Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Ephesians chapter 1, reading
from our text verses 15 and 16. Wherefore I also, after I heard
of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in
my prayers. Ephesians chapter 1 and verses
15 and 16 and it is Paul's prayer for the Ephesians that I desire
to bring before you. which will comprise the verses
from verse 16 through to 20 and yet is summed up here in the
verses we've read as our text. The Apostle testifies that he
had heard two things about the Ephesians. He'd heard their faith
in the Lord Jesus and he'd heard of love unto all the saints."
And in effect he is saying here that this is the evidence of
their calling. He's spoken very clearly earlier
on about the calling of God and the choosing of God of his people
from the foundation of the world. It's good when we have clearly
those evidences from the scripture of what constitutes a real call. John in his epistles, he says
we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love
the brethren. And here Paul is taking this
same point and adding to it faith, because he says, and love unto
all the brethren. But when he says, I heard of
your faith in the Lord Jesus, he would have been very mindful
of the author and finisher of faith. As he writes in Hebrews,
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And so where he
sees a people that have faith in the Lord, trust in the Lord,
and the word profits them, being mixed with faith in them that
heard him, he sees a clear evidence of the grace and calling of God. But he doesn't just say, well,
if you have faith and if you have love to the brethren, then
automatically every blessing and every favor will be conveyed
to you, or that you will really understand the blessing that
you actually have. It might be those that are given
a present and don't really realize value of it, it's interesting,
the watch I'm wearing now, I was given that when I left the engineering
firm to come over here to this land and for many years I didn't
really understand the value of it and then one day I thought
I'll look this up, look at the name on the actual watch and
it must have been nearly a thousand dollars worth at that time what
a valuable watch, and I had it, but I didn't really realise the
value of it. And many of the Lord's dear people,
and the apostle here with the Ephesians, he wanted them to
know what was really bound up in their calling, the value of
that calling. And so he knows that those blessings
that come from the Lord, they are to be asked for, they are
to be prayed for, And so he makes prayer for the Ephesians. And it's a good thing for us
to realize here he gives thanks for them. And I know I've said
this other times recently, how often do we give thanks for the
people of God? When we see the grace of God,
when we realize there's a people of God, do we thank the Lord
for them? the Apostle in nearly all of
his epistles, he is giving thanks for those believers. And he's
not just giving thanks in his closet before God, which is good,
but he's actually writing to them and he's telling them, I
am giving thanks for you. And not only that, he's telling
them that he is making prayers for them. But it's not just any
prayer and leaving them to think, well, Why are you praying for
us? We are saved, we are called. What are you asking? How will
we know if your prayers for us are answered? If we don't have
specific requests, we can't go like Hannah and say, for this
child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my request, if
they're just general petitions. But if we have specific petitions,
even small relative to what we might think is small, here we'd
be able to notice that they've been answered and returned thanks. The Apostle, in many of the exhortations,
he always joins in prayer that it is with thanksgiving as well. And that won't just be a general
thanks, it will be for specific things. And so he says here that
not only does he pray occasionally, but It is a continual giving
thanks and continual making mention of you in my prayers. He says,
wherefore I also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus
and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for
you, making mention of you in my prayers. Unless there be thought,
well the mention in his prayers is just to give thanks, He then
goes on in the verses following us telling them what He is asking
of the Lord for them. What the Lord, what He would
have the Lord to do for them. And it's good for us to realise
that He's not just written for the Ephesian church, but He's
written for us as well, written for the whole, all of the people
of God. The dear Ephesians hear they
had love, unto all the saints. And of course the Lord has his
word to all of his people. And so unto with the Lord's help
this evening at Paul's request for the Ephesians and for the
people of God. Because verse 17 it begins And
we'll read the verses that follow what his prayer actually is,
making mention of you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of Glory, may give unto you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of
your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the
hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of his
inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us all who believe, according to the working of his
mighty power which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him
from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly
places." And he enlarges more on that, but essentially that
is the main points of his prayer. Now really there is one request
but there are several parts to that and we look at it in some
more detail but the one request is that they be given the spirit,
verse 17, the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge
of him the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. And then it's
broken up into three points afterwards. There's three things that he
asks of them, that they might know the hope of his calling,
that they might know the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints, and thirdly, his power to usward that belief. He wanted them to know those
three things. But the first request was requesting
for wisdom and revelation. He's asking for them a spirit
from the Father of Glory, that the Father of Glory may give
unto you The blessings to the Church of God are gifts. I will
pray the Father and He will give you another Comforter which shall
abide with you forever. Tarry at Jerusalem until ye be
endued with power from on high. The gifts are given. They are
blood-bought, they are bought because our Lord Jesus Christ
suffered, bled and died at Calvary. His people are purchased, He
can do with them as He wished, and He has paid their debt, He
has made the law honourable, He is satisfied in, and now He
can bless them, and all the promises of God are yay and amen in Christ
Jesus. God has ordained it, and Paul
told the Corinthians that this was the case, that it had pleased
God through His wisdom to make that man by wisdom could not
find out God. He can find out many things,
and especially nowadays we marvel at what wisdom man has been given
by God in all manner of medical things, in electronic things,
in mechanical things, whatever that But in the things of God,
spiritual realm, God has seen fit to make man to be completely
ignorant. If ever the fall is known, it
is realized in that, a complete absence of any knowledge or wisdom
or understanding of God at all. And the Lord has ordered it that
way, that through the foolishness of preaching, that we might be
saved, that we might know the Lord Jesus Christ, and that it
is through the preaching of the word, the opening up of the word,
and through the revelation of God, the wisdom of God, that
those blessings are known to the people of God. So when they
know them, they know that they've not just learnt it because they've
been brought up under the sound of the truth, they've not just
understood it naturally, but the Lord has revealed it to them.
When our Lord asked the disciples what men were saying, the Lord
Jesus Christ was. Who say men that I the Son of
Man am? And various answers were given.
And then he said, but who say ye that I am? And Peter said
that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And the
Lord immediately said, blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which
is in heaven and he traced that knowledge that Peter had to a
blessing from heaven and Paul is acknowledging this here when
he's asking for blessings for the Ephesians he's asking it
as a blessing from heaven that it is a gift from heaven the
means shall be the word the means shall be the preaching of the
word but he traces it for the high decree of heaven, and so
that is why it is prayed for, it is asked for, and he's asking
for this at the very, very start, the spirit of wisdom and revelation. That is true religion, is the
Lord giving wisdom, the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. And it is the revelation, Blessed
art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, flesh and blood hath not revealed him
unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. It is revealed
from heaven to men. And in one sense, in being called,
they'd already been given this spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the faith that they had, the love to the saints. We may say
in their conviction of sinnership, their need of a saviour, in all
of those that are called, already their eyes have been opened,
the eyes of their understanding have been opened in that way. In the parable of the sower,
we have four types of heroes, and only one brought forth fruit.
In Matthew 13, we have the first type, and our Lord says, they
are they that hear the word and understand it not. was taken
straight away out of their heart, but the one that bore through,
it was the one that heard it and understood it. When the Lord
rose from the dead, he appeared to the disciples, then opened
to their understanding, that they should understand the scriptures. And so this is what is the beginning
of what Paul is going to ask for specific points, but He is
making it very known to these Ephesians that if his prayer
is answered, it is because God has given them the spirit of
wisdom. It is because God has given them
a revelation. And it is a revelation not like
the Paul that saw in the fourth heavens or Peter on the Mount
of Transfiguration. Paul, he points to the grace
being great, and my grace is sufficient for thee. Peter, he
preaches in Peter, we have a more short word of prophecy where
you are to do well to take heed, the word of God. But that revelation
in the knowledge of him is the understanding. Remember the eunuch,
Philip coming to him, understandest thou what thou readest? How can
I except some man guide me? and he prayed Philip to come
up into the chariot and he began at the same scripture and preached
unto him Jesus and at the end he went from not knowing whether
the prophet was speaking of himself or another man to believing that
Jesus is the Son of God and he was baptised on that profession
in one sermon and it is that that's been spoken of here, the
understanding Or when he writes to the Hebrews, he says that
you need a milk and not meat. He said, I can't tell you these
deep things. I want to speak to you about
milk. Milk is a dick, but you're not ready to have those things
told you. I've got to tell you more simple
things. And the idea is that God's people should grow in grace
and be fed by the word and grow in the knowledge of our Lord,
and that is where the central here, it is not just any spirit
of wisdom and revelation, and is not any knowledge, it's knowledge
of Him, of Christ, of God, the eyes of your understanding being
enlightened. It's a wonderful thing when we
read a word and perhaps then suddenly we see it. That's what
that means. Now I understand it. Now I can
see what is being said before me and to have those new eyes
and new understanding and this is what he's asking for them. We should never have small views
and never listen to Satan when he minimizes what we know of
the things of God. Sometimes we might speak to those
who have not been brought up under the sand of the truth,
or even those that have in churches, and be astounded at their ignorance
of the things of God. Well, we read, who maketh thee
to differ? What hast thou than thou hast
not received? And how the disciples, they needed
their understanding open. Otherwise they, nor we, would
know the things of God at all. So this is his preface, this
is his first desire for the Ephesians here, to have that spiritual
understanding and to be able to comprehend those things he
was asking specifically for them. Well, there are three things
then that he asks of them. The first is that he may know
what is the hope of his calling. They had been called, called
by grace, but what was bound up with that? What was the hope
of his calling? Well, the next chapter, in chapter
2, we read him saying, You hath he quickened. One hope of the
calling of God's children is that they are made alive. They
once were dead, but now they are alive, spiritually alive.
I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of mine hand. When we think of
calling, how many different words are used to describe that in
the Word of God? You could be converted, conversion,
our Lord in John 3, born again, you must be born again in the
Spirit. It is spoken of as a beginning,
he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the
day of Jesus Christ. It is life from the dead. All things passed away, all things
become new. So the hope of his calling, where
it is a calling, is to pass from death unto life. The second thing
is a new creature. In verse two, chapter two, and
we're looking through quite a bit of chapter two here. He says,
wherein in time past he walked according to the course of this
world. The hope of the calling of God's children is that they
are following another spirit, not the spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience. They are made new creatures in
Christ. And that hope of the calling
of God is that they are not what they once were. I think as Newton
says, I'm not what I will be, I'm not what I would be. who
feels still the corruption within, but there is that new creature,
there is that new start, a beginning brought by God. Also we have
in verse 3 the deliverance from fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. We still have our old nature,
we still have the lusts of the flesh. We still have those things
that by nature we relished and walked in. But now in the hope
of the calling of God's children is not to be a hope that one
day here below I am going to be free from sin. That hope we are not raised up
to expect here below. But we are to have that hope.
He will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you
are able, but will with the temptation make a way of escape that ye
be able to bear it. My grace is sufficient for thee,
the Lord said to the Apostle Paul. And that is a hope for
the people of God, in whatever they know of their old nature,
the trials, the temptations of Satan, the pull of the world,
is that sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under
the law, you are under grace. And that is a hope bound up with
the calling of God's children. In verse 4, He speaks of the
great love wherewith He loved us. Another hope bound up with
the calling of God, the hope of His calling. is to enjoy that
everlasting love of God. Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. And you know, if someone loves
us, if we have a relative or those that love us, and especially
with parents with children, they know that love will provide everything
that they need. And I believe it must have been
quite a trial for what was for dear Mary and Martha when Lazarus
was sick. They sent to the Lord and they
said, he whom thou lovest is sick. They didn't say we want
you to do this or that or that. They knew love would do what
was right, but they didn't expect the Lord would do in the order
he did. And yet the Lord had a greater
miracle, a greater blessing. And often think of the end of
Psalm 107, There are many ups and downs there. Many times they
fell down, there was none to help them. They cried unto the
Lord, and the Lord saved them out of their distresses. But
at the end we read, whoso is wise and that will observe these
things, even they will understand the loving kindness of the Lord. And here the hope of calling
is a hope to be already, well there is a knowledge of already
being, a subject of the great love, wherewith not he will love
us, but wherewith he loved us, already has, and is to realize
something of the love of God that already has been put forth
and shown to us, that are called by grace, called out of nature's
darkness, called into the fellowship of his beloved Son. We have it then in verse 5 and
also verse 8 that the hope of the calling of God, the calling
itself was a calling by grace and not of works. And that hope
of the calling of God is to abide with us, to remember, especially
when the Lord shows us more and more what we are by nature, how
much we sin in thought, word and deed. This word, this hope
should ring in our ears, not at works, lest any man should
boast. Ye are saved by grace, and by
grace ye will proceed, and ye will go on, and by grace ye shall
endure unto the end, by grace ye shall conquer at last. And that is the hope of those
called in this way, Let us not just be saved by grace, but continue
by grace. Paul says when he writes to the
Romans in chapter 5, if while we were yet sinners Christ died
for us, how much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life? If the Lord pass by us when we
are in our blood and bid us live once we are alive, and now we
see our sin, we know what we are, Are we to think then, well,
now we see what we are, then God will not help us anymore,
He will not favour us anymore? That is not to be our hope. Our
hope is to, that He which hath begun a good work in us will
perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ, and that it won't be
based on our works, good or bad. It'll be all of His work, and
all of His grace, and all of His mercy. is also a hope of that which
is to come. We have in verses 6 and 7, Nath
raised us up together, made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the
exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through
Christ Jesus. It's a picture of eternity, a
picture of the ages to come and the people of God and they're
shown, shown in a greater, fuller measure of all the blessings
and all the riches and everything that they have and maybe all
the time be raised from earth, raised from this time stage Paul
says, if in this life only we have hope in Christ Jesus, we
have all men most miserable. And he says that in 1 Corinthians
15, for those who are saying there's no resurrection, not
of Christ, not of any resurrection. And Paul says, if there's no
resurrection of the dead, then he's not Christ raised. If Christ
is not raised, then you are dead in your sins. Those who have
died have perished. We that preach are liars. We've
testified that he raised him from the dead, if he did not,
and your hope is vain, but he concludes that Christ is raised
from the dead, and that gives that hope beyond the grave. Good
hope through grace, says the hymn writer, the saints possess,
the fruit of Jesus' righteousness and by his spirit given, and
it is a hope beyond the grave. dying world that soon will pass
away, as infirmities increase, I often think of that Ecclesiastes
12 that describes this slowly taking down of our brain, the
eyes are dim, we've got to wear glasses, the hearing is not good,
we need hearing aids, the teeth are falling out, the grinders
and the grinders is low because the grinders are few, and all
these things are reminders No, it gradually increases more and
more, and at first it's just like a little knock, a little
reminder, this is a mortal frame you have, it's not staying forever,
you're not always in this tabernacle, it's being taken down. So here
is one thing that starts to fail, and then another thing starts
to fail, and as we get older and nearer and nearer to our
journey's end, that knocking is louder and louder, And it's
a blessing when the people of God hear it, and they hearken
to it. I remember driving back from
the dentist when I told about one tooth that was to be taken
out, falling out, and they said, you can do for 3,000 pounds,
you can put an implant in. I thought, I can't. I'm not going
to pay that. I'm going to just have a gap
there. And then it come to mind, the sound of grinders low because
there are few. The Lord's always ordained that
that's gonna happen. Our teeth are gonna fall out,
you're not gonna have them all. And it was really a comfort.
And I thought, the Lord knows all these things. And it is a
kind reminder so that we just do not make this world our rest,
our home, that makes us think of that which is to come. My
dear Uncle Reg, when he was nearing his journey's end, he said, soon,
soon I'll have my arm back. He only had one arm. And it's
a wonderful prospect to realize that affection and that hope
of the calling, what is bound up with that. And Paul would
want, he wants the Ephesians to know, and the Lord would have
the people of God to know what they have in store. In verse 13 he says, but now
in Christ Jesus you who sometimes far off are made nigh, to be
brought nigh. Sin it separates, but to bring
nigh. Then we have in verse 14, he
is our peace, and we think of the Lord's words, in me shall
our peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. And that
again is the hope of the calling of God's people, that in all
their troubles and tribulations, He is our peace. He is given
for the people of God, and that's why the Apostle is centering,
it is in the knowledge of Him, what Christ is to a called person. It is He that is called then,
and called them into fellowship with himself and with his dear
people, and called them to be a partaker of his glory. The
beautiful intercessory prayer in John 17. Father, I pray not
that thou hast take them out of the world, but that thou hast
keep them from the evil. And then he prays, Father, I
will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am,
that they may behold my glory. And Paul is praying on these
lines for those that are called. Now do we know the hope of our
calling? If we are called, do we know
that hope? Do we often think of that hope?
Do we value that hope? Paul is giving thanks for them.
And he obviously sees for them, or sees what they have, what
they don't really see and realize, and giving thanks for it, and
he wants them to know what blessing that they have bound up with
that calling, and may we know the same, and may it be a real
encouragement and a comfort to us. And I think it's John Newton,
he that called me here below shall be forever mine. And it's
a beautiful hymn. So this is the first thing, specific
thing he asks, that they might know the hope of his calling. The second thing is that they
might know what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints. Now you might think that this
is put in the wrong way. When we think of inheritance
as something that comes to someone because someone has They've left
it in their will that when they die, that someone will receive
an inheritance that they have not had to work for, but it is
theirs upon death. We know in the word of God that
the Lord Jesus Christ is the inheritance of the people of
God, like the Levites, they had no land, they had no inheritance
on this earth, there's a lot to them, but the Lord was their
inheritance. But then on the other side, the
people of God are the Lord's inheritance. They are given to
the Lord to inherit, to have. They are His people. They are
given Him and they are given Him to redeem and to save and
they are given Him as a people that are what they are through
His death and through His his sufferings. And this here is
more pointing, instead of looking at what the people of God have
as an inheritance in Christ, it is reminding the people of
God that they are Christ's inheritance. Remember the Lord has said, this
people have I formed for myself, they shall show forth my praise. Now, say if we had a father, and he was
a farmer, and he had a son, and he had a lot of farm machinery,
and he was going to leave that machinery to the son. So he put
it in his will, he died, and he gave the machinery to the
son. But the machinery didn't work.
it was all broken down and it didn't go and it needed a lot
of work done on it and the son then took all of this broken
machinery and he mended it all and he got it all going and the
people all the way around looked at this farm now and it's working
with lovely tractors and combine harvesters and everything working
well and it would all be to the glory of that son who'd got this
inheritance And it made the inheritance to be what it was. It wasn't
broken machinery anymore. It was working really well and
going very well. Well in this way, the Father
gave to the Son a people, a broken people, a sinful people, a people
that were lost and ruined in the fall. The Lord said, Thine
they were, thou gavest them name. that they were given to the Son
to redeem. To not just leave them broken,
enemies to God, hateful to God. He was going to change them,
He was going to work in their hearts, He was going to redeem
them, pay their debt, and He was going to work in them, and
they were going to work out what He worked in them, and show forth
the praises of Him that have called them out of nature's darkness
and into his marvellous light. And so then you get a picture
where the people of God are like those bits of farm machinery.
And so when the people of God are living to the honour and
glory of God as the Lord works in them, He which is worked in,
we work out, And those works are to the praise
and honor and glory of God. Paul says that I labored more
abundantly than them all, but not I, but the grace of God which
was in me. What I am, I am by the grace
of God. And can we look upon our lives
and say if the Lord had not called us, if he hadn't changed our
hearts, my life wouldn't be like it is now. Mine certainly would
not. It is by grace that has shaped
and fashioned and changed my life from that time. And all
that the Lord has done and all that the Lord has taught has
made me to be what I am. But what I do then, is it showing
forth my praise? Is it glorifying me? Paul said,
no, I don't want to do that. But it glorifies the Lord, what
I do and what I am. And the Lord said, ye are the
salt and light of the earth. When the Lord has given his people
and they're called by grace, yes, he shall have them in heaven.
And in heaven, as we have here, they shall see his glory and
shall see his praise. But here below, this is what
the apostle desires of the Ephesians. Not only the hope of his calling,
But what the riches of the glory of His inheritance, that is the
glory of His people, His inheritance in the saints. What does the
Lord have in His saints? You say, well how can He have
anything? I'm a poor sinner, I'm a black sinner. But we read
in Song of Solomon, I am black but comely. And there's what
the Lord has. How can, if there be a Saviour
and there is, his name shall be called Jesus for he shall
save his people from their sins, there must be a people to save.
And in saving that people the Saviour is magnified and glorified. The farmer's son with his machine
If he's skilled in engineering and being able to fix and manage
these machines and re-renovate them, make them new again, it's
to be seen he needs some broken machines to work on. And then
they look at the machines and think, what a wonderful engineer
he is, not a wonderful machine that made it itself. The praise
is to the one that actually did it. We might have power coming
to this building, we do, electricity. But if no one turns on the light
and no one turns on heating and no one uses it, then you can
say all you like that there's lovely power coming from panels
on the roof or from a generator or whatever like that. You say,
I see no evidence of it. I can't see it at all. But as
soon as you turn light on, you say, oh yeah, we can see this
power. Yeah, it's shining. We're getting the warmth. And
it's actually shining forth. power of God, and it is in that
way, as the Lord works in his people, bestows upon them their
grace, all like with the effect of faith in Hebrews 11, we can
have a whole list of right through the ages what the people of God
did by faith. And here Paul has said that he's
heard of their faith, he's heard of what the Lord had given them
in calling, and so he wants them to know. Oh, the riches, it's
a strange way, isn't it? Could we describe in our lives
as a sinner saved by grace that there is somehow in us the riches
of glory, in us his inheritance, his inheritance in the saints?
It is what he works in, it's what his grace is seen in, his
glory is seen in. He answers to their prayers,
glorifies the Lord. He is going before them in providence,
glorifies the Lord and magnifies Him. We read the book of Esther,
we read the book of Ruth, we read the book with Joseph and
all that they went through. What does it magnify? The Lord's
hand, the Lord's work, the Lord's love. Their sins, their shame,
You think of the children of Israel through the wilderness.
They're murmuring, they're complaining, but the Lord gave them the manna
from the heaven, he brought them through the Red Sea, brought
them through Jordan, and all of his glory to the Lord is being
seen on his people. His people are shown in this
book. Take away his people, and you can't see the Lord's glory
here below. And maybe remember that. I remember why the Lord has called
His people. They're not to be in a monastery
or shut away. He said, yet let your light shine
before men. You do glorify your Father, which
is in heaven. This is His inheritance. He's bought you. He's suffered
in your place. He's shed His precious blood.
He's called you by grace. And ye are to show forth the
praises of him, who hath called you out of nature's darkness.
Recommend his grace, point to what you are, you are by the
grace of God. And this is what he wants them
to know. There's more a tendency, perhaps,
as we feel and know our sinnership, to think, oh my, what I am. I'm
nothing, I'm worthless. I can't be of any help to any,
or I can possibly show forth God's praise, but God says no.
You do have nothing of yourself, you are only a sinner, but I
will work in you, and men shall see the difference. They saw
the difference with Paul, saw the Tarsus, they see the difference
with the people of God, and they'll glorify God, and they'll praise
Him. They'll see what he hath wrought.
They'll say, what hath God wrought? And when he works for them in
providence, they'll say, the thing proceedeth from the Lord.
This is the Lord's doing. It's marvellous in our eyes.
It's the Lord's doing for his people, on his people, his inheritance. And it's put in this way, the
riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. May we not think
small thoughts of what the Lord does in us and for us and in
the sight of those that are round about us. May we really be able
to give the Lord the honour and glory. When he appears in Providence,
people notice it, you tell them why. Tell them where the helps
come and tell them the blessings that you've had. Well this then is the second,
the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. And the third thing He desires
for them is that they might know His power to us-ward who believe. Again it's so that they and we
understand What actually has happened to us in being called
and converted and what power doesn't cease then when we are
converted. Now we go back to chapter 1 and
at the end following on from our text in verse 19 what is the exceeding greatness
of His power to usward who believe. Now he goes on and explains what
this power is, according to the working of His mighty power,
which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and
set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above
all principality and power and might and dominion. And every
name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that
which is to come. And you think, well, can you
put alongside the raising of our Lord from the dead, and the
raising of a sinner from being dead in sins, same power? Yes, that is what is put forth
here. It's not a small thing. And those who say, well, it's
just a matter of our free will. You can chop, screw, God has,
Christ has died, and he's atoned for all sin, and all we've got
to do to avail ourselves of it is to exercise our free will
and accept the offer of salvation. It's very different from what
it's set forth here. It's set forth as a mighty power
that's put forth. by the grace of God, the power
of God, not a small thing at all. It is a raising from the
dead. Paul is very clear, you were
dead in trespasses and sins. Christ was dead, really dead,
and he has raised again from the dead. You are dead. The great secret really of nearly
every error that comes into the Church of God regarding salvation
is that men don't really believe they're as dead as they are.
They think they're still partly alive. There's some good in them. Something whereby they can respond
to offers or exhortation. Not that we shouldn't exhort
or preach the gospel, but not in a way to suggest that this
is a power we have. This is a power God has. And
when one is called, The comfort that they have is not that they
have begun a good work in themselves, it is God has begun a good work
in them, and that He will carry it on, He will perform it. And
it is not a small power, it's a mighty power. So when we look
at our sins, and we look at how strong they are, how mighty they
are, we have to remember the mighty hand of God. You think
of the children of Israel, they were brought out of Egypt, by
the Lord's mighty hand, they are brought through the Red Sea
by His mighty hand, but two years later they come to the Promised
Land, they send out the spies, they come back, they say yes,
but there's great mountains there, they've got chariots of iron
the people have, and they're giants, and we cannot overcome
them. What have they done? They've
forgotten the mighty power of God that brought them out of
Egypt. And we can be the same. And Paul would say to the Ephesians,
you don't forget, and not be ignorant of the mighty power
that called you by grace. And when you see these great
obstacles, and these mountains, and these great sins, and your
own wicked heart, and the world, and Satan, you're not to despair.
You've already known the power of God. That is how you will
be delivered and to be saved. We ought to know and understand
the exceeding greatness of His power to us all who believe. We ought to be backward in prayer
then, asking for that power and asking for that help from Him
who is able to do exceeding far above all that we can ask or
think. Sometimes we fall into the trap,
we think, Just because we pray, we almost think as if we're dictating
to God. And if He doesn't do what we
dictate, then He hasn't got the power and ability to do it. Well,
Satan can tempt like that. He says, if thou art the Son
of God, command these stones that they may be made bread.
But our Lord didn't look upon it that He had to prove His power
by doing what Satan did. He knew His power. that he would
exercise it when he will, not when Satan wanted, and the Lord
will exercise his power for us when he will, not when we wanted,
that we pray subject to the will of God, believing that he is
able to do, and that if he doesn't, it's not because he hasn't power,
nor is it because he doesn't love us, nor is it because he
will not will that he be so, But it is not the time, it is
not the right place, it is not like with Lazarus. There's another
blessing, a greater blessing to be in store. The Lord knows
what He will do. He will use His power for the
good of His people and for His honour and glory, using His wisdom
and might. But we as His people are to understand
that power that was put forth that is still on our behalf and
what waits what great event waits for us when we die there's that
power when we are in our utter weakness in death that shall
raise our soul to be with God and then at the last great day
raise our bodies fashion and form them anew incorruptible
a new body, a celestial body and unite the soul with that
body and bring us to be with God forever and ever. What mighty
power, the same mighty power that worked the resurrection
of Christ, the same mighty power that worked the quickening into
life and resurrection from spiritual death to spiritual life, the
same power that brings us from literal death to be resurrected
again and in his likeness in heaven and is that power that
we need right through life's journey we're not to forget and
not to be ignorant of that mighty power and we don't know this
just automatically by nature it's evident because Paul here
prays the Ephesians might be shown this by revelation by the
wisdom of God But for them to know it is for their comfort,
for their good. And the Lord will do it in answer
to prayer. May it be so tonight that we
go forth from the house of God and that we have those things
that we know the Lord has revealed and shown through this word and
that is a comfort to us and a help to us and encouragement to us. our light shine before men, and
what the Lord has wrought in us, to be to his honour and glory,
and to have thy hope beyond the grave, for what his power shall
accomplish at last. Father, I will that they whom
thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold
my glory. Well, may the Lord bless this
word. Amen.