The Best Is Yet to Be (Part 2 of 2)

You can't be so bad that Jesus can't be so bad that Jesus can't be so bad that Jesus can't save you.

And you also can't be so good that you don't need a Savior. Everyone needs to hear and believe the good news of the gospel. We'll find out why today on Truth for Life as Alistair Begg teaches from the book of Ephesians chapter 3, we're looking at verses 11-13. The church, the existence of the church, serves, says Paul, as a strong reminder to the hosts of heaven that, as we often sing, death is dead, love has won, Christ has conquered. The existence of the church causes the angels to rejoice and causes the demons to shudder, so that the reality of the heavenly hosts testify to the fact that Jesus has accomplished in time the purposes of God from all of eternity. No matter where or when in history the forces of darkness seek to do their worst, God is accomplishing his eternal purpose. He has revealed this in and through the person of his Son. And the Christian believer in Cleveland this morning, reading Paul's letter to Ephesus, we're supposed to then take this and bow down under the wonder and the weight of this, that God is actually doing things in his church that sounds the death knell of everything that is opposed to his church—that God actually is saving the most unlikely people, that God is putting together companies and congregations and assemblies that are not made up of a bunch of little self-righteous individuals who were always interested in trying to be nice and proper and so on.

No! If you can take the lid off the average congregation and find out what we were, then it will be an amazing testimony to the power of Christ, to the reality of God's purpose, to the triumph of his grace. That, you see, is the significance, surely, of 1 Corinthians 6, and the way in which Paul, in addressing the Corinthians there, says to them, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? If you're unrighteous, you'll never inherit the kingdom of God. How righteous do you have to be? Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, said Jesus, you will in no way enter the kingdom of heaven.

Wow! That sounds like you ought to be perfect. The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunks, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

So we're busted. Then comes this great sentence, And such were some of you. You see, this is the mystery of grace, isn't it?

How did these people find themselves in this position? Because the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all our sins. It is only in Jesus. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

And, he says, you were like that, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Last night, when I was waiting for the game to come on, I was clicking through, and I found Sister Angelica. How many of you know Sister Angelica? You know?

Yeah. She's gone now. And, well, she's gone, but she's still there, because I saw her last night. And one of the questions that was called in to her was—she's a Roman Catholic non-incidentally, or was—one of the questions that was called in to her was, well, what about purgatory? And why do we have to have purgatory?

And she said, well, because purgatory is very necessary. And she said, you know, you couldn't—I mean, if you died, I mean, you couldn't go straight. You couldn't go straight to meet God. You couldn't go straight to paradise.

I mean, think about it. You gotta go somewhere to get cleaned up for the program. You're gonna have to have some mechanism so you can get fixed before the big interview. She said, that's why we have that. That's why it's necessary.

You shouldn't be concerned about it. So now I'm talking to the TV. I'm talking to Sister Angelica. I said to her, I said, hey, Sister, every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which could never take away sins, but when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. The reason that you have that is because you have a faulty view of the atonement. You don't understand that the ground of our salvation is in the work of Christ, and the evidence of our salvation is in the ongoing work of Christ, in the fruit that he produces in our lives.

Because God does not justify those whom he does not sanctify. You see how vastly different these notions of what it means to know God and to meet God and to have access to God are? You understand why there was a reformation when God lit a flame in the heart of a Roman Catholic monk named Martin Luther, who was desperately trying to figure out how he could be righteous enough to get in the kingdom of heaven? All of his time in Rome, the special pilgrimage, left him worse than he began until he suddenly realized—Romans 3—but now a righteousness from God, through Christ, to all who believe. And suddenly the lights went on, and everything changed. Some of you have come out of that background.

Do you understand? What is this amazing gospel, that a fellow who, in the dying embers of his life, turns to the man on the middle cross and says, Lord, will you remember me when you come into your kingdom? And Jesus says, well, we can talk about that later.

You gotta—there's a purgatory thing, you gotta go through that. I'll see you later on somewhere along the road, you know. And I said, today, today, today, today, today, you will be with me in paradise. This is the gospel, you see.

This is the story. This is what God is working out. That's why when Paul writes to Timothy, he puts it succinctly.

He says, God has saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ before the ages began. So at a very base level—if I come back to the demonic hosts looking on—I imagine that they even look on and see Parkside here, this strange group of people called Parkside Church. And they are able to say to one another, you know, even that place is showing evidence of the wonder-working power of Christ. Apparently, they're not too concerned about barriers of race and class and status and education. It would appear as though their union has to do with the work of Jesus.

Well, I've spent too long on that, but you're used to that. Verse 12, from God's purpose to our privilege. Our privilege. Look at how verse 12 begins, and look at how it ends. In whom?

In him. Some of you may be here this morning, and you're asking the question, How can I come before God? If God is this holy God, if people were afraid to even come near to the mountain in Sinai, they couldn't even touch it, or they would die because of his majestic holiness. How in the world can you come before God? Well, the answer is in the concluding phrase of verse 11, In Christ Jesus our Lord, and in the concluding phrase of verse 12, Through our faith in him. Through our faith in him.

Jesus, who is Messiah and Lord of the universe. Boldness, access, confidence through our faith in him. Staying with my theme, not through the priestly intervention of someone else. Not as a result of having a supposedly holy man do something holy for you or holy to you. Not as the result of an external rite or a process or any of those things. There is one mediator between God and man, and that is the man Christ Jesus. Direct access to him, in him, and through him.

Not coming to God on the strength of our own merits. This is what I've done. This is what I haven't done. Like the Pharisee in Luke, I thank you that I'm not like this person. So I've managed to make myself feel better about myself by finding some people that I can disregard. I thank you that I'm not like them. I thank you that I do this, that I do these tithing things, that I do this and I do that.

No. He's coming to him like the other man, who smote his breast and didn't even look up to the heaven, and he says, God, be merciful to me a sinner. And remember, Jesus says, Which of the two went down to his home justified? Which of these two characters is the one who enters into the presence of God? Now, the Pharisee would have said, Well, the fellow who does all the stuff.

That's why we do all the stuff. Jesus says, No. It's this guy.

It's this guy. Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress, and helpless come to thee for grace.

Foul I to the fountain fly. Wash me safe here, or I die. You can't just go walking into heaven. You need someone to open the way for you. The story of the gospel is, someone has opened the way for you. Cecil Francis Alexander, writing all these hymns for children, hits the nail on the head again and again. There is a green hill far away outside a city wall where the dear Lord was crucified who died to save us all. There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin. He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in. And the wonderful news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ has unlocked the gate. He has accomplished in his death a perfect redemption to everyone who believes the promise of God, to the person who says, I am absolutely without hope and without God in the world. Well, when you come to him in that way, there is a pardon that he provides.

I wonder, have you come to him, those of you who listen to me again and again, have you turned to him in faith? What are you waiting for? What day are you waiting for?

Are you planning on doing this on your birthday, or…? What is your deal? Well, you don't believe in Christ.

You don't lay down the arms of your rebellion. Well, you don't believe what he says, that you can't be so stinking rotten that he can't save you, or that you can't be so wonderfully good that you don't need saved. The privilege of access is in and through Christ. Finally, the perspective of Paul in verse 13.

So—so—so he's working logically here. The church, verse 10, is the place where God's manifold wisdom is revealed. This is just what God has been planning from all of eternity, which is now realized in time in the person of Christ Jesus our Lord. It is in Christ Jesus our Lord that we have boldness and access to God through faith in him. And so—and here's the pastor's heart coming out, so I don't want you to be unsettled, disheartened, fearful, because I'm in the jail. I'm in the jail because of you.

That's really it. When you go back into Acts, we realize that the great hullabaloo that unfolded was because he was saying these things and preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, and the animosity of people was such that he was imprisoned for it. So he understands that his suffering is on account of the fact that he's been preaching to the Gentiles.

But look at what he says. What I am suffering for you is your glory. Suffering and glory is a theme that runs through Paul's writings all the time.

I'll just give you three verses that you can follow up on your own. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. Romans 8 18. In 2 Corinthians, and in chapter 4, while we have this treasure in jars of clay so that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us, all the way down to verse 17, for this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

Therefore, we don't look to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. And when he writes his final letter to Timothy, in 2 Timothy 2, therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. In other words, Paul's perspective is this— that he was fine with being in the jail. It's not his first choice, but he was fine with suffering for them because he had their glory in view. Or, as my big brother puts it, suffering is the raw material out of which glory is created. Suffering is the raw material. The suffering of Paul being the glory of the Ephesians. Now, we understand this on a personal level, don't we? That suffering may end to the glory of God. But what an encouragement to these believers in Ephesus. You know what I mean?

Think about it. They have now taken their stand for Jesus, and their friends and their neighbors are saying to him, So, who did you say you had a letter from? Well, we had a letter from the apostle Paul.

Oh, good. Where is he? Well, he's in a jail. He's in a jail. I mean, what is that about?

I mean, if you got a thing going here, you don't expect one of your main guys to be in a jail. Now, Paul says, Now, I don't want you to get downhearted on the basis of that. I don't want you to start thinking for a nanosecond that some or another God's eternal purpose has been thwarted by where I am right now. In fact, he says, I want you to understand my perspective that where I am right now, far from being detrimental to the cause, is actually for your glory.

What an amazing perspective. Only God can bring that about. So, a letter from a jail. Because I was thinking again this week about Halloween and Guy Fawkes, which you know nothing about, but Google it, you'll find out. Guy Fawkes is November the 5th.

Remember, remember, the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason, and plot. But because I was thinking about that and the attempts to blow up the Houses of Parliament and those who were on the receiving end of persecution in their day by this convoluted stream, I got to Bunyan, the writer of Pilgrim's Progress. I was reminding myself that he's one of the saints of old who lines the way.

I come behind. I realize that he endured it in his day in the seventeenth century. You know, he was sent to jail for not going to church.

That would be a scare to some of you, especially if it was evening church. He had, quote, "...devilishly and perniciously abstained from coming to church to hear the divine service." In other words, he was guilty of not paying attention to the established church, to the Anglican church, and to the Book of Common Prayer. He had, quote, "...held several unlawful meetings and conventicals to the great disturbance and distraction of the good citizens of the kingdom." He was a troublemaker, he was a dissenter, he was a Puritan. They put him in jail for twelve years. Twelve years for not going to church.

Wow! And what did he do while he was in there? Well, he thought, he prayed, he wrote. And most of what he wrote has been buried in the past. Some of us still read Pilgrim's Progress. And in Pilgrim's Progress there is a conversation between Mr. Valiant-for-Truth, who speaks to Mr. Great Heart, and Mr. Valiant-for-Truth seeking to encourage Mr. Great Heart to have a great heart, quotes this poem to him, and goes like this. It's become a hymn.

Who would true valor see? Let him come hither. One here will constant be, Come wind, come weather. There's no discouragement Shall make him once relent. His first avowed intent To be a pilgrim.

It then goes on, I hope. Who so—actually, I can quote it without it, but anyway— Who so beset him round with dismal stories? Do but themselves confound his strength amores. No lion can him fright Heal with a giant fight. He will have a right to be a pilgrim. Hobgoblin nor fowl fiend Can daunt his spirit. He knows He at the end shall life inherit. Then fancies flee away.

He'll care not what men say. He'll labor night and day to be a pilgrim. God looks from the heavens, and he laughs. Eyes on the king, Parkside. Eyes on the king. God's purpose will not fail.

Our privilege is ours to enjoy. Paul's perspective is the right one. Nothing is out of control, and nothing will be out of control as long as the ascended king sits on the throne. And, of course, you know that he will reign forever and forever. You're listening to Truth for Life. That is Alistair Begg assuring us of the believer's privilege in Christ and the proper perspective we should have in suffering.

Alistair will be back shortly. As Alistair mentioned today, God is in the business of saving the most unlikely people. And if you'd like to know more about how God can save even the worst of sinners, take a few minutes, watch a couple of free videos on our website.

Visit truthforlife.org slash learn more. You can also download these videos as an easy and convenient way to share the gospel with others. Today's message is titled The Best Is Yet To Be, and if it brought to mind someone you know who could use a little encouragement, just click on the share icon associated with the message either on our website, truthforlife.org, or through the mobile app. All of Alistair's teaching is free to download or to share. Our great desire is to make clear, relevant Bible teaching available to everyone without cost being a barrier.

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Ask for your copy of the book Knowable Word when you give a donation to Truth for Life at truthforlife.org slash donate, or you can call 888-588-7884. Now here's Alistair with prayer. Father, thank you that your Word really is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Thank you that your promise to your Son was that you would give to him the nations as his heritage. And here we are this morning, and as we think about all of the warfare and the chaos within our world, and within the framework even of our own lives and our own country, we're tempted, Lord, to be downhearted and to be discouraged. So thank you for reminding us that your purpose will be fulfilled even as it has been revealed and established in Jesus, and that our perspective, when it lines up with the truth of your Word, changes the way we view everything. So we ought to get up and get out and get on. Help us to that end, we pray. For your Son's sake. Amen. I'm Bob Lapine. What do your prayers reveal about you? Tomorrow we'll explore the pattern and priority of the Apostle Paul's prayers. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.