Will you please turn to the letter to the Ephesians—Ephesians, chapter 1.
We will read from Ephesians 1:9-14.
Having made known unto us the mystery of His will,
according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,
unto a dispensation of the fullness of the times,
to sum up all things in Christ,
the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth; in Him,
in Whom also we were made a heritage,
having been foreordained according to the purpose of Him Who worketh all things after the counsel of His will;
to the end that we should be unto the praise of His glory,
we who had before hoped in Christ:
in Whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation,—in Whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
Which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God’s own possession, unto the praise of His glory.
Let us have a further word of prayer.
Our Lord, our hearts do rejoice because we know that Thou art with us. And if Thou art with us, who can be against us?
Lord, we do ask Thee to open Thy Word to us. Make Thy Word living and operative in our lives. We pray that Thou wilt grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of God.
Thou knowest that without Thee we can do nothing. Without Thy Spirit opening our understanding, Lord, we just cannot comprehend.
So we give ourselves to Thee this morning and pray that, Lord, Thou wilt reveal Thyself to us. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
We do want to thank the Lord for gathering us together here again at this time.
I personally feel that every time God’s people are gathered together, it is a special time, because we are living at the end of the days. There are many places where God’s people are not able to meet as we are. But who are we, that He should be so gracious and merciful to us, allowing us to meet in this way?
So may the Lord really help us, that we will treasure such a time and that He may be able to do whatever He wants to do.
Everybody knows that the theme of this conference is the eternal purpose of God.
When you mention the eternal purpose of God, I do not know how you feel. Do you feel it is something very remote, far away from you? Do you think it is too theoretical a subject? Do you feel that it is something so objective that you do not sense any relationship with it?
But we need to think about it: how does the eternal purpose of God appeal to you?
In a very real sense, the eternal purpose of God is very, very near to you. It is much closer to you, probably, than you think.
It is something so intimate that you cannot avoid it. You are in it, even without your knowing it.
It is nothing theoretical. It is the most practical thing in the whole world. It is not theological at all; it is very personal. Every one of us is involved in that eternal purpose of God.
And it is tremendously important for us to know the eternal purpose of God.
I think, brothers and sisters, we all desire and long to know our God. Now, how are we going to know God? What is the best way to know God? What is the direct road to the knowledge of God?
It is by knowing God’s will—God’s purpose.
We remember that the psalmist said in Psalm 103:7:
He made known His ways unto Moses,
His doings unto the children of Israel.
The children of Israel only knew the acts of God. When God did something for them, then they knew God.
But Moses knew God much better than the children of Israel because he knew the ways of God—how God works. There are certain principles behind God’s actions, and he knew these principles.
But, dear brothers and sisters, we who are in New Testament times, by the grace of God, can go even a step further. We can know God’s will, God’s purpose.
And knowing God’s purpose is really knowing God. So I believe that it should be the deepest longing of our hearts to know God’s eternal purpose.
Knowing God’s purpose gives meaning to our lives. We know that God created man with a purpose, and if we do not know that purpose, our life is meaningless.
That is the reason why you find the world today as it is. Most people live in this world without knowing the meaning of life. They are just groping around.
But once you know God’s eternal purpose, He gives you the real meaning of life. You will begin to see that life is worth living, and you will be given the understanding of living in a way that is worthwhile.
I remember, back in 1942, I was in India, and I met an elderly lady. She told me a little bit of her life.
She was in India doing something most unusual. She was not there as an ordinary missionary preaching the gospel, but she felt led of the Lord to go to India to prepare some places in the best resort area in India, the Nilgiri Hills.
She set up some houses, with servants and beautiful English gardens. Her ministry was that every summer she would receive God’s servants into her home, let them rest, and simply serve them. That was her ministry.
Now, how did it come about? She told me that she came from a very rich family. Her parents were millionaires, and she was married to a titled man.
While her parents were living, she used to travel with them all around the world. After her parents died, and her husband died, she was left alone.
She was a Christian. She loved the Lord. She lived in Italy and had a marble palace there. Every summer, she would go back to England to attend the Keswick Convention.
But she felt life was meaningless. She had everything, but it was meaningless. She did not know what to do.
One year, she went back to England and attended a Swanwick conference. It was a Mrs. Penn-Lewis conference, before the Keswick Convention.
While she was attending that conference, she heard a young man speaking on the eternal purpose of God. God opened her understanding, and she began to realize the real meaning of life.
It transformed her, and she gave her life to the Lord. She was led of the Lord to India to do such a work.
Dear brothers and sisters, do you feel that your life lacks meaning? Why are you here? Why did God create you? Why did God save you? What is the meaning of your being here?
Unless your life is linked to the eternal purpose of God, life is meaningless; it is not worth living. But once you see that your life is related to God’s eternal purpose, you know the full meaning of life.
By the grace of God, you can live to the fullest of the life that God has given to you. So, you see, it is very personal. It is very important.
Not only is it important to your own personal life, but knowing God’s eternal purpose explains everything to you.
In our lives, in our days, many things are happening, and all the time we wonder, “Why? Why does God allow these things to happen? What is the meaning of all these things?”
Some people even blame God for allowing all these tragic things to happen around us, and even things to happen to us. Why?
The answer is in knowing the eternal purpose of God. God has a purpose, and He works out everything according to His purpose.
Sometimes we may not be able to know the particular meaning or explanation of a thing, but we do know that there is the eternal purpose of God behind everything.
His purpose controls everything—big things, small things, international, national, personal, whatever it may be. The explanation lies in the eternal purpose of God.
You know, brothers and sisters, even among Christians, we are need-oriented.
Wherever you go, you are looking forward to hearing something that will supply your need. Whatever meeting you go to, your desire is that your need may be met. We are need-oriented.
If we are need-oriented, brothers and sisters, one need is met and another need comes forth. There is no ending.
It is like the children of Israel going through the wilderness, just going round and round and round, and you never reach the end.
We are not purpose-oriented. We need to be purpose-oriented.
If we are purpose-oriented, we will be lifted out of ourselves. You know, we are just centered upon our petty little self.
How can we be delivered from self-centeredness? We are delivered from self-centeredness when we are lifted into the eternal purpose of God.
It enlarges us. It broadens our horizon. Instead of looking at ourselves and at our need all the time, and crying out, “Who can supply my need?” we are brought to God’s side to see His purpose.
How can His purpose be fulfilled? That will be our aspiration.
Knowing the eternal purpose of God will give us the discipline that we need. You know, we are a very undisciplined people.
Where can we get the right discipline? We are disciplined by the eternal purpose of God.
Knowing the eternal purpose of God, then we are able to work with God instead of working against God.
You know the apostle Paul. Before he knew God’s eternal purpose, Saul of Tarsus thought he was serving God by persecuting the believers of Jesus Christ—with sincerity. Yet how mistaken he was.
Brothers and sisters, if we do not know God’s eternal purpose, maybe unconsciously, even while we are in God’s work, we are seemingly serving God, but actually we are opposing God.
So how important it is that we know God’s eternal purpose. Then we will be able to work with God.
So, dear brothers and sisters, there are many more reasons, I believe, why we must know God’s eternal purpose. Why is this so essential to us? It is not something that we can live without.
The reason why you find Christian life today is so shallow is because we lack the true knowledge of God’s eternal purpose.
The apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians:
Having made known unto us the mystery of His will,
according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself.
Now, as an introduction, there are three things we would like to consider this morning:
God is the supreme will in the universe. Our God is not impersonal. He is a person. Why? Because He has a will.
We serve a personal, living God. He is the supreme will in the universe. He wills whatever He wants to will.
The Bible tells us that He wills according to His good pleasure. Whatever pleases Him, He wills it. He does not need to consult anybody. He does not need to get approval from anyone, because He is sovereign.
He can will whatever He wants to, but He always wills according to His good pleasure—according to that which pleases Him, that which satisfies Him.
We know that God is love. That is His very nature. Because He is love, whatever He wills, He wills out of His love. What He has willed satisfies His loving character.
Oh, God is good. Therefore, whatever He wills must be good. Our God is perfect, so whatever He wills must be perfect.
That is the reason why, in Romans 12, we find that if we present our bodies as a living sacrifice, then our minds will be renewed, and we will be able to prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.
It is because our minds are deranged that sometimes we think the will of God is bad. You know, at one time, when I was working with young people, I asked them, “What do you think is the will of God? How do you know it is the will of God?”
One answer was, “Whatever is against me is the will of God.” It is no good, not acceptable.
It is not because God’s will is not good and acceptable. It is because our mind has not been renewed. Whatever comes out of God must be perfect. Thank God for His will.
Out of that will comes His purpose. The Bible says that He purposed in Himself.
Even before the foundation of the world, before He created the world, before there was time, God exercised His will according to His good pleasure, and He purposed a purpose in Himself.
There was nobody there. He was all by Himself. So He could only purpose in Himself.
That purpose—that will—the Bible calls “the mystery of His will.”
Now, why is it called a mystery? A mystery does not mean something mysterious or something bad. No. Mystery simply means a secret.
God has a secret. He secretly made up His mind even before the creation of the world, and He kept His secret.
You know, we are not able to keep any secret, especially if that secret is so glorious, so good, so perfect, so pleasing. We cannot keep it back; we want to tell it to all.
But God knows how to keep secrets. He has a top secret, and He has hidden it in Himself throughout the ages and generations, until the fullness of time.
A secret waits to be revealed.
Sometimes we say that the greatest mystery in the world is God. Now, who knows God? He is so above us. He is unlimited, infinite. How can we know Him?
No wonder the Greeks had an altar called “To an Unknown God.” God cannot be known. In one sense, that is true.
But in another sense, thank God, He can be known. Why? Because He loves to be known.
A mystery, a secret, waits to be revealed. There is only one way to know a secret, and that is when it is revealed.
Brothers and sisters, we do not know God. He is way beyond us. So far as our natural man is concerned, there is no way we can know Him.
But thank God, even though His will is a mystery and He has hidden it throughout the generations and ages, He is waiting for the right moment to reveal it. In the fullness of time, He reveals it.
Our God is not a God who hides Himself.
You remember in Genesis 16, Hagar fled from her mistress, and an angel of the Lord met her and told her to go back. He told her that she would bear a son, that she should call his name Ishmael, and that God would bless her.
Then Hagar said, “Thou art a God that seeth.” He had revealed Himself to her. Our God is a God who reveals Himself.
In Galatians 1:15-16, the apostle Paul said that it pleased God to reveal His Son in him.
So you know that our God has a secret, and He is able to keep His secret. But at the right time, the secret will be revealed.
So, brothers and sisters, when you come into this matter of the eternal purpose of God, remember one thing: we need revelation.
Without the spirit of wisdom and revelation, we are not able to enter into God’s eternal purpose. We are never able to get that true knowledge of God.
So we need to cast ourselves upon the Lord, not trying to depend upon our own ability.
I think from the very outset, we need to have a right attitude as we are faced with the eternal purpose of God. We need to acknowledge that, so far as we ourselves are concerned, this is something beyond us.
No matter how we try, we will not be able to really understand it and experience it. We need revelation from God. We are wholly dependent upon God to reveal His purpose, His will, and Himself to us.
But one thing we are sure of: it pleases Him to reveal.
You know, if in your family you have a newborn son, and somebody visits your family, he does not need to ask. You will tell the secret, because it is something so dear to your heart.
God loves to tell the secret, but unfortunately we are not prepared. So He has to use all kinds of ways to prepare us for it before it can be revealed. Then we appreciate it.
So anyway, brothers and sisters, we find that God is the supreme will, and out of that will He purposed a purpose.
It is in the singular: one purpose. Not just many purposes, but one overall, all-inclusive purpose. God purposed that purpose in Himself before the foundation of the world.
So you can see how important that purpose is, how great that purpose is, and how much it means to God.
You know, brothers and sisters, when we were created, God created us with a will too, because He made us according to His own image.
He is the supreme will, and He also created us with a will. God wants us to will His will.
Because sin entered into this world, our will naturally is against God’s will. Our purpose naturally is against God’s purpose.
But thank God, by His salvation, we who are saved by the grace of God should surrender our will to God’s will. We should purpose God’s purpose. That is what we should do.
You remember Daniel. When Daniel was a young man, probably in his teens, he was taken as a hostage to Babylon.
Yet the Bible says that he purposed in his heart not to be polluted by the king’s food and the king’s drink. In other words, he purposed a purpose in himself to keep himself pure for God.
He purposed the purpose of God for him. Because of that purpose, you remember how God honored his purpose, how God gave him wisdom and understanding, and how God greatly used him, because his life was linked with the purpose of God.
Dear brothers and sisters, we are living beings. We all have our will. We all make our purposes. But is our will being surrendered to God?
God respects our will. He created our will, so He respects it. He will never force us to do anything.
If we insist on our own will, even though He tries to rescue us, He respects our will.
Therefore, it is very important for us to surrender our will to God’s will, because we know that His will is perfect.
If we surrender our will to His will, then we will purpose our purpose according to His purpose. I think this is very important.
God not only has a will and a purpose. Now, what that purpose is, I will leave to my brother later.
But anyway, you find that as God made a purpose, then it follows that there comes, in verse 11, His counsel.
In other words, God not only has a will and has made a great purpose, but after that purpose is made, He also lays a plan—a counsel, a way—by which that purpose can be accomplished.
You know, we do things sometimes by chance. We do not have a plan. Some people even boast that they have no plan.
Now, if you do not have a plan, then you find that somebody will plan for you. You will just be moved by your circumstances, and somebody is behind it.
God never does anything by chance. He plans very carefully. He plans every step of the way until that purpose is realized.
You know what time is? Time is God’s workshop. God created time to work out His plan.
Time is important to God, and He uses time to perform what He has purposed. That is why the Bible says, “Unto a dispensation of the fullness of the times.”
God divides time into times, into periods of time. At each period of time, He is working something toward the fulfillment of His purpose.
His purpose is so gigantic, so glorious, so immense, that it takes all time to work this thing out.
The word administration, in some versions, is rendered management. The word means the management of household affairs.
God is managing His house. He is managing His household affairs. It is the administration of His own affairs.
It is the dispensation, the periods of time, through which He works out into fullness His purpose.
That is the reason why you find, even in the very beginning, that because God had that purpose in Himself before the foundation of the world, He began to plan for it.
The first thing He did was to create. God created all things according to that purpose.
In the beginning, God created. Then God created man, and man was made according to His likeness. Why? The answer is: according to that purpose.
Then throughout the Old Testament, you can read through the Old Testament and find how God gradually worked out His plan during the patriarchal age: how He called one man, Abraham; how He got a nation, Israel; how He worked with that nation.
And how He brought in the Messiah, the Redeemer, in the fullness of time. You find that God was gradually working out all His plan. He never missed a point.
You know, Israel only knew the acts of God. When God brought them through the Red Sea, they saw the miracle. The sea opened, and they walked through on dry land.
Oh, they praised God. They worshiped God. “God is good.”
Then soon they forgot. When they had no food to eat, they said, “Can God provide a table in the wilderness? Is God able to do that?”
Immediately, you find they began to doubt, because all they knew was the act of God—a very shallow knowledge of God.
But thank God, Moses knew God in a deeper way because he had a life with God.
You know, sometimes I wonder. When Moses went to the mountain and received from the hand of God the two tables of law—these stones were made by God Himself, and God’s finger wrote the words on these two tables of stone—how precious these must have been.
Then, when Moses came down and saw the children of Israel worshiping the golden calf, Moses smashed these two tables of stone. Sometimes I wonder, did he do something wrong? How dared he destroy the very handiwork of God?
Yes, probably he was angry. Maybe he sinned. Why did he do that? Because he knew the ways of God.
He knew God was righteous. Because God was righteous, if people sinned against God and violated His law, punishment would follow—severe punishment.
He made the children of Israel drink the water into which the golden calf had been ground and cast. “Drink your own sin.”
Further than that, he stood at the gate of the camp and said, “Whoso is on the Lord’s side, let him come unto me.” He commanded them to go from one gate to another and slay everyone whom they met, whoever he might be.
Why? Why did Moses command the children of Israel to do all these things? Because he knew the will of God. He knew God is so righteous. God’s righteousness has to be vindicated. It cannot be compromised.
Yet immediately afterward, he went up to the mountain and pleaded for the children of Israel. Why? Because he knew God is merciful.
Brothers and sisters, when we know the ways of God, then we are able to work together with God. Otherwise, we will not be able to work with God.
So how important it is, again, that we may know His counsel.
When you think of the counsel of God, of course, in Scripture you find, for instance, in Romans 11:
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are His judgments,
and His ways past tracing out!
For who hath known the mind of the Lord?
or who hath been His counsellor?
Does God need to ask anybody anything? Of course not. But thank God, we are able to know His ways. We are able to know His counsel, and because of that, we are able to work together with Him.
Just recently, I read something that dear brother Sparks spoke in Manila in 1964. He said it is important to know God’s purpose, but if you only know God’s purpose and do not know God’s way—the way to that purpose—it is useless.
We need not only to know God’s purpose; we also need to know God’s ways, His counsel.
Finally, the third thing is work. God works. He works according to the counsel of His will, that the purpose may be fulfilled.
Our God is a working God.
You remember the Lord Jesus says in John 5:17:
My Father worketh even until now, and I work.
You see, God has been working ever since He created the heavens and the earth, ever since He created man.
He was supposed to have His rest then, because on the seventh day He rested. He looked at everything, and He said it was wonderful.
But very soon, His rest was broken. Our forefathers, Adam and Eve, sinned in the Garden of Eden, and God began to work again: “Adam, where art thou?”
God began to come to seek and to find the lost. God called Abraham. God worked with the children of Israel. God even sent His only begotten Son into this world.
And He has been working ever since. Our God works.
He works according to the might of His strength, that exceeding great power.
In Ephesians 1, we are told that if our eyes are opened, we will see the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the might of His strength in raising Christ from the dead, seating Him on high at His right hand, and putting everything under His feet.
Brothers and sisters, that is the working power of God.
God can answer us exceedingly above all that we can even ask or think, to the glory of God.
So we do see that God has a glorious purpose, and that purpose is made out of love. God lays down a plan according to His wisdom, and now God works with exceeding great power to fulfill that purpose.
So can you doubt that His purpose will fail? His purpose will be realized.
But we also need to know that power if we want to work together with God. If we want to be in that plan for that purpose, brothers and sisters, we need to know the power of God.
The apostle Paul knew the power of God in his own life. You remember in 2 Corinthians 12, when he had that thorn in his body, how he pleaded with God to remove that thorn, that stake, so that he might be strong.
Yet the Lord said:
My grace is sufficient for thee:
for My power is made perfect in weakness.
In other words, in his weakness he experienced the power of God. The reason why we do not experience the power of God is because we are too strong. Our problem is not weakness; our problem is strength.
If we realize our weakness, even to the point of boasting of our weakness—not in the wrong way, but in those things which are weaknesses—then we will experience the exceeding great power of God.
You know, we are an earthen vessel, but there is a treasure within us, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not of ourselves.
Paul, even in his labor, toiled and labored in the power of God.
So, dear brothers and sisters, we need to know how to work with God. We need His power, that we may be able to be used by God in bringing His purpose into fullness.
So, dear brothers and sisters, actually we are here with something tremendously great before us. It is not just a small conference. It is something that touches eternity. It is something that touches the eternal purpose of God.
And thank God, He is drawing us into that purpose. We are in that purpose, and we need to know what that purpose is.
We need to work together with Him, allowing Him to work it out in us and through us until His glory is manifested.
So may the Lord prepare our hearts for this time. Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, we do praise and thank Thee that Thou art willing to share with us Thy very heart.
We want to thank Thee that Thou dost desire that we may be men and women of Thy heart, that we may know Thy heart, and that we may allow Thee to work that out in us and even through us.
That Thy purpose of eternity may become a reality.
Lord, we want to offer ourselves to Thee for Thy purpose. Have mercy upon us. In Thy precious name. Amen.