If you will, take your Bibles
and turn back with me to Ephesians chapter one. As I said earlier, the book of
Ephesians is a wonderful, wonderful book. It perfectly outlines the
doctrines of Christ. I don't know of another passage,
another book anywhere in the Bible that sits before the people
the predestinating purpose of God. And yet Paul, in simplicity,
in this book, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, states it
twice. States it twice. And states it
in a beloved manner. It's a wonderful, wonderful book. It perfectly outlines the doctrine
of Christ. And it sets before us the great
mystery of the Gentiles. What a mystery. I never heard
of the mystery of the Gentiles when I was in religion. They've
still got a separation between the world and themselves and
then themselves and the Jews. There's still a separation in
religion. But there's no separation in
the Bible. The Bible sets forth the mystery
of the Gentiles. It sets before us that That God
has a people and that those people are not all just Jews, but they're
from every nation, kindred, tongue, and people under heaven. It sets before us the love of
God in Christ. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. It sets before
us the love of God in Christ, which is the motive behind all
that we're commanded to do and to be. It's the love of God,
Paul said, that constraineth us. And I never tire of reading this
book or thinking about the passages in it or preaching from it. It's
so good, it's so clear, it's so wonderful. And so it is this
morning with delight that I bring to you some of the gems out of
God's treasure in this book. My text this morning I'm going
to use is in Ephesians 1, 17. And in this verse, Paul expresses
his inmost desire and prayer to God for his church. that the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give
unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge
of Him. And that's my subject this morning,
the revelation of God. The revelation of God. To know
God necessitates a revelation of Himself, because our Lord
said, No man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whom
the Son will reveal Him. He must be revealed to us. We're not gonna stumble on the
knowledge of God. I've heard people give testimony
that they accidentally came upon the knowledge of God. There are
no accidents with God. This thing comes by revelation.
By revelation. And it seems strange in the years
of this unbelieving world to talk about knowing God, whom
they think they already know. We already know God. We've known
Him since we were children. We've always known. Didn't you
bow your head and pray? I still remember praying when
I was just a few years old, just barely old enough to talk. Now
I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul today.
Oh, if I should die before I wake. They've been talking about Him
their whole life, and talking to Him their whole
life, and they're absolutely convinced that they know Him. So was Paul at one time. You
could never have convinced Paul that he didn't know God. His zeal was so, he was so jealous
in serving God that he went down and sought papers and went out
and took prisoners and brought them back to be stoned, to be
put to death for what he thought was blasphemous. and brought back believers. He
himself was an unbeliever. They were believers, but he had
it reversed. He thought he knew God. He was in that council of Jews
that partook of their, and partook of their false witnessing
against Christ and his gospel. And his preacher Stephen, it's
recorded in the book of Acts, to whom Stephen said, and he
was looking right at Paul and right at these other Pharisees,
and he said, You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and
ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost. As your fathers did,
so do you. And they have slain them which
showed before the coming of the Just One. Just because we say
the word Father, Doesn't mean that God is our father. Just
because we use the term God doesn't mean we know who God is. It just means we're religious.
That's all that means. We're religious. Paul prayed,
he read the scriptures, he served whom he thought he knew. with
an unrivaled zeal, but in the end, with his face in the dirt,
here's what he said. Who art thou, Lord? He didn't
know who he was. His whole life, he thought he
knew God. His whole life, he thought he
served God. His whole life, he spent talking
to others about God. He obeyed God. As touching the
law, he said, I blameless outwardly, But he didn't know God. Who art
thou, Lord? Who art thou? Well, he said,
I'm gonna send you down to a man that I've appointed to tell you
who I am. And that's what he did with Paul. My friend, to know God is eternal
life. That's eternal life. You can't
call on Him in whom you've not believed, and you can't believe
on Him in whom you have not heard, and you can't hear without a
preacher. You don't have this knowledge, you're not born with
it. This world can't give it to you. I didn't say that. The Word of God says that. How
shall you hear without a preacher? How you gonna know who God, you
can't pray to God, you don't know who God is. Why would you trust him to give
you anything you don't know if he's willing to give it? You
don't know God. That's the condition of this
world. They don't know God. To know God is eternal life.
And none know him, I mean truly know him, except his elect, and
they know him by the revelation of God. He hath abounded, it
said. I just read it to you a few minutes
ago. He hath abounded toward you. Toward who? Those he blessed
in Christ before the foundation of the world. Those he predestinated
under the adoption of children. Those he made accepted in the
blood. Those he put away their sins. Those he redeemed. To those he
abounded toward you, he said, in all wisdom and prudence. That's
the only way you could ever know him. God purposely reveals himself
to his elect. John said this, we know that
the Son of God hath come and hath given to us an understanding
that we may know him that's true. That we're in him that's true.
And this is the true God. and eternal life. And this is
what Paul praying for in verse 17 of Ephesians 1. He's not praying
here for a deeper understanding. He's praying here for the spirit
of wisdom and revelation of God. This is what he's praying for. For revelation of who? He said the God and Father. of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now I thought about this psalm,
and there can only be one sense in which God could be the Father
of the Son. And that is as He is the firstborn
among many brethren. He's the Father of Christ, who
is the head of the body of the church, who is the beginning. And he is our father as we are
his children predestinated in Christ. And because we're the, and this is what men say, if
you're the offspring of Adam, God's your father. No. No, that's not so. That's not so. Because we're
the offspring of Adam does not mean we're the children of God.
And because we have Abraham as our father doesn't mean that
we're heirs of God. Paul tells us plainly in Romans
9, they're not all Israel who are of Israel. Neither because they are the
seed of Abraham are they all children. They that are the children
of the flesh, these are not, he said, the children of God.
But the children of the promise are counted for the seed. What
seed? Well, to Abraham and his seed
were the promises made, not to seeds as of many, but as to one
and of thy seed, which is Christ. It is the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings.
And He blessed us according as He hath chosen us in His Son.
And the glory of this revelation is that when the fullness of
the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law. And
He did this that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because
you're sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father, you're adopted. You're my son. The spirit of the living God
did not come into this world to give men and women some new
insight on things that lie ahead. I hear men say that all the time. I read about it in the paper.
I hear it on the radio. God told me this, God told me
that, and the Holy Spirit of God didn't tell you any such
thing. He didn't come to give you insight on what lies ahead,
or to know how to invest your money, or to speak in some unknown
gibberish. He came into this world to reveal
to God's children their adoption in Christ. That's why He came. No other way to know except through
the spirit of God and the preaching of the gospel. You can't know
your election of God. No other way. And so Paul said, I pray that
the father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom
and revelation in the knowledge of him. And it is to this end
that I want you to think about three things. First of all, that
everything concerning the salvation of sinners is of God. It's all
of God. Nothing's resting on you or anything
that you could ever do. Nothing. It's all of God. God's just working. He's working
in this world right now. He's working. He said, the Father
worketh and so do I. The Father worketh hitherto and
I work. He's working. He's accomplishing
something in this world. It's all of God. It's of Him
and it's eternal design and purpose. You know, I was almost 30 years
old before I ever knew God had an eternal purpose. I knew nothing
about the eternal God. Nothing at all. I spoke his name. I prayed to him. I was taught
to do that. I went to church and we sang
about different things. I look back on that and we used
to just sing Amazing Grace and we'd just throw our heads back
and just sing Amazing Grace. We didn't know any more about
Amazing Grace than we knew about nuclear science. We didn't know
anything. I was almost 30 years of age
before I ever considered the eternality of God and of Christ
and of this thing called salvation. I'll never forget reading Isaiah
46 for the first time. I didn't have a regular Bible. All I had was my grandmother's
old great big coffee table Bible. It was called the Good Shepherd.
And in the back it had a little concordance. And somebody had
said something to me about the sovereignty of God, and I was
trying to look up scriptures that had to do with the sovereignty
of God and see if it was stated in the Word of God. And I read
Isaiah 46 for the first time. He said, I'm God, and there's
none like me. There's none like me. There's
nothing and nobody out there to compare me to. I'm God. There's none like me. I declare
the end from the beginning. And from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done say, my counsel shall stand and I'll
do all my pleasure. He didn't give any exceptions.
He stated that. It's absolute fact, and this
went on to the next subject. That's God. That's God. I read in 2 Thessalonians 2.13
that God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. And
for that reason, he called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Or what about this verse
over in Colossians 1? He's the image, Christ is the
image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him were all things created
that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
all things were created by him and for him. I'd never heard
that kind of God preached. I never heard that Christ was
a sovereign Christ, that Christ was God our Savior. I never heard
that. And my mind, the more I read
about it, my mind was just lost in wonder as I considered for
the first time the eternal Christ, one appointed to save people
from the foundation of the world before the world was ever created. God made a covenant, a covenant
of grace on their behalf and appointed his son as the surety
of that covenant. I never heard anything about
the eternal father, the eternal counsel of God in Christ. Salvation's of the Lord. That's
what the Bible says. I don't know what men are saying.
They're saying crazy things. They're talking about things
happening. They're talking about accidents and chance and all
this stuff. Salvation's of the Lord and it's
of Him and His eternal design and purpose. It's of Him and
it's beginning. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. He actually brought to pass.
He actually brought men and women that He had chosen. They wasn't
even created yet. of Him in its beginning. He created the heavens and the
earth. He caused His light to shine upon it. He gave life to
inhabit it. Our Lord, when He revealed Himself
to John in Revelation, said, I'm Alpha and Omega. I'm the
beginning and the end. I'm the first and the last. Creation is not an experiment
or a freak of nature or a plan gone awry. Creation is a result
of God's eternal purpose of grace. Paul said creation was made subject
to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who subjected
the same in hope. And the expectation of this creation,
it waiteth. for the manifestation of the
sons of God. That's its purpose. And creation and this world that
we live in is nothing but just a dot in eternity. It's just
a dot. It's just a tiny little space
in eternity where God was pleased to create a world of people for
the glory of his great name. And as the potter hath power
over the clay to make of one lump, the same lump, one vessel
unto honor and another to dishonor, even so God endures the vessels
of wrath fitted for destruction, and he makes known the riches
of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he hath aforeprepared
unto glory. He is the eternal God, and salvation
is of him. It's of him. It's of Him and
His eternal counsel and glory and of the Lord in its creation
and it's of God in its declaration, its promises, its prophecies. To Him give all the prophets
witness, all of them. They spoke as they were moved,
Paul said, by the Holy Spirit. This book is the book of God.
It's God's testimony concerning His Son and His salvation And the first work I believe
of God in His elect is to make Him subject unto the Word of
God. He tires of... He realizes for
the first time in His life that this world knows nothing about
God and He don't want to hear anything else from them. Let
God be true. That's what comes into His heart.
Let God be true. And every man a liar. Show me what God said. That's what I want to hear. This book is God's book. God's
testimony of His Son, and of His salvation in Him, and of
all things that we need to know. And then fourthly, it's of God
in its accomplishment. Jesus Christ. I never heard this
in religion. Never heard it mentioned. Jesus
Christ accomplished salvation. They preach this thing in a way
that it's not done yet. It's not done yet. It's still
being done. It's still being done. There's something lacking. God's done all he can do. Now
it's all up to you. Does that sound like something
accomplished to you? That's a lie, is what it is.
This thing has been accomplished. There's nothing lacking, nothing
wanting. We have a perfect righteousness
and our sins have been put away forever. God's justice has been
satisfied and God's elect have been justified by God. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Is God that justifies? Christ
that died? And the knowledge of this brings
peace to a troubled soul. Paul states in the last verse
of Romans chapter four, in verse 25, he said, talking about Christ,
he said he was delivered for our offenses and raised again
for our justification. Now watch how he starts chapter
five. He said, therefore, being justified by faith, We have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have access
by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope
of the glory of God. It brings peace to the soul.
And then fifthly, it's of God in its application. God himself, God himself, Through
the means that he's ordained, God himself reveals to the individual
his election of God. That he's a saved soul. God can do that. God can do that. God has ordained the means, and
without his presence and power, even those means ordained are
absolutely useless. They go right in one ear and
right out the other. Paul preached to them people at Mars Hill,
and when he talked about the resurrection, some said, that's
enough. We'll hear you again some other time. We'll hear you again in a more
convenient season. You're a nut. Howbeit some believed. Why? Why did some reject it and
some believe? Because God worked in those who
believe. That's why. God himself that makes these
means effectual. And then sixthly, it's of God
in its preservation and in its ultimate perfection. Were it
not for the power of God, we'd all perish in the way, wouldn't
we? Every one of us. we parish but we're not of them
who draw back under prediction we're kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last
times so this is what I say and this is what all through the
book of Ephesians he's been saying salvation is of the Lord it's
not about you praying Russell it's about him he can't fail I can And would, were it not for the
power and presence of God. We'd all perish in the way. And
then secondly, I want you to think about this. This salvation
is brought to pass by an eternal union of Christ and his people.
Christ and his church. Our salvation is accomplished
through our representative and substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. God put us in Christ before the
foundation of the world. He put us into an eternal union
with his son. Some writers call it a covenant
union. Call it what you will, he put
us in union with his son. He considered us as one with
his son. There's no other reason for this
world this world to still be preserved, to still be going
on. In Adam, if we had no representative, when Adam sinned, God would have
burnt this place to a cinder. The reason He allowed it to go
on, the reason this world was preserved, even through the flood,
is because God has put His people in Christ. And they're there
by eternal union. They've always been there. They
always will be there. We're one with Him. That's our
hope. We're one with Him. And our salvation
is accomplished through our representative and substitute, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now I want you to hear me. I'm
going to get down to some particulars. Jesus Christ did not weave a
garment and then cover up with it. Do you hear what I'm saying?
He didn't weave this garment of righteousness and then He
takes it and covers us with it. That's not so. Jesus Christ is
our righteousness. And we're not righteous unless
we're in him, is that right? You see the difference? We wanna
make this thing a, here it is over here, a quote, all you have
to do is put it on. Oh no, no. God put us in him
and he's righteous. And we're one with him. Read
Ephesians chapter two and see what it says. God hath raised
us up with him. We ascended right up. When he
stepped on that cloud, I stepped on that cloud. When that cloud
was received into glory, I was received into glory. And it says
in Ephesians chapter two, we're seated with him right now in
glory. Already accepted. Already coronated. We're one with Him. We've been
put in an eternal union with Christ. I cannot be righteous if I'm
not in Him, but if I'm in Him, I can't be anything else. Jesus Christ did not accomplish
a justification and then let us draw from it by certain means. He is our justification. Can you see the difference in
what I'm saying? He did not do some things and then say some
things for us to learn and then we find wisdom. He is our wisdom. He did not lay out some guidelines,
and as we go through the motions of these guidelines, we're sanctified. No. We're sanctified in Him. He's my sanctification. Now listen
to this. Are you listening? Of God are
ye in Christ Jesus. That's how we got there. who
of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. If I'm in Him, I'm redeemed. If I'm in Him, I'm sanctified. Salvation is in a person, it's
not in a creed, it's not in a plan, or whatever else ignorant men
call it. If I have Christ, And if I'm
in Christ, I have everything God has for sinners. I may not know all that I have,
but I have it anyway in Him, whether I know it or not. For
in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you're
complete in Him. And it's by way of this union
with Christ that we're now seated with Him in glory. We need to
know this. I'm telling you, we need to think
on this, and we need to thank God for this. This salvation that's of God
is by way of an eternal union, and this union is with His Son. And then thirdly and finally,
this union is made known by faith, which is God's gift to those
redeemed by Christ, and it's given to them through the preaching
of the gospel and the presence and power of the Holy Ghost. Paul said to those Thessalonians,
I've quoted this to you so many times, but I hope the Lord will
take it home to your heart. He said to those Thessalonians,
I know your election of God. Oh, my son. You know what he's
saying when he said that? I know your union with Christ
before the world was. I know that now. How do you know
that, Paul? For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but it came in power and it came in the Holy
Ghost. And it came in much assurance.
And I tell you, if God strips you, you'll need assurance. You'll
need it. And you won't find it anywhere
except in Christ. I'm gonna tell you something,
when this happens in a man, God's people rejoice. They can't help
but rejoice. My soul, every time something
happens, every time I read something in the newspaper, every time
I think about this pandemic, every time I have a close call,
I think about this. How I rejoice to know that I'm
in Christ. I'm in Christ. And he said, nobody
gonna pluck you out of my hand. And even if they could, I'm in
my father's hand, and he greater than all, and nobody gonna pluck
you out of his hand. Oh, God's people rejoice, God's
people love. They're not trying to love, they
love. Now come on, you can't know God's love and hate your
brother. You can't do it, you can't do
it. We love him. We rejoice in him, we submit
to him, we hear him, and we hunger to hear. And God's people, God's people,
those he calls through his gospel, those he regenerates through
his spirit, they worship God. They worship him because they
know him. God's people grow in grace, and
they grow in knowledge of Him, and they become pillars in His
church. And I believe this is the heart of this verse that
we're looking at here this morning. And the things that Paul's praying
for, he's praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and
revelation and the knowledge of Him. And when we know, when
we see this, And here's what's so important about this. If we
could just know that God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and that we're in Him, then God becomes our Father. And my soul, if He's our Father. I tell you, when my little kids
come to me, I give them. I give to them. I still give
them to them. I give to them. Why? Because
I love them. I love them. They're of me. We're of Him. Think about that. Think about
that. We can come into the presence
of God, the eternal God, the all-wise, omnipotent God. We can come into His presence
Because of those things that he's purposed from all eternity,
and we can call him our father. Boy, I tell you, won't that make
a difference in how you pray? Huh? Our father. Our father. Oh, my soul. May the Lord take that lesson.
Write it on our hearts for Christ's sake.