Well this is our tenth week in Ephesians chapter 1. It's our third week in Paul's prayer for the converts in Ephesus, which began in verse 15. And as we've seen, this prayer is another long sentence. 169 Greek words, stretches from verse 15 through verse 23. And Paul wrote at the outset here that he does not cease giving thanks to God for the blessings that God has poured out on the Ephesian converts. And Paul's prayer here, the essence of it, is that they would continue to grow in Christ. His prayer, like the barakah of verses 3 through 14, is extremely rich in Christian doctrine. So let's turn to Ephesians chapter 1, verse 15, and we will read the prayer. For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you, and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers, 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, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will 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 surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. In accordance with the working of the strength of His might, which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realm, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Lord, we thank You for this magnificent Word. We pray, Lord, You will fulfill Paul's petition here and grant all that he asks in our lives, in our hearts, that You would continue a transforming work in each and every one of us. Lord, that You would continue to sanctify us, to make us more like Your Son, in whose name we pray. So Paul had spent three years, we remember, in Ephesus. He's now a prisoner, but he's rejoicing. There's clear joy all over this first chapter that God had caused the spread of the gospel in Ephesus. And now Paul had heard of their continuing in the faith. And their continuing in the faith was manifested in their love for one another and for all the saints. That's the evidence. By this the world will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another. This is a characteristic mark of every true Christian. Love for the saints. Verse 17, Paul turned to the content of his petitions to God on behalf of the Ephesian converts. He prayed that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give to them a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. And we saw and we see in Jesus' own words that He spoke of the Father as His God in His human nature only. My God and your God. And while it's the Holy Spirit who's the deliverer of all these blessings, we concluded it must be that Paul was speaking here of the spirits of the Ephesians, that the Father of glory would give to the Ephesian converts a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. Paul was writing to a people who'd already received the Holy Spirit, who had been born again of the Spirit. He was writing to people whose spirits had been made alive by God the Holy Spirit. They'd already received every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm. Now that's where we began this letter back in verse 3. He had blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm. Paul also has reminded us they had received adoption as children of God. They'd been redeemed by the shed blood of Christ. Their sins had been forgiven. They'd received the Holy Spirit, who now indwelt them as a seal and a pledge of the inheritance they had now been given in Christ. So now Paul was praying that They would grow, and not only in their understanding of these great blessings they'd received, but in conformity to the image of Christ. In verse 18, which we began last week, Paul began to set forth the particulars of his petitions to God on behalf of the Ephesians. Last week, we looked at the first part of verse 18, his prayer that the eyes of their hearts may be enlightened. Before being opened by God the Holy Spirit, the eyes and the hearts of every man are what? Blind. Blind. And unless the Spirit gives spiritual sight to the blind, eyes to see, all that we know, Paul says, is foolishness and ignorance. All men remain darkened in their understanding. Now the world doesn't know this, doesn't understand this. But the people to whom God has revealed these things do. Ephesians 4, 17, Paul writes, "...So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of," what? "...the ignorance that is in them." See, I didn't just bring that word into this. This is what Paul says about the unregenerate man. This is the condition of all the unregenerate. All who've not been born again. And those who do not receive and believe the gospel will remain in that condition forever. In 2nd Corinthians chapter 4, Paul distinguished between the regenerate man, the one whose eyes have been opened, and the unregenerate man. He says, even if our gospel is veiled, verse 3, it's veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so they may not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Now think about this. He's the image of God, and we are predestined to be conformed to His image. And then verse 6, For God, who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. So God had shone in the hearts of the Ephesians. They had received the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Because that's the only place you will find it, is in Christ. They'd already received the revelation of the truth. They had come to know God as no unbeliever has. They'd been joined into a spiritual union with the Lord Jesus Christ, the risen Christ. and with every other believer. And the Spirit of God had begun to work a transformation in their hearts." These are major changes in any person, to go from being a condemned sinner to being now in Christ, joined to Him in a spiritual union with Him, and with a heart that has now been transformed. And so the wisdom of which Paul speaks here in verse 18 is a wisdom and understanding of the heart. Of the heart, of the soul, not only the mind. What he's talking about is a true grasp of the mystery of God's blessings. And the enlightenment of the heart of every true believer goes on. It should be a daily process. If you're not in the Word of God, you really shouldn't think that you are being enlightened further. Because this is the only place that enlightenment can come from. The growth of the true believer never ceases. Nor does the ministry of the Holy Spirit cease when he's given to a believer. And Paul's prayer here for this increasing enlightenment, not just in the mind, but in the heart. Your heart should be more God-like, more Christ-like each day. And we're going to see what Paul has in mind here in three particulars in just a moment. And as I said last week, the mind is involved, no question. But at root, Paul's prayer is that they will grow in the knowledge of God, that they will know Him more intimately. We talk about the knowledge of God. That's what we're talking about. And that means spending time with Him. And in that way, and in that way alone, does one come to a genuine realization of His goodness to them. Now, the spiritual blessings were set forth in verses 3 through 14. And Paul's now praying that this knowledge of these blessings, this appreciation of those blessings, will bring about a transformation in their hearts. That they will grow in their love for God. That they will grow in their love for the brethren and for their neighbor and in their bearing of the fruits of His Spirit. Did we bear love, joy, peace, patience, kindness today? That their understanding of God and of all the blessings would be received in their hearts. and move them to gratitude, worship, and obedience to God, and love of the brethren, love of neighbor. Christianity is not mere intellectual ascent to a belief system. Christianity is a new creation in Christ. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. So, at the root of Paul's prayer is the fact that conversion is not the end of the journey of life in Christ. It's just the beginning. And so, while now they had received eyes to see through the gift of faith, he now prayed that through these eyes of faith, by which they could now see and know the truths of God and know God, that they would grasp, not only in their minds but in their hearts, a greater understanding of the reality of the blessings they have received of God's ways, of His purposes. And so he prays for enlightenment as to three particulars. And I thought we were going to just deal with the first one tonight, but we'll probably deal with two of them. Here's the three particulars. So that you will know what is the hope of His calling, What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints? What is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe? So first is that you will know what is the hope of His calling. Now this phrase raises two questions. What is meant by hope? And what is meant by His calling? The hope of His calling. Now, the word hope, it can be a verb, to hope. I hope for this. It can be a noun. This is my hope. This is what I hope for. And as a verb in common speech, we hope for things which are uncertain. We hope this happens. We hope we have good weather. We don't know that we're going to have good weather. But Paul isn't speaking of a hope that's uncertain, of fulfillment. But the hope of which Paul speaks here is an assurance. that they can trust in their hearts in all that God has spoken and in all that He has promised. It's an assurance. It's not a hope of something uncertain. Paul had just written of the blessings decreed for them by the Father, obtained by the work of the Son, and applied to them by the Spirit. Now, are you just hoping you're going to have these, or do you have an assurance? Paul wants them. He wants us to have an assurance that what we have obtained is an irrevocable inheritance of eternal glory in the presence of God. That's the content of their hope, their assurance, is this eternity in glory in the presence of God. So we see both hope as a verb meaning assurance, and we see it, the content of this hope, the noun, as these blessings. All these blessings that they've received. He prays that their having come into this intimate relationship with God would now govern their affections. Rather than, what governed their affections before the Spirit of God came and dwelt in them? The lust of our heart. Lust of our eyes. But now, He wants them to have an understanding that by this intimate relationship with God and the pledge of the Spirit, the guarantee of the Spirit present within them, that they would have such a grasp of the abundance of spiritual blessings that He had bestowed on them, that they would be moved to live in response to that grace. That's the real question. Have we responded in such a way that we are different now? Are we that new creation? That's what He wants to see in them. And because of the blessings they'd graciously been granted by God, they would now live in a total absence of fear. No man can hurt us. God has prepared for every true believer an eternal presence in His heaven. We should be living in the assurance of this inheritance that He has granted us, of the knowledge, assurance of the paternal care of God. You really think He's not watching over things? You really think anything happens apart from His will? Of course not. We, as they, have been blessed with a hope, with a certain assurance. When you read that word, read certain assurance. Sealed by the Holy Spirit who's been given to every sinner who has been born again as a guarantee of a heavenly inheritance. When God effectually called us, He gave us this assurance. This was part of what He gave us. The hope of His calling is the assurance of eternal life and glory. Now, the world doesn't understand anything I just said. No one who's of the world understands any of this. And that includes all those who worship gods of their own imagination. They don't have this assurance. They don't believe such an assurance is possible. This is in part, and maybe more importantly than anything else, in part because the Holy Spirit who has sealed us has been given to us as a guarantee. That word pledge that we saw a couple weeks back. He has been given to us as a guarantee. That all this is true and that all of this has been laid up for us in heaven. The world does not know anything about this. Nothing. The world does not know Him. The world doesn't know the Spirit, who's the one who is given us as the guarantee. John 14, 16, "...I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you..." Anybody know how long? What Jesus said? Forever. Very good. That is, the Spirit of truth, and look at this, whom the world cannot receive. The world cannot receive the Spirit because it does not see Him or know Him. But you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. So they had not received the indwelling of the Spirit yet as of the night before Jesus died. So this assurance was given to us by the Father in connection with and at the time of our spiritual rebirth. When you were born again, you received this assurance. If you don't have this assurance, you may want to ask, have I really surrendered my life to Christ? Because we have an assurance. It is without doubt. It is certain. Peter spoke of this hope as a living hope. First Peter 1.3, let's hear this. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, who does that sound like? Sure sounds like language from Paul, doesn't it? Who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again. You think you did it. Peter begs to differ. Who according, the Father, has caused us to be born again to a living hope. How? Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And now look at this. To obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away. And this is reserved in heaven for you. The Bible doesn't lie. you have an inheritance reserved in heaven for you. Hebrew 611, the writer speaks of this full assurance of hope. We desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those through faith and patience inherit the promises. The writer of Hebrews shows us the receipt of an inheritance in heaven is not based on some momentary or emotional profession of faith, but to perseverance in faith until the end of this life. And Peter wrote the same thing. The transformation that God works in the hearts of all those He rescues from darkness is evident in their lives. It's evident in the life of every true believer. No one's standing still. You're either going forward or coming backward. That's true of all of us. We never arrive in this life. We must diligently persevere and pursue our sanctification. And both Peter and the writer of Hebrews relate perseverance to this hope, to this assurance. Because part of our assurance is in our perseverance. Peter and the writer of Hebrews and Paul connect this hope, this assurance, with the inheritance that God has granted and sealed with the Holy Spirit. Look at all that God has done just in this chapter in every one of His people. After conversion, the work of the Holy Spirit in every true convert is as our helper in the daily pursuit of our sanctification. Your assurance is found in your daily pursuit of conformity to the image of Christ. If we're not becoming more like Christ each and every day, we're probably not spending enough time with Him. How do we spend our time? How much time do we spend with our Lord each day? Well, then we come to the second question raised by Paul's prayer here. That you will know what is the hope of his calling. So we've talked about hope. It's assurance. What's his calling? What's meant by this? Well, Scripture speaks of the calling of men in two ways. There's the external call of the gospel that goes out to all men. Believe in the gospel and be saved. Most men will reject it. And then there is the calling of which Paul speaks here, the effectual, internal call of the gospel. Jesus alluded to these two kinds of callings in Matthew 22, 14. Well-known verse, for many are called, but few are chosen. Those who are effectually called by God are those whom He has chosen in Christ, before the foundation of the world, who've been predestined to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself. Those God effectually calls. They're those for whom Paul prays here in verse 18, that you will know the hope of His calling. God calls those He has chosen through the gospel. The gospel is the means. That's how He called all of us. The gospel is the means through which He calls His people to Himself. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13. But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. Verse 14, it was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Virtually every one of Paul's letters affirms this truth, that no man saves himself by his decisions or by any works he does, but by God's effectually calling him as one of his elect. And he calls those he has chosen in Christ according to his eternal plan and purpose. Romans 8.28. Romans 8.28. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren. And look at this, And those whom he predestined, he also called. And these whom he called, he also justified. And these whom he justified, he also glorified. There's no way around what Paul is saying here. And there's no reason for any believer in Christ to want to get around these truths. This is the goodness of God toward you who believe. You're here because of something He did in you. Everybody else is out there because for whatever reasons. And don't ask me what they are. Because we're no better than anybody. We're no smarter. We're no more righteous. But this is what He did. First Corinthians 126, verse after verse, reaffirms this work of God. 1 Corinthians 126, For consider your calling, brethren, that there weren't many wise according to the flesh... Wasn't the smart ones. Weren't many mighty. Wasn't the strong ones. Not many noble. No. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong. There's no way to read any of Scripture and think that there was anything in any of us that moved God to call us. Peter defines this gracious calling, Peter 2.9. Now look what he says, you are a chosen race. Now he goes back and takes a passage out of Deuteronomy that applied to the Jews and now applies it to Christians. You are a chosen race. a holy priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellence of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. For you were once not a people, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. And then in 2 Timothy chapter 1, Paul speaks of this calling as a holy calling. 2 Timothy 1.9, He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace. His own purpose and grace. His own will. Which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity. The number of scriptures one must deny or seek to explain away in order to deny these doctrines seem almost too many to count. And can you lose what God has granted you if He has called you affectionately? Romans 11, 29. The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Irrevocable. So Paul wants them to know. He wanted them to know deep in their hearts of the glory of all these blessings. He wants them to know of the goodness of God, and he wants us to know. He wants them and all his readers to know that God decreed that they and we will receive every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm. He wants them to know that because God is all-powerful, He's able to guarantee all these blessings to all His adopted children. He wants them to realize that God has sealed all these promises by giving them his own spirit as a deposit, a guarantee of their inheritance in heaven. He wants them to live in the light of the assurance of the certainty of the fulfillment of all these blessings. And he wants us to do the same. These Ephesians, to whom Paul was writing, had received the effectual call of God. The invitation of the gospel, the external call, had been applied to their hearts as it has been applied to the heart of every true believer by the Holy Spirit. And they believed. And they must now live in light of this assurance. William Hendrickson writes, knowing all these things, Let all his readers ponder how rich we are because of the hope, the assurance we now have because of God's having called us. What Paul describes here is the hope of his calling. This hope is what the writer of Hebrews called, Hebrews 619, the anchor of our soul. This hope. is the anchor of our soul, one firmly grounded in God's infallible and irrevocable promises. Hebrews 6, 19, This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast, and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. Our assurance in Christ, granted to us by the grace of God, is our soul's anchor. That's what we hitch ourselves to every moment of our lives. More to the very throne of God, to the heart of Christ. It's a confident expectation, a patient waiting for the fulfillment of God's promises a Christ-centered assurance that all these promises will indeed be realized." Hendrickson. I was going to stop there, but this next little phrase is really only going to take a few minutes. And the question was whether to include it next week or include it here. And I think I'm going to go ahead and include it here. Secondly, he says, "...so that you will know what is the wealth of the glory of His inheritance in the saints." Now translations differ slightly among many translators. But all speak of His inheritance in the saints. Now is Paul talking about the inheritance that He has given us or an inheritance that is God's inheritance? Well, very sound commentators differ on this. Men who I read every week, at least three of them are lined up on the other side of where I came down on this. His inheritance, according to Hendrickson, who I just quoted, means the one given by Him. Hendrickson said in Paul's speaking about the glorious riches, the magnitude of all the blessings of salvation that we receive, focus particularly on those still to be bestowed in the great consummation. Lenski agrees with him. But the text here plainly says, and every translator translates it this way, of his inheritance. Not the inheritance of the saints. It's possessive. God's inheritance is the saints, I believe. Now here Paul speaks of the value, then, that God places on what he inherits. Now you say, well, he can't inherit because who's going to give God anything? Well, Christ will deliver to him what? That's right, as a kingdom. Hands the kingdom over to him. Now folks, we cannot have absolute certainty whether he's talking about the inheritance that the saints receive or God's inheritance here. But here is what I believe he's getting at. And frankly, he's already talked about our inheritance several times here. And I believe he's talking about the value God places on His people, on His children, on those whom He has chosen, whom Paul has already called his own possession. And this can only make sense in that he sees us in relation to whom? To Christ. He sees us as in Christ. We were chosen in Christ. In Him we have redemption. In Him we have forgiveness of sins. When He looks upon His elect, He sees Christ. When He looked at Him on the cross, He bore our sin. All those chosen by God have been sealed and given His Spirit as a guarantee. We've already seen that. A guarantee that we are His children. That God has made us His own. that we are His own treasured possession, whom He will redeem in fullness on the last day. Now Paul's told us all these things. The question is, why would God place such a high value on what I will call a congress of sinners? Which is what we are. Rescued from perdition. This seems incredible. That He would see something glorious in the body of Christ. But then we consider he sees his people in Christ. He looks upon his people and he sees the righteousness of Christ. Paul prays that his readers might appreciate the extraordinary value which God places on them. That's the view that I would align myself with here. Because he views us as he views his beloved son. Paul wants his readers here to have the fullest possible grasp on the mystery of God's eternal plan of redemption. To appropriate more fully all these spiritual blessings that He's graciously given to us in Christ. To understand the place that we as His people have in His purposes. It is His people in Christ whom He has decided and decreed He will spend eternity with. The adopted child of God has been blessed by so admirable a work and gift of God, Calvin says, that no language can do justice to its excellence. And for 10 weeks, I've struggled with this truth. It's just so difficult to find words to describe the glory and the goodness of God and the blessings He has given us. So how should we respond to all of these eternal heavenly blessings? Well, Paul answers this question for us. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1. And really, it should be obvious to us. Ephesians 4, 1. Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. I again find myself unable to put into words the glory of this passage. The glory of what our Lord is teaching us and showing us here. Well, let's take a moment, reflect on the things the Lord has spoken to us tonight, and then we'll close in prayer. Well, Paul's given us our prayer for tonight. And with him, I pray that the eyes of your hearts may be enlightened so that you will 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 surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe. In Christ's name.