Ephesians chapter 6. You who
have your few Bibles, you young people, find your few Bibles.
And it's page 1,277 in your few Bibles. I want to read verse 18, verse
19 and verse 20. Ephesians chapter 6. Praying always. with all prayer
and supplication in the Spirit, and watch him thereunto with
all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And for me that
utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly
to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an
ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought
to speak. You and I have come here to verse
18 in our study. I think probably, if I had to
pick out an epistle that meant more to me than any of Paul's
epistles, and we all do that sometimes, it would not be this
one. It would be the book of Galatians,
the epistle of Galatians. And I think why that is, is because
the Apostle Paul deals much there with us being free from the law. that Christ has redeemed us from
the law, and I think because I had so much problem with that
myself and felt such guilt and torment in my own conscience,
to know that, that Christ has redeemed me from the curse of
the law, all that he deals with there in the book of Galatians.
But I will say that I think probably the most amazing epistle that
the apostle has written and the deepest epistle and the broadest
epistle is this epistle that you and I are almost coming to
the end of. Because there's no other epistle,
I think, that he dealt with the free grace of God in Christ so
thoroughly. The sovereign grace of God in
Christ throughout this epistle is very evident. And I don't
want to review the epistle, but I've got to review just a little
bit to make the point I want to make here in verse 18. And
I want to make the point about how The Apostle Paul was so deep
in the grace of God in this epistle. You remember in chapter 1, and
I've heard preachers preach on this, and because it's so easy
to do, you begin there in verse 4 of chapter 1 and down through
verse 14, and he deals with a whole scope of redemption. He begins
with God's election, remember that in verse 4 of chapter 1,
He hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
He deals there with election and then He deals with the next
verse that He has predestinated us into the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to the praise of His glory. Then He goes on
in the next verse, verse 7, and tells us that we were redeemed,
tells us how we were redeemed, who redeemed us. in whom we have
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin. And he
says this all took place according to God's will. Election is according
to His will. Predestination according to His
will. And our redemption according to the will of God. It was God's
will to redeem us by His Son. How are we to know that will?
How can we know the will of God? Well, he tells us in verse 9
that He hath made known unto us the mystery of His will. And then, of course, He goes
on in verse 11 and tells us that in Jesus Christ we have an inheritance
laid up for us in heaven. We've been predestinated according
to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel
of His own will. And I remember when you and I studied this passage,
we looked at this and we stretched those things as far as we possibly
could stretch them. That is, we didn't just look
over them and make some general statements about them. We believed,
we dug into these things and found out what they mean. If
you're one of his elect, you've been redeemed. There's an inheritance
that you've been predestinated to. It's reserved there in heaven
for you. And then, of course, he goes
on in verse 14, and verse 13, rather, and one of the most important
verses, I think, of this whole book. because it tells us there
how we come to believe in Christ. How we come to believe these
things to begin with, and he says, in whom you also trusted
after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. You heard the gospel, and you
trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, and when that happened, you were
sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. And then, of course,
in verse 14, he sums it up, the redemption of the body. He says
this Holy Spirit is just in an earnest. It's a down payment
of the redemption of our bodies. He purchased us soul and body,
and He's going to redeem both. He'll have them all with Him
at last. And then, of course, he goes
on in chapter 2, but he speaks there of our awful, awful depravity. And I don't know what greater
way to describe our depravity than how the Apostle Paul said
it. You're dead in trespasses and sins. You were dead. And he told us how a dead man
walks, doesn't he? How does a dead man act? Well,
he's led by the God of this world. He has a hook in his nose, and
he's God's enemy in his very mind, a child of wrath by nature. But I love what he said in verse
4. But God who is rich in mercy For His great love wherewith
He loved us, even when you were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ." And then, of course, he goes on there
in chapter 2 and chapter 3, and he tells us that it makes no
difference if we believe in Jew or if we believe in Gentile.
We're one in Christ Jesus. There's no such thing as a Jewish
church. There's no such thing as a Jewish
body. and a Gentile body. We've been
reconciled to God in one body. That's the body of Jesus Christ.
And now, believing Jew and believing Gentile, they make up one body
of Christ. Just one body. One gospel, one
Lord, and one body. Now, I said all of that, and
you can go on as the Apostle Paul does there. Go on. And it's
opening these mysteries. of God's will, bringing out the
grace of God, the deep, sovereign grace of God, as only the Apostle
Paul could. And now we come here to our text,
and here's what he says in our text, praying always with all
prayer, watching thereto with all perseverance, praying with
all perseverance and supplications for all saints, And then there
in verse 19, and he said, Pray for me. Pray for me. And you
go back to the first chapter, and you go back to the third
chapter, and this is an amazing thing. We saw this when we studied
there. The Apostle Paul was a praying man. He was a praying man. And it's amazing how he prayed
for these people. He was just writing in chapter
1. And he said, since I heard of your faith in Christ and love
to all the saints, I ceased not to pray for you. And then he
started writing his prayer out. This is what I prayed for you,
that God would open your heart and you'd know something of the
power of God. the power that he used when he
raised his son from the dead. And he did the very same thing
in chapter 3. He said, I bow my knee to the
Father, the Lord Jesus, and I make mention of you in my prayer.
I'm praying for you that God and the Father of Christ would
strengthen you with might. So while he's writing these deep
things, he's praying it. Isn't that amazing? And what
does this tell us? Well, it tells us this, and I
think it's something that's very critical to us. as believers,
all our learning, brothers and sisters, and all our knowledge
that we gain, it does us no good. And I doubt
if it's true knowledge, if it doesn't go to our hearts, and
if it doesn't lead us to divine fellowship. How can a guy be
right in these deep things of God and then just stop and begin
to pray? You know, we have an accusation
against us who believe in the grace of God as we do. And people
say, well, if I believe that, you know, you stay away from
those people that believe in the grace of God. They talk about
the sovereign grace of God. They talk about election and
particular redemption and effectual calling. Stay away from those
people, because that doctrine will kill you. That doctrine
will make you cold and lifeless. Well, here we come to the man
that told us this doctrine, and what's his attitude? Why, he's
a praying man. He prays. While he's writing
these wonderful, deep things about God's purpose, he's praying. Knowledge, knowledge must go
to our hearts. It must be a heart thing. It
must be received in humility. If it doesn't, it'll just puff
us up. It'll just leave us with an argumentative
attitude or a standoffish attitude. But, boy, when it gets into our
heart, it's so practical. What does it lead to? It leads
to this divine fellowship. Somebody used to say about Spurgeon
that you could just be talking to Spurgeon, just carrying on
a conversation with him, and they said all of a sudden he'd
start praying. He'd just out of the blue, he'd just go and
pray. Such fellowship with the Father. And John said these things
have I written unto you that you could read them and your
fellowship may be with us. And our fellowship is with the
Father and with His Son. What are these deep doctrines?
What are these wonderful doctrines? Well, they're to give us knowledge
of God. They're to give us knowledge of Jesus Christ and the work
of the Holy Spirit, knowledge of ourselves. But it's a knowledge
that leads to divine fellowship. Do you see that in this passage,
the way this man set this forth? It's so easy to see that, isn't
it? How should knowledge affect us?
Well, let me ask you this question. How does the knowledge of election,
affect you? I mean really, when it gets,
as we often say, it gets from year down to year. How does it
affect you? When you think of God choosing
you to salvation, isn't that a stripping thing? Oh, that just
strips flesh away, doesn't it? It just humbles you. But at the
same time, doesn't it give you assurance? Doesn't it make you
thankful? Oh, it gets in our soul. I told
a man the other day that I was having somewhat of a revival
where I was raised up. I went down a couple of times
there close to Crostham, preached with two men that I went to church
with, I went to school with when I was in high school, and they're
free will Baptist preachers. And they both asked me to preach
for them one time. One time. They didn't want me
to come back. But now, now, these doctrines
are just spreading down there. There's a young kid that called
in and he's got such a southern accent. Me and Joe laughed at
him when I put him on speaker phone. We chuckled at him because,
I mean, you would think, man, this poor dumb kid, he needs
to get out of the hills and get on. But, boy, I tell you what's
the truth. Here's what happens when the
Lord opens a simple man's heart and these things get in him.
Now, though, he was going there where I preached and they didn't
want me to come back. He was attending there. Didn't
hear anything from me, but now these things are so lively, you
see. And that's what I'm talking about. These truths, these doctrines
of God's grace, they get in the heart and they affect your entire
being. They affect what you think about
God and yourself and life in general. And that's what election
does. When we think about Jesus Christ,
burying our sins, when we think about Him giving Himself for
us. How does that affect us? When
that love, the knowledge of the love of Christ, get in his heart.
We know why that man wrote that song, Bless His Heart. I stand
amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how He
could love me. Died He for me who caused His
pain? Me who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! Ain't that what we think about
the love of Christ? We don't just read about the cross and
go on and say, all right, that sounded very kind. Oh, no, this
gets in us. How does knowledge affect us?
Oh, brothers and sisters, it must get in our hearts. It must
affect our daily lives, our lives at home, our lives at work, our
relationships. How do we think when we think
of the Holy Spirit calling us? Dead in trespasses and sin. And
He called us? Why me? Why come to me, wretched
me? Why would He call me? Why would
He give me repentance and faith? Why would He work in my heart?
But there it is, isn't it? And how does that affect us?
Oh, we praise Him for it, don't we? Lord, if you hadn't have
come to me, if you'd have just left me alone, I'd have been
just like everybody else that you've left alone. I'd have died
in my sin. These things affect us. They
affect our lives. They affect our very hearts.
Look at this here in verse 18. True knowledge, true knowledge
must bring us to divine fellowship. I pray for you. The Apostle Paul
prayed. But there's something else, divine
knowledge. Not only does it lead to this fellowship and prayer,
it reaches our hearts, but it does something else. This knowledge. Gets in our hearts and it makes
us strong. And it makes us persistent. Persistent. Makes us persistent. He says
here in verse 18, praying always with all prayer and supplications
in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplications
for all saints. You know this is not easy. This
is not easy. He mentioned some pretty tough
things here. Praying always with all perseverance and watchings. You ever watch for a company
that was coming? It's tough, ain't it? You can't rest. You sit down and you get up and
you go look out the window and you go back and sit down. You
can't rest. Watching is tough. These things are tough. How do
we do it? Well, I tell you, it has something
with these things getting in our hearts, making us strong,
making us persistent. This word, praying always, praying
always, without ceasing. Our Lord spoke a whole parable
to this end, that men should always pray and not to faint. Praying. At least some of you
here today, five years you've been calling on the Lord. Some
of you 20 years, some of you 40 years, Bob. How long have
you been calling on the Lord, Bob? A long time, eh? Without ceasing. Praying always. And he says here, with all kinds
of prayer. Praying always with all kinds
of prayer. And that's what we do. We pray
with all kinds of prayer, don't we? We pray publicly when we
come here. We pray privately when we're
home. Sometimes we have these prayers that's audible. We pray. Sometimes we pray in our hearts.
Sometimes we pray that's very intelligent. We know what we're
praying for and others could hear us and know exactly what
we're saying. Sometimes we've grown within ourselves, don't
we? Sometimes we pray standing. Sometimes we pray kneeling. All
kinds of prayers. There's prayers of thanksgiving.
There's prayers of There's prayers of request. There's prayers of
acknowledgment. There's all kinds of prayers.
Pray in all ways with all prayers. And here is a kind of prayer,
supplications. That's prayer. Supplication is
prayer. But here is what it includes. You may pray and not be supplicated. But supplicating means you've
got this special need. There's something that you want,
that you feel like you've got to have. There's this special
request that you have. And you go to the Lord and you
pour out your heart in prayer for that. David said this in
Psalms 116. He said, I call upon the Lord,
O Lord, I beseech you. There's that word. Beseech, it
means to beg. It means to have this felt need.
And David had this felt need about some particular thing.
And he said, Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. That's a special need that he
had. Deliver my soul. And the Lord heard his prayer.
And he said, Lord, I love you for it. And I will call on you
as long as I live. I beseech you. How many of you
here this afternoon? You go to the Lord often and
you have a special request, don't you? I mean, it's not just something
in general. It's not just bowing and giving
thanks to Him, acknowledging His help in time past. But boy,
there's something on your heart. It may be a poor child, one of
your children, and you go and you pour your heart out to Him
before the Lord. That's supplication. I tell you,
if you want to read a prayer of supplication, sometimes go
read Daniel chapter 9. That is a prayer of supplication. Here's this great man that goes
and humbles himself before the Lord. And his people have been
taken into captivity. And his heart is full of pity
for them. His heart is full of desire to
have them delivered from their captivity. Their sins are so
great. And he puts himself right among
them. And he says, Lord, we have transgressed. We have sinned
against you. Daniel never did that. Bless
his heart, he followed the Lord fully. But he loved the Lord's
people and he had such love and felt need for their deliverance.
He just put himself right among them. He said, Lord, I've done
it. I've done it with them. Deliver
us. That's supplication. It's a special need that you
and I have. Moses had it. When He said, Lord,
I beseech You, show me Your glory. That's a need I have. I want
to see Your glory. The Lord Jesus made this prayer
when He prayed, O Father, if it be Thy will, let this come
past from Me. Supplication. Prayer and supplication. Notice what else He says here
in verse 18. Pray in all ways with all prayer
and supplications in the Spirit. Watch Him. thereunto with all
perseverance and supplications for all things." Watch Him. What
does He mean by that? Watch Him. One thing, watching
sometimes will prompt us what to pray for. I mean, if you're
watching, you can see things coming, and you'll say, man,
I need to pray about this. I better seek the Lord about
this. This could be trouble. There's a cloud on the horizon.
Well, we see that in our country today, don't we? Can you see
this? This thing coming in the world? Can you see how things are changing?
I told somebody just this week, we're right on the fence. Our
country's right on the fence. And I'm telling you, it could
fall off either way so quickly. And we see that if we're watching.
Those who aren't watching can't see that. But when we watch,
we pray for these things. And boy, when we get a view of
the big picture, here we are facing eternity. Man, that leads
us to prayer, doesn't it? Watch Him, and that'll help us
to see what to pray for. But also watch Him in this. Watch
Him to see if your prayers are answered. This is something I
think, brothers and sisters, we think little of, but it's
really shameful. that we go to the Lord and beseech
Him, we ask Him for something, and then go away and never watch
to see if He's answered our prayer. Were you ever waiting on one
of your children? They say, Mom, would you get
me a glass of milk? And you turn to get them a glass
of milk, and you pour a glass of milk, and you turn around
to hand it to them, and they're gone. Did that ever happen to you? And it aggravates you. Come here
and drink this milk. But don't we do the Lord the
same thing, brothers and sisters? Oh, Lord, would you please give
me this? And off we go. And here he turns to us and says,
where did you go? Watching to see if our prayers
are answered. Watching. And I'm telling you,
watching. Watching. I said watching is a difficult
thing. And with all perseverance, he
said, with all persistence. Persistence in what? Well, in
prayer. Brent, always. Be persistent.
Don't quit. Forty years, don't quit. You've
got ten more years. You've got twenty more years.
Persistence. Perseverance. Perseverance in
supplication. Perseverance in watching. Boy,
that's tough, ain't it? That's tough, ain't it? What
does knowledge have to do? Well, I tell you, it gets into
our heart, and it makes us tough. It makes us persistent. Some
people say it makes you cold. Well, that's their opinion. I
don't think the Bible teaches that. You get this knowledge
in your heart, boy, and it makes you strong. It makes you persevere
when the time is tough and when the clouds of heaven seem to
be shut up against you and you have difficult praying. You just
keep on, don't you? You're like that woman that came
to the unjust judge. And he said, woman, get out of
here. I ain't got time to fool you. And what did she do? She
was persistent. Every day she came back and she
came back and she came back. She was persistent. Jacob, last
one with the Lord, let me go. No, I ain't going to let you
go. Let me go. No, I won't let you go. I'm hanging
on till you bless me. Perseverance in these things.
Perseverance. And notice what else he says
here in the last portion of verse 18. Perseverance in your supplications. Prayers and supplications. Look
at this. For all saints. For all saints. And you can find this. I did
a little study on Paul's praying for the saints. Every epistle
Maybe perhaps it's implied in Galatians, but every epistle
that Paul wrote, he made the same statement to all of the
saints he wrote to, I'm praying for you. And I thought, was that so? Look
at the saints he wrote to. Did he really pray for all those
saints? I don't think he's lying about
it, do you? I was Oliver Green. I didn't agree with his theology
hardly at all, He's dead and gone now, but he's a wheelchair.
He stayed on the radio for decades. And a fella wrote to him one
time and said, wanted to know which movies he watched. He read
the letter over the radio and he said, movies? You have to
know Oliver Green. Movies? Movies? Which movies do I watch? He said,
when do I have time to watch a movie? That's what he said. Well, I guess we got more time
than he had. I bet you Paul didn't have time, did he? I was talking
with a dear preacher friend of mine, and I got to know him several
years ago, and it still happens. I was talking to him. Every pastor
that I talked to him about, he said, I pray for him every day.
And I talked to him about another pastor. And this went on for
a long time, and I thought, is he kidding me? You know what, brothers and sisters,
if we pray, It's going to take up some time. It's going to take
some setting other things aside that would be lawful for us to
do and spend it in prayer. Praying for all saints? Well,
I pray for you. This is not all the saints. I
pray for saints I like. You don't like all saints? No,
there's some saints I don't like. I'll be honest with you. And
John Bunyan said you don't have to wait to get to heaven to have
much fellowship with them. But we should pray for them,
shouldn't we? Pray for those that are on the mountaintop and
rejoice in them, that the Lord keep them there. Pray for those
that's down in the valley having trouble, that the Lord would
keep them and lift them up. Pray for those that are running
well. Pray for those that are parked
on the side of the road. Pray for those that are off in
the ditch. Praying for all saints. This is one of the reasons I
believe in the universal church. I believe in the local church.
This is the local church. I'm sure the Bible teaches the
local church. But I tell you what, brothers and sisters, you
and I aren't to be just interested in what goes on here. I should
be just concerned with you here this afternoon. It's the Lord's
church everywhere. It's the church all over this
world that you and I should be interested in. There's the church
there in Africa. And maybe they're ready to go
into some revivals. I don't know. But John Claude
is really encouraged. We have missionaries down in
Africa. They're in the Virgin Islands.
Lance Heller is there in one of the worst places in the world,
in New Guinea. There are saints there praying
for saints, all the saints in every place, spend time praying
for the saints. Well, that's going to take some
energy, isn't it? So it's not just that these great truths
get in our hearts and create this divine fellowship, but these
great truths get in our hearts and make us strong. They make
us persistent in prayer to the Lord. And I'll finish with this
concept of prayer here in verse 18. And here's some help. I love
this. He says, Pray in all ways with
all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. In the Spirit. And that's the
secret, brothers and sisters, to prayer. That's the secret
to persevering. That's the secret to just keep
on keeping on when it seems like heaven itself has shut out against
you. And you can't pray. And you can't
even groan. Here it is. Here's the secret.
Here's the secret to pouring out your heart for all saints.
Praying in the Spirit. Oh, I thought about this this
week. I thought, oh, I'd love to go to church Sunday. And somebody
get up and pray in the Spirit. How wonderful that would be.
We often talk about preaching in the Spirit, don't we? Oh,
that's wonderful. We'll talk about that next time.
Staying with the Spirit and with the understanding. But what about
praying in the Spirit? What happens when we pray in
the Spirit? Did you ever go to prayer? And boy, you just, you
steeled yourself before the Lord, but you just didn't have a word
to say. And you didn't have any heart. You just felt, you just
tried to struggle in prayer and your mind kept straying. And
finally, you do what the Lord told us to do. How freely the
Father gives the Spirit to those who ask Him. And you say, oh
my Father, give me the Spirit. Give me the spirit of prayer.
Give me the Holy Spirit to hold up my ways, my heart in your
ways. And what happens? Almost secretly,
but almost suddenly, oh, your heart is opened up. Your heart
is warmed, and you begin to pour it out before the Lord, and you
have freedom to pray. Did you ever experience that?
That's praying in the Spirit. Oh, I'd love to see that. I'd
love to see that. I think it has something to do
with what we studied in the third chapter when Paul prayed for
these Ephesians, that the Lord may strengthen their inner man
with might by His Spirit that dwelleth in us. That's what this
means. It ain't something emotional.
It don't mean you start screaming and slinging your hands, but
it's a hard thing. is able to open itself up. And
this is something, brothers and sisters, that can take place
in the privacy of your car, while you're going down the road, in
your bedroom. And that's the wonderful thing
about it. Oh, I wish I was somewhere where somebody could preach the
gospel to me, filled with the Holy Ghost. I'll tell you something
just about as good, and that's to have the Holy Spirit move
upon you in prayer. Praying always in the Holy Spirit. Let me read you one verse. In Jude chapter 1, just one chapter
of Jude. Jude chapter 1. And look in verse
20. Here's the wonderful thing about
this. Paul said the Spirit helps our infirmities. He helps our
infirmities. And one of our infirmities, he
said, is this. We don't know what to pray for. We don't even
know how to pray as we ought to. But the Spirit makes intercessions
for us. He does it in us. He gives us
grace. He helps our infirmities, our
weakness. He gives us grace. He gives us
strength. He holds us up in prayer. He not only prompts us, He prompts
us what to ask for, and He prompts us to do it with some sincerity
and some truthfulness. Look what Jude says in Jude chapter
1 and look in verse 20. This is a wonderful statement.
But you, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy
faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. Jude chapter 1 and verse 20.
Praying in the Holy Ghost. Oh, what a wonderful thought.
I'll just send you home this evening with that thought in
mind. And you'll have to ask Him to let you experience that,
praying in the Holy Ghost.