Ephesians 3 - (part 1)

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Have you ever been on a rabbit trail? I'm certain you've never heard a pastor go on a rabbit trail.

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Some people think that the Apostle Paul in today's passage went on a rabbit trail, but I thought, you know what,

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I want to look up what is a rabbit trail, and a dictionary defines it this way. Veering off subject or the point of the conversation.

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A story or explanation leading nowhere. Making statements with no real purpose, just for the sake of stating it.

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Another writer said, a rabbit trail is a confusing maze of pointless leads. In short, a rabbit trail leads us nowhere.

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It serves only to confuse the prey or the reader. And so today, if you'll take your

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Bible and turn to not a rabbit trail at all, but a wonderful divinely inspired diversion,

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Ephesians chapter three. Paul's not on a rabbit trail. He knows right where he's taking us.

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He's making statements with real purpose, not just for the purpose of stating it.

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He's not veering off subject for no reason, he's doing it for a very important purpose.

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And so today, Ephesians chapter three. This is one of those passages that I think is underappreciated.

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We love Ephesians one and two, we'll review those in a moment. But Ephesians three, I mean, how many verses have you underlined actually in Ephesians three?

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Maybe toward the end, you might have underlined some verses, but early on verses one through 13, this underappreciated passage probably needs to be underlined more.

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In our series, we're going two sermons per chapter. So two so far in chapter one, then chapter two.

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And now today is the first sermon in chapter three, 12 sermons, six chapters.

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Paul is writing to this church and it's a letter that gets circulated because he wants other people to know about it.

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And it's all about the Lord Jesus and the church. It's all about trying to have you encouraged.

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He says in chapter six, I want you to be encouraged. How do you encourage people? Well, the focus doesn't come on the person or other people, the focus is an upward focus.

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And he does that in chapter one, remember he just, it's like he blurts out, he cannot contain himself in verse three of chapter one.

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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

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In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has blessed us in the beloved.

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And Paul just can't contain himself. He just burst out into praise. And remember, this is the

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God that chooses, but unlike us, he doesn't choose based on, this

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God doesn't choose based on our quality, our attributes. I mean, if you're married, you probably say there are certain things that you chose, that you look for in your wife.

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I think to myself, I chose Kim for lots of reasons. And I say just in summary, she was beautiful on the inside and on the out.

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I hope she picked me for some reason, she liked me. It wasn't just simply mercy or pity.

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That's how we pick. And that's fine to pick that way. But here we weren't holy, we weren't blameless, but he was going to make us that way.

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So he picks us and he does something marvelous. And Paul realizes, can you imagine Paul, this apostle, this

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Pharisee who knows nothing of grace. He is as legalistic and self -righteous and prideful as you can be.

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And now all of a sudden the God of all grace changes him and he just has to praise who

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God is. He also prays in chapter one, verse 15, does he not?

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He said, I've heard of your faith in verse 15 and I give thanks for you. I remember you in my prayers and I want you to understand verse 19, what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe.

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You might think of power because of Diana and that great temple there at Ephesus and everybody trying to give their adoration to Diana, great as Diana of Ephesus, but no, there's a greater power.

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Oh, Diana has this supernatural power. She's got demonic power. She's got her demonic minions, demonic minions, but there's a greater power than Diana.

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There's a greater power than Satan. Chapter two, instead of saying, this is how wonderful we were, he compares us to the greatness of God so that we see

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God's mercy. We were dead in trespasses, chapter two, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love, verse four, with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together in Christ.

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Paul says, it doesn't matter if it's sin, it doesn't matter if it's Satan, it doesn't matter if it's the world system, there's a greater

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God, the triune God, one God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. And he rescues individuals, but he also takes care of corporate issues because remember that the hatred that was going on between Jew and Gentile and the rub between the two, the

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Jews hated the Gentiles, Gentiles hated the Jews, Gentiles hated other Gentiles. And there's this corporate, there's this body life that comes together in chapter two, verses 11 through 22.

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What was separated because of Jesus bringing peace, we are now together.

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Do you see it in verse 14 of chapter two, for he himself, Jesus is our peace, who made us both one, that's

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Jew and Gentile, 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 one new man in place of the two, so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

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Remember what Paul was saying, Paul was saying, there's this individual enmity that we have against God, but that's been cleared out, chapter two, verses one to 10, but also the anger and the hostility between Jews and Gentiles, that's been solved as well, as God has one people.

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There's a corporate aspect to the death of Christ. Jesus, of course, when he died on the cross, the veil was torn from top to bottom and it was a great symbol of the ceremonial law, all the law that pointed to Jesus with feasts and festivals and types and shadows and everything that the

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Jewish people had to do with ceremonies, with worship, it was all done, it was gone.

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Those things that the Jews did in particular when they worshiped, they were over because they were fulfilled by Jesus and when they were over, now the

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Gentiles can easily come in. For instance, circumcision, how do you become a

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Jew if you're a Gentile? The first thing you had to do if you were a male is to be circumcised. That's all been fulfilled now in Christ Jesus and we have hope.

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So now we come to verse one of chapter three. This is very, very fascinating because we have a diversion, not a rabbit trail, but a diversion.

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I don't know if you know much about grammar, but we're gonna see this dash at the end of verse one in your

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Bible. If you have an ESV, probably you see the longer dash. What kind of dash is that, by the way? A what?

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An M -dash, only a bow -tied man would understand that. Paul in chapter one praises

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God and then he prays. He's praising God in chapter two and now in chapter three, he prays.

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We just have chapter, it just seems like our chapters are messed up. Those are not inspired, but Paul's idea is

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I'm praising God and then I pray. By the way, if you ever have a hard time praying, that's the best thing to do is begin praising

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God for who he is and what he's done, and then you begin your prayer life for others, for people, for yourself, et cetera.

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So Paul has this rhythm and Paul's rhythm is praise, prayer. Chapter one, he praises, then he prays.

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Chapter two, he's praising God for who the son is and he's made peace. He's brought these two together in one body, one temple, one organism,

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Jew and Gentile, and now he prays. So chapter three is that prayer.

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Fueling this prayer is Paul's praises. And he says in verse one, for this reason,

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I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, there's the dash, there's the em dash.

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And the rest of this section till we get to verse 14 is the diversion.

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Do you see in verse 14, he picks up the same language as he has stated in verse one.

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For this reason, verse one, for this reason, verse 14, I bow my knees before the

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Father. There's the prayer. So Paul praises, then prays. He praises, now he's going to pray, but he goes on this diversion.

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And so today we're going to look at that diversion verses one through 13. I might not make it all through 13, but we shall see.

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Sometimes when I'm on the radio, I wanna talk really fast so people can't listen at 1 .5 speed, but I'm trying to do everything

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I can to just slow down because I want you to get this. Paul is writing this letter to the

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Ephesians. He's a pastor and he wants them to do well. And so he knows it's going to have to be a look up to who

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God is. And when he looks up to see who God is, then he has to pray. You just see

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God in all his glory and you think, there has to be some response. I'm praising him and now I pray. He did the same thing in chapter one, chapter two, and he's getting ready now to pray, but he goes on this diversion.

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Before he begins to say things in prayer in verse 20, now to him who's able to do more abundantly than all we can ask or think, he goes on this diversion.

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Let's go on this diversion with him. If you understand comparison, you'll get this section.

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If you understand analogs, you'll get this comparison. If you understand analogies, you'll get this comparison.

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By the way, if you ever think, okay, what's the word analogy? We've got the word logos in there, word, and Anna is in front of it,

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Anna Logos. What's Anna? Not A -N -N -A, but A -N -A like Anna Baptist.

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Somebody who was baptized once and got baptized again. And so analog means the word again.

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You're trying to make an analogy. Here's the word and it comes up again. I don't know if that gives you theological goosebumps or not, but I just somehow like to know what

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Paul's doing. Ian Hamilton said, Paul's care and concern for Christ's church was creaturely analog of the

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Savior's care and concern for his church. What do I mean by that? If you read this chapter and you go,

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Paul loved the Gentiles. Okay, great, way to go, Paul. But if you read it this way, it's unlocked.

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Here's the key to unlock it. Not that I have Gnostic knowledge, but it's just right there for you to see.

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Paul loved the Gentiles. Who gave him that love? Who gave

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Paul that love of Gentiles? Well, obviously the Lord did. Guess what?

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Because the Lord loves Gentiles. That's the analog. Paul loves

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Gentiles. Who gave him that love? God did because God loves

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Gentiles. Also, we're gonna see in this section, there's a mystery.

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There's something that God knows we can't know unless he tells us. Paul says, I know the mystery and I'm telling you.

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Guess what? God wants you to know the mystery. This isn't Paul knows the mystery, he's telling the church at Ephesus, that's it.

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No, no, there's an analog. Paul realizes God loves Gentiles. That's a pretty amazing thought.

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So he tells the church at Ephesus that, but I want you to see behind the curtain as it were, the analog is

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God loves Gentiles and God wants you Gentile to know about this great mystery.

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Verse one, let's look at that before we dive into the analog. For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you

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Gentiles. Where was Paul? Paul was in jail.

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He was imprisoned. He was having his apostleship confirmed by his imprisonment.

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Some might say, see, Paul, you're a loser, you're in jail. Paul said, no, what I'm a prisoner. What does the text not say?

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It doesn't say, I'm a prisoner of Caesar. I'm a prisoner of Nero. I'm a prisoner of Rome. I'm a prisoner of Christ Jesus.

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And why? Because of Gentiles, on behalf of you Gentiles. The reason why I'm in jail is because I love you

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Gentiles. I'm preaching to you Gentiles. I minister to you. Paxton said,

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Paul was in a Roman prison when he wrote this epistle, but one would never know it. There is no smell of prison in Ephesians.

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As you open the book, it is just like going to some vast open expanse and breathing the fresh air of heaven.

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So true, so victorious. The Roman empire, I'm not a prisoner of. Caesar, I'm not a prisoner of.

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The Jews, I'm not a prisoner of. I'm a prisoner of the Lord Jesus. Paul could say, oh, the victim mentality.

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Don't you just hate the victim mentality when I see it in myself or others for Paul? No, this is a badge of honor.

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I'm a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to this passage.

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While thus engaged, I was journeying to Damascus, Paul said, with authority and commission of the chief priest. At midday,

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O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who are journeying with me.

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And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

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It is hard for you to kick against the goads. Who art thou,

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Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But arise, stand on your feet for this purpose

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I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness, not only to the things that you have seen, but also to the things in which

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I will appear to you. Listen, delivering you from the Jewish people and from the

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Gentiles to whom I am sending you. I'm sending you to the Gentiles, Paul, to open their eyes so they may turn from darkness to light, from dominion of Satan to God, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by me.

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King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first and also of Jerusalem, and then throughout the whole region of Judea, and even to the

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Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance.

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King Agrippa, my name's Paul, let me tell you what happened on the Damascus road, and God has appointed me, like he's appointed

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Peter to the Jews, he's appointed me to go to the Gentiles, and God wants Gentiles to go from darkness to light, to be from the dominion of Satan, to go to God, to have their sins forgiven.

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And guess what happens when I preach to Gentiles, you can have all your sins forgiven in Christ Jesus, the risen

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Messiah. Acts 26, verse 21, the account ends, Paul said, for this reason,

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King Agrippa, Jews seized me in the temple and tried to put me to death.

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You're gonna try to evangelize Gentiles? You're gonna die. And so when you take a look at this passage,

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I want you to be reminded, as I've reminded myself this week, this isn't about, oh,

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Paul loves Gentiles. That's true, but God loves Gentiles, so he uses Paul to go preach to Gentiles.

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Paul is in jail because he thinks what Jesus did is make Jews and Gentiles both able to worship

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God. You don't have to become a Jew first anymore to become a Gentile. Ruth, if she wants to worship

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God back in the Old Testament, become a Jew first. No longer, because of what Jesus has done, circumcision's fulfilled,

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Sabbaths are fulfilled, ceremonial ceremonies are fulfilled, everything's equal, and Paul says,

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Gentiles, you have access to God, and they tried to kill him. But like his

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Savior, he laid down his life, not as a ransom for many, but he laid down his life so that the

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Son could ransom many. Paul said, I'm afflicted in every way. And so I stop here to preach a little bit to you.

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Most everybody here is a Gentile. Maybe some of you are Jewish, I don't know it. Maybe your background is

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Jewish, but most people here are Gentiles. Guess what? Even though we weren't close to the

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Commonwealth, even though I with you as a Gentile wasn't an Israelite, and we didn't have the covenant promises, and we didn't have the revelation from God, and Mount Sinai and all that,

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God still loves Gentiles. God still loves Gentiles. Because Ebenezer Erskine said, if the question was asked, what is

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God to a guilty sinner who has violated his law, trampled upon his authority, and lifted up rebellious arms against his sovereign?

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One would think the answer would be, God is a God of fury. God is a

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God of wrath. God is a God of vengeance. But to the eternal surprise of men and angels, the very reverse is true.

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The answer is, Erskine said rightly, God is love. God is love.

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The display of the love of God as he sends his son to die, here then is love, not that we love God, but he loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins, not just Jews, but Gentiles.

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For God so loved the Jews only that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believed in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

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Is that true? I hope some of you are giving me the look like, uh -uh. When I was younger, we would watch the 10

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Commandments with the kids. And I remember thinking, some of the 10 Commandments movie, you know, with Moses, you know,

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Charles and Heston. Okay, watch kids and see if you can find any errors in the show.

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If you find an error, I'll give you a dollar for every error that you find. Because, you know, I thought sometimes they just make stuff up.

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If you're a young person and you found an error in what I just said, I think your dad should give you a dollar. For God so loved the world, humanity.

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This is broader than just Jewish people. God loves Jews, obviously. But Gentiles? I mean, for us to be able to say, like in the book of Revelation, to him that loved us, be glory and praise, salvation to our

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God and to the Lamb forever and ever. Paul doesn't have this kind of scolding legal tincture as he's trying to just harangue and blast the

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Ephesians. He's trying to say, church at Ephesus, mainly Gentile people,

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I am sending Paul to make sure you understand how to be rescued from darkness to light, how to have your sins forgiven.

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That's the attitude of Paul. There's a book entitled, Why Johnny Can't Preach.

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And T. David Gordon wrote this book. And he said, there's a lot of pastors these days that can't preach. And here's a test he gives to pastors.

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We give Paul the test, you can give me the test. Do hearers get the impression that the minister is for them, eager to see them richly blessed by a gracious God, or against them, eager to put them in their place, scold them, reprimand them and punish them?

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Is it the pastor's desire to see them reconciled to and blessed by a pardoning God? Does the sermon press the hearer to consider the hopelessness of his condition apart from Christ, and the utter competence of Christ to rescue the penitent sinner?

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I don't know how I do, but I know how Paul does. And what Paul does, he doesn't come across as against the

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Ephesians. He's for them. You have a God who loves you, who loves Gentiles, to the point where God saves

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Paul and sends him to tell you the truth. Well, there's another analogy here, another correspondence, not just Paul loved

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Gentiles, and the analogy is God loves Gentiles, God loves you, but also Paul knew the mystery.

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Verses two and following. Paul knew the mystery. Well, what's the correspondence? God wants you to know the mystery.

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He wants you to know. I love chapter three, because this inspired diversion helps me know the heart of God that he wants to reveal, not to conceal.

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Verse two of Ephesians three. 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.

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You say, well, how did Paul think that maybe they didn't know? Didn't he spend a lot of time there?

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Yes, but did you know all pastors realize that congregants don't memorize everything the pastor says?

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Do you know that as pastors and me as a lay person and a pastor as well as a student, one of you,

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I have to keep learning and relearning and learning again. I forget things very easily.

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He realizes that maybe not every member in the congregation fully understood, and so what does he write?

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He said, assuming that you've heard, he was there, they did hear, but maybe they didn't grasp it all. Maybe there's some new converts there that didn't hear.

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The stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, that's the point there.

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Recognizing that the grace of God given to Paul was for other people. And if I just go, oh yeah, it's for the

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Gentiles, fine, it's a class lecture. But if I say to myself, yeah, I'm a Gentile, God wanted me to know through Paul and others, it changes everything.

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God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, that by the world through him, but that the world through him might be saved.

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That's John 3, 17. He says in verse two that you've heard this grace, mystery made known, and I've written to you about briefly.

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What is this mystery? He's alluded to it in chapter two. Here's the mystery, not the church, that's not the mystery, but the mystery is

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Jew and Gentile, both worshiping together without the Jew first becoming, without the

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Gentile first becoming a Jew. True or false? There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

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That's true. I like what Ian Hamilton said. The point is not that we stop being

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Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free, black and white, rich and poor. It is that these cultural, social, racial, sexual divisions no longer demarcate our essential identity.

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Our essential identity is Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise.

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We are all children of the living God. And he said, I wrote to you briefly.

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How did Paul figure this out? Verse three, by peyote and a sweat tent.

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You know what the word ventriloquism comes from? Venter in Latin, I think is belly. And so when your stomach would growl, like some of you maybe have stomachs that are growling now, wanting lunch, other people would come along and go, you know what

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I think that is? I think that's a God that's talking to you, telling you that you want to marry

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Cindy instead of Jane. Venter, ventriloquist. Paul, you're in jail because you're a kook.

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No, verse three, he was made known to me by revelation. How do I know

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Jews and Gentiles together? Every Jew would say, this is crazy, this can't be. Paul, you're the kind of guy that you brought along a

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Gentile up into the temple area and we were gonna try to kill you. Paul said, it's by revelation.

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I am not paying for some mental thing in my own mind.

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No, no, this is not new, this is revealed by God. It's a mystery, not mysterious.

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Don't think of organ music, spooky. Think something we don't know, now we know it.

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How do we know it? God told us. William Phelps taught English literature at Yale for 41 years and retired in 1933.

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Grading an examination paper before Christmas one year, Professor Phelps came across the note,

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God only knows the answer to this question, Merry Christmas. Professor Phelps returned the paper with this note,

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God gets an A, you get an F, happy new year.

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Mystery is something that's true, but we couldn't find out by looking at the stars and the moon and the sun.

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We couldn't find out by looking to other people. We could only find out by revelation and now God is telling us, he's revealing, he's uncovering.

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That's what revelation means, to uncover the mystery, that Gentiles would be blessed. That was true in the

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Old Testament, yes. The light would go to the Gentiles and God saves Gentiles, but that they would be both together in the same local assembly and you don't have to be a

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Jew first, that was the mystery. That cost Paul his freedom.

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God makes known to us the mystery of his will. You ought to say to yourself, God, thank you for revealing yourself.

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God, thank you for showing me who you are, who the son is. Thank you for revelation.

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Verse four, when you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ.

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You'll get it, you're gonna read this, it'll be read in public and you'll see that it's not my own discovery, it's revealed by God.

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Verse five, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations. Yes, God's love for the

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Gentiles, that's true, but not to this extent, to make them equal Jews as has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets, not by themselves, but by the

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Spirit, by the Holy Spirit. It is true that other sheep

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I have which are not of this fold, them I must also bring and they shall hear my voice and they shall be as one fold and have one shepherd.

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That's true, but what wasn't revealed in the Old Testament was the equality of Jew and Gentile in a local body.

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It is true, all the families would be blessed in the Israelites, but it wasn't spelled out like verse six spells it out.

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Here it is, what's the mystery? You say, the mystery is the church, some people say that. No, no, what's the mystery?

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It says right here, the mystery is, what's this thing that Paul's so praising

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God about? Why is he on such a long diversion? I mean, get to the point, yeah, I'm a Gentile, God loves Gentiles, the mystery is that the

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Gentiles are, wait, second -class citizens, they gotta be changed first.

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Here's the holy of holies, here are the holy places, here's the court where the priests are, here's the other court where the men can go, here's the court where the women can go, now you stay way far, way back.

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Listen to what he does. I'll read the NAS because it's got a better flavor to it in terms of, not a better flavor, but it's got the word fellow three times because that's exactly what he's doing in the original language.

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To be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, ESV says that, fellow members,

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ESV says members of the same body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

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What's the mystery? There's the mystery. You can never figure that out in the Old Testament because it wasn't there, it was in the mind of God, that's true.

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Every tribe, tongue, people, nation, now knows God's eternal hidden plan that only

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He, the Son, and the Spirit knew, now is revealed, it's to be published.

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Equal footing, look what he says, fellow heirs. Do you know Gentile? Dear Gentile, I'm a

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Gentile, you're most likely a Gentile. It's not that the Jews are the inheritors, we are co -inheritors.

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If you're saved, if you're a Christian, you believe, you belong to Christ, you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise, that's

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Galatians 3 .29. You're not only that, you're a fellow member of the body. Some sit up close because they're

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Jews, the Gentiles have to be in the back, no, fellow members. Same Savior, same

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Holy Spirit, same revelation, and fellow, what's the text say? Partakers, we share with.

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Our fellowship, 1 John 1, is with the Father and with the Son, Jesus Christ. And look at the extent that God wants you to know, verse seven,

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God wants you to know this to the extent, what did he do with Paul, this Christian killer? Of this gospel, the good news,

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Paul said, I was made a minister. This is the last thing I wanted to do, but I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power.

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People need grace, as they hear me preach, Paul said, and I'm the one who had received that grace. God is sovereign over who he chooses, even for pastoral ministry and for here, apostleship,

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God chooses Paul, and he says, I'm a minister. What else does he say?

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You'll find this interesting. It's actually kind of funny in a way. I'll tell you what I mean. Verse eight, to me, to me,

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Paul, the Pharisee, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the

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Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ, the very least of all the saints.

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Paul's kind of making up a word, and here's the word. Look, I'm the leaster.

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That's the word, that's the Greek word, I'm the leaster. I mean, there's bad, badder, and baddest, and there's little, less, and least, and then there's little, less, and least, and leaster.

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I'm the leaster. How'd you like to have that for a ministry? The leaster ministry, the more least.

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Are you more least? No, I'm more least than you. You think you're least? Almost kind of maybe a play on Paul's name.

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Paul means little. Paul said, you wanna know how little I am, and how everything that happens through me has to be the grace of God, as I'm simply a minister and a steward, because I'm the least.

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I know my background, I know how bad I am. He said in 1 Corinthians 15, for I'm the least of apostles, who's not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

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He said in 1 Timothy 1, it's a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came to the world to save sinners, among whom

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I am foremost. Paul says in 2

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Corinthians 12, I'm a nobody. And what does this nobody do?

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Verse eight, to preach to the Gentiles, the unfathomable riches of Christ.

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I get to tell them about chapter one. I'm telling you about chapter one. What do I do when

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I show up? I begin to tell you about who Jesus is and his riches. The word riches in the

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Greek is plutos, right? Plutomania is somebody that imagines that they have all kinds of wealth.

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They're crazy and they think they have wealth. Plutocracy, where you think the wealthy rule.

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Pluto, the Greek God of wealth. Here's the plutos, the

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Pluto of the riches of Christ. And what kind of riches are they? Oh, let me count the ways. Sorry, I can't.

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They're unfathomable. I think only glory will show how unfathomable they really are.

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Paul has said in chapter one, the riches of the glory of his inheritance. He said in chapter two, the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness.

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And now he says the riches that are unfathomable in Christ Jesus. Unfathomable means you can't trace it.

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Remember back in the day where you would trace something? This is impossible to be traced.

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It can't be tracked. This is a word used in Romans 11. Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.

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How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways. Okay, so let's just try to figure out how do we do this?

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Paul's preaching this kind of riches to Christ. Let me just give you a quote to make me, it just makes me kind of like go discombobulated because I can't figure it out.

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Hear heart is false. The best proof that God will never cease to love us lies in the fact that he never began.

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I kind of go unsearchable, unfathomable. Paul says, this is inexhaustible.

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He just, it's almost like he's not making up a word here, but it's inscrutable, it's incalculable. You just have some one of these, like I think the old little calculator

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I used to have in college. I want to say, somebody can correct me. I think it was a Texas Instrument 30,

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TI -30s. Anybody know those? TI -30? I think you can get them for a 50 cents now on Amazon.

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Probably a collector's item. And sometimes you'd calculate something and it would just like, it'd all go to eights.

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Okay, how can I understand? Okay, God really loves me.

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How can I really trace that out? How can I figure that out? And here's what

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Paul says. I am the leaster and I get to preach the great one. I get to preach the awesome

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Christ. The leastest gets to preach the greatest. How can we trace it out?

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How can you trace it out that God would choose the Jewish nation? How can you trace it out and figure out that God would allow Satan to fall?

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How can you trace it out where you think, okay, the covenant of redemption in eternity past, where they're gonna, the father's son, with the spirit as a witness, is gonna go rescue the elect.

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What about the Noahic covenant? What about the Davidic covenant? What about the new covenant? How can God through the seed of David have the

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Messiah come? What about these apostles? What about the martyr's blood as the church's seed? How can I figure all these out?

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And even how do you get saved? It reminds me of Spurgeon walking in to the church building and he wanted to just check the sound system.

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And he said something like, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. And the story goes, the person that was there working hears this message and gets saved.

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How does that work? It's unfathomable, it's unreachable. You can't figure it out. This is like the

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Lord answering Job out of the whirlwind. Gird up your loins like a man,

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I'll ask you, you instruct me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Unsearchable.

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Tell me if you have understanding, who set its measurements? Inscrutable. Since you know, who stretched the line on it?

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I can't know. He says in verse nine, not just to preach the riches of Christ, but to bring to light.

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See, that's that language. Mystery, unveiling, darkness, now light.

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Photos, light. To make it bright so everyone can see. To bring light for everyone.

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What is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things?

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You say, well, to me, it's not that big a deal where Jews and Gentiles can worship together, but it should be.

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That's what Paul is trying to say. To shed light, to expose. God brings light, spotlight, halogen light on this.

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2 Corinthians 4, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they may not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

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Sometimes if you get a microscope and you're looking at something, we'd get a flower or we'd get a grasshopper leg or something like that when we were kids and we would look and you're like,

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I see nothing. I can't see anything in this microscope and it says like 100X on it. Why can't

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I see anything? Well, probably, oh, somebody just put this here up on my thing,

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I didn't notice that. Thanks for giving me a little present here, a little finger puzzle.

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That's from the sermon two weeks ago, I guess. I'm trying to see what's in the magnifier.

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And you go, oh, first plug it in, but turn the light on. Oh, it's so bright, I get to see everything.

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So much detail. Played basketball in junior high one year and it was such a bad snowstorm in Omaha that the lights went out and we had to cancel practice and the coach said, no, no, no, we're not canceling practice.

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You're gonna shoot free throws in the dark. So if you can make them in the dark, you can make them in the light. What does that have to do with anything?

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It has to do with light. That's what it has to do with. Trying to keep your attention. It's hidden, now there's light.

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Hidden in God, now we understand. It's published. And who publishes it? The text is very clear.

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The creator, the mystery of the ages in verse nine of a God who created all things.

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No one could know in the mind of the creator, not even Delilah could find out the secret, but he reveals it.

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Why does he reveal it? And we need to close here. Verse 10, what's God's purpose in all this?

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Obviously to save sinners and we're glad for that, but so that through the church, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to rulers and authorities in heavenly places.

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You wanna know the theater of God's wisdom? I'm looking at it. That's odd, especially since we're odd.

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And if Paul's the least, what about us? How can God show his wisdom in the church? The proof of God's wisdom in the church, the spectators watching, the principalities, the powers, maybe it's holy angels, maybe it's demonic angels.

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They're wondering what is going on. Wisdom shown, the manifold wisdom of God shown.

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As one man said, the world is the stage, the church of the actors, the applause is for Christ. And all of a sudden you're like you're watching an opera.

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And I've been to quite a few operas in my life and I didn't really understand anything that they said except when they said, see,

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I got that. I needed to have like a little prompter underneath. And sometimes when

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Kim was gracious, we would go to one that had like subtitled, right? You ever watch a movie online and you have subtitles and you're like, well, now

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I can figure it out. Oh, that's exactly what's happening here. I can't figure this out. God's revelation is subtitled.

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And I go, oh, now I understand what's happening. And so do the rulers and authorities.

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No wonder Psalm 148, praise Him, all ye angels, praise Him, all ye host. And what are they praising

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God for? For who He is and the wisdom He shows in the church? Yes, angels are watching.

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In the same way, Jesus said, I tell you, there's joy in the presence of the angels of God over when one sinner repents.

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Jesus said in Matthew 18, see that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that they're angels in heaven, continually behold my face of my

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Father who is in heaven. And they might know a lot, but they didn't know the plan of salvation.

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They didn't know that it included Jews and Gentiles together. They didn't realize that God had a secret and He hadn't even told the angels yet.

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They didn't know, oh, this is what's going to happen. This is how He's going to be victorious through the church.

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I mean, it's one thing to say, you know what? The Messiah is born in a stable. He's raised by a carpenter. He's under law and a sin -bearer.

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And then it's another thing to say, and what we didn't know in the Old Testament, because we knew a lot of those things about a sin -bearing

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Messiah in the Old Testament, but Jew and Gentile that hated one another are in one body. I mean,

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I look at creation and I say power. I see Sodom and Gomorrah and I think holiness.

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You look to the cross and you think, oh, God loves people. And then you look at the church and you go, wisdom?

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Yes, to show off His wisdom for His glory. That's a challenge. I get so tired when people say the church isn't relevant anymore.

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Just, you know what? We don't need to meet anymore. We don't need to do that. It's so inconvenient. And there's so many concerns of health and so many of this, that, and the other.

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Friends, I'll steal this from someone. The church is important in this part of this,

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I'll steal. The angels watching the church to see the wisdom of God.

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One man said, the angels in heaven are wearing little church pins. It's not true, but you get the point.

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Boys, now you and I are the players in this drama. Satan is attacking and the angels are straining forward to look on.

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They see the manifold wisdom of God in you as you go through your part and speak your lines. We win victory, even if Paul has to suffer, and he does.

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But it's all part of God's plan. Verse 11, this was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus, our

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Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in Him.

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Here's why Paul wrote that there. Paul, you mean to tell me that wisdom is shown to the angels about the church, and I so often fail in the life of the church and fail with my brothers and sisters?

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I need help. If God's having everybody watch the church and I'm part of the church, I need help.

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Well, if you need help, go straight to God with confidence and say, I need help. You have access, you can go to Him.

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And by the way, even suffering doesn't stop this because Paul said in verse 13, so I ask you not to lose heart over what

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I say. But I am suffering for you, which is your glory. Okay, I step back and say, how do

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I summarize this? Paul's writing in chapters one and two, and he says, I'm just praising

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God for who He is, and he starts to pray. I'm just praising God in chapter two for what He's done. He starts to pray, and he starts to pray, but he can't get over the fact that God loves

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Gentiles. He can't get over the fact that he understands the wisdom of God now that was in eternity past locked forever in God's mind until He said,

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I'll tell you what this truth is. So you say, well, you have to give me something to do today, some response.

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I need something to respond with, not just look at this passage. God loves you,

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Gentile. Christian Gentile, you have every access that the Jews do to the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Even though Jesus was Jewish, you have access. And number two, you should be praising

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God for Him letting you know, because He took that halogen light one day and just said, here you now understand.

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How does God make Christians? How does God make the world? You're a

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Christian. He just causes you to be born again. And you think, God actually loves me.

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I think he should be against me, but he's for me. He loves me. He doesn't hate me. He's not my enemy.

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He's my father. And God goes to the extremes of taking Paul and making him

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Saul and making him grovel on the ground. So he has one job to do that'll cost

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Paul his life, telling the Gentiles of this truth and telling the Gentiles that they're equal citizens now with the

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Jews in the church. The church wins. Jesus said to Peter, upon this rock,

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I will build my church and the gates of Haiti shall not overpower it. Romans 16, the

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God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The God of our Lord Jesus, the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

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Bow with me, please. Father, we thank you for this section. I'm encouraged to know that you have an eternal purpose and that you made it known to us through Paul.

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I'm thankful to know that you love us. How would we know? Our conscience condemns us.

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We know the law and yet we have the law keep of the Lord Jesus who loves us and gave his life for us.

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I pray for our church, that you would help us to more display the wisdom of God, the manifold wisdom of God to the angels, whether those angels are demons, or those angels are good angels, that they would know how wonderful your wisdom is through the church.