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  THE RICHES OF CHRIST IN HIS SAINTS: SEEING THE BODY
  by Stephen Kaung
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Summary: The sermon emphasizes the importance of seeing Christ in the
Spirit and understanding the unsearchable riches of Christ, which are
available to believers through the Church.

Duration: 1:08:06 Topics: "Body Of Christ", "Spiritual Revelation"

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DESCRIPTION
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In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the importance of using our
entire body, not just our words, to effectively communicate. He
emphasizes that the body is the vessel through which the riches of
Christ can be expressed and manifested to the world. The speaker
acknowledges his own foolishness and weakness, but marvels at how the
Lord can use imperfect beings like us to be the container and
manifestation of His unsearchable riches. He also highlights the need
for revelation in order to truly understand and speak about Christ and
the people of God. The sermon is based on Ephesians 1:17-23, which
speaks of the spirit of wisdom and revelation in knowing God and His
power.

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CONTENT
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Lord, we are before thee. Make thy presence known to us. Make it real to
us.

May the light of thy countenance shine upon us. Live up thy countenance
towards us. We do come together to thee, to behold thee.

With unveiled face, that thou mayst be able to transform us according to
thy Son, from glory to glory. Lord, we do pray that at this very moment,
thou will make us forget everything, that our whole being may be fixed
upon thee. Lord, that we may see thee, hear thee, and be in touch with
thyself.

Lord, we ask thee that this night, thou will open our understanding,
that we may know thee, as thou dost know us. Lord, we ask thee to
deliver us from ourselves, even the best of ourselves, that we may be
absorbed into thee, to all that thou art. Lord, we do look to thee
together for thy Spirit's working in us and among us, that thy Son may
be magnified, expressed and glorified in the church.

In the precious name of our Lord Jesus. We do thank the Lord, that this
morning our brother has helped us to see the need, and not only the
need, but the way to spiritual balance. I believe you all agree with me,
that we need this very much.

And we do see that this is possible, not in us, but in Him. And we also
thank the Lord for our brother, who has again led us into that
unsearchable riches of Christ, the glory of His inheritance in the same.
Brothers and sisters, I believe that we all marvel at what the Lord has
done.

He always surprises us. And we do thank Him for that. Tonight, God
willing, we will look into more or less the same direction.

But I hope I will just keep myself low at the practical level. Will you
please turn to the letter to the Ephesians, chapter 1. The letter to the
Ephesians, chapter 1, we read from verse 17 through verse 23. The God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give you the spirit of
wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him, being enlightened in
the eyes of your heart, so that ye should know what is the hope of His
calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the
same, and what the surpassing greatness of His power towards us who
believe, according to the working of the might of His strength, in which
He wrought in Christ, in raising Him from among the dead, and He set Him
down at His right hand in the heavenlies, above every principality and
authority, and power and dominion, and every name named not only in this
age, but also in that to come, and has put all things under His feet,
and gave Him to be a head over all things, to the church, which is His
body, for the fullness of Him fulfills all." The third chapter of the
same letter.

Chapter 3, we'll read from verse 2 through verse 11. If indeed ye have
heard of the administration of the grace of God, which has been given to
me towards you, that by revelation the mystery has been made known to
me, according as I have written before briefly, by which, in reading it,
ye can understand my intelligence in the mystery of the Christ, which in
other generations has not been made known to the sons of men. As it has
now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the power of the
Spirit, that they who are of the nations should be joint heirs and a
joint body and joint partakers of His promise in Christ Jesus by the
glad tidings, of which I am become minister according to the gift of the
grace of God given to me, according to the working of His power.

To me, less than the least of all things, has this grace been given to
announce among the nations the glad tidings of the unsearchable riches
of the Christ, and to enlighten all with the knowledge of what is the
administration of the mystery hidden throughout the ages in God, who has
created all things in order that now, through the principalities and
authorities in the heavenly, might be made known through the Church to
all various knowledge of God according to the purpose of the ages, which
He purposed in Christ Jesus, Our dear brothers and sisters, by the grace
of God, we hope that tonight we may touch a little upon the unsearchable
riches of the mystery of the Christ. Now, first of all, we have to
explain what do we mean by mystery. Probably when this word is
mentioned, immediately you are thinking of something mysterious, to the
extent of being something hideous.

But dear brothers and sisters, certainly this is not the meaning in the
word of God. It is mystic, but not mysterious. It is hidden, but not
hideous.

It is in a sense unknown, but it doesn't mean it's unknowable. A mystery
in the word of God means something that has been hidden in the mind of
God throughout the ages, but it is one day to be known through the
revelation of the Spirit of God. That is a mystery.

In other words, before the foundation of the world, before time ever
began, way back in eternity past, there was a thought, a divine
intention, a purpose, or a will in God, in the Godhead. And with that
will, or purpose, or intention, or thought in God, we find that there is
a council, a plan, an administration, an economy, a dispensation, that
throughout the ages, God, according to that will, with that council, God
gradually, progressively, has been working towards the fulfillment of
that purpose. Throughout the ages and the generations, God has been
working.

And all the workings of God are controlled by that purpose, which He
purposed in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. In the Old
Testament time, we know that God was working. But He worked without
telling anybody why He was working in this way, what was the objective
of His working, what was His working purpose.

God did not tell anybody. But that does not mean that God did not work.
God had been working throughout the ages and the generations in the Old
Testament time.

And never God worked without. He was always working towards one thing.
But that one thing was a mystery.

It was not known. It had not been announced. It had not been told to
anybody.

But thank God, after He sent only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus, to this
world, and after our Lord Jesus had accomplished the work that was
entrusted to Him, then we find God began to unveil that mystery by
revelation of the Spirit to the holy apostles and Christ. In other
words, whereas in the old days God worked with a definite purpose but
without announcing it, now God is still working. He is still working but
He has declared to us the objective that He is working for.

He has told us what, brothers and sisters? I think there is one thing
that by the grace of God we must lay hold of. Oh, may I say it more
correctly? That we must be laid hold of by that one thing. Otherwise, we
miss the whole thing.

And that is the mystery hidden throughout the ages but is now made known
to us. Apostles call that mystery the mystery of... If you read very
carefully the third chapter of Ephesians, you will find that on the one
hand He says God has made known to Him the mystery of Christ. And on the
other hand He tells us God has appointed Him to announce the glad
tidings of the unsearchable riches of the Christ.

The mystery of Christ. The unsearchable riches of Christ. It seems as if
the mystery is the unsearchable riches of Christ.

The unsearchable riches of Christ What is the mystery among Greek
scholars that in the original Greek you will find that sometimes before
the word Christ there is an article. A definite article. The.

And sometimes there is no article before the word of Christ. In many
versions you do not have this difference. I guess that the translator
would just put Christ there without any definite article.

But if you go to the original or more original, more closer to the
original you will find that sometimes they put The before Christ and
sometimes they do not have that The before Christ. Now what is the
difference? They tell us that there is a difference. The difference is
here.

Whenever Christ is used without a definite article it means Christ
himself as a person. That is to say the personal Christ. Christ as a
person by himself.

But whenever you find the article The before Christ it means Christ in
relation to someone else. Christ with someone else. Christ includes
someone else.

Together with someone else. It means Christ the Christ personal through
his death and resurrection is enlarged into the Christ covering. He
includes in himself many whom he has saved.

He is the glorious head but he has obtained for himself. Dear brothers
and sisters if this is true then you'll find the word here the
unsearchable riches of the Christ. Dear brothers and sisters the
unsearchable riches of Christ is something shall we say natural.

Supernaturally natural. Of course Christ is unsearchably rich. No doubt
about that.

Who can challenge that? All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him
bodily. That's unsearchable riches. But dear brothers and sisters to
think that Christ who is unsearchably rich should share his riches with
us who are naturally that we may share in his riches in his unsearchable
riches that we may be united with him into one.

And not only the head alone that displays unsearchable riches but the
body is. Dear brothers and sisters this is unthinkable. The unsearchable
riches of the Christ.

It is a mystery. How can it be that we who are born and dead we who are
rebels sinners we who have no party in God he has brought us unite us to
him become one with him in life in nature in spirit and even in
unsearchable riches. Dear brothers and sisters it is.

Our brothers can explain that to us far much better than I can. So I'll
leave it to them. But I try to stick to it.

What I mentioned in the very beginning that is I would like to limit
myself just to the demonstration of the unsearchable riches. So we will
again take pause as the demonstration. Now dear brothers and sisters we
know that before Paul was converted he was called Paul.

Did he know Christ? I do not know. Whether he knew Christ personally or
not I do not know. Only we find in the letter to the Corinthians 2
Corinthians chapter 5 he did mention something like this.

If we have known Christ in the flesh now we no longer know him in the
flesh. We do not know whether the Apostle Paul knew Christ in the flesh
or not. That is to say did he meet Christ personally while Christ was on
earth? I do not know.

But one thing is sure. He has known Christ in the flesh. That is to say
he has measured Christ scrutinized Christ examined Christ analyzed
Christ and he has come to a conclusion that he has known all about him.

Who is the Christ that he knows in the flesh? A carpenter by trade. An
uneducated person never been to school. An outsider never been a
Pharisee.

An intruder into the field of religion. An unorthodox person not being
brought up in the right way. An imposter.

A blasphemer. One who sets himself up as a teacher dare to be a teacher.
A little man.

Pretending to be big. One who is worthy to die. And was dead.

And that's that. And thank God this Paul, this Saul was used by God to
wipe out. That is the Christ that Paul knew in the flesh.

He knew all about him. He had figured him all out. He believed that he
had got the right judgment.

And it was the agreement with the consensus of the ruling class. Is it
not true that this is not only the Christ that Saul knew? This was the
Christ that the Jews at the time of our Lord Jesus knew. Whenever the
Lord did something glorious, wonderful, on the one hand they were amazed
at the grace of God that such power might be manifested.

And immediately they came down and said I know. We know who he is. He is
a cousin to us.

We know his mother. We know his brothers and sisters. Oh, we know him
from inside out.

Dear brothers and sisters, what a knowledge that was in his
understanding. He got the credentials from the high priest in Jerusalem
giving him authority to go even to foreign cities to lay hands upon
those followers of Jesus and to condemn them. We are all familiar on the
way to Damascus as he was approaching that city.

I do not know what he was thinking while Damascus was in view. But
suddenly a light from heaven came upon him. He fell to it and he heard
about it.

Saul, why do you persecute? Don't you know it is hard? So keep it there.
Dear brothers and sisters, there on the ground as he prostrated on the
ground in dust. Not the Christ that he knew before.

An entirely different Christ. On the one hand he was the one. On the
other hand he wasn't.

He met Christ in glory. It was a great surprise. He thought Christ was
dead.

But here the risen Christ. He thought Christ was the son of Joseph. Here
he discovered Christ is the son of God.

He thought Christ was a blasphemer. Someone who is worthy to be killed.
Now he finds Christ is the fulfillment of all the promises.

Dear brothers and sisters, for the first time he became the risen one.
The one in glory. The almighty one.

The conqueror. The heir of all things. The Christ of God.

Dear brothers and sisters, is it not that in our lives we must begin
with him? The life of Paul begins with a heavenly vision. The life of
Paul does not begin with himself. With what he thinks.

What he has figured out. All these are shattered. The life of Paul
begins with a heavenly vision.

He himself tells us that he was caught up to the third heaven and heard
unspeakable things. But on the way of Damascus heaven came down to him.
There in heaven he saw Christ.

Christ in his glory. And that was, that is the beginning of the life.
Dear brothers and sisters, we have to begin here.

We cannot begin with ourselves. We cannot begin with our own thinking.
With our own concept of Christ.

We cannot begin with our own understanding of Christ with the natural
mind. We put him on a very low level. We cannot.

We have to have all these shattered to pieces. We have to begin with a
revelation. A heavenly revelation of Christ.

And when you see that, now brothers and sisters, as soon as he saw
Christ, he asked one question. The first question was, who are thou? Who
are you? I do not know you. I think I have known you.

But I discover I do not know you. I do not know that you are so
glorious, so mighty, so rich, so high. You are high above all.

God has put all things under your feet. I do not know you. And I know
you.

I will not do it. But I did it ignoring you. Because I did.

But dear brothers and sisters, do you know that what surprises Paul? May
I say more? If I can use that word. What surprises him more in a sense,
humanly speaking, is that when he asked, who are thou, Lord? Who are
thou? Do you know what the Lord answered? The Lord said, I am Jesus.
Whom thou? Why do you persecute me? Did I persecute you? How can an
earthly being persecute a heavenly person? I am on earth.

You are in heaven. How can I reach you? How can I persecute you? That's
impossible. What do you mean? Why do you persecute me? I do not
persecute you.

I cannot persecute you. You are beyond my reach. You are too powerful
for me.

Too high for me. What do you mean by that? Dear brothers and sisters,
you know what he said. Paul was persecuting the believers, the followers
of Jesus.

Those who are the Lord, they were on earth, the weak things, the foolish
things, the ignoble, those who are there. These were the people that
Paul was persecuting, the foolish people. And they could be so foolish
as following a dead man.

The poor, the weak things, just people, nothing, nobody. Paul was
persecuting, Paul was persecuting these people. And yet the Lord
revealed to Paul on the way of Damascus that in touching these foolish
things of the world, these weak things of the world, these nothings of
the world, he was touching none other but the glorious, the risen.

Dear brothers and sisters, I think this came to Paul as a great honor.
How could these foolish, indignant, nobody, nothing, how could they be
of that? How could they be so joined to Christ, the glorious head, that
the head and the body are literally one? When you touch any member of
the body, if you touch the head, the member is not something different
from the head. Idiot.

But can these poor things, these weak things, these nothings be the
vessel, the container, and the manifestation of the unsearchable riches
of the head? You need revelation to see Christ. You need revelation. If
you try to see Christ in the flesh, whom do you see? But when you see
Christ by the revelation of the Holy Spirit, whom do you see? All things
are in the same manner.

If you try to see the people of God in the flesh, what do you see? Our
dear brother this morning had already told us, rather it is most of us.
In the world, there are not many who are wise, who are noble, who are
high, who have become followers of Jesus. Instead it seems as if the
Lord delights in choosing, and He does.

The foolish, the weak things, thank God, you are weak things, and He
chooses. The nothings, if you think you are something, I'm afraid, you
are nothing. But if you are nothing, thank God, that's what He is
looking for.

He is looking at something that nobody will look at. So someone said,
our Lord Jesus will even pick up the devil's castle. And it seems as if
the Lord is always looking for that.

Dear brothers and sisters, when you try to see the believers in the
flesh, whether you see them in the flesh, whether you see them through
your flesh, what is the result? What is the picture that you see? I do
not need to describe to you, because we all know. But dear brothers and
sisters, if you see the Body, the Church, the people that God has chosen
for Himself, a peculiar people unto Himself, if you see them in the
Spirit, by revelation, oh dear brothers and sisters, you see that the
Church is the Body of Christ, the fullness of Him who fills all. In
Ephesians chapter 1 it is said, God has made Christ head over all things
to the Church, which is His Body.

The fullness of Him who fills all is made head over all things. For
what? For what purpose? For what reason? To the Church, which is His
Body. Dear brothers and sisters, what is the meaning of this? Why do you
need a body? We say that our head actually is the most important thing,
because it is the nerve center, it is the center of everything.

The brain is there, everything is there, the head. Why don't we just
have the head and not the body? Isn't all the richest are in the head?
All the richest of this being is in the head. All right.

Take off the body and let the head. Is that enough? Why is it that a
head needs a body? Dear brothers and sisters, the head is so rich that
it needs some container, something to contain it. And it needs something
to exist.

I remember, I cannot forget, a brother says, when you are talking like
when I'm talking now, of course I'm talking with my head. My mouth is.
When I'm talking, I'm talking as if it is the head who is talking.

But why is it that I need to use my hands and even use my feet?
Sometimes I have to walk here and walk there. And sometimes I have to
bend forward and sometimes I have to bend backward. Now, have you ever
seen someone who stands there and just talk and talk and talk? And if
anyone is doing that, the first thing is he cannot get his thoughts
across.

There might be words, but these words without expression is not
effective. On the other hand, the longer he talks, the quieter the
audience will be. They all go to sleep.

Dear brothers and sisters, all the unsearchable riches, our Lord Jesus
is so rich that He has to find a body to contain His riches. And by
containing His riches, it may give Him a chance, a chance of opportunity
to express Himself in full. Dear brothers and sisters, dear brothers and
sisters, I have to confess, I have believed the Lord for many, many
years.

But after all these years, I am still a fool. I remain a fool. The
foolish things, the weak things, nothing.

Think of that, that the Lord can take these to Himself and join these to
Him and form these to be a body and fill these with His riches. And
through these He shall manifest Himself that the world may see Him.
Brothers and sisters, you will never think this is possible.

But what is impossible, dear brothers and sisters, we have this treasure
in the earthen vessel. The Church, outwardly speaking, is like an
earthen vessel, nothing can keep it. But thank God, if you see the
Church in the Spirit, the earthen vessel, for the life, the Church is
the body, the fullness of Him who fills all.

Let us be very clear. What is this body made of, composed of? If you
read the second chapter of Ephesians, you find it is said that the
gospel has come, that the cross has come, and it breaks down the wall of
partition between the Jews and the Gentiles and made them one body in
peace. You know that they have found, actually found, in the ruins of
the temple, they found a sign there that was used to be posted in the
temple to warn the Gentiles not to go in too far.

They may stay in a certain section of the outer court, but beyond that,
no. If you go beyond that, then there was a wall of partition between
the Jews and the Gentiles. The Jews are the chosen.

The Jews have the oracles of God, the Gentiles. A wall of partition
between the Jews and the Gentiles. And yet our Lord Jesus, on Calvary's
cross, breaks down that wall of partition.

He brings the Jews and Gentiles together and makes them one body. His
body. You remember, in John chapter 10, our Lord Jesus says, I have
other sheep that do not belong to this fold.

I must go and find them. And they will hear my voice and I will make
them and you into one flock. The fold of Judaism.

And those without the fold. But in Christ, the wall, He has drawn out of
every nation, every tribe, every tongue, and made them one. Dear
brothers and sisters, we do thank the Lord.

It is wonderful in our eyes that He has broken down all the walls
between nations and nations, race and race, social status and social
status, background and education. The Lord has broken down all these
discriminations and out of these He has drawn us and put us together and
make us one. But dear brothers and sisters, that is good.

Out of every nation, every tongue, language, tribe, He has gathered us
together and make us one body. Let us use this audience as an
illustration. Not that there are no more Christians in this world aside
from this.

There are many, many more. Countless. But suppose let us use this
audience as an illustration.

Thank God He has drawn people from this country, out of United States of
America, He has drawn some out of Great Britain, He has drawn others.
Out of South America, He has drawn still others. Out of the Orient, He
has drawn some others.

And the Lord has broken down the wall of partition and has brought us
together and make us one body. Thank God for that. I see Chinese, I see
Americans, I see British.

Yes, the Lord has delivered us out of these. He has taken us out of
these and put us together. As our brother mentioned today, the Chinese
have their culture, their way of thinking, the Oriental way, which is.

And then you find there is the American way of life and so on and so
forth. Now brothers and sisters, yes, the outward wall of partition has
been broken. But how about the inward? If the body of Christ is made up
of such a mixture, a heterogeneous body, what can you expect of that? We
are in a conversation.

We meet together. It is as this. We can afford to be kind to one
another.

Because it won't be too long. Suppose we stay in here for a hundred
years. We live together day and night.

Dear brothers and sisters, what will happen? Not only the Americans will
migrate to one corner, the Britishers will migrate to another corner,
the Oriental will migrate to another corner. You will find even among
the Orientals, they will be divided. Wherever there is flesh, there is
division.

Dear brothers and sisters, what is the body of Christ? Yes. Outwardly,
the law has drawn us from every nation, every tribe, every kind. In a
sense, we have left our fold.

And we become one flock under one shepherd. If that inward reality is
not in a sense everything. Often Christians come and say, Brother, how
can such thing happen? How can such thing happen among God's people?
Aren't we not supposed to be saved? Aren't we not supposed to have the
life of Christ? Why isn't the Spirit of God speak? Can you answer that?
Not to say with so many of us here.

I always like to use a simpler illustration. Suppose there are only
three Christians in the world. The best of all Christians, Peter, John,
the closest, nearest, dearest.

Suppose there are only these three persons and God put them together and
make them one body under the head. They know the Lord very much and they
are good friends. My dear brothers and sisters, we figure out if
anything should happen it will come from Peter.

If the other two or more yield, taking the second place and let Peter.
But do you know that John and James they have another name. Sons of
Christ.

Did you ever hear their thunder? I did. You remember once our Lord Jesus
was on his way to Jerusalem. He passed by a Samaritan village and
because they saw the Lord was going to Jerusalem they were not deceived.

John and James said, Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven
and burn us, these people? Do you hear the thunder? Oh dear brothers and
sisters, what is the church? What is the church? What is the body of
Christ? Are we the church? Are we the body of Christ? Yes and no. Yes in
the sense that we are gathered out of every nation. No.

Because in the church there is neither Chinese nor American. No. This is
just another way of saying it.

The body, the fullness of him who feels all things is all. If he feels
all in all then where are you and where is he? All in all. Not even a
little bit of it.

Dear brothers and sisters, I may oversimplify it but if you allow me to
use a formula. You know, spiritual things can never be put into words. I
think our brother Mr. Spock was told me that.

Now suppose I just use a simple formula. What is the church? Peter plus
John plus James equal the church. No.

Peter plus John plus James equal Christ in Peter plus Christ in John
plus Christ in James equal to the church. Right? Do you know? Christ in
Peter minus Peter plus Christ in John minus John plus Christ in James
minus James equal to... Am I right? Thank you for helping me with this
arithmetic. Dear brothers and sisters, there is no such formula.

But the principle is there. What is the body of Christ? What is the
church? The church is Christ himself. Is Christ who is in you and in me
and in every one of us.

But do not forget you have to be if you try to bring yourself in with
Christ. You can expect anything. Oh dear brothers and sisters, this is
the mystery.

This is a mystery of the Christ. The unseen. That God can take hold of
us and get rid of us.

And what we may know. Our Heavenly Father give us the spirit of wisdom
and revelation. That we may know Christ Give us revelation that we may
know thy church.

Oh, that we may see that one unit the eternal intention.

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Audio: https://sermonindex1.b-cdn.net/0/SID0733.mp3
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/stephen-kaung/the-riches-of-christ-in-his-saints-seeing-the-body/
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