THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
The Church
Message One—God’s Eternal Purpose Concerning the Church
Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:3-6; Heb. 2:10-11; 1 Thes. 5:23
I. There are three main items of God’s purpose for the church—Eph. 1:4-5; 3:10; 2:10; Eph. 1:10, 19-23: (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 1)
A. The church must have the full sonship—Eph. 1:4-5. (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 1)
B. Through the church God’s multifarious wisdom is made known to the enemy; the church thus becomes God’s poem, His wise exhibition of all that Christ is—3:10; 2:10; 1 Cor. 1:30. (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 1)
C. God’s purpose is to head up all things in Christ through the church—Eph. 1:10, 19-23. (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 1)
II. The choosing of God’s people for them to be holy is for the purpose of their being made sons of God, participating in the divine sonship; in eternity past God the Father “chose us…to be holy…unto sonship”—Eph. 1:4-5: (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 1)
A. Holy means not only sanctified, separated unto God, but also different, distinct, from everything that is common; only God is different, distinct, from all things; hence, He is holy, and holiness is His nature. (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 1)
B. The divine sonship is accomplished by our being mingled with God (the Holy One as the Holy Spirit) unto full sanctification—Eph. 4:30; 1 Pet. 1:15-16. (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 1)
C. God’s chosen ones are made His sons by His sanctifying Spirit (Rom. 15:16; Gal. 4:6); this is why Ephesians 1:3 calls this a spiritual blessing, a blessing by the Spirit. (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 1)
D. God’s chosen ones become holy and without blemish before Him and are predestinated unto sonship “in love”—Eph. 1:4; cf. 3:17; 4:2, 15-16; 5:2; 6:24; Rev. 2:4. (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 1)
III. We have been saved by grace through faith to be God’s masterpiece, through which God’s multifarious wisdom is made known to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies—Eph. 2:10; 3:10: (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 2)
A. Not only a poetic writing may be considered a poem, but also any work of art that expresses the maker’s wisdom and design; we, the church, the master-piece of God’s work, are a poem expressing God’s infinite wisdom and divine design. (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 2)
B. We, the church, the masterpiece of God’s work, are an absolutely new item in the universe, a new invention of God (2:15); we were created by God in Christ through regeneration to be His new creation (2 Cor. 5:17): (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 2)
1. God’s masterpiece is absolutely new because it is the mingling of God and man; His masterpiece, His greatest workmanship, is the working of Himself into man and the constituting of man into oneness with Him to produce the church. (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 2)
2. The church is God’s poem that speaks forth His wisdom; according to Ephesians 3:10, God’s multifarious wisdom will be made known through the church. (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 2)
3. When we see the New Jerusalem, we may extol God for the beauty, wisdom, and design manifested in this marvelous production; the New Jerusalem will be God’s poem, His masterpiece. (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 2)
IV. “Unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him”—Eph. 1:10: (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
A. The economy, or dispensation, that God, according to His desire, planned and purposed in Himself is to head up all things in Christ at the fullness of the times. (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
B. This is accomplished through the dispensing of the abundant life supply of the Triune God as the life factor into all the members of the church so that they may rise up from the death situation and be attached to the Body. (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
C. The times refers to the ages, and the fullness of the times will be when the new heaven and new earth appear after all the dispensations of God in all the ages have been completed: (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
1. Altogether there are four ages: the age of sin (Adam), the age of the law (Moses), the age of grace (Christ), and the age of the kingdom (the millennium). (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
2. This dispensation will continue through the millennium until the fullness of the times; the ultimate, the consummate, dispensation will be the dispensing of the Triune God into the whole city of the New Jerusalem—Rev. 22:1-2. (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
D. God made Christ the Head over all things (v. 22); through all the dispensations of God in all the ages, all things will be headed up in Christ in the new heaven and new earth; that will be God’s eternal administration and economy. (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
E. The believers participate in this heading up by being willing to be headed up in the church life, by growing in life and by living under Christ’s light—John 1:4; 8:12; Eph. 5:8-9; Rev. 21:23-25. (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
F. The heading up of all things in Christ takes place through the dispensing of the abundant life supply of the Triune God into us; the more the factor of life is ministered to us, the more we rise up and become attached. (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
G. When everything is headed up in Christ, there will be absolute peace and harmony (Isa. 2:4; 11:6; 55:12; Psa. 96:12-13), a full rescue out of the collapse; this will begin from the restoration of all things (Acts 3:21). (2014 ITERO-F, msg. 3)