Salvation is by Revelation of God’s Love

Ephesians 3:9a

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Will you turn please to today’s verse that we’re studying, it’s in Ephesians 3:9, and it follows on
from 8 there. If you look at 8, “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace
was grace was given, to preach to the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ,” and then in verse 9, “And to make all men see what is the plan of
the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.” That’s exactly our gospel, “And to make
all men see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.”

Everybody that we meet day after day are ignorant of that, they haven’t a notion about that. I
guarantee that, they have no idea of that at all. They have no notion what that verse is about and
the worst thing is they have no idea of what the content of it is. They have no idea of the mystery
hidden for ages in God who created all things, they don’t have a clue. They have a kind of idea
that if somehow you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they are very vague about what that means,
but if somehow you do that and you try hard to do what these Christians say you should do, then they
will have successful life and they’ll go to somewhere called heaven, but it’s very vague in their
minds. But it doesn’t make any sense to them, they really don’t know why believing in Jesus Christ
will do anything about that and they don’t really know how to believe in Jesus Christ and anyway
they’re so uncertain about the truth of this book that they hardly believe that he exists.

So the people that you’re meeting day after day haven’t a clue about reality and because of that
they live – well, they’ll say it themselves, they live lonely lives, lonely lives that are filled
with fear and insecurity and have no purpose beyond getting the next meal, and getting the next car,
or the next house. So it is very important for us to waken up and see that we no longer describe
them as dark and in the depths of Satan’s power. We no longer talk of them that way, we no longer
talk about them as people who are on their way to hell. But these dear hearts are in hell, they are
in hell. Most of them are living dreadful, desperate lives.

I mean, actually you have an idea of it yourself when you look at the pubs and they’re all standing
around in town or wherever and they’re all drinking their pint, and it’s not the pint that is the
terrible thing, it’s they – their heads are empty and their hearts are empty, and you know that.
They’re all joking with each other, and they’re trying to laugh their way through the thing, but
they don’t really want to go home, most of them, because there isn’t much point in going home and so
there is a dreadful deadness. And just because they are not crying out to us to help them, it does
not mean that they are not in desperate straits and I think we do have to see that. They have no
idea of this mystery; they have no idea of this mystery that we’ve been talking about. And you know
what the mystery is, it answers actually all their needs, because they feel they’re nothing, they
feel they’re unimportant, they feel their life has no point and purpose. They feel its seven
billion now, we believe in the world population, and every billion that adds on just makes them feel
smaller and smaller, and more unimportant.

They have no idea that when God conceived his own Son Jesus, his only begotten Son, that he
conceived him as someone who would be his divine Son, and would live with him forever, and also
someone who would be the big brother to thousands and millions of other creatures that were a little
different from himself. They have no idea of that. If they think of themselves in regard to Jesus,

they think of themselves as very distant from him, first of all. Then they think of themselves in
regard to God as not even a second or a third thought, but they don’t believe for a moment that they
were a primary thought in their Father’s mind. They don’t think for a moment that when God had his
only begotten Son Jesus, he was thinking of them, that when he had Jesus, he had Jesus to be what
the Bible says, “The first born among many brethren.” And that God had Jesus so that inside Jesus
he could create all kinds of little beings that would have many of his own qualities and above all
would have the free will that he had. And he made them in Jesus so that as they exercise their free
will he could hold on to them. He could put up with the murdering that they did, the squabbling
that they did, the cursing that they did, the cruelty that they brought about. He would bear all
that inside himself as it occurred in Jesus and from the very beginning of the world the lamb was
slain, because God saw all that. And of course the dear hearts that we meet, they have no notion of
that at all.

If they ever thought about it, they might think, “Now the Supreme Being, if there is one behind this
universe, he must certainly know how things work.” And if you ask them, “Well do you think he knew
how things would turn out?” They might say, because they’re not sure themselves, they might say,
“Well I don’t know if he knew that.” And of course then tumbles into all their minds the problems
of suffering and so forth, and they stand back in horror because they can’t make any sense of that,
and they say, “Well no I don’t – well yeah – well if he doesn’t, if he didn’t know how things were
going to turn out, who does?” And so, deep, deep down they would begin to conceive of the idea that
a supreme being who was perfect would be able to foresee everything that would happen, but they
never – they have no ground that we have in verses like, “Whom he knew, he also predestined.”

They have no ground in verses like that, to believe for a moment that God was able to foresee
everything that they would do in their lives. And if any of them ever do that then they think,
“Well the only – if God knew that then he must not respect our free wills.” And they can never
conceive of the idea that God was able to foresee what they would do and yet was able to respond
accordingly so that he would not wipe over the top of their free wills, but would stimulate it and
motivate it to keep coming back to his plan. They have no idea of that kind of a loving God,
especially one who all at the same time would bear in his own body on the tree, constantly the
effects of their disobedience and their rebellion. They have no idea of that at all. So they have
no feeling for the suffering heart of God, they don’t have any understanding of that and that’s why
what God has shown us is so important to get over to other people.

Now what I’d like to do is just take you through the verses that you know very well, but I’m going
to put them up so that you at least are very clear what our gospel is. And so if you start at that
Ephesians there 3:9, then even the RSV gives us a little footnote to John 1:1-4. John 1:1-4, “In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the
beginning with God,” and this is of course Christ, “All things were made through him, and without
him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The
light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Now they have no idea of John 1:1-3. And if they have, they believe that the third verse applies to
everything but them, “All things were made through him,” they say, “Oh yes that’s the ocean, and the
mountains, and the birds and all.” “All things were made through him, and without him was not
anything made that was made.” But they have no idea that Jesus made them in the sense that they
were made through him. They have no sense of Ephesians 2:10, “You are God’s workmanship,” it would
change their whole attitude to themselves. If they thought for a minute, “You mean I am God’s
workmanship? You mean I am not the result just of mum and dad? You mean I am God’s workmanship?”

(cid:9)
And then it would blow them away if they knew they were created in Christ Jesus. And then the peace
it would bring to their lives if they knew created in Christ Jesus for good works which God has
prepared beforehand that you should walk.

I tell you, it tends to bring tears to my eyes, because the wee souls have no idea of that. They
have no idea that their lives are planned. They have no notion that anybody has ever foreseen the
things that they will come up against. So they’re lonely, they’re as lonely as they can be, and
they don’t know what to do about it. So if they ever grasp that it would change their whole
attitude to everything. Of course, of course, it would change the attitude to God. I mean they see
God as somewhere between the bishop’s gaiters and all of falderal that goes on in the cathedrals,
but they have idea that God is a dear gentle Father with a loving heart who has carefully planned
each stage in their lives, and has foreseen all their difficulties, and has already planned the
solution.

So that, first of all, just that they are in Jesus. In Jesus, they would have no notion of that.
They think, “Maybe Billy Graham was in Jesus, maybe Teresa, Mother Teresa is in Jesus, maybe my
great grandmother who is very religious was in Jesus, but I am not in Jesus, and I was not made in
Jesus.” And the tragedy of this whole thing is that the Savior is bearing them every day. They are
in Jesus and he is bearing the pain of their lives every day, but they don’t think they’re in Jesus.
So that’s the first thing.

Then that the whole thing is planned from the beginning. And you have it there in its Colossians 1,
and it’s those verses that we’ve often quoted and of course, they’re glorious. Colossians 1:15 and
it goes right on through those next verses. “He,” Jesus, “Is the image of the invisible God, the
first-born of all creation.” They don’t understand that. They say, “Jesus is the divine Son of
God, far above us, maybe through Mary we might be able to have some contact with him, but that’s it.
Yes, he became man but then that was just 33 years and he went back to heaven so he’s up there, and
he’s one of the trinity, and he has no connection with us.” No idea that he’s the first-born of all
creation, no idea that Jesus was the first human being, no idea that he is the great human being and
all of us have our humanity from Jesus, and that when you want to see real humanity as Barth says,
“You look at Jesus.” No, they think you look at the images or the perfect patterns that the
psychologist set up in their books.

No, you look at Jesus if you want to see a real man, and Jesus is a human being. And of course you
can see how that gets over what the Catholic Church was trying to get over with its emphasis on
Mary, that Mary was human, and we could have some contact with her, but of course, this is the
truth, that Jesus not only was human, but is human. And you know the famous verse, Matthew 25,
“When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all his holy angels with him, then will be gathered
before him all the nations, and he will separate them one as a shepherd separates the sheep from the
goats.” And it’s the son of man who will do that. The person who is still a man, the person who is
at God’s right hand still a human being with all of us inside him, and they have no idea of that.

Colossians 1:15 and right through, you remember how it goes, “For in him all things were created, in
heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or
authorities—all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things,” and they
have no idea of that. They just know Jesus came to earth as a baby in 6 BC or 4 BC and that was it.
“He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” They have never heard those verses
before, and they’ve never had anybody explain them to them.

But of course it changes your whole life. If everything holds together in Jesus then it means I
hold together because I’m in Christ. That means Jesus is right around me holding me together. It’s
almost as if he has his hands on me, and he’s holding my ribs together, and it transforms a person’s
attitude to their life. Those wee souls they feel if a bomb drops they’ll be blown to bits and
that’s the end. They feel there’s nobody that really cares much about them since their mother loved
them and used to put them to bed at night and kiss them. They feel there’s nobody. Husbands,
wives, it’s so loose now all their human relationships that it’s hard for them to feel any security
in anybody’s care and so they have no idea that they are held together by somebody who has given his
life for them.

So that’s that. Then there’s the whole truth – that’s in Jesus, and then there’s the whole truth
that we talk about really, I avoid the word because it’s so – it’s so misunderstood, and I mean
there’s probably no harm in using that word instead, but it is an important part of things that they
realize that God foresaw the whole thing. That we’re not dealing with things that he didn’t know
would happen. These are things that he foresaw, and so the future is not an unknown mysterious
threat, it is something that God has foreseen. And so you get it in all kinds of places, of course,
you’ll obviously have it in that Colossians verse where he foresees everything. It’s in the
Ephesians 2:10, “Works, that he has prepared beforehand, that they should walk in them.”

But then you have it in 1 Peter, I’ll just put to some of these verses so that you can see them
later. 1 Peter 1:20 if you like to glance at it, it’s the verse you remember that talks about what
has happened from the beginning of the world. 1 Peter 1:20, “He was destined before the foundation
of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake. Through him you have
confidence in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are
in God.” He was destined before the foundation of the world. God did not think of Jesus dying as
an afterthought, he had it planned from the beginning of the world. He knew what would happen to us
men and women from the beginning.

Revelation 13:8 is the verse, you remember, “The lamb slain from before the foundation of the
world.” I’ll just give you two others that you can look up yourself, 2 Thessalonians 2:13 is one of
them and refers again to the fact that God has foreseen all this, and has planned it, and 2 Timothy
1:9. It changes – it changes the whole fear that fills a man today. Man is filled with fear
because he doesn’t know if George Bush is going to attack, and he doesn’t know if he attacks whether
Sadam has nuclear or has chemical that he’ll let loose on the rest of us. And anyway, we all feel,
“We get through this one there’ll be another one will come up in 10 years’ time.” So nobody feels
secure in the world, nobody feels anybody knows what’s going to happen. So it is vital that they
have their eyes opened to the fact that of course our Father knows, and our Father has foreseen it
all, and he has planned it all, and yet in such a way that he does not destroy our free will. He
works with our free will much has a mother works with her child to bring him around to her way of
thinking without forcing him to do the things; that is part of the gospel.

If you say to me, “Can this be got over without getting people to kneel down on their knees and
receive Jesus Christ as Savior?” Of course, of course. You can see it yourself, this is truth and
light. Our job is not to get them down on their knees, our job is to get them – behold, behold the
lamb. That’s what that hymn says, “Behold, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the
world.” Our job is to get them to look up and see reality, see what God is like, see who he is.
Then they will bow the knee, then they will receive him as Savior and Lord. But first they have to
see who God is and what he is like. And can that take place in ordinary conversation that is
unembarassing? Of course it can.

If you have a desire to do it, if you have a desire to tell them this, there will be opportunities
that God will open up, and much of this – you hear me talking, much of this can be explained just in
a commonsensical way. Just in little bits of sentences here and there. But this is our gospel, and
you know, I’d just remind you – I don’t want to push it too far because my wife would say it’s
Belfast coming out, but I’d ask you to look at Ephesians, maybe it’s just the chance of the
translation, and the words that the people picked, but still Ephesians 3:9, here’s what you’ve to
do, “And to make all men see what is the plan of the mystery.” It’s funny that it’s – I have to
look at the Greek to see what that – but, “Make all men see.” And there’s no doubt Wesley and the
others had an urgency about them, and a determination. And to some extent if you are just wishy
washy and, “Well if you want to talk about this I’ll talk about it.” In a way you’ll probably get
nowhere just as you’d get nowhere if you tackled selling the jewelry that way.

You have to go with some determination, and some commitment, and some real conviction in your own
heart that this is – this will change their lives, this will make a difference– even if it doesn’t
change their lives it’s good news. It’s good news that they ought to hear, and we ought to give it
to them because it’s true. And whether they just laugh at it, or rejoice in it, or whether they
make a mess of it, that is not our concern. Our concern is to present the good news, to tell them,
“Here is some good news,” and you don’t even need to use the word good news. They just need to see
that there is a brighter side to life than what appears here in this fallen world that has ignored
its Creator and its Savior. So that is what we’re to do.

Now deal with the other issue, is this not just for Christians? “I mean wait a minute, I swear my
way through each day, and you say I’m in Christ? I use Christ’s name as a swear word.” 2
Corinthians 5:14, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died
for all; therefore all have died.” That’s all, that’s not just the Christians, it’s not just the
Jews, it’s not just the Gentiles, it’s everybody. We are convinced that one has died for all,
therefore all have died.

But as well, John 1:3, “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that
was made.” And Colossians 1:18, “All things in him hold together,” everything. It’s not just the
Christians, it’s all. And each person has been made in Christ and Christ has died for all therefore
all have died, and so they too have died with Christ, and they have been raised in him, and they
have within them Christ, and all his power and his life that can now be manifested in their lives.
And so, what you’re saying to them there, and Colossians 3:3 is, “You have died and your life is hid
with Christ in God”, and all that you are up to the moment has been destroyed there and has been
made new. And that’s reality, and you actually at this moment are in Jesus and you’ve been changed
by him completely. And you in this life have two lives that are available to you. You can continue
to live the life that you’re living as if you were not in Jesus, and as if you had not been
crucified with him, and as if you had not been raised with him, and as if you were not sitting at
the right hand of God, or you can believe the reality and your life changes. But that’s the good
news, and it’s news that makes sense to them.

If you say to me, “Well what about the whole normal presentation of the gospel to convince them that
they’re sinners and that they need to have their sins forgiven?” Well it seems to me that that is
pretty meaningless to most of them these days. First of all, they’re against you because you’re
using an old fashioned word sin, and they’re against you because they don’t understand what real sin
is, that real sin is living as if this isn’t true. They think you’re trying to say, they’re
immoral, or they’re not as good people as you are. And so it seems to me, no, this is where they’re

at, this is where they are. They’re desperately lonely, they think they’re utterly unimportant and
that their lives don’t matter, and they’re fearful about today, and about the future, and they don’t
think that anybody really cares about them. And the reality is that our dear Father and his beloved
Son is bearing them inside themselves every moment. And every moment, as they are living in that
desperate loneliness, and that hopelessness, they are doing it inside the dear people that are
holding them together and our job is to tell them that, that’s our gospel. Let us pray.

Dear Father, we would ask you for the anointing of your Holy Spirit so that we may, during these
days that you have given us, explain your heart to our brothers and sisters. Lord, we pray that you
will so fill our own spirits, and our own minds, and our souls, and our wills with you, that the
reality of all of this will bubble out from us at those odd moments when others can receive it in a
natural and an easy way. So Lord, we pray that you will now enable us to breakthrough this dreadful
curtain of darkness that Satan has drawn between your children and the children of this world, and
that you will breakthrough into their hearts, and that they may open up their eyes and hear the good
news, and see the beauty and the wonder of the person who has made them. So Lord, we ask you to use
us for your glory and to lift our brothers and sisters out of the dreadful darkness and loneliness
in which they live and into the brightness of your presence. Now the grace of our Lord Jesus, and
the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each one of us now and evermore.
Amen.