Open—David So
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#18 in the back.
Yeah.
No.
Turned with me to Ephesians chapter 4.
Ephesians chapter 4 beginning at verse one.
I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you and ye walk worthy of the vocation, wherewith ye are called with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit.
In the bond of peace there is one body, one Spirit, even as he are called in one whole of your calling, 1 Lord, 1 faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all, and in you all.
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It's not my desire to expand on these verses, nor do I profess and know what well enough to do so.
But to share a few thoughts.
This morning we enjoy the thought that we have one that we can look steadfastly upon.
We talk about him as the One. Perhaps show us how he got your trials and tribulations for our sake.
This portion that came to my attention is that the apostle Paul brought out or opened the statement an interesting, interesting statement. He did not say I the apostle for the Gentiles.
He said I therefore.
The prisoner.
Interesting, isn't it?
We take a lowly place.
That God put us into a lowly place.
Now the previous chapter chapter three opened similarly as some know that chapter 3 in a sense is like a parenthesis. If you have the Darby translation you see the bracket after verse two and then at the end of the chapter. But it begins that by saying for this cause.
I Paul, the prisoner.
It's difficult for us to say what circumstances that the Lord put us into a tougher perhaps than our brethren. I'm not sure if there's such thing because each trial have its own problems and the Lord tests us, strengthened us differently, doesn't he? I was thinking the Apostle Paul, we know that he travel and visits, doesn't he to encourage things.
And be a help wherever he can be. Can you imagine a man like the Apostle Paul?
Had to stop doing what he's doing because he's now a prisoner.
How can God allow that?
On a wonderful man and perhaps in our eyes, doing great work.
He did.
He became prisoner.
But did Paul say, Oh well, I guess now I have to stop doing whatever I wanted to do.
And I suppose depending on who, what your personality is, I can pick you some off. And I used to work us, we'll say, well, the Lord stopped the work.
But what we found was Paul used what was available to him.
During this time as prisoner, he wrote two wonderful books, didn't he? The book of Ephesians that we have before us and the book of Colossians. These two complementary epistle has become great help to many of us throughout the ages. We don't know how God changed plan, why he changed plans and what the purpose really are behind those plans. Do we So if we.
Fully Paul didn't say I Paul the prisoner of Rome. No, let's go back to verse one. Therefore the prisoner of the Lord. Oh, the circumstance he was put into.
He acknowledged is from the Lord, the prisoner of the Lord, and as a prisoner of the Lord, he's beseeching you and I to walk.
Doing what worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. The 1St 3 chapters talk about Our Calling. It's not my thought to go through that in this precious for us to be able to go through those callings. But then verse 2 is what came to my heart. Part of the reason is I have heard Christians complaining that we're losing our rights.
There are many things we can do that we wanted to do.
Do prisoners have right?
I suppose here in the United States and the supposing Canada too, that prisoners claim they have rights and they can demand for things and grilled cheese sandwich from what they understand is not a thing that is suitable for prisoner entity sometimes demand for better food. Well, I'll leave those thoughts aside, but do prisoners really have rights? I don't think so.
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But here the apostle exhort us as prisoner of the Lord. We have things that there are ways we ought to walk. Verse 2.
With all lowliness, I'm not very good at explaining these words, and I'm sure some of you can explain and expound it much more than I can lowliness.
Can you think of an example one who took on the lowly place?
Loneliness.
Meekness.
Moses was the.
Nicest man on earth, but I do not believe meekness is equated with a word pushover. I don't believe Moses was a pushover. He was me. He didn't take any offence. Have you been upset because someone or you thought you heard someone say things that offended you? If you say no, then you're different than most of us.
Do you get offended easily? Do you take offense and do you give offense?
We're long-suffering.
Forbearing one another.
These are pretty true order, isn't it, for us to walk in forbearing one another in love.
Then it goes on, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the new translation set in the United bond of peace.
Keeping that spirit, that one spirit, that one body.
Is precious before God and then they are reminded is following few verses to be reminded that the Trinity is at work to help us, even though we by our own strength may have problem and difficulties doing so. So he reminds us that there is one body.
There is no other way to explain or expound on that. There is one body in the book of Ephesians.
We find in the second chapter.
The apostle mentioned the mystery of the secret, the mystery of God. What is that? You can go back to it and find that it is about that. There is one body and there is a head who is in heaven right now which will be united with the body. That's the mystery of God. That was not expanded to the sayings of all for you and I have the privilege to understand this mystery of God.
And then the third chapter in that parentheses, you go on to expound on the fact that there is another mystery called the mystery of Christ.
History of God that there is one body that we as gentiles.
When we are saved, we are put into that body. But the mystery of Christ? What? Let's just look at that real quick.
Verse Beginning of verse 4. Whereby when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, verse 5. Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto the holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that.
The Gentiles. I believe that most of us here, if not all.
That the Gentiles should be fallow heirs.
Of the same body, and particulars of his promise in Christ by the gospel, and so on.
That's more precious than knowing that we are going to be part of that body and that we will be fellow heir with Christ. Now we'll go back to our our portion there in chapter 4, but there is not just one body in verse four that tells us there is one body and one spirit. The Spirit of God is at work with this body.
Even as you are called in one whole.
Of Our Calling, do you have more than one hope? We have that hope, that blessed hope don't win that one hope. Verse five One Lord not divided. 1 Spirit helping the body now, one Lord, 1 faith, one baptism.
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So we see the Spirit at work now we see the Lord Jesus at work. Verse 6 and I'm sorry, there's no end. 11 God and Father.
Of all. Oh, we see now the Trinity at work for our good, don't we? That one Spirit, that one Lord, now one God.
And a father of all who is.
Above all and through all, it is the precious part. And in some of you.
No, I don't think that's what he said.
In you. Oh, oh, precious thoughts. But it begins here.
With lowliness, What right is that for lowliness?
No, I had a brother said to me a number of months ago now, he said, you know, Christians are not doormat that people can just walk over. We have our rights and we can do things. And I'm ashamed to say that I'm one that when someone fired a question at me, I'm not good at coming up with an answer. And I have a lot of answers afterwards when the need of time is over. But this portion came to me afterwards.
That.
We as Christian begins with loneliness of mind.
Loneliness.
Meekness. long-suffering.
Forbearing one another.
I won't expand too much further on that. Now I'm going to introduce another portion that on the surface doesn't seem to be connected. And I trust that I can connect it together, but such is my thought that often is not good connecting. But I'll share with what I have in my heart. Revelation chapter 20.
I will have to confess another portion that I don't know well.
I don't know about you often. We know Revelation chapter one, two and three quite well.
And maybe 4:00 and 5:00.
And maybe 6-7 and eight as we look at the first of those CEOs.
And then we sort of, I'm sorry, let me use that And I sort of fall off from that and we jump to the end. I don't know how many can relate to that. But you know, there is an interesting about sometimes jumping to the end because when you know how it ends, if you know how it begins and how it ends.
Often is easier to go back and fill in the information.
Now I know it's not always good. I see a young man here. You don't go.
Videotape a football game, knowing who won, and then you go watch the videotape. That's no fun anymore because you know who won. But here we are told how it ends and what is going to happen because I found today that often Christians.
Are so confounded by what's going on out in the world.
There are so many worldly teaching quoting the word of God, but miss applying it and come up with certain doctrine for you to follow and it's sad. So whatever is said, you need to apply it with the word of God. So let's just read a few verses, see if we can connect and see what happened at the end. Verse 20 And I saw an Angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit.
Gray chain in his hand, and he laid hole on the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil and Satan, and bound him 1000 years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him that they should deceive the nations no more.
Till the 1000 years should be fulfilled.
And after that, he must be lose a little season. Let's just stop there.
Interesting portion.
Here's something that's going to happen, he said. I saw an Angel, a mighty Angel, come down. He held that key not to hell, but to the bottomless pit.
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And what a great change to bound someone and cast that into the bottomless pit. And then he said he laid hold off, not the chain now, but a few names are given about this one individual. Let's look at verse two again. He said he laid hold on the dragon. Why is he called a dragon?
I'm not sure some of you have visited a Chinese restaurant.
And when you go in there, you often see Dragons under war. It speaks of power to the Chinese, the scripture look at it as power too. Well, that dragon is that fearful one, that ruthless one that are out to devour and to destroy. So here's one is a dragon. He's the one that would be out to destroy.
And then we find that.
That old serpent, oh, his name is not just a dragon, it's an old serpent.
Dragon speaks of cruelty. Serpent, I believe, would speak of subtlety.
The one that if he knows he can come to you with full force like a roaring lion, he's going to come as the subtle serpent. So we see one character as a cruel dragon and another character of the same person or same being as a subtle serpent and.
Oh, and he has a name and his name. Oh, I'm sorry, I missed one there. Which is the devil.
So $1.00 Wicked, cruel, subtle, wicked one, and his name is Satan. Satan is the accuser of brethren.
He's being OK and he's going to be bound for 1000 years.
For the thousand years to come, man can no longer use the excuse for the devil made me do it. Have you ever used that? Have you ever said that the devil may be do it? Don't blame just the devil. Yes, often he's there, as we mentioned already, that as a dragon or as a serpent or as the devil coming in. But he will be bound for 1000 years. He'll be locked up in the bottomless pit.
He can get out so that he cannot deceive the nations anymore.
That's all part of God's scheme of things.
Does Satan have any control over this? No. Does man have any control over this? No.
Does any Angel of God have any control over this?
This is all his work and as part of his plan at the end of the thousand years, what happened, he's gonna let him lose for a season. And he can reach down in the chapter, which I don't want to take too much more time because I'd like to make room for others to comment on it and just to prove that man's heart hasn't changed after 1000 years.
Where men will live without Satan's influence. Where righteousness.
Would rule but as soon as that constraint is removed, man's heart remained the same. Now imagine God and Magog and other can expand on it more. I don't believe this portion of God and Magog is the same God in Magog at the end of the tribulation. So here God is in great control of our time, of things that's to come, of all the events.
We know from the beginning, we're told, live for Christ.
With loneliness of mind, meekness, temperance and so on and so on and at the end he's going to win. Now perhaps just one more in the end of this chapter. We often use this in Gospel verse 11 There toward the end and I saw a great white throne. Someone mentioned that about a throne earlier on. This is the great white throne hymn that sat on it from.
From whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them, And I saw the dead.
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That word was in my heart too. Who did John see? How many living soul did he found at that point? None.
Because all that we've been one have been taken out. But he saw the dead. This is the second resurrection. He saw the dead, small and great. So often we think about all this little one, all these big ones, but they are.
The dead without Christ and the book. We know the rest of the pastor which is open in verse 13. Man thinks that if someone die and disintegrated the body, God will never find them again.
The threat of nuclear war with total nation, well, there will be nothing left but here tells us. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell.
Deliver up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man according to the works, and then and death and hell were tossed into the lake of fire. This is the second dead. We know this assure things is it? God has told us at the very end before it goes into the eternal state.
And brethren, you and I.
Have the privilege of the Word of God filling in the blanks as if it were for us to see, not for us, so we know what's going to happen tomorrow afternoon, but to know of God's plan, what He has in store for mankind, what He has installed for you and I, and that the blessing is already being given to us.
We've been blessed already in with all blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
So with a little time that is left in this world, we're exalted to walk. We exalted to be a testimony for his namesake. As some of you were here this morning when I made the remark of the prayer meeting, I said it's been my on my heart that I really feel we need to pray one for another because this world has hindered our hearts.
And I'm not looking at anyone or condemning anyone.
But I trust your heart would work. You would exercise these thoughts that the assembly meetings are being missed. The prayer meeting, I heard a brother said use the phrase. He said that's the temperature gauge of the assembly.
I don't know about your assembly, brethren. I don't know about you. Are you attending the assembly meeting? It's so easy to have many here to encourage one another.
It's so difficult to go back and say there are only a handful of us.
But remain faithful.
We need the word of God, we need His help, we need to be at the assembly meeting and we need to encourage one another to be there.