Go back to Ephesians 3 now. Struggled
with this for days. Threw away more notes than I
kept. I'm going to try to tell what
has never been told. We just sang that. Wealth that
can never be told. I'm going to try to describe
something I haven't seen. Unseen riches. I'm going to try
to declare the greatness. their greatness declare. I'm
going to try to search the unsearchable, fathom the unfathomable. Tell
about, try to make us understand what passive understanding is. We're totally dependent on the
Holy Spirit, you and me both. Let's just go down through here.
For this cause, I, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,
for this cause, what cause? Preaching of the gospel. To declare
the gospel, he said, I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ. He put me in
jail to preach the gospel to you Gentiles. That's us. Thank
God Paul was put in jail so we'd have this letter to the Ephesians.
And for this cause, the cause of the gospel, everything's for
the cause of the gospel. You know that? purpose of God
in Christ, everything throughout time and throughout eternity
is for this cause. You remember when David stood
up before Goliath, you remember what he said, is there not a
cause? The giant was defying God. And David said, somebody's got
to face him. And he had Israel held captive
in fear. They would have died. They would
have been his captive if somebody had not stood up and said, is
there not a cause? You remember when Christ came,
he said, for this cause came I into the world to face our
foe, to lead captivity captive. That's the next chapter. for
this cause. And he said in verse 2, if you've
heard of the grace of God given to me, given me to you, the grace
of God given, look at verse 7. He said I've made a minister
according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me. Verse 8. me, less than the least
of the saints, is this grace given. The gospel is the grace
of God and the gift of God, the greatest gift of God that he
can give to a human being. It's the gospel. Over in chapter
4, he said, when Christ ascended on high, he gave gifts to me.
And what did he say? He gave some prophets, apostles,
pastors, evangelists, and teachers for the preaching of the gospel.
This is the gift. The greatest gift is His grace,
the gospel of His grace, to preach Christ, the unspeakable gift. So, we're so blessed. And the reason we are not more
thankful is we We've had it so long, we have it so often, we
take it for granted. We really do. One of our ladies
went somewhere recently and was witness to this idolatry and
foolishness, and that's modern-day religion. And a Southern Baptist,
Sister Jeanette Escarbat, you've forgotten what it's like, how
bad it is. It's worse. It's worse than ever
before. And what we have here, this gospel,
the gospel, is a great gift. It's God's grace. God's grace. Verse 3, He said, By revelation
He made known unto me the mystery. The mystery. Verse 4, He says,
The mystery, it's the mystery of Christ. It's a mystery. The Word of God,
the truth, the word of truth, the gospel is a mystery. Look
at 1 Corinthians 2. I had many verses written down. Just a few minutes ago, I just
started marking through. Too many. I don't want to tire
you, but look at 1 Corinthians 2. 1 Corinthians 2, most of you
know these. Look at verse 7. We speak, 1
Corinthians 2, 7. We speak the wisdom of God in
a mystery, which God ordained before the world under our glory,
which none of the princes of this world knew. The luthers,
had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of
glory. You remember Psalm 2? It says, Why the heathen rage
and the people imagine a vain thing? The rulers, kings and
rulers met together against the Lord and His anointing? That's exactly what they did
later on. They'd have read that. They'd have known that. But it's
hidden from them. It's hidden from them. If our
rulers today knew the truth, they'd make it a law where everybody
would come and worship God. David did. Solomon did. But they don't. Verse 9, as it
is written, I have not seen, nor heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them
that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto
us. But God. Don't you love the but
God? He hath revealed them unto us by Spirit. Verse 11, What
man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of a man? That
is, a man revealed those things to him. Same with the things
of God. And God hath chosen a people
to reveal this mystery. Verse 14, the natural man doesn't
receive the things of God. They're foolish to say that.
The world? Foolish to say that. You can't
know them. They're spiritually uncertain. And verse 16 says,
we have the mind of Christ. He's revealed this thing to us. What a gift. 2 Corinthians 3,
go over there. 2 Corinthians 3. I take it for granted. You take
it for granted. We just don't fully understand
how good God has been to us and given us this gospel. We hear
it so much and so often that we take it for granted. You always
take things for granted after a while, don't you? You just
do. But 2 Corinthians 3, the truth, the gospel remains a mystery
to most. Look at verse 14. It says the
Jews, their minds were blinded, until this day remains the same
veil. You remember Moses came down
with a veil on his face, which is a picture of the veil in the
reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ.
Even to this day, Moses has read, and the veil is upon their heart. And it's the same with people
in religion today. You read the Old Testament, all
the pictures and stories and ceremonies and all that, and
they don't see Christ in it. Some of you, many of you were
in religion before God revealed the truth to you, and you heard
these stories about Noah and Abraham. Abraham taking Isaac
up on the mountain, you saw that as a picture of Abraham's great
faith, didn't you? There's no clearer gospel of
Christ in all of the Old Testament than Genesis 22. And then Noah,
the ark, you know these things, smitten rock, and on and on it
goes. God's revealed these things now.
Isn't it good to us? He reveals these things to those
He loves in the Old Testament. mysteries. These things are revealed,
and they're revealed in Christ. Look at verse 17. The Lord is the Spirit. Where
the Spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty. And we all with an open
face behold Him as in a glass, the glory of the Lord. We're
changing the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit
of the Lord. Have you ever seen those One of those pictures that
has like thousands and thousands of something and there's a picture
hidden in the picture. I don't know what you call that.
I don't know. But anyway, I used to go to the
dentist and they had one right over the dentist chair, I guess
to occupy your mind, take it away from the pain. And they
had it over there. And what it was, it was like
10,000 dolphins. And there was a picture in the
middle of it, and it drove me crazy. I never did see it. They all tried to tell me, well,
it's there, and I never did see it. I still don't know what it
was. Well, that's this book, the Old
Testament. And when you finally see it,
you see it, don't you? Why did I see it? There it is.
It's plain. It's a nosing. Well, there it
is. Look, don't you see it? I don't see it. Why not? Well,
I didn't either. It has to be revealed to you. And then once you see Christ,
you see Him everywhere, don't you? Somebody, an unbelieving
husband of a sister, said to her, all you all are doing is
trying to find Christ in the Scriptures. Yes. Because He's our faith. He's
our hope. He's our peace. He's our joy. He's our Lord. If it's just a
bunch of stories of the greatness of men's faith, I fail. That discourages me. But when
I see Christ in it, I look to Him, you see. I'm not looking
to men. I compare myself with men like David and Moses and
Abraham, I come way short. But I see Christ. All those men
pale in comparison to Christ. They're all pictures of Him.
Well, so, where am I? Colossians. Go to Colossians.
Paul wrote Ephesians and Colossians, and they sound just alike, don't
they? Because they are. Same subject. Christ. And look
at Colossians chapter 1, verse 25. He said, I made a minister.
I made a minister of the gospel. According to the dispensation
of God, it sounds just like what we read in it, which is given
to me for you to fulfill, that is, fully preach the Word of
God, even the mystery which had been hid from ages, which is
now made manifest to a saint, to whom God would make known.
That's you and me. God would make known unto us
the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which
is Christ in you. Now all through Ephesians 1,
in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ. How many people in
the world know what that means? No, they don't have a clue what
that means. Skip right over. We dwell on that now. It just
keeps popping out. In Christ, in Christ, in Christ,
by Christ, for Christ, with Christ, through Christ, to Christ. Colossians
1, same thing. In Christ, in Christ, in Christ.
We know what that means. Like Noah and the people in the
ark, Philippians 3, I want to be found in him. We know what
that means. So blessed. He's revealed this
mystery. Colossians 2. Look at this. Verse
3. Verse 2. The last line talks about the
acknowledgement of the mystery of God, the Father, and of Christ,
in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Isn't
that something? Verse 9, in Him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. That is so hidden to this world. The Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses,
even so-called all Christians think Jesus is just the Son of
God or a Son of God. That's what they say. He's very
God of very God. He's God. He's the Father. He's the Son. He's God. How can that be? I don't know. But He is. He is, isn't He? Christ said, He that seeth Me.
Now, God said, No man hath seen God or can see God at any time. But Christ said, He that seeth
Me hath seen the Father. Explain that. I can't. That's
true. We do know that he's God. 1 Timothy 3, this is the crowning
verse, if you want to call it that. Everybody knows John 3,
16. You need to know 1 Timothy 3, 16. 1 Timothy 3.16. This is the verse
of verses, isn't it, John David? 1 Timothy 3.16 says, without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest
in the flesh. Oh, it's a controversy, all right,
with men. Great controversy. As I said,
Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, He's not God. He can't be God.
He's just a man. That's what the Jews thought. What did that say, Helen? God
was manifest in the flesh. Did that say that? In Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead in a body. How can an unseen
God be seen? He was. He is. Justified in the Spirit, that
is, declared to be who He is by the Spirit of God. Seen of
angels, preached unto the Gentiles, that you may be believed on in
the world, received up into God. Where does He sit? On the throne. I thought God sat on a throne. He does. A mystery. I didn't try to explain
it, did I? I just declared it. I explained
it. Go back to Ephesians 3 now. The
unbelieving world doesn't know. They don't believe this. It's
a mystery to them. The religious world claims to
believe it. They think it's just a simple
plan of salvation. You know, God loves you. Jesus
loves you. Jesus died for you. Now you just accept it and you
go to heaven. And that's a lie. Anybody who
believes that will go to hell. It's a mystery. A mystery that
has to be revealed. It starts with God's purpose
before the world began. God's choice of the people before
the world began. And they hate that. And we love
it when they revealed it. Okay. Now look at this. Verse
5, Ephesians 3. He said, In other ages it wasn't
made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed, I'll make
clear to the holy apostles and prophets by the Holy Spirit.
You remember when Isaiah wrote Isaiah 53? Don't you know when
he wrote that, he wasn't... I know this is talking about
the Christ. But he hadn't come yet. He couldn't see the complete
fulfillment of that. But now, we do. And verse 6,
now the Gentiles Here's a mystery. The Gentiles are fellow heirs.
The Jews thought they were the only people on earth, the only
people of God on earth. You know what? You've got to
be a Jew to be saved. Salvation's up to you. You've
got to be a Jew to be saved. But he is not a Jew, which is
one outwardly. Those aren't Jews over in the
Middle East living in Jerusalem. We are. Now, that's a mystery. Explain that. Circumcision is
not made with hands, as God said to her. It's not outward, it's
inward. It's not God's choice of a national
people, it's God's choice of a spiritual people. Out of every
kindred nation in Tel Aviv, Jew and Gentile. In Christ, there
is no Jew or Gentile. However, all Israel be saved. Explain that. It's a mystery. It's a mystery. So, look at verse
Seven, he said, I was made a minister according to the gift of the
grace of God given to me by the effectual working of His power.
And to 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. Now here I really
wish somebody else would take up this subject and do this for
me. Unsearchable. You remember the
story of Abraham's servant? Abraham sent his servant to go
find a bride for Isaac. Remember that? If you haven't
heard that, ask me and I'll preach it to you. I'm about to right
now. Anyway, Abraham sent his servant
And he prophesied that God was giving his son a bride. And he sent his son, or his servant,
his own servant, to a place to find that bride. And he told
her he'd find that bride at a well, and so on and so forth. Well,
he gave that servant some riches, some camels and some oxen and
some money and all of that to show something of the riches
of Abraham and Isaac. You know, so he found Rebecca,
Isaac's bride, and he put on her a bracelet and some jewelry
and earrings and all of that, and he tried to show her, he
had some camels and all that, and finally he said, my master
is rich beyond understanding. This is nothing, I can't, this
is no representation of just how rich he is. And when she got there, she didn't
know until she got there. And she saw Isaac. The first
thing she saw was his beauty. Oh, the unsearchable riches.
Riches means, in the dictionary, wealth or abundance of money,
valuable possessions or property. Now, Christ as a man, had no
money. He certainly had no earthly possessions. So that can't be true riches.
He had a valuable possession, alright. God. He had property, alright. He
left it to come here. What property? Heaven. He was
rich if our sex became poor. But let me try to describe something
of the riches of his person. His personality, his character,
okay? He had nothing. on this earth
that people think are riches. No place to lay his head, not
a home, one suit of clothing, one pair of shoes, no money in
his pocket, no refrigerator with food in it, nothing, nothing. He's the richest man
on earth. He was the richest man on earth,
certainly is now. Okay, what are true riches in?
He had perfect faith. He was rich in faith. Now what
does that mean? Well, there's he that hath little,
yet hath everything. There's he that hath much, yet
hath nothing. Okay, better is a little that the righteous hath
than great treasure of the wickedness. Faith is believing God. Faith is believing God's Word.
If we really believed God, we wouldn't need anything. We wouldn't
worry about anything. Well, wouldn't you like to be
free from worry? Which would you rather be? Have everything
your heart could desire in this earth or be free from worry? Free from fear? free from death,
perfect peace. These things are deceitful. The
riches of the world they claim that make you happy, uh-uh. It's
never enough, never make you happy. Rich people aren't happy,
they've got to have more. Give you contentment, oh no,
make you lose sleep at night. Worry about them. Right? Riches. Give you security. Oh
no. Oh no. Ask the people in 1929. Thousands were jumping off of
buildings because overnight they lost everything. Our Lord didn't
have anything to lose. Perfect faith as a man. Wouldn't you like to have that
more than anything else? Perfect faith. You go to sleep. That ship was tossed and turned.
All the disciples were all going down. What's the Lord doing?
Sleeping. He's facing the cross from the
day He was born. Perfect peace. Death. He's facing
death. A death like we'll never face.
Hell. Perfect peace. And all our life
we're subject to this fear of death. It tempers everything
we do. He had none of that. That's rich. Isn't that rich? Love. Everybody wants to be loved. Everybody needs to be loved. He knew the Father loved him,
and so he didn't worry. Perfect love casteth out fear. He loved. He loved. It's rich
to be loved. It's rich to love. Love. Most everybody loves himself.
And that makes you miserable. They love others. He loved others
as himself. Service wasn't service to him.
It was love. You understand? It's not like,
oh, I have to do this. No. I want to do this. I love you. For the joy set before
him, endured the cross, despised the shame. The closest thing
we understand is our own children. It's not a chore. It's not a
duty to do for them, to give for them. It's love. Nothing
gives us more joy. Nothing gives us more joy than
to do for them. and perfect love. Perfect love. Mercy. Rich in mercy. Merciful. To the merciful, He'll
show Himself merciful. God. Oh, the Lord take great
pleasure in them that fear Him. Our Lord feared Him as a man.
And then that hope in His mercy. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the kindest,
most compassionate, merciful man ever. His grace. He said, I quoted, it's more
blessed to give than to receive. Grace means gift, doesn't it?
Ah, grace poured from His lips, from His hands, from His feet. He giveth and giveth and giveth
again. Rich. Gave Himself. Oh, peace. Peace that passes
understanding. Now what would you rather have? Big finest cars money can buy,
the finest houses, finest clothes, and lay awake at night worrying
about somebody putting a scratch on your car. What a thing to
worry about. What an idiotic, foolish, stupid
thing to worry about. Moths, rust, and thieves are
going to destroy it all. Little old things like that.
And they give us great grief. Peace. Rich. What about the riches
of His glory? That is His glory, His personality,
His character. I'll close with this. Proverbs
8. No, I've got to come back to Ephesians, but look at Proverbs
8 real quickly. Proverbs 8. Oh my, the riches
of His glory. He said to the Father in His
prayer, Father, I will that they be with me, talking about you
and me, where I am that they may behold my glory. The riches of His glory. Go tell
us about that, preacher. I can't. I'm not there yet. I just tried a little bit. but haven't fully seen it. But Proverbs 8, and here, let me try to give you
this illustration. Did any of you watch the coronation of the
King of England? What's his name? Charles. Charles
the King, I can't remember his name. Did anybody see that? You didn't? Well, you're probably
better off. But if you did, wasn't it the most, and I don't apologize
for saying this, the most ridiculous show of vanity and foolishness
there was. They put this big monstrous crown
on the head of this man and his wife and it looked so foolish. And all these people with all
these robes, and they had Buddhists, they had Hindus, they had everybody,
Catholics, and everybody involved in that. It was a fiasco. And all this pageantry, and all
this riches, and all this, and the people just, many people
just, ooh, ahh. I mean thousands of people, oh,
he's our king. You just wait till we see the
King of Kings crowned. It's not vanity, it's glory. We're going to see His glory. Oh my, I can't wait to be there.
Proverbs 8, verse 5 says, Proverbs 8, O you simple understand wisdom,
you fools, be of an understanding heart. Verse 6, here I'll speak
of excellent things. Opening of my lips shall be right
things. Man's such a fool he won't listen to the wisdom personified. Christ. Verse 10, receive my
instruction, not silver. Knowledge rather than choice,
gold. Didn't David say that about God's
Word? I esteem thy Word better than
gold, fine gold. Verse 11, wisdom is better than
rubies. All things that may be desired
are not to be compared to it. Verse 14, counsel is mine, wisdom,
sound wisdom, I am understand. I have strength, by me kings
reign. All the crown jewels of England
were loaned to them by the king of the world. Like the children
of Israel borrowed their jewels. Look down at verse 18. Riches
and honor are with me. Riches of faith, love, mercy,
peace, joy, righteousness. Durable riches and righteousness,
holiness, are with me. My fruit is better than gold
and fine gold. My revenue than choice, silver,
and on and on it goes. I go back to Ephesians 3 and
I close again. Ephesians 3, now look at verse
9. Ephesians 3, verse 9. So he says, it is given to me
to preach, to make all see, not just Jew but Gentiles everywhere,
go in all the world and preach, make them see what the fellowship
of the mystery is. You and I You know, I mentioned Abraham
and his servant going up, finding a bride. And many of you know
that mystery that people don't know. And your eyes lit up. You've
heard it before. You say, yeah, preach that again.
Or if I say, what about Noah? How about we preach on Noah?
Yeah, yeah, preach that again. What about the smitten rock? We're going to the next chapter.
Yeah, I can't wait to hear that. We know this sound. This is our
fellowship in. We fellowship around this. You
want me to preach it again? Yeah, yeah. Well, I just preached
it last week. It's okay. That's what the people at Antioch
was. Come back next week and preach this again. This is our
fellowship. Fellowship of the mystery. Read
on. It says it's hidden. The world
has been hidden in God. His purpose. Who created all
things by Jesus Christ. Keep saying that, doesn't it? Men don't believe that. To
the intent, verse 10, now, that principalities and powers in
heavenly places, it might be known by the church the manifold
wisdom of God. You know the angels didn't understand
why Christ was hanging on that cross? They didn't understand that.
He didn't understand until Pentecost came, until the church, until
the epistles. They learned seriously, seriously,
by the church, the fulfillment of those things. They see it.
Didn't Peter say these are the things angels desire to look
into? Didn't he say that, John? Verse 11, this is it, the eternal
purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. The reason
for the whole universe, time, past and time, eternity is all
found in Jesus Christ. in whom we have boldness and
access with confidence by the faith of Him." Boy, that needs
a whole message by itself, doesn't it? Boldness and access. The whole book of Hebrews is
about that. So he says, I desire that you don't faint. Don't quit
or be worried because I'm in prison. This is for your glory. We wouldn't have this book of
Ephesians if the Lord hadn't put Paul in prison. Paul had
riches. He said, I've suffered the loss
of all things. He said, it's dumb. It's dumb. He said, I have all things in
Christ in me. I count it all but lost for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. He said, I'm in prison,
I know who put me here, and I know why he put me here, and I have
perfect peace. He was a loving man, wasn't he?
A merciful man, a gracious man, peaceful. Oh, Lord, make us rich. We have Christ in us. And I need
this to grow. I need to grow in grace and knowledge
of Him and be like Him. Okay, stand with me.