Ephesians: The Plain Saving Gospel

This class will use the book of Ephesians to look at the plain saving gospel. That seems to be the central theme of the gospel passages that are found in Ephesians. There are three main points that we're going to make.

A. The Gospel Will Set You Free

Now, as you hear that, I'm sure you're thinking, no, Curtis, you've misquoted that verse. John 8:32 says the truth will make you free. Yes, the truth and the gospel are one and the same, and I plan to show you that before the end of this class.

1. Through the gospel we become redeemed, forgiven, recipients of God's grace.

⁷In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace ⁸which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight ⁹He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him ¹⁰with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him ¹¹also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, ¹²to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. ¹³In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
- Ephesians 1:7-13

In verse 7, "we have redemption." Redeem means bought back. We've been paid for by the blood of Christ. We've been forgiven. All the sins that we have done in the past have been wiped out through the blood of Christ, and we are recipients of God's grace. God has been gracious to us. Grace is unmerited favor. It's something that we don't deserve.

God is well within his rights to cast us into an eternal hell for the way we have treated Him and the way we have defamed His word, but He is gracious to us and He is forgiving and He has redeemed us.

2. Through the gospel, we learn the will of god (vs. 9)

I'll talk about mystery in a little while, but he has made known to us his will. It's important to know the will of God. I want to do the will of God, don't you? Well, through the gospel, we're able to discover what God's will is, what His will is for our lives as individuals, and what His will is for us collectively, as His church, as His body, we learn the will of God through the gospel.

3. Through the gospel, we obtain an inheritance (vs. 11)

You have to be a child, not a servant, not just a casual acquaintance, but as children of god, we are blessed to receive an inheritance.

4. The gospel is the message of truth for salvation (vs. 13)

And so the gospel is truth, but this is the gospel of your salvation. This is the message that saves us.

5. At salvation we are sealed with the Holy Spirit in Christ (vs. 13; Acts 2:38)

So a seal was something that was put on an object and it showed ownership. If something had the king's seal, that means it belonged to the king. Don't touch it. Don't mess with it. We are sealed, and the seal that we receive is the promised Holy Spirit. Everybody talks in Revelation about the mark of the beast. What about the mark of the lamb? The mark of lamb is the promised Holy Spirit with which we are sealed, with which we belong to God.

In Acts 2 Peter said to the ones who were asking, "what do we need to do? How do we make this right?" After they understood that they had crucified the son of God and that they were separated from God.

Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
- Acts 2:38

See, he doesn't say the gifts. He's not talking about miraculous gifts. He's talking about the gift of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of God's Holy Spirit, and it's like a stamp on your forehead.

Think about it that way. Boom. You belong to God. You're sealed with God. When does that happen? At baptism. After you repent of your sins and you're baptized into Christ, your sins are forgiven and you received this gift of the Holy Spirit. And that is how the gospel is able to set you free.

B. The Gospel: Entrance to God's Kingdom

1. The house of God is built on the foundation of God's word.

¹⁹So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, ²⁰having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, ²¹in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, ²²in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
- Ephesians 2:19-22

Paul says to this church in Ephesus, to these young Christians, you're not strangers anymore, especially you Gentiles. The Gentiles were outcast, and the Jews were God's chosen people. He's explained that's all changed now. You're no longer strangers. You're fellow citizens. You are part of God's household. The family of God. And then Paul says, let me illustrate this for you.

Now before we get into this illustration, I want to explain. The church is not a building. We use the word that way. We say, well, I'm gonna go down to the church. Well, that's not a physical location. Ekklesia is the Greek word for church. It means those who are called out. It's the people. It's never a building. But Paul illustrates it here.

If it were like a building, a structure, this is the way it would look. So on this building we have a cornerstone And it says here that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, verse 20.

The cornerstone was the first stone laid on old buildings and even new buildings. I one time had a Bible study with a contractor and he told me we still use cornerstones. I didn't know this, but that first stone has to be perfect because everything is measured off of that one.

Jesus is the perfect cornerstone. But in addition to the cornerstone, you still have a foundation of this building. And he says the foundation, verse 20 as well, is the apostles and the prophets. Well, the apostles and the prophets, they're not even alive anymore. How can it be the foundation of the church that we're a part of today?

Well, here's how they can be the foundation. The Old Testament was written by men who were known as prophets. The New Testament was written by a few prophets as well, but mostly it was written by apostles. What happens when you put the Old Testament and the New Testament together? What do you get? You get the Bible. And so the Bible is the foundation of the Lord's church, God's household. The church is built on the foundation of the Bible. And what does that mean? Well, in a practical way, that means whatever the Bible says, this is what we follow when we are building his church.

So if you go to a church and they're practicing something that is not within the Bible, that's not Jesus' church. He is the cornerstone and it is built on the foundation of the Bible. Things that that go against the Bible, that's not Him, that's not His true church.

2. The gospel is what determines whether someone is a fellow member of god's household or not.

¹For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— ²if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you; ³that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. ⁴By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, ⁵which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; ⁶to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, ⁷of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.
- Ephesians 3:1-7

Paul starts off and says, I'm a prisoner of Christ Jesus. I am bound to Him. I'm fettered to God. We are inseparable of Christ Jesus for the sake of the Gentiles. This is my mission. That's what Paul saw of himself and was actually told to be an apostle to the Gentiles.

Let me now reveal this mystery. Again, I'll get to the word mystery here in a little bit, which in other generations was not made known. Says other people didn't know this. It says, we're blessed to have this information. And here is the mystery. Here's what has been revealed. Verse 6, the Gentiles are fellow heirs. They are fellow members, and they are fellow partakers.

3. Every fellow member is also a fellow heir and a fellow partaker of the promises of God.

So if you're a fellow member, that means you belong. If you're a fellow heir, that means you like I said, you're a child and you're receiving your inheritance and you're a partaker, you are are welcome to anything in the kingdom. The blessings of being in Christ are made available to you.

C. Gospel Weaponry

1. This is not a game. This is a war.

We're not in a game here. We are at war with Satan. And war, you have to take seriously. It's not like you get fouls and "okay we lost that game, no problem" No. This is a battle for your soul and for the souls of others.

In Ephesians 6, he describes this battle equipment that we need in order to survive in this war.

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. ¹³Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. ¹⁴Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; ¹⁶in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
- Ephesians 6:10-17

He says, we need this armor. We need to put this on because we're in a battle. We're in a war and Satan is not playing around. He serious. It's not a game to him and it shouldn't be a game to us.

2. Your war is not with people; it's with evil.

That's what he means when he says, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, it's not against people, it's with evil. People are not your problem. Now you may have a problem with people and you may think people are your problem, but in the overall scheme of things, people are really not your problem. Evil is your problem. That's what you're really fighting against.

And when you start fighting against people and not against evil, then you get off track. That's one way that Satan gets us off track is we're snipping at each other and backbiting each other and hurting each other like Galatians talks about. It's not about people, it's about evil. These evil forces and you, are at war with them. And if you're going to go into battle, you gotta make sure you have the full armor of God.

3. Each part of your spiritual armor is essential for survival.

You can't leave any of these off. Twice he says to put on the full armor of God, once in verse 11 and again in verse 13. Put on the full armor of God. Don't leave any of this out. You don't wanna go into battle and say "well, I didn't have time to grab my helmet so I'll just go on in anyway." No. You don't want to miss any of this stuff. Your shield, your sword, you've got to have it all. It all fits together and it all protects you. And so each part of this spiritual armor is essential for your survival.

4. The gospel is necessary equipment in your spiritual armor.

It's mentioned in verse 15 as part of what shields or what protects or shods your feet. The gospel protects you. It is part of this armor that you have to have. If you don't have the gospel or if you have it taught to you incorrectly, you don't have a protection that you need in the spiritual battle against Satan.

One other important thing about this gospel.

5. The gospel brings you peace.

It is called very specifically in verse 15, preparation of the gospel of peace. It sounds almost contradictory to what we're discussing in this whole chapter because he is describing this war and we're in battle, and he says, make sure that you have the gospel of peace. In the midst of battle, in the midst of fighting with these flaming arrows of Satan flying around us, we can be at peace. We can have a calmness, a peace that passes all understanding through the gospel. Just a knowledge of the gospel and a knowledge that we have received it by obeying the gospel, which we'll be talking about here in just a few classes now. That can bring us great peace in our lives.

D. The Mystery of the Gospel

I promised you this couple of times that we were going to do this, so let's take a look at it.

1. The gospel was once hidden, but now it is revealed.

¹⁸With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, ¹⁹and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
- Galatians 6:18-20

The gospel was hidden, and now it's revealed. "Now how do you know that, Curtis?" Well, here's how I know that because that's exactly what mystery means in the Bible. When you see the word mystery and we've seen it several times here in Ephesians, it doesn't mean like something I'm scratching my head. I gotta figure this out. Oh, this is too hard. That's not the way the Bible uses mystery.

Mystery just means something that one time it was hidden. People didn't know it. Now they know it. Not that they had to figure it out, it was just revealed to them. It wasn't revealed in the past, now it's revealed. That's what he's talking about when he talks about the mystery of the gospel.

Remember in our last class, we talked about how the the gospel actually goes all the way back to Abraham in a sense. It's been around a long time. This good news as it was developing, as it was prophesied in the Old Testament. Now we're seeing the fulfillment. Now it's revealed to us. The mystery of the gospel is in our grasp.

2. There is no reason the gospel cannot be taught with boldness (vs. 19)

We should be bold because:

3. We are ambassadors wherever God places us because of the gospel.

You know what an ambassador is? That's a representative of a country or of a king. And we are representatives of our King wherever we go.

Wherever you're going today, work, school, into the community, wherever it is, you are an ambassador of Christ. You have a specific role that you play. You are to be an example. People are looking to you to see what you do and how you behave. And your example can have a positive or a negative effect on other people. But you are an ambassador and because of that, we should be bold.

4. Be bold in your proclamation of the gospel (vs. 20)

Paul says that's what should go on. I should be boldly proclaiming this gospel.

I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of god,
- Romans 1:16

No need for me to be ashamed of the gospel. The gospel is something to speak boldly because as we've learned here in Ephesians, it is the plain saving gospel. How blessed we are to have access to God's word so we can learn what this gospel is.