Pattern, Provision, Privilege

Children's meeting number 2.

You're the only one?

How many have an idea what this is?

Anybody know? A rug? But how's it made?

Okay. Hooked rug. Okay. My grandmother used to make these. This one was not made by her. I had looked for one that wasn't worn as much, and I found this one. My wife informed me that someone else had made it.

But I brought it along because there's a point of reference from Ephesians that I'd like to look at this evening, just in passing, as an object lesson for the scriptures. I wish I would have been here earlier because I wanted to put some words on the board here.

This takes time that I'd prefer not to take, but I'm going to put them on anyhow. You bear with me. You can turn your Bibles to chapter 1 of Ephesians.

In my older years, I have a little bit of a problem with my shoulder, and so I'm not as flexible as the previous person who wrote up here. Can you read that? Yes. OK.

Pure IV.

I think that's spelled right, is it? Yes. OK. Pattern, provision, and privilege.

I'd like to read a number of verses from Ephesians chapter 1 this evening.

I'll come back to that later. And I want to go to the Old Testament for an object lesson to help us to try to get underneath what this Ephesian writer is trying to say. There's one word in Ephesians that I'd like for you to pick out tonight as we read. It's made of two letters, I-N, in. And as we go back to Exodus, where the tabernacle was built, and I want to look at one of the objects there that was made by Moses, and there was a number of things later that was put within the ark. But the important thing that the writer is, or Apostle Paul, is trying to bring to the focus of the individuals that he's writing to is that intimate relationship that, as children of God, we have with God himself through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, when I say that this is I brought this along for an object lesson. Before I read, I'd like for you to go over to chapter 2 because the emphasis of the book is the relationship that we have with God through the Lord Jesus Christ that is based on what he has done for us. Now, what I'm looking at tonight in relation to these three words, the privilege, the provision, and the pattern, Ephesians is very clearly laid out in two parts. The first three chapters of Ephesians have to do with God's privilege through Christ and the provisions which he has made for us. You read the first three chapters of Ephesians, if you're aware of it.

If you look for it, you'll find that man's response, basically, is not brought into the picture. It's all what God has done for us through the Lord Jesus Christ. You come to the fourth chapter, and then you'll begin to see what our response is to be in gratitude toward the one who has made the provisions for us in Christ Jesus. Keep this in mind. The problem that we face today, that at least I see it as a problem, is that so often we begin in our ministries speaking from the fourth chapter of Ephesians, and very seldom do we touch on the first three chapters.

And I feel that this is to our detriment because unless we get into the basics of our relationship with Jesus Christ built upon the fact that it was his work of grace that brought us to the point where we now have a heart of gratitude, and we respond to him, if we don't see this, then the pattern that he has for us, basically, will not mean a whole lot to us. It's almost like living under the law.

But when we see the provisions which God has made for us and is making for us, and we see the privilege that we have in Christ Jesus, then our hearts should be filled with gratitude to him because we know that the gift of salvation is that of grace.

The basics of it have nothing to do with our being or our response. And I need to say that carefully because if we're not careful, we go to the other extreme and say, I have nothing to do with it. But that's not entirely true. But I'd like to use an illustration tonight, and that is in relation to our salvation. Why is it that we have the gospel and other people don't? Let me ask you this. Did you choose to be born in America? Did you choose to be born in your own family? Did you choose to be in a position where God could speak to you, and you say, no, I had nothing to do with it?

And that's true. But it's from that point on when we become children, we begin to realize what God has done for us, that we respond to him. That becomes our responsibility.

You follow me?

And so the emphasis tonight is not going to be on the pattern which God has outlined for his children, but on the privilege that God has given to us and the provisions which God has made for us. And you see this in the first chapter.

I'd like to read that. But before I read that, I'd like to go to chapter 2, where he says, we are his workmanship, verse 10, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. The interesting thing is that the word workmanship there has the idea of we are his product. We are his fabric.

Now, I don't know if you're acquainted with the work that goes into making a hooked rug like this.

The strips are about 3/8 of an inch wide, a quarter of an inch wide.

And I can still see my grandmother taking old woolen, worn-out fabric, taking her scissors, and cutting strips.

Day after day, she cut strips. And she had a picture in her mind. If I recall, she did not use a pattern. She had it in her head. Now, maybe she did when she was younger. But when I knew her in her older years, she didn't use a pattern.

She might have made some sketches on the fabric that she was using to make the bases of the rug. Then she started hooking. The interesting thing is, and the thing that I want us to remember tonight is this. We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works.

And he's speaking about in the first three chapters how God brings his children together. And he makes something beautiful out of it. He takes ruined personalities, if you please, and people. Like grandma used to take fabric that, what would you do with it? Well, you put it in the scrap box. She'd take it out, and she'd cut strips of it, and she made something like this. She makes something beautiful out of it.

Now, I was always told the bottom side of something like this isn't as nice as the top side. I don't know how she did this. And I picked this rug up off the floor this afternoon, and I looked at it, and I wasn't sure which was the good side and which was the bad.

And sometimes when we go through life's experiences, and they're hard and difficult, somebody will come along and say, well, the underside is we are on the underside. When we see the upper side of it, then it all makes sense. But this rug, the bottom side and the top side, it's not a whole lot of difference. I wonder if that's the way it's going to be in heaven.

I don't know.

I know this. I'm convinced of this, that it'll be a whole lot different than what most of us think, maybe all of us.

But anyhow, that's the object lesson. And that's what we're looking at tonight through this message tonight, that what God has done for mankind, remember this, that we are his workmanship. He has a plan. He has a pattern. It's in his mind. He doesn't have it to have it on paper. It's not etched out on a place where people can see, but he has it. He knows what he's making.

And so he works with us, and he cuts us, and he trims us, and he hooks us together. And God says the final part of it, that the building, like it says later on in the chapter, in whom also ye are built together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit.

I'd like to read a number of verses to the end of verse 14. I'd like for you to watch for the word in. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.

I was interested to check what the word in means. What does in mean? And I was blessed with the fact that when you find the word in, when you're in a box, you're in a fixed position, OK?

You feel hemmed in? You're in a fixed position. And that's what he's saying here.

In Christ Jesus, we are in a fixed position. Grace be to you, and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

Excuse me. According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, wherein he has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he has purposed in himself. Excuse me for interrupting here.

But I think I'll need some water.

There's some. Oh, thank you.

Where did I finish? Yeah. I'm just getting over a cold. Verse 7. Wherein he has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he has purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of time, he might gather together in all things, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth even in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counts of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ, in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory.

Now, let me take you back into the Old Testament. When Moses brought the children, or God used Moses to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt, it wasn't long until God said that I want to dwell among you. And he gave Moses the particulars as to what type of a building he should build and as to what for

not instruments.

When you're almost 80, it doesn't go like it did when you were 50. Furniture within the building. One of them was the Ark of Testimony. Sometimes it's called the Ark of Testimony. And sometimes it's called the Ark of the Covenant. And there's a real difference between the two.

I'm not going into that just at this point. But I'd like for you to notice the fact that when God told him to build that ark, it was to be made of wood and overlaid with gold. And then the lid on top of it was to be pure gold. Those of you who are acquainted with types and shadows recognize the fact that this is a type of Christ, the wood overlaid with gold, humanity and deity together.

And then God said that you are to put within the ark the testimony which he had given, which comprised of the 10 commandments. If you go to Hebrews chapter 9, the writer there tells us that there were three things placed within that ark of the Covenant or the Ark of Testimony. It was the ark it was the 10 commandments were placed in there. And the pot of manna was placed in there. And the arms rod that was placed in there.

It's interesting. And you should read this up. I'm not going to take time to go through this. But the

arms rod speaks about privilege.

The pot of manna speaks about provision.

And the 10 commandments speak about the pattern which God had for his people. You have those three things there.

Now, if you come over into the New Testament, you'll find that in reading through Ephesians, you have those same three things that are spoken of. There is the privilege that God has for us who are in Christ Jesus. It was typified in the Ark of the Covenant.

You have provision which God has for us in Christ Jesus. And you have the pattern which God has for us in Christ Jesus. It's all there. It's typified in the Old Testament times.

And this is important for us to get a hold of. God told Moses when he was building or when he was in the mount and getting the instructions as to how to build the ark, God told him, he said, you make sure that you build it according to the pattern that I have given you in the mount.

Nothing was to be changed.

Have you ever stopped to think and to wonder and asked yourselves the question, what would the edifice, the tabernacle, have looked like if God would have told Moses and the children of Israel, I want you to make me a dwelling place. I want you to make something that will honor me, that will glorify me, that will give you that will, yeah, that will give you a picture of what I'm going to do in the future. And he wouldn't have given them any instruction as to how to make it or what to make.

And you'd have a chaotic situation.

And that's what happens if we don't follow God's pattern.

And even though God gives us a pattern, he also makes it possible for us to understand that the pattern is the work of love from him to us. And he impresses upon our minds sometime, somewhere along the line, that he has given us a privilege to follow his pattern. And he has given us provisions by which to follow his pattern. And that's what he's speaking about here. There are three things that I'd like for you to see in this chapter. I'd like for you to see that we are chosen in him.

I'd like for you to see that we are redeemed by him. And I'd like for you to see that we are sealed by him. There are some other things that are mentioned. But these are the three prominent ones that I'd like to look at this evening. The first one is found in verse 4.

According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without excuse me, and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved. That's the first thing. He has chosen us in Christ. Some of us, at some time or other, are afraid of the word predestine. But I'd like for you to notice tonight that when he speaks about that, that our predestination is found in Christ. We are found in Christ before the foundation of the world.

We are chosen in him before the foundation of the world. We are appointed by him before the foundation of the world. And it's in Christ Jesus. It's not in Mohammed. It's not by Hindu religions. It's not by any other Eastern religions. But our choosing and our predestination is in Christ Jesus. God has appointed that this is the way that humanity will come to him. So don't be afraid of the word predestination.

We are predestined in Christ. It is our relationship, our salvation, is in Christ. It's not in any other way. Jesus was very clear in this when he spoke to his disciples and to the people of his day. When he told them, he said, there is only one way. And that is through the Lord Jesus Christ, through himself.

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. If we search for God through any other method and means and think we can find a different way, if we find ourselves discouraged because there is only one way, remember this, that God, in his goodness, has made a way for us.

And we should thank him for that. Our choosing is in Christ. That's in verse 4. And it's not for our satisfaction. It's not for our benefit primarily, first of all. But it is for his glory.

Salvation is not for the benefit of man, but for the glory of God.

And I'm going to drop something else into your lap tonight. I don't think I've ever heard any teaching on this. But I am becoming more and more convinced that the redemption of mankind is only a part of the sacrificial work, the work of God in Christ on Calvary. It's only part of it.

I don't know if this is a bunny trail or not. But turn with me to Hebrews. I'd like to see you to get a hold of this.

Hebrews chapter 2.

For as much then as children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might what?

Destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil. That's the first thing that is mentioned. God has an antagonist. God has someone who works against him. And somehow, through that whole pattern, if you go to Isaiah chapter 6:14 and then go to Ezekiel chapter 28, you'll find that there's an endment there.

And this manifested itself in the human family when Satan came to Eve and Adam. And it didn't stop there. And it's going on. And God, this is marvelous. I can't go into this tonight. I don't have the time. And it's not clear enough entirely in my own mind. But I believe that the redemption of mankind is only part of the work of Christ when he came. When Satan wanted to make something of himself, he said, I will exalt myself. When Jesus Christ is being exalted today, he he he humbled himself.

The way up is not up. The way up is down. And then God exalts. And God has worked through his created people in redeeming them who were brought under the dominion of Satan. And it was the first thing that Christ did in his humility when he faced death was to deal with Satan. And then he dealt with our problem, which Satan, of course, is part of our problem. You think maybe I'm off on the left field. And maybe you can just think that because I believe I tend to believe that this whole picture of redemption involves not only humanity, but also involves all the creation of God.

And if you go to 1 Corinthians 15, you'll find that when Christ has has has brought everything into subjection, then he himself will be in subjection to his heavenly Father. And I don't know what all that involves. But I believe that he had a responsibility to bring into subjection the rebellion that took place before the foundation of the world.

So the first one that we see in relation to our privilege in chapter 1 of Ephesians is that we are chosen in Christ.

The second one, you'll find in verse 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times or the administration of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him, redemption. The word here means a payment of ransom purchased from the slave market of sin, never to be sold again.

That's security. And I found it interesting that he speaks about us, children of God, adopted. See which verse is this? Having predestined in verse 5, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself.

In the Roman law, I understand and I didn't look this up again. But if I remember correctly, a man who was a Roman citizen got himself into a problem. And he had debts. And he couldn't pay his debts. His family, his wife, his children, all his possessions could be sold.

But if he had any adopted children, they could not be sold.

And he speaks about the adoption of children. We have been adopted into the family of God. We have been bought in the slave market of sin. We have been ransomed by the blood of Christ. The payment has been made by blood, not by money, as Peter says, but with the precious blood of Christ.

And I like that. That's security. That brings hope and confidence in our relationship with him. And so we have been chosen. We have been redeemed.

We can't be sold again.

We can't be pawned off. God doesn't go into debt. I know that. But that is the analogy that is given there. Then the third one is that we are sealed, verse 11 through 13.

In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counts of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ, in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. That concept of sealing is an object that has a mark imprinted on the bottom of it, and that when it is like a stamp, stamped upon it, it leaves an indentation in the object in which it was placed.

It's a seal.

A king would give someone that was in high authority under him his ring to seal his documents and to make sure that what he is doing, taking care of his business, that he has the seal of the king, the mark of the king on it. It was something that showed genuineness. And this is the work of the Holy Spirit.

A thought came to my mind just now. How many of you realize today is Pentecost?

You know, we make a lot of Easter. We make a lot of Christmas, more of Christmas than of Easter. But very seldom do we hear much of Pentecost. But I'd like to tell you this. If the Holy Spirit wouldn't have come, more than likely, you and I wouldn't be here.

It's the work of the Spirit of God who seals those who are in Christ. And God knows us by the seal that has been placed upon his children.

The outstanding thing of Pentecost is the fact that the Jew and the Gentile were brought together.

And you have that type in the book of Ruth. I don't know how many of you like types and chattels.

But at the end of Passover, they were supposed to count on their feasts. They were supposed to count for 50 days. And then Pentecost came. Then it was the feast of Pentecost, the feast of 50 days.

The beginning of those 50 days was the beginning of barley harvest.

The end of those 50 days was the wheat harvest.

And Ruth and Naomi came back to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest, which speaks of redemption. And she continued and married Job. Job, yeah.

Boaz. Boaz. Married, thank you. Married Boaz at the end of the wheat harvest, which was Pentecost. And so you have the picture there how God works in relation to types and shadows in giving us an insight to what he has in mind.

Chapter 1 basically tells us what God has done for us. If you go into chapter 2, I'd like to just go briefly into that. You'll find out that he outlines as to what God has done for us in spite of what we were.

And I'd like to read a couple of times a couple of verses here, verses beginning at verse 2. Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the Spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in time past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in his mercy, for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ. By grace are you saved, and has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Now we come to our rug. For we are his workmanship. We are his fabric. We are his product, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God before ordained that we should walk in them. Wherefore remember, and then he goes on and says, what we were outside of Christ.

If I would say that this rug has times where it can boast of becoming what it is by its own effort, you'd laugh at me. You'd smile at me. You'd say that you're getting off on the wrong foot.

But be careful that we don't do it ourselves. If God would not have given to us the privilege that he did and the provisions that are ours today to walk in his ways and have given us a pattern to follow, where would we be?

We'd be lost.

And he goes down through those verses in chapter 2. And he clearly identifies his work of grace in our lives. And he says, we are his workmanship. He is working in our lives to bring into perspective his work of grace, the change that has been made, the privilege that we have of being united together with fellow believers, where a work of grace can be brought to focus, that even principalities and powers in heavenly places would be able to see this. And this is what we see in chapter 3. I'd like for you to go there in closing in this message.

Paul writes that the mystery that has been given to him, speaking about redemption, says in verse 6, he begins there, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel, whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Now notice, I want you to notice this, and to make all men see the word "men" in there is in italics, which means it's not in the original, to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God, who created all things by himself, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church, the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

I'm going to stop there. God is concerned not only that people of this world recognize the grace of God in the life of his children, but he also is concerned that the principalities and powers in heavenly places might recognize the wisdom of God in his work of redemption for mankind.

And you see, this aspect of the righteousness of God is all entwined in his work of redemption, not only for mankind, but also bringing to justice the work of God and bringing judgment upon Satan himself.

Paul writing to the church at Corinth says that if the princes of this world would have known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. And I'm convinced tonight that when Christ died at Calvary, the effect of that on Satan and in his host was we can't imagine.

His doom was sealed.

This is a mystery. And I'm staggered at it when I think of how this whole thing is playing out, the rebellion that at first began. And it continues.

And it involves humanity. And it involves Christ Jesus for redemption, for mankind, and bringing to completion the work of God. God doesn't work fast in our minds. He works slow.

But he works effectually.

I hope I've given you something to think about.

You know, brothers and sisters, there's no place in our thinking to look at somebody else and say, well, I'm doing better than he is.

How do you know? How do you know how God thinks about that?

When we start going down that trail, then the mindset of Satan is being revealed in our lives as well.

It's by grace that we are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves. It is the gift of God.