He's over there standing waiting
to push that button, so I'm going to go ahead and do it. Ephesians
chapter 3, and I want to read verses 14 to 16. For this cause, I bow my knees
unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family
in heaven and earth is named. that he would grant you according
to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by
his spirit in the inner man uh... what i want to speak about
today is the whole family of god i like that phrase there's a
lot of fight about that phrase but i still like it We speak about the family a lot
here in this place. Why? Well, first of all, it's scriptural.
From generations of revelation, you're gonna find the family
of God. And he's gonna talk about it as an illustration, as a family. From the generations of Adam
to the coming of Christ with his saints. This book is a book
of family. His family. Now why is that in
there all the time? Well, the second point is because
it's important. Family is important to God. There's no randomness in the
scriptures. I want to make that perfectly
clear. I've been taught this by the Spirit through the scriptures.
There are a lot of things in the scriptures that I don't understand. And I say this in total honesty,
that's my problem. Okay? It's my lack. It's not
a lack of the scriptures. It's not a lack of the Spirit.
It's not a lack of God. It's never a lack of the Spirit. It's never a lack of God or the
scriptures. It's always a lack in me. However, I can also say in total
honesty, there are some things now that I understand that I
never used to understand. Walter and I were talking about
this after service or in between services, I forget which, last
week, that since I've been doing studies in Ephesians and reading
and listening to Dr. Jones and some others and doing
some more reading, I have a greater understanding of what Earl was
preaching for the last 20 years that I heard. We are to hear
from men. That's the way God's chosen for
us to do. That's the way it works. Yes,
first the eyes of your understanding have to be enlightened, but they're
enlightened scriptures they're enlightened toward his preached
word so that you will see hear and understand something and
you may not get it all you never do but we are to read we are
to study and we are to listen to pastors and teachers Peter told us this and this was
also not a request but grow in grace And in the knowledge of
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to him be the glory, both now
and forever. Amen. That's not a request. We are to grow in grace and in
the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. What's
that mean? Well, there comes a time when
you're not supposed to be satisfied with milk. Now the young ones, that's fine,
I'm serious. You're gonna pick up what you
can pick up, and what God gives you, that's all it is. I've been
there, done that. There are things that just really
blew my mind. And it still happens today. Which
like, I look at something that I've read, I know I've read two
dozen times, and yet I see something there that I didn't see before.
Or I hear somebody say something about, that's what that scripture's
talking about. Grown believers need some meat.
Now, some meat is nice and tender, some not so much. You know, pork
roast in a slow cooker is not the same thing as a grilled steak.
Some of it you might have to chew on a little harder than
others. But, if it's according to these
scriptures, it's all fit food for the child of God. Whether
you got a chew on it or whether it just breaks apart in your
mouth and it goes right down. It all nourishes the child of
God. Verse 14 of Ephesians 3, for
this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. This statement starts off with
for this cause. Paul wrote this because of what
he wrote before. That's the way he always does. If you'll read
these scriptures, you'll see he starts laying line upon line,
line upon line, layer upon layer. But here where he's speaking,
just before this, where he wrote, excuse me, the fellowship of
the mystery, the manifold wisdom of God, the eternal purpose of
God, which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have
boldness, in whom we have access with confidence by the faith
of him. That's all from verse seven up. Don't be faint. Don't be weary. Don't be sad at my tribulations,
Paul wrote, which are for your glory. For this cause, I bow. For the purpose of God, I bow. For the fellowship of the mystery,
I bow. For the manifold wisdom of God,
I bow. Because we have boldness doesn't
mean we're cocky. We can approach God. We are told
to approach God. But you don't approach God with
an attitude. That's not boldness. That's foolhardiness. That's
the world. They'll tell you. Oh, they'll
tell you. Religious societies will tell
you, you tell God what you want, and he's got to give it to you
if you ask in the name of Jesus Christ, and that is a lie. Straight from the devil's mouth.
And nothing but. Paul says, I bow. What are you
bowing to? You're bowing to God. You're
bowing to his manifold wisdom, and you're bowing to his will. Not your will. That's what the world doesn't
get. You come to a point where you
realize, hopefully, that what you want doesn't matter. I had
some army sergeants try to beat that into me. Took the spirit
of God to do it though. And still, Still, my will will
raise its ugly head. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, you know,
I was talking about the Salvation Army broadcast last week. Well,
this week, they were singing a song about how prayer changes
things. You ain't changing the will of God. I'm sorry. I don't
care who you think you are. I don't care how many of you
are praying the same exact prayer. You will never change the will
of God, and Paul bowed to it. And if you ain't bowing to the
will of God, if you're not bowing to the Father, you're not praying. Paul bowed, the apostle to the
Gentiles, the man who God gave this revelation to, Christ appeared
to him in person. He bowed. He bowed then and he's
bowing now. Guess what? until you get taken
out of this life, and then you're gonna bow again. Because once
you see Him, you're gonna bow. Willingly and lovingly. There's no end to this bowing.
Submission. That's the word, and that's the
word the world hates. Okay? Paul says, I bow. I bow to the Father of our Lord. We don't only bow in prayer.
We bow in our life. We are to bow in our circumstances,
whatever those circumstances are. It ain't easy. I didn't say it was going to
be easy. But we're to do it. We're to do it. One of the reasons
why is because hopefully by now, you have learned and you are
learning that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose. You understand, you can't take
one scripture and forget all the rest. And that's a scripture,
seriously, I try to keep in my mind all the time. I know you're not supposed to
have favorites or whatever, but I do. I do, and that's one of
them, because I've seen it work. in my life and in other people's
lives. Why do bad things happen to good
people? Well, I'll tell you something. A, there ain't no good people.
All right, so you might as well forget about that part, but why
do bad things happen to Christians, to believers? Okay, I'm gonna
tell you, good things come out of them. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've been in it
long enough. I've seen it in myself and in
others. I'm not going to go into examples
because it's not a thing we need to do anyhow. But we don't bow
only in prayer, we bow in our lives. Paul says, I bow to the Father. Now it's the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, but he says I bow to the Father. Believe the Father,
believe the Son, believe the Spirit. And because of believing
God, we trust in the fellowship of the mystery, the manifold
wisdom, the eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ. I don't understand. It's OK. Bow down. I don't like it. Boy, there's a lot of that. Bow
down. I don't want this to happen.
Bow down. That's just all there is to it.
Bow. It's His will, His purpose that
matters. And He'll show it to you. If
you trust Him. But here's what I really want
to talk about today. Of whom the whole family in heaven
and earth is named. Walter, I did not know there
was such a big discussion about this verse among certain people. But there is. They first start
off arguing about of whom. They do. There's a lot of discussion
about this whole verse, but it starts right here, of whom? Okay,
because they want to know, is Paul referring to the Father
or is he referring to Christ? Well, A, you can't separate the
two. Okay, let's just start there.
You can't separate the Father from the Son. And you can't separate
the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. It can't be done. And B, Paul's already bowed to
both in the past. That's not the point. Which one
is it? Although I have my thoughts.
And I'll show you some of it here in a minute. Because here,
as far as I can tell, the direct object of the previous verse
is the Father. Okay, I bow to the Father. Then
he describes the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, it wasn't
an insignificant add-on. It's a certainly necessary add-on. But he says, I bow to the Father.
Now, this is something I've been thinking about since I heard
somebody say it. Jesus Christ, when he was here,
and even after he's gone, Jesus Christ always exalted the Father. The Son exalted the Father while
he was here. Not saying that they're not equal.
They are one. But the Son exalted the Father. He told us, you pray in secret,
and my Father, which hears in secret, shall reward you openly. So you can bow down in secret.
He commanded us to pray to the Father. You don't find anything in the
gospels or anywhere else where Christ said, pray to me. He said
pray to the Father. Now, he said pray in my name
and pray according to his will. See, why would you wanna leave
that little part out? You pray that mountain be removed,
it'll be removed, bless God, just because you said so. No,
because it's in the will of God that mountain's gonna be removed.
Otherwise, it ain't going anywhere and you're just wasting your
breath. And I don't have any mountains that need removed.
They're doing enough of that in West Virginia. But I'm not here to talk about
that. We pray according to the will
of the Father. Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. If you want to repeat a prayer
and prayer after prayer, repeat that part. Thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven. Not my will, thy will. Christ
always told us to pray to the father. The son reconciled us
to the father. The son brings us to the father. And Christ stated it himself,
I and my father are one. So if you're bound to the father,
you're bound to the son. If you're bound to the son, you're
bound to the father. They are one. The whole family. The whole family. Now there are those who want
this word whole translated as every family. And I understand
where they're coming from and I understand what they're worried
about. But to be honest, that seems incorrect in this context. There is a manner in which this
is true that, I mean, we have our church family here. We have
this assembly, and we are a family. But we are a member, a part of
a much larger family. And there are literal, physical families. Physically related, brother,
sister, mother, we got that here. Child, grandchild, that's not
what Paul's talking about here. Now every family is a member
of that family, the whole family. I'm not saying those don't exist,
but what these people seem to be worried about from what I
read, they're worried about somebody saying this whole family is the
church and nothing but the church. and using that as a way to preach
replacement theology, that we're saying that the church took the
place of Israel. And that's not what Paul is saying
by any stretch of the imagination. And that's why they wanted to
kind of separate that and say, well, see, it includes this.
Well, Paul does. He goes on to include a whole lot of people
in this. We'll get to that. But they're so worried about
that part that they want to go the other direction from what
Paul was saying here. And I don't think, like I said,
I'm not saying they're telling a falsehood, it's just I think
they're missing kind of the point here, the context of this verse. Because I believe Paul is writing
here of the unity of the whole family. And the word translated
whole, I looked at it, it's called, it's passa. which is just a form
of the word pas, which is all, okay? That's what it is. It means
all, and the word whole, translated, the word family, both of those
words are singular. They're not plural, okay? He's not talking about a bunch
of families. He's talking about all the family. All the family,
the whole family. That's who he's talking about. Now there is only one family
of God. That's all there is. That's all
there is. I don't mean to say that this
is the church only and Israel is no more. I'm not saying that.
Mack was right. This book of Ephesians is about
the church. But it's also about how the church
relates to the rest of everything. Paul here is very plain in Ephesians. Jew
and Gentiles are one in the church. There's no difference. There
is no difference anymore. But Paul is also very plain in
Romans chapter 11 that we did not usurp Israel in any way,
shape, or form as the church. We did not. We are what he calls
grafted in. And the illustration he uses
is an olive tree, okay? That olive tree was there before
we got there. That olive tree will be there
after we're cut off. Once the fullness of the Gentiles
has come in, that olive tree's still gonna be there. There's
one olive tree, and there's one family. I don't believe in the replacement
of Israel by any stretch of the imagination. I believe that there
is a fullness of the Gentiles to be brought in. I believe there
are other sheep that he has that he must bring and he is bringing
and he shall bring in until the fullness of the Gentiles be brought
in. And I believe there's sheep before they believe, Mason. Yeah, what do you tell them guys?
You don't believe because you're not my sheep. He didn't say you're
not my sheep because you don't believe. That's true, but that's not why. You don't believe because you're
not my sheep. He's got a sheep. Just like what? He's got a family. The whole family. The whole family. Believe when it comes to the
family of God there are only two kinds of people in this world
They are called by the Lord my people and not my people That's
that guy wasn't a hey guy Married that woman he's named them kids
name one. I'm not my people then changed
his name later to my people But you have my people and you have
not my people You have sheep and you have not sheep. I always
like to say sheep and the goats, but that ain't exactly right.
That's right. I will judge between cattle and cattle. And sheep
are cattle too. But you have sheep and you have
not sheep. Now there's two different kinds
of sheep. You got lost sheep, you got found sheep. But there's sheep. There's sheep. Already he said
that, I didn't say it. I'm just repeating what he said,
which is what I'm supposed to be doing up here. There are those
who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world,
and there are those who were not. I mean, there are people,
I know, I went through that thing, I told Walter about it, I was
listening to a guy, he was, and this is a fella you all know,
and he was preaching and he was talking about opposites, you
know, we have Jew and we have Gentile, we have elect and we
have lost. Wait a minute, that's not the
opposite. The opposite of lost is saved. A lost sheep or a found sheep,
if you want to use the sheep part. The opposite of elect is
reprobate. But people don't want to say
that. They don't like that thought. They don't want to exclude anyone. This book excludes a lot of people. There are many on the Broadway.
And there's few, few that find the narrow way and go through
the straight gate and the narrow way. And guess what? It has always been that way. Now those few add up to a multitude
no man can number. Guess what that is? That's a
whole family. And I saw Walter and One of the
verses you preached on the other day, just if you would back up
to Ephesians chapter 2 and 21. If you read, now this is speaking
of the church. In whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto an holy temple unto the Lord.
That in whom all the building, that's exactly the same thing
Paul says of whom, in this case of whom, the whole family. So
if you want to say this, that's the exact same parsing. I mean,
that is pasta, the same word. And if you want to say this,
of whom all the family in heaven and earth is named, I can live
with that. Because it's still singular. It's only one building
in chapter two. It's only one family in chapter
three. The church is not separate from
the family of God. and the church is not all of
the family of God. Paul is putting this on where
he's been talking about the church, and he's putting us where we
are. The church is in the family of God, but we're not saying
the church is the whole family of God. And I bow to the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family of God is named.
I like that, I like that. And this word family, here's
another reason why I do believe he is referring to a father.
That word family is patria. The word father in the verse
before it is pater. So you've got pater and patria.
This word family, it does mean big. It can be a group of families,
but what it means is patria, it's paternal. It all goes back
to a single source. It's like the Jews, they always
like to look back to Father Abraham, paternally. Everything comes
down from Abraham as far as the Jews were concerned. Well, the
whole family of God, everything comes from the Father. There's
one source of the family. Everything comes from the Father.
What? Every good gift and every perfect
gift comes down from the Father of lights, in whom there's no
shadow of turning. No variableness. No change to his will. No change
to his wisdom. No change to his eternal purpose. That's why they call it eternal. It's eternal. Patria, family, nation, having
a common origin, descended from one source. The whole family, and if you
want to, every family, has one source. All the family has one
source. The whole family has one father,
and he's the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul says,
bow to him. I bow to him. I bow to him. And if you don't bow to him,
you're not part of that family. You got no reason to think you're
part of that family. You've got no reason to say,
if you will not bow to Him, you've got no reason to say. Oh sure, you might be elected,
but if you're going to be converted, if you're going to be regenerated,
and if God is going to do it, you will bow to Him. That's as certain as believing
His Son, because you can't believe His Son unless you bow to Him. He's your Lord. It's not just
that he is the Lord, although he is the Lord, he is your Lord. And his father is the father,
and you will bow to both of them. We're called heirs of God and
joint heirs of Jesus Christ. And not only that, he calls us
brothers. For both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause he
is not ashamed to call them brethren." Wow, that's another family illustration. No, that's a family reality. He is our elder brother. We pray
to the father, we bow to the father, we pray in the name of
our elder brother. The one who's not ashamed to
call us brother. I'd be ashamed to call me brother. I know me too well. But I was
listening on the way up here to one of Earl's messages on
the forgiveness of sin. And it's like, brings it all
back. I was sitting right there, I'm
sure. And there he is preaching. We have redemption through his
blood. the forgiveness of sin. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. That's another one of verses
I can't get away from and I don't want to get away from. Because
that is indeed a blessing because I do sin. But it's not imputed. Why? Because he's not ashamed
to call me brethren. He paid that price. He paid for
my sins. He paid for the sins I will do
tomorrow. Because if he didn't, I'm damned.
That's the way it is. If he didn't pay for all of my
sins, somebody's got to. And the payment of sins is death.
And you understand that same father that will not impute sin,
to that blessed man, okay? That same father is the one that
said, I will by no means clear the guilty. So if he's not imputing sins
to me, that means I'm not guilty. And in Christ, I am not. Because
he paid the price that I couldn't pay. We have an older brother
in the family of God who is our advocate. And he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins. Then Paul makes this statement,
in heaven and in earth. In heaven and in earth. The whole family. This is why I think the whole
family is a good translation. Because he's talking about the
family in heaven and in earth. Those have gone on before. They're
still members of this family. I'm not talking just Earl or
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. You can name them. Noah? Rahab? Who else? This book is full of
them. They've gone on before. Paul
our Apostle. John. Matthew, Mark, Luke. They've all gone on. They are still members of the
family, the whole family in heaven. But also, he doesn't leave us
out, in earth. That's us. At this time, Paul
is talking about his people. And I tell you, I believe he
also meaning those other sheep that I have that I must bring
that he hasn't brought yet. The whole family of heaven and
of earth has one name, and that's the name of God. God's people are called by God's
name, because God's people are the whole family of God. You
can look in the Old Testament, and you'll see that he is called
out of people. What does he say? For my name.
For my name! not for your name, for my name. And the whole family in heaven
and in earth, the whole of the family is in his name. Jesus Christ came to reconcile
us to God, to reconcile the whole world to God, not imputing their
trespasses unto them. He goes from reconciling the
world to specifics what I'm talking about. Not imputing their trespasses
unto them. He offered his blood to the Father
as the perfect sacrifice for sin and he has committed to us
the word of reconciliation. He's not ashamed to call us brethren We are in the whole family of
God. We are part of something much
greater than this assembly. And there are other assemblies
around us. Some of them we know, some of them we don't know. There
are people here, there, and everywhere. God knows His family. And it's the whole family. We are to love the family we
know, to cherish, to pray for, to support, to help, to do what
we can. But never forget, we are a part
of a much bigger thing. We are part of the whole family.
And we have the name of God. Bow to Him. Bow to the Father. Our relationship with God and
with each other is in Christ Jesus. Yeah, the family. We're in the
family because of the Son. We're in the family because of
the Son. And only because of the Son. If He didn't come, none
of this happens. If He didn't come, I wouldn't
be here. If He didn't come, it doesn't
matter whether I'm here or not. But now therefore, this is Ephesians
2 and 19, now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household
of God. This is my last point, because
I like this. This is one of the reasons why
I do think Paul's not talking about families, you know, every
family. He's talking about one family,
the whole family, okay? There's only one household of
God. And we are of that household. Now, you understand what I said
before. We have physical families. I have got family from Florida
to Oregon and three or four places in between. I got a sister in
Oregon. I got nephews and nieces and
stuff in Florida. I got Ken in Peterstown. I've
got uncles and aunts and cousins and stuff in Chicago and outlying
areas. We have many different households.
even though we are part of one family. But see this, there is
only the household of God. That's all there is. What did
Christ say about this? What illustration did he use?
He said, John 14 verse 2, in my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. in my father's house. That is defined as a building
used for a residence. Now this is an illustration.
I understand. It's used as a residence. It's
where people live. It's where you live. And it's my father's house, Christ
said. And in my father's house are many mansions. And Lord,
I remember people arguing over that. Somebody wanted to say
rooms, and they got upset cuz no God said I got a mansion It doesn't matter what you have
There's a place for you if you're in the family There's a place
for it. There's only one household. There's
only one house of God I Will prepare a place for you
and that word mansions means dwellings dwellings dwellings
place of abiding, we abide in His house. We live in the household
of God. We live in the family of God. And that's the only place there
is life, true life, is in that family, in His Son. And there
is a place for you in the family, in the house, and in the household. Cherish that. Bow to it. Bow to Him. Our Heavenly Father,
we are thankful for this time and this place. But most of all,
thankful to You who sent Your Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ. Thank You, Lord, for all that
You've done for us, that You're doing for us, and You shall do
for us. Thank You, Lord. Give us the
strength to walk in this world. Give Walter the words we need
to hear when he comes to preach before you. We'll give you all
the praise and honor and the glory because it is yours, now
and forever. Amen.