Ephesians (part 1)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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I want to be in Ephesians for a couple of weeks, while we're together.

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I don't know how long we're going to get, how far we're going to get. We're going to practice the bailout school of homiletics, which is, when the time's up,

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I'm bailing out. And you know, when you teach homiletics, when homiletics is taught,

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I used to teach homiletics, that's how to preach, to missionaries that were on their way to be involved in tribal evangelism, but would have to speak to churches also.

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You always do this, you have an introduction, then you have the body of the sermon, and it has however many points, it has three often.

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And then you have a closing, which is the application. And sadly, the application of sermons has become moralistic, therapeutic

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Christianity. You know what I mean by that? Here are five things that you ought to avoid this week.

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Here are six ways to get over your habitual sins. Here are 14 steps to spiritual gianthood by next week.

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And that kind of thing, those are all of the applications. But I think the application, and I really appreciate

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Hebrews from Pastor Mike, the application really is that we would see

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Jesus. We don't need to have 17 steps to anything. We need to simply think about and cast our eyes upon him.

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In fact, Judy and I were riding along a couple of days ago, and a song from 100 years ago came back to our minds.

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And it goes like this, O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see.

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There's light for a look at the Savior, and life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus.

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Look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.

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And that is the application. That's what it's all about.

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And the book of Ephesians lends itself to that. Admirably, and I trust that we will see the

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Lord in it as we consider some of the things that are there. As you probably know,

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I think because I've said it, I teach a Bible study on Sunday nights, late

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Sunday afternoons over in Hardwick. And it is affectionately known as the

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Hardwick Theological Seminary. And we have been working on the book of Ephesians.

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Started last spring, early in the spring. And tonight we will be at chapter 4, verse 1.

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So we have taken our time to savor Ephesians.

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So I thought in the two weeks that we're together, I would rehearse some of the highlights, a couple of the highlights from Ephesians with you while we're together.

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And I'm calling this, if I were going to title this, I would call it the mystery of Christ. And we're not going to start at chapter 1, verse 1.

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We're going to start someplace else. But let's have a word of prayer before we get underway.

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Heavenly Father, we pray today that as we look at this letter of Paul to the church in Ephesus or the churches in Ephesus, we pray that it would be the means by which we turn our eyes upon Jesus and look full in his wonderful face.

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But not only him, but you, Father, and your plan from the foundation of the world to save us.

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We pray that as we rehearse these things, that you would remove from our thinking and from our experience all of the stuff that we have had to look at, deal with, and face in the previous six days before we arrive here at your word.

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And we pray that what you reveal to us in your word would encourage us, would strengthen us, would cause us to understand that we are strangers here headed in your direction.

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And so we commit the time to you. We thank you for the great salvation that is in your son,

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Jesus Christ. And it is in his name we pray this morning. Amen. I want to go to Ephesians chapter three.

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And that's where we're going to begin. And it begins like this.

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For this reason, I, Paul, stop. We have to stop right there because when we come to it for this reason, we always want to ask for what reason?

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Well, the reason that Paul begins chapter three this way is the immediate reason is in the verses that precede it, which we're going to get to.

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But as I was thinking about this, realizing that you were not at the

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Hardwick Theological Seminary for the last several months, you're going to need some background.

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And so for this reason is the first two chapters of Ephesians as that story of what

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God has done to provide salvation as it begins. And then it gains momentum all the way to the end of chapter two.

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And then Paul begins to explain some things to the Ephesians, which we're going to look at the mystery of Christ.

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And so I thought to myself, as I thought about it, I thought, you know, we really need to go through those first two chapters.

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So what I'll do is I'll just read them real quick and then there will be. And so I reread the first two chapters and it turns out you can't really read them real quick.

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But I am going to read them and try to get through them quickly enough so that we actually get to chapter three.

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And I'm going to talk about everything that is there. I'm reading them because I want you to pick up on this.

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I want you to follow this little theme that is in every

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New Testament book. I'll say I was going to say in almost every, but I'd say in every New Testament book, but it is particularly here in Ephesians.

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And I like Colossians for the same reason also. And it is what I call the cosmic thread.

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There is a cosmic character to what we're going to read. And so I'll tell you what

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I mean by cosmic. I mean that in time, time from before time was invented at let there be light from before that time into eternity, which is beyond us.

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All of that is covered in the book of Ephesians. And there are references to it, which

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I'll point out as we go. But not only time, but space. There are locations for different things that are referenced here.

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And it is expansive. Of course, the letter is to the Ephesians. Of course, Paul is in prison in Rome.

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So those are locations on the earth, a tiny speck in the cosmos in the universe.

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But things that expand to the universe are spoken of here in this book.

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And so there is a cosmic character to it that is involved.

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And it expands not only to the material universe, the cosmos, but it extends to the spiritual universe where we're gonna read about principalities and powers in heavenly places and that sort of thing.

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And here's what's even a greater blessing. We're gonna read about us in those same kinds of spiritual spaces.

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And you say, what? I thought I was here in the blue chairs at Bethlehem Baptist Church. Well, you are for a while.

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At least your body is, but your spirit, your spiritual existence is someplace else.

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So I'm gonna start reading right at the beginning and I'll try to point out those things. And also the spiritual space that I'm talking about is described in the

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New Testament by this little prepositional phrase, which is critical. In Christ, in Christ, in him.

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Got it? That spiritual space. And you're gonna read it here in Ephesians.

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You're gonna see it here in Ephesians. And it is in that spiritual space that you and I actually exist.

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That's why Paul writes to the Romans over in chapter eight, doesn't he? At verse 10, he says, your body is dead.

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Now, some of us have come to a greater realization of that possibility than we did when we were 25.

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All right? It has dawned on us that things are not gonna keep cooking along here forever.

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Physically. So Paul writes to the Romans, your bodies are dead because of sin.

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And it's true, I'm not fighting with that anymore at this stage of the game.

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In fact, I was thinking as I'm trying to get this thing at the right height for me to see, I was born with fallen eyes.

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All right? They never did see right. Never had a driver's license that didn't say

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I had to wear glasses and all that. But you know what? When you get to this stage of the game, you get these cataracts fixed.

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And they put a lens in there and you get better than original equipment in my case.

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Okay? And it is so good, in fact, that my driver's license was renewed.

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Scary, huh? Okay? My driver's license was renewed and I didn't have to wear my glasses to pass the eye test.

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However, these lenses that they put in are single vision. So man,

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I can see down the road. Great. No glasses required. Can't see the speedometer, but it's okay.

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So I still wear these glasses. So we understand what

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Paul's talking about when he says your body is dead because of sin, but your spirit is alive because of righteousness, the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ to every one of us that has trusted

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Him to be Savior. And it is on that righteousness that we're gonna encounter all of the cosmos that is spoken about here in the book of Ephesians.

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So let's start. To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.

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There's the location. Paul locates them in Ephesus, but he locates them in Christ.

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Why? Because they are believers. It's part of that cosmic look. There is the local place.

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There's the physical universe, which we'll come to. All right?

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And then there is the spiritual universe, which is involved. And we are placed in all of that.

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the

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God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ. That's our location.

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With every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, that's not only physical, that is spiritual.

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He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing where? In heavenly places. Even as He chose us in Him, there's that spiritual location again.

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And here's the first time reference before the foundation of the, we always translate in English, of the world, but the word is cosmos.

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The cosmos springs into being when God says, let there be light. Now, we're not gonna do the chemistry and physics of all of that, but you can't have light if you don't have the physical universe.

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All right? So before that ever happened, we were chosen in Him.

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That we should be holy, that is separate, set apart and blameless before Him.

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In love, He predestined us. It's a time reference, isn't it? We are predestined.

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It's looking back to a time when a decision was made that extends up to the present and into the future.

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He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ. Sons and daughters through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will.

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The praise to the praise of His glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the beloved.

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That's our location. In Him, that's our location. We have redemption through His blood.

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The forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the, here's the first time this word shows up in Ephesians.

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According to the mystery of His will. Now, when that term mystery comes up, you're well taught, so I'll just review this quickly.

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It's not, it's not that kind of thing at all. All right, it's not something that, it's not something that's a whodunit.

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I wonder what happened and why it happened and all of that. The mystery is something that was back at that time reference, before the foundation of the world, something was in the mind of God, a plan

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Paul will call it here in Ephesians. It's in the mind of God and it is being revealed progressively to us.

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But until it is revealed to us, it is a mystery to us. It is a mystery to everybody that has encountered it and we're gonna, we'll come to that in detail as we get into chapter three.

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In Him, oh, excuse me, at the mystery, He's making known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose.

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There is a purpose before the foundation of the world, which He set forth in Christ as a plan.

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There's a plan before the foundation of the world for the fullness of time. Now the word that we translate fullness in the

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New Testament, it's not used too many times, but it is a word, pleroma.

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And what it means is that you have a container, okay, and then you're gonna fill that container up.

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But you don't fill that container all up at once, it can't be filled up at once. And one of the examples that is used in the lexicons always is when all of the animals came and filled up the ark, that's pleroma, not at the time of Noah, the time of the

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Creeks, all right? They came and they filled it, but watch it, they didn't all fill it at once, the animals came to Noah and the ark and they filled it over a period of time.

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So that word, and we translate here the fullness of time is that in time things began to happen, but they keep happening, keep happening, and the fullness of all that happens, the plan, the mystery of His will, all of that happens a little bit at a time until finally you come to all that the container can hold.

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And we have come in the New Testament to almost all that the container can hold.

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And it is all wrapped up in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Paul says,

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God has set forth in Christ a plan for the fullness of time.

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And to the Ephesians, He's saying, for your time right now. And to us, He's saying, for your time right now.

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The fullness of time is not complete yet, all right? But it is complete in Christ.

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It is as good as done. As far as heaven is concerned, God's plan for the fullness of time has been put into place.

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Let me, you know the examples, right? In Genesis 3 .15, we have the so -called proto -evangelium, right?

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And what does that say? It says that one is gonna be born of a woman who is wounded by Satan, but who is gonna deal him a death blow.

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That's it. That's the gospel. In Genesis 3 .15. Then you get up to Genesis 12.

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Abraham is promised a people. Doesn't even have any kids yet. He is promised a people.

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He is promised a nation. And it is promised that salvation for the whole world, blessing for the whole world will come through Abraham.

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That's salvation expanded, but not much. So do you see the little receptacle that is being filled that comes here in Ephesians to be called the fullness of time?

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You know, then later, David is promised that even though he is a great sinner, that he will be the one through whom the king of the world of the ages will come.

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The king will be his descendant. What about salvation there?

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We say, well, all the details are not known. The business about, I realize that I'm a sinner and I need a savior.

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And that savior is Messiah, Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. All of that, that's not known there.

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All right. But it is continuing to be revealed. And so we come now,

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Paul says, now we've come to the fullness of time. The container is almost full.

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All right. And here's the deal. It is a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Him, Christ.

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Things in heaven. I remember the cosmic look. Things in heaven and things on earth.

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All right. In Him, we have obtained, there's our location again. In Him, we have obtained an inheritance.

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When you're looking forward to an inheritance, I was gonna sell my, yes.

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I'd owe you a buck if I said, my children are anxiously waiting for their inheritance.

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I don't know. You guys better keep working. So what I think ought to happen. But if you are waiting for an inheritance, all right, that's a future look.

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And that's what I say all the way through this letter. There is that cosmic thread that we see.

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We have obtained, it's present tense. We have obtained an inheritance.

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It's already done, but it's something in the future. Having been predestined, there's the look back to the past according to the purpose of Him who works all things, according to the counsel of His will.

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So that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory.

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In Him, you also. The Ephesians were not the first to hope in Christ.

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They were like us. We're not the first to hope in Christ. Nor were the

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Ephesians or the Colossians or any of the Gentile world to which Paul went. The first to hope in Christ were the apostles and those who followed

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Jesus when he was here on the earth. But then he says, you also, and that would be us also.

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You also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in Him.

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We're sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. So here's a future inheritance. Let's look, looking down here, the scriptures say we have obtained it already.

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That's present. And now we say it is sealed. It's a done deal, even though it's future.

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So do you get that cosmic look that's going on here? All the way through this little book, we were sealed with the promised

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Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory.

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And there is no question about us acquiring our inheritance in Christ, is there?

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Why? Because we were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee that it's gonna happen.

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And it will be to the praise of His glory, not just to the, I got it, all right, but it'll be to the praise of His glory.

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For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, he writes now to these

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Ephesians, and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers that the

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God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation that's gonna come up again in this whole discussion of the mystery of Christ in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which

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He has called you. Now that word hope has come up a couple of times already as we're flashing through these first two chapters.

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Here's what I think would be a good translation of that word.

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I don't think I've found it in any translations, but then nobody asked me, all right? Expectation, see hope says to us,

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English speakers says, well, I hope so. You know, I've heard that it's gonna snow five to eight inches tonight, but I'm kind of hoping for three, all right?

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And that means, I don't know whether it's gonna be three or whether it's gonna be five or eight, but you know, hope it's not, hope it is, whatever.

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That's not what's in view when the scriptures speak about hope. When we talk about the blessed hope, the return of the

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Lord Jesus Christ and all of that, it is the blessed expectation. And here it is the hope, the expectation to which

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He has called you, the Ephesians, and called us. There is an expectation of things to come.

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Expectation of what? Expectation of an inheritance, which is guaranteed because we were sealed with the promised

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Holy Spirit and because we were chosen before the foundation of the world and all of that.

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It is a cosmic look at our whole experience of salvation, even though we have only checked in on it in the last few years in which we have been alive.

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But all of that was before us, before we were ever born.

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All right. See, I shouldn't look at you like that.

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Okay. As you may know, what is the expectation to which He has called you? What are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints?

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I have to stop there, but I'm gonna come back when we get further down the road.

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We have an inheritance in Christ. Now watch this. He has an inheritance in us.

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We are His inheritance. We are given to Him by the Father. We are

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His expectation of glory. He said that to the

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Thessalonians. I don't want to turn over there. I didn't plan to do that, but I better. Over at 2

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Thessalonians chapter one, and you don't have to turn there if you don't want to.

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Just listen. Now, these Thessalonians were under great persecution. If you go back to Acts 17, and you read about Paul coming to Thessalonica, and I think we even discussed that in here several weeks ago, when he came to Thessalonica, it was the epitome of the

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Pauline mode of evangelism. Paul's style of evangelism was go into town, go to the synagogue, make the

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Jews mad. They'll beat you up. They'll throw you out of town. You come back into town.

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You speak to the Gentiles. That's what happened in Thessalonica. And then the people to whom it happened, to whom the gospel came there, and who believed in the

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Lord Jesus Christ as Paul preached the gospel, those people came under great persecution.

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Some, and Paul was only with them a very short time. Why? He got beat up and thrown out of town and had to go to Athens.

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That's why, all right? And so in that short time, he told them all kinds of things, including that the

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Lord Jesus was coming again. But somehow or other, they apparently had the impression that that was gonna happen before any of them died, and then some of them died, you know?

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Whoa, this isn't good. In any case, they're under tremendous persecution.

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1 Thessalonians is written to address the first thing. 2 Thessalonians continues it, but he gives them encouragement as he starts his second letter, which probably came on the heels of the first one because they are under extreme persecution.

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And he wants to encourage them. And he says, we boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness under persecution and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

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This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering, since indeed

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God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you. One day,

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Thessalonians, the people that are giving you a bad time are gonna get theirs. God will repay.

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Now that's a current event, by the way. You probably have seen pictures in the

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Middle East of guys lined up on their knees, being beheaded because they will not recant the name of Christ.

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I don't know anything about their theology, okay? Doesn't matter. What I know is they didn't recant the name of Christ and they had their heads cut off for it.

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God will repay. God will repay. And that's what Paul says here to the

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Thessalonians. And he will grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us.

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When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know

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God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the

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Lord and from the glory of his might. All of that's to encourage them in persecution.

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But now Paul says, when's that gonna happen? Now he tells them, here's when it's gonna happen.

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Verse 10, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed because our testimony to you,

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Thessalonians and Ephesians and, no, Paul never knew the Colossians, the

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Ephesians and the Philippians, that testimony was believed. But Paul says to these

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Thessalonians to encourage them, the day comes when every believer is displayed to the universe and the universe worships and gives glory to the

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Lord. Now you think about that. I understand. We're all here this morning, all pretty dressed up and looking pretty spiritual until some of us talk, okay, and some of that.

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But you just think about, you know, you think about what you and I really are and you think about the day comes when we are held up before the universe.

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We're gonna see the description of that. If I get to Ephesians chapter three, we're gonna see the description of that in more detail, but Paul just gives it in passing to the

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Thessalonians. He says, the day comes when the Lord will be glorified in his saints among all who have believed.

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We will be held up and the universe will. And what is the expression that's used?

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Not only in Philippians, but in the revelation of Christ to John, what is the expression that's used?

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Every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is

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Lord to the glory of God the Father. And one of the times that that's gonna happen is when we are displayed and the universe goes, are you kidding me?

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Those people are saved? You gotta be kidding. But the answer is gonna be, they are by the blood of the lamb and every knee bows, every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is

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Lord in heaven and on earth and under the earth. That's a biblical euphemism for hell.

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Okay, bad deal. When you've heard the gospel of Christ, this side of the grave and have rejected it for whatever reason, the day comes when in hell, those people will bend the knee and will confess that Jesus Christ is

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Lord to the glory of God the Father and it'll be too late to be saved.

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That is a fearsome and awesome thought. Nevertheless, it is true.

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In any case, as Paul goes through that with the

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Thessalonians, he makes that point. The day comes when all of this will be culminated and in which we will be displayed to the glory of God.

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I'm at verse 19 of chapter one. I bet you thought I forgot. And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe?

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What is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe? He saved us and we didn't have it coming.

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And we still sin, even though we are saved and he still saves us.

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That's the immeasurable power that he has, the greatness of his power toward us who believe.

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According to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, it's a time reference.

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And seated him at his right hand, it's a time reference. He raised him from the dead.

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He seated him at his right hand. There's an expanse of time that's in mind there in the heavenly places.

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Oh, here's the material cosmos. Here's the locations,

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Ephesians. And here are the heavenly places in which

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Christ is seated now. And of course, we've been learning in Hebrews that he is the great high priest in the heavenly places interceding for us.

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It goes on, it does not stop. Far above all rule, now watch this, and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, present, okay, but also in the one to come.

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There's an age to come. And who is he above? He's above every power, every principality, every dominion, every name that is named.

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And where is that? In the heavenly places. There is a spiritual universe as well as a material universe.

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And the apostle Paul addresses that here. And he's gonna address it more as we continue.

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He put all things under his Christ's feet and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body, watch it, play

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Roma, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

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In chapter one, verse 10, it was the fullness of time. Things come to a head, okay?

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And here at verse 23, it is the fullness of everything is in Christ.

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Chapter two, you were dead in the trespasses and sins, were dead, time, in the trespasses and sins in which you walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we also once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.

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And were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. You know what

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I think the biggest problem in this world is? And it extends everywhere. And it is that having abandoned the

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Bible, watershed, I'm talking about our country now. All right, having abandoned the

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Bible, watershed year 1962, that's another story, okay?

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But we're now post post -Christian almost. Having abandoned all of that, we have turned upside down reality.

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The reality is that we were all children of wrath. That's how we're born, children of wrath.

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What do you hear? What do you guys hear in school? Oh, you're all wonderful.

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Oh, we're all getting a trophy because we're great. And all of that kind of thing.

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And that is not how the world really works, folks. And what you find out is there are bad guys everywhere and we don't recognize it because we say stuff like,

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I think he's sick. He's not sick, he's a child of wrath. And we have abandoned that.

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And it extends in every direction in our own culture. And I think finally, unless we have a revival to the destruction of our culture, to be truthful with you.

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Like the rest of mankind, you Ephesians were not only children of wrath, you

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West Boylstonites were not only children of wrath, the rest of mankind are children of wrath.

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But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive, time reference, together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him.

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I'm looking at these blue chairs. You mean I am raised up and seated with Christ? Yes, you are.

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Where? In the heavenly places, in that spiritual universe where Jesus is, that's where.

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And then the next phrase is in Christ Jesus, where he is I am, where he is we are.

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And we have been raised there. You say, yeah, I think it's the blue chairs. I even can see the Iwana circle around here.

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No, okay, that's only temporary. That's only temporary. So that in the coming ages, back into the future, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

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The day comes when we are displayed before a universe which will bend its knee and bow its head and declare that Jesus Christ is

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Lord to the glory of God the Father. And it'll be because it will be so incredible that we have been saved that in the coming ages his immeasurable riches will be shown in that way.

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By grace you've been saved through faith, this not from your own doing, it is the gift of God, not as a result of work so that no one may boast.

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For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

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God prepared beforehand. Hoop, beforehand, that we should, when?

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Before the foundation of the world, that we should walk in them, when? Now and into the future.

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Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision and here we're sneaking up on the mystery of Christ, all right, by what is called the circumcision which is made in the flesh by hands, remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no expectation about God and without God in the world.

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But now, present in Christ Jesus, the location, you who were once far off, space, way away, you who once were far off have been brought near, whoosh, you see the cosmic reach of all of this, by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself, that's our location, one new man in place of the two, so making peace and so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

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And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, the

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Jews, all right, for through him, we both have access in one spirit, we

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Gentiles and the Jews both have access in one spirit to the father.

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Now, I'm emphasizing the Jews and the Gentiles here because that is the mystery of Christ, that Jews and Gentiles could both be saved.

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So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

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Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. Now watch this, Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone.

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Now, if I was writing this and not the Holy Spirit, I would say

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Christ Jesus is the cornerstone because we all know how cornerstones work, right? You put the cornerstone down and then what?

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And you build the rest of the building on it, right? That's not what it says. Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom?

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Not on whom, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the

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Lord. In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the

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Spirit. Nothing happens outside of Christ, not the dwelling place for God, not the building of the church, not the salvation of the world, it all happens in Christ, not on Christ, in Christ.

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That's our location, it's cosmic. Our salvation is a cosmic operation.

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And so we get to where we began, but we're almost at the end, all right? For this reason, for what reason?

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That in Christ, the whole structure is being built.

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For what reason? Because we are at the fullness of time when all of this is happening.

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For what reason? Because there is a plan which now has been realized that's how he's gonna put it later, has been realized by the

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Father in Christ. Nothing happens outside of him. This church is not built outside of Christ, it's not built on Christ, it's built in Christ.

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And everything happens in him. So that's why chapter three starts out for this reason.

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I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles.

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It would be better, I, Paul, a prisoner in Christ Jesus, on behalf of you

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Gentiles. Why? Because it all happens in Christ. Paul's imprisonment in Rome, the church at Ephesus, the church at Thessalonica under persecution, the church at Colossae, who

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Paul had never met, who were saved because of the testimony of a guy named Epaphras, all of that.

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But that all happens in Christ, in the fullness of time, and in the fullness of the space in which

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God makes it happen. Assuming I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you

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Gentiles, assuming you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace, now watch this, that was given to me for you,

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Gentiles, for us, Gentiles, okay? For us,

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Gentiles, how the mystery, the mystery, the mystery was made known to me by what?

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By revelation, all right? How did you and I come to Christ?

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You and I came to Christ by revelation. Everything about us, everything about us rebels at the proposition of the gospel.

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What's the proposition of the gospel? Well, you know, to make it short, I'm a great sinner.

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You gotta be kidding. I'm not a great sinner. I know a guy down the street.

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In fact, I see them start for church every Sunday morning. But on Saturday, I heard him talking to his lawnmower that wouldn't start.

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And you're telling me that I am a great sinner? Everything about me rebels at the idea that somehow or other

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I have sinned. I can always find some guy that's a bigger hypocrite than me or a bigger sinner than me, and so I reject the gospel.

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But how does this all work? It works like this. No one comes to me except the

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Father draws him. The day comes when the Father begins to draw. I don't even know that the

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Father is drawing me. I don't even know the circumstances that He is preparing for me. But I read in Ephesians that before the foundation of the world,

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I was chosen in Him. And so He draws me. And eventually, the

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Father drawing me, and the Holy Spirit, what did Jesus say the Holy Spirit would do when

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He comes? When the Holy Spirit comes, He will convict. It's sometimes translated,

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He will convince the world. He will convince me of sin, that I am the sinner, of righteousness, that I do not have sufficient righteousness to live in the presence of God after I die, and judgment, that there will be judgment.

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It will be my barbecue if I reject this gospel. The Holy Spirit teaches all of that to pagans, and He taught it to each one of us.

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And guess what you call that? You call that revelation. You say, well, no,

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I don't know. I read this little book, and it seemed reasonable to me that I should be saved.

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And so I accepted Christ. That's how we all come. We all think we did this thing. I get it.

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And we did, in a sense. But it was not without revelation that we were great sinners, that Jesus is the great

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Savior. What does Jesus say? And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to myself.

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So the Father draws me. The Holy Spirit convicts me of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

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And Jesus is lifted up. Well, that's a little booklet. But before that little booklet ever came on the scene,

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I don't know what booklet I'm talking about even. Before that ever came on the scene, the

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Father was there. The Holy Spirit was there. And you call that revelation. And Paul says to these

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Ephesians, this mystery of Christ was made known to me by revelation, not because I'm smarter, bigger, faster than anybody else.

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It was revealed to me, as I have written above in the first two chapters that we have already read.

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When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ.

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When you read this and understand it, when the Holy Spirit is illumining it to you, having been convicted of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

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Now we come to where we want to start next week, because we are practicing the bailout school of homiletics.

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And I'm about to bail out. OK? He says, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations.

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What you and I know about ourselves and about Jesus was not made known to people back down the road.

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As it has now been revealed, there's the word again, revealed to his holy apostles.

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You and I have believed because of the testimony of the apostles and prophets.

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Here he's not talking about Old Testament prophets. He's talking about New Testament prophets. In a few minutes, in about a half hour, we're going to hear a

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New Testament prophet. We'd better. He's going to proclaim

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God's word to us from the book of Hebrews. Prophesying is not future telling. Prophesying is truth telling.

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And so Paul says to these Ephesians, this has been revealed first to the apostles. Then you

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Ephesians believed on the basis of my testimony when I was a prophet to you and told you the truth by the

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Spirit. I'm going to close. I actually am.

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This is not the pastoral I'm going to close. I'm really going to. With this verse,

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I'm just going to leave you with it. First Peter chapter 1. And this is where we're going to pick it up next week.

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Concerning this salvation, Peter writes to these Asians. They were in Turkey, really.

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The prophets who prophesied. Now he's talking about Old Testament prophets. The prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours back down the road, they searched and inquired carefully.

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They pored over the Old Testament scriptures, inquiring what person or time the

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Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

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It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, but us.

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All right? In the things that have now been announced to you through those, oh, it's built on the foundation of the

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New Testament, apostles and prophets to those who preach the good news to you by the

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Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels, it's that spiritual universe, into which angels long to look.

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There's much to be said about that verse, but not today. All right? The Old Testament prophets long to know by revelation what you and I know.

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You sit here in these blue chairs on this Alona Circle, and I hope you understand that you are sitting in a place of privilege that no

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Elijah, no Jeremiah, no Isaiah, no Old Testament prophet ever had.

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We are sitting here today privileged people because we know the gospel of Jesus.

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Thank you, Lord, for the time together. Thank you for your word. Thank you that we can see Jesus in every single letter almost.

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Thank you for the plan which has come to the fullness of time by which we

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Gentiles who were once far off, without expectation of anything about you, by which we have been drawn to you, and by which we have been saved.

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We praise you. We thank you. We are encouraged to know what you have done and have made of us in Christ.