Address—Doug Buchanan
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
I'd like to continue.
Our thoughts this morning on the Councils of God.
One of the verses we quoted yesterday morning.
Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water.
But a man of understanding will draw it out.
We'd like to draw out from that Council.
I'd like to encourage all of you. These meetings are only just helps introductions.
Little pointers here and there, we're not going to be able to touch the surface.
For the thoughts of God towards us.
And I particularly had it on my heart to speak on this because young people, I think we need to realize that it isn't just exhortation.
Admonishings.
Rules and regulations that make us become better Christians.
There's a verse in Psalm 10 that says They that know thy name will put their trust in thee. Do you really know God?
Does my heart really know God?
The more we get acquainted with him, the more it will make us.
Like him?
Like he wants us to be.
So we must make that decision.
What do you want to be?
What do you want to do with your life?
Who do you want to follow? Who's going to be your Lord?
Is it the Lord Jesus I trust so?
We're here for that purpose.
Learning to follow him.
Become disciples.
It's a lifelong process.
Learning to know him unsearchable riches there are.
And I believe it's the more we get acquainted with him.
Our lives will be more like him, more pleasing to God, more beneficial to ourselves, to our neighbors, those about us.
Even more beneficial for all of us here at Lesson Today.
Now yesterday we went back and we started from Genesis.
Little the plan of God.
There's one verse I didn't touch on in the first chapter of Genesis.
Remember when God made the world, He said, let there be light, there was light.
And he said, let there be a dry firmament, and there was.
But when it came to making man.
It says.
And God said, let us make man in our image and our likeness. Let us.
I believe that's the first time in the Bible we have.
A council meeting.
Of God.
Why does there? Why is there that different?
Oh, it's a privilege to be a human being.
Because God set his affections on humans.
He put us in a special place, and before he made us, He took special counsel with the Godhead himself. The Trinity was there.
That's how it all started.
Special objects.
You know, sometimes.
And some of you sitting near the back will forgive me. You know, sometimes we notice in as young people grow up, special needs.
Sometimes we see hearts crying out for little attention and it shows itself in different ways.
One of the peculiar ways that it shows out sometimes is a little foolishness and a little naughtiness in public to become noticed.
Well, I don't really think that's the right way to get attention, but I think God does notice it.
And I think he's made provision for us.
00:05:02
There's better ways to get it, and I hope we learn to grow up.
And I hope that as we go on through life, we become more familiar with God's purpose, a blessing for us.
God said let us make man.
You can think about that as yourself. We all can. God thought about us, and He took counsel.
We traced it through Indiana brief how that Adam and Eve sinned.
It looked like they spoiled the whole creation, the first creation of God, but it wasn't. God knew beforehand what was going to happen.
He knew he was going to send the Lord Jesus.
He knew the Lord Jesus was going to have to come down here and die. The Lord himself told his disciples that over and over. That was planned way back in eternity.
Things are never out of control with God when he let something happen.
There's a reason for him letting it happen, even when he turned Satan loose to tempt us and to test us.
There's a reason probably that we have to unlearn something.
First, before we can learn what God wants to teach us.
So this learning process is an unlearning process too, because we have that old nature.
The Lord Jesus came down to give us life, and we noticed that it was only then.
That God could really come out in the open and declare plainly to us all of those councils that he had way back in eternity.
We noticed also from Corinthians how that in the end, after the Lord Jesus has finished 1000 years of rain.
And when he has put into subjection all power and authority, and everything is put back into His perfect original state, the Lord Jesus is going to give it all back to God. And there's going to be a man there that turns it all back to him in perfection, just like it was, or even better.
Than it was when God made it the beginning.
That's the whole span of time that we've talked about.
Now today I'd like to dwell a little bit more on the part that applies to us, and this time here we're in.
I'd like to pick up again with Ephesians one where we left off and we'll read part of chapter one of Ephesians verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.
To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved.
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
According to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to the good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times.
He might gather together in one all things in Christ.
Both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him.
Whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things, after the counsel of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory. Who first trusted in Christ, in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth.
The gospel of your salvation.
In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of His glory.
00:10:17
That'd be far enough unto the praise of his glory.
Is that what we want to be?
There are two men in the Bible. The 1St man we read about him.
Yesterday, Adam Eve.
We read about how they fell. They lost their position.
They lost their control.
Of the first creation.
You ever wonder why there's wild animals out there?
We lost it way back there.
Why is there sin in the world? We lost control.
Why are there sicknesses, infirmities, problems in the environment?
We surrendered it up to Satan. He got the upper hand back then.
He took it away from us. He robbed it from Eve. He stole it.
Nobody.
That is not overcoming. Satan is in free control of their life. There's no such thing as a free moral agent as long as Satan is running around in this world having the upper hand.
The Lord Jesus wants to undo that. He's going to undo it.
That's sure. The counsels of God are sure.
If you want to be on the winning side, you better get on his side.
You better follow his rules.
But they're more than rules.
There are councils and purposes of blessing.
You know the angels up in heaven are looking down at us here in this morning. They were looking last night when the gospel was preached.
I imagine they were shaking their heads. There were any fools here?
That weren't taking up the offer of salvation before it's too late.
Because never have they had that presented to them, I can imagine.
They would long for a second chance.
But they'll never get it.
You and I do.
Let's not spoil it. Let's not depart.
From God's counsel, purpose of blessing.
Well, here the apostle Paul.
He said, I have not shunned to declare unto you all the councils of God. That verse tells us that Paul was the last instrument that God would use.
In unfolding his counsels, and it's largely through the apostle Paul in the New Testament that we have the counsels of God, the purposes of God, the ways of God, the church, the rapture.
Much of the doctrine that we hold dear is through the Apostle Paul.
Special special messenger chosen for that.
He wasn't any better than anybody else. In fact, he was worse, and that's the reason God chose him.
So if there's anybody here that thinks that maybe they're not good enough, or maybe they've caused too many problems or already spoiled their reputation here at Lassen Pines or in their own home assembly, or maybe even in your own home.
Remember, God loves you.
He likes to take that kind of person and change him and make him like the Lord Jesus.
And all of us here that are saved, that's what we are. That's what we were.
It's a wonderful thing to be blessed in that way. Paul wrote this and he knew what he was talking about. Calls himself the chief of sinners. How marvelous, he writes here. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
With all spiritual blessings, there isn't anything that God is holding back from you of blessing this morning.
00:15:05
Why? Because the Lord Jesus has opened up the doors so that God can even pour out blessing to the ungodly. Because it's no longer on the basis of our own goodness, it's on the basis of God's grace.
And it glorifies God to accept that.
To take your place as a lost Sinner.
Recognize the Lord Jesus died for you. You washed your sins away.
There's joy in heaven over every Sinner that repents.
Because God loves such. He loves you and he loves me.
And not only does He love us, He wants us to bring. He wants to bring us all into the goodness of this blessing.
Oh, and if our souls could only get ahold of this.
That's what transforms lives.
We heard some remarkable stories these last few days of how lives were transformed.
Augustine way back years, years, hundreds of years ago.
Transform Paul here another one. There have been cases today. I've seen it over and over again.
And I could tell you lots of stories, but we don't have a lot of time here, so we're not going to digress too much on the stories this morning.
Now it says with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, the verses that we ended up with last yesterday where versus 10.
9/10/11 I'd just like to drop down to them for a moment.
Speak about the heavenly blessings, because in those two, those verses we have.
Parts.
Of the purposes of God.
Enjoying all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.
Now I'd like to go back and connect that with what we were saying about Eve and about Exodus, about paying double.
I believe the Lord Jesus has come down and he's paid the price.
And he's paid it double. Not only has the Lord Jesus come back to restore this first creation, all that Adam and Eve spoiled and we continue to spoil by following the evil path from time to time.
Not only is the Lord Jesus going to set all that back in order in the Millennium, there's no there's going to be no such thing as an open rebellion in the Millennium. There'll be secrets in yes, but the minute it manifests itself, or the day it manifests itself, the Lord will judge it.
So there will be sin, but it won't be allowed.
Then he's going to put it all in this right place. That's the first creation, all that we look about here.
Men talk about the problems, ecology, the environment and so on. I think a lot of it is forgetting that the Lord Jesus is the one that's really going to put it back in its right order.
The earth has to do with this earth, what he has given to us now to live in, to dwell. But the Lord Jesus is also His thoughts go back, go farther than man's. As the heavens are higher above the earth, so are God's ways higher than our ways.
When man spoils it down here, and when they rejected the Lord Jesus down here, the Lord Jesus said that God said to the Lord, then all right, they won't have you down here, I'll take you up in heaven.
When the Lord Jesus goes back into heaven.
And John 17 before he goes back.
He prays for you and me. He prayed for those disciples there, and included you and me, and all the rest of his own. And he says, Father, I will, that though they whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.
Has that ever entered into your soul? What the meaning of that is the effect?
That's our title to heaven. That's the only way we get there ever, because the Lord Jesus wanted us there. And that brings in and introduces the second heart paying double.
Returning double to God not only here on earth, but heaven.
We've got it best in both worlds, young people, this life, the life to come in heaven. This is our proper portion. This is what God has chosen us for. This is what this dispensation, this time period that we're living in is about. The special purpose of God right now is not to populate the earth to make it a better place to live.
00:20:22
Oh we shouldn't spoil it. I don't think it's proper to go out and abuse the creation.
I think we need to respect God's right and order that He established in all things of our human relationship too. They still in effect, God instituted marriage and we ought to respect it. All these things are part of the first creation.
There's not going to be marriage in heaven, but there's going to be the marriage of the lamb, something higher and better.
We learn to understand it through the family relationships. Little children learn what love is from their parents. That's usually the 1St place. It's one of the first things we need to teach our children, among many others.
But God's thoughts now.
Are to bless us with spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
He wants us to lay hold of that and I believe young people, that particular attack of the enemy is to destroy that.
Satan is intelligent enough to know where to attack.
The special thing that God is doing now here on earth in the proclamation of the gospel and calling sinners, and into fill God's house in heaven, is to fill heaven.
Take poor human beings, make them acceptable to God.
Present them to him.
The world doesn't see this going on. It's not apparent what's going on.
That souls are being taken out of the first creation, born again.
With a new life, the same life they're going to have in heaven.
That already can enjoy these things of God.
And.
They don't notice that the Lord is filling heaven with converts right now.
They don't notice the Kingdom of Heaven, but it's being formed now.
And Lord willing, we'll talk more about that tomorrow.
Verse four. According as He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
You see, this wasn't a second thought with God, His purpose of blessing to you and me. It wasn't that God walked along and all of a sudden, here, late on the history of the earth, He noticed the poor downcast person that was.
In sin and need. And he said, Oh well, I'll I'll show him some kindness.
No.
We might feel a little disappointed if that were just it, but God had this plan and purpose before He laid the foundations of the world. That is, He made all with this in view.
You have a little picture of it perhaps, and Adam and Eve just come to me now. Eve was made for Adam, not Adam 3.
And that order continues on today. And there's a reason.
It fits in with God's plan.
God made us.
Or rather, I should say God made all of the creation for.
It says by Him and for him, and I believe when it includes Him, it includes all of the Lord's people.
And it's wonderful to look on the creation and go out and enjoy the stars and the scenery.
Climb up the mountain, play the games and all.
Recognizing that God made all these things just for us.
For the Lord Jesus and all his people.
00:25:00
So he chose us in Him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame, holy as to nature and without blame as to character.
Are we that?
Well, we well know that oftentimes we don't act that way, do we? But in Christ, that's how we are seeing.
That's the only way God will ever view us.
And it's only that which we do and act in our lives that is for Him that'll ever pass on into the new creation. That's where the judgment seat of Christ comes into play. That's where you have the big, the big fire that takes care of all the rubbish.
Be thankful to get rid of all that rubbish them.
But here we have the position that God sees us in.
It's wonderful to understand, It's very important to understand young people, the difference between our state and standing.
This this verse is talking about our standing.
God could never accept us in heaven on any other basis than our standing in Christ. That never changes.
Our state, our personal appreciation of these things.
It goes up and down. One day we may be real, spiritual and living close to the Lord.
Another day we may be way down.
God doesn't accept us on that basis. We never get to heaven on that basis.
We need to keep that.
That condition right up there where God sees us, and when we do that, then we are enjoying the things of the Lord.
Verse 5 having predestinated us.
Unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
Predestination. Telling beforehand, deciding the destiny beforehand.
Oh, it's a wonderful thing to look back over the the door of salvation when you walk through, when you take the Lord Jesus as your Savior and look back and say he had me all marked out and chosen beforehand.
Wonderful thing there's anybody that's insecure about their salvation.
Oh, this is what gives security, recognizing that the Lord Jesus died on Calvary's cross and that God, not only has he saved me, but he had me marked out ahead of time, purpose for this particular cause. And he's the one that brought about the right circumstances, brought the gospel to us. He's the one that touched our hearts and changed us.
Because he wanted us for the adoption of sons.
You know the story, you know the parable about the the marriage feast and the invitation the wedding sent out so often beautifully used in the Gospel. And they despised the messengers of the invited to the marriage. One of my favorite things to go to is a happy wedding. All of us enjoy that. It's one of the most happy times of anyone, naturally, the happiest time of anyone's life probably.
It's nice to participate in it, something that all the young ladies look forward to.
In the will of God, and God gives us those earthly relationships.
I believe to help us to understand the heavenly side. What do we know about heaven?
Mostly it's just by comparison. We know things. What are there? There are two wonderful Paul said. He couldn't describe it, but we understand it through our earthly relationships.
Christ in the Church.
The marriage relationship.
It's wonderful and so forth, Children of God, where everybody here is a children, a child of a parent.
We know what that is.
God is our Father.
The Lord Jesus is his Son. We are maiden sons. We are brought into this family relationship. The Father's house is called and John into the Father's house. I believe that's a near and dear relationship, a place then reigning over the earth during the Millennium. That'll be wonderful.
00:30:00
But I believe there's something even more sublime, blessed, than that.
Sunship the adoption of sun Whenever scripture speaks about adoption, it speaks about.
Choice. All adopted children are chosen. None of my children were chosen in that sense. They were all born.
Children that are born into a family have the same life and nature as their parents. Children that are adopted have a different nature. They're different parents, but they are chosen and so they have a special place that has sent. The person born does not have. By the grace of God, we are both.
We are chosen here in Ephesians, in other places.
It speaks about being born again into the family of God. John the epistle of John example. So we have both.
In the spiritual sense.
Having predestinated us under the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace.
You know, naturally we like to have the praise centered around ourselves, don't we? I remember speaking to one young man about the the gospel.
He wasn't saved.
He didn't really want to hear about it too much.
And he lifted up his arms and he had nice flexes here on these biceps and he said if I get to heaven, it's going to be by my strength.
That isn't to the praise of his glory. There's not going to be anybody in heaven that's up there flexing their arms and their legs and say, and I did it.
No, forget it. Oh, there's a place for for that.
Here on earth, but not in heaven.
The Lord Jesus.
Is the way.
And he's going to have all the praise there.
And if we're not willing to submit that to him?
Forget it.
It's too late not forget it in the sense that I want you to, but forget it in the sense there's no other way. There's no other way. There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. People of the Oriental, the Eastern religions rationalize and they look at it as bigoted, the Christian faith.
To say salvation is only through one person.
How exclusive can you get, they say.
Now granted, it is very exclusive. It's all exclusive.
God didn't say that till after testing man for 4000 years.
And do you think that after sending the Lord Jesus, who lived a perfect life here on earth, never told a lie, never disobeyed?
And they took him and crucified him. Nail them to a cross.
Said away with him. We will not have this man to reign over us.
Do you think God really needs another test to see if there's any other way?
No, there's no other way.
Is it wrong after all that that the Lord Jesus be the only one be ahead of the new creation?
Oh, On the contrary, we'll bow and worship. We'll cast our crowns at his feet when we're there.
Because he is worthy.
To the praise of the glory of His grace.
Oh, we'll be thankful then. We're thankful now to be to the praise of the glory of His grace.
And I believe that oftentimes even the unbelievers out in the world.
They look on the Christians and they notice, yes.
They have something worthy.
And following the Lord Jesus. But there's a problem with their wills.
00:35:06
And usually that is our biggest hang up in these things of God, our wills.
That's why repentance is necessary. Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, repentance doesn't really save us as to get into getting favor to God. It isn't really any asset. It's only the work of Christ on Calvary's cross, the benefits us. But repentance is necessary because we got to turn around before we'll even look at God, even look at God's plan of salvation, accept it because naturally we won't have it. We like our own way.
Verse seven, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
According to the riches of his grace.
Redemption.
The price has been fully paid to buy us back to God. That's what redemption is. There's two thoughts and redemption, I believe, setting free and buying back. And that's what God has done. He's brought us back.
Brought us into relationship with him again. You see the.
Distance was so great after the fall of man, there wasn't even yet a common ground where they both could get together.
Kind of reminds me like the peace talks over in the Mideast. Oftentimes they can't even agree on a country to meet to try to talk.
But the Lord Jesus has laid aground where you can stand and start dealing with your God. That's where the blood has been shed.
And those that stand on redemption's ground.
The blood covers and shelters their sins.
Verse 8. Wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to the good pleasure which he hath purposed in Himself. That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth even in Him. There we have the two parts.
Heaven and earth and it's all going to be brought into.
Relationship with Him and Lord willing, tomorrow we will look on to more particularly the part that applies to us, the Kingdom of heaven.
Well, our time is up, I believe. Let's close with prayer.