Ephesians
1:15-17,
“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..."
“Father,
we thank you for your Word, and Lord we’re amazed at the things
you do.We ask you in Jesus’ name that you would continue
to lead.Lord we do not
know what day or hour you will return for your church.We pray at that moment we will be living in
such a way without compromise that we might lift our heads in
anticipation, without shame and Lord that our love in return
for the incredible things you’ve done for us would fuel Lord
that fire within us.We again pray for the nation, our leaders,
for peace in Jerusalem Lord, and yet we know the only hope of
the world is your return, so we also pray ‘come quickly Lord’.In
Jesus name, Amen.”
“We are in Ephesians chapter 1…Interesting,
Paul again as he writes the letter, takes us through our paces.The
world that we live in, every race begins with a starting point
and a finishing line.He says the Christian experience begins with
the finishing line and Christ said “It is finished”, and then
after you get settled, you come to the starting point in your
walk.Or, the world that we live in begins with a
walk.You spend your life
working so that at some point hopefully you get to retire, whatever
people do, and move to
Florida
and play golf, I don’t know.But
in the Christian experience you have to retire first and give up
the work, and realize that Christ has done it, before you can find
out what he wants you to do and how to walk.I
mean, it’s a funny thing, it’s all inverted, it’s all
backwards.Most things in life you do, and when they’re
finished they’re done.The
Christian experience is done and then
you do.It’s all completed before you start, in your
participation in it.So he’s
trying to communicate that in these first three chapters, that Christ
has accomplished all, so that we will understand that
we are responders.God is
always the initiator, salvation is his work he’s accomplished within
the counsel of his own will, that which has benefited us that we
haven’t even realized yet.And
as we get to chapter 4, he begins to talk to us about our response
to those things.Now the first six verses he told us about this
incredible plan of the Father that had been initiated before the
worlds were even formed [so God must have been aware of the fact
that Lucifer was going south on him before physical matter
was created!].That God knew
us and called us then (verse 4).Verses
7 to 12 he began to speak to us of the Son’s, Jesus Christ’s part
in that.Verse 7, saying “In whom we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins…”, and what Christ has
accomplished, then insuring that inheritance for us, to where he
brings us to verse 12,
“That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first
trusted in Christ.”And in
verse 13 he begins to talk to us [about being sealed with the Holy
Spirit], and that’s where we left off, about the Spirit’s work in
this circumstance.The Father’s plan, the
Son’s redemption, and the Spirit keeping us in our present situation.He says “In whom ye also trusted” speaking
of Jesus “…after you heard the Word of truth…”, the
gospel, the Good News, it is “of your salvation.”
Now I would remember throughout your Christian
experience, if I was you—that the gospel means Good News.If you’re in a church fellowship somewhere
where what you hear every week is “bad news”, I would really
consider moving.You shouldn’t walk out of a church (service)
feeling depressed and beat up.You
get beat up by Satan and the world all week.What’s
the sense of getting up early Sunday [or Saturday] morning on
your day off, to get beat up again?You
have to be sick to do that.So,
the gospel is Good News.The
time that we spend together studying the Scripture, worshipping,
should be a time that we’re edified and confirmed in the faith
and built up.He says here, “we trusted in Christ, after
we heard the truth.”That
is the Good News.In regards to our salvation, (verses 13b through
14) “In whom also, after
that you believed, you 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.”So
he tells us that as we came to Christ we were sealed again with
the Spirit of promise.And
to the Ephesians it had a particular meaning.They
were used to banking arrangements and purchases, it was the banking
capital of Asia there, the
temple
of
Diana
, and there in those precincts, banking in that part of the world,
they were accustomed to seeing a seal placed on a document or a scroll.They
were accustomed to seeing a seal placed on cargo, and it would be
a stamp of authority, it would identify ownership, it would ensure
destination.If you see cattle branded it’s telling you
who the owner is.Much in
the same way, remember that the Pharisees came to Pilate and said “Set
a seal on the tomb”, and again that was the authority of
Rome
.If someone broke that seal, the guards that
stood guard on the tomb would be killed, and the person who broke
the seal would be crucified upside down.If
they didn’t catch you, they would crucify everyone in your village,
if they knew who you were.Because
the authority of
Rome
was behind it, and you messed with the authority of
Rome
.So he says you and I were
‘sealed with that [Holy] Spirit of promise’ when we were saved.And again, take note that in Revelation chapter
20 verse 3, where it talks about Satan
being bound for a thousand years, and by the way, that’s by one
angel, and at that point he is cast into the abyss, and there’s
a seal set upon it, that’s the same Greek word.And
take note in your studies that Satan does not have the power
to break that seal for a thousand years.That’s
very important, because it tells you here that God Almighty seals
you.And Satan has no
authority to break that seal either.And yet the church is filled with people talking
about ‘Satan does this, Satan made
me do this…’They’re almost
promoting people for hell or something.And
don’t you get tired of that?Let’s
talk about the amazing things that the Scripture tells us that
God Almighty has accomplished on your behalf in that ‘he has
made you accepted in the beloved--you’re in Christ.And
Satan is not moving into Christ, where you are, into that sphere.You’re
sealed with the Spirit of promise.That’s God’s seal of ownership, it’s his seal
of authority, it’s his seal that ensures
your destiny.As it tells
us in Peter, there’s an inheritance, as we also talked about
last week, that’s kept, it’s undefiled, it fadeth
not away.God would not keep that inheritance unless
he knew somebody makes it, he knows
that we’ll be there.So
that inheritance is reserved for us.Now
he says that the sealing of the Spirit of promise--and when we
hear ‘that Spirit of promise’, certainly, as it says in the book
of Acts--this is the promise that was spoken of in the prophets,
of the Holy Spirit and the coming of the Holy Spirit, the regenerating
work of the Holy Spirit.And
in that sense the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost was
the Spirit of promise--but obviously the implications here are
that it means more than that, because it says ‘that Spirit of
promise is the earnest of our inheritance, until redeemed possession.’Now
what that’s saying is this, the earnest--we might think of a
down-payment, that might give us the idea--is really the first
installment of a greater thing that’s to be ours someday.I don’t want you to confuse it like it’s Christmas time and probably a lot of you are putting
things on lay-away, you give the store $10 and they put things
on lay-away for you.It’s
not like lay-away, because you can change your mind and go back
and say ‘Oh, I want to take that off lay-away’…and some of you
probably, sometimes feel like God has you on lay-away, going
to return you before Christmas.That’s
not the same thing here.This
earnest, this word earnest is in the sense of an installment
and that is, it is a little foretaste of the greater experience
that is assured to be ours through the work of Christ.And
it’s not something to be given to be taken back again.And the idea is, all of us here this evening
[or whenever, reading this] are spoiled for this world--I mean,
when you think about your relationship with Christ, you know.Thank
God we are somewhere where we have the freedom to worship the
way we want to, and the freedom to study the Scripture from Genesis
to Revelation.We don’t
have to talk about politics every week, except the politics of
heaven.We have the freedom to study the Word of God.Because
of that, when you think of Christ, what’s your hope?We
are thinking of the return of Christ, we’re looking at the prophetic
scene that’s on the news, we’re waiting
for the blast of a trumpet.We’re
longing for the day that that 7 years is ended [3.5 year period
of Classic or Historic Pre-Millennialists, 7 year tribulation
period for Dispensational Pre-Millennialists], and human suffering
comes to an end and Christ sets up his Kingdom [on earth, cf.
Zechariah 14:1-15, esp. vs. 9].We’re looking forward to a new heavens and
a new earth [cf. Revelation 21:1, read vs. 1-17, the new Jerusalem
Abraham was longing for, hoping for, mentioned by Paul in Hebrews
11:8-10].But either we’ve lost our minds, or we’ve all
got the first installment.Now
you know, when you talk about New-Ager’s and then they’re weirder
than anybody.They can
come into the corporate set-up, and they can teach their philosophies,
they bring in all this nonsense--and here we are talking about
the return of Christ and all of the things that he has for us--and
people think we’re crazy.And again, I think it’s sad if you’re here
this evening and don’t know Christ personally, you know.What is your hope?Is it N.A.F.T.A.?I mean, look what’s happening on the news.Are
you hoping that the North American Free Trade Association is
going to produce a better quality of living for you and fill
your refrigerator and pay off your bills?Are you hoping for that?And if that happens, somebody’s going to negotiate
the nuclear arms problems so that after NAFTA does pay off your
bills somebody doesn’t blow it all up.Are your hoping that even if they negotiate nuclear arms,
somebody takes care of industry so you can breathe the air and
drink the water?Are you
hoping that A.I.D.S. doesn’t spread?I
mean, what is your hope?Again,
I think if your hope is in this world you’ve got more faith than
we do.We believe something
simple--Jesus Christ died, he rose and is returning.And
he’s going to blow a trumpet and catch us up off the face of
the earth.That’s easier for us to believe than what you
believe [cf. 1 Corinthians 15:49-56; Revelation 19:1-21; Zechariah
14:1-15]--because what we believe is in the hands of Almighty
God, what you believe is in the hands of men.That’s
scary.So it tells us
here as believers, we have been spoiled for this world.Now
again, that is part of God’s work, because he knows our tendency
to wander, he knows our tendency to get involved in other things.You know in our thinking and hearts it’s nice
on the scale of balances, we have the riches of Christ in the
eternal heavens to weigh against the things of this world.Remember
it tells us that Moses esteemed the riches of Christ more than
the riches of
Egypt
(cf. Hebrews 11:23-26-28).Thank God that we have an installment, we have
a glimmer into the Kingdom that’s coming to weigh against all the
things that Satan sets before our hearts here in this world.But I also thank God that when a Christian
gets off the course and starts to make his career his god and when
he starts to make some other thing his god, or when he starts to
make money his god, that he can’t get settled down in that.That
he ends up very frustrated in it.And
the reason is because you’re spoiled for this world--you’ve been
touched and sealed by God’s Holy Spirit and given the first installment
of something that is far away and beyond anything that this world
has to offer.You know, I love that fact--Satan is wise,
he’s been at this a long time.We
see in Matthew 4 that he takes Jesus Christ on a mountain top and
shows him all the kingdoms of the world and all the glory of them,
and he says, “All of these will I give you, because they’re given
to me to give where I want to, if you fall down and worship me.”And
Christ does not argue with him in the sense that he can give them
to whoever he wants--he’s going to give them to the anti-christ.But before the Bible closes off and signs off
in Revelation chapters 21 and 22, it says that John is taken away
to a great and high mountain, and he sees something that far outshines
any old thing that Satan has to show us down here.[Revelation
21:1-17 shows the New Jerusalem, a fifteen hundred mile wide, by
long, by high be-jeweled city of pure gold, coming down out of heaven,
our new home, and future dwelling place of God with the resurrected
immortal children of God that have been made immortal in the 1st Resurrection
to immortality (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:49-56).This
occurs after the new heavens and earth have been
created (Rev. 21:1).Heaven on earth anybody?That’s
what it says.This is the
same city Paul says Abraham was looking forward to in Hebrews 11:8-10.]Satan has got to put glass-plus on his stuff
and got to, you know, put furniture polish on it, and gold polish.We see there an eternal city with streets of
gold and walls of jewels.It’s
remarkable the thing that God’s given us to weigh against all that’s
in this world.And because
you’re never going to be satisfied [with what Satan has to offer].Again,
you try to walk away from Jesus Christ, you
have a problem [if you’re genuinely born-again, of the Spirit.][Non-Christians ,who think they’re Christians, can and do walk away from Jesus Christ,
all the time.Let me explain.If God hasn’t sealed a person, even if that
person has attended a real Christian Church for 20 years, has gone
through all the motions, says the right things, can hold a spiritual
conversation with you, was baptized--the problems of life, when they
really boil up and over and get bad enough, that person will walk--walk
right away from church, from Jesus, like they never knew him (because
they never really did know him, never had him indwelling within them
by the Holy Spirit).But we
human beings cannot discern that in an individual until it happens.Often
times it will happen within a Christian marriage, where problems
boil up, one partner leaves--leaves the marriage, church, Jesus.Why?Because they were never
really sealed with and by the Holy Spirit.Simple as that.How do I know?Because it happened to
me, and then the identical thing happened to a close Christian friend
of mine.All the spiritual evidence of our two wives
non-conversion steadily surfaced after the divorces occurred, and
continue to surface to this day.Won’t
go into details, that’s personal, and not necessary.That’s why Paul warned believers to marry believers,
and not unequally yoke yourself to a non-believer.That
means if you’re a Christian, do not date non-Christians!I
highly recommend believers who think they can date unbelievers to
log onto the following article and read it: http://www.askpastorjim.org/unbelievers.htm
.]So you’re just going to
be miserable [if you’re sealed and trying to walk away from Jesus].And
that’s exactly how you’re supposed to be.If
you’re back-slidden this evening and you’re miserable, don’t feel
bad [laughter], no, don’t feel bad about feeling bad--just, feel
bad.That’s how you’re supposed to feel.We all pray that you are miserable.We pray you get ulcers.We pray you don’t sleep till you turn back.Because
we love you.And you
know in your heart, there isn’t anything out there that compares
with what God has shown you in your heart that lies ahead of you.So
we thank God that we have been sealed by this Spirit of promise,
and given the earnest, the down-payment, the first installment of
our inheritance,
“until the complete redemption of the purchased…”
By
the way, that first installment is not in regards to forgiveness
of sin, that’s something that was settled 2,000 years ago.That
installment is in regards to our inheritance.That’s
still ahead of us, the fullness of it.And if you go to
Greece
today, and there is this word used for earnest here, is their word
for engagement ring.And I like that, because it helps us from just
feeling like cargo, it helps us from just feeling like we’re in a
commercial deal with God’s, shipping and receiving.There’s a great amount of emotion in this too,
that what’s he’s given to us is an engagement ring.And in a sense we’re in a period of espousal.And
Paul say’s he’s espoused us unto one husband,
that we’re the Bride and he’s [Christ] the groom.So
the Holy Ghost [Spirit] has slipped the engagement ring on your finger.I like that.
“Wherefore” Now verse 15 begins “Wherefore”,
wherefore, because of everything he just said since verse 3--because
of God Almighty’s plan, because of the signs of redemption, because
of the Spirit’s keeping us--“Wherefore
because of this, 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…”
(verses 15-16).Now Paul’s in prison, he’s got a lot of
time to pray.“…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” (verse 17).Now look, he’s writing to
believers.And these are
believers that of course already know the Lord, obviously, but
what he’s saying is, as Paul says in Romans, that he prays that
you might comprehend with all the saints ‘that you might comprehend
with all the saints what is the height and the depth and the width
and the breadth of the love of God towards us in Christ Jesus.’Here
he’s saying ‘You know, I pray that God will give unto you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, that you might
understand what is the hope of his calling and the riches of his
inheritance’ and so forth.He’s
saying that there’s something now that also I want you to have--it
isbeyond I.Q., I.Q.
will do you no good, the person the world considers brilliant [like
Einstein or Stephen Hawking] has no more of a chance of learning
this information than someone who just made it out of grade-school.It
has nothing to do with intellect.It
has nothing to do with your ability to graduate from a university--it’s
by revelation, it’s by enlightenment, that the youngest child who
has turned to Christ, a five or six year old is entitled to this
greater revelation about what Christ has accomplished and still
has waiting for us.Or the older saint, laying on his deathbed,
waiting to check out, has access to this information, by revelation.So he asked God to give to the saints at
Ephesus
now this spirit of wisdom, revelation and knowledge--and again, it’s
something that we should pray for.God
has an incredible ability to give understanding and knowledge and
insight.Look at Solomon, the wisest man that had ever
lived.What he asked for was
a hearing heart.He asked
God for the ability to hear God’s leading and God’s voice.And
he ended up to be the wisest man that ever lived.Now that was not from his father.His father was a shepherd.Solomon didn’t learn about the migratory pattern
of animals, he didn’t learn about photosynthesis, he didn’t learn--evidently
he had an incredible knowledge about all kinds of things given to
him by revelation by God Almighty.If
you’re getting ready to take your final exams I think you should
cram, but I think you should pray too, because God can do amazing
things.And here Paul says, ‘I Paul, pray
that God will give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of him--the eyes of your understanding (for those of you
who don’t have an NIV), says ‘the eyes of your heart being enlightened’.Now he makes a reference to the Gentiles, that
their understanding is darkened.Here
Paul says, ‘Pray that the eyes of your understanding would be enlightened,
that you might know what is (first of all) the hope of his calling--first
thing he asks us to know.Now
by the way, when you hear about the blessed hope, when the hope
of the believer, the hope of the church is mentioned--realize
that the hope that worldly men have differs in a way, because a worldly
person is--it’s kind of a maybe hope--I
hope I hit the lottery this month, you know what I mean?Or ‘I
hope my mother-in-law is not coming for Thanksgiving Dinner ‘.You
know, ‘I hope my kid makes it home the first time I give him the
car keys.’You know, worldly
people have a maybe hope.But
the hope of the church, the blessed
hope, is not that kind of hope.It’s
not a maybe hope.It is identifying an established fact, that
you are bound for glory.You have beensigned, sealed and delivered by
God Almighty.And his Spirit has sealed you into
the day of redemption.You
are on your way and that is the hope of his calling.It
is a fixed, an established fact in Eternity.“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…”It
began before the worlds were formed.You
didn’t have anything to do with it.So
when we talk about the ‘hope of his calling’, we have to realize
this is a reality, this is not something, you know, where I get saved,
and God’s saying ‘Ok, I hope you make it the rest of the way on your
own, I hope your gonna get here, hope to see you in heaven [to some: “in
the Kingdom of God at the resurrection to immortality”], seeyou later.’It’s
not that kind of hope.It’s our hope because it’s a reality.We hope it happens now.It’s part of our thinking, it’s part
of our planning.It’s part
of our life.Death [strangely
enough] is part of our vocation.As
sons and daughters of God it tells us to walk worthy of the vocation
you’ve been called to.What we’ve been called to is to be the sons
and daughters of God.Part
of our vocation is dying, and passing out of this world.Now some of us will do it in an accident, some
of us in our old age and death, some of us are going to do it in
a trumpet blast, and will be reborn again in a twinkling of an eye,
as it were, physically [some denominations and/or theologians believing
we receive Spirit composed bodies at this point--have to wait and
see].Butthat’s part of our vocation.For you and I, death
does not interrupt, it’s not going to interrupt my plans.You know, you look at people in the world,
who don’t have this hope, and death is a tragedy because it severs
relationships with loved ones.It
destroys their plans for their future.It
takes everything away from them that they thought to possess.And yet as a believer, first of all, death
does doesn’t sever our relationships [sort of like when a close friend
is moving away and says] “see you in awhile.” There’s a reunion, there’s no severing of relationships.Second
of all, it is not an interruption of my plans, because I am planning
on going there.It is part of my plans.It doesn’t take everything away from me, because
like Paul says, ‘We count it all as dung [all that we have now] that
we might get there, and knowing him.’[And king David said in one of the Psalms that it was better
to be a door-keeper in the
Kingdom
of
God
than someone who dies without hope.]The
stuff we’re really hankering to get a hold of is in eternity.So that’s our hope, our calling.It’s part of our vocation, it’s part
of our life, it’s established fact.It
isn’t something that, ‘Oh I hope I get there…I hope it works out…I
hope when it happens it’s all true”--that’s not what it’s talking
about.
Secondly,
he says, ‘he prays that through the spirit of wisdom and revelation
that you would understand what are the riches of his--capital
HIS, God’s inheritance in you (the saints)’, which is an incredible
thought.God is going to be happier when you get there.You
know, we spend most of our Christian experience thinking ‘Have
fun, we’ll be there soon’, you know, like we’re going to ruin
heaven a little bit when we get there.Well the Bible teaches the opposite.No wonder we need the Spirit of God to minister
these things to us.That
there are certain facets of God’s glory that are still not complete,
again, that the angels, it tells us, long to look into the things
concerning the heirs of salvation.