Seeing Life God’s Way
By Pastor Matt Black
09
July 2006
Lord's Day morning
Ephesians 1:18-19
Introduction: Open your Bible to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. In our text this morning, we learn that everything about life is viewed differently. Absolutely nothing is the same. The way we think when we become a believer is radically different. What has happened? God has enlightened our eyes. Our eyes have been opened. When we got saved, the spiritual world where God dwells went from blackness to living color! Now that we can see, God tells us what to be looking for. The title then of this morning’s message then is “Seeing Life God’s Way.” Let’s stand together and read Ephesians chapter 1 and verses 15 through 23.
[Stand and read Ephesians 1:15-23]
Our main text will come from verses 18-19, “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, 19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us–ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power…”
The outline this morning is simple. What has God opened our eyes to?
In verse 17 of our text, Paul prays that God would give to the Ephesians the Spirit of “wisdom and revelation in the knowledge” of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God is the only one who can reveal truth to a blind sinner. In fact Paul makes it crystal clear what he is praying for in verse 18, “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened.” One of the most obvious marks that a person has been saved, is that their eyes have been opened. Have you experienced that before? Have you thought, “How could I have been so blind?...I see it so clearly now, but why didn’t I understand before?” “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God”, Romans 3:11 tells us. Why? Because our “understanding” is “darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in [US]…”because of the blindness of …[OUR] heart” (Ephesians 4:18). We are all of us born “in Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:22), spiritually stillborn—“dead in our trespasses and sins”, (Ephesians 2:1); and from birth we are “vain in [OUR’] imaginations, and [OUR] foolish heart [IS] darkened” (Romans 1:21). John 3:18 tells us that God did not send Jesus into this world to condemn us, but we were born “condemned already.” What is that reveals men are condemned—blind, and ignorant of their blindness? The next verse tells us (John 3:19) that that condemnation is “that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” Men don’t love the light—in fact they are running from it! They want nothing to do with the light. We all hate the truth that we are liars, thieving, adulterous blasphemers at heart because we love our sin! We are by nature like cockroaches who scurry when the light is turned on. No one on earth cares to dwell on reality. Everything is a “virtual reality.” Our society wastes away with drugs and alcohol and entertainment and every sensual pleasure because they want to be numb to reality. We do not want the reality of our soul to be exposed. That is why people don’t want to discuss God. They feel unclean and know they are guilty, so they avoid the subject at all costs. That’s how these Ephesians were. They were blind, and they preferred it that way. They had no capacity to see the things of God, and we are the same way! No man on this earth can understand God on his own, any more than a blind man can read a news paper. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).
It’s a pretty dangerous thing to be blind, wouldn’t you say? It is not as if you are in a place of peace and safety. This life has dangers with every step. People die every minute. Danger lurks at every turn. Life is snatched from people young and old. Most of the time death happens suddenly and people fall into the precipice of eternity. The majority of people on this earth are blind to what happens after death. They purposely do not plan for it. They are blind, and they do not want to ponder death and God. What a dangerous and treacherous state to be in!
And yet God has had mercy on many of us here today and gives us “eyes to see and ears to heart” and a “heart to perceive” (Deuteronomy 29:4). It is a shocking, transforming experience when God opens the eyes and “enlightens” our “understanding” (Ephesians 1:18) as our text says. Jesus in His ministry once healed a man born blind from birth. That is an earth shaking miracle!
The giving of spiritual sight to the blind is a miracle greater than the miracles Jesus performed on men that were physically blind.
It is greater because physical helps will be of no use when the body dies, but spiritual sight will prepare you for that which lasts forever! Has God saved you? Salvation is that miracle whereby God gives us spiritual sight! It is described in many ways of giving sight to the blind. In fact, Jesus said in Luke 4:18 that He was sent “to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind.” It is a terrible thing to have ”eyes to see, and [NOT BE ABLE TO HEAR]; …[and] ears to hear, and [AND NOT BE ABLE TO HEAR]” (Ezekiel 12:2).
Application: It may be that you are here today, and you are quite blind to the things of the Spirit of God. You may have a great knowledge of the things of God, but there is no conviction in your soul about them. You don’t necessarily love the truth of God. Christianity is nice and all, but it’s not a life and death thing for you. You think you pretty much have a lot of your life together. You are like the Laodoceans that the Lord rebuked in Revelation 3:17, “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”
Paul’s commission from the Lord was “To open …[the] eyes [of the Gentiles], and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God” (Acts 26:18). He prayed in our text that they would see with NEW EYES—that the “eyes of [their] understanding” would be “enlightened” (verse 18).
If you are a Christian, your eyes have been opened. You have experienced the “Amazing Grace” of God’s love and mercy. You can testify with the with Captain John Newton. He wrote the words to “Amazing Grace.” John Newton (1725–1807) was the captain of a slave ship. He was a rough young man with no care for anyone or anything but himself. But on May 10th, 1748 returning home during a storm he experienced a "great deliverance." Later he renounced his slave trading, became a minister, and joined William Wilberforce in the fight against slavery. What would make a wicked slave trader be turned into a preacher of the Gospel? Listen to Newton’s own words:
Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now I'm found,
Was blind, but now I see.
Can you see this morning? Is the only thing that matters to you the Lord who saved you? Have you renounced this life and taken up your cross to follow Jesus (Matthew 16:24)? I urge you this morning to take seriously the words of 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” Those in Christ are no longer blind. They see clearly the three things that Paul prays for. Look at our text in Ephesians 1:18. Paul says first of all that those whom God has given sight can clearly see His plan, they’re not worried about their own plans because they have this powerful calling upon their lives. So let us look at our first point.
I. Paul prays that those with new eyes would see God’s Plan. Why had God “enlightened” the “eyes of our understanding”? First he says, “that ye may know what is the hope of his calling” (verse 18b). What does this mean? Last week we learned that the call to the Christian is a special calling. It is a powerful, effectual call. The Bible calls it drawing, the conviction of the Spirit of God (John 16:18) which results in “the washing of regeneration” of the human soul “and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5). Really the enlightening of our eyes took place when God called us effectually. Remember that day when it all came together for you, and you understood that Christ had died for you? He took the blinders off our eyes. So Paul prays that we would know the “hope of His calling.” How can we give ourselves to the calling God has put upon our lives?
A. First, if you are to know God’s calling on our life, you must reject your own calling and the world’s calling. Are your eyes open to God’s calling?
Man is born filled with ambition! Each man believes his calling is to be the greatest in the world! He’s filled with pride and his own way! The Gospel teaches us truths that are quite different from this. A man who has the “hope of God’s calling” on his life has no other ambitions but to follow the call of Jesus Christ to the death.
Matthew 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
The only ambition of the child of God is the hope of the calling God has placed on his life. Turn over to Philippians chapter 3.
Paul left behind all earthly desires and ambitions. Man puts such influence into titles and worldly accomplishments. In verse 7 and 8, Paul has this attitude of disdain for all the empty accomplishments and ambitions of this life. He says, “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”
What was Paul’s ambition? He says in verse 9, that I might “be found in [CHRIST], not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith…”
He says, you really want to know what makes me happy? What is it that really makes me tick? You want to know what it is that motivates my every thought and action. It really has nothing to do with this life at all. Paul said he wanted to know Christ “and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” (Philippians 3:10)!
Have you rejected this world’s calling? Have you ever stopped to ask God what HE would want you to do for you life? Or have you just gone whatever way you’ve wanted to? O, if you will ever see God’s plan, you must first reject your own way and say, God, I want to know and be motivated by the hope of your calling! I’ve invented my own calling, and like Paul I want to count all my achievements and ambitions as dung! So first, reject your own calling and the calling of this world.
B. Secondly, if you are to know God’s calling on our life, you must realize that you do not control your own destiny!
There is only one Almighty God, and you are not Him! The root of all sin is self-dominion. By nature, we want to rule ourselves and rule our own lives. You cannot know the hope of God’s calling if you are still plotting your own destiny. You need to lay a foundation in your life like Jeremiah did. Look at
Jeremiah 10:23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
Proverbs 16:9 says it this way: “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.”
If you know Christ as Saviour, no longer do you direct your own steps!
Psalm 37:23, “The steps of a good man are ordered [literally, ORDAINED] by the LORD.” If you are a believer, I tell you rest in God’s plans and calling for you.
Do you realize that you DO NOT control your own destiny? We go about wanting to please men and succeed in this life, and live the American dream. We fear losing our job, or losing our reputation. We fear losing money and prosperity. All of this is foolish. We fear the circumstances tomorrow. We fear those who we think have power over our circumstances. These fears are unwarranted! What does Matthew 10:28 tell us? “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
C. Secondly, if you are to know God’s calling on our life, you must rest in that calling. You must have the “hope of his calling” as our text says. Hope in this verse means the ‘expectation’ that something will come to pass. There is this rest that comes from the inward call of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God assures you that the only thing worth living for is your call to the heavenly kingdom. So we can do, as Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Notice,
1. The rest and assurance of your calling comes from a dependence and trust in God. “Trust in the LORD.”
2. Secondly that rest comes from a denial of self. “lean not unto thine own understanding”
3. Then we see where else this rest comes from: a determination to obey. See verse 6: “In all thy ways acknowledge him”
4. Then finally we see this rest results in God’s dominion in your life! “he shall direct thy paths.” Whose got control and dominion of your life? Are you directing your own path?
Reject your plans, Realize you do not control your own destiny, and Rest in that calling. Act on it. Live for the Lord in. Obey the inward voice of the Holy Spirit. Obey what the Bible says. If you have God’s calling on your life, then God’s plans and your plans become one! You no longer care about your own will and your own ambitions and calling, but you listen to the voice of the Lord and pray “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).
Are your eyes open? Do you know the hope of His calling? Look back at our text in Ephesians 1:18. Paul prays for these people to see “what is the hope of his calling” but he prays for a second thing: “what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints”. So we see God’s plan for our life here and now. We’ve laid aside our own ambitions to follow the inward call of God’s Spirit. Romans 8:16 “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God”. Not only has God opened our eyes to His calling and plan for our lives on this earth, but secondly…
II. God has opened our eyes to His Promise. Don’t you know we have an inheritance coming? We ought to daily ponder “the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (verse 18).
We need to realize that we all have an inheritance somewhere. When we die we will live somewhere forever.
Verse 18 tells us what's involved in God's promis: "The riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." We are saints (Gk., hagios, "holy ones"). We were made holy in Jesus Christ. We are God's children and will receive an inheritance. But notice that it isn't just an inheritance; it's "the riches of the glory of his inheritance." That means words can't describe the greatness of the inheritance God has planned for us.
A. Our first thought of an inheritance is What we are GETTING: a Possession.
An inheritance is a pretty important happening. We all will have an inheritance. Those who are saved will have an inheritance like Romans 8:15-17, “ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint–heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”
John 3:36 states it even more plainly. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” But this verse goes on to not only speak of the inheritance of the just, but also of the unjust. The last part of the verse says this: “he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him”
So we are all getting something when we die. We will all either possess eternal life or eternal wrath.
B. Then when we think of an inheritance, we think of Where we are GOING: a Place.
John 14:1-3 “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
C. Utlimately, it is Who we are given: a Person!
Psalm 119:57 Thou art my portion, O LORD: I have said that I would keep thy words.
Listen to our promised possession in eternity:
Revelation 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
But again we see that the wicked also have an inheritance. Skip down to verse 8 of the 21st chapter of John’s Apocalypse: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
So we have seen as God people that we have new vision. We have the hope of His calling (his plan) and the inheritance in the saints (his promise). But finally we see…
III. God has opened our eyes to His Power.[1] We then read what else Paul prays for in verse 19 of our text: “19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us–ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power…”
A. We see God’s power defined.
Paul was trying to describe how powerful we are, so he used every word for power he could think of. There are four different Greek words used for power in verse 19.
1. Dunamis--"The exceeding greatness of his power [dunamis]." We derive the English word dynamite from dunamis. It refers to inherent power.
2. Energeia--"According to the working [energeia]." That word is the basis for the English word energy. It refers to operative power.
3. Kratos--"The working of his mighty [kratos]." Sometimes kratos is translated "dominion." It refers to ultimate power.
4. Ischus--"His mighty power [ischus]." It refers to endowed power.
Paul was saying that God has given believers unbelievable power. Many Christians claim they don't have enough strength or power. That's why Paul prayed for the believer to know the power available to him.
B. We see God’s Power Demonstrated
1. Power to evangelize
· Romans 1:16--"I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation."
· 1 Thessalonians 1:5--"Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance."
2. Power to endure suffering In 2 Corinthians 4:7 Paul says, "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." In verses 8-10 Paul details all the troubles and persecutions he had to endure for Christ's sake. Then in verse 14 he says, "Knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus."
3. Power to execute God's will. People often fear they don't have the energy or resources to do God's will. But Philippians 2:13 says, "It is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."
4. Power to serve
In Colossians 1:29 Paul says, "Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.”
Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
C. Then we see God’s power delivered.
In Acts 1:8--Jesus said, "Ye shall receive power, after the Holy Spirit is come upon you." The Holy Spirit came upon you when you were saved. So you do have the power.
In Ephesians 3:20--Paul said, "Now unto him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us."
God has given us incredible power. Don't run around looking for something more. That's an affront to the gracious love of God who has given us everything in Christ.
· Some people say, well, I need a sign-- to speak in tongues or something-- to be spiritual.
· Others say--I need someone on the earthly level to help me.
· No! All that you need, you already have! It is the power that raised Christ from the dead!
Conclusion: Has God opened your eyes to His plan, promise, and power? As we close, turn over to Matthew 20 and verse 30. We read the story of two blind men. Look at verse 30 and following, “And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 31 And the multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace: but they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 32 And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you? 33 They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. 34 So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him.”
Perhaps you are hear today, and the Lord has made you aware of your spiritual blindness.
Closing Hymn: 333 Open Our Eyes, Lord
[1] Much of the material from point three is borrowed from John Macarthur’s study guide entitled, “Life in Jesus Christ” which is a study on the book of Ephesians.