Ephesians 1:8
"Wherein (Grace in verse 7) he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;"
We all know that we from time to time through out a question or two to get people to think about what the scriptures are saying, well here's one "How do you explain the abundant life?" Well we should all be able to put it into words, and I guess that when we answer this question, we're going to say something like this, "Listen, it's that complete package of the Grace of God that He has given us, the assurance of salvation, with both the NOW and Eternity in God's presence. He has given the assurance that God is in total control of every moment of my life. We don't have to worry and fret that all of a sudden we've been cut loose, and we're without hope. We don't have to feel that we're under a constant burden of guilt. Now that's some of the abundant life that Christ has promised for this earthly sojourn. God has picked up the load and the responsibility of carrying our load, He's the one working out our salvation in us while we sit under God listening by waiting on and then doing as he leads us." In the fear of falling short, NO for it is God doing the work through us just as He had done in Jesus.
It's a life maybe not always of happiness, maybe our circumstances are not always the greatest, but the joy is there. So regardless of our circumstances we have the joy that Paul speaks of so much in the Book of Philippians. Paul is always saying in that Book, "Rejoice" And do you remember what kind of places Paul was in? In the dungeons of prison, shipwrecked, in the water, and under the scourging, and yet the man could constantly say, "be joyful." Well that's the abundant life. It doesn't mean that we're going to have two Cadillacs in our garage, or the biggest house in town. But the abundant life is that we have been redeemed, His working our salvation out within us, we have eternal life, we have the hope of glory, we have that constant assurance that He knows all about us. We have access into the throne room of Heaven. We can pray at any time, and any place so that's all part of the abundant life. It's all a portion of the cup that we're to claim as our own. But it's not limited to just the abundant life, for this is the Life of Christ imparted to us, look what He's giving us here.
Ephesians 1:8b
"...wisdom and prudence;"
What's the word prudence mean? We can wrap it up better than Webster's dictionary. Prudence is just common horse sense! Isn't it? When we are prudent we merely have good sense. Now if we can have wisdom and with it some good common horse sense, then we've got the abundant life. God has given all this to us and we as believers receive it free. We haven't had to grovel in the ground, we haven't had to climb the steps to St. Peter, we haven't had to go across the ocean. He's given all this to us, here and now. And it's abounding, it's more than we can handle, our cup is overflowing and how do we appropriate all this? By faith. We don't always feel or sense it, but we come back to the Word and here it is, and we can receive it if we but believe it. Now that is what God is looking for, and the more we believe, the more He'll bless us. Remember there's nothing that pleases the heart of God more than our trusting onto His faithfulness as a human being. For you see it's unbelief that He's going to hold in the strongest light against mankind. Remember when we looked at those verses in the Book of Hebrews?
Hebrews 3:18-19
"And to whom sware [swore] he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief."
And the opposite of unbelief is FAITH! So here it is now then. We've appropriated His Grace -
Ephesians 1:8
"Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;"
Now what's the problem with Christendom today? They don't have that kind of wisdom. Oh! they may be saved but they're out there floundering in ignorance of the Scripture. We just had a gentlemen at the food pantry say, “he had been to seminary, and the further he went in those seminary courses the further they were taking him from the truth.” So he dropped out, and had discovered our postings on the Internet, and realized what they were teaching in the seminary was running contrary to the Book. Well this is the beauty of God's Grace. He'll divide out wisdom and common sense to any of us who will appropriate it by faith, but we have to stay in the Book, prayer and in the Holy Spirit to get it. We're not just going to be able to leave it up to the pastors, teachers or prophets. Now we're not putting the fault totally on pastors, teachers or prophets because they're overloaded a lot of the time, but the average individual has to learn to get into the Word, and seek these things out and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal them in Truth. For this is what is meant by "seek first the kingdom and His righteousness". Now in verse 9 and 10, we're going to spend the next little while.
Ephesians 1:9-10
“Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:”
Ephesians 1:9a
"Having made known unto us (Paul) the mystery of his will,..."
What's another word for "mystery"? Secret. Oh let's go back and look at it in Deuteronomy 29:29 we were talking to a gentlemen recently that said, "Bill after I saw that verse I just used it over and over, because it just says it all with regards to the revelations of the Apostle Paul when he claims that these things were kept secret and that they were revealed to him and him alone from the ascended Christ." Sometimes people will ask us, "Now are you taking things away from what Jesus said during his earthly ministry?" No we don't take it away, but we know one thing, what He said from His ascended place in glory carries a lot more weight for us today than what He said to the Hebrews under the Law. And of course everything that Christ says from glory is through the Apostle Paul. Now here it is. Why? Because the Lord was under restraint or constraints of the Law and the Prophets. That is why He spoke in parables, metaphors or symbolic language or in shadowy picture language. For even when He spoke openly His disciples did not hear or understand, perceive what He said because of the religious veil which covered them as it does the Hebrews, Israelites and the rest of the unbelieving world still.
Deuteronomy 20:29
"The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: (what kind of things? Secret things. Now what's a secret? Something that nobody else knows anything about, its veiled or hidden to them) but those things which are revealed (that's from the word where we get revelation, inspiration and illumination) belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law."
Now of course here Moses was writing under the Law, or within the Laws framework but he's dealing with the same God. The same God that we deal with has told us the same thing. That He has kept things secret until He saw fit to reveal it. The finished work of the cross and the cup of which we're required to drink bring all these things into focus for us by the Holy Spirit's working within us. For the meaning of the word Law here is not as supposed, as it means spoken, communicated by God to Moses. Now back to Ephesians 1 again for a moment then we'll be going to Romans. Verse 9 again.
Ephesians 1:9
"Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:"
In other words, where does everything start and finish? In the mind of God. Now let's go back to Romans a moment and look at one of our favorite verses.
Romans 16:25
"Now to him that is of power to stablish [establish] you according to my gospel (do you see how Paul uses the personal pronoun) and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since (Christ earthly ministry? Since Peter's message? No, but rather since anything was ever created. God has kept all of this secret, since) the world began."
This is the reason Jesus couldn't preach Paul's Gospel, that's why Peter couldn't preach it, because Paul's Gospel was still kept totally secret in the mind or heart of God until Paul received it. Then only after the ascended Christ was given the small book and had opened its seals. What is the revelation of the secret then? How that because of the price of redemption as we saw and because it has been accomplished, the work of the Cross is done, and because of the power of His resurrection, God can now give out on the human race this whole package of Grace and revealed Truths. And the Grace which Jesus brought into play (John1:7, 14 and 17), that have come from the pen of the Apostle Paul. In it we have all of the Truths that the Church and the individual needs today. We don't have to go anywhere else to get the Truth that we need. Now that doesn't mean you throw away the rest of your Bible. No! for its there for what? Our learning through the Holy Spirit's revealing the things of Christ hidden in them to us.
All the Bible is going to work for its common end, but if we would just see Christendom tonight spend 90% of its time in Paul's Epistles, and 10% of their time in the rest of the Bible we'd see things begin to happen. God's intended change would come. But it's the other way around, most people spend 90% of their time in the Four Gospels and Old Testament, and they look at Paul's Epistles like they're wasted paper, with contempt and that makes old Satan happy. The expression we get from one of our friends is, "They treat you like an unlovely step-child." Well we think that's the way most of Christendom treats Paul, like an unlovely step-child that they really don't want any thing to do with, but we know they've got to admit he's there. Now we see that all the time, but you see in Paul's writings is where we have to be, because it was to this man that these secrets that had been held in the mind and heart of God were finally revealed. Now just for a moment let's turn to Ephesians chapter 3 to show what we're talking about, in part.
Ephesians 3:8
"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;"
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