesus is by your side

and you had put your hand and he is.

Now, Jesus won't hold your hand. If you want to go, Jesus will

not force you to follow him by his side.

He let you go and many times we do.

Go astray. But Jesus always has His Hands

Extended just like he did on the cross to engulf our hands and

golf us and bring us back to him.

But that's not the point that I want to continue with this

evening. I want to go on to see what Paul

begins to say. He says, I want you to walk with

this calling, I want you to do it in a worthy Manner, and then

he says with all lowliness and gentleness, you know, that's

something that all of us need to learn because we live in a rough

world. You know, we live in a world

where It is dog, eat, dog. We live in a world where, you

know, someone slaps us on the cheap we want to turn slap them

on the other cheek. You know, that's what Jesus

really was dealing with when he said turn the other cheek.

He's talking about. Being Meek and gentle.

He's talking about being those who are, you know, unafraid to

take abuse upon themselves for the cause of Christ.

He says, I want you to walk with loneliness and gentleness.

In other words, we don't have to always have our way.

We can defer to others and of course in matters that are not

gone for an old. We certainly should defer to

others and he says, with long-suffering bearing with one

another in love, the idea of long-suffering is to literally

suffer long. In other words were patient with

others. You remember the Apostle Paul in

First Corinthians chapter 13 gave this as one of the

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

characteristics of true love. Love suffers long and is kind.

It's patient. It's all of those wonderful

characteristics that Others first.

So Paul says all of this. Don't why would he say this?

Because whether or not they were problems, then at the church of

Ephesus, Paul certainly knew that people have problems and he

wants to show them that they need to be United.

And he's going to do that, not only by beseeching them with

these, very emotive, sort of arguments, but now he's going to

switch and show that God in everything is United.

God is a god of unity. God is a God that has a system

that holds together very well. God is a god of order.

You know, we look at course the universe and we think about the

universe and the stars and the planets, and how they all work

in their orbits. You see, God did all that God

placed order, he placed a pattern in the world, God is a

god of order and that's what Paul.

Now is going to address in the spiritual realm as well.

What does he say? Say he now begins to talk about

the church and so he says in verse 4 he says there is one

body and one Spirit I'm going to read through down to verse 6

action and read this. Then come back and we'll analyze

each of these seven ones. He says there is one body and

one Spirit just as you were called in one.

Hope of your calling one Lord, One Faith, one baptism, one God

and Father of all, who is above all Through all.

And in you all now, again, there are seven ones here, there are

seven proofs that God system is United that God's plan of

providence is one. And that we then should be one

as members of Christ's body the Paul begins.

And he says, first of all, there is one, body know, what does

that mean? What is the body?

Well, of course, when we think about the body, we think about,

Jesus Christ, don't lie. And, of course, Jesus did have

one. Physical body.

But now if we let the text explain the text, what Paul is

dealing with here is not the physical body of Jesus Christ,

but the spiritual body. You see when we are baptized, we

are baptized into Christ. We become part of his spiritual

body and it is as if we were grafted in to a physical body.

But the scientist spiritual body.

We become one and part and parcel with Christ.

Body spiritually. Now in chapter 1, Paul says this

in verse 22 he speaks of the power of Christ and he says he

put all things under his feet and gave him to be head, over

all things to the church which is his body Solis, use that.

And let's go back in and plug in what Paul says in Ephesians 4.

He says there is one bottle now. What is Paul saying?

He's saying there is one Church, there is one spiritual body of

Jesus Christ. Now, I think we need to develop

that just for a moment because I think that concept is created a

lot of division and misunderstanding especially

amongst the denominational world.

Now, of course, when we think of the body, if we think of a large

circle. Now of course the biblical

pattern, the biblical Paradigm in picture of the one body.

Is that first of all, there is a one universal body in Matthew 16

passage and we looked at yesterday when Says, I will

build my church. He was speaking of the one

universal body, composed of all the faithful Christians of all

time. And of course to the end of time

that body though is composed of faithful congregations.

When you look at the New Testament, the Apostle Paul was

writing for example to the Church of Corinth.

He wrote to the church at Ephesus, he wrote to the church

at Philippi. Now all of those congregation

Ins look to Jesus as their head, all of them look to the apostles

Doctrine just like in Acts. 2:42 the Jerusalem Church, did they

Acts 2:42

continued steadfastly in the apostles Doctrine and they did

those things which the apostles having been Guided by the Holy

Spirit late down, and of course, the biblical Paradigm then is

that we have this body of Christ.

This Universal body, composed of faithful, we want to underscore

that faithful congregations. Congregation.

So for example, there is hopefully the congregation in

Bakersfield on that Circle. There's the congregation locally

at home, we call it 85th and Euclid.

Our street on that Circle. Maybe there's another town Lodi

or something that would have different, you know, different

Congress different towns with congregations, all of whom are

looking to the Bible, all of whom are worshiping according to

a Biblical pattern and that then consists of the one body.

And that's what Paul is speaking of.

He says there's one body or there's one church now, the

denominational world and I think this is where we need to see the

distinction does not look at the one body or the church as being

the universal church with faithful congregations in it,

but they look at the one body as a universal church with

denominations in it. So what you do then is you take

that big circle and rather than having the little Has of the

faithful congregations within it, you then replace that with

denominations and so when you talk to your friends in the

religious world really, they will say, you know, we're all

going to heaven. We're just going by different

roads. I've had people tell me that

that not long ago. I was sitting on the plane and

the man said, you know, we all pray to the same.

God, we were talking about religion.

Well, you see that's the that's the kind of postmodern.

I'm okay. You're okay view.

It comes out of a Vision and a denominational mindset of what

the church should be Beyond. Again, Jesus says there's these

as our Paul says, there is one body, and, of course, that one

body is not composed of denomination.

It's why because those denominations all teach

different things. In other words, it would be as

if a body had divisions within it.

You know, when you look at the denominational world, it is

filled with the Visions, you've got some denominations, or

having kids. Borders over here.

You have some denominations and have a headquarters over here or

the other place. You have some that look to this

law or some to this catechism and it's really a religious

mess. No wonder people are confused in

the religious world today. You don't think Jesus was

praying in John 17. Jesus, pray for Unity.

Why so That Others May believe that his Apostles, having said

you see the you disunity in our religious world tonight.

Is an indication, of course that something is wrong.

Will you say when people go back to New Testament?

And of course, that's what the church is.

A priced of always plan, go back to the Bible, go back to the New

Testament when we go back to New Testament, and every

congregation whether it's here, or whether it is in Kansas City,

or whether it was back Ephesus time, go only to the New

Testament and see, only the New Testament as it spatter and law,

then we can have that biblical. Picture that Paul speaks of, we

can have that one body, you know, Paul wrote to Corinth who

was a divided. Sure.

And he says is Christ. Divided was Paul crucified for

you. You know, there were people in

that congregation apparently who are beginning to have factions

or denominations if you will. They begin to follow different

individuals and Paul conditions that he says?

No, the church is one, the body is one and it is consistent of

those who are Faithful in their worship, faithful in their

lives. Who go back to the biblical

pattern. So, when Paul says, there is one

bottle, he speaking of the one church.

He speaking of the one spiritual body of Jesus Christ.

And of course Jesus had one spiritual body.

He had one physical body, and that do we not remember that

every Lord's day, with the single Blow from the Lord's

table, as we think about the one body of Jesus Christ, you see?

The unity, the Oneness is throughout the New Testament

system. But Paul says, there is one body

and then he says, there is one Spirit.

Now, what is he thinking of your well?

Obviously he speaking of the Holy Spirit now there's a lot of

things we could say about the Holy Spirit and we get perhaps

even discuss and maybe even argue over how the spirit works

and he dwells and all of those other little Nuance stains.

But what does the spirit do? A spirit in life?

Has a spirit gives life in fact, you know, Our own bodies have a

spirit, do they not? You know, James makes the

argument that the body without the spirit is dead and he goes

on to say that faith without works is dead.

In other words, if you just have a body without a spirit of that

some life in it, it's a dead body.

Will the spirit the holy spirit in livens?

The church. Now, without getting into all

the nuances of how it interacts, with the individual, how does it

interact with the church? Well, through the written word,

In fact, the word of God has always been that, which the Holy

Spirit brought, you know, Peter said that even in the Old

Testament, Holy men of God were moved Along by the spirit, as

they wrote, and as they gave, the things that then would guide

God's people back then. And of course, in John 14:26,

John 14:26

John 15:26, John 16 verse 13. Jesus Promised, the holy spirit

John 15:26 John 16:13

to guide the apostles into all truth and So you see when Paul

says there is one Spirit what he's saying is there's only one

source of spiritual life and that ultimately is going to come

through, what the spirit revealed which is the word of

God. In other words, any other doctor

any other teaching that is brought by another spirit.

So to speak is certainly not that which Paul would agree

with. In fact, in Galatians, Paul even

reprimanded. The churches of galatia about

going off for another gospel and he said, even We or an angel

from heaven, preach any other gospel to you and that which we

have preached, he says let him be accursed.

And so when Paul says there is one Spirit he's saying there's

one source for that which enlightens the church and that

Spirit brings the mind of God. In fact, the First Corinthians 2

Paul speaks of the spirit which knows the mind of God and he

goes on to say that we cannot know what's in the thoughts of

another man and last Batman reveals it to us and so it is

With God, God through his holy spirit, has revealed it to us

those things that he wants us to know.

And so Paul says there's one body and one spirit and then he

says, just as you were called in one, hope of your call.

Now the book of Colossians Paul speaks of this hope as being

found in the gospel, but what is the ultimate hope that we have?

Well, the ultimate hope that we have is eternal life with God,

in heaven and Paul says There is one.

Hope we only have one way, you know.

Jesus, in John 14 said I am the way the truth, the life.

No man comes to the father, except by me and so Jesus is the

only way the only hope of Salvation.

So, again, Paul indicates the unity and the Oneness of God's

beautiful system. There is one body, one Spirit,

one hope. And then he says, there is one

Lord now, of course, when he says, Lord here, he means Jesus

Christ. He means the authority.

Remember the convention Peter made yesterday, as we study

that, you are the Christ, the son of the Living, God that

Authority that God had bestowed upon Christ Jesus.

In Matthew 28:18 said, all authority is given to me, that's

Matthew 28:18

from God, on Heaven and in Earth and he says, I have all

authority. What Paul says that there is

again, one more there is only one with all authority.

They know that's very important, it's important.

First of all, personally, as we pointed out yesterday because

Jesus wants to sit as Lord on the throne of our hearts.

You know, many times, when we think of Jesus, we see Jesus

hanging on the cross. That's a wonderful beautiful

picture. That's a necessary picture

because without the shedding of Jesus blood, there would have

been no remission of sins. And sometimes we see Jesus with

a basin and how kneeling to wash the disciples feet.

That's a very necessary picture because we see there, the

humility of the god man and his lesson to us.

But, you know, we often don't like the picture of Jesus as

Lord. You see, Paul was living in a

day when there were literally slaves and where the Lord had as

Master every right to do whatever he wanted to the

slaves. Now, Jesus is not a hard

Taskmaster. In fact, Jesus in his own day

said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me for.

I am meek and lowly in heart. Jesus is as easy task master,

but he is our Lord, he's not just our friend.

Although that is true. But he is our Lord.

And in the, the times of Paul, when a boss or a slave owner,

our lord said something, it meant that individual, who was

listening had to do, Do it. Well you know many times we were

building and Star-Lord don't we? We rebelled against the lordship

of Jesus, we rebelled against Jesus having total control of

our hearts. You know we used to sing the

song have Vine own way. Lord have I Long Way You Are The

Potter and the clay mold me and make me after your will while I

am yielding waiting still. And you know, many times we

don't like that, you know, we are on as it were the the the

the The Wheel of Life and Christ is wanting to mold us and he's

wanting us to lay still what he makes of us a vessel to his

glory and we fight to get off the will we fight so that we can

do and be what we want to be and look like what we want to look

like? Well this is only one Lord,

there were many mores back at that time.

For the pagans. They have many gods.

They have many goddesses. They had many things that they

worship. Hall says, None.

He says, there's only one more and then he says, Is there is

one Faith, you know, many times when we talk of they'll say What

Faith are you? We know Paul says, there's only

one Faith. Now when we speak of faith and

I'll have to hurry here, but faith can be used in two ways.

It can be used in a subjective way referring to our own

personal faith. Our own personal convictions or

it can be used in an object of way referring to something

outside of ourselves. And I believe that's what Paul

is referring to here when he says, there is one Faith.

What he is thinking of, is that body of doctrines, those things

that we must believe in order to be saved?

You know, Jude says in Jude verse 32 earnestly contend for

the faith that was once for all time delivered to the Saints.

You see what Judas righty there is.

He's writing to Christians who had the word of God, the faith.

The Truth that had been delivered once for all.

There was not going to be anymore and he says, content are

holdfast lie to it in spite of everything that comes your way.

Well, Paul says, there's only one Faith, there's only one

system in other words by which we can be saved and yes, it

includes the baptism that Jesus taught, and yes, it includes the

doctrines of worship. Yes, it includes our Holiness of

Life Style, One Faith. And then he says, there's In

baptism a very quickly if you do a study on baptism in the New

Testament it's really quite interesting because really you

know while Paul says there's one baptism you know you really you

can read about more than one baptism in the New Testament,

you can read about the baptism of John, you can read about the

baptism of Jesus, you can read about Holy Spirit, baptism, you

can read about the baptism of fire, you can read about the

baptism of suffering. So what in the World is Paul

mean when he says there's only one baptism.

Well, it is that baptism contextually, I think.

Paul will show this over and over, not only in his missionary

Journeys. But also in his writing such as

in Romans 6 that that one baptism is the baptism immersion

in water for the remission of sins.

You see all of those other baptisms are either obsolete

such as John's baptism. Or they were things that were

never commanded you. Baptism the Holy Spirit was

never a command. It was something that was poured

out by God on a couple of occasions to demonstrate the

coming of the Kingdom but he was never a command to people.

So what is the baptism that was commanded to every single person

that was ever said? All you have to do, is read the

book of Acts in every example of conversion, every single one

without exception. They were baptized in water for

the remission of sins, by, and mercy.

Ian, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

just exactly like Jesus had commanded in Matthew 28 just as

Jesus had said in Mark 16 460 when he said he that believeth

and is baptized shall be saved, you know, it really boggles my

mind tonight as I talk to a lot of my friends and again I have

these discussions over and over about baptism and its necessity

or lack thereof. You know, Paul says there is one

baptism now, why would Paul even talk about Out baptism, if it

were not necessary, you know, Peter says in First Peter 3:21,

1 Peter 3:21

that the baptism that we go through the like figure unto

Noah, he said, saves us. He says, it is not the washing

of our bodies as we go under the water, but it is the answer of a

good conscience. You know, those old sacrifices

in the Old Testament, never totally cleanse the conscience,

but when we are baptized into Jesus Christ, we have our sins.

Totally taken away because Jesus is the perfect sacrifice.

He is as Johnson and John 1:29, the Lamb of God that takes away

John 1:29

the sins of the world. He is the perfect lamb.

The one that every other sacrifice pointed to Wars, he is

the Lamb of God. And so when we are baptized in

water for the remission of our sins, it is there that we

contact the death of Christ and it's there that the blood of

Jesus Christ cleanses us from our sins.

Well, let's go great. At the in some up with what Paul

then continues, he says one God and Father of all, who is above

all and through all, and in you all now, he's already spoken of

one. Lord, that's Jesus, he's already

spoken of the one Spirit. That's the Holy Spirit.

Now, he speaks of God, the Father, you see, he speaks of

the godhead. There is Oneness and the

godhead, they, you know, one of the great Mysteries of the

godhead or what some people call the Trinity.

I tend to shy away from that term because it carries you so

much baggage. But one of the great

difficulties is, how can three V1?

I don't know. I've tried to figure it out.

Theologians have tried to figure it out for 20, centuries.

I don't know. But yet there is such Unity

between God, the Father God, the son, and God the holy spirit,

that there is never a disagreement.

They are one, they are one in. Thought they were one in

purpose. They are one in essence, they

are one. And so Paul now gets to that

third part of the god yet, God, the Father, can you imagine can

you think of anything more absurd than for Christians, or

for, even a Jew for that matter to say?

Well, you know, there's a lot of God, the father's.

There's a lot of God's out there.

That's polytheism. Know, God is one, we are a

monotheists and Paul says there is one God one God.

And Father of all, who is above all and through all and in us

all now again he's above Paul because he has all power.

He's the one again that came up with the plan, he's the one that

sent his son to instigate the planet.

The Holy Spirit to tell about the plan, he is the one God,

anything beyond Oneness, would be absurd and he says, he's

through all, and he's in assault.

Now, I don't take from this. That, he literally means that we

are deity. I don't take from this, that he

means that we literally have God running around in US.

But he means, he's in Us in his influence.

He's in Us in the sense that we give our lives to him, and he is

in us and the sense that, you know, we espouse his word and we

become like him. And so, then the Oneness of this

great system that Paul deals with in Ephesians four verses

one through, six is so incredibly evident now.

What's the point? Well, there's a lot of points,

really, because one of the points that he begins with is

leave the point that we should be United amongst ourselves, but

the other points are theological One Lord, One Faith, one

baptism, one body. And I think if we look at those

things and really study what Paul is saying, we'll see that a

lot of the denominational things that we hear simply cannot be

true the, you know, in Africa, and other countries where it go,

we spend a lot of time we're not criticizing our friends that are

denominational, but we are tweaking.

Not tweaking. We are critiquing rather the

plans that they offer. Because what the Church offers,

what Jesus offered was simply the word we want to go back to

the word, we want to go back to the principles of the Bible and

probably at this meeting at some point.

We'll talk about that pattern that God has given us through

his word. Well, those are the thoughts

this evening and again, I would encourage you to read the entire

book of Ephesians. You can do it within really a

few minutes or one evening. Anyway, it's only six chapters

long as a great book and it really gives us the higher Her

thoughts. I think of Paul on the church

and the gloriousness of God's remedial system as found through

his son Jesus Christ. We thank you for listening to

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