The Mystery of His Will

Well, praise the Lord. It's good to be here together. And I've been blessed. Thank you, Ansel, for your inspiration in the opening there.

Yes. Amen. Blessed be the Lord. Blessed be His name forever. And Dylan, in the study there, I was blessed again. And Chris, thanks for your thought there about allowing the Word to grow in our lives. And are we growing? It was a good thought, new thought to me. So as we're together here this morning, we're going to be seeing treasures, new and old. Probably most of them will be old to us, maybe. But the Holy Spirit can take old things and bring new thoughts to us, so way beyond what I'm going to be able to share.

So let's turn our Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1.

In verse 9, we have the little phrase there, "Having made known to us the mystery of His will."

I sort of have the idea that Christianity is sort of a mysterious religion. I mean, there's a lot of thoughts that we just can't quite grasp the depth of or how it happens. And there's mysteries involved, I'm convinced. And yet over there in Matthew, we just saw that He made known to us. And here again, that He made known to us, having made known to us the mystery of His will. So for us as Christians, the mysteries shouldn't be as unexplainable as they may be looking on.

All right. We want to go through this chapter here. I don't know if I've ever taken a chapter and just gone down through it. So hopefully, we'll see what God provides here. But I want to start out with verse 1 and 2 here. 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, grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, I just want to write down some of these terms as we go along.

Now, grace.

That's a big word.

It comes 170 times in the Bible.

Grace. It's a word that we hear a lot about, a lot of meaning packed into it. It's really the unmerited favor of God. It's God looking down on us with grace, with love, with appreciation somehow. And how He all does that is part of the mystery.

Second Peter 3, grow in grace. So that grace that we receive, we need to allow it to expand like the leaven in the loaf. And grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen.

Second Corinthians 9, God is able to make all grace--this is one of John's favorite verses--abound towards you, that ye always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. Where does it come from? His grace.

And that's where we receive everything that we need, the grace of God giving us. In Hebrews 4, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Now, we all have those times of need. And here He's saying that we can find God's grace to meet the need. And that's a wonderful thought, that as we go through life and experience these hard things, when we lose a loved one, we can find grace from God to go on. We can find grace from God to not allow the joy of our life to disappear and go away in frustration and anger.

The grace of God is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before His throne with exceeding joy. It's a big word, grace.

Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And there's a difficult experience that's come along in life.

We just need to lay hold on this grace. Years ago, I went through a difficult experience. Some of our children weren't doing the best. And I was having a brother's meeting. And the elder said, "Elim, you're just not doing a very good job with your family.

The evangelicals are doing a better job than what you're doing." And one of the other brothers said, "Well, what is this, a public hanging?" And it just really stung me. It hurt. And it's probably true what he said.

But I struggled with that for a while. But the grace of God was able to help me through that. And I was able to love that brother. And it did not separate us. Praise God. I remember the words of the hymn, "Grace, dear Lord. Grace, dear Lord, to sweetly obey Thy will.

May self be slain, Thy will remain."

What's the last of it?

Oh, help me Thy law fulfill. And then the chorus, "Under the shadows of Calvary," when we see Jesus hanging, bleeding for us, "there I would linger and pray, finding the grace that I need, dear Lord, grace to be like Thee each day."

So it's from this grace that all God's blessings flow, living in God's favor. Amen. Verse two or verse yeah, the same verse. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. There's another big word.

We all want peace.

400 times in the New Testament, peace. It's very much a part of the mystery of His will. Amen. Peace in our lives. Seven times in the book of Ephesians, peace. Peace, perfect peace in this vile world of sin. The blood of Jesus whispers peace within.

And where does it come from? From the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. That's a blessing that we can have peace with God, which we just expressed in communion time. We have peace with God and with our fellow men. The peace of God which passeth all understanding.

How's that? If it passes understanding, maybe it surpasses. But anyhow, it can keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. When we lay our heads on our pillow at night and we have peace, that's a blessing. It comes from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse three here, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." In Christ. Again, all spiritual blessings.

Can you comprehend that? All spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

The believer lives in the heavenly sphere because Christ is in heaven at the Father's right hand. And we're in Christ. That's a mystery. We're not in Him, actually. But we're in Christ. Yes.

Our lives are wrapped up in Him. In Christ appears 10 times in this epistle.

I was reading that it said that this is probably the most important phrase in the whole letter, in Christ. In Christ. And that's where we need to stay. And that's where our blessings come from, the grace and the peace in Christ. Amen. And all these spiritual blessings.

What does it mean to be in Christ? Well, it would include obeying Him, being one with Him, having fellowship with Him, to belong to Him, some of the thoughts that would be in Christ.

So to be blessed with all these spiritual blessings, we have to be in Christ.

Peter says, "According to as His divine power hath given us all things that pertain to life and godliness," all spiritual blessings, everything we need to live a godly life through the knowledge of Him that called us to glory and virtue.

Verse four, "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." That's a mystery, part of the mystery of His will, that we could be holy and without blame before Him. How could that be? He hath chosen us in Him.

You like to be chosen.

The old familiar story about that is when you're in school and you're lined up and they're choosing for teams.

You like to be chosen. Well, God licensed shoes. And He's chosen us. And you say, well, how can this be?

Does He choose everybody or doesn't He choose some people or that very thought? Well, again, I can't explain all that. But God has chosen those who respond to Him. I like to think of it that way, those whoever and He said that He gave His life that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish.

So that tells me He's not arbitrarily choosing. But He's choosing those who respond to Him. And that's the blessing that if we are in Christ, then He's chosen us. And He wants us to live. How does He want us to live?

In all holiness, He has blessed us according to He has chosen us, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. That's a high calling. That is a high calling.

How special is that?

Verse five, "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will."

He predestinated us. And in verse four, it said, "Before the foundation of the world." Wow, these are some amazing, amazing thoughts here. Predestinated. Wow, that's a big word.

Predestinated us.

He determined before He ever made the world that He wanted to have a family. He wanted to have sons and daughters that were holy and without blame before Him. He thought about that way ahead of time. He predestinated. He wanted to have this family. I think He was not thinking about the individuals. He predestinated you and not me or whatever, that type of thing. But He had this thought about family, sons and daughters. And the next thought there is that He adopted us by Jesus Christ to Himself.

That's what He was looking for, according to the good pleasure of His will. The good pleasure of His will, He was happy about this. He was excited about this, that you and I could be His children in His family. And He adopted us.

That's special

to me. And I'm sure it's special to you.

Adoption is choosing a child and bringing them into your own family by a legal process. It's a changing of families.

We weren't always in the family of God.

But He adopted us. And that adoption is sort of a mysterious thing too. You sit in the courthouse there and the child becomes yours just like he was born to you.

And it's special, very special transaction. And it's His good pleasure. This shows His kindness and His graciousness. It shows His strong desire to have a family. And He did the legal work. We know that sometimes there's a struggle for the adoption, for the adopted one to feel part of the family.

And sometimes the one doing the adopting in the natural sense has an adjustment to make as well. But here, God is doing the adopting. And He doesn't do any adjusting. He's perfect. And so we're the ones that sometimes struggle.

Does He really accept me? Am I really a part of the family? I mean, I don't deserve it. I fail sometimes. Am I really? And I suppose all of us have struggled sometimes a little bit with assurance.

This should help us. It's the good pleasure of His will to have us in the family. And if we're in Christ, that's our part.

And then verse six, "To the praise of the glory of His grace."

What does all that mean? That's some powerful words. Just like, wow. To the praise of the glory of His grace, He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. Amen. He not only adopted us, but He made us accepted.

And that.

That is a very

we all want to be accepted. We have that longing within us. And when God adopts us and says, "I've made you accepted," that is powerful. That should give us a security, a foundation in life that can carry us on. I'm accepted of God. Who can do anything to me if God accepts me? That's it. I'm happy.

And I can make it through the struggles of life.

Yes.

We all have that need. And to be secure in God's acceptance is a foundation for us to be accepted of others.

If they accept us or if they don't accept us, it doesn't matter so much because I'm accepted of God.

And when we're secure in that, we're not so much worried about it even. We want to make sure that we're accepting others.

Verse seven, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace." Oh, redemption.

It's a transaction.

Redemption.

It's a release by a payment of a ransom.

God redeemed us. God paid for us. The price He paid was through His blood, through the blood of Christ. First Corinthians 6:20, "You're bought with a price. You're redeemed. Therefore," what? "Glorify God, glorify God in your body and in your spirit," which are God's.

Can we picture ourselves on the auction block and God bidding on us? He's buying us.

How much would He pay? He paid a tremendous price for us.

We're His. We're His. He bought us through His blood, through His blood. I remember when I was in Bible school as a youth, Menabronk said, "It doesn't matter where you cut the Bible. It'll bleed. It'll bleed." We have a bloody religion.

But it's not a bad kind. I mean, it's a good kind, the blood of Christ. Amen. Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child and forever, I am.

Why? Because He paid for me. He paid for me. Amen. And then in the same verse there, He paid for us. And then we have the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, forgiveness of sins. Oh, yes.

We're forgiven.

What does that mean to you that you're forgiven?

Well, it means a lot, forgiven, forgiven according to the riches of His grace, not just barely, but forgiven.

Let's read Luke 7:44.

Oh, this is the pound of the Pharisee. And Simon, yeah, verse 44, Luke 7:44, "He turned to the woman and said to Simon, 'See us now, this woman? I entered into thine house, and thou gavest me no water for my feet.

But she hath washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss.

This woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.

But to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. How much have you been forgiven? And I." And he said unto her, "Thy sins are forgiven."

Verse seven here, "In whom we have forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath," verse eight, "wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence."

I always thought I had the thought abounded. I mean, I was thinking about bounded, that He was running toward us. But I guess that's not quite what the word means. But it means more overflowing. But I still think He's running toward us with His grace.

Yes, abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. Oh, He abounded toward us. I like that.

Wow.

What all He has done for us. He abounded toward us in wisdom and prudence, not the wisdom of this world, not which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, that kind of wisdom. And we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. Oh, the mystery of His will is coming out there, the wisdom of God in a mystery. What is the wisdom of God? Is that a mystery? Yes.

Yes. Part of the mystery. But the mystery is solved in verse 10. I think I jumped ahead here. Verse nine we want to get to first, "Having made known unto us the mystery of His will." I just like that, the mystery.

Made known.

The mystery of His will made known according to the good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself. He just wants to share with us. He wants us to know. John 15, "No longer do I call you servants. For a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends. For all things that I heard of my Father, I've made known to you." So God is wanting us to understand the mysteries of the kingdom. And He's made known the mystery. Amen.

Verse 11.

Oh, verse 10 we didn't read, "That in the dispensation 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." And then verse 11, "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ." That's our response, that we should be to the praise of His glory.

Yes. But what had we get, verse 11? Inheritance. Yes. I like that.

In Christ, you're not going to be left out. Sometimes you hear about people getting left out of the inheritance. That's sad. But in Christ, we will not be left out of the inheritance. Amen. Yes.

And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, we may also reign with Him or we may also be glorified together if we suffer with Him. Now, that's a little bit of a challenge for us, isn't it, when somebody when because we're Christians, we feel pain from someone.

Well, that's part of it. That's part of it, that we may also be glorified together. Think of what all Paul suffered. Yet he said he was behind in the sufferings of Christ. He hadn't filled up what he what Christ he hasn't come to what Christ suffered yet.

Wow. He who overcomes now, that's our part. We need to keep these things in our lives to overcome. He who overcomes shall inherit all things. And I will be his God, and he shall be my people, my son.

7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. I don't know. I thought I only had 12 of them. Well, verse 13, "We're sealed with the Holy Spirit." That's the last one, we're sealed. I'll write it here.

To be sealed is to be stamped, to be marked.

It's a stamp of validity.

We're bought with a price.

And the earnest or the down payment is the Holy Spirit. But the transaction is not fully complete yet. Romans 8, "Not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we with we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body." So our adoption is not quite complete. Our redemption is not quite complete.

But someday it will be the redemption of our body sealed with the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Oh, the mystery of His will. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out? That's a mystery, isn't it? You can't find it out completely. There's a mysterious element yet. But that's something that we keep pressing into and finding out more and more.

And that mystery keeps us alive, keeps us alert to find out more. 2 Peter 3, "According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue."

I thought of when Nathan came to David. He said, "The Lord has given you this. He's given you this and this and this and this. And if that wouldn't have been enough, He'd have given you more." It seems to be the heart of God to just give us and give us and give us.

As I look at this list, grace and peace and spiritual blessings, chosen, predestinated, adopted, made, accepted, redeemed, and forgiven - and He is abounding toward us. I think that's the extra one I stuck in there, the mystery made known to us, given us an inheritance, and sealed us with the Holy Spirit.

Aren't you excited about it? I am. Sometimes it's not like I'm as excited as I should be. But I have every reason to be. And I'm wanting to be. And I'm wanting it to show in my life that I am excited about this.

That's all I have. Is there any response to the message?