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All right, okay, so that's the basis. The basis of Paul's praying for more knowledge of God is that God himself has promised to reveal himself to his people. This is from page 150. First paragraph, God's sovereign grace in our lives must serve not as a disincentive to prayer, but as an incentive, just as it is for Paul.
What that means is, just because God's sovereign doesn't mean you're hands off. I think a lot of, I think we talked about it last week, a lot of hyper-Calvinists, right? Those who believe, oh, everything's set in stone, so I'm not gonna do anything, right?
They believe that, and they don't pray, they don't share the gospel, they don't support missions.
Yeah, there's no reason to pray.
Right, right.
Yeah, if God says, you know, if they believe that God has done their thing,.
No matter what.
So that's not appropriate, that's un-biblical, right? God's sovereignty ought to actually encourage us to pray, knowing that God's in control, God's all-powerful, then he can get it done.
Maybe God wants that person to pray, and if that person doesn't pray, then it's not gonna be any, nobody's gonna do anything for that person.
Right.
I mean, there are other people, but.
That could be the most easy.
What is it?
Pray without ceasing.
Yeah, pray without ceasing, right? From Thessalonians.
Yeah.
So that everybody's gonna pray, because if they don't know, it could be their prayer that.
Right, no for sure, and when God answers, when God answers prayers, it's a huge encouragement to the church, too, right? Now, yes, go ahead.
I thought it was really interesting, going back to the previous chapter nine, that God's nature, his actual character, is sovereign as well as personal.
That's the personal aspect, that I saw that Paul was reflecting on that,.
That we have a relationship with God,.
Because we don't see him as exalted and above our ability to actually be to him. We can see him as a father.
He loves us, and we're able to then pray, and actually hear him speak.
For us as well as others, because we know that he loves us.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think that's quite very important. Yeah, God's sovereignty does not overrule his personal aspect, his love, right? He didn't create just robots to be programmed to do certain things. Right, that's important.
So, what does Paul pray? This is from verse 17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. That's the request, that's the prayer request from verse 17.
The prayer here is that the church may know God better. And I think that's an important point. I think he asked the question, like, do you feel you know God well enough? Right, that question? If you ask your question, do you think you know God well enough?
And it's hard to imagine anyone saying, oh yeah, of course, right? And the answer is, because God is so infinitely amazing, there's always more deeper you can relate to him, right? And the question here is, how do we grow in the knowledge of God?
What would you say? How do we grow in the knowledge of God?
It's like, I think God is like the Bible.
He can read the Bible, and then every time you read it, you don't have to, there's no, you just don't read it one time, and you're done, but you can read, every time you read it, you learn something new.
Sure.
There's always something to learn.
And God is kind of like that.
Well, I would say that's how you get to know God better. Scripture.
It's kind of like when you just keep
Right, reading scripture, yeah.
I think prayer.
Prayer, yeah.
I think prayer, and then
Yeah, for sure.
The kids with him, how to reveal the mystery of God to them,.
Sometimes it's really difficult to understand.
Yeah, I think those two are the main ones, right? And that's why we're going through this book, so we can learn to pray according to scripture. Here's this from page 150, one, two, three, fourth paragraph, this mini paragraph, right?
Starts with, how shall this growing knowledge of God come about? It comes about by approaching God in prayer, by asking him to give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, to the end, that we may know him better, right?
Yeah, it's about approaching God. How do we approach God? By talking to him. Because we have a talking God, and we have a God who's personal, just as sovereign. So we can approach
An enlisting God.
An enlisting God. So prayer is one of the best ways, just as scripture. But I think scripture and prayer need to go together. That's why we're learning to pray according to scripture.
I thought it was interesting, too,.
When you read the Old Testament and you see that, either the kings
Or even the prophets basically prayed before making any action or decision.
If they were within the purpose of the will of God.
When they didn't, things kind of fall
Oh, for sure.
Away at once.
So, the reflection of scripture and just the characters and how they were letting others know that if the Lord is going to be approached first, then they know that the Lord is going to be present with them in their decision about action.
Yes?
I think it was yesterday, I've been listening to Swinwell, and it's half an hour, and it's one, two revelations, and it's my promotion. I was one, two revelations.
I joke when they say to my mom, to my wife,.
Why? Yeah.
But I said, his prayer is always five minutes long.
Oh, wow.
And he covers everything about Christians and how they should be living and where they are in life. I said to her, I wish I could pray like him.
And the fact that, like I said, he must have it written out in front of him, but he does cover the aspects of how you're living.
Whether you're in distress through this, da-da-da-da-da-da-da. He goes on for five minutes.
Wow.
When he starts, I said, he speaks a half an hour, how five minutes to start to pray.
I said, my wish, I had that kind of ability to remember how to pray for each individual.
He probably did, right?
He probably did.
You may have got to be smart to do the same thing.
Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, I think that's important. I forget which British preacher. I forget whether it was Charles Spurgeon or Martin Lloyd Jones. But, I forget which one. But, he would be okay with a guest preacher.
Right, he would be okay with someone preaching. But, he would not be okay if someone he didn't know too much to pray in front. Because, he valued prayer that much, right? Because, he didn't want just a shoddy prayer, right?
He wanted a deep prayer. Because, in the end, when you pray with a mature saint, right, even like Chuck Swindle, right? To hear his prayer, right? You learn theology through listening to deep prayers.
You learn how to approach God through prayers, right? So, yeah, for sure, that's very important. Now, he unpacks the titles, God of Our Lord Jesus Christ and Father of Glory. God of Our Lord Jesus Christ shows that it is through Jesus Christ that God discloses himself.
God's revelation is through Jesus Christ. How do you know you have seen God? Well, right, in, I think, John 14, Jesus says, if you've seen me, you've seen God. Right, Philip says, show us the Father. Well, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.
That's because Jesus the Son perfectly reflects the character and nature of God the Father, right? He's the full essence God. That also, in line with Ephesians 1, all of God's blessing comes from Jesus Christ, right?
You can't get any other blessing away from Jesus Christ. Jesus is the foundation in which we approach God. Jesus is, I mean, he claims it himself. He's the way, the truth, and the life. He's the only way to God, and because he is God, because of that, only through Jesus Christ can we actually know God better.
The second one is Father of Glory. I think NIV, he says, translates it as glorious Father, and that's because glory is a divine trait, right? God doesn't share his glory with anyone, right? God's glory sets him apart.
Now, in page 151, one, two, second paragraph, the big paragraph, right, thus, the end of second paragraph, thus, for Paul to pray to the Father of Glory is to confess his awareness of God's proper domain, to articulate his gratitude for God's gracious self-disclosure, and to hold up the Father's domain as the Christian's ultimate hope.
Our glory is God's domain, right? Now, we're gonna go over, well, how come, we get to be in glory? Well, only because we're in Christ, right? And Christ is God. Now, he makes two requests. God may give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation.
First, it is only through Christ's finished work on the cross of redeeming us from sin and death can we receive more of his revelation, right? We are made his, we're made God's people through Christ alone.
And second, only God of glory can allow us to receive his glorious revelation. Only God has the prerogative to show us the glimpse of his glory. Over and over again in the Old Testament, that's been so, right?
Moses, Exodus 34, show me your glory. I don't know how I can go on. These people are so rebellious, and my brother, whom I trusted all throughout in Egypt, he's making a golden calf, he made a golden calf and he's lying about it, right?
And what does Moses say to go on? I need to see your glory. I need to see that you're present with us, right? That's really important because in the end, it is all about God's presence. It is all about God's glorious presence that sets God's people apart, right?
If without God's presence on Sunday morning, or even tonight, we're just doing a book club, right? We're just doing religious rituals, not encountering with the glorious heavenly father. Now, the prayer request here, God may give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we may know God better.
This is not just a list of facts to memorize, right? Like a catechism. Not that I'm against catechism, if you like catechism, just list of theological points, depending on what your denomination is. But rather it is, he says in page 152, first paragraph, it is growth in wisdom, probably here referring to how to live in God's universe so as to please him and in revelation.
Wisdom, I like this description of wisdom. Wisdom is making decisions and living in a way that God would have you live. Wisdom is living with God in mind, right? That's wisdom. And how we get this wisdom is from the spirit, right?
The spirit of wisdom and revelation. What that means is wisdom is supernatural. This is why you can meet a lot of people with PhDs but making foolish choices, right? This is why a lot of presidents, kings and whatever, leaders, right, who may sound eloquent or are surrounded by experts but make choices that are just foolish.
Right, right, they may have knowledge but they don't have wisdom.
Wisdom is spiritual.
Wisdom is from the spirit, yes, spiritual and it is living with God in mind, right?
There's a long time,.
That's what I've seen from professors.
Who tell us to be wise and they became fools.
That's right, yeah. Professing to be wise, they became fools, right? And the spirit, the third person of the Trinity mediates that wisdom to us. Now, he does go over the difference between illumination and revelation.
Some churches believe that and I think that's helpful because I don't want anyone saying, God told me, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada, right? Because we gotta be careful because when we say like, God told me or I'm prophesying or something like that, it makes it seem like whatever comes out of your mouth has the same weight as scripture, right?
It's that like, thus says the Lord, right? Extremely dangerous because it can be manipulative and also if it's wrong, right? It's like, then you just misrepresented God, right? Now, so we don't call revelation anything but scripture really, right?
Revelation is scripture, what God reveals, right? And we can be sure. Yeah, I would say, I mean, there's different ways. One can be like, oh, really, God didn't tell me that.
I have had a lot of
Yeah, and say, oh, no, God didn't tell me that.
I've even been in service preaching and someone walks up to him and says something.
And then the preacher says, well, so-and-so just had a revelation from the Lord and then he says, and they said X, Y, Z.
Yeah, I think that's dangerous because you can't confirm that, yeah.
That's why even Sunday when I'm talking about apostles,.
I want to make sure you understood.
That those apostles met the Lord and talked with him face to face.
Right, right, right, right. But I haven't. Right, right.
You know, it's all the same, it's all the same money.
People say, well, I'm an apostle.
Oh, yeah.
Some people say that, yeah.
Yeah, I'm an apostle, but not in the sense of
You need to get put in the program that you have a visiting speaker, apostle.
Yeah, yeah, I think it's dangerous.
I had a relative that was in a church that does that often and we were visiting and she said, I have a, she said, I said, what's my prophecy? But I have a prophecy for you. And I said, oh, no, I'm in my inside.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And she just quoted me as scripted.
I thought, okay.
I can take that.
Yeah, yeah, that's, no for sure.
She had me worried for nothing.
I know.
Yeah, it's
But when they said, I have this from the Lord and I'm just here to tell you that the Lord told me to tell you that.
Yeah, I think the best is just either ignore it, ignore that or say, well, God didn't tell me that and just move on. Because in the end, it's just like, well, the Holy Spirit dwells in you. He can guide you, which leads to what the next thing is.
It's illumination. Illumination is when the Holy Spirit guides you personally. Right, you do have to make choices. You pray about it. And you know what? God makes it clear. It's not new revelation as if, like it needs to be in scripture.
That the Holy Spirit's using scriptural truths that have been written to guide your life so that you make choices that are God-honored, right? And I call that illumination because that's not any new revelation, right?
So I'm not saying, oh no, the Spirit doesn't talk to you or the Spirit does interact with you. The Spirit leads you, protects you, guides you, right? Gives you the right words to say and comforts you.
But you're not getting new revelation.
Maybe the Greek, they got it, illumination.
Yeah, I like the distinction, illumination and revelation.
So you can tell them,.
Maybe they got it with illumination.
And Paul here is saying the Spirit gives both, right? And of course, to us, no longer revelation other than scripture. He's already given it to us. Now, the Spirit allows us to understand. He reveals and allows us to understand.
And what he says in page 153, where did I find this? Page 153, ultimately God, oh yeah, the first paragraph, but that Paul prays for both shows that he understands that it is ultimately God and God alone who both reveals and enables us to grasp what he reveals.
And this is important because ultimately, without the Spirit, we're not gonna be able to get the core truths of scripture. And you might have argued against secular non-believers who know scripture well, but they just twist it, right?
It's just like, and then you're like scratching your head. Are we reading the same text here? Because that cannot be that way, right? But that's the difference. What's the difference? He doesn't have the Spirit, right?
Yeah, Satan twists scripture too. But he might be doing it, I mean, on purpose too, right? I mean, I guess non-believers can do it on purpose too. But I think I've shared this story during Sunday school.
There was this German theologian professor named Adolf von Harnack, right? And he had the whole New Testament in Greek memorized. So he has the whole New Testament, not only in German, but in Greek. So he knows his scripture well.
And his teaching was so good, people would like clap at the end, right? But he was not a believer. He didn't believe in any of the supernaturals in the Bible, which means, of course, resurrection, right?
So, however, there's one missionary named Charles Woodbridge. He's a Presbyterian missionary. He was one of my professor's dad. And my professor's like 70 something. Yeah, so way back, right? He asked like, Professor von Harnack, who is Jesus Christ?
Like a very simple question. But Professor von Harnack could not get further than Jesus is the best man who's ever lived. Because he could not see, he could not admit that Jesus is God, the son of God, risen.
So without the spirit, he couldn't accept that, see that. But then the missionary goes to Africa and sees a little girl, right? Who probably can't even read. And he asked, who is Jesus Christ? And then she has no qualms.
He is my Lord and Savior who rose from the dead.
Yeah, that's what they say. That's how you can tell a true Christian.
No.
Yes, they can say that.
If they can't say it, then they're not true Christians.
And in the end, the spirit allows us to understand scripture. I'm not saying non-believers can't understand anything, but the core of it has to be spirit.
When I was a Catholic, I always believed that Jesus was the Son of God. I think he died to save humanity from sin. But all I can do about Christ is that he died for sin. And that sucks, no salvation or anything.
The Catholics, what?
They, I...
They believe that, you mean?
Yeah, so the Catholics, the hard part with the Catholics, which we're gonna go over in August, they will agree with you the objective part of salvation, which is death and resurrection. They'll agree with, like Catholics who actually believe, not just like cultural, right?
Catholics who stick to their denominational truths. They don't agree with us with the subjective part of salvation, which is how do we respond. That's why they're wrong. Even though they may, we both agree Jesus died and rose from the dead.
We both agree. How we receive that salvation is different. Ours is faith alone, by just trusting in Jesus. They will add faith and words. That's why that is damnable. Because when it becomes faith and words, it becomes the center of focus shifts from Christ to us.
That's not even about the Catholics.
Yeah, so that's the difference. But you're right, like Catholics, if they hold to their doctrines, they will still agree that Jesus died and rose from the dead. But how they respond to that fact is different.
And that's dangerous.
Now, how are we to grasp with the enlightened eyes when Paul says that we may know, right? Well, first, the hope of our calling is the goal of our salvation, right? Parts of your salvation that you look forward to in the future.
Think about not struggling with the temptations that you always struggle with. Think about no more pain, no more sorrow, right? Think about every longing in your life is fulfilled by Christ, right? Think about your new life in new heaven and new earth, right?
That's what it is. The ultimate, full cleansing of sin and even any remnant of sin. Because that you're with Christ, you get to be with God. That's what you look forward to. The riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, this is from verse 18, his people are God's inheritance.
And what that means is we really need to see ourselves the way God does. This does not mean we're just inherently so good and so beautiful or precious. We are, I mean, we are, but it has to be in Christ.
It's because if you're saved, you're a new creation in Christ. Those two words in Christ, that phrase in Christ is not just a throwaway phrase that Paul puts in there because he needs to fill up some word count.
In Christ means you belong to him, you belong to his kingdom. In Christ means that's where you're found now. That's your belonging, that is your domain, that is your new location in Christ. So when God sees the church, when God sees the believers, they are his inheritance.
Why?
Because they're precious, because they're in Christ. They're found in Christ. So what that means is God sees all the righteousness that Christ has earned from his full obedience, even to his death on the cross.
When God sees you, he sees that because you're in Christ. That's the glorious doctrine of imputed righteousness. God sees Christ's righteousness because you're in him. We are God's inheritance. And knowing that, to know God's incomparably great power for us who believe.
I like this, what he says in page 154. One, two, three, third paragraph.
Starts out with third.
Third paragraph, yeah, it starts with third, the word third. Paul cannot be satisfied with a brand of Christianity that is orthodox, but dead. Rich in the theory of justification, but powerless when it comes to transforming people's lives.
What that means is it's both truth and power. Christianity is not just a list of theological points to obey. There's power in it. And he describes what that power is in the third point. Because God is sovereign, Paul offers a review of God's most dramatic displays of power.
Pharisees, Sadducees, liberal denominations. Yeah, they know it, and then they don't see any power in it. They don't see any value in it. There's no transformation. There's no life changes. Yeah, no, for sure.
As a matter of fact, offended.
Yeah, yeah, they're offended by it. Yeah, sure. But the thing is true. Christianity transforms, right?
So would you say then that the Pharisees are basically like a blind eye to the spirit, the spirit's existence?
Yeah, the Pharisees are intentionally ignoring God's work when they see it. I mean, like when you read the gospel accounts and they see Jesus heal or like cast out demons, they'll find another reason to explain that.
And then after seeing all of that, they ask for, why don't you give us a sign? Yeah, it's just like, yeah, right. It's just like, it's a heart of rebellion that is so hardened that, you know, it's just, it's intentionally not seeing what's there clearly, right?
I had a friend in the church that we attended quite a few years ago that was always confronting all the Christians and he was kind of butt-pins with you about everything.
Yeah, yeah.
But he knew, he could quote the scriptures, he knew the scriptures backwards and forwards.
And I finally, after one time I butt-pins with him, I said, and I called him by name and I said, you know the scriptures backwards and forwards. I said, tell me, how did you learn that and why did you learn that?
And he says, well, when I was young,.
He said, I had an argument with somebody about the scriptures and I didn't know the answer, so I wanted to make sure that I knew the answer for everything in the scriptures. But that's all he knew.
He didn't know the Lord.
You know, he knew the scriptures, so he has the answer.
But he didn't know the Lord.
It was pathetic when you think about it.
Yeah, for sure. It's like, why are you so committed?
Okay, didn't he know all the scriptures?
I think he did.
He kind of had a photo of him here. He missed something, though.
He missed the Holy Spirit, right?
Why is the Order of Men standing 9 -11? He missed something.
Well, just because you know it doesn't mean he believes that.
Yeah, he knew it, but.
He didn't know what it meant.
He didn't grasp on it.
He didn't care to know about it.
Right, right, right.
He didn't commit to it.
He just wanted to know.
He wanted an answer.
Yeah, he just, yeah.
He wanted an arc, wind and arc.
Right, yeah.
So the type of power that Paul describes is found in 19 through 23, according to the working of his mighty power. So it's the second half of 19, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.
And he put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. I think this is great. I think he, so Don Carson goes over, what do you think about when you think of God's power?
And he talked about creation and he has a chemistry mathematics background. That was his undergraduate. So he talked about like water density, how at four degrees it's lower and all of that. And it's like, it's amazing.
Like God thought about that, so that the ice freezes at the top rather than at the bottom. Yeah, allows the fish to live, right? Every winter, the fish don't have to die in droves, right? Like that's God's tender care.
And he just spoke that right into existence. But he talks about when Christ was raised from the dead, that's what he goes to. What Paul goes to is the resurrection. And the reason is this is God's most glorious display of power, right?
The resurrection, reversing death and sin, reversing death and sin that existed since Genesis three,.
Right?
God has the final say. Even that rebellion has an expiration date. And then the second one is the power that's displayed in the exalted Christ, which we saw verses 20 through 21. Christ's power is over all the living things, even in the heavenly realm.
The angels and demons, principalities. Those are principalities and dominions. Those are demonic entities that rule over different things, different cities even, right? They're powerful, yet Christ reigns over all, right?
Christ is seated at the right hand of the father. Right hand does not mean like lesser. Right hand actually signifies
It doesn't mean God's left hand.
Right, it signifies a place of honor. Right hand signifies a place of honor. So we need to remember that. And lastly, Paul declares the power exercised by Christ over everything, and that's for the church.
And that's from verses 22 through 23. God's sovereignty is mediated through Christ. And all of his power is for the good of the church. He is the head over everything. And now we see the body, and the body's the church here.
And when we think about that, that God's sovereignty, and he works all of that power for the church, how does that change your view of life? How does that affect you? How does that impact your life?
He conquers everything, basically.
If you go against anything that his purpose in the world is, you're actually, your life is not gonna be with hope or peace. It's going to have a lot of problems and trials.
Right, for sure.
I would often worry about the type of people who come, because you never can be sure. They're not dangerous, and I don't know what they're gonna do. But then I read this, for this week of like, but God's whole sovereignty works for the church, you know?
And what a refreshing thought, that his sovereign power is not just aimless, of like, oh, just here and there, but he's working for the church, right? We can actually relax a little, right?
Just trust God.
Just trust God, right.
And pray.
Yeah, trust God and pray. Yeah, any last thoughts before we close in prayer?
Before he's talking about the, everything he's done for the church, and the beginning of Ephesians, like one talks about, that we might be, I'm reading it correctly, the Lord in the end says, he wants to show off his children, and what he's done for them, like, look at my children.
If you're a parent, you've had that feeling. Yeah, look at my children. And I think he wants us to glorify him, where he says into the angels and principalities and powers, he wants us to be a blessing, in the sense that when they look at us, they're saying, look what Christ did.
Yeah, it's a public, yeah.
Look what Christ did with this.
Yeah, it's a public.
This is for the right kind of people.
Right, right, right, right.
It's a public display of Christ's glory, right. And we get to be part of that, because we're in Christ.
I think the important part that I've learned from this is, what Paul basically showed through what God's word means, and the character of God himself, and what prayer is in relation to how we approach God for others, other than just for ourselves.
But to know that the glory that we have is only through the love that God is able to bring us through the spirit, that we reflect the character of Christ, so that we can then in turn glorify his son. That was to me, the deepest thing is, you know, every day that I go to the Bible, it's not just reading scripture for knowledge and insight, but it's actually, what am I supposed to be gaining in that particular scripture, so that I can actually buy it, and bring glory to whatever circumstance that reflects that particular part of the scripture, so that I know that it actually meets God's, it actually is not, I don't want to say approved, but it reflects what God wants to see us reveal as part of what we relate and interact with others.
I'm rewording that, yeah. And you know, I find that when I look at scripture now, it's not just reading to understand, but it's what I can take away to actually show action through my everyday circumstances.
Yeah, I think it can be both too. I think you got to understand in order to apply it faithfully, you know? Yeah, but, and yeah, your personal devotional time ultimately is that you spend time with God.
All right, let's pray. Father, we're grateful for this time of fellowship to dig deeper in scripture, to learn how to approach you, talk to you, and to commune with you, and help us to pray according to scripture, help us to look forward to the coming of Christ, and help us to be confident in Christ's authority over not just the church, but the whole world, and how his power is working in the church, through the church, and for the church.
We pray that we would be reminded of this even after we leave, in Jesus' name, amen.
