We return to our study of Ephesians. As we look again at the riches of God's grace, Paul jumps right in and talks about our great salvation. What a great subject to meditate on this morning. And as we look at our great salvation, One thing stands clear above all other things and that is that our great salvation tells us that we have a great Savior. Right? He is a wonderful, as we were just singing, a wonderful savior. He is the mighty God. And Paul is just diving deeper into this great salvation. He's rejoicing to God with his people, and it should cause us to rejoice as well. So the passage before us should bring us to our knees. And at the same time, after humbling us, should fill us with awe and wonder. I love what Peter says in the very beginning there, 1 Peter, that we should have this joy that is inexpressible and full of glory. It's the kind of joy that you really can't explain or describe very well. That's the experience of a Christian as you reflect on what God has done through Christ. So Paul here, continues his beautiful, doxological, theologically rich praise all to God for their common salvation, that is, what Paul experienced in Christ, the Ephesians also had experienced in Christ, being unified to him, being saved and redeemed in the Lord Jesus. And it's something we experience as well. Paul has begun with God the Father, right? That God the Father chose to save many. That he chose to save the Ephesians. That he chose to save you. That's where it all began. It did not begin with you and your thinking and if you happened to find Jesus. The reality is Jesus found you. And it all started, as Paul said, before the foundation of the world. Before even he created everything, he knew you. He knew all of your sin. He knew all about you. And Paul says here, for Christians, that he saved them. He chose to save them before the foundation of the world. And that God's choosing was twofold reason. One was to make you holy and blameless. And the other is to adopt you as children into his family. And it could be argued that might be the most beautiful doctrine is the doctrine of adoption. Not only has he forgiven you and reconciled you, but he's made you to be a son or a daughter in his family. This is not just a king that sits on his throne in a high palace that has nothing to do with his people in the kingdom. Those that are in the kingdom are actually his family. It's an amazing thought. And then to think that God uses means to accomplish his will, as we saw last time. He did not just simply choose you and automatically regenerate you and save you, but he chose to save you by giving his own son on your behalf. And we looked at that in verse 7, in him we have redemption. Through his, speaking of Christ, through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us. So this is the great salvation that we have experienced, starting with the Father moving to the Son. We'll see next time, as he moves to the Holy Spirit, that God, the Trinitarian God, is for you. And here, our text today is verses eight, nine, and 10. We're making, we're moving quick, aren't we? We're making lots of ground here, three more verses. And we see more of God's working to save us, in particular, more concerning our own conversion. What did God do to us and within us when we were saved? So we see two things here this morning I want to look at. The first is the measure of God's grace and then I want to look at the illumination of God's grace. So to look at the measure of the grace of God that was given to us and then his illuminating grace. What did he do to you and within you when you were saved? So let's first look at the measure of God's grace. I want us to observe and rejoice in the measure of God's grace. Paul says, in him we have redemption through his blood. That is through his death. The result of the effect is the forgiveness, the pardon of all of your sins. And then Paul says, according to the riches of his grace. an amazing statement. And then he adds to that, which he lavished upon us. This is no small measure of grace. This is an abundant measure of grace, Paul says. God's grace is not given in small measure. No, it comes to us abundantly because it comes to us through his son. And he says here, the riches of His grace. Have you ever thought about the fact that God is a wealthy God? He needs not money or possessions. He creates whatever He wants, and He doesn't need His creation. He is self-sufficient. He has been self-sufficient from eternity past. but he is the cause of all things. He is no doubt a wealthy God, but what kind of wealth does he have? Here, Paul highlights grace is this idea. And grace has meaning because we are sinners. God is an immense God. He's an infinite God. Psalm 145.3 says, Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and His greatness is unsearchable. You cannot fully search out and exhaust His greatness. And one measure, one example of that greatness is His grace towards us, His kindness towards us, His saving kindness that He's given to us in rich measure for our sins. You know, our sins are great, but His grace is greater. Paul says in Romans 5 verse 20, where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Isaiah 59.1, we were here recently. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, or his ear dull that it cannot hear. It's not like God is limited in what he can do. He can and he does save the sinner. Our sins are many, they're countless. So we don't even know all of our sins within us. Even as Christians, we still are discovering the ugliness of that remaining sin within us. We are given new hearts, we are given new life, we are given His Holy Spirit, but we still have the principle of sin within. We will until we are done with this body and we are glorified. And sometimes it's discouraging as Christians as we think we're growing more in Christ, but we actually see more of our own sinfulness as we are growing. There is an encouragement, there is a discouragement at the same time as we see ourself. Isaiah obviously saw himself in Isaiah 6. Just reading that passage recently is the man of God of Israel, the prophet whose job was to speak on behalf of God to the people and yet in the presence of God he was becoming undone because he realized how sinful he was in the presence of a holy God and he needed a coal to be placed upon his mouth. So our sins are many. They weigh us down eternally. We are unable, as I've said, to rescue ourselves from our own fallen condition. We have been separated from God. God has hidden his face. But Paul says, the gospel of Jesus Christ tells us that though God had hidden his face from us, his grace came to us in the face of Jesus Christ. God wore humanity. He put on flesh in every way, becoming man, very man, that we might see God, that we might be saved by God. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 6 says, for God who said, let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It's like, I remember Raymond teaching through 1 John and at the beginning of 1 John he's saying, we saw him, we touched him, we heard him, he was with us. God has shown his grace in abundant measure exactly because the Son has appeared, has taken on flesh, and given his life for us. God gives of the riches of his abundant grace in the person of Christ. He chose not to hide his face but to meet us face to face where we are with our sinfulness. And he took on flesh. It's like Jesus in the Gospels who not only went to heal the leper, but he touched the leper. He went the full distance to save. This is what grace is about. It's about God saving sinners because he chooses to do so. Sometimes people talk about grace, but they don't include anything about sinfulness. And that eradicates the meaning of grace. Even church brochures that I've read from other churches that talk a lot about grace, but they don't talk about sin. What meaning does grace have that God would be kind to save sinners out of his own free will? If there's no sin involved at all, well, if there's no sin, we don't need saving. but we do need saving because we're sinners. And he saves us, he shows his grace according, notice what Paul says here, according to the riches of his grace. I mean, Paul uses so many prepositional phrases. They bored me in English class. They really did. I remember memorizing all the prepositional words. Do you remember this? Above, among, around, at, according to, aside, alongside, above. I mean, it goes a long way. And I thought, why am I memorizing these things? I'm not gonna use them, probably, when I get older. We use them in the Word of God, do we not? Here's one here, according to. Propositions matter in the Word of God, and they provide amazing blessings according to the riches of His grace. He has redeemed us. He has provided forgiveness, and supporting that idea is this idea that all of it happened according to the riches of His grace. God and His kindness Paul's actually saying here in his pleasure, because he desires to do so, he takes of his wealth and he blesses us. It's not that he takes some of his wealth, but he gives in full measure. Sacrificially according to the riches of his grace. That word according to is spectacular. It's not from the riches of his grace, it's according to. It's a higher standard. One who is wealthy can give some to somebody, but to give according to your level of wealth is a whole different story. And that is what Paul is saying here, God has done. Kent Hughes illustrates this well, talking about the famous Rockefeller. He says, think of it this way, John D. Rockefeller was the richest man in the world. The richest man America had ever produced. If Rockefeller wished to give of his riches, there were two ways he could. According to his riches or from his riches. He says, history records that most often he did the latter, giving from his riches. He talks about a famous picture of Rockefeller as an old man dressed in a top hat and a cutaway coat, giving a dime to someone. He's giving from his wealth, Kent Hughes is saying, but not according to his wealth. Rockefeller reportedly did this again and again, really, to look good for the photographs. He says, one wonders how many boys were truly set on the road to wealth and moral excellence by a wonderful gift from Rockefeller's fortune. But think, he says, what it would have been like if he had given according to his riches. If he had done that, he would have perhaps given a grand home, say the famous graystone kikit on the family estate. This is this beautiful house near the Hudson River. that would have been according to the riches that he had. Or he says that the living room, a Gilbert Stewart or a George Washington painting or a rodent for the lawn, some kind of a beautiful, famous sculpture in the lawn that's worth a fortune. Or if he had given, Hughes says, a Duesenberg, a classic a car that has no value, it's so expensive. That'd be according to his riches if he gave those things. But that's not apparently what he did, he just gave from his wealth. When God gives in accordance with the riches of his grace, he gives from his unlimited treasure of wealth. That's what Paul's saying here. He doesn't just give some, a little bit, What does Paul say? According to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us. It's a perfect illustration of Rockefeller. God is far wealthier than the Rockefeller family ever was, and he gave so much of what he had that he gave his only son. There was nothing more that he could give. There was nothing greater that God could give than himself, than his own son. He lavished it upon us. God does not, God has not given us grace in small measure. Paul says he lavished it upon us, like pouring it out upon us. It reminds me of the waters of baptism. as you are immersed in water. Yes, we're Baptist. You are immersed in water. You come up out of the water, and water is coming all over you. It's flowing down from your head to your feet. You are immersed in water. God richly supplies his grace. There can be no doubt that when God saves the sinner, Paul says here, he forgives, here's another prepositional phrase, all your trespasses, all of them. That is lavish grace. Not some of them. He doesn't save you, try to redeem you of some sins, and then he leaves the remainder of them for you to somehow work out in your life and redeem the rest of yourself and your sin. There is no purgatory kind of experience after death. Paul says he forgives you of all of them. God's grace covers all your sins. None are left for us to rectify before God. Stephen Charnock, the Puritan, wrote this. He said, God granted sinners a more expensive goodness than that which was laid out in creation. For he writes, God must be made man. Eternity must suffer death. The Lord of angels must weep in a cradle. The creator of the world must hang like a slave. And it's a costly kind of grace. God isn't just putting money out. God gave his own son. It's a costly grace. It cost him. Sometimes we need to just remind ourselves as Christians, God's grace is a costly grace. It cost God something, didn't it? To save us. Charnock says, the wounds of an almighty God for us are a greater testimony of goodness than if we had all other riches in heaven and earth. I love that, the wounds of an almighty God. What a great demonstration of his love. You know, we sing marvelous grace of our loving Lord. Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt. Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured there was the blood of the Lamb was spilt." That's where his blood was spilt on our behalf. The reason we can observe and rejoice in the measure of God's grace and rejoice in the reason that he's lavished it upon us is because of what he says in verse 7. Another prepositional phrase through his blood. There lies the heart of the gospel. The reason you experience the abundant riches of his grace is because it's through his blood. It's exactly what we've been celebrating this morning at the Lord's table, that he gave his life for you. You never thought you'd have to go back to English class, did you? And relearn these things. Interesting that Puritans even would raise their kids on an educational system built in order to read the word of God. That's why they had logic. That's why when you finished high school, you knew Greek already. I mean, we're still struggling to learn Greek. That's why they learned to read and write was to read the word of God that they might read the gospel. We are blessed to be able to read this. So let us observe. Something else here. We've observed the measure of God's grace towards us sinners. But secondly, let us observe and rejoice in the illumination of God's grace. The illumination of God's grace. Not only has he given abundant grace and lavished it upon us, as Paul says, but Paul now is kind of taking the camera and he's moving it towards you to show what happened to you when he saved you. We certainly have seen so far that our sins are forgiven, as he mentioned there in verse 7. And then verse eight we read, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. Paul says, in all wisdom and insight, he made known to us the mystery of his will. Now, commentators are split here as to this phrase, in all wisdom and insight, what it refers to. Does it refer to the wisdom and insight of God in saving us? Or is Paul talking about the fact that he gives us, in his grace, wisdom and insight in order to understand the gospel? Some English versions suggest that wisdom and insight here belongs to the previous section, which would speak more to God's wisdom and insight. To say that in him saving us, he was exercising his wisdom and insight. Or some of the English versions will connect it more to what follows. emphasizing more this idea that we ourselves have received wisdom and insight from God, and that's part of his saving grace. And I take the latter position that the wisdom and insight is not speaking of God's wisdom and insight, but is speaking about the wisdom and insight that he gives you, the sinner, in order to understand in order to comprehend and in order to believe the gospel message. Either way you go, you're okay, though. But that's where I land. You know, we have to land on these things. I don't always tell you all the debated passages, but there's a lot of debated passages. But this is one of them to think through. I believe that Paul's intention here is to highlight the Spirit's illumination of the sinner, that the sinner now can see and behold the glory of Jesus Christ in the gospel. Paul here is speaking of the fact that when we were converted, God was the one who gave us the ability to understand this. even as you were just singing in the song this morning. He's the one that grants that understanding to us. He gives us the ability to discern the truth and the ability to accept and to believe the gospel message. Friends, here we find a marvelous thing. God's grace is so rich and so extravagant, so far-reaching and so powerfully active, he is able to transform the sinner. He's able to do a work on the inside. He's able to grant understanding and faith and repentance to the sinner. So God's grace not only provides forgiveness in a legal sense from our own sins, but God's grace also transforms the sinner. God's grace opens the eyes of our heart. I believe that's what Paul is saying here. Turn with me to Acts chapter 16. Turn with me to Acts 16, right in the middle of Acts. I always love the Book of Acts, it's Luke's second volume. If you read the beginning of Luke, chapter one, he's explaining there that he's written all of these things, he's brought these stories together. And it's really, Luke and Acts are a two-volume set written for Theophilus. Some believe Theophilus was a Roman official or Roman governor of some kind, and Luke, the doctor, the former traveling companion of Paul, has basically put together a history of Christianity. The difference is, this is inspired. There are many histories of Christianity, but here is the inspired history of Christianity, written for maybe a Roman governor, And it starts with Christ in Luke chapter one, and it ends with Paul in Acts chapter 28. And one thing Luke does often, I find very interesting, is that he loves to highlight the conversion or the ministry of women in church history. So Luke often highlights these little biographies of women, which would have been a strange thing in the first century. It wouldn't help, particularly in a legal sense, to have a legal document or a history of any kind that focuses at all on women. But here, he does that. In Acts 16, one of my favorites is the woman named Lydia, the conversion of Lydia. It says here, verse 11, setting sail from Troas, we made direct buoyance, and they do these trips here. Finally, verse 13, they arrive at a group of people who are praying, and it seems mainly to be a group of women that are converted and are praying, or there are those present who maybe they're not converted, but they're seeking to understand who God is. Verse 14, one who heard Us was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods who was a worshiper of God. And Lydia here, we don't know a whole lot about her, but we do know one thing. She was probably wealthy because purple was very difficult to get. You had to do kind of international trading in order to obtain the color purple. and she is a seller of purple goods. I know some of you love purple. One person in here particularly. But notice what it says here, verse 14. Lydia, seller of purple goods who was a worshiper of God, the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized and her household as well, she urged us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay with us. It's a very short testimony of her conversion. But it says here the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul said. And this is her conversion. Why is it her conversion? Because following that it says she was baptized. The Lord did a work in her heart. What an interesting story here. The Lord opened her heart. God saved Lydia. And Luke describes that conversion process as the eyes of her heart or her mind were opened. She had a understanding that was given to her by God to understand and to believe the gospel message. And this is the phrase, to pay attention. Now to be candid, I pray that you pay attention before I preach. Not for my sake, but for the word's sake, for Christ's sake, that you understand what the word of God says. I probably need to pray more that I understand it when I'm studying the word of God. But here, it's clear that God enabled Lydia to pay attention to the gospel message, which means he saved her. God enables the sinner to understand. Again, Paul says in 2 Corinthians that Satan has blinded the minds of the unbelievers. He has blinded the world. They're gonna see you and go, why are you so interested in a crucified Messiah? That seems like foolishness. Why would you live within the limitations of morality in your life? Why these kinds of things? Because Satan has blinded their minds, but here we see God opens our minds. He opens the eyes of our heart to pay attention, to understand, to believe. That doesn't negate the fact that we call sinners to repent, right? To believe. We need to call the sinner who is blind, who is unable to do anything, we call them to believe and to repent, because that's what Jesus did, that's what John the Baptist did, that's what Peter did, and that's what Paul did. So I'm gonna do it too. But nevertheless, what do we see here? God must open the eyes of their heart. Yes, they must exercise faith, But I think we see here, Lydia, back to Ephesians 1, that wisdom and insight, that understanding of the gospel is granted by God himself. It reminds me of 2 Timothy 2, verse 24. It's speaking of the Lord's servant. A Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil. And then Paul says, correcting his opponents with gentleness, God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. Or they've been captured by Satan. And they live for his will, though they do not know it. Yet, may God graciously grant them the repentance that's necessary for a knowledge of Christ. I believe Paul here in Ephesians 1 is speaking of this, what he calls wisdom and insight, and that God reveals, notice, the mystery of his will. He makes known to us the mystery of his will. He reveals his saving will and plan. He reveals the mystery, that is, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, God, very God. God is the one doing both. He reveals the message but he also enables us to receive the message and to understand and believe it. He not only creates the food you'll enjoy in a few minutes, I'm sure, but he creates the palate, he creates the taste buds, the ability to enjoy the food that you do at lunch. He really does it all. And friends, I have yet to find anything in our text that says that you and I contribute anything to our salvation. I just don't see it. But that's why Paul says, it's grace. It is the grace of God. God's grace is so lavished upon us that he grants us the ability to believe. He grants us the ability to believe what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2 that, in 1 and 2, that the gospel message is foolishness. Why would anyone follow a leader who's crucified? And you to believe that he's risen from the dead. That's only the grace of God. He grants us this wisdom and insight. I love that phrase, it's an Old Testament phrase. Wisdom and insight, they're like two sisters in the Old Testament. They're often with each other. You see wisdom, you see insight. You see insight, you see wisdom. Proverbs 3, verse 13. Blessed is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding. The idea of understanding in the Old Testament is discernment or insight. Proverbs 3 verse 19, the Lord by wisdom founded the earth, by understanding he established the heavens. Proverbs 7 verse 4, say to wisdom, you are my sister and call insight your intimate friend. Proverbs 8 verse 1 does not wisdom call does not understanding raise her voice Proverbs 16 16 how much better to get wisdom than gold to get? Understanding is to be chosen rather than silver these this is a pair. That's inseparable like best friends forever I finally figured that out, the BFF, that's what that means. You know, it's like a new language that we have to understand these days. And it takes a while, but... Wisdom is knowing the true nature of something. Wisdom is having this kind of theoretical understanding, a knowledge of what something is, but insight is discerning how that works out practically. Or insight is the idea of understanding the practical benefits of wisdom. So the first is somewhat theoretical, the second is more applicational or practical. There is the wisdom, the true knowledge of how something works, but then there's the application, the living it out, knowing the practical benefits of something. You know, sometimes they say that someone is so heavenly minded that they're no earthly good. Maybe you've known someone like that, maybe you've been like that in your own life. But the truth is, according to Scripture, the more heavenly-minded you are, the more earthly good you actually are. Paul's telling us in our conversion, God in his grace grants us an understanding of Christ. Often, Paul will use the language, a knowledge of Christ. and his saving work, and then he grants us by his grace to know how we are then to appreciate those truths, to benefit from them and to live them out. Some believe the word insight is actually more regarding our desires and affections. And that may be some of what Paul's getting at here. Not only knowledge, knowing the gospel, knowing the truth, but loving it, having affections for Christ. God does a complete work within us. We are awakened. I love what Paul says later in Ephesians. Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. He has woken up the dead, like telling Lazarus, Lazarus, come forth. He was dead. He had no ability to do anything, But when Jesus commands those who have no ability to do anything to do something, they can do it. And they do do it. And that is the truth here with Paul. We've been given new life, a new heart by the grace of God. We can understand and discern the truth of Christ now. We can savor the gospel. We know these things to be true. God's grace transforms us, and he transforms us on the inside. The truth is self-reformation cannot change people. You can set all kinds of resolutions tomorrow morning, and none of it will happen if it's not for the grace of God. But in salvation, we certainly can't change our situation. We are not the ones to transfer ourselves from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of his beloved son. Someone else must transfer us. We do not have the ability to do that as prisoners. Harold Hohner says, only the crucified Christ, which is the wisdom of God, generates the power that can transform people. It's only Christ that can transform a person. I think Paul is saying here when he speaks of grace, he's talking about Christ. Right? Titus 2.11, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation. Grace is a person. Grace is the Lord Jesus Christ himself, God, very God. Paul adds here that we are, we comprehend what he calls the mystery making known to us, verse 9, the mystery of his will according to his purpose, there's his purpose again, all this is God's will and plan, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. We understand now the mystery of his will. God makes known to us a mystery. A mystery, a biblical language of mystery, is something that had not been previously revealed. That's the idea of a mystery. And that mystery, which is a salvation found in Christ, is revealed by God in His Spirit to us in a saving way. Listen to what Paul tells the Ephesians in chapter 3, verse 3. the mystery of Christ here let's let's read that he says how the mystery was made known to me by revelation as I have written briefly when you read this you can perceive my insight there's that word insight into the mystery of Christ which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit." So we are then able, because of the work of God and his grace, we're able to discern the revelation of God. God has revealed himself, Paul says, through the apostles and the prophets. We have that here, the written word of God. But even when we look at it, before we knew Christ, we are unable to discern its truth. God must do a work in our hearts. Paul himself was given insight into the mystery of Christ, Ephesians 3, 4. How true that is for you and I. God is so gracious, friends, that he chose to reveal to you that which was a mystery before." That is that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. He is the Son of God who came to save sinners. That mystery is revealed. He adds to it also in verse 6 of chapter 3, the mystery is that the Gentiles, that's you probably, fellow heirs and members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel." You see the gospel message is old. It's Genesis chapter 3. The gospel message was given to Abraham, and yet we Gentiles benefit from this news. We are now members, along with the Jews, of the body of Christ. We get to enjoy and participate in this great salvation. He says Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members, and fellow partakers. Three times he says we fellow, we enjoy these things as God's people. So Paul's mission here is to tell the Gentiles. His mission is to say, Gentiles, Jesus is yours as well. He died not only for the Jews, he died for you. God is indeed saving Gentiles. And 2,000 years later, we could say amen and amen, right? And we're on the other side of the globe. I mean, he saves Texans. We're about as Gentile as you get. And we eat lots of barbecue. He's saving all kinds of people. Paul tells the Colossians in Colossians 1.27, to them, the saints, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And then he, Paul says, him we proclaim. This is why, what is our message here at our own church? It's Christ. It's proclaiming the excellencies of Christ. It's all about Him in the end. He reveals to us the Father. He has made known to us this mystery, the mystery of God's plan to, notice verses 9 and 10, to unite all things in Christ. We'll spend more time on this later, but God's purpose was not only to save sinners, but was to bring everything in history to one point and to one person, and that is the person of Jesus Christ. So much so, Paul says in Philippians 2, that one day, every knee will bow, and every tongue, every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. The mystery of Christ was a secret in times past, not because it was incomprehensible, but because it was undiscoverable by humans. We cannot know the gospel if it wasn't for God revealing it to us. and if it wasn't for God opening the eyes of our heart. That's what Paul is saying. And I love the fact that the gospel is not for the spiritually elite, whoever that may be. It's not for people of greater intellectual powers. It's not for those who have a PhD that they're able to understand these things and come to a saving knowledge of the truth. It's all by the grace of God. It's by his work. God must reveal it to us. He reveals it through his word and by his spirit, and he opens the eyes of our heart to behold the glory of Christ in the word of God. It reminds me of the psalmist from Psalm 119. The psalmist got it as a believer. Why don't you turn there with me? Psalm 119 as we near the end here. You're getting hungry because I mentioned food earlier. barbecue. I must be getting hungry. Psalm 119, verse 18. As a believer, he asked God, open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. Lord, help me to understand these things even more so, is what he prays. And it's very much what Paul is going to pray in verse 17 of Ephesians 1. He prays that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your heart, what? Enlightened. Isn't that great? These things are very similar. You've been given wisdom and insight in your conversion. God opened the eyes of your heart to believe, but Paul's gonna pray that we have more of that. Lord, help me to have more wisdom. Help me to have more spiritual understanding of these truths. Help me to know the hope to which I am called, the inheritance of the saints. Help me to know the power that's at work Help me to know these things better, Lord, is Paul's prayer. All that to say is I try to wrap this up. Paul says here at the end that his whole plan in the fullness or at the right time is to unite everything in this universe into one person, and that's the person of Jesus Christ who will reign supreme in his kingdom for eternity. I mean, this is only the beginning. I was reading and listening to some stuff on the future reign of Christ last night, just getting excited at this idea that the Lord, the resurrected man of the universe, is gonna return and reign as king in his glory. That's where everything is going to. All of history is going to that point. There will come a day when every knee will bow. And it's only the rich, lavish, extravagant grace of God that allows us to make the profession we make that Jesus is Lord. Let me end with Charles Spurgeon. It's always a really good way to end. He'll probably say everything better than I've spent 40 minutes trying to explain. But Charles Spurgeon said this, I remember sitting one day in the house of God when a thought struck my mind, how came I to be converted? I prayed, I thought. Then I thought, how came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the scriptures. How came I to read the scriptures? And then in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of all and that he was the author of faith. Isn't that true? I think that's what Paul's saying. At the end of the day, what Paul's saying is God is at the bottom of it all. Let's pray. Father, we have rejoiced this morning with the truth that you save sinners and that you are a sacrificial God. Your grace is a costly grace in giving us your only beloved Son, that we might become sons and daughters of you. We might call you Father. we might be able to cry out to you. Father, we thank you for the gospel. We thank you that you not only chose us, you not only sent your son, but you even opened the eyes of our heart that we might understand, that we might believe, that we might trust in Christ. All glory goes to you, we pray in your name, amen.