If you'll take your Bibles now
and turn with me to Ephesians 1, what the apostle begins here
to pray for. It says here in verse 15, Wherefore, I also, after that
I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and love unto
all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention
of you in my prayers." And what the apostle is now praying for
is the will of God to be fully known in the hearts and in the
minds of these that he has now reason to believe are saved men and women. Saved
men and women called to faith. And if they are sons indeed. And we, I think, have to use
that word if. Because Paul called Demas at
one time his fellow laborer and he was wrong. He said Demas hath
forsaken me. But at one time, he didn't see,
he didn't view him as forsaken. He viewed him as his fellow laborer.
And so I think in any time that we talk to one another, we can't
talk to one another just as sure as we, we always have to put
that if, don't we? If, if. And I find that in the
scriptures too, all through the book of Hebrews. If we continue
in the faith, rooted and grounded. So, I say this as the scriptures
say it, if they're sons, to enter into the full inheritance of
God in Christ. Now I'm going to preach to you
when you make a profession of faith and you're baptized, I'm
going to preach to you as a son, but I can't make you a son. You
understand why I'm saying that if, why I'm putting that if up
there? It's not that I question. these things. It's that the scriptures
question these things and do so often. And so Paul, since
the time he heard, he begins to make prayer. Well, why would
you pray for somebody if you're sure they're saved? Huh? Because
he has an if. There's an if there. And if their
sons to enter into that full inheritance of God in Christ,
to know the length and the depth and the height and the wonder
of God's sovereign grace. Now, if you're an heir, you're
an heir of the whole thing. You know, in this world, we can
be an heir, but we're just an heir of a little bit. We're an
heir of whoever left the will. He's promised certain things
to certain people, and we sit there and we hear the reading
of the will, He might have left me a pair of old used socks.
He might not have left the fortune to me. He might have left the
farm to somebody else. But not so with God. If you're
an heir of God, then you're a joint heir with Christ and you're heir
of the whole thing. You see what I'm saying? And
Paul said, if you're an heir, then I pray that you see the
whole thing. I want you to see it all. I want
you to see the height and the depth and the length and the
width. I want you to see all of this treasure of God, not
just one little piece. To see and receive the full benefits
of this accomplished redemption in Christ. And there's only one
source and that is Christ in whom we were chosen. Who's in
the fullness of time He came. accomplished this redemption,
accomplished our righteousness and so on, ascended up into glory
and now reigns to make our inheritance sure. This is he in whom the
father had trusted all things, who sits in full favor and power
at his right hand, and who is the same that will
come and complete what God has given him to do and judge this
world. in perfect righteousness. Now,
he is the source of all knowledge. I don't care what you know outside
of him, you don't know anything. He's the source of all spiritual
knowledge. In him we have obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. And in him we
discover all the great mysteries, how God can be just and justify
sinners, how Gentiles can have hope in the salvation of Israel. The mysteries of sin, of iniquity
that doth now already work. The mystery of godliness. God
was manifested in the flesh. His character displayed, exampled,
made visible, justified in the spirit. justified in everything
he thought and said and did, justified by his resurrection
from the dead. He is the firstborn from the
dead. Scene of angels. They saw him
and worshipped him at his incarnation. Can you imagine these ministering
spirits who witness God becoming a man? Can you imagine how their
hearts were filled with worship as they sat and looked at him?
And saw this thing unveiled right before their eyes. Came and worshiped
him. They gave witness. They attended
him after his temptation in the wilderness. The angels came and
ministered to him. And they gave witness to the
women at his tomb. He's not here. He's risen. was
with Him when He ascended up into glory and came back and
told those who were standing there wide-eyed and open-mouthed,
watching Christ disappear out of sight, He said, why stand
you there gazing? This same Jesus that you see
taken away is also coming like manner. And now stand in His presence
in glory. Preach to the Gentiles. and received
up into glory. There's only one source where
this adoption can be known, and that's in the Son of God. And
then secondly, there's only one with the power and right to dispense
the benefits, and that's Christ. That's Christ. You know, I've
had people in my past, preachers who ought to, and I use the word
very loosely, who told me told our whole congregation. This
was one of his regular sayings when he would stand up. God's
only obligated to call you one time. He's not obligated at all. He's not obligated at all. There's only one with the power
and right to dispense these benefits, and that is Christ who sends
the Holy Spirit of God. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
10. While you're turning, in Hebrews
chapter 9, Paul shows us the heart of this ceremonial worship. Under the Old Testament law,
the high priest would take the sacrifice, and one time a year,
he would go beyond that veil and take that sacrifice, that
blood sacrifice. He would take it in before God
into the Holy of Holies. Let me read just a few verses
here from chapter 9 and then I'll move on to Hebrews chapter
10. It says in verse 7, Hebrews chapter 9, But into the second
went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood,
which he offered for himself and for the heirs of the people.
talking about the Day of Atonement, when the high priest went beyond
the veil. The Holy Ghost, this signifying
that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest
while as the first tabernacle was yet standing, which was a
figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts
and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service
perfect pertaining to the conscience. which stood only in meats and
drinks and divers, washings and carnal ordinances imposed on
them until the time of reformation. But Christ, being come a high
priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. Thus He purges, it goes on to
say, He purges the conscience of guilty sinners by showing
them that their sins were taken away once for all in this offering
of the body of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 10 verse 14, For by one
offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. that
is sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.
Now watch this. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us. Of what? What is it that the Holy Ghost
witnesses to the church? It witnesses of that life and
death of Christ. That's what he's saying here.
This whole typical work of the high priest was fulfilled in
Christ and the Holy Ghost comes as a witness to that. Witnesses
to his people. The Holy Ghost also is a witness
to us for after that He said before, this is the covenant
that I'll make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I'll
put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write
them. Not a law to keep, which is for
a sinner a curse. That's what Paul said. Cursed
is everyone who continueth not in all things written in the
book of the law to do them. It's a curse to them. But it's
a blessing to the children of God because this law is perfectly
honored and exalted in Christ. And that's what he writes in
your heart. He writes in there a law honored, a law just to
satisfy. It's finished, he said. The end
of the law for righteousness. Therefore, verse 17, and their
sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission
of these is, there is no more offering for sin. So that the
Holy Ghost seals these blessed promises to us in the revelation
and understanding of Christ crucified. Now let's go back and look at
the remaining verses here in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 15. Wherefore, I also, after that
I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all
the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention
of you in my prayers, 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." We're going to see God
in this thing. of Christ crucified. We're going
to see that this is of God. It's of God Alpha to Omega. It's all of God. It was God's
providence. It was God's election. It was
God's predestination. It was God's Spirit coming. It
was God's Son incarnate accomplishing. It's all of God. That's what
Paul said. If you're in there, I'm going
to open the first chest and let you see this glory. And the glory is that the whole
things of God. One old writer said, one of the
first effects of true religion is the understanding. It's the
understanding. He opens the understanding. Everybody else is going like
this. He opens to you an understanding. You cannot trust, call on, or
rejoice in what you do not know. Truth is brought to bear upon
the mind and hearts and enlarges our views of God and answers
all the mysterious questions and lays a real foundation for
our hope. I love what this old fellow said.
He said, nowhere is the effect of true religion more apparent
than in shedding light on the intellect of this world. showing
us what all their opinions and preaching and religion is about.
He said, nowhere does he see then the shedding of light on
the intellect of this world and restoring the weak and perverted
mind to a just view and a right proportion of things and to the
true knowledge of God. It takes us from, I think, to
here it is. Here's the truth. Here's the
truth. Don't you just kind of sit there
with a patient, whatever, when somebody
comes to you and they start saying, you know, it just seems to me,
and then they start off on this thing about God, but it's a God
that they don't know. They don't know. They have this
God changing his mind, and changing his ways, and changing his character,
and he's this way in the Old Testament, and he's this way
in the New Testament. He's harsh and cruel in the Old
Testament, and in the New Testament, he's sympathizing and compromising. It's not the God of the Bible,
and you just kind of sit and wait on him to get it all out,
and say, now, that's not God. Here's God. God don't change. He don't change. God's all-powerful. He's omnipotent. He's all-wise.
Nothing takes Him by surprise. He knows what you're going to
do before you do it. You're not going to sneak up
on God. You're not going to blindside God. Most of what goes on in the name
of Christianity is no more than superstition. They do what they
do based on tradition, feeling, emotions, and appeal to the flesh. In the 17th chapter of Acts,
Paul walked the streets of Athens and he saw their memorials and
read their devotions. And this is what he said. They
invited him to stand up. They heard he was a preacher
of a strange god, a babbler. And they called on him. And they
put him right up there where they put all their wise men up
there on top to talk to him. And here's what he told them.
Here's the first words out of his mouth. He said, you men of
Athens, I perceive that in all things you're too superstitious. Superstition is a religion without
reason. It's a belief without foundation. It's a hope based on nothing
but feelings, emotions, and speculation. That's superstition. I ain't going under that step
ladder. I ain't breaking that mirror. Oh, I saw a black cat. That's superstition, honey. Superstition. And that's religion. That's all
religion is, just superstition. Paul said that this heathenistic
world walks in the vanity of their mind. It's vanity. Vanity. Having their understanding darkened.
being alienated from the life of God. They have no idea who
God is. Paul said, if you're an heir,
if you're truly an heir, and he had good reason to believe
that they were, then he said, I want you to know God. I want
you to see God in every aspect of your salvation. I want you
to see Him back here in eternity, decreeing these things. I want
you to see Him back here with the purpose of salvation. Saves
men on purpose. That's just hard to get a hold
of, isn't it? On purpose. John said this in 1 John 5.19,
he said, we know we are of God and the whole world lieth in
wickedness. That's quite a statement. The
true heir of God has been given the right and privilege to become
the Son of God, not by His works or will, but by the crown rights
of His substitute and Redeemer. He has not only the right to
hear, but God gives Him ears to hear. He came unto His own. His own didn't hear. His own
didn't receive Him. He came into the world, and the
world was made by Him. And the world knew Him not. But
some of them received Him. Some of them did. Why? Because
He gave them ears to hear. The ears to hear. He that hath
an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Nowhere is the curse of sin more
evident than in the unbelieving hearts of men and women. That's
the curse. Listen to this. I hath not seen. Whose eye? Any eye. Any eye. I hath not seen. nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man the things that
God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed
them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God." Faith is life from the
dead. It's light out of darkness. It's
understanding out of total confusion and ignorance. How do I know
when the Spirit of God begins to work on a man? How do I know
that? How can you perceive that, preacher?
When that man begins to question what he's always believed, that's
how I know. Because until the Spirit of God
moves, he's never going to question what he's always believed. He'll
believe it like it's fact, like it's fact. Those Pharisees, when
they came before Christ, in spite of the miracles, in spite of
everything that these natural eyes saw, they rejected it because
they were convinced that what they believed was right. And
man ain't going to give that up until the Spirit of God enters
into his heart and begins to show him who he is and who God
is. And then all of a sudden, he
begins to question. He begins to question. Oh, maybe
I've been wrong. Maybe I've been wrong. That's
not what I've been told. Oh, I'll tell you something else.
That man begins to question what he's always believed and when
he discovers that he's lost and don't know the way. He begins
to question a few things at first and then he winds up not knowing.
He says, I just don't know anything. You know, I used to know. I used to be sure. I used to
stand on a solid pudding, and now I've talked to you, and I've
listened to you, and now I don't know anything. Huh? He's lost. He's lost. That's how I know when the Spirit
of God begins to work, when he don't know anything. It's not
just that he don't know something. Everything he knows went out
the window. And when he discovers he's lost
and he don't know the way, and when all of his good works are
no longer sufficient to cover his nakedness, oh, that's the
last thing man wants to give up. And when he finds himself
shut up guilty before God without excuse, he don't have one plea. He can't go back and get one
thing. An old fellow told me one time, I took him out to drink
a water, and we got to talking, and he said, well, I asked him,
I said, has the Lord saved you? Do you
know Him? Well, he said, I ain't always
done the right thing, but he said, one thing I can say, preacher,
alcohol never touched these lips. That's not a good hope. That's
not a good hope. When he finds himself shut up
without one plea, all of his good works have just, like Daniel,
melted into corruption before him. Then I can say the Holy
Spirit of God began to work in his heart. An old songwriter,
some of these old writers knew the Lord. He said, in my hand
no price I bring. Huh? No price. Ephesians 1, verse 18, this is
Paul's prayer for them, that 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. What is the hope of His calling?
Not just an external, audible, superficial call, but the internal,
special, high and heavenly calling of God, called out of darkness,
called out of death and depravity, called out of ignorance and deceit,
called out of rebellion and obstinacy, called unto the eternal glory
of Christ by the Spirit of the living God. I tell you, you have
to be a man possessed by the Holy Spirit of God to trust Christ
alone. I challenge you. I challenge
you. You try to do it in the flesh. Trust him alone in the flesh. You won't make it a day. You
won't make it a day. But I tell you, when He comes
down and makes this not just up here, but the experience of
this heart, and you find yourself lost before Him without one shred
of righteousness, without one shred of hope, without one shred
of goodness in you, nothing to plead before God, you'll embrace
Christ, and you'll trust Him alone. And it'll become the experience
of your heart, and not just knowledge in your head. Christ is the hope of our calling. He's the reason of it, the basis
of it, the object of it, and the glory of it. And then Paul
said, in what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the
saints. This almost sounds like a contradiction,
but the saints themselves are the Lord's portion. They're the
Lord's portion as our children are our portion. That's His portion. He's glorified and will be glorified
in all things concerning them. Everything about them glorifies
Him in these true churches. He's glorified in their election. He's glorified in their predestination. He's glorified in their calling
and justification. He's glorified in their preservation
and in their final glorification. He's glorified. They're His portion. Everything about these adopted
sons are owing to His glory, and they themselves shall stand
in heaven forever a memorial to His glory. Ephesians 1 verse 19. Paul is still praying here. He
is praying for these ones that he has heard of. and what is
the exceeding greatness of his power to usward 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 heavenly places. Far above all principality and
power and might and dominion and every name that's named not
only in this world but also in that which is to come. In the borrowed tomb of a rich
man lay a man convicted and put to death before God for the sins
of his elect, which he willfully, lovingly, and completely took
to himself. And on the third day, something
never before seen took place. This man sat up on that slab
of stone, and he took those linen garments And he carefully unwrapped
them, John, and folded them, the Scripture said. Folded them
neatly and laid them on the slab. He wasn't in any hurry, was he? Left them in the tomb. Folded
those garments up. And then he walked out of a well-guarded
tomb, sealed with a great stone. And for 40 days appeared to his
disciples and those who believed on him, and to above 500 brethren
at one time. Miraculously, his body lay in
that tomb three days, but never saw corruption, and then was
raised from the dead." This is the firstborn from the dead and
the firstborn among many brethren. And as God raised Him up out
of His cursed death, being satisfied with His obedience and sacrifice,
so He raises us up out of our spiritual death on the same basis. On the same basis, and by the
same power and authority, and gives us the right and privilege
not to be called sons of God, but to be sons of God. Isn't that what it says in John
chapter 1? He gave them power to become sons of God. Nobody's going to come out of
the tomb apart from the merits and mercies of God in Christ.
Now having raised us up and given us this power and privilege,
we're given eyes to see Him who sits as our representative and
elder brother at the right hand of God. And he says he's up there
above all principalities and powers. He put them all beneath
his feet. And he did it as a man, as a
representative man. He put Satan, he defeated him
on his own ground and put him under his feet. He defeated religion
on their own ground and put them under his feet. He defeated and
overcome this world and put it under his feet. And God raised
him up, and there he sits expecting to his enemies be made his butchers. That's my hope. That's what Paul's
talking about here. That's what he's praying for.
He said, I don't want you to be religious. I don't want you
to think you're safe because you took a dead goat and handed
it to a man. You'll be safe when you see him. And when God brings you to Him,
and you embrace Him as your all, and you walk that way, and live
that way, and think that way, and talk that way, you see what
He's saying here? Oh, Paul said, I'm going to pray
for you. I'm going to pray for you, because
you haven't seen anything yet. I pray your eyes be open, your
ears be open, your heart receive this and rejoice in it. We'll
never know until that day. what glory the Lord has bestowed
on those who believe. And as He Himself contains all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily, so He is the fullness of the
church as it is His body, and in Him, and by Him, and for Him.
And He is the fullness of all their hope and desire. And so
He closes out the chapter. It says, "...he hath put all
things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things
to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth
all in all."