The Mystery Revealed!

Well, the title of our study for the sermon is The Mystery Revealed. The Mystery Revealed. Now, like us all, to open our Bibles together to Ephesians chapter 3, if you will. Ephesians chapter 3, as we are going to build the foundation of our study with the first 21 verses here of Ephesians 3. Ephesians 3 verses 1 through 21.

Now, I find in my section of the New King James Bible here some titles that are given. And it actually breaks this section into three sections, this part of Scripture. Now, we know these titles are not part of the original scriptural text, of course, but maybe your Bible has what mine has in it. I have verses 1 through 7 with the title, The Mystery Revealed. And then I have verses 8 through 13, The Purpose of the Mystery. And then finally, verses 14 through 21 is titled, The Appreciation of the Mystery. So what are we dealing with in these 21 verses?

We're dealing with the mystery here, as described by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesians. So this is going to be interesting. So let's read these first 21 verses together here and begin our study. Verse 1, Verse 8, Verse 14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, That Christ might dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints What is the width, the length, and the depth, and the height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God?

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, To Him be the glory in the church by Jesus Christ to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Quite a passage here, isn't it? This mystery! A mystery! So what do we have here? What does this tell us? Well, first of all, we see that Paul here, in verses 7-8, explains who he is.

Who is Paul? Well, he's a minister of the riches of Jesus Christ. That's what it says in verses 7-8. He's a minister of the riches of Christ, and these are unsearchable riches. In other words, these are riches that man could not find by themselves. They're unsearchable. So this is not like an Agatha Christie book, if some of you are familiar with that. This is not something that we could figure out. If we could just be given enough clues, we could figure out this mystery.

Now, this mystery is unsearchable, and it only comes to us as a result of God's revelation. That's what Paul's saying. And he's made a minister of God by his grace. He's been made effective as a result of God's power. So we see that in here in verses 7-8, a minister according to the gift of grace by God, effective by the working of his power. Verse 8, he recognizes himself to be the less than the least of the saints, but this grace was given to him that he should preach among the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ.

So here it is. Paul is saying it's a remarkable thing here, that God, through his grace, would make my words effective here with his power, and has given me the privilege and the ability to preach this to the Gentiles so that they might hear these unsearchable riches. So that's part one. That's part one of Paul. But then he says there's a part two here that comes next, and it's verse nine. So that was his first responsibility. Here's part two of his responsibility. Verse nine, it's to reveal a mystery. Verse nine, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ.

So part two of his responsibility is to shed light for everyone on that is the mystery that God has hidden since the beginning of the ages. God has hidden this mystery. So this is what we're going to focus on today, this mystery. And we're going to ask two questions. First, we want to be clear what is the mystery?

What is the mystery he speaks about? And we'll spend the most time on that question. Then we'll spend a little bit of time at the end on how does this affect my life? How in knowing the mystery, how does it affect my life? So first of all, what is this mysterious plan that's been revealed to Paul for him to give to us?

Well, Paul began this letter in Ephesians by making the revelation perfectly clear. It's really the whole purpose as to why he writes this letter. So let's go back a few chapters, back to chapter 1, if you will. Ephesians chapter 1 here, in verse 3 through 6, as he unravels what is the mystery here, very clearly to his readers. See if you can pick up on it. He's answering the question, what is the mystery? So Ephesians 1, verse 3 through 6. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace by which He has made us accepted in the beloved.

Stop there. So what's the mystery? What's the mystery? Well, at the core is verse 4 and 5, the core of the mystery here. The mystery is the fact that God's plan for humanity. It is a plan that involves Him choosing individuals before the foundation of the world. In other words, the very essence of the mystery of this plan involved God choosing individuals to have access to become sons and daughters of Him, and He chose these individuals before these individuals were even formed, before they were even created. That's the mystery. Verse 5 reiterates this. Look at verse 5. It refers to this predestining of individuals for this purpose. Verse 5, having predestined us to the adoptions as sons and daughters by Jesus Christ to Himself.

So again, it is a plan that involves the choosing and the predestining of individuals for this purpose. This is the essence of the mystery. We want to be very clear about this. What does this mean, then, for an individual, for someone to come to have access to becoming a son or a daughter of God? It's this question, how does someone come into the opportunity of becoming a son of God?

Or a daughter of God, of course. What is it that awakens a person to this opportunity? Again, it's the question, how do we have this opportunity of entering into God's family as a son or a daughter? How does that happen? Well, it's very clear here. The first thing to note in beginning to unravel the mystery is it begins with God.

It all begins with God. You'll notice verse 3 again. Blessed be the God of our Father and of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. So again, what's so striking about this mystery as it begins to unravel is that it begins with God. And that is striking because so much of religions these days, it doesn't begin with God at all. In fact, there's very little reference to God in this respect. Most of the time when you see advertisements or articles and that kind of thing, you'll see the titles that say, The Search for God.

I know you've seen that or something like that title. We're supposed to believe that everyone in the universe is actually looking for God. And some find Him and some don't.

Some find Him, but unfortunately some don't. They've been looking all over the place. And they will say the story of religion is man trying to find God. But when you look at the Bible, you find the absolute reverse is the truth. Absolute reverse. When you look at the Bible, it begins with God calling out to man. The Bible says that God takes the initiative with man. It is God who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. And so if you look at the verbs here in this section, it can actually be pretty helpful in this section. Look at these verbs here. We'll just look at a few. Verse 3. See if you see this. Verse 3. It starts with God. He has blessed us. Verse 4. He chose us. Verse 5. He predestined us. Verse 7. We have redemption through Him. Forgiveness according to the riches of His grace. And finally, verse 8. He made to abound toward us. All wisdom and prudence. Another translation there in verse 8 is, He lavished upon us.

So the unraveling of the mystery begins with God. All these things are in His plan. He initiates this plan. With men and women to join His family as sons and daughters. Again, verse 5. Having predestined us. He having predestined us. According to the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ to Himself. According to the good pleasure of His will. So it's all wrapped up in the pleasure of His will. His will. So there it is. Unmistakable. So again, in beginning to unravel the mystery, we recognize it as God who initiates the opportunity for a man or a woman to become a son or a daughter of God. Starts with God. His initiator. He's the initiator. And you see the source of this blessing. You'll notice that. Who's the catalyst for this blessing? If God's the initiator, who's the catalyst? Well, it's Jesus Christ. That's verse 3. He says God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing. In Christ. So how does the blessing become ours? What's the catalyst? Verse 4. That He God, verse 4, He God chose us in Him. That's Christ. God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that is staggering. It's a staggering thought there. So God predestined us in Christ. It's not some kind of historical afterthought. Actually, the resolve goes all the way back to eternity. Before creation. He predestined. He chose you. And Paul, seemingly, is overwhelmed by this as it unfolds. If you read Paul's words, he realizes in other places this fact. And he's just overwhelmed by it. And you'll hear him say and acknowledge, he's a wretch. He was so smug, self-satisfied, self-righteous, convinced he had it all right. We read there previously in chapter 3 here of Ephesians, in verse 8, where he acknowledges he's the less than the least of the saints. And in chapter 3, verse 8. And he says, this is the mystery. What a mystery it is, Paul says, that I would be chosen, predestined to have my eyes opened to understand this mystery. He can't even comprehend it, it seems, at certain times in Scripture. That his eyes would be open to understand the mystery that had been hidden by God.

And again, that's why you go back into chapter 3, verse 14. He says, I bow my knees. It's almost like he can't even stand anymore. What's this? It's fully hitting him. I bow my knees, he says. So think about what's going through Paul's mind when he writes this letter. He who abused God, misinterpreted God, rebelled against God. He is the one who chose me in him since the foundation. And it's an amazing revelation for Paul, way back then. And I hope it's an amazing revelation for each of you here today. Amazing revelation. Now, it's almost inevitable someone will put up their hand and say, wait, wait, wait. Wasn't I the one who decided? Didn't I make a decision here? Yes. You did make a decision in your life. No doubt about that. But there's also no doubt that you would have never even been able to make the decision if God hadn't decided on you first since before you were even ever created. This is a mystery revealed to Paul. And that alone, what we've just talked about in just the very first few minutes here, it remains a mystery for so many men and women. So many are baffled, even great religious thinkers of our time. John Stott, who was an English Anglican priest and he was a noted leader of the worldwide evangelical movement, he wrote concerning this. He called it, John Stott called it, the mystery of election. But he wrote, quote, Scripture nowhere dispels the mystery of election. And it is not likely that we shall discover a simple solution to the problem which has baffled the best brains of Christendom for centuries. Unquote. So you see this doctrine right here? It's right in the meat of the Bible. They can't get around it. They read it. They have to deal with it. But in a sense, it's almost hidden in plain sight. And we understand why. But Paul tells us why. Unless God takes the initiative with a man or a woman, it will remain a mystery. Again, the best spiritual minds we could say of our day, they're unable to unravel the knot unless God unravels it for them. So simply stated, the mystery is this. The mystery is this. It's that God has predestined and chosen only some to understand the riches of Christ at this time. I hope that blows your mind. It still should. I'll repeat that. The mystery is that God has predestined and chosen only some to understand, to truly understand the riches of Jesus Christ at this time.

The mystery unraveled. God is not calling everyone to Himself at this time. He's not calling everyone to understand the mysteries that He has hidden.

The mystery unravels here that God is calling men and women to Himself. He's not at this time calling everyone. Again, God has not chosen and predestined everyone, only some to understand now. He's chosen and predestined only some to have the true knowledge of Him, the true purpose of humanity. The mystery revealed. So that's why Paul...you'll notice who Paul writes to here in chapter 1 and verse 1. Who is he writing to? He's writing to the saints. Chapter 1, verse 1, to the saints who are in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus. To the saints. It is to the saints to whom he writes. Who are the saints? Those to whom God has chosen and predestined men and women to whom he writes. Those to whom have been given the opportunity to have their eyes opened, their ears opened, to the mystery. And when you see it this way, when you have this mystery unveiled, you can see this. Look at verse 4. This is who Paul writes to. Just as he chose us, he says, to whom? The saints. In Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to the adoption as sons by Jesus Christ Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of His glory, of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the beloved. Again, it's a great mystery, baffling mystery. And it not only baffles men and women today, it baffled men and women back then. It's been a baffling mystery since the very beginning of Christ's public ministry. You see, Paul, he was only continuing the task of unraveling these things. The initial unraveling began with Jesus Christ Himself. And the remarkable thing is, we have the very moment in which Jesus Christ unlocked this very mystery. We have the very moment in which Jesus Christ unlocked this actually recorded for us. And it's fascinating. Wait till you see this. Turn to Matthew 13, verse 10, if you will. Matthew 13 and verse 10. Let's see this. Now, as you turn there, let me set the scene for us. This is the moment again in which Christ is about to unravel the mystery here. And this moment occurred when Christ went into a boat, and He pushed out from shore a little bit. He did this. Some say the water helped carry His voice. But He would do this. He would get in a boat often and speak to maybe upwards of thousands of people here. But this time, when Christ began to speak from the boat, the words He began to speak, it shocked His disciples. Absolutely shocked Him. Let me give you a little background. Leading up to this moment, these disciples, they had forsaken so much. Scripture records four of them literally just dropped their fishy nets. They followed Jesus Christ. When Jesus came to them and revealed their purpose, called them to Himself, revealed their destiny, they dropped their nets, and it was just symbolic of them letting everything go that they knew of their life at that point. And so, at this moment that we're about to break into, those same disciples watched with great excitement and expectation as Christ pushed away from the shore because they thought now was the time for Jesus Christ to clearly reveal to all the mysteries of the kingdom of God and the purposes of His Father to bring many sons to glory and many daughters. Surely, Christ would be telling them this mass is the same message that changed their lives forever. They caused them to drop their nets.

Just the opposite occurred. The disciples now found themselves at this moment confused, frustrated. The words and the teaching methods by which Jesus Christ had taught seemingly drastically changed. It all changed as He now spoke from the boat. Before we read this, here is the issue. Jesus began to speak in parables. Parables? You know what a parable is. A parable is the essence of a parable. It's communication that's designed to make a message not clear. The very essence of a parable is to make a message not clear. So Matthew 13, verse 10, let's pick up the very moment as Jesus answers why He spoke to the masses in parables rather than speaking direct with His message here. Matthew 13, verse 10 through 13. And the disciples came to and said to Him, Why do You speak to them in parables? Here it is. And He answered and said to them, Because it has not been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. But to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given. And he will have abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Let's stop there. Wow! So many would be shocked to consider what Jesus Christ is saying here. It was not His intent to present salvation clearly to every person at that time.

Think about that. It was not His intention to present salvation clearly to every person at that time.

And likewise, it's not His intent to present salvation clearly to everyone today. Rather, His message is meant to only be understood by some now. That's the mystery revealed.

It is a message to only be understood by those to whom God has chosen and predestined to have this mystery revealed to them at this time. Could verse 11 be true? Could this be true? What Christ is saying here? That it's only been given to some to hear and it's only been given to some to understand His message at this time.

Now, the one thing to note here is that teaching in parables, it was intended to not only hide the message, but also came as a result of their spiritual condition of the people. That's shown here in the next statement, a quote from the prophet Isaiah. Look at verse 14 and 15. He quotes Isaiah and applies it to his ministry here, as it applies to his ministry and his words in speaking in parables. Then verse 14, And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive, for the hearts of the people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes have been closed. Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears. Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them. Don't wonder if you see that. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see, lest they should hear. It's what Christ is saying for the most part. People have chosen to allow their hearts to grow dull. They cannot see, they cannot hear, they cannot truly know God. In other words, the message cannot get through. Even Jesus Christ, Son of God in the flesh, couldn't reach many of the people. And He was even killed for what He taught. So then, God deliberately cloaks His message in parables until the time is ready for Him to lift the veil from the majority of mankind. Isn't that amazing to think about? But I want you to notice something here. What does Christ say to His disciples? He says this to you today. But, blessed are your eyes. That's what I want to say to each of you today. Look at verse 16 and 17. But, verse 16, blessed are your eyes, for they see. And your ears, for they hear. For surely I say to you that many prophets, many righteous men, desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. So those closest to Jesus, His disciples, were those to whom God the Father had given to Jesus to hear and to understand. They were those chosen and predestined to receive mentoring, chosen and predestined to receive His teaching, chosen and predestined to receive spiritual healing at this time. As verse 15 said, the disciples had been healed, their eyes and their ears had been healed, so they could understand Christ's teaching about the coming Kingdom and about His purpose to bring many sons and daughters into His family.

The message again, as we mentioned, not understood by many righteous men, prophets who desired to see and hear. Why? Why couldn't they hear? Why couldn't they see? Well, they weren't predestined. They're not predestined at this time to understand. But you sit here today, blessed. Because just like Christ's disciples, you have received the healing of your ears and your eyes to understand Christ's words now.

But, but, we know... what do we know about God? Very important.

God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. We know that. That's a truth. That's 1 Timothy 2, verse 4. You can turn there if you'd like. 1 Timothy 2, verse 4. Maybe it's important to see this. 1 Timothy 2, verse 4.

1 Timothy 2, verse 4. Speaking of God.

Let your eyes read this. This is important. As we unravel this mystery. 1 Timothy 2, verse 4. God, speaking of God. Who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. So, we know that. So then let's ask. How do we reconcile this? How do you reconcile this? How can the cloaking of his message still result in God bringing many sons and many daughters to the knowledge of his truth and to be saved? How do you reconcile that? How can the cloaking of the message then reconcile with God's desire to bring many sons and daughters to be saved? Bring him into his family, the coming kingdom of God. Well, I'm glad you asked. Because the answer is that he has ordered a step-by-step plan to offer salvation to all of mankind in the most extraordinary way. A way, a plan that will give every person that's ever lived the opportunity to best fulfill their purpose in becoming a son and daughter of God. How will God bring about many sons and many daughters into his family?

Well, Paul, the Apostle Paul, I think that's why he's just so confounded by this. He actually brings clarity to that question in another letter in which he penned. Let's turn there together. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 22. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 22. We're going to see here that Paul, again, in just a few words, is able to further unravel this mystery and to make clear how God is going to bring many to the knowledge of him and to the opportunity to become his son or his daughter. So many eyes are shut to this, to this truth. So let's really get this. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 22-23. This is how we reconcile it. Here's the plan. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 22-23.

But each one in his own order. Christ the firstfruits, afterwards those who are Christ, at his coming. There it is. There it is. Paul reveals it all right there. In Christ all shall be made alive. In Christ all shall be made alive. And then these next words, it should just knock this roof off. The purity and understanding here, this mystery revealed. He continues. But each one in his own order. Each one in his own order. For as an item all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order. That's incredible. After this physical life, in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in their own order. Mind-boggling. The mystery here. Let's read this carefully again. Let's go back up a few verses, though. Read this in this totality here. 1 Corinthians 15. Let's read verses 23-23. It says, chapter 15 verse 20.

Those who are Christ at his coming. So Paul here describes the resurrection, doesn't he? The resurrection is to come for all men in the order of resurrection, commencing with Christ first. He's the first of the first fruits. And then verse 23. Those who are Christ at his coming will be resurrected. And he calls in the first fruits. Profound. These are profound words. Paul's speaking here. Paul speaks here of the first fruit harvest, if he will. So think about this imagery. A spiritual harvest. We can understand harvest, don't we? A spiritual harvest that is occurring. First fruits that God has chosen and predestined in this lifetime to make this mystery clear.

So to those Jesus is likening to a spiritual first harvest happening now, he's the first of the first fruits. To those who are his, those who have had an opportunity to hear and understand now. When they respond properly to the hearing and to the understanding, they will be resurrected at Christ's coming. Christ is the first of the first fruits. He's been raised first.

But then the other first fruits will be raised at his coming. Those who were predestined, chosen to hear and understand, and they responded properly, they will rise at his coming. God is not opening the minds of everyone at this time. This is the mystery he brought from his father. That Christ brought from his father. So you can't speak about these things without turning, of course, to Revelation 20.

So let's turn there now. Revelation 20. And we'll see this resurrecting of the first fruits at Christ's coming spoken of here. It's just the first resurrection here. Revelation 20 in verse 4. This passage of Scripture here in Revelation 20 brings God's picture into completion. And we're about to read here that God speaks of first fruits. But then also we're going to read how he's going to bring all of mankind, everyone who's ever lived back into life in a second resurrection.

Fascinating. Some of us, this truth was what was the most mind-boggling when God opened your eyes. This was it. So let's see here. Revelation 20, verse 4 through 6. Here we see God is faithful. None should perish. None should perish. Revelation 20, verse 4. And I saw thrones, and they set on them, and judgment was committed to them.

Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus, and for the Word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and who had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part of the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power. But they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years.

There it is. So this speaks of the great one thousand year reign of Jesus Christ. Those in the first resurrection will play a vital part. Those who eyes have been opened now, their eyes and ears have been healed. They play a great part in God's work now, and they'll play a vital part in God's work for those thousand years. But what about those described in verse 5? As the rest of the dead did not live again, it says, verse 5, until the thousand years were finished.

Who are these? Who are these? Well, the rest of the dead are those to whom were not chosen and predestined in this life. And the rest of the dead are those to whom they were not chosen and predestined in this life. They weren't chosen and predestined to have the mystery revealed to them. The rest of the dead constitute those who were not Christ at His coming. And they will be those who died, never truly knowing Christ.

This group who died will die without knowing Christ. They're described as standing for the throne of God in the second resurrection. Go down to verse 12. Let's see about this second group, this second harvest. Verse 12 says, And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books.

Let's stop there. So this group, after the thousand years, represents the vast majority of individuals who've ever lived. Many of these people standing before God in this second resurrection will have never even heard the name Jesus Christ. Think about that. Much less believed in Him. Do we think we worship a God who's going to consign those in their ignorance to a never-ending hellfire burning whatever you want to call it?

Is that the God we worship? No. For those who come up in the second resurrection, this is not a second chance. It's actually their first real chance. Billions of people. This will be their first opportunity to truly learn and have God reach out to them for a relationship. A merciful God, not willing that any should perish, reaches out to these individuals with the books opened, these whom the Bible was never truly open to in terms of understanding, brings them back to life, offers an intimate relationship with Him.

It's a powerful display of God's unwillingness that any should perish. Reaches into the graves to offer life to the unsaved masses. So let's make this plan as clearly as we can. Those to whom it was not given to truly understand the riches of Jesus Christ, they represent the vast majority of humanity throughout history. They're not lost.

But in fact, they've never had their first opportunity to understand and be saved. This answers the question. How could God condemn billions of people? Babies, children, those who have died, never matured, those who have never even heard. They were born and they died, never even heard the name Jesus Christ. How could He condemn them? How? The answer is simple. The mystery is, the mystery revealed, God is not calling everyone today to a relationship to Him. He's not calling everyone and neither is He condemning everyone.

Everyone will have their fair and generous opportunity to turn to God, the Father, and Jesus Christ. The knowledge of this later, larger harvest, the second resurrection after the thousand years, it brings absolute clarity to a chaotic world. So many have left God, rejected God, rejected religion over this mystery right here because they can't reconcile it. How's God going to condemn all these people? They never had a chance. Well, you're right. They didn't have a chance yet.

Have you ever wondered, we would ask them, why Christian religion hasn't resolved all these problems? Why hasn't it prevailed over the false philosophies? One would expect when the Son of God comes the first time, one would expect that the very Son of God, that He would usher in a peace that would be everlasting from that point on. After all, it's the Son of God. Why didn't that happen when He came the first time? Why hasn't it happened? Well, it wasn't God's intention. It was never His intent to convert the world to Jesus Christ during this present evil age.

It's His intent to only call a few. If God intended to call everyone at this time, don't you think He would have succeeded? He would have. The fact is, God intends that not everyone is called at this time. God's intent is to convert the world at large, at a later time, after Christ returns, after these thousand years spoken about in Revelation.

So, it is to this knowledge that we, like Paul, bow our knees. We bow to this. Sitting here today, you and I who God has reached out to, we bow to this amazing fact, those who are in Christ. We are in Christ since the dawn of time. He set His affection on us before we even ever were. He said, I'm going to give her an opportunity to understand in their lifetime. I'm going to give Him. Why? Why would He choose you? Why would He choose me? For this opportunity to understand now, the opportunity to be in the first harvest. Well, we're always looking for why. And we're always looking for some reason in ourselves that God made us part of this initial choosing. But the answer is, we don't know. The answer is, He chose you because He loves you. Why does He love me? He loves you.

We won't turn there. But Deuteronomy 7, verse 7 and 8, you can look it up later. God's speaking about His purpose to His people, Israel at that time. It says, God did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than the other people, for you were actually least of all the peoples, but because the Lord loves you. That's why. Because He loves you. Why did He love them? Because He loved them. That's the answer. Well, let's conclude by allowing Paul to give us the totality of it all here. Let's go back to Ephesians 1, if you will. In verse 9 and 10, we'll begin to conclude with this. Ephesians 1, verse 9 and 10, the mystery revealed before us here. Ephesians 1, verse 9 and 10, it says, Having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He has purposed in Himself, and then quite gloriously here in verse 10, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, He might to gather together in one all things, in Christ, both of which are in heaven and which are on earth in Him. So there it is. So the mystery revealed is that while it is true that God has revealed this only to some now, the day is coming in which the dispensation of the fullness of times in which He will gather together all things. All things. It's the wonderful plan of God. We see this in the fall festivals that we're about to observe. The day of a trumpet, Christ's return, the day of atonement, the putting away of Satan, the Feast of Tabernacles, the ushering in of those thousand years of the first fruits, and in the last great day, the eighth day, the resurrection, the second harvest, of all those who never had the books truly open to them. God and His love will offer that to them.

So you see why you and I are humbled by the fact that we have been chosen and predestined to receive this revelation in this time. So we pray God humble us before this mystery. And you'll notice, just very quickly in conclusion, those who have been truly grasped by this, truly understand this, will ask the second question very clearly, very quickly, how does this affect my life? Well, if you've been grasped by this, then you respond and you understand by taking sin seriously. That's how you respond. If you've been chosen since the foundation of the world, you've been chosen since the foundation of the world for a purpose. You're to respond in a certain way. And it's not so you'll be happy. Following God's way, you will be happy. There's no doubt. I'm more happy than I ever was when I was going the other direction. But you've been chosen since the foundation of the world. What does it say here? You've had this revealed to you so that you should respond by being holy and blameless. That's verse four. Just look at this. Go up a few verses. Verse four. To those who have been chosen, look at verse four. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy without blame before Him in love. You'll notice chosen here. Not because we are holy. It doesn't say that. It's whether we'd be chosen or that we might become holy. Not chosen because we are. Chosen so that we will become. All the difference in the world. There's something that's gone dreadfully wrong if we believe that the predestination of God's revelation should result in an individual living however they want to live. Something's gone dreadfully wrong if that's the case. Because if you live in sin, you're not a saint. If you constantly live in sin and give into its pulls and not trying to overcome, you're not a saint. There's an obvious contradiction there. Think about it. Look at the text. If holiness is the purpose of this revelation, then ultimately the only evidence of our understanding the mystery is our holiness. The indication that we've been chosen by God to understand the riches of Jesus Christ. The indication is ultimately in the fact that we're increasingly becoming like His Son. So how does this affect us? What is our response? Well, we bow before God and we submit our lives to Him. We dedicate ourselves to being holy, blameless, before Him in love. We make mistakes. We stand up, resolve, God forgive me, and you go out again. You go out looking to better honor this incredible calling that He's given you and this incredible understanding. Respond in a way that indicates you understand these unsearchable riches. Respond in a way in fulfilling your eternal purposes chosen since you before you even began. Fulfill that purpose. Live a life that you understand these riches. So in conclusion, may we all pray these words here of Paul in verse 3. We'll read these words again and we'll finish with this. May we all pray this tonight. Maybe open your Bible tonight. 2 verse 3 here. Pray these words. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. May we all pray this tonight. May we all pray this tonight.