Let's open now, if you will,
to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. Paul is writing this letter to
this church at Ephesus from prison. He is confined in prison, and
he's writing to his brothers and sisters. And he starts off
in Ephesians 1. He tells us who the letter is
from and who the letter is to. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the
faithful in Jesus Christ. He is speaking to those that
are sanctified of God. Those that are set apart and
made holy by God in Ephesus and those that are full of faith
in Christ. We are not in Ephesus, are we?
If the Lord's given you faith in Christ, this letter's to you.
He goes on and says, Grace be to you and peace from God our
Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Those that the Father
loved, those that have been set apart by Him, saved by Him, have
faith in Christ, given by Him, the faith of Christ. Those are
the only people that truly have peace. Because that's receiving
grace. For the Lord to speak to us,
to deal with us, to save us. And then He goes on at the beginning
of this chapter and tells us how He saves us. How we're saved. It's the work of the Father.
Verse 3-6 tells us that God the Father chose a people in Christ
before this world began. He picked them, He chose them
to honor Himself and make a whole nation, an innumerable nation,
just like His Son. The spitting image of Him. Old
Southern term, spitting image. That's the slang for the Spirit
and the image of Him. We will have Christ's Spirit
and we're going to look like Him and act like Him. And then
how'd that happen? He purposed it. The Father purposed
salvation and then the Son accomplished the salvation. He purposed it. The Son purchased it. Cross blood
is what bought His people. He became our propitiation. He
became what we are and we became what He is and we're one with
Him. And then the work of the Holy
Spirit goes on there and says that after we've trusted and
we've heard the word of truth, verse 13, in whom you've also
trusted after you've heard the word of truth, the gospel of
your salvation, in whom you've also, after that, you believed
and you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which
is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession, until it's time for us to go home. and shed this
body of sin, this life of sin, this knowledge of sin, their
memory of sin, and be holy and without blame. May He delight
Christ and be in His presence and worship Him as He deserves.
Until then, we have this earnest, we have this down payment in
our earthen vessels. We get to believe God. What a
privilege. We've been set apart to know
Him, to learn of Him. That's how Paul opens a letter
from prison. He's in the belly of that whale up in Rome, and
he says, oh, I love you. Grace to you, peace to you, my
brothers and sisters. And he tells us where grace and
peace comes from. The Father of Purpose, the Son
of Purchase, and the Holy Spirit of Assurance. And then he goes
on to pray for them. He tells them He prays for them.
He tells them how He prays for them. Let's read our text for
today. We're going to be in verses 15 through the end of the chapter.
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, 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 usward, who believe according to the working of His
mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when he was raised
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 hath put all things under his
feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church
which is his body the fullness of him that filleth all in all. The whole thing is Paul's prayer
for the church at Ephesus and those that are full of faith
in Christ. Who do I pray for? I want to
make this message as personal as I can. I want to just talk
to you this morning and tell you what little bit I know about
prayer and what I see in these verses. Who do I pray for? Do
you know that I pray for you I pray for each one of you all.
I make mention of you in my prayers. And just as Paul does, I urge
you, pray for me. Pray for me. The Lord be with
me, give me messages, and save me by His grace. It would be
an awkward prayer for most people. The Lord save my past. Ask Him to keep me. I ask Him
to keep you. But I pray for you and I pray
for those that I've heard of. There in verse 1 it says, I'm
sorry, verse 15. Ephesians 1 verse 15. Wherefore
I also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love
unto all the saints. Paul heard of their faith in
Christ, their belief in Christ, and their love for all the saints. We've heard of these things,
haven't we? We've heard about the baptisms taking place today
in Missouri. They believe Christ and they
love their brethren. I've been told that. You've been
told that. I've heard of Brother Angus Fisher down in Australia.
Had never met the man. Finally I got to meet him. And
I loved him even more when I met him than I did before I met him.
But there's a whole congregation down there in NARA, Australia.
I don't know them. Never seen them. But I know they're
there. I've heard of them. What do they believe? They believe
a person. They believe Christ. Do they believe Him and hoe up
down there in the outback or something? No, they gather together
and support one another, love one another, pray for one another.
They love one another. They believe Christ and love the brethren.
I've heard of them. In Ireland, there's groups there. In mean
old nasty Russia and China, the Lord has a people. in those countries. There's believers in Russia.
There's a work there. And there's believers in China.
There's a whole lot of Henry's messages translated to Chinese
and they download them. They want to hear it more. We've
heard of these people. I heard of the work here in San
Diego years ago. Didn't know one of you. Prayed
for you. Then we heard more of you. We wept for you. And then
I got to meet you. I still want to hear more of
you. He said, Wherefore I also, after
I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto
all the saints. Turn over to 1 John 4. That's
our Lord's commandment. It's to believe Christ, love
the brethren, but that's also our proof. That's an assurance
for the believer. Because we can't choose what
we believe and we can't choose who we love, can we? Sometimes
you love people you don't want to love. In this world, sometimes
the people you want to love and want them to love you can't happen.
The Lord has to give. He has to give belief. He has
to give faith. He has to give love. But there in 1 John 4,
verse 7, He said, Beloved, let us love one another. For love
is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth
God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. We love our brethren. If we know
Christ, we love our brethren. Look down at verse 20. If a man
say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he
that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love
God whom he hath not seen? A person cannot love Christ,
know Christ, and obey Christ, and not love His people. That's
an impossibility. There's a couple people I can
think of in my mind, that hurts my feelings to say that. I want
them to love their brethren. I want them to be the Lord's
elect. They might like scripture. They might like doctrines. They
might say, I know God. I love God. Why don't you come
meet with us?" Nah, I don't like them folks. I want to meet with
God's people nowhere. We'll move. We'll help you load
the U-Haul. Go to North Carolina. Go where?
Go to China. Believers there, go be with them. Don't want to be with them. Don't
love the brethren. The Lord said if he hates his
brother and says he loves God, he's a liar. Loving God's not
in him. Now back to our text here in
Ephesians 1. Our master said in John 13, he said, By this
shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love
one to another. Not love of the scriptures, not
love acting like a church going person, not going to church.
I love to go to church. If you love the brethren. Now
why would the Lord Jesus word it that way? I always say this
is how people are going to know you, if you love one another.
Because it's obvious the reason we love Him, isn't it? I love
my Master. I love Christ. There's plenty
of reason why. We understand that. But it takes
the power of God for one sinner to truly love another sinner.
That's proof. When one of you shows me that
you love me in the slottest way, in an unfeigned love, not something
that's self-serving, It makes you feel better or whatever.
When you truly, when you care for me out of true love, I know
what I am and I know what I deserve. And if the Lord enables you,
you know what I am and you know what I deserve. You know I'm
just a filthy sinner. And for you to be kind to me,
for you to truly show love to me, to be generous to me, that's
not something natural. The Lord has to give that. He
has to give that love to us. As a believer displaying the
gracious love that they were shown by God. They're shown the
mercy by God, so they show that mercy to those that love God.
They're being gracious to by our Lord. Now they can be gracious. They've been loved by our Lord
first, then they love Him, and now they know how to love their
brethren. The Lord has to give that to us. The evidence of God's
love towards His people, working in them, is the evidence to others
in this world that those who believe on Christ are His disciples. You still going to go to church
with that man? He did some bad things. Yeah, but he loves my
Lord and I love him. She was real mean to you. She
backed into your car. That's alright. That don't matter,
does it? Verse 15, Ephesians 1 verse 15,
Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus,
and love unto all saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making
mention of you in my prayers. No matter the situation that
a believer is in, if they are acting like a child of God or
they are not acting like a child of God, we are to pray for one
another, to look to our Lord for our brethren, and cease not
giving thanks for those that believe Christ and love the brethren. No matter what the situation
is, You know, to not pray, for me to not pray for you, that's
a sin. Without ceasing, if I don't make
mention of you in my prayers, I'm sinning against the Holy
God, God Almighty, if I fail to pray for you. I go to sleep. That means I'm a sinner. Turn over to 1 Samuel. We looked
at this earlier in the year, but it'll be good for us to see
it again. 1 Samuel chapter 12. We remember
that Israel, they wanted to be like all the other nations. They
wanted a king. And through Samuel, our Lord
spoke to them and He said, whenever you get this king, you ain't
going to be happy with it. And you're going to come back
begging me to get rid of him. It ain't going to work out good
for you. And they said, no, we want a king. And when they had
turned from that idea, when the Lord let that come to fruition,
they saw They were shown how Saul was treating them and the
sin that they committed in wanting someone to rule over them other
than the Lord God Almighty. They repented and they begged
Samuel to intercede for them. They come to Samuel. Now, 1 Samuel
12, verse 19. And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy
servants unto the Lord thy God that we die not, for we have
added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king. And Samuel
said unto the people, Fear not. Ye have done all this wickedness,
yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord
with all your heart. And turn ye not aside, for then
should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver,
for they are vain. For the Lord will not forsake
his people for his great namesake, because it has pleased the Lord
to make you his people. Moreover, as for me," speaking
of himself, as for me, as for me, as for Kevin Thacker, God
forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for
you. but I will teach you the good
and right way." And here he teaches us. Only fear the Lord and serve
Him in truth with all your heart, for consider how great things
He hath done for you. We're going to see that again
here in a minute. That's what Samuel's prayer was. And to show
them the good and right way is to look to the Lord. Fear the
Lord. Honor the Lord. He prayed that
they are brought into remembrance of the God of their salvation. Don't fall from Him. Don't turn
to vain things. Continue to look to the Lord.
That's what He prayed for. We pray that our loved ones on
this earth hear the Gospel. We pray that if we have a visitor,
the Lord be pleased to pierce their hearts. Give them ears
to hear. Give them knowledge to know who
He is. But do we pray the same way for those around us after
the Lord does a work in their heart? Lord, save my children. If it's
your will, if you're pleased to, teach them the gospel. And
then if he's so pleased to do so, I say, well, they're fine
now. Let me find somebody else. I've done it. It's easy for me
to see somebody strong in faith. The Lord gave a backbone of steel
to, and I forget to pray for them. We need to pray just as
fervently for our brothers and sisters that are strong in the
faith as we do for the ones that are weak in the faith and the
ones that ain't in the faith yet. The Lord hasn't revealed
himself in them yet. How do I pray for you? I make mention of you in my prayers. I remember those that love Christ
and I remember those that love the brethren. And it's my privilege. I thank you all. I don't thank
you enough. I get to make a living studying
the Lord's Word. I get to consume my days, whether
I'm cutting grass or down here studying. I get to consider the
Lord's Word. Thank you for that. But it's
my privilege to pray for you. How do you think I do that? Do
you think I roll out a real fancy carpet? and light some candles
and put a picture of you. Next thing they'll be cutting
locks of hair. Somebody said it's going to pray for me that
way, I'd ask them not to. I don't know who you're praying
to. When I walk to the mailbox, I
check my mail. I turn around and come back.
Thomas, I thank you. I hope the Lord's with him today. I drive home from work. I pass
our neighbor's house. That's where the Hodson's were.
Lord, give them grace to see you today. I pump gas. I think,
Matt, you drive a long way, Brian. Y'all drive quite a bit. I bet
you pump a lot of gas. And while I'm pumping gas, just
getting gas, my thoughts go to you. Lord, be with them. Kimberly makes brownies. I think
of Miss Willie making pies. Children start homeschooling,
Bernie, you and the girls coming to mine. It's not a... ritualistic, like
I'm allotting 14 minutes today, I'm going to pray for the saints
and I'm whole. Well that's mechanical isn't it? I'm going to put on
a fancy outfit, I'm going to get rid of my accent and speak
enunciately. No, you beg. And it's on your
heart all the time. That's where the Lord said, this
world, the Lord's not in their thoughts continually. I may not
be thinking on the Lord, but if I'm thinking on you, the Lord's
in you, who am I thinking on? Thinking on Him, ain't I? And
the work that He's accomplished. But those that we've heard of,
those that we know love the Lord already, those we know love Him
because they love the brethren, what do we ask for them? What
do we pray for? There in verse 15, just like
Samuel, Paul writes, Wherefore I also, after I heard of your
faith, and back in our text, Ephesians 1. We get there too.
Ephesians 1, 15, Wherefore I also After I heard of your faith in
the Lord Jesus and the love unto all saints, cease not to give
thanks for you, 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." First thing mentioned there is the spirit. I ask the
Lord to prepare me before I get to this service. You should ask
Him. You wake up on Sunday morning, y'all, to ask God, Lord, be with
me today. Give me a spirit to hear on my
way to service. While when we get here and we
sit down and we're quieted before the service starts and we're
waiting for it to start, Lord, be with us today. And if we haven't, and many times
when I sit and listen to a message, halfway through I gotta say,
Lord, be with me. Oh, I turn my thoughts, my mind wanders.
Lord, give me a spirit to look to you today. Give me the ability
to hear. Then give us the spirit to apply
it to our hearts. And not just hear. I hope our
thoughts and words can be on the Lord Jesus after this service
is over, not this world. And then when we leave, tomorrow
morning when we wake up and we go about our days and go about
our weeks, Lord give us a spirit to look to you through this whole
week. Ask Him. Seek the Lord. And that spirit
of wisdom, We need the who and the what of wisdom. What's our
wisdom? Christ is our wisdom. I need
His wisdom. I need to know Him. But I need
the what of that wisdom too. I need the practicality of it.
Christ is our wisdom and wisdom to live in this world as believers.
Give me the words to say to my family, to the people I deal
with on a daily basis. Ask the Lord to do that. One
of my children come up and ask me something. Lord, give me the
words to deal with that situation, to give them an answer. Give
me wisdom to work hard and know when to rest. Give me the wisdom
to, whenever somebody asks me a question. Preacher, what do
you think about this? What about that? You think we
ought to be doing this? Give me the wisdom to say what saith
the Scriptures. Give me the wisdom to look to
my Lord before I go answering a question. I pray He does that
for me. And it says there, Revelation
in the knowledge of Christ. I pray the Lord gives us revelation
in His Word. When we read these scriptures
to see what man is and who Christ is and what he accomplished.
To see Christ in these scriptures. Not just stuff to do. That we
see what's done. And that's a revelation. That's
not a mystery we find out on our own. We study out and hash
out. The Lord has to show us that.
He has to reveal that in our hearts. Revelation in the knowledge. We just looked at knowledge,
the foreknowledge of God. Lord reveal your love to me. I pray that for you. I pray the
Lord will reveal his love for you to you in knowing him. I want to know him. I do know
him and I want to know him more or learn more of him and he must
be revealed. I pray He does that for His people.
And in verse 17 it says, Ephesians 1 17, that the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit
of wisdom and the revelation in the knowledge of Him and,
verse 18, the eyes of your understanding be 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." Our eyes need to be enlightened
to things we already know. I pray that for myself. I pray
that for you. Paul prays it for us. Samuel
prayed it for us. We're so flippant and we can
become calloused to say, oh, I'm a sinner. Everybody's a sinner.
We all died in Adam. Christ comes to save sinners.
We learn the three R's, don't we? We know the five points. Lord, enlighten me to those things. Show me what I am. Bring my sin
to the forefront of my mind so I can remember it, because if
not, I'm going to die. Show me the one that saved me. God Almighty became a man and
walked this earth, made like we are, made of a woman, without
sin. And He was punished on this earth. And that wasn't a drop in the
bucket until God Almighty turned His back on God Almighty. He
was forsook everything that I deserved, that I can't pay for an eternity. He bore. That's easy for me to say all
Christ died for our sin. Enlighten my eyes. I prayed lighten
your eyes. My sin, the cross payment for
sin and my hope. So what is the hope of His calling?
My hope that His finished work is done because of who He is.
When He said it's finished, for me to hope, to trust, not to
wish, to know, to trust that that work is done. That work
of salvation is accomplished. It's finished. This world has
so little hope in it. There's no hope in this world.
Anything you look at, anything you touch, anything you see,
it's going to be gone. El Capitan up there in the National
Park, all the granite slopes, it's going to go away. Go buy
a brand new truck, oh how nice and shiny. Give it a year. It
ain't so nice and shiny no more, is it? I've got to get glasses
this week. These nice shiny eyes ain't working
so good. It's all going to perish. And
it ain't nothing but failure and burning and contempt and
disappointment all around us. But the hope of Christ's calling.
Oh, can we be brought into remembrance How low I can get. Like Jonah
said, I fainted. I passed out. I want to die.
I looked at everything around me and all the works done to
me. And then I remembered the Lord. If we can remember the
hope of our calling. Christ called a people. He let
us know about it. Oh, what something to be enlightened
to. And the riches of the glory of His inheritance. That's heaven. And it's not just
what that encompasses of things. People where I'm from, they talk
a lot about golden streets and kicking up gold dust and just
foolishness. That's how, if I told you heaven
was full of asphalt, you'd say, I don't really want to go there.
That's what gold is. There. Worthless. Pay the streets
with it. Get a pot of old paper back.
Ain't worth nothing. Gravel. That's all it is. But our Lord
said, There's many mansions prepared. I go to prepare a place for you
in my father's house. There are many mansions. Do you
know what that is? Me neither, but it's good. I pray the Lord to lighten our
eyes that in those mansions, whatever they are, we're going
to reside in those without the knowledge of sin. We won't know
what sin is when we don't know what that is to be without sin.
And we'll reside there looking to our Master always in perfection. Loving Him as He deserves to
be loved. Singing His praises as He deserves to have them sung.
That's what we have coming. Body fashioned like His. Have
a spirit that's like His. In a place that He made. I told
you that story before, a man on a sailboat down there in the
bottom rungs with the rats and stuff. But he was going to England
and he was inheriting a huge fortune. And they said, you've
got ten days left to get there. I said, well, ain't you disgusted? He said, oh, I don't care. You
can put me in the bottom, you can put me in the top. My inheritance
is over there. Christ is our inheritance. He's
been given to us by the Father, purposed by the Father. And in
a short while, in a quick vapor, and maybe on the way home today,
I'll be there. To be with the person of my inheritance. What a hope. I wish the Lord
didn't lighten my eyes in that. And then if I stub my toe down
at the gas station, I won't be so upset over it, will I? It's
all going to burn. I didn't, things didn't work
out at the grocery store the way I wanted. It's all going
to burn. that our eyes be enlightened
to. Verse 19, And what is the exceeding greatness
of His power to usward 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 heavenly
places? we were to be enlightened to
the power of God it took to save us and that when He raised Christ
from the dead and set Him on His own right hand in heavenly
places, proven that that work is accomplished. The power of
our assurance that this salvation is real, the guarantee of our
salvation and that is right now. Do you know that? Explain that. Brother Greg Elmquist said that
20 years ago to me. He said, we're going to show
up in glory when the Lord takes us home, and we'll realize we've
been there the whole time. I said, boy, isn't that something?
Look over there on the next page, chapter 2, verse 6. "...and hath
raised us up together and made us set together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus." Just as sanctified as we are,
You are holy right now. Did you know that? Perfect. Holy. Right now you're seated
at the right hand of God. You're in heavenly places right
now. How can that be? I don't know. It's so. That's how effective it is. He's
raised us up. He's not only brought us up from
sin, brought us up from death, He's raised us and to rest in
Christ. to be holy like he is and to
rest in him. How far up, how high did he raise us? Look at
verse 21, Ephesians 1, 21. Far above all principalities
and power and dominion in every name that is named, not only
in this world, but also in that which is to come. We are given
the spirit of wisdom to look to Christ and His accomplished
work and we realize that all principalities, all powers, all
dominions, and everything and everyone in this world is for
our benefit and for Christ's glory. That gives us peace. I try not to watch the news,
and the last month or so I started watching a little bit, and my
blood pressure starts going up. Why would it? Every molecule that's floating
in this room right now glorifies God Almighty. Because He's in
control of every bit of it. When we see that we are a member
of His body, He's the one that controls that, and we're a member
of His body. What joy and comfort. Look here in verse 22. And He
hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the
head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness
of Him that filleth all in all. Brother Gabe Stoner said, what's
that mean to be part of the body, and He's the head, and He's the
fullness of all? I don't know, but it's good. Isn't that majestic? Isn't that wonderful? We have
nothing to fret because He's the head. The head of the body.
We can't enter into this on this earth. But scripture says, as
He is, so are we. It's the way I am right now. I don't feel like it. I don't
look like it. as He is. Christ our hope. So are we. All things are under
His feet. All of our enemies are under
His feet. Who's our enemies? Satan. He's
been defeated. I don't have to worry about him.
Sin. Me. That's been taken care of,
hasn't it? Groups of men. Christ has conquered
all things. And we're a member of His body.
But this is my prayer for you and all the saints. All those
who are filled full in Christ. That's Paul's prayer for you
and Samuel's prayer. It's all saints' prayer. We're
reminded of these things. We've been enlightened of these
things. The wisdom in Him, the righteousness in Him, and the
love of Christ. Lord, reveal these things to
us. I didn't write this down, but if you read that, I always
read it backwards. If you read that backwards, Christ
has accomplished everything and He's the head of His church.
And then He enlightens us. Him being our wisdom. He reveals
His love to us. And we understand some things.
We have that. And then we profess Him. We believe
Him. We know Him. And then we see
those others that profess Him, believe Him, know Him, and we
pray for them. See how it works? Paul always starts where he's
at. Works through that. But that's my prayer for you.
I hope it's your prayer for me. Lord, be with us. Lord, open
our eyes, open our hearts. Not just the words of that. Enlighten
us to that. Crack that stone cold heart open, Lord, and be
with us. I hope he's with us this morning. Amen.