The Family and Its Reflection in the Church | Sermon 06/09/2024

Family Integrated Church as a Response to Cultural Decline

All right, I'm glad to see everybody. This was a sermon I was going to preach actually last Sunday, but my family got very sick, and I find it to be very timely that Pastor Wade gave that sermon on suffering last Sunday.

I know it blessed me so much, guys, and I'm sure that you felt the same. The reason why we want to go through a sermon that we're going to go through today and a few different topics, really, that we've been touching before we get into our next sermon series is because we believe God has spoken clearly on certain matters, right?

And we want to be faithful to God and honor Him in those doings. One such matter that we believe God has spoken very clearly on is actually a family integrated church. I would say in some sense in the Old Testament this was part of a mystery, part of a mystery.

There was a shadow in the Old Covenant that has been fulfilled today in the New Testament Church, and that's the inclusion of family in worship as children as well, okay? Not speaking as like a Presbyterian way, but more as a grace and mercy that God has had and bestowed upon us to be able to preach through the 66 books of the Bible as Jesus Christ, the fulfillments of the things that were spoken of from the Old Testament.

And it's a mystery to unite, a mystery that's been revealed that will unite all things to Him in the end, meaning that God has created a church and He thinks it ought to function in such a way. And if the Bible speaks clearly on it, we ought to function as the way God describes, right?

God is the head of the church and we are the body. He is the firstborn from the dead and also in that we will one day have a bodily resurrection. Every single Sunday, which is a beautiful thing to behold, we worship the fulfillment of the Old Testament text through the Jesus Christ, the Messiah who took on flesh.

It's absolutely phenomenal and amazing, guys, and it's something we really got to grasp and understand because we battle with a lot of affluence today, a lot of wealth, a lot of things that want to steal our attention, a lot of things that want to steal our love and affection, and one way to combat that is in church as a family unit.

We're going to be getting into it, right? Just like as the Israelites, when they were going into the Promised Land, they were told over and over again, train your children up in the fear and admonition of the Lord so they do not forget what God has done and they turn after other gods to worship them.

So in the context of our society today, we've been blessed with so many technological advancements. It has revolutionized, right, the time it takes to bring messages from one area of the globe to another, from used to be mail carrier, people running with letters, to horseback, right, to train, to the phone, now to the plane, and now we can have face-to-face interactions through handheld devices that allow us to vicariously space-slash-time travel to instantly connect with anyone across the globe in the matter of milliseconds.

It's absolutely phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal. We have, by God's grace, went from travel on horseback to being able to be rocket-propelled into space in order to study the heavens within the last 100 years, guys.

It's crazy. We also now have the ability for people to travel from one continent to the other by flying in an explosion-powered tin can in the sky at the altitude between 32 ,000 -36 ,000 feet with speeds up to 1 ,300 miles per hour.

That's the Concorde jet. Absolutely amazing. We've also have had technological breakthroughs in the form of language and communication where we can translate any given language by speaking to our phone in a matter of seconds.

We use it constantly all the time at the mill when we're there and we're speaking with Spanish speaking people. It doesn't work the best. There's bugs to be worked out, but still it's phenomenal. If you think about the Tower of Babel and the confusion of the language that God placed on the people for not listening to him, what do we see after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?

He's reversing that. I can literally speak to my phone and have it be translated in a different language. Beautiful. I even right now have the ability, if I wanted to, to scan a massive amount of information stored on a database collected from individuals all around the world in which I can access in a matter of milliseconds with the palm of my hand.

The internet, right? Instantly, I even have access to all the different translations of the Word of God and the Hebrew and Greek. So the age that we live in, guys, it is a goldmine of technology, access, information, and self-sustainability.

There's even medical advancements in nanotechnology that improve medical imaging. It's phenomenal. It may seem, guys, on the outside that we have everything we need to be successful in this age without excuse.

If we were to look at humanity from the perspective of an outside third party, it would appear that on the surface all things are in order. Our lives are aided by technological advancements. We should be at the peak levels of joy and happiness.

Every person we meet ought to be effectually evangelized into a self-perpetuated happy existence with their own technology, right? For what else do we need? We literally have everything. But when you look under the surface, you would find that depression rates alone in the United States have never been higher.

From a recent Gallup poll, we find that the percentage of U .S. adults who report having been diagnosed with depression at some point in their lifetime has reached a 29%. Nearly 10 percentage points higher than in 2015.

We're also being told that loneliness is an epidemic, that though we have the ability to instantly be connected to one another, our technology isn't giving humanity the answer that it so desires. There's a study that reported that 40 of Americans feel that they don't have any meaningful personal connections.

In the United Kingdom, they've even created a ministry of loneliness to try to solve the crisis. Even nations like China and Japan are trying to figure out ways to combat social isolation and loneliness.

We've even found that after the pandemic, the pandemic in 2020, suicide rates have been climbing. Suicide is the 11th leading cause for death in the United States. Not only that, more and more young adults and minors are no longer identifying, quote-unquote, with the sex that they were born with.

They seek medications that change their body chemistry. Furthermore, gender dysphoria has risen in every single state in America. Every state except South Dakota by at least 6%. I don't even know how many people live in South Dakota, but they're doing a little bit better, right?

Maybe they have faithful preaching of the word in a strong family unit. Here's the catch. Over the last two decades, statistics show that 40 million people who once stated that they were Christian, who had mere spoken professions of faith, who attended the church, no longer attend church or identify as Christians.

40 million. 40 million. Please understand this, that the rise of gender confusion in our nation, the ever-growing neo-pagan spirituality, and the rise of the occult are inherently linked to the decline of the Christian church in America.

Technology and podunk spirituality has become an idol for the secular world. It's a scapegoat, in a sense, because the church in many ways has also made those same things an idol. What is the fruit? Loneliness.

Disconnection. No communication. Wooden people, like it says in Jeremiah, thinking wooden things with crafted ideals from the hands of popular culture, meaningless philosophy, never-ending search for prosperity.

Remember, those who worship idols become just like them. Eyes that cannot see, ears that cannot hear, hands that work in vain, families that do not communicate, churches that do not impact the world through the word of God.

Listen clearly. I'll reiterate from Jeremiah 10, 1 through 11. But the Lord is the true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath, the earth quakes and the nations cannot endure his indignation.

Thus shall you say to them, the gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens. You cannot live in a world with such affluence and technological advancements that we have and not worship them unless you know who God is.

Unless you know who God is. You have heard it said many, many times before that the culture is downstream from the church. It's true. Jesus Christ is the everlasting King. He disarmed all rulers and authorities.

Psalm 2, right? Kiss the sun lest you perish. Please hear me. Our nation cannot endure the wrath of Christ's indignation. The fruit of our nation, according to Romans chapter 1, shows the heart of those who have rejected the true and living God.

And in our affluence, like Israel of old, the Western world at large has forgotten their King. And this is largely due to the inaction of the family and the church. It's true. And we've seen this happen before.

There's precedence in Scripture, right? In Exodus, the Egyptians gave the Hebrews their gold. Please leave the lands. Let your God will stop his wrath. Literally, the Egyptians gave the Hebrews their gold and said, please leave.

The Hebrews crossed through the Red Sea with the pre-incarnate Christ, leading them through the waters. They witnessed literal miracles in front of their eyes. The angel of the Lord, right? Also the splitting of the Red Sea.

Phenomenal things. And as Moses was up on Sinai, the people instructed Aaron to do what? To make a golden calf out of their gold that God had given them. Aaron, right? In this point of time, who bore the rod as the priest of the nation, did not rebuke the peoples, and thus judgment came.

That's a reality. In their affluence, they found and worshipped after other gods. But interesting thought, while Moses was gone on Sinai, the priest did not fulfill his duty as the mouthpiece to the people until the prophet returned.

Look what happened, right? Christ, he's not on earth at this very physical moment, but he's ruling and reigning today, the great high priest and perfect prophet in heaven. He has shepherds, and Christians alike ought to operate as the king instructed them until he returns from the mountain of heaven.

Are our priests acting like Aaron, or are they acting like Christ in the church? It's the question. Oh, he's gone for now, but he will come back. Shadows and types, right? From the old into the new. What we see happen with Israel, we should learn from.

1 Corinthians 10 tells us that. Listen to Hebrews 3, 7 through 11. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years.

Therefore, I was provoked with that generation and said, they always go astray in their heart. They have not known my ways. As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. This is the fundamental reality for all of those who reject God.

They will never enter into his rest. However, in terms of what we'll be going over today, the people of God, in their affluence, their riches, including the priest who feared the people, rejected God that brought them from slavery into life.

Likewise, they wandered in the desert for 40 years until they were killed off before they entered into the promised land flowing with milk and honey. What are we going to learn from that situation, and how ought we to act?

And then we find in Deuteronomy over and over again, the second giving of the law before the Hebrews are to enter into the promised land, the urgency of raising your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, to not forget the Lord their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that the family was to instruct their child in the ways of the Lord, to fear the Lord, so that they will continue in the ways of God into their old age.

Because once they enter the promised land, it's flowing with milk and honey. We're going to go over more shadows and types, but there's beautiful shadows and types from the promised land, a section of area in the world given to God's people, to now where God says, the meek shall inherit the earth.

We have so much greater today than they had then, so much more temptation than they do. What are we going to learn? Deuteronomy 6, 12 through 15 states this, then take care lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

It is the Lord your God, you shall fear him. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the people who are around you. For the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God.

Lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. So how much is the question, would the discipline of God rest on a church who is failing to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord?

How then would a nation rage and plot in vain when the shepherds of the churches are not bearing the rod against the state in one such way as through the family? Like it says in Jeremiah, Lord discipline me with your justice not with your wrath.

Our success is predicated on the success of Christ. I believe we are being disciplined as a church on earth, but when we state that the culture is downstream from the church, this is what is meant. When the church functions as it ought, those parameters in which it functions are from Scripture.

To do what? Bring the Word of God to the people of God in the form of the teaching and preaching. To also disciple and encourage the family through God's written Word. And then it lists the signs of grace through baptism, communion, the sacraments, the function of the church, and to speak to the state.

Through these things, the church bears the rod to the state. However, the church cannot bear the rod when it has rejected the roles given to the church outlined in Scripture. And for this reason, culture suffers, for the church no longer exists within the parameters of Scripture.

When the church functions the way it ought, when it's speaking to the state, it calls the state to repentance and tells the state, look you're going over your bounds of authority, this is how you ought to function.

But if we're not doing that, the state will never be whipped in line, and if we're not training our children, they're going to be trained in the ways of the state. So the question we could ask ourselves during this sermon is, how did we get here?

But here's the answer, and I think Jesus would say this. He'd say, have you not read? Have you not read? There is nothing new under the sun. These things have happened before. And this is the importance of a family-integrated church, for the parameters of Scripture outline a function and a role of the church which is much more overarching than just having your children included in the worship service.

It's about rearing a family in the fear and admonition of the Lord, which is then reflected into the worship service and ought to be encouraged by the church in order to make disciples who then affect the nation.

This is the answer to fighting the world, the flesh, and the devil, how to not make idols out of our affluence and technology, to not serve the castrated gods that have been disemboweled at the resurrection of Christ, which now brings us to the text that will springboard us into the family and its reflection in the church.

So grab your Bibles and turn with me please to Deuteronomy 31 verses 12 through 13. Here's the word of the living and true God. Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, and that their children who have not known it may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.

Thus ending the reading of God's Word, let's pray. God, I pray that you help me to speak clearly, help your word and your truth to be shown. Through your Spirit, Lord, bring conviction to myself, to everyone here.

Let us see the beauty of what you have fulfilled, Jesus, in the church, the mystery that you have revealed to unite all things in you and the church's function in that. Let us see the glory of your death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus, that without you we can't make sense of our lives, that we need you, Jesus, and the power of the gospel to bring us dead sinners back to life together in you.

In order to understand the family, how it is to operate, let us be humble. Let us put your word before us. Rightly divide the word of truth. Please, Lord, get me out of the way and let your truth ring.

We love you, God. We praise you. In Jesus' name, amen. So the context within Deuteronomy 31, 12 through 13 is Moses, he's initiating the rule of Joshua to the ones who are going to inherit the promised land.

God said, Moses, you're not going to go into the promised land, you are going to die before you get there. So Joshua is being enlisted as the new leader, essentially. He speaks in verse 9, if you go back, it says, then Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord into all the elders of Israel.

Okay? So the law, in this sense, is not just the abridged version of Leviticus, but what is referenced here is actually the whole of Moses' writings, right? All of the revelation that has been given to him so far.

It's not just the law of God, but all. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and the parts of Deuteronomy here. This is what was to be read. This was the written word as God had revealed such far, and it was given to the priests, the sons of Levi, and to the elders of Israel, and it was to be read to all, to all, every seven years on the year of release.

This is the instruction here. The year of release was celebrated every seven years. It was known as the Sabbath of God, where every seventh day the people of God rested, while every seven years we find that the year of release was to give the land release, and also allowed the poor to reap from the fields of the land.

That's a giant leap of faith, right? In an agricultural society, let the land rest. Regardless, the heart of the year of release was to focus on faith in God, to trust in God, and renewal of the family unit so that the people of God would remember the Lord who delivered them from the hands of the Egyptians.

We then find that the Feast of Booths, during the year of release, all of the people of God were to then, what, travel to the specific area in order for all people to hear the preaching and proclamation of the Word through the books of Moses.

So understand the following about the year of release. The year of release, when the land, was when the land was put to rest, when the person would also, would be acquitted from their debts, and then the Feast of Booths was a celebration given to help your posterity and all who come after you to rejoice before God, so that you do not forget what the Lord has done, and that your children will rejoice as well, and learn to fear God.

I don't want to get too caught up in the descriptions here of the year of release and the Feast of Booths, because I want to stay on subject, but I want to present you today with the following. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the year of release and the Feast of Booths, okay?

His church, through the proclamation of the Word of God on the Lord's Day worship, points to the one who fulfilled the feasts. It's not just five books, 66, okay? Not just on a specific day do we all gather together, but every single Lord's Day.

So beautiful. Here's the argument. Jesus Christ himself in John 7. You can go back to Pastor Wade's sermon on it. This is so awesome. He stands up in the midst of the crowd and urges everyone that he is the fulfillment of the Feast of Booths.

So cool. Like the people of God who were enslaved to the Egyptians, we all were once enslaved to sin. Like the people of God of old, we have been rescued from slavery purely by God's grace and have been delivered into freedom.

Like the people of God of old, we too have left the desert of sin and into the promised land. We have multiple promises. We are promised heaven sealed through the Holy Spirit, and then we're commanded to make a garden of the world that we live in today, and we're promised that the meek shall inherit the earth and that Jesus Christ is coming again.

All of this happened to in the person and work of Jesus Christ, right? Remember, Jesus stated, if you believed in the words of Moses, you would have believed in me, for he wrote about me. So there's a mystery that's in the Old Testament.

The mystery of the celebration of the Feast of Booths, right? To train your children up in the fear and admonition of the Lord, assemble all Israel together at one point of time during the year of release and speak to them about what Moses talked about in the five books of the Bible.

All of it pointed to Christ. Every single thing. Absolutely amazing. Jesus said it. If you believe in the words of Moses, you would have believed in me, for he wrote about me. Hear this clearly. What we do every single Sunday on the Lord's Day is worship Jesus to proclaim the truth of God, that Jesus Christ is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and has delivered us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom there is redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

So we celebrate, through Jesus Christ, the perfect rest and completed work of Christ through his life, death, burial, and resurrection every single Lord's Day. Not just on the year of release do we let the land rest, right?

Not on just the year of release do we focus on all these promises of God, but every single Lord's Day we go through the Bible and proclaim the lordship and fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy through Jesus Christ, our King.

So understand that we're told from Deuteronomy 31, 12 through 13, right? Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, and that their children who have not known it may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land you are going over the Jordan to possess.

Assemble, learn all the words from the law. Who assembles? Just the mother and the father? No. Little ones as well as the sojourner. Don't get confused though, the church service that we have today is not for unbelievers, but they are welcome to hear the preaching and proclamation of the word, right?

And ought we as the church, as we bear the rod to the state, bring this word to the nation so that they would obey? But hear from who? Here's the question. Moses stated by you in Deuteronomy, so it was to be Joshua who would do this.

But historically when this occurred, the books of Moses were read by Joshua, Solomon, they believe, because he called himself the preacher, he would preach from this on the year of release from the first five books of the Bible.

Josiah is mentioned as doing this in 2nd Chronicles 3430, Ezra as well from Nehemiah 8 .3. But why? Why? Here's the words from Matthew Henry here. This is really good. Why did they do this? This is what Matthew Henry says, he says, that the present generation might hereby keep up their acquaintance with the law of God.

They must hear that they may learn and fear God and observe to do their duty. See here what we are to aim at in hearing the word, we must hear that we may learn and grow in knowledge. And every time we read the scriptures, we shall find that there is still more and more to be learned out of them.

We must learn that we may fear God, that is, that we may be duly affected with divine things, and must fear God that we may observe and do the words of his law. For in vain do we pretend to fear him if we do not obey him.

And also that the rising generation might be times be leavened with religion. Not only that those who know something may thus know more, but that the children who have not known anything may be times know this, how much it is in their interest as well as their duty to fear God.

Because the reality is, is when Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, he inherits not just Israel, right? He is King of the world. And the Bible over and over and over again tells us that if we do not listen to his words and obey the King of Kings, he will punish those who do wicked.

And as the church, right, as we are to love our neighbors, we want to teach them how not to reap the judgment of God. It says he crushes the nations who do not obey him in the present, in Psalm chapter 2.

He's King. If we loved our neighbors, we would be raising our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. It's true. So thinking of the Lord's Day today, what do we do? We hear the preaching of the word.

We have qualified elders to the body of the visible church, which consists of men, women, fathers, mothers, children, and even unbelievers, right? So think about that for a second. So in a fulfillment sense, when they would all gather together, someone specifically qualified would read all of it.

So it is today. Someone who has been given the Holy Spirit, as all believers do, but qualified meets the qualifications, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy. And then what? Men, women, little children, sojourners, all here.

But not just one specific day do we all assemble. The fulfillment in Christ is that we do it every single Lord's Day to proclaim the truth to all that hear, that you may fear the Lord your God and have faith in Jesus Christ.

And what is being taught, right? Not just the books of Moses, but the full counsel of God through the Holy Spirit on the foundation of Jesus Christ. It's quite beautiful. Remember, within Deuteronomy, we find again that the second generation of God's people were to enter into the promised land.

They were told to do certain things in order to not forget it was God who brought them into that land, that it is flowing with milk and honey, that the people of God have the propensity to become fat with prosperity and affluence, which leads them to worshiping other gods.

So the point I'm making is that we have so much greater than the ones who were going into the promised land. It's true. We really do. The meek shall inherit the earth. The promised land was just a shadow of the world that God is renewing through the power of the gospel.

As Christians, God is making all things new. As we speak of the kingdom of heaven, it is currently invading the world and not just the land of Canaan, right? God's people are a promise to the whole world today.

All authority on heaven and on earth has been given to Christ. Therefore, from Jesus to now, we see the most amazing technological advancements made throughout human history. Hope you know it's all because of Jesus, and one day, it'll be taken from those who made it and given to the ones who inherit the earth, just like how the Egyptians gave the Hebrews their gold.

But here's the catch. With affluence and advancement in technology, the way to combat that is through remembering who God is and what he has done, through fathers raising their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, and through the institution of the church acting as it ought in a world that seeks to slow the success of the gospel.

So just as the people were to enter into the promised land, they were charged to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, we too, as those who inherit the earth, must proclaim to our family the truth of God, of the faithful one, so that they do not run after other gods because the world belongs to Christ, and the world will suffer due to the inaction of the Christian church.

It's just reality. But how is that done, right? It's done through the family, and it's reflected into the church. That's why we're talking about family integration today, right? As parents with children, we ought to want to raise them in such a way to where they know the words of God, because when struggles come into their lives, and they don't have a way to actually challenge it with truth, they might just trust their feelings over than what God says, and that's not a good thing.

But the point I'm trying to make is that we're a family-integrated church, but the heart behind the family-integrated church is integration in the family unit, that fathers lead their families in the fear and admonition of the Lord, right?

Mothers help with that duty, because the world seeks to separate the family at all costs. It's the truth. We must believe that Christ, when he instituted his church, thought it were to operate in such a way that we find longevity, success, and fruitfulness within our own family, and then into the world around us.

The Great Commission and the Mystery Revealed in Christ

So now let's get into it. How was the church to function? How do we know that a church ought to be family-integrated? Well first, let's go to Matthew 28, 18 through 20. Matthew 28, 18 through 20 states, And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of the nations, right? We're being told to do something. Make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, which we'll be seeing that later today, praise God.

Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. How? Teaching them how. There's a function. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. And then Matthew 16, 18, 12 chapters prior, we say that, we hear this, it says, And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock, which is not Peter, but on the gospel, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Here's where some of the confusion comes, right? We must understand that the New Testament people of God are the church, right? The church is comprised of people, yet these people assemble together in the fulfillment of Deuteronomy 31, as we spoke about earlier, in order to worship the Lord of Lords and Kings of Kings, the King of Kings.

How do we know that, right? Well, we're told in Acts. Elders were appointed in various cities, and these elders, we are told in 1st Timothy, 2nd Timothy, and Titus, are given a duty from God to shepherd the flock of God, be in prayer, and preach the word.

Meaning that the people of God, the church, through the Great Commission, is commanded to be part of something more than just themselves. It's not just you, your Bible, and a tree. You're commanded to be unified as believers, united to the body of Christ, and united to each other in local vicinities, to exercise your gifts with one another, to build up the body of Christ until he returns.

And this mercy, this grace, is the functionality of the local church, led with multiple elders and deacons, who are ministers of mercy for the people who are comprised of families, to grow in the knowledge and grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

So I want you to hear this, guys. This is such an amazing fulfillment in the New Testament era. From the nation Israel, locality, to spiritual Israel in the New Testament church. And this was once a mystery that has now been made known in Christ.

It's phenomenal. It's not just us alienated from a certain people of God, but we have been included into the Commonwealth of Israel through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and promised the very same blessings.

And I want to get into that mystery. It's such a cool thing. Paul consistently speaks about the mystery of Christ in his epistles. If you've read any of Paul's epistles, you will find the mystery of Christ there.

Romans 16 25 talks about it, Colossians 1 25 through 27, Colossians 2 2, and Colossians 4 3. But I want to take you somewhere in your Bibles real quick. Turn to Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 1, and I'll start in verse 8.

Paul is starting to build an argument, and is one founded purely in the revelation of God, of this mystery and what it is. Okay? Paul, in Ephesians 1 verse 8, he states,. Which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Earlier in Ephesians, Paul speaks about the will of the Father to set aside a people for adoption to himself through the blood of Christ, right? That these people were chosen before the foundation of the world, predestined in love to adoption.

That, in part, is the mystery of Christ, but it does not stop here, okay? Understand, what does it say in verse, let's see, 9 here? Making known to us the mystery of his will, according to what? His purpose.

God has a will, okay? And he has given us insight into his plan through his word and this revelation of Paul, right? We're told in verse 10 here, there's a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

So now, let's examine, well, what is that exactly? What is Paul getting at here in Ephesians? Let's examine the next section. Turn to Ephesians 3, 1 through 6. This is so beautiful. Ephesians 3, 1 through 6.

For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation as I have written briefly.

When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.