Well last week we were looking
at spiritual blessings in Ephesians chapter 1 and I want to continue
with that this week. We saw The root of the blessings
that God showers, all these spiritual blessings in heavenly places,
the root of them is the eternal, sovereign, electing grace of
God. In eternity, not because of any
good in us, the nature of them, the root of them. And then, sorry,
the root of them, then the nature of them, that they're spiritual
blessings. And not the sort of blessings
that we in the flesh often count as blessings, the things of this
world and of this life, the green traffic light syndrome. They're
spiritual blessings. And then we saw the purpose of
them. Their purpose was to make the church of sinners into the
bride of Christ. without blemish and without spot
for that glory of sinless eternity. They're great blessings. They're
spiritual blessings. But I want to ask you this morning,
what is your reaction to that? What is your practical reaction?
Because I've called this message Spiritual Blessings Applied. Spiritual Blessings Applied.
You see, I might tell you about all of those blessings and you
might say, oh, that's nice. That's nice. but it doesn't have
any effect on you. Oh, isn't that nice? Oh, we've
got all those things. Well, you know. What use are
they if they have no, you say they've got eternal use, obviously,
but what use are they now if that's the way you respond to
them? Just think of them, let me just remind you again. And
these are all from these first few verses of Ephesians, chosen.
Chosen of God. The object of his choice. Predestinated. You know, I wonder what's going
to happen. God's predestinated it. Adopted. What am I? A spiritual waif and stray with
no hope? No, adopted into the family of
God. Accepted in the beloved. That
you're under a curse because of sin. Redeemed from the curse
of the law by the blood of Christ. Redeemed, for he was made a curse
for us. And as a result, your sin, that
debt hanging round your neck, forgiven. your debt, forgiven
your sin, spiritually enlightened, given that means, that grace,
that ability to see things from a spiritual perspective, assured
of an inheritance in glory. They're all wonderful blessings,
but what's your response to them? You see, their purpose is, in
verse 12, that we should be to the praise of his glory. God
determined that there would be a people who would be to the
praise of his glory. Whose glory? The Father's glory. Who's the Father? The one who
first trusted in Christ. See it there in verse 12? Who
is it that first trusted in Christ? God the Father trusted in Christ.
In the covenant of grace he trusted. When they, as it were, shook
hands together in that covenant of grace, he trusted in Christ
that he would come, he would lay his glory aside, he would
come to this earth, he would take on him the form of a servant,
that he would bear his people's sins in his own body on the tree. He would redeem his people from
the curse of the law. God the Father trusted Christ
and verse 13, in whom, in Christ, you also trusted, didn't you? Every one of you that believes,
you trusted Christ, you did, you trusted him, after that ye
heard the word of the truth. You had to hear. How can you
trust that which you haven't heard, as Paul says in Romans
10? How can you hear without a preacher?
How can you preach unless you're sent? All of this is of God,
in whom Christ he also trusted, after that he heard the word
of truth, the gospel, the good news of your salvation, being
saved from condemnation, being saved from eternal condemnation,
in whom also, after that he believed, you were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise. That Spirit of promise witnesses
with our spirits, Romans 8, 16, that we are the children of God. You know it. Yes, you're my child. He shows you. He shows you. So
all of these are wonderful things. You who also trusted as the Father
trusted in Christ, you believed and you were sealed. And doesn't
it sound like great privilege for believers? How do you view
it? That's nice. Oh, that is nice.
Isn't that nice? Oh, that's nice for you. You
know how some people, when they're not really enthusiastic, they
go, oh, that's nice. Better to have that than not
to have it. No, it's glorious. Let me give you an illustration,
how you view some blessings. in fact the person that I particularly
did this illustration for is not here this morning you'll
have to make sure she hears it but let's say for example I told
you that you had inherited, are you listening boys? let's say
I told you that you had inherited or your mum had inherited an
enormous chicken farm with thousands and thousands of chickens you
know like you get in Norfolk, an enormous chicken farm what
would you have as a result of that? You'd have an endless supply
of eggs, wouldn't you? You'd never ever run out of eggs.
And you'd have an endless supply of chicken meat. It could be
roast chicken every day, couldn't it? It could be all sorts of
good things. Loads of it. And you'd have a
really good income from it because you'd sell it and you'd make
lots of money and you'd become very, very rich. But if I said
to your mum, you've inherited a chicken farm, for those that
are listening, Joanie's not that keen on being in the presence
of things like chickens. If I said that to you, it would
be horrifying. It would be, well, yeah, all
right, but please don't. No, I don't want this. I don't
want this. This is the one thing that I do not want. So I ask
you, Is it a bit like that? You who say you are believers
in Christ, when you read these spiritual blessings, is it a
bit like, well, yeah, but what does it do for me now? You see,
Paul, when he writes this, he clearly intends, you know when
you write a letter to somebody, it doesn't happen so much these
days, you write an email, but there's key things you want to
get across to them, aren't there? Key things. This must be key
because it's what Paul goes on about. To these people in Ephesus,
which is a real place and some of you have been to that real
place, you know, you can go there in the summer for your holiday.
There were people there who believed the God and he wrote these and
the things that he regarded as the most important things to
tell them were about these spiritual blessings. What was going to
be their reaction to it? He prays that the force of the
spiritual blessings will radically change everything about these
believing people. Look in verse 15, this is where
I want to focus, 15 to 19, but particularly verse 17. I also, after I heard of your
faith, you Ephesians, you believers wherever you are, after I heard
of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love to all the saints
because you know faith in Christ results in love. Those who have
faith in Christ love the brethren. They love their brethren. They
do. And your love to all the saints, verse 16, I cease not. I'm always doing it. I cease
not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers."
Paul was a praying man, obviously, wasn't he? He prayed, he prayed,
and made mention of them in his prayers. And what did he pray
for? That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge
of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you 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 us who believe, according
to the working of his mighty power." That's what he prays
for. What makes the blessings real? Three points this morning. First of all, an apprehension
of who God is. a sense, an experience of who
God is. Being in a living relationship
with him, that's the first thing, an apprehension of who he is.
Secondly, a heart sense of the things for which he prays. Not
just head sense, a heart sense of the things for which he prays.
And thirdly, to what effect. Those are the three points. First
of all, apprehending God. Apprehending God. Look what he
prays. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may bless you, may do things for you. That the God... Now,
do you apprehend? Do you know that God? Do you know the true God? In
John 17 and verse 3, in his prayer before he went to the cross,
Our Lord Jesus Christ, the man with his disciples in that upper
room where they'd just had the Last Supper and Judas had gone
out, and he prayed, and this was what he prayed, this is eternal
life, this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. Eternal life
is experienced only insofar as we apprehend, as we know God
in Jesus Christ. That's what he's saying. This
is life eternal, that they might know. What is it to have life
eternal? That they might know Thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. It's so
important to know the true God. There's a lot of talk about God.
There's a lot of religion. You would probably say that half
the world, if not more, actively thinks that they are in a relationship
with God who created everything and to whom they must give account.
I would think that's a conservative estimate. Half the world, at
least, if not more than that, thinks that there is a God. But
do they know the true God? Because you see, The true God
is the God of the scriptures, but false gods, which are idols,
which are the results of the fallen imagination of man, false
gods, the idols of religion, are everywhere, all around us.
A couple of weeks ago we went to Rome and Florence and saw
all that beautiful art and all that lovely architecture, but
everywhere, everywhere, everywhere are the symbols of Christian
idolatry. It's not Christian. It's in the
name of Christianity, but it isn't. It's not Christian. It's
idolatry. It's superstitious falsehood
and idolatry. And it holds men and women in
absolute bondage of the mind and everything else that they
do. There's true God, and there are false gods. There are idols.
And many, many, many of them claim to be Christian. But they're
not. How do I know? How do I make
such a bold statement? Examine it in the light of this
word. Ask God's Spirit to guide you. Examine it in the light
of this Word. You look at the practices of
these religions that call themselves Christianity, and you tell me,
where in this book do they get what they do? They don't. It's
not there. Just plain isn't there. Or they
do it for tradition's sake. We're not to do it for tradition's
sake, we're to do it because thus says the Lord. He's told
us to do it. No, false gods everywhere. And knowing those false gods,
you do not have eternal life. Is that not right? This is eternal
life, that they might know thee, the true God, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. In verse 17, Paul talks
about the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory. What does he mean there? The
God of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is true God. The God of
our Lord Jesus Christ. In his essential spiritual essence,
in his absolute holiness and burning, blinding purity, Natural
man, you and me in our flesh as we are with our faculties,
are incapable of knowing this God. We're incapable of approaching
the light which is pure God. Our God, the God of the universe,
the true God, for there is only one, there can only be one, there
is not a multitude, there is one God who is responsible for
everything, who controls everything, who is the one judge of all the
earth. That one God, no man in his natural state has ever seen
him, nor can see him. No man, says John, John 1.18,
has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is
in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. He has made
Him known. He has shown Him. John 1.14,
which is after John 1.1, which says, In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same
was in the beginning with God. By Him were all things made,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. And in verse
14, the Word, that Word, was made flesh. and dwelt among us. The Word, which was God, was
made flesh and dwelt among us. The God of our Lord Jesus Christ
is the God that we only know through the Lord Jesus Christ.
First John, the same man, the same apostle, in his first epistle,
chapter 1 and verse 1, he writes, that which was from the beginning
which we have heard, we were disciples, we walked with him,
we talked with him, like you and I are together this morning,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and
our hands have handled. John, it says, leaned on Jesus'
bosom. at the Last Supper. He leaned
on him. And he was especially close to him. He calls himself
the disciple whom Jesus loved. He loved all his disciples, but
John especially felt that love of Christ for him. That our hands
have handled of the word of life. That's what John calls him. The
God of our Lord Jesus Christ is the God who is only known
in the Lord Jesus Christ. The unknowable God who is known
in Christ. You know it, I've said it many
times, in John 14, when he says, I am the way, the truth and the
life, no man comes to the Father but by me. And Philip says, show
us the Father. Show us the essential essence
of God, and that will suffice. That's what we want. And he said,
Philip, have I been so long with you, and you have not known me?
He that has seen me has seen the Father. What a radical statement. You've just meditated. Just take
that away and chew it up. He that has seen me has seen
the Father. If you would know God the Father,
you must know Jesus Christ. Turn to Hebrews 1. Hebrews chapter
one. Let me read the first three verses
to you. Hebrews chapter one and verse
one. Just listen. God. God. This is who we're talking about.
God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners, different
ways, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. See who is the focus? The Son
of God, whom he hath appointed heir of all things. Everything
that is of God is in Christ. is manifested in Christ, is experienced
in Christ, is known in Christ. By whom? By Christ. He also made
the worlds. How did God, who is spirit, make
that which is physical? Through the one who is the physical
manifestation of God, the Word. through his son, by whom he made
the worlds. This one, by whom he made the
worlds, our Lord Jesus Christ, his son, who, being the brightness
of his glory, would you see the glory of God? Where must you
look? To the Lord Jesus Christ. If
you would see the brightness of his glory, you must look to
Christ, and the express image of his person. You know, like
they say of a child, oh, he's the image of his dad, or the
image of her mom. He's the image of God, the express
image of his person. If you would see the person,
what is he like? As he said to Philip, he who
has seen me has seen the Father. And listen, is he passive? No,
he's active. Upholding all things by the word
of his power when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on
the right hand of the Majesty in the in the place of central
power is where Christ is. Christ is central. If we would
know God, if we would apprehend God, whom to know is life eternal,
we must know him in Christ, for there is no other way. There
is none other name under heaven, said Peter, given among men,
whereby we must be saved. None other at all. All of these
who do not honour the Son like the Jehovah's Witnesses and the
other sects, those that do not honor the Son as God come in
the flesh, all those who do not honor the Son do not honor God.
They do blasphemy to the name of God for not honoring the Son. For if you would honor the Father,
if you would honor the Godhead, you must honor the Son. In whom,
says Colossians, dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In that
body that John said we touched, we were there. I leaned on his
bosom. I was there with him on the mount. The fullness of the
Godhead, bodily. He's central. And if we would
apprehend God and these spiritual blessings make us just overwhelmed
with the with the glory of them, with the practical benefit of
them to us, we must know Christ. I may have told this story before,
but it's worth repeating. But many years ago, in a church
in Southampton, some of us were asked to go and supply preaching
to a church on the Isle of Wight that had lost its pastor. And so they called a meeting
to ask, what were we going to preach on? And I said in this
meeting, well, let's just go and preach Christ. Let's preach
Christ, just go and from the scriptures, cause he's in every,
and one of the men that was there, one young man, younger than me,
he said, you know, I get tired of hearing about all this preaching
of Christ. He said, he said, we need to go and tell them about
the holiness of God and about the majesty and the glory of
God. That man's a pastor in Southampton
now. Do you know something? You cannot worship or serve God
under a broken law. You cannot. If you think you
can worship God in his holiness, outside of Christ, you're mistaken.
Because you're in the place where the Israelites were, in front
of Mount Sinai. And all you can see is a consuming
fire. And all you can hear is thunderings
and lightnings which terrify you because of the justice and
holiness of this consuming fire, into whose hands it is a fearful
thing to fall. Israel couldn't approach burning
Sinai. We can't approach God outside
of Christ. God must be revealed to us in
Christ as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul calls Him
here, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. For He alone is the mediator
that we need. There is one mediator between
God and man, only one, the man, Christ Jesus. He has to bring
us near by his finished redemption. And he does. That's how he brings
us near. Brought nigh unto God by the
redemption that he has accomplished. Such that when he'd risen from
the dead and he told the message to be taken, go and tell my disciples,
I think it was one of the women he said it to, go and tell my
disciples, go into Galilee and I'll meet them there. He said,
for I go to my God, and your God. My Father and your Father. He's the God of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the God of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And if we look to Christ, we come to God. We come to God
through him. There's no knowledge of true
God outside of Christ. We know him in eternal union
with him. That's how we know him. How do
we know God? We were put in Christ before
the foundation of the world. God, it says it there in verse
four, chosen in Him. That's where you, you weren't
just chosen by God, arbitrarily independent, you were chosen
in Christ before the foundation of the world. There's no knowledge
of the true God outside of Christ. We know Him in His human nature. When it says in the scriptures,
a body is prepared that He might come, that He might lay aside
that glory to come and redeem His people. Isaiah 42 verse one.
God, speaking of him as the man, says, Behold my servant. That's Christ. The servant is
Christ, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I
have put my spirit upon him, and he shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles." He'll justify the Gentiles, is what he's talking
about. As the God of Jesus the man, he is my God. Just as Jesus cried on that cross
in his moment of agony, in his moment When he bore the weight
of the sins of his people under the justice of God, he cried
out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The God of our
Lord Jesus Christ is the one to whom he cried, My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me? He's the one who thought it not
robbery to be equal with God, for he was equal with God. But
he laid aside his glory, and he came down to this to this
world, born of a virgin, born in poverty in a stable, born
in that situation, and grew in humble surroundings, meek and
mild and humble, and he grew perfectly fulfilling the law
of God, examined under the law of God, and he was obedient every
step of the way, obedient even unto the death of the cross,
for that obedience was necessary that his people might be saved.
as a god-man mediator, as a prince and a saviour, as a high priest. Don't we need a high priest?
You know, all these false religions, they go clambering after their
priests. We have a high priest. They go bowing before their altars.
We have an altar. It's our Lord Jesus Christ, where
everything, where peace is made, where mediation is made with
God, a high priest over God's house, so that we might come
boldly before the throne of grace. That's how we're bidden to come,
come not fearing, but boldly. Why? Because he's made the way
open through the veil that is his flesh. Speaking of the temple
veil being torn from top to bottom when he died on Calvary. to save
his people from their sins. Do you know God in Christ like
that? If you do, if you know God like
that, it isn't just, oh, that's nice. If you know God in Christ
like that, all things are new. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Old things, the way I used to
be and think, are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. So when Paul prays for God to
give them something, to give us as believers something, it's
all bound up with a need to know God in Christ. For knowing Him
in Christ is to know Him as, what's the next phrase? The Father
of glory. The God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory. You see, the ultimate goal, the
ultimate objective of the gospel of salvation of sinners is the
glory of God. that God might be glorified.
So, what does Paul pray that true God will give believers?
In glorifying God in the salvation of believers, what does he pray
that he would give them? Well, there it is in verse 17.
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, because we don't have it naturally. The
natural man doesn't receive the things of the Spirit of God.
They're foolishness to him, neither can he know them. They're spiritually
discerned. We don't have it naturally, but
Paul prays that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of Him. We may have earthly wisdom, There's
great wisdom in science. It's foolishness to undermine
it and not respect it. Look at the great feats of engineering
that have been done based on the scientific method. There's
earthly wisdom in science and engineering and in the arts. But, let me just read something
from Job to you. Job chapter 11 and verse 7. Canst thou by searching find
out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty
unto perfection? It's as high as heaven. What
canst thou do? It's deeper than hell. What canst
thou know? The measure thereof is longer
than the earth and broader than the sea. You see, can you, by
human wisdom, by natural wisdom, by earthly wisdom, find out God?
The answer's obvious. You cannot. It's impossible.
You see, It's not just wisdom that we need, and it's not just
earthly wisdom that we need, but we need spiritual, heavenly
wisdom. It's the spirit of wisdom and
revelation that we need. And who is the spirit of wisdom
and revelation? Is it not the Holy Spirit? Is
not he the author and the giver of it? Is not he the one who
comes and reveals to us the Godhead and the truth of the Godhead?
All the Godhead, Father, Holy Spirit and Christ, who himself
is made unto us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. Paul is praying that God would
fulfil in their experience the promise of John 16. What was
promised in John 16? This is the upper room. on the
night before the crucifixion, when Judas goes out to betray
him, and he tells them in John 16 about the Holy Spirit. If
I go not away, the Holy Spirit won't come to you. It's needful
that I go away, that I send the Holy Spirit, that you in your
experience, that us here, where we are, and anybody anywhere
else in the world listening to this, where they are, the Holy
Spirit is there. If they're believers, the Holy
Spirit, because they've been promised to believers, that Paul is praying
that God would fulfil in their experience that promise of the
Spirit bestowed upon them. Or another way of putting it
is that he would give them the mind of Christ, because look
in verse 18, that the eyes of your understanding might be enlightened. Enlightenment, when there's so
much darkness, You who know the truth of the gospel, you look
around, you see it in the news, you see it in family and friends
and neighbors, the attitudes, colleagues at work, all around,
darkness. Darkness of mind and of understanding.
But oh, the Spirit of God, when God gives him, he brings enlightenment,
a spirit of revelation, regarding eternal mysteries. Look at verse
9, having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according
to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself. What's
the mystery of his will? It's that which concerns salvation,
the salvation of sinners. What does he teach? What does
this enlightenment, this spirit of wisdom and revelation in knowledge
of him and the eyes of our understanding being enlightened and knowing
what is the hope of his calling and the rich, what does it do?
What does it first teach us? Surely, doesn't it first of all
teach us about the wrath to come? You look at those that have got
no knowledge or interest in the things of God. And there's no
fear of God before their eyes. That's what the scripture says,
isn't it? There is no fear of God before their eyes. They're
unenlightened as far as the wrath which is to come is concerned.
They're unconcerned and ignorant of their condition as sinners,
that it is appointed to man to die once and then the judgment.
And what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the
living God responsible for your own sin. He teaches us. Those things are conditioned
as sinners. He teaches us. He gives us this
spirit of wisdom and revelation and enlightens our eyes so that
we flee to the blessings of the gospel. Where can I find, what
must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved and all that are in your household with
you. He shows them God in Christ,
to whom he prays. This is what the Spirit does.
He shows Christ to his people. In John 14, 21, Jesus says, I
will love him, the one who believes, the believer, the one trusting
in him, and will manifest myself to him. How does Christ manifest
himself to us now? He's in eternal glory, he's no
longer physically present here in a human body. He's gone to
glory. How does he manifest himself?
By his Spirit, who takes of the things of Christ and reveals
himself to us. Has he manifested himself to
you? Not just in your head, not just
in knowledge that you have in your head, but inwardly, in your
heart. Because Paul says in Galatians
1.16, he talks about when he came to a knowledge of the truth,
he said, God revealed his Son, not to me, in me. Colossians
1.27 speaks of Christ in you, the hope of glory. Naturally,
as we read in 2 Corinthians 3, there is a veil, there is a shroud,
there is a covering on the heart and the understanding concerning
spiritual things. But Paul is praying for God to
take it away. to show all the truth of God
in His Word. Why do so many people miss it?
If it's all here in His Word, why do so many people miss it?
You know, we read the Israelites, there's still a veil lies on
their heart when they read Moses, when they read the Old Testament.
A veil on the heart. It's one thing to read it with
the eyes, it's another thing to have it understood in the
heart. And that requires the Spirit
of God to come. For Christ to be revealed in
the heart, all his saving blessings and all of his transforming power,
the veil that is naturally there must be taken away by God's Spirit.
So that Christ is revealed in the heart, through his word,
by his spirit. Have no truck with the charismatics
who talk about supernatural revelations today. Let me read that again.
Christ is revealed in the heart, through his word. He won't ever
reveal to anybody that which is not in his word. And he does
it by his spirit. All that he is. and has done
is felt in the heart, in salvation blessings, in the experience
of believers. And this is what Paul prays,
this is what we should pray for one another. Now I'll be quick
to finish. To what effect? Enlightenment,
the opposite of darkness. You know in Luke 24, With the
disciples on the Emmaus road, and you carry on reading that
chapter to the end, he opened Christ, opened the understanding
of the disciples, that they might understand the scriptures. That
that which they'd read before, they didn't understand, but that
he might open the eyes, that they might understand the scriptures.
You know, when Paul was converted, Saul of Tarsus was converted,
it was as if he had scales over his eyes, and he physically did.
He was physically blinded as a picture of his spiritual night,
his spiritual darkness, but the scales fell off his eyes so that
he could see spiritually. And this is what he talks about
in 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 6, because he talks about the
God who commanded light to shine out of darkness. In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without
form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And
God said, God commanded, let there be light. Well, Paul says
in 2 Corinthians 4, 6, the God who gave that command at creation
for there to be light has shined in our hearts, the hearts of
believers, light. The light of the knowledge of
the glory of God, where? In the face of Jesus Christ,
because it's nowhere else. In the face of Jesus Christ.
And this light, this enlightenment, this spirit of wisdom and knowledge
and revelation, This fundamentally affects everything we see and
touch in this world. It does. You know we're in a
wilderness, according to Revelation. God has put his people in a wilderness.
It's not a desert of scrub. He's put us in a wilderness of
separation from the thinking and the standards and the delights
of this world. He's put us in that place. So
when it comes to science, to politics, to arts, to morality,
to relationships, to everything, all things are new. You're a
fundamentally different creature. And this is spiritual blessings
applied. Because these spiritual blessings
of being a child of eternity with a destiny of eternity and
an inheritance in glory, it fundamentally affects the way you view. You
can't switch on your television or radio now to watch any program
about nature without it being utterly riddled with the dogma,
the doctrine of evolution. But the people of God, true believers,
the people of God, by faith we understand. that the worlds didn't
just happen, but that God made them. That's what Hebrews 11,
verse 2 tells. By faith we understand, not by
science, by faith, by this enlightenment that he's given us. All things
are made new. Paul's prayer for the spirit
of wisdom and revelation to be theirs is that they might know
Christ as not just a one-off thing, but an ongoing thing.
For Peter says to them, the last verse of Peter's second epistle,
2 Peter 3.18, grow in grace and the knowledge, keep on growing
in grace and the knowledge of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ,
that they might know the hope of their calling. This is what
he prays for here in verse 18, that you might know that, keep
in view your eternal destiny, and the riches of the glory of
the inheritance that is there, The church inheriting full fellowship
with God. God inheriting his church as
his bride, as his jewel. These are spiritual blessings.
They're not just academic. They're not just, oh, isn't that
nice? They're not just some future vague promise. They're life-changing
now. All things are made new. They're
certain. They're comforting. It's in a
couple of places in the scripture it says, this is the Lord's doing
and it is marvellous in our eyes. Have you had that experience?
Because if this is the Lord's doing, it's marvellous in our
eyes. The scriptures talk of it as an anchor for the soul. When in this life, opinions and
happenings just toss people to and fro everywhere, but this
is an anchor for the soul. We have the earnest of our inheritance,
as it says in verse 14. Solid, guaranteed. I'll finish. I trust you who believe know
something of this. I pray that you and I will know
it more, that we'll grow in it. And I pray that for any that
don't know it, that God will be gracious and reveal his son
in you, as he did in Saul of Tarsus, that you might seek him
and find him, knowing him that you might possess eternal life.