Father, we're grateful for this privilege today of
coming to thy word.
We ask thy blessing now on everyone present.
You know us.
You know our needs.
You know two of us in the same
place.
You know two of us with quite the
same spiritual development.
You're dealing with each of us according to
your purpose to make us like thy son.
Each of us needs something different.
How grateful we are that thou art sufficient
for us.
Thou art enough.
That's thy name, El Shaddai, the God who
is enough.
And so we're looking to thee today to
fit a blessing to every heart.
Everyone who's come, Father, may there be a
meeting with thee, not just with other people
about thee, but with thee.
May we see thy face through the eyes
of our heart.
May we hear thy voice and feel thy
touch and somehow sense that this has been
more than just time spent together.
We ask it in Jesus' name and for
his sake.
Now we're talking about the sovereignty of God
in Ephesians, and I opened this four weeks
ago today by saying that the Bible does
not teach systematic theology.
The Bible teaches responsibility and privilege, and then
men will take certain verses of Scripture out
of the context and gather them under under
headings.
Well, that's useful.
It's nice to find out what the Bible
has to say about a given subject.
Now, we did not approach this on the
basis of systematic theology.
I'm not sure whether Brother James, when he
talked to me about this, was rather hoping
I might do that.
I think not.
Rather, as I prayed about it, I felt
we should approach it from the standpoint of
seeing how the Scripture teaches responsibility, how it
teaches truth, how it teaches privilege.
Now, in Ephesians, I suppose this first chapter
of Ephesians is one to which those considering
or studying the sovereignty of God will very
frequently turn, and rightly so, because there's much
in it that does deal with that subject.
Look in verse 4.
According as he hath chosen us in him
before the foundation of the world.
This obviously has to do with someone that's
in charge.
You know, when I went to the University
of Minnesota after Bible school in Minneapolis, I
encountered some professors that were very, very, well,
anti-God.
They were not just agnostic, but they were
militant in their unbelief.
Because I had come from Bible school, because
I was a young preacher, they had rather
had fun with me and tried to, at
least.
Maybe I gave them a case, and they
put a lot of pressure on me, and
I recall wondering, well, maybe, just maybe, there
was something to what they said.
And these questions about the authority of the
scripture and so on.
Well, I started to read the Bible through
again and let it speak for itself.
And I started.
I got the first four words, and I
began to really think about them.
In the beginning God, I never read any
further than that.
At that, with that particular exercise.
I went further later in other times than
had previously and since, but in that particular
exercise of trying to let the Bible speak
for itself, those first four words really were
enough.
Just think for a moment.
Someone who was before the beginning, someone who
thinks, feels, and wills, who depends upon no
one for his being, who has, looks to
none other as the source of his, of
his being.
I decided that if intellectually I was capable
of accepting the first four words of the
Bible, I would never have any problem with
anything that followed.
The, the stretch, the strain of, on the
human mind, on the imagination, on the human
spirit, to accept the fact that one exists
before the beginning, had no source other than
himself for his being, dependent upon none for
his being.
I think one of the professors had made
quite a lot about Jonah in the, in
being swallowed by a great fish.
Why, I concluded if the scripture had said
that Jonah swallowed the whale, that I'd still
be able to accept it.
After I had gone through the exercise of,
of grasping and holding and accepting those first
four words in the beginning God.
Well now, that God who depends upon no
one, who absolutely needed none for, to be
complete or whole, he wasn't sustained by any
other, this God, before the foundation of the
world, exercised his sovereign prerogatives.
He chose for himself a people, according as
he has chosen us in him before the
foundation of the world.
Now, you're dealing with sovereignty there.
You're dealing with someone who reigns, who rules,
who governs, who chooses, and doesn't ask anyone
to counsel him or advise him.
I think you, you get the feeling there
that, that here is someone that's able to
make that.
Then in the fifth verse, having predestinated those
whom he chose under the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the
good pleasure of his will.
It sounds like sovereignty, does it not?
I'll tell you.
Having predestinated us under the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself.
There's one who's in charge.
And in verse 9, having made known unto
us the mystery of his will, according to
his good pleasure, which he has purposed in
himself.
You're talking about sovereignty.
He didn't consult with any committee.
He didn't ask for advice.
He, you see, he's in charge.
That's, that's what he's saying.
He's in charge.
And in 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.
Now, it sounds pretty strong, doesn't it?
It's amazing.
There you've got it.
That's, that's, that's what we're talking about.
Now, having seen that, we have to establish
what this is all about.
We have to realize that there's purpose in
this.
There's reason, ultimate purpose.
In verse 6, having predestinated us, and 5,
having predestinated us to the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself, to the praise
of the glory of his grace.
His sovereignty has an end.
In the end is the praise of the
glory of his grace.
And again, in the next section, says that
we are accepted in the Beloved.
In other words, verses 4 and 5 tell
us that before the foundation of the world,
the Father planned, and he purposed, that it
should be to the praise of the glory
of his grace.
And in verses 6 and 7, and 8
and 9 and 10 and 11, it says
that in the fullness of time, the Son
provided or accomplished or bought everything that the
Father purposed.
So God as Father purposed our salvation.
God as Son provided our salvation.
Through the praise, as we see in verse
12, that we should be to the praise
of his glory.
Now in the next portion, verses 13 and
14, we're talking about God the Holy Spirit.
And God the Spirit is going to perfect,
I like to use the alliteration, perfect in
us, make real in us, everything the Father
purposed and the Son provided.
And in the 14th verse, under the praise
of his glory.
So now we're talking about sovereignty.
You've seen it.
You felt it.
I think it grips your heart.
Here is a sovereign upon a throne who
reigns and rules.
But I want you to notice that this
sovereignty is extended to sinners.
If you'd like to turn to Acts chapter
17 and verse 30, there's a rather interesting
thing.
Acts 1730, the Apostle is talking about Mars
Hill, and he's talking with the philosophers.
And in that 30th verse, but now God
commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
That's a sovereign speaking, isn't it?
That's his message to the sinner.
God commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
Why?
Because he, a sovereign, hath appointed a day
in the which he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath
ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all
men in that he hath raised him from
the dead.
God commands men to repent.
And in Luke chapter 13, verses 3 and
5, the Lord Jesus is talking to that
group that were questioning him about certain current
events, and asked him what did he think
about the fact that Caesar, the pilot soldiers,
had gone into the temple and had taken
someone going there for sanctuary, and tower had
fallen on some and killed them.
And in verses 13 and chapter 13, verses
3 and 5, verily I say, and except
ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
That's a sovereign speaking.
But notice the change in approach.
To the sinner, God commandeth all men everywhere
to repent.
But how, what's his, what's his mean, what's
his attitude?
What's his approach to the child of God?
Turn to Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and
2.
You'll see a tremendous change in the way
God speaks.
This is the apostle, but the apostle is
speaking by inspiration, and behind the apostle is
the Lord Jesus.
The same apostle who said, God commandeth all
men everywhere to repent, might have said, God
commandeth all of his children to present their
bodies, but he didn't.
Notice the change once you're in the family.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God, that you present your body, a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.
To sinners, God commandeth.
To the saints, he beseeches.
Same sovereign, he's lost none of his sovereignty,
none of his authority, none of his power,
but he's talking to his children.
He's talking to those that have been brought
out of death into life, those that have
been made partakers of his nature.
And so now, this same sovereign exercises his
sovereignty to change his approach.
Does he have a right to do that?
Or are we going to be sovereign and
say, since you're sovereign, you have to do
it the way we think a sovereign should
do it.
But then who's claiming sovereignty in that case?
The person who says God has to, because
God did it this way with sinners, he
has to do it this way with his
children.
Who's the sovereign?
We are.
No, no, we can't, we can't, we aren't
sovereign.
All we are is just disciples, learners, students.
We find out how he does it, but
we don't tell him how to do it.
So when he says that his approach to
his children is not going to be one
of commanding, but one of entreating and beseeching,
does that mean that he's less concerned with
his children than he was with sinners?
Not at all.
Does that mean that we should take it
lightly?
Certainly sinners should not take lightly the fact
that God commanded all men everywhere to repent.
Should the saints take lightly the fact that
he says, I beseech you that you present
your bodies a living sacrifice?
Because he changes in his sovereign will from
commanding to entreating, does that diminish the importance?
Only for little minds, only for those that
can only move by the whip, never by
the heart.
For those who've been born into the father's
family, when they see the apostle, as it
were, standing there pointing to the nail wounds
in the hands of the Lord Jesus, and
says, by these mercies in the hands of
the Son of God who died for you,
he beseeches you that you present your body,
that becomes extremely important.
Not something to be taken lightly, but something
that should be held Now, so in Ephesians
chapter 1 and verse 15, we've had these
statements of his sovereignty in verses 4, 5,
9, and 11.
Now in verse 15, notice the change that
occurs.
Wherefore I also, after I heard of your
faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto
all the saints, cease not to give thanks
for you, making mention of you in my
prayers.
They've repented.
They've been born of the Spirit of God.
They have the witness and changed life in
love to the saints.
Evidently, it was a real work, genuinely done.
You'd say, well, look, Paul, hey, we're saved.
If we die, we're going to go to
heaven.
Isn't that the big thing, to get people
out of hell?
Isn't that what this is all about?
And Paul says, listen, when I discovered that
you were pardoned, when I found out you
were justified, when I was satisfied that you'd
been genuinely repented, had genuinely repented, and gave
evidence that you had been born of God,
I put you on my prayer list.
Just about the time you'd get off of
everybody else's, you got onto his.
Why?
You see, God's purpose wasn't to save, keep
people out of hell.
He had another purpose.
That we should be holy and without blame
before him in love.
That's what the sovereign decided.
And that these children should be like Christ.
That's what he decided.
They should grow up in all things like
Christ.
Not that they should just have a hell
insurance policy with the premiums paid up in
advance.
That wasn't the purpose of it all.
But it was that people should be transformed,
made, remade in the image and likeness of
God's dear son.
So that he set his sovereignty to the
point of saying, all things work together for
good to them that love God, to them
that are called according to his purpose.
For whom he did foreknow.
He did predestinate.
What?
To be conformed to the image of his
son.
That's what he predestinated.
That we'd be like Christ.
And so he's telling these people at Ephesus,
hey, you gotta understand, God set his sovereignty
to make you like Christ.
He purposed you'd be like Christ.
That's where the sovereignty of God is set.
Chosen in him before the foundation of the
world, we should be holy and without blame
before him in love.
Now, these people that have worshipped at the
statue of Diana, in immorality, in bestiality, in
every kind of dark and evil thing, Ephesians,
Gentiles, they've now come to Christ.
They've been awakened, they've been convicted, they've repented,
they've savingly embraced the Son of God, they
have the witness of the Spirit within and
have changed life without.
And Paul said, I'm praying for you.
I'm praying for you.
Whole attitude changes now.
The same sovereign God has sovereignly determined that
with his children, he is going to entreat,
he's going to intercede and pray.
Why, in fact, his son is at the
right hand of the Father, making intercession for
them who come to God by him, for
the redeemed.
And he's praying for them.
And we know what he's praying, that as
he is, so we will be in the
world, that we'll be conformed to the image
of Christ.
That's what he's praying.
So here the Apostle says, listen, I'm not,
and John, in the 17th chapter says, I'm
not praying for the world, I'm praying for
them you've given me out of the world,
that they all may be in union.
Even as we are in union, they may
be in union.
So the Lord Jesus is at the right
hand of the Father, interceding for whom?
For us, for the believers, for the redeemed.
Now, this is the beginning here in the
15th verse, is the first of the New
Testament prayer, the first of the seven prayers
of Paul.
And Paul is echoing the intercessory ministry of
Christ at the right hand of the Father.
This was written long before John 17 was.
In fact, John's, the Gospel of John probably
wasn't written until ah, 85 AD, maybe 95
AD, 50 to 60 years after the ascension
of Christ.
And this was written halfway down.
And so Paul is, is, is praying for
them.
But I want you to go to another
verse.
I want you to go to Hebrews chapter
2 and verse 3.
You see, because God changes, oh, every one
of us are all very, very clear in
our minds about, uh, what Acts 17 30
says, God commanded all men everywhere to repent
to the point of the day in which
you'll judge the world.
What about all this sweet light?
What about all this beseeching and imploring?
Are there any teeth in it?
Does this sovereign God put teeth into this?
He's changed his attitude, but is there any
teeth in it?
All right.
But what about the sin of, of, of
having the word and not believing it?
What about the sin of knowing truth and
not practicing it?
What about the sin of having light and
not walking it?
What about the sin of indifference?
Not the sins that are of the world's
sins, but him that knoweth to do good
and doeth it not.
To him it's sin.
What about the sin of unconcern?
Look what Paul, what, what the writer of
Hebrews said.
You know, in the first chapter he's saying,
God spoke to us in times past by
the prophets, and now he's spoken unto us
by his son, and says, therefore we ought
to give them more in his teeth.
To the things which we have heard from
the son, for if the word spoken by
angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience
received a just recompense of reward, how shall
we escape if we neglect so great salvation,
which at the first began to be spoken
by the Lord and was confirmed unto us
by them that heard them?
Now, this salvation is not salvation from the
penalty of sin.
See, the word salvation is a very big
word in the scripture.
In fact, you could say, I have been
saved, I was saved, I am being saved,
and I shall be saved.
Those are all scriptural expressions.
I have been saved from the purpose of
sinning, I repent it.
I was saved from the penalty of sin,
I receive Christ as my substitute, my Lord
and Savior.
I am being saved from the power of
sin by his life.
I shall be saved from the presence of
sin.
Now, the scripture puts salvation in all those
different tenses.
So when it says here, how shall we
escape if we neglect so great salvation, he's
not talking to sinners.
Huh?
He's not talking to sinners at all.
He's talking to the saints.
He says, God demanded all men everywhere to
repent because he's appointed a day in which
he will judge the world.
But what the writer of Hebrews is saying,
listen, do you think, dear child of God,
that all of this that the Father purposed
before the foundation of the world, that the
Son provided, and the Holy Spirit is ready
to perfect in you, is of such little
importance that you can neglect it and not
be, have a loss for the neglect.
I've had some people, I remember once they
heard me, heard me speaking in a Bible
conference, and they said, you know, brother, uh,
I'm not going to come anymore.
I'm saved.
If I go to heaven, die, I'll go
to heaven.
I know my sins are forgiven.
And I know that there are a lot
of people that are eager.
They want something else.
They want something different.
They want something better.
But I believe the Bible teaches that the
main work of Christ was to keep people
out of hell.
And I know if I die, I won't
go to hell.
And I got everything that I'm interested in
Christ to get.
Son, it's not coming to any more of
your meeting.
Did you make me upset?
I had to say, well, I think you're,
I guess, smart on your part.
If I had that attitude, I'd do the
same thing.
I wouldn't come here.
Because if you know to do good and
you don't do it, that's going to add
guilt to you.
Of course, if you know what the truth
is and you don't go where you can
hear it, that isn't so good either.
But that's their decision, not mine.
He was very honest, very straightforward.
He said, there's a plateau up there where
the eager can go.
There's something called a deeper life or a
higher life or some other.
But he said, for most of us, once
we get, know that if we die, we're
going to go to heaven.
That's what it's all about.
That's all we're interested in.
Is that what the whole thing's about?
Thou shall call his name Jesus, for he
shall save his people from hell and take
them to heaven when they die.
Is that what the angel said?
No.
Thou shall call his name Jesus, for he
shall save his people from their sin.
From their sin.
And to know to do good and to
do it not is sin.
That's one of the things that he wants
to say.
In other words, light brings responsibility.
These people, they've been awakened, they've been convicted,
they've been brought to repentance, these people in
Ephesians.
They had the evidence that they have been
born of God and the apostle said, as
I found out all of that, I've started
to pray for you.
Hey, that's important.
To realize when the apostle became concerned.
That's when he became concerned for them.
That's when he started to pray.
I cease not to make mention of you
in my prayers.
I'm praying for you, in other words.
I am going to be concerned enough to
just continuously hold you up.
You see this sovereign, this sovereign God we've
been reading and studying.
He may entreat his children to care for
that which he purposed and he planned.
He may entreat them, but he's going to
hold them responsible.
You see, apparently, I understand at least, when
sinners die, they will appear before the great
white throne, where they will discover their names
are not written in the Lamb's book of
life.
And they will confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord and go off into that place of
eternal estrangement from God.
When saints die and at that day, they
will appear also, but not at the same
tribunal.
The great white throne is reserved for the
ones whose names are not written in the
Lamb's book of life.
Ones who have been born of God and
who've been redeemed are going to appear before
someplace else.
That's the bema, the judgment seat of Christ,
where everyone may receive of the things he's
done in his body, whether they be bad
or good.
And only those whose names are in the
Lamb's book of life, only those who have
been redeemed, will go to the bema.
And the bema, that place where rewards are
given out, is the place where we're going
to give an account of what we've done
with our lives since we came to know
Christ.
A sin.
Certainly, it would be rude.
It would be unnecessary.
It would be I don't have to do
it.
There's provision made for me not to do
it, but I stand here and I mutilate
this nice death.
I pound a nail into it.
That's what a Christian does when he sins.
He mutilates something that the Lord has made
whole, made complete.
Past sins are gone, remembered against the snow
more forever.
But now, having become a child of God,
he mutilates it.
Pounds a nail into it.
Now, in repentance and in confession, as a
child of God, if we confess our sins,
he is faithful and judge.
We judge it, we confess it, we forsake
it, and the blood of Jesus cleanses from
all sin.
And we pull the nail out.
We pull the nail out, but did we
pull the hole out?
No.
Hole's gonna be there.
Oh, you can plug it with paste and
forget about it, but you examine that and
you will find there's a hole in that
wood.
And at the bema, all the nail holes,
that's gonna be rough.
That's gonna be rough.
And that means that there will be, there
will be nail holes.
Or to take another image, it's like a
weaving, the warp and the wolf and the
shuttle goes back and forth.
The bema, the life is unrolled.
The sins will have been forgiven and pardoned,
but the break in the weaving will be
there.
We're going to receive this, but when we
confess, they can be forgiven, but we drop
their bones.
Well, they certainly, certainly yes.
In the sense that see, God's purpose in
grace is to make us like Christ.
And He's made, He realizes we're flesh.
He remembers us.
He knows what does.
And therefore, He's able to save unto the
uttermost all them that come unto God by
Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession
for them.
And a child of God, a true child
of God, someone born into the father's family
may fall into sin, but the scripture says,
born of God, born of sin, because God's
seed remains in him and he can't continue
to practice sin.
He's done it, but God said he's forsaken
it and the blood of Jesus has forgiven
it.
Now, and He's going to receive of the
deeds done in the body, whether they be
bad or good.
And obviously, we're going to be responsible for
all the bad we did that we didn't
have to do if we'd availed ourselves of
His grace.
We're going to be responsible for all the
good we did by His grace.
We're going to be responsible for all that
we could have been if we had availed
ourselves of His grace, and all we could
have done.
So the apostle, when he's talking to these
people at Ephesus, instead of letting them be
content, they're in the vestibule, they're in the
front hall, they've been born of God, they're
in his house, and they're not going to
freeze to death in the storm, they're not
going to be destroyed, they're not outside anymore.
But what he's saying to them is this,
listen, dear, dear children of God, babes in
Christ, I want you to realize how much
more the Father has than just a vestibule
at the front door.
Sure, you're in the house, but he's got
all these other rooms of blessing filled with
blessing for you, but you've got to want
those blessings.
See, God commands sinners to repent.
He entreats the believers to present their bodies,
and he suggests that if they want the
Holy Spirit will open the eyes of their,
God will give unto them the spirit of
wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Christ,
that the eyes of their understanding may be
opened, that they may know what the Father
purposed and the Son provided.
You see the difference?
This is a sovereign God who sovereignly decides
to do it this way.
And who are we to say he made
an error?
And just because he doesn't scourge us and
whip us, because we don't ask the Spirit
of God to be unto us the spirit
of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of
Christ, just because he doesn't take a club
to us, because we don't present our bodies
a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, just
because he doesn't immediately twist our arms and
say, listen, don't you know that the eyes
of your understanding can be opened, that you
can know the things that God has prepared
for them that love him?
Why are you so indifferent?
Don't let go of my arm.
Don't twist my arm, Lord.
No, the Lord's not going to twist anybody's
arm.
He's dealing with children.
He's dealing with people born into his family.
He's dealing with his own.
Now he takes that attitude toward the sinners,
but not to the saints.
He's dealing with his children.
So what he's saying to the people of
Ephesus is this.
I know you're in the best of your
heart.
I know you're so happy that you're secure
from God's wrath.
You're so grateful that you're forgiven.
But God has this marvelous house.
He knew everything you were going to need
to be everything that he wanted.
And so he planned everything for you.
He purposed everything for you before the foundation
of the world.
And then in the fullness of time his
son came along and provided everything that the
father purposed.
And now God the Holy Spirit is willing
to work in you everything the father purposed
and the son provided.
But now he asks for your heartfelt cooperation.
He wants you to join with him.
You see the difference?
Oh, it's such a difference.
Now you say, well, why did he do
it that way?
If he'd have done it the other way,
boy, then I'd have really taken it to
heart.
But let me ask you.
You know something?
It's true of me.
It's true of you too all.
We're just as holy as we want to
be today.
We're just as Christ-like as we want
to be.
We're just as spiritual as we want to
be.
We're just as mature as we want to
be.
We are the sum of our desires up
until today.
Now, let me ask, you feel that the
father's finished with you?
See, he's going to, one day we're going
to awaken the likeness of his son Christ.
You feel he's finished with you?
Hey, I don't.
Maybe you do.
I don't know you well enough to be
able to say about you, but I know
me well enough to say about me.
And I know he's got a lot of
work to do.
I thank God that I'm not what I
used to be.
I'm sorry that I'm not what I wanted
to be by this time.
And I've committed myself to make myself totally
and completely available to him, to do in
me everything he wants to do to make
me what he wants me to be.
Because I realize he's much more interested in
what I am and what I do.
He's more interested in the minister than the
ministry.
He's more interested in the servant than the
servant is.
He's more interested in the laborer than in
the laborer.
You're his main concern.
Not what you're doing, but what you are.
And so he's saying to these people that
he's praying.
Well, behind him is the Lord Jesus at
the right hand of the Father today.
And he's praying for you, and he's praying
for you by name.
What's he asking?
That the eyes of your understanding will be
opened.
That you will cry, Father, open the eyes
of my understanding.
That I may know.
Give unto me the spirit of wisdom and
revelation.
The Spirit, Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Revelation
will show me what the Father planned, purposed,
and what the Son provided.
And as the Spirit of wisdom, he will
show me how to appropriate and use what
the Father purposed and what the Son provided.
Oh, as long as we're in time.
We got a whole new week.
Isn't that thrilling?
God's at least brought us to Sunday.
I hope I'll see you all next Lord's
Day.
But he's at least brought us to today.
You know what that ought to mean?
At beginning today, we ought to say, Lord,
I want this week to be the greatest
spiritual progress in my life.
Open the eyes of my understanding.
Lord, become unto me, blessed Holy Spirit, the
Spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge
of Christ.
Of what the Father purposed and the Son
provided.
Let the eyes, where eye has not seen
or ear heard, neither has it entered into
the heart of man the things that God
has prepared for them that love him, but
God has revealed them unto us by his
Spirit.
Oh, blessed Holy Spirit, reveal unto me.
Reveal unto me what you want me to
appropriate, what you want me to do.
That's the tenderness of it.
There is a sovereign God now who stooped
in his sovereignty to wait for you and
wait for me.
Isn't that marvelous?
That this one who reigns and rules and
governs the universe should wait for us.
To get through with our toys and our
games.
You know, silly little pounding of nails here
and there.
Breaking of the thread to mar the fabric
to rob him of the praise of the
glory of his grace.
He'll forgive us.
He'll pardon us.
But I don't want to go on doing
that to my last day to you.
When we were a young couple, our first
child, we had a playpen.
It was great.
I used to think my wife ought to
get into it and leave the children outside,
but we put the kids in it.
She needed the protection, not them.
I always wondered why we gave them vitamins
and we took tranquilizers.
It ought to be the other way around.
But still, Paul said, in effect, a free
translation.
I don't want to go to my dizabima
dragging a playpen filled with spiritual infants.
I don't want to be responsible for having
brought into the world and taken into heaven
a lot of people that were born and
then never grew after that.
I want you to grow up into Christ
in all things.
So we all come to the measure of
the stature of the fullness of Christ unto
a mature man.
We have everything the Father planned in purpose.
You know, one day we're going to go
home.
The Father takes us down to the warehouse
of his glory that he filled before the
foundation of the world and he opens a
drawer with your name on it.
You know something?
When he opens mine, I'd like to look
into it and find that the cupboard is
bare.
There isn't one thing that he planned and
purposed that I didn't appropriate in you.
Wouldn't you hate to go there and find
it shelf after shelf after shelf filled with
blessings that he prepared to help you through
the trip through time and you didn't care
enough to even it's like getting the pink
sheet from the post office parcel and you
don't you get them let them accumulate.
You don't even go to the post office
to find out what's ascending.
Well, that's another that's another that's another aspect
and another will and that's another that's the
next cupboard.
This is a cupboard.
This is the cupboard of blessing and that's
the cupboard of of of things that we
he's saying Now we talk about the first
I'll tell you friend if you don't empty
this first cover you're probably not going to
have much in the second one.
It's only as we avail ourselves of the
provisions of our his grace that our lives
can be fruitful to his glory.
Well, there you go.
Sovereign.
He reigns, he rules, he decides how to
do it.
And he's just as much sovereign when he
beseeches you as when he commands you.
Father, we ask thy blessing now upon this
thy people.
You know us, you see us, you find
us where we are.
And we ask Lord that thou would be
pleased this week to stir our hearts with
a new hunger and a new yearning and
a new longing to be like Christ.
We will not be satisfied with ourselves until
he is satisfied with us.
May the lamb that was slain receive the
reward of his suffering.
Is the cry of our hearts today.