Alright, if you'll take your
Bibles now and turn to Ephesians chapter 1. Last week we talked a little
bit about the church at Ephesus and where it was located. And
if you Look at a map, you can see on the map where Athens,
Greece is on one side of the G and C and then straight across
from it is where Ephesus was. And it was located down in Asia
Minor. Now, everything in the scripture
is significant. And I'm learning the more I study
it. The things that I think are very
insignificant have a lot of significance to them down the road and uh... i was amazed when i began i've
been looking into the book of revelation and kind of studying
in there do you know how he identifies the seven churches when he opens
the book the seven churches of asia of asia and emphasis was
right at the beginning this was right at the this is how everybody
entered into asia was right through Ephesus. And we talked a little
bit about the first chapter and indeed probably the theme of
the whole epistle as far as the revelation of God to us in a
representative. That's what this is all about.
That's what the gospel is all about. Is to see yourself as
you're represented before God and as God is represented to
you. He's the one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. You can't know anything at all
about God apart from Him. It's just all speculation. It's
all mechanical apart from seeing Him. And then Paul opens this
letter with these words, the God and Father. He talks about
our God and our Father and then he says the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ. I know nothing about God as my
God or God as my Father except through this revelation that
I have through this representative. That's a long way around. But
that's what it's about in these two things, the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then we talk briefly about
titles. Paul just simply starts his book
Paul. James, he says James, and so
on. These titles are, some are acceptable
and some are forbidden. But any title that honors the
man and takes that Rob's honor from God in that name and puts
it on a man is forbidden. Christ said, call no man your
father, you have one father. Call no man your master, you
have one master. He's the great physician. He's
the doctor. All this doctor so-and-so and
all these initials and all these things that men do to honor themselves,
strictly forbidden of God. Forbidden of God. And then I ran out of time last
week and we began to look at Paul's office as an apostle. So that's where I want to go
this morning. Now, what is an apostle? What is an apostle? Well, an apostle is a very unique
office. So we'll just talk about that
a little bit. What a unique office is the office of an apostle. There was only 12 of them, only
12 apostles in all the world, in all the Bible, 12 apostles. Very unique office. Why 12? Why did he have 12? Why not have
11? Judas did what he did, which was ordained of God. He fell
out. There was 11 left. Why did God
fill in that position? Why did he go back to 12 again?
Why 12 apostles? Why not 11? Why not 13? So what's up with this 12 when
he talks about 12 apostles? Well, 12 is a symbolic number
representing the whole church. is represented in the Old Testament. I'm not saying that this was
the church. I'm saying that the church was
represented in the Old Testament in the 12 tribes of Israel. Anytime he talks about the whole
of the church, he talks about the 12 tribes of Israel. Anytime
he describes promises given to the church, he talks about the
12 tribes of Israel, all through the Old Testament He calls them
His children, His elect in Judah, in that tribe. That's where the
Messiah is going to come from and so on. And so in these 12
tribes, it's very symbolic because it represents the whole of the
church. The whole of the church. In Revelation
7 and representing His church in the Gospel age as they appear
before God in their resurrected Redeemer. They're described in
two ways in that chapter. They're described as the 144,000,
12,000 from this tribe and 12,000 from this tribe. And when all
the 12,000 of the 12 tribes are gathered together, there's 144,000.
Now, this is not a physical number, an actual number, but he's throwing
this number out for this reason. to show you that there is a definite
number of people that he's chosen in eternity to save. And they're
represented in this number. This number in no wise means
that there's only going to be 144,000 Jews saved or that there's
only going to be 144,000 men saved in some dispensation. It's saying that this is an actual
physical number that represents a definite number. God's going
to save a certain people, to the letter, to the number, every
last one of them. When he brought, I showed you
that Wednesday night, when he brought Jacob down into Israel,
he took a whole chapter and showed us in that chapter, in those
genealogies, that not one son was left behind. They all come
down with Him, and they're all coming out with Him when they
come out. And the second way here in Revelation
7, and these are the same people. He's just looking at one people
here, and he first sees them as the 144,000. That's how we
first see them in the Scripture, as the 144,000 represented in
these 12 tribes back here in the Old Testament. But then he
looked and he said he sees a multitude, a great multitude that no man
can number beyond your conception, this number. And this number
is taken out of every nation and every tribe and every kindred
and every tongue under heaven. That's God's elect. So figuratively,
these two describe the elect of God as they appeared first
in Israel in the Old Testament and then in this gospel age as
spiritual Israel. Twelve apostles in number. A
very unique office in that it required the holder of it to
be taught of Christ personally. Now you can read about Peter's
blunder over in Acts chapter 1. If you want to look at that
this afternoon, you can turn over there and read Acts chapter
1 And see Peter's blunder over there and how they cast lots
between justice. They said, well, Judas failed
and his office must needs be fulfilled. It's got to be filled.
So here's what we're going to do. We're going to pick out two
men that's been with us from the very beginning. And so they
got Justice and they got Matthias. But they didn't know which one
of them to, so then they took the lots, basically they rolled
the dice to see which one of them was going to fill the office
and it fell on Matthias. So they said, here he is. God
never used Matthias. Never hear about Matthias again.
I'm not saying Matthias was an unsaved man, I'm saying Peter
blundered because he was told to go to Jerusalem, him and the
other apostles, and don't do anything until you be endued
with power from on high. until the Holy Spirit is being
poured out on his church and giving you the full revelation
of the things that I've taught you and the things that I'm declaring
to you that I'm going to do, you don't do nothing. You just
go there and sit down until I show up. But Peter wasn't satisfied
with that. He said, no, while we're waiting,
here's what we're going to do. Now, you know, it is kind of
humorous in a way looking back on it, but I'm not so sure if
we hadn't been there, we'd have just sat there and went, oh,
it sounds right to me, and we'd have been right in there with
you. But this is where men have messed up over the centuries.
They've messed up. They've sat down and reasoned
things out. They get a room full of people
like we got here today, and maybe they represent churches all over
the place. And they sit down and they say,
fellas, you know, these things are ancient. These things are
old. These things are We need to bring all this up to date,
and we need to organize our efforts, and we need to everybody get
together. Well, how are we going to govern
that? Who's going to govern that? Well,
we'll get a president and a vice president, and you see what I'm
saying? You're making a blunder. You're
making a blunder when you go into those things. But you can
read, in God's time, he replaced Judas Iscariot with Paul. Caught
this man up into the third heaven. Well, Peter had no concept of
the Lord Jesus Christ coming down and taking a man out of
season that wasn't with him when Christ first called him and all
that and raising him up into the third heaven and letting
him see him in his glorified state. Totally, but everything
in here is beyond us, isn't it? Huh? And that's where we get
in trouble. We start trying to bring God
down to our level and start trying to reason things out by our logic
and we get in trouble. Get in trouble. And I believe that. I believe
that what Peter did in Acts chapter 1 is what many have done in our
age. And all of these things seem
like a good idea. The problem was God wasn't in
it. And boy, if he ain't in it, what have we accomplished? Nothing.
Nothing. The Roman Catholic Church has
done one even better than Peter. They took the Lord's statement
to Peter. You remember when he said, whom do men say that I
am? And they all told him. And he said, who do you say I
am? Peter jumped up and said, thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. He said, blessed art thou, Simon
Bartholomew. Flesh and blood hath not revealed
this unto you, but my Father which is in heaven. Upon this
rock will I build my church." Well, they took that rock to
be Peter. And so they made Peter and then,
now just follow natural logic with me here for a minute. I'm
not trying to stomp on the Catholics. They took natural logic and they
said, well, let's look at this. Now, here's Peter. And he's always
leading this group. He's the one that said, I go
fishing. They said, we'll go with you. And then on Pentecost,
he said, we got to fill in this office. And they all filed right
in there with him. They go through the scriptures,
men do, and they look at these things way out of context, but
they seem to fit. And they're kind of like I used
to be. When I was a child, I got this little thing, about 15 pieces,
and you put that puzzle together, and all of a sudden, She threw
one of these 50-piece puzzles on me. And I couldn't get them
to fit, so I'd try to make them fit, you know, get them down
there and push. You've seen children do that. Well, that's the way
men do. They take these things out of context and make them
fit. Just shove them down and make them fit. And so they got
old Peter, and they said the Lord raised him up, and he was
the chief among all these apostles. And he was the leader of all
the churches. He didn't say that. He didn't
say that. They just reasoned that out by
logic. And so that began this succession
of the popes. Now I'm telling you what they
say on their own site, not what I think they believe. This is
what they say. And they attribute infallibility
to Peter. Well, that don't wash. Peter
was wrong. Almost everything he ever did
was wrong. I can identify more with Peter than anybody else
in the Bible. Because everything he did was backwards. Everything
he did, he was over there. Here he is trying to institute
a new apostle that must be chosen of God. And he's over here choosing
him. And he's, how's he going to do
it? Are they going to vote on it?
No, they're going to roll the dice. Well, what's that? That's
an Old Testament thing, that casting of the lot. Now here
he is, an apostle, going to usher in the new gospel age, and he's
over here bringing in that Old Testament junk again and casting
lots and doing all these kind of civics. They give him infallibility. And then they also said that
the succession of the popes, which was based on Peter the
apostle, that's what we're talking about, apostle, was also to settle
all the disputes in the church. But we're told not to dispute.
Aren't we? We got nothing to argue about.
God's opened our eyes to see the truth. What are we going
to dispute about? If you're still arguing, you don't know God.
What are you arguing about? Huh? Believers don't argue. They
see the truth. They see the truth, and they
bow to it. They bow to it. And you know,
here's another reason they don't argue, because God brought them
down. He brought them down. When you're down, you see everybody
else up. And you're not going to argue
with them. You're just glad God showed you something. You're
not going to be that guy that stands up and says, whoa, wait
a minute here. Here's what I think. Listen to me. Let me give you
my opinion. Uh-uh. You're just going to sit
there quiet and hope God will teach you something. There's no need for a Pope. And
then, God's church is not represented in this universal state. It's
represented in these local churches. None of the... Peter didn't have
any idea about any of these things and neither did anybody else
until the Lord poured out His Spirit on the church. There's 12 apostles ordained
of God. These 12 men hold the highest
office in the church. By these men, these 12 men, the
Lord Jesus Christ will usher in the gospel age, something
this world had no concept of, something the Jews had no concept
of, something that only these ancient prophets It was revealed
to them that what they preached over there in Peter, Peter says
this, here's a man who knew, had been corrected of God. And
he knew. And now he talks about it over
there in his epistle. Talking to these Gentile churches
out here. And he said these old prophets,
God revealed to them that it was not unto them that they testified
these things, but unto us. Unto this gospel aid. This was
a thing not common to them, not understood by them. But said
over here. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
9. I'm going to try to hurry up. Back in Hebrews chapter 8, Paul
tells us that the first covenant has waxed old. It was come to
its end. Hebrews 8, 13. In that he saith
a new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which
decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. Hebrews 9 verse
1. Then verily that first covenant,
that one that's waxed old, had also ordinances of divine service
and a worldly sanctuary. There was a tabernacle made,
the first, that is the first part inside of it, wherein was
the candlestick, the table, and the showbread, all these things
picturing Christ and His church. They called that the sanctuary.
Verse 3, And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is
called the holiest of all, the holy of holies, which had the
golden censer, the ark of the covenant overlaid round about
with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's
rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
And then over that ark, the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy
seat of which we cannot now speak particularly. Now when these
things were thus ordained, the priests, that is the sons of
Levi, these common priests, went always into the first tabernacle
accomplishing the service of God. They put oil, this wasn't
a wax candle in a candlestick. It was an oil lit candelabra
that sat there. And they had to replace the oil. This thing burned all the time.
Inside that, sitting on that table, it burnt all the time,
picturing the church, the light of the world. But they had to
put oil in it, representing the Holy Spirit. And so these common
priests went in there and accomplished that service before God kept
oil in the lamp. There was 12 loaves of bread,
show bread, set out on the table, representing the whole church.
Christ is the bread for the whole church. And then they also cleaned
up inside the sanctuary. Alright, that's the common priest.
Verse 7, But into the second went the high priest alone, once
every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself
and for the heirs of the people. The Holy Ghost. Now I want you
just to stop right there for a minute and listen to me. The
Holy Ghost, Paul says. Now he's talking to a people
who had a little bit of knowledge about the Holy Ghost. The Holy
Ghost who revealed this whole pattern of this whole thing to
Israel. The Holy Ghost. When it says
God spoke to Moses on the mountain, that's the Holy Ghost speaking
to him, telling him, inspiring him, giving him this pattern.
of the tabernacle and sending him down there and telling him
see to it you built it exactly like I'm telling you. The Holy
Ghost, the Holy Ghost inspired him to document every detail
of this tabernacle in the Word of God. The Holy Ghost whose
presence attended the old tabernacle and attended all the sacrifices
and attended all the worship and the worshipers And the Holy
Ghost who sent forth the person and work of Christ, as he tells
us over in Romans 3, who was sent forth as a propitiation
for our sins. You see what he's saying here?
There's a lot to be said in a few words. Paul tells us the Holy
Ghost, this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was
not yet made manifest while this first tabernacle yet stood. Now listen, which was a figure
for the time then present. That's what it was all about.
It was just a figure, just a type, just a picture, a pattern. A
figure for the time then present in which were offered both gifts
and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service
perfect, couldn't purge his conscience, couldn't take away his sin. I
don't care how many animals and blood was poured out on the ground.
Couldn't take that guilty conscience away and every year there was
a remembrance of sin made when that high priest came with that
atonement again and entered in to offer it again. Every year. Couldn't purge that conscience.
Verse 10, which stood only in meats and drinks and divers washings
and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. Now this gospel age which began
with the appearing of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, Judah, was the
beginning of the day of Reformation. That's what Paul's telling these
old Jews. These things are old. These things
are gone. These things are done away. These
things are fulfilled. We don't need a priesthood anymore. We don't need animal sacrifices anymore. We don't need an altar. We don't
need the Ark. Christ is our Ark. And this entire
Old Testament ceremonial national Jewish church state was coming
to an end. That's what Paul's telling them.
All the types were fulfilled in Christ and all the ceremonies,
the high priest, the prophet, the king, all fulfilled in Christ. And the church would no longer
be represented as a nation, but as it is in truth, the mystical
body of Christ. And His church in this new age
would not be seen as one nation or one conglomerate. It's not going to be seen that
way. In truth it never was, because Paul said all Israel is not Israel.
And now what does he say? Just because you're a Jew, that
don't mean anything. I don't mean you're a Jew because
you say I'm a Jew. Because I'm related to Abraham,
that don't mean anything. His church was revealed in faith. It was revealed in those that
believed that were inside Israel. But they were hidden in that
old Jewish national church state and you couldn't see them. And
now Paul said they're going to be visible because God's going
to call them out. And you're going to see Him here,
and you're going to see Him there, and you're going to see Him over
here, and you're going to see Him over here. He's going to raise up
churches and assemblies. And this whole idea, this whole
business of one nation and one priest and all this stuff, this
is all fulfilled in Christ. Now His mystical body, His universal
church, I guess you could say, in the fact that it includes
all believers from Adam all the way up to David, if you want
to When you're talking about that church, that's one body. But I'm talking about the way
his church is represented on this earth is in local assemblies,
just like what we got here this morning. No longer be represented in this
big nation. and to ratify or confirm that
the Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, God did things by
him that ordinary men could not do, could not mimic. False Christ
could not mimic what he did. John, he raised the dead. Rotten,
stinking, corrupted flesh in the tomb, come out, he said,
and they come out. He took lepers whose, this disease
was inside. I mean, it had already had you
by the time it made sores. You was already had. The sores
were just an outward sign of the inside corruption. By the time it blistered, that
priest would look at it and he said, you're out of here. Put
them out there in a leper colony. They're gone. They're gone. You
don't go around saying I think I'm a leper or he said I was
a leper. You just go around telling everybody I'm unclean. Cover
your mouth. You're gone. Dead while you live. And he cleansed them. Be ye clean. I think we can say with all assurance
that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. God raised him from the
dead. We're going to talk about that
here in just a little bit. Now, to these twelve apostles, he
did the same thing. He did the same thing because
these were the men through which this reign in Christ is going
to establish this new gospel age. And so he accompanied them
with the same gifts. They raised the dead. You remember
the young man fell out of the window when Paul was preaching.
He walked over and got him by the hand and picked him up. Huh? That man there crippled, sitting
there at the gate of the temple. Peter said, silver and gold,
have I none? Here's what I got. In the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. He raised up,
went jumping and leaping into the temple. He accompanied them
with the same gifts and for the same reason. It is to confirm
what they are writing. It is to confirm what they are
saying. And by these twelve apostles, the full canon of Scripture is
complete and faith is built, he says at the end of Ephesians
chapter 2, on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone. He's the big rock upon which
God is going to build his church. Peter was a rock, but he was
the little rock. Christ is the big rock. Now,
having established the New Testament church, ushered in the gospel
age, having established through the New Testament offices of
missionaries and evangelists and local churches throughout
the known world, and appointed over them pastor-teachers. Having
instructed the church in all things moral, governmental, spiritual,
the apostles' work is finished, and they're taken out of the
way. They're taken out of the way. No need. We don't have any
apostles today. You've got pastor-teachers. That's
what you have. And you've got local assemblies.
The word of God is complete. The church is established. Christ
sits on His throne in glory. and governs his church, and the
way he pictures it in Revelations chapter 1, you can read about
it this afternoon when you get home, he's standing there with
the stars in his hand. You know who the stars are? That's
the pastors of those seven churches. Here's not church, churches,
seven of them, scattered all over Asia, and their pastors,
he's holding in his hand, and he's walking in their midst.
walking in the midst of the candlestick, holding them stars, you see.
That's the New Testament church. The glory of the church is in
the God who designed it and called it and gave His Son to redeem
it. Well, what do you base that on? Now, I've just made a statement
to you that goes sideways of everything established in the
world today. That's a pretty bold statement,
ain't it? All this denominationalized religion, all the Holy Catholic
Church, as it's so called, and even all the sects and all the
other types of religion that's not included in what men call
Christian religion. I've just went sideways of the
whole lot. On what do I base that? Huh? What do I base that? I'm standing
here with 25 people. And I'm telling you that this
world is wrong. Huh? What do I base that on? These 12 men. And the ministry that Jesus Christ,
the reigning king, established through them. I'll never forget the first time
I ever went out to do a job as a foreman. And I scared to death
because I was just a young man. These men were a lot older than
I was. And I went out there and we had
a meeting that morning and the owner of the company told me
what he wanted these men to do and who he wanted to do what
and so on. And when I got out the job, I introduced myself,
told them that the boss had sent me out as their foreman and here's
what I wanted them to do. Buddy there, every one of them
bowed up. You listen to me, young man, you know, put that finger
down. We'll tell you what we're going to do. And who do you think
you are telling us what to do? Now, here's what I told them.
Take it up with the boss. Now, Paul is about to write an
epistle that's the clearest, most controversial epistle in
the Bible. He's going to start this thing
off with election. He ain't going to wind up with
it. He's going to start off with it. And then when you're, it's
kind of a one-two punch, he's going to hit you with the left
and talk about election. And then he's going to come across
with the right and hit you with predestination before you can
even get a breath. And then he's going to hit you
with particular redemption. He knows men are going to challenge
what he's saying in this epistle. And you know what he tells to
them right up front. Take it up with the boss. I'm an apostle
of Jesus Christ by the will of God. You don't like it? Take
it up with Him. Take it up with Him. And I'm
telling you that today when a man stands up to preach to you, he's
preaching to you by the same authority. And when men jump
up and down mad and start telling me what they think and I don't
think, who you think you are, take it up with the boss. Huh? You see how important just a
few, we're just on the second word in the chapter, but you
see how important these words are. Father use the lesson this
morning. Teach us something about the
structure and order and power and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ
in his church. And we'll give thee the praise
and the glory. Amen.