What a verse! I'm going to read this to you from the Amplified Bible. And that's where it just begins really. Ephesians 3 and verse 11. Let's go with 10 and 11 actually. 9 is where it actually begins. And to make plain, to everyone the plan of the mystery regarding the unifying of believing Jews and Gentiles into one body, which until now was kept hidden, secret through the ages in the mind of God who created all things." Verse 10. So now through the church, the multi-faced wisdom of God in all its countless aspects, might now be made known, revealing the mystery to the angelic rulers and authorities in heavenly places. Verse number 11, that's where we're going to actually start. This is in accordance with the terms of the eternal purpose, which He created out in Christ Jesus our Lord. To you on the surface that may sound like, well that's pretty simple and pretty basic. Oh yeah? Right up there I have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 books written on this verse. 11 books, and that's not all of them. But they're sitting on that shelf up there right now are 11 books written on this verse. 11 books. Now, this whole chart behind me here, let's take this history chart down, even though that is very important with it also. The last time it says that God was going to make known to all nations through the church the manifold wisdom of God, eternal purpose. It tells everything in the Bible. It tells the whole story of creation, the whole story of the plan of redemption, all of it. In eternity past, what did God do? The Bible says He wrote our names down in the Lamb's Book of Life before He ever created any one thing. That's back in eternity past. Then God created the angels. and spirits. Now angels and spirits are different. Angels have form. They are clothed. Spirits are not. As far as we know, spirits are like duel in nature. Angels are triune in nature like we are. They have form, which they can go, they're clothed. They have bodies. And they have spirit and they have soul. And God created angels in a lot of ways like He created Himself. Or not He created Himself, but He created man. Ourselves. He created ourselves. Mankind in His image. In Genesis 1 and 26. In eternity past we have an angel war. The angel wars. God allowed that to happen. Because He created all things with volition, and angels and spirits have volition. Volition means they have a mind to make a choice. Like He created man with a mind to make a choice. Genesis 1.26 again. God created him in His sovereign image. He created him in His spiritual image, in His blood flowing likeness, what God would look like in the flesh, Jesus. and in His sovereign image, His will. God, by His sovereignty, makes many decisions, all decisions. But within that sovereignty, He created angels and spirits to be sovereign also, that they could make their choices. But once the choice was made, it's over with. Now Adam, when God put, and this is all in Ephesians 3, 9-11 now I'm telling you. Those books that are up there tell all of this story. And even more. In this story, in eternity past, God decided to create. He decided to create angels and spirits, and he decided to create them with a volition. Now since God is omniscient, that means he knows everything, the beginning from one end to the other, that God lives in eternity. From here, over here to eternity future, God lives in that, and time, as we see it in these ages, that we see here, is only a marked out piece of eternity. a space in eternity. And we live in that space. God lives in all eternity. He sees eternity past, before He ever created, and He sees eternity future at the same time. Now, in our little finite minds, we cannot understand that. But that's the way God is omniscient. He knows all these things. And when He decided to create angels and spirits, He knew what they would do. But for God to get glory out of anything, they must be voluntary. There were two-thirds of the angels that followed God voluntarily. There were two-thirds of the spiritual forces that followed God voluntarily. God created man in His image, Genesis 126, and He placed him over this earth, the whole all of the earth. God gave him the ability, the ability to not sin or to rebel. Because he had a sovereignty about him. It said he placed him over all the animals of the earth, all the animals of the earth. over all the plant world, everything over the earth, everything that was created, God's cosmos, His material creation, man was over that whole creation. Genesis 1.26. Let's look at that in the Amplified Bible. Brother Farrar, Dr. Carl E. Farrar, He loved the Amplified Bible. And he knew Greek and Hebrew to some extent. He's always leaned on me to tell him, what does it really say? What's it say? Genesis 126. 125, let's go back there for, well, 24. Let's get the whole context. Then God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures. Now this is after the destruction of the earth. When God created the earth, in Genesis 1 and 1, it says, in beginnings, it says, Barashith bara elohim et ha'shamayim v'et ha'aretz. It said, in beginnings, he had created God the heavens and the earth. And then it says, and the earth, v'et ha'aretz. Hayat. And the earth she had become formless and void. And it says there was darkness over the face of the earth, and Spirit God, the Holy Spirit, went over the surface of the deep, and he mourned over there. And he mourned, or she mourned, actually is what it says, because that's the feminine mothering side of God in that. Now, don't get confused. That God is masculine. But in that attribute, he is feminine. And then God reconstructed the earth. And now the earth is being reconstructed after Genesis 1 and 2. And this is what God does here. He's putting the earth back together after Isaiah 14, 12-15 and Ezekiel 28. It tells you what happened to the earth. Then God said that the earth bring forth living creatures according to and limited to consistent with their kind. Livestock, crawling things, wild animals, the earth according to their kind, that is because he has spoken them into creation. So God made the wild animals of the earth according to their kind and the cattle according to their kind. and everything that creeps and crawls upon the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good, pleasing, and useful, and He confirmed and sustained it." Now the wild animals there is talking about the animals are just running around. All animals here now, when God created all these animals originally, these animals were all herbivores. They were all, they got along together. The lions and the elephants and whatever there was, the camels, the sheep, the goats, the cattle, those that were able to be used for farming, and they were used for farming. All of these animals were tame. And now God says, then God said, let us, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, make man in our image, in our shadow casting likeness, that spiritual image, in our blood flowing likeness, in our physical image as Christ will become, and in our sovereign likeness, our moral personality and sovereign likeness. and let him have complete authority over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over the entire earth and everything that creeps and crawls upon the earth. Psalm 104.30 in Hebrews 1 and 2 and 11 and 3. God put man over all of his creation. The person that was over all the creation, the material creation of God before mankind was Lucifer. We get the word Lucifer from the Latin. It was translated from Hyleal in the Hebrew. And it means shining one. It means light carrier because Lucifer was the light carrier of the earth and he was over the earth. He became so proud that he tried to usurp his authority and he got one third of the angelic forces and one third of the spiritual forces to follow him. Now let me tell you that again, okay? Because that's very important. Michael, Lucifer, and Gabriel. was over the informational realm. In other words, he dealt with the communication realm of God. Michael over the spiritual realm, and Lucifer over the material realm. And in these fields of service, angels are servants, they're messengers. In these fields of service, there's the clothed beings, which are angels, and there are the unclothed beings, which are spirits. And in the Michael's realm, and in Lucifer's realm, and in Gabriel's realm are spirits and angels. Now, a lot of people don't realize this, but this is there. It's there in the Scriptures. A lot of things that you won't see in the Scriptures unless you know Hebrew. Hebrew is a key to a room that you can walk into with many windows from all directions and you've got the key in that Hebrew language to see some things that you do not see in any translation. Spirits. Spirit. A spirit is something that wants to dwell in human or animal flesh because it's unclothed. are clothed. They appear and disappear according to us because they are in all the dimensions of God. There are dimensions around us constantly that we don't see but that it's there. Now the spirits are those that dwell in people to lead them unto good, unto the service of God, and the fallen spirits are called daimonia, or demons, fallen spirits, evil spirits, ra, rua, evil spirits, and those are the ones that dwell in people that start false religious systems, that start religious governments that murder people. murdering religions. There have been more people killed because of false religion in the world than any other. False religion has caused more wars in the world than anything else because of the horrible spirits that are energizing these nations. And angels can say things. The spirits, or the angels that are over The nation of Israel are from Michael's realm. Michael's realm. Now, back in eternity past now. All this takes place and God creates man in his image and he puts him on the earth and man is over everything. We see this, he's over everything, Genesis 1-26. He is sovereign over everything. But the person that he replaced was Lucifer, which became Satan. And then Job, the first chapter. If I can find it here. This old worn out Bible. It's still working though. Kind of like me. I'm worn out but I'm kind of still going. If I can get back there to the first chapter. This tells us about spirits and angels. Right here. There was a man in the land above whose name was Job. And that man was blameless and upright and was fearing God and turning away from evil. Then it tells he had sons and daughters and sheep and he was very rich. And then it says, In verse number 6, now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before Satan, also came among them. Now the sons of God are angels. The sons of God in Genesis 6, these are the same ones, these are sons of God. And it says, the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, Satan also came among them. He is an angel. Actually, many people think he's an archangel that was over the material creation of God because of Genesis. In Isaiah 14, 12-15. Ezekiel 28, 11-19. That mankind was going to take his place. Now man is on the earth. We're talking about a period of time in the book of Job. Job is the oldest book in the Bible, by the way. It's older than Genesis. Genesis goes back before the book of Job, the history of it, but it was inspired by God through Moses. But right here, we've got the oldest book in the Bible that tells us something. That Satan had access to God, to the throne room of God. And the Lord said to Satan, ìFrom where do you come?î And Satan answered the Lord and said, ìNow how did he get permission to get there on the earth?î It says, ìFrom roaming about the earth and walking around on it.î Satan was exiled from the earth. Did you know that? He was exiled from the earth. And man was put in his place to guard the earth from him, because The earth God had put under Adam and Adam was the sovereign ruler of the earth and he was supposed to guard it. It tells us there back in the book of Genesis to guard the earth. He didn't put him on the earth to just lay around in the sunshine and listen to the birds chirp and sing and pet the wild animals and the domestic animals, those that would help him in farming. He had something to do. And he laid that down in Genesis the third chapter. He laid it down. He did not, the woman that God took from his sides, plural it says, that woman, he allowed Satan to come and deceive her. It was Satan's way to get back to walk upon and trample around and trample the earth and cause all kinds of problems. It was His way and He was going to go through the woman to do it. And the man was sovereign over the earth and even sovereign over the woman. And he didn't do his job. He allowed it to happen. And therefore now in Genesis 1.26 he was sovereign but now he turns over the title deed to the earth back to Satan. Gives it back to him because he sinned. And then man began the process of dying. And he put the infection, man puts the infection through the blood that is introduced into the womb of the woman through the man, through sperm. And he infects all of his children with the virus of death. And the Lord said to Satan, From where do you come? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it, because your buddy gave me the key to do that, Adam. And the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him, and the earth is blameless and upright, and fearing God and turning away. And then Satan said and answered to the Lord, Does Job fear God for nothing? Then he begins the process of talking into God and telling Him, just lower your boundaries, your protection, your gates. And he goes through one gate, into the next gate, into the next gate. In his life, into his material. First of all, he lost everything that he had. Then he lost his family. And then Satan begins to torment him with disease. All these hedges were beginning to lay down. Well, we have the curse, death. We have the age of conscience, do good, offer a blood sacrifice. Something innocent has to die for something that is guilty. That's all the animal sacrifices. That was supposed to point them all the way over here and to the cross of Calvary and show them, you need to be saved by grace. Ephesians 2 and 8 again. See, that's all in the book of Ephesians. Let's read this here for just a moment from the Greek. hain epoeisen en to Christo eiso to krio emchemon. The whole book, the whole Bible has been written around this verse right here. According to the Eternal Purpose, it comes from Pro antithemy, placing beforehand of the ages which, a little relative pronoun there, accusative singular feminine, which he had made, he laid out, he worked out in Christ Jesus the Lord of us. He made, worked out. Colossians. Colossians the first chapter. Paul wrote both of these books. Colossians chapter 1. Verse number 13, for he delivered us from the domain of darkness. What happened there? In the book of Job, it tells how Satan wanders us. And Satan has wandered on the earth, and he's got armies on this earth. And he's got angels on those armies, and evil spirits, demon spirits, indwelling those armies all over the world, indwelling parties, political parties all over the world, in nations, dividing nations, destroying nations through these terrible parties. You can always tell one thing about those that are on Satan's side. They kill and destroy. Those that are inspired by Satan kill and destroy. They kill and destroy. Remember that. Think about the parties in the world, the political parties. Where are the violent parties? What parties and nations are violent? The Marxist nations? The Nazi nations? The fascist nation or the democratic nations? The democracy. Democracy does not kill and destroy. Democracy builds. Democracy tries to input harmony in societies. It says here, He delivered us from the domain of darkness, transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son. He is the image of the invisible God, the head of all creation. It says firstborn, it means head of all creation. The head of all the creation. For in Him all things were created, both in the heavens and upon the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominion or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through Him, by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and to Him all things hold together or are held together. He is what holds societies together. Satan causes chaos. Satan causes chaos. And the earth, she had become formless and chaos. Chaos. Satan causes chaos. He is also the head of the body of the church. He is the beginning of the firstborn. of the dead ones, so that he himself might come to have first place in everything. For it is was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him, and through him to reconcile all things to himself." Ephesians 3 and 11. The whole Bible, Ephesians 2 and 8, for in grace ye are having been saved through faith and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God. Galatians 4 and In the fullness of the kinds, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law of the night, redeemed those under the curse of the law. The law only was given to Moses to show how infinite mankind is in coming to God. They're supposed to show them you're sinners. You can't come to God until you say, Lord, forgive me of my sins. Save my soul. Please, forgive me for I failed you. Lord, please guide me. Let Your Spirit dwell in me and let me be Yours from now on. And through Him, to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace with the blood of the cross, the Lamb that took away the sin of the world is our Savior, Jesus Christ. Ephesians 3 and 11. Through Him I say, whether things upon the earth or in heaven's all, though you are formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has reconciled you in His fleshly body through death in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond report. Paul said, I was made a minister, I was made a gospel minister to give this good news to you. Paul said he rejoiced in his sufferings that he might some way, some way bring you the good news of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's not one tenth of this verse. But that's what it's all about. We'll go on with it more. Yet, we haven't covered everything it told us. It just tells us that every age failed. But the church age will not fail, even though it will become very weakling, very crippled, very worldlings. You know, we have a worldly church and a churchy world today. We have a worldly church and a churchy world. God doesn't like that. He wants His church to be pure as a chaste virgin before Him and presents herself, volition. Not every church is going to be in the Bride of Christ, I can guarantee you that. Only those that follow the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and also follow in His ways in their lives. Our Father, we send this message out for your honor and glory. Please use it wherever it goes. Touch people's lives with it. Let them see your eternal purpose and non-preventable progress. Father, please forgive me where I fail you. In Jesus' name I pray.