Ephesians chapter 1. And I'll begin reading again
to refresh you on this text in verse 18. 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 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 the heavenly places,
far above all principality and power and might and dominion
and every name that's named, not only in this world, but in
that which is to come, and hath put all things under His feet,
gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is
His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all." Now,
we were talking this morning concerning this glorious inheritance,
the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. And
to try to describe that and to think upon it is absolutely amazing. Heaven, how beautiful heaven
must be. It's made for the pure and the
free. These truths in God's Word He
has written how beautiful heaven must be. And I think the ultimate
of being there, I know the ultimate of being there is to be with
the Lord. To be like Him. To be with Him
forever. Where there's no tears, no sorrow,
no pain, no death. Nothing to enter that city that
would defile it in any way. a new heaven and a new earth.
And when we just begin to think about that and present these
things before our minds and think about them, we begin to think
on this, the greatness of this inheritance, and then the low
estate and the sad condition that we find ourselves in. We
sometime begin to think. How could I ever be worthy of
such an inheritance? How could heaven be prepared
for somebody as I am? And there are some people who
have begun to think on this, and that's why people like Martin
Luther went up into the mountains, into the monasteries. And some
of them went out into the desert and built them huts to live in,
and they got away from society. trying to make themselves worthy
for heaven. They saw something of the glory
of it. They began to feel something of their awful state. And they
said, well, I can't inherit such a place as I am. So they tried
to sanctify themselves. And Martin Luther said that oftentimes,
when he began to think about this very thing, that he had
fasted himself half to death. Lay on cold floors and they cut
themselves with sticks. trying to make themselves worthy
of heaven, the inheritance. I used to think that way. And
I still, brothers and sisters to this day, got this self-righteousness
that cleaves to me that I can hardly shake loose. Surely I'm
not worthy of this. I need to be a better person.
And Paul mentions something here about this. that is very instructive
and very confident. He says nothing about our marriage.
He says nothing about our worthiness. He says nothing about our preparedness. But he says this about this,
that it is man's inheritance. I love the way he puts that.
The riches of the glory of his inheritance he's laid up for
the saints. It's rich and it's glorious,
but he says it's not inheritance. What is not inheritance? It's
not what you earn. It's not what you merit. It's
something that's given you. And he lists two things here
especially in the context of this chapter concerning this
inheritance. And he says here in verse 11,
look at these two things, he gives two reasons mainly that
We have this inheritance. One is, in verse 11, because
of our union with Christ. In whom? In Him. Also, we have
obtained man inheritance. We have this because of our union
with Christ. Being in Christ gives you a right
to this union. We're heirs of God and joint
heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. And then something else here
he tells us that we have this inheritance because we're members
of the family. In verse 5, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children. We're children. And then of course
there in verse 13 and verse 14, He sent the Spirit of His Son
into our hearts, crying, Father, Father. And this Spirit is the
earnest of our inheritance. Why, why are we going to heaven? Why has God given us this earnest? Because we're children. That's
who parents leave their inheritance to. It's their children. We're
of the household of God. We're of the family of God. We
have the spirit of adoption. We're sons. And because you're
sons, your errors of God and your joint errors with the Lord
Jesus Christ. Paul is writing you to these
believers as though they are just believed, as though they
just come to the Lord Jesus Christ, and he says that God has called
you on purpose, and at this very moment, He has laid up for you
this rich and glorious inheritance. He didn't say a thing to them
about them needing to prepare. He didn't say a thing about you
need to go to the desert and live in a monastery and cut yourself
and fast yourself half to death. He says here you have this inheritance
and it's in the Lord Jesus Christ and you have it because you're
in the family. In the family of God. It belongs
to those. I don't care if they've just
believed in Christ. It belongs to them. If you find a newborn babe that
is just this very instant believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, then
you tell him, you've gotten an inheritance. I haven't even been
baptized yet. You haven't an inheritance. I
haven't done one good thing. You haven't an inheritance. Go
to that thief on the cross. He has an inheritance. Christ
has just been revealed to him, and yet this day, this day, you
shall be with me in paradise. He never attended a worship service.
He never was baptized. And yet he had this inheritance.
Why? Because it's that. It's not inherited. It's not merited, and it's not
earned. It's not inherited. Boy, this
is a problem the Apostle Peter had problems with. This is something
he had problems with. He asked the Lord one day, he
said, Lord, what are you going to give us? We apostles, we've
left everything to follow you. What are you going to give us?
And you know what the Lord told him? Just what I give to all
my children that I've redeemed and called. That's what I'm going
to give you. All of them alike, or my children,
all of them alike have this inheritance. And Peter said, Lord, that don't
seem right to me. We've left everything and followed
you. We've borne the heat of the day. That just ain't fair. Peter, you want to talk about
fair? You want to talk about your sin?
You want to talk about the holiness of God? The justice of God? The
requirements of God? Old Peter had something to learn,
didn't he? He needed to be converted from this thing that we have
to merit something. We have to earn something. And
the Lord converted him, too. It took him a long time, but
he converted him. One time he brought him down
so low, he said, Lord, depart from me. I'm a sinful man. But finally, he come to this. He come to this. He said, we
believe. I believe and these other apostles
believe. We've come to this conclusion.
The Lord has drove this home to my heart, that I'm saved by
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, just like the Gentiles are. Ain't
that something we have to learn over and over again? About the
time we think the Lord has really taught us, and we're never going
to forget it this time, He teaches us over again, by grace are you
saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. We're not worthy, and we can't
make ourselves worthy. But Jesus Christ is worthy. And
He's got enough worthiness for the whole family. And if you're
in Him, you're worthy. You're worthy because of Him
and your union with Him. You don't have to fear, you don't
have to doubt, because the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, is
worthy. And then the Apostle Paul goes
on here in verse 19, and this is this last request. And it's
vitally linked to the second request. How can we possibly
hope to obtain this glorious inheritance? How can we hope
to obtain heaven? Even though God's given it to
us as an inheritance, how in the world can we obtain it? How
does Paul tell us? This, by the power of God. That's what he's saying. By the
power of God. See how these requests are linked
together. He's not making these requests in a haphazard way.
He's not just throwing these petitions out there. He has such
perfect order. And I said the other day, I hope
you see that. Because he begins with the first petition, and
he says, in effect, I hope you know. I hope the Holy Spirit
makes you to know that God has really called you. That He's
called you to Christ. You know that He's called you
on purpose. And then secondly, he said, because when you've
made that sure, you're going to enter into this glorious inheritance
that's yours. It's yours. And then the third
request, how can we know that we're going to obtain this? How
in the world can we obtain it? And he says, I pray that you
might know the exceeding grace and power of God. The power of
God. That's the only way we can obtain
it. That's the only way we can get to heaven. and get through
this world, it's the power of God. See what he says? What is
the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe according
to the working of His mighty power. That's the way we shall
obtain that inheritance. If your trust this evening is
His, if your trust tonight, and if my trust is in our own power,
our own strength, We're failures before we begin. Because we can't
make it. We can't make it. The power of
God is the only way we're going to make it. When the Apostle
Paul came to the church there at Corinth and preached the gospel
to them, here's what he said. He said, I came not to you with
excellency of speech declaring unto you the testimony of God,
for I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and
fear and much trembling, and my speech and my preaching was
not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and power Why was that? That your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Our faith is not in our strength.
It's in God's power. In God's power. Now some believe
about this power that it takes to save a man. Here's what they
believe about it. You see this in some of the commentaries. They believe that men are made
Christians by the dual working of these two powers, God's power
and our power. And when these two powers come
together and they work together, that makes us Christians. We're
Christians. But here's what the Scripture
says, not by power, that is not by your power, and not by your
might, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord, by the power of my
Spirit. Now listen to these scriptures.
When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. When Christ died for us and when
He came to us, we were without any strength. And listen to Romans
chapter 1 verse 16. I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God to everyone that believes. And who is it that believes?
And how do we believe? By the power of God. The gospel
is the power of God, and we believe it by the power of God. 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1, listen to this. Paul said, You know, brethren,
your election of God, for our gospel came not to you in word
only, but in power. In power. and in much assurance,
and in the Holy Ghost." Paul said, there you were. You were
living your life, going on about your merry way, headed to destruction,
and suddenly the Gospel came to you and it saved you. It delivered
you from the awful wrath to come. What did that? The Gospel. The
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but to you who are being saved, it is the power of God. The power of God. We were dead
in trespasses and sins, and the gospel came. And what did it
do? It gave us life. We were bound
by the power of the devil, the power of darkness, and the gospel
came. And what did it do? It delivered
us. from the power of darkness. That's the gospel. What is the
gospel? Well, Paul said, here's the power of God. The power of
God. And not only is the gospel the
power of God, but I tell you, when the Apostle said it comes
in its power, that means whatever it demands out of you in a way
of hearing it, in the way of believing it, in the way of coming,
That means that gospel brings that power with it. It doesn't
come to you requiring something of you that you cannot produce. That's law. The law comes to
you and says, Love God with all your heart. It doesn't give you
any power to do that. Love your neighbor as yourself.
It gives no power to do that. But the gospel comes and says,
Repent! And it brings power with it.
The gospel comes and says, Believe, and it brings faith with it. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. This is why we are not looking
to the sinner to make a decision. We are asking God to send His
gospel in power. Power. And when it comes to our
hearts and power, it saves us. It saves us. We don't have to
stop and explain that to Armenians. With all the questions they have,
we just proclaim it. It's not God's power and our
power united together to save us. It's God's power. That's what the Apostle Paul
is teaching us here. When the devil had come to Paul
on the Lord's permission, one of those wicked spirits and begin
to buffet Paul, that thorn in the flesh, he besought the Lord,
and here is what the Lord told him. He said, Lord, I can't endure
this. I'm too weak. I can't fight against the gates
of hell. This demon is too strong for me. And the Lord said, My
grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect
in your weakness. I don't need your strength, Paul.
My strength, my power is magnified when you are utterly weak and
can do nothing. Most gladly, therefore, will
I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest
upon me, for when I am weak, then am I strong. What funny
language that is. Paul, are you weak or are you
strong? I am both. Are you almighty? Or are you
utterly weak? I am both. In myself I am utterly
weak, but I can do all things through Christ who strengthened
me. Isaiah said, the Lord said through
him, I give power to the faint and to them that have no might. Absolutely no might. That is
where we want to come to, brothers and sisters. No might, no strength,
no power. And the Lord said, when I find
a man of that way, I increase my strength. To them that have
no might, I increase strength. Even the youth shall faint, and
the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength. That's why David kept saying,
the Lord's my strength. The Lord is my strength. Thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power. It is God who
worketh in us both to will." I tell you, once a man's will
is won, you've got it. Once a man's will is broken and
he's won, he belongs to Christ. Two things that stop a man from
coming to Christ, mainly just two things. One is understanding. His understanding is darkened.
And number two is will. And boy, when he wins the will,
when he gets the will. But what is it that can win the
will? I can't do it. I can't even win my own will.
Thy people shall be willing. in the day of Thy power. It's God which worketh in you
by His power to will, to will, and to will, and to will. You
take a congregation this size that has a will, it's amazing. You take one man that has a will,
it's amazing. But it's the power of God that
has won that will, that's made him willing. Look at two or three
places here in Ephesians. Look at chapter 3 and verse 16. The power of God. Look at this. In verse 16 of chapter 3. This
is another prayer that the Apostle Paul had prayed for the family. That He would grant you, the
Father of our Lord Jesus, would grant you, according to the riches
of His glory, to be strengthened with might By His Spirit, we're
in the inner man. Look in another place. Look in
verse 20 of that chapter. Look in verse 20. Now to Him
that's able to do exceedingly, exceeding, abundantly, above
all that we ask or think, according to the worketh, according to
the power that worketh in us. See that? It's not your power. You say, Bruce, did we not believe?
Well, sure we believed. Don't we repent? Don't we hope?
Don't we do all these things? Sure we do. But how do we do
them? By His power. By His power. It's His power
working in us. And look over here in chapter
6 and verse 10. I tell you what, when the gates
of hell come against you, I had a pastor one time who said
a member of his congregation, a lady of his congregation, she
came to him and she said, I went to the Lord and I prayed, Lord,
try me. Just try me. He said, that's
what she prayed. It scared him to death just to
hear her say that. Just try me, Lord, try me. And
he said, boy, the next week he saw her, he thought she was half
crazy. Try me. Like I'm something. Like
we can stand. Boy, let the gates of hell come
against you. You prove how weak we are then, won't we? There's
but one way we can overcome the devil, the wicked one, the God
of this world, and that's for God's power working in us. And
here's what he says in verse 10 when he's talking about this
very subject. Chapter 6. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord and in the power of His might. Let me read you some more passages
of Scripture. And this is pertaining to the
power of God that we've been talking about and its link to
the graces of the Holy Spirit. Listen to this in Colossians
1 verse 11. Paul said, I want you to be fruitful in every good
word and work, strengthened with all might according to his glorious
power unto all patience, and long-suffering with joyfulness. I need patience. And one of the ways it brings
it, the Lord told us this morning, tribulations. But I'll tell you
one of the things that will make you be patient, and the way to
be patient and uphold during these tribulations and trials,
and endure them joyfully, the power of God. You know, some
of you know what that means. You've went through some troubles,
you went through some trials, Ten years ago, fifteen years
ago, would have got you down. But you feel the power. Have
you ever went to prayer? I mean, you've been so disturbed
in your mind, and all these troubles, when it rains, it pours, family
troubles, financial troubles, all kinds of troubles. And boy,
you've had one that just weighted you down. And you went to the
Lord in prayer, and you poured your heart out to Him. And you
was on your last go-around, your last straw. You were so weak,
you couldn't make another step. And oh, the power that came into
your soul. The strength that came into your
spirit. Some of you have experienced
that, haven't you? Power. The power of God. 1 Thessalonians 1.11, he says
this, I pray always for you that our God would count you worthy
of His calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness,
and the work of faith with power." The work of faith with power.
See who upholds this faith in us? The power of God. We walk
by faith, we live by faith, we work by faith, but who upholds
this faith? Who gives us this faith and who
strengthens it? The power of God working in us. The exceeding greatness of His
power to us were to believe. I tell you, if you and I could
really see the utter impossibility of sinners believing, we'd be
amazed when anybody did. Aren't you amazed that you believe?
Are you amazed that you continue to believe? And how do you do
it? The power of God. The exceeding greatness of His
power. This is the work of God that
you believe. And in Romans chapter 15 and
verse 13, now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace
in believing. He says, if you'll believe, you'll
have great joy and peace. And then He helps us to believe.
He gives us grace to believe. That you may abound in hope. How? Through the power of the
Holy Ghost. And then 1 Peter 1, 2 Peter 1,
verse 3, is divine power as given to us all things that pertain
to life and godliness. And then 1 Peter 1, verse 5,
Larry's passage, you are kept by the power of God. See where
he's going with all of this. See why Paul mentions this exceeding
greatness of his power that works in us? When we were dead in sins,
He quickened us. He raised us by His power. His
power gave us faith. He keeps us believing, hoping,
patient. Every virtue that we possess,
He works in us. Our willing, our doing, He works
in us by His power. And now Peter comes here and
says, you're kept by it. Kept from what? We're kept from
the wicked one. We're kept from falling. Kept
from things that would destroy us. We're kept believing. We're
kept hoping. We're kept cleaving. We're kept
by the power of God. God has not given us the spirit
of fear, but of love and of power. Has not the potter power over
the clay? Thank God he does. Thank God
he does. And here we are, yielded to him. Yielded to Him. That's what we
should do, brothers and sisters. Trust Him. Yield ourselves to
Him. He's the potter. The clay is
not molding itself. The clay is not farming itself.
That's the potter's business. And he does it with these skillful,
wise, powerful hands. And here we should be submissive
in his hands. And say, oh, my Father, mold
me to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Work your great work
in Me, our power and His power. That's
almost blasphemous, ain't it? Oh, this is why it's so important
how we begin this way. How did we become Christian? How were we saved to begin with? It's through the marriage of
another. by the power of God. That's it. That's it. So important
how we start in it. And when this lifeless body lays
in the ground, in the cold, damp ground, it will lay there in
hope that He that raised Christ from the dead shall raise us
up also by His own power. Power. The power of God. Nothing
short of that can save us. Nothing short of that can save
us. And here right quickly in verse 20, that's what Paul is
speaking to us of. Look here right quickly in Ephesians
chapter 1 and verse 20. He reminded us there that we
believed according to the working of His mighty power. And he says
in verse 20, it's the same power that He wrought in Christ when
He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand
in those heavenly places. The very same power that is working
in us and beginning its work in conversion and repentance
and faith is the same work that brought the Lord Jesus Christ,
the same power from the tomb, and set Him at His right hand
there in heaven. Why does Paul use the resurrection
of Christ here to describe the power that worketh in us? As
you first read this, you may wonder why he does that. He could
have said the power when God created the heavens and the earth.
That's the same power that works. He spoke heaven into existence.
He spread out the sky as a tent to dwell in. He just spake and
it was done. He commanded and it stood fast.
That's power. Why didn't He say the same power
of this great Creator He works in you? He could have said that.
Or He could have said the same powerful God that holds all this
together. That takes power to do that.
Or the same power that brought destruction upon the old world,
that turned out the windows of heaven and loosened the fountains
of the deep. What power that took. But he
says here, the same power that raised Christ from the dead. Why does he say that? Well, for
this reason, I think, because the resurrection of Christ to
begin with is a Bible aspect of our salvation. And I tell
you, there is more power manifest in the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. than there is in creation or providence or in judgment
all combined. Now, I know that's a marvelous
statement to say that, because you can imagine the power it
took to create this universe and hold it together. But there's
more power manifest in the resurrection of Jesus Christ than there is
in creation. If you'll think about this, if
you'll think about the way that He died, The death of our Lord
Jesus was no common death. He was bruised more than any
man. His vestige was marred more than
any man. He hung there in utter weakness. Physically, he was worn, crushed,
broken, mangled. His whole physical aspect of
it. Look what an awful death he died.
Nobody ever died like that. But consider this part of his
death. He died with our sins in his body. He died under the
awful and dreadful judgment of God. My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? And when they took that body
down from the tomb, or from the tree, how it was mangled and
broken and joints pulled one from another. and took him and
laid him in his tomb, just to consider that from a natural
standpoint, knowing what he suffered and the awful judgment of God
upon him, anybody in their right mind would have said, that's
it for that man. He's dead. He's gone. But what
did the Scripture say? I am he that was dead, and I
am alive again. What power of God then? Not only
the whole physical aspect of it, but the moral aspect of it.
Dying with our sins. Dying under the awful judgment
of God. And yet, out of that horrible
death, He's raised up again. How could that possibly be? The
power of God. The power of God. And then you
consider this, what Paul tells us here. Not only how He died. But look at the marked contrast
after his resurrection from how he died as opposed to how he
was when he was raised from the dead. There he hangs before that
mocking crowd in shame and nakedness and spitting, and there he lays
in that dark tomb, utterly dead, but now he lives And he's in
a glorious body, not subject to any limitations. And he's
been so exalted that he's there upon the right hand of God, all
principalities and powers and thrones and dominion and every
name is under his foot. And how in the world could this
be? To bring from such low depths to the highest of heights. It's
attributed to one thing, the power of God. That's what Paul
says. The power of God. And then we think of this vital
aspect of His resurrection. He didn't do this as a private
person. This is a glorious thing. I love
to think of the Lord Jesus Christ. When He agreed to come into this
world, it wasn't for Himself. He was a public person. He was
a representative. And the scripture says, when
he was raised from the dead, he was the first fruit of them
that slept. Listen to this. Now is Christ
risen from the dead and became the first fruit of them that
slept. For since by man came death,
by man came the resurrection of the dead. In Adam all die,
in Christ shall all be made alive, but every man in his own order.
Christ the firstfruits, and then afterwards, they that are Christ's
at His coming. What is Paul saying? He said,
Christ, the very fact that He was raised from the dead, assures
us that all His people will be raised likewise. He's the assurance. He's merely the forerunner. And
what's he saying by that? Death is defeated. Death is defeated. Sin has been put away. It has
been punished. The wrath of God has been borne.
It is no more. There is no more judgment on
sin. How do we know that? He that
was dead is alive. He that had our sins, he that
bore the wrath of God, is free. And he is free on our behalf.
Isn't that wonderful? I look back on my life, and I
bet you feel the same way when I think of some of the things
that I've gone through, not so much physically, but mentally,
emotionally, spiritually. And I'm utterly amazed that I'm
still believing. I'm amazed that I'm still on
the way. And I attribute it to one thing,
the power of God. That's it. The Lord stood by
me and strengthened me. That's what I attribute it to.
And you do too. How in the world can people so
low as we arise to this inheritance, eternal inheritance? Well, look
at the power of God. raising His Son from such a low
state. You and I will never be there,
brothers and sisters. He bore that in our stead. We'll
lay down now and death won't touch us. It won't come near
us. He tasted it. Now it's a bed
of rest. And since God raised Him from
the dead by His mighty power, I'll say this with all reverence.
You and I have nothing to doubt. You and I have nothing to fear.
Rest in His power.