The text will be Ephesians 1,
verses 15 and 16. Let's read this together. Paul says, Wherefore I also,
after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto
all the saints, ceased not to give thanks for you, making mention
of you in my prayers. Now the apostle began back up
in verse 3 thanking God. thanking God the Father for the
blessings that He's given us by His grace in Christ. He said,
blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
the word blessed has the meaning of thankfulness in it. And then
He comes down now to our text and He says here that, wherefore
I also give thanks for you, to these brethren that He's speaking
to. I want to see, first of all, why Paul thanked God and only
God for these brethren. He said, wherefore? And then
secondly, we'll see the occasion, why he did it. Two things, he
said, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto
all the saints. And then thirdly, we'll look
at a few things that Paul asked God for. Now the reason that
we thank only God for our brethren, for the blessings he's given,
is because God's the only one to be thanked for our brethren. He's done all the work and he's
given them the faith and he's the one who grows them in faith
and in love and keeps them. Jonah said, I will sacrifice
unto Thee with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that I have vowed.
Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. The
psalmist said, He sent His Word and He healed them and delivered
them from their destructions. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children
of men. and let them sacrifice the sacrifices
of thanksgiving, of thanksgiving, and declare, that word means
tally, enumerate, recount to God His works with rejoicing. That's the sacrifice that the
believer sacrifices, is the voice of thanksgiving. And we do so
thanking God for His goodness, for His person, for who He is,
and thanking God for His wonderful works, for what He has done.
And we do so rejoicing. Because we're thankful, believers
are thankful that He's done the work. Thankful that it's all
by His grace that He saves us. We've heard folks say salvation
is of the Lord. There's hardly anybody that gathers
to worship in the name of worshiping Christ that won't say, they all
say salvation is of the Lord. But very, very few mean salvation is of the Lord.
Most folks mean salvation is of the Lord along with my contribution,
along with what I did. But if a sinner contributes anything
to his salvation, then salvation is not of the Lord. When it says
salvation is of the Lord, it means salvation is all of the
Lord. From the beginning to the end,
it's all of the Lord. You realize we don't worship
God. We've not worshiped the true
and living God unless we worship God as having done all the work
in salvation. That's the only God you really
worship. Every other God, you're helping Him out. That's not a
God. That's not the true God. that He has to have our help.
That's not God. But He's not pleased with those
who would glory in themselves. 1 Corinthians 1.29 says that
no flesh should glory in His presence. And in the next verse,
verse 31 says, but he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Now,
if we're going to glory in the Lord and we're going to thank
the Lord, and we're going to thank Him because salvation is
all of the Lord, We're thanking Him that it's all of the Lord.
That's true now. He said, I'm the Lord. That's
my name and my glory. I will not share with another,
neither give my praise to graven images. Therefore, Paul was glad
to glorify God. He was glad to thank God because
he knew who did all the work. Now let's look at these blessings
again. Let's look back up there and see why Paul, why he says
wherefore. And we'll see here that the Holy
Spirit of God, speaking by Paul, tells us how it is that salvation
is all of the Lord. Why did Paul thank God for these
believers at Ephesus? Well, he's referring back there
when he says wherefore, he's referring back to these things
we've studied so far, that we've looked at. But I want to look
at them again. I want to show you a few things here. Paul thanked
God the Father for choosing his brethren in Christ and thereby
blessing them with all spiritual blessings. Look back at verse
3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. Now you see, if a professing
believer does not believe that God chose his brethren before
the foundation of the world and thereby blessed them with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, then he can't
thank God for his brethren. Because that's where it began.
God chose my brethren. He chose you, my brethren, put
you in Christ before the world began. He did that in heavenly
places, in Christ. And that's how He blessed us
with all spiritual blessings. Now, it's not saying salvation
is of the Lord if I glory in my will and my choosing. That's
not salvation is of the Lord. Or when somebody says that God
foresaw that my brethren would believe, that's why He chose
them. That's not glorying in the Lord.
That's not saying salvation is of the Lord. Do you know what
that's doing? If I'm thanking God for that, what I'm actually
doing is I'm standing like the Pharisee in Christ's parable
and I'm saying, I thank You, Father, that I'm not like other
men. You saw something good in me
and therefore You chose me. That's boasting. That's glowing
in the flesh. God didn't foresee, you would
believe. We were dead in sins. All our
brethren were dead in sins. The foreknowledge of God is not
foreseeing, it's God foreordaining. It's God foreordaining. It's
written in the Scriptures, as many as were ordained to eternal
life That's who believe, as many as were ordained. And besides
that, faith is the gift of God. It's the gift of God. Look at
Ephesians 2.8. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. So if God by His omniscience
did see that some would believe, It was because God foreordained
them to eternal life and that God foreordained to give them
faith before the world began. That's what He did when He blessed
us with all spiritual blessing. Paul thanked God for his Ephesian
brethren the same way he thanked God for his Thessalonian brethren. In 2 Thessalonians 2.13 he says,
we're bound to give thanks always to God for you brethren. beloved
of the Lord. And here's why. Because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through faith, through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Whereunto
He called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ. So you see, the thanksgiving
goes to God. He did that. But now look, secondly,
Paul thanked God for his brethren because God predestinated them
unto the adoption of children. And not only that, but he did
it by Jesus Christ. Now this is what I want to show
you here that's coming a little more clear to me. Verse 5. He
says, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself. according to the good pleasure
of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein
He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." He did that. Now the
predestination unto the adoption, it includes all things necessary,
but it includes three things particular. Three particular
things. This adoption unto children.
And they're all by Jesus Christ. They're all by Jesus Christ.
The Spirit of God has a part in one of these things. But overall,
they're all by the Lord Jesus Christ because God appointed
His Son, Christ Jesus, to be the mediator and head of His
people. And He entrusted this work into His hands to see to
it that all of this was accomplished so that His children will receive
the adoption of children into His household. Let me give you
these three things briefly. Our predestination unto the adoption
included the predestinated hour. when all the legal requirements
would be taken care of by Christ Jesus so that God could adopt
these children into His house legally. When you adopt a child,
it has to legally, there's some legal requirements that have
to be taken care of. And there was with God's people
because we sinned. We sinned. And so when Christ
said, the hour has come. You remember all that time they
couldn't take Him. And then He said, the hour has
come. That hour was predestinated by God the Father when Christ
would go to the cross and accomplish the redemption of His people
so that God could legally, justly have mercy on those children
and adopt them into His family. So we read in verse 7, in whom
we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins
according to the riches of His grace. Now look at Galatians
3. And we're going to come back here a few times. Galatians 3. I'm sorry, Galatians 4. And look at verse 4. For when
the fullness of time was come, This was at predestinated time.
God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive
the adoption of sons. You see, that was by Jesus Christ.
He did that work. He accomplished it. Alright,
go back to our text. Hold your place there in Galatians
4. Back in our text. Our predestination unto the adoption
includes our being born of God the Holy Spirit. We got to be
created anew. We got to be born anew. God doesn't
just, when He adopts, He doesn't just take His children into His
house. He gives them His nature and
He gives them His name. And you remember in Ezekiel 16,
it's called the time, thy time. the time of love. That was predestinated. He has predestinated the time
whenever Christ, our Head, who rules all things, who has all
things put under His feet right now, and as the Head over His
church rules all things to send the Gospel right to His people.
That time is predestinated. Verse 8 says, wherein He hath abounded toward
us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the
mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He
purposed in Himself." That's by Jesus Christ. We're talking
about Christ did this. The Spirit of God does it, but
Christ did this. He sends the preacher. He prays the Father. The Father
sends the Spirit. He teaches us in the heart. So
this is by, that's why it says, wherein He hath abounded toward
us. All this adoption into His house
is by Jesus Christ. Look back at Galatians 4 now.
Verse 6, And because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit
of His Son into your hearts, So that now we do what children
do. We cry, Abba, Father. Abba, Father. Alright, back in
our text, our predestination to the adoption of children also
includes the predestinated hour when we're going to leave this
world and be freed from the bondage of corruption and enter into
the glorious liberty of the sons of God. And enter into that eternal
inheritance that we have because we're heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ because we're children of God. Alright, verse
11, look what he says. In whom? He's talking about Christ
here. In whom? Because this adoption
is by Jesus Christ. In whom also we've obtained an
inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him
who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.
Now let's look at Hebrews 3. Hebrews chapter 3. Now everything
we just covered goes from eternity to eternity. And every part of
that work that goes from eternity to eternity is all of God the
Father by Christ Jesus through the Spirit of God. That means
salvation is of the Lord from the beginning to the end. Now
watch. Christ has and He is doing all
in perfect faithfulness to the Father. Look at Hebrews 3.1.
Wherefore holy brethren. Don't you love that? Holy brethren. We're thanking God for our brethren
here. That's what we're doing. And he says, we're for holy brethren. That means you've been set apart
by God and made holy by God in Christ Jesus. Holy brethren. And he says, partakers of the
heavenly calling. We just saw when we were called.
We were called from eternity by God the Father. He named His
children then. He put them in Christ and gave
us His name right then. Consider. Now here's what we...
Consider the apostle. Do you know Christ was an apostle?
Do you know what it means? It means sent, a delegate, an
ambassador for somebody. Who is He the ambassador for?
God the Father said He appointed Him. He said this adoption is
by Jesus Christ unto Himself. And He is the High Priest. That
means He did the work of offering up Himself, of shedding His own
blood, of entering into the Holy of Holies with His own blood,
and of making reconciliation for the sins of His people Himself,
and that He ministers to us. who are out of the way and in
need of His grace. Look what it says about Him.
He's the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. And it says, who was faithful
to Him that appointed Him. All this was appointed to Him,
and He was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as Moses was faithful
in all his house. But look at verse 5. Moses verily
was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony
of those things which would be spoken after, but Christ as a
son over his own house, whose house are we, if we hold fast
to confidence and rejoicing of the hope from unto the end. I
love the doctrine of election. I love the fact that God chose
His people not based on any good or evil in us, but simply by
His grace. I love it. I love the free, sovereign,
electing grace of God. And I dearly love the adoption
of children. I love this. It's so personal. It's so personal. Think about
this now. He said, Behold what manner of
love the Father hath bestowed upon
us, that we should be called the sons of God? We're sons of
God. That's why the world doesn't
know us. That's why, because they didn't know Him. They didn't
know Him. Now you think about this. I was
thinking as Paul's thinking about thinking of his brothers and
sisters in Christ, that God has given faith and He's given this
heart of love. And Paul said, I'm thanking God
for you. And I'm thinking we're in His house. We're children
of God. That means God is our Father. That's amazing. God is our Father. And Christ Jesus is our elder
brother. And we're children of God. Sons
and daughters of God. Brothers and sisters of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He says He was faithful over
His own house, whose house we are. That's wonderful. Children under one roof. This
is why Paul is so thankful for his brethren because he's sitting
there, he's thinking, we're brethren. He wasn't exalting himself over
them. He was thinking, we're brethren. Saved by the same grace. The same grace by where Paul
says, by which I was saved, you were saved. and we're all brethren
in the same house. And he says he's faithful and
he's going to be faithful. He's still doing that work we
saw at the end of Ephesians 1. He's risen to the right hand
of the Father and the pleasure of the Lord is going to prosper
in his hand. He's doing everything that pleases the Father. We saw
the other day when we walked with Christ all the way up through
Jerusalem all the way to when he ascended to the Father. And
we saw how meticulously, in every detail, he fulfilled all that
was written. When he entered his public ministry,
he went to John the Baptist and he said, I need to be baptized
of you. And John said, no, I need to be baptized of you. And he
said, suffer it to be so now. It must be so that we fulfill
all righteousness. And he was doing that for John. We. And he was doing it for John. We must fulfill all righteousness.
And from the beginning to the end, he did everything that was
written Everything. So then we know, brethren, now
from His throne in glory, with all power, with everything put
under His feet, He had it before as God the Son, but now He's
there as God-man. He's the man who is reigning,
who is God, over His church, the head of His church. So He's
going to, at the appointed time, He's going to cross that path
of that lost child with His gospel, and they're going to be called
to faith in Christ, and none of them are going to be lost.
And those of you that have already been called, He's going to protect
you, and guide you, and lead you, and feed you, and grow you,
and no one's going to pluck you out of His hand, or out of His
Father's hand, and He's going to present you all to the Father,
spotless and without blame, for by what He's done, and none shall
be lost, because He's faithful. He's faithful. He shall not fail.
That's why Paul said, I thank God for you. I thank God for
you. Alright, let's go back now. Here's
what the occasion was. When did Paul thank God for them?
Verse 15. Ephesians 1.15. He says, verse 15, after I heard
of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints.
Paul was in prison when he wrote this. And he was the one that
the Lord used to preach the gospel to the Ephesians. We saw that
in Acts. But he's in prison now. And a
lot of things have happened since he saw them. Remember the last
time he left Ephesus and he told them, grievous wolves are going
to enter in. And he said, remember now, I've
not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. and
he charged the preachers there at Ephesus, he said, you be sure
you feed the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.
Paul was concerned about them. And probably Epiphas, probably
he's the one that brought him this message, but he brought
him this message and gave him a good report about the Ephesian.
And what he was pleased to hear was that their faith in Christ
and their love to all the saints was steadfast and had grown. and he was thankful that new
converts had been made. These were things the Apostle
Paul was thankful for. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
and love to all his saints. That is the common characteristic
of every believer from the least to the greatest. It doesn't matter
how long they've been in the faith or how new they are in
the faith. This is the common characteristic of all God's God's
saints, he's called. They all believe in Christ and
they all love the brethren because they've been born of the same
spirit. They've been born of that spirit of love to where
they love one another. And that is the believer's rule
of life. That is the believer's rule of
life, is faith which worketh by love. Faith which worketh
by love. John said this is his commandment,
that we should believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's our righteousness. There's
our acceptance with God. It's done. And love one another
as he gave us commandment. That's an easy yoke. That's the
believer's rule of life. That's the rule we walk by. We
walk by faith and we do everything by love. Not by law, by love. Now, go over to 1 Thessalonians
3. I want you to see this. 1 Thessalonians
3. We're going to see here how important
it is for brethren to remain, to be steadfast in faith and
love. to be steadfast in faith and
love. Now to be steadfast in faith... You and I just cast
ourselves into the arms of Christ. We just seek Him. We walk after Him. We walk after
the Spirit, not after the flesh. That's all we do. And He's the
one keeping us. He's the one growing us. He's
the one that's going to be the one that gets the glory if we
continue steadfast in faith and love. But here we see why it's
so important to continue steadfast in faith and love by how it affected
Paul And what it did to Paul to hear this, this news. Look
here in 1 Thessalonians 3 verse 5. For this cause, when I could,
he's talking of the Thessalonians here, but it's the same for,
this is how he felt about all the brethren. For this cause,
when I could no longer forbear, I couldn't stand it anymore,
he said, I sent to know your faith. Lest by some means the
tempter have tempted you and our labor be in vain. But now
when Timotheus came from you unto us and brought us good tidings
of your faith and charity, your faith and your love, and that
you have good remembrance of us, always desiring greatly to
see us as we also to see you, now note this, therefore brethren,
we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress
by your faith. For now we live if you stand
fast in the Lord. For what thanks can we render
to God again for you for all the joy wherewith we joy for
your sakes before our God. Do you see that? So that tells
us brethren, this is the Spirit of God speaking here through
Paul. And he's showing us how important
faith is And the love to saints is not just for our own benefit,
but for the benefit of our brethren, for their benefit. Paul said,
I was just, I was about to, I was about to fade here because I
didn't know I was concerned about you. Well, don't you know, Paul,
if they're born of the Spirit of God, God's going to keep them?
Sure He did. Don't you know that if God has put a hedge about
His people that none's going to be able to turn them away?
Sure He did. Sure he did. But the proof of that is if we
continue in the faith. And Paul wanted to know the proof
of their, the sincerity of that faith and the sincerity of that
love to know they had continued in that faith and love. And when
he found it out, it was such a great encouragement to him
and it was such a, it just energized him. Well, I could tell you this,
your faith, Your faith, you brethren who are faithful to the gospel,
faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ, faithful to Him and love one
another. You love one another. You do
things to one another. And I see it. I see it growing
from the first time that I came here. And I can tell you this,
that is a great, great, great benefit to me. I can't tell you
what a benefit it is. God uses that. He uses that. John said, I have no greater
joy than to know that my children walk in love. The Lord uses that. He uses, when it proves, when
it proves that brethren, when you think, well, maybe Satan
has, some don't, they don't come. They don't come. Or they're nowhere
under the sound of the gospel. That's not under the sound of
the gospel, period. And you're fearful, you begin
to, it weighs on you. I mean, it weighs on you heavily,
because you think the tempter has tempted them away. He's taking
them away. And it weighs on you heavily.
But then when you've discovered that they haven't fallen away,
that they're continuing in the faith, that they're under the
sound of the gospel, or they come back to you and they're
sitting there hearing the gospel preached, the truth preached.
Oh, it does wonders for your heart. It encourages you and
it helps you. Paul said, now we live if you
stand fast in the Lord. Because you pour out your heart
to God, praying for Him and praying for Him, and then when you're
proven faithful, you say what Paul said, what thanks can we
render to God again? For keeping these brethren, for
all the joy we're with you, joy for your sakes before the Lord.
I tell my family back home all the time, they're in the church
there under Brother Darwin, and I tell them all the time that
if you believe the Lord, and you love one another, then attend
the preaching of the gospel. Be there. Be there consistently.
I never knew before, I never had any idea before what a burden
that puts on a pastor for the saints not to be there. I didn't
know before. Now, if you depart and you go
somewhere where there's a faithful gospel preacher and you're hearing
the gospel preached, I'm delighted. I'm delighted. But just to be
gone for personal reason or something like that, that terrifies me.
I want to know that you're under the gospel, under the gospel. And also when we see how faith
working by love causes thanksgiving to God, when we see how this
calls thanksgiving to God from our brethren, that in itself
is encouraging to continue in the faith and love one another.
To see how encouraging it is to one another, anything that
causes praise to be given to our Redeemer, That's reward for
the believer. That is our reward. That's what
we want, for Him to be glorified. We might not realize this, but
when you do something for one of your brethren... Look at 2
Corinthians 9. Let me show you this. When you
do something for one of your brethren, it causes them to thank
Christ Jesus for working that in you. You see? We're not talking
about exalting one another, we're talking about when you do something
for one of your brethren, simply because you love them. Simply
because you believe the Lord Jesus Christ, you see what he's
done for them, you see how he loved them, and you love them,
and you just want to help them. That causes, through them, thanksgiving
to God. Just what Paul's doing in our
text. And they're thanking the Lord Jesus Christ for giving
grace to them, to give them a heart, to give them the substance to
do whatever it is they did for you, no matter how great or how
small. And look here, he says in verse
11, 2 Corinthians 9.11, being enriched in everything to all
bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God. For the administration of this
service, you supplying the want of saints, he says, it not only
supplies the want of saints, but is abundant also by many
thanksgivings unto God. whilst by the experiment of this
ministration, while you go through the act of actually ministering
to them, they glorify God for your professed subjection unto
the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto
them and unto all men, and by their prayer for you, which long
after you for the exceeding grace of God in you." That's all. Now that's all we need, to know
God's getting all the glory, Christ is getting all the glory.
That's our motivation. We're constrained by His love
for us and our little feeble love for Him. I told, I'm gonna
embarrass you Robert. You see this, where's that table
at? You see that table right over
here? We cut some wood out here and had that lumber left over,
just those pieces of trees. And Robert went and made that
table out of these trees and brought it to me. And you might
not be able to see it from where it's at, but it's got a big crack
right on the top of it, because the wood wasn't dried out yet
and it cracked. So it's got this big crack right on the top of
it. And he brought it over here to me. And I told him, I said,
you know, Robert, Some people look at that table and they'd
say, that table's not any good. It's got a big old crack right
in the top of it. But I love it. I love it. Because I know
why he gave it to me. He gave it to me because I gave
him the gospel. And he loves me because I gave
him the gospel. Well, our little feeble faith,
our little feeble love, our little feeble exercises we do in trying
to love one another, It comes up to God with all kinds of flaws. It has from us all kinds of flaws
in it, like this table does. But in Christ, we're perfect.
And God receives us flaws and all because we're doing what
we're doing, because He gave us the Gospel, and He put it
in our heart, and He gave us love for Him because of what
He's done in laying down His life for us. and he receives
it all. As if it's just as perfect as
it can be. See what I'm saying? And when
you thank God for that, and you glorify God for what your brethren
did, all the labor and whatever it is you had to do is worth
it. It's all worth it because they're thanking God for you.
Alright, now I want you to go with me back over to our text.
Ephesians 1. I just want to give you a few
things here And I have to be quick here, but Paul says, I
want to look at some things that Paul prayed for. Look at verse
16. He says, I'm making mention of
you in my prayers. He not only thanked God for them,
he said, I'm making mention of you in my prayers. I'm praying
for you too. Now this is going to help us see more clearly what
spiritual gifts and graces that we should ask for. I want you
to listen to this, what we should ask for our brethren and for
ourselves. This is what Paul prayed for. Alright? We're going
to get into this later in more detail, but just right here in
the text, he asked God to give them the spirit of wisdom and
revelation. Look at verse 17. He said, I pray for you that
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. He's talking
about more and more, that they might grow more and more. That,
here's why, that you 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 who believe."
That's what he prayed for. Let me give you some more things.
Look over to Ephesians 3. Ephesians 3 and verse 14. He asked for strength in the
inner man by God the Holy Spirit. That's what he prayed for, for
his brethren. Look at verse 14. For this cause
I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of
whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would
grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened
with might by his Spirit in the inner man. That's what he asked
God for. Why? That Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith. that you, being rooted and grounded
in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ
which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all
the fullness of God. Now let me just give you these
others because we don't have time to turn to them all. In
Romans, Paul asks God to grant his brethren like-mindedness.
He said, now the God of patience and consolation grants you to
be like-minded, one toward another, according to Christ Jesus. That,
here's the reason, that you may be of one mind and one mouth,
with one mind and one mouth, glorify God, even the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he asked God for this,
to fill him with joy and peace and believing. He said, the God
of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing. Here's
why, that you may abound in hope. through the power of the Holy
Ghost. And then he prayed for the Philippians, brethren, that
their love might abound in knowledge and judgment. He said in Philippians
1-9, This I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more
in knowledge and all judgment, that you may approve things that
are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense to
the day of Christ. And then he asked God for the
Colossians. He asked God to fill them with knowledge of God's
will. He said, for this cause we also since the day we heard
of your faith and your love, he said, we don't cease to pray
for you to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge
of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Why?
That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being
fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of
God, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power
unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. Then to the
Thessalonians he prayed that God would count them worthy of
their calling, that he would use them in the work of spreading
the gospel. And this is why, that the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in
him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then, when you look at these six things right here that I
gave you, and you see what Paul prayed for, and you see why he
prayed, the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that you know
the hope of His calling, the riches of His glory, the exceeding
greatness of His power. Pray for strength in the inner
man by His Spirit, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith,
that you know this exceeding love of Christ. Pray for your
like-mindedness, that you with one mind and one mouth will glorify
the Lord Jesus Christ. All these things, on and on.
When you see what He prayed for, that's the Spirit of God using
Paul to teach us what to pray for. And did you notice there,
Paul didn't pray for any temporal stuff. In fact, I don't think
you can find a scripture in this Bible where a believer prayed
and asked for just temporal stuff. Temporal stuff. They prayed that
God would be glorified. That they wouldn't fall away.
It might have been through some temporal thing, but it was that
God's grace would be magnified, and that His people would be
edified, and that they would be strengthened, and God would
be glorified. So that tells us something, brethren,
about the things we ought to pray for, not stuff. Who cares
about the stuff? We've got to have Christ. That's
who we've got to have. All right, what we've seen from
this passage, thank our gracious God for saving our brethren.
He gave each one faith in Christ and love for the saints who were
members of his house. We thank God for them. Remember
that your steadfastness in faith and love greatly encourages your
brethren and wavering greatly discourages them. And then remember
that by your steadfastness in faith and love to your brethren,
Christ is being glorified by much thanksgiving. And remember
these spiritual gifts that Paul asked for. These are the things
that are important, the things that are really important. I
pray the Lord will bless that. I'm going to end with the Scripture
that Paul ended that prayer with in Ephesians 3. He said in Ephesians
3.20, Now unto him that is able, to do exceeding abundantly above
all that we ask or even think. According to the power that worketh
in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout
all ages, world without end. Amen.