Will you please turn to the letter to the Ephesians? Ephesians Chapter 1, verses 9 and 10:
Having made known to us the mystery of His will,
according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,
for the administration of the fullness of times,
to head up all things in the Christ,
the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth.
Then Ephesians Chapter 3, beginning with verse 8:
To me, less than the least of all saints, has this grace been given,
to announce among the nations the glad tidings of the unsearchable riches of the Christ,
and to enlighten all with the knowledge of what is the administration of the mystery hidden throughout the ages in God,
Who has created all things;
in order that now, to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies,
might be made known through the church the all-various wisdom of God,
according to the purpose of the ages, which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord,
in Whom we have boldness and access in confidence by faith in Him.
Let us have a further word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we are glad to be in Thy presence. We praise and thank Thee because Thou hast the word of life. We have believed in Thee, and there is no one else we can turn to but Thee.
Our hearts do rejoice, knowing that Thou art for us; and if Thou art for us, who can be against us? We praise and thank Thee that, as we come to Thee, we know and believe that Thou wilt speak to us.
Speak, Lord; Thy servants hear. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
We all know that the theme of this conference is the eternal purpose of God. We are going to look at this subject from three different directions.
First, we will look at God’s eternal purpose as seen in Christ Jesus. The letter to the Colossians will be the background, and our brother Lance has already started on that last night.
Then we will look at God’s eternal purpose as seen in the church. The letter to the Ephesians will be the background, and this will be my responsibility.
Then we will look at God’s eternal purpose as seen in Christians. The book of Romans will be the background for it, and our brother Dana will speak very soon.
God’s eternal purpose may be viewed in three different dimensions: Christ, the church, and the Christian. Yet all these are one.
We read in Ephesians Chapter 1, verses 9 and 10, that God has made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure.
In other words, even before the foundation of the world, God exercised His own will according to what pleased Him, and He purposed a purpose in Himself.
That purpose is to be fulfilled at the fullness of time. We know that purpose is that one day all things will be summed up, headed up, in Christ Jesus—the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth.
Here we see the mystery of God. God has a secret, and the secret of God is a Person: His beloved Son.
You know, if you look into the heart of God, what do you see in God’s heart? In God’s heart, you see only one Person. That is His beloved Son.
His Son is His fullness. His Son is the mystery of God.
No one has ever seen God, for the One Who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. We say God is the greatest mystery in the whole universe. Unless He reveals Himself, no one can know Him.
But we praise and thank God that He does reveal Himself in His Son. You remember our Lord Jesus said, “If you see Me, you see My Father.”
He is the mystery of God. He is what has been hidden in the heart of God since the foundation of the world, and He is the One Who reveals the Father—Who reveals the secret of the Father.
Our brother has already begun to show us how Christ is the mystery of God and how He is the Heir of all things. One day everything will be summed up in Christ Jesus.
He will be Head over all things. Everything will be under His feet, and everything will manifest Christ Jesus. That is God’s eternal purpose, and how important it is that we know Him.
But when you turn to Ephesians Chapter 3, from verses 9 to 11, you find this:
To enlighten all with the knowledge of what is the administration of the mystery hidden throughout the ages in God, Who has created all things; in order that now, to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies, might be made known through the church the all-various wisdom of God, according to the purpose of the ages, which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
When you compare Ephesians Chapter 1, verses 9 and 10, with Chapter 3, verses 9 to 11, you find many points of similarity.
You find God’s purpose. You find that it was before the foundation of the world. You find the administration of the fullness of time. You find God’s counsel and God’s working to accomplish what He has purposed.
Yet there is a difference. In the first case, you find that God purposed in Himself. In other words, God exercised His free will and made a purpose. It was a purpose purposed in Himself.
So far as that purpose is concerned, it concerns His beloved Son. That is the purpose.
But in the second case, when you come to Ephesians Chapter 3, you find again that God purposed, and it was before the foundation of the world. But it says that He purposed in Christ Jesus.
First, He purposed in Himself, and that concerned His Son. Then He purposed in Christ Jesus. What did He purpose in Christ Jesus, even before the foundation of the world? You find that it is the church.
Before time began, God purposed in Christ Jesus that there would be a church. In that church, He is to pour forth all His grace.
Through that church, He is to teach even the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies the manifold wisdom of God.
Brothers and sisters, the church is God’s purpose in Christ Jesus. Or we may put it another way: the church is what God has purposed for Christ Jesus.
Through the church, He will pour forth all His wisdom, so that even the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies will see His manifold wisdom.
In other words, the testimony of the church is not only to this world, but even to the unseen world. That is what God has purposed in Christ Jesus.
The letter to the Ephesians is focused on the mystery of the Christ. When you look at Colossians Chapter 2, verses 2 and 3, you find the full knowledge of the mystery of God, which is Christ Jesus.
If we want to know the mystery of God, if we want to have any knowledge of the secret of God, it is in Christ Jesus.
But in Ephesians, you find Paul saying, “By reading, you may know how I understand the mystery of the Christ, which has been hidden throughout the ages, but now has been revealed to the apostles and prophets.”
What is revealed is the church. So the letter to the Ephesians is concerned with the church.
But, brothers and sisters, before we can deal with this matter of the church in the eternal purpose of God, we have to remember that the church is not the center of all things. Christ is the center.
Without Christ, there would be no church. The church has its origin in Christ Jesus. Christ is the Head; the church is the Body.
Christ is at the front; the church serves as the background. We can never uplift the church above Christ.
If you look into the heart of God, you see only Christ Jesus, His beloved Son—nothing else. If I may put it in such a way, if it were not because of Christ, you could not see in God’s heart the church. You could not see in God’s heart you and me.
The reason we are now in God’s heart is because we are in Christ Jesus. Strictly speaking, in the heart of God you see only Christ. He is everything to God.
As our brother already mentioned, all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him. He is the fullness of God. He is the mystery of God. He is the manifestation, the revelation, of the secret of God. That is our Lord Jesus.
But thank God, when you look into the heart of Christ Jesus, you see the church. He loved the church and gave Himself for it.
In the heart of Christ, you see the church. He so loved the church that He came down from heaven.
He emptied Himself of the glory and honour that were His right as God, the Son of God, equal with God. Yet He emptied Himself of all His honour, glory, and position.
He took upon Himself the form of a bondslave, even the fashion of a man. He was born in a manger in Bethlehem for the love of the church.
For the love of the church, He grew up in Nazareth, hidden for thirty years. For the love of the church, He came out and preached the gospel of the kingdom.
For the love of the church, He went to the cross and died for the church.
So, brothers and sisters, even though we have to remember that we cannot emphasize the church more than Christ Himself, yet we do find how the church is the darling of our Lord.
Because of this, brothers and sisters, we cannot neglect the church. If our Lord Jesus loves the church so much, could we love the church less?
Why is it that the church is the mystery of the Christ? You remember in 1 Corinthians 12:12, the Apostle Paul says, “There is one body, but many members; many members, but one body. So also is the Christ.”
Now, probably when you first read that verse, your first reaction is that there is a mistake there. The body is one with many members. The members are many, but there is only one body. Well, that is the church. So also is the church.
But the Holy Spirit makes no mistake. Actually, He gives us the right interpretation. The Bible makes it very clear: “So also is the Christ.”
Why is it? Because the church is nothing but the corporate expression of Christ Himself. It is nothing less than that, and nothing other than that.
I believe, brothers and sisters, we all know that the building at the corner of the city square is not the church.
Even though we all have the habit of saying, “Look at the corner of the city square, and you can see maybe more than one church,” referring to big buildings—we say, “We go to church,” meaning that we go to that building to worship the Lord.
But I believe, brothers and sisters, we all know that the church is not made of bricks, stone, wood, or whatever material it may be. That is not the church. That is just a physical building.
It can be used for the church to meet, but it is not the church.
Sometimes people say, “I left my umbrella in the church.” Now, you can never leave your umbrella in the church. You can leave your umbrella in a building where the church meets. So we know this is not the church.
Now, what is the church? We say the church is ekklesia—the called-out ones gathered together.
“Where two or three are gathered together unto My name, there am I in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:20. That is the church.
The church is not the world. The church is the people whom God has called out from every nation, every tribe, every tongue, every people.
God calls out a people and gathers them together unto Himself—under His name, under His authority, under His headship.
When there are two or three gathered together under the authority of Christ, His presence is there. We say, “This is the church.”
But is this the church? Why is it that when God’s people, those who are called out of the world and gathered together under the name of Christ, are together, you find so much fighting against each other? Can that be the church?
Many years ago, I had the privilege of serving together with dear T. Austin-Sparks. I know Brother Sparks was so spiritually minded that if you mentioned anything earthly, it bothered him.
When we were ministering together, I tried to explain what the church is to the people. So I turned to Brother Sparks and said, “You have to forgive me, because I am going to use a formula.”
Now, in spiritual things there can be no formula. Yet I felt that, in order to make it clear, I would use a formula.
Suppose, in the very beginning, there were only three Christians—called-out ones—and these three were Peter, John, and James. You could not find a better gathering than these three people.
So what is the church? Is the church Peter plus John plus James? Is that the church? No, of course not.
Peter in his natural self, John and James in their natural selves, cannot be the church. They had to be called out.
So we might say, “What is the church? The church is Christ in Peter, plus Christ in John, plus Christ in James, equal to church.” Ah, you have got it? No.
Why? Because Peter was a person who wanted to be the head. John and James were not more gentle than Peter.
Even at the last moment, when our Lord was going to Jerusalem, all the disciples had been struggling against each other all those years over who was the greatest. Now was the last chance.
John and James were so clever. They got their mother to go to the Lord, and the word of the mother had some weight. Their mother took the two sons to the Lord and said, “Lord, we want to ask You for one thing. Promise You will give it.”
I think probably they were too ashamed to mention what that thing was. Here was a blank cheque: “Sign it.”
But our Lord Jesus never signed a blank cheque. So the Lord asked, “What do you want? Speak it out.”
“Ah, my two sons: one on Your right and one on Your left.”
The Lord said, “Are you able to drink the cup that I am going to drink, and to be baptized with the baptism with which I am going to be baptized?” They said, “We are able,” but they did not know what it involved.
The Lord said, “You will. But to sit on My right and on My left is not for Me to give; it is for the Father to give.”
The other ten were indignant. Why? Because they had been outmanoeuvred.
If you put Peter, John, and James together, how they would fight! Maybe two against one. That is not the church. Peace should be the church.
Brothers and sisters, that is why you and I, and all of us, are the church—and we fight against each other. No peace, no unity. Where is Christ?
So I said, “What is the church? The church is Christ in Peter minus Peter, plus Christ in John minus John, plus Christ in James minus James, equal to the church.” Now you get it.
That is the reason why it says, “So also is the Christ.” In other words, the church is nothing but the corporate expression of Christ.
You and I have to be eliminated by the working of the cross in our lives, so that what is left is nothing but Christ Himself.
It is His corporate expression. In that expression, He expresses Himself—the fullness of Christ. The church is the Body of Christ, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all.
He fills you, He fills me, He fills all and in all of us. Nothing but Christ. Anything that is not of Christ has to be eliminated by the cross before you enter into the reality of the church.
So, dear brothers and sisters, what is the church? The church is the Christ. The mystery of the Christ is the church.
When we talk about the church, usually we begin with Pentecost, because on the day of Pentecost, two thousand years ago, the Holy Spirit came down and the one hundred and twenty gathered in that upper room were baptized in the Spirit into one Body.
So we say that was the beginning of the church. Wrong.
The church began before the foundation of the world. Even before the world was, God had already purposed in Christ Jesus that He was going to have a church for His Son.
Actually, you find that the church was conceived in the heart of God even before the ages began. It has its origin in God.
The church is not a product of history. Today we look at the church as a product of history, and when we write church history, we look at it from that viewpoint.
But we have to remember that the church is heavenly in its origin and, therefore, spiritual in nature.
It was conceived in the mind of God before the foundation of the world. But one day it appeared upon the earth, and that was the day of Pentecost.
When you look into the Gospel according to John, the whole Gospel of John tries to tell us that our Lord Jesus came into this world for one reason.
If you read Luke, you find that He came to seek and to save the lost, because the Gospel according to Luke is the Gospel of grace.
But when you read the Gospel of John, you find the reason why our Lord Jesus came into this world. Yes, He came to seek and to save the lost, but that is more than the lost. He came to seek for His bride.
That is the Gospel of John. That is the reason why the first miracle—the first sign He performed—was at a marriage feast.
As the Bridegroom, He came into this world to seek and find His bride.
John the Baptist understood that, because he said that he was the friend of the Bridegroom. When he heard the voice of the Bridegroom, he was happy. He, the Bridegroom, must increase, and he, the friend, must decrease.
So the purpose of our Lord Jesus coming into this world was to find His bride.
You know, just like Adam, as our brother mentioned last night, God brought all the animals before Adam. Why did God do that? Because God knew Adam was lonely.
He brought all the animals before Adam, and Adam gave names to all these animals. But he could not find his counterpart.
Because of this, God put him to sleep, and out of his side God took something. He used that which came out of Adam to make a woman.
The word make is an architectural word: to construct a woman. Can you remember? Adam looked up, and God brought that woman to Adam. Adam looked at her and said, “This is me.”
Then they were joined together. You know, this is just a type. The fulfillment of that type is Christ and the church.
In Ephesians Chapter 5, Paul says, “This mystery is great, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”
So, brothers and sisters, when Christ came to this earth, He was looking for His bride.
But instead of animals passing before Him, you find all mankind passing before Him: the sick, the blind, the lame, even the dead. He could not find His counterpart. He could not find anyone who answered to His heart.
Because man had fallen into sin, he was unfit to be His bride. For that reason, He had to go to the cross. He had to die.
Our brother mentioned also last night that the soldier came and found that the Lord had already died. To make sure that He did die, he thrust a spear into His side, and out came water and blood.
John was there, and he made it very emphatic. He said, “I saw it. I bear witness to it, that out of that side came water and blood.”
Why did he testify to it so emphatically? Because the blood is for the remission of our sins, and the water is His life. He gave us a new life, His own life.
With Himself as the material, He built the church. Brothers and sisters, that is what the church is.
When our Lord Jesus was on earth, He mentioned the church only twice. One was in Matthew 16:18.
You know, when He asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” they brought to our Lord all the good reports. They purposely withheld all the bad reports, trying to please the Lord.
“Oh, You are John the Baptist come to life. You are the prophet. You are Jeremiah, because You weep a lot.”
But the Lord was not satisfied. The Lord said, “But whom do you say that I, the Son of Man, am? You who are with Me, you who should know Me—Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Our Lord Jesus said, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-jona, because this was not shown to you by flesh and blood, but My Father Who is in heaven has revealed it to you.”
“And I say unto you, You are Peter, a little stone, a living stone. I will build My church upon this massive Rock—Myself—and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
That was the first mention of the church from the mouth of our Lord. The second mention is in Matthew Chapter 18.
He said, “If your brother sins against you, you go to him. Try to restore him. If he does not listen to you, get another one or two brothers with you and try to convince him. If he does not listen, then tell the church, and the church will have to deal with him.”
From these two mentions, you can see very clearly that in Matthew 16 He gave us the spiritual principle of the church, because everything is spiritual.
“I will build My church.” It is My church, built on the Rock—Myself, that confession—dealt with by living stones such as Peter. There will be spiritual conflict, but the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Everything is on a spiritual realm. That is the universal church.
Then in Matthew 18, you find that it is condensed and applied practically on earth. What happens where the churches are? You find there will be sin against each other.
There has to be forgiveness. There has to be love. There must be an attempt to restore. There has to be discipline, and there has to be prayer together.
So, brothers and sisters, there you find the practical application of the spiritual, heavenly principles.
Even though our Lord mentioned the church only twice, why was it so? Because there was no church yet. It was not ready. He had to die for the church, and only after He died could the church become a reality.
Now let us go to the beginning of the history of the church on earth. We say it is Pentecost, but actually, when you find the birth of the church, you have to go back to the cross.
As we have already mentioned, it was on the cross that our Lord Jesus travailed.
We notice how our Lord Jesus knew that His time had come, so He set His face toward Jerusalem. His disciples were amazed and frightened because they knew that the Jews were going to kill Him. But our Lord set His face toward Jerusalem.
You remember that night, how He agonized in the garden of Gethsemane. He said, “I am sorrowful even unto death.” He was oppressed in His spirit.
He told His three disciples, “Wait with Me. Watch with Me.” Then He went forward and prayed, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup be removed from Me; but not My will, Thy will be done.”
Brothers and sisters, the scene in Gethsemane is so sacred. There you find our Lord Jesus, the Holy One, He Who knew no sin, He Who pleased the Father even from eternity.
Yet there you find that He was going to be the sin offering for us.
No wonder His holiness, His purity, and His righteousness rebelled against all the awfulness, the wickedness, and the sinfulness of sin.
How could He be defiled—He Who knew no sin—to be made sin itself, as it were? He could not bear it. The temptation was tremendous.
He could have asked the Father to remove that cup if He had insisted, but He said, “Not My will, but Thy will be done.”
When He was there, He agonized. His sweat came down like great drops of blood. He was so weakened physically that an angel had to appear to support Him.
Brothers and sisters, we cannot understand how much He loved us, how much He gave Himself for us.
The travail of birth—it is through His travail that the church is born.
You remember, on the cross, the first three hours He suffered from the hands of men, from the enemy Satan, and from evil forces. He was surrounded by evil, seen and unseen. They attacked Him, but the Father was with Him.
So He could pray, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
But then, at twelve o’clock, suddenly darkness filled the place. For three hours He was there alone.
Toward the end, He cried, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” During those three hours, He tasted eternal death for each one of us, separated from the Father.
Out of the travail of His soul, He shall see a seed, and He shall be satisfied.
Brothers and sisters, the church is not something that man can make. The church has to be born, and it is born through the travail of our Lord Jesus.
Sometimes I think, when our Lord Jesus cried, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” was He the only One who was in travail? No. The Father was in travail too.
The Father had to hide His face. He could not see His Son. He had to give up His Son for us. What travail it must have been to our Heavenly Father.
Oh, the day of Pentecost, when the one hundred and twenty were there, suddenly there came a sound.
In the original, it says it was like a wind, but it was hard breathing. You know, when a woman is in travail to give birth, she has to have hard breathing.
It was the travail of the Holy Spirit. The triune God travailed together for the birth of the church. So how precious the church must be to God.
Today we look at the church as nothing. We play with the church. But if you really see what the church is, what a great price our God has paid to bring it about.
Because of this, brothers and sisters, you find that even in the early days, the one hundred and twenty also travailed with God for the birth of the church.
They saw the Lord ascend, but the Lord said, “Go to Jerusalem. Wait.” So they went back to Jerusalem.
At one time, five hundred saw our Lord Jesus, but only one hundred and twenty went back to Jerusalem. They spent ten days there, travailing and waiting.
Through the travail of these one hundred and twenty early believers, the church was born.
Wherever a church is born, it has to come through travail, even in our time.
There must be some people who travail for the church, for the testimony of Jesus. Out of their travailing prayer, something is born, and that is the church.
The Apostle Paul knew what it meant to travail, how he toiled in the power of the Holy Spirit.
He was willing to fill up that which was behind of the afflictions of Christ for the church, which is His Body. Because of this, you find the church in Ephesus was born, and churches in other places were born.
The same principle applies to us today.
So, dear brothers and sisters, first of all, if God so loves the church, how about you and me? Will we love the church in the right way?
If our Lord Jesus Himself was willing to travail for the birth of the church, should we not also have fellowship with His sufferings?
Should we not be willing to travail, to pay a price, and to pray, so that the church may become a reality—something that is Christ, something that is just like Him, something that can be His helpmate?
May the Lord help us. Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank Thee for giving us Thy beloved Son. He is everything to us.
Lord, we want to thank Thee that Thou art willing to give Thyself, Thine own life, to the church, that it may be Thy life, Thy helpmate.
Lord, I pray that Thou wilt open not only our understanding, but Thou wilt touch our hearts, that we may love what Thou lovest.
May we be willing to suffer for that which Thou dost suffer for. Unto Thee be the glory. We ask in Thy gracious name. Amen.