The divine plan

We'll turn please in our Bibles to the book of Ephesians, or Colossians please, Colossians in chapter 1. I trust that what I have will follow on from what we heard this morning about service and serving. And of course there's nothing like the person of the Lord Jesus brought before us that motivates us to serve the way he served. So a few things that I have been enjoying about the Lord Jesus and how he served his God.

And then also the relationship of the son to the father. We're going to see that near the end, I trust. So we're going to start in Colossians chapter 1 and verse 9. And I'm thinking of the plan.

That's really the title that I have for this little portion we're going to read here. Colossians 1 and verse number 9. I know that many people might have taken this, what we're going to read, in a different context or different way. But I think the context is the way I will try to bring it before you.

Colossians 1 and verse number 9. And we read these words. Notice this. Now I'm going to submit for your thinking that that is not the will that God has for my life.

And the context will bear that out. It is actually the will that God has for Christ. And that's going to be developed, and I trust I'll do that in a minute.

Back to verse number 9. Now let your eye drop down to verse number 19. Now just with your finger, hold that page. Go over to chapter 2 and look at verse number 9. And this is a different expression from what we have in chapter 1. And we'll come back to chapter 1 in a minute.

But just look for a comparison, chapter 2 and verse number 9. And it's a reference to Christ, the end of verse 8. Now that expression in chapter 2 and verse 9 is dealing with the Godhead completely dwelling in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let your eye come back to chapter 1. And let's read verse 19 again. Now that fullness is different from chapter 2. That fullness is linked to the will, the desire that God the Father has for His Son.

Now let me just sort of build a little bit of a contrast so you can see where I'm coming from. We all know that when the Lord Jesus came from heaven the first time and He was born into this world, we all know that He served His God, He served His Father as the perfect servant of Jehovah. And we all know that God had a plan, a divine plan for His Son.

And we understand from reading through the Gospels that everything was done to the complete fulfillment of His Father. We could even think of the words of the Gospel of John, I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do. We discover that it's only in the Gospel of John you get those lovely words, it is finished.

So we're looking at the person, the Lord Jesus Christ in all of His deity, all of His co-equality in the Godhead, the work that was given to Him, all completely done to the satisfaction of God and the Father in heaven. Now we understand that the pleasure of the Father God raised Him from the dead, He's now seated in heaven, but dear child of God, that's not where it ends. There are still tremendous plans, desires that the Father has for the Son to fulfill.

Now this is where we're going to come in. I'm going to show you where the church actually fits in to the fulfillment of those plans yet to be finished. And really, if anything is going to excite you or I to live, not for this age, but for a coming age, it's really what the Apostle Paul is praying that these Christians, with the help of the Spirit of God, would have their minds literally enlightened with what God has purposed for His Son.

And really, when he brings that expression in verse number 10 that you might walk worthy, that's really the idea that once you get a grasp of what God has for His Son in a coming day, He wants that truth to come into your life and so affect you that you do walk worthy. And you will live up to the tremendous calling and the tremendous position that we have been brought into as Christians in the body of Christ. It is an absolutely tremendous thing.

So just to kind of review before we leave here, I want you to notice verse 19 again. Now you might wonder to yourself, what is the fullness? Well, come over to Ephesians chapter 1, please. And you'll find out, you probably know this, that Ephesians and Colossians are what's known as sister epistles.

They were written at the same time when Paul was in jail. And they're looking at kind of a similar topic but from slightly different perspectives. So if you happen to study in Ephesians or Philippians, it's nice to study them together side by side and you end up getting a very complete picture.

I want you to look in Ephesians chapter 1, and I've simply entitled this The Hope. Look at verse number 10. Now verse number 9, very similar to what we had in Philippians.

Ephesians 1 verse 9, having made no one unto us the mystery of his will. Now, just to stop there for a minute, I know this is very elementary, but for some young people, whenever we think of the word mystery, we are thinking normally of something that is kind of scary, mysterious. That's not the thought behind the use of this word in our Bibles.

It's the idea that outside of the mind of man, that you would never understand it. If we were left to ourselves, if there was no person from outside of our existence that would pour in this truth, it simply is a mystery to us. It's unknown to us.

Now the Spirit of God is going to pick up the Apostle Paul, and through that vessel, God is going to unfold the mystery. It's not something that was mysterious to God. It's something you'll find out from Ephesians that was before the foundations of the earth, of the world.

So this is something that has no beginning. And now God is seeing fit in this dispensation to unfold it to us. Now let's keep on reading.

Look at verse 9 again. And having made no one unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself, that is God, verse 10, that in the dispensation of the fullness 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, Christ. Now I want to come back to verse 10, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times.

Now that hasn't happened yet. For those that might not be familiar with dispensations, I know there's a tremendous amount of evangelical Christians today and they're trying to say that dispensation, dispensationalism is wrong and not the right way to understand the Bible. I want to assure you today from many men that I've learned from, you have to understand the Bible in dispensations.

That's how God works. And God is dealing with his people a certain way in a certain time frame. And then he moves to another time frame.

And we're all familiar with law and we're all familiar with grace that we're in now and human government and innocence that you can find in the Old Testament. But really, all of those other dispensations, and here we are in dispensation number six, grace, they were all looking forward to what? The fullness of the times. God is working back in this dispensation in a part, in a piece.

And then he moves to another dispensation. He works in another part and a piece. Now these come to the dispensation of grace.

We understand that prophets are done away with from Hebrews chapter one. Now we have the person of Christ who has come out from God, being God, and he has manifested like no one else could to this world, everything that God is. But that's not where it stops.

Now we're going to read the word of God and we're going to find out the further purposes that God has for this person, the Lord Jesus Christ, his son. And when he looks to the future, from our perspective to the future, and as soon as the rapture happens for the church, we know that we're taken out of the world, then we have the seven-year judgment tribulation upon the earth, and then when the Lord Jesus comes back from heaven to set up his kingdom, that is when this dispensation is going to begin. And that tremendous dispensation, the fullness of the times, the fullness of all of God's dealings with humanity and with this world and with this creation is going to come to its ultimate in what's going to happen during the millennial reign.

Now you should be excited by now. You should be on the edge of your seat wondering, man, like, we sort of thought that this was it. We're able to enjoy Christ in time and we're linked with him and we can preach his gospel and we can stand for a resurrected, glorified Christ.

No, no, no, that's only a little tiny piece of the pie. Really, if you allow me, it's just a cherry on top. I want to get into the pie, the cake.

This is where all of God's intentions, his focus is upon this dispensation coming, the fullness of the times. Why? Why? Because in Christ, as a result of his work, he is going to bring everything, everything out from under the bondage of sin. He is going to reconcile everything, neuter, plural, singular, not just humanity.

He is going to stretch it out into the corners of his universe. And in one person, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, everything will stand underneath his feet and he above it. I thought to myself when I thought back to Genesis, isn't it something that on the sixth day of creation, prior to sin, but God was looking upon a man and a woman that were only innocent.

They were not sinless. They were innocent. Innocent humanity.

The capability to fall into sin. And God could say on day number six, Very good. Very good.

I just thought of the contrast. Can you imagine what is going to come out of the heart of the Father when he looks at the end result of the dispensation of the fullness of times, when everything, not innocent, beyond the touch of sin, beyond the plague of death, beyond the possibility of falling under the bondage of sin, and Jesus Christ stands head, everything reconciled under him. My dear, if God could say very good about an innocent man and woman and allow me to say it, an innocent creation.

What will he say when the ultimate is achieved in the person of his son? Listen, dear child of God, if that doesn't excite you, if that doesn't help you to live different in this world, if that doesn't help you to want you to put your eye on the coming man and the coming kingdom, I don't know. I don't know what else to give you. I don't know whether you need electric cables, tied in, get a good zap or what.

But dear child of God, that's where it is. And if I could just get my head to absorb what God has for his son, my, I'll tell you, that'll make me live different. I want you to keep looking at Ephesians chapter one and let's look a little bit further now.

Let's look at verse number 17. Now look at this. We want to see how it affects Christ.

Look at verse number 17. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, here it is, in the knowledge of Him, Christ, the eyes of your understanding, being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope, notice, of His calling. Now that's not you.

That's Christ. That's Jesus Christ, the hope of His calling. Listen, and what the riches of the glory of His Christ's inheritance in the saints.

Now you see what the Spirit of God is starting to do for us? This divine plan that God the Father has purposed for His Son, looked at from Christ's perspective, it is actually His hope. Now what are you hoping for? There's many things that we long for. Many things that we desire.

But I can tell you from this book, revealed to us by the Spirit of God, that Jesus Christ at this moment has the hope before Him. Do you know what it is? It's the reconciliation of all things. All for the glory of His God and His Father.

I'll show you that in a minute. But you notice what the Spirit of God attaches it to? His inheritance in the saints. Now I want you to listen very carefully to me.

And before I say this statement, I'm going to make sure you understand, I'm not going to say something here that's doctrinally wrong. Listen, so important are you and I to Christ, the Church, the Bride, that without us, He'll never get that hope. Should I run that again? I want you to grasp a hold of just how significant the Church is, our position is to Christ.

This is not said about the nation of Israel, as mighty as they are, and with all the promises that have been given to them. The Church, the Bride, has such a privileged place that it is going to be absolutely necessary for us with Christ to help Him achieve this hope, this inheritance. Now you might say, well, sir, you better back that up with Scripture.

Well, I will. Let's look at the end of Ephesians 1. Let your eye come down to verse number... Actually, let's start at verse number 21. Look at this, verse 21.

Okay, we're at verse... Far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. Listen, verse 22. And hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the Church, which is his body, listen to this expression, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.

Now what does that mean? Listen to that. Which is his body, that's us, the Church. The fullness of him that filleth all in all.

You say to yourself, well, how can anything be added to Christ? We discover from Colossians chapter 2 that in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So how can he be lacking something? That's not what the verse is meaning. I'll tell you what the verse is meaning.

The fullness of God's plan, the fullness of the Father's will, purposes, is going to be seen through him the head and the bride, the body. I want you to think about that for a minute. You all know that this head up here tells every member of this body what to do.

And if you were to take this head off, this hand wouldn't work. This body, for what it was designed, would not perform. So you can see right away that there's a tremendous link, there's a tremendous bond, there's a tremendous harmony between the head and the physical body.

Well, he's taking that very same principle and he's applying it now to Christ the head and the church the body. And in the coming age, the fullness of the dispensations, the millennial reign. Do you realize, dear child of God, I want you to get this, you and I will help Jesus Christ administer his kingdom.

Do you understand that? I don't know what you think of yourself or what you think you're capable of doing. But when we read all those parables about the talent hidden and one man got this many and this much, be thou ruler over so many cities and be thou ruler over so many cities. I think honestly, we just read that and we don't even think it applies to us.

Do you understand that there is a tremendous age coming? There's a tremendous kingdom. Nothing like this world that has boundaries and limitations. This kingdom knows no boundary.

Christ as head over it will initiate his rule through us and out into the world. You ever wonder sometimes about that city and it has 12 gates and each one of the apostles are mentioned. Do you understand how that fits into the program of God? Christ the head initiates the plans that comes through us, the bride, the church and we in turn tell the gates, the apostles, what to do.

And they in turn take it down into the world to tell them what to do. The perfect chain of command works in one glory to the Father. Anybody excited yet? Anybody excited that they're saved? That they're born again? That they're linked with such a man? Tying back to this morning, doesn't that give you a little bit of a jump to want to serve him? Yeah, to think that I serve him in a coming day, now I have the privilege of serving him.

But this service here, dear child of God, is not disconnected from service in that day. That's how the devil wants us to live. Disconnect this, what I'm doing now, with what's to come.

I don't know, do we have any eager beavers here? You know what that means, eager beaver? Listen, I don't mind telling you, I want 10 cities. I want to rule over 10 cities for my Lord. I want to be able to help him in a coming day, just bring glory to him.

You ever sometimes sit in a morning meeting and it's almost like the meeting can't rise any higher. You ever get there? And then some brother gets up and he prays and it goes up another notch. And you think, wow, your little heart is almost bursting with worship.

And then someone goes, and it goes up another little notch. Why? Don't you love it when your Savior is exalted? Don't you love it when he's the theme of the meeting? The theme of the worship? The theme of the singing? Don't you love it when he's just made much of? Listen, how many billions of times do we have to amplify it when in a coming age, everything with breath, everything with knees, be they up in heaven, down in earth, be they whatever, they will all bow in unison and they will just exalt him, Lord of Lord, King of kings. Getting goosebumps just thinking about it.

What a day. I often watch people sometimes. I think it's awful sad when people can't sing.

I think it's really sad. I like to hear people sing. And I've heard Murray McCandless a number of times give a message on singing.

We should put our heart into it. And I know sometimes we don't all feel like singing, but sometimes we're all together and we're all putting our best into it and we're singing. And it sounds good, doesn't it? What will that eternal song be like? Huh? When this body, this mind, this heart has been untethered from the wicked old heart of mine.

This creation will be unbroken, just untethered out of the bondage that it's in. We often think sometimes, we almost think it's comical, well, the stones could cry out. Why is it that we think that creation is somehow inanimate? It doesn't have a say.

Do you realize that in Romans chapter 8, do you realize what you and I have come into? The bondage of sin has been broken. The grasp that it had over a soul and spirit has been broken. And if we had ears to hear, if we could just take our ear out there like the old Indian and put it on the ground and listen to this creation, it tells us at this very moment, creation is groaning.

It started way back in the book of Genesis when the first man and woman fell into sin. And as a result of their disobedience, the head giving into Satan, creation, not of its own will. Now Romans 8 teaches fairly clearly that God took creation and he put it under the bondage of death and sin.

And right from that day, it has never stopped for one second. It's literally just groaning. Why? Do you know what it's looking forward to? It's looking forward to the day when you and I are manifested, revealed as the sons of God.

Brought out, not just soul and spirit affected by the work of Christ, but now body, soul and spirit brought into the fullness of the work, the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. You know why creation is longing for that? You've seen those Olympic runners, that's what the Greek word means. It's the idea of someone right on the line and their muscles are stretched and their head is up and they're just looking to the finish line and they don't stop for a minute to scratch their... No, this is serious, a race is about to be run and they're waiting for the shot of the gun.

Isn't it something to think that creation is watching you and I? And they actually understand what happened to us the moment we put our faith in Christ. They understand it. I might not fully enter into what happened, but creation enters into it and it sees what we have and it just... I just can't wait to also come into that.

You know what's going to happen after that thousand years of glorious reign of the Lord of glory? At the very end of that thousand years, even death, the last enemy, will be put down. All forms of bondage will be broken. All enemies will be put under his feet.

And do you want to know what I'm looking forward to? It's really what Jesus Christ is looking forward to right now. Let's read about it. Let's go to 1 Corinthians.

This is really where my thoughts were. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and with this we'll end. This is the moment that the Lord Jesus is looking forward to and it's really the moment that the Father is waiting for.

I was contrasting two moments. I was thinking of that expression in Hebrews chapter 1, I think it's verse number 6, when he bringeth in the first begotten again into the world. And that's not a reference to the rapture, to the earth for his redeem, to the air for his redeem.

That's a reference to the physical return to this earth at the commencement of the millennial reign. Do you understand what the Word of God teaches the Father is going to do? He's going to come forth and he's going to say, let all the angels of God worship him. Listen, the Father loves to glorify the Son, the Son loves to glorify the Father.

Nothing delights the heart of the Father more than all eyes to be on the Son. And that's how the millennial reign is going to start. Look how it's going to end.

Look at verse number 20, linked with the resurrection that we were taking up last week. Verse 20 of 1 Corinthians 15, But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Now notice this, verse 23, But every man in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming. That is not the rapture I submit to you.

That is the physical return to the earth. Okay? This is the commencement of the millennial reign. Then look what he does in verse 24.

Then cometh the end. In those four little words, he just jumps 1,000 years to the end of the fullness of the dispensations. Look at the result.

When he, Christ, very important to get your pronouns right here. When he, Christ, shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father. When he, Christ, shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

For he, Christ, must reign till he, Christ, hath put all enemies under his, Christ, feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. Look at this now, verse 27.

For he, now that's not Christ, that's God. You just take your time to look through it. For he, God, hath put all things under his, Christ, feet.

But he, God, all things are put under him, Christ. It is manifested or made clear that he, God, is, the word is excluded. God is not put under the feet of Christ.

That's really what it's teaching. And there's a reason for that in a minute. Which did put all things under him, Christ.

And when all things shall be subdued unto him, Christ. Listen, look at the change. Then shall, Christ? No.

Then shall, the son, also himself, be subject unto him, God, that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. Did you catch the little change? From Christ, the son? This, dignifies, service. This elevates submission to a level that should just motivate us.

At the end of the fullness of the dispensations of time, at the end of the millennial reign, when Christ, the man that was rejected upon this earth, has now subdued everything under his feet, every form of rebellion, everything affected by sin, everything has been rectified, everything has been redeemed. He brings it now all back to God, the Father. Do you know what it says? The son will be subject unto him forever.

Do you realize that not only is Christ, the son of God, our example of submission and service in time, we read about it in the Gospels, but all throughout the new heavens and the new earth, what's known as the eternal state. This is how the eternal state starts. And this is the characteristic of the eternal state.

You have everything subdued under Christ. Everything has been brought back in harmony with God. And the son, the one that is co-equal with God, think of the dignity of that.

He willingly puts himself under the feet of his God, his Father. We will always look with wonder in the eternal state. Unaffected by sin, we'll look to him, not just the idea of Christ, the man subject to God, but the son, the eternal son, willingly serving.

What an example to you and I. Could we with the spirit of God today, could we take that little picture? Is there someone here today and maybe you're having, you're having a hard time with submission, subjection, those elders or whatever, whatever. Could I get you to just to take a look at what we're going to be always looking at in the eternal state? Christ, the son. And can you imagine the joy that will just flood the heart of the Father? He said very good about creation's day.

I wonder what he'll say in a coming day. Never to be affected by sin again. Never will it ever raise its ugly head.

Death will never claim another person. Every single thing reconciled to God. Why? Because of him.

May God help us to think upon these things and may it be the encouragement we need to serve and to serve him well.