Today we'll be in Ephesians 1. I thought that we would finish
the chapter, but we'll do two verses. In these two verses,
there was enough alone for the whole Sunday School lesson. Ephesians
1, we'll be in verses 19 and 20. And the name of the message
is God's great power. God's great power. God's great power. We'll be in
verses 19 and 20. And what is the exceeding greatness
of His power to us 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 the heavenly
places. So as I was saying, I was hoping
that we would finish the chapter this week, In verse 19 alone,
there's so much. And also in verse 20. And as
I was reading this and studying this, this whole chapter is so
packed with doctrine. It's incredible. You know, we
see the election of God. We see that all spiritual blessings
are in Christ. We see redemption through the
blood. We see justification of the believer. Through the blood
of Christ, we see that we have peace with God. We see that we're
adopted. by God through Christ. And now
we see here God's mighty power. God's mighty power. And we see
the resurrection in verse 20, which He wrought in Christ when
He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand
in the heavenly places. So last week we looked at verses
15 and 18 and we saw that Paul had heard of the faith that the
Ephesian believers had in Christ, and also, though, of their love.
And we saw how faith and love are interconnected. You don't
have one without the other. Those who have faith in Christ
will love the brethren. They're interconnected. And we also looked at Paul prayed
for the Ephesians. And we looked at what he prayed
for them. that they would grow in the revelation and in the
knowledge of Christ by the Holy Spirit teaching them. He must
teach us. The Holy Spirit must teach us
or we'll never learn. We'll never know about Christ.
He must reveal Himself to us. And Paul continued to pray that
the eyes of their understanding would be enlightened. and that
they would know the hope of their calling, which is, again, in
Christ. And this is something that Paul
emphasizes through all his epistles. Christ, Christ, Christ. Everything
is in and through Him. Everything. He is the Supreme
One. He is the Preeminent One. He
is everything for the believer. Everything. Think of that. Without
Christ, we have no salvation. We have no redemption, no justification.
We're lost without Christ. Look at verse 19 here. It says,
"...and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us
who believe according to the working of His mighty power?" And what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us? Now three different Greek words
are used for power here. The first one is found in the
phrase, what is the exceeding greatness of his power? And this
is the word dumis, which is strength, power, and ability in the Greek. power, and ability. Now I want
us to note this. Strength, power, and ability.
What don't we have to come to God? Strength, power, and ability. We're going to see these Greek
words show that God has the power. We don't. But He has all the
power. We have no ability to come to
Christ on our own, so what does God do? He makes us willing,
doesn't He? By His power. By His power. By the mighty greatness
of His power. And notice it says, to usward.
That's God's elect. That's not everyone, that's God's
people. That's the Ephesians, Paul's
writing to the Ephesians, to us word. So God makes those willing
who are unwilling. Those who have no ability, those
who have no strength, and those who have no power. And He makes
us willing. Hence, salvation is of the Lord,
right? It's all His doing. Now, this
Greek word used at the first part of this verse is the same
Greek word that's used in Romans 1.16. Turn there if you would.
I know we've read it many times. But for the study, we'll read
it now. The same Greek word that's used in what is the exceeding
greatness of His power to us word. is the same Greek word
that is used in Romans 1.16 for power. It's the dynamite of God. It's the dynamite of God. It's
all by His power. Look at Romans 1.16. For I am
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. To the us-ward.
Right? In our text, to the us-ward.
To all those who believe. You must believe. We don't believe, we're not saved.
Even though the faith is given to us, but still we believe,
don't we? We believe. We look to Christ. For I am not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God. What?
Unto salvation. We can't save ourselves. But
He can save His people from their sins, and He has. To everyone
that believe it. To the Jew first, and also to
the Greek. So back to our text in verse
19, God exercises His mighty power and He grants us faith
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and the believer flees
to Him. Now religion hates this because
they want to have something to do with it. But we who love grace
realize that salvation is all of God's doing. That we would
never be saved if He didn't exercise His mighty power. And it's wonderful. Oh, it's wonderful. We want to
give Him all the glory and all the honor and all the praise.
Now, the same power that God uses to save a sinner is the
same power that Christ was raised from the dead by. The same power. This mighty, sovereign power
entered into the rock-hewn tomb of Joseph of Arithamea and snatched
out the body of Him whom God said, this is My beloved Son
in whom I'm well pleased. The same power. The mighty power. This mighty power has raised
Jesus Christ from the dead. And this same power is exercised
in the salvation of God's people that we saw in Romans 1.16. It
is the power of God, what? Unto salvation. Unto salvation. Salvations of the Lord. And then
again, to everyone that believe it. Folks that say, well, you
can go to heaven just because you're a good person. No. If you don't believe
in Christ, you're not going to be with the Lord. And this gives us great comfort
when, as we know, Sister Betty is going to be going home with
the Lord. She believes in Christ. Her faith, her rest, the object
of her hope is Christ. She will see our King. Oh, what
a mighty time for her it will be. It's incredible. It's incredible. And this power is the power for
the whole salvation of God's people. For all of them. For all of them, this is the
saving power of God. And beloved, those He saves,
He keeps, doesn't He? He keeps. How? By His power. By His power. Oh, this is the
power which is the alpha of our salvation. The beginning. And this is the power, that's
the omega of our salvation, the end. It's God's power. Oh, it's God's power. And we
are born again by the Holy Spirit of God, what? With power. With
power. And this power again is the finisher,
the author and the finisher. Now how is this power manifest?
by the conversion of sinners. Sinners who would never come
to Christ on their own. It's manifested. They're born
again by the Holy Spirit of God. You must be born again. How? By His power. By His regenerating
power. And think of this. This wonderful
work of God which is wrought out by the power of the Holy
Spirit is called what? A new creation. Regeneration. Regeneration. A resurrection from the dead. Brother, you've been raised from
the dead. It's incredible. We were dead
spiritually, weren't we? Those of us who believe have
been raised from the dead. Oh, it's marvelous. A transformation
of a man from one man into another. He's still in his body of flesh,
right? Now we have a war. Now we have
a battle within us. And how does this happen? By
God's almighty power. By God's almighty power. Man
has no ability, no power, and no desire to come to Christ.
What happens after God regenerates us when we're born again? What
happens? We have ability now to come to Christ because of
what He's done, not because of anything else. And we run to
Christ. And we have desire. And some
things are removed when this mighty power is exercised by
the Holy Spirit of God upon the believer. Satan is disposed. The stony heart is taken away.
The enmity is slain. The old man is put down from
his throne. Christ is upon the throne of
our hearts, beloved. Oh, we put off certain deeds,
don't we? There's things that we love, now we hate them. It's
incredible. And it's all by God's mighty
power. And there are some things that
are wrought in the believer by the Holy Spirit of God. God's
grace is implanted in us, right? Given to us. Given faith. We're given repentance. It's
wonderful. We're given a new heart. We're
given eyes of understanding. Brother John, we talked about
eyes and ears, unplugged. Ears to hear that we didn't have
before. Eyes to see. And who do we see? Who do we
look to? We don't look to ourselves anymore,
do we? We look to Christ. We look only to Him. Oh, we're
given ears to hear and eyes to see Christ. And principles of
light and life are given in Christ. Where grace is given and holiness
is now desired, right? We don't want to do the things
that we used to do. The understanding's enlightened.
All of a sudden we read those Scriptures and they're alive! When before it was just paper
and ink. Oh, it's wonderful. It's wonderful. Our affections are set on other
objects. Things that the believer once
hated, now he loves. The mind and the conscience are
cleansed. Purified. And this is done by the power
of God, the Holy Spirit. How? By the preaching of His
Word. By the hearing of the Gospel. By the ministry of His Word.
And the Holy Spirit takes that, takes the feeble words of His
preachers, and uses the powerful Word of God to bring life. How? By His power. It's the dynamite
of God. By His mighty power. And then
our text continues. According to the working of His
mighty power. Now the word power here has two
Greek words. Two Greek words. Kratos, which
means force, strength, power, might. Mighty with great power,
right? We have no power, do we? But
God is mighty. I like that one. Mighty with
great power. Sovereign, king. And then the
other word is a mighty deed, a work of power, dominion. This
speaks of his absolute sovereignty, doesn't it? Absolute. He has
all power. We have none. Oh, none. It's incredible. Force, strength,
mighty with great power. Dominion. And we can say, praise
God, that salvation is all of the Lord. All of Him. All the work of God's almighty
power. Then the next Greek word used
for the same word power is iskous, which means ability, force, strength,
and might. Do you see how it's the opposite
of what we can do? We don't have any ability. We
don't have any strength to come to God on our own. We don't have
any might to come to God on our own. But God's power is exercised. Exercised in the believer's life. We are lacking in all these things
and He gives us the ability to flee to Christ. And it's all
by His almighty power. He is able to save what? Sinners
who cannot save themselves. Remember last week? We're not
able. He's able. He's able. God is
able. Able. Turn if you would to Colossians
chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2. And what's the result of this
for we who believe? Our heart is filled with praise.
All we want to do is praise His name. We just want to hear about
Him. Hear about the One who's done
it all for us. And again, we don't want any
glory for ourselves. We want to give it all to Him.
Colossians 2, look at this. And this is God's mighty power
exercised in the believer's life. And you being dead, remember
Brother Madison, you're raised from the dead, right? And you
being dead in your sins, in the uncircumcision of your flesh,
there's the state of every human being who comes into this world.
And if anybody ever says, well, all you guys do is ever go to
Ephesians 2, Go to Colossians chapter 2 as well. The same precious
truth is repeated. That we have no ability, we're
dead in sins. In the uncircumcision of your
flesh, look it, hath he quickened together, born again by the Holy
Spirit of God. With him, look at this, beloved.
Oh, heaven have forgiven you. Oh, let's just rest here, right?
Heaven forgiving you, all trespasses. All of them. All of them. And
look at this, blotting out. In the Greek, that's like whitewashing. When you whitewash something,
it's gone. Blotting out. What? The handwriting
of ordinances that was against us. And there was a lot, wasn't
there? which was contrary to us, and
took it out of His way, nailing it to His cross. And heaven spoiled
principalities and powers. He made a show of them openly
over them in it." What great power! What great power, beloved! God incarnate in the flesh comes
and dies upon the cross in the room of sinners. And all their
sins are forgiven. What great power! And this is
in his weakness, as he's dying upon the cross, and he's plucking
one of his sheep, isn't he? Today thou shalt be with me in
paradise. What power! And they sat there,
these, well, we would have done the same thing, and they said,
oh, he saved others, he cannot save himself, and meanwhile,
he's on the cross, dying, redeeming all the elect of all the ages.
What power. What power, beloved. Oh, and the Holy Spirit regenerates
us with power. Power. Let's look at verse 20
now. Which He wrought in Christ when
He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand
in heavenly places. The power of God that quickened
us and raised us from our spiritually dead states, which we looked
at in Colossians. Hath He quickened together with
Him? Born again by the Holy Spirit, the same power which made us alive in Christ
is here compared with the power which raised Christ from the
dead. What power our King has. God's
almighty power, beloved. And remember, we all fell in
our federal head, didn't we? We all fell in Adam. Every single
one of us. We were in Him when He fell.
Beloved, when Christ redeemed His people on the cross, we were
in Him. When He was raised from the dead,
we were in Him. When He lived that perfect life,
we were in Him. Restored. What power, beloved. What power our mighty king has. And the scripture says that Christ
was raised for our justification, wasn't he? He was our representative.
Oh, we fell in Adam, but in the second Adam, all who believe
are made alive in our head. Right? He's the head and what?
We're the body. Well, Adam was our federal head.
See how we fell on Him? We're made alive in Christ, we
who believe. Oh, what marvelous, marvelous
salvation. And we live because He lives.
We live because we're in Him. We're free from sin because our
surety, what? For our sins. That's good news
for sinners, isn't it? Oh my! He paid the penalty for
our sins. He was the perfect, spotless
Lamb of God, dying in the room of sinners. And now He's raised
from the grave, victorious, right? And we've looked at this many
times to show that God is satisfied. God's satisfied with His sacrifice.
And there is a likeness between His resurrection and our quickening.
His resurrection is called the beginning. Turn, if you would,
to 1 Peter 1.3. He's the first begotten from the dead. And our
regeneration is termed what? A begetting. Look at 1 Peter
1.3. 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. Now His body was lifeless, eh?
such as natural men, who has no spiritual life. His body could not raise itself,
and we cannot give ourselves life. But oh, His resurrection
was the pure, unaided work of God. Right? So is our regeneration. God doesn't need nobody's help. We sure need His, don't we? Oh, we sure need Him. We have
no ability. Oh, we need Christ. And His resurrection
led to His exaltation at the right hand of God. And beloved,
where He is, we will be. Where He is, we will be. He is
our representative, and we are regenerated and already seated
in Him in the heavenlies. It's incredible. What a salvation. What a salvation. Our verse continues,
"...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 notice, we can look in the Old Testament, and the priests
in the Old Testament never sat, did they? He was always about
the work. Always, because the work was
never finished. But our king sat. It's done. It's finished. It's perfect. There's nothing
to be added to it. It's done. And look at it. It says, set him at his own right
hand. And the fact that he's seated
again is that the work is complete. And then seated at his own right
hand. Now the Scriptures represent
Christ at God's right hand in heavenly places. The right hand
is a position in heaven, is a place of authority. It's a place of
authority. Our King has all power. He has all power. What a great king. What a savior. One commentator put it this way, Then his father exalted him even
more by bringing him back to glory, which he had enjoyed before
he came to earth. But he re-entered it as a man. He continued to be what he always
was, right? God. He's the God man, right? So he continued to be what he
always was. Christ was always God. Now he enters into heaven. But he had become what he was
not before man. And it was bearing that human
name Jesus that He returned to the glory which He had with His
Father before the world began. And He's our great intercessor
right now, isn't He? The God-man. The Lord Jesus Christ. And He has all power. All power. Think of this, too. The Lord Jesus Christ is seated
at the right hand of the Father, right? The right hand of all
power and all majesty. And the right hand is often spoken
of as power. It has all the authority and
all the power. Think of this. Before the throne
of God, there is, we don't know, countless
angels worshiping our great God. Worshipping Him. Bowing down
before Him. An innumerable amount of angels.
But He didn't take His place amongst them, did He? No. And there are princes and principalities
and thrones and dominions, but He does not sit amongst them,
does He? No, the great God-man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the risen King of His people. Oh, what a King. The risen King of His people.
The King of kings and the Lord of lords takes His rightful place
at the right hand of the Father. Sits upon the throne with majesty. Turn, if you would, to Philippians
2. And we will close with this. He is the name which is above
every name, beloved. And He is our King. He is the
one who the believer has salvation in. Philippians 2. One day all will
confess who He is. And remember, we're focusing
on the power of God. Christ has all power. Right now. Some folks in religion believe
He's waiting to reign. No. Our scripture says He's seated
at the right hand of the Father. Right now. Right now. He's king. He was born king. He was king when he was on earth.
And he's king right now. He's never ceased to be king.
Never. Look at this in Philippians 2,
verses 9-11. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, right? Sitting down at the right hand
of the Father, and given him a name which is above every name. We know from Scripture that there's
salvation in no other name. There's no other name but Christ. That at the name of Jesus, every
knee should bow of things in heaven and things on earth and
things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. What power! And the same power that was exercised
to raise Christ from the dead is the same power that raises
sinners from the dead. And it's all the work of God.
He's able, beloved. He's able. And let us look for
comfort in this, the fact that the one who's done all this is
the one who watches over each one of his sheep, no matter what
we go through. The one who's with Sister Betty
right now. Oh, my. What a great King. This is the Ephesian Savior.
This is the King. This is the One who has all power. And this is the Savior of all
who believe on Him. Of all who believe on Him. The
Lord Jesus Christ. The great sinner's substitute. What a king. Why would we trust
in our own works when we have no ability, when we have no way
to save ourselves? Oh, look to the king. Look to
the king. May God be glorified.