A Gospel Foundation for Our Church
By Pastor Matt Black
08 January 2006
Lord's Day morning
Ephesians 1:2
Introduction: Open
your Bibles to the book of Ephesians. The title of our message this
Lord’s Day morning is “A Gospel Foundation for Our Church.” We could
subtitle it: “Church Growth the
[Read Ephesians 1]
This morning my burden is to lay the foundation of
the ministry of the
1 Corinthians 3:11
For
other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
So let’s be clear: Jesus Christ is the foundation
and Cornerstone of our church. This
morning, we are going to look at how we can build our church on the foundation
of the Gospel of Christ. The truths
found in the book of Ephesians touch every part of our lives—but all the truth
and doctrine rest on the Gospel foundation found right here in verse 2:
“Grace
and peace”
Paul
says, “Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from
the Lord Jesus Christ”
This declaration is the Gospel in its most simple
and basic form. So we must build our church on the Gospel. We need to offer to sinners the grace and
peace found only in Jesus Christ. It is
the Word of the Gospel, God says, that goes forth out of His mouth: and it
shall not return unto Him void, but it shall accomplish that which He pleases, wherever
He sends it (Isaiah 55:11). And He has
sent it this morning to
We are not gathered here for programs, personal
charisma, or because it is popular. We are
gathered today to guard the message of the Gospel and to promote it to sinners
so that they might come to know God savingly.
That they might be “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever…this is
the word which by the gospel is preached unto you,” so says Peter in his first
epistle (1:23-25). That is what brings
real meaning to life. That is what
brings hope and joy and love and a clean conscience. We want to build our church on the Gospel
because we want to live Gospel lives.
With that in mind, let us now turn again to our
text in verse 2.
“Grace be
to you, and peace, from God our Father,
and from
the Lord Jesus Christ” (v.2).
There it is!
GRACE!
I.
If we are to build this church according to God’s plan,
we must first take to heart that it is Grace
that sets the foundation stone. “Grace be to you” Grace: that word comes so
easily out of our mouth. Everyone from
the school children to entertainers sing of God’s “Amazing Grace.” What a powerful, life changing word, and yet
most people have no idea what it is.
A.
Grace is God exercising His free pleasure to unworthy sinners. The principle of grace is found on every page
of the Bible. Grace is the source and
fountain of God’s unmerited favor to wicked and defiled people who are worthy
of nothing else but to be destroyed by God’s wrath in the eternal refuse pile
of Hell, and yet God shows them free grace—it’s God’s pleasure to show you His
favor. Grace is God giving you heaven,
when all you deserve is condemnation.
Ø
Grace has
been called “favour you receive but to which you have no right or title in any
shape or form, and of which you are entirely unworthy and undeserving.”[2]
Ø
Charles
Haddon Spurgeon said, “Grace
is the free favour of God, the undeserved bounty of the ever-gracious Creator
against whom we have offended, [Grace is] the generous pardon, the infinite,
spontaneous loving-kindness of the God who has been provoked and angered by our
sin, but who, delighting in mercy, and grieving to smite the creatures whom he
has made, is ever ready to pass by transgression, iniquity, and sin, and to
save his people from all the evil consequences of their guilt.”[3]
Grace is freely given. God
planned it that way. Grace was
not an afterthought following Adam’s Fall.
God did not say “O now look what they’ve gone and done—I guess I have to
think of a solution.” No, God created
the world knowing and allowing it to fall into sin so that He might demonstrate
His grace. Before He founded the world,
Jesus Christ was given as a substitute for His people, for Jesus is the “the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). So it was the Lord’s free pleasure that
motivated Him to pour out His wrath on His Son instead of us, and instead grant
us repentance and faith and eternal life.
Indeed, listen to Isaiah preach about grace in Jesus Christ. He says in the 53 chapter concerning the
Lord, “…it pleased the LORD
to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his
days, and the pleasure of the
LORD shall prosper in his hand.11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and
shall be satisfied: by his
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their
iniquities (Isaiah 53:10-11). Praise the
Lord that God exercised His free pleasure.
As David says, “Our God is in the heavens: he hath done
whatsoever he hath pleased”
(Psalm 115:3).
Fear not, little flock; for it
is your Father’s good pleasure
to give you the kingdom.
That’s grace!
B.
Secondly, Grace is always personal. In the
Bible, grace is never some far removed outdated theological concept. Every word of Scripture is inspired and is
breathed off the page to the reader. This
word “grace” is God-breathed, and God-directed to you. It is intensely personal. It arrives intended for action in your
life. “Grace to you,” says the apostle.
Paul does not simply say “grace exists” or “there is grace,” but he
says, “grace to you.”
Paul demonstrates this personal
nature of grace throughout his letter to the Ephesians personally. He says things like:
Ephesians
1:4
“[God]
hath chosen us in him..[and that] we should be holy and without
blame
before him in love”
Ephesians
1:11
“In
whom also we have obtained an
inheritance”
Ephesians
1:12
“That we should be to the praise of his
glory”
Ephesians
2:1
“And you hath he quickened, who were
dead in trespasses and sins”
This is not some generic
Christian way of greeting, but a personal invitation to ponder and own the precious
treasure of God’s truly unconditionally love that He offers to undeserving wicked
creatures. It’s personal. You and grace are connected. That brings us to our next point.
C.
Because Grace is personal, it is then, of necessity
practical. Grace is to “you” and me so that it might bring
change in our lives. Grace runs after us—it refuses to collect
dust in our pharisaical, self-righteous minds.
Don’t ever say you know about grace unless it is working in you. Anyone who knows anything about God’s grace
has been broken as an undeserving sinner.
Are you broken today? If you’re
not, you have no right to speak of God’s grace.
You see God has a personal agenda to transform you and He has the
omnipotence to back that agenda up. That
is why we call it sovereign grace. God
has the sovereign power to enact change on your life through the power of the
Spirit and the Word of God.
Paul introduces grace here in
the very beginning of his letter, but he spends the rest of chapters applying
it to our daily struggles against sin and self and to our most intimate
relationships in life. Paul never just
presents theological truths about God—no, Biblical truth arrives in action. So many times we talk about grace in this
“happy-go-lucky” nonchalant superficially sweet tone. No, grace is known by those who smell the
battlefield. Grace is known by those who
fight for righteousness. They are
crucified to the world, and crucified to self.
You see grace is a living, breathing, transforming principle that makes its
mark on every area of our lives. Truth
is alive. Dead truth is no truth at
all. Dead truth kills spiritual
life. The superficial Christian says,
“Look how great I am, I memorized the Ten Commandments. The
person touched by God’s grace says, “I’m just a broken sinner, but I want to
obey God; Oh God help me to obey you!” A
superficial Christian thinks, “I better do right because I’m in church, and
so-and-so will see me, and I don’t want to disappoint the pastor.” A person touched by God’s grace lives like
God is here every minute of every day regardless of who is watching. He doesn’t just want to know the truth, he
wants to awake, arise, and live the Truth!”
Grace is practical. Grace gives us the answer to our broken
relationships, and it gives us the power and the plan to bring restoration. You see the key to making all our actions and
all our relationships whole again begins with getting our relationship with God
right. You may have wasted your life up
until now thinking you were ok because you know all the right stuff, you have
all the right answers. Today, don’t just
be filled with religious words and knowledge—let grace give you a right standing
with God. Grace is not about simply knowing truth, but about knowing God. It’s practical.
D.
And then, Grace is pervasive. This is
just a further implication that “Grace” is “to you” and to me. It is to this church. It is to this society. Let grace wrap its fingers around every
aspect of your life.
1.
Grace permeates our resources.
a.
Your time
Ephesians 5:16
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Use all your time for God, or evil will be glad to spend it for you!
b.
Your money
Proverbs 3:9-10 Honour
the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: 10
So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with
new wine.
c.
Your wisdom
d.
Your energy.
Luke 10:27 Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all
thy strength, and with all thy mind;
2.
Grace permeates our relationships.
a.
Once grace affects your life, it will inevitably
affect your family’s life,
either for the good or for the better.
Sometimes Jesus says to us:
Matthew 10:34-36
Think
not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a
sword. 35 For I am come to set a man at
variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the
daughter in law against her mother in law. 36
And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
Other times, God’s grace enters
into a family and whole families are saved, such as with Crispus in the book of
Acts:
Acts 18:8
And
Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his
house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.
Grace doesn’t always do that,
but it will always have some affect, either for the good or for the
better.
b.
Grace will regulate your marriage. Ephesians 5—Husbands
love your wives as Christ loved the church, Wives submit to your husbands as
unto the Lord!
c.
Grace will regulate your relationships with your co-workers. Because you are saved, you will work
differently than other people work. You
begin to do all your work “as unto the Lord” (Romans 14:8).
d.
Grace regulates your relationship with all creatures. You begin to heed the
call to give the Gospel to every creature.
You begin evangelizing your family, your neighbors, your friends you
coworkers, complete strangers. Perhaps
if you let grace have her full work in you, some of you will be so moved by
grace that God call you to be pastors and missionaries to even beyond our own
land.
So, if we are to build our church, let’s build it
on the Gospel! Let’s be a Word-centered,
God-centered congregation. Let’s not
just say we are Christians, let’s be
united with by Christ’s grace every moment.
Let His gracious sovereignty control your thoughts and mind, and
actions. Let His grace regulate your
resources, your relationships. Let
Christ reign over you and be “all in all” (Ephesians 1:23).
So we see in our text that grace sets the
foundation stone. Without God’s
initiative we would all be lost and without hope in the world. Secondly, let us notice,
II.
If we are to build this church according to God’s
blueprint, we must understand that Peace
seals the foundation stone. “and peace”
A.
First we see a Separation. This peace recognizes that we are by nature separated from God. Paul explains this in detail in chapter 2:1,
“1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and
sins.” We are dead in sins. When we are born into this life, our physical
body is alive, but our spiritual nature is stillborn. Its born dead in trespasses and sins.
Ø
Romans
8:6-8, “For to be carnally minded [to have the mind of an unregenerate
person] is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the carnal [unregenerate] mind
is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither
indeed can be. 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” In order to understand peace, there must be a
peace to make. We need peace with God
because we are separated from Him.
B.
But secondly, we see an Aggression. We need
this peace, because we are not just passively dead. We are not just standing still inactive and
unresponsive to God. No, we are by
nature responding to God very actively, and our response by nature is hatred. We are born at war with God. By
nature, man is born into this world as a God-hater. He not only is separated from God, he fights
against God, he is an enemy of God.
Ephesians
2:3 “[W]e all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the
children of wrath, even as others.”
Colossians
1:21 “And you, that were…alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works.”
Ephesians
4:3 We by nature have our “understanding darkened, being alienated from the
life of God through the ignorance that is in [us], because of the blindness of
[our] heart.”
So you see there is a natural aggression against
God. Listen to what David Martyn
Lloyd-Jones said to his
No he cannot!
He cannot bring peace to himself.
C.
That is why we see next that peace in its very essence is a Reconciliation. This
reconciliation is not proposed by man, but by God. The idea is a bringing together of a man at
war with God to right relationship with His creator. The man has stopped
fighting. And yet, this peace does not
merely mean “cessation of war, rest, and quiet.”[4] Surely it means that, but that’s not all it
means. Its not that we’ve simply stopped
fighting against God. The actual idea in
the Greek language is “a union after a separation.”[5]
God calls us rebels to put down
our weapons and be united to Christ!
Perhaps you are fighting Him today.
Recognize this natural aggression in your own heart. If you deny it is there you are a liar! It exists most obviously in the lost person,
but it still remains in the saved person.
But God calls us to put down our weapons! It’s time for surrender! Come to Jesus with a broken heart! Come to the Lord bleeding and wounded, ready
to be brought into relationship with Him. If you have peace with God, you have
something the world cannot touch. The
stock market may crash, but you are reconciled.
Tragedy strikes, but you are redeemed!
Bankruptcy, sickness, poverty, persecution, all these things come upon
us, but we have a clean conscience. We
are right with God. And no one and
nothing can take that away. This is what
God has done!
III. Finally,
if we are to build this church according to God’s blueprint, we must also rest
in the
A.
So first, let us first see a Gospel union. There is the union of grace and peace. Grace is the source, and peace is the
result. Grace elects us, grace provides
the Lamb of God slain for us, and grace prepares the way. But grace does not stand alone. Grace brings us to God and travails in birth
until you are reconciled to God. That is
peace. Perhaps today, God is working in
you. Your conscience is not clear. You are not right with God. You know that. You feel that. Something is wrong. That, dear friend, is grace working in
you. But don’t leave it there. Its not enough to feel guilty. Let grace have its work in you. Let grace work in you until you come to God
entirely. Until you are born again by
the Spirit of God. Until faith opens
your eyes and you live a life of repentance and trust in the Lord! Thank God that grace does not leave us alone,
but assaults us until we’ve come to peace with God! What a union that is. But then we see the union in between the
Father and the Son.
B.
This is the union we call the Godhead. “Grace be to you, and peace, from God
our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” Prepositions are pretty important in the
Greek language. This word “from”
basically tells us that the grace and peace come because of the Father and the
Son. The second “from” in is in italics
in our Bible. That is because it is
there to clarify. The Greek does not
need to clarify. The grammar actually
links the Father and the Son together as equals this construction.
For example, it would be
blasphemous to say that grace and peace come from God the Father and this
apostle or that prophet. Why is that
blasphemous? Because it puts a created being
on the same level with God. But to say
grace and peace come from God the Father and the Son points directly to
Godhead. Jesus Christ is Jehovah, He is
the one high and lifted up. He shares
God’s glory, He is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Praise God—it is a loving Father that can plan
this grace and peace and it is this high and exalted Christ that accomplishes
redemption and live and walk on this earth, and die on a cruel Cross. It is this Christ that is raised from the
dead and exalted above every Name! Oh
what grace and peace we find in this union.
C.
And finally, we see our Personal union. All
of this grace and peace that is from God the Father and God the Son is “to
you”! What will you do with this
grace? What will you do with this
peace? How long will you live with a
guilty, defiled conscience? Won’t you
come to Christ today and put down your weapons?
Won’t you stop fighting against God?
Perhaps you are mad at your boss. Perhaps you are mad at your wife. Perhaps you are mad at your children, your
mother, your father. Perhaps you are mad
at another church member. Put down your
weapons. Make peace with God. Be united with Christ!
Conclusion: As we
close, I want to tell you right now where all your problems stem from. We are not seeking God’s answer to our
problems. We think we can manipulate a
solution by our own crafty will. Well I
can change this! But you cannot change
anything. It takes God’s grace to bring
peace to your situation.
Appeal: Let’s have heads bowed and eyes
closed. You say today, I am here today,
and I have been fighting against God. I
have been running from Him. Perhaps you
need to come to know Christ today as your Saviour and Lord. You need to put down your weapons and come to
Him. If that is you, will you lift your
hand right now so I can pray for you?
How about you Christian? You are saved, and you know God’s grace, but
are you still fighting God in areas of your life. Is that you today? Will you lift your hand so I can pray for
you?
[Give a word of prayer]
Now the front of the church is open. Come and pray. The Holy Spirit has sweetened your
heart. Come and kneel in prayer before
the Lord. Come with broken heart. The Lord’s grace is working in your
heart. You come.
Perhaps you need to come and pray with
someone. Bro. Larsen is at the front of
the church, or if you are a lady, Miss Judy is right here. Listen, if you need to get something right
with another member—now is the time.
Just walk right over there and pray with that person. Get things right today. God requires immediate obedience. “Today if you hear His voice, harden not you
heart!”
Perhaps you are here today, and you want to make
your self accountable to God’s people here—and you want to inquire about church
membership. Perhaps you are here, and you’ve been saved, but you’ve never been
scripturally baptized. You need to take
that step of obedience. Whatever it is,
let’s get things where they need to be so God can work in this church.
Closing
Hymn: 147 Amazing Grace (Ed or
[1] Mark
Dever and Paul Alexander. The Deliberate
Church: Building Your Ministry on the Gospel (Crossway Books,:
[2] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. God’s Ultimate Purpose: An Exposition of Ephesians 1, Baker Books (Grand Rapids, MI: 1978), 37.
[3] Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, 3115.506.
[4] Lloyd-Jones. Ephesians, 17.
[5] Lloyd-Jones. Ephesians, 37.