Grace and Peace to the Faithful Saints

*The sermon manuscript below was generated from the recording by AI…

Now we find ourselves yet again back in the Letter to the Ephesians. We had our first pick-up in that last month where we looked at the first half of verse 1, really focusing in on, on this idea of the will of God as it pertained throughout the whole letter, the will of God seeking the glory of God. And in that, we didn’t really even touch too much into who this letter was first written to. And so this morning, we find ourselves introduced, introduced to the subject of the letter, introduced to those in whom Paul is writing.

And we know from the second half of verse 2 that that is the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Now Ephesus was a Greek city. Now the place where it is known is now in modern-day Turkey. And the City of Ephesus was strongly known for one very big thing, they had the Temple of Artemis, which was a, considered one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. So magnificent, supposedly, in its grandeur that people even today go just to see the ruins that stand there.

And so Ephesus was a, was a place where pagan worship was held incredibly highly, where pagan Greco-Roman worship was held in such high esteem that people would come from all over to worship at a temple to a false god. And so the Christians that lived there lived as very weak, humble, a weak, humble community, for what was expected of the people there was that they would be participants in this pagan worship. And yet we see here in these verses, we see, we see encouragement, we see confidence in them.

You see, many of Paul’s letters carry rebuke for sin, carry rebuke for abandoning what was being taught, carry instructions that deal with very specific issues going on in the Church. And yet there are only 2 letters that Paul writes to churches in which he says words to this tune, “To the saints who are in Ephesus,” and Colossae is the other one, “and are faithful in Christ Jesus.”

You see, Paul writes with confidence to the believers, the small community that lives under the, under the burgeoning power of pagan worship around them, under the, under the com- the culture that stands against them. For these people received the truth from Paul, for these people received the truth as it was taught, and they’ve held fast and they’ve held closely to it, and so Paul can write with confidence that they are faithful.

You see, the message of the Gospel, the message of the Gospel is, is life, it is life to our very weary souls and bodies. And yet if we are not continually pushing into that Gospel, if we are not continually pushing into the very truth of Christ, it fades away and it dies. You see, in places like g- Galatia, Paul writes to them and he condemns them, for what did they do? They took the truth that they received- And they abandoned it for something that they thought was better. They abandoned it to return to the law.

We see in the, the Book of Hebrews, the author writes addressing Jews who have heard the truth found in Christ, and yet because of th- the struggle, because of the struggle that it was to be a Christian in a culture that was very anti-Christ, they longed to go back to what was, they longed to go back to the way of Judaism. And yet, here we have a small little community in a c- in a culture that is all about pagan worship, and they are holding fast to the gospel truth.

And so Paul encourages them in these first introductions with that very, very essential gospel truth, the very basics, the very foundation of the gospel. And so, my hope and my wish today, for you, is that the, the, the chief focus of this sermon, the chief focus of, of this message would be that we would be reminded that we are the church, and we are the church because we have received the grace of Christ Jesus. And if we hold fast to those very truths, and we cling close to them, well, then we have no reason to fear, no reason to concern ourselves with the way of the world.

So, let’s, let’s delve into the Word. Let’s introduce ourselves to these saints.

So, the first thing we learn about what’s going on in Ephesus is that these are faithful saints, and these are faithful saints addressed, addressed by Paul the Apostle. So Paul has the authority to address them in this manner. Paul has the authority to cons- to call them saints, to write to churches, to encourage the faithful saints in Ephesus. Why? Because he first is an apostle. So Paul’s authority is given by Christ first and foremost. We discussed this a bit last time I preached, that Paul the A- is the apostle by the will of God. So Christ has established those in the church to encourage the church with the faithful teaching and preaching of the Word of God. And so Paul, under this authority, addresses the Ephesians.

And in addressing them, we see firstly Paul’s heart for the church of God, Paul’s heart for the people of Ephesus. See, Paul longs to encourage the Ephesians. He knows they’ve been doing, he’s been, he knows they’ve been doing so well because he’s been hearing wonderful reports of what’s been going on in the church. He receives reports of saints who hold fast to the Word as it was preached to them and then, when Paul is writing this, he’s not there. He’s in prison as he’s writing this. And in prison, he is hearing testimonies of the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful. And so Paul knows, in writing to them, that even faithful saints need to be encouraged, even faithful saints need the continual building up that only the Word of God can bring.

And Paul, I- I’m not sure how much Paul really knew about what this letter would one day become, but he writes under the authority of Christ as an apostle. And so we can take these words under authority.

And the second thing we s- see about that is, is that God’s heart for his church universal. You see, Paul was writing directly to this church in Ephesus. He’s writing directly to a very specific group of people in a very specific place. That is his intention. And yet this letter would go travel around different churches. It would be recorded down many, many times. It would go and be an encouragement to many, many people in even other further places. And that is, that is the power of God and that is the work that God was doing in His church universal. Though we, though we know that this is a very specific address, we can say with confidence that God, in establishing the letter of Paul to us today, that he is saying to the saints who are in RBC in Karaka, that we can say that God, though, though Paul addresses Ephesus, God in his intention has given it to us for our good. He has given this to us for our benefit in seeing Christ glorified.

And so as we, as we read this, yes we read to the saints who aren’t in Ephesus, but I pray that we would also be consciously thinking, “What does God have to say about RBC? What does God have to say about me, as I sit here and listen to the Word preached 2, almost 2,000 years after this was written? What does God have to say to me as well?” That we would consider ourselves as part of something greater than ourselves.

You see, we, just like, we just like the saints in Ephesus, are a part of something greater than our self. We are part of a whole body of believers that span thousands of years, that find their hope, find their confidence in one place, in the Lord, Jesus Christ.

And we see, the second thing we see about these saints, so they, they are called saints, they are the people of God who declares that. The second thing we find out about them is that they are faithful. Those audience are faithful.

Now, John Calvin had this to say about this, “No man, therefore, is a believer who is not also a saint. And on the other hand, no man is a saint who is not a believer.” You see, when Paul addresses saints, when Paul addresses those who are believers, the expectation should be that he is addressing those who are faithful. You see, there is no 2 ways about it. The way the gospel works is that we are called by Christ to be saints, and when we are called by Christ to be saints, we are called by Christ to be faithful.

So there is no way that any of us can look upon the Word of God, receive the truth of Christ, and walk away saying, “Great, I’m done, it’s done,” and live however we please. You see, the expectation would be, and the hope would be that all of Paul’s letters would become, carry this words, “To the saints who are faithful.” And yet we know that this is not the case. We know, sadly, that this is, this is far from the truth. And we know this for ourselves, I’m sure, as well.

So what does it mean to be faithful in Christ Jesus? What does it mean that Paul would call saints faithful? Does this mean that we do not sin anymore? I mean, some people believe that. Does this mean that, that sin is no longer a problem in our lives? Does this mean that we are perfected, here and now, for we are saints? In one sense, yes. We are made righteous in Christ. If any of you are in Christ, you have been sealed in His righteousness. You are righteous. There’s no, there’s no 2 ways about it. If you are in Christ, you have received His righteousness. And so you are righteous before God.

But it is also true that even if that be the case, that our actions don’t really represent that. And that is because sin is still a problem in our life. And so faithful is not a picture of perfect saints. Faithful is not a picture of saints, of believers, who, who do not struggle with sin no more. Faithful is not a picture of saints who, who look exactly like Christ. They are faithful, not perfect. They hear the Word of God, and they hold to it. And when they see themselves stumbling, what do they do? They return it. That is, that is faithful saints, that although sin may creep in, faithful saints always know where they are to turn to. Faithful saints always know where they belong, and that is in Christ.

So faithful saints, faithful saints know what is, what is tasked of them. You see, we see all throughout the scripture, what-what does God expect of his believers? What does God expect? So here, there’s a passage in which it’s laid out very clearly. See, in Micah Chapter 6, we hear what the Lord has to say to his people. And these people, the, the Jewish people that it was addressed to, often think that faithfulness meant that they outwardly kept the, outwardly kept what God asked of them, that they’d offer up their sacrifices, that they’d seek to keep the commandments, and yet inwardly their hearts were wicked.

And so what does God require of his people? Micah 6 Verse 8, “He has told you, oh man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.” Can any of us say with confidence that our lives are all about doing justice, loving kindness, and to walking humbly with your God? I don’t think a single one of us could look to our lives and say that we do this perfectly.

But this is the expectation of God for His saints. This is the expectation that God has given His people, that they would do justice, that they would love kindness, love goodness, that they would walk humbly with their God. You see, if, if this is a picture that you’re seeing and you look at yourself and go, “There’s none of this here,” you have a problem. You have a, you have a major, major problem if, if none of this is things that you look upon yourself and say, “This is not me at all.” There’s a serious issue here.

Maybe you, you don’t seem to be a faithful saint. Maybe, maybe that’s not what you are. Maybe you’re concerned that you’re not in that category.

You see, as well, elsewhere in the Gospel of, uh, Matthew, we see, we see Christ setting the standard for faithful saints. We see Christ setting the standard that God has set for all people. We see it in Matthew Chapter 5 Verse 48. See, Jesus has just been teaching the people in the Sermon on the Mount. He’s been showing them how they are, how they can be blessed. He’s been showing them that the Lord is not removed, and He’s been showing them the standard that the Lord set, that the Lord is not just an outward action, but it is in the heart. And He says these words, “You, therefore, must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”

You see, the standard for faithfulness for God is perfection. There is no lowering that standard in God’s eyes. God is a holy god. God is a god who will not have anything to do with anything less. God will not have anything to do with sin. And so His standards for faithfulness, His standards for faithfulness are perfection. His standards for, for righteousness is complete and utter perfection, and that’s a problem. That’s a problem for each and every one of us, ’cause I think if you were given a thousand lifetimes to try and atone for the sin of one day, you wouldn’t even get close to achieving that. You wouldn’t even get close to making yourself any more like God.

And this is a, this is a problem that plagues the church, and this is a problem that plagues the world. You see, a prominent American politician recently went on a popular talk show, and this man in- seeks to say that he is a Christian. And yet fundamentally, he has misunderstood what it means to be a Christian, ’cause he says this. With an opportunity to proclaim to a secular world what the truth of Christ is, he says this. “Jesus, in Matthew 25, tells us exactly how you and I and every one of our fellow believers, how we’re gonna be judged and how we’re gonna be saved, by feeding the hungry, by healing the sick, by welcoming the stranger.”

You see, he set this standard, he sees the standard that God has set, and he declares, “This is how we’re gonna be saved.” Is that right? perhaps. I just said that the standards of perfection, so maybe it is true that the way that we would be saved is by doing good, by doing justice, by loving kindness. This is the standard that God has set, and this man went in a prominent position, went publicly and said this. And there are so many bel- so many unbelievers around there that I’ve seen, seen so many comments of them saying, “This is what Christianity is about. This man gets it. You see, all these other Christians, they don’t This man gets it.”

And what has he done? He’s gone and he’s condemned them. He’s gone and he’s condemned them, because he set the standard that Christ has set, and yet he has not given them any hope. You see, the hope for the faithful believers in Ephesus and the hope for faithful believers today is not found in us meeting the standard of Christ. Yes, we are commanded to do good, but we have 0 hope if our hope ends with faithful saints. We have 0 hope if our hope en- if our, if our confidence ends with what we can do.

And so Paul, in addressing these faithful saints, he addresses them and gives them, and reminds them of the very hope in which they have been called to, the very hope in which allows them to even be called faithful saints, and we find that in verse 2 of Ephesians 1. Verse 2, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

You see, if we end at verse 1, we are left in despair, for we all look upon our own hearts and we all think, “Oh, I’m not good enough. I’m not faithful enough.” And yet the hope, the hope that we have is our confidence in Christ.

You see, the first thing he reminds them of in greeting them, the first thing he reminds them of is the grace that is found in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the Jewish people at the time that Jesus came, they thought that if they kept God’s commandments, if they offered the sacrifices at the temple, if they just did well enough, that they would have confidence to one day be in the presence of God. And yet the law, as we know- Mom! the law was never given for that purpose. The law was given to shine a light into the fact that none of us could ever achieve that, that none of us could ever see, set the standard that Christ has set for us for faithful believers.

And when the law failed, because no one could keep it, well, Christ must Christ was sent to be the hope for the nations, the hope for the world. And so grace, being, uh, unmerited favor that we find in Christ, so we, we have Christ because Christ has given himself to us, and he’s given himself to us in that he came and he walked the earth as a man. Though he himself was God, he walked the earth as a man, even to the point of death, even to the point of dying on the cross, and then he was raised again.

And so in him doing that, we have received grace. We have received f- uh, a favor that we have not earned. We have received life. You see, in the cross, in, in Christ’s death, he himself took upon that very sin which condemns us. He took upon himself the very sin which has removed us from fellowship with God, the very sin which says and strikes in our hearts, “You are not faithful.” And he gave us something great, he gave us his righteousness.

So Christ, who kept the law, Christ, who lived a perfect life, has given us the righteousness that allows us to stand before God, having met the standard that he has set. And so the church, RBC, the church in Ephesus, the church fundamentally is built upon the grace of Christ. There is no church without grace. There is no church without the grace that Christ brings.

You see, none of us would be here today, worshiping our God, if we did not have that very grace that gives us life, if we did not have that very grace which, which allows us not to look into our own lives and see just the sin and feel condemned, but to look at ourselves and feel condemned, but look to Christ and feel redeemed and see redemption.

You see, in Christ, we have the confidence to stand before our holy God and say, “Our father.” You see that? You see how he addresses God in this passage? Grace to you and peace from who? From God, our Father. We’re gonna look at verse 3 tonight, which calls God “the God and Father of Christ” because it’s seeking to do something else. But here, Paul very specifically refers to God as what? Our Father. So that like Christ on the cross, when he cries out, “Abba, Father,” we too can cry out, “Abba, Father.” We too can cry out and say that God is our Father, that we have relationship with him, and that relationship was only given through the grace of Christ. That relationship was only given because Christ, our older brother, has won it for us.

You see, Christ is the son of God from before the foundation of the world, that Christ eternally, the second person of the Trinity, has been in relationship with God the Father, in perfect relationship. But we, we have, we have stood in opposition against God because of our sin. We have not been in relationship with God, and it is only because Christ has redeemed us in his death and life that we can call him our Father, that we can say with confidence We can come before God in His throne of grace and come confidently, without fear.

You see, that passage we did for our call to worship, Hebrews 12, that talks strongly about how, how we come before a God who is fe- that brings fearfulness. If we just quickly turn there, Hebrews 12, around the, the section where we did the call to worship. So if you look at, if you look at verses 18 through 21, “For you have not come to what may be touched of blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them, for they could not endure the order that was given, ‘If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.’ Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, ‘I tremble with fear.’”

The people of Israel, as they sat in the wilderness, as God’s presence was made known, they trembled with fear. They had no confidence to go before Him. They carried no confidence to stand before a holy God. But we, as we talked about in our call to worship, but we have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and why? In verse 24, “To Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”

You see, the only confidence we have to come before God, the only confidence we have to have any claim to say that we are faithful saints is not found in what we do. It’s found in Christ. It’s found in the one who has been faithful on our behalf. And it’s so important that we get this right, and it’s so important that we understand this, because if we do not comprehend this, we are going to go through life with some level of confidence, but no assurance.

It’s so important that we fundamentally understand that the gospel is not, “Try harder, do better.” The gospel is not, “Okay, Christ has done most of the work. Now you do the rest.” The gospel is Christ, Jesus, died for sinners that they may be alive again in Him. The gospel is Christ doing all the work, Christ redeeming His people wholeheartedly that they may be pleasing before God, their Father, that they may be righteous before a holy God.

If we cannot understand this, we have no confidence. If our confidence is anywhere else, apart from Christ completely, then our confidence is lacking.

You see, think about the, perhaps the darkest point in church history, pre-Reformation. There’s a reason there’s a, a Latin statement about the Reformation, “Post tenebra lux,” “After darkness, light.” Because what was happening prior to the Reformation, the institution that claimed Christ at the time, the institution that said, “We are the Church on Earth,” what were they doing? They were hiding the truth of Christ. They were saying it was a secret message that really only the priest could fully grasp and then bring to the people, and they hid that message. They hid the message of grace in Christ. Why? So that they could grow powerful, so that they could convince the people that if you just give a bit more, you can have hope. If you just do a bit better, give a bit more money, then you can have hope.

And it was the reformat- the Reformers who, for risk of their own lives, risk of their own safety, who saw the Word of God, who read it, who comprehended it, and saw that in it, in it was the truth that was found. That it was not about what we do. It was not about giving more to the church. It was not about hoping that if we were just good enough that God would look upon us and find him plea- us pleasing.

The truth is that Christ finds us pleasing, God finds us pleasing. Why? Because He finds His own Son, Christ, pleasing, and there is no other confidence to be found elsewhere.

And this is the delight of the Church. This is the absolute treasure of the Church. You see, the saints in Ephesus, they were faithful not because they believed they could earn the merit of God by remaining faithful, because they clung so closely to the words of truth that Paul preached to them. That they heard the gospel that Christ has redeemed them, and they reminded themselves of it constantly. They reminded themselves of it all the time.

And so this is what we are to do, brothers and sisters. This is what we are to do when we come to church. This is what we are to do when we meet on Wednesdays for prayer meeting. This is what we are to do in our homes with our families. This is what we are to do as parents to our children. We are to teach ourselves and remind ourselves of the Gospel of Christ. We are to remind ourselves that in Christ we have confidence, that in Christ we have life.

And then what follows is faithful saints. It does not go the other way. It does not go, let’s be faithful saints and then hopefully remind ourselves of some of the truth. No. What does that lead to? It leads to what happens in some of the other churches. It leads to legalism. It leads to a heart that desires that we would be more pleasing. It leads to a heart that desires that there is something not quite there.

The truth is, everything we have needed is given to us. 2 Peter tells us, his, in his divine power he has granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Through what? Through the knowledge Christ Jesus. All things for life, all things for godliness, have been given already to us in Christ. There is nothing lacking. There is nothing lacking for our confidence, for life, and there is nothing lacking that then leads out into, into faithful living.

You see, the faithful living is the fruit that comes from the root that is the truth in Christ. We can’t get it backwards. We cannot get it backwards. We cannot think that there is any hope to be found in what we do if we do not understand that all our hope is in Christ.

And so we are the Church because we are the Church by grace.

And then the next thing that Paul says to them, “Grace to you and peace. Grace to you and peace.”

Matthew Henry had this to say about grace and peace. “By grace we are to understand the free and undeserved love and favor of God, and those graces of the Spirit which proceed from it. By peace, all other blessings, spiritual and temporal, the fruits and product of the former. No peace without grace. No peace nor grace, but from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. These peculiar blessings proceed from God, not as a creator, but as a father, by special relation. And they come from our Lord Jesus Christ who, having purchased them for his people, has a right to freely bestow them upon them.”

You see, in grace, we have been given everything we need, and in grace, we have been given peace.

Turn to the Gospel of Romans with me, would you? Romans Chapter 5. A well-known, a very well-known passage. Romans Chapter 5, verse one. Start there.

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith,” that is the grace, that is the grace we have been given, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The re- first result of grace towards peace is that we would have peace with God. You see, later on in that passage in Romans 5, it speaks of us as enemies of God, that while we were His enemies, Christ died for us.

You see, what happens when there is no grace is that there is no peace with God. If you do not know Christ as Lord, if you do not know Christ as your precious Savior who has redeemed you, then you do not know God as a friend, then you do not know God as a father. You are at war with the God of the universe. You are His enemy. That’s a sca- should be a scary thought. For in him, in him is life for he was the one in whom he sent his son.

And if you do not know him, if you do not have that grace in Christ, then you do not have peace with God. And one day that will be far more apparent. Far more apparent. For one day, Christ will return triumphantly, and those in whom the favor, the grace that is found upon them, well, they will receive him with thanksgiving. They will, they will be pleasing in the sight of God, for they will be righteous in Christ. Those who do not have that grace, however, there, there is nothing pleasing about you to God. There is nothing pleasing about you to the one in whom the power to do whatever he pleases is within. That should be a scary thought.

But when we do have that grace that Christ has won for us, we have confidence that we have peace with God, that no longer are we enemies. I mean, how profound is that really, while we were enemies Christ died for us?

And then what does he say about God here in this passage? That God is our Father, that we have gone from enemies to sons and daughters. In verse 5 of Ephesians 1, it says, “In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.” Adoption of those who hated him. It’s quite a remarkable thing to think about, that we who have hated God with our every being, that our sin was so, so overwhelming in our lives that we just had such hatred for him, and he sent his son, whom he loved dearly, that he would die in our place that we would, what? Become his children. That we would be called sons and daughters of the Most High.

Christ has done that for you. Christ has won your peace for you. And so the, the state of the faithful, the blessed state of the faithful is that they have peace with God.

While, while once upon a time our very state, our very nature was that we were just sinners, now we are made righteous. Now we stand before God having peace with him. Now we stand before God and he finds delight in us. He welcomes us into his loving arms.

Now, how else does peace work out for us? Does, does peace mean that there will be no more conflict? Does peace mean we have peace in this life with all around us? Well, sadly not. And Paul knows this. I mean, as I said earlier, Paul wrote this letter where he was in prison. He was in prison because the world hated Christ. And because the world hated Christ, and because Paul loved Christ, he was willing keep preaching the glorious truth of Christ, even unto pri- imprisonment.

So Paul wrote, writes this letter while in chains. And so that peace that we have, that peace is with God, but it is not a peace that we have with the world around us. We still have to deal with the conflict of the world, of a sinful world. And so the truth of peace to the world is not that we would necessarily have peace with the world, but the truth of peace to the world is that we have car- and carry the hope for that world.

You see, the truth we present in Christ, the way that we live amongst the unbelievers, is should be as ones who confidently, confidently carry Christ with us. And that is the hope to the world around us See, in 1 Peter 3 it says this, in verse 15, “But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” You see, the hope that is within us is the same hope that the world needs.

As I mentioned earlier, when this man went on this, on this public platform and claimed to proclaim Christ and told them how they can be saved, all he’s doing is condemning them, for all that they could achieve to do in their own strength is not nearly enough. And yet we carry the glorious truth of Christ to the world and say, “This is your hope.”

Yes, the world is an awful place to be in sometimes. There are times where we just want to despair. There are times where the, the, the grip of the sinful world around us, the grip of our own sin just ensnares us so deeply that we have nothing else to do but cry out in despair. And yet we Christians cry out with hope. We cry out in hope to God. Whereas, what does the world cry out to? They have no hope. They have no confidence. And so we carry that hope to the world around us. We carry the hope of Christ to a hopeless world.

And then the third way that we have peace is peace with the brethren, peace within the church. You see, we are united in Christ. You see, this is one of the glorious mysteries of the gospel that Paul speaks about in the Letter to the Ephesians. In Chapter 2, he longs for them to remember firstly, how they are saved. He longs for them to remember, “It is by the grace of God that you are saved,” and then he pivots. And he pivots in the second half of Chapter 2 to say this, “But now” And this is Verse 13, “But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility.”

You see, in the Church to the Ephesians, there were the Jews, there were Gentiles, and they came from profoundly different bra- backgrounds. The Jews, who longed to find their hope in the law of God and keeping it, and who were trying to understand what it meant to be a follower of Christ post this, and the Gentiles, who had come from pagan idolatry and were considering how they were to live as Christians post that life, were brought together to be the Church. It was not the Jewish Church and the Gentile Church. It was the Church, the Church of Christ Jesus. And it was in Christ Jesus that they had been brought together.

It is in Christ Jesus, it says in Verse 14, that, “He Himself is our peace, who has made us one and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility.” You see, the peace that Jesus won for us in His grace is peace with God, and now it is peace with all who God calls His children.

And this is a challenge to us. This is a great challenge to us, because, I mean, as we look at the Church, uh, as a whole around us, there are so many parts that we look at, and we go, “God, why is this happening? Why are they treating the Word with such carelessness? Why are they condemning people with the message of a false gospel? Why does it feel like there is so much disagreement among the Church today?”

And yet, we have a duty here. We have a duty to consider how the peace that God has won for us amongst His children, how that would encourage us to consider how we act and live amongst His people.

You see, it’s all very nice and well and easy when we come to RBC and we are like-minded individuals. It is a blessed opportunity to be together, for it is good to be amongst those who are like-minded. But what about those people who, uh, who claim Christ, and you believe it, but they have some slightly odd views? I mean, I, I, uh, I’m currently studying at Laidlaw College. They claim, as the most important thing about them, is that they are committed to the Word of God and to the message of Christ, and yet there are so many times I’m studying at Laidlaw and I’m thinking, “This is just not even remotely close to that.”

What do I do? Do I just, do I just remove myself from there? Do I say, “No, these guys have got it all wrong,” and have nothing to do with them? No, I recognize that they, they clearly still have, to some degree, a love for Christ and a love for His Word, and I consider how I may encourage them towards that end, and I consider how I may live at peace with them where I am able, because God has won that peace for me.

And so our confidence in this message, our confidence is that Christ should call RBC faithful saints. Our confidence is that that would be our hope, that He would, if, if He were to write today, that we would receive that. But our hope is not that, that He would call us that becaus of what we do. Our hope is not that If Paul were to write a letter today to us, that his main focus would be, “Oh, you guys are just so great, aren’t you?” But that our hope would be that he would see that we are committed to the word of truth, that we are committed to the Gospel of Christ, and that we are reminding ourselves day-in, day-out that our hope is found in Christ.

See, this is the confidence and the comfort that scripture brings to the believer.

And I’ll just read this quote. Uh, I got 2 quotes actually, I’m gonna finish up with. first one comes from Saint Augustine, and it reads this, “For thou has formed us for thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in thee.” You see there is no confidence, there is a restlessness when we are not in Christ, but when Christ redeems us, when we look upon Him with new eyes of faith, we see that our hearts find rest, we see that our hearts are where they belong.

And this last quote comes from our f- our friend Rodney over in American Samoa, and this is him speaking about grace. He says, “This is the ‘but God’ for us. Without genuine grace, we would still be lost in sin. It starts with, is sustained by, and culminates in grace. This grace is only found in Lord Jesus Christ.”

Amen.

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