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For 15.
Therefore I also, after I heard of your face in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the Saints, He is not 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 revelation, and 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 with who believe.
According to the working of his mighty power, which rewarding Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above principality and power.
And mice and dominion, and every name is named not only in this world, but also in that which is become. And has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be that head over all things to the church which is his body, the fullness of him, that Phillips All in all.
They read these verses, beloved brethren, and marvel.
At the Apostles faithful prayers.
For those that he loved and knew about.
I don't know about you, but I have a tendency. I hear about something and I read Michelle's account of his visit in Africa and I rejoice about it and get down on my knees and pray for different ones. And then?
Two weeks ago by and I don't even remember some of their names.
Very good.
It seems here that the apostle Paul didn't stop after he heard about the work. And Michelle, I just picked on that as a recent thing that was on my heart. But, uh, the Lord has given us some wonderful things to pray about.
There are, brethren, that we hear about that faith and how the Lord has worked.
The love which they have towards the Saints.
Did we stop praying for them or giving thanks for them?
They need our prayers.
Well, the brand up a little stronger if they sing. I want my friends to pray for me. I need the prayers of those I love. And I think all of us would say that, wouldn't we? We've joined in that we we need the prayers of one another.
We have an enemy that's busy.
And he hasn't stopped yet.
And the moment we start congratulating ourselves about how nice the meetings are going at the time, we open the door for the enemy to come in and begin to, uh, to, uh, attack.
And so we need prayer.
And once they have Bob County because I as a as one circle of acquaintance gets larger and larger.
I asked him. I said, how do you pray for all the brethren that you minister a month?
Well, he said, it's difficult rather to remember that I just asked the Lord to keep them before my soul.
And I think if there's an exercise, the Lord brings certain ones before ourselves, doesn't it?
And sometimes it's at a very critical time that the Lord brings them for your soul. Maybe just traveling along in the car and suddenly you think there's someone that.
You know, and we care about your love.
Lift them up to the Lord. Make mention of them.
I don't even think it's wrong, and I'd be glad to be corrected by my brethren. I don't think it's wrong to have a list of people to pray for and to review that list when you go to prayer. I don't mean to sit and read it off. Please don't misunderstand me, but I have a list of people that you care about, especially if you don't have a memory that brings them all to mind instantly. Uh, I'd be glad to hear what the president thinks about that.
No, that we're not just the level person, but they're short and, uh.
I know I haven't visited some of the ones that left our meeting and I got frisked eyes by uh, out of town people.
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For, uh, going to visit them, but the effect is showing a lot of a lot of showing and they're asking for the patient returning to the lower signal. And I heard of a place down on giving this guy.
Ohio.
Someplace where about eight or ten came back because love was showing.
It's one thing to have love, but uh.
But if you're a paddle, Mr. saying, all right, they have in your head, but don't don't keep it in your hand. Let me get down to your heart and then it gets down to your heart kind of worse into your feet and you'll go into the ones you'll really love. And I think he was right.
He also says here in verse 15, Wherefore I also.
After I've heard it, heard of your face, you know Lord Jesus and love unto all the things. There's an order there, isn't there?
Faith in the Lord Jesus, if I have faith in the Lord Jesus, proof, faith in the Lord Jesus, then there's love because also all the things too. So it all fits together, doesn't it? And I think we woven in this also we have a thought down a little later in the verses of hope.
Also, it's it's the same that is faith, love and hope that's woven together throughout all the pistols and just dropping down the verse. Umm.
There was umm.
Yeah, verse 18, the eye that the eyes of your understanding be enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his home. Hope is delayed certainty. We're not there yet, but how lovely to see that Paul could say.
After I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and lots of all things been looking onward for that day of glory. That's the hope that's set before our business. The day when we're going to see this blessed faith. We're going to be there with him in the in the glory according to the greatness of his power to us with and it's the hope.
Of glory, isn't it?
Might be good to ask ourselves, who are all the Saints?
It says their loved ones are all the same. Once Upon a time I saw a picture book and a photo album that somebody had, and it said the Saints in such and such a town and some other Christians from that town.
And not to make anybody an offender for a word, but who are all the Saints?
Sometimes our the way we express things forms our thoughts, and if we let the scriptures form our thoughts, we'll express them properly. Isn't it every blood bought believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? All the Saints that are in Binghamton, who are they? As every member of the body of Christ, they're called to be fainted God. They're Saints by calling, not by action, but by calling. The Lord has. We wanna have the eyes that the Lord has and to see things that he does and whom he sees, the Church of God which he purchased with his own blood.
It doesn't necessary whether to extensive.
Umm grouping our thoughts of all the things of God wherever we need them. Whoever they are, they may not be gathered to the Lord's name. I met many of them in the in the hospital, in the nursing home who belong to the Lord, know nothing about the truth we're enjoying today. But I can pray for them. I thank God for them because they belong to Christ. They're the Saints of God. All, all of them, not all gathered to the Lord's name. And dear brother-in-law years ago said nice to visit.
Among the various Christians and point out to them the, uh, point them to Christ, he said. You know, we won't. We know that they're not gonna be all gathered to the Lord's name, but he isn't that nice to be able to bring him something that they haven't got.
I think it's beautiful to think of it in that way. Think of all the things that God, because they all belong to Christ, gonna be a a marvelous awakening in that coming day when the hope of glory is realized. We're all gonna be together and get out there. We're not gonna have special rooms for the brethren and special rooms for the other.
Isn't it true that I mean these things? Your heart is drawn to them immediately to say, well, you, you, you love them because they they spoke about the Lord Jesus in respect.
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And the name of the Lord Jesus is honored and your your heart is drawn to that and consequently you've been praying for me. That's why the apostle prayed for the Saints in Ephesus because we know that we have some death in life because we love the brethren we need to somebody perhaps in an airport on a box and grocery store maybe don't even know their name, but we find it's driving down the highway and you you know that they're real child with God that are living links. They're closer than perhaps not perhaps.
The the women's relatives is not the Lord, and you remember them they do not even by name, but you think of them, and you love them. But the apostle then prayed, and what was this prayer? That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory. And they give unto you the Spirit of wisdom.
Because love is an affection that needs to be controlled by wisdom. So we need wisdom and umm, you see that and and the and the revelation in the knowledge of him. So as we get to know the Lord and the character of the Lord.
We are light in the Lord. God is light, and we are light in the Lord. Six of his dead. Because God is love. It never says that we are lost.
We are the love, and so we need that wisdom of God and the revelation.
In the knowledge of him that we might know, uh, what is the hope of his calling? And it, and it goes on. And that's what the hope of Ephesians is. It's how we can practically to give a compression of this one of the truth.
It's nice of wisdom you don't get that in our universities or any.
Other claims.
But the problem is the the 2nd chapter of Proverbs and verse five and six.
Was the Lord give us wisdom?
And out of his mouth, that is through the word comma. Knowledge and understanding.
After God, you and I adore.
Uh, Sager, the large user's crazy product, give them this rhythm. I don't get it in any other place. That's from him. And the knowledge and understanding is from reading his precious words and meditating on and using the meditation for his glory.
Isn't wisdom the applying or the application of divine knowledge? We have knowledge, you know. I'm sure you met many, and I have too, that they have a lot of knowledge.
But they don't have much wisdom. They don't apply the knowledge. And I think it's, it's, it's in order here, isn't it? So Paul's desire to the Ephesians Saints, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of not just knowledge, but wisdom in the knowledge, in the revelation, uh, and the revelation of the knowledge of him. Well, you know that.
Knowing the Lord Jesus is is is knowledge.
But how do I apply it? Am I applying it with wisdom? So it's, uh, I think there's an order here that is very beautiful because it says then he brings in understanding also, uh, the eyes of your understanding. Or really, I think Mr. Darby renders that your heart, the eyes of your heart, that 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 same.
So all this is connected with true knowledge.
And through as a a a appreciation of the person of Christ, isn't it?
A couple illustration of what you say is when we young men get the driver's license, he knows how to drive. He's not always wise about how he uses that knowledge. And that's really what the apostle is really bringing before us here in this, that he wants them to know what the hope of Our Calling is. What is the practical effect that we don't know what the hope of this calling is? If the servant begins to say, my Lord, delay at this coming, what does he begin to do?
The cement service. And what is Christendom taking on the character of today in these lands, ours and yours, that believers who don't really are not expecting the Lord's imminent return. They've got themselves involved in politics and they're beating the men's servants. They're moralizing men, trying to make the world a better place, telling them what they shouldn't do, and so on. I'm not saying we shouldn't touch people's conscience about that which is wrong, but we're not here. But what is the faithful servant doing?
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Defeating this Defeating.
And so we don't know what the hope of Our Calling is, and we're gonna be in it's gonna lead to a wrong pathway and we're not gonna have a very intelligent understanding of what to do and how to conduct ourselves.
A little bit of that brother Neil I was thinking of connecting with what Keith was saying earlier that umm I think sometimes we think that our only mission with regard to other Christians is to bring the truth of gathering before. I think that's a great mistake. If that's our idea. There are tremendous needs that when the people that we.
Come into contact with there may be much needs a much higher priority at the moment in those people and we need to reach out to those needs and maybe they need to know uh, how to treat their children or whatever it is. I just use that as an illustration, umm and umm, the truth of gathering I value very highly and I appreciate the grace that has taught it to my own soul, but.
That's not the only thing that God teaches. And the Saints need our ministry. The Saints is a ministry which touches every need of their hearts, every need of their their life. And I think we ought to be ready for that. And it should not be the price of helping them in those in a spiritual way should not be whether they're willing or not to listen to what we have to say about the truth of gathering.
That they could draw a great knowledge of our ability to fight that Christ and Florida and yet the gathering center, they need to know about Him. You know the other aspect.
OK and this is the 8th versus the the position or the OR the you know the position when they have bounded to us in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. That's the position of every believer that we have, but in our verse it says the spirit of it. Now that's the character of the original, isn't it very proud of our position and the knowledge that by God's grace is given to us. But is there that lowly Sir.
Humiliating of humility like the Lord Himself.
Viewers wisdom of his spirit was of loneliness.
I was gonna say that the corollary to that, to what you were saying about thinking that the ground of gathering is the topic is to bring before every Christian we might meet out there the coral areas that once we have learned about the place of his appointment, about being gathered through the Lord's name, that we've arrived and that we have no need of, uh, of, of keeping. And, uh, for myself, uh, I'm very thankful that I was, uh.
Thought that practical truth quickly after I would say, but so I myself look upon these things as basic things. Being saved is the beginning of a of a of a life that goes on for eternity and being gathered to the Lord's name, being baptized. These are basic things that are the proper portion of every Christian, but that they're the beginning of your life as a disciple or follower of Christ. They're not some end role or some something that kind of caps you or completes you one for the Lord's table and going in and out amongst the Saints. Then that's the sphere in which we receive teaching.
Umm, you know, getting back to the subject of the constricted sphere of our prayer life, especially in the assembly and, uh, in light of Keith's comment, we tend to get honed in on just a few, but we also tend to get honed in when all of the people we do mention on just their, uh, just their health. You know, how many times did an assembly prayer meeting? And you, you can list the, uh, if 40 people are prayed for, 38 or 39 of them are prayed for only with respect to their physical health and in the uh, and in the uh, uh, essentials and in the book of Acts.
You see the physical health of, of things come up from that time and again, Paul make a mention of it, but you see much more this, this prayer has to do with the search will help of these things in Africa. And he was praying about their spiritual understanding and their attitude, spiritual attitude, if I could put it that way. And, uh, it's refreshing on occasion when you do hear somebody pray for somebody about their spiritual life, uh, like Epiphras at the end of Colossians, he prayed.
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For the Saints that they would stand perfect and complete and all the little gods. Every once in a while you'll hear some of you pray something like that, you know, and it's, it's like, yeah. And you sit there and you say, yeah, that's right. That's what we're here for. This, This is, uh, this is what I need. I want somebody praying for me that I'll grow If I have an aching or, or a pain, that's, that's good that they're interested in me. But my spiritual life is, is the important thing. That's important in a prayer meeting too. We pray, as you were saying, we pray many times for the, for those that are ill. And that's, that's right and proper.
But uh, what about praying for?
Those who are going on.
They need prayer too.
They need to be refreshed, they need to be encouraged. So I think that was effort for Slugnant. He prayed that they might be go on together, go on and develop. And that's so we don't, uh, not a climax that we've reached. No, we don't need to pray for that certain one. I mean, longer because now they're gathered to the origin. That's not it.
We we may need more prayers than those that are not gathered to the Lord's name, because the enemy is busy to turn the side into rip the truth apart if he could, which he has done a great, uh, big job.
In the last few years, ripping the things apart, dividing them, we need to pray earnestly concerning that, that the Lord will preserve us and keep us in the path of His treatment.
There is no vision in people passed off with the thing and then the other translation says and so he desired that he is a understanding of the enlightened and there are two things mentioned here. He may know that the hope of your calling and it was the riches of the glorious his inheritance in this thing. We're often concerned with what what I'll comment on the 1St about what the hope of calling him. Naval leaders don't know what they were called to. They were speaking about that a little bit.
Yesterday, like the prodigal, he thought that it would come and return to the product, that we can be a servant. And so if I don't know the relationship into which I've been brought, then how can I conduct myself in that relationship? And speak to many Christians and ask them, they talk about what church do you belong to? And if they just back up a second, what is the church? And they say, well, it's not the building, it's the people. Most of them would say, but do they really understand? We really understand the relationship into what we've been brought, but the hope of Our Calling is.
We need to understand these things and then.
We don't, we often are concerned about what we got and we it's important and vital that we understand what we got. But do we have a conception of what his inheritance in the Saints is? What did he get? He shall see the fruit of his travail of his soul and he shall be satisfied. Nothing will lift us out of our depression and self occupation, but thinking about what Christ saw, he died that he might gather together and won the children of God that are scattered abroad and we consider that.
It will have a practical.
Effect on my heart if I think that Christ died that he might gather together and won the children of God that are scattered abroad. Either people say we'll attend the Church of your choice. That's fine. I'm going to take his salvation and then not care about what he wanted when he died. And so these things Paul is desirous that that they understand.
Spot one and nine and tenant at legal health answer to make place.
Plot with 1:00 and 9:00.
For this 'cause we all, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be fulfilled with the knowledge of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that he might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being, fruitful in every good work, and increasingly in the knowledge of God.
And you can hear that we are afraid speaking. We constantly, constantly for those who come across.
Whether it be the brethren or other Christians, we see that they may be filled with the knowledge of God's will and all of us in spirit understand.
Are there, are there Christians we've seen who are not brethren? I don't mean to be technical about that because we have to have a large heart about that. And I, I think there's a danger that we, we tend to make that a denominational name. To be frank, we do. And, uh.
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I didn't mean you were brother by any means, but I just think we need to keep a large thought about that and understand that every question that we meet is one of the brethren, isn't it? And, uh, they may not like to call themselves that. They may have to want to put some other name on besides that. But, uh, I was thinking to how specific the prayers are here. You know, we're very vague in our prayers sometimes.
But it's nice if we're specific in the prayer.
True. I agree with Bruce in this that they're not physical things here, but they're very specific prayers, aren't they? And uh.
The, uh, the enlightening of their eyes, of the heart, that they would know what the hope of his calling is, but what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints.
What is the best and greatness of his power toward us who believe they are things that specific requests that are made for these Saints, and they're made with intelligence too, because the more we know Saints, we know that there's a particular need.
And I believe an intelligent prayer for those things relates to that need.
And I think that we sometimes delight ourselves in in the laziness of a of a general prayer that doesn't touch specifically in need. That's laziness on our part.
Umm, again, we don't, we're not beating one another in the head about it, but I think that, uh, first of all, we sometimes we don't know one another well enough. We knew we knew one another well enough. We know what specific need is.
But we, we keep each other at a distance, don't we? So that we we don't really get to know what the need is of our brother, our sister talking to us.
In Romans 16 how many he mentions by name and I'm thinking it's not only legacy methods for largeness apart those are on the lower part. Who forget? None and there's a false apology. Salute them and you probably didn't salute them all by name, but.
Quite a few of them are not meeting and no doubt many of them were mentioned by name of his purse to the Lord. So he was sharing in his heart burden for many times and only the Lord can give us an enlarged heart that way to take him more of our others. And sisters, it's nice to pray for the Saints in general.
In a general way, but he didn't know many of them were named and surely mentioned them on names too. We're told above the brethren. And I thought, I just thinking, we truly love the brethren. We're going to want to pray for them by name.
I'm sorry, some time ago, uh, I came across John Kim and hadn't seen him for a while and he hadn't seen me. The first question he asked his brother.
Are you enjoying the Lord? We didn't ask about my health, didn't ask about my job, didn't ask about the weather. He was concerned. Are you enjoying the Lord? And that's how what we should be amongst each other to have that love and that concern. Are we enjoying the love?
Talking to our Catholic priest in the hospital and my wife was there and, uh, he wanted to know how she was and I said she's not very well.
And he said, umm, I suppose you know what the end of all this is? And I said, Oh yes, we read the scriptures, we talk about the Lord and she knows all about it. And we've all gone over this many times. And he says, and what church do you belong to? Well, I said, I'm a Christian gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He looked at me and he said you're one of the brethren right away.
I I looked up at it and I said, you know, if you're saved, you're one of the brethren too.
He said thank you very much and every time I saw him after that, he put his arms around me and give me a big hug. I still remember that dear man.
Your fossils prayer for the Ephesians reminds me of what uh, Elisha, uh, and second team six when uh, Elisha and his servant woke up and found that the city was surrounded by Syrians. Now Elijah's face, I'll just read it. Second Kingdom 6 uh, in verse 14, they came by night and encompassed the city about verse 15. And when the servant of the man of God was risen early and gone forth, behold and host compassed the city, both with horses and Chariots.
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And the service center to molass my master, how shall we do and he answered fear knowledge for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. Elisha could see the whole situation. He was mature. He was like the apostle Paul in that sense. So then he prayed in verse 17 and Elijah prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee open his eyes that he may see and the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and Chariots of fire around the battalion and so on and then deliverance comes but.
I I liken that that circumstance very directly to Paul. Paul could see Paul had laid hold of the fact that the same power that God used to raise Christ up him among all the rest of the dead and see him in his own right hand was the power that was available for all of us Saints down here. And he could see, you know, he could see the the the the various it says here the.
The amount full of horses around his mouth. He could see that, but he wanted.
Uh, the service to see it and it had a call me establishing settling effect upon, uh, the serving just like, uh, it does with us when we get off the eyes of our hearts open too. And that's good, good practical prayer, very specific. And it works regarding in the last century warned about this again because the dangers of mass evangelism and the way that it was carried out in the last community that said it's like a great net passed into the sea taking in good fish and bad and so.
You see the way that evangelism has been done, it's produced a great deal of profession, but he had that com comment. He said I don't worry about it as many as much as some people think because God's work is going to be done. And you see that with the apostle Paul and Philippians two, he had the eyes of his understanding. He could at the same time be concerned about the tendencies and the dangers of what was being done and how it was being done. And and so now most of us know when you speak to people about the Lord.
It's very often you have to.
More work labor with souls because of misconceptions and faulty conceptions that they've been left with and so on and it's a real labor because of the way that the that the truth has been said before them and even with ourselves often socialist, we didn't grow up in the truth. We have to get untangled from wrong ideas and so on. Well it does have a calming effect when you really see what the purposes of God were you see that with the apostle there in prison is vilified that you could be there and.
Lookout and see all of the confusion and uneven preaching Christ of contention and some supposing to add affliction to his bond. What he had before him is the eyes of his understanding opened and he could see what God was doing and he could rest in peace and go on and labor to the Lord in it. And we'll have a comment, as you say, a calming effect on us when we understand those things. But he wanted the Ephesians to see that too. So he prayed in Colossians that I might labor according to his working who want to labor for the Lord, not against the Lord.
The Lord is trying to do something. He's gonna gather every state at the rapture and we wanna labor with the Lord, not labor against the Lord. I preach the gospel and say go attend the Bible believing Church of your choice and my laboring with the Lord or against the Lord.
There's another thing that impossible did in connection with Ephesians in chapter, uh, 20th act, it says in verse 27, I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. And then in verse 36, it says, when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with them all. And so it was a wonderful thing not only to declare unto them the whole counsel of God, but also to pray with them that they might go on it. And I go on in the truth. I would, uh, like to make this comment perhaps, uh, for those that are.
Uh, younger in the face. And that is that sometimes we have the notion that, uh, because we don't have a name to the place that we go to, perhaps, uh, we're a little abnormal and that's not the case. Those that walk in the truth and are gathered to the Lord's name walk in a normal course of Christian fellowship and path of obedience to the word of God. That's the normal thing for a believer to be gathered to the Lord's name, to be found at the place where he's chosen the place's name there. That's a normal thing.
And if we find that we have the reproach of Christ, uh, attached to that place, we walk in a normal course, we share that reproach. It was, if I could put it this way, normal, uh, for the Lord Jesus to be rejected by this world. He wasn't a part of it. He didn't, he couldn't have fellowship with it, but he could love his own. He could preach the truth to his own and he could walk in separation with his own that were called out. But then the apostle here, if I could just point out chapter 4 of Ephesians.
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He says here he pointed to the Ephesians letter that there was going to be provision made for them that they might walk in this normal court before gone. And it says in verse 11, chapter 4 and verse 11. He gave some apostles and some process and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the faith, not for the perfect statement of the Christians gathered in the name of the Lord set through.
But for the perfect thing of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we might reflect the, the, uh, beauty of the Lord in our lives. And so I say we walk a naturally we walk a normal path in Christian, in the Christian profession, if we're gathered to the Lord's name.
And we walk in the truth, and we seek the truth too. We shouldn't be afraid to speak of the truth as the normal thing when we need a Christian and we say we're gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus, that's the truth. But it's the normal thing for a believer to be gathered to the Lord's name.
One of the lighters, I forgot now which one it was in reading some ministry spoke of one of the Lord's names is gather.
One of his titles is Gather.
And I've heard different ones that they make the curt comment. Well, who are the gathered one? What do you mean gathered? They snorted. This. Well, I'll tell you.
They're condemning that which God has set up, not what man has set up. We didn't set this up. We didn't arrange this. God has done that. He is the gatherer because apart from His gathering, not one of us would be gathered to the Lord's name.
It's his power and his love that has constrained us.
Remember all those who are going to the cell phone churches under different names.
That are lost and if they have a pastor that is not the Lord if he opens the King James Version.
And start reading it. The Holy Spirit is there and we should pray that in our prayers. I believe. I've been doing it for years. And I think it's a good idea to pray that as he opens up there that the Holy Spirit may find an entrance into their hearts of those who are lost. And lately I heard of somebody that came to one of our meetings and they got saved by the hearing, the so-called pastor.
And came in and when they came to home and said, first time I heard the gospel. And that's a sad thing, you know, and when I was young, 17, my first job, I, I was introduced to the Barney game system and I used to have a read my Bible every day and.
Catholic girl came over and said, what are you doing? I said read my Bible. I said you don't know all of that. Only the priest can tell that I said no.
As plain as anything and I read some scriptures. So she asked if she said that what I understand and she did not say it and I said yes and she went to confession and told him his truth that she was saying and told him.
And she came in crying on the Monday and.
Nice and so Madam mainly is 6 years. I don't know. No, she's sobbing like a baby. She says, I'm sorry, I, I went to confession on Friday and I told the police I was believing in this verse. I was saved now. And she says, uh, he said, who, who told you that? She said, look, Chapman, the office and says, well, I'm going to pray that he'll go to hell. And she said that's why I'm crying. I thought, save your tears. He can't pay me in the head when I can't pay you get you into heaven, but I can pray you into heaven.
00:40:09
And I said, don't you worry about that, But I think there are a lot of people in the churches today that they're seeing they need right something they they don't know what it is, but the way things are going. And I think it was good if we all prayed that these folks would are going to these.
Various religions that have a pastor is not saying that and he opens the scriptures and reads them, but the Holy Spirit will find an entrance into their heart, but they may be led on and looks like they may come into our place to find the truth. By God's grace. That is possible dear brother.
As I believe in prayer and you believe in prayer, and the power of God's prayer is wonderful, we should not forget the lost ones. Brother Bill, you did not mean that it's only by reading the King, Jerry.
We might take it that way and I wanted to be sure, but there are relatives like, uh, well, you take the, uh, Jehovah Witness, they say they have the bottom and that's why our, it's terrible. No, I think it can be saved through the NIV, although I personally don't like to read it myself. I like the King James Version. Some of the versions today, they tell me are leaving off the blood.
And the crucifixion.
Four years ago, I went down to Peru, the first time in modern times. I had been there on business years ago. And as I was going down, before I went down, even I said, you know, I'm going to make a big mistake, a big mess out of things because I don't know what I'm gonna do down there. I don't know, brethren, I don't know the culture. And I asked the different ones that I thought might go down with me. I already asked them and already had his problems to take care of his mother at the time and.
I asked other brothers if they go along with me. It just didn't seem to work out. But still I had the conviction to go and uh, the Lord gave me a conviction. He would, He would help me.
I got down to uh Lima and I was in Doug Buchanan's apartment there and he wasn't there at the time, as in his apartment.
And the second day, brother said, would you like to go to the airport? We're gonna pick up a brother Avelino.
I didn't know Brother Evelina, but I said sure, I'll go out to the airport to pick him up. And we went out and, uh, he got into the car and the first thing he signed in was.
Well, how is that sister that says suspicious of things in the assembly? And how is so and so and how is so and so? And as we're writing back from the airport, I said the Lord gave me a conviction. This is the man that's gonna help you. He was about to, I guess, 10 years my junior, but, uh, he, uh, had been in the Lord's work for many, many years. And the thing that struck me about further Evellina, when we prayed together.
We were together 10 days on that trip and as we prayed together, he prayed for specific needs of the Saints and he knew them. He was a real shepherd. The Lord has taken him home, Took him home. Uh, I remember just before he went, I had the opportunity to go visit him in the Japanese hospital in Santa Cruz and.
We had 2 1/2 hours together.
The unburden is hard about the work in South America. One thing after another is concern for this one, for that one.
And you could see that he understood the Saints and was going to pray specifically for them, for those needs that were on his heart. I don't say he was infallible in that, but it was quite a lesson to me. And I, I treasured that time with him. I left his bedside and he was very, very ill as I left. He said to me, the next time we meet, Brother **** he said, it'll be in the clouds.
And.
I could hardly bear to leave him.
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I went over to UH Lima from there.
And went into brother, Brother Valderrama's house and I was just, well, I was just going to visit Brother Valderrama for lunch and my wife or someone called me and let me know that.
Brother Javelino had gone to be with the Lord.
To everyone traveled with him and he would say, oh, there there's a brother down in this. I must go and see him. I want to see him and start off. Oh, there's another one that let's just go a little bit farther. He knew their name and their address and searched them out.
Yeah, if you know what the needs are and you care about them, I'm sure.
Michelle, now you have specific things you have on your heart for those dear brethren in Africa, don't you?
It's wonderful to think of the work of this one or that one, but the desire of the apostle here, and we may speak of it and certainly it warms our heart to think of different ones, but the burden of the apostles part part in the 19th and 20th first was that we would understand what the work of Christ was, and we may get distracted by speaking or thinking about what we have done for the Lord.
But we think here, if you wanted the Ephesians to know what is the exceeding greatness of His power towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power, not our mighty power, our little service in the Lord, which He wrought in Christ when He raised him from the dead.
The Saints are largely ignorant of what Christ did.
And so one of the most helpful things I credited to Brother Don. But Mr. Darby said it preached facts. Often a young brother stands up in a meeting room. I know I did. And you wonder what you're going to preach about in the gospel. Preach the facts of what Christ has done, who he is, and what he has done.
Not even just how to get saved. It's a wonderful thing, but preach the facts of the the gospel. Many things don't understand what justification is where God has placed us in Christ. I don't think Martin Luther understood what justification was a faithful man of God. Many things don't understand what it is to be justified. Many things don't even understand the word saved anymore. I visited the home and they said, well, I'm praying my Catholic grandmother becomes a Christian.
And they don't understand the language of Scripture. What does it mean to be saved? What does it mean to have eternal life? And so a wonderful work was wrought by Christ when he died on the cross and rose from the dead. And we need to pray that the eyes of the understand the eyes of our understanding would be enlightened that we would understand these things because evil communication, bad doctrine corrupts good manners and the reason that Christendom is in the state that it is in today.
Is because the Saints don't understand what the mighty work of Christ was. There's a lot of activity for Christ, lots of books written about it, but that's I believe what he's really trying to bring before is what is Christ doing now.
What is Christ doing now? A man came in and asked me once visiting with a friend and his pastor came in and he said, tell me something. Do you have a man at your pastor at your church? And I said, yes, we have pastors at our church. I said, I have many that have gone thousands of miles out of their way to care for my soul. So you're not answering my question. I think I was. But you said to me, tell me you have one man to run things in your church. I said yes. And he sits on the throne of God.
He's a good song leader too.
And so we need to understand presently what Price is doing, where he is and what he's doing.
And what he's getting his servants to do, we get that in the later chapters in the 4th chapter.
But that's what we need to understand is to get occupied not with what we're doing, but with what prices have done and what he is doing now.
I was thinking, Neil, I was thinking of the same thought on in a different way that what we're getting here in these verses that we've been considering from verse, umm, umm, well say from verse 16 down through the last verses. What, what is, why is God-given us this? Because of what has gone before the glorious work of God in your soul and mind that has brought us into this marvelous, glorious place.
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Of believers brought into, into uh, eternal life and brought into a relationship with God the Father.
God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and the the ending of this chapter. These verses are that which God would have us through to show us what our response to this should be.
You know, how do we respond to this? Are we thinking just to ourselves or are we thinking again, going back to the glory of the person of Christ who is brought it all for us on the cross? I believe you're, I agree with your thought there.
I mean, he says he's an elevated above all principality and power and dominion.
Why would we get involved in politics when we know the one who's been said above all that the King's heart is in the Lord's hand as the rivers of water?
Why, you know, uh, brother John Villasale, they gave a young brother looking for a job some good advice. He said go to the top man, want a job, go in and talk to the top man. And uh, I think that was good advice. He said don't be shy. You feel the Lord is likely to work in a place going to talk to the top person.
And if we we really get a sense of where the Lord has been set, he has the keys of David. That speaks of government on the earth. Why are we gonna meddle with politics and then the lower ones down on the rank when we have when we can speak to the very one who has the keys of David, He opens in. No man shuts and he shuts and no man's open. That's the one we need to speak about. We talk about praying about things.
What a mighty power we have in these verses that has been brought before us. The end of verse 19. What is the exceeding greatness of His power to the customer who believed according to the working of his mighty power? The mighty power of God is wrought. Not only the blessed Savior died on the cross, but God has raised him again from among the dead, and He seated that God's right hand.
Ever living to make intercession for us, but I just thought of how VI how beautiful all this is far above all in verse 21 far above all principality. What does it spring before my soul Christ, the work of God, the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross and it should bring out a response to my heart that praise him and thank him for all this wonderful, wonderful work above all, 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 accountable nothing greater.
Little more glorious than this.
What a Savior, what a God we have, and I believe that the apostle is seeking to stir our hearts here to respond to that which God has given us in the opening of this precious little epistle of Ephesians.
The heavenly power, the 21St is the power of the earth.
Before we close and I used to read the second prayer and the third chapter of Ephesians.
On the 21St. Now on to him.
That is **** to do exceedingly abundantly above all, but we ask your thing according to the power that worketh in US unto him, the glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages. World without danger.
Oh man, not a beautiful prayer.
The, uh, the end of the chapter he gave him to be head over all things to the church.
I hope we noticed that that's different from being head of the church.
He said. What is the difference?
Well, I think it's an important difference. He is out of the church. That's clearly brought out in Colossians. He's the head of the church, the body. But here it's a broad thought because it's head over all things to the church. There isn't a thing.
That is not under him as far as we're concerned as part of the Church, we, we can rest that he is ahead over all things. And I was noticing not long ago in connection with Joseph that there are stages or different pronouncements concerning his headship. First, he's thou shalt be over my house.
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Then it goes on and.
He goes, he's made head over all of Egypt.
And not one that person was to lift a finger or do anything without him.
That's very broad, isn't it? That's much broader than being over the House.
But then umm, later on.
It says that He was given a bride, and then it says He went out as head. That's yet ahead, isn't it for us? So the Lord is indeed has the title and we for the Church. He is head over all things. There's no question about that. He's had over all things. What about people around us? Do they acknowledge that? No, they don't, but it's just as true.
In the second Psalm.
Uh, the people imagine a vain thing and they want to cut their pans asunder and God makes a statement. He says, yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion or upon Zion, the hill of my holiness? I have set him there. That's where he is. Doesn't matter. All that man, all the man's, uh, opposition to him and, and their attempt to get him out of this.
Public thing. And out of that public thing, it's useless.
It's a main thing.
They're imagining a vain thing to set Christ aside because God has already in purpose put in there.
And for the church then he said over all things, we accept that position. It's wonderful to us that he's over all things. There's not a thing that occurs. You were talking about politics, You know, you who would get up upset about that? If Christ is the head, he's the head of our all things. And I confess that sometimes I get pretty agitated over things that are, uh, occurring. Uh, you read some misdeed of the president or.
Whatever you know, you get a.
Crisis head over all things to the Church, and the more we are in the good of that, the more separated we are from all this confusion around us, and we walk on in that quiet certainty that Christ is the Head.
Where people, umm, you know, wrote a number of hymns in our hymn books, APC. So when it came from one of the wealthiest families in England. But Brother Samar showed me an interesting story that I think illustrates his first as one of his predecessors.
We got discouraged, and he came from one of the most beautiful estates in England, and he went away to a different town, and he married legitimately a young lady, a Miller's daughter, and nobody as far as this world is concerned. And one day the word came that he had come into the inheritance of all that was his father. So we took her into the carriage, and off they went. And as they went by this wonderful gate of the state and saw this palace, she said, to whom does all this belong? And she said to you, he was head over all things to her he was her head before.
But it became manifest to her that He was head over all of that to her. And that is not only true in the future when He takes all that is his, but it is true now. And that surely should rejoice our heart. And so we wouldn't meddle in those things. And so He's in control of those things.
Man may run a great factory or great business or something like that and in favor of his family if I could use that illustration, that doesn't mean his wife should go interfering on how he runs as fast as he head over that tumor for her and so.
That's really is the wonder of to see where Christ has placed it and God has placed us in relation to Christ. He's acquired the right to this issue as man. The beautiful thing to see is the risen man. He has acquired this and to the church is as good as done because we implicitly trust in the eventual manifestation of the counsel of God and we enjoy them already and so this ain't Psalm is quoted here.
In Hebrews 2, we're told very helpfully, that we see not yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus.
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Uh, crowd of glory and honor in first Corinthians 15, the same Psalm is quoted, but there we learned something about timing. We learned that it's the manifestation of it is in connection with the first resurrection or the beginning of the thousand year reign. In this chapter, we learned the mysteries that he doesn't take it by himself. He takes it with that mysterious bride that has been given to him during, like you say, with Joseph, he acquired a bride during the time of his rejection.
And when He comes into His glory, He takes it with her and His company. This is a tremendous portion of Scripture. This is a mysterious thing. His body, the fullness of Him that filleth All in all. The church is the fullness of Him that fill All in all. That is a hard to expound upon truth. We can read it, but it's hard for our minds to rise up as such things that God would give that kind of beauty.
In that last verse, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all and all, and the verse before, uh, the head over all things to the assembly, which is his body. And 1St Corinthians 11, it says the lo, which is his body. So the loaf, the church and the assembly.
Are three synonymous words.
Showing the the oneness of that position.