Address—Doug Buchanan
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They have opposite meanings. Let means both to give permit permission and also to hinder. Cleave means to separate, like you cut wood, you cleave wood. It also means to hang together or to be close. That's opposite meanings, and mystery is that way too.
Mystery is something secret that unrevealed.
Also something that is revealed, known maybe to some special people, so maybe you can remember.
The the meaning, that way, the mystery, what we're speaking about.
Let's.
We, some of the young people were just singing #4 here and it goes along real well with our subject. So maybe we could sing to Kim in the Little Flock hymn #4 This last, the whole hymn is very beautiful, but this last verse?
Touching to our hearts.
And could still be delighted with creatures such as we who when we saw thee.
Slighted and nailed it to a tree. Unfathomable wonder and mystery divine. The voice that speaks in Thunder says Sinner, I am thine, let's sing #4.
Well, yesterday we sought to go back and show how in the Old Testament the mystery was unknown, secret things belonging to God. And then we sought to trace it through a little of how all who to whom it was revealed the mystery.
He made it known by revelation something that had not been in the Old Testament.
It comes from God himself. And we also noticed the end in Revelation when the mystery would be finished or completed. That is, it's no longer in its hidden form or hysterical form. It's revealed and openly displayed. And that will take place when after that last Angel sounds and the Lord is revealed from heaven.
Also to be here on earth and reigning.
To fulfill what we read in Ephesians 1 to head up all things in Christ.
God waited 4000 years before he brought that now brought that out. He tried men in different ways, tests dispensations we call them sometimes that is God is was dispensing.
His ways and his thoughts to man in different ways, starting out with innocence and so on.
Giving the law to as a help and all the ordinances.
Then, after all, that proved unfruitful.
God, as it were, says now.
Since I've given you all 4000 years to try it, you all settled the Riddle in in one day or less, but God gave me in 4000 years.
Under different tests. And then he says, as it were, Now I'm going to show you what my thoughts are about it all and how I'm just going to give you the blessing on the basis of grace, on the basis of the Lord Jesus, my Son. He is going to die for you and wash your sins away so you can be capacitated to enjoy it and be redeemed. And then not only am I going to gather around me, but I'm going to take you home to heaven.
The verses were read on Lord's Day morning from John 17.
That prayer that the Lord prayed there before he was going to the cross, and when he said, Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory.
That's the only time in the Bible you really hear the Lord Jesus expressing his will, I believe.
And how wonderful it is that He did express His will. Of course, it wasn't independent of the Father. It wasn't independent of God's thoughts from eternity. It was fulfilling it. But He asked for it, and He asked for you and me, the redeemed ones. He was about to go back to heaven.
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And he didn't want to go back alone.
It's nice to see the young boys and girls sitting together, as well as the husbands and wives. We enjoy that relationship.
And when the Lord Jesus was contemplating the cross going back to heaven.
Because the cross was the way of going back to heaven, He was going to be exalted beyond the power of death to separate, because death separates us for a time.
He was about to go back to the Father and he didn't want to go alone. The Lord could have died for us, you know, and redeemed us, washed all our sins away. Then he could have gone back to heaven and said, now I'm going to live here on high.
I'm going to let all these human beings have been saved. I'm going to let them have the earth and they can, they can live in peace. I'm going to make a Kingdom for them here on earth, but I'm going to be in heaven. But he didn't do that.
No, He loved us so much He wanted to have the people there. This is a part of the mystery. God intended that and he he revealed that.
To us.
It that is the mystery and there's many, there's many facets of it. There's many parts of it. And I don't know that we'll be able to touch on it. And I can't don't think I could explain it all. I don't understand it. I don't comprehend it all. But maybe we can at least get out an idea that it grow in our hearts as we read our our Bibles.
I really appreciated what.
Brother had to say to us this morning here in prayer. It really, really, really encouraged my heart.
How it must encourage the Lord's heart to see the ones for whom He died with the desire to respond.
Some of you have perhaps had then said.
Occasion of a broken up relationship.
Broken up a courtship of some kind or maybe some other broken up relationship. And they're hard things to go through because they deal with the the inmost feelings of our hearts. Well, you know, God made us that way. He gave us those feelings and God made us.
Purposely, I believe distinct from angels and other creatures, because he knew that he was going to have human beings as those that would be united with Christ for all eternity to share with him in all that God enjoys and delights in.
And so God needed an object to share it with. To me, one of the one. When you read the book of Genesis, you get a glimpse of it there. When Adam was first created, he didn't have a helpmate. He was put over the head over all that creation, and he gave everything its name. Everything was under his control.
And Dominion.
But he's alone.
No one to share it with.
And that's when God made the woman the purpose.
That's what the one body truth involves, united to Christ.
We are called now the pre trusters and Ephesians one. Well, let's get let's let's get into the Scriptures here and I'd like to continue on in the book of Ephesians a little.
We read the 1St chapter, a beautiful description there, a wide view of the purposes of God. It's been said that this book Ephesians doesn't give us so much responsibility and.
But it gives us the counsels of God, His thoughts beforehand, what He purposed back in eternity. Just like we were singing our God built the mountains. God had this plan and nothing is ever going to frustrate it. He's going to be fulfilled no matter what it cost, at all cost. God is going to see it through.
Now let's go on to the third chapter and begin reading a little.
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Ephesians 31.
For this 'cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if you 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 afore in few words, whereby when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery 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.
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 of the 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 or through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God.
According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
But just read that far for submit it some thoughts here.
Paul, here a prisoner, was writing this mystery, unfolding it to the Ephesians. He could unfold it to the Ephesians because he didn't have to get bogged down with them with.
Problems of legality and other moral problems like he had to and other epistles.
It's wonderful, you know, when God can take us to the good things.
Along that for you young people too.
We don't want to be here at Lassen all the time calling you up short for things that doesn't give us any any thrills, doesn't give us any joy at all. We don't like to have to be calling down the ones on the back row and so on. And.
Those things sometimes are necessary because if you don't pay attention, you're not going to get up to the real worthwhile things that God has for us. So it's in this book of Ephesians that Paul could unfold some of those things, whereas in other books he doesn't get too much back past getting them out of Judaism.
Well, God is faithful. Paul was a prisoner. He wrote this out of prison. He paid a price to make this known. The Jews no doubt would have let him alone had he just simply stuck to the old ordinances that been given to them and handed down which they had corrupted a lot.
But Paul was true to his calling. He was God preserved, and we know it was of God, but it cost Paul something and so he was in prison when he wrote this.
It had ought to mean more to us that, and it tells us that in itself tells us, you know, that this is not an accepted thing in the world today, nor is it accepted in the Christian circles around us today.
Many of the truths that Paul brought out that involve the true Christian position in the world as those that are called out. There are many circles of fellowship that are so-called Christians to day that will embrace many New Testament truths, but to separate unto Christ the heavenly men in glory.
And to lay aside all that this world strives after.
The materialism and benefits.
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Is not appreciated.
So there is a practical result, dear young people, from laying hold of these truths. It ought to make us different, like we were just heard, like Caleb, a different attitude. That difference ought to be noted among us. And don't feel bad if you're looked at as a little odd because of your Christian testimony.
There's such a thing as being odd in other ways too, but for Christ's sake.
We ought to be willing to be looked at as anything that anybody ever wanted to make us, as long as we're like Christ.
Oh how, how wonderful to be like him. That's what Paul is really praying for here, for the believers.
Like Christ?
Verse three. How that by revelation He made known unto me this mystery?
It was God revealing Himself. This was not in the Old Testament covenants and relationships, and I would like to divert just a little bit here to explain a little bit of the difference in the covenant relationship, or as we call it, the Old Testament and the New Testament.
That what is a covenant?
A covenant is an agreement between 2:00 and I look in it a little bit like a bridge, a go between a bridge. A bridge has two sides. Usually they do anyway. And it's in order to maintain that bridge, you have to have both sides upheld the foundation of some kind to hold up the bridge. And that's what a covenant it's like. It's an agreement between 2:00 and in order for that covenant to maintain.
Valid and good, Both sides have to be maintained. And so God made a covenant with his people. In the Old Testament it was the covenant between God and Israel.
And it included the law and all the ordinances, many other things supportive of it, and ceremonial ways. And now, of course, we know they have their spiritual significance and we learn a lot by them. But for them it was a thing that in order to get to cross the bridge, both sides needed to be maintained.
And so if one side failed.
The covenant would fail itself. What good would it be? And that's the law in all of it. That's those first 4000 years, The Old Testament, when God saw that that failed says when the fullness of time came, that means when God was finished trying man under those relationships, those covenants.
God sent forth his son, born of a woman.
Now that's Christ come down, what for?
All because he was to become the mediator of the new covenant. And so in the New Testament, it's not in a covenant like that old covenant was between Israel and God. It's not a covenant between God and us. It's a covenant between God and the Lord Jesus.
Is that covenant going to maintain? Is it going to stand?
Forever can it breakdown? Never. Let's look at a verse in in Hebrews to show this.
Chapter 12.
Hebrews, chapter 12.
We'll just read the 24th verse, but it's beautiful. Consider the two preceding verses because it really brings out that what Christ is brought out to us and the various spheres their blessing. But verse 24 says and to Jesus the mediator.
Of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
Jesus, the Lord Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant, and he maintains it.
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The Mediator. There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. He's our Savior, and he's the one that shed his blood, and that blood is the new covenant. And that's what God looks at and sees and is satisfied as to all that's here in sin and corruption, and that God can still maintain and keep his side.
Of the covenant and bless us. That's the source of all blessings.
That's the reason that God can forgive sinners, receive them into His house, give them all favor and blessing, and still be just and holy.
These are simple gospel truths. It's all part of the gospel that we preach.
So the new covenant is not exactly between God and us. It's between God and Christ. And we are the beneficiaries, yes, And we come under the shelter of that new covenant, but it doesn't depend on us to maintain some covenant, no.
That's where the mystery is so different, and the whole real character of the New Testament is different in that regards. That's why we cannot lose our salvation, because God maintains us. Christ died for us, and He can't become undead or refuse us when once he has completed the work.
So we.
Are blessed through the new covenant and when we remember the Lord in his death.
We do have that cup there, which the Lord said this cup is the blood of the New Testament. Yes, that that is the symbol of it, that the Lord gave us redemption. He died and he maintains then that covenant and so blessing comes out. But we don't preach the gospel strictly on a responsibility side alone.
Though man is responsible, but we also preach God's purposes and blessings.
And so now God can be just and holy, and he can reveal something to sinners. He can bring them into blessing.
Bring them into his presence. And there's so many beautiful examples of this in the Gospel gospels, how the Lord called the sinners and he ate with them and so on. We we were noticing that on Lords day.
People couldn't. The Jews, the religious Jews, couldn't understand how the Lord could do that. They didn't realize what redemptions work was about to do, what an open door it would make for blessing, how it would open up the doors, and so God could then reveal his thoughts and purposes towards us.
So that brings us up to the mystery that God now.
Can bring out the as it were, secret and manifest.
So it is the revelation.
Paul got that revelation. He was also in another place, caught up into the 3rd heaven and saw things unspeakable.
God, as it were, this seemed to want to confirm it to Paul because he was going to be the message bearer, and so he gave Paul a little glimpse of it.
And Paul was a different man from that day on.
When Paul got a glimpse of heaven.
He there was number danger of him ever becoming worldly minded again. I don't believe in a certain sense now we still have the flesh in him, but think you know what I mean. That is his heart was captivated by what God had shown him there and he then tries to bring it out and he writes of it. And this is the purpose of our being here.
Discover these things of the mystery of God's thoughts, what He purposes for you and for me.
I think of an example in the Old Testament. You remember the case of the unnamed servant in Genesis 24 that was sent to get a bride for Isaac.
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And he took with him on that long journey out of the treasure houses of his master, riches, jewels of gold and silver, and so on. And when he found that bride, Rebecca.
He took and opened up those treasures just there.
And he put them on Rebecca.
And then Rebecca went back to her brother and her family, her father perhaps, if he was there, and they.
Were testimonies.
To the riches of the man to whom she was to be united to and marriage.
Now that's a picture of what the Holy Spirit is doing for us today.
The Holy Spirit has been sent here into this world to get a bride for Christ.
That was God's purpose and he's doing that now, and the world doesn't notice that it's going on and one day they're going to discover when it's all finished.
What God was really doing during this dispensation of the of the grace of God when the bride is being formed, the heavenly bride for Christ. And so one of those things then that that we see in that chapter 24 of Genesis was that he took those.
Jewels and that gold and silver, and put them on Rebecca. Those were testimonies to her and those about her of the wealth and the glory of the one to whom the servant wanted to take her and and make her the bride. And Rebecca was agreeable to that, and she went.
Having never seen.
That man, none of us have seen Christ with our physical eyes. It's by faith. But the Spirit of God reveals him to us in their treasures. And these are the things in the New Testament, in this book of Ephesians, for example, that the Spirit of God would get your soul occupied with so that you would be willing to forsake all around.
And devote your life.
To the man who died for you, and who wants you in heaven with him.
Oh, dearly beloved, if that gets ahold of your soul, you will have no trouble leaving aside the things of the pleasures of this world and things that the enemy has brought, particularly here in the Americas, North America.
To imitate the copy.
That are growing and advancing.
And are going to.
Head up what is called Babylon the Great, and it's interesting that that word mystery is also used there in Revelation. Concerning that false church mystery, I believe Satan has copied God and he has a mystery too. It's also called the mystery of iniquity.
In Second Thessalonians.
And it works. It already works, and it's going to deceive the world.
Or Christendom, Really. It's deceiving Christendom. People are getting carried away with materialism and things of the false church.
The true church, a worldly system, that is. Is it of this world, or is it of heaven?
Are we chosen to be of this world and live forever here and reign here alone?
Or are we chosen for heaven?
It's quite clear. I think we have accepted most of us that in doctrine, but do we accept it in practice?
I know oftentimes I don't. I'm caught up with things about me. I know they are to be used. Yes, we can't get along without the things of this world. We do have to work, and there's nothing wrong with games and physical activities and when they're done in the right way. But if they become the sum total of what we live for, and our thoughts don't rise above those as just a means of other things of more importance.
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Then we've missed the boat somehow.
And we often do.
Let's go on with Chapter 3 a little farther down.
Verse six that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs.
And of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.
This was something totally new. Gentiles. Gentiles were looked down on. They had no relationship with God.
God hadn't formed any covenant with them. They had been given up way back before the days or in the time of Abraham, and since that time God had maintained no relationship with them of any kind other than that they could come along by means of what the Jews had had still of those ordinances and so on. But now?
The mystery comes out and.
God says, as it were. Now I've tried this special people of the Jews and you know, they are quite a smart people, intelligent and they have a lot of gift. And I believe God knew what he was doing when he chose them to be his special people. They are, as it were, the cream of the crop.
But there's something wonderful here for us as Gentiles to see that God tried the Jews to prove to the whole world that no one could keep the old ordinances in the covenant. He used them as a training time. Really. That wasn't God's purpose. Eternal purpose was just to choose Jews and to give them certain covenants and so on and let them.
Try to maintain it. No. And we read in Romans that through them he proved the whole world guilty. Why?
So that God could come out then afterwards and bestow His goodness, His purpose, unconditionally on the basis of love and grace to everyone.
And that's the gospel.
It's better to be a Gentile now. Oh, it's for the Jews too. And Jews do get saved in this day. But they get saved just the same way as Gentiles do. And they're not brought into another different sphere of blessing or higher blessing, no.
This is God's way of doing it. How wonderful is God after everything fails of man, Then he says, now I'm going to show you how I can do it my way, the best way. And so he unfolds the mystery.
And His blessing to us, and it's ours.
Nobody can take it away from you if you belong to the Lord Jesus, but the enemy can take away from you the joy and the good of it practically in your daily lives. And so in this book of Ephesians we have a lot of practical exhortations. And Lord willing, maybe the following meaning will deal a little bit more along those lines. Some results and some practical examples.
But first of all, we have to understand what is ours before we can enjoy it.
And before we can live it. And before we can display it.
Now if we'll go on down a little farther here in verse 8.
Says 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 considered himself the last of the least of All Saints, or less than the least.
Of All Saints.
He had persecuted the church. He had opposed directly God's purpose until God revealed himself to him on the way to Damascus.
But Paul was true to what God revealed to him, and he changed. He turned around and he was just as zealous afterwards for his cause as I believe he was before. And God used him as a pattern for us.
To make this known. How wonderful of God to do it that way.
You see, if if God had chosen, let's say a moral good, upright man that had never done anything outwardly wrong and had was very noble and everything, and if God had chosen a vessel like that to make this known to us. Some of us might have rightly asked, well, where am I going to fit in then? Where is there going to be a place for me? Or how could I give a witness to that? If it's if it's only those that.
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God could entrust such wonders with, but no, God takes the less than the least of All Saints and says, now I'm going to make this 1A testimony to my love and grace and my purposes and blessing. And so Paul is an example.
That's what we are called to also that all of us how do we get saved? When we get saved, we don't come bringing anything at all to God.
As one preacher put it when he was asked.
He was asked, well, God has done his part, but don't we also have to do our part? You know, that's a common saying today.
The preacher in an agreeable way said yes, we have done our part. Our part was doing all the sinning and God's part is doing all the saving.
That's the way God has chosen it to be, or that to such class of people He has chosen to bring into blessing.
I'm going to go back and draw a kind of an illustration picture here.
Few years, several years ago.
Before Prince Charles was married, there was a lot of speculation went on about who might become his bride, who might become the future Queen of England.
And he lived quite a long time before he got married. He wasn't that young of a man and so there was a long time went on.
People would speculate.
And people would wish for I even knew a man who had a daughter about that eligible age.
And belong to a same club where there was a possibility of meeting Prince Charles that envied a possibility that his daughter could even beat the future.
Princess.
Well, that is a picture to us of something that our hearts aspire to sometimes.
God also had purpose to bribe for His Son, the Lord Jesus.
And throughout the ages it was not known what was going to, what God was going to do.
That God had a plan.
And this was his plan, that Christ should be united to the church.
That would be his pride and that is our position.
It's something worthwhile. It's something that any heart would.
Would delight in well.
If we could only get a hold of those thoughts, then of God towards us, the reality of it.
I want to make it vivid before our hearts what this really is. This is not just a theoretical thing that you talk about when you go to meeting.
This is a living reality in our lives from day-to-day.
The fact that we don't really enjoy it manifests itself in how little we really walk like the Lord.
You know when when a couple make take the marriage vows, those marriage vows are very exclusive.
Can't repeat the whole phrase, but it's something like this. Wilt thou, forsaking all others, be united unto so and so, and to cleave only unto Him? It's very exclusive, the language.
And.
Nobody has a difficulty with that.
When they love their spouse.
They delight in devoting themselves exclusively and only to their spouse. They don't have a problem taking that.
Marriage vow.
And that's what the Lord wants out of us.
And when we realize who we were and how he picked us up out of the dust.
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Sinners, and brought us into this blessing.
Wow.
Doesn't it thrill your heart?
I don't want to deal in emotionalism here, but this is not just emotions.
This is a reality and the Lord loves us and he wants our affections.
Now in verse 10.
And our time is up, but we'll finish here and the 10th verse.
We'll read 9 and 10 again. 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 create 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. Now this verse brings in another sphere, brings in the heavenly sphere.
And I just want to call it to our attention because we are not aware of this many times of how there is a heavenly host.
Observing all that God does.
And those first 4000 years when God was dealing with men on the earth, they observed all that. And then when Christ died, and then he unfolded the mystery that the Church should be united to Christ, they observed that too.
And I don't want to say they looked on with envy, but I think they looked on with delight.
The heavenly hosts learn in us the manifold wisdom of God. They notice how that God has chosen us to be the bride of Christ.
Wonderful.
They've never been made that offer.
They have a different place in glory. They're going to be blessed, the unfallen angels, those superior, those spirits in heaven. We don't understand too much about it, but we have little practical exhortations that are in view of that. The head covering of the woman, for example, it says it's because of the angels, because the angels observe submission and if they were ever once in submissive.
They would lose their place.
In God's presence forever.
As many have.
And so the church plays the role that is its place as the submissive one. We weren't the one that called the shots to unveil this mystery and to make it known we didn't earn it. God purposed it and has given it out to us.
And now those heavenly hosts there behold, and they learn what God is like in the way that He has made known to us, blessing to Gentile sinners and bringing them into blessing, raising them up to enjoy heavenly things.
And being united with Christ.
O mystery divine, only God could think of a plan so wonderful and great.
May it sink into our hearts.
Shall we close in prayer?