Finishing up number 21.
Ephesians
3:8b
"...that
I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of
Christ:"
Do you know what
that means, the unsearchable riches of Christ? That means that we could spend almost the rest of our
lives digging through Scripture, and literally bring up the riches of
Christ, and we could never exhaust them. What are the unsearchable
riches of Christ? As I was mulling this over the last several
days, we just had to go all the way back to eternity past. That was
when the Triune God first came together in what the book of Acts
calls "a counsel". At that counsel meeting of the Godhead they
literally laid out the blueprint for the whole universe and the
appearance of the planet earth to be inhabited, and the whole almost 6000
years of human history. This was all blueprinted way back there in
eternity past, and became part of the "unsearchable riches of
Christ."
As we follow all
of that with what knowledge we have in the Scriptures, we’ve got
enough that we can begin to think how that God in His foreknowledge
formulated not only the appearance of man, Adam, and then Eve, but
knowing that they would sin, set in motion immediately afterwards,
the plan of redemption. And then that plan of redemption would
demand that the Creator Himself, the One who called everything into
being in the first place would send His only begotten Son to become flesh. Not created
instantly as Adam was, but instead he goes through that whole human
process of 9 months in the womb. He was born as a babe in the manger
in Bethlehem. Because the inn keeper held no room for them. Then
He goes through the normal growing up process as young man in
Nazareth, until the age of 30. Then hardly anybody caught on to Who He
was except that one instant when He was 12 years old, when He was left
behind at the temple. Other than that, in Scripture at least, there’s
no record that anybody had any idea, not just Who He was, but what He
was. There was only those fleeting shadows, glimpses of His image known only by the prophets and the few righteous ones. Then there He was walking on those little dusty roads of Israel, and
Who was He? The Creator God Himself! He was the very Light
called to bring Life to an otherwise dead plant called earth covered by waters that were
void of life or the power to produce life of any kind or description. That’s all part of
the "unsearchable riches of Christ."
Listen, when we
start mulling that all over and we can sort of say "Yeah I can
believe that." But, to really comprehend how that God
accomplished it all without a hitch, without any detours, and the day
came when He came to the little Nation of Israel, and for 3 years or so presented
Himself to that nation, with miracle after miracle. Showing and revealing His love and
compassion for those people in spite of their hardness of heart and unbelief, He didn’t
give up on them. Never once does the Scriptures say that He left in
disgust, and thought "So what! They’ll never listen anyway."
No, He never gave up on them. And then finally as Philippians tells
us, "He so graphically died the death of the Cross, the most
awful death ever invented." That’s all part of
the "unsearchable riches of Christ."
It was all
foreordained, it was all blueprinted. That through His death, and
the shedding of His blood, the eternal Godhead could now reckon
all of man’s sin as on Him and in Him even the judgment of God's wrath was laid on Him on that tree. Most people wont even take this in, it is beyond their comprehension and belief system. Let alone those who attempt to for they to can’t
comprehend that, in total. Even today in any 24 hour period when we
look at the mayhem that’s going on around the world like
Yugoslavia, in Egypt and other places in the world that is in constant
bloodshed. China in it's terrible persecution of believers, Russia where they’re
under horrible pressure, the whole planet is at war. And
yet in spite of all the suffering and the all the sin, we can stand
here and tell you that all that sin that has ever been, that’s
happening now, and will happen in the future was laid on Jesus Christ
everyone was seen as being in Him. That’s the
"unsearchable riches of Christ." When we have
the Holy Spirit doing His works within us then all these things come
to light and Life.
Jesus was able, by
being the Creator God Himself, to take upon Himself all the sins of
this world. We are just getting a little glimpse of it. We
maintain without apology, after having just been shown the Truth.
Listen, morality in America is still head and shoulders above the
rest of the world. Even though it has been relegated to a false belief system, in a man made religious system, and the actions of a man made governmental regulations. As bad as we’re getting, and we’re getting
worse by the day, but yet we maintain America is a long way from
catching up with the rest of the world when it comes to immoral
practices, though not far behind. When God was pushed out by the serpents actions long ages ago and told that he would only eat the dust of the ground, he has been devouring man ever since. And the major way is through the deception of religion not to leave out the governments of the world. Both work in consort under his devious plan and control, just as he had shown Jesus at the end of His forty days in the wilderness. But God in His Grace continues to look down on sinful
men, having Redeemed them and is willing to save to the uttermost anyone that would just
simply believe that He did all of this. The vast
majority won’t believe, so don’t get discouraged, because
they never have and according to scriptures never will. Neither the world or worldly will accept this
Gospel. Now that’s all part of the "unsearchable riches
of Christ."
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