The riches of Christ are meant to do more than inform your mind—they are meant to transform your life. In Part 2 of The Riches You Already Possess, we continue exploring Paul's prayer in Ephesians, discovering how God's spiritual riches shape our faith, deepen our love for others, and reveal the work of His grace in every believer.

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Welcome to the Fortifying youg Family podcast.

It can be daunting to navigate through an anti marriage and family culture.

Our teacher will expound biblical principles to help fortify our families and keep these sacred institutions strong.

And now, here's this week's teaching from Sam Wood.

But I want you to notice something that Paul starts the prayer by explaining that this is not a promise for just anybody.

This is not a promise that just anybody can take hold of because look at what it says in verse 15.

And this is important and I want to just share this with you tonight.

In closing, look at verse 15.

Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers.

Paul says, I'm praying this prayer because I heard two things about you that confirm that you are a true believer in Jesus Christ.

You know, in First John and we've been in First John gives all kind of different tests that we might know that we know that we know that we're a child of God.

But here Paul reduces all these tests to just two.

He says, here's two tests you can go by to determine whether you are a true believer, a true Christian or not.

I like to call them the acid test of our salvation.

You say, Brother Sam, why do you say acid test?

Because a chemist who is trying to identify maybe some type of substance has a number of all these different tests that can be applied to this substance to identify what substance it is.

But if he's in a hurry, then he will not go through all these other tests.

He applies only what he calls the acid test he will plant.

He will apply the acid test to determine exactly what that substance is.

In the realm of Christianity, Paul gives us two acid tests, we might say, to determine if we really know Christ or not.

One of these tests has to do with our faith.

The other test has to do with our practice, our faith and our practice.

And folks, God never says having right doctrine proves you're a Christian.

Just because you might believe the right things, it does not prove that you're a Christian.

The Bible says in James, the demons believe they have an orthodox faith, but they tremble.

No demon is going to heaven.

Amen.

And God never says that a loving, sweet life will prove you're a Christian.

I know a lot of.

There's a lot of churches today that preach that, but that does not prove you're a Christian.

Listen, having right doctrine doesn't prove you're a Christian.

And just having A loving life by itself doesn't prove you're a Christian.

There are plenty of wonderfully and merciful people who are not Christians because they don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are other people who are tremendously knowledgeable about theology and the Bible and they understand the doctrines of faith.

But they're not Christians either.

James, again, I said a while ago, said that demons believe and tremble.

They have an orthodox faith, they believe all the right things, but they're not saved.

No demon is saved.

And there's a lot of wonderful people that are very loving people, but that does not bring them to salvation.

So theology doesn't.

Neither does just having love or loving people.

But he gives these two tests together.

First he says, I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus.

That's the first test.

How do I know you're a Christian?

I've heard, he says, and this is a circular letter.

This is a letter that he's writing to several churches.

And Paul may not have met some of these people, but he said, even though I haven't met you, there's two things about you that I've heard.

And the first one is I've heard about your faith in who?

The Lord Jesus.

A lot of people put their faith in Jesus plus something else.

Plus something else.

Some people say you need Jesus plus baptism to get saved.

Some people say you need Jesus plus good works to get saved.

I know we live in a community, it's a lot of that around where we live here today.

When I was in India, if you witnessed to those people in India and you asked them, would you like to trust in Jesus the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, they might say yes.

But you have to be careful when you ask them that question because they will just accept Jesus along with all their other gods and put him on shelf with their other gods.

So you have to say, do you have faith?

Do you trust and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, plus nothing else?

And that's exactly what Paul is saying here.

I remind you, Jesus said in John 18:8, he said, what?

I am the way, the truth and the life.

No man cometh unto the Father, but by who, but by me.

You don't come by your works, you don't come by your good looks, you don't come by some bell curve.

You're better than somebody else.

You don't become by because you've been through the baptistry.

You give money in the offering plate.

He said, there's only one way.

It's through faith in The Lord Jesus.

Now, let me ask you something else here before we leave this.

Do you believe every word in the Bible is important and significant?

How many of you believe that every word is important, every word is significant.

Then notice it doesn't say, I heard of your faith in Jesus.

Okay, it doesn't say that.

It doesn't say, I heard of your faith in Jesus.

It said, I heard of your faith in what the Lord Jesus.

Paul, on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, deliberately says, faith in the Lord Jesus.

Paul doesn't say faith in Jesus Christ.

Paul doesn't say faith in Jesus, but faith in the Lord Jesus.

Listen, a person must understand who they're putting their faith in.

That's so, so important.

And this is not an accident that Paul puts these words the way that he does.

And the title that he gives is the Lord Jesus.

The Bible consistently says that we're to have faith or believe in who?

The Lord Jesus.

I'll remind you of Colossians 2:6.

You have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.

Philippians 2:11 says, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is what church is, Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Okay, here's a very familiar verse.

Romans 10:9 says, if thou shalt confess without mouth the whole Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

You say, Preacher Brother Sam, what are you trying to say here?

Well, the word Lord, it's kind of like two poles and two extremes.

Here's the Lord and here's Jesus referring to Jesus as Lord says he is God.

He is God.

He is the Son of God.

He is the second Person of the Trinity.

He is God referring to Jesus as Jesus says, he is God incarnate, God in flesh.

And when you give him the title of the Lord Jesus, you're saying he's that and everything in between.

He's God who came to earth.

He's the Lord who came to earth as God in flesh and lived on this earth as God in flesh.

God incarnate, the Son of God in flesh, who lived a perfect life.

He kept the law that we could not keep perfectly.

He died of death and had victory over death.

He rose again on the third day.

And now we have victory because of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So the title Lord Jesus incorporates all that he is.

He is Lord, and he is Jesus, and he is everything between.

And I think it's important to see as we look at this, that we understand he is the Lord of glory.

He's a second person of the Holy Trinity.

He is eternal son of the Holy Father, yet he is also Jesus.

He is the one, as I said, who came as God in flesh, God incarnate upon this earth.

Let me kind of give you an illustration of this.

I'm making a little bit of a point of this because it's in the scripture.

I think it's important to see and understand.

But if I were to come to your house and I were to knock on your door and you were to say, come in, Sam, but stay out, wood, I would think that's pretty strange.

Come in, Sam.

Stay out, wood.

What you're saying is, I want this part of you, but I don't want that part of you.

Come in, Sam.

Stay out, wood.

That's very confusing.

But if I knock on your door and you say, come in, Sam, Wood.

You're saying you're invited into my house.

Now, a lot of times, if we're not careful, I think we can present the gospel and present Jesus as a ticket to heaven.

And we don't really present the whole understanding of who Jesus is.

No.

That is, he is the Lord God.

He is the God who came in flesh to atone for our sins.

He is the Lord, but he is Jesus.

And when we come to the.

To the Lord, we come in saving faith.

We come to him and we kneel at his feet as our master.

Realizing that I am depraved.

I am a sinner.

I have no hope without you.

And so I need to put my trust and faith in Jesus Christ.

And as my Lord and Savior.

I mentioned this morning in the book of Ruth how that.

I think it's a beautiful picture how Ruth came to a point where she said, lord, do so to me, Amor.

Okay, If I break this covenant promise that I've just given this beautiful statement she gives, Lord, capital L, O, R, D, Yahweh.

She says, if I break this, then you kill me.

Even as I described in that covenant ceremony, that Jews would kill each other if they broke that covenant agreement as they slaughter that animal.

And what she's saying is, God, I am totally surrendered to you.

You now are my master.

You now are my Lord.

And I give myself to you.

Everything I've got, everything I'm not, I give it all to you as my Lord and savior, to be totally abandoned to God.

And so what Paul is saying here is.

He's saying, listen, you surrender to him as your master.

You surrender to him as your Lord and your Savior.

And that's the first test.

The second test, he says, is this the second test or the acid test, you might say, of a true Christian.

He gives in that verse, he says, and love unto all the saints.

He says, here's the two tests to know that I know that you're really I'm praying for those who are true believers.

You put your faith in the Lord Jesus and you have love unto all the saints.

If you're really a Christian, not only do you have the test of belief, but also you're growing into a loving person.

And growing into a loving person is, I believe, a process.

He doesn't say, I know you're a Christian because of your faith in the Lord Jesus and how you are perfectly loving to everybody all the time.

He doesn't say that.

In fact, First Corinthians 13 says that love is patient.

Love is kind, love is forgiving, love is humble.

We see this beautiful description of love.

In other words, love is a summary of all the character traits of Jesus Christ.

A person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is patient.

Jesus is wrapped up in humility.

He is humble.

Do you see his Jesus lack of irritability?

Do you see his calmness and peace in the face of criticism and scorn and persecution?

So we see that perfect love is wrapped up in a perfect person, that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

In fact, hold your finger there for just a second.

Turn back to First John.

Let me just point out a couple things to you briefly here tonight, okay?

First John, and look with me at chapter two and verse seven.

And here's one of the tests in First John that he gives to us to know if we're truly a Christian too.

Look at verse seven.

Brethren, I'll write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning.

The old commandment is a word which ye have heard from the beginning.

Again, a new commandment.

I write unto you which things is true in him and in you, because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth.

That's very interesting, what he says there.

He says in verse seven, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment.

What's he referring to there?

He says the old commandment.

If you go to the Old Testament, in the law, it said there that we're to love Jesus, we're to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and we're to love our neighbor as what?

Our self.

That's in the law.

That's in the Old Testament.

We might Say, but he says in verse eight again, a new commandment.

Now write unto you which thing is true in him, who is in him.

This is true in Christ.

Now that Christ is has come, now we see an example.

We see a manifestation on this earth, a perfect love, because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth.

Now you have the manifestation of the person of Jesus Christ that you can look to as perfect love.

We see perfect patience.

We see perfect forgiveness.

We see all these traits of love perfectly perfected in the person Jesus Christ.

And now we have the Holy Spirit living within us, the comforter, the one who strengthens us, the one who points us to Jesus Christ, that we might love others in a way that Christ has loved us.

Listen, if you're a real Christian, you'll be finding yourself incrementally, I believe, piece by piece, stage by stage, growing into a more loving person all the time, because we're becoming more and more like Jesus Christ.

You can learn all the theology that you want and spend all the dogma that we might want to spend.

A lot of preachers can do that.

But if you don't love, then you're nothing but what, sounding brass and tinkling cymb.

And I.

And I think of examples of this.

You think of the monks.

The monks knew the word of God, but they weren't loving people.

They went out and hid somewhere by themselves to get away from people.

You think of the Spanish Inquisition.

They knew a lot about faith and these doctrinal issues, but they knew nothing about love.

They went out and slaughtered all these people because they didn't have the same faith they had.

So we have to have faith, but we also have to have love.

True salvation.

Folks, listen.

Goes from the head to the heart and reaches right out to touch somebody.

It has to be manifested, it has to be evidenced in our love toward others.

And so we have to ask ourselves a question.

Is this happening to you?

Ask yourself.

Ask somebody else.

Am I a loving person?

Does it look like.

Do you see in my life I'm becoming more of a loving person.

But I want you to notice something else before we close here tonight.

Notice that this love is an indiscriminate love.

Look at what it says.

It says, love unto who all.

Notice that little word, all the saints.

Love unto all the saints.

Have you ever heard someone say before about somebody else, about another Christian, I love him in the Lord.

Have you ever heard somebody say that?

It's kind of like, I got a little spout right here and I'm gonna shoot some Love out to you, I love you in the Lord, you know, or something like that.

What they really mean is I can't personally stand them, you know, I don't really like them.

I'll love them in the Lord.

I'll just squirt you with some love, you know.

But this kind of love, it's saying, is an indiscriminate love.

The saints are all believers.

Now, saints aren't like what we they picture in the Catholic Church.

There's just some people who are saints.

We're all saints in Christ.

So I'm talking about all the brothers and sisters in Christ.

And this is an indiscriminate love.

The supernatural love is an indiscriminate love.

You don't love brothers and sisters based on their color.

Listen, I go to Africa, go to Kenya last summer and you know, it's wonderful that I can be there and talk to these African Christians and love them when I've just met them, because it's something in my heart.

It draws me to them.

We have a kindred spirit because we both love the Lord Jesus.

I don't love somebody based on their color.

I shouldn't love.

Have an indiscriminate love.

It shouldn't be based on.

Listen, it shouldn't be based on their age.

It shouldn't be based on their social status or social standing in the community.

It shouldn't be based on their wealth.

It shouldn't be based on their health.

It shouldn't be based on anything.

It's an indiscriminate love.

Now, there might be a lot of people you don't like.

You just don't get along maybe with that person.

Maybe they're not your kind of person, or maybe they're not your kind of race or your kind of social class or your.

Not your kind of temperament or personality.

But if the most important thing in your life is Jesus Christ and you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, you're going to find other people you've never gotten along with.

Other people of other races, other people of other social classes, other people of other personalities, people maybe you shouldn't normally get along well with.

Maybe people no one else in your family or community would ever want to get along well with.

But because you're a Christian, because you're a child of God, because you have the love of God shed abroad in your heart.

You're a Christian and they're a Christian, you find your heart drawn to them and even in a growing affection for them because they're your brother.

Or sister in Christ.

I recently read a story about Philip Henry.

He's the father of the great Bible commentator Matthew Henry.

How many of you heard of Matthew Henry?

Philip Henry was Matthew Henry's father.

He and a certain young lady had fallen in love, so the story goes.

She belonged to a higher circle in society, a very wealthy family, much more so than his.

But she had become a Christian, so her social standing no longer really mattered to her.

But her parents were not pleased at all.

And they said, this man, Philip Henry, where has he come from anyway?

Referring to his social status, Is he fit to be your husband socially?

To which she gave this immortal reply, I don't know where he has come from, but I do know where he is going.

I like that.

We love all the saints because we know where they're going.

We're all marching together to Zion, hand in hand.

It's amazing what can happen, you know, to us as a Christian when we have new life in Christ.

When we experience all these spiritual blessings and we know our position in Christ.

And because of knowing their position in Christ, and because we're overflowing in our heart with all these spiritual blessings, it motivates us out of devotion to God, to serve him and to worship him and to love our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Not out of duty, but out of devotion.

Thank you for joining the Fortifying youg Family podcast, and if you feel encouraged by today's teaching, give us a follow so we can invite you back and share us on your socials so more marriages and families can be strengthened and fortified through the truths of God's Word.

Remember, fortunately, fortifying your family starts with a strong belief in God's Word.