Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians 1. I'd like to look at two verses
of Scripture, verse 17 and 18, and this is found within the
context of the prayer that the Apostle Paul was praying for
the saints at Ephesus and also all the faithful in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 1, 17, 18, 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 you may know what is the
hope of His calling and what the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints. Let's pray together. Our Father, We call upon you this evening
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, we ask that
you have mercy. Help us. Help us to hear. Lord, help me as I preach. Cause us to behold the Lord Jesus
Christ. Forgive us where we failed you
for Christ's sake. Amen. Paul had heard of the faith of
those at Ephesus and he thanked God for that which he had heard. Thank the Lord for the faithfulness
that had been wrought by the grace of God to those in the
church at Ephesus. And he said in verse 16, since
he had heard of your faith, verse 15, in the Lord Jesus, and love
unto all the saints, he said, I cease not to give thanks for
you, making mention of you in my prayers. We continue to pray
for one another, thanking God that He has given each of us
that know Him, that know Him in grace, thankful that the Lord
would give you a heart for Him. We pray for one another. I was
thinking about reading today, as I was reading over my notes
and everything, I thought about that, how we cease not to give
thanks for you. I, as God is my witness, I thank
the Lord. I've said this before, but I
mean it again. I thank the Lord that we're still
here. I thank the Lord that you're
here, that I'm here. There's some that's been here
that's not here. There's some the Lord's taken. They're with the Lord. And there's
some that's left. And our heart grieves. Paul had
heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and he ceased not
to give thanks. Now I'm going to tell you, in
verses 17 and 18, I'm going to tell you what he's praying for.
And then we'll look at it. So we'll all understand what
he's talking about. He's saying and praying that
the Lord would continue to teach him. That's what he's saying.
praying that God would continue to give them enlightenment by
His Spirit. He said in verse 17, when he
said in verse 16, I cease not to give thanks for you, making
mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now God, Jehovah, God Almighty,
And again, we get into the tri-unity of God. And as I've said before,
the more we know, the more we realize we don't know. We don't try to explain the tri-unity
of God. God is God. And I'm telling you, trying to
set forth an explanation, who's sufficient for those things?
But the scripture sets forth that the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, now, the Lord Jesus Christ is God. He is the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. The fullness of the God, all
that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is, the fullness is the Lord Jesus Christ in body,
in human flesh. Now, there's times that we, as
David, you know, he would write in the Psalms, and he would say,
Selah. That just means, just stop. Meditate. Contemplate. Just stop. Oh, Selahs are precious. Meditate. The God of our Lord
Jesus Christ, as the Lord God Himself, was made flesh, God
Almighty had appointed Him, chosen Him, before the foundation of
the world. He is the eternal Son, the eternal
surety, the eternal Husband, appointed to be the advocate
between God and men. the Lord Jesus Christ. There
has ever been a priest. There's always been an advocate. Before there was ever a sinner,
he said, I was ever before him. I was brought up with him. Our delights were with the sons
of men. There's always been a mediator. for those that Almighty God has
eternally loved and chosen in the Lord Jesus Christ. In that
everlasting covenant of grace, it never started. That eternal
covenant where God Almighty, Father, Son, Spirit, in perfect
agreement, with the fullness of the Godhead that would in
time be made flesh, purposed to save a people. And they're going to be saved.
The Lord said, John 6.37, All that the Father giveth me shall
come to me. The God of our Lord Jesus Christ
as He is the God-man. He humbled himself and God Almighty
was his God. He made himself of no reputation
and came into this world and lived in perfect obedience to
his father's demand, his God's demand. Suffered, died, buried,
arose and ascended into glory right now and ever liveth right
now to make intercession Paul said, I cease not to give thanks
for you, making mention of you in my prayers that the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, now listen to this, and our God
too, our God too. Let me tell you whose God he
is. Now I can say with all assuredness,
He is the God of all creation. He's the God of all men in creation
without a doubt. But He's not the God to all men
in mercy. that the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, you listen to the words of our Lord, John 20, 17, I ascend
unto my Father and your Father, he's talking to his disciples,
my God and your God. But isn't he truly the God of
all men? Not in mercy. Outside of Christ, he's a consuming
fire. You say, but he's really the
God of everybody. Well, let me read this verse
of scripture to you, and you tell me if he is. John 8, 47. Jesus saith unto them, if God
were your father, you would love me. For I proceeded forth. and came from God, if God, He
said, you are of your father, the devil. When we talk about God Almighty,
He is the God of mercy to His people. Outside of Christ, a
consuming fire, God. that the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Then he says, the Father of glory,
which is a way of saying, this would be translated where we
could understand it, He is the Father of all glory, but He's
the glorious Father. That's what he was saying. He's
glorious in all of His attributes. Everything that can be said concerning
Him. But according to His good pleasure,
He has been pleased to manifest all of His attributes. Everything that can be said about
God Almighty is brought down. All of the holiness could be
set forth of all of the attributes of God. How do you describe the
glory of God? Well, the Lord did this. When Moses asked him, when Moses
asked him, show me your glory. He said, that the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, show me your glory. And the Father
said, I will make All my goodness passed before thee. Now this
is the only way I know how to say it. All of his goodness is
his glory. The sum of his excellencies is
his goodness. I will proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee. What is that, the name of the
Lord? I am. This is the God we serve. This is our God and our Father.
What's His name? I am. I am. I am the self-existent one. And I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. And I will show mercy on whom
I will show mercy. That's what he said to Moses
in Exodus 33. And this is what the apostle
prayed. He prayed that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory, the Father of all glory, All glory, the father
of all glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of him. Now listen, the apostle Paul
is writing this letter to the church at Ephesus. He said in verse 1, Ephesians
1.1, Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to
the saints. to the saints, to the sanctified
ones, which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. So let me tell you who he's writing
to. He's writing to believers. He's writing to believers. Now
here's what he's praying for those believers. 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. These saints had already been
given some wisdom. They'd already been given the
revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. For them to be saints,
they had to have heard the gospel, blessed by the Spirit of God.
A new heart imparted. And God gave them new eyes to
see, new ears to hear, and they had a willing heart. And so the
Lord's given them wisdom. and revelation of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But those that possess that wisdom
and that revelation are in need of an increase of that wisdom
and revelation. Paul said that I may know Him. And this is what, this is the
desire. that I have for you, you have
for me, that we all have for each other. This is what I pray. I pray that God Almighty may
give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge
of Him. That God might be pleased to
call out His people. Save sinners. I don't know whose
people belong to the Lord in electing grace. I don't know
that. Until the Lord calls them out of darkness, you don't know.
But those that He has called out, that He's given wisdom and
revelation, here's what I would want for you. Here's what I want
for me. That I might increase that I
might have more wisdom, more understanding, more of a revelation. We come and we search these scriptures. We hear the Word of God in faith
that cometh by hearing. This is the desire that we have. This is what we pray for. Lord,
teach us. Lord, manifest yourself. The
Spirit of God is the one that must first reveal the person
and the character of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is the Spirit
of God that must reveal more and more. I don't have and you
don't have either. The Lord said without Him, He
said, you can do nothing. We can't by much study, by the
ability of our old flesh, we can't, we can't, this is spiritually
discerned. This is not carnally discerned. We're not smart enough. We're
not wise enough. We're not studious enough. We
hear the Word of God. We're doing the only thing that
we can do to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior. Hear the Gospel. Hear Christ. This is our need. Wisdom and revelation. in the
knowledge of Him. And here's a, if you, the margin
in my Bible says, where it says in the knowledge of Him, the
margin says for the acknowledgement of Him. That we might be given
the spirit of wisdom and revelation for the acknowledgement. of Him. We know what we know by the grace
of God. He's taught us that. And the
more intimately we know Him, the more we're taught, the more
we're settled, the more gracious confidence, not arrogant, but
we are confident in our Lord. We're confident in His ability,
in His teaching, in His mercy. And in that assuredness that
we have, there is a confident acknowledgement of the Lord. That's what he said. He may give
you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the acknowledgement
of Him. God's people are not ashamed
of Him. Not ashamed of His gospel, not
ashamed of His people. I consider it an honor to be your brother. It's an honor given by God Almighty
to be sitting under the sound of the gospel at Katie Baptist
Church. That's by the grace of God. And he gives us that spirit
of wisdom and revelation for the acknowledgement of him. And then he says in verse 18,
continuing to pray, that the eyes of your understanding being
enlightened. Again, he's continuing the same
thought, praying that God would be pleased to teach us more. That's growing in grace and in
the knowledge. Of course, as we grow in grace
and He increases, you know what we do. We become more and more
aware of our frailty. Of that old man that wars against
that new man. But he prays that the eyes of
your understanding being enlightened. Remember, he's talking about
the eyes of our understanding. We've got some understanding
because the Spirit of God has taught us something. That the
eyes of your understanding of Him, as the eyes of our understanding,
that gracious grace that has been given us in regeneration,
understanding. to know Him, to behold Him by
faith. In that understanding, we know
something of His marvelous beauty and glory and all sufficiency
and we know something of our insufficiency. And we see that
old man that ever raises his head and ever wars against that
new man. And we always agree with the
Apostle Paul, O wretched man that I am. That's the eyes of
our understanding of that new man that's being enlightened,
brightened, illuminated more and more. We understand more. I heard Brother Henry say one
time that, he said, it's an amazing thing. He said, Almighty God,
He calls His people out of darkness. And he teaches them, and teaches
them, and teaches them, and the more that they grow in grace,
the more glorious Christ becomes, and the more little they become,
the more humble they are by the grace of God. And he says he
teaches, and teaches, and teaches, and then he takes them home.
And he said the greatest loss that this world suffers humanly
speaking, is when God removes an aged and taught believer. Isn't that so? I can go ahead
and say it, you can think it, but I remember just being able
to sit down and talk to Brother Scott, just ask him, just pick
his brain. And I can remember thinking so many
times, The best thing you do, Marvin, is just shut up. Don't
try to tell him anything. Don't try to impress him. Just
be quiet. Just listen. Listen to that which
God's taught him. Let the eyes of your understanding
be enlightened. Remember, Paul is not praying. that the faithful in Christ Jesus
in that verse be given understanding for the first time, that they
be regenerated. He's writing to believers, but
he's praying for an increase in that understanding. An increase,
the eyes of their understanding, eyes of their heart, their new
heart, being enlightened, brightened up. that you may know what is the
hope of his calling, that you may know more, that you may increase
more and have confidence more in his calling of us, his people. God's people do not grow more
arrogant in their knowledge. I'm telling you the way of a
believer in himself is down as he grows in understanding, grows
in mercy. I can so remember when the Lord
was pleased to teach me something. You just feel as though you get
a little bit of understanding, you think you know everything. And the more you know, the more
you realize you don't. That hope of his calling, that
confidence of his calling, that calling was effectual to me. And here I am after 78, somewhere in that area. I don't know how long that is.
I'm still here. That's confidence in his calling. Confidence in his mercy. He called
because he chose to show mercy to me. That you may know what
is the confidence of his calling. Mama didn't call. God had to
call. God had to keep. His call is
always answered. When that's that effectual call,
it's always answered positively. Willing in the day of His power.
Listen to this, 2 Timothy 1.9. Who has saved us and called us. I love that order. He didn't call us and save us.
He saved us and then told us about it. This is what I've done
for you. I was pleased to show mercy to
you. I saved you. And then I told you about it.
Saved us and called us with a holy calling. A calling from God,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. That you may know what is the
hope of His calling and what the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints. Let me read you the literal so
we can understand. It's hard when we read it, what
the riches of the glory of His inheritance is in the saints.
It is that you may understand, this is what Paul prayed, that
you may understand what is the glorious wealth. are the glorious
abundance of the inheritance that you possess being saints. In closing, there's two marvelous
truths that I believe are set forth here. First of all, that
we as His people, we as saints, have an inheritance in Him. We know that. 1 Peter 1.4, it's
an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away. Reserved in heaven for you, or
the margin says for us. So we have an inheritance. What that inheritance is, the
scripture says, I hath not seen, e'er hath not heard, neither
hath entered into the heart of man that which God has prepared
for those that love him. So we'll just leave it right
there. But I do know this, we're heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ by His grace. So I know that there is an inheritance. It's an inheritance that the
Lord spoke of. John 14, 2, in my father's house
are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. What is it? It's a glorious inheritance. I know that. So we have an inheritance. But also, when he talks about
what is the richest of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
the scripture clearly declares that we, his people, are his
portion, his inheritance in or among the saints. We're his by
gift from his father. The father gave us, His people,
the elect, to the Lord Jesus Christ, chosen in Him from before
the foundation of the world. And those, and those alone, are
the ones He prays for. He said, I pray for those that
Thou hast given Me, John 17, 9. He said, I pray not for the
world, John 17, 9, but for those that Thou hast given Me. Did
they hear that? So I know that we are by the
grace of God. And you think about this, what
a humbling thought that is. You know, you think of one such
as I, Lord, that God the Father would be
pleased to give one such as I am to Him. So we're His inheritance
by the gift of His Father. We're His inheritance, secondly,
by purchase He bought us. Acts 20, 28, take heed therefore
unto yourselves. This is a sobering especially
to me, but should be to all of us. All of us, the relationship
that we have, all of you, take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made
you an overseer to feed the church of God. This is what I was talking
about as a pastor, which he hath purchased with his own blood. You know what that's saying?
That's talking about the blood of God. The blood of God. Listen. Take heed therefore unto
yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath
made you overseers to feed the church of God which He hath purchased
with His own blood. I owe you respect. I owe you love for His sake. I am indebted to the Lord Jesus
Christ for His grace and mercy to me, and I'm to respect you
and love you. Thirdly, here's my gift, here's
my purchase, and then here's my willing consent. from us,
from his people. Made willing, I said a moment
ago, in the day of his power, a willing dying thief said this,
Lord, remember me. I want you to stop as I'm closing
right now. You think that that was a willing
request. You think he meant it. Here was
a criminal. He was a thief. I don't know
the extent of his crimes, but I know that it was obviously
by law justified with death. Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. You know, I heard Brother Scott
say, and I hope I say it right, He used to say, he said, people
will say, is the Lord enough? He said, if he's all you got,
if he's all you got, he's enough. Now you just stop with me for
just a second as I wind this up. What did that thief have as a hope? What did he have? In himself, he nailed a cross. He's getting ready to die, because
they're getting ready to break his legs. He had one hope. Outside of this
one hope, he had nothing. He had nothing. Lord, and I'm telling you, here's faith. Here is faith that only God gives. Faith to believe. Remember me. When you enter into
your kingdom, you're the king. I know that. You're the Lord. In these dying moments, The Holy
Spirit caused the goodness of the Lord to pass before this
thief. And he saw something that most
all the people there didn't see. The eyes of that sinner's understanding,
God had given him faith or he would have never opened his mouth. God saved him and called him. And being enlightened by grace,
what did he see? He saw the Lord. I know that.
That's what Isaiah is saying. In the year the king Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord sitting. He was finished. And that dying
thief saw the hope of his calling. the Lord Jesus Christ, dying
for him, for that sinner, dying and putting away that sinner's
sin and debt. And that sinner who came to Christ
by faith wasn't refused. Barely, he that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out. What a hope of calling. What
a comfort. That thief died that day in the
faith. How do I know? The Lord said
today, you're going to be with me in paradise. The Lord who
spoke that had the power to take that sinner exactly to paradise
with him. Paul said, I cease not to give
thanks for you. Pray that the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened. May the Lord bless these words
to our heart for Christ's sake.