And since I started this recording,
I can say this, because I just remembered. There's a question
that's been asked on the Church of the Nazarene in Princeton
for about three weeks now. Are you prayed up, packed up,
and ready to go? I looked at Debbie, and I said,
well, she took a picture of it. That's how I found out about
it. And then she sent it to Penny to show to Walter. I said, am
I prayed up? No. Am I packed up? No. Am I ready to go? Well, yeah, when I read signs
like that, I'm ready to go. Anyway, if you would, Ephesians
chapter 1, once again. I got to talking to Walter on
the phone, and I'm stuck here for a little bit. I want to begin reading. I want
to read verse 17 again through 19. Verses 17 through 19 of Ephesians
chapter 1. 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. Now, I have entitled this Three
Things You Will Know. I started to entitle it the Three
What's, because three things you will
know. According to the Apostle Paul
here, you will know what is the hope of his calling. You will
know what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the
saints. And you will know what is the
exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe according
to His mighty power. So that's the three things. I don't know if we're going to
get to them today. Because I do have an introduction.
And it's basically the same introduction that I had last week. Things change in you and to you
because of being born from above. And things change in you and
to you because you believe. Paul's very plain in this. Now
there's a reason for this change. And that reason has a name. His name is God. Because every
single bit of this is His work. And it's according to His mighty
power. It's not up to you. Even though
you will be active in it. We'll show it. It tells you plainly
here. You're passive in the reception
of this. We have obtained something. But
in that obtaining, that word in the Greek, it's passive. Because
we cannot obtain to spiritual things. We cannot get saved as
it is preached today. We cannot get salvation. It's
a gift. And we are passive in the getting. If that's good English or not,
I don't know. The Lord, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory, gives, in the last of verse 17, the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. It's a gift. And Paul prayed for this because
Jesus Christ had promised it. He promised to send the Comforter. the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of
truth which came from the Father. What did Christ say about him?
He shall testify of me. He will show things, things to
come. He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me. He shall
take of Mine and shall show it unto you. Now I believe wholeheartedly
that's what this means by the spirit of wisdom and revelation
and the knowledge of Him. That's the Holy Spirit. It's not the spirit of this world.
Because the spirit of this world cannot understand the things
of the Spirit of God. It can't. It not only lacks the
ability, it lacks the faculty. See, it's not only that we are
unwilling, we are incapable. Why? Because we are lacking spirituality,
true spirituality. Now we have a spirit. We have
a spirit. But it's not the spirit of God.
And we have that spirit naturally, the spirit of this world. We
were happy as clams in it. I don't know how happy clams
really are, but that's the expression. I prefer the expression, I was
in myself, in my sin, and I was, to quote a professor of mine
at Bluefield State, I was there fat, dumb, and happy. I wasn't
looking for God. As far as I knew Walter, he wasn't
looking for me. But he knew where I was. But
I wasn't looking for him. God gives unto you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation and it's in the knowledge of him.
It's not in the knowledge of this world. It's not in the wisdom
of this world. It's in the knowledge and the wisdom which is Who is
our Lord Jesus Christ? Now this next verse, 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
inherited in the saints. So the first thing I looked at
was the word eyes. Now the deep meaning of that
word is eyes. That's what it translates. That's what it means. It's your
eyes, eyeballs. But by implication, because you
have these eyes, by implication it means vision. See, it's not only you got eyes,
it's what you see. And in this case, it's who you
see. The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened. Because you have vision, you
see. There are people who have eyeballs
that don't see. But because you have this vision,
you see. And Paul is writing here that
our vision has changed for the better. Let's emphasize that
part of it. My vision has changed, now I
need these glasses I didn't use to. But here he's talking about
a spiritual seeing. Perception, perceive is the other
word. Now, we are limited in the use
of our own eyes to the natural use. My eyes can only focus on
one thing at a time. That's the way my eyes work. I remember being a kid and I
had the hardest time seeing fish in a creek, Mason. People say,
oh, look at those fish. Look at those minnows. And I'd
see the creek. I'd see the water until I learned
to focus below the surface. Now, my eyeballs hadn't changed,
but my vision had. What I was seeing changed. Because at first I'd see the
surface, then you can look, if you can actually change the focus,
you can see below the surface, and then if you want to, if you
can change a little bit more, you can see the bottom. I thought about this like, well,
y'all know I like taking pictures. It's hard for me to look at the
first pictures I took. because they're not that good. Now, at the time, I thought they
were fine. At the time, they were the best I could do. But
as I have been over the years taking pictures, I think I've
gotten better at it. My eye had changed. That's the
way they say it. You've got a good eye. Well,
my eye hadn't changed, but my vision had. It was my eyeball. But I can look at something right
now and I can decide instantly that I can't get a good picture
of that. Now I can look at this scripture
and I can see Christ's words in it. I can see his story in
it. I can see his life in it, his
words in it, his truth in this word. And that's what it means. My eyes haven't changed. I've
been given vision. In this case, I've been given
a seeing eye. And guess where that comes from?
The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made even both
of them. They came from Him. Our vision has been focused by
God to actually now be able to see the things of Christ Jesus
in his word, in this world, and in each other's words. But Paul specified this a little
bit more when he said, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. Now there are some versions who
translate this word as understanding as the word heart. And I understand
what they're saying and why they say that. Because in those days,
at that time, they thought, one of the things they thought, the
center of thinking was in the heart. But the word actually
means, it's a compound Greek word, And it actually means deep
thought. So these are the eyes of your
deep thoughts. Now I don't mean to put the emphasis
on the deep things of God. This is about your innermost
being. Where you live, where you are
in your mind. Your eyes have been enlightened
to understand in the core of your being as best as you can,
as best as it's been revealed to you, the things of the Spirit
of God. Because what Paul is writing
here is, with your eyes open and you perceiving, There is
a change deep within you, in your innermost thoughts. A good change. A good change. And never forget, this is your
understanding. It is personal. I can't mediate for you, I can't
understand for you, Walter can't understand for you. All we can
do is preach. This is yours. This is the gift
to every child of God. Paul's writing of your eyes and
your understanding. So the question naturally arises,
do you understand? Do you have this wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of Him? And I mean deep within your soul,
deep within yourself. Because if it ain't there, it
doesn't matter if it's on the surface. If He is not a part of you, If
the Spirit is not in you, He can't bear witness that you are
the child of God. When you strip everything away,
what's down deep? Is it the love of Christ? Is
it the love of His Word? Is it the love of the gathering
of the saints? To hear about Him? To talk about
Him? to learn about him and to bow
to him. What he says is true, no matter
what I think. This is what changes for every
child of God. Once the eyes of your understanding
have been enlightened. Again, this is a verb. It's in
the perfect, the past tense. And guess what it is? is passive. You don't enlighten yourself. Now you do study to show thyself
approved, a good worker unto God. A man need not be ashamed. You do study. But the knowledge,
the enlightenment of your eyes and your understanding comes
from God. Just like the spirit of wisdom
and revelation and the knowledge of him that comes from God But
you have been enlightened literally this word means to brighten up Because understand this also
the light has always been there Jesus Christ is light The lights
always been here We just couldn't see it. We just couldn't understand
it. The light always shines. That's
what light does. It shines or it's not a light. He's always been the light and
Christ the light has always shined and we just couldn't see it. We had our understanding. Turn over a page if you would.
Ephesians 4 and verse 17. This I say therefore and testify
in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk,
but in the vanity of their mind. Having the understanding darkened. Being alienated from the life
of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the
blindness of their heart. Who being past feeling have given
themselves unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with
greediness. The world has an understanding.
And you had an understanding before God gave you this understanding.
But that understanding of the world and that understanding
of the unregenerate is darkened. It's darkened. You couldn't see. But your eyes have changed now.
If you're in Him, your eyes have changed. Your understanding has
changed. Because of His enlightenment. His gift. All of it comes from
Him. Now this is what Christ told
His disciples and actually what Christ did for His disciples
in the last, I think it's the last chapter of Luke, chapter 24. Get there Luke chapter 24 verse 44 this
is Christ speaking to his disciples after they had ate and And he said unto them, These
are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you,
and all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning
me. Verse 45, he says, Then opened
he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. and said unto them thus it is
written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise
from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission
of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning
at Jerusalem and ye are witnesses of these things. What Christ did for his disciples
right there in person The spirit of wisdom and revelation does
for every believer. Now. Right now. The scripture doesn't change.
We change. We change. And if God changes
you, it is for the better. He opens our understanding and
guess what? You start understanding. That was the weirdest thing to
me when all this started. That I could read something in
this book and it actually started to make sense to me, Walter. We talked before about the book
of Hebrews. There's a lot of people who stay away from the
book of Hebrews because there's some hard stuff in there. And
they say it's a Jewish book. It's written to Jews. And it
is. It is. But my Catholic background gave
me a nice little perspective to look at when they start talking
about the priesthood. Because I'll tell you a secret.
The Catholics want to be the priests that the Jews were. That's what they want to take
over. That's what they've tried to take over. They say they are
the authority. That's what that guy with the
funny hat sitting on that chair in Rome is. They say he is the
vicar of Christ. I'm here to tell you, Christ
doesn't need a vicar. He never did. And that book helped me from
where my perspective of being under a priesthood for 23 years,
even though it wasn't a Jewish priesthood, it helped me understand
that I didn't need a priest. I had a great high priest. My understanding had changed
for the better. I have a great high priest. And
I can go to Him. Matter of fact, in another place
it says, He's made us kings and priests unto our God. And to make it even funnier,
from a Catholic perspective, He made me a saint. A set-apart one. I have been set-apart by God,
and you have been set-apart by God, and you have been given
the wisdom the Spirit of Wisdom and revelation in the knowledge
of Him so that you can know Christ right now. You can know Him. And through
Christ, knowing Christ, you know the Father. And the Father has sent you the
Spirit And His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God. What a gift! What a glorious
gift that we have been given! We get to understand the Scriptures.
That's what it says here. He opened their understanding
that they might, what? Understand the Scriptures. You
may not understand the world and sometimes that's a good thing. Christ told some fellas, ye search
the scriptures, because in them they thought they had eternal
life. But he told them, no! They are they which testify of
me. So if you're searching the scriptures, if you're reading
the scriptures, and you're not seeing Christ, you're missing the point.
Because that's the only point there is. That's the only message
there is. That's the only gospel there
is. It's Christ. And you will not see everything. But the scriptures are our only
reference. That's what that sola scriptura
means in the Latin. Solely, solo, solely, scripture. That's what Christ gave to his
disciples, and that's what the spirit of wisdom and revelation
gives to us. And that's what it means to have the eyes of
your understanding enlightened. God has given it to you to be
able to understand his scriptures, whether someone's speaking them
or whether you're reading them and studying them. That's a gift
of God. We are told, try the spirits,
to see whether or not these things can be sung. What do you try
them with? Scripture. This is all we have. Now I've got some books, and
I've got some books from David that he gave me, the worlds,
and they've been a great help to me. To see what other people
see. But this, is what I go by. Because there's
some things in those books I disagree with. And the reason I disagree
is because in here, this is the basis for our knowledge that God has given
us. Christ opened the eyes of his
disciples to the scriptures. Now, I'm not saying this book
is holy. It's paper, it's ink, it's marked up, it got left out
in the snow for a week. I had to come back and get it. But the Word's in here. The Word
of God is in here. And the Word of God is always
true. Believers understand Him to the
best of their ability to what He has given them. And there's a statement in Revelations
I remember reading it when I preached on this in Luke 24. What Christ has opened, no man
shuts. No man shuts. Once He's opened
your understanding of the Scriptures, they're open and they're going
to stay that way. continue. Our understanding continues. If He continues in my word, then
are ye my disciples indeed. And they continued steadfastly
in the Apostles doctrine. Our understanding this wisdom,
back in Ephesians, the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that
the God, 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. This was Paul's prayer for you. This is our prayer today. Let
this continue. These eyes that have been given
of your understanding being enlightened, is still enlightened today. Our understanding from God is not darkness, but
light. In our enlightenment, our eyes
that have been enlightened, understanding our deep thoughts that have been
enlightened by God will not be darkened. Now there's
still darkness in us. The flesh is still here. But
that's where the battle is. It's light against darkness. Paul prayed for this, for these
Ephesian believers. They already knew some stuff.
Guess what? There's more to learn. There's always more to learn.
Our understanding is by no means perfect, but it has been enlightened. Our understanding is by no means
complete. Otherwise, Paul wouldn't have
said we go from glory to glory. We are to grow in the grace and
the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Why? Because we need to. You never
have it all. That's why we continue. And if
you continue, you're my disciples. And if you're my disciples, you'll
continue. And that's why we have this written
here for us today. Because it's still the same.
The Father sends the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of Christ. And he sends it to every believer
he has, the eyes of their understanding being enlightened. I told you I was going to get to
those three things. But I will say this. There is a purpose for this.
Here, Paul states plainly. by this little word, that. That
ye know the hope of his calling. That ye know what are the riches
of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And that ye know
what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe
according to his mighty power. We who are without strength,
strengthless, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. And when he has born us from
above, we have been born from above. We have been given the
Holy Spirit. In the eyes of our understanding,
having been enlightened, we begin to understand. the things of
Him. And we continue on. We know some things because we
know Him. We know some things because we
know Him. He did not leave us alone in
this world. His Spirit is in us and teaches
us the things of Him. Even to this day, until tomorrow,
we got it. Our Heavenly Father, we are thankful
again for this place and this time. Thank You for Your Word,
for Your power, for Your love, For your righteousness, your
holiness, everything we have, we've been given by you. And
it's according to your purpose and grace. It's according to
your goodness and your glory. Thank you, Lord. In Christ's
name we pray. Amen.