Ephesians chapter 3. I want to
begin reading in verse 8. Ephesians chapter 3 and verse
8. This is the passage that you
and I looked at last week. The apostle Paul says unto me,
I'm not an apostle, I'm a preacher. I've received this ministry as
a gift of God's grace. I am less than the least of all
the saints. Is this grace given for this
reason, that I might preach among the Gentiles? What does he preach? The unsearchable riches of Christ. To make all men see what is the
fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world
hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. to the intent that now unto the
principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made
known by the church the manifold wisdom of God according to the
eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Last week you and I looked at
verse 8 where Paul spoke about the riches of Christ. He preached
the riches of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's different
ways that you and I could describe the riches of Christ. No matter
how we try to describe them, we utterly fail. They're unsearchable
riches. It's impossible to speak of them
to their depths. It's impossible to hear of them
to their depths. They're too immense. They're
too full. But remember how Paul spoke of
them in chapter 1 and verse 3, and he made this statement, God
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. God hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings. That's the riches of Christ.
He goes on in chapter 1 and even in chapter 2, and he talks about
those blessings that He chose us in Christ. Before time, to
salvation, He chose us. He predestinated us to the adoption
of children. What a blessing that is! In whom
we have redemption through the blood of Christ, the forgiveness
of sins. He goes on to tell about God
calling us by His Word, by His Gospel, by His Spirit. He gives the Spirit of adoption
to us. He seals us until the day of
redemption. And Paul says He gives us this
exceeding great and unestimable inheritance. He's laid it up
in heaven for us. The blessings, the rich blessings
of God. And he says all of these blessings,
these heavenly blessings, these spiritual blessings, are the
riches of Christ. God has put them in His Son,
and they're His. He's given everything into His
hands, and He distributes these blessings. He gives them through
Christ and for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. No matter
what particular category these blessings may fit into, we may
talk about election, we may talk about the atonement, we may talk
about calling, we may talk about the new birth, we may talk about
glorification. Whatever blessing we're talking
about, it's the unsearchable riches of the Lord Jesus Christ. No matter how we describe Him,
that is, whatever word we use to describe Him, whatever phrase
that the Bible, however the Bible describes Him. They may be called
this. They may be called the riches
of His love. They may be called His abundance
of mercy. They may be called the riches
of His grace and His goodness, or the plenteous of redemption,
or the riches of His inheritance. are the exceeding great and precious
promises." See what the Bible says? This rich inheritance,
whatever name these things go under, they're all the riches
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we preach, the riches
of Jesus Christ. And as you and I search out the
Scripture, it's like entering into a gold mine. that has these
rich veins of gold, and we begin to dig these nuggets off the
walls of God's Word. And as we do, each nugget that
we dig off is the riches of Christ. They're His. God has put them
all into His hands. Now, when we preach this, Paul
said we preach the riches, the unsearchable riches of Christ,
and when we do, We look at it from two aspects. We look at
it and we preach them from a negative aspect, and we preach the riches
of Christ from a positive aspect. The riches of Christ are limited,
not in themselves. You can't estimate His riches.
He's immensely rich. But the riches of Christ are
limited to who they're given to. They're limited to who they
are shared with. And they're limited to those
who are in union with Christ. That's who they're to. You marry
some rich man. Gail was poor until she married
Clarence. But now she's rich, you see.
She's rich. Why? Because she married a rich
man. And now because she is united
to him, whatever belongs to him belongs to her. And that's the
way it is with the riches of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is
it that He shares these riches with? It's His church. It's the
believers. It's the blood-bought ones. Those
who are heaven-born. the children of the living God,
those who have been called and born of the Spirit, sons of God,
those who cry, Abba, Father, those who have the spirit of
adoption. That's who these riches are limited
to. The riches aren't limited, but
those who partake with Christ with these riches are limited.
What did He say about those who have not the Spirit of Christ?
They're none of His. Listen to these passages. And
this is what I'm saying this morning. He says, if you be willing
and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land, the good of
heaven's land. But if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be devoured with a sword. See the difference? He that believeth
on the Son, he hath everlasting life. There's the riches of Christ. I am come that they might have
life. But he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
He that believeth on the Son, he hath this witness within himself. He has the Spirit of God within
him that bears witness to our spirit that we're children of
God. But he that believeth not the
Son hath made God a liar." See the distinction? Christ shares
these unsearchable riches with those who believe on Him, those
who are in union with Him, and those outside of Him have no
part or lot in these riches. Paul said, when we preach these
unsearchable riches of Christ, We preach the negative aspect
of it, and we preach the positive aspect of it. In Colossians 1,
verse 27-28, here's what he said. He said, we preach Christ. And
here's the way we preach Him. Warning every man, and teaching
every man in all wisdom. See how we preach Christ, even
the unsearchable riches of Christ. We warn men. We teach men their
salvation in Jesus Christ. What do you need? You need mercy. Well, He's rich in mercy. We
teach men that. Do you need grace? He's full
of grace. Do you need life? He said, I've
come that they might have it and have it more abundantly. We teach that there is salvation
free, and it's full, and it's in Jesus Christ. Do you need
salvation? Israel shall be saved in the
Lord when they never last in salvation. We teach men that. But Paul says we don't stop there.
We never stop there. He says we also warn men. We not only preach the riches
of Christ, and the fullness of those riches. But we tell those,
if you neglect Christ, if you neglect this Gospel, you may
never have an opportunity again to hear it. If you leave here
this morning and you refuse and rebel, you rebel against the
Son of God, you rebel against the Gospel of the Son of God,
then He Himself will turn to be your enemy. He'll say, bring
hither my enemy and crush them before me. That's what Paul said
we preach. We warn men as well as teach
men, the apostles said. We have the negative and we have
the positive. The Bible is made up of that,
isn't it? We have to set forth the negative
sometime before we stress the positive. And nobody will care
about the riches of Christ until they find themselves in utter
poverty. That's why we have to stress
the negative as well as the positive. Now we come here to verse 9 and
look at it. Paul said, here's our aim in
preaching the riches of Christ. No matter if we preach Him in
a negative aspect, warning men who are without Him, Or no matter
if we preach it in a positive aspect. Telling men these riches
that are in Christ. Here is our aim in preaching
Christ's riches. Look what he said. To make all
men see what is the fellowship of the mystery. That's why we
preach. He's been telling us that he's
a preacher. He's been telling us who he preached
to among these dead dog Gentiles. He tells us what he preaches,
the riches of Christ. And now he tells us why he preaches. Why do you preach, Paul? To make
all men see. This word, see, here means to
shine a light upon, to send rays upon something, that it will
be illuminated. Paul said, I preach the unsearchable
riches of Christ to make men see what the mystery of God is,
the mystery of this Gospel, and that they might enter in to the
fellowship and the communion with it, and the communion of
it. Now let's look at this verse
this morning this way. First of all, what's implied
here when the Apostle Paul says, to make all men see? What's implied
there? Doesn't that imply that men are
blind? If Paul says our aim in preaching
is that men may see, then he implies that men cannot see,
that men are in darkness. Isn't that the whole problem
with our society? They cannot see. That they're
in darkness as to the mystery of God? The mystery of this gospel? I was watching the newscast the
other night during one of the elections, and it had the top five most important things
concerned that our society was concerned about. And they had
them listed. I think the first one was the
economy. 70 or 90% of people were concerned about the economy.
And then you went down to our infrastructure and healthcare
and the wars that we're involved in. People are concerned about
those things. And as I considered that, I thought,
I never saw on there where anybody was concerned about Am I saved? How is it going to be with my
soul when I come down to die? Is my soul secured for eternity? Is my eternal happiness secured?
Do I know the Lord? Am I in Jesus Christ? Is the wrath of God removed from
me? I didn't see that anywhere on those lists of priorities
and concerns. Why is that? Well, Paul explains
that to us here. Society is not concerned about
this mystery of God. Why is that? Well, they can't
see it. They're blinded to it. I'm not saying that I'm not concerned
about things that's going on in our society. I'm as concerned
about these things as you are. But my soul, these are temporal
things. These are carnal things. What
you and I are facing in our country now, other nations have faced
in time past. Nations who have come and gone.
And if this world stands long enough, our nation will come
and go. But you and I will abide for
all eternity. And yet nobody's concerned about
this. And the reason is, brothers and
sisters, is this. Paul said they're in darkness.
They don't have eyes to see. They're blinded. And he says
this is the reason that we're preaching to shine the light
upon this mystery of the gospel that men may see. Let me say it like this. He tells
us here in verse 11 that God has this eternal purpose. I love
that verse 11. I love to just read that. I memorized
this verse years ago. According to His eternal purpose. What is happening in this world?
You and I can't understand much of it, can we? Sometimes it seems
like everything is out of control. But you know what's happening?
And you know why it's happening? And you know how it's happening?
According to... There's someone controlling this.
There is someone who has His sovereign hand within our society,
secretly working according to His eternal purpose. He has a purpose. He planned
it before the foundation of the world. He chose a great host
out of Adam's race. You spoke of it this morning,
Clarence. He chose them to salvation. He sent His Son to redeem those
chosen people. He sends His Spirit to call them
by this gospel, by the Word, and by the Spirit. He's giving
them a new heart. He's seeking them out. He's finding
His sheep. He's giving them a new heart
and a new nature. And He's upholding them, working
in them by His power. And when this life is over, He
takes them to heaven. And He's going to make a new
heaven and a new earth. wherein dwelleth righteousness."
And the righteous are going to be forever with the Lord. And
all of this, every bit of this, is according to God's eternal
purpose. He's already got it all planned.
Ain't that amazing? According to His eternal purpose. Look with me right quick over
in Isaiah chapter 46. Turn there right quickly and
look at this. I want you to read this verse because it seems like
today we hear these people talking about, well, God has this plan
for your life. And it's a wonderful plan for
your life. And they just go around telling
everybody that. They tell those who profess Christ
that and they tell the lost that. God has this wonderful plan for
your life. And then they say, if you'll
just let Him have His way. as though God's purpose, God's
plan, is contingent upon you letting God have His way. That's
not what the Scripture means when it says that God has an
eternal purpose. He's fulfilling His purpose.
He's bringing it all to pass. Look at what He says in Isaiah
chapter 46 and verse 9. Remember the former things of
old. For I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there
is none like me. I declare the end from the beginning,
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying,
My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. calling a ravenous bird from
the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a foreign country,
yea, I have spoken it, I will bring it to pass, I have purposed
it, I will also do it." God has a purpose. And He is bringing
to pass that purpose. You and I looked at it in Ephesians
chapter 1. Let me quote these two verses
to you. He said, we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh. You see, God is
working. What's He doing? He's working
all things after the counsel of His own will. And Paul said,
"...he hath made known unto us the mystery of his will, according
to the good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself." See
how he's working out his purpose? Look back over again at my text.
I want you to look at this, how he says this in verse 9. Look
here in verse 9 again. Chapter 3, verse 9. Paul said,
"...I am preaching to make all men see." What is the fellowship
of this mystery, this mystery of God, what He's doing, what
His purpose? Which from the beginning of the
world have been hid in God, and look what He says, who created
all things by Jesus Christ. Why would He even add that? It
seems like it's out of context, doesn't it? He's talking about
what God is doing, what He's planning, and how He's carrying
it about. And then He comes up and says, He created all things. Why does He even say that? He
lets us know that this is the Creator who has this purpose. And you know a Creator can do
pretty much what He pleases, can't He? Does He have the will
to bring His purpose to pass? Does He have the wisdom to do
it? Does He have the power to do it? Well, look what He's made.
Look at this universe that He rules over. He's the Creator. There's no doubt that He'll bring
His purpose to pass. Why doesn't the world see this?
Why has the world caught up with the economy and health care and
infrastructure and all of this? Paul says they're blinded. They're
in the dark to it. They can't see what God is doing. Are you even interested in this
this morning? Are you interested in this? Are you and I so caught
up with this world and these temporal things that we're not
even concerned with what the living God has planned and what
He's doing? I'm preaching to you this morning
to make you see. That's the aim in my preaching.
to make you see. That's what Paul said. Paul, why ain't the world interested
in this? What Paul said, they can't see. They're in the dark.
John Bunyan gave a picture one time of an old man. I thought
this is a good illustration. He gave the picture of this old
man, an old bearded man, and he was out in the yard, and he
had this old rake, and he was raking around in the muck. in
the leaves and in the dirt and the trash. He was all in over
looking down, raking around in the muck. And just over his head
was a crown of gold. A beautiful shining crown. But
he couldn't see it. The old man couldn't see it.
Why? Because he was raking around
in the muck. That's the world in it. Paul
said they can't see crown that's overhead because they're raking
around in the muck of this world. They're caught up with the muck
of this world. And he said, this is why we preach.
We'll shine a light upon this world. That's the first thing
he said. He implies that the world is
blind. Something else you and I can
learn from this is this. By preaching, by preaching, We
shine the light upon this mystery that men may see. That's the aim in our preaching. We do it because men can't see.
And our aim in preaching is to make men see. When Paul said,
that's my aim, it's not just his aim, it's the aim of preaching. All gospel preaching is aimed
that men may have their eyes open and that men may see. Look over here to your left one
more time in Acts chapter 26. Old Ephesians and look over here.
Look in Acts chapter 26. Look here how it says. Here's what preaching is all
about. The Lord Jesus had struck Paul
down on the Damascus road. And here's what He said He was
going to do with him. Look in Acts chapter 26 and verse 16. The Lord Jesus said to Paul,
Saul of Tarshish, Arise and stand up upon thy feet, for I have
appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a preacher, a minister,
a witness both of those things which thou hast seen, and those
things in the which I will yet appear unto thee." Look at this,
"...delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles
unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes." See it there? I'm going to send you to preach.
And as you preach, here's what's going to happen. Eyes are going
to be opened. And as you preach, here's what's
going to happen. Men are going to be turned from
darkness to light. And from the power of Satan unto
God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among
all them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. You know what preaching is in
a nutshell. It's shining light. It's just shining light. That's
what it is. We open the Bible and we shine
light on it. And you know what it is to be
saved in a nutshell? You see it. You say, there it
is. Why couldn't I see that before?
Nobody ever shined light on it. You know what the Bible says
it is to be saved? It's to hear the truth. It's
to see the truth. It's to believe the truth. Huey,
we go all of our lives, and we never see the truth. We're in
darkness. And suddenly, there it is. We
see the truth. And it takes its place in our
hearts. And we're born of it. We're saved. That's all it is. It's that simple. It's profound,
but it's that simple. It happens all the time. Somebody
will be up preaching, and you're just sitting there. You're really
not paying much attention. You say, I have no idea what
you're talking about. You've done lost me. And suddenly there
it is. This light shines in your darkness. And you see it. And you embrace
it. You believe it. And you're saved
by it. God will have all men to be saved
and come to the knowledge of the truth. You see that? The
truth. I'm an awful sinner, but I'm
in the dark about it all. I'm ready to perish, but I'm
in the dark about it all. Christ bids me come to Him, but
I don't even know Him. I'm in the dark about how He
could save me. The third is, your eyes are open,
and you're delivered from the power of the devil, and you believe
in Christ and you're saved. That's it in a nutshell. Look
back over at my text again. Look how Paul says this, and
I just about know you've never figured this out, but let me
shine some light on it. Look in verse 9 again. I want
to make all men see, that's my aim, to make all see what is
the fellowship of the mystery. Now do you understand that? That's
a very difficult word and phrase to understand. We know what it
is. If Paul would just have said,
I want to make men see the Gospel. I want men to see the way of
salvation. We could have understood that.
But when he says here, To make men see the fellowship of the
mystery. That's very difficult to understand.
What does fellowship mean? Let me explain it to you this
way. Some people say that this word should have been translated
dispensation. I want men to see the plan. Dispensation. Dispensation. When we read that
word, it means a plan. It means the dispensing of that
plan. And if we take that word, it
means that I preach that men may see God has a plan, and you
may see how He is dispensing of that plan. Others say this
word means communion, or to be partakers of in this mystery. Why don't we include both of
those? Sometimes you have one camp over here and you have another
camp over there, and they're just fighting against each other
trying to prove their points, and both of them are right. And
when you finally join these things together, you say, now I see
it. Let me give you this example.
I think you'll understand it by this example. You and I almost
every evening, Sunday evening, after the evening service, we
partake, we come to the Lord's table. the bread and we drank the wine
in remembrance of our Lord today. But there's a lot of things about
that you don't know. Did you know I purposed to do
that about a year or two ago? I just started to think within
myself. I talked to another pastor and
he said, we do that every Sunday evening. So I thought to myself,
why don't we do that? Then I thought about it and I
prayed about it and I purposed within my heart. That's what
we're going to do. Did you know that? Did you know
our purpose to do that? You do now, don't you? I just
shined some light on that, didn't I? Do you know where we get that
bread and where we get the wine? Do you have any idea who prepares
that every evening? If you go back in the kitchen
area right after dinner, you'll see Gail or one of the other
ladies back there breaking that bread. She either bakes it or
orders it. And she breaks it up and she
puts it in that little bowl and she pours those cups full of
wine. And we bring it out here and
we set it up here on this community table. Did you know who did that? You do now, don't you? Gail does
that. You know how she does it. But
it doesn't stop there, does it? I usually pray over it and ask
the Lord to bless it, to our thoughts. And then Brother Bob
comes up here and he takes this tray and he reminds us of what
this bread and this wine symbolizes. And then he distributes it to
you. He passes it out to you. And there you sit with it in
your hand, that piece of broken body. And you take that cup. And then you eat the bread, and
you drink that wine, and your heart communes in the death of
Christ. You enter into the fellowship
of it. What does this word fellowship mean? It means the whole realm of this
mystery. It means when I purpose to do
it, when Gail does it, When I pray over it, when Bob dispenses it,
and when you eat of it. What does Paul mean when he says,
I'm preaching that your eyes may be opened to see the fellowship
of this mystery? He means that he's shining light
upon different aspects of this mystery. And as he does, we see
it. He may speak about God's purpose
back in eternity. He shines light on that. And
we say, God has a purpose? He may shine light upon the cross
where our Savior obtained redemption for us. And we see that aspect
of the mystery. He may shine light on our calling
or the new birth. And as we shine light upon this
mystery, no matter what aspect it is, there you see it. And
there you enter into it by faith. And that's what this word fellowship
means. How much have you learned through
preaching? Well, you've learned a lot through your personal studies.
You've learned a lot through reading of books and sermons.
But haven't you learned something through preaching? As you do
sit and listen, and we, in our own feeble way, we shine light
upon the mystery of God. And you say, I see it. And you
believe it, and you enter into the communion with it. That's
what Paul said. That's what he said. To make
all men see what is the fellowship of this mystery. And as you do,
your doubts are dispelled. It's replaced with trust. Your
anxiety is replaced by joy and hopefulness. Your disobedience
is replaced with commitment, and you grow, and you have more
assurance, and you enjoy the Lord more. Paul said, I preach
to that end. I don't know how. I don't know
how people profess the Lord, and they don't want to gather
with the Lord's people. They have no desire to hear preaching.
I can't understand that. I just can't understand that.
How do they grow? How do they have any assurance
when the Lord is ordained by preaching to shine the light
upon these things? So Paul says, first of all, for
this reason, for your personal reasons, for your personal good,
for your personal salvation, for your personal assurance that
you may see But he's got something else,
and I want you to look at this, and I'll try to close with this. Look what he says here in verse
10. Here's another reason that he preaches. And as the elect
of God are called out and saved, and as they grow in grace and
knowledge of the Lord and Savior, something else takes place. Look
at this. To the intent that now, unto
the principalities and powers in heavenly places, and those
are angels. Probably the elect angels, not
fallen angels, but the elect angels. I don't exclude the fallen
angels, but I think it includes mainly the elect angels. Something
is happening with these elect angels, these holy angels, that it might be known to them
by means of the church, this manifold wisdom of God. Paul says, as we preach, and
as God is working out His purpose, His mysterious purpose, and revealing
it, he said, these angels are watching all of it. You know,
angels don't know everything. We have this idea sometimes that
angels are brilliant beings. Well, they're Holy Spirits. But
you know, they're not omnipotent. They don't know everything. They're
not almighty at all. I could say this with reverence,
they're sort of weak in their understanding. Why do I say that? Because they learn from us. And
what do they learn from us? What do they learn as they observe
the church? The manifold wisdom of God. This word manifold, it means
variegated. If you're like me, you need to
increase your vocabulary. I didn't know what that meant
until I looked it up. Variegated. That's the definition
of this word manifold, Jared. Variegated. It means many-sided. Variety of colors. They see the
variety of God's wisdom. The many-sidedness of God's wisdom. It's like in the fall. In the
fall of the year when all the leaves begin to change. And you
see some trees that absolutely look like they're on fire. They're
just beautiful. They glow. You see others that
look almost transparent. Those yellowish trees look like
you can look right through the leaves. Others are green and
others are brownish. And when you look at all of these
together, you say, my, how beautiful that is! How wonderful! How marvelous that is! That's
what the angels see when they watch God's purpose develop with
His church. They see the manifold. This variegated,
this many-sided wisdom of God. Can you imagine as the angels
listen and learn and participate in what God is doing with His
church? Can you imagine the dilemma that they were put in from the
very beginning of how God can justify a sinner? They saw their
fellow angels fall. They were there when the Lord
says, I'm never going to provide any redemption for you. You have
sinned. And they saw their fellow angels
cast down into these chains of darkness. They reserved them.
And then they saw Adam fall and Eve fall. And then they saw the
whole humanity fall in them. And then they began to see that
God had purposed to redeem them. But they said, what in the world
is He going to do about sin? How is He going to justify these?
We saw Him, how He dealt with our fellow angels. He is holy,
and sin is awful black. How can God justify sin? I tell you, it put God in a dilemma,
didn't it? It drew out His wisdom. How would you do it? It takes
God to answer that question. Job and his friends got together
one day and they were talking about this and they kept asking
this question. In chapter 9, how can man be
just with God? Look at him and look at God.
Job said, if I justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn me. If I say I'm perfect, it shall
prove me perverse. If I wash myself with snow water
and make my hands ever so clean, yet God will plunge me into the
ditch, and my own clothes shall abhor me, and God will abhor
me. I can't justify myself. How can
God justify? And they went on to say this,
what is man that he should be clean? and that which is born
of a woman, that he should be righteous. Behold, God puts no
trust in His saints. Yea, look to the heavens. The
stars are not even pure in His sight. How much more abominable
and filthy is man who drinks iniquity like water?" What is
God going to do about sin? What about this issue of sin?
And you come down to the 25th chapter, and you say, how can
man be justified with God? How can He be clean that's born
of a woman? Yea, look at the stars, and they're
not pure in His sight. How much less man who is a worm. And these angels knew this, and
they were at a loss. And then they saw this, that
God had selected a Redeemer. Emmanuel, His only begotten Son. And all the way through the Old
Testament, they watched and they learned. They saw God had set
His attention on this man by the name of Abraham, but they
didn't know why. God just said, you watch over
him and protect him. But after a while, He calls him
out and gives him a son, Isaac. And then Isaac has a son, Jacob.
And out of Jacob comes these twelve sons. And out of one of
those sons comes the Son of God, born to the woman. And don't
you know they marveled? How can a woman conceive in her womb when she's
a virgin? But there it was. They said,
we've got to look into this. And they did that. And the Son
of God came out and they were there. And His mother washed
Him and hung Him on His breast and put Him in a workshop. And
they marveled at it. And he was tempted of the devil. And they said, my, what's going
on here? What's this? What's this all about? Why is
he tempted like this? Then they found out that he might
be merciful to us. That he could relate to us. Because
he was tempted in all points like as we are. And they watched
him as he lived in his poverty. Not in riches. Not in wealth. but in utter poverty. They washed
him on his face in the garden. They washed him as he hanged
on the cross of Calvary. And I just wonder if sometime
or another a few years before this, God didn't speak to His
elect angels and said, you go down and you find this young
man He lives at so-and-so street, and this is his name, and you
keep a close eye on him." And they didn't know why, but they
did. And they watched this man go out into sin. He'd become
disobedient to his parents, and then he began to rob people's
houses. And then he got in awful trouble, and he was condemned
to death. And they said, we're going to
crucify you today. And here the angel says, what's
this all about? He told us to watch over this man. To keep
him safe. Let him have his own free will.
Despair his life. And we've done it. And look at
him. Look what a mess he's made of his life. And now he's ready
to die. Condemned. What's this all about?
The Lord said, just wait and I'll show you. You can learn
from this. So there they stood watching
those three men. Surrounded the cross. There's the Son of God
hanging with our sins. They're amazed at it. Don't you
know they're amazed at it? And they begin to learn, here's
how God is going to solve this sin question. He's taken the
sins from His people and He's put them on His Son. They're
there in His body. Then they begin to see the wisdom
of God. But there's this man hanging
by Jesus Christ the Lord in His dying hours. This was the man
they had watched over and kept from death that had made a mess
out of his life. And suddenly, he looks over at
the Son of God and says, Lord, remember me when You come into
Thy Kingdom. And what do the angels do? Well,
even in that solemn hour, they rejoiced. They shouted. We had no idea what he was doing.
Oh, the wisdom of God! Takes this man to heaven within
that day. And the angels open up those
doors. And here comes the Savior. And
here comes a sinner saved. And they learn from it. And what
do they see in it? The wisdom of God. And every
time they see a sinner called, the wisdom of God is seen in
it. How is God going to save that rebel? How is He going to
woo him and wean him from his sins? How is He going to make
him sick and sick? How is He going to make him His
friend? And here the Gospel comes to him, and he simply sees it. And he's saved by it. And he
that was God's enemy becomes His friend. And they say, oh,
the wisdom of God. And they watch the church. They
see what God's doing in the church, and what they couldn't see in
creation, and what they couldn't see in providence. The many-sided
wisdom of God, they see it in the salvation of sinners, the
way God is saving sinners. And they marvel by it. Look over there with me and close.
Look at this in Revelation chapter 21. Revelation chapter 21. Look at
this. There came unto me one of the
seven angels, chapter 21, verse 9, which had the seven veils full
of the seven last flags. And he talked with me, saying,
Come hither, I will show you the bride, the lamb's wife. Who is that? It's the church,
isn't it? That's the church. There's but
one wife. Christ doesn't have two wives.
Just one. He's not an adulterer. Just one
wife. I'll show you the Lamb's wife,
His bride. And He carried me away in the Spirit to a great
and high mountain. And He showed me that great city,
the holy Jerusalem. Descending out of heaven from
God, having the glory of God. See that? The glory of God was
upon her and in her. And people tell us the church
isn't an afterthought. The church is a parenthesis. There is nothing more glorious
between the eternities and never will be more glorious than the
church. The glory of God and the wisdom
of God is seen in the church. And the angels marvel at it.
And they learn from it. You and I have come here this
morning and we've gathered to worship. You know who's looking
on? You know who's listening? You
know who's watching? These holy angels. They're encamped
around about us, not only to protect us and to help us and
to aid us, but they're learning, they're seeing, they're stooping
down to see this manifold wisdom of God. Aren't you amazed at
it yourself? Aren't you amazed that you're protected? God figured
out a way to save you and yet be God. To justify you and yet
be just. To deliver you from Satan and
make you His child and take you to heaven and still be God. Ain't that amazing? Ain't that
wisdom? And that's why we preach. God
is carrying out His eternal purpose, and He's doing it through preaching. That's why we preach. You say,
well, the churches are empty. They've been empty before. Sometimes
they've been full. That's God's business. But no
matter if they're empty, or no matter if they're full, God's
will is being done. His purpose is being carried
out. And I marvel at it. Let's pray.