God’s Sovereignty Part 13

Subject –The God Father, the administrator of the fullness of time in Christ

Text - Ephesians 1:10 “That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:”

When you read 10 commentaries and get 10 different reactions then you must sit, pray, and ask God for the actual thought of this scripture or His thought’s in writing the scripture to us. Sometimes different Pastor, churches, and readers will also have their thoughts about a passage, but again it is all about context, the context is the right answer. As I have spent many weeks and have written many articles in this passage, I believe I understand the thought and context in which God was talking about in this passage. Therefore, here is my thoughts on Verse 10. And this is a truly blessing of a scripture.

This is want this scripture tells me, “The Administrator or Distributor or the Controller of the fullness of time which is the preordained things being revealed in time according to the Father’s election, the Father will oversee the processing of theses fullness of time, gather all things given to Christ by the Father, the Father will gather them all in unison whether it things is in earth or heaven, it is all in Christ because Christ has earned His heritage.  

So here is how I came to this conclusion:

The word “dispensation” means - administration of a household of estate – but here it is the administration (or the management or oversight) of the fulness of times. I love this thought because what it truly is saying, God the Father Himself is the administrator of the fullness of time of all thing that were ordained or predestinated in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. Look at it this way, if someone passed away and left me to be the “administrator” of their property and goods I would be in charge (as the administrator) of distributing their goods and property. But you might ask how does this equate to “the fullness of time and of things in Jesus Christ”? Before the foundation of the world the Father gave Jesus Christ a heritage and the Father is going to make sure everything is fulfilled in Christ in the end, or after “all the fulness of times” has reached its end and has been fulfilled. Let me go farther in this explanation for you. Jesus Christ (the Father’s Son) has an inheritance given to Him before the foundation of the world. The Father through His power has pre-ordained or predestinated or set all things aside for Jesus Christ His Beloved Son. We (the believers) whom the Fathers elected as children are part of that inheritance, therefore the Father has given those elected and all things in heaven and earth to His Son as His heritage. In doing this the Father set predetermined times in the fulfilment of these different events in the Son’s inheritance. For example, the Father predetermined or ordained Jesus death, every detail was ordained of God, not one single detail was left to chance, not one. “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,” Galatians 4:4 When the predestinated time come to its fulfillment God sent His Son Jesus to be born of a woman, and Jesus was born the exact time that God had ordained it to be. Every detail of His birth was predestinated and executed or carried thru by the power of the Father. Therefore, Jesus Christ birth happened just as the Father wanted it to be as He chose, nothing left to chance The Father oversaw every detail. His life on earth and everything Jesus accomplished was ordained and executed in the exact timeframe the Father predetermined it to be because the Father oversaw it and executed His will. Jesus’s death was also, because His death had to be sufficient to the Father’s order of satisfaction for our sin debt. The Father did not leave this to man, God knowing the hearts of everyone involved elected each person to each event from the betrayal, to the arrest, to the judgments, to the execution of the beatings, to the carrying of the cross, to all actions on Calvary to His death, burial, and resurrection. Everything had to be pre-ordained and the “administrator” had to see it thru, it did not just happen, it was all done exactly as the Father ordained it and executed it. This is exactly what we have talked about in these studies, we have seen the predestination now we see the execution in the order ordained and overseen by God the Father as the administrator of His Will. The thought here is this, God ordained, predestinated, and executed every detail of everything in Christ. God left nothing to chance, God left nothing to man, or to anything in creation. Every detail and the execution of every detail The Father was the dispensation or administrator of the details and the execution of details. Nothing with God “just happens” God did not get “lucky” and it all worked out, God does not work that way. The planning and overseer and pushing all the buttons (so to speak) is God the Father.

If people would read and could understand the scriptures in their correctness, they would understand that the Father never depended on man for nothing. The Father controls people, and if He did not control the people there is a chance He could fail, and the Father cannot fail. Why if they had not carried through with the crucifixion, why if it was stopped, that is not the way our Father operates. There are so many details to Christ inheritance, so many working parts to the Fathers gift to Christ and every detail and working part must reach its preordained outcome in the exact working of the Father ordained timeframe. The only way it can is that the Father must be the Overseer and Administrator of His own will. Therefore, salvation is in totality of God the Trinity, no part of salvation is in man’s hands, none. God blessed the churches in allowing them to preach the gospel and God uses that gospel to save sinners. The gospel is a seed that only God can give life too. This is how God controls everything in Christ, The Father gives people parts to do, but the Father gives it all life. God cannot fail; therefore The Father controls the details of carrying to fulfillment of His own elected will. "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. 1 Corinthians 3:5 - 8  

God’s Sovereignty Part 12b

Subject –The Mystery of His (God’s) Will

Text - Ephesians 1:9 “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:”

What is God’s will for you? Last week we looked at God’s will in salvation, but God’s will for us does not end there. All Christians needs to remember that before the foundation of the world God knew all His will and His works. God said in Acts 15:18 “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.” Therefore, we must conclude everything that is God’s will in our life is ordained of God before the world was ever created. Not only everything in our life, but everything and I mean everything! Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Therefore, for this study we want to stay on the subject of works and actions of Christians. Most people, even most who call themselves Christian refute God as nothing, useless, and under the subjection of the creature, but they do not know God nor do they understand Gods workings. Take a look back at verse 5 in Chapter 1 of Ephesians “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,” Now ask yourself, what part does God play in your salvation and what part do you play, see it is all of God and by God thru Jesus His Christ. Nothing makes me angrier than a Preacher to say, “God can’t change your will” WHERE IN GOD’S WORD IS THAT IGNORANT STATEMENT? That is a statement from a person that has no idea who God is, they live in a fantasy world where their little god is begging them to make their choice, but this is certainly not the God of the bible. Read verse 5 and see for yourself and you must agree with me that it is an ignorant statement to say that God depends on us to change our will for Him. The Potter is waiting on the clay to decide what it wants to be. How could God predestinate anything if He did not already know the results? How could God know all His works before the foundation of the world if He had not PLANNED out in eternity past and EXACUTED that plan in time. God cannot fail nor can God lose anything He has planned. We also see that Jesus Christ will lose nothing that God the Father has given to Him. John 6:39 “And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.”

Now let us move on to God’s dealing in the believer’s life, which is more of God’s will for you. What is God’s will for you, it is whatever God predetermined it to be before the world began. If you are a Christian, then whatever you are as a Christian is what God ordained for you personally before the world began. God ordained the crucifixion of His beloved Son Jesus the Son of man before the world began, and it was carried out exactly as He foreordained.  Acts 2:23 “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:” Jesus entire earthly life was ordained of God, how many times did Jesus say He was sent to do His Fathers will and that not of Himself.  John 6:37 - 39 “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.” We are like Jesus, those of us who do for the Father, do it by the Fathers will, His ordained will that He purposed for us before the foundation of the world. Whatever in the church you are, God ordained it for you before the foundation of the world. This is exactly what God is talking about in Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works…” not just in salvation but as a Christian, church member, teacher, Minister, and as a Pastor. We are not self-built; God has made us what we are from top to bottom. God gave you an ability, what is your ability, and why are you not using your talent for God’s glory? Do you know how many “Christians” use the churches to start their professional music careers? They never return to the church to glorify the very God that gave them that gift. The church is not a springboard it is a place to worship and serve God on earth. How about Pastors, why does God set Pastors in a church, to be the overseer and under-shepherd of the Lord’s flock. God doesn’t teach you and cause you to be a great speaker for Him to advance your career for larger churches and more money. God’s gift to you is for the church you Pastor, not for moving on. I know there are Pastors that move on because God moves them, but a lot move on for greener pastures. Calling that move a blessing from God, but isn’t that like a church member getting a promotion that takes them out of church and calls it a blessing from God. Elder Kelley Hinson once advised me as I thought of leaving Texarkana to return to home for a church, Brother Kelley said, “you better have a good reason to leave where you at now before moving on” (paraphrased). God does not shop Pastors to greener pastures, being a Pastor is like being a member of a family, the leader of the family under-Christ, you better have God’s true approval before leaving. I am certainly not saying that all Pastors leave a church out-of-God’s will, but before leaving you better make sure it is God’s will for you. Christians, more so for Pastors, we need humility. In 1 Peter 5:5 God said “...Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble."  Christ Jesus is the greatest example of humility to our Father, but how humble was Paul, in all he did for God listen closely to his humble words in 1 Corinthians 15:10 - 11 "But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed." Paul could have walked around like he was greater than all others, look at what he accomplished, but Paul knew God’s graciousness in his life, and never forgot. Folks, none of us, not a one is infallible, not a one of us are self-made, not a one of us ought to think of our self as better than the other. God will use others to recognize His greatness in us, for example your church membership, you do not need to display it. You are what you are by God’s grace, do not try to flaunt it. Romans 12:3 “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” Our greatest gift from God is LOVE, if we cannot show love thru humility then we are not showing God’s grace. Our test of friendship and love is our show of God’s love in us, not our judging one another. We are loving one another as Christian’s not because of doctrine, but as God loves us by grace given to us in Jesus Christ and the salvation of us all. That is humility gifted by God. 1 John 2:10 “He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.” 1 John 3:17  “But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?”