We're back in Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 1. We'll be considering verses 15 through 19 tonight. But we'll read beginning at verse 3 and we'll continue down through the end of that first chapter. Verses 3 then through 23. Give you close and reverent attention. This is the inerrant, infallible Word of our God. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. to the praise of the glory of His grace by which He has made us accepted in His beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us. In all wisdom and prudence He has made known to us the mystery of His will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth. In him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. Therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease 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 to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that he may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. And he put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. This is the word of our God. Amen. Please be seated. And let's, once again, go to our God in prayer. Lord our God, you are gracious to us. You are gracious to us in that you have given us your word and you have given us your spirit. by which you have made your word clear, and by which you continue to make it clear. So now as we come to the exhortation, as we come now to the explication of Your Word. We pray that You would reveal Yourself by Your Spirit, enlightening our understanding, enlightening our minds, that we may grow in our knowledge of You, that we may grow in conformity in the likeness of Your Son. We pray that You would glorify and magnify Yourself in the exhortation of Your Word. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Birthdays are often an occasion for us to reflect on the year that was passed. And as we reflect on the year that was passed, of young children especially, something that often comes to mind is It's amazing how much our children have developed. It's amazing how much children develop over the course of a year. How is it that you are doing that? Children, have you heard your parents say that? Or your grandparents say that about you? How did you get so big? When did you get so big? When did you start using words like that? Well, even if you don't have children, you've most likely seen this. If you teach, you've seen children do this. They grow up, they develop, and you go, what happened to that cute little one? Sometimes I suspect that it's a temptation for us to want little children to remain little children. But as godly parents, as Christian parents, that shouldn't be our desire. Our desire should be that our children grow. Children, do your parents talk to you about growing older? Do they talk to you about how they want you to get older? How they want you to behave as you age? And as you mature? I hope they do. Parents, I hope you're doing that. We must, as Christians, we must as godly parents, desire the growth and development of our children. That's one of the things that we are called to do as believers. We must not be satisfied with their present condition. Their children, they're not supposed to stay children, they're supposed to grow up. And in a similar way, Paul has that in mind for the church as he addresses this letter to the Ephesians. He rejoices in their redemption. He rejoices, as it were, in their infancy, in their birth, in their new birth. But it's insufficient for them to remain in that condition. And this is something that I think the church needs to hear, that we need to hear. It's insufficient for us to stay in an infantile condition. It's not It's not godly for us to remain in an immature place. Paul comes to this. I'll remind you of the context. It's been a little while since we've been here in Ephesians. Paul addresses this letter to the Ephesians. And this work, we might consider, is broken into two parts. The indicative. And the indicative is really this. What are you as God's chosen people? The indicative, what is indicated. That's what children, that's what indicative means. What is expressed, what is true, what is factual. And these are the things that Paul says are facts about the church. So the first three chapters really he establishes those truths about the church. This is what we can say about you as the church of Jesus Christ. And out of that flows, in the last three chapters of this book, command, or imperative. Because you are God's special people, because you are the redeemed, and this is what that means, this is what that looks like. is your response. Now that doesn't mean that there is no command for us contained in those first three chapters. But those come to us by way of application rather than an express command. In the immediate context, so that's the overview of the book. Chapters 1-3, you are the church, these are the facts that establish you as that. And then chapters 4-6, this is what God requires. And here at the beginning of that, in establishing what you are as the church, Paul describes, he demonstrates for you, what the abundant blessings are that you receive in your salvation. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in verse 3, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. All of our redemption is wrapped up in Christ, but it's a Trinitarian redemption. God the Father has elected us and that election was always tied up in Christ. Christ has purchased us by the shedding of His blood on our behalf. And that is an answer to God's eternal decree. But that is fixed for us and secured for us by the Holy Spirit who was given to us as as it were, as a down payment, as God's earnest. Everything I have said to you about your redemption is true, and you know it's true, because here is My Spirit. My Spirit I give to you. That's how you know that everything that I've promised to you is true and genuine. Well now, we come to verse 15. Paul has described and demonstrated to you every spiritual blessing that is yours in Christ. It's a wonderful place to be, but he wants you to know that that's not a sufficient place for you to be. It's not good enough for you as a believer, as a professed believer, as one confessing to be redeemed of Christ, to stay there. You're not permitted to be content with a static condition, with a staid condition in your redemption. And so I want you, tonight, as we look at these four or five verses, to have a sense of the urgency, the sense of the urgent need for you to grow, for you to continue to grow throughout your life. in your redemption. And also then, I want you to sense the urgent need to be in prayer for that for all the saints. Something that you should be praying for, for yourself, but something that we should be praying for, for one another as well. We'll look at this passage together in two headings. First, Paul's prayer of thanks. And then second is prayer for increase. First, then the prayer of thanks. Paul's prayer of thanks. Your confessed salvation, your confessed salvation is a source of constant thanks. I say confessed salvation. Paul summarizes your salvation in two ways, in two terms here in this 15th verse. When I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and your love for all the saints. Your confessed salvation. It's hard to summarize this well without having some sort of a qualifier. You have professed your faith publicly. It's an open declaration. But there is an expression that's borne out in your conduct to the church. You confessed publicly and you live that confession. before the body of Christ. We'll come back to that or we'll come to that in a couple of weeks, well hopefully in a couple of weeks we'll come to that as we see how Paul relates the church as the body of Christ. It's the end of this chapter. Paul says, I rejoice because I've heard of your faith. It's a public profession. It's a confession before the church. Paul's heard it. He's heard of it, even though he's miles and miles away. Now, don't believe that this is... that Paul wasn't knowledgeable about the Ephesians. He knew the church in Ephesus. He'd been there before. He'd visited them. But still, even while he's in Rome, remember we've established that this was written in the midst of a series of letters that were sent out to the church, probably around 65. And Paul has heard, even while he's in prison, writing back to the people that he knows, he's heard about their faith. He's heard about their public declaration. It's reached his ears that they are continuing to profess their faith in Christ. So it's a public thing. It's not private. It's not hidden. He's not having to guess. But further, he's not having to guess because they're bearing that out in their demonstration of love for one another. A proper confession, a public confession, a true redemption, a true conversion bears itself out in the fruit in our life and conduct. I'm glad that we as a congregation have a good witness As people come and go, one of the things that they remark about this congregation is the love that we have for one another. We show that. We profess our love for Christ and that reflects itself in our love for one another. And this is what Paul has heard. He's seen it in previous times, in some year before when he was in Ephesus and he saw the church as he helped to establish that and as he appointed elders. Remember in Acts 20 as he appointed elders for them. But he's heard it still here in prison. That they are continuing, not just with their profession, but with living out faithfully their profession. It's a point of thanksgiving. It's not a selfish thanksgiving on his part. I helped establish that church and look at the fruit of what I've done. No. It's a profession of thanks on Paul's part. Because of their hope in Christ. And because they are bearing out fruit. It's not a false profession. It's a consistent lively faith that they are exhibiting. So they've confessed their salvation publicly and they're demonstrating it publicly to one another. Notice that Paul says in verse 16, I do not cease to give thanks for you. It's easy for us as Presbyterians looking around the Presbytery establishing mission works when we pray for these works and we give thanks for these works and especially as they approach organization so we've been keeping that in mind in our corporate prayer with two congregations in particular that are thinking, that are looking toward that day hopefully within the next three to six months They're hoping to organize. That's what their desire is. So we give thanks for the growth. We give thanks for their witness. But do we continue to do that later? Do we keep in touch? Do we seek out? To know what is going on in those churches. Those that have gone through, passed through this congregation. Are we keeping in touch with them? Do we give thanks to God? For their profession. For their faithful exhibition of their confession in Christ. Paul says he doesn't cease to give thanks. Do you give thanks? Are you giving thanks for the brothers and sisters in Eritrea who are in prison? Yes, we pray for their release. Yes, we pray that God would sustain them in their imprisonment. But do we give thanks for their faithfulness? Do we give thanks because in prison they are singing? Do we give thanks because they are willing to go to prison? Is that part of your daily prayer? Is that part of your private prayer? Are you thankful to God for the profession and living out of that profession of our brothers and sisters, of your brothers and sisters in Christ? And so, this is the first part of the prayer. There's a lot here for us to consider. There's a lot here for you to consider in just this first verse and a half. After I heard of your faith and I saw your love of the saints, I did not cease to give thanks for you. Can you say that? Or do you forget the brothers and sisters who professed that faith? One advantage of giving thanks is that we're always mindful of where they are and what they've done. what they've gone through remember that these brothers and sisters in Ephesus so many centuries before not like us in this sense but they are more like our brothers and sisters in Eritrea that they have to come out and be separate they are highly distinguished from the rest of the community They are the different ones. Living here in the South, you're different if you don't go to church. Here, these are different because they go to church. Because they worship the living God. The living and triune God. This is whom they worship. And so our brothers and sisters in Eritrea, surrounded by family, surrounded by community that don't worship this God, and yet saying, I will in the face of such odds. They are more like these that are represented here in this letter, that are addressed here in the letter to the Ephesians. So it's incumbent on us to remember them in prayer, giving thanks for what God has done in redeeming them and calling them to Himself. And so, in the first place as we are considering not being static, not being stagnant in our redemption, in our state in redemption, let's first give thanks in our prayer for the saints. You must give thanks. It's to be a constant source of thanks to you. So that's our first point. Your confessed salvation is a source of constant thanks. And second, we'll consider that your confessed salvation is also a source of constant prayer for your increase. We'll confess salvation is a source of constant prayer for your increase, for your growth. As we've said with our children, as we've said with the children of the church, we should be praying for them constantly that they would grow in the knowledge and love and service of our God. Not just so that they come to profess their faith, but that it grows. And this should not be only for our children. Paul in writing to the Ephesians says, I pray for you this prayer, that you would grow. He doesn't use quite those words, but he says, I don't cease. This not ceasing marks the rest of what he says concerning the prayer. I don't cease to give thanks for you, just as I don't cease to make mention of you in my prayer. I don't cease to make mention of you, and this is what he prays, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him. How is it that Paul says, I pray that the Father would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Hasn't he already established in verses 13 and 14 that you have the Spirit already as the earnest, as the down payment of your redemption? How is it then that Paul says, I pray that God would give you the Spirit of wisdom? I do believe that the Spirit here, though some of your Bibles may not have it capitalized, it's usually how our translators indicate for us, whether they believe that that's the Holy Spirit, or whether it's simply referencing a general spiritual aspect, I believe that this has reference to the Spirit of God, to the Holy Spirit. I make mention of you in my prayers that the Father of Glory will give to you the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who is of wisdom and revelation. And so the Spirit gives you wisdom by revelation. In other words, He makes it clear to you what God's Word says. He makes it clear to you what God's will is for your life. And that is what Paul is praying for. You have the Spirit as the earnest, as the security of your salvation. There's no hope of your salvation being lost because of the Spirit who secures it to you. He prays, as it were, for an increase, a growth, so that you would know more and more. You have this knowledge. And I pray that you would have this knowledge. And so He prays, as we should pray for one another, as we should pray for our children, as we should pray for our brothers and sisters. Pray for the spirit of wisdom and revelation. He gives wisdom, and He gives that wisdom by revealing to you by enlightening your minds, by illuminating your hearts. So, as your understanding increases, as your eyes are opened to the meaning of the Word, you grow in wisdom. That's the role of the Spirit as He's revealed here. Remember in John, we looked at this a couple of weeks ago from a very different passage in Joel. That the Spirit is given, Christ says, to reveal to you, to reveal Me, Christ says, to you. The Spirit will teach you about Me. So Paul has it here for us. That God, praying that God would give us His Spirit. That God would give us wisdom by His Spirit. That God by His Spirit would give you wisdom by revealing to you Christ. Your confessed salvation should be a constant source to you and to others for prayer for your increase, but prayer for the increase of all of the Church. And we're praying then for the Spirit to illumine us. But in particular, Paul highlights three things that that Spirit will give us understanding about, that the Spirit will give to you understanding about. This is what we are asking the Spirit to do. When we pray for the Spirit to increase us, when we pray for the Spirit to increase one another, to increase our brothers and sisters in Eritrea and in prison and in persecution, He gives it to us in these three phrases, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, that you may know what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and that you may know what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe. The Spirit gives you wisdom by revelation, That revelation, that saying that the Spirit is revealing to you, increases your confidence in heaven. He increases your confidence as you grow, as you mature, as the Spirit works in you. He's increasing to you your confidence that everything that God has said concerning eternity is true. Everything that God has said in His calling you out of darkness and into His marvelous light is genuine. And Christians, and young Christians, young children, they're certain of what they believe, but when they're asked why, they often stumble. I don't know why that is, but I know that it's true. Why do you know it's true? Well, because, and we should have such a childlike faith, because the Bible says it's true. But how many children have grown up and gone off to college and been challenged in such a way? They say, I'm not certain that that's true. Maybe you even in your experience as you grew up have been confronted with that. So Paul's prayer for the increase of the Church and our prayer for the increase of the Spirit to the Church is in part this, that that Spirit would reveal to us and give to us by that revelation an increased confidence that everything that God has said to us in His Word is true. He enlightens the eyes of your understanding so that you may know what is the hope of His calling. What has He called you to do? What has He called you to be? I've called you out of darkness and into my marvelous light. I've called you out of the world, out of the kingdom of the world, and into my kingdom. I've called you out. I've separated you. You are mine. And here, then, is what I have in store for you. Children, it's not a false promise. It's not a vain promise. Our prayer for you is that you would grow in the Spirit. That the Spirit would work in you. That the Spirit would illumine your hearts and minds. The eyes of your understanding, Paul says. So that you would increase in your knowledge and your certainty. The hope of that calling, the sureness of what God has called you to be, what God has called you to do. He has called you to be a child, to be a son, to be a daughter. And with that, He has called you to an inheritance. And so in the first place, in these things that Paul is praying for the Spirit to do, he's praying for the Spirit to increase your confidence in heaven. Also then, he's praying for the Spirit to increase the demonstration of the glory of His inheritance. He's praying that you may know what are the riches, in verse 18, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance. in the saints. You're not alone. You have obtained an inheritance by the calling of Christ, by your calling out of the world by your Father. He has an inheritance waiting for you, but it's not you alone. And so, He says the riches, the abundance, you can't imagine how great the glory of this inheritance is. And so we praise for the Spirit to increase your understanding, to increase that revelation of the riches, so that you would understand how rich an inheritance it is, how abundant in glory that inheritance is. Have you thought about heaven? Do you think about heaven? Do you think about eternity? Do you think about communion with Christ? Do you think about the fellowship? with Christ, but also with all of the saints. Hebrews paints for us this picture that even as we come to worship, we are gathering together with the saints from all time to worship God. But the riches of the glory of our inheritance, Paul says, is among the saints. It's represented here for us. But the riches of that glory include the fellowship that we have together. You, me, all of those that have put their faith in Christ here in New Bern, throughout eastern North Carolina, throughout the United States, throughout the world, through all times. Fathers, mothers, children, brothers, sisters, those that have passed on from this life, those that have passed on from this world. What a glory for us to gather together with them, worshiping the risen Christ, glorifying Him for all eternity. It's a beautiful picture for us. In our salvation, in our redemption, when we were first called out of darkness, That's not the thought that grows in our minds. No, we're reflecting on how God has called us out of darkness. But as we mature, He's called us not just out of darkness, but He's called us into light to worship Him together with all of His saints. It's a glorious picture of the richness, the abundance of the glory of that inheritance that is ours. All eternity worshiping God with all saints. And we do that here in our corporate worship. I already pointed us to Hebrews. We do that here. This is a picture. This is a token. If you don't understand this to be an expression of the riches of the glory of our inheritance, then you don't understand what it is that we're doing in corporate worship. We're gathering together as brothers and sisters in Christ. We're gathering together as the body of Christ, worshiping Him as He has set us to do in eternity. It should be to you a foretaste, a little glimpse, a little glimmer of heaven. I admit to you, it isn't always. We get the tunes wrong sometimes. We stumble over the readings. All of those little things that plague us, but those should not hinder us. Those should not trip us up. My brothers and sisters, you beginning in your preparation on Saturday. Through this day, you should see how this is a glimmer and a foretaste, a small expression of the riches of the glory of our inheritance among the saints. Gather together with all the saints from all places, people that we read about in history, and great ones that no one has ever noticed. and we'll worship them we'll worship with them and we do worship with them in principle now the glorious thing our worship should be as an expression as a demonstration of the glory the riches of the glory of our inheritance but then thirdly the spirit also increases your recognition of God's power in your redemption the opening verses set before us how our redemption is all tied to Christ. But it was established for us, it was decreed for us before the foundations of the earth. It undermines so much bad theology that pervades the Christian church today. That exalts you, that exalts the person. God has elected you before the foundations of the earth. Before there was anything that we could consider time. Before there was any marker. God the Father elected you. And he accomplished that. And if I hadn't gone so long, I would continue to demonstrate working through the next couple of verses. That's what Paul goes on to show us. He prays that the Spirit would increase your knowledge of the power of God in redeeming you. He gives us an illustration that we'll look at the next time of that power. It's all tied up, it's all represented for us and reflected for us in the resurrection of Christ. How much power did He demonstrate in redeeming you? What can you imagine? What is it that you can envision that power to be? Paul says, I want you by the Spirit to increase in your knowledge of the power of God in redeeming you. You cannot fathom in our finite minds the depths of the power of God in redeeming us. In God in the second person becoming man. In that one person, in that one body, containing both the entirety of humanity and the entirety of divinity, In that God-man dying, how is it, we've troubled ourselves in our theology, how is it that the God-man can die? How is it that the second person of the Trinity can be separated from the Father and the Spirit? What power is exhibited in these things to accomplish our redemption? in Christ taking to himself the judgment, the penalty, the punishment of all the sins of the race of man for all those who would call upon him in faith for all those that were elected before the foundations of the earth our power is demonstrated in that but not just that Paul goes on and says, it's demonstrated in his resurrection and his ascension. And that's the power Paul prays, and that we should pray for one another, that you should be praying for one another, and for the church of Jesus Christ to increase in, that you would know, that you would recognize and understand God's power displayed in your redemption. It's not an insignificant thing. It's not just that he came up with a few hundreds of thousands of dollars and paid your ransom. It really took great power for him to undo the bondage of sin. And so as we consider our state, our condition, where we are in our profession, where we are in our faith, it's insufficient for us to be satisfied with where we are. We're to pray, Paul says, for one another. We're to give thanks constantly for the salvation, for the professions that we have made, for the confession of our hope, for the faith that is exhibited in our professional faith but then as it's lived out in our love for one another. But we are also to be praying for one another. You, pray for me. Pray for Pastor Finch and pray for the other members of this congregation. Pray for others that you know. Pray for the church that we would increase That we would increase by the Spirit. So that we would have a greater confidence in Heaven. So that we would have a greater understanding of the glory of our inheritance and the great riches of that. So that we would increase in our understanding and recognition of God's power in redeeming a people to Himself. The people that were lost without any hope of salvation He's redeemed. It's not a small redemption. It's a glorious redemption. He's gathering to Himself people from every nation, tribe and tongue. And we continue to send out missionaries into the world. And they preach the gospel of Christ. That same word that you've heard, that same gospel. Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. What a great promise. Whoever, wherever they are, they call on the name of the Lord. And when they do that, it's insufficient for us to leave them alone. Just as parents praying for our children that they will grow and mature. So we should be praying for our brothers and sisters. Those that are just new to salvation. Those that are new to the faith. Those that have just heard and have just professed their faith. We are to be praying for them. Giving thanks constantly for their faith and love. but praying that God would increase them by His Spirit. Brothers and sisters, if you are not doing this, I hope that today, as we've considered this, you will begin to do that. Make that a regular part of your daily prayer, of your private worship. If you're not doing that for one another, begin doing that. This is what Paul tells us to do. So that just as our children grow, we might grow. Just as we have great expectations for our children, we would have great expectations for one another. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Lord our God, you've given us a great instruction. We confess that we do not keep it well. Confess that we are not always faithful in our prayers for one another. We're not faithful in our prayers always for our own state. We pray now by your spirit that you would remedy this. We pray for great increase to us, to your church here, But throughout the nations, by Your Spirit, increase our understanding, increase our knowledge. We pray, Father, that You would do this to Your glory, that we give You thanks. Even as Paul did, that You are gathering to Yourself a people, a people from dark places, and You are defeating the power of sin, the power of the devil, Even now you are undoing His work and you are gathering a great people, a great number, a great multitude to yourself. I give you thanks for all those who have professed their faith in you, who have shown their love to you. Lord, help us not to forget this. Help us not to forget, brothers and sisters, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.