[0:00] we're going to sing now from Psalm 19 on at verse 8 I think singing will be in Gaelic and from verse 8 the statutes of the Lord are right and do rejoice the heart the Lord's command is pure and death life to the eyes intte怎麼
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[7:50] I'm going to read from Paul's epistle to the Philippians, chapter 1, and we'll read the first 11 verses.
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[10:02] I'm going to turn to Ephesians, chapter 1, and we'll read the Bible, 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.
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[11:56] And that is what we're doing.
[12:26] sufficient grounds in all our experiences to remember the God who was at work in our lives up until the present. Now here at this point Paul who has already identified who his God is and what he means to him speaks to the people in Ephesus and reminds them of who their God is and sometimes we need to be reminded of that may be so obvious it may be something that every one of us at one level we are quite aware of that seems foolishness to need to be reminded of God or anything to do with God but sometimes we behave as if we have lost sight of who God is because circumstances at the time may make us feel that the circumstances themselves are beyond God or that there are elements within them that God cannot deal with which suggests that there are some things about God that we have not taken on board at that moment in time. So looking at what Paul is praying for here we notice that he wants them to grasp or to remember God in a specific way and then bring these petitions of his own to that God on their behalf.
[15:34] we have God identified in this way that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ he has many names but here he is identified as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ and then he adds to that the Father of glory it's the same God but a different facet to his being and then he begins the petitions that this God of our Lord Jesus Christ may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.
[16:26] So I want us to focus on this this evening. As I've said often it's very difficult in passages such as this to know where to draw the line as far as delving into the truth and how much or how little we take out of it. Sometimes there's more in it than ever have been able to take out but that's something else.
[16:52] we could of course argue that Paul uses a random name to identify God it's just a name which belongs to God there's nothing at all wrong with the name that he gives to God and he could use this name or another name or any number of names when he speaks to God but for those of us who pray publicly and for yourselves who pray privately I'm sure you address God in a particular way and it may be that we do it repetitively we may do it without actually thinking about how we designate God how we name him what exactly do we mean by the name we give him our father which art in heaven the Lord's Prayer begins like that now how much time do we give to think of him as our father how much time do we think about him resident in heaven and so on so that you know words are words and sometimes we use them without actually scratching beneath the surface as to what these words actually mean to us us so I think that at this point when Paul speaks to the Ephesian congregation and prays to God on their behalf and identifies God in this way that he means them to be encouraged by the manner in which he is naming God because we have to remind ourselves that what Paul is doing here is meant or designed to encourage them as Christian believers
[19:12] Christ is at the beginning of the chapter we are told that he came to do the will of God to do the will of God blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heaven and places in Christ according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love and so on remember these words can't separate them from what the world we are dealing with this evening and Paul's purposes have not departed from their origin he wants them to understand that the choice of name that he gives to God is very deliberate God sent Christ to do a particular work in the world he came to do the will of his father and it was not without God and it was it was it was something that God sent him to do and God was at the heart of what Christ was doing and even in this simple way God is reminding them what he is praying for who he is praying to that there is a particular reason for all that they are experiencing and all that they are enjoying and every blessing they have yet to enter into it was not without God not only knowing but willing that Christ came to do what he did the preacher
[21:22] Don Carson writes as follows the one to whom we pray has supremely has supremely disclosed himself to us in his son Jesus the Christ Jesus our Lord all of God's blessings are mediated through his son none of of these blessings come our way except by way of his son and all of God's new covenant blessings have already been secured for us by his son so that to pray in Jesus' name or to address God as the father of Jesus Christ is to recognize the ground on which God answers such requests God in other words is the one that has to be recognized as being at the heart of what Jesus has done and that it is for the glory of God in Christ Jesus that this takes place now to know God is one thing to know his son is another thing and to know the God of Christ is yet another thing it's a triune God but
[22:57] Christ we are told is the means by which we come to know God God and we also come to know God when we understand God as the God of Christ in the sense that he came into the world as a human being totally dependent upon that God for his walk in the world and the God of Christ is the one to whom Christ demonstrated perfect obedience he was his father and he demonstrated his love of our father in the obedience that he showed him and his dependence upon God as his father is amply demonstrated throughout the scripture so when Paul is speaking here that the God of our Lord
[24:02] Jesus Christ to whom he is praying that we understand that even in that simple sentence he is directing our attention to a relationship that exists between God the father and God the son and if that God is such a God that his son looked to and depended upon and obeyed perfectly then that should cause our ears to this prick up as it were if if Paul prays to him for you how wonderful is that that Paul is praying to this God to whom the son of God prayed with absolute confidence that God would hear him and God would answer him and God would sustain him and God would minister to him throughout his earthly journey whatever he had to fulfil during that time the second part of his name here is
[25:24] Father of Glory and theologians interpreting the scripture find some difficulty in pinpointing the actual sense of that statement Father of Glory and I won't go into some of the meanings that have applied to it but it would what it means I think is this that God is the source or the supplier of Glory or the one who is described as the scripture as the one who in himself is all glorious and what what he means by this is not superfluous it's not just simply adding this name for convenience's sake it's not just saying
[26:30] I am going to speak to this God on your behalf as the all glorious God but he is saying when I do pray this prayer when I do come with these requests on your behalf that I am coming to the God of Glory the God who is the source of Glory the God who is all glorious in a sense in himself and it is essential for us to understand that because in the petitions that are going to follow on if we understand the God by way of his name that these petitions these requests these desires are almost as if they are it is when you ask a trivial thing of somebody there is no question in your mind that that can be easily supplied
[27:34] I am not talking about the trivial nature of anything that we come to God with but the fact that there is nothing so great that he cannot simply respond to the request if it is offered in the right spirit I will quote the Lord Lloyd-Jones Dr.
[27:56] Martin Lloyd-Jones here he says everything God does is a manifestation of his glory Psalm 19 that we were singing the heavens declare the glory of the Lord creation speaks of his glory and he says I speak with reverence when I say that the greatest thing the Lord Jesus did was to manifest the glory of God everything he did was designed to glorify his father God and the glory of God are the end the terminus of salvation so in other words he believes that everything that Christ did ultimately redounded to the glory of God there was nothing that he did that would not in some way at some point well
[28:57] I'm sure at all times God would gain the glory of it the preacher Derek Bingham uses this illustration and I suppose when I was thinking of it it's easily understood what he meant by it if you go into somebody's home perhaps somebody that you're not familiar with and you have never visited the home before and you're invited into the sitting room and they go out to make a cup of tea or whatever and you're sitting there and you have a look around the house and you'll see books on the shelf or you'll see a CD rack with CDs in it or you'll see various ornaments or whatever and just by a quick survey you might be able to develop some kind of knowledge of that person what their interests are not just interests in music perhaps you can do that by studying a person's
[30:07] CD library or looking at the books that they're reading you can pretty much tell just by looking at these things what kind of person they are and when you look at God's word when you enter into the world of God as it were it doesn't take you long to discover what kind of God he is there are evidences that are before you wherever you look that describe to you the God of glory and the glory of God and his glory is revealed not just in creation but in the new creation not just in maintaining this world in which he operates but also restoring to former glory those who have been lost because of sin
[31:14] Paul writes in the first epistle to the Corinthians and I think it's the first chapter there we read of his interest in the way Christ reveals himself in this world of ours and we find this said of him these things brethren I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for you sake that you might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written that none of you be puffed up for one against the other and then he goes on to speak about the work of the gospel in the life of the believer we are fools for
[32:27] Christ's sake you are wise in Christ we are weak but we are strong you are honourable we are despised even into this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and buffeted and have no certain dwelling place and labour working with our own hands being reviled we bless being persecuted being defamed we entreat we are made as the filth of the world the offscourings of all things and to this day I write not these things to shame you but as my beloved sons I warn you for though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ yet have you not many fathers for in Christ Jesus have I begotten you through the gospel wherefore I beseech you be followers of me now Paul is there he is marking out the difference that there is in them as to those who are in the world with them who are not the same who are not who are not spiritual we are fools he says for Christ's sake you are wise in
[33:43] Christ and the wisdom that they have in Christ is not their own it is the wisdom that they have received by way of the Holy Spirit and that is what he comes to next in this verse 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 because this is his concern this is his great interest that the spirit of wisdom is become theirs now if he is writing to Christians and I believe that he is he is writing to Christians in Ephesus and as Christians they already have the spirit they already are spiritual people but he still wants them to have the spirit he is not talking
[34:52] I think some people interpret this as if it was another grace grace or a tear or a tear of grace or an enhancement of grace but no this is what he wants to confirm them in that they have the spirit of God and as they have the Holy Spirit of God the Holy Spirit himself that as they have him they are to increase in knowledge of who God is and what God is doing the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him and he is praying for the ministry of the Spirit in short for him to enlighten them for him to give them discernment and understanding of the word of
[35:56] God have you ever experienced yourself you can answer this for yourself have you ever experienced sitting with God's word and the word of God at one moment made to mean something different to what it had meant prior to that even words that you had familiarly stored up in your head and all of a sudden these familiar words take on an extra dimension where does that come from are you all of a sudden a great scholar whose mind has broadened and you've been able to grasp the truth that was there simply by your own personal growth and development well that's not what Paul is praying for he wants them to possess the
[37:00] Holy Spirit so that they can have a greater and a more deep knowledge of God and his ways God and his God is the source of the theologian who writes the following the Holy Spirit he says is the author of wisdom and every one of us can agree with him there we can understand the truth that God that God is the source of the fountain of all knowledge we refer to Paul's words in 1 Corinthians there and later on in that epistle chapter 2 he speaks of that wisdom which he went on to speak of there how be it he says we speak wisdom among them that are perfect yet not the wisdom of this world he says not of the princes of this world that come to naught we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto her glory which none of the princes of this world knew for had they known it they would not have crucified the
[38:19] Lord Jesus but as it is written I hath not seen nor heard neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him but God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit for the spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God so that is the thing that Paul wants them to understand that by coming into possession of the Holy Spirit then that possession of the spirit allows them to have their understanding of who God is and how God works deepened he wants them not just to know God in the sense of knowing about him as some have put it but to know him better to know him better and not one of us can know
[39:20] God sufficiently well we can never be content with the knowledge that we have of God if we know God we want to know him better that's the bottom line I remember when I started studying biblical languages in college I had to do so alongside others that had been studying theology for a good deal longer and some of them had been studying the biblical languages for longer and you could tell their frustration when the likes of myself who hadn't seen an alpha from a gamma before and these people who had studied not just the language but the use of it at a deeper level so it's frustrating for you if you're dealing with a subject and you're working alongside people and they've moved forward from where they began now that's what's expected of believers not just that you come to know your ABCs but that with the help of
[40:45] God's spirit your knowledge of God would be increased that would be enhanced that you would go on to a greater knowledge and this is the key to what he is saying that this is only possible with God's help with the spirit's help what is required is to know God better through the involvement of the holy spirit not by devouring set tomes of theology which is all very well and any person can do that but the level of knowledge they have might not necessarily increase at the same amount you've heard the person who was in discussion with a brother Christian and they had an argument I suppose there's no better word to describe it he had a discussion shall we say a heated discussion about a point of theology and one said well this is what so and so says about it let's say
[41:59] Matthew Henry this is Matthew Henry's opinion and his friend replied and they were friends well he said I was just as related to the spirit as Matthew Henry was now he wasn't he wasn't doing that by way of boasting but what he was putting his finger on was this that both Matthew Henry or whatever theologian be they you or I whoever it is we depend on the light that God's spirit gives to us to understand and this is what Paul is getting at here what he is praying for he is praying for them to have this help to have this support to have this encouragement as they go on with the Lord he says to us through this passage that this is this is where we are to to learn this is where we are to grow with this knowledge that God endows us with without which we will not enjoy the blessings that that are contained in
[43:15] God's whatever God has in store for us the word of God is the revelation of God that word cannot be added to it's a closed book but your knowledge of the contents can always be improved upon my knowledge of the contents can always be improved upon and this is what Paul is wanting for the Ephesian church for the church in Calanish for the believer in Calanish for me in Calanish that we may receive the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him and whatever then he goes on to ask about or to petition God about is only possible if this is true of us it is the God
[44:17] Paul says who commanded the light to shine out of darkness who has shone in the heart to give unto us the knowledge of Christ the knowledge of the glory of God in Christ and that's what we are all looking to attain to in our walk in this world while we pray that God would encourage us to think of these things and bless our lives through his own holy and inerrant word let us once again our heads in prayer most holy God we give thanks that we can seek many things at your hand there are great demands made upon us in this world there are things that we need wisdom to deal with not just within the spiritual sphere but also in the secular sphere your people are wise in the sense that they know that the whole of their lives is under your sovereign overrule so they know the wisdom of placing all areas of life in your hands and seeking wisdom in all of these areas we give thanks that you are the
[45:51] God who is wise and powerful and that you are able to assist us and encourage us and build us up in our lives here in this world for as long as you are prepared to leave us here we bring before you all our cares all our concerns those that we know and love we pray for the congregation all in it and all who we might know within it who have need of your special attention as their God and as their saviour pray for any who are unwell and we ask Lord for your special interest to be made known to them enable us to bear one another's burdens and so fulfil the will of God here in this world we pray for those who are grieving and sorrowful we pray for those that you have sent out to such and that they may be given wisdom and discernment to know how to heal hurts and the greatest fear when we are dealing with the broken in this world that we might add salt to their wounds preserve us from that enable us to pray for those who do not pray for themselves we ask
[47:23] Lord that you would remember all that is done in your name throughout the world so hear our prayers and bless our time together around your word may it go out with power and may touch our lives with the power that it possesses as the word of the only living and true God continue to watch over us cleansing from sin and may grace mercy and peace from God the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit be with you all love and always Amen