The Mysteries of Christ

What a delight to be with you today, my wonderful partners, my family. I want to talk to you today about the mystery of Jesus. You know, in Ephesians chapter 3, Paul talks about the mystery of Christ and the unsearchable riches of Jesus. Lord, thank you for your word.

To you be all the praise, all the glory, all the honor. And God's precious people said, "Amen." And amen. And thank you for being my wonderful family. Let's begin reading at Ephesians 3. So take your Bibles and let's begin at verse one. For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles.

If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me towards you to your word, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery as I wrote a four in a few words. Of course that mystery was that God would bring the Gentiles into the church.

But keep listening. Whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of man, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit, that God would bring the Gentiles to be a part of the church, that the Gentiles should be fellows of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and I love verse n and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world have been hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.

Let me just also read verse verse 11 because it fits right in. according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. So the mystery of Jesus is found only through the word of God through the scripture. And I have come to the conclusion that we cannot find it until we come to the place we see our emptiness and we deny self.

And now we begin to see the beauty of the Lord. And only then can we really begin to see what Paul says in verse eight, the unsearchable riches of Jesus. Because you know when we begin to see our imperfections, our inabilities, our weaknesses, only then can we begin to long to see his divine perfection.

I remember David Duplex years ago, a wonderful man of God. I was in my 20s when I met him. He was known as Mr. Pentecost. And I had the privilege to meet him one day and to walk him to his room in Brockville, Ontario at a conference. And I I thought to myself, here I'm walking with this giant of the faith.

What question can I ask? And so I said to him, we all called him Mr. Pentecost. I said, "Mr. Pentecost, imagine calling a man that, but he was so honored. I said, how can I please God? I want to please the Lord so much. How can I? And I'll never forget how he stopped.

He put his briefcase down on the floor, walking down the hallway to his room. He put his finger in my chest and pushed me to the wall. And said, "It's not your ability. It's God's ability in you." Then he walked away and said, "Good night." And I was looking at him.

Did not understand what he meant by back then. Of course, today I do. And when when when you come to that place where you see how weak you are, your inability to please the Lord, your inability to pray, your inability to surrender and so on and so forth, then you you you begin to cry out.

You begin to long for his help, his fellowship. Now you begin to understand it's not you but it's Christ living in you. And that's the key. That's the secret. And Paul talks about this as the mystery, the mystery of Jesus. And then I believe we begin to search the scriptures.

And this is what happened to me. This is what happened to me. You know, I've always loved the word of God. I've always loved the word of God. But it was about oh 13 14 years ago now at least I think that I made a decision to read my Bible four times sorry three times I should say how I wish three times every year every four months one time through I've been doing it ever since I read from Genesis to Revelation every four months and I could go back and reread and reread the whole Bible It's changed my life.

It has changed my life. What a mighty God. What a mighty God we serve. So, you know, when when when I began reading the Bible like like this, I really began to search the scriptures for one person, the Lord. After a while, you know, how many times can you read about Adam and Eve and the fall and Noah and the ark and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Joseph and the amazing, beautiful stories of the Old Testament and and so much more.

But if you're not looking for Jesus, you're missing it. Because it says in 2 Corinthians that we behold the Lord through his word and he begins to change us from glory to glory as we behold as in a glass his glory and the glass the mirror is the word of God.

And so it says in John 5:39, "Search the scriptures for in them ye think you have eternal life." The Lord is speaking to the people of Israel. But they are they which testify of me. They testify. The word of God testifies of the wonders of the Lord, his wondrous perfection, his his glory, uh the glory of his offices, and the finished work of Calvary, the the resurrection from the dead, and his ascension to heaven and his glory and his second coming and so much more. and you begin to see it all in the Old Covenant.

Now you're reading the Old Testament and the scales begin to come off slowly. You know, I've read Micah 5 verse one and two and so on where you read about the Lord's suffering in verse one and then the Lord's birth in verse two. But sometimes you miss verse three because it it really talks about how how he will walk away from his people and then return.

But then I I I began to see it only recently. I'm thinking, wait, there's more in this beautiful chapter, you know, about the Lord. It's an ongoing revelation of the of the Lord that just doesn't stop. So, you know, there's many many hidden scriptures in the old covenant.

You are not going to see the Lord when you read the Bible only once or even twice or three times. You have to read and read and keep reading. It's an ongoing beholding, continuous beholding Jesus in his precious and wonderful word because apart from scripture, he cannot be known.

You know, if someone would ask me today, what lesson have I learned? Here's what I've learned. Only the scriptures reveal the Lord. Only the scriptures will keep you strong in the Lord. Only the scriptures will help you live the Christian life in fullness. Only the word of God.

We need to know the word of God. Every part of it from Genesis 1:1 to the last verse of re of Revelation 22. We have to know it and we have to feed upon it every single day we live and we have to read it the entire Bible.

Even the portions that you don't understand in time you will understand them. If you're looking for Jesus, if you're not, you'll never understand the Bible. It just won't make sense to you. You're frankly wasting your time if you're not looking for the Lord in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, remember the early church did not have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

The early, you know, the early church did not have the book of Acts and the epistles. They found the Lord in Genesis and in Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy and throughout the whole Old Testament. They found him in Leviticus. They found him in the difficult portions that you have struggled with.

But in time, it'll all clear up. So only through the word of God, the Holy Spirit now begins to reveal the mystery of Jesus like it says in Ephesians. Let's go back to Ephesians 3. Oh, I love this. And you know, tomorrow's program is going to really thrill you because you you you may just be crying listening tomorrow.

In Ephesians 3:4, whereby it says Ephesians 3 verse4 you may when you read you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ whereby when you read to read what Paul is writing he was writing scripture when we read when we read we understand the knowledge of the mystery of Christ because Paul says says when you read, you've got to read.

And he's telling me to read what he's writing that God is giving to him. And all the epistles are the word of God, too. Remember that. In second Peter, in second Peter, let's go to second Peter chapter 3 verse 18. So beautiful. Because only then can we grow, you know, grow in grace.

When you begin to see the Lord in scripture, you grow in grace. It says, "But grow in grace." Second Peter 3:18, "Grow in grace and in the knowledge and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever." And you know, and he starts his epistle, grace and truth is be multiplied to you through the knowledge through the knowledge of the Lord.

This is very important. to know Jesus must become our supreme longing. And when it becomes our supreme longing like like with with with with with Paul uh you will you will begin to to cry out. You'll begin to cry out as Paul himself began to cry out this most blessed portion in Philippians.

Let's go to Philippians, by the way, chapter 3, and let's look at verse 10. This is a longing that I believe will happen to every one of us when we begin looking in the scriptures that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. I believe Paul studying the old covenant came to that knowledge.

He wanted to know more that I may know him. And think about this that that he studied, you know, under Galio. He knew the Old Testament really well, but he did not have the Holy Spirit. He he he he had no revelation of of the Lord in the Old Covenant.

But then one day when he was saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, now he he began to see the Lord and his cry was that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. So when we begin to know this this knowledge, you know, it is not known intellectually.

You cannot know the Lord intellectually only spiritually. And when it is spiritual, it becomes personal. To know the Lord intellectually, you you're going nowhere. In fact, people who who want to know the Lord intellectually end up drying up because there's no spiritual life behind it. But when you ask the Holy Spirit to help you to to to show you the Lord in the old covenant, oh, you know, everything changes.

It becomes supernatural knowledge given by the spirit and he begins to reveal the Lord through his word and we begin to behold him now through his blessed word by his spirit. Now you remember what it says in 2 Corinthians. I just mentioned that earlier but I want to show it to you in 2 Corinthians 3:17.

It says now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. So the Holy Spirit is the one that helps us. It says, "But we with but we all with open face meaning no veil beholding as in a glass or mirror the glory of of the Lord and the Bible is our mirror.

The glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to to glory even as by the spirit of the Lord." So the Holy Spirit reveals the Lord through his word but it depends on our need. Listen, listen, listen to me. In Exodus 17, sorry, it's 16:17, I should say.

In Exodus 16:17, we we we see the portion when when mana when when God sent mana from heaven, it says that some gathered more and some gathered less. So it says, "And the children did so and gathered some more and some less." Why? Well, because it depended on hunger and need.

So they went out looking for the mana and some said, you know, I don't need as much today. And some said, I really would like more. And I think with us, we believers, I think it's the same. You know, the Lord has given us his fullness. It says in John 1:16, "Of his fullness have all we received.

Grace for grace. We've all received of his fullness. Grace for grace. The fullness of Jesus is available to you. It's available to all of us. But I think I think sometimes our hunger isn't there and and um our uh our strength isn't there. uh it says be strong in the grace of God.

I think sometimes people when they when they ignore scripture they become weak in the grace of God. And and in second Timothy in second Timothy Paul says to Timothy uh be strong grow in the grace. Grow in the grace. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 1 and two he says therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and then he he he he says how he gives him the secret he says and the things that you have heard of me the things you've learned you the things you've heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who will teach be able to teach others.

So it's all about what you learn from the scriptures. How that that's how you grow in grace. And so the children of Israel went out Exodus 16:17 every day looking for the man. It it didn't show up in their tent. They they had to go get it. Like with with God's word, we have to go search the scriptures.

We have to go look for it. We we we have to go somewhere else and look for it. You know, God doesn't just bring it to our tent, you know. We have to search, we have to look, we have to work, we have to study, we have to read, we have to to give God the time to work with us.

And so it's so important that that we do that. So they had to leave their tents and walk quite a way. Some of them think about 3 million people, you know, going looking for for for the mana. That's a lot of people. It's like a big city, you know.

And then it says some gathered little, some gathered more because of hunger. So where is your hunger level? I know where mine is now, but where is your hunger level? What are you looking for in your Christian life? Tomorrow you're going to hear a lot from me about what I'm looking for and what the the the end the end result will be.

The end result will be of all this longing and searching. So Jesus said, "Search." And you begin to search and that longing gets into your heart for more and more and more and more. In second Peter 3, in second Peter, let's go to it. I'm hoping you're writing all this down. verse 18 verse 18 he says grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord.

So you cannot really grow in grace without getting to know him deeper and better. So when you see your need for the Lord and a lot of people don't but when you see your need for the Lord in every area of of your life then and only then you'll go to the Bible.

I think the reason many don't read the Bible is because they see no need for the Lord. They may say, "I need Jesus." Well, you'll not find him without his word. You'll not see him without his word. And then the word of God reveals him by the spirit and you begin to grow.

And you know, I'm not talking to you about growing in religion and becoming religious. No, no, no. You know, remember the religious people back 2,000 years ago fought the Lord and resisted the Lord and and and you know at the end said crucify him. The Pharisees of old wanted to stop him and they fought him and so on.

And and and the Pharisees of old who were so religious, they did not even know they needed him. They did not even know they were lost. They did not even realize they they they they needed salvation. They thought they were, you know, perfect, that they were righteous and holy, and they were not.

The Bible says in Isaiah 64:6, all human righteousness is filthy rags. And sometimes when someone says, "Well, I want to know God." and they're they're they're looking for him uh mentally. They're looking for him in the flesh. They're looking for him intellectually. They study books and they read the Bible, but they're not really led by the spirit at all to know him.

To know him. And they begin to worship doctrine rather than the Lord. They begin to worship doctrine rather than the Lord. and they become very legalistic. Those are the kind of people who don't know how to forgive, don't know how to forget people's mistakes. They are the ones who will judge you.

They are the ones who can never say, "I'm sorry." They are they are the ones who will never say that that they were wrong. They're the ones who are always putting you down. So these are religious people and they've been there for a long time, thousands of years.

Because I think the more the Holy Spirit deepens his work in us, and I'm talking about his work of grace in us, the more we we will begin to see our pollution really, the more we begin to see our sinfulness, how vile we are, how weak we are.

Like Isaiah said, "Lord, I'm I'm a man of unclean lips." You know, when he saw the glory in Isaiah, when Peter saw the Lord, he said, "Lord, depart from me. I'm a sinful man." The minute the glory of God re is revealed to us, we we we see our our sins.

We see our darkness. We we see how how how uh polluted we we are. And we long to be free. And we ask the Lord to deliver us. And and and the more we discover our weakness and the more we discover our inability to please the Lord and to live a holy life, we we cry out and now our need for the blood of Jesus becomes great.

Our need to know the power of the cross becomes great. Our need to be cleansed by the blood from our sins become great. our our repentance becomes real, you know, and and and we begin to call upon the Lord for deliverance from the flesh. We begin to call upon the Lord to deliver us from self.

We begin to hate self like uh Job said, "I abhore myself," he said. And Paul said, "Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of destruction and death?" You come to the place in your life where you hate self. You hate your sin.

That's the difference between those who are walking with God and those who don't want to walk with God. Those who are believers hate their sin. Those who are not believers love their sin. Love their sin. And that's how you can tell the difference. People who hate their sin are confessing their sin to God, crying out for forgiveness and deliverance.

But those who love their sin want to keep doing more and they pay a lot of money to keep it. Now by the scriptures, by the scriptures, the Holy Spirit will open our eyes wider and wider to see the Lord who died for us. to see the Lord who died for undeserving men and women.

To see the Lord who rose from the dead, who who through the the scriptures uh begins and continues to reveal to us his beauty and glory. And as we see our need now for the Lord, uh we we we begin to walk daily with him and and our walk now uh begins we we begin to experience his life every single day in our walk daily with him.

And Jesus begins to change us. And he always begins on the inside. God always begins from the inside out, never from the outside in. When he gave Moses the plans for the tabernacle, he he began with the ark of the covenant. God begins from the inside out. And with us, he always begins from the inside out.

He changes our hearts. That's what changes our life. You know, I I I heard years ago a statement made by Richard Nixon was quite powerful. He said, "Communism teaches that if you change the surroundings of a man, you'll change the man." He said, "Liberty says if you change the man, you'll change his surroundings."

I like that because it's it's it's based on the Bible. Liberty is based on the Bible. If you change the man, if you change the heart of the man, you'll change his surroundings. And that's what God does. He begins on the heart. Tomorrow, I want to continue this beautiful teaching on the mysteries of of the Lord, knowing the unsurpable riches of Jesus through his word.

Lord, I thank you for your love. I thank you for your grace. Open our hearts. open our eyes that we might behold your glory through your precious word. Amen. And amen. Well, join me tomorrow. It's going to be a very moving teaching. I because I know what's coming.

I'm going to have Lucas with me to read scripture because I'll give you a lot more when he or Jackson are with me. And I need you to be partners with me. I'm going to ask you to stand with me and become a partner. I know many of you are are praying and supporting, but I need more partners.

Will you please become a partner to help me go around the world? And and today, the Lord has opened all of Africa uh for me to travel throughout the continent in Africa to hold massive crusades again. So, if you'll become a partner, which is only $30 a month, a dollar a day, that that would would help me go to the nations, especially Africa.

And and for that we would like to give you a gift uh through our website you can have a nice digital download of 12 beautiful uh ministry songs from the crusades that will really really bless you. This is just our thank you to you. So let let the Lord speak to you about that.

And you know if you feel different that's fine. You can just give a onetime gift and the Lord will really honor you for that because it says honor the Lord with your substance and the first fruits of all your increase. So shall thy bonds be filled with plenty.

Your presses will burst out with new wine. But we're doing it for for the lost. We're going to win the lost more than ever. Hallelujah. Don't miss tomorrow another powerful powerful program. Much love. Bye-bye. >> These are the last days. If you are a Christian, you must stay alert.

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