If everyone could turn to Ephesians 1. We began looking at this last week, and I will read the first few verses of Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1:1-5:
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
And I will stop reading there.
We were looking at verse 1 last Sunday, and we saw that Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ. He states that, first of all, because there was some doubt about that amongst the Jews of his day. He was not a typical apostle. He was not an apostle like the original 12, where Jesus chose each one. Paul became an apostle much later on, in a very special way, as God appeared to him on the road to Damascus and sent him to the Gentiles. That is the basic idea of an apostle, to be sent.
But he was more than just someone sent because all believers are sent forth with the Gospel. In that sense, we are all apostles. He was an actual apostle chosen by Christ to be, not the 12th, the 13th. We always say that there were 12 apostles, but actually there were 13. Just like with the tribes of Israel, there were 12 tribes—well, actually, there were 13.
So it is interesting when we read a verse that states that God has set “the bounds of their habitation,” according to the number of the children of Israel or the tribes of Israel. If you have read some of Mr. Camping’s writings, you have seen how he has related that idea to the timing of the world. The world should have ended after 12,000 years, because at the Cross Satan was bound for 1,000 years, as we read in Revelation 20. That would be 11 plus 1,000, or 12,000. But it is not a literal 1,000 years. It actually stretches almost to 2,000 years.
So the world does not end after 12,000 years or it would have ended quite a long time ago, but it ends after 13,000 years—and the 13,000th year was 1988. And, really, we are in that little extension period of the Great Tribulation that God tacks on sometimes after very significant numbers—like from the creation of 11,013 B.C., until the flood, it was 6,023 years.
So you reach the perfection of the number, and then God, at times, adds a tribulation period, a very small period of time of only 23 years—and we are in that little extension. It did not end in 1988, but God now allows the world to continue for 23 years, plus 153 days, or 5 months, and then the world will come to an end. And we are in which year? The 20th year of that 23? Because there are only 3 years left.
So we are coming down to the very edge of the end of the world. We are coming to the final time of history, and this is the period of time when God is saving a “great multitude” out there in the world—not in the churches, but in the world. People who are outside of the church, God is bringing them His Word and He is saving a great many people.
And so Paul was an apostle, a true apostle, and he would constantly have to explain himself. He would constantly have to defend the fact that God made him an apostle. Just like the believers today, there are always those who are very critical, who are very much listening, and you wonder why they are listening. They do not believe anything they are hearing, but they are listening very closely in order to find fault, in order to find an error or a mistake or something they can jump on.
It makes you wonder, if they really thought that it was not of God, if what they are hearing was apostasy or heresy, why would they listen so closely? For instance, I have no desire to hear what Jehovah’s Witnesses are saying because I know that they are “another gospel,” and there is no blessing in that. I have no desire to learn what the Mormons are teaching; they are “another gospel.” I have no desire to actually, today, learn what is going on in the churches, because I know that God is finished with them.
The idea of putting your ear up against the wall and trying to hear every detail that you can so that you can jump and say, “You see! They are not of God!,” actually, in the very actions that they are doing, they are showing that, deep down, they know that there is something not right. They are showing that they really think that, deep down, this could be from God.
Just like Jeremiah, in the days when Judah was under assault of the Babylonians, when the king had Jeremiah thrown into a pit, and yet it was not long before he was questioning Jeremiah, “Is there any word from the LORD?” The same king. The same king! If he really thought that Jeremiah was a false prophet, why would he go to him later and ask him, “Is there any word from the LORD?”
You see, I think, deep down, a lot of people really know that these things that we are hearing today—about the end of the Church Age and that there is no eternal suffering in a place called “hell” but rather that God is going to destroy the sinner at the end of the world—deep down, these people know that it is coming—not from a strange source, not from someone who is not really being used of God or has not been used of God—but it is coming from someone in a ministry that has been greatly used by God for a long time and has been nothing but a blessing to many people across the world.
Well, now looking at Ephesians 1, I just glanced down and I thought, “Now, how did I get there from that verse?” I am not really sure.
Ephesians 1:1:
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:
Paul is an apostle, a true apostle, and God is moving him to write. Paul could have been a brilliant man. But, really, we do not care about that. We know that God used him to write the Scriptures, and what we read in the Epistles is the Word of God. The Apostle Paul was a penman, a scribe, in the hands of God. That is all.
Just like Paul would dictate some of his Epistles through a scribe, like Tertius. Tertius did not write Romans. Paul wrote Romans and he just dictated to Tertius. But in actuality, the physical writing was done by Tertius.
It is the same thing with Paul. Paul did not write anything. It did not come from his mind. It came from the Mind of God. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God,” and the “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
So we recognize that Paul was a wonderful believer—he was a true child of God—but we know that what we read comes from God Himself. And God is moving him to write “to the saints which are at Ephesus.” “The saints.”
How many “saints” are there in the world? (Inaudible response). Well, that is it! You got it Lester, because every child of God is a “saint.” This is not really that widely known. Most people in the world, they do not know anything about it, but they hear that there are certain “saints” that churches lift up and build statues to and pray to.
So that is really the world’s idea of a saint: somebody who lived a wonderful life, who dedicated their life, and then they died and a vote was taken within a church and they obtained “sainthood.” Yet all of that is really nonsense. It is nonsense. You can throw it all out the window. That is not what a “saint” is.
A “saint” is someone who is made holy by God through His salvation, through His Word. You are washed clean. You are cleansed. The word “saint” is related to the word “holy.” And so, we become “saints” in the sense that God has made us holy through Jesus.
Turn over to Jude, that little Epistle right before Revelation, and look at verse 3 of Jude. It is only a one-chapter book. Jude 1:3 says:
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
And that “faith” is Christ. That is the Lord Jesus. He was “once delivered,” and we know that we are learning more about that now. We are not going to get into that question at this point—of Jesus being slain from before “the foundation of the world.” But in history, He entered into the world, He became man, and He was delivered to Pontius Pilate, to the Romans.
If you read the Gospel accounts, it says it again and again; He was “delivered up.” Jesus was “once delivered unto the saints.” He was delivered for you and for me and for each child of God, because He came to die for our sins.
Actually, Jesus is the only thing that qualifies as being “once delivered.” It is not the Bible. The Bible has been handed down for centuries, generation to generation to generation. It has not been a one-time deliverance or being given to others. So this has to be Jesus, and they are all saints because God has saved them and cleansed them and made them holy, just like “Santa Biblia” in Spanish—Holy Bible. The words “Santa” and “Holy” or “Saint” and “Holy” are very closely related.
Then it goes on to say at the end of Ephesians 1:1:
…to the faithful in Christ Jesus:
The Apostle Paul is writing to the “faithful.”
…to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:
And it is important that we be “in Christ.” Nobody is faithful outside of Christ. You can give the appearance of faithfulness, but no one can be considered faithful outside of the Lord Jesus.
Here, the word “faithful” is plural. It is the plural word for “faithful” because it is talking about all of the elect. All of God’s people, they are made faithful because God is faithful. Right? Is not God faithful? Like we read in Revelation 19:11:
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
That is Christ. He is Faithful. He is faith Himself. Like we saw in Jude:
…the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
He is saving faith. Whenever we wonder about salvation and saving faith, it is always Christ who is in view. If it looks in a verse like some person is exercising faith, as Jesus would say to them, “Thy faith hath made thee whole,” it was not that person’s faith, but that person had been saved by God and Christ had become their faith. So Christ “hath made thee whole.”
That is how it always is, because, of ourselves, who is faithful? If you are just looking at man and just looking at people, are there any faithful people in the world? There is not one. There really is not one.
If we go to 2 Thessalonians 3, God says this. In 2 Thessalonians 3:2, where it says:
And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.
That is an all-encompassing statement of God. He looks out upon the whole world—whether today or a thousand years ago or in the days of Noah or whenever—“all men” (or all people, because “men” is in italics): “all have not faith.”
You have to have faith to be saved, and men do not have faith. Well, yes, they can believe in God to a point. They can do things that appear faithful, to a point. But when it comes to salvation, “all men have not faith.” No one has enough faith that they can muster up to get themselves saved, and that is why God says that with man, salvation is impossible. But with God, all things are possible.
Look at verse 3 of 2 Thessalonians 3, after “for all men have not faith.” 2 Thessalonians 3:3:
But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.
You see, that is our hope. That is our only hope—God’s faithfulness. It is the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not anything in us.
After God saves us, He gives us the fruit. He gives His Spirit in salvation, then we experience the “fruit of the Spirit,” one of which is faith. You can read about that in Galatians 5.
So, yes, then it becomes a real genuine faith that believers have, as it is the “fruit of the Spirit,” but first you have to have the Spirit to get the fruit. Unless somebody is saved by God, by God’s action in doing the work, they are not going to have the Spirit and so they will not have faith.
Let us go back to Ephesians 1:2. It says:
Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Grace to you.” This is just part of the opening address. Right? I mean, we see this in Epistle after Epistle after Epistle.
It is like when you are writing a letter and that is how you begin. (I think many of us do this.) And then, here is how you close. We all sign it a certain way, and it is meaningless.
No. This is the Word of God. This is part of the Bible, and every Word of God is “quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword” and has deep meaning. Really, God just capsulizes the whole Gospel, and He says, “Grace be to you.”
Grace be to you, and peace…
Because, how are we saved? How are we saved? “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves…not of works, lest any man should boast.” Did I say that right? It is only in the next chapter. Look over in Ephesians 2:8-9:
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.
So I really mashed those two verses together, and nobody caught me. Nobody caught me. You are supposed to say something!
But this is what God is telling us in His Word, the Bible. We are saved by grace. “For by grace are ye saved.”
So this is our ultimate desire. This is what God is writing to the faithful, to the saints, to His elect people, “Receive the grace of God,” and they will only receive it because God has given them the gift of faith.
This is our desire for everyone else, for all people, “May grace be to you.” Now we cannot impart it; we cannot give it. God is the only One who can give spiritual gifts, who can save someone, but we can desire it for others. In prayer and in sharing the Gospel with them, this is our desire.
Really, every time you hand someone a tract, you are basically saying, “Grace to you and peace,” because it is only through the Gospel that there can be peace between God and man, that the warfare can be accomplished, that there can be no longer enmity between that person and God.
So this is our desire and this was the Apostle Paul’s desire. It is the desire of every believer, “Grace and peace from God and from Jesus,” because that is where it originates. That is where it originates.
I love that account of Jesus when He is feeding, I forget how many thousands, and He breaks the bread. He gives to the apostles, who then give it to the people, because it comes from God. It comes from Christ, the Bread of the Gospel, and then He gives it to His people, who then give it to others.
That is how God has worked it out. He moves us “to will and to do of His good pleasure” in sharing the Word with the world. This is all God’s doing, as He is sending forth the Gospel through us. He is sending it out into the world, through His people.
Then in Ephesians 1:3, we read there:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…
Do you ever say that? “Blessed be God.”
Of course, when you think about blessing, you think about bestowing a blessing or giving a blessing, and that is really why we would never say, “God bless you.” We could say, “May God bless you,” because we do not have any power; we do not have any authority. We cannot bestow a blessing upon someone, but we can hope and we can desire that “May God bless you,” and yet blessing resides with God.
Actually, God has to be blessed in Himself in order to bestow blessing to others. “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted,” and etc. in the Beatitudes.
God has to have blessing within Himself in order to give it to others, to give it to sinners, and this is what we find in Romans, chapter 1. In Romans 1:25:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
God is blessing, in Himself. When we say, “Blessed be God,” we are not giving God anything; we are just recognizing what is a fact. He is blessed. He is the Blessed Being, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Creator. He is God over all, and He is very blessed in Himself.
So we just recognize this and we say, “Blessed be God,” and “May you experience this blessing, so we want to give you a word or a verse from the Bible,” because that is the only way somebody can be blessed.
Well, it is true, actually, that God blesses the whole world in other ways than through the Bible, because He gives the whole world, He gives all people, to a degree, food, shelter, clothing. He gives people sunny days. He gives us crops, and so forth. All the blessings that are in the world are there because God gave it to man. God gave it to man.
So it is true that God does bless people in those ways. But notice here in Ephesians 1:3:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings…
“Spiritual blessings,” yet God has given us much. And I tend to do this. You know, when you are trying to think of things and praise God and count your blessings, one-by-one, and you think of all these things, “Thank You Lord for food and thank You for the house and thank You for air in the summer and heat in the winter—thank You for this and thank You for that”—and it is all thankworthy. It is all thankworthy that we should be thanking God, but more than that, thank You for “all spiritual blessings…in Christ”—spiritual blessings.
Now the world does not know about that. They do not know anything about spiritual blessings. But for the believer: “eyes to see,” “ears to hear,” to hear and see the truth of the Gospel.
We understand God’s Word, as He is teaching us, and maybe we understand a verse we never understood before—we understand the Gospel meaning of it, the spiritual meaning of the verse—and it is a spiritual blessing. Then we think of our inheritance, of the inheritance that God has given us, an inheritance where we will inhabit the new earth: the new heavens and the new earth that He creates. We are going to inhabit it, and the “double” inheritance is that we will also have eternal life.
That is quite a blessing which dwarfs any blessing in this world, because all blessings in this life are temporal. They are only for a little while. And when you do have things in this world, you tend to worry about them and be anxious about them—about losing them and so forth. But this is an inheritance that is forever and ever and ever, where “moth and rust” cannot “corrupt” and it is a treasure that we will enjoy eternally.
Look over at Ephesians 2. Actually, let me finish Ephesians 1:3, and then I will go over there. Ephesians 1:3:
…who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
And that word “heavenly” is actually plural. It is “heavenlies,” as it is in Ephesians 2:6. Let me back up to verse 5. Ephesians 2:5-6:
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 (or heavenlies) in Christ Jesus:
This is at the moment of salvation, spiritually. We are seated “at the right hand of God,” in the Person of Christ. And there, when you are “seated,” you “rule.” We rule with Him from that vantage point.
Then look at Ephesians 2:7:
That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
“In the ages to come.” Now, sometimes, you try to think or explain or just to speak about God’s great salvation plan, and you try, with all of your ability—you know, with our limited intelligence and tiny minds—to think about an eternal blessing, where we live forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. Really, we look at it with awe and wonder, but how well do we explain it? How well can we really grasp it with our understanding? We do not.
Now, on the other hand, if, very shortly, after this comes to pass, we are in that eternity and we have gone on for ages and ages, as it says here:
…in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace…
It means that at this point, we have an inheritance that we do not understand. We really cannot fathom or comprehend how wonderful it is.
But, however, “in the ages to come,” if someone were to come up to you and say, “What do you think about your spiritual riches in Christ Jesus now?” And you have been there for ages and ages and ages. Nobody has died, nobody has shed a tear, there is no sorrow, there is no body ache, there is nothing that we know in this life: no corruption, no sin. It is a pure, perfect, holy place—for ages and ages and ages.
I think that any saint of God or any of the faithful in Christ Jesus could probably sit you down and go on and on and on with praise to God and glory to God for these incredible beyond-our-imagination riches in Christ Jesus. Do you not think? I mean, that is amazing!
It is like we are a little child and our parents died and we received…and our parents were…well, I should not use living people…but let us say that our parents were billionaires. Billionaires! And we are just a little child, and we have this inheritance. It is in the bank. It is ours, but what do we understand of it?
And that is a poor example! That is a very poor example, compared to what is to come for God’s people. It is more than we can really imagine. Like the Apostle Paul when he was “caught up to the third heaven.” He heard and saw things “unspeakable,” because you cannot explain them. Given our limitations in this world, we just do not know how rich these blessings are.
Well, going on to verse 4, and, again, this is one of the reasons why we came to Ephesians, it says in Ephesians 1:4:
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
“As He has chosen us.” That is what it says:
…as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world…
That is hard to argue. That is hard to argue. If anyone is of the position that we can choose Christ, we can accept Him, we can make a decision, we can walk down the aisle because the preacher really preached a fine sermon and stirred me to tears and I really feel like I want to make a decision for Jesus…the only problem is…the only problem is that we do not decide for God. We cannot decide for God. We cannot choose Him. We cannot choose Him!
…as he hath chosen us in him…
And if you think it is only here, go to John 15:16. It says:
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit…
“Ye have not chosen Me.” That is in the Bible. That is in the Bible! I mean, nobody over the last couple of years has added that to the Bible. That has been in the Bible for nearly 2,000 years. It is the Word of God.
And it is amazing…it is amazing that people can read these kind of verses and say, “Yes, that is the Word of God. That is the Word of God.” And then turn around and, with Evangelism Explosion, go visit somebody’s house and try to convince them, “Will you not make a decision for Christ? Will you not choose Him? You know, if you do not, you are going to go to Hell.”
And, actually, we are learning about that, too, that God’s plan, really, His judgment, is to destroy man completely at the end, when all the world will be melted with a “fervent heat” and all the “works that are therein shall be burned.”
But, you see, it goes hand-in-hand with another wrong doctrine of trying to get people to sign up, trying to get them to an emotional level where they will finally make a commitment for Christ, and along with that commitment, to start coming to church and to pay your tithes. “We have another member in our congregation, and now we can build that extra room or wing, or whatever it was that we wanted to do if we got enough people.”
And, yet, it is all wrong. It is all contrary to John 15:16:
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you…
And that is how it works. That is how it works. It does not work in reverse. It works: God’s action first. And when did He take that action?
…as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world…
As He said of Jacob and Esau, “For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil…Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”
You see? It is all over the Bible—God’s election plan, His plan to predestinate some to salvation, to choose one over another!
Even though they are twins—they are brothers, they were in the same womb of the same mother and same father—before they were born, God made choice. Then they came out and they lived their lives. And as their lives played out, then finally God brought His Word, or at some point He saved Jacob. But He never saved Esau, because “Esau have I hated,” and so he died unsaved. And that is how God’s Word lays out the Gospel.
Go to John 1:11-12. It says:
He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Now I will stop reading, and we will close the Bibles. Now I can make an alter call, because you have to “receive” Jesus and you have to “believe” on Him.
They stop there. They stop there. But read verse 13:
Which were born…
Now that statement has everything to do with being “born again.”
Which were born, not of blood…
It does not matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile.
…nor of the will of the flesh…
You are not born by the “will of the flesh.” No way!
…nor of the will of man…
You cannot get yourself born again. You cannot get yourself born again! Even when we are reading about “receiving” Christ, it says further in the Gospel of John that nobody can receive anything unless God gives it to him to receive it. Even that is part of God’s gift.
We are not born:
…of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
We are born “of God,” His will, His choosing, His electing one over another, and never what people do.
Let us also go to Romans 9. We might as well really hammer this nail in. In Romans 9:14, it says:
What shall we say then?
Well, no. Let me begin, I am sorry, in verse 13, since I mentioned it. Romans 9:13-16:
As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?
At this point, a lot of people would say that this is not fair.
God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
It is completely airtight that God saves. Christ is faith. God does the work. Jesus takes the action in the life of people. And Christ was as a “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” and all the names of His elect were written in the “Lamb’s book of life” “from before” or “from the foundation of the world.” It was all worked out. All the works were finished, we read in Hebrews 4:3, “from the foundation of the world.”
God did it all. Before He spoke and created the world, He accomplished everything, as far as His salvation plan was concerned, “before” or “from” that “foundation.” And now, things are just working out where every one of those who were named, now are hearing the Gospel. And that “great multitude,” all named prior to the world’s beginning, they are hearing and they are becoming saved.
Okay. We are going to stop here. Let us close with a word of prayer. I think we have until 1:30 P.M. until the Union comes, so do not feel like you have run out. Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank You for Your grace and for Your faithfulness. If it was…it is such a blessing and a mercy that we do not play any part in salvation, that it is all Your doing, because then we know that You will accomplish it. You always perform the doing of what You have said You will do, and we thank You. We thank You for the Gospel call that we hear the Word, that we are under the Word. We thank You that our children are hearing the Word. And we pray that You might draw them to Yourself, and that they also might become saved. And yet, we do not worry because we know that Your Word will accomplish its purposes, that You will do what You have planned to do. We pray, though, that it might be in Your grace to have mercy and compassion upon any here or listening who are not yet saved. And Father, we pray that You be with us throughout this day, this Sunday Sabbath, Your Holy Day. Help us to keep that in mind. And we pray these things in Christ’s Name. Amen.
Actually, if anyone has any questions or comments, we have a few minutes for that. And also, on Paltalk, if anyone listening would like to ask a question or make a comment, you can raise your hand and we can take it.
1st Question: You were reading from Ephesians 4 that God saved us “before the foundation of the world.” I just had a talk with three Chinese people that were bringing the Gospel. They were young people who were in New York yesterday. They were trying to give me some tract, and I looked at it. I said to them that it is only God who does the choosing. We do not choose. We do not choose for Christ. He chose us. We do not do the choosing, and all of that stuff, you know. So I gave them something to read.
I have been to a crusade where they have been doing stuff like that, you know. You are right. They read the verse with that, but they do not read the whole thing to know that it is God who does the willing and that it is God who does all the work of saving. And people are really convinced of that and they do not want and they can not see it that way, you know. That is what the problem is, you know. So my question is how can you lead a person to the Lord if he wants to hold to what he is taught in the church, and all of that, you know?
Chris: If he wants to hold to the church or to what he is taught in the church?
Question continues: He wants to hold to something.
Chris: Well, we cannot convince anyone. And, really, we will have peace once we realize that. We can share. We can share the Gospel, what we have learned. We can give them a tract like “Does God Love You?” or “Did God Die for You?”, or a booklet that lays out a truth. We can share those things, but after that, it is in God’s hands, and God opens up the eyes of people whom He intends to and we cannot…you know, we have to stop at that point. We can pray for them, but we never want to get into trying to convince anyone. You know, that is where “striving” would develop and we are not to strive. We are not to argue or try to argue someone into salvation. It is impossible to do anyway.
Question continues: My last question is this. Does that really mean that people would rather just live with a lie and not the truth?
Chris: Well, that is exactly how it is. When people are in the world, they are in “darkness,” spiritually, and it is lie. It is a lie.
Like today. It is a nice warm day and people are doing all kinds of things—maybe going to the Philly’s game, maybe cutting their grass, turning on the TV, watching some illusion that is on the television set, some entertainment that is not real. The world loves the lie. It is all, really, a big lie that there is “peace and safety,” that everything is alight, that it is another nice sunny Sunday.
It is not! We are coming down to the end of time quickly, and it really is an indicator of someone being in spiritual ignorance if they are still living their life like the world is going to continue forever. That is living a lie.
Okay. Anyone else have a question or a comment? Okay. Let us close. John will lead us in a hymn.