The Ephesians Story (Part 4)

Audience: You think that rugged individualism came?

We have to give the British credit for this. Read Pilgrim’s Progress. There he is: I’m going to make it, and he’s out there fighting all these things all by himself. And as far back as what, well, that was 1620, I believe. It was already rooted in us. Brother, we lost the church in the 3rd century. We lost the church 1700 years ago. We have buildings and we have meetings, but the ekklesia is pretty well lost to us.

Blessed be the Father, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. Now, for me to say anything about this word, and it’s the only time I’ll refer to any verse outside of, or any line outside of this passage, you have to go to chapter one of Colossians and discover that creation is in Christ. And if you got that, then we can go through the rest of this with no problem at all. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.

Now I need to talk to you about things that are beyond our abilities to comprehend in order to grasp this whole passage. This passage is all moving toward verse 10. Things past, present, and things to come, all set around verse 10. It’ll be the last thing we look at if we get that far. You have already been blessed by the blessed Father. You have already been given. Now, if that is true, then you are a creature capable of touching unseen realms. If it is yours and you have it, then it belongs to you as one who can see the unseen and grasp the eternals. It is yours. Not theoretically, but experientially yours – a body of believers in the city of Colossae. This is not easy to comprehend, and we have to move out of where we are and go somewhere else to understand. Are you a mineral, a vegetable, a gas, or are you liquid? Actually, you are, that’s right. You are a physical being. You are not air or vapor. Therefore, you are inclined more to think in terms of things that are visible. Correct? You also center everything you are around human beings, giving very little attention to leaves, birds, gas, liquids, minerals, vegetables, and even animals. Now, that’s true. Even if you have a dog kennel, it’s nonetheless true. You’re taking care of somebody’s dogs.

Try to imagine what was here first. What was here first was something spirit and invisible, and it is the nature of Him who is spirit and invisible to hold things spiritual and invisible higher than things physical. And He created spiritual realms before He created physical realms. We are of a secondary creation. We are of a much more temporal creation. We belong to the visible and we belong to the temporal.

Here is the eternal. I’m making a circle for those of you on audio. That’s the eternal things and the invisible things. Now, here’s a straight line that begins here and ends here – that’s the temporal thing. That is where you are, right there; you’re right about there. Here’s the line where the physical begins. Here’s the cross. Here you are. Here’s the end out here somewhere. Maybe I’d better move it in a little bit for those of you who think He’s going to come any minute now. By the year 2000. Okay. Here’s the physical realm. That is a secondary and inferior realm. It’s temporary first of all, and it is not spirit, and God is eternal, and He is spirit, and He just tilts toward those kinds of things. Somebody needs to tell you that when we speak of not being of this world, we are actually addressing the fact that you are a spiritual being and that part of you belongs to those things that existed before the physical creation. There is an element of you that is spirit, and there’s an element of you that’s invisible, and there is an element of you that is eternal.

Now you can go along with that, but can you handle this? Those things that are invisible and spiritual and that belong outside the physical realm belong to you, and in Christ, you have access to them. Everything that is in Christ, what is in Christ that is spiritual and invisible and is blessed, it’s yours. Now, try to think of yourself for a moment as a spiritual being. If you will, then the temporal does not hold you. You no longer belong to three dimensions. But in a minute, you’re going to find out something that you can’t understand because your body is fettered to this three-dimensional realm. And that is to discover that part of you that is spirit, and you really do have a spirit, and it is eternal, and it belongs to the non-dimensional, and that your spirit belongs not only to things that are present, but things that are past and things that are future. And in the spiritual realm, no, in God’s spirit and in Christ, there is no difference in past, present, and future. None. All of them are in Him.

I’ve been trying my best for a long time to try to explain something that you may or may not understand, but I’m going to do it again. Let us imagine that this is your Lord before creation. And all things were created by Him and in Him, for Him and to Him, that the Father might glorify the Son. Well, we’re talking about church life in the eternity past. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit decide to create, and all things are created inside of Christ. And so, the eternals, the spirituals, are created in Him, and the physical realm is created in Him. Now, is this Christ over here? Is this Christ over here? Is this Christ here? And is Christ here? Therefore, He is not only at the beginning; He is also at the same time at the end. And He’s in the middle, above, and below.

Now, I owe brother Kevin here a word. Kevin has been reading a book entitled A Short History of Time. You know the book, I’m sure. It’s very popular. It’s written by a man who’s considered the greatest astrological physicist, and so on, so forth, since Einstein. And he makes a profound statement, and that is that time was not created, or does not exist, here and then, tomorrow, and the next day, but time came into existence. Its beginning, as well as its end, all came into existence at the same time. And we’re like a leaf floating on the river, but the river is already there from beginning to end. We’re not on the crest of it as it moves forward; it has already reached the end. You are floating on that which is already established. Scientists have been debating for several years now. If we can remember the past, why can we not remember the future? And they have not come up with a valid explanation as to why you can’t remember the future. If you can remember the past, you ought to be able to remember the future. Well, forget you and forget me. The point is that Jesus Christ can remember the future. But that’s not all. He can remember the past, and he can also remember the present, and that’s not good enough either, saints. What’s the truth of the matter is that He is past, He is present, He is future. He is the now.

I appreciate this word. It helps me communicate a little bit more. I want you to listen to the words of your Lord. I am the beginning, and I am the end. I have finished all things before the foundation of the world. Just chew on that and try to grasp that which He began; He finished before He began it. You have a God who walks through a creation He has not yet created. Before He creates it, He goes all the way through it and establishes it. Right now, your Lord is at the end of the eternals and at the end of creation, and I’ve often used the illustration, perhaps this is the way the Lord did it, that He went to the end of the creation and saw that you had made it – there you are! And then he said, “Ah, he made it.” And then He went back to the beginning of creation, and because you made it, He chose you and elected you before the foundation of the world because He had visited the end. It may be that He selected you at the end and then sealed it at the beginning. You say that’s ridiculous, silly, and stupid, Gene. Disprove me. For He is at the end, even while He is at the beginning.

In some way or other, in all of these imponderables, you are in Christ, and you share with Him that eternal history. Now, brother, I ask you a question. How long is this body going to last? Good Italian body. How long is it? 75 outside. Good luck. 100. Alright, it never existed before, did it? And it will not exist ever again. It will die and rot and disappear. Your soul, when did it begin? April 1966. April 1966. Actually, brother, it began nine months earlier than that. And how long will your soul go? Eternally. No, that way. Forever. Not eternally. Okay. Right. Or that way. Just that, just one direction. Now, brother, you have a spirit, and I cannot answer the question as to how long your spirit was, is, or shall be, but I can’t answer this: that on the day the Lord raised your spirit from the dead, He who is at the beginning and at the end and above and beyond and below and circumventing and also the circumference, He took your spirit and so blended it with His spirit that they became one and His Spirit is eternal. That’s that direction and that direction. And, in that moment, my brother, your history moved in both directions. Say, “Praise the Lord.” From that moment on, you belong to the eternity past, and you have a history in eternity past as surely as you have a history in eternity future. Your soul can and will go this way, but your spirit can, Wow! Look what’s coming, and wow, look what’s been.

One day, you’re going to remember when you were marked off in Christ before the foundation of the ages. You’re going to remember that. You’re going to remember “I was there.” You’re going to stand in that experience, an eternal flowing in both directions. Now, a question: Do you know your wife pretty well? Wife, do you know your husband pretty well? Yeah, you know him fairly well, but not too well. But when you were in your mother’s womb, God knew if you’d be male or female. He knew whether you would like certain colors or dislike them. He knew if you’re going to have a deep voice or a high voice, He knew that your root real hair color would either be black, brown, red, or whatever. He knew you were His. He knew you were His, and He knew you would make it, for you were part of His faithfulness. He knew the day you would be saved. He looks through you and knows everything about you. He knows everything in the future of you. He knows your ultimate destination. He knows where you came from. He knows the day He fell in love with you. He knows the day that He put you in Christ. He knows the day that He chipped you off of Christ back there in eternity past somewhere. He knows you utterly, completely, absolutely, and everything about you historically, dispositionally, character, nature, everything. And when you are delivered from your present body, you shall know even as you are known. Don’t just sit there and say, “Praise the Lord.” You will know as you are known, but He says you have access to all that which is spiritual blessings in Christ, right now, past, and future. I don’t know if any of us have ever claimed that. So, I would say to you, claim it. Do you want to name it and claim it? Here’s a “name it and claim it.” (laughter)