The Hope of His Calling, Part 2

Introduction to Paul's Prayer and the Spirit's Illuminating Work

0:03 We return this morning to our studies in Ephesians chapter 1 and in particular to that which constitutes the second major paragraph in the first chapter, this massive prayer of the Apostle Paul. And I know of no other word to describe prayers such as the one we have here and again, the one we have in Ephesians chapter 3, prayers which cause the thoughtful, sensitive believer to feel that he's in realms far beyond his present comprehension, to feel indeed that he treads upon holy ground as he contemplates the words the Apostle uses in reflecting prayer. Upon his prayer, for this cause I also, verse 15, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you and the love which he showed toward all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, 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 he may know. Upon his prayer, for this cause I also, verse 15, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened,

1:20 that he 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 who believe. We have noted again and again in our studies that the primary focus of the Apostle's prayer is that God the Father would give to the Ephesian Christians an increased measure of the Spirit's presence and ministry, We have noted again and again in our studies that the primary focus of the Apostle's prayer is that God the Father would give to the Ephesian Christians an increased measure of the Spirit's presence and ministry, particularly, in his work of illuminating the minds of believers. And he is asking that the Spirit be given to the end that they might have a firmer grasp upon, a deeper insight into, three distinct things. He describes them as the hope of his calling, the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of his power. Now, before we move in to our study, today, of some new aspects, or aspects that we have not yet touched, we must bring before our minds afresh,

2:29 why is it that the Apostle focuses his prayer upon this distinct matter of the Spirit's work of illuminating the minds of Christians concerning some of the great realities of their faith? Why does he want them to have more distinct, definitive views of truth? And I know that the Apostle, and I know that the Apostle, and I know that the Apostle, and I know that the Apostle, and I know that the Apostle, have no better answer to that question than to read from Alexander's Thoughts on Religious Experience, in which he introduces this whole subject with these words. If genuine religious experience is nothing but the impression of divine truth on the mind by the energy of the Holy Spirit, then it is evident that a knowledge of the truth is essential to genuine piety. Now, don't pass that on to me. Don't pass that over. It's just so much wording.

3:24 What is genuine religious experience? How can you tell if what you have felt this morning that you thought was joy is Christian joy? How can you tell if what you thought was the running out of your heart in genuine Christian worship was indeed genuine Christian worship? There are millions of people this morning looking at the front of cathedrals where a priest is mumbling some words, and saying that the body and blood of Christ are actually there, physically present, and they will go out greatly elevated and feel very close to Christ.

4:04 How do you know that what you're experiencing is not just that? You see, Alexander says very accurately that genuine religious experience is nothing but the impression of divine truth on the mind by the Holy Spirit. And so you know if what you're experiencing is genuine, because you trace it to its roots. Is it that I have come to understand certain things about God from His Word, certain things about myself from His Word, certain things about His Son from His Word, certain things about forgiveness from His Word, and if my experience is the response of my whole being to the truth applied to the mind and affections by the Spirit, then and only then, is it Christian experience.

4:58 Alexander goes on to say, and it fits the introductory thought that I'm laying before you, error can never under any circumstances produce the effects of truth. But it is not so clearly understood by all that any defect in our knowledge of the truth must, just so far as the error extends, mar the symmetry. That is the beautiful interrelationship of the impression produced. The error in this case is, of course, not supposed to relate to fundamental truths, for then there can be no genuine piety.

5:36 But where a true impression is made, it may be rendered very defective for want of a complete knowledge of the whole system of revealed truth, or its beauty marred by the existence of some errors mingled with the truth. If these things be so, then let us, in this case, let all Christians use unceasing diligence in acquiring a correct knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, and let them pray without ceasing for the influence of the Holy Spirit to render the truth effectual in the sanctification of the whole man, body, soul, and spirit, for the prayer offered by Christ was, sanctify them in the truth. You see, that's why Paul prays. Of all the things he could ask of God, he says, Lord, give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation that they may know. Why?

6:33 Because the way to increased genuine experience is the path of true knowledge. Well, what does he want them to know then? What things will, if known by the illuminating work of the Spirit, produce greater love to Christ, greater godliness, a more careful walk before Him? What things will, if known by the illuminating work of the Spirit, produce greater love to Christ, greater godliness, a more careful walk before Him?

Defining Biblical Hope: Beyond a Mere Wish

6:55 What things will, if known by the illuminating work of the Spirit, produce greater love to Christ, greater godliness, a more careful walk before Him? We're studying the first of those three. The hope of His calling. In our previous study, we saw that the source of the hope is the calling of God.

7:07 So if we've not been called of God, we have no hope. If we have been called, we have a hope. And that's all I'm going to say by way of review. Now we come to the substance of the hope itself.

7:19 He is praying that the Spirit would help them to know the nature and the ground He is praying that the Spirit would help them to know the nature and the ground of their Christian hope. And the moment we come into contact with the biblical word hope, we have confronted one of those dominant biblical words. In fact, hope, along with two other graces, faith and love, is set before us as the three dominant graces, or are set before us as the three dominant graces of the Christian. The trinity of Christian graces is faith, hope, and love.

8:01 So we're not dealing with something that's way on the outside, on the perimeter, but we're dealing with something that lies at the very heart of the Christian's experience. You remember, of course, the classic statement in 1 Corinthians 13, 13, Now abideth faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love. And though love is the greatest, he says, faith and hope yet abide. Faith and love relating primarily to past and present, hope taking us into the future perspective.

8:36 And in many portions of the Word of God, I'll just read the references and then we'll look at one in the interest of time. You have Hebrews 10, 22 to 24. These three graces are woven together. 1 Peter 1, 21 and 22.

8:50 They are woven together. Ephesians 4, 2 to 5. Woven together. 1 Thessalonians 1, 3.

8:57 Let's look at that passage. The Apostle Paul, reflecting upon what God did in the midst of the Thessalonians, says in verse 3, Remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. So you have these many references, and I've not given you all of them, in which these three things, faith, hope, and love, come to us as the triad of basic Christian graces. So if we're to treat the subject in any way commensurate with its importance in the Bible, we're going to have to take some time.

9:39 And this is how I propose to do it with you. First of all, I wish to define for you the biblical word hope. When he says, the hope of his calling, what did Paul mean precisely by the word hope? Having defined the meaning of hope, I wish in the second place to show how the hope is connected with the calling.

10:04 For it's not just any kind of hope. He says, I'm praying that the Spirit will help you to know what is the hope of his calling. It is a hope distinctly linked in with the calling of God. Having done that, I propose in the third place to examine the nature of this hope.

10:24 He says, I want you to know that hope. I want you to not just know it from a distance, look at it from afar, but I want you to draw up close to it, and like a beautiful gem, I want you to look at it, and let the light come, and let the prism of that gem break up that light into its various hues, and then I want you to turn it and look at it another way, and turn it and look at it another way. He said, I want you to know what that hope is. You already have it if you're called.

10:50 But you can have it and not really penetrate to the heart of what it is. And he said, I'm concerned, not that you get it, you've been called, you have it, but I want you to know it. So we will examine the nature of that hope, and then the Lord willing, we'll conclude with a consideration of the practical effects which the knowledge of this hope will bring. And I'm sure this will take us at least our study this morning, and next week, God willing.

11:17 All right? What is this hope that Paul longs for them to know? And here again we're at tremendous disadvantage. In our present American usage, the word hope means nothing more than a wish, a desire, or sometimes a strong yearning.

11:38 No doubt some of you kids said to your parents, Boy, Mom, I sure hope it snows on Christmas. Now what you meant was, you had a sort of a strong yearning that it might snow. Some of you may have said, Boy, I sure hope USC beats Ohio State in the Rose Bowl on Monday. Now you know where my mind is.

12:02 What you mean by that is you have a strong wish, you have some kind of a desire. But that's all the word means. We never use the word hope in a biblical sense. So we're at a tremendous disadvantage, because the minute we read it, we put on it our present Americanese meaning, and we are robbed of the beauty of the biblical word.

12:25 Well, you say, Pastor, if that isn't what it means, what does it mean? Well, there are few instances in the New Testament where the word used translated hope means just a strong expectation of some temporal thing. Let's look at a couple of examples. Acts chapter 16 and verse 19.

12:46 You remember the setting. There was this girl who had a spirit of divination. She was able to be a fortune teller, not because she had contact with God, but because she had contact with demons. And that's where all fortune telling comes from, and don't forget it.

13:08 Even when the fortune teller uses the name of Christ, it's just a cloak of deception. It's a spirit of divination, an evil spirit. And so Paul casts out the spirit, and so these guys are in an economic pinch. And so we read in Acts 16, 19, but when their masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone, they laid hold on Paul and Silas.

13:35 When they saw that the expectation of their monetary gain was gone, here hope means something akin to the way in which we use it. Acts 27, 20, you have a similar thing. You remember the setting there is the setting of the shipwreck. And things are getting bad, and going from bad to worse, and from worse to verser.

14:00 And when neither sun nor stars shone upon us for many days, and no small tempest lay upon us, all hope that we should be saved was taken away. All aspirations, all expectation that we should be delivered, that was taken away. And you find it used in the verbal sense the same way. Luke 23, 8, the people on the...

14:24 Well, let's look at it. Luke 23 and verse 8. I hate to take time for this, but it's the only way I know to lead you into the heart of the Word, so we'll just have to do it. Luke 23, 8, Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad, for he was of a long time desirous to see Him, because he had heard concerning Him, and he hoped to see some miracle done by Him.

14:50 He wished to see a miracle done by Him. Now there are other examples, but these suffice to show that in pure historical narrative, the word hope in the Scripture sometimes is in the same ballpark with the way we use the word hope. Strong wish, expectation, desire. But when it comes to the biblical word hope, as a distinctive Christian grace, we're in a totally different ballpark playing a totally different game.

The Two Senses of Biblical Hope and Its Definition

15:23 And when we come into that ballpark, the word is used in two ways. First of all, it sometimes refers to the blessings themselves which await true believers in the future. So that those blessings are called the hope. The hope of the Christian.

15:47 Look at Colossians 1, 5 as an example of this use of the word hope. We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, having heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and the love which you have toward all the saints, because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven. Where is the hope? It's in heaven.

16:16 It can't be in their hearts. If it's in your heart, it isn't there. If it's there, it isn't here. So here the hope, you see, is the thing itself for which we hope.

16:25 The blessings of the presence of God in the world to come. It's used in a similar sense in Galatians 5, 5. We by the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness. Titus 2, 13, the blessed hope and glorious appearing of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

16:46 And Hebrews 6, 18. So sometimes it refers to the blessings themselves. These are our hope. But most predominantly, whenever you come across this word in the New Testament, it refers not to the hope as the blessings objectively there, but to the expectation of those blessings implanted within the heart of the believer here and now, so that a good working definition of hope, and then we'll turn to the Scriptures to see this, is the following.

17:23 And I'm deeply indebted for the most of this definition to Hendrickson, and I've reworked certain parts of it. Biblical hope is a fervent yearning, confident expectation, and patient waiting for the promised blessings of a completed salvation. Now let me go back over it, and I want you to go out this morning with that definition in your head, and able to give it on your lips, and instead of asking at the door how you're doing, I may say, what is hope? All right?

17:55 What is hope? It is fervent yearning, confident expectation, and patient waiting. For what? For any old thing?

18:11 No, no. For the promised blessings of a completed salvation. So you have those three ingredients, yearning, expectation, waiting. The basis of them, they are promised.

18:27 The direction of them, they await out there the completion of God's redemptive purposes for me. Now, what is the proper meaning in Ephesians 1.18? Paul says, I'm praying that God would give you the spirit that you might know what is the hope of his calling.

18:49 Does he mean that you might appreciate more fully the blessings of grace out there? Is it the hope, the objective blessings themselves? Or is he praying that the spirit would help them to know more fully the hope that was in their breast? That they might have a more perceptive knowledge of that which is found in this yearning, this expectation, this patient waiting.

19:14 Well, I submit to you, Ephesians 1.18 falls in that second category of the use of hope. You say, why? My reasons are simple.

19:22 First of all, the immediate context indicates it. The next thing he wants them to know is the riches of the glory of God's inheritance in the saints. Now, the inheritance is the substance of the hope. So, if in this sense hope was the thing itself, you'd have repetition.

19:40 He's saying, I'm praying that you may know what the hope is, what your blessings are, and what your blessings are. No, he's saying, I'm praying that you may know what that expectation within your breast is, the grounds of it, the nature of it, and that you might know what will actually come at the end of those expectations, the riches of the glory of his inheritance. So, the immediate context indicates that Paul is using hope in the second and general sense. And the second reason is, whenever you're studying the Bible, you find the general meaning of the word, and you always use that general meaning, unless to do so would violate some other clear teaching of the word of God.

20:24 So what we might call the law of general usage leads us to this. Now, this has been rather tedious, I know. But I know no other way to teach the word of God biblically. So you just have to hang in there and stick with it, so that we can plant our guns, and go from there to something that perhaps borders a little bit more on true exhortation, and preaching.

20:45 Now can we just sum up what we've seen in our definition? Paul is in the place of prayer. As report comes to him of the increased love and faith of the Ephesians, he receives this greater burden to plead with God for them. And as he's pleading, we hear him praying, O God, God and Father of the Lord Jesus, give to those Ephesian Christians, the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Yourself, that they may know what is the hope of Your calling.

21:20 That they may know, that is, that they may come to more distinct, definitive, accurate views of that fervent yearning, that confident expectation, and that patient waving for promised blessings of a completed salvation. That's the substance of his prayer. Now having given that definition that I trust you accept as a Biblical definition, in the second place, follow with me as we try to discover how is this hope linked to the calling. Ephesians 4.4 is even more emphatic, where Paul says, and I read now from Ephesians 4 and verse 4, There is one body and one spirit, even as ye were called in one hope of your calling. You see, he cannot conceive of God calling sinners out of darkness into light without putting them in the context of hope. But neither can he ever think of hope divorced from the calling which was its mother. Now what is that relationship between this Biblical hope and calling?

The Inseparable Link Between Hope and God's Calling

22:38 Well let me suggest two things. Our calling comes through the Gospel, and an essential part of the Gospel is its call to share in the blessings, not of a part salvation, but of a completed salvation. Notice how Paul links the hope with the Gospel in Colossians 1, verses 3 to 5 and verse 6. We already read, uh, verses 3 to 5, we don't need to repeat them.

23:13 He gives thanks to God for them. Verse 5, Because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel. Where did you first get introduced to this hope that is now within your breast? He said, in the word of the Gospel.

23:35 This was not something that came afterwards. He said, our Gospel came as a Gospel of hope. So that you could no more embrace that Gospel without embracing hope, than you could embrace Christ without embracing the Gospel. He said it was all mixed up together.

23:53 When the Gospel comes, when the grace of God in truth is known, Jesus Christ is offered as a complete Savior. We don't say trust Jesus Christ just to get forgiveness. We say in the words of Matthew 1, 21, Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Well, what's that mean, save from their sins?

24:25 From everything that sin has done. And has it brought guilt? Has it brought defilement? Has it brought condemnation?

24:32 Has it brought pollution? Has it brought decay and sickness and death to the human body? Yes, Jesus shall save from sin. How much of it?

24:43 All of it. And so when the Gospel is preached, it is the preaching of Christ as the mighty deliverer come forth out of Zion to save his people and to completely save them. Notice again in Colossians 1, 22 and 23 how the Gospel and the hope are linked together. Yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and without blemish, and unreprovable before him, if so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which ye heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven, whereof I, Paul, was made a minister. You see, the concept again of a Gospel that doesn't have a dominant note of hope is unthinkable in the mind of the Apostle Paul. So related are the two that Paul uses a very strong statement in Romans 8, 24. Notice what he says.

25:50 For in hope ye were saved. In other words, he says, this is such a dominant ingredient that you could actually call your salvation introduction into the sphere of hope. Introduction into the sphere of what? Of fervent yearning, confident expectation, and patient waiting, for a completed salvation in the world to come.

26:19 Now, I know people mock at a Gospel that promises pie in the sky by and by. But my friend, the Scripture says, if we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are all men most miserable. If all I know of Christ's salvation is what I've got now, this is misery indeed. Because there is remaining corruption in me that responds to the world without and is susceptible to the enticements of the flesh within and the pressures of the devil so that I struggle at times and I'm torn with this spiritual ambivalence, wretched man that I am. What's the comfort in all of this? I'm saved in hope. The God who's put these yearnings within my breast is the God who's promised that He will one day fully satisfy them and I shall look upon His face without sin.

The Spirit's Indwelling as the Source of Hope's Yearning

27:28 Blessed be God for a Gospel that comes pronouncing that Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners who, when He undertakes to save a man, will deliver him from the guilt, the power, the presence and defilement of sin. And I say to every unconverted person here, this morning, that's the Gospel we preach. Jesus Christ has come to save sinners and that word saved means nothing less than taking sinners in hand and when He's done with them, having them reflect His likeness in perfection. But there's a second reason why the hope is linked to the calling, not only because the Gospel itself holds out the hope, but because our calling involves the indwelling of the Spirit whose presence always produces hope. You remember Paul described the Ephesians in their experience in verses 13 and 14. He says, In whom, after he heard the word of the truth of the Gospel, he believed, having believed, he was sealed. And he says that sealing is a pledge, an earnest, a down payment of the rest that is to come.

28:54 And I hope some of you can remember way back in the dark ages when we expounded that verse, that the earnest, the down payment was always the same in kind with the full payment. If you made the down payment in shekels, you made the full payment in shekels, not in bananas or beans or something else. So Paul says what we have of the Spirit's present ministry is the same in kind, though not in degree, of what we'll have in the consummation of redemption. Now let me ask you a question.

29:24 If a thirsty traveler were to come off a burning desert, his tongue cleaving to the roof of his mouth, his lips almost stuck together, and you were to hold up to him a spoon that had been kept in a freezer so it was all nice and cold, a tablespoon, and you poured into it some ice water and held it to his lips, would that satisfy him? What would it do to him? I don't answer, just think. If we had a class, we'd get you all answered, but that would be a little bit of a surprise.

29:56 That would be a little bit out of order. What would it do? Well, all it would do is cause everything within that man's being to long for a whole tall, ice-tea-sized glass full of that water. That's all it would do.

30:15 But now if you filled it up, it would be no different in kind. It would just be a matter of amount. You see? Now that's every Christian.

30:23 God is put to our lips by the indwelling of the Spirit just a tablespoonful of all that He purposes for us. And oh, it tastes good. Tastes good. Oh, taste and see the Lord.

30:39 We taste and we say, Lord, this is good. The joy of forgiveness, the knowledge of Yourself, to look upon the face of a reconciled God, this is glorious! But what happens? Because there is so much more yet to be done in us, there is this sense of tension and anguish and conflict, and we're like the thirsty travelers whose only had a tablespoonful.

31:02 We long to have our thirst thoroughly quenched. Every child of God knows what it is to be possessed of those longings and yearnings for the consummation of His redemption. To say in the words of Robert Murray McShane, when I see Thee as Thou art, love Thee with unsinning heart. That's our longing of our spirits.

31:32 Oh, how different is a well-grounded hope from the baseless delusions and deadly dreams of a false hope. Why is the hope linked to calling? Because it's the very power of God in calling us, in the spirit within us, that produces that hope, that yearning, that longing, that confident expectation, that patient waiting that we'll have the full installment then of that concerning which now we have but a little part. Let me ask you something very directly this morning.

Self-Examination: Is Your Hope Biblical?

32:06 Do you profess to have Christian hope? Do you say that within your breast this morning there is a yearning and an expectation and a waiting for completed salvation in heaven? If so, on what grounds is that hope resting? Is it that you have an earnest of the spirit creating these pantings after God, these longings after God, your holiness, the unclouded obedience of heaven?

32:39 Or is it that you've made a decision? Or you don't like the idea of hell or you think somehow merciful and so you say, I hope that I shall end up in heaven. My friend, that's not biblical hope. Biblical hope is always linked with the calling.

32:57 Hence, it is a hope that faces the message of the gospel. Thou shall call His name Jesus. He shall save from sin. Lord, I embrace You as a Savior from sin.

33:09 There's still sin in me, so You're not done saving me yet. And I confidently expect and I fervently yearn and I patiently wait for the day when I shall be saved from all sin. Now, if your hope is in connection with the gospel and with calling, that's the way it works. The other side of it, as we've shown, is, Lord, You've placed Your Spirit within me.

33:37 I cannot sin with abandonment as I once did. I cannot be indifferent to prayer as I once was. I cannot be indifferent to worship as I once was. Lord, You've given me an appetite to pray.

33:49 You've given me an appetite for communion with You. You've given me a hunger to know You, to love You, to serve You. But, O God, it's so feeble, it's so weak, having come to see how glorious a God You are. Everything in me now says, You're worthy of obedience, with alacrity and with joy and with unsullied and unquestioned and continuous response.

34:15 But, O God, this heart of mine is like a clog. This obedience that I render is so defective and so halting. Lord, certainly this is not the bliss of a completed salvation. I have the earnest and I thank God for it.

34:32 But a man who is content with his presence supposed measure of grace has no grace. May I repeat that? The person who is content with his so-called present measure of grace has no grace any more than a man who has come off a burning desert and whose lips are sealed shut by their dryness and whose tongue cleaves to the roof of his mouth. He is no true thirsty man who can be content with a tablespoonful of grace.

35:09 A tablespoonful of water. What about you this morning? Sitting right where you sit. Not somebody else.

35:18 You, right there. In this building, in this hour, in the presence of the living God. Is your so-called hope that you will be in heaven a completely renovated creature? Is it a hope linked with the calling of God as we've shown it this morning?

35:39 If it isn't, my friend, that's no biblical hope. It's a false delusive dream. And the day of judgment will consume it to your everlasting shame and destruction. Now, time will only permit, and I had a sneaking suspicion that this is as far as we'd get this morning, but I want to close in a very awkward place homiletically, but I hope spiritually at the right place.

The Nature of Hope: Christ as its Author and Object

36:06 Having shown something of the definition of hope, having demonstrated I trust the connection between calling and hope, let us begin this morning, and I'll only touch one point. What is the nature of this hope? That's the heart of Paul's prayer. Oh, God, give them the spirit that they may know what is the hope of the calling.

36:29 And as I was preparing for this in my heart, I said, thank you, Lord, for living this side of a completed canon of Scripture. Frankly, I can't understand these people always itching for tongues and prophecies, and all the rest, which in great measure were the necessary crutches for a day in which there was an impartial, I'm sorry, an incomplete revelation, a partial revelation. When someone at Ephesus received this letter and said, well, what is the hope of the calling? And they prayed, where could they turn in the rest of the New Testament to have other passages throw light on the phrase of Paul?

37:12 No, thank God we can do this. And that's all I'm doing now is, as it were, reorganizing. The biblical teaching on hope is found in other passages under several headings, but we'll only touch one in closing this morning. What is the nature of this hope?

37:27 Point number one, its grand author and object is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 1, 1 Timothy chapter 1, I'm sorry, and Paul, you know, and Paul uses a phrase unique in the New Testament. Christ is called the hope of Israel in the book of Acts, but here the apostle Paul uses language that cannot be misunderstood. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, according to the commandment of God our Savior, and Christ Jesus our...

38:10 As the apostle Paul thinks of his own hope, whether he's thinking of hope inwardly, as that confident expectation, fervent yearning, impatient, waiting for a complete salvation, whether he thinks of hope as the objective blessings promised to every believer, he says the Son, the substance, the author, the object, the beginning, the end, is Jesus Christ the Lord. Now he says, you Ephesians, I want you to know what is the hope of your calling, that God has introduced you into a hope that has Jesus Christ as its beginning, its middle, and its end. All of those yearnings, all of those expectations, all of that waiting for a complete salvation, all of it is drawn from, rests upon, and focuses in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why is that so? Well, for the simple reason, it's because of who He is as the appointed mediator, that there can be a hope.

39:26 He undertook the salvation of His people in the eternal covenant of grace and of redemption, and He said, Father, I will undertake to save that multitude whom no man can number. I will undertake to be and to do all that is necessary to bring many sons to glory until they once again reflect Your glorious image. No wonder He's called the hope. He undertook to be and to do all that was necessary that there might be Christian hope.

40:01 It's because of what He is presently doing in His office as a mediator that there is hope. Why do we believe that we should be saved to the uttermost? Because He ever liveth to make intercession for us. Because I live, He says, ye shall live also.

40:19 That's why Peter says, we have been begotten unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Because of His place in the work of mediation, He is, I say, the supreme object of the hope of believers. We can say in the words of that wonderful hymn, I wish it were in our hymnal, Jesus, wondrous Savior, Christ of kings, the King, angels fall before Thee, prostrate worshiping. Fairest they confess Thee in the heaven above, we would sing Thee fairest here in hymns of love.

41:02 All earth's flowing pleasures were a wintry sea. Now here's the phrase, heaven itself without Thee, dark as night would be. Without Him who is the substance of the hope would be dark. Dark as night.

41:27 Lamb of God, Thy is the light above. Lamb of God, Thy glory is the life of love. Life is death if severed from Thy throbbing heart. Death with life abundant at Thy touch would start.

41:44 Worlds and men and angels all consist in Thee, yet Thou camest to us in humility. Jesus, all perfections rise and end in Thee. Brightness of God's glory, Thou eternally favored beyond measure. They Thy face who see.

42:02 May we, gracious Savior, share this ecstasy. Who is the author and the grand object of the Christian's hope? It is Christ Himself. And oh, what consolation to the child of God when he discovers by the assistance of the Spirit that his hope is as certain as the saving efficacy of Jesus Christ the Lord.

Application: Christ's Centrality to Genuine Hope

42:31 Those yearnings to be completely holy, those longings to be perfectly obedient, the expectation that I shall be like Him, the patience waiting for that day, the thrill of its fruition, because Christ is my hope. It all rests down upon the Mighty One whom God has anointed, to save His people. But I close the application by saying to some of you who profess to be Christians, who say that you have this hope of completed salvation, you know why I'm suspicious of the professed hope of some of you? Because Jesus Christ has so little to do with it. You see, men by nature can fondle self-imposed dreams of going to heaven when they die. But only men by grace want a heaven concerning which they say it would be hell without Him.

43:48 Where do you stand this morning? What is Christ to you? I'm not saying what is He if you're given a theological quiz, He's the Son of God, Son of Man, born of the bird, I'm not asking that. I'm asking right now as you sit here, what is Christ to you?

44:04 What was He to you when you pillowed your head last night and your thoughts turned to Him? What was He this morning when you contemplated rising on this, the day of His own resurrection and gathering with His people? Was there anything that bordered on genuine longing to have communion with Him? To know Him?

44:27 To fellowship with Him? Or could we just as it were extract Christ from the whole thing and things would still go on merrily in their proper course? The author, the object of the Christian's hope is the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ Himself.

44:47 Now Paul says, Father, give them the spirit that they may know what is the hope of their calling. You see what he's praying? Lord, give them the spirit to show them the glory of Christ who is the foundation, the author, the beginning, the middle, the end of that hope. And as they see Him and know Him and find their faith running out to Him and find themselves resting upon the covenant promises, in Him then the hope will begin to have its commensurate effect in the life and in the heart of the Christian.

Conclusion and Prayer

45:23 This I submit to you my brothers and sisters is what Paul means by the hope of his calling. Having looked at the object of that hope next week God willing we'll look at the unchanging basis of that hope the means by which we come into it the ultimate source of it and then consider together what it should do in our lives. Don't pass over great Bible words because they're only four letters long. The hope of His calling.

45:58 Let us pray. Our Father, conscious that prior to being brought to You we were in the words of the Apostle Paul without hope and without God in the world how we thank You that You have given us in the Gospel and in the Lord Jesus and by the indwelling of the Spirit a good hope through grace. We praise You we worship You we thank You for the confidence we have that the best is yet to come. That we shall not forever struggle with remaining corruption we shall not forever see the world about us lying in the wicked one. We thank You for that confident expectation that there shall be new heavens new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. O God increase the fervor of our yearning increase the patience of our waiting give us a deeper understanding of the grounds of our hope and above all show us more of the glory who is the substance of that hope even Jesus Christ our Lord. Father shake some in our midst this morning who have had nothing but dreamy delusions

47:27 and have no right to a solid hope Lord strip them of that we pray make them restless until they know what it is to have Jesus Christ as their hope. Hear us O God hear us we pray and answer us for the glory of Your dear Son we ask in His worthy name Amen.