Turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter three. Ephesians chapter three. By way of introduction, I would like to remind us that our God is higher than we can possibly imagine. Our brains cannot comprehend the vastness of his isness. His might, His power, His sovereignty. We know these words, and we believe Him by faith, but we can't imagine how high He is, how holy, how true, how just, how good. And His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. He's altogether different than we are, altogether different. He is the eternal, holy, sovereign God of the universe. He created all things for His honor and glory. And in mercy, He chose to save some people. And that's amazing. That's amazing. The Lord chose to save creatures of dust for His glory and honor.

How did He do that? robed in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, consumed sin in the flesh. He became, the creator became the, he had to become dust just as we are in order for us to be redeemed. And we stand in awe at these words whenever we hear them because we know it's true, but my tiny brain can't comprehend it. We just have to believe it by faith. Lord, you said it, I believe it. It's amazing to me. It's amazing to me. We stand in all of his glorious grace and mercy given to his elect.

Now Paul here is talking and describing the glory of God. in that light, that God, this whole, well, it's the same, not only in this particular chapter, but it's in the whole book and it's in the whole Bible. Christ told the Pharisee, search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life, but they are they which speak of me. So all the scripture is about the Lord. It all points to him. And if you'll read the, if you read the message here in this chapter, It's all about what the Lord has done for us. It's all about what the Lord has given to us. It's all about the Lord doing the calling, the Lord doing the saving, the Lord doing the seeking, the Lord doing the keeping, and it's all about him. And it's how he saved his people from their sins.

So let's read this together. I've titled this message, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ. the unsearchable riches of Christ. And I have three questions. You're going to see them here. So I'm going to read them to you now. Then you'll see them in the text. The first unsearchable riches of Christ is the fellowship of the mystery, the fellowship of the mystery. We heard about that a little bit last week. The second one is the manifold wisdom of God. And the third is the eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And then he tells us in verse 12, therefore, because of everything else that's already happened, he says, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by faith of him. So that's what I hope the Lord allows us to elaborate on this hour.

So let's read this, Ephesians three, verse eight through 13.

Unto me, who am less than the least of the saints, of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hidden, God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church of God, the church, the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. Wherefore, I desire that you faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory."

First, he says, after he says in verse eight, the unsearchable riches of Christ and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery in verse nine, the fellowship of the mystery. What is he talking about there?

Well, we heard last week that we're all in the same body and Christ is the head. And that's a mystery. We heard about the mysteries of our Lord last week. But what is amazing is that not only is Christ our covenant head, head of the church, but we're one with him. It's Christ in you, the hope of glory. So we have the indwelling of God us. We are born from above, born not of a corruptible seed but incorruptible. Born not of flesh but of the Spirit. Born not of the will of the flesh but of the Spirit. This is a mystery.

But it is because we have been born from above the Lord has given us the inner man. Look at verse 16 it says here, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man, the inner man. And how does that inner man live? It lives by faith, not by sight. That's the nature of it. It lives by faith, not by sight.

The other glorious truth is the indwelling of the spirit in the inner man. It's the same gift of grace given to all of the Lord's people. So this fellowship of the mystery is this, to put it simply, You and I, if we're His, we're born from above, we're given the same spirit, we're given the same faith, we're given the same hope, we're given the same assurance. We fellowship together in that hope, in that assurance, looking unto Christ alone. That's the fellowship of the mystery.

We are able to fellowship one with another because the spirit of the Lord bears witness between us. Hey, you're my brother. Hey, you're my sister. You ever been talking to someone you know pretty quick by their confession, they don't know who the Lord is. I do that on often occasions. It's sad. You just hear what they say, and you're like, no, that's not God. You don't understand. That's not the true God of Scripture that you're talking about. You're talking about an imaginary God. You have compassion on them, and you love them, but the truth of the matter is, you can't say, well, that's my brother. The spirit didn't bear witness.

But if you talk to a believer, somebody that's been called of the Lord, somebody the Lord chose to reveal his truth to, the Lord bears witness between your spirit. And there's peace there. There's comfort there. that you can't get anywhere else. You know what I, people say, do you want to go do this? Do you want to go do that? I like being with you. Wherever you people are, that's who I want to be with. Why? Because you're the Lord's people. And whenever we're together, there is harmony. There's the, there's a single focal point of the Lord and his gospel, his finished work. There's a rest that you can't get in the world and you can't get, and I like doing things. Don't, don't listen. I'm not a hermit. I like doing things, but at the same time, How glorious it is for brethren to dwell together in unity, the scripture says. And that's what the fellowship of the mystery is all about.

This mystery is how we are one with Christ. And yet all of us are one in Christ together. And he sees us as one in him. That's a mystery. And that's our fellowship together. We're able to in the unsearchable riches of Christ. We glory in the same thing. Christ is all in salvation. He hath redeemed his people and he gets all the glory.

Now notice verse nine that this, he calls it a mystery, but also notice he kind of puts a exclamation point on the word mystery by saying this, and 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. It was hid. This mystery is hidden. can't be found out. God has to be the one that reveals it. And that's what he does by his gospel. Only God reveals this to God's people at his appointed time.

Now, the second thing he mentions is in verse 10, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers and heavenly places might be known by the church, the manifold wisdom of God. Manifold is infinite, infinite wisdom of God. His wisdom is how he saved his people. It's how he saved his people.

We talk about making plans and I don't ever like calling it a plan of salvation because that makes it sound like the Lord did calculations. The thing about our God is we have to understand is that he knows all things. Why would he need to calculate? He knows all things. He doesn't have to compute. It doesn't have to be, okay, if I do this and this is gonna happen, he already knows everything. So he wouldn't have to calculate anything. He's not like us. That's what I started out by saying.

But he did, he is the author and the finisher of faith. However you wanna cut that. I mean, it's just who he is. In his infinite wisdom, He knew that God alone is the only one that can satisfy God. I'm gonna say that again. Our Lord knew that God is the only one that can satisfy God. He knew you and I couldn't. He knew you and I wouldn't. We're not capable of satisfying God. If God doesn't satisfy God in salvation, we have no hope.

But in his infinite wisdom, he looked down the corridors of time and he saw us, the wretches, the worms, the sinners, And he said, I'm going to take them, and I'm going to make them trophies of my grace. I'm going to save them all by my might, all by my power, all for my glory. This is what the wisdom of the Lord accomplished in the salvation of his people. He wasn't looking to you and I. He wasn't seeing qualities and characteristics that we have. We have a diverse group here. Some of us, there's mechanics, carpenters, police officers. Surveyors, there's all kinds of different people that come together. He's not looking and saying, okay, I choose you because you're this. No, to the contrary, he set his affection upon his people for one reason, grace. That's the reason. Because he loved them in Christ Jesus before the world began, and therefore he set his affection upon them by his grace. This is all due to the infinite wisdom of our Lord.

He says here that the intent to the intent verse 10 to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers and heavenly places might be known by the church manifold wisdom of God. So now the church knows the church has been made to know. that if he doesn't do all the saving, we won't be saved. If he doesn't do all the saving, we'll remain lost. That's why Paul said in Romans 11, verse 33, oh, the depth of the riches, both by the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. His ways past finding out. Just as his love passes understanding, or we'll hear about the love of Christ the second hour. just as his love passes understanding, his wisdom passes understanding. We can't, who have known, the scripture says, who had known the mind of God or been his instructor? He told the disciples, Lord Jesus Christ told the disciples when he was on the earth, he said, if I was hungry, I wouldn't ask you. I wouldn't tell you I'm hungry is what he was saying. He would ask his heavenly father. He didn't have a He didn't need for anything. He said, the foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath nowhere to lay his head. He came as a meek servant of the Lord for the salvation of the Lord's people. This was all his infinite wisdom.

How is it that the Lord can see his people polluted, dead, and without hope and choose to make them whole? not for grace. If not for grace. Turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 16. Look at verse 1. First thing I want to point out to you is the description of the individual that's in this chapter. They are a They're of the land of Canaan. Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite. You know what that means? They were Gentiles. Whoever this is is a Gentile. This is a dog. This is an outcast from the Commonwealth of Israel, as the scripture talks about. This is you and I. That's who it is. This is you and I. And this is anyone without Christ, truly.

But look what the Lord says here. Again, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, call Jerusalem to know her abominations, and say, Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan. Thy father was an Amorite, thy mother a Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born, thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed with water to supple thee. Thou wast not salted at all, or swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee to do any of these unto thee. to have compassion upon thee. But thou was cast out into the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou was born." That's a sad situation, isn't it? And that's us by nature. That's it right there. Nobody to help. Nobody could help us, but nobody pitied us. Nobody was gonna be able to save us. It took God to save God. It was his infinite wisdom that was the reason.

Look what else he says, verse six. And when I passed by thee, And saw thee polluted in thy own blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live." So now we're dead, we're cast out, and the difference that's made is that the Lord comes to where we are and says, live. That's the difference. That's the difference. This is what the wisdom of God hath done. Came to where we were, said, live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. I have caused thee, and you're going to find the Lord saying, I've done this and I've done this and I've done this and I've done this for the rest of the time. We're going to be reading this. Okay. I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field. Thou hast increased and waxen great and thou art come to excellent ordinance. Thy breasts are fashioned and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare.

Now, when I passed by thee, I looked upon thee, behold, Thy time was the time of love, and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, that thou becamest mine. Then I washed I thee with water. Yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badger skin, and I girded thee with fine linen, covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain upon thy neck. I put a jewel in thy forehead, earrings in thy ears, and a beautiful crown upon thy head. Thus was thou decked with gold and silver, and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk broadered work. Thou didst eat fine flour and honey and oil, and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper in a kingdom."

We'll stop right there. This, brethren, is what the infinite wisdom of our Lord brings to our attention by grace, is that here we are in our nativity, we're born dead and trespassed and in sin, and the Lord has compassion upon us because of his great love where he loved us. All by his grace, he comes to where we are, He washes us in the blood of Christ, cleans us up. He puts a robe on our back signifying his righteousness. He puts a crown on our head signifying the Lord's righteousness, a ring on our finger signifying sonship.

You remember the prodigal son, when he came back, that's what the father did. He gave him a robe and he gave him a ring. He said, no, take my ring. You're my son. That's what the Lord is doing here. This is what the wisdom of our Lord shows us and reveals. He does all the saving. And at the end of it, look at the end result of everything that he done. Now we're sitting at his feet. We're eating fine flour and honey and oil. That's a picture of the gospel of the Lord. What's sweeter than, there's nothing sweeter than honey, right? There may be something, but you understand what I'm saying. In scripture, honey is always referred to as the sweetest substance.

Thou was exceeding beautiful. Now how is something so ugly, so corrupt, so polluted, so vile, become beauty, beautiful? God does it. God does it all by his grace. The Lord has to be the one to do that. And thou didst prosper into a kingdom. What kingdom of that? What kingdom of that? That's the kingdom of Zion. That's the Lord's kingdom, isn't it? We're prospering because of what he has accomplished. We're resting in him.

No wonder, Paul said, over the depth and riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgment and his ways past finding out. Our hope is not in what we do or what we know. It's who we know. It's whom we have been persuaded by.

And if I've been persuaded by a man, another man can talk me out of it. If I go A simple example of that is if I've been told I need to get this certain vehicle and the guy's talking to me he's building up the vehicle like making it look really good it's shiny it's all this stuff and he's saying get this one get this one get this one and I say okay well I'm not really sure and he talks me into it well if I go somewhere else the other guy the other dealership gonna try to sell me his too no ours is better and he's gonna try to talk me out of it well that's the same

And a lot of religions, a lot of religions are shiny, they're flashy, they're showy, and people get talked into it. But then before too long, they may go to another religion. They may put that one aside and go to a different one.

But when it comes to the Lord's salvation, this is not of men or by men, this is of God and by Him. And His infinite wisdom is what is revealed to His people, so that we see if it hadn't been for Him, Through and through, from the beginning to the end, there would be no salvation. He's the alpha and he's the omega. He's the beginning and the end of salvation for his people.

This is where we rest. This is the unsearchable riches of Christ. How infinite is his wisdom.

The song I sing sometimes says how deep the father's love for us that he would give his only son to make a wretch his treasure, to make a wretch his treasure. He found us. I put this, I typed this, I typed my notes up. Some people write on my, I guess I'm, I don't know, whatever. I typed this because I never thought of it this way before, but he found us and he fixes us. He fixes us. We're fixed now. He fixes that which was broken.

What was broken? Well, we were guilty of the law. We deserve death. He fixed it. He fixed it. And that might sound really simple, but if you can enter into that thought that the Lord's people are fixed, they're perfect, they're righteous, they're not broken anymore, they're not polluted in their own blood, they're not without covering, they're not without hope. Because of the infinite wisdom of God, because of the unsearchable riches of Christ, they've been made one with him, the fellowship of the mystery.

And then he talks about the oil here. That's his spirit, isn't it? He anoints, what did David say in Psalm 23? He anoints my head with oil, my cup runneth over. That's the spirit. That's the Lord's spirit. In his infinite wisdom, we were made the very righteousness of God in Christ. Oh, the unsearchable riches of Christ.

Now go back to our text in Ephesians chapter three. Look at verse 11. all of this, the unsearchable riches of Christ, the fellowship of the mystery, and the manifold wisdom of God is all according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. It's all according to His own will and purpose. In second Timothy chapter one, verse nine, it says, God saved us and called us not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace given to us before time ever began.

The third one is his unsearchable, third unsearchable rich, the third unsearchable riches of Christ. or according to His eternal purpose. According to His eternal purpose. What is His eternal purpose? Well, it's the salvation of His people. Why was the world made? Somebody asked me the other day, why are we here? I was kinda happy I knew the answer to that. For the glory of God. For His own glory. What if somebody's not one of the elect? What if they don't come to the knowledge of the truth, they're still here for the glory of God? God's gonna get all the glory out of everything. Everything. He's not gonna share his glory with anything or anybody.

His eternal purpose is the salvation of his people by the sacrifice of himself all by his grace and all for his glory. God purposed to redeem. God purposed to save. God prepared the way, the Lord Jesus Christ. He prepared the word, the Lord Jesus Christ to become a man born in the flesh to redeem us who were under the law. His eternal purpose was to redeem those he loves back to God. As the sinner substitute on the cross, he bore our guilt, he bore our shame, he bore our suffering, he bore our sorrow, he bore our separation. Everything due us, he took in himself, feeling the full wrath of God for my sin and for your sin. This is the eternal purpose of God. Through the blackness, God was pleasing God the entire time. God was pleasing God the entire time. Lord said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.

The cross of Calvary said, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? We know why, because his soul was made an offering for sin, because he who knew no sin was made to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. God was pleasing God on behalf of his people. His suffering, his agony, it was due us. That's what we deserved. Yet his eternal purpose, he has become our scapegoat. He has become our surety. He has become our substitute. He has become our righteousness. Everything that we're not, he is. He's the fullness of the Godhead bodily, who redeemed his people back to God. This is what his eternal purpose is.

Everything in the scripture points to him. Everything in the scripture glorifies him. It's not about what we do, it's about what he accomplished. This was his eternal purpose, that we might know him. The unsearchable riches of Christ. Well, that's just what they are, it's unsearchable. They have to be revealed by the Lord and believed by faith alone.

God's wrath has been assuaged, justice has been satisfied. The law stands speechless towards the Lord's people, towards the elect of God. You know, the law doesn't have anything to say towards you and me anymore. It's speechless. Why? Because Jesus Christ satisfied the law's demands. You know what the law used to say all throughout the Old Testament? Death, death, death. That's all it could say. There was no justification that came by the law, otherwise Christ is dead and vain. That's what scripture tells us. But now it's silent. It's silent. We're viewed as perfectly righteous because we're viewed in Christ Jesus. That's an unsearchable richness of Christ, isn't it? It doesn't demand anything for our sin. You know why? Because they're gone. You can't enact justice on something that's not there. If you're not guilty, then you can't be punished. Otherwise, it's unjust. Well, we were guilty. So what happened? The Lord Jesus Christ, his infinite wisdom, so that we could have part of the fellowship of the mystery because of his unsearchable riches, according to his eternal purpose, took that blame, took that guilt, and offered himself up to his father and his father was well pleased. Our sin is completely entirely gone without a trace. This is what he did for his elect. This is how he saved his people from their sin.

Therefore, what he says in Verse 12, therefore, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. Because of all this, we have boldness. Now, boldness is not arrogance. Boldness is not pride. Actually, boldness is humility, standing before the Lord, having your confidence in him alone. That's what boldness is. Some people look up the word boldness. They think, okay, you got to be as bold as a lion. You just got to jump in there and do it. That's not the boldness he's talking about here. He's talking about having your eyes fixed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. You want to approach the throne of God. You believe everything that I've said this morning and you want to approach the throne of God, you can come. Take on the water of life freely. Only if your confidence is in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. If it's in anything else, you can't come. But if it's in Christ alone, the Spirit and the bride say, come, and whomsoever will, let him come, take of the water of life freely.

We have confidence, brethren, that he set the record straight. He fixed us, no longer broken in God's eyes. He blotted out the handwriting of ordinances against us that were contrary to us. There's nothing written against us anymore. We got a new history. What's written is the Lord Jesus Christ's history with my name at the top. Do you see that? That's my history now. What the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished, that's my history.

This is how we, oh, we, this is the unsearchable riches of Christ. We can approach now, God is approachable. As a matter of fact, because the unsearchable riches of Christ, we are beckoned to come. We are told to come. We are commanded to come.

Common to me, all you that are labored and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly of heart and you shall find rest to your soul. Do you know why? My yoke is easy and my burden is light. The work's finished. The work is done.

We are beckoned to the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. Scripture, it says, come buy wine and buy bread, but it says without money and without price. Why? Because we know what that wine and blood represents, the body and the blood of Christ. Come buy. Well, I don't have anything to buy. Good. Perfect. It's already been purchased. The only way you can buy it is use the same thing that the Lord used when he purchased it. That's his body and his blood. He purchased it. You can't bring anything. He paid for it all by himself.

Thanks be to God for the unsearchable riches of Christ. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for your word. How unsearchable are your riches to us. Cause us to meditate on these things for your honor and for your glory. In Christ's name, amen.

Let's take a break.