I want to read verses 15 through
verse 17. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse
15. Wherefore I also, after 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." Our title
today of our study will be, I Thank God for You. I Thank God for
You. And without ceasing, he says,
I make mention of you in my prayers. And he had just told us here
why that he was thankful for them. Why am I thankful for you? Well, he said this, when I heard
of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and love which you have
to all the saints. When I heard of this, I thank
God for you. Now, I can think of three or
four reasons why the Apostle Paul and why you and I would
give thanks for those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
and who love one another. First of all, I'm sure Paul gives
thanks for these people, these dear saints, because Paul saw
in them God accomplishing His purpose. He had gone everywhere
in his preaching and in his epistles, and he often spoke about God's
eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ Jesus the Lord. That
he had chosen a great multitude that he was going to save. He
was going to bring them to the Lord Jesus Christ. God had purposed
to do it, Paul said. Well, here he looks at these
people, and he says, here's the evidence. Here's the evidence. I've heard of it myself. God
has called you to faith in the Lord Jesus. He purposed to do
it before eternity. And now He's done it. I've heard
of it. I thank God for you. And you know, you and I read
and we hear often of God's electing grace. And when we hear that He's accomplishing
that purpose, Don't it just raise thanksgiving in your heart that
you've heard that He's doing it? I have purposed it, and we
believe that He has. But when He says, I've done it,
oh, it makes thanksgiving arise in our heart. I've spoken it,
spoken it, plumb back in eternity. And now I've brought it to pass.
And our hearts leap with praise and thanksgiving. When just hearing
that He's done it. I'm not jealous. I told some
folks the other night where I preached in the building, it was almost
full of people. I'm not jealous. This is what the Lord is doing. I just pray this and you just
pray that. Lord, do hear what you're doing
in other places. Have you purpose to save people?
Oh, just hearing that you're doing it. is reason enough to
give thanks. But even more than this, Paul
gives thanks for these believers for this reason. Not only that
he had heard that they had believed the Lord Jesus, but he spent
two or three years with this people. Many of them were brought
to faith in the Lord Jesus under his preaching. Not only had he
heard that they had believed and the Lord was fulfilling His
purpose in them, he said, I saw it with my own eyes. I was eyewitnesses
of it. And I tell you, that makes you
even more thankful, don't it, for people? Not only when you
and I have heard that the Lord is doing it, but when He does
it in our midst. Oh, it makes us thank God. I
thank God for some of you. I watched you come to Christ.
I thank God for you. Knowing that when he purposed
to do it, and now that he did it, watch you come to Christ.
Watch you too come to Christ. Watch some of you come to Christ.
And I thank God for you. I thank God for you. Paul said, I cease not to give
thanks to you for this reason, when he remembered and when he
saw all the good that God does for a person He saves. Oh, who knows? We know so little
of all the good that God does for a man and a woman that He
saves. Paul went on here to tell them
about many things that God had did for them. He said, You were
dead in trespasses and sins, but God who is rich in mercy
Even when you were dead, He's quickened you together with Christ.
He's given you life. That's good, ain't it? He says
you were aliens from Israel, but now you're of the household
of God. You were without Christ, without
God, and without hope. But now in Christ Jesus, you
that were for all are made nigh. And in the fifth chapter, he
says, you were darkness. Not only you were in darkness,
but you were darkness. But now are you light in the
Lord. Oh, when God saves a soul, He
does it good, don't He? He does it good. Gives them so
many good things. And I tell you, you have to look
no further than this. How good is this? I heard of
your faith in the Lord Jesus. That's good, ain't it? and love to all the saints. And
prayer, I give thanks and I make mention of you in my prayers.
These things are good. When you see a child of God,
brothers and sisters, you see a person who truly believes in
the Lord Jesus Christ, love that person, give thanks to God for
them because God has done that man good. And Paul said, I give
thanks to you for him. And fourthly, I think Paul gave
thanks to them, for them, for this reason. Because he saw in
them the family had increased. The heavenly family, the church
family had increased. He had some more brothers and
sisters. that God had brought into the
family. I'm a family man, aren't you? Some of us come from big
families. I love family reunions. I love my siblings. I love my
brothers and sisters. The Scripture says children are
heritage of the Lord, and blessed is those people who have their
quivers full of them. Oh, I wish the Lord would give
us more brothers and sisters, don't you? to sit around our
Father's table and eat with and fellowship with. Who is my brother? And who is my sister? He pointed
down there to Mary Magdalene out of whom went seven devils.
They would have left her behind. Seven devils. She's not worth
saving. She can't be saved. But the Lord
Jesus said, there sits my sister. A man full of leprosy? There he sits, my brother. Blind
Barnabas, John the Old Fisherman. These are my brothers and these
are my sisters. They're in the family of God.
And when Paul saw them, he said, Oh, I thank God for my family,
my heavenly family. I don't know what I'd do without
this family. I don't. I tell you, the tide that binds
Christian hearts is a stronger bond than nature. Bound by the
spirit of adoption, we have the same Father, we have the same
Heavenly Brother. Bound by the cords of covenant
love, blessed be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian
love. This is the best family I ever
belonged to. And I've got a pretty good family, naturally. But I love this family. I love
this family. This is God's family. This is
the heavenly family. We'll never sever any ties. We'll
be together throughout eternity. The family. And Paul says it
like this. He says, not only do I give thanks
to God for you, but he says, I never cease I never cease. When some brother or sister does
something to you to aggravate you, you know the best remedy
to get through it? Give thanks to God for it. And
pretty soon the bitterness is gone. The aggravation is gone. Lord, I thank you for old Brother
Clarence. He just aggravates me to no ends. I thank you for Brother Clarence.
I bet you've had to do that about me sometime, haven't you? Thank
you for our pastor. Sorry, man, that he is. Oh, I
thank you for our pastor. That's the way to get over it,
ain't it? Never cease. If he's a child
of God, give thanks for him. If he believes in the Lord Jesus
Christ, give thanks for him. And never quit giving thanks
for him. And he says here in the last
part of verse 16 about them that he gives thanks for, making mention
of you in my prayers. I tell you, the Apostle Paul,
I am just certain after studying from this man that he could not
have finished his prayer in five minutes or ten minutes. I say
that because when he went to prayer he had so many requests
to make. He had so much to give thanks
to the Lord for, and he had so many names to mention. You listen
to this. He prayed for everybody. He had
his heart full of people. You wonder how he could remember
all of these people. He was right into the Colossian
church, and he said, I pray always for you, brethren. And he was
writing to the church at Thessalonica, and he said, I pray for you night
and day, making mention of you in my prayer. And he was writing
to the Roman church, and he said, God is my witness that without
ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers. And he
was writing to the Philippian church, and he says, always in
every prayer of mine, praying for you, making requests with
joy. And then he wrote about his Jewish
brother, and he said, God bears me witness that I have a heart's
desire and prayer to God that they might be saved. And when
you're praying for that many people and mentioning them before
the God and Father of the Lord Jesus, you ain't going to pray
that in ten minutes. And I just about bet you that
he didn't have a list that he had to read off. They were on
his heart. He loved them. He praised God
for them. And he praised for them. Brothers
and sisters, I tell you this, the greatest kindness that you
and I could show one another. And the most gracious thoughts
that we could have one to another is to make mention of one another
before the throne of grace. A man told me one time, he said,
I'm going to pray for you. That's the least I can do. That's
the most you can do for me. That's the most we can do one
for another. Joseph was in prison down in Egypt. And the butler,
Pharaoh's butler, had had a dream. And Joseph interpreted the dream
and said, Pharaoh is going to deliver you from this prison
and restore you to your job. And he said this to that butler,
when he does, and when it's well with you and you're standing
there in Pharaoh's presence, show me kindness. and make mention
of me before Pharaoh that he bring me out of this house. But the butler forgot Joseph. But if Joseph thought it was
so important for his name to be mentioned before King Pharaoh,
that he would entrust his prayer to an unkind, forgetful butler,
how much more, brothers and sisters, should we trust one another who
loves us? You love me and I love you. How
much more should we trust one another than when we're in the
presence of God to mention our names one to another? Oh, I mention your name before
my Father in heaven. That's the best. That's the most
we can do one for another. The Apostle Paul was a busy man,
but he said, I take time to mention your name. And you know something? The Lord Jesus, when He prayed,
He mentions us. He speaks of us. In just one
prayer, listen to this, in just one prayer, here is what he said,
I pray for them which you have given me. I pray for them. Holy Father, keep through your
own name those that you have given to me that they may be
won. I pray that you would keep them
from the evil. I pray for them that you sanctify
them through your truth. And I pray for all them which
shall believe on me through their word, that they may be one. Father,
I will that they whom you've given me be with me." This was
just one prayer. In one prayer. Look at the times
he mentions the names of his people. And you know something? He's there in heaven now. But
do you know he is still mentioning our names? He said, if any man confess me
before other men in this world, any man, I don't care who he
is, any woman, those who confess me before this world, they confess
my truth, they confess my gospel, him will I also confess before
my Father. You mention my name. Here to
men upon this earth, and I'll make mention of your name there
with my Father." What would that mean to have your name mentioned?
Fall from the lips of the blessed Son of God. Oh, wouldn't that
be wonderful? That would be wonderful. Lord,
mention my name. Lord, remember me there in your
kingdom. Oh, I tell you, it's a great
blessing to mention one another. I cease not to give thanks for
you and to make mention of you in my prayers." That's who he
prayed for. He prayed for them. And he made
mention of them. And look here in verse 17 who
he prayed to. The God of our Lord Jesus Christ. I cease not to give thanks and
to pray And who did he pray to? The God of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know Jesus Christ has
a God? Now, ain't this amazing? Brother Glenn touched on this.
He has a God. You and I talk about the Trinity.
There's three in one. And sometimes we dwell on the
one so much we forget they are three. There are three in one. Here's one of the greatest mysteries
concerning the incarnation. When Jesus Christ, our Lord,
came to this earth and He took to Himself our humanity, bone
of our bone, flesh of our flesh, He was 100% man. Sin accepted, I realize that.
But He was so man, with a real human soul. that he owned God
to be his God. He was a real man. He submitted to all the will
of his Father. I came not to do my own will,
but the will of Him that sent me. He worshipped God. The devil tempted him to commit
idolatry, but he worshipped God. He served God. He walked before
Him in perfect obedience. He prayed to God. Didn't he pray
to God? The Scripture says that he went
out and spent all night in prayer to God. Now, ain't that amazing? He had a God and he prayed to
God. The disciples were sure and they
prayed one day and they said, Lord, teach us to pray. Teach
us to pray like you pray. And you know what he taught them?
He taught them to pray to his God. And Paul comes here and
Paul said, I pray to the same God that he prayed to. I pray
to the God of the Lord Jesus Christ, the same God that he
prayed to. Listen to these passages that
I'm going to read to you. And the only way that we can
understand these passages is in the light. that Jesus Christ
was a real man. And as a real man, he was our
representative to God. Listen to this. He was 12 years
old. Luke 2, verse 5. And the scripture
says that Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor
with God and man. Ain't that amazing? He had a
God. And with His God, He increased
in wisdom and stature. And then the verse that I quoted
to you in Luke 6, verse 12, it came to pass in those days that
Jesus went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night
in prayer to God. He prayed to God. He is God. The doctrine of our Lord Jesus
that He taught and the great works that he did and the power
with which he did them. He said, it all comes from my
Father. My doctrine is not mine, but
His that sent me. The words that I speak, I speak
because they are His words who sent me. The Son of Man can do
nothing of Himself. I work, I speak, I do because
the Father which sent me. He gave me the words. He gave
me the doctrine. He gave me the works. And the
life I live, I live by the Father. He gives me power. He gives me
strength to do His work and to speak His Word. I tell you, when
you see the Son of God in our humanity, He was a real man trusting
in His God. He told his disciples the night
before he went to the cross, he said, The hour is now come
when all you are going to be scattered and leave me alone,
and yet I am not alone. My Father is with me. God sent
him into this world. He says this everywhere. That
I have not come of myself, but God has sent me. He has given
me a body. He has given me a human soul.
He's given me work to do. He's given me wisdom. He's given
me power. And He upholds me in this work. I trust Him. He's my God. And on the cross in His hour
of suffering, when the sword of justice was pierced in His
soul, He owns God to be His God. Never once did He deny Him. Never
once did He dishonor him. Even on the cross He said, My
God, My God. And when people threatened Him
and persecuted Him, He never accused them to God. He never
took vengeance on them. He committed himself to God,
who judgeth faithfully. And on the cross, his last words
were this, Father, into your hands I commend and commit my
spirit. He had a God. God was his God. And the Scripture says that he
offered himself a sacrifice to God, and he offered himself to
God without spot. And God raised him from the dead
and took him up to heaven. And the Scripture says today
that he is seated on the right hand of God. And that can only
be understood in this sense, that Jesus Christ is indeed in
and of himself a real man with a real human soul that offered
his humanity to God, his God, for a sacrifice. And God was
so well pleased with him that He raised him up and exalted
him. There it is right here. And the Scripture says that he
is able to save those to the uttermost who come to God By
Him. And you know when he got ready
to go back up into heaven, remember what he said to his apostle?
I send to my God and your God. I send to my Father and your
Father. He's our representative. And
in Him, and by Him, and through Him, His God is our God and His
Father. is our Father. And now you and I can worship,
we can serve, we can love, and we can pray to the same God the
Lord Jesus Christ prayed to. Why can we do this? Because as
man, He represented us before God. And by His cross, He reconciled
us to God. You know something, and you see
if this ain't so, you can't talk about God being our God. No man can talk in a saving way
and say, God is my God, except he talks about God through Jesus
Christ. No man can say, God is my Father, except He's my Father
through Christ, my representative. Some of you may have watched
the inauguration dinner when our president was inaugurating
to have the dinner. You and I happened to be watching
that portion of it. And this chaplain came out to
pray. And boy, he prayed a very, very reverent prayer. He talked about the excellency
of God, the power of God, and to keep our nation and so on.
But the way he closed his prayer, the way he closed it, Your majestic name. And I told
Joe, I said, that ain't the way we approach Him to God. Oh, we
believe in the majesty on high and we worship Him as that. He's
our sovereign majesty. But is it not His sovereign majesty
or His great power that gives us access into His presence?
No, we don't approach through His majestic name. You know how
we approach it, don't you? Through His redeeming name. Jesus
the Lord, our Mediator. There's one God and He is majestic. And there's one Mediator between
God and man. And it's through Him that we're
able to approach and say, You're my God. And you know what He
says in turn? This is the covenant that I will
make with them after those days. I will be a God to them. and
they shall be my sons and my daughters." He's our God, just
as sure as He is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. And if you're
here this morning, and your faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ, then He's your God. And you can
approach Him, you can come to Him without fear, without torment,
without doubt of being rejected, your service is accepted, your
prayers are heard, because you have upon this God's right hand
a representative, Jesus Christ the Lord. I can't figure this out in my
little puny head. I get confused if I'm not careful
about all of this. But I just believe it. I just
believe it. Dear old Martin Luther, you've
heard how confused he got about it one day when he was reading
Psalms 22. My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me? And he sat four hours and looked
at that passage. How can this be? God forsaken
God, he said. How can this be? And finally
he got up in frustration and slapped the desk and just give
it up. Well, if you and I are going to try to figure it out
in our little puny brains, give it up. You can't. But boy, our
faith is able to lay hold upon this. And we have a representative,
a real man. God sent him, and he pleased
God in all that he did, and obeyed him perfectly, and offered himself
to God as our representative. And now through this mediator,
through this representative, God is as much our God and as
much our Father as He is the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul said,
I pray to Him. I pray to the God of Jesus Christ,
our Lord. Well, I can't say much else about
verse 17, but look here with me again at it. He not only said,
I pray to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, But he addresses
him this way, the Father of Glory. Ain't that amazing? Some say
this should read really, The Glorious Father. And probably
so. When you read this word glory
in the scriptures, it's to be taken different ways. Sometimes
it refers to the way in which we worship. It describes our
worship. given to Him the glory due His name. If any man glory,
let him glory in the Lord. Ascribe ye glory to our God. Glory to God in the highest.
That describes our worship of Him. It's praise. It's adoration. It's giving glory to Him. But
here in verse 17, glory is used to describe God Himself. He is the Father of glory, the
glorious Father. The God of glory appeared to
Abraham. That is, the glorious God appeared
to Abraham. Glory is a word used to describe
God in His divine and eternal perfection. And that is the glory
that belongs to Him and Him only. I am God, that is my name, and
my glory will I not give to another." He cannot. As God, He is eternal. From everlasting to everlasting,
I am God. There is nobody like that. And
that is His glory. As God, He is almighty. Nothing
is too hard for Him. All things are possible with
Him. And that's His glory. As God is all-wise, He knows
everything. He's wisdom itself. Nobody could
instruct Him. That's His glory. He's called the God of all grace. That's His glory. He's called
the Father of mercies. He's the perfection of holiness,
who is likened to be glorious in holiness. He's the God of
love. He is love. And that's His glory. He's just. And that's His glory. Lloyd-Jones said this about this
person, Glory is the summation of all the excellencies and perfections
and attributes of the Lord God Almighty Himself. The ultimate
characteristic of God is glory. He is that in and of Himself. The essence of glory is unutterable,
absolute perfection. There is none like Him. He is
the God of glory. He is the glorious God. And Paul said, He is the Father,
I pray to. Oh, when you and I come into His presence, do we realize
whose presence we're coming into? We'd be so fearful if we didn't
have a mediator to clothe us and wash us and represent us. God being glorious in Himself,
all that He thanks is glorious, and all that He says is glorious.
And all that he does is glorious. And all he thinks and all he
says and all he does is simply a manifestation of his glory. Everything he does and thinks
and says is first and foremost for his glory. That's why David
said that creation, the heavens, declare the glory of God, and
the firmament show us His handiwork. When you look at the sun and
moon and stars and the mountains and the lilies of the field and
the streams, what do you see? The glory of God. That's why
those heathens in Romans chapter 1 committed such an awesome sin. They looked up, saw the heavens,
and they looked around and saw the creatures, and they said,
God is like that. And they made images of men and
cows and bulls and creeping things. They changed the glory of the
incorruptible God like an image made of men and animals. And God punished them for it.
There's none like Him. He is glorious in all that He
does. His providence declares His glory. How does that? Because who is
ruling? Who is ruling the nations? Oh man, thanks, we are doing
this. You get a group of silly politicians
together and say, we can fix the economy. We can guide the
nations. There is but one who lifts up
the nations and puts down the nations. And that is this glorious
God. And He does it for His glory. But where do we see His chief
glory manifested? In the cross. In the cross. You know, I think I could say
this and truly not be contradicted by the Scriptures. And I say
this with all reverence. Where is the chief glory of God
manifested? And you know where the chief
glory of God is revealed? In this verse of Scripture right
here that I've just read to you. Here's God's chief glory, that
He is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's His chief glory. That's His redeeming glory. And
it's seen in the very face of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you
and I could ask the Father today, where is your chief glory revealed?
And He would look over at His Son and say, there it is. If
you've seen Him through the eye of faith, if you've seen Him
as He's revealed in the Word, you've seen my glory. Because
my glory is seen in the very face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And dear soul, if you're here
this morning and you believe on Him, then He's your God. And He's
your glorious Father. And if you're here this morning
and you don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, then come
to Him. He's seated in heaven by the right hand of His Father.
Don't be afraid any longer. Don't procrastinate any longer.
Don't make excuses any longer. Come to God. Come and welcome
to God this morning. And come by this one mediator
that's between you and God. Come and say to Him, You're my
God. In Christ, you're my God. All
the other gods that I've had, I deny them. And if you won't
be a father to me, I'll be an orphan the rest of my life because
I deny all others. You're my God because of your
blessed Son. You're my God. And if He gave
His life up for me, then I'm yours. You're my God. Can you
do that? Don't ask you to come up here.
Go to Him in your heart. Having an High Priest over the
house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance
of faith, having our conscience sprinkled with this precious
blood. Come to Him. Come to Him. Lord bless His Word. Let's pray.