Alright brethren, let's turn
to Ephesians 1. I hope this study in Ephesians has been as beneficial
to you as it has to me. I've really enjoyed it. Every word has just been a blessing
to me. I hope it has to you. For every
believer here, the Spirit of God has done something amazing
in our hearts. He has revealed the mystery of
God's will. No man can know this mystery
until God reveals it. Isn't that amazing? God has revealed
the mystery of His will to us. And it says here, according to
His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself. Our subject this morning is God's
grand purpose, God's grand purpose. Here it is, verse 10, 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. From before the foundation of
the world, the grand purpose of God, which God purposed in
himself, is that in the dispensation of the fullness of time, he might
gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in
heaven and which are on earth, even in him. We'll just divide
that verse this morning. And much of what I say to you
is going to be a repetition of what you've heard me say already
and what I said in those overviews we had when we started this study
of Ephesians. But as Paul said, to write the
same things to you, to me, is not grievous. It's needful for
you. A few weeks, the last Fourth
Sunday. How many times have I wrote the
Fourth Friday Fellowship? Fourth Friday Fellowship. Trying
to use alliteration, you know. Fourth Friday Fellowship. And
I had folks say, it's the last Friday, it's not the fourth Friday.
That's why we need the gospel over and over and over. We need
to be reminded. We need to be reminded. Constantly. Here's the first word we come
to. That in the dispensation. The dispensation. In the dispensation
of the fullness of time. Let's take this word dispensation.
The word doesn't refer to time. The word doesn't mean a space
of time, a period of time. The word means stewardship. The word means management. It
means administration. Like when one has left the, given
another authority to manage his household and his property and
all his affairs while he's gone, that's a steward. That man's
been given a stewardship. I'm going to leave here, get
on an airplane, Lord willing, go to Arkansas. And Brother Robert's
going to come over and stay at my house so that he can look
after Peanut and do things that need to be done at the house.
I'm giving him a stewardship of my house. He's going to look
after my affairs, my house, while I'm gone. A stewardship. Well,
God gave to His Son, Christ Jesus, the dispensation. He gave Him
the stewardship, the administration, the management of His whole house
and of all the affairs in that house. He gave it to Him. He
said in John 17, 2, Thou hast given Him power over all flesh. that He should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given Him. This is what God the Father
gave to God the Son. Look at Hebrews chapter 3. Hebrews
chapter 3. To your right there, just a few
pages. Hebrews chapter 3. Look at verse 1. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of
our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that
appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.
But this is a difference. This man was counted worthy of
more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house
hath more honor than the house." You see, Moses was a part of
the house. Moses was faithful. Moses is a part of the house.
Christ built the house. Look here at the next verse,
verse 4. For every house is built by some man, but he that built
all things is God. This is the one we're talking
about, the God-man. And Moses verily was faithful
in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things
which are to be spoken after, but Christ as a son over his
own house. You see this? He was a servant,
Christ was, servant of the Father, but he was a servant as a son
over his own house. He's the firstborn among many
brethren, and they're his brethren. Those chosen of God and given
to him, they're his brethren. This was his house he was taking
care of. whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and
the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. Christ Jesus was
faithful and he was deserving of more glory than Moses, deserving
of more glory than any because of that faithfulness, because
of what he did. He finished the work the Father
gave him to do. He was given a work to come in
the times determined. He was given a work to come to
finish the transgressions of His people. And Christ finished
the transgressions of His people so that by His sacrifice, God
never again remembers our transgressions. Ever. Christ made an end of sins
for His people. Christ so fully put away the
sins of His people and put an end to our sins. Christ is the
end. Christ is the end of the law.
Christ is the end of our sins. They disappeared. He put them
away. And God won't ever remember our
sins anymore. Ever! That's a mighty work He
did. Christ made reconciliation for
the iniquity of His people. That means He expiated our sin. He made atonement for our sin. He satisfied the law and justice
for His people by His sufferings. Through His life, even unto death,
He made full reparation. We did a lot of damage by all
our sins. Much damage before God and to
God. And He repaired everything we
did so that there's nothing bent, there's nothing out of shape,
there's nothing that's out of conformity. Everything is in
perfect harmony with God because of what He did. And Christ brought
in everlasting righteousness for His people. Everlasting righteousness. If you have righteousness, if
you've been made the righteousness of God, you know what that means?
That means there's nothing the law can say to you. You're righteous.
If you're driving down the road out here and you're doing the
speed limit, you're not breaking the law, you're using your signals,
you're doing everything the law commands, the law has absolutely
nothing to say to you. And because Christ came and lived
under the law for His people and obeyed the law for His people,
and went to the cross and put away our sin, and has made us
the righteousness of God in Him, it means, brethren, the law has
nothing else to say to us. It has nothing else to say to
us. We've done everything the law demands. You say, look at
your past life. Do you think you've done everything
the law demands? But God says you have. You look at it right
now. Do you think you've done everything the law of God demands?
But God says you have. You look at the future. You think
tomorrow you're going to do everything God's law demands. God says you
have. Already. Before it's ever done.
Because Christ did it. And He made His people the righteousness
of God. I just wish we could enter into
the fullness of that, brethren. And then Christ sealed up the
vision and prophecy. That means He fulfilled all that
was written of Him by the prophets. The Spirit of Christ told the
prophets what to write and they wrote it down. And then Christ
came and fulfilled everything that was written down. He sealed
up the vision and the prophecy. He fulfilled what was written
of Him. He did. in the Old Testament,
and he's the last great prophet himself. He's the one who now
has fulfilled even that office of prophet. and He teaches His
people in our heart. And Christ is the anointed, He's
the anointed the most holy. He was anointed as a man when
He came by the Spirit of God at His baptism, He was anointed
at, I'm sorry, at His incarnation, at His baptism, and at His resurrection. He's the anointed most holy,
that's who He is. And so the Father has now raised
Him and given Him the most glory, giving Him more glory than any
other, because He earned it. He did everything the Father
sent Him to do. The Father is so well pleased
with His Son. Look at Ephesians 1.20. I know
I've read this about every time we've looked into Ephesians,
but I love it. Look, Ephesians 1.20. He wrought exceeding greatness
when He raised Christ from the dead and set Him at His own right
hand in the heavenly places. You see, when He came down, He
came down as God the Son, and He had all power as God, as God
the Son. But now when He raised Him, He
raised Him as the Son of Man. And this is talking about Him
now as the God-Man Mediator, as somebody in our nature. And
there He sits with all His power. Look at this now. Far above all
principality and power and might and dominion and every name that's
named. Not only in this world, but also
in the world to come. And He's put all things under
His feet and He gave Him to be the head over all things to the
church. And that church is His body.
You protect your body? Church is his body. These people
He redeemed, they're His body. He's going to protect them. The
fullness of Him. If they're not saved, He won't
be complete. They're the fullness of Him that
filleth all in all. All this is the good pleasure
which God purposed in Himself. God's grand purpose right here
was this. To this end, Christ both died
and rose and revived that He might be Lord both of the dead
and the living. He's Lord of all. He's Lord of
those who are dead in spirit and those who are living in spirit.
He's Lord of those who are dead in the flesh and alive in the
flesh. He's Lord of the dead and the
living. He's Lord of everything. That includes everything. Everything
is either dead or living. It's either inanimate or animate. And He's Lord of all of it. He's
Lord of all of it. Nothing moves, nothing wiggles,
nothing does anything in this world but by the power of my
hand. My Lord Jesus Christ. That's who He is. Look here now. So you see that He's got the
administration. He's got the management. The
government is on His shoulder. It's on His shoulder. Now here's
the second word we come to in verse 10. The fullness of times. He has the administration in
the fullness of times. The fullness of times is this
whole gospel age right here that we're living in. There were times
set. Times spoken of in the Old Testament
with the Spirit of God told the prophets to write about. For
instance, Daniel said, 70 weeks are determined. It meant years. 70 weeks are determined. That
means they're set. Psalm 102.13 says, Thou shalt
arise and have mercy upon Zion for the time to favor her, yea
the set time is come. So the fullness of times is the
time which God set for Christ to come and fill full all those
times that have been spoken of. The fullness of times is the
time set for Christ to fulfill the times. That's what it is. You know time in our calendar,
what it's divided into? It's divided into B.C. and A.D. You know where that hinge is?
Right there on the cross. Right there in our Lord. All
time's divided by Him. Because He's fulfilling, He fulfilled
everything. And now He's fulfilling it. He's
continuing to fulfill everything. God the Father, look over at
Galatians 4.4. This fullness of time began when
God the Father sent Christ into the earth. Look here, Galatians
4.4. When the fullness of time was
come, the fullness of the time was come. This is the time we're
talking about. When the fullness of the time
was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under
the law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive
the adoption of sons. That's why Christ came along
and He came preaching and He would tell people, saying, the
time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye
and believe the gospel. The time's at hand, He would
say. And the fullness of times will be complete, they will be
complete when Christ has called all His elect in one body and
He's completed the fullness of His body. He brought them all
in to make up the fullness of His body, that stature of the
body of Christ so that it's full and it's complete and there's
not one missing. This world won't end until then. It won't end
until then. Look over at Revelation chapter
1. Hold your place in Ephesians but look at Revelation 1. You know Revelations, it's not
a book of the Revelations. It's not the Revelations. It's not what it is. Revelation
is the revelation of Jesus Christ. It's about from the first time
he came, till he comes back again, about the fullness of times,
and it showed us what Christ is doing, fulfilling everything
in the fullness of times. That's what this book's about.
Look here at Revelation 1, and look at verse 1. The revelation
of Jesus Christ. See that? Not the revelations,
the revelation of Jesus Christ. which God gave unto him, to show
unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass. Look
down at verse 3. Blessed is he that readeth, and
they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things
which are written therein, for the time is at hand. The time
is at hand. Now look over at Revelation 10.1.
I want to show you here that this time, this fullness of time
will not end until Christ has called all His sheep into that
one body, until He's gathered them all together in one. Look
at Revelation 10.1. And I saw another mighty angel. You know who this mighty angel
is? It's Christ. It's Christ. I saw
another mighty angel come down from heaven. This is not talking
about him coming down the first time. It's not talking about
him coming down the second time. This is talking about him coming
down right now. It's talking about his stewardship
right now, over the fullness of time. He says, I saw a mighty
angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow
was upon his head, and his face was, it were, the sun, and his
feet as pillars of fire. This is Christ right now as the
steward of the fullness of times. This is Him right now. He's clothed
with the cloud and His feet are like pillars of fire. You remember,
Christ is in heaven in body, but He's with us in spirit like
as a cloud. And you remember the cloud and
the fire that's going to be over all His assemblies and the glory
is going to be for our defense? This is Him. This is Him. He
appeared as a cloud and His feet as pillars of fire. He walks
in the midst of His churches. He had a rainbow upon His head.
You know what the rainbow means? It means He's upholding everything
by that perfect Word of His everlasting covenant promise. He's going
to fulfill everything. That rainbow's got seven colors
in it. That's perfection. Perfection.
You go through Revelation and see how many times you see seven,
seven, seven, seven. It means everything Christ does
in the fullness of time is going to be perfect when He gets finished
with it. He's going to perfectly fulfill that Word. He's upholding
all things by the Word of His power right now. And that bow,
you look at a bow and it looks like an arrow pointed up. I mean a bow pointed up. And
the arrow's gone out of it. There's no arrow in it. The arrow's
done been shot. It's been shot at Christ. He
bore the justice of God for His people. The bow's empty now.
And it's pointed up. Reminding us, look up to Him.
Look up there. You want to see where the arrow
went? Look up there. Look at Him. There's the perfection.
That's the sureness, the assurance this covenant's going to be fulfilled.
Him. And in His face is as the Son. The God-man Mediator is
risen in glory, in glory, in glow, right now. And He's risen
to send forth the Spirit. What we just read in Revelation
1, it said the Father gave this to Him to reveal to His people.
And He's revealing Himself in the heart of His people. He's
revealing Himself in His people, giving them divine light. He's
the Son of Righteousness, wherein we have light. Look at verse
2. and he had in his hand a little book open. And he set his right
foot upon the sea and his left foot on the earth. That little
book, that's the good pleasure which God purposed in Christ.
That's God's grand pleasure right there written in that book. Christ shall fulfill everything
written in that book. That book will remain open until
Christ finishes everything written in that book. He won't put that
book down until He brought all His children together in one.
And look at where His feet were. He had one foot on the sea and
He got one foot on the earth. All things are put under His
feet. You know what we just read in Ephesians 1? All things are
put under His feet. He's got all power in heaven
and earth to put down all rule and all power and all dominion
and everything that would separate His people from God. He's got
full dominion over everything to put them down. That's what
He has. His gospel, it means His gospel is going to be preached
in all the nations. Wherever His people are, He's
got power to send it. He's going to do it. And it says,
as God the Son, He's going to always have that dominion. To
whom be dominion, be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Now the man, Christ Jesus, he's got this. It's the reward of
his obedience as a man, as the one who went to the cross and
laid down his life for his people. And there he sits now, verse
3. And he cried with a loud voice as when a lion roareth. And when
he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. I don't
know what those seven thunders are, maybe it's his preachers
crying like sons of thunder, I don't know. But I know this,
Hebrews 31 verse 4 says this, Thus hath the Lord spoken unto
me, Like as a lion, and the young lion roaring on his prey, When
a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, you picture
the lion, he's going after his prey, and all these shepherds
come out against that lion. They're coming out there to try
to do that lion harm. It says, he will not be afraid
of their voice. nor abase himself for the noise
of them, so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for
Mount Zion and for the hill thereof." That's how John saw it, crying
as a lion, roaring. Joel said this in Joel 3.16,
The Lord also shall roar out of Zion and utter his voice from
Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake." Everything
that can be shaken is going to be shaken, and it's going to
be shaken by his gospel, by his word. But the Lord will be the
hope of his people and the strength of the children of Israel. Look
at verse 4, Revelation 10 verse 4, And when the seven thunders
had uttered their voices, I was about to write. John said, I
was fixing to write it now. I thought that was the end. I
was fixing to write it. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto
me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and
write them not. And the angel which I saw stand
upon the sea and upon the earth, he lifted up his hand to heaven.
He could swear by no greater than by himself. So he lifted
up his hand to heaven, and he sware by him that liveth forever
and ever, who created heaven and the things that therein are,
and the earth and the things that therein are, and the sea
and the things which therein are, that there should be time
no longer yet, this is what it should say, there should be time
no longer yet, but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel,
when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God shall be finished,
as he hath declared to his servants the prophets." In other words,
the Lord told John, he said, don't write what you've heard
yet. This is not the end. He said, the end is not come
yet. I lift my hand to the Father
and I swear by myself because I swear by no greater, he's saying,
The end is not yet. He says, when the last judgment
is thundered from heaven, when the last judgment comes upon
this people, when their iniquity is full, and all my people are
brought into me, I will sound forth the last judgment and then
the mystery of God shall be finished. So he's telling him, he says,
you can rest assured, I'm going to uphold all things by the word
of my power until the purpose of God is complete, until all
his elect are called into one body. And when the fullness of
the body is complete, then shall the fullness of times be complete.
That's what he's telling John. And then Christ shows us here
how he's going to fulfill them, how he's going to gather that
people. John's told in those next three or four verses there
to take that book out of the Lord's hand and eat it. He said,
take it out of his hand and eat it. It's going to be sweet in
your mouth, but it's going to be bitter in your belly, he said.
Remember Ezekiel, he was told to do the same thing, told to
eat it. In Revelation 10 and 11, and he said unto me, Thou
must prophesy, you must go preach again before many people and
nations and tongues and kings. You see, he told John, he said,
don't write things down, it's not over yet. You gotta go preach
some. You gotta go to all these nations
to preach the word. I got some people to call out.
You know what I've been doing all week? I've been eating the
book. All week long I've been eating
the book. It's been sweet to taste. There's some things bitter. Some things bitter. But I've
been eating it so I can come here and deliver it to you and
tell you the mystery of His will. And tell you this is the grand
purpose of God. This is our head, our Lord, our
Savior. This is the one who's ruling
everything for us. Turn over to Ephesians 3. Look
back at Ephesians 3. Paul is the one writing our text
and he'd been eating the book too. Christ, our Head, who has
stewardship over the fullness of times, He gave Paul a stewardship
to go preach this gospel just like He did John. Look here at
Ephesians 3.1. Ephesians 3.1, For this calls
I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if you've
heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given
to me to you. That means if you've heard of
the stewardship that's given to me of God, to you." Verse
3, "...how that by revelation he made 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." Those few
words we've been studying in Ephesians 1. God made this known
to him. He says, which in other ages,
in other times, was not made known unto the sons of men as
it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the
Spirit. Why wasn't it made known before? The fullness of times
hadn't come yet. The Redeemer hadn't entered into
His glory yet. That's why it hadn't been made
known like it has now. Christ has come now and He's
entered into that glory. And now He's made it known more
fully what He's doing. So He gets the glory. It's by
the Spirit. Look, that the Gentiles should
be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of His promise
in Christ by the Gospel. Not just the Jews, his elect
people scattered all over many nations and he's got people scattered
everywhere and he's gonna bring them in. Whereof I was made a
minister, Paul said, according to the gift of the grace of God
given unto me by the effectual working of his power. I was given
this stewardship by the effectual working of his power, he said.
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 see what is the fellowship
of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been
hid in God." From the beginning of the world, this thing's been
a mystery, been hidden. who created all things by Jesus
Christ to the intent that now, now it's revealed to this, now
watch this, so that principalities and powers in heavenly places
to them might be made known by the church, the manifold wisdom
of God. You know angels and powers and
principalities, they want to see these things. They're interested
in what's going on and what Christ is teaching me and you right
here. Are you interested in them? They are. He's not going to reveal
them just directly to them. He's going to reveal them to
you. And they're going to get to see them through you. That's
amazing. Look at this last part. Look
at it. According to the eternal purpose which He purposed in
Himself. Look who Himself is. Christ Jesus
our Lord. That's where He purposed His
grand purpose. In whom we have boldness and access with confidence
by the faith of Him. So you see, this dispensation
means Christ has got the management of everything. He got everything
in His hand. He got everything. He's controlling
everything. And the fullness of times is
this whole gospel age of grace that we live in right now. He's
fulfilling His children with the truth and He's filling His
body with His children. And He's not going to stop until
everything is complete. Now you, you, brethren, the God-man who
came here and loved us and gave himself for us rules everything. He rules everything. Everything. Christ is the power which those
with a form of godliness deny. He is the power. I preach Christ
with so much power that He's able to work everything, go everywhere,
preach His gospel, heal His people, send forth His Spirit, work the
miracle of grace and regeneration in the heart of His people as
real as He did when He walked this earth because He has that
much power. That's as real as he's working
that real in his people right now from heaven. Why men want
to deny that? Why men want to talk about luck? Oh, I was just lucky, that's
what it was. There's no such thing as luck. There's no such
thing as luck. Christ is doing everything. And
if you say luck did it, then you're saying this was out of
God's hand. And that's blasphemy. Nothing's
out of His hand. Nothing. Christ is doing everything. There's no such thing as blind
faith. He's bringing everything of God's grand purpose to pass.
He's doing everything. You think of the smallest, most
minute thing that you think, surely He's not in control of
that. He's in control of that. Those little microbes and whatnot
that you see swimming around in a glass of water in there,
He's in control of them. That's right. He's in control
of everything. Everything, brethren. Everything. Sinful men are not ruling. Satan's
not ruling. Nothing's out of his hand. Nothing's
out of his control. Nothing's going haywire. You
don't have to fret and run around and worry and think, oh, if Capitol
Hill don't get it right, we're going to just perish. He got
them in his hand. They're doing exactly what he
determined before to be done. And everything that he's doing,
everything that he's doing, everything that he's doing is for this grand
purpose that God sent him to do. It's to gather in his sheep. It's to fill his sheep. It's
to edify his sheep. It's to grow his sheep. It's
to gather together in one all that the Father gave to him and
give to them eternal life with the Father. That's the stewardship
he's been given. He's not going to fail. Not at
all. All right, let's get the third
thing here. There shall be a great gathering together. A great gathering
together. Verse 10. It says there, here's
His grand purpose. And in the dispensation of the
fullness of times, He might gather together. You see this? He might
gather together. Now watch. In one. There's a
gathering together in one in Christ. You see there's two ends
here. In one, in Christ. Gathered together
in one, in Christ. Both which are in heaven and
which are on earth. Even in Him. Gathered together
in one is one Greek word. It takes four English words to
say this one Greek word. Gathered together in Him. It
means to reunite. To reunite. And it means to sum
up under one head. To reunite and sum up under one
head. I've told you before that we
were in Him by God's purpose in the beginning before the world
was made, and we were accepted in the Beloved. In the Beloved. So there's going to be a gathering
into one body here below, and that body is going to be in Christ. He's going to gather all together.
Everything that God created from the beginning, everything He
created from the beginning was one. There's no division in God. Sin is division. Sin is separation. There's no sin in God. So everything
God did was unity and oneness. That's what God makes. His angels
were one with one another and His angels were one with men.
And men were one with angels, and men were one with one another.
He made everything in union. That's what He does. That's what
He does. But sin, our sin, separated us
from God. Sin separates. Sin separates. In heaven, Sin separated the
angels from one another. This was what was said. The devil,
as we now know him, was originally a created angel of God. And this
is what it said about him. Thou was perfect in thy ways
from the day that thou was created till iniquity was found in thee.
to iniquity. Peter said that God cast out
the angels that sinned. He cast them out. Sin caused
separation. And in the earth, sin separated
man from God. Our sin, he said, your sins have
separated you from your God. Sin at Babel, I've said this
to you before, you know, we send an Adam in the garden, we cast
out of the garden of Eden, separated from God's presence. In Noah's
day, our sin had caused us to become so separated from God,
we was too smart to hear the gospel. We wouldn't pay attention
to Noah. God drowned the whole world in a flood. After that,
you got these three sons of Noah, and there's who the whole world's
gonna come from, these three sons of Noah. And they multiplied
and multiplied and multiplied, and they got real smart real
fast, again, and decided we could just build a tower and get up
to God. We'll just work our way up there. And so God came down
and he, because of our sin, because of our sin of trying to work
our way to heaven, God came down and He divided our languages.
He divided the continents. He divided us into nations. He
just divided us. He scattered us, God did. He
did it on purpose. It was our sin for which it was
done, but God did it on purpose. He scattered us. And then Israel
took the things of God, which should have humbled them and
made them see their sin and made them see their wretchedness,
and they took those things and they said, We got all these things
from God. Get away from us Gentiles. We
hate you. Y'all a bunch of dogs. We're holier than you. Don't
come near us. Can't you see all the things we got? God separated
them further. And within them, there's just
more separating. All nations and families in the
earth and cities and towns and everywhere, there's just more
division and division and division over sin. Pride of face. Pride of place. What's the other one? Pride of
face, pride of place. What am I missing here? Pride
of race. There it is. Pride of face, race,
and place. using all those things, and saying,
this is what makes me to differ. This is what makes me to differ.
So sin, see, it doesn't do anything but divide, and it just keeps
on dividing and dividing and separating and separating and
separating, but Christ gets all the more. God waited for all
that time. Why don't He just send Christ
at the beginning and stop it from separating? He just let
it keep separating until it just got so splintered that you think,
these folks can't ever be gathered back together. He did that on
purpose. So then he could send his son
and say, now go gather them together. Go bring great glory and honor
to my name. Go show my power and my wisdom.
Go show how great you are, my son, and gather them now together
that they've just scattered to the four winds. This is amazing to me. I'm going
to have to read some of this because I won't get it right
if I don't. But let me try to give you this. The invisible
God purposed in himself that he would create a visible kingdom
where the triune God would dwell in his people and his people
would dwell in God. They'll be, they'll walk one
on one, side by side with each other. How would God bring that
about? How would he, that was the great
purpose he purposed himself. How's he gonna bring that about?
He's invisible, he's spirit. How's he gonna, how's he gonna
bring make a visible kingdom with a visible people and bring
them all together. Well, first thing He did was
He created a world. He created a world, a visible
world. He created the heavens and the earth and the universe
and a people of flesh and blood. And He allowed sin to enter in
and separate everything, separate us from all. And then through
His people, through that people, He sent God the Son. Now here's
where it began. In one body, in one body, one. They're gathered together in
one. In one body, God the Son, the second person in the Trinity,
joins himself with that human nature, with that nature of his
people. He joins himself in one body. There you got two natures
together, brought together in one. And then this one lived
and died for his people so that we'd be made perfect in one. By one man's obedience shall
many be made righteous. He did this that we might be
made perfect in one, by one. Christ said, Thou and me and I in thee, that they may
be made perfect in one. And all our sins were gathered
up, all summed up, I said it means summed up, all summed up
and made to meet on that one, on that one right there, on that
one. He put them all away. He put
them all away on one cross at one time by which He's made us
perfect and one by His blood. Perfect. Now that's done. The
legal part's done. They don't know about it. Here
they are scattered everywhere on the face of the earth now.
They got to be told. Some of them were told when he
was here. He came and told them before he even went and did it.
But then God raised Christ back into heaven in one body. In one
body. He raised him up there. There's
the God-man. The Son of Man and the Son of
God in one body seated with God in glory. There He is. in one. And He gave Him power over everything
on this earth to gather all these redeemed, all these that He redeemed
into one body. And then God raised, then God,
He took everything. He took the stewardship. And
by God the Spirit entering into us, by Him sending forth the
Spirit and entering into us, He makes us partakers of the
divine nature. Now you see how He's bringing
all this into one? He makes us partakers of the
divine nature. This is what God said, if the
Spirit of Christ be in you, if the Spirit of Christ be in you,
you're no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit. So now He's
brought us together with Him. In Spirit. There we are. We're
together with Him in Spirit. And now He's taught us and He
shows us, your life's hid with Me. Here I am. It's right in
the Father. This is where your life is. And when I come, then
you're going to appear with Me in glory. And we have that divine
partaker, that divine nature within us right now by His Spirit.
So we're not in the realm of flesh, we're in the Spirit. See
how He's more making us one? And we're going to, now we dwell
together in one body. He said in Zephaniah 3, 9, For
then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may
all call upon the name of the Lord, and to serve Him with one
consent. You see, we all spoke a different
language. Now we speak the same language.
Now you may speak a foreign language that I don't speak, but God's
people speak the one language of grace now. And we do it with
one mind, one heart, one consent. We speak His language because
He's returned that one language to us now. See, He's just more
and more making us one. Look at Ephesians 2.13. Now in
Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off... You notice it
says sometimes. That was before the fullness
of time. You were far off. You that were sometimes far off
are made nigh by the blood of Christ. You're brought near.
For He is our peace who hath made both one. and hath broken
down the middle wall of partition between us, between us and our
Jewish brethren, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even
the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in
himself of two one new man, so making peace, and that he might
reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain
the enmity thereby. That was the first thing I showed
you. Here's the second thing. And he came and he preached peace
to you which were afar off. and to them that were nigh, for
through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father."
By one Spirit. Now, therefore, you're no more
strangers and foreigners. You're no more out there scattered
about and belong to one city and one belong to one house,
another belong to another city, another belong to another house.
Now, you belong to the one household of God. To the one household
of God. But He's not finished yet. You're
not finished yet. In this house, there's neither
Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian,
bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. You know why
men criticize us. You know why men reproach us
and make a big deal out of something that you and I don't make a big
deal out of and try to point those things out, get us all
riled up about them. You know why? Christ is not all,
in all to us. That's why. Not all. When Christ
is all to you, the rest of the junk's nothing to you. Christ
is all and in all. And in the end, here's the end.
Now Christ is going to return for us and He's going to gather
us all together and raise us with a new body. Like His glorified
body. Let me read Matthew 24, 31. He
shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet. That's when
He's telling John, that's when that last trumpet's going to
sound. And He says, and they shall gather together. They're
going to gather together His elect from the four winds, from
one end of heaven to the other. He's going to gather them all
together. He brought them into one body in all these different
parts of the earth. He's going to bring them all
together in one body. Then cometh the end, when he
shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when
he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power,
for he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. And the last enemy that shall
be destroyed is death, for he hath put all things under his
feet." It says that's why God put all things under his feet,
for him to destroy everything. He put it all under his feet.
Then it says, God shall be all in all. the triune God, then
and there the invisible triune God will have brought to pass
the grand purpose which He purposed in Himself. All these children
He loved even as He loves His own Son, you and me, before the
foundation of the world, all these children He loved as His
own Son shall see the triune God, not invisible, but face
to face in the fullness of the Godhead bodily. and then God
and His children are going to dwell together in a new heavens
and a new earth that is a visible kingdom. You know, we're not
going to be angels floating around on bathroom tissue. We're going
to be in a body, just like this. But there won't be a curse. There
won't be a sign of a curse in that place. There won't be anything
but righteousness in that place. You won't look out here, and
you won't see trees dying, and you won't see folks cutting down
trees and pouring pollutants in the water, and you won't see
the waters polluted. It'll be pure, clear as crystal,
water of life. Just drink out of it. Just go
to, drink out of it if you want to. No worries about it running
out. Just go drink of it. And we'll be, I mean, can you
imagine? I don't want to be disrespectful,
but I think it'll be this way. I think we will literally, it'll
literally be like, you know, let's, you want to get together
tonight over at the Savior's house and eat dinner? He's invited
us over for dinner. We'll go eat dinner. He said,
you're gonna sit at my table in my kingdom and I'm gonna serve
you. We'll know him. And we'll just
sit and hear. I was talking to Robert about
this the other day. You just imagine whenever he makes you
to see how everything he made, every detail about what he made,
glorifies him. It makes you see everything in
the scriptures, how it all just fits right together and glorifies
him. And then we'll see, man, I didn't even see the tip of
the tip of the tip of the iceberg. I didn't even remotely enter
into what he's done. And we'll just be there. I don't
even know what that'll be like. We'll always be sitting under
the shade of that apple tree. We'll always be eating that sweet
fruit. There won't be any sorrow, any division. It'll be unity
all the time. And we'll be at one with one
another. And he says here, all things
both which are in heaven and which are on earth, that includes
angels. That includes angels. I don't
even know what an angel looks like. We're going to see them. We're going to be one with them.
The scripture says we're going to judge the angels. They're going to be there to
just do whatever we need help with. They'll be there for us.
Isn't that amazing? You see, I keep telling you,
I told you from the beginning, this thing's like a funnel. We're
coming down. It's getting more narrow, more
narrow, more narrow, more narrow, more narrow, more narrow. And
we're going to meet right in looking our triune God face to
face. The world's, the Broadway's getting
wider and wider and wider and wider and receiving more and
more and more and more. They got to keep the treasury
built up. So they keep the farce and everything
in place to keep the act up. But to God's people, it's getting
more narrow, more narrow, more narrow, more narrow, and we're
going to just stand right there in front of God Almighty. And He's going
to be our friend. He is now. This is what Paul
told Timothy. God said, he says, God at the
appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ in His times, He shall show who
is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of
lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no
man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, to
whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen. That's God's grand purpose.