Address—Doug Buchanan
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Like to continue with Ephesians?
Chapter 3.
Ephesians 3 verse one for this 'cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which has given me to you word how that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote a four and a few words, whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge.
Of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ.
By the gospel whereof I was made a minister.
According to the gift of the grace of God-given unto me by the effectual working of His power unto me, who am less than the least of All Saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning.
World has been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God.
According to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him.
Wherefore I desire that ye faint not.
At my tribulations for you, which is your glory for this 'cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.
That Christ may dwell.
In your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love.
May be able to comprehend with All Saints what is the breadth and length, and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think.
According to the power that worketh in US, unto him be glory.
In the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without in Amen.
Let's all say it. Amen.
It's true.
What a wonderful purpose, what a wonderful council.
Made one in Christ Jesus.
Well, where we begin in verse one, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ for you.
It's nice, beloved, to go back and read a little church history sometimes and appreciate what it costs some of our forefathers to hold the truth and to preserve it for us. These Bibles and we have in our hands, you know they cost something. I'm not just talking about the leather and the paper between them.
I'm talking about.
Resisting the efforts of the enemy to stamp it out.
And blot out the purpose of God many lives.
Many lives.
Were given.
Among those Paul himself.
Now doesn't speak here of his martyrdom, but history tells us that perhaps he was martyred, but it does say he was a prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. Now that includes us.
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I believe if we went back and read through that book of Acts, you wouldn't notice that when Paul began preaching the gospel.
That was given to him. There was a great resistance to it, especially by the Jews.
And let's go back and notice in the 22nd chapter the point, the point at which they really rise up in in anger against him.
In Acts 22.
He is recounting his conversion of his conversion. How that light from heaven.
Struck him down there on the way to Damascus.
Before he was saved and in verse.
21.
He's speaking about the vision that he had, and he's recounting it before those that are resisting him. And he says, And he said unto me, That's the Christ in glory, depart, for I will send the far hints unto the Gentiles. And they gave him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices, and said, away with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not fit.
That he should live.
This was the point.
The Jews. Neither did they want the ministry that Paul was bringing.
Neither did they want him to give it to the Gentiles. They hated that even worse. But Paul was faithful and so here he says he was a prisoner for you, Gentiles, for our sakes. He paid that price in faithfulness to God. He couldn't hold back from giving out this mystery of God that had been given to him by revelation. He saw.
That it was given. You know, sometimes we're not too faithful about carrying on, you know, the ministry that's given to us. But Paul was faithful even unto prison.
So maybe it'll help us have an appreciation for it. It cost him something to do this, and he mentions it to these Ephesians.
If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, that is, it's those of us who have heard it. And we've heard it, beloved. You've heard it in your home assemblies, in your families, many places, in your own personal readings of the Scriptures, the ministry that Paul gave us, a special instrument chosen of God. And so we're debtors to him. We're debtors to the Lord who sent him.
The grace of God.
How that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery?
Here we get him coming up to the the grand point of his revelation, the mystery of God and we've spoken on that. The mystery is described here in these somewhat in these following verses that Christ and the church are made one all throughout the Old Testament. This is never revealed and we spoke a little bit about how God tried man in the past dispensation before this.
And he went through various trials of men and now as we look back on it.
Through Prowl's revelation and the unfolding of the whole plan of God, His purposes and counsels, we see that God had in mind bringing out this mystery, this plan that He had to have a bride for Christ.
Not only here on earth, not just the people around him, like a king with all the Kingdom around him and a beautiful place of peace here on earth, but we see that God had a higher plan to have a people with him in glory around his Son the Lord Jesus, to dwell with him and to relate to him and to share with his counsels and his conversations and his purposes.
And all the attributes of God to have someone to share it together with.
We are those chosen ones. The mystery of God. It's unfolded now. It couldn't come out until Christ came. It wouldn't have made sense for God to speak of these things before Christ came. The known relationship between God and man, the incarnation of Christ. He had to become a man first. Before he could have a relationship with us like he planned to have in glory. He had to become a man like us.
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So that he could make us people that would be able to be with him there in glory. And so he's done this.
By revelation, you know, we depend on God to make himself known to us. There's never been anybody, anybody in the world that's gone out with the brilliant mind and began studying and searching with telescopes or microscopes or books or encyclopedias and has found out anything about God.
Unless God has chosen to reveal himself.
Oh, he has revealed himself in the creation. In many ways, it says God has spoken.
In Hebrews 1.
Divers places and manners. And he has. But when it came to the revelation of the real precious thing that God had to give us and to share with us, he chose Paul.
You know, it's interesting to consider who who God chose to write the different books.
You take for example the four gospels, the book of Mark for example.
It presents us the servant in all this power here on earth. He chose Mark, John Mark, who was an imperfect servant, and he wrote that book when he wanted to write about the Son of Man, when he wanted to make himself known as the Son of Man, he chose a doctor, a physician.
Luke and he wrote, and so he has a purpose in the in the vessels. When he wanted to write about the Son of his love, he chose perhaps the youngest of the disciples, John, and the one who had leaned on his bosom, the one who is perhaps the nearest and to him at least.
Showed an appreciation for it, John.
It's interesting that he didn't choose Peter to write any of the Gospels. You know, Peter was along with him.
But you know the Peter denied the Lord.
And the Lord didn't use them then for that ministry of that previous to that, Oh, we have much of it recorded.
But he did use Peter to write about other things later.
And he chose Paul.
That zealous man that went beyond many others.
In his cause, but was totally opposed to what God was planning to do. He picked up a man who was directly in conflict with him, turned him around 180°. He said. Now I'm going to make you the minister to unfold what my my plan is.
For this age.
Or for all ages, the mystery of God.
Oh, it's a great contrast. It says in Philippians, he's a pattern. And we spoke before of how God, you know, to make known the riches of his grace, he chooses lost sinners.
And raises them up into heavenly places and makes them family members, the household of God.
Quite a contrast, isn't it?
So we have. By revelation, God has come out and revealed himself to us, to our hearts. Wonderful.
He wants to make himself known to you, dear believer.
To each of us.
He desires our company.
Not just now.
He likes us so much, he wants us to be with him forever.
You know, you know I, I heard this council.
I'll just throw this out because I think it's good.
You don't marry somebody because you think you can live with them all your life.
You marry someone because you can't live without them all of your life.
That's what God.
Came sent his son down into this world, for he wanted us to live with him for all eternity.
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But he had to do various trials of man first in order to bring it out by grace. Otherwise you might say it wouldn't have been fair. You know, I, you know, I like it when I see a little bit of that going back and forth, the words of how, what rules we're going to use to play our games. Different ones have different opinions. You know, how it should be done.
And I appreciate you respecting how it was decided upon by those who made the rules here. And there's some adaptations maybe to fit Lassen, and that's great.
Well, the Lord He has chosen to be to reveal himself to us.
By by through Paul.
Verse 4.
Whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge and the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, that is, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.
It's nice to see that the other apostles and prophets are mentioned here too. Would seem that they though principally it was Paul that got this revelation, but they must have acquiesced and given their testimony to it too. And so the whole body of Christ as it began there, the apostles and prophets, they were unanimous in this. They saw that it was of God. It was rather difficult for them to.
Accept Paul in the beginning, you know, of course, this is much later, and Paul had proved that his ministry was real.
And so it isn't just Paul that made it known.
He's the one that largely wrote about it. I presume that the others took it around by word of mouth.
And carried it.
And the grace of God allowed Paul to be a prisoner. Probably one of the reasons that we would seem from Scripture was so that he wouldn't just carry it by word of mouth. But when he was in prison, he was forced to write it down and to send it out.
And that's why we have it written down in black and white.
That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ by the Gospel. Now this was written by a Jew.
And you notice in the New Testament there was a struggle that went on because God had only been dealing with the Jews up until that period of time. And now that the gospel was beginning to go out to the Gentiles, there was a resistance to it and there was difficulty even by the believers.
And whether the Gentiles should be as circumcised or keep the law of Moses. And all these things came into question. They had to hash it out. They had to find out from God what God's order was for this age or this new dispensation when the church was being formed.
The mystery that was being opened up to be seen and understood.
Out of both bodies, or that is, both nations, the Gentiles and the Jews, one body.
But you know, as we look on it back, as we look on it, back on it now.
I really feel that, beloved, it's a greater privilege to be a gentile.
Than even a Jew, because God did use those Jews to prove a lesson.
And he's going to fulfill all those promises made to them. But God's real purpose, beloved, wasn't first of all their blessing here on earth as He's going to fulfill.
But as it were, he had to set some of these things aside and so he could bring out his real plan.
Christ and the church and the people in heaven. And so I believe, looking at it from the New Testament perspective, now that we've got this issue of where the Jews are and what God used them for, they were kind of like the trial sheet, the trial run until God could bring out the real run, the real thing.
Christ and the Church, one body, a people with Him, and that he could unfold the riches of his grace and the riches of his glory, and shower it abroad upon a people to enjoy it together with him.
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Verse 7.
Where? Whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God-given unto me by the effectual working of his power.
Unto me, who am less than the least of All Saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Paul here speaks of it as a gift given to him.
He was made to realize, you know, that he didn't deserve this place. What a privilege it was to be the instrument that would unfold this revelation from Christ.
From ascended glorified head, there in glory the Lord Jesus Christ.
Through Paul to make known now.
All this great mystery.
In First Corinthians 15.
That speaks about He was. That is, Christ was seen last of all by Paul. That is, I believe perhaps Paul was the last one to see Christ.
After his resurrection, well, actually Paul really saw him. After his ascension, the heavens opened up and Paul was taken up there and he saw Christ in glory and he made this revelation known from from there.
It's a miracle. It's God's working.
A gift.
Well, 11 can't help but feel beloved that it as it was a privilege. It was an act of grace to give Paul that privilege of carrying out that ministry, making it known. And so it is for us. We didn't deserve this. We didn't deserve to be the dispensers of A2 and to pass it on from one another.
God could have done it and just showed it to a few.
And then said, yeah, that's good, great. Up to here now no more that's I've got enough. But he's chosen to pass these things on from generation to generation for one believer to another. And Paul speaks about that to Timothy. That which thou hast heard of me among many faithful among many witnesses that commit thou also to.
Going to have to. I'm going to have to read it. I guess I'm getting it quoted wrong.
Second Timothy 2 and the verse two and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. Beloved Paul has committed it to us or to others and the others have committed it to us in a certain sense and in one way we go right back to Paul because we.
Right down from him here. Well, if it was an act of grace for him to do that, it is for us too, beloved.
To carry it out, to appreciate it. The truth of God in the New Testament isn't given in such a way, so you can just assent to it mentally.
And then verbally communicate it to others also. No, beloved. You got to get it in your soul. And Paul got it into his soul and he lived what he preached. It was real to him.
You know, sometimes we're asked and we got into this little discussion about this in our cabin, you know, Well, it hasn't God-given the gifts to all the church and are we therefore privileged to go and just to listen to anybody who has gift? Well, I believe we see in here in this verse.
And Timothy that.
Yes, it's true, God has given many gifts.
But it's one thing to have an understanding of the Scriptures and it's another thing to walk in it. And which if if you have two people here, one's very knowledgeable in some truth, and then you have another person who's not only knowledgeable, but that he walks in it, which one do you really want to listen to?
Which one is least likely to lead you astray?
Well, I don't think I need to answer that for you. And so that's true of these things. You know, the children, like the children of Israel in the land of Canaan, who physically went in and possessed the land of Canaan. It was all given to him, It was all theirs, and they could take it and use it.
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And the enemy could never resist them if they win in faith or in obedience to the Word of God. And they did conquer as long as they were depending on the Lord. But if they didn't walk in it, they didn't really possess it. If they didn't plow those fields up and plant them and sow their seed, it wasn't really theirs. And that's the way it is today, too. And that's why a brother spoke, you know, about getting the Word not only in our head, but in our heart and.
Feet, same thing.
And so here we have Paul, and it was given to him to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. This reminds me of the case back in the Old Testament Genesis when the servant was sent out by Abraham to to find a bride for his son.
And so he goes, and he goes back to the land of his father's nativity to find a people.
To find a bride, someone compatible, someone of the same likeness.
For Isaac.
And that servant, he arrives there, you know, and he seeks the Lord's guidance. And we've often enjoyed that, that chapter. And it's got many principles even for finding a, a, a spouse and in this day and age.
What is it that the servant does when he meets Rebecca and he believes that she is that chosen 1?
He opens up his treasures and he pulls out of his bags those gifts, gold and silver, and put some upon the bride, and he also gives to the family.
Oh beloved, that's what the Lord wants to do today.
The unsearchable riches of Christ. What does Christ have now, today in glory? Oh, he's got everything. All the kingdoms of the world. Heaven is all subject to him. The inheritance is great. It's grand.
Everything that we look at on here today, here at Lassen, the Lord is in possession of it all. It's all his.
He's got control of it and he's going to put it all in order one day. We see not yet all things put in subjection under him. It says in Hebrews, but we see Jesus. That's what we see. And as we look at him there, let's let's consider the unsearchable riches that he has. We're a wealthy people because we're married to Christ.
We're chosen the bride.
And everything that belongs to him is ours. He's honorable. You know, that's, that's the way it is. And, and, and most lands when you marry someone, everything that each one owns is common. Your joint heirs, not just half as one and half as the others, your joint heirs together. And so it speaks in Romans that we're joint heirs with Christ.
But if we do not?
Discover these riches, these treasures. If we don't discover how rich our savior is and the the virtues that he has. It's not just material things, but it's the virtues of his character, of his nature and everything about him. He's wonderful.
If we don't discover those things, even though we're the richest people in the world, we're going to go through life like a beggar, like a a pauper.
As a Christian, I say, and so that's one of the purposes of reading. That's why we have here these verses up on the wall to direct ourselves to Christ. That's why it's so important that we lay hold of who he is.
Isn't it wonderful to think that way back in the Old Testament when Moses prayed there in Exodus, show me thy glory.
You know God was going to answer that prayer.
What he did there to Moses was just only a little preview, only a little something to to to get him by until God could really bring out what he wanted to show the glory.
He had in his plan all along.
That he was going to send the Lord Jesus down, and that he was going to gather together in one all in Christ.
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And so the Lord has answered that we see Jesus.
How wonderful.
Verse nine and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. It brings even brings in even the the first creation. Here God's purpose even in creating the first creation was so that he could have a people in the new creation.
For himself.
First, end to the intent that now.
Unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God. We spoke of that the other day. The other beings in the heavens learn the counsels of God, the purposes of it, in what Christ is doing with His people here on earth.
Verse 11 According to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, this was His plan way back in the beginning, the eternal purpose.
Nothing new, but it was recently unfolded. It couldn't be unfolded until Christ was risen.
In whom verse 12 we have boldness and access with confidence by faith, by the faith of Him. And so we have the preaching the gospel here, here each night.
How wonderful the Gospel brings us into all of this, Beloved. The Gospel isn't just the forgiveness of sin, a fire escape from hell.
Its entrance into the whole plan of God, his counsels and access. You know, I don't know if any of you let me just have a show of hands. Has there been, is there anybody in this room who has personally visited a president of any country or a Prime Minister here? We've got one.
Two.
Two people. Interesting. Just only two out of this audience that have personally visited a nobility or president or king and so or so forth.
I don't know. I don't expect maybe I'll ever have that privilege either. But I did. I did witness and gave a track to a candidate one time in Peru and in Bolivia, and I considered that a great privilege. But you know that when that when we have high nobility or people of importance.
It's hard to get near him and I've had a very difficult time getting close enough to some important ministers or or department heads. Sometimes a lot of you business people will know about this or maybe the salesman is even more. Yet it's pretty hard to get access sometimes to the high ups, the beloved, we have access.
We ask access. You know, I remember story once about a man that wanted to get access to important man and he couldn't. He went and the secretary turned him back and the guard turned him back and everybody else turned him back.
Finally he found a little little boy that was a friend of the one of the family members. And so they came along, you know, and this little family member of this important person, he just took them and they walked right straight on you. And none of the guards ever asked the question. The secretary no straight on in. Why family member access?
None of you ever knock on the door when you enter home, do you?
Access confidence. That's what we have in Christ, even though he's a holy God for all that sins washed away. Access confidence. No Fear. There's No Fear in love. Perfect love casteth out fear. Well, our time is running out here. We want to get down to this prayer.
Wherefore I desire that ye faint not that my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now we have the second prayer of this book.
And this prayer, you might say, now the truth has been revealed, their eyes have been opened up to see the mystery of God, the purposes and counsels of God. He prays first that that that the the message would get inside in chapter one, the prayer, but now the message is inside. They've got it now how are they going to carry it out? How they going to have strengths to go on in this?
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And this is what this prayer helps us for. Oh, you know, it's not only necessary to get these things into your hearts, but.
To go on, beloved, in the good of what God has given us.
There's there are enemies, we've had a ministry about it, there's a conflict here in all these things and how are we going to have strength in as those privileged ones who are the nearest and dearest to the Lord?
And not lose it, or not give it up, or not go astray.
Oh, the apostle prays here for them that verse 16 that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. It's the Spirit of God that gives strength. He sent the Spirit down to indwell us. We have the resources. The problem is when we don't depend on Him.
As we had this morning in the prayer meeting.
That's when the difficulties come in, the interruption, the lost confidence, the lot that the lost sense of what our position really is in Christ. And so this is our this is our strength.
Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
Will as long as a believer is trusting in the strength of the Lord by the Spirit, he will never fail. The failure comes when we trust in ourselves or something else.
And so the apostle prays for them. But notice here the, the, the other part, I, I think it's beautiful to hear, to notice here how that love comes in. You know, love is the main string, the principle string of Christianity. It's the motivating power of Christianity.
And I want to, I want to, I want to add another compliment or a comment to you, dear young people, about your conduct this year. I, I want to 2nd what was just said at the beginning of this meeting. I've noticed it and I appreciated it and I believe I have seen.
That love here is motivating you. It isn't the rules and regulations. Wally hasn't spent very much time at all, only a few things as he really mentioned.
And you have gone beyond his word. It isn't just the just how far we can go and before we get caught here. It's love constraints us and that's the that's the way it is in Christianity and that's why Paul brings in here the love of Christ. Oh beloved, if what the Lord has done for us on Calvary's cross and in bringing us into this this.
Privilege of being his special people chosen for heaven. If that doesn't motivate us to obedience and following a hymn, what else ever could?
Love, it's love. And that was the failure that came in, in the in the Ephesus.
In the, in the, in the Book of Revelation, thou hast left thy first love. And so this is the point we want to guard, beloved, your first love.
Let me read those verses that Christ verse 17 May dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with All Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.
Oh beloved, the love.
Constrains us and it will keep us in the path strength to go on.
In this great privileged place.
And then he closes with this prayer, with these last two verses, and he doesn't say to them now, Ephesians, I know you can do it.
How often we've been told that, you know?
And I don't say that's all wrong in a natural sense out in the volleyball games or in the baseball and so on to encourage one another and say now I know you can do it.
Now he says unto him, that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.
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According to the power that worketh in US.
He knows who can make them do it and he prays and mentions that. What a confidence.
Is every St. of God going to make it? Why, unto him that is able, and he's going to get all of them there. Well, let's make it so right now too, and so that the Lord won't have a difficult time getting us there. Shall we close?