JESUS IS ONLY SAVIOR IF HE IS LORD (Eph 1:15-16)

Here we go. You my God have saved my soul. I am yours forevermore.

I won't be moved of this I'm sure. You my God have saved my soul.

See I was lost. I was lost when you came for me.

Hell and chains by the end I'm free. You both live in victory.

Now I'm free. I am free. You're my joy and you are my hope.

I am saved by your grace alone. Sing of your love for me.

I am free. I am free. You my

God have saved my soul. I am yours forevermore.

I won't be moved of this I'm sure. You my God have saved my soul.

Now I stand with the king of kings. He has paid for my every sin.

Now through eternity I'm free. My God have saved my soul.

You my God have saved my soul. Please join us for our call to worship this morning.

Hallelujah. Christ has risen. Christ has risen indeed.

Darkness has been vanquished. The brilliant light of hope has come. Come let us worship and celebrate the good news.

Hallelujah. Christ has risen. What once was dead is now alive.

You gave to me the breath of life. You brought me up out from the grave.

I'm bursting out with a song of praise. What once was dead is now alive.

You gave to me the breath of life. You brought me up out from the grave.

I'm bursting out with songs of praise. I'm bursting out with songs of praise.

You my God have saved my soul. I am yours forevermore.

I won't be moved of this I'm sure. You my

God have saved my soul. Hallelujah.

You my God have saved my soul.

I am yours forevermore. You my

God have saved my soul.

I won't be moved of this I'm sure. You my God have saved my soul. Glory and cure. Grace on top of grace.

How sweet, how sweet the sound. What's lost is now found.

Heaven it came down. Grace rescued me.

Hallelujah. I am free from my sin and penalty.

At the cross you took my place. With your grace on top of grace.

One more time. Sin and penalty.

With your grace on top of grace. With your grace on top of grace.

Amen. God, we come here this morning to worship your name. Father, we thank you for that grace that we've sung about this morning.

We praise you God. Lord, as we get to worship this morning corporately, I pray that you are honored in this time, that you are glorified, that your name is lifted high.

Father, there's nothing of us, all of you. We praise you God that that tomb is empty. Lord, that you did what you promised and we know

God that that is true. We praise you for it. Thank you Jesus. Amen.

In John chapter 11, Mary and Martha were very discouraged with their current circumstances.

And when Martha approached Jesus, she says, if you would have only come here sooner then death would not have occurred.

And Jesus said these beautiful words to Martha. He said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.

Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

Do you believe this? What a wonderful truth this morning. Christ the true and better Adam Son of God and Son of man

Who when tempted in the garden

Never yielded, never sinned

Who makes the many righteous Brings us back to life again

Dying he reversed the curse Then rising crushed the serpent's head

Christ the true and better Isaac Humble son of sacrifice

Who would climb the fearful mountain There to offer up his life

With faith upon the altar Joy of joy and only

Son There salvation was provided Oh what full and boundless love

And amen, amen From beginning to end

Christ the story is the glory Hallelujah Christ the true and better Moses Called to lead a people home

Standing bold to earthly powers God's great glory to be known

With his arms stretched wide to heaven

See the waters parting too See the valleys torn forever

God with what we pass now through Amen, amen

From beginning to end

Christ the story is the glory Christ the true and better David Lowly shepherd, mighty king

He the champion in the battle Where of death is now thy sting

In our place he bled and conquered Crown him

Lord of majesty Shall be the throne forever

We shall hear the people be

Amen, amen From beginning to end

Christ the story is the glory Hallelujah, amen

Sing it Amen, amen From beginning to end

Christ the story Hallelujah, amen

Do you feel the world is broken Do you feel the shadows deep

Do you know that all the dark

Won't stop the light from getting through It's who you wish that you could see it all made

It's all creation

Creation It's the glory of the

Lord It's the light within our midst It's the

God that we remind ourselves Is anyone there?

Is anyone there? Is anyone able to break the seal

And open the scroll? The lion of Judah The conqueror's at play

He is David's food and the lamb of God To ransom the soul of sin

Is he worthy? Is he worthy?

Of our blessing and honor and glory Is he worthy?

He turns into a seal

The prophet was afraid

He is David's return

He has made us a kingdom And priest and guide To reign with the

Son Is he worthy? Is he worthy?

Of our blessing and honor and glory Is he worthy?

He is He is

He is worthy Now if we have died with Christ We believe that we also will live with him

We know that Christ being raised from the dead Will never die again Death no longer has dominion over him

For the death he died, he died to sin Once for all But the life he lives, he lives to God So you also must consider yourself dead to sin

And alive to God In Christ Jesus Because he lives

I can face tomorrow Because he lives

All fear is gone Because I know

He holds the future And life is worth the living

Just because he lives

Turn your eyes Upon Jesus Look for in his wonder

For the things of earth

Will grow strangely His glory and glory

Amen Father we thank you for this corporate worship That you've allowed us to meet here this morning

To praise your holy name Thank you Father God Thank you for this season, this time

That we look back and we see That not as in the Old Testament but in the New We get to look back and see that it has been

As we continue this worship in a time of offering We praise you God In your name we pray

Amen Now after the

Sabbath Toward the dawn of the first day of the week Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb

And behold there was a great earthquake For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven

And came and rolled back the stone and sat on it His appearance was like lightning

And his clothes white as snow And for fear of him for the guards were trembling

And became like dead men But the angel said to the women Do not be afraid For I know that you seek

Jesus who was crucified He is not here for he is risen As he has said

Come and see the place where he lay Church the tomb was empty

Amen Amen Thank you

Well today is Easter A celebration of the resurrection of the Savior Right The one and only

Savior But here's the thing To us Those of us in here who are in Christ today

Every Sunday is Resurrection Day isn't it? That's as a matter of fact That's one of the reasons the

Christian church Has historically gathered together on Sunday Because of that reason

And the reason that we find it so important Is because the physical bodily resurrection of Christ Is paramount to the

Christian faith And should remain at the forefront Of all of our worship

But that being said I'm not going to preach a traditional Easter sermon today

We are going to continue our study here In the book of Ephesians So go ahead and open your copy of God's word

To Ephesians chapter 1 And we're going to start in verse 15 today But as a brief recap

Maybe for some of those that weren't here with us Over the past few weeks We last week just wrapped up Looking at this long run -on sentence

By the Apostle Paul that began in verse 3 of chapter 1 And went all the way to verse 14

Where we saw God's grand plan of redemption Just pouring out of the Apostle Paul and unfolding

We saw the past, the present, and the future Redemptive plan of the triune

God The fact that God the Father chose us for adoption Before the foundations of the world

The truth that God the Son has redeemed us By blood ransom

And that God the Holy Spirit Has guaranteed our inheritance

As sons As those that have been adopted and brought into the household of faith

Until we get into glory And this leads us into verse 15 here

Where we read The Apostle Paul says For this reason Because I have heard of your faith in the

Lord Jesus And your love toward all the saints I do not cease to give thanks for you

Remembering you in my prayers That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ The Father of glory

May give you the spirit of wisdom And of revelation And the knowledge of Him Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened

That you may know what is the hope To which He has called you What are the riches of His glorious inheritance

In the saints And what is the immeasurable greatness Of His power toward us who believe

According to the work of His great might That He worked in Christ When He raised

Him from the dead And seated Him at His right hand In the heavenly places Far above all rule and authority

And power and dominion And above every name that is named Not only in this age

But also in the one to come And He put all things under His feet And gave Him as head over all things to the church

Which is His body The fullness of Him Who fills all in all

Amen This is the reading of God's Holy Inspired Word Would you join me in praying that God would

Illuminate our hearts and minds to this truth Dear Heavenly Father Thank You for Your Word Father thank

You for allowing us to gather this morning For those of us that are in Your Son Christ For we stand redeemed

We stand righteous before You Not because of a righteousness of our own

But because of the righteousness of the perfect Holy Savior That has been accounted to us

Through faith and repentance So Father I pray this morning That as we look at Your Word That You would guard me from error

I'm a fallible man who can speak untruths But Your Word is infallible

So I pray that I would be true to that Word I pray that You would guard the hearers today I pray that You would guard us

As we open up this truth And study it and evaluate it And look at it That only truth would be spoken today

And heard in Christ's name Amen Well Paul starts out this new section

As we kind of transition into a new train of thought He starts out with this phrase For this reason there at the beginning of verse 15

And you see every single time that Paul uses this phrase In the Greek He's always referring to what he's getting ready to say

In connection to what he has already said In other words meaning that verses 15 through 23

That we just read Are understood in light of verses 3 through 14

That we recapped a moment ago And Paul does this And he makes this transition

And connects these two With a prayer He goes to the source once again

After he has laid out this beautiful plan of redemption From a triune

God He then goes into prayer You would think that after he made that declaration That we've been studying over the past few weeks

After he makes this wonderful declaration This great plan of redemption there in verses 3 through 14

That Paul would say something like Now saints, now that you've heard about this Now that I've reminded you of this plan

Go and live in light of it You would think that that's where Paul would go instantly

But he doesn't Now he does eventually in this letter But here in the immediate

He goes to praying for them He goes to praying that essentially

That God would give them the strength To go and live it out And to experience this great truth

To live in light of being redeemed Being purchased, being chosen

Being sealed by the Holy Spirit And so over the next few weeks

If you stick with us We are going to be looking at this prayer in greater detail

But today what I want us to do Is I want us to focus on the transition into the prayer

Verses 15 and 16 So look there with me at verse 15

Where he says for this reason And just as we said a moment ago For this reason Because of God's grand plan of redemption

That we just talked about Past, present and future That God has sealed The triune

God Because of that Plus because And Paul here He goes on to point two distinguishing markers

Of the people he's writing to And the people he's getting ready to pray for He says because I have heard of Number one

Your faith in the Lord Jesus And number two Your love toward all the saints

And because of these things Because of the truth that we just laid out

And because of your faith And because of your love I do not cease to give thanks for you

Remembering you in my prayers So why is the

Apostle Paul Not ceasing to give thanks For these believers in Ephesus That he's writing to And remembering them

Specifically in his prayers It's because he hears

Accounts of evidence That they are recipients

Of that glorious blessing That he spoke about previously Did you catch that?

He's praying for them Because now he has heard Of the evidence Of that being true

These two distinguishing markers Faith in the Lord Jesus And love for one another

Has given Paul a confidence That these people there in Ephesus And the others that he's writing to Have truly been chosen

They have truly been purchased They show fruit of being redeemed

And sealed for future glory And why is that?

Because he hears of the evidence Of that fruit being produced In their lives

So let's look at the first one The first of which being Their faith in the Lord Jesus You know we hear a lot about Faith in Jesus here in the

Bible Belt Don't we? It's kind of a common phrase

You go to church You hear about it You speak to your neighbors Or co -workers Everyone kind of has a general idea

About a faith in Jesus As a matter of fact We moved here My family we moved here About seven years ago

From Florida And I have to be honest I have yet to meet a person here And spoken to one single person

Who has not said the sinner's prayer And claims to have faith in Jesus I've not met one

Have you? Now I'm not saying There aren't out there I just haven't come in contact With any of them

Every time I talk to any person It's like oh yeah I prayed the prayer I got baptized

Whatever that might be And they have faith in Jesus Nearly every person

I meet Despite the fact That usually the person I'm talking to Rarely attends church

They know very little About the word of God And are often living In some sort of outright sin

That doesn't matter right? Because they prayed the prayer Right? They were baptized

So they're covered They're good After all Once saved, always saved

Right? And this is the result Unfortunately of a distortion

Of the biblical gospel Of Jesus Christ And I'm going to give you

A little bit of history here To kind of give you a context For why culturally Here in the Bible Belt And particularly here

In Northeast Arkansas Struggles with this type of thinking

Back in the 70s and 80s Professors at Dallas Theological Seminary Down in Dallas, Texas They began promoting and teaching

Something known What they like to refer to as Free grace They refer to it as free grace

We actually refer to it as Easy believism A man by the name of Zane Hodges That was a professor there

He actually wrote a book The Gospel Under Siege Where he attacks and denies

The traditional understanding Of salvation And so he

Zane Hodges He and others around him claimed That a person can be saved By a intellectual assent

That accepts Jesus As their savior Right?

Did you catch that? They believe that the gospel is An intellectual assent That Jesus is the savior

Meaning to be saved All a person has to do Is believe in Jesus And accept his free gift of grace

Wait a second Doesn't that sound right? All a person has to do

Is believe in Jesus And accept the free gift of grace See, here's the problem

It only sounds somewhat right to us Because This just goes to show you the fact

Of how prominent this way of thinking Has become within the church Here in the South Well, everywhere in the world

But primarily here in the Bible Belt It has penetrated our culture And as I said a moment ago

We usually know it better as Easy Believism Walk the aisle

Say this prayer Never doubt it Right?

Even if you go out And live like the devil Doesn't matter We have this idea that That a person comes to Christ By making

Christ their savior By believing in him And making him their savior And then later

At some point in life They then decide to make him Lord It's an

Easy Believism Thankfully God used men

Like Dr. John MacArthur To fight against this distortion And in response to this He wrote a book

Called The Gospel According to Jesus I highly recommend it If you want to dive into the study of this

And get to know what Scripture teaches In a greater way Find that book It was written in 1988

I believe But it is still in print You should find it, read it Study it, learn it

It's a great resource And in this book he showed That Scripture teaches What we refer to as Lordship Salvation Lordship Salvation Now remember our passage

That we're looking at here in Ephesians What is the first characteristic That Paul sees? He says he's heard of their faith

In what? The Lord Jesus Now he doesn't write that As just nicety does he?

Every word is precise isn't it In Scripture There's a reason that he puts it in there Like this Lord isn't

Jesus' first name Jesus' name is not First name Lord Middle name

Jesus Last name Christ These are identifying markers Of who Jesus is

And he is the Lord to these people The faith that Paul had heard about In regards to these people

These Christians that he's writing to Was obviously not a mere said faith It wasn't just a communicated

Yes I believe in the intellectual ascent Of what Jesus did Even a truly meaning heart

Of saying yes I believe Jesus did Pay for my sins

Meaning that they weren't just giving Lip service to him as their Savior Their faith was being lived out to him

As Lord This is what the Apostle Paul Is hearing about This is evidence of a true conversion

This is why he goes on to pray The way that he does for them And that we're going to look at Over the next few weeks This is why he has confidence

In the fact of what he's just Previously said about redemption Is true about them Because the Apostle Paul You've got to know

He's sitting in prison As he's writing this letter So he's obviously getting word from somewhere So there's people

There's Christians coming in and out And telling him Maybe people are writing him And telling him about this lived out faith

This trust in the Lord Jesus Christ This obedience to Christ And man he's overwhelmed with it

And he loves them I've heard I've heard of your Your faith

In the Lord You see believing in what Jesus did Is not enough, is it?

It's not enough to just believe In what Jesus did As a matter of fact Turn with me to John chapter 2

I want you to see something here John chapter 2 I want us to look at verses 23 and 24

At this point in Jesus' ministry There are people that are following him They're flocking to him

They love what he has to offer They love what he's doing And then this account here in John chapter 2

Starting in verse 23 Points that out He says Now when he was in Jerusalem At the

Passover feast Many believed in his name Many believed in his name

When he saw When they saw the signs that he was doing But Jesus on his part

Did not entrust himself to them Because he knew all people Did you catch that?

These people believed in his name As a matter of fact They had the evidence of who he was

They could see that he was doing the works of God He was doing miraculous things

And they believed it They saw it with their own two eyes And they believed in his name

Isn't that all we have to do? Not according to this

Jesus He didn't entrust himself to them He knew their heart

He knew their motives And their reason for believing Those motives were not sincere

Were they? These were not sincere motives of belief In who Jesus is

Here's the problem Because Christ had not revealed himself to them Which is essential You have to see

Christ for who he is And the only belief that these people Could even possibly have

Is essentially a selfish belief It's a selfish faith What do

I get from this Jesus? What can

Jesus do for me? They saw all the signs They saw all the wonders that he was doing

And it's just like the people today Hearing that believing in him Allows them to escape hell

There are churches that have VBS's I've actually heard an account of a VBS With a big 55 gallon bucket over here

And another one over here And one of them was heaven And the other one had a fire in it And you had to walk up and put your name in it as a kid

And say which one did you want to go to? Heaven or hell? Just believe in Jesus And drop your name into the bucket without the fire

Or if you want to go to hell Don't believe in Jesus And drop it in the bucket with the fire And then the ones that dropped it in the bucket without the fire

They claimed are saved And then baptized all the kids What are they believing in?

What are they doing? And here's the thing They're children These are children that They don't have ill intent per se

They're believing what the adults are telling them There's no doubt in their minds

This heaven and hell is real And I want to go to heaven And I believe there's a

Jesus But belief isn't enough I want you to see something else

Flip over to the gospel account of Luke chapter 9 Luke chapter 9

We're going to start looking in verse 57 I want you to see

Jesus' response to people That are desiring to follow him

Through belief in who he is Luke chapter 9 starting in verse 57

Says, as they were going along the road Someone said to him Who is this? Someone speaking to Jesus, right?

He said, I will follow you wherever you go I believe

I believe in you And I will follow you wherever you go Verse 58 And Jesus said to him

Foxes have holes And birds of the air have nests But the

Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head It's a weird response, right? Seems odd Let's keep going here

To another he said Follow me So he calls someone to follow him

But he said Lord, let me first go and bury my father And Jesus said to him

Leave the dead to bury their own dead Look at verse 60

And Jesus said to him Leave the dead to bury their own dead But as for you

Go and proclaim the kingdom of God Yet another said

I will follow you, Lord Another declaration, right? Of belief I will follow you,

Lord But let me first say farewell to those at my house Jesus said to him

No one who puts his hand to the plow And looks back is fit for the kingdom of God What's Jesus saying here?

Is he saying that we shouldn't bury our dead? Is he saying that we should never say farewell to our family when we leave?

Of course not What Jesus is pointing to Is that in order to follow him

Everything else must pale in comparison We are not following him for what he can give us

We are following him because he is our Lord And when it comes down to it

We see it over and over again Where people come They come down some altar call

And they pray a prayer They're emotionally stirred I believe they have the best of intentions They truly believe at some level what's going on But they're coming to Jesus for what

Jesus can give them And then they later fall away Were they ever saved?

No Because Christians will persevere Because a Christian comes to Jesus in repentance

A Christian comes to Jesus as Lord You can't even begin to understand what

Jesus did at the cross Unless you understand that he is Lord These two cannot be separated

We'll talk a little bit more about that here in a moment This is essentially what

John said In 1 John 2 -3 Very familiar passage

He said, and by this we know that we have come to know him How do we know that we've come to know

Jesus? According to John he says If we keep his commandments What does that mean?

If he's Lord If you obey him That's when you know that you're in him

John's simply repeating Jesus' words Jesus' words back in John 8 -31 So Jesus said to the

Jews who had believed him Here we go The Jews that believed him

I believe what you're saying I believe that you're doing miracles I believe in you

He says, if you abide in my word You are truly my disciples Seems like an awful lot of ifs

True faith True conversion Lordship salvation is a changed heart

A changed heart As Paul mentions in 2 Corinthians 5 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ He is a new creation

The old has passed away Behold the new has come Has the old passed away?

Has the new come? Have you been made a new creature?

Because when you come to Jesus as Lord You are something categorically different than what you were

Because you've come to him in repentance And faith Faith in who

Jesus truly is Do you know what repentance really means? It's a turning away It's a turning away from something

What faith is, is you're turning to Christ, aren't you? Think of it in this way Christ is over here

And everything else is over here I've been walking this way And now

Jesus has awakened me The Holy Spirit has brought life into me And I turn around and I see

Jesus And what do I do? I turn from sin I repent And I look to Jesus and Jesus alone

And I walk away from the sin My back is to the sin My back is to everything else

Because Christ is Lord He is the only object of my affection He is the only object worthy of praise

He is the only one in this entire created universe That is worthy of Lordship And so I turn,

I repent I love how Pastor Jeremiah puts it He says, faith and repentance are two sides to a single coin

You can't have faith without repentance And you can't have repentance without faith

The two go hand in hand This is why Jesus must be

Lord Jesus is the Lord of your life Here's the thing though Jesus is already

Lord Whether you submit to His Lordship or not

He's Lord He reigns He's Lord of all He's Lord of everything And we must submit to Him Now here's the thing

It's not as though we don't still war against the flesh, is it? I don't want to leave you discouraged here thinking

Pastor Nathan said that if I don't live a perfect life And I don't obey Jesus perfectly Then I'm obviously not a

Christian Please don't walk away thinking that Because I've felt that at times in my life And that will burden you down That will weigh you down Because we're still left here to war against the flesh

But it's not as though we don't war against the flesh It's that we now war against the flesh

There's a key distinction here, right? It's not as though we don't war against the flesh

It's that we now actually war against it Before we were enslaved to it We obeyed it at every turn

We loved it We longed for it But now, even though there's a bit in our flesh

Until we reach glory That's pulling us back towards the world at times That gravity keeps pulling us back

We're fighting it That's what a Christian does I'm fighting it I want to serve my

Lord I want to obey my Lord I want Him to shine in my life

I don't want that anymore And every once in a while I keep going back to it and longing for it

And Jesus, as the good Lord that He is He is drawing us back in God the

Father is a good Father He's drawing us back in That's why He gave us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit That we talked about last week, right?

The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is working in us That sanctifying work Where He is convicting us

And He's making us despise the things of the world more and more I don't know about you

But I despise things in the world a lot more than I did 10 years ago Can everybody attest to that?

I despise it so much more than I did 10 years ago And I look back at it and I think Man, I loved it in comparison to what

I feel now And I'm hoping in another 10 years I can look back and go Man, I hate the world so much more than I did before Because God is working in us

Because Jesus is our Lord And we do so We long to do so Because we long to be obedient to Him And when we see someone

When we look at someone around us That professes this truth in Christ That says,

I have belief in Jesus We can say That if they're not living out that faith with Jesus as Lord We have no confidence in that faith

And you should neither Just as James said

What good is it, my brother, if someone says he has faith But does not have works? Can that faith save him?

You gotta understand James is not saying that works are equal with their faith

What James is saying is a true faith will be worked out A true faith is one that makes

Jesus Lord Well, it doesn't make Jesus Lord Except the fact that Jesus is Lord, right? Let's be precise with our words, right?

But James is saying You can tell me you have faith all day long

Well, he says it in James 2, verse 18 He says, but someone will say You have faith and I have works

Show me your faith apart from your works And I will show you my faith by my works What are works?

Obedience to the Lord Lordship salvation

James says in the next verse, in verse 19 He says, you believe that God is one You do well Even the demons believe and shudder

Believe in Jesus all you want Believe in Jesus with all the sincerity in your heart

And if Jesus isn't Lord of your life That belief is nothing

It means nothing It has no saving power It will do nothing

Because it's not true faith Because true faith comes in repentance

Turning away Belief alone is not enough

It must be accompanied with that Turning away from our old self

Because we cannot serve two masters, can we? That's what Jesus said You can't serve two masters

And turning to Jesus and faith requires What I mentioned a moment ago That turning away from everything else

If you lost someone dear to you today Is Jesus still enough? Is Jesus still

Lord? If you lose your job today Is Jesus still Lord? If you get into an accident

And are bound by a wheelchair for the rest of your life Is Jesus still Lord? Or do you long for the things of this world?

If you never find that spouse Is Jesus still Lord? There's no such thing as coming to Jesus as Savior And not simultaneously coming to Him as Lord And this is the first reason that Paul gives

In his confidence that they are of the beloved That he has mentioned His confidence, and that's what he's getting ready to pray for them

So let's look at the second Paul also points to a second fruit here Look back at verse 15 in our passage in Ephesians 1

He says, for this reason Because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus And your love toward all the saints

I couldn't help but think of John 13, 35 Where Jesus says, by this all people will know that you are my disciples

By how? By good morals? Did Jesus say, by your good morals

Everyone will know you're my disciple? No, but Ah, by your profession of faith

Everyone will know you're my disciples By your baptism, everyone will know you're my disciples By your works, everyone will know you're my disciples

Now he says If you have love for one another That's the identifying marker

Matthew 22, 34 You can turn there with me if you would like But Matthew 22, 34

Says, but when the Pharisees heard That he had silenced the Sadducees They gathered together

And one of them, a lawyer Asked him a question to test him He's trying to trap

Jesus Verse 36, it says Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?

And he said to him You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart And with all your soul and with all your mind

This is the great and first commandment And I'm sure these men were like Yeah, that's it, love

God And then verse 39, he says And a second is like it

You shall love your neighbor as yourself For on these two commandments

Depend all the law and the prophets This is the distinguishing marker

Of being obedient to the Lord, right? If Jesus is Lord You're being obedient to the

Lord You are changed, you are something different And 1

John 4, 20 says If anyone says I love God and hates his brother He is a liar

For he who does not love his brother Whom he has seen cannot love God Whom he has not seen

Pretty bold, right? We could go all day long with passages like this Over and over again in scripture

But I want you to notice here in our text He says your love

Toward some of the saints Is that what

Paul heard about? Your love towards the likable saints

The ones you get along with I've heard about that I've heard you've got some really good clicks there in that church

No, he says your love toward all the saints He's heard of this church

That is living out the faith that they claim They're proving themselves

To have Jesus as Lord of their life And he has confidence in this truth

That they've been redeemed because of this And Paul makes a big deal about this As a matter of fact, we're gonna get to it

Sometime in the year like, what? 2028, somewhere in that range We're gonna get to chapter 4 in Ephesians, right?

But Ephesians 4, he says I therefore a prisoner for the Lord Urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling

Which you have been called, right? These are Christians You've been called according to his purposes And he says with all humility and gentleness

And with patience Bearing with one another in love Eager to maintain the unity of the spirit

In the bond of peace You see, one of the evidences of someone obeying

Jesus as Lord Is obeying him and imitating him In how we treat and respond to others

You wanna see if somebody's truly been changed? How do they respond to the brothers and sisters in their church?

We're gonna even thrive If they're not part of a church They're probably not a brother or sister, right? But those within the church

How do they respond to brothers and sisters? James said, my brothers

Show no partiality As you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ The Lord of glory There should be no such thing

As someone in this church That you just don't really get along with If Jesus is

Lord, right? There should be no such thing Have you ever heard a

Christian say And I'm gonna say this real quick I've been guilty of saying this in my life, okay?

So don't give me any holy looks this morning Like I would never, right? Have you ever heard a Christian say something like Yeah, I love that person

Man, that brother or sister I love them, I just don't really like them I mean,

I love them to death I'd give them the shirt off my back I just really don't wanna be around them

I'm not willing to give up my time And my friendship and my love

And my camaraderie with them I'll give them the shirt off my back I'm just not gonna spend time with them

Well, I'm sorry to tell you If that's the case You are guilty of the sin of partiality Right?

And if you are in Christ If He is Lord of your life You will repent of that disunity You will fellowship with You will love on You will seek to edify every single person

In the faith Not just the ones we like You will die to self

No matter what the differences are No matter what you feel against them No matter what the personality conflict is

No matter what that conflict may be You will live sacrificially with them

You see, following Christ isn't your heavenly insurance card And it's one of dying to self

And living for the Lord That means obeying His word Doesn't it?

So do you obey? Now we've already talked about it You don't obey it perfectly

Neither do I And we never will until glory But is the pattern of your life one of obedience?

One that sees When a brother or sister comes to you and says Hey brother, hey sister Look, I see this in your life

But look at God's word God's word says this Do you react with that?

Like, I'm not going to submit to that I don't want to change that in my life Well, I'm sorry

We might have to have another conversation Because a true Christian Someone that is in Christ Has Jesus as Lord And when

Jesus says it You seek to obey it Period Are we living for Him?

Do you love the brothers and sisters? Not just an emotional feeling towards them That's a cop out

You can't say you love somebody If your verb of love Your action of love doesn't show it

That's just talk And hypocrisy But do we truly love them in action?

If all these things aren't true in your life I'm sorry You should have no confidence in your faith

That's a heavy one, isn't it? I wrestle with that I wrestle with that because my faith

Is so weak sometimes I say a lot of times Isn't it yours?

My obedience is so weak It's so frail But it's there

And God said That he who began a good work in you Will see it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus You rest in it

Is there evidence of Jesus being Lord? Or have you just come to Him As some kind of Savior That buys your way out of hell?

Did you just pray some sinner's prayer And get baptized? And you're not a part of a church

You're not an active participating member That loves on the brothers and sisters That brings your gifts to the benefit of that church

Are you in the word? Are you communing with your Lord and Savior? If that's not the case

And you want to talk with one of us Pastor Jeremiah or myself this morning We're going to be down here Come talk to us

We'd love to have that conversation with you But for those of you in here

That you can look at your life and go Oh man, I only see a glimmer of obedience

Nah Trust in Christ Rest in Christ And seek to obey

Him And love Him Because Christ Jesus is no Savior if He is not Lord Oh but He is a

Savior And He is a good Lord Right?

His burden is easy and His yoke is light It's good Because when you've been made something new

You desire to obey You desire for Him to sit on the throne

That He rightfully, rightfully Sets on And obey it

Well in light of this Let's now prepare our hearts to go to the table We do this every week

As a reminder That we see the word Right?

We've preached the word today We've sang the word We've read the word We've sang the word

Now it's time to see the word And we come to this table

Not as penance Not trying to get everything right in our lives

And if everything isn't perfect We can't go to the table We come to this table

If we are truly in Christ We come to this table resting in what

He's done Showing each other The watching world that we partake

That we are in Him That He is in us And these elements

There's nothing special about them But there is a unique time of worship

When we go to the table It's a spirit -filled memorial So as I said a moment ago

Pastor Jeremiah and myself Will be up at the front here If you want to speak If you want to pray Whatever that might be

Today we will not be having Quintinia Feast It is Easter families and situations going on So we will be closing the service

As soon as we partake of the Lord's Supper And do a benediction But let's pray now

That God will be honored in this time If you are a believer in Christ In good standing with Evangelical Church You're welcome to this table

The way we work it Is you come around the outsides in line Take the elements And go back to your seats

Through the middle here You can partake as a family You can pray individually You can pray as a group

And partake of those elements And then we come back together And we will sing the doxology together So let's pray

Dear Heavenly Father Lord work in our hearts And in our minds And in our lives

Father Lord that we would submit to To your

Lordship Knowing that Even when we don't You are

Lord You reign Victorious You reign as King Lord help us to rest in that Father I pray for those of us in here

That are in you I pray that we would come to this table With confidence Knowing that we can rest in Christ Christ alone

That we take part in this That as we partake of these elements That we remembering the sacrifice

Of our great Savior With his body and his blood But we're also looking around at each other

And seeing that we are together in this That we partake together in unity

As one with you And as we rest in that future feast

Where it's no longer but a taste It's no longer a small portion But it is an endless feast of glory

With our Savior So Father I pray that you would be honored In our worship this morning