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I'll hit swords of comedy holes are all sufficient Lovely Vine our help and refuge from our full secure We are We are thy gold from guilt and grief and King were a hidden savior by thy name #284.
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Shall we continue with Ephesians?
Getting verse 17, would you say? Yes, I think so.
Ephesians One, verse 17.
That's the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory. They give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, and the knowledge of him, but the eyes of your understanding, being enlightened, if 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 Usford, who 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 an average, is to come.
And half put all things under his feet.
And gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that fill us All in all.
To agreed of the full knowledge of him.
That is the knowledge of the subject. Divorce is all found in Christ.
And there's a fullness there for our souls. And if we're to enter into the prayer of the apartment.
It's getting hold of what we possess in Christ, what he means to our souls. Then the Spirit of God can bring before us these wonderful things.
This full knowledge or fullness of knowledge is like the ocean, isn't it?
Have a cup and start dipping out the water in the ocean. Can you ever hope to empty it? No. And you can't hope to exhaust this fullness that we're reading of here. But we can keep on dipping in.
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Then the next verse should read the eyes of your heart being enlightened, as he may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints.
Our hearts are right. Then the Spirit of God can reveal these precious things to our souls.
That is, it's the affections, being, and the enjoyment of Christ's love.
Then the spirit of God reveals these things to our souls. That's a wonderful expression. The eyes of your heart, that is, they can penetrate into the marvelous things of God's counsel and purposes. All that we have been before us that we might just read this as pick it up as an intellectual study.
And that way we soon lose it. We might get it in our heads, but it if it wasn't in our hearts, it wouldn't last very long with us, but if the eyes of our hearts are enlightened.
Then there's something that is, as it were, a part of our very selves.
Makes me think I heard a story of a young lady and she had a hold of a book which she read and enjoyed very much.
Then after some time, she fell in love with the man who wrote this book. Oh, she said, I must get that book and read it again. It'll have a new meaning to me now. Well, what a difference when she read it, when she was in love with the writer. Well, this is the difference. We can read the Bible, as you have said, just as an intellectual thing. But all this that is being opened up to us. We're going to share in it, brethren, and we're going to share it in the same way that that young lady was going to be in association with that man.
All that's here we're going to share as part of the Bride of Christ.
There were heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
And this too, in this 17th verse, the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.
When Adam was placed in headship over the creation, he was, it says, be fruitful and subdue the earth. That is, he was in headship. He was to enjoy all that had been given. It was all put under him. Now God has put everything under the second man, and he would have us to know this. It was of interest to Adam. All those animals were brought to him. He called them by name.
He could enter into all that God had provided in that vast creation. Well, how much more wonderful? How are we taking in these things? Things that could never be discovered by research. The Bible is unlike any other book. It is a revelation. It's a revelation from God, things that we could never find out if God didn't tell us.
When the Apostle Paul.
Got the revelations that the Lord gave him. I'm sure it wasn't just an intellectual thing with him. The revelation meant that it got hold of his soul. It really entered into his being, into his heart, got hold of him. And this is the reason we see him acting as he does, especially when we watch him and follow him in the book of Acts.
Oh, it speaks not only of laying hold of Jesus Christ as being laid hold of by him.
He lay full of the soul.
On a vast difference there is.
In Ephesians 4/2 it speaks about growing up unto him in all things. For truth learned in communion always draws us to Christ, even prophecy, which perhaps is tends to be an intellectual subject. Nevertheless, we're told that the testimony of Jesus.
Is the spirit of prophecy and the interest that the believer has or should have in prophecy.
Is that it shows to us how the Lord Jesus is going to have his rightful place. And if our hearts are true to him. It hurts us that his blessed name and his rights are trampled in the dust in this world on every hand. And anything that shows us how he is going to take that place, how he is going to have his rights, is a joy to us. And that's why, brethren, that God doesn't give us all the details of prophecy that we might like to know.
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It's a mistake to think that God intended to fill in every detail. He only gives us the outline because he counts upon our hearts, not being so interested in detail as his Son, the one who is to be the grand center of all these councils and purposes of God. And prophecy tells us how this is all going to be brought about. And you'll notice also that the spirit of prophecy always comes in when there is a breakdown where there's human failure.
Because in the hands of the first man, it looks darker and darker. So the the light of prophecy shines in a dark place to show that when everything breaks down under the first man, that God has the man of his counsels and all is going to be fulfilled in him. And this is very interesting to trace all through the Old Testament and even in the New Testament. Now when it's brought before us, it's always at this time take even Revelation. There we have the Church's history ending in Laodicea and then the book opens and shows us.
How God is going to accomplish all His purposes, How that the false bride will be judged, but he's going to have His bride and she is going to be presented there and all her beauty and this heavenly city is seen there as the bride of Christ. In spite of all the failure of the church as a Candlestick in the earth, there is the light of prophecy telling us all that she's going to be seen in all her beauty at the end. And we have that position and association with Christ.
That he may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints.
The hope of his calling.
See the inheritance that is brought before us, We have it mentioned in the fourth verse.
According as he has chosen to seen him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blink before him in love, now he would have us enter into.
What this inheritance refers to means to me. It's something like Abraham's no Lord chose the well watered plains of Georgia. Abraham lit Lot have the first choice when they separated.
He chose the best in nature. Abraham waits. And then God says to Abraham, lift up thine eyes, look northward and southward, and eastward, and westward. And then he says, all this I will give to thee and to thy seed forever. And then he tells him to walk through the breadth and the length of it. Although he possessed nothing, yet it was all his, and he could walk in the midst of it all.
Communion was gone and the enjoyment of his promise.
Well, that's something like the inheritance, the way the inheritance is brought before us in this chapter. In Ephesians we have this inheritance, but he wants us to know and enjoy this inheritance, although in reality.
Its future, Yet we can, like Abraham, walk in the enjoyment of it, even while waiting for the day of manifestation.
On this one it answers two to the book of Joshua, because Joshua was one of the spies who had gone over in that scene. The good Lamb had. Ten of the spies came back, and although they had seen the good land, what seemed to impress them more was the height of walls in the cities, the size of their enemies. They were giants, the Chariots of iron that they had. That is, they were greatly impressed by all the difficulties that sit in the way, so much that they almost seemed to lose sight of all the good of the lamb.
But with Joshua, he didn't seem to pay much attention to these giants and these Chariots of iron and everything. He said. If the Lord delights in US, He'll give us the land. What we need to think about is what a good land it is. So all through the wilderness, with all its problems and difficulties and the failure of God's people, What gleamed before him was that good land, that land flowing with milk and honey and.
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When they finally did go over, why that was, the last thing he thought about was the giants. He wanted the the good land. God would enable him to overcome the giants. And so this is the view that's held out to us. Brethren had the hope of his calling is all the portion that we have in Christ. The matter of fighting the giants comes in at the end because this is always the way God works. He says all this is yours. I have delight in you. I have found you. I picked you up when you were dead and trespasses and sins.
Now, he says, if I have all this delight in you, and this land is yours, I I'll provide so you can fight the enemy and possess it. And there we have in the last chapter, the the armor.
We'd like to ask a question on this verse.
And if I read it right, with a new translation in the French anyway, it reads that his heritage in the Saints. I've all thought isn't it this the Lord? For as we have a scripture that the Lord's portion is his people, isn't the question of what our inheritance is or what he inherits? And you think the question there is, don't you think, Brother Ruth thanks the way the Lord inherits what he's speaking about?
You might ask the same question, How does the Queen of Great Britain inherit?
The the empire that she is the queen over is it through the rocks and the hills and the rivers and the mountains. Oh no, it's she inherited through her people. So they wildly inheritance is brought before us with all its wonders and majesty. Yet he inherited in the Saints.
Would that?
Me association the Saints associated with him when he takes the inheritance or you could say in the midst of his Saints that is he's in the midst of his Saints when he takes the inheritance. We're actually we're not part of the inheritance because we're associated with him in in the inheritance. Well his brother Anderson the inheritance really the portion of the heavenly faith that he is speaking about here.
Yeah, we are the inheritors, not the inheritance. That is, we're heirs of God and joy, heirs with Christ. But I believe the thought that he takes the inheritance and his Saints. The Lord has already bought the field. Faith already sees him as we have in the second of Hebrews. We see not yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death.
Crown with glory and honor. Why hasn't he yet taken possession of it? It's all his. But he's waiting till he has his Saints with him, and not until the Ark leading the people across the Jordan Anderson did the Lord, so to speak, take possession of that land which he calls My land. And he took it in and threw his people. And to my own soul. This is exceedingly precious, that this whole scene is the purchased inheritance. It all belongs to him.
And in God's purposes, Christ in manhood is to be the center of it. What is the delay? Well, he's going to have His Saints with Him first. And when we turn over to revelation, we don't see him asserting His rights to it until He has his Saints there. And then in the 4th chapter we have His right as Creator. There thou has created all things, and the redeemed are around there giving him honor. But then in the 5th chapter they redeemed their rejoicing at the cost of their personal redemption.
It says all slain has redeemed us to God by thy blood, and all this now has the preliminary, shall I say to the opening of the seven sealed book. That is what is rightfully his. Perhaps if you turn to Jeremiah chapter 32, I think there is something that helps to.
Jeremiah 32.
And verse 6.
And Jeremiah said, The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Behold, had a meal. The son of Shalom by an uncle shall come unto thee, saying by thee my field, that is an antithought, for the right of redemption is thine to buy it. So Hannah, me Oh my and uncle son, came to me in the court of the prison, according to the word of the Lord, and said unto me by my field, I pray thee, that is an anathoth which is in the country of Benjamin. For the right of inheritance is dying, and the redemption is lined by it for thyself.
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Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord, and I bought the field of had a meal my uncle son that was an anathoth, and weighed unto him the money even 17 shekels of silver. And I subscribed the evidence and sealed it, and took witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances. So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was opened. And I gave the evidence of the purchase under barrack, the son of Narayana, the son of Messiah, the son of Hanumi al mine uncle's son.
In the presence of the witnesses that described the book of the purchase before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison, and I charged barrack before them, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. Take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase both which is sealed, and this evidence which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days. For thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.
Well, here was Jeremiah in prison telling about judgment that was to fall, and now he's asked to buy a field. Well, what use would this field be if the country was going to be in the hands of the enemy for many years? Well, it was going to be possessed later and saw the evidence of the purchase was put in an earthen vessel for many days. It was all but the evidence that was sealed and the evidence was all that was open, were all taken.
Well, I believe rather than it's a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus. The evidence of the purchase is in that earthen vessel. There's one up there of God's right hand, a real living man, and he's bought the field and to faith, just like to Barrick, it was a very real thing. That alone the enemy took possession of the land and everything looked as if the land was under babbling and would not be theirs. Again, faith believed in what, and faith looked on to that time.
And now the Lord in the 5th of Revelation of this book, He's the one that takes it. The sealed book, and it was written within and on the backside, sealed with 7 seals well the faith it's open evidence to. To the man of the world it's sealed, it's not apparent, but the time is coming when he'll take it. And so when God gave him back the land, Jeremiah, Jeremiah would have this. Well, brethren, in what measure do you and I value these things? Are we willing to give up something down here?
To be in the enjoyment of a thing, for that in reality is ours in the coming day.
But now we just have, as it were, the evidence, the enjoyment in our souls that it belongs to us.
Well, I believe that's what is being brought here and it doesn't work. Brought to us now in the prison in this world where everything is against us. Here we are sitting and talking about this inheritance and Pauls prayer was that the Ephesian Saints might have their eyes, the eyes of their heart open to look beyond all this, to see that Christ was going to take this and they would be associated with him when he took it.
Do read in First Peter one to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and which paid us not away, preserved in heaven, for you who are kept by the power of God. So inheritance in one way is looked at as our heavenly portion.
And it's ready to be revealed. So the Spirit of God surely would bring us into the enjoyment.
Of that heavenly inheritance that we are soon to share with Christ in his glory.
In the sixth verse of that same chapter, you're referring to Brother Barry. First Peter one, he says, Where is ye? Greatly rejoice. I believe this is in the inheritance, thinking of this inheritance, that we're going to have this inheritance incorruptible.
Undefined in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God.
The inheritance is kept for us, and we're kept for the inheritance kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. And Peter speaks of the glory that should follow the sufferings of Christ and the glory. And so he brings in the sufferings here that we may go through. And so he says, wherein ye greatly rejoice though now for seasons if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptation.
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So if we have testings in trials, let's remember the inheritance is ahead, the glory is ahead. But this is suffering time. Glory time is coming. This is training time for raining time. And if we seek a place in this scene now, as it were, wanting to rain, now, we're raining too soon. Let us seek grace from the Lord to take the place that He's given us here and suffer with him and for him and for his sake.
I thought I would like to ask, is this that we've been speaking about part of the hope of his calling?
And also in the third, this is the third chapter speaks of the vocation where which we are called. This is the practical effect it should have on us.
I had looked upon that, and the vocation of the calling wherewith we are called, especially the truth that he's brought out of the Church as the body of of the body of Christ in the House of God, that we're to walk worthy. Now that's the calling there. It would seem to me that the calling in the first chapter is more of the subject of the inheritance.
That he is setting the forest. That the important point is this, That if the hope of his calling and one of the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints is what belongs to Christ.
And whatever it is, whatever view we take of it is what we're going to share someday with that blessed one who is so worthy of.
All that will be given to him.
Helps us also to notice the difference between Ephesians and Colossians. In Ephesians it's what the Church is to Christ or as in Colossians it's what Christ is to the Church.
And so as the one who has brought into association with himself his Church, it is his joy to let her know all that belongs to her, and to share it all now by the Spirit and salt. And the great emphasis, I think is in His Saints, and even at the end of the chapter it's anticipating. But it's head over all things to the Church how you notice in.
Colossians. It's head of the body of the Church. It's the glory, the personal glory of Christ as the one who is the head of the body of the Church.
But head over all things is that which he is to the church, Just as a man thinks of the pleasure he is going to have in sharing what he possesses with the bride of his choice, this is another aspect than his importance and what he is. And I think this is a very precious and wonderful line of truth that he's brought before us something like the Hebrew servant. He had served his time and he could have gone out free. He had a choice now to make.
He had. He had honorably served his master for the six years, and now he decides something. Is he going to have his liberty and enjoy it all himself, or is he going to enjoy the company of the one whom he has chosen? Well, he makes this decision, he says. He plainly says, I love my master, my wife and my children. I will not go free. I think we have those whole three things brought before us.
I love my master. He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he. I love my wife. That's the church and my children. We have been predestinated to the adoption of children, he said. I won't go out free. I'm going to share it with my wife all I have. And what is? What does it cost him? Well, he must be brought to the judges. He must be a servant forever. And this blessed one was brought to the judges for us. This one's going to be a servant forever.
In spite of his greatness, he is going to become the servant of our happiness for all eternity. And so I think it's beautiful to see the inheritance in his Saints. He says I won't enjoy this until I have companions and he's waiting for this. Does it mean anything to your heart and mind that he's waiting? We are noticing about Isaac. He went out to meditate while he lifted up his eyes. What was he thinking about?
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Well, he all the riches of Abraham's house were his.
Was that what he was thinking about? Always said I want somebody to share it with me. And so I lifted up his eyes and he saw the camels were coming. And at the very same moment, apparently she lifted up her eyes and she said she saw this man. And the servant said, that's Isaac. Well, that's the Lords coming. The Lord is, so to speak, lifting up his eyes. And he wants us to lift up our eyes. And someday our eyes will meet and he'll come and we'll respond and we'll be with him.
While the spirit is seeking to lead our souls to enjoy this now beforehand, isn't it?
And it's interesting sometimes when you have leisure to look up to different riches in the Ephesians you won't go into it. But in this place it's the riches of the glory of his inheritance. In the Saints then said that glory is revealed excellence. Well when we think of being in with Christ in his glory and he the head of this whole scene.
Sharing it all with him.
Oh, how the glory of this world fades into insignificance. Single men who have have risen to a high position, like Hitler and Napoleon, has seen the dismal end of those men. And then think of the glory of the inheritance, the riches of it. Well, sometimes it's well to think of how rich we really are. And so he goes on rich in mercy. But seems to me, when you look into the subject of the riches, you reach the climax of the whole subject.
In the third chapter, in the eighth verse, unto me who I am less than the least of All Saints, as this grace giveth.
That I should preach among the Gentiles. They are searchable riches of Christ.
Well, seeing that is when we think of Christ.
There are riches there and him We can never fail. We can never.
Ever took enter into the fullness of it? Well, he just sort of lost. When he reaches that point, the unsearchable riches of Christ rather than we will realize how rich we are and yet the one who brought us into all this riches.
Humble himself and emptied himself of all his glory and went to the cross and there died of manufacturers death. Though he were rich, yet for our sakes he became poor. Oh, that's the rest. That way through his poverty might be rich. They would never forget, as we consider these riches that are ours as redeemed ones, what it costs that blessed one that we might possess these riches. And when we figure that blessed one, who is the subject?
They had over all things.
Well, you could explore into some of the riches when you think of here as kingship and then even for the present time.
His being our Advocate, and we have failed our High Priest to keep us from falling that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant, And the bridegroom of our souls, is coming soon to take claim His bride and take her home.
They're just a little inkling of all the immense riches that we have possessed in him and all the glory of what it means to be associated with him when he is honored not only in this scene but also in that which is to come on a subject we are brought into.
Lord, never, Lord, never gave up.
The United States not all glory, but he never gave up, so he was in the Garden of Gethsemane or on the Cross.
Referring to back to Ephesians, to Philippians, 2 I judged that I was quoting from how he emptied himself. He emptied himself without glory, but he never ceased to be the eternal Son.
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Thou humbled, and despised and rejected.
Nail to the cross. The very fact that on the cross he was there atoning for our sins necessitated that he was the mighty eternal God.
I'll build a wave, Hebrews. One brings that before us, who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of His power. Now notice the next, when He had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on heart. God has spoken by His Son. The one who upholds all things is the One.
That was on that cross making Ferguson.
For our sins, then he carries him on up into the glory, and tells us that he seated himself at the right hand of the majesty on high.
Locals are reversing the.
15 chapter First Corinthians.
28 verse.
Is that the first brother, Baylor, When he when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him. That God may be All in all, doesn't lose anything.
Me. That's one of the most marvelous verses in scripture. Some verses carry you as far as the eternal state. I believe there's only three passages that take us as far as the eternal state. We have the one that was read this morning, the 1St 8 verses of Revelation 21.
New heaven and a new earth, and so on. Then Peter speaks of it in his second epistle in the third chapter, where he says the day of God.
After the day of the Lord is over, and then this verse that we have before us, when all things shall be subdued unto Him, you see that about the end of the Millennium, for he reigns during the 1000 years, till he is put down all ruling authority.
And then it says, Shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that is in the eternal state although.
They'll no longer be a Kingdom, such as the Millennium will be.
For the photo of nations to be ruled over, as there will be in the Kingdom E that's the thing of the past, but we find the son himself.
Becomes subject unto him that put all things under it. That is, the Blessed Lord Jesus is still a subject man when we get into eternity, associated with those that he has redeemed in that blessed time of unparalleled blessing, when everything is subject to the mind of God, when all beloved that.
Our self will have.
In the cause of all our mistakes and failures.
We can trace it to that.
Some form of disobedience. But when the Lord was here, he was the perfect obedient man.
And that was his. That was his joy and happiness down here. Well in the eternal state. Well, indeed, when we reached the eternal shores of glory, we'll be in a state where we'll never exercise our own wills again. We'll be perfectly subject to the will of God. But this one is marvelous, to see the sun identifying himself with his own in that blessedness of full subjection to the will of God.
That carries us right into the regions of eternity, so we can look no farther beyond it.
State or Hebrews?
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Rest that remaineth for the people of God. It's really a Sabbath keeping. I had looked at that. Brother Brimley was referring to the Millennium, the the.
The rest the Sabbath keeping when this dispensation is over. Of course there are verses that carry us into eternity, I suppose many. But verses that describe the eternal state, I suppose would be.
A little more. And so this one, no doubt in First Corinthians 15 is one of those instances.
That actually describes the condition of things in the eternal state, and the Lord Jesus remains a man forever.
To have the company of his redeemed, he never left his place in the godhead.
But he doesn't give up his place of manhood for all eternity and like the type that we mentioned, the Hebrew servant that says he shall serve forever. And so for all eternity the Lord Jesus will be there to minister to our happiness in that way is subject that God may be All in all is really not the thought of God the Father, but it's it's really the God in Trinity because the first man, Adam, he was the head of.
The first creation he failed. Everything broke down under him. Now how could everything be set right? Well, the one who could do it must be both God and man. If God's purposes are going to be fulfilled that a man is going to occupy the place of headship, where was the man that could do it? Not any of Adam's race, while the Lord Jesus as man takes that place. And Saul, God of the Father, and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
All in all in the eternal state. But that one who is in that place of headship, yet who occupies the place of being? The servant to his people's happiness is God the Son, and the Spirit is the power, as the little hymn puts it nicely by the Spirit, all pervading, wholesome, numbered round the lamb, how lovely it is. And Speaking of the Spirit to look back in creation, it says, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Here was a ruin that was there.
Out of all that ruin now God was about to begin this purpose that he had in his heart from all eternity. The Spirit of God mused upon them well last. When a man is created and placed in that position, he falls well. And the spirit of God then has been going to work so, and through this scene, and the Spirit's work will not be complete until he can in full liberty, shall I say.
Give to the Son that blessed one his worthy place, and lead the hearts of his people in praise to Him for all eternity.
Just to make it very simple, it's this that our Blessed Lord is a man for all eternity, a real man, and we're to share His glories and be with him and enjoy His company for all the eternal ages. What a destiny, we may well say as we consider it.
Perhaps we better get on to the next verse now. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to Westward, who believe according to the working of his mighty power?
He's still talking about.
Entering into the blessing and enjoyment of this truth of the inheritance.
So if it was the riches of his glory, of his glory, and so on, here is what is the exceeding greatness of his power. We're just left out, so to speak, as far as any action or anything in ourselves. It's all a mighty glorious work of God on our behalf.
And this is connected with his resurrection and His being seated, that God's right hand being glorified. And so we find also that in association with Him we're we're risen too, quickened and risen and seated in the heavenlies. And this is in connection with His mighty power. And we can certainly rejoice.
In the power that's been manifested and shown toward us as it says His power to us. Words because we're included in this, this thing that took place when the Lord was raised from the dead and seated at God's right hand.
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So the power of that has taken us from a state of spiritual death will someday raise us up and bring us into the full result of Redemption's work.
But even now, before that day comes, when we are raised up by His mighty power, when he comes with a shout of victory and our bodies are changed and we're caught up to meet the Lord in the air, the Spirit of God is working.
In our behalf, lifting us and the state of our souls and the enjoyment of these things out of the state of things around us.
Condition around us a world full of itself and its importance and its progress and so on, and we're apartment to get into the spirit of this age. But here this mighty power is working towards us to lift us up into the enjoyment of this inheritance and the glory of it and what lies before us.
There was a mighty power manifested in Creation.
Man sees that power. Just think of the wonders of God's creation as we see it. But this has all been ruined by sin. Well now into this seed of misery comes the blessed Son of God, and he has taken them put to death. But as the little hymn says, by weakness and defeat he won the median crown, and so he went into death. He went into Satan's stronghold, but he rose triumphant. And that Blessed One glorified now at God's right hand.
Is the proof that God is going to bring in this new scene just as when the Israelites harvested harvested the sheep of first fruits and waved it before the Lord. Now this was the beginning. There was going to be a whole harvest gathered in as a result of this. Well, when a power God manifested, Satan had brought him death. And now to add to this, he had taken the Prince of life and LED men on to put him to death.
But all there was a power greater than that, the power that raised Christ up and brought him, and seated him at the highest place. And that power is to iceward, because taking that place he could have had the place of headship without having any with him. But all he wanted to have his people with him, so he's going into death, was to have us associated with him in that place. And so it's the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe according to the working of his mighty power.
Which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him in his own right hand in the heavenly places. The victory has already been won, brethren. It's not something that's future that we hope will be won. The victory has been won. The one who is the head of new creation is there a glorified man, and he's the head of the body, the Church. It seems to me that the 1St 2 words in the second chapter bring before us this very thing.
Our association with him that the powers to us were because it says and you and you. It's not only that it was Christ that was raised by the mighty power of God, but and you were included too in that.
In verse. And raising the Lord Jesus from the dead is in exercise on our behalf, isn't it?
In verse 3.
The Apostle blesses the God and fathers of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ and now in.
Verse 19 As we have had, He speaks of the exceeding greatness of his power as not which has put us there. For in verse 20 again we have which he he wrought in the Christ.
Christ and His members, when He raised Him from the dead, and sent him at His own life, stand in the heavens and purpose. When He raised Christ, He raised us to in Him from that place of death into which He had gone down to save us, and it carries right arm through in the chapter 2 does not.
00:55:11
Very helpful. What you said brother dear.
We literally realize the greatness of that power. You notice how?
The Spirit of God uses adjectives here in this 19th verse. And you know, a scripture never uses unnecessary words, and when things are described as they are here, it has a very great importance.
The exceeding.
Greatness of his power. Can you think of any more marvelous way of describing the power of God than that according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ, when you think of the Lord's death on the cross?
Follow a triumph. Seemingly it was for Satan and for man. Satan had succeeded at last, and putting the one he hated on that shameful cross.
He'd seen him die, bow his *** and death seen him taken down and laid in that grave. And you know the question of our sins came up at that cross, too. We're doing those three hours of darkness tells us that Jehovah laid on him the iniquity of us all. They're the one who became the substitute for the Sinner.
She's lame and death. A great stone rolled to the to the door of the sepulchre.
A guard put around it, and the feel of the greatest emperor that ever lived in this world put upon it the seal of the Roman Empire, that no one was to disturb that grave.
But though on the third day an Angel came down from heaven, his face was like lightning and his reign of the white as snow. He broke that seal. He rolled that stone away. And those guards who were there to protect the rights of their emperor trembled and became as dead men. He told the women that came there that morning. He is not here. He is risen. Come see the place where the Lord laid. I believe that's what is meant in the.
Second chapter of Colossians.
In the 15th verse.
And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it. To what we were. The principalities and powers made ashore to see Satan and all his hosts were there to see that Christ was put on that cross. Satan had become the Prince of this world as the Lord, as the Lord had told his disciples, and leading the whole world against the Son of God.
Seemingly they had crime, but their victory became a defeat. There was the one that lay on the tomb. There is risen. Not only that, the very realm of Satan, for Satan is the Prince of the power of the air. He goes right through Satan's realm and takes his feet at the right hand of God, exalted far above all principalities in power and might.
And beloved, when the Lord comes for you and me with a shout in the air, we're going right up through the realm of Satan, too. Another marvelous triumphal victory for the one who has undertaken our cause. So you can see why the spirit of God uses so many adjectives here to let us into a little what that victory really means. And then in the practical way, the Apostle is setting the forest, how that power is working in our souls at the present time.
So what he would have for us is to have our our minds on things above be lifted above this present passing scene and and have that glory before our souls.
Thinking going to the 15th chapter of First Corinthians as you're speaking about that power.
01:00:00
Resurrection. And now it should have its practical side. The last two verses of the chapter are very nice, but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
But a force is for us and a blessing in the hours, and what an encouragement.
He was incorrect teachers who were saying there was number resurrection. And the apostle says if there be no resurrection then Christ is not raised. And if Christ be not raised our preaching is vain and we're yet in our sins. For though he comes out with those grand words but now is Christ risen, become the first fruits of endless flip. That is, he's like the sample sheep that represents all the harvest and resurrection.
And then having shown the mighty victory of the one who went into death and won the victory.
For he says, thanks be that God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Then he can come forth with this encouraging words, my beloved brother. He is steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, while the apostle had said.
Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. That is, if there's no resurrection. Well, we just, well, get all we can out of this world, so that's all there is before us.
We're all having settled this matter. There is this glorious resurrection. Then he can encourage the Spain, Sir. We can encourage our hearts, too beloved with these words, to be steadfast, unmovable, because we're going to be in our glorified bodies soon, in the scene where we can fully enjoy all the blessings that are before us, and where there's positive gain and reward for faithfulness for the one who has gone before.
The truth of resurrection is something that is peculiar to the Bible. We know that the heathen had some thoughts about a spirit existence after this life. They had some thoughts about the transmigration of souls coming out in another being.
But the truth of resurrection was something that the mind of man could never discover. It was something that must be and is the subject of revelation.
And when Paul talked before the philosophers on Mars Hill, when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, they mocked. This was something they couldn't discover. But this is something that God has made known. And when Paul was preaching to those philosophers, you'll notice he brings before them two things that their wisdom could not discover, creation and resurrection. He speaks about how God created everything, and then he speaks of the resurrection of the dead.
And this is the thing that is specially made known through the Bible and that which specially characterizes Christianity. Even our brother Yamanaki over in over in Japan, he was telling me on his last visit how it came and he was in prison. He taught the truth of the Lord's return and they brought him up before the authorities. And they said, now we want to know, do you believe in the spiritual return of Christ or the bodily return of Christ?
All he said, he's coming back as a real man with a body of flesh and bones. He's coming as a resurrected man. All they said, that's that's contrary to our idea that the that the Emperor is gone Incarnate. We'll have to put you in prison for that.
If you teach that there's a spiritual return of Christ, that wow, that's all right, we don't mind that because.
They would allow for the philosophy, philosophizing of the mind of man, but to teach the personal resurrection and return of the Lord Jesus Christ was something that conflicted with all their ideas, and which laid a death sentence, as it were, to all their national hopes. Well, brethren, how wonderful. And this is so important for us. There's a real man in the glory, and we're united to him. He's there for us. He's far above all principalities and powers. There isn't an authority on this earth.
And all the power of Satan is above them all, and we're associated with him. And this is the thing that we need to have in our souls. And this is what keeps us from getting taken up with things down here, even from the thoughts of man. This is a power that is only made known to us by the word of God.
01:05:17
And the Spirit of God wants us to be in the enjoyment of this.
Another very word you commit to make a little remark as to the truth of the resurrection and Matthew. So for the sake of the young. We've been often told this before, but there are younger ones perhaps that should be told. Enjoyed what you said of the Angel coming down with a mighty hope whose looks was like lightning. His Raymond White and he removed the stone and sat on it.
Unless we might give ourselves to the thought that he opened the grave for the Lord to come forth, the Lord Jesus wasn't there anymore when he did this. Did God not send his angels to demolish everything that man had done to seal that way, and then to let his own when they came to let them in to see that the Lord wasn't there? But this action of the Angel was not the opening of the door for the Lord Jesus to come forth. He was already written. What? Yeah.
That's very helpful. What you have brought out. The angels didn't roll back the stone to release the body of the Blessed Lord.
He opened it for the sake of you and me. So we might, through these women, look in and see an empty sepulchre in all of the difference in connection with the resurrection of Lazarus. The Lord says, take you away. The stone before the stone was removed from the grave of Lazarus. That body couldn't come out because Lazarus came forth in a mortal body. He wasn't raised in the way we'll be raised.
By Christ, with our resurrection, glorified bodies.
Parrot hath not placed, and bones as you see me hath. And then he told him to handle him, and see, and then to further satisfy them. Why, He said, Have you hear any meat? They gave him a piece of a broiled fish and a honeycomb, and he ate it, showing he had just as truly a human body in resurrection as he did before he went to the Cross. And that's very important.
Because as we were reading there in First Corinthians 15 that he is the first.
Fruits of them. The sweat that is when the old days when the binder went into the field to reap the harvest, the first bundle that was kicked off, you could take that bundle and say there's a sample of the harvest. That's the 1St 2:00.
Christ And as the risen man is, this is the sample sheep, as it were, of all the glorious harvest and resurrection when the Lord returns.
01:10:06
Here in the 20th verse, it says and set him at his own right hand. We have the verse set at my right hand until I make thine enemies, thy footstool. So the Lord Jesus is now sitting at his father's right hand, but in the millennial time he's going to sit upon his own throne, isn't he? But that he is waiting the time until the church is complete. And then he'll rise up and he'll take his own throne and there'll be those associated with him.
Through grace as we have. But now he's seated at the Father's right hand, the Father's declaration of his not only of His acceptance of the work, but that he has been fully glorified in it all, and that now blessing Unlimited can flow out.
Nice to attach.
Teaching to a definite Scripture. As far as we turn to the third chapter of Revelation, here's the promise to Laodicea.
To the overcomer in the 21St verse. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me, not on my father's phone notice, but on my throne, even as I also overcame and am sat down with my father in Israel. So there are two Thrones definitely mentioned.
There. So where? Who are to be with him, or to be seated on his throat?
We see that in the 4th chapter from the next chapter gives us a view of the of the redeemed ones, the whole redeemed family seated down the throne viewed in the 24 elders.
Very often when we're thinking of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and our being with him, we're thinking of our side of it, our enjoyment of it, what we're going to get out of it. But I think it's well for us to think about the Lord's side of it. What's he going to get out of it?
When it comes that time that he'll have us with himself and he takes the Kingdom and sits on his own throne, all this is the moment he's looking for. He was denied his rightful place when he came the first time, but the next time he will have his rightful place and he will be sitting on his throne and he will be the Exalted one and as man. And what a joy that will be for him. Let us think of it in that way too.
And then his joy will become our joy.
And then we can say the joy of the Lord is our strength, the last two verses of our chapter.
Illustrator Give us the truth of what you've been speaking our brother Anderson, and it put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him, that Philip All in all.
I was just thinking, Brother Barry, how nicely that in the 4th chapter as the one who has glad captivity captive and has now ascended up on high, then it says he gave gifts unto men. And what are these gifts responsible to do? Well are responsible to announce the victory that he has won. And what a privilege it is in ministry in this world to announce this great victory that Christ has won that one who is up there.
As we remarked before, not merely head of the body. You know, a woman might acknowledge her husband as the head, but for to say head over all things is his care for the church. And so in the 4th chapter the gifts have been given. And what are these four all he wants us to know?
The full victory that he has won and to share the enjoyment of it. Now how often we meet Saints of God, the victory has been won for them. They're going to share that place of headship with Christ. They're going to be associated with him, but they're not in the enjoyment of it. Now it'll be just like for the verse is quoted from the Book of Judges in the 4th chapter when it speaks about leading captivity captive of the time when Barack and Deborah are returned to tell of the victory that they had won over Cicero.
Well, they went out and sang before the people of this great victory saw that all the people in Israel might enjoy the fact that the man who held him in captivity was now himself put to death, and they could share in all the spoils of the victory. Well, if they only told part of it. If they said, well, the man is taken captive, but he might someday get free again, Why, the people would have a measure of relief, but they wouldn't be in the full enjoyment of the victory. But when they can say that he's dead.
01:15:16
And the spoil is all yours now. Why, you can divide the spoil of victories. One well. This is what the gifts in the Church are responsible to do. To proclaim the sinners and Saints of this mighty victory. Saw that all those who are saved might share in the full victory. And what is the full place into which we're brought? Oh, how wonderful. The nearest possible place to Christ in glory who shares an association with a man like his own wife, who can share his thoughts.
His position, his wealth, everything. And how wonderful to think that this Blessed One who's up there.
As head over all things so we have some little care. Are we concerned? Oh, he's head over over all things. He's concerned about that where members of his body and he's just waiting the day when he's going to share it all with us. And it when it says the fullness, it means that he will not be complete until he has his bride with him. Just as Adam in his place of headship was not complete until a bride was made for him.
Now he could say, this is born of my bone and flesh of my flesh. He could enter into and enjoy the relationship with one who shared it with him.
When when Adam got his companion Eve, when she was made out of what came out of his side and brought to him, don't we get Creation brought to a high point there? That's the peak of that first creation.
Well, there was failure there. But when the bride of Christ is brought to him to be associated with him, we'll come to the high point in that coming day when we'll be in the millennial time and we'll be reigning with Christ over this sea. Oh, that will be the high point of creation. Are we longing for that time when the Lord will have his rightful place?
And we in association with him there, well, certainly the things of time and sense material things were occupied with now. They'd be become very dim and and worthless in view and in the light of that coming scene of glory. And this is what we need to have before.
You see, #4 independence is B, the victor's name who fought the fight alone.
Triumphant Saints, though utterly his conquest was their own. By weakness and the deep, he won the need and ground, got all our foes beneath his feet by being trodden down.
Less less conqueror slain, slain his victory, who lived, who died, who lives again for thee, his church for thee.
#4 in the appendix.
1 79.
56274.
Same 1/7 mile Rd.
3.
50.
Yeah.