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All right, Displaying His Glory. Let's go to Ephesians. We're really going to be working from 2nd Thessalonians, but let's at least get the framework here in Ephesians 2, Ephesians 2. Let's pick it up at verse 4. Ephesians 2, 4.

But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace ye are saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And the question is why? That's really what we're going to look at today. Why does God provide such an exorbitant, outstanding, amazing salvation to a bunch of people who in the first three verses were ungodly sinners on enemy status before him, powerless to do anything on their own? And that's really the question, you know, he says he made us alive.

Well, he could have stopped there. That would have been great, right? That would have been a great salvation. He made us alive, maybe put us back in the garden, gave us another chance. He could have stopped there, but he didn't.

He raised us up and he didn't even stop there. He seated us together with Christ in the heavenlies. What an exorbitant, amazing salvation. And the question is, by the time you get to the end of verse 6, is why? Why did he go to all that length to provide such an amazing salvation to people who didn't deserve it and actually deserved his wrath and judgment?

Why did he do that? And the answer is, of course, in verse seven. And that's what we're springing off this week, Ephesians 2, 7, that. Notice the that there. It's so that.

Here's the purpose. The purpose of this exorbitant salvation is that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. That's the end goal. The end goal is he made of us of the miry clay of fallen humanity, dead in the sphere of sin and totally unacceptable to God and rebellion against God, enemies of God, following the course of this world under the rule of Satan and. And he took us and created us anew in Christ Jesus so that we could display his glory and not just display his glory.

Notice the superlatives in this verse, verse 7. To display the exceeding riches of his grace, the exceeding greatness of the glory of his grace. If we pull in the phrase from chapter one, so this displaying of his glory, we're going to take a look at that this morning. His new group of redeemed humanity is the Body of Christ. That's us in Christ.

He creates this new group of redeemed humanity. He was created to especially display, to be the showcase of his glory. And the question is, how does he do that? What's going on when he does that? And we started to look at that last week in the first ten verses of 2nd Thessalonians 1.

Today we're going to look at just the final two or three verses. Pick it up at the three verses of 2 Thessalonians 2. But he seated us together with him in the heavenlies to make us the showcase of his glory. The displayers, as we see, that's why I entitled this week the Displayers of His Glory. Look at chapter one while we're still here.

In Ephesians, we can look at what he created us to do. Chapter one, verse six. To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved. Look at verse 12, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in him. Look at verse 14, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory.

All of this, all that he's accomplished. The reason why this is such an exorbitant, outstanding, amazing salvation is because he wanted to create a new group of redeemed humanity who could be to the praise of his glory, especially in the heavenly realm. And that's what we're going to look at. We won't turn to second Thessalonians right now, but while we're here. And we'll read one more verse in Ephesians 1 and Ephesians 1 and short.

When someone asks for all eternity, notice in chapter two, verse seven, it's the ages to come, for all time and eternity. When someone comes and says, how great is your grace, how great is your glory, how great is your mercy, he'll point over, well, maybe I should point this way at us, at us in Christ. And he'll say, look, that's the exceeding riches of my glorious grace. And so we have that purpose, we have that privilege to be participating in that. What I want to look at now as we go to second Thessalonians.

Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. We got to look one more verse in Ephesians 1. Let's just finish so we don't have to turn back again. Ephesians 1:10. When that word doing that, Ephesians 1:10.

That in the dispensation of the fullness of times. He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and that which are on earth, even in Him. He's going to recreate the whole creation centered in his Son, unto his glory, through two groups of redeemed humanity. One, the redeemed nation of Israel to be the showcase of his glory on earth, and the Body of Christ to be the showcase of his glory in the heavenlies. And then you have a perfect salvation, a perfect redemption, not only of humanity, but of the whole creation.

Now, if you don't rightly divide the Scriptures and you don't understand, there's two peoples, two programs, two purposes that are going to be ultimately filled in this one purpose of bringing the whole creation together, then you're only going to have a half of restoration of Christian of creation. You're only going to have half filled bottle. But Paul and God want to give us a fully filled bottle. And we'll see that as we go to second Thessalonians. So let's go there now.

Second Thessalonians, I'm not going to go through. We actually all we need is verses 10 to 12 here. But last week I thought we'd use it as an opportunity to look at the previous part of the chapter and see for a passage that probably not a lot of people have really looked at very carefully. How when we just understand some of the basics of right division, when we understand the context of Paul's epistles versus the context of the non Pauline Scriptures, when we have that firmly in ground, we can open up a passage and just understand it. We might not understand every detail or every nuance or how it all is going to play out in the end, but we'll have a basic understanding.

We won't get thrown off course wondering about it. And the Thessalonians were being thrown off course. Someone was coming in and telling them to wrongly divide the Scriptures. They were suggesting to them, the Thessalonians, that they were going through this severe persecution and trials and tribulations because the day of the Lord had started, the day of the Lord's wrath and judgment. And Paul is going to write this letter and he's going to explain to them that they are not.

The day of the Lord's wrath and judgment belongs to God's prophetic program with the nation of Israel to restore his glory on earth. But they're not in that program. They're in his mystery program for the Body of Christ who restore his glory in the heavenlies. And if you mix those two things up, you're going to be all mixed up. All you got to do is go to almost any other church on any other street corner in America or the world that goes by the Christian name.

You'll see they all say something different. They're all fighting each other because there's no unity. And it's because they don't rightly divide. They don't put the different Scriptures in their different contexts. And so he's going to explain to them.

He's going to return them to their hope. And so in second Thessalonians 1:10, we're going to see the ultimate purpose for the Body of Christ. In that day, the Lord Jesus Christ will be glorified in them, which will cause all believers from that. From that age on to marvel. He's going to give them back in chapter in, really from verse five on, but we're going to focus on verses 10 to 12.

He's going to give them back their hope. He's going to establish them in their hope. Notice what it says here. Go to verse 3, 2nd Thessalonians 1:3. And you see, when you read this passage, if you're really familiar with the scriptures, you'll be kind of on the edge of your chair.

Because he doesn't say something that he should say. Look at verse three. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet because of your faith growing, your faith growing exceedingly. And the charity, the love, agape, love of every one of you, one toward another, each other aboundeth. And then, see, I didn't see anyone on the edge of their seat.

What should have been. The next word begins with an H and four letters. Faith, love. Thank you. Faith, love and hope.

Where's the hope? Where did the hope go? He talks about their hope in his first letter. He talks about their faith, love and hope. But now we get about a year later, and all he mentions is their faith and love, growing in faith and abounding in love, hope.

And that's what he's going to give in the rest of chapter one here. He's going to restore them to their hope. And that's what we want to focus on that today. He wants to make us the showcase of his glory, how he reclaimed humanity unto himself. You know, it's an impossible thing for us.

That's why Ephesians 2 says it's by grace, through faith. But it's not impossible for God. And he creates us anew. His workmanship. And so let's just begin at verse 10 here and we're going to come along through this.

He's just told them just to give you background, I'm going to go through the verses. They're being troubled now in the dispensation of Grace. They're the normal troubles of serving God in an enemy world in rebellion against God. They're not because of the day of the Lord's wrath and judgment. And he destroys what the false teachers are saying in the second verse.

Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So let me ask you this, here's one of these trick questions. It's like that trick question, who's buried in Grant's tomb? We all know who's buried in Grant's tomb. Well, here's another trick question.

Here's another trick question. What is God dispensing in the day of the Lord's wrath and judgment?

Wrath and judgment. What's Paul say? God's dispensing in chapter one here and in all the beginning verses of all his epistles. God is now dispensing grace and peace to an enemy world. Now is the day of salvation.

He's letting the enemy world go on. Now, this going on for a little while has been 2000 years so that he could offer grace and peace to his enemies, so that he could save his enemies. When he restarts his prophetic home with Israel and begins that day of the Lord's wrath and and judgment, he's not going to be dispensing his grace and peace anymore to an enemy world. He's going to be dispensing his wrath and judgment to an enemy world. This is the day of salvation, the day of amnesty.

This is the opportunity to escape the coming wrath. This is the opportunity to be saved from the coming wrath. And he tells the first Thessalonians that in chapter 1, verse 10 been saved from the coming wrath. And of course we're saved through the coming wrath as members of the Body of Christ through that pre wrath rapture, catching up into the air with Christ. He's going to remove his ambassadors, the Body of Christ, seat them in their heavenly positions, and then he's going to restart his earthly program and his prophetic program with the nation of Israel, the day of the Lord's wrath and judgment.

So once you have that basic understanding, he go comes along, says, so now the people, now the Thessalonians are being troubled by troublers. But he said in that day they're going to be at peace. We're all going to be at peace and the troublers are going to be troubled at the Revelation of Christ. When everything is revealed, everything is manifested. He's going to come back in vengeance and he's going to destroy his enemies.

See, that's not what he's doing today. Today he came back, raised up Paul to offer to save his enemies when he restarts the day of the Lord, his prophetic program, the day of the Lord's wrath. He's going to come back fully manifest and reveal himself completely in full, open up everything, and he's going to deliver vengeance, it says, to his enemies. And they're going to be to their destruction. They're going to be banished from the presence of God and excluded from the powerful restoration of creation unto his glory.

So now when we get to verse 10 with, with this in mind. Now if the hell part, Paul doesn't use that word, but we can think of the hell part as being banished from God and excluded from the power of his glory, excluded from participating in his glorious restoration of creation. If that's the hell part, what's our part? And that's where we pick it up here in verse 10, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints. We're going to be at rest with Paul in the presence of the Lord, participants in his glory.

The exact opposite of what the troublers are going to be. The troublers of the Thessalonians are going to be troubled in that day. And the ones who are troubled, the Body of Christ in that day is going to be at rest in the presence of the Lord as major participants in his glory, reestablishing his glory in creation, especially the heavenly realm. And it says, verse 10, When he shall come to be glorified in his saints. Isn't that an amazing thing?

We normally think of us in Christ, and that's very true. Ephesians talks about that. But here he's going a step further. Christ is glorified in us. That's what I use by that explanation, where if someone comes up to him in eternity, future and says, how much grace?

What's the limits of your grace? They're going to point at us. In Christ, it's a limitless grace that he poured out on his enemies. It's an amazing thing. And in 1 Thessalonians 1:10, he's going to be glorified in his saints, it says, and to be admired in all them that believed.

So he's going to be glorified in the saints. The saints, I would suggest of all time and eternity. He's going to be glorified in the saints, the believing Israel, restored nation of Israel and the earthly realm unto his glory. He's going to be glorified in the Body of Christ, in the heavenly realm. And there and the whole creation then is going to be amazed.

It's going to marvel redeemed Israel on the earthly realm, Body of Christ in the heavenly realm, and he will be wondrously marveled. Now you realize that's another one of those superlatives that's like it's so exceedingly great and marvelous, there's almost not a word to describe it in human words to describe it. He'll be marveled in all them that believe. The redeemed nation of Israel will be in the restored earthly realm. And we'll marvel at Christ restored that Christ restored his glory in the heavenly realm through another group of redeemed humanity, the Body of Christ.

Do you realize how marvelous that is going to be? The nation of Israel down here is going to be restored, displaying God's glory in the earthly realm. We looked at Isaiah 60 as a good place, if you just want to get a summary of that. Displaying God's glory in the earthly realm. And they're going to.

When Christ appears, he's going to open up everything, reveal everything, manifest everything. And the nation of Israel, believing Israel and the believing world is going to look up in the heavenly realm and they're going to see this amazing, marvelous thing God did. He didn't restore the heavenly realm through the good angels, at least not in fully through the good angels. He restored his glory in the heavenlies through a group of redeemed humanity, a bunch of ungodly sinners on enemy status before him, idol worshiping Gentiles. And that's what he's going to put on display.

It's an amazing, amazing thing. And at least the more I think of it, I don't know, I can't read hearts, but hopefully in your hearts, see this whole perspective should change your life, should change everything about everything about every aspect of life, everything. We're doing the amazing thing when he reveals everything there we're going to be displaying his glory. And he says here in verse 10, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints. That fact alone, that he could be glorified in us.

I can understand us being glorified in Him. He's God, but him being glorified in us because we're the reflectors, the displayers, the radiators of the glory of his grace. And the whole new creation will marvel at how he restored the creation unto his glory in his Son, centered in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, through two groups of in Christ redeemed humanity, the nation of Israel on earth, the Body of Christ in the heavenlies. And then like, you know, like a clock, when you open the. You know, when you look at a clock on the outside, you just see this beautiful dial, and it tells the time.

Well, you open the COVID and what do you see? You see these gears rotating. And if you open when this happens, when you open the COVID of the universe, the clock of the universe, you'll see two wheels running. The heavenly realm and the Body of Christ, the earthly realm and the nation of it. They'll be imperfectly synchronized, keep perfect time.

God will close the COVID and the whole universe will be operating in accord with his plan and purpose. And the whole creation is going to marvel. The nation of Israel will marvel at how God redeemed the heavenly realm. The Body of Christ will look down and marvel at how God reclaimed and restored his glory in the earthly realm. And of course, ultimately he will fulfill Ephesians 1:10.

And really the key thing here is that he's restoring their hope. So that's what sets the thing for this whole book, this whole letter. They're growing in faith and they're abounding in love, but there's missing something about hope. They're losing the sight of their hope.

There was an example of this in 1 Thessalonians in his previous letter. They weren't clear about the hope of the Rapture. See, there's a couple different hopes. There's. There's the general hope of this mystery program with the Body of Christ.

That's what Ephesians talks about. The hope of your calling, the hope as members of the Body of Christ in his mystery program, as revealed through the mystery, is the riches of his glory. Now, through this mystery to the Gentiles. See, the Gentiles never had a hope of their own before. They could participate in Israel's hope.

But now Israel has stumbled and fallen. So now they were doubly hopeless. They not only didn't have a hope of their own, they couldn't even participate indirectly in Israel's hope. And then God raised up Paul and said, now you be my light unto the Gentiles. And he gave them hope by the hope of glory, the hope that they can be participants in his glory.

So we see various aspects of hope sometimes when we think of the hope, because it takes a Lot of people argue about it and stuff. We automatically maybe think of maybe what Titus says, the blessed hope, the appearing of Christ, the rapture event. And that's a blessed hope. I'm not diminishing that one bit. But that's not the only hope is like faith.

It's like a gemstone with multifacets. There's also the hope that we read about in Ephesians, the hope that God has now made accessible through the distinct apostleship of Paul and the Revelation of the mystery. And here in 2nd Thessalonians and 2nd Thessalonians we have another hope. We also have the hope after the Rapture of being participating in God's in Christ's, the Revelation of Christ, when he reveals himself, manifests himself, he's going to reveal us and manifest us there together with him. So we have that hope too.

We're hopeful. Romans 15 Keep your finger there. The only reason I'm going to it, because I'm only going to be there a second is because I'll probably quote it wrong. So I don't want to quote it wrong. So if you want to go there, go there.

But I'm just going to read this verse so I get it right, because this is in my whenever I'm feeling down or feeling not that great or feeling just bad, this is my verse. Now that's this week. Now next week is probably going to be in Philippians and then the week. But anyway, anyway, anyway, right now it's this verse, verse 13. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may look at that.

Abound in hope. Are the Thessalonians abounding in hope? No. Faith, love, silence, where's the hope? They began losing sight of their hope in the first letter when they lost sight of that rapture and how it would be carried out and who would be involved and all that, and that it would be pre wrath.

Now they're losing. A year has gone by. They should have been brought up to speed. They should have been participating in the bounding hope that comes from Paul's distinct apostleship. And instead they were being led astray by false teachers, confusing the two programs.

But when we are manifested together with him, the path in that day we're going to see that's the ultimate goal here, verse 10. When he shall come to be glorified in his saints. That's what they have to look forward to. Yes. Now people don't see the glory in these saints.

They're persecuted, they're the lowest thing on earth. What did Paul say? He's like the castaway stuff of the earthly realm. As the apostles, they're not seen for who they truly are, but they will. And he'll be glorified in them and admired in all them that believe.

And look at Paul's aside here. To the Thessalonians and to every believer ever since the Thessalonians, because our Paul's testimony among you was believed. See, that separates the ones who are going to go into the day of the Lord's wrath and the ones who aren't, the ones who believe are going to be removed through that rapture event, the catching away into the air to be with Christ forevermore. Comfort yourselves with these words. The unbeliever, their troublers, the persecutors are going to go into that day of the Lord and then God's going to change from dispensing his grace and peace to an enemy world, to dispensing his wrath and judgment to an enemy world.

But that's where they're going to be. The ones who are the unbelievers, the ones who have, reject, don't know God because they've rejected Paul's gospel and now persecuting the believers or the members of the Body of Christ, they're going to be banished from God's presence and excluded from the restoration of creation unto his glory and participation in that. But the Thessalonians now suffering under severe persecution and every believer as a member of the Body of Christ ever since, in the future, they're going to participate. They're going to be in the everlasting presence of God and major participants in his glory. They're going to be participants in that, be the reflectors and displayers of that.

And so that could be my most favorite verse now, five minutes ago, Romans 15:13. But that might be my favorite verse right now. So let's go on and notice it's in that day. See, he's still looking verses 1 through 10. He's looking to the future.

He's restoring their hope, confident expectation in the future. But now, what about now? Is that just how often does Christianity teach these things? Well, we'll know what God's doing. We'll figure out all the things we think he's doing wrong, and we'll see he's doing them right.

When we get to the by and by, we really can't know what God's doing today. You got to throw all that religious stuff away, theological stuff away. God says he not only wants us to know what he's doing today. He also wants us to participate in it. And if you don't know, you can't participate.

And that brings us to now, to verses 11 and 12, the path to that day, in that day, the path to that future hope at the Revelation of Christ, when all things will be revealed and he'll be revealed with his saints and be glorified in his saints. The whole world will see that the saints, the Body of Christ is in Christ and Christ is in them. The whole creation will look upon the Body of Christ in wonder at what Christ did with this group of ungodly sinners on enemy status before him and made him into the showcase of his glory. And he's going to say, that's all the future time. But, but now he switches in these last two very important verses and he's going to talk about that journey to the future, that future hope can be participated in right now.

And that's what we want to look at as we close this out and then get back to Ephesians.

For this reason. Notice it says in verse 11, wherefore also we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power. So we're going to just tear apart that verse a little bit. It's kind of a mouthful, but so first let's just think about the word wherefore, wherefore for this reason, keeping this in mind now, what did he just tell them? He gave them back their hope.

He buttressed up their hope. When the unbelieving enemy world has been dealt with by the Lord, at the Revelation of the Lord in vengeance, they will be at rest in the presence of the Lord, displaying his glory. There's their hope. That's the end of the story. But the question about what about now, in the midst of their sufferings.

And so wherefore we pray all always, always for you. And so Paul prays always for them that God would count them worthy of this calling. And so we can just kind of take a look at this. What is this calling? We read about this Ephesians 1:18, the hope of their calling.

Remember Ephesians, we had the same situation. When he writes all that mystery truth to the Colossians, he talks about their faith, faith, love and hope. When he writes a similar message to Ephesians. Okay, everyone get ready. Here's who's buried in Grant's tomb.

When he writes the same letter to Ephesians, he talks about their faith and their love, and there's no hope.

And that's the purpose of Ephesians. He restores their hope, the hope of his distinct apostleship and what's made possible through the Revelation of the mystery. And now he's going to talk about the hope of their calling. And it's so critical we understand this, the hope of our calling. This isn't God calling.

And he's going to call Bob, but he's not going to call sue unto individual salvation. The hope of his calling. What he's talking about there is that he, when we got saved, he had a calling he is calling us unto. In other words, when he this in Ephesians 1, he predetermined, predestinated our destinies in that all who believe aren't going to be placed into the nation of Israel in his prophetic program. They're going to be placed in the Body of Christ in his mystery program.

So that's the hope of the calling and to restore his glory in the heavenlies. So now if you mix up those two callings, you can't be counted worthy. I probably shouldn't tell this story, but I'm losing my inhibitions up here. After several years, I tell you all the dumb things I've done, but maybe you'll find this amusing. And that kind of brings out this point.

What does this mean to be count worthy? It doesn't have anything to do with their individual salvation. Those counted worthy are. He saves those and doesn't save those who aren't counted worthy. When I was a kid.

Now, all you probably know, I'm not really a sports person. And when I was a kid, my older brother, he was in all the sports. So one day I decided I would join up and go into Little League. Now, I probably never played or saw a baseball game before, but. But I couldn't believe what they wanted.

I got on the team. I guess all the kids get on the team. I don't know. I somehow got on the team. They made me a shortstop.

And you know what they told me to do? Isn't this the silliest thing they told me? First of all, they didn't only tell me to stand there and catch the ball when it was hit. They said run toward the ball and catch it. And I watched one of those balls go by at about 100 miles an hour and that hard little rock.

I'm like, you guys must really think I'm dumb. So the ball would come toward me and I'd run the other way. I'm like, how dumb do you think I am? There's no way. So I did that a couple times, and then I got benched.

But, you know, even when I was benched, I was still on the team. I just wasn't counted worthy. See, there's a difference here. Counted worthy means you're playing the game. Every single one who believes is placed in the Body of Christ, they're a member of the team.

But the question is, how do you be counted worthy? By playing the game. And that's really the key thing. I only lasted a couple more weeks there in my Little League, so now, you see, I'm going to be teased about this. I never joined Little League again.

I just got my book and climbed up in my tree for it and read. That was enough for me. All right. So you're probably wondering why I bring that up. Well, that's why I bring it up.

It's kind of similar with this Count worthy Paul prays that our God would count you worthy of this calling in the heavenlies by right now, serving him by walking in a way that's well placed, pleasing to him as his ambassadors on earth, on enemy territory. Suffering under the trials and coming under the curses of this sin, cursed world, yet at peace with God others. That's the message of reconciliation. God others. And boldly proclaiming the mystery of the Gospel.

The word of reconciliation. The mystery of the gospels from Ephesians 6. The word of reconciliation is from 2 Corinthians 5 is his ambassadors. See, now we do it under sufferings, then we'll do it at rest. And right now we're counted worthy as members of the Body of Christ.

When we rightly divide the Scriptures, when we understand the hope of our calling, the hope of our calling. We haven't been called to be a member of the nation of Israel. Not spiritual Israel, that's what theological systems say. New Israel, reworked Israel, none of that. We haven't been called into that prophetic program with the nation of Israel.

We've been called into his mystery program with the Body of Christ. And the minute you do it, the Thessalonians and mix those up, you're going to start losing your hope. Then you're going to start losing your love. Then eventually you're going to start losing the faith. And that's the downward spiral.

That was the worry in Ephesians. And we know not too long after he wrote Ephesians. Ephesians is an Asia Minor, what the Bible calls Asia, but it's that Turkey area, what we probably call Asia. Minor today, all had turned away from Paul. So that's the problem.

They lost their hope.

Next is the love, next is the faith. And then you get most of historic Christianity for the past 2000 years don't know what they're doing. They think they're involved in things they're not doing. The key to doing now, today, what we will all be doing in the future comes through rightly dividing the Scriptures, knowing what program we're in, of course, here, specifically for the Thessalonians, they needed to remember that the day of the Lord's wrath and judgment is part of his prophetic program with the nation of Israel. But they're members of his mystery program with the Body of Christ.

So they don't need to be thrown off course by that. All they need to do is rightly divide the Scriptures, understand the Scriptures in the context in which they're worthy, in which they were written. If they're going to be counted worthy, they need to rightly divide the Scriptures, operate in accord with it and recognize these things. So let's go back to verse 11. Now, wherefore also we pray always for you.

So this is Paul. Paul's constant prayer is that God would count them worthy. Not just members of the team, but actually members playing the game. Not that God's work is a game, but you get the idea. I'm drawing an analogy to the Little League thing.

Game playing the game.

In order to do that, you have to know the hope of your calling. You have to know what God's called you unto. Now, let's take my Little League thing again. Let's say I joined the Little League team, but I really wanted to play football. So I go out in the field and I've got a football and I'm tossing it around.

See, that's what is. When you mix the programs, when you mix everything up, that's what historic Christianity has done. They take God's prophetic program with Israel, bring it into the mystery program, and it's like playing football on a baseball field. You can't really do it, and then you won't be counted worthy. You'll be pulled.

If you start playing football, I can guarantee you. Well, I guess I can't guarantee you, but I'm pretty sure if you started throwing a football around or a basketball round on a baseball field when you're supposed to be playing baseball, you'd be pulled out pretty quick. You'd probably be sent to the hospital, maybe. Maybe you got heat stroke or something, and maybe that's what some Members of historic Christianity should have had happen to them, take them to the hospital for heat stroke. But you can't mix these two programs together.

If you do, you lose your hope, then you'll lose the love, then you'll lose the faith. And they needed to operate in accord with the calling. You have to know what you're called to. You have to know what your purpose is, what God called you to operate. You can't just go pick and choose what you want.

You have to do in accord with his calling. So they were going to operate in accord with their calling. And now we see how this would happen. How can it happen? And that's where we're going to kind of bring out now we can begin doing right now what we're all going to be.

We can begin doing right now imperfectly what we'll be doing perfectly in the future, being participants in his glory. Now we do it imperfectly and maybe sporadically, but then we will do it perfectly and forevermore. We'll have a new resurrection, body, glorified body like unto his, where sin doesn't dwell and there's no flesh in the negative sense, sinful flesh. And the question is, how do we begin doing this now? We don't have to wait to the future.

We can begin doing this right now. God would count you worthy of this calling. So here we have. He's already told them in the verses before this, they're growing in faith. That's good.

They're abounding in love. That's very good. And now he's just reestablished, grounded them in their hope. When everything's said and done, they're going to be at rest in the presence of the Lord forevermore, major participants in the display of his glory. And now they have their faith, love and hope back.

And now he tells them now, once that's in place, once you know your calling, what God has called you unto, he hasn't called you to play baseball, he's called you to play football. Well, in this case, he's called, called you to be members of his mystery program, not his prophetic program with Israel. Once you understand your Koba, you can operate according to the hope of your calling. And growing in faith, abounding in love, strengthened and established in hope. And then here we get this amazing thing, God, that God would count you worthy.

We already talked about that one. And God would fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power. Once that's in place, once you're operating in accord with the hope of your calling. Once you understand what God's doing today and what he's involved you in doing, once you're growing in faith, abounding in love, secured and grounded, founded in the hope. God powerfully.

Look at that N word there. With power. That applies to everything he's saying here. God powerfully works in, count you worthy as members of the game now and powerfully fulfills, accomplishes, brings to completion all the good pleasure of his goodness for us. And the work through the powerfully fulfill, accomplish, complete the work of faith.

Every work that comes from faith, powerfully. But you have to know your calling. You have to be grounded. You have to be growing in faith, abounding in love, grounded in hope. Go back to keep your finger here, but go back.

We want to look at some of these aspects where it talks about the good pleasure of his goodness, God fulfilling. Notice it's not us doing it, it's him doing it. We're like living tools. He works in and through us to accomplish this. God.

When we're growing in faith, abounding in love, grounded in hope, God faithfully and powerfully works in and through us, bringing about all the good things he has in his goodness for us and fulfilling every work that comes from faith. And he does it powerfully. So let's just look at some of these things. This good concept, the good of his goodness for the Body of Christ and their every work of faith that he's planned for them. If the goodness is what he's planned and purpose for them.

We could go back. We could look at Ephesians. Ephesians 1. Keep your finger here. Ephesians 1.

Everyone remembers we're really in Ephesians, right? We've been out a couple weeks, but looking at the glory concept. But Ephesians 1, look at verse 5. We've already talked about the predestination and so forth by Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of his will. Does that sound like II Thessalonians he's going to fulfill when we're operating in accord with the hope of his calling, growing in faith, abounding in love.

God powerfully works in and through us to fulfill all the good plans and purposes he has for us in Christ. Go down to verse nine. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Himself. Everything is unto his good pleasure. When he writes to the Thessalonians and He says there that God will fulfill all the good things that he has for us in his goodness, he's Talking about fulfilling his mystery program with the Body of Christ to re establish his glory in the heavenlies in and through us.

In and through us. And he's going to recreate the universe centered in His Son through us. This is the believer's part. Let's go back to 2 Thessalonians. Let's look at the next kind of thought here.

So if it's God powerfully working in and through us, what's our part? If it's not our power, our fleshly power, us doing it ourselves. And it's God's power. It has to be by what? By grace, through faith.

So look at the last part of this verse and the work of faith. Every work that comes from faith. Every work that comes from faith. The believer's part in this. We looked at this a couple weeks ago, so I'm not going to go over it again.

But the faith is like hope and it's multifaceted gemstone. It's our faith, our believing in the faith. Paul and grace, mystery, truth, which reveals the faith of Christ. His faithful work on the cross for enemies. And when we are operating according to that, we are equipped to be faithful and walk in a way that's well pleasing to him.

And that, you know, another word for that using from second Thessalonians, that's being counted worthy. When those things come into play. We're equipped to be faithful. And we're faithful. God is working in and through us.

And now we'll see in verse 12 what he's working in and through us to do. But we have the faith concept. Everything is by grace through faith. Through faith. Remember in Romans 14, and we won't go back to this, this is what's very hard for the flesh, unbeliever, flesh especially to understand is that the unbeliever can't do anything that pleases God.

That's why Paul says in Romans 5, they're powerless. They have no power to even get one nanometer closer to God. They have no power to improve their status before God whatsoever. He says in Romans 14 that anything done out of faith is sin. I know.

That shocks our flesh, right? It might be good by the world's standards. It might be good by your family standards and your place of business standards. It might be a good thing to do in a worldly system. I'd rather live next door to a moral unbeliever than.

Than an immoral believer. But that's not what this is referring to. This is referring to proving our status before God. The only thing that God accepts. Are things motivated to come from faith and are motivated by the love of God at the cross of Christ wherein He died for us?

If that's the only thing God accepts, works motivated by the love of God at the cross of Christ where He died for ungodly sinners on enemy status before Him. Those works can only be done by a believer. And they're really not done by the believer. They're done by God working in and through the believer. An unbeliever and a believer can do the same work.

They can do exactly the same way. Maybe they work in a food pantry. The believer can be doing the same, doling out the same lops of food that the unbeliever is doling out. The question is, what God looks at is a motivation. Is it motivated by the love of God at the cross of Christ received in faith, or is it motivated out of a selfish interest to improve our status before God through our works?

I worked with a woman. That was her brag. She didn't need Christ because she gave up her time on Saturday mornings to work in the food pantry. But see, she's missing the point. Anything done through the flesh, Romans 8 is rejected by God.

The only things God accepts are the works that are motivated by the love of God at the cross of Christ, received in faith and empowered by him working in and through us. Let me even say it more succinctly than that. The only works God accepts are the works he does through us. And I know that's a shock to the fleshly thinking. Certainly we can do something that pleases God.

That's what religious systems are based on. Go through our rite, go through our ritual, give enough money, attend often enough, do all these things and you'll improve your status before God. And who knows, maybe by the end of your life you'll close enough to the gates of heaven that when you die, God will just reach out and grab you by the hair and pull you in. But you never know. Maybe he won't see.

That's just religious nonsense. Get the rake, get the broom and get rid of it. This is all based on God working in and through us. And when we are operating according to the hope of our calling, growing in faith, abounding in love, love founded, grounded in hope. God powerfully works in and through us to fulfill all the good things he has for us in his goodness, all the good pleasure we read about in Ephesians, all the things he's done for us in his good pleasure, and fulfill every work that comes from faith Powerfully.

And that's playing the game. That's not only a member of the team, but playing the game counted worthy. And the next question is in verse 12 he tells us what when he's working in and through us, counting us worthy because we're not just members of the team, we're actually playing out in the field when we're doing that by growing in faith, abounding in love, grounded in hope, God currently right now, powerfully works in and through us to fulfill all the good things he has for us in his goodness and to fulfill and complete bring to completion. Every work comes out of faith powerfully. And what's the purpose?

This isn't to increase your glory, it's increase verse 12. Not so much increase, but display verse 12, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. So here we have this reason for all this and the point of this. He goes from their future hope, the future confidence, certainty of their hope. And now he says, but you don't have to wait for the future.

You can begin displaying the glory, participating in his glory right now. Now you'll display and participate in the midst of sufferings, serving God on enemy territory, on a sin cursed world. Then you'll display it in rest in the heavenly realm, in the presence of God forevermore. And this happens. God's powerfully glorify his name.

You know, name means everything that's true about someone that's in the old. And it's not. We don't really name kids name people that way now. But in the Bible they would name kids for certain reasons. And the name to glorify his name and is to bring out what's true of Jesus Christ and in us, the Body of Christ and us in Him.

See, notice in this passage, he's kind of reversed the normal way we think of these things. We usually think of us being in Him. We kind of can begin to understand that. But what Paul brings out in Colossians 1:27, and here is he's in us. Ephesians tells us he dwells in our hearts by faith.

There we come back to the faith thing again and we have all his goodness put on display through God powerfully working in and through us as members of the Body of Christ. And this goodness and work he powerfully accomplishes through believers right now begins to display the glory of Christ in us and us in Him. And that's what we're going to look at next week. We'll look at the fruit of the Spirit and look at some things like that. But when we display, when God is powerfully working in and through us, fulfilling all his good plans for us and his goodness, and bringing every work that comes from faith to completion, as we participate in that, we put on display God's glory, the riches of his grace.

He is gracious to us, the exceeding riches of his grace. That's what we read in Ephesians 2:7. When we display that riches, when we respond out of the riches of that grace, we display his grace, the riches of his mercy. We can begin to display the riches of his mercy and the riches of his long suffering and the riches of his forbearance and the riches of his power and glory. And all those things, we've gone through and listed them out several times.

But all this, we can begin doing that right now. And that's the challenge he has for the Thessalonians. But in order to do it right now, first of all, you have to be growing in faith, Pauline, grace, mystery, truth that will allow you to abound in love, faith toward God, love toward others. And that will come from a hope grounded in rightly dividing the Scriptures. We're part of God's mystery prom with the Body of Christ, not his prophetic promo with the nation of Israel.

And he's working in and through us to display all this. Everything apart from his good plan is relatively evil. Now, it might be good in the world and human standards, but by God, it's evil. And he's going to go with us into that future day when Christ will be fully and completely glorified in us and us in him, to the marveling amazement of creation. That's what we read up in verse 10.

And then, of course, Ephesians 1:10 will be fulfilled. And Paul says all this to buttress their hope. That's really the thing. That's the first thing to go when you start mixing up the two programs. The first.

The first thing to go is the hope. And that will destabilize you enough so you can't eventually be abounding in love, which eventually you won't be growing in faith. And it's like a slide and you start going down. They were growing in faith, which led to abounding love. But they were losing sight of their hope, the hope of their calling.

God didn't call them. I have to say this over because people, they think they've been called to someplace where they haven't. They think they've been called into God's prophetic room with the nation of Israel. And it's so obviously not true by even a simple scanning of the scriptures that then you have to develop theological systems, pay big brains, big bucks to come out, ways to twist everything around so it looks like you're in accord with God's word when you're really not. And so they come, well, we're the new Israel, we're the spiritual Israel, we're reworked Israel, rewarmed Israel, rehashed Israel.

Well, if you're Israel in any sense of the word, then you're going to be involved in the earthly program and expect physical blessings. So then that's going to be a little bit of a trauma because you're going to look back on 2000 years of Christian history and see that most Christians have been the poorest, most physically physical, blessing deprived group of people in the last 2000 years. So now if you're an honest person, see if you're not honest, especially if you live in a rich country like America where you get everything you want the minute you want it, if you live outside the last hundred years of American history, you might then be either dishonest and just pretend he's doing it, or you'll be honest. And if you're honest, you'll say, well, well, if God has promised physical blessings and most of historic Christianity in the world today and most of the 2000 years history hasn't even had any physical blessings, well then either God, you got to come to this point. And I had an unbeliever, I heard an unbeliever say this to someone who was claiming physical blessings from God when it turned out her ex employer was just saying sending him back pay.

And she was saying God sent her checks in the mail. And this unbeliever, he saw through it all. See, we think claiming God is doing something he's not doing brings glory to God, when in fact it just dishonors God. Because you know what that unbeliever said? First he said, well, let's see the return address on the envelope.

It better be from heaven. And then the second thing he said, and I'm just sitting in my cubicle, I was wondering if I should say something, but I figured, well, let this little drama play out. And the second thing he said, if your God has really promised to supply physical blessings to Christianity over the last 2000 years, he's failed miserably.

And that is either he's either therefore unpowerful, not powerful enough to fulfill his promises, or Worse yet, he's unfaithful to his promises.

You got to live in reality. We can pretend in the United States because we live in this bubble, the richest civilization in the history of the world. But if you even go outside North America and Western Europe and go to Africa and China and Vietnam. Did you read? I read about some missionaries that go to Brazil.

They get in these jungles, these people, they set up churches. These people have nothing. But you know what they do? They proclaim the word of God. What an embarrassment to us who have everything.

And we can't find really too much time for God. He's telling them we can now display his glory now. We don't have to wait to the future that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and ye in him, according to the grace, grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. And so abounding in love and bounding in growing in faith. And now he's reestablished them in their hope, given them their final destiny.

He gave them the rapture event in First Thessalonians. Now he's giving them the Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. After that, they're going to have a play a major role, while the enemies of God are going to be banished from his presence and excluded from the powerful recreation of the universe unto his glory. They are going to be in the presence of the Lord, Lord at rest, in the presence of the Lord. Major participants in the powerful display of his glory.

And they can begin doing it. We can all begin doing it right now. Right this very second. Right this very second, while believers will be at rest and reflecting. But we can do it now.

And I guess we'll stop there. I did have. This would be. Maybe you'd want to continue this. See, that's why I put.

So people say, why do you put so many slides, I mean, so many words on a slide? Well, because I can't narrow it down to one little point. I can't just say that. One little point. So what I'm hoping is that these slides, I kind of give a triple header.

I do this speaking to the group on Sundays and Thursdays. I include the slides that really bring out the main points. And then I usually write an article that I send out in the email. If you're not. If you want to be on the email list.

I send out an email after each session with usually an article that goes into much greater detail. So there's a little bit for everyone. If you just want to sit here and listen and get some of the points. Listen, if you want to use these slides slides in your own Bible study to go back and look at some of these high points, the major points I've been trying to make, you can do that. And then I also follow it up with an article that goes into even more detail of an aspect or two of this I was going to go through here.

And you know Emeril. Does everyone know Emeril the chef? What's his favorite line? Let's kick it up a notch. You know, forget the salt and pepper.

Let's add some cumin and coriander. So I was going to kick it up a notch, but I'm not going to have time to kick it up a notch. So you can kick it up a notch yourself. Maybe I'll even look at this next week. But it'd be good questions if we wanted to kick it up a notch.

Where does this good come from? Where does the power come from? And where does the hope come from? And we'll close with that. But the thing, major thing I want to leave us with here today, Ephesians 2:7.

That's where we started. You don't have to turn back there, but Ephesians 2:7 the purpose of this exorbitant salvation God has provided for us is so that he can make us into the showcase of his glory for all time and eternity. And it's not just a future thing. As we grow in faith, abound in love, are founded and grounded in the hope God powerfully works in through us to fulfill all his good plans for us and every work that comes from faith powerfully. And when we're participating in that, we're counted worthy.