We are discussing The Truth as it is in Jesus, and bringing all things into The Truth. Now we must understand that The Truth is a Person, and that Person, is Christ, and that Person is Christ related to The Cross. Consequently The Truth is Christ revealed in His death, His burial and His resurrection. Therefore it is at The Cross, in The Person of Christ crucified that you and I are brought face to face with The Truth. And if you and I are brought face to face with Christ crucified; that is face to face with Him in a relationship with Him in His death, burial and resurrection; if we are brought face to face with The Truth, then we will begin to bring all things into The Truth. That is, we will begin to comprehend all things from the standpoint of our relationship with The Truth. All things will be brought to The Truth - IN OUR HEARTS. They will be judged there, measured there, and one will be divided from another there. For if you and I have come to The Truth, and The Truth is reigning in us, then all things will be judged in the Light of that Truth. And there, the living - in our hearts, shall be separated from the dead.

We must see all things in their relationship to Christ crucified; seeing all things of the Old Covenant, all things of the New Covenant; comprehending all things in relationship to His death, burial and resurrection. And I want to emphasize - you can see nothing, you can comprehend nothing in relationship to His death, burial and resurrection until you yourself are comprehending Him - for yourself in His death, burial and resurrection. Until you and I find our relationship with The Truth, we can bring nothing else to The Truth. No, we are the first ones who must come.

We want to deal now with bringing The Mystery of God to The Truth; bringing to The Truth, seeing The Mystery of God in its relationship to Christ through His death, His burial, His resurrection. The Mystery of God made known by The Truth - that’s what we’re looking at. The Mystery of God made known in The Truth. And the emphasis that I want to put upon this is THE MYSTERY OF GOD IS MADE KNOWN! You know, most Christians have no idea how to study the Bible. They have no idea how to search the scripture. We search the scripture looking for Christ, but they have no idea how to study the Bible - period! Most people just do not comprehend, they don’t understand that the New Testament is the FULFILLMENT of the Old; that everything that is hidden, shrouded - either by promise or prophecy, or by commandment in the Old Covenant, is personified in the New Covenant, it is completed, fulfilled, made known in The Person of The Lord Jesus Christ.

But most people try to read the Old Testament and the New Testament, the Old Covenant and the New Covenant as two different Bibles. They do not understand that the one, the New, is simply the fulfillment of the Old. If you take away the Old, the New doesn’t make any sense. And if you take away the New, the Old doesn’t have any fulfillment. There was a Mystery hidden in the Old that is made known in the New. There is no Mystery in the New: the Mystery is MADE KNOWN in the New. But we have people today still preaching that there is a Mystery of God, that there is still something hidden of God. Now, we are going to read every scripture in the New Testament concerning The Mystery. Mark 4:11, " And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know THE MYSTERY of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables." It is given to know: He is speaking to His disciples, and He is speaking to you and I who are in Him. Romans 11:25, " For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this MYSTERY, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." But we have people, because they are so ignorant in the scriptures, who think that God has a Mystery that He hasn’t revealed in His Son.

But as I said before: The Mystery was hidden in the Old Covenant, it’s revealed in the New. God doesn’t create another Mystery in the New Covenant to be revealed in some other future Covenant, because there is no other future covenant! There is an Old Covenant, and there is a New Covenant; a first one and a last one; the first one and a second one. There is no third one! There is no future one! We have it all NOW IN CHRIST! We may be ignorant of it, but if we would open the eyes of our understanding and allow The Spirit of God to lead us and guide us and direct us, we would see the greatness of all that God has both finished and revealed in His Son. But we seemingly choose to be blind to the reality of Christ, and we swallow the mis-teachings and ill conceived ideas that there is still a Mystery out there somewhere that God hasn’t revealed. There may very well be a Mystery you and I have not understood, but it’s not another Mystery. It’s the same Mystery that the Old Testament hid. And the reason we don’t understand it is because we won’t learn Christ!

There is NO Mystery that has not been fully finished, fully completed, fully revealed in Christ Jesus - if we simply turn to see Him. But because many believe that there is, they are still looking for the fulness of the Gentiles to come in, and only God knows how many silly doctrines have been created around that scenario! Many preach there is still a fulness of the Gentiles to come in, and that there is still another separate Salvation for national Israel - just like Full Salvation does not now exist in Christ! But people believe that because they don’t comprehend The Mystery which is summed up and set forth in One New Man.

But look now at Ephesians 3. Let’s look at the fulness of the Gentiles. What Paul is talking about in Romans he’s also talking about in Ephesians. He doesn’t change his story in every letter that he writes. Ephesians 3:3, " How that by revelation he made known unto me THE MYSTERY; (as I wrote afore in few words." He didn’t make known unto me that there was a Mystery: Paul says I knew there was a Mystery. Everybody knew there was a Mystery because nobody understood. Paul would say, we had promises, but we didn’t understand how they were going to be fulfilled. We had prophecies, but we didn’t know the who, what and where of them. We knew the prophecies were true, but we didn’t know the time. We knew the promises were true, but we didn’t know the fulfillment. We had the commandments, and we couldn’t keep them; and yet we knew that they suggested and pointed to a righteousness, but we had no idea, or by whom that righteousness would come. It was a Mystery, but Paul found the answer to THE MYSTERY in THE PERSON OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST! He found the Who, the What, the Why, the When, the Where: he found the fulfillment to the promises, he found the finish to the prophecies, he found the realization of the inheritance, he found the why and the how, the where and the who of THE MYSTERY OF GOD! He found it IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST!

And for Paul every prophecy and every prophet was answered; every promise and every part of the inheritance was found. For Paul the commandments, which once were commandments unto men were now a working of The Spirit of Christ in His body; working the things in a people that were once commanded to a people. Paul found The Mystery! It’s a shame that most theologians and all dispensationalists have not found The Mystery yet! But the real shame of that is not the theologians nor the theoretical dispensationalists. The ones who are paying the price is The Body of Jesus Christ, The Church of The Living God who are kept in the dark, who are kept under a shadow, and who are not having ministered to them The Mystery.

Having made known... "How that by revelation he made known unto me THE MYSTERY; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in THE MYSTERY of Christ." Paul isn’t trying to keep anything hidden here. "Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by The Spirit." ‘Other ages’ here is a Biblical term for Old Covenant times. "That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel." There is the fulness promised to the Gentiles, and it has come for them in Christ Jesus! There’s nothing off out in the future that is greater than what we NOW HAVE in fulness in The Person of The Lord Jesus! We are His Body! We are His Body, the fulness of Him, Who filleth all in all! There’s your "fulness" for you! Romans 16:25, " Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of THE MYSTERY, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest..." How is the preaching of Jesus Christ? It is according to the revelation of THE MYSTERY. Now to Him that is of power to establish you... how? According to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ. But what is the preaching of Jesus Christ according to? According to WHAT do I preach Christ? According to WHAT is my gospel? According to THE REVELATION OF THE MYSTERY!

Paul preached what God revealed in him in The Person of His Son. And he didn’t keep it back: he had found The Mystery. He found The Mystery in Christ, and he declared that Mystery openly to all who would hear. "...which was kept secret, BUT NOW IS made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith." Listen, The Mystery, which was one time hidden has NOW been made manifest IN CHRIST. The New Covenant does not declare another Mystery that is yet to come, that is yet to be seen. No, there’s only one Mystery. It was declared in the Old Covenant, it was hidden from generations and from ages in times past, but 2,000 ago, according to the reality of Christ, and the reality that is finished and revealed in Christ, HATH now made this Mystery known to His saints! But now is made manifest: that which the prophets had said and was hidden, is now made known. That which the commandments of God determined, is now made known. And it is now made known for the Salvation of the nations. Oh, how dare that we have theologians today who, because of their own ignorance and refusal to know Christ, continue to preach that there is a Mystery yet to be revealed, that we can not yet know. That is simply not true, according to the very scripture of your Bible.

1 Corinthians 2:7, " But we speak the wisdom of God in a MYSTERY, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory." Notice he did NOT say we speak to you OF a hidden wisdom, we are talking to you about a hidden mystery. No, he says we speak that Mystery; what we teach, what we preach - we speak that Mystery. And what has he just said before that? And this whole study is going to come to this: that THE MYSTERY is made known in THE TRUTH, and THE TRUTH is made known in CHRIST CRUCIFIED, and that we understand all things, even the mystery of God through our relationship with Jesus Christ in His death, His burial and His resurrection. Look what is said at the beginning of the chapter: "While I’m among you I will know nothing save CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED." Look at that! "But we speak the wisdom of God..." What is he speaking? What is he preaching? "I’ve determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." Now don’t misunderstand that for ‘I speak nothing among you but to let you know that Christ was crucified’. No, not that Christ WAS crucified: "I’ll know nothing among you save Jesus Christ AND Him crucified."

It’s a living reality with Paul. Paul isn’t talking about an historical date when Jesus was nailed on a Cross. To Paul the term "Christ crucified" means Christ in His relationship with His people through His death, His burial, His resurrection; because it’s Paul who says, "What, don’t you understand that your relationship with Christ is through His death? You don’t understand that? Romans 6. "You don’t understand that as many of you as have been baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? You don’t understand that your relationship right now with Jesus Christ is as those who were buried with Him; buried with Him by baptism unto death? You don’t understand that your relationship with Jesus Christ right now is as those who are raised up with Him to walk in newness of Life? Even as He was raised up from among the dead by the glory of The Father, even so you should walk in newness of life? What, you don’t understand that as Christ died once unto sin, that He is dead unto sin; that death hath no more power over Him; and in that He liveth, He liveth unto God? Verse 11, "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

What I’m telling you is Paul’s idea and Paul’s term "Christ crucified" was not dealing with an historical fact or an historical event, but an ever ongoing, present reality of a relationship with Christ in His death to sin, in His burial in the earth and to the world, and in His resurrection by The Spirit. And that everyone who has come to Christ, and who is His Body, is NOW in a living relationship with Him in His death, burial and resurrection. Yes, this is The Truth. And so when Paul says, "I’ll know nothing among you save Christ and Him crucified," he is saying I will preach nothing among you save THE CROSS! And I know there are a whole lot of people who are afraid of The Cross, but The Cross is central, it is the backbone, it is the standard, it is The Truth of God revealed in Christ. The Cross is central: not only to The Person of God, not only to The Person of The Lord Jesus Christ; The Cross is central to the Eternal Plan and Purpose of God called Salvation. You are not going to get away from The Cross because The Cross is not an historical event, The Cross has been personified in The Son of God, The Cross is The Son of God in His death, in His burial, in His resurrection. The Cross is that power of God, that reality and wisdom of God, that operation of The Spirit of God whereby you and I have relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET AWAY FROM THE CROSS!

Now - "We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery." 1 Corinthians 15:51, "Behold, I shew you a MYSTERY; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." And then he goes on talking about the REALITY of the resurrection that we all now have: every believer since that time, and in this statement he’s even including the Old Testament saints that were waiting on their resurrection, Who came in The Person of Jesus Christ, and declared, I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE. And even those that are dead: "If any man believe in Me, though he were dead (speaking of those who had died in faith of Old Covenant Israel), yet shall they live. And those who live and believe in Me shall never die (speaking of those that received Him). Alive - they were all caught up together, seated together in the SAME reality of the SAME Christ, in the SAME Spirit, in the SAME Temple, in the SAME mountain, resurrected as the SAME Body - that Body of Jesus Christ.

He says I am showing you a Mystery. How is it then that most preachers today, most denominations today, and most theologians today still preach this as a future mystery, a mystery to be realized at some future time? How is that, when Paul said 2000 years ago in this letter, Behold I SHEW you a mystery." The word "shew" means I openly declare it to you, I take the mystery out of it, I plainly show to you what has certainly been a mystery, because The Resurrection was certainly a mystery to Old Covenant Israel. It’s a shame that it has been kept hidden, and it has been made to be a mystery to The Church! Oh, but that’s a false mystery. That’s a mystery that can only be perpetuated by the lie of dispensationalism, and by the ignorance of "denominationalisms". And I’m not saying that denominations are wrong: I’m talking about denominationalisms. That’s one of my little words for man-made doctrines being enforced upon groups of people who are too ignorant to search the scripture for themselves. That’s what I mean when I say denominationalisms. And it’s a shame that those things have been allowed to become what most people claim Christianity is all about. When in fact the reality of Christ is what Christianity is all about. The very Mystery of The Resurrection finds its summation in One New Man. And the whole Mystery of God comes together in just this way: The Mystery of God is revealed, is openly set forth; The Mystery of God is One New Man that is neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, bond nor free, but CHRIST ALL AND IN ALL. That is the summation of it.

Yes, there are many facets to this Mystery, but when we pull them all together, they all amount to just this: The Mystery of God that is revealed in Christ through His death, burial and resurrection is set forth and openly displayed, openly made manifest as One New Man. That takes a good deal of commentary, but you can see it all along the way here. The Mystery of God as it involved The Resurrection is settled and is understood in The Person of One New Man, because that’s where The Resurrection is fulfilled. The Resurrection with Israel was a mystery: they knew there was going to be one, certainly. Such prophets as Ezekiel with his valley of dry bones, such prophets as Jeremiah with his teaching on restoration, such prophets as Isaiah with his house. Certainly the prophets declared there would be a resurrection, but it was a mystery as to how, what, when, where? So they simply materialized it. And when the Lord Jesus came, they were looking for Him to perform a resurrection upon a natural Israel, and create natural Israel into another natural kingdom that could defeat all of its enemies as it had done in the Old Testament times.

And the Lord looked at them and said, ‘No, my kingdom is NOT of this world. I am from above, you are from beneath. My Kingdom is from above! Yes, those who would be of My Kingdom must be born from above!’ And when He said that He was speaking of The Resurrection. But they wouldn’t receive that because they wanted a Resurrection of materialism, and I’m afraid that’s the same thing that has crept into The Church today! The Church wants a Resurrection of materialism; they want a material resurrection. They just want to go to a "better place" - not a different place, not a place that is totally other than the earth, the world - they just want a better place. They want one where there’s no pestilence and no war and no disease. But they think of it as another material place, when in fact The Resurrection has nothing to do with materialism at all! Oh, He takes us from one place to another; He takes us from one realm to another realm. He takes us from all that is flesh and fleshly into the reality of all that is Spirit and spiritual. He takes us from all that is temporal and shall always be temporal, into that which alone is eternal, and shall always be eternal. Oh yes, He raises us up IN HIMSELF, and brings us unto Life Immortal and Life Eternal and Life Incorruptible, but it has nothing to do with the concept of materialism.

"I shew you a MYSTERY." Ephesians 1:9, "Having made known unto us THE MYSTERY of His will..." There it is again! There aren’t different mysteries: there’s only one Mystery referred to in the Bible. It has facets, it has parts because it involves the whole of Salvation, but it’s one Mystery. And it is REVEALED IN ONE SON, One Man, One Lord and Savior. And it’s made MANIFEST IN ONE NEW MAN. "Having made known unto us the MYSTERY of His will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself." Ephesians 3:3,4, " How that by revelation he made known unto me THE MYSTERY; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in THE MYSTERY of Christ)." And the end of this is that the Gentiles are members of the same Body. Well certainly, because that Body is neither Jew nor Gentile, but One New Man! How does it get that way? That was the Mystery, but that Mystery was not only finished and completed in Christ, but was openly made manifest through Christ to all New Testament saints. And certainly through the letters and teachings of Paul: that nothing be kept back from them, nothing be held as a mystery to them.

Look at Colossians 1:24. This is Paul’s relationship with The Church through his understanding of The Church as being the very Body of Jesus Christ. So Paul’s relationship with The Church was not as a bunch of people in a congregation; his relationship with The Church was based upon his understanding that the Church was the very Body of Jesus Christ. Now his understanding of the Body of Jesus Christ is what he referred to as "the mystery which hath been made known". He understands that The Body of Jesus Christ is One New Man. And of course The One New Man and the understanding of that One New Man is central to The Cross. "Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church: Whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God." Now, "dispensation" should be "administration" because it’s not talking about a number of years here, but a working administration of The Spirit. So he had been given an administration of God. "...which is given to me for you (and here’s the point) TO FULFIL THE WORD OF GOD; even THE MYSTERY..." Paul’s whole ministry, his whole calling was to fulfil The Word of God. What does that mean? To bring The Word of God; and at that time The Word of God was from Genesis to Malachi, the Old Covenant; to bring The Word of God - every scripture of it to fulfilment. How did he bring it to fulfilment? How did he fulfil The Word of God for the saints? He presented it fulfilled IN CHRIST! He presented it finished in Christ.

Verse 26, "Even THE MYSTERY which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints." Now even that Mystery that had been hidden is fulfilled, because you see, the whole Word of God was the hiding place for The Mystery. The Word of God continually spoke of these things - all of which would be fulfilled in Him and by Him through His death, His burial, His resurrection; that is, by The Cross. And that’s what I mean when I say The Cross is central to The Mystery. It is by Christ through His death, burial and resurrection that The Mystery of how and what and when and where God would do all that He said He would do was accomplished. Paul saw that the fulfilment of that Mystery and the revealing of that Mystery was in the Lord Jesus through His death, burial and resurrection. And in this lesson we are endeavoring to bring The Mystery into The Truth. Paul has related this Mystery in Ephesians 3 to the Gentiles being part of the same Body of Christ. This is The Mystery of God made manifest in One New Man.

Now Ephesians 5:32. Paul teaches here about the marriage of Christ and The Church and he also brings into that the marriage of believers: that believers, husbands and wives may manifest in the earth the realization of what has been kept hidden as a Mystery. That even our own lives should be open manifestations of Christ’s union with The Church; that we who are The Church should so conduct our lives that those lives themselves, in our relationships one to another, be in and of themselves a manifestation of what has been a Mystery but is now a REALITY concerning our relationship with the Lord Jesus. " This is a great MYSTERY: but I speak concerning Christ and the church." Now just put that with Revelation 1:20, " The MYSTERY of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches; and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches." And we know that in the language of the book of the Revelation what we are seeing here is the completeness of The Church. Seven means The Church brought to its completeness; a seven fold Church, a seven fold ministry with a seven fold message. With all those sevens we are seeing the completeness of The Church. It starts off in Revelation 1 and we are seeing a breakdown of what John first described as "I saw One standing in the midst of the golden candlesticks." And this is a direct reference to the golden candlestick of the Old Covenant, not only of the Tabernacle, but to the candlestick of the prophet Zechariah.

Zechariah 4:2, " And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof." Zechariah is seeing here in prophetic type and vision what John is declaring as a reality of Jesus Christ in the midst of His Church, dwelling in His Church in the book of Revelation. Because that’s what the book of Revelation is: it is a revelation to The Church of THE REALITY of Jesus Christ. And though there are many things taking place during the time the book of Revelation was being written, and just after it was written with regard to national Israel being destroyed and taken away, and The Church coming forth out of the heaven, visible upon the earth as the manifestation of the sons of God, but the message there is unmistakably the revelation of Jesus Christ to The Church. The message there is The Mystery of which Zechariah spake is now revealed - it is Christ in the midst of you, and it is you as His Glorious Body! And so when Paul is saying "This is a great MYSTERY, but I speak concerning Christ and The Church", it’s the same declaration, it’s the same union, it’s the same realization that John is seeing in the first chapter of the book of Revelation. And in fact, the whole book of Revelation is an enlargement upon this fifth chapter of the book of Ephesians, and Paul’s declaration concerning the relationship of Christ with His Church, which had been in Old Covenant times a Mystery.

Ephesians 6:19, " And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known THE MYSTERY of the gospel." Listen, it was a dangerous thing in that time to open your mouth and make known The Mystery of the gospel because the Jews wanted to kill you when you did that, because The Mystery of the gospel was that The Body of Christ, The Body of Christ in Resurrection, The Body in which Christ now lives and dwells, The Temple of The Living God - is not Jew, and it’s not circumcised; it’s not Gentile, and it’s not uncircumcised. But it is One New Man, who is born from above! In that day and time it was dangerous to speak of The Mystery; it was dangerous. It wasn’t dangerous to declare THERE WAS a Mystery - national Israel would probably make you a rabbi, because they all believed there was a Mystery. What was dangerous was to declare The Mystery was solved, The Mystery is fulfilled, The Mystery has been made manifest through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ! When I speak, when the Bible speaks, when Paul speaks about the death, burial and resurrection that is not talking about a 2,000 year ago historical event - that Christ died, was buried and that He did come forth from among the dead, that He was resurrected. We are talking about the present reality of Christ in His death: that His death, for you and I who are baptized into Him, His death is a PRESENT REALITY. We are by Him made dead - dead to sin, dead to ourselves, dead to the world - dead! "For he that is dead is free from sin." And we are buried with Him; for your life is hidden with Christ in God. And what a tremendous realization that burial is! Because it is there that in our hearts and minds we are literally transformed from one body, the Old Covenant body, to the New Body, the New Covenant Body of The Lord Jesus Christ. The transition, the very transformation takes place in our souls. And the resurrection: the realization that He lives in us, He is our Life, He Who is of The Endless Life is my Life, and I live only by Him!

Oh, when I speak of His death, burial and resurrection, I speak of it as a present reality. It is a PRESENT reality, and we must understand that. It is sure and it is certain that 2,000 years ago this great reality was made manifest on Golgotha’s hill - but it didn’t stay there! That’s what Paul is saying: it HATH been made manifest to His saints. It’s already happened! The Mystery that was hidden is already finished and already fulfilled, and it’s for all who would know, it is for all who would see IN CHRIST JESUS. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:6, " For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness HATH shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." There is nothing hidden except it be hidden by our own carnality, by our own fleshliness, by our own ignorance, by our own refusal to turn our hearts and see The Truth as The Truth is in Jesus.

So you see, in Paul’s time it was a dangerous thing to speak plainly of The Mystery. Well, it’s the same way today; and it’s not that we’re more civilized, but we’re more "civilly restricted". In other words, in that day if they didn’t like what you were saying they’d just take you out and stone you! But we still have that same mentality today, because the dispensationalists would certainly like to take someone out and stone them who declares the ever present reality of Christ! And the denominationalists, and the denominationalisms would certainly like to do the same thing to anyone who dares say that there’s more to Christianity than they have summed up in their little "Fourteen Fundamental Statements of Truth", or whatever. But you see we are more civilly restricted, so we throw stones anyway, don’t we? They are just stones of hate, stones of accusations, witch hunts. Yes, it’s all there. Among the established religion, the preaching of The Truth, the declaring of The Mystery is no more popular today than it was when Paul did it, and that’s a shame, because when Paul did it, it was the Old Covenant people - those who denied that The Cross was the finish of everything; those who denied that Jesus Christ was come in the flesh; those that denied Him in His death, burial and resurrection; those who denied that He had brought into reality through His death, burial and resurrection all that their prophets had said; those who denied that He was The Living Temple of The Living God, and that they could be The Living Temple of The Living God by being members of Him, members of His Own Body.

No - it was those who denied the reality of Him that sought Paul’s life, that stoned him. The Church was that which was birthed in the knowledge of The Mystery. The Church was the vessel that was giving manifestation to The Mystery! Today the great shame is that because of the loss of The Truth, and the loss of the vision of God, and the damnable doctrine of dispensationalism, the very vehicle, the very vessel, the very vessel that is to be a manifestation of The Mystery has been robbed of reality, and is now looking for a mystery. It is believing that there is a mystery yet to be known, and wondering what it is. When in fact, The Church, from its very inception, from its very creation in Christ Jesus has been the proof of, the realization of, and the manifestation of THE MYSTERY itself! THE MYSTERY OF GOD IN CHRIST IS THE CHURCH! But it is The Church as understood in The Truth; The Church as understood through its relationship with Christ crucified; The Church, not as congregations; The Church, not as denominations, but The Church as The One New Man whose fulness is Christ. Oh, believer friend, let us set our hearts together to know Him, and to know The Truth as The Truth is in Him, and to bring all things into The Truth. And most particularly to bring every element of our Salvation into The Truth; that is, to comprehend every element of our Salvation through its relationship to Jesus Christ in His death, burial and resurrection.

So - utterance... and I tell you, if you’re going to pray for me, pray just that way: that I may open my mouth boldly and make known The Mystery of the gospel, and that The Father, by The Spirit may give unto me the utterance, that I may speak, that I may have words to say The Truth as The Truth is revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. And pray for us as a corporate voice, that we will take up the standard, will stand boldly in all of its parts and all of its pieces, bound up not as parts or pieces, but bound up as one standard, as one vessel, as one vehicle, as one voice for The Truth as The Truth is revealed in Christ. That to us would be given utterance - utterance beyond anything we have now, that unto us as a fellowship may be given utterance that we may boldly speak The Mystery of the gospel through The Church and unto the ends of the earth! If you pray - pray that way.

We looked at Colossians 1:26: The MYSTERY which was hidden is now made manifest. This letter was written 2,000 years ago concerning a REALITY that is still ongoing this very day, and will be ongoing throughout endless eternity! We’re not waiting on a mystery: The Mystery has been solved, The Mystery has been finished and is now revealed in Jesus Christ! "...but is NOW made manifest to his saints; To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this MYSTERY among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Now, Christ is NOT a hope of FUTURE glory; look at what Paul is saying here. That The Church of that day may make manifest; The Church that had been born, The Church that had started out as all Jews and now Paul was bringing Gentiles into it. And when he talks about "Christ in you, the hope of glory", it is the Old Covenant hope. The hope of glory was that which was given to Israel; Israel had a hope of glory. Just like they had a hope of resurrection, a hope of restoration, and a hope of reconciliation - they had a hope of glory. That hope is Christ in you. It was fulfilled in Christ and the riches of that expectation was Christ dwelling in them, that they might make this Mystery known among the Gentiles, among all nations. The glory of which is Christ in you, the hope of Israel - fulfilled!

It’s not a hope of some glory given to The Church; The Church doesn’t have a HOPE of glory; THE GLORY OF GOD DWELLS IN THE CHURCH! It was the Old Covenant Temple that had the hope of glory; The New Covenant Temple has the Glory of God Himself! There isn’t another glory, and there isn’t another Temple yet to come. No, YE are The Temple of God, you are the lively stones, you are that which God has raised up, has fully restored, reconciled unto Himself, unto His purpose, unto His Eternal Plan. You are that Temple in which Jesus Christ now dwells as The High Priest and minister of the sanctuary of God. THE GLORY OF GOD IS COME! You will either see Him or you won’t. You will either look into His face and behold there the light of the knowledge of the glory of God or you won’t. But The Glory of God is come, and He NOW dwells in His Temple. We are not given a hope of glory; we are given The Glory for which Israel hoped! That hope has come. It has come and been fulfilled in The Person, in The Spirit of The Lord Jesus Christ Who now dwells in His Holy Sanctuary, which sanctuary you are. Thank you, Jesus!

Colossians 2:2, "That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the MYSTERY of God, and of The Father, and of Christ." You and I should live in the acknowledgment of The Mystery, and as manifestation, as expressions of The Mystery of God in Christ made manifest in the earth. That’s how we should live, and that’s how we do live if we live beholding the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It’s a shame that dispensationalism and false teaching; it’s a shame that religion has been allowed to put a veil back over our hearts that was done away 2,000 years ago in the death, burial and resurrection of The Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my, will you turn to see Him as never before? Will we stand together to declare Him as never before? Dear friends, we are bound together in nothing other than, and in nothing less than the revelation of God’s Own Son, in Whom The Mystery of God is fully made known. There is no future mystery; there is no mystery yet to be revealed. The Mystery has been made known; it has been made manifest by The Cross. Jesus Christ in His death, burial and resurrection made it manifest. Paul says it HATH been made manifest to His saints. It has already been made manifest; it will be revealed in anyone who will turn their heart to see Him in The Truth.

Now I know it sounds exciting for people to still preach to you about a mystery that is yet to come, and we get all mysterious. But that’s just because we don’t want to pay the cost to turn and see Him now! That’s because we have not come to a relationship with Him that allows God to reveal that Son in us in His death, in His burial, in His resurrection. We want to get on beyond The Cross, and yet we want to know The Mystery of God. You can’t do that, so we’re still preaching there’s a mystery to come. ‘One day God’s going to do something. One day God is going to have... One day God is going to do... One day this... One day that..." Listen, He’s already got everything He’s ever going to have in HIS SON! When is somebody going to turn and see The Truth as it is in Christ, and become a living manifestation of that Truth in the earth? That’s the only question that I can see that is left to us by The Spirit of God: When will we see Jesus? Because the fulness is in Him, The Mystery is solved and finished in Him, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God is in His face! The only question then is: when will somebody turn their heart to see Him? Yes, to see Him in relationship of The Truth, in relationship with His death, His burial and His resurrection, because immediately upon doing that, we become an expression in the earth of The Truth, and that includes The Mystery of God, which is finished in Jesus Christ. It’s already finished!

Colossians 4:3, " Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak The MYSTERY of Christ, for which I am also in bonds." This is the same thing that we just got through saying. Paul doesn’t change his story; it’s the same thing. To speak The Mystery of Christ - not to speak about there being a mystery still, but to speak The Mystery of Christ; not to preach on a mystery, to declare what has been a Mystery openly, fully - IN CHRIST, and set it forth in front of The Church; that The Church may know Him, see Him as He is, and live as an expression of that Mystery in the earth.

Revelation 1:20: we read that before - The MYSTERY of the seven stars and the seven golden candlesticks: Christ dwelling in the midst of His Church, His Church which is His Body, the fulness of Him Who filleth all in all. My Lord! What a statement, what a reality! Do we realize that these statements are not simply statements of theology, but they are statements of RELATIONSHIP? And you and I are never going to understand as a statement "The Church, which is His Body, the fulness of Him, Who filleth all in all." As a statement we’re never going to comprehend that until we comprehend The Truth of that statement in relationship to Christ. The whole of the New Covenant is voicing a relationship - a real, an eternal, an ever ongoing relationship. We try to make scripture statements out of the New Testament, scripture statements out of the New Covenant. But every letter that Paul writes is a declaration of relationship, and seeking to show believers the reality of Christ, that they may walk in that same relationship. He’s not out to produce bigger, better theologians, but a people who are IN RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST - knowing Him, walking in The Truth as The Truth is in Jesus.

And this is what you and I are called into, dear friends. We are called into RELATIONSHIP. You can only know The Truth in and as relationship, because The Truth has to it a nature. The Truth is not bound up in a study, or a fact, or a subject. The Truth is bound up in A PERSON. And to know The Person is to know Him in relationship. The Truth is not a lesson we learn, but a relationship in which we live, in which we walk - a relationship with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. And by that we have relationship one with another. May that be our relationship, and may it ever abound! AMEN.