The Mystery of God’s Will in Salvation
By Pastor Matt Black
30 April 2006
Lord's Day morning
Ephesians 1:9-10
Introduction: Open your Bible to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. The title of this morning’s message is “The Mystery of God’s Will in Salvation.” Look at our text:
Ephesians 1:7-10
7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; 8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; 9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10 That in the dispensation of the fulness 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:
We know there are no mysteries with God. The mysteries lie with us. God knows all things. Not only does He know all things, but He decrees all things, and we decree nothing. We are in darkness unless God reveals Himself to us. We need to thank God for this book of the Ephesians, for this chapter, and for these verses that reveal unto us the mystery of God’s will. We need God to reveal unto us this morning the mystery of His will. Why does He use this term? We need God to open our eyes to this today.
This morning we are going to look into a fascinating subject. We are going to see how God reveals Himself to a sinful people who don’t want Him, who don’t think about Him, who don’t care about Him, who are blind, and how He claims them as His own. That is a mystery. This is something human eyes cannot see, and a human heart cannot understand, but God reveals to us a mystery here this morning. We can look into how God reveals salvation to the most sinful of us!
I think if we were to do a survey of who is the guiltiest—I think we would all be like the Apostle Paul—we would all call ourselves “the chief of sinners.” We would say “O wretched man that I am!” I’m glad there’s no such contest. But there is a demonstration of grace that we’ve already seen in verse 7: we have “redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Yet even though the Son of God has entered into this world and given His blood—His life—for us, yet sinful man does not recognize that as the supreme sacrifice. He cannot; he’s blinded. He cannot come to God autonomously in His own volition, in his own understanding. His understanding is darkened. He needs the light of the Word of God; he needs the light of the Spirit of God to draw him to Christ. And he needs the revelation of God’s will to open his eyes.
The real question we are asking is how does a man come to know Christ? In other words, how does he come to realize that the Gospel is true? Because if you believe that the Gospel is indeed true—not just assenting to it—but if you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and was raised for our justification; that He is the sovereign Lord of salvation—if you have realized that, your life will be dramatically different.
Many people assent to know Jesus Christ. If you look at any religious survey of America, a vast majority claim to believe in God, and a large majority of that group would claim to be “born again” Christians. But there is a great difference between mental assent of the facts that are in the Bible and believing that there was a historical Jesus who claimed to be the Son of God. There is a difference between that and the Holy Spirit opening your heart and your eyes to your depravity, to your offences against God, realizing that you deserve the deepest hell, and He has given you the greatest mercy. And you claim it for your own, and it changes your life! What we are going to see this morning is that God in His sovereignty gives a revelation of salvation.
I. First we are going to see the REVELATION of Salvation.
Let’s look at verse 9 of Ephesians 1, “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will.” Paul had just spent the first eight verses of this chapter giving to us God’s will. His will was that we would be elected, that we would be adopted, that we would see the sacrifice of Jesus Christ—the redemption we have through His blood and the forgiveness of sins, and that we would realize that all this is revealed “according to the riches of His grace.” These are the things that God reveals, and He does so sovereignly.
A. It is A SOVEREIGN REVELATION!
Illustration: It’s like this, imagine that you have a young boy who is blind, who is deaf, he is mute. He can see nothing, he can hear nothing. And let us just say that a doctor has come across a way to give this little boy sight and hearing. Now, what I didn’t tell you is that this little boy blinded himself. He made himself deaf through his own foolishness and his own wicked desires. And yet this doctor sees him, and through an amazing discovery gives him eyes and gives him hearing.
Some people would say, “That’s forcing that boy to have sight and to have hearing, and that’s not right! Do you see the ludicrousness of that argument in salvation? God has graciously given us sight—eyes to see and ears to hear! And He’s raised us from the dead! We were in a worse condition even than this little boy. We brought death upon ourselves, and God gave us our lives back. We were condemned to the deepest hell—that was our death sentence. We were as good as there, and God gave us life, He gave us sight, He gave us understanding, He gave us a heart filled with love and gratitude for the One Who gave His life for us. That can only be done sovereignly. That can only be done through the sovereign grace of God. You see, that is exactly what this verse says. “Having made known unto us the…” what? He made known unto us the “mystery of his will!” There was something hidden, something secret.
Explanation: What is a mystery? A mystery in the Bible is defined as: “that which the human mind cannot comprehend without the assistance of God, and which has been kept secret until now. Do you remember the day that you came to know Jesus Christ? I remember. And I said to my friends on either side of me after I had trusted in Christ as Saviour. I said, “Why didn’t someone tell me this before?” And as I look back I realize that someone, many people, had told me the Gospel message. In fact I heard the Gospel message from people from the time I was a very little child from Christians I came into contact with. Over and over and over and over and over again, I heard the Gospel message. I was invited to many children’s meetings, or to go to this vacation Bible school, or this Sunday school, or this Christian meeting. But as a deaf person, and as a blind person I could not comprehend it; I did not understand it; it was a MYSTERY to me. His will, that I should believe in Christ, that I should turn from my sins and embrace Jesus Christ—all that was a mystery to me, and there was no one that could open the prison that I was in except for the sovereign grace of Jesus Christ. In His sovereignty He makes known unto us the mystery of His will! Remember, a mystery in the Bible has to do with something that God alone reveals. It is something hidden to the “unaided human mind.”[1] So, this revelation of the mystery must be a sovereign revelation because man is utterly helpless in the blindness of his sin!
1. It speaks to the BLINDNESS of man to the WILL of God.
Sin causes the Blindness, so Christ is a MYSTERY to the lost. Just as Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
There is nothing more wicked than the human heart!
Because of sin, man is blinded, and Christ, His Kingdom, and His plan are all a mystery. The significance of who Christ is as Creator and Saviour is all a gigantic BLIND SPOT for every person in this world. Christ is a mystery to lost people. Oh, they can understand the historical figure and in a historical context. What they cannot do is see Christ for who He is, as the Son of God, the Creator of the world, and the only mediator between God and man. The Person and Work of Christ is a mystery to the lost person. They do not understand Jesus Christ, for if they did, they would let go of all their worldly aspirations, repent of their sins, and follow Him.
Christ and life after death is a mystery to lost people. They are concerned about the here and now. Why should they care about eternal life? They are not convinced that there is even an “eternal life” to be concerned about. The fact is they are blinded to these things.
Paul says that God has “made known unto us the mystery of His will...” Paul was simply teaching in this epistle what Jesus Christ had already taught him.
As Paul says in Galatians 1:11-12, “But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. 12 For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Jesus Christ also taught this to His disciples.
a. Jesus said that through sovereign revelation, He makes rebels BABES. You see Jesus in His ministry was speaking to multitudes of people. He chose to spoke to these people in a hidden way—in parables. He used stories that could only be clear to those whom the Sovereign Spirit of God revealed the meaning to them. At that time, it was of course Jesus Himself who was revealing the mystery of the parables. It was not to everyone, but only to those whom sovereign grace had chosen. Look over at Luke 10:21-22. It says, “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. 22 All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.”
It is the prerogative of the Sovereign Son of God to reveal to whomsoever He will. Were these disciples more given to understanding of divine things than the Pharisees or the common people that followed Jesus? No! The sovereign revelation was made known to them by the Sovereign Son of God. They were rebels just like the rest—sheep that had gone astray—turning to their own way (Isaiah 53:6)—dead in their trespasses (Ephesians 2:1); not one was righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10-11)! These disciples became babes because Christ chose to reveal Himself to them, and that revelation turned these rebels into babes! They were made to understand. Their understanding was enlightened by the sovereign mercy of Christ. If you believe differently than that—if you believe that these disciples came to Christ on their own volition, then number one, you have ignored what I have just read in this passage in Luke 10, and number two, you are coming to a conclusion that directly contradicts this Scripture and many other Scriptures. What you end up doing is giving moral power to do that which pleases God, when the Bible teaches us that man is incapable of doing anything pleasing to God. You end up resurrecting the old Pelagian heresy, which says that man is not ultimately incapable of choosing good, but can choose both good and bad in his natural unregenerate state.
The Scripture says that it was God the Son who revealed Himself to these disciples. It was a mystery otherwise. God’s plan of salvation is a mystery. Just go ahead and walk outside of your door and try to give the plan of salvation to those outside of Christ. And if they’ve never heard it before, if they’ve never had the seed sown to them, they are going to look at you and ask you what space ship you stepped off of. Go to those who do not know Christ, and you will see the blindness of man without the revelation of God by His Word and by His Spirit.
These babes in Luke 10, who were they? In this passage Christ reveals that there are two groups of people. There are “the wise and prudent” who are left to their own delusions of life, and then there are those within Christ’s influence. We see that it is Christ Himself is the one who reveals the powers of the Kingdom of God. Outside of the influence of Christ, these disciples would have been just like all the other worldly wise and prudent people out there. These babes, by the way, if you look at the context of Luke 10, are the 70 disciples that Christ sent out to evangelize Israel.
Let’s look at another passage in Matthew 13 and verses 11; 13; and verses 16-17. This passage actually uses the word “musthrion (musterion)” which is translated “mystery.” In this passage the disciples came to him and wanted to know why Christ would not speak plainly; why does He insist on speaking to them in parables? And Jesus gives His answer in Matthew 13 and verse 11, “He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given… 13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand… 16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. 17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.” (See also parallel Luke 8:10.)
It is Christ’s sovereignty that turns these ordinary people, dead in Adam, into babes that will heed the Father’s will and understand the Saviour’s supremacy.
Who are these babes? It is those whom God has conquered by his Spirit! Those born of the Spirit of God!
b. Through sovereign revelation, not only does He make rebels into babes; He makes those born of the flesh to be born of the Spirit.
Look at John chapter 3. Of course, this is the meeting between Christ and a ruler of Israel on the council of the Sanhedrin named Nicodemus. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. Jesus had said something very strange. He said that if Nicodemus wanted to know God, he had to be born again. Nicodemus was confused. He asked in verse 4, “How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?” What does the Lord say in John 3 and verse 6 to Nicodemus? “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” How many of you are born of the flesh? We all are. We are all human beings. So “That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” How interesting. Well how does one become born of the Spirit? Well, it certainly does not happen naturally. Look at verse 7, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” What he was saying is that we don’t come into this world by physical birth being born of the Spirit. You are only born of the flesh. What you need, Christ was saying to Nicodemus, is that you need to be born a second time. You need to be born of God, from above, of the Spirit. How does this happen? Well verse 8 explains it, “The wind bloweth where it listeth [WHERE EVER IT WANTS], and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
So how is one “born of the Spirit”? First recognize that the wind, “pneuma (pneuma)” and the Spirit, “pneuma (pneuma),” of God—is the same word. The Spirit of God is like the wind. He goes where ever He wants. It is a sovereign act of the Holy Spirit to take someone who is merely born of the flesh and bring the miracle of the new birth to his soul. That act of the Spirit of God takes one who is a rebel and turns him into a babe—one who thinks he is noble like Saul of Tarsus, and turns him into a humble slave of Jesus Christ. It takes one who is merely born of the flesh, and makes him born again of the Spirit. In fact, without the supernatural birth from God, a man will never understand the “mystery of the Kingdom of God.”
Turn over to Mark 4 and verse 11. Remember what Christ said in this passage? Again, answering the question, “Why don’t you speak plainly to everyone?” The answer is that He speaks in parable so that He can hide His doctrine from those who would be wise. Who is that? All of us are born thinking we are wiser than God. We are all born filled with our own autonomous pride! But who does Christ show His doctrine to? He shows it to those whom He chooses out of His sovereign compassion. Mark 4:11 Christ says, “Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without [THOSE OUTSIDE OF CHRIST’S INFLUENCE], all these things are done in parables:
Again we see that Christ reveals that there are two groups of people. There are those “without” or outside of Christ’s influence, and those within Christ’s influence. We see that it is Christ Himself Who is the one who reveals “the mystery [THE SECRET] of the kingdom of God.” He uncovers our eyes so it’s no longer a mystery that Jesus Christ is the King of kings. That’s the mystery of the Kingdom of heaven. Jesus is the King, the Lord, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the Author and Finisher of our faith; He’s the King of the kingdom. He rules and reigns in the hearts of men! And the only way that you can come to that knowledge is through His sovereign grace. So we see that this revelation of salvation is a sovereign revelation. Through this sovereign revelation, He makes rebels into babes, He makes those born of the flesh to be born of the Spirit.
c. Then, through sovereign revelation He also removes the BARRIERS of unbelief. Turn over to Matthew 16. In this text we have Simon Peter and other of the disciples walking with Jesus, and Jesus asks a question. “Who do men say that I am?” He is asking the question not for His own benefit. He is the omniscient Son of God. He knew what they were thinking. He asked the question to reveal the blind hearts of men before these disciples. Most were blinded to who Jesus was. They still had natural knowledge. Some said he was Elijah, some said He was John the Baptist raised from the dead (remember Herod had executed John?), others said Jeremiah or some other prophet. And then of course Christ turns to Peter and the other disciples and He says, “Who do ye say that I am?” Peter was supernaturally blessed by being given a spiritual revelation from God. So Peter replied to Jesus, “Thou are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And what does Christ say in Matthew 16:17? “And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”
Simon Peter was not ignorant of the most important fact in the world. But all the others were! All of these who made their confession, that this man was John the Baptist, or Elijah—they were all blinded. They thought of Christ at best as some mere man raised from the dead. But Simon Peter gave a true confession. All the others were misled by their own blinded heart—but Simon Peter was able to understand the “mystery of godliness: God was manifest [INCARNATE] in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16). This is what Peter believed. It was no mystery to him. Flesh and blood did not reveal this unto Peter. The Father revealed to Peter that Jesus Christ was God coming in the flesh as 1 Timothy 3:16 says. Peter understood the mystery of godliness, the incarnation, that Jesus Christ who created the world came into this world. That He was the Son of the Living God, the Messiah, the Christ. And flesh and blood did not reveal this unto him. A university does not reveal that unto people. A family does not reveal that unto people. It is the Father who reveals it. It is a sovereign revelation.
d. So it must be a sovereign revelation because of man’s blindness. But secondly, it is a Sovereign Revelation, because of man’s BOASTING!
In the presence of God, there is absolutely no room for boasting. Look at 1 Corinthians 1. It is God who reveals His will. He makes known unto us the mystery of His will. There is no room for boasting because it is all of God; it is all of grace. This revelation of salvation is totally and utterly from God, and must be from Him, or else there is cause for glorying in human effort. Look at 1 Corinthians 1:26 and following, “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: 27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:” Why does God do this? We see in verse 29, “That no flesh should glory in his presence….31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. We have nothing to boast of in salvation. What is the difference between myself and my family member or my neighbor who is still dead in his trespasses and sins? Why hasn’t he come out of the grave? The answer is one word: GRACE. “He compassions who He wants to compassion. He mercies who he wants to mercy” (Romans 9:15ff). That’s literally what Romans 9 says. It is grace and boasting is excluded.
Look at the next chapter, 1 Corinthians 2:7-10. Paul is talking to people who were greatly influenced by the Greeks. “The great quest of the Greeks was for wisdom; the great quest of all philosophers is for knowledge and for understanding; they try to find God and to understand Him and the world, but, ‘The world by wisdom knew not God’ [1 Corinthians 1:21]. The world’s wisdom is not of God. But, says, Paul, ‘we speak the wisdom of God.’”[2] So look here in verse 7 of 1 Corinthians 2. We read, “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery,” Again, a mystery is that which man cannot comprehend without the aid of God. “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. He makes known to us the mystery of His will sovereignly by His Spirit! There is no room for boasting. All glory goes to the sovereign Spirit, for “God hat revealed unto us” the mystery of His will “by his Spirit.” “No man” by nature understands “the things of God” apart from the sovereign Spirit of God. He gives sight to the blind! He turns those who are rebels into babes, He takes those born of the flesh, and gives them new Spiritual life! He does it in His own time and in His own sovereign way!
So we see the Revelation of our Salvation. What is this mystery? It is not only speaking of the blindness of man to the will of God…
2. It speaks to the BLINDNESS of man to the PLAN of God.
What is the plan? Well, Paul introduces the mystery of God’s will in Ephesians 1:9-10, but then he expands it in Ephesians chapter 3. God sovereignly reveals the “mystery of His will” now not just on a personal level, but on a worldwide level. (Stay with me now! Put your theological waders on—we’re going deep! It really isn’t as hard as you think it is!).
Look over at Ephesians 3:4-6 and listen, “Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.” What’s that? What’s this thing that was hidden from man which was not revealed until now? What is it? Verse 5, “Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit…” What is this mystery? Verse 6, “That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel….” So Paul’s not only revealing the mystery of the will of God, he’s now revealing the mystery of the plan of God!
B. Here we see that it is not only a Sovereign Revelation, but it is a SATISFIED or Fulfilled Revelation.
In the Old Testament, it as if we see the scaffolding around the building. You saw the types and the shadows; you saw the sacrifices, the ceremonies, and all of the old covenant ordinances. And what did they point to? They pointed to Jesus Christ. Sinclair Ferguson said this, “When Christ came the scaffolding fulfilled its purpose. It has now been dismantled. Now the mystery behind the scaffolding stands revealed. We now understand why the scaffolding was shaped as it was. It was Christ-shaped. His coming has been God’s purpose all along.”[3] So now in the New Testament the scaffolding is taken away, and the building is seen, and Christ is the Head, and there is a body. The body began in the Old Testament. The church had it’s beginnings in the Old Testament. That is exactly what the Scripture says in Ephesians 3 and verse 6 again, “That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body.” That is what the theologians would call Paul’s “ecclesiology,” his doctrine of the church. So he says “the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.” They had the promises of Christ. They looked forward to Christ, and now the Gentiles have been added. This is a secret that has been revealed.
So this mystery was that the Gentiles would be fellowheirs with the saints of the Old Testament and we are one body! This was a mystery in the OT. The revelation is the same, but the
So we see the Revelation of Salvation. Then we seethe Motivation for salvation.
II. Then, we see God’s MOTIVATION for Salvation.
A. God is motivated by His Sovereign Pleasure. “According to his good pleasure.”
1. Good-perfect-omipotent, sovereign. Why did God allow me to hear the Gospel? Why did He allow me to be saved? Well, look at Ephesians 1:9. It says that God “made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself.” “Good” is such a non-descriptive word in English. We are so loose with its use. When people ask you how you are doing, “Well, I’m good.” How’s your hamburger? It’s good. What does “good” mean? Well, in reference to God in this context, it means “perfect”. It means infinite. In a sense, God’s sovereignty, His omnipotence, rules over everything that God is. Everything that God is, is infinite. God is omni-everything. His love is sovereign. His mercy is omnipotent. His holiness is omnipotent. What does all that mean? No one can stop God from being holy or loving, or merciful. Not only that, but all of God’s attributes are PERFECT, INFINITE, SOVEREIGN-they are without end and cannot be improved upon. That is the sense of “good” that we come to in our text when referring to God’s pleasure. But what is God’s pleasure?
2. Pleasure-The theological idea of pleasure is a synonym for another familiar word of five letters: G-R-A-C-E, grace. This speaks of the free, unmerited, unprovoked desire of God to have compassion and mercy on those who deserve the worst He can offer them. This is God’s pleasure. It is an infinite pleasure. It is His sovereign pleasure to be merciful to a people chosen in Christ.
Not only do we see that God is motivated by His sovereign pleasure, we also see…
B. God is motivated by His Sovereign Purpose. The latter part of Ephesians 1 and verse 9 says that this sovereign pleasure is that pleasure “which he purposed in Himself.” What does that word “purpose” mean? We have all kinds of strange ideas about purpose. We have this book out--it’s called “The Purpose Driven Life.” It has a lot of man-centered ideas in it. But our lives are truly purpose driven—not by that which we decide, but by that which God decides. The idea of purpose is not only something meaningful, but also of volition, will, purpose. “I purpose, I will, I decide, I am going to do such and such a thing.”
Application: So who decided that you would understand “the mystery of His will”? Who decided that? God did. How do we know that? The text says that God graced us with a salvation through Jesus blood—but what motivated Him? It was a salvation “which He purposed in Himself…” “…according to his good pleasure.” According to His sovereign grace! He wanted to do this because He’s God. He’s merciful, He’s omnipotent, He’s love—He lavished all this on you! Aren’t you glad? He came up with this without any human assistance. He purposed it in Himself! That is the motivation for our salvation.
There is nothing in you to make you worthy for salvation! It’s Christ alone! Why me Lord is a question we will never stop asking!
III. Thirdly, we see the Consummation of Salvation. Look at verse number ten of chapter one. He purposed all this in Himself for this ultimate purpose found in verse 10. This is the consummation of all things. By the way, consummation means the “summation, the end, the last page.” Don’t you love the last page of a book. I got a Christian novel and it was just an interesting title, and I started read the first chapter, and I thought, “I’ve gotta see what’s gonna happen.” So, I went to the last chapter. I have to confess that I had to find out how it ended. Well here is the consummation of our salvation.
A. So we see God’s planning of the consummation right here in verse 10, “That in the dispensation…” This word “dispensation” has been terribly abused in our churches. Do you know what this word means? It means the detailed plan, the economy, of God. Don’t make it to mean something that is not in the context of God’s Word. The context here is the plan of God, “That in the dispensation…” that is, the economy, that detailed plan of God.
B. Then we see God’s point of time for the consummation. This economy will consume when time is finished— “of the fulness of times…” That is, there’s going to be an end to these times. There’s going to be a juncture when time is at the rim, and it is full. And there will not be another day, another, hour, another second on planet earth as we know it.
C. Finally we see God’s people will be gathered together! In “the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ…” How is He going to do that? Throughout the Scriptures we read that Christ will come again and destroy this earth. The elements will melt with fervent heat. And Christ will gather all. And He will have the goats, the lost on His left hand, and His sheep, His elect, on His right hand. And all of the wicked men that have ever lived, they who have rejected Christ, who know not Jesus Christ, all of the non-elect angels (the demons), all of those will be put forever in the Lake of Fire and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. And all of Christ’s enemies, where will they be? Under His feet!
All of those whom God has designed to have mercy on will be spared. And I hope it is everyone in this neighborhood, in my neighborhood, and in your neighborhood. I hope that we can fill this church house with people that God Himself will convert—not that I will convert, not that you will convert, but that the Spirit of God Himself will convert, and both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.”
What a revelation! What a motivation! What a consummation!
Conclusion: Is God’s plan a mystery to you? What are you doing with what God has revealed to you? Are you a Christian? You need to repent of your sin and come to Christ. Has this been revealed to you yet? This is God’s will!
Perhaps you are a believer and you know God’s will in Christ. It is not a mystery to you any more. Are you evangelizing? Are you doing God’s will in the Great Commission every day?
Closing Hymn: 21 Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow