Wisdom to see we're in a different fellowship

Last night’s Zoom meeting, conducted by my church, featured a study by the son of a preacher who is now attending a small Christian college in Ohio. He lamented that his fellow students, while Christian, were unaware of the mystery laid out by the Apostle Paul.

Paul writes in Ephesians 3: [8] Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
[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.

Here’s an outtake from a study on the “fellowship of the mystery”:

Christ is the heir of eternal life. We’re fellow heirs. We’re part of the program now. Why? Because of the dispensation of the grace of God given to me to give to you, Paul said.

If you’re out of fellowship with Him, what are you out of fellowship with? Eternal life.

There’s this idea that you can have a relationship with God and not fellowship. The word fellowship is talking about sharing in common.

If you share His righteousness, you’re in the fellowship of His Son. To break fellowship with Christ would mean you break fellowship with His righteousness; break fellowship with His life. That means you’re going to be lost.

So He calls you into an eternal, unbroken fellowship with His Son, not based on your performance; not based on some covenant and religious activity and ceremonial correctness, but based on the reality of His dispensing of His grace to you, and all that God is free to do for you through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary.

We’re called into this fellowship of His Son, and you and I are all a part of that fellowship; we have that oneness in Christ. The fellowship of the mystery is what God is forming as He forms the church the Body of Christ and gives us a share.

I know there’s a lot of confusion out there. God is forming a spiritual body of Believers out of people who rely exclusively on His Son, and He puts us in Christ and He blesses us there with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places on an absolute equal basis.

The only place you’ll ever find absolute total equality between people in the universe is in the church the Body of Christ.

That term fellowship is the idea of agreement. In Galatians 2 Paul is describing going up to Jerusalem and meeting with the 12 apostles and the Jerusalem elders and he says:

[7] But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter;
[8] (For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:)
[9] And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.

Compare that with I John 1: [6] If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
[7] But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
[8] If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
[9] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
[10] If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

In Hosea 2, God says to Israel, “I married you, you departed and I divorced you and I’m going to remarry you. I’m going to restore you and I’m never going to let you go again.”

You ever hear the song “Beulah Land”? The word Beulah in Isaiah is a name for the land of Israel. It means married. God’s going to take the nation Israel and marry them to the land of Palestine and never allow them to depart; they’re going to be stuck in that land and they’ll never be separated again.

God’s going to do that for Israel when He joins Himself with Israel. That’s the fellowship of prophecy. But we’re on the outside looking in. We have a different fellowship. That’s what Paul’s talking about when he talks about the fellowship of the mystery.

*****

God’s manifold wisdom is on display today before Satan’s angels as they see “the fellowship of the mystery” in action, and that’s why Paul says in Ephesians 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

“There’s spiritual wickedness in high places where those principalities and powers in the heavenlies don’t appreciate your ministry and they oppose it and you find yourself in hand-to-hand combat, wrestling,” explains Richard Jordan. “Not shooting across the river, but hand-to-hand combat against their opposition—their wiles and their tricks.

“It’s interesting that these principalities and powers observe the Body of Christ and are instructed by you. Look at I Corinthians 4:9, I Corinthians 11:10, I Timothy 5:2. The body truth working in the Body of Christ teaches them about God’s eternal purpose.

“You’ll see that eternal purpose in Ephesians 1:9-10. It has to do with ‘gathering together in one all things.’ God purposed to establish a universe and His objective was to populate it; an infinite universe with a perfect creation made in His own image which worshipped and owned Him as their sovereign, willingly choosing to own Him.

“Now when He set that purpose up, He purposed to demonstrate His worthiness to rule and to fill that universe. He didn’t just purpose to do it; a despot could arbitrarily do that. He purposed to demonstrate that He was WORTHY of a creation made in His image and that He was worthy of the FREE worship and subjection of that creation.

*****

“He sets up the creation and there upon is challenged by Lucifer, who goes out among the heavenly host and persuades the upper echelon, the principalities and powers, to rebel against God and go with him. A tremendous angelic conflict is established.

“God stops the rebellion, creates hell in which to destroy the devil and his angels. But He didn’t destroy them immediately and the reason for that is--when you think about it’s quite simple--how were the rest of creation ever to know for sure that Satan’s challenge against God’s authority wasn’t justified? You set up an authority and somebody challenges it, and just because you can knock them down, does it make it right? No.

“How would the rest of creation ever be sure that the challenge didn’t have any merit to it and that God, rather than Satan, deserved to rule the universe? God sets up a scheme whereby His own worthiness could be demonstrated. A situation whereby the rebels--Satan and his group--can demonstrate their ability and God can demonstrate His and the choice can logically be made then, can’t it? God can demonstrate that He is not an unreasonable despot, but rather He’s a worthy sovereign.

“That demonstration has been accomplished and what’s going on today in the Body of Christ is demonstrating God’s wisdom and His victory. Colossians 2:15 says, ‘And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.’

“Today, the demonstration has been accomplished and God’s wisdom has been exalted and all that remains now is for the execution of the plan to be consummated, and the reason that hasn’t been accomplished is God’s still forming the Body of Christ. As soon as that’s over with, this thing will get on the road!

“Look at I Corinthians 2:6-10. You see, the princes of this world have a wisdom; they have a wise plan but it comes to NOTHING. Big zero. There’s the wisdom of the world, human viewpoint, then there’s the wisdom of the princes of this world--that’s Satan’s policy of evil (Isaiah 14), but God has brought all of that to nothing.

“The passage says, [7] But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
[8] Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

“I Corinthians 3:19 says, [19] For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

“I mean, they thought they got it figured out and what happened? It backfires on them. Satan reached the climax of his career of deception. He started by developing a wise plan and going out among the angelic host and deceiving them into thinking his wise plan could overthrow God and had merit, but he reached the apex of that career of deception when he deceived HIMSELF!

“You see how wonderful that is?! And it was the wisdom of God that accomplished it because God kept a realm of knowledge and information a secret. He just kept a secret that caused Satan to do the very thing that would result in his undoing. Now that’s wisdom and that’s the wisdom we’re making known today.

*****

“Paul says in I Corinthians 2:9-10, [9] But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
[10] But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

“He’s revealed unto us the deep things of God. Isn’t that wonderful?! Can you understand why Satan doesn’t appreciate the mystery truth?! Why he doesn’t want people talking about the distinctive message and ministry of the mystery, because it’s the very thing that shows him out to be the fool and the unworthy one that he really is.

“Oh, that’s fascinating and Paul says, ‘I want people to see that truth of the mystery working, the fellowship of the mystery, because it demonstrates before the universe God’s wisdom and God’s eternal purpose to bring heaven and earth, the whole universe, under His authority in willing, joyous, happy subjection and submission to Him and His headship, and that He’s worthy of it.' THAT’S the demonstration being carried on today!

“Ephesians 3 says, ‘To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
[11] According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
[12] In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.

“I mean, brother, if you understand what God’s done for you back in those verses you can have CONFIDENCE! I mean, folks, you’ve got a wonderful position and that passage right there is a fantastic truth to see.

*****

“I don’t how it is that people, when they see that truth, it doesn’t produce fruit. The most natural thing in the world is for the doctrine to produce duty, and when it doesn’t, people haven’t really seen it.

“It might be up in their noggin, but it hasn’t gotten into the heart; the mentality of their soul. It isn’t down there; it’s just a mental concept and what Paul’s talking about is people not just SEEING the doctrine, but seeing the LIVING aspect of it; the fellowship side.

“II Corinthians 5:10 says, [10] For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

“It doesn’t say receive FOR the things done in his body. To receive FOR would be to perform a task, cut down a tree, say, and then be paid $20 for doing it. So what did you receive? $20. Why? You cut the tree down.

“It says you’re going to receive the things done IN His body. Where’s God working in your life today? Aren’t you strengthened by His spirit in your inner man? Aren’t you renewed in your inner man? Where is your inner man? Isn’t it in your body?

“So if you receive the things done in your body, what are you receiving? You’re receiving what you did in your inner man! What Paul’s talking about, when you get to the ‘judgment seat of Christ,’ the degree of edification that you have experienced in your inner man is going to be manifested; put on display.

“All the other is taken away and just left right there to manifest the degree of edification of spiritual growth in Christlikeness; how much Christ has been formed in your inner man.

"THAT'S what you’re going to receive! 'The day will declare it.' All the other will be taken away and THAT’S what God’s going to put His approval on. ‘According to that he hath done,' is a reference to the edification that results in godliness in your inner man, whether it be good or bad.”