Transcript for:
Ephesians 3:1,13 -Gods Grace Revealed- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2026-02-01

Would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together? Ephesians chapter three verses one through 13 this morning. 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 has given me to you word, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery as I wrote a four and a few words, 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 men as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit. That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of the 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 to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. To the intent that now, under principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. Wherefore, I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for for you, which is your glory. So father, thank you for your holy word. Thank you for Paul's example. Thank you for his desire to enlighten the church of Ephesus and these epistles that he was able to write as he was in prison, and these prison epistles, Lord. And that the word of God is not bound, and no matter what kind of persecution comes against your church, Lord, we still, tell our dying breath we're able to, proclaim the good news of your coming kingdom. And we thank you how you change our countenance. We thank you for the ability, that Paul and Silas exhibited after being beaten in Philippi and being able to praise you, worship you, sing unto you at midnight and to bring the bring the walls down, Lord. We thank you for the power of your holy spirit in our hearts and lives, Lord, that's undeniable, the transformation and changes that are taking place in our lives. Lord, as you're renewing our minds through the study of your word by the power of your holy spirit. So we pray once again this morning, Lord, as we sit at your feet that you'll open the scriptures unto us, that we'd be able to spot lies, so much propaganda, such a time of great, great deception, and that we'd equip ourselves and be ready to give an answer of the hope that lies within us, Lord, with meekness and with fear, unto people who are perishing, people who are losing all hope as they're watching the world race toward a place of perplexity, a place where there's no way out. So Lord, you're our escape. You're the one that we look to. So bless now, we pray. Minister unto us, your church, your bride. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Would you please be seated? The apostle Paul, having described the reconciling work of Jesus between God and men in chapter two, Paul now explains the grace of God revealed in the formation of the church. Paul is amazed by God's grace. Does God's grace amaze you? God's riches, an acronym for grace. God riches at Christ's expense. Or the definition of grace is God's unmerited favor, in that you don't deserve it, you don't earn it, you can't earn it. It's simply an attribute of who who who he is, in that he's unconditional love, unconditional, unmerited favor. Merit means you're trying to work it, trying to earn it. And a whole lot of us getting caught up in religious systems, and we might be saved, and we understand being saved by grace through faith alone, and we're having a struggle with that because we think, how can God love me when I know I'm not good, when I continue to sin? And so we'll try and, read our bible more and pray more and give more and do this and that and the other more and more and more and and, and then we're expecting God to respond, you know, in some way. And Paul told Timothy they because they think godliness is a means of gain. So early on in my Christian life, I tried to position my life in such a way where I could get into the bless me club by doing everything right, you know, and and and I was working. In a lot of ways, was working rather than just trusting and resting in the finished work of Christ upon the cross of Calvary. So I see it much better now as a grandpa because my grandkids don't need to work me. They don't need to work me. They just show up. Yesterday, we I was I was studying, and, I I prayed, and I said, you know, Lord, it'd be really neat to have the kids come on up today and and hang out for a little while. And about five, ten minutes later, I heard that knock at the door, grandma, grandma, grandma. And so she's over there fixing lunch, and and she just texted me, do you want some chicken? I said, sure. And so, anyway, I got to spend about three, four hours with them, but they weren't they didn't have to work us. They just showed up. And that's what the Lord wants with you and I. Just show up. Just show up and enjoy him and allow him to just pour out his love upon you, you know, and just so fascinating as a grandparent. As a parent, it's kinda hard because we're trying so hard to make these perfect kids, you know, trying to work it, you know. And but as grandparents, I can kinda understand a little bit better, my heavenly father and his grace toward me. And so does God's grace amaze you? Number one, the messenger of God's grace. Notice verse one, the messenger of God's grace. For this cause, I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. Now notice whose prisoner he is. He's in a Roman prison. And he's saying the prisoner of Jesus Christ. Now Rome might, wanna, debate that. They might wanna say, no. We're all authority. He's our prisoner. Paul's saying, no. No. No. No. No. There's a sovereign, an almighty sovereign above you guys, and I'm here because of God's will. God has put me here according to his plan and his purposes, and I'm I've been apprehended by Jesus Christ. So I'm I'm his prisoner. And so the prisoner of Jesus Christ, in Ephesians four verse one, Paul said, of the Lord. He's a prisoner of the Lord. In Ephesians six twenty, he said, he's an ambassador in bonds. So picture an ambassador at the UN, ambassador to The United States at another, you know, a consulate in a foreign country and all, an ambassador in bonds. So I may be in bonds in Caesar's Palace, I'm representing Jesus here in Caesar's Palace, and by the way, I've got some chains on my feet. And Philippians one verse 12, he said, I would you should understand brethren that the things which happen unto me have fallen out rather under the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ Jesus are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. So he's not just in a little whole bunk town, a little tiny jail as an unknown. This is the great apostle Paul, formerly Saul of Tarsus, and he's in a Roman jail with Festus and Felix and King Agrippa and Bernice, and now he's appealing to Caesar. He's at Caesar's palace. Right? And, in all the palace, everybody that's there, there's a buzz about this guy. Paul, you know, the apostle Paul, what is it about him that everywhere he goes, he turns the world upside down? He turns cities upside down. Riots break out. You know? What is it about this guy? And so he Paul says, hey. It hasn't hindered the gospel. It's a furtherance of the gospel. The gospel's going further as this is the capital city, and as people come to town, and I'm able to share the gospel with them, it's spread out. It's spread all over. You know what I mean? And so same with you guys that are in the military, that are you come to Bremerton to San Diego, Hawaii, and you get equipped by the Lord with the gospel. He saves you, and then he sends you all over the world, all these military bases all over the world with the glorious good news of Jesus Christ. You're his missionaries. The gospel's not bound. The gospel's able to be spread out. So he's discovering God's grace in our lives is often a matter of perspective. What is Paul's perspective while chained to Roman guard? What's his perspective? I'm chained to Roman guard. Now some of us we'd go, this is so unfair. This is so unfair. You know, why? Why? If God loves me, then why? You know, Joel told me I've I've my best life now, and I don't feel like this is my best life now, you know. The folks in Iran, they don't whine and whimper like that. They're ready to die for Jesus Christ. Right? They're not they they have perspective. They've seen the darkness of Islam, the darkness of a godless society and all. They've seen the tyranny of all, and they want freedom, and they're willing to die for that freedom. So God is sovereign. God's the one on the throne. God's, you know, in control. So when adverse circumstances come into our life, we wanna gain perspective. And one of the things we need to remind ourselves is who's in control? Who's in control when you hear all these politicians and the media and everybody trying to trying to cause you to be fearful, fearful of a COVID plague? You know, who's on the throne? Who's in control? And whatever else they come up with later, you know, the sky is falling chicken little. There's not enough water. There's not enough food. There's not enough this and that. There's an asteroid coming at us, you know, and you can get a whole lot of people worked up. And I think we need to remind one another, hey, who's on the throne? Who's in charge? Has God abdicated his throne? Has he given it over to the devil? Has he given it over to man? No. The authority they have is a limited authority. Even our constitutional republic, sometimes people think they have unlimited authority, unlimited power, that they can act like a king and do whatever they want. No. You you're chained to the constitution. You have a limited authority. And so it's it's a a constitutional republic by and for the people, governed by the people. And, oh, you won't need to vote anymore. We're just gonna make up new rules. You know, we're gonna we're gonna come in with a new government, an oligarchy, you know. And so we have to, again, we have to remind ourselves even if there's a king that we're gonna obey God rather than men, the early church said when they were told not to speak in his name anymore. And so they recognized government, they recognized the dispensation of government from Noah's account, but they also recognized that human government is below our heavenly government, that God is sovereign. So God allowed Paul to be taken prisoner by Rome. The next area of perspective was God apprehended Paul. His life is not his own. God's will be done. And so the apostle Paul in Acts chapter 21, when Agabus came down from Jerusalem, the apostle Paul was there in the area of Caesarea Philippi, and at the home of Philip, the evangelist, who had four virgin daughters who were prophetesses. Boy, those are the kind of girls you want. Right? Girls that speak forth the word of God with in evangelism and speaking forth God's word. I always love Philip, the evangelist. And, Paul's hanging out there, staying there for many days, it says. And then Agabus, a prophet, came down from Jerusalem to visit, and he grabbed hold of Paul's, belt. And it's not a girdle in the sense of a girdle, so it's a belt. He's a man. He wears a belt. And and grabbed the belt and wrapped it around himself, and it says, the man that owns this belt is gonna be bound if he goes up to Jerusalem. And Paul says, what mean ye what mean ye that you're trying to cause me to weep and break my heart? They're begging with him. Paul, don't go. Don't go, man. Don't go. They're gonna bind you. And Paul's like, dude, I've already counted the cost. I belong to the Lord. I'm not only ready to be bound, I'm ready to die for the name of Jesus. You see? He had perspective. He knew that God apprehended him on the road to Damascus, that he went from Saul to Paul, and he knew his calling. He knew not only who he belonged to and who was on, you know, in authority and all, but he also knew that a part of his calling was showing what things he must suffer for my name's sake. And that he's gonna appear before kings and such. So it's no surprise. Persecution is no surprise to the apostle Paul. Are you surprised by persecution at work, or at home, or within your family? Are you surprised? Do sometimes you believe what the devil's lying to you about that, hey, the reason you're having such a hard time is because and you fill in the blank. Because you're a filthy, rotten sinner. Because you're just a little off. Because you're this, that, or the other. Because you open your mouth about Jesus. Keep your mouth shut about Jesus and all. I was watching this week where Lindsay, the owner of In N Out Burger, was coming under fire because she's got scripture written on the bottom of her cup. So if you take and buy soda, if you buy one of the double doubles with a, you know, with a milkshake, if you look at the bottom of the cup, they're John three sixteen there, or Proverbs three five and six. So her grandparents started that years ago in her family. It's a family business. She's extremely successful and all, but she's coming under fire. And the part that breaks my heart is when I see a ministry, because it's it can be a ministry, your business can be a ministry. When your calling comes under fire, and you're like Chick fil A, and the second generation doesn't doesn't represent Jesus, doesn't respect mom and dad who built that business. So whether you're Stan Walton building Walmart or the family building Chick fil A, the subsequent generations of kids that come through, they don't care. It's all about the money. So if they come under fire, they just wanna go woke. They just wanna be woke. They just wanna give in to the pressure against them. So it really breaks my heart, the Chick fil A, how the this present generation is just capitulating, giving in to all that. But Lindsay from In N Out Burger, she's not gonna do that. She's gonna continue to, you know, represent the Lord. She's counted the cost. She recognizes it. And and I think she'll find out that she will be even more successful. Because we watch Disney. When Disney and and and Starbucks, a lot of these companies that BlackRock owns, they're influencers. They don't care about the money per se. It's not about making money off a movie for Disney. It's about poisoning your children. So they wanna poison your children in a fancy way, fable way, whatever, and they wanna introduce ungodly doctrine, ungodly teaching, you know, with a movie or, oh, it's just a little bit of porn, oh, it's just a little bit of witchcraft. And the parents wind up giving into that, and and you're not gonna be persecuted if you do that. Nobody's gonna persecute you if you compromise. But the families who are evangelicals, are Christians, they won't take their kids to that, Or they better not. So they wind up losing money on those kind of movies. But man, if they make a wholesome family movie, man, they just record amounts of money they make. Right? So you know that it's not about making money necessarily. That isn't the main goal of the BlackRock. These are social engineers. Larry Fink said that we're gonna use the digital currency to alter behavior, to change behavior, to coerce people with their, you know, social credit scores and such. Well, the apostle Paul, he's an enemy of the state, and he's grabbed hold of, and he's unjustly put in prison just as Jesus was apprehended. And he says, hey, this is according to God's plan. God's sovereign. He's on the throne. He's in control. And this is the very purpose that God grabbed hold of me. I'm owned by Jesus. He owns me. He says, know ye not that you're not your own, that you've been bought with a price? Therefore, glorify God with your body, he told the church of Corinth. Paul says, it's the same with me. I'm the temple of the Holy Spirit. So what's your perspective? Does God own you? Does God need to get permission to invade your comfort zone? To bring a little bit of persecution into your life? Or when it happens, do you expect it? Do you live with expectancy that all they that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Jesus said, if they've hated me, they're gonna hate you. So how do you get through it? It's God's grace. His unmerited favor to you. His grace is sufficient unto you, for his strength's perfected in weakness. And so as Paul prayed three times at a messenger of Satan that was buffeting him, the principalities of powers, the demons are coming against you, they wanna physically cause you to get headaches, physically want you to get sick, physically want you to get out of the race. And Paul said, I prayed three times this tent stake in the Greek that was pinging his head, that God would remove it. And God told him, no, no, no. My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength's perfected in weakness. And Paul says, oh, I'm learning to rely upon the Lord more so when I'm weak. So really when I'm weak, then I'm strong. I'm gaining perspective. I'm really stronger because I'm tapping into the Lord's strength that he's getting me through, this physical infirmity, this emotional thing that I'm going through. And spiritually, it's it's working for me. I'm drawing closer to the Lord. Are you a prisoner of Jesus Christ? Does Christ own you? What's your perspective? Have you discovered God's grace? Proverbs twenty three seven says that, as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. It's all a matter of perspective. That's why it's so important for us to be students of God's word. As he thinketh are you a thinking person? As he thinketh in his heart, so is he. The time of Judges, every man was doing that which is right in his own eyes. That's existential humanistic relativism. Feels good, do it. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Do you have moral absolutes? Are you in submission unto Jesus? Do you know God's word well enough? Do you know the 10 commandments to lead and guide your home? You know? Do you know what it is to love and to act upon that love and obedience under the Lord? To come and, you know, an even higher standard of of, legal obedience is the obedience of love, the obedience of faith. And so if you do, if you recognize how could I do this great evil against God, you're walking that straight and narrow path according to God's grace regardless of what kind of intrusion the devil may be allowed to bring. As we talked about last week and many times, in the case of Job, the devil just wants to see if he can get Job to sin. It wasn't just about the suffering. It was about taking from the honor that's due God's name, the glory that's due his name, the worship that's due his name. Would Job still be a worshiper if his comfort zone was invaded? If he suffered loss, if he suffered sickness? Would he still see God as worthy of praise? In everything, in everything, give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. You wanna know God's will? Be thankful. Be a worshiper. I wanna be a worshiper. I don't wanna be a whiner. I got this I got this guy that is training me and trying to help me overcome my immobility and stuff at the gym and stuff, and I lifted some heavy, like, plates, these concrete slab thingies about three weeks ago, and I was moving them around with the grandkids and all. And it threw my hips out, and so I got my sciatic kicked in. And when my sciatic kicks in, it's it's like a nerve all the way down to your foot, if you've ever had sciatica. And what happens, the phenomena of sciatica, is that it also tightens your hip flexors, tightens your glutes, tightens all your muscles, get all start to get real tight. And, that's a very painful and difficult place to be. And so what I do since I've had this injury since I was 34, is I stretch, and I roll and stretch and roll, and I try to work through it. And and this trainer of mine, I have to send him videos of my performance of how I'm doing it right or not, and I wasn't getting low enough with my barbell squats. I I couldn't get lower than parallel for a couple weeks now. And, finally, the other day, I realized, oh, I know why I can't get lower. It's because my sciatica's acting up, and my muscles, my hip flexors, and everything are all tight. That's it. So I let him know that, and he freaked out. Why didn't you tell me about that? Why didn't you tell me about that? And and I'm like, I'm not one of those old guys that whines about all of his little owies, you know? I'm gonna work through it. And he's like, no, you can't work through it. You gotta let me know next time. You gotta let me know. This is serious, you know? It's a spinal injury and all. And a lot of us have a high threshold of pain. We expect pain. We expect opposition. We expect things adversity to fight against us, especially if you have physical infirmity, things that are wrong that you're battling. But as you gain perspective, you learn to worship the Lord through it. You learn to, you know, I'm I'm still gonna go to church. I'm still gonna worship the Lord. I'm gonna still study his word. I'm gonna pray about it, but God says no, then I recognize he's sovereign, he's in control, he's allowing this in my life, causes me to depend upon him even more, and I'm gonna grow through it. According to Romans five, it's gonna build character. It's gonna build stamina. It's gonna build perseverance. You know? I'm gonna be able to persevere, through these things. I know another pastor friend of mine that got the same injury that I have, and, he was ready to quit. Because it's a brutal injury when it first happens. It's a solid year of just unbelievable pain. And then it gradually starts to subside as you learn how to alleviate, you know, where it's pressing. But most guys go immediately go in and get surgery. And so, I mean, it's it's the biggest nerve in your body. It'll really humble you. And this particular pastor went and got the surgery, and the pain was alleviated. But every all of us have a different threshold of pain. Some of us are the pampered chefs. Everything goes right for many many years, you know. I mean, look at me. If I still lived in California, I'd have 71 degree weather today, sun shining, and the best food around. I'd be riding my bike, you know? If you're in Tennessee, you've got three inches of ice on the ground, and the power's been out for three weeks. You know what I mean? It's perspective. So we can handle a lot more with this rain and the dark and the whole thing. I told my grandkids yesterday, you know how papa used to wake up in the morning? I used to wake up because the sun was so bright shining through my window that I couldn't sleep anymore. And I said, and it'd be like seven in the morning. I'd get up early back then. And you guys are laughing because you get up at 03:30, it's dark all the time. And but the other thing that used to wake me up, was so cool, is these doves. These doves would sit on the power lines and the fence and they'd coo. You know? And that's how you wake up in the morning down there. It's just like an absolute paradise, but that doesn't make you stronger. It doesn't make you stronger. You gotta go through some adversity. You gotta go through some pain, some persecution. Paul's getting stronger. He said he learned how to be content whether he's being abased or whether he's abounding. I can do all things through Christ who strengthen me. There's a learning curve with it. You don't just arrive one day. It's through the circumstances that God allows in our life, and we must gain perspective. Otherwise, we're gonna get wiped out, and believe the lies of the wicked one that God doesn't love you. That's why he allowed this in your life. No. As a man thinketh his heart, so is he. You better have it right. You better have it right concerning the gospel, concerning God's grace. It's always a matter of perspective. He says verse two, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which has given me to you word. And so this dispensational theology, premillennial dispensationalism, this is a dispensation of grace, and we'll explain what that word means in a minute. But, many people today are are arguing concerning dispensational premillennial dispensational theology, saying that's a CI Schofield thing. CI Schofield bible, which I have, that, you Schofield guys, you know, you got this this dispensational theology. And I had a guy, a pastor guy, sit me down one time and say that to me, I just opened it up to Ephesians, and I said, well, look at verse 10. It talks about the dispensation. Look look at here in chapter two, again, the word dispensation. We didn't make it up. It just speaks of a administration, a stewardship, an epoch, a period of time, the way God's dealing with man. So if I were to look at that word dispensation, according to Schofield, you start out with innocence, and then you go to conscience, the second dispensation, that of conscience. God gave Adam an evil conscience. A third dispensation might be, that conscience violated with the thoughts and intents of man's heart was only evil continually. That the third area of of dispensation, third dispensation could be human government. In Genesis chapter nine, when Noah comes out of the ark, God's gonna establish human government with the the thread of the sword, like Romans 13, capital punishment for those that for evil doers. So human government would be another dispensation. And then after that, a dispensation of promise in Genesis 12, where God gives a promise to Abram, Abraham, and your seed, all nations, the earth are gonna be blessed. And we're going along really good with the dispensation of promise until Exodus chapter 19 verse eight. Now we have another dispensation, dispensation of law. It would have been real good if the children of Israel said, no, we don't wanna be under the law. We'd rather be under promise. You see what I mean? We'd rather be under promise because promise is based upon God's performance. That's why in Jeremiah 31, it's unconditional covenant that he makes with the nation of Israel because the law was intended to stop every man's mouth, to show your sinfulness. Well, we don't wanna approach the law by do's and don'ts that if we do, then we get to enter in. No, we're failures. The law points me to Christ, points me to the cross, points me to need of him. So if they were smart, if we were smart, we'd stay according to the promises of God. Right? And then after that dispensation of law, we have a dispensation of grace, the church age. After the dispensation of grace, we have a dispensation of judgment. The tribulation period, God's judgment upon a Christ rejecting world. His judgment upon his own people, the time of Jacob's trouble, where God's gonna purify remnant. But even during that time of judgment, we see an enormous moving and working of the Holy Spirit and God's grace in the life of the tribulation saints, and innumerable multitude of people coming to Christ. How they come to Christ? By grace through faith. How how does Adam and Eve come to Christ? By grace through faith. All through the Bible, people come to Christ by grace through faith alone. Always looking to the cross. In the past, they're leaving the garden with coats of skins. Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. They can't cover it with religion. They can't cover it by trying to keep the law by putting fig leaves together. No. That's not gonna do it. You're gonna have to walk by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ looking future. And Abraham, Jesus said in John eight, Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and he was glad. The gospel is before preached unto Abraham. Abraham in Genesis 22, the typology of Hosea twelve ten, the type, the similitudes, the Lord showing that God the father will one day offer his only begotten son upon Mount Moriah, upon Calvary, upon Golgotha. Isaac being the type of Christ. Abraham, a type of God the father. Eliezer, the servant, the type of the holy spirit. Father, we have the wood. Father, we have the knife. Father, we have the fire. But where's the lamb? God will Jehovah Jireh. God will provide himself a lamb for the sacrifice. Some people get it. Some people understand it. Some people understand looking future that Jesus, God's only begotten son, is gonna die in their place, and that is imputed unto them for righteousness, like with Abraham illustrated in Romans four, by faith. But others continue to try and work their way because they don't understand that dispensation of grace, where God is letting us know he already completed the work. It is finished to tell us that I paid in full, and so you just rest upon the promises of God. You rest upon him and his finished work. And so back to verse two. If he had heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is given me to you word. And so in Acts nine verse 15, Paul said the Ananias the prophet, the Lord Jesus said, excuse me, said to him, go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and to the children of Israel. So he has given it to Ananias. Ananias was wondering why the Lord wanted him to go near Paul because he was Saul and he was a hit man. And, this is a bad dude. Why would you want me to go to him? And the Lord explains, no, he's a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles. So Paul's with the Romans right now in prison. Right? And kings, he's gonna be with King Agrippa and his sister Bernice and and before the Caesar, Caesar Nero, and the children of Israel. For I will show him, what a calling. I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. Man, it's never presented that way in the culture in which we live. Never is the gospel presented to anybody, hey, come to Jesus. You have a chance to suffer for him. Why don't why don't you come to Jesus? And yet, coming to Jesus in the first two centuries was a coming to suffer. You knew you were gonna suffer. It wasn't your best life now. And coming to Jesus in the tribulation period is you're gonna lose your head. A total different approach, if you will, of the gospel. That's why it's essential that we count the cost, and that we reckon our old man is dead. It's no longer me living, but Christ living through me. No matter what circumstances he allows in my life, I belong to him. And there's no accident. There's never a time where God says, oops, or I'm sorry. Has the Lord ever said he's sorry to you for the suffering or the things he's allowed in your life? No. Because he's sovereign. He's in control. Everything's working together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. God's holy. He's just. He knows what he's doing. He's the potter, and we're the clay. And so Paul's basically able to say, these sufferings that I have, and that's what I was trying to convey last week. I don't know if I got it through to you. I know you've heard it ad nauseam. It's a badge of honor. Your stigmata, your marks, the suffering that you've gone through in serving the Lord. Kathy and I have our own scars, our own marks, our own whatever. Everybody has a testimony, something that as they serve the Lord, taking their cross up following him. It's not a whining. I told my trainer, I said, I'm not gonna tell you every time I'm hurting. You're not my wife, and don't be nagging me. I'm here to lift. Well, he was making sure that he had a tight dog leash on me that, that I would divulge every and finally, had to negotiate with him. No. I'm not divulging every owie because I hurt all the time. That's what it is getting old. These young guys don't understand that. There's always aches and pains. And we as Christians, we don't need to go there. We we some of the most severe things we've ever been through are badges of honor. Those of you that served in the military, you come home and you're hurt, you're injured, it's a badge of honor. It shows your dedication, your love. Greater love has no man than this and a man lay down his life for his friends. So it's it's a mark of honor. Whereas, in the culture in which we're living, if bad things happen to you, there's a certain kind of Christian that comes up to you and says, boy, you smell. You you are you a leper? Why why do these bad things always happen to you? I had a pastor woman come up to Kathy and say that. Why why are these it they're insinuating that if you did it right, this kind of stuff wouldn't happen. Look at my life, you know. They're the pampered chefs. They haven't gone through anything yet. They're insulated. They run from problems. They'll do anything to avoid persecution. They'll even shut their school down if they think Gavin Newsom in California is gonna put the screws to their school. They don't want the litigation. They don't want the problem. Just shut the school down. We were told twice to put our kids in the head start reading program, and we didn't. We kept them in the Abeka curriculum because what's the point? We're a ministry. We're trying to we're we're not trying to brainwash kids. We're trying to give them the word of God because as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. We're trying to sow God's word in their heart. That's the objective. And then they shut us down because we wouldn't give in to them. I mean, you've got daycares and preschools with pedophilia, with children being violated, and they're still in business. They're still open. But a Christian school or daycare that teaches the word of God to children, that's anathema. We've gotta shut them down. Crazy. I I didn't understand at the time the persecution of it. I tried to how how how does this work? Not in America. Now I'm learning more and more. Hey, these are badges of honor. These are these are things that come against your ministry in your life. You know, when you're working the shipyard in a Banger in Keyport, and you're serving the Lord and this this spiritual warfare comes against you, it's persecution. The devil hates you, wants to silence you, wants to wear you out, wants to get you to compromise, be a communion. You know, do any of you wanna live like Lot? Do any of you wanna be a Lot type Christian? I don't. I know Peter says, and righteous Lot. I know he's going to heaven. But when I look at this man's life, when I look at what he's doing in Sodom, there's no way I wanna end up like that, a compromiser. And Jesus said, remember Lot's wife. You know a verse in Jonah chapter two that was really hit me this week that I posted a few times, and I hope I hope people understand. I don't think they're gonna get it yet. They that observe lying vanities. I think it's verse eight. Jonah chapter two. They that observe lying vanities. So Fox News, the media is presenting a lie to you. They're presenting something that you bite and you take as an evangelical. It'd be something like mega. They that observe lying vanities, your idolatry, they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. God's wanting to be merciful to the Ninevites, who are Gentiles, not Jews. And he sends Jonah the prophet with a message of forty days in your parish. If the nation persists in wanting to make Nineveh great and observing their idolatry, they're gonna forsake the mercy that gods bring in. When they repented, the Lord repented of the evil and gave them a hundred year reprieve. Time to reassess and regroup and reassess the direction they're going as a nation. I think there's some application there for us individually and for us collectively, corporately to not be seduced and be drawn into the idolization, an idea, a promise, and they don't deliver, do they? They do the complete opposite. And then we're left with, wow, where did I go wrong? Well, you went wrong because you turn your back up on the Lord and put your trust in man. Paul given a dispensation, this word means a divine stewardship. You and I have a divine stewardship. You have a dispensation of grace. How do I know? I'm gonna take you to Matthew 25. I'm gonna show you Matthew 25 that God has made an investment in your life. He's made an investment that we would call the unsearchable riches of Christ. And you have a dispensation of grace, a dispensation, a period of time, a stewardship entrusting during this church age with the glorious gospel. Now you can reinvest it or you can bury it. There's a day of reckoning. There's a day of count accounting. You can take and you can take the the two or the three that he gives you and bring forth ten one day. You can bring forth five, or you can say, Lord, I buried it. I put a napkin on it, and I knew you're an austere man, and I I put it into the ground, and here's your unit of measure, a a talent, a unit of measure of investment that you've made in my life? What's God's investment in your life? How much of his word is he invested in your life? Do you have an affinity, an appetite, a desire for God's word? Do you do you treasure his word? Do you want his word, desire his word more than your necessary food? Can you at times get angry at God and his dealings with you and thrown into a dungeon like Jeremiah and say, I'm not gonna speak in this man's name anymore. I didn't sign up for this. I told him when he was coming after me. I was just a child. And he said, you know what he said? He said, before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you and ordained you a prophet unto God. Well, I didn't ask for this. These people won't listen to me, God. And I tried to refrain, but his word was in me like a fire within my bones, and I could not refrain. That's how you know you're called. Try walking away from your stewardship. Try walking away from this dispensation of grace that God's entrusted to you. He didn't trust it to the angels. He hasn't entrusted to the technocrats, to AI. He's entrusted to you and I, just the common folk, the common Christians who've been born again, who have the holy spirit living and dwelling within them. In second Timothy one eleven says, I'm appointed, Paul says, a preacher. You've been appointed a preacher. A preacher is a herald. I've been appointed a preacher and an apostle. Now, I'm not an apostle in except in the general sense like Barnabas, one that's been sent. I've been sent, but I don't have the office. So the n a r, New Apostolic Reformation, these guys, people that try to convince you that they're present day apostles, no. You're not qualified as present day apostle. The office of apostle. The office of apostle are people that have been with Jesus and seen the resurrected Christ. You weren't with Jesus, and you haven't seen the resurrected Christ. So you're not an apostle, except in a general sense of one being sent. But Paul says, I am. I'm one born out of due time. The Lord Jesus appeared to me, and I spent three years in the deserts of Arabia being retaught. As Saul of Tarsus, Lord, teach me and he's given me this dispensation of the gospel, where I'm gonna go into the Gentiles and Peter's gonna go into the Jews. But there was something once hidden in the old testament nobody saw, and that's the dispensation of grace in the formation of the church where Jew and Gentile would come together into one body. Do you know that the Jewish man would would wake up each morning and he would pray, and he would pray in such a way, I thank thee, Lord, that I wasn't born a woman. He would teach that Revelation eight one that there's no women in heaven because there's silence for the space of half an hour. You know? He's a whatever you call it. Chauvinist or something. These male men, these male Jews. Then he thanked the Lord that he wasn't a Gentile. And he thanked the Lord he wasn't a slave. And they had an ideology in their head that they thought Gentiles were just fuel for the fires of hell, that we, the Jews, are the chosen people. And Jesus comes along, and in Matthew 16 verse 18, he says, upon this rock, upon myself, I'm gonna build my church. You don't see that in the Old Testament. You see the nation of Israel. You see God desiring to use the nation of Israel to reach the Gentiles that they'd be a light under the Gentiles. You see Ruth the Moabites and other Gentiles within the framework of what was happening, you know, in the Old Testament. But until the church age, until this dispensation, Gentiles need to be proselyte and become Jews. And so they thought they they had this inward, you know, this role there. So when Jesus said, upon this rock, I'll build my church, and the gates of hell not prevail against it, the disciples didn't understand what he's saying. They didn't get it. It began to make sense in Acts two at Pentecost, when the church, the Holy Spirit being poured out upon Jew and Gentile, and in chapter 10, upon the house of Cornelius, and all the way in chapter 19 under the city of Ephesus and Corinth and all these Gentile communities. That's why the Jews were so angry at Paul because he was going through all these Gentile communities and bringing them to Christ. And they rejected Christ, and they rejected the whole notion of a Christian church and all. You gotta be Jewish. And they kept fighting with Paul even when it was undeniable the moving and working of God's spirit in the lives of these guys. Then they began to argue, well, you're gonna have to make them choose by circumcise them and all. No. We're not gonna do that. So they had to really wrestle. It was a hard concept, a hard understanding because it was a mystery once hid, now revealed. And so Paul saying, a teacher of the Gentiles. So teaching others of the grace of God. He says, verse three, how that by revelation, he made known unto me the mystery. A mystery is something once hid, a sacred secret now revealed. He made known to me the mystery as I wrote a four in a few words, whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. Everybody loves a good mystery. Right? They love the for the Lord to increase knowledge in the last days. Don't you love the prophecies that are being fulfilled? Don't you love the increase of knowledge as in Daniel 12, the Lord said, shut up the book, Daniel. This knowledge is gonna be kept for a time future in the last days. Well, guess what gang? We're in the last days. And God is increasing knowledge. He's increasing knowledge of prophecy. He's increasing knowledge of what's gonna happen in the tribulation period. And you are the recipients. You are those with the blessing of receiving the unsearchable riches of Christ. I don't wanna run around in the last days as a lukewarm apostate Christian or one like Lot, a blooming idiot, dumb as a stump. I don't wanna be susceptible to false prophets on YouTube and every other means of media. I wanna be a guy that's secure in God's word, and that I can prove it because the word of God proves it. I don't wanna be brainwashed. I want I wanna be taught. I wanna be edified. Wanna be built up. I wanna be strengthened in God's word. I'm I gonna be like a Berean. I wanna hide his word away in my heart that I might not sin against him as David would say in Psalm a 119. I wanna search the scriptures to see whether those things be so. I don't wanna just listen to these guys. And so Paul gets God's grace by direct revelation. It wasn't AI. It wasn't from a demon like Joseph Smith or Mohammed. A demon, a fallen angel appearing to these guys. Golden keys and golden tablets and just just crazy stuff. I mean, there are some really crazy people on YouTube right now. I mean, you can you can go online and pay $67 and come away with a certificate of being a preacher now or being a counselor or anything you want. They'll sell you any kind of thing you want nowadays. It's crazy. Absolutely crazy out there. He's in Galatians one twelve, I neither received it of man, so it's important. This revelation that Paul has, it's it's he's an apostle. So he has received it, not by man. It wasn't through Peter or James or John or any of those that sat down with me. He says, no. And the Lord apprehended me. He took me out to the desert. He took me out to the near Damascus, but out in the deserts of Arabia. And I spent three years there relearning. I spent three years there as I was taught at the feet of Gamaliel as a young Jewish boy, and as I was being groomed in the greatest upper echelons of Judaism, as a Pharisee of Pharisees concerning my contemporaries, I exceeded them all. I was voted most likely to succeed, an incredible intellect of the Old Testament. And yet, the key is Jesus. He missed Jesus. You and I have the key. We have Jesus. He unlocks all the scripture. The volume of the book is written of Jesus. You can have facts about him, or you can know him intimately. You can know him personally, and that's where Paul came for three years, to get to know him personally. And the Lord began to teach him concerning Christ and concerning the church, concerning concerning the last days things as he's teaching the church of Thessalonica. Where'd Paul get that from? A lot of it's in the Old Testament, but it's tied together in his time with the Lord. And so he says, the holy prophets by the spirit, so this mystery is a divine secret once hidden now revealed. So more of the grace of God is revealed through disclosure of this once hidden mystery. So the Holy Spirit did not reveal this mystery until New Testament times. So as I said, first with Jesus, upon this rock go build my church. What do mean church, Lord? What's a church? They they he didn't go on to explain it. He used it in a general way. In John 17, he's praying for the church. Right? He's praying for the church, the oneness that we would know in all. But the disciples were still thinking Jewish that Jesus was going to overthrow the Romans and set up his kingdom. They're still thinking Old Testament. They they didn't get it. And even Peter, when he's visiting the house of Cornelius, he's in a trance. It's about lunchtime, and I do that. I fall asleep and dream about food, and he's dreaming about food, and there's a sheet, you know, coming up, and and there's clean food and unclean food. Not so, Lord. Rise, Peter. Kill and eat. I was invited to lunch to Cathy yesterday, and she was cooking that chicken. And I walked into the into the kitchen there, and and she had her back turn. And I reached over on this plate, and I grabbed some chicken. I ate it. The next thing I know when I'm turning this way, what? You know, she's like, you took my chicken. You know? And, but I've been trying to get even with her because one time I had some leftover pizza, and I had it in the refrigerator, and I came home the next day so excited about having that cold pizza, you know. And I said, where's my pizza? And she said, oh, I gave it to Huckleberry. And I've never let her forget about that. You don't give my pizza to the dog, man. There's no way. So Peter said, rise, kill, and eat. And Peter's like, not so, Lord, which is an oxymoron. Right? Not so, Lord. You can't say no to the Lord. Right? Not so, Lord. I've never eaten anything that's unclean. Don't call that which is unclean. Speaking of the Gentiles, that I've made clean. Hard for Peter to get that through his mind. Hard for the disciples in Acts 15, where Peter says, why put a burden upon them, the Gentiles, that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear, you know? And, so they had to have a council in Acts 15 with James, the brother of the Lord, and what are we gonna do with these Gentiles? It's irrefutable. The Holy Spirit has fallen upon them just as we. So in Acts two, it's all Gentile. The church is all or excuse me, all Jewish. It's all Jewish. And then it's spreading out to the Gentiles from there. Philip goes as far as the Samaritans. Everybody's having a holy huddle there in Jerusalem, a great revival. 3,005 getting saved and all. It's it's exciting. Why leave the why leave the party? Why would anybody leave the paradise of Southern California to go somewhere that's spiritually dark, that struggles. Why not just fish where the fish jump into the boat? That's ego that that's intoxicating. Look how great I am. Look how big my church is. The fish just jump in the boat. You you gotta really work hard. What what's what's your problem, man? You must be doing something wrong. And I love to say, come up here. Come on. Show me. You go to Cambodia, you'll go all over, but you won't come here. It'll humble you, and you know it. It's a fact. It's a fact, Jack. But it's okay because God sends his people all over the world, and they fit where he sends them. And you consider it a privilege to be entrusted with the unsearchable riches of Christ. It's his church, it's not ours. It's not made in our image. Paul says, was taught it by revelation of Jesus Christ. So the messenger of God's grace. Secondly, notice the mystery of God's grace. Verse five, which is in all 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. This word mystery, as I said, is the divine secret once hidden, now revealed. And so the holy spirit revealing this to the apostle Paul, New Testament times at Pentecost, the dispensation of the law in the past, grace in the present, and judgment in the future. And we said, as we said earlier, the grace that's in Revelation six and seven, even though it's a time of judgment, a dispensation of judgment, epoch of the 77 of Daniel, still God's moving and working by his grace saving an innumerable multitude of people. Verse six, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body. So here's the mystery that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. So the formation of the church was the mystery. The fact that God was planning to join Gentiles and Jews into one body came as a complete surprise to everyone. They never saw it coming. That's why in the previous chapter, we talked about the middle wall of partition that divided near the temple, and that it was a sign there, punishable upon death, if you as a Gentile cross over this fence, this line, you die at your own, you know, your own fault if you cross here. And so that hatred, that enmity that was there, the Lord has removed that middle wall of partition. We all have access now into that throne of grace by God's grace, the formation of the church of Jew and Gentile. In Galatians three two, he three twenty six, he says, ye are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There's neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither bond nor free because remember, 60,000,000 of the people in the Roman empire were slaves. So you're a slave, now you're a Christian. Does that mean there's a pecking order? No. We don't recognize bond or free. There's no distinction there. Not in the body of Christ, neither bond nor free. There's neither male nor female. You're all one in Christ Jesus. So one body. And so the messenger of God's grace, the mystery of God's grace, thirdly, the ministry of God's grace. Verse seven, where if I was made a minister according to the gift of grace, according to according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. So Paul's ministry was a gift of God's grace given to him through the energy, through the power, the dunamis dynamic power of the holy spirit. That's why you can't go online and give somebody $67 to get a certificate that says, now you're a life coach, or you're a counselor, or you're an apostle, or pastor, teacher, whatever you want. It's an office. It's a calling. And you can test that calling. You could try and teach in Sunday school. Teach your children, teach and see if they have the gifting. We're gonna get to Ephesians four where he describes that. But no man calls this office unto himself. It has to be something God gifts. He places us within the body. All of us have gifts, and he places all of us within the body where we where we're to function. And so I'd much rather have it be the Holy Spirit that anoints and gifts me and calls me onto a ministry. And that's why I remain here in Bremerton after thirty years, because it's a calling. There's the only way Kathy and I could be sustained and last this long here, is as a calling that God has called us, that he sustains us. And we we just thank the Lord for his grace being sufficient. And we know that we know that we know because we have marks on our body, because we've gone through an enormous amount of persecution, and not so much from the world, but from false Christians, from people that just are relentless in their hatred. It's it's it's illogical. It's it's unreasonable, the level of hatred. And you have to conclude it's you're a threat to the kingdom of darkness and the enemy's trying to neutralize you and get you to go. So in my case, I thought about it this morning, you know, that God can allow the persecution to be such that everything's taken away from me and Kathy. You can take it all away, And I can live in a RV with water dripping down on my chest. Ten years. You can take away my father-in-law, my mother-in-law, my mom, my sister, my best friends. You can take away my church friends. Everybody can leave and say what they want. You're off all that and the other. But one thing you can't take away from me is God's calling upon my life. Secondly, you cannot take away God's anointing upon my life. You can't take that. That's a gift from God. God has anointed me, he's empowered me to be a teacher of his word. Nobody, the devil included, can take that away. So that's why I know that I know that I know that every time I have the privilege of teaching God's word to two or three or 20 or 30, that God is gonna bless. Because his word doesn't come back void. As long as I stay within that calling and use his word and teach his word, his word by the power of the Holy Spirit is ministering to you. I can't make you receive the word, but I can do my part and bring forth the word, and then the ball's in your court of what you do with it or not. And those I find that receive God's word, that are teachable and ready to learn, they grow. And they grow and they grow and they grow because you can't grow without God's word. You can't grow spiritually. So there's a track record. There's a there's a point in time there where I say, you know, he's given me this ministry of grace. And I didn't purchase it. It's not by Simon the Sorcerer or Simon e of trying to purchase this gift. It's simply God is this is where I fit within the body. The ministry of God's grace in the power of the holy spirit. Verse eight, unto me whom less than the least of all saints is this grace given, Paul's estimation of himself, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Saw him Paul saw himself as no prize. He saw himself as a blasphemer, one that compelled people to blaspheme previously. A persecutor of the church, one that wasted the church. But what happened? He received grace. He didn't earn it. He didn't deserve it. It was God's grace in his life. DL Moody said, you can never be too small for God to use you, only too big. Because God resists the proud, and he gives grace to the humble. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. So Paul had the distinct privilege to preach the unsearchable infinite riches of Christ. And he says, verse nine, and to make all men see, which is the word illumination. So you got revelation and illumination. You're gonna lumen people's hearts and minds. So in Mark four, that illumination, if you're if you're in that revelation, if you're responsible with that light that God provides in the teaching of the word, and you go away from here looking into the mirror of God's word, and not forget what manner person you are, you're gonna grow. But if you forget what manner of person you are, you're only a hearer of the word, not a doer of the word, then you're a guy, a foolish guy in Matthew seven that builds his house on sand. And we don't know how foolish you are till the storms of life come. And when the storms of life come against you, you don't have what it takes to trust the Lord. Your faith is infantile. But you can if you surrender, if you allow God's grace to strengthen you in that time. So make all and see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hidden God, who created all things by Christ Jesus. So all things are created by Christ Jesus, and this mystery, the church was hid. Hid from angels. Hid from principalities and powers. Nobody saw it coming. Now you're a part of the church. You're a part of his church. In Colossians one sixteen, it says, for by him, speaking of Jesus, were all things created. Everything was created, including the devil. And all those one third of the angels that fell with Lucifer were all created by Jesus. That are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. Church, why were you made? Why did God make you? You were made for him, not yourself. You were made in Revelation four, for his pleasure. We sing with the four and twenty elders. Right? Thou art worthy, oh lord, to receive glory, honor, and power for thou has created all things, and they are and were created for your pleasure. You bring God pleasure. He's well pleased with you as you walk by faith with him. The grace of God revealed, the messenger of God's grace, number one. The mystery of God's grace, number two. Number three, the ministry of God's grace. And fourthly and finally, the manifold wisdom of God's grace. Verse 10. To the intent that now, under principalities and powers which he made in heavenly places might be known by the church, so the church is teaching the principalities and powers, something they didn't know. So you're up there in heaven in Revelation four with the four and twenty elders, the angels are watching. They're looking in on it. The angels are looking in as you're praying, as you're at bible study. They're looking in. They're saying, how come you guys don't pray more? How come you have such a hard time coming to church? What is it? Don't don't you like being at church? Don't you like being a part of the church? Why do you have such a hard time reading God's word when so many people have died to preserve and get this word under your coffee table? Right? Get it into your heart and mind. So they scratch their head. They're like, do do you have any idea what a treasure this is? Do you have any idea the unsearchable riches of Christ that are before you? That television show can't illumine your heart or reveal who Jesus is? These things that you're spending your time opening the ear gate and the eye gate, all this time you're investing, it it it it doesn't bring back a dividend. I had the privilege and blessing of talking with a guy that I worked for when I was 17 till I was 20. And I hadn't talked to him in thirty years, but we hooked up this week. His daughter found me, and and I was talking to him. One of the things he kept emphasizing over and over and over again was, Rick, out of 40 employees that I had, you worked the hardest. You were the hardest worker I ever had. And I appreciated that. And then when I had my own business and I bring friends, some of the friends wouldn't go with me at night and work. They'd go away going, man, you work hard. This is hard. And when I came up here, a pastor called me and said, hey, where do you go on vacation up there? I've been here nine years. Never been on vacation. I told him, I don't know, Bill. I've had my head in the ground digging this thing, digging and digging and digging and digging. We worked hard. My family worked hard. We invested everything all in. And whatsoever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord, not unto men. And I don't regret any of it. It was the most wonderful season of my life, was planting the church here in Bremerton and watching God move and work. It didn't feel like work. It's just so exciting to to have outreaches and evangelize and preach and teach and reach out to people in this community. It's just so exciting. And then for you to join me and we collectively as a church, as a body of believers, be so excited about getting people to hear about Jesus in the high schools and everywhere, just amazing. So exciting. And the angels are looking in. So I I know I wanna be able to say when I'm in second Timothy four with Paul that I ran a good race, that I finished my course, that I fought a good fight. Because it matters. What we've been given, it matters. And people need to hear, people need to receive that which has been invested in our lives. And so to the intent that now on the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known by the church, the manifold wisdom of God. We're trying. We're trying to get the manifold wisdom of God out there to people. Angels don't know. Manifold means multicolored, a tapestry of wisdom, inexhaustible, infinite wisdom. We got some dumbest dumb people. There's no wisdom anymore. Stupid stuff going on. Really stupid stuff. But we have wisdom from God. God says he's gonna use the foolish things, you and I, to confound the wise, those that think they're smarter than God, the you've all know Harare's. We're gonna have a greater wisdom, the manifold wisdom of God. God is omniscient. The angels and the men, they only know what God reveals. AI doesn't know. The devil doesn't know. The devil has limited knowledge. This AI system, this beast system, limited knowledge. Our god's omniscient. He knows everything. In Revelation five verse nine, you gotta look at the personal pronouns there, the Us, the they, the plural, the four and twenty elders that represent you and I as the church that are in heaven. Metatata, after these things, after the church age, the church is up in heaven, been raptured up to heaven. In chapter five too. And it says verse nine of chapter five, they sung a new song. Who is they? The church. Saying thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof. For thou was slain and has redeemed us. Not a redeeming angels. Angels aren't redeemed. This isn't tribulation saints. This isn't old testament saints. This is the church and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred tongue, people, and nation and has made us under our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. A kingdom of priests, you and I, ruling and reigning with Jesus. He says, verse 11, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. It's God's eternal purpose to save you. He is the lamb slain before the foundation of the earth. Before the foundation of the earth, he had purposed already to save you. You're not an accident. And he's got a great future for you. He says, verse 12, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. And so the veil of the temple is rent in two and we have this access that we can boldly come before his throne, not of judgment, but of grace. In Revelation twenty two sixteen, Jesus says, I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root, source, and the offspring of David. What's that mean? Our messiah is a Jew. There's no replacement theology. The church is distinctly different than the nation of Israel. The church doesn't take the place of Israel. The church is Jewish and Gentile. It's a mystery once hid, now revealed. So whether it's Martin Luther or Saint Augustine, who says the church replaces Israel, they're wrong. God has promises to Israel that are yay and amen. He's going to fulfill those promises, but blindness in part has happened on to Israel presently in this dispensation according to Romans eleven twenty five, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. This is a dispensation of God's grace. Jew is the priority. We gospel goes first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. If the Jews don't want the gospel, we go to the Gentiles, Paul's saying. We'll keep going. And at the end of the age, there's gonna be a few of the Jews, small percentage coming to Christ, but in Iran, tons of Gentiles. In the largest Muslim country in the world, Indonesia, huge revival of Christians. All over the world in Cambodia, in Cambodia, Franklin Graham was just there. Tons and tons of people coming to Christ right now in Muslim countries and communist countries. People who are looking unto Jesus. I'm the root and the offspring of David, bright and the morning star, the new and living way. The nation of Israel was intended by God to be a light under the Gentiles, that they'd be drawn to God through the nation of Israel, That they would represent the Messiah and preach the Messiah. He says verse 13, wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations, for you which is your glory. So why mix that in there? Because many would feel like, wait a minute, Paul's going through it. He's getting hammered hard. And Paul wants them to understand, no, this is for the furtherance of the gospel. Yeah, the enemy's attacking me. Yeah, the enemy's coming against me, but it's working together for good. That which you meant for evil, Joseph said to his brothers. God meant for good to save many people this day. Don't get tripped up by tribulation. Jesus promised that we would have tribulation. You'd have pressure. You'd have persecution. Don't be tripped up by that. That's part of the calling. So although suffering, Paul put things in perspective. Why suffering? Not because I've sinned. It's not because I'm a sinner. I'm suffering because I'm a I'm a saint, and the devil hates me, and the devil hates you. Paul brings thing in perspective in second Corinthians four verse 15. All things are for your sakes that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. So Paul's saying all this all this persecution, all this stuff that's happened to me is for the glory of God. That people would see the caliber, they'd see the credibility, they'd see that we're not just milk toast Christians. That we really believe what we believe because we're willing not only to suffer, but willing to die for him. And that's what instills courage in the Christians in Iran and Cambodia and Indonesia. It's that courage that Christians have, they're willing to die. And that's what Paul's saying. It redounds. It spreads forth to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish. So here's your perspective. Though our outward man's getting beat on. Our hour man, he's getting beat. He's shipwrecked. He's he's cat of nine tailed. You know, he's he's stoned and left for dead. All the different lists of things he's gone through. For our light and his estimation, it's just a light affliction. I would say it's a big affliction. You know, I get an ingrown hair and I'm whining, but not to my trainer, only my wife. Alright? For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more and exceeding eternal weight of glory. Look at those superlatives. While we look not at the things which are seen, but things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. So Paul has a high threshold for pain. What's your threshold for pain? A high threshold because he has perspective. It's just a light affliction. It's but for a moment, and it's working a far more in eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things which are seen, it's but the things which are not seeing, for the things which are seeing are temporal. Things which are not seen are eternal. The eternal rewards that are coming. God's grace is sufficient. His strength's perfected in weakness. The persecution's to be expected. God's grace was sufficient for Paul. God's grace is sufficient for you. God's grace is sufficient for me. God has revealed his grace to you. Have you discovered God's grace? What is your perspective? Have you considered the cross? Have you forgotten the cross? Have you considered things from God's perspective? The unsearchable riches of Christ. Jesus said, narrow is the way that leads to life eternal, and few there be that find it. Take that in. What's that perspective? Very few. You're in a small group of people. You're in a small remnant. You're going to a very narrow road, and few be there that find it. Why you? Why are you so special? Why did God apprehend you on that road, in that place that he allowed you to be? How did he open your heart? Why did your mind open? Why did you act in faith? Why not a friend, a family member? Why is it so hard to get them to believe? Why you? Why would you save me, Lord? The few, the remnant. In Lamentations one twelve, Jeremiah cries out, is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? Is your heart stirred by God's grace? Is God revealing himself of his his grace to you? Respond to God's grace even now. Don't let this moment pass you by. Keep things in perspective. In Hebrews ten twenty nine, a warning, because many of the Jews who were believers were falling back into Judaism so as to avoid persecution. Acting like a Christian, being a Jew, you you're so so you would be subjected to persecution by the Jews. So the writer of Hebrew is trying to show him, no, you can't fall back into Judaism. That's old defunct. You've got Jesus. He's much better. A better in a living way. And so in in his argument, he has certain warnings. One of the warnings is in chapter 10 verse 29. Of how much sore punishment supposed he shall he be thought worthy who has trodden under foot the son of God. And has counted the blood of the covenant where with he was sanctified an unholy thing. And has done despite under the spirit of grace, which means you've insulted God. You've just trampled over his grace. You considered it nothing. The cross is nothing to you. You don't value it. The unsearchable riches of Christ mean nothing to you. And I would have to say, you're not saved. You're just not saved. You may be a professor, but you're not a possessor. Because possessing, having Christ within your heart, transforms and changes your heart. God's grace revealed to us during the church age. God is calling us by his grace. Romans two verse four, despise thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that it's the goodness of God that leads thee to repentance. It's his goodness. It's his kindness. And so our exhortation to the world is repent. Receive Christ. Receive God's grace. Not condemnation. He's not condemning you. And so if we look at Romans, or excuse me, John three sixteen, for God so loved you that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. The next verse, verse 17. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. God's not condemning you. He didn't send his son to condemn you. You believe in the son, you have eternal life. If you don't believe in him, you're condemned already. You're condemned by your own rejection of him. He's not condemning you. You're choosing to do despise under the grace. You're trodning his grace under your feet. It means nothing to you. That's a terrible place to be. Receive God's grace. His unmerited favor. Father, thank you once again. Thank you for this mystery once it now revealed. Help us to continue, Lord, to mine, to dig deep into these truths, Lord. There's so much more to learn. We run out of time, There's another church coming in. So Lord, we just pray in our own time. We pray that with other teachers, with times at your feet, that we can continue to mine these truths, the unsearchable riches of Christ. We pray that you give us a greater and greater appetite for for milk, for meat, for the things that we need to be nourished and to grow in the grace and knowledge of you. We pray that you'd help us to disciple others, to edify others, Lord, taking that which we've learned and reinvesting the lives of others, Lord. Use all of us, Lord, we pray as preachers, as teachers, as heralds, of the glorious good news as we go and make disciples of all nations, Jews and Gentiles. This body of believers called the church in these last days. We ask that you move and work. And while your heads are bowed, you continue to pray, if there's anybody here this morning and you're wanting to receive God's grace, his unmerited favor to you, a free gift of eternal life, Just lift your hand up as you're turning from your sins, you're crying out to God, God be merciful to me a sinner. Come into my heart and life. Anyone here this morning? As many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Do you believe on his name? Salvation is by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ. Anyone this morning? Father, thank you once again. And Lord, bless now as we partake of communion and let us be in that oneness in the body of believers, whether we're Jew or Gentile, whether we're male or female, whether we're barbarian, Scythian bond or free. Lord, we're all one in Christ Jesus, in the body of Christ as your bride, as the church. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.