Let's turn in our Bibles to Ephesians.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the
will of God.
Now, if you were writing this epistle, take
out the name Paul, insert your name, and
then whatever it is that you are.
Jim, a servant, a service station attendant by
the will of God.
John, a foundry worker by the will of
God.
You see, not all are called to be
apostles.
Not all are called to be pastors.
Not all are called to be preachers.
Also, it is a mistake to try to
be something that God hasn't called you to
be.
Something that God hasn't equipped you for.
I really do not like the phrase, oh,
he's following the highest calling of God.
He's gone into the ministry.
The ministry is not the highest calling of
God.
Oh, he's following the highest calling of God.
He's a missionary.
That's not the highest calling of God.
Whatever God has called you to be and
equipped you to be is God's highest calling
for your life, and you don't need to
feel like a second-rate heavenly citizen just
because you have a job at a service
station, or you're a secretary, or you're blessed
of God with the privilege of being a
housewife.
Whatever it is that God has called you
to be is the highest calling of God
for your life, and we should be enjoying
rather than feeling guilty.
Oh my, you know, I'm not in the
ministry.
I should be in the ministry.
I have to work, you know, at this
job and all.
Hey, be grateful that God has spared you
a lot of the pain and the deprivation
and the grief that ministers often have to
go through.
So, Paul is just declaring his own calling.
What I am, I am by the will
of God.
That's what's important.
You see, for many years, I had a
difficult problem because I sought to be Chuck
the Evangelist by the will of God.
But I wasn't.
God never did call me to be an
evangelist.
And my endeavor to be an evangelist was
totally futile, frustrating, defeating.
It wasn't until I decided to kick the
mold of the denomination that I was in,
which held up evangelist as the highest calling.
And just be what God had equipped me
to be and ordained me to be Chuck,
a pastor teacher by the will of God,
that I began to experience a real fulfillment
in my ministry.
Up until then, the ministry was hard.
It was a grind.
It was a push.
I was trying to be something God didn't
make me.
And you know, that's the hardest thing in
the world to try to be something God
didn't make you.
The Bible says, make your calling and election
sure.
Know what you are by the will of
God.
Because if you are what you are by
the will of God, then you have pleasure
in what you are and in what you're
doing.
And when your work becomes your pleasure, then
you're a happy person.
I always encourage young people to find something
you really enjoy doing and learn how to
make a living from it.
Because when your work is your pleasure, then
you're a happy person.
If your work is a grind, then you're
going to be a miserable person because you've
got to figure probably a third of your
life is going to be spent on the
job.
And if it's just a grind and a
push and you think, oh, I have to
go to work today.
Oh, I'll be glad when five o'clock.
Man, you're just grinding at it constantly.
Paul, an apostle by the will of God.
To the saints, which are at Ephesus, you
say, well, that lets me out.
The only part that lets you out is
the of Ephesus.
It's a tragedy, really, that the church decided
to saint certain people for special honors.
We make him a saint.
The church never made anybody a saint.
The Lord creates the saints, not the church.
And as far as the Lord is concerned,
you're all saints if you love him and
follow him.
It's not a special category for super dupers.
It's just a common title for those who
love the Lord and believe in him.
Saint Charles.
I'll accept that title.
But if that bothers you, Paul goes ahead
and includes you in the rest of it
there to the faithful in Christ Jesus.
So this letter is to you in this
first verse.
He introduces really sort of the underlying tone
of the whole epistle.
And it's in the words in Christ Jesus.
So as you go through this epistle, it
will be helpful if you will take your
pen and you'll underline all of the things
that you have that God has done for
you in Christ, through Christ.
And you'll find the phrases in him, by
whom, in whom, through whom, through him.
And all of these things that you are
and have through and in Jesus Christ.
And you'll find this reoccurring throughout the entire
epistle.
And so this almost becomes the key word
that will unlock the epistle as he tells
you all that you are, all that God
has done for you, all that God is
going to do for you, all that God
wants to do for you in Christ Jesus.
So do underline as you go through and
it will help it to be drawn back
to your memory.
Grace be to you and peace from God
our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace and peace, coupled together over and over
throughout the New Testament.
Always in this order for you cannot know
the peace of God until you first experience
the grace of God.
For years I went in my Christian experience
without really knowing the peace of God in
my heart.
Because I was under a work relationship with
God.
Trying so hard and I never had peace.
I really never had assurance of my salvation
until I discovered the grace of God.
And in the discovery of the grace of
God.
I then had assurance of my salvation.
And I experienced the peace of God and
it was glorious.
And that's, I think, probably one of the
reasons why I emphasize the grace of God
so much in my ministry is that brought
such a depth of peace and blessing to
my own life to experience it after serving
the Lord for years.
From the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, a lot of people think that's first,
middle, and last name.
Not so.
His name is Jesus.
It's the Greek for the Hebrew Yahshua.
The Hebrew name Yahshua is a name which
means or is a contraction of Jehovah is
salvation.
One of the compound names of Jehovah, Yahshua.
The Greek name is Jesus.
And they were instructed to call his name
Jesus for he shall save his people from
their sins.
The Lord is salvation.
Call him Yahshua for he shall save his
people from their sins.
The word Christ is the Hebrew word Messiah.
And it tells his mission.
He is God's promised savior, the anointed one,
the Messiah.
And Lord is his title.
Now, our problem is, is that we use
it as his name rather than a title.
And thus, we use it loosely and oftentimes
in vain.
Many people take the name of the Lord
in vain.
Because they use the term Lord as a
title, I mean, as a name rather than
a title.
It signifies my relationship with him.
If he is Lord, then I am the
douloi.
I am the slave.
I am the bond slave.
And it is important that I establish this
relationship with him as Lord and servant.
Jesus said, why do you call me Lord,
Lord and yet you don't do the things
I command you?
That's inconsistency.
And yet how inconsistent people are calling him
Lord and yet not obeying his commands.
And so, it's important that we realize that
this is a title, not a name.
And that we come into that relationship with
him as Lord.
For if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in
your heart that God raised him from the
dead, you will be saved.
For with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation.
Confessing what?
Jesus is Lord.
But it can't be an empty confession because
many will come in that day saying, Lord,
Lord, open to us.
And he'll say, hey, I never knew you.
What do you mean Lord, Lord?
You never served me.
Oh, but I called you Lord all my
life.
Yes, but you never served me.
Title, relationship.
Don't take it lightly or loosely.
Now, Paul gets immediately into the issues that
he wants to talk to them about.
Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
And there you have it, in Christ.
Notice, first of all, that he is thanking
God for the spiritual blessings.
There's an awful lot, in fact, too much
talk today about material blessings.
And those that are going out around advocating
how that every saint of God should experience
all kinds of material blessings and the testimonies
are of the material blessings.
Sometimes I don't know if I'm in an
Amway meeting or a church service.
As people testify of the material blessings, Paul
is thanking God for the spiritual blessings.
And when you hear a person giving thanks
to God, note what he's thanking God for,
because it can surely indicate the person's place
spiritually.
If a person is really walking after the
Spirit and interested in things of the Spirit,
he's going to be thanking God for the
spiritual blessings.
But if a person is a materialist and
is very interested in the material things, he's
going to be talking always about the material
blessings.
But beware of those, the Bible said, who
declare that godliness is a way to material
prosperity.
From such, he says, turn away.
He's thanking God for spiritual blessings.
And he's going to spend the first three
chapters of Ephesians sort of enumerating these spiritual
blessings that we have in and through Jesus
Christ.
He's going to tell you for three chapters
now what God has done for you.
I think that one of the greatest problems
in the church today arises from the fact
that in the church, we're always hearing what
we ought to be doing for God.
I grew up on that kind of a
diet.
Every service that I attended, it seems, I
was being told what I ought to be
doing for God.
And I wasn't doing what I ought to
be doing for God.
And I was very miserable and I felt
convicted constantly, because I was failing.
I ought to be doing more for God.
I ought to be doing this for God
and the other thing for God.
All I ought to be doing for God.
And many things I wanted to do, but
I just was weak.
I ought to be praying more.
And so I'd go down on Sunday night
and I'd pray and say, God, I'm going
to pray more this week, but I didn't.
Then I'd feel guilty next Sunday night.
I had to go back and repent for
not praying more last week.
And this next week I'll do it, Lord.
But every Sunday night was repentance for my
failures this past week.
I ought to be reading the Bible more.
God, I'm going to read the Bible more,
but I didn't.
I wanted to.
I ought to be witnessing more, but I
didn't.
I was always feeling guilty because I was
failing to be or to do all that
I ought to be doing for God.
Half the problem is I didn't know how.
For years in my ministry, I followed the
pattern that I knew by growing up.
And I was telling the people constantly what
they ought to be doing for God.
First many years of my ministry, I was
always half mad with the people, because I
wanted to be an evangelist, because that's what
the denomination recognized.
I wanted to see souls saved because the
first thing I had to report on my
reports every month were how many people were
saved this month.
It's terrible to put zeros in there.
The hierarchy, the bishops will never recognize you
unless you have converts.
And so I had prepared some of the
most fantastic evangelistic sermons.
I mean they could convince the hardest sinner
that he ought to commit his life to
Jesus Christ.
And I go to church all supercharged with
this powerful dynamic message.
I mean no sinner can reject this message.
And I get to church and I look
around and there wouldn't be a sinner in
the house.
I knew everybody by first name.
What are you going to do?
No sinner is to preach this powerful message
to.
Can't change my message now.
I don't have anything else to preach.
I have to preach this powerful salvation message
to all these saints.
That's frustrating.
And I let my frustrations be known by
laying it on the saints.
I put a little addendums to my message
of how they had so failed God.
If they were doing what they should be
doing this church would be full of people
tonight.
Sinners to hear the gospel message.
You should have your neighbors with you this
evening.
I really laid it on the poor saints
and their heads would go down, down, down.
I was laying the lash across their back
beating them.
Total failures in their Christian walk.
I've got to preach this powerful salvation message
to saints.
That's not fair.
So I developed a congregation of frustrated guilt
-ridden saints.
And I make my appeal to re-consecrate
your life to Jesus.
At least I can get people forward you
know.
Oh God bless.
And you notice I dedicated my last book
to those people.
Way back when.
Those blessed saints that endured my whippings every
Sunday.
And came back for more.
That's the surprising thing.
And as their head would go down and
they'd feel guilty.
Yes I have failed God.
Oh God I'm so sorry.
Lord I should be doing more for you.
I know I'd be doing but God I
don't know how.
This dumb pastor isn't teaching me anything besides
salvation you know.
It was really my fault.
I never took them beyond salvation.
I never brought them into the walk in
the Spirit.
Into the life of the Spirit.
Into growth and maturity in the Word.
One day God changed my ministry.
I became a pastor teacher.
Got rid of my evangelistic sermons.
And started to feed His sheep.
To make them strong.
It was a dramatic change of my own
ministry.
As I quit beating the sheep.
And started feeding the sheep.
The sheep started getting strong.
They started getting healthy.
And you know what happened?
As they got strong and healthy they started
to reproduce.
They now had something to share with their
neighbors.
Christ became their life.
Witnessing wasn't something that they were doing anymore.
It was something that they were.
Their lives changed by the Word of God
and the power of the Spirit.
They became witnesses.
And the effect of it.
Was that their witness began to go out
throughout the neighborhood.
And their neighbors began to come and be
saved.
And the church began to be blessed and
grow.
The church has been emphasizing much too long
what you ought to be doing for God.
The Bible doesn't emphasize that.
The Bible emphasizes what God has done for
you.
Thanks be unto God who has blessed us
with all spiritual blessings.
And He takes three chapters now to tell
you all that God has done for you.
And it is not until He has told
you for three chapters what God has done
for you.
That He turns around then and says now
walk worthy.
Of this glorious calling.
He doesn't tell you what you ought to
be doing for God.
Until first of all establishing for you what
God has done for you.
And that is the proper order because you
can't.
You can't be what you ought to be.
Without that which God has already done for
us.
In other words God's work has to be
first in my life.
And in the New Testament the order is
always that way.
You'll never find a reversed order.
Before what you should be doing for God
is always what God has done for you.
Thank God Peter said.
That we have been born again to a
living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead.
To an inheritance incorruptible undefiled that fades not
away.
That is reserved in heaven for you who
are kept by the power of God.
All of this is what God has done
for you.
Thanks be unto God.
We've been born again.
To this living hope.
Because Jesus rose from the dead.
We have an inheritance incorruptible undefiled.
Fades not away.
That's all God.
What God's done for you.
Reserved in heaven for you.
Who are kept by the power of God.
It's God that is keeping you.
You say well don't I have anything to
do.
Yeah.
He adds through faith.
Just believe it.
That's all.
It's all he requires.
For you to believe that work that he
has done for you.
And so we've sought to follow the New
Testament pattern.
Declaring the glorious works of God.
In our behalf.
Blessed be the God and Father.
Who has blessed us with all these spiritual
blessings.
In these heavenlies.
In Christ Jesus.
Starting off now.
According as he hath chosen us in him.
God chose me.
That thrills me.
Used to scare me.
I used to argue against that.
That isn't fair that God should choose.
I didn't like the doctrine of divine election.
I don't know why I didn't.
In as much as he elected me.
But somehow my rational mind was wrestling with
that.
I'm glad that God gave me the choice.
I appreciate this capacity of choice.
I recognize the awesome responsibility that goes with
it.
But I'm glad that God gave me the
opportunity to choose the one.
That I was going to spend the rest
of my life with.
I'd have just hated to have someone dumped
on me.
I appreciate that choice.
But I would deny God that same right.
God you don't have a right to choose
who you want to spend eternity with.
According he has chosen us.
It's interesting that Paul has that at the
top of his list.
And I think it's appropriate.
The top of our list should be the
fact that God chose us.
What a blessing.
What a glorious blessing.
That God should choose me to spend eternity
with him.
Now the amazing thing is when God chose
me.
And this gives us a little clue into
the whole thing.
Chosen us in him before the foundation of
the world.
Now God didn't choose me after I decided
to clean up my act and live for
him.
God didn't say oh alright I'll choose him.
God chose me before the foundations of the
world.
Now that gives you the key into God's
choices.
Having chosen me before the foundations of the
world.
Indicates that he chose me according to his
foreknowledge.
Because God knows all things.
He will never learn anything new.
If he can learn anything new then he
doesn't know all things.
James said, known unto him are all things
from the beginning.
So it is according to his foreknowledge because
he knew in advance.
He chose me on the basis of his
foreknowledge.
Now this is where we have difficulty with
the concept of the foreknowledge of God and
predestination and election and chosen in him.
We have problems because we can't think with
that capacity or with that advantage.
I don't even know if you have to
think when you have that advantage.
You know everything.
And on the basis of what God knew
from the beginning he made his choices.
Now imagine if you had that kind of
capacity.
That you knew everything in advance before it
ever happened.
You knew exactly how it was going to
turn out.
You could sure go back and improve your
lot, couldn't you?
I've made some choices in my life that
I was sorry that I made afterwards.
I've made some poor decisions in my life.
I sold too quickly.
I bought at the wrong time.
Oh, if I only had foreknowledge when I
made my decisions, I wouldn't have chosen the
losers.
That would be sort of stupid to choose
losers, wouldn't it?
If you knew in advance.
If you knew who was going to win
the ball game.
Or better yet, if you could go to
the racetracks with this kind of knowledge.
Imagine what you could do.
Having foreknowledge, knowing every horse, what he was
going to do in that race.
And you go to the racetrack with this
kind of knowledge.
Now, if you could, do you think you'd
go there and pick out a ticket of
losers?
I don't know what you do at racetracks.
Would you pick out a bunch of losers?
You'd be stupid if you did.
Of course you wouldn't.
You'd pick the winners because you know in
advance who's going to win the race.
What the outcome is going to be.
And so you'd make your choices predicated on
what the outcome is.
Because you already know in advance what it's
going to be.
That's just using your head.
Now, that's what thrills me about God choosing
me.
Because he don't choose no losers.
God's only chosen winners.
And by virtue of the fact that I've
been chosen, that ensures that I'm going to
win.
Chosen in him before the foundations of the
world.
I derive tremendous comfort from that.
You may say, well, that isn't fair that
God can choose.
Because if he chooses who's going to be
saved, then he's also chosen who's going to
be lost.
It doesn't say that, does it?
You're adding to the scripture.
Well, that's a natural assumption.
Not necessarily.
The fact that God foreknows those that are
going to be saved.
And chooses them.
Does not preclude any man from coming.
Because the scripture says, whosoever will may come
and drink of the water of life freely.
And not one person has ever come to
God and been turned back by God.
God said, well, let me see.
I'm sorry, your name's not on the list.
Too bad.
You seem like a very nice fellow.
I would like to save you, but there
was a slip up in the record someplace.
I guess you just can't make it, you
know.
Predestination, divine election, never precludes any man.
You say, but I don't think that I
like that God can make these choices.
Because what if he didn't choose me?
Well, how do you know he didn't choose
you?
Well, I'm not a Christian.
Well, why aren't you a Christian?
Well, I don't want to be.
Well, then maybe he didn't choose you and
it's sort of sad.
But you can find out whether or not
he chose you by just accepting Jesus Christ.
And you'll discover he chose you before the
foundation of the world.
You see, if there's any question in it,
you can answer the question tonight.
You can just say, Lord, come into my
life.
I'm going to be a Christian.
I'm going to follow Jesus Christ.
And you'll discover, the minute you do, that
God chose you from the foundation of the
world.
You say, oh, I've been waiting for this.
Great to have you on board.
Come on in.
And then he'll show you, look, I chose
you.
Here you are.
I knew exactly the time, the whole situation.
Here it is.
You were chosen before the foundation of the
world.
Yeah, but what if I don't want to
come?
Well, then again, as I said, it's tough.
But you can't blame God.
Because God has opened the door to you.
And God has given you the opportunity.
And God has called you to come.
So though God has chosen those, still he
has left the door open so that it
becomes your choice also.
Though God already knows the choice you're going
to make.
But you're the one that makes the choice.
But God, in all of his wisdom, knows
the choices each person is going to make.
But he doesn't make the choice for you.
He only knows in advance that what you're
going to choose.
We were chosen before the foundation of the
world that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love.
Oh, God help me.
We've got two chapters going.
I'm just plotting.
But every verse just opens up such a
new rich dimension.
It's hard to just pass over it.
What has God chosen for you?
That you should stand before him holy and
without blame.
In Jude, we read, Now unto him who
is able to keep you from falling and
to present you faultless before the presence of
his glory with exceeding joy.
One of these days, my name is going
to be called.
And I'm going to stand out.
And God's going to look at me.
Jesus is going to step up and say,
Father, one of mine.
In Christ, holy, without blame.
He's innocent, Father.
He's without blame.
He's faultless.
He's going to present me faultless.
How?
Because he's going to present me in him.
It is in Christ that I have this
standing before God of faultless, without blame, holy.
That isn't me.
That isn't my works.
That isn't my efforts.
That's the way God is going to receive
me in Christ Jesus.
That's the way Jesus is going to present
me to the Father.
For he has taken all of my blame.
He has taken all of my sin.
And he's paid the price and the penalty.
And he's going to present me in his
righteousness.
For God made him to be sin for
us, who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God through him.
Having predestinated us, God's predestined plan for our
lives, that we should be adopted as his
children.
You know, as we were going through Romans,
we pointed out the fact that we have
been adopted as the sons of God.
Jesus is the only begotten Son of God.
But God has predestined that we should become
the adopted children by Christ Jesus.
According to the good pleasure of his will.
Now, this is a phrase you're going to
find repeated, and it's an important phrase to
understand.
The good pleasure of his will.
In Revelation 4.11, the elders declare to
God, Thou art worthy to receive glory and
honor, for thou has created all things, and
for your good pleasure they are and were
created.
The good pleasure of his will.
God has chosen you.
God has predestined you to be his children,
that he might receive pleasure from your willful
obedience to his will.
That you might be faithful, obedient children, in
which the Father can take pride.
You remember when Job was there, accusing before
God the saints.
Remember in the book of Job, the sons
of God were presenting themselves to God.
Satan also came with them.
God said, Hey, where have you been, man?
He said, I've been cruising around the world.
Oh, hey, did you notice that one fellow
Job?
Hey, good man, isn't he?
Perfect, upright, he loves good, he hates evil.
Oh yeah, I've noticed that guy.
But you've put a hedge around him.
I can't get close to him.
And, you know, you've so blessed that guy.
He's so wealthy.
Who wouldn't serve you, give him all that
kind of stuff?
Anybody would serve you.
He doesn't really love you, he just loves
the perks he's receiving.
You let me at that guy.
I can make him curse you to your
face.
God said, well, have a go at it,
but don't touch his life.
And how Job went through the stripping process.
Family, possessions, friends.
And it came another time when the sons
of God were presenting themselves to God.
Satan also came with him.
God said, hey, where have you been?
Going up and down the earth to him,
throw through it.
Oh, have you seen my servant Job?
God's rubbing him in now.
Because after Satan stripped him of everything, he
lay on the ground naked, destitute.
And he said, naked, I came into the
world naked.
I'm going out.
The Lord gives, the Lord takes away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And all these things he did not curse
God or charge God foolishly.
Now God's rubbing him in.
Notice my servant Job, good man, loves good,
hates evil, you know.
My boy.
God was proud.
Taking pleasure.
And that's what God desires to do in
your life, to take pleasure for your love
and your obedience to Him according to the
good pleasure of His will.
To the praise of the glory of His
grace, that God might receive praise and glory
because of His grace, wherein He hath made
us, and the next blessing, accepted in the
Beloved.
God has accepted me in Christ.
Now I have no acceptance before God in
myself.
I can't go up and say, hey God,
I'm Chuck Smith.
Here's my card.
I want in.
I want you to accept me, God.
Because I already tried.
I have no acceptance in myself.
I am only accepted in Christ.
Accepted in the Beloved.
And when I stand before God, I'll stand
before Him in Christ and as such will
be accepted in the Beloved.
In whom we have redemption through His blood.
So the next blessing, in whom, in Christ,
we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of His
grace.
I almost spoke on this subject this morning.
I'm going to just bypass the temptation to
speak on it tonight.
In whom we have redemption through His blood.
The idea of redemption is that of purchasing
something back.
The idea here is to purchase a slave
off the market who cannot pay his debts.
He's been sold into slavery because of his
inability to pay his debts.
And someone now has come along and paid
his debt for him, has redeemed him.
I owed a debt I could not pay.
I was sold into the slavery of sin.
But Jesus paid the debt that I owed.
And He redeemed me from the slavery to
the life of the flesh that I might
become a child of God, forgiven through the
blood of Jesus Christ.
Oh, how glorious.
The forgiveness of my sins according to the
riches of His grace, wherein He has abounded,
that is, His grace has abounded toward us
in all wisdom and prudence, having made known
unto us the mystery of His will according
to His good pleasure which He has purposed
in Himself.
Again, the good pleasure of God, the purposes
of God.
And in this He has made known unto
us the mystery of His will.
What is it?
That Christ in you is your hope of
glory.
That in the dispensation of the fullness of
times, that is, when the whole cycle is
complete and the history of man is concluded,
that He might gather together in one all
things in Christ, both which are in heaven,
which are on the earth, even in Him.
God's intention of bringing the whole universe together
again into obedience and in subjection to Jesus
Christ.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and
the earth.
There was only one government in the universe.
It was the government of God, the government
of light and life.
And every creature within the universe that was
created by God was in harmony with God,
in subjection to God.
And there was a beautiful, glorious universe of
light and life.
But one day, one of God's glorious creatures
that was perfect in beauty and perfect in
wisdom and perfect in all of His ways,
decided that He was going to be equal
with God.
He was going to exalt Himself above the
other angels and was going to be as
God.
And with that rebellion against the will of
God, there came a second government in the
universe, Satan as its head, the government of
death and darkness, a government that is in
antagonism to the first government, in rebellion against
the first government, and thus the beginning of
this struggle within the universe of the good
against the evil.
And we have come into time, born on
this planet Earth, which happens to be sort
of the center of the conflict.
And we are born into a spiritual conflict.
And even within us, we experience the conflict
of the good that I would, I often
do not do, and that which I would
not, I find myself doing.
And I find myself in this conflict of
good and evil.
And I look around at this weary world
and I see it in this conflict.
And I see the tragic byproducts of the
conflict.
I see the suffering.
I see the wars.
I see the struggles, all resulting because of
the initial rebellion against God.
And man caught up in that rebellion and
not living as God would have him to
live upon the world.
For as we sang, love, love, this is
your call.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
This is God's command.
It's God's call to us.
But men aren't living by that standard.
And thus the conflict and thus the miseries
of the world around us.
It could all be solved if we just
start living as God asked us to live.
But one day, thank God one day, Satan
is to be cast into Gehenna.
And all of those that have chosen to
rebel with him, they'll be cast into outer
darkness, beyond the furthest galaxy, out into the
abysmal darkness beyond the light of any of
the universe.
Loving darkness rather than light, God accommodates them
into the eternal darkness forever.
And within this universe of God once more,
there will be just one government.
And God will gather together in the fullness
of times all things into Christ and all
now in subject to His authority, living in
a world, in a universe of peace and
glory, all in harmony now with Him, all
in sync with Him once more.
What a glorious universe that's going to be.
You know, this world wouldn't be a bad
place if it weren't for sin.
I've seen some really beautiful places.
If it weren't for man's corrupting of this
planet, it has really some gloriously beautiful places
to see.
I've been skin diving in some fabulously beautiful
places, just enchanted by the coral, by the
various fish and all.
And then I see some beer can.
And I think, what a tragedy.
Out here in the Pacific, some inconsiderate person
just polluting, trashing.
Man has the capacity of trashing everything it
seems.
How glorious to live in a world that
will all be in subjection to Jesus Christ
when in the fullness of time, the cycle
is complete and God brings it all back
together in one, even in Him, in whom
also we have obtained an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled,
phased not away, reserved in heaven for you.
If we are children of God, then we
are heirs of God and joint heirs with
Jesus Christ.
And it is through Jesus Christ that I
have become an heir to the glorious eternal
kingdom of God and to the riches of
that kingdom.
They are mine.
And I shall enjoy them world without end
in whom also we have this glorious inheritance,
being predestined according to the purpose of Him
who works all things after the counsel of
His own will.
God doesn't have to ask counsel or advice
of anybody.
He does it all according to His own
will.
His purpose is which He has purposed.
They shall come to pass.
They shall stand.
God's purposes cannot be defeated.
That which God has purposed shall be.
Thank God His purpose that I should share
with Him in that glorious kingdom.
Oh, thank God for His purposes.
The eternal purposes of God which He has
purposed in Himself after the counsel of His
own will that we should be to the
praise of His glory because of our trust
in Jesus Christ.
When you trust in His Son Jesus, God
just says, oh, look at them.
Look at the trust they have.
Now many times this trust is tested.
Am I going to trust in Jesus when
things go bad?
Do I only trust in Him when things
are rosy and things are going great?
Oh, man, life is sweet.
Life is wonderful.
Oh, Lord, I trust You for everything.
But do I trust Him when it gets
tough?
Do I trust Him only when I can
understand what He's doing?
Can I trust Him when I don't understand?
Now, many times God places me in situations
that I don't understand to see if my
trust is really genuine.
And as I trust in Him in those
dark places, in the places of suffering, in
the places of questions, when I trust Him
in those places, actually it brings greater praise
to His grace than when I only trust
Him in the good times.
My trust in Jesus, in whom you also
trusted after you heard the Word of Truth,
the Gospel of your salvation, in whom also
after that you believed, you were sealed with
that Holy Spirit of promise.
Now, Ephesus was a major seaport in which
the goods were coming from the eastern part
of the world.
And the merchants from Rome would go to
Ephesus to the large markets there, the wholesale
markets, and they would purchase these goods coming
from the east.
And then they would crate them, and then
they would put their seal on the crate.
The wax, and each one had their ring,
their signet ring, and they would press their
ring into the wax.
It was the sealing of the merchandise.
They would put it on the ships, and
then the ships would sail to Puteoli, which
was the port for Rome in those days.
And when the merchandise arrived in Puteoli, the
merchant's servants that were there would go through
the goods as they were unloaded, and they'd
say, there, there, there, and they would pick
out the merchandise that was sealed with their
master's seal.
It was the sign of ownership.
That's mine.
That belongs to me.
That's mine.
It has my seal on it.
It was the sign of ownership.
God has purchased you after you believed in
Jesus, after you trusted Him, and He went
one step further.
He put on me His seal of ownership.
I tell you, that makes you feel secure.
That God has sealed me.
I'm His.
I belong to God.
I've got the seal of God upon my
life.
His Holy Spirit, which He has given to
me.
It's God's seal of ownership.
In whom we have been sealed with that
Holy Spirit of promise.
Which is the earnest of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession.
Or it is the down payment.
I put an ad in the paper.
I'm going to sell my car.
You come along and you say, I like
that car.
I want to buy it.
I have to go to the bank and
get the money.
I say, you really want to buy it?
Yes, I want to buy it, but I
have to go to the bank and get
the money.
Well, then give me a deposit.
Oh no, no, I'll buy it.
Just take my word for it.
No, no.
I want a deposit because someone might come
along in five minutes and offer me cash
and have the cash on hand and I
don't want to be holding the car for
you because you may change your mind on
the way to the bank or the bank
may not give you the money, you see.
And here I might turn away a valid
buyer trying to hold the thing for you.
So I want a deposit.
If you want me to hold this car
for you, I want a deposit.
You give me the deposit and the car
is yours.
The deposit is what they call earnest money,
which means I am really earnest to buy
it.
I am earnest in my intent to buy
your car or you're showing that you're earnest
in your intent to buy my car as
this case happened to turn out.
The deposit, it indicates that you are intending
to go ahead and complete the purchase.
Now, God has placed His deposit on me.
He has purchased me.
I've been redeemed through Jesus Christ.
He has sealed me, put His mark of
ownership upon me and He's paid the down
payment, the deposit.
Until that day when He takes me into
His glorious kingdom and the redemption is complete.
You see, this body is not yet redeemed.
I have a redeemed spirit living in a
corrupted body.
This body is decaying.
It's going to pieces.
But I have a redeemed spirit and I'm
waiting for the redemption of the body.
That is, the new body that I have,
the building of God not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens.
And therein, when I enter into that new
body and am in the presence of the
Lord, my redemption at that point will be
complete.
So, in the meantime, that God might show
to you that He is earnest and sincere
about His purpose in redeeming you, He gives
to you the deposit, the down payment of
the Holy Spirit, which is the earnest of
our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession under the praise of His glory.
One day God's going to complete this transaction
of my salvation when I am there with
Him in His glorious kingdom.
Wherefore, I also, after I heard of your
faith in the Lord Jesus and your love
unto all of the saints, cease not to
give thanks for you, making mention of you
in my prayers.
This is the first of the two prayers
that Paul has prayed for the Ephesians.
And the one thing that I like about
Paul's prayers are the directness of his prayers
and the thing that I think is a
weakness in prayer many times is the lack
of directness in prayer.
I think that so often we are praying
for things that are actually symptoms rather than
getting to the heart of the matter.
Here is John.
He's having a terrible drinking problem.
He's become an alcoholic.
Oh, God, help John not to drink anymore.
It's destroying his life.
He's going down the tubes.
He's drinking.
God, help him not to drink anymore.
So, John becomes a sober sinner rather than
a drunk sinner.
What has he gained?
Outside of sobriety.
His real need is salvation.
You see, we're praying for the symptoms.
If you went to a doctor who only
treated your symptoms, he'd be a quack.
Doctor, I have this dizziness and these reoccurring
headaches.
The pressure seems to build up.
Well, here, take some aspirin.
Two months later, Doctor, the aspirin just isn't
doing it.
The pressure seems to be greater and I'm
having these dizzy spells and I'm blacking out.
Well, here, I'll give you some Demerol.
You need something more powerful.
And if he only went ahead treating the
symptoms while you have a tumor developing in
the brain and creating pressure and all, he's
a quack.
But so often as we are praying in
situations, we're praying only for the symptoms.
We're not getting at the heart.
And I think it's important in prayer to
come directly to the real heart.
Because as we pray for symptoms, we're so
often just praying that God will correct the
symptom without really getting at the cause.
Like this fellow that every Saturday night at
the testimony meeting was talking about how he
became entangled in the web of sin this
week.
And oh, I was determined to live for
Jesus, but sin began to weave its web
and I got all entangled in the web
of sin and I fell again.
But oh, I come tonight to repent.
I want God's help.
And every Saturday night, same testimony.
Caught in the web and it entangled me
and I fell again and all.
Until finally one night, as the guy was
giving his testimony, another fellow sitting by said,
oh, God, kill the spider.
That's getting to the heart of the issue.
We deal so often in just the peripheral
issues rather than coming to the heart of
the problem.
Paul in his prayers, he comes right down
to the heart of the issue.
And that's why I love Paul's prayers.
What is he praying for them?
First of all, 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.
One of the most important things that any
of us can possess is the true knowledge
of God.
There is so much false concepts concerning God.
You cannot know God by searching.
That's what the friend Eliphaz said to Job.
Who by searching can find out God?
You can't.
God has revealed Himself and it is only
by revelation that you can really know God.
And it is only as the Spirit opens
your heart to the revelation that you can
really understand God.
You cannot in your intellectual quest come to
an understanding of God.
It takes a revelation by the Spirit of
God.
No man can come to the Father except
the Spirit draw him.
No man can really understand the Father.
The natural man cannot understand the things of
the Spirit.
Neither can he know them.
They are spiritually discerned.
God is the Spirit.
They that worship Him must worship Him in
spirit and truth.
That's an impossibility for the natural man.
It takes the Spirit working in my heart,
the Spirit of revelation in the wisdom and
in the knowledge, the understanding of God.
And Paul is praying that God might reveal
Himself to them by the Holy Spirit.
That's the only help and the only hope
I have of ever knowing God is through
revelation of the Spirit.
That the eyes of your understanding, once I've
come to understand God, being enlightened, that then
I might know what is the hope of
His calling.
Remember the first thing that Paul was excited
about.
He was chosen in Him.
Oh, if you only knew what the hope
is for those that God has called to
be His children.
You would never, never, never have a problem
with death again.
You'd never have a fear of death.
You would never grieve for a child of
God who died if you only knew what
is the hope of our calling.
We have such peculiar concepts of death.
Oh, what a shame.
He was so young.
He had everything going for him.
His whole life in front of him.
What a tragedy that he was snuffed out
so early.
That's because you don't know the hope of
the calling of the believer.
Tragedy for us maybe because we're going to
miss Him, but not a tragedy for Him.
He's there in the presence of the Lord.
He doesn't have to go through all the
hell and the suffering on this earth.
Your life on this earth is all of
the hell you're ever going to know.
For those that aren't saved, their life on
this earth is all of the heaven they're
going to ever know if you only knew
what was the hope of your calling.
If you only knew what God has in
store for His children.
If you only knew the glory that awaits
us as children of God.
You see, it would correct the false attitude
that we have towards the world and the
things of the world.
Now, rather than Paul saying, Oh God, they're
getting so embroiled in the worldly things.
Help them to begin to have a distaste
and all for those things.
No, he just prays at the heart of
the issue.
They don't know what God is preparing for
them.
They're discouraged because they've lost sight of the
glory that God is going to reveal in
them.
And so he gets right to the heart
of the issue.
God, enlighten them as to the hope of
their calling.
Let them know, God, what You've got in
store for them.
They won't become discouraged anymore, Lord.
They only know the glorious things that await
them when they get to the end of
the road.
Alexander the Great was going over the Himalayas
as he was moving to conquer India, having
conquered the Persian Empire and all of its
wealth.
And he saw this one young fellow whose
horse was heavy laden and the horse was
weakening under the load and beginning to sort
of stumble along and he was doing his
best to help the horse and finally the
horse just collapsed.
And so this young boy took the load
that was on the horse, put it on
his shoulders and he began to strain and
struggle with that load.
And Alexander the Great became curious.
What in the world does he have in
those sacks that he is trying so hard
to carry them on?
Why doesn't he just leave them along the
path?
And he went up to him and he
said, young man, what in the world do
you have in those sacks that you're trying
so hard to get to camp with them?
And he looked at him and he said,
sir, I bear in these sacks the treasures
of Alexander the Great.
Alexander shook his head and he says, when
we make camp, take them to your tent.
They now belong to you.
Don't you know they got a lot lighter?
All of a sudden it wasn't nearly as
heavy.
Oh, it's mine!
Wow!
The Lord says, hey, when we make camp,
it's all yours.
The hope of your calling, the glorious eternal
riches of God's kingdom.
When I realize what God has waiting for
me, I'll tell you, it gives me the
strength, the energies, the courage, all that I
need to go on if you only knew
the hope of your calling.
If you knew what were the riches of
the glory of His inheritance in the saints.
Now, this is interesting.
Watch out.
Now, careful.
He's not talking about your inheritance here.
Now he's talking about his inheritance and this
to me is a mystery.
What he's saying is if you only knew
how much God treasured you.
I've never thought much of that.
I've thought a lot about my treasures in
God.
But God treasures me?
You remember Jesus said the kingdom of heaven
is like unto a man going through a
field and discovering a treasure?
Now when you interpret that parable, the treasure
turns out to be you.
And the person who gave everything to buy
the field, the world, in order to obtain
the treasure was Jesus.
He values you so highly that He gave
His life to redeem you, to purchase you.
You are His treasure.
Peter said we are His peculiar treasure.
God's treasure.
If you only knew how much God treasured
you, you'd never treat yourself cheaply again.
You'd never look down at yourself again.
Hey, I'm God's treasure.
I'm God's inheritance.
God values me.
God treasures me.
Glory.
Personally, I don't think he's getting much of
a deal, but I like it that he
likes it.
The riches of the glory of His inheritance
in the saints.
And then if you only knew the tremendous
power that God has made available to you
in your life.
What is the exceeding greatness of His power
to us who believe.
According to the work of that mighty power,
if you only knew the resources that are
available to you as a child of God.
The resources of God are now yours.
The strength of God.
The peace of God.
They all become yours.
These glorious resources.
Oh God, help them to realize the resources
that they have if they'll just call upon
you.
That power that is available to them.
That same power which He wrought in Christ
when He raised Him from the dead and
set Him at His own right hand.
That same power of the Spirit that raised
Jesus from the dead is the power of
the Spirit that dwells in you and is
going to make alive our mortal bodies by
His dwelling in us.
If you only knew the exceeding greatness of
the power of the Spirit of God.
It has set Christ in the heavenly places
far above all principality and power and might
and dominion.
These are rankings of the spirit beings in
the universe.
Christ is far above all of these spiritual
beings.
Far above every principality, power, might, dominion and
every name that is named.
Not only in this world, but in the
one to come.
That place and position that God has given
to Jesus Christ.
As we come into Philippians, we'll find that
God has also highly exalted Him, given Him
a name which is above every name.
That at the name of Jesus, every knee
shall bow and every tongue shall confess that
Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory
of God the Father.
He has seated Him there in the heavenly
places far above.
A name above every name that is named.
And He has put all things under His
feet.
The authority, the power that He has given
to Jesus to reign.
And He gave Him to be the head
over all things to the church.
So Christ, the head of the body of
the church.
Every month at our church board meeting, we
begin the meeting with an acknowledgement that Jesus
is the head of the body of the
church.
We're not there to conduct the business as
we see fit.
We're there to get the mind of the
Lord that He might direct the activities of
the church.
We're not there to govern the church.
We're there to listen to Him, to find
out what He wants done.
And we seek His counsel and we seek
His advice.
For He is the head of all things
to the church, which is His body.
The fullness of Him that fills all in
all.
I'm not going to try chapter 2.
I'm just going to go home and have
spiritual indigestion all week.
I hope you do.
I hope you burp in these scriptures all
week long.
God will just bring back to your heart
and your mind what you are to Him.
How valuable you are to Him.
How important you are to Him.
How much He loves you.
How much He's made available to you.
How much He's done for you.
Just because He loves you with such exceeding
great love.
And that you might just trust in Him
so completely and so fully that God will
just take pleasure and glory in your trust
in Him and receive praise and glory because
of your total trust in His wisdom as
you commit your life into His hands.
I pray that this will be one of
the richest weeks you've ever had in your
walk with Jesus Christ.
That you'll come to a new appreciation of
the Holy Spirit and His work within your
life.
That sealing you.
God owns you.
That awareness.
I'm His property.
I'm not my own to do with me
what I want to do with me.
I've been bought with a price.
There's been a deposit paid.
And I'm waiting for Him to redeem that
which He purchased.
Oh, how rich and blessed you are to
be a child of God.
Nothing in the world can compare with it.
The riches of loving Christ Jesus.
Far greater than gold or wealth untold.
Those riches that are yours in Him.
I feel like David when he said, And
Lord, what shall I say to these things?
I'm speechless, God.
How can I respond to God when I
see that all that God has done for
me?
How do you respond to something like this?
How do you say thank you for these
kind of things?
Just, thanks God, appreciate that.
Sounds really too trite.
How can I do less than give Him
my best and live for Him completely after
all He's done for me?
The natural response is just that total, here
it is Lord, take it.
I give it to you in the hope
of the calling.
The riches of the eternal kingdom of God
that are mine.
When you have completed your redemptive process.
God bless you.
Anoint you with His Spirit.
Fill you with His love.
Crown you with His glory.
In Jesus' name.