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Praise the Lord is made our own.
Love you so great divine.
Bahasa.
It will be great.
Gather joy.
Before the grown up crazy life.
Why don't your father's name?
I'm not. I'm not.
We praise when.
We go by myself.
As you hear.
Doesn't feel continue on in Ephesians or.
Most.
I think there's still much to get from this chapter. Might start at verse 15, but we could maybe comment a little bit on verse 14 again if it's necessary. Ephesians chapter one beginning with verse 15.
Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the Saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling.
And what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints? And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us? Word. Who will believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised him from the dead, and set him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come?
And have put all things under his feet.
To be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth All in all. If anyone had.
Any questions on what we've previously gone over? I just encourage you don't, don't be afraid to ask just because it seems like it's going back a few verses. I do have a question I'd like to ask and that has to do with previous verse, verse 7.
Where it speaks about forgiveness of sins.
My question is related to that and what it says in Romans 4 that God justifies the ungodly. Is there a difference between justification and forgiveness?
And what kind of bothers me a bit is how can an ungodly person be justified? Well, in the the short answer is there is a difference. These are two different doctrines, two different terms that the Spirit of God uses. And to teach us really the magnitude of the work of Christ and justification really is to place us in a new legal standing before God. We have a new.
00:05:18
Standing before God.
On a righteous basis. And it's God that justifies the Sinner. We don't justify ourselves. And by the deeds of the law shall no man be justified, the Scriptures say. And so it's a new standing before God. We're justified by God because of the work of Christ, and our sins are taken care of according to the righteousness and the holy standards of God. Forgiveness is a new position, a new.
Viewpoint You might say we were guilty before God. We were sinners. We were born in sin and shape and iniquity. By nature and by practice we were sinners. We were guilty before God.
And because of the work of Christ, because Christ died upon the cross of Calvary and bore the judgment for my sins on the cross, in those three long dark hours, bore the strokes of judgment. And he said, it is finished. Then He shed his blood, the soul that sinneth, that shall die. He died in my stead. I didn't know that. And it wasn't preached to me until I was saved that He died in my stead. He was my substitute, but He was.
My substitute, I learned that afterwards. And so God on a righteous basis, now looks at me and he says I'm not guilty anymore. Not guilty. That's what it means. You're forgiven. So he's forgiven your sins and he looks at you as not guilty because someone else paid the price.
Might just illustrate it. There was a man that in Napoleon this time and they would go to war and the young men, if they had enough money and they were conscripted, they were drafted into the French army. They could pay another young man to go in their stead. And so this young man was wealthy. He was drafted into the army and he said.
He paid some other poor young man to go in his stead, and so he had to serve his term. And if he survived his term, then he would be released and so on. Well, he died on the battlefield. And then the French government, the draft board, sent him another draft notice. The rich man, rich young man, he said, you can't do that. He says I already.
Served the guy that I went out for me. He died. And no, they said no, you have to come. So he appealed to Napoleon himself. He's the two men.
One from the draft board. And this fellow that was drafted stood before the draft before Napoleon and Napoleon heard the case, he says. You can't draft this man.
He's dead hit. The guy that went in his stead is dead. He's free. He can never be drafted. He stands in a new position and so he could never be drafted. And so, you know, God has delighted to give us peace with him, to know that we're justified before him. We have a new legal standing. We can never face him as a judge. It's impossible because the Lord Jesus faced God as a judge.
And he sees us as no longer guilty. And so, I mean, that's a simplified thought that simplified it.
An explanation, maybe someone else has other comment to make, I might just add to that there. We used to when we were younger. We used to read the Bible dictionary, the Concise Bible dictionary. There's some good definitions in the Concise Bible Dictionary.
And Brother Bruce Antsy has written a little book, well 350 pages, and he calls it doctrinal definition. And so he goes through the definitions of these different doctrines of Christianity very thoroughly and in very simple language with lots of scripture references. And so isn't it marvelous, all these terms that the Spirit of God uses to tell us as the magnitude, the degree of accuracy?
That God has dealt with incompleteness.
Our sins and has brought us into us complete a blessing as is possible. And so all of these scriptural terms are very distinct and they're given to us not just for our head knowledge but to enjoy in our hearts. Can you imagine being forgiven but not knowing the heart of God? He said you're forgiven. You've never ever.
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Feel comfortable because you'd wonder, well, what's my position before him? I'm forgiven, but.
Is he ever going to mention this before me again? Is it I'm going to be called into a court of law again? And no, he says you're justified. There's a new legal position that you have before him. You'll never face him as a judge. And his heart is now 100% for you. Are we able to move on, Darryl? Feel like you've had a question Answers.
Good. Well, it's fine. It was a good answer 1St 15.
We have faith and love and faith in the Lord Jesus is closely tied to.
Love of the Saints, that is, love of one another. Love of one another as believers.
Because if we say we have faith in the Lord and we ignore His top commandment, that's a contradiction.
His top commandments that you love one another as I have loved you.
And so faith in the Lord Jesus cannot be separated in any way.
And love for one another.
It is also true that that atmosphere of love amongst.
One another.
Is the.
It's the preparation or the right environment for God to reveal truth.
Letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and three. Philadelphia means brotherly love.
And it is to that assembly that he opens the window of heaven and reveals so much truth.
A door that he opens, no man can shut.
And so.
That is the atmosphere that God is looking for in order to reveal truth. It's evidence of divine life as well, isn't it? And so the apostle Paul heard of their love, their faith, and their love unto all the Saints. So God is love. And it showed that they had divine life. They were sealed with the Spirit of God, and now it showed. I was thinking of First Thessalonians chapter one.
And how the apostle Paul there could speak in verse three, he says, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God our Father and our Father. Knowing brethren, beloved, your election of God.
So those things go together. Faith, love, hope.
And their evidence of divine life. And so the apostle Paul this epistle, this chapter perhaps could be divided into two parts and really the second part begins with that verse, that 15th verse or maybe the 16th in connection with the apostles doxology really after going through these 14 verses and having the truth of God, that secret, that mystery that God had this.
Knowledge.
And how he was going to bless human beings, men and women of the Gentiles that were dogs of the Gentiles, worthless, had no knowledge of him.
Without God, without hope in this world, he says a little later on. Strangers from the covenants of promise given to Israel, They were absolutely nothing, a bunch of zeros.
And Paul says now what God has done for his own pleasure is quicken those souls, quickened you, given you life, spoken to you.
And sealed with the Spirit, you're indwelled with the Spirit of God. And then he's told you about all these blessings that are yours. All heavenly, Nothing connected with this earth. You don't have any earthly blessings. You don't have any earthly hopes. You don't have anything here that's just transient. It's all in heaven. Heavenly hope, heavenly inheritance, heavenly. I know the inheritance is in two parts, that which is our heavenly portion, and.
Also what we're going to share with Christ and the universe.
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An earthly portion, Earthly inheritance.
But really, he's brought us into the blessing of all of these things. He's revealed it a secret. And then Paul says at the end of this chapter, he just burst out in praise. He just can't contain himself.
And it should have the same effect in our hearts. We should not return home the same way that we came here.
We should, after reading these things and meditating upon them, chewing the cut ourselves.
We should marvel that God would look upon us and bless us in such a way, but it's only in our blessing, is only in connection with our association with Christ. Well, it shows too that Paul was a man of prayer, wasn't he? In verse 16 he ceased not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. And what was he asking? That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him.
The eyes of your understanding, I think it's the eyes of your heart being enlightened that you may know three things. What is the hope of His calling? What the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Saints? And verse 19, what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe according to the working of His mighty power? So three things, and they all start with what He wanted us to know.
And to have our hearts taken up with those things.
I could just back up to the.
Last maybe verse 15 again, it says wherefore also after I heard of your faith and there's a lot of a lot of individuals in this room. And you might say that there's a very, there's a, there's a varied amount or condition of faith in the room. Some, some are, are just laying hold of things and, and I, I do believe that.
Faith does grow as it's exercised, but faith is is a gift of God if if you can, if you can, if it's faith in the Lord Jesus. So if you're if you have realized that the Lord Jesus is the source of your blessing and his work is what has made it possible for you to enjoy this relationship with this God who wants to bless.
So immensely that that faith that you have and the reason why you have this.
Things have begun to.
Become real in your soul is because of the work of God. It's a it's it's faith is is is a gift and it doesn't.
We don't have to be occupied about how with how much faith we have. Faith is the ability to enter into that which our natural 5 senses have no capability of entering into our Our natural 5 senses will help us to see and understand what is real.
With in the in the environment in which we now live, we use our five senses to know what is real in this environment. But faith is 1/6 sense. That is a gift of God, and it makes what the word of God says real to our hearts. And So what a wonderful thing it is that the apostle Paul could address these people and speak of their faith.
And their love, it was a work of God. And today we're here.
Because God has given us the ability to enter into spiritual things, this this book we hold in our hand gives us the understanding of who God is. Faith gives us the ability to lay hold of it and be able to consider it as real as what those five senses.
Make real in a natural sense. I just thought I'd try to break down that that.
Sense of what faith is for us and maybe the younger ones would appreciate.
Sometimes we might get a little discouraged that maybe our faith is weak.
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But God will increase our faith as we read His word and seek to walk in obedience to it. Faith, that says is the evidence of things hoped for, the evidence of things in the Hebrews.
The substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.
So when we read the word of God, it has substance because it's the word of God. I might say next week I plan to go to take a trip to somewhere and it doesn't bear any substance to it because a lot of things can happen between now and next week. I may not get to go for a number of reasons. And I should say Lord willing anyway, as a Christian, it's a Lord. The Lord wants me to go, then he'll open the door for me to go.
But just everyday life with those that are not believers, they have faith in things too, but it has no substance to it. It's not a it's not a a guarantee. But when we read the word of God and what God says has substance to it, we can believe it because it's true and it's also the evidence of things not seen.
We know by faith.
That we're going to be with the Lord Jesus. We know that because the Word of God tells us that. And so the Spirit of God makes that good to my soul.
I have that evidence through the Spirit of God that I'm going to be with Christ because it's written in His Word.
So faith is natural. Faith has no substance and there's no evidence to it. But godly faith has substance and evidence attached to it. The world uses that term faith, and you can believe in anything you want. Might be real, might not be, but the biblical.
Term of faith What biblical faith is is it's.
I can reword what Brother Phil said. It's the ability to apprehend things that are real.
But which cannot be apprehended with our five senses.
But they are real. Biblical faith is in things that are real. So the apostle is going to, at the end of the chapter, introduce something else. Up to this point, he's taken up those blessings that are ours individually, but he's going to go on in this book to that which is collective. And this little, these two little verses before his prayer really bring before us.
That there's a collective side of things that includes all the Saints and a love for all the Saints. And so now he's going to take that up. And so the truth of the one body of Christ, of which we're all members of the Church of God.
In in carrying that truth out practically involves a love for all the Saints. And then in his second prayer you get in chapter 3, verse 18.
May be able to comprehend or apprehend because we never comprehend that is completely thoroughly understand every detail, but we get a hold of it. We apprehend with All Saints. What is the breadth, length, depth and height that's Speaking of the mystery. These are the truths that he's going to lay out are things we all enjoy together. You know brother Mark psychic at home.
Made the remark one time and I really enjoyed, he says. Isn't that wonderful? The Lord made a watermelon.
He said there's a fruit that you have to have others to enjoy it with. You can't just enjoy it yourself. It's too big. This is too big to just enjoy ourselves. It's to comprehend it with All Saints, enjoy it together because it's it's something that's common to all of us. We're all in it together. And so he's going to be introducing this collective side of things and he speaks of.
The love that he has heard of in them that isn't just towards their small circle, but it's all the same.
Wherever they are, irregardless of their condition, irregardless of their circumstances.
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All of us are in this one body together. Love unto all the Saints and perceiving that, he says, you're in a good state. I'm going to keep praying for you.
You know, he doesn't say, I want to stop praying for you and just pray for those who maybe don't have love for all the Saints like they should. No, I'm going to keep praying for you because I want you to grow. I want you to keep increasing. And we're never going to hit a spot where there isn't more to grow in, more to increase in. And so he comes into this lovely prayer for us. And this is a prayer for us. This is a prayer for us, not just to the Saints alive at that time. This is for us.
Two and his prayer and the second prayer in chapter 3 go back to that.
Distinction We have at the beginning of the chapter that God is blessing us as God and as Father.
He chose us as God for suitability to His presence, to be like Him according to His own nature, and He predestinated us to the place of sons and nearest relationship to Himself. And these two prayers fit that. The first prayer he prays to God.
The God as he says of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember I ascend unto my Father and your Father, my God and your God. New relationship for him as a man here. He had never been a man before. Now he came into this world Incarnate, became a man. God was his God, new relationship for him. So hear the prayers. The God of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord Jesus seen.
In that in his manhood.
Looking up to God independence. So he's praying to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the father of glory, The Fountainhead of all glory and and blessedness to all his own wherever they are. And the theme is glory and the theme is Christ being raised and seated in glory. And we follow that pattern and we're raised and seated in glory, the theme.
Is glory and suitability to his presence, being there like him suitable to his presence. It fits that beginning of the chapter chosen suitability to his presence. The next prayer in chapter 3, verse 14 for this 'cause I bow my knees unto not the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, but the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And as you go through that, what's the theme love and it culminates into know the love of Christ.
Which passeth knowledge, its relationship in that prayer, nearest relationship in the deepest love that could be known.
Two beautiful prayers for us to be kept in the enjoyment of the revelations given to the Apostle Paul for our blessing.
So really, we're competent to display the glory of Christ now and in the Millennium the church will be displayed and will display the glory of Christ.
And we'll be at his side and be perfectly competent as the bride to display and really, you might say, compliment his glory. And so he desires that we would understand these things and that God.
The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
That your eyes, the eyes of your understanding or of your heart being enlightened, you may know that.
That's a wonderful prayer. I mean, He wanted not only for us to understand these terms, but to enjoy it, to enter into the enjoyment of it. And we wouldn't be able to do it in, as you say, with our five senses. We would need the spirit of wisdom from God himself. We would need to ask the Lord.
As he asked the Lord to reveal it to us.
And especially important for.
Younger ones and younger ones that are.
Giving themselves.
Pursuit of the truth.
That truth is not.
Obtained, and I would say not obtainable, by mere intellectual exercise.
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It wouldn't matter how much you studied, how much knowledge you obtained, without the Spirit of God to enlighten your heart and your mind, you would not get it. You just get knowledge, but you wouldn't get the truth. And.
You, we, we as human beings have.
A faculty our mind, and we have an imagination, and we use it.
Constantly.
It is what I believe the scripture is referring to when it says don't walk in the vanity of the mind. What's the vanity of the mind? It's your imagination.
It's a tool. It was not meant to be a dwelling place, but mankind, he says as the Gentiles walk in the vanity of mind. That's the normal way for unregenerate men to live. They live in their imagination.
We are called upon not to do that. We should have to do with the truth and we should be walking in reality.
Reality should be our.
Currency, you might say.
And that, by the way, is what the word truth means. It means reality, and it's not obtained. The truth of God requires faith.
And it requires a spirit of wisdom and revelation. Mere intellectual exercise will not obtain the truth.
Everything we have is by revelation. Everything.
And this verse associates the revelation of the truth with a person.
And so it says, revelation in the knowledge of him.
Who's him? That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory. That's the hymn.
But it's really Christ himself, because who revealed Him?
You don't know anything about God outside of Revelation. And we really know God revealed in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. This verse is inseparable from the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who has revealed God the Father and so.
He's praying that they would grow in the knowledge to learn more and more of God. And the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the one who has revealed him. And all spiritual growth from the Word of God is as we grow on the truth at seeing it in connection with Christ. It's seeing him in all the Scriptures. It's really seeing him as the center of everything that God is doing and all of it rests upon him.
So this growth is intimately involved with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm never going to know anything in a deepening spiritual knowledge other than I'm growing in my knowledge of the person of the Lord Jesus. Just like to refer to Ezra Chapter 7. Just a couple of little principles. You might say, well, how can I do this? How can I learn this? I think this is very good in Ezra Chapter 7, verse 10.
It says Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. He prepared his heart. How did he do that?
I just want to make a suggestion. I'm not a good example, but oftentimes when I go to read the word of God, before I read the word of God, I asked the Lord.
To bless the reading of His word, I asked Him to help me to understand what I'm reading and to enjoy it and to make it my own. Then I read it.
Then after I read it, meditated on it a little bit, sometimes read a little bit of ministry, I thank the Lord for what I read. I just thank Him that He would even communicate this stuff to us and want us to enjoy it and know it.
And then I try to apply it. This is what Ezra did. He applied it to do it. And then he was able to convey the truth to others that he knew. And they didn't have as much as what we have by a long shot. But I just want to suggest this as you were sitting here, and this is very high truth, we're talking about a prayer of the Apostle Paul and the height of his prayer. He wanted us. This is practical. This is he wanted us to really enter into it.
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It wasn't theory.
And so when we read it, let's pray before we read the Word and read some of this truth, let's read it with reverence.
And having a desire to bow to it, to walk in it and thank Him for it. And I believe there'll be growth. I'll believe that the Spirit of God will use the Word. And then if we're in a right state of soul, He will bring us into the knowledge and the enjoyment of it. I would like to ask a question. It's in regard with the truth that Steve just brought out in First Corinthians. We think we've already been here. I believe First Corinthians chapter one and verse 30.
With regard to.
The desire that.
Might enter into.
In reverse.
Just unto you, this given to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation.
And I believe, I believe Steve, that you may have touched on the truth of this verse, but it says in verse 30, But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom.
And so it is, isn't it? The revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ it brings us into.
God's wisdom, it's, it's, it's having a glimpse of him isn't coming to know him that gives us the wisdom of God.
That's the, that's the importance, Brother Phil too, of, of really seeing the truth of Ephesians 110.
That the center of everything that God is doing is that he's going to glorify himself in heaven and earth.
In Christ. And if I put myself at the center and I make myself and God's deliverance of me and my salvation at the center, I'm never going to come to the knowledge of the truth of God in the way that I should. It's when I see Christ as the center of everything that God is doing, then the Scriptures unfold to me in a way that they never could otherwise. And I believe that that.
What you just said is.
Of the moment and very important because.
How many of us, if not all of us?
Were frustrated in reading the scriptures and not understanding them and trying to understand them and what was the problem. The problem was I was at the center.
That's the problem. If you're having trouble, it's because you put yourself at the center. You're still full of self, full of self importance, trying to get something for yourself. We have to see that God has a grand plan.
Not just for the future, but for now, to glorify His Son, to manifest Christ in this world.
And we're part of that. We bow our heads in humility that we're included in that.
And it required our salvation. It required all the blessings he's brought to us as individuals. But that isn't the center.
That was needed in order for Him to accomplish His purpose, That He would save us, that He would bless us, that He would pour out these things upon us. But that's because He has a grand plan that's greater than us. But if you put yourself at the center, you'll be frustrated. I wouldn't.
Say that it that is it is necessary for us to sometimes get beyond ourselves and I believe that's what the truth of deliverance do they get us out of the way so that Christ can become the center and as if a soul is under the the burden of the power of sin in their life, they're not going to have liberty to enjoy Christ if they're under the the the ******* of law, they're not going to be free.
To enjoy the person of Christ. And so there is truth which delivers, but it's not the center of God's purposes. It isn't it. It is a vehicle to get us to the center of God's purposes. So that's just, if you don't mind me. No, no, I, I think that's good, Phil, because Romans really gives us that in an expanded way. But in a certain sense we've had that in the beginning of the chapter.
What does he do before verse 10? He settles us as to election, as to forgiveness of sins and all of those things. We better be settled in our souls first or we're not going to be able to go on and enjoy these things. So I think that's absolutely right.
00:40:11
It's not revealed. The Lord prepares our souls to reveal truth to us. And see you in Matthew chapter 16 with when the Lord asks His disciples.
Who do you say that I am? He asked that question in verse 15. He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. What a beautiful answer that Peter gave. What's the correct answer? But the Lord made sure he pointed this out. Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon, fire Jonah, for flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee.
But my Father, which is in heaven.
He didn't make a guess. It didn't come through his intellect. It came from God. The source was the Father revealed that beautiful truth to Peter, and then Peter was able to say, and so we have in First Corinthians 3 that the Holy Spirit that's been given to us reveals the truth to us at the right time. We don't get it all at once. You hear a little there a little, but we don't get it through our intellect either.
Don't get it through reading ministry books, they can be a help to us in in learning and getting knowledge, but actual truth to make it good in our souls is something that's revealed to us by the Spirit of God and that's from the Father comes directly down from Him and we get it through the Spirit.
The other thing that's brought out here, brother Enos, is that it's, I think a brother Rob mentioned the right translation of verse 18, The eyes of your hearts being enlightened.
It's not just the understanding as you say, we know it's it's, it's certainly the truth enters the ears and into the mind. If we didn't have minds, we couldn't understand either. But it's by revelation. But God nonetheless uses the mind. We our ears hear the word, our minds comprehend the words and and so on. But the heart is the dwelling place of the truth if it never gets passed the the ears and the and the and the mind.
It never, never has an effect upon us. It never really is ours. And so he wants the eyes of their hearts to be enlightened because the heart is involved with this truth, the the spiritual affections of the believer are involved with understanding the truth of God. So we need it by revelation.
And we need the hearts involvement if we're going to enter into and enjoy what God has for us. No the.
Pharisees.
They asked the lawyers. Sir, we blind also.
And he said, well, if you.
If you were blind, you wouldn't have sent. But now because you say you see your sin remains. Well, there's an application of that to the attitude we have to have in order to get more understanding of the truth. And the attitude is we can't approach it like we know really anything. The apostle Paul said, well, you know, we all have knowledge. But then he says if any man thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know as he ought to know.
We have to always, no matter how long we go on, how old we get, how much we accumulate, we always must approach the Word of God fresh like we've never seen it before. An open heart looking for God to reveal his truth to us. And I would also just give this.
I don't want to talk down, as our brother said, like it's a word of advice, but it's something I practice for years. I learned years ago.
That you read something and you're not, you're not getting it, and you spend a lot of time sitting there trying to get it.
If you approach the Word as spiritual food, you can just take it in, let it sink in, and sometimes an understanding of a scripture won't come for years.
But by letting it sink in, just let it sink in, you're spiritually fed, even if your intellect is not comprehending. I call those light bulb moments.
Light bulb moments. Sometimes you're reading, you read a scripture that you read 100 times perhaps and all of a sudden the light bulb goes on, reaches a heart. You get, you get the full meaning of, of that particular verse. Like brother Stephen was saying, it reaches a heart and it's like a light switch going on and it just brightens up your whole, your whole day when you when you get a truth.
00:45:30
You can enjoy it. I might just encourage everyone to you know, you can ask the Lord a question.
The Lord spoke to Daniel, he said, what does this mean? And John in the Book of Revelation, I believe several times he asked, well, what, what does this mean? And then he was given an explanation. And so it's all right to ask the Lord a question and say, if it's thy will, would you please just explain this to me? Drop it, leave it and he'll explain it to you if he will. He has the power to communicate that way. And you might go to the next reading meeting or even a conference or maybe even your private reading and.
He'll tell you what it means and you'll enjoy it. But it is important to read the writings of the teachers that we have that give accurate. They've gone through it. So it's good to meditate upon those things yourself when you're reading the Scriptures and then to make use of the gifts that God has given to the church that have taught some of these things. But the teachers aren't perfect either. And so there are some little gaps and you may have questions. And isn't it wonderful that the heart of God is such that He wants you to enjoy?
He enjoys what he has developed for the church and he delights to reveal these things and to have you enjoy them with him. I've experienced many times that that the understanding of God's Word has come home to me while I've been doing something at work. I've been at the table saw at work. The Spirit of God communicates when He's not hindered to communicate. So it's just at a time that He chooses to bring it home when.
Our minds are our minds are able to take it in. He chooses to do it whenever he chooses.
But that's not to say that we we don't we don't go to the word of God hungry and with the desire to get it then too. So if you come to the prayer meeting.
And maybe there isn't somebody particular on your mind, brother, to pray for something trial they're going through. Here's a good prayer. We need this every prayer meeting.
I think that John 717 might be helpful. I'll read it in the new translation.
If anyone desires to practice, its will.
We shall know concerning the doctrine. There needs to be an attitude.
Of dependence, a desire to obey, and these things unfold as the Lord would give them to us. I think all of this about.
How we are given truth by revelation is so wonderful to know that that the same point. I don't believe it. It detracts at all from the need to study the Word of God, as Timothy was exhorted to do, because the Lord rewards the diligent seeker.
And it says the soul of the diligent shall be made. And so the Lord delights to bless us with these revelations. But we do have to go to the word and we do have to read and we do have to consider and meditate on these things, you know, and, and as was said, read ministry. I mean, all these things are important. I don't believe that any of this conversation diminishes that. And I wouldn't want anyone to think that that's not important. I can just go and have my daily reading. And, you know, next time I'm cutting on the table, so I'll, I'll understand everything. It'll be all perfect.
It doesn't work that way. The Lord rewards the diligent seeker. I just want to make that comment. I would say this goes along with that Alex very much because what is he praying? He's praying for the spirit of that wisdom and revelation. He's praying for a state of soul that would go along with reading the word and and being under the sound of ministry in the meetings and so on. He's praying for a right state of soul. I was just going to mention Alex, it it says enrollment. That faith cometh by hearing.
Hearing by the Word of God. So we need to read the word of God to be able to hear what God is saying to us. But it may, we may not give get an answer to a question right away, but it shouldn't prevent us from reading. Faith cometh by hearing. Hearing by the word of God. It's important to read, isn't it? The cleansing power of just reading the word of God isn't it has a cleansing effect upon us.
00:50:21
So I was thinking toward the end of our chapter here where we're coming into.
A different line of truth here, the body of Christ, that's really part of Pauls doctrine and it's a headship that is different to the headship.
In the new creation race, it's a question of union with the Lord that was.
Effective at Pentecost, so.
Not only are we part of the new creation race.
Which has been mentioned as a result of Christ's death and resurrection were associated with him. In resurrection that's individual, but now we have a collective aspect.
Church of God, the body of Christ, that that is union with the Lord.
And that took place.
When the Spirit of God descended and unite it all believers into into one body and through Christ in the Lord, nothing happens to the church but what the Lord allows these head over all things to the church, which is his body. That's another line of truth, another headship that the apostle goes on to develop further in the epistle, right.
He takes us up to the heights of heaven where our head is 1St and this chapter doesn't He and he seats us there with him, and then he begins to unfold all that flows from a risen Christ and glory and the remainder of the book. So when it is in his prayer that we would have this.
Right state of soul to be able to take in what GOG and reveals to us.
Through His precious word, then He says that we might know, we might be in the enjoyment of the hope of His calling when we get the calling in the first part of the chapter. And what is the hope of that calling? Chosen and predestined? The hope of that calling is that we're going to be with there and that we're going to be with Him. And like Him in glory, He's chosen us. He's predestinated us to that same place.
That same blessed place. So there's the hope of his calling, the riches of the glory of his inheritance and the Saints. There's a suited glory to that place that were brought into as sons and heirs, sharing Christ's inheritance with him as joint heirs.
There's a glory associated with that inheritance. He's going to come and take possession of his inheritance. The heavens are going to open and they're going to reveal him, and the armies of heaven are going to follow him. What a glorious scene that is. And God is going to take that back, that which is Christ by right, and he's going to give it to him.
But he's going to possess it in a Saints. It's just like the promised land that the children of Israel came to. Whose land was it? It's the Lord's land. It was his, it was Jehovah's. How did he possess it when his Saints went into it? He possessed it in his Saints. He possessed it in his Saints. He challenged the enemy and he took back from the Canaanites.
That which was his, and possessed it in his Saints, and when the armies of heaven followed Christ.
Out of that place of glory and he takes that which is his by right. We're going to be with him when he challenges and assumes the inheritance. It's going to be in the Saints. What a glorious scene that's going to be. He wants us to be in the enjoyment of that now. That's what's before us. So to know what is the hope of his calling and the riches of the glory of his inheritance.
And the Saints. And then he goes on to the exceeding greatness of his power, which raised the Lord Jesus.
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From the dead and seated him in heavenly places that power he's applied to you and I and he sees us there with him now and it's evidence that he has the power to execute his plan, his counsel. So it's not only that he had his counsel. He had this plan, but he has the power to execute it and I was thinking as you were Speaking of the Lord leading his people and and.
Obtaining the inheritance in the Saints. In Joshua chapter 5 you have a picture of it in connection with Joshua, and it says, just for brevity. Verse 14. Joshua 5/14 He said, Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord, am I now coming? Joshua fell on his face to the earth, did worship, and said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant? The captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy should the shoe from off like foot.
For the place where on the Stannis is holy, and Joshua did so well, it was the Lord, the battle was the Lords, and He was giving them the land. And so you and I come into the possession of the truth and enjoyment of it because of the power of God and through Christ, through the work of Christ. That scene, Brother Steve, that you describe of Christ coming in glory with His angels, we have it in the 2nd Thessalonians 1.
I read from verse 7.
And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified.
In his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe because our testimony among you was believed in that day. So what strikes me about this and I only discovered it recently. It's like you say, the light bulb moment.
His coming is to be glorified and admired in us. The judgment seems like a secondary thing.
But His glory is enhanced by His bringing us with Him. That's grace really sums it up in the last sentence of the chapter. The fullness of him that filleth All in all.
It's astounding to think that the scene would not be complete unless the church was there.
And that the Lord Jesus himself would not be complete. That's how it's presented. Which is His body, the fullness or the completeness of Him.
That filleth All in all.
So in the counsel of God he had already in a past eternity before the foundations of the year.
Conceived this plan and that it would not be complete unless you and I were there as members of the Body of Christ and as part of the Church. We won't be there, though, in the condition we are now. We're going to be there, we're going to be with Him, and we're going to be like Him. So His glory is going to be reflected through and through.
We're going to, we're going to bear his image, you might say, and that's the reason why there's going to be it's going to be such a display of glory because we think of what we are now, even though we have this new life and this new nature and we're far from we're far from the end, the finished product of, of what God is doing. And but when we're there, there's, there's, there's not going to be any taint of, of, of you might say.
Difference between the glories of Christ and the glories of his bride. It's you know, you, you kind of have that reflection in a, in a couple that's very close and they almost start to bear the same resemblance. And but that in that time we're going to be with him and we're going to be like him. The scene in heaven is not complete is it won't be complete until the Lord Jesus has us with him.
Above in the Father's house, I think this definition that we have here of the Church.
There's 12, I believe, different aspects mentioned in the New Testament, but this one that we have here is is the most intimate one, the body. We think of our natural bodies, we have a head and a body and different members.
01:00:14
With any of those missing, it's not an intimate body, is it? It's the head was missing, then that would be the most essential part. And if the body was missing from the head, well then.
It's not complete. And so the Lord Jesus is our head. He's in glory and He's waiting for us to join Him there. We're joined to him now by spirit, but in a coming day, what we're going to be with Him and like him for all eternity. But it also tells us further on in Ephesians.
How intimate it is that we're part of his flesh and of his bones that's so intimate that we are joined to Christ. We are part of Him. And so that's our standing before God and Christ. He looks at us as just being like his beloved Son. The church is not spoken of, it's being in Christ. Is it because the thought is union?
Like my hand here is not in my head.
It is.
Connected to my head, controlled by my head, but it's not in my head.
So in this relationship of the body it is union with Christ and.
I asked a question, Brethren, the.
It's caused me some.
Concern.
This morning we remember the Lord in his death.
We had one loaf on the table.
And as we have been often told, every believer in the world today is in that loaf.
But now, my mother and many of our brethren who have passed on.
They are not in that law, right?
They have, they're with Christ, they're going to be part of the bride of Christ, but they are not now in the body in its earthly aspect. Someone want to?
Elaborate on that. So that's that's true, Brother John. The body and its activity, those that have passed on or not seen in the body and its activity in this world, because otherwise the body wouldn't be complete. If you think of how many believers or members of the body of Christ that are not with the Lord, the body would not be complete on earth. And if the body was not complete, if part of my body's missing, then everything that's in my head cannot be displayed.
So the body has to be complete with all its members. If everything that's in the head is going to be able to be displayed. So Christ is going to be displayed as God intended him to be in his body here in this earth. All the members need to be there.
But I think this verse in the end of the chapter looks on to a coming day when all the members of the body will be with Christ and presented in glory and.
There it's more the body and its greatest expression when we're all with the Lord and every members there, we're still going to be the body of Christ. So you might say those members that have passed on have passed out of the activity of the body.
So the body is always seeing complete here on earth, but there's a coming day when Christ comes.
All the all those who are members of his body together with him will be the Christ will be that one body still, but there won't be members here on this earth at that time. We'll all be with him, coming out of heaven together with him and.
No, they're not. So they're part of the armies of heaven, certainly, but I believe we will at that time.
All those who are members of the body united to Christ will be seen in its greatest extent and that will include everyone who was saved and and dwelt by the Spirit of God united to Christ from the day of Pentecost until the day that the Lord comes and when that day comes and he takes the inheritance and as head over all things.
01:05:07
To the church, the church is the fullness of him, his full complement. But it goes on to say that filleth All in all the glory of Christ, and the church is going to make its impress on everything in God's creation, everything, because everything's going to be headed up in him and we're going to share that place of headship with him. It's going to make its impress.
The glory.
Of Christ and the Church on everything over which He has had in heaven and earth #18 in the appendix, 18 in the back.
And is it so I shall be like thy son #18 in the appendix?
I'm just so free to come on my own.