Introduction to Paul's Prayer

Resuming the Study of Ephesians and Overview of the Epistle

0:03 I ask you to turn with me to the letter of Paul to the church at Ephesus, as we resume this morning, after some five months of digression into other pastures of the Word of God, we resume our verse-by-verse studies in this great epistle of Paul to the church at Ephesus, Ephesians chapter 1. Now, since we have been away from this letter for so long, and since there are, to our encouragement, a number of new faces who were not with us in our previous studies, which, by the way, number 35,

0:43 we had 35 expositions in those first 14 verses or 15 verses of the letter, what I propose to do this morning is to give a broad overview and review of what we have thus far studied, and then to move in the second place to an introductory study of this tremendous prayer which forms the second paragraph in the epistle, excluding, of course, the introduction. So then, two things are before us to accomplish this morning, to bring into focus a broad overview of the entire letter and of the first chapter in particular.

1:28 Under that will be a brief review. A brief review of the contents of paragraph 1, and then in the second place to introduce the thought of the Apostle in the second great paragraph which comprises the first of two tremendous prayers recorded for us in the epistle. Under then the broad overview and review, I would remind you of the occasion of this epistle. There does not seem to be any particular problem.

1:59 The news of which reached Paul and then provoked him to write the letter, as was the case in so many of his letters. Rather, it seems to be the concern of the Apostle, who for some five years has had no face-to-face contact with the Ephesians, that he might ground them further in the great and basic doctrines of the Christian faith, and to exhort them to lives which will reflect that doctrine, at many levels, all the way from the parent-child-husband-wife-servant-master relationship, right on out into their conflict with the devil and with the powers of darkness.

2:42 So I say, the occasion of the epistle is not some historical situation which provoked a needful letter in order to correct some errors, but rather it is that paternal instinct of the Apostle Paul longing to see his own convert, in two parts, whose life in the chief law serves as the only greatwnold to come to jail. It is the timestamp given, as we saw in the letter which gives us a sense of the bible's int JavaScript ball,

3:26 from which he Systematic treatment of the Gospel couched more in the context of the Sanctuary of God, becoming the study of the Jews, And that emphasis we will see coming through very, very strongly at the end of chapter 2 and on through the end of the epistle. So much then for the occasion of the letter, and the basic division of its contents is very clear. A seven, eight, nine-year-old child reading with any perception this epistle would note that it divides itself into two main categories. In the first three chapters you have a concentrated section of teaching with little exhortation.

3:59 And in the last three chapters, chapters 4 to 6, you have a concentration of exhortation, though it is interpenetrated with much doctrine. Never accept these cute little outlines that say chapters 1 to 3 doctrine, chapters 4 to 6 practical. It has a bad effect. Not only is it not true.

4:21 But... But the effects of it are bad.

4:23 For we have seen in the first chapter, there is much ground for exhortation in the first paragraph. Though it is considered pure doctrine, the whole end of doctrine is life. So you cannot study doctrine and not relate it to life. I resist all these efforts to say, well, so-and-so is a practical preacher and so-and-so is a doctrinal preacher.

4:43 Any doctrinal preacher who is not practical is not preaching the scriptures. He may be preaching notions derived from the scriptures, but he is not preaching the scriptures. And any practical preacher who is not doctrinal is not preaching the scriptures. For the Bible knows nothing of exhortation that is not rooted in doctrine.

5:01 So then when we come to those last three chapters, if I'm still alive and we're still here, why, we'll see that Paul cannot touch such gutsy issues as husband-wife relationship without launching into tremendous doctrinal statements as to the nature of the church and the purpose of God. For the church. And though we would sweep away all artificial and airtight compartmentalization of the contents, nonetheless it is true that chapters 1 to 3 are more concentrated sections of doctrine and chapters 4 to 6 a greater concentration of exhortation.

Review of Ephesians Chapter 1: Praise and Prayer

5:43 So much for the occasion of the epistle, the basic division of its contents. Now, briefly, the contents of chapter 1. After the introduction...

5:52 The introduction break down into two lengthy paragraphs. Verses 3 to 14, a paragraph of praise. A hymn of praise to the triune God for His great Trinitarian salvation. And in that first paragraph, as we studied it for many months, we saw this sweeping, this expansive vision of the Apostle, blessing God the Father, blessing God the Son, blessing God the Spirit for salvation, rooted in God's electing grace.

6:25 Verse 4. And stretching all the way out to the day of redemption when we shall be like Him, having seen Him as He is. Then the second paragraph, beginning with verse 15 and going to the end of the chapter, is the record of a prayer. So you have a hymn of praise and you have a paragraph of prayer.

6:47 Two of the most purely devotional exercises. Praise and prayer. Praise and prayer are the conduit through which the doctrine comes to us. And as we've studied it week after week, I have emphasized again and again, I hope not to the point, as we heard in the class this morning, the adult class of ad nauseum, that is to the place where you're sick of it, but I hope the emphasis has burned it into our consciousness that any perspective of doctrine that does not naturally lead to praise and prayer is a prayer.

7:21 Prayer is a false perspective.

7:25 And we do not understand what Paul's saying in the first paragraph unless it leads us to praise as it led him to pray. And we do not understand what he's saying in the second paragraph unless it leads us to prayer as it led him to prayer. The second thing I've continually emphasized is this. We must not separate devotion from doctrine.

7:47 People say, well, my particular cup of tea is to be a praiser and a prayer. I'm not a theologian. I'm not a theologian. I'm not a theologian.

7:52 Well, I remind you that the praise and the prayer of Ephesians 1 is packed full of some of the most profound theology to be found anywhere in the Word of God. And so if your prayer and your praise are not theologically framed, they are not acceptable to God. For God is to be worshipped not only in spirit, that is, from the heart, but He's to be worshipped in truth, that is, according to true theology. And those two strands of emphasis I have made, again and again and again and again and again, and I hope something of it has come through to our hearts.

Introduction to Paul's Prayer: Provocation and Characteristics

8:29 So much, then, for that broad overview and review. Now we come to look at the second paragraph, this paragraph that is Paul's prayer for the Ephesians. And we noted in our introductory study the factors which provoked Paul to pray. Verse 15.

8:47 For this cause, I also having heard, of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which ye show towards all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. So that which provoked fresh prayerful concern was this report of the Ephesians continuing in the two great mother and father graces of all other graces, faith and love. He heard that they were continuing in these graces, and hearing that, he knew that all the other graces must have been flourishing. For where faith and love flourish, they give birth to all the other graces.

9:32 Then we looked briefly at the essential characteristics of his prayer, as found in verse 16 and the first part of verse 17. It had a proper object. He prayed to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory. How rich those statements.

9:51 He didn't pray, he prayed, as some little God made after his own image. He prayed to the Father who is characterized by glory, characterized by the burning outshining of all the perfections of his attributes. He prayed, not to some God to whom he smuggled up, but to that God in whose presence he felt his uncleanness, felt his littleness, felt his creatureliness. He prayed to the Father of glory.

10:22 And he prayed to him as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, he prayed to him as the God whom he could approach only in the name and through the mediation of the Lord Jesus, the God who is gracious to men only in Christ. So his prayer had a proper object. Secondly, it had a proper attendant or accompaniment.

10:46 I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. He always, he always mingled his petitions with thanksgiving and with praise. And then, in the third place, it had the proper occasion. When did he pray?

11:02 He says, I cease not. He prayed with constancy. He prayed with the grace of perseverance. Now, we've done all our review, and we commence to do the second thing that I propose to do this morning.

The Core Request of Paul's Prayer: Spiritual Illumination

11:18 Having given the broad overview of the entire book, its occasion, its divisions, the contents of the first paragraph, having given this brief review of the first two and a half verses of the second paragraph, what I wish to do this morning is to introduce our detailed study of the prayer itself by reading the prayer and then observing several principles which I hope will whet our appetites for the detailed study. I begin reading now with verse 17. He says that, He says that he prays that the God of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him,

12:02 having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe, according to that working of the strength of his might, which he roars, which he brought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit in his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church,

12:47 which is his body, the fullness of him, that filleth all, in all.

12:57 Now as I read through the section, I trust your impression is the impression I've had as I've read, and re-read, and re-re-read, and meditated upon this paragraph, namely, that the apostle Paul is dealing in some of the most profound concepts to be found anywhere in scripture, and he's doing it in the midst of a prayer for the saints at Ephesus. If we were to state in general what Paul is praying for, I think it would be, he's praying, first of all, the great burden of his prayer is that God the Father would grant the grace of further spiritual illumination to the Ephesians. Look at it.

13:40 Here is my prayer that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation having the eyes of your heart enlightened. If you drop out some of the other phrases, you catch the great burden of his prayer. Paul, as you bow your knees to this Father of glory, as you come, as it were, with trembling joy into his presence through Christ, what do you ask God for us Ephesian believers? Paul's answer is, I pray that he would grant you the grace of further spiritual illumination.

14:20 I pray that he'll give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. Now then, he prays for that grace of spiritual illumination to be operative in three distinct areas. Notice the three that's.

14:39 First one is this. That, verse 18, ye may know what is the hope of his calling. Verse 19, and what, same Greek word, and they've translated it a bit different, and what the exceeding greatness of his power, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance. He's praying, he's praying for the grace of spiritual illumination to be operative in three areas.

15:02 Area one, that they might understand the wonder of what it means to be in a state of grace. That you would have spiritual illumination to know what is the hope of his calling. The wonder of what it is to be in a state of grace. Secondly, the wonder of what it means to be marked for the consummate blessings of grace.

15:23 That you may know the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And thirdly, that they might know the wonder of the energy and power that was operative to bring them into a state of grace. That ye may know the exceeding greatness of his power to us who are to believe. So there are three things that he hopes will be the result of this prayer for the grace of further spiritual illumination.

15:48 He wants the Ephesians to come into new understanding of the wonder of what it means to be in a state of grace. The wonder of what it is to be marked for the consummate blessings of grace and the wonder of that power that was operative to bring them into that state and to pledge the consummate blessings of all that grace brings. You say, Pastor, that's a lot of big words and that's a lot of mind-blowing concepts. Shall we dismiss all but the theologians?

16:19 No, because who was Paul writing to? He was writing to children because he addresses them in chapter 6. He says, children, obey your parents. He assumes that there were children in that assembly and he wants the children to understand.

16:34 He's writing to servants, slaves, who had no educational background, very limited in their so-called academic materials. He wants them to understand these things. He's writing to ordinary fathers and mothers and husbands and wives. He's writing to a congregation such as we have here this morning.

16:52 And it's the burden of his heart that the people of God have the power to do that. Have that grace of spiritual illumination to grasp these three tremendous things. So much, then, for that broad overview of what he's praying for and it'll be my purpose in weeks ahead to expound those concepts one by one. But what I wish to do this morning and the time remaining is to show four vital principles involved in this prayer of Paul for these three things on behalf of the Ephesians.

Principle 1: Paul's Longing for Deepened Understanding and Experience

17:23 And I hope that the underscoring of these principles, I say, will whet your appetite to roll up your sleeves and to dig into this passage and have no rest until God breaks it open and makes it precious to us. First of all, I ask you to note Paul's longing for deepened understanding and experience among the saints at Ephesus.

17:48 Now, what blessings did these people already have? Well, you go back to the first paragraph. Paul told them that they were elect in Christ, before the foundation of the world. Paul had told them that they had been redeemed by the Beloved One in whom we have redemption through His blood.

18:06 In other words, Paul had gone over every distinct facet of what we would call the doctrines of grace with these people and he says, these things are all yours in your past experience. Then in verse 15, at the opening of this paragraph, he says, not only do you have those past blessings and they are conferred upon you in sovereignty, grace, but he said it's evident that there is present spiritual reality. He says, I've heard of your continuing faith in the Lord Jesus and your continuing love. And yet, listen, no matter how great their past blessings, no matter how real their present expressions of life, Paul longs for a deepened experience

18:50 of understanding and Christian grace. Now, why? For the simple reason that Paul had accepted God's goal for the saints at Ephesus as his goal. And what was God's goal?

19:06 Ephesians 5. That the church might be presented to him without spot or wrinkle. Romans 8. Whom he foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.

19:18 And that involves the understanding as well as the conduct and the attitudes of the heart. The grace of God operates in the whole man. And conformity to Jesus, Christ is not just ethical, that is, what I feel and do, but it is intellectual, not etic. It has to do with thinking as he thought.

19:37 And so the great passion of the apostle here is that these Ephesians, though he assumes that they have laid hold of the great concepts of the first paragraph, that they are elect, that they are redeemed, that they are sealed, that they are endowed with heavenly wisdom, that they have an inheritance, all of these things, he says, don't rest on your knees. Don't think you've got all the rest. There's more to know, more to experience in Jesus Christ.

20:08 God's glory hinges on the realization of God's goal in redemption. And if that goal is nothing less than total conformity to Christ, never realized until we're glorified, yes, but always the burning ambition of the people of God, then we with Paul cannot rest short of anything other than God. A deepened understanding and experience.

20:34 What was Paul's ambition, he intended should become their ambition. And oh, how precious few seem to keep this balance between deep appreciation of what we have in Christ and a sensitive longing for more experience of the reality of Christ. On the one hand, you have our dear Pentecostal friends, and under that I would put all those whose theology minimizes the initial work and says, now look, you've only been converted. You've only been born again.

21:11 Now, go on for something more. That's a denial of the first paragraph of Ephesians 1. Paul says, you're already blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. Only elected, only redeemed, only saved.

21:31 Now, that wasn't Paul's mentality. He says, blessed be God that you have such blessings. You see? And all forms of second work of grace and deeper life teaching and all the rest, they don't capture this.

21:45 They minimize what we already have in Christ and they say, because that's so minimal, go on to get something more that's better.

21:54 And then on the other hand, you've got the positionalists who say, we agree with everything you've said. We've got everything in Christ. We're blessed in Him with all spiritual blessing. We're chosen in Him.

22:02 We're redeemed by Him, etc. There, therefore, since we have it all in Christ, they're scared to death when anyone begins to get hungry and thirsty. When anyone begins to show discontent with his present measure of understanding and experience. And they think the way to spiritual maturity is to drive a man further and further into a state of placid indifference to everything except that which he is positionally in Christ.

22:29 Now, that's not the answer. What's the biblical answer? Right here. Thanking God for all that we have and all that we have in Christ and for all that we can see by His grace of the present operations of Christ but acknowledging that we have not yet laid hold of all that there is to be known in genuine knowledge of and experience with Jesus Christ.

22:54 Philippians 3. Paul says, I count not myself to have laid hold. He said, I want to lay hold of all that for which Christ has laid hold of me. So I'm not looking for some new experience.

23:06 I'm not looking for some new thing that I didn't get in my initial introduction to the sphere of grace but I'm longing for ever increasing realization of the outworking of all that is mine in Christ and I'm not content to say it is all mine in Him. I want to know that He has more and more of that worked out in me.

23:32 Now, that's not playing with words, dear ones. It's that razor's edge of the biblical balance laid before us here in Ephesians chapter 1.

23:45 Some people think that when they've come to an understanding of the first paragraph in Ephesians, that's the top point of the Mount Everest of spiritual experience and all you do is pitch your tent there and come out three times a day and look at the beautiful view and say there's nowhere else to go. I've come to the doctrines of grace. Well, bully on you. Wonderful.

24:10 But Paul says, for this cause, I also pray that God will give you insight to see there are more pinnacles and there are more vistas and more horizons, more scenery to open up before you. You haven't reached the topmost peak yet, my friend, even though you could do a pretty good job expounding Ephesians 1, 3 to 14.

24:34 See it? I'm always suspicious of people who think the beginning, middle, and end of the Bible is the five points. Beware of it. Paul didn't think that way.

24:44 He says, thank God you're electing Him. Thank God you're redeemed by Him. Thank God you're kept by Him. Every one of the doctrines of grace is there in that first paragraph.

24:55 And I was not embarrassed to expound them as the text warranted. But oh, beloved, listen, for this cause, I pray that He would grant you something, that there's something more to know to the end that there may be more and deeper experience of His grace.

25:15 Now, don't say, has the pastor lost some of his Calvinism over the summer? No.

25:21 I hope I've just increased in my Christianity in the study of the Word of God. So I ask you in the first place to notice Paul's great passion and burden for increased experience and knowledge for the saints. Secondly, I ask you to notice Paul's absolute dependence upon God for that increase of knowledge and experience. For this cause, he says, I pray.

Principle 2: Absolute Dependence on God for Spiritual Growth

25:52 He not only longs that they have the grace of spiritual illumination leading to new understanding in these three areas, so dependent is he upon God for it that he doesn't even trust what he's going to write in his epistle to accomplish it. Even as an inspired apostle, he knows that they'll not understand these things unless God Himself performs an operation upon the people in their spiritual eyes. He says, the eyes of your heart being enlightened. Oh, how dependent he is upon the living God because prayer is the language of dependence.

26:36 That's why again and again in the epistles Paul can say, I pray for you. I give thanks to God for you in my prayers for you. What is he doing? A man so busy with all the concern of planting churches and caring for the churches and writing epistles and being a missionary and an apostle.

26:54 Why does he discipline his life to pray? Why does he constantly emphasize his prayer for the people of God? Not because he was trying to appear spiritual, but because in his heart of hearts he had learned that the flesh profit is nothing and that the work of the spirit is bound up with the pleadings of the saints and with their prayers. Now, by way of application, I need not tarry long on this point, I trust.

27:21 As Paul did not believe that the perseverance of the saints was realized automatically but by means of prayer, so must we. You're not kept by the doctrine of perseverance. You're kept by the power of God. That power which operates by means established by God, one of which is prayer.

27:45 And so though Paul could close the first paragraph by saying, the spirit who's been given to you is the earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God's own possession, absolutely certain that the saints at Ephesus are going to be kept until the final day. He says, for this cause I pray.

28:02 These things do not come automatically. And our dependence upon God is expressed in our pleadings with God, individually and corporately. The measure of a church's true effectiveness as a general rule is not its Sunday morning attendance, but it is the attendance and the spiritual spirit of prayer that rests upon its midweek service. I don't get excited when we've got to stick chairs in the aisles and out in the vestibule on Sunday mornings.

28:33 I can honestly say that doesn't get me excited. You know when I get excited? When I see these two pews beginning to fill up Wednesday nights and the spirit of prayer coming upon us so that an hour together passes like ten minutes. That's when I go home and say, Lord, there's some buckets of blessing coming our way.

28:52 Because that's the indication of the measure of our conscious dependence upon God.

Principle 3: Centrality of Doctrine and Understanding in Growth

28:59 There's a third principle here. And I would underscore it again hoping it will whet our appetites to dig into the passage. Notice Paul's perspective on the centrality of doctrine and of the understanding in the process of growth.

29:19 Not only do we see his passion that there be growth, his dependence upon God for that growth, he prays, but we see his perspective as to the centrality of doctrine and of the gospel. The mind in the process of growth. Notice the centrality of solid doctrine. In this prayer,

29:41 what is he praying for? Well, look at the words. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope, a great doctrinal concept, of His calling, another doctrinal concept, what the riches of the glory of His inheritance, another doctrinal concept, the exceeding greatness of His power, the power reflected in His resurrection and ascension and session. What is this?

30:15 Solid doctrine. He speaks of Christ being head over all principality and power in every name that is named, everything subject to Him. These are tremendous concepts. And what are they?

30:26 They are solid doctrinal concepts. So then, you see, as the apostle thinks of the Ephesians, and his brethren, his great longing that they grow, his great dependence upon God for that growth, we see that he recognizes the centrality of doctrine in the process of that growth, so even his prayer is suffused, permeated, it is heavy with great doctrinal words and great doctrinal concepts.

30:57 Now, you and I must go down the same path.

31:01 And all emphasis upon Christian growth, which is contradictory to this perspective, is unbiblical.

31:10 You're weary of doctrine, then what you're saying is I'm weary of growth. Just that simple. The moment you cease to have a wholesome longing for a deeper penetration into the great realities of the Christian faith, and that's what doctrine is, the realities of the Christian faith,

31:31 you cease to grow.

31:33 Because you grow only to the extent that God by the Spirit opens your understanding to those realities and by the same Spirit enables you to be formed by those realities. That's Christian growth.

31:51 Christian growth is not to be attained by activity. It is not to be attained by externals. It's to be attained in the path that we see set before us here in Ephesians chapter 1.

Principle 3 (Continued): Centrality of the Understanding (Enlightened Mind)

32:09 And then notice, and this is the second head under this third observation, the centrality of the understanding in that process. It is not just the doctrine set before us, but the heart being enabled to understand it. His prayer is that the Spirit would work in what? In the area of illumination.

32:27 Notice what he calls the Spirit here. That he would give you a Spirit of wisdom and understanding. That's what it's called here, and I'll try to demonstrate that this is a reference to the Holy Spirit, not just a disposition, but a Spirit that is the Spirit, characterized by wisdom and understanding. To what end?

32:51 What is His function? Look, that the eyes of the heart may be enlightened. Wisdom, understanding, enlightened. Do you see what the focus is?

33:00 The focus is upon the centrality of the spiritual understanding in the process of growth. Now, granted, the words used, as we'll see in subsequent studies, speak of something more than what we generally call head knowledge. When He says, the eyes of the heart, He means the eyes of the centrality of our being, not just the eyes of the head. You can have the head without the heart.

33:25 You can't have the heart without the head. When the Bible uses the word heart, it takes in the understanding the head as well. But you can have concepts floating in the mind that never touch the real you. Paul's not concerned for that.

33:38 He wants the eyes of the heart to be enlightened. He wants the truth to come and attack the citadel of a man's being, and there lay hold of him. And what's got your heart? It's got you.

33:49 Out of the heart are the issues of life. But now, as God deals with the heart and shapes and molds and directs the heart, how does He do it? It's by the function of an enlightened mind.

34:04 And by application, again, I want to say some very practical things. Every idea that edification comes through non-rational spiritual experiences must be avoided, and must be avoided, and must be avoided, and must be avoided, and must be avoided, and must be avoided, and must be avoided, and must be avoided, and must be avoided, and must be avoided, as you'd avoid the worst enemy of your soul. And the visible church of Christ is plagued with these non-biblical emphases in our day. It always has been.

34:30 Early in the church, you had those who despised the dead letter of the scripture, and it was much more spiritual to wait for inner lights. You had the Quakers. You had some of the more radical Anabaptist sects. There were some godly men amongst those who are often called Anabaptists with a sneer.

34:49 They were capturing biblical principles that some of the reformers did not capture. But there were lunatic fringe elements, and some of them were those who looked upon others as those who were just concerned with the dead letter of scripture. They wanted direct inward illumination. And you have all the forms of Pentecostalism in our day in the same camp.

35:11 Basically in the same camp. Now we're not saying all Pentecostals are guilty of this. That would be wrong, unkind, untrue. But we're saying that every, every movement that says edification is to come primarily through means that bypass the mind, they're out of the orbit of Ephesians 1.

35:30 They're out of the biblical, Pauline, apostolic orbit. And therefore, the least thing we can say or the most kind thing we can say is we better steer clear of it. There's something unwholesome if not downright full of error in that position. I remember a man saying to me, Mr. Martin,

35:49 he said, oh, that you could have this experience I've had. I know it would be such a blessing to you. And I said, why? He said, before I had it, he said it used to be labor to pray.

35:58 And I'd pray and I found such struggle in my praying. And I said, brother, you're talking like I sound now. And it sounds to me like you're talking biblically. Paul says, I agonize in my prayers.

36:10 But he said, since I've had this experience, he said, I can go into my closet now and pray for two or three hours in tongues. I don't know what in the world I'm praying, but he said, it's just beautiful. It's just wonderful. I have the power.

36:19 I have the most wonderful time. Two or three hours just goes so quickly. I said, what are you praying? He said, I don't know.

36:26 He said, it's just wonderful. I said, well, it seems to me that that's a deflection from Paul's praying. He could write to the Ephesians and say, for this cause I bow my knees. This is what I pray for you.

36:39 And then he makes statements of concepts that stretch the mind, expand the mind, tax all the faculties of the mind. And he does it in Ephesians 1, Ephesians 3, Philippians 3, Philippians 1, Colossians 1, Romans 15, again and again when Paul says, when I pray, this is what I pray for. He doesn't talk about non-rational experiences. When he's emphasizing which gifts should have priority in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, he says, prophecy takes priority over all other gifts.

37:11 Why? Because prophecy is the intelligible communication of truth in a known language to the understanding of men. So he says, I'd rather speak five words, a prophecy to edify than 10,000 words in some tongue that may make me feel good. But do not bring edification to the people of God.

Summary of Principles and Call to Dependence

37:35 Oh, how desperately we need this emphasis in our day. Do we long for growth? Yes. Are we telling saints to just sit back, take their hands off the oars and say, well, since I have everything delineated in Ephesians 1, 3 to 14, there's nothing more to do but to wait, on an airbed for Jesus to come and take me?

37:55 No, no. There's much more to understand, much more to experience, but it's going to come as the truth is brought to the mind under the influence of the illuminating spirit and understanding that truth and embracing it in faith. Then by the same spirit, we are enabled to work it out in our experience and in our own lives. And so I lay before you these three very simple, but I think fundamental principles to the understanding of this entire paragraph without which we'll get lost and not see the woods for the trees.

38:33 This paragraph is a reflection of Paul's passion for the growth in understanding and experience of the people of God. That passion ought to be reflected in our own hearts. Secondly, it is an indication of Paul's absolute dependence upon God for the continuance of grace begun and his dependence should be our dependence. As you come to this paragraph, I hope you feel what I feel as I anticipate preaching through it.

39:03 I've just had to say to the Lord in principle again and again, Lord, if you don't open up that paragraph, I'll never be able to preach on it. For the life of me, there are concepts in here that if I had to preach on them accurately this morning and say, this is what they mean and I'm certain of it, if my life depended on it, I couldn't do it. I don't understand much that's in there.

39:21 And I'll go on to my desk this week with that sense of dependence upon God. Lord, you must open it up. You must illuminate my mind. Open the eyes of my heart.

39:31 Help me to see what the Apostle meant for what he meant, Lord, is what you want for me to understand. But dear ones, that dependence in the study and the part of the preacher must be met with the same kind of dependence in the part of you who sit there in the pew. For what God opens to me by His Spirit can only be opened to you by the same Spirit. Now, I'm going to do all I can to do all I can to make a good vehicle through which I hope He'll open it to you.

39:57 I want to have it laid out simple, have it structured, try to use it. I'm going to do all I can with whatever gay graces and gifts are given, but all of that will come to naught unless there is that childlike dependence upon the Holy Ghost as you sit and listen that God would open the eyes of your understanding. And then, in the third place, may Paul's perspective on the centrality of doctrine and of the understanding in Christian growth be included increasingly ours. No, no, doctrine is not something detached from life and experience.

40:30 All true Christian experience is but doctrine fleshed out into the muscles and sinews of human experience. Oh, may God grant that we shall never grow weary of what so many say with a sneer, doctrinal preaching. Who, who, who is a child of God can be weary of penetrating more deeply the mysteries of Christian realities and the mysteries Christian realities that's Christian doctrine. And may we be prepared to think hard and long and carefully for the central faculty in the process of growth is the enlightened mind of the child of the living God.

Evangelistic Appeal to Unbelievers

41:12 But I do not assume this morning that everyone who is here would fall within the orbit of Paul's prayer. For this prayer is a prayer directed to God exclusively for those who are in a state of grace. And I have no question in my mind that if Paul knew your state, you who are out of Christ, his prayer would be something like the one that he prayed for his own countrymen as recorded in Romans chapter 9 and again in chapter 10. My heart's desire and prayer to God is that they may be saved.

41:45 And I confess that though I knew in the preparation and delivery of the message this morning I would be dealing bread to the children of God, I knew there would be those here who are not his children. And my closing word to you is to remember that that God of glory to whom Paul prays who has brought so much richness into the lives of the Ephesians and to whom he prays that more richness would yet come, that God of glory is the God before whom you'll stand, before whose eye right now this morning your entire life is naked and open, before whom you stand condemned if you're not savingly joined to his Son. And yet, blessed be God before whom you stand. For whom you can be justified and forgiven if you will but repent of your sins

42:29 and flee to Jesus Christ as he's offered in the gospel. May God grant that just as it were looking in on the richness of the saints of God will fill you with jealousy to say I must have what they have at any cost. It is there for all who come. Let us pray.