I return in there, this is a
passage that I've read, I guess it started years ago, when we
first started meeting together. I'm not sure who was there, Jennifer,
maybe you, Lisa, I know you were there. It was at Searle's Barn. I think it was Paul Mahan that
came and preached to us. It might have been Greg, but
I think it was Paul. And he talked about the Holy Spirit. And it
really caught my attention. We're going to look at that a
little later on, but I want to let you know why I started in
this passage way back then, read it over and over again. There's
a lot in here. Talks a lot about the Godhead, the Trinity, God
the Father, who elected a people before time. His son, Jesus Christ,
who came, paid the penalty that we deserved, sin. And the Holy
Spirit. And I was thinking at the time,
he used the wind. And we're going to look at that in John later
on. And every time I'm out there in the wind, I just, phew. We
have these pine trees that run alongside of our property. And
the way the wind goes through it makes such a neat sound. I
will say this, the wind drives my wife nuts. It's destructive. But the spirit of God is like
that. And he said that, made the statement,
He said, today, the spirit of God is blowing through this,
I guess he said, town, I'm not sure, because where we were meeting,
I don't even know where Sarah and Lenore live, Howardeseville, I think he might
have said. But that's my prayer this morning. The Holy Spirit
blows through all of you. Think about that. It's heavy.
That he would blow his spirit here. Look at all the places
it passes by. Pray that, keep that in your
mind as we read this and we see what the spirit conveys to the
church, which we'll look at in this passage also. Caleb wrote
an article, it was two weeks ago, The New Man Has a New Nature. Takes it out of Ephesians chapter
four. If you haven't read it, reread that. It's sweet. It's
what I've been thinking about for some time. I think him and
I talked about it, and darn if he didn't write about it, and
did a better job than I could ever do in saying what I want
to say. But we know that the spirit wars
against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit. I always
think about this when I talk to you, Mac. If you knew who
was speaking to you, it was, I'm a sinner. I know what I am. And I know what you are. You know what I am. We're in
need of grace. We're in need of mercy. We're
in need of the spirit that regenerates us, that shows us the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ, how precious that is. So with that
in mind, keep that in mind, and we'll dig into this chapter a
little bit. I was going to read the whole chapter. I know it's
a little lengthy, and we're going to do some other reading. I apologize,
but I'd rather the word of God speak to me. Keep this in mind
also that Paul, I think, is in prison when he's writing this
letter. Verse one, 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 is given me to you, word, how that
by revelation he may known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore
in few words, whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge
in the mystery of Christ. which in other ages was not made
known unto the sons of men, and 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 grace, 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 hath 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
is in heaven and in 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 breath,
and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ,
which passes knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the
fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to
do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that 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 end. Amen. Fall by the inspiration
of the spirit. is revealing the knowledge that
he has of the title of the message, the mystery of Christ. In your
mind, I want you to think for a moment, what is the mystery
of Christ? What know ye of him? What has
the spirit of God revealed to you about him? What has he done? See, the Spirit points us to
Christ. The Spirit regenerates us and starts to reveal the mystery
of Christ. This is knowledge that I can't
give you. You can't give to me. We're the
world's full of people for all kind of knowledge, saying all
kind of things, what the scriptures say. You see, Christ is all in
it all. And you know this. but taking
us back to that spirit, and we'll look at it again, like I said,
and it's blowing us our way. This is what we need revealed
to us, and it's by God. See, he purposed it, and we'll
look at that down in a couple of the verses as we get into
this. This is the simplicity of the
gospel. It's a simple message. My wife
reminds me of that a lot. I think I'm kind of complicated.
I don't know where I'm going half the time. But when we think
of this simplicity, and our flesh hates that. We know he's been
preaching in Galatians and the law. We are by nature want to
do something, want to have some kind of control. Is it Uzzah
with the Ark of the Covenant where God resided? No one was
to touch it. It was handled in a certain way
where no hands, Ark started to teeter and he put his hands to
it. God killed him on the spot. You
know, you've known that story. That to me is a picture of the
word of God. Yes, preachers sin. Yes, we talk
about it amongst ourselves, but we need to be reminded of it.
It's the spirit that points us to the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is all and he's in all. We're in need of his righteousness.
We're in need of his blood. We're in need of the forgiveness
of our sins. Again, I said earlier, I know what I am, and I know
what you are, and you know what I am. And that said, we know
what we need. That's why we're here. That's
why we're brothers and sisters considered the church of the
Jesus Christ. And for that, I am so grateful
looking back over time and where we come from and where we are,
how sweet it is that we have fellowship, that we have love,
that we want to hear about the same thing, the simplicity of
the gospel. If you would, turn over page
to Ephesians chapter 1. I'd like to talk a little bit more
about this mystery. Paul says that he had mentioned it before.
Here it is. In chapter one, we'll pick up
in verse nine. Having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he
had purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness
of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him. in whom also we have obtained
an inheritance. There's the family. There's the
church. Being predestined according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. Stop there for
a second. I think of this. We've learned
about this purpose. God is a God of purpose. I will
tell you I'm a planner. And I have a backup plan, and
a backup plan, and a backup plan. running a business, having guys,
and all that kind of stuff, I'm always thinking, what if, Joe,
you noticed, who doesn't show up? Who didn't bring this? We
needed this material. When Caleb started talking about
it a while back, the purpose of God, didn't that hit you hard?
It hit me hard. God purposed everything before. We just heard about this Wednesday
night in Proverbs, chapter eight. Before time even began, God had
purposed. the church, God had purposed
that his son would come and redeem a people. I can't fathom that,
just like I can't fathom the Trinity. God the Father, God
the Son, God the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the Dove, we'll
see in John. God's purposed it all. We need
to be reminded of that. I know I do. Verse 12. that we should be to the praise
of his glory who first trusted in Christ, in whom ye also trusted
after ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
in whom also after that ye believed, you were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of
his glory. Wherefore, I also, after I have
heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints,
cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in
my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of him. There's the mystery. Christ our
mystery. Verse 18, here's what it produces. The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his
calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power
to us word who believe according to the working of his mighty
power. As you read through this, We're
out of the picture. It's all about him. You'll see
where we come in, verse 1 and chapter 2. Verse 20. Which he wrought in Christ, when
he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right
hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and
power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And
hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the
head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness
of him that filleth all in all." Again, thinking about the mystery,
the mystery of Christ. Sweet. This has to be revealed to us.
Mike, we talked a little bit about this before the service.
Regenerated, the spirit reveals this to a child of God. We find
that this is our hope. This is our calling. This is
where our love is found. The salvation of our souls is
all found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know you guys know this,
but we need to hear it over and over again. Turn to Mark chapter four. We know that we need a new heart. This mystery, I think I heard
Caleb say this once, is like a parable. Christ talked to the
Pharisees in parables. And the disciples were like,
why do you speak this way? Well, this mystery wasn't revealed
to them. If it's revealed to you, If it's revealed to you, you
see the truth in it by the Spirit. You come to understand and know
this is the Word of God. You don't come this by your knowledge.
You don't scratch at it. You don't claw at it. You don't
try to figure it out. The Spirit regenerates you and
reveals the mystery of Christ, and you camp out there. That's
it. Verse 11, chapter 4, Mark. And he said unto them, unto you
it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. But unto
them that are without, all these things are done in parables,
that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing that
they may hear and not understand, lest at any time they should
be converted and their sins should be forgiven them. So he's speaking
to these Pharisees and Sadducees, men with a lot of knowledge,
men steeped in scriptures, and they searched the scriptures
diligently. Couldn't see him, didn't know him. That's the mystery. That's the parable. And if it's
given to you and it's given to me, it's because he was pleased
to do it before time ever began. And it's the power of God that
does it. It's the spirit of God that sent
to us, reveals this truth to us, points us to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Turn back to Ephesians, please. Chapter 3, looking a little more
into this. Paul's writing to the church
at Ephesus. It's a Gentile church. We know that Paul's a Jew, and
he was raised up by God to preach to the Gentiles. We're Gentiles. This is a Gentile church, if
you want to call it that. We've been grafted in, as we see in
Romans. I can imagine how difficult that
might have been in one sense, because you see him labor earlier
in Romans, where he wants to go to his brethren, which are
the Israelites, which are the Jews. This is his inheritance.
But God sends him to Ephesus, to the church of Ephesus, to
preach to Gentiles. That is what God purposes to
do for his people. That's the accomplishment of
the whole church, Jew and Gentile alike. That's what this book
is being written to, a church just like ours. It's written
for us. I wanted to finish reading Ephesians.
I stopped there. I meant to turn one page back
to chapter 2, verse 1. I know some of us here, some
of our favorite verses are found in this chapter, mine as well. I said earlier, it's all about
Christ in chapter one. We come on the scene, chapter
two, verse one, and here is us. And he hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins. Wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience." So we have the spirit here. This
is the spirit of Antichrist. This is the spirit of Satan.
We were captured. That's what we were built. Born
into sin. Lost. Dead. children of the devil. It's a
hard saying to think about that. Mike and I talked a little bit
about hell. Hell's a real place. Unless God intercedes, unless
the Spirit blows our way, unless the Spirit regenerates us and
points us to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, we're
headed to hell. We have family members, and we
have friends, and I know it burdens us. We have children Pray that the Lord's will will
be done in that regard. Pray that the spirit will blow
their way. Pray that the mystery of Christ
is revealed to them like it is unto us. Verse eight, chapter
two, sweet verse. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God. not of works,
lest any man should boast. We were talking a lot, like I
said earlier, he's in Galatians, we were in Hebrews, and we see
law. Man is bent on trying to please
God, to come to him on our terms. We won't have that man reign
over us when we find out that he's sovereign. We won't have
Him reign over us if we can't contribute to it one way or another.
Most of my life was lived that way. And I compared myself to
others? Man, tried to do the right thing?
Fill in the blank. You guys are all there. I have
friends that are like this. Breaks my heart because the Spirit
hasn't blown their way. The mystery of Christ has not
been revealed to them. And it's sad. They're dead men
walking, and I look at them, and it breaks my heart. We see here that faith, faith is not the cause of our
salvation. It's the effect of our salvation. Let me write that down. I wrote
that down. I got to make sure I have that
right. Faith is not the cause of our
salvation. Faith is the result of our salvation. I've heard Greg say this a lot,
and I love thinking about that. We see in chapter three, back
over to chapter three. Verse 12. in whom we have boldness and
access with confidence by the faith of him." Who's that? The faith of Christ. That is
the inner man. That's the new man. That's the
new heart that he gives us. The spirit that takes residence,
which is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. We know that Christ
is Lord. I can't explain to you the Trinity,
the Godhead is what I like to rather refer to it, and it's
talking about it in here, the roles of the three, but they're
all one. And God came down in the flesh
as a God-man who knew no sin. He walked amongst them and he
didn't know who he was. Isn't this Joseph's son, the
carpenters? We're gonna turn to Luke four and we're gonna
look at that a little bit. But this was God in the flesh, came
in the flesh. This is the mystery of Christ.
Why did he do it? A lot of people will tell you
what he did, but why did he do it? He did it for the love of
his father, because his father had a particular people that
if you see in verse 11, according to the eternal purpose, which
he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. So before time even began,
again, the Lord purposed this. We couldn't come up with this.
We can't figure it out outside the grace of God to show us by
His Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ, high and lifted up, seated in
the heavenlies, seated at the right hand, our advocate, establishing
a righteousness that we could never establish. What are we? We're self-righteous to the core,
always defending ourselves, always thinking something of ourselves, Recommending ourselves to God,
trying to earn his favor. That's not it. That's not it.
Our, scripture says it, our righteousness is as filthy
rags. And again, examine yourself. Keep this mind the mystery of
Christ. What think ye of him? He's God
incarnate. Come down, 30 years, walking
this earth. I think about this from time
to time as I'm reading. Marvel at it. I would think, well, maybe
I would recognize him. He didn't argue with his siblings. Didn't back talk his mother.
Whatever, fill in the blank. They didn't know who he was.
We wouldn't have known either, unless he reveals himself to
us by his spirit. This is what he says here is
in verse eight, the unsearchable riches of Christ, all done by the power of God. on over to Romans chapter one. Keeping this in mind that Faith is not the cause of our
salvation. Faith is the result of our salvation. This is where it comes from.
Verse 16, Romans 1, 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein
is a righteousness God revealed from faith to faith. As it is
written, the just shall live by faith. As time has gone on,
I've come to somewhat grasp more of this faith. Because I used
to think I needed to exercise it. I needed to work at it. Go to church, get money. But
I just did it for a long time. Exercise my faith. Pick myself
up by the bootstraps. Faith is a gift, as we saw in
Ephesians. Faith has an object. That faith
that is given to you, which is a gift, looks to the one that
it comes from, the object, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's faith,
and it's sweet. We see that is the power of God
unto salvation. If you're saved, it's by the power of God. If
you're saved, it's because he loved you. You're saved, it's
because the Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood for you. Trying to get you to grasp that,
understand that, is beyond me. But I can testify to this and
hope that you can also. That is the gift. That is the
spirit that blows where it's going to blow. Brothers and sisters, I believe has blown here for
many years. That's humbling. And I urge you to continue to
pray for that. Because without it, we're playing
church. We're trying to look good in
front of each other, comparing ourselves to one another. Pray for our pastor. that he
continues to spend time in his word. I can't, I had this conversation
early on with him, because it hit him like a ton of bricks
when he came here, I know this. Because he sat under Greg for
five years, right? Five years, I believe, give or
take. And he was hit when he came up here that he didn't pray
enough for his pastor. Pray for our pastor. Pray for
one another. Pray that the Lord sends his
spirit here continually to remind us where our hope, where our
calling, our comfort, because this is what we need. I can't
give it to you. The world can't give it to you.
Go out and try and get the gusto, baby. You know, that's what the
world. Salvation of our soul, eternal life. When I first started reading
this chapter, I told you it was about the spirit. If you look
at verse 16, it was the verse in chapter 3 of Ephesians that
I camped out on a lot. Again, going back when I heard
about the spirit blowing, I'm like, what's he talking about? It's the riches of his glory,
verse 16, that he would grant you according to riches of his
glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner
man. That inner man rattled me. I struggled with it, kind of
knew what it was because the faith that I was given, I've
come to understand the object of that faith, that it's all
found in him, all him. We're dead in our trespasses
and sin. It's all found in him, this inner man. So I looked at
it over and over again, started reading about it, studying it.
It was going to be the title of this message, you know, at
least because she asked me early on. I was going to call it the
inner man. But as I looked at it, it pointed back to the mystery
of Christ, the unsearchable riches of Christ. the effectual working
of his power, the manifold wisdom of God that he purposed before
time began to reveal to you, to reveal to me now by that spirit
that blows around the world and what's going to go where the
Lord sends it. And he's going to find his sheep
and he's going to call his sheep, regenerate his sheep, save his
sheep, take residence in the inner man, the spirit, the Lord
Jesus Christ, part of the Godhead, the Trinity, residing in the
inner man. The one way I can explain that
to you is when I hear someone preaching the gospel, identify
with it. It's like matter. It's like water.
It's like, oh, you know, sometimes it's just little glimpses of
it. Other times it's like, oh, I'm undone. Gotta have more of
it. Lord, enable me to worship you
more, to see you more. What a gift. What a precious,
precious gift that he would blow his spirit through all of Pennsylvania. It's in Tennessee, it's other
places. God has his people. It's the
church. Turn over to John chapter one. Kind of tag teaming two thoughts
here, the spirit and the mystery of Christ. They go hand in hand
in my mind. Keeping this in mind again, what
is the mystery of Christ? Chapter 1, you guys know this,
I'd like to read it. John chapter 1 verse 29. The next day John seeth Jesus
coming unto him and saith, behold the Lamb of God which taketh
away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, after
me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before
me. And I knew him not, but that
he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing
with water. And John bear record saying,
I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode
upon him. And I knew him not, but he that
sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, unto whom
thou shalt see the spirit descending and remaining on him, The same
is he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bear
record that this is the Son of God." The Spirit testifying to
the God-man. Lord made flesh came to dwell
amongst us. Call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. John the Baptist, could you imagine
seeing this picture like a dove? descending the Spirit of God,
that same Spirit that bloweth where it will, where God will
send it, some places it just passes by, other places, Lord
willing, it settles in. And I pray that it settles in
here. Turn over, John chapter three, another page over. The mystery of Christ. Pick up verse 1, John chapter
3. Again, a familiar passage. There
was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night
and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest
except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto
him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him,
how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, verily,
verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of
the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the spirit." Turn back over to Ephesians chapter 3. I'm just going to touch on this
quickly. I want to see if you're thinking
like I am. Are you part of the family of
God? And do you know in the mystery
of Christ, in verse 15, of whom the whole family in heaven and
earth is named. Earlier I called you guys brothers
and sisters. I have brothers. by blood, sister, family members. But they're not my brethren.
They're not my real sisters. You guys are. And I believe I'm
your brother. And if that be so, then we're
the church. The spirit's blown here and raised
up a church. Be thankful for that. Be reminded
of that. Don't take it for granted. Pray
for one another. Brothers and sisters are there
to help each other. And I got to tell you guys, how many years
we've been together? 10. We talk about it. Is it not a
miracle that the Lord didn't leave us to ourselves? What do
we learn by it? Patience. Took how many years? Church. I'm not drawing attention
to it. I just want to make sure we understand
this is the will of God. This is the power of God. This
is the mystery of Christ. This is the spirit that's blown
our way. Pray that he brings his sheep
into the fold. And that we're brothers and sisters. And because
of that, we're the church, the whole family of God. I purposed
it. We didn't purpose it. I said earlier about knowledge.
I've been in meetings with people over the years. Some that have
worked for me and I trained. And they'd go in these meetings
thinking they were the smartest person in the room. Used to drive
me nuts. Puffed up. Knowledge puffs us
up. The gospel, the spirit, the inner
man humbles us. Doesn't make us pious, pompous. I was in religion, I held my
head high. I got Christ in my back pocket,
I'm saved. Such and such a date, I gave my heart to Jesus. That didn't point me to the inner
man. That didn't point me to the Lord Jesus Christ and the
finished work of what he's done for his people. I couldn't understand
the blood over the post back in the Israelites' days. The
death angel came, saw that blood, passed by, saved that household. Prayed that he seize the blood
here. Seize the blood, because that's why we're gathered. That
blood is what saves us. That perfect righteousness. the
sinner's substitute. This passes knowledge. This is
the wisdom of God. This is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone who believes. This is the mystery. I hope I
touched on some of it that would help us understand the knowledge
of the mystery of Christ. This is where lies our hope.
We'll look at one last passage. Luke chapter 4. Again, I think
one that we'd be familiar. I had some other examples, but
I'm going to just look at one more. You know, as you turn in there,
chapter 4, Luke. We're in the family of God. He's our father. Lord Jesus Christ is our brother.
If we're not in this family, we're in the devil's family.
He's the father of the wicked. Think about that. What family
are you in? Do you know the mystery of Christ?
Has the spirit revealed it to you? Chapter four, verse 16. We're going to see the public
ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ start. And he came to Nazareth,
this is Christ, where he had been brought up. And as his custom
was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood
up to read, for to read. And there were delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it is written. The spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. Get the picture in your mind?
This is the Lord Jesus Christ reading from the book of Isaiah
about himself. Verse 20, and he closed the book
and he gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of
all them that were, hold on a minute, I turned the page, I grabbed
two. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were
fastened on him. And he began to say unto them,
this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bear him witness. and
wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.
And they said, Is this not Joseph's son? Verse 23. Now keep this in mind, the mystery
that we've been talking about. Listen to what he says to them.
And he said unto them, You will surely say unto me this proverb,
Physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever we have heard done
in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, verily
I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country,
but I tell you a truth, of a truth. Many widows were in Israel in
the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six
months, when great phantom was throughout all the land. Spirit
wasn't blowing this way. Verse 26, but unto none of them
was Elias sent, save Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman
that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Elias the prophet, and none of them were cleansed,
saying Naaman the Syrian. Stop for a second here to get
this picture. So the Lord Jesus Christ gets up, and he reads.
Like again, I think we were talking about this a little bit. This
is Joseph's son. He's one of us. Didn't see him. He didn't reveal himself to them.
As was his custom, he gets up and he reads in the synagogue.
He reads from the book, chapter 61 of Isaiah. And we see that
he's telling them what took place, where there were two, that the
Lord blew his spirit, and they were his two. None of the Jews. They knew exactly what he was
saying. They were marveling at his words. Oh, they were hearing
them. But then when he brought election,
he brought the grace of God, he showed the power of God to
two, a woman and a man. They were Gentiles doing a great
famine, and many were dying. The Spirit didn't vote that way.
This is our God. This is why we earnestly pray,
blow your spirit our way. Reveal the mystery of Christ
to us, Lord. If not, we're in a dry and thirsty
land, and we're going to perish. This is the power of God. That's
how much he loves us, loves his people. It's mind boggling. So
what did they do? Verse 28. And all day in the
synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath.
What do you mean? We're Jews. You know? We're somebody. We go to church.
We go to synagogue. Fill in the blank. We're religious.
We're working the works of God. No. So when they saw it, when
they come to understand that during this great famine, only
two There was lepers, people dying left and right of leprosy.
This is the wisdom of God. This is the manifold wisdom of
God. But there were two. Verse 29, and rose up and thrust
him out of the city and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon
their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. Verse 30, revealing who he is. But he, passing through the midst
of them, went his way. It wasn't his time to get their
hands on him because they were filled with wrath and wanted
to kill him. You talk to some religious people. Some of you
might have come out of it. Well, you tell me I'm not saved.
I know I'm saved. Fighting words, man. Throw me
in a lion's den, I'm not gonna deny who Christ is, not having
a clue, having my own righteousness, a form of godliness, denying
the power of God. Grace be to God, that he blows
his spirit and reveals to his people the mystery of Christ. Back over to Ephesians. By the way, those two people
we just read in Luke, part of the church of God. Isn't that
sweet? This is what the mystery of God
reveals. Verse 17. Verse 16, the inner man. Verse
17, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. We're rooted
and grounded in love. This is what it produces in the
life of a believer. That we may, we hope, we pray
to comprehend with all the saints, there's a church again. all the
saints, what's the breadth, length, depth, and height, and to know
the love of Christ, which path is knowledge, that ye might be
filled with all the fullness of God. In closing, I'd like to read
the chapter again. And when we get down to verse 20, I want
you to see, that's Paul's prayer for these people. Keep that in
your mind. Verse 1, 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 is given
me to you, word, how that by revelation he may 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 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 of the world hath been hidden God, who
created all things by Jesus Christ, there's our sovereign Lord. Verse
10, to the intent that now unto the principality 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 you 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 heighth, and to know the love of Christ
which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled with all the
fullness of God. Now here's the prayer, brethren,
for our church. Now unto him that is able to
do exceedingly abundantly above all that 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 end. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we're thankful for your
word. We're thankful that your word was made manifest. Your
son, the Lord Jesus Christ, came in love to you to redeem
a people. We ask, Lord, as we've said before,
that you blow your spirit our way Bring your sheep to this
saving knowledge that all our hope, all our comfort, our wisdom,
our salvation, justification, sanctification, glorification
is all found in Him, the mystery of Christ, the God-man. We pray,
Lord, that you would remind us of this. Take us from this place,
keep us safe. When we see the wind, Lord, may
it take us back and remind us again of this precious truth. Christ is all and in all. We ask all this in your son's
name. Amen. Good. Sing hymn. Stand singing
hymn.