THE great mystery out in the open

Here's one more outtake from a study on Ephesians 3:

[1] For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,

[2] If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to youward:
[3] How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,
[4] Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)

I’ve always loved that verse where he says, "If you’ve heard." That means there’s some people there who hadn’t heard, says Richard Jordan.

Paul spent years in Ephesus ministering and now he’s writing back to them about "if you’ve heard this." I think about that all the time. How many people do you know that haven’t heard? Well, it’s a lot bigger than the crowd that HAS heard.

How are you going to understand this knowledge in the mystery of Christ? You’ve got to READ it. You’re not going to sit under a tree and say, "Oh, Lord, show me what you’re saying."

I sat a whole hour with a preacher not too long ago where we went through some things in the Scripture, and I drew out the "right division" chart, and he said, "Well, brother, I’ll pray about it." I said, "Dude, you don’t need to pray about it! You need to believe it or don’t believe it but there it is. You don’t have to pray and ask is that true. Read the verse and tell me whether it’s true or not!"

Paul says in Ephesians 3: [5] Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;

There’s that which is spoken by the mouths of the holy prophets since the world began (prophecy) and that which was kept secret (mystery). A six-year-old kid who flunked kindergarten can get the difference between those two things.

Preachers who’ve been to seminary and know Greek and Hebrew and all kinds of systematic theology go, "Huh?" You know why that is? Because it just takes simple faith in what the verses say and what all that other "higher learning" does is tell you how you don’t have to believe it.

You don’t have to know anything about Greek or Hebrew, or have a college education or a preacher who does have all that stuff. All you got to do is take a King James Bible and read Acts 3:21 and Romans 16:25-26 and you can get it IF you want it.

Acts 3: [21] Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

Romans 16: [25] Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,

[26] But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:

When you read those verses and say, "I don’t get it," it’s because you don’t want it! You see, God’s Word "discerns the thoughts and intents of your heart." This stuff’s too clear. You can’t miss it unless you WANT to miss it. That’s just the long and the short of it. I might as well be honest with you.

In Ephesians 3: 4 Paul tells you the way you get this is you READ, because as you read what he wrote, you get his understanding about what God’s doing; about "the mystery of the Church the Body of Christ." You and I are so completely, thoroughly identified with the Lord Jesus Christ that we bear His name.

When Paul talks about "my knowledge in the mystery of Christ," he’s talking about the church the Body of Christ and he calls it "the mystery of Christ" because, well, when God looks at the Body of Christ, He says, "They're mine. It’s done." The Body is one in Him.

The Body of Christ IS the great mystery Satan didn’t know about "which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed in his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit."

You read that and you think, "How could anybody miss that?!" Well, because they WANT to. That’s the only explanation.

What is this great mystery? Ephesians 3: [6] That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

Down in verse 9 he calls it ‘the fellowship of the mystery.’

[9] And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

What you and I share together in the one Body is we’re "fellowheirs"; we’re the same body and we’re partakers of His promise. You and I share together everything that God has for us in His Son. It’s a fascinating thing about that.

*****

Here's a post explaining what happened to Israel:

"The fig tree in the Bible is a type of religion. In Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve sinned, they made aprons out of fig leaves.

“Operation Fig Leaf was man’s attempt to cover himself up before God. Operation Fig Leaf is really Operation Religious Cover-up.

“There are four trees that represent the nation Israel, three of them good—the vine, olive and fig. God gave Israel special duty as a nation (the vine). He gave them special duty as the olive tree—the scriptural aspect of the nation, meaning access to God—and then He gave them special position as the fig tree; a religion in the earth.

“Over and over, you’ll see where He talks about, for example, in Isaiah 5, God planted a vineyard. That’s the nation. You’ll see the parable in the vineyard and in it He had a fig tree. He’s got a nation with a religion in it.

“So when Christ comes to the fig tree (in Matthew 21) there’s a lot going on here than just Jesus getting mad at a tree out there. He doesn’t just get mad at trees—‘Well, I don’t like fig trees!’

“When it says He ‘saw a fig tree in the way’ and ‘found nothing theron,’ the issue there is He came seeking fruit from the fig tree and found none so He cursed it. His (earthly) ministry was about coming and seeking fruit from Israel’s religious activity and since He found none, He curses it.

“People make the mistake some time and identify the fig as representative of Israel the nation. You know, a couple of chapters over in 24, Jesus talks about, ‘Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
[33] So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
[34] Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.’

*****

“Supposed scholars will tell you, ‘Well, the budding of the fig tree was the establishment of the nation Israel in 1948,’ and you’ve got people who’ve done all kind of goofball things with that. One guy made $3 million in 1998 with that. But error makes money; we’re going to see that in Galatians.

“The error there in trying to make the budding of the fig tree the establishment of Israel in 1948 is the fig tree doesn’t represent the nation. If it did, what does that verse 19 (in Matthew 21) say? If the fig tree represented Israel as a nation, you could never have the nation again. Because whatever it represents, it’s over with; never to bear any fruit!

“God did away with Israel’s religious life, did He not? Hebrews 7:11 says, ‘If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?’

“In other words, God has ‘disannulled’; He’s set aside the old Mosaic Law covenant and replaced it with a new Messianic covenant. So, the old religion He gave Israel is done away with. It became ‘the Jews’ religion’ because they couldn’t do it.

*****

“Notice Paul in Galatians 1 is talking about that ‘Jews’ religion.’ It’s interesting he calls it that, because by this point he understands that what that thing was was a bunch of dead works that really wasn’t accomplishing anything although he thought it was.

“Paul writes in Galatians 1:13, ‘For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it. And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.’

“There’s two good reasons there for you to understand why Paul didn’t get his message from the saints in Jerusalem. No. 1, he persecuted the Pentecostal Jerusalem church beyond measure and wasted it.

“What was the attitude they had toward him? They didn’t trust him; they feared him. Verse 22 says he ‘was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ:
[23] But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.’

“Their attitude was, ‘Hey, that guy’s our enemy! He’s persecuting us!’ and they literally were afraid of Paul.

*****

“In Acts 9, after Paul got saved and tried to talk to them, they didn’t want to talk to him. Acts 9:26 says, ‘And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple.’

“And this (occurred) at least three if not four years after Paul’s been saved. It says ‘when Saul was come’ and that’s going to be down in Gal. 1:18—‘after three years I went up to Jerusalem.’

“They were all afraid of him and, believe me, when Paul was going around and ‘breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord,’ if you look back at Acts 9:1, notice what he’s wanting to do. He’s wanting to destroy these guys!

“In Acts 22:3, Paul says, ‘I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.’

“Gamaliel taught binding, punishing letters. When Luke recorded it, he just kind of gave you a general summary, but when Paul talks about what he was doing, he says, ‘I persecuted them unto the death!’

“As he testifies in Acts 26, ‘Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.
[11] And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.’

“He was involved in killing some of these people; martyring them. It says ‘he wasted it; he persecuted the church beyond measure.’ He did it to men and women—nobody’s safe! He went to Damascus; he had letters. He had warrants issued by the government of Israel to go and extradite these people from Damascus and bring them back to Jerusalem.

“Now, when you carry government warrants and go execute them, you are an official of the government, are you not? Can you understand why the Apostle Paul would call himself in I Timothy ‘the chief of sinners’?!

“When Paul said that, he didn’t mean, ‘I’m the worst profligate. I’m the nastiest, raunchiest, filthiest-mouth-inhabited guy you ever met.’ In Philippians 3, he said, ‘In touching the law I was blameless.’ What he meant was, ‘I was the leader.’

“And when you think about him leading the world’s rebellion against Christ, and you realize he literally was the official representative of his nation in persecuting (Christians) . . .  When Christ stopped him on road to Damascus, the hymn writer says, ‘He stopped my wild career.’

“The words Christ said were, ‘Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?’ He hated Christ and he hated those who named the name of Christ. Now, there’s somebody in the Bible who’s also going to do that in the prophetic program. He’s known as ‘the man of sin; the son of perdition,’ the one who becomes the personification of the Lie Program.

“And as soon as you’re sitting in that chair tonight, the Apostle Paul understood that if God had not interrupted that prophetic program back there in time past, chances were very good that he could have been a prime candidate to have been that man himself! Now that’s a scary thing for a fellow! Paul understood just how deceived he was.”