Episode Transcript
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Well, let's turn our attention to
Ephesians chapter one and, as has been
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our habit for a while now,
we will read Ehesians one through one.
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I'll read three through fourteen, and
let me continue to encourage you as this
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passage becomes more and more familiar to
you. If you put just a little
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extra effort in, you'll find that
your memory can remember more than maybe you
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think, and it will be a
benefit to you to do that as well.
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So let's give our our tension to
God's word, Effesians one versus three
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through fourteen. Blessed be the God
and father of our Lord, Jesus Christ,
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who has blessed us in Christ with
every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
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even as he chose us in him
before the foundation of the world,
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that we should be holy and blameless
before him. In love, he predestined
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us for adoption as sons through Jesus
Christ, according to the purpose of his
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will, to the praise of his
glorious grace with which he has blessed us
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in the beloved. In Him,
we have redemption through his blood, the
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forgiveness of our trespasses according to the
riches of His grace which he lavished upon
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us and all wisdom and insight,
making known to us the mystery of his
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will, according to his purpose,
which he set forth in Christ, as
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a plan for the fullness of time
to unite all things in him, things
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in heaven and things on earth.
In Him. We have obtained an inheritance,
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having been predestined according to the purpose
of him who works all things according
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to the counsel of his will,
so that we, who were the first
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to hope in Christ, might be
to the praise of his glory. In
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Him, you also, when you
heard of the word of truth, the
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Gospel of your salvation and believed in
him. We're sealed with the promised Holy
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Spirit, who is the guarantee of
our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,
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to the praise of his glory.
Amen. Maybe seated well tonight are
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passage that we are considering is versus
eight and nine of Ephesians one. It
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begins with this word which which he
lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight,
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making known to us the mystery of
his will, according to his purpose
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which he set forth in Christ.
This word which which begins this passage is
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referring of course, to the previous
words, which are the riches of His
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grace. God has lavished upon us
the riches of His grace. Wonder if
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you can think back in your life
to some of the greatest gifts that you
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have received. Just think about that
for a moment. Maybe it was a
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financial gift someone gave you, maybe
it was a thing like a house or
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a car, or maybe something even
more than that. Maybe it was a
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particular present that you received it Christmas
or for your birthday. Maybe it was
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not only great in as other people
might see it, but maybe it was
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particularly great to you because you knew
how much it costs to the person who
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who gave it to you. There's
all kinds of ways in which we might
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think about this and we think about
the riches lavished upon us, but whatever
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we might come up with a sort
of our chief example, if you want
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to know about a time when I
was lavished upon, let me tell you
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about this. Whatever we might think
about that, God goes far beyond,
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far beyond anything we can consider,
and that goes from any angle, if
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you consider it in terms of things
or monetary or worldly value. He has
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promised us the world, not a
car, not a house, not even
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a kingdom, you know, of
a few thousand square miles or something like
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that. He has given us the
world, possession of of the new heavens
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and the new earth, which we
will rule over with Christ. I don't
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know all the details all of all
of that, but I do know that's
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a big gift and we can be
very grateful for that. Or, if
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we think about it in terms of
the sacrifice and which the giver made,
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that's also pretty significant. One of
the great stories about this kind of thing
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is remember the gift of the Magi. It's a story that has the word
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Della in it. The the ladies
name in that story is Dulla, I
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believe, and and she and her
husband both want to give you some each
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other, something precious, and can't
remember what the gift was that she wanted
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to give him. They would remember
she gives away her hair, right to
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get him for his watch. Right, all right, so she does?
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She get him the watch or something, a fob for the watch. Okay,
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so Dulla goes and cuts her hair, right, she sacrifices her most
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precious possession so that he she can
get him this. He in turn sacrifices
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his watch so that he can get
her a comb for her hair. It's
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a beautiful story and it's all about
giving from the deepest parts of you,
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from giving sacrificially of the most precious
things for the other person. And ultimately,
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what happens is this wonderful experience of
love, though both have been way
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lost their most precious possessions, that
they have gained is this a knowledge of
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love from the other person, a
closeness as husband and wife. Sacrifices are
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a big deal, a really big
deal. And again, when we consider
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the greatness of God's grace, who
has sacrificed more then Jesus Christ giving up
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his own life for the salvation of
our souls? As we considered, when
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we thought about what it means that
we are redeemed, remember that when we
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were redeemed from slavery, that he
paid this ransom. How much would your
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family, or your friends or your
government pay to ransom you out of a
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bad situation? God ransomed us with
the very blood of his own son.
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These are costly things. Or we
can think about it in terms of other
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benefits that we receive. Freedom from
out from under the law, the the
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riches of his continuing work in us, are communion with him and with one
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another. The list goes on and
on, and if you want to explore
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that, let me suggest efficians,
Chapter One, verses three through fourteen.
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This is a great rehearsal of these
kinds of things, these spiritual blessings,
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as Paul says, which are being
poured out on us, these things that
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we have been given lease, this
way in which we have been chosen,
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this love that God is loving us
with, these are the riches of His
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grace, and what we learn in
this passage is that he is lavishing them
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upon us. This is one of
my favorite words in this whole passage.
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It's such a vivid word to lavish
someone with praise or to lavish someone with
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costly jewelry. It's excessive right.
It's above and beyond anything that you could
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expect or would hope for. You
know, a lot of times when we
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have things in our lives that we
need to give to other people, that
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we want to give to other people, we often find that we have to
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be very careful about that. Right. We can't give too much money to
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this friend or to the church or
to this organization because, well, I've
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also got to eat right. You
know, I also have bills to pay
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these kinds of things, and we
have to be careful when we go to
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EG's right, you can get just
the big one, the Biggie, and
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then you can carefully divide it and
my family to seven cups so that everyone
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gets us fair amount. We always
have more than enough, but there's a
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kind of carefulness that happens in that
to make sure that everyone gets some and
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and that it's all fair. God
is not carefully doling out His grace,
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a little bit here and a little
bit here, and the equal little mini
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cups. He is lavishing at upon
us, just pouring it out in this
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extremely generous way. I mean,
can you think about a point in your
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life where where you can look at
God's grace and say, yeah, that
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was that was really a little too
far? No, in everything that we
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in everything that God has given to
us, it's it's never careful, or
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overly careful anyway. At the same
time that God is giving this kind of
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excessive general ferocity, the word tells
us that he did it in all wisdom
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and insight. This is important because
when we start using words like excessive,
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abundant, it's easy for a negative
connotation to creep in. Words like reckless
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might come to mind, unwise might
come to mind, and many people do
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give gifts like this from from time
to time. Now, some people think
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I will just mention by way of
passing, there are a number of commentators
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who do read these words differently,
and I just want to to mention that
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out of respect to others, and
it's this is a possibility. Some will
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say that these words wisdom and insight
refer to the things that God gives to
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us. He lavishes us, upon
us these riches and grace, including wisdom
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and insight, and I do want
to say that it is of course a
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truth that God gives us wisdom and
insight, and will even see that point
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proved a little bit later. Divine
things can never be discerned from natural things
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or natural man. But I'm of
the opinion that this refers not to the
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wisdom and insight we receive, but
to the wisdom and insight that God uses,
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because ultimately this verse seems to be
about his actions. Right it says
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that he lavished upon us and then, skipping in wisdom and insight, making
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known to us, that is him
making known to us the mystery of his
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will. This is focused very much, yes, on the riches and the
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grace, that of grace we received, but the way in which he's doing
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this, he's lavishing it upon us. How, in all wisdom and insight?
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Well, why would he say this? How do you lavish with wisdom
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and insight? You may not think
of those words to going together until you
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remember this word I mentioned, reckless. If you think of someone who is
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reckless with their giving, in their
lavish giving, you'll know how important it
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is to have wisdom and insight in
this lavishness. So, for example,
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you might think of Herod who is
drunk and his daughter is dancing before him
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and he says, I'll give you
half my kingdom. Right, so this
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is a lavish or up to have
my kingdom anything you want. Now,
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this is, of course, a
very lavish gift and promise, right,
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but is it given in wisdom and
insight? Not at all. What happens?
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John the Baptist's head ends up on
a platter and all kinds of evil,
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a murder, a martyr and and
he is, of course, a
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disgraced by the whole thing, through
his thinking, through his bad friendships,
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through his outof control househood and just
household in general, foolishness. He makes
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a stupid decision that costs him a
lot of things. Maybe you've made similar
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mistakes. I've known people that have
given way lots and lots of money to
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con artists. It's a sad thing. I'm to lavish someone with gifts that
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are not according to wisdom and insight, can be a dangerous thing, and
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maybe not just money, but perhaps
time, someone who's trying to manipulate you
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or affect you or cause you to
sin. So this is the wisdom that's
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that's required when we give, even
when we give excessively, even when we
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give generously, we see there's still
wisdom that's required, even on the human
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level, and of course God,
who acts perfectly in all things, does
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this, you might even think in
in some of the best situations, a
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people anyway can be criticized for their
gifts. I read an article this week
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about Jeff Bezos, the founder and
owner of Amazon, in a number of
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gifts it didnumber of businesses. This
article was titled Better Ways for Jeff Bezos
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to spend his a hundred thirty one
billion dollars. Jeff bezos is a very
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rich man. He plans on pouring
a billion dollars a year into a space
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project called blue origin. He has
is various reasons for that, but as
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people are looking at this situation,
they can't help but wonder, is this
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wise? Could this billion dollars and
more be spent in other ways, in
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other forms? Could more good be
done? I'm pointing out simply that the
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question of wisdom is an important one
when it comes to giving, even giving
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lavishly. So when God is pouring
out his riches of His grace on us,
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when God is laughing us with lavishing
us with these things, the scripture
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reminds us that he does it with
all wisdom and insight. An amazing and
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beautiful thing, and I can't help
but think of course he does. We
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struggle to know how to use our
resources, we struggle to know how to
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make careful use of the limited things
we have. God, however, just
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does it perfectly, effortlessly, completely
with all wisdom and insight. God is
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not some bumbling Zeus up in his
Pantheon, helping some people, forgetting about
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other people, making mistakes and getting
people mad. No, he acts perfectly,
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and this is important because people accuse
God of not doing this. How
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could you possibly accuse God of not
being wise in the way that he gives?
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Well, we do. You remember
Jesus and people complaining about him eating
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with tax collectors and prostitutes? How
could you be doing such a thing?
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This is not wise, this is
not smart. Or you think about the
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woman who poured out oil on the
Lord. Is a costly perfumes and Judas
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says, shouldn't that money be used
elsewhere? Or you the way that Jesus
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comes into connection with these things,
or the mothers bringing their children to Jesus
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and the disciple saying don't bother him, he's got out more important things to
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do, and Jesus pours out His
grace on even these children that these mothers
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are carrying to him. People are
constantly questioning the wisdom of God's lavishness in
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His grace, and maybe you've done
this as well. I know that I
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have. Why does he get that? Why does she get those things?
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How come I don't have such and
such a thing? Maybe you've wondered these
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things about God, maybe you have
even accused him. But if we're honest
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and if we need the scriptures as
they have been given, to us.
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We ought to be silenced in our
accusations of God, in our discontentment,
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in our envy, in our second
guessing who he brings and why he brings
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a particular person into his kingdom.
We're not so great and God's given his
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gifts to us. Why should we
not rejoice at the gifts he has given
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others? You see, then,
how practical this simple thing is and how
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wonderful and beautiful it is. It
expresses the character of the one who has
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loved us, the one whom we
serve. He has poured out on us.
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He is lavished us with the riches
of His grace, not recklessly,
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not foolishly, not stupidly, but
not all wisdom and all insight, perfect
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in every way. The last point
I want to make is based on verse
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nine, and that it naturally.
Their thoughts are naturally flow to verse nine,
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because here we have the most perfect
example of God lavishing this grace according
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to perfection and wisdom and time and
knowledge. First Nine says making known to
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us the mystery of his will,
according to his purpose which he set forth
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in Christ people want to know what
the will of God is. What is
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it that God wants? What is
it that God desires? How can I
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be saved? How can I please
him? What's heaven going to be like?
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How? What kind of prayers will
he accept? What about worship?
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All of these things and more,
and we are right to wonder about these
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things. But what we learn here
is that they have been made known to
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us. In Jesus, his purpose, which he is set forth in Christ,
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has been made known to us,
and this is a great thing.
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In the fullness of time, as
Paul says in Galatians, Christ was born
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under the law. God didn't accidentally
bump into the incarnation. He planned it,
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he purposed fit. Even before time
itself, he covenanted within himself to
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make these things happen. What is
the mystery? It is this Christ who
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comes. Let me read you a
little bit from First Peter, Chapter One,
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of starting at Verse Ten Peter Rights
Concerning this salvation. The prophets who
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prophesied about that grace that was to
be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring
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what person or time the spirit of
Christ in them was indicating when he predicted
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the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent
glories. It was revealed to them that
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they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been
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announced to you through those who preached
the good news to you by the Holy
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Spirit, sent from heaven, things
into which angels long to look. See
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What Peters saying? He's saying that
generations before the Apostles and the prophets came,
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there were other men sent by God, men who had the spirit of
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Christ in them, who were looking
into this situation, looking into the word
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of God and inquiring diligently. When
will these things happen? WHO WILL BE
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THE MESSIAH? How will this all
come at? About? How will this
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all come about? The angels of
themselves longing to look into the things of
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God. A great mystery. And
there wasn't a single second that went by
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that God didn't hold back, and
not a single second that passed in which
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he went, Oh, no,
I'm too late. No, at the
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exact perfect moment in all time in
which God decreed all things to be Jesus
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Christ was born into the world.
And as you go and you read the
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Gospels, this is so evident,
the way that this event and that event,
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from the shepherds to the star,
to the to his cousins, John,
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the baptist, to many other things. All of these millions and billions
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of specific instances of God's Providence all
coalescing together around the birth of this savior,
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this mystery that would be revealed,
and through him, through this Christ,
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we would come to know the things
that Paul is writing about here,
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our redemption, our salvation, the
work of Christ on the cross, his
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justification of us, his sanctification,
the subsequent glories to come. As Peter
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Puts it, all of these things
are made known to us in the perfect
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in the perfect time and in the
perfect way, according to wisdom and insight
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in Christ. This is yet another
way in which God has lavished upon us
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the riches of His grace, not
just the things that he gives us,
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but the in the one whom we
receive them, and even in the way
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in which it comes. You can
look over and under and around and through
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this thing and kind of at every
angle, and you'll always and only see
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the grace of God. There's not
a perspective you can get on it where
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you can go, okay, there's
the other side, that's the other foot.
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No, every single part of this, no matter how you turn it,
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Reflat refracts the light of God.
It's beautiful, it's wonderful and it
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speaks to us, as I said, the God who saves us. The
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applications of this, of course,
are in the thousands. We ought to
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be grateful people, we ought to
praise the Lord who has saved us.
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And maybe you find yourself from time
to time a struggling to remember the things
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that is gone God has done,
and in these moments, this a passage
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speaks to us and says something like
do you even realize, you ungrateful person,
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how much God has done for you
and is doing for you? He
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has lab us to you, it
is lavishing you with the riches of His
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grace. Wake Up, pay attention, stop grumbling, be content. These
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are good applications of God's word.
But of course, if you're in a
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good mood and you're happy and you're
just living your life and the glories of
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God in the goodness of His grace, if you find yourself content and full
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of joy, then you know exactly
what you need to do. Enjoy God,
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keep pressing on, praise him for
the goodness and wonders of the things
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that he has done. Take that
light that he has been given to his
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he has given to you and is
giving to you and spread it around.
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Take the gifts that you have received
and give them to others, not just
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the things of this world, the
things of the heavenly places, Christ himself.
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Share him, spread him, let
his word be known in your life,
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in your words. It is a
right and a joyful thing to get
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caught up in the grace of God, to be there as he pours out
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upon us all of these good things. This is why we say blessed be
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the God and father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, because he's blessed us in
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him. Let's praise him, let's
pray
