Acts chapter 20, we'll read a
verse here by Paul. And he says here in Acts chapter
20, verse 27, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all
the counsel of God. Now, Paul here is speaking to
the Ephesian elders. This is a parting farewell. And
in the portion, he also warned that Gravius Walsh will come
in after he's gone, that they'll come in, not sparing the flock. But look what he says here. He
says, I've not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. And the church at Ephesus was
very, very dear, very, very dear to Paul. Very, very dear to him. Very dear to him. And he was
there for three years. And their hearts became knit
together, knit together in love. And it's evident from our text
that that the Apostle Paul preached to them Christ and nothing else.
He didn't hold anything back. He didn't hold anything back.
When he preached, he preached Christ. He preached Christ. He held nothing back. Nothing
back at all. In fact, note, he even tells
us that by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God in Acts chapter
20, verse 20. He says, and how I kept back
nothing that was profitable unto you. He didn't hold back anything
that was profitable unto the saints. but have showed you and
have taught you publicly from house to house, testifying both
to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God. Repentance
towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. God's
people, we repent before God, don't we? You don't hear much
about repentance anymore, but it's a Bible doctrine. It's a
Bible doctrine, and we do. We repent before God, and you
know, just like faith is given to us, repentance is given to
us, beloved. I like what Brother Henry Mahan
said. He said, faith and repentance is like a piece of paper. On
one side's faith, and on the other side's repentance. And
God gives it to us. Because before the Lord saves
us, we're not repentant before God. Not at all. We don't have
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not at all. But after the Lord
saves us, after we're regenerated, born again by the Holy Spirit
of God, we have repentance before God, beloved. And so this is
what Paul proclaimed. He proclaimed Christ. He proclaimed
Christ. And look what he says in verse
25, or 21, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks. Repentance toward God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. In order for someone to be saved,
they have faith in Christ. You ever hear somebody say, well,
that person, surely they went to heaven, and they had no faith
in Christ at all. You know, they're just deceiving
themselves, beloved. Because God's people have faith
in Christ, and we have repentance before God. We do. And the gospel preacher, they're
to hold back nothing. They're not to preach in fear
of man. They hold back nothing. They
just proclaim Christ and Him crucified. That's what God sent
me to do. I'm here to preach Christ and
Him crucified to you all. And God's people rejoice. God's
people rejoice. We don't need to hear ten ways
to live a victorious Christian life. Because we can't do that
on our own anyways. Right? We need to hear about
Christ who is the victor. Christ who in Christ we have
the victory. That's what we need to hear about
is Him. And so We who preach, we preach
Christ. We preach Christ as He's revealed
in the Scripture. We declare the Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That salvation is in no other.
There's no salvation in any other, in any other place. Only in Christ. And we're to preach this marvelous
salvation, we're to hold back nothing. But the boldly proclaim
it as the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to do that, because
we can't do it on our own. Paul said, who's sufficient for
these things? Every gospel preacher will tell you, we're not sufficient
for these things. But God miraculously takes our
words and uses them for His glory and His honor and His praise.
It's incredible. And this is just one sinner telling
other sinners where to find bread, right? The bread of life, that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. My! And so we preach this marvelous
salvation for sinners in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we're to speak of the joy of the salvation because we've
experienced it too. We've experienced it too. It's
joyful to be saved, isn't it? We're not to go around with long
faces and, no, let us have the joy of the Lord in our hearts,
beloved. We're saved. We who are God's born-again people
are saved. That's wondrous. That's wondrous
all by itself. It's incredible. Saved by the
grace of God, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. As
we looked at this morning, our great substitute. So clearly,
he's our substitute. He died in our room and place
on Calvary's cross. And that blood, that blood was
shed to purchase our souls. Christ's blood was shed to purchase
our souls, beloved. He obtained eternal salvation.
He obtained it. We could never obtain it, but
he obtained it for us. Oh, it's wonderful. It's wonderful. It's good news for sinners. And
as a result of the preaching of the gospel, God's people,
we find comfort in it, don't we? We find comfort. When I sit
and listen to a message as I'm driving down the road, my heart
just sings. My soul sings. Sometimes when
I'm in my study, I'll just let out a praise to God, or sometimes
I'll bow my head in tears. It's incredible. This salvation
is wondrous. And it should leave us in awe,
shouldn't it? It really should. That Christ redeemed my soul
on Calvary's cross. And we take comfort in the counsels
of God in the scriptures. Unbelievers don't. They reject
the counsel of God. They reject the counsel of God.
And you know what? Left to themselves, they're perishing
their sins. And we don't vault ourselves
above them because we know if it wasn't for the grace of God,
we'd be doing the same thing. Oh, grace of God's incredible.
It says this in Luke, it says, but the Pharisees and the lawyers
rejected the counsel of God. They rejected it. Against themselves,
being not baptized of him. So here Paul says, he says in
verse 27 of this chapter, I've not shunned to declare unto you
all the counsels of God. Paul preaches God's decree to
save all that believe in Christ. And we saw very clearly today
that that's the plan and purpose of God, right? That Christ came
for that very hour to save us from our sins, beloved. And wicked
and ungodly men, they refuse. They refuse to take God's counsel.
They refuse to obey his commands. And again, if God leaves them
there, if God leaves them there, they're perishing their sins.
But what's our prayer? Oh, Lord, make them willing.
Make them will in the day of your power, Lord, like you did
for us, like you did for us. You know, never give up hope
for your loved ones or your family and friends until they breathe
their last breath. Never give up hope, never. Bruce Crabtree
told me that years ago. We were talking about our kids,
and he says, never give up hope for them until they breathe their
last breath. Just never, don't ever do that.
Because we don't know. We don't know. God knows who
his people are, but we don't. So we just keep petitioning the
Lord, don't we? We just keep lifting up our family
members. My. Look at verse 27 and 28 of this
chapter. For I have not shunned to declare
unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers to feed the church of God, look at that, distinct
people, to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with
his own blood. What a wonderful verse. There's
so much in there. Paul points to the Ephesian elders,
and remember he's speaking to the elders, he speaks in Note
that Paul's message doesn't change, does it? These men know the gospel,
but who does he preach to them? Christ. His parting words with
them is, preach the gospel, preach Christ. Isn't that wonderful?
It's so clear. Therefore take heed unto yourselves
and to all the flock. over which the Holy Ghost hath
made you an overseer, to feed the church of God." That's what
God's preachers are to do. We're to go through the Word,
we're to preach the Word, and God the Holy Spirit again takes
those words and feeds His people. It's amazing. It truly, truly
is incredible. And look at this, to feed the
church of God, which he, being God, who's Christ, he's the God-man,
which he, what did he do? Purchased with his own blood. It means he gave his life for
them, purchased their eternal souls. So this is what Paul points
the Ephesian elders to do, to feed the church of God. And remember,
the church of God is not the building, it's the ecclesia.
It's a called-out assembly, and they are part of that called-out
assembly. So the very ones he's speaking to are the leaders,
the elders within the body, but he's telling them, preach Christ. Don't hold nothing back. Don't
hold nothing back. Preach Christ. Point all believers
to Christ and Him crucified. To feed the Church of God. This
is marvelous words. which He hath purchased with
His own blood." What a declaration of the deity of Christ. What
a declaration of the humanity of Christ as well. It's incredible. Where did He purchase us? At
Calvary. He purchased His people. He purchased
His church at Calvary's cross. When He shed His blood, the God-man,
mediator, the substitute, brother Matt, dying in the room and place
of His people. Dying in the room and place of
His people. In Christ's very blood is spoken of here is that
being of God himself. God himself became a man. Again,
this speaks of his humanity so clearly. And he was really a
man. Life of the flesh is in the blood.
And it says so clearly here, that he became a man to purchase,
to acquire a people for himself, for this cause. Remember, I love
that verse this morning, for this cause, for this hour, he
came into this world to do this. And this is what's to be proclaimed,
that Christ purchased his people with his own blood. This is the
preacher's cry. Paul wrote these words, he says,
but we preach Christ. He didn't say we preach Christ
in Christian living, because you know why he didn't say that?
Because Christian living will come when you're saved. Right? It's true. If it's truly real,
you're really regenerated, you're not going to be the same person
you were. Oh my. No, he said we preach
Christ. He didn't preach Christ in baptism
because baptism doesn't save. It's an outward act of an inward
conversion. Now we are to do it, right? But it has no saving efficacy,
no saving power. So the preacher is to cry out. and proclaim the only hope for
sinners. But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews of Stonemoy
Block and unto the Greeks' foolishness. That's what we preach. And we
preach what we know. A man cannot get up in the pulpit
and proclaim Christ if he don't know Christ. There's a lot of
folks lying out there. Lying on God. And they know nothing
about God. And you know their God is not
the God of the Bible. They say things like God wants to save
you, but he can't unless he lets you. And I heard that recently
too. That's awful. That's not the God of the Bible.
No, in no way, now let this sink in, this is important. In no
way is salvation by the grace of God dependent upon man. In absolutely no way at all. Because if it is, if it is, we're
in a heap of trouble, right? Because number one, we can't
save ourselves. Number two, we can't keep ourselves.
You can stick in the middle of there too. We can't pay for one
sin. We're in a lot of trouble. Oh,
but the grace of God in Christ, beloved. Oh, it's magnificent. Salvation's of the Lord, praise
his mighty name. It's of the Lord. He saves whomever
he wills. Mine. So the preachers cry, is
the only hope for sinners, Christ. Christ. We preach what God has
revealed in Scripture. Again, we can't tell someone
of something we haven't experienced ourselves. No. You know what
God's done for me? You know what God's done for
me? I like to quote Paul on this one. He commanded the light to
shine out of darkness. He shined in our hearts, didn't
he? Shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We know something
now we never knew before. It's wonderful. It's magnificent. He's done that
for every believer. Every believer. He obtained salvation. And we have an inheritance in
Christ, beloved, being predestinated to receive that inheritance too.
God predestinated that we would receive that inheritance. It's
all according to the purpose and counsel of His will. Oh my. And gospel preaching is the preaching
of the gospel of Christ. It's the preaching of Christ
and Him crucified as it's revealed in this wonderful book called
the Bible. And Christ crucified is not simply
the most important message of Scripture, it is the central
message of Scripture from beginning to end. Because all those Old
Testament sacrifices, they point right to Christ. They point to
His sacrifice. Scripture says in Hebrews they
could never take away sin. But they were pointing to the
one who would take away the sins of His people, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, so Christ crucified is the
primary message of the Scriptures. This book is all about Christ.
All about Christ. And so when Paul says to the
Ephesians, I've not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel
of God, he's saying exactly the same thing as he did in 1 Corinthians
2 when he said, I'm determined not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He's just rewording it. That's
all. So let's consider a few facts.
A few facts quickly of the statement, all the counsel of God. Number
one, Christ is the singular subject of scripture. He is the singular
subject of scriptures. The scriptures declare in the
Old Testament, someone's coming. Someone's coming. All those types
and shadows and pictures declare someone's coming. And in the
New Testament, it declares he has come. Oh, it's wonderful. And he's risen, beloved. And
you know what? He's coming again. He's coming again, beloved. When
it's his time. When it's his time. We always
say, I'll see you when it's time. I love that. Tim James coined
that. I love that. All we preachers love that. We
always say goodbye to each other like that. I'll see you when
it's time. I'll talk to you when it's time, brother. He's coming
back when it's time, when it's His time. Oh my, it's wonderful. So the Lord Jesus Christ is the
central singular subject of the Holy Scriptures. It's all about
Him. The Scripture says this in Colossians
chapter 2, let no man therefore judge you in meat or drink or
in respect of a holy day or of a new moon or the Sabbath days
which are a shadow of things to come. They point to Christ.
All those things point to Christ. It's like You've heard me say
this about, here's my shadow, I can see my shadow right here.
Okay, so if I'm around a corner here and I come walking around
a corner, you will see my shadow first and then you'll see me.
If there was a wall there blocking us. You'd see my shadow first,
see? The shadow comes before the substance. Christ is the substance of all
those Old Testament shadows, beloved. All of them. He is the
substance. He is the substance. Oh my. It says, which are a shadow of
things to come, but the body is of Christ. The substance is
Christ. So when Paul declares that he's
not shunned to declare to the saints at Ephesus all the counsel
of God, he declares unto them also that Christ is the sum Some
in essence of all true doctrine. All true doctrine finds its center
and its core in Christ. It's always around Him. Always
around Him. It's always about Him. All the
doctrines in this wonderful scripture point around Christ. He is the
central theme, again, of the scriptures. 2 John, small little
book. Small little book we went through
not long ago in Wednesday nights. The scripture says this in 2
John verses 9 to 10. There's only one chapter, so
verses 9 and 10. If you want, let's turn there.
Let's turn there quick. I won't have us turn too many places,
but let's turn there quick. This is important, this one.
2 John, verses 9 and 10. So all the doctrines, the sum
and essence of all true doctrine is the Lord Jesus Christ. Look
at verses 9 and 10 here. Whosoever transgresses and abides
not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. Very clear. So either you abide in the doctrine
of Christ or you do not know Christ. Either you're born again
in Christ or you do not know Christ. Look at this. hath both
the Father and the Son. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any
unto you and bring not this doctrine, bring not Christ crucified, preach
not Christ alone as salvation. Right? What does John tell us?
Receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed. So
as we did this study on 2 John, the context of it was the elect
lady would have saints come to her home, and visiting preachers
would stay with her, and she was allowing some who denied
certain doctrinal truths about Christ proclaim what they called
the gospel. So John is writing her, warning
her, don't do this. Don't receive them. If they don't
have the doctrine of Christ, do not receive them. No matter
what they say and no matter how fancy they talk, do not receive
them. Do not at all. And the doctrine
of Christ is the doctrines concerning his person as the son of God.
The fact that he's God incarnate in the flesh. The fact of the
union of the two natures. Brother Matt and I read a really
good book on the two natures. And about how Christ is both
God and man. It's incredible. And so that
all, again, focuses around Christ. It tells us who He is. That He's
the union of two natures, divine and human, in one person. He's
the God-man. And this doctrine of Christ is
concerned in His office also, as mediator. He's the surety.
of the everlasting covenant. He's the messenger of the covenant,
beloved. He's prophet, priest, and king of his church. Those
are all the doctrine of Christ that center around Christ and
bring him, exalt him to the place where he should be. He's God
over all, beloved. He's God over all. This doctrine
of Christ also speaks of His incarnation and speaks of His
obedience to the Father while He's here on earth. It speaks
of His sufferings, His death, His resurrection from the dead
and His ascension to heaven. And the fact that He is right
now seated at the right hand of the Father. Right now. Right
now. He's in full control. He's not
waiting to be in control. He's in full control right now,
beloved. right now. And He's coming again
to judge the wicked. As sure as the sun rises, He's
coming again. There will be a great judgment
no matter what people say. There will be. I pray that God
give you faith to believe in Christ if you don't know Him.
Oh my. So Christ is the sum and substance
of all doctrine, the doctrine of the scripture. So when Paul
declares that he has not shunned to declare to the saints and
Ephesus all the counsel of God, he also declares to them that
Christ is the life of all gospel ordinances and that they find
their center in him. Think of it, baptism. Baptism
is an outward profession of an inward conversion, that Christ
has saved us. When we take the Lord's Supper,
what does it say? Do this in remembrance of me. We're remembering
that Christ died. Do you know that each time, I
remember hearing a grace preacher say this years ago, and I really
liked it, it was a great point, they brought forth the fact that
that at the Lord's Supper, everyone is proclaiming what Christ has
done. See, we preachers get the honor of coming up and preaching
and proclaiming what Christ has done for us with the preaching
of the gospel. But when the Lord's people are taking the ordinances,
they're proclaiming, they're doing this in remembrance, look
what Christ has done for me. It's wonderful, it's absolutely
wonderful, beloved. It's just incredible. So when
we partake of the Lord's Supper, we're remembering his death.
And I've heard people say that when we're baptized, that it
shows that we were buried with Christ and we've risen again
in newness of life. It's a good picture, because
we have. We've risen again in newness of life with Christ.
There's no saving efficacy in it, no saving power in either
the Lord's Supper or the baptism, but we are to do these things
out of obedience to our Lord, right? And they testify of Him. They testify of Him. Paul also
wrote this, he said, when he had given thanks, he'd break
it and said, take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for
you, this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also
he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the
cup of the New Testament, in my blood, this do, as often as
you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat
this bread and drink this cup, you deshow the Lord's death till
he comes. We proclaiming the Lord's death.
We're proclaiming what he's done for us. It's magnificent. And again, baptism is a believer's
public confession of faith in Christ. Of faith in Christ. And we confess our faith. We
confess our faith in the one who finished the work, right?
The Lord Jesus Christ. We confess that he saved my soul.
Oh my, it's wonderful. The next point is Christ is the
object of all true worship. He's the object of all true worship,
beloved. He's the way to heaven. And you
know who we're going to worship in heaven? Christ. Christ. People write these books, these
silly books about what heaven's going to be like when the scripture
says, I have not seen nor heard the things that God has prepared
for those that love Him. That's what the scripture says. We don't
even know what's waiting for us. But we do know this. We'll
be praising the Lord. We know that from Revelation
chapter 4, don't we? We'll be praising, we'll be singing,
worthy is the lamb. That's what we'll be singing,
beloved. Oh my, it'll be beautiful. It'll be beautiful. My goodness.
So he's the true object of all worship. Then they that were
in the ship came and worshiped him, saying of a truth, thou
art the son of God. And that's what we profess, isn't
it? That's Matthew 14, 33. We profess that Christ is the
son of God. We profess that he's our savior
and our redeemer. Declaring all the counsel of
God is also declaring that The Lord Jesus Christ is the mercy
seed in whom God meets with man. He's the one meat-eater between
God and man. He made propitiation for the
sins of his people and now he's our advocate with the Father
in glory right now, right now, beloved. Also, the Lord Jesus
Christ alone is the motive of all godliness, obedience, service,
and devotion. He's the motive. He's the motive. Scripture declares, for the love
of Christ constraineth us. Constraineth us. Why don't we
go crazy? Why don't we do what people accuse
us of? I heard some people say to me,
not recently, but when I first got here, they said, well, if
we believe like you guys, we can go and do whatever we want.
You know, I've never heard a grace preacher ever say, you can go
and do whatever you want. I've never heard that, ever.
And I told them that, I said, I have never ever heard a grace
preacher say that, and I've never said that myself. We can't. We
won't. You know why? Because the scripture
declares the love of Christ constrains us. It constrains us, the scripture
says. It's so clear. Because thus we
judge, that if one died for all, then we're all dead. And that
he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live
unto themselves, but unto him. We live for Christ. We live for
Christ, unto whom which died for them and rose again. That's
2 Corinthians 5, 14, and 15, a wonderful portion. It says,
for the love of Christ constrained us. That's the truth, isn't it?
We were unrestrained in our natural state, weren't we? The scripture
says we drank sin like water. But now we're restrained, beloved.
We don't want to do the things we used to do. We just don't. And so Christ alone is the motive
of all godliness, obedience, service, and devotion. You know
the problem? With religion, there's no rest. There's no rest. They just keep
telling you what you gotta do. And a gospel preacher, we get
up and we pray, look what he's done. There's rest in that, isn't
there? There's rest in that. Look what
Christ has done. He's done it all. Praise God,
salvations of the Lord. So there's rest. There's motive
for the believer then. For godliness and obedience and
service and devotion, isn't there? My, it's wonderful, it's absolutely
wonderful. We love him because he first
loved us, and that's a precious truth that's declared in the
preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we just marvel. That enough,
that enough is motive for us, isn't it? To hate sin, knowing
it's our sin that put Christ on Calvary's cross. And then
Christ is the reward of heavenly glory. My folks in religion get
all worked up about rewards. Oh my gosh, they get so worked
up about rewards, it gets really sad. And how they're earning
crowns and such and such. But for the believer, Christ
is our reward. Christ is our reward. Scripture
says this, and after these things the word of the Lord came unto
Abraham in a vision saying, fear not, wonderful words again, fear
not. Abraham, I am thy shield and
thy exceeding reward. God told Abraham that. He said,
I'm your reward. That's true for every one of
us. Christ is our reward. And I ask you, is there any reward
greater than Christ? No. Because in all things He
has the preeminence, eh? All things. Mine. Declaring the
counsel, all the counsel of God also is declaring that Jesus
Christ is our God. He is our Savior and He is our
salvation. He is the revealer of truth.
He is the giver of life. And only through the Lord Jesus
Christ can a sinner be saved. Only through Christ. And when
the gospel preacher declares and proclaims the divine sovereignty
of God, we're declaring that Jesus Christ is Lord. No one
making Him Lord. He is Lord. He is Lord. Oh, He's
Lord. My goodness. He is. And declaring
all the counsel of God is also declaring that God's election
is His choice. Is His choice. Of some to everlasting
salvation and all for Christ's sake and according to His will
and purpose. In declaring the whole counsel of God, we declare
that limited atonement is a biblical truth. That Christ died for his
people. That they're redeemed with his
precious blood. And we declare effectual redemption. Effectual redemption. Turn, if
you would, to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. Effectual redemption. And we'll see that this is what
our Savior declares himself. I recently had a talk with someone,
and they told me that Christ died for everyone. And I said,
well, can I ask you a question then? And they said, yeah. And
I said, well, if you say Christ died for everyone, then he's
a failure. And they kind of looked at me like, what? I said, because
there's people in hell that he supposedly couldn't save. I said,
my God. My Savior saves everyone who
the Father gave. He saves them all. Look at this. Look at this. John chapter 10
verses 24 to 29. Then came the Jews round about
him and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you,
and you believe not, the works that I do in my Father's name,
they bear witness of me, which I mentioned this morning, that
the works that he done, the miracles that he done, testify that he
was God incarnated in the flesh. But look at this, whew, chilling
words here. But ye believe not, because ye
are not of my sheep. And I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, Gnoska, that's an intimate knowledge,
and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, oh my,
and they shall never perish. There's that little hinge word,
shall. Shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out
of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all.
and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hands. Oh,
my beloved. He gave his life for his people.
For this cause, he came here, to save his people from their
sins. And we also declare the truth about irresistible grace,
effectual calling. The grace of God Almighty is
irresistible. We can't resist it. God's not
trying to save anyone. He saves his people. You ever
hear somebody say God's trying to do something, they don't know
who God is. God don't try to do nothing.
We try to do things, don't we? And a lot of times we fail. God
never fails. Never. Never, ever, ever. He
don't try to do nothing. He just does things. According
to His will and according to His counsel. And we declare that
faith is trust in Christ. Resting in Christ. Reposing in
Christ. He is the one who the believer
trusts his soul to. And we declare that sanctification is in Christ.
Oh my, it's in Christ. And we declare that perseverance
of the saints is by Christ. He keeps us. He keeps us perfectly
and forever. And one day we'll glorify His
name in His presence and it'll be glorious. Turn if you would
to Colossians chapter 1. We're close with this portion
of scripture right here. We're close. Colossians chapter
1. Now think of this too. Gospel
preaching is telling people about Christ. Okay? Anything else is
not preaching. No matter what man say. It's
not preaching. It's, I like, I listen to a message
that Brother Tim preached here, Tim James preached here a few
years back called Just Words. I don't know if you all remember
that. And he said them, those preachers
they got, they're just speaking words. Just words. There's no
sustenance to them. None at all. No. Preaching is
preaching Christ. Look at this in Colossians 1
verses 25 to 29. Wherefore I am made a minister
according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for
you to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which has been
hid from ages and from generations, It is now made manifest to the
saints. Look at that. Hid from ages and from generations. Think of all the generations. Think of the different groups
that were raised up all around. And the Jews were the only one
who knew the truth. And all those generations. Egyptians just perished
in their sins, left to themselves. The Hizzites and Perzites, just
generations of people left to themselves, just left to themselves.
But now is made manifest to His saints, oh and that's Christ,
to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Oh, born again in the Holy Spirit
of God. Christ in you, the hope of glory,
whom we preach. There's who Paul preaches. He
identifies right there who he preaches. He preaches Christ.
Whom we preach. Warn in every man and teach in
every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect
in Christ Jesus, whereunto I also labor strive and according to
his work in which worketh in me mightily. Oh, it's wondrous,
isn't it? Wondrous.