Richard Morgan - Class 5 - The Multicolored Wisdom of God

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   This is day five of the 2021 Idyllwild Bible School. Our first period teacher is Brother Richard Morgan. His general subject is Ephesians, the manifold wisdom of God. Today's topic is the multicolored wisdom of God. Brother Richard.

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   Good morning, everyone. So yesterday in our class, we considered building up the body of Christ. And you can see there how the Apostle Paul mixes his metaphors together. And we know that throughout Scripture, the bride of Christ, the ecclesia, is both termed as a building and as a body. And this is not something unique to the Apostle Paul in Ephesians.

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   This is very fundamental. When Eve was created in the beginning, you remember that God made the woman out of the rib of Adam. The word made there really means to build. And the word rib is a word that's used almost exclusively elsewhere for the sides of the house of God, whether that's the tabernacle or the temple.

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   So right from the beginning, the ecclesia is described, as Eve points forward to the ecclesia, as both a building and as a body. And so Paul mixes these metaphors together in Ephesians. So we talked about building yesterday. Let's think today about growth. So if you want to have a look at Ephesians chapter 4, having talked earlier on in the chapter about building up the body of Christ, which we considered in verses 11 to verse 13, he talks about that.

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   He then goes on to say this in verse 15. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ. And then he talks about the intricacy of the growth of a body in verse 16, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped.

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   When each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it, and again, here's the mixing of the metaphors, the body grows so that it builds itself up in love. So that's what we want to talk about this morning, brothers and sisters, the growth of the body of Christ and the intricacy of that.

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   And you notice in verse 15 that we are to participate in this process. It's by speaking the truth in love that it enables the growth of that body. And we'll talk about what that means for us as we go through. Now, one particular phrase I want to pick out to begin with there in verse 16 is this idea of the body being joined and held together.

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   That's a very interesting phrase that the Apostle Paul uses. And he uses it elsewhere. We've mentioned earlier this week that there are a lot of parallels between Ephesians and Colossians. And in the parallel passage in Colossians chapter 2, he uses the exact same term, but the translators have translated it as knit together.

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   So Colossians 2 verse 2, that their hearts may be encouraged being knit together in love. And then in verse 19, not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God. So you can see the parallel there with what Paul says here in Ephesians.

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    So that's what we want to think about. The analogy we want to consider today is the idea of being knit together. Just like we sang in our hymn, we come around God's Word to learn together. We're not meant to be these individuals who learn separately. We have come together this week, brothers and sisters.

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    And it's the intricacy of all the teaching and the interaction with each other and the energizing of our relationships with each other. All of that works together to hold us together and to knit us together as one in Christ. It's the same word, brothers and sisters, that's used of the Apostle Paul when he preached, when he wove together his arguments.

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    And, you know, you look at Ephesians and other passages and you see how Paul takes these various threads. And I use that word threads purposefully. He takes threads from this Scripture and that Scripture. And he weaves together an argument to produce that whole argument. And that's the analogy of the growth of the body of Christ.

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    We are to be knit together, to be woven together. And it's something which is spoken of in the building of the house of God as well. So we have all of these separate parts of the house, the tabernacle or the temple. And, for instance, in this verse in Exodus, it says, You shall make 50 clasps of gold and couple the curtains one to another.

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    This idea of coupling is really the Old Testament equivalent of knitting together or weaving together. So you're to couple the curtains one to another with the clasp so that the tabernacle may be a single hole. So that's God's purpose, isn't it? That's how Paul expresses God's purpose back in chapter 1 of Ephesians.

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    He wants to unite all things. That's what God is focused on, the unity of the body. And that should be what we are focused on as well. Another verse, Psalm 122, speaks about Jerusalem as a city that is bound firmly together. And this should be what our ecclesias, what our body is like.

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    We're not meant to be separate members, individuals doing our own thing. We're meant to be knit together. Now, another thing that this idea of knitting together, and the language of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians and Colossians, it's based on the amazing miracle of the growth of a baby in the womb of its mother.

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    Come with me to Psalm 139. I think this is the passage that was on Paul's mind when he penned those words in Ephesians. Psalm 139. Now, this is a beautiful psalm that we're going to come back to again later. But let's just have a look at some of the language here. In the middle of this psalm, the writer talks about that amazing miracle of a baby being formed in its mother's womb.

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    An incredible miracle. And he reflects on that in verse 13 by saying, You formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderfully your works. My soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

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    Some interesting language, isn't it, brothers and sisters? Why does the psalmist use that language? And obviously it's not literal. God isn't there in a mother's womb with knitting needles and a weaving loom, literally doing this. It's metaphorical, obviously. But it's a beautiful analogy to think about how a body gradually grows in the womb of its mother, being knit together, the various parts of that body being joined and held together and woven together as a beautiful child.

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    Now, how does that happen scientifically? Well, we know that, and this is the analogy we've looked at earlier this week, we know that this is a phenomenon that is common to all life, that you begin with a seed. So we've talked about the planting of a seed, and out of that seed comes the gradual growth of a plant.

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    And we know the reason why that happens is because in that seed is the design of that plant. And we talked about how God's purpose is like that, that in the beginning God planted a seed, and the intricacy of God working out His purpose is all based on, is all according to the design that's in that seed.

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    Well, it's exactly the same thing, isn't it, with the growth of a baby in the womb of its mother. It starts off with a seed that is planted in that womb. It's not planted in the earth now, but it's the same process, planted in the womb of its mother, and in that seed is the design of the baby.

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    It's one of the most incredible things in nature. Something, brothers and sisters, that we know today scientifically as DNA. DNA, DNA, which interestingly is nicknamed the thread of life. The thread of life. Because it's pictured here as interwoven... Welcome to my... I've lost my... Oh, I've lost my batteries altogether. I'm going to have to nip down and press the button.

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    All right. Oh, thanks. Can you find a new battery for that? Or just press the button or whatever, yeah. So the thread of life, DNA is pictured as like threads woven together. And we have this embroidery over here on the right, in which someone has pictured this. There's women there embroidering DNA. And so even the scientific community, when talking about DNA, look at the growth of a body or the growth of a plant, like weaving, like knitting, like embroidery.

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    And so that language of the psalmist and that language of Paul is very apt. And we're going to talk about that aspect of DNA as we go through. So let's remind ourselves, with that in mind, let's remind ourselves of some of the principles we've looked at this week. We've talked about the importance of the unity of the body.

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    That's how Paul summarizes God's purpose. We've also talked about how that unity of the body. Thanks, Jeff. Perfect. All right. Good. So we've also talked about how that unity of the body is accomplished through the blood of Christ. We talked about that in chapter 2, where Jew and Gentile, these separate entities, are joined together.

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    They are knit together as one in Christ because he died. Now, that's really interesting because Jesus talked about this on the eve of his death. He said, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. And then he likens his death to the planting of a seed in the ground.

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    Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. So Jesus likens himself to this corn of wheat that dies, falls into the ground. But then it germinates and it sprouts as a new plant, as fruit.

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    That's how we can visualize the impact of the death of Christ in our lives. That language you'll see also, you'll see an echo here where it says it remains alone. Think of the echo back to the creation of the bride of Adam in the beginning. It was not good that man should be alone.

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    I'll make a help fit for him. And in order to build Eve as Adam's wife, Adam had to fall into a deep sleep. So there's something crucial about the death of Christ, about him as the seed falling into the ground that produces the growth of the body. And what I think we're being told here, brothers and sisters, is that the principles that govern the death of Christ, his love for us, everything that was embodied in him dying for us, it's that that we need to plant in our hearts.

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    And then that can flourish and produce the fruit. So, again, let's turn back to Ephesians chapter 4. When the Apostle Paul says in verse 15 that we are to speak the truth in love, and that brings about the growth of the body, what do you think that really means? How does us speaking the truth enable the growth of the body?

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    If you look at verse 25, he says a similar thing. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. We're members of a body, and to bring those different parts of the body, those different members of the body together as one body, we need to speak the truth.

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    Well, think of the truth, then, as that seed, that contained in that seed is the embodiment of truth. And we talked yesterday about how truth, really, in Scripture, is more to do with being faithful to the pattern or the design that God has given to us. So, when we speak the truth with each other, together, when we are faithful to one another, when we are faithful to the design, that is what accomplishes the unity of the body.

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    But look what he says back in verse 21. He says, So, the embodiment of everything that is true is seen in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Word made flesh. And as that Word made flesh, He is the seed that is planted in us. So, we need to bring that truthfulness that is expressed in the death of Christ, and that love that needs to be planted inside of us.

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    And when we speak to each other, when we speak the truth to one another, as brothers and sisters in Christ, it should be in the spirit of everything that was embodied in the love of Christ as He died for us. And so, in the various interactions that we've had this week, speaking the truth is more than we speakers and the teachers for the kids teaching.

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    It's also to do with our combined wisdom, knowledge, and understanding as we talk to each other, as we interact with each other. And the complexity of those relationships are there as God's method to build up the body of Christ, as the various threads weave together and produce in us that one body. That is why we meet together like this.

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    And that's what we've been missing, of course, for a year and a half with the pandemic. But now we can be together and we can participate in this process as wise or skilled craftsmen, as we talked about yesterday, taking those threads, taking that wisdom, knowledge, and understanding that God provides for us, and speaking the truth in love, building one another up.

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    And I'm sure you're the same as me. You can look at your family, your friends, your spouse, your friends, and how they interact with you and build you up. And if you're speaking the truth, if you're faithful to each other, and faithful to God's design, it's going to produce in all of us what God intends.

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    So with all of those things in mind, brothers and sisters, let's think about this topic of the multicolored wisdom of God. In chapter 3 of Ephesians, Paul talks about the wisdom of God and the intricacy of that wisdom. And it says in chapter 3 here in verse 10, So let's think a little bit more deeply then about this manifold wisdom of God.

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    What does that word manifold mean? Well, it literally means of differing colors. Interesting language of Paul. He's very poetic in his letters, isn't he? Knitting together, weaving together, and the fact that wisdom, Paul says, is multicolored. It's this juicy word here, polypoikilos. And another word that we could use to describe this is the word variegated.

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    Something that is variegated is something of various colors. So a variegated flower, a variegated rose, for instance, typically roses are of one color, but a variegated rose will be of different colors. On the screen there, we have some variegated embroidery, different colored threads, all brought together to produce a beautiful design. And that's how we can think about God's purpose.

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    That's how we can think about the body of Christ. We are multicolored. We come from all sorts of different backgrounds. We're different ages. We have different experience. We're all different threads that all then are knit together in love, woven together to produce a beautiful tapestry that reflects God's eternal purpose. Now that word polypoikilos, if I've pronounced that correctly, was used in ancient Greek culture specifically for the variegation, the multicolored tapestries that they used to make.

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    So this is an ancient Greek tapestry. You can see it's multicolored. And for ancient Greek clothing that was multicolored, that was polypoikilos. And so it was used specifically, brothers and sisters, for that embroidery, where the Greeks would take different threads and embroider together their designs. So think about God's wisdom like that. Think about God's purpose like that.

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    Taking all of these different threads and intricately weaving together His purpose. And this principle, brothers and sisters, was also found in the building of the house of God. We have multicolored threads that were woven together and embroidered together in the tabernacle. We think specifically of the screen of the door or the clothing of the high priest.

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    And the reason why there are all these different colors in the tabernacle is because God wants to express to us this multicolored nature of His purpose. It's not one-dimensional. It's complex. It's bringing many people together. Jews, Gentiles, young, old. Different experiences. All coming together as one body in Christ. And so when Moses finished the house of God, that's the last thing He set up.

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    What finally joined everything together, what finally held everything together as one tabernacle was when He set up the screen of the gate of the court. This multicolored, this variegated, polypoikolos screen.

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    All right, well, come back to Ephesians chapter 4 with me. Now, earlier on in chapter 4, we had a look at this briefly yesterday. The apostle talks about those craftsmen who built the house of God. Well, think now about craftsmen or craftwomen who weave together an intricate quilt, for instance, as we saw this morning.

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    And the wonderful ingenuity and skill and wisdom that goes into that. And we talked yesterday about how God gave Bezalel and others the gifts of wisdom, knowledge and understanding and craftsmanship to be able to do that. So, back in that section in Ephesians chapter 4, it says in verse 8, or verse 7, grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

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    Therefore, it says, when He ascended on high, He led a host of captives and gave gifts to men. So, that's what the apostle Paul is referring to, those gifts that were given to build the tabernacle, to embroider the screen of the gates. Now, as far as the first century is concerned, you notice that what verse 8 is saying is that when Jesus ascended to heaven, that's when those Holy Spirit gifts came in the first century context, that the apostles could build up the house of God or build up the ecclesia.

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    But then, in verse 9, he says that what had to happen first was Jesus needed to die. We considered the importance of that principle. That seed needed to be planted in the ground first as the prime principle from which comes the growth of the body. So, verse 9 says, in saying He ascended, what does it mean but that He also descended into the lowest parts of the earth?

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    Now, think about verse 9 there. Why does the apostle Paul frame it like that? Why didn't he just say something more simple? Jesus ascended up into heaven, but He first needed to die. Why use such poetic language? He needed to first descend into the lowest parts of the earth. It seems very wordy just to describe the fact that Jesus needed to die.

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    Well, I think the reason for that language is what the apostle Paul is doing is he's using that psalm that we read earlier, Psalm 139. In fact, that language at the end of verse 9, he descended into the lowest parts of the earth, is a direct quotation from Psalm 139. So, let's go back to that psalm and consider, try to figure out what was going through the apostle Paul's mind as he quotes Psalm 139.

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    Psalm 139. And the language of the lowest parts of the earth comes from the end of verse 15, about the body being intricately woven in the lowest parts of the earth. Now, what is this psalm all about? Well, it's a beautiful psalm that describes really the unsearchable, intricate, immeasurable wisdom of God that he is all-knowing and everywhere present.

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    Something about the eternal nature of God that astounds the psalmist as Paul is astounded by these things in Ephesians. And so the psalm begins in verse 1, O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down.

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    You are acquainted with all my ways. This is what we talked about earlier this week. How God knows us inside out. He framed us. He knows what we're going to do before we do it. He has that foreknowledge that we talked about earlier this week that He can predict how we will react under any given circumstance.

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    So verse 4, Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. You hem me in behind the before and lay Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it. And the psalmist expresses a similar thing to what Paul says.

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    The love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. The unsearchable riches of Christ. The immeasurable greatness of God's power. The manifold wisdom of God. So it's in that spirit then that we come back to those verses we read earlier. Verses 13 to 15 and the growth of the baby in the womb of its mother.

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    Verse 13 says, You formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. You brought those different parts of the body and intricately formed them together to create one body. Now that word formed is an interesting word. It's the same word here as what the wise man says concerning wisdom that was there in the beginning.

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    where it says the Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work. It's the exactly same word that the psalmist used there. And this commentary is interesting. It says, verse 22 begins with an allusion to the creation narrative of Genesis 1 in the word beginning in saying that the Lord fathered, which is another way we could translate this word, her at the beginning of his ways.

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    Wisdom is claiming to be the first principle of the world and a pattern by which it was created. And that goes back to this analogy we've been talking about that in the beginning God had this pattern, God had this design that was contained in that seed that he formed through his wisdom. Designing eternal history in advance.

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    Having that foreknowledge that the psalmist talks about. And then all the various threads of human history and the threads of our lives as we interact with each other and we become woven together as one. This is what the psalmist is talking about. So then we come to verse 15 where he says, my frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret intricately woven in the lowest parts of the earth.

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    That's the phrase then that Paul quotes. Now that little phrase there King James has curiously wrought intricately woven it's a very very interesting Hebrew word that the psalmist uses and it's only ever used outside of Psalm 139 to describe the embroidery in the tabernacle in the house of God. It's used first of all for the embroiderers themselves.

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    So Exodus 35 which talks about those craftsmen who would do things like embroidery and weaving. He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer. That's this word that's used in the psalm. An embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twine linen.

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    So an embroiderer of different color threads. And the principle here is for us to understand that what they're doing in crafting these things is using that multicolored wisdom of God to create something beautiful. A beautiful body of Christ. And that's what God is doing in all of our lives as we meet together.

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    Blue, purple, scarlet and fine twine linen. The Hebrew word for embroidery or intricately woven is this word rakam which is the equivalent of that word manifold, multicolored. It means variegated. Now it's also used of that screen of the gates that we mentioned earlier. You shall make a screen for the entrance of the tent of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twine linen embroidered with needlework.

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    Rakam same word. It's also used of the embroidery on the belt of the high priest. You shall weave the coat in checker work of fine linen and you shall make a turban of fine linen and you shall make a sash or the belt the girdle of the high priest embroidered with needlework. Now the interesting thing about that brothers and sisters is going back to Ephesians chapter 4 where we're told twice that we need to speak the truth.

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    We need to take that design that God has given to us and using that multicolored wisdom of God using wisdom knowledge and understanding we take that design and to speak the truth is to then weave these things in speaking the truth to one another and that is what produces the whole body joined and held together the members one of another all joined together.

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    Now the interesting thing about that is that when you think about that screen gate we saw earlier that was the last thing that was the final thing when everything now is brought together as one tabernacle it's the final piece that makes it one whole and the same thing with the belt of the high priest we have this loose clothing and he ties this belt around him and it holds it all together and in fact in Ephesians the apostle Paul calls the belt in his description of the armor of God the belt of truth because it's speaking the truth brothers and sisters that binds us firmly together being faithful to one another being faithful to the design that God has given to us that we might not be individuals doing our own thing but bound firmly together and so coming back to this psalm we see something here which is beautiful and remarkable it says again in verse 15 my frame was not hidden from me when I was being made in secret that word frame is the Hebrew word golem which means an embryo a beginning fetus what is in the mother's womb and perceived to be life with an unformed body so we know we saw that picture earlier of the seed that gradually turns into a baby and we've all seen photographs of the growth of a baby the various stages of growth in the womb and very early on it's just this tiny unformed body doesn't even look like a body in fact at first it looks like a little wormy thing and before that it's just nothing you can't see arms

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    or legs or eyes or nose or anything it just looks like this little glob of nothing and that's the word that's used by the psalmist here and what in effect he's saying is that even though at one time the body of Christ was this unformed thing that we were all individuals separate from one another God in his eternal wisdom God in this multicolored wisdom that he has was able to take the various threads of our lives and turn us into this beautiful baby and so that word rakam as we said earlier means to weave variegated cloth that's the literal meaning of this word rakam to be intricately woven now what you see on the screen there is actually a photograph of it's from the Jewish institute which you may have heard of is a group of Jews in Jerusalem who are waiting for their Messiah they don't realize their Messiah is the Lord Jesus Christ of course but they think their Messiah will come and they're going to help him rebuild !

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    the temple and they've got all these preparations ready they've made things like the clothing of the high priest for instance and they've understood this word rakam that it's to weave variegated cloth so they've taken the blue the purple the scarlet the fine twine linen and they've made embroidery like this or the ability to use that to embroider these designs and when I look at that brothers and sisters I see a similarity to DNA so in verse 15 or verse 16 we've read verse 15 we have been intricately woven in the depths of the earth and then he says something remarkable in verse 16 your eyes saw my unformed substance sorry that's the word for embryo not the word for frame sorry in verse 15 so your eyes saw my unformed substance that's that word golem and then it says in your book were written every one of them the days that were formed for me when as yet there were none of them now what is the psalmist saying there brothers and sisters what book in talking about the formation of a body in the womb of its mother there's a book that's written and written down in that book is every one of them every part of that body is written down in that book before they exist while the psalmist didn't understand DNA isn't that exactly the sort of analogy that's being used here because DNA is likened to a code book isn't it and in the DNA is the design of that body or that plant it's like a book that's been written and even before anything is formed inside that book

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    is written down the various parts of the body the arms the legs what color eyes what color hair how tall and so the analogy for us brothers and sisters is that in the beginning before the foundation of the world God planted his seed his spiritual DNA and ever since then that eternal purpose of God is being worked out and we brothers and sisters in this room have the privilege to be participants as skilled craftsmen and women to use the wisdom the knowledge the understanding that God has provided to us to interact with one another to speak the truth to one another as faithful craftsmen and women taking that design building one another up as that beautiful body of Christ all