You Can Trust God (His Purpose & Comfort), Part 2
By Pastor Matt Black
22
April 2007
Lord's Day evening
Ephesians 3:10-12
Introduction: Open your Bibles to the book of Ephesians. We are looking into this amazing letter that Paul wrote to the Ephesians Christians from prison. We will be reading verses 10 through 12 in Ephesians chapter 3.
Did you have a hard week this week? Did you find God’s grace sufficient? I hope you found your prayer closet and that you found God there. His grace is sufficient not just for your life, but for a million lives. If you’re saved and you know it say “Amen”! Amen. We are continuing our message from this morning called titled“You Can Trust God.” Let’s read in this exciting and encouraging text this morning!
Ephesians 3:9-12, “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: 10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, 11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: 12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.”
[Prayer for guidance and illumination…]
You can trust God this evening. Remember His unblemished record:
Ø He’s never failed.
Ø He’s never told a lie.
Ø He’s never broken a promise.
Ø You can trust God. This morning we learned…
I. We can trust God’s Wisdom to guide your thoughts. Paul doesn’t say here in this verse to that men should trust in the Lord so that life will start making sense. Paul gives a different reason. Look at verse 10. He says he wants all men to come to know the mystery of the Gospel for the purpose of, or “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,”
A. The Intention of God in giving us this wisdom—for the angels. Paul says there’s a very important reason you need to live out the wisdom of the Gospel in your life. He says—through your life, God is teaching the angels a lesson. God is using your life in more than just the lives of the people around you.
1 Peter 1:12 says that the angels are constantly “desiring to look into” and peer into our lives. They are fascinated with the Gospel. God is using the lives of Christians to reflect His person to the angels. That means everything you do in life is important. Every menial task teaches the angels a lesson in God’s mercy. Even a cup of cold water given in His name will have a reward (Matthew 10:42).
B. The Definition of wisdom. Proverbs 8 tells us that wisdom is out in the streets crying out. As you know wisdom in Proverbs is a type of Christ. Paul tells us that Christ is the very “wisdom of God” (I Corinthians 1:24). Christ is preached literally in the streets Proverbs says! So of course wisdom is more than an intellectual quality, more than mere intelligence or knowledge or wit” (J I Packer). Wisdom is the ability to see Christ and follow him. To walk with Christ is to have wisdom.
C. The Location of wisdom. Where is this wisdom? You can’t go to seminary to get it. They don’t give it out with degrees and diplomas. You can’t buy it, but God will give it away to you! Where can we find it? If you are saved you have this wisdom! When God gave you a new heart, he put His very mind in you. You ask, who can know the mind of God? Good question 1 Corinthians 2:16 asks the same question: “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” When God saved you, He put His thoughts in you. John talks about this wisdom in 1 John 2:27. He calls it “the anointing”. That is God’s wisdom just pours over us like oil through His Spirit. “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.”
If you are saved, then you have all the wisdom you need in every situation. If you can’t find it, God’s told us where to go to find it. James 1:5, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” You have a Bible and you have God’s Spirit with you. What you need to learn to do is trust your Bible and trust the Spirit.
Application: You can trust God’s wisdom in your job situation! You can trust God’s wisdom with those who irritate you, or worse yet, that wrong you! You can trust the Lord with your family. God is trustworthy. If you follow His wisdom, He will take care of your family! He never fails. Just trust in the Lord with all your heart.
D. The Confrontation of the Two Wisdoms. Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” Here is the battle we all have. We have the Lord, and we have our own understanding, and most of the time there is a conflict between the two wisdoms! You cannot lean to the worldly deceitful wisdom that is in your and my heart.
In fact, you need to aggressively confront worldly wisdom in your heart. Listen to Paul’s advice in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”.
Described as natures in Ephesians 4, beginning with verse 22, “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” What does that look like? Glad you asked! Look at verse 25,
o Are you lying? You say, they are little lies. How can we quantify sin? I’ll believe that when you can show me little murders! Sin is sin. There are no little lies. “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.”
o Are you controlled by anger? 26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: 27 Neither give place to the devil.”
o Are you stealing—mp3s, pirated software, 28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.”
o Do you have a problem with your mouth? “29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.”
o How about bitterness? Just can’t forgive so and so? “30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”
You say if I stop lying, stealing, and stop being angry and bitter, and if I control my mouth, I’d be a different person. That’s right. 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” You can trust God to control your thoughts.
Recap: The angels are watching as God’s wisdom shines forth from you! Remember, this is the manifold (multi-dimensional, multi-colored, multi-planed) wisdom of God that is scene in your life daily. Like a diamond, the church as a whole collectively lives its life out in many different places and situations, living out the sacrificial life of Christ for others. Individually and collectively, God is teaching the angels about Himself through us! As verse 10 says, that God is working in your life “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God”
Transition: God’s wisdom never fails. It always gets the desired result. You cannot trust the world’s wisdom. It’s like a fish going for the bait. It looks good and tastes good, but when you grab the bait, there are bad consequences. You may get lose from the hook, but it’s going to cause a mess! God’s wisdom never fails like that! It always comes through. But you must trust God’s wisdom to guide our thoughts,
II. Secondly, we can trust God’s Purpose to guide our steps. Look at verse 11, God basically says—don’t worry about your plans—I have my own plans—get on board! He says He’s working in our lives in every situation—l “According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord”. This verse shows us the purpose for our whole life. In this verse alone is the secret to God’s guidance in your life! We need to trust God’s purpose. He’s completely on our side. Remember God spared not his Son so that he could freely give you all things! Why wouldn’t you want to trust Him to guide your life. Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” No longer are you to acknowledge your self-preservation. God’s purpose has nothing to do with your happiness (though you will be happy in Him.
A. We need to stay away from a Compartmentalized Life. Listen, this is so very important. We so often revolve our lives around our job, our home, our vacation, and our church activities. We put our life into compartments. In other words, we have several purposes for living. We have our job, family, church. God is in there too. This is a very shallow understanding of life.
B. Water Illustration. llustration: Let me illustrate this. (Pick someone out and ask them personally)
—Have you ever been sprayed with a hose? What happens?
Answer: You get wet.
You get a light splattering, but you can keep doing what you are doing. You are not controlled by the water.
Now let’s take it a step further. (Pick someone out and ask)
--Have you ever jumped into a swimming pool before? What happened?
Answer: You got wet!
That’s right, you do get wet, but a swimming pool is different than going through a sprinkler. You are actually immersed in the water. As long as you are in the water, you can only go where the water is.
We need to throw everything we are and do and have into the purposes of God. It’s no longer God helping us with our pursuits, but us fulfilling the pursuit and will of God in this world!
C. Bob Brza Illustration:
Bob Brza: Remember Bob Brza? He’s a great example of how all this works out. Before he was a Christian, he said he wanted to be an Opera Singer. He wanted God to bless him in Opera. He said he was a Christian, but he was just playing the game. Remember he came to know Christ the week I was in Lafayette. I told him that in order to follow Christ, he had to have a transformation in his heart—a line of demarcation. I talked to him tonight. What he said really illustrates the fact that you can trust God’s purposes alone to guide your steps! I wrote down what he said: He said, “Since I got saved it’s not really my life. I gave my life up. My life isn’t mine. I gave all that I am to God”. Wow! Now Bob is one of the most talented operatic voices you’ll ever hear. I’m not exaggerating either. He will be here the fourth week of June, and you can hear him. He’ll probably sing something from Handel’s Messiah. You know what? He told me he doesn’t care if he never sings again. He trusts God’s purpose to guide his life. That may or may not include opera or voice. He’s put thrown all his purposes into God’s one purpose. That’s how it is for every Christian. No longer do you have to worry about your plans! It’s not about you! It’s about Him! It’s all about leaning not to your own understanding and acknowledging His purpose in Jesus Christ for you.
Jim Elliott said it this way: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” You may be an accountant or a school teacher. If that is your purpose you need to let it go. You may have a certain plan that you think HAS to be God’s will for your life, when all you are really doing is imposing your will on Him. Put it aside! You are no fool to give your plans up. You can’t keep your life. You must lose your life to gain the eternal purpose of God! Wow! That’s deep stuff, but it’s the stuff that drives the Christian life. We need to cast aside the bondage of self-interest in our lives and abandon ourselves to God’s purposes.
Clarification. So this verse says that God’s eternal purpose for you really has NOTHING to do with you, but it has EVERYTHING to do with Jesus Christ. Everything in the world is calculated to keep us from understanding this. The world says, “What’s in it for me?” This philosophy has crept into the lives of professing Christians and into the life of our churches. We go to church for us—to be entertained, instead of to worship God. God becomes someone who serves our purposes. He’s there to make us happy. He’s there to prosper plans. He’s there to sprinkle our purposes. But what we need to do is throw our purposes out the window. Being part of the purpose of God means that we put aside our purposes. We jump into the swimming pool. We go where God wants us to go and do what he wants us to do.
Application God is not there to serve you and bless your endeavors, you are there to bless God and be used of Him for His endeavors. But you say, that’s scary! I can’t put my plans aside. Yes, it is scary. And it will continue to be scary as long as you are looking at it out of your own eyes. That’s why God gave us a Bible. We need to put God’s eyeglasses on so that we can get the strength to “lean not to our own understanding” and live for His endeavors!
D. Scriptural support.
We can trust God to direct our steps, but it must be for God’s purpose and Kingdom, not building our own kingdom. Now I can’t tell you how it’s all going to work out, all I can give you is the promises of God. Listen to the voice of Jesus. He said in Matthew 6:33, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” God will take care of you.
You say, how do I know the purposes of God? Psalm 37:23-24 gives us the answer: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.” God’s already planned your way—all you have to do is jump into His swimming pool! You see as you delight in God and make plans, he will give you the desires of your heart. His desires become your desires. You no longer are seeking for self interest, but God’s interests. You don’t have to know everything. We come to a very encouraging verse in Proverbs 16:9, “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.”
If you trust the Lord’s purpose for your life, I cannot say that your life will be great on this earth! That’s the world’s wisdom. If you live for Christ alone and He directs your steps, the world will hate you. That doesn’t sound encouraging. I mean who wants to be hated?
Listen you may be hated of the world, I cannot promise you at all a bed of roses. But I can promise you this. God promises in Jeremiah 29:13, “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” If you seek God’s purpose, you will get God, and He will never fail you.
You can trust God’s purpose to direct your steps. Now we’ve got one last point.
III. Finally, we can trust God’s Comfort to guide our heart. Look at verse 12, “In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.”
Life is hard. I don’t think any one on planet earth will disagree with that. What if I told you I knew a Counselor who was totally trustworthy, who was available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, who gave the perfect counsel every time, and was totally understanding of who you are, of all your hurts and trials. Well I do know a Counselor. He is my friend. He is my Lord. He is my Sovereign. He is the Lover of my soul! He is my Jesus. And He never changes! He never yet once has failed me! I trust Him with all my heart, and you can too! God is not there to hurt you. It will be hard to abandon your plans. It’s hard to admit you were wrong about some things. But it’s good to admit wrong and move on for the Lord.
Spurgeon said, “Do not be ashamed of confessing your past folly. I think a man who says, ‘I was wrong,’ really in effect says, ‘I am a little wiser to-day than I was yesterday.’”
It will be hard, but you can trust God’s comfort to guide and care for your heart. God is not there to hurt you but to help you. He’s the only one that can meet your deepest needs.
You see the Lord is not like anyone else you know. He is trustworthy.
A. Comfort your heart that you can go to Him Boldly. Verse 12, “In whom [Christ] we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.” You don’t have to be timid around the Lord! You can tell it to Him just as it is and come to Him just as you are.
You see, when we exchange our purposes for God’s purposes, we have boldness. What a comfort! The word boldness is here used because you can talk to this wonderful Person as you would your closest confidant. Perhaps you could tell anything to your mom or dad and they would understand. Or maybe it was a friend or someone else. You knew they loved you unconditionally. Of course with a person like that you could go with boldness—you wouldn’t be afraid to tell them anything. That’s what we have with God.
Hebrews 4:16, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
B. Next, comfort your heart that in Christ you have Availability! What a comfort! Verse 12, “In whom [Christ] we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.” The Lord doesn’t close shop at 10pm. Psalm 127:2-4, the Psalmist said, “My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. 3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. 4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.”
C. Next, comfort your heart that in Christ you have Answers! What a comfort! Verse 12, “In whom [Christ] we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.” He says, you can have faith in me. You can have confidence in me! Trust me. God is omniscient. He knows what you need. You can have confidence in the one Who made you. He will give you the answers. There’s an old Gospel song that says “Jesus is the answer for the world today. Above Him there’s no other, Jesus is the way!” He is the way. He knows where you should go. He is the truth. He’ll always give you the right answer and He’ll never lie to you. And he is the Life. The answers that he gives to you will be exactly what you need which is HIM, and eternal life!!
Conclusion: You can trust God this evening. Remember His unblemished record:
Ø Has God ever failed?
Ø Has God ever lied?
Ø Has God ever broken a promise?
Trust Him tonight. Trust Him. Don’t just trust Him superficially.
You can trust Him to guide you into correct thinking. Put off old thinking. Put on new thinking. His wisdom is high above your wisdom. He knows the end from the beginning. I think you can trust someone who has all knowledge.
Trust His purpose and agenda for your life. You can trust Him to guide your steps! Don’t try to write a new script. It’s not about you. It’s about Him. The world may hate you. If you keep the Lord’s day holy you may lose your job! But I can promise you that if you lose everything in this life, you still gain life eternal!
Finally you can trust His comfort to guide your heart.
Closing Hymn: 81 A Mighty Fortress is Our God