You may be singing. Now turn back to Ephesians chapter
3 with me. As most of you know, we've been
going through Ephesians 3 in our Sunday morning Bible study.
And in preparing that study for you for Sunday morning, I was
so blessed in consideration of these things that I wanted to
bring it tonight. And I think you'll be blessed
also. Let's read verses 1 through 8 again. Ephesians 3, verses
1 through 8. Paul, in talking about his ministry
to the Gentiles, says, for this cause, preaching the gospel,
I am the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if you have
heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given
me to you. How that by revelation they had
heard his story about meeting Christ on the road to Damascus,
Christ revealed himself to him. How that by revelation he made
known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in this same letter,
whereby when you read of this mystery you may understand my
knowledge in the mystery of Christ. Which in other ages this mystery
was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed
unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Holy Spirit, that the
Gentiles should be fellow-heirs of the same body, the body of
Christ, partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel, whereof
I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God
given unto me by the effectual working of his power." unto me,
whom less than the least of all saints, is this grace given,
that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches
of Christ." The unsearchable riches of Christ. Why are not Why are there not
more people interested in the things of God, in these spiritual things, in
what the scriptures have to say, in the gospel, in the things
of Christ, talking about these unsearchable riches? Why are
not more people interested in these things? Why are there not
overflowing crowds in here tonight? Because, number one, these things
are unseen. You can't see them. They are
only seen by faith. And then, also, these things
are spiritual things. And the natural man receiveth
them not, the scripture says. The natural man is concerned
with only material things, things that give his flesh pleasure
or gratification. They do not mind the things of
the spirit, but only the things of the flesh. And because no one by nature
can see or ever has seen these unsearchable riches. of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that is why even we, even
us who profess to love these things and be taken with them,
that is why we are not more interested and not more taken up with and
enthusiastic about these things. And also we have this treasure.
We have a treasure. These unsearchable riches of
Christ are a treasure, unsearchably rich treasure. But it's in earthen
vessels. Keep that place there and turn
with me to the book of Genesis, chapter 24. in writing about Christ to the
Ephesians, thinking about trying to preach
about such a want. And I myself, thinking about
trying to preach these unsearchable riches, I feel a great deal like
this old servant of Abraham. In fact, in this story in Genesis
24. All of you may not know this
story. This is the story of Abraham
sending his oldest servant down to find a bride, find a wife
for his son Isaac. If you do not know the story,
that's the background. Look at verse 7, and I feel like
this old servant of Abraham, when it comes to preaching the
gospel of Christ. This old man was going out to
find a bride for a glorious young man named Isaac. Look at it here
in Genesis 24 in verse 4, Abraham giving his commandment to this
old servant. He said in verse 4, Thou shalt
go unto my country, I have a people, and to my kindred I have a family. And I want you to take a wife
unto my son Isaac. Go down there and find my son
a wife, a bride." And this was his oldest servant. And look
at verse 10. It says that the servant obeyed
Abraham and took ten camels of the camels of his master and
departed. And all the goods of his master
went his hand. No, not all the goods were in
his hand, just a portion of all the goods, just a little taste
or a little token of the riches and the goods and the abundant
wealth of his great master. You see, Abraham was rich beyond
understanding. And this servant took ten camels
and loaded them down with some of the goods of his master, but
not all of them. He had some of them. And he arose
and went to Mesopotamia under the city of Nahor. Now, he came
to this city feeling so inadequate to this task, an old man, and
perhaps this was his last trip. sent by such a great one as Abraham
to find a bride for Abraham's glorious son named Isaac. And
knowing something of the greatness of Abraham and something of the
greatness of his master Isaac, wanting so badly to find a bride
for Isaac, a suitable young woman, he asked the Lord to help him.
He prayed. He stopped and prayed about this
thing. I can't do this. Who am I? I'm less than the least
of all the servants of Abraham, and here I've been sent on such
a great work, an ambassador of thy servant Abraham, to find
a bride for his glorious son Isaac. And I can't Lord, do something. You pave the way. You find this
bride, this woman for the young man, Isaac. Lord, help me. Make my journey profitable. Make
it successful." And he asked the Lord to show him a token,
that the first woman he came to, to ask drink for him and
his camel at a well, that that would be the woman. Well, he
came to a well in the land, and look at verse 22. And this happened
just as he prayed. This woman offered him water
and water for his camels. And it came to pass, verse 22,
as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden earring,
a half a shekel weight. This was no gold-plated piece
of jewelry. This was a very large jewel for
the forehead. large jewel, and a half-a-shekel
weight and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels' weight
of gold. Just gloriously beautiful pieces
of jewelry, and gave them to this woman. And I'm sure it impressed
her. But it wasn't anything compared
to what she was about to have. Look on down, verse 34. She took him to her house to
introduce this man to her brothers and her family. So the man went,
and I like verse 33. It says there was set meat before
him to eat. They wanted him to eat something,
but he said, No, I'm here on an errand. I'm here to do a job
for my master, and I'm not going to eat. I'm not playing around
here. I'm not here to be entertained
or to entertain. I'm here to tell a message. I'm
not eat until I've told mine errand." And they said, well,
tell it then, tell it so we can eat. Verse 34, he said, I'm Abraham's
servant. Have you ever heard of Abraham?
I'm sure they did. Everybody had heard of the great
Abraham. The Lord hath blessed my master greatly." Abraham is
great. He has been blessed of God. He
has become great. And he hath given him flocks
and herds. You see these ten camels? He
has ten thousand. Flocks, herds of camels, silver
and gold. You see these bracelets on? He
has mines of gold and silver. and menservants and maidservants.
You see these menservants? He's got many of them. Menservants
and maidservants and camels and asses. And oh, my master has
a son. Sarah, my master's wife, she
bare a son to my master when she was old. A miraculous son. She wasn't expected to have a
child. She was beyond childbearing age. And she, one day, conceived
of the Lord, a miraculous child, when she was old. And unto him,
unto this child, hath my master Abraham given all things." All
things have been given into his hand. And he, oh, if I had the
time, days, weeks would not suffice to tell you of the glory and
the beauty, the majesty of the young man Isaac. the son of the
great Abraham." Do you see the picture of that? I have to say this. I'm worth
my salt. I'm a servant of the Most High
God. And my Master is great. He's the great God of glory. He's great. He's the blessed
God. He's great. He's above all gods. He is God. Beside him there's
none else. He owns all the cattle on a thousand
hills, all the flocks and the herds, and all the silver and
gold and all the mines is him. And men servants and maid servants?
Why, there's thousands upon thousands upon ten thousands of angels
and cherubs and seraphims and elders and people that are at
his right hand right now. waiting on him, waiting on him. And my master has a son. And he was born of an immaculate
conception. He was born in a miraculous way.
He was born of a virgin, a woman who never knew a man. She was
not supposed to have a child, but she was found with child
one day. And that holy child that was born of that young virgin
in Bethlehem years ago is none other than the Son of the great
God, God Almighty. And unto him hath my Master given
everything. And days and weeks and months
will not suffice to tell the greatness of this great Son of
my Master, the Son of God, to tell you of the unsearchable
riches of the Lord Jesus Christ." Did you hear it while we were
singing it? Oh, the unsearchable riches of
Christ, wealth that can never be told, riches exhaustless of
mercy and grace, precious, more precious than gold. Someday we'll
know. Oh, the unsearchable riches of
Christ, who shall their greatness declare? Would you like to try it? Who
shall their greatness declare? Jewels whose luster our lives
may adorn, pearls that the poorest old sinner may wear. So I feel like this old servant
of Abraham when trying to preach the gospel, trying to tell you
people something about the unsearchable riches of Christ. I feel like
a man whose master owns everything. And I come to
you trying to tell you about it. Look, he has a lot. That's nothing, is it? It's nothing
compared to his greatness. Well, look at this. The Holy
Spirit did pave the way, and the Spirit convinced this young
lady to go with this man, this old man who was not much to look
at. He probably didn't have much of a voice. He probably wasn't
much of a speaker. But that's all right. He didn't want her to fall in
love with him anyway. If he was a good-looking fellow,
you know, and had an eloquent voice, Rebecca may have fallen
in love with him. But she didn't. And the Holy
Spirit paved the way and caused this young lady to begin to draw
this young convince her and woo her to follow this man who she'd
just recently met, to go to a place where she'd never been, and marry
a man she'd never seen." Look at verse 58. And they called
Rebekah, her family, who they weren't invited, see, they weren't
called. They weren't affectionately called, but she was. And they
called Rebekah and said, Well, do you want to go with this old
fellow? Will thou go with this old man? And she didn't even
hesitate. She said, I'll go. And they may
have called her a fool, but she said, I'll go. That's the way
the Holy Spirit draws his people, doesn't he? Invincibly, mysteriously. To go upon the word of a man
who is not much, a vain babbler, perhaps, to go to a place to
marry a man they never seen, and they fall in love with him
anyway. Read on here, this story gets better. Verse 61, and so
Rebekah went with this old servant, a rose and her damsels, and they
rode upon the camels and followed the man. And the servant took
Rebekah and went his way. And Isaac came from the way of
the well of Lehoroi. for he dwelt in the south country.
And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the even time. And he lifted up his eyes and
saw, and behold, the camels were coming." See, Isaac saw her before
she saw Isaac, didn't he? He saw her coming. His daddy
had sent for them, and he was expecting a prosperous journey. And he was waiting for the bringing
in of the bride, wasn't he? And he went to pray about it,
went out in the field to meditate. And he looked, and behold, the
camels were coming. Here they came, sure enough.
And Rebekah, it says, look down at verse 65, she said unto the
servant, she saw this man in the distance. What man is this
that walketh in the field to meet us? The servant said, It
is my master. Therefore she took a veil and
covered herself. Verse 64, she lifted up her eyes,
and when she saw Isaac, she got down off her camel, covered
her face, and got down on the ground. She saw this great man. She just had a glimpse of him
at a distance. got a glimpse of this man from
a distance, not up close, just from a distance, saw something
of his greatness at a distance, just perhaps riding on a horse,
or perhaps she saw him walking, and perhaps she thought, I've
never seen a man carry himself like this man. This man is great. And when she asked who it was,
the old servant said, This is my master. And she got down and
she covered herself in She said, What man is this that walketh
in the field to meet us? Surely never a man walked as
he did. Surely never a man walked as
he did. That's what she said. Who is
this man? And if we ever see, you know,
it talks about over in the text, turn back there now, the unsearchable
riches of Christ. These fools, these charlatans,
these merchandisers of souls, preach Christ like Brother Terrell
said, like an ugly one who has to promise a great
dowry to get someone to marry him. That's how they preach him,
don't they? They offer men and women, they
try to woo people with what they can get out of them. Riches. He'll give you this, he'll give
you that. Oh, there's unsearchable riches to be had. That's not
the riches we've been talking about here. Talking about the
unsearchable riches of Christ. Not talking about how he can
make you rich. So he will. But he's talking
about the richness of his person and his character, his altogether
lovely person and character. Talking about his personality,
his love, his mercy, his grace, his goodness, his kindness, his
tenderness, his compassion, his gentleness. As I've said to you
before, if you could take the kindest, the sweetest, the gentlest,
the best people, man, woman, you've ever met in your life,
the sweetest smile, the most beautiful countenance, the most
glorious, kind, gentle eyes of anybody, the sweetest voice. Multiply them a million-fold,
and you will have just a glimpse of the Lord Jesus Christ. his kindness, his compassion,
his tenderness, his gentleness, his manhood. Take the most manly
man who ever lived. He pales in comparison. Even
his accusers, his enemies, had to say about him, There's a man. We thought we
were men, those great Roman soldiers, that centurion that day when
he saw Christ expire on the cross without uttering a peep, without
uttering a cry of pain or agony, taking all that he took from
the courthouse all the way to the cross, all of that torture
and so forth, without uttering a peep, without crying for help. For three days he went through
this agony, three days. And even that old rough, gruff
centurion that saw this man die like he did said, Surely, this
is the Son of God. I've never seen anybody like
this. His manhood, his strength, his
honor, his glory, the way he walks, the way he talks, way
he carries himself. If we ever see him as he is,
we'll say with Rebecca, What man is this that walketh in the
field to meet us? Surely never a man walked like
this man walked. If we ever hear his voice, we'll
say like those officers, those servants of the high priest and
the Pharisees when they came to take him that day, they'll
say when they came back, mouths gaping that will say, Never a
man spake like this man. We heard his voice. We'll say
it was Sheba, the queen, when she saw that great Solomon. You
know, the story, the Scripture says, when she saw him ascend
up onto his throne, and that glorious train of his with all
his men servants, and all his beauty and glory and wisdom and
and power and riches and all that ascend up to his throne
with all of his chariot and sit down on that great throne. The
greatest king on the earth, we'll say, was Sheba. Somebody told
me about him before. They tried to tell me, but I
see him now for myself. And you know, the half has never
been told. When we see Christ as he is someday, we're going
to say the same. That preacher preached message
after message after message. I heard the best preachers on
earth preach message after message of the unsearchable riches of
Christ, but they never told half of it. A miserable job they did
of it. They know it, and I know it. And so the Apostle Paul felt
this daunting, the great weight of this daunting task, and he
said back in our text, verse 8, he says, His poor little Joe, his poor
little miserable bald-headed fellow with weak eyes, they called
him a vain babbler. What a debate. It's this great task given. But
that's how God chooses his ministers. That's who he chooses. Because
men and women need to be taken with Christ and not the messenger. They need to be enamored with
the treasure and not the vessel. Paul said in verse 9, to make
all men, he said, this daunting task has been given me to go
all over the world with this gospel and to make all men, different
languages, every tongue, under heaven, to make all men see.
Not just Jews, but all men, a world of people. Don't you know poor
Bill Clark, this poor little Irishman with no formal education? He would be the first to admit
it. He doesn't speak real good English. He has this great task of going
all over the world to preach in French and Portuguese and
Spanish and so forth. all over the world, to make all
men see what is the fellowship of the mystery." See that? The fellowship of the mystery,
which from the beginning has been kept hid. Turn over to 1
John, chapter 1. What is this fellowship of the
mystery that's been hid in God? Fellowship of the mystery. Are you with me? Somebody. The
gospel revealed, and it has to be revealed. Flesh and blood
doesn't reveal it to you. It's not by searching. Can a
man by searching find out God under perfection? No. The smartest
man on earth can't. No one understands the gospel.
He said flesh and blood won't reveal it, but my Father, which
is in heaven, must reveal these things unto you. The gospel revealed
an old sinner, an old hell-bound, hell-deserving, wretched, vile
sinner is the highest honor bestowed upon a human being. Just the
gospel revealed. It's a special privilege. It's
a high calling to be elected by God out of the
mass of humanity, to be called by his grace to come and sit
and hear the glorious declaration of his great Son, to sit in the
courts, the very courts of heaven, the outer courts, yes. But he
says, the very courts of heaven, and hear the ambassador say,
Hear ye, hear ye, I've got a great message from the King. I've got
good news for all God's people. It's a high calling, the glorification
of mere worms. It's a higher calling than if
the President of the United States himself came to your house and
said, I'm going to let you in on the innermost secrets of my
cabinet. I'm going to let you in. I've
come, Terry Kinsley, the President of the United States, coming
to check and choosing you and telling you about his secret,
high-secret policies of domestic and foreign policy. This is a
greater and a higher and a more noble calling than that, a higher
honor and privilege. To have Christ revealed to such
an unworthy wretch is infinite condescension. It's a high honor
and an unworthy privilege of any of us, and we don't, any
of us, deserve to even hear it. Scripture says, you see your
calling, don't you, brethren? Not many wise men have to play.
Not many not mighty. Not many noble are called. God
has chosen the weak thing, the base thing. Nobody's nothing.
Things that are despised. Christ one time rejoiced in spirit.
One of the few times he rejoiced in spirit. He looked up toward
heaven and ate with a smile and with a laugh. After those Pharisees
and doctors and lawyers and high-muckity-muck religious people couldn't figure
out the simplest of his parables. He said, I think the old Father
Metallus hid these things from these wise and prudent and revealed
them unto these babes, these fishermen, these base people,
these nobodies, and revealed it unto them, kept hid from them,
revealed unto babes. Do you see your calling? If we
saw our calling, if we esteem this calling like we should, Ah, we'd see, we'd rejoice. Joy unspeakable, wouldn't it? Why? Why does he do this? Why
does God do this? Why does he choose babes, base
people, nobodies? Why doesn't he choose that no
flesh should glory in his presence? So no man can say, well, I figured
this out, and you couldn't. It's by grace that's why. That
no flesh should glory. And this, have you ever considered
this? The reason he reveals this gospel on the weak, base, nothings-nobodies,
unlearned, ignorant, is that they may from that day forth, always, always, always, always,
always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always,
always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always,
always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always,
always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always,
always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always,
always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always,
always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always,
always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always,
always, and will never cease to wonder and be amazed that
God would condescend to reveal his Son to them." This mystery,
like Paul said to Timothy, he said, is a great mystery. God
is manifest in the flesh. This is what John writes about
in 1 John 1, which was from the beginning. What, John? That's what we've heard. We've heard
what? which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon." What, John? That! What is it, John? Our hands have handled it. What
is it? That word of life, which before had no body. It was a
glorious spirit, the word of life. This word incarnate, the
word of life, the life, the giver of life. began life anew. The giver of life we beheld as
a new life begun. The father of the mother became
the child. That's what the angels said about
him, wasn't it, when they announced his birth? That holy thing. They didn't know what to make
of it. It was still ahead of most of these angels. That, we
don't know what he's doing or why he's here, but that holy
thing, a sin your wife married, Joseph, is none other than a
son of God. Verse 2, John says, the life,
that, the life was manifest. We've seen it, it! And bear witness
to it, showing you that eternal life. There's none other. Neither
is there life in any of it. That eternal life which was with
the Father was manifested to us. Show that fisherman! This
is old John the fisherman. He said, I was on my boat one
day, fishing, cussing, chewing, and bats came by one day and
said, Hang up your nets and follow me. And oh, if time would allow it,
we'd tell you more about that. What we saw, read on. That which
we have seen and heard, oh, we'd tell you about what we've heard.
That's what we want to do, John says. That's what I'm endeavoring
to do right now in writing to you. That which we've seen and
heard, we're trying to declare it unto you that you also may
have fellowship with us. This fellowship of the mystery.
It's a mystery, a glorious mystery. fellowship with us, and truly
this is it, our fellowship is with the Father and with his
Son, Jesus Christ. Did you see what the mystery
was? It's not where Cain laid out his wife. It's not the seals. It's not the plagues. It's that
person, the revelation of this person. The mystery. The fellowship. You see what the fellowship is?
That's what the mystery is, and that's what the fellowship is,
and that's what salvation is all about. Knowing Him. That's life. That's life. Knowing Him. Being known by Him.
This is the hope of glory. Christ in you, and you in Christ. That's fellowship. The fellows
in the ark. The ark and the water. water in the palm of God's hand.
Being loved by God and loving God, that's the fellowship. Communion
and fellowship with him, that's the fellowship he's talking about.
That's what the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit had before
anything was that is, was. Before there was anything created,
there was God. What did he do? How did he enjoy
himself? That's what he did. He enjoyed himself. That's what salvation is all
about. That's what Jonathan Edwards, I believe, said, that the chief
end of man is that he might enjoy God. Know God. In Him we live
and move and have our being. Any enjoyment we have of this
life comes from God. God is love. Any experience of
love we have is from God. Any experience of mercy, any
experience of grace, any experience of kindness, any experience of
tenderness, any experience of joy, it all comes from God. And
Paul said there in Ephesians chapter 3, you might know something
of this. Past this knowledge, mere head
knowledge, you might experience it. The fullness of God, the
fullness of knowing and loving and fellowship with God. But this is what it's all about. That's what the Father and the
Son and the Spirit were doing through eons of time before anything
existed. They were enjoying one another.
And that's what heaven is going to be all about. That's what
we're going to be doing through eons of time in the eternity
of the future Just enjoying the Father, enjoying the Son, enjoying
the Holy Spirit. I thought about that verse in
Revelation that says, before the seals were opened, there
was silence in heaven for the space of thirty minutes. For
days is a thousand years. How long is thirty minutes? I
didn't stop and figure that out, but it's a long time. It's several
hundred years. Silence. Why? I think our mouths
are going to be open. We're going to be still and know
this is God. And we're not going to get bored.
Heaven is all about, you know, however long Adam walked with
God before he fell. I don't know. Nobody knows. It
could have been a long time. Ever thought about that? Before
Eve was created, Adam and the Father just walking with him.
Evidently, Eve walked with him, too. But however long he was
before he fell, I guarantee you this, as beautiful as that creation
was, as glorious as it was, he was more taken up with the Creator
than he was the creature. Isn't that the indictment against
men in Romans 1? And Adam finally lost sight of
the Creator and became taken up with the creature. Isn't it?
He took his eyes off the Creator. And you can bet that in heaven
we'll be more enamored with the King than we will the kingdom. Anybody that's all the time talking
about heaven and the kingdom and this and that and the other
hasn't seen the King. Any man that's preaching anything
but Christ crucified hasn't seen him crucified. Right? Hasn't seen him high and lifted
up. And we'll be talking more about the pearl of great price
than we'll be able to do about those grapes we just walked through.
Those pearly gates, huh? Aren't those pretty? Yeah, but
look. And we'll be talking about the
sun, that golden one, whose countenance is as sunshine at the knowledge
strength. The golden boy, if I may use
the term. The sun of God, the sun, S-U-S-O-N
of God, the golden one, more than those streets we'll be walking
on. We won't even notice their gold for a couple thousand years.
Oh, by the way, you see those golden streaks? You haven't even
noticed them. You're going to ask Moses, well,
it is, isn't it? I ain't lying. And we'll be talking about him
who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own precious
blood a lot more than we'll be talking about Mama in Manchester.
She won't even be Mama if she's with us in Heaven. Who are you? Well, I was your mother on Earth.
Good to see you. Isn't it good to see him? Glad you're here. I'm sure glad
I'm here to see this." What? That! Unsearchable riches. Glorious
mystery. It still remains a mystery to
most, but revealed to a chosen few. Verse 10 in our text, look back
at Ephesians 3, verse 10. It says, "...now unto the principalities
and powers in heavenly places, that it might be known by the
church the manifold wisdom of God." Now, what's that talking
about? You see why I wanted to bring
this message to you? I couldn't keep it back. I couldn't
eat until I told my errand. Peter said in 1 Peter 1 and 12,
he said, Which things, the unsearchable riches of Christ, do angels desire
to look into? Which things? For ages and ages,
the story of man's redemption was hidden. It was a mystery,
even to the principalities and powers in heaven. The angels
of God didn't know why lambs were being slain. The angels
of God didn't know what that tabernacle was all about. The
angels of God really didn't know why that serpent was lifted up
in the wilderness. The angels of principalities and powers
in heaven didn't know why this took place. Why that atonement? Why that
Paschal Lamb? They didn't know. The angels
around the throne, these things were kept hidden. Kept hidden. Doesn't that make the revelation
of it to worms even more glorious? He kept it hidden from angels
and came down and revealed it to worms. But now they see clearly. Now
the angels see clearly. Uh-huh. Now they do all the types
and pictures and ceremonies and ordinances and so forth. They've
been brought to life through the fulfillment of the gospel.
As they beheld the Creator, they were in mystery. There's a mystery
to it. It was hidden to them. As they
beheld the Creator become a creature, surely they thought, what is
this? Why would he condescend from that throne to enter into
the body of a woman? Why would he subject himself,
why would he abase himself in such a manner? Our God, our King,
become a baby in the arms of men. God said, you'll see, just
you watch out over him lest he dash his foot against the stone.
You keep care of him. and there were thousands upon
ten thousands and hundreds of thousands that hovered about
him. And they beheld the Judge, the Judge of all the nations,
of all the world, of the angels themselves who cast their fellow
angels into hell. They beheld this Judge being
judged before a kangaroo court of wicked men. The Judge of all
the universe standing before a court of of words, being judged
and mocked and ridiculed. And they beheld this, and don't
you know, Joe, they thought, why is he doing this? Don't you know that? They didn't
know. It was kept hidden. It was a
mystery to them. Why is he subjecting himself to this? Why didn't he
speak the word and ten thousand angels would come out and snuff
out planet God says, you just wait and see.
And as they beheld the life-giver, the one who spoke and life was
given, who made that man from the dust of the earth, and life
was given, breathed into him the breath of life, and he became
a living soul, when they saw his life expire on the cross, the angels thought, what now?
Huh? Isn't it? What now? What is this? And then a little three days
later, a little while later, he comes walking into heaven.
And that's bound to be when Psalm 24 is written. Now, the angel
is the one that wrote that, not David. The angel said, look coming. Lift up the gates! Open up the
doors! Who is it? King of glory is coming
back! The Son of God has come on. Look
at him. Look at him. They beheld him
coming out of that tomb and ascending unto heaven. And offer that blood. They saw it happening. And sit down on that throne and
at the end of time send his Spirit to call out the chosen ones who
were marked by that blood. It was all clear then, wasn't
it? We see. We see now. And they began to sing of the
mercy and the glory and the grace and the salvation of their great
God, and of the infinite manifold wisdom of God Almighty. Who would have thought it? They
said. Who could have devised such a
plan? The angel said, only our great
God, the plan of salvation, the plan of redemption. And they
had watched in enrapt amazement as God in power and glory, who
made the heavens and the earth and the seas and all that in
them is living, upon seeing the story of man's redemption unfold,
they cry out throughout all eternity now, what glorious, marvelous,
amazing, abundant manifold wisdom. What amazing wisdom. Verse 11,
and I'll quit, and it says, this is all according to this glorious,
magnificent, amazing, eternal purpose, which he had purposed
from the very beginning. He had it in his mind all along
in Christ Jesus. That lamb slain before. They
saw him, John, didn't they? He's principally as a lamb that
had been slain, but why? They didn't know. It was kept
hid. But now, through or by the redemption
of the Church, it's made known unto them. What a purpose, what
a plan! A mighty God became a man. The Lord of life come to die
for guilty sinners such as I. Oh, what mercy! Oh, what love! that he would leave his throne
above, and condescend into this awful place, and take the nature
of this race, to bleed and die, then rise above, and ever live
for those he loves. What wisdom, power, love, and
glory! This is a most amazing and wonder
story. And that's the reason Paul says
Verse 14, For this cause I bow my knee, I bow my knee unto this great
Father, my Master Abraham. Oh, he's great. He's great. And his son is just like him, with unsearchable
riches. And my great God, oh, he's great.
and his son of all the unsearchable riches. Well, if it can never
be told. Let's stand and sing a verse
of a song we know so well. Stand and we'll sing it by heart,
okay? I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus Lazarus, and wonder
how he could love me, a sinner condemned unclean. How marvelous! How marvelous! Some day we'll really sing that
one. You're dismissed.