Thank you, everyone. Turn with me, if you would, to
Ephesians chapter one. Isaiah 52 is going to be our
text where our brother just read for us, but that came from us
being in Ephesians chapter one this morning. When I was studying Ephesians
one this week, I read on into the next few verses. We went
to verse seven this morning and I read into the next few verses
and I got to thinking about the mystery of his will. I just got
to thinking about the mystery of his will in how he is going
to gather us together in himself. He said it's to an inheritance. That's what he said it is. It's
a reward of glory. Verse eight, right here in Ephesians
one, verse eight, it says, wherein he hath abounded toward us in
all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery
of his will. He has revealed to us in the
pages of this book Exactly what he has purposed for us for all
eternity in eternity, the mystery of his will in the same way that
the old Testament revealed the mystery of Christ's coming. You know, that was a mystery
all for the people of the old Testament. We, we know that he
came. So we look at all of, all of
the announcements of the old Testament. He's coming. He's
coming. Well, sure. Yeah, he came, but all of the old Testament
revealed and declared the coming of Christ. But it was a mystery during that time of the old Testament,
it declared the events of the new Testament. It told exactly what would happen.
The Old Testament told us exactly what would happen. The Old Testament
said that a virgin would conceive and she did. It said that she
would bring forth a son and she did. It said that he would grow up the
sinless son of righteousness and he did. said he would willingly
give himself. It said he would ride victoriously
into Jerusalem to accomplish this. It said he would be taken
from prison. It said he would be marred more
than any man. It said he would be numbered
with the transgressors. This perfect, sinless, spotless
man would be numbered with the transgressors. And what a, just
dwell on that for a minute. This holy, spotless, perfect
man. What a declaration. He will number
himself with the transgressors. It said that he would give his
life a ransom for his people. It said He would rise the third
day, and it said He would reign king forever. It told every bit
of that. It plainly told all of those
things, but men and women couldn't see it. You know that? They could not see it. Men and
women didn't believe it, and many still don't. The scripture
declared it, it was always there, and it was like everyone had
scales on their eyes. That's what the Apostle Paul
said. He said, it was like I had scales on my eyes. And they couldn't
see it. On the day of Pentecost, whenever
the Holy Ghost came, that's when Peter said, that's when it hit
him. They were all in that upper room.
And the Lord said, I want you to go back to Jerusalem and you
wait for the Holy Ghost because He's gonna baptize you. He's
gonna immerse you into the things of God. And when the Holy Ghost came
down, Peter, he said, you know, the scripture foretold all of
this. You remember that in the book
of Acts? He said, wait a minute, it perfectly told that all of
this would happen. The Old Testament, the scripture,
revealed the mystery of His will in all of this. It was always
there. He said, now I just plainly see
it. Well, in the same way that that's
how it was with the Old Testament concerning Christ's coming, I
truly believe that's how it is with the New Testament concerning
Christ's return. I believe that. I believe the
Lord has revealed to us the mystery of His will in all these things.
He said He has. And I believe that He has told
us things that one day we're gonna realize. He, wait a minute. These things that we read and
are hard to understand. You know, Peter said, some of
Paul's writings are hard to understand. but we're gonna realize it was
always there. It foretold of the mystery of
His will, everything that would happen. We just couldn't see
it yet. But what things that we can see
right now, I pray, what things He has revealed to us in this,
I pray He will reveal them more so. I want to see more. You know, the song says more,
more about the Lord Jesus, more of his fullness. See, I want
to see more, all of God's people do. And I pray what things we
can see. I pray he'll reveal more of it
to us. So verse eight right here says,
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, 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. Everything is according to his
good pleasure. Everything is according to his
purpose. That's what's going to be done.
And he said in verse 10, in the dispensation of 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 in whom also we have obtained an inheritance. Being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who work at all things after
the council of his own will, that we should be to the praise
of his glory who first trusted in Christ. He's going to gather
us. He's going to gather us. He's going to gather us. He's
not going to gather a form of us. Like I've told you so many times
before, that's what I thought glory was. I thought glory was
a bunch of spirits that you could kind of white and you could see
through them, you know, and they just kind of floated. And no,
he's going to gather us, not some form of us, not a vague
memory of us. Yeah, I remember it's vague,
but I kind of remember that person. He's not going to gather a vague
memory of us. He's not gonna gather a different
us. New, yes. Better, yes. Perfect, yes. But different,
no. Us. He's gonna gather us together
in one. one body, one assembly, one place,
one moment in time, it's always gonna be, it is. What time is it? It is. It just is. One. Both, he said, it's the people
that are already in heaven, And it's the people who are still
on this earth. He's going to gather all of us together in
himself. Verse 11 says in whom or because
of whom also we have obtained an inheritance. being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. Now that's what I want us to
think on for just a minute. I titled this message, We Have
Obtained an Inheritance. We Have Obtained an Inheritance. Verse 18 here in Ephesians 1,
it says, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. That you may
know what is the hope of his calling. You, you think about
this. God calls his people. God calls his people to him. And when he does that, that call
brings a hope. It's a call to a hope. It's a call to an inheritance. And he said in verse 18, the
eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know
what is the hope of his calling and what is the riches of his,
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 which he wrought in Christ
when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right
hand in the heavenly places. What that means is he is seated
on the throne. When it says that God said him
on his right hand, that means the seat of honor. There's only
one throne and the father put Christ on it. Verse 21 says 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. I was
reading over this this afternoon. And after I read that, I said
to myself, let me repeat that to you. Think, read this verse
again and think about it. Okay. Verse 21 says, all right,
he's seated. He's seated on his throne and
verse 21 says far above all principality. You know, there are principalities
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. Far
above everything that's in that world to come. Far above every
principality and power and might and dominion. Verse 22 says,
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." This place of gathering, all
right, we have obtained an inheritance. The Lord is gonna gather all
of His people to this inheritance. And this place of gathering,
this place of inheritance is the very place where Christ is
seated on His throne. It's a place that is far above
everything else. And Ephesians 2 says we are seated
there with Him. It's a place that is worthy of
His glory. It's a place that is most definitely
to the praise of His glory, everything. looks up far above, even in the
world to come to the praise of His glory. And it's far above
all principality and power and might. Verse 21 says every dominion,
every name that's named, not only in this world, but also
in that which is to come. That is kingship. That's a kingdom. That's a kingdom. That's the
inheritance. That's what he's gonna, in the
fullness of time, gather us to. All right, now, turn with me
to Isaiah 52. You know, speaking of kings, earthly kings, King after king
after king is recorded in the Word of God. You know how many
kings there are recorded in the Word of God? For each one, it will tell, for
some of them, most of them, it'll tell how long he was king. It'll say, you'll see this a
lot in the scripture, it'll say, and he reigned however many years
and he died. And then a new king comes along,
it says, and he reigned however many years, and his time was
over. And then another king comes along,
it says, and he reigned, and that was it. Each one got a very small, passing,
fleeting moment of time. And he reigned, and he reigned,
And he reigned. But look here in Isaiah 52. Look
at the last three words of verse seven. It says, thy God reigneth. Thy God reigneth. What tense is reigneth? Reigned
is past tense. What tense is reigneth? It's right now, tense. That's what it is right now,
tense, and it's also forever tense right now and forevermore
by God reigneth. And this is the place where he
reigns. All right, this right here is the place. He's gonna
gather together in one all things, all of his people in Christ. And when he does, this is where
he's gonna gather them to. This is what he's gonna gather
them to. And you know, when the Old Testament
said, a virgin is going to conceive, a virgin conceived. And when
it said he would ride in on a donkey, he rode in on a donkey. These
words hold true. Now listen to this. All right,
listen to this. When he calls his people, When
he gathers, when he returns, when he assembles, this is what
he's going to assemble them to. This is what he's going to say.
Verse one, it says, awake, awake, put on the strength. You think
about those words. We live our life on this earth
here in weakness. We are so weak. We are so weak. We are so weak. Today, especially,
I've told you before, when we have these work days, I'm reminded
every time how out of shape I am. I am zonked. I've been tired
all day long. I am weak. I'm weak in the flesh. I'm weak in the mind. I'm weak
in the spirit. I'm so, so weak. And we're gonna live out our
days on this earth weak. weak in this flesh, weak in sin. We're going to be so, so weak,
but Christ has reserved an inheritance of strength for us. That's what
we're going to inherit, strength. And when the dispensation of
the fullness of time comes, and it's time to be gathered into
His inheritance of glory, this is what we're gonna hear. Awake,
awake, put on thy strength. Which is Christ. He's our strength. And we're
gonna hear, in that moment, we're gonna hear, go ahead, it's time. Put Him on. Put Him on. You know, don't you want to put
the new man on, which is Christ? Why does it feel like we're always
wearing the old man? Tell you why. It's because we're always
wearing the old man. But one of these days, that old
man is going to lay down and we're going to hear, awake, awake,
put Him on. And I'm kind of excited. It's
time. It's time to be in Him. He went on to say, oh Zion, that's
who I'm talking to. Awake, awake, put on thy strength,
oh Zion. Watch this, put on thy beautiful
garments. Oh Jerusalem, the holy city from
henceforth, there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised
and the unclean. In Isaiah 61, the Lord said,
I came to give beauty instead of ashes to my people. That's
why I came. He said, I came to exchange the
spirit of heaviness for the garment of praise. And that beautiful
garment is the very perfection and the very righteousness and
the very strength of Christ himself. And in that moment, we're gonna
hear, awake, it's time to put it on. Verse one says, awake,
awake, put on thy strength, O Zion. Put on thy beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem, the holy city. For henceforth, there shall no
more come into thee, the uncircumcised and the unclean. He said, sin
is never gonna touch you again. Never gonna touch you again.
Verse two says, shake thyself from the dust. and sit down, O Jerusalem, loose
thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion."
You know what that means? It means take a load off. Take a load off, it's over. He
said, come on in here and sit down. You know, our Lord, after
His work was finished, He sat down. After it was over, He sat
down. And that's what God's people
are gonna hear. It's time. Come on in here and sit down. Take that band off of your neck.
You're not in bondage anymore. You're free. Verse three says,
for thus saith the Lord, you have sold yourselves for naught. and you shall be redeemed without
money. For thus saith the Lord God,
my people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there,
and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. Now therefore,
what have I here, saith the Lord, that my people is taken away
for naught? They that rule over them make
them to howl, saith the Lord, and my name continually every
day is blasphemed. Therefore, my people shall know
my name. Therefore they shall know in
that day that I am he that does speak. Behold, it is. I, he said, you sold yourselves
into the most awful, horrible bondage of sin. But he said,
I bought you back and I didn't do it with money. Peter said, we were not redeemed
with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with
the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot who verily was foreordained before the foundation
of the world for this. And He was manifest in these
last times for you, who by Him do believe in God that raised
Him up from the dead and gave Him glory, that your faith and
hope might be in Him." That's our beautiful gospel. That's
our beautiful garment of praise. That's our strength. Jesus Christ,
our Savior and our Lord. Verse seven says, how beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,
that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth
salvation, that saith unto Zion, thy God reigneth. Who has brought
good tidings to us? Who has published peace to us? Who is it that has published
salvation for us? Here's the question, who owns
those beautiful feet? How beautiful are the feet? Who
owns them? Christ Jesus, the Lord. When
Psalm 2 says, kiss the son lest he be angry, God's people know
that means kiss his feet. kiss his feet, bow down and kiss
his glorious, beautiful, precious feet, the feet that brought good
tidings of good to us. I love the story of when our
Lord went to dinner in a Pharisee's house one time. Don't you love
how the Lord dealt with Pharisees? A Pharisee invited him into the
house and he went. And he sat down and he had dinner
and there was a woman of the city. There was a woman in the
city who was of the city, a woman of the streets. And when she
knew that he was there and when she knew that he was her only
hope and her only Lord and her only savior, she brought an alabaster
box of ointment. very costly ointment, and it
says that she came and stood at his feet, weeping. And she began to wash his feet
with her tears, and she did wipe them with the hairs of her head,
and she kissed his feet. That Pharisee was, he was offended by that, and
he said, if you're no prophet, if you knew who that was, you
wouldn't let her do that to you. But that woman anointed his feet,
kissed his feet, and this is what the Lord told the Pharisee.
He said, she's with me. That's what he said, she belongs
to me. This one's mine. You know, I thought about that
woman. Can you imagine how much more she wanted to kiss his feet
after that? He said, thy faith has saved thee. Go in peace. Verse 7 says, How
beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth
good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings
of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God
reigneth. Thy watchmen shall lift up the
voice, with the voice together shall they sing, for they shall
see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Break
forth into joy. Sing together, ye waste places
of Jerusalem, for the Lord hath comforted his people. He hath
redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare his holy
arm in the eyes of all the nations. In all the ends of the earth
shall see the salvation of our God. Where did he make bare his
holy arm for all to see? on Golgotha's Hill, the cross
of Calvary, the place where war was staged from the judgment
throne of God for the sin of his people. We're about to close
with, up Calvary's mountain, one dreadful morn. Walked Christ
my Savior weary and worn, facing for sinners death on the cross
that he might save them from endless loss. So verse 11 says,
depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean
thing. Go ye out of the midst of her,
be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. For you shall not
go out with haste nor go by flight, for the Lord will go before you
and the God of Israel will be your reward. Behold, my servant
shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled
and be very high. as many were astonished at thee. His visage was so marred more
than any man, and his form more than the sons of men, so shall
he sprinkle many nations. The kings shall shut their mouths
at him, for that which had not been told them shall they see,
and that which they had not heard shall they consider. That right
there is what secured God's inheritance for his people. That's what allowed
God to gather all of his people to Christ. It pleased the Lord
to bruise him. The next words are Isaiah 53. It says it pleased the Lord to
bruise him. And as Ephesians 1 says, that
was the good pleasure of His will. That's what He was pleased
to do. Because of that, in the fullness
of time, it's going to be said to all of God's people, awake,
awake. I pray I hear that. I want to
hear that. Awake, awake. It is time. Put on thy strength, O Zion. Put on thy beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem, the holy city. For henceforth, they'll no more
come into thee, the uncircumcised and the unclaimed. And upon hearing
that, all of God's people are gonna cry to the praise of the
glory of His grace. That's how we ended the message
this morning. That's how we end tonight. That's how we're gonna
end every time. To the praise of the glory of His grace. We're
all gonna say, oh, how beautiful. How beautiful, what joy. Amen. All right, Brother Eddie, you
come.