Let us turn once again to God's
Word in that portion of scripture that we were considering this
morning in Ephesians 1, verses 18-20. Ephesians 1, verses 18-20,
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 would you 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. It's part of that prayer of the
Apostle that we find at the end of this opening chapter, having
in the previous part of the chapter set before them some of the great
truths, the distinguishing doctrines of the sovereign grace of God,
in the Father's electing love, His great purpose of predestination
which is all according to the good pleasure of His will and
that particular redemption that was wrought by the Lord Jesus
Christ for the people that the Father had chosen in Him and
having also spoken of that ministry of the Holy Spirit here in verses
13 and 14 as the one who comes as the seal to that great work
that God accomplished in the salvation of the sinner. Having spoken then of these great
truths, Paul then turns to God and prays for the believers there
at Ephesus. After I heard of your faith in
the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, he says, I cease
not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. And then this remarkable prayer
and we were considering this morning particularly the words
that we have in verse 18 about spiritual enlightenment that
is so necessary with those of course who are conceived in sin We are born
into the world as those who are dead in trespasses and in sins,
having the understanding darkened, alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in us because of the blindness
of our hearts. And the only hope for such helpless,
hopeless sinners is that sovereign grace of God, where He comes
by His Spirit and grants that illumination, the eyes of your
understanding being enlightened, he says at the beginning of verse
18. And then I remarked on the consequences,
where there is this spiritual enlightenment, that ye may know
what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory
of his inheritance in the saints. Two consequences there, the hope of his calling, what
is the hope of his calling, and we spoke then of that effectual
call of God in the Gospel, that grace of God that is irresistible
when he comes into the life of the sinner. There is, as we said,
a call that might be said to be a general call, there's a
proclamation of the Gospel, But it's necessary that the Gospel
doesn't come to us merely in word. It needs to come in power
and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. We need that
work of the Holy Spirit that we just sang of previous to turning
to the Word of God. We need the Spirit to come with
the Word that we might know then what is the hope of His calling. And then we also considered the
riches of the glory of his inheritance these two consequences in verse
18 what is the hope of his calling and then what the riches of the
glory of his inheritance in the sight there is an inheritance
to be enjoyed and it's all in the Lord Jesus Christ verse 11
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance and we are favoured
to taste of it here in this world by faith. We come to the possession
of that inheritance but we look of course ultimately for the
fullness of it which will be enjoyed only in heaven when we
see Christ as he is. And as Christ is the believer's
inheritance, we said that there is that mutuality, the believer
is also Christ's inheritance. How the Lord delights in his
people, how his people therefore delight in him. But then there's
also this third consequence that's spoken of in verse 19. and what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to usward who believe. Notice then these three things
as a result of spiritual enlightenment. What is the hope of his calling,
what the riches of the glory of his inheritance, and what
is the exceeding greatness of his power. and it is that exceeding
greatness of his power towards them that believe that I want
us to consider tonight. We've in the past several times
referred to these verses with regards to the only true source
of saving faith and it comes from God and it is the work of
God and we see it so clearly in these words. verses 19 and
20, the exceeding greatness of his power to what would you 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. God's power then in saving
faith. If we know anything of true faith
we must know something of the power of God. that was necessary
in order for us to come to that faith. Colossians chapter 2 and
verse 12 it is faith, Paul says, of the operation of God. It's not a thing that any man
can produce of himself, saving faith. It is the gift of God
as we see here in chapter 2, By grace I you say, through faith
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. But not only
the gift of God, it's also the work of God. This is the work
of God, says the Lord Jesus, that ye believe on him whom he
hath sent. Now first of all we see here
the pattern of saving faith. And then secondly, the power
of that saving faith. And that's the twofold division
that I want to follow as we consider the remainder of our text. First
of all, the pattern of saving faith. Look at the end of verse
19. 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. The expression that we have is
an interesting one, according to, it has the idea of relationship,
there's a relationship between what he has said in the first
part of verse 19 that exceeding great power of God in them that
believe, there's a relationship between that and what he goes
on to speak of here with regards to what was wrought in Christ
when Christ was raised from the dead and received into the very
heavens. The one is according to the other.
In other words, the one is after the same manner as the other.
The one is in like fashion as the other. There's a connection,
you see. between how God works faith in
the soul of the sinner and how God raised the Lord Jesus Christ
again from the dead. The resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ in that sense might be said to be the standard and
the measure of God's work of regeneration in the soul of the
sinner. that resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ is the sure pledge, the meritorious cause of the
new birth. We read it there in Isaiah chapter
26 and verse 19, Thy dead men shall live, together with my
dead brother shall they arrive. And not only there in the Old
Testament, but remember we see it also in the New Testament,
those words that we referred to this morning in the first
chapter of Peter's first epistle. And there at verse 3, He says,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a
lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
The believer is begotten again, born again, to a lively hope. And there is
this association, this connection with the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. Now by nature of course, as we
have already intimated, we are all in a condition where we are
dead, spiritually dead. Even the newborn baby, And we
see the miracle of that life when the child is born. And yet
that little child is born dead in trespasses and in sins. There is no exception. We are
all the children of Adam and Eve and we all partake of their
fallen nature. And so, as we are told at the
beginning of the next chapter, those who are saved have been
quickened, have been born again, there was nothing but deadness
in their souls. You are to be quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins wherein in time past you walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation,
that is the manner of our lives, in times past in the lust of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." Or
what language the Apostle uses when he describes the condition
of all by nature. Our children of disobedience,
our children of wrath, are they in that state of alienation from
God? The carnal mind, the mind of
the flesh, it's enmity against God. It's not subject to the
law of God. Neither indeed can it be, says
the Apostle. This is our condition then by
nature. And so what mighty work of God
must be accomplished in the soul of a sinner who is in that sad
condition. And it's interesting to observe
how we have these comparisons used in scripture with regards
to what that work of God is. The enshining of the gospel is
compared in scripture to God's great work of creation. the opening words of verse 18,
the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. There's an
enlightening here, there's an enshining. And we have it stated
quite clearly in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 6 as to just
what that enshining, that spiritual enlightenment is. It's God who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, shining in the
heart. to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Have you observed
the comparison that's being made there? It's the God who commands
the light to shine out of darkness. There's a comparison with what
God does at the beginning in the creation of all things. God
said, let there be light, and there was light. What a great
display of power we see in God's creation work. God created all things out of
nothing. That's what God did. There was
nothing. Or the folly of evolution. How can something evolve out
of nothing? It's nonsense. But God, you see,
is able to create all things out of nothing. Through faith
we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God.
So the things which are seen were not made of things which
do appear. We read in Hebrews chapter 11.
It's through faith that we understand that God made all things, things
that we see around us. He made all these things out
of things which do not appear, things that we can never see. All the great power of God then.
There was nothing but darkness and God commanded the light to
shine. God said let there be light. And there was light. And the power and the authority
of that Word of God by the Word of the Lord were the heavens
made and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth, says
the Psalmist. He spake and it was done. He
commanded and it stood fast. And it's the same God, you see,
who causes there to be that spiritual light in the soul. That spiritual
enlightenment. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness and shine in our hearts. To give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God. in the face of Jesus
Christ. What have we known of that? What
do we know of that? Or do we desire to know that
gracious in shining into our hearts, that knowledge of God
and God's glory in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ? Our God,
you see, is such a mighty God. What does he do? He makes the
world out of nothing. He makes a saint out of a sinner? He makes a believer out of an
unbeliever? These are the works that God
can do. God is able to save. You believe that. You ask God
that he would save you. God is able to save. And it is
not wrong, surely, for us to ask that God would save. God
is the one, as I have already said, who gives faith. who works for us. We have to
ask God for faith. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who
is the author and finisher of our faith. We are to ask of Him. And we are to ask Him for it.
The enshining of the Gospel then is there in 2 Corinthians chapter
4 compared to God's mighty work of creation. And here the implanting
of faith is compared to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what we see in these verses 19 and 20. The exceeding greatness
of his power to us, Ward, who believe according to, after the
same fashion in like manner, 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. Now why? Why does the apostle
make this comparison? Because the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ is like no other resurrection. We read of
people being raised in the scriptures, do we not? Hebrews 11 verse 35
tells us women received their dead, raised to life again. We have the record there in 1st
Kings 17 of the widow of Zarephath's son. And now the prophet Elijah
was able to raise the dead child to life. And we have Examples,
of course, in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, as He
not raised from the dead the widow of Nain's son. There in
Luke chapter 17, this woman grieving over the death of her only son,
and the Lord Jesus goes to the bike as they're bearing the body
to the grave, and He raises the dead son to life again. And then again we have the record
of the raising to life of the daughter of Jairus. How the Lord Jesus Christ you
see is able to give life to one who was dead. And then most remarkably
in John chapter 11 we read of the raising of Lazarus from the
dead. There are these examples in in
the New Testament, in the Old Testament, of the dead being
raised to life. But I say that the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ, His resurrection of the dead, is
like no other resurrection. In the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we do have a display of the great power of God. But
we also see something more there in the resurrection of Christ
and power. We see the grace of God. Because Christ's death was
different to all other deaths. Christ's death was the accursed
death. It was the accursed death. Christ
has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse
for us For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a
tree. He has borne the curse. He has died, you see, as a substitute
for sinners. He has borne in his own person
the wrath of God against the sins of his people. As many as are of the works of
the Lord are under the curse. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things written in the
book of the law to do them. We are under the curse because
we do not continue in God's law. We are born, as we said, in sin,
dead in sin. And from the very moment of our
birth then we are under that curse. And the Lord Jesus Christ
has died an accursed death that he might save his people from
their sins, deliver them from what is a just desert at the
hands of a holy God. Christ died for our sins, it
says, according to the Scripture. That is the teaching of the Word
of God. This is a death that is like no other death. Christ
died for our sins. Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man would one die, yet for a good man some would even dare to die.
But God commended his love toward us while we were yet sinners.
Christ died for us. Oh, there is that that is so
different, you see, about that death. The appearance Here upon
the earth He came in the fullness of the time and He came for a
purpose. There was a work that He had
to accomplish, that work that He had undertaken in the eternal
covenant. He comes to do the will of the
one who has sent Him, that is God, and to finish the work that
the Father gave Him to do. He appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of Himself. His death then is like no other
death, because he dies the accursed death of the cross, making atonement
for the sins of his people. And then what do we see? Oh,
we see the power of God, but we see the grace of God, because
God raises him from the dead. and doesn't only raise him again
from the dead, but receives him. He who is risen ascends. And
that's what we have here in the text, you see. It's according
to the working of God's mighty power which he wrought in Christ
when he raised him from the dead. Raised him from this accursed
death and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places. He was delivered to death, delivered
for our offences. He was raised again, says Paul,
for our justification. He is dealt, you see, by his
life and by his death, he is dealt with that curse that is
upon the sinner as the transgressor, the breaker of God's law. and by his resurrection all there
is justification for the sinner. Is he not declared to be the
son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by
the resurrection from the dead? In all that the Lord Jesus Christ
is doing here upon the earth, remember he is a public person. In all that he is doing he is
the head of his body, the church. The end of the chapter. We are
told, the church which is his body, the fullness of him that
filleth all in all. In all that he does, he is the
head of that body. He is a public person. All the
election of grace are united to Him, in His living, in His
dying, in His rising, in His ascending, they are united to
Him. And they are united to Him, of
course, as their Great Covenant had. Because it was in the Eternal
Covenant that compact between God the Father, God the Son and
God the Holy Spirit. It was in the eternal covenant
that He willingly became their head. The Father gave Him a people,
a people to redeem, and He willingly agreed to undertake that work
of redemption. Or they are united to Him, you
see. even from eternity. What do we read here? In the
next chapter, verse 4, God who is rich in mercy for his great
love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sin has
quickened us together with Christ by grace you are saved and has
raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. Here is the pattern then. Here
is the pattern of that work that God does in the souls of his
people. We have to look to the Lord Jesus
Christ and we have to look to all that Christ has done and
all that the Father has done in him All this work that God
does for the sinner and in the sinner 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 place. But then, turning in the second
place, from the pattern, what we call the pattern of saving
faith to the power, the power of that saving faith. You see,
in time the blessings of that eternal union with the Lord Jesus
Christ must be experienced. There is an eternal union between
Christ and the Church, Christ and the election of grace. There
is an eternal union. But that eternal union must come
into the soul, it must be experienced, it must be an experimental union. And this is what we read of here
in verse 19, it's the exceeding greatness of his power to us
would who believe. Now observe the language that
Paul uses, he doesn't just speak of God's power, nor does he speak
of the greatness of God's power, he speaks of the exceeding greatness
of his power. The language is so strong, so
pregnant. Bishop Pearson says concerning
how it is stated in the original, he says, I doubt our language
can reach it. We can barely reach what is being
declared here in the Word of God. Paul, writing under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, just piles the words up, piles the words
one on top of the other, not just the power of God, not just
the greatness of the power of God, the exceeding greatness
of his power But look at the individual words. It is sometimes
interesting to do some word study with regards to the word of God
and there are certain books that we can purchase and they help
us to do word studies. We have books that tell us the
meaning of some of these words. Now, this word power, at the
beginning of verse 19, the exceeding greatness of his power, It's a word that's really related
to our English word dynamo. It's dynamic power that's being
spoken of. It's that mighty force. That's
the power of God that is being spoken of here at the beginning
of verse 19. Now, we have the word power again
at the end of verse 19, but it's not the identical word that's
used at the beginning. It's a different word, and the
word at the end really has the idea more of strength. That strength
that is inherent in God, because God, of course, is the mighty
God, the all-powerful God, the omnipotent God. And then, we also read of his
working, the exceeding greatness of his power, that's dynamic
power, the mighty force, according to the working of his mighty
power, that is, his great strength, but the word working, in fact, it's the word from which
the English energy comes. English word energy comes direct
from this particular word. Therefore this working has the
idea of active energy. It is God's, not latent power,
but this is active. This is God working. And where
is God working? He is working in the soul of
the sinner. And all that's suggested in the language that's employed
here by the Holy Spirit, all this great mighty power and energy
of God, is necessary. Why? Because of man's natural
condition. That's the only way faith can
come into the soul. We are so dead in trespasses
and sins that a great, mighty, miraculous work of God is necessary
in the soul for the sinner to be brought to faith. How do we
understand that? Do we understand that? What we
are as sinners, our absolute helplessness, our spiritual impotence. We are unable to do anything
to save ourselves, to help ourselves. We are so shut up to what we
are. And how the Psalmist Heman felt
it in Psalm 88, he says, I am shut up and I cannot come forth. How can I deliver myself? How
can I break out of this cell? I am in unbelief by nature. And you know, Ralph Erskine says
that's what we have to come to, we have to believe in our own
unbelief. Believe in our own unbelief.
Strange saying, but you see we have to believe that faith is
impossible for us. Would you believe that? Do you
feel that? Do you feel? You can't believe, or could I
but believe, says John Newton. Then all would easily be I would,
but can not Lord relieve my help? Must come from the earth. And how strange is the way in
which God works when it comes to this communication of faith.
It's a strange way in which God works. Because he literally makes
his people to feel what they are. And that's a mercy, is it
not? If we're dead in trespasses and
sins, we feel nothing spiritually. But you feel anything in your
soul tonight, you feel anything of that deadness. Anything of
the impossibility of sight, you feel it. Well, be encouraged,
you see. Because God's at work. He shutteth
up a man, says Job, and there can be no opening. For when God
shuts us in and shuts us up to what we are, and makes us feel
what we are. Moses says in Psalm 90, Thou turnest man to destruction,
and sayeth, Return. ye children of men. You see,
to be shut up to what we are, it is but one part of God's work.
When he turns a man to destruction, when a man is made to feel the
awful reality of his sinnership and the impossibility of him
believing, that's but one part of the work of God. Now turn
this man to destruction, but what does God go on to say in
return? or return, you children of men. Where the word of a king
is, there is power. But God would have us to feel
our complete and our continuous dependence upon himself. Isn't that what faith is all
about? To constantly feel our complete dependence. That's the
life of faith. Again we read it there in Isaiah
26 verse 12, Thou also hast wrought all our works in us. God must
accomplish all our works in us. That work of faith, and it's
not just what we know at the beginning of the Christian experience,
it's not that God gives us a measure of faith right at the beginning
and then We just draw on what God has given to us at the beginning
of our Christian experience. No, the life of faith is a life
of constant dependence. We need fresh supplies of faith. We need fresh supplies of all
the grace of God. We need God day by day, moment
by moment. And when the eyes of our understanding
are enlightened, this is what we'll see. These are some of the consequences
of that spiritual enlightenment. If we have our eyes opened to
the truth of God, to the truth of God's Word, God's Word is
before us, and we can read it, and we can come to some understanding
of it in an intellectual way, I know that. We can study the Word of God,
make a discipline of studying the Word of God, and one doesn't
decry that. It's good to be familiar with these things. But we need
more than an intellectual understanding. We need the eyes of our understanding
to be enlightened. And when the eyes of our understanding
are truly enlightened, these consequences, they follow. That ye may know there's something
to be known. What is to be known? The hope,
the hope of that calling. All that effectual call of God
that comes into the soul of the sinner. that mighty, that effectual
work of the Spirit of God? What is the hope of His calling,
and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance? There is
an inheritance. Or there is that which is laid
up in heaven. I have not seen nor heard, neither
have I entered into the hearts of men the things that God has
prepared for them that love Him. And yet, we can have some earnest
of it here upon the earth. What the riches of the glory
of his inheritance in the sons and what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us, would you believe? Or do we feel our needs
of that great, mighty, powerful, energizing work of God in our
souls. We need to know that we have
a real, living, vital union to the Lord Jesus Christ. As we
read there in Isaiah 26, 19, Thy dead men shall live. Together
with my dead bodies thou shalt they arise. We don't just ascend
to the great truths that are declared in 1 Corinthians 15
concerning the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. All we
want to know is something of the reality of that resurrection
of Christ. We want to experience it in our
own souls. Not only experience something
of his resurrection power, but also his ascension on high. Because
all that we experience, you see, of this grace of God 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. Oh, how we need to
know that power. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world. And we can only overcome by that
faith of the operation of God, that faith that centers in the
person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh God, grant each of
you such a faith as that, for His name's sake. Amen.