The Glory That Makes The Church as GLORIOUS As GOD Himself

Let’s look at some of these passages in chapter 3. In 3.11, “this was in accordance with the eternal purpose.” These are things that are the status of God, even before your status. And 3.16: “That He would grant you according to the riches of His glory.” Alright, and now I’m going to change the subject just a little bit. I want you to look at 3.8: “To me, the very least of all holy ones, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ.” Now, my simple question is: when was Jesus Christ rich in unfathomable riches? Well, the answer is now, tomorrow, and forever, but I want to point out to you also: before eternity.

Now, let me see if I can come back and find another couple of passages that go along with this. Did we read chapter 2, verse 11? Somebody who’s taking notes? No, that doesn’t fit. That doesn’t fit. I must be looking at this wrong. Just give me a moment, if you will please. Oh, okay, let’s look at 2.9, if we will, just for a moment. Gene, what in the world is wrong with you? That’s not 2.9. Alright, we have something here. Thank you, whoever you were who did that, thank you. “We have, which God prepared beforehand.” Which God prepared beforehand. 2.10.

Now I’m going to find another one. I can’t find it, so we’ll give up on it. It’s not critical. You got quiet while I was struggling. Now don’t do that to me. I want you to go back with me into eternity past before your first state was established, and I want you to see what is there. Now, in Titus, there’s an extremely interesting passage that says, “before times that were eternal.” I want you to just run that by for a moment. In fact, let’s say it together, and that way it’ll soak in: “before times that were eternal.” Would you say that with me? Before times that were eternal.

Now, Eckhart, you think about that. How could there be a time before that which is eternal? There is eternity that goes that way and eternity that goes that way, and it goes on and on forever in both directions. Eternity is created. Eternity is…you know, that’s really true, brother. Eternity was created because there was a time before the ages, a time before times, when there was nothing but God, and there was not even room for eternity. Now that’s as primordial as you can get. If you don’t know what primordial means, that was back as far as you can get, folks. This is before anything. God is the All. Now I want you to look at Him, please. One thing I want you to know, that in Him is Christ. Secondly, in Him is glory, but if it is possible to be outside of Him, outside of Him there is glory. In that particular case, that is not true. All glory is in Him. He is full. He is glory. He is. He has in Him Christ, and He is in Christ. I’ll run that by again.

Christ is in Him, and He is in Christ. Now, the Lord Jesus said, “The Father loved me from the foundation, or before the foundations of the world.” If we can go back to that and believe that that’s true, before creation and before there was eternity, then we also can say there was a great deal of love going on inside of God. But now I want to bring something else to your attention. There were unfathomable riches in Him. Unfathomable, unknowable, unplumbable riches in God. Now, do you know where those riches were located? Say it. In Christ. There were riches in Christ, who is in God, and God is in Christ, and Christ is unfathomably rich.

Now then, for reasons that we do not know, the driving force of God the Father is to glorify His Son, and the driving force in the Son is to glorify His Father. Just keep that in mind. One other thing I want you to know: that there is grace in God beyond all understanding. Exactly how that is possible, I don’t know, because grace is given to those who are undeserving. You did not deserve your salvation in Christ. You did not deserve your high state in Christ. You did not deserve to be chosen in Christ. Grace did that. But right now, there is no you, and there is no me. There is God and not even eternity, and yet, He is filled with unmerited favor. He is filled with grace, and there is glory to that grace, and there is glory to the riches. There is glory that is Christ’s glory, and there is glory that is the Father’s glory. I just want you to take a moment and look at all of that.

Now, I want you to be really careful with me for just a moment. One day, God called a meeting. God called a meeting with God, and God sat down at a table with God, and God said, “We need some counsel. I will have my will counsel me.” So, the will of God counseled God. And God listened to the will of God, counseling God, and said, “Yes, I like that. So, I shall take you up on your counsel of my own. I will do what you have counseled me, and when I do it, I shall do it according to the counsel of my will. My will has counseled me, and I will do what my will has counseled me to do.” You ready to quit this one? And so, He did. But now I give you a mystery. Has any word in Scripture ever gotten a hold of you and shaken you to your foundations? There’s a passage in Ephesians that I both joy in, revel in, and glory in, and yet I have to say to this day I still plummet.

There was a time in my foolishness when I thought I knew what it meant. And I have to say in all modesty that I still feel like I know more about it than anybody else who’s ever lived, at least in the last thousand years. I have to tell you that I don’t know anything, because I simply cannot define what I’m about to tell you. There is a passage in Ephesians 2 in which, describing what God does, it says, and I read these passages about ‘in accordance with’ -God did this in accordance with His eternal purpose. Now, just to give you the simplest introduction to the eternal purpose, and we owe so much to T. Austin Sparks, because as far as I know, T. Austin Sparks made this clearer than anyone, and you’ll hear me say this again, I’ve never been able to improve on this.

Salvation cannot be God’s eternal purpose, because there was a time when we were not lost, and there was a time Adam was not lost. Brothers and sisters, thank God, there comes a day when salvation ends. Salvation, the state of salvation, is a very temporal state. Therefore, it cannot be eternal. It cannot be something that happened before you were chosen, and it cannot be something that is His focus on redemption. He has an eternal purpose. And every time I find His eternal purpose, it eludes me again and grows greater and greater and greater and greater. All I can tell you is that He purposed in eternity past; He has a purpose that will never end. He works out His purpose forever, and that is what is spoken of in that verse: “and that happened in accordance with His eternal purpose.” That is so broad, so vast, so unbelievably unreachable by the mind of man.

Let me go back to the conference table where God called a conference with God and sat down and said, “I need the counsel of my will, and my will counseled me, and I said to my will, ‘I like that. I will do it.’ And that which I do is in accordance with my eternal purpose.” Everything that we’re about to see now about your first state is in accordance with God’s eternal purpose. Don’t ask me to say anything more. I can only sit there and look at you and say that’s all I know to say, but what we’re about to see Him do…and why did He do this? I’m not getting anywhere, am I? Oh, loathsome tongue, so poor. Why did He do it? Because His will counseled Him to do it. Okay, just sit there. Why does the will of God give counsel? So, having not been God, I have no idea, but God did things according to the counsel that His will gave Him. His will became functional. He began to play out His will, and His doing this, obeying His own will, His own instincts, His own desires, He began to do things that are in accordance with His eternal purpose. And brother, there’s something about you that has to do with His eternal purpose.

Now then, I want to go back and just say to you, there was a time before time, there was a time before eternals, there was a time when there was nothing but God, and He was all, and God was full of God. He was glorious, and He was glory, and He was gracious, and He was grace, and He was rich in glory, and He was rich in grace. He was unfathomably rich in glory and grace, and by the way, you can throw in power. But there is the glory of the grace of God when He exhibits His power, and it is to His glory. Or it is to the glory of His grace. I want to go through that because it’s in there. There is a time in which grace is so effulgent that you praise the glory of His grace. There are times when you praise His grace.

Now then, I will ask you a simple question you don’t know the answer to: what is His glory? What is His glory? Himself. The Lord Jesus. That’s not all. There is also other glory. By the way, I was speaking somewhere—I don’t remember where—but I had people in a state of shock when I said to them that one day you will be as glorious as God, and you could hear teeth falling out of people’s mouths. One day, you will be as glorious as God. Well, nobody believed me for two or three days. Nobody believed me. I taunted them with “someday you’ll be as glorious as God is glorious.”