If you would, turn to Ephesians
chapter one. By His grace, I want to get to
these three things. Three things you will know. I
was trying to remember how I wrote it down. By His grace, you will know these
three things. Let me read verse 18 and 19. 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. I spoke last week about the eyes
of your understanding being enlightened And that was because of the spirit
of wisdom and revelation that God gives His people. Now a few
verses before that, it talks about after you believed you
were sealed. All this leading up to this,
every bit of this in this first chapter of Ephesians is the work
of God. This statement, that ye may know
what is the hope of his calling. This is one of the things that
you're going to know. Now, I do want to point this
out. The word that leads this to be
a succession of what has come before. The spirit of wisdom
and revelation, the eyes of your understanding, being enlightened.
That. But the other thing I do want
to point out here is this word know. In this verse here, this
is not the word that is usually translated no. It's not genosko,
which is the Greek word. And that is that intimate knowledge.
We know Christ because Christ knows us. That's genosko. This is a different word. I didn't
write it down. But it is a verb. It is active. And it is active. But the word translated here
is the word, another translation or the literal translation, it
means to see or to be aware, to behold or to perceive. Literally, this means to know,
to see, to perceive, in your deep thoughts your understanding
because now you have been given that vision. It is active, you see, you perceive,
but it's because of his spirit. Anything once seen cannot be
unseen. Anything known is no longer unknown. And this is what Paul is saying,
that this spirit of wisdom and revelation, the eyes of your
understanding being enlightened, that ye may perceive, and here
he starts it, what is the hope of his calling. It has been given to you to perceive
it, to see it. With the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened. Now, the first part, of course,
I want to emphasize is this is His calling. Now, if you want to, I looked
at it, actually in the Greek, that word may is not there. He's
praying that ye perceive. It's not that ye may or may not. In the old English, that meant
you did. Just like the word might. We use it now, we use it might
and might not. That's not the way they used
it in those times. That's not the way they used may. It's not
may or may not. No, you may, you're going to.
This has been done that you will know, that you will perceive.
It is a statement declarative that this is going to happen.
If you've been given spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of him, this is going to happen. Now, I do want to emphasize that
Paul is not speaking here of the preacher. He is talking about the hope
of His calling and the His there is the Father. Those who repent
and believe and are baptized and who continue steadfastly
in the Apostles doctrine are as many as the Lord our God shall
call. That's the same word. And if you would, look back at,
I want to look at, just for a moment, at 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Walter
and I talked about this the other day, last week. Because this is something that
does concern us. Verse 21 of 1 Corinthians chapter
1, For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe." We believe the preaching
of the gospel is necessary. The public proclamation of our
Lord Jesus Christ is necessary. And you will believe. I believe
that's necessary also. Because it is necessary. but it is by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. There's already been
a work there. There's already been a work there.
The gospel is of no value to the unregenerate. I can't stress
this too strongly, and there are a lot of error, and I'm not
saying heresy, but there's a lot of error in the fact that people
don't seem to have a grasp on the difference between regeneration
and conversion. Life comes first. Life always
comes first. Always! Or, you don't have faith. Paul's going to deal with it
in Ephesians chapter 2. By grace are ye saved, through
faith, and what in that, not of yourselves. What, faith or
grace? Both of them. Neither one of
them are of yourself. They're the gift of God. None
of works lest any man should boast. This is, we believe, necessary. Now, of course, I still always
love what Earl used to say. It's not the preaching of foolishness. But our gathering together to
hear this word preached is to the world, is to the Gentiles,
is to those that are not religious, It's foolishness. How can you
waste your time going to that little place on that side of
that little hill? I mean, sure, you got really nice oak trees.
They're big. They're beautiful. That's not
why we come here. We come here to hear the gospel
preached. And it has been chosen by God. This was written over
1900 years ago. And guess what? It's still true.
By the foolishness of preaching. They may see it as foolishness.
I saw it as foolishness. Not anymore. I did say that in
the past tense. Now, I see, present tense, the
preaching of foolishness all the time. You know, May not know
much and I'm fixing to show it by the next thing that comes
out of my mouth. That's usually what I say Think to myself, but
you gotta live it. I May not know much but God's
done all we can do and now it's up to you. God has made salvation
possible God has made salvation available. No this book in the
first chapter of Ephesians is God has made salvation certain
for those that he has predestinated, those that he has chosen before
the foundation of the world. And he has chosen by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. That's the truth. For the Jews require a sign and
the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified
unto the Jews, a stumbling block. They will trip. at the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And unto the Greeks, foolishness,
those who are not religious. But unto them which are called,
both Jew and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of
God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men, the weakness of God is stronger than men.
Verse 26, For ye see your calling, brethren. The reason you see your calling
is because of His calling. The reason you believe the gospel
is because God gave you faith. It's His calling before it's
your calling. How that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God
has chosen foolish things of the world to confound the wise
and the weak things. God has chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things which are mighty and base
things of the world and things which are despised. Hath God
chosen? Can you put yourself in that
place? Well, better question is, has
God let you know that that's your state. The base things. The things which
are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not
to bring to naught things that are that no flesh should glory
in his presence. Let me point out this one little
thing here. Back up to verse 9. 1 Corinthians 1, God is faithful.
This is how Paul started out this statement. By the foolishness of preaching,
God is faithful by whom ye were called into the fellowship of
His Son, our Son Jesus Christ, our Lord. And that called there,
where it says, ye were called, the subject of that verb called
is ye. So that verb in that sentence
is passive. When Jesus Christ stood outside
that tomb and he cried out one word, said with a loud voice,
Lazarus. And right then when he cried
that word, that name of that sheep, Lazarus' eyes opened. I believe that with all my heart.
He was dead. But when Christ called him by
name, he opened his eyes. Why? Because he was alive. Now he was in the tomb. He was
still bound with grave clothes. But his eyes were open. Christ
didn't leave him there, though. He continued with the next two
words. Come forth. Come forth! And Lazarus came
forth. Still bound. Still bound in the
grave clothes. And Christ looked at them fellows
and said, get those things off of him. Loose him and let him
go. Lazarus had to come at that call. Lazarus was made alive by that
call. And Lazarus had to come forth.
Why? Because Jesus Christ said so. That's the only reason. The Son
of God, God Himself, manifest in the flesh, called His sheep
by name and told them to come forth and He came forth. And they loosed Him and let Him
go. You are the called because He
calls. It is your calling because He
calls you, if you know it, if you've been brought to it. The preaching is necessary, but
the preaching does only benefit them that believe. There's a
statement in Hebrews that I use repeatedly and I will continue
to use repeatedly. The gospel was preached unto
us as well as unto them. But it did not profit them. Not being mixed with faith in
them that heard it. Guess what? It was either foolishness
or a stumbling block, depending upon who they were. That's the gospel. The gospel
is the same as it was 1900 years ago. That call of the gospel
never gives life. The preaching of the gospel does
not give life. It manifests and it will manifest
because God is chosen by the foolishness of preaching to manifest
that you believe. And you will believe Him. The hope of our calling is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is our hope. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ,
which is our hope. He's the hope of our calling. He is. The hope of our calling
is a person. I turned away too fast. Verse 30, it's 1 Corinthians
chapter 1 still. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus. Now, it's of God are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God, Walter talked about this a couple weeks ago,
is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. He's the hope of our calling.
He is our salvation. And God has made Him unto us
these things. Jesus Christ is the Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Savior. Because if He ain't Lord, He
can't save you. But He is the hope of our calling,
his calling. Now, the next thing, the riches
of the glory, what the riches of the glory
of his inheritance in the saints. We have an inheritance and we are saints. if we believe
God. Now, there's an example of this
from the negative side and it's true. It's actually in Ephesians
5 and verse 5. For this ye know, that no whoremonger,
nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath
any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. The inheritance is in his saints. He's been given, it has been
given to the saints. And the saints are his saints.
And our inheritance is in the kingdom of God and in the kingdom
of Christ. And I put it that way because
of Colossians 1, verses 12 and 13. It says, giving thanks unto
the Father which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. Who hath delivered us from the
power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son. Believers are made meat to be
partakers. And that word partakers means
to have a portion of the inheritance in that they have been transferred
into the kingdom of his dear son. 2 Corinthians, I'm going
to go to this for just a second. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 5-7, For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. Jesus Christ is our light. He is our hope and he is our
light. And the only light we have is
in the knowledge of him. and that life we have because
of Him, because of the Holy Spirit, because of the Father. This treasure we have and it
is a treasure. Earl said it in clay pots, earthen
vessels. That's what it is. Clay pots. Fragile, breakable, we are subject
to age, illness, melancholy and death. But we have a treasure. We have been given the Son of
God by the Father We have been given the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, who is the light. We are partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in what? In light. Ye who are sometimes darkness,
now, now, right now, are ye light in the Lord. and this inheritance of which
the Holy Ghost is our earnest. He said that before in Ephesians. He's the earnest of our inheritance.
He's the down payment of our inheritance. We are in the light
now. And for some who don't like it,
we're in the kingdom now. I've got a kingdom. He was king before he came. He
was king while he was here. And he'll be king forever. And there is no such thing as
a king without a kingdom. Yes, there is more coming in
his kingdom. Yes, there is the redemption
of the purchased possession. Yes, we are looking forward to
the redemption of the body. And yes, there is the regathering. the reuniting of all things in
Christ. And, not but, and we are in His
kingdom now. This is our inheritance from
the Father in the Son right now. Peter stated that God called
you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. 1 Corinthians 2 verses 9 and 10,
I hath not seen, neither hath ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them that
love him, but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. For
the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. We have been given to perceive
the inheritance any saints. Because we have been given the
inheritance of the saints. We are heirs of God and joint
heirs with Jesus Christ. I don't know of anything better than what we have in Christ,
because there is nothing better than what we have in Christ. And the last thing, and what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to usward who believe according to the working of his
mighty power? Paul is not normally given to
superlatives. But he outdid himself in this statement. The exceeding greatness of his
power to us were to believe according to the working of his mighty
power. The exceeding greatness translates the surpassing magnitude of His power. Now this is obvious to anyone
who has been met by God, because the first thing He'll teach you
is that you're nothing and He's everything. There's only one
way to surpass magnitude, to have exceeding greatness, to
exceed greatness. The only one way to do that is
to have all power. And he does. And we get a little
taste of it when that spirit of bondage to fear comes. Because the beginning of knowledge,
the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. And part of
that is to fear Him who has the power, the right, the authority,
and the ability to cast body and soul both in Him. And God gives that to every child
of God on the way. There is distress before there's
joy, Walter. But the exceeding greatness of
His power, this is the one who created it all. He spoke the
worlds into being. He said let there be light and
guess what? There was light. He said let there be water and
let there be land. There was water and there was
land. But this is talking about, Paul was talking about here is
the exceeding greatness of his power, it's his power, toward
us. It has been given for us to perceive
just a, just a hint. We see through a glass darkly,
but the exceeding greatness, the surpassing magnitude of his
power toward us, to his people, to those who he
chose before the foundation of the world, that he predestined,
predestinated to the adoption of sons. Paul never wrote of our power
except for to say that we had none. You might remark on the total
absence of it. When we were strengthless in
due time, Christ died for the ungodly without strength. But this is the surpassing magnitude
of the power of God. And this word here, power, is
dunamis. Dynamite is where we get it from. We get the word dynamite from
this. It takes the exceeding greatness
of the power, His power, to make His people. And He has shown that in His
people. It takes a miracle of grace to
give life to a dead sinner. It takes a miracle. It takes
the power of God to make a believer. It takes the power of God, the
Holy Spirit for you to hear His gospel and not think it's foolishness. It takes the power of God for you to believe the gospel. And you, as believers, You get
to perceive that with the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. And it is toward us. I can't help but be exclusionary
because that's what this book is all about. That's who Paul's
writing to. This is who Paul is writing about. If you don't believe, Paul's
not talking to you. It's toward us, to us word, who believe. If you don't believe, Paul's
not talking to you. If you do believe, Paul is talking
to you. And this believing is present
tense, active, right now. And this believing is due to
his mighty power. That's that next phrase. What is the exceeding greatness
of His power to usward who believe according to the working of His
mighty power? According to. In consequence of. By virtue
of. Or because of. You believe right now by the
consequence of His mighty power. See, there are people all around
us. Well, you know, okay, faith is a gift. But you've got to
believe. Yes, you do. You will believe. It says, you will believe. This
book says you will believe. Faith is the gift of God, but
your believing is according to the working of His mighty power. We are privileged to perceive
the surpassing magnitude of God's power toward us who believe. Now, this word here at the end
of this verse where it says, according to the working of his
mighty power, that's not dunamis. It's different. It's a totally
different word. Mighty means forceful. And this word power can be translated
energy, or my personal favorite, dominion, and another force. According to what Paul wrote
here, if you believe, you believe by the working of His forceful
force. I think that's what we've been
saying all along. It is God in you that causes you to do both the
will and to do of His good pleasure by the working of His forceful
force. I like that. I also like forceful
dominion because I looked up the word dominion in the dictionary. You know what the first definition
of the word dominion? Now, this is the English definition
of an English word dominion. Sovereignty. You believe by the power of His forceful sovereignty. I like that. We believe Christ. We believe
his gospel. We do. It's in here, Mason. Once seen, I can't unsee it.
Once known, I can't unknow it. It's in here. It's in here. My deep thoughts, your deep thoughts,
you've been branded. But, even my believing, I can't
take credit for. There's no boasting. None! None! Because we are privileged
to perceive the surpassing magnitude of His power unto us who believe
according to His forceful force. It starts with God's power, It
continues with God's power. It's all of God's power. It's now, right now, right here,
in this room, by His grace, it's by the working of His forceful
sovereignty. The conclusion Paul's prayer,
you will perceive these three things, the hope of his calling,
the riches of the glory of his inheritance in his saints, and
the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe. That's God's gift to each and
every child of God. And I can't leave this out, the
next verse, which he wrought in Christ. He worked it all in
Christ. He's working it all in Christ.
And He's going to continue to work it all in Christ. You will
know. You will perceive. You will understand
if the eyes of your understanding have been enlightened. Now, the degree to which you
know is different. I do know more now than I knew
when I was converted because I was pretty ignorant when I
was converted. I'm still pretty ignorant but
not that ignorant. The degree to which you understand
each individual point will be different and the degree to which
you understand will change. There is growth in grace and
in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I remember when Earl gave me
that book, The Forgotten Spurgeon. I got it. And he had talked to
us that day. We went up to the farm. And he
spoke of regeneration and conversion. And I never heard the word before.
There's a little paragraph in the back of one of those chapters
where this guy, Ian, I think it was Ian Murray, I believe,
he explained regeneration and conversion. I put it in my head and I went
and bought myself, I borrowed Earl's book, he gave it to me.
And I gave it back to him, which surprised him. But, so I bought
me one. It says regeneration is the impartation
of life to a sinner. Conversion is the bringing to. And the conversion never ends.
It's ongoing. Regeneration is a one time thing.
Life only comes once. Why? Because once God gives you
life, you don't ever need it again because you've got it. What He does, it's forever. Nothing
can be put to it. Nothing can be taken from it.
God does it. If He gives you life, you've
got life. And if He gives you faith, you'll
believe. And you'll believe according
to the working of His mighty power. But you will believe. It continues. And that's what
this conversion is. You will grow in the grace and
the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you ask
God to know something in these scriptures, He'll show it to
you. Or He'll show you something else. There is no boasting from beginning
to end in salvation. About us. Or about me. But there
is an unending, unending, forever boasting of my Lord, my Savior,
Jesus Christ. Because everything that God the
Father has done, it says, He brought it in Christ. He works
in Christ. And that was Paul's prayer. that you may know the hope of
his calling, the inheritance of his saints, and the exceeding
greatness of his power toward us. It's been given to us to perceive
these things. I hope you perceive them. I hope
you see them. I hope you love them. I hope
you love him, who is our wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. Heavenly Father, thank you for
everything you have given us. In your son, by your spirit,
thank you. In Christ's name we pray, amen.