GOD WAS DRIVEN
TO YOU BY HIS LOVE
October
12, 1997 am
MF Blume
Ephe 5:29-32 For no man ever
yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even
as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and
of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and
shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This
is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Let us begin at the beginning of Ephesians
Ephe 1:1-6 Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the
faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father,
and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise
of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us
accepted in the beloved.
Humanity seems to be created
with the need to seek after a missing piece.
- To be complete is to have
all we are intended to have.
- We have NEED.
- We are seemingly incomplete
at birth and desire to seek the fulfillment of that craving within to need.
Well, God is like that, too.
- He has a NEED.
- And it involves your need!
There is a NEED for all the world
and it can only be found through the Bible.
- All individual needs are
actually solved by this overall need being solved.
- And on the other hand,
if we fail to realize the overall need, we will never see our individual
needs solved.
NARROW, SHORT-RANGED VISION
So few Christians are even aware
of the overall NEED
- We tend to think of God
working in accordance with our individual needs.
- "What else is God for other
than to help me get through life?" many Christians think.
- Most people, including
the Christians, are caught up in the shallow areas of our needs and are not
aware that God has an overall PLAN which alone can solve those needs.
- Christians begin thinking,
"What is God's will for myself?"
- This is good and they seek
to obtain what they think they are intended to gain.
- But if you want to see
a better perspective on what God desires you to fulfill, this message will
provide you with what the Bible reveals as the overall and more important
Will of God.
- Many of you come to service
to seek God's will and upon knowing it, to then proceed to do it!
- That is what Church Service
is for!
- This message will help
you understand God's MAJOR PLAN, and HIS NEED for you to understand it so
that you can proceed to do your part.
BROADEN OUR SCOPE
To begin, let us try to broaden
our scope and go way back before time began and look at things the way God,
who lives for ever, sees it. When He plans something, He looks across thousands
and maybe millions of years.
THE SITUATION
Eph. 1:1-6 - God chose us in
Jesus Christ before the world began.
- Before He had to save men
from sin, before sin existed, God had us in mind.
- And He chooses people for
a PURPOSE.
- There is something He deems
necessary to be done.
- He had a plan.
- You were in that Plan.
- We were chosen to be holy
and without blame.
- The words "to the praise
of His glory" are mentioned three times in the first 14 verses of Ephesians
(1:6; 1:12; 1:14).
- This is what our part involves.
- He called us to the praise
of His glory.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
A hint of the meaning of this
is found in Jesus Christ:
John 2:11 This beginning of miracles
did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples
believed on him.
- Jesus Christ manifested
the glory of God in the world.
- God is a Spirit and wants
to influence the physical creation with His goodness and glory.
- And MANKIND is predominant
in that plan.
- He chose MANKIND to manifest
His glory.
- Called us to the praise
of HIS GLORY.
SOMETHING DROVE GOD'S HEART
- The description of the church
being in Christ before the world.
- Sounds identical to the
thought of Adam and Eve.
- We must look to Adam and
Eve for they were the beginnings of the Plan of God.
- Eve was made from a rib
taken out of Adam.
- So you could say she was
IN Adam before her existence as a woma.n
- She was in him in the form
of a rib.
Genesis 2:20-24 And Adam gave names to
all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but
for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the LORD God caused
a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs,
and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had
taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said,
This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father
and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
- Because the woman was made
from a RIB taken from inside man, the Bible says, that is the reason a man
shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall
become one flesh.
- Consider this reason for
the need for a man to leave his parents and marry a wife.
- Look at how the Bible says
the reason for a man leaving parents to be married is because woman was made
from a part of man's body.
- How is this so?
- The Bible says Adam looked
for a HELP, in the world.
- Since woman was made from
man's body, every man feels the instinct and the drive to leave his parents.
- The man cannot stay at
home.
- He is driven to COMPLETE
himself.
- He must leave home and
find his wife.
- Since woman's origin was
a part of man's body, man seeks woman and will not be complete until he finds
her and is one again.
- Every man alive misses
something from themselves.
- And woman is that missing
part.
- She completes him and is
his HELP.
Now, God made man in His image.
- He reflects God.
- He shows what God NEEDS.
- Something was in GOD before all time and that was THE CHURCH.
Ephe 1:4 According as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy
and without blame before him in love:
- It was destined to come
forth to fulfill GOD'S PLAN.
- Ever since the physical
world existed, God desired to MANIFEST HIS GLORY in it.
- He needed HELP since He
was a SPIRIT.
- So He came to earth as
a man, like Adam, to see that CHURCH come forth.
- He became SON OF GOD.
- And went to the cross.
Hebr 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the
author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand
of the throne of God.
- Jesus saw the JOY set before
Him and was willing to suffer.
- He was driven to leave
His Father and mother (more later).
- He was God in flesh.
- And GOD desired that part
of Him inside Him to come forth and to be His help to see His glory manifested.
- He became a HUMAN MAN
- It was an expression of
God.
- He physically revealed
what God needed spiritually.
- TO BE COMPLETE.
- Something Drove Him through
the cross.
- He left His FATHER and
His MOTHER to join to HIS WIFE.
- Genesis said that woman
is part of man, so man is driven to be complete, and therefore leaves his
parents for his wife.
- In order for Jesus to have
a wife, like Adam, He had to sleep and have material taken out of Him to make
that bride.
Matt 27:46 And about the ninth hour
Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is
to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
- As Son of God, Jesus left
HIS FATHER, God.
John 19:26-28 When Jesus therefore
saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto
his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold
thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.
After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the
scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.
- He left His mother!!
- He could not die on the
cross if the Father had not left from within Him, because the Father was His
life.
- His mother had to be separated
from Him, too, for He could not die with her there.
- His death was for the purpose
of gaining a WIFE.
- And after she left he said
"I THIRST".
- Like Adam, He laid down
His life and slept ("slept" only because he would rise again!) and from His
side would come LIFE for a wife
- Materials used to make
His bride.
- Blood to wash away our
sins and living water to make us rise from death.
John 19:34 But one of the soldiers
with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
- Interesting that Jesus said
I THIRST when He knew all things were accomplished and after His mother left.
- He said that once before.
John 4:7 There cometh a woman
of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
- He asked the woman of Samaria
for a drink.
- He came to her who had
longing needs for love.
- She was married five times
and living common law with another man.
- Jesus had a need, and so
did she.
- Last week we taught how
He said this when He symbolized explaining to a woman that she must have HIS
LIFE before she can be HIS NEED.
- She represents the WIFE
He came to find.
- She represents the church.
- He told her that He had
water to give her that would end her thirsts.
- WATER AND BLOOD came from
his side to redeem mankind.
- It symbolized HIS LIFE
- from within Him.
- The materials God would
make HIS BRIDE from.
- No one existed with His
life so he had to lay down his life and have something taken from him to make
a wife out of.
- But she also had water to
end his thirst.
- She represented what He
died for, the joy set before Him.
Ephe 5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives,
even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might
present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or
any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
- He would take a people out
from within himself, make them from the LIFE he had in Him, originate them
from the blood and water that came from his side, and cleanse a people from
their sins and present them to Himself as a BRIDE.
- HIS HELP!!!
1Joh 5:6 This is he that came
by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and
blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.
- If she would have HIS LIFE,
she would be satisfied.
- And He would DIE FOR HER.
- To give her His life He
would die for her.
- Through that death she
would find her reason for living.
Ephe 5:29-32 For no man ever yet hated
his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this
cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his
wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak
concerning Christ and the church.
- Here is Genesis again.
- A man cherishes his flesh.
- And that is like the Lord.
- That is why a man will
leave his parents and join to a wife.
- She is His flesh.
- Having her completes Him.
Ephe 3:19 And to know the love
of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness
of God.
- This is our purpose.
- We are to be filled with
all the fulness of God.
- He seeks to manifest Himself
through the world.
- And The Church is to be
filled with His Spirit.
- Adam KNEW Eve and she bore
him children.
- We need to KNOW JESUS and
be filled with all His fulness to fill the world with His goodness.
THE CHURCH is going to be the fullness of God
Ephe 1:22-23 And hath put all things
under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
- The love of a man for his
wife is a SYMBOL of the love of God for His means of expression to the world.
- The GROUP of the CHURCH
is the fulness.
- That is where he will put
everything of His goodness into so as to fill the world.
- All spiritual blessings
of God are in Christ.
- God chose us IN THERE before
all the world.
- There is only one place
to find all these blessings.
- Everything you lack is
in CHRIST.
John 10:27-29 My sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and
they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to
pluck them out of my Father's hand.
- He will let nothing harm
you.
Matt 28:20 Teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway,
even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Phil 4:19 But my God shall supply
all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
- We help Him fill the world
with His glory and get into His Plan and into His BODY, and he will bless
us with all spiritual blessings available, and meet every need and never leave
us alone.
- We will have someone who
loves us more than any human being could, and who will never leave us alone!
- We were IN HIM before the
world began.
- He is COMPLETE with us,
and since we were originally in Him, we are COMPLETE In HIM.
Colo 1:16-19 For by him were all things
created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all
things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and
by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who
is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might
have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness
dwell;
Colo 2:9-10 For in him dwelleth all
the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the
head of all principality and power:
- He was driven to die on
the cross.
- As a man he left His Father
and Mother to have a BRIDE.
- Only by seeing the BODY
of the Church as His JOY and then getting into that Church and getting involved
in that Church to help manifest His glory will we ever be complete.
- Only by seeing that the
blessings of all we need ARE ONLY IN THE BODY of the Church, for the sake
of His PLAN, will we realize we need to be saved and need to be in the CHURCH.
- Not any church, but one
that goes with all the BIBLE, and not just a part.
- BAPTISM IN JESUS' NAME
is taking on His NAME and JOINING HIM.
- SPIRIT BAPTISM is union
with HIS LIFE.
1Cor 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized
into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free;
and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
- We must see this truth that
we are all missing the part of completeness which is only found with God.
- Sinful living is a merry-go-round
getting nowhere.
- No fulfillment.
- Emptiness.
- World of temporary peace.
- Fake satisfaction.