Love Incorruptible

0:10Thank you for listening to the sermon audio podcast for Crossroads Reformed Baptist Church in Rockdale, Texas. Crossroads Reformed Baptist Church is a reformed confessional Baptist church that meets every Lord's Day at 10 a.m. for Bible study and 11 a.m. for corporate worship. For more information about our church or for directions, you can visit us online at www.crbcrockdale.org. Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

0:39I think if I acknowledge to you all the fact that I may be very emotional during this uh sermon this morning, I might actually not be. It has worked in the past, so I'm going to do that again this morning. I may get emotional. Uh I was emotional in preparation this week for this uh this final sermon because we are here at the final Sunday, uh final sermon through the book of Ephesians, and it has been a journey, a growing experience for me personally, and I pray and ask and hope for you all as well. Um but it is bittersweet, to say the least. And I do pray that there are many things that the Lord has taught us all throughout this journey. But perhaps above all, I hope that you've seen not only the beauty and glory of sound doctrine, which I pray and hope you have, but perhaps just as importantly, that sound doctrine always informs and empowers sound and godly living. We have seen over these past ten months the rich truths of God's eternal and electing love, his eternal plan of redemption before the foundation of the world. We have seen the glory of his grace. We have seen our oneness with Christ, we have seen our spiritual blessings that we now have in Christ. We have seen the mystery of the gospel. We've seen God's eternal purposes revealed to us in and through Christ. And in those purposes, the Jew and the Gentile were made fellow heirs, unified, members of the same body, partakers of the same promises through this great and glorious gospel. We saw a unity that transcends time and place and nation that knits us together into the church, into one body with Christ as our head. We saw our new life now in Christ that calls us to put off the old self and to put on the new, to put off the old self and all of the old ways and to put on the new, hidden, secured with Christ. A new life that's divine by the righteousness, holiness of God in Christ, that walks in the same love with which we were eternally loved. That love that was manifested on the cross where Christ died to save us. And with all those truths working in us and through us, we, as we saw the last few weeks, put on the whole armor of God. We go to battle against the enemy. We go to battle against sin, standing firm in the strength of our Lord as he carries us victoriously to glory. We conclude then this morning by considering the unsearchable riches of his grace and the enduring love of Christ that such grace produces in his people, us, the church. As we reflect then one last time this morning on the truce of this letter, empowering and shaping our walk. So for the final time, then let's stand. This is Ephesians chapter 6, starting in verse 21. So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing. Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will tell you everything. I have sent him to you for this very purpose that you may know how we are, and then he may encourage your hearts. 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. This is the word of the Lord. We thank you for the love that you loved us. And with which with we love one another. Help us, Lord. Open our hearts to receive this word. Teach us again by this great and grand letter. Ask all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. We will begin then by zooming in on those verses in particular in a few different sections. We'll start then with verses 21 through 22, as we consider then the fellowship of the gospel, the fellowship of the gospel. Certainly the fellowship and encouragement that is given to us in the gospel of Christ is a point that we have been laboring on, right? Significantly, not through this letter, but even on Sunday nights as well. This is with respect to the fellowship of Christ empowering our Christian community, our hospitality, our love for one another, among many other things. I think this whole topic can be really summed up in this way. The extraordinary, or we can emphasize it, extraordinary theology of this letter. The extraordinary theology of God's word produces rather ordinary Christian fellowship. Want to consider first, then, as we look back a bit, the extraordinary theology of this letter. Ephesians 3, verse 4. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men and other generations, that has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. The mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise of Jesus Christ through the gospel. This is a great mystery, the great mystery of the gospel that has now been revealed in Christ, that God, according to his eternal purpose, would gather to himself a people from every nation, from Jew and Gentile together, not united by birth or natural descent, but by faith in Christ, made members of one body, fellow heirs of the same promise, with Christ Himself as our head, our Lord and our leader. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 7, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth. In him. A plan and a purpose that the triune God had before time began came into its fullness through Christ, whereby the life and death of Christ, his resurrection, he truly did then and for all time unite all things in heaven and on earth. Through his life, through his death, through his resurrection, and through his ascension, Christ has accomplished everything necessary for the redemption of his people. Nothing remains to be added to his perfect work. Nothing remains to be added to his perfect sacrifice. And now we wait for the gathering of all his sheep and to the glorious consummation of that redemption when our great shepherd returns, brings us all home. Ephesians 2, verse 4. But 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 and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. Not only is that a future reality in our timeline, but it is a present reality now for us. We have, according to the riches of his mercy, and because of the great love that he has for us, we have been transferred from the realm of the dead, and we have been raised with him even now to everlasting life. We have been seated with Christ in the heavenly places, even now. And what our future holds then, church, is nothing but ages and ages to come whereby the Lord of glory will lavish his grace upon us and he will shower us with his immeasurable grace and riches and loving kindness. How can that even be true? And despite that grand and glorious nature of all of those realities, of all the truths that we covered in Ephesians, here as we read in the final summation, what do we see those truths producing? Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will tell you everything. I have sent him to you for this very purpose. That you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts. Think about everything that we've read thus far. Mysteries hidden for ages, eternal decrees of God, redemption accomplished and applied in Christ, sinners raised from the dead and seated in the heavenly places. These are truths so incredible that we could spend a lifetime contemplating them and never reach their end. And yet, as Paul brings this magnificent letter to a close, where does he turn our attention? A brother named Tychicus, a faithful minister, a man sent to encourage the hearts of the saints. How extraordinarily ordinary, right? The eternal purposes of the Almighty God, conceived before the foundation of the world, accomplished through the blood of his son, are being worked out then in the ordinary fellowship of Christian brothers and sisters who love and who encourage one another. This has been the heart of Paul since Christ saved him. We see it in other places, especially both of his letters to the church in Corinth, but especially 2 Corinthians chapter 12, that despite all the revelation that Paul has received, all the hardship and trial that he has been put through, he never stops laboring that the body may be encouraged. Saying so piercingly, so convictingly in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. This is the heart that the gospel produces. The wisdom and understanding of the great mysteries of the Word of God must and will produce genuine affection, true compassion and concern, constant encouragement of one another. Church, if we have spent all of this time studying these glorious doctrines of this letter, but have not grown in our love and affection for one another, then something has gone wrong. Do we know the burdens of our brothers and sisters? Do we know the burdens they are carrying? Are we concerned about their spiritual health? Do we seek opportunities, opportunities to encourage the hearts of others? Theological truth is never meant to stop simply with understanding it. It's always meant to transform our lives. This is what Paul is doing. Looking then in verse 23, that first half, he says, peace be to the brothers. He returns us again then to the idea of peace. So I ask us again, as I've asked us before, what is peace? What is peace? Ephesians 2, verse 1, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now work and the sons of disobedience. Among whom we all once lived in the passions of the flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead and our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. We tend to think of peace as the absence of conflict, right? We tend to think of peace as the end of our troubles. That peace is peace in circumstances. But the peace that Paul speaks of, or the lack of peace that we once had, is something infinitely greater. It is not a feeling, it is not a circumstance, it is a reality accomplished outside of us through the reconciling work of Jesus Christ. Before Christ, we were dead in our trespasses and sins, weren't we? We were children of wrath. We were not merely troubled, we were not merely restless souls in need of comfort. We're guilty sinners under the righteous and holy judgment of God. We needed more than peace of mind, church. We need more than peace in our circumstances. We needed peace with God. And in Christ alone we have received that peace. Further, not only do we have peace with God, but we have peace with one another. We truly do have peace with one another. Ephesians 2, verse 11. Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision, by what is called the circumcision, that which is made in the flesh by hands, remember that you were at one time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God. But now in Christ Jesus, you who are once far off were have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, who has made us one, and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. So when Paul says to us this morning, peace be to the brothers, he is saying far more than just may you all get along with one another. He is calling us to remember what peace really means, what the cost of our peace actually was, who peace actually comes from, and our call to preserve that peace that was purchased for us and given to us by his grace. I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of your calling, to which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace? Do we know that peace? The peace that comes from having been made right with God through faith. Do you know that peace? Is this peace displayed in your life, in all of our lives, through, as Paul says, humility and gentleness and patience, bearing with one another and being in unity with one another? Does the peace of God produce that in you? May the peace of God be with us and pour out from us to one another. This is the command. The second half of that verse 23. Peace be to the brothers and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is love and faith of the gospel. Faith, we have said, fixes its gaze upon the work and the person of Christ. Faith receives the riches of Christ. What is faith? Way back in Ephesians, we saw the essence of this. Ephesians. Are in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 4, we are chosen in Christ. Verse 5, he says we are predestined in love. Verse 7, he says we are redeemed by his blood. Also in verse 7, he says we are forgiven by his grace. Verse 13, he said we are sealed by his spirit. And verse 14, we are guaranteed an inheritance and an eternal life. All of that is accomplished by God, not earned by us. All of this is the great object of our faith. That is the great object of our faith, Christ Himself, and all that He has accomplished for us. Our faith does not look inward then to something that we have done. It cannot. But it looks outward to someone who has done everything for us. Notice also where this love and faith comes from, as our text said. Even here, then. The very end of this letter, Paul will not allow us to look to ourselves as the source of anything. He will not allow us to look to ourselves as the source of our salvation, the source of our spiritual health and life, the source of our faith, the source of our love. It's all from God. The faith by which we receive Christ and the love that flows from that faith are themselves gifts and blessings of his grace. We love. Can you finish it? Because he first loved us. And we continue in love because his grace continues to work in us. We're called then through that faith, given to us that which comes from outside of ourselves, to experience and to know the love of Christ that would otherwise surpass understanding. A love that is so incomprehensible to common man, so foreign to the fallen mind that it is only through faith and through the inner working of the Spirit that we're able to know this love. We are able to experience what it is to be loved with this eternal, undefiled love. This is a love that transforms our lives, that calls us to put on something new as we are enlightened from the futility of our former minds that did not know that love. To walk in this love as children of light and to walk carefully in that love as we seek to honor the one through whom this love comes to us? So I ask you: does the faith you have in Christ shape the way you think about love? Does love with faith do something in and through you? Or is it a profession only? Do you have great pride in professing faith in and love for Christ? But does it shape you? Does it change you? Does it turn you into something recognizably lovely and holy church? May we receive these words. May they truly mean something to us. Peace be to the brothers and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Finally, then we finish where we started. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. The grace of the gospel is where we finish. The letter began with a declaration of grace, if you remember. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you. And peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And here we end. Grace be with all of you. We can say then that this letter, in much the same way as our walk with Christ, in all of the same ways as our walk with Christ, and our relationship with God is surrounded from start to finish by grace. From start to finish, it's all grace. Even all the armor that we just finished putting on was never a call to self-sufficiency, right? It was never a call to equip yourself for a battle. It's always and ever will be a call to stand in and to take up what God has graciously provided for us. Whether it be then the truth given through his revelation to us, the righteousness that earned, that Christ earned for us and imputed to us, the gospel written and given by God, faith given as a gift from God through his spirit, the salvation that is purchased through the blood of the spotless lamb, his word, made flesh to fulfill all obedience, his word enscripturated, so that you may know beyond all doubt that these things are true. It must be new. This is all grace. All his unmerited favor shown to us. What does the revelation of such grace produce in us? We just talked about it. It produces love. But here at the end, Paul takes it even further. With the final words being the very thing that brought forth all creation itself, that is love incorruptible. Paul has spent six chapters declaring the unfathomable riches of God's love and grace towards us in Christ, didn't he? And now with these final words, he speaks of those who love Christ with a love that is incorruptible, a love that endures. The love of God for sinners has produced a people who love him incorruptibly in return. We certainly don't love him perfectly. Our affections are often weak and frail. Our devotion is often inconsistent. Our hearts are cold. But the grace that has brought us to love Christ in the first place is the very grace by which he preserves our love and will keep it incorruptible. This letter, then, that we have now completed, was not the only letter that the church in Ephesus received and was recorded for us in the pages of Holy Scripture. In the book of Revelation, recorded for us in the second chapter of Revelation. And following, we have seven letters that were given by Christ to the church, the churches of Asia, at that time in Ephesus, this church, got the first of those seven letters. In Revelation chapter two, hear the words of Christ to the church in Ephesus, this church. To the angel of the church in Ephesus to write the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your works, your toil, and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake, and you have not grown weary, but I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love that you had at first. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. In all the striving and armor-bearing of this great church, they had forgotten how to love. All the effort that Paul puts to ground their love for God in grace and their love for one another, in the same grace, how quickly it can be abandoned in our toil, in our zeal for truth, and our fighting of evil, and our labor to endure. All of those things are so very commendable. But the very words of Christ tell us that these are all covered over if we abandon the precious love of Christ. I know you know the verse. If I speak in the tongue of men and angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clinging symbol. If I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledges, and I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all that I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. How does the love of Christ manifest itself to you? It is love that sought you out when you were a stranger. It is love that all that is and always will be there for you, even when you have made a complete and total mess of your life. It is a love that stayed with you through the best of times to keep you humble, and through the worst of times to keep you from despair. It is a love that fully knows every thought you've ever had or will have, every action that you've ever done or undone or not done, and yet is never faded. It's never moved even one inch from its incorruptible perfection. This is a love with which we are loved, and the love through which the grace of God flows to us. The love of God in Christ for you is eternal, undefiled, perfect, unending, everlasting. Use every other word. Church, when all is said and done, and a final letter can be written about your life. Will it be said that your works were good? But that you abandoned the love that you had at first. Church, you know how much I love good theology. You know how much I love rich, deep theology. How my gears and your elders' gears are turned, contemplating the eternal doctrines of our vast mysteries of God. You know how much we will teach and uphold the glorious riches of God's truth. We'll continue to do so. How much I want the same for all of us. But we must never forget how to love. To love as we are loved. Never lose sight of our call and our command to be imitators of God as beloved children, to walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. The gracious God who chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world will never stop loving us. Won't we love with that incorruptible love? So difficult then to kind of summarize ten months' worth of preaching, but this is my best effort. Our God is a sovereign and terrifyingly powerful God. Who could have done any number of things with his vast and unlimited power. What he did, though, was create a world where he might manifest his love and grace and mercy to a people for his own possession. And all the things he could have done, he chose a cross, a humble life, and death to be for the forgiveness of our sins. Of all the people he could have loved and saved, he has loved and saved you. If you have faith in Christ, of all the countless things he could have done in you, he has brought you to this point with all of your experiences, with all of your baggages, right here this morning to hear these words. Believe in Christ. Turn from your sins, and you will be loved, and you will love incorruptibly. Trust in the sovereign God who promises and saves and keeps people. Turn from your sin and your neglect that is keeping you from God and keeping you from love and being loved. Turn from your pride and surrender to the incorruptible love of God. Church, I want you to know and experience his love this morning, then. And every morning through our faith, and through his grace, may we believe in him, may we trust in him, may we receive his love, and in turn may we love him and love others incorruptibly. Peace be to the brothers and love with faith from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. Amen.

38:38Let's pray.

38:41Lord, we thank you for the love that you have shown us, the love that you have manifested to us through the sending of your Son. Lord, to be the perfect life that we couldn't live, Lord, to be the propitiation for our sins, Lord, to stand in the death that we should have died, to give us eternal life, forgiveness of our sins, Lord, who was resurrected from the grave to conquer death, Lord, to give us everlasting life. We thank you, Lord, in the mystery that that is how you have manifested your love to us in gentleness, humility, kindness, sacrifice. Help us to know that love, Lord. Help us to love like that incorruptibly. To you and to one another. Lord, we believe and we ask you to help our unbelief. Lord, we love. We ask that you would help us to love well as you have loved us. We ask all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.