Open—Ed Staggs
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No.
The end of this hymn that we just sang said, O Lord, we cast our care on thee and triumph and adore.
Well, that our great concern may be to love and praise Thee more.
It's the desire of my heart, the exercise of my soul, that.
That we might be able to enter in a little bit more.
Of who God is and his love to us, and that of His Son as well.
And that we're such unique people.
That God has chosen us out in him before the foundation of the world. And I was struck by.
Not only the prayer meeting on Friday night.
But I've been struck on the ministry, encouraged by it, but to realize that that we're so unique to God that as is so often said, that everything that happens to a child of God, there's a purpose of blessing.
On the heart of the Father, and I hope to develop that, because so often we might ask ourselves why.
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Why is there sorrow and why is there suffering?
And I don't understand.
But I hope to show.
That God has an end in view.
He has an end in view for the glory of His Son.
And he has an end in glue, in view of the glory of the Father.
So the prayer meeting started out on Friday night that a brother wrote. Read a portion.
In Romans chapter 8, I'd like to read that verse.
It's a very familiar verse for us.
That's in verse 26 of Romans 8.
It says likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities.
For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us.
With groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searches the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the Saints according.
To God.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose, For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son.
That he might be the first born.
Among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate them he also called, and whom he called them he also justified, and whom he justified them he also glorified.
What shall we then say to these things, if God before us?
Who can be against us?
He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall He not with us also freely give us?
All things who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It is God that justifieth. I'll stop there.
That verse, those verses here, really manifest to us the uniqueness of who we are.
There's nothing that happens in our life.
That God does not know about.
And has a blessing.
To manifest.
In the end.
I want to read a couple more verses. One is in Ephesians chapter one. Our brother read part of that verse during his address.
I want to be careful of the time I was thinking about this and.
This is a it's actually a very big subject and I don't have time to take it up as a big subject. I want to take it up more as a synopsis. That is I, I hope to give you enough that you can see the beauty of what's on my heart, but not so much that it doesn't give you something of an appetite yourself to look into it.
To search more deeply the things that God has and blessing for you and for His Son's glory and for His glory. That's the exercise and the desire of my heart.
Chapter one and verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places?
According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
That we should be holy and without blame before Him and love. There's more there that could be brought out, but I just want to touch on that. These verses that I'm going to have before us, I hope to allude will allude to in connection with the portions that I have on my heart. First Peter, chapter one.
In verse 18.
For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your Father's, but with the precious blood of Christ.
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As a lamb without blemish and without spot. Who verily, was foreknown.
Before the foundation of the world.
But was manifest in these last times for you.
So I've read, I've read 2 verses.
That that have to do with before. Before there was, there was.
Before there was this planet as it is today.
In eternity, you've been chosen. Each and every one of you have been chosen. That's an amazing thing to consider. Before there was ever a man on the planet, you were already chosen for eternal blessing.
But you know what also is interesting? Before you were ever born, or before He ever formed man on the dust of the earth, He had already chosen the Lamb of God.
And that's amazing to consider.
Before the foundation of the world, Christ was foreknown.
To be the lamb that would die on Calvary's cross.
So before man ever was on the planet.
God already knew you were going to fall.
He already knew you were going to be created. He already knew what was going to happen, and he knew that you were going to fall. But I want you to understand that not only did he know the beginning of what was necessary to save you, he knows exactly where you're going to be at the end of the story. He knows exactly what you're going to appear at in the in in the glory, in in the Millennium and in the eternal state. God already.
Has a view of all of these things from the beginning to the end. That's an amazing thing to consider.
Each morning when you get up, as many lives, as many years as you've been alive, He knows everything about you.
Not only have you been chosen out in him before the foundation of the world.
He purposed a blessing for all eternity for you. He knows the end of the story.
Now I want to take a look at something that's going to seem for a moment to be out of place, but I don't think it is Ezekiel 28.
Now this is an interesting.
Story This is an interesting portion of scripture because it's talking about the King of Tyre. But things seem to change. It seems to start bringing out something that's beyond the King of Tyre. And I don't want to take up the subject. I don't want to take up the time because I want to make this fast so that the Lord could use some other brethren to come up and encourage you. But I'm going to read.
The.
We'll start with verse 13. Well, let's start with verse 12, Son of Man.
Ezekiel 28 and.
Verse 12 Son of Man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyre, Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God, thou sealest up the sum full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, in the garden of God. Every precious stone was thy covering, the Sardis, the Topaz, the diamond, the burl, the Onyx, the Jasper, the sapphire, the emerald.
The carbuckle and gold and workmanship. The tablets of thy pipes.
Was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub.
That covereth, and I have set thee so thou hast upon the holy mountain of God.
Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou was prepared in thy ways from the day that thou was created.
Till iniquity was found in thee by the multitude of thy merchandise.
They have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned. Therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God. I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty. Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.
I will cast thee to the ground. I will lay thee before kings.
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That they may behold thee, Thou hast defiled thy sanctuary. Sanctuaries.
By the multitude of thine iniquities. By the iniquities.
Of thy traffic, therefore will I bring forth fire from the midst of thee. It shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to the ashes upon the earth.
In the sight of all them, and behold thee all, they that know thee among the people shall be astonished.
That the thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be anymore.
Well, this is interesting because I believe this is this is an eternity. I believe this took place before Adam was formed.
And Eve was brought forth from his side. I believe that this this picture that we have presented here is Satan in all of his glory and splendor, all of his beauty. Imagine he had 10 precious stones, the the glory of God, Satan shine forth as the highest cherub.
He was most beautiful.
And from from his, the sound that came forth from him were the most beautiful sounds.
He was an amazing creature.
But he was lifted up in pride.
And I'll tell you, there's one thing about this Satan in his glory.
As he never knew the love of God.
In fact, he didn't know anything about God other than the fact that he was holy.
What he did know is that he was beautiful.
And he felt that he was beautiful in himself.
He thought he was equal to God, and he thought he desired to have a place before God.
To be equal.
But God judged him in his wickedness, and he fell, and he was cast out of his presence in respect to.
The glory that was connected with him.
But many years later, what we find.
Is that really God was using?
The fall of Satan that in the end he was going to manifest something that was in his own heart.
Something that the angels could learn from, that they'd never seen before. So.
Something that man could understand about the God that created them.
God was going to use this as an example.
Of the wickedness of what can be in the heart of a created being.
And sure enough, in the garden, what did Satan say to Eve?
When thou eatest, thou shalt be as what?
Gods.
The very thing that was the fall of Satan was the fall of man.
That man felt that God was holding back a blessing.
We have brought up of late about trials.
And I will tell you that I believe.
That the one thing that Satan will present to you.
Is it that in your weak condition, in your sorrow and in your suffering that God does not love you?
As much as he does.
How often does that happen? You you become weak and feeble. Need you don't? You don't see God in the trial?
You know, in my life I've known two people that have professed to be Christians. And you know what they told me? I am mad at God. Why are you mad? Because God let this happen. You know, you may not say you're mad at God, but sometimes you may act like you're mad at God.
Sometimes, by the way, you carry on in the world where we should be representing the love of God.
We hang down our hands and we walk in a feeble way and instead of the world seeing that we're a unique people chosen out in God before the foundation for eternal blessing, what are we? What are we manifesting? That I'm a Christian and God doesn't love me?
But you know, it's my desire, honestly.
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It's my desire.
That we see a view of God.
That in His love He cares for us so much that He's manifesting and He desires to bring out something that is going to be displayed for all eternity.
Of God's love for us.
And do you know the way that that's brought forth, interestingly enough, at least one of the ways?
Because I don't want to take up time. There's other ways, but I don't want to take it up. But one of the main one of the main ways is through trial.
We may not, we may not know it at the time. We may not feel it at the time, but if only, if only we could embrace the end of the story. If only we could see what God had saw in eternity before we were ever created, what the purpose of his heart was, was to and I'm going to, I'm going to say this kind of in a backwards way.
He wants to display in his creation what kind of a God he is.
Oh, it's true. He's the God of light.
But you know, only the church, only the church right now, at this moment knows that he's a God of love.
You know that only the church.
Now, I will say that in one respect, that's not.
True, because the angels are learning the manifold wisdom of God. Through who?
Through the church.
Angels are learning things they never knew before. The first time they ever saw the baby Jesus was the first time they ever saw God in the flesh. Before He was a spirit. They never seen Him like that before. The first time that they ever saw what was in the heart of God is when Jesus hung on that cross.
It must have been a marvel.
How in the world could God let these creatures form from the dust of the earth? Take and nail his son to a tree?
She had his precious blood treat him the way that they did, but then what?
Is it true?
That God is judging his Son on Calvary's cross, His own beloved Son. We know why we worshiped him this morning. We understand that it means something to us. It's valuable.
God has brought us into his confidence. We're sons. You bring your sons into your confidence.
You share with them your heart. What's on your mind. God does that to all of us, doesn't He? Of course I use sons generically. Sons and daughters.
We are a unique people.
But God is working in US an end in view.
You know when when rebellious man breaks down?
And turns their heart to God.
The angels must have marveled.
These rebellious creatures.
Look at them.
Look at how they own what they are.
And look at how they see what Jesus did.
And look at how he saved them, and look at how God brought him into his family.
And they've become a new creation. Why? In reality, we've bypassed the angels.
We have a closer relationship. We have the same place that God has that Christ has before his Father.
We do.
Each one of us, not the gathered Saints. I don't want to limit this to a gathered Saints thing. I'm talking about the body of Christ.
Those who have been purchased by the precious blood of Christ, every one of us we meet on that very principle that there is one body.
And we long for that day when we're caught up to be with Christ.
And then with Christ. So we run representation. Imagine the praise unhindered by the flesh that the Lord Jesus will receive.
We should long for that day.
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Well, let's go to Revelation.
21.
There's going to be an amazing difference here. I trust that will be displayed to our hearts.
We're going to start with verse 9.
And there came unto me one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials.
Full of seven last plagues and talked with me saying come hit her.
I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.
The bride, the lamb's wife. We're going to look at her in just a minute.
First of all, the bride.
That first pangs of love and affection, the one that you have chosen.
The desire of your heart to spend your life with.
And then the wife.
The wife is the one that shares with you.
Everything that you are and everything that you have.
She compliments.
She encourages, she loves, and she is loved.
This is the Lamb's.
Bride and the Lamb's wife. You know we had the breaking of bread.
The theme was the Lamb of God. This is the end of the story, at least the end of the story.
Is that what was in the heart of God? Is that He would glorify His Son in eternity? That was his desire. But then not only that, but that he would have a bride.
He would have a wife and she would share with him and be like him and he would love her and she would love him.
A suitable companion bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.
That's what's in view and eternity.
But let's let's take a look at her beauty in reflection to the fact that she shines forth not by her own light, not by her own glory, but by His.
In verse 10 and he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain, and showed me.
The holy It should be the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God.
And then notice it says her and where it says light it should be shining. Why is that true?
Because the bride has no glory in itself, but is shined forth from the glory of her husband.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
And the shining forth was like onto a stone most precious.
Even like a Jasper stone, clear as crystal.
Manifest Glory.
And had a wall great and high. And had two gates. And at the gates 12 angels. The name name written thereon, which are the names of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel.
On the east 3 gates, on the north 3 gates, on the South 3 gates, and on the West 3 gates and the wall of the city 12 foundations.
And in them the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. And he that talked with me had a golden Reed to measure the city.
The gates thereof, the wall thereof, the city lieth 4 score. The length is as as long as large as the breath. And he measured the city with the Reed 12,000 furlongs. The the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. And he measured the wall thereof 140 and four cubits, according to the measure of a man.
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That is of the Angel.
The building of the wall it was of Jasper. The city was pure gold, like on to clear glass. A notice the foundation and the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The 1St. The foundation was Jasper, the second sapphire, the third.
I'm sorry I'm confusing the name of my mind. Shall see, Tony.
The 4th and Emerald the 5th. Zardonex the six. Sardis the 7th. Crystallite the 8th. Burl the 9th. Topaz the 10th.
Crystal Ferris, The 11Th Genesis, the 12Th Amethyst The 12 gates were 12 Pearls, every seven gate was one Pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold.
As it were, transparent glass.
I just want to. I just want to do a comparison.
Satan had 10 manner of precious stones to.
Manifest His glory. The Church has 12.
What came from the pipes of Satan were beautiful sounds, but will come from the church.
Worship and praise to the Lord Jesus for all eternity.
In its display of its glory, it receives its light from the one that it loves. Satan loved no one.
We have been brought in to the confidence of God to be able to manifest this beautiful scene, which, by the way, is taking place in the Millennium.
Because this is all talking about our position with Christ, far above what Satan never had.
Was we have responsibility and administration with the one in whom we are like and whom we share an inheritance where where our inheritance is below us.
What a contrast that God uses, a being that had been displayed in glory in his great fall, that in his heart and in his mind that at the end of the day he was going to have a companion like his Son that would compliment his beauty, who would share with him for all eternity, or at least at this scene, let's say the Millennium.
In this manifestation.
How did these precious hues of color come forth? I believe it's through trials.
You know, we all know that gems get their color from the pressure that is under the earth.
And we're down in this world and we experience pressure. And I believe this display of hues are those who identified with Christ in his suffering down here that God delights to display with his Son because they identified with him in his rejection.
There's nobody like us. Nobody.
And this is the end of the story. But if we were to think that this was the most precious of all things, no, I don't think it is.
Because I believe that quite often that what God does is He shows us what is most precious in the very beginning.
And then he builds on that afterwards and then he reflects back to it again. I didn't do that. I went to, I went to verse nine first.
Now I'm going to quickly read just these portions in verse one of the same chapter.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, and the 1St heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared. What does it say as a bride?
Adorned for who? Her husband? Well, there's more that could be read here.
But I want to stop here because to me this is the most precious.
Of it all.
This is eternity, this is not the Millennium. This is what is on the heart of God.
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When righteousness no longer reigns, but righteousness dwells.
And Christ, as a man among men, has a companion.
Prepared for him.
One that he loves.
In his fear where sin will never touch again.
In a sphere where there's perfection, where there's joy and there's no more sorrow.
That's the end of the story, and that is what is most precious.
You know, you and your wife might share something, many different things, but there is nothing like just being alone with your wife, unhindered by anything else you know that's true, where you can just enjoy her and she can enjoy you. And for the Lord Jesus, that's his eternal state.