Our text will be Ephesians 1,
verses 8 and 9. Ephesians 1, verses 8 and 9. Let's read this together. Verse
8, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according
to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself." Our
subject is abounding wisdom and prudence. Abounding wisdom and
prudence. God's wisdom is his knowledge.
His infinite knowledge. Infinite knowledge. And God's
prudence is his skillfulness in choosing how to carry out
his good pleasure. which He hath purposed in Himself.
He has both the wisdom and the prudence to carry out that which
He purposed in Himself. Our text says, God hath abounded
toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known the mystery
of His will. Do you know the mystery? Do you
know the mystery? The mystery of His will is hidden. It's hidden. In 1 Corinthians
2, 7, Paul said, we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. We speak the wisdom of God in
a mystery. Even the hidden wisdom, which
God ordained before the world unto our glory. We've been looking
here in Ephesians 1, and all these things that God did before
the world was made. These are the things He ordained
before the world. He blessed His people with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places. He purposed how He would
save His people. He determined everything before
the foundation of the world. This is what He did before the
world was made. But this wisdom, and that was
all wisdom, but this wisdom that He ordained is the one in whom
He ordained all those things. Christ our wisdom. Christ our
wisdom. Scripture tells us He blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in Christ. There's where He abounded
toward us in wisdom and prudence. He put it in Christ's hands. Who verily was ordained before
the foundation of the world. Christ was. manifesting these
last times. He said, we speak the hidden
wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory. Christ
is that one who was ordained before the foundation of the
world. Unto them which are called, Christ is the power and the wisdom
of God. He's that mystery. Christ is. Christ is the key to this whole
book. You won't understand anything
unless you see Christ. See Christ. Our text also says
God abounded toward us in wisdom and prudence according to His
good pleasure. which He purposed in Himself,
His good pleasure. The substance in which He abounded
toward us is wise and prudent, and then the way in which He
abounded toward us and revealed it to us and brought it to us
is wise and prudent. Everything about this salvation
is wise and prudent, and it's all according to His good pleasure,
which He purposed in Himself. I want to show you eight things
revealed in the Scripture that are the good pleasure of God.
Eight things. And this is how God abounded
toward us in all wisdom and prudence. This is the will of God, the
mystery of the will of God, and this is the good pleasure which
He purposed in Himself. All these things I'm about to
show you, this is how He abounded toward us in wisdom and prudence.
This is the mystery of His will that He's revealed to us, and
this is the good pleasure which He purposed in Himself before
the foundation of the world. Now we're going to have to do
some turning in Scripture, but I want you to see these things.
So let's turn quickly. Colossians 1. Colossians 1. First of all, God abounded toward
us in all wisdom and prudence, because before the foundation
of the world it was the Father's will to give all preeminence
to Christ His Son, because it pleased the Father that all fullness
dwell in His Son. This was His good pleasure. Colossians
1.12. Giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins." Do you see how parallel this begins? with that of Ephesians? This is a sister epistle to Ephesians,
Colossians is. In Ephesians he's speaking about
the blessings as they relate to us. In Colossians he's speaking
about the blessings as they are in Christ. He's showing us how
that more of Christ in Colossians. So He says, in Him we have forgiveness,
and He says, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
of every creature. He says, for by Him were all
things created that are in heaven and that are in earth visible
and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities
or powers. Before the world began, He made
all those. He made all those principalities
and powers and dominions, everything. He made it. Remember that now,
He made all those. All things were created by Him
and for Him. And He's before all things, and
by Him all things consist. These things He made and they
were made for Him, for a purpose, to show His glory and His power. That's what they were made for.
Now be careful, be sure you hear that. And He's the head of the
body, the church. This was all done before the
world began. He's the beginning. God determined this before He
ever made anything. He's the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things He might have the preeminence. for it pleased
the Father." There's the word. Same word as we see in Ephesians
1, 1-9. It pleased the Father that in
Him should all fullness dwell. What does that mean? It means
the fullness of grace is in Christ Jesus. Before the world began,
God blessed us with all spiritual blessings, but He didn't give
them to us directly. He gave them to Christ. He blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in Christ. He gave all spiritual
blessing, all these abundant riches that He had. He gave them
to His Son for His Son to give them to us. He gave them to His
Son. All His fullness Christ has,
He received from the Father to give to us. We're talking about
grace here, grace here. He's all fullness in God. He's
God the Son, but we're talking about His mediator. We're talking
about the fullness He received to give to us. He received it
from the Father and of His fullness the saints receive this abundance
of grace according to the riches of His grace wherein He hath
abounded toward us. free justification, free righteousness,
free pardon, free adoption, free sanctification, all the graces
that are implanted in that new born again believer by the Holy
Spirit of God when he enters in. All of those come from Christ,
from God our Father. Christ prays the Father who sends
the Spirit into our heart Him plants all these graces into
our heart through the Spirit through Christ. They're all through
Christ. All light, all life, all wisdom,
all strength, all peace, all comfort is all from Christ. Every bit of it. All fullness
is in Him. All the promises of God are yes
and amen in Him. And we're safe and secure in
Him. For you're dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. There He is. Before the foundation
of the world, God abounded toward His people with all wisdom and
all prudence by not leaving one thing in the hand of a sinner,
but by giving it all into the hands of His Son to give to those
He chose. You see, if you got a bunch of
riches, you got a bunch of great riches, and you want to deliver
them to somebody, you don't put them in the hand of a robber
to take them to them. They'll never get there. You
put them in the hand of one that's trustworthy. You put them in
the hand of one that will not lie and will not fail, and that
one's Christ. And before the foundation of
the world, God put everything into His hands to give to His
people. All right, let's look now at
this second thing. 1 Samuel. Turn to 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel. Chapter 12. 1 Samuel chapter
12. God abounded toward us in all
wisdom and prudence according to His good pleasure to make
you His people. God abounded toward us in all
wisdom and prudence according to His good pleasure to make
you His people. I hope He reveals this mystery
in your heart today. This is the mystery of His will.
This is how He abounded toward us in wisdom and prudence. This
is the good pleasure which He purposed in Himself. Look at
1 Samuel 12, 22. It pleased the Lord to make you
His people. It pleased the Lord to make you
His people. Before the foundation of the
world, our text tells us in Ephesians 1, 3 and 4, Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
He has chosen us in Him. Before the foundation of the
world. It pleased Him to make you His people. Everybody? No,
sir. Not everybody. But He chose some. He's not told us who He chose.
And He's not going to tell us who He chose. He says, you just
go forth and preach the Word. My people will hear my voice.
I'm going to see to it they hear my voice. And so we just preach
the Word. What a mystery of God's will!
What abounding wisdom and prudence! Before, Brother Scott, Before
as yet He made you, before as yet He created this world, He
chose you to spend eternity with Him. That's amazing. Before He hung the sun in the
sky, He chose us in the Son of Righteousness. Before He set
the planets on their path, He predestinated each one of His
people unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ conforming us,
conformed to the image of His Son. That's a mystery. And abounding wisdom and prudence
because He chose us because He knew from the foundation of the
world that when we fell into sin, into total depravity, we'd
never choose Him. So He chose us before. He did
it according to the good pleasure of His will, according to the
riches of His grace, according to His good pleasure which He
purposed in Himself. This is our God. And then thirdly,
Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. He pleased Him. He abounded toward
us in wisdom and prudence, first of all, by making Christ have
all. He gave Him everything, all fullness.
He put it all into His hands because He desired for Him to
have all preeminence. It pleased Him. It pleased Him
to make you His people. He not only put all the riches
that He would give us into Christ, He put us in Christ. And this
is the third thing. He abounded toward us in all
wisdom and prudence because He was pleased to bruise His Son
in place of His people. In place of His people. All that
you and I contribute is sin. That's it. That's it. All we
contribute is sin. We broke the law in Adam. And
here's our story. Since then, here's our story.
Every one of us. The wicked are estranged from
the womb. They go astray as soon as they
be born speaking lies. In our blindness some of us called
all our wickedness righteousnesses. We went around bragging about
all we'd done for God. But in reality he said we're
all as an unclean thing, all our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags, menstrual cloths. And we all do fade as a leaf
and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. But it pleased
God. It pleased God to send forth
His Son for His people. This is the mystery of His will.
This is His good pleasure. This is what He purposed from
the beginning. This is how He abounded toward us in wisdom
and prudence. He sent forth His Son who walked this earth spotless
and perfect and harmless to fulfill everything for His Father, to
fulfill all the law for His people. The Lord said, the Lord is well
pleased for His righteousness sake. He will magnify the law
and make it honorable. So when our Lord Jesus had fulfilled
everything, every earthly work the Father gave Him to do, then
He went to the cross. because now He has a work to
do in taking all our sin upon Him and becoming guilty before
our God in our room instead, and God is going to pour out
upon Him the punishment that His people deserve. And verse
9 tells us, He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His
mouth, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He hath put Him
to grief. Look back up at verse 5. He was
wounded for our transgressions. Pay attention to this. This right
here is the Gospel. Pay attention now. He was wounded
for our transgressions. Isaiah 53, 5. He was bruised
for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. And with His stripes we are healed. For what the law couldn't do,
and that it was weak through the flesh." Meaning we couldn't
do anything, we couldn't keep the law, we couldn't obey the
law, and we couldn't put away our sins in any way. What the
law couldn't do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God
sent in His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh. He condemned the condemnation.
He condemned the death. He condemned Satan. He condemned
everything that condemned us by going to that cross and being
Himself condemned in our room and our stead. That's what Christ
did. There's where God abounded toward us in wisdom and prudence.
It pleased the Father to bruise Him for His people. that the righteousness of God
might be fulfilled in us, that we might be made perfectly righteous
before God, that we might be made perfect to enter into God's
presence. This is what pleased the Father.
Oh, what abounding wisdom and prudence! Who could have ever
come up with this? To find this way to where He
could be just and the justifier. To where He could make His mercy
and His truth meet in perfect harmony. To where mercy is not
lessened any, justice is not lessened any. Justice is carried
out to the full degree. And mercy is carried out to the
full degree. And both of them are done in
perfect harmony with one another in Christ Jesus the Lord. Do
you understand substitution? I keep trying to tell you substitution,
substitution. You take a substitute teacher,
for example. A substitute teacher is taking
the place of another because the other is sick or something's
got the other one to where they can't do the job. So this substitute
teacher takes their place. When that substitute teacher
comes to the school, they know whose place they're taking. They
don't come to the school not knowing who they're going to
substitute for. They know whose place they're
taking. I was a substitute teacher once. I know. You go, you got
to know whose room to go to. And you go to their room and
you substitute for them and you do the work for them. They don't
do the work. They can't do the work for some
reason. So you take their place and you do all the work for them.
That's what Christ did. He came to this earth. He knew
who He was going to be the substitute for. And God abounded toward
us in wisdom and prudence by choosing His substitute and choosing
those who He would substitute for. But here's the abounding
wisdom of God and the mercy and grace of God is after He's done
all the work, I was a substitute teacher. After I did all the
work all day, I never took the money and went and divided it
with the person that didn't work. I never did that. I kept it.
I did the work. But the bounding grace and mercy
of our God is He did all the work and then He divides the
whole thing with us. He comes to us and gives us the
inheritance of what He accomplished. That's the fourth thing. Stay
there and I'll say a 53 a minute. God abounded toward us in all
wisdom and prudence because it pleased God to raise up Christ
from the dead so he could finish accomplishing the Father's good
pleasure of dividing the spoils with those he redeemed. You get
that? He was doing His work before
He went to the cross. The whole work was in His hand.
He created everything and He was bringing everything to pass
beforehand. But it was God's good pleasure
that after He accomplished His cross work, that in the remainder
of the dispensation of times, He's going to raise Christ up
and Christ is going to make the good pleasure of God now flourish
in the earth. Because now He's in His glory
as the God-man. Before He was doing everything
as God the Son, but now He's doing it as the God-man. Now
listen to this, Isaiah 53.10. At the end there it says, He
shall prolong His days. Let me read the whole thing.
When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall
see this is coming after he's done this. He shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. That means when he's accomplished
his work, God the Father promised he's going to raise him from
the dead and give him everything, all power, as the man who is
God, the God-man. So that in his hand, the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper. It's going to flourish in His
hand. Because here's why I look. In
verse 12, Therefore I'll divide him a portion with the great.
He said, I'm going to bring him here with me, the great one,
so that my son can have a portion with me. And here's what he's
going to do. He's going to divide the spoiled with the strong,
his people, those that he redeemed. He's going to divide it all with
them. He's going to give them the inheritance that he earned,
that he obtained for them. And he's going to do this because
he said, I'm going to raise him because he's poured out his soul
into death. He's numbered with the transgressors.
He bare the sin of many. He made intercession for the
transgressors. And God said, and I'm pleased with him. And
I'm giving him everything. as the God-man. He's going to
make my work flourish now. That's why the next verse, look
at 54-1. It says, Sing, O barren, thou
that did not break forth into singing. Cry aloud, thou that
did not travail with trout, for more the children of the desolate
than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord. He says,
enlarge the place of your tent. Let them stretch forth the curtains
of their habitation. Spare not. Lengthen thy court.
Strengthen thy stakes. For thou shalt break forth on
the right hand and on the left. Thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles
and make the desolate cities be inhabited. Fear not. Thou shalt not be ashamed. Neither
be confounded. Thou shalt not be put to shame.
Look down at verse 5. For thy maker is thine husband. The Lord of hosts is His name.
Thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole
earth shall He be called. Go back to Ephesians 1 now. You
see that? We're talking about Christ. That's
Christ. Now watch this, Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1. Now you remember
all those principalities and those powers and those dominions
that He made? He said He made them for Him,
didn't He? Christ made them. Christ made them as God the Son. He created them. But now watch
this. It's the God-man. It's that one
who is God and man in our very nature there. Look what he is
now. Look where He is now, Ephesians
1.21, He's far above all principality and power and might and dominion
and every name that's named, not only in this world but also
in that which is to come. For God's 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. in all his wisdom and prudence
toward his church. God the Father raised Christ
because He was so pleased with Him. He was so satisfied with
His Son. And this was His covenant promise
because when He poured out His life unto death, He promised
Him this, this reward, this inheritance. And He raised Him to it. And
He gave Him the stewardship. He gave Him the dispensation. He gave them the government,
the administration over all things through the church throughout
this entire gospel age. That's what He gave him. So that
Christ might fill all in all. So that He might make the pleasure
of the Lord prosper in His hand. That's what He gave us to Him
for. That He might fill all in all. He's going to fill all the
good pleasure of God's will. He's filling all His pulpits
with the pastors He sends after His own heart. He's filling all
His pews with His people. He has no problem bringing his
people to his church. No problem. Because he has the
power over everything. He is providence. He is the power
over providence. He fills all His elect with the
Holy Spirit. He fills all His people to completion,
fills His body to completion with His people through the fullness
of the stature of the body of Christ and thus He fulfills the
fullness of times. That's what He does. Brethren,
you can rest assured, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
Christ's hand, because the God of the whole earth is who He
is. That's who our Savior is. That's why He will not fail in
this work. Don't call my Savior a failure. Don't say He failed in doing
that which pleased the Father. He don't fail in it. He don't
fail in it. 1 Corinthians 1. Here's the fifth thing. In the wisdom and prudence of
God, bounding toward us in all wisdom and prudence, it pleased
God that after He proved through all the Old Testament age that
man can't even know Him by his own wisdom. It pleased Him to
save through the preaching of the Gospel, to reveal the mystery
of His will in us through the preaching of the Gospel. 1 Corinthians
1.21 For after that, in the wisdom of God, we're talking about Him
abounding toward us in all wisdom and prudence. After that, in
the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. The world
by its own wisdom, it didn't know God. After that, in the
wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God. Same word. This is the good pleasure
he purposed in himself. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that delay. Well, why did that please
him? Two reasons. Two reasons, they're
given right here in the text clearly, in that passage clearly. The first reason is, by this
means, our Lord Jesus Christ, who's risen right now, who's
doing this work, God our Savior, is bringing the wise and the
prudent of this world to nothing. That's why. That's why he chose
to do it. Look at verse 19. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise. Now it's written means it's part
of prophecy. What did Christ come to do? I
came to fulfill the law and the prophets. Christ has got to fulfill
this. And he's fulfilling it from glory
right now as to head over his church. For it's written, I will
destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the
understanding of the prudent. You see, he's abounding toward
us in wisdom and prudence, but he's not going to have any competition.
So he's going to destroy the wisdom of the wise and he's going
to destroy the understanding of the prudent. Verse 25, because
the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of
God is stronger than men. Verse 27, but he's chosen the
foolish things of the world to, that means for this reason, to
confound the wise. Look at the end of verse 27,
to confound the things which are mighty. Look at the end of
verse 28, to bring to nothing things that are. Look at verse
29, that no flesh should glory in its presence. John, he's got riches. He wants
to take them to Carly. He wants to deliver them to Carly.
These are valuable riches, valuable riches. Things that the world,
they would kill him and try to take these riches from him. And
so the way that you take them over there to Carly without the
world even paying them any attention whatsoever, is you put them in
an old plain brown paper bag that don't have any appeal to
this world whatsoever, don't look valuable to this world whatsoever.
God in His infinite wisdom was pleased that after He raised
Christ from the dead, that He would send forth old preachers
that don't have any appeal to them, that has nothing in them
whatsoever that would make men want to desire them. And yet
He's filled them with the treasure of these riches of His grace
to go and preach to His people. And through that, Christ is going
to deliver these riches to His people. And by doing that, This
wise and prudent world, they don't even notice. It's just
an old plain brown rapper, and they leave the riches alone.
It's hidden to them, and he makes it hidden to them. They don't
even seek them. It's beyond them. It's foolishness
to them. Well, here's the second reason he did it. By using the
gospel to call his children, we give Christ all the glory. You see, I don't want to ever
preach a doctrine simply to say, this is true, you need to believe
it. Because if I persuade you to believe it, somebody else
will come along and persuade you not to believe it. I want you to
be persuaded of it because you see, the reason it's being done
is Christ is getting the glory in it. And Christ is getting
the glory in this. This is what was the good pleasure
of God's will. And it's flourishing in His hand.
Because by using the gospel to call His children, Christ alone
gets the glory. Look at verse 18. For the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto
us which are saved it is the power of God. It's the power
of God. When you've experienced it, you'll
quit saying, that's foolishness. I don't have to be saved by the
preaching of the gospel. When you've experienced it, you'll
quit saying it. I've never met anybody that butted
against this truth other than somebody that said they wasn't
saved by the preaching of the gospel. Because when you've experienced
it, you'll know this is the power of God. It's the power of God. And in verse 23, We preach Christ
crucified unto the Jews the stumbling block, unto the Greeks foolishness,
but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God and the wisdom of God. You see, here's what
we behold when He calls us by His Gospel. We behold the reason
He's using this foolish means is because Christ our Head is
King and He has all power over providence to bring each one
of His child, His children, to the Gospel. And men will be brought
to the Gospel and they'll come in and they'll hear this truth
and they'll leave the Gospel because they say, oh, I believe
I was saved without it. That's foolishness. If you've been saved
by Him, you'll say, yes Lord, I see your providence. You brought
me here to it. You brought me here to it by
your power. Christ's power I'm talking about.
And Christ our head is the prophet. with all wisdom to teach His
gospel through His preachers as the gospel's going forth.
He's going to teach all His children. They're all going to be taught
of God. And He's the one that gets the glory for doing it because
He's the prophet teaching them. And Christ our Head is the High
Priest with all power to stand there between us and make intercession
for us and pray the Father to send forth the Spirit. And the
Spirit goes forth into the heart of His child as that Gospel is
being preached. And He regenerates us to life.
And He begins to give us all these riches that He promised
the Father He would give. Because He's the High Priest,
He's able to accomplish that. And Christ our Head Himself is
the essential Word who is the life that enters into us and
it gives us life and makes us cry out and say, I have a Father. Do you see what I'm saying? That's
why I use this foolish thing of preaching the Word. And he does, look at verse 30.
Because of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. Now that's the two reasons he does it. To make those
who are too proud and say, that's foolishness to me, to hide it
from them. And to make those that he reveals
it in to say, glory to the Lord. Glory to the Lord. You know,
hearing is the only thing that involves no word. It's the only
sense we have that involves no word. All other senses except
hearing require doing. To see, you must look. To smell, you must breathe. To
taste, you must open your mouth. To touch, you must reach forth. But to hear, you must do nothing. You just hear. That's why the
wise and prudent of this world hate that they have to be saved
through the preaching of the gospel. They want to say, I did
it. I did it. Ain't going to happen. God's going to get the glory.
Christ is getting the glory for this thing. That's why the means
of preaching is foolishness to them. But that's why it's the
wisdom of God to us. All right, sixthly, Matthew 11.
Matthew 11. Matthew 11. Our God has abounded toward us
in wisdom and prudence. He really has. He's left nothing
in our hands. This is the mystery of His will. It's a good pleasure. Alright,
look here. God abounded toward us in all
wisdom and prudence because it pleased Him. It pleased Him,
as this Gospel is going forth, to hide this mystery from some. and to reveal it in babes. Look
at Matthew 11, 25. At that time, Jesus answered. He had been preaching and men
were scoffing at Him. They were shaming His counsel. And at that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast
revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in Thy sight. That last verse there, verse
26, it's literally translated, Yes, Father, because so it was
good pleasure before Thee. It was good pleasure. This was
His pleasure. Galatians 1.15, Apostle Paul
said, When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, that's
when I heard, that's when I knew, that's when I believed. When
it pleased God to reveal Him in me. This is His good pleasure. He has the wisdom and He has
the prudence to to work everything just right, to where He brings
His child, and He works just right to make His child, to reveal
Himself in His child. He does it at the right time.
He does it in the right way. He brings them in. He gathers
them in, and they start hearing His Word. And He roots them. He grounds them. And then it's
like one day, He makes them hear it. He makes them really hear
it. And they try to run, and he has the wisdom and the prudence
to keep them drawn back. I've heard so many sinners tell
me this. They've said, I kept hearing
the gospel, and I hated it. I hated it, and I wanted to leave.
I didn't want to hear it anymore. But for some reason, I just kept
coming back. I couldn't leave it. I just kept
coming back. That's his wisdom and prudence
working. And he's going to keep on. He's going to reveal himself
in you. He's going to keep on applying the pressure, and applying
the pressure, and applying the pressure, till finally he says
to you, stop kicking against the pricks. Stop kicking against
me. And finally you just say, yes
Lord, you're right. You are my salvation. And he
quit butting heads with him. and you surrender to Him. Oh,
He's got wisdom and prudence. Here's the seventh thing. Back
to Ephesians 1. I told you now, I said, we're
going to end up right where we began. We started in glory with
Christ. You know where we're going to
end up? In glory with Christ. You know why? Because God abounded
toward us in wisdom and prudence. That's why. That's why. Because
He put it all in Christ's hand and left nothing out of His hand.
All right here, look. He abounded toward us in wisdom
and prudence, because it pleased the Father to gather all together
in Christ. Look, verse 8. Wherein He has
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known
unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure
which He hath purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation. That word means stewardship,
administration that He gave to Christ. And when it's reached
the fullness of times, He's going to gather together in one all
things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on
earth, even in Him. This was His good pleasure. This
was His good pleasure. When Christ has at last filled
all in all His elect, He's brought them all together Then shall
God gather together all in Him." It's like God the Father said,
I'm going to scatter them to the four winds. Son, go forth
and get them. And the Son goes forth through
the Gospel, and He's ruling everything, all providence. And He's sending
His preacher here, and He's bringing His elect here, and He's putting
them together, and He's revealing Himself in them, giving them
faith, giving them all these riches and these blessings, and
He's gathering them all together. And when at last He's got them
all gathered together in Him, then God just goes to Him, and
He gets them all, because He's gathered them all up. You see? You see? The Father just looks
to one, and the Son just reports to Him. He says, now here they
all are. I went and got them. Here they are. You see there? So you see, all of these things
that it pleased God to do, the chief end is to give Christ Jesus
all the preeminence. to put all fullness in Him. So
He's doing it all. This is how He abounded toward
us in all wisdom and prudence. This is the good pleasure which
He purposed in Himself. And this is the mystery of His
will that He makes known in our hearts. Christ has all preeminence. Even the mystery which has been
hidden from ages, from generations, but now is made manifest to His
saints. 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, whom we preach, warning
every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may
present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. You see? You see? Christ personally is the hope
of glory for us because He's come and He's redeemed us from
all iniquity. Christ is eternally the believer's
hope of glory because He's come and He's redeemed us all. He's
personally our hope because He's been formed in our hearts and
we know Him personally. And collectively as a church,
He's our hope of glory because He's in our midst as our head
and shall gather all His people and protect us and bring us to
Him. And here's the eighth fact. Without a doubt, we shall know
fully the abounding wisdom and prudence of God toward us, because
our head said to us, just what you read, fear not, little flock,
for it's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. And that's what he's gonna do.
He's gonna give us the kingdom. And then we'll be right there
where we were from the beginning, in Christ, in glory with him. Oh, do you see the abounding
wisdom and prudence of God? He didn't leave anything in our
hand. He put it all in His hand. And
the pleasure of the Lord has, is, and shall prosper in Christ's
hand till the fullness of times is complete. And He'll complete
them by calling in His last delight. Amen.