turn once again to Ephesians, the epistle of Paul the apostle to the Ephesians. And we are looking at this first of the churchly prison epistles in the New Testament. As Paul writes to this church at Ephesus, Ephesus was a city that was in what the ancients called Asia Minor, the modern day nation of Turkey. After Islam came into that country, Christianity was nearly wiped out. There are very few Christians left in Turkey. Although, as I mentioned, I think recently I came to meet a Presbyterian minister, a guy who grew up as a Muslim but was converted, a lot of it through listening to things on the internet, and is a pastor near the city of Izmir, which is the site of ancient Ephesus. And he is involved in translating a lot of Christian literature into Turkish and making a translation actually of the Bible also from the traditional text into Turkish. But this letter was written by Paul to the ancient church at Ephesus. and we are continuing to attend to it in order to learn from it. And so today we're going to be looking at Ephesians 1, verses 13 through 23. And so let me invite you as you're able, let's stand in honor of the reading and the hearing of God's Word. Again, I'm reading from Ephesians 1, beginning in verse 13. wherein the Apostle Paul wrote, in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of His glory. Wherefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ. When he raised him from the dead and set him in his own 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 world, but also in that which is to come, and have put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. May God bless today the reading and the hearing of his word. And let us join again in prayer. Let us pray. Gracious and loving God, we stand again before and under thy word. And we would take the yoke of thy word upon us today and find that it is not heavy or burdensome, but light. And so help us to hear thy word and help us to bend the knee of our heart before it and to be submitted unto it. We ask this in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen. You may be seated. Well, as we continue this exposition of The book of Ephesians, again, we are seeing that Paul is continuing to speak to this church. Look at chapter 1, verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints, the holy ones, the believers, the disciples, which are at Ephesus, to the faithful in Christ Jesus. We know from Acts chapter 19 that Paul had been the founder of this church. He had been the church planter. who had gone into Ephesus and planted this church. And so he is speaking to this church as a spiritual father. A spiritual father speaking to his spiritual children. There's much in this little letter that is filled with what we would call high doctrinal truths. Many would place it alongside of Romans and Galatians as having Some of the most important doctrinal truths that are conveyed are pastoral truths. We'll get to eventually the household codes, instructions for wives and husbands, children and parents and so forth. But there's much doctrinal truth. I've noted a couple of times already that Martin Lloyd-Jones called Ephesians the most mystical of Paul's writings. And this past week, I ran across the observations of R.C. Sproul, Little book that he wrote on Ephesians, and he said the tone of Ephesians is so contemplative at points that it sounds more like a prayer than a letter, more like a doxology, an expression of praise to God than a sermon. And I think the more we go into this first chapter today, the more we'll see this, that there's something mystical, something contemplative, meditative about Paul's thoughts as he talks about salvation, the mysteries of election, predestination, the mysteries of redemption that comes through the blood of Christ. And what this means for those of us who know what he's going to call in our passage today, the gospel, the good news of your salvation there in verse 13. In our passage today, there are at least three things that Paul asked the church at Ephesus and through the inscripturation of this letter. He asked every generation of believers who read this and hear it and contemplate it. Three things, at least. First of all, in verses 13 and 14, he is reminding us, the Ephesians first and then us, he is reminding us of what has been preached, the apostolic preaching, the preaching also that we have received, and the gospel that we have heard and received. So the gospel of our salvation. is the first thing he's going to contemplate. Secondly, we get to hear about Paul's praying for this church in verses 15 through 18. In fact, verse 15 through verse 23 is really a reflection of Paul's prayer life for this church. It's overhearing Paul praying in a prayer meeting in the prison cell. for this church. And so we learn things about prayer, especially in verses 15 through 18. And then the third thing that is contemplated that Paul reminds the Ephesians of, I think especially in verses 19 through 23, is the mighty power of God in Christ. In this section, he provides a brief outline of the ministry of Christ. And he speaks finally to the dignity of Christ as the head over all things and as the head of the church. So three things we'll contemplate along this side. Paul, the gospel of our salvation, prayer, the prayer life of the believer, and the mighty power of God in Christ. So let's walk through our passage and see if we can meditate on these three points. He starts off, Paul starts off with giving the Ephesians a reminder about the gospel, the good news. And he begins in verse 13 with a little prepositional phrase, In whom ye also trusted. Of course, this is the continuation of what he's previously written. And the whom there is a reference to Christ. In whom ye also trusted. If you have the authorized version or New King James, that word trusted is in italic. And that means the translator is telling you the words actually, there's actually a Greek word there. Literally, it's in whom ye also. Christ you also and there have been we talked about the Christ centeredness of everything that Paul writes here in verse 7 he said in whom in Christ we have redemption through his blood in verse 11 he said in whom also We have obtained an inheritance. Here, it's in whom ye also trusted. And if you notice also in verse 13, a little later, it says, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. In whom? In Christ. In Christ. In Christ, you were redeemed. In Christ, you have received an inheritance. In Christ, you trusted. In Christ, having believed, you were sealed. And so this is the way that Paul commences in a very Christ-centered way to speak about the believer's experience of the gospel. And he continues then in verse 13, in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Here he puts two phrases side by side. The grammatical term is in apposition to one another, parallel to one another. And those two terms are the word of truth and the gospel of your salvation. And Paul is saying those two things are the same. You heard the word of truth. You heard the gospel of your salvation. The word gospel, many already know, means good news. The good news that has come to us about what God has done in Christ. We hear the word gospel has multiple usages. It also refers to the first four books of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But here it has the sense not of a book about Jesus, although Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell the story of the good news about Christ. But he's talking about the news that was preached, the word of truth, the word that reached these pagan people, some Jews also, in Ephesus, a place that was far away from Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, Jerusalem, where he died on the cross and was raised. But somehow this good news had reached, heralds had come and told the good news of what God had done in Christ. What was the good news that was announced to them? Well, we could compare it to what Paul told the Corinthians was the good news, the gospel that he had given to them. Remember, in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 3 through 5, Christ rehearsed what was the gospel he had preached to them, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried that on the third day he rose again, according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas and to the twelve. So the good news was the death of Christ on the cross. That was for our benefit. He died on the cross for us, that he was buried, telling us that he actually had died. He didn't just swoon. And the burial was a sign of that. and also that he was raised on the third day. The women came and the tomb was empty. And then as a proof of that, he appeared for 40 days to his disciples, appearing on the first Lord's Day evening to the 12 as they were meeting together. And so they have heard the word of Truth, the gospel of your salvation. We might also pay attention in verse 13 to the fact that Paul stresses the fact that they had heard this. They had heard this word of truth. They had heard this gospel of their salvation. And we can think about other places where Paul writes about the importance of hearing the good news. In Romans 10, verse 17, Paul writes, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Or we can think about 1 Corinthians 1, verse 21, where Paul says that it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And so somehow these heralds had come and had proclaimed the good news. And these persons had heard this preaching. They had heard this. And sometimes we live in an age where people downplay the importance of the public proclamation of the word of God. We went through a period in broad evangelicalism where when people talk about evangelism, they were mainly talking about individual, two people getting together and talking and maybe sharing the four spiritual laws or something like that. But when you look at the New Testament itself, it's the importance of the heralding, the preaching, the proclaiming of the good news. We were doing the study recently of the means of grace. And the first means of grace is the word. And the word has a catalytic role to play. It is the initiator. Some have said that God gets into a man's heart through his ear as he hears the gospel, as he hears the word of truth. And Paul's assuming a situation like that where persons had heard and then There was their response to this. If you look at verse 13, the second half of it, in whom also after that he believed. And so there was the hearing of the word of truth, the hearing of the gospel. And then there was a response of faith, the explicit confession of faith, explicit expressions of belief are essential. We could think about an account we go back to over and over in Acts chapter 8 when the Ethiopian eunuch met Philip and Philip preached Jesus to him as they traveled. Philip going up into the chariot riding along with the Ethiopian eunuch as he read Isaiah and asked what was the meaning of this and Philip preached Jesus to him. They come to some water And the Ethiopian eunuch says, what hinders me from being baptized? And Philip says, you must believe. And what does he confess in Acts 8.37? I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Public confession, profession of faith. And so this is essential. Romans 10.9 says, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And so there must be the preaching of the gospel, the hearing of it, and there must be a response of believing. I was listening just this past week to a video. Someone had wanted me to listen to a video of a certain person's teaching. And in the midst of it, this person was saying, well, I believe that many people who will not hear the preaching of the gospel, will not profess faith in him, I believe there is hope for them. And that can pluck at the strings of your compassion and kindness and so forth, but it doesn't match up with the biblical teaching. The biblical teaching does not teach universalism. that people can be saved apart from an explicit confession of faith in Christ. There must be the hearing of the gospel, and there must be believing that is expressed. And then it moves on to talk about something that is called sealing. A sealing that comes by the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 13 again. In Him also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Notice the pattern. Hearing, believing, and sealing. What is meant by sealing? Sealing by God the Holy Spirit. It's interesting if you look ahead just for a moment to Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 30, you see a verse that will connect with this one, where Paul will later write, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. So twice within this little epistle, Paul is going to talk about sealing, that the believer shouldn't grieve the Holy Spirit because He has been sealed. What is the meaning of this term? A seal was set to ensure that something was left undisturbed or secure. And so there are mentions even within the Bible of things being sealed. We could think, for example, of at the time when the Lord Jesus was crucified and his body was taken down from the cross and the soldiers took him and placed him in the tomb and they rolled a stone over the tomb and were told explicitly in Matthew's gospel, Matthew 27, that they sealed the tomb where Christ's body was laid. Of course, they did that in vain because they would come three days later and this stone would be rolled away. We know that there were also, we can pick this up from the New Testament itself, the sealing of letters we'll see in the book of Revelation. that there is an image or a figure of messages that are sealed. And in the ancient world, letters were often sealed with wax and marked with a signet ring to ensure that the letter had not been opened, that it had not been tampered with, that its content had not been disturbed or changed. Even today, when we send a package and it has valuable objects within it, We wrap it up and we might place something to seal it so it cannot be opened, it cannot be disturbed. And that's the analogy that Paul is making here in verse 13. As he talks to these believers, he said, you heard the word of truth. You heard the good news of your salvation. You believed. And then you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. And what he's saying here is that if you are a Christian, you have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. God, His Holy Spirit has come within you. We see this in Romans 8, which talks about this indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of God enters into the believers so that the believer will not be disturbed. The believer will not be corrupted. The believer will not be dislodged. The believer instead, positively, will be preserved. The believer will be kept by God's grace in the faith. We might say that we are sealed from within by the indwelling Holy Spirit. So really, this mention of the sealing here in verse 13 is the pea in tulip. We talk about the five points in the doctrine of grace, and the fifth of those being the preservation or the perseverance of the saints. And here we have an insight as to the means. It's by the work of the Holy Spirit of promise within us. Then in verse 14, still meditating, thinking about the gospel of our salvation, Paul refers to all of this, but especially, I think, the sealing, the Holy Spirit's indwelling the believer. He says, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchase possession unto the praise of his glory. Here, he refers back to the sealing of the Holy Spirit And he calls it, the authorized version language here is the earnest of our inheritance. And this word earnest in Greek, it's arabon. It means something like a security deposit or a down payment, which guarantees the full purchase at the time of the ultimate redemption. Sometimes in real estate transactions, the realtor or a broker will ask for earnest money. He'll ask for some sort of down payment, some sort of security to guarantee that the transaction will pass through. And here Paul's using that same sort of financial imagery to talk about what the Holy Spirit gives to the believer. The Holy Spirit indwelling the believer, sealing the believer, securing the believer is the earnest, the down payment of our inheritance. We've talked before about the inheritance in verse 11, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance. I mentioned last week, I think that this inheritance can refer to the Old Testament, the land inheritance that the Israelites received when they came in the land, but also the inheritance that one who has been adopted, receives. He becomes the heir. And Paul uses that language. He says we are co-heirs with Christ in Romans. And here he talks about we have a down payment, the earnest of our inheritance. And it is the presence of the Holy Spirit in us And it's there, he says, verse 14, until the redemption of the purchased possession. Now, we've seen the word redemption already within Ephesians. In Ephesians 1 and verse 7, redemption is used with reference to Christ's death upon the cross and His shed blood. And it's because of His death on the cross, through His blood, that we have redemption. Redemption is the language of taking possession of something, paying for something. It was used in the slave market. Someone who was up for servitude would be redeemed, would be purchased. And here he talked about how the death of Christ on the cross, the shedding of His blood, giving us forgiveness of sins, we obtained redemption. Here, though, in verse 14, Paul uses the term in a slightly different manner. Here he talks about the ultimate redemption, the ultimate redemption that will come at the end of the ages, at the second coming of Christ. We have the Holy Spirit in us. We have a down payment, an earnest of our inheritance, and it will keep us until the end of the ages, until the redemption, the ultimate or final redemption of the purchased possession. We all know that right now we are not as believers what we one day will be. There is more. There is an eschatological redemption that will come at the end of the ages. And it will come by the grace of God in Christ. It will be the Gospel. It is the Gospel of our salvation. And to what end is all of this being done? Here's a theme that's repeated already in Ephesians. Look at the very last phrase there in verse 14. This is all done unto the praise of His glory. Look at verse 6, to the praise of the glory of His grace. We saw that. Look at verse 12, that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ and now a third time unto the praise of His glory. Why has God chosen us before the foundation of the world? Why has he redeemed us through the blood of Christ? Why has he sealed us for the ultimate redemption of the purchased possession? Is it for our glory? Is it so that we might make much of who we are and just how spiritually insightful we are and so forth? No, it's all for the praise and glory of God. God would be praised and saving. men and women like us. We move on now to the second of these three thoughts that are being contemplated. And the second one, verses 15 through 18, relates to prayer. And it tells us something about Paul's prayer life as an apostle. And it also instructs us as to what are the things we should be praying about as we look at Paul praying Observe him pray, contemplate his prayers for the believers in Ephesus. So he starts off in verse 15. Wherefore, I also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints. And we notice that first off, Paul talks about the fact that he has heard he has received a report about the Ephesians. And we can imagine him being in prison, wherever he was in prison. We know he was in prison. We can look at chapter 3, verse 1, where he calls himself a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Chapter 4, verse 1, where he calls himself the prisoner of the Lord. We can look at chapter 6 and verse 20, where he calls himself an ambassador in bonds. But perhaps some persons from the church at Ephesus had traveled to where Paul was. Maybe he was in Caesarea or in Rome. And they gave a report to Paul about the believers. Perhaps Tychicus, who's mentioned as the person who's bearing this letter in chapter 6, verse 21, perhaps he was the one who brought word of the believers at Ephesus. And he starts off by saying, I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus. and love unto all the saints. And so he mentions two things that he's heard about, and he's commending them. I heard positively, first of all, about your faith in the Lord Jesus. By faith here, Paul probably means not only their experience of believing, because, again, he had been the church planter. He'd seen many of them come to faith under his own preaching. But I think he's also referring to the substantive content of their faith. That they were holding to orthodox, right, or correct teaching because there were many false teachers that were deceiving many. We can think about the little book of Jude in the third verse of Jude. Jude exhorts the recipients that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. And so the Apostle Paul is commending them for holding to the faith. So he commends them for your faith in the Lord. And then he also commends them for the report that he has received of their love unto all the saints. So he commends them for their love unto all the saints. He recognized that among the Ephesians in his absence, their affection, their charity toward one another had increased. Remember when we were in first John, many times we went back to first John 3, 14, where John, the apostle John, guided by the spirit, said that your love for Christian brothers and sisters is one of the marks of assurance. of faith in the Christian life that you're really converted. As John said in 1 John 3, 14, we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. So here in verse 15, Paul commends, gives praise to them. He says, I've heard positively about, first of all, your love for God and your right belief in God. And also he says, I have heard of your love for the brethren, the vertical love for God, the horizontal, your love for the brethren. And so he commends them for this. Now, let me pause here for a moment. Sometimes we leave the practical application to the end. But let me just pause here at verse 15 for a second. If if someone from our church were to travel somewhere and they were to ask, what can you tell me? about Christ Reformed Baptist Church, would you be able to report that this church has faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? And this church demonstrates love unto all the saints. Could it be said about us individually that we demonstrate faith in the Lord Jesus and love for all the saints. Now, Paul's going to continue, verse 16. And he's again talking about himself and his own practice. Having heard these things, he says, I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. Notice at least three aspects of Paul's prayer here in verse 16. First of all, Paul's prayer was unceasing. He says, having received this report, he has not ceased to give thanks and to make mention of them in his prayers. And we've noted this before, but the Apostle Paul, when he talks about prayer, he often likes to describe it as being unceasing. And I thought about that. Did you hear it when we were reading First Thessalonians one this morning as our chapter we read aloud and you get to chapter one, verse two of First Thessalonians, we give thanks to God Always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. Constant prayer, ceaseless prayer. You may know 1 Thessalonians 5.17, one of the shortest verses in the New Testament. It's pray without ceasing. Pray unceasingly. The Jews say we pray three times per day as Daniel did. As recorded in Daniel chapter 6 and verse 10, the Muslim will say, aha, we are more pious than that. We pray five times a day. But what about the Christian? Well, our standard is very low, right? We pray all the time. Our ideal is to be constantly in prayer, to have a prayerful spirit at all times. To live is a little Latin phrase says, coram deo, in the face of God, all the time. There's a little story I've heard Joel Beakey tell before, a story from the past of a group of ministers, theologians who were together. And they were talking about this concept of ceaseless prayer. And they were talking about how can you really go through life and be constantly in a prayerful spirit. And there was a young woman there who was a servant within the household who heard them speaking. And they asked her, they said, do you think that the believer can be constantly in prayer? And she said, oh, sirs, yes. She said, when I rise in the morning, I think of how God took me when I was asleep spiritually and I was dead, and He raised me to life. And then as I go about washing up, I think about how I have been cleansed from all of my sins by the Lord Jesus Christ. And when I put on my clothing, I think of how I have been clothed with the righteousness of Christ. And so on she went, talking about all the events and activities of her day. and how in every moment she was thinking of the Lord Jesus and she was going about prayer. And so she taught these learned doctors how that a simple Christian can go through life unceasingly in prayer. Notice, secondly, that he offered three things we're looking at in verse 16. He offered thanks for the believers. He offered thanksgiving for the believers. We all likely know that Thanksgiving is an essential element of prayer. Prayer isn't simply making my laundry list of things that I want and then checking them off. We sometimes use that acronym ACTS, A-C-T-S. Prayer is adoration of God, praise of God. It is, see, confession of our faults. It is T, thanksgiving, thanking God. And then finally, it is supplication or petitions, asking of God. And one of the things that we should be doing is giving thanks. Here's Paul giving us a model as an apostle. How often in our prayer lives have we sat down and thought, I am thankful for these brothers and sisters. I'm thankful for this quality in this brother. I'm thankful for this quality in this sister. And Paul models this in so many of his letters. Just turn over to the opening of Philippians. And notice the prayer that Paul offers for the brethren at the church at Philippi. This is Philippians one, verse three. He says, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine. for you all, making requests with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that he which began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Wouldn't it be encouraging to be part of a church where brothers and sisters were saying, oh, I was praying for you, And I was thanking God for your fellowship in the gospel, and I was praying that God would perfect in you all things, that He will continue the good work that He has begun in you. So it includes thanksgiving, giving thanks for the brethren. This assumes, doesn't it? Paul assumes a closeness among the brethren. He knew them. I was listening recently to a podcast where Tom Hicks, a Reformed Baptist pastor in Louisiana, was talking about many evangelicals today who think of church as merely a meeting to attend. Have you gotten into this mindset? I'm going to go to church, and it's a meeting that I have to attend. And Hicks was saying instead that going to church is not just going to a meeting. but it is being with the body of Christ for which we are thankful. Thirdly, notice, he says he made mention of them in his prayers. Cease not to give thanks for you. I cease not to give thanks for you. Making mention of you in my prayers. That is, he interceded for them. He made supplications and petitions for them. The Lord Jesus Himself in the Sermon on the Mount told His disciples, Ask, and you shall receive. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and the door shall be opened unto you. James said in James 4, 2, ye have not because ye ask not. And so are we interceding for one another in prayer. In verse 17, we could say, Paul, we could add to, we've got these three elements, unceasing prayer, thanksgiving prayer, petitionary prayer and in verse 17 we might add a kind of a fourth element in prayer in that Paul asked God the Father that he would give the the Ephesians the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Verse 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ The Father of Glory, by the way, that's taking two titles for God the Father and putting them side by side. God the Father is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he is the Father of Glory. And Christ taught us, did he not, that when we pray, we pray to the Father, our Father which art in heaven, Christ said. That's the way you should pray, Matthew 6. Here's Paul. following the teachings of Christ, asking the Father, and what does He ask? That He may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. He was praying for these Ephesian believers, the saints at Ephesus, that God the Father would give them a spirit of wisdom. Proverbs 9, 10 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. that they would have a fear and awe of the Lord, and also that they would have revelation. What does this mean? Was he asking that they would receive extraordinary experiences, dreams, and visions, and so forth? I don't think so. To have revelation, to be granted revelation by God the Father would mean to understand God's revelation of himself. First, in the book of nature, as we look at creation, the world around us, as a psalmist says, the fool has said in his heart there is no God. But secondly, that we might be able to look at the book of special revelation, at the Holy Scriptures, and to what end is all of this prayer that they would be given the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. The goal or end is that these believers would come to know the Lord better. Again, we could think of some quick application for ourselves. When we come together in prayer, when we pray privately, it's right for us, it's fitting for us to pray for our health and to pray for our well-being, to pray for our security and our prosperity and so forth. Have you ever spent time praying for a brother or sister that they would increase in knowledge, that they would have wisdom and they would have revelation in being able to unlock the scriptures and to understand them better and to be drawn to be greater in their knowledge of the Lord? In verse 18, we might add another aspect of Paul's prayer. Now, a fifth aspect is there's a prayer for the illumination of his fellow believers. Look at verse 18. This is his prayer. That the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Here Paul prays for illumination, enlightening. This word has within it the word for to make, to enlighten. That the eyes of our understanding would be enlightened. You know, just about every Sunday when we, before we read this or after we read the scriptures, we pray a prayer of illumination. Lord, open our eyes, unstop our ears, loosen our hearts. That's this type of prayer. And it's interesting because we're believers. We once were spiritually blind. Our eyes have been opened, and we now see Christ. But this recognizes, Paul recognizes, that we're not fully glorified now. We're not fully sanctified now. And so things are in the Scriptures that ought to be clear to us, that we ought to understand at first glance. Because of remaining corruptions within us, our understanding is darkened. And so Paul is praying that the eyes of these believers might be opened more and more, more illuminated, more enlightened to know the truth. And to know, especially, he says here in verse 18, they might know the hope of the Lord's calling. The hope of the Lord's calling, the word hope, is there in verse 12 that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted. And you might remember I pointed out it's there in the margin of the KJV that this word might also be translated hoped. We who first hoped in Christ. And now he's saying that your eyes would be enlightened so that you might know better the hope of the Lord's calling. The word calling here also has a key doctrinal meaning, doesn't it? It's referring to the effectual or the efficient call of God. It's there in what we call the golden chain of redemption, Romans 8, verses 29 and 30, where Paul says, those whom the Lord foreknew, He predestinated. And those whom He predestinated, He called. And those whom He called, He justified. And those who be justified, he glorified. But there's the calling. What is the calling? The calling is the hearing of the gospel. We distinguish between an external call. Everyone gets to hear the preaching of the gospel, but only some get the internal, effectual call that draws them. And Paul is praying that they would have illumination to appreciate that they have received the Lord's calling to hope, to trust in Christ, and also that they might know the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. And here, for the third time, we have the mention of inheritance. It's there in verse 11. We have obtained an inheritance. It is there in verse 14, which is the down payment of our inheritance, or the earnest of our inheritance. And now Paul's praying that we might know and appreciate more the riches of the glory of the Lord's inheritance that He has given to the saints, to His holy ones, to believers. Well, this takes us to the third part of our passage. Third and final part, verses 19 through 23, which focuses on the mighty power of God in Christ. Tagged on to Paul's prayer for illumination is a petition that the believers might come to know what Paul calls God's power or the working of his mighty power. Look at verse 19. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power? to usward who believe according to the working of his mighty power." Twice in that verse the word power is mentioned. And then to illustrate this in verse 20, as I noted in the beginning, Paul gives something of what we could call an outline of the ministry of Christ. Where has this power been demonstrated? Verse 20, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead. that we might come to know the power of God, the power that raised Christ from the dead, and the power that raised Christ from the dead also does what? It raises unbelievers from spiritual death unto life. In verse 20, he also says of Christ that God's power set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places. And so he goes from talking about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ to talking about the ascension and the session, the exaltation of Christ, that even now he is seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. This is the power of God. And not only has he been seated again, but he's been exalted. Verse 21, far above all principality and power and might and dominion. And every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And that statement there might call to your mind the little hymn that's sometimes called the Christ hymn in Philippians 2, 5 through 11, where it talks about the exaltation of Christ, especially in verse 9 of Philippians 2. Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him, and given Him a name which is above every name. The power of God raised Christ from the dead, made Him to ascend and be seated at the Father's right hand and has exalted Him. And in verse 22, he continues that God the Father has put all things under His feet and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church. First of all, he mentions that all things have been placed under Christ's feet. In the background here is the Messianic Psalm, Psalm 110, verse 1, which says, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Paul speaks of this as something that has already been accomplished. We're not waiting for Christ to return from heaven to begin to rule. He's ruling right now. And all things are being placed under his feet. And yet, Paul can also speak about this as something that's not yet fully completed. And he spoke like this, if you go back and look at verse 10, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on the earth, even in him. So Paul can speak of it without contradiction as something that's already been accomplished. Christ is now seated in glory, ruling over all things. And it's something that will come to an even greater fulfillment at his second coming. And even now, he is drawing all things under the headship of Christ. We already have victory in Christ, and its final glorious realization is still to come. And Christ is also described here as the head. He is the head over all things to the church. He is the brains. He is the control center for the church. This is the first appearance in Ephesians of the word church. Although it's referred to as, in verse 1, the saints which are in Ephesus and the faithful in Christ Jesus. They are the church. The church is not a human idea. The Lord Jesus Christ established the church, telling Peter in Matthew 16, 18, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And so here in verse 22, we learn of Christ that from bottom to top, from toe to head, all things are under his feet and all things are under his headship. And most especially the things that are in the church He is sovereign over all things. He is ruling over all things. And in verse 23, finally, Paul adds that the church is His body. Which is His body? The fullness, the pleroma is the Greek word, of Him that filleth all in all. As believers, we are joined to a body. The Apostle Paul introduces this image in 1 Corinthians 12. You are the body of Christ, and you are all members of it. And now he expands upon that image here in Ephesians by saying that of this body, Christ is the head. We're joined to that body, but the body does not function properly unless it rightly responds to the directions of the head. We've probably known or seen people who've had head injuries. My son, just a few weeks ago, suffered a concussion while he was snowboarding. And things can happen, and certainly people have very severe head injuries where they experience severe paralysis. If the connection of the body to the head is damaged, the body can suffer paralysis or convulsions. And to draw this analogy out, the same thing can happen to the church. If we are not rightly joined to Christ, if we are not following His directions, His orders and commands, we can suffer paralysis and convulsions. We can look at an interesting parallel in Colossians 1, 18 and following, Paul will write, and he, Christ, is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness, the pleroma, dwell. And so we look to Christ as our great head. Well, friends, we've worked through this passage. And again, I think you'll agree with me and agree with R.C. Sproul that this letter of Ephesians is a contemplative document. It calls for us to contemplate and to meditate upon what God has done for us in Christ. And we could break down, couldn't we, each three of these sections. We could ask ourselves, each individual here, have I heard the word of truth, the gospel of my salvation? Having heard the gospel proclaimed, do I believe it? And do I understand that as a believer, that I have experienced the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which has sealed me for the day of redemption. It's very common for Christians, both baby Christians, sometimes mature Christians, to struggle with assurance. To struggle with, well, I'm a Christian, but I've done this, that, or the other thing, even though I profess faith. We don't hold forth that there will be perfection in this life. We're not to use that as an excuse either. But we need also to understand the sealing of the Holy Spirit, that we are preserved, we are protected, we are kept from damage by him. Secondly, we might look at Paul's expressions of prayer. We might learn from the prayer life of Paul. We might aspire today to take up this model of prayer that we would pray unceasingly, constantly, that we might learn from Paul's prayers here for the brethren how to pray for one another. We might begin to pray that we might each grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and our minds might become enlightened, illuminated, that we would understand better the hope of His calling and the glorious riches that we have in the saints. And we might also look at that last part, and we might come to know and appreciate the power of God in Christ. How God raised Christ from the dead, and through that same power, He raises men who were spiritually dead to life. Through that power, Christ is ascended. That He is seated in glory. That He is exalted. That He is the head over all things. And that He is the head of the church. Friends, all of this is the gospel of our salvation. The good news of our salvation. Yes, Paul is calling upon us to contemplate this. To consider this. There's a place in the Christian life for what we call practical considerations. But you know what? There are no greater practical considerations than considering the gospel of our salvation. Because once we understand that, it will affect every practical so-called aspect of our living. It will lead us to appreciate the fullness of what God has done for us in Christ. And so, Our proper response today is not to say, oh, great, I've got five ways to make my marriage better or three ways to be a better steward of my resources financially or something like that. The thing that we walk away, the proper response is doxology, worship, praise, thanksgiving in the light of this good news. There is gospel heat. we might say in this passage. I was reminded this past week of an old adage. And that adage was this. Someone said, heat will both melt butter or it will harden clay. Heat will melt butter or it will harden clay. Paul has laid before us today the glory of the gospel of our salvation. Will we be like butter and be melted by this? Or will we be hardened? And we hear it, but it just hardens our hearts against receiving and hearing the good news that has come to us through Christ. Butter or clay? Amen. Let's stand together. Let's join in prayer. Gracious and loving God, we give you thanks for thy servant, Paul, and the great usefulness that he had in his own life as the apostle to the Gentiles as one who bore in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus. One who was beaten with rods, who had the 39 lashes on his body, but who could say in the prison cell, rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. And we give thee thanks for our exposure to this letter, Be with us as we contemplate, meditate upon what we have read and heard today, and prepare us for future times. We'll come together again, hear Paul's thoughts to this church, and help us to come to a greater appreciation for the gospel of our salvation, the word of truth, We ask that you would enlighten our minds in the knowledge of Christ and that we would come to know him better and love him more and serve him more dearly, the dearest things in our life. We ask this in Christ's name, for his sake, amen.