The Spectacle That Makes Angels Gasp

Ephesians 3. Lord, I would ask You to help us behold wonderful things out of Your Word. In Christ's name I pray, Amen. Okay, look with me at Ephesians 3. And verse 1, For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you've heard of the stewardship of God's grace, you might just notice that.

The stewardship of God's grace. What does he mean by God's grace? Well, we're going to keep reading, but he's using it in a very specific fashion here. The stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you.

How the mystery was made known to me by revelation as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it's now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. The ESV supplies this properly.

This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs. Members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. Of this Gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace.

So you remember, verse 2, stewardship of God's grace. Here, the gift of God's grace. Through the Gospel, of this Gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace which was given me by the working of His power to me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places according to the eternal purpose that He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The first thing I want you to look at here is mystery. The mystery. What's the mystery? Musterion.

Mystery. It's not used in the Scripture the way that we might use it when we think about something as mysterious. We use it sometimes with regards to that which is unsolvable.

Something that is just mystifying and cryptic and confusing. No, look what this means. It refers to a truth that was previously hidden but is no longer mysterious.

It's no longer hidden. It's now known. Look at v. 5. "...which was not made known..." This is the mystery.

"...something that was not made known to the sons of men and other generations as it has now been revealed." So at one time it wasn't known. Now it is revealed. The mystery.

You see that. "...whose it has been revealed to is holy apostles and prophets." So it ends up being in our Bibles. It's by the Spirit.

You know what? It is the glory of God to conceal a matter. Have you ever read that? The glory of God to conceal a matter. Unmanifested counsels of God.

God's secret thoughts and plans, they are mysterious to us. God has all sorts of thoughts that you don't know about. Well, there was a time when... you know, the Old Testament Jews basically, they didn't see this.

You might say that there were places in the Old Testament where they could have seen this, but it was a mystery to them. The very fact... what's the mystery? The mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs. That's the mystery.

You know what? This is Paul's answer to dispensationalism. Any system of theology that basically says God has two peoples, Paul answers it right here. That is the mystery, folks.

The mystery is not that God has two separate people, Israel and the church, and two sets of promises. The mystery is that there is a genuine Israel that Gentiles were going to become partakers of. That's it.

And so, you see it. It's not plain in the Old Testament that New Testament Gentiles would actually become true Jews. That's right, it wasn't plain.

That's what Paul is saying. It was a mystery. Hidden.

It doesn't mean it wasn't true. It was just hidden. And now it's not hidden.

Now it's revealed. And then the second thing. So that's the mystery.

Now notice the Gospel. Because it's tied to the mystery. That's what you want to see.

They go together. The Gospel is what we proclaim when we declare the mystery. Notice the connection.

Look at verse 6. Gentiles are, and you can just jump forward, partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. There's the Gospel. Of this Gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of His power.

There's power in this, folks. This message of this mystery, there's power in it. To me, it was given powerfully to Paul.

Least of all the saints, this power comes through weakness. We're just clay pots. This power comes through.

This grace was given to him to preach. So here it is. This is what the Gospel is.

Preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and... So what is this grace? What is this Gospel? It is to proclaim to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan or the administration. There's really a textual issue here. Some translations say fellowship of the mystery.

But the issue is the mystery. It's to bring to light this plan, this administration. You could even say fellowship, the way I would take it, is basically that the Gentile now has fellowship with the Jew in all of this.

But notice, this is the plan of the mystery, hidden for ages in God who created all things. But you see the connection. The mystery is that which is brought to light for everyone when you declare this Gospel, this God's grace which was given to Paul.

You know what he's saying? Gentile sinners, you can have it all. All the unsearchable riches of Christ. Gentiles, basking in all the riches promised to Abraham's seed.

Jews didn't see it. Mystery hidden for ages in God. So it fits.

The mystery and the Gospel fit together. Okay, let's look at the result of this mystery that's announced in the Gospel. This takes us to one of the... and this is where I want to focus.

This takes us, the result of this, we proclaim good news. We're revealing a mystery that was kept secret. It has not been revealed to the sons of men in times past.

What's the result of this being proclaimed? It's what we're after here. And what happens is you're going to see one of the great attributes of God brought out in this. Do you all see it? See it anywhere in these verses? What character trait of God is put on display through all of this? Wisdom.

Look at verse 10. Let's look at 9. God brings to light for everyone the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God. So that, verse 10, through, that word right there is a marker of instrumentality.

It can be because of or by. It's this church. Through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places according to the eternal purpose that He carried out in Christ and the mystery accomplished in Christ.

Think carefully, folks. Think. Nellie was just telling us that she was watching these documentaries called, was it Planet Earth? And she said, the bugs talk to each other.

She was all amazed by this. You need to see these things. They make these documentaries today and it's like, are you serious? After 60 years of life and an interest in animal life, they show you some animal you've never seen before.

They show you these things. It's like, this is crazy. The more they've learned about how our bodies operate and the complexities, you hear about quantum physics where they've got a particle and suddenly they can make it over there.

These particles are in orbit and suddenly they change orbit instantaneously. They didn't travel from one orbit to the other. You start looking at this stuff and it's like, wait, I don't know how this is happening.

You think about the DNA. If you've ever studied the balance in the solar system, I mean, we look around us and the more you study things, the more you look into it. They say that trees are communicating through a network of fungus that's intertwined in the roots.

It's like, you know what? All of those things declare the wisdom and the glory of God, but nowhere in Scripture does God ever say that something reveals the manifold wisdom of God except right here. This is it. Verse 10.

Folks, I want you to think. I have a feeling you read Ephesians. I have a feeling you read over this.

You just kind of go over it. Do you recognize that verse 10 is one of the greatest imaginable things that can be said about the church? The church, not this building. Us, the people.

What does it say? The great mysterious eternal purpose of God is to display the glory of God's wisdom to rulers and authorities in heavenly places. Brethren, certainly that's a great thing. I'm telling you, this is one of the greatest imaginable things that can be said.

Manifold. Don't miss that word. You know the interesting thing about it? There's no other place in your Bibles that speak about the manifold wisdom of God.

That word literally carries the idea of many-colored. It's a vast array. It's wisdom that is exceedingly various.

It's got to do with tremendous variety. Manifold. When Paul's speaking here, he says, the church displays God's wisdom like nothing else does.

The many-sided, many-orbed, many-colored. It's like you want to go out and look for the deepest blue in nature. You know, you might run to a flower.

The sky, well, sometimes when the sun's in the right place, maybe the sun is setting, you may see blue, you may see green. I'll tell you, there is nothing like the green of the grass in England or Ireland. Places like that.

You want to look for green. You know what God is saying? You want to look for the deepest, richest blue? Look at the church. You want to look at the most vivid green? Look at the church.

The brightest red? Look at the church. The most glorious orange? Look at the church. It's the multifaceted, many-colored wisdom of God being put on display and it's not the Swiss Alps.

It's not in the clouds. It's not how rain goes through a cycle. He says, look at the church.

That's where it happens. That's it. Literally, a great variety, a rich variety.

He doesn't say it's displayed in the cherubim and the seraphim. In the church, like this sparkling diamond. You've seen, I mean, imagine a large diamond and it's cut.

You've seen how they reflect the light. You can spin it. And it's like every which way you do it, there's this beauty that comes from it.

Whichever way you turn, there's just... What Paul is saying is the church is like this gem and every way you turn it, there's a new flash of the brilliance of the wisdom of God comes out of this. It's us, folks. It's us.

You may look at us, oh, we're just the average people, we don't meet on the east side of San Antonio. Who in the world are we? Ah, that's because you're not seeing things like Paul sees things. You're not seeing things like the Spirit who inspired Paul sees things.

Here it is. God's eternal plan. That's what this is all about.

God's eternal plan. It is far more colorful, far more complex, far more manifold, not just than we ever imagine, folks, than angels ever imagined. He's bringing this thing out to the angels.

Now, verse 9 says, God created all things. And you know, over the years, I've read Ephesians a lot because I preached through it and I memorized it. So I went through it over and over and over and over and over.

And you know, I would look at that God who created all things and I thought, is Paul just kind of putting that in there because that is a very appropriate and glorious thing to say? But you know, Paul may be saying, God made it all. And of course, there's no verse break in the original. And he just flows out into this.

You know, though God made it all, if you want to look and behold the most glorious thing He's ever made that manifests His manifold, diverse colors of His glorious wisdom, it's right here. God made it all. But if there's anything in all of creation that ought to excite us, here it is.

You don't look at the top news story of the day. It's not that. It's not the latest scientific discovery.

It's not the latest technology or the fashions or the actors or the politicians or any of that. If we would behold unparalleled, really in some ways unimaginable wisdom, look at the church, not buildings. Look at God's people.

That's what we're talking. Listen, folks, the question of the hour is this. Do you even think this way? Well, you know, you go and it's kind of boring and we're trying to make it through and it's hot in here.

Do you think this way? Does this reality... I mean, do you recognize the church for what it is? Do you even think about it? Do you even think about there's a group of God's people that meet in these local places? God's people spread out around the world. And there's few of me that find it. There's not a whole lot.

There's a lot of false churches and like we heard, false prophets out there. And all sorts of stuff. But brethren, where there's God's true people and they meet together, you see what's being said.

Verse 11, the great sovereign eternal purpose. That is God's eternal purpose. I can remember when I first got saved, hearing these guys that basically said God had a plan for Israel and then Israel blew it.

They didn't accept God and so God went to plan B. You ever heard that? Brethren, that is a lie. That is a total lie. You know what the eternal plan is? You know what the eternal purpose? It's in the church.

The church is no accident. The church is no afterthought. And brethren, you need to recognize, Israel is not the main thing.

America is not the main thing. God put the colors of His almighty wisdom into the church. And that's what it said.

Brethren, let's talk about rulers and authorities in heavenly places for just a second. Because I know this. I know we were just in England, we met with a dear brother.

But you know, I got talking to him about some demonic things that were happening in different places. I was telling him about Nepal and different things. And you know what he looked at me and he said, do you believe it's real? The idea of angels in reformed circles.

They don't like to talk about prophecy. And they don't like to talk about angels. Brethren, look at this.

Verse 10, so that through, because of the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known. Not just made known. Isn't it interesting Paul puts this in here? It'd be one thing to say, hey, manifold wisdom and God did it all, make it known.

Wow! He could have stopped there. But he doesn't. And you know, again, I say this.

We read over this stuff. It's just like whatever. We close our Bible and that was our morning devotion.

We drive to work. You don't even think about it. You don't even think about it.

The cosmic scope of this. Of who you are. Who we are.

And what God's doing in the whole scope of this universe. There it is. Rulers.

He made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places according to the eternal purpose, he accomplished in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Rulers and authorities. Manifold wisdom.

He presents the, he, you know what he does? He holds up the church to rulers and authorities. Now, brethren, this is the same terminology Paul uses elsewhere in Ephesians and elsewhere in his other epistles. You say, who are these guys? Who are the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places? Now, if you don't know your Bibles very well, you would say, well, they're in heavenly places.

Those would be like the good angels. You would never say a demon is in heavenly places. Well, maybe you wouldn't.

Maybe I wouldn't. But Paul does. And all we have to do is jump over to chapter 6. Listen to this.

Ephesians 6, 12. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against, there it is, rulers, authorities, cosmic powers over this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. He uses the same terminology here.

Are good angels included in rulers and authorities in heavenly places? You might think so. I mean, they're obviously watching. They could be.

They're spectators in all this too. There are things Peter tells us that they desire to look into. They're watching.

They watch when you wear your head covering your dot. You ever read that? They're out there, and they're watching. I mean, Paul said us apostles were a spectacle, not only to men, but to angels.

He says that. They're watching. So the good angels, yeah, they're watching.

But you know what? If we let Scripture define Scripture, listen to this in Colossians 2, 15. Christ disarmed. He took the weapons away.

These are bad guys. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in the cross. Or you've got 1 Corinthians.

Then comes the end when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority. Now think with me here. God is looking to amaze or perhaps confound angels.

The highest of all His created order. I was thinking about not some two-year-old. I've got four grandchildren now.

I was playing with my granddaughter yesterday, and she stuck these glasses on me, and they were all crooked, and they were way too small. And you know what? You can amaze a child with that. You can amaze a child with a box.

You can do all sorts of... This isn't a child. These are rulers and authorities. Great hierarchies of cosmic power, of darkness, even the devil himself.

And brethren, you can be sure of this, to amaze them to this degree, God is presenting a wisdom to them that was never exercised on the angels. Because it's something they don't know. It's something that God is saying, behold this.

This is something you've never seen before. And He presents this. Through the church, God reveals wisdom far above any that these rulers and authorities had previously been privy to.

Paul would not talk this way if all the wisdom that is to be found in the church was something that was commonplace with the angels. He wouldn't talk this way. God might have shown the angels all sorts of things.

He might have said, hey, you ought to see the way I designed the human cell. You ought to look at the intricacies of that. Oh no, brethren, there's something that reveals God's many-colored wisdom far more than the human cell.

How? I mean, that's a good question. We ought to ask how? But brethren, just think about this. I mean, I want you to think.

I can remember one time the Wilkinsons were over at my house. Remember that? There was a pitcher full of apple juice, I think. And all the kids were around the table.

And I said, watch me turn water into apple juice. And I walked over to the refrigerator and filled up the apple juice thing. And I went over and I poured it in the pitcher.

And the water just disappeared. And the apple juice multiplied. And they were all trying to process it.

Like what just happened? A lot of them were little at that time. And you can amaze a child with that. But think about if you took professors from, I don't know, UT or MIT.

What would it take to make them weep, fill them with emotion, make them gasp, make them take notice, sit on the edge of the seat? What would you show them? What new discovery? But brethren, we're not talking about MIT professors. We are talking about the devil's highest host of cosmic power. And it's like God says, I am going to present something, something that is going to baffle, something that is going to amaze, something that maybe perhaps to them is unbelievably frustrating and incredibly defeating.

But what is it? This isn't the wisdom of Einstein or Plato or Aristotle or Solomon even. You know what Paul's telling us? God is presenting a wisdom that has no rival. And you just have to let that sink in.

He's talking about us. And you say, come on, I've read that before, but it doesn't come home. And here's the thing about it.

Notice verse 8. This whole thing, this whole glory, this whole mystery, this whole gospel that shows this manifold wisdom of God to all these fallen angels, it comes through verse 8 to me, though I am the very least of the saints. Let me ask you this. Where in Paul's writings does he talk about wisdom most? Can you think of any place? First Corinthians.

It's not just chapter one. He carries it over. I mean, he talks about it definitely in chapter two.

You can follow the idea of wisdom there. And isn't it interesting? When he's talking about the wisdom, Christ, the wisdom, the power of God, the wisdom of God, when he's looking at all of this, he says the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of man. But isn't it amazing that in all of it, he shows us that this wisdom actually comes through weakness.

Consider your own calling, brethren. That's what he says right in the midst of all this. All this wisdom, consider your own calling, the things that are not.

He takes the weak things. He takes the simple things. He takes not many of us who are powerful or of noble birth.

God chose his foolish things to shame the wise. Brethren, think with me here. It's like you've got these angels watching.

Can you imagine? God's going to raise up a great Savior to the world. Here's the Davidic line. This Davidic line just decays.

It's like these kings go, no, there was a few good ones in there, but the thing just decays and it decays. And then it kind of goes off into oblivion and they're deported out of there. And by the time you get to Christ's days, what has happened to the Davidic line? These kings have kind of devolved into carpenters.

You've got a picture of weakness here. And then what's this? A baby? He comes as a baby? Come on, Herod with all of his power, his authority, ought to be able to take out this child no problem. A child? There's no place in the inn? What kind of thing is this? Even in an animal trough, it's like just weakness surrounds all this.

It's encompassed in it. What hope is there in all that? Then the thing is about it, all of it, He dies. He dies as a criminal, shamefully nailed.

He's naked. He's on a Roman cross. And then the thing is when He's running around in life, He hangs out with Galilean fishermen.

He hangs out with tax collectors and people like this. Jesus has no training. He has no formal degrees.

He's not recognizable. But then in the end, the thing is He dies. He dies.

What hope is there in all of that? Seems inconceivable that the salvation of a multitude of Gentiles could rest on something that seems so unlikely to amount to anything. We are nothing. It seems like Christ is nothing.

It just seems like the whole plan is nothing. Can this be the Savior of the world? I mean, who in the world is going to believe this? Who's going to accept this? Christ died. That doesn't seem like wisdom.

Watch the movies, folks. The champion in the movie doesn't die. The whole point... Lord, don't you know if you're going to produce a champion, the whole task is to stay alive, not die.

The whole thing is to kill your enemies. That's what happens in the movies, right? That's what happens in the world. That's how the world thinks.

I mean, you've got to have a show of force. God knows that if you want to defeat the enemy, what does it take? Well, it takes muscle. It takes power.

It takes life. Jesus lets His enemies have their best shot at Him. Bang! And Jesus took the posture of weakness in all of it.

He gave Himself up to the power of the enemies. And to all appearance, what does it look like? I mean, you know what it looks like. That's why Jesus had to pull them all aside and said, I'm telling you these things that you not fall away, because such things are going to happen that you're going to be tempted to fall away, because they're going to look like I'm defeated.

And it's going to look like you're defeated, and you guys are the biggest fools for putting your trust in Me. And so I've got to tell you all these things. To all appearance, He's utterly defeated.

He dies like a condemned criminal. Where is the wisdom in all of that? Brethren, let me just ask you something. If it had all been left up to us, I mean, you've got to recognize, there is this multi-colored diamond.

All these colors are coming from it, to amaze and baffle rulers and authorities. But obviously, the wisdom in all of it is the wisdom of Christ. It's the wisdom of how... I mean, what's the big question? The big question, it's often been said, the big question is what you find in Romans 3, 25-26.

How can God be just and justify ungodly people? That's the question of the ages. We don't even hardly ask it. We take it for granted.

But brethren, what would we have done if this whole thing had been committed to us? What wisdom would you have come up with? Brethren, you don't want the Scripture to... Let me think about it. In your lost state, how would you have man to be saved? Well, you see, the thing is, the Scripture tells us we suppress the truth. So for one thing, we're suppressing our sin.

Like we don't really want to think of our sin being that big of a deal. We suppress the glory of God, the holiness of God, the wrath of God, God's hatred for sin. We just make God little.

We make ourselves big. We make our sin little. We're just suppressing the whole thing.

But you know what? Even if we come to a place where we recognize, well, maybe there's something that would need to be taken care of. It's like our whole focus is mercy. We demand it.

I can remember talking about sin one time, one of my high school buddies, and he's like, isn't God forgiving? Isn't God merciful? It's like that's people's take. They say, well, I hope in the end, somehow it's just going to all work out and God's going to overlook it. Do you recognize that what has to happen for Gentile sinners to be saved is every single one of God's character traits has to be upheld and honored.

But we don't even think that way. When we're lost, we don't even... God's attributes? God's holy? We don't even think that way. Brethren, you know what our solution is? Well, I just hope somehow God sweeps it under the rug.

Or I just hope somehow like some good that I've done pays for the bad or offsets it. We don't even recognize that we've never done any good thing when we're lost. It's all bad.

We don't even think that way. So we can't even hardly start to think about solving the problem. But let's suppose somebody had explained to us, no, you've never done any good at all.

It's all bad. What would we have come up with? Brethren, we don't even know what possibility to come up with. I mean, it's like, what? We think so little of sin.

Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things that are written in the book of the law to do that. You ever recognize that? Cursed is everybody. If you don't do every single thing written, if you don't keep God's law at every single point, every point, you break it at one point, you break the whole thing.

That's how scripture speaks. We don't even think that way. How can God justify such a person who's guilty? Brethren, we're guilty with such things that offend Him.

We have insulted Him. It is a massive insult that our sin. We have defied Him.

We have insulted His glory. How can God do this? To demonstrate at the present time His righteousness. How can God be right? It isn't even... If you start thinking about it, it's like, man, okay, I'm guilty.

Let's say that even entered your mind. I'm guilty. I'm really guilty.

In fact, I'm only guilty. I have never done anything good, so I can't even think about it offsetting. What am I going to say? What am I going to look at? How can God be right? Can I go back? I can't go back and live it over again.

I mean, I've got a bad record. I can't go over and I can't start over. There's no reliving this life.

It's like, as you start looking at this thing, what do I do? What do I do? I have a bad record. The soul that sins must die. That's the way Scripture talks.

The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. I mean, what's that all about? You know what? You start looking at eternity in hell. It can't pay for a single sin.

All the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament never paid for a single sin. You start looking at all of this, and it's like, what are we going to do? How much must I owe? How much I owe? We sang it. How much must I owe? What solution are you going to come up with? If once you come to recognize... Do you hear how Jesus spoke? Cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness.

Okay, let's say it came home. I'm bad. I have a bad record.

And I'm worthless. That's what Scripture says more than once. The sinner is worthless.

I don't have any worth, so I don't have anything to pay for. You start once thinking about the infinite glory of God and how big my sin must be. The soul that sins.

If I don't do everything written in the book of the law... The book of the law is an expression of God's desire for mankind. It's God's guidelines for us. What am I going to do? Okay, well, we start thinking about sacrifices.

We know enough about religion. Sacrifice. The possibility of a substance.

If it even entered your mind that God might be willing to accept the sacrifice, how could He do it? How could He do it? The law says, keep me. You disobey, you die. You're cursed.

What substance? And you know what it demands? It demands human obedience. And it demands a human death. Where am I going to find a substitute? Where is one? You see, the problem is, even if you could produce an Adam pre-fall, think about it.

What has to happen to me for my sins? If I die in my sin, what has to happen to me? I go to hell forever. Forever. Do you know why it's forever? Because the sin is never paid.

You know why death couldn't hold Jesus? Because He paid sin. I'm in hell forever because I can't pay. And so even if you produce a person who has his own righteousness and has kept the law perfectly, what are you going to do? Lay my sin on him? And what? Then he has to go to hell forever.

And he's never going to pay it. Because he can't pay it. His own righteousness isn't going to pay it.

And let's even suppose that you could find somebody that was actually righteous. Why in the world would anybody like that ever be willing? They wouldn't be willing. Who's going to trade places with you and go to hell forever? Or suffer whatever consequences that there might be? Nobody's going to do that.

If a human substitute could be found, even if he had no sin of his own, he wouldn't be able to pay. And truly no man can ransom another or give God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly. Even somehow it might work that one not guilty of his own sin could exchange places.

Brethren, you know there's no substitute. Even if there was, they wouldn't be willing. And then even if they were willing, you know what God's got to be willing to do? Actually accept that my sin be laid on that person.

Why would He even accept it? Why would He be willing? I'm the guy that's guilty. Why is God going to be pleased to punish somebody else in my place? Brethren, this is the reality of the substitute. Why would He be willing to spare me, turn His wrath away from guilty me, redirect His wrath towards the innocent one? And then even if I might find somebody that was innocent, a perfect law keeper, even somebody that was willing to trade places, and that God was somehow willing to accept, how in the world would that work for the whole church? And brethren, who could have ever thought, who could have ever had the idea even enter their mind that God could become man? That is like the miracle of the ages.

And even if God could become man, even if He could, why do we think He would? What would even lead us to believe that God would be so moved upon by love to do such a thing? Brethren, who can conceive that God has love to want to do it? What wisdom is this? And it's like if you really start to think how this all worked out, the angels are staggered. Like this kind of wisdom was never bestowed on them. They look at this, and the fact that God became man, and that He was willing to do it, and He had love to do it, and somehow God was able to be satisfied in all the places.

And you know what? And then you know what happens? Okay, all of this happens, and the sacrifice is made, and the atonement is available to sinners. And then what does God do? He sends down His Spirit, and He takes these Galilean fishermen, and He throws them out in the midst of the world, in the midst of the Roman Empire, in the midst of all their swords, and all their power and everything. Oh, what foolishness is this? You got 120 people in an opera room, and what they're going to come down, and they're going to proclaim that this Jewish carpenter, who the world knows has died, and they're going to actually come down, and they're going to do what? They're going to say what? This many-colored wisdom of God.

I mean, Jesus hung on that cross until all appearance utterly defeated, and then God just continues in the same fashion with the church. It looks like these guys are utterly defeated. They're behind locked doors.

They're locking themselves away from the authority. And God's choosing the weak things of the world. What can fishermen do against God? Not just against Herod.

Not just against the Roman Empire. These very rulers and authorities are against them. They are trying to resist everything they do.

They are the strong man. They have their captives. They are seeking everything to... Throw them in prison.

Get rid of these guys. Kill them. Kill James.

Cut John's... I mean, you've got to eliminate these guys. Certainly, cosmic powers ought to be able to do this. But you know what? They give it their best shot, and what happens? The Word of God is not bound.

Throw them in prison. They're like sheep, ready for the sacrifice. And what happens? It's like God's saving the world.

These are the men that turn the world upside down. It's like they can't throw their best punch at this thing. It's like it just doesn't work.

As foolish as it all seems, what's God doing? He's unleashing a power that can't be resisted. A power that the world had never known. The Gospel is the power of God.

And so, the devil throws these people in prison. Certainly, angels can stop men from preaching. Can't they? Can't they stop this? Can't they make it all stop? I mean, they're hovering around here.

Cosmic powers. Spiritual forces. What? Can't they stop us? Are they trying to stop us? I mean, what do we say to this? Brethren, I just end with this.

Ask yourself something. Does your inclusion in the church resemble something that makes angels sit up and take notice of? Even gasp. Even be in awe.

Even feel defeated by. Does your Christianity resemble something that just makes these rulers and authorities sit up and take notice? That's the question. Is your life a demonstration of God's beautiful, many-colored wisdom? Do you grasp? God puts us on display.

God is calling the angels to look at us. When they look at us, is it like, well, yeah, we're looking at them. And we've happily put them to sleep.

Or are we something that is like, yeah, we've tried to resist them for decades now. We've tried to resist that church. They just keep coming back.

God has brought you forth, Christian, and the highest rulers in creation. How are they responding? Do they take notice? Brethren, we want to live such a way that they take notice. That God can say, behold.

Like he said, Satan, have you beheld Job? We want that. Have you beheld GCC? Have you looked at him? The angels, archangels, seraphim, cherubim. Brethren, do you recognize the day is coming where the beings of highest rank are just going to fall down in utter astonishment and praise God.

They're going to just cry out in amazement. What a great God we have. What a display of the wonderful wisdom.

How rich is his grace. God is glorious. God, we can hardly believe that you did this.

Those people, pathetic sinners. They rebelled against you. They raised their fist against you.

They deserve. We are ready to take them out. And you did this.

God became man. We hardly recognize just how glorious all this is. It's like who would have invented such a way to redeem people such as us and that God would even be willing to do it and masterful plan, the eternal plan.

And there it is, brethren, and it's found in the church. It's like, what are you? Don't tell me you're a doctor. Don't tell me you're a dentist.

Don't tell me you're an engineer. All you have to do is say, I'm part of the church. Nobody's got anything on you.

Father, I pray this help us to grasp the glory of it all. I would ask in Christ's name.