Richard Morgan - Class 4 - Building Up the Body of Christ

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   This is day four of the 2021 Idlewild Bible School. Our first period teacher is Brother Richard Morgan. His general subject is Ephesians, the manifold wisdom of God. Today's topic is Building Up the Body of Christ.

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   Good morning, everyone. We're all doing well this morning. I had bacon and eggs and pancakes, so I'm doing really well. Oops, that's right in my face. All right, so if you want to open your Bibles, brothers and sisters, at Ephesians chapter 5, we're going to take most of our thoughts from what Paul talks about in chapter 4, about building up the body of Christ.

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   But there's this little section here, the first couple of verses of Ephesians chapter 5, where Paul sums up what he's been talking about in chapter 4 by saying in verse 1, Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. Now when you read that, brothers and sisters, you probably think, well, this is talking about God manifestation and that we need to develop the same character that God has.

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   And that, of course, is absolutely correct. That's what God wants us to do. He wants us to imitate him in that sense. But within the context of Ephesians, think about that. Imitating God. These are some of the phrases that we looked at in our first class. God has immeasurable greatness of power. Paul talks about the unsearchable riches of Christ.

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   The manifold wisdom of God. The fact that God has an eternal purpose. The love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. And we're meant to imitate that? I mean, how on earth are we meant to do this? How on earth are we meant to get in tune with somebody who has an eternal purpose? We finite, fallible human beings.

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   So how do we do this? Well, Paul gives us a clue in verse 2. We also talked about this in our first class. And walk in love as Christ loved us. Not about simply hearing about what God is like, which is the first half of Ephesians. It's about walking. It's about taking those steps forward and learning through the experiences of life.

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   What that love of God in Christ is all about. So God raises us as children, doesn't He? He gives us that instruction. And He puts us through that discipline that we might learn who He is. That we might learn to imitate Him. But how do we walk? What do we actually do? Where are we walking?

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   What is the direction? Well, what Paul says in Ephesians is that to help us appreciate who He is, and to help us imitate Him, He's given us a project. It's a building project. And I love this photo that we have on the screen here, which kind of illustrates what God is doing with us.

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   There's this little boy with his dad. And probably his dad is some sort of builder, and he makes big houses. But there's this little project that he's got his son involved in that he might learn about. Well, what do you do, Dad? Well, let's build a shed together. Let's do a little project so you might understand who I am.

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    Well, that's what God is doing with us. To appreciate that eternal purpose, God has given us a building project. And that's what we need to involve ourselves in, in our ecclesias, in our families, building one another up and learning about God. So with this in mind, let's come back to chapter 3 and have a look at a little word here that crops up a few times.

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    So in chapter 3, we read this again in our first class. Paul wants us, Paul wants us in verse 18, to be able to grasp, to be able to comprehend these things. To comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth. We're talking here about a building project. And there's a reason why in Scripture, when we go through our readings with the tabernacle and the temple and so forth, we read about all of these dimensions, how long things are, how high and so forth.

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    There's a reason behind that, that God's design is something that's important. God doesn't want to make things up. When you're building something, you need to know those dimensions. When you're building a house, you don't just start grabbing some bricks and putting them up and seeing what happens. You need to work off a design, an architect's drawing.

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    So we need to grasp what is the breadth, the length, the depth and height. To understand these things and then build according to those dimensions. And that is in verse 19, that we might know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. That you may be filled with all the fullness of God. And that's the end result of why we're involving ourselves in this building project.

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    That you and I, brothers and sisters, might be filled with all the fullness of God, this eternal God. That's an incredible thing. He talks again about this fullness over in chapter 4. So this is where he really gets into the idea of this building project. It says in verse 11 of chapter 4 that he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, the teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ.

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    That's what our positive religion should be all about, brothers and sisters. What can I do to build up my family, to build up my ecclesia? Until, verse 13, we all attain to the unity of the faith. So this is to fulfill that purpose of God that Paul expresses in chapter 1 is about unity.

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    And of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So there's that word again, fullness. So what is Paul talking about there when he mentions fullness a couple of times? He mentions it elsewhere in Ephesians as well. Well, I think this is to do with the building of God's house.

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    This is how John expresses it in his opening remarks of his dissertation on the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. In these very famous words, he says, In the beginning was the word, but that word became flesh. And that's what Ephesians is all about, isn't it, brothers and sisters? In the beginning, in the first three chapters of Ephesians, Here is the word, here is the design, here is the pattern, here is the indication of God's purpose.

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    But it needs to become flesh. It's not just about Bible study. It's about living. It's about walking. It's about building. It's about doing. And we see the ultimate example of that in our Lord Jesus Christ. That word became living and active in him. And that word being active dwelt among us. In some very old versions, English versions, that word dwelt is translated as tabernacled.

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    In fact, the Greek word dwelt there is a play on words with the Hebrew word for the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God. So Jesus is the embodiment of the house of God, the tabernacle. And then it says, We have seen his glory, glorious of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

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    And that's what I think Paul is talking about in Ephesians. That's what we're aiming for, brothers and sisters. We're not aiming just to be full of the knowledge of who God is. We want to be full of the character of God as our Lord Jesus Christ was. He was full of grace and truth.

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    So it's interesting. When you look at the tabernacle chapters in the Old Testament, what was the end result of that building project? Well, right at the end of Exodus chapter 40, when Moses finished the work, it says, The cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

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    There's the fullness. And it's repeated in verse 35. The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Now what does that remind you of? Where's the Bible echo there? Where else do we learn about being filled with the glory of God? Of course, I got on the screen there, the Bible echoed with one of the most famous verses in Scripture, a verse that we use to express our understanding of the finality of God's purpose, that He wants to fill this earth with His glory.

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    So that's God's eternal purpose, to fill this earth with His glory, to fill this earth with people who have that character of goodness and truth, or grace and truth. And for us to understand that, God has given us this building project. As He gave them in the Old Testament, this project to build the tabernacle, to be filled with God's glory, and in the process of looking at the design, gathering the materials, putting the things together, and seeing the finality of that building, and understanding what all the various items of furniture represented, in the process of doing that, they would learn about who God is, and His building project.

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    So what we're going to do then, brothers and sisters, is have a look at some of these connections between this building project and God's purpose, and see some of the characteristics that God wants to see in us as builders.

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    Now, we talked here about grace and truth. Remember that verse in John. John summarizes the glory of God as being full of grace and truth. Now, interestingly, when we come to Ephesians, this is another way in which we can look at that overall structure of the book. This book of two halves. The presiding principle in the first half of Ephesians, the first three chapters, is what Christians have been talking about this week, which is grace.

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    And the overall theme of the second half of Ephesians is truth. These are the two big words that really summarize what Paul is talking about. That we are recipients of God's grace, but grace is not a passive thing that we just sit back and think, isn't God gracious to me? It's something that then turns into action in the form of everything that truth represents.

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    That, in a nutshell, is what Paul is talking about in Ephesians. Now, you'll be able to see on the bottom of the screen there that when we're talking about a building project, I look at grace here in Ephesians as God giving us those riches. Remember, those unsearchable riches. The riches of His kindness and grace.

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    That's the kind of language Paul uses in the first half of Ephesians. And as far as the building project is concerned, God has given to us the resources that we need to build up the body of Christ. Whether that's our time, our abilities, our opportunities, the people in our lives that work with us, all of these resources is the grace that God has given to us, the riches of Christ.

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    Christ. Then in the second half, the meaning of truth, I think, is really, really important. We often say that we are in the truth. And sometimes we can fall into the trap of thinking that being in the truth means that we are sent to a list of true statements. But because I agree with the statements in the Birmingham Amendment Statement of Faith, that means I am in the truth.

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    But scripturally speaking, brothers and sisters, truth is much richer, much deeper than that. Truth really is about being faithful to what God says. God isn't just looking for people who believe true things. God is looking for truthful people. People of integrity. People who take what God says and says, yes, I agree with that and I trust that it is right.

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    And because I trust that it is right, I am going to pattern my life on that. And I am going to be faithful to the pattern. And that's what the second half of Ephesians is all about. When we walk, when we build, we don't make it up as we go along. We take what we've learned from the grace of God and we turn that into action and we are faithful to what God has said.

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    And what we're going to see later on, brothers and sisters, is that this is the core character of God, His faithfulness. And so by going through this process, God is teaching us who He is, that He's a faithful God, a God of integrity, a God of truth. And there's another interesting way to look at this.

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    And you may have seen this before. Paul says in Ephesians 2, verse 8, for by grace you have been saved through faith. Faith, as we'll see in a moment, is firmly connected with the idea of truth. In fact, in the Old Testament, faith and truth are really the same word, or at least they come from the same root idea.

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    So being faithful is being true to God. Being a person of truth is being faithful to God. So they're firmly connected ideas. So another way we could divide up Ephesians is grace and faith. And often in Scripture, grace and faith are paired together, like in this verse in Ephesians 2, verse 8. Now, in the first century context, in the ancient Near East culture of Paul's day, if anyone ever mentioned grace and faith, they would think, oh, well, Paul's talking about what is called the patron-client relationship.

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    This is how society functioned in the first century. So if you wanted to start a building project, today, if you wanted to build something, you need to raise capital, you'd probably go to a bank and get a loan. Typically the way you would start off. That's not how things worked in the first century.

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    Back then, you would need to establish a relationship with a patron. And that patron would be a person of means. They would provide things like money and resources and access to clients, that sort of thing. And in return, you would become their client. And as their client, you would show allegiance to that patron.

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    But if you're starting a building business and that patron needs something built, that you, in allegiance, in loyalty to that patron, would provide the skills to be able to conduct that building project. And the way in which they summarized this relationship, what the patron provided was called charis, which is grace. And what the client gave in return was called or summarized by the word pistis, which is the word for faith.

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    So whenever you read about grace and faith, especially when they're put together in, think about this patron-client relationship. So this is the kind of relationship that God has with us. Now, it's only an analogy, of course. Ultimately, God is our Father and we are His children. But it's useful to think of God as our divine patron.

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    that He is the one who provides us with the resources. Resources that otherwise we wouldn't have. So God gives us the time, the opportunity. He develops our wisdom through the experiences He puts us through. That is God working His grace in our lives. And in return, we are to be faithful to Him.

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    We are to show allegiance to Him. We are to be loyal to Him. That's the patron-client relationship that we have with God. So the first half of Ephesians, God is our patron. This is what He has provided for us. Second half of Ephesians, we are His clients. We are to be faithful to Him.

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    Now, if you want to come back to chapter 1 of Ephesians, I want to develop this idea of what it means to be faithful.

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    What is the essence of what it means to be a person of truth? If you look at Ephesians chapter 1, there's this little phrase that keeps cropping up. And it's worthwhile to color it in if you want to do that because it really stands out. It's a little phrase, the first of which is found in verse 5.

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    It says, In love He predestined us for adoption of His Son through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will. This is what we talked about earlier this week, that what God does in developing His plan is not as if He is reactionary and makes things up as He goes along. Everything God does is according to that purpose that He had in the beginning, that seed that He planted in the ground.

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    This is part of the faithfulness of God. We can trust God because we know that He's going to be consistent, that He's going to be true to His purpose. He's not going to suddenly change His mind. Verse 7, In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.

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    Verse 9, Making known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose. Verse 11, In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined, according to the purpose of Him who works all things, according to the counsel of His will. You get the idea now? Everything God does is according to this purpose.

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    Now what Paul is alluding to, I think here, brothers and sisters, is this building project because that same language, that same Greek expression is used for the building of the tabernacle, the house of God. So, here on the screen in Acts chapter 7 and in Hebrews chapter 8, these are both references back to Exodus where Moses was instructed to make everything according to the pattern, the design.

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    So, chapter 8, for instance, in Hebrews, For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God saying, See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain. So, that is what God expects of us. That's what God is like. God is faithful to the design that He has given to us, that when we read the Scriptures, we know that God is going to be true to His Word.

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    And so, if we want to imitate God, we need to do things according to the pattern. Really, Ephesians is all about building the house of God. So, I promised earlier we'd only have one slide on structure. I lied. We have another one here, but it's, I think it's pretty neat to look at Ephesians in this way.

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    We start off with planning the house. Any good building project needs a plan. Then, in chapter 1 through 3, He talks about, well, what is the function of the house? The big why. Why do we build this house? He talks about the dimensions of the house at the end of chapter 3 and into chapter 4.

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    So, that's really the first half of Ephesians. This is what the house is going to look like. This is the function of the house. He's indicating what this house is all about. But then, it's no good just looking at the house and thinking, oh, what a wonderful house. I mean, if you want to build your own house and you just look at the architect's drawing and think, oh, that'll be nice to live in, but never actually build it.

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    What's the point? But we can be like that sometimes in the truth, brothers and sisters. We can concentrate so much on just sitting in rows, listening to classes, doing our Bible study, doing our Bible marking, that we forget that we need to build. So that's the second half of Ephesians, building the house.

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    Then he talks about what kind of behavior is expected in the house. What relationship should we be developing in the house? The fact that we need to defend the house, that famous last chapter, putting on the whole armor of God. Now, as we're talking about grace here, and I don't want to step on Christian's toes too much, but I'm sure he's been talking about how grace is not just this passive thing.

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    Grace is something that works. Grace is something that urges us to build. And that's the kind of spirit that Paul wants us to exhibit. And this is the example of Paul himself. So in chapter 3 and verse 1, look what he says here. For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you.

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    So the grace that was given to Paul wasn't about saving Paul per se, although that was part of the story. It was so that Paul might be empowered to use that grace to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, to tell them about the unsearchable riches of Christ. So grace is this active thing that God gives us the resources that we might then go and build.

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    Chapter 4, he says a similar thing. Having described his own example, chapter 4, verse 7, grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and gave gifts to men. Of course, the idea of grace is firmly connected with the idea of a gift.

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    And what Paul is talking about here in the context of the first century is the gifts of the Holy Spirit that were given that they might build the early ecclesia. he's also alluding back to the gifts that were given to those men who built the tabernacle. But the lesson still applies for us.

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    Even though we don't have the Holy Spirit gifts today, God still gives us those resources, that grace, that we might use that grace to build one another up. So verse 11, he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for the building up of the body of Christ.

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    So our lives and the truth, brothers and sisters, aren't about sitting back and thinking, what a wonderful God we have to save me from sin and death and I just sit and wait for the kingdom to come. What God is doing is he's empowering us to rise up and build.

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    Now I mentioned a couple of moments ago that one of the things that Paul is alluding to here are the gifts that were given to the men who built the tabernacle in the Old Testament. In fact, verse 8 there is a quotation from Psalm 68 which itself is a commentary on the Exodus and the time when they built the tabernacle.

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    So where he talks about the gifts given to men, it's a reference to this passage in Exodus chapter 31. So there were certain people back at the time of the building of the house of God who were given the resources, given the gifts, given the grace to be able to take the design that God had given to them and then construct the tabernacle according to the design.

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    So it says in verse 2 there of Exodus 31 I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri son of Hur of the tribe of Judah and I have filled him with the spirit of God with ability and intelligence with knowledge and all craftsmanship to devise artistic designs and so forth. So these were the gifts that were given.

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    And that's what Paul is talking about in Ephesians. If you look back at chapter 1 of Ephesians he uses similar sort of language. Chapter 1 verse 7 In him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will.

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    So really there that's the first three of these gifts that word ability means wisdom that word intelligence means understanding which is the idea behind the word insight in my version here and then we have knowledge so all of these things God has given to us that's part of the grace that God gives to us.

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    The first half of Ephesians the word the seed the description that's the knowledge that God gives us and he also provides us with the wisdom and the insight into his purpose through those experiences that he puts us through developing that deeper intimate knowledge and wisdom that we need to have in order to build the house of God.

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    Interestingly brothers and sisters these are the same characteristics that God used in his building project. So there's that verse on the right and I've marked in different colors there the exact same Hebrew words that are used by the wise man in Proverbs chapter 3 in describing the sort of characteristics God had in the beginning to begin his building project.

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    So the Lord by wisdom founded the earth by understanding he established the heavens by his knowledge the deeps broke up. So this is part of that imitating God that we develop those same core characteristics of wisdom knowledge and understanding to build the house of God. But the characteristic I find most interesting is this one here craftsmanship.

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    I saw a photo I didn't see it live the clock that was made for the for the raffle but I saw a picture of it and it's just one example of some of the amazing craftsmanship that we have in our midst. I have no talent whatsoever as far as that is concerned. I cannot draw I cannot paint I cannot sing I cannot dance but I'm absolutely astonished I'm amazed of the talents that many of you have and our kids have and the crafts that they come up with.

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    Things brothers and sisters that we can put to good effect in our ecclesias. So craftsmanship is a core characteristic that God wants to see in his children. And our God brothers and sisters is a creative God an artistic God. You look at the creation around us and it's beauty. It's remarkable when you look at it.

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    And God wants to see that same creativity in us albeit brothers and sisters a creativity and a craftsmanship that is true to the design that God has given to us. So with that in mind let's have a look at this from the angle of what Paul says what the wise man says in Proverbs.

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    So we refer to Proverbs 3 there but let's go to Proverbs chapter 8. This is a chapter we looked at again in our first class where we looked at what is that manifold wisdom of God. This is the chapter where wisdom describes herself. Verse 12 I wisdom dwell with prudence I find knowledge and discretion so wisdom is that umbrella term that describes all of these other things like insight and knowledge and discretion and understanding.

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    Wisdom we're told was there in the beginning verse 22 and 23 verse 29 from the foundation of the earth. This is that prime characteristic God had that manifold wisdom to be able to build this design or to weave that wonderful tapestry that defined eternal history in advance. wisdom also in chapter 9 verse 1 has built her house.

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    So we need that wisdom that insight that knowledge in order to build but there's one other verse here which gives us some insight into this manifold wisdom and it's in verse 30. Now if you are reading from the King James version I'm sorry you won't actually see this it's not translated very well at all so I recommend marking in your margin if you have a King James a better rendition of this particular word in verse 30.

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    So in the English standard version it says wisdom continues to talk here to describe herself and she says in verse 30 then I was beside God like a master workman or you might say a workwoman probably a better translation so wisdom is like a master workman so wisdom is firmly connected with this idea of craftsmanship and the Hebrew word this is part of the majesty of the word of God the Hebrew word that is used there by the wise man in Proverbs 8 is one of the most interesting words in the whole of scripture as far as I'm concerned it's this word here so master workman is translated from this word amon very very intriguing word that comes from a very intriguing root and there's a real richness to what it means to be a master workman or work woman so it means one who fashions artifacts as a master of the craft very literally what this word really means brothers and sisters is somebody who has the ability specifically to take a design and to be able to turn that design into what that design represents that's what it means scripturally speaking according to this word that's what that the essence of what that word means so it's not just somebody who is like you know Jackson Pollock who can throw paint at the wall and see how it turns out that's not what it means to be a master workman or an artist or a craftsman in terms of what scripture is telling us this artificer this this craftsman is someone who takes a design and can turn it into what that design is

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    meant to represent and that's the kind of characteristic that God is looking for in us now this might get a little bit technical but I want to give you a small Hebrew lesson here nearly every Hebrew word comes from a three letter root and this word is no different so on the screen here you can see this is the root word of our word down here amon it's the Hebrew word aman and the way Hebrew works is that these root words have some kind of very concrete meaning behind them a concrete meaning that gets transferred into the words that stem from it it's not like in Greek Greek tends to be more abstract in its meaning but Hebrew has very concrete root words and this lexicon says the basic root is firmness or certainty or the idea of support so when you ever read words that come from this particular root the essence of those words is to do with firmness certainty support that sort of idea should be in your head so when you think of a skilled workman think of somebody who is going to take that design and be absolutely true to it they're not going to veer from that design they're going to be faithful to it it's that kind of firmness or certainty we're talking about so other words that come from this root word aman are this word up here what do we normally call this word anyone know amen amen the word amen comes from this so when we say amen at the end of our prayers what in effect we're saying or what in effect we're we should

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    be thinking about is the faithfulness of God that when we pray to God we're praying to a God who will listen to our prayers and will do what is right that he is a God of consistency he is trustworthy he is reliable he is consistent other words that come from this the word believed in fact the very first occurrence of this word is when Abraham believed the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness so that core characteristic of God that fundamental rock-like faithfulness of Abraham is this idea of certainty support the word verified truth faithful truly all of these words come from this same root so that's what I said earlier that's why I said that to be a person of truth is the same as being a person of faith when we talk about being in the truth it means I am a faithful person I am somebody who is true to what God has said so here's an example of the concrete idea so Hezekiah here is talking about the doors of the temple and it talks here about the door posts or the pillars so that's the kind of imagery that we should have when we think about all the words that stem from this word aman that's the kind of character God is looking for in his house he wants pillars he wants people who hold the house up people who are firm people who are reliable people who have that rock like trustworthiness we're talking here brothers and sisters about people of integrity and when that integrity is lacking when that trust is broken of course that's one

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    of the main things that fractures relationships that destroys the purpose of God to unite all things so really what we're getting to here brothers sisters is the core of who God is his faithfulness and we need brothers and sisters to be people of integrity we need to have that firmness that people can rely on us that our young people that our children our members of our ecclesia can rely on us to be that kind of person so I just want to leave you with a couple of verses which maybe sum up what we've been saying here on the left there 1st Corinthians chapter 3 we are God's fellow workers God wants us to get involved in this eternal purpose to get us involved he's given us this smaller building project that we might appreciate him and he wants us to work with him as his children as his apprentices as he trains up to be able to finally be part of that eternal purpose and administer his faithfulness in the kingdom you are God's field God's building according to the grace of God given to me there it is again according to the grace of God given to me like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation and someone else is building upon it and then Hebrews chapter 11 when we think of faith brothers and sisters in this light faith is more than just having this belief that yes there is a God up there deeper it's richer than that by faith by this rock like consistency trustworthiness reliability Abraham obeyed when he went out to go to a place Abraham received the

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    pattern God's word came into his life and he says yes I'm going to model my life on that I'm going to be a person of faith and he went out and he did it he walked he went to a place that he was receiving his inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going but trusting in that design God had given to him by faith he went to live in a land of promise as in a foreign land living in tents with Isaac and Jacob heirs with him of the same promise for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God and then that verse we looked at earlier this week

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    to conceive even when she was past the age since she considered him faithful who had promised