The Mystery of God's Will: Christ — Stephen Kaung

O Lord, we do desire to praise thy name, because thy name is wonderful. Thy name is above every name. And to thy name every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. O, how we praise and thank thee for this precious name.

How we praise and thank thee we can gather together tonight in this precious place. The Lord has promised us where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them. We praise and we thank thee because we know.

O, we pray that thou wilt open our eyes that we may see thee, open our ears that we may hear thee, open our hearts that we may receive thee. O Lord, manifest thyself to us. We do commit this time into thy hands and ask thee to bless it.

Faithfulness as Stewards of Christ's Work

We pray that thou wilt open thy word to us, that thou mayst be able to perfect thy work in us. And we do together give thee all the praise in the name of our Lord. To start with, and it is found in 1 Corinthians, chapter 4, and still account, the pastor shall return.

They will be rewarded. You will find this stewardship is referred to as two talents and one talent to the three born servants. The master called ten servants to him, and to give to each one of them one minas.

And a minas is 60 of them. You need to be very faithful. Sometimes the Bible refers to us as going to the field, to work in the field. The man will come out in early morning and he engage some people to go into his field and work, and promise to give them their daily wage.

And then at twelve o 'clock he went out and he saw some people there and he engaged them again. And even by three o 'clock he went out and still some were idling there and he engaged them. And even when five o 'clock came, he said, still some there, so he asked them to go into his field.

Sometimes you will find the parable refers to a servant who is working in the house, taking care of the food in the house, a housekeeper. You will find in the Bible there are many different ways of telling us that we are servants.

God's Hidden Mystery Revealed by the Holy Spirit

So brothers and sisters, what is in my heart tonight is this. Beyond tremendous secrets in the mind of the Master. The Master will say, go, and he goes. The Master says, do it, and he does it. But the Master never explains.

Or ever, I tell you, told to him, beginning to be revealed. What is the secret? It has been hidden for ages and centuries. And nobody knows the secret. Until God reveals that secret to us by his Holy Spirit.

And when God reveals by his Holy Spirit, God shares his secret to those who are open to his mystery. With them it is an open secret. Even though with the world it is still. Into the various aspects or facets of the mystery.

We must know that first. We must be faithful to it. Showing us the various facets of the mystery, be encouraged, be united together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the full knowledge of the mystery.

I delude you by persuasive speech. For if in thee in the flesh I am absent, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. As therefore ye have received the Christ Jesus the Lord, walking in him, rooted and built up in him, and assured in the faith, even as ye have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

Say that there be no one who shall lead you as prey away as a prey, through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the teaching of man, according to the element of the world, and not according to Christ.

The Fullness of God Dwells in Christ

Verse 9, verses 9 and 10,. For in him dwells all the fullness of God, and ye are in him. You do not know. You will never be known otherwise. His secret is revealed, because all is in his Son. And you know, this is in Colossians chapter 1 verse 19,.

All in him, all the fullness of the Godhead was pleased. And you know, this verse actually refers to eternity past, before there was time, before every anything was created. In the eternity past, all the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in this grace.

In him bodily, and not in God with you. When God shares his Son with you, he shares everything with you, because everything is in his Son. There is nothing left. And there is no place where you can find anything, because it's all in the Son.

Colossians history, think of that.

Christ as the Only Way to the Father

Here you find this world, people try to reach God, people try to know God, but they try in other places. They think that they may find God somewhere, they think they may receive something from God from the house, but you can't.

You can't. The Lord Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. If we do not go by the Lord Jesus, by the Son, there is no way to go to the Father. The Father has nothing to give. It's everything that is in God, is in his Son.

Oh God, how we should thank God for that. You know there is a story I always like to tell, some of you may have known that already. It illustrates a little bit of this, that we are trying to say. A very rich man, he had a lot of property.

Receiving God's Full Inheritance in the Son

He couldn't remember how rich he was, how much property he had. He owned so much land, so much property, and his son was a dwarf, but one day this old man was dying, so he recalled his son, he knew his son couldn't arrive on time, before his death, so he made a will, and he consulted a very wise lawyer as to how he should make that will.

He had so much property, he could not put down everything on the will, afraid he might miss something. So he talked to his lawyer, and his lawyer taught him to make up that will. So when the son arrived, the Father, and after he was buried, then the lawyer gathered the whole family, together, you know, this man had many slaves, because he was in the old days, he owned so many slaves, and much property, and the will said, bequeathed to my chief, but I will allow my son to choose among my properties one thing.

The will was read, and my father did everything to the chief steward, and left with me with only one thing that I would choose, and what should I choose? If I choose the house, I will lose the field. If I choose the cattle, I will lose the other property.

And my father did everything to the chief steward. Something must be wrong. So he talked to that lawyer, and whispered, and immediately his face brightened up. So he said, now I'm ready to choose. You know, the father knew that if he should die before his son arrives, he has so much empathy, his chief steward may hide something.

He made it known, everything will be given to the chief steward. So the chief steward took very good care of everything, to see that everything was there. And you know, being a slave, he was one of the properties.

Now brothers and sisters, this is only a story. But in a sense, it illustrates something.

Because God has dwelled, it is as if he is afraid that we may miss something. So he put everything in his son. And then he said, even with our little experience, before we choose God's son, we have nothing.

We may have heard about God. We may know a lot about him. In the Lord Jesus. Isn't it true? He is our father. We begin to experience love. Much more to come. Because all the... Therefore you'll find, Paul said, we may be filled with the fullness.

Not just a little bit. No individual can be filled with the fullness of God. This vessel is too small. We need God to enlarge us. But however large, enlarged we may be, it is still too small. He takes all we know.

Knowing God's Will Instead of Misunderstanding God

If you do not know the person himself, to know that your mystery is to do. That you know his secret, do it in this way or that way. You'll find that even in our own life. Sometimes we... We put God as a mystery.

We don't understand him. Why should he do things in that way? And when you look even more widely, you'll find things happening in this world. And you often ask, now why? Now if there is a God and God is love, why should he allow all this?

Why? We do not know. Because you do not know, God does not know what he is doing. He is being influenced by environment. Whatever God does, that's it. Now if only we can know what his will is. What is the mystery of his will.

Then you know God. Then you will not misunderstand him. Then you will not doubt him. Then you will begin to appreciate what he is doing. So what is important is to know the mystery of his will. Find what is he really after in you.

All Creation Expresses Christ's Character

Things should be gathered up. Things in the heavens. If you turn to Colossians chapter 1, the invisible God. Firstborn of God. Because by him we created all things. The things in the heavens and the things upon the earth.

The visible and the invisible. Whether thrones or lordships or principalities, authorities. All things have been created by him and for him. Now brothers and sisters, in the translation you'll find. We need to be a little more.

In Greek is en, e-n. Literally means in him. Because you know, when you said we created all things. We don't understand. Things were created in him. That we can understand. But literally the word here.

The preposition here is en. Which means in him. All things were created in him. And not only in him. He continues to say have been created by him. Now that is by. By means upon the earth. What do you mean by in him?

By in this. It says intrinsic power characterized the creation. It exists. Is to make. Makes the chair. In a sense the chair is created in him. He has a kind of design. And this design that is in his mind is according to his character.

Everything you make has the imprint of your character. A carpenter is going to make a chair. He has his own idea. And his idea invariably bears his own character. If he is a very careless person. Probably the chair he makes will be a very rough.

And if you sit on it you may fall. Three legs. Instead of four legs. But if the carpenter is very wise. A very careful person. Then you'll find the product of his work is a very refined work. In a sense it has been his character.

When God created all things. He created all things in Christ. That is to say everything takes its character. Who may take the character from Christ? Everything in the universe was created in him. It represents him.

It was his creator. It was his creation. An artist draws a picture. It is his creation. It is. It represents him. Everything in him is being expressed in a painting. That's why the heavens declare the glory of God.

And the firmament shows his handiwork. That's why you'll find the whole creation reveals. Whose character it is. Everything was created in him. And then by him. He was. When God created everything. The law said he was the engineer.

He was the engineer. He was the master builder. The engineer. Now brothers and sisters. Think of that. Everything was created in him. By him. The firstborn. You'll have difficulty with this verse. Firstborn of all creation.

The Mystery of God's Will Is Christ

Remember. With human beings. Everything was created. You cannot explain them into a vessel than anybody else. But he has taken us up. He has recreated. Brothers and sisters. The mystery of God's will is Christ.

Is again Christ. You never. You'll never know God. You'll never be able to have God.